The Feast of Saint Ursula Liturgy was celebrated on Tuesday, October 24 th at
10:30 A.M. in the school gymnasium. The thirty-eighth Annual Distinguished Alumni Awards
were presented at the liturgy. Each year, this award is given to graduates of Ursuline High
School who have distinguished themselves by dedicated service to our school and to the
community at large. This year’s recipients were Sr. Mary McCormick, OSU (’73) and Thomas
Dalzell, Colonel USMC (Ret) (’53).
Past award recipients include: Bishop James W. Malone, Attorney John McNally III,
Mary Irene Hoffman, Joseph Nohra Sr., Sister Jerome Corcoran, William G. Lyden, Jr., Mary
Ellen Cushwa Wolsonovich, Monsignor Kenneth Miller, Alex Simon, Paulette Petrosky, Sara
McClurkin Kennedy, Thomas J. Carney, Joy DiLoreto Brunner, Daniel E. Gallagher, Shirley
LaCivita Phillips, Donald E. Foley, Sr., Judy Rochford Wexler, Daniel P. O’Horo, John J. Ridel,
Mary Kay Buckley D’Isa, Richard Barrett, Sister Alice Marie Morley OSU, Monsignor John P.
Ashton, Cynthia Ryan Reardon, Jim Beil, Sister Nancy Dawson OSU, Pat Storey Kane, Thomas
Stabi, Marilou LaCivita Stroney, Dr. Thomas Shipka, Helen Lamb Lafferty, Father Frank
Lehnerd, Sister Virginia McDermott OSU, M. Richard Varley, Jeanne McLaughlin Foley, Atty.
Vincent Gilmartin, Maureen Collins, Father Timothy O’Neill, Dorothy Ferrell Durina, Thomas
P. Metzinger, Mary Moran Krygowski, George Banks, Margene Flannery Chambers, Monsignor
John Zuraw, Kathleen Cunningham Conlan, Dr. Edward Novosel, Dr. Janet E. Del Bene, Scott
R. Schulick, Suzanne Morrison Fleming, Bruce Joseph, Aimee Amendolara Morrison, Tom
Murray, Sr. Mary Lee Nalley OSU, John Vitullo, Ruth Coleman Carroll, John Ulicney, Dr. Mary
Lou Dutko DiPillo, Michael J. Fagert, Cynthia Herubin Francisco, John F. Herubin, Kathleen
O’Neil Wolsonovich, Kevin J. McGuire, Dr. Vincent and Zip Largey Basile, Robert Nelson,
August and Maria Kregar Selak, Maureen Farran Gutierrez and K. Anthony Hayek.
Thomas John Dalzell attended Saint Dominic School and graduated from Ursuline High
School in 1953. He earned a football scholarship to Virginia Tech where he played from 1953-
1956. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears to play professional football in 1956 but remained in
school to complete his engineering degree.
He graduated in 1958 with a degree in Civil Engineering and entered the United States
Marine Corps through the Officers Candidate Program. While on active duty, he served in
numerous command and staff assignments in the continental United States, Puerto Rico, the
Philippines, Japan, Vietnam and Hawaii mostly within the force and combat engineer fields
including the 7 th , 8 th and 9 th Force Engineer Battalions, the 3 rd Combat Engineer Battalion, the 2 nd
Bridge Company and Wing Engineer Squadron 37.

His last assignment as a Colonel in the Marine Corps was as the Assistant Chief of Staff,
Facilities for the Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, NC. He was responsible for and
managed the facilities department of this major Marine Corps Base supporting a military and
civilian community in excess of 110,000. With seven service and support division and a staff of
1,252, he managed a full range and spectrum of facilities and engineering management activities.
Included in the seven divisions were the Base Fire Department, the Base Housing Division
which managed some 6,000 sets of family housing, all bachelor housing units for units stationed
on base, a Forestry and Wildlife Division, an Environmental Division and a Public Works
Division which operated the water and sewerage treatment plants, 450 miles of roads, the
electrical power distribution system and the maintenance and repairs on all base facilities.
Colonel Dalzell is a graduate of the United States Naval War College, the School of
Naval Command and Staff, the Defense Language Institute, and the National War College. He
also earned a Master of Science degree in International Affairs from The George Washington
University.
He was actively involved during his years of military service, officiating football and
basketball, teaching and directing religious education programs with youth and was a Boy Scout
troop leader. He is a registered Professional Engineer and a Fellow in The Society of American
Military Engineers. He retired from the Marine Corps after 31 years of active service. Upon
retirement from the Marine Corps, he was Vice President of Commercial Construction for the
Westminster Company in Jacksonville, North Carolina where he managed multi-million dollar
commercial construction projects throughout the Southeast. As Vice President of the
Commercial Construction Division for the company, he planned, organized, budgeted and
executed multi-million dollar construction projects throughout the East Coast. His
responsibilities involved reducing costs, reviewing existing procedures and initiating effective
approaches to winning bids while maximizing profitability of the job.
Moving to Roanoke, he was employed as an engineer, planner and project manager for
R&K Engineering Inc., working on numerous projects in support of the Department of
Defense and the military services providing grounding for budgets and funding requests
and in support of service real property management objectives. Specializing in the
development and fielding of facility management software, the engineering firm provided
effective facility management software and financial software for the development of
maintenance and sustainment budgets. Clients included both government and industrial
organizations.
After retiring from R&K Engineering he continued as an active volunteer in the Roanoke
Valley serving as an elementary catechist and Eucharistic Minister at Our Lady of Nazareth
Catholic Church, working with Habitat for Humanity, with Renovation Alliance doing
minor maintenance and repairs on homes for the elderly, poor and veterans, delivering
daily Meals on Wheels to the elderly and with the Military Officers Association of
America helping veterans in the Roanoke Valley. He was inducted into The Academy of
Distinguished Alumni, The Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and The
UT PROSIM Society, University of Virginia Tech.
He maintains an active life style working out daily at the YMCA and playing tennis. He loves to travel with family, grandchildren and friends and has traveled to every continent
except Australia and New Zealand. His wife of 59 years, Allie, passed away in 2016. His
son Patrick and grandsons Thomas, a student at Virginia Tech and Braden, a
senior in high school, live in Atlanta.
Sr. Mary McCormick is a graduate of Saint Christine School. She enrolled at
Youngstown State University upon graduating from Ursuline High School in 1973 where she
earned a degree in Comprehensive Humanities, Secondary Education. She also holds a Master’s
Degree in Systematic Theology from Duquesne University, a Master’s Degree in Religious
Education from Loyola University and a Ph.D. in Contemporary Systematic Theology from
Fordham University.
She began her teaching career at Ursuline High School in 1978 and taught in the
Religious Education Department until 1986. Her teaching career took her to Saint Thomas
Aquinas High School, Ursuline College, Loyola University, Fordham University, Youngstown
State University, and Walsh University. Sr. Mary is currently a Professor of Systematic
Theology and Academic Dean at St. Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in
Wickliffe, Ohio.
Sr. Mary’s administrative experience is vast. She served the Diocese of Youngstown as
the Director of Religious Education for the Hearing Impaired, the Director of Religious
Education for the Mentally Retarded and as a School Consultant for Religious Education. Sr.
Mary has been a visiting team member for the Association of Theological Schools. For the
Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown, she has been the Director of Formation and the Director of
Finance. She was a member of the Leadership Team from 2002-2004 and has served as the
General Superior from June 2014 until present.
She was also a Pastoral Associate at St. Mary Parish in Conneaut, Ohio.
Sr. Mary is a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America, College Theology
Society and the National Catholic Education Association.
She is currently the Chair of the Ursuline Sisters Mission Board, the President of the
Ursuline Sisters Senior Living, the President of the Association of Theological Schools Board,
and a member of the Ursuline High School Board of Directors. Sr. Mary is a board member of
the St. Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology, and a Pastoral Ministry Advisory
board member (Diocese of Cleveland). She is a former member of the Ursuline Alumni board, a
former chairperson of the Beatitude House Board, the Catholic Lutheran Covenant Commission
(Diocese of Cleveland), First Friday Club of Greater Youngstown – Chair of the Program
Committee, and former President of the Ursuline Preschool and Kindergarten. She also served
the Association of Theological Schools as the Chief Academic Officer Society.