Keystone Central Foundation Alumni & Friends Introduce Honorees for Hall of Fame
Keystone Central Foundation Alumni & Friends Introduce Honorees for Hall of Fame
The Keystone Central Foundation Alumni & Friends Association is pleased to introduce each inductee into the 2024 class of the Keystone Central Hall of Fame.
Inductees will be honored at a ceremony at Central Mountain High School on Tuesday, April 30 at 5:30 PM. Tickets, congratulatory messages, and ads can be purchased for the event program at www.kcfoundation.com or calling 570-660-1306. The ceremony will also honor the Keystone Central Foundation’s Friends of the Foundation Giving Society and key community partnerships.
Inductee: Alison Bechdel, B.E.N. Class of 1978
For Alison Bechdel (BEN, Class of 1978), creativity has always run in the family. Born to English teacher parents in Beech Creek, Alison’s mother, Helen Augusta, would spend time over the summer acting at Millbrook Playhouse. Her dad, Bruce Bechdel, also a part-time funeral director, had a flair for renovations, decorating, and playing the piano.
Alison’s time growing up in her home just down the street from the funeral parlor in Beech Creek served as the backdrop for what would later become her highly-successful graphic novel “Fun Home.” After graduating from BEN, Alison attended Bard’s College at Simon’s Rock in 1979 and obtained her BA with a double major in studio art and art history from Oberlin College in 1981.
Shortly after graduation in 1983, Alison began her career as an American cartoonist with her long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. It became a constant in many gay and alternative newspapers across the United States for twenty-five years.
In 2006, Bechdel published her graphic novel, “Fun Home.” Named after what Alison and her siblings called the funeral home growing up, this memoir focused on the complex relationship between Alison (who came out to her parents as a lesbian at 19) and her father Bruce who was a closeted gay man living in rural Pennsylvania. The book came to critical and commercial success and even spent several weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List.
In 2015 an adaptation of the novel started its Broadway run. It is considered the first main stream musical about a young lesbian. In its opening season, the show received twelve nominations for the 69th Annual Tony Awards and won the Tony for the Best Musical of 2015. Fun Home has been performed around the world – including at our very own Millbrook Playhouse (where Alison was in attendance) in 2017. Since Alison’s success with Fun Home, she has published two other graphic memoirs, Are You My Mother? in 2014 and The Secret to Superhuman Strength in 2021. She speaks at major colleges and universities and has been awarded the MacArthur Genius Award in 2014.
Full tributes for all inductees can be found at kcfoundation.com. Others honored in the Class of 2024 include: Judith Laubscher Sensenbrenner, Martha Sykes, Sr., Michael K. Hanna, Sr., and Dr. Sue Kodad-Rex.
