Former superintendent Roberty reunites with staff members in Forest Hill

They worked for the school system before many more shiny new schools and the commanding administration building on Bel Air's Hickory Avenue named in honor of former superintendent A.A. Roberty.

About 25 of Roberty's former staff members relived old memories at a reunion lunch Friday at the Fisherman's Catch restaurant at Forest Hill Bowling Lanes, where Roberty, who was with the school system for 37 years and is remembered for his substantial influence as superintendent from 1970 to 1988, pulled together the reunion lunch.

Roberty led Harford's schools through a turbulent period after schools were fully integrated, in 1967. He dealt with the county's change to home-rule government in 1972, which exerted more control over the school system.

During his tenure, Roberty oversaw the construction of four high schools, two middle schools and three elementary schools, after the county's population doubled between 1960 and 1970. The new administration building on Hickory Avenue, which opened in 2006, is named after Roberty.

"They were the hard-working team from our Gordon Street offices that led the school system to, I think, the height of education that existed in Harford County… I have great respect and admiration for them," Roberty said as he sat in a booth with former schools spokesman Al Seymour and head of personnel Wally Oberender.

Both of them said they greatly enjoyed their time with Roberty, and Oberender hinted there are facts about his life that are less well-known, such as that he served in the Army during World War II.

"He was absolutely wonderful to work with," Oberender said. "Just being a part of this kind of public school was exciting for me."

Roberty highlighted Clark Jones, then-director of personnel, and asked him to give a speech.

Jones recalled the career of Earl Lightcap, best known as Edgewood High School's first principal, who was killed in 2003.

"Lightcap came in, he was young, he was blond. He had hair," Jones said, getting a laugh from the room. "The kids swallowed him; they just gulped him down. He was wonderful. He could talk forever, and did… But to get anywhere in the school system in those days, you had to be called to the attention of the superintendent of schools. The superintendent of schools was equivalent to the czar of Russia."

Lightcap did get the superintendent's attention, Jones said, and was ultimately transferred fromBel Air High, which Jones called the best-designed school in the state and perhaps the country.

"Everybody wanted to go there, and people were moving into Harford County," he said, mentioning Lightcap taught a class on problems with American democracy.

He joked that topic "today would require four years, but in those days you could do it in six months."

"Nobody wanted to leave Bel Air High School. It was the fanciest school in the state, it had a good reputation and all that," he said.

But then Edgewood High opened, and it "was the fanciest one anybody had ever seen. Each classroom looked like a handful of confetti," he said. "The superintendent chose this teacher, the most popular in Bel Air High School,… to be principal. That was Earl's school."

At another table sat former educators and supervisors Christine Tolbert, Celeste Meares, Marita Watts and Mary Ellen Kennedy. They said the reunion was a great way to catch up with old acquaintances, many of whom are in other states, and catch up on some news, as many are also ill or deceased.

"We are spread out now," Watts said, recalling how pleasant their former school days were. "We had a great time. We always looked forward to school. We enjoyed school."

Watts said the schools often ran with minimal supplies.

"You just had to find your way. There were no curriculum guides," Watts said, adding she still follows some education news.

"I still suffer," she said jokingly. "Everything is different, the arrangements of families are different."

Meares said she thought that was a good thing.

"You would want the children to be different because they are exposed to so many things," she said. Meares said she enjoyed being working with elementary school children in the 1970s.

"I loved that job because I had the first and second grades and you could see so much progress," she said. "It was fun."

Watts said the educators under Roberty formed a special bond.

"We were strong together, very supportive, had fun together, worked hard together," she said.