Twins Jan Hyde and Judy Hines attended Falk Laboratory School from 1950 through 1955, beginning with second grade. Today, more than 70 years later, Jan Hyde says they still share memories of classmates and moments from Falk. 

Back in 1950, Judy Hines remembers their mother wanting a better education for them than their local district could provide. To accomplish this, “she yanked us out of a local day school and sent us to Falk,” Hyde says. Over the next five years, they commuted to school by taxi, riding one hour each way with three other students from the Baldwin Manor area. Hines says she still fondly remembers their drivers, Mr. Dinwiddie and Mr. Hine. 

“Our mother’s decision to enroll us in Falk School set us each on a course that, 60, 70 years later, we’re doing okay,” Hyde reflects. “And you have to thank Falk School for that because I think if I had gone to a regular grade school, I would probably be living in Pittsburgh—nothing against that (I'm really upset about the Steelers)—my horizons would be a fraction of what they are today, and I am thankful for our mom and Falk School for that.” 

Judy (Hyde) Hines 

Hines feels similarly grateful for her time at Falk, saying, “I think about Falk a lot. It’s in my memory.” In particular, Hines often recalls Vivien Richman, a visitor to Ms. Edna Hammit’s fifth-grade class who blew Hines away with her singing and guitar, launching a lifelong love of folk music. 

“[She] impressed me to the point where my dad, Dr. Albert J. Hyde (the first oral surgeon in Pittsburgh), took me to Volkwein’s, where I purchased a Martin guitar [that] I still play! Little did I know how valuable this Martin guitar would become,” Hines says, adding that she named it “Gumbert” after the Gumbert School for Wayward Girls in Allegheny County. “Folk singing became a big part of my life,” she says. “I’ve written songs.” 

Hines also remembers Mimi Kirkell, a longtime Falk music teacher who played a role in Hines’ theatrical debut in the 1950s. “We wrote ‘The Enchanted Peacock,’” Hines says, “and I was the peacock. At age 84, I clearly remember that song I sang, words and tune. ‘The peacock can see, the peacock can tell, the enemy comes, all is not well. Beware the East, beware! Beware the East, beware.’”  

“Because of Mimi Kirkell, music has been a big part of my life. I met my husband in Mendelssohn Choir, and we recorded Beethoven’s Ninth under the direction of the great William Steinberg.”   

Another turning point in Hines’ life occurred when she graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1962 and became a teacher for gifted students in upstate New York. “When I got into gifted [education], the person who was my mentor was Phyllis Aldrich, and she was part of the Rockefeller family. The materials that I learned about, I said, ‘Wait a minute, this reminds me of Falk. These are the kinds of materials that somebody would’ve had at Falk.’ And to me, I wanted those to go to every kid, not just gifted kids.” 

“And I said to myself, ‘If I [was] at Falk, they might not have [these] materials, but it would [be this] kind of teaching—small classes, small groups, and there was a term that we had, no child left behind, and what that meant was that any child who was not equipped academically, it was up to the faculty to bring them up to par.” 

After her time in gifted teaching, Hines became one of only six women in the country to get a pilot’s license for hot air balloons in 1972. “There was a written test,” she recalls. “It was extremely difficult. There were six winged pilots who did not pass that test.” Hines went on to explain the hot air balloon tradition of packing a bottle of champagne and sharing a toast with the farmer whose field inevitably became a landing zone. 

Today, Judy lives in Bloomington, IL. In addition to playing guitar, she is also an avid gardener. 

Jan Hyde 

While Hines remained in Pittsburgh to pursue higher education, Hyde moved north and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1963. “My career went off into engineering and finance, so I’m very interested in dollars and cents and how people make money and how people lose money and what they do and all that stuff.” 

Thinking back to his days at Falk, however, it’s not the math or science classes he remembers most but basketball practices with physical education teacher Bruce Weston. Hyde recalls learning to shoot on the court, thinking, “Oh my god, this is the greatest thing in the world.” Weston, Falk’s basketball coach at the time, taught his players, “Quitters never win, and winners never quit”—a mantra that has stuck with Hyde for decades. 

Today, residing in Brooklyn, NY, Hyde is passionate about Corvettes, a pastime that he says continues to make him happy. “I got this project going, and it keeps me occupied,” he says. 

Looking Back 

Hines says at her age, it’s not recent memories that her brain returns to but rather the early days that come freely to mind—music classes with Mimi Kirkell, learning “the facts of life” from Ms. June Mulry’s pet lizards, and every little thing in between. 

“We have very high happy memories of Falk School,” Hyde says. “I would kill to go back to Falk School [...] I would love doing that because, at the age of 84, it’s a way to connect to [my] youth.”