Join Robert Plante for coffee and a muffin outside Cravin’s Country Market & Deli at Dartmouth-    Hitchcock Medical Center on a given weekday morning, and you’ll feel like you’re dining with a celebrity. Nearly every person who walks by knows him, and more than one stops for a hug, a quick chat, and to share words of love and admiration for Robert with a local reporter. Clearly his presence in the Lebanon community has made a positive difference in many lives.

Robert’s crowning – and continuing – achievement is his work on behalf of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF).

In September, Robert celebrated the silver anniversary of the Robert Plante Fall Foliage Walk, and his personal fundraising of more than $250,000 for CFF in the past 25 years. He has walked more than 7,500 miles to raise that money, despite his own struggles over the past decade with osteoarthritis. Nearly 50 community members participated in this year’s walk.

“I’ve been crying happy tears,” Robert said. “It’s been quite an accomplishment. I love working with children and adults with cystic fibrosis. I’m going to do it as long as I can.”

A quarter-century ago, Robert began walking to raise money for CFF first in honor and later in memory of his dear friend and fellow Lebanon resident Doug Jones, who had cystic fibrosis and passed away at age 43 in 1992. According to CFF, cystic fibrosis is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States.

Robert’s efforts didn’t start as an organized community event; just a dedicated guy walking around the Upper Valley seeking donations for a cause near to his heart. Over the years, it developed into an annual four-mile foliage walk from Lebanon High School to downtown and back. While CFF provided some logistical support, the major credit goes to Robert and the team of supporters he has cultivated at DHMC and around the Upper Valley.

“He’s an incredibly hard worker and very dedicated to the cause,” said Lindsay Gilbert (née Lindsay Martin, a Lebanon High School alumna), CFF’s development manager. “This is what he does all year – working to make each event more profitable than the last. Lebanon is phenomenal with fundraising and supporting charities, and we’re hoping the 2014 event will be our biggest yet.”

For several years now, the walk has been sanctioned as an official CFF Great Strides event, and in 2014 it will be held for the first time in May in conjunction with other events nationwide. Next year’s event will be held at Storrs Pond in Hanover and include a 5K run along with the walk.

Robert is happy to raise money for the vital research and care programs provided by CFF, whose mission is to find a cure for the disease. “We’ve come a long way with the research since I lost Doug Jones,” he said, adding that many children and adults with cystic fibrosis have inspired his efforts over the years.

Robert proudly displays a September letter from CFF President and CEO Robert J. Beall sent in gratitude for Robert’s contributions to research and community awareness of cystic fibrosis.

“We have made great strides in our mission over the past 25 years that you have been involved. I hope you feel good about the work you are doing and the difference you are making in the lives of people with cystic fibrosis,” the letter reads. “Your dedication is extraordinary and we are most grateful to you for your efforts…. I know I can count on you until we find a cure and cross the finish line together.”

Judging by Robert’s genuine passion for the work he does to serve others, that is faith well placed.

To learn more about the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Great Strides, including their events in Lebanon, visit cff.org.

The current slogan used by the United States Army for recruiting purposes states the organization is “Army Strong.” At age 85, retired Army Colonel Clint E. Granger, Jr. could well serve as poster boy for that ad campaign.

Colonel Granger’s military bearing remains striking after a 30-year career that almost defies description. His posture remains ram-rod straight, his eyes bright, and his brilliant mind as sharp as the crease in his dress uniform’s pants.“

Well, I have to walk with a cane now, but I still get out there every day and complete my rounds,” he stated with a wide smile. “I can attribute that cane to a parachute jump that didn’t go as planned.”

Granger explains that it was supposed to be a routine parachute jump from a helicopter that was hovering at 1,200 feet above the ground. The jump proved far from routine.

“The rip cord opened fine, but my 28 parachute lines tangled and I tumbled end over end and hit the ground in just 16 seconds!” he explained. “I fractured my pelvis in several places and was hospitalized. I was 34-years old at the time and the Army wanted to assign me to a desk job, and of course, being me, I gave an emphatic “no” to that suggestion and returned to being a field commander after I recovered. I limped a bit but escaped the office job.”

That wasn’t the first time Colonel Granger defied the military establishment. He enrolled at the U.S. West Point Military Academy despite the fact that he came up just shy of the minimum height requirement.

“In order to get into West Point you had to be at least 5-foot-6, and I was measured at 5-foot-5-and-½. The then Surgeon General of the United States had stated, “Don’t worry he’ll grow!” I didn’t. I graduated in 1951 and was the shortest man in my class.”

Overcoming those obstacles, Colonel Granger went on to post a sterling military career that concluded by serving as the Director of the Planning Staff for the National Security Council at the White House. He was also the Deputy Assistant to the President from 1974-1976 and served as a deputy for Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Prior to that duty Colonel Granger served as Deputy Director for International Affairs, ODCSOPS, Department of the Army from 1973-1974. His duties included heading a State-Defense Department Task Force to Jordan. However, administrative assignments were not exactly the Colonel’s cup of tea. It was combat duties that had originally been his calling.

“I was 16 years old during World War II, and like most young men at that time, I wanted to go off and fight for my country. My fondest dream was to fly a B-17 bomber.”

Colonel Granger’s list of military assignments makes him a true living legend. His fearless dedication and fierce burning desire to serve his country has earned him so many distinguished awards and decorations that it would take a footlocker to store them all. A partial list includes two Silver Stars, four Legion of Merit Awards, two Meritorious Service Metals, a Bronze Star with three “V” awards, 10 Air Metal Awards, the Army Commendation Metal, a Purple Heart, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Gold Palm.

Following his unbelievable military career, Colonel Granger continued to accumulate awards, this time as an established writer and author. His published works include the novels Kurdistan, Cathay, High Asia, Shalom-Peace, Crucible in Asia, Long Forgotten, and Mideast Madness. He also penned The Wild Blue, which he describes is suited for young adults and those who think young. His fascinating look at the future is contained in The Second Thirty Years War, and his autobiographical masterpiece is Falcon 6.

How does a grizzled warrior with the stature of Colonel Granger turn renowned author?

“I was a 25-year-old Lieutenant at the time and didn’t like the fact the U.S. Army did not utilize armored units with infantry units,” Granger noted. “It just did not make sense to me at all. Being stubborn like I am, I had something to say and wanted it noticed, so I started writing articles with my theory stated.”

After the Korean War he had requested an assignment to an Armored Infantry unit. At that time, Mechanized Infantry did not exist in the U.S. Army, but Granger foresaw that wars would be won with speed and slashing energy. Following many papers on the subject, he finally convinced Washington that such an assignment would be useful, as demonstrated during World War II by Patton and Rommel. But it was not yet a part of U.S. accepted doctrine. That is, until a young upstart Lieutenant published his theory.

Granger ultimately published countless military articles and books in such publications as the Military Review, The National Guardsman and the Canadian Military Journal, gaining a reputation as a true expert on military tactics and strategy. His conversion to writing novels was a natural progression and writing remains his passion.

“Oh, it always seems like I am sitting down to start another book,” he chuckled. “After all, I have to stay busy!”

Colonel Granger has lived all over the world, but when it came to retirement time he chose the Upper Valley. He now resides at the Quail Hollow Senior Living Community in West Lebanon. Considering his world-wide exposure to many exotic environments, why West Lebanon, New Hampshire?

“I chose this area because of the close proximity to the veterans hospital in White River, Jct., Vermont. I have seen a lot of veterans hospitals in my career, and this one is the best one in my view. The quality of people here and the care you receive is simply outstanding. These people really care. Of course, the VA hospital’s affiliation with Dartmouth-Hitchcock is an added bonus with all the resources they offer as well.”

At age 85, the Colonel looks back on his years in active combat and realizes all too well the agony of war and the toll it takes on the human body and the human soul.

“I have my share of wounds and scars. I’ve led many, many troops in battle, and I have to think about those who did not return. But for those that made it through, VA care is critical and meaningful.”

These days, the horror of war seems distant and Colonel Granger has adapted to life in retirement and enjoys his surroundings and friends at Quail Hollow.

“When I decided on living in this area, I first moved to Rutland, Vermont, but after visiting Quail Hollow I decided this was the place. It’s beautiful here, and I love this area.”

Colonel Granger is not only one of this country’s leading military heroes and now a world-famous author, but a devoted family man as well. He is blessed with five children – four daughters and one lone son – and, at last count, eleven grandchildren.

One thing you come to comprehend after spending time with Colonel Granger is that he remains an innovative thinker and never backs off from a challenge. To prove it, he has taken the first step in yet another life adventure.

Colonel Granger and fellow Quail Hollow resident Lynn Duffy have announced their plans to be married. A master negotiator for his entire 30-year military career, Colonel Granger retains that talent to this day.

“We have announced our engagement,” he stated with a sly smile. “All that remains is to negotiate the actual wedding date.”

How does one approach such a large step at this point in life? For Colonel Granger it was a simple and very touching decision to make.

“I have been looking all my life for the right lady, and I have finally found her,” he explained.

For Lynn, a former New Jersey resident, it was also a case of finding a soul mate with whom to complete life’s journey.

“It is almost a spiritual experience for me,” Duffy said. “It’s simply a beautiful and wonderful feeling.”

Colonel Granger nodded in agreement.

“Yes, she has added spirituality to my life. I was raised believing in God and religion was important to me. During my military career and experiences, I lost some of that, but Lynn has restored spirituality to my life.”

If you are in the vicinity of Quail Hollow in the coming days and see a distinguished-looking gentleman wearing a black Stenson-style wide-brimmed hat walking along with a fancy cane, give him a salute. He has earned it.

Over the last decade there has been a resurgence of interest in musical theater. With the success of shows and movies like Glee and Les Misérables, breaking into song is once again en vogue.

One local group that never thought it went out of style in the first place is North Country Community Theatre (NCCT). Incorporated and based in Lebanon, NCCT has been providing the Upper Valley with opportunities not just to see musical theater, but to be a part of it on stage and behind the scenes for 40 years.

Since their very first production of The Music Man at the Lebanon Opera House in 1973, locals have been performing on stage, directing, producing, playing in the orchestra, working backstage, ushering, organizing the front of the house, providing food and support for exhausted actors, and donating their time and money to all aspects of the theater. Quite an impressive feat considering that most of this is done by volunteers.

Today, NCCT offers not only the typical community theater summer musical, but also a teen show in the winter, theater classes for all ages, costume rentals, and other performances throughout the year whenever the interest arises.

Hal Sheeler, Lebanon resident and music director for numerous NCCT shows including the upcoming production of Rent, extolled, “The singers, actors, dancers, board, production staff, crews, and orchestra members have, through their extraordinary enthusiasm and dedication to excellence, put on one magical show after another. The Upper Valley is indeed blessed to have NCCT and the magnificent Lebanon Opera House where most shows are staged.

”Just as any good musical has unexpected plot twists, so does real life. In 2011, NCCT’s costume shop was completely flooded during Hurricane Irene. The majority of their props, sets, costumes, and archives were destroyed. But “The show must go on!” An amazing cadre of volunteers stepped in to clean up and move what was left, and now NCCT enjoys sharing a space in downtown Lebanon’s Whippleplace with Revels North.

Tina Kimball, who knew nothing about NCCT when she responded to a friend’s message requesting flood clean-up help, found that, “Because of the amazing people I met that weekend, I wanted to become a part of this incredible organization.” Since then, the Lebanon resident has costumed several shows, joined the board, and taken on the role of costume shop manager. She has restocked the costume shop and is ready to rent its inventory, including tuxedos and ball gowns, to organizations or individuals.

NCCT’s next production, Rent, plays at Pentangle Theater in Woodstock, Vermont, from December 5 to 8. With the show set in the early days of the AIDS epidemic and with World AIDS day falling on December 1, NCCT is partnering with the HIV/HCV Resource Center in Lebanon to help support those whose lives are affected by HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. They are raising money by giving red ribbons in exchange for donations at their performances and at local businesses.

Every winter for the last 20 years, more than 60 students from area high schools, supported by their families, participate in a musical production just for teens. They put together every aspect of the production, from choosing the show to hiring the production staff, and organizing fundraisers throughout the year.

“A local teacher told me she loved our program because it was one of the few activities where high-schoolers from different schools create something together rather than competing against each other,” said this article’s author, Lebanon resident Amy Fortier, president of NCCT and a teen advisor. “These kids are amazing – talented, intelligent, and accepting of everyone. I’m jealous that I didn’t have this opportunity when I was their age.”

They are also incredibly committed, rehearsing up to three days a week and giving up their entire February vacation to rehearse daily from noon until 9 p.m., sometimes longer. Their next production, Seussical: The Musical, plays at the Lebanon Opera House (LOH) in February 28 and March. Auditions, open to all high school students, will be at LOH on January 4.

Children don’t have to wait until they are in high school to participate in theater activities. NCCT also offers theater classes for all ages through their Educational Theater Company (ETC).

“Our classes are a great way to explore theater performance in a safe and fun environment. Theater naturally lends itself to developing skills that are applicable on and offstage, like collaboration, confidence, and communication,” said Mary Gaetz, director of ETC.

ETC programs in Lebanon have included partnering with the Recreation and Parks Department for summer camp and leasing classroom space in AVA Gallery and Raq-On Studio.

NCCT will always be grateful to the hundreds of people who have contributed their time, enthusiasm, energy, talent, and financial support over the years – without them NCCT would not exist. To learn more, visit ncct.org or find NCCT on Facebook.

“I have taught in four schools in four states over the past 30 years, and I have found it increasingly problematic that most high school programs of study spend so little time on the current global situation. American history courses seem to struggle to get past Vietnam; world history courses seem lucky to get to the Cold War. Yet, how can we expect our future citizens to make intelligent voting decisions, let alone survive in a world that is now so interconnected, when they have virtually no understanding of contemporary global events? Not only do we need to teach more about the global community in which we live, but we have to teach about it in a way that will foster 21st century skills and a disposition to care about being active global citizens.”

~Deborah Springhorn

Deborah Springhorn has a passion for education. Raised on Long Island by a father who was assistant superintendent for business for the local school district, and a mother who spent 15 years on the local school board, “public education is in my blood,” she said.

And so is the innovative interdisciplinary approach to education that helped win Springhorn, a Lebanon High School English and social studies teacher for 22 years and resident of West Lebanon, the 2013 Christa McAuliffe Sabbatical administered by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

“It’s so obvious what sort of possibilities derive when you merge disciplines,” Springhorn said in a recent interview. “One plus one equals three.”

Her experience with interdisciplinary teaching goes back to the early days of her career, when, as a dually-certified teacher asked to take on both English and social studies, she developed and taught her first interdisciplinary course in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.

At Lebanon High School, Springhorn joined the team teaching American Studies – a combined English and social studies course – and quickly developed a new course, “Humanities,” that incorporated world history, literature, and culture studies.

“Humanities was my first child,” Springhorn said.

Now, after more than three decades teaching, Springhorn has received the gift of time to spend developing a project that stands to benefit teachers – and students statewide.

“It’s phenomenal to have time to focus on something I’m so passionate about,” she said.

Springhorn is spending this academic year developing and promoting the curriculum she proposed for the McAuliffe award, “Global Issues Since the Fall of the Wall.” The four-unit course includes:

• New World [dis]Order of the 1990s: Nationalism, War, & Genocide

• America After 9-11: The Single Story of Afghanistan, Pakistan, & Iraq

• Frustration & Hope of “The Arab Spring”

• Globalization: The Crisis of Consumption

“Teaching about the world in which we live right now is really imperative. The world is getting more difficult to understand,” Springhorn said. “It’s scary to get up in front of a classroom and teach about stuff for which nobody has the answers.”

With the new course she’s developing, which will be promoted and made available to schools across New Hampshire, Springhorn hopes to make that task just a bit easier for teachers. “It’s plugging a hole that I think everybody realizes exists.”

The course will be built around the 21st Century skills identified by the Common Core State Standards – Critical Reading, Information Literacy, Effective Oral & Written Communication, and Citizenship (problem solving, collaboration, & leadership). Its interdisciplinary approach will encompass visual arts, literature, geopolitics, history, economics, and more, guiding students in comprehensive exploration of course topics, helping them make connections among disciplines, and encouraging them to be critical thinkers.

Springhorn’s curriculum is inspired by the renowned photojournalist James Nachtwey, a Dartmouth alumnus who has photographed global conflict and strife since the mid-1970s.

“He’s my hero,” Springhorn said of the photographer. “I’m trying to do with curriculum very much what he’s trying to do with his photographs. He’s pretty much been everywhere I’m teaching about. He’s put himself in harm’s way to chronicle conflict in the last 40 years. His photographs are hard pictures to look at, but they are artistically beautiful. They evoke all kinds of questions. There’s a lot you can harvest from a photograph like that. He’s a magnificent artist.”

Springhorn has had the good fortune to meet Nachtwey several times, including nearly a decade ago when she and her LHS class gathered with him at the Hood Museum in Hanover to look at and discuss his works. The idea for the proposal came to her when she attended one of his lectures more recently. Nachtwey consulted with Springhorn on the images selected for her course proposal and attended a celebratory dinner party she hosted after receiving the sabbatical award.

In addition to developing the curriculum with a day-by-day plan, handouts, assessments, and other course materials, Springhorn must also pitch schools to adopt the course, and create a user-friendly website to make the curriculum accessible to teachers around the state. She hopes teachers using the course will use the website as a place to help revise it over time to keep pace with world events.

She’s also seeking funding to provide grants to schools wishing to adopt the course, which she estimates will require an investment of about $2,000 in books and materials per school to teach a class of 24. The Byrne Foundation has already pledged its support.

“It’s really important to me. This is what I live and breathe. I want this to be the capstone of my career,” Springhorn said.

The “Global Issues” curriculum to which she is devoting her year seems like a very fitting accomplishment for Springhorn’s work and life both in and outside the classroom.

“Education is our highest priority,” she said of herself and husband Stephen Silver, director of international student programs at Dartmouth. After that, “our priorities are food, wine, and travel.”