Gwen Bunnell grew up in Glenside near Philadelphia, where her father was president of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. The importance of education was instilled in her from childhood. Gwen spent her summers at Camp Red Wing, an all-girls camp in the Adirondack region in New York. After years as a camper, she worked there as a counselor and said this experience inspired her to study education.
After high school, Gwen’s father wanted her to attend Bucknell, but she chose Penn State. There, Gwen was president of her sorority, Chi Omega. She met her future husband, Richard “Dick” Bunnell (State High ’49) on a blind date. Dick was a Phi Gamma Delta, and the couple enjoyed what their daughter Carol Bunnell Grim calls “storybook 1950s college life.”
After he graduated, Dick was called to serve in the Korean War. He and Gwen married in 1954 while she was still in school. After she graduated, she joined him in Augusta, Georgia, where he was stationed. In Georgia, Gwen got her first teaching job in a rural, one-room school.
When they moved back to State College, Gwen continued her passion for teaching, working at Jack & Jill Nursery School and later founding the Grace Lutheran Nursery School before joining SCASD. She worked as a kindergarten teacher, a transition teacher, and a first-grade teacher at various schools before landing at Corl Street Elementary.
Gwen developed and wrote many units of instruction for the kindergarten program that were utilized district-wide. At this time—before computers and the Internet—materials and curricula were developed by individual classroom teachers. Gwen emphasized hands-on experiences for her students. Carol detailed a unit about Alaska in which the children made dog sleds and created maps for their sled dogs’ journey. She said Gwen always had small pets in the classroom, like hamsters, birds, and, fish, which the students loved.
Gwen and Dick loved their retirement years together before he passed away in 2022. They enjoyed traveling together, being with family, attending sporting events for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and spending winters at their Florida home and summers at their cottage on the lake in Canada.
“The biggest thing I will have in my heart forever is how much everyone loved her,” Carol said. “They still do! When it was announced that she is an honoree this year, I received messages from students she had 50- 60 years ago! What a tribute.”
Gwen and Dick had two children, daughter Carol Bunnell Grim ’76 married to Stephen, son Theodore “Tib” Bunnell ’79, married to Mary Fogle ’80; six grandchildren: Erin Grim McCombie ’01 and husband Esch, Andrew Grim ’04, David Grim ’08 and wife Amy, Taylor Bunnell, Madison Bunnell, and Liza Kocher (deceased), Kayte Kocher Derhammer ’13 (deceased) and husband Walt; and 11 great-grandchildren: William, Gwen, and John McCombie, Millie and Ainsley Grim, and Ashton, Bentley, Mila, Ava, Hailey, and Jax Bunnell.
An adventure every day
To Gwen, teaching was an adventure every day. She recalled a year at Corl Street when she had more than 20 ESL students between her morning and afternoon classes.
Carol said that sometimes Gwen would go back to school to work into the night after spending time with her family in the evenings. One night, she was in her classroom at Houserville Elementary and had taken along the family dog to keep her company. Gwen was frightened by a loud knock on her classroom window. It was the sheriff! He thought someone had broken into the school. He told Gwen dogs were not permitted in the building and asked her to leave!
A commitment to kids and community
Over the years, Gwen volunteered with the Boalsburg Conservancy, Central PA Festival of the Arts Children’s Day, Boalsburg’s Memorial Day Celebration, Grace Lutheran Church, and parent-teacher organizations.
