By Cara Crawford

Fairlamb spending time with friends.

After 27 years as a teacher in Collegiate’s Upper and Middle Schools, French teacher Holly Fairlamb (‘82) is retiring. However, Fairlamb’s connections to Collegiate run much deeper, with 40 years total on this campus.

Fairlamb attended Collegiate from 1969 until she graduated in 1982. Over her 13 years as a student, it is clear that she was respected by her classmates. Her yearbook index is one of the longest in her section. She served as a member of Honor Council, a member of Glee Club, as well as participating in soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse.

Fairlamb delivering her valedictorian speech at the 1982 Commencement.

In a recent interview with The Match, Fairlamb quietly described herself as “studious” in high school, yet upon further questioning she admitted to being the valedictorian of her class. Despite the long hours of studying, Fairlamb still maintained an apt social life, including being elected to the Homecoming Court.

She recalled the many differences between Collegiate then and today. The boys and girls were separated through Upper School, and boys would receive a demerit if they even walked through Flippen Hall, the girls school building. Girls were required to wear skirts and dresses, and Fairlamb recalls that “for exams, they let us wear jeans, and that was a big deal.” 

Student leaders, including members of the Honor and Student Councils, were required to proctor study halls, instead of teachers. Fairlamb also recalls that the campus was significantly different, with tennis courts in the space where the Hershey Center of the Arts is today, and what is now the east parking lot was playing fields. She said that having playing fields on the Mooreland Road campus made it easier for students to get to athletics, in comparison to traveling to Robins Campus every school afternoon, as we do today.

Fairlamb demonstrates her soccer skills for the 1981 Torch staff.

At Fairlamb’s graduation, she recalls giving her speech on the importance of following your own path. This may have been inspired partially to disprove a claim from her brother, who did not attend Collegiate, that “everyone does the same stuff, they dress the same—where is the individuality?”

While Fairlamb may have given that speech to prove her brother wrong, she truly embodied that message throughout her life. After graduating from Collegiate, she attended Duke University, expanding on her love of French by studying abroad in Paris her junior year.

She enjoyed France immensely, even staying through the summer, up until right before classes began. She recalls that when she returned to the US, “everyone was talking about studying for the MCAT or the LSAT, and I was still in Paris, ‘la la land.’” 

After graduating from Duke, she taught English at a French high school in Paris for a year before returning to Richmond. She then earned a master’s degree in French language and literature from the University of Virginia. Upon her return to Richmond, she worked for a local bank until she reached out to an enterprising businessman who needed French expertise to help communicate about contracts and agreements with his French associates. As he began establishing a Smartcar network in France, he trained Fairlamb to run a facility in the Paris region. 

Collegiate’s Upper School Foreign Language department in 2000. Fairlamb is on the far left.

Nevertheless, Fairlamb couldn’t resist the call to come home. She taught French at St. Catherine’s and Richmond Community High School until a position opened up at Collegiate in 1999. 

Fairlamb succeeded her French teacher Chris Rimbault, taught alongside her former Upper School French teacher, Helen Tanner, and fell in love with teaching. She ensured that her students engaged with Francophone culture, which included taking students on field trips to art museums featuring Francophone artists, as well as having them perform French plays in class. She confessed that today, it is sometimes difficult to fit as much into the curriculum as when she was in school, because “students today have so much going on.”

Nevertheless, she has still made an impact on many Collegiate students. In fact, her French class in 2018 even called her “mom,” and she’s made strong connections with Middle and Upper Schoolers through working one-on-one to help them master their language skills. 

After the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fairlamb took over leading Collegiate’s John Maloney Project, fostering connections between Upper Schoolers and children with autism on Sunday afternoons.

Fairlamb and her two daughters, Laura (’19) (left) and Olivia (’22).

Collegiate is not only embedded into Fairlamb’s work life but also her family. When her sister Lee Schmidt (’69) was diagnosed with cancer, Collegiate hosted a blood drive in her honor. Fairlamb recalls that during the time, “I wasn’t even at Collegiate,” but that “that’s what Collegiate does when someone in our community is struggling; we come and we wrap our arms around you and support you.”

Coincidentally, her future husband Bo Fairlamb (’73) participated in that blood drive. Fairlamb sent her two daughters Laura (‘19) and Olivia (‘22) to Collegiate, which she attests “deeply shaped who they are today.”

Collegiate runs through Fairlamb’s blood and has embedded itself into nearly every part of her life for decades. From work, to service, to love, and of course to family, Fairlamb’s impact on this school and its people will be greatly missed. Votre passage ici restera dans le cœur des gens!

All photos courtesy of the Julia Williams Study and Archives Center.