Alice Fossatti died Sunday at age 102. Her spitfire personality propelled her through the Depression, a 73-year marriage, motherhood, 23 years of teaching kindergarten at Hawthorne Elementary School and decades of communing with her inner artist.

Brigit Farley
Farley

Washington State University history professor Brigit Farley recalls how Fossatti validated and affirmed her pint-size pupils. Later, when Farley started teaching at the college level, the two discussed the teaching profession and the importance of lifting up students and teaching them to be kind thinkers.

“I think she would say that the most important thing in teaching little kids was instilling confidence and belief in themselves,” Farley said. “That’s the foundation she built in them. That’s something I very consciously took from her in my own work. Turns out that is as important when people are 25 as it is when they are just five.”

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