The 1976 Awardees

Patricia F. Brown
(1926-1987)

BSN 1948
Philadelphia, PA

Patricia Finnegan Brown, a Philadelphia based nurse and clinical instructor, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Hotel Hershey in Hershey, PA on November 6, 1976.

With nursing degrees from Georgetown and Temple, Mrs. Brown was recognized for over two decades of nursing education, both as an instructor as well as a practicing nurse, including her role at Mercy Catholic Medical center in Philadelphia, PA. Prior to Mercy, she served as an instructor at St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington, DE and the Cooper Hospital in Camden, NJ.

Brown served two years on the Board of Governors of the Georgetown University Alumni Association from 1967 to 1969.

Patricia Brown died in 1987.

Dr. Anthony R. Fernicola MD
(1915-1990)

AB 1942, MD 1945
Newark, NJ

Dr. Anthony Fernicola, a Newark-based urologist and longtime Georgetown volunteer, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Hotel Hershey in Hershey, PA on November 6, 1976.

A midshipman at the Naval Academy and an Ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve, Fernicola continued his education at Georgetown during World War II, completing his undergraduate and medical degrees by 1945. Following a post-graduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania, he began his urology practice in the Newark area, later serving as president of the medical staff at St. James Hospital.

A loyal member of the Board of Governors of the Alumni Association, Dr. Fernicola was one of the founding members of the "Committee on Basketball", the 1976 alumni study that led to the founding of the Hoya Hoop Club. The support club's annual volunteer award is named in his honor.

Dr. Fernicola died in 1990 at the age of 74.

Rev. Robert J. Henle, SJ
(1909-2001)

Honorary degree, 1977
Washington, DC

Robert Henle, S.J., 45th president of Georgetown University from 1969 through 1976, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Hotel Hershey in Hershey, PA on November 6, 1976.

Born in 1909, Rev. Henle joined the Jesuit order in 1927, receiving his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from St. Louis University. The dean of the graduate school at SLU at the time of his appointment at Georgetown, Rev. Henle was the first Georgetown president chose by its board of directors as opposed to the Jesuit provincial, and the first Jesuit from outside the Maryland Province.

Henle's tenure coincided with the numerous changes to American college campuses during the height of the Vietnam War. The Henle years also accelerated the coeducation of the College, increased roles for lay administrators, and the creation of the Faculty Senate. Rev. Henle announced plans for a new capital campaign as the University's finances were stabilized following a decade of deficits. The Lauinger Library was opened during Rev. Henle's tenure, as was the relocation of the Law Center to its present campus adjacent to Capitol Hill. Also of note: his hiring of John Thompson as men's basketball coach in 1972, expressing the hope that the 29 year old Thompson could take the team to the NIT every few years or so.

As Rev. Henle neared retirement age, a series of disputes with Executive Vice President Rev. Edmund Ryan S.J. reached local and national attention. Ryan, 20 years his junior, was a popular figure on campus and a contrast to the older and more distant Henle. In 1974, Henle summarily fired Ryan, causing a campus firestorm. Ryan was later selected as president of Seattle University, while the Georgetown Board of Directors voted to restrict Henle's authority in further executive changes. Rev. Henle announced his retirement effective at the end of the 1975-76 school year, whereupon he returned to St. Louis as a professor and scholar on the works of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Rev. Robert Henle died in 2001 at the age of 91.

Harry J. Noznesky
(1907-1981)

BSFS 1933, Honorary degree, 1974
Reading, PA

Harry Noznesky, former president of the General Battery Corporation, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Hotel Hershey in Hershey, PA on November 6, 1976.

Noznesky was born in Kennett Square, PA in 1907, and came to Georgetown on a baseball scholarship from the Wenonah (PA) Military Academy. As his pitching fortunes faltered, he rededicated himself in the classroom.

"I had really been majoring in baseball," Noznesky told the New York Times in 1971. "That bad arm made me concentrate on studies and I wound up switching from the College to the Foreign Service School. In my final semester I got five A's and two B's." Following Georgetown, Noznesky took a position with the First Pennsylvania Corporation, moving up in management ranks with various companies before joining General Battery, the nation's largest independent battery manufacturer before its acquisition by Exide Corporation in 1987.

He told the Times that "I don't play golf because when I was younger I couldn't afford it, and now I have no time for it."

Noznesky served on the Alumni Association Board of Governors and the SFS Board of Visitors. He received an honorary degree from Georgetown in 1974.

Harry Noznesky died in 1981 at the age of 73.

Harry J. Smith, Jr.
(1919-1999)

BSFS 1941
Washington, DC

Harry Smith, former president of the Georgetown University Alumni Association, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Hotel Hershey in Hershey, PA on November 6, 1976.

At the time of the award, Smith was president of St. John's International, a international shipping company. A contemporary article referred to Smith as "a little known but powerful figure" in foreign trade.

A former instructor in the School of Foreign Service, Smith was generous with his time and philanthropy to Georgetown. A former member of the Board of Governors of the Alumni Association, Smith served as president of the Association from 1980 to 1982. In his later years, Smith provided a grant to fund a career development center for SFS graduate programs.

Harry Smith died in 1999 at the age of 80.

William J. Taylor
(1930-2017)

LLB 1957
Washington, DC

William Taylor, former president of the Georgetown Club of Philadelphia, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Hotel Hershey in Hershey, PA on November 6, 1976.

Born in Drexel Hill, PA and raised in Ventnor, NJ, Taylor received his bachelor's degree from St. Joseph's and law degree from Georgetown before a long career as a private attorney. While a partner with the law firm of Morgan, Lewis, and Bockius, Taylor led the effort for Philadelphia to host the John Carroll Awards in the bicentennial year of 1976.

Three months prior to the awards, the host hotel for the event, the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, was the site of what later became known as Legionnaire's Disease. As a result of a heretofore unknown bacteria which had infected the hotel's air conditioning system, 25 guests at the 1976 American Legion convention died within a week and over 200 were hospitalized.

The circumstances of the illness were not immediately known but the panic would bankrupt the renowned hotel, as reservations plummeted. By the time of the November 1976 awards, the hotel would close, leaving the Philadelphia club scrambling for an event locale. The awards were moved two hours west to Hershey, PA, where they were pronounced as a success.

In addition to his volunteer service to Georgetown, Taylor served as an adjunct professor at the Temple University School of Law.

William Taylor died in 2017 at the age of 87.