Mercersburg Magazine - Winter 2018/2019 by Mercersburg Academy

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

VOLUME 44

NO. 2

A magazine for Mercersburg Academy family and friends

WINTER 2018–2019

Mercersburg

Honoring Our Past, Embracing Our Future

Honoring the Class of 2018

Celebrate the 132 members of Mercersburg’s 125th graduating class. Page 12

Reunion Weekend 2018

12 22

More than 750 people returned to the ’Burg to reminisce and relive their Mercersburg experience. Page 16

Connecting in Conversation

Heads of school, alumni, current students, and retiring staff engage in a shared dialogue about their memories, experiences, and hopes from 1972 to the present. Page 22

Annual Report Program news and financial updates from the 2017-2018 academic and fiscal year. Page 44

You Should Know Banners lined Mercersburg Academy’s campus to mark our 125th anniversary. In addition, a commemorative publication— Mercersburg Academy: 125 Years—printed this fall. Photo by Paul Rutherford ’06.

Photo/Illustration Credits: p. 2 Jillian Wilkerson; p. 5 Lee Owen (building), Bob Stoler (Rutherfords); p. 6 Ryan K. Morris/The National Science and Technology Medals Foundation; p. 10 Stoler (new faculty), Wilkerson (Summer Faculty Institute); p. 11 Stoler (Convocation), p. 12-15 Stoler; p. 16-18 Paul Rutherford; p. 19-21 Rutherford and Stoler; p. 23 Walter Burgin; p. 25 Natalie Kostelni McGrory; p. 26 Ryan Smith; p. 29, 35-39 Wilkerson; p. 40 Owen; p. 44 Rodney Cool; p. 46 Wilkerson (groundbreaking), Stoler (Commencement); p. 50-55 Cool (girls’ squash, Anything Goes), Rutherford (swimming), Smith (boys’ and girls' basketball, dance, girls’ lacrosse, indoor track & field), Stoler (baseball, softball, wrestling, 10-Minute Play Festival, Spring Pops Concert), Wilkerson (Spring Music Concert) Cover Illustration: Tristan Chace

From the Head of School 2 3 Via Mercersburg Athletics 50 Arts 53 Class Notes 57 Mercersburg magazine is published by the Office of Strategic Marketing and Communications. Mercersburg Academy 300 East Seminary Street Mercersburg, Pennsylvania 17236 Magazine correspondence: Megan_Mallory@mercersburg.edu Class Notes correspondence: classnotes@mercersburg.edu Alumni correspondence/ change of address: alumni@mercersburg.edu 800-588-2550 Read us online: mercersburg.edu/magazine

Editor: Megan Mallory Class Notes Editor: Tyler Miller Copy Editor: Lee Owen Contributors: Katie Brennan ’19, Aric DiLalla ’12, Dylan Gantt ’21, Elizabeth Im ’18, Addy Kipe ’18, Natalie Kostelni McGrory ’88, Michele Poacelli, Rachel Yang ’18 Design: Aldrich Design Head of School: Katherine M. Titus Director of Strategic Marketing and Communications: Amy Marathe Assistant Head for Advancement and Communications: Brian Hargrove Assistant Head for Enrollment: Quentin McDowell

© Copyright 2018 Mercersburg Academy. All rights reserved. No content from this publication may be reproduced or reprinted in any form without the express written consent of Mercersburg Academy. Mercersburg Academy abides by both the spirit and the letter of the law in all its employment and admission policies. The school does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, or national or ethnic origin.

From the Head of School

Honoring Our Past While Boldly Embracing Our Future

his year marks my third as head of school at Mercersburg Academy. I find myself feeling that not-uncommon, but oddly strange dichotomy between being both surprised by the fact that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s already year three and yet feeling like I have been part of the Mercersburg family forever. I have spent my first two years learning our history, hearing countless stories from students, parents, and alumni, and developing my own personal and deep love for our school. It has been a joyful journey to date. Part of my charge as the new head of school, following the inspiring leadership of former Head of School Douglas Hale, was to lead our community to a new strategic plan. The last 18 months have been spent gathering information to align our school values with our goals for the future. Given the complex nature of the world and the pace with which we are faced with change, our plan is designed to be nimble, allowing maximum flexibility for program development, assessment, and growth. In this edition of the magazine, we will share with you our lofty strategic choices, adopted by the Board during the fall meetings and securely rooted in our school history, that honor our traditions while boldly embracing the future. In the coming months and years, the school will continue to identify key action steps to support our strategic choices, in the hopes of moving toward our overall vision for Mercersburg Academy. I often think about strategic planning as chasing the horizon. We will always be looking ahead and making instrumental decisions about our navigation along the way, but there is no actual destination, only progress. One unexpected but important navigational detour we have faced as a community was launching an investigation into allegations of abuse from our past. The school has remained steadfast in our efforts to learn the truth, and I am confident in our processâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that it both aligns with the emerging best practices of today, and will accomplish our goal of helping alumni who may have been harmed while in our care. While I am confident in our progress, we are not yet done. As promised from the beginning, we will communicate what we learn at the appropriate time and in the appropriate ways, and in the meantime, we

appreciate your patience. Understanding all elements of our past will prepare us to be the best Mercersburg of the future. In closing, we have every reason to be proud of our school. With initiatives to seek to understand all elements of our past, lead the national conversation on affordability, and boldly reimagine education for the future, all while honoring our history as a school celebrating 125 years, Mercersburg Academy is honoring its past while boldly embracing the future.

Katherine M. Titus Head of School

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

D AT E S T O R E M E M B E R

Feb 24-28 Irving-Marshall Week

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

Feb 28

Declamation 7:15 p.m., Simon Theatre, Burgin Center for the Arts

May 24

Baccalaureate 7 p.m., Irvine Memorial Chapel

May 25 June 6-9

Commencement Reunion Weekend

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

Remembering H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest ’49 Philanthropist, Entrepreneur, and Leader (1930-2018) BY LEE OWEN

Harold FitzGerald “Gerry” Lenfest ’49—a luminary in the history of Mercersburg Academy and American philanthropy, and a pioneer in the field of communications—died August 5 in Philadelphia at age 88. He leaves a profound legacy at Mercersburg and in communities across the nation. Lenfest and his wife, Marguerite, gave more t h a n $ 1 0 0 mi l l i o n t o Mercersburg, including a transformative $35 million gift to the school in 2000 as a lead gift in the Academy’s Mightily Onward Campaign. The Lenfests have contributed to nearly every facet of the school’s program, from financial aid and the unrestricted endowment to faculty support and the renovation and construction of new facilities. Today, Mercersburg awards more than $7 million annually in financial aid, and the Lenfests’ focus on this priority has provided bedrock support to this crucial initiative through the years. The Lenfests’ commitment to the school’s unrestricted endowment supports every student and provides the institution with extraordinary flexibility to meet emerging needs. Two specific buildings on campus largely supported by the Lenfests—the Burgin Center for the Arts (named for former Headmaster Walter H. Burgin Jr. ’53 and his wife, Barbara) and Lenfest Hall—underscore their dedication to ensuring that Mercersburg students, faculty, and staff benefit from the very best facilities.

Gerry Lenfest joined Mercersburg’s Board of Regents in 1989; he was appointed president of the Board in 1994 and served until 1998. As Board president, he presided over the process that led to the appointment of Douglas Hale as Mercersburg’s sixth head of school, a decision he often cited as one of the best in his career. “Gerry changed the course of Mercersburg Academy,” says Hale, who served as head of school from 1997 to 2016. “The school was his spiritual home—a place that changed his life in immeasurable ways—and he never lost sight of the school’s impact on his life. He devoted himself to ensuring that Mercersburg would thrive for generations to come. He pushed us relentlessly to be the best Mercersburg we could be, and he never turned away from an opportunity to support us. Working for Gerry and helping to steward his beloved Mercersburg will forever be one of my life’s greatest rewards.” Lenfest took a special interest in lifting the philanthropic sights of the Mercersburg community. In addition to his family’s own gifts, he worked tirelessly to secure broader support. He was a member of the Academy’s Mightily Onward Campaign steering committee and chaired the campaign’s leadership gifts committee. The Lenfests served as honorary co-chairs for the school’s Daring to Lead Campaign, which was completed in 2016 and raised more than $300 million.

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“Gerry and Marguerite’s legacy at Mercersburg is one that has inspired and will continue to inspire others,” says Katie Titus, Mercersburg’s head of school. “Recognizing the impact of Mercersburg, Gerry remained committed to supporting the school, guided by the belief that his two years as a student here changed the course of his life. Today’s students are blessed by the generosity of Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest; the school would not be what it is today without Gerry's vision, devotion, and faith. While his physical presence on our campus will be missed, his spirit will live on for generations to come.” Born May 29, 1930, in Jacksonville, Florida, Lenfest grew up in Scarsdale, New York, and on his family’s farm in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Lenfest’s mother, Herenna, died suddenly when he was 13, and his father (also named Harold) decided to send him to Mercersburg for his final two years of high school. (Lenfest’s mother was a distant cousin of Mercersburg alumnus and Academy Award-winning actor Jimmy Stewart ’28.) At the time, Lenfest described himself as “bitter and disoriented and not a particularly good student.” But “Mercersburg turned me around and instilled in me the desire to learn and also the feeling that if I tried hard that I could be successful in life,” he said in a 2009 address to the Pennsylvania Society, which awarded him its Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement. As a student at Mercersburg, Lenfest lived in Main Hall; was a member of the baseball, soccer, and track & field teams; was active in Stony Batter Players (the school’s theatre company); and served as a debater for the John Marshall Literary Society. He went on to graduate from Washington and Lee University and Columbia Law School. After serving in the U.S. Navy and practicing law at the New York firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell, Lenfest joined Triangle Publications in 1965, where he held positions as associate counsel and head of the company’s communications division. He was editorial director and publisher of Seventeen Magazine and president of Triangle’s cable-television subsidiaries. In 1974, Lenfest purchased two cable-television systems with a total of 7,600 subscribers to form Lenfest Communications; when

the company was sold to AT&T and eventually Comcast in 2000, its cable systems (known as Suburban Cable) had 1.3 million subscribers. Lenfest was part of a group that bought the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com in 2012, and became sole owner of Philadelphia Media Network (a holding company for the media properties) in 2014. In 2016, Lenfest donated the entities to the nonprofit Institute for Journalism in New Media, a trailblazing gift that accentuated Lenfest’s commitment to a vibrant, independent press. “My goal,” he said at the 2016 announcement, “is to ensure that the journalism traditionally provided by the printed newspapers is given a new life and prolonged, while new media formats for its distribution are being developed.” Beyond Mercersburg, the Lenfests have given more than $1 billion to Columbia University, the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of the American Revolution, Washington and Lee University, the Curtis Institute of Music, Wilson College, and many other worthy entities. The Lenfest Scholars Foundation has provided scholarships and guidance to high-school and college students from rural Pennsylvania. At Mercersburg, the Lenfest Legacy Scholarship covers full tuition, room, and board each year through graduation to an entering ninth- or 10th-grade student who is a child or grandchild of a Mercersburg Academy alumnus/alumna. In addition, the Lenfest Endowed Scholarship provides support to many other qualified students at the Academy. Lenfest served as chairman of the boards and councils of several nonprofit organizations, including the Curtis Institute of Music, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of the American Revolution, and the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress. He was also a trustee of both of his collegiate alma maters, Columbia and Washington and Lee, as well as Temple University. He is a member of the Cable Hall of Fame and has received numerous other awards and honors, including the Horatio Alger Award, the aforementioned Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement from the Pennsylvania Society, and, most recently, the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy with Marguerite (presented in October 2017). Lenfest also received Mercersburg’s Class of ’32 Distinguished Alumnus Award—the highest honor bestowed upon a member of the school’s alumni body—in 1999. Gerry and Marguerite Brooks Lenfest were married in 1955. They have three children (Diane Lenfest Myer, H. Chase Lenfest, and Brook J. Lenfest) and four grandchildren.

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

New Academy Health and Wellness Center in Honor of the Rutherford Family Mercersburg Academy is thrilled to announce that the school’s new health center will be named the Rutherford Health and Wellness Center in honor of longtime faculty members Frank ’70 and Debbie Rutherford. The 100-year-old building was renovated on the site of the school’s previous health center off McFarland Road in the northeast part of campus (near Nolde Gymnasium) and opened in fall 2018. The historic building has evolved over the past century from an infirmary that The new Rutherford Health and specifically tended to the wounded and Wellness Center is home to the critically ill to a full-service health center proRahauser Counseling Center, viding acute medical care and guidance with named in honor of longtime student matters ranging from counseling services faculty members Susan and Tom to nutrition and overall wellness and support. Rahauser ’74. The center is available Debbie Rutherford was appointed assisto assist students with matters such as homesickness, anxiety/stress tant head of school in 1991, and became management, grief and loss, and Mercersburg’s first associate head of school relationship and family issues. in 1997. She first joined the faculty in 1977 During renovation of the health as a Spanish teacher and has also served as center through the 2017-2018 the school’s director of counseling. Frank academic year, health center and counseling center staff relocated Rutherford has taught in the science departto Landis House just off campus. ment at Mercersburg since 1976; he attended With the move to permanent Mercersburg for three years (setting three school quarters, the building has now records in track & field), and has coached track become the Davenport College & field at the Academy for more than 35 years. Counseling Center at Landis House, In their more than 80 years of combined named in honor of the Davenport family in special recognition of service to Mercersburg, Debbie and Frank have their parents—Sylvia and Pete embodied and championed the school’s core Davenport—and the family’s values and mission, supporting students and commitment to the College helping those students develop and care for the Counseling program. mind, body, and spirit. The Rutherfords’ steadfast approach and tireless work on behalf of the school drew together a group of donors and drove the Board of Regents to affix the Rutherford name on the new facility. While the entire Academy community celebrates the new building and its namesake, the moment is somewhat bittersweet, as Debbie and Frank announced that they will retire from Mercersburg at the end of the 2018-2019 academic year. “Debbie’s and Frank’s fingerprints are all over this campus, literally and figuratively,” Head of School Katie Titus says. “It

is only fitting that we can place their names on the health and wellness center to acknowledge their legacy of deep care for our students. Every day of their lives, Debbie and Frank put the needs of the school community first, guiding us to be the strong community we are today.” The Rutherford Health and Wellness Center provides greater efficiencies for the school’s Health Center staff and Counseling Department. The center will continue to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the academic year and when summer programs are in session. The new building houses separate girls’ and boys’ wards and includes exam rooms, private rooms, a kitchen, work areas, and counseling offices.

Debbie and Frank Rutherford ’70

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In Memoriam: Burton Richter ’48 (1931–2018), Nobel Laureate with Mercersburg magazine. “So it’s a terrific honor Burton Richter ’48, who received the 1976 Nobel to have.” Prize in physics, died July 18 in Stanford, California. In 2014, Richter received the National Medal He was 87. Richter was director emeritus of the of Science, which is the nation’s highest honor for SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (originally achievement in the fields of science and engineering. the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) at Stanford Among his other laurels were the U.S. Department University. of Energy’s Enrico Fermi Award and Ernest Orlando He was awarded the Nobel for his discovery of the Lawrence Award. He spent 13 years as a member of psi particle (also called the J/ meson), and received the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advisory the honor jointly with Samuel Ting of the Brookhaven Committee. National Laboratory on Long Island. Both scientists Richter’s 1948 KARUX As a Mercersburg student, Richter was a and their teams made a concurrent discovery of the yearbook photo Commencement orator for his 1948 graduating class, particle on opposite coasts. as well as president of the Chess Club, a photographer for the Born March 22, 1931, in Brooklyn, New York, Richter came to Mercersburg NEWS and the KARUX yearbook, and a member Mercersburg Academy as an 11th-grader in 1946 because he desof the football, wrestling, and tennis teams. He was an emeritus perately wanted to earn acceptance to the Massachusetts Institute member of the Mercersburg Board of Regents and the 1990 recipof Technology. As such, his time at Mercersburg was a success; ient of the school’s Class of ’32 Distinguished Alumnus Award, Richter matriculated at MIT, where he earned a bachelor’s degree the highest honor the Academy can bestow upon a member of in 1952 and a Ph.D. in physics in 1956. its alumni body. Richter spent his entire professional career at Stanford, where “Dr. Richter was one of the most distinguished members of our he worked his way up from assistant professor and associate proalumni community, and we were saddened to learn of his passing,” fessor to professor, and eventually held an endowed chair as the says Katie Titus, Mercersburg’s head of school. “We are—and will Paul Pigott Professor in the Physical Sciences. He designed the continue to be—grateful for his incredible contributions to the revolutionary Stanford Positron-Electron Accelerator Ring (or field of science and the ongoing process of discovery. He will conSPEAR) in the 1960s, and was instrumental in the construction tinue to serve as an inspiration to our students as a lasting legacy of the Stanford Linear Collider in the 1980s. to our Mercersburg family.” “A Nobel Prize is like being struck by lightning—it happens Richter is survived by his wife, Laurose; a son and daughter; sometimes, but there’s a lot of good work that’s been done and and two grandchildren. there aren’t many Nobel Prizes,” Richter said in a 2010 interview

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Family and Alumni Weekend More than 700 parents, grandparents, siblings, other relatives, alumni, and guests visited Mercersburg for Family and Alumni Weekend in September, where they participated in campus activities and met fellow members of the school community. See more coverage of the weekend at mercersburg.edu/faw.

Designing the 8

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A Letter from Deborah J. Simon ’74, President, Board of Regents Mercersburg Academy has always been committed to developing the whole student. We are in a unique position as a boarding school to help our students grow emotionally and intellectually so they may discover their passions and how they want to contribute to the changing world around them. Mercersburg did that for me when I was a student and changed my life. It’s that kind of dedication that sets Mercersburg apart from other schools and why I am grateful to serve on the Board of Regents during this exciting time. As the traditional models of education shift, we must think about how we want to shape Mercersburg for the future. In order to compete and thrive, we must challenge ourselves to find a balance between tradition and change. Aligning our values, traditions, and historic strengths to meet current needs and seize

new opportunities requires us to evolve as a school. Our new strategic design, unanimously adopted by the Board of Regents in October, is the next step in that process. It is important to note that the strategic design is not a multipage document, nor a printed pamphlet, listing every task and deadline that we must complete. Instead, it is a one-page document that will drive our implementation decisions while allowing for maximum flexibility as we evolve and continue to grow and learn from each other. As Head of School Katie Titus often says, “We must prepare our students for a world we cannot predict.” The strategic design consists of our mission statement, vision, core values, and strategic choices. The process began in August 2017 when we invited Greenwich Leadership Partners, a con-

S T R AT E G I C D E S I G N 2 0 1 8 Strategy that honors our past while boldly embracing our future In 1918, the student editors of the KARUX dedicated the edition of that year’s school yearbook to founding headmaster, Dr. William Mann Irvine, describing his philosophy for the school as follows: “Lofty ideals, great faith, noble integrity, and a ceaseless devotion to a mighty task, these are among the things which account for the meaning of Mercersburg.” Today, the school remains true to our founding values, which have endured over our 125-year history, while boldly embracing a future in education that will reflect a complex, changing world.

MISSION At Mercersburg Academy we embrace the value of hard work, character, and community while learning to balance independence with interdependence and individual humility with collective pride. Our students commit to a life of learning, seek to understand the spiritual nature of human existence, and develop a determination to lead and serve the world.

Future sulting firm that specializes in helping schools think strategically about learning and leadership, to conduct a workshop with our faculty and staff. GLP returned in October 2017 to moderate a similar workshop with the Board of Regents and spent a week and a half on campus leading focus groups with students, parents, and alumni. Between November 2017 and January 2018, Katie, the Board, faculty, and staff began to draft our core values. In April 2018, GLP sent out a community survey that resulted in approximately 1,600 participants. Based on that feedback, the Board met again in May 2018 to draft the five strategic choices. Over the summer, Katie worked with multiple groups on campus and the Board to draft and fine-tune the one-page document that we adopted in October.

VALUES Great faith:

We welcome and accept all in the tradition of our egalitarian spirit, expecting everyone to contribute fully to our community and to the world with imagination, gratitude, and love.

We believe in cultivating a faith in self (confidence); in others (trust); and in the future (hope).

Noble integrity:

Ceaseless devotion to a mighty task:

Our goal is to create a truly integrated learning experience within a diverse, residential community. To do this, we will: • Maximize the impact of place and time in order to connect learning to our history, our community, and the environment we steward. • Prioritize the development of skills and character in order to prepare adaptable learners for life in a complex, changing world.

We nurture the desire to dream, the courage to persevere, and the will to achieve.

Now, the fun begins. What do we need to do next to implement these lofty strategic choices? The good news is the strategic design is our base—our foundation. Now we get to build beyond that base to create the school that will move us toward the future. I would like to thank Katie Titus and the team on campus for their shared commitment to the strategic design process. We benefited from Katie’s thoughtfulness, insight, patience, and passion throughout the process. I believe it’s because of her leadership that we are stronger as a school and a community, and we are ready to go boldly into the future. This is an exciting time for Mercersburg Academy, and I invite you to review the strategic design. Our vision is an ambitious one, and one I know everyone in the Mercersburg community will embrace for our future.

STRATEGIC CHOICES

Lofty ideals:

We build strength of character that inspires generosity, authenticity, and responsibility—when no one is looking and when everyone is looking.

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

• Commit to access and affordability to promote equity and excellence. • Empower a culture of purposeful leadership and shared expectations to promote meaningful work for all. • Build a culture of deliberate assessment, feedback, and accountability to ensure maximum impact of program for our students.

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Seven New Faculty Join School Community Mercersburg welcomed seven new faculty members for the 2018-2019 academic year. Top row (left to right): Cory Bontrager(science), Steve Fowler (mathematics), Kris Ryan (history and religion). Bottom row (left to right): Tricia Crocker (director of community engagement), Skyler Clark (science teaching fellow), Selas Douglas (history), Leela Woody (English teaching fellow).

SUMMER FACULTY INSTITUTE Mercersburg held its third annual Summer Faculty Institute for teachers and administrators on campus this past August. The annual event is geared toward classroom teachers and those working with adolescents in residential, counseling, and advisory settings and is open to education professionals from within or outside the Academy. This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s event explored flipped learning, counseling techniques for deep listening, social-emotional learning, meaningful and effective ways to teach writing, executive functioning, and current brain research on stress and the adolescent brain. Fiftyeight attendees took part in the weeklong event, including six from peer schools.

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

Burg’s Eye View

CAMPUS NOTES

Convocation

Debbie Rutherford Mercersburg Academy’s Opening Convocation for the 126th academic year took place on September 2 in the Irvine Memorial Chapel. Associate Head of School Debbie Rutherford, who has served on the Mercersburg faculty since 1977 and plans to retire at the end of the 2018-2019 academic year, was the featured speaker. Also during Convocation, Patrice McGloin ’19, of Washington, D.C., received the Robert H. Michelet ’30 Prize, while Ryan Bland ’21, of Greencastle, Pennsylvania, garnered the John H. Culbertson ’24 Prize. The Michelet Prize is supported by an endowment established by Simon Michelet in memory of his son, Robert ’30, whose career at the Academy and at Dartmouth College was almost ideal in its quality and influence. The yield on the endowment is presented each year to the recipient on the assumption that it will be for

Katie Titus and Patrice McGloin

Ryan Bland and Katie Titus

use during the senior year. The Culbertson Prize is supported by the F.M. Kirby Foundation of Morristown, New Jersey, which established an endowed program of scholarships to honor the late John H. Culbertson ’24. It recognizes a student entering the 10th grade who gives evidence of exceptional promise and who has already demonstrated outstanding accomplishment. For more coverage of Convocation and the student award recipients, visit mercersburg.edu/magazine.

Teaching Awards Allison Stephens, who Allison Stephens teaches history and has taught at Mercersburg Academy since 1989, is the 2018–2019 recipient of the Ammerman Distinguished Teaching Award for Religious & Interdisciplinary Studies. Michele Poacelli, who Michele Poacelli teaches English and has served as director of the school’s Writing Center since 2015, is this year’s Zern Excellence in Teaching Award honoree. The awards, which are presented on an annual basis to two members of the Mercersburg faculty, were announced at the beginning of the 2018-2019 academic year by Head of School Katie Titus. The Ammerman Distinguished Teaching Award for Religious & Interdisciplinary Studies was established by Andrew Ammerman ’68 and his mother, the late Josephine Ammerman, while the Zern Excellence in Teaching Award was established by Allen Zern ’61 and his wife, Judith. Andrew Ammerman and Allen Zern are both emeriti members of Mercersburg’s Board of Regents. For more coverage of the award recipients, visit mercersburg.edu/ magazine.

Announcement Head of School Katie Titus has announced that Assistant Head of School for Advancement and CommunicaBrian Hargrove tions Brian Hargrove will be leaving Mercersburg Academy in 2019 to accept the head of school position at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Mount Hermon, Massachusetts. Hargrove, who came to Mercersburg in 2012 from St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas, has been responsible for leading a team of 25 professionals. During his tenure, the school launched and completed the $300 million Daring to Lead Campaign, one of the largest of its kind for an independent school. The campaign secured a $100 million lead gift, 33 additional gifts of $1 million or more, 143 gifts of $100,000 or more, and 7,012 individual donors. During this same period, alumni participation in the Mercersburg Annual Fund has also grown from 34 percent to a high of nearly 50 percent. Since the conclusion of the Daring to Lead Campaign in 2016, the Advancement Office has raised an additional $25.8 million in new commitments. Hargrove served for four years as chair of the CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) Summer Institute for Independent Schools. In 2017, he was selected as a recipient of the CASE Crystal Apple Award for Teaching Excellence. The same year, Hargrove helped to launch the Independent School Leadership Group, a CASE-sponsored consortium of 47 leading independent-school advancement programs. He is currently chairing the CASE-NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) conference. “I am proud of Brian and know he will thrive in this new role,” says Deborah J. Simon ’74, president of Mercersburg’s Board of Regents and co-chair of the Daring to Lead Campaign. “He has been a great partner to me and many at Mercersburg Academy, and we celebrate his appointment as the next head at Northfield Mount Hermon. He will always be a member of the Mercersburg family and, more personally, a good friend to me.”

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125th Commencement José Cervera ’18, Schaff Orator

Thai Khong ’18, salutatorian

Kate Frimet ’18, Schaff Orator

“We have shaped each other. We are all connected through our experiences and always will be.” —José Cervera ’18, Schaff Orator

“To all the kids who feel like they don’t belong, stand up for yourself. Look inside yourself. Find something you care deeply about and put yourself out there. Who cares what other people think when your passion is the only thing that drives you? You are beautiful, and you deserve the chance to prove yourself in this community. I hope you can write your own story the way you want, just like how I did mine.” —Thai Khong ’18, salutatorian

“Don’t put pressure on yourself to have ‘a Mercersburg moment.’ It’s nearly impossible to condense all the laughter and the tears, successes and failures, dreams and hopes. Do not leave with a story or a moral. Leave with plurals: friends, memories, lessons, moments.” —Kate Frimet ’18, Schaff Orator

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Honoring the Class of 2018 May 26, 2018

Ellie Gregg ’18, Senior Class President

Victor Li ’18, valedictorian

“Everyone is going to draw lines for you, especially when they think you should have achieved something or proved something or become something by a specific time. But it’s your job to reimagine these lines—to cross them, to jump them, and in some cases to ignore them altogether.” —Benicio Del Toro ’85

Benicio Del Toro ’85

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BY THE NUMBERS 132 graduates, representing 21 American states, the District of Columbia, and 19 nations Members of the graduating class will matriculate at 87 different colleges and universities Most popular college choices: The U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis (seven matriculations), New York University (six), Hamilton College (five), and Emory University and Northeastern University (four matriculations apiece) Valedictorian: Victor Li ’18, Shanghai, China Salutatorian: Thai Khong ’18, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Schaff Orator: José Cervera ’18, Mexico City, Mexico Schaff Orator: Kate Frimet ’18, Washingtonville, New York Senior Class President: Ellie Gregg, Vienna, Virginia Class Marshals: Matt LoPresti ’18, Woodbury, Connecticut, and Electa Willander ’18, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania Commencement speaker: Benicio Del Toro ’85 Baccalaureate speaker: John David Bennett, Dean of Curricular Innovation

For more Commencement coverage—including video coverage, additional photos, and a list of prizes awarded for distinguished academic performance—please visit mercersburg.edu/magazine.

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4 3

2 5

10 8

Class of 2018 Legacy Graduates 1. Benji Cantera, grandson of Charles Cantera ’46. 2. Grace Simar, daughter of Seton Simar ’90. 3. Esteban Cervera Semerena, son of Luis Cervera ’85. 4. Riley Viener, son of Adam Viener ’87 and great-great grandson of the late Gilbert M. Smith (1905). 5. Garrett Noone, grandson of the late George E. Flanagan Jr. ’45. 6. Connor Wolfe, grandson of the late Ellis W. Wolfe Jr. ’57. 7. José Cervera, son of Fernando Cervera ’83. 8. Thomas Vickery, son of Kristin Butterfield Vickery ’88 and grandson of Col. John Butterfield ’56. 9. Lauren Jones, daughter of Nancy Gallagher Jones ’86. 10. Cameron Temoyan, grandson of the late Bradford D. Smith ’50. 11. Hadley Sherbacow, daughter of Kelly Carr ’82. 12. Sydney Hosbein, daughter of Andrea White Hosbein ’84. 13. Cole Biehle, son of Stacy Sellers Biehle ’87. 14. Clare Liss, daughter of Ellen Potocki Liss ’83. 15. Bella Skrbich, daughter of Ivonne Bayona Skrbich ’87. 16. Ava Mancini, daughter of Molly Jones Mancini ’79 and granddaughter of the late J. Richard Jones ’48. 17. Courtney Gantt, daughter of Dr. Lorelle Pottick Gantt ’76. 18. Caitlin Dawson, daughter of Laura Chaney Dawson ’92. 19. Electa Willander, daughter of Beth Rockwell Willander ’86. 20. Fiona Suggs, daughter of Capt. William Suggs ’84. 21. Emma Maurer, daughter of Dr. Julia Stojak Maurer ’90. 22. Austin Stoner, son of Linda Boyer Stoner ’90. 23. Nick Wertz, son of Amy Martin Wertz ’85.

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June 7-10, 2018 More than 750 alumni, their guests, faculty, staff, and friends of Mercersburg gathered on campus Thursday, June 7, to Sunday, June 10, to celebrate their connection to each other and to the school. Classes ending in 3 and 8 held their five-year reunions, breaking last year’s record attendance of more than 600. For a recap video of the weekend and for a complete photo gallery, visit mercersburg.edu/reunionweekend, and look for the icon throughout this section to indicate additional photos, videos, or other content at mercersburg.edu/reunionweekend.

Congratulations to 1978 for nabbing this year’s Class Cup for best class tent on the quad!

“What a fine time we had connecting and laughing and reminiscing! After breakfast on Sunday, we loaded up and headed out. Had to loop the quad one more time and drink more of it in. Folks strolled toward the Chapel, the bells of the carillon pealing, footsteps making their way unhurriedly toward the source, feeling the full magnetism once more. We circled again, and this time stopped behind the Chapel to listen to those sweet bells laying out a traditional hymn. Sitting there quietly, I realized I didn’t want to leave. Mercersburg nurtured me, sheltered me, fed me, loved me, pushed me, cultivated my mind, introduced me to so many good people. Why would I want to leave? The ’Burg turned many of us, and 50 years later, we felt the true depth of gratitude.”—Dennis Forney ’68 (pictured with tambourine during the Class of 1968 jam session on the quad)

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of coeducation at Mercersburg (2019-2020), we welcomed back Janie Kabat Prichard ’73 and Ronald Prichard ’73 (the first alumni married couple) and Robin Grove Vink ’73, P ’13 (one of Mercersburg’s first four-year female graduates admitted in the modern era).

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS (1) Gettysburg Battlefield tour (2) Legacy campout sponsored by Mercersburg Summer Programs (3) Squash exhibition game between Mark Talbott ’78 and Valentin Quan Miranda ’08 (4) Yoga and workouts led by faculty and alumni (5) Reconnecting with friends (6) Classroom experiences showcasing current curriculum (7) Lunch on the quad (8) Worship and remembrance service

“The Tumultuous ’70s and How Rock and Roll Got Us Through” Hon. John Jones ’73, Jeff Breit, Esq. ’73, and faculty member/moderator Allison Stephens P ’11, ’13 Stories about the rollicking nature of the presenters’ years at Mercersburg and how music and the news media played a role in their development and ultimately helped forge their career paths in civic service.

AT A GLANCE:

778

TOTAL ATTENDEES:

Stories from “The Spy in the Hanoi Hilton” Jim Stockdale ’68, P ’02, ’09 and documentary film producer David Taylor A presentation of parallel histories about the imprisonment of U.S. Navy Vice Admiral James Stockdale P ’68 during the Vietnam War at the same time his son was a student at Mercersburg more than 8,000 miles away.

“What Happened in the 1960s?” Dean of Curricular Innovation John David Bennett P ’12, ’19, faculty member/school archivist Doug Smith, and Logan Cort ’18 Reflections inspired by the Class of 1968 50th reunion committee on how life at Mercersburg Academy was influenced and disrupted by the cultural milieu of the late 1960s. VIDEOS OF THE KEYNOTES

FARTHEST DISTANCE TRAVELED TO MERCERSBURG:

8,727 miles (NIN VIRAVAIDYA ’03 FROM THAILAND)

145

REUNION COMMITTEE

VOLUNTEERS:

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Faculty and Staff with 40+ Years of Service

Reunion Giving to the 2017-2018 Annual Fund Class of 1953 $20,030 (31 percent participation) Class of 1958 and Class of 1959 $119,107 (48 percent participation) Class of 1963 $24,374 (25 percent participation)

From left are Head of School Katie Titus P ’20, Shirley Zeger (head of school secretary – 48 years), Lois Keller (health center secretary – 41 years), Debbie Rutherford P ’03, ’06, ’06 (associate head of school, language faculty, counseling department – 41 years), Doris Reeder (alumni relations secretary, switchboard operator – 46 years), CeCe Stansberry (admission secretary – 46 years), Bill Roland (dining hall cook – 41 years), Tom Rahauser ’74, P ’05, ’07, ’12 (dean of students, language faculty – 40 years), and Alumni Council President Andy Alpert ’82, P ’14. Not pictured are Frank Rutherford ’70, P ’03, ’06, ’06 (science faculty – 42 years), Boyd Straley (buildings and grounds – 57 years), and Gene Yeager (school store manager – 51 years). PHOTO GALLERY OF THE HONOREES

Faculty and Staff Retirees

Class of ’32 Award

Class of 1968 $59,154 (35 percent participation) (Total annual, capital, and planned giving: $3.9 million) Class of 1973 $28,193 (23 percent participation) Class of 1978 $9,113 (21 percent participation) Class of 1983 $66,411 (23 percent participation) Class of 1988 $68,107 (28 percent participation) Class of 1993 $20,902 (30 percent participation) Class of 1998 $44,957 (34 percent participation)

Pictured from left are Head of School Katie Titus P ’20, Marilyn Houck P ’01 (athletic trainer – 32 years), Dave Cline P ’02, ’05 (security – 21 years), Pandy Yeakle (associate head of school secretary – 32 years), Doree Brinson (library – 13 years), Shirley Zeger (head of school secretary – 48 years), and Alumni Council President Andy Alpert ’82, P ’14.

VIDEO ABOUT ANDREW’S IMPACT ON MERCERSBURG ACADEMY

Andrew Ammerman ’68, 2018 recipient of the school’s highest honor

Alumni Council Award Recipients

Class of 2003 $9,218 (27 percent participation) Class of 2008 $64,285 (34 percent participation) Class of 2013 $15,892 (45 percent participation) Total Reunion Donors: 532 Total Reunion Annual Fund Dollars: $551,410 Total Reunion Annual, Capital, and Planned Giving Dollars: $7,381,424

Douglas Miller ’68, P ’00, ’03, Alumni Council Medal for Distinguished Service

Amy Jones Satrom ’98, Alumni Council Prize for Achievement

Jamil Myrie ’93, Alumni Council Prize for Service

Vanessa Youngs ’03, Young Alumni Leadership Award

Not pictured: David Millstein ’63, Alumni Council Medal for Distinguished Achievement

AWARD DESCRIPTIONS AND RECIPIENTS’ BIOS

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Loyalty Club Row 1: Jim Horn ’53, Tom Gardner ’48, Ken Booth ’63, Tom Heefner ’57; Row 2: Dick Roschli ’52, Don Harper ’53, Walter Burgin Jr. ’53, Jere Keefer Jr. ’65; Not pictured: Charlie Coates III ’63 and Paul Sommerville II ’63 Classes of 1958 and 1959 Row 1: Dan Phelps ’59, Ed Neff ’59, Clem Geitner ’59, Barry Dubbs ’59, Ross Lenhart ’58; Row 2: Bill DiPaolo Jr. ’59, Alfie Douglass III ’59, Bob Hunter ’59, Bob Hecht ’59, Hank Bowis ’59; Row 3: Scott Armentrout ’59, Bill Tutt ’59, Dave Bliley ’58, Ched Hultman ’58, Bill Simpson ’58, Larry Stine ’59; Row 4: Guy Anderson ’58, Mark Wainwright Jr. ’58, Steve Kozloff ’58, Charlie Barndt Jr. ’58, Bob Cullen ’58; Not pictured: Bob Batdorf Jr. ’58, Chip Bohlinger III ’59, Bob Brown ’58, Phil Saylor Jr. ’59

Class of 1948 Tom Browning and Tom Gardner (pictured with Mr. Browning’s son, Michael ’74 at left)

Class of 1953 Row 1: Chuck Loughran, Jim Horn, Jack Pettit; Row 2: Jack Bream, Walter Burgin Jr., Don Harper; Not pictured: Stu Horner Jr. and Nick Taubman

AT A GLANCE: FACULTY, STAFF, AND ALUMNI PROGRAMMING PARTICIPANTS:

Class of 1968 Row 1: Rawley Krasik, Don Bussey, Forry Eisenhart Jr., Rich Helzel, Doug Miller, Charlie Alter, Craig Moyer; Row 2: Bob Pennington, Gary Teper, Cliff Diver Jr., Tim Schneckloth, Richard Ryon, Bob Bressler; Row 3: Phil Barry, Mick Heller III, Joe Jamison Jr., Timothy Cope, Eric Klieber, Steve Parker; Row 4: Broms Bromley, Lou Stanton, John Fox; Row 5: Doug Bressler, Craig Hazen, Jim Stockdale II, Hud Connery Jr., Blaikie Hines, Mike Kopen; Row 6: Tom Flanagan, Barry Marshall, Jack Sparler Jr., Dennis Forney, Robert Magill Jr., Michael Gery; Not pictured: Andrew Ammerman, David Covintree, Jeff Driscoll, Bruce Kemmler, Klondike Koehler Jr., George Milnor II, Jeffrey Ott, Tucker Shields, Clarence Youngs

NUMBER OF CHILDREN WHO ATTENDED:

OLDEST RETURNING ALUMS:

Tom Browning ’48 and Tom Gardner ’48

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Class of 1973 Row 1: Janie Kabat Prichard, Robin Grove Vink, Dick Cosgrove, Bob Strotz; Row 2: Tom Puhl, Ron Prichard, Chip Vink Jr., Joe Lee Jr., Jeff Breit, John Lake, Ken Payne, John Jones III; Not pictured: Cabell Williams III

Class of 1978 Row 1: Chuck Rogers II, Heidi Kaul Krutek, John McAvoy, Patty SeltzerWagoner, Pilar Diaz Benassi; Row 2: Walt McGhee, Dave Holzwarth, Nancy Lawrence Hill, Peter Hollett, Lisa Wright Hummer; Row 3: Mark Hammond, Scott Toward, Ken Lee, Chuck Gray, Dan Dougherty, Steve Schmidt; Not pictured: Louise Hoppe Green, Scott Jamison, Mark Talbott

Class of 1983 Row 1: Ming Siu, Rob Wheeler, Shawn Rodrigues, Susan Blaschak Mironov, Bruce Ricciuti; Row 2: Ken Fisher, Mark Pyper, Erika LaCerda, Guido Porcarelli, Laura Sawyer Pitman, JQ Quinn, Cindy Davenport Borger, Scott Fineco; Row 3: Todd Friedman, John Palmer, Ted Smith, Rodney Duncan, John Turner, Doug Brennan, Mark Sibert, Joe Noel

Class of 1988 Row 1: Sarah Chisdes Fisher, Natalie Kostelni McGrory, Lisa Lemley Webber, Kristin Butterfield Vickery; Row 2: Steve Cohn, Suzanne Dysard, Julia McMillan-Jones, Molly Huecker Kuehl, Susie Lyles-Reed; Row 3: Tim Hoover, Odette Harper, Sal Saulnier, Heather Gibson; Row 4: Mike Olsen, Mike White, Steve Pessagno, Jennifer Rozes; Row 5: Bill Su, Meredith Ruble, Mark Hjelle, Geoff Eneas, Eric Reed; Not pictured: Cindy Lather Wheeler

Class of 1993 Row 1: Elgin Olyphant Marsted, Jackie Crane Peacock, Rachel Brull Tuer, Shirley Jayakumar Dopson, Karen Vastine; Row 2: Paul Royer, Rob Pitts, Ali Foster Bailey, Sarah Smith, Alyson McKee Humphreys, Erin Ryan Pedersen; Row 3: Plamen Mitrikov, Neil Riser, Pete Genrich, Bobby Malone II, Bryce Poirot, Heidi Utz Morehead; Row 4: Nat Guy, Ben Martin, Jake Shim, Joe Schultz, Esteban Thur De Koos, Stirling Elmendorf, Joe Martin; Not pictured: Amer Al-Nimr, Alex Crothers III, Jamil Myrie, Ashley Bastholm Piraino, Josh Utt, Adam Wolman

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Class of 1998 Row 1: Pierce Lord, Beth Pniewski Bell, Abby Russell, Amy Schemmerling, Anna Wright, Natalie Warden Wilmer; Row 2: Julie Hasson Wells, Liz Hills, Jeff Adair, Jay Park, Liz Curry Watkins, Jamie Gelo DiCesare, Kristine Pierson Kennedy, Kristen Pelekanakis, Jim Kaurudar; Row 3: Miles Kiger, Leslie Magraw, Sarah Cohen, Shelley West, Amy Jones Satrom, Dean Hosgood III; Row 4: Kyle Logan, Andrew Sprott, Patrick Lykins, Julia Wiedeman Whitehouse, Kevin Harris, Ryan Fair

Class of 2003 Row 1: Ripal Shah, Victoria Leontieva Blackburn, Claire Van Ness, Mariel Gallet, Christina Sgagias, Jill Edwards, Mark Ryscavage; Row 2: John Mooney IV, Aseem Balhara, Sarah deVries Osipowicz, Chimi Culler, Whitney Groseclose, Rachna Shah, Matt Rutherford; Row 3: Jamie Blackburn IV, Joe Ambrose III, Sam Miller, Nate Fochtman; Not pictured: Brechyn Chace, Ashley DeMeza, Colleen Booth Shields, Nin Viravaidya, Vanessa Youngs

Class of 2008 Row 1: Hannah Starr Cox; Row 2: Laura Diller, Honor Zimmerman, Gussie Reilly, Mary Lancaster; Row 3: Diane Schrom, Sonia Byun, Tyler Chambers, Taylor Hoffman, Barbara Wilson, Madeleine Foster; Row 4: Ethan Strickler, Lauren Dobish, Rachel Greenberg, Eleanor Carroll-Smith, Jeff Chung, Luke Griffin, Valencia Whitehurst, Tyler Mort; Row 5: Benjamin Axelrod, Molly Sabol, Kelsie Bittle, Joshua Rosenblat, Philip Bryant, Fleet White III, James Finucane, Patrick Holmes; Row 6: Emily Weiss, Dave Strider, Phil Hook, Andrew Reichardt, Sanford Edwards, Joshua Bowling, Seth Fries, Leonhard Deibel, Trent Woodham; Not pictured: Justin Corey, Logan Craig, Grant Ferguson, Steve Kim, Pat Morgan, Valentin Quan Miranda, Carson Thielen

Class of 2013 Row 1: Michaella Hoehn-Saric, Rebekah Samuels, Christina Hyrkas, Ashley Frederick, Johanna Krygsman, Mary Gray Stolz, Woodli Krutek; Row 2: Chris Fritz, Sarah Firestone, Margaret Burnett, Francesca Vecchiarelli, Melody Gomez, Kevin Shivers; Row 3: Mac Williams, Seth Noorbakhsh, Harvey Gross, Ethan Vink, Matt Alexis, Connor Weiss; Row 4: Chris Eadie, Nate Hoffmann, Stefan Kempe, David Glass, Jeremy Greenberger; Row 5: Thomas Bacas, Ben LoPrimo, Luca Albisetti, Phoebe Moore Miller, Benson Fu, Miranda Lang, Kara Alvarez; Row 6: Rahul Sharan, Mason Moser; Not pictured: Elizabeth Casparian, Emma Cranston, Vivi Hyacinthe, Tyler Jones, Susannah Keane, Silas Renner, Evan Schoenberger, Paige Wolny, Elias Woodworth

AT A GLANCE:

1968

HIGHEST

MOST ATTENDEES:

ANNUAL FUND

43 CLASSMATES

PARTICIPATION: 2013

LARGEST ANNUAL FUND CLASS GIFT: 1988

donors

$68,107

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This issue of Mercersburg magazine picks up with Mercersburg’s history where our spring issue left off—just after Headmaster William Fowle retired in 1972—and continues the story into 2018 and beyond. The features in this issue evoke a multitude of conversations—between alumni and former Headmaster Walter Burgin ’53 and former Head of School Douglas Hale; between a student and current Head of School Katie Titus; between current and former faculty; and between students and four longtime staff members who recently retired and have witnessed Mercersburg’s changing history under all three of the last heads of school. Following these conversations, we include some of your memories as shared with Mercersburg magazine over the course of the year, and flowing throughout this section, follow the timeline of Mercersburg’s history from 1973 through the present day. Our history is rich with 125 years of accomplishments, challenges, and growth—setting a solid foundation and paving the way for what is yet to come.

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

HEAD OF SCHOOL 1972 – 1997

WALTER BURGIN Moving Mercersburg Forward for 25 Years BY N ATA L I E KO S T E L N I M c G R O RY ’ 8 8

Walter and Barbara Burgin

alter H. Burgin Jr. ’53 describes how he became Mercersburg Academy’s fifth headmaster in 1972 almost as if it were by accident, but in reality, it was a deliberate gesture by the school to hire the former teacher and head of the mathematics department as its next leader. A committee that was overseeing the search to find a replacement for William C. Fowle, who had retired as headmaster after 11 years, believed Burgin was the right person at the right time for the Academy. The irony was that Burgin, then a teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy, was on that search committee when he was asked to resign from it and become a candidate. It wasn’t long after that he was approached with an offer to become the next headmaster. “I didn’t seek to become head of school, and I left a place I really loved,” he said. “It changed the direction of my life.”

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MERCERSBURG’S HISTORY FROM 1972–PRESENT

Burgin’s appointment also changed the direction of Mercersburg. It came at a difficult time for the school, and in fact, it was an inflection point in which the school needed a leader to set it on a course for a successful future, a task that in hindsight Burgin achieved but was no small feat. When Burgin arrived, Mercersburg had recently become coeducational, and budget deficits were common as was borrowing from the endowment to financially support the school. There were too few students and too many faculty. Vietnam, drugs, and activism scared parents off, and the turmoil that was roiling college campuses at the time had spread to schools such as Mercersburg. “It was really a scary time,” Burgin recalled when he and I sat down to talk on the porch of North Cottage in June during Reunion Weekend.

became a focus. Mercersburg had more female students than male students in its student body for the first time in the 2011– 2012 academic year, and in 2018–2019, the number of male and female students enrolled is exactly the same. Over time, Burgin also addressed the diversity of the student and faculty population and that laid the groundwork for where the school is today. Students hail from 26 states and the District of Columbia and are citizens of 39 countries. Twenty-four percent are students of color and 20 percent are international students. When Burgin arrived, facilities—from dorms to academic buildings—needed to get addressed and would eventually serve to attract and retain top-notch faculty and students. There was a desire for more and a variety of teaching environments beyond Irvine Hall. The library in the Edwards Room of Keil Hall was not adequate. Faculty members needed better places to live, and Burgin believed they also needed to become more involved in the school, its day-to-day operations, and the direction of academic programs and student life, all of which were embraced. “I worked hard to empower the faculty,” he said. “It was important they had a sense of responsibility. Whenever there was a problem, it was important to find a way for the faculty to own it and find a solution. If they succeed, then you have as well.” It was against this backdrop that the first part of Burgin’s tenure was spent undertaking long-range planning. A blueprint was drawn up for the school, and the need to raise funds became paramount to implement those plans. While Mercersburg attempted to right itself and get on a stable course for the future, that wasn’t going to get done without money. Burgin spent part of his time working to overcome negative perceptions plaguing the school and holding back donors. Over time, that changed as well, and under Burgin’s watch, the endowment grew from south of $3 million in 1972 to more than $34 million by 1993. Funds were raised for renovating Irvine and upgrading faculty housing and dorms, as well as constructing Lenfest Hall, which gave the school a beautiful new library and additional academic spaces. During Burgin’s watch, which ended in 1997 with his retirement, technology also came on the scene. “We saw it coming,” he said.

“Whenever there was a problem, it was important to find a way for the faculty to own it and find a solution. If they succeed, then you have as well.” While the times were tense, if you know Burgin, you know his calm demeanor and mathematical mind approached such a moment at the Academy analytically and with a patience that would ultimately serve it well. Students, he realized, were angry but really didn’t know what was driving that anger. Some faculty had essentially given up, dorms had lost their structure, and there was little control over the students. The challenges were there but not insurmountable. “I always saw myself as a math teacher with other things to do,” he said. “The only way I understood how to look at the school is through the eyes of a teacher.” It was through that lens that Burgin went to work. “Things settled down and you could begin to deal with some issues,” he said. With the school just three years into coeducation when he arrived, Burgin swiftly moved to eliminate traditions that focused on boys. Some were large and some small, such as girls not being able to carry trays in the dining hall, but they all went by the wayside and the school fully embraced its coeducational status. One set of rules was put into place for the entire school, and female students, who had been under-enrolled at the time,

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

TIMELINE 1973–PRESENT 1973 Field hockey team begins 15-game unbeaten streak; doesn’t lose again until 1975

Walter and Barbara Burgin at Reunion Weekend 2018

Burgin, who prior to becoming headmaster had spent some summers working with IBM on large mainframes and the genesis of artificial intelligence, was neither a stranger to technology nor to embracing it. The challenge was to avoid building around a particular technology because of it inevitably becoming obsolete. At one point during the mid-1980s, a room full of computers was stationed in the basement of Ford Hall for students to use. That eventually gave way to hardwiring the campus to what today is a fully equipped campus that is able to readily meet current and future technological advances. In reflection, the 25 years Burgin spent as headmaster were significant in so many ways, but the biggest may be that he laid the groundwork for where the school is today. “We didn’t know we were bridging the past with the school’s future,” he said. That is what Burgin did at Mercersburg. The academic and math teacher who became the school’s leader laid a solid foundation for Mercersburg and helped set it on a course that allowed others—his successors Doug Hale and now Katie Titus—to follow. Burgin helped create an environment in which the school continues to evolve and flourish. Not willing to take full credit, Burgin is quick to give a nod to his predecessors, Charles S. Tippetts (1912) and Fowle. “They were wonderful people,” Burgin said. Burgin is now 83 and living with his wife, Barbara, who left her own mark on the school, in Exeter, New Hampshire, the place he loved and left to become headmaster at Mercersburg.

e d i t o r ’s n o t e : N a t a l i e Ko s t e l n i McGrory ’88 is a reporter for the Philadelphia Business Journal, for which she chiefly covers real estate and economic development, and is an adjunct professor at Villanova University. She received her undergraduate degree from Villanova and her master’s from the University of MissouriColumbia. Her daughter, Audrey ’20, is a member of Mercersburg’s 11th-grade class.

1974 South Cottage becomes girls’ dorm; Jack McLaughlin’s Drug Store closes; Vietnam War toll: nine alumni killed 1975 Students begin working on school farm 1976 Burton Richter ’48 wins Nobel Prize in physics 1978 Harry Hughes ’44 and Dick Thornburgh ’50 elected governors of Maryland and Pennsylvania, respectively 1979 Three Mile Island incident (90 miles northeast) puts Academy on alert as possible evacuation site 1980 Romeo’s Pizzeria opens 1981 Charlie Bell ’71 completes 10,000-mile run around the U.S. 1983 Tim Rockwell leads school exposition to Canadian Arctic; Mark Talbott ’78 becomes world’s No. 1-ranked hardball squash player 1984 Endowment is $9 million; Leon Febres Cordero ’49 elected president of Ecuador; Rich Saeger ’82 and Betsy Mitchell ’83 win swimming gold at Los Angeles Olympics continued on page 27

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MERCERSBURG’S HISTORY FROM 1972–PRESENT

HEAD OF SCHOOL 1997 – 2016

DOUGL AS HALE A Closer Look BY ARIC DiLALLA ’12

hat did you see when you last walked through Mercersburg’s 300-acre campus? The sycamores that dot the winding road toward campus? The Chapel spire rising against the sky? A group of students lounging in front of Main Hall in the early afternoon? Or perhaps you saw the Burgin Center for the Arts and its gleaming exterior. When you looked, what did you see? Beyond the glass panels, past the modern design—what did you see? And what should you? WHEN DOUGLAS HALE arrived at Mercersburg from the Baylor School in 1997, he faced a directive from Mercersburg’s Board of Regents to carry the school into the 21st century. The school, already blessed with rich tradition and history, was ready to take its place among upper-echelon boarding schools. And Hale, the sixth head of school in Mercersburg’s history, was the man chosen to make that happen. He had been drawn to Mercersburg in no small part because of the Board’s willingness to make that commitment to excellence. Add in a Mid-Atlantic campus that Hale calls a “middle path where things just felt more real and more substantial,” and Mercersburg’s

new head of school seemed to have most of the pieces he needed to turn the school toward its future. “My goal was to take that mid-sized boarding school and view it and empower it with the programmatical richness and breadth and depth of a superior-sized school,” Hale says. Hale knew his goal would require a dramatic increase in the school’s endowment, but that wasn’t where he first turned his focus. Instead, he aimed to empower the student body, both by learning their names and ensuring they realized they were “at the center” of this charge toward the future. “In any school, the first constituency and the first priority for any head of school has to be the student body,” Hale says. “Every decision that you make has to be in some ways considered from the point of view, ‘Is this the best thing for the students? Is this the best thing for the young people we are here to serve?’” Hale also prioritized the faculty, which he aimed to challenge, support, and compensate fairly. No constituency, he says now, was as important in ensuring change would happen. Those two groups would never be far from his mind as he directed Mercersburg forward. And forward the school went.

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WHEN I FIRST visited Mercersburg’s campus in the fall of 2007, the Burgin Center had been open for just over a year. As a 13-year-old, I saw the building only as an impressive piece of an overwhelming campus. During my years as a student, it became more. “The Burgin” was where I first took an art class, led a Community Gathering, became editor of the Mercersburg NEWS, and spent my winter nights as a declaimer and Marshall president. The Burgin Center, of course, opened during Hale’s time as head of school—and that certainly wasn’t the only building that popped up on campus. In the years before I arrived as a student in 2009, the Smoyer Tennis Center, Masinter Outdoor Education Center, Davenport Squash Center, and Class of ’38 Observatory were all constructed. All dormitories, Irvine Hall, and the Prentiss-Zimmerman Quadrangle had been renovated—and the school began construction on both improvements to Nolde Gymnasium and the Simon Student Center before I graduated. Hale also enhanced programmatic offerings, adding a number of Advanced Placement classes, creating a Writing Center, boosting Summer Programs, and establishing formal exchanges with a number of international schools. As he did so, he and the school increased the number of nations represented at Mercersburg by 25 percent, boosted the endowment fourfold, tripled the financial-aid budget, and grew enrollment. On their own, each of these improvements could help deem Hale’s tenure as a success. Combined—a scenario only possible with everyone working in concert—they pushed Mercersburg far beyond anyone’s initial expectations. “We grew programs, we grew the finances of the school, and we grew and improved the capital of the campus,” Hale says. “We didn’t just do one of the things, and we didn’t do one and then pay attention a little bit to the other. We did all three. “The job was not only to catch up with the competition, but then to move past them. And so, to borrow a phrase from a former Board member, it took us a little while to catch up, and then it took us a little while longer to be in the passing lane, but I just think Mercersburg’s in the passing lane right now.” THERE MAY BE NO BETTER WAY to characterize Hale’s Mercersburg career than with numbers. Not the added zeroes that now trail the endowment figure or the number of buildings that were added to campus. It’d be easy to get lost in those statistics, but that’s not how I would view Hale’s legacy as a head of school. Try, instead, to think of the number of students who were able to attend Mercersburg because Hale helped increase financial aid. Or the

TIMELINE 1986 Culbertson House opens 1987 Computer center opens in Ford Hall; total ban on student smoking 1988 Football team scores 16 points in final 26 seconds to shock Kiski; Stony Batter Players tours England 1990 Endowment is $19.5 million 1992 Mercersburg named a “Blue Ribbon” school; Melvin Stewart ’88 swims to two gold medals at Barcelona Olympics 1993 Lenfest Hall dedicated; 100th anniversary celebration 1994 Mercersburg joins the MidAtlantic Athletic Conference 1995 School first issues email accounts 1996 Blizzard of ’96 hammers campus with 34 inches of snow 1997 Burgin retires as headmaster; Douglas Hale appointed head of school; “Blue Storm” adopted as athletic mascot 1998 Exchange program established with Gauss Gymnasium (Worms, Germany) continued on page 28

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“We grew programs, we grew the finances of the school, and we grew and improved the capital of the campus.”

TIMELINE Douglas and Peggy Hale

2000 H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest ’49 announces $35 million gift to Mercersburg; Benicio Del Toro ’85 wins Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Traffic; Mercersburg joins the MidAtlantic Prep League (MAPL) 2002 Former Headmaster William C. Fowle dies 2003 Class of ’38 Observatory and Smoyer Tennis Center open 2004 Boone Hall demolished; Masinter Outdoor Education Center dedicated; Mightily Onward Campaign officially completed ($138 million raised) 2005 Denise Dupré ’76 elected first female Board of Regents president 2006 Burgin Center for the Arts opens; Itzhak Perlman and New York City Ballet dancers perform at opening gala 2007 Endowment first reaches $200 million continued on page 31

ones who could realize their dreams of being both All-Mid-Atlantic Prep League athletes and Cum Laude students because of renovations to Nolde Gymnasium and Irvine Hall. Or the faculty members who were given the best resources to guide these students through their time at Mercersburg. Or, just maybe, of that student in the Burgin. That’s what Hale hopes to be remembered for most. “I worry that my legacy will feel like I was an external head of school,” Hale says. “I raised money and I improved and built a lot of buildings… and that’s going to be complimentary, and that’s going to be fine. But it’s really not how I prefer my legacy be remembered and cast forever and ever. “How I think of myself, actually, is as an internal head of school who developed faculty, made sure they had access to the best training possible, and removed every obstacle out of their way for good teaching. And for students, I tried to be a head of school who gave them the richness of a really, really broad program.” And that’s a legacy that’s truly fitting of Douglas Hale. Take a close look the next time you’re on campus. You just might see it.

editor’s note: Aric DiLalla ’12 is a graduate of Mercersburg and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He works as an associate editor for DenverBroncos.com, the official website of the National Football League’s Denver Broncos. Aric’s father (Richard ’81), stepmother (Ann Marks DiLalla ’82), and half-brother (James ’17) are fellow Mercersburg alumni, and his halfsister, Mary ’19, is a member of this year’s senior class.

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MERCERSBURG’S HISTORY FROM 1972–PRESENT

Katie Titus with Rachel Yang ’18

HEAD OF SCHOOL 2016 – PRESENT

KATIE TITUS Looking to the Past to Shape Mercersburg’s Future BY R A C H E L YA N G ’ 1 8

risp, cool air blows through your hair as you jostle your way toward the center of a large crowd situated on the steps of Main Hall. All around, throngs of people rush together to greet each other with hugs and laughter. You look around, and for a moment, you’re nervous. That is, until you see hands waving frantically above you, large grins spreading across faces, and eyes shining with excitement. You rush through the crowd, faces blurring into each other, until you reach your team—part of your extended family—and you are welcomed into the fold. As your eyes sweep across the mass of people around you, the Band begins to play tunes you have heard so many times they remind you of home. Mr. Jack Hawbaker takes you through a few songs, and finally, the first strains of the Alma Mater echo through the October breeze. As you link arms with the people who you have come to call your teammates, friends, and family, you might glance to the side where the faculty stand. If you had looked over in Katie Titus’s first year as Mercersburg’s head of school, you

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might have seen her begin to weep as that feeling—the one we all get when we stand together as a Mercersburg family— washed over the crowd. This is only one of the memorable moments Mrs. Titus shared with me when we sat down to talk one Monday afternoon at the end of April. Others include being introduced in the Irvine Memorial Chapel where she was able to witness for the first time what Board of Regents members had described to her as “the magic of Mercersburg,” going on the Senior Trip, and experiencing her first Academy graduation. As a senior who has either witnessed the magic of these events or has looked forward to them for years, I can say with certainty that these memories are no different than the ones that students treasure.

A couple of decades ago, many of the jobs available and the path needed to get there were clearer. Prep schools across the nation had a clearer charge. Students went to high school, then to college, and then into a traditional career path. But times have changed, and the way that schools prepare students can’t be the same, because the future they are preparing for isn’t the same. Mrs. Titus even mentioned that a day may come when heading to college might not be the “normal” path for all high-school graduates. Thankfully, Mrs. Titus and Mercersburg are working to create a school that trains problem solvers who can tackle 21st-century problems. When describing Mercersburg to someone unfamiliar with it, she talks about the people, the school’s strong sense of community, and its egalitarian spirit. Those who come to Mercersburg “bring their full selves to Mercersburg and will be embraced and accepted for that,” Mrs. Titus says. This egalitarian spirit, which Mrs. Titus draws a parallel to in the “lofty ideals” mentioned earlier, contributes every day to the comfort and happiness of the students on this campus. It is an idea that I relate to strongly. I can only speak for myself, of course, but the first thing I noticed when I stepped onto the Mercersburg campus for the first time was that the students here were happy. This is what drew me to this school in the first place and is part of what has made it such an amazing place to grow up. Mrs. Titus is constantly looking to the future of our school and what she can do to ensure it will continue to serve students well 50 years from now. She believes in instilling in students a belief in themselves and in their futures, as well as faith in this school and their fellow students. This idea, which she connected with “great faith” as well as “noble integrity” (which Mrs. Titus describes as the importance of being yourself “when nobody is looking, and when everyone is looking”) allows members of the student body to receive all the tools they need to grow to be the best versions of themselves. They can then head into the larger world with confidence. I can certainly say that this has been the case for me. Looking back four years ago at the 14-year-old girl who didn’t feel comfortable saying what was on her mind, I am immensely proud. The priorities and goals that Mrs. Titus has set for this

“Change has an impact on a school, but if you never lose your core values, then it doesn’t matter what we do on a day-to-day basis.” As we talked, it became clear that Mrs. Titus has an undeniable respect for the core values on which our school was founded. Across campus this past year, the phrase “strategic design” has been tossed around quite a bit. However, although this process is about preparing Mercersburg for the future, Mrs. Titus and the Board went back to the principles upon which Dr. William Mann Irvine first founded the school, characterized a century ago by the editors of the KARUX yearbook as “Lofty ideals, great faith, noble integrity, and a ceaseless devotion to a mighty task.” The challenge for Mrs. Titus and Mercersburg’s leadership was to redefine these still relevant terms in the context of today. This is especially important because, as Mrs. Titus says, “It roots us. Change has an impact on a school, but if you never lose your core values, then it doesn’t matter what we do on a day-to-day basis.” For Mrs. Titus, strategic design comes down to redefining these values, and putting language in place to protect and nurture them. This allows the school to prepare students for, as Mrs. Titus puts it, “a future that none of us can predict.”

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school are forward-thinking. They also hold an immense respect for the principles that this school was founded on and make it a place where I am no longer fearful of speaking my mind. While thinking about the past 125 years and the great leaders who have walked on this campus, I felt compelled to ask Mrs. Titus what she hoped her legacy would be when she left the school. She answered that she didn’t know that anyone truly knows what their legacy is going to be or even what they want it to be. However, she hopes that during her tenure as head of school, Mercersburg will be a pioneer in the development and innovation of education in ways that pave the path for other schools. Very broadly, she wants to influence the growth of this school and continue the tradition of great leaders that Mercersburg has produced. In the end, however, Mrs. Titus wants the entire school to participate in building the legacy and feel empowered to do so. She wants the community of Mercersburg, which contributes so much to the “magic of Mercersburg” that we all recognize when we walk onto this campus, to truly have ownership of our experience here. I have already witnessed the result of the empowerment that students enjoy at Mercersburg, as well as the issues that we face outside of this campus. There is no doubt in my mind that this can only lead to the growth of this school and to students contributing the best that they have to this ever-changing world.

editor’s note: During her senior year, Rachel Yang ’18 of Minocqua, Wisconsin, served as a prefect, an editor for the Mercersburg NEWS, a Green Team leader, and a member of the Blue Review literary staff. She was also a part of the swim team for all four years and a team captain her senior year. Her sister, Elizabeth ’20, is an 11th-grade student at Mercersburg. Yang is attending Vassar College, where she plans to continue her swimming career.

TIMELINE 2008 50th bell added to Swoope Carillon 2009 Rededication of PrentissZimmerman Quad; Regents’ Field completed; composer Philip Glass visits campus for two-day residency 2010 Nolde Gymnasium renovated; boys’ swim team wins Easterns; Fowle Hall becomes girls’ dorm, Tippetts Hall houses boys again 2012 Softball team wins state championship 2013 Simon Student Center and 1893 House completed 2016 Hale retires as head of school, Katherine M. Titus appointed first female head of school; Daring to Lead Campaign concludes (raising $300 million); girls’ swim team wins Easterns for the first time since 1987 2017 Hale Field House opens; girls’ cross country wins MAPL (first title earned by a girls’ team since Mercersburg joined the league in 2000) 2018 Baseball claims eighth straight MAPL championship; 125th anniversary celebration

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MERCERSBURG’S HISTORY FROM 1972–PRESENT

Dave Tyson All Roads Lead to Mercersburg BY MICHELE POACELLI

Everyone who knows Mercersburg Academy knows it’s the “middle of everywhere.” But for those traveling here for the first time, it can feel as if it’s in the middle of nowhere. The path is either straight on forever down Route 16 or winding through a complicated network of rural back roads. The spire of the Irvine Memorial Chapel is the weary traveler’s north star. Former Mercersburg faculty member David Tyson remem-

bers his first journey to Mercersburg. The year was 1958. Over the phone, Headmaster Charles Tippetts (1912) had offered him a position teaching math, and Tyson accepted the job without ever having set foot on campus. He was 25 years old, fresh out of the Army, and looking for direction in life. He had no prior teaching experience but had attended boarding school in Massachusetts, earned a combined undergraduate degree in math and philosophy from Yale University, and played college soccer for four years. Dr. Tippetts was willing to take a chance on him. Tyson took a train from Springfield, Massachusetts, to Philadelphia, then boarded a bus headed to Pittsburgh along U.S. Route 30. He got off at Fort Loudon and entered a bank to ask if he could use their phone to call the school for a ride. A banker working there said he lived in Mercersburg and would give the weary traveler a lift. It was in this way that Dave Tyson arrived to campus for the first time. He picked up the key to his room in Main Hall and unpacked his bags for what was to be a storied 40-year career. In the late summer of 2007, I journeyed to Mercersburg for the first time with my 15-month-old son in tow. I followed my husband, Todd McGuire, who had been hired to teach English and coach lacrosse. After a four-hour drive from South Jersey, my tired eyes alighted upon the spire of the Chapel in the distance. I took a right off of Route 16 into campus and curved gently down a green and sun-dappled Sycamore Lane. I remember feeling as if I had entered an enchanted place. Fifty years earlier, Dave Tyson was as taken with his first impression of the school as I was. “The campus was marvelous,” he said. The grandeur of the grounds and facilities hasn’t changed, but the campus map certainly has. When Tyson first laid eyes on Mercersburg in 1958, there was no Tippetts Hall, no Fowle Hall, no Ford Hall, and no arts building. The Edwards Room served as the dining hall; Irvine Hall housed the library; and Swank was an assembly hall. Students lived in Main, Swank, South, “beloved ’Eighty-eight,” and Laucks Hall. Postgraduate students were housed in Colonial Cottage on Church Street. There were 525 students on campus that year; all were male, and nearly all

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were white. Tyson estimates that there were about 50 faculty members employed by the school, and each of them shouldered a heavy load. In addition to teaching five math classes to a total of 78 students his first year, Tyson did five nights of dorm duty a week. He graded homework many nights until 1:30 a.m. and somehow found the energy to wake up the next day to teach class and coach soccer after school. Tyson learned the boardingschool ropes from esteemed colleagues, including the “brilliant” Walter Burgin ’53, Bill Howard, and Roy “Spike” Andrew, head of the math department at the time. Tyson came to relish his colleagues and to love teaching math. Dave and I met over spring break at Panera Bread in Chambersburg, where he now lives with his wife of 54 years, Henrietta. He plays golf every chance he gets. I had just returned from a weeklong school trip to San Francisco and Silicon Valley with Tim Crouch, director of regional engagement, and 10 students and was feeling good about the trip, but weary from the travel. In that moment, Tyson’s 1958 job description sounded exhausting. I asked what kept him energized for 40 years, and he replied, “The vitality and freshness of youth and the variety of the job—teaching, coaching, and working in the dorm. It’s a nice lifestyle. You get to teach and exercise with students after school and eat dinner with them. The students were respectful and enthusiastic. They enjoyed things.” I admired Tyson’s positive outlook, his framing of everything as an opportunity. For Tyson, whose parents divorced when he was young and whose upbringing he described as “austere,” attending a boarding school was his first opportunity to feel connected to a community. He went to the all-male Wilbraham Academy (now the coed Wilbraham & Monson) for four years of high school and enjoyed forming close friendships, playing sports, and learning from influential teachers. When entering the workforce, he thought he might want to return to Wilbraham to teach— but fate, the Yale Placement Bureau, and Route 30 led him to Mercersburg instead. Across a 40-year career under the leadership of four different Mercersburg heads of school (Charles Tippetts, Bill Fowle, Walter Burgin, and Douglas Hale), Dave Tyson saw the school undergo radical changes. He noted the significant contributions of Fowle, who introduced racial integration and welcomed Mercersburg’s first female students in more than seven decades. Fowle also introduced the advisee system and oversaw the construction of Tippetts, Boone, and Ford Halls. I asked Tyson what it was like to teach math to girls in those first years of coeducation, and he acknowledged the stereotypes of the time—that girls wouldn’t be interested in or have aptitude for math. Tyson watched those stereotypes shatter. His female students were among his most enthusiastic and eager. He remembers that they would arrive early to class and review homework together before

the lesson began. Tyson was as accepting of change in the 1960s as he is open to the evolving face of campus today. He remarked, “The changes become part of the whole.” And so they do. Over time, and as a result of the generosity of Doug Hale (who was willing to take a chance on me), my status has changed: from stay-at-home mom to Learning Services tutor to dorm dean of Culbertson House to full-time Writing Center Director and English teacher. Like Tyson, I enjoy wonderful students and colleagues who challenge and delight me every day. At an enchanted place like Mercersburg, it’s not so difficult to imagine how the years can melt into decades. My baby once in tow is now 12 years old and has just started his second year of middle school. Dave Tyson remains closely connected to Mercersburg, his home for four decades. He can still be seen on the soccer sidelines in the fall and attending Commencement exercises each spring. He likes to hear the student speeches. He made it a special point to attend this year’s graduation ceremony to see his old student, “Beno.” Tyson had many points of contact with Benicio Del Toro ’85 when he attended Mercersburg in the 1980s. He taught him math and did dorm duty on his floor in Fowle Hall. They shared a love for basketball. Tyson said, “I can recall his devotion to the sport and the joy he took in playing, and I can understand how he could manage to get revved up about acting and make it work for him. Kudos to his brother for pointing him in that direction.” I had hoped to run into Tyson at graduation but wasn’t able to find him among the happy swarms of buzzing graduates and family members. Afterwards, I emailed to ask what he thought of Del Toro’s speech. “Down to earth and personal,” he reported, and I agreed. Leave it to a math teacher to figure out the magic formula of Mercersburg. “Down to earth and personal” may be the reason why gifted teachers choose to spend their careers here and famous alumni follow the north star of the Chapel spire back to campus. The “middle of everywhere,” as it turns out, is a feeling more than a place.

editor’s note: Michele Poacelli has lived in Mercersburg since 2007 and spent four years as dormitory dean in Culbertson House. She teaches English, has served as director of the Writing Center since 2015, and is the 2018– 2019 recipient of Mercersburg’s Zern Excellence in Teaching Award. Michele is a graduate of Rutgers University and Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English.

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Saluting Shirley Zeger Af ter 47 Years BY ELIZABETH IM ’18

It was a lovely afternoon in April when I planned to meet with Shirley Zeger, a longtime staff member at Mercersburg Academy who would be retiring in June. I was amazed when I first heard about Mrs. Zeger and her 47 years of work at Mercersburg. When I accepted the assignment to interview her, a woman who has been involved in the changes this school has experienced for almost a half century, I was more curious than anything. What could I learn from her? I took a deep breath as I knocked on one of the wooden doors in Traylor Hall—the door to which Mrs. Susan Simar, the iconic, friendly face we first see when we walk into the building, kindly directed me. I heard a soft “Come in,” and I opened the door to her office. Mercersburg Academy may be small, but it is always easy to lose oneself in the busy and rapid schedule of each day. In Mrs. Zeger’s office, however, a thick glass window separated her space from the outside scenery of rushed students walking to their next classes. With the warm afternoon sunlight grazing the furniture, it felt peaceful. So was the presence of Mrs. Zeger, who sat behind her desk. Mrs. Zeger was born and raised just outside the borough of Mercersburg. Her earliest memories surrounding the Academy are of her friends coming to the school to portray female roles during Stony Batter productions, since Mercersburg was an all-boys’ school at the time. In fact, it was just around the time when Mrs. Zeger first started working for the Academy registrar’s office that the school started to shift toward coeducation.

“I started the same time girls became students,” she said. “It was indeed an interesting period to witness. For the first year [1969], the girls were just day students and then they began to board.” After working in the registrar’s office, she moved to the business office before she finally worked as the assistant to the headmaster (now called the “head of school”). Since then, Mrs. Zeger has worked for three heads of school: Walter Burgin ’53, Douglas Hale, and the current head of school, Katie Titus. “Coming in as the new head of school after Doug Hale’s incredible leadership was a daunting task,” Mrs. Titus said when I asked her about Mrs. Zeger. “Shirley was a calming presence from the start. She has been a true partner for me in these first two years, and frankly, I could not have done it without her.” Throughout her years of working at the school, Mrs. Zeger has witnessed the reshaping of the campus landscape—like the demolition of ’Eighty-eight Dormitory and the construction of the Burgin Center for the Arts in the space where Boone Hall once stood. Despite these changes, she told me the first floor of Traylor Hall has remained the same for all of her time here. Though I vaguely guessed the same, I nevertheless was shocked as I contemplated the fact that I was sitting next to the same office Mr. Burgin, the same headmaster for whom the performing arts building is named, had once used decades before. Unlike the mostly unchanged Traylor Hall, Mrs. Zeger pointed out that the ways of working have changed significantly. Namely, the development of technology has replaced her typewriter with a computer. She chuckled as she shared the memory

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of listening to Mr. Burgin’s recordings of what to type for him every morning. Now, there is no need for recordings (and a much smaller need for postage, given the development of email and the Internet). As Mrs. Zeger’s Traylor Hall colleagues observed, her ability to adapt is amazing. “If she struggled with those [technological] transitions, we certainly never knew,” said Mrs. Simar, who has been part of a Wednesday-morning breakfast group for more than two decades at the Foot of the Mountain Restaurant that includes Mrs. Zeger, Mrs. Jyl Hoover (longtime assistant to Academic Dean and Registrar Eric Hicks), and Mrs. Pandy Yeakle (who retired in April as an assistant to Associate Head of School Debbie Rutherford). “It’s been a wonderful time to share stories about children and grandchildren, worries about elderly parents, and our own aches and pains,” Mrs. Simar said. She laments that the tradition will not continue after Mrs. Zeger’s retirement, and she underscored how she will miss Mrs. Zeger’s calming presence. Mrs. Zeger feels the same warm feelings as she looks back on her time at Mercersburg and the friends she has made. “It’s been a good time,” she said. “I have to say I’ve had really generous supervisors who always made me feel that family came first. If something came up with my family, there was no question—you go take care of that. And of course, I’ve made wonderful friends,

lifelong friends who I know I’ll stay in touch with.” After 47 years of tireless work for Mercersburg, Mrs. Zeger rightfully looks forward to her retirement. When asked about her retirement plans, she smiled and said that she would like to do home projects and spend more time with her family— Shirley Zeger with Elizabeth Im ’18 perhaps go to more of her five grandchildren’s sporting events or make scrapbooks. She also shared that she would like to try yoga more often and continue her gardening. While June 29 marked Mrs. Zeger’s last day in Traylor Hall, she will continue to live just outside of Mercersburg and plans to spend time in and around the borough as she visits with friends. So if you see her while on a night out, be sure to say hello!

editor’s note: Jiwon “Elizabeth” Im ’18 is from Seoul, South Korea, and is attending Johns Hopkins University. During her senior year at Mercersburg, she was inducted into Mercersburg’s chapter of the Cum Laude Society and served as a Writing Center Fellow, as co-managing editor of Blue Review, and as an online editor for the Mercersburg NEWS. She could frequently be found painting in the Burgin Center for the Arts or taking a walk around campus.

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Addy Kipe ’18 with Pandy Yeakle

A Staff Member and a High School Senior: Crossing Paths in the ’Burg BY ADDY KIPE ’18

I sit on my bed in the dorm, the air coming from the open window is cool, full of moisture from the recent rains. The air sticks to my skin in a damp embrace. I know now why it took me so long to write this article. Saying goodbye to Pandy Yeakle means that I, too, must acknowledge my own imminent farewell. The walls of my dorm room are bare, boxes and suitcases hold everything that once made this place home. And for the first time, I think of Mrs. Yeakle’s office. As I remember it, it was neat and organized, exuding an air of permanence and efficiency, holding a woman’s career between four walls. It must be empty now, eagerly awaiting its new occupant. I wonder, in a few years, will these places still hold a piece of us? Since she first came to Mercersburg Academy in August 1985, Pandora “Pandy” Yeakle has served the school community tirelessly. April 13, 2018, was her final day before she embarked on a well-deserved retirement after more than 32 years at the school. Mrs. Yeakle has been an administrative assistant in the office of the assistant (now associate) head of school, working

six years with then-Assistant Head Jackie Powell. She has seen the name of the position change to associate head of school, and Yeakle worked another 26 years with current Associate Head of School Debbie Rutherford. During her first nine and a half years at Mercersburg, Mrs. Yeakle worked both in the assistant head of school’s office and in the college counseling office with then-directors Wirt Winebrenner ’54 and Bill McClintick. Through her office window, she has seen Boone Hall come down and the Burgin Center for the Arts rise in its place, and she has worked closely with three of Mercersburg’s headmasters/heads of school: Walter Burgin ’53, Douglas Hale, and now Katie Titus. But there is another side to Mrs. Yeakle, a side whose work and passions have changed the local community and made Mercersburg the place I knew as a child. I was born in the summer of 2000. That was the year that Mrs. Yeakle hung up her hat as an excavator for the archeology chapter she was instrumental in founding (Cumberland

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Valley Chapter 27). She began to work in the lab instead, cleaning artifacts and updating the database. Her work has manifested itself in Renfrew Park and its historical sites, where plaques written by her and her team stand guard over the ruins of lives past. Renfrew Park is located in Waynesboro, about 20 miles east of Mercersburg. It showcases the archeological sites of 200 years ago during the heyday of the Pennsylvania Dutch. The park also has trails and nature programs, centered as it is, around a river. I spent a lot of time in Renfrew when I was a young girl, two long braids plastered to my neck by water and sweat, ankle deep in the river catching crawfish and minnows. When I laughed hard and my laughter skipped across the water like a skipping stone, it wasn’t long before it would reach my sister who was hard at work just around the bend. She would make her way back triumphantly, crawfish in hand, her breathing labored as her feet struggled to find purchase on the moss-covered rocks. A thousand memories such as these cloud my mind. My days there were some of my happiest, hours spent exploring and dutifully reading the plaques so that I could picture the lives of those who used to live among the tumbled-down bricks, back when they stood tall and sturdy. My childhood, shaped by Mrs. Yeakle, a woman I never knew, whose hard work and initiative gave me and so many others so much. Our paths finally crossed at Mercersburg, and I discovered that we had something in common. We were both nearing the end of our time at Mercersburg, as she was set to retire in April and my graduation would follow in May. There is a special attitude amongst those who are leaving Mercersburg. It’s not the fresh-eyed enthusiasm of those coming in, the comfortable love of those who attend, or the wistful memories of those who have left. Leaving means that you can still hold on to those feelings of belonging, but you can also see the road ahead and how quickly life can change. But I have no doubt that a woman such as Mrs. Yeakle will only find happiness in the days ahead. As Mrs. Yeakle told me, retirement will find her adventuring on, spending time with her husband, Rodney; her children, grandchildren, and great-granddaughters; and returning to Mercersburg for a quick hello every now and then. And of course, still following her dreams, she serves as a member of the steering committee that is creating

Who’s Who? Can you find Pandy and Shirley in this photo?

Top: Pandy Yeakle (row 2, second from left) and Shirley Zeger (row 1, second from right) in 1986. Right: Pandy (left) and Shirley at Pandy’s retirement celebration in April 2018.

the Ebbert Spring Heritage Park and Archeological Preserve of Greencastle. Perhaps this will be the place where I will take my children to play in the streams and run wild on the paths one day.

editor’s note: Addy Kipe ’18 is from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and attended Mercersburg Academy for all four years. During her senior year, she served as a Writing Center Fellow and a member of the Community Engagement team. This fall, she began her college career at Johns Hopkins University. Addy’s sister, Laurel, is a member of the Class of 2017.

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MERCERSBURG’S HISTORY FROM 1972–PRESENT

Marilyn Houck Offering the Healing Touch for 32 Years BY K AT I E B R E N N A N ’ 1 9

When I first met Marilyn Houck, I was a ninth-grader who surprisingly had made the girls’ varsity soccer team and was having problems with my hip flexors. I was reluctant to go to the trainer because I thought that if I did, I would be pulled out of practice and seen as “weak.” When I walked into the training room, it was filled with athletes from different sports with different injuries and issues. Marilyn took care of all of them, making sure each person received the care he or she needed and felt acknowledged and respected. She worked to teach me certain stretches to help with my pain, and she made sure I knew that it was ok to come to the trainer and to come back if I needed. I saw her many more times over the next three years—during soccer, basketball, and track seasons, and Marilyn faithfully stood by me. Working with high-school athletes to heal their aches and pains—ranging from minor shin splints to bone fractures— is most certainly not a job for everyone. It requires saint-like patience and an extensive knowledge of the human body. Marilyn knows this better than most: for the past 32 years— until her retirement this past June—she dedicated her time and caregiving skills to being an outstanding athletic trainer at Mercersburg Academy. Marilyn always knew she wanted to work in athletic training at the high-school level. Growing up in Mercersburg, she was a three-sport athlete, playing field hockey and basketball and running track & field at James Buchanan High School. During her basketball season, she struggled with shin splints. By chance, Marilyn encountered a JB graduate who had gone on to become an athletic trainer and asked him what to do for her shin splints. He was able to help her with this injury and serve as an inspiration for her eventual career path. She began her journey at West Virginia University in the fall of 1976, where she enrolled in the athletic training program; from there, she went on to become a graduate student at the University of Kansas. She then worked as an athletic trainer at multiple high schools in Fairfax County, Virginia, before finally settling into her position as Mercersburg Academy’s head athletic

Katie Brennan ’19 with Marilyn Houck

trainer in the fall of 1986. “To be offered a job here was a real honor, and it’s just been great ever since,” she says. At first, under Headmaster Walter Burgin ’53, Marilyn was only a part-time employee. She went to Burgin and told him she needed more time on the clock to make the difference she was envisioning and meet everybody’s needs. She was then hired full-time and, over the course of her tenure at

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

Left: Houck (center) with the fall trainers in 1997. Below: Houck with the athletic department staff at her retirement celebration in 2018.

the Academy, ultimately earned the title of director of athletic training services. One of Marilyn’s favorite parts of her job has been “getting to know the students from all around the world.” She feels a sense of pride when she helps athletes recuperate and then witnesses them excelling on the field. Marilyn also notes the multifaceted nature of the athletes she gets to work with, and how exciting and impressive it is to see them excel on the field, or in the musical, the dance concert, or the classroom. When asked about advice for how to truly take advantage of the opportunity of attending school at Mercersburg Academy, Marilyn’s words are simple: “Get involved.” Obviously, she has a history of being involved: playing three sports while she was in high school, participating in the Mercersburg Area Community Chorus since its inception in 1976, and also being incredibly involved in the Academy’s community. During her time at Mercersburg, Marilyn was always willing to make time to see an athlete outside of the training room’s hours, and it was common to see her in the green golf cart zooming from game to game, ready to jump into action if needed. For those of us who know Marilyn well, her retirement definitely leaves a hole in the community. Marilyn made an important mark on this school, and she will be missed. However,

during her retirement, she says she will “definitely stay around here for a while,” and we will certainly “see her watching from the bleachers at athletic matches.” She also hopes to travel and visit her sister in Florida. Her absence is noticeable, but her position is now in the capable hands of Andrew Myers, who has been an associate athletic trainer since 2011. Students at Mercersburg can only hope to make as impressive a mark as Marilyn has in this community. We can try to do so by following her simple advice: “Get involved.”

editor’s note: Katie Brennan ’19, of Chicago, Illinois, is an editor of Blue Review, a Writing Center Fellow, and a member of the girls’ varsity soccer team and varsity track & field team. When not occupied by academics or athletics, she enjoys spending time with friends and family or listening to any and all music.

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MERCERSBURG’S HISTORY FROM 1972–PRESENT

Boyd Straley 57 Years, Five Heads of School, One Impressive Career BY DYLAN GANTT ’21

Boyd Straley is referred to as a “man of few words.” Before I talked to him myself, I was worried about getting one-word responses and was uncertain of my ability to ask explorative questions. However, it was just the opposite. His friendliness and willingness to respond to my long-winded questions showed me that he speaks only with meaning and quality rather than with quantity. He often finished his sentences with a chuckle, which set a smile on my face. Mr. Straley refers to himself as “more of a laid-back person… not a person who likes to be in the spotlight.” Nevertheless, his contribution to Mercersburg Academy was so great that the honor is ours to showcase him to our entire community. He worked at the Academy in the buildings and grounds department for 57 years through five heads of school, retiring at the end of August 2018. That is an impressive achievement. Before my interview with Mr. Straley, I learned that his first name, Boyd, coincides with that of the school’s second headmaster, Boyd Edwards. (However ironic, I found that this is just a coincidence.) Mr. Straley was born and raised on the Mercersburg school farm, which used to provide much of the food supply for the school. He remembers helping out around the farm through milking, baling, peeling, and cutting grains with a binder. Mr. Straley graduated from James Buchanan High School, and in 1961, just one year afterward, he began working at the Academy in the buildings and grounds department. His first line of work at the Academy was in the maintenance building where he assisted the superintendent of buildings and grounds, performing duties in Main Hall. He recalls during his first summer at Mercersburg, he stripped off wallpaper and fixed and painted the walls of Main Hall. In the fall of that year, he transitioned into the position where he remained for

much of his career. I wondered what motivated him to stay such a long time at Mercersburg, and he explained, “Everything just kept going day by day, year by year, and the first thing you know it just came to the point where I said, ‘Well, I guess this is where I’m going to end up being.’” There is a familiarity in regard to life at Mercersburg that makes us all feel so comfortable. Sometimes, we never know what we are going to do, and then we find our niche, and life just rolls by. Mr. Straley mentioned that toward the end of his career, he was responsible for inspecting, servicing, and maintaining the fleet of Academy vehicles that are used on the highway and around town for school travel. Because Mr. Straley worked at Mercersburg for so long, I

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wondered how much he thought As I wrapped up my conversathe school had changed. His tion with Mr. Straley, I asked what response was not surprising, but it his most memorable experience was very inspiring. He described was at the school and about his that when he started his career, plans for retirement. For a man work was done by “paper, pencil, who has worked here such a long typewriter, and so forth,” and time, it must be hard to rememthe biggest changes were often ber just a single experience that caused by technological develreally sticks out. He shared that opments and adaptations. As a his most fond memory was when student attending Mercersburg in Jimmy Carter, the 39th president 2018, I can’t imagine going one of the United States, came to visit day of school without FirstClass or the school. I can’t even imagine Schoology, or completing schoola president of the United States work and essays on a Mac. Mr. coming to the school, but it has Straley told me how “the technolhappened and hopefully will ogy has moved in and taken over An archival photo of buildings and grounds staff members happen again. featuring Boyd Straley (back row, second from left) pretty much the operation of the When it came to his retireschool in general—the classrooms ment, he emphasized that he is and the other departments also.” It’s all too true: every teacher not much of a beach or traveling guy. He thoroughly enjoys the has a personal MacBook, every student has an iPad, and the backwoods, in particular hunting big game, a hobby that he loves school depends on online applications to send and receive dearly. He told me that his plans “are not going to be anything instructions and assignments. exciting,” but I don’t think they have to be. For how much time Mr. Straley noticed another change as well: the increase in he has devoted to his career, he has all the right in the world to the number of employees at Mercersburg. As he says, “A lot of just relax and be laid back. the jobs were singled out more. You only had two and three people that operated departments back in the early days, and now it’s grown into a considerable amount of people who work editor’s note: Dylan Gantt ’21, of in the different departments.” I have never seen or could never Atlanta, Georgia, is a Writing Center see Mercersburg any differently than how I see it now. The Fellow and a member of the varsity people, the students, the faculty, the coaches, the teachers— boys’ swim team and tennis team. they are who they are, and I will never see it any differently. During his free time, he enjoys playing But from Mr. Straley’s perspective, the school is dynamic and table tennis in the Simon Student continuously changing day after day, year after year. He has Center, as well as hanging out with seen students and teachers come and go while he has remained his friends. His aspirations include steady in his position. For him, Mercersburg was never the same aeronautical engineering and political science. His sister, from year to year. That is the difference between four years at Courtney Gantt ’18, and mother, Lorelle Pottick Gantt ’76, Mercersburg and 57 years. are both alumnae of the school.

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MERCERSBURG’S HISTORY FROM 1972–PRESENT

Mercersburg Memories: 125 Years in the Making Throughout Mercersburg’s 125th year, we have been collecting memories from alumni, parents, faculty and staff, and friends of the school. These snapshots combine to show the rich history of a school and a community that means so much to so many. Here are just a few of the anecdotes we have received. To find more, or to share your own, visit us online at mercersburg.edu/magazine.

During a very hot weekend during summer school in 1969, a couple of us decided to go for a walk. I was talked into it. After several hours on Pennsylvania country roads with no water, we desperately drank from a hand-pump well. Finally, we made it back, and soon that evening, I became very sick. The following afternoon I crawled out of bed and stumbled to the infirmary. Dr. Prevost quickly determined from my story and a painful prod that I now had appendicitis. He told me we had to go to the hospital right away and quickly laid me down in the back seat of his car and drove me there where, after calling my parents for permission, I had the operation that night. My parents rushed there from Indiana, but I was fine and sore with a scar. After a few days, they took me back to school where everyone wondered where I’d been. I believe I am the reason for the fully operational hospital and the helicopter pad [which was once at the center circle of the soccer field]. — David D. Harlan Jr. ’71

I would say that Mercersburg was a period of time when I learned how to become a professional teacher. I came in the fall of 1965. I was 23. In the five years that I was at Mercersburg, I married, had two kids, watched the school change, and so forth. When I came, there were a bunch of us on the faculty who were young, really young. There was a tremendous amount of turmoil on campus. The ’60s were going on, for one thing. All students knew that if they didn’t get good enough grades to go to college, they were going to Vietnam. So, grade grubbing was a very serious business. Any and every point was questioned. That was one of the difficulties, but that was an understandable thing. And not only did students try to avoid the draft, but faculty members were concerned about it, too. The other thing my wife would say is that we worked and we worked and we worked. For instance, one of the rules of the English department was that every student wrote a 500-word essay every week. And on top of that, they wrote term papers. The grading was endless. We all had five classes, and we coached and had dormitory duty. I’m sure the current faculty does the same thing. When it came time for vacation, everybody—students and faculty—was wiped out. I wouldn’t think that that has changed. The first year I was at Mercersburg, I ran the fourth floor of Main Hall, and then I got married and we lived the rest of our time at 121 East Seminary Street across from the Landis House. That was good housing, and it looks just exactly the same 50 years later—at least from the outside. One night that I really remember was a Christmas Eve when I was at Mercersburg. About 10 p.m., we took the dog out, and there were cars lined up because Bryan Barker was playing the Carillon. And on that particular Christmas Eve, there was a lot of snow on the ground, and it was just a beautiful, crisp, crystal-clear winter night, and all of a sudden, the carillon started, and I’m sure it could be heard all over the valley. Bryan played Christmas carols, and then when he was finished, the cars started up and they went home. It truly was lovely. I won’t forget that. —Peter Fenninger, faculty (1965-1970)

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My brother, George Porter Jr. ’58, and I were working boys at Mercersburg from 1955 until 1958. I was very impressed with Ross Lenhart’s memories of Mercersburg in the last magazine. It was the era in which George and I attended and his recollections stirred many of my own. I also saw in that magazine that Headmaster Tippetts had been a working boy when he attended Mercersburg. Our dad, George Porter, was a graduate of Mercersburg in 1923. We lived in Castleton Corners, Vermont (coincidentally, three miles from where Katie Titus grew up). My father and mother were very concerned about our education, and somehow my father was able to get us workingboy scholarships at Mercersburg. I arrived there at 13 years old and five feet tall. Roy “Spike” Andrew was the dean of students and seemed to be the overseer of working boys. We ate all our meals in a private room off the kitchen. When we waited on tables at Keil Hall, dinners were carefully controlled by Mr. William Howard with a bell at his table by the kitchen door. Waiters executed based on when he rang the bell to signify different steps in the meal and when it was done. Food was served family style, and I believe there were 12 boys at each table along with a teacher. Things were less formal on Saturday night when the teacher was not present (we asked the boys to stack their used dishes for us at the end of the table, which was certainly not allowed with the teacher there). Waiters wore white jackets, and we entered from the kitchen and exited to the kitchen in a formation based on the location of the table. When I look at the cost of going to Mercersburg today, I realize even more how fortunate I was to be able to attend there. I could never have gone there unless I attended as a working boy. I never knew how many working boys were there in any one year. Working boys were treated no differently from other students. It was a life-changing experience for me, and I know it was for my brother as well. — Bill Porter ’59

I clearly recall the special train that took a large group from Harrisburg down to “the ’Burg.” As it went directly through the main streets of Carlisle, Shippensburg, and other towns, there was a great gathering of local girls out to get names, etc. of new students. I spent three years on the top floor of Main Hall where our commander was “Uncle” Pratt Tobey, a great helper and floor boss. He was from Massachusetts and attended Brown University in Providence. For two years, my roommate was Albert Jalkut ’36, who just passed away at age 98. Some of the nicknames attached to faculty members that I recall are hopefully of interest: “Doc” Edwards, headmaster; “Spike” Andrew, disciplinarian; “Ducky” Drumm, treasurer; “Sadie,” New Latin; “Doc” Rutledge, English; “Monty” Montgomery, French; “Hoot” Gibson, German. I recall we played the Navy “Plebes” and Princeton freshmen in football and won about half the games. The enrollment was 550 to 600 students, so that there were a lot of good participants for all sports, swimming especially. Cigarette smoking was banned; if a student got caught the third time, he went home to stay. I was inducted into Mercersburg’s Cum Laude Society. I attended the University of Chicago, graduating in June 1940, and worked for Kimberly-Clark for more than 30 years, retiring in 1976 from their international division. I’m still operating my tree farm in northern Wisconsin. After 82 years, I still like to remember life at Mercersburg. — George H. Crowell ’36

Saturday afternoon at the movies in town. Saturday evening ordering food in the dorm. Catching up on reading assignments in the bathroom after lights out on Sunday night. Bus rides to the girls’ schools. The chimes from the Chapel on Sunday nights. Those delicious deep-dish desserts. My fear of dropping a tray in front of Jimmy Walker. Jogging behind the coach’s car during cross country practice. Singing in the Glee Club and acting in the plays. The Great Debate! Being congratulated by Jimmy Walker after the debate. Mr. Kempton telling me that flunking second-year algebra was not the end of the world. Attending Chapel services, browsing in the library, leaving for vacation, listening to Dr. Edwards’ weather reports. My decision to go into the ministry, which took place in the library sometime after the Great Debate. — Rev. Robert Bast ’41

MERCERSBURG MAGAZINE FALL 2018

ANNUAL REPORT 2017–2018

The 2017-2018 academic and fiscal year marked the celebration of Mercersburg Academy’s 125th anniversary. Throughout the year, Mercersburg looked to its past in celebration of this milestone as it embraced its future through a strategic design process that called on all members of our community to provide input. Under the leadership of Head of School Katie Titus P ’20 and with oversight from the Board of Regents, Mercersburg also announced a 10 percent reduction in day tuition and limits to boarding tuition increases, affirming our commitment to making a transformative education available to families from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.

Program Updates ACADEMICS

Mercersburg piloted a new ninth-grade English curriculum during the 2017-2018 school year. This curriculum de-emphasized alphanumeric grades and broadened the students’ choices of what they read, wrote, and performed. The classes were taught by four to seven teachers working together with the entire ninth-grade class. In June, a five-student team took second place in the world in the Rapidly Manufactured Robot Competition at the 2017 RoboCup International in Montreal. A R T S A N D AT H L E T I C S

tions. The athletes represent 12 sports (baseball, girls’ basketball, boys’ cross country, girls’ cross country, football, boys’ golf, boys’ soccer, boys’ squash, boys’ swimming, girls’ swimming, boys’ track & field, girls’ track & field). C O U R A G E O U S C O N V E R S AT I O N S

In a year that saw increased emphasis on national civic discourse, Mercersburg intentionally created opportunities for students to meaningfully interact with views that differed from their own. In October and January, Mercersburg chose to pause its regular daily class schedule for a full day of Courageous Conversations, creating space for discussion surrounding issues of social justice, social equity, and identity. In support of the National School Walkout, approximately 100 Mercersburg students gathered near the steps of the Irvine Memorial Chapel in April for a student-initiated and student-planned rally to voice their opposition to the epidemic of gun violence in America— specifically (and especially) in schools.

For the first time in recent memory, the Mercersburg Academy Chorale and James Buchanan High School’s Messa Voce appeared together in a combined choral concert. The performance took place in March 2018 in the Irvine Memorial Chapel. The girls’ cross country team claimed the 2017 MidAtlantic Prep League championship, marking Mercersburg’s first MAPL team title in any girls’ sport. Continuing a streak of MAPL titles, Mercersburg’s varsity baseball team captured its eighth consecutive title with a perfect 10-0 record against its conference rivals. Looking to the future, a total of 32 members M E R C E R S B U R G G AT H E R I N G S of Mercersburg’s Class Mercersburg welcomed more than 700 guests—alumni, parents, and other family members of 2018 committed of current students—to campus for Family and Alumni Weekend in October 2017. For the to playing at NCAA first time ever, these two weekends were held concurrently as one celebration of all things Division I, Division II, Mercersburg. All told, more than 1,200 people participated in the weekend (including current and Division III institustudents, faculty, and staff ). Mercersburg Onward—the school’s largest off-campus event of the year—was a destination for nearly 450 people in January in Washington, D.C. To round out the year, Reunion Weekend 2018 drew a record crowd with more than 750 alumni, their guests, faculty, staff, and friends of Mercersburg. Classes ending in 3 and 8 held their five-year reunions, breaking the previous year’s record attendance of more than 600.

MERCERSBURG MAGAZINE FALL 2018

ANNUAL REPOR T 2017–2018

CAMPUS IMPROVEMENTS

Construction is underway on Mercersburg’s Lloyd Aquatic Center, which is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2019–2020 academic year. Excavation and construction work began on the site in February 2018, with a groundbreaking ceremony held in May 2018. The approximately 40,000-square-foot facility will include the Olympic-size 50-meter, 10-lane Furnary Pool with a diving well, in addition to locker rooms, seating for spectators, and office space. The aquatic center is named for Board of Regents member Phil Lloyd ’65, his wife, Peggy, and their daughters, former Mercersburg swimmers and divers Kim ’90 and Bebe ’94. The Furnary Pool is named in honor of Tony Furnary ’76, a leading cardiothoracic surgeon who was a standout swimmer and student at Mercersburg.

125TH COMMENCEMENT

2018 was a milestone as we celebrated Mercersburg’s 125th graduating class in May. Academy Award-winner Benicio Del Toro ’85 delivered the Commencement address to the 132 seniors and assembled guests. Members of the senior class enrolled at 87 different colleges and universities. For a further recap of 2017-2018, visit mercersburg.edu/year-in-review.

2017â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2018 Demographics S T U D E N T B O DY

373 boarding students

239 boys (54 percent)

68 day students

202 girls (46 percent)

86 members of the Class of 2018 (74 percent) were accepted at Barronâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Most or Highly Competitive Schools

Students came from 29 states, the District of Columbia, and 48 countries (22.6 percent were international)

TUITION AND FEES

Boarding student tuition: $58,325 (covering tuition, room, and board)

49 percent of students received financial aid (need-based/merit)

Day student tuition: $39,250

44 percent of students received needbased financial aid Average financial aid award: $33,010 Total financial aid awarded: $7.5 million

ACADEMICS AND PROGRAMS

Five theatre productions, three dance concerts, and two pops concerts

106 teaching and administrative faculty members (73 percent hold advanced degrees) and 132 full-time staff

26 sports; 25 varsity teams; 20 junior varsity, thirds, and club teams

170+ traditional courses and more than 40 honors, AP, and post-AP level courses

Four vocal ensembles and three instrumental groups

Two senior capstone experiences: MAPS and Springboard

MERCERSBURG MAGAZINE FALL 2018

ANNUAL REPOR T 2017–2018

Financials Endowment Highlights for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 Beginning Market Value $272,724,291 $241,489,853 $248,110,616 $238,704,630 $213,146,964 Endowment Gifts 14,768,695 10,943,046 10,670,987 13,395,101 4,314,262 Other Transfers In 4,577 148,160 1,339,585 11,424 71,614 Gross Return (before fees) 21,841,821 34,181,119 (4,705,137) 8,972,765 33,235,147 Expenses (3,061,944) (2,868,617) (2,647,890) (2,891,989) (2,601,937) Draw for Operating, Debt Service (11,054,792) (11,169,270) (11,278,308) (10,081,315) (9,461,420) and Campaign Costs Ending Market Value 295,222,648 272,724,291 241,489,853 248,110,616 238,704,630 Annual Return 6.3% 12.8% -3.5% 1.8% 14.5% The spending rate for operational support, excluding debt service and campaign costs, was 3.75%.

Asset Allocation as of June 30, 2018

Bonds 24.6% Cash 0.2% Equity 75.2%

Endowment Return as of June 30, 2018 Annualized Return One-year 6.3% Three-year 5.0% Five-year 6.3% 10-year 6.1%

The portfolio is highly liquid. We believe more than 50 percent of the entire portfolio could be sold for cash within a 30-day period. The portfolio is highly diversified to control the level of risk. We expect to have good, poor, and average returns in any given year, as the focus is on generating long-term returns that can support Mercersburg in perpetuity.

The portfolio’s main objective is to earn a return greater than spending plus inflation over long periods of time, which requires exposing the endowment to a prudent level of risk. The endowment’s return for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018, was 6.3 percent net of all fees, which was 1.3 percent behind the endowment’s asset allocation benchmark. The main driver of the underperformance was from active managers that follow a fundamentally driven value-oriented investment process that has added value over longer time horizons. U.S. equity was the best-performing asset class, where the portfolio’s single largest manager position generated a return of 14.9 percent compared to the S&P 500 return of 14.4 percent. A majority of the fixed income allocation is invested in high-quality shortduration fixed income, which generated a small positive return compared to negative returns that longer-duration high-quality bonds generated over the last year.

Revenue

Income Statement 2017-2018 Revenue Tuition and Student Fees Contributions Endowment Draw and Investment Return Auxiliary Activities Other Sources

Total Operating Revenue

Expenses Instruction Academic Support Student Services Institutional Support Operation and Maintenance Auxiliary Activities Interest Operating Transfers

2016-2017

$18,423,605 3,580,962 10,837,661 1,019,049 192,689

$18,275,081 3,523,713 10,890,812 894,701 245,935

34,053,966

33,830,242

55% Tuition 33% Endowment and Fees Income

9% Annual Giving 3% Other

$9,806,754 2,607,852 4,356,095 6,143,518 5,727,482 1,249,806 2,111,812 2,046,722

Total Operating Expenses 34,050,041 Change in Assets from Operating Activities 3,925

$9,819,902 2,384,813 4,053,668 5,881,554 5,741,411 1,373,571 2,097,252 2,474,353 33,826,524

Expenses 38% Instruction and Academic Support

12% Auxiliary Activities, Interest, and Operating Transfers

13% Student Services

19% Maintenance

3,718

18% Institutional Support

Gifts and Commitments Funding Type Financial Aid Faculty Support Program Support Campus Sustaining Unrestricted Endowment Facilities Annual Giving To Be Designated

Cash Received New Commitments $6,075,716 $3,304,296 2,417,003 173,591 1,036,248 506,580 15,800 800 5,223,929 198,033 6,059,672 6,016,645 3,548,942 3,764,656 0 126,180 24,377,309 14,090,780

William Mann Irvine Society: 702 Number of Torchbearers: 2,648 Marshall & Irving Alliance members: 8* *New members added in 2017-2018 For descriptions of each society, visit mercersburg.edu/recognition.

Giving by Constituency

Annual Fund Total Annual Fund donors: 3,478 First-time Annual Fund donors: 355 Gift range: $1 to $200,000 Median gift: $100 Total reunion giving: $551,410

Giving Societies (number of members)

Solicited alumni who made gifts: 41% Solicited parents who made gifts: 61% Faculty who made gifts: 100% Staff who made gifts: 52%

Alumni $2,472,812 Parents $985,432

Friends $90,698

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Athletics D AT E S T O R E M E M B E R

Feb 1–3

U.S. Squash High School National Team Championships (at Hartford, Connecticut)

Feb 16

Feb 15–16

Eastern Interscholastic Swimming & Diving Championships (at Lancaster, Pennsylvania)

Feb 22–23 National Prep Wrestling Championships (at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)

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

Varsity Athletics Notes The baseball team won the Mid-Atlantic Prep League for the eighth-straight year, compiling a perfect 10-0 record in MAPL play. Mercersburg has won or shared the league title every season since 2011. Jayvien Sandridge ’18 was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles and is playing in the team’s minor-league system.

Mid-Atlantic Prep Indoor Track & Field Championships (at Hale Field House, Mercersburg)

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

It was a record-breaking year for Sophia Divone ’19, who set five school girls’ indoor track & field records (in the 800m, 1600m, mile, 3000m, and 3200m) and a sixth in the mile during the outdoor season. The indoor triplejump record fell on both the boys’ and girls’ sides, as Mikale Williams ’18 (boys) and Grace Lewis ’20 (girls) secured top performances. Isabell Baltimore ’18 set a school record in the girls’ 400m. Divone and Williams were Most Outstanding Female Track and Most Outstanding Male Field performers, respectively, at the MAPL Indoor Championships, and Baltimore was the Female Track Athlete of the Meet at the MAPL Outdoor Championships.

Xavier Dreux ’18 (diving/outdoor track & field) and Lauren Jones ’18 (squash/lacrosse) became the 30th and 31st Mercersburg athletes in school history to receive 12 varsity letters in an athletic career. In the pool, Mandolin Nguyen ’19 broke three school records in the girls’ 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard breaststroke, and 200yard individual medley. Evan Zhang ’18 set a new boys’ school record in the 100 breast. Meghan Scott ’19 placed fifth in diving at the Eastern Interscholastic Swimming & Diving Championships (one of the top diving performances in recent Mercersburg history), and the Blue Storm swimming and diving

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teams finished third (girls) and seventh (boys) at Easterns. Aurelius Dunbar ’20 placed at the National Prep Wrestling Championships for the second time in as many years—this time finishing third at 152 pounds after a 5-1 tournament. He was joined at National Preps by qualifiers Sam Barnes ’19, Raphael Gotera ’19, José Cervera ’18, and Nico Critides ’18. Under third-year head coach Sean Crocker, the boys’ basketball team won 13 games, which was more than in its previous two seasons combined. The Storm finished 3-2 in the MAPL, its best league record since 2005-2006. The boys’ squash team compiled an 18-6 record and reached the finals of the MAPL Championships; Cameron Temoyan ’18 was named All-MAPL. The girls’ lacrosse squad won the IndependentParochial School League (IPSL) championship by defeating St. James in the title game.

A total of 32 Class of 2018 athletes made commitments to play in college: Ally Armbruster (swimming, Air Force), Isabell Baltimore (cross country/ track & field, Navy), Boone Brothers (swimming, Navy), Joseph Bucci (golf, Kenyon), Logan Cort (swimming, Dickinson), Caitlin Dawson (swimming, Oberlin), Bass Diakhoumpa (soccer, Juniata), John-Anthony Di Tullio (basketball, Trinity [Texas]), Courtney Gantt (swimming, Middlebury), Jake Goretski (lacrosse, Lebanon Valley), Tijani Harris (football, Trinity [Conn.]), Jack Hinsperger (football, U. of Waterloo [Canada]), Dalton Jackson (baseball, Navy), Justin Jelacic (football, U. of Guelph [Canada]), Carrie Jornlin (basketball, St. Bonaventure), Maddie Lauther (swimming, Miami), Matt LoPresti (football, Hamilton), Sofia Makarova (swimming, Middlebury), Cameron Porter (soccer, Navy), Thomas Prim (squash, Navy), Eli Riley (baseball, Connecticut), Alex Rogat (basketball, Chestnut Hill), Nick Rubino (football, Hamilton), Tyler Russell (swimming, Emory), Brad Rynkowski (cross country/track & field, Marist) Jayvien Sandridge (baseball, Central Florida/drafted by Baltimore Orioles), Chris Toomey (soccer, Navy), Trent Topping (baseball, Navy), Abby Voce (swimming, Babson), Charlie Webb (football, Case Western Reserve), Mikale Williams (track & field, High Point), and Evan Zhang (swimming, Army).

Arts

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

D AT E S T O R E M E M B E R

Feb 8-10

Stony Batter Players: Chicago Simon Theatre, Burgin Center for the Arts

Apr 27

Spring Music Concert 7:30 p.m., Simon Theatre, Burgin Center for the Arts

Apr 5

Spring Pops Concert 7:30 p.m., Simon Theatre, Burgin Center for the Arts

May 11

Spring Dance Concert 7:30 p.m., Simon Theatre, Burgin Center for the Arts

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

Stony Batter Players Last winter, Stony Batter Players performed the musical Anything Goes, directed by Laurie Mufson, and in the spring, for the second year in a row, presented a 10-Minute Play Festival, featuring plays directed by faculty members Kelly Dowling and Matt Maurer and students Addie Dumm ’18, Nevie Gawlik ’19, and Elizabeth Heidecker ’19.

The cast of Anything Goes

10-Minute Play Emotional Baggage

10-Minute Play 21 Chump Street

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2 0 1 8 –2 0 1 9

Magalia

Octet

Music The 2018 Spring Pops Concert, which took place in April, included performances by the Jazz Band, Magalia, and Octet. Magalia (Mercersburg’s female a cappella vocal group) is directed by Jim Brinson, Richard Rotz directs the Octet (the school’s male a cappella vocal group), and Bryan Morgan ’07 is director of the Jazz Band. Selections by the Jazz Band included “Out of the Doghouse,” “A Gentle Touch,” “Feels So Good,” and “Sir Duke.” Magalia performed “4 Chords,” “Mr. Sandman,” “Mamma Mia,” and more, while the Octet setlist included “Let Her Go,” “Stand by Me,” and “Wichita Lineman,” among others.

Mercersburg’s Spring Music Concert took place in April and featured the

Chorale

school’s Band, Chorale, and String Ensemble. Richard Rotz directs the Band, Bryan Morgan ’07 directs the Chorale, and Michael Cameron is director of the String Ensemble. Highlights from the String Ensemble setlist included “Royal Fireworks Overture,” “Romance for Viola and Strings,” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Band selections included “Wildcat Valley Fanfare,” “Fuego del Alma,” and “Summertime,” and to round out the evening, the Chorale performed such pieces as “Georgia on My Mind,” “Jar of Hearts,” and “Russian Picnic.”

String Ensemble

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

“La Bayadere,” choreographed by Denise Dalton

“Hoody Hoodie,” choreographed by guest choreographer Jacqueline Sinclair

“Check, Mate” choreographed by Denise Dalton and Summer Zhang ’18 (Pictured: Zhang and Kionne Hendrickson ’18)

Dance Mercersburg presented its Spring Dance Concert in May. Denise Dalton is the director of dance, and the performance featured a variety of genres including jazz, tap, ballet, hip-hop, and more. Student choreographers for the evening included Emma Maurer ’18, Emily Bell ’18, Anna Mele ’19, Vilma Sakkinen ’19, Cherie Sio ’19, Ella Everke ’19, Sarah Noorbakhsh ’21, and Summer Zhang ’18. “Gate,” choreographed by Denise Dalton (Pictured: Brooke Wilten ’18, Ellie Gregg ’18, Summer Zhang ’18, and Emma Maurer ’18)

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2 0 1 8 –2 0 1 9

Visual Arts Last spring, students took part in painting, ceramics, drawing, and digital photography. Fine-arts faculty include Wells Gray, Kristen Pixler, and Sydney Caretti.

Megan List ’20

“A Climber’s Hand” by Hazel Yonke ’19

Jesse Zhang ’20

Mason Reed ’21 “Reef ” by Mary DiLalla ’19

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

Class Notes ’37

Charles Hough’s wife, Martha, passed away May 1, 2018.

’44

William Harris received the 2018 Distinguished Contributions to Orthopaedics Award from the American Orthopaedic Association.

’51

The History Press recently published Dale Perelman’s Road to Rust: The Disintegration of the Steel Industry in Western Pennsylvania. The book covers the working man’s battle for unionization following the formation of U.S. Steel in 1901 through the demise of the United States as a major metal productive power in the 1980s.

’62

Bruce Eckert’s daughter, Katherine Talbot, passed away December 18, 2017.

’63

John Howell’s wife, Dorothy, passed away July 15, 2017.

Bert McGann’s wife, Evelyn, passed away February 12, 2018.

Witcher McCullough received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.

John Wolcott’s wife, Eleanor, passed away February 1, 2018.

Frank Shipper, a professor of management in Salisbury University’s Franklin P. Perdue School of Business, was a keynote speaker at the inaugural International Rendanheyi Model Forum in Qingdao, China. Frank spoke before 2,000 guests and an estimated 2 million more following via live streaming.

’57

Robert Park remarried in 2015 to Marilyn Bowen. “We took a ’round-the-world cruise on Holland America in January,” shares Robert. In spring 2018 Bob Walton visited Peddie School, where his daughter, Leigh ’82, is dean of students and coaches varsity girls’ lacrosse. There he reconnected with faculty emeritus Ron Simar and met baseball coaches John Lowery and Michael O’Keefe. “As each inning began and the Mercersburg pitcher began to throw his fastball or curve, I thought: ‘That was me 62 years ago in front of Coach Kuhn and Coach Conlin!’” writes Bob.

’58

Charlie Barndt celebrated 50 years working for Lockheed Martin in 2017.

Ross Lenhart shares that after experiencing a wonderful 60th reunion at Mercersburg in June combined with the great Class of 1959, he and his wife Katharine enjoyed a wonderful cruise on the St. Lawrence River to Montreal, Quebec, Halifax, and Bar Harbor, ending in Boston.

’59 60th

REUNION:

June 6-9, 2019

Submit class notes via email to classnotes@mercersburg.edu or online at mercersburg.edu/classnotes. The submission deadline for the next issue is May 1, 2019. Submission does not guarantee publication. Mercersburg reserves the right to edit submissions for space or content, and is not responsible for more than reasonable editing or fact-checking. When submitting a photo, please provide the highest-quality version possible, and include the names of all persons pictured and their Mercersburg class years. Due to size and quality considerations, some images may not be suitable for print.

’66

David Scoblionko and his brother, Eric ’72, report that their mother, Reba, passed away February 22, 2018, at age 97. She and her husband, Emanuel, who preceded her in death in 1975, established the annual Scoblionko Declamation Prize in honor of David’s and Eric’s involvement with Declamation.

’67

Tom Motheral competed in the United States Masters Swimming Championships in Indiana this past May. He raced for the Ohio Masters Team (70-74 age group), placed 6th in the 50- and 100-yard butterfly, and medaled in four other races. Tom was able to connect with Jay Yarid ’81, who was also competing at the meet.

’64 55th

REUNION:

June 6-9, 2019

Reunion Committee: Alan Brody, Phil Dunmire, Joe Huber Joe Huber was elected chairman of the Lenfest Scholars Foundation, which was created by Gerry ’49 and Marguerite Lenfest and has provided hundreds of college scholarships to Pennsylvania students. After four decades, Joe is still working for Credit Suisse. He and his wife, Louise, split their time between Vero Beach, Florida (John’s Island Club), Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and sailing in New England. Joe encourages any classmates living in or traveling to Florida to stop by for a visit!

Andy Schnebly ’64 visited Manta Ray Bay Resort in Colonia, Yap, Micronesia, to work with the LDS Charities humanitarian wheelchair project.

’65

Greg Smith’s mother, Lillian, passed away July 1, 2017. She was also the grandmother of Aaron Smith ’95 and Benjamin Smith ’99. Jim Zeger received the 2018 James Buchanan Award from the Borough of Mercersburg and a certificate of appreciation from Pennsylvania state representative Jesse Topper for his many years of volunteer service in the Mercersburg community.

Serge Grynkewich ’66 shares that he had the good fortune to visit his seventh continent, Antarctica, during a 25-day trip to Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and the Falkland Islands. “In retirement, I have vigorously pursued my passion of travel and must say that this trip was one of the very best,” he says.

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2 0 1 8 –2 0 1 9

Stephen Signorile’s father, Anthony, passed away October 10, 2016.

’68

Michael Gery shares, “The 50th reunion [in June] confirmed my belief that Mercersburg succeeded at instilling in us healthy portions of civility, kindness, and humor. I remind you all of the invitation to visit us on the Outer Banks. This past October Susan and I roamed northern France and the Rhineland into Austria. We retraced exactly the route her father traveled as an orthopaedic surgeon with the 106th Evacuation Hospital, as they followed the Third United States Army (commanded by George S. Patton) from the Normandy landings in June 1944 through June 1945. Also, you can see my novel Wave On at michaelletters.com and buy it on Amazon.” Joseph Jamison writes, “Exactly one month after the 50th and still flush with the high spirits (and spirits) of Reunion Weekend, Susan and I traveled to Washington, D.C., to spend a long weekend at the Willard Hotel. On Friday night, we were joined by Robert Magill, anxious to get a head start on his weekend beer drinking and yarn-spinning. Amazingly, there were a few Mercersburg yarns remaining to be spun. Jeff Driscoll joined us for lunch the next day at the hotel café. After laughs, drafts, and sandwiches, Robert, Jeff, Susan, and I trooped over to the National Gallery of Art for the afternoon. As we strolled through the various galleries, we suppressed the urge to break out into the Mercersburg fight song. I didn’t leave the Gallery with a Goya or Vermeer tucked under my arm, but did leave the Willard the next day with a couple of original Driscolls. Returning for the 55th isn’t on my bucket list—as the only thing on my bucket list is to one day own a bucket—but we heartily concurred that it would be great fun to see us all again.”

’69 50th

REUNION:

June 6-9, 2019

Reunion Chairs: Bill Gridley and Andy Wolf Granville Smith retired from Owens Corning in 2017 after 12 years of working for them in Toledo, Ohio. He shares that he moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, in January 2018 and is enjoying living in the Valley of the Sun.

1969 classmates David Meckley (left) and John Brink reunited for the first time in nearly 50 years at the Country Club of York (Pennsylvania) last May. David graciously welcomed John and his son, Harrison ’11, for a U.S. Open local qualifying practice round.

’71

Stephen Upham’s mother, Jacqueline Taylor Upham, passed away January 23, 2018. She was also the grandmother of Pierce Lord ’98.

’72

Suellen Burkey is vice president of the Franklin County Historical Society and published Tales from the Old Jail: An Informal History about the former jail in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Kate Stroup Brooks was named one of the 10 Most Visionary Leaders in Career Services in 2013 and 2014 by CSO Research. Since June 2016, she has been the executive director of Vanderbilt University’s career center.

’73

Bill Geppert and his wife, Amy, completed a 3,500mile bike ride across the United States in 2017 to raise money for the Challenged Athletes Foundation, which provides opportunities to people with physical challenges to pursue active lifestyles through physical fitness and competitive athletics. Their 10-week journey took them from Oregon to Maine and funded grants for equipment and prosthetics.

’74 45th

REUNION:

June 6-9, 2019

Reunion Committee: Rich Grace Jr., Lance Grove, Vince Nacrelli, Moira Paddock, Chris Fry Tarbox Lance Grove retired after a 40-year career in health care and shares that he’s looking forward to reconnecting with his classmates at Reunion Weekend 2019 in June. “I did some reflecting on the impact Mercersburg had on my life,” he writes. “One thing I realized was how my experience [there] laid a foundation that I was able to build upon.”

’77

Lindley Peterson Fleury’s son, Greg, passed away April 3, 2018. He was also the brother of Ashley Doughty ’04.

Carol Furnary Casparian ’79 (right) and Kelley Keeler Short ’91 enjoyed the cherry blossoms during an April trip to Washington, D.C.

’78

Charlene Bisceglia Barnard writes, “My husband, Craig, and I have been living in Chicago for 30+ years and loving it. Two grown kids—daughter got married in July 2018. Avid cook and traveler. Would love to connect with my old Mercersburg friends!” Nunzie Gould’s father, Kingdon, passed away January 16, 2018. He was also the grandfather of Camilla ’01 and Mary ’08. Charles Rogers’ mother, Rinda, passed away April 8, 2018. She was also the grandmother of Madeline Rogers ’17..

’79 40th

REUNION:

June 6-9, 2019

Reunion Chair: Lacy Rice III Steven Hummel is pastor of Trinity Reformed United Church of Christ in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and was honored in May 2018 with the Allan S. Meck Award for Excellence in Pastoral Ministry from his alma mater, Lancaster Theological Seminary. Robert “Dan” Wagner, father of Greg Wagner, David Wagner ’81, and Brian Wagner ’84, and a benefactor of the Wagner Family Scholarship Endowed Fund, passed away July 5, 2018.

’80

Patrick Williams is in his third year as the management officer at the United States Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. Cairo is his 12th overseas assignment with the Department of State and, at the conclusion of his assignment in the summer of 2019, he hopes to retire from the Foreign Service to his home on Lake Hartwell in South Carolina. “My son, Patrick, enrolled at Clemson University as a freshman in the autumn of 2018,” writes Patrick. “Go Tigers!”

’81

Living in Mythology, an exhibition of paintings and other works by Jean Diver Milligan, was displayed in the Carvel State Office Building in Wilmington, Delaware, in spring 2018.

Clay Tettelbach ’80 (right), a pilot for Under Armour, completed a five-day Latin America tour in December 2017 with Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps (center), who was traveling on behalf of the athletic apparel company.

Marriages 1

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

1. Olivia Bulcao ’10 married Danny Sekerak on June 24, 2017, in Hot Springs, Virginia. Pictured are classmates Jennifer Leahey, Anmargaret Warner, and Cammie Reilly. 2. Archana Patel ’99 married Anup Amin on April 15, 2017, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Pictured immediately to the left of Archana are 1999 classmates John Wesley and Tracia Greene Sedivy; fellow alumna Arpita Patel ’00 is to the right of Anup.

3. Lee Ware ’02 married Brian Kaviar on April 28, 2018, in Thurmont, Maryland. Pictured from left to right: faculty emeritus Ray Larson, Brian, Lee, and 2002 classmates Katie Heimer and Jennifer McGhee Wentzel. 4. Tad Holzapfel ’09 married Stephanie Sasse ’11 on June 30, 2018, in the Irvine Memorial Chapel at Mercersburg Academy, with a large alumni constituency in attendance at the ceremony and at the reception at Fountain Head Country Club in Hagerstown, Maryland. Tad and Stephanie reside in Hagerstown, where he is a financial adviser with the Holzapfel Investment Group of Wells Fargo and she is a third-grade teacher with Washington County Public Schools. 5. Alicia Furnary ’09 married Philip Amato on June 16, 2018, in Vermont. Attendees included (back row, left to right) Marie Furnary ’78, Anika Kempe ’09, Tony Furnary ’76, Mike Stapp ’83, Jeanne-Marie Furnary ’83, Caroline Casparian ’16; (middle row, left to right) Carol Furnary Casparian ’79, Elizabeth Casparian ’13, Lena Finucane ’09, and Becca Galey ’09. Not pictured but also in attendance was Denise Dupré ’76.

6. Phoebe Moore ’13 married Matthew Miller on May 26, 2018, in McHenry, Maryland. Pictured from left are 2013 classmates Caroline Yoo, Kara Alvarez, Phoebe, Ashley Frederick, Woodli Krutek, and Miranda Lang. 7. Bailey Blake ’11 married faculty member Coleman Weibley on October 6, 2018, in the Irvine Memorial Chapel. —————— Hannah Starr ’08 and Tim Cox, May 20, 2017, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Hannah shares that she is working as the development coordinator for Camp Joy El.

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2 0 1 8 –2 0 1 9

Lionel Epstein, father of Sally Anne Epstein and grandfather of Sarah Epstein Sutton ’04, passed away April 5, 2017. J.D. Koch’s mother, Mary Lou Dotson Koch, passed away July 12, 2018. Susan Raley Hopkins’ mother, Susan, passed away February 1, 2018. She was also the mother of the late Robert Raley ’75 and Margaret Raley Ward ’85 and grandmother of Natalie Hopkins ’09.

’82

Rip Esselstyn appears in the nutrition documentary The Game Changers, released earlier in 2018 and produced and directed by Academy Award winners James Cameron and Louie Psihoyos.

’83

Erica Falke is working as an artist and graphic designer. Visit her website at iamdrexel.com. Anne Raugh Keene has published The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team that Helped Win WWII. Visit her website at annerkeene.com.

Pictured from left are Scott Gilbert ’82, Lisa Pauley Winebrenner ’81, and Peter Winebrenner ’82 at a Baltimore Orioles baseball game in June. Scott spends his winters in Antarctica at the National Science Foundation base at McMurdo Station and his summers in Bellingham, Washington, fishing, snowboarding, and traveling. Lisa and Peter live outside Baltimore; Lisa coaches the running sports at Roland Park Country School, a girls’ day school, and Peter is an architect with Hord Coplan Macht, leading the firm’s education studio.

’84 35th

REUNION:

Dr. William “Billy” Su ’88, a vascular surgeon with Meritus Health System in Hagerstown, Maryland, performed life-saving emergency surgery on faculty emeritus Tim Rockwell early on the morning of March 21, 2018. Tim suffered a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm the night before in the middle of Winter Storm Tobias.

June 6-9, 2019

Reunion Chairs: Rachel Haines Bowman and Ann Quinn Hannah Barrett’s art exhibit Accessories was presented at Yours, Mine, & Ours, a New York City art gallery, in May and June 2018.

’85

1988 classmates Andrew Saulnier and Melvin Stewart met up at the NCAA swimming championships in Minneapolis, Minnesota, this past March, where Andrew’s son, Nick, was swimming for the University of Minnesota.

Michael Davies has co-authored Men in Blazers Present Encyclopedia Blazertannica: A Suboptimal Guide to Soccer, America’s Sport of the Future Since 1972, available now in hardcover. Chipper Lichtenstein participated in the North American Bridge Championship in 2017 in San Diego and had the chance to see classmate Keith Lutman. He also represented Florida and the Caribbean in the North American Bridge Championship—North American Pairs competition in Philadelphia in early 2018, where he ran into John Laufer ’83 and spent some time with Jonathan Becker ’86.

’86

Shawn Meyers was selected by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts to attend a weeklong educational conference for judicial leadership at the National Judicial College in Nevada last June. Course attendees included trial and appellate judges from various states and the country of Georgia.

Betsy Vastine, mother of Mark Vastine and Karen Vastine ’93, passed away April 18, 2018. Pictured from left are Bruce Keizler ’86, Andy Alpert ’82, and Lee Keizler ’84 at a Pittsburgh Steelers game last season. York and Los Angeles offices, respectively. “Three Mercersburg alums, working for the same company, in N.Y.C., L.A., and Dallas,” says Steve. “Considering the size of the school, that struck me as amazing, and my boss was floored.”

’88

Charles Streeter, father of Julia Streeter Berle and grandfather of Peter Berle ’20, passed away August 8, 2017.

’89

’87

Steve Lansdale is working as a public relations specialist for a Dallas auction house and discovered that Class of 2000 alums Keith Davis and Amanda Crawford also work for the company—in their New

30th

REUNION:

June 6-9, 2019

Reunion Chair: Beth Spurry

’90

After playing professional basketball in Europe for several years, Jason Crump held several business development positions at Lloyds Banking Group. Most recently, he joined Shawbrook Bank, where he is growing a new marine finance business and team there. Jason and his wife, Joanne, have a 14-year-old son, Jaden, and reside in England. Julie Martin and the visitor center at her family’s Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, business, Martin’s Potato Rolls, were mentioned in a Huffington Post article “35 Great Immersive Tours and Experiences in Northeast USA” in January 2018.

’91

John Barnes, his wife Kassie, and their son Jack moved to Brecksville, Ohio, from the D.C. area. John is now the advisory leader for the City of Cleveland. “Cleveland is greener than anyone could

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

From left are 1994 classmates Matt Beatty, Ricardo Benitez, and Jack Sordoni during a mini-Swank Hall reunion in Costa Rica last spring. (See class note.) imagine,” he says, “although there are a few too many Ohio State fans for my taste.” John and family vacationed with Chris Frisby and family in Amelia Island. “It was great to catch up and for Jack to see his godparents, Chris and Erin,” he adds.

’92

Peggy Burns is a Scout leader in Montreal and took her cub troop to the Côte-des-Neiges veterinarian clinic, owned by veterinarian Allison Felley Jacquemont ’92. Meghan Myers Labot was named to Graphic Design USA’s 2018 People to Watch list. She has left her role at Spring Design Partners after 14 years to start her own branding consultancy, MR LABOT.

’93

Danielle Dahlstrom completed a seven-year rotation at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. She led projects on nuclear security in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, North America, and South America, assisting states in building a global response to the threat of nuclear terrorism. Danielle was delighted to catch up with August Goodman ’92 and his wife, Elizabeth, during their visit to Vienna. “It was like no time had passed, even though it had been 25 years!” she says. Hamza Suria was named a finalist in Ernst & Young’s 32nd annual U.S. Entrepreneur of the Year competition. Hamza has been chief executive officer at AnaptysBio since 2011.

’94 25th

REUNION:

June 6-9, 2019

Reunion Chair: Bebe Lloyd 1994 classmates Matt Beatty, Ricardo Benitez, and Jack Sordoni had a small reunion in Costa Rica last spring on Jack’s boat. The trio enjoyed a long weekend of sailfish and tuna fishing off the Pacific coast. “Fishing was good, but having the Swank Hall group back together after 24 years was great,” writes Matt. “We are all looking forward to seeing everyone at our 25th this year!” Matt and Rico also caught up with Adam Baugh ’94 for dinner in San Jose before the flight out.

Members of the Class of 2004 got together for some fun and sun in Dewey, Delaware. Left side (back to front): Graham Zifferer, Alex Lowe, Mike Strouss, Andy Gottlieb. Right side (back to front): Will Gridley, Nick Mellott, Harry Kline, and a mutual friend.

’95

James Barnes completed a master’s of business administration at North Carolina State University, which included a McLauchlan Leadership Fellowship. Sarah Burbank Brenes and her mother, Eloise P ’76, ’80, ’81, ’83, ’89, ’95, connected with faculty members Debbie and Frank Rutherford ’70, P ’03, ’06, ’06 in Costa Rica while the Rutherfords were visiting the country over spring vacation.

’96

Timothy Kim has been running a plastic manufacturing company in Nigeria for more than 10 years. He is currently looking to expand business into Yangon, Myanmar, and would love to hear from friends via tim1127@gmail.com.

’98

Ping Ngeow Shen has co-founded Latitude 38 Housing Services and Urbanests in San Francisco.

’99 20th

REUNION:

June 6-9, 2019

Reunion Chair: Jasen Wright Eddie Kang’s artwork Learning How to Paint/Make a Wish was selected for the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival Artists Awards. The print, which was donated by Eddie, was presented as an award at the festival to the filmmaker honored for “Best Narrative Short.” An artistic pattern by Eddie was also recently featured on a reversible tote bag available from Neiman Marcus.

’01

Mike Stark is executive chef for the Shojo Group and manages several restaurants in Boston. He and his wife, Jennifer, are the parents of two boys, Cooper and Asa.

’02

Laurel Kalp Sviatko received her doctorate of education from Liberty University in May 2018.

Robert Terrell completed his Ph.D. in German and European History at the University of California, San Diego. This fall he joined the faculty of the Department of History in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

’03

Jessica Malone has been elected to serve on U.S. Soccer’s inaugural Fan Council.

’04 15th

REUNION:

June 6-9, 2019

Reunion Chair: Alex Lowe Douglas Hummel-Price returned to school this fall to begin his master’s degree in data science and public policy at the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy. He plans to use the degree to pursue criminal justice reform and would be thrilled to hear from any alumni involved in that field.

’05

Taylor Newby was promoted to global creative marketing manager for Netflix Originals. Taylor has worked for Netflix since 2016 and lives in Los Angeles.

’06

Tara Bethune was featured in a June 18 New York Post article about her work as a fitness instructor at Flex Studios. (Tara is also a marketing manager for Business Insider.)

Kimberly Kohlhepp and her father, Dan Kohlhepp, have co-authored the textbook Real Estate Development Matrix for students and practitioners interested in learning more about the real estate development process. Kimberly lives in Baltimore, Maryland, where she works as the associate director of development for Kimco Realty Corporation.

’07

Xanthe Hilton is associate director of alumni and parent relations at Rumsey Hall School in Washington, Connecticut. She shares that she’s happy to be back in New England and would love to connect with fellow alumni in Connecticut and New York.

Births/Adoptions

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2 0 1 8 –2 0 1 9

7. Erica Adam Nemeroff ’04 and her husband, Scott, welcomed a daughter, Mackenzie, January 31, 2017. 8. Natalie Blackburn ’05 and her husband, Shawn dos Santos, welcomed a son, Jerome “J.B.” Francisco, April 28, 2018. 9. Alexis Imler Gray ’05 and her husband, David, welcomed a son, Abel, June 20, 2018. Abel joins older brother Archer. 10. Andrés Gómez Rodriguez ’06 and his wife, Mariela Venegas Leiva, welcomed a daughter, Lucía, August 31, 2017. ________________________________

1. Chris Thoren ’90 and his wife, Sarah, welcomed a daughter, Cora Beverly, February 5, 2018.

To Jordan Gouline ’04 and his wife, Jackie: a daughter, Madison Riley, May 20, 2018.

2. Danielle Dahlstrom ’93 and her husband, Robert, welcomed a daughter, Ella, on August 4, 2018, in Vienna, Austria. “Big brother Oscar is completely besotted with his sister!” says Danielle.

To Sonya Karbach Marino ’05 and John Marino ’05: a son, James Grey, July 1, 2017.

3. Leah Long ’97 and her husband, Branislav Trojanovik, welcomed a son, Julian George, April 7, 2018. 4. Julia Kaufman Nussdorfer ’99 and her husband, Michael, welcomed a daughter, Sophie Anneliese, October 4, 2017. Sophie joins older brothers Jonathan and Alexander. 5. Sean Doherty ’02 and his wife, Katia, welcomed a son, James Thomas, February 27, 2018. 6. Laurel Kalp Sviatko ’02 and her husband, Stephen, welcomed their third son, Tegan Anthony, January 6, 2018. Tegan joins big brothers Tucker, 7, and Tatem, 4.

To Josh Muller ’10 and Emily Bays Muller ’10: a son, Russell Arthur, May 24, 2018. To Amy Wagshal Brennan ’00 and Dave Brennan ’00: a daughter, Millie Rose, April 9, 2018. Millie joins older brother Eric and sisters Becca and Danielle. To staff member Megan Mallory Martin and her husband, Brian: a son, Logan Wayne, July 10, 2018.

M E R C E R S B U R G M A G A Z I N E W I N T E R 2018–2019

’08

Luke Griffin graduated from the University of Maryland and is beginning law school at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Liz Klinger has left the energy business and is pursuing holistic medicine. Eleanor Carroll-Smith is living in Los Angeles and working as a writer’s assistant for the Fox television show “Gotham.”

’09 10th

REUNION:

June 6-9, 2019

Reunion Chairs: Annie Birney and David Hill IV Sara Eshleman has been awarded a National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship. Sara was one of 195 recipients out of more than 3,500 applicants, and she’ll receive four years of graduate funding as she pursues her Ph.D. in geography at the University of Texas at Austin. Sara’s research is mainly focused in Belize, and she would love to be in touch with any Mercersburg alumni in a related field (or in Austin).

From left: Harrison Helm ’12, Nick Stanton ’11, Nick’s girlfriend Geena Boungiovanni, Janice Stanton, and Janice’s boyfriend Leonard Leung vacationed together in Greece this past summer.

Fritzi Wentz is in her final year of medical school at Technical University of Munich and is interning at various hospitals in Germany, Switzerland, and Israel.

’10

Carlos Garcia has moved on from his position as an environmental research scientist at Harvard University and is pursuing a master’s degree in energy policy and a certificate of law in environmental and energy law at the University of Pennsylvania. Eliza Macdonald began Emerson College’s master of fine arts creative writing program this fall. She moved to Boston over the summer after three and a half years in Dallas and at Southern Methodist University. Josh Muller ’10 and Emily Bays Muller ’10 have moved to Greencastle, Pennsylvania; Emily joins a dental practice in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as a dentist, and Josh is an administrator for RoadSafe Traffic Systems. Nikolai Paloni has launched his own brand of eyewear, Ombraz Sunglasses, through Indiegogo. Paul Suhey, co-founder of Revel Transit, launched the first electric moped ridesharing service within New York City on August 1. Revel operates a fleet of 68 mopeds in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick.

’11

Sami Kebede is taking a break from his studies at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City to study at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom through the Gates-Cambridge Scholarship program. Stephanie Stine has finished her master’s degree in clinical psychology and is moving to the Boston

Tracey Manner ’05 helped Grace Caroline Wiener ’14 make her dreams come true by hiring her as a fashion week intern for her New York City public relations firm THINK PR. area, where she’ll be working as a therapist in a community-based program and may also teach a few undergraduate courses at a private school in Brookline.

Sarah Wilson ’11 and Emily Warfield ’12 pose in Zermatt, Switzerland, during a cross-Europe trip in March 2018.

’12

Julian Zschocke graduated from the University of St. Andrews with honors last summer and traveled on the Trans-Siberian/Mongolian Railway from Moscow to Beijing. He has been living in Buenos Aires, where he has been taking classes in agronomics, and will return to Germany in June to pursue a technology-related master’s degree.

’13

Ashley Frederick competed against more than 400 women business leaders in a pitch competition sponsored by the Ohio River Valley Women’s Business Council and was selected the winner. Chris Fritz has been awarded a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship and is off to Stanford University to study electrical engineering. Out of the 12,000 NSF applications, only 16 percent received a fellowship.

Bruce Ricciuti ’83 and his partner, Karen Agredo, vacationed in Italy this past June with Patti and Gerald Loyacona (parents of Maria ’12).

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Woodli Krutek ’13 is teaching English in Cambodia and connected with Jason Yoo ’96 in the Siam Reap province. “It is nice to meet someone who loves Mercersburg as much as I do on the other side of the globe,” says Woodli. Tyler Jones is a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and, having trained at the infantry officer course in Fort Benning, Georgia, is attending Ranger School this fall.

Jennifer Nelson ’13 was honored at the American Advertising Federation’s Most Promising Multicultural Students in Advertising conference in New York City. She was one of 50 students in the nation to be recognized as the top multicultural students in advertising. With a focus in the creative department, Jennifer specializes in copywriting.

Dora Csefaiova ’13 completed her undergraduate degree in international business relations at the University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic, and is pursuing a master’s degree in international business strategy and innovation at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Dora met up with faculty member Laurie Mufson and her husband, faculty emeritus Jim Applebaum, in Prague, and she encourages anyone who is traveling in Europe to be in touch.

Miranda Lang served as Regina Maria XL at the West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival earlier this fall. Chad Palmiotto reports that after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, he is in flight school in Corpus Christi, Texas. He was sorry to miss his 5th reunion! Chandler Steiger finished her first year at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and will be interning with Judge Mary Jane Bowes of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

’14 5th

REUNION:

June 6-9, 2019

Reunion Chairs: Johnny Mancini and Dikachi Osaji Zoe Alpert received the Distinguished Service Award from the Department of Public Health Sciences at Clemson University. James Boggs has been awarded a National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship and will be attending the University of Michigan to pursue a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence. Out of the 12,000 NSF applications, only 16 percent received a fellowship. Phillip McGloin is working for a year in China in international sports business, having been one of 18 college students and young professionals chosen from 162 nominees to earn a fellowship from the Luce Scholars Program.

’16

Gabby Fraser was presented with the Hazel Nettleship Hardy Award from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, given to a student in her middle years who has contributed to the growth of Heron athletics and is an excellent representative of William Smith Athletics.

’17

Abigail Gorrin’s mother, Susan, passed away April 29, 2018.

James Nam ’10 and Jerry Li ’13 are both working for Google and met for lunch at the Mountain View campus.

’18

Jayvien Sandridge was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 32nd round of the Major League Baseball draft.

Former faculty member Jeff Adair ’98 met up with Austin Monsereenusorn ’20 in Bangkok, Thailand. Jeff and his wife, Monica, moved to Thailand this past summer, and he is teaching middle-school social studies at the International School of Bangkok. “We have a place in the heart of the city, and I welcome anyone to visit,” says Jeff.

Logan Cort has launched a new podcast, “The Overlooked Characters,” available on Soundcloud or Stitcher. The first two episodes are about Mercersburg alum and presidential doctor Joel Boone (1909). Logan is attending Dickinson College, where he is a member of the swim team.

’19

Carl Ahlgren, father of Jillian Ahlgren, Jacob Ahlgren ’21, and Bridget Ahlgren ’22 and former husband of faculty member Kristin Ahlgren, passed away April 16, 2018.

Faculty/staff/friends Former Mercersburg physical education and math instructor Anna Meyer retired from Hartwick College at the end of the 2017-2018 academic year after 30 years as Hartwick’s head field hockey coach and an 11-year stint as the women’s lacrosse coach. Former English faculty member Joel Chace has published a poetry collection, Humors, with Paloma Press.

Former science department chair and head basketball and baseball coach Rick Needham (right) had lunch with former history teacher and assistant football coach Ed Martin in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in June 2018. Rick lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Ed lives in Tucker, Georgia, and was in the Chambersburg area for a wedding.

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Obituaries Correction: Stuart A. Wallace’s years of service were misidentified in his obituary published in the Spring 2018 issue of Mercersburg magazine. Stuart was a member of the faculty from 1961 to 1972. During his tenure, he taught history and English and served as head football coach, track & field coach, and college counselor.

’38

William F. Hittinger, December 23, 2012. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Marshall, debater, Chemistry Club, cross country, Marshal of the Field, News Board, Stamp Club, track & field) William served in the Pacific Theater for more than three years during World War II and was discharged as a master sergeant. He worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and Department of Transportation for a total of 28 years. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Alice Christine Fries, and his second wife, Ruth Anne Runnels. He is survived by three children, one grandchild, and one sister. William C. Jimeson, January 19, 2018. (Marshall, track & field, cross country) Bill earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Penn State University. While a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, he won the Mason-Dixon Championship in the 440-yard dash and hurdles. Before retiring from active competition in 1954, he recorded 70 first-place finishes in 21 track meets. He taught in Baltimore County, Maryland, in the late 1940s and founded the Baltimore Olympic Club in 1946, coaching the club’s track teams until 1967. He later worked for nearly three decades as a representative for Allyn & Bacon Publishing Company in Baltimore. In retirement, he served as chief of the South Ponte Vedra Volunteer Fire Department in Florida. Bill was the son of the late Wilbur C. Jimeson (1912) and nephew of the late R. MacKay Jimeson (1914). He is survived by his wife, Margaret, one daughter, one grandson, and two great-grandchildren.

’39

E. Vaughn Gordy Jr., June 5, 2018. (Marshall, baseball) Vaughn, the son of E. Vaughn Gordy (1908), was a star baseball player at Mercersburg and Lafayette College and an avid tennis player. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army Air Force, serving as a B-24 navigator in World War II. On the 45th of his 50 missions, his plane was hit multiple times by enemy fire and crashed into the Adriatic Sea. Trapped in the submerged plane, he was pulled out by a fellow crew member. Vaughn was preceded in death by his wife, June (Boucher) Gordy, two children, and one sister. He is survived by two sons, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

John O. Magoffin, November 5, 2016. (South Cottage, Irving, Les Copains, track & field, cross country, Rauchrunde) John enrolled at Cornell University to study agriculture, but left in 1941 to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was trained as a navigator and assigned to the 13th Air Force, attaining the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the South Pacific. After his discharge, he moved to the Southwest and worked on ranches in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. He was a founding member of the Valley Telephone Cooperative in Sulphur Springs, and was a member of several local and state cattle growers’ associations and historical societies. He also was a member of the Southwest Pioneer Cowboy Association, and was inducted into the Willcox Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2005. John was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Burnett. He is survived by four children, five grandchildren, and two great-granddaughters. Sam Silverstein Jr., March 26, 2017. (Irving, football, Gun Club) After serving in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, Sam earned a law degree at Washington and Lee University, then spent a year studying international law in Switzerland. He returned to Charleston, West Virginia, where he briefly practiced law before joining the family business that he built into a Fortune 500 company. He was active in multiple community organizations, and held leadership positions on several local boards. Sam was preceded in death by his first wife, Sara, and his brother. He is survived by his wife, Phyllis, two children, and five grandchildren. William N. Wingerd, December 18, 2017. (Main Hall, Irving) Bill graduated from Haverford College, then entered the U.S. Army Air Corps. He taught math at Lemasters High School before earning a master’s degree in clinical psychology at Penn State University. He later served as guidance counselor at Perkiomen School and upper school principal at Sanford School in Delaware before joining The Choate School in Connecticut, where he served as director of studies, Behavior and Ethics Department chair, director of summer programs, teacher, and tennis coach. He was co-author of the book Understanding and Enjoying Adolescence, which was adopted as a textbook by other independent schools. When Bill retired, he returned to Chambersburg, where he served on the boards of the school district and the Franklin Learning Center. He was preceded in death by his brother, Joseph ’35. He is survived by his former wife, Jane Steiger, three sons, and two grandchildren, including Yeshe ’04.

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’40

Karl F. Reed, January 11, 2018. (South Cottage, Marshall, Chemistry Club, German Club, swimming) Karl graduated from the University of Michigan College of Engineering. He worked for General Electric Company, Erie Foundry Company, and several others, later retiring from Johnson Controls. Karl was preceded in death by his wife, Maxine, and two sisters. He is survived by three children and four grandchildren.

’41

Irwin Hoffman, May 26, 2017. (Main Hall, Marshall, News Board, Rauchrunde, Lit Board, swimming, class poet) Irwin graduated from Harvard University with honors in chemistry in two years, finished medical school at New York University in two years, and completed his residency at Beth Israel Hospital. He served as a doctor during the Korean War, attaining the rank of captain. After the war, he established what became the largest cardiology practice on Long Island, New York, with more than 10,000 patients, and was chief of cardiology at Long Island Jewish, South Nassau, and Jamaica hospitals. He wrote hundreds of scholarly articles in such publications as The New England Journal of Medicine and a half-dozen books in the field of cardiology. Irwin is survived by his wife, Maya Bravy, two children, four grandchildren, and a brother. Roger W. Hood Sr., December 14, 2017. (South Cottage, Marshall, Camera Club, News Board, Lit Board, tennis) Roger graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in naval architecture and marine engineering, and was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy at Midshipmen’s School at the University of Notre Dame. He served during World War II and as a lieutenant at the Bethlehem Shipyard in Massachusetts during the Korean War. He later worked in engineering for Texas Instruments and as director of engineering at Hersey Products, both in Massachusetts. Roger was a ninth-generation descendent of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island. He is survived by his wife, Virginia Durfee Hood, one son, six grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren.

’42

Alfred E. Edwards Jr., June 19, 2018. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Marshall, football, Les Copains) Alfred studied one year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Corps, where he attained the rank of first lieutenant as a pilot of a B-17 bomber in the 379th bomb group of the 8th Air Force. He flew 31 missions over Europe, and received the EAME Theatre Ribbon with three battle stars, the Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Distinguished Unit Badge. After returning home, he completed his degree at MIT and went to work as a mechanical engineer for United Technologies. He worked on jet-engine afterburners for Pratt & Whitney, and later helped develop fuel cells for the space shuttle and Apollo programs. Alfred was preceded in death by his wife, Barbara (Leavitt) Edwards. Survivors include two children, three grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews. Richard D. Huber, May 1, 2018. (South Cottage, Marshall, baseball, track & field, cross country) Richard was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1944, and was wounded in fighting near Cologne, Germany. He was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, then earned master’s and doctoral degrees in organic chemistry from the University of Delaware. He worked at the Wyeth Institute of Applied Biochemistry in Philadelphia. Survivors include four nieces and one nephew.

’44

Richard A. Boulden, April 7, 2018. (Main Hall, Irving, Les Copains) Richard was preceded in death by his wife, Susan Joan Boulden, and his brother, David ’47. Survivors include a daughter, three grandchildren, a greatgrandson, a sister and a brother, and a nephew (Bruce Walker ’69). Charles H. Grine, July 26, 2018. (South Cottage, Marshall, Chapel usher, Stony Batter, KARUX Board, football, baseball) Charles enlisted in the U.S. Army after graduation, and was made a sergeant in stateside military intelligence, working on the Manhattan Project. After his discharge, he earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Grove City College, and joined Gulf Oil Corporation as an executive trainee, moving to London as an oil products supply manager for the Eastern Hemisphere. He then went to work at Charter Company in London, and later was named managing director for European operations and vice president for Charter Trading in the United States. After returning home, his career included managing supplies and acquisitions for United Refining Company and serving as president of Langham Petroleum in Bermuda and Langham Petroleum Corporation, head of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation in the U.S., and chairman of the parent group of Petrex Inc. Charles was preceded in death by his wife, Joan Nancy Beehrman, and two brothers, Edward Jr. ’42 and Robert ’51. Among his survivors are three daughters, three grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews (including Fred ’70). Donald M. Jones, May 16, 2018. (South Cottage, Irving debater, Glee Club, Choir, tennis, soccer, wrestling) Donald was a city council member in St. Petersburg, Florida, from 1963 to 1967, then served two years as mayor. He also was a former Pinellas County commissioner. He established an insurance business in St. Petersburg. Donald was preceded in death by his cousins, Harry Baldwin ’43 and Thomas Baldwin ’46. He is survived by his wife, Mary, three children, four granddaughters, and four great-grandchildren. Jack R. Leisure, December 26, 2017. (South Cottage, Irving, Chemistry Club, Les Copains, Press Club, Radio Club, Camera Club, KARUX Board, Airplane Club, cheerleader, Lit Board, Chapel usher, Blue and White Melodians, baseball, football, Class Day Committee, Commencement Day Honor) Jack attended Dartmouth College, and was a 1949 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. After his service, he was associated with V.D. Leisure Company, then became president of Leisure Lanes of Hershey and Lancaster and a partner in Self Storage of Lancaster and Village Associates. He retired as president of Capital Beverage Distributors Inc. Jack was a former member of the Alumni Council. He is survived by his wife, Shirley Hastings, two sons, Randall Leisure ’70 and Bradley Leisure ’73, two grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. Frank M. Masters Jr., March 1, 2018. (South Cottage, Marshall, Football Band, Camera Club, Chemistry Club, Glee Club, Concert Orchestra, Radio Club, Stony Batter, News Board, Stamp Club, KARUX Board, Class Memorial Committee) Frank graduated from Lehigh University with a degree in civil engineering, and worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation before joining Modjeski and Masters, the engineering firm co-founded by his father, where he became a partner. His interests later took him into business, working with Newbold and Son before purchasing a small swimming pool company that he rebranded and expanded as Aqua Specialists. He served as an engineering expert witness in litigation and arbitration, and was on the board of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Harrisburg chapter. He also served on the boards of numerous nonprofits in the Harrisburg area. Frank was a former member

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of the Alumni Council, and was a benefactor of the Frank M. Masters (1904) and Frank M. Masters Jr. ’44 Scholarship Fund and the Class of ’44 Endowment. He was the son of the late Frank M. Masters (1904). Survivors include a niece, Margaret Hacskaylo ’85. Raymond C. Patterson, January 11, 2018. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Irving, football) Ray served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He graduated from the University of Maryland, where he was a member of Delta Sigma Phi. He joined his father in Patterson Agency Real Estate and Insurance, later becoming the owner, and remained with the business until his retirement. Ray was preceded in death by his wife, Norma Jean Patterson. Survivors include one daughter, one granddaughter, one sister, and numerous nieces and nephews.

’45

Robert B. Benedict, December 29, 2017. (South Cottage, Irving, baseball) Bob attended Valley Forge Military Academy, Franklin & Marshall College, and the University of Virginia. He served two years in the U.S. Army and two years in the National Guard in New Jersey. He was one of the owners of Red Rose Rod and Gun Club, serving as its president for 30 years. He owned and operated Charles Chips of Delaware. Bob was preceded in death by his wife, Sally. He is survived by three daughters, six grandchildren, five step-grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. F. Clark Gillan, September 7, 2017. (South Cottage, Marshall, soccer, baseball) Clark was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and the son of Charles Gillan (1904). He served as a system engineer at Letterkenny Army Depot for more than 40 years. Clark was preceded in death by his wife, Doris L. (Lehman) Gillan. Survivors include four daughters, 10 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. Richard W. Hemphill, January 10, 2018. (Main Hall Annex, Marshall, Camera Club, Football Band, Chemistry Club, Glee Club, Caducean Club, Concert Band) Dick graduated from Princeton University. After World War II, he served at the 97th Army Hospital as a corpsman and taught introduction to psychology to soldiers at Frankfurt University. He later graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and completed his training at Magee Hospital and the University of Pittsburgh. He served as president of the Magee-Womens Hospital medical staff and the Pittsburgh OB/GYN Society. Dick was preceded in death by his wife, Peggy Parris Hemphill. He is survived by a son and a daughter, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Dunning Idle IV, June 8, 2018. (South Cottage, Irving, Les Copains, Choir, Fifteen, Concert Band, track & field, cross country, January Commencement Stage Honors, Cum Laude) Dunning joined the U.S. Navy near the end of World War II. After the war, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and master’s and doctoral degrees from Yale University, all in foreign affairs. Between Princeton and Yale, he took a sabbatical and served as a National Park Service ranger at Mount Rainier in Washington. He retired from the Central Intelligence Agency, where he supervised analysis of Vietnam for the duration of the Vietnam War and completed his career editing the President’s Daily Briefing for President Ronald Reagan. Dunning was a cousin of the late Thomas Singer ’50. Survivors include his wife, Mary Chapin Idle, two sons, three grandchildren, and cousin Mark Singer ’76.

John D. Mitchell Jr., March 6, 2018. (South Cottage, Irving, Chemistry Club, Chess Club, football, Rauchrunde, KARUX Board, Commencement Stage Honor, Cum Laude Society) John was a retired colonel in the U.S. Army; like his father, he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy. He served as an electrical engineering instructor at West Point. John earned graduate degrees from Stafford University and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Survivors include his brother and nephew. William M. Stout Jr., June 27, 2018. (South Cottage, Marshall) Bill served with the U.S. Army armored tank division in Korea. He graduated from Penn State University with degrees in animal husbandry and entomology. He worked in the dairy industry for nearly four decades; chief among his positions was executive vice president and general manager of Lehigh Valley Cooperative Farms. He oversaw the merger of Lehigh and InterState Milk Producers’ Cooperative, becoming special projects manager of the new Atlantic Dairy Cooperative, from which he retired. Bill was preceded in death by his wife, Gertrude “Trudy” (Ettinger) Stout, and a brother, Walter ’49. He is survived by four daughters, six grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and one sister and one brother.

’46

Thomas C. Buchanan III, August 3, 2018. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Marshall, cross country, track & field, baseball, football, Chess Club, Radio Club, Glee Club, Les Copains, Chemistry Club, Cum Laude) Tom earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He worked for Milford Rivet and Machine Company in sales and management positions, and later as an operations consultant. He was involved in church and social causes throughout his life. Tom was preceded in death by his first wife, Jean Whittlesey Briscoe, and an uncle, Edward (1910). He is survived by his wife, Margaret “Peggy” deMille, three children, two stepchildren, nine grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, and a brother. James M. Hitzrot II, December 20, 2017. (South Cottage, Irving, News Board, Rauchrunde, class secretary, Laticlavii, Chemistry Club, Caducean Club, Stony Batter, Fifteen, YMCA Cabinet, Chapel usher, swimming, baseball) Jim graduated from Princeton University and Harvard University Medical School, and completed an internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He joined the U.S. Public Health Service, working in Arizona and New Mexico. After returning to Johns Hopkins for his orthopaedic surgery residency, he started a practice that included being chief of orthopaedic surgery at Church Home Hospital. Jim’s father, the late Lewis H. Hitzrot, was the medical director of Mercersburg Academy from 1936 to 1963. Jim is survived by his wife, Bobbie, four daughters, five grandchildren, and a sister. R. Robert Rosenbaum, January 31, 2018. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Marshall, soccer, wrestling, Les Copains) Bob graduated from film school at the University of Southern California and started his career as a messenger for RKO. By the early 1960s, he was an assistant director and director on such television shows as Hazel and Bewitched and the films Rhinoceros with Zero Mostel, Ride the Wild Surf with Tab Hunter and Fabian, and Good Neighbor Sam with Jack Lemmon. He also oversaw such iconic productions as Winds of War, Golda, and Shogun. Bob retired as senior vice president in charge of television production at Warner Brothers, a position he also had held at both Lorimar and Paramount studios. He is survived by his wife, Jane, two daughters, and two grandchildren.

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’47

D. Robert Lewis, December 11, 2017. (Keil Hall, Irving, El Circulo Español, Concert Band, Blue and White Melodians, swimming, soccer, Press Club) Survivors include three children, 10 grandchildren, a sister, and seven nieces and nephews. William C. Schaub, October 7, 2017. (Irving, Varsity Club, football, basketball) Bill attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and George Washington University. While working for Westinghouse Corporation, Bill and several others started Scope Electronics, which procured government contracts for the military. As president, Bill guided Scope in the acquisition of other companies in the areas of radio communications, measuring equipment, and digital bar code reading. He was preceded in death by his former wife, Kathy Valliant Schaub, and a son, Rick ’70. He is survived by a son and a grandchild. Sanford D. Smith, May 23, 2018. (Irving) Sanford served in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific, Philippines, China, and Japan, and at Annapolis Naval Hospital. He witnessed the result of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and the signing of the treaty with Japan from a naval supply ship in Tokyo Bay in 1945. A graduate of Temple University School of Pharmacy, he was a pharmacist at Baker and Minnich Pharmacy in Waynesboro and Peoples Drugstore in Frederick, Maryland. He later owned and operated Smith’s Drugstore in Waynesboro and Summit Pharmacy in Blue Ridge Summit. Sanford was preceded in death by his wife, Helen. He is survived by two children, three grandchildren, and four nieces and nephews.

’48

John R. Faust, April 21, 2018. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Irving, Les Copains, Chemistry Club, Choir, Glee Club, football, wrestling, tennis, Ode Committee) John received a bachelor’s degree in history from Catawba College and his master’s and doctoral degrees in political science from the University of North Carolina. He studied in Australia for a year as a Fulbright scholar, then served in the U.S. Army as a cryptographer in Japan. John taught political science at the University of Southwestern Louisiana and Illinois Wesleyan University before joining the Political Science and Foreign Policy Department at Eastern Illinois University, where he taught until his retirement. While at EIU, he traveled twice to Europe for research and four times to China for speaking engagements, and co-authored the book China in World Politics. John was the son of the late David E. Faust (1915). He also was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Lucille “Brownie” Menius. Survivors include four children, four grandchildren, and one brother, David W. Faust ’45.

State University. He joined the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, retiring after 24 years with the rank of captain. During his naval career, he put to sea on four different ships and served at duty stations in Rhode Island, Hawaii, California, South Carolina, Arizona, and Washington, D.C., and in Morocco. During his civilian career in Arizona, he taught Spanish and business for 13 years and was dean of students in the Paradise Valley Unified School District, and taught Spanish for 12 years for the city of Scottsdale. Lee is survived by his wife, Gretchen, a son, two stepchildren, and four grandchildren. Raymond W. Magill Sr., July 24, 2018. (Main Hall, Irving, YMCA Cabinet, Chapel usher, Gun Club, Projection Crew, football, wrestling, baseball) Ray retired after serving 33 years as a colonel in the 102nd Fighter Interceptor Wing for the Massachusetts Air National Guard. He worked as an investigator for the U.S. Department of Defense for more than 23 years. Ray was preceded in death by his wife, Doris L. (Hiltz) Magill. He is survived by three sons, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Andrew J. Somerville Jr., June 20, 2017. (Marshall) Jack had been a builder and was president and chief executive officer of the Thos. Somerville Company. He was active in Maryland horse racing, and served on the boards of numerous banks and charities. He is survived by his wife, Candace Crittenton Somerville, three sons, seven grandchildren, and one sister and one brother.

’49

Stanley E. Fulton, January 4, 2018. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Marshall, Dance Committee, Chess Club, Radio Club, football, wrestling) Stan was attending the University of Maryland when he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s. After his service, he embarked on an entrepreneurial career that included owning a Western Auto store, building cable television systems, producing precision electronic components, and building an apartment complex in Las Vegas before entering the gaming industry in the 1970s. His company, Fortune Coin, developed the first video slot machines. He later founded Anchor Coin, which developed innovative gaming machines. He also owned thoroughbred race horses and a race track and casino in New Mexico. He was widely recognized for his philanthropy. Stan was a former Alumni Council member. He is survived by six children, including Deborah Fulton ’73, Elizabeth Fulton Jones ’74, Lucinda Fulton Tischer ’78, and Virginia Fulton ’79, and 12 grandchildren. Herbert I. Goldberg, May 10, 2018. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Marshall, golf) Herbert started his career at Loeb, Rhoades & Company, and was a stockbroker for 62 years. He is survived by three sons, seven grandchildren, and a brother, Fred ’52.

Edward G. Fox III, May 7, 2018. (South Cottage, Marshall, Gun Club, wrestling) Edward served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. He earned a degree in mining engineering from Lehigh University, and began his career in the oil mining industry with Joy Manufacturing in the eastern U.S. He later moved to Dresser Industries as vice president of marketing. After retiring from the mining industry, he started a payroll services company that he operated for 10 years. Edward was the son of the late Edward G. Fox II ’20. He also was preceded in death by his wife, Susan. Survivors include one son, one sister, nephew Richard Ryon ’68, and grandnephews Richard Ryon Jr. ’95, James Ryon ’96, and Peter Ryon ’99.

J. Samuel Gregory, December 11, 2017. (Marshall) Sam served in the U.S. Coast Guard and attended New York University. He was the retired chairman and chief executive officer of AAA of Southern Pennsylvania. Prior to joining AAA, he was a sales executive at Interwoven Stocking Company, then became co-owner of Gregory’s Men Stores in York and the York County Mall, which he operated for 17 years. His interest in the travel industry led him to AAA. Sam was preceded in death by his wife, Patricia, and brother, Marshall Gregory Jr. ’42. He is survived by a son, a sister, and two nephews.

Lee L. Henry, May 31, 2018. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Irving, Band, El Circulo Español, Choir, Concert Band, Blue and White Melodians, Football Band) Lee earned bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and social sciences from Bucknell University and a master’s degree in business education from Arizona

David S. Schwartz, May 16, 2018. (Main Hall, Irving, Concert Band, Football Band, Chess Club) David graduated from Franklin & Marshall College and was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve after completing Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, where

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he joined Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He served on active duty as a communications officer and navigator and operations officer with the Seventh Fleet in the western Pacific Ocean and South China Sea and the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. He returned to the Naval Reserve as a lieutenant, and began his civilian career as president of Central Chemical Corporation, last residing in Maryland. David was a member of the Alumni Council, and was active with numerous other church and nonprofit groups. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Glendine Sanders Storey Schwartz, and his second wife, Barbara Hutchinson Tubbesing Schwartz. Surviving are three children, including Debra Storey ’78, two stepchildren, four grandchildren, and one step-grandchild. Walter H. Stout III, January 25, 2018. (Marshall) Walter served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. He worked as a draftsman at T.J. Cope for 30 years. He was preceded in death by his wife, Nancy (Miller) Stout. Survivors include four children, seven grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, and one sister and two brothers, including William M. Stout Jr. ’45 (who died in June 2018).

’50

Lester E. Cagle Jr., January 27, 2018. (Marshall, track & field) Les studied forestry at Penn State University, then joined the U.S. Air Force pilot training program during the Korean War. He started working for IBM after the war and found his true passion in computer programming. Les is survived by his wife, Brenda, five children, eight grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, a brother, and his first wife, Ruth Bauman. William T. Clinton, June 5, 2018. (Colonial Cottage, Marshall, Choir, Glee Club, swimming, Varsity Club, Stony Batter, Dramatic Club) Bill left Yale University after his sophomore year to join the U.S. Army, where he was recruited to the Army Language School in California to study Russian, then served in Army intelligence in Virginia. After his discharge, he completed his studies at Yale, where he was captain of the swim team and named to the All-American Collegiate Swimming Team. Bill began his career in the stainless-steel industry with G.O. Carlson, and later ventured into other businesses before returning to the steel industry as a sales manager with Lukens Steel Company, from which he retired. Bill is survived by his wife, Virginia “Ginger” Byerly Clinton, three children, six grandchildren, and a sister. Ralph R. Garver Jr., April 5, 2018. (Marshall, Chemistry Club, Concert Band, Football Band) Rod graduated from the University of Maryland, then embarked on a 22-year career in the U.S. Air Force, receiving a master’s degree in hospital administration from the Medical College of Virginia. Following early postings to Japan and Germany, he played a role in the Project Gemini space program in Florida in the early 1960s, and later served as commander of the 902nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Following his retirement, he served as assistant administrator of Carroll County General Hospital, then as director of the Washington County Commission on Aging and Area Agency on Aging, all in Maryland. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Isabel “Susie” (Schlosser) Garver. Rod is survived by his wife, Deanna June (Babb) Garver, two children, a stepson, and six grandchildren, including Olivia Bulcao Sekerak ’10. Charles P. Hutchinson Jr., February 6, 2017. (Irving) Charles served in the U.S. Army as a member of the Military Police, stationed in Alaska. He graduated from Lehigh University, joined Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, then entered the investment banking business as an adviser and became partner in the investment banking firm of Alex. Brown & Sons.

Charles was preceded in death by his wife, Patricia. He is survived by two children and six grandchildren. Sheffield N. Hyde, April 18, 2018. (Main Hall, Irving, El Circulo Español, Gun Club) Shef attended Miami University, then served with the U.S. Army in the Korean War. When he returned home, he began working for Saunders Seed Company, and was owner and operator until his retirement. He was involved in several community organizations. Shef was preceded in death by his wife, Caroline (Saunders) Hyde. He is survived by two children, five grandchildren, a great-granddaughter, and a sister. Paul G. Pollinger, June 14, 2018. (Keil Hall, Marshall, KARUX Board, Stony Batter, Varsity Club, football, wrestling, track & field, Marshal of the Field, Press Club) Paul graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology and worked in the Pittsburgh area as an industrial engineer, then joined the U.S. Navy and served as a special-weapons delivery aviator. He later lived in the Boston area, working as a consultant and entrepreneur, then moved to Washington, D.C., where his business ventures included placing early computers in post offices, buying and renovating apartments, and establishing an abstract art gallery. He also owned a shopping center in Atlanta. Paul is survived by his wife, Holly; two children, including son P. Alex Pollinger ’89; four grandchildren; a sister; and a brother, Donald ’61.

’51

Thomas J. Cropper, June 17, 2018. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Marshall, El Circulo Español, Chemistry Club, Gun Club) Tom attended Johns Hopkins University, then entered the U.S. Army, where he served as a field radio repairman during the Korean War. He worked in finance and banking, and after retirement joined his wife in real estate sales. Tom is survived by his wife, Patricia “PJ” Cropper, three sons, seven grandchildren, three greatgrandchildren, and a brother. Benjamin F. Faunce III, February 19, 2018. (South Cottage, Marshall, KARUX Board, Lit Board, Caducean Club, Paideia Club, Varsity Club, football) Ben studied at the University of Pennsylvania before enlisting in the U.S. Army and serving in the Korean War. Upon his return, he enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh, earning two bachelor’s degrees in engineering. He worked as an engineer, then returned to school to acquire two master’s degrees and become a professor, teaching at Virginia Tech and Purdue University. Ben is survived by his wife, Betty Gail Wickerham, three children, six grandchildren, and one brother, Ferguson ’50. Ralph E. Lucht, December 16, 2017. (Marshall) Ralph joined the U.S. Marine Corps, but a knee injury kept him from active duty. He owned Beltone Hearing Aid Service in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he also was a real estate owner and president of the landlord’s association for many years. Ralph was preceded in death by his former wives, Diane and Lila, and two children. Surviving are three children, seven grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. Robert T. Mayer, September 22, 2017. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Marshall, KARUX Board, Stony Batter, Radio Club, Projection Crew, track & field) Bob was a mechanical and electrical engineer who began his career with the company his grandfather and great-uncle started in Pennsylvania, Mayer China. He later worked for Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Bob is survived by his wife, Suzanne S. Mayer, two children, two stepchildren, four step-grandchildren, a brother (Dick ’53), and his former wife, Barbara D. Mayer. Joseph T. Mullray Jr., February 22, 2013. (Marshall) Joe followed in his father’s

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footsteps and managed the Mullray construction and real estate business in Pennsylvania, along with building in New Jersey, where the family hotel was located. He was preceded in death by his wife, Marion Kirk Mullray. Surviving are five children, four grandchildren, and a brother and a sister. Richard E. Williams, February 22, 2015. (Main Hall, Irving, Radio Club, cross country) Richard served in the U.S. Navy, and worked as an engineer for Lockheed Martin. He was preceded in death by his wife, Patricia (Wallace) Williams, and his brother, James ’45. He is survived by three sons and three daughters, 16 grandchildren, and his twin sister.

’52

John D. Bates, May 24, 2018. (Keil Hall, Irving Sergeant-at-Arms, Irving Class Presentation Orator, Ode Committee, News Board, KARUX Board, Engravings Editor, Senate, Elections Committee, Choir, Glee Club, Octet, Dance Committee, Stony Batter, Marshal of the Field, football, wrestling, baseball) Jack graduated from Duke University and served in the U.S. Army. He became general manager and publisher of newspapers from Pennsylvania to California, and ended his career as executive director of the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Jack was preceded in death by one brother, Walter ’50, and a cousin, Sam ’48. He is survived by his wife, Lou, three daughters, eight grandchildren, and a brother, Ted ’56. Richard M. Feldman, March 8, 2018. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Irving, Stony Batter, Gun Club, football, tennis, track & field) Richard attended Vanderbilt University, graduated from New York University, and served in the U.S. Navy. He worked at his father’s company, Chatham Garment, for a number of years, then changed his direction to Wall Street, becoming a managing director at Lehman Brothers, then Barclays, and most recently Stifel, Nicolaus & Company. He was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and stepfather. Benjamin A. Harris, November 29, 2017. (Main Hall, Irving, Caducean Club, Stamp Club, Gun Club, Jurisprudence Society, Paideia Club) Ben graduated from Wittenberg University and spent many years in education as an art teacher. He is survived by a daughter, a grandson, and six nieces and nephews. Robert W. Hartman, December 11, 2017. (Marshall, Blue and White Melodians, Glee Club) Bob earned a bachelor’s degree from Denison University, then went to work for Uniroyal. He later founded Plymouth Rubber and Transmission with his brother-in-law. Bob is survived by his wife, Kayleen, three children, five grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews. Stanley H. Margolis, April 17, 2013. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Irving, Press Club, Les Copains, Concert Band, Stony Batter, cheerleader, Varsity Club, wrestling) Stan graduated with a business degree from Johns Hopkins University, then returned to West Virginia to help run the family clothing business, Embees. When the business closed, he joined the Peace Corps and was stationed in St. Kitts, where he later became a scuba instructor. He moved back to West Virginia in 1996. Stan is survived by three sons and seven grandchildren.

’53

Ralph E. Baker Jr., December 20, 2017. (South Cottage, Marshall, Radio Club) Ralph was a graduate of Upsala College, served in the U.S. Army, and spent his professional career as a sales representative in the textile industry. Ralph is survived by his wife, Virginia, two children, and three grandchildren.

’54

Thomas M. Colella, December 21, 2017. (Marshall) Thomas attended Kent State University. He and his father founded Brian Homes in 1956; he later became president. He was a board member of Iron and Glass Bank for 22 years. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Florence. He is survived by his wife, Susan Kissler Colella, two children, four grandchildren, and a brother. George E. Dillingham, December 12, 2017. (Marshall, track & field) George entered the U.S. Navy, was stationed in New York and Virginia, and eventually served as a radioman on the USS Leyte and the USS Denebola with tours in the Pacific and Mediterranean. He was the second generation of his family to operate E. Dillingham Inc., a customs house brokerage company, and Dillingham, Jones & Cissel Inc., an insurance agency, in New York State. George was preceded in death by his wife, Barbara Dillingham. He is survived by his wife, Barbara Haas, four children, seven grandchildren, and two sisters. Harry B. Dougherty Jr., February 5, 2018. (Marshall) Harry owned and operated several businesses in Maryland, including Dougherty’s Ice Company, Dougherty’s Real Estate, Tropical Shaved Ice, and Dougherty’s Ice Cream Shack. Dougherty’s Country Kitchen was a mainstay at the Great Frederick Fair for 48 years. He served lemonade and concessions at the National Apple Harvest Festival and at the Littlestown and Taneytown carnivals. He also operated school buses for Carroll County Public Schools. Harry was preceded in death by his wife, JoAnn (Wolf) Dougherty. He is survived by two children and four grandchildren.

’55

Howard E. Koontz III, August 17, 2018. (Marshall, track & field) A lifelong resident of Westminster, Maryland, Howard attended the University of Maryland, and was a veteran of the U.S. Army. He owned and operated a Hickory Farms store for more than 30 years. He is survived by his wife, Nancy (Brilhart) Koontz, a son, a grandson, and two sisters. Donald C. Spangler, April 10, 2018. (Marshall) Don attended Lycoming College and Penn State University. He was a registered surveyor for the Pennsylvania Department of General Services, retiring with 43 years of service. He is survived by his wife, Connie (Cutchall) Spangler, three sons, and two grandchildren.

’56

William A. Addams II, April 7, 2018. (Laucks Hall, Irving, El Circulo Español, Gun Club, soccer) An Eagle Scout, Bill graduated from Lafayette College. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, stationed in Virginia and Hawaii. He later graduated from Dickinson Law School and practiced law in Carlisle. He served as president of the Cumberland County Bar Association in 1999, and was a member of other state and national law-related associations. Bill was known for his pro bono work and for helping those in need. He is survived by his wife, Marcie (Over) Addams, three children, and four granddaughters. Lawrence B. Cummins Jr., February 9, 2018. (Main Hall, Marshall, Student Council, Gun Club, football, baseball) After graduating from Wittenberg University, Larry went to work for Lorain Cranes and enjoyed a long career there before starting his own crane consulting and brokerage business. He is survived by his wife, Bonnie, two sons, one daughter, and three grandchildren.

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John O. Plugge, September 24, 2017. (’Eighty-eight Dormitory, Marshall, El Circulo Español, Glee Club, track & field) John spent his career working for the U.S. government. He is survived by his brother, three children, a granddaughter, and by his wife, Elizabeth, and her children.

’57

F. William Bremmer Jr., December 5, 2017. (South Cottage, Irving, Stony Batter, Projection Crew, Jurisprudence Society, KARUX Board, football, track & field) Bill earned an accounting degree from Thiel College. He worked for many years in the timber business, but spent much of his career in the oil and gas industry as a petroleum landman. He is survived by his wife, Linda (Miller) Bremmer, two sons, one daughter, and six grandchildren. Richard C. Perkins, May 18, 2018. (Marshall, swimming) Richard earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Cornell University, where he rowed crew and was a member of the ROTC. Upon graduating, he was commissioned an officer in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed in Texas and California. After his service, he worked as a banker for several years before purchasing two John Deere dealerships in Texas. Richard is survived by his wife, Joyce, three children, and five grandchildren. Owen L. Phillips, March 7, 2018. (Summer Session Student) Owen lived in Port Charlotte, Florida, and was a proud veteran. J. Robert Wilson, February 19, 2018. (Marshall) Bob served in the Army Security Agency – Japan. He worked in sales for Prentice Hall until 1990, when he started a sign business in Delaware. He was preceded in death by his father, John R. Wilson ’25. He is survived by his wife, Sandra Watson Wilson, two daughters, and three grandchildren.

’58

William H. Erb Jr., July 24, 2018. (Irving, Caducean Club, Chemistry Club, basketball) Bill graduated from Haverford College, where he majored in history and was captain of the basketball team, then went to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His surgical residency was interrupted by two years in the Navy during the Vietnam War, when he served as a lieutenant commander and senior medical officer on the USS Boxer. He later joined his father’s practice in Ridley Park, and for more than 30 years was a general surgeon at Taylor Hospital, Riddle Memorial Hospital, and Presbyterian Medical Center of the University of Pennsylvania. He also instructed medical students at the University of Pennsylvania, and served as president of Taylor Hospital’s medical staff and vice chairman of its surgery department. Bill retired in 2000 and began a second career in philanthropy, giving generously to many charities, including a scholarship fund started by his parents at the University of Pennsylvania. He is survived by his wife, Ursula, three daughters (including Heidi Erb Anderson ’85), four grandchildren, and two sisters. George Wilson Kistler Jr., March 18, 2018. (Marshall, Student Council, Chemistry Club, Football Band, wrestling) George graduated from Tufts University and served in the U.S. Air Force. He was a businessman and real estate entrepreneur in the Lehigh Valley for more than 50 years, building his father’s business of recharging fire extinguishers into Kistler O’Brien Fire Protection. He also was involved with a number of community organizations and charities, including his work to create the East Penn Chamber of Commerce and service as chairman of the Industrial Development Corporation of Lehigh County. George is survived by his wife, Velma Gould Kistler; two children, including Vance ’90; and three grandchildren.

James R. McKee, December 15, 2017. (Main Hall, Marshall, Electronics Club, Caducean Club, International Club, Chemistry Club, Rauchrunde, News Board, KARUX Board) Jim earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Lycoming College and a doctorate in economics from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. He taught at several institutions, including SUNY Oswego, LeMoyne College, and Syracuse University, before going to work at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. He was a consultant after his retirement. Jim is survived by his wife, Mary Jane Schmitz McKee, two daughters, four grandchildren, and one brother.

’59

John W. Belknap, April 18, 2018. (Marshall) John served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He worked as a machinist at the Donald Duck Orange Company in Florida. He was the son of the late Eugene M. Belknap (1918) and brother of the late E. McCamly Belknap ’49. He is survived by one son and three grandchildren. Paul S. Smith, December 13, 2017. (Irving, soccer) Paul served in the U.S. Coast Guard, and was employed owner-operator of Jones Motor Company. He was the son of the late David S. Smith ’32 and grandson of the late David S. Smith (1904). Paul is survived by his wife, Kathleen Tormollan Smith, three sons, three granddaughters, one sister, seven brothers (including Ronald ’57, Allan ’64, Stephen ’68, David ’68, and Brian ’75), and numerous nieces and nephews, including Joshua ’96.

’61

Stanton A. Templin Jr., September 1, 2017. (Marshall) Stan graduated from Millersville University with a bachelor’s degree in education. He was a science teacher at Cornwall-Lebanon High School, retiring after 30 years, and also coached track & field for many years. He is survived by his wife, Catherine Louise Paul Templin, a son, four grandchildren, his mother, and two sisters. James S. Wyckoff, April 4, 2018. (Main Hall, Marshall, Les Copains, Jurisprudence Society, Caducean Club, Stamp Club, KARUX Board, football, baseball) Jim graduated from Syracuse University and had a long career in banking and finance, first in his hometown of Elmira, New York, and later in Florida. Jim is survived by his first wife, Judith W. Komer, their four children and 15 grandchildren, and two sisters. Samuel B. Yost, December 12, 2017. (Irving) Sam received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and earned his surveying license from Penn State University. He owned Yost Surveying for many years. Sam is survived by his wife, Jody Pearce Yost, three children, and a granddaughter.

’64

Michael A. Banzhaf, January 27, 2018. (Main Hall, Irving, Orientation Committee, Laticlavii, Jurisprudence Society, Choir, Glee Club, football, cross country, wrestling, track & field) Mike earned a bachelor’s degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and a law degree from Villanova University. He practiced law for 45 years, specializing in zoning, environmental, and land-use law. As a partner with Reed Smith LLP, he handled the rezoning for numerous projects in Loudoun County, Virginia, during its period of tremendous growth. Mike is survived by his wife, Joanne Schaetzel Banzhaf, son Peter ’02, two grandchildren, and one sister.

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’66

Charles W. Lounsbury Jr., March 5, 2018. (Irving, German Club, Chemistry Club, Boys’ Club, Bridge Club, Ski Club, KARUX Board, News Board) Charlie graduated from Cornell University, where he was a member of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. He spent his career working for Sonoco Products Company, retiring in 2015. Charlie was the nephew of the late Robert F. Laird Jr. ’40. He is survived by his wife, Nicole Provost Lounsbury, three daughters, three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, three siblings, and cousin Robert F. Laird III ’70.

’67

Robert D. Smith, February 8, 2018. (Irving, French Club, Boys’ Club, Ski Club, Paideia, Caducean Club, Gun Club, Mercersburg View, soccer, tennis) Robert spent many years working in the mining industry, and eventually became self-employed buying and selling coal and petroleum coke. He is survived by his wife, Sandra, two children, and a sister. Allen K. von Spiegelfeld, February 14, 2018. (Marshall, German Club, Bridge Club, Ski Club, Stony Batter, Stony Batter Steering Committee, Electronics Club, WMER, Political Science Club, football, golf) Allen earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Cincinnati and a law degree from Cumberland School of Law. He served his country in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps at Guantanamo Bay. He was a shareholder with the law firm Banker Lopez Gassler in Tampa, Florida, at the time of his death. Allen is survived by his wife, Ann, two sons, and five grandchildren.

’68

Platt R. Safford, May 29, 2018. (Marshall, Caducean Club, Political Science Group, Stony Batter, Senior Class Prophet, football, wrestling, Rugby Club, Proctor) Platt received a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers College and a master’s degree from Baldwin-Wallace College, and served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He worked at Westinghouse, and eventually became vice president of manufacturing at KOBELCO in Hudson, Ohio, before shifting course to become a financial investment adviser. He is survived by his wife, Lisa Bixenstine Safford; three children; a brother, Tom ’73, and a sister.

’69

Daniel E. Hammett, December 29, 2016. (Summer Session Student) Doc was a graduate of Penn State University with degrees in agriculture engineering and mechanical engineering. He was a registered professional engineer and had worked for the University of Kentucky, Ross Industries, Durand-Wayland Manufacturing, and Sweetheart Cup Corporation before starting his own company, Totally Stainless, 26 years ago. He is survived by his wife, Sherry K. (Cook) Hammett, a daughter, two grandchildren, his father and stepmother, and six siblings. Martin M. Kline, November 14, 2017. (Marshall) Marty worked as a building inspector for the city of Pittsburgh for 14 years before focusing on rehabilitating homes throughout the city. He had purchased his first property for $2,000 with his bar mitzvah money while a student at Carnegie-Mellon University. Marty is survived by his wife, Judith Rothbart Kline, four children, three grandchildren, and two siblings.

’80

Richard W. Grace, March 21, 2015. (football, basketball, lacrosse, Blue Key) Richard completed the U.S. Marine Corps Officer Training Program, then

studied at Syracuse University, where he was a walk-on quarterback and wide receiver for the football team. He started his career with MetLife, then founded Vantage Insurance and Financial Services, which he ran and expanded before merging with Hilb Rogal and Hobbs, where he stayed on as a vice president and sales executive. He later left the company to tackle projects in Venezuela, Singapore, Vietnam, and Kazakhstan, where he worked with diverse clientele in the construction, real estate, casino expansion, retail, and biotech industries. Richard is survived by a son, three siblings, and four nieces and nephews. A. Nelson Young III, August 26, 2015. (football) Nelson graduated from Susquehanna University, where he was a member of the swim team, then served in the U.S. Army based in Amberg, Germany, for three years. He taught history and English and coached golf and swimming in the Eastern York School District. Nelson is survived by his mother, a sister and a brother, and a niece and a nephew.

’02

Jason M. Thomas, November 30, 2016. (Marshall, swimming, baseball, Prefect) Jason earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Tennessee, where he was a top swimmer, receiving honorable mention All-America honors at the 2002-03 NCAA championships. Prior to college, he received high school All-America honors nine times and was a four-time state record holder and eight-time state champion in Maine. From 2006 to 2016, he was an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving as an attack helicopter pilot, instructor pilot, foreign force adviser, and information operations officer. At the time of his death, he was a first-year MBA student in the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He is survived by his wife, Meaghan, and two children.

’18

Joseph H. Beauregard, October 18, 2018. (Marshall declaimer, Class Council, Stony Batter, track & field, diving) Joe attended St. Bridget School and the Steward School before coming to Mercersburg Academy. At the time of his death, he was a full-time student at SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design. Joe is survived by his parents, three sisters, and a brother.

Staff/former faculty/friends Marcia Galey, health center administrative assistant, wife of faculty member Paul Galey, and mother of Michael Galey ’00 and Bethany Galey ’02, October 16, 2018. James T. Irwin Jr., former chemistry faculty member (1965-1970), December 13, 2017. Judy Shafer, mother of staff member Kim Richards and grandmother of Lexi Richards ’17 and Jenna Richards ’19, May 8, 2018. Helen Simar, mother of faculty emeritus Ron Simar, mother-in-law of Office of Admission receptionist Susan Simar, grandmother of Matt Simar ’86 and Seton Simar ’90, and great-grandmother of Grace Simar ’18, January 6, 2018. Clarke W. Slade Jr., grandson of founding headmaster Dr. William Mann Irvine, stepfather of Kendra Flowers ’95, and cousin of William West ’84, May 23, 2018.