Herbert G. Stokinger, beloved teacher, coach and director of physical education and athletics at Milton during five decades, turned 100 on March 24, 2006. A birthday celebration on Saturday, April 1, 2006, at noon in the Fitzgibbons Convocation Center will celebrate this milestone with approximately 275 alumni.

As his former faculty colleague, Donald Duncan, has said, “Stoky joined the faculty in 1928 and retired from the faculty in 1971, but has never retired from the Academy. He has been a constant presence at games and at Graduates’ Days over the years, keeps in close touch with hundreds of former players, and still delights in giving the minutest of details, with clarity and unbounded enthusiasm, about athletic contests of the distant past.

“Stoky’s record as a coach was outstanding, a combined total of 263, 178, 14 in football, basketball and baseball from 1929 to 1966. Surely much more important to him (and to Milton), however, has been his unflagging interest in sportsmanship and fair play. The naming of the Esther and Herbert G. Stokinger ’24 Fitness Center in honor of Stoky and his wife Esther—who was herself a cornerstone of the Milton community—recognizes both Stoky’s focus on physical well-being, and the Academy’s recognition of Esther and Stoky’s extraordinary partnership.”