Alumni Stories

CONGRATULATIONS! Exciting news about Westfield Alum, Will Coleman's '99, appointment to a newly created position of Curator of the Wyeth Collection at Brandywine River Museum.

The Philadelphia Inquirer*
*Subscriber-reproduced copy of Philadelphia Inquirer Article
ARTS & CULTURE
First curator for huge trove of Wyeth-related artwork selected by Brandywine River Museum
In collaboration with the Farnsworth Art Museum in Maine, and the Wyeth Foundation, the Brandywine will oversee a new era of Wyeth exhibitions and scholarship. 

William L. Coleman
Courtesy Brandywine River Museum of Art

by Stephan Salisbury
Published Sep 8, 2022 

The Brandywine River Museum, in Chadds Ford, which announced a plan earlier this year for joint management of a trove of Andrew Wyeth-related art work, has hired a curator to oversee the vast collection, as well as a study center for scholarly exploration of the Wyeth family legacy.

William L. Coleman had been the director of collections at the Olana Partnership in Hudson, N.Y., the organization in charge of the artistic and architectural legacy of painter Frederic Edwin Church, including the 90,000-object Church collection and archive.

Coleman will become the first Wyeth Foundation curator of the 7,000-object Andrew and Betsy Wyeth Collection and director of the Andrew and Betsy Wyeth Study Center.

The Brandywine River Museum, where Coleman will be based, and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, where Wyeth spent his summers, are partners in the endeavor, largely worked out by Betsy Wyeth prior to her death in 2020. Her husband, Andrew Wyeth, died in 2009.

The Wyeth Collection was put together and maintained by Betsy Wyeth, and consists of works from across Andrew Wyeth’s seven decades as a working artist, including rarely seen paintings, watercolors, sketches, and sketchbooks.

Coleman will work in both Pennsylvania and Maine with a staff of three to develop exhibitions, make works available for loan to other institutions, and to foster new research and scholarship on the life and work of Andrew Wyeth. One of the his projects will be the production of a catalogue raisonné for Andrew Wyeth — a complete catalog of the artist’s work. Coleman will also curate displays of work for both the Brandywine and Farnsworth dedicated Wyeth galleries.

Thomas Padon, director of the Brandywine River Museum, said the goal of Coleman’s effort will be “activating Betsy Wyeth’s estate plan in which her remarkable collection of Andrew Wyeth’s works would be accessible to the public and future generations of scholars in perpetuity.”

The project is expected to cost between $750,000 and $1 million annually, according to Brandywine officials.

Coleman, who hales from the Philadelphia area, attended Haverford College, and holds a doctorate in art history from University of California, Berkeley, said he has already begun to discover intriguing aspects of the Wyeths’ various endeavors.

It is virtually impossible to know Andrew Wyeth, for instance, he said, without understanding Betsy Wyeth, who served as the painter’s business manager, marketing czar, companion, and much more.

“What I’m fascinated by is how she is this really crucial, not only archival and managerial, but also creative force behind the scenes,” said Coleman, who officially starts his new job at the Brandywine Oct. 17, but is already digging in.

“I think it’s been understood for a long time that she was a key driver behind Andrew’s career, giving titles to his works and meticulously documenting process,” he said, adding that the collection “is a trove of work in progress like no other that helps us to understand how these masterpieces took shape.”

While Betsy Wyeth’s business acumen may have been well known, Coleman said, “what has not been fully understood is that she was also an American creative force in her own right, shaping these environments that inspired her husband’s work, shaping landscape in three dimensions in Maine.”

Coleman said Betsy Wyeth’s creative drive is ”a really intriguing part of the story.” Conversations with museum staff members in Maine and at the Brandywine has led him to “understand there’s more beneath” the surface.

‘I’m just beginning to learn about that Betsy’s own textile art practice,” Coleman said. “I am tremendously fascinated by this body of knitting work she was doing that remains on these islands in Maine.

“The case I heard specifically was, she was making abstract textiles in relation to the colors and forms of tide pools on the coast of Maine. Really unusual stuff. So I can’t wait to sink my teeth into that.”

Published Sept. 8, 2022

MH - Tell me briefly about your journey from Westfield Friends to today.

KB - From Westfield Friends to today, I have grown as a person in so many ways. I am currently a senior at Moorestown Friends School, and in the fall of 2022, I will be attending Palm Beach Atlantic University. At PBAU, I will be majoring in education and minoring in special education. As well as getting my degree, I will be playing on the lacrosse team. Throughout my middle school, high school, and soon-to-be college journey, Westfield Friends has been the fundamental building block of my educational career. 

MH - What are the two or three events, people, experiences you most remember from your Westfield years?

KB - One event I remember the most while attending Westfield is a meeting for worship in eighth grade. This event is significant because sitting on the leading benches was monumental to my career at a friends’ school. Ever since I was little, I was excited to sit on the leading benches, and the year I was finally able to, it felt like an accomplishment. One person I remember the most while attending Westfield is Mrs. Parry. She was a crucial part of my memories at Westfield because she was my teacher for seventh and eighth grade. Mrs. Parry helped my transition from middle school to high school be easier academically and mentally. Mrs. Parry is one of my favorite teachers because of her immense support and enthusiastic personality. 

MH - How do the values you learned in school continue to shape your life and the way you make choices for yourself?

KB - The values I learned in school consist of the quaker spices. The spices are simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship. These values shape my life and the way I make choices for myself because the values enable me to make positive and well-thought-out decisions.

MH - What do you hope for Westfield students today?

KB - For current Westfield students today, I hope they are able to achieve the same level of happiness and success that I feel as if I got from attending Westfield. Westfield is a small and well-knit community that thrives for the success of themselves and others. I hope every student appreciates the moments and memories that they make in school because Westfield is unlike any other school they will ever attend in the future. 

MH - What do you hope for Westfield alums as they think about Westfield today?

KB - I hope that Westfield albums think about Westfield as a place where they made memories and friendships that will support and encourage them for the rest of their lives. While attending Westfield, the development of friendships flourishes, and after attending Westfield, the friendships last forever.

MH - Tell me briefly about your journey from Westfield Friends to today.

AT - I graduated from Westfield Friends in 2018 and went to Moorestown Friends School, where I’m about to graduate from. Throughout high school I have been involved in my school community by playing field hockey and basketball and having leadership roles in service committee and worship planning committee. I’ve also been very involved in the visual arts programs at MFS, taking elective courses in lots of different mediums as well as the studio art major class. For my senior project I am doing an internship at Studio Sustena, a Philadelphia-based landscape architecture firm. Next year I will be attending McGill university in Montreal, QC.

MH - What are the two or three events, people, experiences you most remember from your Westfield years?

AT - I remember my art classes at Westfield taught by Teacher Deborah, who really encouraged my continuing love for art. I always enjoyed art, and these classes allowed us to explore our creativity while teaching meaningful artistic skills. I remember the class being very social and feeling like I was in an environment where I could produce art I was proud of and enjoy what other people were creating as well. I took art lessons after school because I liked it so much, and I was able to think more deeply about what interested me creatively and develop my artistic voice.

I also remember my favorite field trip at Westfield was in grade six when we went to Pocono Environmental Education Center. I loved the bonding we were able to do on that trip with such a small group and we could bring the energy from that experience back with us to school. The trip had different aspects of nature and ecology that were so cool and interesting to me back then, and I am still interested in today. It was related to what we were studying in Ms. Cope’s science class and I just remember being so into it, along with the other kids in my class. We could get excited about what we were learning about. It never felt forced because we were encouraged to explore whatever we were interested in, above and beyond the straight up “textbook” material.

MH - What do you hope for Westfield students today?

AT - I hope that current students can take advantage of the school structure at Westfield that encourages them to find things they’re passionate about. Westfield teachers are always going to encourage you to get excited and involved in whatever you’re doing, so pay attention to what interests you, because it can come from anywhere.

Also, I know it can be difficult, but please try to appreciate Meeting for Worship! I had it in high school too, and now I’m going to miss having that time to just be still and feel the presence of the community. It seemed very strange and unappealing to me at first, but I figured out that quiet reflection is such a valuable thing that very few schools offer to the extent that Quaker schools do. At Westfield, Meeting for Worship is very personal and friendly with the small meetinghouse and the song-singing. Looking back, it was a lovely way to begin our Wednesdays. 

MH - What do you hope for Westfield alums as they think about Westfield today?

AT - I hope that Westfield alumni can appreciate the impact that going to a small school with strong Quaker values has on their lives, regardless of how long they were at the school for. Westfield students are treated with kindness and respect at any age by their teachers and classmates, and people are celebrated as individuals who all contribute to the community in some way. This gives alums a sense of belonging that they can carry with them after they leave Westfield and throughout their lives.

MH - Tell me briefly about your journey from Westfield Friends to today.
AK – Since I graduated from Westfield four years ago, my journey has been one filled with surprises. First of all, I went from a Friends school environment, with which I was very familiar, to a Catholic education system, at Bishop Eustace, that was quite foreign to me. Apart from being in a class that was ten times the size of my graduating Westfield class, I also had to get used to the religious aspect of my high school, which included a daily prayer and masses on special Catholic holidays. I also had to adjust to an increased rigor with my courses, as I was immediately thrust into the honors track at Eustace. 

Thankfully the workload given at Westfield prepared me enough to have a head start on the other kids in my class, who had a much steeper learning curve than I did. I also had to get used to the intensity of high school athletics; I went from being the captain of the Westfield co-ed soccer team to barely scraping through the tryouts at Eustace to even make the JV team my freshman year. It was definitely a humbling experience! Sophomore year for me, the 2019-2020 school year, was not exactly one I look fondly upon, as I didn’t do much except go for walks after I finished my schoolwork after virtual schooling.  

Junior year was a pretty big year for me, since we were back to in-person learning, which was great. By then, I was pretty well-adjusted to the Eustace community, and really began to see myself thrive within the school community. I made varsity soccer for the first time, began taking AP classes, and the college application process. This past year has been a whirlwind of adventure, and I find it hard to believe that I’ll be graduating from high school next week! I went in with the expectation that senior year was going to be easier than junior year, but it turned out to be anything but that. Most of the year was filled with nervous anticipation of solely waiting to hear back from the colleges and universities that I applied to, let alone whether I got in or not. Since I am the older sibling, this was the first time that my parents had experienced this process since they applied some time ago, so I know they felt the same way. Thankfully, I did get into one of my top-choice schools, and will be attending Boston University this September!

MH - What are the two or three events, people, experiences you most remember from your Westfield years?
AK – I look back upon my Westfield years very fondly, because believe it or not, the experiences that I had during my time at Westfield did begin to shape the young man that I am today. The first key event that I remember is the when I had to lead a Quaker Friday group for the first time. I remember that the eighth grade class before mine was not that big, so sometimes the seventh graders would be the “leaders” of the groups instead. I did not get this honor until about midway through the school year, which I believe was around Christmas time. I’d rather not go into too much detail, but I do remember there being glitter all over the floor of Senor DiClaudio’s room instead of on the Christmas decorations like it was supposed to be. Needless to say, I learned the importance of responsibility, and although I was not a great leader at the time, I chuckle looking back on it now, since I ended up being recognized for my leadership by the University of Rochester last year. Quite a contrast from the glitter-infested room I had to cleanup that day!  

Another key event that I recall from my time at Westfield is my eighth grade graduation. Apart from being the end of my journey at Westfield, graduation was significant because I got to deliver a speech for the first time. I remember the process of developing, and then practicing my speech, before finally delivering it to the audience present at the meeting house that afternoon. This helped to begin the development of my public speaking skills, and I had the pleasure of delivering a couple of speeches during my senior year. Of course, none of this would have been possible without Mrs. Valerie Parry, who not only did a wonderful job of preparing us for our speeches, but for high school as a whole. I was always told that she gave copious amounts of homework, but the truth of the matter is, that by the time I got to Eustace, I was already used to having multiple hours of homework, when other incoming freshmen were used to barely having any. Apart from that, she was also just a wonderful person all-around, and it was a pleasure to have her as a teacher for two years. 

MH - How do the values you learned in school continue to shape your life and the way you make choices for yourself?
AK – The Quaker curriculum has continued to be a touchstone for my education since my graduation from Westfield. Although I switched to a Catholic-based education, I continue to use the Quaker philosophy in my everyday life. In fact, I even wrote college essays about the value of tolerance, which is an important philosophy that I learned from my time at Westfield. Because of how diverse the student population was, I was able to learn about all types of people and their cultures, which helped me, learn more about the world. I try to promote this belief especially, since I believe tolerance would go a long way in easing the tensions permeating the world today. 

MH - What do you hope for Westfield students today?
AK – One thing that I primarily wish for Westfield students today is for them to appreciate the lessons that they are learning, and to apply them to their everyday lives. This mostly pertains to the eighth graders, since I know they are taking their next steps into the unknown just like I am. Because this value system has been engrained in them since the beginning of their time at Westfield, continuing to practice the Quaker education system will help provide a constant in a time of so much change. For the younger students, I hope that they participate actively in the Westfield community and embrace the traditions that have persisted for so long. Field day and Quaker Fridays in particular, are exciting, but also help build school spirit, which invigorates the school community as a whole. A more united school community will undoubtedly lead to a better experience for all of the current Westfield students.  

MH - What do you hope for Westfield alums as they think about Westfield today?
AK - I still keep in touch with some Westfield alums, so I know that the connection still exists today. I hope that the alumni network being created by the current administration will help to bolster these relationships, and create new ones, even between alumni that perhaps weren’t even at Westfield at the same time. I hope that they too, like I encourage for current Westfield students, maintain the lessons they learned from their time at Westfield, and continue to apply them to their everyday lives. I would also encourage them to visit campus sometime, to reminisce, and remember the memories they developed during their time at Westfield. I also hope that they would encourage friends and family to look at Westfield as a potential school for their children, as I have found that the relationships I developed with the teachers and students at Westfield became some of the longest-lasting and strongest that I have developed throughout my life so far. 

Interview: January 27, 2022

MH: Tell me briefly about your journey from Westfield Friends to today

JB: After I graduated from Westfield Friends, I went to Moorestown Friends. I’m still best friends with my 6 best friends from high school. After Moorestown Friends, I went to Elon University. I majored in business management and minored in finance. I felt like the business management major would be general enough to give me lots of options after graduation. The finance minor has been very helpful in my current job. 

I graduated from Elon in May 2019 and got a job at a technology startup in Philadelphia. When that company was acquired, I left to work for a venture capital firm. Venture capital is seeing the startup business from the other side. It's been awesome to see an array of ideas in my position and how to decide exactly which was to make an investment in. My company invests in mobility startups, including electric vehicles and autonomous technology. Typically, we’d like to see proof of concept and then help scale up the business. Eventually I plan on joining my family’s business in the automotive industry, so my current experience will be beneficial in the long term. 

MH: What are the two or three events, people, experiences you most remember from your Westfield years?

JB:   I loved the traditions. One of these traditions was Quaker Fridays, I was a big fan of switching up the normal routine and participating with other grades. Getting to interact with older grades was always a lot of fun and a great experience. I think it may have been even better when I was an older kid mentoring younger kids. The whole dynamic of the various activities and interacting with other grades was awesome.

I really enjoyed the smaller class sizes where I got more attention from teachers. The teachers are some of my best memories. For instance in third grade, Pat Lyons and Molly Cope were an awesome team. Molly was the third grade assistant and Pat Lyons was the lead third grade teacher. We used to write creative stories every week and read them in front of the class. I remember being “forced'' to be creative and then having to stand up and read. Both aspects were out of my comfort zone, but I still have this memory of enjoying both.

Mrs. Culcasi was the 7th grade assistant teacher. I credit her with helping me with improving my command of grammar. I had always struggled with it and she somehow made learning grammar fun (a previously impossible task). She helped make it more enjoyable and in the process, I became a better writer. One of my co-workers mentioned that he thought I was a really good writer - it's nice to think Mrs. Culcasi’s work paid off.

MH: How do the values you learned in WFS continue to shape your life and the way you make choices for yourself?

JB:  I think that one thing that stands out for me is Meeting for Worship. I can’t sit still – I have been walking and talking through our interview. As I get older, reflecting on the good and bad of our days or even life in general is really helpful. I always understood this was what I was gaining from Meeting for Worship. I didn’t love it at the time, but now at least once a week I try to reflect (even if it’s not sitting down). 

Learning how to interact with my teachers and developing relationships with them continues to shape me. I learned how to develop relationships with teachers, students, and co-workers. For instance, I understood that my Elon professors' office hours were there for me and I took advantage of them.  I think this understanding began at Westfield. The small school, personal relationships were what I sought and appreciated at Westfield, Moorestown Friends, and eventually Elon. Personal relationships are one of the more important factors in my life and I try to continue to work and develop them every day. 

MH: What do you hope for Westfield students today?

JB: When I was younger, I was definitely on the shy side. My Westfield teachers encouraged me to be curious, ask questions, speak up, share my ideas, and take risks. I hope that Westfield students today have the sorts of relationships with their teachers that help them take risks and try things that might feel uncomfortable at first (or even the second and third times!) Some of my greatest successes in life have come from taking an uncomfortable step into something new.

Interview: December 7, 2021

MH: Tell me briefly about your journey from Westfield Friends to today.
KA:  After Westfield, I attended Moorestown Friends for High School. Then, I went to New York University where I majored in Journalism and Africana Studies. NYU requires all Journalism majors to complete a second major, the idea being that you learn how to report, but also learn about a beat you can report on.

Today, I’m the Digital Editor at SJ Magazine, where I produce and edit two video series, run the e-mail program and will be launching a new podcast next year. The magazine is run by my family, so I have been working there on and off since 7th grade, when I would write calendar entries in my parents’ makeshift office in the attic. After graduating from NYU, I worked at SJ Magazine writing web stories and running social media. I then returned to New York for a marketing job and left that company to work for the magazine again in Fall 2019, with a plan to move to Philadelphia sometime the next year. 

My plan was moved up when the pandemic hit. When everything shut down, the magazine began to add more digital content and we ventured more into video. I produced and edited video interviews with local health professionals, business owners, and with Governor Phil Murphy, which we shared on our Facebook page. That summer, I produced a gardening series hosted by my mom and Moorestown’s Toni Farmer called “The Goal is to Become a Gardener.” 

This summer we published the second season of “The Goal is to Become a Gardener.” I also hosted a series with my co-worker called “It’s a South Jersey Summer.” We completed a swamp ropes course, put together a South Jersey brewery tour, and brought viewers along as we tried lots of other South Jersey experiences. Next up, we’re working on a podcast that I’ll host with my co-worker. We’ll be talking with professionals about their career journey. Our first guests are a food writer from Collingswood and the VP of Marketing/Media for the Philadelphia Eagles (since my father grew up in South Philly, we’re BIG Eagles fans). The first episode premieres January 5th.  

When I was younger, my mom’s career as a journalist piqued my interest in writing and reporting, but the job of video producer/editor/on-air talent looked very different from what it is today. I actually used to think a producer really didn’t do much, that it was just a fancy title. And podcasts barely existed. Luckily, I sort of fell into this line of work and it’s quickly become a passion of mine. 

MH: Currently you are the Digital Editor at SJ Magazine? What drew you to this field (besides your parents)
KA: Why journalism -  Early in college, I realized that I wanted to tell stories. Specifically, I wanted to tell other people’s stories. I’ve realized now how much of a role WFS played in developing my love for storytelling. There was so much of it: everyone participated in their grade’s play, we had regular storytimes in the library, they were even baked into our lesson plans. It was natural to move from listening to stories to acting out stories to writing them.

MH: What are the two or three events, people, experiences you most remember from your Westfield years?
KA: If we had more time, I could definitely name every teacher, plus a project we worked on, in each grade. 

Mr. Probsting played a huge role in my time at WFS. In 7th and 8th grades, I took his honors math class with five or six other students. It was such a unique and special experience to have grown up with him as our principal and then to take his class and have conversations with him. I think I felt grown-up when that happened. Math was my best subject through grade school, then in high school, it wasn’t. Maybe that had something to do with Mr. Probsting. 

Of course one of the biggest parts of WFS was Quaker Fridays - getting to spend time with kids of all ages and stepping outside of your comfort zone to get to know your peers. To this day, 50 to 60 percent of the ornaments on my parents’ Christmas tree come from our time at WFS. My art teacher was Mrs. Vollmer, whose grandchildren also went to school with us (her granddaughter, Paige Propp, was in my sister’s grade). 

The teachers at WFS left a lasting impression on me and my family. My mother always tells the story of how my second-grade teacher, Mrs. Martino, would give each of her students a hug at the end of the day. We still hear from Mrs. Martino today. There’s something very comforting about remembering that 2nd-grade experience. 

I was lucky enough to have Mrs. Parry as my 3rd grade and my 7th-grade teacher. I remember in 7th grade, at the end of the day, she would play music and we would all dance. At that point we had been together for nine years, so we could all be silly with each other and ignore some of those self-conscious feelings that come with middle school. 

MH: How do the values you learned in WFS continue to shape your life and the way you make choices for yourself?
KA: Aside from my interest in storytelling, I also realized that the way I interact with people came from my time at WFS. I learned to treat people with kindness and to make people feel included. It’s interesting though because I can’t point to a single moment or class. It’s something that’s baked into everything at WFS - like learning a language, you just live it. 

MH: What do you hope for Westfield students today?
KA: I didn’t realize until recently how much the WFS community was intertwined with my own community. I have three older cousins who went to WFS and my two younger sisters attended also. I was visiting the campus and attending school plays from when I was a baby. My grandparents lived around the corner (they lived in the house at the back left corner of the playing field) and my sisters and I would stay with them sometimes and then they would walk us to school the next morning. I want others to have the same experience of that close-knit community. Especially in middle school, WFS didn’t have the same feeling of cliques that many schools can have. We had been together for so long, we had grown up together, at the core we were all friends. 

Margaret Haviland had the opportunity to speak with alumni David Beal ‘89 about his journey from his days as a student at Westfield Friends School to his life today.

MH: Tell me briefly about your journey from Westfield Friends to today.
DB: I came to WFS in second grade with my sister, Christy ‘86. There were 19 in my graduating class at WFS. Most of my class was together for the entire ten years. A few kids came in 7th grade from Haddonfield Friends.  I graduated from Westfield and went to Moorestown High School with six or seven of my WFS classmates. After high school, I was only ever back in the area for short visits. For instance, I was back for two weeks over Christmas to help my parents pack up the house.  

My parents still live in Moorestown in our old family home. They were very involved with Mt. Laurel Monthly Meeting helping with the landscaping and redoing the furnace and regularly attending Meeting for Worship. 

For college, I chose Miami of Ohio. I wanted a bit more rural of a setting and my mother was a graduate of the school. After a few years I bought a boat I named “SkarkBait”. Me and two friends traveled from Cincinnati on the Ohio River through the Ten Tom River and Canal system all the way to Mobile, Alabama. This was a two summer adventure. We would pull into a marina find odd jobs to cover our fuel and slip fee. I met my wife along the way. I sold the boat in Alabama. We decided to head west and bought two train tickets to Astoria, Oregon. I finished my BA degree at Portland State.  In those years our daughters Cassiopeia and son Orion were born. From Portland State, I went on to Willamette University College of Law. After law school, I practiced legal aid immigration law. After that, I did ten years as a public defender. Now I practice private criminal defense law in a small tourist town along the coast in Oregon.

MH: How did you decide what to study in college?
DB: When I was in college I went to Alaska and worked in a cannery. College was one thing but the world was the real thing. I started in physics but ended with Poli Sci and History.  I discovered I was more interested in people and their problems. I liked to debate both sides of an issue. These are good attributes for a lawyer

MH What do you like about living and working in a small town?
DB: At the moment, the stay at home order has slowed down the need for a defense lawyer. Today at noon, I had my coffee in my car looking at the ocean. A  person knocked on my window. It was this homeless lady who has been my client. I didn’t give her money but I did load her and all of her belongings into my car. I drove across town to the grocery store and helped her with groceries, ripping my pants in the process. Small towns give me the chance to know those in my community. 

MH: What are the two or three events, people, experiences you most remember from your Westfield years?
DB: I remember going on a field trip to Independence Hall. We were assigned roles for and against the revolution. I was a pro-England farmer. I loved it. While in middle school the US celebrated the 200th year of the Constitution. This celebration was so important to me and the choices I made about my work. Who knows, maybe I got stuck in the 1780s.

Mr. Probsting was our principal. He had this marble machine in his office. I always wanted to play with it, but the only times I was in his office, I was in trouble so I never got to play with the machine. 

I remember loving second grade. Mrs. Callahan was great and would do art history lessons with us. Then in third grade, we started having art history slides on Mondays. Mr. Probsting would bring in a tray of slides and teach us to see. I remember one spring day he had a whole wheel of wildflower slides.

Mrs.Califf was our fifth-grade teacher; she moved with us up to seventh and then eighth grades. She knew us so well and we knew what she expected of us. She was tolerant of our 8th-grade swagger. By the end of the year, we were calling her Betty Ann and we were calling Mr. Probsting, Bill. He did not appreciate this. 

For my Eagle Scout project, I painted the windows outside of 3rd and 4th grades.

MH: How do the values you learned in school continue to shape your life and the way you make choices for yourself?
DB: I discovered from my teachers that I like having to argue. To make a good case, I have to listen carefully to the other sides; I learned how to do this at Westfield.  Equality is also important to me. I have to deal with all kinds of people in my work. I try to treat everyone with the same respect. 

I learned that it is a gift to be simple; to live a simple life. For instance, I drive an old car with more than 280,000 miles on it. In this car, I am comfortable picking up hitchhikers and homeless people. And they are comfortable getting into my car. The Pacific Northwest is damp and rainy but not bitter cold. This is one reason for the high number of homeless people. One-third of my caseload in the public defender's office were homeless or mental health cases. I didn’t study mental health in college or law school.  I didn’t anticipate the mental health aspect of being a public defender but it became a specialty for me. Other public defenders would trade cases with me to give me their mental health clients.

MH: What do you hope for Westfield students today?
DB: I think of WFS as a safe little place to start the world from. I hope they experience it as I did, comfortable and homey.  I hope they take this sense of friendship and comfort with them when they venture out beyond WFS. I hope they come to love the history of the school and the palpable sense of connection to the past, present, and future.

Margaret Haviland had the opportunity to speak with alumni Julie Martin about her journey from her days as a student at Westfield Friends School to her life today.

MH: Tell me briefly about your journey from Westfield Friends to today
JM: After graduating from WFS in 2004, I went to Moorestown Friends School for high school.  Then I attended Lafayette College, where I studied psychology.  After college, I went to Duke University and completed a PhD in Social Psychology in 2017. After graduating from Duke, I moved back to the area and worked as a researcher in the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment at Temple University. Now I work as a learning researcher for a leadership organization for chief executives called YPO. 

MH: What interested you in Social Psychology? 
JM: I took a class in the subject in college and was drawn to it. I was especially struck by the fundamental role that belonging plays in people’s well-being. As a student at WFS, I don’t think I realized how special it is to grow up in such a caring and supportive school environment. But as an adult, I have a deeper appreciation for WFS and for everyone who has made it the community that it is for students.   

MH: What are the two or three events, people, experiences you most remember from your Westfield years?
JM: I remember each of my teachers and appreciate the work they did every day to help us grow as students and as people. Teaching is a labor of love, and WFS teachers are the best! I remember the school plays every year and getting to help create them in the later grades. I remember going to cut the Christmas Tree one year, and I remember the specialness of the second grade Christmas Play. I remember being an angel in the nativity scene in second grade, a queen in a sixth grade interactive medieval fair, and Wendy from Peter Pan in an eighth-grade play we wrote called “Mixing it Up” (a mashup of Disney movies). I think part of what made events and experiences at WFS so special was that the whole school was involved, which created shared experiences for the community.

MH: How do the values you learned in school continue to shape your life and the way you make choices for yourself?
JM: The values I learned at WFS were embedded in the way we operated as a school, and now how I try to live my life as an adult. I think leading with kindness and acceptance is an important foundation I gained at WFS and also at home. Also, seeing the Light in everyone, especially in the moments when it’s difficult.  And I try to allow space in my life for quiet and reflection.

MH: What do you hope for Westfield students today?
JM: I hope they are equipped with tools and resilience to lead happy, productive lives. Exploration is an important part of childhood, but children need a safe base from which to explore. So I hope WFS students today feel safe to grow and explore and that they know they belong no matter what.

MH: What do you hope for Westfield alums as they think about Westfield today?
JM: I hope they remember WFS was a nice place to grow up and learn. My re-engagement with the school came about through moving back to the area and through my family’s engagement. My mother is on the development committee and my sister teaches at WFS now. I hope alums will re-engage with this place that was such a big part of our lives for so long and at such a formative time. Coming to alumni events like the recent one at Double Nickel is a great way to begin. Two of my classmates came and we had a great time. Once you go to one event, you see it’s a lot of fun, and it feels easier to go to the next one. Maybe we need to have a class connector/representative for each class who reaches out and invites alums to events or to volunteer.