Outside the CLASSROOM
Kathy Otinsky They call her the “Voice of Blair”—and with good reason.
Administrative assistant Kathy Otinsky has worked for Blair Academy for over four decades, and for much of that time, she has been the warm, steady voice at the end of the line when calling the School. As Blair’s longtime telephone operator, Kathy is the person most parents interact with first. Sitting at her desk in the student life office, Kathy has calmly fielded every concern from “Can you get a message to my son?” to “I’m lost on campus. Help!” By virtue of her 46 years at Blair, she may also be the School’s de facto historian and information specialist. “On a typical day,” Kathy says, “when someone needs to remember something from Blair’s past, they come see me. I can tell you where the underground pool is,” she says conspiratorially.
“I started working at Blair in the summer of
out in her memory the most. For instance,
1976,” Kathy remembers, when she was a local
when she and her husband bought their first
high school student. Planning to enter the
house in 1995, Kathy recalls that Blair faculty
Army upon graduation, Kathy thought that
filled the flower beds of the couple’s new
her seasonal position in Blair’s school office
home, sharing their gardening expertise and
would last only the summer. When a full-time
perennials. The act of kindness led to Kathy’s
position opened up unexpectedly in the mail
passion for creating beautiful landscapes and
room, Kathy took it, and the rest is history.
to deep friendships with fellow gardeners
While she has filled a variety of positions at
Micheline Miller, wife of former history teacher
Blair, Kathy works now in the student life office,
Marty Miller, PhD, Hon. ’81, and Dawn Homes,
where, on a normal day, she takes attendance,
wife of former fine arts teacher Philip Homes.
and if absent students do not respond, she
Kathy is also especially grateful for the
assists in locating them. She compiles the
mentors she found at Blair—those special
Daily Bulletin, listing the updated schedule for
people who come into our lives and, through
faculty and staff, and coordinates students’ off-
some twist of fate, both inspire and influence
campus excursions, organizes School vehicles
us. In Kathy’s case, she took time off after having
and drivers, answers the main phone and
her children, and her coworker Ginny Van
helps her sister, Karyn, who works in the Blair
Stone, registrar and mother of Blair Board of
mail room, when it is overrun with packages.
Governors member Robert Van Stone ’69, took
“It’s pretty funny,” Kathy says, “because I can
Kathy under her wing and championed her
remember playing school with my sister,
return. “Not only did she model an incredible
Karyn, when we were kids, but it was never
work ethic, she was instrumental in helping
with 400 packages!” Partners in crime, the sisters have
me be reassigned here full time. Some of the strongest friendships in my life have come from
worked together at Blair for over 20 years.
people I’ve met at Blair,” Kathy attests. “People
Relationships like that one, Kathy says, stand
whom I never would have met except for work.”
