Roslyn Terry (1931-2023): devoted Boston teacher
A Bermudian educator who spent much of her career teaching maths to middle-schoolers in Boston was a pioneer in teaching computer studies in the city’s public school system.
Roslyn Terry started her teaching career on the island at Harrington Sound Primary School and Sandys Secondary School, according to a tribute in the online news site Boston.com.
Seventy years on, she was told by a former Harrington Sound pupil that she was the greatest teacher she ever had.
Originally from Devonshire, Ms Terry went overseas to attend Wilberforce College in Ohio — an historically Black institution, now Wilberforce University — at age 16. She earnt a degree in maths.
In her 1951 yearbook quote, she wrote: “I want to leave this world better than I found it, as an appreciation of having been able to live in it.”
Ms Terry went on to pursue a master’s degree in education at Boston University, at her mother’s encouragement.
She attended BU at the same time as civil rights leader the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, who was studying there for his doctorate in theology.
While in Boston, she stayed with the family of Arnold Wingood — a Bermudian who presided over a benevolent society for Bermudians in New England.
She loved opera and the Boston Symphony Orchestra so decided to remain in Boston after obtaining her degree.
Originally a Wilson, she married Phillip Terry of the US navy in 1964. The couple had one daughter.
Ms Terry taught seventh-grade maths for 32 years at the Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Dorchester, preferring to remain at her classroom calling rather than seeking an administrative position.
• Roslyn Adell Terry, a longstanding Bermudian teacher in Boston, Massachusetts, was born on May 10, 1931. She died on August 1, 2023, aged 92