Keystone Central Foundation welcomes Class of 2023
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP, PA – The Keystone Central Foundation Saturday night recognized the six members of its 2023 Hall of Fame class. Some 100 people attended the induction ceremony in the cafeteria at the Central Mountain High School. The inductees were honored for their contributions to society.
The six members for this year are:
Mary Louise Ilgen, Sugar Valley High School, Class of 1943
DuWayne Kunes, Bald Eagle-Nittany High School, Class of 1976
William Rishell, Bald Eagle-Nittany High School, Class of 1958
Dennis “Jack” Royer, Bald Eagle-Nittany High School, Class of1958
Thomas “Doc” Sweitzer, Lock Haven High School, Class of 1971
Robbie Gould, Central Mountain High School, Class of 2001
Kunes and Sweitzer were in attendance and offered comments. Inductee Royer appeared by way of Zoom. David Rishell accepted for his brother William Rishell; retired US Navy CPT Patricia Lucas accepted for her aunt, the late Mary Louise Ilgen; and foundation board member Bobby Dwyer accepted for Robbie Gould.
Mike Flanagan, CEO of the Clinton County Economic Partnership, served as program emcee. The Hall of Fame was established to recognize graduates from the high schools which have been part of the Keystone Central attendance area. Next year’s event will be held Feb. 17, 2024.
This year’s recipients:
Mary Louise Ilgen was born in 1927 to Samuel and Mabel Ilgen. Growing up in Sugar Valley, Mary attended a one room school house in Loganton and Booneville, Pennsylvania during her first eight years of schooling. After graduating from the Sugar Valley High School with honors in 1943 Mary attended Pennsylvania State College (now the Penn State University), graduating in 1948 with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering.
Mary was the first woman to graduate from Penn State University with a degree in aeronautical engineering. She was awarded an honorary woman’s membership in Tau Beta Pi, an all-male national engineering honor society.
After graduation from Penn State University, Mary went to work for Douglas Aircraft Company, Inc. in Santa Monica, California. She continued with Douglas through the merger with McDonnell Corporation in the late 1960’s. She was a member of the Performance Group of the Aerodynamics Section. There she worked on the development of the DC-6, DC-7, DC-8 and DC-10.
In 1949, she began flight instruction and obtained her pilot’s license. She became the Chief of the Flight Test and Certification Performance Branch of the Performance and Operations Section of Aerodynamics for Douglas’s Long Beach facility.
During her career, Mary made major contributions to the design and development of several aircraft models as the DC-6, DC-7, DC-8, DC-9, DC-10, MD-80 and MD-11. She had the technical responsibility for the Certification efforts for most of the aforementioned aircraft models. She also participated in many military studies and several proposals for cargo versions of these transports. She became a representative for McDonnell Douglas Corporation (MDC) to the FAA National Transportation Safety Board. She traveled extensively in her work.
During her career, Mary received numerous awards and recognitions from her alma mater. She was named “Penn State Woman of the Year” in 1971, and was honored as “Outstanding Engineering Alumni” in 1988. She was also a member of the Penn State University Engineer Advisory Committee for eight years. The collection of papers of alumnus Mary L. Ilgen, 1948-1979 are on file at Penn State University. Included in the collection are photographs, speeches, artifacts, papers, programs, booklets, lab reports, notebooks, awards, Tau Beta Phi materials, and publications.
In September, 1967, Douglas selected Mary Ilgen as Engineering Personality of the Month. In 1994, after 46 years, Mary retired from McDonnell Douglas Corporation.
In September, 1972 Mary was a panelist at the Conference on “Assuring the Acceptance of the Woman Administrator”, sponsored by the Department of Marketing and Transportation of California State University at Los Angeles. The attached presentation was titled “How to Strengthen the Image of the Woman Administrator”. Following is an excerpt from her writings:
“What can we do to strengthen the image of the woman administrator? We strengthen her image by helping her build her self-confidence. We help her build the image she should have as a person who can make continued contributions to the organization. We should do exactly what we would do for any man and certainly any male manager. We should recognize the woman as an individual and respect her specific abilities. We should provide meaningful work assignments which allow continued personal growth. We should provide honest recognition for deserved achievement while being empathetic for human frailties. This is how we will strengthen the image of the woman administrator.”
In 1997 Mary was chosen for the Amelia Earhart Society Association Honorary Award for
Women Pioneers in the field of aviation. The society wrote the following: “Mary was the first woman Aeronautical Engineering graduate of Pennsylvania State University. As a member of an elite group of engineers for 46 years, Mary contributed to the design, development and world- wide certification of all DAC aircraft models from the DC-6 through the MD-11. Her vast knowledge and expertise inspired many young engineers, and her mentoring earned her recognition as a Legend in Her Time”.
Mary was a member of Mount Calvary Lutheran Church for 18 years. She was also a member of the Ninety-Niners, a women’s flying club. Although most of her life revolved around aircraft and flying, she also enjoyed traveling, going on cruises, gardening, and was an amateur radio operator.
Mary was truly a genius and a pioneer in her chosen profession. Mary died on October 8, 1997 in Cypress, California at the age of 70. In her memory the Mary Ilgen Scholarship in Aerospace Engineering was established at Penn State University. The scholarship is awarded annually for outstanding full-time undergraduate students who are enrolled, or planning to enroll, in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering who have a proven financial need and who have achieved positive academic records.
Dennis “Jack” Royer graduated from the Bald-Eagle Nittany high school in 1958 and then proceeded to earn Chemical Engineering degrees in college. After receiving a B.S. degree at the Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA in 1962, he then received a M.S. degree at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA in 1963, and finally a Ph.D. degree back at the Pennsylvania State University in 1967. Later he completed “condensed” business management training at the Pennsylvania State University and the Harvard Business School.
In service to the community for a chemical engineering education, many career paths were available to him: e.g., teaching, design, research, and production operations of manufactured materials to name a few. Jack combined the latter two commercial business paths to help produce many familiar products that commonly benefit us. A few product examples that he dealt with ranged from improved household detergents, film and packaging materials, storage containers, lubricants and flow drag reducers, automotive and airplane parts, to exotic materials used in space.
He first advanced to Director of Engineering Research operations with a staff of up to 125. This included the technical work necessary to translate the chemists’ inventions from the benchtop through pilot plant scale tests, the commercial design stage, then followed by start-up and operation of manufacturing processes. Overall, this activity most efficiently produces the required quality product at lowest cost to the manufacturers and thus to consumers.
Later as Research Fellow, his focus and greatest technical successes were in quickly correcting many dozens of costly unresolved manufacturing process problems, some even after years of expensive basic research. In each case, it was shown that these corrections could not have been made based on purely chemical and engineering analyses with our current level of scientific knowledge. The correction process that he developed involved specialized pilot plant tests, followed by his applied pioneering use of advanced mathematical analyses of those test results. In every case, the recommended process modifications solved each plants’ problems.
One major example of the preceding successes was as follows. Unfortunately, after a multi-$100 million plant capital investment had been made, that also required many additional millions of dollars in operating costs, no specification product had been produced in over a year of start-up difficulties. After one week of small-scale tests, the data analysis indicated that only a single, but unusually critical operating control set-point should be readjusted in the plant process. After that simple manufacturing change was completed at no cost, the desired product was immediately produced.
His honorary society awards include Tau Beta Pi, Phi Lambda Upsilon, and Sigma Tau membership. Professional society memberships include the American Chemical Society, as an associate, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Workplace recognition include four Engineering Excellence honor awards from the DuPont Engineering Department and a Six Sigma “Blackbelt” certification. A community service award was also received from the United States Bicentennial Anniversary Committee.
Jack worked for the Chemstrand Corporation in Pensacola, FL, Eastman Kodak in Rochester, NY, ConocoPhillips in Ponca City, OK, and DuPont in Wilmington, DE. He received 12 patents from these organizations.
After retirement from DuPont in 2004, he provided engineering consulting services as the Managing Member of C 2 Consultant, LLC, in Kennett Square, PA. Jack and Mary (Rice) Royer currently reside in the preceding location.
William A. Rishell is a 1958 graduate of Bald-Eagle Nittany High School. He is retired as Vice President and Director of Research from Arbor Acres Farm Inc., Glastonbury, CT.
He was born in 1940 and grew up on a farm in Mackeyville where he learned the value of hard work. While a student at BEN, he was the President of Student Council and Vice President of the Senior Class. He was a member of the National Honor Society, Key Club and Varsity Club. He was a four-year starter for the Panther football team and served as co-captain his senior year. Mr. Rishell was also a two-year starter on the BEN wrestling team and was awarded a partial athletic scholarship to the University of Maryland.
While in college, he received his BS in Poultry Science and was elected to Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honorary society and was the winner of Danforth Foundation Scholarship for outstanding senior in agriculture.
At the University of Maryland, he was also a varsity letterman for 3 years on the wrestling team and was the Atlantic Coast Conference Wrestling Champion at 177 pounds for two years. He was a member of the University of Maryland football team for two years and was a member of the Varsity “M” Club.
After receiving his undergraduate degree in 1962, he went on to Iowa State University and received his master’s degree in Poultry Genetics and his PhD in Poultry Breeding and Genetics with minors in Immunology and Genetics.
From 1967 until his retirement in 1997, Mr. Rishell worked across the country and traveled more than 30 countries as a geneticist and director of research in poultry sciences.
In his professional career, he holds many achievements. He personally directed the mating/selection schemes for commercial breeding products. As a result of his work, Arbor Acres, the company he worked for at that time, achieved a four-fold increase in the worldwide market share while profitability increased approximately 300 times during his tenure as director. He also worked on a joint venture with Amgen in transferring foreign genes into the germline of experimental chickens and have those genes expressed in succeeding generations. It was considered a scientific success.
Mr. Rishell is a past member of the National Breeders Program Committee; former editor of the Proceedings of National Breeders Roundtable; former chair of the National Breeders Roundtable and GT Systems Institutional Biosafety Committee. He was also the Genetic Advisor to Colorado Quality Hackles. He served as a youth coach for baseball, football, wrestling and softball.
He has been married to the former Constance Ake for 62 years and has two children and 5 grandchildren. In retirement, he has fished salmon, trout and halibut in Alaska and has caught more than 12 species of game fish off Florida’s coast. He has traveled by motor home to all 49 continental states and 6 Canadian provinces. He has traveled to more than 200 Penn State football games and has made an effort to attend all of his grandchildren’s sporting events. He also enjoys landscaping and vegetable gardening and is a member of the Wapping Community Church is South Windsor, CT.
Thomas M. “Doc” Sweitzer is born and raised in Lock Haven and graduated from Lock Haven High School in 1971.
Doc is a nationally recognized political consultant and has helped elect fifty members of the US House and Senate and a dozen governors across America. He is actively involved in both the American and International Association of political consultants.
Mr. Sweitzer was Trustee at Lock Haven University where he contributed over fifty works of art from John Sloan and Doc is credited with creating the brand “The Haven.” He served as executive chair of the PASSHE System, the 14 State Universities where he advocated for lower tuitions. He helped form Respectability, a national organization to advocate for jobs for people with disabilities. His efforts have led to greater inclusion of people with disabilities in advertising and television to help combat the stigma.
For his contributions and financial support to our community, from Millbrook to the YMCA, Mr. Sweitzer was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Public Service from Lock Haven University.
Doc is a graduate of Penn State and a frequent lecturer at Penn and Temple. He has made appearances on Nightline and CNN and has been widely quoted in the New York Times and other national publications. He has appeared in hundreds of panels for both the political and advertising industry. Mr. Sweitzer has traveled to over fifty countries and all seven continents. He resides in Swarthmore with his wife Tam. His daughter Jodie resides in Oakland and is helping to lead an artificial intelligence technology company.
DuWayne Allen Kunes graduated from B.E.N. High School in 1976. He has been self-employed since starting P & D Games in 1982.
DuWayne joined the Lock Haven Area Jaycees in 1982. He is a 10th Degree Jaycee, the highest level for a Jaycee. He has received the Stateman award from the Pennsylvania Jaycees; the Ambassador award from the United States Jaycees; and a Senatorship from the JCI International. This award is the highest-level award bestowed to a member. DuWayne has held the office of President two times and has been the treasurer for many years. DuWayne has been instrumental with the Labor Day Regatta. He oversees many of preparations and duties for the annual four-day event. If not for DuWayne, the annual Regatta, which is the signature
event of Lock Haven Labor Day activities, would have ceased to continue its yearly event. Other Jaycee events that DuWayne helps with are the two Senior Dinners held each year and other activities.
DuWayne had been active with the Citizen’s Hose Fire Company helping run the Fry stand during their Festival, bagging ice, and serving on committees. He is past President of the Lock Haven Lions Club and has been a member of the Elk Lodge #182 for 35 years. He has also been a member of Moose Lodge #100 for 28 years and is a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Lodge #4298 and holds the office of Chaplain.
Robbie Gould: For Central Mountain High School alumni Robbie Gould, his accomplishments on and off the football field are immeasurable. We hear about his storied career as an NFL kicker, now with the San Francisco 49ers, but the way he has used his fame to contribute to Clinton County and beyond are truly what make him a distinguished standout alumnus of Keystone Central School district.
Robbie graduated from Central Mountain High School in 2001. He was a High Honor Roll student and 4-sport athlete while attending CMHS. He attended Penn State University. He entered PSU as a non-scholarship football athlete and during his 4-year career as a kicker, he earned a full athletic scholarship. After graduating college, he had playing stints with the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens in the NFL. He eventually signed with the Chicago Bears as a kicker in 2005. In 2016, he joined the New York Giants. Since 2017 Robbie has played for the San Francisco 49ers.
Robbie has an outstanding work ethic which could be seen in the classroom and athletic field while in high school and college. He has carried that work ethic into his professional career with the help of family, friends, and community support. He envisioned a foundation that would help youth in various communities.
In 2011, Robbie created the Goulden Touch Foundation. Through his efforts in the foundation and committee members, they have raised over $650,000 for various non-profit organizations in Clinton County Pennsylvania.
A few of the local organizations benefiting from Robbie’s foundation are: Horses for Hope, Ross Library, Lock Haven University Wrestling and Men’s Soccer teams, and Central Mountain ATV Association. Robbie established a $10,000 scholarship for a Lock Haven University Football player.
Robbie’s current project focuses on collaborating with the Chestnut Grove Recreation Authority to develop a youth sports complex in Clinton County, Pennsylvania. He is working with local business owners to bring this project to completion. Robbie has donated his time and personal finances towards this project.
In 2015, Robbie received the Ed Block Courage Award. This award is given to one player from each NFL team. The recipient is nominated by their teammates. The award honors the recipient for their courage and inspiration throughout the season. The recipients serve as role models for their ability to overcome
adversity while also serving their respective communities.
Robbie was nominated for the 2019 Walter Peyton Man of the Year Award. He was the San Francisco 49ers representative. He was nominated for his specific work through the Goulden Touch Foundation.
He is very active in San Fransico City on community days (every Tuesday). The Goulden Touch Foundation opened the Ace Hardware Robbie Gould Patient and Family Library at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Robbie funded a library cart at the hospital to bring books to patients confined to their hospital rooms. Robbie donated $150,000 to the construction of Goulden Touch Field, a turf soccer and football field in the West Lawn neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois which serves over 12,000 children.
