WATERTOWN, NY, September 11, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Sylvia Stuber Heap with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Ms. Heap celebrates many years' experience in her professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes she has accrued in her field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Selected "Betty Bates" during Women's Health week, elected to Phi Beta Kappa during her Junior year, Sylvia Stuber Heap graduated with honors from Bates College in 1950. For the past 55 years she has been involved in service to the community of Watertown, New York, extending to New York State, nationally, and even internationally through leadership in fields of continuing education, health and safety, fitness and nutrition, public television, and support for the United Nations.
Sixty years ago, in July 1959, Sylvia Stuber Heap, her husband and two little children moved to Watertown, N.Y Having read about the community in copies of the Watertown Daily Times, one of her first projects on arrival, was to call the Chairman of the Citizens' Committee for a Community College and ask "Is there anything I can do to help?" The response was "Anything you can do to help?" and she was put right to work: organizing mailings, doing television public service programs, making speeches. Jefferson Community College became a reality and will this year celebrate its 58th birthday. Sylvia was asked to be Chairman of the Advisory Board of Continuing Education, a position she held for 30 years, and still remains an active member of the committee. With this she became an involved multifaceted member of the Community, and was selected Citizen of the Year in 1975 by the Greater Watertown Chamber of Commerce. The honor was not just for her work for Jefferson Community College, but for Public Television, the Heart Association, her church, the Medical Society Auxiliary, College Women's Club, the American Association of University Women, Lyric Theater, and more.. As Chairman of the College Advisory Board, she organized a Task Force to study the need for upper division education, resulting in the offering of Bachelor's Degree programs in Nursing and in Business and Public Management. She helped develop a Masters Degree program in Adult Education with faculty from Syracuse University, and classes held at Jefferson Community College as well as at Syracuse University and LeMoyne College. She and her committee pressed for child care to be offered to students at the college, a city bus routed to the college, and Syracuse Symphony Orchestra concerts in Watertown (first at the College, then in the State Office Building). When there was an expressed need for workshops in Fitness and Nutrition for women, she augmented her lifelong interest in those areas with additional post-graduate studies, and taught a highly successful series of classes for seven years, herself. She organized and carried out events designed to bring the College into better contact with the people of the North Country. She helped organize a study skills course for high school students preparing for college. She served on a Task Force to evaluate the effects of the potential expansion of Fort Drum on the area and on the College in particular. She served on the Campaign for Jefferson, contacting large gift donors, and making a leadership gift herself.
Mrs. Heap has been active in both the Medical Auxiliary of Jefferson County and in New York State. For the County, she became involved in 1960 as Mental Health Chairman, working with other community groups to promote the establishment of a Mental Health Clinic.
Elected President of the County Auxiliary, she developed a program to teach the dangers of smoking, introducing Smoking Sam, a cigarette smoking teen-age manikin to the public and parochial schools in Watertown, and at the Hall of Health during the New York State Fairs in Syracuse.
Concerned with the safety of children (and adults), she organized a city-wide program of bicycle safety, acting as coordinator of the efforts of schools, police, community organizations, and the media in teaching skills, necessary equipment, and safe practices. For her leadership, she was presented with a special award by AAA of Central New York.
She initiated, chaired, or was involved in planning and participating in health teaching days given by the Auxiliary on "The Rejuvenation of the Woman", ''Focus on the Family", and ''Hands-on: Saving Lives". She planned and conducted several Women's Health Fairs in Watertown in conjunction with other health-promoting agencies.
As Chairman of Health and Safety for the Auxiliary, she initiated a project called "Ask Your Doctor", begun at the Community Health Fair. People could write a question about a health subject, and Mrs. Heap would find a local physician or surgeon to answer the question on the radio. Each segment began with an introduction of the doctor first, including training, background, family, and hobbies, so people could know the medical community better, and accept the concept of patient and physician being "partners in health".
With the American Heart Association, and with a physician present at all times, she helped plan and conduct eight-week sessions for recovering heart attack patients, teaching life style changes designed to prolong and rehabilitate their lives.
For the New York State Medical Auxiliary, she was a presenter of nutrition workshops, conducted fitness classes, and "fitness breaks" during conferences and conventions in New York City, Glens Falls, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Rochester. She was Chairman of the New York State Project Bank (an effort to catalog successful programs and projects to share through the National Medical Auxiliary). She was Chairman of the "Shape Up for Life" campaign, and studied nutrition yoga, aerobics, and stress management, and relayed these disciplines in classes, after-school programs, and speeches at schools and community groups. She continued learning skills with studies at Nazareth College, Bonnie Prodden workshops at Amherst College, weekend seminars at the Center for the Study of Aging in Albany, Kripalu Yoga Center in Sumneytown, PA, and the Washington, DC conference "Fitness for the '80s ".
As State Chairman of Children and Youth, she worked with the New York State Health Department in developing Children and Youth Caravan, traveling all over New York State with workshops to help local Auxiliaries and others focus on the health and safety of their own children.
She was a regular guest doing interviews and "spots" on Fitness and Nutrition for both radio and television, and was a frequent speaker for community organizations on Health and Safety, Fitness, Nutrition, Stress Management, and the Prevention of Osteoporosis. She wrote a research paper on Osteoporosis, developed slides, and spoke to groups from Watertown to Syracuse, Chicago, and New York City about the ways to prevent that debilitating disease. For the question segment after her presentation, she would frequently take along her Orthopedic authority, her husband.
She was a delegate to the National Convention of the Auxiliary to the American Medical Association in Chicago, and St. Louis, Missouri, for several years, and attended a workshop on AIDS awareness for the medical community held in Albany, NY.
For her work promoting health and fitness in Watertown and vicinity, in the New York State Medical Alliance Conferences and Conventions, she received a Certificate of Appreciation presented by the national Chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports "in recognition of services which have advanced the causes of dynamic health, physical fitness, and sports participation."
With other Nutrition Professionals, she helped organize the Association of Nutrition Professionals, and developed and participated in teaching nutrition programs for students at Wiley School (grades 4-6), and several elementary schools in Watertown, and vicinity.
As a member of the Chamber of Commerce Education Committee, she encouraged the establishment of a program to incorporate the teaching of foreign languages in the elementary schools, and she initiated an Annual Dinner for New Teachers in which businesses in Watertown "adopted" new teachers in the Watertown schools and Community College, hosting their individual teachers to a special dinner in their honor, and following up with connections throughout the year.
She was active in College Women's Club, serving in many leadership roles, including Program Chairman, bringing outstanding speakers and performers to Watertown, and organizing trips for members to art museums and cultural events. She initiated and printed the Community, and then the North Country, Cultural Calendar, circulated for College Women's Club, and made available to the community, to detail upcoming cultural opportunities.
She was on the Board of Directors for the Watertown Lyric Theater for ten years, serving as Director of Public Relations, writing newspaper publicity for the three annual musical productions, doing public service spots for radio and television, arranging for publicity photos, posters, and placemats.
She was on the Board of Trustees of Canton College of Technology, and was on the Board of Directors of Public Television Station WNPE-WNPI (now WPBS) for ten years. On the Public Television Board, she headed a "Let's Be Friends" campaign to recruit volunteers for the station, organized a telephone survey to determine the extent of viewing, and the likes and dislikes of viewers, and assisted with dozens of membership drives. She was elected Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice-President, as well as working "on-air" for specials like The Puzzle Children (a community involvement educational effort to understand Dyslexia), and was Community Project Director for the Chemical People Project a five county and southern Canada long-term project to combat teen-age drug and alcohol abuse. She was Co-Chairman of the follow-up projects in Watertown, including authoring many of the "We Care" newspaper features, a series on preventing drug abuse. She helped set up and carry out Positive Peer Tutoring, in which a group of high school students were trained to go into elementary schools to teach healthy life styles (and drug abuse prevention).
She has been very active in her church for the past 60 years. She taught Sunday School at the old All Souls Church for nine years, was Chairman of the Art and Altar Committee, and brought programs, special services, and workshops to Watertown, including the Chicago Children's Choir, the Bennington Modern Dancers, the Marblehead Dance Troupe, Samuel Avital, panomimist, and Rick Mastern, folk singer. She was co-Chairman of the Dedication Service for the new All Souls Church Building (erected after the old church burned in December 1984). She served on five search committees, and two ministers' installation and ordination services. She has been All Souls Church Envoy to the United Nations Office for thirty-nine years, attending and participating in the Annual seminar held at the Church Center across from the United Nations buildings in New York City. As Envoy, she has brought the local church into close contact with the work of the United Nations, spearheading the church, and sometimes the community, UNICEF drive, and acting as coordinator, celebrant, and often speaker for the annual United Nations Sunday service at All Souls Church.
She is past Chairman of the Memorial Garden Committee, and helped build and maintain that place of quiet and beauty for outdoor worship, weddings, and special services. She was general Chairman of the Dedication of the Memorial Garden, and of the tenth anniversary celebration of the Dedication of the new church. She has been St. Lawrence District Envoy to the United Nations Office, working with twenty-seven Unitarian Universalist churches throughout Northern New York, and with the Chairman of churches in Southern Ontario, and Southern Quebec, Canada.
Working on her Master's degree in Education at Syracuse University, she organized and produced, with Anne Richter of WWNY TV, a series of short subjects educating the community about Osteoporosis. She developed a series of Continuing Education programs for practicing physicians in Jefferson County with professors of Nutrition from Tufts University, and Syracuse University, and an on-the-air interview with Linus Pauling, with Toni Harblin calling him by telephone at his office in California. She held weekly interviews based on Nutrition subjects for Toni Harblin's radio program "Time for Toni", and wrote a definitive thesis on the prevention and treatment of Osteoporosis. She received her Master's Degree from Syracuse University in 1989.
She has been recognized with biographical data in Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in the World.
Mrs. Heap is the wife of Dr. Walker R. Heap, retired Orthopedic Surgeon, (a Bates marriage of 68 years), is the mother of three young adults: Dr. Heidi Heap Chester, Walker R. Heap III, and Cynthia Heap, is the proud grandmother of three boys and two girls, and three great grandchildren.
When she was asked to conduct a small fill-in program for the class of 1950's fifty-fifth reunion, she led an energizing break from prolonged sitting, followed by relaxation, and ended with asking participants to describe what each considered the legacy he or she would leave to their community. Because she has no great wealth to leave, Sylvia said that her community service would have to be her legacy. ''My Life is my Legacy". And hundreds of friends, family, and co-workers will attest that by her unflagging commitment to the many causes, individuals, and organizations to which she has devoted the past fifty years, her life has "made a difference."
In 2010, she was awarded the prestigious Jeffersonian Award by Jefferson Community College, and continues to serve on the Continuing Education Advisory Board, as well as the Partners in Education, promoting higher education based on the Jefferson Community College campus, with nine colleges offering higher education to the community.
She was named Envoy of the Year by the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office, and had her poem on Peace selected as the one to be printed in the Window on the World, the Unitarian Universalist Association news magazine. On April 8, 2010, she was presented with a plaque on which she was "sincerely honored for her dedication and leadership as a UU-UN Office Envoy in strengthening our UU voice at the United Nations" And In 2015 she was recognized by the United Nations Office of the UU Association for 40 years as Envoy from All Souls Church in Watertown.
Sylvia has been caregiver for her husband for the past twelve years. They celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary on June 9, 2016. In recognition of that special occasion, they received an official Legislative Resolution sponsored by Senator Patty Ritchie, congratulating them and adopted by the New York State Senate on January 10, 2017.
In May 2017 she was honored as a Woman of Distinction by the New York State Senate, an also in 2017 the Paddock Leadership Award for "enhancing the historical, spiritual and/or physical health of Jefferson County "by the Jefferson County Historical Society."
Sylvia continues to work for her community recognized as a voice of the past, while a part of the present.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to her profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Sylvia Stuber Heap has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
About Marquis Who's Who®
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
# # #