3 Inducted Into Great Valley School District Wall Of Fame

MALVERN, PA — The Great Valley School District recently inducted three outstanding alumni to its Wall of Fame as part of the district's homecoming festivities.

This year’s Inductees join 28 other Great Valley grads who have been named to the Wall of Fame since the program’s start in 2012. Inducted on Oct. 18 were Kathryn J. Barrett (Class of 1972), W. Eric Shrader (Class of1975), and Scott C. Hennessy (Class of 1977).

These graduates were nominated by friends or family members for the outstanding personal and professional achievements and community contributions they have made since graduating high school

"The Wall of Fame is a way for us to reconnect with our alumni and to applaud their outstanding achievements since graduation," said Great Valley Director of Communications and Outreach Jennifer Blake, who chairs the selection committee. "These graduates serve as role models for our current students and also speak to the excellence of a Great Valley education."

Inductees were selected from nominations received by the selection committee.

Anyone can nominate a Great Valley graduate for consideration, but nominees are judged according to strict criteria.

According to the District website, the program is designed to “ensure that the lives and achievements of Great Valley’s most accomplished graduates will forever be known among fellow graduates, current and future high school students, and the Great Valley community.”

Inductees are those graduates who: model high standards of excellence in their personal and/or professional life; make outstanding contributions to volunteer service or their local community; and have demonstrated success at the local, regional, or international levels in any appropriate area of endeavor, including academia and education, arts, business, media, public service, medicine, military, sports, etc.

Below are biographies of the recent inductees:

Kathryn J. Barrett, Class of 1972

Kathryn Barrett is an Emmy-award winning television journalist and former medical news anchor at WVEC-TV, the ABC News affiliate in Norfolk, VA, and a television personality, voiceover artist, producer and writer. Kathryn graduated from Penn State University with a B.A. in Speech Communications-Broadcasting. Her work has taken her to two war zones and 10 foreign countries. During the Iraq war, she was embedded with the U.S. Air Force in the central combat tent hospital in Iraq, which was under mortar attack. She accompanied severely wounded service members out of Iraq. She also reported on a United Nations combat hospital during the war in the former Yugoslavia. Kathryn received an Emmy for her coverage of Operation Smile’s work in Honduras and an Emmy nomination for Combat Hospital Iraq. Her awards include the Association of Health Care Journalists, the American Women in Communications Clarion Award, the Virginia Association of Broadcasters, Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters, and the Pennsylvania Associated Press. She is a 2006 recipient of the Hampton Roads Women in Business Award. Kathryn’s volunteer work has included the Alzheimer’s Association of SE Virginia as a celebrity champion; Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters; the American Heart Association; the American Cancer Society; and Prevent Child Abuse-Hampton Roads. She served as a board member for the March of Dimes and on the development committee of the Howard and Georgeanna Jones Institute Foundation. Kathryn is a current board member and former president of Penn State Alumni-Hampton Roads Chapter, and is serving her 11 th year as a judge for Inside Business’ Health Care Hero Awards. Her passion for tennis, which led to volunteer contributions to the USTA (United States Tennis Association) website and an award as USTA’s Mid-Atlantic Journalist of the Year in 2009, began when she played as co-captain on Great Valley’s Ches-Mont Championship Girls’ Tennis Team. Kathryn and her husband Ross live in Virginia Beach. They have one son, David.

W. Eric Shrader, Class of 1975

W. Eric Shrader was a National Merit Scholar and became Great Valley High School’s first 1,000-point basketball scorer. After graduation, he accepted a basketball scholarship to the University of Maryland where he lettered three years on nationally ranked teams and served as co-captain during his senior year. While at Maryland, he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and the ACC Honor Roll, and was appointed to the Chancellor’s Student Leadership Committee. Dr. Shrader received his medical degree with high honors from Jefferson Medical College. He completeda residency in family medicine at the University of Virginia, where he was given the Mead JohnsonAward for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education. For the past 34 years, Dr. Shrader has practiced as a coal miner’s doctor in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia where he cares for patients of all ages, makes house calls, delivers babies, coordinates the Intensive Care Unit, and seeks to improve public health. He speaks regularly to youth, and works with young athletes on the sidelines as team physician and football coach for Tazewell High School. He is a deacon, teacher, and assistant pastor at his church, and is on the Board of Directors for Mercer ChristianSchool in West Virginia.

Scott C. Hennessy, Class of 1977

Following his graduation from Great Valley High School in 1977, Scott Hennessy attended The University of Delaware where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Business Administration from The Lerner College of Business and Economics. He then joined The Black and Decker Corporation where he began a successful 18-year marketing and management career that culminated with him being named a corporate officer and division president at the age of 36. In 1998, Scott led the successful buy-out of Black and Decker’s True Temper Division, a large multi- national recreational products company employing over 1000 individuals in 10 global facilities. He served as the company’s chief executive officer and chairman of the board until his retirement in 2017. Throughout his career, Scott actively supported numerous charitable causes and served on a number non-profit boards. In 2002, Scott and his wife, Carol, established The Hennessy Charitable Fund. The Fund provides financial resources to organizations supporting the less fortunate, with particular emphasis on children, education, community health and the arts. The Fund has successfully provided resources for hundreds of scholarships, capital for building projects, and the operating funds for more than 50 organizations and institutions throughout the United States. In addition to financial support, Scott continues to serve on the Board of the Orpheum Theatre and Education Group, The Memphis Opportunity Scholarship Trust, and the Board of Advisors to the University of Delaware Lerner College of Business.