Hugh Howell Addy (1988)

ADDY, LITTLE

Posted By: Treva Patterson (email)
Date: 3/30/2006 at 13:12:11

Winterset Madisonian
July 6, 1988

Hugh Addy, Richmond, Va.

Hugh H. Addy, 79, a former English teacher at the Collegiate Schools, died apparently of a heart attack June 15 in Los Angeles while en route to Australia.

Mr. Addy resided in Richmond, Va.

At the Collegiate Schools, where he taught for 18 years, he was known as "Daddy Addy" by the students.

A native of Winterset, Mr. Addy taught for 50 years. Besides the Collegiate Schools, he also taught in Nebraska, Connecticut, Florida and New Hampshire.

He graduated from Bethany College in West Virginia and Hartford Seminary in Connecticut.

Before he became a teacher, Mr. Addy was a Congregational preacher in Nebraska and Massachusetts.

Mr. Addy spent ten summers studying at the Shakespearian Institute in Stratford-on-Avon, England, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. He returned to England in 1968 when the Richmond chapter of the English Speaking Union selected him to be a scholar in residence at Oxford University. Mr. Addy also studied at the University of Edinburgh and the University of London.

He is survived by a sister, Mrs. Geneva Little of Winterset.
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The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Virginia
Friday, June 17, 1988, page C-2

COLLEGIATE TEACHER HUGH ADDY DIES -

Hugh H. Addy, who for 18 years taught eighth-grade English at Collegiate School, died Tuesday in Los Angeles Airport while waiting for a flight to Australia. He was 79.

Mr. Addy was nicknamed by his students "Daddy Addy," a colorful name for a colorful man. "He was a real Mr. Chips character," said William Reeves, currently head of Collegiate's middle school. "He'd often be seen at eighth-grade contests. A lone spectator, bundled up and cheering his boys on."

He kept in touch with many of his former students, sending them notes on stationery with the words "From the curmudgeon" printed on the top. "He had a hard exterior and a very soft heart," Reeves said.

Born in Winterset County, Iowa, Mr. Addy graduated with a bachelor of arts from Bethany College in Bethany, W.Va., and later with a bachelor of education from Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn. He became a Congregational minister and served churches in Massachusetts and Nebraska. But in 1934 he began teaching and he did so for the next 50 years, retiring from Collegiate in 1984.

Early in his life, his wife and child were killed in an accident, an incident he seldom spoke of but one that Reeves said "changed the direction of his life. "He just became committed to young people and teaching."

Mr. Addy was a Shakespearean scholar who spent 10 summers at the Shakespearean Institute at Stratford-on-Avon in England.

Mr. Addy took graduate courses at the University of Virginia and at Oxford University, where he was the recipient in 1968 of the first scholarship given to a teacher in the Richmond area by the English Speaking Union.

He once said his greatest honor was being selected as godfather for his Oxford tutor's twin boys. They graduated from high school this year, the same year that those in the last class of eighth-graders Mr. Addy taught graduated. Reeves, who since Mr. Addy's death has spoken with several former students and their parents, said they called Mr. Addy "a unique role model" who taught his students "respect, a sense of humor and intellectual curiosity."

After retiring, Mr. Addy continued to travel. He was between flights at the airport when an apparent heart attack killed him, Reeves said.

He is survived by a sister in Iowa. A memorial service will be held at the school later in the summer, Reeves said. "He had requested his body be donated to science. It was a final gift."