When I was hired to be principal of St. Timothy Elementary School in 1989 the only person I needed to hire was someone to help us out part-time at recess duty. Mrs. Price, the secretary there, mentioned that a young woman named Cindy Goodburn might be looking for some work.

The Goodburn name in the north end of Columbus is well known. Cindy had married into that family. After a perfunctory interview which consisted of, “Are you available,” and “Can you do the job,” I hired her.

For the four years that I served as principal there I shared recess duty with Cindy and our physical education teacher, Karen Taaffe whom I had taught at Bishop Watterson High School.

Although Cindy was a parent in the community, all three of us were new as St. Tim’s employees as well as new to recess duty in general. We were gifted there in that we had a large parking lot out in front of the school for the kids as well as a piece of blacktop in the back with a grassy hill and small field overlooking Turkey Run Creek which we managed to keep kids out of- most of the time. Our pastor, Fr. Ted Thomas, had installed some putting greens on the black top for the festival which he kept there. We had a few clubs and golf balls for the kids to use but quickly found out that they got bored with putting and were soon launching the balls into the creek.

There were also some old-fashioned high metal monkey bars at the bottom of the hill. On the first day of school that year a young man fell off and broke his arm. We had a lot to learn about proper playground supervision.

In addition to watching kids, we had many conversations out there in all kinds of weather. We got so close that we would sometimes continue over dinner and a beer or two. We solved all the problems of the world back then. The only problem is that we didn’t write any of the solutions down although I am sure they were all spectacular notions.

Shortly after I left to become principal of Bishop Hartley High School, I was in need of a receptionist. Cindy loves to remind me that I had another St. Timothy employee for the job but, fortunately for me and for Hartley that person turned me down, and Cindy was hired. This was in 1992. Cindy outlasted me as well as my replacement principal, Mike Winters, and just retired this past spring. Her kids threw a surprise retirement party for her last weekend. It was a testament to her how many friends and colleagues showed up to recognize her years of service there.

Cindy has suffered many tragedies in her life, including the recent loss of her son, George.  But both at St. Timothy as well as the first point of contact for thousands of parents, students, teachers and visitors to Bishop Hartley Cindy always greeted people with a warm, low-key smile, a calm demeanor and a reassurance that whatever you needed, she could help. Schools, especially playgrounds and front offices, can be breeding grounds for drama and high emotion. Cindy was always the eye of the hurricane, never the churning wind of whatever crisis was going on all around but the calm center. A respite from the storm.

Cindy never made friends with computers, but she made friends with everyone she met. Like our own Mrs. G, she was the most popular person at Hartley. In her honor Hartley is naming a part of the building after her, a connector that unites buildings there as Cindy connected people. What a perfect honor for her.

Throughout my educational career I have been blessed to work with so many outstanding people. While some have been teachers, some of my most cherished memories are people like Cindy, who serve as a vital support for everyone. I hope that Cindy enjoys her retirement. Bishop Hartley has big shoes to fill.

 Jim Silcott