Juniata College Honors Five Alumni with Achievement Awards
(Posted July 2, 2009)
HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Juniata College presented five alumni-related awards Saturday, June 13, during Alumni Assembly, part of Juniata's "Alumni Weekend 2009." Raton, N.M. resident William Fegan, retired consultant, was awarded the Alumni Achievement Award; Wyomissing, Pa. resident Donald Robinson, a retired Church of the Brethren minister, received the Harold B. Brumbaugh Alumni Service Award; Ellicott City, Md. resident Nate Boggs, research scientist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab, received the Young Alumni Achievement Award; George Fattman, Johnstown, Pa. resident and adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown, was awarded the William E. Swigart Jr. Alumni Humanitarian Award; and Hummelstown resident Dr. John Bulger, general internist at the Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pa., received the Health Professions Alumni Achievement Award.
William Fegan, a native of Palmyra, Pa. and a 1948 Juniata graduate, has had a long career in the arts, starting with his acting in Juniata dramatic and musical productions during his undergraduate years. He taught college classes and started a theatre program at Stillman College, a historically black college in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
In 1962 Fegan visited Raton, N.M. as part of a touring theatre company, The Kaleidoscope Players. He returned to Raton in 1964 to take over the operation and restoration of the historic Shuler Theatre. In addition to the theatre, Fegan helped start numerous arts organizations in Raton, including the Raton Arts and Humanities Council, Raton Performing Arts Association, Raton Choral Society and the Raton Community Corp. He retired from managing the theatre in 2005.
In 1974 he started an entertainment management agency, booking and touring entertainment such as the Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats throughout the United States. He received the Raton Treasure Award in 2001 from the Raton Arts Council and received the New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2007.
He earned a master's degree in education in 1960 from the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Juniata awarded him an honorary doctor of humane letters degree in 1972.
He has volunteered extensively for Juniata, serving as a member of the Juniata Career Team and a Juniata Admissions Ambassador. He also is a member of the Juniata Heritage Society and served on his class reunion committee. He also volunteered as a fund-raiser for the arts campaign during Juniata's Uncommon Outcomes capital campaign.
Donald L. Robinson, who grew up in Johnstown, Pa., graduated from Juniata in 1951, earning a degree in psychology. He went on to earn a master's degree in divinity in 1954 from Bethany Theological Seminary. He earned a doctoral divinity degree in "Stages of Ethical and Moral Development" in 1986 from Lancaster Theological Seminary.
After graduating from the seminary, Robinson became pastor of the Church of the Brethren in Wilmington, Del. until 1957, when he moved to Dayton, Ohio to serve as director of stewardship and finance for the Church Federation of Greater Dayton.
Robinson became pastor of the First Church of the Brethren in Reading, Pa. in 1961, a position he held for the next 31 years until retiring in 1992. During his time there, the church began a Montesorri pre-school and kindergarten that has an enrollment of about 200 students.
He has been an active volunteer for the national church organization, serving as a National Youth Adviser and as a member of the national planning committee for Adventure in Mission.
He also worked as a PIAA basketball and football official for 20 years and is an adjunct faculty member at Reading Area Community College. He has taught at Pace Institute since its beginning in the 1980s.
Robinson also established a career in personal, marriage, and family counseling and was a member of the Pennsylvania Association of Marriage and Family Counselors. He also was trained in suicide prevention and established the Berks County HELP program, which trained more than 300 volunteers to work on a suicide counseling phone service.
Robinson's service to Juniata included serving on the Church-College Relations Council, including two years as president. He received the college's Church-College Service Award in 1999. He also served a three-year term on Juniata's board of trustees in the 1970s. He also has served as a class fund agent and was named Outstanding Class Fund Agent in 1974 and 1975. He received the Americanism Award and Brotherhood Award from B'nai Brith, and was honored by the Atlantic Northeast District of the Church of the Brethren for his 50 years of ministry.
Nathan Boggs, a resident of Ellicott City, Md. and a 2002 Juniata graduate, has worked as a scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab since 2002. He has worked on projects researching disease sensors, pathogenic effects patterns, toxicology and exhaled breath analysis. He is assigned to the Sensor Science Group in the Milton S. Eisenhower Research Center.
He received a 2006 Invention of the Year (Physical Sciences) Award from Johns Hopkins for his role as co-inventor of a mask that can rapidly and reliably diagnose diseases by collecting and analyzing proteins in exhaled breath condensation. The device is designed to be a diagnostic tool in case of a biological warfare attack that can quickly accurately determine the extent of infection.
He earned a bachelor's degree in microbiology in 2002 from Juniata and is earned a master's degree in May 2009 in public health preparedness at Penn State University. Boggs started his career as a research technician at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense in Edgewood, Md.
He was a member of the Tri-Beta Honor Society from 1999 to 2002 and is a current member of the American Society for Microbiology. He has presented his research at numerous professional meetings, including meetings of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, the American Association for Aerosol research and the Society of Toxicology.
He has worked as a Juniata Career Team volunteer, returning to campus to share his career experience and advice with current students as well as alumni.
George Fattman is a 1958 graduate of Juniata and earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, graduating first in his class. He was cited by Sigma Delta Chi, the professional journalism society, as the journalism graduate of the year. Later the society invited him to comment in its 75th anniversary publication, "Leading Journalists Tell What a Free Press Means to America."
He was editor of the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat from 1974 to 1989 when he became assistant news director of WJAC-TV, the NBC affiliate in the region. In 1998 he became executive director of Laurel Arts, the Somerset County arts center, which was cited by the Chamber of Commerce as one of 10 corporations that had made a significant difference in the life of the county.
For many years he has been an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and is a writing and reporting coach for the Somerset Daily American.
As a volunteer for Juniata, he has been his class fund agent for more than 50 years. He also chaired his class' 50th reunion. He has served on the college alumni council, which granted him a special Community Service Award for his work in recovery after the 1977 Johnstown Flood. He was the alumni representative on Juniata's board of trustees from 1974 to 1977 and served as national chair for the college's annual fund.
He served twice as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes, was an officer of the Pennsylvania Society of Newspaper Editors and a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Literacy and Readership Research Committee.
He has been extraordinarily active in his community. At various times he served as president of the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra; the Johnstown Area Arts Council; the Johnstown Lions Club, the Conemaugh Valley Council on Drugs and Alcoholism; the Greater Johnstown Council of Churches, the First Lutheran Church Council and the Ecumenical Economic Advocacy Team. He is chairing a drive to raise $50,000 to augment the ministry of his congregation. He has served on the board of the Somerset Rotary Club.
Dr. John Bulger, a resident of Danville, Pa., graduated from Juniata in 1991. He earned his medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1995 and completed an internship and residency at PCOM's consortium of hospitals from 1995 to 1998.
In 1998, he joined Geisinger Health Systems' general internal medicine department. He currently serves as Geisinger's assistant chief quality officer and associate chief medical officer for osteopathic medical education. He founded and leads Geisinger's hospitalist program. He is certified by the American Osteopathic Board of Internal Medicine.
He is regional assistant dean and assistant clinical professor of medicine at PCOM and at the Temple University School of Medicine. He has published articles in Group Practice Journal and Journal of the American Osteopathic Association
Bulger is a Fellow in the American College of Osteopathic Internists, the American College of Physicians, the American Osteopathic Directors and Medical Educators, as well as a Fellow in Hospital Medicine. He serves as chair of the Council on Education and Evaluation for the American College of Osteopathic Internists. He is vice-chair of the American Osteopathic Association's Program and Trainee Review Committee. Both groups oversee osteopathic graduate medical education nationally.
Avidly interested in health policy, Bulger serves on the boards of trustees for PCOM, the Pennsylvania Medical Society and the American College of Osteopathic Internists (who honored him as Teacher of the Year in 2005). He is president-elect of the American Osteopathic Directors and Medical Educators.
Bulger received the 2003 Emerging Leader Award from the American Osteopathic Foundation and the 2001 Emerging Leader Award from the American Medical Association. He was named outstanding resident at Germantown Hospital and City Avenue Hospital during his residency. In 1998, he was named as one of the Bristol-Meyers Squibb/American Osteopathic Association Outstanding Residents.
He is married to Dr. Michele Neff-Bulger, a 1993 Juniata graduate and a pediatrician at Geisinger Medical Center.
Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.