Freshman Warrior Follows her Great-Grandfather’s Footsteps

Posted by: admin on September 16, 2015, 3 Comments

Alexander H. Weeks Jr. graduated from what was then East Stroudsburg State Teachers College in 1931, two years after the stock market crash that plunged America into the Great Depression leaving a quarter of the nation’s workforce without a job.

Despite the difficult economy, Weeks got a position teaching science at Avon Grove School District in Chester County before he had his diploma. He spent the next 41 years as a beloved educator whose students still talk about him.

This past August, 84 years later, Alexander’s great-granddaughter, Heather Estle, began her own journey as a freshman at East Stroudsburg University. Heather’s 95-year-old great-grandmother, Dorothy Weeks, couldn’t be happier.

“I’m pleased. I’m very proud and I know her great-grandfather would be too,” Mrs. Weeks said. “She’s going to the right school.”

Estle, of Wilmington, Del., agrees. She visited several colleges in Pennsylvania and Virginia but loves the beauty of the ESU campus and its welcoming atmosphere.

“I came here and I knew it was the school for me,” Estle said. “Everyone was really nice, and I just felt like it could be my home away from home.”

Her parents, Stacy and Paul Estle Jr., felt the same way and were happy when she chose ESU. “I thought, ‘Wow, this college is beautiful,’” Stacy said. “All the people were very friendly.”

Stacy Estle said they were attracted by the size of ESU, especially the fact that it is big enough to have scores of activities, clubs and sports but small enough for students to get personal attention from faculty and staff.

While she was a lacrosse player with 151 goals during her high school career, Heather decided to join rugby, a club sport at ESU, this fall. She plans to major in biology and attend dental school following graduation.

Knowing that both her great-grandparents attended the university gave Heather a stronger connection. Mr. Weeks studied education and played right tackle for the Warriors football team in 1928, 1929 and 1930. He waited tables to pay for books and other college expenses.

Mrs. Weeks said her husband had kept in touch with a college buddy, with whom he would reminisce about their East Stroudsburg days.

Weeks went on to teach multiple subjects, including science, and coach baseball and track at Avon Grove School District where he retired in 1972. He also served as the district’s athletic director and as the high school principal.

The gym at Avon Grove’s Fred S. Engle Middle School is dedicated to Mr. Weeks, as is an award given to the outstanding science student among each class of high school graduates.

“I still get people who say they don’t know how they would have gotten through chemistry if he hadn’t taught them,” Dorothy Weeks said.

In 1965, Weeks received the Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation Teacher Medal for youth leadership. He was a community leader, active on several boards and organizations, yet he found time to tutor his grandchildren when they were struggling with a subject in school and make his great-grandchildren laugh by wiggling his ears.

“Everybody loved him,” Stacy Estle said. “He loved teaching, and he loved helping students.”

Heather Estle never met her great-grandfather, who died three months before she was born in 1996. Her great-grandmother plans to give Heather the medal Weeks received for playing college football, a keepsake connecting one ESU Warrior to another.

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3 Responses to “Freshman Warrior Follows her Great-Grandfather’s Footsteps”


Anonymous Maine

Posted September 17, 2015 at 9:40 AM

Not for nothing but I’m proud of this pretty girl/woman. The world needs more sexy and smart women. Great story!


Donna Gable

Posted September 17, 2015 at 5:17 PM

Thank you for sharing a piece of your beautiful family history. Wishing Heather a happy and prosperous future.


Wow that has to be the most interesting story I’ve ever read. Heather welcome to ESU.
Have a wonderful experience here. You’ll love East Stroudsburg University.
I’m a sophomore and will be graduating next year.