WILLOWS PARK PRESERVE
Creating Community Connections with the Willows Park Preserve
The Willows Park Preserve will hold its annual Fall Fundraiser at the Willows Mansion in Villanova on Saturday, October 2, 2021. Our theme for the evening is, Creating Community Connections, and we are pleased to report that our honored guest will be Radnor resident extraordinaire, Roberta Winters. Roberta is well known and widely admired in the Radnor community as a devoted educator, a skilled organizer, a tireless advocate and an inspiring leader. Her numerous contributions to the Radnor community began in 1973 as a secondgrade teacher at Rosemont Elementary School. When that school closed in the early 1980's Roberta moved on to Ithan Elementary where she taught gifted students for 30 years. During those years, Roberta served in various capacities in the Radnor Township Education Association teachers' union, including serving as president from 1996 to 2001 and vicepresident from 2005 to 2006. She advocated for the needs of teachers and students alike and devoted considerable time to curriculum development. She was and remains a staunch proponent of public education. After retiring as a teacher in 2006 Roberta became more active in community affairs. She joined the League of Women voters, serving on the board of the Pennsylvania League for four years and later serving an eight-year term as president of the Radnor Township League. During those years Roberta took on important and often challenging issues such as fracking, voters rights, redistricting and educational vouchers.
Roberta has been recognized many times for her various contributions and accomplishments. Among other accolades, she was awarded the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania's Anna Estes Strawbridge Award, the Clean Water Fund's Florence Neilson Environmental Leadership Award and the Anne Peters Volunteer Award of the Radnor Educational Foundation.
and a Sunday school teacher as well as the “unofficial events coordinator.” Roberta continues to actively participate in the Bryn-Rose Civic Association, the Garrett Hill Fourth of July Parade Committee and the Garrett Hill Coalition. Although Roberta has lived for half a century in Radnor Township, she actually started out as a Connecticut Yankee with the DNA of a Mayflower passenger and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. As Roberta herself has put it, she is genetically disposed to be an advocate or a trouble-maker, depending on how you look at it. Growing up in Connecticut and Rhode
Putting her educational credentials to good use, Roberta became active in the Radnor Education Foundation, a local nonprofit organization that secures funding for the Radnor Township School District in order to enrich the classroom learning experience. Among other contributions, Roberta has served for many years on the Foundation's grants committee. Roberta has also been an active member of the Baptist Church in the Great Valley, serving as the church's Sunday School superintendent 14
THE RADNOR NEWS
Island, she could not avoid picking up the New England work ethic which she still cannot shake. Roberta attended Bucknell University, where she picked up a degree in biology, summa cum laude, and a husband, Tom. She went on to graduate school at Harvard where she earned a Masters degree in science education. She later obtained her PhD in Education Leadership at Penn. Along the way she had two children.
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Roberta has been described as a “human dynamo”, “a constant force effecting positive change” and “the little engine that could.” Did we say “little”? Roberta's physical stature belies her stature in the community she has served for so long and so well. Small wonder that she is held in such high esteem. If you are interested in joining the Willows Park Preserve for their Fall Fundraiser on October 2nd or for more information about our nonprofit organization, please visit our website at: www.willowsparkpreserve.org
