1983
• JANE SIBLEY begins her tenure at Pace, teaching generations of students to love and appreciate art. Sibley is in her 29th year at Pace. • EDITH WOODLING is hired to teach English and assist with the service learning program. Woodling would remain at Pace until 1999, and during her tenure, the service program earned national recognition for outstanding achievement. • REV. CHARLES WASHAM is dean of Students and Family Counseling. • NEAL NEUENSCHWANDER joins the math department.
1984
• GRACE TATE PETERSON joins the math department and continues teaching at Pace until 2009. • GENE WILLIAMS becomes a member of the facilities team, and COLONEL JIM KIDWELL joins the staff. >>> Jim Kidwell, known by his students as “The Colonel,” wore numerous hats during his time at Pace. He started as “Captain Xerox,” overseeing the copy and mailroom, and went on to become a beloved history and geography teacher. Students fondly remember his infamous kilt.
1985
• KEN JAFFE joins the math department, and Faulkner scholar STAN GILLESPIE begins teaching English. • FRANCE DORMAN joins the Fine Arts department. Dorman serves as the school’s public relations manager in his early days at Pace. • RAY RIDGEWAY begins teaching history and serves briefly as director of Plant Operations and Summer School.
1986
• RICK CANFIELD, MARTHA KASILUS and PATTY SMITH are hired. • CRYSTAL “No seconds on pizza” GREER begins serving lunch in the cafeteria.
30
KnightTimes | Spring 2013
Above, an early rendering shows Pace’s new classroom building. Right, Lower School students eat lunch in the cafeteria, located in what is now the Upper School math and science hall.
1971-72 to 517 in Kirkpatrick’s first year as headmaster—an increase of 38 percent. Despite the addition to the Bridges building, the school’s facilities were again taxed to the breaking point, and the Board and Parents Club redoubled their fundraising activities to raise money for further campus improvements.
Bursting at the Seams Phase III: 1973 In 1972, Pace announced plans to renovate the Gardens behind the Castle building. Lane and his wife provided funding for the project and enlisted the help of a prominent Atlanta architect. Lane felt that although beautiful, the space, with its sunken reflecting pool and natural vegetation, was largely wasted. The area was leveled and converted into a practical space that contained a breezeway, terrace, small playground and a concrete area that could be used for meetings, dances, outdoor study and performances. What Pace students didn’t know was that the renovation of the Gardens was the first step in a massive development project that had been on the drawing board for some time. With the exponential growth in the school’s enrollment, the Board of Trustees had determined that Pace would need to add a number of new facilities to its campus over the next several years. In November 1972, after the dedication of the Gardens, the Board’s campaign committee sent a brochure to prospective contributors detailing what they called “The Pace Academy Long Range Development Plan, Phase One.” The goal was to raise
$365,000. Part of those funds would be used to build a three-story, air-conditioned classroom building, with “seven flexible instructional spaces.” The plan also called for a 600-seat auditorium, a fine arts building, expanded athletic fields, a stadium, the retirement of Pace’s debt and the beginning of an endowment program. The back of the brochure read, “When these projects are completed, Atlanta will have another preparatory school second to none in the South … We intend to remain ‘small’ by Atlanta standards in order to maintain the close feeling and concern for the individual that are the hallmarks and genius of the school.” At the start of the 1973-74 school year, Lane’s challenge grant was still looming on the horizon, but until the school held up its end of the bargain, the $300,000 that C&S Bank had offered to bargain was unattainable. A great deal of money had been raised but the original goal of $365,000 had been “handsomely oversubscribed.” The $490,000 that had come from earlier campaigns had already been spent on immediate needs,