Margaret Lee Chadwick

Last updated
Margaret Lee Chadwick
Born
Margaret Lee

(1893-04-26)April 26, 1893
Spanish Fork, Utah, US
DiedMay 2, 1984(1984-05-02) (aged 91)
Palos Verdes Peninsula, California, US
Alma materWooster College
Stanford University
Occupation Educator
Years active1935–1963
Known forChadwick School
Spouse
Joseph Chadwick
​
​
(m. 1921⁠–⁠1970)​
(his death)
Children1 daughter, 2 sons

Margaret Lee Chadwick (Apr 26, 1893 - May 2, 1984) was a nonfiction writer and founder and headmistress of the K-12 Chadwick School, located on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, California, United States.

Contents

Early life and education

Chadwick, born in Spanish Fork, Utah, was the daughter of Anna Myrtilla (Wray) and Theodore Lee, a Utah Presbyterian minister, and one of eight children. [1] [2] In 1910, she enrolled at Wooster College in Ohio, and then transferred to Stanford University on a scholarship. [3]

After college graduation, Chadwick accepted a teaching position in the now defunct city of Metropolis, near Elko, Nevada. After a year, she traveled to China, where her brother Paul Lee was stationed. He introduced her to Naval Officer Joseph Chadwick, who was also stationed there. [1] The couple married in Shanghai in 1921 [4] and relocated to California. [5] They had three children, Theodora, also a graduate of Stanford, Joseph Jr., who also joined the Navy, and David, a pediatrician engaged in research and lecturing [1] [4] and who joined the Navy as well, in its V-12 Navy College Training Program. [6]

School founder

One of her husband's final tours was to San Pedro, California. The couple enrolled their children in local schools, which both parents found unsatisfactory. [1] So, in 1935, Chadwick founded the open-air home school on the front porch of her home on Le Grande Terrace in San Pedro with four students, two of them her own sons. [7] The other two were Mark and Jean Roessler, whose parents Fred and Edna, early residents on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. [1] Through deeding more than 33 acres from developer Frank A. Vanderlip for a permanent site and the initial buildings paid for by the Robert Roessler family, in 1939, the school moved to a hilltop in Palos Verdes with 75 day and boarding students, and was the first high school on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. [8] Her husband, Lt. Commander Joseph Chadwick, helped run the school. [1]

In 1963, the Chadwicks retired. At the same time, the Roessler-Chadwick Foundation was formed and trustees were named. [7] Margaret Chadwick wrote in her 1978 book A Dipperful of Humanity, her emphasis on the school was a "dedication to enrolling a student body that reflects a broad economic, cultural and ethnic mix," mirroring the real world and stressing the importance of attracting a student body that represented "a dipperful of humanity." [9]

In October 2018, her youngest son, David Chadwick, 13 months before his 2020 death, [10] was given the 2019 Distinguished Alumnus Award from Chadwick School, from which he graduated in 1942. [6]

Chadwick-Ansel Adams connection

Thirteen pictures by Ansel Adams, which were on display during a January 2011 exhibition at the Palos Verdes Library, came about in 1941 after Chadwick hired Adams to do a three-day photo shoot for her school's fifth-anniversary promotional catalog. In 1942, Adams returned to the campus to shoot a tennis exhibition featuring professional tennis star Jack Kramer. Negatives for some of those prints are in the official Adams archive at the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography. [11]

Adams also took a portrait of Chadwick and her husband, in uniform after he was called back to duty during World War II. The photo once decorated the archives office in the school's library. The couple originally met Adams during an annual ski trip to Yosemite on which Commander Chadwick would take the then small student body. [11]

Found in Chadwick's records upon her death was a letter Adams sent to the Chadwicks in 1974. The Chadwicks, he wrote, "infused the entire organization with a kind of creative drive (and evoked a marvelous human quality) ... it was an unforgettable experience, and I only wish I had done more and better work for the school." [11] Also in Chadwick's records were photographic Christmas cards that Adams and his wife Virginia sent the Chadwicks each year. [11]

Books

Chadwick wrote three nonfiction books. The first, Looking at the Sunset Upside Down: The Autobiography of Margaret Lee Chadwick, was released in 1976 by Omega Books.

In 1978, Anchor Press released A Dipperful of Humanity: The Chadwick Adventure in Education about the Chadwick School. [7]

Her third book, The Lee Family of Spanish Fork, Utah, was released in paperback by Anchor Press in 1979. It outlined Chadwick's Utah heritage. [12]

Personal life

Her husband died at age 77 on August 13, 1970. Chadwick, called "Aunt Maggie" by her students, died at 91 on May 2, 1984. [1] She was the grandmother of actress and singer Kate Morgan Chadwick. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ansel Adams</span> American photographer and environmentalist (1902–1984)

Ansel Easton Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating "pure" photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph. He and Fred Archer developed a system of image-making called the Zone System, a method of achieving a desired final print through a technical understanding of how the tonal range of an image is the result of choices made in exposure, negative development, and printing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palos Verdes Estates, California</span> City in California, United States

Palos Verdes Estates is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The city was master-planned by the noted American landscape architect and planner Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. The city is located along the Southern California coastline of the Pacific Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rancho Palos Verdes, California</span> City in California, United States

Rancho Palos Verdes is a coastal city located in Los Angeles County, California atop the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, neighboring three other cities in the Palos Verdes Hills, consisting of Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills, and Rolling Hills Estates. Rancho Palos Verdes is known for its dramatic views of the Pacific Ocean, Santa Catalina Island, and Los Angeles, as well as for its highly ranked schools, extensive horse and hiking trails, and for being one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the United States in terms of household income and property prices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rolling Hills, California</span> City in California, United States

Rolling Hills is a city on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Rolling Hills is a gated community with private roads with three entry gates. Homes are single-story 19th century California ranch or Spanish haciendas exemplified by architect Wallace Neff. Incorporated in 1957, Rolling Hills maintains a rural and equestrian character, with no traffic lights, multi-acre lots with ample space between homes, and wide equestrian paths along streets and property lines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rolling Hills Estates, California</span> City in California, United States

Rolling Hills Estates is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. On the northern side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, facing Torrance, Rolling Hills Estates is mostly residential. Incorporated in 1957, Rolling Hills Estates has many horse paths. The population was 8,067 at the 2010 census, up from 7,676 at the 2000 census. In 2018, the population rose to 8,141, and the 2020 census counted 8,280 residents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palos Verdes Peninsula</span> Sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area in California, United States

The Palos Verdes Peninsula is a landform and a geographic sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the South Bay region, the peninsula contains a group of cities in the Palos Verdes Hills, including Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Rolling Hills Estates, as well as the unincorporated community of Westfield/Academy Hill. The South Bay city of Torrance borders the peninsula on the north, the Pacific Ocean is on the west and south, and the Port of Los Angeles is east. As of the 2010 Census, the population of the Palos Verdes Peninsula is 65,008.

Palos Verdes Peninsula High School is a public high school in Rolling Hills Estates, Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of 2023, it is a top-ranked school in the Los Angeles, CA Metro Area (#16) and California (#42), according to US News & World Report.

Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD) is a school district headquartered in Palos Verdes Estates, California with facilities in all four cities of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Bishop Montgomery High School is a Catholic high school serving twenty-five parishes in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. BMHS was founded in 1957, and staffed by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Conventual Franciscans, and lay faculty. The 24-acre (97,000 m2) campus is located in Torrance, California, in southwest Los Angeles County, one mile (1.6 km) from the Pacific Ocean and the Del Amo Mall. The coeducational student body is approximately 900 students in grades 9 through 12, making BMHS the sixth largest private high school in Los Angeles County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Lookinland</span> American former actor (born 1960)

Michael Paul Lookinland is an American actor and cameraman. He is best known for his role as the youngest brother, Bobby Brady, on the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974, and all of its sequels and spinoffs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marymount California University</span> Former Catholic university in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, US

Marymount California University was a private Catholic university in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Originally founded by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (RHSM), the university awarded associate, bachelor's, and graduate degrees. The institution was accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission. The university closed in August 2022.

Philip Hyde (1921–2006) was a pioneer landscape photographer and conservationist. His photographs of the American West were used in more environmental campaigns than those of any other photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palos Verdes High School</span> School in Palos Verdes Estates, California, United States

Palos Verdes High School (PVHS) is one of three public high schools on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, Southern California, USA. Located by the ocean in Palos Verdes Estates, the school is part of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chadwick School</span> Independent school in Palos Verdes Peninsula, California, United States

Chadwick School is a nonsectarian independent K-12 day school located in an unincorporated area on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Specifically it is located at the top of the neighborhood referred to as Academy Hill, which is bounded by a canyon, a precipice, Crenshaw Boulevard, and Palos Verdes Drive North.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank A. Vanderlip</span> American journalist (1864–1937)

Frank Arthur Vanderlip Sr. was an American banker and journalist. He was president of the National City Bank of New York from 1909 to 1919, and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 1897 to 1901. Vanderlip is known for his part in founding the Federal Reserve System and for founding the first Montessori school in the United States, the Scarborough School and the group of communities in Palos Verdes, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy</span> Non-profit organization in California

The Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy (PVPLC) is a non-profit organization that is based on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in southwestern Los Angeles County, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chadwick International</span> Independent school in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea

Chadwick International is a PK-12, coeducational, nonsectarian, non-profit, independent, international day school located in the Songdo International City, Republic of Korea. The curriculum is based on the International Baccalaureate (IB) program and received PYP, MYP, DP, and CP accreditations. It is currently run by the Roessler-Chadwick Foundation and is named after Chadwick School in Palos Verdes, California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cedric Wright</span> American photographer and musician

George Cedric Wright was an American violinist and a wilderness photographer of the High Sierra. He was Ansel Adams's mentor and best friend for decades, and accompanied Adams when three of his most famous photographs were taken. He was a longtime participant in the annual wilderness High Trips sponsored by the Sierra Club.

The International Bilingual School, later International School of Los Angeles (ISLA), was an international bilingual day school in Palos Verdes Estates, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, serving students in Kindergarten through grade 9. It was founded by Tadao Hara. The school later relocated to nearby Torrance.

David L. Chadwick was an American clinical and research pediatrician, author, founder of the Chadwick Center for Children and Autism Discovery Institute in San Diego, and director emeritus at Rady Children's Hospital. He became an international pioneer in identifying, treating and preventing child abuse and a recognized expert in the field who started a movement.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Gnerre, Sam (13 August 2018). "South Bay History: 'Aunt Maggie' created an education powerhouse on the Peninsula". Daily Breeze.
  2. ↑ "Who's who in the West". 1954.
  3. ↑ Crawford, Christina (21 November 2017). Mommie Dearest. Open Road Media. ISBN   9781504049085 – via Google Books.
  4. 1 2 "Comdr. Chadwick Retires From Navy to Education". Rolling Hills Herald — California Digital Newspaper Collection. February 26, 1959.
  5. ↑ "REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY: Art Journal Page: The Lifelong Love of Margaret and Joseph Chadwick". redondowriter.typepad.com.
  6. 1 2 "Distringuished Alumnus Dr. David Chadwick - Compass Magazine Winter 2019, pp. 28-29". Compass Magazine– via issuu.
  7. 1 2 3 "Chadwick School: History of Chadwick". www.chadwickschool.org.
  8. ↑ "Oral History Collection - Palos Verdes Library District". www.pvld.org.
  9. ↑ Chadwick, Margaret Lee (23 December 1978). "A Dipperful of Humanity: The Chadwick Adventure in Education". Anchor Press – via Google Books.
  10. ↑ "Tribute to David L. Chadwick, MD (1926 – 2020)". via APSAC.org. January 19, 2020.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Boehm, Mike (17 January 2011). "'Never seen' but well-documented Ansel Adams photographs on display in Palos Verdes". Los Angeles Times.
  12. ↑ "Overview of our Van Arsdale Ancestry".
  13. ↑ "Kate Morgan Chadwick". IMDb.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.