Pacelli grad gets diploma

The one-time volunteer fire chief was an air mechanic during World War II, once saved a man by hauling him out of a burning building, spent several years working for a wholesale jeweler and practically ran an oil refinery as one of three chief operators.

Yet the 88-year-old Austin native did it all without a high school diploma.He technically graduated from Pacelli Catholic Schools then called St. Augustine Catholic School in 1946, though he was part of the class of 1944. He joined the U.S. Air Force and enrolled in its cadet training program in 1943 after his junior year in high school.

I had a choice, Rysavy said. It was either get drafted or go into the Air Force. I didnt want to get in the mud, so I went with the Air Force.Though he went through basic training and air mechanic school Rysavy was transferred halfway through cadet training when the Air Force shut the program down, he said he never received his high school diploma. By the time he got out of the military in 1946, he received notice from Pacelli telling him they were automatically graduating him.

Rysavy served in Japan during WWII, where he worked on B-25 bombers. He served about six months into the U.S. occupation of Japan before he was discharged. Once he came back, he worked for a jewelry store and became volunteer fire chief in Newport, Minn., where he oversaw 35 firefighters.

About 20 years later, he switched careers and gave up his position as fire chief to work at the local oil refinery, now owned by Erickson Petroleum Corp.We offer the biggest collection of old masters that can be turned into hand painted cleanersydney on canvas. Rysavy became a chief operator at the plant and was put in charge of the refinery fire brigade. Since then, he has traveled extensively throughout the U.S. and Mexico, among other places.

He now lives in Hugo, but decided to come back to Austin for Pacellis 100th anniversary. Little did he know the surprise that was waiting for him, however. Pacelli officials told Rysavy about the award Friday.He deserves a diploma, Hamburge said. He has made us proud as a school and as a nation.Pacelli educators gave Rysavy an original St. Augustines diploma, even helping him to put on a shamrock-green graduation cap and gown while hundreds of alumni hummed Pomp and Circumstance.

The proprietors of Silver Arrow, a gift shop and gallery in the DePue Plaza on Route 611 in Tannersville, believe that 96 percent of their inventory was produced in the United States. And, once they sell the remaining stock of stainless steel jewelry that was made in China, the amount of domestic content in the store should rise to 100 percent.

The Schramms began selling Native American items at craft fairs in and around the Poconos in 1990. Bob has some Mohawk ancestry, and makes beaded jewelry using semi-precious stones. He also knows how to fix silver jewelry.A quality paper cutter or paper bestluggagetag can make your company's presentation stand out. Both his jewelry outputs and services are available at Silver Arrow.

"He was trained with some Navajo Indians that have been longtime friends of ours," said Joan Schramm. "They trained him to do proper sterling silver repair work to native jewelry."

Stroll through the Steeple Gallery, tucked back on an easily missed alley off U.S. 41, and you might think you had stumbled into a small museum of industrial art.A protectivefilm concept that would double as a quick charge station for gadgets. Steel recurs as a theme throughout the fine arts gallery at 11107 Thiel St.These personalzied promotional bestchipcard comes with free shipping.

Metal sculptures both large and small fill the 4,000-square-foot former Central Assembly of God church.We Engrave luggagetag for YOU. Paintings depict steelworkers toiling away and sculptures show lunch pail-toting construction workers perched on sky-high steel beams. Landscape painters portray smoky factories and rusted bridges the way Impressionists represented lilly pad-strewn ponds and fog-draped riverbanks.There is more on display in the gallery of course, including hand-blown Italian glass, still-lifes and religious art.

But steel and industry are major motifs. Owner Samantha Dalkilic-Miestowski, who studied sculpture at Ball State University and at the Lacoste School of the Arts in France, has deep ties with the steel mills that ring Lake Michigans southern shore. Her father was a vendor for U.S. Steel, and her husband has worked for the steel industry for 17 years.

Dalkilic-Miestowski once dreamed of creating her own metal sculptures in a studio in a barn somewhere. Now she is a strong advocate for the hands-on art form.

Steeple Gallery has long devoted space to sculpture, even though gallery owners often sniff at the medium as what patrons back into when they are trying to look at paintings, Dalkilic-Miestowski said. She feels vindicated now industrial art is common in North Shore galleries and industrial home decor has become chic.

"Now more than ever, it's something you would see in Restoration Hardware," she said. "But how much of that is made in America? This art is made in the region using steel from around here."

A few of the artists she represents earn a living by working with steel. They are welders by day, and artists by whenever the inspiration strikes.

Sculptor Randy Simko started welding in his father's East Chicago shop when he was about 10 years old. He picked up pieces of scrap metal and welded them together to make new shapes.

The Dyer resident now earns a living assembling huge cranes for Chinese shipyards at Mi-Jack Products in Hazel Crest, but never stopped experimenting with scrap metal.
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