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Audie Hittle, a graduate of the class of 1975. |
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Significant career and professional accomplishments:
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Audie Hittle
helped found the first Explorer's Post in the Benton area and was that
organization's first president. He served as class president and held
other high-school offices. He holds three degrees, one in engineering
plus two advanced degrees. Audie is a highly decorated military veteran,
nationally recognized pioneer of government-industry collaboration and
intrepid entrepreneur. During his 22-year military career starting in
1975, he was twice awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, the highest
USAF non-combat award and distinguished himself in outstanding service
to the United States. Audie transitioned to the private sector in 1997
and has since held key leadership roles in Fortune 500, small and startup
companies. Audie is married to his high school sweetheart, Karina McMillan.
The couple has one daughter and resides in Tyngsboro, MA.
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Mary Lucinda Dodson, (1904-1997), a graduate of the class
of 1922. Married name: Mary D. Gearhart. |
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Significant career and professional accomplishments: |
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Mary Dodson (Gearhart)
graduated from Benton High School loving tennis, swimming and dancing. She
especially loved sledding and rode bob-sleds, dishpans and coal shovels!
She was an excellent singer and played the piano and the violin. She graduated
from Bloomsburg Normal School and received a Master of Arts degree from
Duquesne University. Mary served as president of the Association of Retarded
Children for Monroe County and served on the board of directors of Burnley
Workshop for physically and mentally challenged people in the Stroudsburg
area. She founded weekly and summer programs and managed Camp Daddy Allen
for 27 years in addition to serving as president of the board for 14 years.
She was a member of numerous professional and civic groups and is listed
in Who's Who in Outstanding Citizens of the Nation and in Who's
Who in Outstanding Special Teachers. Mary retired from the Stroudsburg
Area School District after teaching for more than 40 years. She married
in 1935 and was widowed in 1954. She has one daughter, Margaret J. Dawson,
Lambertville, MI. |
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Donald Nelson Baker,
Ph.D., a graduate of the class of 1952.
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Donald graduated from
Benton High School and completed his undergraduate work at Pennsylvania
State University. He received his Masters and his Doctorate from Cornell
University. He was named by the United States Department of Agriculture
as the Outstanding Scientist of the Year in 1987. His teaching experience
includes Clemson University and Mississippi State University. He is currently
a cotton production consultant with responsibility for approximately 15,000
acres. Donald holds numerous awards and citations, but says that the most
difficult was the one "at the bottom of the stack" which read
simply Airplane Single Engine Land, Instrument... Donald lives in
Starkville, MS, with his wife, Bobbi. There are five children and two step-children,
and numerous grand children. |
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Frederick P. Baker,
a graduate of the class of 1967. |
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accomplishments: |
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Fred graduated from Benton High School
and attended Mississippi State University. Fred started his own company
in 1976, Baker
Installations, and it has now grown into a 17,000 square-foot facility
and is a $45 million telecommunications company located in Pittsburgh. The
company has grown to producing revenues estimated at $134 million in 2004.
The enterprise focuses on installing cable television, voice and date, telephone
and Internet connections. The company has about 2,000 employees. Fred serves
in numerous positions with the Pennsylvania Cable and Telecommunications
Association to the Allegheny Regional Asset District Board of Directors
and the Governor's Council on Small Business. He serves on the board of
directors of the Caleb Project, which focuses on mission mobilization to
lesser reached nations. Fred is married to the former Beth Christine Kocher,
and they have eight children and seven grandchildren. |
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Dr. Donald D. Rabb, D.Ed.,
a graduate of the class of 1940. |
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accomplishments: |
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Donald D. Rabb graduated from the Benton Vocational High School Class
of 1940, and went on to graduate from Bloomsburg State Teacher's College.
He received his master's degree from Bucknell University and his Doctor
of Education degree from Pennsylvania State University. He has participated
in advanced studies at an additional five universities.
During his teaching career at the Benton Area School System, he taught
all the science courses, and served as the Athletic Director influencing
and shaping lives in the class room and on the athletic field. He joined
the faculty of Bloomsburg State Teachers College in 1957 and served on
the faculty for 26½ years teaching a variety of biology courses
specializing in Genetics and Anatomy and Physiology. He served as chairperson
the Department of Biology from 1965 to 1973.
Donald served for three years in the Army Air Force, two of which
were spent with the 12th weather squadron in North Africa, Italy and Egypt.
He has served on numerous national biology committees dedicated to improving
the curricula of secondary school biology courses and to upgrade the education
of biological scientists at the undergraduate level. He was appointed
to teach in National Science Foundation-sponsored Institutes for Biology
Teachers at the University of Hawaii in 1965 and at Delhi University,
India, in 1968. He was the commencement speaker for the first class to
graduate from Bloomsburg University in 1983.
He has an impressive list of local organizations in which he has played
an active role, ranging from high school and college alumni associations,
the Bloomsburg Fair Association, the Benton Fireman's Association and
the Benton Borough Council. He was an inspiring scoutmaster. Donald married
his high school sweetheart, Dottie McHenry, and they have three children.
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