She exemplifies the art of teaching: Meet Frances Bell Formica Dunn
by Sarah Barr
Staff Writer
When Frances Bell Formica Dunn inquired who was interviewing her for this article, her daughter Kathy Harris told her this writer’s name.
“I had her in kindergarten,” recalled the former teacher at Stephen Mix Mitchell School, which closed in 1979 and was converted into senior citizen housing.
The 96-year-old longtime resident didn’t miss a trick with five-year-old children back in the day. It suggests there is something to be said about Robert Fulghum’s 1986 best-selling book, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
Play fair, don’t hit other people; clean up your mess and take an afternoon nap.
“I have that book on my kitchen table,” Dunn said. “Being kind to one another. Help each other out. That’s what I hope the kids got out of kindergarten.”
These evergreen lessons still hold true today.
Dunn remembers her former students even after all these years. She claims to follow many careers by faithfully reading Wethersfield LIFE.
Although this educator of 33 years is long retired, she has not stopped teaching. Dunn is a skilled quilter and instructs the ABCs of quilting at Close to Home in Glastonbury.
It combines two of the things she enjoys most. The phrase “busy hands are happy hands” is her personal motto. That seed was planted early for the second child of eight, and the oldest of the family’s girls.
“I love to do things with my hands. In fact, as I was growing up, I’d buy patterns,” she recalled. “In ninth grade I made a wool skirt and jacket.”
Her mother was encouraging and “would have her hats and gloves on to go to Downtown Hartford. She’d ask us what we wanted. The boys, of course, said candy. I’d want something to sew,” she said.
“Grants and Kresge’s department stores had “a whole department for embroidery. My mother would buy it and I’d follow the lines with the stitch.”
Young Frances was a good student as she made her way through the Wethersfield schools.
“I did my work. The only subject I can still say is terrible is geometry,” she said.
She must not have been too bad at it because her father built a room over the garage and added a desk so that she could do her schoolwork. In those days, going to college was not automatic, particularly for women.
“I didn’t know I could go to college. I never even thought to ask. I thought my father can’t afford that,” she recalled.
Harvey Fuller, the high school principal from 1931 to 1945 before becoming superintendent of schools until 1959, saw something in the class valedictorian.
“Mr. Fuller was a wonderful man. He knew every child, their names, noticed if they got new shoes,” she said.
“When it came time for me to graduate, Mr. Fuller asked what I was going to do now. I was going to go to work. He said I should go to school,” Dunn said of her introduction to the teaching college and how she received a full scholarship.
She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and traveled to London to learn about open classrooms, a concept that was new in the U.S. She wrote her thesis on it.
Her teaching career remained well-rooted in Wethersfield.
“Taught at Mitchell until they closed it. In fact, taught at every school [in town] except the high school. Even taught at the Little Red School House. Only teacher to do that that’s still living,” she said.
The 1970s was not only known for women’s liberation and disco, quilting also became quite popular. At first, she made quilts for her children. Now, word of mouth has traveled so much over the years that she has captured the title of master quilter, earning many accolades and awards along the way.
Most recently, she donated a quilt to benefit the Friends of Wethersfield Library.
“I love fabric. I love color. I love busy hands,” she said.
She also loves this town. When asked why she has stayed here all these years, even after losing two husbands, the answer for this mother, grandmother and now great-grandmother is simple. Family is what keeps her grounded.
She once again recalled the man who always remembered her name, Harvey Fuller.
“Somebody was watching over me to stay here,” said the woman who goes to the Church of Incarnation every Sunday, and “all the days I’m supposed to be there.”
What has it been like stitching quilts and teaching children.
“I loved every minute of it. I wouldn’t do it any other way.” WL