Jane Brown honored as new inductee into the FV hall of fame

Yesterday, at our annual summer board of trustees meeting, Jane Brown was among those inducted into the Frost Valley Hall of Fame. I had the honor of speaking about Jane's impact on FV's people just before the induction. The first photo above was taken by me, and the other four were taken by Sara Alexander.

With Jane, of course, was her husband Halbe, our beloved long-time (35 years) executive director. Also their son Bill and his wife Katherine, and Halbe's brother Paul, who lives in Claryville. (Halbe was elected into our hall of fame in its first year.)

Since my talk about Jane was done improvisationally from notes, I can't reproduce it here, but below is the paragraph-long note which I wrote for the program:

Those who have felt the Frost Valley magic – its capacity to welcome everyone and to create a remarkable sense of familiarity and ease – will know or come to learn that it is in no small part owing to the generosity and hospitality of Jane Brown. Jane joined her husband, long-time Frost Valley Executive Director D. Halbe Brown, and their young family, here at Frost Valley in 1966. From then until 2001, no one provided keener or more consistent stewardship of Frost Valley’s people—campers, staff, trustees, grantors, donors, friends, visitors for a day or for a year—than Jane. To the extent that people at Frost Valley felt specifically connected to the place, it was almost always Jane who had supported the connection. By electing Jane Brown to our Hall of Fame, the trustees with great pleasure honor her for her brilliant and dedicated stewardship of people—one of the true core values of Frost Valley in her time and forever.

Walter Margetts

Today Walter Margetts was posthumously elected to the Frost Valley Hall of Fame, joining Woody English, Halbe Brown, Eva Gottscho and several others. Walter's son Tom and daughter Cynthia - and other members of the Margetts family - were here today to help us celebrate. In this video clip, Fenn Putman presents a plaque to Tom and Cynthia. Earlier Fenn had given a biographical profile of Walter Margetts' accomplishments. He was Julius Forstmann's attorney and he was at the same time very active with the YMCA of New Jersey and it was he--Walter--who put the two together when the Forstmann family was looking possibly to sell the Catskills estate and when Camp Wawayanda was urgently looking for a more spacious home than their then-current temporary site (at Johnsonsburg, at a property owned by Stevens Institute). [By the way, several of our current staff started their camping careers at the camp that is now at the Stevens Institute site, including Stu Alexander and Jess Gonzalez.]

Below is a shot of members of the Margetts family who were in attendance on this special day.

Geyer, Kellogg inducted into hall of fame

Sorry for the iPhone picture--low quality, no zoom. Dave Mager took some photos too with one of his super-fabulous cameras, so perhaps soon I'll have some better ones to post.

This was last night, at the Newark Club. Frost Valley's annual dinner. We inducted two new members into the now two-year-old Frost Valley Hall of Fame: Helen Geyer and Jim Kellogg. (The photo shows Helen at the podium responding to the honor.)

Among the alumni present: Mike Marder, Sue Ettelman Eisenhower, John Butler, Lauren LaMauro, Mark Showers, Bill Abbott (trustee), Roger Leon (who was also the keynote speaker), Lisa Ernst (also our Development Director), Nicky Rinklin.

Here's a profile of Helen Geyer:

She is widely known and admired for her work as a film and television actress and as a model, and for her innumerable appearances on magazine covers. She is also widely known and cherished for her many years of volunteer work and civic leadership in Montclair, New Jersey—with the Montclair Art Museum, the Garden Club, the Presby Memorial Iris Garden, and of course the Helen & Bill Geyer YMCA of Montclair Family Center. We honor Helen Geyer tonight for these and other achievements, but to members of her Frost Valley family she is and will always be known and respected first and foremost for her devoted service as the first-ever womanon the Frost Valley YMCA Board of Trustees. Helen had been introduced to Wawayanda by her late husband Bill at around the time of the breakthrough that has been said to have been the single most important factor in preventing the then-62-year-old camp’s financial failure and irrelevance: the long overdue admission of girls to a new “Camp Wawayanda for Girls,” the building of the cluster of lodges, cabins and dining hall that came to be known as Camp Henry Hird. Forty-five years later, when Frost Valley again faced a turning point, a campaign commenced to revitalize and create a new core around those same buildings, it was appropriate that Helen Geyer was the first to step up and show support. Her contribution to this effort culminated in the naming of the former Girls’ Dining Hall—once renovated, it became the centerpiece of the project—after one of Frost Valley’s true pioneers: Geyer Hall. When all is said and done, family is Helen Geyer’s primary motivation for her decade of service; Helen often says that she and Bill have always thought of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren together as “a YMCA family.” Tonight indeed we honor…a great YMCA family.

And here is a profile of Jim Kellogg:

In the era of priority-shifting, ceaselessly reorganizing, moving-target nonprofit boards, Jim Kellogg’s steadfastness, focused commitment, and deep sense of the volunteer’s honor shone like a beacon across the national landscape; and thus Frost Valley shone too. Jim served as a member of Frost Valley’s Board of Trustees for three decades and for fifteen of those years was our Board President, succeeding Woody English. The two together can be said without exaggeration to have provided a vision of continuity unparalleled in camping. Not coincidentally this was the period in which Frost Valley’s summer camp program solidified its roots and re-attained greatness, the environmental education program was created, the conference program rose to a level of size and prominence that just two or three other camps attained, financial aid was awarded to needy families, international partnerships were constituted, and disabled children were mainstreamed into the camp without hesitation or blink of an institutional eye. Jim provided leadership when Frost Valley had to effect an efficient, never-look-back recovery from disaster by fire. Always looking problems and challenges straight on, Jim saw obstacles as opportunities, adhering without fanfare but firmly to the two-word version of Frost Valley’s mission: “Build Strong.” His service to Frost Valley has been part of a larger context of volunteer leadership and civic engagement. He has been the President of the Community Foundation of New Jersey, a member of the Bloomfield College Board of Trustees, President of the Children’s Specialized Hospital of Mountainside, and President of the J. C. Kellogg Foundation. Jim Kellogg’s distinguished career demonstrates an unmatched generosity of commitment to public service, eloquently bespeaking this core tenet: we must invest in others, so that everyone, regardless of economic background or circumstances, has the resources necessary to maximize his or her potential. Jim Kellogg truly does build strong, and when we honor him tonight we honor our most basic reason for being as an organization.

be there on May 13

Our annual gala (cocktail reception at 6 pm; dinner at 7 pm) will once again be at the Newark Club, which is a four-minute walk from the Amtrak train station in Newark. Every alumnus and alumna should make an effort to attend. It's lots of fun.

We will induct three new people into the Frost Valley Hall of Fame. Last year was the first year of the Hall: Halbe Brown, Eva Gottscho and Woody English were inducted - Woody, posthumously (but his family was there); Halbe and Eva was on hand to receive the honor. Who will be inducted this year?

You can print the two images above - fill out the form and fax it. Or you can download this PDF file.

After last year's ceremony I wrote a bit for this blog and included an audio recording of the inductions.

hall of fame

This year we inaugurated the Frost Valley Hall of Fame. The first three inductees are Woodruff (Woody) English, Halbe Brown and Eva Gottscho. Halbe, Jane and their son Jim were able to attend the recent annual meeting of the Board, as was Eva, now 95 years old. Woody, alas, died years ago, but his daughter Carol English (who herself was a member of the FV staff in the 70s) and several partners from Woody's law firm (McCarter English) were on hand.

Halbe, Carol and Eva each spoke briefly after they were introduced as inductees. Jim Kellogg, who succeeded Woody as Chairman of the FV Board, spoke of Halbe and Woody, and then Jerry Huncosky spoke of Eva.

Listen here to a recording of these introductions and "acceptance" speeches.

If you have thoughts about who should enter the Hall of Fame in May 2009, please let me know.

Above at right: Eva Gottscho. Left here: D. Halbe Brown.