(Posted June 11, 2001)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Juniata College presented six alumni-related awards Saturday during Alumni Assembly, part of "Juniata College Alumni Weekend 2001: 125 Uncommon Years at Juniata." Altoona resident Barry J. Halbritter was awarded the Harold B. Brumbaugh Alumni Service Award; Sammy K. Buo, deputy director of the Africa II division of the Department of Political Affairs of the United Nations, received the Alumni Achievement Award; Cresson native Dr. Robert M. Biter received the Young Alumni Achievement Award; and Dr. C. Beth Farrell, a resident of King City, Ore., received the William E. Swigart Jr. Alumni Humanitarian Award.

In addition at the ceremony held in Rosenberger Auditorium in Oller Hall, Peter Hauer, manager of a research laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, received the 2001 Health Professions Alumni Appreciation Award. Dr. Gregory L. Stahl, associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School, received the 2000 Health Professions Alumni Appreciation Award. He had been unable to attend last year's ceremony.

Halbritter, a 1965 Juniata graduate with a bachelor's degree in business, has been a loyal and dedicated volunteer for Juniata College. Halbritter has been a member of the board of trustees since 1993 and has served as chair of the Juniata Fund. He also is campaign chair for Juniata's Uncommon Outcomes capital campaign and serves as a member of the Science Campaign planning committee. He is a consistent participant in Juniata College Career Days and has spoken at lectures and seminars for the college’s business department. Halbritter and his wife, Marlene, a 1962 Juniata graduate, have donated $2 million for the Marlene and Barry Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts and donated funds for the construction of the Halbritter Plaza of the Cloister residence hall. They also fund three student scholarships.

Mr. Halbritter is the president and CEO of Midstate Tool & Supply Inc. The company is one of the top three suppliers of automotive tools and supplies in the nation. The Altoona-based company also sells internationally and employs more than 50 people.

Dr. Biter, a 1992 Juniata graduate with a bachelor's degree in theatre and premedicine, has been an active volunteer for many Juniata College activities. Dr. Biter, who recently finished a four-year residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, earned his medical degree at the Penn State University College of Medicine.

Dr. Biter has received many awards, scholarships and fellowships for excellence in his field and for humanitarian efforts. He received the 2000 American Medical Association Foundation Award and the 1997 Excellence in Obstetrics and Gynecology Award from Penn State's College of Medicine. He also received five state and national awards for his one-act play, "Strangers," which addresses the subject of terminal illness. The play has been produced at theatres across the country, including a performance at Juniata College during the college's "Celebration of Women" event in April this year.

Buo, a resident of North Potomac, Md. and a native of Cameroon, graduated from Juniata in 1973 with a bachelor's degree in political science. He earned a master's degree in international relations from Tufts University in 1974. He started his career at the United Nations in 1974, as a political affairs officer for the Department of Political and Security Council Affairs. Buo was named director of the United Nations Center for Peace and Disarmament in 1986 and has served on several U.N. commissions on disarmament.

A resident of King City, Ore., Dr. C. Beth Ferrell, graduated from Juniata in 1948 and earned her medical degree from the Temple University School of Medicine in 1953. She and her husband, Bert, also a doctor, worked at their own medical practice in Oregon for 11 years. The couple closed their practice and left the United States in 1967 to open and establish a medical facility in the jungles of Borneo, Indonesia.

The couple developed the center from a small clinic into a 126-bed hospital with hydroelectric power, a government-certified nursing school, three satellite clinics and pediatric and pre-natal services.

The recipient of the 2001 Health Professions Alumni Appreciation Award, Lebanon, Pa. native Peter Hauer, a 1986 graduate of Juniata in biology, is a molecular biology researcher in the department of neurology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. He has worked on biomedical research in muscular dystrophy, Alzheimer's disease and HIV neuropathy.

He has sponsored eight Juniata College students with summer or full-time employment in his lab at Johns Hopkins. He is a resident of Perry Hall, Md.
Dr. Gregory Stahl, a native of Greencastle, Pa., came to the Juniata campus to receive his 2000 Health Professions Alumni Appreciation Award. He is associate professor in the department of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School. He graduated from Juniata in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in biomedical sciences. He went on to earn a doctorate in cardiovascular physiology in from Thomas Jefferson University in 1988.

Dr. Stahl worked as a graduate research fellow at the University of California at Davis from 1988 to 1991 and as a research fellow at the American heart Association from 1989 to 1993. He has given laboratory internships to Juniata students every summer since 1994. Stahl lives in Clinton, Mass.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.