Huntington Alumni News
Kelly Albin graduated from Huntington High School in 2001. She went on to obtain a BA degree in English and education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
“I moved back to Huntington after graduation for a year and substitute taught in the Huntington, Commack, and Elwood districts,” she said. “After not finding a position as a teacher, I came back down to North Carolina to find a job. I am currently living in Wilmington and I am a teacher in Pender County. I work at a very small school of 700 kids and I teach 11th grade English, which is American literature and creative writing.”
For the past three years Ms. Albin has been on the faculty at Heide Trask High School. She is engaged to Chevalier Cromartie. The couple will wed on July 19 in Greensboro. “We met in college,” the Huntington alum said. She added that she is still “good friends” with former Huntington classmate Jenny Swengler, who happens to be engaged to Huntington music teacher and band director Brian Stellato.
Jessica Miller earned a Presidential Academic Fitness Award at Huntington High School and graduated with the Class of 1990. She later obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied painting.
Today known as Jessica Miller Lobeck, she is the owner and head designer at J. Milo Design, a rug design company with locations in Seattle, WA and Steamboat Springs, CO. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon, she went on to become a master printer of etching at numerous studios, working in that industry for eight years before founding her own firm, which specializes in modern area rugs designed by Ms. Lobeck and a carefully selected group of outside designers.
J. Milo aims to fill a void in the modern rug market. The Huntington grad uses her background in fine arts and painting to “reform existing artistic norms,” according to the website (www.jmilo.com).
William Logan (Huntington, Class of 1968) is an English professor at the University of Florida. He obtained a BA degree at Yale University in 1972 and a MFA at the University of Iowa in 1975. He was a member of the National Honor Society chapter at Huntington High School.
At the University of Florida, Mr. Logan teaches poetry workshops and occasionally offers a seminar on contemporary poetry. He was director of creative writing at the school from 1983 to 2000.
According to an online profile posted on the college website, “William Logan is the author of seven books of poems: Sad-faced Men (1982), Difficulty (1985), Sullen Weedy Lakes (1988), Vain Empires (1998), Night Battle (1999), Macbeth in Venice (2003), and The Whispering Gallery (2005); four books of criticism: All the Rage (1998), Reputations of the Tongue (1999), Desperate Measures (2002), and The Undiscovered Country (2005); and co-editor of a book on the poetry of Donald Justice, Certain Solitudes (1997). Reputations of the Tongue was a finalist for and The Undiscovered Country the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. The Undiscovered Country was also named the best book of criticism of 2005 by the Contemporary Poetry Review.”
The Huntington grad is also a regular poetry critic for The New York Times Book Review and “writes a bi-annual verse chronicle for the New Criterion. He has won the Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle, the Peter I.B. Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, the John Masefield and Celia B. Wagner Awards from the Poetry Society of America, and the J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize from Poetry. In 2004 he received the Corrington Award for Literary Excellence and in 2005 the inaugural Randall Jarrell Award in Criticism. He has also won the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship and received grants from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the Florida Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts,” according to his profile.
Mr. Logan resides in Gainesville, FL.
Following his graduation from Huntington High School in 1961, Richard Hutchings went on to earn a bachelor’s degree at Notre Dame University. He now resides in Simi Valley, CA and is retired from Weiler Corp. as an aerospace engineer. He is married and has two daughters.
Gordon Isakson, M.D. is chief of pediatrics at Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Sacramento, CA, where he resides. He graduated from Huntington High School with the Class of 1970 and is currently a clinical professor at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, teaching medical students and residents in his office.
According to an online profile, Dr. Isakson, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed an internship and residency at Stanford University Hospital, was born in Boston and lived in Michigan and Huntington while growing up. “I decided upon a career in pediatrics because I love children,” he wrote in the profile. “My wife (Jenny) is a social worker and we have two grown children (Susie and Benjamin) and are looking forward to having grandchildren some time in the future.
“My philosophy of medicine is to give my patients preventive care to maximize the quality of their health and prevent illnesses when possible,” Dr. Isakson wrote in his profile. “I am a strong proponent of immunizations and healthy lifestyles and incorporate prevention into all of my patient encounters. I base my medical decisions on objective evidence in the medical literature. I try to minimize the use of medications, especially antibiotics, unless they are really necessary because of emerging antibiotic resistance and the fact that all medicines have unintended side effects. I actively involve my patients in making decisions about treatment. I try to engage my patients, even the younger ones, in our discussions in the office.”
Dr. Isakson and his Huntington classmates graduated on Sunday, June 21 at 3 p.m. He was one of several seniors to earn a Regents Scholarship Award in 1970.
Allan C. Long also graduated with Huntington High School’s Class of 1970. He went on to obtain a BA degree at Clark University and a MA at the University of Wisconsin. Today he is a cartographer for the U.S. Geological Survey in Madison, WI, where he resides.
Michele Jean Smith graduated from Huntington High School in 1978. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree at the University of Baltimore and gain certification as a mediator. Known today as Michele Loker, she is married and the mother of a son and daughter.
Mrs. Loker, who resides in Baldwin, Maryland, is employed as a paralegal at DLA Piper law firm in Baltimore, one of the most prominent firms in the country with over 1,500 lawyers and 20 offices. She has received awards for her work, including pro bono efforts.
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