Alumnus Profile: Nick Fuglestad ’89

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A Marvelous Vacation

Noel Robbins Congdon ’46

“In addition to helping you with your education, they were also teaching you to grow up,” says Noel Robbins Congdon ’46. “John and Julie Forman liked and understood young people.”

Noel Robbins Congdon ’46 had seen a lot of the world by the time she came to Forman School in the fall of 1942.

Her parents, Hilda and James Stanton (Stan) Robbins, were in the travel business and moved around a lot. Born in New York City in 1928, Noel had seen London and Paris before she turned 10. “They were entrepreneurs and were always on an adventure,” says Noel. “My sister and I just went along for the ride. We went to Europe at least once a year.”

In 1938, while living in Bronxville, NY, her parents convinced the Holland America Line to fit empty steerage space with three-bunk cabins. Cunard soon followed suit. Their idea was the beginning of what became known as student third-class travel.

The family enjoyed some stability until Stan was called to Washington D.C. to work for the United States government because of his potentially useful international resources and contacts.

While in Washington, the family met General Harold Harris, who was looking into Forman for his children, Harold Jr. and Alta Mae, who eventually did attend. The Robbins did their own research and Noel and sister Chelsea, born in 1927, headed for Litchfield in the fall of 1942. “I was quite seriously dyslexic and had been my whole life. My family thought I was very cute and funny. But just kind of dumb,” says Noel. “I only read backwards and did mirror reading. I was pretty seriously off.”

Chelsea, on the other hand, did very well in school. As they grew up together in Bronxville, which had a well-

Noel Robbins Congdon ’46

known public school system, Noel didn’t really earn passing grades but continued to advance.

“Every time grades came in, my parents would give Chelsea a little present,” says Noel. “Of course, I didn’t get one because my grades weren’t any good. It didn’t feel like punishment, though. It was just the way things go.”

Noel had a lot of catching up to do when she arrived at Forman. Over time, Noel saw wonderful improvement in her reading skills and also did well in math, music, and languages. Noel remembers her time at Forman with

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Noel and her husband, Tom

Chelsea very fondly. They both made many friends and considered it all a “marvelous vacation.”

“When I attended Forman, I never knew it was a school for children with learning differences. No one told me,” says Noel. “I don’t remember that they did anything different or special with me. But the School helped me a great deal.“

Noel recalls Forman being run with great discipline and respect. She recalls a “lovely and high-spirited” campus with school chores followed by outdoor activities such as hiking, skating, and skiing. Noel also remembers a sympathetic and empathetic faculty that sought to instill good habits.

“One time, Mr. Forman came to me with something on his mind,” says Noel. “He said that he had watched me ice skating a few times and that, when I fell, I seemed to lay there on the ice waiting for someone to come over and help me up. He said I seemed to like that kind of attention more than just getting up on my own. He suggested I think about that. He was right, of course.”

Chelsea graduated from Forman in 1945, but the family moved to New Orleans, and that’s where Noel finished her high school education. “We were certainly coming from a happy family, but also a distracted one,” says Noel. “Busy, busy all the time. Being together in one place for those three years was good for us. We both loved it.”

Noel’s work at Forman, and her academic improvements, helped her gain admission to Mount Holyoke College in 1946, where she studied comparative religion and psychology.

After graduation from Mount Holyoke in 1950, she joined her peripatetic parents in Puerto Rico for a few years, working in army intelligence. Then she worked for the Central Intelligence Agency in New York City until 1958 when she married Thomas Congdon. The Congdons moved to Denver and had three daughters. Her husband worked in the mining, gas, and oil industries and had a notable career. Noel and Tom’s philanthropy and volunteer work are well-known in Colorado.

“Denver was just a baby town when we moved there in 1958,” says Noel. “There was very little going on culturally back then and we were glad to help turn Denver into a growing city.” Over the years, they have supported the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Opera Colorado, and the Aspen Music Festival, which Noel chaired for several years. In education, the Congdons have worked with the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, which Noel also chaired, Aspen Music School, and the Denver Scholarship Foundation.

Chelsea and Noel returned to campus in 1990 when Noel was inducted into the Forman School Hall of Fame. After Forman, Chelsea went to Stanford and met her husband, Donn Kesselheim. They had three children and taught in the U.S., Turkey, and India. After a full life that included activism involving civil rights, women’s issues, and prisoner reform, sister Chelsea passed away in 2013 at age 86. Tom died in 2019 at 92. Today, at 92, Noel has a lot to look back on in her rich life and many accomplishments. She fully credits Forman for helping her find her way. “By the time I got going at Forman, I felt such a difference. By then, I could do it well enough. My grades never earned me a present, but I got better. And better means happier.”

Noel Congdon ’46 with her late sister, Chelsea Robbins Kesselheim ’45