Since news of the passing of Kay Timmis broke this week, scores of New Canaan Public Schools students who through four decades had come to know the cherished substitute teacher have shared remembrances and tributes to a singular educator and human being.
Now, thanks to a local parent whose kids went through the schools here and whose family is feeling the loss deeply, generations of future students will be touched by Kay’s spirit and legacy.
This spring, through a fund administered by the New Canaan Community Foundation, the first-ever “Kay Timmis Award” will be presented to a deserving student.
“Mrs. Timmis will be remembered this spring and every spring after that,” said New Canaan Community Foundation Executive Director Cynthia Gorey, who on Wednesday morning took a call from the town woman behind the fund—a New Canaan resident who wants to remain anonymous.
“It’s a parent whose kids went through the schools and her kids had Ms. Timmis as a substitute teacher and they just were really touched by this woman and were moved to do something to honor her legacy and help people to keep remembering her for the good that she did,” Gorey said.
Kay died Sunday at age 82. She had been subbing in the district since the late 1970s, her family has said.
Warm and supportive, Kay held a special kind of magnetism for the students and fellow educators that she touched, and had a rare gift for commanding respect despite (or perhaps because of) her soft-spoken manner.
In a NCHS Courant article that ran just two months ago, Opinions Editor Sean Davidson writes: “Ms. Timmis believes that the way to go about managing a class is not necessarily by ‘effective authority’, but rather by establishing yourself as a friend and ally of the class by making an effort to connect with them.”
Of the family behind the Kay Timmis Award, Gorey said: “They just felt her loss so significantly, they just felt that she had such an impression on so many kids in a way that a substitute teacher virtually never does, and they really wanted to honor that memory.”
The gift to establish the fund (see instructions at the bottom of this article on how to contribute) will see that at least $250 will be awarded annually in Kay’s name, at the high school’s Spring Awards.
Part of the criteria for the award said that it “will be given each year to a senior at the high school who embodies Miss Timmis’ legacy of kindness, warmth, generosity of spirit, loving acceptance of others and unwavering support for fellow students.”
Being in a position to facilitate such funds is an essential and rewarding part of the NCCF’s work, Gorey said. Other memorial funds that have been established to honor New Canaanites include one or former First Selectman Dick Bond, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Jack Jacobs and former postmaster and Rotary Club president Joseph Dorrico, she said.
“We have permanent funds and can add more,” Gorey said.
And because the organization is well-versed and has relationships throughout town, it’s easy to get one going. After receiving a call for the Kay Timmis Award founder Wednesday morning, Gorey contacted an assistant principal at the high school and within the hour the fund was established. The NCCF this spring will send a check to the high school for the Kay Timmis Award winner, bundled with other checks to support other awards.
“I think what is so interesting is that she [Kay] was a substitute teacher, and you usually don’t think of them as people who have a huge impact because it’s random who they teach, but obviously her personality was huge,” Gorey said.
Those interested in contributing to the fund may send a check made out to the New Canaan Community Foundation with ‘Kay Timmis Award Fund’ in the memo line, and sent to: New Canaan Community Foundation, 111 Cherry Street, New Canaan, CT 0640.