Sitting down to write my life since Yo-Hi is forcing me to reflect at a time when reflection is such a luxury. School is starting and this is about the most hectic time of my year, but we are all busy people in our own ways.

When I left Yo-Hi, I attended the University of Santa Clara for a year and then moved to Cal State Long Beach where my parents had settled after they came back from Japan. I worked my way through school as a tour guide and VIP hostess at Disneyland – a job I loved! I met my husband in college and married months before he was to report to OCS in Pensacola to begin his Navy flight training. When I was in elementary school Dad had been stationed at Whiting Field as an instructor, and I returned to that same little town of Milton, Florida with my husband as a flight student. I worked as a substitute teacher there and in Corpus Christi, Texas, and then we were transferred to Atsugi, Japan. My husband, Skip, was actually based out of the same hangar my Dad had been in while there a few years before. From there, we went to Hawaii, where I attended graduate school and also received my teaching certification.

Returning to California in 1971, I began my teaching career with the Anaheim Schools, continued graduate school, and began a counselor and school psychologist. During this time, I became acquainted with Lee Canter who was doing research on behavior problems and how to deal with them in schools. Our work was featured in Newsweek magazine and requests poured in from around the country for on-site training for teachers. I began traveling to schools around the country training teachers to deal effectively with students with behavior problems and this snowballed into nearly 20 years of “being on the road”.

Meanwhile, Skip was flying with Eastern Airlines, so we moved to Connecticut to be close to the New York airports. We have 3 kids and 8 grandkids who fortunately also live in Connecticut.

I completed my doctorate at the University of Connecticut and have been a Superintendent of Schools for 12 years. It was in that role in Newtown that I was engaged in the tragedy that shook the world, Sandy Hook. I have recently moved to the Superintendent position in Stratford, CT.

 

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