A Congressional Medal of Honor recipient; one of Major League Baseball’s premier pitchers; a sitting U.S. ambassador; an international opera star; a celebrated civil-rights leader; the federal judge who locked up one of America’s most notorious gangsters. What do these people have in common? They are all members of the Patchogue-Medford Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame is taking hold as source of tremendous excitement throughout the Patchogue-Medford schools and the entire community. Thousands of donors and dozens of local and regional businesses have already joined together to help support and grow this institution into the powerful source for pride and positive values that its founders envisioned. Establishing a Hall of Fame to identify and honor the Patchogue-Medford School District and community’s many prominent alumni, teachers, administrators, volunteers, business and civic leaders was the brainchild of Manny Felouzis and Harry Farides, both 1969 graduates of and former teachers at Patchogue-Medford High School. Along with co-founders Tom Combs, the former PM athletic director, PMHS principal Dr. Randy Rusielewicz, and Larry Roberts, the district’s former director of music, the group formed a plan to create the Hall as an entirely community-funded program, and in 2015 won approval from the board of education to erect and maintain a state-of-the-art Hall of Fame Learning Center at the high school once the funding goal of $500,000 is reached. The immediate success and impact of the Hall of Fame has brought that goal well within reach.

One inaugural Hall of Fame member who could not be there was nevertheless well known to the students: Lt. Michael Murphy (’94), a Navy SEAL who became the first naval officer to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in more than 40 years, after he was killed in a raid on the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2005, and in whose honor the Patchogue-Medford High School campus was named in 2014. Another absentee was Marcus Stroman (’09), who was pitching that day for the Toronto Blue Jays. And one other was W. Burghardt Turner, the late founder of the Patchogue and Brookhaven branches of the NAACP, former PMHS teacher and Stony Brook professor.

The Patchogue-Medford Hall of Fame inductees for 2023 have recently been released. The ceremony is to be held on Friday, April 28 at the high school. For tickets visit: https://pmhof.org/.

THE 2023 INDUCTEES:

Angela Raynor and Franc D’Ambrosio, Class of 1981

Libby Adelman: PMHS Class of 1989, NASA Engineer

Michael Bamberger: PMHS Class of 1978, Sports Journalist

Dr. Cindy Buckmaster: PMHS Class of 1983, Research Scientist

Walter Costello: PHS Class of 1964, Basketball Standout

Christopher Creevey: PMHS Class of 2002, High School Theatre Arts Volunteer

Franc D’Ambrosio: PMHS Class of 1981, Broadway Actor

Angela D’Amico: PMHS Class of 1981, Advisor, Educator

Tracy Todd Hunter: PMHS Class of 1980, Art Curator

Paul O’Neill: PMHS Class of 1975, Musician, Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Judi Paparelli: PHS Class of 1971, Radio Personality

Sylvia Porter: Journalist, Essayist, Economists

Peter Poulos: PHS Class of 1939, Village of Patchogue Official

Franklyn “Don” Rooney: PHS Class 1957, Baseball Standout, Coach

Jeffrey Schaefer: PMHS Class of 1978, Professional Baseball

Timothy Trava: PMHS Class of 2000, Soccer Standout