Texas Monthly article<\/a>. The school\u2019s diversity rate increased from 17% to 24%. She also modernized its science, math, technology, arts and engineering curriculum.\u00a0<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was hired because she seemed to respect the traditions of the past, which are very important to Hockaday, but she also has very much a progressive view of women\u2019s roles in contemporary society,\u201d said Linda Custard, the former chairwoman of Hockaday\u2019s board, in a 1997 Dallas Morning News article.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sitting at the helm of this prestigious institution is no easy task. It comes with a lofty list of responsibilities: handling anxious parents, bringing in the bucks, and preparing the school for the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Lee seemed to have cracked the code. She helped put\u00a0Hockaday on the national map.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Liza]()
<\/p>\n
Liza Lee visits a student in class, while making her weekly Friday morning rounds of the lower school in 2003.\u00a0<\/p>\n
KIM RITZENTHALER\/Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
In a statement, Laura Leathers, the current head of school, said Lee was always available to call, meet for lunch and provide perspective.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Sonya Mirbagheri Cheney, who graduated in 2000, described Lee as the \u201cheart and soul\u201d of\u00a0Hockaday. Each student had a unique and lifelong relationship with their head of school, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe knew your family. She knew what you were struggling with. She knew what you were capable of,\u201d Mirbagheri Cheney said. \u201cShe was able to do that for so many.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee\u2019s love and support followed her wherever she went \u2014 from college, to law school, and onward, she said. When\u00a0Mirbagheri Cheney lived in New York, she called Lee for advice on preschools for her daughter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No matter how many years passed, she said, Lee would answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe constancy of her in my life from a young eight-year-old girl until now is one of the most remarkable things,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Once Hockaday\u2019s student body president, Mirbagheri Cheney is now a full-time attorney and teaches at Stanford Law School. She admires the qualities that made Lee the educator she was \u2014 notably her \u201ctremendous strength and incredible warmth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c[I want] the law students to believe there is no limit to what they can do,\u201d she said. \u201cHold them to high standards, but do it with that love and support [like] she always did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee grew up in New York City and attended two all-girls schools, graduating from the Brearley School in 1961. She received her bachelor\u2019s degree from Mount Holyoke College and earned a Master of Arts from Columbia University.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She spent more than 20 years at her alma mater, the Brearley School, teaching and eventually leading its middle school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think her mentors recognized something in her that needed to come out and it did,\u201d William Lee, her husband, said about her transition from teacher to school administrator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Her career brought her to schools across the country. Lee also led the Columbus School for Girls in Ohio, the Trinity Episcopal School in Austin, Porter-Gaud School and the College Preparatory School in Charleston. She helped establish Dallas ISD\u2019s Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women\u2019s Leadership School, the first all-girls public school in Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Lee, a ninth-generation New Yorker, Dallas became home. The family found a community that welcomed them.<\/p>\n
\u201cDallasites are proud of Dallas,\u201d Lee’s husband said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t found another city like it.”<\/p>\n
At one point, the Brearley School considered Lee for headmistress, but she decided to stay at Hockaday, The News reported in 1997. \u201cThey couldn\u2019t offer me what I have in Dallas, and I don\u2019t mean financially,\u201d she said then.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Outside her job, Lee read prolifically, her family said. Her two sons, who are food journalists, noted her appetite for all kinds of cuisine \u2014 especially sushi.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cShe far preferred to eat off someone else\u2019s plate than eat her own,\u201d said her son, Matt Lee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t let his mom\u2019s small frame fool you, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe just exploded into the room,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople always remarked on just what a dynamo she was.\u201d<\/p>\n
She is survived by her husband (William); her three children (Ted, Matt and Caroline); and five grandchildren (Arthur, Lorenzo, George, Ellie, and Henry). A memorial<\/a> will be held Oct. 3 at 2\u00a0p.m. at Hockaday.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab\u2019s journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liza Lee poses for a photo in a fifth-grade language arts class at the Hockaday School in 1997.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,223,104699,129039,87998,90041,89204],"class_list":["post-440382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-news","tag-news-obituaries","tag-privateschooltest","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-ed-lab-school","tag-tp-education-lab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}