Name: 7th Annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Start: 2024-05-03T17:00:00-04:00
End: 2024-05-03T21:00:00-04:00
Location: Patchogue-Medford High School

PMHOF Proudly Presents Inspiration Courage Dedication Recognition Raider Strong

A Congressional Medal of Honor recipient; one of Major League Baseball’s premier pitchers; a sitting U.S. ambassador; an international opera star; a celebrated civil rights leader; the federal judge who locked up one of America’s most notorious gangsters. What do these people have in common? They are all members of the Patchogue-Medford Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame is taking hold as source of tremendous excitement throughout the Patchogue-Medford schools and the entire community. Thousands of donors and dozens of local and regional businesses have already joined together to help support and grow this institution into the powerful source for pride and positive values that its founders envisioned. Establishing a Hall of Fame to identify and honor the Patchogue-Medford School District and community’s many prominent alumni, teachers, administrators, volunteers, business and civic leaders was the brainchild of Manny Felouzis and Harry Farides, both 1969 graduates of, and former teachers at, Patchogue-Medford High School. Along with co-founders Tom Combs, the former PM athletic director, PMHS principal Dr. Randy Rusielewicz, and Larry Roberts, the district’s former director of music, the group formed a plan to create the Hall as an entirely community-funded program, and in 2015 won approval from the Board of Education to erect and maintain a state-of-the-art Hall of Fame Learning Center at the high school once the funding goal of $500,000 is reached. The immediate success and impact of the Hall of Fame has brought that goal well within reach.

One inaugural Hall of Fame member who could not be there was nevertheless well known to the students: Lieutenant Michael Murphy (’94), a Navy SEAL who became the first naval officer to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in more than 40 years after he was killed in a raid on the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2005, and in whose honor the Patchogue-Medford High School campus was named in 2014. Another absentee was Marcus Stroman (’09), who was pitching that day for the Toronto Blue Jays. And one other was W. Burghardt Turner, the late founder of the Patchogue and Brookhaven branches of the NAACP, former PMHS teacher and Stony Brook professor.

Hall of Fame Booster Club

In conjunction with the Patchogue-Medford School District and High School, initiated the formation of the Patchogue-Medford High School Hall of Fame Club.

Hall of Fame Booster Club

The mission of this club is to work closely with the adult Booster Club by volunteering at Hall of Fame events, assisting with the identification of potential future inductees and lending student voices to the goals and mission of the Patchogue Medford Hall of Fame Booster Club, Inc.

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Scholarship

We are pleased to be able to award a student each year with a scholarship based upon participation, service, and scholastic achievement.

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Mission and Vision

Our mission is to recognize and honor those Patchogue-Medford graduates who not only made but continue to make a positive impact on their classmates and communities.

Our long-term vision is to link the Patchogue-Medford School District’s Whole Child approach by funding a state-of-the-art display atrium and interactive learning center, to be erected and maintained at a prominent area at the Patchogue-Medford High School.

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People throughout the community are already amazed to learn about the enormous quality and range of achievements of our first three classes of inductees. Once the Learning Center is up and running, not only will students be exposed to these inspirational role models on a daily basis, but the entire community will benefit as well.

The Hall of Fame was designed to focus attention on the very best of what Patchogue-Medford people have achieved over the course of more than a century, and continue to achieve and accomplish today. The positive messaging shines the brightest possible light on our area, and we especially invite the many businesses throughout our community to join us by helping to spread awareness and pride in the great new community institution that is the Patchogue-Medford Hall of Fame.

There is an expression frequently heard during a session of yoga: “That the light that shines upon me, shines upon you.” That is truly the essence of what it means to be inducted into the Patchogue-Medford Hall of Fame. For a brief moment the light does indeed shine upon the inductee. But once the ceremony is over, the spotlight shines upon a greater image: The Patchogue-Medford School community. Each member of the Hall of Fame and all those who have been nominated are pixels in the image of a school district and community that has nurtured in so many ways those who have been honored. There lies hidden amongst the pixels a vast number of students, teachers, coaches, administrators and community members who have strived for excellence. The force generated by the many has created the fertile environment that is the bedrock of the PM Hall of Fame.

The Patchogue Medford Hall of Fame Organization is a vital part of our community's legacy and one everyone should invest in. The Hall of Fame makes telling our history of excellence a priority, lifting up and recognizing individuals (and teams) who have positively impacted this community. People, and their commitment to positively contribute to others, make the Patchogue Medford community a great place to live and grow. It instills the idea in our future generations that excellence is the standard to live by. I was honored to be embraced and celebrated as the 2017 Patchogue Medford Hall of Fame's Person of the Year.