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No one has taken a more direct, participatory and distinguished path from St. Margaret’s student to Distinguished Alumna than the Alumnae President who introduced this award eight years ago, Ellen Metzger LeCompte.
Although St. Margaret’s has changed in many ways since Ellen graduated 33 years ago in 1971, Ellen’s SMS experience, more than many others, contained so many elements that today’s graduates would recognize as central to their years here.
Ellen was a four-year boarder and a member of the grey team. Would you be surprised to know that Ellen won the Latin, Drama and Room Neatness awards and was voted “Miss Chatterbox” in the senior superlatives? And just like today’s students, Ellen said that serving on the Honor Council, attending chapel and learning how to study were the aspects of her time with us that have been most helpful in her life.
Ellen was selected to represent our school in the English Speaking Union program for one year after her graduation, and this year changed her life. While at Lawnside in Worcestershire, she acquired her love for all things English and the passion for travel that she has turned into a successful career.
Listen to what Ellen wrote to her SMS teachers on September 25, 1971, just after starting her year abroad:
I am eternally grateful to all of you for the preparation academically that you gave me. I am especially thankful to Mrs. Sanborn because in economics I am constantly being called on for the American View and we covered the entire Lawnside Curriculum in World Problems. Lawnside certainly isn’t as strict as I had imagined. We can go to town in any free time and we have a break for tea in the afternoon.
These days, Ellen’s favorite thing to do is gather her books and retreat to her cottage in the Cotswolds, where I know that afternoon tea is still part of the routine. Today’s students are grateful that Ellen has helped them appreciate our school’s heritage by organizing the first international choir tour to London, when our students joined choirs from five other St. Margaret’s schools to sing in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
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"No one has taken a more direct,
participatory and distinguished path
from student to Distinguished Alumna
than the Alumnae President
who introduced this award eight years ago."
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Ellen returned from England to attend William and Mary, where she received a degree in economics and met her husband, Pettus. And we cannot conclude our appreciation of Ellen without also expressing our thanks to Pettus for his very active support of all of Ellen’s undertakings.
Like today’s Alumnae President, only 15 years after her graduation, Ellen was already active in the Alumnae Association. She served two terms as president, during which she introduced two of the most successful fundraising initiatives in the Association’s history: “A Fashion Affair,” followed by “Antiques and Art by the River,” which for five years from 1992 to 1996 not only supported the school financially, but also introduced St. Margaret’s to a wider circle of supporters.
During her 10 years as a member of the SMS Board of Governors, Ellen has been a loyal and passionate member of the Buildings and Grounds Committee. Although she attended her final Board meeting this spring, Ellen will continue to serve on the Brockenbrough House Committee, which in her final board motion was renamed the Historic Campus Committee, shepherding our preservation of our beautiful and valuable heritage.
Ellen has hosted dinners for alumnae, faculty, students and board; attended phonathons and more meetings than you can imagine; contributed to all of our board initiatives; and memorialized her lifelong commitment to St. Margaret’s through her membership in the Sara Morriss Society for Planned Giving.
I would like to close by reading from Miss Woolfolk’s letter of recommendation, which accompanied Ellen’s applications to Lawnside and William and Mary, because this letter captures the student who received the School Prize at graduation in 1971, and in whom she saw both the gifts and the promise which have so generously been fulfilled in the life of this year’s Distinguished Alumna, Ellen Metzger LeCompte.
Ellen is an outstanding girl in every way. She is an aca-
demically able, keen student and a fine person. Ellen is a sound, logical thinker, with an alert mind, wide interests and a wealth of information. She is intellectually curious, original and creative. Along with this good mind, Ellen is exceptional-
ly industrious, full of vitality and constantly does more than is required of her. She is an involved and participating person who gives herself completely to anything she undertakes. Ellen has a happy, helpful nature. She knows where she stands and she stands her ground when she thinks she is right, even when her opinion may not be a popular one. The girls like and respect her. They have shown their esteem for her by selecting her to represent the senior class on the Honor Council. We feel certain that she will continue to contribute to life positively and it is a joy to recommend Ellen to you.
This article is excerpted from remarks made by Head of School Margaret R. Broad at the award presentation. |
