Remembering Charlotte Halpin
By Mary Carey
Staff Writer
Published on February 22, 2008
When the first class to graduate from the newly regionalized Amherst Regional High School returned for their 50th reunion last year, members of the class of 1957 paid a visit to Charlotte Halpin.
Halpin, an English teacher from 1941 to 1978 and drama coach, was the kind of teacher who remembered their names 50 years later, her students said.
She died peacefully in her sleep on Feb. 15.
Writing in the Douglass Funeral Service memorial book from Boston, former student Daniel B. Winslow, said, "Miss Halpin helped shape us into the people we are. She was a great teacher, one of the best, and we were lucky to have her in our lives."
Lucinda Thayer, of Stevens Point, Wisc., an ARHS student in the late 1960s, wrote, "I think of Miss Halpin every time that I correct my students' grammar and they roll their eyes at me. She was very exacting, demanding, and insistent that we 'get it right' and I'm grateful for her fine teaching."
Hazel Kreinheder, whose maiden name is Fuller, attended Halpin's wake Tuesday, after reading her obituary in the paper during a week-long visit from Washington, D.C., where Kreinheder lives now.
"Miss Halpin died," Kreinheder says her husband exclaimed said, calling her attention to the obituary. "He's not even from here, but he recognized her immediately."
Halpin used to send her articles she thought Kreinheder might find interesting years after Kreinheder had graduated from high school.
"She really encouraged us. She gave us a lot of support."
Just over a week before she died, Halpin graciously answered questions about the presidential elections for a Daily Hampshire Gazette story. Although 93 years old, she was keeping close tabs on the candidates.
At the time, Halpin said she would probably vote for Hillary Clinton. "She seems concerned with people's living conditions rather than enhancing the retirement of CEO's," Halpin said.
"I think it's time we had someone who is interested in the people."
She didn't have any fallback candidates she was considering voting for. "Not McCain, that's for sure. I think he's been too militaristic," and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, "seems like he was out of state more than he was in," she said.
As for who she voted for in 2004, "I sure didn't vote for George W. Bush," Halpin said.
A couple of days before Halpin died, she called the Amherst Bulletin office to request copies of the published interview so she could send them to her nieces.
"That sure sounds like my aunt," her niece Karen Wentworth said, upon reading it several days later.
Russian students return
A group of ARHS students visiting Russia for the past several weeks will return home Monday. They are expected back in town that evening and will gather at a reception in Leverett.
Word is the students had a great time and have thoroughly documented their visits to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Petrozavodsk, where they attended school at the Petrozavodsk Gymnazia 17, said Rich Micelotta, whose daughter Aliza Micelotta is on the trip.
The Micelottas were among families who welcomed 14 students from Petrozavodsk last fall. It is the 10th Amherst-Russia student exchange since 1990.
Get out your jump ropes
Students in grades two through six will participate in Jump Rope for Heart during the month of March. It's a national fundraising program sponsored by the American Heart Association and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Students ask friends and family for donations and win thank-you gifts based on the amount of money they raise.
Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.
