Obituary for Tim Osage Rockwell
Tim Osage Rockwell of Mercersburg passed away Monday, Sept. 12,
2022, in Meritus Medical Center. Born March 23, 1939, he was 83.
Tim loved the Cumberland Valley, its history and its people and particularly
Mercersburg. He often commented he wanted his epitaph to read “Born
here, lived here, worked here, loved here, married here, taught here, happy
here, still here.”
He and his wife, the former Bonnie Zeger of Fort Loudon, were married
Jan. 1, 1962.
Tim and Bonnie, as a teacher and a nurse, had many unusual experiences
and encounters during their various trips abroad and throughout the United
States while sharing an interesting and satisfying life of love for each other
and service to others.
Passionate about learning and education, Tim took advantage of every
opportunity that came his way and created many of his own for himself, his
family, his students and his community.
Rockwell, a lifelong resident of Mercersburg, graduated from James
Buchanan High School, Class of 1957, and earned a B.S. degree in
secondary education from Shippensburg State College, an M.A. in
literature from Penn State and an M.A. in philosophy from the George
Washington University.
He served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1956 to 1962 and was on active
duty from 1957 to 1960, serving at the Anacostia Naval Air Station and the
Naval Photographic Center in Washington, D.C. Qualifying from the ranks,
he attended the Naval Academy Prep School and achieved an appointment
to the U.S. Naval Academy by the Secretary of the Navy. Prior to being
sworn into the Naval Academy, he was injured in the line of duty and
physically disqualified. He subsequently finished his naval service with ZW-
1 and ZP-3, the Navy’s last two airship squadrons at Lakehurst Naval Air
Station, New Jersey, serving in their joint communications office. Fifty years
later in 2009 he was invited to be present at the ceremonies which created
Joint Base McQuire-Dix-Lakehurst, the military’s first three branch (Air
Force, Army, Navy) installation. Rockwell was a member of American
Legion Harry Lackhove Post 517, Mercersburg, and a Life Member of the
Disabled American Veterans.
After the Navy, Rockwell briefly worked for Heisey Orchards where he
helped design the first commercial controlled atmosphere apple storage in
the East and was responsible for regulating its atmosphere throughout the
year. He also helped bud hundreds of young trees in their nectarine
orchards.
In 1962 due to his service injury, Rockwell attended Shippensburg State
College under the Pennsylvania Vocational and Rehabilitation Act to
become a secondary school teacher. He returned to his alma mater, JBHS,
to teach English and speech for three years before going on to Penn State
for further graduate work under the G.I. Bill. Then, after two years at the
George Washington University and the Smithsonian Institution as a
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow in American Material
Culture, he joined the faculty of the Mercersburg Academy in 1970. He was
appointed a Fellow of the National American Studies Faculty in 1971 and
the Academy, considering his appointment a school honor, granted Tim a
leave of absence to spend the year traveling with three other national
Fellows to render free onsite advice to small historical societies and
museums throughout the eastern United States. Returning he taught
history and anthropology for 26 years at the Academy and was included for
12 years on the Master List of the National Humanities Faculty. After
serving 16 years as the Dean of Students he was given Emeritus status by
the Board of Regents when he retired in 1996.
At various times throughout his life, he conducted archaeological
excavations for the Smithsonian, the National Park Service and the
National Trust for Historic Preservation, publishing reports or articles on
topics of history and archaeology. Many of his summers were spent on
archaeological digs, including a number of years at Belle Grove, Virginia.
In 1983, Rockwell organized and directed the only overland expedition to
commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1883 First International Polar
Year and also to honor Ross Marvin, a Mercersburg Academy math
instructor, who died supporting Peary’s dash to the North Pole in 1908. The
nine-member expedition was composed of faculty and students from the
Academy, as well as Tim’s oldest daughter, Shawn, then a freshman at
Haverford College, a graduate of the Academy and the only female on the
team. They hiked over rugged arctic terrain and across sea ice to conduct a
memorial service near the site approximately halfway between the Arctic
Circle and the North Pole, where 19 of 25 members of that first 1883
expedition perished when relief efforts failed to reach them. They carried a
small Mercersburg Academy banner and the flags of the National
Geographic Society, the Explorers Club, the United States of America and
Canada. The expedition has been cited or detailed in various publications
and books with presentations on its effort ranging from NYC to the Russian
Far East.
Subsequently, in 1984 Rockwell was elected as a Fellow of the prestigious
Explorers Club in New York City whose membership included the late Sir
Edmund Hillary, the first to conquer Mount Everest, and Neil Armstrong,
first man on the moon. Later Tim held the post of publisher and editor of the
Club’s quarterly international Explorers Journal for five years and was
honored in 1993 to be the only non-scientist to serve with the American
astronauts and Russian cosmonauts on the executive committee for the
30th anniversary dinner of “Man in Space” held at the Waldorf Astoria in
NYC.
In 1994 he was further privileged to be among the first westerners to be
allowed into Siberia and far eastern Russia in over a half century as he
lectured with Professor Sergei A. Arutiunov of the Russian Academy of
Sciences onboard the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov as it visited
the Kamchatka peninsula before passing through the Bering Strait into the
Chukchi Sea and the Arctic Ocean.
Tim and Bonnie greatly enjoyed both foreign and domestic travel. In 2016
so that wife Bonnie might share his experiences of crossing the Arctic
Circle, Rockwell had the couple driven up the “Trucker’s Road” in Alaska to
Coldfoot just beyond the circle then flown back to Fairbanks by bush plane.
They were then 78 years old.
In 1986 Tim and Bonnie with a small group of educators were to enter the
old USSR to evaluate secondary education. Planned in advance, the group
could not foresee the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl which caused the
Russians to modify the schedule and some in the group to drop out. The
Rockwells continued on the trip, which was the experience of a lifetime with
the old communist government covering up the extent of the disaster and
the populace fearfully continuing their daily life as the old Soviet empire
began to disassemble. To avoid travel near Chernobyl the government
redirected the group to Volgograd (old Stalingrad) and Yalta, both at that
time normally off limits to most westerners. Later back in Moscow, Tim
bluffed his way into Lenin’s tomb which was also off limits at that time.
Much involved in local civic affairs, Tim was a former Tuscarora School
Board member and received a Pa. Schools Board Association award for
outstanding service to public education. He was a member of the design
committee for the Franklin County Heritage Center in Chambersburg, a
member of the county’s Civil War Trails initiative, and member and past
director of the Mercersburg Historical Society. He was a Director on the
Letterkenny Industrial Development Authority for 17 years. In 2008, he
received the Harriet Lane Award, given annually by the Mercersburg
Borough Council for outstanding community service in the arts, history and
child welfare.
Rockwell was a past member of the Fort Loudon Ruritan and Mercersburg
Rotary. His national organizations included the American Studies
Association, the Society for Historical Archaeology, and the Arctic Institute
of North America.
As a member of both the United Church of Christ in Fort Loudon and in
Mercersburg, he served in numerous offices but eventually became
disillusioned by church politics and withdrew from active attendance but not
in faith or support.
He is survived by his wife of 60 years, with whom he had two wonderful
daughters: Shawn M. Hardy, who with husband Jim Hardy lives in Welsh
Run, and Beth J. Willander, mother of granddaughters Electa and Anika
Willander, who lives in Mercersburg with husband Sean Willander. He had
a particular joy in seeing his granddaughters, Electa and Anika, grow into
spirited womanhood.
Tim was preceded in death by his parents Ray and Bernice (Campbell)
Rockwell and infant brother, Brent.
A Celebration of Life service will be held at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, in the
Mercersburg Academy Chapel. A time of fellowship and sharing of
memories will follow the service on the patio of the Burgin Center.
The family requests the omission of flowers. Memorial donations in his
name may be made to the Fendrick Library, 20 N. Main St., or TWEP, P.O.
Box 97, both of Mercersburg, PA 17236 or to Cumberland Valley Animal
Shelter, 5051 Letterkenny Road West, Chambersburg PA 17201-8706.
2022, in Meritus Medical Center. Born March 23, 1939, he was 83.
Tim loved the Cumberland Valley, its history and its people and particularly
Mercersburg. He often commented he wanted his epitaph to read “Born
here, lived here, worked here, loved here, married here, taught here, happy
here, still here.”
He and his wife, the former Bonnie Zeger of Fort Loudon, were married
Jan. 1, 1962.
Tim and Bonnie, as a teacher and a nurse, had many unusual experiences
and encounters during their various trips abroad and throughout the United
States while sharing an interesting and satisfying life of love for each other
and service to others.
Passionate about learning and education, Tim took advantage of every
opportunity that came his way and created many of his own for himself, his
family, his students and his community.
Rockwell, a lifelong resident of Mercersburg, graduated from James
Buchanan High School, Class of 1957, and earned a B.S. degree in
secondary education from Shippensburg State College, an M.A. in
literature from Penn State and an M.A. in philosophy from the George
Washington University.
He served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1956 to 1962 and was on active
duty from 1957 to 1960, serving at the Anacostia Naval Air Station and the
Naval Photographic Center in Washington, D.C. Qualifying from the ranks,
he attended the Naval Academy Prep School and achieved an appointment
to the U.S. Naval Academy by the Secretary of the Navy. Prior to being
sworn into the Naval Academy, he was injured in the line of duty and
physically disqualified. He subsequently finished his naval service with ZW-
1 and ZP-3, the Navy’s last two airship squadrons at Lakehurst Naval Air
Station, New Jersey, serving in their joint communications office. Fifty years
later in 2009 he was invited to be present at the ceremonies which created
Joint Base McQuire-Dix-Lakehurst, the military’s first three branch (Air
Force, Army, Navy) installation. Rockwell was a member of American
Legion Harry Lackhove Post 517, Mercersburg, and a Life Member of the
Disabled American Veterans.
After the Navy, Rockwell briefly worked for Heisey Orchards where he
helped design the first commercial controlled atmosphere apple storage in
the East and was responsible for regulating its atmosphere throughout the
year. He also helped bud hundreds of young trees in their nectarine
orchards.
In 1962 due to his service injury, Rockwell attended Shippensburg State
College under the Pennsylvania Vocational and Rehabilitation Act to
become a secondary school teacher. He returned to his alma mater, JBHS,
to teach English and speech for three years before going on to Penn State
for further graduate work under the G.I. Bill. Then, after two years at the
George Washington University and the Smithsonian Institution as a
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow in American Material
Culture, he joined the faculty of the Mercersburg Academy in 1970. He was
appointed a Fellow of the National American Studies Faculty in 1971 and
the Academy, considering his appointment a school honor, granted Tim a
leave of absence to spend the year traveling with three other national
Fellows to render free onsite advice to small historical societies and
museums throughout the eastern United States. Returning he taught
history and anthropology for 26 years at the Academy and was included for
12 years on the Master List of the National Humanities Faculty. After
serving 16 years as the Dean of Students he was given Emeritus status by
the Board of Regents when he retired in 1996.
At various times throughout his life, he conducted archaeological
excavations for the Smithsonian, the National Park Service and the
National Trust for Historic Preservation, publishing reports or articles on
topics of history and archaeology. Many of his summers were spent on
archaeological digs, including a number of years at Belle Grove, Virginia.
In 1983, Rockwell organized and directed the only overland expedition to
commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1883 First International Polar
Year and also to honor Ross Marvin, a Mercersburg Academy math
instructor, who died supporting Peary’s dash to the North Pole in 1908. The
nine-member expedition was composed of faculty and students from the
Academy, as well as Tim’s oldest daughter, Shawn, then a freshman at
Haverford College, a graduate of the Academy and the only female on the
team. They hiked over rugged arctic terrain and across sea ice to conduct a
memorial service near the site approximately halfway between the Arctic
Circle and the North Pole, where 19 of 25 members of that first 1883
expedition perished when relief efforts failed to reach them. They carried a
small Mercersburg Academy banner and the flags of the National
Geographic Society, the Explorers Club, the United States of America and
Canada. The expedition has been cited or detailed in various publications
and books with presentations on its effort ranging from NYC to the Russian
Far East.
Subsequently, in 1984 Rockwell was elected as a Fellow of the prestigious
Explorers Club in New York City whose membership included the late Sir
Edmund Hillary, the first to conquer Mount Everest, and Neil Armstrong,
first man on the moon. Later Tim held the post of publisher and editor of the
Club’s quarterly international Explorers Journal for five years and was
honored in 1993 to be the only non-scientist to serve with the American
astronauts and Russian cosmonauts on the executive committee for the
30th anniversary dinner of “Man in Space” held at the Waldorf Astoria in
NYC.
In 1994 he was further privileged to be among the first westerners to be
allowed into Siberia and far eastern Russia in over a half century as he
lectured with Professor Sergei A. Arutiunov of the Russian Academy of
Sciences onboard the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov as it visited
the Kamchatka peninsula before passing through the Bering Strait into the
Chukchi Sea and the Arctic Ocean.
Tim and Bonnie greatly enjoyed both foreign and domestic travel. In 2016
so that wife Bonnie might share his experiences of crossing the Arctic
Circle, Rockwell had the couple driven up the “Trucker’s Road” in Alaska to
Coldfoot just beyond the circle then flown back to Fairbanks by bush plane.
They were then 78 years old.
In 1986 Tim and Bonnie with a small group of educators were to enter the
old USSR to evaluate secondary education. Planned in advance, the group
could not foresee the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl which caused the
Russians to modify the schedule and some in the group to drop out. The
Rockwells continued on the trip, which was the experience of a lifetime with
the old communist government covering up the extent of the disaster and
the populace fearfully continuing their daily life as the old Soviet empire
began to disassemble. To avoid travel near Chernobyl the government
redirected the group to Volgograd (old Stalingrad) and Yalta, both at that
time normally off limits to most westerners. Later back in Moscow, Tim
bluffed his way into Lenin’s tomb which was also off limits at that time.
Much involved in local civic affairs, Tim was a former Tuscarora School
Board member and received a Pa. Schools Board Association award for
outstanding service to public education. He was a member of the design
committee for the Franklin County Heritage Center in Chambersburg, a
member of the county’s Civil War Trails initiative, and member and past
director of the Mercersburg Historical Society. He was a Director on the
Letterkenny Industrial Development Authority for 17 years. In 2008, he
received the Harriet Lane Award, given annually by the Mercersburg
Borough Council for outstanding community service in the arts, history and
child welfare.
Rockwell was a past member of the Fort Loudon Ruritan and Mercersburg
Rotary. His national organizations included the American Studies
Association, the Society for Historical Archaeology, and the Arctic Institute
of North America.
As a member of both the United Church of Christ in Fort Loudon and in
Mercersburg, he served in numerous offices but eventually became
disillusioned by church politics and withdrew from active attendance but not
in faith or support.
He is survived by his wife of 60 years, with whom he had two wonderful
daughters: Shawn M. Hardy, who with husband Jim Hardy lives in Welsh
Run, and Beth J. Willander, mother of granddaughters Electa and Anika
Willander, who lives in Mercersburg with husband Sean Willander. He had
a particular joy in seeing his granddaughters, Electa and Anika, grow into
spirited womanhood.
Tim was preceded in death by his parents Ray and Bernice (Campbell)
Rockwell and infant brother, Brent.
A Celebration of Life service will be held at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, in the
Mercersburg Academy Chapel. A time of fellowship and sharing of
memories will follow the service on the patio of the Burgin Center.
The family requests the omission of flowers. Memorial donations in his
name may be made to the Fendrick Library, 20 N. Main St., or TWEP, P.O.
Box 97, both of Mercersburg, PA 17236 or to Cumberland Valley Animal
Shelter, 5051 Letterkenny Road West, Chambersburg PA 17201-8706.