Ham Horne, Longtime Director and Friend of Camp Choconut, is Dead at 78
Left a lasting imprint through a lifetime of caring and achievement

Listen to this tribute to S. Hamill Horne by Gary Floyd ('68'-78 & '80) -

By Danny Lorber '67-'72, '74, '75

Hamill Horne, director of Camp Choconut for 25 years, from 1961-1985, died on November 24, 2007 after a long struggle with lung cancer. He was 78. During his tenure as director of the 111-year-old camp, Ham adhered closely to tenets he felt were essential to the development of young men: self-confidence, self-reliance and the ability to feel at home and function competently in the woods. Through his own economic resources, he provided the setting and a program that framed all the skills learned within an atmosphere of, what seemed to be, nearly non-stop fun. During his years as director, more than 500 boys and counselors lived and worked at Camp Choconut, many for multiple summers and a significant number for five to as many as 12 summers.

Smith Hamill Horne was born in Bryn Mawr, PA on August 7, 1929 to S. Hamill Horne, Sr. and Louise Erwin Williams. He grew up in Bryn Mawr and at the age of 8 in 1937 he attended Camp Choconut for the first time (he went on to spend a total of 38 summers at Choconut: six as a camper, seven as a counselor and 25 years as director. In addition he also attended 20 Labor Day reunions-from 1987 through 2006). After graduating from Episcopal Academy in Merion, he went on to attend the University of Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania before earning a Bachelor's degree. He received a Masters of Social Service degree in 1959 from Bryn Mawr College.

In 1956 Ham met Lee Claflin Ellis of Summit, New Jersey while he was still at Penn and she was at Bryn Mawr College. Recently she remembered the first time Ham took her to Choconut: "I took the DL&W train from Summit to New Milford, PA, where he picked me up in the old wooden-paneled station wagon he then drove. The car filled up with swirling dust on the last leg up the Camp Road, and the windows were so covered with it that I never saw the sights he pointed out with so much enthusiasm. Not a great arrival, but who cared? Lakeside and the Lake and the Carmalt family were more wonderful than I had imagined."

They married in 1958 and, by that time, Ham knew he wanted to reopen Camp Choconut, which had stopped operating in 1953 for want of a director. But, according to Lee, he was waiting for the right time to broach the subject with the Carmalts. "One peaceful summer night," she recalled, "as we sat around the fireplace at Lakeside with the Carmalts after their kids had gone to bed, without premeditation, and to my own astonishment, I blurted out our (or really Ham's) proposition. I don't know if they were surprised or not, but Sally and Woolsey, bless them, took it seriously and the real planning began."

In the years leading up to reopening camp, there was a serendipitous moment that had far-reaching consequences for Ham and Choconut. While Ham finished up his Social Work degree at Bryn Mawr, Lee took graduate courses there and met Bill Loerke, who was on the faculty in the Art History department. "I told him what Ham and I needed to start the camp, mostly staff and boys. He offered both: he had two camp-age sons and his wife, Helen, had secretarial training." It would prove to be the beginning of a longterm relationship between the family and the camp: various Loerkes-eight all told, including five Loerke daughters- attended or worked at Choconut for a total of more than 40 summers. All are members of the Choconut Lake Cemetery Association and Martha Loerke is currently President of The Choconut Foundation and has been an integral part of the drive to resurrect Camp Choconut.

And so, in the summer of 1961 at the age of 32, Ham dipped into his savings accounts and started Choconut up again. He had only a small handful of campers that first season and these mostly consisted of boys named Carmalt, Loerke and Hutcheson (first cousins to the Carmalts). But with each successive year, he was able to recruit increasing numbers of campers, culminating in a group of about 60 in the mid-seventies. However, it was apparent that Ham never wanted Choconut to grow into a larger camp (in the 1940s when he was a counselor, Choconut campers numbered near 125). Certainly the small number of campers Ham preferred nurtured the sense of a Choconut "family" and the close relationships made at camp- some of which endure years after many left camp. Ham and Lee moved to the old stone mill house on Rose Glen Road in Gladwyne in 1963 and their son, Joseph, was born in 1965. Joe eventually attended Choconut as a camper in the 1970s. Currently, Joe has proved invaluable in spearheading the effort to keep the new Camp Choconut alive.

In 1985, Ham abruptly retired as director of Camp Choconut. In the absence of a person willing to direct the camp, the grounds were leased to Camp Susquehannock for Girls. Out of Ham's retirement was born The Choconut Foundation, which operated yearly reunions at the site for the next 22 years while Susquehannock operated there. The Foundation also maintained a scholarship fund for Susquehannock girls. Throughout the Foundation's first 20 years, Ham was the most generous of all those donating funds to the organization.

Besides Choconut, Ham's other passions were genealogy, local history and local cultural and civic associations. He served on several boards, including those of the Lower Merion Historical Society, the Gladwyne Civic Association, the Gladwyne Free Library, the Merion Square Scout House and Riverbend Environmental Center. He was a member- and often held an officer position-in such organizations as the Choconut Lake Cemetery Association, the American Camp Association, the St. Andrews Society, and the Lower Merion Society of the Detection and Prosecution of Horse Thieves and the Recovery of Stolen Horses.

His research, writing and editing projects often merged the genealogical with the historical. He compiled and annotated the 19th-century diaries of his ancestor J. Warner Erwin and compiled a burial record database for Lower Merion burial grounds, including St. Christopher's Church in Gladwyne and the Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr. He was one of the main contributors to The Lower Merion Historical Society's The First 300: The Amazing and Rich History of Lower Merion, edited by Dick Jones. He was instrumental in having A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names of Pennsylvania by George Donahoo reissued in the 1990s after being out of print for 70 years. He typeset and designed The Life and Times of Uncle Hutch: Writings By and About Peter Miller Hutcheson. In 2005, after doing research and soliciting contributions for seven years, he wrote, edited, designed and published Camp Choconut: A History of the Boys' Camp near Friendsville, Pennsylvania.

He was a tireless letter writer: to the many friends and acquaintances he had over numerous decades; to numerous former campers and counselors whom he kept in touch with well after he retired as director; and to newspapers, magazines and periodicals of every stripe since his interests were so broad. He often contributed articles and information that were included in magazines and books, mostly relating to genealogy, but also covering other subjects like technology and history.

At the end, Ham led a hard existence in battling his cancer. But, like most things in his life, he approached it with stoicism. And it was fitting that, after thousands of trips to this place he loved so much, the last trip he was physically able to make to Camp Choconut came on the opening weekend of it's 83rd season. He saw that it would go on, and it no doubt gave him great comfort in his final days. And those who also love-or loved-the place, must always remember that Camp Choconut would almost certainly not exist today if it wasn't for S. Hamill Horne and his unwavering dedication to that piece of land, the entity called Camp Choconut he consistently nurtured and the ideals that made it so special.

His son, Joe, has himself been tireless in helping to make the new Camp Choconut a reality and no doubt he will be a large factor in its future success. But, in a way, we were all his sons and each of our lives were touched in ways small and large by this man's dedication to Choconut. So it is only right that each of us should dedicate some small part of our lives to preserving his legacy-for that is what Camp Choconut is: Hamill Horne's legacy. He gave us those wonderful summers back then, summers we can never forget. He gave us the people we count as close friends to this day. He gave us an appreciation, respect and a real love for the natural envronment, a world which we interacted with daily while at camp. And he gave us the skills and confidence to live in nature-if that is what we chose to do. It was a great gift.

After a standing-room-only memorial, Ham was laid to rest on December 1 at St. David's in Wayne, PA, alongside his parents. Another memorial service will be held at the Church of the Holy Spirit (The Chapel) near Camp Choconut on August 31, during the Labor Day weekend. He is survived by his son Joe, close family friend Eija Paunila, former wife Lee, and scores of boys whom he shepherded through parts of their childhood, adolescence and early manhood.

(Thanks to Lee Horne for her assistance with this article- for her comments, memories, historical facts and contribution of the section pertaining to Ham's civic affiliations.)

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