By Grace McQueeny &
Safiya Merchant
Lane Assistant Principal Mrs. Dorothy Montgomery passed away on Dec. 7 while on a business trip to Shanghai, China. According to the First People’s Hospital of Shanghai, she died of congestive heart failure.
Montgomery and Assistant Prinicpal Dr. Dignam were traveling in Shanghai because Dignam is the point person/contact for the partnership between a Shanghai high school and Lane. According to Principal Dr. LoBosco, Lane and an Ohio high school are partnering in an exchange program with a Shanghai high school. The students involved would primarily be those taking Mandarin Chinese. Because Montgomery oversaw the language department, she accompanied Dignam on his trip.
Dignam claims that on the day she died, Montgomery was feeling congested, but thought it was a cold. Because he had left to see the Shanghai high school, he was not present when she passed. At 11:30pm, he called LoBosco and informed her of Montgomery’s death.
“He was very emotional and upset,” said LoBosco. “I was so shocked, I just couldn’t believe it. I kept repeating, ‘Oh my god.’ She never talked about any health problems [so it was very unexpected].”
In 1996, Montgomery came to Lane and was primarily a U.S. History teacher. She later became the head of the history department in 2000, and the registrar in the Records Office in 2003. She was finally promoted to assistant principal in 2006. According to history teacher and close friend, Mr. Allegrezza, she was married to a man she “fondly called Montgomery” and had one son, Phillip.
To many, Montgomery was both charming and opinionated.
“What I really liked about her was she was very witty and if she had something to say, she would say it. Most importantly, I’ve never heard her raise her voice to anyone,” said Ms. Kelsey, from Student Records.
“I’m going to miss her wit, her sense of humor, her way of cutting to the bottom line, and her contribution to Lane policies,” said LoBosco. “She was never afraid to share her opinion. She was very vocal.”
Montgomery was also the epitome of a good friend.
“You could talk to her and know that whatever you said to her wasn’t going to be repeated,” said Assistant Principal Ms. Rice.
“You would really need to know her to appreciate and enjoy her. She was the type of person that if you ever came to her with a problem, she would first listen. She had a way of putting you at ease,” said Kelsey.
Montgomery loved to travel, according to LoBosco.
“She was a real adventurer. When she fell last year, she was hobbling and still went on a trip to Italy,” she said.
“We had lunch together the day before she left for China. She was so happy and excited to go, and was trying to decide what to take with her. I told her, ‘You wanna save a lot of space…so you can do a lot of shopping.. Then I gave her my dress size,” joked Kelsey.
“She was a wonderful traveling companion, always up for the next place around the corner,” said Lane librarian Ms. Kane who traveled with Montgomery through Europe multiple times. Their trips included Ireland, Paris, and Sicily. One of Kane’s fondest memories of Montgomery was in Paris, where they took a cruise down the Seine River and ate dinner in the Eiffel Tower.
Although she is gone, many other faculty members have memories of Montgomery that live on.
According to Allegrezza, one of the most touching moments was on Sept. 11, 2001. Montgomery was in his room and when the second tower fell she grabbed him for comfort.
Kelsey’s memory involved her love for new experiences.
“[What I will miss] is listening to her tell about her weekends. She and her son went to fine-dining restaurants and she [often told me] where they went, what they ate, and how it tasted,” said Kelsey. Montgomery would go into so much detail that the listener would feel as if he or she was there, Kelsey added.
LoBosco admits that Montgomery’s death is a sober reminder of the value of life.
“It makes you understand how important life is and other people. [One of the greatest compliments] is that the people who you work with show their appreciation by sharing their stories and indicating their love for you,” said LoBosco.
