Mark Eric Seinfelt, a 1980 graduate of Indiana Senior High School, has been chosen to receive the Henry Sams Memorial Award of 1983, Honors in English, for his thesis in creative composition "The Mozart Machine: An Excerpt."
This award is presented annually by the English Department at Pennsylvania State University to one graduate in the University Scholar Honors Program who is judged by the English faculty to have submitted the best thesis in creative composition.
Having completed his thesis within the spring 1983 deadline, Seinfelt was assured he would receive Honors Degree certification on his graduation diploma. To achieve honors certification the University Scholar must write a thesis in either critical analysis or creative composition.
Seinfelt accelerated at Penn State, completing his studies in three years instead of the customary four.
While at Penn State Seinfelt was an assistant editor in 1981 and chief editor in 1982 and 1983 of the English Department student literary magazine, "Kalliope." In 1981 he received the Federal Republic of Germany Award for being the best student in German in the general studies program at Penn State.
Seinfelt also represented Indiana Senior High School at the Governors School in the summer of 1979 at Bucknell University where he also was enrolled in creative writing.
He is the son of Dr. and Mrs. Fred Seinfelt of Shadowood.

 After years of persistence and hard work, the labors of a Philipsburg man are  finally paying off with the publication of his first book in October. Mark Seinfelt,  known for his efforts in preserving the Simler House, oldest dwelling in  Philipsburg, and grandson of J. Clair Simler, curator emeritus of the Philipsburg  Historical Foundation, is crowing about his first book deal. "I've been working on  this particular book for about four years," Mr. Seinfelt said in a recent interview.  The book is called "Final Drafts: Suicides of World- Famous Authors", a work that  examines in-depth the lives of 25 authors who killed themselves between 1894  and 1991. It isn't Mr. Seinfelt's first writing attempt; he has authored a work that  fictionalizes an account of the Simler history dealing with connections to French  General Lafayette during the Revolutionary War.
"It's much harder to get fiction published," Mr. Seinfelt said. "I looked at non-fiction topics, and think I found one that hadn't been dealt with and for which there was a need." It took a while to write the book, considering other projects in which Mr. Seinfelt was involved. He said he spent quite a bit of time contacting the families of those mentioned in the book for permission to use material. He sold the book, got an agent, and now there may be some interest in his fiction work as well. "Final Drafts" reads like a history book, and Mr. Seinfelt said there are individual chapters on 25 authors, then there are two other chapters in the book, one on seven possible suicides, and another on 24 other possibles. The most famous suicides dealt with in the book include Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath.
Other lesser known writers include Constance F. Woolson, grand-niece of James Fenimore Cooper and protégeé of Henry James; émigré Austrian writer Stefan Zweig and John Kennedy Toole. Some others noted in the book are Ambrose Bierce, William Inge, Randall Jarrell, T.E. Lawrence, Jack London, Anne Sexton and Sara Teasdale. "I can see this book being used as a reference," Mr. Seinfelt said. According to information found in the liner notes for the book, authors have always been susceptible to the suicidal impulse; and the act has fueled the literary art. Since the nineteenth century, for whatever reason, a significant wave of author suicides have occurred, according to the liner notes. Even some authors who did not kill themselves outright, might have engaged in behavior so reckless and self destructive as to be construed as psychological suicides.
Mr. Seinfelt said 2,000 advance copies have already been sold and that the book will be available in all 50 states, and at major book sellers in the area. He has degrees in English literature and writing from Penn State and Washington University in St. Louis, where he received his Master's degree.

By Jane Elling
"Our Heritage Philipsburg Historical Foundation with Clair Simler" is the name of the DVD that will be available at Wednesday's annual Christmas party/open house from 2-4 p.m. at the Philipsburg Historical Foundation rooms at 203 North Front St. in the Moshannon Building. It is open to the public, and there is no charge. The late Clair Simler was in his 94th year when he retired from his volunteer work at the foundation rooms in 2000. He had been the curator from when the foundation was established 50 years ago and then became curator emeritus. Margie Marshall took over the duties of curator in the mid 1990s, according to Mark Seinfelt, who talked about his grandfather in a recent interview. He said Mr. Simler knew much about his hometown, the community that his ancestors settled.
The Simler house, the oldest structure remaining in Philipsburg, was built of hewn logs by John Henry Simler, an ancestor of Mr. Simler, Mrs. Marshall, Mr. Seinfelt and several other local residents. He said there was no one else who knew the details about the 10,000 pieces of memorabilia in the museum like Mr. Simler did and who could tell the story of what they were and where they came from. He remembered the donors and the stories behind them. "Clair was a great storyteller and really had a wealth of knowledge," he said. So in 1998, Mr. Seinfelt, Mrs. Marshall and Frank Williams went through the foundation rooms with Mr. Simler, asking questions while Gary Barnett of Philipsburg from "Capture the Moment" videotaped them. The DVD has been edited down to 3 1/2 hours. The project didn't begin with intentions to make it public, but the realization soon came that this is something that would be of value to anyone interested in Philipsburg.
Mr. Seinfelt said, "many people can remember going on tours with Clair and these DVDs are just like Clair is still giving tours, and he is preserving the history of the town he loved so much. He wanted everyone to love history." Maybe you have memories of Mr. Simler. I remember going to the foundation rooms many times to ask questions of him and Mrs. Marshall. He would tell me the tale of an historic event or happening and then give me the information and sometimes a photograph I needed for a column. His grandson said, "This is Clair's legacy and a gift to the community and people he loved. He tried to personalize history and tell a story." The DVDs will be available at the foundation rooms, at the Main Street Christmas Store, 201 Front St., or by mail at P.O. Box 8, Philipsburg PA 16866. Mr. Seinfelt said the board has recently received a $50,000 grant through the efforts of state Rep. Lynn Herman, R-77 of Philipsburg. Tentative plans are to perhaps build the lean-to back on the Simler House or they may try to expand into another room in the museum, but their main focus will be the cataloging of all the historic items.