Rosa Covington Packard | Educator
Rosa Covington Packard, age 80, died on February 22, 2016, after a long illness. A longtime resident of Greenwich, CT, she was born in New York City and grew up in Princeton, New Jersey.
A 1956 graduate of Vassar College, she received her Montessori diploma in 1963, and worked for many years as an educational consultant to Montessori schools. She designed and led Montessori teacher training workshops around the country, including at the at Oglala Lakota reservation at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, where she was affectionately given the nickname, "Pepper."
Her daughters, Caroline and Andrea, and son, Wells, went to Montessori schools. Her 1972 book about the Montessori method, The Hidden Hinge, continues to be used in Montessori teacher training courses today.
A passionate advocate for civil rights, and a generous host and mentor to people experiencing personal difficulties, she joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1976, serving as clerk of Stamford-Greenwich Friends Meeting and later becoming an active member of Purchase Friends Meeting and New York Yearly Meeting, and serving on the board of Friends World College. As a trainer and volunteer for the Alternatives to Violence Project, she gave conflict resolution workshops in prisons. In 1980, she founded Friends Peace Center, where she provided draft-registration counseling to conscientious objectors, advocated for Quaker testimonies and causes, including Friends Peace Teams and the Peace Tax Fund, and designed and led community mediation training workshops in New York State and the United Kingdom.
Her marriage, to Edward Packard, ended in divorce in 1972. She is survived by her children, Caroline, Andrea, and Wells and six grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, contributions to the American Civil Liberties Union are welcomed.
Related Links:
THE HIDDEN HINGE:
by Rosa Covington Packard
Used in Montessori educations courses for over forty years, the Hidden Hinge is for parents as well as for those who work
with groups of children and offers many practical suggestions for the home as well as childcare centers.
The Hidden Hinge reviews the basic principles discovered by Maria Montessori and shows how adults can
prepare themselves to provided space for that mystery which allows a child to open the door of her own mind and soul.
Peace Tax Witness
by Rosa Covington Packard
Talk to 9th International Conference of War Tax Resisters and Peace Tax Campaigns
Conscientious Objection to Paying for War
A subcommittee of the NYYM Peace Concerns Committee was formed in the late 1990s out of the work of Witness Coordinating Committee in developing an amicus brief in support of the war tax witness of Rosa Packard,
Court Cases: USA: Rosa Covington Packard
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The Amicus Brief of the New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
War and Peace: Essays on Religion and Violence
Bryan S. Turner - 2014 - Social Science: Packard, Rosa.
"The Petition for a Writ of Certiorari."
Rosa Packard Peace Tax Witness and Conscientious Objection.