School's Hall of Fame calls FHS graduates

[29yrswithaGApass]

Source: News Transcript

 

School's Hall of Fame calls FHS graduates

Great Adventure president and rocket scientist among next week's honorees

BY CLARE MARIE CELANO Staff Writer

Mark Kane says he has the best job in the world. Kane, who is the president of the Six Flags Great Adventure theme park in nearby Jackson, spends his days in an amusement park making sure other people are having fun.

 

 

Kane, class of 1972, is among a group of Freehold High School graduates who will be feted at the Battleground Country Club, Manalapan, on April 2 and enshrined in the high school's Hall of Fame. Tickets for the banquet are $40 and may be purchased by call Susan Schrott at 732-421-8360.

 

The other honorees are:

 

• New Jersey state legislator Clifton T. Barkalow, class of 1926, who is being honored posthumously.

 

• Daniel Boyarin, class of 1964, an author and professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

 

• Kevin Christopher, class of 1969, a broadcast journalist in Lexington, Ky.,

 

• Dr. Howard Kanner, class of 1987, who is a rocket scientist.

 

In an interview with the News Transcript, Kane said he was excited to learn he had been selected for induction into the school's hall of fame. Calling it an "absolutely great honor," Kane remembered his time at Freehold High School as a good experience.

 

"My plan was to hit the books, learn, play some sports, make some great friends and have a good time And I did all that," Kane said.

 

He played football, joined the wrestling team and played golf while he was a student at the high school in Freehold Borough.

 

Born in Hazelton, Pa., Kane moved to Freehold Township in August 1967.

 

He said his present position as the president of Great Adventure is "the job I always wanted."

 

He began his career with the theme park as a summer job, operating games, while he was a student at Glassboro State University (now Rowan University), where he majored in psychology.

 

He said Great Adventure offered good jobs for young people.

 

"There were two options for me at that time, one was to operate games, the other was to drive a tram," Kane said. "I wanted to be in the park. It was that simple."

 

His professional experience includes a number of management roles at Six Flags Great Adventure between 1976 and 1987 in the inpark revenues areas.

 

In between his tenures with Six Flags, Kane held executive roles with Vari-tech International from 1987 through 1992 and became the company's executive vice president when it merged with Skee-Ball Inc.

 

Kane returned to Six Flags as the revenue director in 2000 and was promoted to corporate director of In-Park Services, relocating to Texas from 2000-04. He then served two years as park president of Six Flags New England near Springfield Mass., before returning to Great Adventure in Jackson in 2007.

 

"You wonder, is it just luck that you end up back home or did I functionally navigate myself back to the job I always wanted?" Kane said, then added, "I'm home."

 

Kanner, who now resides in Florida, remembers Freehold High School as being "cozy" with a wonderful small-town atmosphere and a diverse population, something he enjoyed being a part of.

 

The class of 1987 graduate said he was on the Colonials' cross country and track and field teams, as well as the math and computer teams and he was a member of the National Honor Society.

 

Kanner said he believes that because he attended a smaller high school, he was able to participate in sports, something that he said may not have been an option for him at a larger high school. He said he joined the school's sports teams not necessarily to be competitive, but more for enjoyment.

 

He said he always found math and science fascinating.

 

Kanner, who grew up in Manalapan, was a member of the first graduating class from the Freehold Regional High School District's Medical Sciences Learning Center, which is housed at Freehold High School.

 

He attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York where he earned two bachelor's degrees. He graduated from RPI in 1992 with degrees in aeronautical engineering and physics. Kanner then went on to earn a master's degrees from the George Washington University and a Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, both in aerospace engineering.

 

He began working for the United States Space Alliance at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 1999, where he currently works on the solid rocket boosters of space shuttles.

 

In 2006, Kanner was named a Launch Honoree in recognition of the work he did to support Return-to-Flight following the Columbia tragedy, after the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. The Columbia tragedy on Feb. 1, 2003, killed seven shuttle crew members.

 

Kanner enjoys scuba diving, cycling, running and mountain climbing and makes it a point to team up with those who run the Born to Run race whenever he comes back to Freehold around Thanksgiving time. He has two daughters, ages 10 and 12.

 

Teacher Susan Schrott, who chairs the high school's Hall of Fame Committee, said these graduates deserve to be recognized for their accomplishments.

 

"We are so proud of them. These people have gone on to excel in their fields and they deserve to be honored. This is a tiny high school and look at what these people have done," she said.

 

Schrott, who is a Freehold High School graduate, said a strong sense of community is one of the things that makes the high school unique.

 

"Everyone knows Freehold High School is a well-kept secret; it needs to be recognized for that," she said. "Until you've walked the halls of the high school and have gotten a sense of Colonial pride, you cannot know what it's really like."

 

Contact Clare Marie Celano at ccelano@gmnews.com.

 

Congratulations Mark !!!

[southview2]

Wow, go mark!

[Mike13]

Go Mr.Kane!To bad he went to Township though,I hate Freehold Township (My school has a big rivalry with them) .We hate Freehold and Christian Brothers Academy,and Manalapan High School.Lol we don't like alot of schools =).But it's pretty cool he went to school at a school that's only 15 minutes from my house!