Sept. 11 is known to Americans as the date of the worst act of domestic terrorism in the nation’s history 25 years ago. But it is also the date that Harry Gratwick was born 90 years ago. An author of seven books, the resident of Cathedral Village in Upper Roxborough spent 40 years teaching, coaching baseball, administrating, college advising and directing plays at Germantown Friends School (GFS), where his memory is revered.

Today, he teaches history as well as art appreciation courses in the Village College, a program run by and for residents at Cathedral Village. The classes, frequently led by former professors or high school teachers, are one of the most popular features at the retirement community.

Anne Scurria, a former GFS student who has acted professionally in more than 100 productions, wrote online, “We called him ‘Handsome Harry’ … a nickname of endearment. I was going to be a biology major in college. Majoring in theater never crossed my mind. But Mr. Gratwick cast me as Anne in ‘Anne of a Thousand Days’ and the mother in ‘Blood Wedding’ by Federico Lorca, and these were pivotal experiences for me. I can remember standing in the spotlight, the auditorium completely silent, feeling so powerful and present … That was the beginning of realizing that my passion for acting could be a career. Thanks, Mr. Gratwick.”

Gratwick, who was born in Baltimore, where his father was studying to be a doctor at Johns Hopkins Medical School, graduated from Williams College in 1959, where he majored in history and literature and pitched for the baseball team.

“To be honest,” he told the Local, “I was, as one of my teammates remarked, ‘a mediocre left-hander who occasionally came out of the bullpen.’ I learned a lot from our coach, however, the legendary Bobby Coombs, who pitched for the New York Giants and whom the Williams College baseball field is named after.”

After graduation, Gratwick spent six months in the U.S. Army Reserve before working the remainder of the year as an apprentice teacher at a school in Connecticut. He married Anita “Tita” Hayes in 1960 and began his teaching career at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, which he had attended as a middle school student.

“It felt strange calling former teachers by their first names,” he recalled. “I spent four years at Hackley, where I taught history and coached the varsity hockey and soccer teams. During these years, I was also able to complete work in the Masters in Arts and Teaching (MAT) program at Columbia University.”

In 1964, the Gratwicks moved to Greece, where he taught at the American School in Athens. Students came from 30 different countries as well as the U.S. military.

“For a budding historian, living in Athens was one of the great experiences of my life,” Gratwick said. “After two years, I began to feel like an expatriate, and in 1966, we returned to the U.S., where I was fortunate to get a job at GFS. The country was in the middle of the Vietnam War and growing racial tensions.”

Gratwick became varsity baseball coach at GFS in 1970, and in the next 30 years his teams won over 300 games and a total of seven championships. When he retired in 2003, the baseball field was named after him. (Future major league pitcher Jesse Biddle was only in fifth grade at that time.)

Gratwick became the boys’ athletic director at GFS in 1970 and continued to teach history to 11th graders. In 1980, he became head of the history department, where he remained for 20 years.

“One of my proudest achievements during those years was organizing a series of three-day history conferences: New Frontiers in History,” he said. “Secondary school history teachers from around the country were invited to come and to listen to distinguished scholars from places like Penn, Swarthmore, Princeton, Temple, Haverford and Yale talk about their latest research and new trends in historical thinking.”

Gratwick retired from GFS in 2005 and spent the next few years writing articles for various Maine publications based on his experiences in the state. After a few years, he was asked by The History Press, now Arcadia Publications, to write a book about his experiences which was titled “Penobscot Bay: People, Ports and Pastimes,” published in 2009. Over the next few years, he wrote six more books about aspects of Maine’s history.

Gratwick and his wife moved to Cathedral Village in the spring of 2013 and, although they continued to visit Maine, they became increasingly involved in activities at Cathedral Village.

When Gratwick was asked, “What is the best advice you ever received?” he replied, “During summers in the 1970s, I took GFS students on two- or three-week bike trips around New England. After we returned from an especially eventful trip, a parent asked me, ‘How much insurance do you have?’ When I replied, he said, ‘That’s not enough.’ I not only agreed, but I stopped taking students on bike trips."

Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.