Jean Louise Stellfox
This is Jean Stellfox’s senior-year picture |
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October 28, 2003 Retired Shamokin teacher, hit by SUV, dies
By Marcia Moore MOUNT CARMEL — A 64-year-old Mount Carmel woman is dead following a hit-and-run accident, and police are searching for the driver who struck her Sunday night. Retired Shamokin teacher Jean Louise Stellfox of 44 East Ave. was walking on the south side of West Third Street and attempting to cross to the east side of the street when she was struck at 6:03 p.m. by a vehicle traveling east on West Third Street that had failed to yield to a stop sign, authorities said. Witnesses described the vehicle as a newer model dark green Ford Explorer or similar type SUV. The driver was possibly a male wearing a yellow or light-colored baseball-type cap. Struck by the front passenger side of the vehicle, Stellfox rolled across the hood and landed on the road while the motorist continued south on Maple Street. Stellfox was flown by helicopter to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, where she died early Monday morning, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The Washington Times Nobles: Jean Louise Stellfox, who even in death wished only to serve her students.
It was then no surprise that her untimely death in 2003 at 64 drew an overflowing crowd to the funeral home. But what those who paid their last respects didn't know, and what NYT education reporter Michael Winerip has only recently discovered, is that Miss Stellfox had left most of her $1.5 million worth to Dickinson College, her alma mater. That the 39-year public school teacher had even amassed so much money surprised everyone who knew her. Only Todd Kerstetter, now a lawyer, knew. Miss Stellfox approached her former student and asked if he would help write her will. It was at Dickinson in 1959, Mr. Kerstetter says, when a visit by poet Robert Frost convinced the young undergraduate that her calling was to become an English teacher. She hoped that her gift would help Dickinson continue inviting prominent writers to talk with students. For her gift of inspiration, Miss Stellfox is the Noble of the week. |
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Miss Stellfox
sounds like the kind of high-school English teacher no one wanted to get,
but whom none would ever forget. According to the New York Times, she made
her students commit to memory Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy (all
35 lines); learn the names of all the Greek and Roman gods; and read nearly
forgotten writers like Alexander Pope. She was the kind of teacher, in other
words, whose stern discipline students carry with them throughout their lives.