The Dalai Lama once said, “Share your knowledge; it is a way to achieve immortality.”
Former English teacher Lauren de Rivaud accomplished just that. Rivaud made lasting impressions on family, friends and colleagues, who shared their memories of her during a memorial service Sept. 12 near a cherry tree planted in her memory at the front of the school.
Rivaud, who taught at Whitman for 3 years, succumbed to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, Aug. 12 at age 52. Masking her pain, Rivaud continued to teach after the onset of her debilitating disease, and many of her students were not aware of her illness prior to her retirement in 2010, according to principal Alan Goodwin. Colleagues remember her as a courageous woman with an independent spirit who never lost her dry wit and giving nature.“She never stopped learning or researching,” English resource teacher Beth Rockwell said. “The department was energized by our interaction with her.”
Many appreciated Rivaud’s keen sense of humor and bright smile. Composition assistant Cathy Neff, a close friend, said she would often crack jokes or act silly simply to see Rivaud’s smile. Rivaud brought her creativity and sense of humor to her students.
“She was a brilliant, amazing teacher,” Neff said. “She loved teenagers and had a way of talking to them that was so open and funny.”
Rivaud ordered snacks and favorite drinks for her visitors and caregivers when she was ill, Neff said. She even helped one caregiver put together a resume, English teacher and friend Susan Buckingham said.Rivaud enjoyed the outdoors. Prior to her illness, she kayaked, biked and ran. Even after she got sick, she preferred living an active life to staying home and talking about her incurable illness, Buckingham said. Even while in a wheelchair, Rivaud enjoyed trips to Rehoboth Beach and to Sutton, Virginia for a Macbeth performance at the Black Friars Theater.
English teachers Prudence Crewdson and Eric Ertman concluded the service with an emotional reading from Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself.” A plaque bearing the Dalai Lama’s words lies beneath the memorial tree. Neff and Buckingham will fulfill Rivaud’s long-held wish to go to Ireland by taking her ashes there this summer.
