Ask Ra Eldredge who her role model is, and she says Toni Garland’s name is likely to be the first that comes up.
“She was a senior person in my life who I absolutely looked up to,” she said.
Eldredge was one of the original students at The Well School in Peterborough, an independent day school founded by Toni and her husband Jay Garland in 1967, and is now an art teacher at the school.
The Garlands’ influence on her was so profound that she moved to Alaska to work as a geologist and stayed for 17 years because they had lived in Alaska before moving to Peterborough to start the school.
“The only reason I went in the first place is I grew up on their Alaska stories, and I was fascinated,” she said.
Toni Garland died Sept. 13 in Austin, Texas, at 84. Kambrah Garland, the oldest of Toni’s and Jay’s three children, along with brother Akhil and sister Alexandra, said her mother was an “incredibly gifted and sharp” woman who dedicated her life to making sure people had what they needed.
“My mom was a pistol. She had a never-ending supply of energy for her family and her community and our school,” she said. “She took care of people who needed things.”
Not only did Kambrah say her mother was the most optimistic person she ever met, “she had a huge sense of humor.”
“My mom could laugh over the best of times and the worst of times,” she said.
In describing her parents, Kambrah said her mother always backed her father’s dreams, adding her own practical logic and sense of humor.
“My dad was a visionary, and my mom was the practical side with a very large sense of humor,” she said.
Eldredge said when the school was founded, it was an empty brick building in the woods. It’s now a 15-acre campus that includes three classroom buildings, a playground, two athletic fields, a pond, woods and hiking trails for students in preschool through eighth grade.
“They had an incredible amount of sweat equity,” in building the school, she said of the Garlands. “It’s such a wonderful place to be, and they built it. The campus is full of happy, wonderful kids and it’s awesome.”
Kambrah entered first grade at The Well School when she was 5. Her mother taught numerous subjects, including math, English, singing and art, to grades one through four.
‘Our college friends used to call it ‘Harvard Grammar School’ because it was so rigorous,” Kambrah said.
Eldredge said Toni embodied “tough love.”
“She set super-high expectations for her students, and nobody ever doubted that she loved them,” she said.
Eldredge, who was classmates with Kambrah Garland, said Toni “was the loudest applause at every play,” something she tries to emulate.
“She was just the biggest fan of every kid,” she said.
Eldredge said she and her husband, John Trautwein, moved back to Peterborough from Alaska in 2003 so they could be close to family, but also so they could go to Well.
“It was such an important part of my childhood, and I wanted them to have a similar experience,” she said.
Kambrah said her mother was an artist, with gallery showings in New Mexico and New Hampshire, as well as at The Vineyard at Florence, a winery and community built around a vineyard that Kambrah and Alexandra founded in Florence, Texas.
She also said her mother was an amazing cook.
“She could cook a dinner and throw a party for 150 people like it was nothing,” Kambrah said, but also whip up dinner for students who stayed late for rehearsals or other events.
According to Kambrah, her mother was also known for “baking the most-amazing chocolate cookies that ever existed,” to the point that when she and her siblings were in college, their friends wanted to come to their house to eat her cooking and her cookies.
Kambrah said her mother joined a downhill-skiing team in her 50s, and was still running two miles a day the week before she died.
“She went to her last days playing tennis,” she said.
Kambrah said her mother gave her the gift of perseverance, confidence, personal fortitude, independence and the ability to not seek approval.
“Another big lesson was to remain in a state where you can find anything funny,” she said. “Humor was such an important part of life.”
Kambrah said her mother “valued family more than anything,” and that extended to anyone who joined the family.
“No matter what, my mom was very loyal to family,” she said. “Anyone that anyone married automatically became family. She was very warm about that, and wanted everyone to be included as family members.”
The Well School announcement of Toni Garland’s death states that in lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to The Well School’s Founders’ Table fund, established for the creation and installation of a peaceful sitting area by the school pond to hold space for memories of Jay and Toni Garland. Donations can be made at wellschool.org/tribute or by check, with “Founders’ Table” in the memo line.
A hybrid in-person/remote Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, Nov. 11, in Harrisville.