The irony in Phyllis Gerber's induction into the McKeesport High School Hall of Fame is that she never really liked school that much.

"[School] was contrary to my nature," she said with a laugh. "It was also contrary to my culture: I'm half-Croatian, and in our community, it was understood that you would graduate high school and work a couple years for either U.S. Steel, G.C. Murphy or Westinghouse."

A self-professed "lifelong learner," Ms. Gerber said she was never drawn to family life as it was laid out for her when she was a girl.

"People expected you to work a couple of years and then get married and have a lot of kids," she said. "And, well, I never bought into that."

Ms. Gerber graduated from McKeesport in 1959. She plans to attend the 125-year-old high school's induction ceremony Saturday at Stratigos Banquet Centre, in North Huntingdon.

She is single and her career always has taken precedence over starting a family, she said, because "I found all of these adventures out there."

A performer at heart, Ms. Gerber knew she wanted to join the theater after taking speech classes with Helen Malseed at McKeesport High. Her love of performance art grew through participation in Forensic League competitions and the school theater.

Though she began her professional career as a secretary and technical typist for U.S. Steel, "adventure soon called," she said, and she used her oratorical skills to excel in a 15-year national sales career.

"I have always had a way with words," she said.

In 1984, however, she needed a change and began working with socially and emotionally disabled children at Pace School, in Churchill. She discovered that her theatrical talents worked well to inspire young people with disabilities.

Though she says she's "sorta semi-retired these days," she still considers Pace her most important calling. She substitute teaches there when she's needed and tries to keep up-to-date with students and administrators.

But theater remains her passion.

Since her semi-retirement, Ms. Gerber has written and developed a play called "Tea With The First Ladies" -- a one-act production in which she and two friends portray Mary Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt and Bess Truman. The play has been a success, she said.

"My entire life has been like a flower garden," she said. "It's different, beautiful things growing up all around me, and every once in a while, there's a weed, but you just hack that one outta there and keep going."

Ms. Gerber isn't McKeesport's only versatile inductee this year.

Bob Hofman, who holds a doctorate, graduated from McKeesport in 1955 and hasn't looked back.

After enlisting in the Navy at 17 -- "I had to get my parents' permission to join," he said -- Mr. Hofman used his 99th percentile intelligence scores to study underwater sonar at Naval facilities in Bermuda and Grand Turks Island.

As he approached the end of his enlistment, he said, a superior officer told him "it would be a shame if [he] didn't go to college."

"No one in my family had ever gone to a university," he said. "It hadn't even crossed my mind."

Six weeks later, on his 21st birthday, Dr. Hofman enrolled in what is now Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in three years and then taught biology, physics and general science for more than five years at Warren Harding High School in Warren, Ohio.

In time, university life called him back. And that's when his life took a turn south -- literally.

"I first took interest in the Antarctic because of my father's interest in the natural sciences," he said. "But it was over a campfire in Minnesota when I knew I might actually get a chance to go there."

In 1967, after receiving a master's degree in biology education from IUP, Dr. Hofman pursued a National Science Foundation Academic Year Grant to study at the University of Minnesota.

He was at the university's field station in Itasca State Park when he learned that two acquaintances had obtained grants to study seals in the Antarctic. He applied to be a graduate assistant on the project, and his military experience aided his application.

"One of the guys on the project was a Marine," he said, "and when I told him I was in the Navy, he said he'd make sure there was a spot for me."

Since then, in addition to marrying twice and having two daughters, two stepdaughters, two grandsons, and two step-granddaughters, Dr. Hofman has made countless trips to the Antarctic on crews to radio-tag exotic animals and conduct census and genetic studies.

His experience in extreme temperatures also took him to Prince William Sound, Alaska, to study sea otters at the site of the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

He retired in 2000, but still leads about four cruise ship tours to Antarctica annually.

"I wouldn't say Antarctica is my passion," he said, "but it's certainly kept my interest for many years."

Though Dr. Hofman said he "sure didn't take any college prep classes in high school," he noted that his interest in science and biology began in a ninth-grade general science class with a McKeesport teacher he remembered only as "Mr. Stewart."

The teacher would let Dr. Hofman and a friend come into the classroom during lunch to use the microscopes, Dr. Hofman recalled. "So that was really my first involvement with any type of science."

Five other alumni will be inducted into the McKeesport High School Hall of Fame this year:

• James P. Beirne, class of 1964, a home contractor who was a standout football player at high school, college and pro levels.

• James R. Brewster, class of 1966, mayor of McKeesport.

• Dr. Win Lee MacKewiz, class of 1976, an eye doctor.

• Lisa M. Burns, class of 1989, who holds a doctorate and is an author. Her most recent book is "First Ladies and the Fourth Estate: Press Framing of Presidential Wives."

• Karrie A. Kalich, class of 1990, who holds a doctorate and is a scholar specializing in childhood obesity.