By Jason Klaiber

Staff Writer

The inaugural class of Jamesville-DeWitt Fine Arts Hall of Fame inductees will be unveiled in a ceremony at 7 p,m. on Tuesday, Nov. 26 in the district high school’s auditorium.

The recently formed hall of fame will recognize alumni, ensembles, educators and other contributors based on accomplishments during their time spent attending classes, participating in productions, working as employees, visiting or offering help and resources in the Jamesville-DeWitt district and afterwards.

This first-ever round of inductees will comprise only alumni and former teachers.   

This year’s alumni inductees will be Rhys Henson, a 1974 graduate of the high school; Amy Bernon from the class of 1985; Jonathan Howell, a 1991 graduate; Stephen Paparo, who graduated in 1992; and Alex Brandt, who graduated in 2006.

All of the alumni being honored specialized in the realm of music except for Brandt, who focused on technical theatre and art.   

The educators for this year’s class will be Ronald Nuzzo, who taught instrumental music at the high school; Bonnie Nye, an instructor of vocal music at the high school; and Robert Reals, who taught art at Jamesville Elementary School.

Reals will be inducted posthumously, having passed away in 2016. He served as an elementary school teacher for 12 years as well as the coordinator of the district’s art department.

Reals also spent 25 years working for the New York State Department of Education.

Nuzzo and Nye combined for over 80 years of teaching at the high school, spanning 1961 to 2011, counting Nuzzo’s one year of student teaching.

Paul Rush, a 1973 Jamesville-DeWitt High School graduate, said that in the years after he attended the school, he became aware of the “remarkable success stories” of fellow alumni in the field of fine arts.

“I began thinking it must be rare for such a comparatively small district to turn out that much collective talent,” Rush said.  

Later, at Nuzzo’s 2011 retirement concert, Rush started a conversation with alumnus Warren Abrahams from the class of 1972 about the extent of this “phenomenon.”  

Abrahams later conceived the idea for a fine arts hall of fame, leading to a meeting between Rush and then-superintendent Alice Kendrick.

The formation of a hall of fame committee followed, and Rush spent two years on organizational work, including the recruitment of committee members.

“It’s the highest possible honor to be a part of the effort to create the J-D Fine Arts Hall of Fame,” Rush said. “It gives us the chance to tell the story about the extraordinary fine arts heritage that belongs to this community, and to show how everyone in the J-D family, past and present, helped make it possible.”

The high school’s jazz band and chamber choir will both perform at next week’s ceremony at 6845 Edinger Drive.

The inductee plaques will be contained in a display case across from the main auditorium doors.

For more information, contact [email protected] or Brenda Neuss at [email protected].

To submit a form suggesting a hall of fame candidate for consideration, follow the link at the bottom of the jdfineartshall.org home page.