Memories, Accolades and Thanks to the staff of Cromwell (CT) School District
(I will post any and all notes about teachers who had a positive influence on you.

  • From Janet E. Sandstrom

    I have a few words of Appreciation for Mrs. Owens, Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Egan and Mr. Haines.

    Mrs. Hall was the best English teacher I ever had. Mrs. Hall made words come to life. She helped me appreciate the English language and I believe she was the key person throughout my school days that set me in the right direction. Mrs. Hall believed in me and taught me to believe in myself. She had a “you can do it!” attitude. I want to excel in whatever I do and I often think of Mrs. Hall and know I can meet whatever challenges come my way. I worked with the “Adult Literacy” program in California and I always passed on the “you can do it!” to the people I worked with as well. Thank you Mrs. Hall for making learning fun!

    Mrs. Owens was a wonderful lady. I remember trying out for the big choir. I so wanted to sing in the choir. Mrs. Owens gave me the chance to sing in both the big and little choir and I had the opportunity to sing in an all Connecticut chorus in my Senior year because she chose me as one of the representatives for our school. I love music! Mrs. Owens helped me to appreciate music even more than I ever thought I could. I went on to broadcasting school and had the opportunity to work in radio both in Connecticut and Southern California. Thanks in part to Mrs. Owens, music will always be in my heart.

    Mrs. Egan taught me typing and business training. Mrs. Egan asked me to be the Accounts Typist for the yearbook in 1965. What a great opportunity! I learned so much through her teaching and experience received in her class. Mrs. Egan was a strict teacher but I can surly say she helped prepare her students for the “real world”. My thanks to Mrs. Egan – I put her training to use every day of my life in the business world.

    Mr. Haines’s Driver’s Training provided my ticket to life. I don’t know how he ever did it. Yikes! I remember my first time driving, I went into a ditch, backed over some little pine trees and drove over a persons newly seeded lawn. I noticed the following week they had large rocks on the corner of their property. I can’t imagine why! Even after that, he never gave up on me. I remember him saying “look who has her foot on the gas and look who has his foot on the brake!” My friend Maureen who was also taking Driver’s Training was in the back seat practically rolling over and laughing her head off. What a trip!!! In the end I actually got my license. Thanks Mr. Haines for not throwing me out of the car. Hey, I got my license the first time around! It took a good teacher to get me there and a whole lot of patience. That was a long time ago but it seems like only yesterday.

  • I saw the website on "memories of teachers" - please add Mr. Haines to the list - he was our driving instructor and had the patience of Job - I often wonder if he thinks of students who needed "extra encouragement" - like myself. He might be encouraged to know I am accident-free since high school and drove from Michigan to Connecticut and New York many times! Hope he comes to the reunion.
    I also have fond thoughts of Mrs. Regina Lee - she was one smart cookie in and out of the classroom! Due to her influence I taught high school English for many years!
    -Maggie Riddell (Ethel Cooke)

  • Thank you, Mrs. Dorothy Owen for teaching me the beauty of notes;
    Thank you, Mrs. Sally Hall for teaching me the beauty of words;
    and Thank you Mrs. Reggie Lee for not turning me in when you saw me smoking
    in the girls’ room my junior year.
    - Joan Hatfield King

  • I saw Mrs. Lang in 1998 or 99 and was telling her how I still made one of the recipes (a ham-potato-pepper dish) that we learned in Home Ec. She said that many people told her that, though it was nearly always a different thing that each person remembered and made (For my sister, it was brownies.) I told her I also had her to thank for making sure my elbows were cleam and soft. She had told us that her daughter had come down dressed for a dance, and when she turned around, her elbows were gray and rough. This may or may not have been true but it was not a pretty picture. It impressed me enough that I think about it even now. She also taught me that corduroy was not the best material to be worn by someone a bit chunky. Thank you, Mrs. Lang.
    - Sue Butler Czaja

  • Dorothy Owen was an amazing woman as well as a wonderful teacher. Mizowen not only taught us music, but the history and significance of the music, and how it related to what was going on in the world at the time. In rehearsal and performance, she demanded our undivided attention (as well as the audience's), but after class she was very approachable. I felt honored to be selected for both the Little Choir (20 voices male and female) and the Boy's Octet, which she always called the "Octoot!" The octet usually rehearsed at her house, one evening a week, and she always had the refrigerator well stocked with Coke. During our senior year, she and Mr. Huffstettler team taught a course they called Humanities, which covered a broad spectrum of cultural areas. As a class we went on field trips to museums in New York, theatres closer to home, a tour of Hartford's Austin Organ company, followed by a performance on an Austin Organ at St. Joseph's Cathedral by Mizowen's organ teacher. They had the poet Wilbert Snow, who had also been an interim governor of Connecticut, speak to our class. We were encouraged to meet and interview local artists. I chose John Risley, who was a sculptor in residence at Wesleyan University, and whose wife was a friend of my mother's through the Wesleyan Potters. I conducted the interview in their home, which was full of their artwork, both practical and whimsical. My favorite memory of Mizowen has to do with the rock'n'roll band I was in. Most of our teachers didn't approve of our music, and took every opportunity to let us know they felt we were wasting our time and talent on "that noise!" Not Mizowen! She made sure we had space to practice after school, and allowed us to play in the school talent show, during which several other teachers walked out. She may not have liked rock'n'roll either, but she encouraged us because she knew it was something real and meaningful to us. I also caught her tapping her foot during one of our performances!
    -John Swingen

  • Mrs. Owen is the one who stands out for me. She gave me the opportunity to do my first solo at a Christmas Concert with the "Little Choir" and was there to play the piano at a St. John's Church show that Kevin Daly produced. Imagine, a 15 year old boy producing and directing a show of Broadway standards. From time to time I would sing at a wedding and Mrs. Owen was always there to help me prepare and go over the music at her house even through my 20's. Her Music Literature class taught me how to recognize the great classical music and to this day refer back to those classes in identifying a piece I might hear on the radio. She truly enabled me to have a lifelong love of music. The last time I talked to her was in 1987. She had moved to Vero Beach Florida and I was in West Palm at the time. We talked about my driving up someday but unfortunately one thing or another prevented a get-together and I lost track of her.
    - Rick Callahan


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