A Love Letter by Virgina Wyman ’67

From 1955 to 1967, my years at The Helen Bush-Parkside School were magical and a stellar scholastic experience. My four siblings were ahead of me at school, so it felt like another version of home. Academics were prized and the priority of the curriculum; we were very lucky. I am still reading the classics today, to which Bush gave us a marvelous introduction.

 

Headmistress Marjorie Livengood was an outstanding administrator. She offered enough transparency so that we all felt as though we knew what was going on and that we were a part of it. Upper School Assembly on Fridays before lunch offered the opportunity for any random administrative communication from her, although presentations at weekly Assembly were usually extracurricular in subject and interest. Chapel was held on Wednesday mornings, with school uniform jackets mandatory; the presenters varied in denomination and message.  

 

From the students’ perspective, the school appeared to operate seamlessly. There was long-term stability in both faculty and staff.  For all my twelve years, Marjorie Livengood was Headmistress, Verna Ostrom the Business Manager, Dorothy Miller the Drama Teacher, Elizabeth Turner the Music Teacher, Dorothea Jackson the Piano Teacher, Elsa Johnson the Dietitian, Mr. Kearney the Janitor, Frank Pidge the Bus Driver, Ed Simpson his assistant and groundskeeper, as well as a plethora of excellent faculty who devoted their time and attention to their students.  

 

Mainstream academics included history, a variety of mathematics and geometry, foreign language, English language and its grammar, creative writing, and a variety of sciences.  All subjects had outstanding teachers throughout the scholastic curriculum.

 

The Lower School, Preschool through Sixth Grade, called Parkside School, was administered separately from the Upper School. Robert Dickson was the principal and, again, there was long-term stability among the faculty. In my grades one through six, my teachers were Gertrude Greider, Mary Dickson, Doris Matthews (when Sputnik was launched into outer space!), Mary Anna Woodward, Carol Hager, and Robert Dickson. In 2011, fifty years after our Sixth Grade graduation, my class held a fiftieth year reunion, the only Lower School class in the school’s history to do so!  We were fifteen in attendance.

 

My greatest academic teacher was Midge Grove. She taught us history in the Ninth Grade and English in the Tenth Grade. As I told a friend of hers whom I met in a restaurant in Paris, “With all apologies to my mother, she is the reason I am smart!”  Midge Grove did not let anyone slip through the cracks: If you were in her class, you performed. A small committee organized her ninetieth birthday party, inviting all of her former Bush students over the two sequences of her years teaching at the school to attend the celebration. Head of School Dr. Percy L. Abram, relatively new to the school, proudly joined us. She made a difference in all her students’ lives, exposing us to large concepts of thought and ideas, all the way down to the smallest detail of grammar. Her system of “correction folders” would not allow her students to advance until their previous work was perfectly correct. I still live by this goal. 

 

Another outstanding teacher was Margaret McCall, who taught Latin—among other subjects— over many years. Beyond its own fascination, studying Latin also showcased both the grammar and etymology of the English language, creating a rich trifecta of learning. I took Latin for four years.

 

Glee Club catapulted itself to greatness when choral conductor Dr. Joan Catoni Conlon (Miss Catoni) came to teach in 1962, staying with us for just a few years. We sang Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Britten, Buxtehude, Mozart, Purcell, and many other great composers. In her first year, Miss Catoni collaborated with Lakeside School’s Glee Club teacher, and the joint glee clubs performed Gabriel Fauré’s “Requiem” at the University Presbyterian Church. In the next year, on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Board of Directors, an all-school event held in the gymnasium, the Glee Club sang Benjamin Britten’s “Festival Te Deum.” It was a remarkable piece and performance.  Fourth Grade student John Sobel wore lederhosen that day and sang the solo with the voice of an angel, looking like one, too; all on a beautiful spring afternoon. A fine performance creates a lasting memory. In addition, because the Glee Club performed “Panis Angelicus” every year at graduation, we were able to execute its timing and crescendo with exquisite precision.

 

I should not overlook the contribution of Mrs. Miller, who taught drama to all six grades, seventh through twelfth! Every year there was a senior play, a junior play, and one or two other classes whose plays were also performed for the Upper School. My class’s senior play was “The Wizard of Oz”; my role was the Cowardly Lion. In the Eighth Grade we performed “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” and in the Tenth Grade we tackled “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” In addition, sports were not overlooked at the school. Beyond calisthenics, we played volleyball, basketball, baseball, and more. Honorable mention to Rosmond “Rody” Lea ’65, the school’s star athlete, who once in gym class aced a whole volleyball game with her serve!

 

My favorite extracurricular activity was the ski bus ride to Crystal Mountain. When the sign-up sheet was low, I darted amongst the student body to garner interest in filling up the sign-up sheet so we could go skiing that Saturday; an early lesson for me in marketing. I assisted Frank the bus driver in laying out the tire chains in the snow when necessary and wiped the fog from the windshield on cold, wet nights driving home. The eagerly anticipated and long-awaited two new school buses purchased in the mid-sixties were top-of-the-line!

 

My class voted me to be class speaker at our graduation. I sang the praises of Marjorie Livengood, whose last year at the school coincided with our last year. I said what I expressed here: that she ran a streamlined and respectful ship with authority, order, and grace. As I stated above, we were extremely lucky. My Bush education serves me every day, including in the writing of this piece.