[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 145 (Thursday, October 8, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2484-E2485]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  TRIBUTE TO JOAN BURDICK, RECIPIENT OF THE 2009 ST. MADELEINE SOPHIE 
                      AWARDS, SACRED HEART SCHOOLS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 7, 2009

  Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Joan Burdick, a 
recipient of the prestigious St. Madeleine Sophie Award from Sacred 
Heart Schools. Established in the year 2000, the St. Madeleine Sophie 
Award honors individuals in the Sacred Heart community who have made a 
sustained and significant contribution to the Schools and embody the 
Goals and Criteria of a Sacred Heart education. The individuals honored 
are selected by a committee comprised of the senior administrative team 
in conjunction with the Chair of the Board of Trustees and are honored 
at a reception and at the Mass of the Holy Spirit, the first all-school 
liturgy of the school year. The recipients will be VIP guests at 
various SHS events throughout the year and featured in their alumni 
magazine, The Heart of the Matter, for their commitment to the mission 
of Sacred Heart education.
  This year, Joan Burdick was chosen along with two other distinguished 
recipients to be recognized with the Award for her tireless work as an 
educator and for her dedication to the arts, as well as to the Goals 
and Criteria of Sacred Heart Schools. Her award was presented by Connie 
Solari who gave the following speech at the Awards Ceremony in tribute 
to Joan:

       When I was about 10 years old, I saw the movie Auntie Mame 
     with Rosalind Russell. I always wanted to BE that person--
     elegant, spontaneous, excitable, risk-taking, generous, 
     brunette--and above all gorgeously DRAMATIC. While I've 
     fallen considerably short in embodying this remarkable 
     character, I did finally meet her avatar one afternoon in the 
     spring of 1978.
       Her name was Joan Burdick.
       At the time, I was writing the Sacred Heart Schools 
     Newsletter, and I'd been assigned to interview ``the drama 
     teacher'' at St. Joseph's. After about three minutes, it was 
     clear that I was in the face of a mythic educator. Since 
     then, I've come to know Joan as a gifted classroom teacher, 
     an awe-inspiring director, a close professional colleague--
     and a friend. And it's under these frequently overlapping 
     headings that I propose to introduce her.


                         Mrs. Burdick, Teacher

       When Nancy Tarantino requested nominations for this award 
     she received pages of testimony from Joan's former students. 
     As the mother of two of her sixth-grade English students at 
     St. Joseph's, I can personally attest to her excellence: 
     She's one of those teachers whose high standards bring high 
     results, and who manage to inspire students with a belief in 
     their ability to do things they never dreamed possible. A few 
     years later, as Dean of Faculty, I saw her spin her magic 
     first-hand in the high school English classroom, making 
     William Shakespeare and Emily Bronte and Tennessee Williams 
     come fully alive as a tea-kettle bubbled in the background 
     and students nestled comfortably on the couches and 
     overstuffed chairs that filled her classroom.
       Several of her former students commented on her gift for 
     transforming their shy, even withdrawn selves into polished, 
     confident public speakers. ``She taught us to walk 
     deliberately and never fidget when speaking,'' wrote one. 
     ``She corrected our posture and forced us to project and 
     enunciate, to think on our feet and improvise.'' One went as 
     far as to say that it was Joan who introduced him to his 
     ``first sense of community with other students.'' Another 
     credited her with evoking and developing her self-esteem and 
     overall confidence--qualities that obviously allow everything 
     else to fall into place.
       But Joan's gifts went even beyond how to write essays on 
     Bronte's Wuthering Heights or how to deliver a line of iambic 
     pentameter like you meant it. She taught us how to behave.
       Permit me an anecdote.
       For several years we took the entire senior class on a 
     five-day trip to the Ashland Shakespeare Festival. Please 
     note that this was the ENTIRE senior class, not a self-
     selecting group of dramaphiles. In addition to preparing the 
     students for what they were about to see onstage, Joan also 
     prepared them to be a good AUDIENCE: mouths shut, bodies 
     quiet, hats off, minds alert. One afternoon we were waiting 
     in the lobby for our ninety students to arrive. [I believe it 
     was the same day Michele Rench and I had bought Joan a pink 
     volume of Emily Post's Etiquette in a used bookstore.] 
     Suddenly, one very large and bumptious senior approached 
     Joan, lowered himself onto one knee, and kissed her hand with 
     a courtly flourish. It's a gesture I doubt he's ever repeated 
     since, but it speaks volumes about how Joan could ignite 
     hidden reserves of gentility within even the most unlikely 
     knight-at-arms. I read recently that St. Madeleine Sophie 
     believed good manners to be an expression of CARITAS; if we 
     accept her judgment, then Joan Burdick unleashed a FLOOD of 
     Christian Love via students who recognized, even temporarily, 
     the value of good manners. Another former student (one I 
     vividly remember for his livewire personality) wrote: ``To 
     this day I think I'm a better audience than most. If I make 
     noise during a performance, I can still feel Mrs. Burdick's 
     stern look beading into the back of my head.''


                      Joan Hunt Burdick, Director

       The distinction between Joan the Teacher and Joan the 
     Director is of course quite arbitrary, since Joan DIRECTED 
     her English classes in much the same way she TAUGHT her 
     aspiring actors. But let me leave the classroom now and take 
     you all to the stage in the Little Theater--a vanished 
     building, but one whose ghost hovers beneath the foundations 
     of this marvelous Campbell Center. Let's imagine it's 1987. 
     Joan has unleashed her latest brainchild--an all-campus 
     production of The Sound of Music. In addition to students 
     from grades one through twelve, she has cast teachers from 
     both sides of campus, the Director of Development, the 
     Director of Admissions, and--yes--none other than Director of 
     Schools Nancy Morris as the ``Climb-Every-Mountain''-crooning 
     Mother Superior. I myself was among the many actors whom 
     she'd recruited and given their first taste of thespian 
     glory. One alum described the Little Theater as ``a symbol 
     of the great things that can come out of a small space 
     occupied by a director who cultivates the imagination and 
     talent of actors who want to do great things.'' We wanted 
     to do great things. Witnessing Joan rallying us together 
     just before the opening performance of Sound of Music, we 
     were gripped by that feeling. We were going to ``make 
     theater'' together and in so doing transform not only the 
     physical space, but the audience which had come to be 
     transported into that imaginative mental space that 
     theater engenders. Joan understands this power of theater, 
     and throughout her life, she has made her students (and I 
     count myself among them) understand this. Her willingness 
     to take risks, tackling such daunting works as 
     Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Chekhov's The 
     Cherry Orchard, is grounded in her proven ability to 
     inspire casts with a Dionysian fervor that spins itself 
     out into the audience.
       When Joan was invited back to direct the Farewell to the 
     Little Theater show in June of 2003, the 120 cast members, 
     including students, faculty and alums, gave Joan the longest 
     standing ovation many ever remember witnessing. No wonder.


               Joan Burdick, Colleague and Master Builder

       In 1990, Joan transferred full-time to the high school, and 
     we began working closely together. In addition to teaching 
     with her in the English department, I was privileged to watch 
     her build not only the SHP drama program, but the entire Fine 
     Arts department. We went from a school that offered five 
     electives in drawing, painting, photography and drama to one 
     that, by the time she retired in 2001, offered twenty, 
     including sculpture, ceramics, dance, computer graphics, 
     concert and chamber choir, instrumental music, technical 
     theater and scenic design, video production, and the ever-
     amazing student-directed play.
       As Fine Arts chair, she represented her department on the 
     school Curriculum Committee with passion and precision. She 
     nurtured her department members in the nuanced art of 
     becoming a Sacred Heart educator. For Joan was not only an 
     employee of Sacred Heart, she is an alumna of Sacred Heart 
     Schools, Atherton--quite literally raised on the vision of 
     St. Madeleine Sophie.


    And this brings me, finally, to Joanie Burdick, Friend--and by 
                         extension Family Woman

       For over 150 years, Sacred Heart educators (virtually all 
     of them nuns) were referred to as ``Mothers.'' Joan Burdick 
     is nothing if not the ultimate MATRIARCH, a maternal figure 
     not only to her family but also to her many friends. Joan 
     enjoys deep, powerful and lasting friendships. Many of her 
     former students and colleagues now consider her a friend, 
     someone with whom we still enjoy having an elegant cup of tea 
     or glass of sherry. I'd argue that we all consider ourselves 
     part of Joan's extended family as we seek her advice or share 
     stories with her.
       With respect to her biological family, she is a matriarchal 
     force that one crosses at one's peril. When her son-in-law 
     Ken Thompson was diagnosed with leukemia three years ago, I 
     had the sense that Ken would somehow be safe because Joan was 
     standing there, a cross between a lioness and a heavily, 
     armed archangel, determined that NOTHING was going to hurt 
     her family. Her daughters Corie and Riette and her son Hunt 
     accorded their mother the ultimate compliment by following 
     her into that magical world of theater themselves, scoring 
     major successes as actors, singers, dancers, stage designers 
     and directors. Her grandson Sean now enjoys life with a 
     grandmother who teaches him chess, instructs him in the fine 
     art of taking tea, and occasionally sweeps him off to Europe 
     or New

[[Page E2485]]

     York City, much like my Auntie Mame did for her nephew 
     Patrick.
       Let's face it. Joan Burdick is nothing if not ``elegant, 
     spontaneous, excitable, risk-taking, generous, brunette, and 
     gorgeously dramatic.'' (It's only fitting that she just flew 
     in from Paris last night to receive this award.)
       She is the Queen of all Drama Queens--but one with her 
     beautifully shod feet planted firmly on the ground of faith, 
     family, and friendship. A Queen whose reverence tor theater 
     reminds us that Western drama evolved out of Greek religious 
     ritual--an idea echoed by a former colleague who wrote that 
     ``Joan's productions were always, always a validation of life 
     and meaning.'' I am honored to introduce Joan Burdick, whose 
     work here for 25 years so validated life and meaning, and who 
     so incarnates The Sacred Heart Educator at her very finest.

  Madam Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me 
in offering our congratulations to Joan Burdick on the very special 
Occasion of being chosen for the St. Madeleine Sophie Award and for all 
she does daily to strengthen our community and our country.

                          ____________________