Alumni Hall of Fame

Jim Burke was an award-winning chef, beloved teacher, and mentor.

At Jenkintown High School, Jim was elected Student Council President, captain of the basketball, football, and baseball teams, and earned the Scholar/Athlete award his senior year. He graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in 1995 with a BS in Economics.

Jim’s career in the culinary arts began with apprenticeships at several notable restaurants in Philadelphia and Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy. In 2006, Jim and his wife, Kristina, opened their own Philadelphia restaurant, JAMES, and earned awards and accolades including:

• Three Bells for JAMES in 2007 by Philadelphia Inquirer’s Craig LaBan 
• Top Chefs in Philadelphia Style Magazine 2007
• Best entree (Risotta Alla Kristina) by Food & Wine Magazine 2007
• One of ten “Best New Chefs” in the U.S. by Food and Wine Magazine 2008
• Top Ten Restaurants in Philadelphia Magazine (including #3 ranking in 2009)
• James Beard “Best Chefs” semifinalist 2008, 2009, 2010
• One of 12 U.S. chefs chosen to compete in the Bocuse d’Or in New York in 2010.

After JAMES, Jim was the Executive Chef at a number of restaurants in Philadelphia and New York City and taught at Drexel University’s Culinary Arts program. His last position was Executive Chef at Wm. Mulherin’s Sons restaurant in Fishtown and Culinary Director for Method Co.

In August of 2022, Jim lost his two-year battle with stage 4 lung cancer — a rare EGFR-positive lung cancer that affects non-smokers. During his treatment, Jim and his wife raised more than $105,000 for the LUNGevity Foundation, providing funding for lung cancer research.

Jim is survived by his wife, Kristina; his children, Daniel and Sadie; his siblings, Laura Burke Lloyd, Jennifer Burke Purtell, and Dylan Burke; and his mother, Diane Burke. He was predeceased by his father, Dr. James F. Burke, Jr.

Rev. Betty G. (Payne) Campbell was born in Abington Memorial Hospital on March 20, 1929, when Black women were only allowed to be on the sun porch of the facility for childbirth. 

Rev. Campbell attended the Jenkintown School District, graduating in 1947. Her career spanned from working as a civilian supervisor for the United States Marine Corps Supply Activity in Philadelphia to the Reprographics Department of UPenn’s Wharton School of Business, from where she retired. She did not enter college until after her daughter completed her graduate degree, eventually accumulating three degrees, a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts, (B. F. A.) and a Master of Arts in Humanities, with a concentration in Fine Arts (M.A.H.), both from what is now Arcadia University and a Master’s in Theological Studies from what is now Palmer Theological Seminary. She was later ordained a Baptist minister, and she served as an associate pastor until her transition. 

Rev. Betty Campbell was the first African American elected to any position in the Borough of Jenkintown, serving on the Jenkintown School District’s Board of School Directors for twenty (20) years, from 1995 to 2015. She was affectionately referred to as “Rev.” by a number of District staff and school board members. Rev. Campbell was also an incredibly talented artist who shared her works at several Jenkintown Arts Festivals.

Second only to God, Rev. Campbell was about her family, whom she loved vigorously. She never hesitated to give an, “I love you,” a hug or words of encouragement and support. She was always ready to spread love, kindness, humor, and a smile, making you feel welcome no matter where. Rev. Campbell will forever be an incredible example of perseverance, strength, a kind and generous soul but, most importantly, what true, unconditional love really is all about.

Linda Davis Harrar now lives in Wayland, Massachusetts., with her husband George Harrar, a novelist. Both she and George are 1967 graduates of Jenkintown High School.  

Linda’s family moved to Jenkintown in 1960, when she was in 6th grade. Her parents chose Jenkintown because they had heard of the fine reputation of Jenkintown’s Borough Schools. Later in high school, Linda served as Student Council President, and with the help of many JHS classmates, raised funds to build a school in Ethiopia.   She credits this early experience with galvanizing her interest in world affairs.

Linda graduated from Cornell University in 1971. She and her husband moved to Massachusetts in 1975, and she began working at the PBS Boston affiliate station GBH, on the Captioned ABC News, for deaf viewers.  Two years later, she joined the NOVA Science Series.

As a staff producer on NOVA, Linda traveled widely, filming in 35 countries and on all seven continents. She produced the first international documentary on the Antarctic ozone hole, a portrait of biologist Stephen Jay Gould, and The Adventures of Teenage Scientists. She originated the idea and served as Senior Producer of PBS’ 10-part Race to Save the Planet series and telecourse on environmental studies. Other key productions have included leadership positions on NOVA’s World in the Balance and the Emmy-Award winning series Rx for Survival – A Global Health Challenge. Her most recent co-production was NOVA’s WildWays: Corridors of Life, about animal crossings to save wildlife who need to migrate. Her documentaries include many celebrity narrators, including Meryl Streep, Alfre Woodard, Gregory Peck, and Brad Pitt.  

Linda is a long-time member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women and of the Filmmakers Collaborative.  She has also served as Vice President of the Board of World Education (worlded.org), which works with local organizations in Asia and Africa to promote best practices in child education and skills training, as well as in the United States, to address adult literacy and social/economic mobility.

Rod Nordland has worked as a foreign correspondent in more than 150 countries and has been variously posted in Bangkok, Beirut, Baghdad, Cairo, Rome, Sarajevo, San Salvador, Islamabad, London and Kabul. He was the chief foreign correspondent of Newsweek, based in London, Beirut and Baghdad. During three decades abroad, he has covered every war that involved Americans and several that did not. He began his foreign reporting career for his hometown paper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, covering the Far East and Central America in the 1980s.

Mr. Nordland was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for news, and he was also a finalist for a Pulitzer in international reporting from Southeast Asia; he won two George Polk awards; several Overseas Press Club awards; the 2013 Heywood Broun Award; and a score of others. He was a 1989 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, the recipient of the Signet Medal from the Signet Society at Harvard in 2016, and is a

member of the advisory board of the Tufts University Program for Narrative and Documentary Practice, the National Press Club in Washington and the Associazione della Stampa Estera in Italia.

He is the author of the nonfiction book “The Lovers: Afghanistan’s Romeo & Juliet,” (Ecco/HarperCollins, January 2016). His latest book is Waiting for the Monsoon (HarperCollins, March 2024), a memoir of his life as a war correspondent and of his struggle with incurable grade 4 brain cancer glioblastoma, which he has survived since his diagnosis in 2019.

Geoffrey S. Rehnert is the Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Audax Group, a leading middle-market private equity and private debt investment firm which, as of September 2024, manages over $40 billion of investment capital. Mr. Rehnert co-founded Audax Group in July 1999. Audax Group is headquartered in Boston, MA, with offices in New York City, San Francisco, and London. Audax Group has two primary businesses: Audax Private Equity, which owns 60 middle market portfolio companies with combined revenues of $17 billion and a combined total of approximately 85 thousand employees; and Audax Private Debt, which has loans outstanding to over 400 middle-market companies. 

While starting Audax, Mr. Rehnert and his Co-Founder simultaneously acquired a control stake in Artisan Entertainment, which at the time was the largest independent film studio in the US entertainment industry. Mr. Rehnert served as Chairman of the board from 1999 until 2003 before selling Artisan to Lions Gate Entertainment. During Mr. Rehnert’s tenure as Chairman, Artisan released a large slate of successful films including The Blair Witch Project and Van Wilder.

Prior to founding Audax Group in 1999, Mr. Rehnert was a General Partner and Managing Director at Bain Capital Inc., which he helped to start in 1984. While at Bain Capital, Mr. Rehnert was involved in all aspects of the firm’s development and growth. 

Mr. Rehnert previously worked at Bain & Company (1983-1984) and Morgan Guaranty Trust Company (now JPMorgan Chase & Co. (1979-1981)). 

Mr. Rehnert serves on the Board of Directors of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution, the Board of Directors of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, and is the Board Chair for Miles for Military, a start-up not for profit organization that provides flights home to junior enlisted military personnel. 

Mr. Rehnert received a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1984, where he graduated Order of the Coif (top 10% of his class) and was elected to The Stanford Law Review. He received an A.B. with Honors in Economics from Duke University and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1979. 

Rear Admiral Carl J. Seiberlich completed distinguished careers with both the merchant marine and the US Navy. In addition to his position as Director of Military Programs for American President Lines, he also served as the Executive Director of the USMMA Foundation and Alumni Association President, US Maritime Resource Center and as a key member of the alumni Government Affairs Committee. He was the first Academy graduate to attain flag rank. During World War II, Admiral Seiberlich served in two merchant vessels in the Pacific, and after coming on active duty in the Navy, served as navigator of the Destroyer USS MAYO in the Atlantic, European and Pacific theaters. After completing naval flight training in 1947, he served in various squadrons, aboard aircraft carriers, and as a flight instructor and test pilot. 

Admiral Seiberlich commanded Air Anti-Submarine Squadron 26, the fleet oiler USS SALAMONIE and the aircraft carrier USS HORNET. While in command of HORNET, he was responsible for the recovery of the astronauts and command modules after the first two lunar landing missions, Apollo 11 and 12. In 1972, Admiral Seiberlich commanded Task Force 74 in support of Vietnam operations. His shore assignments included duties as Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare), Deputy Chief of Naval Personnel, and Commander Naval Military Personnel Command where he was responsible for the re-establishment of the Merchant Marine Reserve, US Naval Reserve Program. His decorations include the Legion of Merit (six awards) and the Air Medal. In November 1952, he received the Harmon International Trophy for achievement in aeronautics from President Harry S. Truman during ceremonies at the White House.