Heidi Paulding
It almost goes without saying that the success of Fryeburg Academy starts and ends with our teachers. However, we sometimes need a reminder of how these quality professionals made their way to Fryeburg. One such teacher is Heidi Paulding. Heidi currently teaches Latin at the Academy and has done so since 2002. Her path to Fryeburg is a very interesting one and not a normal one by any means. Heidi was born in East Orange, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Edith and William Pennock. Edith herself was an elementary school teacher in Oakland, California, while her husband, William, worked as a financial advisor for the LaRoche Pharmaceutical Company in San Francisco. Heidi has two older siblings, a brother, Mark, and a sister, Holly. A change in jobs forced a move eastward to New Jersey where the family resided until she was twelve years old. It was at that time when the Pennocks moved north to live near Heidi’s grandparents on Bickford Pond in Porter, Maine. Edith got back into education by working at the New Country School in Baldwin and running the S.A.D. 55 Head Start program. William worked for the Pike Insurance Agency with A.O. Pike ‘57, who is the current President of the Board of Trustees at Fryeburg Academy. Heidi attended Sacopee Valley High School where she was involved in field hockey, cheering and track. It was at this time in her life that she started to mold her future in the field of teaching; she just did not know it at that time. Heidi claims that she was a very, how shall we say, “confident” person in high school. “I really felt I was the best thing going in high school; I have since learned that was not true, but at that time I felt that way,” said Heidi. She tells of how she won the “most improved” award for the track team, and it made her mad because that meant she was not as good as she thought she was. As a matter of fact, she knew exactly what she wanted to be in life. Her Heidi Paulding, FA Latin Teacher career choices were: lead singer in a rock and roll band, an architect or the girlfriend of “Indiana Jones.” Those choices dwindled when her mom explained that “Indiana Jones” was a movie character and that to be an architect you needed to take math in school. That left lead singer as her final choice and that just did not work out. Heidi tells a comical story how she received a “D” in driver’s education but she got an “A” in hunter’s safety while at Sacopee. It was her true dislike of math that started her on the road to teaching. She never wanted to be a teacher, it just materialized out of thin air. She had dropped her math class and needed another class to take its place. She chose Latin because she thought it was a social studies course. (I told you this was not a normal road). She was the only junior in this Latin class that was mostly freshman. During this time she developed a liking for a fellow student who was in this class. Now being an upperclassman it was not cool to date a freshman, so she did not spend much social time with him. He would pretend to need help so that Heidi would work with him on his Latin. This went on for the remainder of the year and into her senior year, as well. As she prepared to leave for college, Heidi felt she needed to tell her friend how she felt. During that conversation she said, “I want you to know how I feel in case I don’t see you again.” How true those words were. Shortly thereafter she was informed that her friend had been killed in a car accident. Heidi was unable to bring herself to go to the funeral or the memorial service or even to the gravesite. She had always been haunted by this event, but what made her able to cope with it were the memories of the time they shared with the Heidi’s husband, FA alum, Daniel Paulding ‘86 is an Latin subject. Whenever she would open a Latin book good memories of her accomplished artist. Above-one of his pieces displayed in friend would return, and it seemed to fill her with the joy of his memory. It the Goldberg Gallery at FA. -23-
FA Latin Teacher
Fryeburg Academy, 745 Main Street, Fryeburg, Maine 04037, (207) 935-2001 x 3137, www.fryeburgacademy.org, e-mail-alumni@fryeburgacademy.org