By Mary Ann Zyglocke

Turner singing to Summer Quest campers. Photo credit: Mary Ann Zyglocke.

I walk into the Lower School music room with a trail of excited and unknowing five-year-olds behind me. They, along with about 40 other Summer Quest campers, have been told a surprise awaits. The campers sit restlessly, criss-cross applesauce, as counselors and teachers do their best to calm them down. Just as the room begins to quiet down, their surprise walks in with a guitar, harmonica, and various hand puppets. The small room is instantly filled with high-pitched squeals as all the campers jump up from their seated positions. It was like a celebrity had just walked in, and to the kids that is exactly what happened. 

Lower School teacher Robby Turner has been a Kindergarten teacher at Collegiate for 24 years. In addition to teaching Kindergarten, Turner coaches JV cross country, JV girls basketball, and varsity softball. He also frequently performs songs, some of which he writes himself, for his Kindergarteners and other Lower Schoolers. Turner’s wife, Kim, also works in the Lower School as a JK teacher, and his daughters, Abby (‘14) and Lizzy (‘18), attended to Collegiate from Kindergarten through 12th Grade. Turner is a beloved member of the Lower School and of the Collegiate community as a whole. 

Turner grew up in Richmond along with his three other siblings. He went to various public schools in the Richmond area throughout his childhood, including Huguenot High School. He attended Randolph-Macon College, and during his junior and senior years of college, he worked at Huguenot High as a JV baseball coach. After graduating college, Turner said, “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.” He said, “I started in sales, but I didn’t like it.” During this time, however, he stayed involved with the baseball team at Huguenot, and he eventually “fell into teaching” at Good Shepherd Episcopal School, a small private school in the Forest Hill neighborhood.

While at Good Shepherd, Turner transitioned from a teacher to an administrator, but he decided he “missed the classroom.” When looking for a new school, one of his primary interests was finding a place he would want his two daughters to attend. Turner said, “I had a daughter who had just been born, so I was also looking at a place I wanted my kids to go.” When he visited Collegiate’s campus, he “loved it.” He enjoyed being able to see all of the different sports going on around campus because, at the time, the Robins Campus did not exist, so all the sports fields were located on the Mooreland Road campus. Turner wanted a place where he could teach and coach, so seeing all of the activity around Collegiate is what really convinced him. He said, “It’s the feeling of community that you get when you’re here. You just feel like you’re a part of something, and our kids feel like they’re a part of something.”

Turner and his Kindergarteners on the 50th day of school. Photo credit: Collegiate School.

In his classroom, Turner likes to play his guitar and harmonica, sing, and use hand puppets to teach his kids. He mentioned that he often uses this technique to teach the kids things like the word of the day. The kids always get excited when Turner brings out his guitar or one of his many puppets, such as Dexter, a brown hound dog with a scratchy voice, and Google, a silly dinosaur with googly eyes. Turner first began learning these skills when he was younger, with a puppet group for kids at his church. When he started teaching, he saw another teacher doing this, and he realized “you didn’t have to be really good, and they really like it.” When he started singing to his students, he had a few puppets and knew a few songs on guitar. Turner said, “After about a year, I started writing songs about silly things that happen.” He does not only play for his classes, but also for other Lower Schoolers and summer campers at Summer Quest. I remember being in Lower School and getting so excited when Turner would go up on stage and sing during town meetings in Estes Gym. 

Teaching Kindergarten comes with its challenges, but Turner approaches these challenges in his own way. Turner said, “The challenges are kind of like the things that are great.” He said that the most challenging aspect of teaching Kindergarten is that every day is different. You never know what will happen, and no two days are the same, but this is one thing he loves about teaching Kindergarten. 

Turner coaching a softball game. Photo credit: Jim Murphy.

Turner is a three-season coach for Upper School students: JV cross country in the fall, JV girls basketball in the winter, and varsity softball in the spring, where he has been my softball coach for the past two years. He is dedicated, motivated, and competitive. Turner loves to win. He thinks coaching is “more challenging than playing,” because when you are coaching, you can not do anything about what is happening in a game or a race. Turner’s fellow coach, colleague, and longtime friend, Middle School teacher Rives Fleming (‘83), stated, “Robby is someone who loves to coach. He truly enjoys the sports he coaches and the players he gets to work with each season.” Fleming went on to say, “I enjoy coaching with him, because he takes his sports seriously, but he doesn’t lose sight of the fact that they are supposed to be fun.” Varsity softball co-captain Harper Murphy (‘25), said, “If I don’t understand something, he is able to approach it in a different way, so I understand it a lot better.” Turner is a coach who loves competing and winning, but his passion for sports and for his players is unmatched. 

Turner says he always has the same mentality when coaching, but coaching each sport is different. He says when coaching cross country, he is “almost like a spectator,” because he can not “make any adjustments on game day.” He said that most of the work for cross country is done during practice, but not much can be done during the actual races. Basketball is more “on the go,” because things change quickly during the game. He compared coaching softball to “a chess match,” because his decisions are based on every individual play and every individual player. 

Over the years, Turner has made a significant impact on his fellow faculty members. Turner’s current classroom assistant, Paige Tinney-Reed, said, “He fosters a love for learning and education in our Kindergartners. Mr. Turner collaborates easily with colleagues and is trusted by parents. He really makes coming to school fun and engaging.” Nicola Byford, one of Turner’s Kindergarten colleagues, said “Mr. Turner is an incredibly dedicated, hard-working person.” She went on to say “Mr. Turner is so much fun to work with, because he makes everyone laugh and see the bright side of any situation. Kindergarten would not be the happy place it is without Mr. Turner.” Elizabeth Andrews, another Collegiate Kindergarten teacher, remarked, “Mr. Turner brings joy and laughter to everything he does. The Lower School students rush to him to pull teeth, and Upper School students look to his guidance as a coach on the basketball court and softball field. He makes the Kindergarten team laugh at each and every meeting we have. The Collegiate School community would not be the same without Mr. Turner.”

Upper School English teacher and Match advisor Vlastik Svab’s son Henry (‘29) was in Turner’s Kindergarten classroom. Svab says he “was incredibly impressed with not only how much fun the kids had in class, but also how comprehensive the academics were. Mr. Turner had the kids writing full stories by the end of Kindergarten, which sets them up for a lifetime of strong writing skills.”

One interesting role Turner plays is the unofficial teeth puller in the Lower School. Lower School kids often visit Turner and have him pull out their loose teeth. When asked how he got this reputation, Turner said, “One time I had a child in my class, way before I came here, and [their tooth] was loose, and I said, ‘Do you want me to get that for you?’ and I did. What happens is, they think that there’s a trick.” He went on to say, “I think there’s that trust piece. They trust you.” When Turner came to Collegiate, he started pulling his students’ loose teeth when asked. They would then come back to him once they were out of his class, and they would tell their friends who had pulled their teeth, so he began pulling teeth for all Lower School students. He remembered once, while out to dinner, seeing a parent of a child whose tooth he had pulled. The child’s dad, a dentist, told Turner that the kid had insisted that Turner pull the tooth, and not his dad. Turner is truly trusted by his students, and this interesting role he has taken on really shows this trust. 

All Sports summer campers. Photo credit: Collegiate School.

Turner is on campus almost year round. He runs various Summer Quest camps at Collegiate, such as Discover Richmond, where Turner takes campers to various places around the Richmond area, and All Sports Camp, a camp that Turner and Fleming have been running for many years, where they spend a morning or afternoon playing different sports with the campers. I remember attending these camps when I was in Lower School, and they were always the highlight of my summers. They were, and still are, some of the most popular camps Summer Quest offers. 

Debbie Miller, Head of the Lower School, said, “He loves all things ‘Collegiate’ and can be found on campus not only during the school year but also during the summer, as he leads camps for students of all ages,” and Byford said, “he barely takes time for a vacation.” 

The Kindergarteners in Turner’s classroom were eager to say what they liked about having Turner as their teacher. Ella (‘36) said, “I like his puppets because they’re fun to talk to.” Maya (‘36) said, “I like that he teaches us a lot of things.” She went on to say, “We learn how to write and read.” Riv (‘36) said, “I like when he pulls out our teeth,” and he was then excited to tell a story about Turner pulling out a friend’s tooth. Billy (‘36) said, “I like practicing letters with Mr. Turner.” A resounding “Yes” was heard when the students were asked if they liked being at school with Turner every day.

Turner is someone that I look up to and admire because of his apparent passion for everything he is involved in. He is a dedicated coach, an admired teacher, and a respected colleague. Turner has not only made an impact on me, but he has made an impact on students, players, faculty, parents, and the entire Collegiate community.