Mary Wadleigh Class of 1964
Lifelong Learner
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Leise Jones Photography
n a twist on the traditional academic path, Mary Wadleigh followed her daughter to college. Wadleigh graduated from Smith College with a BA in Environmental Science and Public Policy in 2007, six years after her daughter, Alice Wadleigh Jayne ’97, graduated from Smith and more than forty years after Mary’s 1964 graduation from Concord Academy. Why the long break from school? After Concord, Wadleigh did enroll at Radcliffe College but it was a time of political turmoil. “This was the era when the campus was shut down by protesters, and political activism of all stripes was rife on and off campus,” she said. “I was distracted by all that and knew I wasn’t performing to the academic standards I and others expected of me.” Ultimately, Wadleigh left Radcliffe but a lifelong interest in both politics and environmental science had started. Vowing to complete a degree someday, she taught Earth
Comstock Scholars Program for older students. Her first Smith class in Colonial Environmental History met at 9:30 a.m. on September 11, 2001. Although her thoughts were back in Washington with her husband and neighbors directly affected by the crisis, she said that being on the Smith campus during those troubled days was still “an amazing experience.” “A Smith alumna who had been active in a senior role in the Clinton Administration was on campus that week,” Wadleigh said. “She shared her insight, perspective and expertise with students at an all-college assembly held that same evening.” Wadleigh took a total of six years to finish her degree. Her mother’s illness required her to often be away from the Smith campus but her engagement with college life never lessened. Active in stuScience at a Connecticut private school, dent government, she held a seat on a prothen worked on the 1970 Census and sevfessorial search committee and served as eral Massachusetts political campaigns a tour guide. “Participation in these ways including the reelection campaign of U.S. held meaning for me as an older student,” Senator Edward Brooke in 1972. Brooke, she remembered. the first African-American to be elected by It is perhaps not surprising that Wadlepopular vote, won re-election and Wadleigh igh has remained dedicated to academic began work as a Senate staffer and moved pursuits even later in life. After all, she to Washington. grew up just steps from CA in Concord At that point, life intervened and Wadlecenter. As a child, she considered the camigh married, raised her children, and volunpus an extension of her own back yard. teered her time on projects that held deep Her grandmother, Julia Kidder, supported meaning for her. Historic preservation and the efforts of the school’s founders in the zoning issues in her Capitol Hill neighborhood, environmental projects and support for 1920s. Her mother, Joy Kidder Shane ’40, local public schools attended by her two chil- attended the school when CA could service all 12 grades of a girl’s pre-college educadren vied with several part-time jobs for her tion. Wadleigh’s daughter Alice Jayne is a time and attention. She ran an after-school proud third generation CA alumna. Science enrichment program and held sev Following Smith College graduation eral offices for the multi-school “cluster” in 2007, Wadleigh began a job as CapiParent Teacher Association. tal Chapter Administrator for the National Maintaining the twin interests in poliAssociation of Corporate Directors. The tics and environmental interests, Wadleigh nonprofit provides instruction and trainknew she would return and finish a college ing to members of corporate and nonprofit degree eventually. boards. In 2008, she joined the Board of “Course offerings the Alliance for Chesapeake Bay. Serving at the time I was as Secretary, Wadleigh assists with efforts at Radcliffe did not to renew the environmental activism that include a degree brought the organization into being in the program combin1970s. Still an active volunteer in her Capiing environmental tol Hill neighborhood in Washington, she science and public policy,” she recalled. also spends about 10 weeks each year at a second home in Brooksville, Maine, attendA generation later, ing to environmental issues that affect college offerings Penobscot Bay. Her small acreage hosts had changed and native plants that encourage threatened Wadleigh saw her pollinators and enrich the soil. opportunity. There is much still to learn. Even with At age 54, a degree in hand, Wadleigh, now age 67, Wadleigh entered says she might not be done with school Smith College, just yet. enrolling in the school’s Ada
CON CORD AC A DEM Y M AG A ZINE FALL 2013
Mary Wadleigh with her daughter, Alice
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