WNY Women Hall of Fame Inductees

Western New York Women’s Hall of Fame Housed at Buffalo State College Rockwell Hall, Buffalo State College · November 2009

A Project FLIGHT program

The Western New York Women’s Hall of Fame’s genesis lies in the work of women who organized the New York State Coalition on Women’s Issues, Project FLIGHT, a family literacy program, and the Western New York History Committee. Dr. Geraldine E. Bard and Dr. Elizabeth J. (Betty) Cappella of Buffalo State College lead the cadre of women who are the foundation for the Western New York Women’s Hall of Fame.

2005 Inductees Madeline O. Scott: For more than 40 years Madeline Scott, president of the Afro-American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier, has served Buffalo’s African-American community as activist, archivist, leader, mentor and, perhaps, its greatest booster. From the days when she worked with young men in prison to the times she worked with academic programs for high school students to her successful nomination of Mary B. Talbert to the National Women’s Hall of Fame, she has shared her time, energy, skills and compassion with the Western New York Community. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is only one of the many organizations she has served and more than a dozen community groups have recognized her outstanding contributions.

The Western New York Women’s Hall of Fame “It seems to me that there is in each of us a capacity to comprehend the impressions and emotions which have been experienced by mankind from the beginning. This inherited capacity is a sort of sixth sense—a soul-sense which sees, hears, feels, all in one.”

- Helen Keller

Ruth Kahn Stovroff: Through decades of quiet service as a philanthropist and community worker, Ruth Stovroff has touched, enriched and inspired countless individuals. For more than 60 years her presence has made a huge difference in the quality of life in Western New York. From the 1950s with her work with the Research and Planning Council to the 1960s as the first president of the Community Action Organization to the present she has set the standard for those who aspire to the deepest level of community service. She is a past chair of the Elizabeth Pierce Olmsted Center for the Visually Impaired and Child and Family Services and past president of the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies and Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo and a board member of the Western New York Women’s Fund.

Our Mission

To honor those women in perpetuity who have worked in a public spotlight, as well as those who have quietly enriched the community and inspired others.

The women elected to the hall, and those who will find themselves there in the future, attest to the vast energy, strength, talent, and public spiritedness of this region’s female population.

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Program WNY Women’s Hall of Fame Dedication Ceremony Held on October 11, 2005

Introductions

Professor Geraldine E. Bard, Chair WNY Women’s History Committee

Welcome

Muriel A. Howard President, Buffalo State College

Remarks

2005 Inductees Lana D. Benatovich: As executive director of the National Conference for Community and Justice, Lana Benatovich’s job is to eradicate bias, bigotry and racism from our midst.

She brings to that task a life-long belief that we can build strong communities by instilling trust, respect and understanding among its people. Her appreciation of and enthusiasm for diversity in our culture is reflected in the variety of organizations which have benefited from her talent and skills. She is on the board of trustees at St. Bonaventure University, a trustee of the Network of Religious Communities, and a board member of Erie County Coordinating Council of Children and Families. The extent of her influence is reflected in the honors she has received from academic, professional, volunteer and activist organizations.

Pamela Davis Heilman:

Billie Luisi-Potts Executive Director, National Women’s Hall of Fame

Dramatic Interpretation

Mary Craig, Actress as Mary Talbert Meghann Daley, Buffalo State Student and Actress as Belva B. Lockwood Faith Wardlaw, Buffalo State Student and Actress as Mary Wood Maggie Zindle, Actress as Katharine Pratt Horton

A distinguished career as an attorney, and partner in the Hodgson Russ Attorney’s, provides Pamela Heilman extraordinary opportunities to advance the status of women and she takes full advantage of them. Representing her firm in Canadian-American business relationships, she creates opportunities for women on an international scale, advancing their business and professional status here and sharing her leadership skills with businesswomen on the other side of the border. She values most her mentoring role and rejoices in the progress of women in her profession. As the first woman to chair the United Way Board, she helped create the United Way’s women in board governance program and the Western New York Women’s Fund. Her success has earned her an Athena award and recognition from many community and academic organizations.

Student Contests Education Committee, Claire Collier

Elizabeth Coe Marshall, 1847-1892:

Dedication

Professor Geraldine E. Bard

Our Sponsors

Buffalo State College, Project FLIGHT, the President’s Council on Equity and Campus Diversity, the Women’s Studies Interdisciplinary Unit, the Women’s Issues Support Group of the College Senate, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the Departments of English, Educational Foundations and Elementary Education and Reading, and the Performing Arts Center

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While health care has changed dramatically since 1885 good nursing care remains one of its most important components due in part to the efforts of Elizabeth Marshall whose foresight and compassion led to the establishment of the Visiting Nursing Association. Marshall used funds donated by First Presbyterian Church to hire a professional nurse whose job was to care for the sick in their homes and teach them how to help themselves. From those humble beginnings, the VNA of Western New York grew into one of the largest and most comprehensive home care agencies in the country serving more than 24,000 patients annually.

The movement spread across the country and today more than 500 VNAs care for an estimated 4 million each year.

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2004 Inductees Melinda R. “Mindy” Rich: A community treasure in business and service Mindy Rich’s leadership style is a model for how women use their creativity and communication skills to influence both the business world and their community. As Executive Vice President of Innovation, Mindy is a driver of Rich’s “culture of innovation”, plays a key leadership role with several departments and serves as the President for Rich Entertainment Group.

Mindy also creates and oversees many of programs that define Rich’s presence as a leading corporate citizen. She is a partner in community campaigns to curb drug and alcohol abuse, find a cure for cystic fibrosis, advance the status of women and promote volunteerism. She is generous of her time and energy, serving on several public and private boards, and her role in enhancing this area’s quality of life has been recognized by numerous awards.

Inductees from 1997-2009 Sister Mary Johnice Rzadkiewicz, CSSF: She created a haven for a community’s needy Sister Mary Johnice has served her native Buffalo East Side community with passion and humility for nearly 30 years. She began her career as a primary school teacher and later became a pastoral associate in St. Adalbert’s Church reaching out to its elderly and homebound parishioners. After the parish school closed she founded the St. Adalbert Response to Love Center.

Opened in 1985, it is a special place for the marginalized, poor and needy where more than 95 nuns, staff and volunteers offer a food pantry, dining room, thrift shops, and a haven for refugees.

She works closely with AmeriCorps and Hospice and was a spiritual counselor to the Sept. 11 rescue workers and families.

Helen Urban: Her mission is to fulfill the needs of others. Helen Urban says she represents the ordinary women who are doing what women always have done: see a need and try to fill it. When she saw new mothers without clothing for their babies, she asked United Church Women to start Bundles for Babies. When, as a clinic nutritionist, she saw pregnant women without adequate diets, she started a food pantry and became a founder of the Western New York Food Bank. When inner city women were looking for both companionship and sewing skills, she helped them organize the Metropolitan Sewers. She has been doing these “ordinary” things for more than 40 years -- in a most extraordinary way.

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2003 Inductees Brenda W. McDuffie:

1997 Inductees Lucille Ball, 1911-1989:

Brenda McDuffie is known for her passionate commitment to the Western New York community, especially those within it who need a helping hand. As a dedicated professional working with an array of public service organizations from the American Red Cross to the United Way to Legal Aid, she has extended her warmth and compassion as well as a helping hand.

There is hardly a community service organization that she has not served as a volunteer, advisor or board member. The former executive director of the Buffalo and Erie County Private Industry Council and current chief executive officer of the Buffalo Urban League, continues to enhance the quality of life in this community.

Her name was Lucy and everyone loved her. An outstanding actress, comedian and businesswoman, Lucille Ball, with her husband, Desi Arnaz, created “I Love Lucy” in 1951. It became a television classic that ran live for seven years and in reruns forever after. Lucy and Ricky Ricardo became our favorite zany neighbors and 44 million of us tuned in when their son was born. A native of Celeron, Lucy made her stage debut in the 1930s, in Jamestown’s Little Theater, now named for her, and she maintained ties to Western New York throughout her life.

Florence E. Baugh: Denise E. O’Donnell: An inviting smile and a razor sharp mind are among many reasons why Denise E. O’Donnell is regarded by her associates as one of the legal community’s greatest assets. The first woman to serve as United States Attorney for the state’s Western District is also known for her energy and dedication to her profession and community. Her accomplishments and contributions fill a multi-page resume that is an inspiration for women in and out of her profession. A former vice chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee in Washington, D.C., her influences has extended beyond Western New York. Since 2001, Mrs. O’Donnell has used her extensive civil and criminal litigation experience in federal courts as a partner with Hodgson Russ.

Myrna F. Young: As Executive Director of Everywoman Opportunity Center, Myrna Young’s job is to help other women get jobs. She has done that with astounding success. She and the pioneering Everywoman Opportunity Center, which she has directed for the past two decades, have opened the door to productive and rewarding lives for thousands of displaced homemakers, single mothers and disadvantaged women. Their program serves as a model for others in the state and around the country and has gained national recognition. Her tireless and continuing mission to empower women started decades before she came to Western New York where more than 25 years ago she helped form the Niagara Frontier National Women’s Political Caucus and later the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women.

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Florence E. Baugh has been described as classy and tough minded, attributes which carried her unscathed through Buffalo’s school integration wars. A member and president of the Board of Education in the era of court mandates and magnate building, her ability to turn challenges into opportunities helped make this city a model for the country. The director of Erie County’s Community Action Organization’s Neighborhood Services is guided by the Biblical advice, “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”

Ellen Grant Bishop, Ph.D.: Wearing many hats -social worker, academician, and administrator -Ellen Grant Bishop has extended a helping hand to children in need and women in crises. Her creative energy has made her a major player in building and sustaining this community. As a vice president of Buffalo General Hospital, a member of several boards and as commissioner of Erie County’s Department of Mental Health, Ms. Grant Bishop cleared a path for women of all colors who yearn to build a better world.

Mary Johnson Lord, 1812-1885: Mary Johnson Lord loved children and animals and spent much of her life helping the poor. She founded an orphan asylum in 1876, and started the Ladies Humane Society, known today as the Erie County SPCA. Renowned for her wit and unconventional behavior, Miss Johnson, on the night of her elopement with John Lord, left her family a note saying “The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away!” This wife of a Presbyterian minister rode city streets in a pony cart searching for animals in distress and she grazed Shetland ponies on her lawn for the riding pleasure of neighborhood children.

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1997 Inductees

2003 Inductees Ann W. Bunis, 1901-1999:

Olga Karman, Ph.D.: Dr. Olga Karman Mendell, a Cuban immigrant, invented herself at age 20.

She finished college in Connecticut: summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and with a Woodrow Wilson fellowship. Then alone, broke, a refugee from a bad marriage with a child to support, she went to Harvard and got a doctorate in Spanish. A professor at D’Youville College, her impressive academic credentials define only part of the persona she designed. Poet, writer, lecturer, community activist, she has a string of awards in her resume. By action and by example, she enriches the area’s Hispanic community.

Muriel A. Howard Ph.D.: Dr. Muriel A. Howard had a presence in this community long before she became the first woman president of Buffalo State College. Students and faculty at Buffalo’s other SUNY campuses know her well, as do members of countless community organizations who have experienced the generosity with which she dispenses her time, energy and talent. As a professional woman and scholar, Dr. Howard sets a lofty standard for the many young women who surely will try to emulate her.

Deborah A. Naybor:

Dressmaker, designer, entrepreneur, wife and mother, Anne Bunis did it all in an era when women were not supposed to. A native of Russia, she progressed from the archetypical immigrant girl, helping support her siblings as a seamstress, to creating her own family. As a young wife and mother she put her talent for retail to work in the family’s flat on Hertel Avenue. The enterprise became the first Sample Shop from which she sold “off price” dresses to a growing clientele.

The business grew to more than a dozen stores doing millions of dollars in sales, all while she raised three children. In retirement, she put her extraordinary talents to work for dozens of community organizations rounding out the portrait of a woman who is a model for all of us.

Alice Mae Jemison, 1901-1964: A politician, activist and journalist, Alice Mae Jemison was an adamant defender of Native American rights. Born on the Seneca’s Cattaraugus Reservation into a politically active family, Ms. Jemison began her public career in the defense of two Indian women accused of murder in Buffalo. She continued as a columnist for the North American Indian Newspaper Alliance and a lobbyist for the Seneca Nation of Indians in Washington, D.C. Her defense of Indian treaty rights and the sovereignty of Indian nations put her at odds with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and allied her with unpopular fringe organizations exploiting Indian discontent. To some of her contemporaries she was controversial but to advocates of Native American’s rights she is a hero.

Bertha S. Laury:

Deborah A. Naybor turned $1,000 and a used pickup truck into a milliondollar land surveying business. En route, she became the most prominent role model and mentor to women in the Western New York area. She helps teachers train pupils in the business applications of math and science and she is a mentor for women trying to move from welfare to jobs. She guided women building their first Habitat for Humanity house in Buffalo. A strong belief that one person can make a difference guides her advocacy for economic equity, the rights of small businesses and women’s access to capital.

Cornelia Bentley Sage Quinton, 1889-1938: She was Cornelia Bentley Sage when Albright Art Gallery made her the first woman to direct an art museum in the U.S. It was in 1910, and for the next fourteen years she would acquire an international reputation for her dazzling exhibitions and brilliant acquisitions. Demonstrating an air for the dramatic, she brought Pavlova to dance at an opening in 1914 and engaged Sarah Bernhardt to speak at another in 1916. The French gave her their Cross of the Legion of Honor, and in 1924 the Louvre recommended her for her new job at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.

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Bertha Laury’s personal and professional life has been defined by her need to help people help themselves. The young social worker and educator in 1966 developed a pioneering infant day care center for unwed mothers reflecting her ongoing concern for the health and well being of the young and disadvantaged. She helped develop a comprehensive service that eventually reduced teen pregnancy in Buffalo and Erie County. The University at Buffalo educator and administrator trained hundreds of aspiring social workers leading them to the values and capabilities that distinguished her performance. She was the first African American woman to serve as president of the Health Care Plan Board of Directors and the first chair of the Community Health Foundation of Western and Central New York.

Gloria R. Lucker: Gloria Lucker lives by her own rule: “do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do.” Starting a business was the right thing for her when she saw a need and knew how to meet it. Her innovative occupational therapy program has been the right thing for the hundreds of rural residents and disabled school children that it serves. Her management style has enhanced career opportunities for countless women and minorities and she has supported aspiring business women through the local chapter of National Association of Women Business Owners. Many women benefit from her leadership in community service through organizations like Everywoman Opportunity Center and the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women.

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2002 Inductees Nancy A. Naples:

1997 Inductees Mary Lou Rath:

As a businesswoman, public servant and community volunteer, Nancy Naples is a role model and inspiration to every woman. Serving her third term as Erie County Comptroller, she has distinguished herself in government service, displaying the same degree of excellence that identified her private sector career with leading financial institutions and a family business. Her compassion to assist others is exemplified by her volunteer service with the Roswell Park Foundation, Canisus College, and her alma maters- Nardin Academy and Marymount College – and numerous other Western New York institutions, she continues to further the interests of women through her work on the Executive Committee of the WNY Advisory Council for the New York State Division for Women.

Margaret A. Pericak-Vance, Ph.D.: An internationally known scientist, Margaret Pericak-Vance recently was named director of the Center for Human Genetics at Duke University where she has been a professor in the medical school for more than two decades. The Holy Angels Academy graduate has gone on to become one of the nation’s top research scientists in genetics working with teams in the discovery of genes linked to Alzheimer’s and research into Parkinson’s multiple sclerosis and autism among other diseases. She made Newsweek’s list of 100 people to watch in this century.

She was the recipient of the Louis-D Scientific Award from the Institute de France.

Catharine M. Weiss:

Businesswoman and elected official, Mary Lou Rath has left her footprints all over the landscape. Her distinguished career began in the private sector where she was an emissary for local business. She broadened her constituency in 1978, when voters sent her to the Erie County Legislature and again when she moved up to the New York State Senate in 1993. There, she was the first woman to represent Western New York. Senator Rath brought to her adventures, including those as wife, mother and grandmother, a philosophy of individual and community responsibility acquired from her mother.

Anna M. Reinstein, MD, 1891-1948: A political exile that once joined in an assassination plot, Dr. Anna M. Reinstein brought her socialist ideals to these shores from Eastern Europe where repressive conditions bred radicalism. A native of Poland, who grew up in the Ukraine, Dr. Reinstein released her humanitarian energy and gusto for social reform in Buffalo’s ethnic and working class communities. As Western New York’s first woman obstetrician/gynecologist, she tended those who could least afford care with the compassion and skills that prompted the American Medical Society to name her one of three leading women physicians in the country.

Mary B. Talbert, Ph.D., 1866-1923:

When there is a job to be done, Catherine Weiss is usually the first face you will see. She is everywhere women want to be. The Erie County Commission on the Status of Women, a Girl Scout meeting, a women’s history celebration, a Hall of Fame luncheon, and the conveyer of the Women’s Action Coalition is a woman of action. In Amherst, they know her as a citizen adviser, a community worker and planner, a conscientious member of many boards.

She is energized by the women and girls she works with and for, and in turn she empowers them and their organizations leaving her community a far richer place.

Mary E. Wood, 1902-1998: Mary Wood and the Buffalo YWCA made a big decision in 1957. There would not be Black branches and white branches in their organization, there would be only women’s branches. When she became the first African American woman to head a major metropolitan YWCA, she sets standards for all of us. She brought her mission for integration and racial justice from the Midwest and Southwest to Buffalo and then to Washington and the world. It was not an easy time to be a high profile Black woman but with courage, dignity, and the power of her example, Mary Wood left her mark on the city and institution she served so well.

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Mary B. Talbert was a radical and one of Buffalo’s most prominent citizens.

An Ohio native, Mary Burnett had her degree from Oberlin College and teaching experience when she moved to Buffalo in 1891 as the wife of wealthy businessman William H. Talbert. She helped form the Niagara Movement, a forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which was organized in her Michigan Avenue home in 1905.

The group demanded an end to segregation and a beginning of equal opportunity for Black citizens. The University at Buffalo named a building for her.

Margaret L. Wendt, 1885-1972: Margaret L. Wendt is more public in death than in life. A private person, she shared her family’s wealth with those less fortunate in quiet, unobtrusive ways, content in the conviction that her philanthropy would make an impact on the social and cultural life of Buffalo. The foundation she started in 1956 perpetuates her lifetime of charitable giving and has made her name synonymous with much that is good and promising in the

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1998 Inductees Bridgitte S. Barrell, 1920-2002: Brigitte “Brix” Barrell combined family, career and community service in an era when women were not supposed to. Chosen to head Manpower’s Buffalo office in the early 1950s, the third office in a company that would grow into the world’s largest temporary help organization, she worked her way up to regional manager. At the same time, this mother and homemaker was serving on the boards of dozens of community organizations. Colleagues were moved by her vision, her business acumen and her ability to unite people for a common cause. A native of Dresden, Germany, she also was for many years the honorary consul for the Federal Republic of Germany in Western New York.

Marian de Forest, 1864-1935: Marian de Forest, often called a trailblazer, was a journalist, playwright and civic leader who championed business and professional women. She founded the world’s first Zonta Club in Buffalo in 1919, launching what became an international network of 1,300 clubs in 69 countries with more than 35,000 members. An internationally-acclaimed author of several plays, a globe trotter, and a visionary, she was a woman enough ahead of her times to imagine ours.

Carmen M. del Valle, 1949-1995: Carmen M. del Valle, founder of the Hispanic Woman’s League and the Hispanic Network of Health and Human Services, believed women united could advance their academic and professional aspirations, end the cycle of poverty and break the shackles of a male-dominated society— things she had already done all by herself. A single mother of two, she earned her degrees at University of Buffalo, with many honors, in night school and between jobs.

She was the first Hispanic woman in Western New York to obtain certification as a social worker, her proudest achievement, and she was the first director of the Child and Family Services West Side, where her innovative programs still are in use.

2002 Inductees Arlene F. Kaukus: As the first woman president of United Way of Buffalo & Erie County, Arlene Kaukus touches the lives of everyone in this community. Her work with the organization for the past 22 years has been an extension of her commitment to the community. The programs she has developed and the guidance she has provided have empowered people inside the agency and thousands more in the communities served by the agency. Her support of the Women in Board Governance and the Western New York Women’s Fund is the basis for the continuing promotion of women for which she is so famous.

Eunice A. Lewin: She is designed uncrowned queen and to the hundreds of individuals whose lives have been touched by Eunice Lewin’s “passion for service” and to the many institutions that have profited from her leadership, the title is most appropriate. For many newcomers to our community, hers was the friendliest and most welcoming voice. For others, in need of a helping hand, hers was the most willingly offered. A native of Cuba, she came here as a young adult, mastered a new language and culture, excelled in scholarship and has maintained a deep and abiding commitment to her faith, family and community. As a volunteer, professional educator and social worker, she is helping another generation achieve their hopes and dreams.

Belva B. Lockwood, 1830-1917: In 1879, this Niagara County native became the first woman to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court. It took an act of Congress to get her in but then nothing had come easily to this early feminist. She learned about wage discrimination as a teacher in Lockport and overcame gender bias when she fought her way into law school. Her lobbying efforts persuaded Congress to pass an equal pay for equal work law in 1972 and as a candidate of the National Equal Rights Party in 1884, she became the first woman to run for president. She championed the rights of women, Blacks and the underprivileged.

Constance B. Eve: Constance B. Eve is an engine that never stops running, a source of power for an entire community; a physical and spiritual force that drives others to serve and gives aid and comfort to those in need. The founder of Women for Human Rights and Dignity seeks to empower women to make more of their lives than they dreamed possible. One of ten children and the mother of five, she thinks much has been given to her and thus much is required. Her beneficiaries are the women, homeless or on hard times, who find refuge in the shelters she has created. She has received the National Alexis de Tocqueville Award, given by the United Way of America.

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Joan A. Male: Joan Male spends her days taking care of other peoples’ children. A foster parent, she provides a loving home to needy children; a child advocate, she has empowered others to do the same. She is a protector of abused and neglected children and a friend to adults who really want to be good parents but do not know how. The founder of United Foster Parents and Parents Anonymous has used her parenting skills, her organizational talents and her fund-raising genius to improve the lives of countless children and the adults who care for them. Her compassion and hard work have enabled hundreds of fragile families to survive.

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2001 Inductees Elizabeth Jane Letson, 1874-1919: Shell collector Elizabeth Letson turned a hobby into a career that rewarded her and enriched her native city. The 18-year-old who volunteered to clean the Buffalo Museum of Science shell collection in 1892 became the museum’s first woman director just eight years later. Much of what distinguished the museum throughout the 20th Century, an outstanding collection, library, historical records and community outreach, is traced to her tenure. She expanded the museum, added exhibits and attracted more visitors. After serving a decade as museum director, she moved with her husband to Hawaii.

Geraldine C. Ochocinska: Geri Ochocinska rose through the ranks of a mostly male labor union to become its first female regional director with a leadership style that has inspired admiration from her colleagues and the community. During 35 years in elective positions with the United Auto Workers, she has negotiated contracts, processed grievances, directed locals, trained leaders, built coalitions and organized workers, always driven by a desire to achieve social justice for working men and women. As the first female director of UAW’s Region 9 and as board member of Coalition of Labor Union Women, she has promoted the status of women in labor unions.

Gretchen Engstrom Stringer: Gretchen Stringer walks around with pockets full of energy, humor, inspiration and optimism, all of which she generously shares with anyone lucky enough to bump into her. And there have been scores so blessed over the decades of her business and volunteer careers. Gretchen’s distinctive style of leadership has inspired groups from Girl Scouts to Junior League provisionals, from community workers to businesswomen. Building a house, planning a celebration or serving a client, Gretchen goes the extra mile that makes everything she touches special.

The Honorable Rose H. Sconiers: The road to the State Supreme Court started for Rose H. Sconiers in 1969 when she graduated from Long Island University in Brooklyn and went on to State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law. Her outstanding career path has taken her through legal aid, private practice, community service and teaching. In settling disputes between labor and management as an Assistant Corporation Counsel or assisting and supporting delinquent teenagers as a City Court Judge, the now State Supreme Court Justice Sconiers has established an excellent reputation for getting the job done.

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1998 Inductees The Honorable Ann T. Mikoll: Ann T. Mikoll has been described as an “energetic and articulate carrier of the torch for women’s rights.” Now on New York State’s Supreme Court, the Appellate Division, she has been the first woman in a progression of judicial jobs, starting with Buffalo’s City Court in 1957. Away from the bench, her name is legendary in academic, women’s charitable and social organizations that have been enriched with her dynamic personality, expertise, graciousness and generosity. She was the recipient of the Edwin F. Jaeckle Award.

Anne Rogovin, 1919-2003: Anne Rogovin has been helping children learn for 30 years, ever since she took her master’s degree in special education from Buffalo State College in 1963 and began working with disabled children. She has influenced two generations of parents and children with her own irrepressible curiosity and intellect.

In between raising three children and traveling around the world with her photographer husband, Mrs. Rogovin wrote six books acclaimed by national experts on education and child development, and has developed 270 self-learning workbooks, housed in Buffalo State’s Butler Library.

Pat Swift MacClennan: Pat Swift started writing the Buffalo News’ Womanscope column at a time when much of the media either ignored the issues being raised by the women’s movement or heaped scorn and ridicule on those who espoused them. Through two decades, during which women’s issues blended into everyone’s agenda, the column kept equal rights, equal pay, and equal opportunity on the front burner. The status of women remains a concern to a writer who thinks journalists owe the world not just a reflection of itself, but a vision of a better self.

Esther Sans Takeuchi, Ph.D.: Dr. Esther Sans Takeuchi knows about power. She helped develop a defibrillator battery that keeps hearts beating around the world, demonstrating again the vitality of science and technology and women’s contribution to these exacting disciplines. The director of research at Wilson Greatbatch has been recognized by professional colleagues, who gave her the coveted American Chemical Society Schoellkopf Medal, only one of her many accolades. To those must be added the unheard applause of more than 200,000 bearers of cardiac implants powered by Greatbatch’s tiny batteries.

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1999 Inductees Elizabeth J. “Betty” Cappella, Ph.D.: Elizabeth J. Cappella makes dreams come true for people who don’t think they have any. A child of a poor migrant family who grew into a distinguished scholar and administrator, her career and tireless public service are a beacon for the disadvantaged. Dr. Cappella has opened doors around the world by introducing literacy programs such as Project FLIGHT and she has enriched the lives of thousands with Books for Kids. Taking her expertise into the community, this Buffalo State College professor and department head has enlightened both town and gown.

M. Dolores Denman, 1931-1999: M. Dolores Denman was outstanding in a profession in which she set the pace for those who have followed. Elected to New York State Supreme Court in 1976, she was the first woman to sit on the Appellate Division by designation of the governor in 1977 and the first woman to be named presiding justice in 1991. As presiding justice, she was the chief judge for administration of the courts in 22 counties of Western and Central New York and a member of the Administrative Board, which regulates and establishes policy for the courts throughout the state.

2001 Inductees Maryann Saccomondo Freedman: The first woman to be elected president of both the Erie County and New York State Bar Associations has had a distinguished career in both the public and private sectors. As an assistant state attorney general, as a matrimonial referee in State Supreme Court, as a lawyer in private practice and in her deep involvement in the community, she has worked to improve the quality of life and enhance opportunities for women. Her accomplishments have been recognized by her profession, her university and by dozens of community organizations.

Marsha S. Henderson: She served as the highest ranking woman in Western New York banking who also ranks pretty high in the many community organizations for which she has worked so tirelessly. Marsha Henderson’s rise to president of Key Bank’s Western District and to an executive position in its Eastern Region is based on more than 30 years of experience in financial services and she has paved the way for countless other women to follow. Her expertise in working with and for people has spilled over into public service that has earned her the Athena Award and a citation from the governor.

Katharine Pratt Horton, 1848-1931:

Susan Gaska: Susan Gaska has touched so many lives that her impact will be felt well into the next century. In thirteen years as director of the YWCA of Western New York, her passion and commitment to its mission made her this community’s most powerful voice on behalf of women, children and people of color. She built housing for the homeless, centers to care for children, networks to empower women and institutes to combat racism. This dynamic woman’s achievements show us how much is doable.

Lois Marie Gibbs: She was “just a housewife” in 1978, but today Lois Gibbs is known around the world. The leader of the Love Canal Homeowners Association is forever linked with the struggles of ordinary citizens dealing with pollution in their neighborhoods. Her commitment to a safe environment did not end with the evacuation of Love Canal residents and the containment of that area’s toxic residues. As director of a national clearinghouse to assist grassroots groups, she remains a powerful figure in the environmental justice movement. She has received the Heinz Family Foundation Award for the Environment.

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Katharine Pratt Horton was a society matron who was in the middle of everything new and exciting in turn-of-the century Buffalo. She funneled the energy of the emerging women’s club movement through her newly created Buffalo Federation of Women’s Clubs. In six years as federation president, she got the government to provide low-cost lunches and health inspections for needy children in city schools and to name a woman probation officer. She gave generously of her riches to scholarships and charity and used her leadership skills to help Buffalo put its best foot forward during the Pan-American Exposition of 1901.

Anna Catherine Murray Kearns, 1892-1938: Anna Catherine Murray Kearns tried on many hats in the days when women were expected to wear only one. This homemaker and mother of four was a deputy sheriff, a businesswoman, a tireless Democratic Party worker, leader of a band and was the only woman manager of a baseball team. She took her woman’s drum corps to parade in the nation’s capital. She ran a meat market and founded the Democratic Club of 1000 Women. Along her busy way, she weathered the Recession and found the time and energy to help her neighbors do the same.

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2001 Inductees Marion Cañedo:

1999 Inductees Maria Maltby Love, 1830-1931:

From teacher to principal to administrator to superintendent, Marian Cañedo has held fast to her conviction that educational excellence depends on good programs, proper motivation and an upbeat attitude. Close to 40 years of experience with students is helping Buffalo’s first female superintendent of schools meet the challenge of rejuvenating public schools for the 21st Century. And while she is doing that, the former teacher of the year and winner of a National Excellence in Education Award continues to reinforce her image as a role model.

A 19th Century pioneer in social service, Maria Maltby Love set an example that will inspire women into the 21st century. Motivated by a compassionate concern for women and their children, she set up the Fitch Creche, an early child care center, and the Church District Plan that reached into Buffalo neighborhoods to help the poor. She established convalescent homes for ailing working women and organized Buffalo’s first kindergarten. Her spirit prevails in the work of the Maria Love Convalescent Fund Board and its service to needy families.

Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker: The name is synonymous with community service, so long has Clotilde Dedecker been involved with local and national organizations. Starting with the Junior League of Buffalo and extending to her tenure as executive director of the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women, Dedecker has shared her dedication, expertise and energy with more than two dozen local institutions. As immediate past president of the Association of Junior Leagues International and a member of national and international committees, she has enhanced her reputation as well as ours.

Sister Denise A. Roche, Ph.D.: D’Youville College President Sister Denise A. Roche is a hands-on community worker and educator. Whether feeding infants afflicted with AIDS or giving bedside care to an ailing colleague, from orchestrating a faculty to creating a curriculum to balancing a budget, Sister Denise impresses with the multiplicity of her talents and the depth of her caring. It took her only a dozen years from graduation to rise to the presidency of her alma mater, a college that has prospered under her leadership.

Diane English: The creator of the “Murphy Brown,” icon of the 1990s’ career women has won enough prestigious awards to fill this book and has the talent to keep trophies coming for many more years. A writer and producer, this former Buffalo schoolteacher has gained an international reputation for her television creations and scripts. On her list of credits are “One Hogan Place,” “Foley Square,” “Ink,” and “My Sister Sam.” During its 10-year run, “Murphy Brown” won 18 Emmys, a Golden Globe and a George Peabody Award.

Edith Marie Flanigen: Edith Flanigen, a most inventive chemist, gave us purer water and cleaner gasoline.

In her 42-year career with Union Carbide Corporation, much of it with the Linde Division, Flanigen participated in scores of discoveries, including those in molecular sieves that earned her the Perkin Medal. The first woman to receive the country’s highest prize in applied chemistry is also one of the few women elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Among her 102 patents are compounds used in water purification and environmental clean-up and in making gasoline cleaner and safer. A Buffalo native and D’Youville College graduate, she retired in 1994 and resides in White Plains. She was awarded the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Carolyn B. Thomas: Carolyn Thomas has waged a personal war on hunger. The first president of the Buffalo Food Bank, known today as the Western New York Food Bank, Mrs. Thomas was the Council of Churches’ representative to the Community Action Organization when it initiated a campaign for a food bank. She spent several years helping to locate a site for the central storehouse that every month supplies 422 agencies in four counties with meals for more than 86,000 people. Mrs. Thomas’ gifts are shared far beyond the city that in 1990 named her Buffalonian of the Year.

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2000 Inductees

2000 Inductees Ernestine Nardin, DHM, 1822-1896:

Lauren Belfer:

Ernestine Nardin, founder of the private Catholic academy that bears her name, left her native France in 1851 to spread her religious order’s education mission in this country. After opening a school in Buffalo in 1857, she went on to provide education for working girls with evening classes and started a dispensary offering health care in poor neighborhoods. Her pioneering spirit lingers in the school that has enriched the lives of young people for 140 years.

A new star on our horizon, Lauren Belfer scraped more than a little rust off Buffalo’s image when she gave the world a vision of the city’s illustrious past.

This native daughter, in her acclaimed novel, City of Light, entertains and informs another generation that may be moved to preserve and build on the legacy of an era that she so beautifully reconstructed. Belfer has taken this city along on her extraordinary rise to fame.

Elizabeth Pierce Olmsted, MD:

Joan Kendig Bozer: Legislator, preservationist, environmentalist, and feminist, Joan Kendig Bozer’s name is connected with almost everything that makes Erie County such a likable, livable place. Preserving Buffalo’s Old Post Office building, saving Olmsted parks, creating the county’s commission on women, working for sustainable energy, and building a Pan American Women’s Pavilion, are just a few of the things she has done for us. And she does it all with elan, grace

and great humor.

Annie Damer, 1858-1915: Annie Damer’s brief career in Western New York left a lasting impression. The nurse investigator for the Charity Association of Buffalo from 1898 to 1901, she was president of the Buffalo Nurses Association and a member of the Board of Managers for the Pan American Exposition. Her lifelong contributions to the advancement of nursing as a profession and the struggle for women’s suffrage have been called awe inspiring.

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Elizabeth Olmsted, physician, philanthropist, and teacher, is ageless and dauntless. Western New York’s pioneering female ophthalmologist has been in continuous practice for close to sixty years and remains an inspiration to women who defy barriers. She shared an interest in flight with her late husband, Ira G. Ross, president of Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, and has given generously of her time, energy, knowledge and resources to helping the visually impaired. She was also the director of the Buffalo Eye Bank and Research Society and the president of the Buffalo Ophthalmologic Society.

Mildred Ellis Tidwell, 1927-1993: Mildred Ellis Tidwell did not live by bread alone, but she made sure others had enough of it to survive. A stalwart of the Community Action Organization, she started the first “free bread” project, which grew into a national program to help low-income families. The mother of seven, whose compassion for people has been described as deep and wide, had helped people find jobs and housing and was a tireless worker for her church.

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2000 Inductees

2000 Inductees Ernestine Nardin, DHM, 1822-1896:

Lauren Belfer:

Ernestine Nardin, founder of the private Catholic academy that bears her name, left her native France in 1851 to spread her religious order’s education mission in this country. After opening a school in Buffalo in 1857, she went on to provide education for working girls with evening classes and started a dispensary offering health care in poor neighborhoods. Her pioneering spirit lingers in the school that has enriched the lives of young people for 140 years.

A new star on our horizon, Lauren Belfer scraped more than a little rust off Buffalo’s image when she gave the world a vision of the city’s illustrious past.

This native daughter, in her acclaimed novel, City of Light, entertains and informs another generation that may be moved to preserve and build on the legacy of an era that she so beautifully reconstructed. Belfer has taken this city along on her extraordinary rise to fame.

Elizabeth Pierce Olmsted, MD:

Joan Kendig Bozer: Legislator, preservationist, environmentalist, and feminist, Joan Kendig Bozer’s name is connected with almost everything that makes Erie County such a likable, livable place. Preserving Buffalo’s Old Post Office building, saving Olmsted parks, creating the county’s commission on women, working for sustainable energy, and building a Pan American Women’s Pavilion, are just a few of the things she has done for us. And she does it all with elan, grace

and great humor.

Annie Damer, 1858-1915: Annie Damer’s brief career in Western New York left a lasting impression. The nurse investigator for the Charity Association of Buffalo from 1898 to 1901, she was president of the Buffalo Nurses Association and a member of the Board of Managers for the Pan American Exposition. Her lifelong contributions to the advancement of nursing as a profession and the struggle for women’s suffrage have been called awe inspiring.

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Elizabeth Olmsted, physician, philanthropist, and teacher, is ageless and dauntless. Western New York’s pioneering female ophthalmologist has been in continuous practice for close to sixty years and remains an inspiration to women who defy barriers. She shared an interest in flight with her late husband, Ira G. Ross, president of Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, and has given generously of her time, energy, knowledge and resources to helping the visually impaired. She was also the director of the Buffalo Eye Bank and Research Society and the president of the Buffalo Ophthalmologic Society.

Mildred Ellis Tidwell, 1927-1993: Mildred Ellis Tidwell did not live by bread alone, but she made sure others had enough of it to survive. A stalwart of the Community Action Organization, she started the first “free bread” project, which grew into a national program to help low-income families. The mother of seven, whose compassion for people has been described as deep and wide, had helped people find jobs and housing and was a tireless worker for her church.

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2001 Inductees Marion Cañedo:

1999 Inductees Maria Maltby Love, 1830-1931:

From teacher to principal to administrator to superintendent, Marian Cañedo has held fast to her conviction that educational excellence depends on good programs, proper motivation and an upbeat attitude. Close to 40 years of experience with students is helping Buffalo’s first female superintendent of schools meet the challenge of rejuvenating public schools for the 21st Century. And while she is doing that, the former teacher of the year and winner of a National Excellence in Education Award continues to reinforce her image as a role model.

A 19th Century pioneer in social service, Maria Maltby Love set an example that will inspire women into the 21st century. Motivated by a compassionate concern for women and their children, she set up the Fitch Creche, an early child care center, and the Church District Plan that reached into Buffalo neighborhoods to help the poor. She established convalescent homes for ailing working women and organized Buffalo’s first kindergarten. Her spirit prevails in the work of the Maria Love Convalescent Fund Board and its service to needy families.

Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker: The name is synonymous with community service, so long has Clotilde Dedecker been involved with local and national organizations. Starting with the Junior League of Buffalo and extending to her tenure as executive director of the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women, Dedecker has shared her dedication, expertise and energy with more than two dozen local institutions. As immediate past president of the Association of Junior Leagues International and a member of national and international committees, she has enhanced her reputation as well as ours.

Sister Denise A. Roche, Ph.D.: D’Youville College President Sister Denise A. Roche is a hands-on community worker and educator. Whether feeding infants afflicted with AIDS or giving bedside care to an ailing colleague, from orchestrating a faculty to creating a curriculum to balancing a budget, Sister Denise impresses with the multiplicity of her talents and the depth of her caring. It took her only a dozen years from graduation to rise to the presidency of her alma mater, a college that has prospered under her leadership.

Diane English: The creator of the “Murphy Brown,” icon of the 1990s’ career women has won enough prestigious awards to fill this book and has the talent to keep trophies coming for many more years. A writer and producer, this former Buffalo schoolteacher has gained an international reputation for her television creations and scripts. On her list of credits are “One Hogan Place,” “Foley Square,” “Ink,” and “My Sister Sam.” During its 10-year run, “Murphy Brown” won 18 Emmys, a Golden Globe and a George Peabody Award.

Edith Marie Flanigen: Edith Flanigen, a most inventive chemist, gave us purer water and cleaner gasoline.

In her 42-year career with Union Carbide Corporation, much of it with the Linde Division, Flanigen participated in scores of discoveries, including those in molecular sieves that earned her the Perkin Medal. The first woman to receive the country’s highest prize in applied chemistry is also one of the few women elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Among her 102 patents are compounds used in water purification and environmental clean-up and in making gasoline cleaner and safer. A Buffalo native and D’Youville College graduate, she retired in 1994 and resides in White Plains. She was awarded the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Carolyn B. Thomas: Carolyn Thomas has waged a personal war on hunger. The first president of the Buffalo Food Bank, known today as the Western New York Food Bank, Mrs. Thomas was the Council of Churches’ representative to the Community Action Organization when it initiated a campaign for a food bank. She spent several years helping to locate a site for the central storehouse that every month supplies 422 agencies in four counties with meals for more than 86,000 people. Mrs. Thomas’ gifts are shared far beyond the city that in 1990 named her Buffalonian of the Year.

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1999 Inductees Elizabeth J. “Betty” Cappella, Ph.D.: Elizabeth J. Cappella makes dreams come true for people who don’t think they have any. A child of a poor migrant family who grew into a distinguished scholar and administrator, her career and tireless public service are a beacon for the disadvantaged. Dr. Cappella has opened doors around the world by introducing literacy programs such as Project FLIGHT and she has enriched the lives of thousands with Books for Kids. Taking her expertise into the community, this Buffalo State College professor and department head has enlightened both town and gown.

M. Dolores Denman, 1931-1999: M. Dolores Denman was outstanding in a profession in which she set the pace for those who have followed. Elected to New York State Supreme Court in 1976, she was the first woman to sit on the Appellate Division by designation of the governor in 1977 and the first woman to be named presiding justice in 1991. As presiding justice, she was the chief judge for administration of the courts in 22 counties of Western and Central New York and a member of the Administrative Board, which regulates and establishes policy for the courts throughout the state.

2001 Inductees Maryann Saccomondo Freedman: The first woman to be elected president of both the Erie County and New York State Bar Associations has had a distinguished career in both the public and private sectors. As an assistant state attorney general, as a matrimonial referee in State Supreme Court, as a lawyer in private practice and in her deep involvement in the community, she has worked to improve the quality of life and enhance opportunities for women. Her accomplishments have been recognized by her profession, her university and by dozens of community organizations.

Marsha S. Henderson: She served as the highest ranking woman in Western New York banking who also ranks pretty high in the many community organizations for which she has worked so tirelessly. Marsha Henderson’s rise to president of Key Bank’s Western District and to an executive position in its Eastern Region is based on more than 30 years of experience in financial services and she has paved the way for countless other women to follow. Her expertise in working with and for people has spilled over into public service that has earned her the Athena Award and a citation from the governor.

Katharine Pratt Horton, 1848-1931:

Susan Gaska: Susan Gaska has touched so many lives that her impact will be felt well into the next century. In thirteen years as director of the YWCA of Western New York, her passion and commitment to its mission made her this community’s most powerful voice on behalf of women, children and people of color. She built housing for the homeless, centers to care for children, networks to empower women and institutes to combat racism. This dynamic woman’s achievements show us how much is doable.

Lois Marie Gibbs: She was “just a housewife” in 1978, but today Lois Gibbs is known around the world. The leader of the Love Canal Homeowners Association is forever linked with the struggles of ordinary citizens dealing with pollution in their neighborhoods. Her commitment to a safe environment did not end with the evacuation of Love Canal residents and the containment of that area’s toxic residues. As director of a national clearinghouse to assist grassroots groups, she remains a powerful figure in the environmental justice movement. She has received the Heinz Family Foundation Award for the Environment.

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Katharine Pratt Horton was a society matron who was in the middle of everything new and exciting in turn-of-the century Buffalo. She funneled the energy of the emerging women’s club movement through her newly created Buffalo Federation of Women’s Clubs. In six years as federation president, she got the government to provide low-cost lunches and health inspections for needy children in city schools and to name a woman probation officer. She gave generously of her riches to scholarships and charity and used her leadership skills to help Buffalo put its best foot forward during the Pan-American Exposition of 1901.

Anna Catherine Murray Kearns, 1892-1938: Anna Catherine Murray Kearns tried on many hats in the days when women were expected to wear only one. This homemaker and mother of four was a deputy sheriff, a businesswoman, a tireless Democratic Party worker, leader of a band and was the only woman manager of a baseball team. She took her woman’s drum corps to parade in the nation’s capital. She ran a meat market and founded the Democratic Club of 1000 Women. Along her busy way, she weathered the Recession and found the time and energy to help her neighbors do the same.

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2001 Inductees Elizabeth Jane Letson, 1874-1919: Shell collector Elizabeth Letson turned a hobby into a career that rewarded her and enriched her native city. The 18-year-old who volunteered to clean the Buffalo Museum of Science shell collection in 1892 became the museum’s first woman director just eight years later. Much of what distinguished the museum throughout the 20th Century, an outstanding collection, library, historical records and community outreach, is traced to her tenure. She expanded the museum, added exhibits and attracted more visitors. After serving a decade as museum director, she moved with her husband to Hawaii.

Geraldine C. Ochocinska: Geri Ochocinska rose through the ranks of a mostly male labor union to become its first female regional director with a leadership style that has inspired admiration from her colleagues and the community. During 35 years in elective positions with the United Auto Workers, she has negotiated contracts, processed grievances, directed locals, trained leaders, built coalitions and organized workers, always driven by a desire to achieve social justice for working men and women. As the first female director of UAW’s Region 9 and as board member of Coalition of Labor Union Women, she has promoted the status of women in labor unions.

Gretchen Engstrom Stringer: Gretchen Stringer walks around with pockets full of energy, humor, inspiration and optimism, all of which she generously shares with anyone lucky enough to bump into her. And there have been scores so blessed over the decades of her business and volunteer careers. Gretchen’s distinctive style of leadership has inspired groups from Girl Scouts to Junior League provisionals, from community workers to businesswomen. Building a house, planning a celebration or serving a client, Gretchen goes the extra mile that makes everything she touches special.

The Honorable Rose H. Sconiers: The road to the State Supreme Court started for Rose H. Sconiers in 1969 when she graduated from Long Island University in Brooklyn and went on to State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law. Her outstanding career path has taken her through legal aid, private practice, community service and teaching. In settling disputes between labor and management as an Assistant Corporation Counsel or assisting and supporting delinquent teenagers as a City Court Judge, the now State Supreme Court Justice Sconiers has established an excellent reputation for getting the job done.

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1998 Inductees The Honorable Ann T. Mikoll: Ann T. Mikoll has been described as an “energetic and articulate carrier of the torch for women’s rights.” Now on New York State’s Supreme Court, the Appellate Division, she has been the first woman in a progression of judicial jobs, starting with Buffalo’s City Court in 1957. Away from the bench, her name is legendary in academic, women’s charitable and social organizations that have been enriched with her dynamic personality, expertise, graciousness and generosity. She was the recipient of the Edwin F. Jaeckle Award.

Anne Rogovin, 1919-2003: Anne Rogovin has been helping children learn for 30 years, ever since she took her master’s degree in special education from Buffalo State College in 1963 and began working with disabled children. She has influenced two generations of parents and children with her own irrepressible curiosity and intellect.

In between raising three children and traveling around the world with her photographer husband, Mrs. Rogovin wrote six books acclaimed by national experts on education and child development, and has developed 270 self-learning workbooks, housed in Buffalo State’s Butler Library.

Pat Swift MacClennan: Pat Swift started writing the Buffalo News’ Womanscope column at a time when much of the media either ignored the issues being raised by the women’s movement or heaped scorn and ridicule on those who espoused them. Through two decades, during which women’s issues blended into everyone’s agenda, the column kept equal rights, equal pay, and equal opportunity on the front burner. The status of women remains a concern to a writer who thinks journalists owe the world not just a reflection of itself, but a vision of a better self.

Esther Sans Takeuchi, Ph.D.: Dr. Esther Sans Takeuchi knows about power. She helped develop a defibrillator battery that keeps hearts beating around the world, demonstrating again the vitality of science and technology and women’s contribution to these exacting disciplines. The director of research at Wilson Greatbatch has been recognized by professional colleagues, who gave her the coveted American Chemical Society Schoellkopf Medal, only one of her many accolades. To those must be added the unheard applause of more than 200,000 bearers of cardiac implants powered by Greatbatch’s tiny batteries.

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1998 Inductees Bridgitte S. Barrell, 1920-2002: Brigitte “Brix” Barrell combined family, career and community service in an era when women were not supposed to. Chosen to head Manpower’s Buffalo office in the early 1950s, the third office in a company that would grow into the world’s largest temporary help organization, she worked her way up to regional manager. At the same time, this mother and homemaker was serving on the boards of dozens of community organizations. Colleagues were moved by her vision, her business acumen and her ability to unite people for a common cause. A native of Dresden, Germany, she also was for many years the honorary consul for the Federal Republic of Germany in Western New York.

Marian de Forest, 1864-1935: Marian de Forest, often called a trailblazer, was a journalist, playwright and civic leader who championed business and professional women. She founded the world’s first Zonta Club in Buffalo in 1919, launching what became an international network of 1,300 clubs in 69 countries with more than 35,000 members. An internationally-acclaimed author of several plays, a globe trotter, and a visionary, she was a woman enough ahead of her times to imagine ours.

Carmen M. del Valle, 1949-1995: Carmen M. del Valle, founder of the Hispanic Woman’s League and the Hispanic Network of Health and Human Services, believed women united could advance their academic and professional aspirations, end the cycle of poverty and break the shackles of a male-dominated society— things she had already done all by herself. A single mother of two, she earned her degrees at University of Buffalo, with many honors, in night school and between jobs.

She was the first Hispanic woman in Western New York to obtain certification as a social worker, her proudest achievement, and she was the first director of the Child and Family Services West Side, where her innovative programs still are in use.

2002 Inductees Arlene F. Kaukus: As the first woman president of United Way of Buffalo & Erie County, Arlene Kaukus touches the lives of everyone in this community. Her work with the organization for the past 22 years has been an extension of her commitment to the community. The programs she has developed and the guidance she has provided have empowered people inside the agency and thousands more in the communities served by the agency. Her support of the Women in Board Governance and the Western New York Women’s Fund is the basis for the continuing promotion of women for which she is so famous.

Eunice A. Lewin: She is designed uncrowned queen and to the hundreds of individuals whose lives have been touched by Eunice Lewin’s “passion for service” and to the many institutions that have profited from her leadership, the title is most appropriate. For many newcomers to our community, hers was the friendliest and most welcoming voice. For others, in need of a helping hand, hers was the most willingly offered. A native of Cuba, she came here as a young adult, mastered a new language and culture, excelled in scholarship and has maintained a deep and abiding commitment to her faith, family and community. As a volunteer, professional educator and social worker, she is helping another generation achieve their hopes and dreams.

Belva B. Lockwood, 1830-1917: In 1879, this Niagara County native became the first woman to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court. It took an act of Congress to get her in but then nothing had come easily to this early feminist. She learned about wage discrimination as a teacher in Lockport and overcame gender bias when she fought her way into law school. Her lobbying efforts persuaded Congress to pass an equal pay for equal work law in 1972 and as a candidate of the National Equal Rights Party in 1884, she became the first woman to run for president. She championed the rights of women, Blacks and the underprivileged.

Constance B. Eve: Constance B. Eve is an engine that never stops running, a source of power for an entire community; a physical and spiritual force that drives others to serve and gives aid and comfort to those in need. The founder of Women for Human Rights and Dignity seeks to empower women to make more of their lives than they dreamed possible. One of ten children and the mother of five, she thinks much has been given to her and thus much is required. Her beneficiaries are the women, homeless or on hard times, who find refuge in the shelters she has created. She has received the National Alexis de Tocqueville Award, given by the United Way of America.

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Joan A. Male: Joan Male spends her days taking care of other peoples’ children. A foster parent, she provides a loving home to needy children; a child advocate, she has empowered others to do the same. She is a protector of abused and neglected children and a friend to adults who really want to be good parents but do not know how. The founder of United Foster Parents and Parents Anonymous has used her parenting skills, her organizational talents and her fund-raising genius to improve the lives of countless children and the adults who care for them. Her compassion and hard work have enabled hundreds of fragile families to survive.

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2002 Inductees Nancy A. Naples:

1997 Inductees Mary Lou Rath:

As a businesswoman, public servant and community volunteer, Nancy Naples is a role model and inspiration to every woman. Serving her third term as Erie County Comptroller, she has distinguished herself in government service, displaying the same degree of excellence that identified her private sector career with leading financial institutions and a family business. Her compassion to assist others is exemplified by her volunteer service with the Roswell Park Foundation, Canisus College, and her alma maters- Nardin Academy and Marymount College – and numerous other Western New York institutions, she continues to further the interests of women through her work on the Executive Committee of the WNY Advisory Council for the New York State Division for Women.

Margaret A. Pericak-Vance, Ph.D.: An internationally known scientist, Margaret Pericak-Vance recently was named director of the Center for Human Genetics at Duke University where she has been a professor in the medical school for more than two decades. The Holy Angels Academy graduate has gone on to become one of the nation’s top research scientists in genetics working with teams in the discovery of genes linked to Alzheimer’s and research into Parkinson’s multiple sclerosis and autism among other diseases. She made Newsweek’s list of 100 people to watch in this century.

She was the recipient of the Louis-D Scientific Award from the Institute de France.

Catharine M. Weiss:

Businesswoman and elected official, Mary Lou Rath has left her footprints all over the landscape. Her distinguished career began in the private sector where she was an emissary for local business. She broadened her constituency in 1978, when voters sent her to the Erie County Legislature and again when she moved up to the New York State Senate in 1993. There, she was the first woman to represent Western New York. Senator Rath brought to her adventures, including those as wife, mother and grandmother, a philosophy of individual and community responsibility acquired from her mother.

Anna M. Reinstein, MD, 1891-1948: A political exile that once joined in an assassination plot, Dr. Anna M. Reinstein brought her socialist ideals to these shores from Eastern Europe where repressive conditions bred radicalism. A native of Poland, who grew up in the Ukraine, Dr. Reinstein released her humanitarian energy and gusto for social reform in Buffalo’s ethnic and working class communities. As Western New York’s first woman obstetrician/gynecologist, she tended those who could least afford care with the compassion and skills that prompted the American Medical Society to name her one of three leading women physicians in the country.

Mary B. Talbert, Ph.D., 1866-1923:

When there is a job to be done, Catherine Weiss is usually the first face you will see. She is everywhere women want to be. The Erie County Commission on the Status of Women, a Girl Scout meeting, a women’s history celebration, a Hall of Fame luncheon, and the conveyer of the Women’s Action Coalition is a woman of action. In Amherst, they know her as a citizen adviser, a community worker and planner, a conscientious member of many boards.

She is energized by the women and girls she works with and for, and in turn she empowers them and their organizations leaving her community a far richer place.

Mary E. Wood, 1902-1998: Mary Wood and the Buffalo YWCA made a big decision in 1957. There would not be Black branches and white branches in their organization, there would be only women’s branches. When she became the first African American woman to head a major metropolitan YWCA, she sets standards for all of us. She brought her mission for integration and racial justice from the Midwest and Southwest to Buffalo and then to Washington and the world. It was not an easy time to be a high profile Black woman but with courage, dignity, and the power of her example, Mary Wood left her mark on the city and institution she served so well.

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Mary B. Talbert was a radical and one of Buffalo’s most prominent citizens.

An Ohio native, Mary Burnett had her degree from Oberlin College and teaching experience when she moved to Buffalo in 1891 as the wife of wealthy businessman William H. Talbert. She helped form the Niagara Movement, a forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which was organized in her Michigan Avenue home in 1905.

The group demanded an end to segregation and a beginning of equal opportunity for Black citizens. The University at Buffalo named a building for her.

Margaret L. Wendt, 1885-1972: Margaret L. Wendt is more public in death than in life. A private person, she shared her family’s wealth with those less fortunate in quiet, unobtrusive ways, content in the conviction that her philanthropy would make an impact on the social and cultural life of Buffalo. The foundation she started in 1956 perpetuates her lifetime of charitable giving and has made her name synonymous with much that is good and promising in the

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community.

1997 Inductees

2003 Inductees Ann W. Bunis, 1901-1999:

Olga Karman, Ph.D.: Dr. Olga Karman Mendell, a Cuban immigrant, invented herself at age 20.

She finished college in Connecticut: summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and with a Woodrow Wilson fellowship. Then alone, broke, a refugee from a bad marriage with a child to support, she went to Harvard and got a doctorate in Spanish. A professor at D’Youville College, her impressive academic credentials define only part of the persona she designed. Poet, writer, lecturer, community activist, she has a string of awards in her resume. By action and by example, she enriches the area’s Hispanic community.

Muriel A. Howard Ph.D.: Dr. Muriel A. Howard had a presence in this community long before she became the first woman president of Buffalo State College. Students and faculty at Buffalo’s other SUNY campuses know her well, as do members of countless community organizations who have experienced the generosity with which she dispenses her time, energy and talent. As a professional woman and scholar, Dr. Howard sets a lofty standard for the many young women who surely will try to emulate her.

Deborah A. Naybor:

Dressmaker, designer, entrepreneur, wife and mother, Anne Bunis did it all in an era when women were not supposed to. A native of Russia, she progressed from the archetypical immigrant girl, helping support her siblings as a seamstress, to creating her own family. As a young wife and mother she put her talent for retail to work in the family’s flat on Hertel Avenue. The enterprise became the first Sample Shop from which she sold “off price” dresses to a growing clientele.

The business grew to more than a dozen stores doing millions of dollars in sales, all while she raised three children. In retirement, she put her extraordinary talents to work for dozens of community organizations rounding out the portrait of a woman who is a model for all of us.

Alice Mae Jemison, 1901-1964: A politician, activist and journalist, Alice Mae Jemison was an adamant defender of Native American rights. Born on the Seneca’s Cattaraugus Reservation into a politically active family, Ms. Jemison began her public career in the defense of two Indian women accused of murder in Buffalo. She continued as a columnist for the North American Indian Newspaper Alliance and a lobbyist for the Seneca Nation of Indians in Washington, D.C. Her defense of Indian treaty rights and the sovereignty of Indian nations put her at odds with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and allied her with unpopular fringe organizations exploiting Indian discontent. To some of her contemporaries she was controversial but to advocates of Native American’s rights she is a hero.

Bertha S. Laury:

Deborah A. Naybor turned $1,000 and a used pickup truck into a milliondollar land surveying business. En route, she became the most prominent role model and mentor to women in the Western New York area. She helps teachers train pupils in the business applications of math and science and she is a mentor for women trying to move from welfare to jobs. She guided women building their first Habitat for Humanity house in Buffalo. A strong belief that one person can make a difference guides her advocacy for economic equity, the rights of small businesses and women’s access to capital.

Cornelia Bentley Sage Quinton, 1889-1938: She was Cornelia Bentley Sage when Albright Art Gallery made her the first woman to direct an art museum in the U.S. It was in 1910, and for the next fourteen years she would acquire an international reputation for her dazzling exhibitions and brilliant acquisitions. Demonstrating an air for the dramatic, she brought Pavlova to dance at an opening in 1914 and engaged Sarah Bernhardt to speak at another in 1916. The French gave her their Cross of the Legion of Honor, and in 1924 the Louvre recommended her for her new job at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.

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Bertha Laury’s personal and professional life has been defined by her need to help people help themselves. The young social worker and educator in 1966 developed a pioneering infant day care center for unwed mothers reflecting her ongoing concern for the health and well being of the young and disadvantaged. She helped develop a comprehensive service that eventually reduced teen pregnancy in Buffalo and Erie County. The University at Buffalo educator and administrator trained hundreds of aspiring social workers leading them to the values and capabilities that distinguished her performance. She was the first African American woman to serve as president of the Health Care Plan Board of Directors and the first chair of the Community Health Foundation of Western and Central New York.

Gloria R. Lucker: Gloria Lucker lives by her own rule: “do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do.” Starting a business was the right thing for her when she saw a need and knew how to meet it. Her innovative occupational therapy program has been the right thing for the hundreds of rural residents and disabled school children that it serves. Her management style has enhanced career opportunities for countless women and minorities and she has supported aspiring business women through the local chapter of National Association of Women Business Owners. Many women benefit from her leadership in community service through organizations like Everywoman Opportunity Center and the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women.

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2003 Inductees Brenda W. McDuffie:

1997 Inductees Lucille Ball, 1911-1989:

Brenda McDuffie is known for her passionate commitment to the Western New York community, especially those within it who need a helping hand. As a dedicated professional working with an array of public service organizations from the American Red Cross to the United Way to Legal Aid, she has extended her warmth and compassion as well as a helping hand.

There is hardly a community service organization that she has not served as a volunteer, advisor or board member. The former executive director of the Buffalo and Erie County Private Industry Council and current chief executive officer of the Buffalo Urban League, continues to enhance the quality of life in this community.

Her name was Lucy and everyone loved her. An outstanding actress, comedian and businesswoman, Lucille Ball, with her husband, Desi Arnaz, created “I Love Lucy” in 1951. It became a television classic that ran live for seven years and in reruns forever after. Lucy and Ricky Ricardo became our favorite zany neighbors and 44 million of us tuned in when their son was born. A native of Celeron, Lucy made her stage debut in the 1930s, in Jamestown’s Little Theater, now named for her, and she maintained ties to Western New York throughout her life.

Florence E. Baugh: Denise E. O’Donnell: An inviting smile and a razor sharp mind are among many reasons why Denise E. O’Donnell is regarded by her associates as one of the legal community’s greatest assets. The first woman to serve as United States Attorney for the state’s Western District is also known for her energy and dedication to her profession and community. Her accomplishments and contributions fill a multi-page resume that is an inspiration for women in and out of her profession. A former vice chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee in Washington, D.C., her influences has extended beyond Western New York. Since 2001, Mrs. O’Donnell has used her extensive civil and criminal litigation experience in federal courts as a partner with Hodgson Russ.

Myrna F. Young: As Executive Director of Everywoman Opportunity Center, Myrna Young’s job is to help other women get jobs. She has done that with astounding success. She and the pioneering Everywoman Opportunity Center, which she has directed for the past two decades, have opened the door to productive and rewarding lives for thousands of displaced homemakers, single mothers and disadvantaged women. Their program serves as a model for others in the state and around the country and has gained national recognition. Her tireless and continuing mission to empower women started decades before she came to Western New York where more than 25 years ago she helped form the Niagara Frontier National Women’s Political Caucus and later the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women.

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Florence E. Baugh has been described as classy and tough minded, attributes which carried her unscathed through Buffalo’s school integration wars. A member and president of the Board of Education in the era of court mandates and magnate building, her ability to turn challenges into opportunities helped make this city a model for the country. The director of Erie County’s Community Action Organization’s Neighborhood Services is guided by the Biblical advice, “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”

Ellen Grant Bishop, Ph.D.: Wearing many hats -social worker, academician, and administrator -Ellen Grant Bishop has extended a helping hand to children in need and women in crises. Her creative energy has made her a major player in building and sustaining this community. As a vice president of Buffalo General Hospital, a member of several boards and as commissioner of Erie County’s Department of Mental Health, Ms. Grant Bishop cleared a path for women of all colors who yearn to build a better world.

Mary Johnson Lord, 1812-1885: Mary Johnson Lord loved children and animals and spent much of her life helping the poor. She founded an orphan asylum in 1876, and started the Ladies Humane Society, known today as the Erie County SPCA. Renowned for her wit and unconventional behavior, Miss Johnson, on the night of her elopement with John Lord, left her family a note saying “The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away!” This wife of a Presbyterian minister rode city streets in a pony cart searching for animals in distress and she grazed Shetland ponies on her lawn for the riding pleasure of neighborhood children.

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2004 Inductees Anne D. Gioia: A prominent fundraiser in the fight against cancer Philanthropist, fundraiser and former teacher, Anne D. Gioia has garnered local and national attention for turning a personal tragedy into a crusade to save lives. Since losing her daughter, Katherine, to cancer in 1989, Mrs. Gioia has helped energize the community to support Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Her creation, the Roswell Park Alliance, a volunteer organization she co-founded with sister-in-law Donna Gioia, has grown into one of the most successful fundraising organizations in Western New York, raising over $68 million for research and improving quality of life for patients. She also authored a book on cancer for children and their families. Looking to the future, she is chairing the Institute’s $21 million campaign to build the Center for Cancer Genetics & Pharmacology.

Toyomi Igus-Simon: Author and role model who inspires children Toyomi Igus has been called an inspiration to those who know her, but her influence extends far beyond them. The entertainment, enlightenment and example she provides thousands of young people through her work and her life are profound. Her success in communications and marketing in both the public and private sector makes her an extraordinary role model for girls. In the development, writing and editing of award-winning children’s books and materials she has celebrated our diversity in ways that have expanded the vision and encouraged the dreams of children of all races and classes. Her gifts, enjoyed by today’s young, will be shared with generations to come.

Kate Kimball, 1860-1917: An influential leader in the Chautauqua movement Kate Kimball has been described as the “soul” of the Chautauqua movement.

She was also its heart. Starting in 1878 as an 18-year-old secretary with the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, she devoted a lifetime to turning a concept of home learning into a dynamic program that transformed the lives of thousands of people whose access to formal education was limited. The correspondence reading program that she so diligently and lovingly managed for 35 years was a most successful manifestation of Chautauqua’s mission to enrich the lives of “the many not the few.” Her contemporaries were awed by her personal charm, intellectual inspiration and unselfish spirit.

Carol Ostendorf Hoyt, 1939-2003: A renowned political and social activist Carol Hoyt served the public as well as her family. A mother of four, business woman, community volunteer, political and social activist she developed a public persona as one of Western New York’s most influential citizens and she became a role model for two generations of women. A founding member of the Coalition for Action, Unity and Social Equity, she was a passionate advocate for civil rights, fair housing and international peace. She was involved in political campaigns and was an advisor to the former Buffalo Common Council President George Arthur. Her commitment to community set an example her children have chosen to follow and a standard that many others aspire to.

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2004 Inductees Melinda R. “Mindy” Rich: A community treasure in business and service Mindy Rich’s leadership style is a model for how women use their creativity and communication skills to influence both the business world and their community. As Executive Vice President of Innovation, Mindy is a driver of Rich’s “culture of innovation”, plays a key leadership role with several departments and serves as the President for Rich Entertainment Group.

Mindy also creates and oversees many of programs that define Rich’s presence as a leading corporate citizen. She is a partner in community campaigns to curb drug and alcohol abuse, find a cure for cystic fibrosis, advance the status of women and promote volunteerism. She is generous of her time and energy, serving on several public and private boards, and her role in enhancing this area’s quality of life has been recognized by numerous awards.

Inductees from 1997-2005 Sister Mary Johnice Rzadkiewicz, CSSF: She created a haven for a community’s needy Sister Mary Johnice has served her native Buffalo East Side community with passion and humility for nearly 30 years. She began her career as a primary school teacher and later became a pastoral associate in St. Adalbert’s Church reaching out to its elderly and homebound parishioners. After the parish school closed she founded the St. Adalbert Response to Love Center.

Opened in 1985, it is a special place for the marginalized, poor and needy where more than 95 nuns, staff and volunteers offer a food pantry, dining room, thrift shops, and a haven for refugees.

She works closely with AmeriCorps and Hospice and was a spiritual counselor to the Sept. 11 rescue workers and families.

Helen Urban: Her mission is to fulfill the needs of others. Helen Urban says she represents the ordinary women who are doing what women always have done: see a need and try to fill it. When she saw new mothers without clothing for their babies, she asked United Church Women to start Bundles for Babies. When, as a clinic nutritionist, she saw pregnant women without adequate diets, she started a food pantry and became a founder of the Western New York Food Bank. When inner city women were looking for both companionship and sewing skills, she helped them organize the Metropolitan Sewers. She has been doing these “ordinary” things for more than 40 years -- in a most extraordinary way.

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Program WNY Women’s Hall of Fame Dedication Ceremony 6:00 p.m.

Introductions

Professor Geraldine E. Bard, Chair WNY Women’s History Committee

Welcome

Muriel A. Howard President, Buffalo State College

Remarks

2005 Inductees Lana D. Benatovich: As executive director of the National Conference for Community and Justice, Lana Benatovich’s job is to eradicate bias, bigotry and racism from our midst.

She brings to that task a life-long belief that we can build strong communities by instilling trust, respect and understanding among its people. Her appreciation of and enthusiasm for diversity in our culture is reflected in the variety of organizations which have benefited from her talent and skills. She is on the board of trustees at St. Bonaventure University, a trustee of the Network of Religious Communities, and a board member of Erie County Coordinating Council of Children and Families. The extent of her influence is reflected in the honors she has received from academic, professional, volunteer and activist organizations.

Pamela Davis Heilman:

Billie Luisi-Potts Executive Director, National Women’s Hall of Fame

Dramatic Interpretation

Mary Craig, Actress as Mary Talbert Meghann Daley, Buffalo State Student and Actress as Belva B. Lockwood Faith Wardlaw, Buffalo State Student and Actress as Mary Wood Maggie Zindle, Actress as Katharine Pratt Horton

A distinguished career as an attorney, and partner in the Hodgson Russ Attorney’s, provides Pamela Heilman extraordinary opportunities to advance the status of women and she takes full advantage of them. Representing her firm in Canadian-American business relationships, she creates opportunities for women on an international scale, advancing their business and professional status here and sharing her leadership skills with businesswomen on the other side of the border. She values most her mentoring role and rejoices in the progress of women in her profession. As the first woman to chair the United Way Board, she helped create the United Way’s women in board governance program and the Western New York Women’s Fund. Her success has earned her an Athena award and recognition from many community and academic organizations.

Student Contests Education Committee, Claire Collier

Elizabeth Coe Marshall, 1847-1892:

Dedication

Professor Geraldine E. Bard

Our Sponsors

Buffalo State College, Project FLIGHT, the President’s Council on Equity and Campus Diversity, the Women’s Studies Interdisciplinary Unit, the Women’s Issues Support Group of the College Senate, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the Departments of English, Educational Foundations and Elementary Education and Reading, and the Performing Arts Center

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While health care has changed dramatically since 1885 good nursing care remains one of its most important components due in part to the efforts of Elizabeth Marshall whose foresight and compassion led to the establishment of the Visiting Nursing Association. Marshall used funds donated by First Presbyterian Church to hire a professional nurse whose job was to care for the sick in their homes and teach them how to help themselves. From those humble beginnings, the VNA of Western New York grew into one of the largest and most comprehensive home care agencies in the country serving more than 24,000 patients annually.

The movement spread across the country and today more than 500 VNAs care for an estimated 4 million each year.

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2005 Inductees Madeline O. Scott: For more than 40 years Madeline Scott, president of the Afro-American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier, has served Buffalo’s African-American community as activist, archivist, leader, mentor and, perhaps, its greatest booster. From the days when she worked with young men in prison to the times she worked with academic programs for high school students to her successful nomination of Mary B. Talbert to the National Women’s Hall of Fame, she has shared her time, energy, skills and compassion with the Western New York Community. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is only one of the many organizations she has served and more than a dozen community groups have recognized her outstanding contributions.

The Western New York Women’s Hall of Fame “It seems to me that there is in each of us a capacity to comprehend the impressions and emotions which have been experienced by mankind from the beginning. This inherited capacity is a sort of sixth sense—a soul-sense which sees, hears, feels, all in one.”

- Helen Keller

Ruth Kahn Stovroff: Through decades of quiet service as a philanthropist and community worker, Ruth Stovroff has touched, enriched and inspired countless individuals. For more than 60 years her presence has made a huge difference in the quality of life in Western New York. From the 1950s with her work with the Research and Planning Council to the 1960s as the first president of the Community Action Organization to the present she has set the standard for those who aspire to the deepest level of community service. She is a past chair of the Elizabeth Pierce Olmsted Center for the Visually Impaired and Child and Family Services and past president of the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies and Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo and a board member of the Western New York Women’s Fund.

Our Mission

To honor those women in perpetuity who have worked in a public spotlight, as well as those who have quietly enriched the community and inspired others.

The women elected to the hall, and those who will find themselves there in the future, attest to the vast energy, strength, talent, and public spiritedness of this region’s female population.

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2006 Inductees Louise Blanchard Bethune, FAIA, 1856-1913: Louise Bethune, designer of Hotel Lafayette, became a pioneer for women in her field when as Louise Blanchard, she started her own architectural firm at the age of 25 in 1881. The firm became Bethune and Bethune a year later when she married a colleague who had joined her business. Besides the hotel, the firm’s commissions included schools, a prison, an armory, a baseball facility and a factory among hundreds of other structures. Always championing women’s equality, she broke the gender barrier in the Western Association of Architects, became the first woman to be admitted to the American Institute of Architects and the first woman named to the institute’s College of Fellows. By example and principle she paved the way for future generations of women.

Katharine Cornell, 1893-1974: Katharine Cornell, called the “First Lady of the Theater” by a contemporary critic, was famous as much for her glamour as her celebrated acting talent.

Her illustrious career had its roots in Buffalo where her family lived during her formative years and where as a budding actress she performed with a stock company. The road from Buffalo led to London and New York and a distinguished career that spanned four decades. Her greatest triumphs were on the stage but she did venture into film and television, all with the help of her husband, director and producer Guthrie McClintic. It has been said the she “represented the theater of quality” one of the many reasons the University of Buffalo built a namesake theater in her honor.

JoAnn Falletta: Since she first came on the scene as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1998, JoAnn Falletta has been the city’s most notable ambassador, garnering accolades for her talent and high standards. Buffalo basks in the glory of her acclaimed performances in Kleinhans Music Hall and her many recordings with the BPO, local and national radio broadcasts and in guest appearances with the world’s finest orchestras. JoAnn’s enthusiasm and joy in music is infectious and includes the generous support she extends to the community’s other artistic endeavors. She has garnered numerous awards and critical acclaim for her performances and her commitment to contemporary music enlarges our understanding of the music of our time and its powerful impact on us.

Ernestine R. Green: An educator, civic leader and volunteer, Ernestine Green’s impact on the community is reflected in the great number of public and private organizations that have enlisted and received her help. She has served on boards that promote education, culture and the arts and woman’s interests. A retired Buffalo school teacher and former lecturer at State University of Buffalo, she is one of the founders of the Black Educators Association and was the first women appointed by the governor as Commissioner of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. She was named “Woman of the Year” by the American Jewish Committee’s Institute of Human Relations. The Buffalo Urban League, in honoring her, noted she “possesses a zest for life and lives a life of service.”

2006 Inductees Edna M. Lindemann, Ph.D.,: An artist, designer and an inspired teacher, Dr. Lindemann was the first curator and the founding director of Burchfield Art Center, now acclaimed around the world as the Burchfield-Penney Art Center. The Buffalo State College art instructor’s vision of a showcase for the works of Charles E. Burchfield became a reality in 1966 with the help of the renowned water colorist. She was named curator in 1967 and director in 1972. During her tenure, which lasted until her retirement in 1985, the museum acquired more than 400 of Burchfield’s works and began a collection of works by living Western New York artists that numbers in the thousands. At the same time she was creating another legacy, the legions of students who have shaped their lives around her values, visions and dedication to excellence.

E. Jeannette Ogden:

Appointed to the Buffalo City Court in 1995and elected twice thereafter, Judge Ogden has combined a distinguished legal career with exceptional community activism. Her legal career includes the practice of criminal, civil and municipal law and judicial service on the City, County and Family courts. Her community activism includes service on and/or participation with more than two dozen organizations and civic projects. Judge Ogden’s personal commitment to “lift as she climbs,” as expressed in her own mentoring program for elementary through law school students, most defines her unique concept of service. Her professional credentials have earned her a respect in the community that crosses political, economic, ethic and racial divides.

Suzanne Oliver: A member of the American Association of University Women for more than 40 years, Suzanne Oliver has worked to enrich the lives of women and girls throughout New York as branch leader and as state president. Her reach expanded in 1996 when she was named director of the organization’s Middle Atlantic Region. Her crowning achievements have been the introduction of the AAUW’s Sister to Sister initiative to Western New York and her extraordinary efforts to maintain it as an on-going program. This unique outreach to adolescent girls from all backgrounds has helped hundreds of girls identify their challenges, define their goals, meet the people who will help them and recognize the strategies that lead to success. She comes as close as anyone can to “living” the AAUW mission to educate women and girls.

Sister Edmunette Paczesny, Ph.D., FSSJ: Sister Edmunette’s tenure as head of Hilbert College has made her one of the longest serving college presidents in the country, an achievement directly linked to her vision, leadership and dedication to students and their community.

The woman who transformed a two-year college into one of Western New York’s fastest growing four-year institutions has passed her 50th anniversary as a member of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph. As overseer in Hilbert’s “journey to excellence” she has reached out to all segments of the community to expand the school’s physical plant, its educational mission and fulfill its promise to students. A new academic building named for her will open in 2006, her 32nd and final year as Hilbert president.

2007 Inductees Lee Gross Anthone, 1930-2001: A volunteer and community activist, Lee Gross Anthone’s name is associated with just about every cultural, educational and civic organization in her native city. But Buffalo remembers her best as the founder of the Child Advocacy Center that now bears her name. The thousands of abused children who have found a refuge in the center that she worked so tirelessly to create in 1992 are Lee’s living legacy to this community. She was generous with her time and money and she brought a vision, enthusiasm and concern for the welfare of others to all her endeavors be they in her profession, her business or her community work.

Peggy Brooks-Bertram, Ph.D.: A scholar and educator, Peggy Brooks-Bertram is co-founder of the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women and has done research and writing on the life and works of Drusilla Dunjee Houston, an unheralded African-American author. Her work has lifted a veil that obscures the contributions African-American women made in building communities, preserving a culture and advancing opportunities for all Americans. The institute she helped create is becoming a national model and Oklahoma this year will celebrate its own Uncrowned Queens. She has been honored by organizations ranging from the Buffalo Urban League to National Conference for Community Justice to the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Sister Karen Klimczak, SSJ, 1943-2006: In sacrificing her life for a cause, Sister Karen Klimczak has become a symbol of love and peace in her community. Murdered in April 2006 by a man she hoped to help, the nun embodied the courage, dedication and compassion of the sisterhood she represented. Few questioned her willingness to risk her life to rehabilitate those who had strayed beyond civil society and many were ready to adopt the peace activist’s philosophy of non-violence. Today her symbol, the dove, is ubiquitous in a community that continues to support the programs she served and memorializes her as its “moral conscience” and an “agent of spiritual good.”

Cindy Abbott Letro: Cindy Abbott has empowered the missions of numerous cultural and educational organizations in Western New York through her generous philanthropy and tireless activism. From the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, to the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site and the National Federation for Just Communities, Ms. Letro does not just serve on boards, as one admirer put it, she “invests” in them, with time, talent, energy and passion. There are few organizations in this region that have not, at one time or another, been the beneficiary of her unique style of community service. The former media personality turned consultant accomplishes most of her work outside of the public spotlight.

2007 Inductees Barbara A. Seals Nevergold, Ph.D.: As co-founder of the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women, as a teacher and an author, Barbara Nevergold has reclaimed and celebrated the historical role of African-American women. The Web site she helped create as a Pan-Am Centennial project has collected the histories of more than 1,000 women. Co-author of a book on the Uncrowned Queens adventure, she has written articles for several periodicals on both women’s history and her family’s history in Buffalo. Her work has gained national attention and has garnered more than a dozen awards for professional and community service from local and national organizations.

Patricia O. Rehak, 1940-2005: A native of Lackawanna, Patricia O’Mara Rehak was one of Buffalo’s best friends.

An articulate and dedicated champion of the city and region she worked through the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, the Erie County Industrial Development Commission, Women for Downtown and Western New York Transportation Council in her quest to revitalize downtown Buffalo and re-energize the Buffalo/ Niagara region. Under her guidance a regional economic and development marketing program was launched in 1995. By 1999 it had become a $5 million-a-year regional marketing campaign. At her busiest she found time to serve a variety of civic and educational organizations and counsel and mentor women making career choices.

Julia Boyer Reinstine, 1907-1998: Known as Cheektowaga’s “great lady,” Julia Reinstein left her town and all of Western New York a rich historical and educational legacy. The town’s first and only historian from 1953 until 1992, she promoted regional and local history, helped found the Erie County Historical Federation, created 28 historical societies in Erie County and helped create the Historical Building at the Erie County Fair. Buffalo and Erie County named a Cheektowaga library after her and the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society named its Administration Building in her honor. The Society also gave her its prestigious Red Jacket Award for community service, one of many awards she received.

Margaret Sullivan: Newspaper editors have a huge impact upon their communities and Margaret Sullivan is exceptional in that elite corps not just because she is one of its few female members. The Buffalo News’ first woman editor and its first woman vice president has introduced a style of leadership and a quality of journalism that bodes well for a newspaper and a community going through great changes.

Innovative in her use of staff, resources and journalistic enterprises, she brings recognition and accolades to the newspaper and the region. This Lackawanna native has won the respect and admiration of reporters, editors and publishers in local and national media.

2008 Inductees Shirley St. Hill Chisholm, 1924-2005 Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress and the first woman of her race to run for president of the United States, spent her life fighting for the rights of minorities, women, children and the poor. She was a passionate advocate of women’s rights during her tenure in the New York State Legislature in the 1950s and ‘60s and a leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, which she helped found, as a member of Congress in the l970s. In 1972 she entered the Democratic presidential primary winning 151 delegates.

Retiring in 1982, she moved to Williamsville where she continued her work on women’s issues and formed the National Congress of Black Women. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993.

Lucille Sayles Clifton Lucille Clifton, a Depew native who established her reputation as an important poet while still a student at Fredonia State College, last year received the Poetry Foundation’s prestigious Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. The $100,000 award, one of the nation’s largest literary honors, recognized Mrs. Clifton’s powerful presence and voice. A former poet laureate of Maryland, she has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and is a winner of the Juniper Prize.

Beginning with her first success, Good Times, rated among the best books of 1969 by The New York Times, Clifton’s work has been defined by ethnic pride and feminist principles. In 11 books of poetry, she draws from family history and African American experiences to embrace a universal humanity.

Mecca Swanson Cranley, RN, Ph.D., 1936-2006 Dr. Cranley’s appointment as dean of University at Buffalo’s School of Nursing in 1991 capped a distinguished career as nurse, researcher, educator and community activist which was far from over. For the next 16 years, she continued her efforts to improve maternal and fetal health, expand UB’s nursing education and enhance the status of the profession to which she was dedicated. Building on her earlier research achievement, the MaternalFetal Attachment Scale, called the “gold standard” for examining external factors that affect maternal-fetal attachments, Dr. Cranley opened doors to future research by increasing enrollment in the nurses’ program, providing advanced degree options and increasing the school’s prominence and professional visibility.

Her efforts attracted recognition from the American Nurses’ Association, the Wisconsin Association of Prenatal Care. The Wisconsin Nurses Association and March of Dimes named her a Woman of the Year.

Mary Jo Hunt Mary Jo Hunt’s 30 years of community service make her one of Western New York’s greatest assets. Currently her energy is directed to Leadership Buffalo, where she is executive director. Over the years, she has given her support, and that of the family foundation she oversees, to child care, parenting, education and literacy, enhancing or building the capacity of community-based organizations. Her particular devotion to early childhood education led to the founding of Success by Six and the Child Care Coalition of the Niagara Frontier. She taught the subject at Buffalo State and Erie Community colleges and consulted on Head Start programs. As a member of six public sector boards and more than a halfdozen service organizations, she is a constant reminder of the power of one.

2008 Inductees Florence Johnson Florence Johnson, who started her career as an exceptional education teacher, has become an exceptional educator. One of the most powerful and passionate voices in public education, she has been an effective fighter for increased funding, better school buildings, and quality education. During her 15 years on the Buffalo Board of Education, serving four of them as president, she emerged a national leader in urban education. An advocate with the National School Boards Association, her voice can be heard in the halls of Congress as well as in City Hall. Leaving no child behind, her career spans over 35 years at Buffalo State College where she has been a pioneer in mainstreaming special education students and helping disadvantaged college students meet the challenges of higher education.

Janet H. Sung, M.D. Dr. Sung is president of Windsong Radiology Group, which is Western New York’s first minority-female-operated imaging center and the first with full accreditation with the American College of Radiology. Dr. Sung is a leader in medicine, technology, business and human relations. A desire to better meet the needs of patients made her an entrepreneur. She has built an imaging center which has a long list of firsts, utilizing the newest in rapidly changing imaging technology. In two decades, her practice has grown from four team members who serviced 35 patients a day to 200 team members serving more than 650 patients a day across three facilities. Always involved with her patients and the community, Dr. Sung supports the American Cancer Society’s fight against breast cancer and established a $1 Million endowment for medical school scholarships at University of Buffalo.

Persis Anne Parshall Vehar Persis Parshall Vehar, pianist and composer, is celebrated at home and abroad for her unique compositions and distinguished performances. Her more than 200 vocal and instrumental works, ranging from intimate chamber music to large orchestral pieces and four operas, have been performed to critical acclaim in major cities from New York to Los Angeles and, in Europe, from London to Austria. Her performances with orchestras, chamber groups and ensembles in Buffalo and across the country leave audiences and critics wanting more. Composer-in-residence at Canisius College, she instructs and mentors young musicians and is an inspiration to and champion of aspiring women composers. After six Meet the Composer Grants and twenty-three annual ASCAP Awards, she obviously has found that original voice that speaks to all.

2009 Inductees Catherine Collins, Ph.D. Catherine Collins is a woman of many facets. A writer, teacher, nurse, college dean, television host, school board member, world traveler, she fills the description of the “Renaissance Man” but, being a woman, she is just plain remarkable. A graduate of University of Buffalo’s Nurse Practitioner Program, she began her writing career to fill a gap in the literature on AfricanAmericans, especially women. After seven published books, and two more on the way, she has accomplished that goal. Her books, Lectures, teachings on health issues, a documentary on South African women’s prisons, and community service have earned her numerous awards. A former teacher at UB, Erie Community College, where she was assistant academic dean, and Medaille College, she now is an associate professor in Empire State College. She has been an at-large member of Buffalo Board of Education since 2004, currently serving on five of its committees.

Donna M. Fernandes, Ph.D. Donna M. Fernandes took the nation’s third oldest zoo from the brink of extinction to a ranking as one of the country’s best zoological parks that is today a primary destination for hundreds of thousands of Western New Yorkers. When Dr. Fernandes became the first female president of the 125-year-old Buffalo Zoological Gardens in 2000, the facility had deteriorated to the point where its accreditation was threatened. With the cooperation of the Zoological Society’s Board, she initiated a 15-year, $75 million master plan, a blueprint for total renovation of the 23.5-acre facility. She is one of the chief fund-raisers for the ambitious plan and its most visible ambassador to an increasingly appreciative public. Beset by funding crises and animal rights activists, she remains focused on making Buffalo’s zoo an educational, entertaining, exciting venue for people of all ages and a comfortable and healthy environment for a diverse animal collection.

Beverly (Bonnie) Foit-Albert, RA, Ph.D. Bonnie Foit-Albert, architect, business woman and historic preservationist, is one of a handful of women introducing diversity into a traditionally male profession. Daughter of an architect, Dr. Foit-Albert came under the spell of Buffalo’s exceptional architecture at an early age and she links her career choice to her love for the city’s buildings. As founder and president of FoitAlbert Associates, Architecture, Engineering and Surveying, P.C., she is doing more than her share in preserving many of them. The M. Wile building, Richardson Complex and buildings in the Cobblestone District are among the landmarks that have benefited from her expertise. Her award-winning designs distinguish the restoration of unique cultural buildings and sites such as the Chautauqua Institution, the Buffalo Zoo, and the Botanical Gardens. An adjunct associate professor emeritus in University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture, she received the American Institute of Architects excellence in teaching award, one of the many accolades that come her way.

2009 Inductees Celeste Lawson The name Celeste Lawson is synonymous with Western New York Culture. Even before taking on the high-profile job of executive director of the Arts Council of Buffalo and Erie County, Lawson was a well-known and respected member of the arts community. Her creativity as a dancer/choreographer in the late 1980s was recognized by repeated grants and awards. Turning to poetry In the 1990s she enhanced her reputation in Buffalo’s literary community and through essays and articles in local media she established a voice in the arts community. As a delegate to the 1995 United Nation’s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, she met women of many cultures, who inspired poems collected in “I Was Born This Way.” Lawson’s tenure has enriched artists and audiences and it is hard to imagine what the arts and cultural community of Buffalo would look like without her 30 years of leadership and advocacy.

Nancy McGlen, Ph.D.

Dr. Nancy McGlen, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Niagara University, is known as an outstanding educator, gifted researcher and inspirational administrator. Author and co-author of several books and articles on women in politics, she is recognized as an authority on women’s issues and has been a mentor of professional women in the academic and business world. Her community work includes establishing the Niagara County Commission on the Status of Women where she co-authored the first report on the political status of women in the county. She is in demand as a speaker on women’s issues ranging from domestic violence to women in top government positions.

Her book credits include Women, Politics and American Society, Women in Foreign Policy . The Western New York Regional Committee of the Network for Women Leaders in Higher Education gave her the 2005 Bernice Poss Award.

Marylouise Nanna

Marylouise Nanna, a first violinist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and founder and conductor of Ars Nova Musicians, has been entertaining audiences and inspiring musicians for more than 50 years. Born into a musical family, she started her career as a promising violinist studying with an impressive array of artists and winning a string of awards for study in Italy and the United States. An aspiring conductor she was the first female to conduct the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC, before bumping into classical music’s glass ceiling . In the mid-1960s she was invited to join the BPO where she is acting assistant concert master. Since 1978, Ars Nova, the highly acclaimed chamber group, has flourished under her baton. She is guest artist with orchestras in the US and Canada and shares her expertise with musical organizations from symphony orchestras, opera groups and choral ensembles.

Evelyn Pizarro The first Hispanic female principal in Buffalo’s public schools, Evelyn Pizarrro has been an inspiration to young women of all backgrounds. During her tenure as principal D’Youville Porter Campus School’s students, many of them disadvantaged, were brought up to speed in all the subjects needed to achieve a “good standing” rating. Beginning with her first job in 1978 as a pre-kindergarten bilingual teacher, Pizzaro has made access to education her top priority and she spent much of her 30-year career advocating for thousands of Spanish-speaking pupils and their families. Among her many honors over the years was the declaration of a day in her honor by the City of Buffalo which cited her for providing hope and opportunity for future generations, She has continued the tradition in retirement working with Hispanic organizations and developing after school programs for children through the Father Belle Community Center.

Western New York Women’s Hall of Fame Dedication Ceremony Housed at Buffalo State College Rockwell Hall, Buffalo State College · Tuesday, October 11, 2005

A Project FLIGHT program