There is a line in the book The Little Prince that states, “All grown-ups were once children…but only a few remember it.”

Retired Lower School teacher Diane Taylor affirms that Joyce Gilmore is one of those few, sharing, “If you have ever been lucky enough to see Joyce lead her little charges in the bunny hop, then you’ll know that she remembers.”

It is this enthusiasm and glee that was the hallmark of Joyce’s 43 years of teaching at Moravian Academy. Although most of her tenure was spent teaching Prekindergarten, she also taught first, second, and third grades.

Joyce first came to Moravian Preparatory School as a Lehigh University graduate student with an assignment to teach poetry lessons to the Pre-K class. Because of her fine work, she was asked by The Reverend Arthur Nehring, Moravian Academy Preparatory School Headmaster, and his assistant Myrtle Meilicke, to join the faculty as a third-grade teacher in the fall of 1969.

Her love of literature and talent for storytelling led her to write a children’s book, The Erwinna Witches and Other Stories. Published in 1989, the book featured illustrations by colleague Alice Wheaton Mumbauer ’55P, an art teacher at Moravian from 1962 to 1986.

The book is a collection of three stories, one of which is based upon yarns spun for young Joyce by her mother while growing up in Erwinna, a town on the Delaware River in Bucks County, PA.

“I loved Erwinna, and always wanted to write about it,” said Joyce. “And I remembered the stories my mother told me when I was a little girl about three witches who scampered about town playing pranks on folks and causing mischief.”

Joyce is fondly remembered by both former colleagues and students alike for her vivid imagination, storytelling skills and her loving and gentle nature. Described by retired Pre-K teacher Lois Kehoe as “a rare treasure,” she truly exemplifies the Moravian Academy virtues of mind, body, and spirit.

Read this article and other content in the Spring 2020 Moravian Academy Journal.