Read the complete text of Betty Wright Ledbetter's Centennial Address given Aug. 17, 2005:
Headmaster Whitworth, Chairman Robinson, esteemed administrators, faculty and staff, Trustees, distinguished alumni, guests and friends, members of my family, and especially students from grades three through 12, with a special salute to you seniors in the class of 2006, I bid you all a warm and heartfelt good morning.
Isn’t it wonderful to be at Darlington School for one of the most historic milestones ever? Famed comedian George Jessel once said, “The human brain is a wonderful organ. It starts to work as soon as you are born and doesn’t stop until you get up to deliver a public speech.” I certainly hope that Jessel’s words don’t come true for me today, especially since I am wearing my father’s academic hood in memory of him. While I am genuinely honored to have been asked to speak today, I find it hard to feel worthy of this recognition. So it is with profound gratitude that I reflect on Darlington School at this 100-year celebration.
An American matriarch once said, “It’s not what you gather but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.” Now, I’ve considered those words, and I’m thinking this morning about where I’ve been. Board Chairman Roby Robinson once called me “a true child of Darlington,” and I have never forgotten that because I like that label. Standing before you today, I am the younger of two daughters of Headmaster, and later President, E.L. Wright who married our mother, Elizabeth, and spent 54 years serving Darlington from 1920 to 1974. My sister, Alice Wright Turner, and her husband, John, are here today from Hawkinsville, Ga. We have lots of vivid memories, don’t we Alice? Our parents are a constant presence in our lives. My life was also enriched by my association with faculty families and student friends. I gathered many lessons and memories from those Darlington connections. I can’t tell you everything, but I will start with a few ...
I lived at Darlington from birth to age 23 when I married. I was actually born early in the morning on a Darlington graduation day, June 3, 1939. My dad announced to the gathering that he had had a commencement of his own. Forty-two years ago, I married Bob Ledbetter, a 1953 Darlington graduate, in the Morris Chapel in January 1963 during what was probably the worst electrical storm ever experienced here. Lightning and thunder aren’t supposed to happen in January, and I thought it might be an omen: “Was I not supposed to leave this wonderful place after all?” But my parents looked upon it as a day that no one present would ever forget, with Mr. Moser’s Glee Club marching and singing heavenly in full robe regalia, and all of the guests ruining their shoes and losing their umbrellas on the trek from the chapel to the reception at the Home-on-the-Hill.
Now I am thinking back to the 50s. Before girls were accepted, I was a summer school student, auditing geometry and English, to get ahead for my fall studies at Rome High School. You must remember that Darlington was an all-boys school, day and dorm, until the girls came over from Thornwood in 1973. And Thornwood began as a girls’ school in 1958, just one year after I graduated from high school.
Growing up here, I remember thinking I was so lucky to have so many brothers. We ate most of our meals family-style in the dining room on campus, 10 to a table, with all the boys assigned to a faculty table for a month at a time. The boys became close; they became members of the Darlington families.
I remember for years Darlington’s fierce competition with arch-rival The McCallie School in Chattanooga. We called it good, clean hate, much like that between Georgia and Georgia Tech. The School basically shut down when they came here for football games, and when we played them at McCallie, Greyhound buses took the entire student body to Chattanooga. My father would run up and down the sidelines, leading the cheers! I never saw him sit down at a football game or any other sporting event, and I was usually right there with him wishing I could be playing with the boys, especially football. Upon hearing many years later in 1981 that Jim McCallie was going to be our fifth president, I was, at first, horrified. Someone said, “Betty, your father is turning over in his grave.” Truth be known, Jim McCallie came to Darlington achieving “giant status.” It was a privilege for me to serve as a Trustee for the first time under his administration. I soon forgave him for being named McCallie.
In my early years, I remember not wanting to disappoint my parents, especially my dad, that I had been born a girl. He so wanted a boy, I was always told, and had already named me David Dandridge Wright after one of his ancestors. I felt I owed it to him to become a “tom boy,” climbing every tree I could find, and also falling out of trees, especially the pecan trees. I only wanted athletic equipment at Christmas and on birthdays, especially footballs.
I remember learning to swim in the lake because we had no swimming pool on campus. They made us wear these huge, unattractive orange life preservers, but that didn’t matter. Being chased by a snake did matter, and only made me accept the swimming challenge faster as I started swimming to the bank of the lake to get away from that snake. Later, I was jumping and diving off the diving boards that were there on the docks located at the north end of the lake. I would always come up with mud between my fingers or toes, depending on whether I had gone in head first or feet first.
I remember during World War II helping to melt used portions of soap to make soap bars and melting used candles to make new ones. I remember growing a victory garden where Faculty Circle is now. It was filled with all sorts of vegetables; I particularly liked digging up the potatoes, pulling up carrots, and cutting the aspargus. I remember raising chickens for their eggs and their drumsticks, milking the cows at the Darlington dairy and getting to ride the pony that was there and also falling off that pony. I grew to have a great respect and love for animals, especially the stray cats and dogs that were always being dropped off at the dairy.
I remember using war ration coupons to get sugar, and mother giving home permanents that smelled up the house for days. I remember “shooting marbles” with the boys as one of my favorite pastimes. I loved collecting marbles!
I well remember this place as a rite of passage for me, the scene of my first crush, my first date, my first kiss, my first dance, the first place where mother and daddy were none-too-pleased to learn of our “spin the bottle” game on the porch of McCain House under the rotunda. I remember when we moved to the Home-on-the Hill, my asking to be given the upstairs bedroom looking out to the lake, so I would feel closer to the boys. I remember the exciting rumor that there was a tunnel or cave which ran from the Home-on-the-Hill under the lake over to Wilcox Hall. Believe me, if there is such a cave I would have discovered it! Oh, the complexities of raising a girl such as I in an all-boys school. Talk about stress - stressful to my parents as well as for me!
But, you know, it’s not what you gather. It’s what you scatter. And I am so thankful for meaningful relationships established here at this lovely place. These were important life lessons that my parents instilled in me. I should only hope that they would illustrate the kind of life I’ve lived…so far. And I’m not finished yet!
What is it about this place that makes it such a remarkable training and learning ground? Who am I today because of this place where I grew up? To be certain, I am the wife of an alumnus, Bob, who kindly placed a lovely statue of my father and me here in the Huffman Center. I have never publicly thanked him for perhaps the kindest gesture I have ever experienced, and I would like to do that now, with deep and abiding appreciation. Our son, Wright, also had a large part in the presentation of this statue. He said things about his mother that would make any mother stand a little taller.
Bob and I are proud parents of three sons who attended Darlington: Bob Jr., Wright and David.
Our two daughters-in-law both have strong connections to Darlington as well. Bob’s wife, Patti, and the mother of our grandchildren, had a great-grandfather, Dr. George B. Smith, who was a member of the original Board of Trustees in 1922 and served for 38 years, 16 of those as chairman. She also had a grandfather and father to graduate from Darlington. Her grandfather, Robert Tharpe Sr. of Atlanta, was also a member of the Board of Trustees in the early years. Lauren Ledbetter is the alumni relations officer at Darlington, and is married to our son, David. I’m sure you will be seeing her around campus!
Our three grandchildren are presently all students at the Lower School, Bob III, Hollis and Kathryne.
I have served as a Darlington Trustee for 12 years, and today I am reveling in this unparalleled honor as chairperson of the Centennial Committee.
I want you to look around at this 500-acre campus, nestled in the foothills of the North Georgia mountains with its magnificent buildings, wonderful facilities, and rolling, well-kept landscape. Now compare what you see today to the Darlington of a century ago when it was a one-room school above the Rome firehouse, near the present-day YMCA on Second Avenue, and only 24 students. There were no blackboards, no desks, no playground, no cafeteria. Simply chairs in a bare room with only one teacher.
Faculty, listen to this. In 1909, that one teacher and also headmaster, James Ross McCain, was paid $10 a month for teaching all classes. Now parents, listen to this. In 1920, tuition was $126 a month. My, how things have changed!
Look closely at those who sit alongside you, and you will recognize the human virtues of unselfish service of so many who give their lives to this school on a day-to-day basis. They give it with such longevity of tenure that can be observed only in few places today. What a noble profession! Every day comes to Darlington bearing its own gifts. Today, because of our forefathers, we need only untie the ribbons.
Today, Darlington is 928 students strong, pre-K-12. One hundred and sixty-eight top-notch faculty and staff members deliver the best education anywhere in America. Two-thirds of the faculty and staff live right here on campus, where learning and relationship-building continue long after the school days are over.
At last report, 40 seniors from the Class of 2005 collected almost $2.2 million in scholarships to colleges and universities across America for study that begins this fall. This past Monday, Darlington opened with 19 states and 19 countries represented. Students have come from as far away as the sun-drenched beaches of Jamaica, Grand Cayman Island and Bermuda, and as far north as the land of Santa Claus, North Pole High School.
Darlington’s Annual Fund recently collected over $1,325,000, freely given by individuals and organizations around the world who support and believe in the School’s mission.
You see, present-day Darlington is strong and getting stronger. So, what do you think this says about our future?
What, Headmaster Whitworth, do we look to you to help us achieve, as we prepare to embrace the next century? I will answer that for you. I have a firm faith in the destiny of this School under your leadership. If we heed the words of our alma mater, we will let “Forward ever be our watchword.” We are expected to be both the candle and the mirror that reflects it.
We have only to look at the oldest trees on this campus to recognize that we sit in the shade today because someone planted those trees a long time ago. Our job is to nurture their handiwork, to fertilize the soil and grow the seedlings for generations to come. These structures were not erected tall and strong in one season, one decade or one lifetime. Our collective ancestors removed both literal and figurative mountains by carrying away small stones first. And they rely on us to continue the task.
One contemporary American writer put it this way, “Faith is not how we feel but how we live.” It’s what we do now, isn’t it? There is an old Chinese proverb saying that each generation builds a road for the next. And to my way of thinking the road has been built for us. I sincerely believe that it is our obligation in this generation, to build our road for the next. Perhaps nothing could give us greater clarity of mission than to honor those whose dedication has brought us to this special place called Darlington.
If I may, I’d like for you to join me in honoring some of the road builders who have joined us today. You have already been introduced to the McCain family who honor us with their presence, and I want to add my own personal welcome to the McCain family.
After I recognize you, please remain standing. Would members of my family please stand and be recognized? Now, would members of our founders, the Cooper family; families of former presidents Wilcox, Yankee, McCallie; members of the Hight family, Darlington pioneers. Now will all of our special, invited guests please stand. Thank you so much for being a part of this Centennial celebration. You may all be seated.
Now would all current faculty, staff and administrators please stand and remain standing? How fortunate we are to have you here and we honor you for your current and future commitment to Darlington.
What would Darlington be without her students? Students from the Lower School, please stand and show us your Darlington spirit. Middle Schoolers. Where are you? How about those sixth- , seventh- and eighth-graders? Show us your Darlington spirit. Next, please stand by class. Freshmen. Sophomores. Juniors. And last, but certainly not least, the mighty seniors, the class of 2006. Show us your Darlington spirit. Thank you for that great show of spirit. You may all be seated.
In conclusion, may I share with you a verse written by my father which goes like this:
Footprints of yesteryear
Led to the Darlington of today.
Footprints of success and victory,
Footprints of vision and opportunity.
These footprints have left their mark in the sands of time.
It is clear that all of you here recognize Darlington’s bright future. Our past is admirable. Our present is exciting, and our future is outstanding! The next 100-year voyage calls to us. This is a new beginning. Let’s start now. Thank you.
