{"id":3320,"date":"2016-03-31T11:33:56","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T15:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/?p=3320"},"modified":"2017-11-01T18:05:06","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T22:05:06","slug":"heroic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/heroic\/","title":{"rendered":"Heroic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The truth, looking back now in the mirror of time, now, is that most of the teachers seem heroic in their own ways\u00a0\u2013 all hard working women, very conscientious, and kind.\u00a0 In current culture, the general kindness of our classrooms seems a profound blessing. \u2014 Holly Alderman.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Some weeks ago, as we prepared a special Northampton School for Girls feature in the Williston Bulletin,<\/em> I asked a few alumnae to name adults whose presence during those formative and formidable ‘Hamp School years had made a difference.\u00a0 We couldn’t use every response.\u00a0 But two of them, from Caren Altchek Pauley and Holly Alderman, were special enough to deserve publication.\u00a0 Here they are, with thanks to the authors for allowing us to share! \u2014 RT<\/p>\n

Dagmar Abkarian<\/span><\/strong>
\nby Caren Altchek Pauley ’62<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Dagmar
Dagmar Abkarian (left), with teacher Viola Hussey and housemother Katherine Weller. (If anyone has a better photo of Ms. Abkarian, please contact the Archives!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With a comforting presence, Dagmar Abkarian ruled the\u00a0 pristine two-room Northampton School for Girls “infirmary,” located on the upper floor of Montgomery House.\u00a0 During my tenure, 1959-1962, she was a formidable presence, dark, round and with an unusual lumbering gait which seemed to separate her legs when she walked. She wore an immaculate white uniform, nurse’s coif, sensible white shoes, and a name badge.\u00a0 She was unlike any other teacher or faculty member at the school.\u00a0 Her coloring was like mine.\u00a0 It separated her and me from nearly all the other\u00a0 faculty, staff members and students\u00a0 who were mostly light eyed blonds and fair skinned.\u00a0 She was also a bit garrulous and although a mature woman, rather girlish at the same time.<\/p>\n

I was a frequent visitor to the infirmary, as every bout of homesickness, math test, science test, and athletic competition caused me to seek consolation in her peaceful domain.\u00a0 Before school counselors became de rigueur,<\/em> it was the school nurse on whom we depended for advice on “how to survive”.\u00a0 She took my temperature, and then usually pronounced me OK, to my utter and complete disappointment.\u00a0 Then she discussed the challenges of that moment, before nearly squeezing me to death in an affectionate hug.\u00a0 With her sympathetic endorsement, I knew I could make it through the morning geometry exam and even the afternoon field hockey game, although in my heart of hearts I knew I had little talent for either and thoroughly loathed both.<\/p>\n

Blisters were an especial concern and the particular medical speciality of Ms. Abkarian.\u00a0 I played tennis moderately well.\u00a0 Often wearing inflexible Keds would cause blisters on the backs of both heels.\u00a0 Other girls developed blisters from wearing high-heeled shoes, and these maladies were treated with the greatest seriousness.\u00a0 We were warned to take great pains to avoid developing blisters, since in 1924, President Coolidge’s son and namesake had died from blood poisoning resulting from an infected blister. To this day, I am fearful of blisters and, according to my daughters, wear the ugliest shoes to avoid them.<\/p>\n

\"Caren
Caren Altchek in 1962<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At my age, I have spent much time reflecting on the goodness of my parents, now both deceased, and the splendid opportunities they offered me.\u00a0 My\u00a0 peculiar ethnic origins continue to interest me a great deal.\u00a0 My Father, a physician, was American born to Ladino-speaking parents who had emigrated from Salonika\u00a0 (now Greece) in 1914.\u00a0 As a surgeon, he had little need for the free samples he was sent, of ace bandages, bandages, aspirin, sanitary napkins, tongue depressors, q-tips and the like.\u00a0 These he gave the infirmary, which was often short on supplies. They were happily and gratefully received by Miss Abkarian.<\/p>\n

Miss Abkarian’s family also came from\u00a0 Sivas, Turkey in 1883.\u00a0 Of course, everyone knew Miss Abkarian was Armenian, but what about that incongruous first name, “Dagmar?”\u00a0 It turns out that her family, like mine, came from\u00a0 the Ottoman Empire.\u00a0 She was also the daughter of a physician, Dr. Sarkis Abkarian,\u00a0 who had practiced in New York, and the sister of Mrs. Albion C. Ockenden of Southampton, Mass., which I guess is how she came to work at Northampton School.\u00a0 Although her mother was Danish, hence the name Dagmar, she adored Armenian food.\u00a0 My parents always brought her\u00a0 a “care package” comprised of my Grandmother’s sutlach (a rice pudding), boreks (cheese pastries), and Armenian pickles and other goodies made by Melik.\u00a0 He was the owner of the Dardenelles, NY’s best Armenian restaurant, at One University Place, where all of our family celebrations were held.\u00a0 He could not believe that a maiden Armenian lady, formerly of New York, could possibly live and work in remote, cold Northampton.<\/p>\n

Dr. Caren Altchek Pauley taught Spanish literature at George Washington University and other colleges for 33 years, and is a published authority on American silver and ceramics .\u00a0 She is currently Executive Director of the Harvard Club of Washington, DC.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Marianne
Marianne Kehrli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Marianne Kehrli<\/span><\/strong>
\nby Holly Alderman ’67
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

My main hero was Mrs. Kehrli \u2013 art.\u00a0 She was a petite Parisian with distinctive jeweled glasses who taught us art history with University Prints just like the college classes, and practical art, painting, and some crafts.\u00a0 The art studio was a long long room in the basement of Hathaway, the corner house and residence for seniors.\u00a0 The studio was accessible by a basement door.\u00a0 I still have a Freshman watercolor of the view upstairs.<\/p>\n

\"Holly
Holly Alderman, View from the Hathaway Art Studio. Collection of the Artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mrs. Kehrli was from Bern, capital of Switzerland, had studied at the \u00c9cole Nationale Sup\u00e9rieure des Beaux-Arts <\/span>in Paris and Moore College of Art, had designed costumes for the Metropolitan Opera in NYC.\u00a0 She was single but I believe not divorced, had married a Swiss aristocrat whose fleet of transatlantic freighters was sunk by the Germans, a distinguished gentleman whom I saw once, on a rare visit, in formal attire walking with a cane with a silver handle . . . handsome.\u00a0 She pronounced pizza “piz-za” . . . not peetsa. Her feet were about size 4 and she had high fashion European shoes.\u00a0 One of her formal, elegant suits for celebratory events was trimmed with real leopard on collar, cuffs, and pockets.\u00a0 She was, in a certain way, a version of Chanel in Northampton \u2013 she KNEW everything about style and art from Paris.\u00a0 Her daughter was the subject of a beautiful painting in progress in the studio.\u00a0 Her daughter’s husband was president of Rotary in France.\u00a0 She was from an extremely wealthy family. My parents greatly enjoyed her wit and talent as raconteuse on several day trips to Boston.<\/p>\n

\"Holly
Holly Alderman in 1967<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her hand painted hand-carved woodcuts impressed everyone as very beautiful.\u00a0 She assigned us to carve woodcuts and we carved wooden bookends and other items with tiny scoops and chisels.\u00a0 Several other students and I carved for her the drawer fronts of a 3-foot high 6-drawer chest which she painted in black lacquer with delicate gold Chinoiserie scenes and red accents.<\/p>\n

I wonder if without Mrs. Kehrli and her Parisian aesthetic and beau monde\u00a0 background, and her fine art of printing with carved wood blocks, I would never have had the artist eye to imagine “preserving” and “capturing” deteriorating French woodcut wallpapers, at a friend’s estate, in digital scans for new editions.<\/p>\n

In later years she moved to Abbot Academy, where I visited her a few times, and then went back to live near or with her daughter in France.\u00a0 Student lore \u2013 very sweet, very popular.\u00a0 She always kept a dime in her desk drawer in case there was an emergency; if a student needed help, she could make a call on the pay phone.\u00a0 Once someone did cut herself with an X-Acto blade \u2013 not too seriously \u2013 and instantly used the dime.\u00a0 She lectured slowly so we could write everything down.\u00a0 Her tests were so specific that if one memorized the lecture, one had the perfect answer.\u00a0 She loved and lived color theory, and annotations of art history prints. The studio was an inspired, creative place with art on the walls.\u00a0 Students drew with all the pencils, and crow quill pens, and painted faux fur on fashion drawings.<\/p>\n

\"Marianne
Marianne Kehrli, “Japonism.” Collection of Holly Alderman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She was a great artist, a Parisian artist, an AMAZING artist whose mother had been a wonderful artist and fine china painter.\u00a0 This is Mrs. Kehrli’s “Japonism” with cherry blossoms, one of her hand painted woodcuts 23″w x 32″h, which I bought for $10 at the NSFG Bazaar, probably in 1966.\u00a0 Her work is in several museums including the Springfield Museum \u2013 so I have heard; I have not investigated.<\/p>\n

Mrs Kehrli appointed me an Assistant Art Teacher my senior year and I helped teach freshmen.\u00a0 It was great!\u00a0 She said, “Put it on your resume so you can get a job.”\u00a0 First job, Assistant Teacher at Buckingham Lower School.<\/p>\n

A former day student from South Hadley, Holly Alderman is an artist across the digital divide. In her Jaffrey, NH studio, she develops innovative decorative arts to be custom printed for designers from DC to Palm Beach to Bangkok. As an example, her new edition of antique Parisian scenic wallpaper, <\/span><\/span><\/em>Views of Antiquity,<\/span><\/span> was originally hand printed with thousands of wood blocks in 1815; now the panoramas are printed digitally in Philadelphia for installation this spring in a Hilton-affiliated hotel lobby in Istanbul, down a narrow cobbled street from the Topkapi Museum.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"WNS15ALM10_175lWrite your own history!\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>Personal stories of Northampton and Williston people, places, and events bring unique perspective to our common school experience.\u00a0 What memories can you share?\u00a0 Who knows, we might even publish them!\u00a0 Please email archives@williston.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The truth, looking back now in the mirror of time, now, is that most of the teachers seem heroic in their own ways\u00a0\u2013 all hard working women, very conscientious, and kind.\u00a0 In current culture, the general kindness of our classrooms seems a profound blessing. \u2014 Holly Alderman. Some weeks ago, as we prepared a special … Continue reading Heroic<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[140,111,336,287,9,453],"tags":[414,412,415,413],"class_list":["post-3320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni-alumnae","category-fine-performing-arts","category-guest-bloggers","category-memoirs","category-northampton-school-for-girls","category-student-life","tag-caren-altchek-pauley","tag-dagmar-abkarian","tag-holly-alderman","tag-marianne-kehrli"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3320"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5289,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320\/revisions\/5289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}