Rocco Drago, a graduate of East Stroudsburg University, served as a mathematics teacher and department chairman at Bangor Senior High School.
He was a pioneer in the use of technology in the Bangor Area School District. He also served as senior class advisor, SAT review class instructor, assistant athletic director, discipline review board member, assistant faculty manager, and assistant track coach.
Rocco built a computer lab in the math department and taught computer programming classes in Fortran, Pascal, and Basic. He was an outstanding teacher of advanced mathematics at the high school and helped countless students find success and careers in math and math-related fields. He worked at all levels of the district to write computer programs for school use. He helped teachers incorporate computer technology into their classrooms and acted, without pay, as the district support person, trouble shooting problems wherever they occurred.
Rocco was a finalist for the 1984 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching. He also received the Outstanding Leader in Secondary Education Award.
He served as a member of the board of directors of the Wilkes College Regional Computer Resource Center, and served as a judge for the Pennsylvania Department of Education Teacher Certification Test.
He participated in the Kent Sate University Institute for Secondary Math and Computer Science Education and the National Science Foundation University of South Carolina Mathematics Summer Institute.
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Gary E. Oiler
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Gary Oiler graduated from PSU in 1961 with a major in Agriculture Education. While at Penn State he sang in the Glee Club and was a member of Alpha Tau Alpha, an honorary Ag fraternity, and Alpha Zeta, a social fraternity which participated in many community events.
After graduation, he taught for two years at Susquenita High School in Duncannon, PA. After that he accepted a position in the Bangor School District where he taught arts, agriculture, and horticulture to junior high students until he retired in 1995.
Gary was involved in many school projects including the restoration of the one-room Union School located on school district property.
In the fall of 1965, the new Bangor Junior High School was opened where Gary's classroom was located in the basement, giving him convenient access to the greenhouses that he and his students constructed.
As part of the horticulture program, he taught lessons in landscaping, floral design, and plant propagation. His students gained practical experience by growing plants in the greenhouses, including poinsettias, Easter lilies, and spring bedding plants. The classes created flower arrangements and corsages for district dinners and honorees. Gary also cooperated with the elementary teachers to teach a plant science class to elementary students during his free period.
The agriculture program taught lessons about animal care and breeding and was project oriented for practical experiences as well. He encouraged his students to have a project outside of the classroom, such as raising a farm animal or supporting a wildlife conservation project.
Under Gary's guidance, students were also involved in several projects that helped to enhance the school district and community. These included the creation of a dinosaur garden for elementary students, a nature trail and a vegetable garden. Students also developed a nature trail behind the DeFranco Building.
In addition to his school projects, Gary was a founder of Quiet Valley Farm Museum, a well-known and respected historical site in the Poconos.
Gary is an active member of Middle Smithfield Presbyterian Church where he currently serves as president of the Board of Trustees.
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Natalie B. Ziegler
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Natalie is a 1937 graduate of Stroudsburg High School and Scranton-Lackawanna Business College. She married and moved to New York City where her husband was a journalist with the Associated Press. During those years, living in Manhattan, she had the opportunity to attend the Press Preview performances given before opening nights on Broadway.
She earned her BS degree at East Stroudsburg University, majoring in English and French, with a minor in history. She pursued her graduate degree at Columbia T. C., Lehigh University, and the Sorbonne in Paris. She received a state scholarship to study "Teaching Elementary French," while teaching in Westchester County, New York, and a grant to study drama direction at Wilkes College in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
Before coming to Bangor, she taught English in the East Stroudsburg District, French at North Salem Schools, NY, and English at Pleasant Valley High School, where she was department head.
She spent twelve years at Bangor High School where she directed senior class plays and all school musicals, including some by the faculty. She founded the Drama Club, "Players Workshop," and every spring sponsored a trip to New York City to view a Broadway musical. She also accompanied a French class to Paris.
After retirement in 1979 she spent time traveling the world. She went to Chile to view Halley's Comet from the Atacama Desert. She traveled the waterways of Spain, France, and England with the National Horticultural Society. She traveled to Scandinavia, Brazil, Greece, and the Aegean Islands and took trips to London, Paris, Italy, Vienna, Munich and Brussels to attend operas. She is a member and patron of the Metropolitan Opera, NY, and a patron of the Monroe County Public Library. She was on the steering committee to raise funds for a new library and one of three to decorate the interior. Her late husband, Henry B. Ziegler, established the Natalie B. Ziegler Heritage Foundation in her honor.
