Ringgold to induct 10 into Hall of Fame

Ten inductees, all graduates of either Donora or Monongahela high schools, will be honored in addition to 10 outstanding high school students at the Ringgold Boosters Hall of Fame Banquet.
The banquet will be held Nov. 4 in the high school cafeteria, with hors d’oeurves served at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 6. There will be a carving station, salad station, Italian station and dessert.
Tickets are $40. Last year’s banquet raised more than $10,000, which was presented to the Ringgold Board of Education for equipment, seminar fees and teaching tools for kindergartners through 12th-graders.
This year’s group includes two posthumous inductees: Larry Crawford and Dr. James Lopresti.
Crawford graduated from Donora High School and went to Hartnell College in Salinas, Calif., and Sacramento State. He was a good athlete in both high school and college. In high school, he was called “Iron Legs,” and was known by many as the best athlete to come out of the Mon Valley.
Crawford was employed for more than 20 years at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where he performed various jobs before retiring.
Lopresti grew up in Gallatin and graduated in 1951 from Monongahela High School, where he lettered in football and baseball. Lopresti attended Wake Forest University on a football scholarship, and received a bachelor of science in education from California State College, with certification in physics and history.
He served in the U.S. Army and was honorably discharged in 1958. Lopresti earned a master’s degree from Duquesne University and a doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh.
He spent his entire professional career in education. He worked for several years in the Elizabeth Forward School District , and in 1974, he became the junior and high school principal in the South Park School District.
In 1978, Lopresti was hired by Ringgold as director of secondary education and later superintendent.
Other inductees include:
Vincent J. Bartolotta Jr. of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., who is a founding partner of Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire. He specializes in plaintiff’s litigation, with an emphasis in major injury cases, business disputes and condemnation. Bartolotta is recognized annually by Woodward/White as one of the Best Lawyers in America.
Born in Monongahela, Bartolotta attended the University of Pittsburgh on a full athletic scholarship, and he won a spot as a first alternate on the 1968 U.S. Olympic soccer team.
Bartolotta enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, completing boot camp and Officer Candidate School before returning to Pitt to pursue a law degree in 1970. He volunteered to go to Vietnam and was honorably discharged with the rank of major.
He is past president of the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, has received the Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award eight times and was named the 2001 Trial Lawyer of the Year. Bartolotta also was selected to the National Association of Distinguished Counsel, recognized as the nation’s top 1 percent of lawyers.
John Robert (JR) Bell, who graduated from Monongahela High School at the age of 16. He also graduated from Penn State University with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, and was recruited by Boeing.
He moved to the state of Washington to work in the BIG aluminum kite factory (747 Division), where he worked for 18 years as a jet-engine propulsion engineer, followed by another 13 years of crafting business contracts with jet-engine suppliers. He was selected Engineer of the Year in 1984 out of the nearly 8,000 engineers in Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Following his Boeing service, Bell founded Willis Hall Winery in 2003 in Washington. His success as a winemaker was immediate. He earned acclaim for his first commercial vintage and, in 2006, was named by Seattle Magazine as the Best New Winemaker in Washington.
Bell teaches wine appreciation at South Seattle College and has served as the president/CEO and chairman of the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce, the only chamber composed of a U.S. city and a sovereign nation.
Garson Caruso, who graduated from Monongahela High School in 1970. He attended Washington & Jefferson College for a year and then served in the U.S. Navy Nuclear Power Program. He was severely injured in a motorcycle accident in 1974, underwent several left hip operations and was medically retired from the Navy in 1976.
He returned to W&J, where he majored in psychology, and graduated cum laude in 1979. After college, Caruso studied clinical nutrition in the University of Chicago’s master’s program. He went on to graduate from Temple University Medical School in 1984. He completed two years of general surgery residency training at Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh, after which he practiced emergency medicine at Monongahela Valley Hospital until 1992.
After 14 years of emergency medicine practice, Caruso decided to change his medical specialty to preventive (occupational) medicine. He obtained his master’s degree from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2004, and completed an additional year of occupational medicine residency training at the University of Pennsylvania in 2005.
Benjamin D’Amico, who is a 2004 graduate of Ringgold High School. From a very young age, D’Amico loved all things food, which led him to Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., where he graduated summa cum laude with an associate degree in culinary arts and a bachelor’s degree in culinary nutrition.
After serving an internship at Giant Eagle’s corporate headquarters with the Market District merchandising team, D’Amico was offered a full-time position as associate development chef for Market District. Since 2012, he has served as product development chef. He is involved with recipe testing and development, advertisement planning, quality assurance, team member training and specialty program development, and he oversees the menu and overall program for all of the catering departments in Market District.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Fabulous 22, Pittsburgh Press Finest 44, Washington County Defensive Player of the Year and more than 40 Division 1 football scholarship offers.
As a senior football player at Ringgold, Holley helped lead the Rams to their first and only Quad A WPIAL district title. He led the Rams in receiving, touchdowns, punt returns, kick-off returns, interceptions and tackles.
In addition to success on the football field, Holley was accomplished in baseball, excelling at centerfield and pitcher. As a switch-hitting senior for Ringgold, he had a .491 average and 22 stolen bases.
Holley went on to play football at West Virginia University and earn a dachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in chemistry. His football career ended abruptly with a ruptured Achilles tendon while at training camp for the Pittsburgh Gladiators arena football team.
Holley has been employed at the Department of Environmental Protection since December 1988, serving as the chief administrator for the Commonwealth’s Recycling Program and Waste Planning Programs.
Ron Linaburg, who graduated in 1961 from Monongahela Area High School. Linaburg lettered in football, basketball and track at Monongahela, and was a member of the 1960 Big Six co-champion Wildcats and the football MVP in 1961.
He also was a two-year football letter winner at the University of Pittsburgh in the early 1960s and a member of the famous 1963 team that posted a 9-1 mark and was ranked No. 3 in the nation. He earned a bachelor of science while completing his first year in dental school from the University of Pittsburgh in 1965, and graduated from the university’s School of Dental Medicine in 1968. Immediately afterward, he entered into private dental practice for two years.
In 1972, Linaburg earned a master’s degree in endodontics and endodontics certification at Ohio State University, College of Dentistry, and was appointed associate professor and co-director of its Department of Endodontics. He served as an endodontic consultant to the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio, before returning to the Pittsburgh area in 1974, founding an exclusive endodontics specialty practice, Associated Dental Specialists, that now includes offices in six locations. He serves as executive director and doctor emeritus.
Linaburg also was a founder of the South Hills Dental Study Group and speaks nationally and locally for numerous dental organizations, holding membership in the American Dental Association, Pennsylvania Dental Association and the Western Pennsylvania Dental Society. He maintains membership in the American Association of Endodontics and has served as the regional tri-state spokesman for the American Association of Endodontists.
Donora Herald-American as a high school student intern.
After graduation, she attended Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English. Before she graduated, she had a part-time job as a reporter on the weekly Jewish Chronicle of Pittsburgh.
She later worked at the Observer-Reporter in Washington for 17 years as a reporter, columnist and editor, before doing freelance work for newspapers and magazines throughout the region. She also spent five years writing for a publishing house in Stockholm, Sweden, for magazines published throughout Europe. She has been published in 10 foreign languages, including Japanese for the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo.
Posner then switched gears and worked as a public relations coordinator for public school districts, nonprofits and national companies.
Carl Francis Wapiennik, who graduated in 1945 from Donora High School. Wapiennik was named in “Who’s Who in America” and was honored as “Man of the Year” by the Pittsburgh Jaycees. These honors were based on his outstanding education accomplishments and civic generosity.
Wapiennik graduated magna cum laude in 1953 from the University of Pittsburgh with bachelor’s degree in physics. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Pi Sigma national physics honor society.
In 1964, Wapiennik was named executive director of Buhl Planetarium, where he supervised the design and production of numerous electro-mechanical visual effects for the Star Theater presentations and gallery exhibits. He is well-known among area educators and students for his demonstration in general science and physics.
He participated in designing the planetarium’s unique Hall of the Universe, which features astronomy exhibits under ultraviolet light. He also planned and developed the Star Theater’s 360-degree panoramic projection system, the multiple speaker sound system and the master control console. These systems gave Buhl the distinction of being able to present two sky dramas on the same day.
Before his work at Buhl, Wapiennik was employed by Radio Corp. of America, Canonsburg, and the Naval Research Laboratories, Washington, D.C. He was a radar specialist aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Randolph during World War II.
Mr. Wapiennik is co-inventor of a patented valve for controlling liquid flow without the use of moving parts.
Tickets can be purchased at Devore Hardware, 437 W. Main St., Monongahela, or by calling 724-258-7100. Reservations are recommended.