Raymond W. Vickers OPC '61 Receives the Alumni Award of Merit

The Alumni Award of Merit is given "to a graduate of the William Penn Charter School whose character and outstanding achievement have reflected lasting credit upon this school." 

Fifty years ago, as we prepared for graduation, the class of 1911 would have celebrated its 50th reunion over in the meeting room. Born In 1893, they could not have known what times they were in for, nor for that matter could we. But as graduation approached, I knew that I had just finished four of the most unlikely years of any one my age. To explain will require a little story.

In the autumn of 1958, a little league football group was formed in the Philadelphia area called the Little Quakers, made up of players from all around the city but particularly at that point from Inter-Ac schools. As the brainchild of Bob Levy, a Penn Charter graduate, the Little Quakers often Included a number of Penn Charter students. And, at that time, the high point of a Little Quaker season was to play a game just after Christmas in Fort Lauderdale, Florida against a team of all stars from the Fort Lauderdale football little league. I played in this game in December 1959 and December 1956. As a proud Penn Charter graduate, perhaps the only surprise is that I played in those games not for the Little Quakers but for the Fort Lauderdale all star team.

It was the custom at that time for players from the Philadelphia area to stay In the homes of the Fort Lauderdale players. In 1955, my future Penn Charter classmate Jonn Hohenadel stayed with my family and the following year, future classmates Linn Morrow and Roy Beauchamp stayed with us. Thus, by the early spring of 1957 I knew a good deal about Penn Charter, but never In a million years thought I would attend.

But, in that same early spring of 1957, Bob Levy came to Fort Lauderdale to show to the Florida families a film that had been made of the 1956 game, and my parents and | attended the showing.

After the showing of the film, there was a cocktail party. It was during this party that Bob met my parents and discovered that in the Fort Lauderdale system | was a good student with ambition to go to a good university. Bob, in his way which never admits limits on the possible, suggested to my parents that the way to a good university would better pass through the halls of Penn Charter than those of Ft Lauderdale High. Frankty, it’s not clear to me to this day why he would have taken on such a challenge. It may have helped that I had been the quarterback for the Fort Lauderdale teams in 1955 and 1996 and that one of those teams gave the Little Quakers their very first defeat.

I was not around for the conversation between Bob and my parents, but on the drive home that night my parents jokingly asked if I would like to go to Penn Charter. They told me about the conversation, and after musing on it a while, we decided it was largely a result of those other liquids that had been mixed with the orange juice.

But, we had not counted on Bob, because a few weeks later, a plane ticket arrived in the mail with an invitation for me to come to Philadelphia and take the Penn Charter entrance and scholarship exams. This was a bit awkward, because since | had never been north of North Carolina I had no clothes suitable for a Philadelphia late winter/early Spring. But, luckily I had a friend whose family only wintered in Fort Lauderdale and he was able to lend me enough to get me through a few days in Philadelphia.

Since the beginning of this process, my parents and I had had time to discuss at length the possibility that I might actually get in to Penn Charter and had decided that if I did get that opportunity I should take it. Thus, when the good news came that I had been accepted with scholarship funding, I was happily ready to go.

And so I arrived in the fall of 1957, with the question: where would I stay? Well, in short, I stayed with six different families during my four years. In this and in so many ways, the Penn Charter community opened its doors and accepted me as one of its own. I stayed first with the family of Mike Mayer, class of ‘58 who lived just across the street in Alden Park. Unfortunately, his sister in whose room | was staying decided to return home from the Peace Corps, and thus I had to find a new home. Then, the family of my classmate Lloyd Balderston who lived in Malvern took me in for the balance of my first year.

The following year I stayed with the family of Topper Winder, class of ‘62, just around the corner from the school and then with Bob, class of 48, and his family in Bryn Mawr for the balance of that year. The following year, I stayed the full year with the family of my classmate Russ Epprecht outside of Conshohocken and then finally as a senior, now with a car, I stayed in Abington with friends of the school who had previously had a PC student stay with them. Apart from getting a pretty good tour of the geography of the Philadelphia suburbs, and what became in later life a habit of moving homes, I have ever since been able to eat anything put in front of me.

During this entire period, | never felt treated as anything but a normal PC student. And tor that, I would like to thank my classmates, both those assembled here and those who are not, for making my stay at Penn Charter so special. For me, the title of the long running TV show, The Wonder Years, really captures what it was like for me to be at Penn Charter.

Thus, as commencement arrived in 1961, I realized that I had been given a wonderful opportunity, made better by the warmth and acceptance of the entire Penn Charter community. And the desire to live up to this opportunity has been for me a constant spur to achievement. But, I have also come to realize that the chance to attend Penn Charter was a special opportunity for all of us, and for all of us a goad to do well and to do right.

In conclusion, I would like to recall our legendary football coach Ray Dooney, who in one of his fiery half-time speeches once told us that we would remember all our lives, in what he called our victory dreams, what we did during the second half that day. For me and for so many others it was Bob Levy, always supported by his wife Rochelle, who made it possible to have those dreams. Thank you Bob and Cissie, thank you my classmates and thank you Penn Charter.