Mercersburg Magazine - Summer 2010

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mercersburg magazine summer 2010

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

Mercersburg A magazine for Mercersburg Academy family and friends

VOLUME 37 NO. 2 sUMMEr 2010

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explore Admission Open Houses: October 11, 2010 | January 17,2011 717-328-6173 • www.mercersburg.edu

The Power of Words Page 18

M y Sa y

I sit in my old car, its windows up. I’m looking out across a deserted beach at

a tempestuous sea. It’s winter and it’s cold—in the mid-20s. On the horizon what appears as white plumes of mist slides silently across the top of slate-gray water, and the closer it comes to land the clearer it becomes.

by Norman Macartney ’57 These are the tops of waves sheared off by a prevailing north wind as they roll toward land, waves hundreds of feet in width progressively approaching a shore gradient designed to bring their destruction, breaking them apart into a mass of swirling, churning white water. The sun sporadically peeks through a cumulus-laden sky, the clouds solemnly staying in place—apparently immune to the wind. A seagull soars past with a drunken and sloppy path, its angular yet smooth wings designed to handle wind’s fickleness, its gusts.

I sit with my yellow Lab, Sadie. She’s in the backseat sound asleep. We’re a trio: a man, a dog, the sea. In our separate ways we have a shared experience, a confluence of peace and harmony, harmonic because of the trio—three, the mystical number so becoming in the Great Trio of Life and Being: the sun, the earth, the moon.

I have by my side Tolstoy’s War and Peace, a novel that I’m now enjoying, though it has always intimidated me—its size, the pronunciation of Russian names. But at age 71, I decided to take it on, having been aware of it since I was old enough to notice it high on a bookshelf in the living room of my family’s home. War and Peace—its burgundy red spine of great width, facing me with its logo of crossed swords set against a shock of grain. Midway through this tale, I come across these words from Prince Andrew, one of the book’s principal characters: No, life is not over at thirty-one! It is not enough for me to know what I have in me—everyone must know it: Pierre, and that young girl who wanted to fly away into the sky, everyone must know me, so that my life may not be lived for myself alone while others live so apart from it, but so that it may be reflected in them all, and I may live in harmony!

As I sit here, it occurs to me that the enjoyment I receive from Tolstoy’s work and the willingness of my mind to latch on to the significance of Prince Andrew’s words must be attributed to the teaching I experienced at Mercersburg more than 50 years ago. And, likewise, my transforming into words my impression of where I presently sit with Sadie is due to that same teaching, that same learning. Which tells me how powerfully dominant the environment for learning is in the process of educating an individual. It was at Mercersburg that my mind became receptive: call it stimulation. And it worked. The school and I formed a partnership, though it was by no means a perfect mix to

begin with. I was a tangled mass of wires with receptors facing in every direction imaginable, not much in my young mind and soul aligned with anything.

Yet a subtle chemistry began to unfold. I sensed it deep within me. And this chemistry, this synthesis, rearranged my receptors, aligning them in such a way that, years later, I would look back upon that nurturing place called Mercersburg and know that a wonderful, life-transforming experience took place there. And it was all because of the learning environment the place possessed.

The sun’s arc across the sky is lower in January, and its brilliance is now exceedingly apparent, the reflective quality of the gray-black water producing a shimmering surface while its white mist-capped swells silently work their way shoreward. The sea hasn’t changed much while I’ve been writing. A few tall palms, silhouette-like, stand erect not far off, their fronds quivering.

May many more students be as fortunate as I in discovering Mercersburg to be a powerful environment in which to experience good teaching and learning.

Macartney lives in Morehead City, North Carolina.

VOLUME 37

NO. 2

sUMMEr 2010

The Power of Words

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A magazine for Mercersburg Academy family and friends

Mercersburg 1,025 Words

Check out more than a book. Page 16

The Pen and the Sword

Mercersburg’s Writing Center: an invaluable resource for aspiring wordsmiths. Page 18

Smaller World

Janice Huang ’13 examines her inaugural year in a new linguistic and cultural environment. Page 24

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Mercersburg Profiles

Find the words of Mercersburg alumni in the pages of People and Reader’s Digest, on network television, and in the vocabulary of some of South America’s newest English speakers. Page 26

My Say

Fewer words than War and Peace: a man, a dog, the sea, and Tolstoy. Page 57

You Should Know The Class of 2010 and invited guests assembled between Keil Hall and South Cottage June 5 for Mercersburg’s 117th commencement exercises. The 126 members of the class are matriculating at 87 different colleges and universities this fall.

For full coverage, turn to page 12. Photo by Bill Green.

Photo credits: p. 2 Chris Crisman; p. 3 Bruce Weller; p. 4 (Lehrman/Quinn) Bill Green, (inset) Mercersburg Academy Archives, (Cum Laude) Lindsay Tanton; p. 5 (all photos) Stacey Talbot Grasa; p. 6 (Ward) Lee Owen, (all other photos) Grasa; p. 7 (robotics) Jeff Cohen, (all other photos) Green; p. 8–9 (garden) courtesy Todd McGuire; p. 10–11 (China) Cohen, (France) Heather Prescott, (India) Frank Rutherford, (Mississippi) David Bell; p. 12–15 (all photos) Green; p. 19 Ryan Smith; p. 20–21 Renee Hicks, (headshot) Grasa; p. 22–23 (all images) Higby; p. 24 McGuire; p. 25 (Rutledge) Mercersburg Archives, (McBride) Sarah Leen, (faculty) Grasa; p. 27–28 (Stanford) Cohen; p. 29 Michael Schwartz; p. 30 Lisa Edelson; p. 32 Owen; p. 33 Allison Schuchart/The Record Herald; p. 34 courtesy Reader’s Digest; p. 36 Joyce Yeo/Caroline Yoo; p. 37 (top left) Eric Poggenpohl, (top right) Yeo/Yoo; p. 38 (top) Yeo/Yoo, (middle) Green; p. 39 (top left) Richard Rotz, (all other photos) Owen; p. 40 (all photos) Green, p. 41 (dance) Green, (all other images) Kristy Higby; p. 42–45 (all photos) Green; p. 57 (headshot) courtesy Norman Macartney, (beach) ©Mike DelGaudio/everystockphoto.com Illustrations: cover, p. 18: Doug Jones

Green Inks

From the Head of School Via Mercersburg Commencement Athletics Arts Reunion Anniversary Weekend Alumni 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 Alumni Notes correspondence: NewsNotes@mercersburg.edu Alumni correspondence/ change of address: Leslie_Miller@mercersburg.edu www.mercersburg.edu Read us online: issuu.com/mercersburg

2 3 12 36 39 42 46 Editor: Lee Owen Alumni Notes Editor: Lindsay Tanton Contributors: Matthew Caretti, Logan Chace ’01, Shelton Clark, Tom Coccagna, Janice Huang ’13, Norman Macartney ’57, Susan Pasternack, Zally Price, Jay Quinn, Lindsay Tanton, Wallace Whitworth Art Direction: Aldrich Design Head of School: Douglas Hale Director of Strategic Marketing and Communications: Wallace Whitworth Assistant Head for Enrollment: Tommy Adams Assistant Head for External Affairs: Mary Carrasco

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

An Encouraging Word Some

things never change, particularly the anticipation and resulting butterflies students usually experience at the start of a new school year (my son at a very young age described this feeling as having a “stomach-ache excited”). It actually makes little difference whether one is a returning student (formidable change comes with any new school year) or if one is totally new to the boarding school world; each new school year has its own set of unknowns, and nothing tests our mettle like wading into that unknown.

How do we master such a moment and forge ahead? In a word: courage. There isn’t a single challenge in life that can be met successfully without some degree of courage. Attending boarding school can be in its own way a boot camp for finding and using courage in the face of daunting academic, athletic, and social challenges. Our curriculum and co-curricular offerings have the capacity to intimidate even the most talented student. And when the going gets particularly tough, young people can begin to doubt their ability to master the challenges at hand.

This is where good teaching and good teachers come in play. What is the trick?

Encouragement, a more active word (although a rather odd-sounding one), is from 15th-century Old French meaning “to fill in with courage.” And what does encouragement consist of in the context of a boarding school like this? While difficult to clarify precisely, using the right words in the right way at the right time to effect a “yes-I-can” attitude in the heart and mind of a student who is overcome with self-doubt is one manifestation of this action. A truly rigorous education is an adventure into the unknown, the untried, the uncertain, and we like to say that what gets us through such times is hard work, discipline, and persistence. But really it is the courage and the encouragement behind that hard work and discipline that fuels the personal and academic triumphs. With proper encouragement, students are given an additional tool to help them gradually chip away at those mountains which seem to stand before them.

Mignon McLaughlin said it well: people are made of flesh and blood and a miracle fiber called courage. For the adolescent in particular, finding that miracle fiber can be difficult. But success is always within any student’s grasp. And many times, all it takes is a great boarding school, a great stable of teachers, and one encouraging word.

“A truly rigorous education is an adventure into the unknown, the untried, the uncertain”

Douglas Hale Head of School

r c Rem e r s b uem r g bMer agazi n e D at esM eto

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

suMMer 2010

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sept 7

2010–2011 Opening Convocation

Oct 1–3

Family Weekend

Oct 4

Ammerman Family Lecture: Edward Hirsch 7 p.m., Simon Theatre

Oct 11

Admission Open House

Oct 22–24

Fall Alumni Weekend

Dec 11–12

Loyalty Club Christmas Candlelight Service Weekend

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

You Are There new history seminar honors legendary mercersburg teachers

By Logan Chace ’01 To get to know Jay Quinn is to become familiar with history—the history of Mercersburg Academy, of one of its beloved teachers, and of life in general.

When Quinn first arrived at the school in June 1961, his plan was to stay for no more than three years. Though the campus at that time “needed some sprucing up,” with water stains on the Chapel walls and tattered rugs in Traylor Hall, Quinn says his tour and interview with newly appointed headmaster William Fowle made quite an impression. “The history of the place just got inside me, and I knew when I was being interviewed that this was the place I wanted to be,” Quinn says.

Quinn hasn’t left since those first captivating moments at Mercersburg; he taught science, directed approximately 70 Stony Batter dramatic productions, served as editor of the Alumni Quarterly [the forerunner to this magazine], and worked in the Alumni & Development Office. He continues today as the school’s archivist, immersed in the historical clutter of his office in the basement of Lenfest Hall. “By the end of the three years, I knew I wasn’t going to move,” Quinn says. “My life’s been very blessed here.”

And now, after nearly 50 years at Mercersburg, Quinn is being honored with a new history seminar that begins this fall.

Jay Quinn

Robert Lehrman ’69 has generously provided a gift to begin the course as a tribute to Quinn, who was one of Lehrman’s favorite teachers while at Mercersburg.

Called “The Quinn-Ferguson Honors Seminar: Your Life as History,” the course will cover a historical timeline from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the present day, representing the lifespan of the current student body. Students will apply and be selected for the seminar, which will be led by history department chair Phil Kantaros.

The other portion of the course title honors John Ferguson, who t aught at Mercersburg from 1964 to 1970, and who was also one of Lehrman’s favorite teachers.

(Ferguson died in 2006.)

“John Ferguson had a great effect on

me,” Quinn says. “He was the first person to put together a lecture series at Mercersburg, which evolved into [the Monday Evening Lecture Series] we have today. He was a live wire, and a very pleasant guy—very well read.

I’m really pleased that his name and mine are placed together.

“I’m 1,000 percent enthusiastic and a true believer in Phil Kantaros. In many ways, Phil reminds me of John Ferguson. He is a true, true teacher.”

The feeling of respect and admiration is mutual. “Jay is a legend at Mercersburg and the thought of honoring him in this way was personally motivating,” says Kantaros, who has taught at Mercersburg since 2002. “Jay and I share some Boston roots, and we talk (continued on next page)

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in Lenfest almost every day. I respect, honor, and appreciate all that Jay has done here, and I also have shared many, many laughs with Jay.” The seminar seeks to be fresh, profound, and innovative. “I have absolute trust that this will be the most exciting curriculum offering,” Quinn says. “Robert Lehrman wanted it to be completely different from what the other curriculum offered and Eugenio [Sancho, Mercersburg’s thenacademic dean] also wanted something to do with the students’ history.”

The class will combine the past, present, and future history of the students. “The goal is to provide students with a truly interdisciplinary course, but one that also will allow them to prognosticate and to make connections,” Kantaros says.

“I think it is great,” Quinn says, “because what is going to control the conversation in the class—the dialogue—is going to be from visiting alums, from our own faculty, maybe

(inset) John Ferguson; (right) Robert Lehrman ’69 and Jay Quinn

from some invited parents, but the other end of the balance is going to be the students, and they are going to have answers from their own experience. I think there will be a familiarity and respect between the students and faculty that the dialogue will be honest. It is adding something to the intellectual process at the school that we haven’t had.”

Not only is this a groundbreaking course for Mercersburg, it is set to become a

Logie Addresses Cum Laude Honorees Liz Gildea Logie ’81 (left), a successful attorney, fashion designer, and member of Mercersburg’s Board of Regents since 2005, served as featured speaker at this year’s Cum Laude Convocation March 26 in the Irvine Memorial Chapel. Twenty-six members of the Mercersburg senior class were honored at the event for their election to Cum Laude membership this school year; students are chosen by a vote of Mercersburg’s Cum Laude faculty members. The organization is the secondary-school equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa.

benchmark course for other schools as well.

“I’ve asked Phil, ‘Is this something that will make us different from our competitors?’”

Quinn says. “And he said, ‘Absolutely. In three or four years, you will see other schools wanting to do the same thing.’ I’m very excited about that. It is so different from anything that was here at Mercersburg when I started back in 1961.”

Twenty-six members of the Class of 2010 were elected to membership: Emily Bays, Bentonville, Arkansas Jake Campbell, Bemus Point, New York Anderson Chen, Kaohsiung, Taiwan Mary Chen, Brampton, Ontario, Canada William Day, White Post, Virginia Sarah Duda, Latrobe, Pennsylvania Armine Garcia Barker, McAllen, Texas Paige Harry, Winchester, Virginia Chris Hwang, Kyungkido, Korea Lauren Kecskes, Havre de Grace, Maryland Michael Khamphasong, Des Moines, Iowa Michelle Kim, Seoul, Korea Michael Lorentsen, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania Ignacio Maiz Vilches, Madrid, Spain Andrea Metz, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania Hannah Miller, Fredericktown, Ohio Josh Muller, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania Maureen Murray, Glenside, Pennsylvania Jae Nam, Seoul, Korea Nebiyu Osman, Russellville, Alabama Christopher Shie, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Lorraine Simonis, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Joe Strider, Charles Town, West Virginia Paul Suhey, Boalsburg, Pennsylvania Anmargaret Warner, Ocracoke, North Carolina Kevin Yeung, Hong Kong, China

Mercersbu rg Magazi n e suMMer 2010

Sancho to Retire as Academic Dean; Maurer, Kearney Assume New Duties Head of School Douglas Hale announced that Dr. Eugenio Sancho has decided to retire at the close of the 2010–2011 school year. To facilitate a smooth transition, Sancho is stepping down as academic dean and has assumed a transitional administrative position for one year.

Dr. Julia Stojak Maurer ’90 will become Mercersburg’s next academic dean, and Matthew Kearney will assume the position of associate academic dean.

“I want to express my deepest gratitude for the incredible contributions of Gene Sancho during his years as academic dean and several additional years as associate academic dean,” Hale said. “Gene won’t be retiring for one more year, but he feels that it is entirely appropriate that he transition out of his current role given that he intends to retire in June 2011. While Gene will remain part of my senior administrative team next year, his work will focus on providing import ant transitional support in several key areas and faculty mentoring, in addition to ensuring smooth transitions with new and emerging academic initiatives.”

Sancho first joined the Mercersburg faculty in 1970. Formerly head of

Dr. Eugenio Sancho

Mercersburg’s history department, he became associate academic dean in 1999 and was appointed academic dean in 2001; he oversaw all academic departments in this role. Sancho earned his doctorate in history from the University of California at San Diego and spent many years in Mercersburg’s history department teaching at all levels, including AP European and American history, while occasionally teaching upper-level Spanish. He has also served as a valued adviser to both faculty and students.

Maurer, who was appointed to the faculty in 2001, received her Ph.D. from the University of Dayton. She developed the robotics program at Mercersburg, served as the mathematics department chair for five years, and was named associate academic dean in 2009.

Kearney holds two master’s degrees from Rutgers University. He was appointed to the Mercersburg faculty in 2000, and completed a five-year term as head of the English department this spring. Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Kearney’s poems have been published widely in such places as The Amherst Review, The Cold Mountain Review, and Plainsongs.

Dr. Julia Stojak Maurer ’90

Matthew Kearney

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Get Moving Three of Mercersburg’s seven dormitories will change gender affiliations beginning this fall. Fowle Hall (the largest dorm on campus, with 96 beds) will house girls, while Tippetts Hall and Culbertson House will become boys’ dormitories.

The changes are meant to mirror emerging demographic trends nationally and to move the school closer to an equal percentage of boys and girls; during the 2009–2010 academic year, Mercersburg’s student body was 55 percent male and 45 percent female.

Tippetts Hall originally opened as a boys’ dorm in 1960—of course, in 1960, a l l t h e d o r mi t o r i e s o n campus were boys’ dorms (Mercersburg became co-ed in 1969, when 12 girls tippetts culbertson attended as day students). A year later, in 1970, 20 girls lived as boarders in Tippetts Hall, which had housed girls ever since until this spring.

South Cottage became a girls’ dorm in 1974, but not before the outgoing group of male residents painted the porch columns pink. Culbertson (formerly called Woodland Cottage) opened as a girls’ dorm in 1986, and Swank Hall changed from a boys’ to a girls’ residence in 1994.

In 2010–2011, as in previous years, all ninth-grade boarding students (as well as a number of students from the 10th-, 11th-, and 12thgrade classes) will live in Fowle or Tippetts. Fowle fowle includes seven faculty residences, Tippetts has six faculty apartments, and Culbertson is home to one faculty family.

“I think Fowle is a great dorm for girls,” says Eric Hicks, a former Fowle Hall dorm dean who now serves as Mercersburg’s director of dormitories. “I think girls will better utilize the common spaces that are prevalent in Fowle, and it’s the best-located dorm on campus because of its proximity to the gym, the dining hall, and Irvine Hall.

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’Burg’s EYE VIEW

CAMPUS NOTES

Parker Ward ’82 addressed the school com-

munity this spring on the topic of “Surviving a Catastrophe.” A wrestler and football/ lacrosse player at Mercersburg, Ward was a commercial airline pilot before a 2004 snowmobile accident left him paralyzed from the breastbone down.

Ward spent three months in a physical rehabilit ation center in Denver, Colorado, where he quickly realized his new fate. “The hardest thing at first was admitting that I would never fly again,” he said. “So I felt bad for myself for a day or two and then I consciously decided to move forward and not lament the past. Something that helped me tremendously was when I realized that there was nothing I could have done to prevent the accident—in other words, ‘you can’t prevent what you can’t predict.’”

With honesty, humor, and an endearing presence, Ward made a tangible connection with the students. Now living in Florida and teaching math and science, Ward stressed that attitude is the single greatest weapon we have against failure. “A good attitude leads to independence and learning the most from life’s lessons,” he said.

Jonah Lehrer, a best-selling author who writes

on the topics of psychology, neuroscience,

and the relationship1between science TrueBlueAlumAd1:Layout 7/30/10 9:56 AM and Pagethe 1

humanities, gave this year’s Schaff Lecture on Ethics and Morals in April.

Hailed as “something of a popular science prodigy” by the New York Times, the 27-yearold Lehrer is the author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist and the best seller How We Decide. He is a contributing editor at Wired and has written for The New Yorker, Nature, and the Washington Post, among others.

Funded by the Schaff Family Endowment, the lecture was established through the bequest of Charles B. Schaff ’41 and supports annual speakers “on topics related to fundamental human values—those principles which direct a person’s decisions and actions because they clarify what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong.’”

Carlos Garcia ’10, Mackenzie Riford ’11, and Matthew Geeza took top

honors at Mercersburg’s annual all-school track Garcia & field meet. Garcia won the Williams Cup as the top boys’ finisher, Riford captured the Cutshall Cup as the first-place girls’ finisher, and Geeza earned the Kolewe Cup as the highest-ranked faculty finisher.

Entrants in each division compete in five different events—100-meter low hurdles, 400-meter run, shot put, long jump, and 1600-meter run.

The Williams Cup, named for the family of former Mercersburg parent R.L. Williams

True Blue: \trü-Iblü\adj (1893): Loyal and unwavering in one’s support of Mercersburg Academy.

and his son, Richard (1905), and grandson, Richard ’32, was first awarded in 1904.

Engraved on the trophies are the names of Olympians and former winners Bill Carr ’29, Charles Moore ’47, Riford and Rolando Cruz ’60 . (Another former winner of the Williams Cup is current faculty member Dave Holzwarth ’78.)

The Cutshall Cup competition, first held in 1982, honors the late Bill Cutshall ’63 and family, while the Kolewe Cup is named for former faculty member Diethard Kolewe, who taught at Mercersburg from 1967 to 1973.

An essay by Danny Roza ’11 earned top honors in the 2009-2010 Fund for the Future of Our Children Peace Essay Contest. The award, which includes a $2,500 prize, was announced at a ceremony at Georgetown University.

Entrants were asked to examine what the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) teach us about compassion, and how their founders serve as exemplars of compassion.

Fund for the Future of Our Children is a Washington-based organization that was established in 1993 and is dedicated to nurturing and shaping the youth of today into tomorrow’s leaders for peace. Mercersburg Regent Andrew Ammerman ’68 is a co-sponsor of the essay contest and a longtime supporter of the organization.

You were then.

You are now.

You will always be …

True Blue.

300 E. Seminary Street, Mercersburg, PA 17236 717-328-6159 www.mercersburg.edu

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Meeting Madam Secretary Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited campus in March for sessions with students and an evening talk in the Burgin Center for the Arts’ Simon Theatre. Albright, who was secretary of state from 1997 to 2001, was the first woman to hold the position, which she assumed after four years as U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations.

Dr. Albright is the author of four New York Times best sellers, including 2009’s Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box. She teaches at the Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and is chair of the global strategy firm Albright Stonebridge Group.

Albright with her grandson David Bowes ’12

A reception for Albright at North Cottage with students, faculty, and invited guests

Third in the World Mercersburg’s Darius Glover ’10 and Brandon Adams ’11 placed third in their division at the 2010 RoboCup Junior International competition June 19–25 in Singapore.

Glover, of Milford, Pennsylvania, and Adams, of Dallas, Texas, competed in the secondary-school Superteam soccer competition. The duo competed against teams from all over the world, including Austria, Italy, Japan, Slovakia, and Canada.

Adams and Glover, who have been working on the soccer application in Mercersburg’s robotics course since January, were the only students from the United States competing at the secondary level in Singapore. They qualified to represent the U.S. after earning first place at both the Southeast and the Northeast regional competitions in March and April.

Glover and Adams (far right) with members of the British team

“Fostering sportsmanship and healthy competition on a global level goes a long way,” says Julia Stojak Maurer ’90, who teaches robotics. “It’s the kind of experience

that can change your life.” (For more on robotics at the Academy, read the spring 2010 issue of Mercersburg magazine online at issuu.com/mercersburg.)

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Five Projects, Big Impact Mercersburg has selected five faculty-led environmental initiatives to receive grants of $7,500 from the Edward E. Ford Foundation. The five faculty members utilized the funds this summer for research, time, expenses, and collaboration required in support and development of a full proposal.

A committee of faculty, administrators, alumni, and parents will select one or more initiatives to further support this fall; the school will then invest matching funds and the remainder of the Ford Foundation funds to implement the project(s).

The five proposals selected for an initial stipend include:

+ A community garden (pictured at right) overseen by Todd McGuire. The garden, located near the Mercersburg Outdoor Education facility on the south side of campus, is producing vegetables for use in the school’s dining hall and space for community members to grow their own crops. McGuire visited organic gardens at several schools, including the Mountain School in Vermont and Bowdoin College in Maine, and also took a trip to Dickinson College with Director of Dining Services Jim Butler under the auspices of the grant. The fall harvest will include corn, melons, and squash; radishes, lettuce, and cabbage have already been produced. + Two energy research projects coordinated by Will Willis, who will study which solar technologies would best suit a major portion of the school’s energy needs. Willis will examine the lighting deployed across the 300-acre campus to identify locations for potential improvements in efficiency. + A solar project under the direction of Dave Holzwarth ’78, to include the installation of cisterns to collect rainwater for athletic-field irrigation and the retrofit of well pumps to solar technology. Included is a classroom initiative where students will investigate issues in the transport of clean water for drinking and agricultural issues to remote locations. As part of the project, Mary Chen ’10 constructed three solar panels that are in use behind Irvine Hall. + A study by Pete Gunkleman into the feasibility of using human-powered generators to supplement campus energy needs. Stationary bicycles could be equipped with small generators to harness the energy produced when the machines are used in the fitness center, in dormitories, and other locations. + A proposed community bicycle store overseen by John Burnette, who started an on-campus bicycle exchange program last fall. The shop, to be located downtown, would provide a link between the school and the greater Mercersburg community (it would be open to the public and serve as a resource for bicycle rental and repair, as the borough is currently without a full-service bike repair shop). Burnette completed a three-week course this summer to become a certified bicycle mechanic.

A November 2010 deadline has been established for the school to raise $100,000 to match the foundation’s initial $50,000 grant. For more information on the grant or to contribute, contact Gail Reeder, director of development, in the Office of Alumni & Development at 717-328-6323 or reederg@mercersburg.edu.

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Nolde Gymnasium Renovations Under Way Work began this spring on major renovations to Nolde Gymnasium, the home of Mercersburg’s athletic and physical education programs.

The renovations, which are scheduled for completion in late October, will include new team rooms; office, meeting, and conference spaces; a newly located athletic training center; and environmental upgrades to make the building more energy efficient. (The Flanagan Pool, Plantz Basketball Courts, and Davenport Squash Center remain open for business during the construction.)

The first floor of the building will be home to new team rooms for Mercersburg’s boys’ and girls’ athletic teams; Director of Athletics Rick Hendrickson says the spaces will be “21st century in every regard.” A new fitness classroom, multiple areas for coaches and players to interact in conference rooms and offices, and a renovated faculty/staff locker room are also part of the renovations (the fitness classroom and faculty/staff locker rooms are on the second floor).

A key benefit of the renovation is the move of the athletic training center to the first floor (it was previously located on the second floor), making it much more accessible for student-athletes. Upgraded rooms for visiting teams will be constructed on the second floor of the building.

Environmental upgrades include new electrical, mechanical, and plumbing infrastructure, the renovation of historic glass windows and replacement of other windows to conserve energy and prevent leakage, and the addition of more efficient laundry facilities. The exterior colonnade at the front entrance, which was added decades after the building was originally constructed in 1912, has been removed to open the space for gatherings and events.

The renovations were made possible t h r o u g h a b e qu e s t f r o m D w i g h t Goldthorpe ’37. To learn more about the renovations and other athletic initiatives, contact Hendrickson (717-328-6151 or hendricksonr@mercersburg.edu) or visit www.mercersburg.edu/nolde.

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Groups of Mercersburg students visited China, India, France (as part of the John H. Montgomery Award program), and the Mississippi/Louisiana Gulf Coast (as a community-service initiative) during spring break. Trips are tentatively planned in spring 2011 to Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and an outdoor excursion to the White Mountains of New Hampshire in addition to France and the Gulf Coast.

cal cu Enjoying lo

linary deli

ghts in Fra

nce

Gilbert Rataezyk ’10 (right) takes up traditional Indian dance

(L–R): Ryan Hao ’10, Maggie Goff ’10, Andrea Metz ’10, faculty member Heather Pres cott, Will Day ’10

Red pand a

in India

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Mercersbu rg Magazi n e suMMer 2010

In our next issue: look for information about summer trips to Chile, France, Germany, and Jackson, Wyoming.

The Great Wall aft

er a snowfall

Tiananmen Square

Part of the mural at

Camp Victor, Mississi

ppi

Staff member Tim Crouch, Kaleigh

Myers ’12, Jake Campbell ’10, Ashl

ey Heisey ’12, Linh Ho Tran ’11, Win

nie Lu ’12

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mercersburg’s 1 1 7 th commencement June 5, 2010

Robert Forbes ’10 savors the moment

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Class of 2010 Prizes for DIstinguished Performance Cum Laude Society

Emily Bays Jake Campbell Anderson Chen Mary Chen Will Day Sarah Duda Armine Garcia Barker Paige Harry Chris Hwang Lauren Kecskes Michael Khamphasong Michelle Kim Michael Lorentsen Ignacio Maiz Vilches Andrea Metz Hannah Miller Josh Muller Maureen Murray Jae Nam Nebiyu Osman Chris Shie Lorraine Simonis Joe Strider Paul Suhey Anmargaret Warner Kevin Yeung

President’s Education Award for Educational Excellence Emily Bays Jake Campbell Anderson Chen Mary Chen Will Day Sarah Duda Charlie Fitzmaurice Spencer Flohr Armine Garcia Barker Paige Harry Chris Hwang Lauren Kecskes Michael Khamphasong Michelle Kim Michael Lorentsen Ignacio Maiz Vilches Andrea Metz Hannah Miller Josh Muller Maureen Murray Jae Nam Nebiyu Osman

Gilbert Rataezyk Mike Riendeau Chris Shie Lorraine Simonis Joe Strider Paul Suhey Chris Thorsen Anmargaret Warner Kevin Yeung

History

English

Prize in aDVanceD leVel gerMan

The harry F. sMiTh Prize

Lorraine Simonis The John MounTain ’31 Prize

Armine Garcia Barker The Dr. Julius shaMansky Prize

Ro Maweni The WilliaM c. heilMan (1896) Prize

The euroPean hisTory Prize

Lorraine Simonis The colonel Wills Prize

Will Day (first prize) Armine Garcia Barker (second prize)

Foreign Language Lorraine Simonis The John h. MonTgoMery Prize in aDVanceD leVel French

Armine Garcia Barker The h. eugene DaVis Prize in sPanish

Olivia Bulcao

Josh Muller

Mathematics

The PraTT l. Tobey Prize

Prize in linear algebra

John Henry Reilly

Michelle Kim

The gorDon M. MacarTney Prize

Prize in calculus

Jae Nam

Fine Arts The heaD oF school’s Purchase Prize

Jean Lien and Lauren Kecskes The ausTin V. Mcclain ’26 Prize in Fine arTs

Paige Harry and Lauren Kecskes The Blue Review aWarD

Ellerie Williamson The Music DirecTor’s Prize

Aimee Chase and Eliza Macdonald The Paul M. suerken Prize

Aaron Porter The senior insTruMenTal Music Prize

Jae Nam The Dance DirecTor’s aWarD

Jake Campbell Prize in sTaTisTics

Mary Chen

Religion The WilliaM Paul buchanan ’16 Prize

Mary Chen (first prize)

Science The WilMarTh i. Jacobs aP Physics Prize

Mary Chen The rollin P. gilberT aP cheMisTry Prize

Paul Suhey

Sarah Duda ’10 and Sara Erlichman ’10 on the platform The Frank hoFFMeier (1896) scholar/aThleTe Prize

Paul Suhey

Special Awards u. s. naVal acaDeMy aT annaPolis cerTiFicaTe

Kristen Dietch Gina Grabowski Tyler Mulloy Geramiah Simoes Emile Toscano The coMMuniTy serVice aWarD

Parco Lee The DaughTers oF The aMerican reVoluTion gooD ciTizen aWarD

Lorraine Simonis The yale uniVersiTy aurelian Prize

Lorraine Simonis The Francis shunk DoWns (1902) Prize

Paige Harry

The WilliaM o. allen aP biology Prize

The WilliaM c. FoWle aWarD

Jake Campbell

The Mary Jane berger Prize

Jen Leahey Lorraine Simonis

Michael Khamphasong

Athletics/Outdoor Education

The excellence in Dance aWarD

The leonarD PlanTz aWarD

Brookke Mahaffey

Emily Bays

Nebiyu Osman

The carol aMorocho ’81 Prize

The Dance choreograPhy aWarD

The Darrell ecker aWarD

Joe Strider

Paige Harry

The heaD oF school’s Prize

Taria Griffin

The Persis F. ross aWarD

The sTony baTTer Prize

Evan Castrianni

Zach Olivos and John Henry Reilly

The TiM o. rockWell aWarD

Lorraine Simonis

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mercersburg’s 1 1 7 th commencement

Mary Chen ’10, valedictorian

Lorraine Simonis ’10, Schaff Orator

Jae Nam ’10, salutatorian

“True happiness results from the accomplishment of one’s aspirations without compromise and without remorse. True happiness is the supreme joy of achieving victory unburdened by betrayed values or moral sacrifice.” —Mary Chen ’10, valedictorian 3

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Class of 2010 Legacy Graduates 1. Tom Flanagan and Bill Flanagan, sons of Peter Flanagan ’70 and grandsons of Thomas Flanagan ’38. 2. Jake Campbell, son of James Campbell ’63.

3. Sammy Schadt, great-grandson of the late John Schadt (1912). 4. Theron Binder, grandson of Paul Binder ’52. 5. Anmargaret Warner, daughter of Ann Shabb Warner ’76. 6. Olivia Bulcao, granddaughter of Ralph Garver ’50. 7. Sam Hook, son of David Hook ’67. 8. Kate Vary, granddaughter of George Vary ’39. 9. Nate Nelson, son of John Nelson ’77 and Susan Hobbs Nelson ’77. 10. Jordan Krutek, daughter of Heidi Kaul Krutek ’78. 11. Temvelo MasukuHatch, daughter of Charles Hatch ’54. 12. Jake Culbertson, grandson of the late John Culbertson ’24. 13. Evan Rose, son of Allan Rose ’67. 14. John Henry Reilly, son of Jack Reilly ’62. 15. Chris Hoke, great-grandson of the late Charles Hummel ’28.

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Just the facts • 126 graduates, representing 23 states and 11 nations • Members of the class will matriculate at 87 different institutions • Most-popular college choices: New York University (six matriculations), Pennsylvania State University (five), United States Naval Academy (five), Rollins College (four) • Some other institutions represented: Bucknell University, College of Charleston, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Georgetown University, Indiana University, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, University of St. Andrews (Scotland), Stanford University, Swarthmore College, Wake Forest University

Valedictorian: Mary Chen, Brampton, Ontario, Canada salutatorian: Jae Nam, Seoul, Korea schaff Orator: Lorraine Simonis, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania class Orator: John Henry Reilly, Baltimore, Maryland class Marshals: Paige Harry, Winchester, Virginia; Paul Suhey, Boalsburg, Pennsylvania commencement speaker: Clay Gahan (former Mercersburg faculty member now teaching at The McCallie School, Chattanooga, Tennessee) Baccalaureate speaker: Matthew Kearney (faculty member since 2000; incoming associate academic dean)

Kate Vary ’10 with her grandfather, George ’39, and aunt, Betsy

Class President Ellis Mays ’10 receives his diploma from Board of Regents President Denise Dupré ’76 and Head of School Douglas Hale

“I can say this with absolute certainty; with each passing year I spent here at the Academy, I became a better person.

Something about the chemistry of the students here, the devoted faculty, the hills and cornfields of this little valley, and the earnest, hardworking culture of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, truly resonated with my soul.” —Clay Gahan, invited speaker Clay Gahan, invited speaker

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1,025 Words

Lenfest Hall, home to somewhere north of 45,000 volumes and more words than any building on campus, buzzes with student activity. Photo by Eric Poggenpohl

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Th e Pe n a n d Th e Swo r d

By Matthew Caretti

M

ost of us are well familiar with the quip, “The pen is mightier than the sword,” but few can cite the origin of that declaration. After a cursory Google search, I find the line has been lifted from Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy, a work penned in 1839 by prolific British writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

And even earlier, Euripides propagated the thought therein with his iteration: “The tongue is mightier than the blade.”

In each, words are granted power, whether spoken or written. But the latter—those recorded on paper, or these days electronically—take on greater import because of their durability and accessibility. To wit, note the dates of origin for the lines cited above. But this issue of strength and power is brought home in the line from Richelieu with a comparison, that of an instrument of writing and another of warfare. While some may argue the juxtaposition is made for dramatic effect, and indeed effectively so, I propose that it has

also been used because both arts—writing and swordcraft—have a number of points in common. Much as the dojo serves to teach the way of the sword, the Mercersburg Academy Writing Center is also a place of learning and discipline, where breakthroughs are expected and where process rules over all else.

While the pen is mightier than the sword, the discipline of writing has much to learn from the way of the warrior. Perhaps the best-known text on the art of sword fighting is that by the great 17th-century warrior Miyamoto Musashi. In The Book of Five Rings, the samurai-cum-teacher Musashi has reached the ripe age of 60 and is prepared to put down the lessons of an undefeated lifetime into a codified system organized according to the ancient elements—Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind—and the Zen principle of mushin, or Emptiness. Each of these five teachings, or rings (listed on the following pages), relates well some of the important work done at Mercersburg’s Writing Center.

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Th e Pen an d Th e Swo r d th e power of words

EARTH

WAT E R

FIRE

From one thing know ten thousand things.

Practicing a thousand days is said to be discipline, and practicing ten thousand days is said to be refining.

In order to pass through life, there is the need to have a spirit, to be decisive about exerting all of one’s energies to overcome difficulties.

Writing is a process of discovery, about both the topic and subject matter, as well as the self. But to truly learn about what is outside, we are called to first look inside.

As Natalie Goldberg notes in Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, Within, her highly acclaimed guide to writing effectively and from the heart, “I don’t think everyone wants to create the great American novel, but we all have a dream of telling our stories—of realizing what we think, feel, and see before we die. Writing is a path to meet ourselves and become intimate.”

Jin Lee ’13, a regular visitor to the Writing Center, echoes this very idea.

“Writing forces one to grapple with ideas; these ideas force reflection and increase self-knowledge,” she says. From the platform of self-understanding found in their writing, students are then well prepared to go on and learn “ten thousand things.”

The process of writing is too often overlooked. From generating ideas to drafting to editing and proofreading the final draft, the process requires time and care.

In writing, just as in any competitive training, “last-minute” preparation proves ineffective. At the Writing Center, we work to help students understand and engage the process, to begin a draft several days in advance of their deadline, and to add and refine bit by bit.

Jessi Fulton ’13, a new Writing Center Fellow (Mercersburg’s nomenclature for peer tutors), says the best advice she ever received about writing during a visit to the Writing Center is to “do it often and in varied forms.” These words again carry to those of the aforementioned writing guru Goldberg, who reminds us, “Like running, the more you do it, the better you get at it.” The process entails practice, and without it, students learn, the product never reaches its full potential.

Attitude is critical to success, especially in an arena that many student writers view simply as “writing for a grade.” But helping students to find the larger connection between the assignment and their own knowledge, values, and experiences is the key to making the process a successful one, and to engendering a new appreciation for the power and joy in writing.

Phoebe Moore ’13, another new Writing Center Fellow, says her goal is to share her passion for writing with classmates and peers. “I want to help others see that writing isn’t a burden, but something that can actually be fun and enjoyable,” she adds. For most students in this age of quantification and competition, this is a tough sell. But the notion is gaining traction at Mercersburg, as each term sees more students writing outside the classroom, contributing stories and poems to inhouse and external publications, as well as sharing their works at spoken-word events on campus. Writing is an art, after all, and one that demands a genuine investment of “spirit.”

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WIND

E M PT I N E S S

If one is to go deeper into a mountain, one will eventually find oneself outside at the entrance. In all paths there are some things which can be learned only as one delves deeper and deeper.

In emptiness there is good, and there is no evil. When there is wisdom, reason, and the Way, there is emptiness.

Writing is a process of “passing through,” of learning experientially when and how to break the rules in the name of style.

To truly master writing, students must write, for it provides both an experience of the process and a forum for linking recollections, ideas, and possibilities. As new Fellow Aric DiLalla ’12 wisely notes, “Writing is important because it gives us clues about the past, keys to the present, and a map to the future.”

While perseverance and grit arise when students are invested in the outcome, understanding the approach that leads to that end imbues it all with deeper meaning. Student writers who visit the Writing Center establish strong rapport with the Fellows, their guides as they begin this journey. But as the writers progress, the lessons learned along the way begin to direct them instead. The path becomes their own, and their individual voices begin to ring true.

The most unfortunate and challenging part of teaching writing is assigning a grade to each paper. Yet certain pieces of writing are truly born of the four elements, achieving what is noted in a rubric created by Dr. Glenn Arbery of Assumption College, one circulated widely in the Mercersburg English Department, as “a real addition to understanding, whether in terms of its mastery of the thought on the subject or its original contribution to it. It goes beyond anything that might be expected. It surprises and delights. It has the unmistakable tang of inner drive, an air of enjoying its own freedom.”

Such essays are rare, but they are the standard to which teachers teach and toward which student writers write.

Goldberg elaborates on the experience of such composition: “In writing, when you are truly on, there’s no writer, no paper, no pen, no thoughts. Only writing does writing—everything else is gone.”

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Indeed, the best writing emanates from flow, that magical intersection of mastery and challenge. Through patience and discipline, through guided epiphany, and through the process of learning the power words offer in explaining our experience and understanding of the world, the Writing Center aims to help students go beyond themselves. There the pen reigns supreme.

Matthew Caretti is entering his ninth

year on the Mercersburg faculty, and has served as director of the Writing Center on campus since 2008; he teaches English and religion and coaches football in addition to his Writing Center duties. Caretti spent two years with the Peace Corps in South Africa, is a former winner of the Tour d’Afrique bicycle race/ expedition, and also taught English at Yeungnam University in Korea.

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Th e Pen an d Th e Swor d th e power of words

Visual Vocabulary

Lauren Kecskes ’10

Six Advanced Studio Art students, under the tutelage of Mark Flowers and Kristy Higby, tackled the challenge of

dealing with images and words together in a midyear

mixed-media assignment. The results were displayed in

stunning detail during the winter in the Burgin Center for the Arts’ Cofrin Gallery.

“In our left-brained world, we see words first and images second,” Flowers says. “The assignment asked the students to weigh images and words at the same level so that the

viewer would encounter words as images, and vice-versa.”

Jean Lien ’10

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Mike Riendeau ’10

Josh Muller ’10

Michael Khamphasong ’10

Jen Leahey ’10

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Th Th ee Pen Pe n an and d Th rd Th ee Swo Swor d th e power of words

Janice Huang ’13 (left) doing community service on campus with Hannah Tsai ’12 and faculty child Molly Willis.

Smaller world A student reports on her first yeAr in An immersive lAnguAge environment

By Yiyin “Janice” Huang ’13

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he idea of studying abroad for high school came to my mind a long time ago, largely because of my curiosity about different cultures. I have always loved traveling abroad and experiencing different ways of living and thinking.

I find it interesting, for example, how people react differently to the same thing because they grew up in different places and with different experiences, and how people often have trouble understanding each other because of “culture shock.” And last September, when I got to Mercersburg, I started a whole new journey of exploring different cultures.

Academically, I experienced the huge difference in the educational systems of China (my home country) and the United States. In China, there is no such thing as course selection until college; high-school students take courses according to the grade they are in. Normally, students stay in the same class throughout high school. In my

experience, each class includes about 50 students, and you do not change classrooms for different courses—only the teachers move from room to room.

I enjoyed the intense study and the friendships I developed with people in my class over the course of the year, but I did not have the chance to truly specialize in one field I really love: language. I have always wanted to learn as many languages as I can—yet in most cases, English is the only foreign language offered.

Here at Mercersburg, though, not only can I choose the classes I am interested in, I can also focus in the field I have so much passion for. I took French this year, and next year I am planning to take German in addition to continuing with French (and, of course, English).

Moreover, because Mercersburg is a small and compact community that includes international students from all over the world, we learn something from each other

about different cultures every day. The Academy acts as a medium to connect us, and it provides us with lots of chances to understand not only the individuals we live with, but also the whole culture behind their backgrounds. I still remember a brown-bag lunch session I attended in the spring about Ethiopia. The speaker, Sami Kebede ’11, is a native Ethiopian. From the lecture he gave about his country, I got to know the unique language Ethiopians use and even started to speak some of it.

At Mercersburg, learning another language or culture comes with ease. One morning, I was walking into the dining hall and a random student I didn’t know asked me, Ni hao ma? (“How are you?” in Chinese). Our classmates frequently ask us to teach them greetings (or dirty words) in our native languages. Sometimes, when I find myself assigned to a table during dinner where I am the only international student, people that do not know me will try to figure out where I am from by greeting me in Korean, Japanese, or Chinese. It is also heart warming when people ask and try really hard to pronounce my Chinese name, Yiyin, instead of “Janice.”

I enjoy my dorm life with students from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures. I learned some Japanese with a girl on my wing in Tippetts Hall, and found out that it actually came from the dialect of the province I live in. We even talk about different traditions in the two countries, and sometimes we find interesting similarities.

So, after one year here, I feel more comfort able t alking to people from different cultures, and I have begun to understand so many things that I once was confused about.

Huang, of Shenzen, China, will enter her second year at Mercersburg this fall.

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in The FooTSTepS oF archibald rUTledge Growing up in South Carolina, there were two Rutledges in my life.

The first was Edward Rutledge, my homeroom classmate at Crayton Junior High School. Edward’s great-great-great-great (exactly how many “greats” is anyone’s guess) granddaddy, who was also known as Edward Rutledge, was one of the signatories from South Carolina of the Declaration of Independence. I’m happy to report that my E.R. was a thoroughly normal guy—no white wigs, quill pens, or stilted speech. Clearly, his genes, lineage, and inclusion in the penultimate Charleston social register had not gone to his head, though he was always “Edward”—never “Ed” or “Eddie.”

The other Rutledge in my life as a South Carolina youth was Archibald Rutledge. I’m not sure if E.R. was kin to A.R., but since it was South Carolina, I think the answer is probably in the affirmative. I never met Archibald or heard him speak, but I did read any number of articles about him in my teens, and I have in my private library a copy of what may have been the last book that he published. Archibald died in 1973, having served 39 years as the poet laureate of South Carolina.

When I came to Mercersburg in 2008, I had no idea that Rutledge Hall and Rutledge Road on campus were both named for Archibald, who taught English at Mercersburg for 33 years and married his wife and raised three children here. But once someone filled me in, I was thrilled to know that I was walking some of the same paths and savoring some of the same vistas as he had decades before me.

Archibald is still publishing from beyond the grave, whether he knows it or not. This fall, the University of South Carolina Press will publish Carolina Christmas: Archibald Rutledge’s Enduring Holiday Stories, a collection of holiday tales, poems, and recipes celebrating hearth and hunt in the South of yesteryear. The book is scheduled for a November release.

—Wallace Whitworth

Th e R uTl e d g e F i l e • Poet laureate of South Carolina, 1934 to 1973 • Married Florence Hart, William Mann Irvine’s sister-in-law • Father of Archibald Jr. ’26, Henry ’27, Irvine ’29 (all deceased); great-grandfather of Macon ’98 • Taught at Mercersburg from 1904 to 1937 • Namesake of Rutledge Hall/ Rutledge Road on campus

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meeT The chairS

Phil Kantaros History department chair

Heather Prescott Chip Vink ’73 classical & modern languages department chair

english department chair

The Word on Upcoming SpeakerS This fall, Mercersburg McBride welcomes two writers w i t h Pe n n s y l v a ni a ties as speakers in the annual Monday Evening Lecture Series.

Edward Hirsch, a poet, author, and president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will deliver the Ammerman Family Lecture October 4.

Hirsch, who holds a Ph.D. in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania, is a chancellor of the American Academy of Poets and author of the best-selling How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry.

James McBride, an author, screenwriter, saxophonist, and parttime resident of Pennsylvania, will give the Jacobs Residency Lecture December 6. McBride is the author of The Color of Water (a New York Times best seller and one of two books Mercersburg students are reading this summer as part of the school’s summer-reading initiative). His other works include the novels Song Yet Sung and Miracle at St. Anna; the latter was adapted into a 2008 Spike Lee–directed film for which McBride also wrote the screenplay.

It is also hoped that William Kamkwamba, author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Mercersburg’s other summer-reading selection) will visit campus in early 2011.

Mercersburg Profiles

Breaking Down Barriers T h e r e wa r d s o f s h a r i n g a l a n g uag e w i T h n e w s p e a k e r s

By Lee Owen

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ess than two years after graduating in cities like Medellín (home to more than Fifteen and the Cum Laude Society, lettered from Mercersburg and enrolling 2.4 million people) and major tourist areas; all four years in wrestling (and co-captained at Carnegie Mellon University some employment sectors now require up to the team as a senior), and served as a prefect to study engineering, Nathan eight semesters of English instruction before in Main Hall. He was just beginning his Stanford ’08 found himself barraged with they will hire a prospective candidate. second year at Carnegie Mellon when his requests for more homework.

Be proud of our nation, the government roommate, 19-year-old Rohan Vakharia, The assignments in question, though, says. Put on a cheerful face. Show the world committed suicide. “After that, I decided had nothing to do with material science or college-level mathematics. And Stanford was in front of the class, not seated in the back of a lecture hall or around a Harkness table.

He also was on another continent, with students who would stop at nothing to develop their English skills.

Stanford made the 2,300-mile journey from his home in the Virginia suburbs of —Nathan Stanford ’08, on living in Peru and Colombia Washington, D.C., to the once-notoriously dangerous city of Medellín, Colombia. Each day, in a place that served as headquarters the beauty and attractions of our country— to take a hard look at what I wanted to do,” of the feared Medellín drug cartel and its and tell visitors about them in both English he says. kingpin, Pablo Escobar, Stanford taught and Spanish.

Stanford left school and spent a month English to local businesspeople, students, (Escobar turned himself into police in working at Kings Dominion, a large and even elderly citizens. The Colombian 1991 and was killed in 1993, essentially amusement park near Richmond, Virginia, government—desperate to rebuild its image ending the Medellín Cartel’s reign of terror. in order to save for an international trip. He after the blood-scarred ending to the 20th While the violence in Colombia did not ended up in Peru and began working at a century that saw Escobar become one disappear, the country has made tremendous hostel in the city of Cuzco, near the ancient of the wealthiest men alive by running a strides in the 17 years since and is a growing ruins of Machu Picchu. “I was there for a cocaine pipeline through Latin America tourist and business destination. Homicides little over a month,” Stanford says. “But into the United States—is promoting a major have dropped by more than 50 percent in it wasn’t a great experience [at the hostel] initiative encouraging citizens to become the past decade.) because most of the people staying there proficient in English. Demand for English Stanford had an accomplished career spoke English; I learned more about Australia instruction is at an all-time high, especially at Mercersburg; he was a member of The and Britain than I did about South America.”

“My primary mode of thought and action had always been in English, and I made up my mind that in a Spanish-speaking country, that had to change for me.”

Stanford (left) and classmate Sam Hook ’10 on the Medellín Metrocable

Though he studied Spanish for three years at Mercersburg, Stanford described his comfort level with the language as “not very high” when he arrived in Peru. “It was really interesting at the beginning to struggle through conversations in a mixture of Spanish and English,” he says. “My primary mode of thought and action had always been in English, and I made up my mind that in a Spanish-speaking country, that had to change for me.”

St anford developed an interest in

teaching English as a second language, and heard about neighboring Colombia’s push to help its citizens become bilingual.

He was considering going to Argentina (what with Colombia’s 1980s and 1990s reputation as a haven for criminal activity), but even Argentine tourists he met in Cuzco encouraged him to travel north rather than south. “They said Colombia was cheaper [than Argentina], and that the people there were super-friendly and really excited to have tourists there,” he says.

So Stanford found a job teaching private English classes in Medellín. His first three students were a true cross section of society.

“One was a woman in her 80s who said she wanted to learn English so she could communicate with a larger number of people in heaven,” he says. “Another was a 28-year-old student who needed to be able to speak English for her university studies, and another lady in her 30s was simply interested in learning another language.”

Up to this point, Stanford’s teaching experience had been limited to occasional work as a student assistant in Mercersburg’s Math Center. “I basically went into it blind,” he says. “I spent a lot of time reading about teaching English as a second language, and spent about three hours reading for every hour of teaching.”

He met with the students for about six hours each week. “They were definitely beginners when we started working together,” (continued on next page)

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he says. “By the end of our time together, they had improved a lot—especially with their pronunciation, which is so important and is something I had never really thought about with English before.”

After several weeks in Medellín, Stanford was recruited to teach at a language academy called TLI Colombia, with larger classes and actual textbooks provided. “It was very different—a lot more structured, and much easier to teach,” he says. “It was different than having to learn everything on my own.” The amount of preparation he needed shrunk to a half-hour per hour of class time—“but I

Stanford in front of the Hostal Medellín

discovered that if I spent, say, an hour and to have us and to talk about how Colombia a half preparing for class, it would make a had changed for the better.” huge difference in my teaching. I learned a In his final month in Medellín, Stanford lot about how much time goes into preparing even ran the 24-bed hostel where he lived to teach a class as opposed to just teaching while the hostel’s manager was on vacation. one, especially if you’re not an experienced “It was another interesting experience,” he says. “Including me, we had two people and teacher.”

“I was really impressed by my students. a person who came in and cleaned. I pretty They would do every bit of the homework much did everything: registering guests, that I gave them and always asked for more. dealing with money, and working with the They saw the class as an investment that they immigration service when they would come wanted to receive dividends from. I was very to check on us.”

Stanford returned to the U.S. in July, but impressed by their work ethic.”

Stanford was surprised by the relative not before his Mercersburg faculty adviser, safety of a city with such a Jeff Cohen, and classmate Sam Hook ’10 violent history. “It’s a very visited him in Medellín. Stanford hopes safe place, especially in the to go back to college in the fall—perhaps touristy areas,” he says. “The at George Mason University, Virginia people there are extremely Commonwealth University, or Virginia prou d th at th eir city is Tech—but wherever he ends up, the changing into a progressive teaching bug may travel with him.

“I’m strongly considering teaching now and nonviolent place. They’re aware that the perception of as a career,” says Stanford, who is looking at Colombia [in other parts of material science and psychology as possible the world] is bad, and they’re fields of study. “I had never really thought trying very hard to change it. about it until I worked with people, and I was traveling on the coast I’ll remember Mr. Cohen sharing a piece with some friends, and a of advice with me that he got when he first family there took us in for a started teaching: ‘They [your students] will week. They were really happy have no idea that you’re not a pro.’”

MERCERSBURG BRIEFS The late Walter Farley ’35 is best remembered as author of the Black Stallion series, which includes 20 books that have delighted generations of young readers. The original Black Stallion, which Farley worked on as a student at Mercersburg and finished while attending Columbia University, was published in 1941.

The Black Stallion and its sequels inspired three films—the first two of which were produced by Francis Ford Coppola—as well as a television show. The final book in the group (The Young Black Stallion), which Farley co-wrote with his son, Steven ’69, was published shortly after the elder Farley’s death in 1989. Steven Farley has written several additional books as part of the Black Stallion series; the latest is The Black Stallion and the Shape-shifter (2009).

Sam Miller ’03 is a writers’ production assistant on the popular ABC television show Desperate Housewives. He spent the past two years as an assistant to the vice president of studio comedy at ABC, where he worked with writers for the shows Cougar Town and Gary Unmarried, as well as several pilots.

Earlier this year, Miller’s short play, The Dating Consultant, wa s a f i n a l i s t i n S h o r t L i ve d L A , t h e l a rg e s t a u d i e n c e judged playwrighting contest in the country. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Miller lives in Los Angeles. His brother, Andrew ’00, and father, Doug ’68, are also Mercersburg alumni.

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Word on the Street

Find Pia Catton’s work in newspapers, books, and online

By Shelton Clark

When Pia Catton ’92 joined the Wall Street Journal staff earlier this year, managing editor Robert Thomson hailed her as “the leading arts and culture reporter of her generation in New York and beyond.” Catton’s regular bylines in the Journal include a column called “Culture City” about the arts scene in New York City. She also writes for the paper’s new distributed-only-to-NYC Metro section.

Before her move to the Journal, Catton was a writer and editor for the Beltway must-read website Politico.com and culture editor at the New York Sun. “My time at Politico was incredibly instructive because they move so fast,” she says. “It is a fluid, frictionless news operation.” A graduate of Kenyon College, she worked for The Weekly Standard prior to her time at the Sun. Perhaps surprisingly, Catton’s public journalism career at Mercersburg was limited to her work as photo editor of the Mercersburg News. “I just didn’t really have the confidence or the belief in my own writing to be on the reporting or editing side,” she says. “I was impressed by my classmates and younger students who were running it and had that ability.”

Still, Mercersburg gave Catton a passion for the written word. “The Mercersburg need to be reading a lot and absorbing it

and able to express something in an essay form helped me enormously,” she says.

“Chip Vink ’73, who taught my freshmanyear English class, told us to always read with a pencil. I tried to understand what I was reading by constantly writing something in the margins. I did that all through college, and even when I’m reading for pleasure sometimes, I love making a notation in the margin.”

Catton also found powerful inspiration in art teacher Nancy Heefner’s Drawing 101 class. “I started to understand that 15 people could look at the same thing, but if you look at it in a different way, then you draw it in a different way,” Catton says.

“To me, that kind of came together with thinking about public policy and politics.

I know that sounds totally disparate, but she was very encouraging. That was like, wow, that’s the difference here. If I can keep doing that in another way, then maybe I’ll have a shot.”

She got further fuel thanks to free newspaper subscriptions at Mercersburg. “Every morning in the dining hall, there was a Washington Post waiting for me,” she says.

“I didn’t read everything in it, but I loved the editorial page, and I read those opinion pieces religiously. Reading people who were writing in a very creative and engaging way really set a path for me.

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“I was also on a committee where we had to organize a symposium about family, and I remember reading an op-ed in the Washington Post—and it was because of that that I went to the faculty member who was on the committee and said, ‘I think we should invite these people who were quoted in this op-ed.’ One of the people was David Blankenhorn at the Institute for American Values. We had somebody on the left as well.

But it was because of reading that article that we reached out to these guests, who came to speak to the entire school.”

In addition to her newspaper work, Catton has three books to her credit. “I was writing a column for the New York Post about how to cook restaurant food at home,” she says, “and I met a man who ran several diners in New York City, and he wanted to do a cookbook.” The end result, co-authored by Catton and Ira Freehof, was The Comfort Diner Cookbook: A World of Classic Diner Delights, from Homestyle Dinners to Satisfying Breakfasts and Fun Midnight Treats.

Earlier this year, Catton and Califia Suntree co-edited Be Thrifty: How to Live Better with Less; Catton also wrote the short fashion tome The White Shirt, published by Assouline.

“It’s just one of those things that everyone can connect with,” Catton says of Be Thrifty.

“Everyone wants to save money. Everyone wants to live better. And you can do it at every different level.”

One can’t help but wonder if some young aspiring writer might be writing something in the margins of Catton’s books.

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The Whole Story Veteran reporter makes an impact in newsrooms and classrooms

By Tom Coccagna

Judy Rakowsky ’76 has exposed corruption, unveiled facts and incidents people would rather have kept secret, and delved into the seamy underside of the human psyche.

Such is the demanding and often dangerous world of investigative reporting.

Rakowsky’s reporting career, though, has reaped rewards. Her stories have helped send a corrupt judge to jail for accepting a car from a drug dealer and forced a U.S. marshal and state labor director to resign for rarely showing up for work.

Her career has also contained its share of peril. While writing for the Providence Journal, she covered the downfall of the New England mafia “and lived to tell about it.”

Rakowsky has worked at two of New England’s premier newspapers. After seven years at the Journal, she joined the Boston Globe as a reporter in 1992; in 2000, she began a five-year stint as the Globe’s assistant metropolitan editor.

In those two decades, she pried open many doors that those with power wanted to keep shut. Investigative reporting is exhausting work, with innumerable hours of research and chasing down sources, yet it is exhilarating when a story winds up on Page One and leads to correcting an injustice.

“At the Globe, I covered a notorious war criminal who was ultimately deported to Lithuania,” Rakowsky says. “I covered court cases that dealt with the integration of Boston housing projects, desegregation,

the Charles Stuart [murder] case, Italian organized crime, Irish organized crime, espionage, corrupt politicians, and how a trailblazing detective unit dealing with bias crimes was gutted.”

Since leaving the Globe, she has worked as a correspondent for People and Money magazines, among others.

Rakowsky also teaches journalism as an adjunct professor at Boston University and serves as journalism adviser for Bentley University’s student newspaper. For People, she has covered stories about accused “Craigslist killer” Philip Markoff and Phoebe Prince, the 15-year-old who committed suicide after she was allegedly bullied by schoolmates.

The seeds of curiosity were planted early in Rakowsky’s inquisitive preteen mind. As a 12-year-old living in Ohio, she vividly recalls the Kent State University shootings in 1970, when the Ohio National Guard opened fire during a Vietnam War protest, killing four college students and wounding nine others.

“My parents were watching the news, and I’ll never forget my dad saying those kids shouldn’t have been there,” she says. “I remember thinking, ‘No, they shouldn’t be shooting at college students.’ I suppose that’s when I began thinking for myself.”

She showed up on the Mercersburg

campus in 1974, shortly after the turbulence of Watergate and President Richard Nixon’s resignation. She was armed with a subscription to the Washington Post, the newspaper that broke open the Watergate scandal, and admits she was “so taken by the impact journalists were having.”

A dynamic step on Rakowsky’s path came during her first year at Mercersburg, when she made a seemingly innocuous choice to enroll in a creative-writing class team-taught by Randall Peffer ’67 and Wirt Winebrenner ’54. The course was avantgarde for its time, forgoing the use of a textbook and focusing instead on student writing and peer evaluation.

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MERCERSBURG BRIEFS

“We taught writing by actually having kids write,” says Winebrenner, who retired from the Mercersburg faculty in 1996.

(Peffer now teaches at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts). “Judy was one of the bright stars of that class. She was really involved in the process of writing. Students have to understand that it’s nice to have a finished product, but the process is important—where you write and revise and revise some more.”

Rakowsky says even though she didn’t write anything memorable, something “clicked” for her in that class, and she concluded she wanted to write for a living.

She later discovered her passion for investigative writing and drew on the course’s foundation: just as writing is a process, so is good reporting, with its arduous research and checking, double-checking, and triplechecking facts.

“I do recall she was bright-eyed and involved,” Winebrenner says. “She was one who did buy into the course–not all the students did–and I was pleased to see that later she began writing for newspapers and went on to have a great career.”

Rakowsky spent a year at Tulane University in New Orleans, and on one rainy night, she accepted an invitation from a female sportswriter to visit her at the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “It sounds so corny, but I nearly swooned when I saw the paper rolling off the presses,” she says.

She transferred to the University of Michigan her sophomore year, and eventually spent about 50 hours a week in the newsroom of the campus newspaper, The Michigan Daily. Rakowsky and her fellow students wrote and edited stories, debated editorial policy, and dreamed about making an impression in the news business.

But if printer’s ink indeed flows through

her veins, it has become somewhat tainted by the business side of journalism. Newspapers, faced with declining circulation and advertising along with new competitors online, have streamlined newsrooms, often leaving investigative reporters looking for work. “It breaks your heart,” she laments, “to see so many excellent journalists now out of the business.”

With them has gone the persistence of the investigative reporter concentrating solely on one story for days or even weeks at a time. Today’s style is more hit and run.

“I’m not all pessimistic about the business,” Rakowsky points out, “but I worry about the loss to society. More and more companies and government agencies know there isn’t the depth in reporting any more, that the next day [a newspaper will] move on to the next story. That’s a big loss.”

As a college professor, Rakowsky sometimes finds it difficult to sell students on the merits of a career in journalism. “It’s a challenge because it’s never going to be a high-paying profession,” she says. “It’s hard to get the best and the brightest when they know the money is not there. I had an excellent student last semester who seemed all gung-ho, but when I last saw her, she told me she’s going to law school.”

Even so, she maintains hope that more Judy Rakowskys will emerge from the students she influences.

“I tell them they have to be fair, empathetic, and honest as they seek the truth and to drop all that opinion that might be fine in their personal blogs,” she says. “It’s a lot to ask. But when you love something as much as I’ve loved journalism, you go to the mat for it.”

Frederick Mish ’55 retired in 2003 as editor-inchief and vice president of Merriam-Webster.

Among the many publications he oversaw as editor-in-chief were several editions of the company’s bestselling Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Collegiate Dictionary, as well as its Dictionary of English Usage.

Mish, who was salutatorian of his Mercersburg class, holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He received the Academy’s Class of ’32 Plaque in 2005, and is the son of the late Joseph Mish ’17 and father of Stephen ’90.

Kimberly Junmookda ’05 is studying in Morocco as a Fulbright Scholar. A 2009 graduate of the University of Redlands in California, Junmookda majored in global business and French. She is fluent in Thai and French in addition to English, and is studying Arabic.

Her research, which is primarily taking place in the Moroccan capital city of Rabat, addresses the influence of foreign trade on Morocco’s language policies. She is one of 11 Fulbright Scholars to have graduated from Mercersburg.

Visit issuu.com/mercersburg to read profiles of the following alumni from back issues of Mercersburg: Will Davies ’79 screenwriter (Twins, Flushed Away, Shrek the 3rd, How to Train Your Dragon) spring 2007 issue Rip Esselstyn ’82 author, The Engine 2 Diet winter 2009–2010 issue Rebecca Lowe ’99 television anchor, ESPN UK summer 2008 issue Jan Moller ’87 journalist, New Orleans Times-Picayune spring 2008 issue Bill Schindler ’02 sportscaster, ESPN 550 AM, Hawaii winter 2008–2009 issue

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By Lee Owen

Before the days

of the Internet and cable television, running any kind of sports-journalism enterprise from a small town in Pennsylvania would have been difficult at best—if not impossible.

Luckily for Max Strauss ’12, technology has enabled him to create a fledgling football-themed blog, Pro Interviews (prointerviews.org) , which features his interviews with National Football League players, from the comfort of his Mercersburg dorm room.

Since the site’s launch in March, Strauss has interviewed more than 35 players, ranging from rookies to former All-Pro standouts Kerry Rhodes of the Arizona Cardinals and Shawn Andrews, an offensive lineman who played for the Philadelphia Eagles. Strauss posts the interviews on the site along with pertinent biographical and statistical information for each player, and is continually updating the site as his schedule allows.

How does Strauss, who just completed his second year of high school, get in touch with NFL players? In today’s technologically savvy world, it’s easier than ever: Twitter, Skype, email, or telephone. Strauss even attended a charity event in June near his South Florida home at the invitation of Cleveland Browns safety Abram Elam (one of his interview subjects), where he met Elam along with Browns defensive end C.J. Mosley and Green Bay Packers defensive back Atari Bigby.

“Last year, I never would have dreamed of doing this,” says Strauss, who played organized football for the first time in 2009 as a lineman on the Blue Storm’s juniorvarsity team, and also helped film varsity games. “It’s amazing the way the Internet connects people.”

Strauss is a fan of the New York Jets, while his father, Marc ’78 (who works in commercial real estate), supports the Miami Dolphins. So it’s fitting that the first

Max Strauss

NFL game Max saw in person was a 2002 Dolphins/Jets matchup at Miami’s Pro Player Stadium (now called Sun Life Stadium) with his dad.

Since then, the younger Strauss has been to at least one game each year and has spent much of the time in between talking and dissecting football online. He dreams not of becoming a sports journalist, but an NFL head coach—and, as a model, points to Browns head coach Eric Mangini, who broke into the league as a public-relations assistant in Cleveland before the first incarnation of the Browns franchise moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens. (Mangini later served as an assistant coach for three different teams before replacing Bill Parcells as head coach of Strauss’ beloved Jets in 2006. He was fired after the 2008 season but resurfaced in Cleveland less than two weeks later.)

Football is Strauss’ specialty; he says he doesn’t have much interest in baseball, and will watch a pro basketball game if it involves the Miami Heat, but otherwise it’s all-pigskin-all-the-time for his sports interests.

As such, it isn’t likely that Pro Interviews will expand to athletes from other sports anytime soon. “There are 1,800 NFL players, and 600 of them are on Twitter—and I’m trying to interview them all,” Strauss says with a smile.

This summer, Strauss is spending six weeks in a summer program at Syracuse University’s prestigious S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Alumni of the Newhouse School include, to name a few, sportscasters Bob Costas, Dick Stockton, and Mike Tirico; Ed Goren, president of Fox Sports; and 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft. Strauss was one of 20 high school students selected for the course.

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Tru e To H er ro oTs For a local newspaper editor, there’s no place like home

By Logan Chace ’01

S

hawn Rockwell Hardy ’80 is not used to being on the other side of the interview. For close to 25 years, she has worked as a reporter and editor for The Record Herald in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania (about 20 miles east of Mercersburg), and has covered everything from Little League games to homicides.

Hardy grew up in Mercersburg; her father, faculty emeritus Tim Rockwell, spent 26 years on the faculty as a history teacher and the school’s dean of students. Her interest in journalism blossomed during her time as a student; she remembers writing a story about the Main Hall fire for the Mercersburg News.

After college, though Hardy wasn’t exactly sure which direction to go professionally, she did know that her inner compass was guiding her back home. “I graduated from Haverford College with a degree in history and no clear idea about what I wanted to do,” she says.

“Like many graduates, I went home after college, and home for me is Mercersburg. It was difficult to find a job in the rural area with a liberal-arts degree, but the editor of The Record Herald took a chance on me to fill a reporter vacancy. Little did I know it would become my life’s work.”

Hardy was also unaware that Jesse Garber, the editor who hired her at the paper, was familiar with her name because of The Record Herald’s coverage of a 1983 expedition to the Arctic organized by

her father—and which, along with Hardy, included three other students and faculty members Brent Gift, Frank Rutherford ’70, and Dan Kunkle. These local and personal connections have kept Hardy close to home, and there is no place she would rather be. “I can’t image city living or even suburban living,” says Hardy, who lives with her husband, Jim, in the village of Welsh Run, just down the road from Mercersburg. Like much of the area, Welsh Run is both surrounded by dairy farms and hardly more than an hour from the attractions of Washington and Baltimore.

In April 2008, Hardy became editor of the paper, showing how persistence and commitment pay off. “Jesse actually predicted early in my career that I would become editor of The Record Herald,” she says. “I don’t think I really believed it at the time, but my career just progressed that way, from being a green reporter to learning basic page layout, and from being the veteran reporter to taking on increased editorial responsibility.

“Being the editor is unpredictable to say the least. Not only is there a constantly changing flow of news and deadlines, but I am also the newspaper’s representative to the community—good and bad. When someone calls and asks to speak to the editor, they actually get to speak to the editor and not an assistant or a secretary.”

No matter the story, Hardy finds her work at the paper challenging and rewarding. “The beauty of working for a small paper is getting to cover a little bit of everything,” she says. “I’ve enjoyed the ‘big’ stories—murders, fires, and the like—and find the personal stories about people in the communities just as gratifying.”

Working for The Record Herald allows Hardy to follow the progression of people in the community. She once covered the story of an 11-year-old girl from Greencastle who needed a heart transplant. “Seven years later,” Hardy says, “we write about her graduating from high school, then she’s the Heart Walk spokesperson, and then she’s a nurse, and then she has children, which they said she would never be able to do.”

The Record Herald dates back more than 160 years, and has only failed to publish twice in its history: when Confederate soldiers upset the type trays after leaving Gettysburg during the Civil War, and when Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge closed down all the roads during a 1996 blizzard. “So, I imagine The Record Herald will still be around 160 years from now,” Hardy says.

The paper, like all newspapers, has also had to deal with journalism’s transition to the electronic age. Most newspapers, of course, offer much of their content online, which naturally affects the sale of traditional print copies. Yet Hardy is confident that smaller community papers like The Record Herald are better (continued on next page)

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positioned to weather these unsettled times than their larger newspaper brethren.

“Papers like us are faring better than some of the major dailies,” she says, “because we are the only forum in which some of the community news is available, and our focus is on local news. There will always be demand for stories on borough council meetings, Little League reports, the fire on Main Street, and obituaries.” Hardy adds that there’s nothing quite like having the actual clipping of an article with your child’s name listed on the honor roll posted on your refrigerator.

Hardy seems to be almost addicted to her job. “I am hooked on the news business,” she says. “There is no other adrenaline rush like getting the scoop or working on a hot story on deadline. No two days are ever alike, and when you walk into the office in the morning, you really don’t know what may happen. And across all departments, probably a third of our employees have been here 10 or more years, so I am not such a rarity at The Record Herald. It is a good place to work.”

Aside from the financial security, the work experience, and the skills she has attained through her work at the paper, Hardy has a personal reason to be grateful for The Record Herald. “It got me a husband,” she says with a proud smile. “Jim and I attended middle school together, then went our separate ways.

We reconnected when I was covering a barn fire for the paper and he was a volunteer fireman.”

Now, even though Hardy and her husband work to travel (they recently visited several Latin American countries), their bedrock still holds strong close to home. Thankfully, for them and for the community, their work and their hearts have kept them here.

“I feel good about my job, and it’s helped us to have the life that we have,” she says. “I could have gone to other, bigger places, but then you are moving all the time, and I’m not like that. I like my roots here.”

A Charge to Keep —and Adapt Peggy Northrop oversees one of America’s best-loved magazine brands

By Shelton Clark

For Reader’s Digest Global Editor-in-Chief Peggy Northrop ’72, a Mercersburg history class gave her a unique perspective on the mercurial nature of writing.

“The first essay, Miss Northrop, was brilliant,” went the critique from her history teacher, Denis Campbell. “And your second was a dog’s breakfast.”

“It was a good reminder to me as a humble scribe that not everything goes your way,” Northrop says. “Sometimes it’s a dog’s breakfast. You can have brilliance and a dog’s breakfast in the same day.

“The emphasis on writing and the emphasis on inquiry [at Mercersburg] were something that I had not encountered in any other school I had been to. It was a big step up. I had the most extraordinary teachers; I particularly remember Jack Bursk, who was a fantastic English teacher. He would proudly stand on a chair and declaim his enthusiasm for what we were reading.”

In an age when pundits regularly ring the proverbial death knell for traditional print media, Reader’s Digest brought Northrop aboard in 2007 to revitalize one of the industry’s most recognizable brands.

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“We have editions in 45 countries in 22 languages,” Northrop says. “In many places, the brand is held in very high esteem and is seen as a younger and more relevant, vital brand than it is here in the United States.

Here, our brand is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, everybody knows it; on the other hand, people say, ‘Well, that was the one I read at my grandmother’s cabin,’ or—my personal favorite—‘on the back of the toilet at Grandma’s house.’

“I wanted the chance to reinvent the brand that, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t that engaged with either. When I came to the magazine, I wanted to remake it for a new generation. We made a lot of changes, and I was happy to see the success that we have had so far. But it’s a long road. You don’t just do that in a year or two; you do it by doing things that surprise people. And the magazine [alone] is not a sufficient effort. We have to be on the iPad, we have to be on mobile devices, we have to do things that are much more disruptive. In a funny way, I think that the idea of Reader’s Digest has never been more relevant. We have more information available to us now than our grandparents had in their lifetimes.

Everybody I know is starting to say to me, ‘Just give me the Reader’s Digest version.’”

In fact, Northrop has noted that vernacular usage of the magazine’s brand.

“Last December, Rachel Maddow said, ‘All right, so here’s the Reader’s Digest version of this thing that happened on Wall Street today.’ And I thought, here’s this rising star of MSNBC using that phrase. Once you’re looking for it, you hear people using it all the time. I do a Twitter search of ‘Reader’s Digest version.’ People use it to refer to their vacation; they use it to say a band is the Reader’s Digest version of the Flaming Lips.’”

Though she has worked for a number of well-known magazines—Glamour, Vogue, Redbook, and Real Simple among them— her journalistic roots remain in western Pennsylvania.

“I grew up in a family where our family business was newspapers,” says Northrop.

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to adjust to that kind of information, and “My first summer jobs in high school were working for my father at the [Washington, we’re having to adjust even more quickly Pennsylvania–based] Observer-Reporter, and with more real trauma to our industry. where my brother, Tom ’74, is now the We’ve all been through layoffs and trying to do a whole lot more with a whole lot publisher and my sister, Lucy ’80, is in less, and it is very, very challenging. But charge of our digital efforts.” In addition to if you can get past the fear,” she adds with her duties at Reader’s Digest, Peggy remains a laugh, “it’s fascinating.” on the Observer-Reporter’s board. Another Northrop points to the success of former sister, Katie Northrop Glass ’77, works for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker editor the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “ I t ’s r e a l l y a n extraordinary time “In a funny way, I think that the idea to watch the whole of Reader’s Digest has never been more business model fall relevant. We have more information apart,” she says of the available to us now than our grandparents print-media industry. had in their lifetimes. Everybody I know “Partly because of the family business, I’ve is starting to say to me, ‘Just give me the always been deeply Reader’s Digest version.’” —Peggy NorthroP ’72 concerned with the business side. It’s all Tina Brown’s The Daily Beast website and very well to do great stories, to do investigative the newsmagazine The Week as examples reporting, and to serve people; it’s another of news outlets that condense information, thing to figure out how to produce it and not unlike the Reader’s Digest model. how to pay for it.”

“I continue to believe that if you don’t Northrop adds that one of the reasons she have people who are reporting on things came to Reader’s Digest is that she would that citizens need to know, you don’t have serve on the executive committee, giving the window into our increasingly complex her some responsibility for the business side government and business systems that and “a window into watching a business get you need in order to be truly informed,” remade.”

Northrop says. “Journalists have never “The amount of change that is going on been more needed, and at the same right now is extraordinary,” she says. “Every time, they have never been so distrusted. single editor I know is going through some version of what I’m going through, which That sense of distrust and that sense that information ought to be free is quite is that you’re not making as much money harmful to all of us, not just to people in from advertising anymore, and consumers the journalism profession.” are accustomed to getting information for About her own writing at Mercersburg, free. On the one hand, it’s very exciting to she confesses to “an appropriately miserysee the democratization of information. The filled literary magazine that I contributed notion that you would gather news and then to,” though she allows she did win an interpret it and send it to people who were English award at her graduation. waiting for that is so old-fashioned.

“Our family is quite close as a result “In many ways, it’s akin to what happened of working in this business together,” in the medical field with women. It used to she says. “First of all, we shared the be, women would go to the doctor, and it Mercersburg experience. And now to would be like, ‘Whatever you say, doc, I’ll just share this common business has been do that.’ That doesn’t happen now. You go to really great.” the doctor, and you often have your diagnosis in hand. The medical profession is having

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athletics D ate s to Re me mb e r

sep 25 Oct 2

Fall Alumni Weekend

noon: Mercersburg Cross Country Invitational

Family Weekend

Oct 22

Swimming: Blue/White Intrasquad Meet, 5 p.m.

Lawrenceville at Mercersburg 2 p.m.: field hockey, boys’/girls’ soccer, girls’ tennis, volleyball 2:30 p.m.: football (Volleyball also hosts St. John’s Catholic Prep)

Oct 23

Football vs. United Military Academy, 2:30 p.m.

Field hockey/girls’ soccer vs. Bullis, 3 p.m.

Alumni reunions for cross country, diving, swimming, track & field

Schedules are subject to change; for updates and results, visit www.mercersburg.edu

Winter Varsity Athletics Roundup Girls’ Basketball

Captain: Bailey Blake ’11 Girls’ Basketball Award (most outstanding player): Blake Coaches’ Award (most improved player): Melody Gomez ’13 Head coach: Monique Liddell (3rd season) Record: 1–17, 0–4 MAPL Highlights: The team beat local rival St. Maria Goretti of Hagerstown on a dramatic layup by Julie Garlick ’11… injuries and small numbers dogged the Storm all season… Vivi Hyacinthe ’13 grabbed 14 rebounds in her first high-school game (the season opener against Cumberland Valley Christian School)… Blake was the team’s most frequent leading scorer… the team ended its season at the inaugural Think Pink Tournament, which supported the Cherry Blossom Breast Cancer Fund… Garlick was named to the Academic All-MAPL team.

Boys’ Basketball

Captains: game captains selected Boys’ Basketball Award (most outstanding player): Nick Jackson ’10 Coaches’ Award (most improved player): Charlie Fitzmaurice ’10 Head coach: Mark Cubit (11th season) Record: 6–16 (0–4 MAPL) Highlights: The team garnered the MAPL’s team sportsmanship award… Jackson, an honorablemention All-MAPL selection, will play at Dartmouth next year… he averaged 13.7 points and 4.0 rebounds per game while leading the team in fieldgoal percentage (.570), free-throw percentage (.821), and blocked shots (1.24 bpg)… four players averaged double figures in scoring: Jackson, Cory Schmidt ’10 (18.7), Jack Taylor ’10 (11.1), and Danny Rodriguez ’12 (10.7)… Schmidt had the top single-game scoring performance when he poured in 35 points during a 78–70 win over Phelps… Taylor saw his season cut short due to injury… Troy Nwanna ’11 led the team in steals (0.9 spg) and was second on the roster in assists behind Schmidt (2.6 apg)… Fitzmaurice was named Academic All-MAPL.

Diving

Captains: Jake Campbell ’10, Kristen Dietch ’10 Diving Award (most outstanding diver): Dietch Coaches’ Award (most improved diver): Campbell Head coach: Jennifer Miller Smith ’97 (2nd season) Highlights: Campbell, Dietch, and Ashley Heisey ’12 all placed at the Eastern Intercollegiate Diving Championships; Dietch was second and Heisey 12th in the girls’ division, while Campbell took 13th in the boys’ division… Dietch captured the girls’ competition of the Hill Invitational, while Campbell placed fourth in the boys’ competition… the team had a mix of veterans and newcomers in its second year back as a varsity sport… Dietch will dive for Navy next year… Campbell, who placed second in a dual meet with Peddie, was named Academic All-MAPL and will dive at Case Western Reserve next year.

Skiing

Captain: Albie Critchfield ’11 Skiing Award (most outstanding skier): Critchfield Coaches’ Award (most improved skier): Stefan Johansson ’12 Head coach: Dan Chayes (2nd season) Highlights: Critchfield and Chris Weller ’11 both placed at the PA Cup Finals at Elk Mountain, essentially the state championship meet for highschool skiers; Critchfield took seventh and Weller 52nd… Critchfield won the J2 men’s division at the Richard Whitney Memorial Slalom at Round Top, while teammates Johansson, Kristin Rempe ’11, and Jaden Walle ’12 also competed… Johansson earned special academic recognition as a commended scholar.

Boys’ Squash

Captains: Ahmed Abdel Latif ’12, Chris Shie ’10, Emile Toscano ’10 Thomas Flanagan ’38 Boys’ Squash Award (most outstanding player): Abdel Latif Coaches’ Award (most improved player): Shie Head coach: Chip Vink ’73 (10th season) Record: 13–9

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Highlights: The team beat St. Christopher’s School (Virginia), St. Andrew’s (Delaware), and Potomac School (Virginia) to win the Mid-Atlantic Tournament; a comeback win at the #4 spot by Dara Vaziri ’10 clinched the title… the team also finished second in the MAPL… Abdel Latif, who has held the top spot in the European rankings in his age group, compiled a 23–2 individual mark, including a season split with Bryan Keating of Potomac, who is ranked in the top 10 by U.S. Squash… Abdel Latif and Toscano (20–5 on the season) earned All-MAPL honors… at the MAPL championships, Abdel Latif won the event’s A bracket and Shie, Brendan McClintick ’12, and Chris Hwang ’10 won their respective consolation brackets... Shie was named Academic All-MAPL.

Girls’ Squash

Captain: Julianna Dahbura ’10 Thomas Flanagan ’38 Girls’ Squash Award (most outstanding player): Nikki Rhyne ’12 Coaches’ Award (most improved player): Valeria Quan Miranda ’12 Head coach: Wells Gray (7th season) Record: 13–9 Highlights: The team finished second at the MidAtlantic Squash Tournament… Rhyne and Ana Kelly ’11 earned All-MAPL honors, leading the squad to a second-place MAPL finish (behind only national power Lawrenceville)… the Storm went 3–0 in team competition against MAPL foes, defeating Blair in the Tom Flanagan Invitational at the Davenport Squash Center and sweeping a tri-match with Blair and Hill… the team finished 12th at the Division II Nationals held at Yale University, which equates to a 28th-place finish nationally… Sarah Allen ’12 was named Academic-All MAPL for the second time this year (she also earned academic honors as a member of the tennis team).

Boys’ Swimming

Captains: Collin Greene ’11, Sammy Schadt ’10, Nick Thomson ’10 Harry Glancy ’24 Award (most outstanding swimmer): Schadt Finlay Vanderveer ’29 Award (greatest influence): Thomson John Preston ’47 Award (most improved swimmer): Tareq Kaaki ’11 Thomas Hartz ’72 Award (perseverance): Chris Hoke ’10 Head coach: Pete Williams (22nd season) Easterns finish: 1st Highlights: The team claimed the Easterns title for the first time since 2002 and the fifth time in Williams’ tenure as head coach; Loyola Blakefield finished second and Peddie third… the Storm claimed Easterns event championships in the 50-yard freestyle (Kaaki, 20.99), 100 free (Kaaki, 45.84), and 200 free relay (Thomson/ Kaaki/Hoke/ Nikolai Paloni ’10, 1:23.58)… All-Americans included Kaaki (50 free/100 free), Thomson (50 free), and the 200 free relay team of Schadt, Linc Kupke ’11, Ty Malone ’10, and Kevin Shivers ’13… other top Easterns performances included Hoke (4th/50 free), Geramiah Simoes ’10 (4th/100 fly), Thomson (5th/50 free), Kevin Carroll ’11 (5th/100 back), and Tom Zhang ’12 (4th/100 breast), as well as the second-place 200 medley relay team (Carroll/Hoke/ Simoes/Paloni) and fourth-place 400 free relay team (Thomson/Simoes/Kupke/Kaaki)… Ed Carroll ’10 was named Academic All-MAPL.

Girls’ Swimming

Captains: Jen Leahey ’10, Lauren Kecskes ’10, Joy Mullins ’10 Neidhoefer Swimming Award (most outstanding swimmer): Leahey John Preston ’47 Award (most improved swimmer): Mullins Thomas Hartz ’72 Award (perseverance): Hannah Lutz ’12 Head coach: Pete Williams (22nd season)

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Easterns finish: 5th Highlights: At Easterns, the team finished ahead of Lawrenceville, Hill, Hun, and Blair (all MAPL schools finished in the top 18) and behind only Peddie, Germantown Academy, Baylor, and Episcopal Academy… Nikki Hyrkas ’11 placed fifth in the 200 free and seventh in the 500 free, while Gina Grabowski ’10 took eighth in the 200 individual medley and ninth in the 100 fly… Christina Hyrkas ’13 was eighth in the 100 breast… relay highlights included the fifth-place 400 free team (Lutz, Grabowski, Nikki Hyrkas, Megan Kearley ’12), the sixth-place 200 medley relay squad (Mullins, Leahey, Kara Alvarez ’13, Tatiana Duchak ’10), and the seventh-place 200 free relay team (Kearley, Lutz, Leahey, Lola Tijani ’13)… the MAPL Championships were canceled for both boys and girls due to a blizzard… Kecskes and Lutz garnered Academic AllMAPL honors.

Boys’ Winter Track & Field

Captain: Neb Osman ’10 Boys’ Winter Track & Field Award (most outstanding athlete): Osman Coaches’ Award (most improved athlete): Alex Cha ’10 Head coach: David Grady (6th season) MAPL finish: 2nd Highlights: Osman swept the 1600 meters and 3200 meters at the MAPL Championships, setting a new 3200m school and MAPL record along the way (9:46.86)… Simeon Daniels ’10 won the 400m, besting his school record (52.53), and also took fourth in the triple jump… Tyler Mulloy took third in the 800m… both Osman and Daniels were named All-MAPL; Troy Harrison ’10 earned honorablemention All-MAPL honors… Osman won the mile at the Shirk Invitational, and Ellis Mays ’10 took third; Carlos Garcia ’10 was second in the 200m…

Osman also won the 3000m at the Lebanon Valley Invitational and the Kevin Dare Invitational (in a school-record 8:56.40), qualifying him to run in the state championship meet… Osman and

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Michael Lorentsen ’10 earned spots on the Academic All-MAPL team.

Girls’ Winter Track & Field

Captain: Kearsten Cubit ’10 Girls’ Winter Track & Field Award (most outstanding athlete): Mackenzie Riford ’11 Coaches’ Award (most improved athlete): Deborah Adjibaba ’11 Head coach: David Grady (6th season) MAPL finish: 4th Highlights: Adjibaba won the 55 meters and Riford the 3200 meters at the MAPL Championships… both also placed second in the 400m and 1600m, respectively, for honorable-mention All-MAPL honors in those events… Sarah Kolanowski ’10 took third in the 55m hurdles, lowering her own school record in the process (9.36), and also placed fifth in the high jump…

Cubit took third in the triple jump and fifth in the 400m, and previously had won the 400m at the Shirk Invitational… the team of Cubit, Adjibaba, Riford, and Emma Cranston ’13 took second in the sprintmedley relay at the Franklin & Marshall Invitational… new school records were also set over the course of the year by Riford (3000m, 11:10.58), Kolanowski (high jump, 4-11) … Adjibaba and Riford earned spots on the Academic All-MAPL team.

Wrestling

Captains: A.J. Firestone ’10, Paul Suhey ’10 Fred Kuhn Award (most outstanding wrestler): Bobby Burg ’12 Coaches’ Award (most improved player): Suhey Ronald D. Tebben Leadership Award: Firestone Head coach: Nate Jacklin ’96 (2nd season) MAPL finish: 2nd Highlights: Burg, Cody Barrick ’10, and Ethan Keiser ’10 were National Prep AllAmericans; the team finished 15th at the National Prep Tournament… Burg reached the national championship finals at 152 pounds and finished the year with a 41–5 mark; he was Mercersburg’s first championship finalist since 2002…

Barrick is the Storm’s third three-time Prep All-American, and finished his career in fourth place on the school’s all-time win list with 136 victories… Keiser (23–4) won the 160-pound class at the Cadet Invitational and reached the semifinals at nationals… Firestone, who had never wrestled before high school, was a threetime state placewinner and three-time national qualifier over his career… Suhey and Roberto Solis ’11 earned Academic AllMAPL honors.

College Roll Call

Twenty-six members of the Class of 2010 will continue their athletic careers at the college level next year, including five bound for the U.S. Naval Academy (pictured above L–R: Kristen Dietch, Gina Grabowski, Tyler Mulloy, Geramiah Simoes, Emile Toscano).

The full roster: Cody Barrick, wrestling, Shippensburg University Ed Carroll, swimming, New York University Simeon Daniels, football, Gettysburg College Kristen Dietch, diving, U.S. Naval Academy Tatiana Duchak, swimming, Carnegie Mellon University Sarah Duda, softball, Swarthmore College A.J. Firestone, football, Penn State University Darius Glover, football, Lafayette College Gina Grabowski, swimming, U.S. Naval Academy Troy Harrison, football, Franklin & Marshall College Paige Harry, soccer, Washington and Lee University Chris Hoke, swimming, Lehigh University Nick Jackson, basketball, Dartmouth College Ethan Keiser, wrestling, Drexel University

Josh Muller, football, Rhodes College Joy Mullins, swimming, St. Francis University (Pennsylvania) Tyler Mulloy, soccer, U.S. Naval Academy Neb Osman, cross country/track, University of Pennsylvania Sammy Schadt, swimming, Bates College Cory Schmidt, basketball, Assumption College Geremiah Simoes, swimming, U.S. Naval Academy Jack Taylor, basketball, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Charles Thompson, football, Bucknell University Nick Thomson, swimming, Florida State University Chris Thorsen, baseball, Marist College Emile Toscano, squash, U.S. Naval Academy

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39

arts

D at es to Re me mb e r

Oct 1-3 Oct 22-24 nov 6 nov 14

Fall Student Music Recital

directors: Richard Rotz, Jim Brinson, Michael Cameron, Jack Hawbaker Four Mercersburg musical ensembles—the Concert Band, Chorale, Jazz Band, and String Ensemble—took part in the 2010 Music In the Parks Festival at Hersheypark in May. The Concert Band garnered a “superior” rating (the highest-possible ranking), while the Chorale, Jazz Band, and String Ensemble all received “excellent” ratings.

Octet

Magalia

Fall Dance Concert Fall Pops Concert

Instrumental and Vocal Music

Jazz Band

Stony Batter Players: Arms and the Man

nov 13

Above events in Burgin Center for the Arts. Schedule subject to change; for a full and updated schedule of events, visit www.mercersburg.edu

Concert Band (with Music In the Parks trophy)

Stony Batter Players: The Dining Room

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stony batter Players directors: Laurie Mufson, Matt Maurer

Hannah Edwards ’11 and Ignacio Maiz Vilches ’10

Darius Glover ’10 and Bethany Pasierb ’11

InspIred by shakespeare scenes

Tally Diaz ’10 and Susan Durnford ’11

Dance

director: Denise Dalton

Michael Khamphasong ’10 in “Extreme” (other dancers in front: Emily Bays ’10, Annette Hull ’11, Paige Seibert ’11)

Ellis Mays ’10, Eliza Macdonald ’10, and Aaron Porter ’10

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Visual art faculty: Mark Flowers, Kristy Higby, Wells gray Works by Max Brownawell ’12 and Jason Cui ’13 earned awards in the 2010 Mid-Atlantic Prep League Art Exhibition & Competition, which was on exhibit this spring at Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey.

Penelope Zhang ’11, acrylic

Max Brownawell ’12, acrylic painting (winner of MAPL Sophomore Prize)

Jason Cui ’13, computer graphic (winner of MAPL Freshman Prize)

Paige Harry ’10, ceramics

Kayleigh Kiser ’11 in “Who Was She” (background: Taria Griffin ’10, Annette Hull ’11)

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Reunion Anniversary Weekend 2010

June 10–13, 2010

Among th e h igh lights:

• A Friday luau and Saturday dance party with live music, tours of Mercersburg’s historic district, a panel discussion entitled “Mercersburg: Past, Present, and Future,” and a “State of the School” session with Head of School Douglas Hale • Individual class activities (including anniversary reunions for class years ending in 0 and 5 and the Loyalty Club); attendees enjoyed everything from softball games to champagne brunches and wine tastings • “Faculty Connections,” giving alumni an opportunity to re-live their Mercersburg experiences and see how today’s students are learning • Dedication ceremonies honoring the late Pat Post (a longtime librarian at the school) and the late Tom Wolfe ’85

School Archivist Jay Quinn and Regent Emeritus/former faculty member Greg Smith ’65

Andrew Shirk ’00 proposed to his girlfriend, Kathleen Mudd, in the Chapel garden (and she said yes)

Faculty Emeritus Phil Post and his daughters, Betsy Post McKelvey ’82 and Rebecca Post ’87 (center) with members of the Class of 2000 at a library dedication honoring his wife, the late Pat Post

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Alumni Council Service Award Richard F. Schmidt ’55

A graduate of Dartmouth College and the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Schmidt served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army before going to work as an FBI special agent. In 1967, he became a general partner in the Columbus, Ohio, business law firm of Mayer, Tingley, and Hurd.

From 1976 to 1985, he was a self-employed attorney in Columbus specializing in real estate, bankruptcy, probate, and corporate law. He served as vice president of American Realty Title Assurance Company and as a referee of the Franklin County Probate Court. Before his retirement in 1990, he was vice president and general counsel of Rax Restaurants.

A former president (1992 to 1994) and vice president (1989 to 1992) of the Alumni Council, Dick has also served as a class agent and reunion volunteer for his class and was chair of its 50th reunion committee in 2005.

Dick is also a former chair of the Loyalty Club Committee; he and his wife, Jean, live in Nags Head, North Carolina. Dick’s brother, Ed ’49, and children, Rich ’88 and Ingrid ’96, are also Mercersburg alumni.

Alumni Council Achievement Award

C. Howard Hardesty ’40

Hardesty graduated from Duke University and the West Virginia University School of Law. He served as a naval officer during World War II in the Pacific theater aboard the heavy cruiser USS Wichita (CA-45) until the Japanese surrender.

Har desty formed the law firm of Furbee & Hardesty in his hometown of Fairmont, West Virginia, and served as West Virginia Tax Commissioner. He joined Consolidation Coal Company as a senior executive; following the merger of Consol and Continental Oil Company (Conoco) in 1968, he served as senior executive of Conoco until his retirement as vice-chairman in 1979. He then served as a partner of Andrews & Kurth in its Washington law offices until 1989.

He has been director of seven New York Stock Exchange corporations, and is a trustee emeritus of Duke University and trustee of the West Virginia University and Indian River Medical Center Foundations. Howard and his late wife, Doris Wilson, were married in 1946 and have two children, Sarah and Charles ’73. Howard lives in Vero Beach, Florida.

Dick Schmidt ’55, Head of School Douglas Hale, Carol Furnary Casparian ’79, Howard Hardesty ’40

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Class of ’32 Distinguished Alumnus Award

Albert C. Bellas ’60, Theodore V. Boyd ’60, David O. Frantz ’60, Henry H. Spire ’60 Bellas is founding partner and managing director of The Solaris Group, and has served as chairman and CEO of the Neuberger Berman Trust Companies and Albert was a managing director and member of the management committee of OFFITBANK, a New York City–based global asset management firm. He has been a senior executive vice-president of Shearson Lehman Brothers and a member of the board of directors of its Lehman Brothers Division.

Albert has been a member of the Mercersburg Board of Regents since 1992 and served as vice president from 1999 to 2001; he currently chairs the Finance Committee.

Albert and his wife, Kay Mazzo, have two children. His twin brother, Michael, is a fellow member of the Class of 1960.

Boyd’s career has focused primarily on broadcasting and real estate development.

He is chairman of First Communications and Rockledge Ltd. and general partner of Willmoll Development Company, and also serves as a trustee and vice-chairman for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and as trustee for the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education, Aultman Hospital, Canton Tomorrow, and Stark Education Partnership. Ted served on Mercersburg’s Board of Regents from 1988 to 1999, including three years as vice president; on the Alumni Council from 1980 to 1986, including two years as president; was chairman of the Annual Fund for two years; and is a Regent Emeritus. He and his wife, Cricket, live in Canton, Ohio, and are the parents of three sons.

Frantz is a professor emeritus of English and secretary of the board of trustees at Ohio State University, where he is a past recipient of the University-Wide Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award and the Faculty Award for Distinguished University Service.

He was elected to Mercersburg’s Board of (continued on next page)

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Regents in 1987, and served seven years as vice president. He also was a member of the Alumni Council for six years, including a year as president. David is past president of the Epsilon of Ohio Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. He spent many years studying Renaissance paintings and literature and is the author of Festum Voluptatis: A Study of Renaissance Erotica. David and his wife, Joanne, have a son, a daughter, and two grandsons.

After his ordination with the United Church of Christ, Spire served in the parish ministry and as chaplain at The Governor’s Academy in Massachusetts for nearly a decade. Following a number of years as director of admissions and assistant head of school at Vermont Academy, he served as headmaster at West Nottingham Academy in Colora, Maryland. He

Albert Bellas ’60, Ted Boyd ’60, David Frantz ’60, Hank Spire ’60

was also an independent educational consultant with Ethna Hopper Associates in Washington, and served as vice president for development for the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Today, Hank is president of The Seraph Foundation, which supports medical research, education,

conservation, and human services. A former member of Mercersburg’s Board of Regents and Alumni Council (for which he served as president for two years), Hank lives with his wife, Linda, in Easton, Maryland.

They have two grown children and five grandchildren.

reunion

CLASS PHoToS

Loyalty Club

Front row (L–r): Fred Schaff ’50, George Jocher ’55, Jim McClelland ’55, Tom Gardner ’48, Bill rockey ’45. row 2: Chuck Hatch ’54, John Hornbaker ’55, John Linderman ’55, Dick Schmidt ’55, Dale Williams ’54, Walter newkirk ’45.

Class of 1960

Front row (L–r): Howard Kenig, Albert Bellas, David Hope, David Crandall, Louis Albright, Burt Alimansky, Michael Bellas, Lloyd reichard. row 2: eric reif, ivon rohrer, John Whitmoyer, John Gove, Bill Cass, Hank Spire, Ted Boyd. row 3: John Colton, Alex Getty, Bill McLure, Bob Druckenmiller, Joe Kalbach, Kent rentschler.

Class of 1965

Front row (L–r): richard Kaufman, Jim Zeger, Bill Mcilroy, Bill Baumann. row 2: Charlie Guy, Greg Smith, Brian Joscelyne, Jere Keefer.

Mercersbu rg Magazi n e suMMer 2010

Class of 1970

Bill Wallace, Bill Sitterley, Ross Lillard.

Class of 1985

Front row (L–R): C.C. Gachet, Stacie Rice Lissette, Carol McCullough Bender, Jennifer Lew, Susan Corwin Moreau, Peggy Raley. Row 2: John Matson, Keith Lutman, Tom Donley, Theo Lichtenstein.

Class of 1980

Front row (L–R): Lucy Northrop, Lynn Brewer Price, Jane Hoover Davenport.

Row 2: Bob Jett, Doug Corwin ’79, Dave Dupont, Chris Greene.

Class of 1990

Treva Ghattas, Mike Galligan, Alex Cruikshank, Julia Stojak Maurer, Steve Wagshal.

Class of 2005 Class of 2000

Front row (L–R): Anna Dzvonik, Diana Lora, Natalie Wingrove Scott, Patricia Leal. Row 2: Andrew Miller, Will Hamilton, Josh Gallon, Monica Korrell, Rachel Kagan Galey, Richard Kaufman. Row 3: Josh Pipic, Matt Roberts, Andy Shirk, Taylor Horst, Mike Galey.

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Front row (L–R): Stephanie Grimes, Taylor Miller, Elizabeth Wilber, Alexis Imler, Jessica Miga, Sonya Karbach, Cara Leepson, Tammy McBeth Armstrong. Row 2: Lisa Shelps, Tracey Manner, Natalie Blackburn, Kathleen Sicuranza, John Shartle, Lindsay Steinour, Whitney Pezza, John Marino, Zeilend Powell, Michael Armstrong (husband of Tammy McBeth Armstrong). Row 3: Giannina Schaefer, Hannah Galey, Nick Ventresca, Aaron Moss, J.C. Sabol, Carl Gray, Burleson Grimes, Matt Walsh.

Row 4: Ryan Reid, Jonathan Edwards, Dale Statler, Jeff Greenberg, Zander Hartung, Elliott Van Ness, Taylor Newby, Mark Dobish.

Alumni Notes Submit alumni notes by visiting the Alumni Online Community at www.mercersburg.edu/ podium 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.

u Bob Johnson 203-248-7834

’35 ’43

Tom Massey was featured in “On Eternal Patrol,” an article in the April 2010 issue of The American Legion Magazine. Tom served on the USS Razorback, which was one of 12 submarines in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender in World War II.

u Lew Scott lpsmd@aol.com

’45

Dan Detwiler’s wife, Laura Dennison, passed away August 6, 2009.

u Dick Hoffman 859-846-5512

’46

u Harry McAlpine 703-893-3893

’47

Thomas Varden’s brother, James C. Varden Jr. , died June 20, 2010.

u Ed Hager edward.t.hager1@adelphia.net

’50

Edmund “Ted” Kase III was honored as the longest-serving judge in New Mexico (38 years on the bench) by the Torrance County 4-H Council and the New Mexico State University Extension Office.

u Bert McGann thmcgann@aol.com u Joe Silverman jsspks@atlanticbb.net

u Dick Zirkle nimdllc@gmail.com

u Dave Ulsh ducu1960@comcast.net

’51

’55 ’56

John Butterfield is president of the town council of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He has served two years of a four-year term and says that it’s a lot easier getting results as a commander of a military unit than it is getting eight other council members to agree on anything.

Jim Morgan has assumed the role of chairman emeritus for Applied Materials. His 26-year tenure as the company’s chief executive officer was one of the longest of any Fortune 500 CEO. He received numerous awards and accolades for his contributions to technology, business development, and education, including the 1996 National Medal of Technology (awarded

by President Bill Clinton), the Spirit of Silicon Valley Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2010 Exemplary Leader Award from the American Leadership Forum.

Clockwise from left: Louise and Ed Young ’43; faculty members Phil Kantaros, Karl Reisner, and Allison Stephens; Victoria Hughes, president of the Bill of Rights Institute; and faculty member David Bell. The D. Louise and Edward S. Young ’43 Endowment Fund at Mercersburg is used for the teaching of U.S. constitutional principles with special consideration of the Bill of Rights and its foundation.

’57

u Alex Burgin burgin-enterprises@sbcglobal.net u Bob Walton waltonrr@comcast.net

Leighton Scott and his wife, Rebecca, celebrated 40 years of marriage. They reside on Cape Cod, but also have a home in the mountains of North Carolina.

u Clem Geitner hkyleather@aol.com

’59

Wes Johnston’s mother, Camille Hays Brown, died February 6, 2010.

u Bill Thompson thomps132@gmail.com

’61

’58

John Booth is a member of the board of directors of Caldwell Trust Company.

Jim Fisher changed jobs and is spending a couple of years helping to start the first private college in the kingdom of Bhutan, Royal Thimphu College. He is in charge of the anthropological aspect of things, which gives him the opportunity to photograph white-water rapids and take the occasional Himalayan trip in his spare time. Last winter, he climbed Mount Kinabalu (a summit of 13,435 feet) on Borneo.

Bill Thompson is head of the radiology department at the VA Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a professor of radiology at the University of New Mexico.

John Stevens serves on the board of the Scudder Association and represents that organization on the board of the Vellore CMC Foundation. He is also on the session for his church—“think of it as a board of directors,” he says. “And my wife and I have more time to enjoy our children and grandchildren, which is great.”

u Gene Homicki ukey@spiders.com u David Millstein ssponte@gmail.com u Paul Sommerville psommerville@hargray.com

’63

Drew Bisset was featured in a March article in the Greenwich Post, “Navy SEAL Hopefuls: Getting a Leg Up.”

Mercersbu rg Magazi n e suMMer 2010

◆ Tom Hadzor T.Hadzor@Duke.edu ◆ Eric Scoblionko wekdirscobes@aol.com

Classmates Charlie Ballou ’63, Marty Sweeney ’63, and Jim Goodwin ’63 in Jackson, New Hampshire.

’64 Dick Cass, president of the baltimore ravens, announced that he would match the more than $40,000 that ravens players and coaches donated to relief efforts for the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

◆ Frank “Mac” Butts macsear@aol.com ◆ Jere Keefer jsklrk@embarqmail.com

◆ Stan Westbrook fswest1@verizon.net

’65

’66

Frick Curry and Bill Goodfellow graduated from boston university in 1970— and after 40 years, their class was finally given a graduation ceremony on bu’s campus in May 2010. (The original ceremony was canceled due to political unrest.) Frick went to boston to attend the event.

Geoff Decker’s wife, Diane, passed away February 27, 2010.

◆ Harry Apfelbaum hlavmd@dejazzd.com ◆ Rick Fleck aspnrick@aol.com ◆ Dick Seibert rseibert@knobhall.com

’69

Bill Edwards, a signal systems maintenance technician for the army national guard’s 628th aviation support battalion, has returned from serving in iraq. bill has been in the military for 32 years.

◆ Joseph Rendina jjrendina@comcast.net

’72

Tom Hartz writes, “i read with great interest the winter volume of Mercersburg magazine celebrating food, meals, and family.” Tom and his wife, Lori, have opened a restaurant in Lake geneva, Wisconsin, called The simple café.

They feature locally grown ingredients for fresher, tastier, and healthier food.

Patrick Shay met President barack Obama just before he gave a speech in savannah, georgia, about the importance of retrofitting. Patrick is an architect and co-founder of green sweep, an efficiency company specializing in clean energy and energy efficiency upgrades.

◆ Molly Froehlich mollyfro@aol.com ◆ Greg Morris mormgtlisa@aol.com ◆ Jim Umbdenstock jumbdenstock1@nc.rr.com

◆ Ann Shabb Warner ann@howardspub.com

◆ Heidi Kaul Krutek hkrutek@bellsouth.net

’75

’76 ’78

indianapolis colts owner Jim Irsay, who began his high-school career at Mercersburg, was the subject of a sevenpage profile in the January 25 issue of Sports Illustrated.

Tony Morris is director of Historypin (www.historypin.com), a project that aims to be the world’s largest historical image archive. The site is partnered with google.

◆ Gretchen Decker Pierce grdnfrk@gmail.com ◆ Carol Furnary Casparian furnaryc@mercersburg.edu

’79

Dave Delgado and his wife, suzanne, are back in seattle following 12 years working in england and Turkey.

Frances Purcell Liddy, mother of Jim Liddy and Ray Liddy ’82 and wife of political figure and radio personality g. gordon Liddy, died February 5, 2010.

’81

◆ Karen Craig y2kc@earthlink.net ◆ Nick Fuhrman nfuhrman@comcast.net ◆ Annette Schaffer Steinbarth asteinb@ucls.uchicago.edu ◆ Agnes Schrider agnes@nelsonphysicaltherapy.com ◆ Josh Turner jbt4@comcast.net ◆ Dave Wagner wags1262@sbcglobal.net ◆ Jay Yarid jryaridjr@yahoo.com ◆ Greg Zinn greg@zinn.com

◆ Lynn Brewer Price lynnbprice@comcast.net ◆ Dave Dupont david.dupont@rbc.com ◆ Chris Greene chris.greene@suntrust.com

’80

Dave Donaldson ’82 addresses the student body during a community gathering in April. Dave is a counseling therapist and outdoor adventure educator at the Northwest Academy in Naples, Idaho.

Dave Flanagan is manager of media and community relations for the new York independent system Operator (nYisO), which manages the state’s high-voltage electrical transmission network. His son, Peter ’11, is a rising senior, and another son, Jack ’14, is entering Mercersburg in the fall.

John Koch, who has been in the military for 26 years, participated in exercise natural Fire, a combined humanitarian assistance event with rwandan, ugandan, Tanzanian, Kenyan, and burundian military forces. John oversees electronic collaboration tools and systems for his command and remains stationed in Vicenza, italy.

◆ Andy Alpert adalpert@comcast.net ◆ Lynn Putnam Hearn hearn005@comcast.net ◆ John Ryland rylandfamily@frontiernet.net ◆ Duncan White duncan.m.white@accenture.com ◆ Todd Wells todd.wells@jetblue.com

’82

Mercersburg swimming/water polo teammates Rob Wheeler ’83 and Todd Friedman ’83 at Todd’s home in Walnut Creek, California.

Lisa ryland, wife of John Ryland and mother of Abby Ryland ’12, died april 14, 2010.

Scott Brown’s wife of 19 years, Lori, died February 6, 2010.

’71

47

◆ Bruce Ricciuti jbr@birchcapital.com

’83

Betsy Mitchell was named usa swimming’s March 2010 alumnus of the Month.

Tim Flanagan ’69 (right) with Irish Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Collins at a meeting of the Irish Legal 100 in Washington, D.C.

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Mercersbu rg Magazi n e suMMer 2010

Births/Adoptions To Christopher Felley ’90 and his wife, Vivi: a son, Javas, October 3, 2009.

To Allison Felley Jacquemont ’92 and her husband, Sebastien: a daughter, Eva, July 1, 2008.

Faculty

’84

industrial-organizational psychology at university of illinois. steve hopes to leverage his experience in the executive-search industry in his doctoral research, and says that he enjoys living in a booming midwestern metropolis.

Ann◆ Quinn started her own business, Quinn strategy group. she is based in baltimore.

Chuck◆ Guy’s drawing of the irvine Memorial chapel continues to be used on the front of weekly sunday chapel bulletins and other related programs. chuck writes that during his senior year, he started out with such detail at the beginning of his chapel drawing that he ran out of time to complete the bottom portion, so he faded that portion out. This had the effect of bringing the focus up to the spire. “it was seen as rather ingenious, but in reality it was out of the necessity and laziness of an 18-year-old,” he says.

◆◆Tom◆Hornbaker tshornbaker@yahoo.com ◆◆Betsy◆Rider-Williams brider-williams@goberkscounty.com

◆◆Susan◆Corwin◆Moreau moreau.s@verizon.net

To former faculty members Tom Dugan ’99 and Heather Reichhart Dugan: a son, Patrick Gregory, April 29, 2010.

’85

For the third World cup Finals in a row, Michael◆ Davies authored a popular blog on esPn.com. Michael is founder of embassy row Productions.

Zoe Beatrice Biniaris, granddaughter of Head of School Douglas Hale and his wife, Peggy.

Eli Austin Short IV, son of Kelley Keeler Short ’91 and her husband, Austin, born April 30, 2010.

’86 Judge Shawn◆Meyers spoke to students at Mercersburg’s James buchanan Middle school as part of the school’s character counts program.

◆◆Louis◆Najera louis@davincicomm.com ◆◆Audrey◆Webber◆Esposito awesposito@yahoo.com Coleman James, son of Sarah Blackburn Brincefield ’99 and her husband, Neal, born December 1, 2009.

’87

Adam◆Viener, founder and chairman of imwave, appeared as a guest in February on Leaders Portfolio, a radio show on WWrc-aM 1260 in Washington.

◆◆Susan◆Lyles-Reed ebsl_reed@yahoo.com ◆◆Steve◆Pessagno steven.l.pessagno@verizon.net

’88

◆◆Zania◆Pearson zaniazania@hotmail.com ◆◆Ames◆Prentiss aprentiss@intownvet.com

’89

Kate◆ Bazemore◆ Harrison spent a week in Haiti providing medical relief following the devastating earthquake there this winter. Kate is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the university of Massachusetts Medical school.

Paul◆ Moody reports that after completing a deployment to iraq, he and his family moved to amherst, Massachusetts, where he is entering a Ph.D. program in civil engineering at the university of Massachusetts. He plans to teach engineering at West Point after completing his work at uMass.

’90

◆◆Treva◆Ghattas tghattas@osimd.com after three years living on a houseboat ◆◆Kim◆Lloyd in sausalito, california, Steve◆ Cohn◆ kim.lloyd72@gmail.com decided to move to a more agreeable climate. He relocated to champaign, Chris◆Felley and his wife, Vivi, live in inillinois, where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in donesia with their son, Javas.

Elizabeth Sage, daughter of Jenn Barr Weiss ’99 and her husband, Adam, born January 9, 2010.

Dawson Rawlee, son of Natalie Wingrove Scott ’00 and her husband, Dave, born January 17, 2010.

Jackson (born December 29, 2009) and his big brother, Mason, sons of SaKeithia Rogers ’97 and her husband, Perrin.

Children of Jeanie Williams McGaughy ’92 and her husband, John: Jaeden, Charis, Adelline (born December 16, 2009), and Liam.

Over dinner in Portland, Oregon (L–R): Scott Gureck ’82 and his wife, Frieda; Hans Lindauer ’90; and Tammy McBeth Armstrong ’05 and her husband, Mike.

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49

Zachary Light ’05 (right) at spring training in Arizona in March 2009 with childhood friend Nick Adenhart. (Nick, of nearby Williamsport, Maryland, pitched for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim before his tragic death in a car accident in April 2009.)

◆◆Helen◆Barfield◆Prichett helenprichett@yahoo.com

’91

Chris◆Frisby will join the faculty at saint James school in nearby Hagerstown this fall as a history teacher, girls’ tennis coach, and yearbook adviser.

◆◆Peggy◆Burns peggyburns@hotmail.com ◆◆Emily◆Gilmer◆Caldwell emily.g.caldwell@gmail.com ◆◆Chip◆Nuttall◆ cliffnuttall1@comcast.net

’92

Allison◆ Felley◆ Jacquemont is the first american-trained vet to practice in switzerland. she and her husband, sebastien, have a daughter, eva, who was born in July 2008.

◆◆Lori◆Esposit◆Miller lorimiller234@gmail.com ◆◆Geraldine◆Gardner geraldide@hotmail.com

◆◆Emily◆Peterson emilyadairpeterson@gmail.com ◆◆Chris◆Senker chrissenker@yahoo.com

’96

’97

Andrew◆Trice was part of the team of authors for Professional Adobe Flex 3, a book published by Wrox/Wiley in June 2009. He was also a contributing author to Flex 3 Cookbook, published

by O’reilly Media in May 2008, and he blogs for insideria.com. andy is the principal architect for the adobe practice of cynergy systems in Washington; he and his wife, Marta, live in silver spring, Maryland.

◆ Kevin Glah kevglah@gmail.com ◆ Taylor Horst taylorhorst@gmail.com ◆ Andrew Miller amiller@pioneeringprojects.org

’00

Laura Bushong Weiss earned a master’s in english adolescent education from Hunter college of the city university of new York. she plans to continue teaching middle-school english/language arts in the bronx this fall.

◆ Ann Marie Bliley abliley@gmail.com ◆ Emory Mort emorymort@gmail.com

◆ Bryan Stiffler bryan.stiffler@gmail.com ◆ Liz Stockdale lstockdale@foxcroft.org ◆ Ian Thompson ianmthompson@gmail.com

’01

’02

Elliott◆ Clark is a special operations medic in the u.s. army’s 3rd ranger battalion/75th ranger regiment, and is based at Fort benning, georgia.

Zachary◆ Light graduated from Dickinson college, where he captained the baseball team. He is manager of marketing and development at Dynamark, a security company in baltimore, and is working toward a master’s in Middlebury college’s italian language program.

◆◆Joy◆Thomas jatho2@wm.edu ◆◆J.T.◆Wilde jt.wilde@furman.edu

Jan Rebenich lives in Tokyo and would love to connect with any fellow Mercersburg alumni living in Japan or traveling through.

’05

Graduation day for Kyle Fox ’05 and Travis Youngs ’06 at Ursinus College (L–R): Katie Fox ’03, Kelly Fox ’01, Kyle, Travis, Vanessa Youngs ’03, Clarence Youngs ’68.

’06

Caity◆Barnes earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Dickinson college.

Jessica Nonemaker was named airPlus international’s 2009 sales manager of the year.

◆ Matt Brennan brennan1273@gmail.com ◆ Alexis Imler alexis.imler@gmail.com ◆ Tammy McBeth Armstrong tammy.l.armstrong@gmail.com ◆ Nick Ventresca ventresca.nick@gmail.com

Katie ◆Vickers ◆’06 and Kelly ◆Barrett ’06 graduated from Ohio State University in June.

In September, Katie begins a two-year program at P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios) in Brussels, Belgium. Kelly hopes to continue her education in art history at a school in London.

Josh◆ Edgin was selected by the new York Mets in the 30th round of the 2010 Major League baseball Player Draft.

Josh, a left-handed pitcher at Francis Marion university in south carolina, began his college career at Ohio state and was a two-time all-MaPL selection at Mercersburg. He was also drafted by the atlanta braves in 2009, but chose to return to college for his senior season.

Vincent◆Rey, a three-year starting linebacker at Duke and a second-team all-acc selection in 2009, signed a free-agent contract with the cincinnati bengals. Vinnie is the first Mercersburg football player to appear in an nFL camp since Matt Kranchick ’99, a tight end who played for the Pittsburgh steelers, new York giants, Tampa bay buccaneers, and new england Patriots from 2004 to 2007.

◆◆Xanthe◆Hilton xanthe89@gmail.com ◆◆Chuck◆Roberts cer2141@columbia.edu

’07

Kat◆ Fleck graduated Phi Theta Kappa from bucks county community college. “While i am disappointed that noah will no longer be able to attend class with me, i am thrilled to have the opportunity to join the university of Pennsylvania family this fall in pursuit of that ever-elusive bachelor’s degree,” she writes. “noah is almost 2 now and is doing exceedingly well. He enjoys learning French with Mommy (sorry, Mrs. Valenteen!) and spending time chasing all sorts of things around the house. He’s quite the energetic little boy. My father, rick ’69, is also doing well, and enjoys trying to improve his golf handicap when he isn’t busy trying to keep up with his grandson.”

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Marriages

Lenny Langenscheidt is on the steering committee for the columbia university Dance Marathon. The dance marathon is the school’s largest philanthropic event, having raised more than $432,000 for lifesaving programs.

Tammy McBeth ’05 to Michael Armstrong, May 8, 2010.

◆ Annie Birney annieb14@aol.com ◆ J.B. Crawford crawfordj304@gmail.com ◆ Ariel Imler animler@edisto.cofc.edu ◆ Robby Marsh Kurtz robert.kmarsh@gmail.com ◆ Rachael Porter rmp413@lehigh.edu ◆ Andrew Reynolds reynola@purdue.edu ◆ Molly Serpi serpim@comcast.net ◆ Bond Stockdale stockdaleb7@gmail.com ◆ Coralie Thomas coraliemlthomas@gmail.com

’09

Former Faculty

Garrick Skubon helped the u.s. Merchant Marine academy wrestling team to the centennial conference title. garrick finished fourth at the conference meet in the 141-pound division.

’10 Evelyn Seidler has been elected to the city council of Theresienfeld, austria; she is austria’s youngest elected politician. Her main areas of responsibility are youth and educational issues, and she is also a member of the council’s examination board. evelyn has also been accepted at new York university.

Faculty Head of school Douglas Hale and his wife, Peggy, announce the birth of their first grandchild. zoe beatrice biniaris was born June 7, 2010, to Lauren Hale biniaris and her husband, Vasilios.

The wedding of Taylor Horst ’00 and Nicole Dray, May 23, 2009, in Boston (L–R): Evan Horst ’02, Nicole and Taylor, Michael Galey ’00, Logan Chace ’01, Jonathan Palmer ’99, Rachel Kagan Galey ’00, Myles Horst ’05.

Jim Malone received the 2010 James buchanan award from Mercersburg’s borough council. The award is presented each year in april (the birth month of buchanan, the nation’s 15th president and a Mercersburg native) to a person for distinguished public service. Jim has taught at Mercersburg since 1979.

Director of Learning services Jyselle Sancho retired from Mercersburg at the close of the 2009–2010 academic year. Jyselle spent 11 years on the faculty at the academy.

Mariah Blake’s university of Pittsburgh crew team finished second at the american collegiate rowing association’s national championship regatta in May in the women’s novice 4+ division. Mariah, a rising sophomore, is also assistant photo editor of the yearbook at Pitt.

Sarah Powell ’05, Karis Marsh ’05, and Beth Wilber ’05 at Karis’ wedding to Brian Gensch, January 16, 2010, in Wichita, Kansas.

Jack Hawbaker and Sue Malone were honored at Mercersburg’s June faculty meetings for 25 years of service.

Autumn Adkins was featured in the May 2010 issue of O Magazine as one of 10 “Women on the rise.” autumn is president of girard college, a boarding school in Philadelphia; she taught history, served as director of special programs, and lived in Fowle Hall on campus from 1994 to 1996.

Kirk Bishop, who taught biology and coached lacrosse at Mercersburg from 1972 to 1976, has been named president of the board of trustees of Pingree school, a day school in south Hamilton, Massachusetts. Kirk also served as director of alumni affairs at siena college before entering the technology field in the early 1980s; he is director of new england sales for corporate Technologies.

Joe Chandler retired in June as head of the upper school at Moravian academy in bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Joe was on the Mercersburg faculty from 1968 to 1988 and served as the school’s dean of students. in March, The explorers club of new York city named former history teacher and dean of students Tim Rockwell a Fellow emeritus in honor of his 25 years of service to the organization. Tim, an emeriti faculty member at Mercersburg, served on the faculty from 1970 to 1996 and led an expedition of three teachers (including current faculty Brent Gift and Frank Rutherford ’70) and four students to the arctic circle in 1983.

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Nominees for Election as Representatives to the Board of Regents Under the bylaws of Mercersburg’s Board of Regents, up to ten Regents may be elected annually to three-year terms, including two alumni (known as alumni representatives), who are elected by the alumni-at-large.

The Nominating Committees of the Alumni Council and of the Board of Regents, with the approval of the full membership of the Council and the Board, hereby recommend Michael P. Davies ’85 and Sarah “Sally Anne” Epstein ’81 for election as alumni representatives to the Board of Regents. This ballot is hereby circulated to all Mercersburg alumni to encourage their full participation in the election process.

Sarah “Sally Anne” Epstein ’81 spent a year working at eFO, the family investment company, in Washington, D.c., following her graduation from southern Methodist university in 1985. she remains involved as vice president of eFO capital Management. sally anne went on to become associate curator with a major collection of the work of the norwegian artist edvard Munch and as a courier of his paintings and graphics. after a brief career in retail merchandising and display work, sally anne moved to Memphis to serve as vice president of e.i.c., a real estate development corporation. she and her husband, Joe Pat Junkin, have two children. sally anne first served on the board of regents from 1991 to 2003, and was re-elected in 2009.

Michael P. Davies ’85 was first elected to the board in 1998 and served until 2001; he was re-elected in 2007. a native of scotland, he attended Mercersburg under the auspices of the english-speaking union. While studying at the university of edinburgh, he played tennis and became very active in theater production. Michael began at Walt Disney Television in 1992; in 1996, he was handed the reins at buena Vista Productions. in 1997, Michael joined abc as an executive vice president before moving to new York in 1999 to produce the hit game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2005, he founded embassy row, a multiplatform production company which creates programming for television and internet portals in entertainment, sports, lifestyle, and documentary genres. Michael has won two emmys, a cable ace, and the prestigious rose D’Or de Montreux. He is married to claude Davies, a documentary film producer; they have two daughters. Michael’s daughter, brea, is a member of the class of 2010.

baLLot for eLeCtion of aLuMni repreSentativeS to tHe board of regentS

Michael P. Davies ’85 Sarah “Sally Anne” Epstein ’81 is proposed for consideration as an Alumni Representative to the Board of Regents.

Name: Class:

Mail to: Mary K. Carrasco Secretary to the Board of Regents Mercersburg Academy 300 East Seminary Street Mercersburg, PA 17236

or fax to: 717-328-6211 Email: carrascom@ mercersburg.edu

Nominees for Election as Representatives to the Alumni Council The Nominating Committee of the Alumni Council, with the approval of the full membership of the Council, hereby recommends Susan L. Corwin Moreau ’85 and Jennifer S. Hendrickson ’03 for election as alumni representatives to the Alumni Council. This ballot is hereby circulated to all Mercersburg alumni to encourage their full participation in the election process.

Susan L. Corwin Moreau ’85 is a credit manager for Freddie Mac in

McLean, Virginia, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Franklin and Marshall college. While a student at Mercersburg, susan was a member of the track and field hockey teams, the chorale, and was a dorm prefect. susan has 23 years of consecutive giving to Mercersburg, and has served as a class agent since graduation. she is a regular attendee at on campus events and at gatherings in the Washington, D.c., area. susan lives with her husband, chris, and children (ages 10 and 8) in springfield, Virginia.

Her brother, Doug corwin ’79, and sister, nancy corwin sanders ’81, are also alumni.

baLLot for eLeCtion of MeMberS of tHe aLuMni CounCiL

Susan L. Corwin Moreau ’85 Jennifer S. Hendrickson ’03

is proposed for consideration as a future member of the Alumni Council.

Jennifer S. Hendrickson ’03 graduated from Pennsylvania state university in 2007 with degrees in international politics and Latin. Jenn is a research assistant for icF international, a leading consulting firm, where she works with the Department of Justice as a case manager for the international Terrorism Victim expense reimbursement Program (a compensation program for victims of overseas terrorist attacks). as a student, Jenn played soccer, managed the wrestling team, and was a dorm prefect and irving society member. she was also involved with the KARUX and was a member of cum Laude. Jenn is a Torchbearer with four consecutive years of giving. she has served on her class’s five-year reunion committee and as a phonathon volunteer, affinity agent, and class agent. in addition, Jenn got her first experience in development when she worked as a temporary employee in the alumni & Development Office a few years ago. Jenn’s father, rick, is Mercersburg’s director of athletics, and her mother, amy, is the school’s assistant controller. Jenn’s sister, rachael, is a member of the class of 2006.

Name: Class:

Mail to: Alumni Secretary Mercersburg Academy 300 East Seminary Street Mercersburg, PA 17236

or fax to: 717-328-6211

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Mercersbu rg Magazi n e suMMer 2010

Obituaries

Obituaries ’29 Arthur S. Berger, October 19, 2000. (Laucks, baseball, Stony Batter) John P. Burg, July 19, 2009. John graduated from Bucknell University and the University of Pittsburgh, and practiced dentistry for 50 years in Red Lion, Pennsylvania. He was an avid golfer and enjoyed playing with his foursome at the York Country Club, where he even had a hole-in-one on the 207-yard 12th hole. John was president of the local Lions Club and a Sunday School teacher at the Evangelical United Brethren Church in Red Lion. He was predeceased by his wife, Pauline Wilson Burg. Survivors include his companion, Anne Anthony; a son and daughter; and four grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

’30

Jarrett W. Jennings, February 6, 2009. (Keil, Marshall, Glee Club, choir, orchestra) Jarrett graduated from Lafayette College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, to the Superior Court and the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County, and to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. During World War II, he served as a warrant officer in the U.S. Army’s Ordnance Department and overseas in the Mediterranean theater headquarters in Italy, where he received a Bronze Star for meritorious service during military operations there. From 1947 to 1959, he served as a school director of West Pittston School District, and from 1960 to 1964, as Luzerne County commissioner. He was one of the major stockholders, directors, and officers of the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Wilkes-Barre. Survivors include his wife, the former Margaret Nagle, as well as three daughters, a grandson, and a great-granddaughter.

Ivor P. Wold, December 12, 2009. (Marshall, track & field) Ivor graduated from Union College and Columbia University. He worked for AT&T before serving in the Air Force with a tour of duty in India. In 1948, he married Eunice Crocker Aurore. He attended the University of Texas, where he received a doctorate in economics; he later taught economics at various colleges. After his first wife’s death, he married Mildred Wyatt (who would also precede him in death) in 1984. Ivor and Mildred supported a number of charitable organizations in Dallas, including Southwestern Medical Center, the Dallas Arboretum, East Dallas Christian Church, the Children’s Medical Center, and the Juliette Fowler Home. Survivors include a son, a daughter, six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and a brother.

’31

John D. Leinbach, April 18, 2010. (Marshall, The Fifteen, KARUX, Lit, chapel usher) John graduated from Amherst College and did graduate work at New York University. He was a frontline ambulance driver during World War II with the American Field Service, serving in North Africa and Italy. He spent much of his business career in radio and television advertising with the J. Walter Thompson agency and other agencies. He also wrote for well-known stars Don Ameche, Bing Crosby, Mr. Wizard, and a young Ronald Reagan when Reagan was host of General Electric Theater. He later spent 15 years with Seabury Press, a publishing arm of the Episcopal Church, and retired in 1984. Survivors include his wife, Mary Amend Eimer Leinbach; three sons and a daughter; and seven grandchildren.

’32

David S. Smith Jr., May 3, 2010. (Irving) A lifelong resident of Mercersburg, he was known by many for his humor, his stories, his devotion to his family, and service to the community. David served in the Army during World War II, was a prisoner of war in Europe, and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. A farmer in his early years, he was an established mechanic following the war. He was preceded in death by his wife of 69 years, Ruth, and his father, David (1904). Surviving are a daughter and sons (including Ronnie ’57, Paul ’59, Allan ’64, Dave III ’68, Stephen ’68, and Brian ’75). He is also survived by 24 grandchildren (including Joshua ’96) and 29 great-grandchildren.

’33

John S. Eberhardt, February 2, 2010. (Marshall, football, baseball) Jack served as president of his class at Princeton University and was a past member of the Board of Governors and vice president of the Central NJ-Eastern PA Princeton Alumni Association. He served in the Army for five years during World War II, entering active duty with the 112th Field Artillery Regiment, the last horse artillery regiment in the U.S.; he later published a book, The Old Grey Mare, describing this experience. During combat service in Europe, he was with the 250th Field Artillery Battalion, attaining the rank of major and participating with that battalion in five campaigns, during which it was in combat for 297 straight days without relief. The unit received not only France’s highest award for a foreign unit but also a Presidential Citation, this country’s highest unit award. He was awarded the Bronze Star, the European Campaign Medal with Silver Star, the pre-Pearl Harbor Medal, the American Defense Medal, the Victory Medal, and the German Occupation Medal, as well as the New Jersey Distinguished Service Medal. He later served as director

Mercersbu rg Magazi n e suMMer 2010

of personnel and employee relations for the State Department of Human Services until his retirement in 1979. His brother, Robert ’29, preceded him in death; survivors include his wife, Elayne, two sons, a sister, and four grandchildren.

J. Donald “Bud” Griffith, May 1, 2008. (Irving, swimming, wrestling)

’34

Henry C.B. Clagett, February 1, 2010. (Marshall declaimer, baseball, wrestling) Henry attended Princeton University and the Georgetown University Law Center. He served in World War II as an Army Air Corps fighter pilot in the Pacific theater, and was an attorney at Sasscer, Clagett, Channing & Bucher in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, for more than 50 years. He is survived by a son and a daughter; three stepdaughters and a stepson; and two grandchildren and six step-grandchildren.

’35

Richard H. White, December 27, 2007. Dick earned an engineering degree from Case Western Reserve University. He moved to Florida after retiring from 40 years with US Steel. Survivors include his wife of 64 years, Peggy Yorke White, their children, a sister, and 12 grandchildren.

’36

Harold Bellis, June 20, 2010. (Marshall president, senior class president, football captain, baseball, wrestling, Memorial Committee chairman) A graduate of Lafayette College, Harold was a legendary figure in New Jersey high-school athletics. As head football coach at Phillipsburg High School, he posted an 86–29–10 record over a 14-year span, including a pair of undefeated seasons. He also coached baseball for 26 years and taught math for more than 30 years at the school, and served as an assistant football coach at Lafayette. He was a member of the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame and the Lafayette College Hall of Fame, and the football field at Phillipsburg High was named in his honor in 2007.

His wife, Mary Jane, preceded him in death; survivors include two daughters, a son, several grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter.

James C. Gilmore, March 21, 2010. (Irving, Senate, News business manager, Chapel Usher, soccer, wrestling, Les Copains, Class Day Committee) Jim was an insurance agent for more than 65 years.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 60 years, Adalou Randall Gilmore. Survivors include his wife, Casey, two sons and three grandchildren.

’39

Philip F. Beal III, February 21, 2010. (Main, Irving, Stony Batter, French Club, wrestling, soccer, baseball) Philip graduated from Williams College with a degree in organic chemistry. During World War II, he enlisted in the Navy; he served as a gunnery officer on the USS LST-49 and spent much of his time in the Pacific. Following his

discharge from the service, Philip earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Ohio State University. He joined Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company in 1950 and was the first to synthesize hydrocortisone for the company. He was honored to receive the Upjohn Award in 1962; as a result of his work with prostaglandins, he presented his findings at the Nobel Symposium in Stockholm.

William C. Mehaffey Jr., January 27, 2010. (’Eighty-eight) A graduate of the University of North Carolina, Bill served in the Army in Okinawa during World War II. After returning to the U.S., he worked with his uncle in a wholesale paint and chemical company in New Orleans that became Mehaffey & Daigle Inc. Bill was past-president of the New Orleans Paint & Varnish Association and served on ALCOA’s national advisory board and as a member of the Southern Society of Plastics Engineers. An avid singer and tennis player, he cofounded Aurora Country Club. He was also a descendant of William Chambers, the founder of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Bill is survived by his wife, Mary Jane, as well as four children, 12 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Eugene B. Troutman, February 10, 2010. (Irving, baseball) A graduate of Lafayette College, he was a Navy veteran of World War II. He was a past manager and president of G.E. Laboratories in Shamokin, Pennsylvania. He is survived by three daughters and seven grandchildren.

’40

George A. Allsopp, January 4, 2010. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall, Glee Club, track, tennis, football, Chemistry Club, Airplane Club) George was a veteran of World War II. He was wounded in Europe prior to the Battle of the Bulge, sent to England to recuperate, and then returned to duty on the European continent until the end of the war.

He graduated from Duke University and spent 30 years as a teacher; upon his retirement from the classroom, he took up work as a stockbroker. He was active in the Army Reserve, and graduated from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

He retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. His father, Clifford (1914), preceded him in death. Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Mary Elizabeth Eaton; a son and a daughter; and five grandchildren.

’41

John A. Dyer, April 6, 2010. (Main, Marshall, Concert Band, Rauchrunde, Glee Club, Chapel Choir, Chemistry Club) John earned degrees from Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and was a flight surgeon in the Air Force. He earned a master’s in ophthalmology at the University of Minnesota Graduate School of Medicine and joined the staff of the Mayo Clinic in 1956. He authored more than 60 publications in ophthalmic journals. Survivors include his wife, Rena Yount Dyer; a son and daughter; and three grandchildren.

John E. Schumacher Jr., April 12, 2009. (Irving, Glee Club, Chapel Choir, track & field, Stamp Club) John was a geologist and engineer who produced crude oil and had partnerships in coal-stripping enterprises in Colorado and Wyoming.

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Roger L. Strayer, January 25, 2010. (Marshall, football) Roger was involved early on with the family business, Erie Steel Construction Company. In the early 1950s, the company shifted its focus from construction to the manufacture of concrete-batching equipment and became Erie Strayer Company. He was secretary of the company until his retirement in 1993. He learned to fly and had a solo pilot’s license. Survivors include his wife, Nancy, three sons, and three grandchildren.

Warren F. Stuebing, April 22, 2010. (Keil, Marshall, cross country) After graduating from Pennsylvania State University, Stu served as a navigator for the Army Air Corps. He was an industrial engineer for Pittsburgh Plate Glass for 36 years. Survivors include his former wife, Eloise, a son, three daughters, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

’43

John H. McKeever, March 26, 2010. (Keil, Irving, The Fifteen, Rauchrunde, Lit Board, Camera Club, Radio Club) Following his graduation in 1943, he did a two-year stint in the Army Air Forces as a second lieutenant B-29 navigator. He received degrees from Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. John had his own law firm in Allentown for 35 years. Survivors include his wife, Helen, three sons, a stepson, three grandchildren, and two step-grandchildren.

David M. Phillips, May 24, 2009. (wrestling) Dave served in the Army Air Corps, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross while serving as a B-29 tail gunner flying numerous combat missions over Japan. He graduated from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and the University of Michigan Law School. He established the law practice of Phillips and Street, where he practiced for 52 years. He served as a state legislator in the Ohio House of Representatives and as chairman of the Adena Health System Board of Trustees, as president of the Ross County Bar Association, as a member of the Ohio University Chillicothe Board of Trustees, and as director of operations for the Ross County Civil Air Patrol.

David was preceded in death by his sister and twin brothers (including Richard ’37); he is survived by his wife, Helen, three children, and five grandchildren.

William V. Roney, February 20, 2010. (Marshall, baseball) While attending Mercersburg, Bill was drafted into the Navy. During World War II, he was deployed overseas aboard the USS Estes. He returned home and continued his education at Washington & Jefferson College, and graduated from Strayer College with a degree in business administration. He began his business career in 1950 with Hagerstown Trust, retiring as senior vice president and director of marketing after 36 years. He was past president of the Maryland Bankers Association, a United Way Campaign volunteer, and a board member for the Commission on Aging, Family Service Agency, and the Maryland Symphony Orchestra. He is survived by his wife, Betty; two daughters and a son; a brother (Dick ’48); and six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

’44

John S. Hutchins, January 30, 2010. (Marshall, track & field) John joined the Army Air Corps and spent 22 years on active military duty, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. A graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, he served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, and received NATO appointments to Europe and Alaska. He was also a commissioned officer in the Army Corps of Engineers. He taught history and government at Oliver Wendell Holmes High School in San Antonio, where he served as chair of the social studies department. Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Patricia Anne Hutchins, three sons, and two grandsons. [Editor’s note: Mr. Hutchins is not related to former Mercersburg faculty member John Hutchins.]

Charles B. Paul III, November 4, 2007. (South, Irving, track & field, wrestling, Stony Batter) James L. Ruane Jr., July 2, 2009. (Main, Marshall) Jim attended Georgetown University and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh. He owned Ruane Coal and Coke, which mined and processed coal and produced Beehive Coke, and also owned White Rock Fuels for Coal Sales. James operated the last commercial Beehive Coke ovens in the U.S., which halted operations in 1976. Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Teresa Whitely Ruane; three sons and three daughters; and seven grandchildren.

Edward W. Troll III, September 1, 2007. (Marshall) He was a Navy veteran of World War II, and retired in 2003 as president and CEO of Richland Cinemas in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He was preceded in death by his wife, Sally Frances Favo, and is survived by three sons, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

William H. Wilson, November 29, 2009. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall, headwaiter, baseball, football, track & field, Glee Club, Chemistry Club, Camera Club, Gun Club) Bill was an Army Air Forces veteran of World War II. He attended West Virginia University and Waynesburg College, where he majored in business administration. He began his 40-year career in the automobile business with Ford Motor Company in 1949. He was owner and dealer of the Ford-Lincoln Mercury Fairmont dealership until his retirement. Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Edith Ann Wilson, three daughters, and seven grandchildren.

’45

Frank R. McBerty, December 21, 2009. (South, Marshall, tennis) Frank was an Army veteran of World War II and a farmer until his retirement in 1984. Survivors include his wife, Nancy Lysle McBerty, a sister, and two daughters.

’47

J. Edwin Barnitz, January 19, 2009. A graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Ed served in the Air Force and spent 31 years with Bell Telephone. Survivors include his wife, Ginny; a son and daughter; two grandsons; and a brother.

John R. Browning, April 27, 2010. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall president, Senate president, headwaiter, Varsity Club Council, wrestling captain, soccer captain, Chemistry Club, Aurelian Cup, Class Day Committee) A graduate of Washington and Lee University, he served with the Marine Corps in Korea. His father, Cheston (1912), and brother, Donald ’43, preceded him in death. Survivors include his wife, Joan; a son and four daughters; 15 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren; a sister and a brother (Thomas ’48); nephews Cheston III ’61, Robert ’65, and Michael ’74; and great-nephew Scott ’88.

F. Robert Brush, April 22, 2010. (South, Marshall, News editor-inchief, swimming, choir, band) A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard University, Bob taught at the University of Maryland and at Purdue University, where he became chair of the psychology department. He was a member of the board of the Hemlock Society and president of its San Diego chapter.

Thomas E. Shields, December 3, 2009. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall, baseball, football, basketball) Tom graduated from Ohio University and began his business career with Superior Coach Corporation before moving to Kosciusko, Mississippi, to open Tommy Shields Ford-Mercury. After a move to Vero Beach, Florida, he became a successful certified financial planner. He served as chairman for the United Way and on the board of St. Rita’s Medical Center in his hometown of Lima, Ohio. He also volunteered with Meals on Wheels and Mended Hearts in Vero Beach. Survivors include his wife, Thelma Helser Shields; two daughters and a son; a brother (John ’57) and sister; and eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

’50

Richard E. Alexander, February 19, 2008. A veteran of the Marine Corps, he was an F-8 Crusader pilot who later flew commercially for several airlines. Survivors include his wife, Sybil, and brother, John ’49.

W.H. Locke Anderson, September 22, 2002. Locke graduated from Williams College and went on to do graduate work at Harvard University where he was a teaching fellow and instructor in the economics department. In 1963, he served for a year as a senior staff economist on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Council of Economic Advisors. His academic career was distinguished by any measure.

William R. Hawkins, June 12, 2009. (South, Marshall, French Club) Bill graduated from Swarthmore College and the law school of the University of Pennsylvania. He joined US Steel’s law department and served in various capacities until his retirement, including as head of the company’s Western Area Office in San Francisco and as general counsel. He was a member of the American Bar Association and the Allegheny County Bar Association. He was preceded in death by his wife, Polly Richardson Hawkins; survivors include two children and four grandchildren.

’51

John M. Hogg, March 23, 2010. (Keil, Marshall vice president, class president, Chapel Usher, Stony Batter, Aurelian Cup, Senate vice president, The Fifteen secretary, Marshal of the Field, Varsity Club, football, basketball) He earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Yale University, and completed an advancedmanagement course at the Harvard School of Business. He was president of Sid Richardson Carbon and Gasoline Company from 1974 until his retirement in 1998. He was predeceased by his son, John ’76. Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Alberta; a son and a daughter; and three grandsons (including Sam ’03) and six granddaughters.

James M. Miller, May 19, 2010. (South, Marshall, football, baseball) Jim was a graduate of Gettysburg College.

Carl S. Tschantre, February 11, 2010. (Main, Marshall, News Board, KARUX Board, Glee Club, Stony Batter, cross country, track) Carl graduated from Bowdoin College and served in the Army Signal Corps in Washington and Frankfurt, Germany. He spent the majority of his working years as a stationer with Lucas Brothers. Survivors include a sister, a brother, and seven nieces and nephews.

’53

Harold S. Linn, October 12, 2009. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall, choir, Stony Batter, Chess Club) “Bruce” taught journalism at Colorado State University, the Montana School of Mines, and Oregon State University.

’55

Philip H. Houser, March 24, 2010. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall, Chapel Choir, Glee Club) Phil graduated from Lycoming College with a degree in economics. He was a Korean War veteran, having served at the 121st Evacuation Hospital. He was in contract administration for more than 30 years for Rishel Furniture Company. Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Donna, a daughter, and two granddaughters.

William L. Johnson, January 1, 2010. (South, Marshall, wrestling captain, KARUX Board, Stony Batter, Gun Club) After retiring from the Air Force, Bill entered the banking industry and had a successful real-estate development career in Florida. Survivors include his wife, Charlotte, four sons, and seven grandchildren.

’56

Dennis Sherwin, December 19, 2008. (Irving) Dennis graduated from Georgetown University. In the early 1970s, he moved to Bermuda, where he pursued his interests in the arts and conservation.

He was a diligent worker on behalf of Bermuda’s natural heritage and the Collections of the Bermuda National Gallery. He served as president of the Bermuda National Trust from 1987 to 1990. Survivors include two brothers.

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Mercersbu rg Magazi n e suMMer 2010

’58

Thomas M. Jones, January 14, 2010. (Irving, Football/Concert Band vice president, usher) A graduate of Syracuse University, Tom was a second lieutenant in the Army, and saw action as a combat infantry officer in Vietnam’s central highlands. He was decorated for valor and gallantry in action. After the war, he entered a career in construction management specializing in commercial and industrial building. Survivors include his wife, Judy, a son, two stepsons, and eight grandchildren.

W. Paul Ludwig Jr., October 6, 2008.

’59

James M. Brody, April 11, 2010. (Main, Marshall declaimer, Les Copains, KARUX Board, Stony Batter, Electronics Club, Jurisprudence Society, News Board, Glee Club, Blue and White Melodians) “Sarmad” studied music composition at Indiana University, where he received a master’s degree. In Bloomington, Indiana, and San Antonio, Texas, he co-founded organizations dedicated to presenting and performing works by local composers. He served on the Harrisburg [Pennsylvania] Symphony Board of Directors and was a guest composer at the Electronic and Computer Music Studio of the Peabody Institute and an active member and past president of the Baltimore Composers Forum. Survivors include his wife, Siri Neel Khalsa, a son and daughter, and two stepchildren.

’60

Richard H. Heisey, March 10, 2010. Rick is survived by his wife, Louise McCulloh Heisey; a daughter, Lisa Heisey Obrecht ’91; and an aunt.

’61

Harvey E. Siegel, January 16, 2009. (Main, Marshall, Rauchrunde, Jurisprudence Society, Caducean Club, WMER announcer, baseball manager) He ran Harvey Siegel Associates, a consulting firm in Chatham, New York.

’65

Simeon W. Meigs, June 11, 2004. (Main, Irving, Blue Key, Paideia, Stony Batter, News cartoonist, tennis) Willis served in the Marine Corps in Okinawa and was a graduate of the College of William and Mary’s Marshall Wythe Law School. He practiced law in Richmond, Virginia. Survivors include his wife, Deborah, and three daughters.

’73

Brooke L. Phillips Dorman, February 24, 2010. (Irving, The Fifteen, Stony Batter, Chorale, Ski Club, dorm prefect, field hockey) Brooke graduated from George Washington University in 1981. She spent several years as a features editor for the Washington Times and later served as a copy editor for Pasatiempo, a weekly insert of the Santa Fe New Mexican. A native of Washington, D.C., she began her career there as an editorial assistant to nationally syndicated columnist Smith Hempstone. She then became a program producer for WMAL radio, including a morning drive-time talk show that maintained top ratings in the nation’s capital for several years.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Scott, and great-uncle, Brooks Emeny ’20; survivors include a sister and two stepsons.

’10

Trisha Bassi, May 13, 2010. (Swank, Marshall, Blue Review, soccer, softball, dance) Trisha was from Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, and enrolled at Mercersburg as a ninth-grader. She served as a cocaptain of the girls’ soccer team and co-editor of Blue Review. She died less than a month before graduation in her home state of New Jersey. A service of remembrance was held May 13 in the Irvine Memorial Chapel, a candlelight vigil was held in Franklin Lakes May 16, and services were held May 31 in Ramsey, New Jersey. Survivors include her parents, Walter and Eileen; three sisters, Noelle Bassi Smith ’02, Sandra Bassi Drewes, and Erica Bassi; and three brothers-in-law (including Noelle’s husband Justin Smith ’03).

Former faculty/staff/friends Peyton A. Duncanson, widow of Tod Duncanson ’41 and co-benefactor of the Peyton and Tod Duncanson Scholarship Fund, April 6, 2010.

Holland C. Mersereau, father/father-in-law of faculty members Jyselle and Eugenio Sancho and grandfather of Steven Sancho ’99 and Andrea Sancho ’01, May 3, 2010.

Karen A. Schroer, mother of faculty member Andy Schroer and grandmother of Samantha ’07 and Alex ’08, May 2, 2010.

M y Sa y

I sit in my old car, its windows up. I’m looking out across a deserted beach at

a tempestuous sea. It’s winter and it’s cold—in the mid-20s. On the horizon what appears as white plumes of mist slides silently across the top of slate-gray water, and the closer it comes to land the clearer it becomes.

by Norman Macartney ’57 These are the tops of waves sheared off by a prevailing north wind as they roll toward land, waves hundreds of feet in width progressively approaching a shore gradient designed to bring their destruction, breaking them apart into a mass of swirling, churning white water. The sun sporadically peeks through a cumulus-laden sky, the clouds solemnly staying in place—apparently immune to the wind. A seagull soars past with a drunken and sloppy path, its angular yet smooth wings designed to handle wind’s fickleness, its gusts.

I sit with my yellow Lab, Sadie. She’s in the backseat sound asleep. We’re a trio: a man, a dog, the sea. In our separate ways we have a shared experience, a confluence of peace and harmony, harmonic because of the trio—three, the mystical number so becoming in the Great Trio of Life and Being: the sun, the earth, the moon.

I have by my side Tolstoy’s War and Peace, a novel that I’m now enjoying, though it has always intimidated me—its size, the pronunciation of Russian names. But at age 71, I decided to take it on, having been aware of it since I was old enough to notice it high on a bookshelf in the living room of my family’s home. War and Peace—its burgundy red spine of great width, facing me with its logo of crossed swords set against a shock of grain. Midway through this tale, I come across these words from Prince Andrew, one of the book’s principal characters: No, life is not over at thirty-one! It is not enough for me to know what I have in me—everyone must know it: Pierre, and that young girl who wanted to fly away into the sky, everyone must know me, so that my life may not be lived for myself alone while others live so apart from it, but so that it may be reflected in them all, and I may live in harmony!

As I sit here, it occurs to me that the enjoyment I receive from Tolstoy’s work and the willingness of my mind to latch on to the significance of Prince Andrew’s words must be attributed to the teaching I experienced at Mercersburg more than 50 years ago. And, likewise, my transforming into words my impression of where I presently sit with Sadie is due to that same teaching, that same learning. Which tells me how powerfully dominant the environment for learning is in the process of educating an individual. It was at Mercersburg that my mind became receptive: call it stimulation. And it worked. The school and I formed a partnership, though it was by no means a perfect mix to

begin with. I was a tangled mass of wires with receptors facing in every direction imaginable, not much in my young mind and soul aligned with anything.

Yet a subtle chemistry began to unfold. I sensed it deep within me. And this chemistry, this synthesis, rearranged my receptors, aligning them in such a way that, years later, I would look back upon that nurturing place called Mercersburg and know that a wonderful, life-transforming experience took place there. And it was all because of the learning environment the place possessed.

The sun’s arc across the sky is lower in January, and its brilliance is now exceedingly apparent, the reflective quality of the gray-black water producing a shimmering surface while its white mist-capped swells silently work their way shoreward. The sea hasn’t changed much while I’ve been writing. A few tall palms, silhouette-like, stand erect not far off, their fronds quivering.

May many more students be as fortunate as I in discovering Mercersburg to be a powerful environment in which to experience good teaching and learning.

Macartney lives in Morehead City, North Carolina.

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