Author: Milton Magazine

We know that comforting rhythm that emanates from her office, the steady, gentle beat that eases us along, and we sing the same refrain: Thank you, Cathy. Those words reverberate, day after day, year after year, for we in the Upper School enjoy a priceless gift: the calm that comes from the confidence that at our core, at our very center, lies a person of dedication, of knowledge, of kindness, and of soul. Cathy, of course, often deflects the attention that such traits so rightly attract. Still, we notice. We notice the weekends cut short to finish a project, the emails written and rewritten to get the meaning just right, the attention to detail whether crafting a schedule or balancing a budget. With a deep sense of responsibility, she demands much of herself, not out of some compulsion for perfection but out of respect, even out of love, for this place and its people. She gives her best because she wants us to be our best. And she has the deep, experiential knowledge that allows us to do just that. Time and again, we experience an event—Family Week- end, perhaps, or Prize Assembly—and we wonder how an event of such complexity can go so smoothly. We soon recognize the reason: Cathy. Indeed, there’s hardly a question that Cathy herself cannot answer, and at the moment when we think that...