Our classmate, Carolyn Additon Anthony, has been chosen to receive the 2026 Mount Lebanon High School Great Alumni Award. Carolyn was nominated and recommended by fellow classmates and work colleagues. This award is in recognition of her tireless and creative work as Director of the Skokie Public Library in Skokie, Illinois.

During Carolyn's 31 years of leadership as Director, the Skokie Public Library completed a major expansion of its physical plant and literary offerings, including new media. Under her direction the Skokie Library received a National Medal For Library Service that was presented at the White House in 2008. Carolyn's work has been honored nationally and statewide by her fellow librarians. She was elected President of the Public Library Association, as well as President of the Illinois Library Association. She was voted Illinois Librarian of the Year in 2003. The Great Alumni Award will be presented during a luncheon at the High School on Friday, October 2.

You may remember when Gayla Kraetsch received the award in 2023 there was an informal get together at the Springhill Suites in Mount Lebanon. It was a great chance to reconnect with Pittsburgh-area classmates. A similar gathering will be hosted by Carolyn on Saturday, October 3, 9:00 am - 11:00 am in the lobby of the Springhill Suites at 611 Washington Road. Light food and beverages will be available. There will be plenty of parking in the parking garage down the street. I hope to see you there. -- Bob O'Neill.

I am sorry to report that Ted Swisher died on July 8. For those who haven't followed his life, below is part of the application which I submitted to the HS in 2019 to have Ted recognized as a Great Alumni. Due to COVID, the selection process was delayed and he wasn't selected until shortly below his death. He and the others who were selected will be noted at the football game on October. I wrote:

"Ted basically has been a volunteer his entire life. As one of his college roommates wrote: “You have
taken, whatever you have done for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for
me (Mat. 25:40), to a whole new level.” Another college roommate wrote: “On the first day of our
freshman year, we heard the phrase, “Princeton in the Nation’s Service”.  Your career is what they
meant.” 
I think it is helpful to understand Ted’s path following his graduation from Princeton in June of 1971.
Needless to say, this path was not necessarily what one would have expected for a Mt. Lebanon graduate
who was president of the student body, a PA state champion wrestler and co-captain of its WPIAL
championship football team.
A sociology major, Ted spent the second semester of his junior year at Princeton (a time when college
campuses were buzzing with dissension over the Vietnam war and the bombings in Cambodia) studying
(and assisting ) a relatively new organization named Koinonia Partners, a Christian community and farm
serving an under-privileged population in Americus, Georgia. (Yes, former President Jimmy Carter’s
country and, yes, Ted has spent a number of occasions with the former President and his wife Rosalyn.)
Ted wrote his senior thesis on the organization.
Ted was so moved by the experience that he went back to Americus after graduation and became
Koinonia’s Executive Director. Ted was instrumental in expanding Koinonia’s services into housing,
childcare and income generating businesses for the local population. (Please refer to his attached
resume for further information on its growth under his leadership).
Millard Fuller, one of the founders of Koinonia and a resident there with his family, founded Habitat
and its Fund for Humanity in 1976 with the goal of eliminating “poverty housing” in Sumter County,
GA.    Ted eventually joined Habitat and assumed leadership roles in it, becoming the first Director of
Affiliates for Habitat for Humanity International in 1983. Over the next 5 years he helped it grow from
22 to 360 affiliates. From 1989 to 1991, he was responsible for creating Habitat’s affiliate program in
Australia. His subsequent work in Habitat’s then home county of Sumter County Georgia and then as
Habitat’s Vice President for the United States and Canada also is described in the attached resume."