Commencement exercises set for May 15

York College's commencement exercises have been scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., May 15, on the campus mall. Irvin S. Naylor, founder, president and owner of Snow Time, Inc., a company that owns and operates ski resorts in Pennsylvania, will offer the address. Naylor will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters during the commencement ceremony, where more than 700 undergraduate and graduate students will receive their diplomas.

Naylor completed grades one through 12 at the McDonogh School, going on to earn a bachelor’s degree with honors in industrial engineering from the University of Miami, followed by a master’s degree in business administration from the same institution.

Throughout his school and college years, he participated actively in sports, excelling in wrestling. He was the Maryland State Champion upon his graduation from high school, wrestling at 145 pounds. He continued his wrestling career in college, at the intramural level, due to the lack of an intercollegiate team. He has been honored by both the Pennsylvania and Maryland wrestling associations for his continuing support of wrestling as a scholastic and collegiate sport.

Naylor began an innovative and entrepreneurial business career in York in the 1960s. Highlights of his business accomplishments include the founding and leadership of two packaging firms, Lok-Box and Cor-Box, as well as the development of Ski Roundtop, Liberty Mountain Resort, and Whitetail Mountain Resort, all in Pennsylvania, and Ski Yellowstone in Montana.

For 48 years, Naylor served as a member of the Board of Directors of The York Water Company, becoming chairman in 1993, having previously held the office of secretary/treasurer.

His sports engagement as an adult has been in skiing and horseback riding. He has been especially active in steeplechasing, in which he won major events over a span of 32 years, capped with his victory at the Benjamin Murray Memorial on Emerald Action in 1996. His win, at the age of 60, made him the oldest winner to date of a National Steeplechase Association-sanctioned event. He is ranked by his peers as a great horseman. 

Naylor has always been an avid supporter of the National Ski Patrol (NSP) and has been a driving force within the skiing industry, both in Pennsylvania and at the national level. In 1991, NSP awarded him an Honorary National Appointment, and in 2000, he was the first recipient of the NSP Eastern Pennsylvania Region's Partners In Industry Award, which was named in his honor. This award was created to honor "extraordinary and outstanding service to the ski industry," and is awarded annually to a deserving non-NSP individual, organization or group. In 2004, Naylor was inducted into the Pennsylvania Ski and Winter Sports Museum's Hall of Fame and presented with a National Distinguished Service Award. He was also honored that year with the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Naylor suffered a spinal cord injury, which caused him to be paralyzed, falling from his horse during a steeplechase race in 1999. He is currently an advocate for stem cell research to aid in discovering a cure for paralysis, and has supported experiments at the private Bedford Stem Cell Research Center on a novel approach to developing stem cells from adult skin that does not involve any destruction of embryos. 

Naylor’s charitable and nonprofit activities have been extensive and broad in scope. He has been a trustee of the McDonogh School and a board member of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the American Institute of Industrial Engineers, and the Pennsylvania National Horse Show. 

Information and directions for graduates may be found below.