By M. English Journal Register News Service

Like many proud mothers, Maria Picasso Y Lopez saw her sons potential early on.

As the artist later mused, When I was a child, my mother said to me, If you become a soldier, youll be a general. If you become a monk, youll end up as the pope. Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.

Theres not a general, a pope or a Picasso among the trio of area natives about to be inducted into Central Montco Technical High Schools Distinguished Alumni Association. But all three have achieved above-average success in their fields and as the DAAs founding mission requires provide positive role models for subsequent classes at the Plymouth Meeting-based school.

Central Montcos ninth annual Distinguished Alumni Dinner and Presentation is scheduled for April 26 at 6:30 p.m., and 2012s event will honor Daniel Dietrich, Class of 1997, culinary arts; Dennis McCarraher, Class of 1970, collision repair; and Jaclyn Wait, Class of 1998, allied health.

The new inductees will join the roughly three dozen alums from the Colonial, Norristown and Upper Merion Area school districts recognized since the DAA was established in 2004.

Dietrich studied culinary arts under former Montgomery County Technical high School teachers Alan Nesensohn and Seth Schram. Following graduation, he continued his education at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and Philadelphias Temple University. The 2012 honoree has worked as a line cook, rounds person, sous chef and chef-manager and is now a culinary arts instructor at Chester County Technical College High School in West Grove.

According to his colleagues there, Dietrich has created and implemented all of the systems that have made his culinary arts program a success.

This includes curriculum writing, volunteering for community events, researching and interviewing prospective restaurants for co-op opportunities, advisory committee recruitment and even checking on students who are employed in the field, according to colleagues.

Schram remembers Dietrich as an outstanding student.

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Central Montco to add three to Distinguished Alumni Association