Name: Al Hagdorn

Tenure: 23 years

Positions Held at GA: General Maintenance

Why Al Stayed:

The opportunity to work in such a friendly environment kept Al at GA for over twenty-three years.

Lasting Memories:

• The warm, friendly relationships that developed with the GA crew team and their families while cheering them on to victory. "Team members, coaches, and family members always made me feel welcome and comfortable. Good food, good conversation, and good times. What more could I ask for?"
• Shuttling students back and forth from the old tennis courts across the rutted, gravel parking lot to the main campus and decorating the van for special holidays like Halloween and St. Patrick's Day.
• While working in the Child Care Center, discovering one day that a little two-year-old could wield his screwdriver with almost adult dexterity;
• Receiving a request from Barbara Buckley to please come over to the Lower School to remove the rabbit's head from the playground field. (Who would ever forget that?!)

Al is thankful for:

Steady employment and satisfying work

Al's gifts to the community:

• Like the jack-of-all-trades he is, willingly and skillfully tackling numerous and sundry tasks across the entire campus;
• Patiently "relamping" the campus one bulb at a time;
• Magically morphing school spaces to serve myriad purposes;

What Rich Schellhas Will Remember Most about Al:

Al is one of the happiest, most pleasant people you meet on the GA campus. Wherever you run into him and whatever hour of the day, Al gives you a huge smile and a booming greeting. He truly shines when he encounters our tiniest Patriots across campus, and he is so clearly such a good guy who has found his way into the heart of everyone who knows him.

Memorable Quote:

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

Next Page of Life:

While caring for his ninety-six year old aunt fills much of Al's time, he hopes to visit Baltimore Harbor and Niagara Falls.

What Al Will Miss Most:

Plain and simple - the students!

CLICK HERE to share a memory with Al

CLICK HERE to make a gift to the Annual Fund in honor of Al

From the email to the GA Community:

Over the years, GA has built some pretty impressive buildings that stand proudly on our campus announcing to everyone, "Now this is a school!" The striking stone façade speaks to the greatness of the school, but inside, the many paintings, pictures, bookshelves, and bright lights provide the personal touch and the warmth we feel when we enter the space. For over twenty-three years, valued member of the GA maintenance team, Al Hagdorn has traveled the entire school, hanging the paintings and pictures that grace the walls of our administrative offices, classrooms in all three divisions, and especially the Child Care Center, home to our youngest Patriots. Need another gate strategically placed? Call Al. The gate will be straight. Find yourself sitting in an unexpectedly dimming classroom? Call Al. Lights will be lit.

Those of you who live and work at GA know that we use our beautiful spaces for myriad purposes. A Lower School lunchroom transforms into a band rehearsal hall. An assembly space becomes an after school play area. All as if by magic. Well, I write today to announce the magician's retirement as of October 31, 2017. Al Hagdorn is looking happily forward to a new life including mountain biking and surf fishing the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Please join me in thanking Al for his faithful service to Germantown Academy and for the many ways in which his efforts have warmed and beautified our school. We wish you many, many happy years of retirement, Al. - Maggie McVeigh, Director of Professional Development