The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘A scholar, a teacher, a friend’
School namesake was district’s 1st Black teacher
MIDDLETOWN — An unexpected reaction to the annual Black History Month presentation to Wesley Elementary School third-graders last month led to the commissioning of a portrait of the school’s namesake painted by a 2017 Middletown High School alumnus.
Vivian McRae Wesley was the first Black teacher hired at Middletown Public Schools, according to a Wesleyan Argus story based on the book “Legendary Locals of Middletown.”
She taught there for a decade in the 1970s, according to her niece, longtime Middletown High School track coach Deb Petruzzello. McRae Wesley then became the district’s reading director for another 10 years.
She died of cancer in November 1970 at 40.
In the classroom, when teacher Janice Pawlak gave the annual presentation created by Les Saunders and Ray Townes, she was shocked to learn the students not only had no idea who McRae Wesley was, but her impact on local Black history.
“I was thrown by that. I did not know her picture is in the hallway: We have it,” she said.
Two of McRae Wesley’s relatives who formerly taught at the school are now retired, Kathy McRae and her niece Sharon Riley, said Pawlak, president of the Middletown Federation of Teachers.
Back then, McRae was wellknown, but, said Pawlak, a 27year teacher, much less so these days. “The adults that are still here have not been doing a good job of talking about it and keeping that up.”
At the school, McRae Wesley’s graduation photo, in sepia tones popular in the 1970s, with her in cap and gown, had grown yellowed and faded over the years, so Pawlak came up with the idea of updating it for the school’s 50th anniversary party March 8.
The plaque, six feet above ground on a wall in the hallway, too high for younger children to
see well, reads “a scholar, a teacher, a friend.”
Pawlak’s daughter, Jackie Pawlak, had very little to work with besides the graduation photo and another one with McRae Wesley wearing a red sweater, which was popular at the time.
That’s because very few family pictures remain from the period, said Petruzzello, who provided information about her aunt’s personality so Jackie Pawlak could “determine the best way to represent her likeness,” the artist said.
“I changed a lot of the colors” to achieve a “bright energy” from the two family photographs she was able to work from, according to Jackie Pawlak. “They matched her skin tone better and brought about more brightness, and a more kid-friendly type of look to it.”
She chose “kid-friendly” hues of light and royal blue to convey her warmth and the joy McRae Wesley had for teaching, Jackie Pawlak said. “It made her look so much better … and stylish. It softened the whole thing.”
The younger Pawlak learned McRae Wesley was a “passionate” teacher who loved reading herself, and to children. “It’s hard to allude to that without the obvious — putting a book in her hand or something,” said the artist.
No one — besides the artist and members of her family — got a “sneak peek” of the finished piece before its unveiling, she added.
Beman Middle School, which opened in fall 2021, is named after the local family of abolitionists. People thought it was the first time a city school had been named after a Black historical figure, said Jackie Pawlak, who was also unaware.
“It would have been nice to have known that; to have it be more prevalent in my education,” she said.
McRae Wesley aimed to make learning fun, Janice Pawlak said. She and her husband didn’t have children, but she was a stepmother. Every Christmas and for birthdays, the younger members of the family got board gam es— and, of course, books.
Another surprise for the students was that McRae Wesley and her family would listen to stories on records. In fact, they didn’t even know what records are, Janice Pawlak said. “They’d listen to recorded operas and fairy tales — just like today’s books on tape.”
When Petruzzello was growing up, she was inspired to become an educatator by her aunt and teachers Carolyn Hatcher and Mrs. Woodward. “We later found out that [Black women educators] were unheard of at the time,” she said.
She recalls going to school the day her aunt died, and seeing everyone crying. Petruzzello was called to the office, and told she would be receiving a Daughters of the American Revolution award — the same one given to her aunt. “It was too coincidental for me,” she said.
Petruzzello related a remarkable story about when McRae Wesley was a teen that demonstrates how prescient her aunt was. She and her cousins were talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up.
“Vivian said she was going to be a teacher and she wasn’t going to have children. She was going to marry someone who did have a child,” Petruzzelo said.
Only recently did her 95year-old first cousin tell her that McRae Wesley predicted that she would live until 40. “That was prophetic. It was too much for me,” she added.
When McRae Wesley’s portrait was unveiled, everyone was overjoyed, said Janice Pawlak, who is very proud of her daughter. “She did it. She did it. She got the likeness,” the teacher recalls thinking.
“It’s important to tend to a legacy to help it really live on,” she added. “When we name a school after somebody, it’s up to us to make sure people understand. … When a school is named for a national figure, she said, “that’s in the history books. … It’s a process to choose the nam e of a school, and people don’t take it lightly.”
Once it’s named, however, “we’ve got to remind people why that person is important. Legacies need to be attended to,” Janice Pawlak said.
For information on the artist, visit bit.ly/3mMBVAN.