By Amber Cox, Staff Writer
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP — Every year, two Bordentown High School alumni are honored at the annual Scholastic Achievement Awards Banquet.
This year Mae Hamilton, 83, Class of 1945, and Horace Lippincott, 80, Class of 1949, are being honored May 3.
The recipients are chosen based on their participation in fields of public service, art, religion, science, politics, business, industry, education or athletics.
Ms. Hamilton’s granddaughter, Brianna Hudik, and Mr. Lippincott’s grandson, Cameron O’Connell, also are being honored as two of the 88 seniors who have maintained an 86 percent or above grade point average during their first seven semesters of high school.
”Four generations of us went through this district,” Ms. Hamilton said. “I was born and raised here.”
Ms. Hamilton said a lot has changed since she was in school, including courses, prom, athletics and, of course, technology.
”When we went to high school, we walked to dances in our gowns,” she said. “Afterwards, we walked downtown to the ice cream parlor. Now there are limousines, and afterwards, most kids go to parties.
Brianna is looking forward to her prom June 3. The next day, she will compete at the state track meets, then meet her friends down at the beach, a new tradition for most high school students.
”I was so nervous because our state track meet is June 3 and June 4 so I was praying that all of my events were on Saturday. Luckily, both of them are,” she said.
Brianna has been participating in basketball, soccer and track since she was a freshman. She plans on continuing with track when she goes to the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in the fall.
Ms. Hamilton said when she was in school, girls didn’t play sports.
”Boys had intramural sports,” she said. “We had a basketball team, a baseball team and a football team; that’s it. No soccer, none of that other stuff.”
Ms. Hamilton said her graduating class was small, only about 76 students.
”There weren’t that many kids in the high school because it was during World War II,” she said. “A lot of the fellas, as soon as they were 18, they would enlist. In those days, you didn’t have to go to high school if you didn’t want to. Some of them might have gone freshman year, and then, after that, they stopped.”
This year, there are more than 200 seniors graduating from Bordentown Regional High School. Brianna is sixth in the class.
”I was salutatorian of my class when I graduated,” Ms. Hamilton said. “I’m passing on what little bit of knowledge I had through my genes.”
Ms. Hamilton said that when she was in high school, “you picked whether you wanted to go into the business world, whether you wanted to go into the technical world or if you just didn’t know what you wanted to do, you took the general course. I never had algebra in high school because I took the business course.”
Now students are being challenged with different honors courses and advanced placement classes.
”Last year, it was so hard. I had two AP classes and two honors classes,” Brianna said. “This year, I only have one AP class and one honors class.”
Brianna participates in the National Honor Society and does eight hours of community service a month, ranging from coaching a recreational basketball team and helping with Special Olympics.
Because she has so much on her plate, Brianna only works during the summer, which her mother is OK with as long as she stays involved in school activities.
”There’s not much time for her to do anything else,” Ms. Hamilton said.
After high school, Ms. Hamilton attended Rider College in Trenton. It is now a large university in Lawrenceville.
”There were no dormitories,” she said. “You commuted. Everybody who went to Rider commuted.”
Everyone who attended Rider then was handed a list of possible jobs at graduation to ensure the students had occupations.
”The first one (interview) I went to was at First Mechanics Bank, and they hired me that very day,” Ms. Hamilton said. “I went in for an interview, they hired me, and I worked there until my first baby was born. I was secretary to the trust department. That’s what I think was nice. They provided you with places to go. Everybody got a job. I have three grandchildren that graduated from college, and they don’t have jobs.”
Brianna will be going to school for about six and half years to become a nurse anesthetist.
”After you get your RN, you have to be in the field for two years to get experience, and then you go back to school for nurse anesthesia,” she said. “It’s like a two or two and a half year program, and you can’t work while you do it because it’s really hard. It’s a lot of memorization so they don’t like people working while they’re going through the program.”
Brianna said she always knew she wanted to do something with health care because it’s a developing field, and people are always going to need it.
”I like helping people so it works for me,” she said.
Ms. Hamilton is involved in a number of community activities, including Community Day, the Senior Center, the PTA and others, but said her biggest achievement in life are her four children and nine grandchildren.
”That to me, is what’s important,” she said.
The other alumni being honored, Mr. Lippincott, was a member of Future Farmers of America while in high school and lived on his family farm in Columbus.
After graduating from the William MacFarland High School, he went on to the University of Maine and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in agronomy.
”I was an ROTC student and upon graduation was accepted into the U.S. Air Force student pilot program,” Mr. Lippincott said. “I have since flown over 8,000 hours with the Air Force as a pilot, navigator and Air Force Intelligence Officer.”
Mr. Lippincott flew missions to support the Vietnam effort, “over 50 combat mission in all.”
While in the Air Force, he was able to continue with his education and went on to receive two master’s degrees, one in education and one in safety.
”After retiring from the Air Force, I taught seventh grade physical science and ninth-grade earth science in Omaha, Nebraska,” Mr. Lippincott said. “Our school was partially destroyed by a tornado while I was there. Luckily, we had time to get all of the 2,000 plus students out before the building partially collapsed.”
After teaching, Mr. Lippincott was given the opportunity to go to Germany for the Department of Defense as an explosive safety expert where he inspected “ammunitions bunkers to be certain they complied with German, U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization regulations.”
He added, “I was in Germany for five years, traveling throughout Germany for business. My wife and I traveled extensively throughout Europe as tourists (and) skied in many countries, including Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Yugoslovia and even Lichtenstein.”
When Mr. Lippincott returned to the United States, he was a safety director at Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania, then Picatinny Arsenal in northern New Jersey and “finally at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey, always inching my way back toward Columbus.”
He added, “I am now retired and living back on the farm where I was born in Columbus. It was always my dream to come ‘home’ and refurbish the 14-room antique farmhouse, barns and outbuildings, which I have now accomplished.
Mr. Lippincott’s grandson, Cameron, is described as an entrepreneur by his mother, Virginia Lippincott.
”In addition to being an officer in the Future Business Leaders of America, he works at Brother’s Auto Body after school,” she said. “Cameron and his friend, an engineering student at Mercer County College, have a business fixing the highly collectible Nissan 300ZX cars.”
Cameron started a DJ business, DJCAM.com, when he was just 15 years old and does theme parties, weddings, birthday parties and other events. He also can record the event due to his technical skills in sound engineering.
”Obviously, I am proud of his abilities and think he is very capable, personable and a generally well-rounded individual,” Ms. Lippincott said. “He is very close to his grandparents” and often helps them out on their farm.
In school, Cameron is involved in a number of activities, including Theater Club, the stage crew and the Show Choir. He is also a student pilot, a guitar and piano player and an active member of the Trenton Ski Club.
For the year 2009-10 he was awarded as Male Racer of the Year.

