Sally Alice Rockwell

Rockwell, Sally Alice (Hotchkiss)

Sally Alice Rockwell (Hotchkiss) passed away peacefully January 13th, 2015 at Lourdes Hospital where she was born 83 years ago. She is survived by her husband of 62 years, Warren Rockwell; sons, David, Karl and Theodore; brother, Clarence Hotchkiss and sister, Joanne Hotchkiss; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, and hundreds of her former students all over the world. She was predeceased by John, infant, second borne son (who is finally rejoined with his Mom though he rests in the shade of an ancient pine tree in the foothills of the Himalayas) and her parents, Clarence and Alice Hotchkiss. Sally graduated from Emma Willard and Cornell University (1953) with her degree in Early Childhood Development and Education. She loved little children and could never pass a mom with a baby in arms or stroller without stopping to ask if she could see the child, ask its age, admire its beauty and evoke smiles from both mom and babe. She often said that babies who didn't return her smile were too wet, too hungry or too tired to fake a smile. She believed in the absolute, innate honesty of every newborn.

But her love of people and life didn't end with the little people. She was an indefatigable hostess who had a myriad of excuses to organize social events and the skill to bring them off memorably.

Sally spent half her adult life living and raising a family in foreign countries. She understood and appreciated the true value of the passport she carried and made no excuses for her fierce loyalty to her country and pride in her heritage. However, she did not hold herself aloof from the life of the countries in which she lived; she taught herself household Urdu, Spanish and Arabic, served local cuisine to her family, and made innumerable friends of any ethnicity or nationality wherever she went.

She taught children from pre-kindergarten to third grade; her crown jewels were her third grade graduates. Her credo in teaching them: if they never received another day of formal education, they had learned the fundamentals of the "three Rs" well enough for a good start in life. The values she exemplified for her own children were honesty, self-reliance, a positive attitude and the value of personal relationships. Any failure on our parts to embrace these values is no fault of hers.

If there wasn't a proper school for toddlers where we were living she would start one in a church basement, private home or wherever, and, enlisting support from a few neighborhood moms, she started a pre-K school in the Brackney, PA fire hall which is still thriving after 50 years.

A memorial service will be held on July 11th, at the Silver Lake Presbyterian church at Laurel Lake followed by a reception at the Quaker Lake Cemetery in Brackney, PA. In retirement on the farm where she had grown up, she took up and became proficient in oil painting and watercolor. In lieu of flowers, she would have appreciated donations to the Danielle House, 160 Riverside Drive, Binghamton, NY 13905.



How could such a petite lady leave such a

huge void in the hearts and minds of so many?