Pottsgrove administrator Exley remembered for dedicated service to student-athletes
They’ve been spirited sports rivals for many years. But the Spring-Ford and Pottsgrove school districts are now united in sadness, mourning the loss of athletic director and trainer Paul Exley.
Exley died Wednesday following a battle with cancer. A graduate of SpringFord in the late 1970s, he was 58 years old.
With the news of his passing spreading, prominent individuals from both communities remembered a man described by one person as a “happy, loyal and dedicated gentle giant.”
“We lost a gem in Paul,” Steve Anspach, Pottsgrove High’s Director of Co-Curricular Activities, said. “Paul was heavily involved in Pottsgrove athletics as our assistant middle school athletic director and middle school EMT.”
Gary Derenzo, Pottsgrove’s former AD and current Director of Community
Relations, saw Exley raise up student-athletes for many years.
“In what I believe is the most vulnerable age in a student-athlete’s development,” Derenzo said, “I saw in Paul the combination of truly caring about our kids at that developmental age and also giving them the confidence and guidance to help those students move past the community league mentality to scholastic sports achievement, where everyone earns their place. Additionally, he earned the trust of every coach, both at the middle school and ultimately the high school, because of his dedication well beyond the defined hours of the job.”
Exley is survived by wife Lori and sons Charlton and Kile.
Exley started at Pottsgrove in 2005 as a part-time emergency medical technician (EMT). He continued in that role until 2013, when the middle school’s assistant AD, former teacher Gary Reichenbach, retired.
“I appointed Paul to both positions,” Derenzo said. “Many were very critical in this selection because those two positions were never combined. But what I saw in Paul was a very competent medical presence, combined with an ability to connect with people.”
Anspach lauded Exley for both the demeanor and positive impact he had on the Pottsgrove School District.
“Paul was a Pottsgrove Falcon through and through,” Anspach said. “He had such a positive influence on anyone that he came in contact with. There wasn’t a day that I can remember where he did not have a smile on his face. He truly loved being around student-athletes, coaches and athletics.
“He had such a great influence on our community. Paul was all about ‘paying it forward’ and going above and beyond for athletes anyway possible. I was always amazed how calm he would be regardless of the situation. He had a way to make any situation positive.”
While a Pottsgrove
School District tweet stated “He might have graduated from Spring-Ford, but he will forever be a Falcon,” Exley’s roots to the Twin Boroughs (Royersford/ Spring City) community were just as sturdy; his involvement in his hometown’s sports programs also extensive.
Another measure of Exley’s character was how he approached life after receiving his cancer diagnosis. He was diagnosed with Stage 4 rectal cancer in March 2018.
“As he was battling cancer, I knew there were days he would come to work and did not feel great,” Anspach recalled. “To no surprise, he would find that smile and energy to give 100% to our student-athletes and programs. That was Paul.”
DeRenzo’s final observation on Exley provided a fitting summation of Paul’s life.
“I could write so much more about this man ... his deeply religious beliefs, his wonderful family, etc.,” DeRenzo said. “In all my years in public education, there are few who stood for the things that I hold near and dear to my own soul; Character, Trust, Honesty, Ethics, and above all, Loyalty.
“He was, and will always be in my mind, the epitome of what a human being should stand for: A classy, decent, loving human being who put others before himself ... A totally selfless man who made everywhere he went better than how he found it.”