Verbeck Memorial Service 2006

Scripture sentence (Psalm 127:1)
If the Lord does not build the house, then in vain do the builders labor
In vain does the watchman stand guard if the Lord is not the source of help.

Greetings and Welcome
We are gathered here today to remember and to give thanks for those who labored and built and stood guard over the ideals of service to country and community. We honor those who went before us and modeled lives of service and sacrifice. We are here today to acknowledge the debt we owe to them, and the responsibility we have to carry on the tradition and the legacy of those we remember today. We are thankful for the privilege we have to gather in this place, where we have such wonderful memories of this school that shaped the minds and spirits and hearts of thousands of young men throughout its 100 years of service. But we would do them a disservice if we lost ourselves in the past and found ourselves so filled with longing for that which was that we cannot fully embrace that which is, and reach forward for that which is yet to be.

In the words of hymnwriter Jane Marshall:

Give thanks for the past, for those who had vision
Who planted and watered so dreams might come true
Give thanks for the now, for study, for worship,
For mission that bids us turn payer into deed.
Give thanks for tomorrow, full of surprises,
For knowing whatever tomorrow may bring
The Word is our promise, always, forever
We rest in God’s keeping and live in God’s love.

Those of us gathered today are more inclined to give thanks for the past, for it is that part of us that belongs to the Manlius School, and its successor, Manlius-Pebble Hill. But let us also be profoundly grateful that the legacy of study and learning and character-building established in this place continues to shape and send forth well-educated and well-grounded citizens of the world. And when you spend time on the DeWitt campus later today, you can also celebrate a future yet to be, as you see the grand plan to expand the campus with new and better facilities to foster liberal arts learning in all of its dimensions. Manlius Old Boys, faculty and staff will always be connected to that expectant future, through the proud history and heritage of the Manlius School.

This is holy ground, this place where we now stand…Once a beautiful Japanese garden, it is the final resting place for several members of the Verbeck family who shaped the Manlius School, and gave so much to the thousands of young men who in turn were shaped by their time here in this place. Gen. William Verbeck, a true Renaissance man…born in Nagasaki, lifelong lover and student of Japanese history and culture, citizen of the world, a soldier and a statesman, a teacher, a father figure…The stone tablet is inscribed “He rests here where he lived among the boys he loved.” And Katharine Jordan Verbeck, who served as First Lady of the Manlius School for many years, with grace and elegance ; their son Guido Fridolin Verbeck, who took up the mantle of his parents’ leadership and continued to oversee a great school that trained the country’s leaders; along with his life partner, Muriel Holcomb Verbeck. We honor and give thanks for these four, whose words and deeds, indeed whose very lives, provided inspiration, grace and instruction to the thousands of young men whose lives they touched.

Today, we also honor and remember another generation of the Verbeck family, the children of Guido and Muriel – Guido Jr., Sam, Hugh, Edith and Annah – who continued their family’s tradition of duty, honor and service…The Verbeck family continues its connection to Manlius-Pebble Hill School even today. For many generations, they have cared about, and been committed to, the legacy of the Manlius School, now Manlius-Pebble Hill.

As you look at these stone tables of remembrance, note that between the dates of birth and death inscribed on each there is a simple dash, symbolizing an entire lifespan. We cannot control the nature of our birth and death – but each one of us can control the nature and contents of that dash that lies between those moments, by how we live out the span of our lives. Truly each of the Verbecks lived their “dash” with grace and dignity, with compassion and courage. And today, the Verbeck family continues to be a part of the legacy their family created and shaped – now called Manlius-Pebble Hill school, and housed in a different location, but no less their living legacy as it continues to teach and train citizens of the world and leaders for today and tomorrow.

And we remember so many others who, in that same tradition of service and leadership, shared their lives and their talents with the boys of the Manlius School, living their “dash” – those years between birth and death – as examples of integrity, personal courage, and affection, mentoring, coaching, teaching, caring about the young lives in their charge…Let us then pause for a moment to speak the names of teachers, coaches, officers, fellow students, and others we remember and honor today, and to be thankful they included us in that “dash” in their lives…(names spoken, including Dave Edwards & Whitey Anderson… my father, band director Dave Bahner…Lee Sedgwick, Charlie Parsons & good old Mac the barber…Bernie Shaw, Col. MacCready, Dr. Truman Wilcox.) To paraphrase a sentence from Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, “It is for us the living, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who TAUGHT here have thus far so nobly advanced.”

Let us pray…(Prayer: On the Anniversary of A Death, adapted from the Jewish Memorial Prayer)
Ever-living God, this day revives in us memories of loved ones who are no more.
What happiness we shared when they walked among us.
What joy we had when, loving and loved, we shared our lives together.
Their memory is a blessing forever.
Many have been gone for many years, and yet we still remember and honor them.
The links of life are broken, but the links of love and remembrance cannot break.
Their souls are bound up in ours forever.
We see them now through the eyes of memory, their faults forgiven,
Their virtues grown larger. So does goodness live and weakness fade from sight.
We remember them with gratitude, and bless their names.
Their memory is a blessing forever.
We remember those gone before us, who cared for us and taught us and inspired us.
May we prove worthy of carrying the mantle they have bestowed upon us,
For now this task is ours.
Their souls are bound up in ours forever.
We give you thanks that they now dwell with You, a great cloud of witnesses.
May they surround us with their blessings, and encourage our hearts as we carry on
That same calling to be men and women of honor, integrity and dignity.
So may we, their living legacy, honor and bless their memory forever. Amen.

For some of you, this may be the first time you have returned to this campus since you left Manlius. Others of you have been back before, so are not quite as surprised at what you see, No, it’s not the same - Some of it is as you remember – some of the original buildings are still standing, and still in use. The developers who transformed this former campus into a place for families to live and grow kept many of the buildings and adapted them to new uses. We can be grateful that there are still visual connections in this place to the memories we made here, and invite those memories to take us back to that time in our lives when we were young and the world beckoned us forward…But it’s just not the same, and it never will return to what it was.

I grew up on this campus…so my life was also touched and shaped by many of those same outstanding teachers, coaches, and other members of the Manlius School staff and administration. I went to hundreds if not thousands of Sunday parades…I ate many meals in the dining hall in my childhood years. Some of my dad’s students babysat for my younger sister and me. We lived in campus housing. My dad began teaching here in 1956, and thought he would spend the rest of his life teaching here in this place he loved. It was a difficult and painful time when the school began to struggle in the 1960’s, experiencing serious financial challenges and seeing enrollment drop off as our country struggled with how to understand and respond to a war that didn’t follow the rules we had come to expect. Vietnam was a time of great confusion and pain for this country, much of it still yet unresolved today, although we have made some progress in healing and restoration. But in the midst of the nation’s self-searching and uncertainty about the rightness of our cause…in questioning what ends justified what means…the Manlius School closed, merging with a “civilian school” with no need of military instruction, or a marching band. So my father lost his job, along with many others, and the school was decommissioned as a military prep school. In a very real way, and with great irony, this school, which had trained soldiers for so many battlefields in Europe and Russia and Korea and Southeast Asia – itself became a casualty of an unpopular war, one which did not unite the country in patriotic sacrifice, but rather generated new questions and soul-searching for a new self-definition.

It was a time of ending…and the Manlius School could simply have shut down in defeat. But instead, it chose to adapt and adjust, not to disappear. Like its emblem, the Phoenix, that mythical bird which rises reborn from the ashes of a consuming fire, the Manlius School went through a type of death before experiencing a new life. Reborn as Manlius-Pebble Hill School in 1970, and relocated to the DeWitt campus by 1973, the Manlius School underwent a transformation. Let us not make the mistake of thinking that because the school is no longer housed in the same buildings, that it has died. The essential understanding of our Christian faith teaches us that transformation, and relocation - to a new and far, far better place - follows what appears to be death. It is only the end of that which was – and always the beginning of that which is, and is to come. As you spend time on the DeWitt campus today, notice the visual reminders of the Manlius part of Manlius-Pebble Hill displayed there as reminders of the legacy and history of this school, now woven into the fabric of Pebble Hill Day School, to form a new creation, in which old things have passed away, yes – but in which all things have become new. Manlius-Pebble Hill’s self-definition proclaims, “In a culture increasingly obsessed with today, Manlius-Pebble Hill, with roots firmly planted in the community, relies on the wisdom and strength of the past to give its students the finest education possible for the future.”

Manlius-Pebble Hill adopted the vision of The Manlius School’s founder, Bishop Huntington. His vision for a school was of one that would shape lives that were, and I quote, “fit and ready for all spots and crises, prompt and busy in affairs, gentle in company, sharp in a jury-box, tenacious in the town-meeting, unseducible in a crowd, tender at a sickbed, not likely to jump into the first boat at a shipwreck, affectionate and respectful at home, obliging in a traveling party, shrewd and just in the market place, reverent and punctual at church, and not going about, in the words of Robert Hall, ‘with an air of perpetual apology for the unpardonable presumption of being in the world’, nor yet forever supplicating the world’s special consideration…brave in action, patient in suffering, believing and cheerful everywhere, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. This is (what) our age and our country are asking of its educators – young men (and now also young women!) well-built and vital, manifold and harmonious, full of wisdom, full of energy, full of faith…”

This was Bishop Huntington’s statement of his vision for The Manlius School – in 1869. This is Manlius-Pebble Hill, in 2006. You who were graduates of the Manlius School should take great pride in knowing that the legacy that was the Manlius School continues today, in the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the next generations. Manlius-Pebble Hill continues to answer the call of this age, and of our country still…Its graduates are indeed “well-built and vital, manifold and harmonious, full of wisdom, full of energy, full of faith…” The Manlius School has given them roots - Manlius-Pebble Hill School has given them wings. You should be very proud to say “I’m from the Manlius School – now Manlius-Pebble Hill.” The Phoenix rises…

Let us pray, in the words of the Manlius Cadet prayer…

Almighty God our Father, who has called us to be Thy faithful soldiers and servants to our life’s end, help us always to draw near to Thee with gladness and sincerity. Regard, we beseech Thee, the Manlius School – now Manlius-Pebble Hill School – with Thy gracious favor. Sanctify with Thy presence all our actions and intentions. Bless the times of our learning, and of our play, that we may grow in wisdom, in strength, and in rectitude. Encourage us in our efforts to live above the common level, to scorn compromise with vice and injustice, and to be loyal to that which is noble. Guard us against flippancy and irreverence towards the sacred things in life. Enable us so to live that honor and purity may never be tarnished by any word or deed of ours, and that we may never forget the duty we owe to our country, our fellows, and to Thee, our God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

The sounding of Taps is a time-honored tradition at times of remembrance like this. It speaks of the setting sun, and invites peaceful rest. But the final stanza is one of praise and thanksgiving for the constant presence and guidance of God over every step of our journey on earth – as we live out our “dash,” may we fulfill those just-spoken words of the Manlius cadet prayer, and be proud of who we are as former students, faculty and staff of the Manlius School – part of the Manlius-Pebble Hill family.

Benediction

Day is done, gone the sun
From the lakes, from the hills, from the skies
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.

Go to sleep, peaceful sleep
May the soldier and sailor God keep.
On the land, or the deep
Safe in sleep.

Thanks and praise for our days
'Neath the sun, ‘neath the stars, ‘neath the sky
As we go, this we know
God is nigh.

The sounding of Taps