Your reporter and the photographer were perceptive and interested and we enjoyed talking with them. Six hundred-thirty Spencerians gathered to celebrate lifelong friendships, to pay tribute to the academic education we received, and to remember the staff of the college who dedicated their lives to instilling the personal qualities which have stood us in such good stead throughout adulthood.

One small point in your story afforded Spencerians some amusement, but it must be put down to my rapid speaking rather than your reporter’s error. At school we were required to observe “honour silence” which had, indeed, to be the “utter silence” mentioned in your article.

Your paper of Aug. 6 published a letter from a Joan Pearcey Fowler (“Not-so-fond memories of Spencer”), indicating the staff at Spencer were on “ ... a mission ... to transform the young barbarians ... into genteel young ladies.” What she does not understand is that those of us with dearer (not longer) memories of Spencer realize that the end result was to be — and is — a group of strong and independent women. If she had bothered to attend the reunion she would have met them.

Elizabeth Scammell Reynolds,

past president,

Bishop Spencer College Alumnae Association

St. John’s

Reprinted from The Telegram Aug. 20, 2000