Jim Stankiewicz, Man of the Year 

Dr. Jim Stankiewicz ’66 has been selected as Leo Alumni Association Man of the Year and will be recognized at Leo’s annual Alumni Banquet on Friday, April 28 at Chateau Del Mar in Hickory Hills.

Ron Malec ’46 (Doc Driscoll Award) and Antwayne “Tony” Spivy ’92 (Community Service) are this year’s other award recipients. The six-member Hall of Fame class includes Renardo “Rick” Hall ’72, the late Bill Holland ’73, Fred Nelson III ’77 and three of the eight Marks Brothers to attend Leo: Albert ’64, William ’66 and Daniel ’67.

Jim Stankiewicz was an honor-roll student, a class officer and a starter on the Lions’ 1966 Catholic League lightweight basketball champions at Leo. He earned undergrad and medical degrees from the University of Chicago. An ear, nose and throat specialist, he is renowned in the medical community not only as an accomplished surgeon but as a professor at the Loyola University School of Medicine, where he helps train the next generation of physicians and surgeons.

Jim is also a generous and engaged supporter of Leo, a regular at Alumni events and the primary underwriter of the Class of ’66 Scholarship, which provides full tuition assistant to a deserving student-athlete in memory of Coe Francis, a standout football player from the Class of ’66 who died in a drowning accident the summer after graduation.

“Terrific honor for a terrific guy,” Leo President Dan McGrath said. “Jim Stankiewicz is the embodiment of a Leo Man.”

Doc Driscoll Award to Ron Malec 

Ron Malec was one of the lead developers of the Maple Park Subdivision, which featured affordable, single-family homes on the city’s Southwest Side. Ron later became a full-time Florida resident, but he never forgot his Leo roots. In conjunction with Maple Park’s 60th anniversary, Ron has started a scholarship program to make it possible for students from Whistler and Higgins, the two elementary schools serving Maple Park, to attend Leo.

So far, six graduating eighth-graders from the two schools are enrolled and registered to attend Leo as Malec Scholars beginning this fall. The principals and counselors at Whistler and Higgins have endorsed the program, embracing Leo as a better option for their students than their district public schools.

“Mr. Malec’s support means a great deal to Leo,” Principal Shaka Rawls said, “and it will mean even more going forward as more Maple Park kids take advantage of this great opportunity.”

Community Service 

If Leo were to present an MVP Award to its staff, Tony Spivy would have been a candidate in each of the three years he has worked at the school.  

Mr. Spivy is a jack of all trades as an on-line class monitor, assistant dean, lunch-room supervisor, bus driver, field-trip chaperone, etc. And he’s a master of all of them, engaging the students with a firm but cheerful demeanor that lets them know he’s looking out for them, but he expects them to be their best selves in return.

“Mr. Spivy has been a great addition to the staff and a big help to me,” Principal Rawls said of his former Leo football teammate. “I appreciate the Alumni Association recognizing him for the great work he has done.”