Local historian Chuck Langerman has shared the past accomplishments of three Cheltenham High School alumni.
Peter Taub (above left)
Taub, a 2004 graduate and Air Force Staff Sergeant, posthumously received the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Air Force Commendation Medal and the Air Force Combat Action Medal after he and five other servicemen were killed in the line of duty by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan on December 21, 2015.
On the day of Taub’s death, he and several colleagues with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations had met a village elder a few miles from Bagram Air Field when an Afghan on a motorcycle drove up and exploded.
On July 23, 2018, the Wyncote Post Office was officially dedicated as the Staff Sergeant Peter Taub Post Office Building.
Staff Sergeant Peter Taub Post Office Building
“Taub was a shining example of the best our country has to offer,” Pennsylvania Congressman Brendan Boyle, who led efforts to rename the post office, said in a statement. “In his service to our nation, he exemplified unwavering patriotism and heroic bravery.”
Taub had served in the Air Force for eight years before deploying to Afghanistan.
“I’m so honored that this is happening to keep his name alive, but at the same time, of course, it goes without saying, I would much rather that this was not happening,” Taub’s mother, Arlene Wagner told NBC10 before the renaming of the post office.
“I hope that when they see his name that they will wonder who he was and that they’ll do a Google search and find out about him,” Wagner said.
Sergeant Taub left behind a pregnant wife and a three-year-old daughter among other family members.
For the House Bill designation of the United States Postal Service building located at 207 Glenside Avenue in Wyncote, you can click here.
Emily Hawkins (above middle)
Hawkins, a 2014 graduate, finished her Panther athletic career with over 1,000 saves in field hockey and over 100 career goals in lacrosse.
The Glenside native’s 1,176 saves are the “second highest total ever recorded by a USA high school field hockey goalie” according to the National High School Sports Record Book.
Hawkins matriculated at Keystone College in La Plume, Pennsylvania where she excelled in both field hockey and lacrosse.
Dr. Dillon Warr (above right)
Warr, a 2012 Cheltenham High School graduate from Elkins Park, became in 2016 the first-ever male swimmer at Susquehanna University to be named Class Valedictorian.
At Susquehanna, Warr was president of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in biology. He was also a four-year member of the university’s men’s swimming and diving team and was team captain his senior season.
Warr matriculated at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and is now an emergency room physician in Phoenix, Arizona.
Dr. Dillon Warr is the son of 1973 Cheltenham High graduate Amy Simelson-Warr.
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