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Veteran educator publishes book about Westminster College
By DENISE Dick
NEW WILMINGTON, PA.
First it was Poland and then Westminster College, both for Robert Zorn the educator and the publisher.
Zorn, a Westminster alumnus and director of its graduate school, published “Westminster College Through Time.” The book includes photographs culled from the college’s archives of the people, activities and places at the school.
Those photos are laid out in the book alongside color photographs that show those activities and places today.
In 2010, Zorn published a pictorial history of Poland with the Poland Historical Society. He lives in the township and retired in 2012 after more than 30 years as schools superintendent.
“I got an email from the publisher, asking if I wanted to do another book on Poland,” Zorn said.
The pictorial followed three hardback volumes on the community, so Zorn wasn’t interested in a fifth.
“There’s only been four books on Westminster in its history,” he said.
The college was founded in 1852.
He told the company he’d do another book under two conditions. First, it would be on Westminster, and second, all of the proceeds/royalties would go to the college’s alumni association.
The company agreed.
For the Poland book, all of the money from the book went to the Poland Historical Society.
“My wife tells me I have to stop writing these books where the money goes to other people,” Zorn joked.
He said he doesn’t believe it’s appropriate to profit from photographs taken by someone else.
“When the first royalty check from the presale came in — it was $289 — the people in the office asked me what to do with it,” Zorn said.
He told them it had to go to the alumni association.
“That made me feel good,” Zorn said, adding that he believes it’s important to give back.
The book is available at the Westminster Book Store and at Barnes and Noble as well as online at Amazon.com and at www.arcadiapublishing.com.
Westminster, for Zorn, embodies two things he cherishes: education and family.
“I had to pay my own way through college, so when I got my very first job, I set up a trust fund for the education of my children and grandchildren,” he said.
Because his wife worked full time at Youngstown State University, the couple’s two children earned their educations at that university tuition-free.
He then reserved the trust fund for his five grandchildren.
“I told them, ‘I’d like you to go to Westminster,’ because that’s where I wanted to go,” he said. “I also told them, ‘It’s the Golden Rule: My gold, so I rule.’”
All but one took him up on it. His grandsons Tyler Kelley and Sam Becherer graduated in 2010 and 2012, respectively. Grandson Nathan Kelley will graduate this year, and granddaughter Kate Becherer is a junior at the school.
Zorn included a photograph featuring each of those grandchildren in the book. His granddaughter’s student ID is pictured with a student ID from years ago, and one grandson sits in the front row in a shot of the football team.
Leigh Kelley, another granddaughter and the rebel, opted for Mount Union College instead of Westminster. She’s not absent from the book, though.
Zorn paid her $10 per hour out of his pocket to be his research assistant for the book. Grandfather and granddaughter spent about three to four hours a few days a week, combing through the college’s files, yearbooks and student newspapers to find photographs and identify when they were taken.
He also charged her with shooting new photographs to match the old. The angle must be the same. If it didn’t meet Zorn’s standards, he made her try again.
Now Kelley has a challenge for Westminster students, including her brother and cousin.
“She wants to challenge them to a trivia contest about Westminster,” Zorn said.