Published: September 28, 2007 11:17 pm      

Area physician will be honored

Dr. James Furnary, a Johnstown physician who has served in leadership positions for Conemaugh Health System, will be honored Oct. 22 at the 2007 Apollo Award Program.

The event, which honors physicians from the Johnstown region for their voluntarism in the community, starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in downtown Johnstown.

Dr. John Lantos of Chicago, a Johnstown native and nationally known medical writer and ethicist, will deliver the keynote address based on a popular television medical show.

The presentation is titled “House, M.D. – Role Model or Impaired Physician?”

Furnary is well known in the community for his support of Birthright of Johnstown Inc. and St. Vincent de Paul Family Kitchen.

He uses his culinary skills for baking and cooking at fund-raising events and for meals at Our Mother of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church in Westmont.

He serves on the finance council at his church.

Furnary also has been a Johnstown Symphony Orchestra board member and is involved with the regional committee of River City Brass Band. He also has served as Cambria County Medical Society president.

Furnary has served the Johnstown community throughout his entire professional life, said Mike Kane, executive director of Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, one of the event’s sponsors.

“He took an interest in the wider community through his volunteer activities,” he said.

Many physicians were nominated for the award, but Furnary received the most votes, Kane said.

“We could not be happier to honor him,” he said.

Kane said he is pleased that Lantos, a 1971 graduate of Westmont Hilltop High School, is the main speaker.

Lantos, son of Marjorie Lantos of Rockville, Md., and the late Dr. Ray Lantos, was named by Ladies’ Home Journal as one of the best pediatricians in the Midwest. Chicago Magazine named him one of that city’s top pediatricians for three consecutive years.

During the event, the Community Foundation – along with other sponsors Cambria County Medical Society, Conemaugh Health System, Lee Initiatives and Windber Medical Center – will announce a collaboration to provide $30,000 in scholarships for medical students who express an interest in practicing locally.

“We want to show that our community has an interest in keeping our best and brightest,” Kane said.