Nine to Join Chelmsford High Alumni Hall of Fame

Nine alumni, including a former dean, will be inducted into the Chelmsford High School Alumni Association Hall of Fame when the organization holds its 21^st annual induction dinner tonight at the Radisson Hotel in Nashua, N.H.

The Chelmsford High School Alumni Association, or CHSAA, was founded in 1989 with the goal of promoting community among the school’s graduates.

Its Hall of Fame, CHSAA Execuive Director George Simonian said, exists to honor Chelmsford High graduates who have excelled both in the classroom and in life through their careers or through serving their communities.  Candidates for membership can be nominated by anyone including family, friends, and classmates and are placed in a five-year pool of eligibility. Nine are inducted per year.

“It’s an all-inclusive Hall of Fame…There are three big criteria (for inductees): big things in high school and/or big things in their profession and/or big things in their community. Now who we really look for is someone who’s got all three of those (met),” said Simonian.  

The 2011 group are Cynthia Chase (1964), Randolph S. Gillies (1974), Edward F. Johnson (1976), Philip C. Johnson (1958), George F. Mercuri (1984), Alexander A. Olsen (1961), Kristopher Pisarik (1977), Michael J. Robinson (1976) and Bernard J. Battle, a former teacher and dean of the school’s Whittier House.  

The nine alumni will officially join classes inducted since 1991 at tonight's event. Simonian said he is proud of the new Hall of Fame inductees because the work they have done throughout their lives stands out among an accomplished field of graduates.  

“It’s very competitive, because we’ve had some outstanding, I mean outstanding graduates. It’s amazing what some of the graduates have done with their lives, let alone in high school," he said.