Alumnae Memories

Alumnae from Anna Head fondly remember their years at the School, recalling the beauty of the campus and the important education they received.  Here are several reflections from the School's graduates, who fervently hope that UC Berkeley will save this historic and memorable place.  You can read reflections below by: Nan Warren, Joan Acocella, Jeannine Hull Herron, Sukey Lilienthal, Judy Hunt, Kathleen Whitney, and Joyce Boykin.   See the Head-Royce School Magazine Summer 2022 (pp. 35-36) for a special section on alumnae memories.   Head-Royce School Magazine

ANNA HEAD’S, IN MY TIME

Joan Ross Acocella ‘62

I attended Anna Head’s, as we called it, from 1958 until 1962, for high school, and there, as I recall, I gradually renounced my ambition to be an idiot when I grew up.  I owe that primarily to the school’s faculty, which consisted mainly of aging ladies who may have lacked the requisite credentials to teach in public schools and certainly lacked the fortitude to handle the discipline problems, but who cared, very much, about Latin and geometry and King Lear.  Led by Daniel and Catherine Dewey, our headmaster and headmistress, they took us seriously, even though we were girls.  Though the s

My Fourteen Years at Anna Head School

Jeannine Hull Herron ’53

A graduate of 1953, I am most likely the only student who spent 14 years at Anna Head School, knowing well both the Hydes and the Deweys.  My mother, “Madame” Hull first taught a pre-school and kindergarten class and she brought me when I was 3 to be part of her class. When I went into first grade, she became the French teacher for the whole Lower School.  I then went through grades 1-4 with Mrs. Wallace, 5 and 6 with Mrs. Le Mieux and on up through high school.

Memories of Heads

Kathleen Whitney ‘60

I am an alumna of the Anna Head School in Berkeley (1960), and of U.C. Berkeley (1965).  The old Anna Head buildings are very special and beautiful historic buildings.  The school was also significant as one of the few all girls' schools in the area.  After I graduated from Heads, as we called it, I had a very thorough education in the Humanities in college (two years at Scripps College and two at U.C.

Two Alma Maters: Anna Head School and UC Berkeley

Suzanne Holliday Calpestri ‘66

My first impressions of the Anna Head School came in late August of 1963. My family had moved to California from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that summer, and I had to take the entrance exams before being admitted to the school for my sophomore year. Since the school year had not yet begun, I was the only student on campus that day and therefore had a chance to take in the campus and its buildings without the distractions of a bustling school in session.  Mr. Dewey, the headmaster of the school and his wife, Mrs.

Memories of Anna Head

Joyce Boykin '68

Walking though the wisteria lined tunnel as I was holding my mother’s hand, is my initial memory of the Anna Head Campus. That day I was going for testing.  The next time this journey occurred was the first day of school as a first grader: it was the fall of 1956.  That day I was nervous. Mom dropped me off with children and an older white haired lady (Mrs Campbell) none of whom I knew, except for another student who had attended kindergarten with me. I was disappointed that no one looked like me.