2014
Alumni Hall of Fame
Dinner
Shayla L. Titley ’98 – Service Shayla, manager of membership programs at the New York Public Library, has been a volunteer as well as a member of not-for-profit organizations all her life. “It just feels right to give back,” she says, noting that “Rye Country Day School did so much for me and got me on the path I’ve been on.” She most recently has served a three-year term on the RCDS Board of Trustees and six years on the Alumni Executive Board, the last three as president. Shayla still lives in her native Mount Vernon, where she volunteered at Greater Centennial A.M.E. Church and the public library. At RCDS, she was heavily involved in performing arts and athletics, but always with an eye on contributing to her community. Her first stage performance was in Trial By Jury when she was in Grade 7, an experience that triggered her participation in all theater productions during her four years in the Upper School. She was a member of the choir, the WildScats and Madrigals, and was the recipient of the Drama Award. She also was on the fencing and field hockey teams and won the Coaches Award as captain of the fencing team. Shayla earned a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., where she participated in numerous musicals and drama productions and won prizes for play writing. She also served as co-chair of Trinity’s Black Women’s Organization. Following graduation, she studied in a summer program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and then spent three years at Trinity as assistant director of admissions. She returned to New York and studied performing arts administration at NYU, where she received her master’s in 2007. She worked in the development departments of the Manhattan Theatre Club and later of Playwrights Horizons while attending NYU, and then joined the New York Public Library in 2008.
Shayla Titley ’98 and Upper School Principal Paul Wieman
Shayla manages numerous events and projects for over 25,000 members of the library, but still volunteers at the Manhattan Theatre Club and at the Manhattan branch of Dress For Success, where she serves as a counselor and personal shopper for women who are re-entering the work force. She was the branch’s Volunteer of the Year in 2012. She also tries to make time to participate in the annual Festival Chorus at RCDS, perform on the karaoke stage, and do voice-overs for TV and radio.
Cary C. Fuller H’89 – Special Cary refers to himself as “quietly retired” after leaving RCDS in 2010 as Head of the Drama Department and teacher of Upper School English. His final official act was delivering the commencement address to the class of 2010. But he was a rare faculty member, having also been named an honorary alumnus, class of 1989, a designation seldom bestowed on a non-student. It was a testament to his popularity and contributions before leaving to teach in Florida for a year. He previously had taken a brief time out to work in Washington, D.C., and also taught at Athens College, in Greece, in a one-year exchange program. In total, he taught at RCDS for 41 years. Cary grew up in Washington, where he developed an interest in theater, stimulated largely by his family’s friendship with Jane Perkins and her son, actor Anthony Cary C. Fuller H’89
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