The Marian Catholic High School for the “Distinguished Alumnus Award” and “Hall of Fame” Celebration Saturday night in the John P. Malarkey ‘51 Gymnasium at Marian Catholic High School, Hometown. Close to 200 attendees are expected at the celebration.

The school will honor three recipients of its Distinguished Alumnus Award, including Hugh “Wink” Gallagher (posthumously, Class of 1931 from Saint Jerome’s High School, Alice Yacobenas Miller, Class of 1968 from Marian Catholic High School and Bruce Svetz, Class of 1983 from Marian Catholic High School.

Marian will also welcome eight people and one Marian family into the Marian Catholic High School Hall of Fame including:

Rev. Msgr. Edward Sacks

Many around Marian will often compare Msgr. Edward Sacks as that transformational leader similar to Father Ted Hesburgh, president of the University of Notre Dame. Msgr. Sacks was the fourth principal of Marian, appointed in the 1969-70 school year and led the school for five years before he was replaced by the Rev. Edward Coleman in 1974.

Among the many achievements of Msgr. Sacks, he was instrumental in increasing the student enrollment at Marian, with graduating classes over 200 students. Msgr. Sacks was also a strong supporter of the Men of Marian, and a driving force in the school having its own home football and track stadium.

Msgr. Sacks was also principal when the Marian Colts basketball team won the school’s first state championship in 1971 under legendary Head Coach Bob Fulton.

Msgr. Sacks served in various leadership capacities in the Diocese of Allentown, including as the first Vicar for Development under Bishop Thomas Welsh for the diocese and was instrumental in establishing development programs in each of the nine diocesan high schools in 1990.

Arthur Coury, ’58

Dr. Art Coury graduated from Marian Catholic High School in 1958 and went on to become a noted chemist around the world. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Delaware (1962), and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry (1965) and an M.B.A. (1980), both from the University of Minnesota. His industrial career included positions as a senior research chemist at General Mills Inc. (1965-1976), director, Polymer Technology and Research Fellow at Medtronic Inc. (1976-1993), vice president, Research and Chief Scientific Officer at Focal Inc. (1993-2000), and vice president, Biomaterials Research at Genzyme Corporation (2000-2008).

Coury’s career focus has been polymeric biomaterials for medical products such as implantable electronic devices, hydrogel‐based devices and drug delivery systems.

The Marian graduate holds 57 patents and has published and presented widely in his field.

He was a member of the first freshman class at Marian when the school opened in 1954. He enjoyed four years at Marian, serving as sports editor for the school newspaper and yearbook, basketball manager and ultimately the president of the student council in his senior year.

Coury played football for the Colts for four years, earning a full athletic scholarship to the University of Delaware. He is a member of the Marian Athletic Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2010.

The son of the late Arthur and Sophia Coury of Lansford, who owned and operated “Coury’s Sweet Shoppe” on West Bertsch Street, he also has a sister Jane who graduated from Marian in 1961. He and his wife, Judy, live in Boston. Sons, Christopher and Timothy, live with their families in Illinois and Maine, respectively.

Jane F. Engler, Esq., ’61 (Posthumously)

Jane F. Engler, Esq., former resident of Jim Thorpe, graduated from Marian Catholic High School in 1961.

As a freshman and sophomore, she attended Mauch Chunk Catholic High School in Jim Thorpe before joining Marian Catholic High School as a junior. She was an honor roll student and she served on the Marianews staff as a junior and senior. She also participated in public speaking and enjoyed bowling.

Among her fondest Marian memories were “dances at St. Ann’s” and “meeting friends from other towns,” including her future college roommate, Eleanor Furey.

She attended Immaculata College, where she earned her bachelor’s in 1965. She earned a master’s degree in 1975 from Temple University and her Juris Doctor degree in 1980 from the Delaware Law School of Widener University.

From 1966-80, Engler was a teacher and a reading specialist in the Philadelphia School District and from 1981-2023 she was a general civil practice attorney in Jim Thorpe.

Engler had nearly 35 years of experience on the board of directors of the Jim Thorpe Neighborhood Bank, including chairwoman of the board.

In the early 1990s, Engler served for many years as vice chair of Marian’s Annual Fund.

She lived in Jim Thorpe and Ocala, Florida, with her husband, James Brogan, until she passed away on Dec. 18, 2023.

Jane’s siblings are all Marian graduates: Joe, ’58, John, ’59, Joan, ’67 and fellow inductee, Jean, ’77.

Maureen Clausius Heffelfinger, ’61

Maureen (Clausius) Heffelfinger, Lansford, is a member of the Class of 1961. She participated in the school chorus for four years and served on the Marianews staff during her junior and senior years. She helped as a class secretary, library aide and cafeteria aide.

She was a cheerleader for four years, serving as captain of the squad in her senior year. She joined the cheerleaders for three years while at Kutztown State College, and graduated from there with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education with a major in French.

Heffelfinger spent 55 years as a French and Spanish teacher at Marian Catholic High School before retiring.

During her teaching career at Marian, she was the cheerleader coach, assistant field show coordinator, Language Department chairperson, coordinator of the Blue/Gold Activity program and senior play ticket drive.

She is a member of St. Joseph Parish of the Panther Valley, Summit Hill, where she volunteers in several ministries, including the Card Ministry, Shawl Ministry, St. Monica Society, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society. She also lectors at daily Mass and works at the parish’s summer festival.

Heffelfinger volunteers at Lansford’s “Valor Clinic Stand Down” events and belongs to the choir at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Jim Thorpe.

She is the widow of Wilbur D. Heffelfinger and the mother of three Marian graduates, Wilbur, ‘84, Lisa, ‘86, and Lori ’87.

Joe Velitsky, Esq., ’62

Attorney Joseph J. Velitsky, a 1962 graduate, chaired the 2021-22 Marian Fund, which produced a record-setting total more than $500,000.

The Summit Hill lawyer has given back to Marian hundreds of times over because, he says, when he enrolled at Marian it was “a rewarding experience that influenced my life.”

The attorney’s commitment to Marian, he said, comes from his late mother, Anna Rhodunda Velitsky.

Velitsky went to Pennsylvania State University, where he graduated in 1967, and carried on to the Dickinson School of Law, Carlisle, where he received his Juris Doctor Degree in June 1970.

When the time came in 1990 for Marian to initiate an annual giving program, then Principal Jack Malarkey ’51 made one phone call. It was to Atty. Velitsky, who, upon hearing the request from his Alma Mater, immediately said “Yes.”

He served on the board of directors for many years; supported the Men of Marian in their annual Golf Tournament; was instrumental in the funding for the Anna Maria Rhodunda Velitsky Physics and Engineering Lab and the Robert A. Lisella and Frances Hydro Lisella Biology Lab; is a member of the Marian Catholic High School Alumni Association; and is a former member of the diocesan school’s advisory board.

Through his professional career, Velitsky has maintained a private law practice in Summit Hill for the last 54 years. He is a member and past chancellor of the Carbon County Bar Association.

He has served as solicitor for many boards and authorities, including a stint of 15-plus years as counsel to the Carbon County Board of Commissioners, 28 years as solicitor to the Carbon County Controller, and his longtime service as solicitor to the Summit Hill Water Authority.

He is a lifetime member of St. Joseph’s Parish of the Panther Valley, Summit Hill, where he serves on the finance committee and is a past president of the Parish Council; an active member of the Summit Hill Lions Club since its inception and is vice president of the club; a former member of the board of directors of Citizen’s National Bank, Lansford, serves on the President’s Council at Pennsylvania State University and is a former member of the board at Pennsylvania State University, Hazleton.

Bill Stulginsky, ‘69

Bill Stulginsky grew up in Mahanoy City, the son of a butcher, who went on to study accounting at LaSalle University and eventually becoming a partner at one of the four largest accounting firms in the world, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Stulginsky served clients in the firm’s Philadelphia and Baltimore, Maryland, offices leading the local Health Industries Practices and a National Practice for Academic Medicine before his retirement.

While at Marian, Stulginsky was a member of the Colts basketball team for four years, including serving as captain his senior year, president of the senior class and stage manager for the senior play in 1969.

Stulginsky, and his wife, Maryfran, have taught Pre Cana in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the Archdiocese of Baltimore from 1976 to 1991.

He serves on the Board of Directors of Marian, where he chairs the Finance Committee; is the vice chair of Main Line Health; and treasurer of Drexel Neumann Academy, a private Catholic elementary school in Chester.

A resident of Venice, Florida, and Newton Square, Bill and Maryfran are the parents of two children, Chris and Marykate, both products of Catholic education, and enjoy five granddaughters. Bill’s brother, Ed, is a 1970 graduate of Marian.

Jean Engler, Esq., ’77

Jean A. Engler, Esq., of Jim Thorpe, a longtime attorney in Carbon County, gave back to Marian for over 20 years, utilizing her profession to help Marian students aspiring to a law career as the moderator/coach of the Marian Mock Trial Team.

A 1977 graduate of Marian, she graduated in 1981 from Villanova University with Bachelor of Science degree, where she was a dean’s list student all four years, and then in 1985 received her juris doctor degree from the university’s law school. She was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society at Villanova.

Engler made history in Carbon County as the first woman district attorney in 2014, leaving office in 2020. Previously, she was an assistant district attorney in the county from 1989-2014.

While at Marian, Jean was a student council member in her freshman and senior years, served as a yearbook editor as a senior and was on the Marianews staff in her junior campaign.

She was a member of the school’s chapter of the National Honor Society and French Honor Society, both for three years, represented Marian in the Scholastic Scrimmage for two seasons and was a senior class play participant.

Engler is a member, past president and past treasurer of the Jim Thorpe Rotary Club, and has been a Paul Harris Fellow for about 20 years. She has been a member for 35 years of the Carbon County Bar Association, where she is a past chancellor and served for about 25 years as its treasurer.

Her siblings are all Marian graduates: Joe ’58, John ’59, Joan ’67 and fellow inductee, Jane ’61.

John E. Morgan (Posthumously)

The annual Men of Marian Summer Picnic at Jim Thorpe Memorial Park was a washout in 1991 due to torrential rain all day on Sunday. The next morning, Principal Jack Malarkey and Director of Advancement Larry Furey met to discuss how they could recover from the $25,000 in lost picnic profits. John E. Morgan, founder and former owner of the John E. Morgan Knitting Mills Inc., Hometown, read the newspaper story about the picnic washout, and wanted to help the school.

Shortly thereafter, Morgan contributed $50,000 to Marian, the largest gift at that time in the school’s history. He designated his gift to fund the “Anna H. Morgan Computer Center.”

His company, founded in 1954 with his first wife Anna was located less than a mile from Marian and grew to become one of Schuylkill County’s largest employers. Mrs. Morgan died in 1970 after 36 years of marriage to John.

The John E. Morgan Foundation continues to support Marian Catholic High School, including a recent gift from the foundation for the new “Anna H. Morgan Technology and Business Center.”

Ermano and Diane Agosti (Posthumously) and Family

(Joe ’77, P ’14, ’15, Jim ’78, Patti ’81, P ’07, ’09, Steven ’82 and Bobby ’88, P ’14, ’15, ’18 and ‘21)

“Parent Partnership” is a quality of Marian Catholic High School for over 70 years. Ermano and Diane Agosti exemplified this from the time their oldest child, Joe, entered Marian in the fall of 1973, until their last grandchild, Dante, graduated in 2021. Ermano and Diane served Marian in countless ways.

A longtime member of the Men of Marian, Ermano served as president and was one of the organizers of the first Men of Marian Summer Picnic held at the Lake Hauto Fire Company grounds at Tippetts Dam.

During the early years, the Men of Marian faced huge financial commitments to support the school’s student-athletes, and the school’s only remaining school bus took its last trip. Ermano Agosti urged them to make a giant step.

“Ermano got up at our monthly meeting and made a motion to purchase not only one new school bus but two new school buses,” recalled Jim Sauka, financial secretary. “Then we began running two activity buses in the evening after the sport practices were done — the first was the McAdoo and Mahanoy City bus and the second was the Tamaqua, Panther Valley and Jim Thorpe bus. Ermano and Diane were active followers of all sports programs at Marian and were leaders of the annual Spring Dinner Dance. This event raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the school’s Scholarship Fund under the guidance of Paul Nester ’57 and Arlene Dauchess.

All five of Ermano’s and Diane’s children graduated from Marian, including Joe, ’77, Jim, ’78, Patti, ’81, Steven, ’82 and Bobby, ’88, and 10 of their 14 grandchildren.

The celebration will start at 5:30 p.m. with the cocktail reception and the dinner and program starting at 7 p.m. Limited tickets for the celebration are still available by contacting Erin Marek, Director of Advancement, 570-467-3335 or emarek@mariancatholichs.org. Proceeds from the celebration will benefit the Scholarship Fund at Marian Catholic High School.

Fact