Julia Williams: Always a Lady

    One day in late 1964, Julia Williams stopped by Collegiate where her daughter Julie and son David were enrolled and ran into Catharine Flippen, the esteemed head of the Girls School.
    Knowing that her visitor had an English degree from Hollins College, Mrs. Flippen asked if she’d ever be interested in teaching.
    “Never,” Mrs. Williams quickly responded.
    “If I needed a substitute for a day or two,” Mrs. Flippen gently persisted, “would you at least consider that?”
    “Maybe,” Mrs. Williams replied, confident that the unthinkable would never come to pass.
    Of course, in short order the call went out, and Mrs. Williams reluctantly agreed.
    “The first day I walked on campus to substitute, I fell in love with it right then and there…surprisingly…because I’d been so adamant about the fact that I would not teach,” she recalled.
    “I had done a lot of volunteer work in the community that required the same training and behavior as teaching, so, as it turned out, I had more groundwork for it than I ever expected.”  Mrs. Williams finished the year as a long-term English sub with three preparations, then came on board full time in September 1965 and held forth for the next 28 years.
    She became assistant head of the Girls School in 1970 and, after earning her M.Ed. in counseling from Virginia Commonwealth University, succeeded Mrs. Flippen upon her retirement in 1972.
    In 1984, she added the post of vice-president for academic affairs to her already busy schedule.
    When Collegiate’s structure changed in 1986, she became Upper School head and, during the 1987-88 term, served as interim president following the retirement of Malcolm U. Pitt Jr.
    When Rob Hershey arrived as head of school in 1988, she resumed her duties as US head and academic vice-president and served in her dual capacity until she retired in 1993.
    Along the way, Mrs. Williams earned a well-deserved reputation for holding fast to the school’s core values and traditions and fostering the development of well-rounded students.  She was honest and forthright, strict and demanding, unfailingly fair, efficient, and exacting.
    And she was always gracious…a perfect lady.
    One day recently, we sat down in her apartment at Westminster Canterbury on Richmond’s North Side and talked about her career, her abiding admiration for Mrs. Flippen, the evolution of Collegiate, and her current role as a very proud grandmother of two graduates (Virginia Layfield '07 and Elizabeth Layfield '09) and a member of the class of 2011 (Preston Williams).

    Once you realized that you enjoyed teaching, was administration part of your plan?

    It was really not a goal.  As I looked at my future, I was interested in counseling.  I segued from teaching to teaching and counseling, and my first administrative responsibility was counseling the 9th grade girls.
    Mrs. Flippen first mentioned administration.  She said to me, “I think you might have some of the talents that would be necessary.”  I said, “I’m not sure about that.”
    As I moved through the various steps, I found that working with students, faculty, and parents was really a satisfying career.  I never thought about doing anything else or going anywhere else.  
It was sheer serendipity.

    Mrs. Flippen was quite a mentor, wasn’t she?

    She was very generous with her time and information.  We met regularly, and she would describe what was going on and ask my opinion.
    She always had time to listen.  The most important thing was that she made me believe that I could become a school head.

    Once you succeeded her, were there ever moments when you thought, “What would Catharine Flippen do?”

    All the time.

    The school operated on minimal resources back then.  How did we make it work?

    Mrs. Flippen came to Collegiate (in 1940) when we were just emerging from the Depression. She remembered board members coming to her office on Monday mornings and leaving checks in order to pay the faculty that week.  It was that tenuous.
    She fought long and hard for economy.  Whenever something was mentioned about improving facilities, she’d say, “You know, we can do with just this much.  We don’t need all that.”  
    It was particularly true in areas that were showy. Her interest was not show-and-tell.  It was being the best you could possibly be from a human standpoint.

    During your administrative tenure, we still didn’t have the resources we have now.

    I always felt that the educational system of any good school was three-pronged: arts, academics, and athletics.  As we looked at how to allocate resources, it was interesting to watch us change from basic academic focus to expanding appreciably, and successfully, in the arts and athletics.
    It was really satisfying, for example, to see the (Oates) Theater finally go up and to watch what’s happened with the program as a result, partially because of the building itself as well as the commitment of people and resources.  
    Athletics…I don’t need to tell anybody about that.  Anybody can go and look at what’s happened with that.
    The breadth of academic offerings is just so mind-boggling compared to what we were able to offer initially.
    We always had quality, but we now have quantity as well.  
    I’ve been so grateful that the school has put the emphasis on the variety of offerings.
And we’ve grown to use technology very effectively.
    The faculty has always been wonderful.  That’s obviously the heart of the school.  We’ve maintained and improved that as years have gone on. That makes a big, big difference.

    In 1986, the old Boys and Girls Schools became a co-ed Upper School and coordinate Middle School.  The structure change wasn’t universally popular nor was it easy to implement.
    
    There were high feelings on both campuses.  I felt a certain sense of sadness for the boys, believe it or not, because they looked at the girls’ cohesive life with activities and traditions and wanted something for themselves that they could cling to.  
    You can’t manufacture traditions.  They have to develop.  The boys now have every comfort of feeling good about themselves, and you couldn’t ask for anything greater than the commitment those kids have to the school.
    The boys really were the ones who felt disenfranchised by walking into a group of students who had all kinds of expectations that they looked forward to.

    Was there ever a time once the new structure had been implemented when you thought, “Oh my gosh, what have we gotten ourselves into?”

    Frequently.  Almost every Monday morning when we sat down for our administrative meetings.  When someone would say, “Well, it used to be…,” you knew you were getting into hot water because we needed to look forward not backward.

    Tough as it was, things finally came around.

    Like a marriage, it required a lot of compromise.  People had to be good-natured.  You can differ, but differ genteelly. People on the whole wanted it to succeed.  They may not have approved of it.  They may not have wanted it to happen, but once it did happen, people pulled together.

    You’ve stayed quite busy in retirement.

    I made up my mind that when I retired, I would go back to some of the things I was doing as a volunteer before I went to Collegiate. I’ve stayed plenty busy.  And I’d made up my mind that I would not go back to Collegiate and hover.  Because of the grandchildren, I’ve had my window into what was going on at the school.

    As much as you enjoyed your years at Collegiate, it seems that your role as a grandparent is what really makes you smile.

    Oh, absolutely.  

    Much has changed at Collegiate over the years.  What has remained the same?

    The spirit, the commitment of all those associated with the school has always been, “I want it to work.  I want it to be good.”  
    There’s a belief that the school can make a difference.
                                -- Weldon Bradshaw