Director of Camp Nakanawa
Karen Rathgeber Hale
2021-Present
Karen Rathgeber first came to Junior Camp from Houston in 1974. During her Tent Row summer, she was elected Amazon Captain and then selected as Lady of the Cup, an award presented to her by “Mitch.” A graduate of Texas A & M, she returned to Senior Camp as a cabin counselor intermittently from 1982 to 1999, and led many activities including Horseback Riding, Softball, Climbing Wall and Sailing. Since 2000, Karen has served as Head Counselor in either Junior or Senior Camp, making her one of the longest tenured head counselors since “Wally” Hall. During this time she has led both Two-Week and Four-Week sessions. She has provided continuous, strong leadership in Senior Camp now for 14 summers, helping guide us through challenges that include dealing with technology, enrollment, staff, and COVID-19.
Karen, with her late husband Chris, operated a successful business in Salado, Texas, for over twenty years. Karen also served as property manager of their own 17-acre property and her family’s 500-acre ranch. She has worked on numerous boards and was a civic leader in her community. Her background in marketing, graphic design, social media and photography are yet another asset. She has acquired an intimate working knowledge of every aspect of camp operations, from the location of fuse boxes to the recipe for frozen fruit salad. She knows the history of Nakanawa from A to Z, understands the lineage of our four-generation camp families, and has been a key part of TIES and our great alumni volunteers. A section on leadership in the Centennial History reads: “Karen, valued for her upbeat personality, always takes time to listen. She works to ensure camaraderie between the Junior and Senior Camp staff. An avid outdoorsman, she encourages a love of nature and adventure. Karen brings a sense of fun and playfulness to Senior Camp to counteract the pressures that fill the lives of today’s teenagers. She values the transformative nature of camp and the role Nakanawa plays in shaping the characters of young women.”
Karen provides that rare combination of warmth, humility and strength. She inspires us, and those she leads, with her caring attitude, wise counsel and sensitivity to the needs of others. Her dedication to the values of camp and her generous and giving personality shine brightly to all. Karen is committed to the continuation of “Nakanawa being Nakanawa.” Karen will confidently lead Nakanawa into this next century.
Previous Directors
Ann and Pepe Perron
1981-2021
Ann Mitchell
Griffin, Georgia
Converse College – B.A. degree in Art History
Pepe Perron
Gainesville, Georgia
Wofford College – B.A. in History
It was In 1980, when Ann was a head counselor in the Senior Camp that Mitch announced her plan to retire and “turn the keys of Nakanawa over to Ann and Pepe”. They then purchased the camp from Mitch and began their era as directors. As the years have gone by, many subtle changes and major improvements have occurred. Many of these have been made to maintain the natural beauty of the 1,000 acres and to add to it with the planting of numerous varieties of daylilies.
Old traditions have been restored with new ones added. Fun is always emphasized, but a focus on values and principles also continues to prevail. Pepe has brought to camp a remarkable insight into people, and expertise in business management, and scores of innovative ideas for the physical plant. Ann’s familiarity with the camp family, past and present, her dedication to the traditions of Nakanawa, and her love of natural beauty are invaluable.
Their unique combination of talents and abilities has provided loving and capable leadership for camp. As they hand the “reins” over to Karen Rathgeber Hale, the foundation of Nakanwa is secure heading into its second century!
"Mitch" Elisabeth Mitchell
1948-1980
Atlanta, Georgia
Alabama College – Physical Education Degree
Teacher’s College of Columbia University in NY – Masters degree
In 1926, a fourteen-year-old girl named Elisabeth Mitchell spent her first summer at Nakanawa. “Mitch”, as her camp friends called her, loved Nakanawa from the start, and it was to become a lifelong passion. A passion where she was chosen Lady of the Cup during the 1934 camp season.
Mitch returned to Nakanawa as a counselor after graduating from Alabama College with a degree in Physical Education; where she instructed Swimming, Archery, Tennis and Field Hockey for the next five years. Mitch later returned to school and obtained a master’s degree from the Teacher’s College of Columbia University in New York. In 1947, As if being called back home, she purchased Nakanawa with the help of her father, Mr. W.E. “Pop” Mitchell, who was a beloved figure to campers and whose guidance helped to develop Nakanawa’s physical plant into a showplace for the next decade.
Mitch was also supported by Helen Gates “Scooter” Carson, who was her assistant director for 27 of her 34 years of running camp; and by Carson Tays, who began with Mitch in 1947 as superintendent and remained with her until his death in 1980.
Every girl who passed through Nakanawa’s gates from 1947 to 1980 remembers Mitch: her tall, upright figure striding through camp with an Irish setter or black lab bounding at her heels. We remember her dressed for church in her trademark half-red, half-blue neckerchief, reading aloud from Bird Life in Wington.
The indelible effect Mitch has had on camp and on every one of the thousands of girls who knew her can never be measured.
Colonel Laban Lacey Rice
1920-1947
Dixon, Kentucky
Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee – Ph.D. in Latin, Greek and Sanskrit
Colonel Rice lived to 103, and while the founding of Nakanawa as one of the first girls camps for girls in the South was perhaps his most lasting accomplishment, it is certainly not his only one. He was recognized as a classical scholar and was considered the leading expert layman on the theory of relativity. A native of Kentucky, he served as headmaster of Castle Heights School for boys and president of Cumberland College, both located in Lebanon, Tennessee.
Colonel Rice’s daughter, Annie Hays Rice O’Neil, was a guiding spirit of Nakanawa in the 30’s and 40’s, serving as associate director during 13 of the Rice years. In 1946, at age 75, Colonel Rice decided to retire from both Cumberland College and Nakanawa, and was pleased to sell the camp to Elisabeth Mitchell, one of his campers and counselors.
Though Colonel Rice is only a legend to the campers of today, his legacy lives on in the Amazon and Valkyrie teams he created, and in the Spirit of Nakanawa he instilled in the first 25 years of campers. In his “Last Will and Testament,” which he read to the campers in 1946, he wrote:
“As long as there is a Nakanawa, my affections will center there, and – whether living or dead – my spirit lovingly will haunt this sacred spot.”
