Being sworn in as a Mt. Lebanon School Director is a special moment on its own. For newly elected School Director Tim Clougherty, it was also a full-circle family moment: he placed his hand on the same Bible his great-grandfather used when elected to the East Pittsburgh School Board in 1945.

Clougherty’s great-grandfather, Patrick “Packy” Clougherty, was born in 1889 to an Irish immigrant family in East Pittsburgh. After a stint in the Philadelphia Athletics minor league system, Packy returned home and worked at Edgar Thomson Steel Works until his retirement.

Tim Clougherty is unsure whether 1945 marked Packy’s first election or a re-election year, but he knows the Bible used during that ceremony was the same one he used Dec. 1 when taking his oath as a Mt. Lebanon School Director. Packy Clougherty served on the school board until 1971, when East Pittsburgh merged with Turtle Creek, finishing his tenure at age 82. He died in 1975.

“Education was important to Packy, and he instilled that value in all his children, including my father, Robert, who became a beloved teacher at East Pittsburgh High School,” Clougherty said. “He wanted all of his children and grandchildren to excel in school as a way to build a better life. That spirit lives on today in what my wife and I are teaching our daughters.”

Clougherty said his aunt, Mary Ellen Faulkner, had kept the Bible and brought it to him from Florida for the ceremony.

Asked what he was thinking during the moment, Clougherty said, “I was building on the legacy of those who have come before me and hoping I will be worthy to act as an example for the next generation.”