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Dear WLHS Classmates,
How moving it is to see us all in our senior splendor!-- and how sad
to see how many are no longer with us. Thanks so much, Jim and
Marilynn, for making this website come alive with memories. I
deeply regret that I am unable to attend this reunion, but I hope to
see everyone there at the next one.
I am currently beginning my twelfth year as the Head of the Upper
School, grades 8-12 at Marymount School, an N-12, all- girls' school
directly across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York City. What I particularly love about this school is that we
have created an excellent academic program but also care deeply
about social justice. The values are inherent in the community, and
the students immediately go into action, with a little
organizational help from us, when someone needs help. For example,
we raise $4000-$5000 every year to educate approximately 200
students in Zimbabwe, and we raised over $20,000 to help the victims
of Hurricane Katrina and took in two girls from New Orleans for the
year. Our Student Government organized a clothing and gift drive
for them, as they had lost everything but the clothes on their
backs. Previously, I was an English teacher and Academic Dean for
eighteen years at the Trinity School, NY,NY, and prior to that an
English teacher, dorm parent, Outdoor Challenge leader, Asst.
College Counselor at the Phillips Exeter Academy, a boarding school
in N.H.
But I've become a true New Yorker: undoubtedly too outspoken at
times, definitely a lover of the city in its endless possibilities
and diversity, and a devotee of the arts. I subscribe to the opera
and regularly attend museums, dance, film and theater events. I'm a
fan of Martin McDonough, a quirky Irish playwright who makes you
both shiver and laugh and has a refreshingly moral vision about how
we ought to treat one another in this world. He looks like an odd,
punk guy in pictures I've seen of him, but that hasn't curbed my
enthusiasm. I'm been fortunate to see Ian McKellan, Placido
Domingo, Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave, Baryshnikov and many other
extraordinarily talented people live on stage on multiple occasions.
I am blessed to have wonderful friends who share my interests. I
have also traveled widely, including to England and Italy, Istanbul
and Greece, Russia and Uzbekistan, Thailand and Bali, and Colombia
and Peru.
About eight years ago, my brother Bud's younger daughter took a
Dante course in college and was shocked to learn that I had never
progressed beyond the Inferno. She motivated me to read the entire
Divine Comedy with the care I would take if I were going to teach
it, and then I was inspired to begin to fill in other gaps in my
education. I've been choosing a warm, sunny location and taking a
major work to read over spring or Christmas vacation for the last
few years. I'm certain I was the only person reading Vergil's
Aenead on Miami Beach, and I read Ovid's Metamorphosis and Don
Quixote in Barbados, and Euripides and Aeschylus in San Juan. I
normally escape into mysteries every evening during the school year,
as my job is very demanding, in time and energy.
I've never married, always too afraid of having my wings clipped, I
believe, but I have two wonderful nieces to whom I am very close.
(Some of you may remember their parents, my brother Bud, WLHS '65,
and Carole Wright, Diana sister, WLHS'66. They both are happily
re-married and live in the Seattle area.) Kristin, 30, just moved
to NY and is working for a large advertising firm, and Kelly, 27, is
in graduate school in molecular biology at UCLA.
In short, I have a good life. I do have recurring fears after
living through the terror and the losses of 9/11, but I truly enjoy
my life, and I actively support political candidates who seem to
have humanistic values and balanced perspectives and who are most
likely to keep us out of war and out of recessions. I continue to
hope for the best.
Wishing you all good health and joy and peace.
With fond memories,
Carole
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