Miss Emily Diman: Matriarch of the Hilltop

When 12-year-old Edward M. Howland arrived in Newport with his aunt to attend John Diman’s new school, he stepped off the train from New Bedford, Massachusetts, onto a crowded platform and climbed into one of many taxicabs.

They twisted through city avenues, eventually turning down a short, dark street that ended in an open field situated with two cottages.

“The windows were ablaze with light,” Howland recalled in the Spring 1946 Bulletin. “Mr. and Miss Diman were at the front door to welcome us. There was an open fire, burning brightly.”

From the first night at what would become St. George’s School, John Diman was never alone in founding his dream. Diman’s youngest sister, Emily Diman, joined him in his educational venture, serving as hostess and housemother at his school at the age of 25.

When Diman moved his school after its first year into the larger Swann Villa overlooking First Beach, Miss Diman traveled to Providence to care for the siblings’ ailing mother.

Emily Diman visited Swann Villa occasionally, returning to the school fully in 1904 after St. George’s was already established at its new and permanent Middletown location overlooking Second Beach.

Miss Diman helped John Diman at St. George's School and lived on the Hilltop for the next 24 years.

“The two perfectly complemented each other,” William Buell said of the brother-sister duo in the Fall 1970 edition of Newport History, published by the Newport Historical Society.

The two stood side-by-side in front of King Hall to shake hands with each student every morning.

Where John Diman commanded respect from students using his charisma and large presence, his sister received just as much respect without ever having to raise her voice.

“The most unruly desperado, after his first meeting with her, knew instantly that here was a friend,” Joseph Alger, Class of 1918, said in the 1946 Spring Bulletin. “And this fact is the more remarkable when we recall that Miss Diman was always on the side of law and order, that she never condoned rebellion and never proffered motherly consolation to a boy who had been chastised. On the contrary, she always maintained an almost austere dignity, which never seemed austere because of her great beauty and friendliness.”

The teachers’ room had a sign on the door that read “Ye who enter here leave all hope behind,” but Emily Diman’s room had a panel that simply said “Come in.”

Sitting with Miss Diman at the head table in King Hall became a privilege sixth-formers looked forward to; they would talk to her about any and all subjects beyond their Hilltop educations (and SG athletics, of course!).

“From the first apprehensive trip up the long front drive to the sorrowful last departing, this great and charming lady shines in our school day memories like Sakonnet Light,” Joseph Alger, said of Emily Diman, referencing a local lighthouse.

Miss Diman’s tenure at St. George’s outlasted her brother’s by a dozen years, as she stayed at the school through the administrations of John Diman’s next two successors.

John Diman would often later tell people that he created St. George’s with Emily.

“In the fall of 1896, my sister Emily and I started St. George’s School in two small wooden houses in Newport,” John Diman wrote in the Catholic paper Our Sunday Visitor in 1942. “I cannot refrain from bringing my sister’s name in at this point, as I am fully convinced that whatever measure of success the school attained as long as I was there was very largely due to her share of the work.”

For many students who came to call St. George’s home, Emily Diman was a big part of that during her 28 years with the school.

“… Miss Diman’s continued presence helped in no small measure to maintain the continuity,” Douglas S. Byers ’21 said after John Diman left. “Her sitting room was always open to the younger boys, who lay on the floor, or sat on benches or chairs near the fire, when she read aloud after supper.”

“Sprawled about her cordial room were 10 or 15 boys, spellbound,” Alger said. “Even for the most homesick this was the certain cure. This was the moment every boy suddenly discovered that the school was home.” 