GAMBIER — Family ties often run deep, even at Kenyon College. At least it appears that way. While quality standards and good work ethics can sometimes run in the family, it seems Kenyon College has capitalized on that ideal.
One of the first female employees to work at Kenyon College was Malinda E. (Pipes) Lauderbaugh who worked in the laundry department and was also employed at Harcourt Place School. She was married to James Polk Lauderbaugh and died in Mount Vernon in March 1946 at the age of 98. Malinda was a lifetime member of Clinton Grange.
The couple had 12 children, one of them being Hugh W. Lauderbaugh, who was chaplain for Mount Vernon Chapter 17 Knights of the Maccabees in 1928 and a Mount Vernon City councilman in 1903. He was an owner of the Lauderbaugh and Sperry grocery store in Mount Vernon in the early 1900s. Hugh had a daughter, Ruby Lauderbaugh, who married Dean Beckholt. They had a daughter, Anita Virginia Beckholt Lahmon, who now lives on McManis Road just north of Gambier. Anita was employed at Kenyon College, retiring in 1990, after working in the maintenance department as well as in the college president’s house. She at one time lived on South Main Street where now sits Dowds-Snyder Funeral Home.
Today, Anita has three grown children, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. On either side of Anita’s house on McManis Road are her two sons, Gordon and Terry Lahmon. Gordon retired from Kenyon in 2010, working 26 years in carpentry and as a maintenance supervisor. Terry has been employed at Kenyon for 30 years and is currently working as a trades helper in the maintenance department.
