West Chester University - Serpentine Yearbook (West Chester, PA)

Page 15 text:

One may say that Miss Speakman has a genius for friendship, she so well exemplifies the truth of the proverb, He who would have friends must show himself friendly. The many letters she receives from her pupils of old days, the pleasure with which she is greet -d at Alumni banquets, and the solicitude and regret expressed at her absence from tliese festivities, all bear tcstimnny tn this fact. Quite i)ossibly the tranquillity of Miss Spcaknian ' s early life and training, for her father was a member of the Society of Friends, has had much to do with the developing of the calm poise of her manner and the gentle dignity of her pres- ence, but lier kindliness, her capacity for friendship, and the steadfast loyalty of her nature are innate ; no outward circumstances could produce them. The Class of 1918 has indeed done a graceful and a gracious thing in dedi- cating its class book to Miss Speakman and lias honored itself no less than her in doing so. IIAI. ' RIK ' r U. BALDWIN. Page Seven

Page 14 text:

® iElufra . p akxnan ■ ISS SPEAKMAN was born on a farm near Chatham. Chester County, and there passed the first few years of her life. Slie hjves dearly the fields and woods of her old home and often revisits them in fancy and, when ]iossible, in the flesh. She received her earliest education in the public schools in the vicinity of Chat- ham but later attended a seminary at Christiana which was conducted by a gradu- ate of the Millersville State Normal School. For a time also she was a pupil in an academy near C ' hatham. She began teaching when she was very young, not very nnu-h over fifteen years of age, in fact, and this first experiment was made in the public schools near her home. She left these schools to take a position in the seminary at Christiana in which she had been a student. From this place she went to a private school at Ercildoun and there she formed many lifelong friendships. One of her pupils at Ercildoun was Mrs. G. M. Philips and the association, begun at Ercildoun and terminated only by the death of Mrs. Philips, was a very close and tender one. Another of her friends of that time and place still lives and Miss Speakman al- ways refers to her in terms of the warmest affection. Ercildoun seems to be a bright spot in her life, she has only happy memories of it. After leaving Ercildoun she accepted a position in Jacob Harvey ' s Academy at Unionville, and later went to Newton in nortliern New Jersey — this last was also one of her happy experiences. With the exception of the first six years, all of her teaching lias been done in private schools and in the Normal School. She came as a teacher to the West Chester State Normal School in 18T6. five years after its founding. Mr. George L. Maris was then principal and Dr. G. M. Piiilips was a teacher of mathematics. Miss Speakman at first taught his- tory, geography and spelling, but as the school grew and classes enlarged it was deemed best to make a separate department of history and she retained geograpliy and spelling, the former being her favorite. But the school continued to grow in numbers and it became constantly more ai)parent that someone was needed to have oversight of the girls and so Miss Speakman was elected to the office of preceptress, a positio n she has filled with dignity and grace since its inception in 1909. May she long remain to carrv on its duties. I ' ngc Six

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IL J? r t lu o r !t OUR BOOK ! The only book of which most of us will be a part, and the motive and origin of the custom of thus preserving the memories of school days is readily apparent when we reflect on their meaning to us. These days of preparation for our life work, the opportunity to choose and assimilate our heritage of knowledge and power, mingled with experiences and associations no future ones can transcend ; our kindred aims, hopes and tasks are such as will never come into our lives again. Parting will bring scattered roads, diverse aims and lives, and we especially this year are going out into a world mightily changed since we came here to school. We must be prepared to lay our hands on the tasks that will emerge frcini the chaos and to do so demands that we give our attention to the immediate tasks. Tho volumes of history are being enacted in Europe, this our history concerns us now, for it is the stepping stone to our future. This gathering of impressions of our classnuites by those who know them best allows all of us to know each one more intinuitely than our busy days here allow ; the lesser things of study and surroundings form a background whose only potency is the use we have made of them, which we will realize in later years should we re- liirn aiul see strange faces moving among them. Balanced between our inexperience on the one hand and our gratitude to the members of the class on the other, we have ruminated and cogitated thru the vanished days and their doings, and if the pleasure of perusal is half so keen as that of recording them we shall be amply rewarded for (uir labor of love. Paije Eight