FSB senior continues family tradition at Miami University
A Farmer School student is graduating from Miami 100 years after his great-great-grandmother did the same
FSB senior continues family tradition at Miami University
A Farmer School student is graduating from Miami 100 years after his great-great-grandmother did the same
Nate Kessler is the latest member of his family to graduate from Miami University, but the first in the line made her way across the stage exactly a century ago.
Kessler, graduating this week with a degree in Finance, said his closest relatives growing up weren’t RedHawks. “Both my parents went to Bowling Green. So, they were both Falcons, and I never say that they pulled me that way, but they were definitely advocating for me to be a Falcon, of course,” he said.
In fact, his first visit to Miami, taken early in his high school career in March 2020, didn’t do much to influence him toward Oxford. “I remember looking around and seeing everyone in a mask. To be honest with you, I didn't like the school at all. I didn't like what I saw,” he said.
Kessler knew his great-grandmother, Joan Hartley Reynolds (left), attended Miami in the 1950s and again in the mid-1960s. “My great-grandma was pursuing a degree in Education at the time, and she had four kids,” he said. “She would drive the four of them down here to Oxford every day, about an hour away from my hometown, so she could complete her classes.”
Kessler’s grandmother, Barbara Ganger, was one of those four children coming to Oxford.
“She hauled four of us kids in the station wagon, picked up two women in New Madison that were working on their own education degrees, and we drove to Miami University during the summer. Us kids went to the McGuffey School,” Ganger said. “And then during the school year, she would go to Greenville for night classes through Miami.”
“I remember going to the graduation at Miami University, but I don’t remember much about it,” she laughed.
Joan Reynolds earned her master’s degree in Education during those summers, going on to teach for more than 30 years in the Arcanum-Butler School District. Reynolds’ mother, Emily Clark Hartley (right, with uncle), graduated from Miami in 1926 with a degree in Education and spent more than 30 years teaching as well.
For his part, Kessler said his second visit to Miami changed his mind about being a Falcon.
“When I came to Miami the second time during my junior year, I could picture myself here. So, I came here over the summer as part of the Summer Scholars Program. I came for the Bridges program. I came for the Make It Miamis, and I just loved it. So, I knew coming here then I made the right decision right away,” he said.
As he starts a new career in a corporate role at Chick-fil-A this summer, Kessler said that if he has children of his own, he’ll let them choose their own college path.
“it's my desire that they would go here, of course, but at the end of the day, just like my parents respected and honored my decision, I would do the same for them,” he said. “But I can't think of a better place.”