By Hillcrest Principal Michelle Rzpeka Information published with permission from Helen Wilbur.
About two weeks ago, I received an email from a woman, Helen Wilbur (Wright), who attended Hillcrest from 1967 to 1972. She was writing to inquire about a painting that was donated in memory of her mother several years ago. Helen’s mother, Mary Lou Wright (pictured in 1979, above/left), was a first grade teacher at Hillcrest from 1968 to 1979. Unfortunately she passed away from a sudden brain aneurysm in October of 1979. You can only imagine the shock and emotional impact this had on her family and friends, students and staff.
Helen went on to tell me about Pat Koutny, a former Hillcrest parent and well-known artist at the time that offered art classes at her home. Helen took several of Ms. Koutny's classes through grade school and junior high. Ms. Koutny painted a picture in Mrs. Wright’s memory and donated it to Hillcrest. Helen shared that since she was away at college, she wasn’t aware of this, but did remember hearing about it at some point. Unfortunately, Ms. Koutny has also passed on.
Flash forward forty years... In August of this year, Helen was going through some older pictures and came across a polaroid picture of the piece that Ms. Koutny had painted. She had forgotten about the painting and couldn’t believe that she never actually saw the painting in person. Wondering if it was still around anywhere, she went out on a limb and put a post on Facebook. She could not believe the response she received with over 75 comments and six shares, she was thrilled to find out that the painting is still hanging at Hillcrest! Recognizing this was a beautiful tribute to her mother, with students from forty years ago commenting on their memories of her as a teacher, she decided to reach out to me to see about making a visit to Hillcrest to see the actual painting in person.
After all these years, Helen made her visit to Hillcrest this past week. She and her friends were very excited to see the painting and get a tour of the school. I thought it was fitting to share a little piece of Hillcrest history with all of our current families that have or will likely notice this painting hanging in the library at one point or another.