What does receiving the 2024 McDaniel College Alum of the Year Award mean to Donald “Don” Rembert Sr. ’61?
“It’s special, because I met the love of my life at the college,” he says.
While he’s not alone in that respect, he says, he can’t help but think of his family — by blood and by affinity — when he reminisces on his history with the college.
Ultimately, it’s been a legacy of love that began 67 years ago.
It was Move-in Day 1957 when Don met the love of his life, his future wife, Judy Ellis Rembert ’60.
Don and a friend were sitting in front of Old Main when “here comes this 1958 green Pontiac station wagon packed to the gunnels with Judy, her mom, dad, and sister,” he says. He offered to help carry a few things — he says he had never seen so many boxes of shoes in his life.
“From that day on, we were a couple and we did everything together. It was very, very special,” Judy says.
Don was an Economics major who played on the football team; Judy was an English major. Their meeting — facilitated simply by a man who always aims to help others — was the beginning of a special love story in that special way of college life: serendipity that feels like fate.
Now, 63 years of marriage later, the Remberts have left their mark on the college that changed the course of their lives.
“I consider everybody at the college to be a part of our extended family. It’s just that strong for me,” Don says.
He remembers 1957 as momentous not only for meeting his future wife, but because it was also the year his father passed away. Don recalls the man who became a father figure to him — his high school football coach, Bob Waldorf. Waldorf was hired as the athletic director and head football coach at WMC during Don’s senior year of high school. It was Waldorf who encouraged him to apply and helped him find a four-year scholarship.
When Don committed to the Hill, Waldorf immediately took him under his wing, making him feel like he belonged. “Coach Waldorf was like my surrogate father, a wonderful man,” he says.
In his classes, Don was greeted with “acceptance and support from professors who raised my level of curiosity.” With their guidance, he found greater direction in life, helping him see beyond his night-shift job at a local gas station and his apprenticeship with an electrician.
In particular, Economics Professor Ralph Price “fired up” his passion — not just for economics, but for knowledge, which is the essence of a liberal arts education.
“My time in college gave me a lifetime of memories,” Don says. From being part of the championship football team to his participation in the Preachers, Men’s Leadership Society, and ROTC, he bonded with classmates he has stayed in touch with for the past 60 years.
The Remberts’ extended family includes their classmates and fellow alumni from the Hill, many of whom they’re connected with to this day. “We have a tight group, and we see a lot of each other. It’s been wonderful,” Don says.
“I’m still close with my roommate from my first year on the Hill, Barbara Willis Butler ’60, and my sorority sister Pat Welk Wolf ’60,” Judy says.
Don graduated as Student Government Association president and earned the Lynn F. Gruber Medal for proficiency in extracurricular activities and a Who’s Who award. He was then commissioned into the Army as a second lieutenant, going on to serve in West Germany for four years, where Judy joined him. In total, he holds over a decade of service in various branches of the military, including the Navy Reserves, Army Reserves, and active-duty Army.
His Economics degree and the passions his professors instilled in him came in handy, first in the military, then as a restaurant owner, and finally as co-founder and certified financial advisor at Rembert, Pendleton, and Jackson, where he still works today alongside its CEO, his son Charles Rembert ’91.
All three of the Remberts’ children continued the family legacy of attending college on the Hill. Don and Judy had naturally encouraged them, and often brought them along when they visited. “My daughter Heather had been coming to the school since she was about 4, so she grew up with it,” Don says.
Their convincing paid off, and all three attended or graduated from the college: Heather Rembert Fahmy ’85, who met and married Kenneth Fahmy ’85; Charles Rembert ’91; and Donald Rembert Jr., who transferred schools with an ROTC scholarship.
Now with six grandchildren — who Judy still wishes she “could have enticed” to attend McDaniel — they feel blessed beyond all expectations.
“It’s been quite the run,” Don says.
“Rembert” may ring a bell for you, even if you’ve never met the couple behind the name, because their impact is evident all around the Hill. Rembert House, Rembert Way, and Rembert Field at Gill Stadium were all named in honor of the volunteerism and philanthropy that have marked Don’s decades of dedication to the college, which earned him the College Service Award in 2016.
“As you get to know him, you’ll find he’s so thoughtful and caring toward other people,” Judy says. “And actually, we have a grandson that’s just like him, who spends all his time helping other people.”
Despite the accolades, Don remains pragmatic. For him, being named Alum of the Year is “a tremendous honor, and I’m humbled by it. But you know what? We do what we can do, and the college needs all the support we can give it.”
He has been a passionate advocate over the years, dedicated to improving the college for alumni and students alike. In 2005, Rembert established the annual Rembert Lecture in the Economics and Business Administration Department and helps identify candidates for the guest lecturer.
A Board of Trustees member from 2007 to 2023, he has remained an active member of the Alumni Council and Alumni Association.
As involved as he has been in the past two decades, Don and Judy’s loyalty was almost thrown into jeopardy in 2002 when the college waved farewell to a name it had held for over a century.
The Remberts’ story began at Western Maryland College (WMC), a name that became synonymous with family to them, between their “found” family and their offspring who continued the legacy on the Hill. The change to McDaniel College alienated many alums for whom the college held such a special place in their hearts — including the Remberts.
“I was so distraught over the name change, I really was,” Don says. “WMC” had been the chant at his football games that he remembers with so much pride and fondness.
Despite his anger at the change, he came to see that it was still the college that had opened his mind to new possibilities, given him direction in life, and provided lifelong friends and family.
“After a while, I reconciled myself by saying, ‘Wait a minute, it is a change, but what can we do to keep people connected with the college and its history?’”
Two years after the name change, the Remberts went before the Alumni Council to propose the WMC Heritage Society, an alumni group guided by the motto “Honor the past and embrace the future.”
“It was perfect timing,” says Judy. “I’m very proud of the society and how it has connected people over the past two decades.”
The society’s major projects have included raising funds for the publication of “Fearless and Bold,” a history of the college by Professor of Mathematics Emeritus and College Historian James E. Lightner ’59, Hon. Litt.D. ’17; renovating Rembert House, the oldest building on campus; a collaboration with the City of Westminster to add the McDaniel logo to the water tower; and recent renovations in Lewis Hall of Science.
But for Don Rembert, connecting with the college doesn’t always mean grand gestures. For him, it’s just “participating and living your memories, man. That’s what it’s all about.”
“Memory is a gift a man can’t live without,” Don says, quoting his favorite country singer, Merle Haggard, to describe his gratitude for the memories he made in college.
For Don, this gratitude is part of what motivates him to guarantee future McDaniel alumni can have life-changing experiences, too. As trustee emeritus, he knows alumni support is crucial for a small liberal arts college like McDaniel to keep up enrollment and continue its educational mission.
“We’re in a battle,” he says. “The demographics are against us, because the number of students in the college-age category has dropped dramatically.
“Everybody involved in the Alumni Association is an ambassador,” he says. “We’re advocates for the college, and we have to be active in doing that and take great pride in our school.”
The enrollment challenges facing small colleges are part of why Rembert takes his calling seriously: encouraging his fellow alums to treasure their pasts to help ensure the future.
“We’ve got a tremendous history and a story to tell,” says Alum of the Year Don Rembert Sr. ’61, and he’s always prepared to share his love for the Hill.