“Award/Recognition” Class Notes

Ben Rosenthal (Com ’05 CM) has been named an Entrepreneur of The Year 2024 Southwest award winner by Ernest & Young LLP. Rosenthal is co-president and CEO of Standard Meat Company in Fort Worth, Texas. Entrepreneur of The Year is a competitive awards program for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies.

Russ Petrin (Col ’00 CM) has been promoted to Executive Director at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and also recently attained the additional title of Alternative Investments Director, which recognizes his team’s proficiency in and commitment to investments that go beyond traditional stocks and bonds.  Russ, his wife Carrie, and son Sam (12) live in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

David Landin (Col ’68, Law ’72 CM) was honored by the Virginia Bar Association with a resolution recognizing his work on behalf of his alma mater, the University of Virginia, alongside his work on behalf of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello as a trustee and over five decades of service to the profession, including as president of The Virginia Bar Association, The Virginia Law Foundation and The Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys, but, importantly, for his chairmanship of the VBA Committee on Special Issues of National and State Importance, which he chaired for almost half of its being since its founding in 1974, “…in gratitude and recognition for these services and for exemplifying the ideals of the citizen lawyer and Virginian.”

The resolution was adopted by the board of governors at the ABA’s annual meeting in January in Williamsburg on behalf of “…The Virginia Bar Association’s members, and on behalf of colleagues throughout this Commonwealth…”, then read at the black-tie banquet.

Landin appeared on the cover of The Virginia Lawyer in the February issue, in recognition of the 50^th Anniversary of The Virginia Law Foundation, which he led as president in 1987-88. He is shown with Judge Roger Gregory, 2024 Jefferson Medalist in Law; and Justice Jane Marum Roush (Law ’81 CM), immediate past president of the VLF.

Oscar R. Aylor (Col ‘62 CM) was honored by Appalachian State University in April with a lecture hall named in his honor in the ASU College of Health Sciences.  His career in health services management and policy included several senior hospital executive positions and university faculty appointments, including App State where he was the inaugural director of an undergraduate major in healthcare management from 1972 to 1981 in the university’s college of business.  This major has more than 1,500 alumni since its beginning, many of whom have had very successful careers of their own.  Aylor retired in 2018 and lives near Charlottesville, where he continues to serve as a member of the Hospital Ethics Committee at UVA Health. 

Ed Offley (Col ’69) has been named Naval History magazine’s “2023 Author of the Year” by the U.S. Naval Institute for a series of articles on the Battle of the Atlantic, the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada, and a profile of a 100-year-old World War II battleship sailor.

Harry L. Thomas (Col ’76 CM) was inducted into the Arlington (Virginia) County Sports Hall of Fame in October 2022. He was inducted into the Washington-Liberty High School Sports Hall of Fame in January 2019. Thomas was co-captain of the UVA baseball team in 1976, was a second-team All-ACC pitcher in 1974, and made the All-ACC Academic team in 1974, 1975 and 1976. Thomas is still co-holder of the ACC record for strikeouts in a game, with 19 in 1974.

For the past 48 years, Thomas has been an agent and wealth management advisor for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. His son John Thomas (Col ’00) also pitched for the UVA baseball team.

John Warley (Law ’70 CM) was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by The Citadel on May 4, 2024, in recognition of his contribution to The Citadel War Memorial. Warley composed both the inscription that greets visitors to the Memorial as well as the narrative history of the college etched into the walls. He is also the author of a history of the school, Stand Forever, Yielding Never, The Citadel in the 21st Century.

Justin Humphreys (Col ’01) has won a Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Book of the Year for his recent biography George Pal: Man of Tomorrow.

Lois Waybill Alderfer (Nurs ’90, ’91) received the Founder’s Award from the Virginia Council of Nurse Practitioners. The award honors a member who has founded, pioneered, or made significant historical contributions to the shaping of the organization of the Virginia Council of Nurse Practitioners.

Alderfer is a family nurse practitioner who has practiced at the Blue Ridge Medical Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center, since 1991. For the past seven years she has also served as chief medical officer. Alderfer is one of a few nurse practioners who have held the role of CMO within a FQHC. She was named Provider of the Year in 1995 by the Virginia Primary Care Association and Provider of the Year by the Virginia Community Healthcare Association in 2019.

George T. Snyder (Col ’85 CM) was presented with a lifetime achievement award from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association.

TMA Pittsburgh is a group of professionals dedicated to the local corporate renewal, restructuring, and turnaround management community.

Paul B. Terpak (Col ’77, Law ’80 CM) has been named to the Virginia Lawyers Hall of Fame, an honor given to about one tenth of 1% of lawyers in Virginia every year.  The Hall of Fame honors Virginia lawyers who have been in practice for 30 years. Criteria for inclusion include career accomplishments, contributions to the development of the law in Virginia, contributions to the bar and to the commonwealth at large and efforts to improve the quality of justice in Virginia.

For the fifth time, Terpak was named Best Lawyers 2024 Eminent Domain and Condemnation Lawyer of the Year for the Washington D.C. area.   He practices with Blankingship & Keith in Fairfax.

Retired Col. Richard Kingman (Col ’74 CM) and fellow Air Force ROTC alumni from 1973 to 1977 attended the 2024 Joint Service ROTC Awards Ceremony at UVA to present the inaugural Colonel James A. Ball Outstanding UVA ROTC Instructor of the Year award.  The award is named after Colonel James A. Ball, who served as the assistant professor of Air Science at UVA from 1971-1975 and is a lifelong friend, mentor, and example to the officers he helped train, as well as someone who reflects the best traditions of the U.S. military, the Air Force, and UVA.

The award was the brainchild of Kingman, who solicited support for the effort and endowment from fellow alumni. Also attending the April 16 ceremony were retired Col. Barry Bryan (Col ’76), retired Col. James Holaday (Col ’75 CM), retired Lt. Col John Valliere (Engr ’76 CM),  Bruce Webster (Engr ’74 CM), and Michael Skojec (Col ’ 76 CM).

Ball presented the award to USAF Major Tim Robles of AFROTC Detachment 890 for his outstanding efforts over the 2023-2024 school year demonstrating “instructional and counseling abilities, civic engagement, and overall contributions to [his] ROTC unit.”

Bill Crutchfield (Com ’65 CM) will be honored in May with a Virginia Senate Joint Resolution recognizing the 50th anniversary of Crutchfield Corporation, an electronics retailer based in Charlottesville. Crutchfield founded the company in 1974 when he was unable to find a modern stereo for the Porsche 356 he was restoring. He was named Ernst & Young’s Master Entrepreneur of the Year for Virginia in 1999 and was inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame in 2007.

Don Slesnick (Col ’65 CM) delivered the graduation address for Florida International University in December 2023, when was also awarded the FIU Medallion For Outstanding Alumnus. Slesnick, the former mayor of Coral Gables, Florida, received the Excellence in Public Service Award from the Gables Good Government Committee in March 2024. His late wife, Jeannett, a former city commissioner, was also honored posthumously.

Kathleen Biggins (Col ’82 CM), founder of C-Change Conversations, a non-partisan group devoted to educating people about the science and risk of climate change, spoke on Capitol Hill as a keynote speaker at the National Affairs & Legislation Conference.

Biggins spoke alongside Sens. Kristen Gillibrand, Mazie Hirono, Edward Markey and Sheldon Whitehouse and Reps. Debbie Dingell, Garret Graves and Brian Mast. Approximately 400 delegates from around the country attended.

Susan Martin (Educ ’99) has been selected as a finalist for the 2024 Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Leadership. The Golden Apple Foundation is the leading Illinois nonprofit committed to preparing, honoring and supporting great educators who advance educational opportunities for students. Five finalists were chosen from more than 100 nominations. Martin is principal of Reservoir Gifted Academy in Peoria, Ill.

Jennifer (Bogart) McDowell (Col ’87) has been promoted to interim academic dean of career and technical education at Hennepin Technical College, a member of the Minnesota State system of colleges and universities.