Alumni return to Rabun Gap for Heritage Homecoming Weekend

Linda Means Kelly’56 walks down the aisle with a flower during the Alumni Memorial Chapel on Saturday, June 1. The chapel is a part of Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School’s Heritage Homecoming Weekend and honors alumni and former faculty who have passed within the last year. (RGNS)

More than 100 alumni and alumni families recently returned to campus at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School for Heritage Homecoming.

This year’s group of Heritage Homecoming attendees had the opportunity to enjoy lunch and breakfast in the new Richard and John Woodruff Dining Hall. They also witnessed the unveiling of the Alumni Plaza. The Alumni Plaza offers patio dining on the north end of the building overlooking the international flag plaza and barn in the distance.

The annual Heritage Homecoming celebration kicked off Friday, May 31.  The annual Alumni Memorial Chapel Service was held in the Emily and ErnestWoodruff Chapel on Saturday, June 1. Alumni, faculty, and family members gathered to remember the Rabun Gap alumni and employees who have passed away since last year’s event. Head of School Dr. Anthony Sgro offered the Scripture and Homily.

Those honored were:

• Marlar ML Carpenter, 1940 HS; 1942 JC

• 

  Sue Anderson Vandiver 1942 JC

• Leta Keener Murat 1946

• Mary Carolyn Philyaw Shirley 1947

• Edward Wayne Dickerson 1949

• James C. Hogan 1949

• David Lee Booker 1950

• Carolyn Carnes Brewer 1951

• Robert H. Philp, Jr. 1952

• Mary Jean Hopper Barber 1953

• Ben Hyde  1953

• Larry Milton Keener  1954

• Thomas E. George  1957

• Henry Dwain Ward 1959

• Roger Dale Anderson  1962

• Lillie Stancil Billingsley 1963

• Michael Vincent Geiger 1968

• Laura Yarbrough Barron 1969

• Kathy Long Blalock 1972

• Wallace Gordon Southwell III 1976

• James Rogers  1980

• Tia Rowe 1985

• Ivey Williams Eberly 2003

• Lisa Oppelt 2018

• Robert “Bob” Bennett, Former Staff

• Thomas Poe, Former Faculty

• Dr. Karl Anderson, Former Head of School

A final farewell

Head of School Dr. Anthony Sgro and his family attended this year’s Alumni Luncheon held in the new dining hall and Dr. Sgro shared a final farewell to alumni before departing to take on the Head of School role at Asheville School on July 1.

Jeff Miles will take over as Rabun Gap’s new Head of School on July 1. Miles has worked at Christ School in Arden, North Carolina, for the past 20 years. The Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School Board of Trustees appointed him to succeed Sgro back in December. Miles will become Rabun Gap’s eleventh Head of School.

The Alumni Association scholarship recipient, Petey Webster ‘20 of Franklin, NC, addressed alumni in attendance and shared the impact being a student at Rabun Gap has had on him.

Founded in 1903, Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School is an independent, coeducational college-preparatory school serving students in PreK-12th grade day school and grades 7-12 for boarding school.