Bulletin News
06/30/2010
The Trapper’s Cabin at SUNY Cortland’s Camp Huntington along Raquette Lake will be officially dedicated as the Sheltmire Cabin aka Trapper’s Cabin in honor of Jack Sheltmire M ’73, who recently retired after 10 years as director of the College’s Center for Environmental and Outdoor Education.
The naming ceremony will be held at the cabin at 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 31. Those interested in attending the invitation-only event must contact Melony Warwick in the Institutional Advancement Office by July 23. She can be reached at (607) 753-2518 or by e-mail at warwickm@cortland.edu.
Awarded emeritus status, Sheltmire increased educational programming facility use at the Outdoor Education Center by more than 30 percent. He also oversaw the College’s Brauer Educational Center outside Albany, N.Y., and the Hoxie Gorge Nature Preserve in southern Cortland County
He spearheaded the successful efforts that culminated in 2004 with the U.S. Department of the Interior designating Huntington Memorial Camp as the first and to date only National Historic Landmark within SUNY. The complex of structures, including the Trapper’s Cabin, was constructed in the late 1800s and originally known as Camp Pine Knot — the first of the Great Camps of the Adirondacks.
Because Camp Huntington is only accessible by boat, the College will be offering three different boat shuttle times across Raquette Lake on July 31. The boat will leave from the Antlers dock at 12:30 p.m., 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Rhonda Jacobs ’01, the assistant director for the Center for Environmental and Outdoor Education, will emcee the dedication event. SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum and Robert Rubendall, who succeeded Sheltmire as the center’s director, will provide the welcome.
Offering reflections will be Don ’59 and Donna Bell Traver ’59, Don White ’53, Arethusa Sorority sisters, and Patricia Sullivan ’69 and Barbara Moenich LoPiccolo ’69 from Theta Phi Sorority. Following the unveiling of the plaque and Sheltmire’s remarks, a reception will be held in the George Fuge ’49 Dining Room.
Sheltmire received the New York State Outdoor Education Association Leadership Award in 1983 and the SUNY Cortland Excellence in Professional Service Award in 2009.
The Jacksonville, Fla., native graduated from Niagara-Wheatfield High School in Sanborn, N.Y. He earned an associate’s degree in agronomy from SUNY Morrisville, a bachelor’s degree in recreation education from Utah State University, a master’s degree in outdoor education from SUNY Cortland and a Ph.D. in nature resource policy from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse.
Sheltmire taught outdoor education in the Syracuse Public Schools before joining the SUNY Cortland recreation and leisure studies faculty. He then became a professor, recreation coordinator and academic division chair at the University of Maine Presque Isle. Before returning to Cortland, he was a professor, center director and department chair at Morehead State University in Kentucky.
A licensed master guide, Sheltmire presided over statewide professional associations in Kentucky, Maine and New York.