Pam Pardue Goode ’73 Creates Lasting Legacy on Bissell Campus

IN MAY, CURRENT and retired faculty and staff who have served the Middle School for 20+ years came together for the installation of a new piece of art on Bissell Campus. The artwork, created by cut glass artist Pam Pardue Goode ’73, features a tree with a leaf for each employee. Since 2010, as the Middle School’s first Artist in Residence, Pam’s glasswork has been installed in several areas around Bissell Campus. Head of Middle School Warren Sepkowitz has collaborated with Pam on other projects as he shares, “I like surrounding children with beauty, history, stories, and honorings. And no one has helped me more on this path than our resident angel, Pam Goode.”

At the ceremony, social studies teacher Aaron Cooper gave a moving tribute inspired by Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. He said: “To the students gathered here today—like the boy in the book—you are watched over and cared for by the best faculty and staff there is…not because of how many college degrees or awards they have won, but because of their willingness to do whatever it takes to help you find success and to navigate the turbulent waters of middle school.

“For those on the tree and for all those standing here today, know that nearly my entire adult life will be spent on this campus. When I came here in 1997, I wasn’t much older than a boy, and when I leave here I won’t be too far away from being one who could use a stump to sit on and rest. What you have given me both as a person and as a teacher since that first day and what you give to each other every day has no equal in any other school or workplace.”