Ten are inducted into Hall of Fame

Photo Courtesy of West Orange School District
Okierete Onaodowan with his former teachers Craig Champagne, left, and Bill Farle, right.

Nearly 350 people attended the 100th Anniversary Celebration of the West Orange Scholarship Fund and saw the first 10 people inducted into the West Orange Scholarship Hall of Fame.

Since its inception in 1923, the West Orange Scholarship Fund has provided more than $1.8 million to graduates of both West Orange and Mountain High Schools.

Superintendent of Schools Hayden Moore served as emcee for the celebratory event that raised $250,000 to be used for scholarships and endowments.

“We are here tonight to pay tribute to our endowment donors, whose funds sustain the distribution of scholarships year after year. We also celebrate all the individual contributions made to the fund by West Orange citizens, and the over 50 volunteers who comprise the West Orange Scholarship Fund Board of Trustees who contribute funds of their own and hold fundraising events,” Moore said.

Jim Quinn, a 1975 West Orange High School graduate, a member of the Board of Trustees, and co-chair of the Oct. 12 event at the Pleasantdale Chateau, expressed appreciation to the Council of PTAs for conducting a CENTennial Coin fundraiser held at each of the district’s schools which raised $2,500.

Quinn thanked the members of the sponsorship committee and all those who volunteered their time to make the celebration a success, and presented the West Orange Scholarship Fund’s Lifetime Achievement Award to Ed Enginger, a four-decade member of the Board of Trustees.

Assemblyman John McKeon, a graduate of Mountain High School and sponsor of the McKeon Family Endowment, paid tribute to endowment donors and asked those in attendance to consider an endowment of their own. All sponsors received a special Centennial Coin to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Scholarship Fund.

The 10 West Orange alumni chosen to be inducted into the first West Orange Scholarship Hall of Fame were:

Susan Low Bloch, constitutional law professor, Georgetown Law School;

Jerry Galgano, retired president, Hilliard Farber & Co.;

Amy Hanauer, executive director, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy;

Mark Kelly, U.S. senator, US Navy (Ret.); astronaut, NASA;

Scott Kelly, engineer, US Navy (Ret.), astronaut, NASA;

Shari Martin Lawson, M.D. – division director, General Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Johns Hopkins Hospital;

Okieriete Onaodowan, actor and singer, original cast member in “Hamilton” on Broadway, activist, and poet;

Barry Rosenstein, founder and managing partner, JANA Partners LLC;

Don Shauger, executive vice president/owner, The Shauger Group;

Josette Sheeran, president and director, Canoo Inc.; former executive director United Nations World Food Program, board member, McCain Institute for International Leadership.

The inductees were introduced by WOSF Scholarship Trustee Tynia Thomassie, a former Essex County Teacher of the Year. Four inductees were present: Galgano, Hanauer, Onaodowan, and Shauger, who all shared brief comments, and inductees unable to attend shared short videos.

In giving thanks for her induction, Amy Hanauer talked about the diversity, both racial and socioeconomic, of her hometown. “I’m so grateful to have been raised in a community that made me think about all these issues,” she said.

Onaodowan thanked his teachers for setting his feet on a good path and giving him a love of theater.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without them,” he said.

Don Shauger said he would be donating more to the fund. He has already provided scholarships to more than 100 students through the Timothy Groves Memorial Scholarship.

“What we are doing is paying it forward to make a change for the next generation,” he said.

Former Superintendent of West Orange Schools Jerry Tarnoff was surprised with an Honorary Induction into the WOSF Hall of Fame, generating loud applause as the event came to a close.