Miles M. Strodel, 81; was caring coach, headmaster, and camp director

Miles M. Strodel liked to walk the line between silly and serious. At Camp Brookwoods and Deer Run in New Hampshire, campers called him "Uncle Miles." At Lexington Christian Academy, he went by "Coach."

Whether he was riding his three-wheel all-terrain vehicle into the water off a beach, driving through the two Alton, N.H., campgrounds at night to ensure youngsters were in their cabins, or showing basketball players at Lexington Christian how to shoot a layup, Mr. Strodel knew a thing or two about how to keep it fun for children of varying ages.

The former Lexington Christian headmaster, who concurrently ran the athletics department at Gordon College, died June 27 at Carleton-Willard Village in Bedford from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 81.

His wry sense of humor as camp director was legendary. He once instructed a camper to fetch a "left-handed pitcher squeezer" from the kitchen, eager to see her reaction as she realized there was no such device.

His signature "Hey, ho, whoa!" and Chicago Cubs cap were a familiar sight around the campgrounds, which he often toured in an orange Jeep.

"He loved being outside, he had a good rapport with kids, he was funny, and he was a great, inspirational leader," said his son Bob of Dover, N.H.

Mr. Strodel was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and earned a bachelor's degree from Wheaton College in Illinois. He earned a master's degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1950, and later earned a master's in education administration from Boston University.

Summers were spent working at Camp Sandy Cove in Maryland from 1948 to 1957. During the school year he coached basketball at Boston Christian High School.

As a coach, he was "a good judge of talent, and he didn't demand what wasn't there," his son said. "He put people in the right places at the right time."

One of his former players, David Barram of Los Altos, Calif., said: "He had very high expectations. He operated with a very clear purpose and had great integrity."

He became the school's headmaster in 1957. The school later moved to Cambridge, where it was renamed Christian High School, and then to Lexington, where it became Lexington Christian Academy.

In his office, an eye-grabbing 30-pound Northern pike hung on a wall above his desk.

He left the post in 1973 to head the athletics department at Gordon College in Wenham for about six years.

Title IX had just come into play, and Mr. Strodel went to great lengths to ensure that women's teams had the equipment and funding that they needed to play ball - and play well, colleagues said.

"At a time in the '70s and '80s, when male coaches were trying to find a way around Title IX, Miles was extraordinary about recognizing my coaching ability and my teaching ability," said former Gordon basketball coach Winifred Byker.

Mr. Strodel became full-time executive director of Christian Camps and Conferences Inc., which operates Camp Brookwoods for boys and Deer Run for girls.

He had started out at Brookwoods in 1958, and as director he hired staff, developed budgets, and handled all logistics. But when summer rolled around, he was a ubiquitous presence - playing baseball, swimming, and doing ceramics alongside campers. He stayed with that job until his 1994 retirement.

The camp and the academy were nondenominational Christian institutions, and he often led Sunday services at the camp.

In an online tribute on the camps' website, one former Deer Run camper recalled that she was having boyfriend troubles and burst into tears in his office one day. Mr. Strodel picked up the phone and called the former boyfriend's father to have a "father-to-father" chat. For the rest of that summer, he would check on her.

In addition to his son Bob, Mr. Strodel leaves his wife, Grace H. (Raws); another son, David of Chelmsford; a daughter, Donna Aldridge of Wheaton, Ill.; two brothers, Sherwood "Woody" of Dallas and Matt of Minneapolis; four granddaughters; and three grandsons.

A celebration of his life will be held at 11 a.m. on July 26 in Grace Chapel in Lexington. Burial will be in Lakeview Cemetery in Wolfeboro, N.H.