Celebrating Donna Fasano's 42 years at Hopkins

 

Hopkins gathered as a community on Friday, June 1st to celebrate the 42-year tenure of Donna Falcone Fasano ’68 DPH. Over 200 students, parents, faculty, staff, emeriti/ae, alumni/ae, family and friends gathered to honor Mrs. Fasano and her illustrious career as an English teacher, adviser, and mentor. A touching speaking portion included addresses by three of Donna’s sons, Michael ’98 (via video), Matthew ’01, and Timothy ’06, who shared stories of their mom from the family point of view, as well as from Head of School Kai Bynum. Guests had the opportunity to thank Mrs. Fasano in person, sign a guest book and browse yearbooks from throughout her tenure. 

The special evening also marked the opening of the 2018 Alumni/ae Weekend, which brought hundreds of alumni/ae celebrating their reunions home to Hopkins. Mrs. Fasano spent the weekend celebrating her 50th Reunion with classmates from the Day Prospect Hill Class of 1968.

Mrs. Fasano would like to share the following letter on the occasion of her retirement:

After spending forty-six years in high school, I am finally ready to graduate! This June will mark my fifty year reunion as a student at DPH and my forty-second year as an English teacher at Hopkins. For most of my life, I have been in a classroom.

First and foremost, I want to thank all of the students who have given me the opportunity to read their writing and to spend my days engaged in conversations about their reactions to great books. My days and my evenings have been devoted to learning, theirs and my own, a joyful
experience that I have loved and will always treasure. Secondly, I am grateful for the staff, the faculty and the glorious campus on the hill that have nurtured my spirit and provided me with decades of memories and close ties. From the moment that my car finds its way into my parking
spot until the time that I shut the classroom lights and walk out the door, I am in a place that has become my heartbeat: the rhythms of students, schedules, lessons and greetings have been the steady pulse of my life.

So, leaving this place and this profession is not easy for me. When I was a young girl, I used to corral the neighborhood kids and “play school.” When I was a student, I would study my teachers and admire their eloquence and knowledge. Having lived my “dream job,” I know that I have never wanted to do anything else with my life.

Farewell, Hopkins. Thank you for all that you have meant to me and to my family. While I know that I will be forgotten, I also know that I will never forget the professional and the personal memories that you have given me.

Much love.
Donna-Jeanne Falcone Fasano ‘68 DPH

If you were unable to attend, but would like to sign the virtual guest book, please click here.

Click below to view a full gallery of photos, taken by Judy Sirota Rosenthal.

Gallery Part 2

Click here to read the story “The optimistic red ink of Donna Fasano” by Nicholas Dawidoff ’81, as published in the Spring issue of Views from the Hill.