Her passion began with her drive. Every morning, Robin Hartlove (Berg) left her home in York, Pa., and traveled more than an hour to Bellows Spring Elementary School in Ellicott City, where she taught kindergarten.
There, her colleagues noticed Hartlove's dedication, how her bright, blue eyes sparkled with enthusiasm and energy, how much she enjoyed math and how her students would say that they, too, enjoyed it, because she was their first math teacher.
Her colleagues and students will continue to remember her. Hartlove died Dec. 21 of pancreatic cancer. She was 47. She is survived by a daughter, Julianne Berg, 18, and a son, Joshua Berg, 16.
Hartlove had been with the county school system since 1991, starting at Deep Run Elementary School in Elkridge, then going to Bellows Spring Elementary after it opened in 2003.
"She was very loving and giving, and no-nonsense at the same time," said Jackie Klamerus, principal at Bellows Spring. "She was a special person. She was able to instill in children a real love of learning."
Hartlove understood how important it was to give those in kindergarten a strong foundation to begin their education, Klamerus said, and recognized how important it was that kids got up and moved around and were active in their learning.
"She made such an impact on kids," Klamerus said. "When they were given a chance to write cards, they did so in droves."
Hartlove was diagnosed in the spring, but was able to finish out the school year. As people found out about her illness, letters began to come in, not just from current students, but from parents whose children Hartlove had taught several years ago, according to Beth Carroll, who also taught kindergarten at Bellows Spring.
"Their comments were that she gave her students the foundations for reading and math that they needed, and then the parents would go on to tell us about what a great math or reading student their child has been because of Ms. Hartlove," Carroll said.
Hartlove's and Carroll's rooms were next to each other. They weren't just colleagues, Carroll said, but close friends as well. They had traveled together to destinations close and distant, to Western Maryland and West Virginia, and on a three-week excursion to France.
"We complemented each other. She had a much more intense personality, and I'm much more laid back," said Carroll. "But we were so alike in that our whole lives were very child-oriented. We agreed on so many aspects of teaching early childhood. … We knew each other first as educators, and then our friendship grew out of that."
The 63-year-old teacher said she considered Hartlove to be the sister she never had.
"I will genuinely miss her energy and her joy in teaching young children," Carroll said. "Teaching 5 year olds takes a special kind of human being."