Alumni Spotlight – Glenn Geiple ‘72

The Class of 1972 was the last to have gone through all six years at Susquehannock, although it’s “claim to fame” runs far deeper, Glenn Geiple being part of that claim. The District’s student population had grown to the point that a new middle school was necessary, and Southern Middle, housing grades six to eight, had begun receiving students several years earlier. Glenn spent the first six years of his education at Glen Rock Elementary School (now closed), and went directly to SHS.

While there, he was active in Student Council, serving as its president in his senior year. He fondly recalls the Fun Fair and running the concession stand at football games, both major fundraising activities for Student Council at that time. Under Glenn’s leadership, his class was actively involved in financing the construction of the front walls at the main campus entrance as a graduation project.

In addition to his involvement in Student Council, Glenn was also an active member of AFS, the school’s foreign student exchange club. He was also a member of the mixed chorus and worked on stage crew for plays and musicals where his area of expertise was lighting. Glenn recalls changing lights and gels on an A-frame ladder and focusing spotlights from the infamous “catwalk” above the old auditorium (now the location of the cafeteria). “The kind of thing you couldn’t get away with this these days,” he recalled.

He was also responsible for changing the sign in front of the school from his freshman year on, although he admits, “I did it mostly to get out of class.”

Outside of school, he worked in a family business, Geiple’s Furniture Store, beginning in eighth grade. But it was another family business, Geiple’s Funeral Home, that established his career path. “I remember telling my first grade teacher I wanted to be a funeral director when I grew up,” he said.

When he graduated from Susquehannock in 1972, he attended Brandywine College – now a part of Widener University – followed by a degree from Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science in 1975. From there, it was into the funeral home full-time, taking it over from his father in 1990.

As an individual, he is as much a part of the community as is his family name. He is active in the Zion Lutheran Church, in Glen Rock, and has served as council vice-president. He is a member of the Glen Rock 150th Anniversary Committee, a past president of Southern York County Rotary, and a former director of the Glen Rock State Bank Board.

And of great importance to the school district is his engagement with the Southern York County School District Foundation, where he has been a continuing member of the board of directors since 2002, most of that time as president. He joked, “I spend more time at school and work harder there now than when I was a student.” Under Glenn’s leadership, the Foundation has grown from an organization with $10,000 in annual revenue to one with over $150,000 and an endowment approaching $400,000. Its scholarship operation distributed more than $75,000 in 2009. Glenn is also active on the Susquehannock High School Alumni Council, the organization that spearheaded a fund drive that financed the Alumni Field House Project – Phase I.

And he has contributed to the proud Susquehannock tradition in many other ways, most significantly in the form of his children, Joshua (Class of 1999) and Eric (Class of 2001).

Thanks to Glenn Geiple, Class of 1972, for making us Warrior Proud.