Pictures of Alumni Reception and Hall of Fame

Quinton was Principal of Mount Pleasant High School from 1978 to 1991 when he retired from education. He was an outstanding Principal widely known for his fairness, advocacy for children, and strict discipline. Students and staff far and wide knew him as a friend and respected his thoughts and opinions. He was the Principal of P.S. DuPont High School prior to coming to Mount.

A current staff member remembers when Quinton acquired racquetball club memberships for the staff at Mount. “Staff were killing each other, stitches in one person, a broken bone in another, we finally had to stop going, but we sure loved him for it!”

As a ‘young-in’ Quinton ran track and was a member of the 1-mile relay team winning the Division One Title in 1956.

Quinton’s children, Rod and Hillary attended Mount Pleasant High School while he was

Andy is an Internationally acclaimed photography critic, curator, and educator who has written about photography for more than 25 years. His writings for the New York Times and other publications are collected in the book Crisis of the Real (Aperture). Other books by Grundberg include Mike and Doug Starn, Alexey Brodovitch, and The Land Through a Lens.

From 1992 to 1996 Grundberg directed the Friends of Photography in San Francisco, where he ran the Ansel Adams Center for Photography and served as editor and publisher of See: A Journal of Visual Culture. He has taught in schools such as Dartmouth College, the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco State University, the School of Visual Arts in New York, and the University of Hartford and the University of Maryland. He also has lectured widely on subjects ranging from Ansel Adams to Postmodernism

A former photography critic for the New York Times, Andy is an author whose writings have appeared in Artforum, Art in Art in America, American Photo, Art on Paper and Art Press, as well as in Metropolitan Home, Modern Maturity and British Vogue.

A collection of his essays on photography, "Crisis of the Real," was published by Aperture in 1990.

In 2000, Andy received an Infinity Award for his writings on photography from the International Center of Photography, New York.

Currently, Andy is the Administrative Chair of Photography at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington D.C. "Andy Grundberg is one of the foremost authorities of photography and has been instrumental in advancing the rapid acceptance of photography in the art world," says Corcoran Dean Christian DePaul.

Bill taught at Mount Pleasant from 1949 – 1989 teaching Wood, Metal, Graphic Arts, and Math. He served on the Steering Committee for the new high school. Bill also was the Assistant Football and Basketball Coach from 1949 – 1954, Track Coach from 1957 – 1958, and again from 1960 – 1983, during which time Mount Pleasant won two state titles in 1968 and 1970. He also coached the Cross Country Team from 1960 – 1984 with one state title.

Over the years Bill has officiated High School Football and Basketball for 34 years, and College Football for 18 years. He was assigned to officiate the Army – Navy Football Game in 1977. In track Bill officiated at the Penn Relays in 1977 and is currently the Chief of all throwing events, and he officiated three NCAA outdoor championships and one indoor championship. In 1984 Bill served as a Competition Official at the 23rd Olympic Games held in Los Angeles.

His efforts were awarded when he was honored as the Track Official of the Year in 1984 by the Mid Atlantic Track & Field Association and inducted into the Delaware Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1995.

Bill’s church is am important part of his life serving as Past Trustee Board President of Atonement Methodist Church, Past Superintendent of Atonement Sunday School, and currently serving on the Administrative Board of the Church.

Currently he is the Vice President of the New Castle County School Employees’ Federal Credit Union, and President of the Delaware Retired School Personnel Association. That’s along with his joys traveling with his wife, Betty, to foreign countries, the Panama Canal, Hawaii, Alaska, and who knows where next!

Soddy’s parents were both Italian immigrants who settled in Wilmington. He attended grade and high school in Wilmington and received his B.S. degree from the University of Delaware and M.Ed. from West Chester University. He’s been married to Jenn for 46 years and had two sons, one, Rob, is a teacher at Mount Pleasant. He has four granddaughters.

Soddy began teaching and coaching in 1960 at the state prison facility, then moved to P.S. DuPont in 1962, and Mount Pleasant High in 1964. At Mount Pleasant he established a work-study program for special needs students, the first such program at Mount Pleasant. He continued teaching and coaching at Mount until he retired in 1991, although he continues to volunteer as a baseball coach.

Currently he is the Executive Director of ASEP, INC., which he founded in 1975. ASEP is a nonprofit agency designed to help special needs students find employment and adjust to adult responsibilities once they leave high school.

David graduated from University of Delaware and began his career as a teacher in Delaware Public Schools. He taught for 3 years including the 1978-1979 school year at Mount Pleasant Jr. High School. Currently, David is a Senior Laboratory Technician at the DuPont Experimental Station. He is married to Kathy Sokola and they have one daughter, Megan. David has a passion for physical fitness, and is an avid bicyclist and spinning enthusiast and instructor. He has served in the Delaware State Senate since 1990 and is currently the Chairman of both the Senate Education Committee and the County and Community Affairs Committee. Throughout his legislative tenure, he has been a strong advocate for improving standards in school while closing the achievement gap, protecting the environment, and for keeping a balanced state budget. Of his many Senate accomplishments, he is proud to have sponsored Delaware’s Graduated Drivers License Law and Delaware’s Bicycle Helmet Law.
Senator Sokola was elected to his fifth term to the Delaware State Senate in 2002.
Throughout his time as a Senator, he has served on a variety of Delaware Boards, committees, commissions and task forces. Most recently, he was named 2004 – 2006 Vice-Chair of the Education Commission of the States, a non-profit organization formed as an interstate compact devoted to improving public education.

Senator Sokola has been recognized and honored with numerous awards including: the Robert Layton Memorial Award for University of Delaware Physical Education Major, the Sierra Club Award for outstanding achievement in environmental leadership, DSEA Friend of Education Award, the Delaware Office of Highway Safety Friend of Highway Safety Award, and the University of Delaware’s College of Education 2nd Mile Award for his contribution to education in Delaware.

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