Evelyn W. McIntosh
Dedicated Baltimore public schools educator worked with special needs children and their families for over 3 decades
Evelyn W. McIntosh, a retired Baltimore public schools educator whose career spanned more than three decades and who also owned and operated a boutique, died Feb. 5 in her sleep at Northwest Hospital in Randallstown. The Windsor Mill resident was 86.
“I always called her ‘The Missionary’ because she was always reaching out to help people,” said Doris Graham, a Baltimore public schools educator and friend for more than four decades. “Not only did she help those in education, but she also reached out to those in need in the community.”
Reginald C. “Reggie” Robinson retired from city public schools in 2011 as director of special education administrative services.
“Evelyn was a dedicated worker who was strong-willed and committed to her job, family, church and community,” Mr. Robinson said. “Her commitment working with special education students was very evident in her work. She had compassion and patience.”
The former Evelyn White, daughter of Gus White, a merchant seaman and foundry worker, and his wife, Louise Hamilton White, a homemaker, was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, where she graduated from Alfred E. Beach High School.
Ms. McIntosh earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1955 from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she was a member and president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She earned a master’s degree in education from what is now Coppin State University and did additional graduate studies at the University of Maryland, College Park.
She began her teaching career in Lexington, North Carolina, public schools, and after teaching for a year in Savannah public schools moved to Baltimore in 1961 and began her 33-year career teaching in city public schools the next year.
Ms. McIntosh held a variety of positions after starting as a classroom teacher, becoming a senior teacher, master teacher, supervising teacher, demonstration teacher and educational assistant, and as a liaison assigned to school headquarters who worked with special-needs children and their parents.
It wasn’t uncommon for Ms. McIntosh to have a caseload of 300 students, reported The Baltimore Sun in 1991.
“Evelyn worked in special education and with children who had special needs, and she had a kind and loving personality,” said Ms. Graham, who retired in 2004 from Langston Hughes Elementary School, where she was principal.
“She went out to the nonpublic centers like the Chimes School and the William S. Baer School to make sure that the children were getting the programs they needed under the Individual Education Plan,” Ms. Graham said. “And she determined the kind of services the children would need and made sure those plans were implemented.”
“Evelyn was older than me and called me ‘Little Brother,’ and that’s how she treated me. She treated me like I was a member of her family,” Mr. Robinson said.
Ms. McIntosh retired in 1995. In addition to her work in city public schools, she worked with Child First Authority Inc. and BUILD — Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development — and served as president of the Cox Education Fund, which provided annual scholarships to local high school students.
Ms. McIntosh was also the owner of Evelyn’s Place, a clothing boutique she operated out of her Washington Avenue home.
She enjoyed playing cards, traveling and shopping.
“She just loved to shop and was a world traveler. Those were her main hobbies,” said Darlene McIntosh, a daughter-in-law who lives in Milford Mill. “She often purchased clothes on her travels that she later sold.”
Even though she was 86, once a week she’d prepare meals for the sick and shutins and make the process into a family get-together.
“She loved to help others,” her daughterin-law said.
She was a longtime member of Trinity Presbyterian Church and was “generally involved in all aspects of church life,” family members said. She had been a deacon moderator and elder and served on numerous committees. She had also been a delegate to the synod from the Presbytery of Baltimore.
In 1957, she married John Robert McIntosh Sr., a life insurance salesperson, who died in 1982.
Funeral services were held Tuesday at the Vaughn Greene Funeral Home in Randallstown.
In addition to her daughter-in-law, Ms. McIntosh is survived by her son, John Robert McIntosh Jr. of Milford Mill; a daughter, Gai Allen-Moore of Swan Point, Charles County; and a granddaughter.