So famous for several generations of WLC history that he needs no introduction or even a last name to be recognized, we are thrilled to bring you a brief look at the life story of ART!
Spotlight Profile: Art Makechnie
By Robert Gallagher
There aren’t many who have spent more time at summer camp than Art Makechnie. Surprisingly, his first experience of summer camp came not as a camper but as an assistant to the chef at the Geneva Point Camp. Before that, Art’s summers had been taken up with activities closer to home. The family had a small farm and Art was in charge of one cow, four sheep, two pigs, and 150 chickens to go along with fifty apple trees and a one and a half acre garden. In the camp kitchen that first summer, Art found work to be agreeable and he did well. The chef noted somewhat prophetically that his college-bound assistant would always be able to fall back on food service.
Throughout his college years at Ohio Wesleyan, food service would continue as a reliable source of income: in the dish room of a girls’ dorm during the school year and back in the kitchen at camp during the summer. After graduating as a history major, when Art moved on to continue his studies (first in theology at Boston University and later at Harvard in education) summer work in a camp kitchen would be a constant.
Art’s introduction to WLC came in mid-summer of 1970 when he agreed to take over the kitchen at WLC after two cooks had walked out. Art accepted the job over the phone – it was a matter of some urgency for Owen Carle to secure another cook – and soon found himself riding to Center Tuftonboro with Owen’s wife, Lorraine, who had been sent to bring him to the Knoll....
Read the rest of this profile and the entire Fall 2015 Knoll News by clicking here!
Read the rest of this profile and the entire Fall 2015 Knoll News by clicking here!
