Have
you ever considered why there is a Mike Lynch
Overlook on Mt Nittany? This article, published
in the June 2007 Mt Nittany News, contains the
answer.
Mike
Lynch: Linchpin of Mount Nittany’s First
Stewardship
By Erich May, MNC Lion’s Paw Representative
New
to the board, I have been inquiring about the
history of the Mount Nittany Conservancy. This
much is clear: before there was a conservancy,
another body was steward of the mountain, and
his name was Mike Lynch. “He loved that mountain,”
recalled John Black, a 1962 graduate of Penn State.
“He was synonymous with the mountain.”
A
native of Somerset County, Mike was a student
body president at Penn State. He earned a B.S.
in poultry husbandry in 1945 and an M.S. in rural
sociology in 1957.
He
worked for the Cooperative Extension Service for
nearly 35 years, first as a county agent and ultimately
as an associate professor and coordinator of staff
development at University Park.
Mike
was a frequent climber of Mount Nittany, even
before Lion’s Paw bought its tract in 1946.
Later, Mike would serve as chair of Lion’s
Paw’s Mountain Committee. In that capacity—and
he held the post for decades—Mike would organize
mountain cleanups.
“He
would gather a group of people every year, because
he absolutely hated that shale pit,” remembered
Ken Reeves, a 1983 graduate of Penn State. “He
would take people up there with literally hundreds
of saplings, and they would descend on that shale
pit and plant those saplings in the hopes that
one or two would actually grow.”
In
this and other ways, Ken said, “He made it
a habit to pass on his passion to alumni, young
and old.” That passion extended beyond the
mountain to all things Penn State. His famous
slide shows included shots from campus and seasonal
sequences of Mount Nittany. At one time, his slide
show was the second most popular program offered
to alumni chapters, surpassed only by Coach Paterno,
related Tom Kidd, a 1955 graduate of Penn State:
“People would stand up and cheer after seeing
the slide show, ‘For the Glory of Old State.’
He was an extraordinary fellow,” said Tom,
and that sentiment is shared by all who knew Mike.
Ken
remembers Mike as a sincere and caring man, and
a devoted husband and father. Mike was awarded
the prestigious Lion’s Paw Medal in 1980,
for, among other things, “his constant glorification
of Dear Old State,” and “his reverent
watch over Mt. Nittany.” In the pamphlet
written for the occasion, Mike described his work
on Lion’s Paw’s Mountain Committee:
“Our main objective there is to keep Mount
Nittany free from construction and ruin, so that
old grads can see the symbol of Penn State like
it was when they were in school.”
Mike
died in 1983 while walking into Giants Stadium
to attend the first Kickoff Classic against Nebraska.
“If it had to happen, it was nice that it
happened on the way in, so he didn’t have
to endure our loss against Nebraska,” noted
John. The previous year, Penn State had beaten
Nebraska in Beaver Stadium and gone on to win
the National Title. But in that Kickoff Classic,
the Lions lost to Nebraska 44-6, so “when
Mike died, we were still number one.”
-MIER
