Anne Wood, 88, teacher and administrator at the Westtown School
She was also an artist and craftswoman involved in Quaker activities.
ANNE WOOD embodied in her life and spirit much of what it means to be a Quaker.
"Her spiritual wisdom, plain speaking and generous kindness touched lives with the steadiness of a love born of her Quaker roots," her family said.
Anne not only lived the Quaker spirit, she also taught it. She spent 41 years at the Westtown School in Chester County, as a teacher of Quakerism and Latin, as well as holding many administrative positions.
Services will be held later this month for Anne Wood, a retired teacher, artist, craftswoman and world traveler, who died Nov. 24 while visiting family in Maine. She was 88 and lived in Medford, N.J. Her death was not announced sooner because of legal and family complications.
Anne, who retired in 1989 from Westtown, the 215-year-old private Quaker school, came from a long line of family members who either attended or taught at Westtown. Both her parents, Richard Wood and the former Nancy Morris, her grandparents and two nieces were associated with the school, and she often said that her ancestors attended the school since it was founded in 1799 by the Religious Society of Friends.
"She saw beauty everywhere," her family said.
At Westtown, Anne was basically a teacher, but she also served as dean of girls for 21 years, principal of the Upper School for 15 years, and college counseling director. She also served as a dorm faculty member and took part in faculty theater productions.
"It is hard for most people to think of Anne without also thinking of Westtown," her family said.
Anne told an Inquirer interviewer at the time of her retirement that she had decided to be a teacher in childhood. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1948 and received a master's degree from the University of Michigan. She started to teach Latin at Westtown after college.
"I have learned patience over the years," she told the Inquirer. "That is definitely an acquired attitude. I have also learned that you have to be optimistic about things. You have to know that uncompromising eighth-graders will turn into respectable seniors, and not-too-respectable seniors will turn into respectable adults.
"I have been lucky enough to combine a religious as well as professional vocation and hope that I have been able to teach the students those high ideals and values."
Anne was concerned about today's young people. "The students of today are very much under the weight of the world," she said. "We want our children to be able to feel concern for the world and, of course, a sense of responsibility toward it, but we don't want them to be crushed by that weight."
Anne grew up in Moorestown, N.J., and attended Moorestown Friends School. She furthered her education at the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Ind.; Pendle Hill in Wallingford, Delaware County, and the American Academy of Rome.
She had no immediate survivors.
Services: 2 p.m. April 18 at Westtown School, and 2 p.m. April 19 at Medford Leas in Medford, N.J. Donations may be made to the Westtown School, 975 Westtown Rd., West Chester, Pa., 19382, or Medford Leas, 1 Medford Leas Way, Medford, N.J., 08055.