When Charlene Donchez Mowers ‘64P graduated from Moravian Preparatory School, she had no idea her Bethlehem roots would eventually lead to her serving as president of Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites.

As an Upper School student, Charlene loved foreign languages and cultures and pursued these passions at Arcadia University, where she earned a B.A. in Spanish, while also studying French and Italian, and at Temple University, where she earned a Masters in Spanish Literature. From there, she went on to spend 13 years teaching high school Spanish and serving as a bilingual interpreter for various companies. It was when she “officially” retired and she and her husband George returned to her hometown of Bethlehem that she began to create her legacy, her gift of restoring and preserving the rich and storied history of Historic Bethlehem.

Charlene remembered her days at Prep fondly and began volunteering at Moravian Academy upon her return to the city. Quickly seeing her passion and skill for preserving history, the then Chairman of the Board Paul VanReed Miller, Jr. invited her to join the Board of Trustees and to take on the responsibility of creating a school archive. From attics to cellars, every piece of art, photography, and memorabilia was carefully cataloged and organized. The process so inspired Charlene that she went on to serve as co-chair of the 250th Anniversary Committee and co-editor of Mind, Body and Spirit: Moravian Academy 1742-1992. Following its publication, Charlene was named a Distinguished Alumna because of her enormous efforts to preserve the School’s rich history. She served several terms on the Board of Trustees including as Board Secretary, Chair of the Education Committee, and Chair of the Archives Committee.

In 2000, she was named president of Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, a consortium of Burnside Plantation, Historic Bethlehem Inc., the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, and the Moravian Museum of Bethlehem. This allowed her to follow her love of history and oversee the preservation and restoration of the 20 historic sites, five gardens, three ruins, and an orchard located on the roughly 20 acres that make up Historic Bethlehem.

Charlene’s perseverance has not gone unnoticed and, after a decade of effort, the U.S. Department of the Interior named Historic Moravian Bethlehem a National Historic Landmark District in 2012, one of only eight such districts in Pennsylvania and one of about 200 in the entire United States. But she is not done yet. Realizing that the very city in which she lives is an incredible treasure, Charlene was appointed President of the Bethlehem World Heritage Commission by Mayor Robert Donchez and earned her first victory in 2016 when Historic Moravian Bethlehem made the U.S. Tentative List to be nominated as a World Heritage site. The United States uses the list to nominate sites for the exclusive World Heritage designation already bestowed upon the likes of Independence Hall in Philadelphia and Yellowstone National Park.

In the fall of this year, Charlene received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Moravian College for her unwavering dedication and commitment to the worldwide recognition of Historic Moravian Bethlehem. This honor rounds out her Moravian trifecta as a Prep alumna, Distinguished Alumna, and Honorary College alumna.

As Charlene looks to the future, she offers these words, “Going to school on the Church Street campus, attending daily chapel, and walking through God’s Acre instilled in me my love for the history of the Moravians and Bethlehem. Join with me in our quest to take the world stage with dedication, anticipation, and excitement as we continue to preserve for generations to come our timeless community of Historic Moravian Bethlehem with its ageless values.”

This article originally appeared in the 2019 Moravian Academy Fall Journal.