Monessen honors first Wall of Fame class inductees
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Nicole Hawkins and Michael Moorer celebrate his induction into the Monessen High School Wall of Fame Saturday evening. Hawkins graduated in 1998 and remains friends with the world-famous boxer.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Lt. Gen. Joseph Yakovac accepts his induction into the Monessen High School Wall of Fame Saturday evening. “I’m glad I grew up here, and for all the things it offered me,” Yakovac said. “I would not be here today without that foundation.”
Katherine Mansfield/ Observer-Reporter
Sarah Graby watches a video honoring the late Ed Filipowski, a Monessen graduate who went on to blaze a trail in fashion public relations. Filipowski helped launch Graby’s own fashion career in New York, and his kindness inspired her to launch the Monessen High School Wall of Fame.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Attendees admire the Monessen High School Wall of Fame, where the first class of inductees hangs proudly on the wall. The late fashion public relations expert Ed Filipowski; actress Frances McDormand; boxer Michael Moorer; Lt. Gen. Joseph Yakovic, and the late John and Margaret Husher, who established the Husher Scholarship Fund for Monessen students, were the first class of inductees.
The Monessen High School auditorium hummed with conversation and anticipation Saturday evening, when nearly 100 alumni and community members gathered to celebrate the first class of inductees into the school district’s Wall of Fame.
The inaugural class included actress Frances McDormand; boxer Michael Moorer; Lt. Gen. Joseph Yakovic; and the late John and Margaret Husher, who established the Husher Scholarship Fund for Monessen students.
“For such a small community to have such fame, for the amount of people in this town, it’s very amazing,” said Bob Betza, class of 1951.
Betza’s wife, Rosemary, also an MHS class of 1951 graduate, was delighted to see the area’s talent showcased.
“You can start with such humble beginnings,” said Rosemary Betza, who at 89 is still spry and loves Monessen as much as ever. “I really admire the girl that started this, to have a strong feeling that something should be recognized.”
The girl who launched Monessen High School’s Wall of Fame is Sarah Graby, who graduated from MHS in 1999 and, after earning a degree in fashion merchandising from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, got the call of a lifetime.
“A major apparel company called to say they had an opening in their color department choosing seasonal color palettes and could I get to New York City in three weeks?” Graby recalled Saturday evening. “I had been waiting for that call … so my bags were already mostly packed.”
As she said goodbye to family, Graby’s great-aunt encouraged her to look up a man named Ed, her friend Stella’s son, who worked in NYC. Graby figured the gentleman wouldn’t care she was from Monessen or that she’d just moved to New York to pursue a career in fashion, but when she arrived she sent him an email.
“To my surprise, I got a reply immediately. Not only did he say, if you ever need anything, just reach out to me, but he also said, I’m sending you tickets to the upcoming Marc Jacobs and Anna Sui runway fashion shows,” Graby marveled. “I’ve now worked in the fashion industry in New York City for 20 years, and I would’ve never been able to see one runway fashion show without Ed giving me that opportunity. Ed saw the opportunity to give another an opportunity. That is why he is the inspiration behind this entire event and the addition of the Monessen High School Wall of Fame.”
Ed Filipowski graduated from MHS in 1979 and studied journalism at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. After graduation, he moved to the Big Apple and landed a job at a New York City ad agency.
When he learned that the fashion public relations company Keeble, Cavaco, Duka (now KCD) had just landed a huge client, he sent executives flowers from one of Manhattan’s finest florists with a congratulatory note – and asked founder Kezia Keeble if she needed someone to work for her.
“Ed said he didn’t realize it, but he had sent her favorite flowers. She called him and said, ‘I don’t know who you are, but since you sent my favorite flowers, I have to talk to you.’ Ed went in the next day for a three-hour interview and she hired him to run the new PR department,” Graby said.
Filipowski opened the firm’s Paris office, the first Paris office for an American fashion PR firm. KCD counted Alexander McQueen, Marc Jacobs and Apple among its clients, and Filipowski, though he worked behind the scenes, was the heartbeat of most every event and campaign. When he passed in 2020, his obituary ran in the New York Times; fashion icons and Hollywood stars alike offered condolences. Victoria Beckhan called him “the kindest man” and Donatella Versace considered him a mentor designer, Graby said.
“Vogue Magazine referred to him as one of the fashion industry’s most powerful, dedicated and kind public relations men,” Graby said. “Having the pleasure of knowing him has made a huge impact on my life.”
Though they spent most of their long lives on the west coast, the Hushers believed in giving Monessen students opportunities, too.
“John and Margaret Husher, they’ve given over $5 million … to students from Monessen who are going to college, to help with that, which is just beyond generous and giving back,” Graby said. “And that’s just since 1998.”
John Husher graduated with Monessen’s class of 1950 and passed away in September at age 91, in his home in Los Altos Hills, Calif. His wife, a Rostraver graduate, died in 2010. John’s brother Terry Husher accepted the honor on John and Margaret’s behalf.
“I think there’s something in the water,” said Terry Husher. “My parents were born here, I was born here, my grandparents were born here, both sets.”
Husher attended the University of Pittsburgh and served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. In 1959, he took a job at Westinghouse and, during his lunch hour, invented the first linear integrated circuit on a silicon chip. Husher is behind many of the process techniques still used today for processing integrated circuits.
Husher secured 16 patents, penned 10 books, and golfed and watched sports as often as he could in his spare time (he loved the Steelers, the Pirates and the Penguins most, but adopted the 49ers when he moved to the west coast, said Terry).
“He always believed in Monessen,” Terry Husher said. “He wanted to give to Monessen so that people could have the opportunities that he had to succeed.”
Lt. Gen. Joseph Yakovac also credits Monessen as the foundation for his success.
Following graduation from Monessen in 1967, Yakovac, a gifted high school football player, traded his black and white for black, gold and grey at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point University. He was commissioned into the infantry upon graduation in 1971 and worked his way up to battalion commander.
“One percent, less than 1%, of the American population chooses to serve in the armed forces. That’s across every sister service. Of that 1% that choose to serve, less than 1% makes it to the rank of general officer,” said Command Sgt. Major Eric Hudak, who was inspired to make the Army a career after witnessing Yakovac’s brigadier general pinning at the football stadium, and gave his induction introduction. “He’s the 1% of the 1%.”
Yakovac, who earned a masters in science, returned to West Point to teach mechanical engineering and spent the later part of his career developing, testing and fielding weapons, weapon systems and support equipment to soldiers.
Before retiring from the Navy in 2007, Yakovac held the titles Director of the Army Acquisition Corps and Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. He moved from more than 30 years of military service into a role as senior counselor at The Cohen Group, a global consulting firm, in 2008.
While he’s spent more time out of the Mon Valley than in it, and has acquired success, honor and accolades, Monessen is still “home.”
“This valley’s been good to me, and this school, especially the school district, and I really cherish the time here,” Yakovac said. “I’ll always be a Greyhound.”
Michael Moorer, a retired professional boxer who is in both the Florida and the Pennsylvania Boxing Halls of Fame, said he’ll always be a Greyhound, too. Moorer, who ended his career with 52 wins (40 by knock-out), 4 losses and 1 draw, was proud to be inducted into the MHS Wall of Fame alongside other accomplished grads Saturday night.
“This is very special,” Moorer said. “I grew up here. I have friends here, family here. People followed me my whole career, they supported me and they gave to me. They did everything they could do for me.”
Returning to visit, or celebrate his induction into his alma mater’s Wall of Fame, is natural for Moorer.
“(He’s) very humble, very down to earth, very honest,” said Nicole Hawkins, a 1998 Monessen grad who is friends with Moorer.
Dennis Wade is a big boxing fan and has enjoyed following the hometown hero’s career (he said Moorer is a “nice young man”). Hawkins also followed Moorer’s 20-year professional boxing career, during which time Moorer became one of only four men to win a heavyweight world title on three different occasions and to win both the light heavyweight and heavyweight titles.
Moorer boasts a number of additional titles and accolades, and is the only left-handed boxer to win the lineal world championship at heavyweight. In 1994, he defeated Evander Holyfield and became the first-ever southpaw heavyweight champion, and was honored with a parade in downtown Monessen.
That wasn’t his first venture home. In 1989, when Hawkins was young, she and most of the town attended a professional fight at the old Monessen High School, where NBC broadcast Moorer take down Frankie Swindell in front of his first fans.
“I actually think I was in kindergarten or first grade at the time, and had a passion for boxing ever since. My dad took my sister and I to the fight and I thought it was the best thing ever,” Hawkins said.
Though she could not be there for her induction, three-time Oscar-winning actress Frances McDormand was also honored Saturday evening. McDormand moved with her family to the Mon Valley and graduated from MHS in 1975.
“Francie always took her acting very seriously,” said Robin Major Betza, who was on the same majorette team as McDormand at MHS. “”I remember standing together in the end zone at the stadium, freezing together. Following her career, it’s been inspiring just to see somebody who became so successful and really reached her dream.”
McDormand starred in Lady MacBeth her senior year and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in theater from Bethany (W.Va.) College. She earned her first Oscar as the affable Marge Gunderson in “Fargo,” and is one of few performers to claim the Triple Crown of Acting: she’s got three Oscars, two Emmys and one Tony award.
Graby said she was delighted to welcome this year’s inductees, and is already lookiing forward to the second annual Wall of Fame ceremony next year.
“I look forward to continuing it every year. We have so many people from Monessen that deserve to be recognized and honored,” she said.