Commemorating Fifty Years of Coeducation
By Greg Waxberg ’96

The heading “The End of an Era” accompanies the Class of 1974, in caps and gowns at Commencement, on the cover of the June 1974 issue of The Pingry Review. Indeed, in his letter in that issue, then–Head of School Scotty Cunningham ’38 speculates that Pingry’s just-concluded 113th year would be referred to in future years as the last year of the “old Pingry.” He had good reasons for thinking that: in the fall, Pingry would become a K–12 school because of its merger with Short Hills Country Day School, which had been announced a few months earlier, and girls would grace the hallways for the first time. “This new entity,” he writes, “now becomes a complete independent school.”

Although the School officially began admitting girls in 1974, discussions about coeducation were taking place at Pingry in the late 1960s when many colleges and universities, and some secondary schools, were going co-ed. Some trustees wanted Pingry to remain single sex while others realized that coeducation was inevitable. Beginning in 1970, Pingry considered merging with the all-girls Kent Place, and an exchange with Kent Place began in 1972, introducing Vicki King as Pingry’s first female student. Also in 1972, when the proposed Pingry–Kent Place merger was faltering, the coeducational elementary school Short Hills Country Day expressed interest in merging, and for a short time, the possibility existed of a three-school alliance. Ultimately, after many complications, Pingry merged with Short Hills Country Day and gained a Lower School with girls, then decided to admit girls to all grades (thereby becoming co-ed on its own).

In 1974, with 101 new girls in the Upper School and with girls’ sports teams about to be added to the athletics program, Susan Hollister—who had been teaching at Short Hills Country Day and became Dean of Girls, a new administrative position—Sharon Pastore (math/girls’ basketball and softball) and Gloria Mercurio (P.E./field hockey and softball) were among the new female faculty members.* There was also a new school nurse, Elizabeth Rode. Ms. Hollister served as Dean of Girls from 1974–1984, then Chair of Student Affairs in 1984-85, followed by Barbara Bourne as Dean of Women from 1985–1987.

To commemorate 50 years since girls joined Pingry, alumnae and faculty share memories of their experiences and their thoughts on the progress that Pingry has made since the early days of being a “complete independent school.”

* Even though Ms. Hollister, Ms. Pastore, and Ms. Mercurio were new female teachers, they were not the first female teachers in school history. When Pingry first had a Lower School in the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century, Sara Dean was the first female full-time faculty member in 1892, and other female teachers followed, including Harriet Budd.