The Keystone Central Foundation Alumni & Friends
Hall of Fame Class of 2024
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Alison Bechdel
B.E.N, Class of 1978
For Alison Bechdel (BEN, Class of 1978), creativity has always run in the family. Born to English teacher parents in Beech Creek, Alison’s mother, Helen Augusta, would spend time over the summer acting at Millbrook Playhouse. Her dad, Bruce Bechdel, also a part-time funeral director, had a flair for renovations, decorating, and playing the piano.
Alison’s time growing up in her home just down the street from the funeral parlor in Beech Creek served as the backdrop for what would later become her highly-successful graphic novel “Fun Home.” After graduating from BEN, Alison attended Bard’s College at Simon’s Rock in 1979 and obtained her BA with a double major in studio art and art history from Oberlin College in 1981.
Shortly after graduation in 1983, Alison began her career as an American cartoonist with her long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. It became a constant in many gay and alternative newspapers across the United States for twenty-five years.
In 2006, Bechdel published her graphic novel, “Fun Home.” Named after what Alison and her siblings called the funeral home growing up, this memoir focused on the complex relationship between Alison (who came out to her parents as a lesbian at 19) and her father Bruce who was a closeted gay man living in rural Pennsylvania. The book came to critical and commercial success and even spent several weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List.
In 2015 an adaptation of the novel started its Broadway run. It is considered the first main stream musical about a young lesbian. In its opening season, the show received twelve nominations for the 69th Annual Tony Awards and won the Tony for the Best Musical of 2015. Fun Home has been performed around the world – including at our very own Millbrook Playhouse (where Alison was in attendance) in 2017.
Since Alison’s success with Fun Home, she has published two other graphic memoirs, Are You My Mother? in 2014 and The Secret to Superhuman Strength in 2021. She speaks at major colleges and universities and has been awarded the MacArthur Genius Award in 2014.
Martha Sykes
Bucktail, Class of 1969
Every family and every community has one person who is the glue that keeps so much together. For the Bucktail school community, Renovo and beyond, Martha Sykes (Bucktail Class of 1969) is that glue in every sense of the word.
After graduating from Bucktail High School in 1969 and Lock Haven University in 1973, Martha has dedicated her life to education. She retired in 2006 after 33 years as a special education teacher at Renovo Elementary. Today, 18 years after her retirement, she continues to substitute for Keystone Central School District. She is a friendly stalwart for the students, faculty, and parents past and present in the Renovo schools. Martha goes above and beyond regular classroom duties to orchestrate memorable senior class experiences like the mother-daughter tea and father-son breakfasts. Martha is also known to rarely miss a sporting event where her local notoriety makes it nearly impossible for anyone to say “NO” to Martha when she is selling 50/50 tickets!
Beyond the school grounds, Martha is engrained in so many aspects of her hometown and the surrounding communities. She serves on the board of directors for the Western Clinton County Recreation Center, the Renovo Library, and the Bucktail Medical Center. She modestly comments she is “active” with the Greater Renovo Area Heritage Park, but according to those who have worked with her on this project, she has and remains instrumental in its success. From volunteering for fundraising events, to recording / moderating a series of podcasts to highlight the rich history and culture of the Renovo area, Martha is always willing to lend her time and talents.
She is also a certified lay speaker for the United Methodist Church. In this role, she travels to many different churches and officiates countless funerals where she has offered comfort to and has found comfort in the wonderful families she has met. She serves as a Treasurer for the Council of Churches as well as the Chapman Township Fire Company.
Martha is a proud mom of a daughter, Lisa and a son, Michael, and her daughter-in-law Kristin. Her two grandsons make her life truly complete.
When Martha isn’t volunteering at a special needs church camp every summer or out in her community that she loves so much, she considers her favorite pastimes writing her weekly column for The Record, playing pickleball, and line dancing.
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Dr. Sue Kodad-Rex
B.E.N., Class of 1968
How do you work to solve the issue of teacher recruitment and retention in rural public schools?
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How do you pull together local leaders, legislators, industries, banks, non-profits, and others in the school community to work collaboratively on a solution?
For Fairfield County School District’s Education Foundation in Winnsboro, South Carolina, the answer is simple. Find an innovative and passionate leader like Dr. Sue Rex, a Bald Eagle Nittany Class of 1968 graduate, to lead the way.
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Later this summer South Carolina's first residential teacher community will officially open. The Fairfield Teacher Community will provide affordable new construction housing close to schoolgrounds. It will offer a collaborative environment to mentor and support teachers throughout the district. The program is on track to serve as a model for other communities who are working to reduce the unmet needs of educators, especially those who are new to the profession.
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Dr. Sue Rex has always wanted to be a teacher and has truly dedicated her career to the profession. She has her BS in Education from Lock Haven University, her MS from Bloomsburg, and a doctorate from the University of South Carolina in Special Education/Administration. She retired in 2022 as an Emeritus Professor from Winthrop University, South Carolina where she taught at the Richard W. Riley College of Education.
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Over her career she has authored 15 books for elementary and middle school children, parents, and counselors dealing with a variety of social issues affecting children today. She has received many awards and accolades including President George Bush Sr.’s Point of Light Award for Public Service in 1992, The South Carolina Counselors’ Humanitarian Award in 1998, and the South Carolina Women in Leadership Award in 2023.
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Dr. Sue Rex is married to Dr. James Rex, former dean of education at Winthrop University and the State Superintendent of Education for South Carolina. Together they opened the James and Susan Rex Institute for Educational Renewal and Partnership in 2010. The Rex Institute at Winthrop University works with school districts across the state to promote both collaboration and innovation. Through the Institute, Dr. Sue Rex initiated “Leading the Way,” a statewide annual recognition for teacher mentors in the public schools, which helps early career classroom teachers succeed and remain in teaching.
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Dr. Sue Rex has been involved with many boards and organizations. She was elected for two terms to the Winthrop University Board of Trustees by the South Carolina legislature. She was board chair from 2008-2016 to the South Carolina Campaign to prevent Teen Pregnancy. Currently she is the Chair of the Fairfield County School District Education Foundation and serves as Secretary for the Winthrop University Foundation. She is also one of 100 Founding Members of the organization South Carolina Women Lead. Dr. Sue Rex lives in Fairfield County, SC with her husband. She has four children and ten grandchildren.
Judy Sensenbrenner's path to becoming a physician started with a casual conversation at the old Mill Hall High School, on Fishing Creek, when she was in 7th grade. A student teacher from Lock Haven State College asked her if she would play Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on the piano for him during lunch time, and afterward asked what she planned to study after high school. Judy replied, "I will probably be a nurse, like my mother.”; The student teacher replied, “I have seen your grades. You should be a doctor!” Judy had never heard of a woman doctor, and knew her family would have to sacrifice for tuition even locally. The student teacher replied, “With your grades you could get a scholarship!” That young man enabled Judy to visualize an exciting path for
her future. What a wonderful example of the ability of teachers to mold and encourage
their students!
Judy was an intense student and a fine musician. She sang, played clarinet in the band
as well as piano and organ - often for school events, such as baccalaureate, and
graduation. She learned to multitask - doing her homework watching TV. She
participated in the first Science Fairs held by Penn State and Bucknell University after
the push for science education in high schools across our country that resulted after
Russia’s 1957 launching of Sputnik. Bald Eagle-Nittany math teacher Jess Long was
her most supportive and most challenging teacher. She was the only girl in his higher
math classes and graduated as BEN’s valedictorian in 1959.
Judy continued her education close to home at Bucknell University in Lewisburg
majoring in biology. She excelled and qualified for a special program for two summers in
genetic research at Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine. It was there that she
learned to sail. (She is now a licensed boat captain for the Chesapeake Bay.) Some
Bucknell years were spent studying and working in the usual biology tasks for the
extra funds always needed for the college expenses not covered by scholarships. In
1963 Judy graduated second in her class at Bucknell with a BS in biology, earned
membership in the Phi Beta Kappa and was educated debt free.
The next year, Judy entered Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore
MD with 73 students, of which only 5 were females and received her MD degree in
1967. Judy had her internship and residency at the Hopkins affiliated, Baltimore City
Hospital and then returned to Johns Hopkins Hospital for a two year fellowship in
pediatric genetics. She is the author or co-author of many medical publications,
including the first description of a rare genetic condition with multiple anomalies in two
young siblings, now known as Sensenbrenner Syndrome. At that time the human
genome had not been sequenced, but it is now understood to be due to changes of at
least two different recessive genes, that result in skeletal, kidney, brain and growth
abnormalities.
Judy married Lyle Sensenbrenner, MD, an Associate Professor of Medicine and
Oncology at Hopkins on July 6, 1966, who was involved some of the earliest unrelated
bone marrow transplantations, and was a founding member of the International Society
of Experimental Hematology, which began their life of world travel as he helped to
disseminate the results of advances in medicine to other nations around the globe. He
elucidated that aplastic anemic was an autoimmune phenomenon, discovering the first
cure with cytoxan, which is still the current therapy for that disease. During that time,
Judy sang with the Baltimore Symphony Chorus for 12 years, even for one production
at Carnegie Hall in New York City. She provided pediatric care for Baltimore City and
County Health Departments, as well as Harford County MD.
They moved to Detroit, Michigan, when Lyle was recruited to start Michigan’s first
unrelated bone marrow transplantation program at Wayne State University. Judy
obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Health at the University of Michigan, and worked
with architects at Wayne State for several years helping to develop the physical plans
for their new Cancer Center.
Judy was recruited back to Maryland for the last 16 years of her career to head the
Wicomico County Health Department in Salisbury, on the lower eastern shore of
Maryland, a busy job with about 250 employees in many departments: Environmental
Health, Maternal and Child Health, Family Planning, Communicable Disease, Mental
Health, Addictions, Dental, Infectious Diseases, Emergency Preparedness, Preventive
Health, Medical Assistance Transportation, which required many partnerships with other
community organizations such as the schools, colleges, businesses and prisons. Lyle
was recruited back to Baltimore to open the University of Maryland’s Stem Cell
Transplant Center, and then joined Judy in Salisbury to join the Oncology Program for a
few years before their joint retirement from medical practice, moving to Arnold, MD
across the Severn river from Annapolis, where they continued to enjoy their lifelong
passion of traveling and sailing/boating. Their oldest son, Ted, is Director of
Development with the Boat US Foundation and the youngest son, Eric, is Head of
Global Tax Group at Skadden, Arps Law Firm in Washington, DC. They have three 17
yr old granddaughters, who also have their captain’s licenses, and are athletes and
scholars and one 13 yr. old grandson, who loves music, computers and basketball.
Judith (Laubscher) Sensenbrenner
B.E.N., Class of 1959
Michael K. Hanna, Sr.
LHHS Class of 1971
Retired PA State Representative Michael K. Hanna, Sr (Lock Haven High School Class of 1971) has always understood duty and service to Clinton County – a trait he credits learning from his parents and grandparents who were always active in our community and church, setting a strong foundation of service for generations of the Hanna family. ( Hanna ancestry in Clinton County can be traced to 1763).
Politics wasn’t always in the cards for Hanna. He received his BA from Lock Haven University in 1977 and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh in 1980 and then worked as an attorney and partner in Williamson, Coploff & Hanna and subsequently with the firm of Snowiss, Steinberg and Faulkner. He also worked as solicitor for Woodward Township and Beech Creek Borough. He credits his
father’s work as a Lock Haven City Councilman and helping with his predecessor, Russell Letterman’s campaign with inspiring him to enter politics. In 1990, Hanna won his first term to the PA State House of Representatives for the 76th district. He represented the district that included Clinton, parts of Centre, Clearfield and Lycoming counties for the next 28 years until his retirement in December 2018.
Although he was a democrat who repeatedly won re-election in a heavily republican district, Mike Hanna had a reputation for working across party lines and valuing bipartisanship among colleagues. This was especially true for those with shared interests in the areas he championed most – such as education, natural resources, tourism, and economics. He has always had the attitude in politics and in life that listening is important and everyone needs to work together to get things done. It’s probably because of this philosophy that three pieces of legislation he is most proud of are the 2013 $2.3 billion Infrastructure and Transportation Bill, Dog Law and Food Safety Law – all of which passed with a bipartisan majority.
During his time in Harrisburg, Hanna served 4 years as Chairman of the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, the PA State System of Higher Education Governing Board, and as a member of the House Bipartisan Management Committee. He also served in the leadership role as the Minority Whip, which is the second highest position in the Democratic Caucus for the State House of Representatives.
Hanna has always worked to sponsor and support key legislation as well as local projects that improve the lives of people living in rural PA. His campaigns focused heavily on economics and education. He worked tirelessly to bring quality jobs to the area with First Quality and is considered a strong advocate for education in his district which includes Lock Haven University and Penn State. He also understands
the unique value our state forests and natural resources play in the area’s tourism industry.
Hanna, his wife Susan, children and grandchildren still call Clinton County “Home”. Representative Hanna is now retired, but is committed to keeping a pulse on the needs and interests of our local residents by actively participating with Holy Spirit Parish, the local Eagles Club, and The Ave 209 Wednesday retirees coffee club.