CCP lauds leadership
of six honorees

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

Community College of Philadelphia honored six individuals with Distinguished Leadership Awards at a Friday morning ceremony at its Northeast Regional Center.
The sixth annual ceremony honors people who have demonstrated a commitment to education and the community.
The award winners were Bruce K. Foulke, president and CEO of American Heritage Federal Credit Union; Thomas A. Mills, a retired educator and public servant; U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy; Jacques A. Lurie, executive director and educational director for the Congregations of Shaare Shamayim-Beth Judah; Edward W. Kelly, a community activist; and Robert Voigt, a student at George Washington High School.
The crowd listened to remarks by Stephen M. Curtis, president of CCP, and Daniel P. McElhatton, chairman of the board of trustees. Curtis indicated that the college plans to double the size of its Northeast center, located at 12901 Townsend Road.
Guests included Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce president and Republican mayoral candidate Al Taubenberger, a former honoree who proudly noted that this year’s winners include three chamber members (Foulke, Lurie and Kelly).
Foulke has been president and CEO of American Heritage Federal Credit Union, 2060 Red Lion Road, since 1979. He founded and chairs the Kids-N-Hope Foundation, a charitable organization that has raised more than $500,000 for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia since 1996. He’s a volunteer firefighter who has worked with Habitat for Humanity and was named Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Person of the Year.
Mills, former head of the Normandy Civic Association, served as the city’s first deputy finance director and first deputy managing director. He was director of education at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Center of Government and professor of public administration at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He was a member of Philadelphia’s board of education and taught at Temple, Rider and Trenton State College. He is a former Democratic candidate in the 10th Councilmanic District and 5th Senatorial District.
Murphy, who missed the event because he was in Washington, was elected last year. The Parkwood native attended Bucks County Community College. He’s served in Bosnia and Iraq as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division. He earned the Bronze Star, and his unit received the Presidential Unit Citation during his service in Iraq. An attorney, he formerly taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Lurie, who missed the ceremony because he was ill, heads one of the largest and most active synagogues in Philadelphia. Shaare Shamayim, at 9768 Verree Road, offers programs for all ages, with a focus on children. There’s an early childhood education program, a nursery school, a kindergarten and summer camp, and Lurie has instituted a program where young people visit the elderly on holidays.
Lurie has been part of the Northeast Synagogue Consortium, which has welcomed dwindling congregations to merge with larger ones. A former school board member and Democratic candidate in the 170th Legislative District, he has worked with B’nai B’rith and Friends of Fox Chase Farm and has a special interest in Soviet Jewry.
Kelly served in the Army Air Corps at the end of World War II, became a successful businessman and later the president of the Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. He worked with then-Mayor Frank L. Rizzo to secure the chamber’s current office at 8601 Roosevelt Blvd. He’s a longtime member of the Mayor’s Advisory Council and active with Nazareth Hospital and Holy Family University. He’s one of the driving forces behind the Pennypack Park Music Festival.
Voigt is a senior at Washington and president of his graduating class and the school’s National Honor Society chapter. He takes advanced-placement classes and is ranked sixth in a class of 521. He’s earned an academic scholarship to Temple, where he’ll major in business. He’s a member of the marching band, jazz band, concert band and chamber choir at Washington. He helps raise money for the American Cancer Society and the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
He was unable to make the ceremony because of a musical commitment, but offered his thanks in a taped video address. ••
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com