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Kaye Griffin: Keeping Busy

Where is she now? Kaye Griffin retired as superintendent of schools in Madison over 15 years ago. However, she is still keeping busy. This year, Kaye is heading to the Essex Garden Club’s May Market on Saturday, May 11 at Main Street Park in Essex.

Kaye first announced her retirement in 2007 after more than 13 years in the Madison school district, first as curriculum coordinator and then for some nine years as superintendent. During her tenure, the new Daniel Hand High School was built.

There were fewer female school superintendents then.

“It was more challenging to be a woman superintendent in that time frame,” Kaye says, “But there has been a major shift from when I first started.”

Kaye succeeded Peter Barile as Madison superintendent. His son, Michael Barile, is now the principal of Valley Regional High School.

“I didn’t stay retired long,” Kaye confesses.

Kaye served as an interim superintendent in several in districts, among them Waterford, Salem, and on Fishers Island. While also working with Central Educational Services, she advised boards of education on superintendent searches, as well as teacher training and special needs issues.

Kaye retired for good in 2017. The time seemed right.

“I had been in public education for 40 years,” she says. “I wanted to travel, and I wanted more free time.”

The list of countries Kaye has visited is extensive, including recent trips to Vietnam, Cambodia, South Africa, Egypt, and Morocco.

There are places she would like to revisit, as well as places she has still not gone to, among them Japan. Kaye has, however, made three trips to China.

“There’s a lot I have yet to discover,” she says.

Kaye’s first memory of a garden is her grandmother’s in Kingsport, Tennessee. She recalls beautiful flowers, but what really interested her was the vegetables.

“You could go out in the garden and pick food and then have it for dinner,” she says.

After moving from Tennessee when she was 5, Kaye lived in Louisiana and then Texas, earning her doctorate in education from the University of Houston. She taught high school English, theater arts, and public speaking in Texas, where she also moved into in school administration.

Kaye has lived in Connecticut for 35 years, longer than anywhere else she has lived. Her husband Jim, a psychologist, died in 2018.

On May 11, Kaye will be excited to see shoppers lined up at 8 in the morning, waiting for Essex First Selectman Norm Needleman to ring the opening bell for the May Market.

Kaye points out that in addition to the annual market, the Essex Garden Club has a strong commitment to community participation, shown in everything from fall cleanups at local parks to holiday greens along Essex Main Street and planting and tending shrubs and flowers in public areas throughout the three villages: Essex, Ivoryton, and Centerbrook.

Kaye emphasizes that the club is open to both male and female members and encourages beginners, as well as longtime gardeners.

The market has not only cut flowers, but it also has potted perennial plants specially selected from the gardens of members. Kaye says that all the plants and seedlings are ready to replant, with the possible exception of the tomato seedlings, where replanting will depend on the vagaries of the weather.

For those needing cultivating tips, there will be a table of garden gurus, who are experienced members which can answer gardening questions.

Other areas of the market are devoted to herbs and to annuals, and there are booths for things beyond plants and flowers, including two boutiques, one emphasizing gardening items and another with a wider selection of would-be treasures.

“There are some real finds there,” Kaye says.

Then there is the garlic salt, which is created from a secret recipe the club never divulges. According to Kaye, in making the mixture, the distinctive garlic odor permeates everything and everybody involved. Kaye left the billed cap she had been wearing on production day in her car. By the next morning, the entire vehicle smelled of garlic.

Locally, Kaye is in active in the American Association of University Women and has served as chair of the River Valley Fund for Families, which is administered through the Community Foundation of Middlesex County. She still volunteers as house manager in charge of the ushering crew at both The Kate and the Ivoryton Playhouse.

On May 11, despite a wide range of experiences and interests, Kaye will have only one thing on her mind and her schedule: the May Market.

“I will be there doing whatever is needed,” she says. “I feel honored to have leadership of this event, which is such a part of the fabric of this community. It perpetuates a beautiful tradition.”