Robert J. O'Brien '48 
Robert J. O'Brien has spent the past 50 years in perpetual service to the College. A class agent, he has served on the GAA executive committee and was a member of the class of 1948 50th reunion planning committee. A member of the Holy Cross Club of Cape Cod, he has served two terms as the Club's president as well as serving terms as vice president and secretary. O'Brien was named the Club's Crusader of the Year in both 1994 and 1998. Chairman of the summer fellowship committee, he currently serves on the Club's board of directors. 

After a 26-year career with SmithKline Beecham Labs of Philadelphia, Pa., O'Brien retired in 1984. He resides in East Dennis, Mass., with his wife, Betty. They are the parents of two daughters, Maureen and Denise. 

Joseph Whalen '52 
Joseph Whalen has served as a director of the Holy Cross Club of Greater Worcester since his graduation in 1952. Recipient of the Club's Crusader of the Year Award in 1988, he has served as the Club's president, vice president, and secretary. Whalen has co-chaired the class of 1952's Johnny Turco Award committee for the past 36 years. A perennial member of the class reunion planning committee, he has served three terms as a director of the GAA and chaired the Association's alumni student committee. For the past five years, he has been the GAA representative to the Varsity Club's Cooney Award selection committee. He has also served on the GAA nominations committee and has long been active in fund drives and phonathons, receiving an Outstanding Service Award from the Fund Office in 1992. 

The manager of Jim O'Connell Realtors for the past 22 years, Whalen and his wife, Mary, live in Worcester. They are the parents of four children, Joseph, Caragh, Meaghan, and Edward '96, and grandparents of Emma. 

Anne Reilly Ziaja '78 
Anne Reilly Ziaja became executive secretary of the Holy Cross Club of Greater Boston shortly after her graduation. As a director, she chaired many of the Club's functions, served as its president and scholarship trustee and received both the Monsignor Haberlin Award and the Crusader of the Year Award. An active member of the Class of 1978, she has served on reunion planning committees and assisted with annual fund solicitations. Currently a director of the Holy Cross Club of the Merrimack Valley, she has served that Club as both president and treasurer. Reilly Ziaja has served as director, senator, and vice president of the GAA, chairing several committees and serving on the budget and finance committee and the executive committee. This year, Reilly Ziaja will become the first woman president of the GAA. She is the first woman recipient of the In Hoc Signo Award. 

Reilly Ziaja is the director of the Massachusetts State Senate Education Office. She and her husband, Ed, reside in Dracut, Mass., and are parents of an 11-year-old son, Adam.