Teresa or Theresa?
by Jean Martin
The question first appeared when Maralyn Fink began sending parts of the East Ward book to us for publication. That little book published during the nation’s bi-centennial year identified the popular teacher and principal ans Teresa Merrill. Good, that worked for us. She was, in fact, a member of the committee that assembled the book.
Then came the stories about the renaming of the school for her. The obituaries arrived too. Those tended to identify her variously and somewhat indiscriminately as Teresa and Theresa. Of course one article that called her Theresa also named her neighbor as Lorraine Hoffman. That would be Maralyn’s Aunt Lorrian Halfmann, we guess.
We tended to believe that the popular teacher’s name was probably Teresa, but what was the exact name of the school? To get to the bottom of that question we contacted SJPS Board Member Rhonda Dedyne. We knew that the resolution had been passed on March 31, 1976.
Rhonda responded: “One thing is for sure, we have without a doubt the best ever admin assistant in the district office that I’ve ever encountered. Mark McKeown located the minutes without problem, scanned the page with the resolution and emailed the pdf. Plus, he’s just a truly good guy.
“The resolution may not clear things up at all. Mark said the first mention of her name has Theresa Merrill with the ‘h’ struck through with a pencil mark; the second mention has the name as Theresa Merrill with no strike through.”
In other words it sounds like the Board of Education were not sure themselves, so they punted. Years later they demolished the building, thereby rendering the question moot.
In a last ditch effort to clear up the minor controversy, we turned to the official records. The Social Security Administration claimed that her name was, indeed, Teresa Merrill. They even posted her now-retired Social Security number. We will not reprint it here because we doubt that at this late date she wants to sign up for a new cable television service or support a deposed Nigerian prince.