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Sharing Memories of VUHS with F. Ann Sullivan

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Tuesday July 8, 2008

By Cookie Steponaitis

    Few people have seen the hallways of Vergennes Union High School from as many unique and diverse vantage points as Ann Sullivan. During her 39 year career in education, she has traveled the halls of the school in just about every capacity possible and has touched the lives of three generations. When the busses full of students pull up to the front doors this fall, there will be a noticeable difference. Mrs. Sullivan, “Sully” or simply “Mama Sully” will not be there to greet them, as she has elected to retire. For VUHS faculty, staff and students it is difficult to remember a time without the smile, face and yes, the “voice of VUHS” Ann Sullivan, and envisioning the classroom and hallways without her.

    Sitting in her kitchen on a hot July night, listening to her share stories and memories of the school and community with a smile and well known wit about what VUHS means to her and the place she has for so long called her home, Ann exemplified the compassionate woman who has worn many hats, those of teacher, mentor, friend, orator, historian, community leader and Master of Ceremonies, poet, Justice of the Peace, and child advocate blending together into one very special person.    Ann speaks of the “ reverence” they felt as seniors in the new building in the fall of 1959, moving from the old high school, which was three stories and had been condemned. “There was an absolute strictness concerning the building,” she remembers. “Principal Merle Crown told all of us that our parents had spent a huge amount of money to build this new school and we were not to even put our hands on the walls.” Also, standing out in her mind was the science labs, which were state of the art at that time. “We were so impressed,” reflected Ann, “because there were big metal shower heads in the corners of the lab, and if during an experiment, you got a chemical on you, you went to the corner and pulled a cord, and water would come down on you.”

    On the day of graduation in June, 1960, all 60 of the first graduating class of the new VUHS high school took center stage in the auditorium, in the first formal graduation ceremony Vergennes High School. “Graduation was on Thursdays back then,” Ann remarked, “and after a night of swimming, fun and breakfast in town, we all came back to school for the final assembly on Friday morning. We were told it was required and that they would take back our diplomas if we didn't come, so we didn't rock the boat. All 60 of us were there.” She also remembers the seniors driving their cars around the school parking lot with horns blaring, while the underclassmen lined the sidewalks applauding and congratulating the seniors.

    Ann taught middle school reading at VUHS as well as teaching form 1968-1972 at the Weeks School, but returned to join the faculty permanently in 1975. She moved to teaching high school English in 1981 and saw her first class of seniors through their graduation in 1982. During her tenure at the school she held the positions of developmental reading teacher, High School English teacher, Basic Competencies Coordinator, Gifted and Talented Coordinator, Assistant Principal, Athletic Director, English Department Coordinator, Graduation Coordinator, Yearbook Advisor, Speech Teacher and official memory keeper and guardian of school history. When questioned about her early years at the school Ann remarks on the, “…emphasis on professionalism and the expectation of all to be role models for the students. We were a professional team and spent hours discussing what would benefit the students the most. Innovative programs like Contemporary Man, Humanities and CAST Chemistry were created in the seventies, well ahead of other schools and while they didn't always meet the enrollment projections, they met the needs of the students, so the classes ran.”

    After having the experiences of teaching in other states and schools, Ann is the first to point out the uniqueness to the VUHS experience. “It is something almost indefinable,” she comments, “VUHS is more than mortar and cement. It is an essence of home. That is why so many stay there and why so many students do so well. It really is the ideal size and location. There has always been a philosophy of empowering students to be the best they can be, and the faculty was innovative in their approaches. There was always a teacher who made connections with students and many felt the school was their second home.”

    In thirty-nine years there are certainly hundreds of moments that will forever stand out in her career, but when asked to pick just a few images, Ann was quick to center in on her favorite topic, the students. “It was the Class of 1986's winter ball that first comes to my mind,” she stated and then chuckled. “There was a fifty foot Christmas tree that had to be in the gym for the dance. So to get it in, the students and the advisors took the gym doors off and the frames as well. Mike Connor shimmied up a pipe and anchored the tree in the midst of the gym. Cables held the massive tree in place and when it was too tall a chain saw could be heard cutting it to the proper height. Since there was school on Monday, Sunday afternoon the whole process was reversed and all you could see leading away from the gym was the shadow of a huge tree, completely obliterating the footprints of the thirty it took to put it in place.” Stopping a minute to again pull from the archives of her memories, Ann was quick to label that memorable, but not her favorite.

    “My favorite,” she remarked, “changed faces every year, but the scenario was the same. Each time a student attained a goal they thought they could never make, the feelings and pride in their faces never gets old. People see you twenty years later and still remember that moment. I am so proud to have been even a minute part of those minutes of their lives.”

    Ann's career was firmly grounded in her belief that she had to “be herself and always be honest to herself, and that you can't live outside your value system.” Seeing her in the hallways in all of her capacities and jobs at VUHS, the students were continually struck by her pride in them as students, pride in her school and her strong love of the Vergennes community. And, yes, there is that voice, the one that needs no microphone and one that seems capable of speaking at any event, for any reason, with the ease of a practiced orator. All involved with VUHS openly stand in awe at Sully's mastery of the spoken word.

    “My third grade teacher, Mrs. Ruth O'Conner called me, “Lawyer Wissell,” comments Ann, “and I have always considered my voice and speech ability a gift.” Famed for her graduation speeches and her poems where each member of the graduating class was noted and remembered, classes from 1982-2006 came to expect and annually be treated to Ann's unique ability to weave content, honor, history, and personal reflection into each assembly and address. In addition to swearing in countless eighteen year olds to vote, she has married generations of her graduates as a Justice of the Peace.

    While Ann might have planned on slipping away quietly into the annals of VUHS history, the students, teachers and community have other plans. There will be a celebration of her distinguished career as a teacher at American Legion Post # 14 in Vergennes on Saturday, August 30th from 6:00-10:00 p.m. Tickets will be on sale through Dianne Marcotte at VUHS or through Cookie Step at (802)355-4254 and are $11.00 a piece. Full information about the event is available by emailing Cookie Steponaitis at [email protected] or by calling the high school at (802)877-2938 after July 10th. Since there is a seating capacity of 250, people attending will be asked to RSVP and pay in advance.

    When asked if she had any favorite words or quotes to sum up her years at VUHS, Ann responded that while there were many and she felt that John Donne's quote from Meditation 17, “I am a part of all that I have met,” and “to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield,” had always guided her thinking and her actions as a teacher. Whatever the words, there can be no doubt of the end result. For over thirty years, generations of VUHS students have been touched by the teaching, oratory, spirit and tenacity of one of VUHS's greatest treasures. While Ann's gift for words and her impact leave most who know her at a loss to summarize the power of this one person on the school and community she calls home, it is best to call on the wisdom of one of her favorite authors Robert Frost when he wrote, “I am not a teacher, but an awakener.” Hundreds have been awakened by the power, the caring and the voice of Ann Sullivan.

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