reflecting on a landmark career
It was a nice spring day in 1956, and Helen Tanner – young, energetic, and anxious to land a teaching position at her alma mater - stood before the desk of Catharine Flippen, the venerable headmistress of the Collegiate School for Girls on Monument Avenue.
“Helen,” said the woman who had come to be her mentor, “I’ll hire you, but I don’t want you to stay longer than two years. “I want you to branch out and see other things.”
Almost 50 years later, Miss Tanner remembers that conversation as if it occurred yesterday. She recalls that she responded, “I’ll come to work at Collegiate if you’ll pay me enough to make peanut butter sandwiches.” She also recalls that after two years passed, she was quite flattered that Mrs. Flippen said nothing about her leaving. Mrs. Flippen, as always, was quite wise, for Collegiate was benefiting then from Miss Tanner’s presence, and it has benefited ever since.
During the half century that Helen has graced our halls, she’s achieved much, influenced many, and truly become an icon in the life of the school. She’s taught French and served as a sponsor of the honor council her entire career and at various times has chaired the foreign language department and advised the senior class, the Match, and the judicial board.
Twice, the graduating class dedicated the Torch, Collegiate’s yearbook, to her. In 1991, she was honored with the school’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award.
She’s been an active member of St. James Episcopal Church and has acted for years with La Comédie Richmondaine, a local French theater group. More times than she can remember, she’s traveled to France, often leading tours of adults or Collegiate students, all of whom rave about the experience. She thoroughly enjoys reading, the ballet, museums, and the symphony. Each summer, she swims regularly – “With the snakes and turtles,” she said, “but we all get along fine.” – at the Philadelphia Quarry located on Douglasdale Road behind Windsor Farms.
A native Richmonder, Helen, who’ll turn 75 on July 24, attended Collegiate for 12 years and graduated in 1949. She earned two degrees in French, a B.A. from Longwood and an M.A. from Middlebury, and also studied at the University of Lyon on a Fulbright Fellowship. She taught at Douglas Freeman High School for two years before rejoining the Collegiate family for good.
When she moves into the next phase of her life – retirement – in June, however, it’s not just the notations on her illustrious résumé for which she will be remembered. It will be her passion for teaching which hasn’t diminished even after all these years. It will be her willingness to help her colleagues, especially the new ones as they hurtle through the opening weeks of school. It will be her friendly, nurturing nature, her voice of reason, her ability to tell a story, her sense of humor, often understated or self-deprecating, and her wisdom. Mostly though, it will be her commitment to her students and the respect she commands long after they have graduated.
Helen is one of many at Collegiate who go about their business without fanfare, accept accolades with humility, and take quiet pride in simply being part of the team. So when we talked one day recently, her focus was not at all what she has achieved but what the experience on both Monument Avenue and North Mooreland Road has meant to her. You’ve obviously seen some changes, I began. What stands out most?
“The size of the school, of course,” she said. “When I graduated, the senior class had 11 people. “The school becoming co-ed made a difference. The curriculum has certainly expanded along with the whole athletic program and the theater productions.”
You’ve taught at Collegiate longer than most of your colleagues have been alive, I continued. What kept you here so long?
“The sense of honor and values,” she replied without hesitation. “Fair play and sportsmanship. The qualities I learned as a student still exist. “There’s a closeness between faculty and students. Students can joke with you and have fun, but we know our limits, and we’re comfortable with each other. “It’s just been fun.”
What will you do when you retire? I asked next.
That mischievous smile so familiar to those who know her appeared on her face. “That’s a big question,” she responded with a laugh. “That’s what makes me nervous.” Then she told of plans to travel to Scandinavia this summer. In September, she’ll return to France, which she’s never visited in the fall. She recently took up mahjong at Westminster Canterbury, her home the past three years. “It’s my retirement activity,” she said. “I love it. Play it twice a week.”
She also hopes to take classes, possibly in Italian and history, at Virginia Commonwealth University. And she would like to substitute at Collegiate. “After that,” she said, if that were not enough, “we’ll see.”
One of our colleagues told me that because of your adventuresome nature, you’re the youngest person she knows, I told her. Why retire now when you have so many good years left?
“I don’t really know,” she said, still smiling. “I just figure I’ve used enough red pencils.”
