Jane Warwick: A Tribute
By Connie Hays
Jane Warwick, who retired from Saint David’s in 2004.
ver the years, Saint David’s boys by the hundreds came to know the arched green warren that was Jane Warwick’s office. Outside it was the bench, feared and loathed; inside was Mrs. Warwick, beloved. From there she dispensed the candy new students quickly learned she was famous for; beside her desk she kept the golf clubs that boys in her third-grade English class could earn as rewards. She might open the window to greet an alumnus walking by, and on holidays she might be counseling a parent in tears over one of life’s curveballs. The door usually swung wide, covered with cards and drawings given to her by the boys. If she wasn’t there, she might be in the dining room, to welcome them at the dawn of another school day or to share wisdom with them over lunch. As Head of the Lower School, she became symbolic of the place for many families, with her steady commitment to her favorite theme: what is best for the boys. Parents quickly learned that the dress code could not be bent, and if they sought her advice, they could count on getting it. Consistency was no hobgoblin; it was best for the boys. They were her focus, and her source of joy. How she knew what she knew—that a sand wedge makes a delightful present, that a photo of a teenager in a Harvard basketball jersey could inspire a struggling reader, that to be good men requires the example of good women, too—remains her secret. A child of the Sacred Heart and the Upper East Side, she would often quote Winston Churchill’s admonition, to “never, never, never give up.” She looked upon teaching as a team effort. She was unflinching in her determination to have all boys climb the winding staircase of knowledge—not just where books were concerned, but in terms of character, too. After thirty-seven years, she has left us now. But generations of Saint David’s boys gone to men will hold an arched green chamber in their hearts, filled with memories she made sure they got, for keeps. ?
O
Summer 2005 • 7