Church Farm School will honor Dr. John Grunwell and Stephen Loney with Alumni Achievement Awards at its Alumni Reunion Dinner on May 10.
Dr. Grunwell, Class of 1960, has spent his entire life in the sciences. The son of a single mother who was a bacteriologist, he spent many days helping her in the lab. When not working on the farm as a student at CFS, he thrived as a chemistry student. He later graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and pursued his Ph.D. at MIT.
Dr. Grunwell realized he could obtain research independence if he became a university professor, so he taught for 41 years at Miami University of Ohio and retired as Professor Emeritus. He helped to develop the Ph.D. program at Miami University, and under his guidance, eight students received their Ph.D.
Since his retirement, Dr. Grunwell has been paying his passion forward to Church Farm School, particularly its STEM program. He’s also been a strong supporter of various critical fundraising campaigns, including the Campus Modernization Project, the establishment of the Wilkins Scholarship Fund, the track campaign, and funding seniors on college tours and the choir’s trip to Carnegie Hall.
He’s also an avid basketball fan and tunes in for livestreams on CFS’s Athletics YouTube channel.
Meanwhile, Loney, Class of 1997, said the culture of doing things right was instilled in him first at Church Farm School, where he matriculated as an eighth-grader. Loney was 10 years old when his father died, and his aunt, a paralegal, told attorney and former CFS board member Morris Kellett about her nephew, whose situation placed him squarely within the mission of the school. Kellett encouraged the family to apply, and Loney was accepted.
After CFS, Loney attended Saint Joseph’s University and followed that up with a J.D. from New York University and clerking for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Loney recently joined the ACLU of Pennsylvania — his dream job — after spending almost two decades as an attorney for two of the country’s leading firms. His son, Stephen, is a current junior at CFS.
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