Mabel Shepard
The only Branford native in this year's Hall of Fame class, Mabel Frances Shepard was born in 1894. A student of history and literature, she commuted on the trolley to New Haven, where she faithfully attended classes at Yale University for many years. After two years of teaching at the one-room Mill Plain School, Miss Shepard's teaching career shifted to Short Beach in 1917 as teaching principal first at the Old Short Beach and then, in 1949, at the new Short Beach School, where she remained as teaching principal until her retirement.
Everyone-former colleagues and former students alike recalls Mabel ("may-bell," if you please!) as a strict disciplinarian, who walked the halls of the schools in her tailor-made suits covered by a flowered smock. There simply was no mischief in her classroom. However, she also had a sweet side and cared about the success of each and every student. She was concerned when a child was ill, and no one was allowed to be made a scapegoat in her classroom. When one youngster entered fifth grade still sucking his thumb, Mabel recognized that this habit would lead to his being made fun of by his classmates and set upon a behavior modification pro gram that involved praise and occasional rewards of ice cream for the days, and then weeks, of thumb sucking abstinence. And woe to the classmate who dared to make fun of him! The method worked, and everyone learned a valuable lesson.
Many marveled at how she handled the responsibilities of running both her classroom and the whole school: bookkeeping, ordering supplies, supervising curriculum, dealing with parents and unruly students, and seeing salesmen. Besides all this, she found the time and energy to undertake the highlight of the year: the annual pinafore, or play. Mabel directed the entire production- complete with singing and dancing- and had the parents make the costumes. Every child participated, and the play was performed at the high school. Everyone loved it, especially Mabel!
Miss Shepard loved to travel during the summers and used those travels to infuse her geography lessons with a vividness that students remember to this day. Whether the seemingly endless rolling fields of corn swaying in a summer breeze viewed from a bus window while passing through Ohio or the customs, dance, and food of historic villages along the Danube, Mabel brought it all to life. Not only did she make her students want to travel, but at least one former student credits her les sons as leading him into a career as a social studies teacher. However, her class, as all classes did then, covered all discipline areas. Another student remembers how well Mabel taught the basics, especial ly in math and geometry, and recalls emphatically, "She made us think."
Miss Shepard was often instrumental in helping her students go on to receive higher education, and her impact on the education of present and future generations continues through the Shepard Family Trust. Upon her death in 1984, Trinity Church became the residual beneficiary in her will; and interest from the Shepard Fund, designated in memory of Miss Shepard, her grandmother, mother, and father, is used to provide scholarships to Branford residents pursuing a full-time program in an accredited college.
What comes to mind for most who remember Mabel Shepherd (second, after her discipline) is her singular devotion to teaching throughout a career that spanned fifty years. Her warmth, sense of humor, intellect, and love of learning were an inspiration to two or more generations of Branford elementary school children, and former students still think of her when they drive past the old Shepard family Victorian cottage that stands at the corner of Stannard Avenue and Harbor Street.
Grateful acknowledgment is offered to Jonathan Clark and Jane Bouley without whom this biography would have been impossible. Both will certainly recognize their contributions in the text above.
Everyone-former colleagues and former students alike recalls Mabel ("may-bell," if you please!) as a strict disciplinarian, who walked the halls of the schools in her tailor-made suits covered by a flowered smock. There simply was no mischief in her classroom. However, she also had a sweet side and cared about the success of each and every student. She was concerned when a child was ill, and no one was allowed to be made a scapegoat in her classroom. When one youngster entered fifth grade still sucking his thumb, Mabel recognized that this habit would lead to his being made fun of by his classmates and set upon a behavior modification pro gram that involved praise and occasional rewards of ice cream for the days, and then weeks, of thumb sucking abstinence. And woe to the classmate who dared to make fun of him! The method worked, and everyone learned a valuable lesson.
Many marveled at how she handled the responsibilities of running both her classroom and the whole school: bookkeeping, ordering supplies, supervising curriculum, dealing with parents and unruly students, and seeing salesmen. Besides all this, she found the time and energy to undertake the highlight of the year: the annual pinafore, or play. Mabel directed the entire production- complete with singing and dancing- and had the parents make the costumes. Every child participated, and the play was performed at the high school. Everyone loved it, especially Mabel!
Miss Shepard loved to travel during the summers and used those travels to infuse her geography lessons with a vividness that students remember to this day. Whether the seemingly endless rolling fields of corn swaying in a summer breeze viewed from a bus window while passing through Ohio or the customs, dance, and food of historic villages along the Danube, Mabel brought it all to life. Not only did she make her students want to travel, but at least one former student credits her les sons as leading him into a career as a social studies teacher. However, her class, as all classes did then, covered all discipline areas. Another student remembers how well Mabel taught the basics, especial ly in math and geometry, and recalls emphatically, "She made us think."
Miss Shepard was often instrumental in helping her students go on to receive higher education, and her impact on the education of present and future generations continues through the Shepard Family Trust. Upon her death in 1984, Trinity Church became the residual beneficiary in her will; and interest from the Shepard Fund, designated in memory of Miss Shepard, her grandmother, mother, and father, is used to provide scholarships to Branford residents pursuing a full-time program in an accredited college.
What comes to mind for most who remember Mabel Shepherd (second, after her discipline) is her singular devotion to teaching throughout a career that spanned fifty years. Her warmth, sense of humor, intellect, and love of learning were an inspiration to two or more generations of Branford elementary school children, and former students still think of her when they drive past the old Shepard family Victorian cottage that stands at the corner of Stannard Avenue and Harbor Street.
Grateful acknowledgment is offered to Jonathan Clark and Jane Bouley without whom this biography would have been impossible. Both will certainly recognize their contributions in the text above.