Data secretary Lue Phelps will be honored in a memorial service at 2:15 p.m. on Thursday in the Senior Court, an area between the Haymarket Theater and the Tower Building.
Phelps passed away at the age of 88 on Sunday, March 13, after a 35-year career working in the school’s guidance office.
Principal Jacqueline McEvoy will deliver an opening address and several members of the guidance department will read Phelps’s “nuggets of wisdom,” according to Assistant Principal Kim Diorio, who is coordinating the event.
“Ms. Phelps had a box in her office labeled ‘nuggets of wisdom,’ which are basically stories and poems that she’s collected over the years,” Diorio explained.
As entertainment, the Paly choir will also sing a number of selections and feature one or two soloists, registrar Suzie Brown said.
Phelps’s daughter, Jennifer White, and Diorio will follow with speeches of their own, according to Diorio. White will speak about Phelps’s family history and background as a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, while Diorio will speak to her lasting contribution at Paly.
Following the scheduled speakers will be an open microphone session facilitated by math teacher Arne Lim, Diorio said, adding that the forum is open for anyone to share memories, thoughts, or funny stories about Phelps.
“Ms. Phelps would have wanted the service to be more of a celebration, filled with lots of laughs,” Diorio said. “She had a great, dry sense of humor and there’s so many funny stories about her. She’s quite the character.”
In the same celebratory spirit, a jazz ensemble comprised of 15 to 20 Paly Jazz Band students will end the service with their rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In,” according to Diorio.
“Ms. Phelps actually requested this song to be played because it’s very upbeat and motivating,” Diorio said.
The service will conclude with an informal reception with desserts and drinks in the student center for people to gather afterwards, Brown said.
Many people formerly affiliated with Paly will attend the event, Diorio said.
“We’ve heard from a lot of former [Paly] employees who have worked with her [Phelps], such as former registrars and teachers, who want to be a part of this event,” she said. “A lot of them are making the trip to come back, and a few who couldn’t make it have prepared statements and stories for others to read out loud on their behalf.”
The faculty has canceled its weekly department meeting and Athletic Director Earl Hansen has made adjustments to spring sport practice schedules to allow nearly everyone to partake in the memorial service, according to Diorio.
“Most of the Paly staff will come,” she said. “We’re holding it right after school so it’s a convenient time for people to stop by, and we don’t expect it to last for more than an hour.”
Paly has also established a Memorial Scholarship in Phelps’s honor, to which people can make contributions via the Paly web store, according to Diorio.