Summer 2011 - University of Massachusetts Lowell

Classnotes
NORMAN GALE ’50 is one of those
old warriors Tom Brokaw likes to write
about. He was home from his first war –
World War II – just long enough to get
married and get his Lowell Tech degree,
then shipped off to his second, the
Korean War, the day after graduation
(which he didn’t have time to attend).
He spent the next two years in Korea,
in the Army’s Third Infantry Division.
He returned home to Missouri in 1952,
reunited with his new wife, Peggy,
and – with his LTI textiles training now
behind him – opened up a business with
his brother called Sun and Surf Inc.,
which manufactured women’s clothing.
His brother is gone now. And Peggy died
last December, after 64 years of marriage
– “I miss her terribly,” he says.
1963
Thomas Toohey, vice president
of the Irish Ancestral
Research Association, spoke
before the Southborough Public
Library Genealogy Club in
Southborough recently. Tom
has published his family stories
in a two-volume book,
“Images of Other Lives.” A
teacher for 40 years, he holds
a bachelor of science degree
from UMass Lowell and a
master’s degree in music from
the University of Hartford.
1968
Jo-Ellen Corkery De Luca
says she is a very proud Elementary
Education graduate,
now a retired teacher, who
has assumed a different role
in life. Having contracted
Crohn's Disease at a young
age and colorectal cancer at
age 54, Jo-Ellen says that for
the last 10 years she has
taught the benefits of early
detection through screening
in her adopted town of Spartanburg,
S.C. She began a
support group for survivors,
which has grown to nearly
250 members, the largest such
group in the country. In addition,
she was asked by her
cancer center to be its patient
advocate to the North Central
Cancer Treatment Group
(NCCTG, Mayo Clinic's
clinical trials arm). She says
she may have been a third
grade teacher and then a high
school reading specialist but
today has taken health-care
adversity and turned it into
a mission.
Brenda Costello was named
the American Textile History
Museum’s community service
award honoree last fall. She
was honored in November for
her service to such organizations
as Girls Incorporated of
Greater Lowell, the Whistler
House Museum of Art, the
Merrimack Repertory Theatre,
the Franco-American School,
the Greater Lowell Community
Foundation and the
Women Working Wonders
Fund. “I’m deeply touched to
Continued on Page 54
u CLOSE-UP CLASS OF 1955
Hank Powell ’55 presents Powell Family Foundation scholarships to Lawrence High
School seniors.
HANK POWELL: PAVING PATHWAYS
FOR STUDENTS
Henry “Hank” Powell knew two things for sure about attending college.
He would enroll at Lowell Tech: “Being raised in Lowell, in a middle-class
family, I really had no financial opportunities to go anywhere else,” he says.
And, “I didn’t want to study textile engineering.”
Powell went with paper engineering. Classmates may remember him as the
tall captain of the varsity baseball team for two years, as well as senior class
president in 1955. After serving in the Navy (as a radar officer flying highaltitude
planes on the DEW Line in the Pacific) and in industry (Pellon Corp.,
Freudenberg and James River Paper), Powell founded his own company.
The Powell Corp. produced specialty non-woven materials for highly
technical applications in electronics, including in batteries and for reverse
osmosis technology.
In 1996, Powell was honored with the UMass Lowell Distinguished Alumni
Award and, in 1998, he received the James B. Francis College of Engineering
Distinguished Alumnus Award. He has served as chair of the Athletic Scholarship
Development Committee and on the College of Engineering Industrial
Advisory Board.
University scholarship and service run in the Powell family: his wife, Mary
Jane, served as a University Trustee; their son, Andrew, is a mechanical engineering
graduate; their other son, Jason, has a master’s in education; a sister has
bachelor’s and master’s degrees; and a niece and many cousins are graduates.
With the Powell Family Foundation, Hank and Mary Jane turned to funding
college scholarships for deserving and needy students from Lowell. Through the
College Success Program, they reached out to freshmen entering the University
from Lawrence High School. Seven were chosen for Powell scholarships,
helping them on a pathway to long-term success.
52 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE S U M M E R 2 0 1 1