Sandra Sparrow Wilkinson, 76, educator and fiber artist
As principal of the Swarthmore-Rutledge Elementary School, Mrs. Wilkinson learned the names of all 702 students. She still recalled the names years later when she met them on the street.
Sandra Sparrow Wilkinson, 76, of Swarthmore, a teacher, principal, and fiber artist, died Saturday, April 22, of a stroke at Crozer-Chester Medical Center.
Blessed with "an infectious spirit and unbounded creativity," Mrs. Wilkinson was a much-loved figure in Swarthmore, her family said. She spent 28 years in the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District, ending with her retirement in 1999.
Born in Hamilton, Ohio, to Edna and Jerome Martin Lewis Sr., Mrs. Wilkinson grew up in a family that valued education and self-discipline. She graduated from the selective Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati. While there, Mrs. Wilkinson, a gifted public speaker and lover of poetry, won a prize for reciting "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. She earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from the University of Cincinnati and received the Cincinnati Teacher of the Year Award after two years of teaching.
In 1969, she moved to Swarthmore with her husband, Eugene Sparrow, and son Eugene Jr., known as Geno. By 1971, the couple divorced, and Mrs. Wilkinson became a single parent, earning a living as a teacher.
"Sandy was a creative teacher who connected with her students in a profound way," her family wrote in a tribute. "She understood who needed encouragement, and who needed more responsibility, or freedom."
The students were coached in telephone etiquette, her family said. When the phone rang in her classroom, a pupil answered: "Greetings and salutations! May I help you?"
She let each child shine. That could entail a role in a school play, as the designated class scribe, as leader of a school beautification project, or business manager of a book fair. A child put off by the dissection of frogs might do intricate drawings of the process; a school trip to Williamsburg, Va., might lead to a student-made diorama.
In 1985, after she earned a master's degree in educational administration from Villanova University, the school district chose Mrs. Wilkinson as principal of the Swarthmore-Rutledge Elementary School. Her first self-appointed task was to learn all 702 of the pupils' names, and years later, she still recalled the names when she met her former students on the street.
She gave teachers the freedom to follow their passions. One class studied the work of poet, novelist, and playwright Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance, culminating in a visit to Harlem. Another did an extensive project on sustainable, raised-bed gardening.
In 1992, Swarthmore-Rutledge was designated a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education. Wearing her signature mismatched earrings, Mrs. Wilkinson received the award from President Bill Clinton at the White House.
In 1997, Swarthmore College awarded her a Doctorate of Humane Letters for her contributions to the education of local children.
Two years later, Mrs. Wilkinson retired and bought a house on the coast of Maine. She threw herself into indigo dying, painting, playing the flute, and gardening. She studied textiles that reflected diverse cultures and gathered a textile collection from around the world.
She served as adjunct professor of education at the University of Maine, Machias, but never forgot the children back in Swarthmore. In 2007, she founded Alumni Supporting Kids to fund after-school programs for all children in Wallingford-Swarthmore schools.
In 2010, she married Dr. Harold Wilkinson, whom she knew from her church, and returned to be with him in Swarthmore. She continued her indigo dye projects in a shed behind her home.
"She was a lovely, unique individual," her husband said. "She liked to wear African-style garments. Her bearing was regal, and when she came into a room, people knew it."
Besides her husband and son, Mrs. Wilkinson is survived by a granddaughter and brother. Her former husband died earlier.
A celebration of life will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 7, at the Swarthmore Friends Meeting, 12 Whittier Place, Swarthmore. Burial is private.
Memorial donations may be made to Alumni and Friends Supporting Kids, Foundation for Wallingford Swarthmore Schools, P.O. Box 288, Wallingford, Pa. 19086; or to support the work of Drs. James Evans and Marlind Stiles, at Jefferson University Hospital. Checks for the latter should be payable to Jefferson and sent to the Office of Institutional Advancement, 125 S. Ninth St., 6th Floor, Philadelphia, Pa. 19107, or via Giving.Jefferson.edu.