CAV Member Spotlight

Margaret Hicks has served in various positions for our association, including President from 2012-2014. She received her B. A. in Classical Studies from William and Mary (1976) and took various post graduate classes for recertification at VCU, W&M, and UR.

Margaret taught Latin and American history at Loudoun Valley High School for two years where the future Attorney General Mark Herring was in her class. Her teaching career was mostly spent in Chesterfield County where she spent time at L.C. Bird High School, Thomas Dale High School, and Salem Middle. She retired from Bird where she taught only Latin for 33 years straight. In her early years at Bird, she taught Vince Gilligan, the future creator of “Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul,” and now “Pluribus.” Margaret shared that Vince designed several Latin Club t-shirts and made decorations for a banquet.

Margaret had the privilege of teaching with some esteemed Latin teachers over the years

that included Frances Slaughter Fisher, Carolyn Spencer, Donna Dollings, Nancy Stough, Beth Brodie Venn, Tonia Sanborn Anderson, Garland Slaughter Carr, and Emily Munro Scott.

Teaching was (is) in Margaret’s blood as all four of her aunts and uncles in Washington State were teachers. Her father was a chemist who came east to work at Philip Morris during the Depression. Her mother grew up in Petersburg, and her mother had grown up in rural Dinwiddie County. Her grandmother and mother went on a trip to Europe in 1927 when Margaret’s mother was fourteen, and she has heard about that trip all of her life including how they had to declare where their remains should go if their flight over the English Channel should go badly. Her first trip to Europe was right after her senior year in high school, and it had a huge impact on her.

Margaret grew up in Henrico County with two older brothers whom she says teased her as a child. Although painful then, she thinks it was useful for toughening her for the classroom. Her brothers also allowed her to play with them and their friends sometimes which taught her how to hold her own. She loved Girl Scouts with camping trips and badges. She, along with her friend, played guitars and sang songs with younger kids and in talent shows, and later Margaret was a camp counselor for a few years. She taught Bible school and was a helper at cotillion. She loved working with kids – older kids, but she did not like babysitting.

Margaret and her husband Tom have been married for 48 years, and they dated for 8 years before that. They met as camp counselors, and having green space around them has been a priority. They moved into their current house in 1980 and have enjoyed sharing the pond in the back yard with turtles, fish, ducks, herons and frogs. Her husband built a tall platform to create a water slide that led into the pond. It was popular with both their children and her Latin Club students who came over for initiation.

While Margaret was able to throw herself into all kinds of opportunities for teachers before her children came along, her priorities changed when they had a family. And yet, her husband recognized that her teaching was important to Margaret; so he stayed home with the kids for many years as “Mister Mom” until summer when he went back to his job as an electrician. As the kids grew older, he became very sick with a debilitating genetic illness that kept him from working and doing things with the kids like Scouts and throwing the baseball. So Margaret then handled the activities. In 1993 Tom was told he only had about five years to live.

They never believed that. He was told to take up hobbies to keep him busy and get him up, so he started raising fish. Later it was Model T’s. Medications and medical treatments have improved his health over the years. He’s not in perfect health now, but he’s able to do more than he could in his younger days.

After their children grew up and went to college, Margaret was able to participate in some archeological projects. For a few weeks during two summers she worked in Stabiae and Pompeii with the University of Maryland, and four years later she worked in Herculaneum on graffiti with Rebecca Benefiel from Washington and Lee University. One special fall she was able to organize an exchange program between Latin students from several Chesterfield County schools and Italian students from Pliny the Elder High School in Stabiae. During that time she also served as President Elect, President and Past President of CAV. Following her retirement from teaching, Margaret served as FLAVA treasurer for five years.

In the last few years, her daughter who is suffering with her own debilitating illness and Margaret’s young granddaughter have come to live with Margaret and Tom. Margaret now drives an eight-year-old to her many activities: swimming, summer camp, softball, basketball, soccer, gymnastics.

They have four other grandchildren from six to eight years old, two of whom live in Arlington and two in New York City. Both families travel extensively in Europe, continuing the tradition of their great grandmother.

A favorite educational highlight involved winning a R.E.B. Award for Teacher Excellence in 1994 that resulted in travel to Italy in the summer of 1995 where she videotaped sites to share with other teachers. She enjoyed having a young colleague and her nephew with her on this adventure. Margaret states that the traveling, creating and researching gave her such a lift. It was exhilarating to learn about videography, to travel independently, and to help supplement her county’s curriculum.

When asked about a favorite Roman or Greek author, Margaret said it was whomever she was teaching at the time. She enjoyed the research and study involved and loved increasing her own knowledge/interest and then sharing those things with students and colleagues. Perhaps her favorite overall was/is Vergil’s Aeneid. Outside of classically related books, Margaret’s favorite books are the Outlander series which she discovered during COVID. She maintains that she has to stay away from good fiction usually as she neglects her family duties when she is absorbed in a good novel.

Margaret loves to travel and the memories of trips with students, friends, and family are some of her happiest. She has enjoyed sewing over her lifetime, making her own prom dress in high school, a child’s Halloween costume, a quilt, curtains and slipcovers. In addition to these hobbies and interests, the Nature Camp Foundation is special to her and her husband because they met at Nature Camp and were counselors together. They love helping to strengthen camp for others to enjoy it as they did.

When asked if she would do anything differently if she could start her career over again, Margaret wished that she had had the energy and time to earn a Master’s degree, but she never had any desire to move up the professional ladder and out of the classroom. Margaret needed her summers to recover from the school year. She enjoyed learning new things that were applicable to her situation, but after college she was exhausted and ready to be away from academia. She loved the independence of exploring topics of her own choosing. In addition, she would make sleep more of a priority during the school week as she tended to stay up too late at night because she needed the quiet time to herself. The other thing she would do is get supportive shoes with good insoles starting on day 1!

As for advice for a young person who wants to teach Latin, Greek, or the classics, Margaret recommends attending conferences, meetings, and seminars in all of the wonderful organizations available to teachers today. She said that she gained a wealth of information, and even if she did not use the exact ideas, the stimulation fostered her own creativity, and the different teaching approaches were instructive to her own teaching career. Secondly, travel to Italy and Greece, preferably with a reputable educational organization such as the Vergilian Society. Margaret went on one of their tours in college, and it gave her a wonderful background for the rest of her career. Also, “embrace the terrifying.” When asked to speak before a group or participate in a special project that puts you out of your comfort zone, do it. You will grow from the experience.

Submitted by Sue Robertson, CAV Historian