RE LOG Fall 2017

28 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2017 “My roots go back so far that math was hardly invented,” quipped Ann Goesel, who joined the Everglades School for Girls faculty when tuition was $1,000 annually. As a child, Goesel developed an interest in teaching – whatever the subject – yet found opportunities in math. She spent 14 years as a math teacher at the Faulkner School for Girls in Chicago before writing to Head of School Gertrude Peirce to ask for a job at the Everglades School for Girls. Peirce had no full-time position to offer, but Goesel moved to Miami anyway and began working at Everglades as a substitute. For the last month of the school year, she filled in for a pregnant geometry teacher. As the year wound down, faculty member Lois B. Styles – for whom RE’s most prestigious math award is named – decided to retire. “That’s how I got to the Everglades School for Girls,” Goesel said. “I replaced Lois Styles.” She replaced a legend, then became one. She taught math and other subjects, and also served as dean of students, assistant to the director of the Upper School, counselor and college counselor. When students struggled, she used a sense of humor and her genuine concern to reach them. In 2010, the Ann Goesel Department Chair Endowment Fund was created by a $250,000 grant from the Dunspaugh-Dalton Foundation. And, like Styles, Goesel now has an award named in her honor. The Ann Goesel Everglades School Award is annually bestowed on a freshman girl who exhibits all-around excellence. Ann Goesel Retired in 2012 Born: Tinley Park, Ill. BS in education, Northern Illinois University, 1948 Master’s in counseling, Barry University, 1969 I have such fond memories of being in her class. She was funny and hard and I think the world of her. Like any great teacher working with children or teenagers, sometimes you have to jolly along and sometimes you have to push them – she did all of that; she could read the mood of a class. She had your number, but she was always very encouraging. She was my math teacher, then my college counselor, and now my friend.” – Leslie Wakefield Buchanan ’72 Ann Goesel meant a lot to me as a teacher and a person. In addition to her warm personality and sense of humor, she was a very good teacher … Ms. Goesel was one of those teachers that captivated students like me, inspired me to apply myself and made geometry fun and relevant. In fact, I went on to study architecture (volumetric geometry) and get a Master of Architecture degree … Thank you Ms. Goesel! She was important to me.” – Margot Ammidown ’69 “ “ 1966-67 first year at RE years