By Kay Desai

Photo courtesy of the Cobb School Montessori

On June 1, over 400 students, alumni, parents, grandparents and friends came together in Simsbury, Conn., to celebrate Mary Lou Cobb on her retirement as head of The Cobb School Montessori, which she founded 45 years ago. A number of guests came from California and Texas just for the occasion. The weather gods cooperated with a beautiful warm sunny day, which segued into a beautiful summer evening. 

Cobb and her husband, Michael, have had a home on Maple Avenue for over 40 years, and several people from Norfolk were pleased to share in the festivities, including me and my husband, Rohit, Co Crocker, Christine Vanderlip, Sally Carr and Larry Hannafin, and Drew and Sally Quale.  

The celebration began at 5 p.m. under a huge tent on the school grounds with tables decorated with spring flowers. Current and former members of the Board of Trustees, Montessori colleagues from other schools and the Montessori Northeast Training Center, as well as the executive director of Connecticut’s Association of Independent Schools, spoke of Cobb’s many contributions not only to the school she founded but also to national and international Montessori programs. Michael Cobb Jr., a member of the first graduating class of the Cobb School, also spoke about his mother and his experiences as a student at the school.

We learned about Cobb’s early training with Margaret Elizabeth Stevenson, a noted educator who herself had trained with Dr. Maria Montessori. While most in the audience were aware of Cobb’s work with The Cobb School, which the board named after her in 1997, some of us did not realize the extent of her involvement nationally and internationally in the Montessori world, which has schools across the globe.

Cobb then gave heartfelt remarks about the people she has worked with over the many years and the students she has nurtured and sent on in the world. The first part of the program ended with a chorus of upper elementary school students singing a school favorite, “The Tree Song,” with alumni and friends joining in the chorus. 

Following an excellent catered dinner, Cobb’s daughter Sally Ann Jacobs and granddaughter Annabelle Jacobs, as well as a faculty member, an alumni parent and a former student, spoke movingly about their experiences at the school with Cobb as head. A big surprise was the unveiling of a beautiful painting of Cobb, which will hang near the school’s Great Hall. The painting was the gift of the Cobb School community. Another surprise was the naming of a section of a building after Michael Cobb Sr. in recognition of his contribution to the school over the years. The board also announced the establishment of the Mary Lou Cobb Faculty Endowment Fund. For the last event of the evening, a band took over the stage to start the dance party, with Cobb leading the way. 

Cobb started the Montessori school in January 1974 in the basement of one of the buildings of The Ethel Walker School, a private girls’ high school in Simsbury, when she and Michael were dorm parents there. Initially a preschool and kindergarten, The Cobb School today starts with toddlers age 15 months and continues through the sixth grade, key learning years for children. In 1989 the school moved out of its original premises into a separate building across the street, which it rented from Ethel Walker until they were able to purchase the building in 1994.

Over the years there have been four renovations of the building, expanding The Cobb School’s facilities, all financed through the school community. The most recent renovation added the Great Hall in 2016. Today there are 120 students with a faculty and staff of 35. The school is dedicated to teaching based on the Montessori philosophy of a child-centered curriculum with this mission: Believe, Guide, Step Aside and Let Fly.

The celebration organized by members of all segments of the school community—alumni, faculty and staff, parents and grandparents—was a lovely tribute and a vivid demonstration of their affection for Mary Lou Cobb and appreciation of her accomplishments over the 45 years since the school’s founding.