Gen. Wayne Elementary's Baseball Diamond to Become 'Jack McDowell Field'

The Great Valley School Board voted Monday night to rename the baseball field after one of its best-loved faculty members, Jack McDowell.

Superintendant Alan Lonoconus said a group of citizens approached him with the idea, and the board unanimously voted in favor of the name change.

McDowell was a teacher, coach and athletic director at Great Valley Middle School for 37 years, retiring in 2005. The old middle school building is now Gen. Wayne Elementary.

“I think it’s lovely, and I’m glad somebody brought the discussion forward,” board member Suzanne Carr said before the vote. “It always bugged me that we didn’t do anything to honor Jack McDowell.”

Board president Bruce Chambers concurred, describing McDowell as a “fine gentleman” about whom he’d heard many great things.

Barry Brazunas, a guidance counselor who’d worked with McDowell, was one of the people who approached Dr. Lonoconus with the idea. Lonoconus, who came to Great Valley in late 2009, never had the opportunity to meet the man.

After retiring, McDowell joined the school board in 2007 but had to resign his position early, in April 2009, due to illness. He passed away June 21 of the same year—Father’s Day.

Julie McDowell, his daughter, was moved to tears during the vote. She grew up very close to the baseball field, in the house where her mother still lives. Jane McDowell was also a teacher in Great Valley.

“It felt like it was the right thing, because he spent so much time on those fields,” Julie said. “It was part of who he was. It feels good that he can still be there.”

She’d had her mother as a teacher, but Julie only had her father as a homeroom teacher, when he transferred to the high school for a year to cover another faculty member’s sabbatical.

“He gave me my first detention. I was late three times,” Julie said. “He was fair.”

[Edited 3/22 8:40 a.m. to correctly identify Gen. Wayne Elementary as site of renamed field.]