'Shurland was the best'

Stephanie Shurland served as the principal of Bishop Anstey High School (BAHS) from 1964-1981. She was an institution upon herself, she was BAHS, a Hilarian.

Shurland died on Carnival Tuesday. Her funeral will be held next Saturday at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Port of Spain. She was said to be in her 90s and had Alzheimers. She lived with her sister in Valsayn.

Former BAHS student Sherron Walker-Harford said one of the most important things Shurland taught her was when one made a mistake, the correct thing to do was not only to acknowledge it, but atone for it and use it as a foundation and a lesson.

Walker-Harford said, "I was suspended from school for fighting with my older sister over a ten cents cold, red Solo. For my O levels, I was told I had to go to Ms Shurland's office for my results. I was terrified. She looked at me and said you need to know how proud I am of you.

"That day Stephanie Shurland invited me to Sixth Form and handed me an eraser to erase my suspension from my record. Nothing in life was a permanent scar, and nothing in life was a permanent privilege. We worked for everything. Today when you say someone is a Hilarian it is a badge of honour. Those of us who met her were honoured and privileged that she showed an interest in us."

She said Shurland brought students up to be strong, but not hard.

"She brought us up to think. She invited us to come back for Sixth Form. She said up until O levels what we did was learn and retain information, but at Sixth Form that was when we had to start using our education.

She was stern for our own good. We had rules that taught us the value of discipline. We walked on the left-hand side of the corridor, we greeted people, we were respectful and taught to appreciate the education we were receiving. She taught us work ethic, to accept how lucky we were, to accept how mistakes were made and go through the process."

Past student Kathryn Stollmeyer-Wight said while Shurland was her mother's friend, as a student she was "terrified of her.

"She was such an authoritative figure. She was not approachable to me because I felt I was not smart enough. She walked those halls in sensible heels and she looked very much in control. She would smile, but she was very much in charge and you felt she demanded respect. She asked the best of you and I always felt I was not really giving my best.

"But she really was the best. What a headmistress and a leader. Her attitude was not only a rounded education, but it was for us to be leaders. We were not chosen to be wives and mothers only, and that we could all do with more women leaders, and we all were."

Stollmeyer-Wight said Shurland mentored all girls who went on to do A levels.

"She was very hands-on in the school, she lived in the school in an apartment above our library. I never imagined her world outside of our walls. Somebody said she taught at Naparima Girls, but I always thought she belonged to us. I never thought we shared her with any other school. I heard she taught in Nigeria, I didn't know that. To me she was Bishop Anstey High School."

Shurland never married and had no children. Stollmeyer-Wight said Shurland once said the most painful love was unrequited love.

Another past student Pat Ganase said when Shurland recommended she would be a good candidate for a scholarship offered through the US Information Service, to a small girls college in Virginia, she did not think she was that good, but she went.

On her Facebook page yesterday, Ganase said before she left for the US. Shurland gifted her with three books: Mario Puzo's The Godfather; On Socrates; and The Song Celestial, Sir Edwin Arnold's translation of the Bhagavad Gita.

She never questioned those choices.

"But I felt then, and still do, that she was beyond my workday challenges, my ordinary life. She was legend, and I couldn't touch that."