| School: Cleveland (Commerce) | Graduation Year: 1961 |
Year Inducted: 2018
Sports Played: Wrestling
High School Honors: 4 Wrestling letters, PIL Champion at 115 lbs. as a Junior and 123 lbs. as a Senior; outstanding wrestler of the PIL tourney as a Senior. State Champion as a Senior at 123 lbs.
Senior Class Vice President; member National Honor Society. Senior Class “Most Likely to Succeed.” Inducted into the Cleveland Hall of Fame in 2011.
Post High School Career: Bachelor and Juris Doctor Degrees Magna Cum Laude at Harvard University. Research Associate at the London School of Economics. Served as Chief of the Development Law Service, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations from 1988 to 2004. Serves as a legal counsel before international administrative tribunals and a consultant on agricultural, environmental, fisheries and forestry laws, working from Rome, Italy. He speaks French and Italian and has a reading knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese.
Commentary:
Athletics have given me two lifelong benefits, one mental and one physical.
The first is that wrestling in high school taught me the importance of striving to achieve a goal. Nobody is born a wrestler. You need to learn, you need to gain strength and endurance, and you need to persevere over months and years to become a champion. My wrestling coach, Don York, was my inspiration for making the effort. I credit that experience with the ability to take on challenging tasks as an adult.
The second benefit is fitness that has allowed me to remain active my whole life. I don’t wrestle anymore, but I ski and bicycle, hike at altitude and move around a lot. Stemming from my wrestling, I am able to profit from the fact that the more you do, the more you are able to do.