Why I love Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania - the place of my childhood until I was 44. A letter to a distinguished Township Supervisor.

 Carole

What kind words!  Thank you.

You and Tina are welcome back anytime convenient for you.  Her steady commitment is well remembered.  Just give me two days' notice.  I am keen that my fellow residents of Upper Merion Township have the use of this house especially with the 250th anniversary of George Washington's time here starting in December 1777. 

I have done everything possible to interest the Upper Merion Township High School to be involved but have failed so far.   Interestingly the head of the history department at LOWER Merion High School, Chad Hennenberry, IS involved and uses the house to teach his advanced placement students.   We have had over 40 of his students here and 4 of them were Summer Interns here for 6 weeks.  He is copied.   

With our shared passion for France in the 16th to 19th centuries, it would mean a great deal to me to show you some of the masterpieces in the house.  Certainly for French natural history illustration, it is the finest corpus in the Western Hemisphere.

It would certainly give me pleasure to host a lunch or dinner for any of the supervisors and administrators in my beloved township. 

Joe Pirro is copied on this email back to you.   He is the writer for Philadelphia Magazine and will have a better idea of the answers to your questions about the publication of the story.   Certainly it is true that the considerable skill AND INTEGRITY of your supervisors and Mark Zadroga are the reasons that I have invested over $20,000,000 in property, tree planting (over 3000) and restoration of 4 homes (3 of which are 18th century) in Upper Merion Township.   Perhaps my most recent fondest visual contribution is the preservation of the magnificent Sycamore at 618 Shoemaker.  It is the largest specimen in Pennsylvania.  Over $10,000 has been spent doing everything possible to keep it around for another 250 years. 

Joe Pirro is encouraged to contact you. 

ALL a successful man over the age of 73 should be doing is giving back.  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so.

Fondly

Graham

Arader Galleries, 1000 Boxwood Court, King of Prussia, PA, 19406

Joe

Carole Kenney was a distinguished professor of French at Villanova University and now devotes her time to the accretive administration of Upper Merion Township.  Hope you get a chance to visit with her someday.

Truly

Graham