Celebrations

Patricia Garrison came to The Hun School twenty-two years ago as a Learning Center teacher and became an English and interdisciplinary studies faculty member a year later. Ms. Garrison was a longtime supervisor of the Peer Tutoring Center, chair of the Interdisciplinary Studies Department, a faculty representative, and eleventh grade class advisor. A history buff and travel aficionado, she has taken students on international and local trips and co-taught a NextTerm course on women in politics. Over the years, Ms. Garrison’s name has become synonymous with warmth and unfaltering compassion; she is regarded, quite simply, as an outstanding educator who draws from her students what she demands from herself — exceptional effort and kindness. In 2006, Hun awarded her a Meritorious Service Award, and in 2008, the School’s highest and most prestigious faculty appointment, the Distinguished Faculty Endowed Chair.

 

Upper School Head Ryan Hews lauded Ms. Garrison at the Closing Faculty Luncheon, “[Ralph Waldo] Emerson held a deep and profound view of friendship and believed it was not merely a superficial connection but a bond that could elevate and enrich our lives. For Emerson, friendship was about more than shared interests or convenience. He said ‘The only way to have a friend is to be one…’ and that is clearly what Patty has meant to so many of us.” 

 

In retirement, Ms. Garrison is looking forward to unplanned days, quiet hours, and spontaneity after retirement, but will miss her “home away from home.”