Beaver Reflections:
I graduated in 1965. We were pre-Vietnam and we weren’t really too affected by it. It was that pretty traditional part of the 60s. We loved team sports and everybody cheered for everybody. The only time that I can remember when we decided to revolt was at the end of my senior year. Mr. Nickerson was the headmaster. He was very young but we didn’t know that. And he decided that we were not going to march in our little white dresses with “Pomp and Circumstance,” which every other class had always done. And so we were going to revolt and we were not going to show up. Well, in no uncertain terms we were told to just get over it. And what happens? Someone in our class had a connection to the head trumpeter of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and he played “Trumpet Voluntary” when we marched in. It was the most beautiful thing you’ve ever heard, ever. None of us will ever forget. Soon after graduating, I joined the Alumni Board. We did reunions, we helped support the development office. Then I became a trustee and did that for quite a long time. Once I got involved, I never really skipped out because I was always working with my class if I wasn’t doing anything else. My husband became a trustee, too.

What is #happeningnow in your life:
I worked for a few years after going to college and Katie Gibbs, which is no longer in business. It was what we call the Harvard Business School of Secretarial Schools. I could get a job anywhere and I worked for Kevin White, the Mayor of Boston in the 70s. Once I was married, we really started putting down roots and raising my two stepkids, who are now in their 50s. And I’ve been president of different organizations like our garden club in Milton, and a nonprofit in Boston called the Vincent Club, which raises money for the Mass General Ob/Gyn department. As a volunteer president, I probably did 90 hour weeks for two years. I haven’t taken home a paycheck in a very long time and we’re fortunate to have Bill retired from the financial business so we’re free to occupy our time in the way we like. Now we live on a farm here in South Carolina with horses and donkeys and chickens. I tend to seek out little mini-leadership roles, things like running the pickleball group or putting on an event.

“The annual fund makes me so proud. We’ve got a lot of very generous parents and we have alums that are really stepping up now.”

– Ceelie Beacham ’65

Advice to Beaver students:
Enjoy every minute of every day. Beaver is a wonderful place to be.