Penn State alumni, delegates of agriculture sciences and the board (representative of business and industry endeavors) recently elected seven incumbents to serve on the University’s Board of Trustees.
University alumni re-elected incumbents Joel N. Myers, AccuWeather founder and president; Marianne Ellis Alexander, president emerita of the Public Leadership Education Network; and H. Jesse Arnelle, attorney.
Delegates of the agricultural societies re-elected Betsy E. Huber, immediate past master, Pennsylvania State Grange; and Keith E. Masser, chairman and chief executive officer of Sterman Masser Inc.
The board also re-elected two incumbents representing business and industry: James S. Broadhurst, chairman of Eat’n Park Hospitality Group Inc.; and Linda B. Strumpf, chief investment officer of the Helmsley Charitable Trust.
Incumbents re-elected by alumni
Joel N. Myers
AccuWeather Inc. has grown into the nation’s largest and best-known commercial weather service under Myers’ guidance. The State College-based company provides forecasts and data to more than 200,000 clients and a quarter-of-a-billion web and mobile users worldwide on accuweather.com, from it’s global headquarters in State College. Additionally, Myers has made significant efforts to recruit and employ Penn State graduates. He received his bachelor’s (1961), master’s (1963) and doctoral (1971) degrees from Penn State. As an undergraduate, he was an editor of The Daily Collegian, vice president of Sigma Gamma Epsilon and a staff member at WDFM radio. He served on the University faculty from 1964 until 1981 as instructor, lecturer and assistant professor in meteorology. Called “the most reliable man in the forecasting business” by The New York Times in 1971, Myers was heard regularly on major radio stations throughout the Northeastern United States for more than a decade and was inducted into the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in May 2000. The author of more than 75 articles, Myers also has appeared on “ABC Nightly News,” and the “Larry King Show,” and has been quoted in numerous national magazines such as Time and National Geographic and more than 500 other publications. Myers was first elected to the Board of Trustees by the alumni for a three-year term beginning July 1, 1981, and was re-elected for succeeding terms.
Marianne Ellis Alexander
Alexander led the Public Leadership Education Network for more than 15 years as executive director and president, and now serves on its board of directors. She served as the president of the Penn State Alumni Association from 2003-05 and was twice elected by fellow alumni to the Alumni Council, served on the Alumni Association’s Parents Advisory Board and was the founding president of the Penn State Professional Women’s Network in Washington, D.C. She received the Liberal Arts Alumni Society’s Service to Penn State Award in March. Earning her bachelor’s degree in history from Penn State in 1962, Alexander went on to receive her master’s and doctorate in American studies from the University of Maryland, and was assistant professor of political science at Goucher College from 1978-84 before becoming executive director of Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN) in Washington, D.C. Alexander has served for nine years on the National Board of Girl Scouts USA and on the World Foundation Board for Girl Scouts and Girl Guides.
H. Jesse Arnelle
Arnelle retired in September 1997 as senior partner with the civil litigation and public finance law firm of Arnelle & Hastie and later as counsel to the firm of Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge and Rice. He has served as a commissioner of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and as an official attaché to the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. A 1955 graduate of Penn State in political science, Arnelle received his LL.B. from The Dickinson School of Law in 1962, following service as an Air Force officer. A life member of the Alumni Association, Laurel Circle, President’s Advisory Council and President’s Club, he’s also a founding member of the Renaissance Fund, providing thousands of student scholarships since 1969. As an undergraduate, he was elected all-University student body president, was a member of Lion’s Paw, and was an All-American in basketball and an All-American honorable mention in football. In 1995, he received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the Dickinson School of Law, and in June 2000 he was honored with the Lion’s Paw Award from Penn State. Arnelle was first elected to the Board of Trustees by the alumni for a three-year term beginning July 1, 1969, and was re-elected for succeeding terms. He served as vice president of the board from 1993 through 1995, and president of the board in 1996 and 1997.
Incumbents re-elected by agricultural societies
Betsy E. Huber
Huber is the legislative liaison and immediate past master of the Pennsylvania State Grange, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life through educational, social and legislative activities; promoting family life through family-oriented activities; advancing the cause of agriculture; and developing rural leadership. A native of Chester County, Pa., Huber attended Millersville and Lincoln universities and graduated from the RULE PA Rural Leadership Program in 2001. She began her affiliation with the Grange at the national level, serving as secretary to the National Grange women’s activities director between 1981-87. The following year, she became office manager for the Pennsylvania Grange, and after a 10-year stint as legislative assistant to state Rep. Arthur Hershey, became master of the state Grange in 2002. Her countywide leadership earned Huber the 2004 Chester County Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award. Huber was elected to the Board of Trustees by the delegates from the agricultural societies in July 2005 and was re-elected for a succeeding term.
Keith Masser
A seventh-generation potato farmer, Masser is president and chief executive officer of both Keystone Potato Products LLC and Sterman Masser Inc. He graduated from Penn State in 1973 with a bachelor’s degreee in agricultural engineering and began his career as a project engineer with Proctor and Gamble. He serves as chairman of the Hubley Township Board of Supervisors, chairman of the Schuylkill County Farmland Preservation Board, chairman of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission Agricultural Advisory Committee, vice chairman of the DEP Agricultural Advisory Committee and serves on the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau State Board of Directors. Masser has been president and CEO of Sterman Masser since 1984 and has grown that business from a $2 million annual operation to a current sales level of $50 million per year. He has served on several national and state organizations including the National Potato Council, United States Potato Board and the Pennsylvania Potato Research Advisory Board.
Re-elected members confirmed by the Board representing business and industry
James S. Broadhurst
Broadhurst, chair of the Board of Trustees from 2007 through 2009, earned a bachelor’s degree from Penn State in 1965 and holds an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh. Broadhurst joined Eat’n Park in 1973 as executive vice president and treasurer and was elected president of Eat’n Park Hospitality Group in 1975. Nine years later he became chairman and CEO of the company, which today encompasses three integrated business divisions. Broadhurst received the Alumni Fellow Award from Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development in 1994 and a Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1997. He chaired, “A Grand Destiny: The Penn State Campaign,” a record-setting capital campaign completed in 2002 after raising $1.37 billion. Broadhurst was first appointed to the Board of Trustees in 1998 to fill an unexpired term as a representative of industrial societies. He was elected as a representative of business and industry in 1999 and has been re-elected for succeeding terms.
Linda B. Strumpf
Strumpf is vice president and chief investment officer of Helmsley Charitable Trust in New York, an organization that aspires to improve lives by supporting effective nonprofits in health and medical research, human services, education and conservation. Strumpf graduated from Penn State in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and in 1972 completed an M.B.A. in finance from New York University’s Graduate School of Business. She is a member of Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts Development Council, the Penn State Investment Council, New York City Professional Women Alumni Interest Group, New York Society of Security Analysts and the Association for Investment Management and Research. The College of the Liberal Arts named her an Alumni Fellow in 1997 and presented her the Distinguished Alumna Award in 1999. Strumpf was appointed to the Board of Trustees in September 2003 to fill an unexpired term as a trustee representing business and industry and was first elected by the alumni in 2005 and re-elected in 2008.
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Penn State’s Board of Trustees is composed of six members appointed by the governor, nine members elected by alumni and six members each elected by agricultural societies and by the board representing business and industry endeavors. In addition, five members are ex-officio by right of their office, including Gov. Thomas W. Corbett Jr.; Penn State President Graham B. Spanier; acting Secretary of Agriculture George D. Greig; acting Secretary of Education Ronald J. Tomalis and acting Secretary of Conservation and Natural Resources Richard J. Allan.
Rebekka Coakley, Penn State University