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The following story originally appeared in the June 2003 issue of Harker News.
The Archives learned of two noteworthy Miss Harker’s School alumnae as a result of inquiries from researchers!
Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher
In January an Illinois professor writing a biography of Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, Miss Harker’s School Class of 1926, contacted us to confirm details of MFK Fisher’s schooling at Miss Harker’s. MFK Fisher (1908-1994) authored over 30 books about food and was a colleague of Julia Child’s. Harker archivist Sue Smith located Fisher’s transcripts, information about her younger sister who also attended Miss Harker’s, and general information about the curriculum at the time. In return, we received an 8×10 photo of Mary Frances (center student in photo above) with her graduating class taken on the lawn of Miss Harker’s School, which will be hung, along with a growing number of other historic photos, in the main conference room on the Saratoga campus.
Margaret Robertson Sperry
In February another inquiry came in a most unusual way. Marcie Gilbert’s fourth grade class completed a Web-based project on Armstrong Sperry, winning Newbery author (“Call it Courage,” 1941). His granddaughter, Margo Burns, who lives in Manchester, N.H., manages Sperry’s website. She noticed the “hits” from the Harker class and remembered that her grandmother, Margaret Robertson Sperry (Class of 1917), had attended Miss Harker’s School in California. She immediately went to our website and upon contacting the archives department, was thrilled that they could provide her with her grandmother’s transcripts and copies of the school brochures from that era. In return, the archives received a digital photo of Robertson and Sperry, together in Hawaii in the late 1920s.