Mercersburg A magazine for Mercersburg Academy family and friends
Power and Politics page 12
VOLUME 35 NO. 1 SPRI NG 2008
VO LUM E 3 5
N O. 1
SPRI NG 2008
A magazine for Mercersburg Academy family and friends
Mercersburg
Power and Politics
1,031 Words Stopping by woods on a snowy afternoon. Page 10
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Inside Look Students tackle complex worldly issues—and adjust their leisure reading habits—in an AP-level government course. Page 12
Presidents (and Vice Presidents) at Mercersburg A glimpse at the Academy’s close encounters with commanders in chief and those a heartbeat away. Page 20
Mercersburg Profiles Academy alumni are serving candidates, cities, citizens, Bushes, and Clintons. Page 22
My Say
22 You Should Know History was made and holiday cheer was spread when Mercersburg welcomed choirs and ensembles from James Buchanan High School for a joint concert in the Burgin Center’s Simon Theatre. The schools are separated by less than two miles, but performed together for what is believed to be the first time. A standing-room-only crowd enjoyed choral, orchestral, handbell, and a cappella selections. Pictured: Mercersburg singers (blue robes) join with their guests (green robes) under the direction of Richard Rotz. Photo by Ryan Smith. Photo credits: p. 2 Chris Crisman; p. 3 (top) Matt Maurer; p. 4 (Obama) courtesy Xanthe Hilton, (Clinton) courtesy Ripal Shah; p. 5 (Morgan) Duke University Photography, (Jones) Ryan Smith; p. 6 (Bennett) Bill Green, (Hughes) Tim Hyman, Maryland State Highway Administration; p. 7 Renee Hicks; p. 8 (field hockey) Hicks, (football) John Hutchins; p. 9 (soccer) Hicks, (volleyball) Sandie Cubit; p. 10–11 Smith; p. 13–15 (all photos) Smith; p. 16 (Diller) Smith, (Model UN) Hillary Smith; p. 17–19 (all photos) Ryan Smith; p. 20–21 (all photos except Gore/Humphrey) Mercersburg Academy Archives, (Gore) Debra Collins, (Humphrey) LBJ Library Photo by Yoichi R. Okamoto; p. 23 Ryan Smith; p. 24–25 courtesy Marion Sullivan; p. 26 Ryan Smith; p. 28 courtesy Jennifer Sobich; p. 34 Penne Laingen Yellow Ribbon Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress; p. 38 Will Dupuis. Illustrations: cover, p. 12: Doug Jones.
On a trip to the Middle East, a Mercersburg group discovers political meaning everywhere. Page 49
From the Head of School Via Mercersburg Athletics Alumni Notes
Mercersburg magazine is published three times annually by the Office of Strategic Marketing and Communications. Mercersburg Academy 300 East Seminary Street Mercersburg, Pennsylvania 17236 Magazine correspondence: Lee_Owen@mercersburg.edu
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Editor: Lee Owen Alumni Notes Editor: Jenn Flanagan ’99 Contributors: John David Bennett, Shelton Clark, Tom Coccagna, Phil Kantaros, Pat Myers, Susan Pasternack, Jay Quinn, Chuck Roberts ’07, Allison Stephens, Lindsay Tanton Alumni Notes Assistants: Jessica Glass, Carol Swinehart Art Direction: Aldrich Design
Alumni Notes correspondence: Jenn_Flanagan@mercersburg.edu Alumni correspondence/ change of address: Leslie_Miller@mercersburg.edu www.mercersburg.edu
Head of School: Douglas Hale Director of Strategic Marketing and Communications: Heather Sullivan Assistant Head for External Affairs: Mary Carrasco
From the Head of School
Building Community One
feature of boarding school life I have always loved is how fully we believe in and engage in building and maintaining a sense of community. Thirty-five years in the school world, though, have taught me at least two important lessons on this topic: community can be built in deliberate and intentional ways, but it is also extremely difficult to hold on continually to that community. No matter how whole the community can feel at any given moment, about every 15 minutes or so something comes around and threatens to punch a hole in that very wholeness. The duty of a fine boarding school, then, is to begin work immediately to repair the break and restore the wholeness, knowing fully that any positive results from those efforts will be ephemeral. Henri Nouwen, a writer and Roman Catholic priest, once observed, “A man can keep his sanity and stay alive as long as there is at least one person waiting for him.” Those are not only poignant words but also wise and useful ones as we ponder the purpose of community in the increasingly fragmented world in which we live. It presumes, of course, that human ties and connections are essential to “One of my greatest hopes for graduates of our well-being and identity and that what we are as human this great school is that they will leave these beings is connected in a real way to our associations and gates knowing how important it is for them interactions with other people. And Nouwen’s words are to be waiting for those human beings and even more provocative when we realize that we can be either the beneficiary of that person waiting for us or the person those things of this world that will need and who is waiting to help and connect with some other human require their help, their understanding, their being; comfort and obligation are rolled into the same idea. intellect, their training.” “One person waiting” for us in our community, our family, our neighborhood, our place of worship, or our boarding school, offers at least some reassurance that we will not suffer unduly from the loneliness and isolation that can be characteristic of modern life. Those of us in boarding schools understand that we have chosen paths where we must enter into the lives of others with genuine understanding and sympathy. One of my greatest hopes for graduates of this great school is that they will leave these gates knowing how important it is for them to be waiting for those human beings and those things of this world that will need and require their help, their understanding, their intellect, their training. And just as importantly, of course, I hope they will leave here with absolute certainty that there will always be at least “one person waiting” for them when they return to this good place.
Douglas Hale Head of School
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Dates to Remember
May 2
Spring Alumni Council Meetings
May 9
Spring Board of Regents Meetings
May 24
Senior Art Show Opening, 7 p.m., Cofrin Gallery Spring Dance Concert, 8 p.m., Simon Theatre
Jun 6
Baccalaureate, 7 p.m., Chapel
Jun 7
Commencement, 11 a.m.
Jul 4
National Bell Ringing Ceremony and Carillon Recital, 2 p.m., Chapel
Oct 16–19
Alumni Weekend
A roundup of what’s news, what’s new, and what Mercersburg people are talking about.
Service with a Smile
Security and efficiency
What’s in a fob?
Six Mercersburg students and two faculty/staff members spent five days of their Thanksgiving break at the Father Beiting Appalachia Mission Center in Louisa, Kentucky. The group’s work included sorting and preparing donated merchandise for sale in the center’s thrift store. Pictured (L-R): Laurel Schaefer ’09, Magdelena Kala ’09, Kylee Mason ’09, Mae (a store employee), Anne Carrasco ’11, Jordan Fox ’11, and Victor Paul Celani ’09.
©iStockphoto.com/Spanishalex
It’s too early to get nostalgic for the usually desperate exclamation, “I lost my keys!” But in December 2007, Mercersburg implemented a keyless entry system that might make the lost-key conundrum less stressful on campus. “The beauty of this system,” says Maria Kimsey, assistant head of school for finance and operations, “is that we can customize every fob to the person, giving access when and where it’s needed.” The keyless devices—known as fobs—are small hardware devices with built-in authentication mechanisms; to gain entry, the bearer waves the fob in front of an access control reader at a building’s entrance. (Individual rooms still require keys for access.)
Fobs can be programmed to meet individual requirements; the fobs can also be wiped clean and reprogrammed, allowing for recycling. As of early 2008, security and technology staff helped implement the system in all Mercersburg dorms. Academic and other campus buildings are wired or in the queue. The security system also allows designated Academy personnel to lock down buildings via the Internet and to monitor usage. Glessner Alarm & Communications installed the new system. —Heather Sullivan
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Face Time Above: Xanthe Hilton ’07 sums up the political culture of New Hampshire in one word: “contagious.” In her freshman year at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire, Hilton (third from right, wearing vest) worked as a volunteer for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, canvassing neighborhoods near campus and working at campaign events—and rubbing elbows with one Oprah Winfrey, who showed up at an Obama rally before the January 8 primary. Right: Ripal Shah ’03 served as regional coordinator for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign in the West End/Beacon Hill section of Boston. (Clinton won the Massachusetts primary in February.) Shah, who graduated from Duke University in three years, also founded a chapter of South Asians for Hillary. “As an economics major and aspiring physician, I have a specific interest in [Clinton’s] health care plan and her intentions to bring our nation into a new economy,” she says.
Mercersburg Publications Take Home Awards In the 2008 CASE District II Accolades Awards, Mercersburg magazine earned a Silver in the independent school magazine category, while the school’s new viewbook captured a Bronze; it was the only independent school viewbook to win an honor. Mercersburg’s Office of Strategic Marketing and Communications produced the publications, which competed against those from 700 independent schools, colleges, and universities in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and West Virginia. CASE (the Council for Advancement and Support of Education) is the international association for advancement and communications professionals in education.
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I N S I DE ME RCE R SBU R G
Sankofa: Sharing Spiritual Wisdom Lawrence Jones, in his second tour of duty as Mercersburg’s school minister, is part of a five-person group awarded a $14,000 grant from the College of Pastoral Leaders of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Texas. Members of the group have been practicing ministers for about 30 years, and will meet two or three times annually for the next two years in hopes of “distilling something of what we have learned across the
out DUKE-ING IT
Bryan Morgan ’07 didn’t have to wait long for a taste of college football. Morgan (above) started his first game as a true freshman for the Duke Blue Devils (against Connecticut September 1); 12 games and more than 350 snaps later, he found himself on the Atlantic Coast Conference’s All-Freshman Team. Not to be outdone, teammate and fellow Mercersburg alum Vincent Rey ’06 led the Blue Devils and was fifth in the ACC with 111 tackles.
last three decades and sharing it with those who are beginning on this journey,” Jones says. The collaboration will produce a working definition of pastoral excellence in a variety of settings—a definition that might appear in a book, scholarly articles, or a series of workshops for those beginning a career in the ministry. The group is calling itself Sankofa, a West African word translated loosely as “it is not taboo to go back to fetch what you forgot.”
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The Hot List Three reads for a fresh spring day English teacher and native Texan John David Bennett shares these novel and poetic suggestions to check out while the sun shines and flowers bloom.
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Goodbye to a River John Graves
Nominated for the National Book Award in 1960, this gentle memoir of a canoe trip on Texas’ Rio de los Brazos de Dios memorializes a river that would soon be dammed, whose might and disposition would be altered forever. Graves’ meditations on the Brazos of his youth and the fascinating chronicles of the river’s recent and distant past weave a peaceful concession, welcoming any reader who has ever lost a significant place.
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The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems Billy Collins
In a sweetly irreverent romp, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins probes and nudges at the idiosyncrasies and small ironies that make daily life confounding and livable. Go straight to “Traveling Alone” and “The Introduction.”
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My Ántonia Willa Cather
H.L. Mencken wrote of Cather’s classic, “No romantic novel ever written in America, by man or woman, is one half so beautiful as My Ántonia.” Told in lyrical episodes, the unlikely love story is as provincial as its farming communities and as sprawling as its Nebraska frontier. It considers, in the wake of struggle and disappointment, how lovely and fulfilling a simple wonder could be.
C A M P U S N OT E S
In Case You Missed It Stephen Prothero, chair of the Department of Religion at Boston University and author of Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—And Doesn’t, gave the Schaff Lecture on Ethics and Morals in September. Religious Literacy spent several weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in 2007. In the book, Prothero advocates a mandatory academic study of world religions in public and private schools alike. Kwame A. Appiah, a professor of Stephen Prothero philosophy at Princeton University, delivered the Jacobs Residency Lecture in December. Appiah, whose father was a Ghanaian politician and mother came from a prominent British family, spoke on the issues of identity, ethics, and cosmopolitanism (the subject of his 2006 book, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers). For more on Appiah’s talk, as well as a Chapel program by George Mason University professor Richard Rubenstein, see page 17.
Fine arts teacher Wells Gray and two classes of ceramics students fired up Mercersburg’s new Raku kiln in January. Raku is a 16thcentury Japanese earthenware firing process in which a glazed ceramic piece is rapidly heated to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit and immediately placed into a container of combustible material and sealed. The unique look of Raku pottery comes from the post-firereduction stage, which creates a carbon atmosphere, affecting the metallic nature of the glaze and affording a lustrous effect. A welcome center on Interstate 95 near Laurel, Maryland, now bears the name of Harry Hughes ’44, who was appointed Maryland’s first transportation secretary in 1970 and became its governor in 1979. Hughes (now 81 and living on Maryland’s Eastern Shore) and Dick Thornburgh ’50 [Mercersburg, summer 2007] served as governors in the neighboring states of Maryland and Pennsylvania, respectively, from 1979 to 1987. Harry Hughes
Athletics
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Dates to Remember
May 10
Blair at Mercersburg: noon: baseball, softball, men’s tennis 1 p.m.: men’s/women’s lacrosse MAPL Golf Championships at Whitetail, all day
May 14
Pennsylvania Independent Schools Track & Field Championships (Pottstown, Pennsylvania) For updated athletic schedules and results, visit www.mercersburg.edu
Extra Miles, Net Gains
Lena Finucane runs
By Phil Kantaros
over foes on courts and
On a crisp October Saturday morning, Lena Finucane ’09 stood at the starting line and readied herself to compete in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Cross Country Championships. Mercersburg hosted the event, so Lena was on home ground; but she had only run the course a couple of times, because Lena is technically not a member of the Blue Storm cross country team. Instead, she holds the No. 1 spot on Mercersburg’s women’s tennis team, and maintained her top ranking all season long. Lena, who was born in Sweden and is fluent in Swedish, also lived in Sri Lanka and Indonesia until fourth grade, when her family returned to her father’s home in Pennsylvania. She enjoys going to school with her older brother, James ’08, even though he casts a long shadow. In November, James captured the Mid-Atlantic Prep League individual cross country crown for the second straight year, shattering the course record at Peddie School in the process. Lena credits James with helping motivate her to run on a regular basis, and the two work together on race strategy. Lena finished third in the state meet with a strong time of 20:13 on the 5K course, less than a minute behind the winner. But when the time came to accept her award, Lena wasn’t there; she was on a tennis court across campus, battling Peddie’s top-ranked player. “It was hard convincing [varsity tennis] Coach [Mike] Sweeney to let me run in the
courses alike
meet,” she says with a smile. Despite some understandable fatigue, Lena won the match in convincing fashion, 6–2, 6–0. It was, she says with certainty, her best tennis moment of the year; she also teamed with Valerie Garcia ’10 to post a doubles victory. In September, Lena woke regularly at 5 a.m. for a five- or six-mile run before commuting to school. October saw Lena running at Mercersburg during free periods; some days, she ran twice while managing to work in a full tennis practice. Lena loves playing tennis, but playing only tennis has never been an option for her. “For me, playing on the tennis team is a lot more fun, but my passion really is the running,” she says.
Winning a No. 1 tennis match shortly after placing third in the Pennsylvania state meet caught the attention of the [Chambersburg] Public Opinion, which named Lena its Female Athlete of the Week. Both Lena and James are running winter track— and then, of course, comes spring track, which will likely be the last time the two siblings both run in the same program. Lena looks forward to her senior year in 2008–2009; she’ll be living on campus and will no longer have to match her schedule with that of her brother, as she did when both were day students with miles to run and miles to drive.
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Fall Varsity Athletics Roundup Men’s Cross Country Most outstanding runner: James Finucane ’08 Most improved runner: Trent Woodham ’08 Charles R. Colbert Jr. ’51 Award (sportsmanship): Lawrence Sohn ’08 Head coach: Betsy Willis (5th season) MAPL finish: 5th Highlights: Finucane won the Mid-Atlantic Prep League individual championship for the second straight year… he was named All-State and AllMAPL, and also finished first in races at Hedgesville, Landon, and against Martinsburg/Musselman… Ellis Mays ’10 finished eighth at the MAPL championships… team was 12th at the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Championships… Willis says that 100 percent of men’s and women’s team members ran their personal bests at the MAPL meet.
Women’s Cross Country Most outstanding runner: Annie Spencer ’08 Most improved runner: Sarah Duda ’10 Charles R. Colbert Jr. ’51 Award (sportsmanship): Remy Wheat ’08 Head coach: Betsy Willis (5th season) MAPL finish: 4th Highlights: The team finished second out of 13 teams at the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Championships… Lena Finucane ’09 and Mackenzie Riford ’11 placed third and seventh at the meet, respectively, to earn first-team All-State honors; Spencer (a four-year letterwinner) was eighth and garnered second-team All-State accolades... Spencer finished third and Riford fourth at the MAPL Championships, and both were named All-MAPL… Riford was a [Hagerstown] Herald-Mail All-Area selection.
Field Hockey Captains: Laura Diller ’08, Mary Lancaster ’08, Gussie Reilly ’08 Most outstanding player: Lancaster Outstanding Contribution to Hockey Award: Reilly Beck Improvement Award: Annie Birney ’09 Head coach: Gretchan Frederick (3rd season) Record: 10–6 (2–3 MAPL) Highlights: The Blue Storm’s 10 victories tied a school record, and were the most in a season since 1979… wins over Hun (5–1) and Blair (6–1) were the first over those schools in the program’s history… Lancaster and Reilly were named first-team AllMAPL, while Birney and Amelia Goebel ’09 received honorable-mention honors… Diller, Lancaster, and Reilly earned varsity letters all four years… Jane Banta ’11 posted a 1.84 goals-against average and stopped 76 percent of the shots she faced in goal... the team scored 57 goals and posted 29 assists, up from 23 goals and 15 assists in 2006.
compiled by Lee Owen
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Football Captains: game captains selected Most outstanding player: Ben Eaton ’08 Most improved player: Bond Stockdale ’09 Head coach: Dan Walker (5th season) Record: 5–4 (2–3 MAPL) Highlights: The team finished the season ranked No. 21 nationally among prep schools by MaxPreps.com… wins came over Lawrenceville, Hill, Bullis, Kiski, and St. Albans; Mercersburg was the only team to beat St. Albans this season… Trevor Smith ’09 threw for 1,556 yards, and Collin Stevens ’08 had 626 yards receiving and averaged 35.65 yards per punt… Eaton had four 100-yard games on the ground, and led the team defensively with 70 tackles… Eaton, Stevens, and Bill Campi ’08 were named first-team All-MAPL, and Smith and Tyler Mort ’08 garnered honorable-mention honors.
Men’s Soccer Captains: Ethan Strickler ’08, David Strider ’08 Most outstanding player: Valentin Quan Miranda ’08 Most improved player: Josh Rosenblat ’08 Schweizer Cup (hard work/determination): Strickler Head coach: Peter Kempe (12th season) Record: 8–6–2 (2–3 MAPL) Highlights: Quan Miranda and Strickler garnered first-team all-conference honors, and both played in the annual Public Opinion/Herald-Mail Senior AllStar Game… Strider (the team’s leading scorer with 10 goals) was named to the Public Opinion’s All-Star second team, and Rosenblat earned honorablemention honors… Andrew Reichardt ’08 recorded five shutouts in goal… 90 percent of the Blue Storm’s goals and 70 percent of its assists came
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from seven seniors… the team went 3–0 to capture the preseason Cape Fear Kickoff Classic in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Women’s Soccer Captains: Emily Carl ’08, Lauren Dobish ’08, Rachel Greenberg ’08 Most outstanding player: Dobish, Jenn Dillon ’09 Most improved player: Paige Harry ’10 Hendrickson/Hoffman Coach’s Award: Carl, Greenberg Head coach: Heather Reichhart Dugan (5th season) Record: 6–5–5 (1–4 MAPL) Highlights: Dillon and Dobish were named firstteam All-MAPL, while Carl earned honorable-mention honors… Tatiana Duchak ’10 led the team with seven goals and nine assists… Dobish either tied or gave the Storm a lead in the final minute of three different contests… the five losses were the lowest total in the program’s history, and the team’s 1–0 win over Hill was its first ever… three of the five matches that ended in ties were shortened due to weather or no overtime period.
Women’s Tennis Captains: match captains selected Most outstanding player: Lena Finucane ’09 Most improved player: Lucia Rowe ’09 Head coach: Mike Sweeney (4th season) Record: 4–8 (2–3 MAPL) Highlights: Finucane garnered honorable-mention all-conference recognition, posting a 5–7 mark at No. 1 singles… Rowe and Kelsie Bittle ’08 each went 6–6 at No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively… Bittle was a combined 8–3 in doubles matches with part-
ners Rowe and Valerie Garcia ’10… team victories came against Hun, Blair, Notre Dame, and Cumberland Valley.
Volleyball Captains: Cree Riley ’08, Laura Willwerth ’08 Erin Carey Memorial Award (most outstanding player): C. Riley Most improved player: Taylor Riley ’10 Head coach: Eric Fleming (2nd season) Record: 8–9 Highlights: Team won the Mercersburg Invitational for the second consecutive season… Cree Riley was named the tournament’s most outstanding player, and played in the Younger Toyota All-Star SpikeFest (an all-star game for area standouts) as a member of the Potomac Team… she recorded 170 kills and 52 blocks for the season… Taylor Riley also made the Mercersburg all-tournament team… a victory over Martinsburg in the home finale was the year’s top highlight.
1,031 Words
Winter came ahead of schedule at Mercersburg this year, creating this frosty panoramic postcard. Some of autumn’s finest brown and orange hues were still hanging around to enjoy the early-December snow.
How can we interpret the politics of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? What’s the significance of Democrat John Edwards’ populism? How can a career in British Parliament be stymied by district reassignment? What are the advantages of a quango (quasi-nongovernmental organization)? The textbook, Introduction to Comparative Politics (Fourth Edition)—admittedly not the sexiest title—may begin to answer some of these questions. But that’s not why students are pumped about AP U.S. Government & Comparative Politics, taught by Phil Kantaros, with guest appearances by co-historian and political junkie Christopher Tompkins, who doubles as assistant head of school for enrollment. (Many refer to the class as “Comparative” for short.)
Inside
LOOK AN AP POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT CLASS HELPS STUDENTS LEARN TO READ THE WORLD BY HEATHER SULLIVAN
PHIL KANTAROS
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Understanding others —why viewpoint matters
Required Reading Every Tuesday, 30 copies of this week’s issue of the Economist arrive in a plain brown box. It ’s my job to make sure that the cargo gets “home” safely—to my AP U.S. Government & Comparative Politics students. We run down the contents and agree on a list of required articles. And then we dive in, putting much of our learning to immediate practice. It ’s a blast to watch these students begin to really grasp complex global issues; you can almost hear the neurons firing. But the Economist is more than just the greatest magazine on Earth—it has now achieved Mercersburg campus credibility. Students bypass Rolling Stone, People, and Cosmopolitan in favor of the Economist at the airport newsstand. Trent Woodham ’08 received some serious scrutiny from two firstclass suits as he cruised to his coach seat with a copy in clutch. A pair of seniors admitted to dropping suitors who came up short on current issues. The kids have drubbed their parents over issues like the Iowa caucuses or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s domestic agenda. Mary Lancaster ’08 packs enough horsepower to carry family political spats past dinner and deep into dessert . Laura Diller ’08 is still a bit bemused that she can so enjoy a magazine bereft of fashion pics, horoscopes, and personal ads, while Remy Wheat ’08 seeks a dentist who carries the Economist; how can she trust her teeth to someone who just reads Time? Emily Weiss ’08 notes that “this is the first magazine I’ve ever highlighted, but I can’t get past feeling like I’m mistreating the magazine when I do that .” Both Nathan Stanford ’08 and Chris McClintick ’08 conveniently remember to bring their copies to each college-admission office they visit . Annie Spencer ’08 even had an “Oprah moment” during one college interview; she admitted suffering from “Economist anxiety disorder,” a dreaded panic that builds as half-read issues pile up. (The interviewer admitted that she shared the disorder as well.) I, too, have fought through the panic. Still, it’s comforting to know that the next issue is coming soon. —Phil Kantaros
The duo teaches two sections of the AP course, which is one of more than 40 AP and honors courses at Mercersburg. The 31 students from seven U.S. states and six foreign countries (Canada, El Salvador, Taiwan, Korea, Poland, and Saudi Arabia) gather to talk politics; they use the college-level textbook, which delivers the mechanics of the governments of six countries. Required reading of the Economist—introduced this year—as well as referencing online and other sources, adds texture to the text. On occasion, students might also enjoy a custom PowerPoint presentation, compliments of Kantaros (a.k.a. Mr. K) and sure to include an unexpected parallel between “real life” and politics. “Mr. K forces students to think outside the box. He allows us to tap into a different way of thinking by posing questions and theories,” says Chris Freeland ’08, of Frederick, Maryland. “Studying various forms of government and political cultures is incredibly important in today’s interconnected world,” says Magdalena Kala ’09, of Przystajn, Poland. “It gives a larger perspective and enables comprehension of what’s taking place around the world. Knowledge of other systems—the comparative aspect—also helps in acquiring better understanding of home politics.” “I love that terms and concepts I learn in my textbook come up in the articles [we read]. Students apply their classroom knowledge to actual events and trends around the world,” says Steve Kim ’08, of Busan, Korea. “I can now analyze a graph of Japan’s GDP [gross domestic product] change over the previous years and understand when an article talks about the PPP [purchasing power parity] of different countries to compare levels of economic development.” “Reading the Economist has released me from the socalled ‘bubble,’” says Laura Diller ’08, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. “I am aware of how little I do know about the world and how much I have to learn from it.” The students love the slightly surreal Economist job postings, such as
“Wanted: president of small Balkan nation. No Keynesians, please,” or, “Seeking Executive Manager of Earth, Northern Hemisphere Branch.”
In conversation Kantaros and Tompkins hold no official salon—but they did invite their students over to watch the New Hampshire and Super Tuesday primaries and share chips and salsa and homemade brownies. “We’ve discussed many interesting aspects of the 2008 presidential race,” Kantaros said in a January interview,
CHRIS FREELAND
“Knowledge of other [political] systems helps in acquiring better understanding of home politics.” —MAGDALENA KALA ’09 “including the populist message of Edwards, the lack of a Reaganesque conservative frontrunner, or how [Barack] Obama’s candidacy may begin to end our society’s preoccupation with perpetuating distinctions based on race. “We get kids to think about whether doubling the minimum wage is necessarily the best thing for workers because of the possibility of outsourcing. We want them to understand beyond slogans and knee jerks. The reality is always deeper and more complex and not as simply obtainable as people would think.” Some years, he continues, students follow politics so closely that they can correct him on occasion. This year, he has smart “sponges,” he says. “They are seeing how the world works, and it’s intense. We give them two-minute writing drills: define a subject— say, the devolution of the House of Lords— and discuss its relevance and background. “We’re not studying trends or social issues. We’re studying the politics and economics of
MAGDALENA KALA
our nation—and of nations that are very different from ours,” he continues, referencing young, affluent Iranians—a constituency that wants nuclear weapons and supports its president—and, in contrast, the largely working-class and older-women voters in America who are speaking for Hillary Clinton and for whom she must speak. “Kids are really digging into what makes politicians tick, or the role of the International Monetary Fund—and they’re a little surprised that it’s appealing,” Kantaros says. “This information is so accessible—but there aren’t many opportunities to access it in a formal setting. This information is too rarely taught.” “It can be viewed as history versus social science,” Tompkins adds. “Anybody can argue that reading Gilgamesh is valuable— as literature, it is exceptional for its history of the Middle East. “But what we’re doing in class is equally important. We take that history and parlay it into a meaningful, in-depth understanding of the Middle East today. Good social science and a strong background in history go hand in hand. And the diversity of our classroom adds vitality to every conversation.” “Part of what we’re doing is working with
students so they can develop the skills to be able to access the wealth of information that is all around them. And if both teachers and students succeed,” Kantaros says, “then students will develop a lifelong interest in accessing the information that will help them continue to understand the world at a more meaningful level. “So in addition to picking up Cosmo or Sports Illustrated at the airport, a student might also pick up the Economist. In addition to checking out the most popular videos on YouTube, a student might also check out Ahmadinejad’s most recent speech or watch a pro-democracy rally in Moscow.”
Emerging perspective “The countries we study vary greatly,” Kala says. “We analyze the United States and United Kingdom—consolidated democracies; Mexico, Russia, and Nigeria—transitional democracies; and China and Iran—authoritarian regimes. We see considerable representation of the major political systems around the globe, all of them also experiencing compelling developments that may change the course of history. “I have been anticipating the part dealing with Russia the most, as I have been
fascinated by this country—its twisted politics and unique position in the global arena. Russian government and society are very distinctive. They are nothing like their American counterparts.” “Before spending time with Mr. K, I had very little interest in political news,” Freeland says. “Now, I find myself seeking out the headlines, and I can make connections between separate news stories and keep up with some of the best political critics.” “The countries we focus on are all key players in today’s foreign affairs,” says Josh Bowling ’08, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, “whether as antagonistic figures, as with Iran and Nigeria; or developing democracies expected to join the upper international echelon, as with Russia and Mexico; or as models of a fully functioning democracy— in this instance, Britain. If you were to pick up a newspaper on any given day, you would see at least three of these countries mentioned. “With the [Bush] administration’s attempt to stabilize the Middle East through military force, Iran is becoming an increasingly important state that we need to understand in order to prevent any [future] rash action that would instigate what Bush calls World War III.”
LAURA DILLER CURRENT EVENTS:
Model UN at Mercersburg
Model UN members at a 2007 conference in New York
Model United Nations is a simulation of meetings and actions of the UN General Assembly and related organizations. An estimated 400,000 students worldwide participate each year; Mercersburg is home to a decorated and active Model UN group. The following timeline juxtaposes Mercersburg Model UN events (in blue) with real-world UN actions (in black) from the past decade. COMPILED BY CHUCK ROBERTS ’07
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Big picture Conflict resolution may be one of the most important roles of politicians, diplomats, and international organizations in the decades ahead. The AP government class is not a political theory class—but discussions of stories in the Economist and other sources offer compelling “texts.” In December 2007, Richard Rubenstein, scholar and author of Aristotle’s Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Dark Ages, spoke to the Mercersburg community about Aristotelian philosophy and how the Greek philosopher might manage modern conflicts, including America’s culture wars. “Through conflict we learn; through conflict we grow,” Rubenstein said. “In almost any conflict, it is difficult to identify aggressor and defender. “Beliefs themselves don’t cause conflict. It’s more accurate to say that people become aggressive when their basic human needs are not being satisfied.” He added that a breakdown of the boundaries between public and private actions and agendas can intensify this divisiveness. Immersed in their survey of nations, some students desire change in domestic government. Bowling would change the isolation of policymakers in the executive branch. “They
STEVE KIM
“I can now analyze a graph of Japan’s GDP [gross domestic product] change over the previous years.” —STEVE KIM ’08
2001 2001 After a hiatus, Model UN is reintroduced under the guidance of history teacher Emily Howley The first UN peacekeeping troops arrive in Afghanistan following Security Council approval of the multinational force 2002 2002 Delegation attends statewide conference in Harrisburg… larger membership and new student leadership under Carl Gray ’05
Switzerland officially requests to become the UN’s 190th member… UN weapons inspectors return to Iraq after a four-year hiatus… North Korean officials threaten to expel UN inspectors 2003 2003 Delegation travels to national conference at Javitz Center and UN Headquarters in New York City… more than 40 students attend initial fall meeting
UN sanctions against Moammar Gadhafi’s regime in Libya are lifted after 11 years… ironically, Iraq is scheduled to head UN disarmament organization… the International Atomic Energy Agency (the UN’s nuclear watchdog) condemns Iran for 18 years of clandestine nuclear programs and warns against further noncompliance 2004 2004 Delegation represents Ecuador at New York conference; issues discussed
include diamond conflicts in western Africa and harnessing the Internet to grow economic development in third-world countries UN agencies airlift supplies into eastern Chad and western Sudan (Darfur) to help 600,000 affected by fighting… Japan, India, Brazil, and Germany lobby for drastic UN reforms, including Security Council expansion to include permanent seats for their ambassadors
have scores of experts and academic specialists but no incentive to listen to the American public,” he says. This academic year, students also heard professor and novelist Kwame Appiah, the author of Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. Appiah said that cosmopolitanism, the idea that the entire world population belongs to a single global community, has been made especially relevant by globalization. “We have to know about the lives of others, because we are able to affect them,” Appiah said. “We can give people elsewhere in the world new technology, anti-retroviral drugs, and other good ideas, or things that cause harm—viruses or airborne pollutants.” “The cosmopolitanism that Dr. Appiah espouses is fine when applied on the micro-level,” says Bowling, “[but] I stand by the right of a nation to determine its own form of government, so long as that government follows humanitarian law.”
Life after Comparative Alumni of the course include Christian Gallon ’03, who works on Capitol Hill as a staff assistant to Congressman Todd Platts of Pennsylvania; Gallon told Tompkins that the
JOSH BOWLING CURRENT EVENTS:
Model UN at Mercersburg
2005 2005 Delegation represents South Africa and discusses UN reform (including Security Council expansion) and nuclear disarmament at conference in New York World leaders gather to reassess the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a key tool in nuclear arms control… UN reports that more than 40 million people worldwide are HIV-positive 2006 2006 Delegations representing Eritrea and Denmark attend national conference in New York, garnering awards for
discussions on the HIV/AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa and the right to development… record membership upon announcement of plans to promote international awareness among student body Newly independent Montenegro becomes the 192nd UN member… South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon appointed UN’s eighth secretary-general… Security Council votes to impose sanctions on Iran following decades of nuclear noncompliance
2007 2007 As his senior project, Chuck Roberts ’07 chairs the first Mercersburg Model United Nations Conference, which welcomes middle-school delegations from three states… Mercersburg occupies the coveted Security Council seat held by the United States, in addition to various seats assigned to Eritrea, at the New York conference, bringing home awards for work on issues such as Darfur and economic globalization… under the leadership of Annie Spencer ’08, student forums are scheduled on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and free trade
UN officials and African Union leaders meet in Libya to further address Darfur 2008 2008 In February, a delegation attends the Ivy League Model UN Conference in Philadelphia, representing Canada on committees addressing Security Council reform and the role of globalization in relieving poverty
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“It’s exhilarating to be able to be the one filling my dad in on current events.” —REMY WHEAT ’08 knowledge of government he gained in class here was a “tremendous benefit.” Chuck Roberts ’07, another alumnus and former leader of Mercersburg’s Model United Nations, heads to Columbia University in fall 2008 to major in political science. Current class members are committed to keeping the Economist and other hard-news sources as their bedtime reading; Freeland says that he no longer reads the sports page first. “I feel an increased annoyance with U.S. news that isn’t Bloomberg Financial or the Wall Street Journal,” Bowling adds.
Looking ahead Politics and economics—especially if you’re Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke looking at the subprime mortgage debacle—are no joke. But there’s also a lighter side to Mr. K’s class. “We had a competition to determine who was sexier or more alluring than Margaret Thatcher,” Bowling says. “Mr. K is great. Class flies by like a comical conversation,” says Remy Wheat ’08, of Richmond, Virginia. “Somehow we leave class knowing everything there is to know about the British Parliament, yet we don’t recall it being introduced formally. He’s brilliant, and tricky, in that he covers otherwise monotonous material in a captivating manner.” “I am amazed by the passion [of Kantaros and Tompkins]; they pass enthusiasm on to the students,” Kala says. “It is something more than just teaching, and we as students sense it.” “It’s exhilarating to be able to be the one filling my dad in on current events,” Wheat says. Beyond the stone walls of Lenfest Hall, home of the History Department, the school is paying close attention to students’ understanding of the U.S. and its relationship to the rest of the globe. Developing global perspective is one of four areas in which the school is benchmarking student performance and developing methods to increase knowledge and experience (www.mercersburg.edu/afg). This spring, all students took the Global Awareness Profile (GAP), an assessment designed by J. Nathan Corbitt that measures knowledge of international politics, economics, and geography. The assessment will be repeated regularly to gauge cross-cultural fluency on campus. The adults in this story are, of course, also making discoveries: “I’ve learned more from teaching Comparative than anything else I’ve taught in 15 years,” Kantaros says.
REMY WHEAT
CHRISTOPHER TOMPKINS
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PRESIDENTS
(AND VICE PRESIDENTS)
at Mercersburg A look at the Academy’s close encounters with commanders in chief and those a heartbeat away JAMES BUCHANAN, the only Pennsylvanian to win the White House, was born in 1791 at nearby Cove Gap, and moved to Mercersburg with his family as a child. He officially announced his intentions to seek the presidency from the balcony of the Mansion House in the town square. A cabin from the Buchanan family property, which may or may not have once been home to the future president, was moved to the Academy grounds in 1953 and can be found near the athletic fields today.
BUCHANAN
CARTER
JIMMY CARTER visited Mercersburg in 1978 with his daughter, Amy, who took part in a summer tennis camp at the Academy. During the trip, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary with dinner at the Foot of the Mountain Restaurant just northwest of town. WILLIA M HOWARD TAFT, the only American to serve as both president (1909 – 1913) and chief justice (1921 – 1930), spoke on the Mercersburg campus in between his positions of national service (a rare moment of free time, indeed).
TAFT
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As vice president, CALVIN COOLI DGE spoke at groundbreaking ceremonies for the Chapel in 1923. He and his wife, Grace (the first woman to serve on the school’s Board of Regents), were Mercersburg parents as well; sons John ’24 (also a future Regent) and Calvin II ’25 were roommates in Main Hall. The following summer, after Calvin Sr. had become president, his younger son developed a blister while playing tennis on the White House courts. A few days later, Cal died from blood poisoning (caused, it is thought, by the dye of a colored athletic sock he was wearing). While campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Vice President HUBERT HUMPHREY was scheduled to speak during a banquet in Ford Hall in April 1972. (The Franklin County Democratic Party rented the building for the occasion.) Humphrey, who would fail to gain his party’s nomination, didn’t help his cause locally by showing up more than three hours late for his speech, which began well after 10 p.m. Humphrey lost the 1968 election to Richard Nixon; in 1972, the Democrats nominated George McGovern instead.
COOLIDGE
WOODROW WILSON’s first presidency wasn’t in Washington, D.C. Wilson led Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and in 1903 he represented his school as the cornerstone was laid at Mercersburg for ’Eighty-eight Dormitory (built at the Academy from the gifts of members of the Princeton Class of 1888; hence the name). In October 2000, then-Vice President AL GORE took a break from the campaign trail to cheer on his son, Sidwell Friends School linebacker/tight end Albert III, as his Quakers visited Mercersburg for a football game. Legend has it that for motivation, several Blue Storm players wore wrist tape adorned with the phrase “BushCheney” during the contest. Graciously, Gore signed autographs and posed for pictures with fans; however, at the end of the game, no recount was necessary to determine the outcome (a 36 – 26 Mercersburg victory).
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Mercersburg Profiles
A
ccording to the United States Geological Survey, there are 3,141
counties in the United States. A mere 36 of those have produced U.S. presidents, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania (home to Mercersburg), is one. James Buchanan, the nation’s 15th president, was born in 1791 at nearby Cove Gap. Seventy years later, after Buchanan left office and with the Civil War raging nearby, dormitories on the present-day Academy campus served as hospitals for wounded soldiers. Given the borough’s history—and its proximity to the nation’s capital (Washington), its birthplace (Philadelphia), and its largest city (New York)—it’s little surprise that so many Mercersburg Academy alumni are working in government, politics, public service, and related fields. Mercersburg alumni—Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike—have served in Congress and as governors, have worked in the White House, and have played key roles in political campaigns at the federal, state, and local levels. They hold positions in polling, advertising, and media relations, and as journalists keeping tabs on the successes (and failures) of government. Mercersburg’s mayor is an alumnus; not surprisingly, he is far from the first graduate to hold that office. An alumna is making District of Columbia neighborhoods more livable. And among the countless alumni to serve in uniform are three sons whose father was taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Iran. With this historic election year upon us, you’re invited to extend your civic duty by enjoying these profiles.
Pressing
Matters
Kelley Keeler has experienced political history from the inside BY LEE OWEN
Beneath the watchful glow of a neon sign in a small New England downtown, Kelley Keeler ’91 began her political career. The sign, a standard-issue “OPEN” window light found in all-night diners and coffee shops everywhere, adorned the front window of then-Senator Bob Dole’s state presidential-campaign headquarters as the 1996 New Hampshire primary churned toward the finish line. Keeler, with a degree from the University of New Hampshire nearly complete, volunteered with the Dole campaign in the months leading to the primary. After she became the head of volunteers in the state, the campaign asked Keeler to move to the capital, Concord, to serve as full-time manager of the state headquarters. It was there, on the overnight shift, before email became commonplace, that real press clips were clipped from newspapers, taped onto sheets, and faxed to Dole’s national headquarters in Washington. Battle plans were hatched. Strategies for grabbing the Granite State were cultivated. “We were just open,” Keeler says—“24 hours a day nearing the end [of the campaign].”
And then Pat Buchanan dealt Dole a setback in the traditional “first in the nation” primary. But as the campaigns cleared out and headed south to other delegate-rich states, Keeler went too. She traveled in front of Dole as part of his press advance team, helping coordinate media logistics for the growing gaggle of reporters following the eventual Republican nominee. In August, with the race heating up, the campaign added a second plane just for members of the media. Dole failed to halt President Bill Clinton’s re-election bid that fall, and Keeler worked first in Boston and later in Washington for public-relations firms Arnold Communications and Hill & Knowlton. “It took me a little while to figure out, ‘Where do I go from here?’” she says. “It was an honor to work for the senator, and I was young and had never done anything like that before. “But then I didn’t know what to do. So I got some really solid PR experience [with the two firms], and I also did some volunteer work for then-Governor [George W.] Bush.” In August 2000, after Bush emerged as the Republican nominee for the White House, Keeler got a call from the campaign. Dick Cheney would be announced within days as
Bush’s running mate. Would she go on the road and work for Cheney’s staff? So Keeler obtained a leave of absence from Hill & Knowlton, packed her suitcase again, and crisscrossed the country as a member of Cheney’s advance team. She got reacquainted with those familiar electoral hotspots—the swing states—for the second time in four years. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to Michigan,” she says—“and Ohio… and Florida… and Pennsylvania.” On that historic too-close-to-call Election Night, Keeler found herself in Austin, Texas, with a president- and vice-president-elect who couldn’t officially celebrate for weeks. “Everyone kept telling me that I couldn’t go back to Washington because they needed me to stay there and staff,” Keeler recalls. “It was very emotional. I was on the transition team… but everything was in limbo for a while.” Keeler returned home to D.C. for the first time since before Labor Day, and had finally unpacked when she took a call that initially summoned her to Florida, before the campaign decided it needed her to stay in Washington. Once the election results were certified, Keeler became Vice President Cheney’s deputy director of advance, where she managed day-to-day event operations. “It was all really amazing,” she says. “Having worked for Senator Dole and Vice President Cheney, I feel like I’ve really worked for two great veterans of Washington—two statesmen. It was a real honor and a unique experience.” In August 2001, Keeler was named director of media relations for newly appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez. “It was really cool,” she says. “I was the spokesperson for the department on policy and political issues. I basically managed regional and national press operations for the department, and then I’d prep the secretary for any interviews he needed to do. “One of our biggest initiatives was promoting home ownership, and so we had a big Continued on page 24
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push centered around that. It was an awesome opportunity, and it was a great lesson for me in crisis communications.” In 2004, she decided she “wasn’t in it for the second term,” and left HUD, eventually finding her way to the public affairs office of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), just across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia. Keeler serves as executive director of public affairs for AGC, the leading national trade association for the construction industry. “It’s great. It’s PR—there’s no typical day. I like where I am. I can still dabble in politics, and I don’t need to hit the campaign trail again,” she smiles. “It was a thrill both times, for different reasons, but I don’t know that I need to do it again. I’ve had an amazing career, and I feel really lucky.” Keeler, who is engaged to marry Austin Short this June, is one of 13 members of her family to graduate from Mercersburg. Her grandfather’s uncle, Carl Lewis Nolde, died during his senior year at the Academy in 1909; Nolde Gymnasium on campus was named in his memory and constructed through a gift from his father, Pennsylvania industrialist Jacob Nolde. “Mercersburg made me a stronger person and helped me develop into who I am today,” Keeler says. “It’s such a unique and wonderful experience. It gave me independence and helped me to grow, and I carried all those things through college and into my career.”
Erdman-Keeler Scholarship Fund Keeler’s grandparents, Carl ’33 and Carolyn Erdman, established the Erdman Family Scholarship Fund in 1990 in memory of Carl Erdman’s parents, Lee Erdman and Ella Nolde Erdman. It was renamed the Erdman-Keeler Scholarship Fund in 2000. The fund supports academically qualified students with financial need, with preference given to residents of Berks County, Pennsylvania; New Hampshire; or other counties in Pennsylvania.
Primary Roles Siblings Richard and Marion Sullivan share key involvement in ’08 campaigns B Y S H E LT O N C L A R K
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he frenetic nature of political life is familiar to Richard Sullivan ’82 and his sister, Marion ’84. Their father, Richard ’59, served in the South Carolina state legislature and is a prominent figure in Democratic circles there; an uncle was a United States Attorney under President John F. Kennedy. Early political awareness coupled with a Mercersburg education made nearby Washington, D.C., a natural destination for both Richard and Marion. The siblings worked for nearly a decade in Washington politics and education. Today, each lives in North Carolina and is married with children. As might be expected in a family where political activism is in the blood, each is spending 2008 in support of a candidate— one on the national level, one on the state level—whose hoped-for success would have historical implications.
Richard, an attorney with Lovell, Mitchell & Barth, lived in Washington from 1987 to 1997 and worked in politics full time after earning a law degree at Georgetown. He was a fundraiser for Richard Gephardt’s 1988 presidential campaign and national finance director for the Democratic National Committee for two years during Bill Clinton’s presidency. He also worked for a pair of government-relations firms, The Washington Group and Capitol Counsel. During the current election cycle, Richard has served as southern finance chairman for Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. In the third quarter of 2007, Clinton raised more money in the Tar Heel State than any presidential candidate, Democrat or Republican. The Clintons’ visit to a midDecember event there raised $300,000 and fortified her campaign just in time for the highoctane 2008 primary season.
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“I enjoy fundraising—the networking aspect of it, the opportunities to make new contacts and new friends,” Richard says. “I enjoy playing a role in the political process and helping support the type of folks I’d like to see running the government.” The historical implications of Clinton’s potential to become the country’s first female president, he says, are not his raison d’être. “It’s just helping a person who would do the best job as president in an important time,” he said in an interview this winter. “Now more than ever, we need a competent presidential administration—and I think Senator Clinton is at the top of the field.” Marion, who lives in Charlotte, says that as a child, she affixed a lot of stamps to envelopes at Democratic Party headquarters. “In fact, when I was a student at Mercersburg,” she says, “I interned one summer for Dick Riley, who was running for governor. [Riley won, served two terms as South Carolina’s governor, and later became President Clinton’s secretary of education.] That was when I was 15.” Today, Marion is a senior adviser to North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue, who is seeking to become the state’s first female governor this November. “Mercersburg’s proximity to Washington was definitely appealing,” Marion says. “It was just like, ‘Wow, what a new rose to smell.’ It opened up a whole new world to be able to go to Washington with Mercersburg friends
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“I enjoy playing a role in the political process and helping support the type of folks I’d like to see running the government.”RICHARD SULLIVAN ’82 whose families were involved in foreign affairs or government. Mercersburg gives you this jewel of a campus, where you can exist and be nurtured, but then you’re so close to the workings of democracy in America [in Washington] that it makes you so much more comfortable when you become a little older and live and thrive and work there.” Like her brother, Marion refuses to give in to cynical notions of politics and politicians. She cites a favorite quote of 20th-century anthropologist Margaret Mead: “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Working on the staffs of Congressmen Sam Farr of California and Jim Bacchus of Florida gave Marion an idea of how politics can better people’s lives. “What was incredibly apparent to me, both in the political and in the policy process, is the incredible impact you can have affecting lives of well-meaning citizens with really even small amounts of effort,” she says. “You can wake up every day and know that, when you’re out campaigning for someone who’s going to create policies that are going to
positively impact people—whether it’s the environment, food, agriculture, or children’s health care—you can support leaders who can make those differences happen. “Not just creating legislation or getting bills passed, because that takes a long time. But what you can do, because you’re working for the United States Congress, you can pick up the phone, you can identify problems, you can identify players, and you can help put solutions into place that can so dramatically improve someone’s life.” Moving to North Carolina changed Marion’s focus from policy work to politics. She served on the campaign staff of Mike Easley (now in his second term as the state’s governor) before going to work for Perdue. “North Carolina people take a couple of things seriously: one of them is basketball, the other one is politics,” Marion says. “And many people do view politics as a sport here. People know the history, and it’s a lot of fun. Because of the size of the state and the incredible sort of demographic changes occurring with a massive population increase, the governor’s race is a pretty intense race. “I am personally driven by seeing more women elected to public office. I think it creates much more family-friendly policies, and I think women have done really terrific jobs in elected office. I’d love to be a part of helping forge history in North Carolina by electing the first woman governor. That’s the driving force for me; my hope would be that doing so would open the door to allow a lot more women who might be in the state senate or in the state house to say, ‘I can do it, too.’” TOP: Richard Sullivan and his wife, Caroline, with President Bill Clinton BOTTOM: North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue, Democratic activist Judy Harrison Berry, Marion Sullivan
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Meet the Mayor
Jim Zeger is the Mercersburg borough’s chief executive BY TOM COCCAGNA
Coming from a school renowned for sending students all over the world in search of exciting opportunities, Jim Zeger ’65 didn’t have to travel far to find what matters most to him: home. Zeger, a Mercersburg native and mayor of the borough since 2003, holds both the town and the school next to his heart. “I’ve lived here all my life, my wife [Linda] has lived here all her life… it’s a great place to bring up a family,” Zeger says with the enthusiasm of someone who might, well, run for mayor. The Zegers live on a quiet street just a stone’s throw from campus. At night, the lights from the Academy gleam through spaces between the houses on the other side of the street. On placid spring and summer evenings, Jim and Linda can sit on the roomy porch of their two-story brick home or tend to gardening as bells ring from the Chapel. It is, as George Bailey [a character famously played by Jimmy Stewart ’28] discovers at the end of the celebrated Christmas movie, a wonderful life. It is also a life filled with serving rather than taking. The linchpins in Zeger’s life are family and community, cohesive elements that have sustained him over a lifetime that includes a 38-year marriage, successful children, and a community service résumé that would need a ream of paper to do justice. “One thing I really like about Jim,” notes Mercersburg Police Chief Larry Thomas, “is
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“In a small town, the issues are the same as they are in the cities… People don’t always realize that local government is the most important government they have. You can make a daily difference in local government.”—JIM ZEGER ’65 that he is very active in the community. He likes to help anywhere he can.” Some learned at an early age about Zeger’s involvement. Josh Meyers, Mercersburg’s Borough Council president, recollects his first “meeting” with Zeger—about 27 years ago. “It was in the early 1980s, and one year I was the poster child for Easter Seals,” Meyers recalls. “Jim was the master of ceremonies at the awards banquet, and we had our picture taken together. We laugh about it now. I still have the picture, and we are still working together.” Community responsibility is central for Zeger. In addition to teaching math and supervising teachers at Maryland Correctional Institution–Hagerstown, he served on the Tuscarora School Board for 22 years. And after chairing various committees in Mercersburg, he was elected mayor five years ago, even though “between the Lions Club and church, I didn’t need another thing to do. “The beauty of a small town is that you can be involved. It’s a little harder in a city because you’re more distracted and not everybody knows their neighbors. But here, the community is like an extended family. They know me, and I know them.” Zeger’s wit and self-effacing style serve him well in small-town politics. However, don’t make the mistake of confusing “small town” with “small measure of importance.” “In a small town, the issues are the same as they are in the cities,” Zeger explains. “You
may not have the numbers in a small town that you do in a city, but you’re still dealing with trash collection, sewer, growth, cable TV issues. People don’t always realize that local government is the most important government they have. You can make a daily difference in local government.” Zeger tried to take his involvement in local government a notch further last spring when he ran for Franklin County commissioner. However, that plunge into larger-scale politics was foiled when he could not emerge from a crowded Democratic primary ballot. “I don’t consider myself a good politician,” Zeger says with a smile before adding, “and that’s borne out by the campaigns I’ve lost.” The value of education has never been a hard sell for Zeger, either. His experiences at MCIH serve as a poignant reminder of what he cherishes most. “There are some people in there who when you say ‘family’ don’t even know what you’re talking about,” says Zeger, who will soon complete his 39th year at the prison. “But I guess if you took me as an 8-year-old and put me on the street, I might’ve turned out like that, too.” Instead, Zeger was brought up with strong family values, which he has passed on to his two daughters, Holly and Heather. Although his father and two brothers have passed away, his mother, Gertie, remains spry at 88, serving customers at Modnur Pharmacy. His father, Lawrence ’34, became a
believer in the Academy when he attended as a postgraduate student. “It was my father’s desire that his sons go to Mercersburg Academy,” Zeger says, “and all three sons attended for four years each. My father was the best PR man for the Academy.” Older brother Dennis ’63 (who later served as a Franklin County commissioner) was the first to attend. Jim, whose classmates, appropriately, bestowed the nickname “Townie” on him, followed, and younger brother Chris ’68 graduated three years later. “My older brother was a little more studious than I was—he graduated second in his class,” Zeger confesses. “The younger one was a little like that, too. I was the normal kid.” “Normal” in Zeger’s case is far from typical; he helps the community, while encouraging other members to serve as well. “Wherever you choose to live, you want it to be paradise,” Zeger says, “so you have to pitch in to make it that.”
Mayoral ROLL CALL No fewer than four Mercersburg alumni have served as mayor of the borough the Academy calls home: John “Mac” Myers ’23 (1981 – 1984) Henry Steiger ’42 (1986 – 1993) Tom Ralston ’60 (1994– 1998) Jim Zeger ’65 (2002 –current)
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A Winning COMBINATION Handling a former president’s scheduling from the comforts of home BY TOM COCCAGNA
ennifer Cutshall Sobich ’88 has found a perfect niche in the volatile and sometimes cutthroat arena of politics. As a member of former President George H.W. Bush’s staff, Sobich enjoys the rewards of an active political life. She manages scheduling and speaking engagements for the former president, enabling her to keep a finger on the pulse of Washington politics. And in an arrangement envied by working parents everywhere, she works mostly out of her home in Fairfax County, Virginia, allowing more time for her three young daughters and her husband, Peter (a former staff member in the current Bush White House). There’s a saying that once politics gets into the bloodstream, there is no antidote. To be able to feed that fire and essentially still be a stay-at-home mom is, relatively speaking, like discovering gold in the backyard. Sobich knows how grinding politics can be—grueling road trips, long days, little sleep, waking up and having to think hard to remember what city you’re in. Exhilarating? Yes. But exhausting? Indeed. “She came back a few times and spoke to my classes about life on Capitol Hill,” says faculty member Frank Rutherford ’70. “I’d have her tell kids about her daily schedule— getting up at 5:30 to listen to the news, researching and preparing before the day even begins, and then getting home at 10 or 11 at night and having to listen to the late news to prepare for the next day.” For a while, that itinerary was fine with Sobich, who, after graduating from Mercersburg, fed her love of politics at Indiana University, where she double-majored in political science and psychology. She put graduate
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Jennifer and Peter Sobich and daughters Samantha and Sophia with President George H.W. Bush and and First Lady Barbara Bush
school at Georgetown University on hold in 1992 to take a job in the Office of Political Affairs in the first Bush White House. “It was really exciting because it was an election year,” Sobich recalls. “I got to see what politics was like firsthand, and I learned a lot about the machine and how it works. It was exciting most of the time. I never found anything about working in the White House to be mundane at all.” After Bush lost the ’92 election to Bill Clinton, Sobich returned to Georgetown, where she earned a master’s degree in national security. She also did graduate work in broadcast journalism at Stanford University and worked briefly for the CBS affiliate in San Francisco before becoming press secretary for Richard Lugar, the longtime Republican senator from Indiana. Her White House background proved valuable when Lugar ran for president in 1996. “He was chairman of the Agriculture Committee, and he later became chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee,” Sobich explains. “As communications director for a committee chairman, it’s always a challenge to stay on top of the issues.” After leaving Lugar’s staff, she worked for the CIA in communications and public relations for a short time. Through it all, Sobich has discerned how much of a paradox politics can be: invigorating and irksome at the same time. It can get downright nasty, with people competing for favor and not caring how they get it. “I’ve come to learn that in party politics, when you have competing agendas nothing gets done,” she says. “There’s a saying that people in Washington have sharp elbows, and that’s true.”
But Sobich has never been one to shy away from competition. “She was wonderful as a student and as an athlete,” says Rutherford, who was also her track coach. “She would do anything you asked and not complain about it.” Sobich competed in the pentathlon, which includes the 100-meter low hurdles, shot put, long jump, and 400- and 1600-meter runs. In fact, her family sponsored the Cutshall Cup, which was once an annual competition in the discipline among Mercersburg female athletes. There are hopes of the Cutshall Cup being revived in the near future. “She was very competitive,” says her basketball coach, faculty member Karl Reisner. “She wasn’t a superstar but she was a starter. She played hard, practiced hard, and was a good team player.” Those qualities have served her well in politics, which often draws comparisons to athletics because of the competitive traits needed for success in both. Mercersburg played a big role in helping her develop those attributes, and she can thank her late father, Bill Cutshall ’63, for that. “My dad always said [attending Mercersburg] was a turning point for him,” Sobich says. “I grew up hearing lots of stories about it; even as a young child, the Academy was a big part of my life. At age 9, I was involved in summer camp there. I just love Mercersburg so much. “I always enjoyed hearing stories about alums who had gone on to be successful, whether it was [actor] Jimmy Stewart ’28, [former Pennsylvania governor] Dick Thornburgh ’50, or others who had gone on to great things.”
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CITY CONFIDENTIAL: Q & A with Geraldine Gardner ’96
eraldine Gardner ’96 is the District of Columbia’s associate director of neighborhood planning. She has lived and worked in New York City, Berlin, Los Angeles, and Washington, and sandwiched an urban-planning fellowship in Germany between a bachelor’s degree in metropolitan studies from New York University and a master’s from UCLA. Read on for a peek into the nuts and bolts of urban planning on two continents.
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MM: Do you think where you grew up had any effect on what you chose to do professionally? GG: I think that all of the places where I have lived, studied, and worked have influenced my career path and my interest in how “place” affects people, the economy, the environment, and transportation. As a kid growing up on Cape Cod, I witnessed this connection every summer when my town would triple in size with summer residents and tourists. Our economy, residents, natural resources, public services, and physical spaces were all influenced, positively and negatively, by the ebb and flow of people. As an urban planner, I look at similar issues of managing growth and harnessing change.
Pictured at right: Gardner (center) leading a small group session for the D.C. Office of Planning
MM: How did Mercersburg set you on a course toward what you’re doing now? GG: Aside from the positive academic experience, I was influenced by the physical spaces and places of Mercersburg and rural Pennsylvania. When it came time to apply to colleges, I really wanted the opposite experience, so I applied to schools in cities—Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta. When I visited New York University, I just knew it was the right place for me. GG: One of the things that drew me to urban or metropolitan studies was the idea that you could examine multiple academic subjects through the lens of the city. Every subject is at play—economics, housing, urban planning, architecture, public policy, public health, transportation—so you have a wide range of subjects to study. The city really becomes your laboratory and fieldwork is a big part of the major.
MM: What did going to Europe [on a German Chancellor fellowship] and studying in Berlin do for your education and career? GG: Berlin is a fascinating city, and I feel really lucky to have been there when the city was changing so rapidly. Berlin is one of the few world cities that has had to reinvent or re-imagine its identity, reconnect physically, and reposition its economy. Those public policy and planning decisions (or lack thereof) have major consequences both now and years into the future. I still reflect on those lessons learned when dealing with urban development and growth in my current job. And while I worked really hard during my year in Berlin, it was also a good year personally, because I met my husband, Bernd Wilke. MM: How did you develop an interest in your field and in urban planning? Continued on page 30
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GG: Urban planning is such a dynamic field, because even within it there are many different specializations. I focused my graduate work on economic development—specifically, how cities compete and position their core industries to attract new development, jobs, and growth. My interests have evolved, especially since working in D.C. What was missing in my studies and previous jobs was the connection to the public process. Topdown planning without community engagement just doesn’t work—and it fosters suspicion, distrust, and anger among residents. Planning should be a positive experience, and I like the challenge of getting residents to envision development in a positive way. MM: Is it an exciting time to work in Washington with all the redevelopment going on in different parts of the city? What does your position entail? GG: D.C. is another city in the midst of change, and I’ve really enjoyed being part of that process. I manage a team of eight neighborhood planners who work with various stakeholders to prepare plans. A plan typically contains an assessment of current conditions, a market study to measure potential for new residential and commercial growth, and then a plan for where and how that growth should occur. It also includes how the impact of new development on transportation, public services, and resources should be balanced. With each plan, there is an intensive community engagement process that often requires night and weekend meetings. This is a tough, but necessary, step in the process. GG: Lately our plans have also included a “green” component—ways to improve public transportation access, reduce stormwater impact, and encourage green building. And this part of the process is especially dynamic and exciting for me. —LEE OWEN
High Stakes,
High Rollers,
and Hurricanes Keeping tabs on America’s political hotbeds with reporter Jan Moller B Y S H E L T O N C L A R K
2003 newcomer to Louisiana’s capital city of Baton Rouge, newspaper veteran Jan Moller ’87 had seen a couple years’ worth of “politics on steroids”—as Moller refers to the state’s dramatic history—before Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf Coast region and created a humanitarian disaster of incalculable proportions. “People have a tendency to look at politics as a kind of Kabuki theater that has very little relevance to their lives,” says Moller, a Baton Rouge-based reporter for New Orleans’ daily newspaper, the TimesPicayune. “But what Katrina brought home to people of New Orleans is the incredible impact that government can have on their lives.” The Times-Picayune won two Pulitzer Prizes for its Katrina coverage; no small feat, considering the newspaper’s own logistical problems in the days after the storm. “The newsroom started taking on water the day after Katrina, and so the staffers who had stayed behind literally got on newspaper trucks and evacuated New Orleans,” Moller says. “It was, especially in the early days, pure service journalism, just giving people the basic information that they needed about their neighborhoods and what had happened. And you realized there was
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this incredible hunger for it. In the Baton Rouge bureau, our job was to man the state emergency-operations center, where the federal, state, and local authorities were supposed to be managing this. So, for a brief time, we really were the eyes and ears of the paper. “Those first few days, we were delivering the news by sending emails with whatever information we could gather up to our Washington bureau, and they would post it on the website,” Moller adds. “The staff that had evacuated to Houma [a city southwest of New Orleans] were mocking up pages and putting PDF versions of the newspaper online. So we were technically getting an official version of the paper out there. It was touch-andgo journalism.” Moller, a native of Pittsburgh, had different journalistic aspirations when he arrived as a student at Mercersburg. “As a kid, I’d always wanted to be a sportswriter,” he says. “I was a newspaper reader before Mercersburg, but Mercersburg got me exposed to the Washington Post on a daily basis.” His taste for politics whetted, Moller enrolled at American University, where a professor helped him land an internship with muckraking columnist Jack Anderson, whose syndicated “Washington Merry-Go-Round” was the proverbial thorn in the sides of Pres-
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Jan Moller
ident Richard Nixon and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, among others. Moller’s internship turned into a full-time reporter’s job for Anderson that lasted eight years (from 1991 to 1999). “It was like getting your Ph.D. before you finished your bachelor’s degree,” he says. “One of the first people I interviewed as an intern was [then-Vice President] Dan Quayle’s chief of staff. I was in D.C. for most of the Clinton era, which was an interesting time to be there, certainly.” Moller decided that being a Washington “lifer” was not for him and that he wanted to work for a daily newspaper. “I had an editor who had worked in Las Vegas in the 1970s, and she told me it was the worst place to live but the best news town she’d ever seen,” Moller recalls with a chuckle. “So I applied with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and got the job. It turned out to be an okay place to live, but it definitely was a wonderful news town.”
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atrina’s effect on Louisiana and its politics—on January 14, 2008, the state inaugurated Bobby Jindal, a 36-year-old Ivy League-educated, Republican Indian-American, as its new governor— have made for interesting times for Moller. “Louisiana has a long history of kind of being
“It was like getting your Ph.D. before you finished your bachelor’s degree.” —Jan Moller ’87, on working in Washington as a young reporter
amused by politics… and these colorful, larger-than-life characters, going back to Huey Long,” he says. “The public has loved that. But, especially since Katrina, the state has seemed almost ready to turn a corner from its past, which a lot of people around here would argue has haunted it for decades— going back to the Great Depression. “In New Orleans, people are now acutely aware that it was the federal government’s badly built levees that led to the flooding, and it was the state government’s poorly executed evacuation plan that made things worse. Local government had a series of failures, and all three levels of government were responsible for not having good communications systems so those first responders could talk to each other. These were all preventable things that helped deepen people’s misery in the days after, and so the result has been a wave of citizen activism and a group of readers who read the paper much more closely and are
very acutely interested in having us hold government’s feet to the fire. “Every newspaper reporter has heard these reader surveys where people, if you ask them generically what they want, say, ‘Well, we want more good news in the paper,’ and ‘Why are you constantly being so critical of everybody?’ But in New Orleans, people are very interested in holding public officials accountable, so that’s kind of gratifying. And you see it in the form of more emails—a much more involved readership, and again, it’s evolved since Katrina. [Right after the hurricane] people just wanted to know if their house was standing. But now, people are still very interested in what goes on in Baton Rouge, and in New Orleans, and in the federal government.”
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Instant Messaging M
aureen Sheffler ’92 is a vice president of New York City-based Mercury Public Affairs, a highpowered firm that describes its location as “the intersection of business, government, politics, and media.” The same could be said for both Maureen and her twin, Eileen Sheffler Prugh ’92. Both used Mercersburg as a springboard into the fast-paced, behind-the-scenes world of political work and issue advocacy; Eileen spent seven years at McCarthy Marcus Hennings and helped create one of the most effective television advertisements of the 2004 presidential campaign, while Maureen manages her firm’s public opinion research operations for clients that have ranged from candidates and campaigns to corporations. “Between our mother [Marcella] and Mercersburg, I think an important work ethic was instilled in us,” Maureen says. “We’ve both worked for really small companies, and you spend the hours and do what you have to do until it’s done. So I think that kind of motivation—being there, doing it, getting it right, making sure it’s right before you send it to a client, and covering all your bases—to put effort and the pride into your work is something that we learned young.” Maureen spent all four years of her highschool career at Mercersburg; Eileen began with her 10th-grade year. (Younger sister Britt didn’t attend Mercersburg but would later deepen the family connection by getting married in the Irvine Memorial Chapel.) Both are adamant that their experiences on campus led them to success. “I had great opportunities that came from my education there,” says Eileen, who spent a year in England as an English-Speaking
Union scholar after graduation and, as a junior at the College of the Holy Cross, studied in Mexico. “I had taken Spanish before, but [at Mercersburg] I really began to enjoy the language and understand how it could be a great influence on my life,” she says. Later, as a producer creating television advertisements for political candidates, she would oversee the Spanish-speaking talent and translators working with her firm. “Within my career and community service, knowing Spanish has been a wonderful tool,” she says. “And it also became a great way for me to get to know my neighbors in [the Washington neighborhood of] Mount Pleasant.” “I loved it [at Mercersburg],” says Maureen, who later graduated from Franklin & Marshall College. “I think in most of the classes, not just English, there was a lot more writing than you get in public school. It prepares you for college in a lot of ways and helps you hone your writing skills—which I use all the time in my survey work.”
I
n 1996, the twins landed separately in Washington. Maureen served as an intern for that year’s Republican National Convention. Through her sister’s connections, Eileen went to work for political consultant Rick Davis (John McCain’s campaign manager during his 2000 and 2008 runs for the White House). Eileen moved to McCarthy Marcus Hennings, an advertising and strategic-communications firm, in 1997. When she began there as a production assistant, the firm had only one full-time producer on its staff; as she earned promotions to production manager and producer, she helped create more than
BY LEE OWEN
Campaigns and business strategies are shaped by behind-the-scenes work of twin Mercersburg sisters
100 television, radio, and print advertisements for political and corporate clients. “It was a tremendous learning opportunity,” she says. “I had terrific access and exposure to leaders on the statewide and national levels. It was exciting, it was challenging, and I was learning more about the issues that mattered by going to different states and interviewing people, listening to them, and figuring out how to position our candidates in a way that they were truly speaking to their constituencies. “Political work was our bread and butter, but we also did a lot of issue-advocacy work. These days, people interested in pushing a certain agenda in D.C. need more ‘guerilla’ advertising—they need people who can understand the issue and articulate it in a concise and quick manner. The trend is away from ‘traditional’ advertising and more toward an overall media strategy.” In 2004, Eileen worked with the firm’s president, Larry McCarthy, on a television ad for the 527 group Progress for America. The ad told the story of Ashley Faulkner, a teenage girl from Ohio whose mother died in the World Trade Center attack, and of Ashley’s chance meeting with President George W. Bush. According to the firm, the ad ran right before Election Day in nine key states and was discussed on every major cable news program. One of Democratic nominee John Kerry’s key advisers, Bob Shrum, was quoted as saying the ad “probably cost [Kerry] the presidency.”
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(L-R): Britt Sheffler Thomas, Eileen Sheffler Prugh, Maureen Sheffler
“It was exciting to work on such a pivotal ad—and then to watch how it really helped determine the outcome of the election,” Eileen says. Fatigue following the grueling 2004 election cycle led Eileen to head west with Wyoming native Greg Prugh, whom she married in October 2007; the couple met at the wedding of Alex Pollinger ’89. “I was kind of burned out, and wanted to come out here and snowboard and relax for a while,” she says. While she continued freelancing for McCarthy from Greg’s hometown of Jackson, Wyoming, she left the firm in 2006. Today she splits her time between serving as marketing director for her husband’s company, Prugh Real Estate, and assisting the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival and Jackson Hole Therapeutic Riding Association with educational programming, outreach, and marketing. “Learning from the best in the business was exciting,” Eileen says of her time spent at McCarthy. “I was constantly learning while effecting change on a local, national, and global level. It was an incredible opportunity.”
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ollowing the 1996 election, Maureen worked in communications for the nonprofit Private Sector Council and in public affairs for the American Association of Health Plans before meeting Greg Strimple, a partner at Mercury Public Affairs, through Eileen. He needed help at his fledgling firm in New York; when she started, the company employed just seven people.
One of Strimple’s partners at Mercury is Kieran Mahoney, who is noted for his work waging successful Republican campaigns in the traditional Democratic strongholds of New York (former Governor George Pataki and exSenator Alfonse D’Amato) and Oregon (Senator Gordon Smith). “What we found [at Mercury] was that our approach to getting Republicans elected in ‘hostile’ areas is an approach you can take in business as well,” Maureen says. “Find the center of the electorate—which is fiscally conservative and socially tolerant—and focus on the issues that will align them with you. We’ve taken that survey approach and political approach to help organizations achieve their goals.” While confidentiality agreements prohibit many of the firm’s clients from being identified publicly, those working with the firm have ranged from political candidates to technology companies, regulated industries, and even foreign governments looking to improve their image in America. “A lot of the work deals with issue advocacy and public affairs,” Maureen says. “As much as our company was developed on our political experience, campaigns right now are not our whole focus. There’s some crisis-communications stuff; some of our folks out in California were involved in strategic counsel for the Writers Guild of America strike. “Much of the time a client comes to us and says, ‘We’re concerned about a certain issue in this city, because we’re concerned it
will affect our sales and people won’t want to buy our product.’ We’ll go out and do research, see what people are saying, and test how that issue is thought of in the environment. We’ll do all of it—the survey questionnaire, the research, and we’ll figure out what the message can be and the arguments of both sides. We’ll present the client with a strategic plan and key findings.” From a polling perspective, discussion is increasing about whether traditional survey research and sampling accurately represent different age groups, many of whom prefer online communication and are increasingly less likely to own landline phones. Those concerns might be exaggerated. “We still do most of our actual survey work through phone calls,” Maureen says. “In most cases, our research revolves around the opinion of likely voters—and in many cases, we’re sampling smaller universes than a national audience… focusing only on an online audience won’t work, since there are age issues and income issues that would prohibit you from collecting the best data. Telephones still work well.” If behind-the-scenes political work were a factory, the Shefflers could stand next to one another on the assembly line. “What I do is what then Eileen would take and make into her messages, her ads,” Maureen says. “I’ve always thought it would be kind of fun, when we’re older, to work together; I could do the research and she’d do the messaging.”
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Three sons in the United States Navy.
Red White & Blue
and
Yellow
An American family of five profiles in courage BY
LEE OWEN
Thirty-eight years in the Foreign Service. One enduring symbol tied around an oak tree. And 444 days in captivity. That’s some of what the Laingen family has given the United States of America. Ambassador L. Bruce Laingen, a World War II naval veteran who grew up on a farm in southern Minnesota, met his wife, Penne, while working in Washington for the U.S. Department of State (in between assignments in Iran and Pakistan). All three of their sons— Bill ’78, Chip ’79, and Jim ’84—came to Mercersburg and later served in the U.S. Navy. (Bruce served on the school’s Board of Regents from 1982 to 1994, and remains an honorary member.) “My dad gave us all the desire to serve our country,” says Bill, who did a postgraduate year at Mercersburg after graduating from The Bullis School in suburban D.C. “He always wanted us to be men of peace, and I think maybe he would have liked us to go into the Foreign Service. It’s interesting that none of us did—but we all went into the military.” There are inherent risks involved in national service, of course. In 1979, Bruce, fresh off a two-year stint as U.S. ambassador to Malta, agreed to serve as the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Since America was without an ambassador to Iran (the Ayatollah Khomeini rose to power that year during the Iranian Revolution), Bruce became the senior American diplomat in the country. On November 4, militant Iranian students seized the embassy, taking everyone inside hostage (including Col. Tom Schaefer ’49). Bruce and two associates were at a meeting at the Iranian Foreign Ministry when the embassy was overrun; they would be held there for most of the crisis. PICTURED ABOVE: Penne and Bruce Laingen with the famous yellow ribbon
C AT C H I N G U P W I T H . . . Arthur Glenn Andrews ’27, who turned 99 on January 15, 2008, is the oldest living former United States congressman. Andrews represented his home state of Alabama as a Republican in the U.S. House of Representa-
Where they were Bill, in his second year at the U.S. Naval Academy, was on the varsity sailing team. Weekends often meant an overnight sail on the Chesapeake Bay, and this one was no different. He had heard that the situation in Iran was becoming more unstable and volatile by the day, and upon arrival back at Annapolis was implored by his company mates to get to a television immediately to witness the crisis unfolding. “I called my mom [at home in Bethesda, Maryland], and asked her what she was hearing,” he says. “That’s when it all started.” Chip was a freshman at the University of Minnesota, and remembers thinking back to the students briefly occupying the embassy (for six hours) on Valentine’s Day, in the midst of the Revolution, and that it would be another short incident. “For Foreign Service families, life is a rolling adventure,” he says. “So when you hear about this sort of thing, part of you says, ‘It’s just another example of them trying to make noise.’ It was sort of incredulousness at first, and it took about two weeks before it sunk in that this time it was really different.” Jim, in eighth grade, was unique among the boys as the lone son at home with his mother. “I didn’t really have a good sense of what was going on at first,” Jim recalls. “I may not
tives from 1965–1967. A postgraduate stu-
have realized what kind of danger he was really in; initially, I thought we should have gone in there and kicked the door down and invaded the place and all those things. But over time I came to realize that this was a long-term thing. As the only boy at home, I kind of saw the range of emotions my mom was going through… I think we all supported her pretty well through all that.” During the crisis, Penne wrapped a yellow ribbon around an oak tree in the family’s yard. It became a symbol of hope for both the families of the 52 remaining hostages and an entire nation. (Fourteen of the original 66 hostages were released within two weeks of the standoff’s beginning.) “Initially, there was fear, of course,” Bill says. “But over time it turned into almost a sense of fascination on top of that fear. You hear about problems and these things going on around the world—and we were yanked right into the middle of one. There was a picture taken at the National Cathedral of a prayer service [during the crisis], and sitting all in a row are the president [Jimmy Carter], the vice president [Walter Mondale], the secretary of state [Cyrus Vance], and Jim.” Weeks turned into months, winter turned to spring, and in April 1980, an attempt by U.S. forces to rescue the hostages failed in the Iranian desert, killing eight American Continued on page 36
dent at Mercersburg, Andrews graduated from Princeton University and was a banking and advertising executive before running an unsuccessful campaign as a Democrat for a seat in the Alabama House of Representatives in 1956. He switched parties and won election in 1964 to the 87th U.S. Congress, but lost his re-election bid in 1966. After a failed campaign to return to Congress in 1970, he was appointed as a trustee in bankruptcy court by President Nixon (1973–1985). In October 2007, Congress extended an existing moratorium on state and local Internet taxes for another seven years. It was a victory for Internet users everywhere—and for Laura Linderman ’91, who is senior manager of federal government affairs for T-Mobile in Washington. Linderman, who directs the T-Mobile Political Action Committee, is responsible for directly lobbying members of Congress on key tax issues, including Internet taxes and Universal Service reform. While serving as manager of federal affairs for AT&T Wireless earlier this decade, Linderman helped spearhead the deployment of a $2.5 million wireless network in the Capitol office complex. A graduate of Lehigh University and Johns Hopkins University, she is a Mercersburg class agent and serves on the Alumni Council’s executive committee.
“You hear about problems and these things going on around the world—and we were yanked right into the middle of one.” —BILL LAINGEN ’78
Jason Huntsberry ’96 worked in the White House under George W. Bush as associate director of political affairs, and served as western regional political director for John McCain’s presidential campaign until July 2007. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a master’s from The George Washington University.
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Chip, Jim, and Bill Laingen
“My dad really instilled in us the power of optimism. Deep down, I think we all really believed it would end well.” —CHIP LAINGEN ’79
soldiers. “That’s what really sticks out to me,” Jim says. “I remember feeling such shock and anger toward Iran, and a sense of shame that we couldn’t pull [the rescue] off.” “In our case,” Chip adds, “my dad really instilled in us the power of optimism. Deep down, I think we all really believed it would end well, and it was just a matter of time.” Ronald Reagan defeated Carter in the 1980 presidential election that November. But the hostages spent their second Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s in captivity before the Algiers Accords of January 19, 1981, secured their release. The next day, the hostages walked out to freedom six minutes after Reagan was sworn in as president. “The homecoming [at West Point] was overwhelming,” Jim remembers. “The country just went nuts, even way more than was reasonable, really—and since, there hasn’t been anything like it.”
Where they are now Bill graduated from the Naval Academy in 1982 and worked as an aviation maintenance officer, primarily aboard aircraft carriers with a squadron. The onset of rheumatoid arthritis forced him to take medical retirement from the Navy in 1986, but with a degree in aerospace engineering, he’s been able to keep both hands in the field of aviation. He joined McDonnell Douglas in the advanced design area for the F/A-18 Hornet before moving into a discipline called ship suitability, which works to ensure those designing airplanes
understand and take into account a ship-based environment—perfect for a former Navy man. (McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in 1997.) “Part of the training of our engineers in ship suitability is taking them aboard ships,” says Bill, who works in the St. Louis area. “About every couple of months, we go out to sea with a group of engineers to a carrier and teach them and show them how it all works.” Chip, who was active in Naval ROTC at Minnesota, earned a bachelor’s degree in 1983. He spent 21 years on active duty, including cruises to the western Pacific, the Adriatic Sea, and the Persian Gulf, and four years (1997–2001) at the Pentagon as a speechwriter for Secretary of the Navy John Dalton, with whom he traveled around the world; he also served three years as commanding officer of a helicopter training squadron. Today, Chip lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and works as communications director for Minnesota Wire & Cable. He also runs the nonprofit Defense Alliance of Minnesota, which is the state’s defense-industry network. Jim has been deployed to the Persian Gulf five times; his most recent service there ended in September 2007. He and Chip were in the same battle group during Operation Desert Storm. Jim’s career includes stops in Japan; at Fort Meade, Maryland, during a stint with the Defense Intelligence Agency; onboard the USS Eisenhower, USS Independence, USS Constellation, and USS Midway; and most recently as commanding officer of VAW-117,
an airborne early-warning squadron at Point Mugu, California. In April, he assumes leadership of the Carrier Airborne Early Warning Weapons School (or CAEWWS) at Fallon Naval Air Station in Nevada. CAEWWS is the advanced-tactics school for the E-2 Hawkeye, and the sister school to the more-famous TOPGUN. “Both my brothers did one year at Mercersburg, and I did three, but it still impacted all of us the same,” Jim says. “We all feel the same way about it—that it was a very positive influence and excellent preparation for our careers in the Navy and beyond.” In 38 years with the Foreign Service, Bruce served abroad in West Germany, Iran (twice), Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Malta. He and Penne continue to make their home in Bethesda, with the same oak tree in the front yard. The former president of the American Academy of Diplomacy and executive director of the National Commission on the Public Service, Bruce is a sought-after speaker on world affairs, frequently on the topic of Iran. A book of his dispatches and journal entries while in captivity, Yellow Ribbon: The Secret Journal of Bruce Laingen, was published in 1992. And the famous yellow ribbon, which represented the faith, hope, and persistence of one American family during a time of crisis, is today safe as part of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
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Alumni Notes Submit alumni notes and photographs online or by email to Jenn_Flanagan@mercersburg.edu or your class agent. Submissions may appear online or in print. Mercersburg reserves the right to edit submissions for space or content, and is not responsible for more than reasonable editing or fact-checking.
Ed Powers edjp1117@yahoo.com Bob Smith BaldBobSmith1@cs.com
’37
Bill Harris and his wife, Jessie, celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary November 28, 2007, with their family at home in Paso Robles, California.
’38 Oliver Oldman retired from teaching in March 2007.
Members of the Class of ’53 in Holland (L-R): Chris King, Howie Abrams, Bill Baldwin, Fred Morefield, Lew Biegelsen, John Ross, Don Harper, Nick Taubman, special guest Don Hill, Walter Burgin, Stu Horner, and Harry Moorefield.
he turned him down because it was too expensive to feed all of them and bring them back to Erie, Pennsylvania. (The girls didn’t think it was funny.)
’43
John Gregory ’43 and his daughters in Egypt.
John Gregory writes that he read the winter 2007–2008 issue of Mercersburg with great interest, since it had a theme of global citizenship. John has traveled the world extensively while in the U.S. Navy, during his business years, and now in retirement. In March 2007, John visited Egypt with his three daughters. He says that a camel driver offered him 52 camels for one of his daughters, but
Last fall, the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, Maryland, featured "Americana Roads," an exhibit of photography by former Mercersburg Regent Robert M. Kurtz Jr. ’52. In September, the school hosted a leadership donor reception at the museum that included a meet-and-greet with the artist.
Hugh Miller hcmfaia@comcast.net
’48
Lucian Leape, an adjunct professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, aims to make apology part of full-disclosure policies at hospitals nationwide. He says this would be a critical step in ethically managing medical errors that kill an estimated 98,000 patients each year. Hugh Miller received the 2007 James Marston Fitch Preservation Education Lifetime Achievement Award. Since 1969, Hugh has taught preservation technology and supervised theses in the historic preservation master’s program at Goucher College; he has also taught at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. While working as an architect/planner for the National Park Service, he organized and presented programs for managers, professionals, and trade mechanics in architectural conservation, landscape preservation, and cultural resource management subjects. He also led courses, seminars, and workshops in the U.S. and internationally (including at Mercersburg). Hugh will be profiled in CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship, and has authored many articles for the journal—some of which can be found online at crmjournal.cr.nps.gov.
Bert McGann thmcgann@aol.com
’51
Bill Buchheit splits time between residences in Germany and the United States. Robert Moos has been retired for 10 years, and spends his time advising his sons in the family business. He has 36 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, and is in his 30th year as president of the synagogue of Annecy, France.
’53 Members of the Class of 1953 spent a September weekend in Holland, where they were entertained by hosts Betty and Fred Morefield, who have a summer residence in the small, rural town of Luttenberg. The weekend included a manual demonstration of wooden shoemaking, a tour of the renowned nearby Kröller-Müller Museum and its ample collection of Van Goghs, and numerous sumptuous meals in the Morefield home and in the home of their Luttenberg friends and neighbors, Theo and Mieke Ibes. Emeritus Development Director Don Hill and his wife, Linda, were invited guests.
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’55 Raz Zirkle dzirkle@nimdinc.com George Jocher retired in October 2007 after 48 years of work around the world for the U.S. Navy. John Reinhardt retired last June as executive director of the Madison County [New York] Industrial Development Agency, and as the county’s economic development administrator. He represents the city of Oneida on the Madison County Board of Supervisors and serves on the board of directors of Rome Savings Bank.
’58
Francis Lawrence, son of Barbara and John Lawrence, directed the film I Am Legend, which grossed $77 million in its opening weekend in theaters— an all-time record for a movie opening in December.
In January, Lou Bertrand was sworn in as mayor of Hiram, Ohio, which is 45 miles southeast of Cleveland. Lou served on Hiram Council for 28 years before stepping down in 2006, and was council president in his final term. Lou has served 10 years as special legal counsel for the city of Tallmadge, and has been a practicing lawyer in Ravenna for the past 40 years. He is a board-certified civil trial lawyer, a fellow in the Ohio State Bar Foundation, a former assistant county prosecutor, and former president of the Portage County Bar Association.
Gene Homicki ukey@spiders.com David Millstein sponte@aol.com Paul Sommerville psommerville@hargray.com
Mike Radbill mradbill1@comcast.net
Bill Thompson thomp132@mc.duke.edu
’61
’63
’64
Irene and Sumner Bagby visited Paul Sommerville ’63 and his wife, Ann, at their home in South Carolina. The Bagbys traveled to Kenya and took a cruise to the Seychelles in November 2007.
Alan Brody writes, “Governor Chet Culver appointed me as 2007 Chair of UN Day in the state of Iowa. In October, I gave a keynote address at the Iowa Statehouse in Des Moines to 220 students from 15 high schools around the state who were participating in UN Day debates, and gave lectures and photo presentations on Millennium Development goals and on my work with UNICEF to combat HIV and AIDS. I also enjoyed being a keynote speaker at a function given by the Council for International Visitors to Iowa City, and welcoming 40 writers from around the world participating in the 40th anniversary of the Iowa International Writing Program. Mary and I are enjoying our new phase of life, the intellectual and artistic stimulation of our community of Iowa City, and the time for me to write.”
Stan Westbrook fswgolf2@verizon.net
’66
Serge Grynkewich serves on the board of directors of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, which is the oldest American chamber abroad. He was also elected chairman of the board of trustees of the American Association of the Philippines. Serge has previously served on the board of
the association and is honored that his fellow directors have chosen him for the position. The organization is more than 50 years old, and has served underprivileged and indigent American citizens in the Philippines since its inception.
’68
Charles Alter ca@buckeye-express.com Bill Ford hmsoars@snet.net Bruce Kemmler kemmler@kemmlerproducts.com Mike Kopen kopen@goeaston.net Clarence Youngs clarence4150@aol.com
Rick Fleck aspnrick@aol.com Dick Seibert rseibert@knobhall.com
’69
Harry Apfelbaum has two sons, Marc (26) and Aaron (25); both graduated from the University of Pittsburgh. Harry is a veterinarian in Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania, and very happy. Occasionally, he calls a classmate and enjoys talking for a few minutes. “It's funny,” he says,
“because everyone thinks I'm calling to raise money for the school. Everyone in our class should call someone once in a while; it really makes you feel good.” He also shares a memorable Mercersburg experience: “the time I called my girlfriend back home during study hall from the basement of Swank Hall, and Mr. [William] Howard caught me; all he said was, ‘Hi, Harry.’ The next night, during study hall, he caught me again—this time, from the pay phone in Keil Hall— and this time, he said, ‘Tell her I said hi.’ Those were the days.” Bill “Skip” Averell is an EPA grants planner with the Kentucky Division of Water. He lives in Frankfort, Kentucky, and is married to the lovely Ashley Randle. Their son, Randle Meigs, is 19 and attending Lexington Community College en route to a bachelor’s in construction management. The family lives in a house that Skip’s father built in 1954 and sold to Ashley’s father in 1968— which he then bought back in 1985 (so they have never really left home since childhood). Skip is a graduate of Centre College and holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Tennessee. He hasn’t had contact with anyone from his class since graduation, but he has followed a lot of his classmates’ successful careers. Jim Bell and his wife, JoEllen, have been married for almost 19 years and have three kids. Their son, Andrew, a senior in high school, is on the varsity golf, basketball, and track teams, and has been accepted at the University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering. One daughter, Kristen, is a sophomore and on the varsity volleyball and softball teams, and their other daughter, Katie, is in eighth grade, plays basketball, and is their social butterfly. The family moved about two and a half years ago from their large turn-of-the-century, finally completed fixer-upper in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to a midcentury brick-and-stone rancher in nearby Kingston that had extensive upgrades in the mid-1970s (like purple shag carpeting and orange-andgold flecked wallpaper, so it also needed a bit of work). Jim continues at the same
architectural firm and has been involved with many local projects—and quite a few at his college alma mater, Syracuse University. Bob Cooley writes that Dave Owen lives very near him in western Massachusetts, and that they have met several times for baseball, music, and the like. In January 2007, Bob was in Mercersburg for a funeral service for his aunt; during the visit, Bob saw Dave Tyson and admired the magnificent new buildings on campus. (Bob’s grandfather, Wilmarth I. Jacobs, taught at Mercersburg for many years and served as assistant and acting headmaster during his tenure.) He remembers several trips to Lakeville, Connecticut, where he spent many delightful hours with former headmaster William C. Fowle. This August, Bob and his wife, Vera, will celebrate their 30th anniversary. He is in his 35th year of teaching English, Greek, and Latin, and running the mediation program at Northfield Mount Hermon School. His three kids (Karin, Jessie, and Ryan) graduated from there; Bob has led student groups overseas to Egypt, Greece (twice), and Italy (2005). “Lots of good stuff going on,” he writes. “I hope to read more notes from the Class of ’69—a special group, to be sure.” Val Deininger lives in South Carolina, and about a year ago had a bad accident while driving a small Volkswagen. He could not speak, but saw the ambulance arrive in his rearview mirror. Oddly, the emergency technicians got out of the ambulance, and instead of going to aid him, they leaned up against it and started talking and smoking. Finally, one of them said, “Okay, let's get this over with.” So they walked toward Val's car, and when one of the emergency responders looked in, he yelled, “My God! He's alive!” They worked fast and furiously to get Val free; Val is doing fine now. Bill Garofalo writes, “Life in the dental world is still a grind. There is really nothing new to report since the last reunion, except that I am now a step-grandfather for the ninth time. Best wishes and hope to see you all again soon.”
At the 2007 Georgia Music Awards: Bill Carey ’72 (right) presents the Mary Tallent Award to musician Freddy Cole, brother of Nat “King” Cole.
Births Sarah Judith and Christopher William, twins born August 9, 2007, to Christopher Carbone ’82 and his wife, Wendy.
Sean Michael, born September 18, 2006, son of Sara Plantz Brennen ’88 and her husband, Michael.
Jack Hollister, born October 10, 2007, son of Alex Pollinger ’89 and his wife, Sarah.
Fiona Gael, born December 18, 2006, daughter of Diana Eichfeld Morgan ’92 and her husband, Anthony.
Megan and Zack Gipson ’93 with their son, Griffin Costello, born September 6, 2007.
Seth James, son of Aaron DeLashmutt ’94 and his wife, Casey, born January 10, 2008.
Born June 29, 2007, to Nathan Vink ’94 and his wife, Mariah: a son, Colin McKee.
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ME RC E RS BUR G MAGAZ I N E WI NTE R 2007 – 2008
Births Yoo-Chan, son of J.P. Shim ’95 and his wife, Monica, born January 5, 2008.
Born May 25, 2007, to Scott Sides ’95 and his wife, Kelley: a daughter, Meredith.
Dara Frankel, Eric Scoblionko ’72, Peggy Jarvis Ferrin ’72, Martha Snyder Byron ’72, Jeff Frankel ’72, and Herm Mellott ’72.
Lily Grace, born December 7, 2007, daughter of Matthew Baran ’97 and his wife, Kelly.
Born September 24, 2007 to Kirsten Goerl Becker ’97 and her husband, John: a son, John Charles Jr.
An anonymous group of friends from the Class of 1974 purchased Restless Sky #52, a painting by Stephen Flanagan ’74. School Archivist Jay Quinn (left) and Dean of Students (and Flanagan classmate) Tom Rahauser ’74 receive the painting on behalf of the school in this photo.
Jonas Lendo, born September 19, 2007, son of Savina Rendina Cupps ’99 and her husband, Regan.
Agnes Rose, born October 27, 2007, daughter of former faculty member Joe DeMerit and his wife, Karen.
To Julia McMillan-Jones ’88 and her husband, Simon: a son, Quinn Lyle, on March 22, 2007. To Megan George Herold ’98 and her husband, Jerry: a daughter, Kalea Antoinette, December 11, 2007.
Granville “Pud” Smith lives in Toledo, Ohio, and works for Owens Corning. His middle child, Crystal, is getting married this April (which makes two children married and one more to go). His third child, Andre ’05, is a junior at Keene State College.
Joe Rendina jjrendina@comcast.net
’71
Bob Jacobius and his wife, Esther, sold their staffing agency, and plan to enjoy early retirement with winters and springs in Scottsdale, Arizona, and summers in the Chicagoland area. Bob and Esther are heavily involved in several important not-for-profit Chicagoland organizations.
To Laura Bushong Weiss ’00 and her husband, Stuart: a daughter, Madeline McKinley, December 23, 2007. Tom Hadzor T.Hadzor@Duke.edu Eric Scoblionko wekdirscobes@aol.com
’72
Bill Carey serves on the board of the St. Louis Symphony, and is opening to investors another fund that invests in
Chinese antiquities. The antiquities that comprise his first fund are all scheduled for exhibition in major U.S. museums this year. Fred Klein was elected to the prestigious American College of Real Estate Lawyers; its first meeting was the same weekend as his 35th reunion, so he was unable to attend. Fred has done significant pro bono work for Mercersburg over the years on gifts of real estate to the school. Charlie Lyons is one of the producers of the film The Water Horse, which was released in December 2007. He was an executive producer of The Guardian (starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher), A Lot Like Love (featuring Kutcher and Amanda Peet), and Firewall (starring Harrison Ford). Doug Mendelson works for URS (an engineering firm) and oversees the demolition and remediation of the old Stapleton Airport in Denver, Colorado. He often heads to the Rockies to surf the powder with Greg Harp, Tom Harp ’73, or Dick Cosgrove ’73 and enjoys dining with Margie and Jeff Steel ’73. Doug and his ex-wife, Joellyn, try to travel around the U.S. and world at least once every other month, if not more. They paid a visit to
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Paul Stamets ’73 and his wife, Dusty, outside of Olympia, Washington, and enjoyed a tour of Paul's mushroom kingdom. Doug invites anyone to come ski, raft, bike, camp, climb a mountain, or ride an ATV at 12,000 feet. John Pagenstecher and his wife, Angela, own Carolina Coastal Adventures in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. They take families, groups, and school field trips into the marine environment via fishing charters, kayak tours, or specialty programs to experience a marine habitat, learn the history of Cape Fear, and to enjoy some of the accompanying folklore. They also run summer camps that help children learn to fish, surf, and kayak. Eric Scoblionko accepted a position with the Miami Foundation as senior development officer at Miami Dade College. The school has 165,000 students on nine campuses, and is home to the nation’s largest student population. Eric writes that the school is embarking on a major fund drive aimed at providing financial aid to increasing numbers of students.
Jane White Yocum jane.yocum@hmrmlaw.com
’76
Steve Stuempfle is executive director of the Society for Ethnomusicology, which is based at Indiana University in Bloomington; Steve is also an adjunct professor there. He spent the past 12 years as chief curator of the Historical Museum of Southern Florida.
’77 Lindley Peterson Fleury lindley285@yahoo.com Craig Amaral married Jeanne Marie Albanese April 22, 2007, in Annapolis, Maryland; the couple lives in Crownsville, Maryland. Craig’s classmates John and Sue Nelson attended the ceremony.
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Catherine “C.C.” Gachet married Dr. Peter J. Ouellette September 2, 2007, in Washington. In attendance were Mercersburg faculty member Frank Betkowski and his wife, Bambi, who both attended Georgetown University with the bride. C.C. works as an independent marketing consultant for clients throughout the D.C. area; Peter specializes in internal medicine and works as a hospitalist at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington.
Philip Hoffman ’82 (left) with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
Judy Russell Purman started a company, The Purman Group, and is publishing a book on greenhouse gas inventory.
Dave Dupont ddupont007@yahoo.com
’80
Chris Greene is a senior vice president at SunTrust Bank in Atlanta. His son, Collin ’11, is in his first year at Mercersburg.
’82
Todd Wells todd.wells@jetblue.com Duncan White duncan.m.white@accenture.com
Peter Greene’s son, Parker, attended swim camp at Mercersburg last summer. Peter is executive vice president of real estate acquisitions and development for TravelCenters of America; he and his family live in Avon Lake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Philip Hoffman attended law school in Brisbane, Australia, where he lobbied for the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement in Washington and Canberra, Australia. Philip has moved back stateside to become a U.S. trade lawyer where, pending passing the bar, he will be admitted to practice law in both the U.S. and Australia.
’78
Ray Liddy has joined the complex civil litigation section of the California Attorney General's office.
’79
Mark Pyper mark.e.pyper@smithbarney.com Bruce Ricciuti jbr@birchrea.com
Rachel Haines Bowman rachelbowman@verizon.net Ann Quinn aquinn@scandh.com
’84
Susie Lyles-Reed ebsl_reed@yahoo.com
Commander Jim Laingen completed his tour as commanding officer of the VAW-117 Wallbangers at Point Mugu, California, after a six-month deployment to the Arabian Gulf and western Pacific. His squadron completed missions in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. “It was a challenging tour, especially for the family, but it certainly was the pinnacle of my career,” Jim writes. “We are looking forward to more home time now.” Jim, his wife, Hope, and three children, William, Christopher, and Bonnie, moved to Fallon, Nevada, in December 2007; Jim is head of the Carrier Airborne Early Warning Weapons School there. (Read more about Jim and his family on page 34.)
Susan Corwin Moreau moreau.s@att.net
Peggy Raley and her father, Bob, opened Nassau Valley Vineyards in 1993 on a family farm site just outside Lewes, Delaware. The winery has won several international wine competitions, and was featured in a November 2007 Delaware Today story, “Uncorked.”
’85
’88
Rob Bertrand is a director with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Washington. He lives in Falls Church, Virginia, with his wife and two children.
Duncan Mark, son of Lt. Cmdr. Malcolm Mark ’89, on Halloween.
Heidi Kaul Krutek hkrutek@bellsouth.net
Carol Furnary Casparian furnaryc@mercersburg.edu
Rick Little invites those interested in the progress of his yearlong sailing trip [Alumni Notes, winter 2007–2008] to visit his blog and leave comments at sailingeyesoftheworld.blogspot.com.
’83
A Mercersburg mini-reunion in Spain with Maria de Toledo ’91, Victoria de Toledo ’89, her daughter, Victoria, and Lizzie Mascola ’91 and son, Lucas Mascola Martin. Maria and Victoria contacted Lizzie through Mercersburg magazine, since all three live in Madrid. Victoria has two daughters, Victoria (20 months) and Blanca (four months); Lizzie’s son, Lucas, is eight months. The reunion was the first time they had seen each other in 18 years. Contact everyone at enzomaria@gmail.com (Maria), vadetoledo@hotmail.com (Victoria), or lizzietish73@hotmail.com (Lizzie).
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ME RC E RS BUR G MAGAZ I N E SPR I N G 200 8
Since December 1993, Andrew Saulnier has lived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with his wife, Michele, and their two kids, Hannah (12) and Nick (10). He is a home inspector and learned to water-ski a few years ago. Andrew is restoring a 1987 CRX, and says he recently got his "poster" car—a 1987 Porsche 928 S4 (fortunately, it doesn't need to be restored). He invites anyone to contact him and catch up.
Zania Pearson zmp2work@verizon.net Ames Prentiss aprentiss@intownvet.com
’89
Gregory Oberfield is a senior network engineer with AT&T in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
Helen Barfield Prichett helenprichett@yahoo.com Laura Linderman laura.linderman@t-mobile.com
’91
Janelle Denny married Brian James Flinn September 16, 2007, in Golden, Colorado; the couple honeymooned in Telluride. The entire Flinn clan spent Thanksgiving in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Health, and will be teaching a disaster management course in Beirut next December and in Saudi Arabia the month after. Paul Royer and Rob Pitts keep Amer and Rima company whenever they visit the nation’s capital.
Kelley Keeler and E. Austin Short III are engaged, and will be married this June in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Danielle Dahlstrom dlld93@hotmail.com
’93
Amer Al-Nimr is in his chief-resident year of internal medicine and pediatrics at Case Medical Center/Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. While the pace is hectic and the stress is high, he says he immensely enjoys teaching the new interns and medical students. Rima, his wife of two years, is an OB/GYN dietitian, and they occasionally slip away from it all for coffee or lunch. He looks forward to two upcoming trips for the Rainbow Center for Global Child
Max Merrill maximilianatlas@yahoo.com
’95
James Barnes is an advisory software engineer at IBM in Raleigh, North Carolina. He had most recently worked as a senior Internet technology engineer at MetLife. "I realized I enjoyed what I was doing at IBM, so I had to go back,” he says. “Jennifer and I also learned we really do belong in the South." Meredith Glah Coors caught up with classmates Max Merrill and Lorna Wright while they were in Denver for a conference; they visited Meredith’s home for dinner and met her family. “Max is even dating one of my sorority sisters from Cornell—small world,”
Meredith writes. “It was nice to see old friends.” Jung-Hwan “J.P.” Shim is happy to report the birth of his first child, Yoo-Chan, on January 5, 2008. J.P. lives in Seoul, Korea, with his wife, Monica, and is a market analytics manager for Pfizer. Los Angeles-based newspaper Entertainment Today named the Jamie Wollrab-directed play, Feeding the Monkey in Hollywood, as one of the top-10 plays of 2007.
Lori Esposit Miller lori_esposit@msn.com Geraldine Gardner geraldide@hotmail.com
’96
Stephanie Shepherd Ragland received an MBA in quality management and organizational development from Upper Iowa University in May 2007. She has opened an Edible Arrangements store in Chambersburg.
Marriages The wedding of Matt Gallon ’97 and Diana Blazar, August 5, 2006.
At the wedding of Eileen Sheffler ’92 and Greg Prugh, October 13, 2007: (L-R) Laura Linderman ’91, Maureen Sheffler ’92, Eileen and Greg, Bert Murray ’92, and Allison Felley ’92.
At the wedding of Gina Cianelli ’98 to Matthew Vernoga, July 8, 2006: Tom Cianelli ’71, Gina and Matthew, and Mary Cianelli.
Bill Thompson ’61 to Sandra Lee Thompson Cooper, October 20, 2007. Craig Amaral ’77 to Jeanne Marie Albanese, April 22, 2007. Colton Partlow ’97 to Victoriann Mastrapa, May 19, 2007. Catherine Wahl ’99 to Chris Bove, November 17, 2007. Janelle Denny ’91 and Brian James Flinn on their wedding day, September 16, 2007.
At the wedding of Amy Clippinger ’99 to John Santa Barbara, June 9, 2007: Amy (second from left) with cousins June Marquiss ’01, John Marquiss ’97, Jenni Marquiss ’95, and Stephanie Turner ’06.
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Emily Peterson emilyadairpeterson@gmail.com Chris Senker chris.senker@cookmedical.com
’97
Matt Gallon married Diana Blazar August 5, 2006, in Newton, Massachusetts; former school minister Paul Galey officiated. Both Matt and Diana are graduates of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Following graduation, Matt worked for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and is now a Ph.D. student in archeology at the University of Michigan. The couple lives near Bangkok, Thailand, where Diana teaches in a private school and Matt works on his field study. Gabe Hammond was featured in “Bye, Bye B-School,” an article in the September 16, 2007, business section of the New York Times. The story examined Gabe and others like him who decided to forgo an MBA because, they said, it’s “a waste of money and time— time that could be spent making
money.” In 2004, Gabe started a hedge fund, Alerian Capital Management, which manages $300 million out of offices in New York and Dallas. After clerking for a South Carolina trial judge last year, Rob Little was hired in September as an associate at a law firm in Georgetown, South Carolina. In December 2007, the Discovery Channel aired an hourlong show on Aphrodisias, the archaeological site where Leah Long has worked for six years. Leah was interviewed for the show and reported that she was “really excited, but nervous to see what I look like on TV.” After graduating from Susquehanna University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, Greg Mardirosian moved to Oakland, California, to attend the California College of Art, and received a master’s in creative writing in 2003. While in school, he worked as a hiphop DJ in the East Bay and the San Francisco area under the moniker “DJ Maniac Magee.” He taught English and deejayed in Yonago, Japan, before returning to the U.S. and co-founding RHT Entertainment to serve as a promotional tool for independent music artists. Today, he is working toward a Ph.D. at Florida State University, where he majors in popular culture, minors in film studies, and focuses on the art and culture of the hip-hop community. (He is also pursuing a certificate in world music from the FSU School of Music, and teaches a multicultural film course.) For more information, visit www.roughhousetactics.com or www.myspace.com/djmaniacmagee. Colton Partlow married Victoriann Mastrapa May 19, 2007, in Jupiter, Florida; he says they hope to take a honeymoon eventually. Colton is southeast Florida division manager for Heartland Payment Systems; he had previously been a territory manager covering Palm Beach County.
The wedding of Catherine "C.C." Gachet ’85 and Peter Ouellette, September 2, 2007.
Liz Curry ecurry@tigglobal.com Dean Hosgood dean.hosgood@gmail.com Beth Pniewski Bell bethannbell@gmail.com
’98
Anna Wright graduates from the University of Arizona’s Rogers College of Law this May, and will begin work for the Colorado Public Defender’s office.
Tom Dugan dugant@mercersburg.edu Jenn Flanagan flanaganj@mercersburg.edu Jess Malarik jmalarik@gmail.com
’99
Rachael Baird works on the Urban Forest Project in conjunction with the Times Square Alliance in New York City. Tilt Studio Foundation Inc. is her nonprofit organization; she discovered the Urban Forest Project when it ran in New York last fall. The project will be introduced to Baltimore this spring, and the organization is looking for partners. The project aligns 200 artists and designers, 100 businesses, and 40 city officials to produce a visual story based on the sustainability of trees. The stories will be transferred onto banners that will be spread out on streets leading to five city parks; the program runs from April through June. “It should be a great opportunity to share in the greening of Baltimore,” she writes. Trevor Budny is a partner in a new bar/restaurant, José Pistola’s, in Center City Philadelphia. The restaurant is on 15th Street between Locust and Spruce, and specializes in Belgian beer and Latin cuisine. Nicole Johns received an M.F.A. in creative writing with a concentration in nonfiction from the University of Minnesota; she has been published in various literary magazines and has procured an agent for her first book. Nicole works at the American Academy of Neurology in St. Paul as a health policy specialist, where she specializes in advocacy and medical economics. When not writing or working, she enjoys exploring the hinterlands of Minnesota with her boyfriend, Brady Johnson. Jess Malarik had a busy year in 2007. She moved back to Pennsylvania and started a new job in January at Woodhouse, The Timber Frame Company. She is the only intern architect there, and with that job came a lot of responsibility. She enjoys the challenge of
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managing her own clients and running her own projects, and is testing to become a registered architect. Jess and her boyfriend, Chris Pickering, bought their first home, in Mansfield, Pennsylvania. She notes that it is a fixer-upper, but that “we're slowly making progress turning it into our home.” In May, she graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a master’s in building conservation architecture and spent a week during the summer in California, climbing mountains and exploring the wine country and Pacific coast.
Kevin Glah kevin.glah@gmail.com Taylor Horst taylorhorst@gmail.com Andrew Miller amiller@arescorporation.com Anne Reeder annereeder@sbcglobal.net
’00
Michael Galey is an associate at the firm of Mitts Milavec in Philadelphia. Josh Gallon lives in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, and works with thin-film solar technology in a physics lab. Josh graduated from Colorado School of Mines in 2005 with a degree in engineering physics, and is pursuing a master's in physics there. Alec Harris works in commercial real estate in Boston and likes helping Mercersburg with area events. Lauren Wallace earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Maryland in 2004. She finished law school there in December 2007, and lives in Baltimore’s Federal Hill neighborhood. Lauren planned to take the Maryland bar exam in February and has accepted an offer to work at Venable LLP in Baltimore. She hopes to work on mergers and acquisitions and the like, or business transactional work; she was a summer associate there in 2007. Ivy Wilson completed her graduate study in public health with a focus on epidemiology and maternal health. She is a clinical research associate at the University of California, San Francisco.
’01
Gina Cianelli married Matthew Vernoga July 8, 2006, at Centerville Estates in Chico, California; they live in Durham, California. In attendance was the father of the bride, Tom Cianelli ’71.
Heidi Anderes handeres@gmail.com Ann Bliley abliley@gmail.com Brian Schreiber brianpschreiber@gmail.com
Beth Pniewski married Quin Bell August 18, 2007, in Lexington, Kentucky. Paul Galey officiated; Jill Pniewski ’02, Abby Russell, and Liz Curry were in attendance. Beth and Quin live in Manhattan.
Carson Higby-Flowers blogs at thedailycannabinoid.blogspot.com. He says the blog is mainly articles he sees at work, but don't often get seen by people outside California—and that some of his Jess Malarik ’99 and her boyfriend, Chris Pickering, atop Mt. Rose in California.
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Tracey Bruce graduates in May from the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, Rhode Island, with an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy’s Class of 2012. Kathleen Fleck writes, “Since graduation, I've been working at The Hun School of Princeton (Mr. [Chip] Horton will find that amusing, I’m sure) and Starbucks. My family and I have also hosted two exchange students: one from Germany and one from Switzerland. I see Whitney Davis from time to time, and try to keep in touch with people via email. I hope everyone is having a great first year away from the ’Burg.”
In San Francisco: Nigel Sussman ’01, Carson Higby-Flowers ’01, and Colin Marsh ’01.
writings will appear there eventually. Carson was promoted to dean of admissions at Oaksterdam University.
Nate Fochtman fochtman@drexel.edu Vanessa Youngs veyoungs@gmail.com
’03
Joe Ambrose attends law school at Villanova University. Ashley DeMeza is studying film and television in Australia for the next two years. Christian Gallon is a staff assistant to Congressman Todd Platts, who represents Pennsylvania’s 19th district. Christian graduated from Davidson College in May 2007 with a degree in history. Afif Kulaylat graduated summa cum laude from Dickinson College with a degree in biology. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Scroll & Key. Afif continues his studies at the Penn State College of Medicine. Timothy Wong lives in California with his uncle, and is learning the insurance trade.
Jacob Hunka ’03 with one of his classes in Taipei; Jacob teaches English to children ages 5–14.
Joe Ambrose ’03, Virginia Newcomb ’03, and Nate Fochtman ’03 in Philadelphia.
Enjoying the 2007 Army-Navy football game in Baltimore (L-R): Midshipman Amy Bruce ’04, Captain L. Hart Sebring Jr. ’72, Midshipman Candidate Tracey Bruce ’07. Hart is commanding officer of the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, Rhode Island, where Tracey is a student.
Katherine Keller kkeller@bucknell.edu Nick Mellott mellottn@bu.edu
’04
Amy Bruce will graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy and be commissioned in May. She will then begin training as a naval flight officer. Douglas Hummel-Price is taking a leave of absence for the 2007–2008 academic year to focus on his music. He sings with the Yale Whiffenpoofs, the nation’s oldest collegiate a cappella group. As the “Whiffenpoof Song” goes, he enjoys his weekly visits to the tables down at Mory’s. He looks forward to the three-month, six-continent world tour that the group will take this summer. Katherine Proudman is in her final year at the University of Vermont and will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology. She will travel through Europe before moving to New York City next fall. She writes, “I have become involved on campus with the planning and promotion of comedy and other entertainment, and I want to continue this interest in events or entertainment management in New York City.”
Carl Gray II cgray@sewanee.edu Zander Hartung zanderhartung@gmail.com Alexis Imler imlera@duq.edu Tammy McBeth tammy.mcbeth@gmail.com Nick Ventresca ventresca.r@neu.edu
’05
John Dawes loved working at Mercersburg this summer, and headed to Ecuador and New Zealand to kayak.
Tammy McBeth received the James Boyd Hartzell Memorial Award in Economics at Gettysburg College. The award is presented to a junior economics major for outstanding scholarship and promise in the field.
Sam Carrasco sc3050@ship.edu Margaret Hartz margaret.hartz@hws.edu Greg Larson u0489384@umail.utah.edu Joy Thomas jatho2@wm.edu Stephanie Turner Stephanie_Turner@pitzer.edu Jonathan Wilde jt.wilde@furman.edu Stephanie Yeatman syeatman@stetson.edu
’06
Alana Hill says she loves Boston; she has declared history as her major at Boston College. Sophomore forward Alex Tyler led the Cornell men’s basketball team to its first Ivy League championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in 20 years.
Dusty French dusty_french54@hotmail.com Dan Gottlieb dgottlie@tulane.edu Xanthe Hilton xanthe89@gmail.com Bada Kang badakang@gmail.com Mallory Polak polakmm@gmail.com Chuck Roberts galway989@yahoo.com Kristina Trudeau kristitrudeau@hotmail.com Katelyn Wiley kw235911@muhlenberg.edu
’07
Evan Harris’ parents, Bill and Anita Harris, report that Evan is very well prepared as a writer, and that he just got the best grade on a paper in a seminar at Vanderbilt University. Evan attributes his success to Mercersburg. Chuck Roberts is taking a gap year before heading to Columbia University. He received a scholarship from the English-Speaking Union to study for a year at Oswestry School, and blogs at www.mercersburg.edu.
Faculty/ Former Faculty Amy Dickerson Mohr was inducted into the Denison University Athletics Hall of Fame in October. A 15-time AllAmerica and Academic-All America swimmer, she held Denison’s school record in the 100-yard butterfly for eight years, and was a three-time allconference honoree and a member of four top-eight relay teams at Division III national-championship meets. P.J. Schaner ’86 is also in Denison’s Athletic Hall of Fame. The Journal of Athletic Training published “Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound and Pulsed Electromagnetic Field in the Treatment of Tibial Fractures: A Systematic Review,” an article by Nikki Walker. Victor Cahn performed his original play, Sherlock Solo, this winter at New York’s Kirk Theatre.
MER C ER SBU RG MAGAZI N E S PR I N G 2 008
Obituaries ’25
Burrell A. Wilson, December 18, 2005. (Marshall, orchestra, band, Blue and White Melodians) He spent 40 years as metal division sales manager for the Continental Can Company.
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Francisco Figueroa, February 21, 2007. (spider football) Francisco graduated from Tulane University Law School and Havana University Law School, and was past president of Tulane’s alumni association. He practiced law in Havana from 1938 until 1960, when he was appointed professor of law at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. In retirement, he lived in Key Biscayne, Florida. He was predeceased by his brother, Carlos ’39, and is survived by his brother, Luis ’45, who lives in Coral Gables, Florida.
Herbert B. Joyce, January 14, 2008. (Marshall, swimming, spider football, Stony Batter, Glee Club, KARUX, News Board, Class Day Committee) Herb graduated from Windsor Business College in Ontario. During his business career, he worked in sales and management for a number of Michigan-based automotive suppliers. He returned to campus for Alumni Weekend 2007 as the sole representative of his 75th reunion class. There was not a scheduled dinner, reception, or athletic event he missed; it was, in his words, “a completely enjoyable weekend,” and his elation was equally enjoyed by those around him. Herb was predeceased by his wife of 56 years, Betty Deckard Joyce; survivors include three daughters, a son, and four grandchildren.
John T. Montgomery, October 25, 1999.
Aram Y. Lawson, February 21, 1995. George C. Wilt, August 5, 2007. (Keil, Marshall, KARUX Board, tennis) He graduated from Haverford College and had more than 50 years’ experience in corporate accounting with General Electric, Bendix, and Coastal Tank Lines, and retired from Continental Wire and Cable as manager of accounting. He was a U.S. Army veteran of World War II. He was preceded in death by his wife of 63 years, Harriet Boyd Wilt, and is survived by a daughter, a granddaughter, and two great-grandchildren.
’28 T. Owen Potts, August 19, 2007. (Irving, Stony Batter) During World War II, Owen took part in the invasion of southern France at San Tropez with the First Airborne Army. He was a retired employee of the electrical department at Bethlehem Steel. For more than 50 years, he acted in Harrisburg Community Theatre productions, and served on the group’s Board of Directors for a decade. He was preceded in death by his wife of 35 years, Marian, who died in 1980. Survivors include his son, Thomas ’68.
’30 Sylvan H. Bank, May 20, 2006. (Marshall, orchestra, Blue and White Melodians) Arthur B. Marshall, December 27, 2006. William T. Piper Jr., August 24, 2007. (Marshall, Glee Club, track) Bill, the scion of the aircraft family that made the Piper Cub world famous, joined the company (founded by his father) upon graduation from Harvard University in 1934. He became the company’s president in 1968; in 1970, he was named chairman of the board. At that time, Piper had manufactured more than 86,000 planes, many used as “spotters” of enemy artillery positions during World War II. Preceding him in death was his first wife, Margaret Bush Piper. Survivors include his wife of 26 years, Elizabeth, three sons, and four grandchildren. Frank Schilling, November 27, 2006. He was a pilot for the Department of Commerce after serving as an Army pilot during World War II.
’31 Richard K. Newcomer, December 11, 2006. (Irving, orchestra) Dick attended the Drexel Institute of Technology and Strayer’s Business College. He retired in 1975 from Fairchild Aircraft after 33 years of service. He was predeceased by his wife of 59 years, Ada Shockey Newcomer, as well as a sister and two brothers. Survivors include a daughter, a son, four grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.
’33 Charles E. Smoyer, August 31, 2007. (South Cottage, Irving, News Board, Chapel Choir, Glee Club, Camera Club) Charlie graduated from Yale University, and was a U.S. Navy officer in World War II. During his business career, he was manager of business systems, services, and data processing for the Westinghouse Electric Company. He was predeceased by his brother, Winston ’28. Survivors include his wife, June Semler, to whom he was married for 65 years; a son, Charles III; and a brother, Stanley ’30.
’34 Irving Goldbert, January 29, 1997. (Marshall, YMCA, Cabinet) Elliott Small, November 29, 2006. (Marshall, football, wrestling, baseball) A graduate of Lehigh University, he volunteered for the Navy during World War II, where he piloted anti-submarine patrols in the South Atlantic. In his business career, he supervised a 10-factory division of Hickory Springs Inc. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Kathryn Layser Small, a son, a daughter, and five grandchildren. Ralph A. Van Orsdel, August 26, 2007. (Irving, Glee Club librarian, track team manager, Marshal of the Field) Van received his degree in political science from Dartmouth College in 1938. He was an officer on destroyer-escort convoy duty in the Atlantic and Mediterranean in World War II. His career with American Factors (Amfac) spanned 43 years; he was a past director, president, and CEO of the firm. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Evelyn, two daughters, a son, and six grandchildren. Charles S. Wilder, November 19, 2007. (Irving, baseball) A graduate of Washington & Jefferson College, Charlie served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II. For 30 years, he was a senior group life-insurance agent for Aetna. Survivors include his wife, Elizabeth Abelson Wilder, two sons, a daughter, two step-daughters, five grandchildren, and two step-grandchildren.
’35 Thomas B. Steiger, December 8, 2007. (Irving debater, The Fifteen, News Board, soccer, wrestling, baseball) He had an outstanding athletic career at Haverford College, where he was a goalie on the 1938 Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Championship soccer team and was the Middle Atlantic States high-hurdle champion. While completing his law degree at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, he enlisted in the Navy. Upon completion of his degree work, he was assigned duty aboard several destroyers in the Pacific theater, expe-
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riencing sea combat across the Pacific from Saipan to Truk and the Marianas, the Philippines, and Okinawa. He returned to Mercersburg after the war, and was engaged in the general practice of law—alone at first, and then in partnership with his son, Thomas ’66, and Shawn Meyers ’86. He was a past president of the Franklin County Bar Association. His was a lifelong commitment to his clients, his community, and the profession of law. He was varsity soccer coach at Mercersburg from 1947 to 1975, with a record of 147–100–33. He also served on the Alumni Council for 21 years and was a Regent for 16 years. He contributed many hours of pro bono work to the school. He was predeceased by his wife, Katherine Tippetts Steiger (daughter of Charles S. Tippetts ’12, Mercersburg’s third headmaster). In addition to his son, he is survived by three daughters (including Victoria Olin ’68 and Susan Klann ’71), seven grandchildren (including Thomas Steiger ’11), a great-grandson, and a sister, Jane Wingerd.
’37 Dwight Goldthorpe, September 24, 2007. (Main, Irving, News Board, Les Copains, track, tennis) He was a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Business School, and served as an officer in the Navy during World War II. Robert T. Henry, June 20, 2007. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall, Chemistry Club, Concert Band, Gym Leaders Club) A graduate of Catawba College, he was an officer in the Navy during World War II. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three stars. Following the war, he obtained his degree in veterinary medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Survivors include his wife, Evelyn, three daughters, a son, and six grandchildren. Robert A. Rock, January 27, 2007. (Marshall, football, track) John R. Sutherland, August 14, 2007. (Marshall, Les Copains, football, wrestling) Jock graduated from Carnegie Technical College (now Carnegie Mellon University) and earned a master’s degree from the University of Dallas. He served in the European theater during World War II, where he was captured and imprisoned in a German oflag in Poland on June 6, 1943. He was among the initial 150 American officers imprisoned; that number grew to 1,400 until the camp was liberated in January 1945. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. Following the war, he conducted studies on Army ordnance and munitions quality at the former Army Munitions and Engineering Training Agency, retiring in 1972. Survivors include two sons, a daughter, five grandchildren, and three great-grandsons; his wife of 59 years, Lorraine Fearing Sutherland, died two months after her husband, on October 15, 2007.
’38 Joseph B. Condron, October 18, 2006. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall, Gun Club, Les Copains, YMCA, football, track, Class Day Committee) Nicholas L. Shields Sr., November 22, 2007. (’Eighty-eight, Marshall vice president, Chapel Choir, Glee Club, Senate, football, track, wrestling) A major in the U.S. Marine Corps, Nick served as an aviator in the Pacific theater in World War II, and as an infantry commander during the Korean War’s Inchon invasion. He worked for IBM on the Saturn V and Safeguard missile defense programs. In “retirement,” he worked with several realty companies, including Frank & Stevenson, Coldwell Banker, and Premier Realty. His performance as a member of the undefeated Mercersburg wrestling team under Coach Frederick Kuhn warranted mention in the 1938 senior class history. He served as a member of the Alumni Council from 1988 until 1995, and was its president from 1988 to 1990. He was chair of several class reunions. Nick was predeceased by his father, Ralph (1908), and his brother, George ’34. He is survived by his wife, JoAn Wilson Shields; two sons, including Nicholas ’61; two daughters; seven grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
’39 Robert R. Blair, December 3, 1993. (Marshall, football, baseball) William M. Boreman, May 15, 2004. (Marshall) A graduate of Allegheny College, Bill served 16 months as a flight officer in the Army Air Corps in the China-BurmaIndia Campaign, and received the Air Medal. He was a senior manufacturing cost analyst for Lockheed Martin, retiring in 1983. He was predeceased by his wife of 53 years, Glenna Logan Boreman; survivors include two daughters and three grandchildren. Sterling G. McNees Jr., June 13, 2006. (Keil, Marshall, KARUX Board, Camera Club) He graduated from Allegheny College, and took his first employment in radio research at Harvard University. Throughout his career, he was involved in the field of high-power-generating vacuum tubes typically used in lasers and radio transmission. He retired in 1990. In 2005, several of the products he developed were selected as basic tools for a significant project in worldwide energy development. He was predeceased by his wife, Mary Lee King McNees, and is survived by a son and a daughter. Thomas B. Reifsnyder, November 21, 1992. (Laucks, Marshall, soccer, wrestling, Radio Club) Aaron Thal, October 29, 2007. (Main, Irving declaimer, Stony Batter stage manager, cheerleader, News Board, track, wrestling) He attended Union College before joining the Army Air Corps during World War II.When the war concluded, Aaron became the owner and operator of the J.P. Allen store in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the years, the Thal Company owned women’s specialty stores throughout the eastern states. Survivors include his wife, Nancy, a daughter, a stepdaughter, and four grandchildren. Robert P. Whipple, February 11, 2007. (South Cottage, Irving president/debater, Chemistry Club, Les Copains, News Board, Senate, baseball, football, Aurelian Cup, class president) After graduating from Lehigh University, Rob joined Firestone Tire & Rubber Company as patent counsel. He later became chief legal counsel for Dart International. He established Whipple International Equity Corporation, an international licensing firm. During World War II, he served in the South Pacific as a lieutenant junior-grade in the Navy. Survivors include his wife of 63 years, Elinor, as well as two sons, two daughters, nine grandchildren, and a great-grandson.
’40 Robert R. Sterrett, September 25, 2007. (Marshall, Les Copains, Concert Band, football) Bob graduated from Princeton University with a degree in engineering, and served as a junior Navy officer in the Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Formosa campaigns. He received the World War II Victory Medal, the AsiaticPacific Campaign Medal, the Navy Occupation Service Medal, the China Service Medal, and the American Campaign Medal. He started his civilian career at New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, and then spent 35 years with AT&T, retiring in 1984. Survivors include his wife of 28 years, Joan, two daughters, and a granddaughter.
’43 Robert C. Oliphant, January 13, 2007. (Irving, News, Camera Club, Gun Club, soccer) Bob owned and operated Oliphant Washington Service, and was a resident of Waterford, Virginia. Survivors include three daughters, a son, and five nephews.
MER C ER SBU RG MAGAZI N E S PR I N G 2 008
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’47
Frank D. Bittner, January 1, 2007. (South Cottage, Marshall, choir, tennis, track, Glee Club, Stony Batter, KARUX Board) He was an Army veteran of World War II. A graduate of Muhlenberg College, he was retired president of Bittner-Hunsicker Company, a wholesale dry goods and notions firm in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Janet Romberger Bittner, two daughters, and four grandchildren.
Dale W. Baldridge, January 21, 2006. (South Cottage, Irving, baseball, football, wrestling, Glee Club) He was retired from the B.F. Goodrich Tire Company. Survivors include his wife, Ruth Robbins Baldridge, two sons, a daughter, and eight grandchildren.
Shaw Livermore Jr., October 21, 2007. (South Cottage, Irving debater, Senate, Chemistry Club, Les Copains, baseball, soccer, Higbee Orator, Cum Laude) Shaw graduated from Harvard University and earned a doctorate in American history at the University of Wisconsin. While teaching at Princeton University, he wrote The Twilight of Federalism. In 1964, Shaw moved to the University of Michigan, where he taught American history for more than 40 years. Survivors include his wife, Nancy Brewer Livermore, a daughter, and a granddaughter. Malcolm C. Sawhill, December 11, 2007. (South Cottage, Marshall, News business manager, Chapel Usher, El Circulo Español, soccer, Class Memorial and Class Day committees) Mac served in the Navy as a pharmacist’s mate, earning the Victory Medal. A graduate of Lehigh University, he was a labor relations negotiator with PSE&G for 30 years. He was predeceased by his wife of 52 years, Janet Kohut Sawhill. Survivors include two daughters, a son, two brothers (including Robert ’43), and four grandchildren.
’45 Foster D. Boice, March 12, 2006. He graduated from Bentley School of Accounting in 1949, and served in the Army during World War II as an auditor. He was director of the auditing department of Berkshire Life for 40 years, retiring in 1990. Survivors include his wife of 55 years, the former Barbara Laschky, and a daughter. Randall B. Buchanan, September 26, 2006. (South Cottage, Irving, tennis assistant manager) Randy entered the Army Air Corps and was a B-29 gunner during World War II. A graduate of the University of Maryland, he worked in a retail lumber business in Altoona until 1984, when he purchased an established travel agency; he ran that business for more than 20 years. Survivors include his wife, Nancy Swope Buchanan, three sons, a daughter, and nine grandchildren. William L. Cunningham, November 30, 2007. (South Cottage, Irving, choir, Glee Club, Chemistry Club, Caducean Club, football, baseball, wrestling, Class Prophet) Bill attended Harvard University before earning both bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. A third-generation physician, he practiced general surgery for more than 30 years. Survivors include his wife, Judith Dallaglio Cunningham, three daughters, and five grandchildren. Richard I. Strasser, January 14, 2007.
’46 George S. Crawford Jr., December 6, 2005. (Irving, Glee Club, Gun Club) A veteran of the Korean War, George received the Army Commendation Medal while serving in an intelligence unit in Korea. A successful realtor for 36 years, he and his wife, Sally, were nationally known antiques dealers. He was predeceased in death by his first wife, Sophia Emmons Crawford. He is survived by his wife of 36 years, Sally, five daughters, three sons, and 12 grandchildren. James Van Wagoner Tufty, January 11, 2006. (Marshall) Jim was a retired advertising executive who held memberships in the National Press Club, Overseas Press Club, and Advertising Club of Metropolitan Washington. He was a graduate of Michigan State University and a veteran of the Korean War. Survivors include his wife, a son, and two daughters.
Tedford E. Fike, April 10, 2007. (Colonial Cottage, Irving, Memorial Committee) Ted served in the Navy during World War II, and was a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College. He owned Fike Insurance Agency in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Survivors include his wife of 57 years, A. Elaine Fike, two sons, two daughters, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Edward S. McConnon, October 29, 2007. (Keil, Irving, Caducean Club treasurer, Radio Club, cheerleader, track) He graduated from Washington & Jefferson College and Atlanta Law School, where he was valedictorian of his class. He served in the Korean War as a high-speed radio operator. Survivors include his wife, Shirley, three sons, a daughter, and three grandchildren.
’49 Grayson R. Bowers, October 13, 2007. (Marshall, Concert Band, Blue and White Melodians) He graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in agriculture, and served in the Army during the Korean War. He was a dairy farmer, Holstein breeder, program director for the National Holstein Friesian Association of America, and editor of the Southeastern Holstein News. He was also a realty sales representative and an agent for Prudential, Guardian, and Baltimore Life Insurance Company. Survivors include a son, two grandchildren, a sister, and a brother, Martin ’49. Thomas E. Fickinger, November 16, 2006. (South Cottage, Marshall, Chemistry Club, Caducean Club, Gun Club, football, track) Tom was a longtime funeral director in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. Robert K. Mericka, May 10, 2006. (Marshall, football) Bob graduated from the University of Kentucky and served two years with the Army in Korea, earning a Purple Heart, Combat Infantry Badge, and the Bronze Star. In 1967, he moved to Atlanta and founded Custom Enterprises, a specialty manufacturer of industrial plastics. Survivors include three sons and five grandchildren. Forest R. Scholpp, September 3, 2007. (Marshall, Glee Club, Chapel Choir, Stamp Club, track) Forest was a graduate of Stanford University and a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Joyce, a son, and a daughter.
’50 Richard L. Linkins, February 12, 2006. (Marshall, Glee Club) He was a commercial real estate appraiser for more than 40 years. He was predeceased by his wife, Margaret, and is survived by two daughters.
’51 John H. Kerr, May 10, 2007. (Main, Marshall, News Board, Lit Board, The Fifteen, Les Copains, Paideia Club) John was a graduate of Yale University, and served in the Army for two years. Following his military discharge, he was in First National City Bank’s overseas training programs; he was connected with the U.S. committee for UNICEF in New York. In 1967, he was appointed consul to the U.S. Foreign Service by President Lyndon Johnson and assigned to Madras, India, as the cultural affairs officer. Following that diplomatic posting, he became director of education for the National Endowment for the Arts, retiring in 1984. During his last two decades, he lived a life of quiet contemplation as a Roman Catholic oblate of the Order of Saint Benedict. He is survived by three sons.
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John D. Minich, January 4, 2000. (Marshall) He worked in communications for the Navy during the Korean War. During his career, he worked as a national bank examiner for the Treasury Department.
’53
Jay R. Moore, December 15, 2006. He was educated at The Citadel, and received his law degree at Rutgers Law School. He was admitted to the New Jersey State Bar Association in 1969, and was a partner in the firm of Mann, Moore & Cavagnaro in Vineland, New Jersey. Survivors include his wife, Trudi Hoyer Moore, two daughters, and three grandchildren.
’62
Michael M. Byrnes, January 25, 2000. (Irving) Reginald R. Kearton, August 23, 2007. (Irving, Jurisprudence Society, Gun Club, soccer) Robert L. Miller, October 28, 2007. (South Cottage, Irving debater, KARUX Board, The Fifteen, Les Copains) He had an early fascination for the manner in which glass prisms refract light, and the way in which mirrored surfaces transform the refracted effects. He designed scores of intriguing exhibits for San Francisco’s Exploratorium; his most renowned work,“Sun Painting,” which was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, can still be viewed there.
James L. Patterson, February 12, 1994. (Marshall)
’65 Peter B. Hessler, February 27, 2007. (Main, Irving, Chapel Usher, El Circulo Español, Engineering Club, Stony Batter, Glee Club, Varsity Club, football, track)
’66 John D. MacConnell III, December 13, 2005.
’54 Noel M. Borden, August 13, 2006.
’55 James O. Beaver, May 19, 2006. (South Cottage, Irving, Student Council, El Circulo Español, Chapel Usher, Stony Batter, Gun Club, football) Jim was a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He was vice president of Manbeck Bread Company and later president of Burger Castle of Maryland. For the last 20 years, he was general manager of the food service division of M.S. Johnston Company. He is survived by his wife of 23 years, Deborah; a son, Matthew ’79; three daughters; and seven grandchildren. Robert C. Lovingood, June 15, 2007. Bob graduated from Babson Institute, and although he studied civil engineering and business at Babson and later at Harvard University, he became an educator in several schools in the Lehigh Valley. Survivors include a sister and many cousins. Fred R. Schmucker, August 20, 2007. (Main, Marshall, football/baseball manager) Born in Painesville, Ohio, he relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the mid-1960s, where he was manager for internal affairs of the United States Jaycees. He moved to Tallahassee, Florida, in 1968 to serve as administrative assistant to Governor Claude R. Kirk. Prior to his retirement, he was commercial fleet manager for Champion Chevrolet in Tallahassee. Survivors include his wife, Nancy Ericksen Schmucker, two sons, and two grandchildren.
’57 William W. Dryfoos, October 1, 2007. (’Eighty-eight, Irving, track, wrestling) A graduate of American University and Harvard University, Bill was a businessman and boat broker, and son of the late Henry Dryfoos ’27. Survivors include a daughter, Kirsten Dryfoos Thompson ’87, and a son; three step-children; a brother and sister; and six grandchildren.
’61 George F. Hetfield, March 12, 2007. (Main, Marshall, El Circulo Español, Jurisprudence Society, Caducean Club, Christian Service Group, Stamp Club, swimming) A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and the Seton Hall University School of Law, he was a partner with Hetfield & Hetfield for more than 26 years. Survivors include his son, a brother, and a sister.
’69 Hugh E. Teitelbaum, April 24, 2007. (Marshall debater, WMER, Stony Batter, Lit, soccer, fencing) He earned a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a law degree from George Mason University, where he was editor of the Law Review. Much of Hugh’s career was spent as an attorney and administrator working in health care, nonprofit organizations, corporate law, military law, and private practice. He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, a daughter, and his brother, Bruce ’72.
’99 Christopher R. Borst, November 9, 2007. (Fowle, Irving, Stony Batter stage crew, Debate Club, football, lacrosse) He was a counselor with Camp Horizons in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Survivors include his parents; his sister, Mistie McElroy Witt ’88; his grandparents; and several cousins.
Former faculty/staff/friends Mary Ida Amspacher, widow of Preston Franklin Amspacher (faculty emeritus), October 25, 2007. Margaret Curran Dovey, last surviving child of Mercersburg coaching legend Jimmy Curran, September 30, 2007. Edward B. Lowans, husband of former School Matron Edith Fry Lowans and father of David L. Lowans ’69, December 20, 2007.
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ME RC E RS BUR G MAGAZ I N E SPR I N G 200 8
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My Say
November 29, 2007: I have come to realize that here in Israel, our very presence in this place and time, whether we intend it or not, possesses political meaning; furthermore, for the people who live in Israel, every ordinary decision of their lives—like buying a cup of coffee or shopping at a market—is a political choice. BY
ALLISON STEPHENS
I wrote this in my journal after
Omani security directed males
almost 24 hours of travel fol-
and females into separate
lowed by another full day of
lines. Males headed through
conversations designed to give
typical metal detectors, and
our group of six Mercersburg
females through curtained
students and three faculty
private booths staffed by
members
a
wide-ranging,
female attendants in hijabs
view
the
(the traditional head covering)
Middle East, particularly the
and various forms of attire
Israeli/Palestinian question.
ranging from casual western
multifaceted
of
Thanks to the hard work
clothing to the full black
of James Snyder ’69 [Mercers-
burqa. In one situation, the
burg, winter 2007–2008], our
males in our group wandered
group spent two full days in Jerusalem prior to the Peace Symposium
widely through a small rural village, while the females, with bared
in Muscat, Oman. Jim arranged for our students to meet with
shoulders and knees (by our best estimate, tantamount to attending
groups that included Israeli high-school students of mixed back-
the opera in a bikini) were restricted to “the women’s market”
grounds, young Foreign Service workers at the American Consulate
unless accompanied by a male chaperone. We further donned
in Jerusalem, lobbyists from the organization Peace Now, and, most
headscarves out of respect during our tour of Oman’s exquisite
notably, the Turkish and American ambassadors to Israel (the latter
Grand Mosque.
having returned from the Annapolis Peace Conference just three
While these events were novel in the range of our experience,
hours before sitting down to dinner with us). Each individual and
once again the political implications of our visit struck us with full
organization spoke passionately on behalf of its ideology and con-
force when a student group from Israel could not attend the Peace
stituency. We were both fascinated and somewhat horrified by the
Symposium without official recognition from the Omani govern-
divergent variety of analyses of the situation in the Middle East and
ment as a diplomatic delegation. Furthermore, as a result of an
the meaning of the meeting at Annapolis as well as of the role of the
incident in Sudan in which a British teacher allowed a teddy bear
United States in the region. Even our more relaxed moments of
to be named “Muhammad,” Oman’s Ministry of Education sent a
tourism emphasized to us the singularity of existence in Jerusalem—
representative to audit the conference to ensure that no such
where, when traveling in the city, one must be aware of the invisi-
transgressions took place.
ble boundaries separating neighborhoods and peoples. The last thing that Jim and his wife, Tina, said to us prior to
December 11, 2007: Our journey has taken us many miles beyond our travels.
our bus departure to Amman, Jordan, was, “Oman is totally different.” (It is impossible to fly from Israel to Arab states—like Oman—
A faculty member since 1987, Allison Stephens (above, second from
that do not recognize its right to exist.) We arrived in Muscat jet-
right) is head of the History Department. She and her husband,
lagged, disoriented, and with their words ringing in our heads.
fellow faculty member David Holzwarth ’78, have two children,
Immediately, we were introduced to another type of division, as
Wynn Holzwarth ’10 and Zack Holzwarth.
Think summer.
Think Mercersburg.
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