2021 Lycoming College Summer Magazine

58 Archivist and historian Ruth (Perry) Hodge was presented the Cumberland County Historical Society Milton E. Flower Historian of the Year Award in October 2020. The award is presented to local historians who have made a significant contribution to telling the county’s story in a variety of ways documented with the highest levels of scholarly research. Ruth began her career as a librarian at the U.S. Army War College and later worked for the U.S. Army Military History Institute, retiring from the Carlisle Barracks in 1993. She served as an archivist for the Pennsylvania State Archives until 2001. She is an award-winning American archivist, author, educator, and community activist who has furthered the advancement of African-American and U.S. military history research and writing during the 20th and early 21st centuries. Ruth has spent decades advocating for and telling the history of African Americans. She authored the Guide to African American Resources at the Pennsylvania State Archives for others to follow and do additional research. She has continually pressed for the historical narrative to tell a fuller story and advocates for the histories that have been long ignored. 72 Kathleen Donnelly shares that upon completion of her thesis, “Manager as Muse: A Case Study of Scribner’s Editor Maxwell Perkins’ Work with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe,” she was awarded an MBA from Duquesne University in 1983. She later earned her Ph.D. in communications from Dublin City University, Ireland, where she expanded her research on early 20th century writers to research those who socialized together in salons in Ireland, England, France, and America. For the past few years, she has been giving talks about the writers in both the U.K. and U.S., mostly in Lifelong Learning programs, and posting a blog based on that research titled “Such Friends” (www.suchfriends. wordpress.com) , from the William Butler Yeats poetic line, “and say my glory was I had such friends.” Kathleen says, “Now that my Irish husband, Tony Dixon, and I have retired back to Pittsburgh, I have self-published all the blogs about what was happening 100 years ago in a book, ‘Such Friends: The Literary 1920s, Vol. 1—1920.’ I am planning to continue the blog postings and the books straight through 1929! It was quite a decade.” The book is available on Amazon.com. 74 Mark Pile , president and CEO of the Diakon family of organizations since January 2010, retired at the end of 2020. One of the nation’s larger Lutheran organizations, Diakon operates nearly a dozen senior living and housing communities in central and eastern Pennsylvania and western Maryland, along with extensive services for children and families including adoption, foster care, counseling, and programs for at-risk youths. A resident of Macungie, Pa., Mark was named COO at Diakon’s creation in 2000. Married to Susan Pile, he has six grown children and six grandchildren. 77 David Roberts viewed the virtual Homecoming President's Dinner, and it occurred to him that this was the first time in 42 years he was not on campus for homecoming. Dave retired from Aetna in 2017 after 38-plus years with Prudential Healthcare and then Aetna. He has been the president of the Fawn Lakes Community Association for the last three and a half years. He says, “Looking forward to Lycoming football again, whenever!” 67 After more than 20 years of service as the corporate secretary of Little League Baseball® Inc., Joe Losch announced his retirement in November 2020. A native of South Williamsport, Pa., Joe served as corporate secretary since 1999, but began his career with Little League International after attending Lycoming College when he was hired as the supervisor of Little League International’s shipping and receiving department. After climbing the ranks within the organization, including vice president of operations, he retired in 2007 as an employee of Little League International but continued his volunteer service as corporate secretary. Joe and his wife, Flicka, live in the Williamsport area and have two grown children, Matthew and Mandy. Kathleen Dixon Donnelly wearing Steeler black and gold 37 www.lycoming.edu