Marvin Black: a happy camper

Thirty percent of family-run businesses survive into the second generation, 12% into the third generation and only 3% into the fourth generation.

“I’m part of the 3%,” Longboat Key Towers resident Marvin Black said.

In 1931, Black’s parents, Hughie and Selma, opened Pine Forest Camp, in Greely, Pa.  It is now one of the longest-running camps in the U.S. that is operated by the same family who established it.

“My dad heard there was a camp for sale, and he went to look at it,” Black said. “He also bought the land around it. He didn’t want to have anything developed around it.”

Hughie Black, a Russian immigrant, was a well-known basketball player and played for the Philadelphia Sphas.

“Most camps back then were started by a celebrity or agency,” Black said. “My dad was the celebrity.”

Black was 6 when the camp began and was one of the youngest children at the overnight camp.

“Back then, we had set activities for children, and they had no choices on what they could do,” Black said. “They would all do the same things. Now, there’s 40 or 50 choices, and children have the choice between athletics, drama, hiking, scouting and more. There’s something for everyone.”

Black became director of the camp shortly after returning from his service in the Navy in 1946.

The family established Lake Owego Camp for boys in 1961 and Camp Timber Tops for girls in 1963, which are both adjacent to Pine Forest Camp.

Forty years ago, Camp Timber Tops built one of the country’s first climbing courses.

“No one had ever heard of one,” Black said. “It became a model for other climbing courses.”

Black, who taught physical education from 1950 to 1970, gave up teaching to work at the camp full time. He then expanded the camp to various groups, such as cheerleading squads, football teams and marching bands.

“We just had campers in the summer, and that was it,” Black said. “After the eight weeks, the camp would close, and it sat empty. One year, I got a call from a football coach, who asked to use the camp, and it gave my whole family an idea. It should be used for more than eight weeks.”

Black served on the board of the American Camp Association and as president of Private Independent Camps. He also received 2012’s Alumni Achievement Award from Temple University’s Department of Kinesiology.

The camp is now run by Black’s son and daughter-in-law, Mickey and Barbara Black, and grandchildren, Lee Forest Black and Eric and Anna Morin.  Black still spends his summers at the camp, and his great-granddaughters, who are 1 and 2, live there.

“My grandchildren live in the same cabin my parents did,” Black said. “It’s been five generations who have been at the camp, and now after 85 years, things are better than ever.”

In September, the camp celebrated its 85th consecutive summer of operation, and former campers and staff visited the camp.

“These eight little girls all from eight different states became really close at the camp, and they all came to the reunion,” Black said. “They’re now all 57, and to think they’ve stayed together all these years is amazing. Camp friends are forever friends.”

In its first year of operation, Pine Forest hosted just 25 campers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. Now, the three camps collectively see more than 800 children from all over the world each summer.

“We’ve touched thousands of children’s lives,” Black said. “If parents have chosen a good camp for their child, they have given that child a lifetime advantage. It’s such a great place for children to be in the summertime.”