Myrtle Peirce Aulenback, '39
"The whole total school was 60 people when I was there…I was privileged to know Edith Lesley Wolfard, not only as the founder but as a friend. She created a homey, cozy, wonderful environment in the school; she believed in her heart in the uniqueness of the individual and individual differences in children…I see that this philosophy is still being carried on today."
Myrtle began her career in the Lesley School's Teacher-training program as a commuter student during the peak of the Great Depression." As a day student in the thirties," she said, "I went to Lesley by streetcar. The tuition was $110 a semester. The dorm girls dated Harvard boys, but we, the day girls, were not even allowed in the dorms. We all had to wear a hat and gloves, however, just to walk down to Mass. Avenue."
Myrtle taught for 36 years, first at the West End Community House and later at the Unitarian Cooperative Nursery School, where she also served as director for 21 years. In 1989 she received the first Alumni Achievement Award for her fifty years of active involvement in the Lesley Community. The prestigious award was named in her honor when she passed away in 1992.
This profile was compiled from previously published sources: Lesley Magazine editions: Winter '89/90, p. 28 and Winter, 1993, p. 32.
Myrtle Peirce Aulenback, '39at Lesley College reunion, 1989, The Lesley Magazine, Winter, 1993.