Jack Romano died in 2001 after a battle with cancer. What he gave of himself during his lifetime may be his most enduring legacy. Touching the lives of others – be they friends or strangers – mattered to him. His friends, like David Kennedy who heads the scholarship committee, have quietly committed themselves to carrying on that legacy.

James O’Connell, Plant High School Valedictorian and Senior Class President of the Class of 2009, is this year’s winner of the Jack Romano Scholarship, which is awarded each year to an outstanding Plant High School senior. This scholarship, established in Jack Romano’s memory by his closest friends and administered through the Community Foundation, will assist Jim to attend Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

A quote from Jim’s scholarship application reveals a part of his deeper nature and a kinship with the namesake of this award: “True service takes root in putting others before oneself. True service is the ability to derive happiness from another person’s positive development.”

“I want to express how much it means to me that I was chosen for this scholarship. The help it offers to my mother and me will open doors of opportunity that otherwise would have been shut," says O'Connell.

The quiet commitment of this band of brothers to carry on Jack Romano’s legacy wasn’t about to be stopped by mere market turmoil. Their mission prevailed as they refilled the scholarship coffers rather than allow a year to pass without doing something that mattered for an outstanding Plant High School senior – in honor of the memory of their brother, Jack Romano.