So many of Mom‘s lifelong friends were teachers. They were pals in college and never let go of that friendship, no matter where life took them.

One such friend was Gloria Dowaliby. They were both 1952 graduates of Saint Joseph College.

According to a newsletter sent out following their twenty-fifth college reunion in 1977, Gloria’s professional life was busy and international:

Fulbright Scholar. An English teacher at Quirk Middle School (Hartford, Conn.). Has given special support to the American Lebanese League and National Apostolate of Maronite. Taught in Peru and the Netherlands.

Mom’s handwritten note in the margin? Dear friend.

A few years later, Mom celebrated her dear friend’s long-anticipated trip to Ireland with this poem:

air: for gloria going to Ireland

the school is dark

on a green ship in a green sea
gloria is going to Ireland

coming with candles
the children ring her
lighting the dock
keeping her plants and books and words alive
over the summer
they sing so long

you were the meanest teacher
and the best
take us away with you

but she has done this already
lighting the fire of their eyes
she sees them sharp and shining as her own
for Greece and Spain and Mexico
and the green ship taking her to Ireland

~ joan vayo March 2, 1983

Here’s Gloria’s yearbook page from Saint Joseph College:

Gloria Dowaliby passed away in 2013 at age 83. Her online obituary was flooded with sincere messages from former students.

Here are just a few:

You leave a legacy of love in me and in my family. Thank you for teaching me and spending yourself on my behalf. I experienced a glimpse of Glory through your care.

Gloria, no words can describe the impact that you have had in my life. I will miss you so very much. You always were there to help me and my father. There could not have been a better teacher, friend, or mentor. I will never forget your kind and caring words.

I met Gloria the first day I started teaching, and she is one of the reasons I am a Hartford teacher today. She was a wonderful woman who cared so passionately about her students. 

A brilliant woman and teacher, the most sophisticated whether Lima, Peru to the old Hotel Piccadilly in New York City, truly wonderful life. Rest sweetly.

As a 7th grade student in Miss Dowaliby’s Room 211 English class at Talcott Jr. High, I think I learned more in one semester than I did in many of my other classes combined. To this day, I have never met anyone else so well- versed in grammar and I thought of her many times as I started teaching elementary school. I can still recite to my grandchildren “The Children’s Hour” that we were required to memorize, and I never would have heard of Nan Terrell Reed if we hadn’t added her poem “Life” to our classroom learning. I called her once about 15 years ago to express my appreciation for her for her influence in my educational life – I probably should have done it more often. She will not be forgotten.

“air: for gloria going to Ireland” © 1983 Joan Vayo. All rights reserved.

We’ll gladly send you a notice with each new story – simply add your email address below: