Meet Our Donors
Elise Gettier Watkins, 1932
Born in Baltimore, MD on June 17, 1914, Elise Valerie Gettier attended Roland Park Country School and graduated in the Class of 1932. "E." as she was affectionately called by her classmates, was described in the 1932 Quid Nunc as a "brilliant student, a fine athlete, a skilled scene painter, an enthusiastic worker in any capacity and a peerless friend." E. was the goalie for the field hockey team in their undefeated season in the fall of 1931.
After RPCS, Elise attended Smith College graduating Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1936. Having spent her Junior year abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris, Elise continued her studies at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland where she met her husband, James T. Watkins, IV. After his discharge from the U.S. Navy in 1946, the couple returned to Palo Alto, CA, and Jim joined the Stanford University faculty as assistant professor of political science. In 1954, Elise embarked on a career that she loved as a tour guide for travelers. Through the '60s and '70s she regularly escorted groups of Stanford students on summer trips to Europe. She finally retired at the age of 85! Characterized by a close friend as a "walking encyclopedia," Elise shared her extensive knowledge of history and philosophy with her tour groups as well as generations of students at home. An avid gardener, gourmet cook and wine connoisseur, she delighted in entertaining her friends of all ages. Elise died peacefully, with loved ones at her side, on January 11, 2004. Her legacy will live long in those whose lives she enriched. Elise left an extraordinary legacy to Roland Park Country School as well. A founding member of The Red & White Legacy (see p. xx), she created a charitable remainder trust and provided for a bequest, both to support the mission of the School in memory of her favorite teachers - Katherine Dodge, Margareta Faissler, Katharine Hawxhurst, Amanda Lee Norris and Headmistress Elizabeth Castle. Through Elise's foresight and generosity, RPCS will be able to meet many of the most pressing needs identified in the recent Strategic Plan, as well as to establish a named endowment in her memory. RPCS is deeply honored and grateful that Elise Gettier Watkins, 1932, a woman who truly made a difference in her own time, has helped the School to remain at the forefront of educating girls and young women - women who are certain to make a difference in this challenging and ever-changing world.
For her work on the scenery and lighting for the School play What Every Women Knows, she was described in the 1932 Quid Nunc as a "back-scene angel." To all of us at RPCS, she is truly our back-scene angel!