Writing a Eulogy: Honoring a Mentor

I will be writing a eulogy over winter break. My mentor’s son, an Episcopal Priest in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, asked me to deliver words about his mother so that, for this particular memorial service in mid-January, he could be “a receiver instead of a sender.” What an honor and what a challenge for me to get that request. 

In my five minutes behind the pulpit, I hope to capture the essence of a person who has impacted my life for 30 years. Sylvia Hoag Bartz was the Middle School Counselor when I arrived at St. John’s in Houston to be the Middle School Dean of Students in 1996. She and I were partners at St. John’s for 10 more years of my 16 there as Middle School Head. Ms. Bartz/ “Bartzo” introduced me to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. She introduced me to being a teacher while being an administrator. She modeled the art of partnering with parents. She modeled taking chances and gracefully owning mistakes. She proofread my writing for clarity as well as for grammar. She challenged me to develop my philosophy of education. Mostly, she set a standard of excellence, of doing whatever it took to help a child, from making house calls in difficult “school refusal” cases, to hosting Saturday sessions for the purpose of addressing bullying issues, to visiting students battling an illness or injury in the hospital. 

In my five minutes back at St. John’s with the microphone in mid-January, I mostly hope to convey the value of mentors, of wise souls with years of experience judiciously applied to those early in their careers. I would wish for everyone at the start of their adult days to find a mentor like Sylvia.