Doris Conard, 1924-2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 11:45PM “Forsan et Hæc Olim Meminisse Iuvabit” Virgil
Perhaps even this will one day be pleasant to look back on
For my senior year of high school, I went to a small, unique private school in Vershire Vermont, The Mountain School. It was founded in 1962 by Mac and Doris Conard, two practical visionaries who wanted to combine academics with a sense of community and an attachment to the land. They ran the school for two decades, giving hundreds of students the opportunity to study, work, and live together on a beautiful farm in the hills of eastern Vermont. The Mountain School was sold to Milton Academy, and is now a single semester program for high school juniors.
I attended a memorial service for Doris last Saturday, held in the main hall of the school. There were hymns, time for silent thought or prayer, and remarks, both formal and informal, by her three sons, the present director, former and present students, friends, and school employees. I think that a stranger present at the service would have gotten a good impression of Doris Conard. I can only give a limited idea here of what was expressed.
Many people commented on her intelligence, her sense of humor, and her regard for the needs of others. There were also many who referred to her industrious nature. A student from the early days said of her, “When she walked she always looked as if she knew exactly where she was going, and that something was going to happen when she got there.” It is this aspect of Doris that I remember most clearly – a good-natured perseverance, a persistence without grimness.
The quote at the top of this piece is the core of a representative story about Doris, told by her eldest son. The Conard family was sitting around the dinner table and one of the boys was complaining about something. Doris said, in her cheerful, off-handed way, “Forsan et Hæc...” She met the blank looks around her with a full quote and translation. She was not whine-tolerant. Her middle son also noted that she did not ascribe to the “self-esteem for no reason” philosophy of education.
There are two other aspects of persistence that relate to Doris.
She died of dementia, a slow loss of outward abilities and inward self. Nevertheless, the core of who she was persisted to her last day. Her eldest son related that the two things that stayed with her to the end were her love of her family and her hatred of George Bush. He said that he used this as a test of her cognitive state. He'd say to her. “Dad's coming to visit.” Big smile. “George Bush is still president.” A look as if she had a mouthful of sour milk.
There is also the persistence of her vision of education, a vision she shared with Mac. It persists in The Mountain School as it now operates, a thriving place that has been a pivotal experience for thousands of young people. It persists in all Mountain School alumni, who have seen what education and community can be like when people care about humanity and the natural environment rather than financial return or the status quo.
Drop a pebble in a pond and the ripples spread but eventually die out. The ripples that started spreading from The Mountain School in 1962 have never died out. They continue to multiply, bouncing off the landscape and each other, creating new patterns and touching more lives. Thus, Doris remains with us.
Reader Comments (2)
Interesting piece, I didn't know Doris. I've lived in Vermont all of my life and it still amazes me when people who sound like lovely, loving, natural people, come up "hating" someone as goes the case in this article, "her hatred of George Bush". I have to ask how anyone hates another who also proclaims to love natural beauty and has a sense of community? Everyone has the right to their own opinion and many I do disagree with, but when someone brings up that they hate someone else, that's it. The end, they lose credibility with me. They are not a natural, loving individual but rather someone poisoned with hatred. Hate, in my opinion is equal to evil, not love.
CM,
My use of the word "hatred" was hyperbole. It was poetic balance in the sentence against her love of her family, but not meant to be taken as implacable fury. She had a well-founded dislike of the man who had presided over so much injustice, deception, and death. If she had met him I am sure she would have been absolutely polite and absolutely forthright in her expressions of disapproval of his actions.
M.H.