LEADING THE WAY

Women have been making an impact at Breck since the very beginning

When Breck opened its doors in the late 1800s in Wilder, Minnesota, female students and male students learned side by side. Originally established as a school for immigrants and farmers who may not have had access to traditional education, Breck educated women the same way they educated men: “The young ladies are permitted to enjoy equal rights and privileges as the young gentlemen,” the school catalog at the time read. If you were motivated to learn, you came to Breck, regardless of your gender.

Breck was not always a farm school. It moved to St. Paul in 1917 and later to Minneapolis in the 50s before landing at the current Golden Valley campus in the 1980s. It also wasn’t always coed. Following the Great Depression, Breck stopped enrolling women for a period of 22 years — a financial decision more than a social or cultural one. This relatively short period in Breck’s history is also one of the most memorable, as the school transformed into a military academy with a prestigious riding program.

It was finances that brought women back to Breck again in the 1950s, first in grades one to three. But it was also more than just money that motivated school leadership at the time to push Breck to readmit women beyond third grade. “A school is never so good that it can’t become better,” Headmaster and Rector Canon Henderson wrote on September 10, 1964 in the Breck Bugle. Readmitting women was a return to the core of what Breck was and the educational equality upon which it was founded. In 1964, Breck’s Board of Trustees voted to allow girls to enroll in fourth grade, then fifth, then sixth, and, finally, in 1972, men and women graduated side-by-side for the first time in 40 years.

The first women at Breck — again

Being the first women to graduate from — what was at the time — an all-boys school is a unique experience, one that is different from that of the pioneer women of Breck’s founding and different from the experience of Breck women today. This distinctive period of Breck’s history inspired Ella Askew ’22 to focus on the women of the Class of 1972 for her Advanced History Research project during her senior year. How did the experience of the ’72 women differ from her own, or from that of her mom Caroline (Cuningham) Askew ’87? Askew wondered.

“There’s 50 years of history [since the Class of 1972 graduated],” Askew says. “I wanted to see if and how the dynamic has changed or the experience has changed during that time.”

For her research project, Askew had the opportunity to speak with a handful of women (and a few men) from the Class of 1972 to learn about what life was like for them during their time at Breck

The women who graduated in 1972 were often called “the first” or “the original” girls at Breck, and they took pride in being trailblazers within the school.

“We were groundbreakers for Breck,” Liz (Flora) Hovet ’72 told Askew, “and we continued to be that for our entire time at Breck.”

When these women entered Upper School, they were outnumbered by their male peers 21 to one. But that didn’t stop them from taking advantage of everything Breck had to offer: They excelled in the classroom, became leaders in student government, and pursued their passions in the arts, academics, and so much more. “To me, the sky was the limit,” Linda Johnson ’72 shared with Askew. “I could really do anything that I really wanted to do at Breck.” Johnson served as the senior class president for the Class of 1972 — and returned to Breck in 2022 during Homcoming to attend the Golden Mustangs breakfast, where she and her classmates celebrated 50 years since graduation.

These women were able to excel at Breck in large part because of the support they received from their teachers and the school administration, namely Headmaster and Rector Canon Henderson, Assistant to the Headmaster Robert Aarthun, and Dean of Girls Lorraine Mesken

—

(pictured in the “From the Archives” section below). This support and encouragement from adults at Breck resonated with Askew’s experience at Breck, too.

“I love the fact that it felt like Breck has always really cared about women learning and having equal opportunities in the community,” says Askew. “Even those first women felt they were supported in the classroom and even outside of the classroom by the administration andtheir teachers.”

Telling their story

This fall during Homecoming week — 50 years after their graduation — Breck awarded the 16 women from the Class of 1972 with the Distinguished Alumni Award as a formal recognition of the impact they had as the “first women” at Breck. These individuals opened the door for young women like Askew to be successful at Breck and continue to serve as a reminder for all Breck students that there are no limits to what you can accomplish — even if you have to be the first person to do it.

“We celebrate them, we honor them, and we thank them because it was a heavy lift,” Head of School

Natalia R. Hernández reminded the Upper School of the Class of 1972 during the Distinguished Alum Chapel in September 2022. “[These women] need to be talked about because it wasn’t just [their graduation] year they are being celebrated for. It is all the history that happened after they were here. It’s what and who they set the stage for.” B

From The Archives

In 1972, Breck ’s yearbook Mustang was dedicated to Lorraine (Rybak) Mesken, who, at the time, served as the Dean of Girls. In her dedication, the student editors wrote:

“In such a year as this, when the goal of coeducation has been successfully accomplished, and Breck has, at the same time, recorded its eighty-fifth year, it is appropriate to honor someone without whom it might not all have happened.…For five years now Mrs. Ryback has followed Breck’s first class with girls and its successors with enthusiasm, warmth, and energy. She remains a true friend, adviser, and teacher for boys and girls alike, but she holds a special interest and affection for the girls…. Mrs. Rybak’s gracious gifts to the Breck community — her cheerful assistance, helpful guidance, or just her beaming smile — have played a big part in making Breck something very special.”