North Penn welcomes ‘Knights of Honor’
Longtime swim coach, theater director, poet recognized for their contributions to district
TOWAMENCIN >> Three new local legends have joined the ranks of the North Penn School District’s “Knights of Honor.”
Former teacher and swim coach Rick Carroll, longtime theater director Cindy Louden, and alumni and Philadelphia Poet Laureate Yolanda Wisher were honored Friday night as the latest class of distinguished district alumni.
“Each year, I’m moved by their accomplishments, their incredible intelligence, and their incredible influence, in this community and beyond,” said Superintendent Curt Dietrich.
The Knights of Honor program began in 2015-16 as part of the 50th anniversary of the North Penn School District, and is meant to recognize those who have made significant contributions to the district, community, and/or their chosen career.
Honorees are recognized with photos on display for a year in the concourse of North Penn High School, and their names on a new wall display where each class of honorees is now immortalized.
First honored on Friday night was Rick Carroll, the high school’s swim coach from 1971 to 1998, whose name now adorns the high school natatorium he
helped build, and who former swimmer Selma Robinson said built the program from essentially zero in the early 1970s into what it is today.
“Finding the right person to run the aquatics program was crucial. Many community members had high expectations for the program. The school board wanted a program to address the needs of both youngsters and adults, ensuring the taxpayers felt they were getting a return on their investment,” Robinson said.
“Rick hit the ground running. He visited local pools, and contacted key swimming people, to get the much needed support to facilitate a top-notch swimming program. From the beginning, Rick set the bar high,” she said. “Five decades later, our competitive programs are still the cream of the crop in the state of Pennsylvania.
Carroll started his speech by glancing up at his enlarged photo on a projection screen, then joking “Same guy, same tie,” before thanking the swimmers, parents, teachers, and school board members who helped him build the program.
“When a person is honored by the people they’ve worked with, from the students that they taught, and the athletes that they coached, it’s a most coveted honor,” Carroll said. “I’m very proud, and humbled, to be a North Penn Knight of Honor, and stand besides the outstanding list of past recipients,” he said. Yolanda Wisher, a graduate of North Penn High School’s class of 1994, stood out from an early age, according to high school English teacher Janet Kratz. “When Yolanda was a student here in the early ‘90s, there wasn’t a member of the English department who didn’t know who she was, even if only a handful of us had the privilege of teaching her,” she said. “Some students, whether on the stage or on the page, have something special, something that honestly cannot be taught: a gift, for language or performance, that we can model, and at best inspire, but which just comes from within. Yolanda has that gift,” Kratz said. Wisher’s creative writing rang out in a voice far beyond her years, Kratz said, and her “intersection of gift and grit” has helped her forge a career in writing, as a poet, singer, English teacher, and spoken word artist. Wisher was named the first Poet Laureate of Montgomery County i 1999 and the 2016-17 Poet laureate of Philadelphia, and returned in 2016 to help a new generation harness their gifts.
“Seconds after she called out ‘Hello, North Penn,’ I realized Yolanda is not merely a gifted poet, she’s the consummate entertainer. She delivered her poetry, sang original songs, and had the student body snapping along with her,” Kratz said.
Wisher is currently fulfilling a writing residency in Colorado, and could not attend the ceremony in person. Her mother Yvonda, husband Mark Palacio, and their son Theo accepted the award on her behalf, and
Wisher appeared in a video message reading a poem thanking those who helped on her journey.
“For the racists and sexists, who gave me purpose, for the bullies and haters, who made me strong,” Wisher said.
“This is a poem of memory and comeuppance. This is a bookmark, for the next black girl poet in the suburbs, who needs a blueprint. Thank you for the honor.”
Cynthia Louden, the high school’s theater director from 1969 to 2005, was honored by her successor Andrea Roney and co-director Deb Buckner, both of whom shared stories of Louden’s decades backstage. Buckner said she was in the chorus of Louden’s first play, “Anything Goes,” in 1971 and saw firsthand how many jobs Louden did herself.
“In addition to wearing the hats of director and producer, Cindy was also the costume designer, the set designer, the light designer, and the sound engineer — amazing,” Buckner said.
Roney said she inherited “one of the finest public school theater programs in the United States, the rareness of which I appreciate more each year.”
“You helped students find their passions, their voices, their empathy, and compassion for others, their selfawareness and confidence, and their pride in settling for nothing less than their best efforts,” Roney said.
Louden recalled how, when she was hired, she had only ever seen one professional show, and held one acting role herself.
“My only acting experience was as a sixth grade actor in a Christmas play, and I was the jack-in-thebox...but I couldn’t get och of the box, because my dad made the lid too heavy,” she said.
Over the years, Louden said, she relied on students and staff to help build, find, or use whatever a show needed, from a two-story ship to an ambulance, baseball bleachers, trays from the cafeteria, to the time a live stallion rode onstage, to a surprised round of applause from the crowd.
“Well, I hadn’t prepared the horse for that, and the horse went up like this,” Louden said, mimicking it rearing on its hind legs — “I thought, ‘That horse is going right into that pit” below the stage.
Louden also recalled what she termed “the pig incident,” when a live pig used for a showing of “Lil’ Abner” got loose in the high school auditorium.”
“It was in a cage, it was locked, the auditorium was dark, and it got out. It wandered around, fell off the stage, played the entire show with a bruised snout, and the next morning, I’m being paged — ‘Mrs. Louden, come to the auditorium’ — and that pig had come around and, you know what, all over this auditorium.”
Louden also shared her biggest secret with the crowd: her answer whenever she’s asked about her favorite play.
“The secret is: choose different types of shows. Play to the talents of the students, the actors. My favorite show is always the show I’m working on, because I’ve got to give it 100 percent,” Louden said.