President 2009-2010
Margy Jahn was re-elected President of our associaton on November 2009 at the Annual meeting in Atlantic City.
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| America The Beautiful |
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| The 2006 Frank J. Osborne Memorial Award
for Meritorious Achievement in Public Health
John N. Surmay
John N. Surmay has always tried to help people – sharing what he knows, lending a helping hand and never being satisfied with “good enough.” But it is the one time that his father did not allow John to help that changed his life and impacted the lives of others.
John was born in Sheridan Township, Pennsylvania. His father, like so many others, immigrated to America seeking a better life. Having fallen in love and started a family, John’s father provided for his wife Mary and four children by working as a coal miner. Life was difficult and money was often in short supply. Being able to work and compassionately seeking to ease the strain on his parents, John asked his father if he could work in the coal mines to help the family. His father, wanting something better for John, refused to allow him to help. Instead, he was ordered to concentrate on his studies.
Having graduated second in his high school class, John left Pennsylvania, moved to New Jersey to live with his sister Mary and enrolled at Rutgers University. Between his move and enrollment, John met his love, Louise Lisnock, at Saint Peter and Paul’s Byzantine Catholic Church. Seeking marriage, John attended pharmacy school where, to pay for tuition and an engagement ring, he worked in a pharmaceutical laboratory and sold his blood for scientific experimentation.
After graduating from Rutgers and earning licensure as a pharmacist, John worked in a pharmacy that he would later own, The Prescription Service. Having married, he soon started a family and welcomed two girls, Susan and Kathy, and two boys, John and Gary. Despite the pressure of owning a business and raising a young family, John made time to establish the City of Elizabeth’s Oral Polio Distribution Center, promoted civil rights and combated substance abuse by serving as a guest lecturer.
With a photographic memory of events and details, and a desire to improve the lives of the less fortunate, John distinguished himself from his peers and was appointed by legendary Mayor Thomas G. Dunn as the City of Elizabeth’s Director of Health, Welfare and Housing. Supervising over 100 employees in 15 divisions, while still working evenings at Lenzen’s Prescription Service, the pharmacy he owned with partner Leonard Duca, John guided the City of Elizabeth through numerous health and humanitarian crises over 20 years. His more notable achievements include directing the response to the Chemical Control explosion, ensuring the clean-up of the Arthur Kill and Kill Van Kull oil spills, establishing an international sister city program with Kitami, Japan, securing the State’s first federally funded air pollution monitoring program, and the founding of the Union County Meals-On-Wheels Program, the Elizabeth Ambulance Service and the City of Elizabeth’s Office on the Aging. While John may have been born in Pennsylvania, his love and life remain in Elizabeth. John temporarily left the city for work in the private sector, but soon returned to the challenges of public life – first as legislative aide to members of New Jersey’s Assembly and Senate, and then as Health Officer for the City of Elizabeth. In recognition of his accomplishments, John has received many distinguished honors, including the William H. McNeil Award for Outstanding Community Service by a Pharmacist, the Bowl Of Hygeia for New Jersey as Pharmacist of the Year, the New Jersey Geriatric Center Award for Lifetime of Appreciation for Outstanding Service, the Salvation Army Man of the Year Award, the Oscar Singer Memorial Award for Outstanding Service to Pharmacy and the Spirit Of Volunteerism Award by Catholic Community Services. When John is not enjoying his hobby of travel with his wife, providing guidance to his children, or loving and spoiling his six grandchildren, he serves on several committees, including the Union County Advisory on Aging, the National Noise Control Association, the Union County Narcotics Advisory Association, the United Way of Union County, the National and State Commission on Bioterrorism, the National and State Commission on West Nile Virus, the State Mosquito Control Commission and the New Jersey Pharmacist Association.
This year’s 2006 Osborne Award recipient is John N. Surmay. A man, who thanks to his father’s unwillingness to let his son work in the coal mines, has tirelessly worked to improve the lives of the people of the State of New Jersey. His single-minded pursuit of humanitarian rights, public health and communal safety has deservedly earned the recognition of The New Jersey Health Officers Association
| John N. Surmay was awarded the Osborne Award recogiznizing his outstanding contributions to the field of Public Health by the New Jersey Health Officers Association at the Annual Conference of State and Local Health Officials October 3, 2006, West Windsor, NJ.
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Osborne Award Recipients
*1963 William H. MacDonald
*1964 Dennis J. Sullivan
1965 Cecil King Blanchard
Wallace Todd Eakins
1966 Charles Kientz, Jr.
1967 No award
*1968 Frederick P. Lee, M.D.
Edward Gerner
*1969 Roscoe P. Kandle, M.D.
*1970 Joseph F. Emmons
*1971 John Hanson
1972 Ralph T. Fisher
*1973 Clyde R. Newell
*1974 Kenneth M. Jones
*1975 William J. Dougherty, M.D.
Oscar Aquino
1976 Carl Wendel
1977 Roberta L. Halligan
*1978 Walter J. Nicol
1979 Dr. A. Peter Capparelli
*1980 Jesse B. Aronson, M.D., M.P.H.
*1981 Ronald Altman, M.D., M.P.H.
*1982 John H. Harrison, V.M.D.
1983 Ronald Cohen, Ph.D.
1984 Hon. Gov. Thomas H. Kean
*1985 John Carlano
1985 Ray F. English, Jr.
1986 John J. Cane, D.D.S.
*1987 Michael A. Pane, Esq
1988 Milton Prystowsky, M.D.
1989 John D. Slade, M.D., F.A.C.P.
1990 Charles I. Kauffman
1991 Louise C. Chut, Ph.D., M.P.H.
* David C. Byrnes
1992 William A. Frascella, Jr., O.D.
1993 Walter A. Trommelen, B.S., M.P.H.
1994 William Parkin, D.V.M., Dr.P.H.
1995 Jack G. Sinagra
1996 Louis J. Lamanna
1997 Ronald G. Ashley, Sr.
1998 Patrick O. Hanson, M.A.
*2000 Laurence P. Devlin, Jr.
2001 Ronald Ulinsky
2002 George Van Orden, Ph.D.
2003 Lee B. Reichman, M.D., M.P.H.
2004 Jorge H. Berkowitz, Ph. D.
2005 Peter Correale
2006 John N. Surmay
*Deceased
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