Mepham alumni group honors its own

The Mepham Alumni Association celebrated four of its own on May 2, inducting two into the school's Who's Who and honoring two for meritorious service to the alumni group.

Among the recipients of the Meritorious Service Award was Vincent Proto, class of 1970. Proto has been involved with the association for more than 15 years on a number of committees and has served as co-treasurer and president, and is now the group's vice president. In 2005, he was selected as Mepham's Homecoming Parade grand marshal. For 30 years, Proto has been in investment banking, principally in risk management. He puts in an average of 60 hours a week as a vice president of Deutsche Bank, rating the financial health of the bank's portfolio. Despite a demanding work schedule, he gives much of his free time to the alumni association and the Mepham Sports Boosters Association.

Mikki Hannan Wilbert, class of 1951, also received the Meritorious Service Award for her active participation in the alumni association for the past eight years. She is the 1951 class representative, serves on the Board Directors, the Who's Who Committee and the editorial board of the association's publications, Scuttlebutt and Quarterdeck.

Harvey Poppel received the group's Who's Who honor. Poppel graduated in the class of 1954 and went on to receive a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and a master's degree in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. For more than 50 years, he has been in information technology, authoring two Harvard Business Review articles on IT.

Gerald Weisenseel, class of 1955, this year's other Who's Who honoree, has also long been in information technology. He earned his bachelor's degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and his master's and doctoral degrees in business administration from Florida Atlantic University and Nova Southeastern University, respectively. He also helped to establish the degree programs in international business economics and informational technology at Southern Cross University in Australia.

Comments about this story? Sbrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.