CELEBRATING MAUREEN

When I first met Maureen, she and Paul were visiting Princeton in advance of beginning their tenure as part of the Princeton Day School community. I was assigned by the Transition Committee to show Maureen around, and we immediately connected. She was so down to earth, easy to talk with and a fount of great school stories. As we chatted about PDS and our children throughout the day, and as I got to know Maureen’s hilarious sense of humor, I realized that we were destined to become good friends.

Since then, Maureen, like Paul, has become a visible and vital member of the PDS community. As half of this power couple, Maureen, with years of independent school experience in her own right, served as a wonderful counselor to Paul, and has been a particularly important advisor during the most challenging periods of his tenure at PDS. I am certain that she always had her own perspective on changes and challenges at the school, and I imagine she shares her views unhesitatingly with Paul. She is also always in his corner and his staunchest supporter.

Maureen has been a familiar face to faculty and staff, parents and decades of alumni as she hosted and attended events on campus and around the country. She’s often found on the sidelines or in attendance at a myriad of games, concerts, art openings and theater productions. Not only my friend but also my colleague, Maureen has been an important part of the PDS advancement team. She planned many of the school’s most important events and showed her love and deep respect for the institutional traditions these events honor. A devoted member of the Princeton Garden Club, she also ensured our floral decor was on point (helpfully preventing me from using daisies in mason jars as centerpieces on a number of occasions).

She also shared many of her interests with me — her passion for gardening, her birdwatching and her love of summers and winters on Cape Cod. Now, after fifteen years of friendship and seeing firsthand the impact of her time here, I can say that Princeton Day School will truly miss her. So will I.