Mercersburg Magazine - Spring 2013

Mercersburg A magazine for Mercersburg Academy family and friends

VOLUME 39 NO. 3 spr i ng 2013

Mercersburg = Home pag e

10

CVR2

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

V O L UME 3 9

NO. 3

spring 2013

A magazine for Mercersburg Academy family and friends

Mercersburg

Mercersburg = Home

8

1,019 Words Made in the shade. Page 6

Irving-Marshall Week 2013 A photo recap of Marshall’s win over Irving in the 2013 renewal of Mercersburg’s annual intrasociety competition. Page 8

10

You Should Know

Captains of varsity athletic teams and other student leaders carried torches on their way to light the annual Alumni Weekend bonfire in the fall. Alumni Weekend also featured the traditional Step Songs, Mercersburg-Hill athletic contests, and a special military-service homecoming for veterans and members of the armed forces.

Photo credits: p. 2 Chris Crisman; p. 3 Cory Hall; p. 4 (Backensto/Roper) Jillian Kesner, (Ravens) Phil Hoffmann/Baltimore Ravens; p. 5 (top) courtesy Phil Kantaros, (Riford) USMA Public Affairs; p. 8 (bottom) Kesner, (others) Bill Green; p. 9 (top) Kesner, (others) Green; p. 11 Kesner; p. 13 (bottom left) Kesner; p. 15 Ryan Smith; p. 16 courtesy Renee Hicks; p. 17–19 (all photos) Stacey Talbot Grasa; p. 21 Bill Denison; p.

23 Lee Owen; p. 24 (all photos) Smith; p. 26 (Stony Batter) Green, (Magalia) Kesner; p. 27 (band) Green, (others) Kesner; p. 28–29 (all photos) Green; p. 30 (tennis) Kesner, (soccer) Smith.

Cover illustration: Daniel Baxter

Home Sweet Mercersburg Step inside to meet—or to get reacquainted with—some of those who have built their homes on campus as teachers, coaches, advisers, administrators, dormitory deans, and students.

Page 10

From the Head of School Via Mercersburg Arts Athletics Class Notes Mercersburg magazine is published three times annually by the Office of Strategic Marketing and Communications.

Mercersburg Academy 300 East Seminary Street Mercersburg, Pennsylvania 17236 Magazine correspondence: Lee_Owen@mercersburg.edu

2 3 24 28 31 Editor: Lee Owen Class Notes Editor: Tyler Miller Contributors: John David Bennett, Shelton Clark, Jillian Kesner, Susan Pasternack, Zally Price, Wallace Whitworth Art Direction: Aldrich Design Head of School: Douglas Hale

Class Notes correspondence: classnotes@mercersburg.edu

Director of Strategic Marketing and Communications: Wallace Whitworth

Alumni correspondence/ change of address: Leslie_Miller@mercersburg.edu

Assistant Head for Enrollment: Tommy Adams

Read us online: www.mercersburg.edu/magazine

Assistant Head for Advancement: Brian Hargrove

© Copyright 2013 Mercersburg Academy. All rights reserved. No content from this publication may be reproduced or reprinted in any form without the express written consent of Mercersburg Academy.

Mercersburg Academy abides by both the spirit and the letter of the law in all its employment and admission policies. The school does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin.

From the Head of School

The Real Mercersburg

P

“Live the questions now. Perhaps then someday far in the future you will gradually, without even knowing it, live your way into the answer...” —Rilke

hilosophers and poets have long been telling us that what we see is what we have words for.

But the words we use for what we see are often completely inadequate to describe the actual thing we see. I was reminded of this truth in a powerful way while participating recently in an on-campus discussion with a group of outside marketing professionals and Mercersburg faculty and staff. The fundamental question being posed was how does one describe exactly what makes Mercersburg… Mercersburg. Everyone’s descriptions were undeniably competent, but in spite of our best efforts, a complete and satisfactory portrait of this place kept evading us. I’ve written about this phenomenon before, both in this column and in my message on the website. For one, Mercersburg virtually personifies the adage: the more things change the more they remain the same. I’ve also noted previously that Mercersburg is and always has been a whole much greater than the sum of its individual parts. In that meeting we dotted the landscape with acceptable metaphors to describe the component parts of this community, but apprehending the whole in a complete, succinct, and satisfying way eluded our best efforts.

While language certainly has its limits, our frustrations that day were not actually the fault of language, but more a matter of orientation. Simply describing externals or outcomes is not sufficient when trying to get at the core meaning of a thing. To know what makes Mercersburg Mercersburg, one cannot merely look at it and then report what has been seen; rather, one has to live it and be “in residence” with it, because only in living it, can one truly know it. Open, on-line learning experiences can surely be valuable to the world, but Mercersburg is, after all, a boarding school, and we are unique in our locale, our history, our mission, and our plans for the future. There is no Mercersburg but Mercersburg. We are similar to other boarding schools, but we are not a copy of them, nor

have we ever intended to be: Mercersburg as Mercersburg needs no borrowed interest or favorable comparisons to complete or convey its distinctiveness.

Every alum who has attended this school, regardless of when or for how long, knows the real Mercersburg, because that person has lived this experience for some period of time, day in and day out. The same is no less true for our day students; they have also spent hours and hours in every corner of this campus participating in the fullness of life here. Our alums know from their own depth of experience that living Mercersburg is the only sure way to understand simultaneously both the simplicity and the complexity of this remarkable place.

But I might even go so far as to suggest that those who know Mercersburg best are our faculty, some of whom have spent an entire professional lifetime (or a significant part of one) in residence here. If you asked them to describe the real Mercersburg, they would likely opt not to talk much about it, because they are smart enough and aware enough to know that words alone would never truly suffice. They would almost certainly prefer to show you the school, because in the showing, at least a glimpse of the kind of place and the kind of life these teachers have chosen might be revealed.

In truth, the real Mercersburg is and always has been standing up for everyone to see, if one resides here for a time and looks beyond the obvious. Living here has a language all its own—a vocabulary that can describe the it, apprehend the whole, and give every resident the ability to live one’s way “into the answer” about the true nature and meaning of this great school.

Douglas Hale Head of School

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

3

D at es to Rem em b er

Mercersburg A roundup of what’s news, what’s new, and what Mercersburg people are talking about.

May 24

Baccalaureate, 7 p.m.

May 25

Commencement, 10:30 a.m.

May 31

End of academic year for underclassmen

Jun 6–9

Reunion Weekend

Sep 8

2013–2014 Opening Convocation

Schedule subject to change; for a full and updated schedule of events, visit www.mercersburg.edu

The New King of the Court

Jack Taylor ’10 shatters NCAA record with 138 points in a single game

College basketball has been played for 117 years.

But no one has scored more points in a game than Mercersburg alumnus Jack Taylor ’10, who poured in 138 points in a November 20 contest for Grinnell College. Grinnell, an NCAA Division III school in Grinnell, Iowa, won the game over Faith Baptist Bible College (also of Iowa), 179–104.

Taylor, who is from Black River Falls, Wisconsin, came to Mercersburg in fall 2009 as a postgraduate student in hopes of attracting scholarship offers from Division I schools. But eight games into the 2009–2010 season, Taylor tore the anterior cruciate ligament and lateral meniscus in his left knee. His short Mercersburg career, in which he averaged 11.1 points and seven assists per game for the Blue Storm, was over before it had hardly started.

After successful surgery, Taylor chose the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, which also plays at the Division III level. He averaged 7.0 points in 13.4 minutes per game as a freshman before transferring to Grinnell after the season.

The Grinnell Pioneers are known for a frenetic style of play that includes continuous full-court defense and places a premium on offensive possessions and shot attempts (preferably threepoint shots).

The game against Faith Baptist Bible was just Taylor’s third in a Grinnell uniform. He scored a total of 47 points in the team’s first two games, both victories—and while he had 58 points at halftime of the game against Faith Baptist Bible, it turned out Taylor was just warming up. He set the NCAA record for points in a single half (80) in the second half, and finished with 138 points by making 52 of 108 shots (including 27 of 71 three-point attempts). Every one of those marks is now an NCAA record.

The previous record for points in a college game by an individual was 115 by Clarence “Bevo” Francis of Rio Grande College in 1954.

Not surprisingly, Taylor’s heroics were the talk of national media for days to come. Highlights of his record-setting performance played on a nearcontinuous loop on ESPN, which interviewed him live on SportsCenter. He did on-camera segments with NBC’s Today and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, among others. Taylor’s name was trending worldwide on Twitter. One of the game balls was sent to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

In a cruel case of history repeating, Taylor once again saw his season cut short by injury; this time, it was a broken wrist suffered in a game January 9. He finished his abbreviated 12-game season with 36.3 points-pergame average. Grinnell finished the season 17–6 and in second place in the Midwest Conference.

Scoring Champs: Single-game men’s basketball scoring records NCAA: Jack Taylor, 138 points

High school: Danny Heater (Burnsville [W.Va.] High School, 1960), 135 points

140 120 100 NCAA

high school

NBA

NBA: Wilt Chamberlain (Philadelphia 76ers, 1962), 100 points

4

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

Springing Forward Into the Senior Year

B

eginning in the 2013–2014 academic year, Mercersburg seniors may choose to finish their academic careers with SpringBoard, a rigorous, multi-disciplinary course in one of six areas of specialty ranging from entrepreneurship to water conservation and even the Academy’s own history. The courses will emphasize challenge-based learning methods and examine ethical questions and issues of local, national, and global consequence.

The individual full-year courses will be taught by faculty members across academic departments, with the ultimate goal of each student producing a project that can be published, permanent, and viewable by the public.

SpringBoard is the first of two capstone experiences that will eventually be offered to Mercersburg students during their 11th- and 12th-grade years. The second offering is Mercersburg’s Advanced Program for Global Studies (known as MAPS), which is a two-year program slated to begin in the 2013–2014 academic year. In the spring of their 10th-grade year, students will apply for acceptance into MAPS, which includes a global-studies course in the 11th-grade year and a senior research course and independent study in the senior year that includes research, self-assessment, and a comprehensive and regular review of students’ progress and work.

Among the requirements for students participating in MAPS are a minimum of 150 hours of community service, completion of a number of highest-level courses from several different disciplines in the curriculum (including a foreign language to Level 4 or higher), a minimum of four weeks studying abroad with a homestay component, and completion of a yearlong senior project to include a substantial presentation at the end of the year.

All graduating seniors will be required to complete one of the two capstone programs beginning in 2014–2015. The experiences are part of a new set of graduation requirements that are being phased in depending on a student’s year of entry.

The requirements are the result of an extensive process in which the faculty, at the request of Head of School Douglas Hale, re-evaluated the Academy’s entire academic and residential curricula.

Happy Trails A combined 52 years of Mercersburg service were celebrated in December when Betty Backensto (left, director of housekeeping) and Ruth Roper (right, executive assistant in the Office of the Academic Dean) announced their retirements. Backensto first joined the Academy staff in 1984, while Roper came aboard in 1988.

Purple (and Blue) Storm When the Baltimore Ravens outlasted the San Francisco 49ers to win Super Bowl XLVII in February, two of the celebrants on the platform during the Lombardi Trophy presentation had Mercersburg ties.

Dick Cass ’64 (second from right) is the team’s president, and Ozzie Newsome (far right), the Ravens’ general manager and an NFL Hall of Famer, is the father of a Mercersburg alumnus; his son, Michael ’11, also earned a championship ring this winter as a defensive lineman for the Alabama Crimson Tide. Alabama defeated Notre Dame in the BCS National Championship Game in January. (Also pictured, from left, are CBS announcer Jim Nantz and Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis.)

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

5

A Capital Gathering

Students in the Quinn-Ferguson Honors Seminar spent two days in December at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol, where they met with several government officials, including U.S. Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy Joseph Mulloy (father of Tyler ’10 and Connor ’13).

The students enjoyed dinner at the Washington home of Alice Albright and Gregory Bowes (parents of David Bowes ’12), as well as with Ms. Albright’s mother and David’s grandmother, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Front row (L–R): Chris Hackett ’13, Michaella HoehnSaric ’13, Secretary Albright, Margaret Burnett ’13, Jennifer Nelson ’13, Emily Sanders ’13, Caroline Yoo ’13. Back row: Andrew Kim ’14, Jason Cui ’13, Stefan Kempe ’13, Jeremy Greenberger ’13, Zan Mir ’13, Syd Godbey ’14, Grant Cohen ’13, Raven Kaur ’14, Catherine Levins ’13.

’Burg’s Eye View

campus notes

Former Mercersburg cross country and track & field standout and U.S. Military Academy at West Point cadet Mackenzie Riford ’11

was part of a 160Riford mile run that carried a ceremonial game ball from West Point, New York, to Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia before December’s Army-Navy football game. Riford is a member of the West Point Marathon Team and ran one of the final legs of the relay through the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Riford, whose brother, James ’14, is an upper middler at Mercersburg, was a fouryear All-State and All-Mid-Atlantic Prep League selection in cross country, and earned 12 varsity letters in four years for the Blue Storm (in cross country, indoor track & field, and outdoor track & field). She spent a year at nearby Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, where she was an NCAA Division II scholar athlete as a member of the Raiders’ cross country team.

Later that month (in other college footballrelated news), Sam Rodgers ’11 and Curtis Feigt ’09 became the first former Mercersburg teammates to face off in a college bowl game when Syracuse defeated West Virginia in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl at New York’s Yankee Stadium. Rodgers is the starting

long snapper for the Orange, while Feigt started WVU’s final six games of the year at right tackle. And in the final college football game of the season, Michael Newsome ’11 (a defensive lineman for Alabama) won a national championship with the Crimson Tide, who pummeled Notre Dame in the BCS National Championship Game.

Lisa Shannon delivered the Schaff Lecture on Ethics and Morals in December.

Shannon was the first grassroots activist in the U.S. to raise awareness of the human-rights crisis in the Congo. She is author Shannon of A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman, and founded Sister Somalia, an organization dedicated to helping survivors of sexual abuse in that country.

John Scott gave the Carroll Henshaw Hendrickson Organ Recital in January.

Scott is the organist of St. Thomas Church in New York City, is past president of the Incorporated Association of Organists, and was one of five organists invited to play at Washington National Cathedral to celebrate the cathedral’s completion. Other venues in which Scott has performed include Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and

Royal Albert Hall in London; Notre Dame de Paris; and St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.

Jonathan Haidt served as the Jacobs Residency Lecturer in April. Haidt is a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and author of the New York Times best seller The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion and The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom.

Haidt’s work focuses on morality and emotion and how they vary across cultures. He is a sought-after speaker who has appeared at TED and on The Colbert Report.

In its sixth year of participation in the Green Cup Challenge , a competition to limit energy usage between schools from 21 states and abroad, Mercersburg finished first among Mid-Atlantic boarding schools by trimming its energy use by 6.34 percent when compared to the same time period over the past three years.

Mercersburg had set a goal to use 6 percent less energy over the month-long competition, which also included fellow MAPL institutions Blair Academy, The Lawrenceville School, and The Hill School.

Participating schools kept more than 500,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere by taking part in the competition.

6

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

1,019 Words A look at Mercersburg’s

7

iconic Sycamore Lane as the shadows begin to win a late-afternoon battle against the sunlight.

Photo by Eric Poggenpohl.

8

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

Irving-Marshall Week 2013

MARSHALL 1075 Marshall declaimers (standing, L–R): firstplace winner David Glass ’13, Trustin Riley ’14, Dikachi Osaji ’14, Kenny Guerrero ’14. Sitting: Emily Schoenberger ’15.

IRVING 875 Irving declaimers (standing, L–R): third-place winner AnnaBeth Thomas ’15, Lauren Reilly ’13, Vivi Hyacinthe ’13. Sitting: second-place winner Connor Weiss ’13, Jennifer Nelson ’13.

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

First-place declaimer and Scoblionko Declamation Cup winner David Glass ’13

9

HOME SWEET MERCERSBURG

By Lee Owen

You don’t have to live at Mercersburg Academy or even in the borough of Mercersburg to feel at home on campus. ¶ More than 85 percent of the current student body and about 50 percent of the faculty lives in on-campus housing, with the remainder of faculty members living in or near the town. ¶ Those residing on campus represent a record 37 nations as well as 29 states across America. And those who came before them—the more than 12,500 living alumni—can be found in all 50 states and 95 different countries worldwide. But they all have one thing in common: no matter where they hang their hats, a certain 300 acres of land in south-central Pennsylvania will always be their home. ¶ Read on for the stories of just a few of those who have chosen to make their lives here as teachers, coaches, advisers, administrators, dormitory deans, and students.

Welcome home…

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

❝

F IRS T P ERS O N :

W

Jo Wrzesinsky dormitory dean, Swank Hall associate director of summer & extended programs

❝ When people ask me if I have any kids, I tell them I have a husband, two girls, a dog, and 44 other girls. I always start off every dorm meeting by saying, ‘We’re a family. We look out for each other and take care of each other. It’s OK to argue and fight sometimes, but we still love each other and respect each other.’

❝ I grew up in New Jersey about 15 minutes away from

tor of student activities, which has been really great for us as a school.

❝I

loved every minute of living in Fowle. I can get completely geeked out about residential life—it drives my husband nuts sometimes, but I’m really passionate about it. Sure, you can learn a ton in the classroom, but the things you remember throughout your life and the lessons you learn that affect who you are as a person and even what kind of career you have—whether you go into

Blair Academy. I went to Blair for three years as a day student and then was a dorm prefect my senior year. But I never played a game against Mercersburg, because Blair and Mercersburg didn’t face each other in my sports (lacrosse, The Wrzesinsky File basketball, and tennis) until Mercersburg joined the MidGraduated from Blair Academy Atlantic Prep League in 2000, and Washington College after I graduated.

At Mercersburg since 1999 ❝ I did visit Mercersburg before Formerly head girls’ lacrosse coach I came to work here, though— and director of Inbound (orientation my first year after graduating program for new students) from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, I Married Jason Frey in 2006 in the worked for my collegiate alma Irvine Memorial Chapel mater as an admission officer.

My territory was Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Long Island.

I remember meeting Bill McClintick when I was here. So it was a little ironic the Peace Corps or get a Ph.D.—a lot of that comes from that when I decided I wanted to work at a private school your residential experiences and living with other people. or boarding school, I got a call from Mary Carrasco, who It builds a lot of character. And our kids may not see that was looking to hire an assistant director of annual giving. until several years down the road.

I came back to interview and fell in love with the place. ❝ After I had been here for three years, I moved to the ❝ I knew I wanted to live in the dorm when I came to Office of Summer & Extended Programs, which I really Mercersburg, because it was such an important part of enjoy. One of the really neat things is that we have so my own school experience. Originally, there wasn’t a many Mercersburg alumni who come back and work for spot for me in the dorm right away—but a new faculty us as counselors in the summer, but we also have lots of member who had been hired fell off a cliff while he was kids who come here for camp and fall in love with the rock climbing and, even though he made a full recovery, place and decide they want to come to school here. I he ultimately never came to work here. So that’s how I think it says a lot about Mercersburg that people want to came to live in Fowle Hall for 10 years, and also how come back here, whether they’ve been here for a couple Mercersburg ended up with Trini Hoffman as the direc- days as a camper or four years as a student.

Continued on page 12

11

12

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

❝ I coached lacrosse here for five years, during which we ❝ In today’s society, which categorizes boys in a certain beat Blair for the first time. It was pretty awesome, though bittersweet for me. The girl who was coaching Blair had been a great lacrosse player there and was a former teammate of mine. And our kids were beyond excited. Blair’s program was really good and we had slowly been improving. I was a big proponent of playing against better teams in order to improve our program. Even if you lose some games, it’ll make you a better team in the long run.

❝ Part

of my philosophy in working with our girls in Swank is that I try to treat them essentially the same way I treated the boys I worked with in Fowle. If they need to be upset about something, we have what we call the ‘24hour rule.’ We’ll give you 24 hours to deal with it and get it out of your system—but after that, you need to move on because otherwise it isn’t healthy for you.

way and girls in a certain way, I think it’s good for a girl to know she doesn’t have to be an emotional basket case because that’s how things are in the movies or in stereotypes. You can be a strong and smart and intelligent person.

❝ I truly believe that Mercersburg is a family. It’s not just a place you go for four years and then leave and never come back. It’s a pretty neat network of people. And the kids are fantastic. I love that my kids know them and my dog, Tabasco, loves them. I joke sometimes that Tabasco is more excited about the opening of school than anyone on campus. When the cars start pulling up in August, he gets so excited—and when everyone leaves at the end of the year, he gets a little bit down.”

ALWAYS IN SESSION JIM & SUE MALONE IMPACT STUDENTS’ LIVES INDOORS AND OUT | by Lee Owen In 1979, two years after his graduation from the University of Michigan, aspiring teacher Jim Malone found himself with a pair of job offers. One was from a day school near Philadelphia; the other was from Mercersburg.

Only one offered the lure of an on-campus apartment and meals in the dining hall—and $7,000 a year.

(As the old slogan goes, membership has its privileges.)

A year and a half later, Mercersburg senior Lynn Bannerot Kohr ’81 kept badgering Malone about a young teacher she knew from her days at Mars Area High School (nickname: the Fighting Planets) north of Pittsburgh. You have to meet her, she said.

It didn’t matter that this young teacher, Susan “Sue” Eadie, who met Lynn while completing a student-teaching assignment in Mars for her degree in education from Slippery Rock State University, was now working at a girls’ school in Connecticut. A blind date was arranged, Sue made the 300-mile drive to Mercersburg during Long Winter Weekend 1981, the couple hit it off, and one of the most successful partnerships in recent Academy history was born.

Sue joined the Mercersburg faculty that fall as a chemistry teacher, moved into Tippetts Hall across the quad from Jim (who lived in Fowle Hall), and the couple married in 1982.

More than three decades later, Jim and Sue Malone have raised two daughters, Mercersburg alumni Molly ’01 and Jess ’03, as well as—in tandem with their faculty colleagues—the thousands of students they’ve taught, coached, explored nature with, laughed with, cried with, lived with, and grown with at the school.

“I think that most Mercersburg graduates would agree that the relationships they develop while they’re here are what’s so special about the place—both the relationships with their peers and with faculty members,” Jim says. “We like to joke that the term in loco parentis is Latin for ‘You’re crazy to want to live in a dormitory with teenagers.’ But in all seriousness, we have to be there for kids to come to when they’re having trouble, and also be there to help them enjoy the good things in their lives.

Sometimes kids just need an adult in their lives to tell

At left: Sue and Jim Malone today. Above and right: the Malones in earlier days on campus.

them, ‘You can do this.’ And occasionally we get to serve that purpose.”

“Mercersburg really is who we are and what we do,” Sue says. “You live and breathe it. And this was a great place to raise our daughters; we were very lucky that this place suited them the same way it suited us. Our girls thrived on being around the teenagers. They’d stand in the front row during chorus rehearsals. There are so many opportunities for young children here.”

While the Malones have been at Mercersburg for more than 30 years, it hasn’t been an uninterrupted marathon; they spent what turned out to be a short-lived stint at a school in Colorado during the 1986–1987 academic year before returning to Mercersburg.

“It was a really beneficial experience and an eyeopener for us to be away,” Jim says. “It certainly made us aware of a lot of things we had at Mercersburg that we may have taken for granted. I remember calling [then Headmaster] Walter Burgin ’53 on November 7 of that year and asking if we could please come home.”

“Walter supported us the whole time, and that was the most special thing,” Sue says. “He knew it was something we needed to do and he didn’t hold anything against us.”

Jim was initially hired to teach mathematics and has also taught courses in astronomy, biology, and physics—including extremely popular independentstudy courses in automotive physics and hawk and owl biology. He has coached football and basketball, worked

with the TREK program (the predecessor to Mercersburg Outdoor Education, or MOE), served as faculty adviser to the African-American Student Union, and helped organize community-service efforts for students and faculty, including a long-standing relationship where the school provides food to a homeless shelter in nearby Chambersburg on a weekly basis during the year.

In addition to her classroom responsibilities, Sue is a former cross country and track & field coach, a passionate outdoorswoman, and a veteran of outdoor education at Mercersburg, having been involved with both TREK and MOE. Most of her afternoons are spent working with Endeavor, the school’s outdoor leadership-training program, or other outdoor activities for students. Sue is an avid ultrarunner and has completed several longdistance races, including the famed Leadville Trail 100 in Colorado and a “Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim” run at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

“This is a wonderful place to work and it has been a great fit for us,” Jim says. “We’ve been able to teach things we like and work in activities we like. The culture here suits our personalities. And the relationships kids develop while they’re here really can change their lives in a good way.

“We have virtually ideal conditions for teaching here. We have small classes, great facilities, a supportive administration, and an awesome Board of Regents, and we have kids who want to be here and do the work. It’s a special place.”

14

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

❝

F IRS T P ERS O N :

R

KARL REISNER history faculty member since 1971 head varsity baseball coach

❝ This is one of the most personable schools you’ll find anywhere. I know from my own experience here that our faculty really gets to know the kids in a holistic way.

That wasn’t the case when I went to boarding school, even though I was very happy at The Hill School. We didn’t know our floormasters the way the kids here do today. And this is a more global school now than many, and that’s a good thing.

❝ My

grandfather [also named Karl Reisner] went to school here as a postgraduate after he graduated from high school. He was a member of the Class of 1905.

His father—my great-grandfather—was a jeweler in Lancaster and had made class rings for one of the Mercersburg senior classes a few years before, and the story is that somehow he never got paid for them. So in return, my grandfather got to come here for free. That’s the story in my family, anyway.

❝ My

very first at-bat as a varsity baseball player for Hill was here; we played Mercersburg the first game in 1966—I was an 11th grader and the leadoff man.

When we got here, the field was where it is now. But

Mercersburg sent us to take batting practice on the field next door and on my second swing I broke a window in one of the faculty houses.

And we played Mercersburg in football, too; I played some as an 11th grader when we played here at Mercersburg. We faced them at Hill my senior year and I had a pretty good game. But I remember hearing that the week before, Mercersburg had played Massanutten Military Academy, which had [future NFL Hall of Famer] Jack Ham. So Mercersburg had virtually no one left to play us the next week, and I’m sure they were a much better team before they ran into Massanutten.

❝ All my life I had planned to become an attorney, and I was about to enroll in law school in the fall of 1971.

For reasons I’ve never been able to explain, that summer I decided I didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore; what I wanted to do was teach and coach. So I enrolled in a master’s of education program at Lehigh University, and my plan was to look for a teaching job the following year. As part of my preparations, I filled out some forms for various placement agencies, and the Friday of Labor Day weekend, my dad called me and said, “Mercersburg called and wants to know if you can come out tomorrow for an interview.”

Now, my assumption was that this was for the following year. I didn’t think that they were talking about starting the next week. And I was here for at least an hour before I realized they were talking about me starting classes in three days. I had no preparation for this, but I didn’t worry because I figured there was no way in hell they were hiring me. I thought it would be good experience for the interview process. So when Mr. [William] Fowle called to offer me the job, I was totally tongue-tied and unprepared for any of this. And I’ve been here ever since, which is kind of unbelievable.

❝ The school owned literally 90 percent of what was in my first apartment in Swank Hall. (The faculty apartments didn’t look anything like they do now.) I had a school-issued bed, desk, and dresser, and one of those huge old bathtubs with the claw feet—no shower. I bought an easy chair with my first paycheck at a furniture store on Main Street that now sells pizza.

Karl Reisner (1995)

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

T h e REISNER F i l e At Mercersburg since 1971 Graduate of The Hill School, University of Pennsylvania (bachelor’s), and Lehigh University (master’s) Was a lightweight football All-American as a senior at Penn Holds the Marilyn and Robert M. Kurtz ’52 Chair for American Studies In addition to baseball, has also coached football and wrestling at Mercersburg Former president of the Mercersburg Rotary Club and Tuscarora Jaycees

After my wife, Stephanie, and I got married, we moved into Main Hall. We had four rooms in our apartment, and the bathroom was in the kitchen. Back then, most of the faculty members at Mercersburg and schools like it were single men, and when they began to have more families among the faculty, they’d expand faculty apartments by knocking down a door and adding what had been another dorm room onto an apartment. So when our son, Kristopher ’94, was born, they knocked out a door and we got another room.

It was a great place for Kris and our daughter, Amanda ’97, to grow up. We have great memories of Kristopher riding his plastic Big Wheel all around campus—and even down the front steps of Main Hall when he was 3 years old. We look back and wonder how we ever could have let him do that; he could have killed himself.

❝ Brent Gift and I started here on the faculty the same year, 1971. It’s been great and we’ve been good friends

the whole time. We’ve coached baseball together for more than 20 years. We’ve worked under three different headmasters; Mr. Fowle hired us, though we only had him for a year. And both Walter Burgin ’53 and Doug Hale have strengthened the school dramatically. They have different styles as head of school, but they’ve each been very good for Mercersburg.

❝ In this profession, no two years are ever the same. The kids keep you young, or at least younger. You’re not in love with every single day, but I always look forward to going to work. The challenges make it worthwhile.

❝ Mercersburg has been my life. My kids went to school here and we’ve spent our entire married lives here. We’re going to retire here. It’s a very warm and caring place, and a place that has allowed me to grow. I never would have believed I would spend 40-plus years in a small town. I thought I’d be here a couple of years and then go to the city. But I’m converted to a country boy.”

HEART AND SCIENCE ERIC & RENEE HICKS BUILD A HOME ON CAMPUS | by Lee Owen Eric and Renee Hicks have been fixtures on the Mercersburg campus for more than 20 years. That’s a long time to stay in one place anywhere. But two decades doesn’t place you anywhere near the top of the seniority list in the Academy’s science department, where at

least one member of the Hicks family has taught every year since 1992.

“There’s been a lot of stability in the science department here since we got here,” says Eric, who arrived at Mercersburg as a fresh-faced 21-year-old just after earning Continued on page 16

15

16

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

o n l i v i n g & wo r k i n g a t m e r c e r s b u r g “Every day that you’re here, you have an interesting day. It just becomes your life. You look forward to going to work, and I’m not sure you ever stop. You don’t really think about it in terms of whether you’re ‘working’ or not.” —Eric Hicks

“I love going to work every day. It’s a great place to live, a great place to work, and a great place to raise a family.” —Renee Hicks

a bachelor’s degree at the College of Wooster in Ohio. pigs in the middle of a big room with no running water or sinks, it’s an experience. That added to the whole shock “So many of the people that were here when we came of being here in the first year.” are still here: Brent Gift, Frank Rutherford ’70, Jim and Renee (née Pryzbyc) joined Eric at Mercersburg Sue Malone, and Dave Holzwarth ’78. For the most part, in 1994, following her college graduation and a year we’ve done more adding than subtracting.” of teaching at St. James School in nearby Hagerstown, The Hickses are high-school sweethearts, though Maryland. She lived in Tippetts Hall and spent many an just barely—they started dating two weeks before they evening while on duty playing Scrabble with Eric and the both graduated from Newark Senior High School in the residents of their respective dorms. It was a memorable small central New York town of Newark, about 30 miles courtship made possible by the unique responsibilities east of Rochester. (They broke up just after the start of of boarding-school faculty. college, but got back together almost four years later as “Imagine you’re a student at a public high school,” Eric was completing his coursework at Wooster; Renee Eric says. “How often did the teacher’s girlfriend walk into graduated from George Washington University the next class? If she did, you’d be shocked by it, at least at first. You winter because she changed her major after transferring never really get to see your teachers’ lives outside of class from St. Bonaventure University.) there. You probably don’t think about your teachers going Both were college athletes; Eric played four years of to the grocery store or the movies or having boyfriends or tennis and three years of soccer for Wooster, while Renee girlfriends. It’s different in a community like this.” spent a year on the basketball team at St. Bonaventure “And you remain in touch with the people you live before giving up the sport after moving to George with because of the relationships you build here,” Renee Washington. says. “I’ve gone through and figured out that about 60 Eric remembers deciding to come to Mercersburg percent of the people I’m friends with on Facebook are mainly for the opportunity to work with Gift, who made former students that I taught or lived with here. It’s great an impression on him during his interview. “I remember to stay in touch with them and see their kids. [Current tagging along with Brent during one of his field-biology faculty member] Nate Jacklin ’96 was my advisee when courses and going to the creek—in my nice shoes,” Eric he went here, and I used to teach Jen Miller Smith ’97, says with a chuckle. “But even after that, the reason I whom I now share a classroom with as a science teacher.” came here to teach was because of Brent.”

The Hickses were married in the Irvine Memorial So the youthful new college graduate moved into Fowle Hall, and as he introduced himself during Parents’ Chapel in 1995 (by then school minister and current faculty member Paul Galey). Their son, Elliot ’16, was Weekend the first month of the school year, many of the born in 1998, and daughter Emma followed in 2001. parents greeted him as if he were a student himself; he Elliot is nearing the end of his first year as a Mercersburg certainly looked the part. “It wasn’t until I walked into the classroom that they realized I was teaching their kids,” student, which is hard for the Hickses and many of their he says. “And to make matters more difficult, I was 21 former students to believe.

“The other day, I was calling alumni as part of the years old and one of my advisees was 19. So there wasn’t Irving-Marshall phonathon for White Key,” Renee says. much difference in age at first.”

(White Key is an association of Mercersburg parents.)

Eric had arrived during a time of transition on campus, especially for science faculty. He taught one “They all asked about the kids and wanted to know how they were doing.” term in “old” Irvine Hall before renovations pushed the “They’re people that Elliot and Emma don’t remementire department to the basement of Boone Hall, which ber, but they [the students] remember them,” Eric interwas located where the Burgin Center for the Arts now jects. “Elliot learned to walk down the long hallways in stands. “I was teaching biology in the band room in the Fowle Hall.” basement of Boone,” he says. “If you’ve never dissected

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

17

FEELING BLUE

AT MERCERSBURG, IT’S A GOOD THING | by John David Bennett When talking to parents whose children are considering Mercersburg, I tell them that the Academy is the “most civilized place on the planet.” Despite the touch of hyperbole, I think the claim holds up.

My assertion isn’t suggesting that Mercersburg is a perfect place, a place where everything fits Thomas Paine’s 1791 description of his adopted America. “If there is a country in the world,” Paine said, “where concord, according to common calculations, would be least expected, it is America. Made up, as it is, of people from different nations, accustomed to different forms and habits of government, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship, it would appear that the union of such people was impracticable.”

When I recently read these words to my AP English students, I stopped right there to editorialize: If you replace “country” with “school” and “America” with “Mercersburg,” Paine described the Academy pretty well.

Then Paine went on to say that in America, “by simple operation of constructing government on the principles of society and the rights of man, every difficulty retires, and all parts are brought into cordial unison.”

At that italicized point, any reasonable person would have to scoff. Nowhere on earth—where human nature resides—fits that description. Yet I wonder if Dr. William Mann Irvine’s 120-year-old experiment gets us about as close as humanity’s flaws can allow.

If I sound like I’m drinking the blue Kool-Aid from a blue-and-white cup, understand that I—like anyone here—would like to change a thing or two about Mercersburg. I’m sure there are pockets of people who don’t always get along, and not everyone is always happy all the time, but in 2007, when I visited the campus for the first time (on a spring Sunday, arriving at exactly 3 p.m. as the carillon concert was beginning), after 24 hours I knew that I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up my family, transplant them 1,310 miles, and leave a position in the most highly regarded public magnet school in America.

There have been bumps in the road (anyone would be foolish to expect anything else), but my wife, my three children, and I found a place where my oldest son (Cameron Rogers ’12) became

a Mercersburg graduate, receiving a life-setting four-year edifying experience that I don’t think could have been better customized for him. The inclusiveness of this place has allowed my 12-year-old daughter to be part of the Stony Batter Players, and my 7-year-old, when he was 3, to be elected to an officer’s position in the John Marshall Literary Society (really). And I have been able to bring of love of teaching English to an enthusiastic classroom. I have been a fortunate part of a ride to a Pennsylvania Independent Schools state softball championship, and my wife and I have had a very local opportunity to dance to the swing beat we love while passing on the lindy hop to kids who lap it up.

There have been times when my ideas concerning education and progressive thoughts about language have conflicted with those of some of my colleagues, and when my opinions about technology and curriculum have been in clear contrast with the opinions held by some fellow teachers and even administrators, but I have no rivals here—just colleagues with different ideas. This sort of professional and social collegiality is rare anywhere.

In each of the last two years, I’ve had the privilege of presenting a controversial, very liberal conviction about language supremacy to a group of curious, open-minded students—some who embrace my conviction, and others who think it is rubbish. Most remarkably, I’m invited there by a teacher who, I’m guessing, doesn’t agree with much in my presentation. And I bet he’ll invite me again next year.

Again, I know this place isn’t perfect. What civilization is? But if the whole world could be like this…

T h e b e n n e tt F i l e English faculty member at Mercersburg since 2007; married to former Mercersburg staff member Denise Rogers-Bennett Came to Mercersburg from the Talented and Gifted Magnet High School in Dallas, which Newsweek has chosen five times as the top public school in the U.S. Head coach of Mercersburg’s defending state-champion softball team; has also coached basketball and cross country Faculty adviser to Four on the Floor, the school’s student swing-dance club

18

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

HOME AWAY

Seven recent graduates—all but one former residents of Mercersburg’s iconic Main Hall—share their thoughts on living here Mercersburg magazine: Almost everyone who moves into a dormitory when they come to Mercersburg is living away from home for the first time. Can you describe the transition from living at home with parental guidance and oversight to living with your peers?

Mark Herring ’09: Being surrounded by your friends is such a fun thing.

But in the dorm, there was structure—and we definitely needed it. When I went off to college, I found that I was really efficient in going back to the dorm and getting my work done. I had peers who were freaking out and spending all night in the library and didn’t know how to handle being on their own. But all of that felt like instinct for me when I got to college.

Matt Cook ’11: It can be a little scary at first to be on your own, but I remember those feelings dissipating quickly when I met my prefects, Chris McClintick ’08 and Mitch Shetter ’08. They were very friendly and truly wanted to get to know me and help me get settled.

Aric DiLalla ’12: I remember being here for football preseason at the beginning of my first year and thinking, “What have I done? Am I going to be able to handle this?”

But when you get to know everyone on your floor, you realize you’re all in the same situation together. People at Mercersburg

T h e P AR T ICI P AN T S :

genuinely want to get to know you and are interested in who you are as a person. And when you’re in a new place and don’t know anyone and are living on your own for the first time, that makes a world of difference.

Sam Hook ’10: I lived with Neb Osman ’10 three of my four years at Mercersburg, and we developed a good relationship pretty quickly. It was a nice experience and really provided a semblance of family for me. Anything I would talk to my brother [Phil ’08] about, I could also talk to Neb about, and that made the transition easier.

MM: At a place like Mercersburg, you invariably end up spending lots of time with faculty members outside of the classroom. What is it like to get to know the faculty (and their families)?

Neb Osman ’10: It was one of my favorite things about Mercersburg. The faculty are so eager to impart their wisdom, insight, and guidance to students. My adviser, Jeff Cohen, is quite simply one of the most selfless, caring, and dedicated people that I’ve ever met. He was always willing to bend over backwards to help his advisees—and any other students, for that matter—succeed and enjoy their time here.

David Whyel ’10: They truly care about the students and their well-being,

Matt Cook ’11

attends Harvey Mudd College hometown: Temple City, California

both in school and life, and want the students to be as successful as they can. Most of the faculty members are very personable and approachable. They really take the time to get to know you and relate to you more as a friend than as a teacher interacting with a student.

Chris Freeland ’08: I still remember getting to know Coach [Dan] Walker’s kids and throwing the football with his son, Colby, after classes, and Coach [Bob] Holman and Mrs. [Jean] Holman would always make food for us. They may seem like little things at first, but a lot of those things are what you remember. When you’re on a team, a lot of times you have players who might not necessarily have the spotlight, but they’re the ones who really hold the team together. It’s almost the same thing with different faculty members and their families at Mercersburg.

Herring: All the faculty members that lived in the dorm were patient and had a high tolerance for some of the silly stuff that goes on when you have a bunch of high-school kids living together. I remember people like Jason Bershatsky, Jo Wrzesinsky, Jim Applebaum, and Laurie Mufson knowing how to deal with students in really constructive ways. Things were handled in a way that helped us learn lessons—if anyone messed up or got in trouble, instead of just

Aric DiLalla ’12

attends Northwestern University hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina

Chris Freeland ’08 attends the U.S. Naval Academy hometown: Frederick, Maryland

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

19

FROM HOME lecturing us, their approach was, “How do we solve this problem together, make it better in the future, and create a space where everyone is included?”

The dorm parents are a huge factor in life at Mercersburg. I was a prefect my senior year, and it was great working for them, but I didn’t feel like I was working for them. We all had the same mission.

MM: Do you find you miss anything in particular about living and being at Mercersburg?

DiLalla: While I’ve only been in college for a few months, it’s already really interesting to see how different it is. You can go a whole quarter or semester without even talking to your teachers. At Mercersburg, that’s not an option.

I was close to all my advisers, and even before Mr. Cohen was my adviser, we spent a lot of time together. Every year his advisee group ends up being like a family; I know that when I came back for Alumni Weekend in the fall, the first people I wanted to see were the guys in that advisee group.

Hook: I have a ton of good friends at Wake Forest, but I definitely miss my advisee group from Mercersburg. We’re all practically best friends and are all still in touch. Having five or six guys you’re so

Mark Herring ’09

attends North Carolina State University hometown: Chapel Hill, North Carolina

close with living less than a minute away from you was really nice.

Herring: This might sound strange, but I miss the times when I was not allowed to use my cell phone. When I was there, if I had a question about anything I could go directly to the source; the sense of community at Mercersburg and being able to interact with other people is huge, and I miss that. I think a lot of kids our age have really bad communication skills. Even though we’re living in a high-tech age, at Mercersburg people still communicate face to face, and that’s extremely important.

Cook: I sorely miss the community.

I love how much the faculty cares about the students in and out of class, and I miss the community of friends that was built through meals, dorm life, and for me, cross country and track. We all experienced Mercersburg together, and it was something unique and that we could all relate to.

MM: Ultimately, how do you think living at Mercersburg prepared you for college and your life beyond it?

Hook: While Mercersburg does room checks to make sure you’re keeping your room clean, you learn that the more organized you keep your life, the higher quality of life you’ll have. I know I was naturally inclined after living at Mercersburg to be

Sam Hook ’10

attends Wake Forest University hometown: Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania

organized and clean. If your life is messy, it’s not conducive to an enjoyable living experience.

Osman: During the first few weeks of college, everyone revels in having little or no structure in how they can spend their time; what starts as a 10-minute study break can quickly turn into a two-hour FIFA [video-game] session with your hall-mates if you don’t have the discipline to manage your time. People that don’t go to boarding school probably aren’t used to that.

It often takes time—a semester or two, even—to learn to have that discipline, to structure your time and to say no to your friends when you have to. This is something I definitely gained from my experience at Mercersburg and continue to benefit from.

DiLalla: Going away to college wasn’t an issue for me at all, though it’s always a little nerve-wracking when you get to a new place and don’t know anybody. But I already knew how to live on my own and get up and go to class and things like that, which probably aren’t second nature to most kids. More than that, though, I really appreciate the close friendships—people like John San Filippo ’12, David Bowes ’12, and Mr. Cohen—those are relationships that were built in the dorm and are the most valuable things I have from my time at Mercersburg.

Neb Osman ’10

attends the University of Pennsylvania hometown: Frederick, Maryland

David Whyel ’10

attends the University of Montana hometown: Farmington, Pennsylvania

20

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

❝

F IRS T P ERS O N :

G

brent GIFT

science faculty member since 1971 assistant varsity baseball coach

❝ With the exception of a one-year teacher exchange on

❝ I came over in the summer and met with Jay Quinn,

Maui and a year and a half in Maine in graduate school, I’ve spent my entire life in Franklin County. I grew up on my grandfather’s cattle farm. I went to Chambersburg Area Senior High School.

who was head of the science department. We took a tour and looked around the campus, although there weren’t any openings at the time. Toward the end of that summer, a science teacher named Steve Wikel received a grant to do graduate work. Steve had taught biology, so his position opened up several weeks before school was to start. Bill Allen, who taught AP biology, called me and asked if I could come over for a formal interview. So I did that, and he offered me the job.

❝ Growing up, my friends and I never really had good feelings about Mercersburg. Back then, we just thought of it as a ‘prep school for rich boys.’ There was a girls’ school in Chambersburg called Penn Hall that used to bus Mercersburg boys over for dances. We tried to crash the dances, and they wouldn’t let us in.

My first real knowledge of Mercersburg came from being friends with David Rahauser ’67, the older brother of [Dean of Students] Tom Rahauser ’74. Later, I knew Dick Decker, who was on the math faculty. His wife [Delores] and my wife [Barbara] went to Shippensburg together and were in the elementary education program.

Dick invited me to come over and interview when I graduated. We also knew Harold Cook, who worked in the business office, and both he and the Deckers were advocates for me and vouched for me.

❝ Working at Mercersburg was the first time I had ever lived away from home, because I was a day student when I went to college at Shippensburg. I moved onto the second floor of South Cottage, which was then a boys’ dorm. It was really an immersion into residential life. There were some postgraduate students that lived in the dorm that were 18, and I was 22. There were some growing pains involved. I could relate a lot to the guys because I was so close in age to them. And I remember when South became a girls’ dorm, the outgoing guys painted the pillars pink.

In 1983, in order to get my master’s in zoology, I had to be a resident at the University of Maine for a year.

Walter Burgin ’53, who was then the head of school, allowed me to resign and said he’d hire me back, which he did. When I came back, Barb and I got married and we moved downtown.

❝ I’ve always had an affinity for fieldwork. It can be dirty

Brent Gift (1995)

and gritty. I’ve been fortunate to have some great professors who were field-oriented. I always say field research is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.

I can remember the first time a professor of mine at Shippensburg took us out in the field to do analysis— it was out on South Mountain by the Shippensburg Reservoir. In graduate school, I’d go out on the Penobscot River at 2 a.m. and study eel migration or go out to Blue Hill Bay and count clams for different projects. With Mercersburg’s location, there are plenty of opportunities to go out and do fieldwork. I’ve even had students whose families own land around Mercersburg that open it up for me to bring students out there. It’s a great resource.

Being out in the field is truly the best way to learn.

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

21

T h e GI F T F i l e Began teaching at Mercersburg in 1971 Graduated from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (bachelor’s) and the University of Maine (master’s) Holds Robert R. Black Chair Founded and ran Mercersburg Ecology Camp, which became part of Mercersburg Summer Programs’ Adventure Camps Started Mercersburg’s volleyball program; 17 years as head coach in two different stints Also coached football and fencing in addition to volleyball and baseball

❝ As the enrollment of girls increased at Mercersburg, Joe Chandler, who was the athletic director, and I talked about adding volleyball as a sport. When I was in Hawaii, I taught at a school called Seabury Hall, which started out as a girls’ school and went coed. I coached softball there and helped the volleyball coach, and I also started playing two-man beach volleyball.

1986 was our first season of volleyball here. We didn’t win a match the first season, but things got better.

I coached the varsity through the fall of 1998. When I became chair of the science department, I had to drop volleyball, though I helped out here and there with the JV team and with practices.

A few weeks before the start of the 2010–2011 school year, I got a call from Doug Hale after our varsity coach, Kylie Johnson, had to take a job that would prevent her from coaching. Doug asked if I’d come back as head coach, and I said ‘Sure.’

❝I

feel like Jesse James—like I’m robbing somebody blind to get paid to do the things I truly enjoy. The kids

are great. I love going into the classroom every day. It’s fun going out on the ballfield. It’s not a job; it’s just enjoyable. I cannot imagine having a job where you don’t look forward to going to work every day. It’s pleasant. This is the only place I’ve ever taught.

The time has gone by so fast. And talking with Karl Reisner and looking at the years we’ve been here, we’ve been here more than a third of the total life of the school.

❝ We all have respect for this place and we all want it to be a good and rewarding experience for the students. As they come up from ninth grade to senior year, we have seniors that set good examples for how the younger kids should develop their lives here. I think we emphasize the right way to do things. The admission office puts a great bunch of kids in the school. And it works. You hear that from prospective parents and even from people we know in the area. They see our students as being really nice, decent people. The school has a great reputation—much more so than even when I was in school.”

22

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

FAMILIAR FACES

Dave Holzwarth & Allison Stephens have the campus covered | by Lee Owen Hang around Mercersburg long enough (as a student or even just as a visitor), and chances are you’ll bump into one or both members of the husband-and-wife faculty team of Dave Holzwarth ’78 and Allison Stephens.

Above: Allison Stephens in the alumni office in the late 1980s. Below: Stephens (seated, on railing) and Dave Holzwarth (seated, on steps) in a 1992 Mercersburg bookstore catalog. (At right is fellow faculty member Frank Rutherford ’70.)

Together, they’ve taught in four different academic departments (English, history, mathematics, science); lived or worked in five of the seven campus dormitories (Culbertson House, Fowle Hall, Keil Hall, South Cottage, and Swank Hall); coached five different sports (football, track & field, skiing, field hockey, and softball); served as faculty advisers to numerous clubs and student organizations; and have even worked with students to create student groups, whether it’s a competitive ski team or an organization dedicated to fighting for and defending women’s rights.

“There was and is a spirit of volunteerism among the faculty,” says Holzwarth, who spent his final two years of high school at Mercersburg—which is also the alma mater of his late father, Bill ’44, and late uncle, Chuck ’42. “People who work here want to spend time with the students. I think if anyone were to create a job description to work at a place like Mercersburg, when they list the requirements it should include ‘a sense of humor.’ The kids pull you in.”

Holzwarth and Stephens didn’t meet at Mercersburg, but did meet because of Mercersburg. After graduation, Holzwarth walked on as a punter on the football team at the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He was living in the San Francisco Bay Area when he traveled back east to Mercersburg for his 10-year class reunion.

As part of the festivities, the school’s Office of Alumni & Development (which included Stephens, then the director of annual giving) rented a hospitality room at the Venice Inn in Hagerstown, where many of the reunion attendees stayed. It was there that Stephens and Holzwarth met; they dated for about three years and married in 1991 in the Irvine Memorial Chapel.

A year before the wedding, Holzwarth returned to Mercersburg to work in the science department.

“During my interview, I had a fireside chat with Walter Burgin ’53—literally,” Holzwarth remembers. “I had him as a teacher, and during the interview he pulled out his grade book. I looked at it and breathed a sigh of relief; I got a 92 in his class.”

Stephens grew up in the secondary-school world, though not at a boarding school; her father, John,

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

spent more than 50 years at the University School of Milwaukee, a prominent day school, where he taught history and served as director of admission, head of the upper school, and associate head of school at various points before he retired. (Stephens’ mother and two of her three siblings are teachers as well.)

For Stephens, who graduated from Amherst College and spent two years in annual giving before moving into the classroom, the Academy was a natural fit, even if the town might not have been—at least initially.

“I came to interview during Irving-Marshall Week,” she says. “I really liked that. The smallness of the town was a little bit of a challenge at first, but the opportunities Dave and I have been given to do things that challenge us, and so many things we like, have kept us here.

“I think of the opportunity I had to go to Oman and Israel with our students in 2007, and coming back and teaching Middle Eastern history, which I didn’t have much of a background in. And of Dave’s work with the [Class of ’38] Observatory, which he designed, built, used as a teacher, and installed solar panels for with the help of students.”

Stephens and Holzwarth spent the 2004–2005 academic year in France with School Year Abroad (SYA), a program that allows high-school students to study in China, France, Italy, or Spain. Several current or former Mercersburg faculty members have taught in SYA schools abroad, including Frank Rutherford ’70, Neil Carstensen, Joel Chace, and Walter Burgin. Three members of this year’s senior class—Jessi Fulton ’13 (Spain), Suzanne Holcomb ’13 (France), and Amanda Hollick ’13 (Italy)— are enrolled in SYA for their final year of high school.

“Part of the reason I wanted us to be involved in SYA goes back to not studying abroad in college,” says Stephens, who is a former head of Mercersburg’s history department and holds the John H. (1907) and Florence Rumbaugh Chair. “By the time I graduated, I really regretted it, and I resolved in the future that I wouldn’t miss an opportunity like it again.

“Neither of us really grew up in a rural area like this.

And while we certainly appreciate the benefits of being here, we wanted our kids [Wynn Holzwarth ’11, who is now a sophomore at Susquehanna University, and Zack Holzwarth ’13] to be exposed to a bigger world as well.

It was an incredible opportunity and Mercersburg supported us so strongly in it. The school has such a rich history of faculty and student involvement with SYA. It was almost like a sabbatical for us. The whole experience did so much for our whole family.”

2013 is a red-letter year for the family; Dave Holzwarth (a former recipient of the school’s Zern Distinguished Teaching Award) is celebrating his 35-year Mercersburg class reunion in June, and Zack Holzwarth will graduate from the school where he grew up and where both his parents teach. In a fitting finish to his Mercersburg career, Zack is taking classes from his mother and father this year—in history and physics, respectively.

“I think it’s been good for both of us to have Zack in class this year, and it’s been good for Zack as well,” Dave Holzwarth says. “He said, ‘These are the classes I want to take, and if you’re teaching them, that’s fine.’ And he’s doing really well.”

23

24

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

Arts

D ates to Re me mb e r

May 17 May 24

Band, Chorale, Jazz Band, String Ensemble perform at Music In the Parks (Hershey, Pa.)

Senior Art Show Reception (2:30 p.m.) and Senior Music Recital (3:30 p.m.)

Burgin Center for the Arts

Jun 12–25

Dance trip to Peru

Schedule subject to change; for a full and updated schedule of events, visit www.mercersburg.edu

Dance director: Denise Dalton

(clockwise from top left) Jennifer Nelson ’13, Variation from Le Corsaire Sarah Milback ’13 and Kenny Guerrero ’14, “Autumn Leaves” Madison Nordyke ’14, Lillian Wilkins ’15, Becca Glass ’15, “Tribe”

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

Visual Art faculty: Mark Flowers, Wells Gray, Kristy Higby

(left) Natalie Burkardt ’14, painting (below) Emma Clarke ’14, ceramics

Aidan Wallace ’13, mixed media

25

26

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

Stony Batter Players directors: Laurie Mufson, Matt Maurer, Steve Crick

(above) Evan Schoenberger ’13 and Lauren Reilly ’13 in Lend Me a Tenor (right) Caitlin Cremins ’14 and Kyle Hawbaker ’14 in The Boy Friend

Vocal Music directors: Richard Rotz, Jim Brinson Magalia

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

Instrumental Music directors: Richard Rotz, Jack Hawbaker, Michael Cameron Band

Jazz Band

Octet

27

28

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

Athletics D ates to Re me mb e r

May 11

Mid-Atlantic Prep League Spring Track & Field Championships (at Hightstown, New Jersey)

May 21–25 Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association

Baseball/Softball Championships

Aug 26

Preseason football practice begins

Schedule subject to change; for a full and updated schedule of events, visit www.mercersburg.edu

Fall 2012 Varsity Athletics Roundup

Boys’ Cross Country

Captains: meet captains selected Boys’ Cross Country Award (most outstanding runner): Stefan Kempe ’13 Boys’ Coaches’ Award (most improved runner): Jan Smilek ’16 Head coach: Matt Geeza (2nd season) MAPL/IPSL finish: 5th/3rd Highlights: Kempe and Smilek were both named all-league in the Independent-Parochial School League… Kempe posted a lifetime personal best of 18:28 at the Pennsylvania Independent Schools State Championships at Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia; Smilek was the top Storm finisher at the event, which saw Mercersburg place 10th…

Smilek was the squad’s top finisher at the MidAtlantic Prep League Championships… five of the seven runners recorded lifetime PRs at the MAPL meet… Kempe was sixth and Smilek seventh at the IPSL Championships… six of the squad’s top seven runners will return next season… Alex Jackson ’15 was an Academic All-Mid-Atlantic Prep League selection.

Girls’ Cross Country

Captain: Phoebe Moore ’13 Girls’ Cross Country Award (most outstanding runner): Moore Girls’ Coaches’ Award (most improved runner): Francesca Vecchiarelli ’15 Head coach: Betsy Cunningham (10th season) MAPL/IPSL finish: 5th/champion Highlights: The team captured its second-straight IPSL title by taking four of the top six places to finish 17 points ahead of second-place Mount Airy Christian Academy… Brittany Burg ’13 and Vecchiarelli were the top two overall individual finishers, followed by Maddie Nelson ’15 (fifth) and Gabby Hovenden ’15 (sixth)… all four earned AllIPSL honors… Burg and Vecchiarelli—the team’s top two runners—competed in cross country for the first time in their Mercersburg careers… Burg, Vecchiarelli, and Nelson ran lifetime personal bests at the MAPL Championships… Vecchiarelli was an Academic All-MAPL selection.

Field Hockey

Captains: Liz Casparian ’13, Maddy Shearer ’13 Carol Anderson Field Hockey Award (most outstanding player): Syd Godbey ’14 Beck Field Hockey Improvement Award (most improved player): Shearer Becki Peace ’75 Field Hockey Award (most inspirational player): Casparian Head coach: Alicia Hawk (3rd season) Record: 5–10 (0–4 MAPL) Highlights: Godbey was a first-team All-MAPL selection in goal and was also named to the [Chambersburg] Public Opinion’s area All-Star team… she posted a .785 save percentage, made 132 saves, and tallied three shutouts… Paige Richardson ’14 led the team in scoring (nine goals), followed by Shearer (five goals) and Elizabeth Stern-Green ’14 (four goals)… Shearer and SternGreen tied for the team lead in assists (five apiece)… four of the team’s five leading goal scorers will return next season, and four ninth graders earned varsity letters… Stern-Green and Caroline Brown ’16 were named Academic All-MAPL.

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

Football

Captains: game captains selected Football Award (most outstanding player): William Gilbert ’13 Coaches’ Award (most improved player): Timi Tijani ’14 Head coach: Dan Walker (10th season) Record: 2–5 (0–4 MAPL) Highlights: Reggie Fiumano ’13 and Lorenzo Vazquez ’13 earned first-team All-MAPL honors, while Gilbert and Jordi Shapiro ’13 were named honorable-mention all-conference… Vazquez and Ayo Adjibaba ’13 earned varsity letters all four years… Adjibaba averaged 5.7 yards per carry (70 rushes, 402 yards) and scored five touchdowns, while also recording 57 tackles and three sacks on defense... Matt Hirshman ’13 threw for 1,231 yards and eight touchdowns as the team’s starting quarterback… Adjibaba will play next year at Hamilton College, while Hirshman is headed to Trinity College [Connecticut] and Keane Sanders ’13 to Colgate… Shapiro and Max Hovenden ’14 were chosen for the Academic All-MAPL squad.

Golf

Captains: Otto Bunjapamai ’13, Seth Noorbakhsh ’13 Golf Award (most outstanding player): Bunjapamai Coaches’ Award (most improved player): Rahul Sharan ’13 Head coach: Paul Galey (14th season)

29

IPSL finish: champion Match record: 9–4 Highlights: The Blue Storm won its second consecutive IPSL championship by 10 strokes over second-place St. James; Bunjapamai fired a 42 to lead Mercersburg and earn All-IPSL honors… he was joined on the all-conference team by Andrew Peterson ’14 and Ruichi Zhou ’16… Bunjapamai’s 75 against Kiski was the team’s best individual 18-hole performance of the season; in nine-hole matches, Bunjapamai carded a 38 against St. Maria Goretti and Noorbakhsh also fired a 38 against Hedgesville (both team victories)… the team won two of its three matches that were contested in match-play format, defeating Kiski and St. James while falling to Hill… Bunjapamai earned a varsity letter all four years… Noorbakhsh represented the Storm on the Academic All-MAPL team.

Boys’ Soccer

Captains: Luca Albisetti ’13, Eli Woodworth ’13 Boys’ Soccer Award (most outstanding player): Bruno Marangoni ’13 Coaches’ Award (most improved player): Kenny Guerrero ’14 Schweizer Cup (hard work/determination): Connor Mulloy ’13 Head coach: Quentin McDowell (5th season) Record: 12–4–1 (3–1 MAPL) IPSL finish: champion

Highlights: The team shut out Blair and Peddie and also defeated Lawrenceville; its final MAPL contest of the year, against Hun, was wiped out due to Hurricane Sandy… the three MAPL victories were part of a 10-match unbeaten streak in the middle of the year… the Storm blanked St. Maria Goretti to win its second-straight IPSL crown… Albisetti and David Coly ’15 both earned first-team Public Opinion All-Star honors… Coly, Marangoni, and Grant Cohen ’13 were chosen first-team All-MAPL, and Guerrero and Mulloy joined Coly and Marangoni on the All-IPSL team… Coly scored a team-high 19 goals, while Marangoni (who has signed with Penn State) contributed 11 goals and a squad-best 12 assists… Cohen will play next year at Kenyon College… Chris Hackett ’13 and Eli Woodworth ’13 represented the team on the Academic All-MAPL squad.

Girls’ Soccer

Captains: Sarah Firestone ’13, Payton Lissette ’14, Hanna Warfield ’13, Paige Wolny ’13 Mary Curtis ’86-John VerStanding ’66 Award (most outstanding player): Wolny Coaches’ Award (most improved player): Emily Schoenberger ’15 Hendrickson-Hoffman Coaches’ Award (spirit): Firestone Head coach: Jason Bershatsky (5th season) Record: 11–5–1 (1–3 MAPL)

30

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

at the State College Invitational, Rhoad and Mira Wolter ’15 captured second place in the No. 1 doubles flight, and Julia Wuensche ’15 also took second in the No. 3 singles competition… Wuensche led the team with four singles victories (at the No. 3 and No. 4 spots), while Stolz, Michaella HoehnSaric ’13, and Quirina Keller ’15 earned three singles victories apiece in dual matches… Stolz and Keller recorded a team-high four victories as a doubles tandem… Hoehn-Saric represented the Blue Storm on the Academic All-MAPL squad.

Volleyball

IPSL finish: champion Highlights: The team set a single-season record for victories while Wolny and Bershatsky swept the Public Opinion’s area player of the year and coach of the year awards… a whopping eight Storm players were named all-area by the Public Opinion—Wolny, Katie Miller ’15, and Melanie Rankin ’14 (first team); Lissette and Teal Tasker ’15 (second team); and Firestone, Warfield, and Emily Schoenberger ’15 (honorable mention)… the Storm beat Lawrenceville for the first time in the history of the rivalry and also qualified for the Pennsylvania Independent Schools state tournament for the first time… Mercersburg repeated as the IPSL champion as well with a road win over St. John’s Catholic Prep… Wolny and Miller tied for the team lead with 18 goals apiece… Rankin, Tasker, and Wolny were

named first-team All-MAPL, and Wolny, Miller, and Lissette were chosen All-IPSL… Warfield was a four-year letterwinner… Schoenberger and Megan Lafferty ’15 garnered Academic AllMAPL honors.

Girls’ Tennis

Captains: match captains selected Girls’ Tennis Award (most outstanding player): Charlotte Rhoad ’14 Coaches’ Award (most improved player): Mary Gray Stolz ’13 Head coach: Mike Sweeney (9th season) Record: 2–5 (0–4 MAPL) Highlights: Rhoad was named first-team AllMAPL… the team defeated local rival James Buchanan as well as Harrisburg Academy…

Captains: Melody Gomez ’13, Vivi Hyacinthe ’13 Erin Carey ’91 Memorial Volleyball Award (most outstanding player): Elise Robbins ’13 Coaches’ Award (most improved player): Ayla Mellott ’14 Head coach: Brent Gift (17th season) Record: 8–6 IPSL Tournament finish: 3rd Highlights: Robbins, who led the Blue Storm with 182 assists and 59 aces and accounted for 173 kills, was a Public Opinion first-team All-Area selection… she was joined on the All-IPSL squad by Gomez, who was first on the team with 184 kills… Zoe Alpert ’14 was the team leader in digs (214)… Kendra Cubit ’13, Gomez, and Hyacinthe earned varsity letters all four years… Hyacinthe earned the team’s academic award… Cindel Hollenshead, who has served as an assistant under Gift the past three seasons, has been named the Storm’s head coach for the 2013 season; Gift, who started the volleyball program at Mercersburg in 1986, finishes his second tour of duty as varsity head coach and will work with the junior varsity next season.

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

31

Class Notes Submit class notes via email to classnotes@mercersburg.edu or by contacting your class agent. Submissions may appear online or in print.

Mercersburg reserves the right to edit submissions for space or content, and is not responsible for more than reasonable editing or fact-checking.

When sending or uploading photos, please submit images of the highest quality possible; some images captured by cell phones or other cameras may not be suitable for print.

Class notes are also available online at www.mercersburg. edu/classnotes.

’39 David Clapp Jr.’s wife, Beverly, died June 21, 2011.

’43

Tom Massey’s son, Thomas, passed away February 1, 2013.

’47

J.W. Allen says he is enjoying playing lots of golf and has been staying relatively healthy.

’51 Francis Pogan’s wife, Mary “Rita” Pogan,

died October 7, 2008. Frank shares that he’s “still ‘hacking’ at golf and enjoying kids and grandkids.”

’53 Chuck Loughran has worked for 10 years

as a senior judge in various western Pennsylvania Courts of Common Pleas on an “as needed” basis. “Retirement came on December 31, 2012, having reached the mandatory retirement age of 78,” Chuck says. “My wife and I celebrated by taking a trip to Yosemite, Sonoma, Napa Valley, and San Francisco.

On to lots of golf, tennis, and oil painting in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Happy to report we are in good health.”

’55

John Hornbaker married Patricia Dawson September 29, 2012, in the Irvine Memorial Chapel. John’s two sons, John ’82 and Tom ’84, were among those in attendance.

’65

Jim Zeger is now in his 10th year as mayor of the borough of Mercersburg and recently celebrated the birth of a grandchild.

’68

Thomas Cochran’s mother, Helen, died September 15, 2012.

Cammie Reilly ’10 and Gussie Reilly ’08 at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, which they climbed with their family last summer.

’57

Heidi Anderes ’01, Liza Rizzo ’11, Laura Dupré ’77, Muffet Mardis (daughter of John Mardis ’37), and Maximilian Merrill ’95 in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, over the holidays.

’60

Martha “Marty” Amelia Miller Evans, wife of former faculty member Jef Evans and mother of Stacy Evans ’83 and Kirsten Evans-Orville ’85, passed away May 13, 2012.

Madeline E. Frantz, mother of Board of Regents President David Frantz, died December 30, 2012.

Robert Park is retired, traveling in a mini-motor home and cruising the world, enjoying nature, photography, and tennis.

Sarah B. Wilson, mother of Daniel Wilson and widow of M. Hayes Wilson ’35, passed away November 29, 2012.

Sandy Patterson and his wife, Sybil, have moved to a 20-acre horse ranch in Brooksville, Florida.

’58

Peter Carpenter lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, and visited Mercersburg last June with his son on their way to Penn State for Peter’s 50th reunion.

“Mercersburg is still as beautiful as I remember,” he says. “I hadn’t been back since I left in 1958. My 43-year-old son, who had never been to Mercersburg, was very impressed. I dropped by the admin office and was pleasantly welcomed by the staff. Many thanks for making the trip back east special.”

William Vose has been appointed to the Board of Directors of Christchurch School, a boarding school in Urbanna, Virginia.

Alan Wein is the Founders Professor in Urology and chief of the division of urology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The professorship he holds will be named for him when he retires. Alan, a member of Mercersburg’s Board of Regents, has been elected vice president of the Clinical Society of Genitourinary Surgeons and will serve as the organization’s president in 2013–2014.

’69

James Snyder, director of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, was interviewed by several media outlets (including the Associated Press and Reuters) for stories about the museum’s new Herod exhibit, which opened in February.

James has served on Mercersburg’s Board of Regents since 1983.

’71

’61

Paul Dickman writes that Darby Hand ’73 was a guest at the wedding of his daughter, Alexandra, in September in Washington, D.C.

’62

Katharine Stroup Brooks is director of the Liberal Arts Career Services at the University of Texas, where Marielle Collins ’09 is enrolled. “I took a seminar class with her last year about career planning with an English major, and she was amazing!” says Marielle, who was surprised when she discovered their mutual Mercersburg connection.

Katharine recently hosted a webinar called “Taking Your Major from College to Career” for alumni of her alma mater, Gettysburg College.

Ross Dicker shares that the last of his three children just graduated from college. “Does this mean I can contemplate retirement? Hope to answer that question soon,” he says.

In an effort to keep his brain active and thus stave off future dementia, David Lorentz returned to the classroom last fall at Gettysburg College, taking Arabic I. “They let retired seniors audit free with only permission of the instructor required,” says David. “I always heard Pennsylvania treated its elders well.”

’64

Michael Radbill is a vice president for Hill International in its Philadelphia office.

Andy Schnebly and his wife, Roylene, are semi-retired and serving as volunteers with LDS Charities in the humanitarian department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They travel to countries such as the Philippines, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, Micronesia, and Tonga to train people how to evaluate and fit wheelchair recipients. Andy is still running marathons (57 so far) and trying to stay healthy.

’72

’73

After 31 years as principal at Museum Design Associates Inc., Dave Seibert accepted a position with the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, as director of exhibition design during the museum’s 175,000-square-foot expansion.

’74

Lance Grove is the National Oncology Service Line data coordinator for Catholic Health Initiatives, which is the second-largest Catholic health system in the country. The company has more than 70 hospitals and 40 nursing homes in 19 states.

32

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

(above) Abby Ryland ’12, John San Filippo ’12, and Jason Lee ’12 at Tufts University after the Wesleyan/Tufts football game in September. Abby and Jason are at Tufts and John is at Wesleyan. (below) Cristina Lauch Würmer ’94 and her husband, Johannes, with their children Ariana, Luisa, and newborn son, Arthur. (above) Chris Croninger ’83, right, and his family visited Ray Liddy ’82 and his wife, Courtney, at their home in Coronado, California. Chris had purchased a classic white Porsche 911 in San Jose, California, and drove it down the historic coastline on Route 101 to Coronado. (right) Mercersburg roommates and Blue Storm baseball teammates Sam Rodgers ’11 and Matt Timoney ’11 after the Syracuse/Temple football game at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field. Sam plays football for Syracuse and Matt plays baseball at Harvard.

’76 Tom Fogarty was executive producer of

Trails for Everyone, which won the short documentary category at the 2012 SNOB (Somewhat North of Boston) Film Festival. Tom, who was Mercersburg’s director of development from 1996 to 1999, is vice president of development for the Crotched Mountain Foundation, a New Hampshire-based organization that assists children and adults with disabilities.

David Schoen has moved from Switzerland to the London headquarters of Inmarsat as vice president of products and services.

’81 Jill Bowling Thompson and her husband,

Bob, live in Harrison, New York, and spent 12 days managing Hurricane Sandy disaster relief missions in Far Rockaway and Breezy Point, New York, through their One Life Foundation—all the while being without electricity at their own home. “We delivered vans full of blankets, clothes, food, and diapers,” Jill says. “What we found was the residents were still in their waterlogged homes with standing water. Our mission quickly turned to labor by utilizing generators and highcapacity pumps to rid the water from their homes.”

U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel J.D. Koch briefed U.S. Navy Rear Admiral and classmate Mark Montgomery during the U.S. European Command’s Component Commander’s Conference in Grafenwoehr, Germany. J.D. serves as the deputy director of simulations of the Joint Multinational Simulation Center, and Mark is the deputy director for plans, policy, and strategy at United States European Command. J.D. moved back to Germany in June 2012 and is very glad to be back north of the Alps.

He and Mark had a chance to catch up during a break in the briefing; this was the first time they’d seen each other since graduation.

Board of Regents member Liz Logie has co-founded Atelier 360, a boutique in Greenwich, Connecticut, which features sustainable, organic, and artisan-made luxury clothing.

Jay Yarid says he had fun showing the new Mercersburg alumni app to Al Meyers ’74 and Justin Stephenson ’02 as three different decades of Mercersburg grads gathered for lunch and laughs. Jay says they were surprised to see so many “M”s across North Texas (on the app’s “Alumni Nearby” feature).

’84

Bill Mathews kayaked 1,215 miles from Chesapeake, Virginia, to Key West, Florida, in approximately 40 days in March and April 2012 to raise money for the U.S. Foundation for the Children of Haiti (www.usfch.org), a nonprofit foundation that provides financial support to a number of orphanages in Port-au-Prince. Bill began volunteering at the orphanages shortly after the 2010 earthquake.

“While en route, I spent most nights camping in swamps and on beaches,” he says. “I lost 40 pounds and gained an impressive quantity of facial hair during the trip.”

Christian Rubeck writes, “Still living the dream in New England and squeezing my art between commercial construction project management.

My wife, Shari, and I have a website featuring our artwork, and we just had a show on Nantucket. We have two kiddos: Desi, 8, and Skyla, 10, who are prolific little artists in their own right. I met Chris Erdman for a pint in Beantown a while back and will be seeing Ken Carter ’81 soon to celebrate his 50th. My, how the time flies!”

’85

Michael Davies has created and produced a new TV show, The Job, which premiered February 8 on CBS. Sue McLain works for the Pennsylvania Department of Health as a public health professional helping to implement and evaluate youth- and school-based programs in tobacco control and prevention.

’86

Jack Estepp’s father, Jack, passed away December 4, 2011.

’87

Dane Johnson and his wife, Elise, live in Townsend, Massachusetts, with their two daughters, Caitlin (10) and Lindsey (12). Dane is a senior software engineer at IBM and a technical lead on the “Watson Project” team—moving the technology that allowed a computer to win Jeopardy! into medical-treatment diagnosis in oncology and other areas.

Dane also continues to play guitar and banjo locally for fun.

Marriages

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

33

2.

1. The wedding of Catherine Supernavage ’97 and Christian Olson, August 25, 2012, in Highland, New York (L–R): Leah Long ’97, Chesley Bastholm Nonemaker ’98, Julia Wiedeman ’98, Aaron Cohen ’97, Christian and Cat, Sarah Cohen ’98, Jordan Blackman ’97, and Chris Gonzales ’97.

1.

4.

2. Ian Thompson ’02 and Elizabeth Horan on their wedding day, July 21, 2012, in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

3. The wedding of Liz Stockdale ’02 and former Mercersburg staff member Will Reiners, June 2, 2012, in Middleburg, Virginia. Standing (L–R): Tyler Deaton ’02, Katie Morgan ’02, Wynn Holzwarth ’11, Dave Holzwarth ’78, Jim Stockdale ’68, Sheaffer Reese ’82, Liz, former Mercersburg staff member Lindsay Tanton, Will, and faculty member Allison Stephens. Kneeling: Bond Stockdale ’09 and Kristy Fasano ’02.

4. Samantha Patt ’92 and Michael Kozak on their wedding day, March 7, 2011, in Negril, Jamaica.

6.

3.

5. Classmates and Keil Hall dormmates Gray McDermid ’01, Andrew Fazekas ’01, and Jason Wilford ’01 at Andrew’s wedding to Teresa Durkin July 14, 2012, in Annapolis, Maryland.

6. Wesley Harden ’01 and Candice Curro on their wedding day, July 15, 2012, at Walt Disney World in Florida.

5.

7. Rochelle Hall ’95 married Justin Jorden ’97 April 22, 2012, in Kissimmee, Florida.

John Hornbaker ’55 and Patricia Dawson, September 29, 2012.

John Colton III ’60 and Alice Ann Robertson, August 21, 2010.

Meghan D’Amelio ’99 and William Watson, January 26, 2013.

Tim Hitchens ’99 and Anna Heng, March 17, 2012.

Erin McCartney ’99 and Walt Rozniakowski, July 24, 2010.

Alexis Imler ’05 and David Gray, November 17, 2012.

7.

Faculty member Katie LaRue and staff member Rachelle Rios, October 20, 2012.

34

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

’88

Natalie Kostelni McGrory’s mother, Dolores, died November 15, 2012.

Iain Martin is publishing a book for teens and young adults in June 2013 with Skyhorse Publishers, Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War.

’89 Matthew Burns has returned to the

fifth-grade classroom after serving as a school administrator for the past six years. He looks to return to coaching lacrosse, football, cross country, and golf.

Patricia Carey, mother of Michelle Carey Jenkins and the late Erin Carey ’91, passed away September 29, 2012.

’92 Peggy Burns was interviewed on the

CBC/PRI/Sirius radio show Sunday Edition about her work with Canadian publisher Drawn and Quarterly.

’93

Board of Regents member Jamil Myrie and his wife, Amy Graham, welcomed a daughter, Jasmine Amaya, December 8, 2012. Jasmine joins brother Kaori.

Missy Ryan [Mercersburg, fall 2012 issue] is among the 2012–2013 class of White House Fellows. Selection is highly competitive and based on a record of

professional achievement, evidence of leadership potential, and a proven commitment to public service.

’94

Reema Datta returned to campus in January to conduct a oneday workshop about yoga asana, meditation, pranayama, and psychosomatic practices. Her website is www.reemadatta.com.

’95

Gill Tatman-Tyree and his wife, Ann, welcomed their third daughter, Bernadette, on December 31, 2012.

“Great times in Germany and looking forward to moving back stateside this summer,” Gill says. “Please give the ’Burg our best.”

(above left) Bill Mathews ’84 while kayaking from Virginia to Key West. (above right) Reve Tortel ’07 ran into John Lake ’73 in Heber City, Utah, and discovered they were both Mercersburg alums. Reve is working at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah after graduating from Utah State University in May 2012, where she majored in psychology and minored in family consumer science. John is a pilot for Delta and enjoys building airplanes in his spare time.

Bill Jarrett ’91 being admitted to the United States Supreme Court Bar

by Chief Justice John Roberts.

’96

Kim Trenbath is living in Boulder, Colorado, after finishing her Ph.D. in educational science. In December, she began a temporary position in Bangor, Maine, and plans to split her time between the two states.

’97

Jordan Blackman left his job as a lead video-game designer at Zynga in late 2012 for a more nomadic lifestyle, where he’ll be traveling globally and blogging about his discoveries of the human spirit of play in various cultures.

His blog is www.wanderplay.net.

Amanda Reisner is a second-grade teacher at Redd Elementary School, an inner-city school in Richmond, Virginia.

“We do not have a lot of technology in our school,” she writes. “We don’t have a computer lab and each classroom only has two or three working computers and about 25 students in each class. It is very difficult for the teachers to incorporate

technology into daily instruction, and most of my students do not have access to computers at home either. So I want to thank Mercersburg for giving us 15 laptops and three desktops that the Academy was no longer going to use. My students light up each day when they get to use the computers, and thanks to Mercersburg, all of my

Reunion eekend W

June 6–9, 2013

Class reunions for 3s and 8s Make urg Mercersb er m m u your s n! io t a destin

Welcome luau // Golf scramble// Wine and chocolate tasting // Q&A with Douglas Hale // rock climbing // Class dinners Find complete details at: www.mercersburg.edu/reunionweekend

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

35

Former Pennsylvania governor Dick Thornburgh ’50 (left) and Paul Dickman ’71 at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, in June 2012. Dick was the keynote speaker at a conference about nuclear emergency communication, and Paul spoke on behalf of the American Nuclear Society.

Squash players Laura Rahauser ’12 (Drexel University) and Brendan McClintick ’12 (Connecticut College) at a doubleheader between the two schools’ men’s and women’s teams in November in Philadelphia.

students can use a computer daily! The students and I are very grateful.”

Bob Snyder, his wife, Michelle, and their son, Jackson, have moved to Seattle.

Bob works for Red Bull North America as a field marketing manager, a role that includes athletic projects, events, partnerships, sampling initiatives, and collegiate marketing programs. He and Michelle are also awaiting the arrival of their second child.

’98

Virginia Arrisueño continues to run DeNada, an accessories line specializing in handmade knits for women and men.

The collection is inspired by the culture and traditions of her Peruvian heritage.

Miles Kiger completed a master’s program in economics at the University of Arizona in 2007 and moved to Phoenix to take a job with American Water, an investor-owned water utility.

“The parts of my job I liked the most— testifying in rate cases—led me back to Tucson this fall to start the J.D. program at the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law,” says Miles, who is still a devoted Pittsburgh Steelers and West Virginia University Mountaineers fan.

’99

Colleen Corcoran Yates and her husband, Tim, welcomed a son, Brendan William, September 14, 2012. Brendan joins sister Fiona.

Mercersburg roommates John Richey ’09 and Danny Quinn ’09, who are studying at the U.S. Naval Academy (where they are still roommates). John is captain of Navy’s men’s squash team and Danny is captain of the Midshipmen swim team.

Tim Hitchens graduated from Skidmore College in 2003 and spent two years working with the youth group at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia before pursuing a master’s of social work at Temple University.

He graduated in 2006 and joined the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services/Child Protective Services. In 2008, Tim was promoted to social work supervisor in ongoing services and to program supervisor in policy and planning in 2012. He married his “dream woman,” Anna Heng, March 17, 2012, in Philadelphia.

Erin McCartney Rozniakowski lives in Havertown, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Walt, and daughter, Kenley.

Erin runs an Amateur Athletic Union girls’ basketball organization in the Philadelphia area.

Zoe Tsoukatos is president of Zoe’s Chocolate Co., which was chosen as the official chocolatier to the 2013 Academy Awards Celebrity Lounge in Hollywood. The company, which has stores in Frederick, Maryland, and Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, was the official chocolatier to the 2011 Emmy Awards Salon, and won a 2013 Good Food Award for its Sesame Tahini Crunch confection in January.

’00

Rachel Kagan has launched a video company, Main Line Video Productions, which is based in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Giulio Scarzella ’94 shares this photo of his 5-year-old son, Emmanuel, and 3-year-old daughter, Evangeline, in two of his old Mercersburg T-shirts. Giulio is a senior hydrogeologist with AMEC Environment and Infrastructure in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He and his wife, Erin, celebrated their 10-year anniversary in 2011. “We are living the family life up here,” Giulio says. “Erin stayed home with the kids instead of putting them in daycare and is taking care of some other kids now in addition to Evee. I travel here and there for my job and will be spending time in Panama and Alberta.”

’01 Andrew Fazekas married Teresa Durkin on July 14, 2012, in Annapolis, Maryland.

Wesley Harden married Candice Curro July 15, 2012. He received a master’s in intelligence analysis from Johns Hopkins University in December.

Hillary Wade is engaged to Charlie Baxtrom. The couple planned an April 2013 wedding.

’02

Nichole Barbuzanes and Dimitrios Komninos were engaged in September 2012 while vacationing in Santorini, Greece. The couple met while both worked at a Greek restaurant in Baltimore. A 2014 wedding is planned.

Alex Keely has opened an alternative medical practice in Germantown, Maryland, which specializes in traditional Chinese medicine, including medical qigong. Alex volunteers as an EMT/firefighter for the Germantown Volunteer Fire Department. He is married to his college sweetheart, Matoli, and they hope to stay connected with Mercersburg alumni in the D.C. metro area.

Lauren McCartney lives in Dry Run, Pennsylvania, and works for the family business, McCartney Inc. She is also coowner of MeLa Land & Cattle Inc. and McCartney Holdings LP with her younger

sister, Melissa ’05. Lauren is a 2006 graduate of Washington College and received a master’s in child development and learning in 2008 from Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, England.

Liz Stockdale married former Mercersburg staff member Will Reiners June 2, 2012, at the Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia. The couple lives in Houston, Texas. Liz is a history teacher at the Emery/Weiner School and will complete a master’s at Wesleyan University this summer. Will is an assistant administrator at Houston Orthopedic and Spine Hospital and an MBA student at Rice University’s Jones School of Business.

Ian Thompson married Elizabeth Horan July 21, 2012, in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Other Mercersburg alumni at the wedding included Ian’s sister, Summer Thompson ’04, and groomsman and classmate Seth Greenberg. Ian and Elizabeth moved from New York City to Evanston, Illinois, where Ian is pursuing an MBA at Northwestern University and Elizabeth is working for the Achievement Network, an education not-for-profit.

’03

Jess Malone visited campus in October to host a brown-bag lunch with current students about her work as a hydrogeologist consultant in Alaska.

Sam Miller is an assistant writer for Malibu Country, the ABC sitcom starring Reba McIntire that premiered in the fall.

Sam previously worked on Desperate Housewives.

36

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

NEW ON THE board of regents Barrett Burns ’63 Greenwich, Connecticut

Barrett is the first president and CEO of VantageScore Solutions, a consumer credit firm and joint venture of the three national credit reporting companies. Prior to joining VantageScore, Barrett served as executive vice president of the National Private Banking Group of U.S. Trust and executive vice president of global risk management for Ford Motor Credit Company. He also held senior policy positions at Bank One and Citibank. A graduate of Washington & Jefferson College with a bachelor’s degree in economics, Barrett serves as a member of the Corporate Board of Governors for the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, the Asian Real Estate Association of America’s National Advisory Council, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s Mortgage Finance Collaborative Council, and the United Way of Greenwich board. Barrett served as editor-in-chief of the KARUX during his time at Mercersburg and was involved in the Student Council, Laticlavii, Jurisprudence Society, and Electronics Club. He and his wife, Patricia, have a son, Parker. Barrett also has a daughter, Sara.

Romone Penny left his job as a tax accountant with Ernst & Young to start his own firm, Pursuit Sports Group, in Washington, D.C. Romone counsels professional athletes on financial stability and wealth accumulation.

’04

After being commissioned at the U.S. Naval Academy, Amy Bruce deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, flying combat missions over both countries in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn, and Operation Enduring Freedom. She is on staff with the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington as direct intelligence support for the Chief of Naval Operations and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Will Gridley and a group of friends launched a start-up on Kickstarter in October 2012. The group is developing toys that work with iPads to re-invent the way young children interact with digital devices.

’05

Jeff Greenberg is an economist on the investment strategy team at JPMorgan Private Bank and Asset Management in New York, where he writes research on the economy and helps determine strategic asset allocation and portfolio construction for the firm’s global client base.

Alexis Imler married her college sweetheart, David Gray, November 17, 2012, at the Bedford Springs Resort.

Her best friend from Mercersburg, Jenica Lee, was a bridesmaid.

Melissa McCartney graduated from Haverford College in 2010 and is working for the family business, McCartney Inc., in Dry Run, Pennsylvania.

Whitney Pezza is associate director of alumni career services in the Office

of Advancement at Georgetown University. She works just blocks away from where her Mercersburg roommate, Cara Leepson, lives. Before coming to Georgetown, Whitney worked at Drexel University in Philadelphia. She would love to connect with Mercersburg alumni in the area.

’06

Mysterious Prison, a documentary about homelessness shot in Washington by filmmaker David Ashton [Mercersburg, winter 2012 issue] had its D.C. premiere in November 2012. Among the attendees were David’s classmate and football teammate Kevin Tindle and Dan Walker, who coached David, Kevin, and the Blue Storm to the 2005 MidAtlantic Prep League football title.

Medora Hartz served as a stunt double for one of the main characters in the new NBC television drama Deception, which premiered in January. Medora was part of the filming of a scene where the character of Sophia Bowers (played by actress Katherine LaNasa) gets into an argument during a game of squash. Medora, who played squash (and lacrosse) at Mercersburg and at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York, was filmed playing squash in Locust Valley on Long Island.

She is a digital account executive for AdoTube in New York City.

Casey Oliver teaches physics at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He says he’d love to hear from classmates and friends.

Mary O’Malley hosts a radio show, “Sweets and Treats with Mary,” every Sunday from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern time on WLVS at www.listenvision.com.

Paul Rutherford teaches science at the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, Massachusetts.

’07

In 2012, Tracey Bruce earned a bachelor’s degree in oceanography from the U.S. Naval Academy, where she was a member of the triathlon team. Tracey was commissioned an ensign and surface warfare officer and reported to the USS Rodney M. Davis in Everett, Washington, where she is serving as a communications officer.

Chuck Roberts [Mercersburg, fall 2012 issue] has moved back to New York City after accepting a position as the corporate paralegal for Linklaters LLP, an international law firm in Midtown.

“I’m excited to be back in the city,” says Chuck. “I was also pleased to find another Mercersburg alum, Elizabeth Yates Keizner ’96, here in the office as an information adviser for the firm. I’ll miss being home and close to Mercersburg, but I’m sure I’ll be back often.”

Samantha Schroer is pursuing a degree in theatre design at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, focusing on costuming, lighting design, and scenic painting. She has worked on shows like No Exit (costume design), Smell of the Kill (lighting design), Smoking Lesson (costume design), Pride and Prejudice (assistant scenic painter), and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (assistant scenic painter). Samantha returned to Mercersburg as an assistant to the resident technical director/designer for the fall and winter of 2012 and was amazed by all the things she learned.

Joseph Sturm graduated from Penn State University with a bachelor’s degree in English. He accepted a job as case manager for VisionQuest, a national youth-services organization offering intervention services to atrisk youth and families, and almost immediately moved to a supervisory position. Joe has been accepted into Drexel University’s School of Education for graduate work while also obtaining certification in English.

’08

Amanda Cha had her senior thesis work in game design from Ringling College of Art & Design featured in the Niche Gallery of the Burgin Center for the Arts this past fall.

Seth Fries earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin American & Iberian studies and international studies: Latin America and a minor in art history from the University of Richmond. He served as a Spanish teacher’s assistant while at Richmond before accepting an intern position with Mercersburg’s classical & modern languages department. During the fall term, Seth taught four sections of intermediate Spanish and has also assisted the MOE Adventure Series, helped out with the Jazz Band, and enjoyed singing with the Factet.

’09

Mark Herring is editor-in-chief of North Carolina State University’s student newspaper, Technician, and was quoted in an ABCNews.com story about the terminology of illegal immigration. His interest in journalism was sparked by a course he took at Mercersburg, and he visited campus in the fall to guest lecture in Chip Patterson’s journalism class. Mark is a double major in biology and Spanish at N.C. State and is thinking about dental school.

Mary McEachern graduated cum laude from Florida International University in August 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in criminal justice. She is pursuing a master’s in psychology at Lynn University.

’10

A.J. Firestone was part of an effort by the football team and other students at Wagner College on Staten Island, New York, to help with cleanup efforts following Hurricane Sandy.

Births/Adoptions

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

37

To Lindsay Coates Brown ’99 and her husband, Alexander: a son, Wyatt Marlin, October 12, 2012.

To Colleen Corcoran Yates ’99 and her husband, Tim: a son, Brendan William, September 14, 2012.

To Erin McCartney Rozniakowski ’99 and her husband, Walt: a daughter, Kenley Jelyn, May 11, 2011.

To Victoria Leontieva Blackburn ’03 and her husband, Jamie ’03: a daughter, Zoe Alice, September 22, 2012.

Ava Jorden, daughter of Rochelle Hall Jorden ’95 and her husband, Justin ’97, born June 16, 2011.

Daughters of Brian Brentzel ’99 and his wife, Janelle: Ainsley Mack (born November 14, 2012) and big sister Aubrey.

Boone Vincent Smith, son of Larissa Chace Smith ’97 and her husband, Ryan, born April 17, 2012.

To Andrew Hall ’88 and his wife, Cheryl: a son, Trevor Anderson, September 30, 2011.

To Jamil Myrie ’93 and his wife, Amy Graham: a daughter, Jasmine Amaya, December 8, 2012.

To Cristina Lauch Würmer ’94 and her husband, Johannes: a son, Arthur, May 15, 2012.

To faculty member Jason Bershatsky and his wife, Angie: a daughter, Isabella Grace, September 18, 2012.

To faculty member Will Waldron and his wife, Mary: a son, Benjamin Joseph, February 18, 2013.

To former faculty members Lee and Jodie Harter: a son, William “Will” Shaw, December 6, 2012.

To Gill Tatman-Tyree ’95 and his wife, Ann: a daughter, Bernadette, December 31, 2012.

Samuel Kebede is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins University majoring in public health. He received early acceptance to the humanities and medicine program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and is starting an internship at the Center for TB Research at Hopkins.

Eli Littlefield ’11, Taku Yamane ’12, Chris Hyun ’09, You Jung Jun ’11, and Ben Bunjapamai ’11 gathered for a Mercersburg mini-reunion in September in Boston.

Eliza Macdonald, a junior at Bucknell University, completed an internship as an editorial assistant for the magazine Modern Luxury in Atlanta.

Zachary Olivos is a student at Case Western Reserve University and traveled to London in September to spend several months with the British American Drama Academy.

Gilbert Rataezyk is majoring in physics at the University of Arizona and pursuing his interest in film by participating in various festivals.

Following her freshman year at the University of Kentucky, Britta Sherman transferred to Radford University in Virginia, where she is majoring in geospatial science with an

environmental concentration, and has joined the international geographic honor society Gamma Theta Upsilon.

“Hope everyone is doing great. I am really trying to keep in touch more,” says Britta. “Mercersburg was by far one of the best experiences and part of my life I will never forget.”

’11

Katie Alt is a double major in neuroscience and linguistics at Bucknell University, where she is also the program coordinator for the school’s Outdoor Education and Leadership Program. Katie interned for Maryland state delegate Jeannie HaddawayRiccio during the 2012–2013 winter session.

Susie Klein spent last summer working on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

While walking on a local beach, she crossed paths with a man wearing a Mercersburg Athletics T-shirt. “Without thinking, I approached to make the connection,” she says. The alumnus turned out to be Board of Regents member Jamil Myrie ’93.

“We discovered that we were both prefects in Swank, he lived in the same Swank room that my dad [Fred Klein ’72] lived in, and we were both Marshall declaimers our senior year!”

Susie shares. “Between Mercersburg alumni, this is the way things are.

There is this extremely special and natural connection that forms among alumni, no matter the age, gender, or background.”

’12

David Bowes, a freshman at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, shares that he was walking into Brunswick and ran into another Mercersburg graduate, Ted Petterson ’54. “It’s either a very small world or Mercersburg alumni are everywhere,” David says.

Aric DiLalla is enrolled in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Though it’s only his first year, he’s already had several articles published at www.northbynorthwestern.com.

Robin Jo has been accepted into the music department at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Kiersten Sydnor was named the Patriot League’s Field Hockey Rookie of the Week four times during her freshman season at Bucknell University last fall.

She appeared in all 19 games for the Bison and scored five goals.

Faculty

Bill McClintick, Mercersburg’s director of college counseling since 1989, contributed a chapter to a textbook for school counselors and graduate-school students. The chapter, titled “Special Admits in the College Admission Process,” is one of 18 sections in the volume Fundamentals of College Admission Counseling, Third Edition, which is published by the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

Former Faculty

Alan Gratz’s latest book, Prisoner B-3087, was published by Scholastic Books in March.

38

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

Obituaries ’30

Alan H. Vrooman, April 21, 2012. (Marshall, Cum Laude, football, band, choir, Glee Club, orchestra) Alan was a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II. He earned a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in English from Princeton University and taught for 41 years at Phillips Exeter Academy, where he was chairman of the English department and also coached lacrosse. Survivors include his wife, Dorothy, and three stepdaughters. His first wife, Lois, preceded him in death.

’33

William P. Cleaver, September 9, 2012. (Irving, swimming) Bill was a member of the swim team at Mercersburg and at Princeton University. After graduating from Princeton, he joined the American Sugar Refining Company (which later became known as Amstar). He became president of the American Sugar division before retiring in 1979. He was preceded in death by his wife, Virginia Whaley Cleaver, and brother, John ’37. Survivors include a daughter, two nieces, and a nephew.

’36

Alfred R. Reppert, February 15, 2012. (Irving, Les Copains, orchestra) A graduate of Princeton University, Al joined the family-owned coal business in West Virginia and later worked for Union National Bank of Clarksburg (now part of JPMorgan Chase), where he rose to the position of chief executive. He also served as chief executive of the North Region for Key Centurion Bancshares. Survivors include his wife, Elizabeth; two daughters; three grandchildren; and two great-grandsons.

’37

William T. Harris, November 24, 2012. (Laucks, Irving secretary, wrestling) Bill graduated from the University of Virginia and was a decorated career U.S. Army officer. He was an artillery officer for General George Patton in World War II, and experienced four major European campaigns, including the Battle of the Bulge. He served in Korea, was stationed in Germany and Belgium, and was chief of the U.S. military mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He also spent three years in the Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army. Bill retired after 30 years of service with the rank of colonel, and was awarded the Legion of Merit, in addition to many other decorations and medals. He served on Mercersburg’s Alumni Council and as a class agent, and was a life member of the American Legion and a member of the University of Virginia’s Mint Julep Society, the Military Officers Association of America, and the National Eagle Scout Association. Bill and his wife of 69 years, Jessie Cree Harris, lived in Paso Robles, California. In addition to his wife, survivors include three daughters and a son, five grandchildren (including grandsons Alec ’00 and Evan ’07), and two great-grandchildren.

’38

Robert W. Downs, November 7, 2012. (South, Irving, French Club) Bob graduated from Grove City College before joining the Army and serving as a captain in the Transportation Corps. He earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and moved to Greenville, South Carolina, where he spent many years in the automobile business. He later worked for Edgar M. Norris & Co., a brokerage firm. He was preceded in death by his wife, Nadine Baker Downs. Survivors include two sons, a daughter, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Charles F. Lloyd Jr., February 28, 2012. (Keil, Marshall, choir, entertainment usher, KARUX Board, Glee Club, Marshal of the Field, track) Chuck graduated from the University of Virginia and served in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander. He was vice president of Lockhart Iron & Steel in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, until his retirement in 1982. Chuck was preceded in death by his wife, Nancy, and a daughter. Survivors include a daughter, three granddaughters, and five great-grandchildren.

’39

Louis G. Helmick Jr., December 14, 2012. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall, Chemistry Club, Les Copains, football, track, wrestling, Class Day Committee) Lou graduated from Cornell University before entering the Army and serving as a captain during World War II. He worked for Joy Manufacturing Co. of Pittsburgh, rising to the position of president and chief operating officer. After his retirement, Louis served as president and chairman of Helmick Corporation. Survivors include his wife, Betty, a daughter and two sons, and two grandchildren (including Jennifer Helmick McGlincy, wife of Kent McGlincy ’99).

N. Leland Wilson Jr., December 8, 2010. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall, Glee Club, choir, swimming) Lee served in the Army during World War II and was involved in the development of the atomic bomb. He was a chemical engineer by trade and lived in Vero Beach, Florida.

Survivors include his wife, Beatrice, as well as two sons, a stepson, two grandchildren, and a sister.

’41

Franklin P. Birchard, March 28, 2011. (Marshall, Concert Band) “Pepper” attended Pennsylvania State University before joining the U.S. Merchant Marine, where he served as a radio operator. Following World War II, he joined Citibank, where he worked in public relations and advertising until retiring in 1983. He later worked on the Statue of Liberty Centennial Restoration project. His wife, Miriam, passed away in December 2012.

Frank G. Cowherd, August 21, 2012. (South, Irving, soccer, wrestling) Frank served in the Army Air Forces during World War II and spent more than 35 years as a design engineer and consultant in the food-systems industry. He and his wife, Norma, lived in Green Cove

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

Springs, Florida, and were married for 71 years. In addition to his wife, survivors include four sons, including Frank III ’61 and Bill ’63; nine grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

’44

Byron E. Chapman Jr., August 7, 2005. (South, Irving, class president, class historian, Les Copains, wrestling, baseball) Byron graduated from Union College and was president of Crane-Nevins Electric Supply. He lived in Broadalbin, New York. Byron’s late uncle, William ’27, was the brother of the late David F. Chapman, who served on the Mercersburg faculty from 1919 to 1961. Survivors include a brother, John ’42.

Frank C. Stanbrook, September 18, 2010. (Main, Irving, Cum Laude, The Fifteen, salutatorian, tennis) Frank graduated from Cornell University and was a production control manager for Tomlinson Industries in Cleveland, Ohio. Survivors include his wife, Nancy, and a son and daughter.

’45

John J. Pentz Jr., June 28, 2012. (Main, Marshall, baseball) John served in the Navy and graduated from Princeton University, where he was a varsity wrestler. He earned a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. He was a practicing attorney in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, for more than 50 years. John’s late father, John Sr., was a member of the Class of 1908. Survivors include his wife, Connie, as well as three sons, four grandchildren, and a brother.

J. Addison Spragg, June 11, 2012. (South, Irving, wrestling, baseball) Addison was a standout wrestler both at Mercersburg (where he won a National Prep championship at 121 pounds) and at Yale University (where he won a collegiate Amateur Athletic Union title). He spent more than 50 years in Cody, Wyoming, where he and his late wife, Phyllis, owned and operated Holm Lodge and Spragg Agency, a real-estate firm. Among his survivors are a brother, Walter ’48, two sons, and a nephew, Scott ’82.

Paul C. Walter, June 20, 2008. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall) Paul graduated from Princeton University and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and also did advanced work at the University of Pennsylvania while serving as a National Security Agent in West Germany. He was an accomplished medical researcher at the Phipps Institute of Preventive Medicine, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Franklin Institute Research Center, Sloan-Kettering Institute, the National Cancer Center, and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Survivors include his wife, Elli, and a son.

James S. Williams, December 1, 2012. (South, Irving, track) Jim joined the Navy after graduating from Mercersburg and later earned undergraduate and D.D.S. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. He was an officer in the Navy Dental Corps in California, Hawaii, and Maryland, rising to the rank of captain before retiring with 31 years of service. Jim then continued the dental practice started by his father in the Olney neighborhood of Philadelphia, and was named a Fellow of the Academy of General Dentistry. Survivors include four sons, two grandchildren, a brother (Richard ’51) and sister, and many nieces and nephews.

’46

Charles P. Lower Jr., July 10, 2011. Charles attended Washington & Jefferson College and served in the Marine Corps, rising to the rank of master sergeant. He was a resident of Riverside, California.

Charles W. Young, January 1, 2013. (Main Annex, Irving, Chemistry Club) Charlie graduated from Lehigh University and worked in the minerals industry, mostly with the Tennessee Valley Authority in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In retirement, he lived in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Asheville, North Carolina. He was preceded in death by his wife, Victoria. Survivors include three sons and a daughter, one grandson, and a brother (Philip ’44) and sister.

’47

James R. Kohl, January 22, 2012. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall, track, basketball) Jim attended Pennsylvania State University before serving in the Army in Korea. Jim worked for his family’s business, Kohl Brothers Well Drilling, and was president of Kohl Roofing and Siding of Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania. He retired from the Pennsylvania National Guard in 1973 with the rank of major. His wife of 59 years, Joyce Frees Kohl, preceded him in death. Survivors include a daughter and a son, three grandchildren, two greatgrandchildren, and a brother.

’48

A. Lawrence Flenner Jr., November 21, 2012. (track, band) Larry graduated from the University of Maryland, where he was a member of the marching band. He served in the Army and retired as a tax accountant for Hercules Inc. He was active in the Boy Scouts and YMCA and worked as a track & field official for many years for high school and collegiate meets in his home state of Delaware. In addition to his wife, Janet, survivors include two sons, a daughter, and seven grandchildren.

Richard J. Wolfenden, November 16, 2012. (South, Irving, track, French Club) Dick graduated from Lafayette University, after which he joined the Army and served as a general’s aide in Korea. He was an advertising executive in New York City before enrolling in and graduating from the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky. He then moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and purchased Wicker World of Las Olas, which he ran until 1989. He was president of the Las Olas Merchants Association. His brother, George ’43, passed away in 2005.

’49

E. McCamly Belknap Jr., September 9, 2011. (Keil, Marshall, News Board, Press Club, Les Copains, Laticlavii, YMCA Cabinet, cross country, track) Cam, the son of the late Eugene Belknap Sr. ’18, attended Princeton University and Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and did graduate work at Temple University. He owned and operated National Lawn Service in Moorestown, New Jersey. Survivors include his brother, John ’59.

Carleton M. Crick Jr., December 14, 2011. (Main Annex, Marshall, Chess Club) Carleton was a graduate of the University of Kansas and lived in Kansas City, Missouri.

George M. Thomas, July 3, 2012. (Irving, football) George attended the University of Maryland and worked and lived on the family dairy

39

40

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

farm, Walnut Grove, in Union Bridge, Maryland. He retired in 2002 and moved to Frederick, Maryland. Survivors include a sister and several nieces and nephews.

’51

Joseph M. Salsbury Jr., December 5, 2012. (Keil, Marshall, class poet, News Board, Press Club, Glee Club, Octet, Stony Batter, Marshal of the Field, soccer, swimming, baseball) Joe graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and served as a development officer at Mercersburg from 1967 to 1970. He and his wife, Julia, owned and operated the Meriden Country Store in New Hampshire for three decades. He also served as Meriden’s postmaster. Survivors include his wife, three sons (including Mark ’70) and a daughter; four grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; and a brother, Tom ’52.

William P. Sieg III, September 30, 2012. (Irving, wrestling) Bill attended Penn State University and served in the Navy during the Korean War as a hospital corpsman, earning the Good Conduct Medal and the National Defense Service Medal. He retired in 1994 as a golf pro at Nittany Country Club in Mingoville, Pennsylvania. Bill also worked at several other country clubs, taught golf at Bellefonte High School, and was co-owner of Bellefonte Hardware Store. In addition to his wife, Molly, he is survived by two daughters, a son, six grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, and a sister.

’52

John A. Morefield, November 4, 2012. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall, Cum Laude, The Fifteen, honor oration, Laticlavii, Chemistry Club, Glee Club, Blue and White Melodians, band, orchestra, Radio Club, basketball, baseball, track) John graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he later served as a member of the board of trustees and president of the alumni association. At MIT, he was an outstanding track & field athlete and was an alternate to the 1956 U.S. Olympic team as a hammer thrower. John served as president of Morefield Communications in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, retiring in 1999 but continuing as chairman of the company’s board of directors. He and his brother, Fred ’53, endowed Mercersburg’s Jacobs Residency in memory of their father, John, and in recognition of former assistant headmaster Wilmarth Jacobs. John also served as a class agent and reunion volunteer. In addition to his wife of 54 years, Mary Anne, and his brother, survivors include two sons, a daughter, a nephew (Hans ’88), and a great-niece (Noora ’05).

’54

Ned H. Mayo, October 29, 2012. (South, Marshall, News Board, student council, El Circulo Español, Chemistry Club, Concert Band, Radio Club, track, golf) Ned earned a bachelor’s degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a master’s in physics from the Naval Postgraduate School. He joined Armstrong World Industries as a research physicist and spent time in reserve and active duty for the Navy, including aboard the USS Tweedy. He also designed a measurement instrument for the pulp and paper industry for which a patent was granted. Ned graduated with distinction from the Naval War College; his commands included the frigate USS Glover and the Charleston Naval Station. He retired with the rank of captain in 1988 and then taught physics at Pensacola State College.

Survivors include his wife, Janet; two daughters (including Jennifer Mayo Burrough ’89) and a son; seven grandchildren; and a brother and sister.

David L. Reizenstein, April 17, 2009. (South, Irving, Les Copains, Chemistry Club, Caducean Club, Gun Club, soccer) David graduated from Allegheny College and the University of Pittsburgh. Survivors include a son, two grandsons, and his companion, Holly Chapo.

’55

James A. Hayne III, March 25, 2008. (Main, Marshall, football, golf, Stony Batter) Jim graduated from Clemson University and served in the Air Force, retiring with the rank of captain. He worked in management for Scotsman Ice Machine in Fairfax, South Carolina. Survivors include two daughters, two grandsons, a brother (John Foster ’57), and three sisters.

Ira A. Kronenberg, September 10, 2012. (South Cottage, Irving) Alan graduated from the University of Alabama and founded a vending company that was eventually bought by Aramark. He managed Aramark’s foodservice and vending operations for many New Orleans companies and organizations, including Tulane University and New Orleans’ City Hall. He and his wife, Kay, opened a sandwich shop in the city’s Central Business District, and Alan later founded Food Management Corporation and CompuVend Systems, which was the first company in the nation to develop foodservice and vending software for the personal computer. In addition to his wife, survivors include a son and daughter, four grandchildren, a sister, and a cousin, Bill Gladstone ’48.

Donald L. Taylor, March 27, 2012. (Marshall, football, Chemistry Club, Sunday Evening Art Class) Don graduated from Middlebury College and served in the U.S. Army. He spent his entire professional career at AT&T, retiring in 1997. Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Janet, as well as three sons, 10 grandchildren, and a brother.

’57

Robert C. Flogaus, May 15, 2012. (Marshall, band) Bob graduated from the Drexel Institute of Technology (now Drexel University) with a degree in mechanical engineering. He worked for Schramm Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, for 48 years and rose to the position of chief engineer of hydraulics. Survivors include his wife, Lee, and two sons.

’58

Arnold L. Ostrin, January 15, 2013. (Glee Club, choir) Arnold graduated from Morris Harvey College (now the University of Charleston). He lived in Washington, D.C. Survivors include a sister, a niece and a nephew, two great-nieces, and three cousins.

William E. Wright, April 16, 2007. (Marshall, wrestling, Gun Club) Bill graduated from the University of Delaware and the University of North Carolina School of Law. He served in the Army during the Vietnam War and became part of the law firm of Terry, Terry, Spence and Wright. Bill was the first town attorney for the Town of Dewey Beach, Delaware, when it was incorporated in 1981. Survivors include his wife, Patricia; three children, two brothers (including Tom ’58) and a sister; and four grandchildren.

’59

Raymond G. Lunsford, November 17, 2011. (Marshall, track) Ray attended Duke University, was owner and president of Lunsford Farms, and lived in Lynbrook, New York. He was preceded in death by his wife, Elizabeth, and a son. Survivors include a daughter.

Mercersbu rg magazi n e spri ng 2013

’61

John W. Findlater Jr., October 14, 2012. (Main, Marshall, student council, Class Prophet, chapel usher, Chemistry Club, swimming, track) Jack was an All-American swimmer at Mercersburg before earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tampa and an MBA from Troy State University. He served in the Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and retired in 1984 after more than 20 years of service as an aviator. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, and Vietnam Cross of Gallantry. After his military career, Jack became chief financial officer and comptroller for several hospitals. In addition to his wife, Lorrell, survivors include a stepdaughter, several grandchildren, two brothers, and a sister.

Jonathan D. Freer, April 24, 2012. (Tippetts, Irving, tennis, track) Jon graduated from Colorado College and was commissioned as a Navy officer. He served aboard the USS Coral Sea in Vietnam and returned to Colorado, where he worked for the family business, Williams Printing, for more than 30 years. He was preceded in death by his father, Jay ’31, and uncle, Herbert ’31. Survivors include his wife, Janet; two stepsons and five step-grandchildren; and his brother, Skip ’60.

’62

Henry R. Fidler, April 25, 2012. (South, Irving, Press Club) Henry graduated from Thiel College and earned an MBA from Case Western Reserve University. He spent his career in the food and beverage industry and held management positions at various restaurants and hotels, including the Friar’s Club in Beverly Hills and Sir Walter Raleigh Inns in the Washington area. Henry is survived by two sisters and three nephews; his father, Henry M. Fidler ’33, was a fellow Mercersburg alumnus.

Richard L. Merrill, July 16, 2012. (Main, football, baseball, basketball, golf) Richard, the grandson of the late Charles Merrill (1910) and great-nephew of the late Howard Merrill ’22, graduated from Carnegie Mellon University. He served in the Army during the Vietnam War and worked as a chemical engineer for Bethlehem Steel and later for First Montauk Securities Corporation. He served on Mercersburg’s Alumni Council from 1994 to 1997. Survivors include his wife, Sue; a son (Maximilian ’95) and daughter; two sisters; and a cousin, Bill ’62.

’63

Walter W. Hanna, December 26, 2012. (Main, Marshall, Laticlavii, Paideia, Electronics Club, Gun Club, choir, crucifer, Glee Club, soccer) Wally graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

He worked for design firms in New York, Pittsburgh, and Chicago, and became a partner in his own firm in Chicago, where he developed an expertise in the design of stock-exchange trading floors. Survivors include his wife, Gina Pais, and a daughter and sister.

Roger P. Staiger Jr., October 19, 2012. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall, football) Roger, the grandson of the late Charles E. Brown (1909), graduated from Bucknell University, where he enlisted in the Naval Reserve. He was then commissioned as an ensign at Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, and served aboard

the USS Mars (AFS-1), including three deployments to the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War. After his release from active duty, he earned a master’s of science and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania. He served aboard several additional vessels, graduated from the Naval War College, and was vice president of the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps. He finished his military career at the Navy Command Center at the Pentagon, and later was a professional staff member to the U.S. House of Representatives and worked with the Departments of Energy, Transportation, Commerce, and Interior. Survivors include his son, Roger III ’88.

’77

Karl G. McGhee Jr., January 19, 2013. (Fowle, dorm prefect, soccer, wrestling, KARUX, Ski Club, Blue Key, Photography Club) Karl graduated from the University of Pittsburgh. He worked for E.F. Hutton, Kidder Peabody, and Paine Webber before founding WealthCare Financial Services in 1996. He was president of the company at the time of his death. Karl was an Eagle Scout and former treasurer of the Fox Chapel Area School Board Authority, and served as a starter and official for USA Swimming. In addition to his wife, Ann, survivors include two daughters, a brother (Walter ’78) and sister, his mother, and a nephew, Brad ’14.

’11

Kyle M. Walker, December 29, 2012. (Fowle, Irving, skiing) Kyle died in a car accident near his hometown of York, Pennsylvania.

He was majoring in journalism and political science at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. Kyle graduated from York Suburban High School and had attended Five Towns College of Music; he was passionate about both music and politics. Survivors include his parents; four sisters and a brother; two grandparents; three aunts and an uncle; and several cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Former faculty/staff/friends Inez Josephine Idol Dalton, mother of faculty member Denise Dalton, October 22, 2012.

Steven Johnson, former faculty member and science teacher (1974–1976), August 13, 2012.

Thomas W. Mendham, former director of development and alumni affairs and Regent emeritus, February 26, 2013. Prior to coming to Mercersburg, he joined the Navy, where he served in the Vietnam War. He also worked for NCR Corporation and in the development office at Muskingum College. At Mercersburg, Tom was director of development and alumni affairs from 1973 to 1978. He served on Mercersburg’s Board of Regents from 1988 to 2009, including four years as chair of the Investment Committee.

Tom graduated from Muhlenberg College and was an Emeritus for Life member of the Muhlenberg Board of Trustees. In 2003, Tom retired from a 25-year career at Merrill Lynch, at which time he focused his energy on his interest in education through his roles with the Mercersburg and Muhlenberg boards. Tom died after a nine-year battle with cancer. He and his wife, Harriet, lived in New York and Placida, Florida. In addition to his wife, survivors include a son, Tom Jr. ’87, and daughter, Holly Mendham Hartshorn ’90.

41

Mercersburg Academy 300 East Seminary Street Mercersburg, PA 17236-1551

address service re q uested

Nonprofit Org U.S. Postage PA I D Hagerstown, MD Permit #93

CAMPCAMPCa

SUMMERCAMP