CLASSNOTES
Alumni Profile
Courage & Character Building
A Young Life Changed By A ‘BEGINNING OF ADVENTURE IN LEARNING’
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s a first-string guard for the tiny football team Brunswick fielded at the end of the Great
Depression, Tracy McFarlan ’41 wore his courage on his sleeve. Embroidered onto the hand-medown uniforms the team used for both practice and games, the word
teacher, Miss Newhall, that his
was barely noticed by the young
academics suffered.
player and rarely talked about.
“She was six feet tall. Her beauty overwhelmed me. Her legs had curves that you wouldn’t believe, and her soft voice captured my attention,” he said, also admitting: “It is possible that I was so taken by this gorgeous lady that I
But it was there, stitched into the fabric of his youth, and it would
‘Dutch’ King, for preparing him for
we were able to
didn’t learn
the tests that World War II would put
handle our part
very much, so
before him and his classmates.
in the struggle
prove useful — McFarlan and his
they decided
In English, McFarlan read Time
with under-
I should repeat
class graduated from Brunswick in
magazine every week and closely fol-
standing and
third grade.”
the spring of 1941, on the eve of a
lowed worldwide developments. The
courage,” McFarlan said.
worldwide conflagration that would
war came as no surprise.
“Finally, the word ‘courage’ had a
fortuitous, the extra year allowed
very positive meaning.”
McFarlan to form some of the deep-
call for courage in measures not seen in a generation.
“Yes, we were mentally prepared for the war. And when it happened,
As it happened, it was a childhood
However
est friendships of his life.
“When we got into World War
crush that changed McFarlan’s life
II,” McFarlan says, “we found out
and set in motion the relationships
I learned, but I can tell that being in
what that word meant real quick.”
that would underpin his education,
that class with Bob Edwards, Paul
on the playing field and in the class-
Stark, Lester Lott, Joe Wold, Jim Tom-
room, in the years to come.
ney and Dean Finney was the begin-
Now 90 and living in Asheville, N.C., McFarlan credits Brunswick, and especially English teacher David Thompson and Coach Edwin
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times of Brunswick • summer 2013
At the tender age of 8, McFarlan was so smitten with his third-grade
“I can’t tell you much about what
ning of my adventure in learning, and of course, character building.”
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