Mepham High School Alumni Association to Honor Four Individuals

The Mepham High School Alumni Assoication spring brunch will be held in the school cafeteria tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. This year's honorees for the Meritorious Service Awards are Mikki Hannan Wilbert ('51) and Vin Proto ('70). The honorees for "Who's Who" award are Harvey L. Poppel ('54) and Dr. Gerald Weisenseel ('55).

"The criteria for choosing the honorees is how well they have done in their chosen profession and their contribution to the community and mankind in general through their volunteer efforts," said class of 1960 grad Brian Levy, the Association's Who's Who Chairman and past president. "All four honorees have excelled on both levels."

The Alumni Association, which has been around for approximately 40 years, has over 15,000 members. The money from the brunch and other alumni functions go to various scholarships and average about $20,000 per year. The purpose of the Association is to keep past graduates up to date with reunions, their fellow classmates and encourage contact amongst those who wish to reach out to old friends and classmates.

The Alumni Association started the Meritorious Service Award in 1998 as a way to say thank you to those individuals who serve either the association or the school. A plaque listing all of the names of the honorees is on display in the school foyer.

The "Who's Who" program was originally introduced by the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School School Board of Education in 1964. The Mepham Alumni Association brought it to their school in 1987. The honorees are decided through an application process through the association and a plaque for its honorees is also on display in the school. Poppel and Weisenseel are both being honored in the area of Information Technology.

Poppel earned a BS in Chemical Engineering and an MS in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is the inventor of "Harvey Balls", which are ideograms for the visual communication of qualitative communication. He co-authored a book entitled "Information Technology: The Trillion Dollar Opportunity" as well as two Harvard Business Review articles on information technology. He serves on a number of committees in Florida where he and his wife of 51 years, Lee, currently reside with their two children and three grandchildren.

Weisenseel graduated from West Point with a Bachelor of Science in 1959. He earned an MBA from Florida Atlantic University and a Doctorate of Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University. He has traveled extensively outside the country as an IT consultant. He is currently a professor at the University of Phoenix and is involved in a number of volunteer and community activities. He and his wife Marilyn Crum, also a Mepham alumni ('58) are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year. They have three children and three grandchildren.