Historical society inducting six into Hall of Fame
Observer-Reporter
Observer-Reporter
Park Burroughs
Avella native Ralph Cindrich during his playing days at Pitt.
In James “Cookie” McDonald’s five decades of community leadership and human rights activism in Washington, seldom, if ever, has he stepped into the limelight.
It is because of his well-known aversion to the limelight that he has been so effective in advancing the many causes he has supported over the years. But while McDonald’s preference has been to let others take the accolades, he will be featured March 11 when the Washington County Historical Society inducts him and five others into its Hall of Fame.
Along with McDonald, other honorees include former editor, writer and author Park Burroughs, the journalistic voice of the Observer-Reporter for nearly a quarter century, and Ralph Cindrich, the football and wrestling standout at Avella and Pitt whose work as a player agent changed the landscape of the National Football League.
Three other inductees will be honored posthumously, headlined by Louis E. Waller (1928-2009), whose life remains a beacon of civic leadership for an entire community. Waller shaped the footprint of Washington County’s civil rights progress and philanthropic traditions.
Other posthumous inductees are Anne X. Alpern (1903-1981), who grew up in Scenery Hill and climbed the legal profession to become the first woman to sit on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1961, and Charlotte LeMoyne Wills (1824-1908), daughter of abolitionist Dr. Francis J. LeMoyne, who channeled her own social reform energies into the women’s suffrage movement.
This will be the sixth time that the historical society has inducted Washington County luminaries, past and present, into its Hall of Fame. Past inductees have included harness racing legend Delvin Miller, aviation pioneer DeLloyd “Dutch” Thompson, and the Tuskegee Airmen of Washington County, to name a few. If there is a common theme between these past inductees and this year’s Hall of Fame class, it may be the breaking of barriers and the charting of new courses.
The historical society’s sixth annual Hall of Fame Awards Banquet, which recently sold out, will be held at Washington & Jefferson College’s Rossin Campus Center Ballroom.