Hall of Fame 2012 Inductees

I am presently retired as the chief judge of the 11th judicial circuit court in Miami Dade County and practicing law in the areas of family and personal injury with my longtime friend and MBHS graduate Philip Freidin.

Charles Horner is Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. He is a China scholar who pays special attention to how China's evolving views of its modern historical experience and its intellectual and cultural traditions influence contemporary developments. The second volume of his two-volume study, Rising China and Its Postmodern Fate, will be published in December, 2015, and he has also contributed to many well-known periodicals.

Horner was Adjunct Professor in Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and also an associate of its Landegger Program in International Business Diplomacy. During the l970s, Horner served on the staff of the late Senator Henry M. Jackson (D.-Wash.) and then as Senior Legislative Assistant for Foreign Affairs and National Security policy to the late Senator Daniel P. Moynihan (D.-N.Y.) A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Horner did graduate work in Chinese history at the University of Chicago, National Taiwan University, and Tokyo University.

In the administrations of President Reagan and the first President Bush, he served in the Department of State and the U.S Information Agency. Horner has been a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and has served on the Department of State's Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy; the Department of Commerce's Advisory Committee on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the Voice of America Advisory Committee; and the Advisory Board of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

President George H.W. Bush appointed him to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and President George W. Bush appointed him to the Board of Directors of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Married for fifty years, he and his wife, Connie, have two sons and four grandchildren.

Abraham Laeser has spent 36 years at the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office as Senior Trial Counsel, including nine years as Chief Assistant and supervisor of all homicide prosecutions. For two decades he has been an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law, a noted international lecturer in Trial Advocacy, and an author.

During his illustrious career, he has received the distinguished Eugene Berry Award and the William S. Schurr Award for excellence and for exemplary dedication to prosecution. Since 2009, he has been named the Chief Special Master for Miami Beach, and maintains a trial practice. He received his J.D. from U.M. in 1973, is a Board Certified Criminal Trial Lawyer, and a member of the International Association of Prosecutors. Abe Laeser performs outstanding community service as a dedicated Board Member and Vice President of Temple Menorah, and as a member of the Board of the Hebrew Acadmy for many years.

At age 2-1/2, Abe Laeser emigrated from his birthplace in a displaced persons camp in Germany to New York with his parents, both of whom were Holocaust Survivors. He obtained his religious education at the Hebrew Academy and graduated from MBHS in 1964.

He currently lives in Weston with his wife of 42 years, Lynn. He has two children and two grandchildren. Abe now joins his sister, Sylvia L. Goldsmith, as a member of our Hall of Fame.

Robert's family moved from Milwaukee to Miami Beach in 1953. Nicknamed 'Moose' by Coach Al Cox, Bob became an active leader in multiple organizations, and was honored by faculty in his senior yearbook's 'The Mirror.' Dr. Mandel, a Diplomate of the American Board of Radiology (1968), is also a Fellow of the American College of Radiology (1983). Having served on multiple committees for the Medical Staff and Brevard County Medical Society, he was Chairman of Radiology at Holmes Regional Medical Center, President of the Florida Radiological Society, and Councillor to the American College of Radiology. The Governor appointed him to the Florida HRS Technology Advisory Committee.

Bob's extensive community service includes serving as synagogue president nine times and as president of the Brevard Jewish Community Council. The University of Miami Alumni Association gave him an Outstanding Service Award (1973). He is a founding member of the Health First Foundation, being known as 'the father of the Health First Ball.' He served as president of Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs and treasurer of the international Federation of Jewish Men's Club's Foundation for Jewish Life. Since retiring in 2000, Bob became an accomplished Bonsai artist and woodworker. He and his wife, Gloria have been together for 57 years, with two children and three grandchildren.

'Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. Life is about learning how to dance in the rain.'

Wendy Satin Rapaport, L.S.C.W., Psy.D., licensed clinical psychologist, was Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami Medical School and is presently Adjunct Professor at the University of Maine Graduate School of Social Work, teaching group therapy in health settings.

Dr. Rapaport has specialized in individual, marital, family, and group therapy for patients with diabetes for more than 40 years. She has written four books, two book chapters, and published more than 60 articles on this subject. Her doctoral dissertation was on “Humor as a Coping Mechanism in Diabetes” finding that humor could be cultivated as a coping mechanism for well being and effectiveness. She has been trying to make people laugh and find their own sense of humor since then.

In 1999, she was awarded the National Health Information Award for her book, When Diabetes Hits Home: The Whole Family’s Guide to Emotional Health. In it, she addresses the challenges facing people with diabetes, both those who are newly diagnosed and those who have lived with diabetes for many years, as well as strategies for the management of diabetes through actions and attitudes for everyone involved. Her next book in 2014 with co-author Janis Roszler was written for health professionals, Behavioral Approach: Changing the dynamic between patient and professional in diabetes care.

In between those two books was her tribute to writing poetry as a mental health asset in her book On the Couch with a good enough poet; how an average neurotic became an average poet, happily psychologizing along the way.

She wrote another book of political protest called What do We Tell the Children?

Dr. Rapaport has given lectures, taught, and run groups for forty years with health professionals, patients and their families. She teaches lay people to reach out to the psychosocial needs of patients with diabetes and started the PEP Squad, the Diabetes Research Institute’s training for mothers to become mentors to other newly diagnosed families with diabetes.

Dr. Rapaport’s firm professional belief that we all need constructive connection, (and not just from our psychologists) led her to her newest book with co-author -and lifelong friend -psychoanalyst Dr. Sanda Bernstein, Friendship Matters. In it they explore the joy, the necessity, and the skill of creating friendships that enhance all our relationships.

--Bio from University of Maine website

A stand-out football player in Beach High's history, James Schwartzburg was voted all city, all state, honorable mention all-American, and was the first Beach high athlete to receive a full football scholarship to the University of Florida. While there, he was the only player to start a game by playing both running back (Offense) and linebacker (Defense). He made the Southeastern Conference, was a member of the Florida Blue Key and University Honor Court.

Jim founded Packer Plastics, based in Lawrence, Kansas. From its modest start, the firm grew from five employees to a staff of 1,100 and sales of $60 million when the company was sold in 1998. At that time, Packer Plastics was one of the largest companies in the plastic container industry, and the second largest employer in the Lawrence area.

Among his innovations, Jim developed and introduced the ubiquitous plastic recycling codes that became standard throughout the industry. A Chevron resin chemical he developed enabled the industry to reduce the weight of packaging materials by 50%. The Stadium Cup, used to sell beverages at sporting events, is another Schwartzburg creation. He is also the founder of Packageware, a producer of home use products and sold through mass merchandisers such as Walmart. In addition, he designed a complete line of lawn and garden products.

A valued board member with First National Bank, Chamber of Commerce, and Habitat for Humanity in Kansas, Schwartzburg also served as a Director of Lawrence Memorial Hospital and the Society of Plastics Industry. Jim's outstanding community service includes the Villages, a midwest provider for Foster/Orphan Children. He also supported the Cottonwood Workers by hiring 75-100 of their handicapped members over a 20-year period.

Dr. Roseann Sidener, B.M. '78, M.M. '87, wife of UM Frost Professor Whitney Sidener, was an award-winning educator whose career as an exemplar of excellence, beginning with her early years as a choral music educator and extending to her most recent stint as high school principal of Beach Senior High in Miami Beach, Florida. She was named the 2012 Principal of the Year by the Florida Association of School Administrators.

Sidener, born Rosann Powell in Pittsburgh on April 26, 1955, passed away from cervical cancer on April 15 after a two year battle with the disease. She was 57.

She earned both a bachelor's and master's of music degree in music education from the University of Miami Frost School of Music and a doctoral degree from Columbia University. She was affectionately called "Doc" by her students.

Her passion for music began while playing the violin in fourth grade. She later sang lead roles in school musicals and at church, and played piano and French horn.

“She liked teaching because music was part of her life,’’ her husband said. “She loved conducting and loved turning kids on to music. And she was really good at it. She had one of the top choral programs in the area.’’

George Solomon was assistant managing editor for sports at The Washington Post from June 1975 to June 2003. Solomon began working at The Post in June 1972, joining the sports staff as a reporter covering the Redskins, the National Football League, and college sports.

He came to the Philip Merrill College of Journalism in 2003 and was named Professor of the Practice in 2008. He became the founding director of The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism in November 2011. He retired at the end of June 2020.

Since his retirement as Washington Post sports editor, he was named ombudsman for ESPN in July 2005, the first person to serve in that newly created position for the network. He also coedited "All Those Mornings" – an anthology of the work of the late Post columnist Shirley Povich, published in April 2005 by Public Affairs Press.

Solomon is a 1963 graduate of the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Journalism. After graduation, he worked in the publications department of the NCAA and was a news aide for the New York Post. He became a reporter for the Fort Lauderdale News and later became the sports editor at the Sun Sentinel, where he worked from 1966-70. He joined the Washington Daily News in 1970 as a sports reporter and columnist. When that paper closed in June 1972, he joined The Washington Post.

Solomon was awarded the Eugene Meyer Award for distinguished service to The Washington Post in 1999 and won the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) Red Smith Award in 2003 for his contributions to the field of sports journalism. He was also honored that year by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and the Association of Women in Sports Media. He was inducted into the Washington Sports Hall of Fame in April 2014.

--Bio from Merill College of Journalism