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<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In March of 2002, Mrs. Fleming traveled to New York to attend a TASIS reunion in Midtown Manhattan. “I am a collector, a collector of too many birthdays,” she said at age 91. “A collector of other people’s children, all of you!” she continued, looking out over nearly 50 years’ worth of former students and colleagues. “I also am a collector of mortgages, lots of mortgages, on school buildings!” she said, referencing the many American international schools and educational summer programs she founded over the course of her life in Switzerland, England, Greece, Cyprus, and France. “As a hobby I collect wisdom\u2014other people’s wisdom,” she added in her self-deprecating manner. “For I’m so busy with those mortgages I don’t have time to be wise myself.” Mortgages or not, her lasting effect on generations of students and educators proves that Mrs. Fleming was very wise indeed, and she still acts as a guiding force for the TASIS schools, her family, former students, and colleagues today. In celebration of her birthday and her enduring legacy, Founder’s Day 2026 is commemorated by offering a look at some of the favorite quotations drawn from The Wit and Wisdom of Mary Crist Fleming, which was compiled by former TASIS Headmaster Lyle Rigg in 2009. On caring, Mrs. Fleming said in a 1979 speech to students: “You ask, what can I, one small person, do against the enormity of it all? And I answer you, start in a small but daily way\u2014becoming the kind of human being who cares first about immediate things and immediate people\u2014your roommate, your friends, your family, some sick person you know who is suffering, some old person who is lonely, a gesture, a note, a word, a call, the smallest thoughtful action that means so much to those needing it\u2014the reaching out of a hand\u2014in doing so, as you grow, you become that kind of person\u2026 You are no longer one small person, you have become a force, a force to be counted, a force that can change current events, can change history!” On education and wisdom, she stated in a 1998 speech to faculty and staff: “Our crazy world at this moment in time seems to be dividing itself more and more into not only the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ but also into those who build and those who tear down, those who create and those who destroy, and the only thing that stands in between those two extremes is education.” On beauty and the arts, she remarked in a 1993 speech: “For me, a love of literature, the arts, and the performing arts is the heart and soul of education, for it grows throughout our entire lifetime, keeping alive the excitement of learning, creating constant enrichment in our leisure hours and throughout our long golden years.” On dreams, she advised in a 1998 speech to students and parents: “Make a difference in the world. These are big hopes and dreams but you have to hope big and dream big to have bigger dreams come true.”<\/p>\n
On internationalism, Mrs. Fleming wrote in a 1960s TASIS Catalog message: “Youth is the best time to form the impressions that can advance international understanding. Together\u2026 with mutual understanding gained through language and personal meetings\u2026 a new generation can help to keep our unified culture in peace.” On setbacks, she shared in a 1990 interview with John Annis: “I think even failures are important, so I have never felt badly when people say I should never have gone to Cyprus or Greece or France, or I should never have done so and so; perhaps I shouldn’t have, but I think it had some validity and it may show the way for other expansions or other enterprises. I think in general the things that you have not done are the things that you regret. It is never the things I have done, it is always what I have not done that I have regretted. And there haven’t been many of those!” On challenges, she told students in 1979: “You have come here to school, your parents have entrusted you to us in the hope that we would challenge you to stretch yourself\u2014to make the most of your abilities that you’re not aware that you have.” On leadership, she wrote in a 2000 yearbook message: “If I stand on my mountaintop and look down at the last ninety years\u2013or if I look up\u2013outward and up at the next 90 years, what do I see? This is what I hope to see: TASIS bursting at the seams with very special young people, from all over the world, preparing themselves for leadership roles in their own countries, where they will strive to eliminate poverty, hunger, disease, exploitation, injustice, and war!” On making a difference, she noted in a 2006 yearbook message: “Even small steps, but taken daily, start producing results\u2014a kind word, a helping hand, an effort to speak another language, an offer to help someone small, weak, hurt, or sad.” On values, she implored in a 1995 speech to parents and students: “I beseech you to start now as you leave the beauty, the protection, the sense of security of TASIS to hold onto the timeless values that your parents and we have tried to instill in you\u2014a love of beauty, a search for knowledge and for the excitement of learning, truth, honesty, a belief in work, a serious concern for our planet and what we are doing to it, and mostly a compassion for all human beings, especially those so much less fortunate than we. A dedication to these values will make life meaningful for you, for there is no greater happiness than being of service to others.”<\/p>\n
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