Linda Austerberry, Potter and Teacher, Recalls Touching Memory of Buried Talent

by Jane Stahl

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 13 through November 19, 2022, as American Education Week.

The Boyertown Area Expression celebrates American Education Week by spotlighting Linda Rohrbach Austerberry, one of Boyertown Area School District's beloved teachers, and one of the community's revered artists. 

Linda Austerberry has been an artist all her life, an artist who, at 7 years old, knew she wanted to teach. Pottery became her main medium throughout her 35+ years teaching high school.

Find Linda: dark cardigan, lower right

A few years ago she celebrated 50 years of throwing pots. Everyone within 40 miles of Boyertown must own at least one piece of her work. Her most popular pieces include brie bakers, chip and dips, bowls of all sizes, coffee mugs, tureens, unique carafes, and crocks in a host of beautiful glazes.

But in addition to pottery, Linda is an accomplished portrait artist, and there’s proof. Recently, in organizing her files, she discovered photographs she had taken when she was in high school of a project that Richard Flannery, her senior social studies teacher, assigned her.

“Here’s the thing,” Linda explains. “I couldn’t stop talking in class; and so, Mr. Flannery asked if I could draw portraits of the world leaders on his chalk board to decorate the classroom. This was in the mid-60’s. Of course, I said yes, and so, using colored chalk, I created life-sized portraits of leaders like Robert Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Charles de Gaulle, for example. He was very happy with the work, and I was very happy to be doing something to keep myself out of trouble,” she laughs.

“But what is really special is that one day while I was teaching, during a renovation of the high school, I saw custodians carrying the blackboards with my chalk portraits still intact across the parking lot! This was like 30 years later.

“While it’s true that the blackboards were on their way to a basement storage space under the football stadium—the last place before they retired to the trash,” Linda offers, “but I was shocked…and touched...to see them again and realize my work had been saved and lasted so long!”

Chatting with Linda about her life as student and teacher, I was touched by memories she shared about the influences of her family and the support a host of teachers provided her. 

"My father--who was principal of Boyertown High School, then County Superintendent of Schools and eventually head of the BCIU (Berks County Intermediate Unit)--was a powerful mentor," Linda offers. "At the end of every school year, he’d have me make a list of my goals for the coming year to help me focus my energies in a clear direction using my test scores. He was tough, yet sensitive, and totally supportive of my dream to become an art teacher.

"Probably the best example of his support came at the end of my college career when he transported a fragile art project home from college by constructing a floating device to protect it during transport. He drove all the way home from IUP with the trunk open. But one of my special memories includes teaching him to operate a kiln after his first heart attack. He loved learning."

She continues, "I learned organization from my mother Pauline (Polly). Mom was a former Marine who was one of the first women who enlisted with her twin sister Kay soon after women were permitted to join the Marine Corps. Mom and I often cooked together; and, in those moments, I always felt that, if she’d had the chance, she would have followed a more creative path in life. 

"My Uncle Chet became one of my fiercest supporters when he visited my studio, saw the rows of chemicals I used to create my own glazes, and learned that the ceramics program I had developed was a 6-semester college-level course in which my students made all their own clay and needed a knowledge of the chemistry behind glaze formulation," she adds.

"And, from kindergarten through my high school graduation, I’ve been blessed with supportive teachers who recognized my love of art and often gave me special art projects. My sixth grade teacher Mrs. Shade asked me to paint classroom windows with Christmas themes. In high school English teacher and department chair, Ray Fulmer asked me add art to the high school literary magazine Accent to accompany the prose and poetry, and there was Richard Flannery who gave me a job  creating portraits on his chalk board to keep me out of trouble.

"I had great teachers throughout my life who encouraged me—even when I didn’t want it! My dad insisted I be part of the marching band, but I hated it and purposely skipped a major event, hoping that (band director) Arlan Saylor would cut me from the band. Instead, he was prepared to forgive my absence. Happily, he understood when I told him I wanted art classes in my schedule, not band practice.

"Principal Dick Freed tried to dissuade me from taking art classes, warning me that I’d graduate with 'just' a general diploma, not an academic one, and that I wouldn’t be permitted to take advanced math or maybe be accepted into college. I took art classes anyway but appreciated his concerns for my academic future!" she concludes.

Asked about her own teaching mission, she explains that throwing pots wasn't the point; fostering creativity was. "I always told parents at Parents’ Night that my goal was not to turn their children into potters. Instead, I wanted them to grow their creative muscles and enhance their problem-solving abilities.

"I never gave specific assignments; I wanted students to create something of their own imaginings. For those few who needed an idea, I had a crock filled with slips of paper suggesting topics like 'Contain/container' or 'White, white, white, black, white.' Never anything specific! I enjoyed the initial confusion and then the excitement those students displayed creating a response to those challenges in clay," Linda says, smiling at the memory.

Clay—Alive as a Creative Partner
"What I wanted them to appreciate about clay was some of what I learned about the medium-- namely that clay is 'alive' with its own personality, its own moods and requires patience and understanding of its character and needs. The potter’s challenge is to bring together earth, water, and fire—taming nature’s elements into a pleasing form through the will of artistic expression. 

"My students learned that a potter needs patience and a good pair of hands! William Hunt, editor of Ceramics Monthly made a statement that was important to me: He wrote, 'Clay can do things no other material can, but it also has limitations which must all be learned.' The process takes years to master each phase: design, color, the nature of the medium, the chemistry of the clay and glazes and the firing of the kiln. The potter is ever-evolving, chasing for a better way, waiting to see the effects of the next firing, the next form off the wheel, that completed pot in the potter’s eye, the one that never is made entirely a reality—that is what drives the potter.

"In teaching, I loved, also, the excitement of my colleagues; I remember one of my fellow art teachers running down the hall the excited to invite me to see what she’d created. Teaching was so much fun!"

Testimonials
Contact from former students is one of the gifts of  teaching.  Linda recalls Brian Kakas, a former student who is now an associate professor at Northern Michigan University School of Art & Design. Brian has shared that Linda allowed him to find his voice and “saved” him during a tough time he was having in high school by inviting him to her art room to work on projects even though he wasn’t actually registered for a class. 

Another student Ken Standhardt is an accomplished potter who now lives in San Louis Obispo, California, where his distinctive pottery captures international interest. He’s now retired, but back in 1973 he watched Linda throw pots at the very first Belsnickel Festival and knew that afternoon that he wanted to throw pots too! 

But there are a few special memories of students that Linda shares. "Some of the most challenging students bring different kinds of rewards. I remember one student who was largely disregarded by his fellow students but who offered such insightful commentary during one critique session that surprised us all and ignited the respect of the other students in his class. He became everybody’s friend that day when they realized he could think and analyze so perceptively. That moment in my classroom changed his life.

"I remember another student who wanted to create a birthday cake in clay because he said that no one had ever made him a cake. We worked together fashioning a layered cake—decorated with a white glaze, clay rosettes, and topped with clay candles. The memory of his satisfied expression after it was fired remains a favorite despite his suicide a few years later.

"My role as a member of the school’s Student Assistance Program brought additional challenges and special rewards. I remember a student I convinced to enter a rehabilitation facility who visited me 7 years later to thank me for the intervention that saved his life. Those are the moments that really inspire teachers," she admits. 

And so, as the nation recognizes teachers this week, teachers are remembering the people in their own lives--family members, friends, and teachers who supported them--as well as the students who remember them. 

Linda's legacy reaches across continents and generations through the thousands of students she taught and the art work that thousands of folks display to decorate their homes and enhance every meal.

Linda has a different legacy in mind. "How do I imagine being remembered? I have this image of smiles on the faces of those who receive a piece of my work as a gift maybe at Christmas, for a birthday celebration or a bridal shower. I smile because on the bottom of each piece is my name. They can’t forget me!"

More News from Boyertown

• A Pictorial Tour Through the History of Boyertown: Main Street Businesses page 25 Main Street--page 25
• Doug Hales Redefines Thanksgiving Doug Hales' Thanksgiving realization that redefining his life, over and over, blazing his own trail and believing anything is possible, is as American as "apple pie."