Washington Memorial Chapel at Valley Forge: History and Symbolism

For the second event in our Parish History and Archives Committee Summer series, Gardiner Pearson will join us to talk about Washington Memorial Chapel at Valley Forge Park, an Episcopal parish in the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

Gardiner Pearson is a member of the congregation of the Washington Memorial Chapel, the Episcopal parish at Valley Forge. He has served on the Vestry twice and as Rector’s Warden. He is currently Vice President of the Board of the Washington Memorial Heritage, the secular 501(c)3 organization dedicated to the restoration and preservation of the Washington Memorial Chapel.

Dedicated to honoring and preserving the memory of America’s founders, Gardiner is Vice President of the Maryland Society of the Cincinnati and a member of the Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution. Gardiner is dedicated to educating the public about America’s founding and he regularly gives tours of the Washington Memorial Chapel, helping visitors to understand its meaning and message.

Gardiner worked for the U.S. government for 24 years, initially as an analyst for the CIA in Washington, DC and then for the U.S. Department of State in Israel, Mexico, France, and Switzerland. Prior to US government employment he worked for Citibank International in Greece, Morocco, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.

Following graduation from Princeton University in 1967, Gardiner served three years in the U.S. Navy, first in a destroyer and then in a patrol gunboat in Vietnam. He returned to Princeton and received a Masters of Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1973.

Gardiner was born and reared in suburban Philadelphia and returned to the Philadelphia area upon retirement in 2006. He is married and has two children and four grandchildren.

Suggested donation of $5 per person to cover refreshments and honorariums.