Mt. Lebanon School District to honor late principal Brian McFeeley with skywalk, signage
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
The walkway connecting the academic wing of Mt. Lebanon High School with the athletics facility will be renamed in honor of former principal Brian McFeeley, who passed away in 2022 from pancreatic cancer.
Courtesy of John Grogan
The walkway connecting Mt. Lebanon High School’s academic and athletic buildings will be renamed McFeeley Way.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
McFeeley Way is the walkway that connects the academic wing with the athletic wing at Mt. Lebanon High School.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Mt. Lebanon athletic director John Grogan with Brian McFeeley at the Hall of Champions event in 2018.
The walkway connecting Mt. Lebanon High School’s academic and athletic buildings will be renamed McFeeley Way in honor of late high school principal Brian McFeeley, who passed in March 2022 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Not only will the Skywalk bear McFeeley’s name, it will also honor his legacy with new lettering, memorial plaques and decorated columns, thanks to the fundraising efforts of the greater Mt. Lebanon community.
“Brian … made such an indelible impression on the people that he met and served. He touched their lives. We wanted to do something to commemorate him because he kind of epitomizes a lot of our core values as a district, not only in his leadership but just as a person,” said Bill Lewis, former wrestling coach and civics and psychology teacher at Mt. Lebanon High School, who worked first with and then under McFeeley and considered him a good friend.
“Brian kind of was the bridge between athletics and academics and fine arts. He was an avid promoter of all three. That Skywalk, it is a bridge between our athletic building and then, of course, the academic building, which houses fine arts. Symbolically, it kind of fit,” he said.
It’s fitting, too, that the district will host a McFeeley Way dedication March 4, on the one-year anniversary of his passing, to celebrate a life well lived alongside the administrator’s wife, Keary, and their sons Colin and Adam.
The event will begin at noon at the high school’s center court, with a memorial ceremony along the reimagined walkway to follow.
Renovations to McFeeley Way will begin soon, and are made possible by the community’s generosity. At the beginning of this year, McFeeley’s friends and colleagues John Grogan, Dr. Brendan Hyland, Christine Patti and Lewis launched a McFeeley Strong GoFundMe for the Skywalk redesign. The GoFundMe, which borrowed the name of a community organization that fundraised for McFeeley’s medical expenses and family, raised more than $13,000 in 16 days.
“Brian made such an impact on the community, the students, his friends, his colleagues. I was pleased, but I wasn’t shocked, that we raised that much money that quickly,” said Hyland, superintendent at Plum Borough School District, who began his career at Mt. Lebanon at around the same time McFeeley started there. “I was extremely happy, but I wasn’t surprised because of who it was for.”
McFeeley, his friends said, was the embodiment of Mt. Lebanon’s core values, values that will forever be emblazoned on the six columns that march down the Skywalk.
“The GoFundMe was set up to raise the money necessary to fund renaming the Skywalk, including the designs on the columns, the wording leading onto McFeeley Way and the plaques,” said Grogan, athletic director for Mt. Lebanon, who counted McFeeley among his closest friends. “There’s actually six pillars that are in the Skywalk. You’re talking about the six core values, or characteristics, that Brian had: respect, care, integrity, humility, passion and character. Brian was a tremendous administrator. I think those core values really speak to Brian as a leader. He was someone that was respected, cared deeply for his staff, his kids. He was definitely a man of character and integrity.”
That character and integrity will live on, inspiring future generations, Lewis said.
“As students cross over (McFeeley Way) every day, they can see those values that Brian stood for. That will memorialize him for as long as this building stands. Our hope was for future generations of kids to read this plaque about this gentleman who stood for those things. Hopefully this will ingrain in students these are our values, this man stood for, and we hope they take it to heart,” he said.
Keary McFeeley green-lighted the project, and Hyland said the Mt. Lebanon administration and district have been supportive. Without those key players and the outpouring of love and donations from the greater Mt. Lebanon community, McFeeley Way would still be but a dream.
“I just think that speaks to the Mt. Lebanon community overall,” said Grogan. “Certainly Brian isn’t the first person that this community has supported during difficult times. Unfortunately, there’ll probably be others. The connection our school has with our community, I think it speaks volumes for Brian as a person that people feel so deeply. He reached so many people. They want to help out and remember him.”
The McFeeley Strong GoFundMe campaign is closed to donations, but the community is welcome to attend the dedication ceremony March 4.
“We love him and we miss him and we just wanted to thank the community for doing what the Mt. Lebanon community does, which is take care of their own and be supportive of someone who was instrumental in making the high school what it is,” said Hyland. “Brian had an impact on that place. He was a very good friend.”