Robin Temple
Robin was born in Dover, Massachusetts and went to the Perry Normal School in Boston with Jan Geier, majoring in Education.
She came to Branford for her first teaching job and after being hired, went to the Branford Candy Shop in her white gloves, pillbox hat and pumps. The man behind the counter said, "Oh, you must be the new teacher from Boston" and she said, "How did you know?" She was a kindergarten teacher, first at Short Beach and then Pine Orchard for twenty-six or twenty-seven years.
She is remembered for starting out each year being firm and establishing both discipline and an atmosphere of respect. She always treated her students with fairness and encouraged all of them, every day. As her students got to know her better they came to know her sense of humor and they said she never ran out of hugs. Her hugs enveloped her students and later some of them would describe it as what it would be like if "Mrs. Santa Claus" was hugging you!
She said she knew it was time to retire when she started to have the third generation of some of her students. Do her students remember her? She is amazed at how many students with their own families recall how much she influenced them in kindergarten! Her family tells the story of a former student who is now a doctor in the South. He drives up to visit once each year and when he does, he makes sure he calls Robin and arranges to take her out to lunch. He says he can never forget her or how much he feels she did for him all those years ago.
Robin and her husband Jack have been married for over fifty years and live in Pawson Park. They have two children, Scott and his wife Diane and Jennifer and her husband Michael Eisele. The Temples have five grandchildren, Meredith and Stephen Temple and Kendall, Caroline and Keely Eisele.
She came to Branford for her first teaching job and after being hired, went to the Branford Candy Shop in her white gloves, pillbox hat and pumps. The man behind the counter said, "Oh, you must be the new teacher from Boston" and she said, "How did you know?" She was a kindergarten teacher, first at Short Beach and then Pine Orchard for twenty-six or twenty-seven years.
She is remembered for starting out each year being firm and establishing both discipline and an atmosphere of respect. She always treated her students with fairness and encouraged all of them, every day. As her students got to know her better they came to know her sense of humor and they said she never ran out of hugs. Her hugs enveloped her students and later some of them would describe it as what it would be like if "Mrs. Santa Claus" was hugging you!
She said she knew it was time to retire when she started to have the third generation of some of her students. Do her students remember her? She is amazed at how many students with their own families recall how much she influenced them in kindergarten! Her family tells the story of a former student who is now a doctor in the South. He drives up to visit once each year and when he does, he makes sure he calls Robin and arranges to take her out to lunch. He says he can never forget her or how much he feels she did for him all those years ago.
Robin and her husband Jack have been married for over fifty years and live in Pawson Park. They have two children, Scott and his wife Diane and Jennifer and her husband Michael Eisele. The Temples have five grandchildren, Meredith and Stephen Temple and Kendall, Caroline and Keely Eisele.