The Honeoye Falls-Lima High School Alumni Hall of Fame will increase by five members when it inducts the 2018 nominees during Fall Weekend ceremonies. The inductees are:
Robert Meehan
Honeoye Falls-Lima
High School
Class of 1982
Robert Meehan is a professional architect, dedicated volunteer, positive role model, and committed father. Meehan graduated from Honeoye Falls-Lima High School in 1982. As a high school student, he was involved in student council and several school sports. He participated in football, basketball, baseball, and track and field. Despite a sidelining injury during his senior year, Rob was captain of the football team and a strong supporter of all HF-L teams.
After high school, Meehan went on to study architecture and construction technology at Alfred State College and the University of Buffalo. Today, he has his own business and is well known for his strong work ethic and positive attitude. He has not only worked to revive local history by collaborating with a local restaurant owner, he has designed many local businesses and residences in the community over the years. He lends his talents to community projects like improving the Mendon baseball fields for kids and updating the Chow Hut at the HF-L High School. Through his company, he has financially supported, on both the youth level as well as HF-L school teams, the programs for football & cheer, basketball, soccer, baseball, and hockey. His contributions have also supported organizations including, HF Rotary, Boy Scouts, Mendon Foundation, and The Cobblestone Arts Center for the disabled, to name a few.
Ever since Meehan graduated from college, he has been involved with youth sports. He has spent over 30 years involved with HF-L Cougars Youth Football and Cheerleading program as a coach, and has spent the last 12 years as its President. He also serves as Vice President of the Finger Lakes Youth Football and Cheerleading League for which he has served in that position for over 10 years. You can find Rob setting up the fields and Chow Hut on a Sunday morning, encouraging young athletes to develop friendships with their teammates, monitoring cheerleading tournaments, and working to improve safety across both youth programs. Meehan has also been coaching youth baseball for well over a decade and is on the HF-L Mendon Youth Baseball Board of Directors.
He is an advisor to the HF-L Youth Lacrosse Program and is actively involved in HF-L Sports Boosters. He has coached basketball and soccer in the past. Meehan also coordinated the officials as well as refereed himself for the HF-L Basketball Instructional League (BIL) during its inception. For several years now, he has been the scoreboard operator and provides the “voice” and music for his son’s hockey games. Meehan was awarded the 2017 Monroe County Youth Advocate Award for his dedication to and encouragement of youth across the communities he supports.
Meehan and his wife Patti, instill in their children a sense of strong character and a desire to give back and make a difference in the lives of others. Those who know Meehan well shared that he “exemplifies community and service.” Meehan’s integrity and leadership are an essential part of the HF-L community.
Kathy Hoyt
Honeoye Falls-Lima
High School
Class of 1983
Kathy (Jones) Hoyt is a 1983 graduate of the Honeoye Falls- Lima Central School District. During her time at HF-L, Kathy was a four sport athlete for all four years of high school. She played soccer, volleyball, basketball, and track and field. She was captain or co-captain of many of these teams. Hoyt also was a member of the National Honor Society and very active in 4-H, where she mentored younger members to help them succeed and was named 4-Her of the Year.
Hoyt received a Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Education and Coaching from SUNY Cortland and went on to Springfield College to earn her Master’s Degree in Education in Health / Wellness Management. In 2010, she earned her Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Administration from SUNY Oswego.
In 2000, Hoyt became a Cougar again, this time at North Rose-Wolcott Central School District (NR-W). She spent 17 years there as a teacher, coach, athletic director and assistant high school principal. While at NR-W, she introduced the “Athlete of the Week” award, community service requirement for each team, hosted the Wayne / Finger Lakes Special Olympics, oversaw the implementation of a comprehensive fitness facility and started the NR-W Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2011, the “Kathy Hoyt Award” was established and is given to a graduating senior for being academically focused, a positive role model, committed to service of others, and dedicated to the NR-W athletic program.
Hoyt currently serves as the first full-time Executive Director of Section V Athletics. Coaches and league representatives express how visible she is and how much she cares about the athletes. In June, Hoyt was honored by the Rochester Press Radio Club with the Jean Giambrone Award, given to a person who has made an exemplary lifetime commitment to local women’s sports, or in Hoyt’s case, all sports.
Hoyt is also an active community member – having taught religious education classes at her church, providing for the local clothing center and coaching youth sports teams. Her favorite team is her home team, with her husband Brian and children Justice, Danielle and Garrett.
Quotes from letters in support of Kathy’s nomination all had a similar theme: “She is a master at fostering relationships, setting goals, and then working harder than anyone else to help students experience success.” “Kathy never was in the forefront of any activity, but quietly worked her magic in the background.” “Kathy has spent a great deal of her life being successful in whatever she does. She is truly the personification of Cougar Pride.”
Howard Fonda
Honeoye Falls-Lima
High School
Class of 1993
Howard Fonda, artist, and educator, graduated from Honeoye Falls-Lima High School in 1993. A friend states how “he never blindly followed norms and wasn’t afraid to take risks. He boldly tagged clothes, shoes, notebooks, and other belongings with colorful artwork. He was the only teenage boy I knew who would go to the opera, dress up in costumes to go to the grocery store, and rap in French. He was willing to talk about anything, no matter how awkward. I found this brave and sophisticated for a teenage boy and can see how that has been captured in his work as an artist.”
After high school, Fonda attended Nazareth College, where he graduated in 1998 with a Bachelor’s Degree in History and Fine Arts. He earned his Master’s of Fine Arts, Painting and Drawing, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001. He also studied graphic design, painting and drawing at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. At the Sorbonne in Paris, he studied French and history.
From 2001 to 2008, Fonda was a professor at the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A colleague states, “I knew many students who raved about his insights, sensitivity, and force of inspiration. Howard’s walking lectures through the Art Institute’s painting galleries were epic and highly discussed by young painting students.” He continues to participate in graduate critique panels and visiting artist programs at universities and colleges.
Fonda has distinguished himself as a contemporary artist of the highest quality. His art has been shown at over 14 solo exhibitions in such places as London, New York, Chicago, Portland, and Dallas, as well as in more than 50 national and international exhibits. His paintings are included in collections in such places as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Microsoft Art Collection in Seattle, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.
His paintings are challenging to make because they are all made within a single day. He says, “It’s all about being present and comfortable with failure as well as success. Once I have committed to making a painting I try not to work too much up. I loosely grasp my intention and allow things to happen in the act of painting. I create an informal framework that I can then improvise in. There is a direction but also space; it’s just jazz.”
One supporter says, “Bright, intellectually curious, and well-read. Howard is kind and compassionate, strongly committed to his values and beliefs, but also sensitive to the beliefs of others. As a passionate and devoted husband and father, spending time with his family is a priority in his life.”
Howard currently lives, as he describes, “…a simple and fulfilling life,” in Portland, Oregon, with his wife Remy and his children Clementine and Emerson.
Kristine Brassie
Honeoye Falls-Lima
High School
Class of 1994
Courage. Commitment. Compassion. These words were all a focus of Kristine Brassie’s speech in 1999, as she accepted the National Humanitarian Award in Anaheim, California, at the Division 1 Men’s Final Four Tournament. These are more than just words that Brassie has spoken of, they are words that she models in all that she does, and in how she has lived every aspect of her daily life.
As the daughter of Lawrence and Mary Ann Pierce, coaches told Brassie in her youth that she could not play on the Rochester Youth Hockey Team because she was a girl. “Let me try,” she said… and she not only made the team but also became the team captain. In her years at Honeoye Falls- Lima High School, Brassie played tennis, basketball, and soccer. She also participated in student council and yearbook, earning a Regents Diploma in 1994. This diploma allowed her to continue her education at RIT, where she would face a courageous battle with an opponent more formidable than any she had encountered on or off the ice. During her sophomore year, Brassie was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system.
After six months of treatment, Brassie was declared cancer-free in August of 1997. She returned to both classes and hockey and was named Division 1 All-American, and served three seasons as team captain. In 1999, she became the first woman to win the National Humanitarian Award, symbolic of college hockey’s finest citizen. That same year, she became the first athlete in the history of RIT athletics to have her jersey retired. The #12 jersey is framed and currently hangs in the Gene Polisseni Center at RIT. By this time, Brassie had already volunteered for 27 different charities and received over 13 different awards and scholarships. That same year, Brassie received the Mark Zagata Award, which recognizes a person who was courageous in their battle against cancer.
After graduating from RIT, Brassie became an assistant coach for the Mercyhurst Women’s Hockey Team. She married her husband, David, and they are raising their four children, Chloe, David, Christopher, and Matthew, who are currently all students at HF-L. Brassie is an active member of the PTA and volunteers on a variety of committees within the District. In addition, she is a member of Crosswinds Wesleyan Church and is the Co- Leader of the local Weston A. Price Foundation. In the spirit of commitment and compassion, Brassie volunteers at Benincasa Hospice and has become a certified life coach, NYS recovery coach, and holistic cancer coach, and is currently enrolled in the Coaching School of Functional Medicine. In 2017, she founded her business, Next Steps Within, with the goal of helping others live life to the fullest. She is a local chapter leader for the Healing Strong Organization, whose mission is to connect, support and educate individuals facing cancer and other diseases. Brassie’s courage, commitment, and compassion inspire all, and the Alumni Hall of Fame is honored to induct her as one of its newest members.
Beth Ann Roy Langrell
Honeoye Falls-Lima
High School
Class of 1994
Beth Anne Roy Langrell graduated from Honeoye Falls-Lima High School in 1994. In high school, she was active in chorus, the musical, cheerleading squad, and the swim team. Following high school, Langrell went on to Monroe Community College to obtain a Business Administration degree, followed by a Bachelor’s in Communication Studies and Business Communication at the College at Oneonta. She then earned her Master’s in Counseling and Human Services at Syracuse University. Her professional certifications include Certified Motivational Interviewer; Trainer, Bacchus Gamma Peer Education Network; Trainer, Training Intervention Procedures; Certified Sexual Assault Response Advocate; Certified Alcohol Prevention Professional; Character Coach, Character Counts!; Trainer, LGBT Ally Safe Space Program; and Trainer, Bystander Intervention.
Langrell sought out and grew from the situations she placed herself in. Whether she was assisting at a middle school in the Bronx, starting a gang diversion program for youth or traveling to Japan for an international recruiting program, Langrell found her calling serving the social needs of whatever community she was involved in. “We do it better together,” Langrell said. “We were meant to help one another and reach out to those who need our help. That’s what being part of a community is all about.”
Langrell currently works with For All Seasons, Inc. As Executive Director, Langrell manages a $4.2 million/year mental health clinic and rape crisis center that serves five rural counties on the eastern shore of Maryland. “She is a leader who inspires trust in her abilities but also seeks to foster the same trust within the members of the groups she serves. She deals daily with the underbelly of our society and the stigma attached to those who have been victimized with unfailing sympathy and respect,” a colleague wrote.
Langrell has been honored with many awards including, the American University Women’s “Luminous Leader of the Year Award”, Mid- Shore Behavioral Health, “Achieving Excellence through Interagency Collaborations,” “Volunteer of the Year for the Kent County United Way,” “Woman of the Year” for American Association of University Women, “Outstanding Service Award” for Mid-Shore Council on Family Violence, “Outstanding Dedication to Professional Service,” Maryland College Personnel Association, and “Advisor of the Year,” Delhi College.
Langrell was recently appointed to the board of the Maryland Coalition of Sexual Assault and was appointed by the Maryland Governor to serve on the Executive Committee of Maryland’s Rural Health Collaborative.
Langrell is an active member of the First Wesleyan Church of Easton, Leader of the Praise and Worship Team, and member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She is also a Little League and Youth Soccer Coach. She and her husband, Ed, have two boys, Jordan and Brandon.
