The Legacy of Laura Camp

Family and friends of Laura Camp gathered in the Chapel and Brewster Memorial Garden on October 22, 2022, to celebrate Camp’s life and legacy. A beloved former faculty member at St. Stephen’s, Camp began her teaching career in the fall of 1971. She dedicated her entire 40-year career and professional life to the school, sharing her love of history and the St. Stephen’s community with generations of students and colleagues.

Camp lived on campus for more than 30 years, having served as a dorm parent, residential advisor and Upper School history teacher. She retired from her teaching position in 2012 but remained active as a member of the St. Stephen’s community. In fact, Camp ensured her legacy at the school would serve generations to come by becoming a proud member of the Legacy Council, an outstanding group of St. Stephen’s alumni, parents and friends who have made a bequest or planned gift to the school.

Camp’s bequest is among the largest in the school’s history. At 60% of her estate, it created the Laura Camp Endowed Faculty Chair. This endowment provides supplementary support to the appointed chair and also provides general faculty support.

“St. Stephen’s outstanding faculty are the heart of our school,” said Head of School Chris Gunnin. “We know we are only as strong as our teachers. Laura’s final gift to St. Stephen’s continues her legacy of faculty excellence and strengthens the school’s ability to recruit and retain faculty of the highest caliber. We are profoundly grateful,” said Gunnin.

Julie Person ’71, a life-long friend and colleague of Camp’s, served as the executor of Camp’s estate and worked closely with Camp to help fulfill her desire to make a substantial and meaningful contribution to the school.

“This is someone who gave her whole adult life to the students and faculty and staff and family of St. Stephen’s,” said Person. “Laura was a really important person in the life of the school.”

Camp was a life-long learner with voracious curiosity and quick wit. Adventurous at heart and a student of the world, she was an avid traveler throughout Central America, South America or Europe in the summer months. During her tenure, she helped direct St. Stephen’s summer study program in Salamanca for a number of years, teaching Spanish history and culture classes. Her deep commitment to learning about other cultures, especially through immersive travel, was reflected in her classes, as she’d often incorporate anecdotes and artifacts from her global summer trips into her classroom lessons.

Camp was known as a great teacher of research. She helped St. Stephen’s students learn how to debate their arguments, and she emphasized the importance of drawing insights from a diverse range of possibilities. Her ability to describe different perspectives with precision, based on thorough research and authority, was a hallmark of her teaching style.

“From the moment I started teaching at St. Stephen’s, I heard from students that Laura was very demanding, a tough grader, but I quickly observed that students would complain about how rigorous she was while in the same sentence admitting she was the very best teacher they’d ever had,” said Hank Ewert ’70, St. Stephen’s alum and former faculty member. “She was fantastically well prepared. She read everything — the biographies, the biographer’s biography, the relevant article! She was incredibly thorough,” said Ewert.

In a 2014 interview in Spartan Magazine, Camp discussed her reasoning for wanting to leave a gift to St. Stephen’s in her will and estate plan.

“I wanted to give back to St. Stephen’s because of what it did for me and what it does for our students. I want [the school] to continue to be the wonderful place it has been since 1950. I like to imagine all the students who will come to St. Stephen’s in the future and how my estate gifts will continue to help them get the education that meant so much to me and the many students I had the pleasure of teaching in my years at St. Stephen’s.”

As Camp’s friend, caregiver and executor of her estate, Person joyfully reminisces about how Camp expressed her intention behind wanting to give a substantial gift. “I just want to leave a big pile of money to St. Stephen’s!” Person continued laughing, “And, by golly, she did!” St. Stephen’s is deeply grateful to Camp for her extraordinary generosity.

Nearly 400 alumni returned to St. Stephen’s to celebrate Reunion Weekend 2023. The three-day event was record-setting for the number of alumni coming back to The Hill. From honoring the Pioneer Spartans at their annual dinner to toasting the Spartan Alumni Association at the Taste of Austin, alumni and St. Stephen’s current and former faculty and staff reminisced and reconnected. Attendees also recognized the recipients of the Brewster Medal, honored three outstanding Spartans for their service and leadership, and commemorated the 20th anniversary of St. Stephen’s partnership with St. Etienne Episcopal School in Haiti.