Family members and friends from near and far gathered Thursday evening at the Ruebenia Hill Fellowship Hall at the Bethany Moravian Church on St. John to celebrate Gloria P. Samuel’s 95th birthday.
The event was held in the very room where Gloria first attended school in the mid-1930s when it was the Bethany School. It was also the room where she began her lifelong career as an educator.
Born on March 20, 1930, to James Alton Alfonso Samuel and Ella Julia Thomas Samuel, Gloria attended Charlotte Amalie High School and then went on to earn her bachelor’s degree at Fisk University and her master’s degree from New York University. She taught school in Okinawa and served for many years as a guidance counselor at CAHS.
Lt. Gov. Tregenza Roach told the Source that she was one of his mentors when he attended CAHS from 1975 to 1977. “I really feel like we were very fortunate to have someone like Ms. Samuel,” he said. “She didn’t just give us career advice. She was a nurturing and caring person who kept us on the right path and made us think about our environment, our school selection, our values.”
Dionne Wells-Hedrington, now the commissioner of Education, said that “Aunt Gloria” taught her mother, educator Yvonne Wells, to never give up on a child. “My mother got that from Gloria, and I got it from my mother. You don’t know what their future may bring.”
Members from several branches of the family recounted how Gloria had inspired them in various ways — helping them apply to colleges, serving as a model of an independent woman, and bringing gifts to all her nieces and nephews from her travels around the world. “I thought she was the coolest woman I ever saw, smart, traveled, kind – everything you’d ever want,” said one of her many nieces.
Former St. John Administrator Julian Harley declared that Gloria “was the best Samuel in the world, and there are a lot of them.” Then he joked that he hoped to get a gift from her sometime between now and her 110th birthday.
