Chancellor’s choice overcomes challenges

LOCH SHELDRAKE, NY—Morgan McNerney once struggled to pass the tenth grade.

After leaving Bernards High School in New Jersey, feeling like “No one took the time to get to know me,” he moved to Livingston Manor, NY and began a metamorphosis that people from his recent past would have deemed unimaginable.

He experienced success due in great measure to several teachers at Livingston Manor who nurtured his emerging focus and intelligence. McNerney was admitted to the National Honor Society and became one of two students out of 30 to complete the Cisco computer-training program at BOCES.

Previously, at Bernards High School, McNerney played contrabass clarinet in his school marching band at Giants Stadium. The band took first place in the Eastern States Division competition.

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A voyager at heart, I was looking forward to the arrival in New York of the new Cunard flagship, the Queen Mary 2, fresh from her maiden trans-Atlantic journey.

Although my own cruising experience has been limited to Fire Island ferries and various day-sailers, the big ships have always sparked my fancy. I think I may even prefer watching these grande dames to cruising on them, although I never had the chance to find out. Besides, it’s cheaper to watch.

I follow the entrances and exits of the Holland and the Princess Lines, the Cunards and the Carnivals, by reading a weekly log published in a local Manhattan paper, the Battery Park City Broadsheet. The paper’s editors share my interest in the waterfront action and their office has a front-row seat on New York harbor.

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