Media Hub

One only need look at the publications she has steered from conception to completion. How many times have we gone to our mailboxes and mistaken the McDonogh annual report for the latest edition of the McDonogh magazine! And that’s saying something! The McDonogh magazine! What a transformation Lynn with her staff has wrought in this periodic testimonial to the magic of McDonogh. Each edition offers a revealing cross-section of school life and enables all outside our community to savor something of its magic. And then there are the themed editions of the magazine, each dedicated to some strand of organic matter that threads its way throughout the DNA of this organism we call McDonogh. “Real Life starts Here,” “Roots,” “Character,” “Favorite Lessons,” “Service,” “Worthy of the Place,” each one created along with her esteemed, beloved colleagues in the Communications office.

But publications are only one part of her larger role here as Director of Communications. One administrator noted of Lynn: “When all hell breaks loose, she’s the one you want to have in the room with you.” And during times when challenging moments have been visited upon us, who is it that must represent the truth of those moments to an outside world and do so with integrity and respect? Who indeed but Lynn? She processes such moments with a native wisdom and thoughtfulness that many of us envy. She does so with such insight and professionalism that many of her colleagues in other independent schools cherish her leadership and regard her as a mentor. Thus Lynn shapes the way we understand ourselves and the way we present ourselves to the wider world. And how has she been able to do both with such artistry?

First of all, she gets it. Lynn understands. She understands McDonogh; she understands the people who make McDonogh what it is today, from smallest to tallest; she understands the remarkable heritage and history that have helped shape McDonogh into its current incarnation. Such understanding comes only with exquisite attention and selfless listening. One friend described Lynn’s capacity for listening: “It is as though you were the only person that matters.” Some listen to trigger a response about themselves; Lynn listens as though it is all and only about you. Such attention is costly. One colleague describes Lynn as someone with a congenital incapacity to say “no.” “How can I say ‘no’ to this teacher or that student?!!”, --a question that is purely rhetorical because we all know the answer she offers.

As Lynn listens and encounters moments and people at McDonogh, she experiences a unique kind of excitement. One parent and colleague said of Lynn: “For Lynn, every week is Spirit Week.” A close friend built on this idea with an apt image for Lynn: the excited parent of a first child is always snapping photos like crazy; when the second child comes along, the photos begin to diminish; then with the third child, the camera can sometimes be forgotten. With Lynn, it is always the excitement at the first child. Such understanding and excitement can be engendered only by one reality, the reality of love, a love that prompts her efforts to get to know and understand, to forge connections, to say “Please let us know what is happening” and to mean it.

Lynn loves this school, Lynn loves us, Lynn loves the children that are the heart and soul of this campus. It was hard for her to give up teaching her “Writing Process” class because it meant losing that wondrous connection with students she deeply prizes. Love has driven her 24/7; it has driven her to distraction, if not exhaustion, as she unfolds her artistry. As surely as Rockwell painted his subjects with love and affection, Lynn invests every word, every syllable, with the same passion and love for her subject. Who of us has not seen her face light up with warmth and affection when she experiences some simple moment, that love renders an epiphany for her? Who of us has not heard her soft laughter suffused with delight at some ordinary moment, that borders on the miraculous for her?