Remembering a mentor

Today is the 42nd anniversary of the death of Alice Plecker, my very first Recreation and Parks boss and mentor.

Alice hired me in the fall of 1975 to run after-school and evening roller skating programs at Chase and Seneca Elementary schools in eastern Baltimore County.

She turned 25 that fall and was three years out of Penn State, where she earned her degree in Recreation and Parks Administration.

Alice Calinski Plecker, as pictured in Penn State's yearbook, La Vie 1972.

Alice took me under her wing and is the reason I ultimately changed my major from English and theater arts to rec and parks.

I looked up to her and admired the way she related to kids in the neighborhood. She was an accomplished golfer and had recently married a local golf pro. She always had clubs in the trunk of her car and was forever huddled with kids on Seneca's athletic fields, teaching them the finer points of driving and putting. I still remain grateful for the lessons I got from her.

As a boss, Alice was fun, funny, supportive and appreciative. She always had a kind word to say to me and complimented me on how I interacted with the kids and the extra time I put in to plan special events and themed nights.

She knew most of the kids by name and they loved her as much as she loved them.

Alice's 25th birthday in November 1975 would be her last. On April 13, 1976, her life was tragically cut short when, while driving home from the rec council's annual carnival, her car was hit head-on by an under-age drunken driver.

I knew Alice for less than a year, but she made a tremendous impression on me and I know there are countless "kids" from that neighborhood who also still remember her, still think about her and certainly appreciate the gift she was to all of us.