President’s Message

Jane Smith (left) and scholarships chair Maureen Feely Kohl (right) welcomed the 2018–2019 recipients of Alumni Association–managed scholarships in September. Our members support a signature scholarship for children (or parents) of alumni, as well as several partial scholarships and textbook awards for students.

If you studied at MC when I did, you knew our sports teams by their respective campuses—the Knights, the Falcons, and then the Griffins. The games were reported by campus newspapers, guided by advisors like Excalibur’s Peggy Simonds, the Spur’s Monty Pitner, and The Paper’s Bernadette Kelley. Today’s students cheer on the Raptors, the games are covered electronically, and attendees are entertained between plays by “The Raptor” itself.

That large, purple bird energized players and fans anonymously, because the Raptor had no name—until now. After taking suggestions via social media, MC has revealed that our mascot is named Montgomery C. Raptor, known to friends as … Monty.

That’s delightful news for me, because the Alumni Association is building a fund for student editors, named in memory of one of my own professors: the Monty Pitner Scholarship. This fund will support student leaders who devote part of their time to keeping classmates informed about the College and the world around them. So Monty will help us link MC’s past to its future. (To support this fund, visit the College’s online giving webpage and designate “Alumni Association-Monty Pitner Fund” from the giving choices.)

Meantime, the Knights have not quite disappeared. Retired Coach Phil Martin is working with his football teams to build scholarships for MC’s signature effort—Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success (ACES), which coaches students academically from high school, through MC, and on to their four-year degrees at the Universities at Shady Grove. ACES also got a boost from retiring County Executive Ike Leggett and Catherine Leggett, whose friends raised more than $1 million for the program at a legacy ceremony.

Also this fall, men’s basketball alumni are honoring retired Coach Steve Hobson, by starting a scholarship fund for student athletes, a move made possible by the College’s switch to NJCAA Divisions I and II. Dr. Stephen Cain, MC’s acting president during Dr. DeRionne Pollard’s sabbatical, met this fall with our Alumni Association scholarship students, and I hope our future years’ receptions will be joined by recipients of some of those new scholarships.

I mentioned, above, the original name of the Germantown newspaper from the campus’s opening 40 years ago. A longtime professor and administrator, Irvin Schick ’47, was instrumental in getting that third campus built. In this issue, we include remarks by his daughter Carolyn, now a program director at MC, marking Germantown’s anniversary. Along the way, Irv and his brother, John ’39, shared our 2002 Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award. We’re taking suggestions for future honors—so if you know alums who turned their MC education into an outstanding career, community service, or other contribution to MC’s success, please tell us about them.

Also in this issue, we’ll introduce you to Anton Powell ’16 and Glen Swanson ’18, whose stories of perseverance toward their MC education do us all proud. Go Raptors!

Jane C. Smith ’76
Alumni Association President

Photo by Pete Vidal