St. Luke celebration nearing end
JEFFERSON TWP — St. Luke Lutheran School's yearlong 150-year anniversary celebration has sparked a lot of memories, even as the observances come to an end with three days of events June 3 through 5.
Principal Mark Wilt said the school began in 1866 at its present location at Route 356 and Hannahstown Road.
“I believe they first met in the pastor's basement to start,” Wilt said.
Pearl L. Parnell, 98, of Saxonburg, the oldest surviving female alumna, didn't meet in the basement, but in the former schoolhouse.
“There were four in the graduating class. We were in the old one-room school house. There were about 40 in the student body,” said Parnell. Arithmetic and religion were her favorite subjects.
After graduating from St. Luke in 1932, she attended Butler High School where she graduated in 1936.
Asked to name a favorite memory of her school days, Parnell said, “There's so many I wouldn't be able to pick one out.”
After high school Parnell got a job as a nanny in Pittsburgh for five years.
“I enjoyed my years at St. Luke's School. I enjoyed everything,” she said.
Alfred Maurhoff, 98, of 297 Hannahstown Road, is the oldest surviving male alumni. He graduated in 1937 and was in the same confirmation class as Parnell.
His favorite subject was history, he said.
He remembered St. Luke always played an annual baseball game against the orphans from Concordia Home “and they'd always beat us. They were really good. They were a lot of fun.”
A member of St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Maurhoff said “I was born, raised, baptized and confirmed in the church.”
During World War II, he was drafted into the Army, where he was a radio operator for the 334th Engineer Battalion of the 99th Infantry Division.
Maurhoff was in the Battle of the Bulge, the German offensive that lasted from Dec. 16, 1944, through Jan. 25, 1945, in the Ardennes region of Belgium, France and Luxembourg.
“It was the middle of winter and 13 below zero. We were under fire for days,” said Maurhoff.
Mary Jean Montag of Sarver is the longest-serving teacher at St. Luke, teaching kindergarten through the fourth-grade classes and music for all the school from 1956 through 2001.
Montag said, “I was born and raised in Minnesota,” where she graduated from Concordia Lutheran Teachers College in St. Paul, Minn., now Concordia University.
On her first day at St. Luke, she said, “I met my husband, Donald, and stayed. I met him the first day. It was at choir practice. Mr. O.J. Nichol, he was the principal then, he was my mentor.”
She lives on Keck Road, two miles from the school, and raised three girls and a boy during her teaching career.
Montag said, “It has been a blessing to be able to be here that long. It was hard when I retired because that was my way of life for a long time.”
Montag hasn't given up teaching completely. She runs the school's kids club and confirmation classes with the school's eighth-graders. “I've been very blessed by being able to stay active,” she said. “It's just wonderful to see the school continue, and I pray that it will continue for many more years.”The present day student body is 220 in preschool through eighth grade.There are 10 full-time teachers, including Angela Turner, a school alumna who returned as a first-grade teacher.She graduated from St. Luke in 1992, went to Knoch High School, got her college degree at Westminster College and her master's degree in reading at Edinboro University.She was teaching at Moniteau High School, she said, when “I felt called to come back and teach at St. Luke.”“Mr. Wilt asked me to sub when I was off having kids and when I walked in it felt like this is where I was meant to be.” said Turner.Brenda Fett was her fourth-grade teacher, Turner said.“As a student, I remember Mrs. Montag led the nature club. We stayed after school and camped out in the back woods,” said Turner. “And as a teacher it is watching children fall in love with Jesus and wanting to learn about him.”As a first-grade teacher Turner said she marvels at students coming into her classroom perhaps knowing some letters and basic words and leaving being able to read fluently.She also cites St. Luke's commitment to high academic standards and focus on religious belief, pointing out there are special school assemblies each month focused on spiritual discipline and being in God's word.Her two daughters, Amelia, a second-grader; and Annabelle, a fifth-grader, also attend St. Luke.Judye Abernathy, a second-grade teacher is also a St. Luke alumna and has three children, sixth-grader Ashby, first-grader Finn and kindergartner Huckston attending the school. Her father, Duke Ambrose, also went to St. Luke.She went to Knoch, Concordia College in Bronxville, New Yorkand got her master's degree in education at Slippery Rock University.“It's been an absolute blessing. It's exciting. It's great to be here,” Abernathy said.“They were all so encouraging. I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be a teacher all my life, and so they were very encouraging,” she said referring to her teachers at St. Luke.Judye Abernathy had Fett as a teacher also.Brenda Fett of Saxonburg is the longest serving teacher at St. Luke with 34 years, starting in 1982. She teaches fifth and sixth grade.Fett said about having former students on the teaching staff, “Coming back, they are your colleagues. Now you are working with them on a different level.”“I think students remain the same. The changed technology is probably the biggest thing,” she said. “Kids are kids when you get to it. The biggest changes are in technology. But we are rooted and grounded in the word of God, something that never changes.”Fett said the St. Luke's church congregation is “very dedicated to the mission and ministry of this school and outreach to the community.”
