BUSINESS story by Angela Smith
Hilda Conner Mother, Teacher, Life Coach
We’ve heard it all of our lives, “Babies don’t come with an instruction manual.” We spend a lifetime figuring out how to raise our children and learning from personal mistakes and triumphs. Hilda Conner has been privileged to learn not only from her two adult children but also from the many children that have entered her life through All Saints' Episcopal Day School over the past 30 years.
Hilda began her career at All Saints’ as a volunteer with a means to be closer to her children. She later became a substitute teacher and then an assistant and eventually taught fourth through sixth graders history and social studies. Today Hilda teaches keyboarding, writing, and reading to kindergarten, first, and second graders. She also prides herself in always being available as Room Mom while her boys, Charles "Chuck" and Charlton, attended All Saints'. “It was important to me to stay involved in where my boys were academically,” she says. “I was a hands-on mother and very interested in knowing what my children were and were not learning. That way I could help them be more comfortable and confident in the subjects they weren’t doing as well in.” Mrs. Conner, as Hilda is known by her All Saints’ family, believes that education is the foundation for a child’s development and encourages a child to secure a more successful life. “As a teacher, I learned where my students were. That allowed me to help them focus on certain areas to learn and continue growing. Giving students the extra help they need is what has been important to me. That’s how I am as a teacher and as a parent,” explained Hilda. She has learned to listen to her students and also learned the importance of building them up academically. “I believe it’s important for a child to see success.”
Hilda has certainly been able to reap the rewards of raising successful children. Her eldest son, Chuck, lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and works as an attorney while her youngest, Charlton, is a pediatric dentist and owns his own practice in Florence, South Carolina, Prime Pediatric Dentistry. While they had their share of challenges, HIlda was a constant encouragement to them seeing success. Both boys agree that the role their mother played in helping them decide their careers was crucial. She may have not guided them to specific professions but she did help teach them how to become successful. “Our mother instilled timeless principles and life lessons,” explains Charlton. “The biggest principle was perseverance. Giving up or quitting were never options. Being persistent with our goals through a strong work ethic and planning were also key principles she instilled in us. She also taught us to know our selfworth and to not ever let anyone sell us short on what we knew our worth to be.” Staying in contact, not only during adolescent years but also into adulthood, has been of utmost importance to Hilda as a mother. As children get older and go off to college, it’s easy to assume we should step back and give them space to spread their wings. While Hilda understands this sentiment, she also believes in being a coach through even the later years of your child’s life. “After my children left for college, I still spoke with them nearly every day,” she says. “There has never been an event in their lives that my husband and I haven’t been a part of, no matter how big or small. We didn’t force our opinions on them. After they finished receiving an education, we believed it was time they made their own decisions. However, we would continue to be there and cheer them on every step of the way.” “When I step back and think about the impact my mother had on my life, it gives so much clarity and perspective to everything I have accomplished and been able to achieve,” says Charlton. “My mother loved us so hard – regardless of how well we did, whether we failed or succeeded. It was the decoupling of love from success that set her children free to be who we could.
Pictured Left: Pinning ceremony for Diplomat of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry, Charlton and Chuck
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May 2022
Hilda and her husband, Charles, reside in Florence. Hilda celebrated 30 years at All Saints' Episcopal Day School in April of this year and looks forward to retirement this summer.
