Each year the Association names one or two outstanding Alumnus as the recipient of an Outstanding Alumnus Award to be presented at the Annual Banquet.

The Recipient(s) of the award shall be honored by the Association at the banquet held as a part of the Annual Membership Meeting, and shall have their photograph mounted and displayed in Bellaire High School along with past recipients of the Award.

Nominations may be made by any member if the Association by writing in letter form the name of the person to be nominated, the field of endeavor in which they have excelled, and an outline or resume of their achievements, activities and other accomplishments which brings honor to themselves and Bellaire High School. All written nominations must be submitted to a member of the Board of Trustees, or postmarked, not later than the second day of January of the year in which the award is to be given. 

Harold Lee Brown has worked
primarily in health care information
technology and has extensively
volunteered in his communities.
Harold attended The Ohio State
University graduating in 1968 with a BS in
Business majoring in Economics & Statistical
Analysis. Upon enrollment in the Air Force
RO TC, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lt.
and assigned to HQ Logistics Command
at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton. As a
Data Automation Officer, with top-secret
security clearances, he started by supervising
computer operators processing supply
requisitions. He subsequently managed
projects to automate the worldwide electronic
transmission of requisitions and reporting.
After training in computer programming &
analysis, he developed systems to maintain
one of the largest supply inventories in the
world. While in Dayton, he participated in the
Big Brothers of America program to mentor
a young boy who had lost his father. He also
supported the base’s Christmas food program
making deliveries to the homes of truly needy
families.
Prior to discharge, Harold began taking
courses in biosciences at Wright State, an
OSU branch campus. Upon discharge,
he returned to Columbus to study Allied
Medicine. Majoring in Medical Record
Administration, he received a second BS
in 1972 and became Assistant Director of
Medical Records for University Hospitals.
This was a facility position with a primary
responsibility of proctoring students. He was
responsible for record operations at OSU’s
inpatient Psychiatric and Rehab hospitals and
at all OSU Clinics. His project management
responsibilities included automation of the
Medical Centers’ massive master patient index
and the electronic requisitioning & tracking of
patient records through OSU’s many clinics.
Upon returning to OSU, Harold volunteered
to assist handicapped students, transporting
them to and from classes at the Medical Center.
Post graduation, he studied for and successfully
earned national certification as a Registered
Medical Record Administrator.
In 1974, El Camino Hospital (ECH) in
Mountain View, California, hired Harold
to help develop the world’s first automated
patient care system. As the Director of the
Medical Record Deptartment, his role was
to automate the storage and retrieval of
electronic records for patients’ continuing
care. After years of working to develop firstever
healthcare automation, Harold met with
visitors from around the world and shared
his experience at many industry conferences.
He also taught a class on Computers in
Medicine and served as a faculty advisor
at a local community college. Being a
direct practice supervisor allowed him to
hire top-notch students. In 1985, Harold
implemented the hospital’s first network of
personal computers to optimize Medicare
payments based on each patient’s diagnoses
and procedures. This led to his becoming
Manager of Business Information Systems.
In addition to automatic billing and claims
processing, his staff of software programmers
and analysts developed complex algorithms to
administer self-insurance programs with local
companies.
In 1996, Harold became an employee of
IBM when his department was outsourced to
their new Global Services Division. For a year,
he traveled extensively to help IBM expand its
health information business.
In 1997, Harold was recruited to become
the COO of Digital Records Corporation
(DR C) a healthcare services start-up. This
was a business that he had founded in the
late 70’s as a non-profit, shared service for
six local community hospitals. A group of
Silicon Valley investors had subsequently
purchased the business and hired him
to grow it for-profit. With the advent of
the Internet, DR C developed software to
automate the processing of digital voice,
to distribute the audio securely to medical
transcription employees working from
their homes in nearly every US state, to
electronically edit the transcribed reports
and to securely deliver the reports to each
customer’s electronic medical record. In
2000, Harold was appointed President &
CEO of DR C. Over the next 7 years, DR C
became the largest medical transcription
service in Northern California, servicing
several large teaching/research hospitals
and hospital networks. DR C was sold in
2007, providing a significant return to its
investors.
Before retiring, Harold returned to ECH as a Project Manager. He helped to open
their new hospital facility in Mountain
View, installing the latest systems for digital
imaging and robotics to automate specimen
processing for the Clinical Labs and
Pathology. He expanded core information
systems to a second hospital campus in
Los Gatos and shared patients’ medical
information for specialized treatment with
nearby medical research centers in Palo Alto.
ECH is now known as the “Hospital of the
Silicon Valley”. As a result of his early work
at the hospital, he is permanently assigned
medical record # 00000001.
In retirement, Harold has served as ECH’s
team captain to raise money for community
mental health programs sponsored by the
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NA MI).
This led to his becoming a Vice President
of Santa Clara County NA MI. His latest
passion is a NA MI mentoring program to
match patients being discharged from local
mental health facilities with “peers” who have
experienced mental illness.
As a California resident, Harold
campaigned to establish one of the first
statewide deposit programs to promote
beverage container recycling. As a League of
Women Voters member, he has petitioned to
reform state & national healthcare financing
and to reform California’s political campaign
financing.
These activities led to him serving
as Voter-Services chairperson and Vice
President of the Cupertino-Sunnyvale LW V.
He was also a local Democratic Precinct
Captain. In this position he helped to
elect the first US Congress Woman from
his California district. During his kids’
school years, he served as Treasurer of the
Sunnyvale Gymnastics Club. He is also a
life long blood donor, now totaling over 16
gallons of whole blood.
Harold met his first wife, Linda, at
OSU. His second wife, Barb, is an RN who
retired after 40 years at ECH. His two sons,
a daughter and five grandchildren live
nearby in California. He continues to enjoy
bicycling & swimming at his Sunnyvale
home and sailing & windsurfing on
California’s mountain lakes.
Harold’s mother, Mary Taylor Brown
Webber, is a BHS Class of 1940 graduate.
His sister, Lucy Brown Schleicher, graduated
in 1968. Harold is a lifetime member of our
Alumni Association.

PAST RECIPIENTS

2014 F. William Banig '71, Government

2013 Robert I. Wallace '55, Education, Humanitarian

2012 Thomas Poe ‘68, Banking & Civic

2011 Dr. Charles T. Mehlman ’80, Medicine

2010 Kathy Hyett ‘71, Public Relations

2009 Martin F. Goetze ‘54, Health Care and Executive Management

2008 L. Dean Giacometti, ‘38, Education

2007 James B. Piatt '83 , Higher Education

2006 Donald A. Ostasiewski '58, Higher Education

2005 Daniel Frizzi, Jr. '70, Civic

2004 Gary Hill, Education

2003 Nancy Crooks Karvellis '66, Business 

2002 Walter M. Calinger '57, Education

2001 Dr. James E. Austin '51, Dentistry

2000 Terry Allen Wallace '65, Administration

1999 Jules J. Duga, Ph.D. '49, Technology and Society

1998 Emil George Riedel, Jr. '50, National Security 

1997 Dr. Rose Z. Starr '60, Teacher/Social Worker

1996 Judge John J. Malik, Jr. '46, Law 

1995 Joseph A. Pitts, Sr., D.O. '49, Medicine

1994 Donald M. Knox '50, Education

1993 Alan E. Riedel '48, Law/Business 

1992 Thomas E. Rataiczak '64, Education

1991 Robert L. Hill '49, Law/Public Service

1990 Daniel Howard Simpson '57, Govt./Public Service, U.S.Ambassador

1989 Dr. Samuel Evans '57, Intl. and Public Insurance, Adjusting, Consulting

1988 Nelson Lancione '36, Law

1987 Metta Miller '69, Advertising/Business

1986 Charles Tod Goodwin '31, Athletics/Military Service

1985 Kelley Archer '40, Civic Achievement/Law

1984 Dr. Peter Lancione '28, Medicine

1983 Benjamin J. Belt '11, Education

1982 Don Ault '47 and Joe Ault '53, Athletics

1981 Mary Fitch '31, Civic Achievement;  Lou Mahacek '31,Commercial Art

1980 John Nosker '29, Banking 

1979 Hilda Humes Burrows '22, Public Service/Education

1978 William R. Yost '44, Major General, U.S. Air Force

1977 A. G. Lancione '24, Ohio State Representative

1976 J. E. Giffin '16 and Lela Daugherty Giffin '14, Banking/Americanism

1975 Albert V. Noice '17, Banking/Education

1974 James DeBlasis '49, Artistic Director, Cincinnati Opera

1973 Frank W. Ault '39, Captain, U.S. Navy

1972 Velma Workman '14, Education

1971 Joe Mack '16, Public Service

1970 David Myers Creamer '23, Medicine

1969 Michael Basrak ‘31, Coaching/Education

1968  George Tyler ‘23, Law; Eleanor Tyler ‘29, Education

1967 Oliver E. Miles ‘25, Business

1966  Dr. W. J. Shepard ‘09, Medicine

1965 Robert Frank Aldridge, Business

1964 Dr. J. F. Wilkinson ‘10, Medicine

1963 Dr. George W. Watt ‘27, Chemistry

1962 Nick Skorich ‘39, Professional Football Coach

1961 Alfred Garrett ‘24, Education

1960 Navy Lt. Raymond H. Dick ‘38, Atomic Powered Submarines

1959 Rabbi Feinberg ‘16, Author

1958 Lane W. Lancaster ‘10, Political Science

1957 James H. McGregor, Education

1956 Walter Russell ‘10, Bio-Chemistry Research

1955 Mabel Cratty 1884, National Secretary, YWCA

1954  Bessie Hoge 1884, Missionary

1953 Erven Somerville ‘26, Major, U.S. Army