BRUNSWICK, Ohio -- This year’s Brunswick High School Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame inductees range from close to home to overseas.
Janet Davis Rizzo, class of 1976, is the long-serving administrative assistant to superintendents of Brunswick City Schools. Nolan Masterson, class of 2003, is serving as a consular officer at the American Institute in Taiwan. Dr. Peter Katsaros, class of 1982, is an internal medicine specialist who lives in Wadsworth and whose practice is in Norton. And Debbie Manning, class of 1987, teaches sign language and is a vocational special education coordinator at Mid-East Career and Technical Centers in Muskingum County.
The Hall of Fame is the highlight of the annual Spring Fling sponsored by the Brunswick Education Foundation. The dinner, ceremonies and silent auction raise funds for special teacher projects and student scholarships each year. It will be held again at Coppertop Restaurant, 5740 Center Road, Valley City, on April 6. Tickets are available for $45 from members of the BEF or by calling 330-273-0201.
Janet Davis Rizzo
If you call that number, you will probably find Rizzo on the other end. Rizzo, an active member of the Brunswick Optimist Club, has served as the contact for many of the school and community organizations through 40-plus years of work with the school district.
She began her career at the Medina County Career Center, but in August 1977, she went to work at the Brunswick school board’s business office with Goldie Mack. She then went to the education department with John Boyer. In 1982, she became the superintendent’s secretary and served with Boyer, Terry Furin, Ed Myracle, James Hayas and now, Michael Mayell.
Her nominator said, ”Jan really is the perfect person for that position.” She is also currently enjoying another job as a proud and active grandmother.
Nolan Masterson
Following graduation, Masterson earned his bachelor of science degree in secondary education in social studies from Champlain College in Vermont, graduating summa cum laude. He then earned a certificate in International Development Policy and Management, followed by a Master of Public Administration and Master of Arts in International Studies from The University of Washington in Seattle.
He began his international work as a foreign service intern in the Virtual Student Foreign Service Program for the U.S. Department of State at the New Delhi Embassy in India in 2011. He later worked at the U.S. Consulate in Auckland, New Zealand from 2013-15. He then became a Foreign Service Officer Generalist in summer 2015 and studied Mandarin Chinese. From 2016-18, he served as the Assistant General Services Officer in the U.S. Consulate General Shanghai’s Management Section. Since July 2018, he has been serving as a consular officer at the American Institute in Taiwan, where he does visa interviews, and is the fraud prevention manager investigating U.S. visa and passport fraud in Taiwan.
Debbie Manning
“I can do anything a hearing person can do, but hear,” says Manning. She has lived by this motto her whole life.
She grew up in Brunswick. When she was a baby, she became sick with the chicken pox and developed a high fever, which destroyed all the nerve endings in her ears. That’s when her life changed forever. She could no longer hear.
Teachers in elementary school thought she was a behavioral problem or that she was mentally challenged, but she wasn’t. She was crying out for help. Growing up in the 1970s and ’80s, there were not a lot of services for the deaf and hard of hearing. Her parents, Robert and Dolores Watring, wanted to make sure their daughter could survive in a hearing world. So they enrolled Manning into years and years of speech therapy so that she could talk. She learned how to lip read, which got her through high school.
“It was very difficult.” she says. “When the teacher turned to write on the blackboard, or had a beard, I didn’t know what they were saying. If videos were played in the class, they were not closed captioned. If class discussions took place, I would miss what other students would say, so I missed a lot.”
Manning graduated from Brunswick High School in 1987 and was accepted to Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the only university for the deaf and hard of hearing in the United States. She earned a teaching degree, then returned home and started working on her master’s degree in special education. She was commuting back and forth from Brunswick to Ashland University, where she earned her master’s.
Manning always wanted to work with kids, and her first job came at the Medina County Career Center as a resource room special education teacher employed by the Brunswick City Schools.
In the fall of 1993, she was hired as the vocational special education coordinator at Mid-East Career and Technology Center in Zanesville. She provides services for students with disabilities from four different counties, including 14 home schools, who attend Mid-East while learning a trade. She has excelled in this position and started to be well known throughout the region in special education.
She started teaching sign language classes at night. Manning was made a Board of Trustee Member of Deaf Services for 12 years and eventually became the board president. Deaf Services oversees services for the deaf and hard of hearing in Central and Southeast Ohio.
Manning is married to Rob and they have a daughter, Kinzer.
Dr. Peter Katsaros
Katsaros was an outstanding student at Brunswick High School, serving as president of the National Honor Society. He attended Miami University of Ohio and earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1985 and went on to the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, where he earned his medical degree in 1980, followed by a three-year residency in internal medicine.
He has been in private practice since 1993 with Pioneer Physicians Network Inc. in Norton, Ohio. He has served as chief of staff, vice chief of staff and chief of medicine at Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital during his career.
He has earned numerous honors and is a member of the Ohio State Medical Association, Academy of Medicine, American Medical Association and American College of Physicians. However, it is his personal relationship with his patients that earned him a nomination.
“Dr. Katsaros is such a professional in every aspect of medicine,” his nominator wrote. “He always gives you his full attention in a very gentle and caring manner, earning a complete sense of trust.”
Thus far in his career, Katsaros has served more than 100,000 patients -- and still counting.
Staff members also honored
In addition to the distinguished alumni, two more former staff members will be inducted into the Outstanding Staff Hall of Fame. William “Bill” Parschen, who was previously inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame, will be inducted this year -- the 20th anniversary of his sudden and untimely death at age 51. The principal of Towslee Elementary School at the time of his death, his career was marked with honors for the special way he treated people, including the little people for whom he was a mentor. Even after 20 years, former students and anyone who knew him remember him with great fondness.
Kim Tomashefski, who served 35 years in the Brunswick City Schools as a teacher, elementary education coordinator, assistant high school principal, high school principal and assistant superintendent, will also be honored for her work with students and peers.
One former student who nominated Tomashefski said: “It is never easy to express the gratitude that I feel when I think back to my time at Brunswick High School. I truly enjoyed the experience that I had and when I think back to how Mrs. Tomashefski helped mold that experience, the word that continually comes to mind is “professionalism.” He went on the emphasize how she earned respect by the way she led by example, but wasn’t afraid to share a good laugh and a smile. One of his favorite memories was that the day after he made her laugh, she told him, “You made my day.”