The "Every Town Needs A Family Like This!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about the Globisch family that lived in Lancaster County a little more than a century ago.  The head of the family, Mr. Alfred W. Globisch was 14 years old when his parents brought him to Lancaster.  Mr. Globisch became the first ever physical education teacher in the Ephrata School District.  He also enjoyed swimming in the nearby Conestoga Creek where he later taught his two daughters, Marilyn and Pauline, the proficiencies of swimming, focusing on he breast stroke.

Sisters Marilyn (left) and Pauline Globisch

 The Globisch sisters would later become highly successful breast stroke swimmers.  Marilyn became so successful that she held the 1940 world record in the 50-yard breast stroke and eventually qualified for the 1944 Olympics, but was disappointed when they were canceled due to World War II.  Marilyn set numerous Middle Atlantic State records and what made all this so amazing was that she did all of this by the age of 17.  She graduated from Lancaster's J.P. McCaskey High School in 1942 where she was the Valedictorian.  While in high school she managed to get the school to begin a swimming program.  I can still remember my parents, Paul and Dorothea, both McCaskey graduates, talking about having to take swimming and not enjoying in at all.  Marilyn's sister Pauline became a state champion swimmer in North Carolina and set many records in Middle Atlantic Junior Championship competitions.  Marilyn went to college at Penn State where she met Thomas Smith who had been an all-state basketball player at Indiana High School before becoming an All-American men's lacrosse player for the Nittany Lions.  In 1948 Marilyn and Tom married and settled in Lancaster where Tom served as Franklin & Marshall College's first men's lacrosse coach from 1949-1952.  They had two children, including Claudia who ended up having a Hall of Fame tennis career.  She went to Hempfield High School and was undefeated in singles and doubles in 1972 and 1973.  It was in 1973 that the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Asso. held a girl's tennis championship for the first time, with Claudia winning the first ever championship.  That year she led Hempfield to a perfect season.  She went on to play tennis at Franklin & Marshall and then Wake Forest.  By 1976 she had been rated in the top 25 junior rankings in the nation for eight straight years.  The family leader, Albert Globisch is credited with teaching more than 10,000 boys how to swim during his 37 years as an instructor at the former Lancaster YMCA.  The natatorium was named for him in 1974.  The family leader died in 1979 at the age of 89.  Thomas Smith was later inducted into Lancaster County Tennis Hall of Fame in 2001 with his daughter Claudia Smith being inducted the following year.  Marilyn Globisch Smith worked 28 yers as a health teacher at Wheatland Junior High School in the city of Lancaster before retiring in 1985.  She died in 2002 at the age of 77.  Thomas Smith died in 2005 at the age of 79.  Claudia Smith Holtry was also induced into the Hempfield Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006.  What a family story!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.