Nathaniel "Nate" Jacklin '96, who served as a Mercersburg Academy faculty member and coach from 2008 to 2021, passed away November 15 in Williamsburg, VA. He was 45.

Born July 10, 1977, Jacklin came to Mercersburg as a postgraduate student after graduating from Mount Vernon High School in Ohio. As a student, he played varsity soccer, captained the wrestling team, and was a member of the Irving Society.

Jacklin earned a bachelor's degree from Columbia University, where he wrestled for four years, and went to work for a New York brokerage. In the 2015 spring issue of Mercersburg magazine, Jacklin reflected, "I found that Wall Street wasn't the world I had envisioned or hoped it would be. I felt like I wasn't really making an impact on anyone. When I was at Columbia, I had worked with inner-city kids through a program called Athletes in Action, where we'd take them to sporting events or the zoo. It was a lot of fun, and I noticed how the kids responded when somebody took an interest in them."

After completing his master's degree at Columbia, Jacklin spent the next six years teaching history and coaching wrestling and soccer at high schools in Stafford County in northern Virginia. In 2008, Mercersburg had an opening for a wrestling coach when Rick Hendrickson P '03, '06, '19 moved into the athletic director role. At the same time, Quentin McDowell P '25 (now Mercersburg's head of school) moved from teaching history to overseeing the Office of Summer and External Programs. Both of those moves allowed Jacklin the opportunity to return to Mercersburg to coach wrestling and teach history. Jacklin later recalled that it was a "fortunate turn of events."

One of Jacklin's proudest achievements at Mercersburg was working with faculty member Todd McGuire P '24, '26 to introduce a Springboard course that would examine elements of history, economics, business, and marketing. Combining McGuire's experience as a small-business owner and Jacklin's interest in business (and his time working on Wall Street), the duo settled on a proposal for an Entrepreneurship course, which has become a popular selection since Springboard was introduced.

In the 2015 spring issue of Mercersburg magazine, Jacklin remarked, "Mercersburg has affected everything I've done since [attending]. Instead of Columbia, I probably would have gone to a small college in Ohio had I not come here. I might not have ever left Ohio, and I don't know if I would have had the world experiences I've had. Mercersburg opened up Columbia, which opened the world to me."

Nate, his wife Lindsay Beers Jacklin, and their three children, Hailey, Ella, and Matthew, were active members of the Mercersburg community. Read more about the life of Nate Jacklin here.

Services will be held on Sunday, November 20, 2022, at 1:30 p.m. at King of Glory Church (4897 Longhill Road, Williamsburg, VA). In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Fred's Team, an organization of marathon runners who raise money for lifesaving cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering.