Margot Childs Cheel ’60

Visual Artist

Margot is the very embodiment of a woman who has repeatedly reinvented herself. Early in her career she worked in business, followed by a production job for WGBH-TV public television, and then became a teacher of creative arts in the Boston area. At the age of 50, she followed her dream of becoming a pilot, and, using the camera that was always at her side, she began taking aerial photos from the cockpit window. She saw Cape Cod with the eyes of an artist, and soon her aerial photography was recognized in art galleries in New England, Florida, and Canada.

She gathered her photos and published a book called Sea and Sand from the Sky, which has been very successful, but she was not finished. Margot noticed that when showing her book to children, they would often find shapes hidden in her coastal photos. This observation encouraged her to write a children’s book entitled, What Do You See? It challenges children to use their imagination to see shapes from a different perspective and to make a different kind of connection with nature.

Margot is a past president of the New England Chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers and the former Governor of New England for the Ninety-Nines International Women Pilots Organization, founded in 1929 by Amelia Earhart. She leads local workshops on creative expression and coordinates events for women pilots. She has been a frequent participant in the Air Race Classic, a four-day event covering 2,500 miles or more within the U.S.

Her classmate and friend Sally (Flower ’60) Getty says, “These, of course, are just statistics of achievement. What I find most impressive about Margot is that she is the embodiment of David Brooks’ book, The Second Mountain more than fulfilled all the necessary expectations of the first mountain but has gone on to reinvent herself successfully over and over. Each decade brings her closer to a richer and more exuberant expression of her infinite capabilities as a woman. I feel that her life (still active at age 77), accomplishments, and spirit are an inspiration to all.”

SA appreciates the alumni who represented their fields at the first on-campus Career Week April 17 - 21:

Logan Cole ’16

Clayton Morris ’11

Carrington Motley, PhD ’12

Willy Paul ’16

Nicholas Smyth ’01

Billy Sullivan ’14

Appreciation is also extended to John “Buzz” Moyer ’82 for presenting to the Senior School on March 1, and sharing details of his career and experience as a highly regarded Steadicam operator in films and television such as A Man