A lifetime of learning: Former Belvedere Nursery School student marks 40 years of leadership

When Kathleen Walker Parker is working Saturdays at Belvedere Nursery School, she’ll occasionally be interrupted by a knock on its yellow door.

Typically, Parker says, it’s middle-school visitors returning to see if their beloved Cove Road Place preschool remains as they remember it — and to visit Speedy the box turtle, who’s witnessed even more children pass through than Parker herself.

It’s a “really nice feeling knowing that they want to come back and see where they were, and they were really happy here,” she says.

Count Mrs. Parker, as she’s known to students, among those who couldn’t stay away. After attending herself in the 1950s, she returned as a teacher in the 1980s. Now in her 41st year, Parker has served as assistant director, executive director and is currently head of school for Belvedere-Hathorne Nursery Schools, a private nonprofit that includes the Belvedere campus and the Hawthorne Pre-K campus at Community Congregational Church on Rock Hill Road in Tiburon.

On March 22, during the schools’ spring fundraising gala, Parker will be recognized for her decades of leadership and for fostering connections among students, staff and parents.

DONATE to support local journalism, or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery and access to the digital replica.

Comment on this article on Nextdoor.