Academic hall to induct 4 Sylvania high school alums

4/13/2011

Four alumni of Sylvania's high schools are to be inducted into the Sylvania Academic Excellence Distinguished Hall of Fame during a dinner Friday evening at the Sylvania Country Club.

The inductions of Richard Moore, Burnham High School '55, Theodore Alter, Sylvania High '64, Lisa Jordan, Northview '86, and Aaron Buerk, Southview '90, will bring to 89 the number of Sylvania graduates since the hall of fame's establishment 30 years ago.

During the events Friday, which are to start with a luncheon, followed in the evening by the reservations-only dinner, the Sylvania Academic Excellence Foundation also will honor Michele Henson, the 2011 Sylvania Schools Teacher of the Year, who teaches first grade at Highland Elementary, and recognize Northview student Miriah Verdin and Southview student Rachel Fitzpatrick for their community service.

Mr. Moore, who retired this year after 21 years as manager of operations for Paramount Health Care, has been active in numerous local civic and charitable organizations including several Toledo-area Lions Club chapters and the Lions' northwest Ohio district, the Northwest Ohio chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the Sylvania Community Action Team. He received the Ray of Hope Award in 2008 from Sylvania Area Family Services.

He also was a member of the Arrowhead Park Association Board of Trustees from 1996 through 2010, including as chairman in 2001 and 2002. He and his wife, Joyce, raised eight children in Sylvania and are now grandparents.

Mr. Alter is dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and head of the department of agricultural economics and rural sociology at Penn State University. He is a member of more than 15 professional boards and institutes, has been a lead investigator in at least 10 grant-funded research projects, and is the author of dozens of books, chapters, and articles in his fields.

He and his wife, Christie, are raising their family in State College, Pa.

As director of the Optometry Coordinating Center at Ohio State University, Ms. Jordan has written numerous articles and research reports for international academic journals. Her recent work has focused on children's use of contact lenses and on nearsightedness in both children and adults. She has been named a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and a Diplomate of that organization's Public Health and Environmental Vision section.

The former Lisa Lary lives with her husband, Philip, and their two children in Worthington, Ohio.

After completing a pediatric orthopedic surgery fellowship at Harvard Medical School/Children's Hospital of Boston in 2004, Dr. Buerk returned to the Toledo area to practice pediatric orthopedic surgery at Toledo Children's Hospital, and in 2009 became chief of surgery there. His surgical field includes care and management of all musculoskeletal conditions affecting children.

He teaches orthopedic surgery at the University of Toledo health science campus, formerly the Medical College of Ohio, and is active in Healing the Children, an international organization matching children with American surgeons. Dr. Buerk and his wife, Jenni, settled in Sylvania when they returned to the area, having been high-school sweethearts at Southview. They married after college.