20
AWARD
RECIPIENTS
At the Alumni Banquet at the Towne House Restaurant on June 2, the Alumni Association presented the Alumnus of the Year and two
Distinguished Alumnus Awards and the Board of Trustees presented the Isaiah V. Williamson and C.W. Schrenk 4W9 Young Alumnus Awards.
Alumnus of the Year Award
John J. “Jack” Kavanaugh ’58
Jack Kavanaugh grew up in Philadelphia and while a student at West Catholic High School, decided to attend Williamson.
He chose masonry as his trade because he heard masons were well paid.
An active student, he was class vice
president and played on the football,
baseball, and basketball teams.
He began his career as a bricklayer
for the James C. Hamilton Co., a bricklaying firm in Ardmore from 1958-63.
Because bricklayers don’t get paid on
the winter days they don’t work and
with a wife and family to support and
a mortgage to pay he decided to get a
salaried job.
He then became an estimator for Hull
Erecting Co., a structural steel erecting
company in Philadelphia from 196368. He then worked as an estimator for
the structural steel erecting company,
S.A. Lindstrom-Cornell in Philadelphia
for 18 years, and worked briefly for Patton Steel Erection Co., in Cinnaminson,
N.J.
He then took over J.K., Inc., a business owned by his father that consisted
of three bar/restaurants in Philadelphia.
In 1992, he sold the businesses and retired. He and his wife had four children:
John, Joseph, Marijane, and Jennifer.
Later separated, he lived in North Wildwood, N.J., for several years and then
moved to The Villages, a large retirement community in Florida.
He became active in Williamson’s
Alumni Association in 1965. He began
by attending meetings on a regular basis and then went through the officer’s
ranks, serving as president in the 199091 school year. Under his presidency,
the Association purchased a school bus
for Williamson and bleachers for the
athletic field.
He says, “Williamson helped provide
the foundation for my life. The discipline we endured was hard at the time,
but definitely helped me in life. We
learned to get up early, work hard all
day, and to stick things out.”
John J. “Jack” Kavanaugh 5W8
character building school.”
His first job was in maintenance at
Hanover General Hospital in Hanover,
Pa. He then worked for the contractor
he had worked for as a student, Clyde
Ray General Contractor in Kimberton,
and then for Saylor Home Improvement, a renovating company in Pottstown.
In 1972, he created his own company, Rinehart Construction in Parker
Ford, specializing in renovations, alterations, and additions for residential
homes and small commercial properties. His guiding principles are to take
pride in your work and to stick to a job
until it is completed and your customer
is satisfied. Many of his customers have
become friends.
He has been a member since 1980
of the Building Industries Exchange, a
trade organization comprised of construction firms in the Pottstown area
that promotes integrity in building and
he has received two Golden Hammer
awards from them for his work.
He is a member of Ebenezer Bible
Chapel, where he has been a junior
church teacher, deacon, and treasurer.
He is on the board of supervisors of the
East Coventry Township, where he is
an eighth generation resident. He also
is a trustee of East Coventry Mennonite
Cemetery and drives a school bus parttime.
He enjoys gardening and S gauge
model trains and earlier coached his
daughters’ basketball teams.
at Eastern University. He is a certified
Project Management Professional and
holds an active Department of Defense
security clearance.
For years he was a deputy waterways
conservation officer for the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission. Certified
by the Pennsylvania Game Commission as a wildlife pest control agent,
in 2003 he started his own business,
Ziegler Wildlife Pest Control LLC.
He served as Williamson’s assistant
football coach and is a life member
of Williamson’s Alumni Association,
serving in 2005 as president.
He lives in Pocopson Township,
Chester County, with his wife Donalynne, Zepp’s daughter. They have two
children, Tamilee and David Jr.
David H. Ziegler 8W3
Distinguished Alumnus Award
W. Atlee Rinehart ’67
W. Atlee Rinehart 6W7
As a youth growing up in Pottstown,
Atlee Rinehart 6W7 enjoyed working
with his hands. When two instructors
who were Williamson graduates told
him of the school, he enrolled and studied carpentry.
He greatly enjoyed learning the carpentry trade from instructor Donald
Zepp 5W3. While a student, he was on
the cross country and baseball teams
and was the basketball team manager.
The day after he graduated, he married Carolyn. They now have five
daughters, Victoria, Geneva, Ruth, Susan, and Kathryn, and 11 grandchildren.
He said, “I benefitted greatly from my
Williamson experience. I learned discipline and responsibility. It is a great
Distinguished Alumnus Award
David H. Ziegler ’83
Dave Ziegler studied machining at
Williamson and was quarterback on
the football team. At first, with no idea
what he wanted to do with his life, he
did poorly, but later became more serious and graduated as most improved
student.
He began his career serving a machinist apprenticeship at Airpax Corp.,
in Cambridge, Md. He then was a
machinist/mechanic at Scott Paper in
Chester and, in 1994 when it became
Kimberly-Clark, became vice president
of the local union No. 448 of the United
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