BRUNSWICK, Ohio – Three Brunswick High School graduates have been selected for the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame.
Major Christopher Farrenholz, Class of 1999
Farrenholz had aspired from the age of 4 to be a military officer.
After graduating from BHS in 1999, he attended Capital University. While at there, he was involved in ROTC, Student Government Senate, the International Student Society, the Debate Team and intramural sports.
He was on the dean’s list, was a member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity and graduated cum laude.
In 2003, upon graduation from the Capital University ROTC program, that military goal became a reality when he was commissioned as a field artillery officer in the Army.
He deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom shortly thereafter.
Over the course of two combat deployments, he served in Baghdad, Karbala, Tal A’far and Ramadi as an information operations officer and combat logistics patrol commander.
His career has taken him all over the world, serving in various roles in places such as Russia, Korea, Germany, the Dominican Republic, Scotland, Kuwait, Qatar and Antarctica.
For example, he participated in an international security cooperation mission with the Russian Army in Moscow and on a humanitarian and civic assistance mission in the Dominican Republic.
Farrenholz was nominated for the Hall of Fame by Lynn Koch.
He was featured in several articles in the Sun News/cleveland.com in 2023 for participating in a most unusual way to bring a safe water supply to a village in Tanzania.
As part of the Waterboys’ “Conquering Kili 2023″ effort, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro -- despite being ill and suffering from an infection that developed on his back and required on-the-spot surgery.
He learned later that the support team off the mountain had also determined that they had no faith that he would make it to the summit -- and to that point they weren’t even aware of the surgical procedure.
“Chris Long (whose foundation sponsors the climbs) said he was 60/40 I wouldn’t make it and exclaimed he wanted to get me a T-shirt that read ‘From Sepsis to Summit,’” Farrenholz said.
“And others said I was the comeback climber of the year. We all celebrated our accomplishment in the way any team does -- by poking fun at each other along the way.”
Farrenholz wrote a short stanza to memorialize the accomplishment:
“Atop the roof of Africa
Watching the rise of the sun
Standing upon the snows of Kilimanjaro
I feel that I have won.”
Erin Kraly (McCourt), Class of 2007
Kraly is currently the art teacher at Huntington Elementary School and has made the news many times for her work with Brunswick students.
Her nominator, Jayme McCourt, wrote that Kraly is “an incredible art educator and her skill, passion and enthusiasm for teaching the visual arts is exceptional.”
She has received regional and state recognition in the field of art education, along with multiple grants to further her classroom art projects.
She received the Middle School Division Award in 2021, Northeast Regional Outstanding Art Teacher Award in 2020 and Student Division Award in 2011 through the Ohio Art Education Association.
She also was nominated for the Elementary Division Art Award in 2023.
Kraly was selected to receive a Brunswick Education Foundation grant in 2022 to teach sewing to fourth- and fifth-grade students and was selected to receive a Home Depot grant for K-5 students to paint rocks during field day to display at the Board of Education office.
Dr. Bryon Thomas, Class of 1989
Thomas was a very active high-school student. He was salutatorian for his class.
He was also in show choir, concert choir, theater and musicals. He was a Highlands Summer Camp counselor and worked for the Brunswick Parks Department.
He took Chinese language studies and traveled to China in 1988.
He graduated with a bachelor of science degree in biology from Kenyon College in 1993 and earned his medical degree at Case Western Reserve University in 1997.
He completed his residency in family practice from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2000.
Dedicated to his patients for more than 22 years, he was employed as a family physician by St. Joseph Physician Network from 2000-2009.
He then established a private practice with two other physicians.
He hosted numerous medical students as a staff member of Indiana University School of Medicine.
He has been employed by Everside Health as a family physician since 2019.
He assists in training and ongoing mentorship of new nurse practitioners; is currently serving second- and third-year terms as an elder at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church (he has been a member for 22 years); and serves on the board of Musical Arts Indiana and South Bend Ultimate Frisbee League.
He sings in the Vesper Chorale (12 years), plays Ultimate Frisbee and recruits youth to the sport.
Thomas is a supportive and loving father, spouse, son, son-in-law, uncle and neighbor. His mother, Lois Thomas, was his nominator.
The three nominees will be honored in October.
Brunswick High School Principal Keith Merrill said that on Oct. 11, they will be presented at the home football game starting at 6:30 p.m. And at 6:15 p.m. Oct. 12, the public can honor them at a reception and ceremony to follow at the James J. Hayas Performing Arts Center.
Read more from the Brunswick Sun.
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