Nate Jacklin Obituary, Death – 16 November 2022 Jacklin, Nate From 2008 until 2021, Nathaniel “Nate” Jacklin ’96 worked as a teacher and coach at Mercersburg Academy. He passed away on November 15 in Williamsburg, Virginia. He was 45. Jacklin, who was born on July 10th, 1977, attended Mount Vernon High School in Ohio before relocating to Mercersburg to pursue his postgraduate studies. He was a member of the Irving Society, the wrestling team captain, and a varsity soccer player while a student. Jacklin wrestled for four years at Columbia University before graduating with a bachelor’s degree.
He then started working for a brokerage in New York. Jacklin commented in the Mercersburg magazine’s spring 2015 issue: “I discovered that the world on Wall Street wasn’t what I had imagined or thought it would be. I believed that I was having little effect on anyone. In a program called Athletes in Action while I was a student at Columbia, we took inner-city children to sporting events or the zoo. It was a lot of fun, and I observed the children’s reactions when someone showed a genuine interest in them.” After earning his master’s degree at Columbia, Jacklin worked as a history teacher and soccer and wrestling coach at high schools in Stafford County, Virginia, for the following six years.
The position of wrestling coach at Mercersburg became available in 2008 when Rick Hendrickson P ’03, ’06, ’19 assumed the position of athletic director. Quentin McDowell P ’25, who is currently the head of school at Mercersburg, switched from teaching history to managing the Office of Summer and External Programs at the same time. Jacklin was given the chance to return to Mercersburg to instruct history and coach wrestling as a result of both of those actions. Later, Jacklin remembered it as a “good turn of circumstances.” Nate Jacklin’s Instruction
Working with professor Todd McGuire P ’24, ’26 to introduce a Springboard course that would look at aspects of history, economics, business, and marketing was one of Jacklin’s finest accomplishments at Mercersburg.
Combining Jacklin’s passion in business and his time spent working on Wall Street with McGuire’s experience as a small business owner, the two came up with the idea for an entrepreneurship course, which has gained popularity since Springboard was launched. Jacklin made the following comment in the Mercersburg magazine’s spring 2015 issue: “Everything I’ve done since attending Mercersburg has been influenced by it. If I hadn’t come here, I probably would have attended a little institution in Ohio rather than Columbia. I’m not sure if I would have traveled the world the way I did if I had never left Ohio. Mercersburg opened the door to Columbia, which allowed me to see the world.”
Hailey, Ella, and Matthew were three of Nate’s three children. They were all involved in the Mercersburg community. Read more about Nate Jacklin’s life here. The King of Glory Church will hold services on Sunday, November 20, 2022, at 1:30. (4897 Longhill Road, Williamsburg, VA). The family suggests donations in lieu of flowers be directed to Fred’s Team, a group of marathon runners who raise money for Memorial Sloan Kettering’s life-saving cancer research.
