By Izzy Whitaker

From the day we enrolled at Collegiate School in Kindergarten, to the day we will receive our diploma, we are constantly reminded of what it means to be a Cougar. Whether it’s treating your teachers and classmates with respect, upholding the five core values—honor, love of learning, excellence, respect, and community—maintaining nearly perfect attendance, or following the dress code; as Collegiate students, we are asked to abide by a multitude of expectations, whether explicit or implied. However, being a Collegiate student, we embrace these rules, as they form the traditions and uphold the values that make our community as strong as it is today.

Being a “lifer” at Collegiate, I have always had the notion that our school was an infinite and powerful being that has been untouched and unchanged for the entire 105 years that it has been in existence. However, after talking to my grandmother for just over an hour, my understanding of the school broadened.

My grandmother, Alice Mason Tyler Henley Beazley (‘58), was born on February 15, 1940. Because of her father’s job, she was constantly moving while growing up, living in Audubon, New Jersey; Falls Church, Virginia; Atlanta, Georgia; Warsaw, Virginia; and Greensboro, North Carolina—all before 8th grade. However, while she has lived in many cities and states, she has spent the majority of her life in Richmond, having lived here for Kindergarten, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 8th Grade, Upper School, and each subsequent year after college. She mentions that she will always refer to Richmond as “her city,” and Collegiate as “her school.” Beazley started kindergarten at Albert H. Hill Elementary School on Patterson Avenue (now Albert Hill Middle School) but was enrolled at Collegiate by her parents just a month into the school year. 

At the time, Collegiate School for Girls (now referred to as the Town School) was a small K-12 school located at 1619 Monument Avenue, near what is now Virginia Commonwealth University. It had around 20 students per grade and consisted of two three-story buildings.

Physically, Collegiate was quite different in the 1940s and 50s. Beazley recalls that the two buildings on Monument Ave. were separated by a paved space that had swings, a jungle gym, and a volleyball net, all serving as an exercise and recess area. Beazley recalls that the Lower School was in the eastern building and the Upper School and the school offices were in the western building. In the basement of the now demolished Upper School building was the cafeteria, and in the front of the building was the “blue room,” where the majority of social activity took place.

Beazley recalls that her Kindergarten classroom was on the first floor at the back of the Lower School building. She describes her Kindergarten teacher, Miss Shackleford, as “tiny and loving,” and her first grade teacher, Miss Hattie Scott, as stricter, but still deeply passionate about her job and the well-being of her students. Beazley describes Scott as “totally in control of her classroom and the parents of her students,” and she recalls that Scott “made my father carry me down the front steps of the school” when Beazley forgot to wear boots. 

After Beazley’s years living in Falls Church, Atlanta, and Warsaw, she returned to Richmond, and Collegiate, for just a mere two years in 5th and 6th Grade before moving again to Greensboro. At the age of 13, she returned to Collegiate for the remainder of Middle School and the full duration of Upper School. 

In Upper School in the 1950s, the schedule was much different. Today, a typical (pre-remote learning) Upper School day runs from 8:10 a.m. to 3:20 p.m., and then most students participate in sports or another after-school activity until close to 6:00 p.m. My grandmother had class until 2:30, and then on Monday through Thursday she would attend “afternoon activities” until 4:00. Beazley remembers, “Some afternoons we would walk over to a bowling alley on Broad Street and bowl, sometimes a bus would take us to the YWCA to play basketball, and other afternoons the bus would take us to a vacant lot on Brook Road to play field hockey,” She then adds that she “was not good at any of those things!” 

When it comes to social activities, Beazley remembers that it was quite popular among her and her friends to attend the weekly youth group at St. James’ Church on Monument Avenue, even if they did not attend the church themselves. Beazley also enjoyed eating ice cream at The Clover Room, a local restaurant and ice cream parlor, and eating barbecue at Bill’s Barbecue. They also enjoyed watching movies at the (now demolished) Westhampton Theater, the Byrd Theater, or Loew’s Theater, taking the bus downtown to shop at Miller & Rhoads or Thalhimers department stores, and attending the annual state fair. 

My grandmother strongly emphasized the importance of Collegiate’s Honor Code when she was a student. Beazley recalls that Collegiate’s Honor Code was, and still is, “very strong and very important.” As a member of the Honor Council in the Upper School, she knows first-hand how serious the Honor Code was to students and faculty. Beazley remembers that “all the teachers were very firm about working hard and doing our best, treating people kindly. [Collegiate Headmistress] Mrs. [Catherine] Flippen would always say, ‘With the privileges that you all have comes a lot of responsibility.’”

Naturally, the infrastructure and physical aspects of Collegiate have changed. In 1960, two years after my grandmother graduated, Collegiate switched campuses and moved to the Country Day School on Mooreland Road. Collegiate gradually started sending lower grades to study at the Country Day School, but being an upperclassmen while these changes were being made, Beazley said “it didn’t affect me in the least. I was barely aware of it.” However, her younger sister, Katherine “Kitty” Trowbridge Henley Bennet (‘62), was a part of the change and spent her final years of Collegiate studying at the Country Day School. The move to Mooreland Farms opened a new chapter in the history of Collegiate and closed an old one. After transitioning to the Country Day School, Collegiate was allotted more land and presented an opportunity to start real sports teams, thus starting other Collegiate traditions.

Upon graduating from Collegiate in 1958, Beazley attended college at Hollins University, a private university in Roanoke, and one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States. After graduating from Hollins in 1962, she married my grandfather, Wyatt Stamford Beazley III, before giving birth to my aunt, Alice Mason Tyler Beazley Kilpatrick (‘81) (who works at the Lower School front desk); my uncle, Wyatt Stamford Beazley IV (‘85); and my mother, Norvell deShields Beazley Whitaker (‘83); each of whom attended Collegiate from Kindergarten to 12th Grade. 

She worked diligently to raise her kids, and it took up the majority of her time, especially for the 14 months that my grandfather spent working as a medic in the Vietnam War. However, with the little time she had, Beazley was quite active socially. My mother recalls that Beazley “was very involved with the Junior League and with St. James’s Church.” As my mom grew older, “[Beazley] became involved with The Woman’s Club. She was always an avid reader and loved to spend her weekends curled up on her bed reading English mysteries. She also planted a large vegetable garden every summer at our river house and spent her days working in the garden.” My mom also remembers that while at the river, Beazley “kept a nature journal, and every day she would record the plants and animals she saw. She particularly cared about the birds.” 

After asking my grandmother why she decided to send each of her own children to Collegiate, she said, “because I went five years in a row, from 8th through 12th Grade, it was the school I felt most at home in. I was enrolled in every other school for a year or less than a year, and I didn’t get to love them like I loved Collegiate.”

Years later, my cousins and I were born. Tyler and her husband Mark gave birth to two children, Alice Kilpatrick Crutcher (‘09) and Duncan Kilpatrick (‘11). Wyatt and his wife Tenley had three children: Ford (‘16), Georgia (‘17), and Frances Beazley (‘24). Finally, my mother and father had four children: Janie (‘10), Charlie (‘12), Sarah (‘16), and me. Each of us, except for Ford and Frances, who attended boarding school after 8th Grade, have gone to Collegiate from Kindergarten through 12th Grade as well. 

After watching three kids and seven grandchildren graduate from Collegiate, all in different years, my grandmother has seen the school change and adapt with the rest of the world. The largest difference that she has noticed are the sports teams. At the Town School, the only sports played were the occasional field hockey games against St. Catherine’s, and only at the Country Day School were there real competitive sports. However, she also mentioned that the facilities are now incredibly different than they were when she was a student. She specifically remembers that her senior play, a performance of The Swan by Ferenc Molnár, in which she played the lead role of Princess Alexandria, had to be put on at Mary Munford Elementary School, because there was no stage at Collegiate. Beazley says that now, “everything is bigger, more teachers, more buildings, more everything!” Beazley concluded by remarking, “what we had was wonderful. Academically, it’s more or less equally challenging, but the size and sports have exploded, and you have so many more opportunities.” 

As opposed to my preconceived notions, Collegiate is ever-changing. Much like the students, Collegiate has grown, matured, and aged over time. However, the values have remained constant. As Mrs. Flippen used to say to the students, “With the privileges that you all have comes a lot of responsibility.” Today, I believe that many of my own teachers would share the same sentiments as Flippen. Being given the opportunity to attend an institution as exceptional as Collegiate, we are ultimately given a large amount of responsibility to uphold and maintain the sense of honor and community that makes our school as unparalleled as it is. Collegiate has been, and always will be, a fine institution that provides students with an unmatched education, and instills in their minds values and ways of conduct that will remain in our hearts for the rest of our lives, much like it did for my grandmother. 

Today, my grandparents reside in a house at Westminster Canterbury, after over 30 years of living on Monument Avenue, just blocks away from the original Town School. As of right now, they are quarantining in their house to avoid COVID-19. They are spending their days reading on their porch and in their garden, working on puzzles, watching birds, and FaceTiming with their family and friends. They are both incredibly happy and healthy and expect to stay that way.