feature STORY

have to understand that it’s not all about you, and

Gerhard now serving at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day

you have to be happy for the other team when they

School in Washington.

get to shine.” One of Lucy’s biggest passions in life is fishing. She has traded fishing stories for years with

It is perhaps this spiritual perspective on life that has

Facilities Manager Marvin Shelton and others. Retire-

made Lucy a person of compassion. Jim Heck, Dean

ment will include more of that, but it might be said

of External Affairs and Alumni Relations (and parent

that all along she has been fishing for the hearts and

of three St. Andrew’s graduates) comments, “She

minds of our children more than anything else. Their

doesn’t want to end a conversation with a ‘no’. If a

minds, of course, are harder to reach.

student has been irresponsible, she wants to give him or her another chance, if possible. These are all things

Many have remarked on Lucy’s optimism and strong

that make people love her, and that’s why they work

sense of vision for the future. John Works comments,

so hard for her.” Margaret Marcus, one of our 25-

“She is someone who is perhaps in the back of our

year teachers who is now retired, recalled that Lucy

minds as we deliberate and as we live, sort of like a

has always said “above all else, be kind,” and when

light that shines on us all…she illuminates things for us

facing a tough decision involving student discipline

in some mysterious way.” He describes this presence

would usually say she needed to sleep on it. Lucy was

as being like a weather pattern, simply creating a fa-

viewed as “being in the business of promoting re-

vorable atmosphere. This is a secular perspective on

demption of children.” This empathy extended to the

Lucy’s spiritual side, which has resonated throughout

faculty, many of whom have awoken from surgery to

her tenure. She estimates that she has conducted

find that Lucy was there while they were in the op-

at least three chapel services a week (four when the

erating room, waiting and praying. Retiring Upper

Middle School was added and five when the Up-

School Math Department Chair Wayne Packwood

per School was added) ever since she arrived at St.

tells the most recent of these stories. Almost every

Andrew’s, and considers daily chapel an essential

faculty member or family having significant tenure

part of the educational experience we offer. She

at the school has a story of Lucy’s kindness, in some

has imbued the school with such a strong sense of

way large or small. And because she has interacted

Episcopal identity that Billy Gammon was moved

personally with so many people, it is fitting that the

to whisper to a faculty member seated next to him

best visual portrait of her is currently hanging in the

at the 2011 St. Andrew’s Day Service, “You know St.

dining hall of the high school, a large and highly ac-

Andrew’s is not a church, but it’s not far from it.” When

curate black and white image made entirely from

told of this remark, Lucy, replied “I don’t see it as a

the fingerprints of a group of our students (see cover),

church. I see it as a worshiping, serving community,

with their names all carefully keyed to their prints. It is

but it is the church for a lot of people.” The first plan

not surprising that the image captured in this portrait

for the Upper School Chapel called for a very small

is one of compassion, and its twin, wisdom.

structure, and Lucy vetoed the design, insisting that it be large enough to hold the entire community. It is, and it matters – the Upper School gathers there daily. The most noticeable thing about the old prayer book that Lucy brings to all of the school board meetings is just how tattered it is, from such long years of usage. Increasingly, that usage includes the performance of many weddings for former students. Lucy has for

L ucy , we wil l al l m is s y ou so much.

years mentored many priests in training while they were studying at the Seminary, including one, Kurt St. Andrew’s Episcopal School •  www.sasaustin.org • 9