Ed Duncanson had a vision.

This former Pine Bush science teacher was also the district’s very first swim coach. Back when he was teaching in the 1970s and 1980s, he saw a huge mural made of mosaic tiles with a body of water and a silhouette of a town in the background. That town reminded him of Pine Bush and the water reminded him of the Shawangunk Kill. It sparked his vision of creating something like it that is Pine Bush centric, showing the passage of time with buildings, modes of dress and the changes in swimming venues. It would be called ‘Currents of Time.’

Life gets busy and honestly, Mr. Duncanson didn’t know what to do to make his vision come to life. But the project never left his mind.

In 2019, Mr. Duncanson’s youngest daughter urged him to get the project done. He contacted Fritz Meier and Joann Keilor, local historians, who came up with 84 pictures from Pine Bush in the 1850s. He took lots of photos and created what he called “a crude map” of his vision of the project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then he contacted PBHS Principal Aaron Hopmayer with his idea. Mr. Hopmayer was on board from the start and brought in art department chairperson Diane Trad, who was also excited to get her colleagues and students involved.

Ms. Trad and her fellow art teachers Janice Barth, Julie Palinkas, Ellen Friel and Dan Aktas, fleshed out how to take Mr. Duncanson’s vision of old Pine Bush transitioning into new Pine Bush with the pictures he had assembled.

“I looked at the art department’s concept and fell in love with it,” Mr. Duncanson told a group assembled at Pine Bush High School on Friday, Sept. 9, for the unveiling of the mural, which hangs in the hallway leading to the high school pool.

A month later, the pandemic hit. The project that was conceived nearly 50 years earlier would have to wait just a little while longer.

In September 2021, the art teachers were back at work on the project, recruiting nine students to bring it to life.

The students – Benjamin Doyle, Kate Fowler, Miyeah Gibson, Rachael Lauterborn, Kaileigh McCombs, Alicia Pagan, Pooja Patel, Gianna Tamburello and Travis Williams – came week after week to paint the mural, using the historic photos as a guide to old Pine Bush. Some worked on the figures, others the scenery. They used their specific talents to best bring out Mr. Duncanson’s vision. They painted on four sheets of masonry that are four by eight feet in size. Now that mural will forever show the changes in Pine Bush.

One of the older photos they used shows a little boy in a creek catching a fish. Mr. Duncanson said the child reminds him of himself growing up in Middletown catching tadpoles.

“Diane (Trad) was the glue to keep this going,” said Mr. Duncanson. “I knew this was going to fly from our first meeting.”

 “I am so proud of the students,” said Ms. Trad. “They were committed to work on this every week. They did it even though they had sports and other activities. And there was COVID! We all worked together and I am very proud to be part of Pine Bush and this project.”