Upper Dublin: The Making of a 21st Century Suburb ← All Chapters

Other Community Activities

Non-Governmental Issue Advocacy/Support

Committee to “Save East Oreland School”-2000s, the unsuccessful effort to preserve the property, now a small park focusing on children

Concerned Citizens-1970s effort to challenge flooding issues involving the Fort Washington Office Park and, perhaps in other formations, to challenge decisions on school building locations

Upper Dublin Community Day (annual event up to 2019 and the 2021 Tricentennial)

Upper Dublin Taxpayer Association (1972)

Upper Dublin Township Community Connect (Facebook)

Everybody’s Theater Company-NEEDS INFO

Upper Dublin Chinese Association-NEEDS INFO

Ft. Washington Business Alliance (-2023), the last of UD’s business organizations; the Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce has taken its place, including its present office located in the Fort Washington Office Park, with, consequently, a lesser emphasis on Upper Dublin

Maple Glen Civic Association (-2020?), the last of UD’s neighborhood civic groups; maybe also known as Maple Glen Community Association (2016-2017 fundraising events for charity)

Oreland Town Watch (dates)

Rescape-1983 to present. Led by Peter Blood, this group has been involved in an effort to preserve old Fort Washington, especially the entrance area along Pennsylvania Avenue, since the 1980s, primarily through presentations and testimony before various township governmental bodies Rescape Committee outlines past, future efforts to beautify Fort Washington, reporteronline.com, Feb. 24, 2012

Historic Preservation and Education Funds at Manufacturers

There are groups that reach Upper Dublin, such as the Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, but no other business interest group whose geographical reach is exclusively or almost exclusively within Upper Dublin is currently operational.

Youth Activities (other than religious or sports):

Units of Scouting America (formerly Boy Scouts of America)

Cub Scout Pack 405 (based at Jarrettown Elementary)-1947 to present

Boy Scout Troup 542 (based in Maple Glen)-1969 to present

Units of Girl Scouts of America Southeastern Pennsylvania

Troup 7092 (dates needed)

Mundock Service Unit 562 (dates needed)

Governmental Supported Activities:

Friends of the Upper Dublin Library

Upper Dublin Education Foundation, 1995 to present, supporting educational purposes of the Upper Dublin School District

Fort Washington Fire Company (No. 1)

Upper Dublin Citizens Emergency Fund, 2018 to present

Created by the Board of Commissioners as a 501©(3) tax exempt organization to aid to residents faced with critical emergency needs. It played a major role in assisting members of the community after Hurricane Ida’s devastation in 2021.

Upper Dublin Crime Prevention Board, chaired for a time by Willow Grove resident Ian Lennox, who was then an employee and later long-time executive director and president of the Philadelphia Crime Commission and president of the National Association of Crime Commissions. Its members included Leonard Ross. Security Plan Considered, June Ulkoski, The Reporter, Aug. 21, 1975, p. 5. Later in 1975 it was renamed Upper Dublin Crime Prevention Advisory Board (created by UD Res 1028--12/28/75)-Richard “Dick” Dresher, Chair (years?); with Ian Lennox -1980; Arthur S. Klein, Esq., member-1983-1984. See Dwight Ott, an Expert Warns U. Dublin of the Dangers of Drug Abuse, Phila. Inquirer, May 14, 1984, at p. H17 (Ron Gaetano, consultant for National Institute of Drug Abuse, a division of the U.S. Dep’t of Health and Human Services, quoted as saying: “You’ve got swingers in this community; you’ve got fast living here.” (Author’s note: likely words adapted from “Music Man,” but maybe not)94

Dresher also served for many years as a member of the Montgomery County Board of Prisons. CITE

Upper Dublin Drug Commission (1970-?), formation was spearheaded by Township Commissioner Griffith Miller. It is referred to in 1971 Montgomery County Drug Commission Report, issued Nov. 29, 1971, at pp. 95-96, identifying Miller (who represented Ward 6-Maple Glen as Township Commissioner until 1982) as its chairman. It was sponsored by the Upper Dublin Jaycees and financed solely by private donations. Murray Dubin, Drug Abuse Fight, Phila. Inquirer, Jan. 2, 1972, pp. 144 & 150. Luther (Lu) Kotarik, a member of the School Board, and Joseph Volpe, Jr., Ward 5 Commissioner, were among one of its members (per their obituaries). That group, with the support of the Upper Dublin School District, Whitpain Township and the Wissahickon School District, fostered the formation of Dovetail in Ambler, later renamed Turning Point, to provide drug counseling services. Murray Dubin, Major Drug Program Open in Montco, Phila. Inquirer, Nov. 2, 1972, at p. 53.95

Liberation Way had one of its drug and alcohol treatment centers at 1035 Virginia Dr., #130, closed in April 2019-drug treatment-after allegations of 82 violations; closure was due to action by federal and state regulators, and, later, there were criminal proceedings alleging diversion of proceeds by its then owner

Upper Dublin Board of Health (1946-2007, UD Res 1960-09/11/07)

Dr. Theodore Henderson, its first president, served for 29 years (1946-1975). T.A. Henderson, Doctor in Ambler for 50 Years (Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug. 5, 1990), at p.E11. Health Board regulations were approved by the Board of Commissioners in 1953 and 1984. UD Ord 79 (07/1953); UD Res 1217 (10/09/84).

Effective January 1, 2008, with the creation of a Montgomery County Board of Health, municipalities in the county no longer have boards of health. However, Upper Dublin’s ordinances still refer to its own board of health: UD Code sections 203.8 and 203.12.

Special Education Advisory Council of Upper Dublin (SPEAC), 2005-, founded by Karen Salomon

Provides through volunteers direct support to school age residents with special needs

U.D. C.A.R.E.S. (Upper Dublin Community Advocates for Recreation)-organizes events to plant trees and clear litter and weeds on township property and adjacent publicly accessible areas

And sometimes the name sounded official but it likely was not:

Upper Dublin Adult Delinquent Commission also referred to as Upper Dublin Adult Delinquent Association (1960?-) (likely an unofficial group of parents providing companionship to younger residents; not clear whether the use of the word “delinquent” was intended to describe improper behavior)

Mary Maynard 2015 obituary described her as a lifelong member of this group; see also Jeffrey Bush comment in Frances “Terry” Glassmoyer’s 2010 obituary as a group founded by his parents and others after World War II, and Sally M. Diver comment to Norman Fitz Bush’s 2010 obituary. Norman Bush was also noted in his obituary as having served on Upper Dublin’s Civil Service Commission.

Public official communications:

Upper Dublin Township and Upper Dublin School District both use the Internet to broadcast their formal meetings and use webpages to maintain up-to-date information for the public.

During Bob Pesavento’s lengthy tenure as a township commissioner he distributed quarterly printed newsletters as Ward 1 Commissioner, 96 in toto. As the internet and social networking have supplanted print as a means of communication, his record for printed newsletters will remain unchallenged.

Legislators newsletters

Use of the Internet and electronic communications

Notes

  1. 94.Although Upper Dublin has historically had a very low incidence of major crimes, Upper Dublin PA Murder/Homicide Rate, 1999-2017, mactrends.net, it has seen deaths caused by criminal acts. The 1931 police brutality proceedings described elsewhere did not involve murder, but became a longstanding center of public controversy. However, murders also transfixed public attention., Almost concurrently with the Campbell brutality case, later in the 1930s, Wendell Forrest Bowers was electrocuted for the murder of Mrs. Wilma V. Carpenter in her Dreshertown home in what appears to the first and only crime in Upper Dublin that has captured national attention. Confesses Killing of Mrs. Carpenter; Bowers, Youth Sought for Crime Near Philadelphia is Caught in Louisville, New York Times, Jan. 5, 1938, p. 3; Nancy Sullivan, Our first wanted poster, Historical Society of Montgomery County (undated); Bowers to ‘Burn’, Times Herald, Feb. 9, 1938, p. 1 (headline); Bowers Dies In Electric Chair for Killing Wilma Carpenter, Reporter, June 13, 1938. To date, that home invasion murder is viewed as one of the county’s most infamous. Infamous murder in Montco, historically speaking, reporteronline, Oct. 31, 2019. in recent years. former Republican state legislator Patrick McGinnis was charged with providing cocaine to his wife at the then Ramada Inn in Fort Washington, causing her death. He pled guilty to a lesser crime, was sentenced to three years probation, with the conviction later erased from the public record. McGinnis pleads guilty, York Daily Record, July 14, 1981, p. 5. Among those involving Upper Dublin residents two of the most notable of involved slaying of fathers by sons: Margaret Gibbons, Prep Student Held In Shooting Of Father, Morning Call, Oct. 2, 2021) (naming Justin Betz as being held for trial), and Prep Student Sentenced to Eight Years for Killing His Father, Morning Call, October 3, 2021, and Maxmillian Han’s murder of his father. Margaret Gibbons, Juvenile murderer from Upper Dublin eligible for parole, phillyburbs.com, June 27, 2017, and Maxmillian Han’s 2019 murder of his father. Upper Dublin man pleads guilty to father’s murder, Glenside Local, Nov. 10, 2022.
  2. 95.There was a Montgomery County Drug Commission which was later transformed into the County’s Drug & Alcohol Planning Council.) UD Res 1364 (10/5/89) commends “Joint Task Force on teenage alcohol abuse,” presumably educating public about its dangers. It is not clear whether the Upper Dublin Drug Commission had any in the formation or activities of the Montgomery County Drug Commission.