The Class of 1939 Has a New Member

Graduating from Westminster School wasn’t on Dr. Stanley Teale’s bucket list but that’s exactly what he did — at 100 years of age. 

 

Dr. Teale came to Westminster as a First Form day student in the fall of 1933. He attended Westminster through his Fourth Form year in 1937, but a change in the enrollment policy at Westminster made the school too expensive for him to continue. Dr. Teale finished his secondary education at Simsbury High School.

 

“Stanley Teale is the epitome of grit and grace,” said Head of School Elaine White. “I feel so honored and blessed to present this remarkable man with a diploma from Westminster, a school that he loved and believed provided him with the foundation that he needed to pursue an even greater education in order to become a cardiologist. He is what I want every one of our students to become — articulate, thoughtful, passionate, gracious — even in the face of disappointment. He wanted to graduate from Westminster but his parents’ financial situation precluded him from doing so. He made the very best of the hand that he was dealt — and he found the means and determination to continue his education. He valued every opportunity. This is a man who reveres education, who believes in its power to change the world. His parents instilled that belief in him, and he passed it on to his own children, and he embodied that belief in all that he has done with his life.”

 

Westminster reconnected with  Dr. Teale when Director of Planned Giving Jennifer Keyo was researching  the school’s oldest known living alum. Once Dr. Teale was discovered, White wanted his to be the first diploma she would sign as head of school. A small group went to his home in Vermont and presented him with the diploma earlier this month. There was sparkling cider, cupcakes, a Westminster blanket and a delighted Teale — an official member of the Class of 1939 — at the center of the celebration. 

 

“For me, this situation has been absolutely wonderful,” said White.

 

After graduating from high school, Dr. Teale attended Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia and completed medical school at Dalhousie Medical School in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After earning his medical degree, Dr. Teale and his wife moved to Connecticut where he completed his residency in mental health and neurology at the state hospital in Middletown. After an internal medicine residency at Springfield Hospital in Springfield, Mass, he was appointed as a cardiology fellow at Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston. Following a long and successful career as a cardiologist, Dr. Teale and his wife retired to a farm in rural Vermont in 1983.

 

“Dr. Teale has been a joyful man from our first conversation in 2017 to seeing him last week,” said Keyo. “He’s kind, compassionate, smart and sharp as a tack.” 

See the video of the event here.