Assistant Director

Borough officials said yesterday they ended a nationwide search when Shelagh Purnell, the assistant director of the West Chester Recreation Department since 1995, said she was interested in the top spot. Borough manager Ernie McNeeley made the decision and the council approved her promotion Wednesday night. "I was pleased to discontinue the recruitment process when Shelagh elected to become a candidate for the position," McNeeley said yesterday in a news release. "She has been an excellent, hardworking assistant director and we are always happy to be able to promote from within when there are qualified candidates.

Sarah Knechel braced for the onslaught that follows admission decisions. It usually starts 25 minutes after the decisions are posted. "In the spring, we hate picking up the phone because it's either why didn't I get admitted? I got admitted, why didn't you give me merit money?" said Knechel, 28, associate director of admissions. "Every so often, you'll get a thank you, and those are the calls that make the other ones bearable. " Some applicants who complain have a point, she concedes.

Here are the 25 nonunion school district employees that got raises since the end of last school year. NAME  // TITLE  // OLD SALARY // NEW SALARY *Michelle Armstrong  // Director, career and technical education  // $74,353   //$92,000 *John Barber  // Director, grants compliance   //$66,000   //$81,000 Jennifer Barry  // Assistant director, financial services  // $73,929   //$85,029 *Martina Boardley  // Regional access...

Emil Zarella, 81, a 1924 graduate of Girard College who grew up to head the institution, died Friday at Paoli Memorial Hospital. He lived in St. Davids. Mr. Zarella was born in Philadelphia and was 3 when his father died. At age 8, he was accepted into Girard, where admission was then limited, by the terms of Stephen Girard's will, to fatherless white boys. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the provision restricting admission to white males in 1968. While attending Girard, Mr. Zarella was known as a good student and athlete, and he set the college's record for the longest home run ever hit. He earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Pennsylvania and pursued graduate studies at Penn and at Temple University.

The special agent who runs the FBI's Philadelphia division will be named assistant director in charge of the bureau's New York City office, possibly as soon as Wednesday, according to a knowledgeable source. The agent, George C. Venizelos, had been considered the front-runner for the New York post, one of the most prominent within the bureau. Spokesmen at the FBI's Washington headquarters and its New York and Philadelphia offices declined to comment late Tuesday. But agents within both field offices were notified of the decision, said the source, who was not authorized to publicly discuss it. For Venizelos, 52, the promotion is a homecoming of sorts.

The NJSIAA Track and Field Meet of Champions was postponed for the second consecutive day Friday and was rescheduled for Monday. The meet was stopped because of rain and lightning Thursday and was supposed to resume Friday. But because of the threat of more bad weather and because many schools had conflicts with graduation or a prom, the meet was pushed back again, NJSIAA assistant director Don Danser said. The resumption is scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday at Lombardi Field in Old Bridge.

John Demby has been named the interim athletic director at Rancocas Valley for the remainder of the school year. Demby has replaced Carmen Cella, the longtime athletic director at Rancocas Valley, who returned to become the interim AD in late December after athletic director Len Grzywacz left for personal reasons. Cella, who retired after the 1998 school year, said that this was his final week in the interim roll and that Demby only wants the job on an interim basis. "John doesn't want the position past this school year," Cella said yesterday.

The Rev. Jerome B. Coll, 82, former dean and retired assistant director of planning and giving at St. Joseph's University, died Wednesday, Feb. 15, of cancer at Manresa Hall, the Jesuit retirement residence in Merion. Father Coll taught English at St. Joseph's University from 1964 to 1966 and was dean from 1966 to 1970. He then spent several years teaching and in administration at Regis College in Denver and, for a decade, was president of Georgetown Preparatory School in Bethesda, Md. In 1990, he returned to St. Joseph's as director of national alumni giving.

The assistant director of the pharmacy at Mercy Catholic Medical Center's Fitzgerald Mercy Division, where mistakes caused the deaths of two patients last month, has been fired, and the pharmacy director has retired, hospital officials said yesterday. The firing and retirement came after the Darby, Delaware County, hospital's own investigators could not determine which pharmacist had prepared the intravenous solution given to a 5-month-old West Philadelphia baby who died Nov. 4. The county medical examiner ruled that the child, Tyhisha Smith, of Chestnut Street near 33rd, died after receiving a dose of muscle relaxant that was 15 times stronger than it should have been.

Maxine Elkin, 48, a public relations executive, died Thursday at her home in Abington, after suffering a pulmonary embolism. Mrs. Elkin was the public relations manager for Robert Morris Associates, a 3,000-member, Philadelphia-based national trade group of commercial bank loan and credit officers. She had held the job since 1981. From 1978 to 1981, she was Robert Morris' assistant director of communications. During her tenure, she helped generate national publicity for the association that resulted in articles appearing in major newspapers, as well as in appearances by Robert Morris officials on television and radio.

Sarah Knechel braced for the onslaught that follows admission decisions. It usually starts 25 minutes after the decisions are posted. "In the spring, we hate picking up the phone because it's either why didn't I get admitted? I got admitted, why didn't you give me merit money?" said Knechel, 28, associate director of admissions. "Every so often, you'll get a thank you, and those are the calls that make the other ones bearable. " Some applicants who complain have a point, she concedes.

James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, has appointed the following directors to its board of trustees: William S. Aichele, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Univest Corp. of Pennsylvania and chairman of Univest National Bank & Trust Co., Univest Investments Inc., and Univest Insurance Inc.; Beth Beans Gilbert, vice president of the Fred Beans Family of Dealerships; Bill Mandel, art director and head designer for CBS and Channel 13 Educational TV in New York; Al Pritchard, a certified public accountant; and Bob Welch, president of the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce and owner of Central Bucks Properties L.P., Buckingham Properties L.P., R.W. Group Inc., and Academy Wealth Advisers.

Here are the 25 nonunion school district employees that got raises since the end of last school year. NAME  // TITLE  // OLD SALARY // NEW SALARY *Michelle Armstrong  // Director, career and technical education  // $74,353   //$92,000 *John Barber  // Director, grants compliance   //$66,000   //$81,000 Jennifer Barry  // Assistant director, financial services  // $73,929   //$85,029 *Martina Boardley  // Regional access...

The special agent who runs the FBI's Philadelphia division will be named assistant director in charge of the bureau's New York City office, possibly as soon as Wednesday, according to a knowledgeable source. The agent, George C. Venizelos, had been considered the front-runner for the New York post, one of the most prominent within the bureau. Spokesmen at the FBI's Washington headquarters and its New York and Philadelphia offices declined to comment late Tuesday. But agents within both field offices were notified of the decision, said the source, who was not authorized to publicly discuss it. For Venizelos, 52, the promotion is a homecoming of sorts.

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department's inspector general said Thursday that eight high-ranking employees in the department's management division improperly promoted the hiring of relatives for summer or full-time work or assisted others in doing so. Seven of the employees violated federal law restricting employment of relatives and the eighth violated a federal ethics standard, the inspector general concluded. A ninth, the highest-ranking person mentioned in the report, was criticized for failing to respond to indicators that her subordinates may have violated anti-nepotism laws.

The NJSIAA Track and Field Meet of Champions was postponed for the second consecutive day Friday and was rescheduled for Monday. The meet was stopped because of rain and lightning Thursday and was supposed to resume Friday. But because of the threat of more bad weather and because many schools had conflicts with graduation or a prom, the meet was pushed back again, NJSIAA assistant director Don Danser said. The resumption is scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday at Lombardi Field in Old Bridge.

The Rev. Jerome B. Coll, 82, former dean and retired assistant director of planning and giving at St. Joseph's University, died Wednesday, Feb. 15, of cancer at Manresa Hall, the Jesuit retirement residence in Merion. Father Coll taught English at St. Joseph's University from 1964 to 1966 and was dean from 1966 to 1970. He then spent several years teaching and in administration at Regis College in Denver and, for a decade, was president of Georgetown Preparatory School in Bethesda, Md. In 1990, he returned to St. Joseph's as director of national alumni giving.

J.M. Ada Mutch, formerly of Wynnewood, a nurse, World War II veteran, and volunteer for the elderly, died at Rosemont Presbyterian Village on Friday, Jan. 27, a week before her 107th birthday. In 1932, having taught physical education for eight years at the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Miss Mutch had to have her appendix removed. "I went to the hospital for a week, and had the most wonderful time," she later told The Inquirer. "I decided to become a nurse. I figured I could take care of people as I got older, but I wouldn't be able to run up and down a hockey field forever.

JUST ABOUT everywhere Whitney Smith Williams went, someone would want to talk about her father. "Your dad helped me get into college," they would say. "Your dad gave me the opportunity to get a higher education. " Even in the hospital when her father was in his final illness, a young man came up to her and expressed his sympathy - but not without adding: "Your dad helped me get into college. " Scores of men and women leading successful lives today never would have gotten the education that led to their success without the help of Eldridge Witherspoon Smith Jr. As director of admissions for Temple University in the '70s and '80s, Eldridge was in a position help people not only with the admissions process, but also with the encouragement that many needed to be convinced that they could succeed in college.

Holy Redeemer Hospital , Meadowbrook, has appointed Gabor A. Winkler chairman, surgery department. Winkler will provide direct clinical care along with leading the department. He most recently was attending surgeon at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood. GuestCounts Hospitality , a Philadelphia company, has hired Jan DeMarzo as vice president of off-premises catering. Most recently, DeMarzo worked at Wolfgang Puck Catering Inc. as vice president of East Coast catering sales.