Necrology

Mark David Hagerman '50

Dec. 22, 1928-Jul. 30, 2007

Mark David Hagerman ’50, who spent a 31-year career in private school education, was born on December 22, 1928, in Buffalo, NY. A son of Mark C. and Alice Raiford Hagermen, he grew up on his parents’ dairy farm near Towanda in northern Pennsyl­vania, and received his primary education in a rural two-room school­house. He came to College Hill in 1946 from Towanda High School and joined the Squires Club. President of the club in his senior year as well as secretary of the Interfraternity Council, he helped cover his expenses as a waiter in Commons, where he also played piano duets with classmate Bob Markel, accompanying group sing-alongs after supper. With his “effusive supply of nervous energy,” in the words of The Hamiltonian, he also lent his thespian talents to the title role in the Charlatans’ production of Moliere’s Le Malade Imaginaire. He was graduated in 1950 with honors in German.

Mark Hagerman intended to take graduate courses in German and prepare for a teaching career when, soon after he left the Hill, the Korean conflict broke out. He forestalled the draft by joining the U.S. Army and signing up for Officer Candidate School. As a second lieutenant, he served until 1953, when he was stationed in Korea during the final stages of the war. In 1958, after a stint of teaching at his old high school in Towanda and employment as a salesman, he joined the faculty of the newly formed middle school of Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, PA, where he became head of the English department. At the time, Alan McMillen ’39 was the school’s headmaster.

Mark Hagerman remained at Shady Side for 12 years. The recipient of an outstanding teacher award while there, he was administrative assistant to the headmaster when he left in 1970 to help establish the Forsyth County Day School, a new independent school outside of Winston-Salem, NC. With his academic credentials supplemented by an M.A. degree in English from Duquesne University in 1968, he became director of Forsyth’s lower school and later its headmaster. He subsequently served as assistant headmaster and principal of the lower school of Charlotte Country Day School in Charlotte, NC, and concluded his career in 1989 at Coastal Academy in Myrtle Beach, SC.

In retirement, Mark Hagerman continued to reside in Myrtle Beach with his wife, the former Jean Ford, whom he had married in 1960. There he helped launch a homeowners association, which he served for five years as president, and was active in Trinity Episcopal Church as a member of its vestry and its adult choir. He also served as the church’s music librarian and edited its monthly newsletter. Always possessed of an upbeat attitude toward life, despite its occasional disappointments, he took pleasure in reading as well as music, and in walking along the beach.

Mark D. Hagerman died on July 30, 2007, at his home in Myrtle Beach, of pancreatic cancer. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his adopted daughter, Dorothy Ann Hagerman.

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