Lynn Duval: 35 Years

35 35

YEARS

BY LAURIE O’NEILL

Lynn Duval

“thespian at heart” and “caring steward” for Middle School boys

“SHE’S REALLY, REALLY, REALLY NICE” said one of Lynn Duval’s former students, his words enthusiastically echoed by his classmates. Is there higher praise for a teacher of sometimes challenging adolescent boys?

Lynn, who retired last June after thirty-five years at Fenn, is equally as fond of the hundreds of students who passed through her English and social studies classes. “The boys made my days at Fenn so much fun,” Lynn declared. “They say and do the darnedest things.”

“That rocky, highly forgettable, barely-able-to-tolerate-it time between boyhood and young manhood needs a loving, caring steward, and Lynn was always there.” – Head of School Derek Boonisar

Lynn was “perfectly situated in the sixth and seventh grade range because her approach is so human,” said Head of School Derek Boonisar. “That rocky, highly forgettable, barely-able-to-tolerate-it time between boyhood and young manhood needs a loving, caring steward, and Lynn was always there.”

Her irrepressible spirit and sense of humor equipped Lynn well to instruct adolescent boys when she joined the community in 1986. After interviews with headmaster at the time Walter Birge, Lynn was offered a part-time position teaching sixth grade English. She was “so pleased,” she said, because she had taught sixth grade English and social studies in Cincinnati for thirteen years. “This position was right up my alley.”

Over the years, Lynn had been an eighth-grade English teacher, advisor, and sixth grade drama instructor, sixth and seventh grade Integrated Studies teacher, and coordinator of the Peer Advocate program. Lynn also served as the faculty coordinator of the assembly program. In her early years at the School, she was its publicity person and was “proud to score the first article about Fenn to be run in the Boston Globe.”

Lynn was known by her colleagues as “consistently prepared and equipped with a plan” and “able to get her students to understand the importance of being organized,” said Jim Carter ’54, who taught the same sixth grade social studies course.

“Her commitment to her students was very strong,” says Tricia McCarthy, head of the Middle School for many years. Lynn was “a more ‘planful’ teacher than I could ever hope to be,” she added. As an advisor, “Lynn was a lioness,” Tricia said, “holding the boys to standards but simultaneously going to bat for them every time.”

Lynn possesses a keen sense of humor and fun, which was part of the reason her students enjoyed being in her classes and advisor groups. Elise Mott, a former Middle School colleague, described Lynn as “a lot of fun to work with.” For years, Elise taught across the hall from Lynn, and the latter was “my go-to for a quick laugh, a question, or when I needed a little life advice.”

Lynn’s passion for theatre and talents as an actor and singer are well known. “She is truly alive on stage, and she modeled vivacious energy to the boys,” said Elise. “Lynn is a thespian at heart,” declared Kirsten Gould, retired chair of the arts department,

sharing that Lynn was an early addition to the drama program shortly after arriving at Fenn. The curriculum was in its infancy, and Lynn suggested trying to stage Shakespearean scenes with sixth graders using adapted scripts. The approach would replace a rather “unproductive” curriculum that had previously been in place.

Characteristically quick witted, Lynn referred to these scenes as “skitsophrenia,” and her proposal was quickly adopted. According to Kirsten, it evolved into “quite polished, off-script, and beautifully costumed performances,” which lived on and are now directed by Rob Morrison.

Fenn audiences have enjoyed Lynn’s performances in musicals, faculty skits, and in the annual holiday production, which utilizes campus and current events to recreate, albeit roughly, Ebenezer Scrooge’s Christmas Eve journey. Lynn played Auntie Scrounge, a female Scrooge, in 1995, and reprised that role in a Zoom production in 2020.

Derek said that he admires “how Lynn asked the tough questions in the spirit of helping us be best prepared. She showed the courage to let you know where she stood on issues and made sure her voice and all voices were heard. Perhaps it’s her comfort on the stage, but it mattered and made a difference.”

Dr. Charlie Streff, former consulting clinical psychologist at Fenn, worked with Lynn on the Peer Advocacy program, originally known as Peer Mediation. He says she was one of the first faculty members to sign up to take peer advocate training so she could help instruct boys in conflict resolution.

“Lynn became the driving force for the program when I retired and was eventually able to make its principles part of the

Student Life Program curriculum,”

Charlie says. Lynn demonstrated

“sensitivity and insight” when she dealt with students who were exhibiting behavioral or emotional stress, he adds. “She was instrumental in helping them turn things around.” Her acting ability made Lynn particularly well-suited to teaching and advising and to serving as a peer advocate, Charlie added. As she modeled conflict and resolution, “the boys were sometimes speechless watching her.” Charlie got to know Lynn even better when both were involved with The Concord Players, where she has been an actor, producer, publicity person, and for a term the group’s president. Charlie and Lynn acted in Oklahoma, Lynn as the rancher’s wife “and I as the town preacher man,” he shared. Later they auditioned together for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, singing and acting the innkeeper and his wife’s number from Les Miserables.

“Lynn got a major role,” Charlie says. “I got a ‘Thank you for coming tonight’.”

“I wanted the boys to trust in me, trust in themselves, and trust they will be prepared for the next step in their learning.” – Lynn Duval

“She loved teaching boys, and they loved her.” – Former faculty colleague Elise Mott

As a nod to her longevity at Fenn and her love of theatre, Lynn was greeted by her fiefdom, or rather, colleagues, at the June Balloon Dinner held for departing faculty and staff members with a cry of “Hear Ye, Hear Ye. All rise for Queen Duval. Her court is now in session!”

Presenters thanked her for her “leadership, humor, grace, and dedication to your court.” Lynn, who played Queen Elizabeth in the 2014 Fenn holiday concert, was presented with a crown “for the matriarchal care and support of your minions,” a “royal scepter” for “ruling with an iron fist all the whilst with a tender heart,” and a “royal purple cape, to be counted among the many costumes you have draped yourself in through your many performances, musical stylings, and artistic Shakespearian direction. You have left us inspired, uplifted, and entertained.”

Among her favorite memories of her years at Fenn, Lynn counts those spent teaching Integrated Studies with Amy Stiga. “We shared some great laughs, especially when we demonstrated how to execute the Explorer Project presentation in front of the boys,” she said.

Lynn also treasured her experiences as an advisor. “Not only did I work with wonderful boys, but also with the caring adults in their lives who relied on my advice,” she said, adding that Fenn parents “were an integral support that allowed me to do my job.”

Having planned to “kick back” after retirement, Lynn is busy pursuing other interests, including working with senior citizens who are in assisted living. She volunteers at Camellia Gardens in Maynard Crossing, where her first job was to call Bingo, a task for which she employed her “teacher-voice projection,” she said.

Ever the theatre aficionado, she worked with seniors in a Reading Theater project during December 2021, for which the actors read and performed “Funny Letters to Santa.”

Spending more time with her son, Jason, and with her long-time friend, Doug, were among Lynn’s retirement priorities. Mostly, she says, “I’ve been learning to enjoy not being on a regimented schedule, which has been liberating.”

In a faculty spotlight article several years ago, Lynn expressed her ardent wish as a teacher: “I want the boys to trust in me, trust in themselves, and trust they will be prepared for the next step in their learning.” Fenn will remember Lynn for her enthusiasm, sense of humor and fun, and dedication to her students. Said

Elise: “She loved teaching boys, and they loved her.”

Laurie O’Neill is a freelance writer and former teacher and writer/editor at Fenn. She lives in Concord.