Helen Stokes Greven, Head of School 1978-1982

Sadly, we learned of the death of former head of school Helen Greven last week from her son, Phil Greven ’84. I saw Helen this past November at the home of CSW alumna Kay Silberfeld ‘52 and most recently spoke to her by phone in January.

Whenever I saw Helen I thought of my first summer at CSW, poking through the files in my office and coming across a typed speech Helen made on May 28, 1981 to the Corporation, a broad governing body of the school that no longer exists.

Just as I do, Helen held headmaster John R. P. French in high regard. The founding head of the school we know today, here in Weston, French was a highly regarded progressive educator. In Helen’s speech she writes that he was highly regarded because of his guidelines for the education of children. “Their need to learn, to grow, to understand themselves, to have close relationships with peers and teachers, to be loved, cared for, protected, encouraged to become independent...” Helen was writing about her own beliefs and how they aligned with French’s. These needs of children, our students, that never change in spite of significant changes in the society around them.

Helen goes on to speak about the balance between structure and freedom. She asks out loud whether or not “spontaneity, creativity, and intellectual excitement” can be achieved where anxiety and tension may exist because of a lack of structure. It’s a perennial CSW question, raised in great detail in George St. John’s history of the school, Individuals and Community. Indeed, the very title of the book encapsulates Helen’s words and questions. The speech ends with Helen reviewing some other thoughts expressed by French early in his tenure and concludes finally with this: “Today, and fifty years ago, and for most of the fifty years in between, teachers and students put the highest priority on working together in a spirit of mutual trust and respect to find that combination of self-knowledge and substantive knowledge needed to give meaning and purpose to human life.”

I first met Helen seven and a half years ago during the celebration of our 125th anniversary. We sat in my office for a good two hours as she described her not-always-easy time at CSW. It was a great privilege for me to know her and know of her deep belief in the power of human potential. I will miss you, Helen.