Former St. Agnes Teacher Donna Beth Haddock Dies

By Linda Busetti
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 1/17/02)

"Donna Beth Haddock was a beautiful person inside and out," said one of her colleagues at St. Agnes School in Arlington this week.

Haddock, who taught at St. Agnes from 1987 until last year, was critically injured in a horseback riding accident near her Lovettsville home on Jan. 5 and died of her injuries on Jan. 13.

The only reason Haddock left teaching was so she and David, her husband of 15 years, could seriously pursue their dream of adopting a child. Since leaving St. Agnes, Haddock had volunteered at a nursing home in Leesburg and for Catholic Distance University.

Haddock was born in Lansdale, Pa., and graduated from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. In addition to her husband, Haddock is survived by her parents, Joseph and Elizabeth Cronin, her sisters, Barbara Cronin and Lauren Wolkov, her brothers, Tom and Joseph Cronin, Jr., and three nieces.

After teaching second grade from 1987-1992 and fourth grade from 1987-1995, Haddock coordinated the art program at St. Agnes from 1995-2001.

While at St. Agnes, Haddock volunteered on a diocesan committee on art curriculum guidelines, helped plan and develop the school’s Virtues program and led students in outreach projects to hospitalized children.

A funeral Mass was scheduled for Jan. 16 at St. Francis de Sales Church in Purcellville. A memorial Mass will be celebrated on Jan. 18, the feast of St. Agnes, at 8:45 a.m. at St. Agnes Church. Teachers and students at St. Agnes, who were shocked by her untimely death, took time to remember her this week.

"Donna Beth had a wonderful way of relating to children at their age level," a St. Agnes teacher said.

Sisters of Notre Dame Sister Mary Margaret Ann Schlather, director of religious education at St. Agnes, said, "Donna Beth's goodness was reflected in her contagious smile and gentle manner."

"She made you feel warm inside" a former student said. "She always had time to listen" and "wouldn’t let students settle for less than their best," recalled two other students.

A lesson about settling arguments that Haddock taught a second-grader 14 years ago has not been forgotten. "She gently took a child’s hand telling [her] that they now had made a ‘bridge’ to resolving their differences. Last week… that child (my daughter, a junior in college) and I made a ‘bridge’ to resolving our differences. … The ‘bridge’ allowed love to flow and we never forgot that lesson," a fellow teacher said.

Maureen Egan, a fellow teacher, called Haddock "a walking angel." Trying to make sense of Haddock’s death for her own seventh-grade daughter, Egan told her, "Now we have our own guardian angel."

David Haddock has established an educational scholarship in Donna Beth’s memory for her nieces. Contributions can be sent to the First Union Bank in Purcellville or to St. Agnes School.

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