Daisy W. Reaves, 90, former principal of Simon Gratz High School

WHEN DAISY REAVES walked the crowded halls of Simon Gratz High School, the students made way for her.

A slightly built woman, Daisy nevertheless exuded a quiet authority that commanded respect even from the toughest kids in a tough school.

Daisy was the principal of Simon Gratz in the 1970s and '80s, and she faced daily challenges trying to run an inner-city school with predominantly poor students in a school building that was falling apart. Thievery, vandalism and violence were endemic.

But Daisy gave it her best because she knew the importance of education, and she loved her students.

Daisy W. Reaves, who first worked at Simon Gratz as a physical-education teacher in 1954, went on to become an assistant principal and then principal, a world traveler and devoted family matriarch, died Saturday at the age of 90. She lived in the Simpson House retirement home on Belmont Avenue.

Daisy commanded so much respect from her students that if she saw a boy with a cap on his head, all she had to do was raise a finger to her own head, and the cap was removed.

The school, at 17th and Luzerne streets, was in such sorry shape that Daisy became a devoted listener to weather broadcasts because snow or a heavy rain would further damage the leaky roof and bring water streaking down walls and soaking the floors.

Many repairs she tackled herself, with the help of shop teachers.

Nevertheless, her classrooms and offices were immaculate and orderly because Daisy had a passion for cleanliness and good order. As she put it in an Inquirer article in 1981, she learned the "creative use of limited resources."

"Not all of my kids are poor, but many of them are," she told the Inquirer. "If kids are going to come to the same situation they are leaving, they may say, 'What the the heck.' Going from ghetto home to ghetto school can be demoralizing."

She retired in 1988.

Daisy was born in Philadelphia to Cleon Samuel and Flonnie Strain Wallace. She graduated from William Penn High School and went on to Florida A&M University, where she received a bachelor's degree. She later received master's degrees from Temple University and North Carolina Central University in Durham, and a doctorate in education from Penn State University.

She taught at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., and Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C., before going to Gratz to teach physical education.

She rose to department head, then assistant principal. She became principal when her predecessor, Marcus Foster, left in 1970 to head the schools in Oakland, Calif. He was murdered there in 1973 by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

Daisy was married to Charles Reaves, who died in 1989.

She was a dedicated traveler who didn't confine herself to the usual tourist destinations in Europe but also toured Morocco and Egypt, where, her family said, she trekked the deserts on the backs of camels.

Wherever Daisy went, she searched out golf courses to practice her favorite hobby.

Daisy was active with a number of organizations, including Continental Societies of Philadelphia, which raises funds for scholarships, and she was active in her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta.

She was also a devoted member of St. Madeleine Sophia Church.

"She was very intelligent, and quite beautiful," said her daughter, Reversa Brown. "She loved her students and her family."

Besides her daughter, she is survived by a stepdaughter, Ruth Reaves, and three grandchildren.

Services: 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Madeleine Sophia Church, 6440 Greene St. Friends may call at 9 a.m. Burial will be in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.