Community Hero: 'Ms. Carolyn' honored for 53 years at Greenville's St. Anthony School

She says it’s the only job she ever wanted.

After 53 years as a teacher and administrator, Carolyn Lenhardt, known to generations of students simply as “Ms. Carolyn,” retired from St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School in June.

Lenhardt spent the lion’s share of her career in elementary school classrooms, mostly teaching second grade, but had served as Dean of Students at the small mission school since 2017.

As the school year ended in early June, St. Anthony declared it “Ms. Carolyn Day.” Colleagues, friends and students past and present gathered in the gymnasium to honor Lenhardt with tributes, music and gifts.

She was also presented with a resolution from the South Carolina General Assembly congratulating her on her remarkable career.

For her dedication to her students and community, Carolyn Lenhardt has been selected as a Greenville News Community Hero.

The Community Hero program, sponsored by the Greenville Federal Credit Union, recognizes generous and selfless work by those among us who make our community a better place.

Greenville educator's impact has been profound, stretches across generations

Lenhardt’s impact has been profound and stretches across generations.

During her half-century in the classroom, she says she frequently taught the children and even a few grandchildren of former students.

“You teach a young child in first or second grade and then here come their children – the next generation,” she says. “That’s something to see.”

2019 Educators: 2019 Educators Who Make a Difference: Carolyn Lenhardt

She says that she is frequently recognized around town by now-grown former students. Most she recognizes, but sometimes she doesn’t make the connection.

“I can be in the store and hear, ‘Hi, Ms. Carolyn!’,” she says. “Sometimes I don’t remember and I’ll ask them their name – as soon as they tell me, I can see the child.”

St. Anthony has traditionally served the children of the West End and Southernside neighborhoods surrounding the parish on Gower Street.

Most of the students are Black. Many are economically and socially disadvantaged. Few are Catholic. And though the neighborhood has changed in recent years as it is absorbed into Downtown Greenville, the mission has not.

Lenhardt, a Greenville native who grew up off Woodruff Road, graduated from Sterling High School and Benedict College in Columbia before beginning her teaching career.

A turbulent time for both public and private schools in Greenville

She began working at St. Anthony in 1970, after five years at Dunbar Elementary in Greer, then one of the county’s segregated schools for Black children.

The late ‘60s and early ‘70s were a turbulent time for both public and private schools in Greenville, as racial integration was implemented in the county after years of court battles.

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For Catholic schools, that included a short-lived plan to send kindergarten and first-grade students from other Catholic Schools to St. Anthony. St. Anthony’s other students were assigned to St. Mary’s and Our Lady of the Rosary, then the only other Catholic Schools in Greenville.

Within a few years, the schools reverted to their more traditional roles. But enrollment at St. Anthony suffered because of the disruption, then recovered as it resumed its traditional mission.

From the Archives: Greenville history: In good times and bad, St. Anthony's has endured

In the 1980s, Lenhardt was there when the school dwindled to just a few dozen students as the parish and school suffered financial troubles and frequent leadership changes.

Lenhardt says that in 1986, when Sister Catherine Noecker arrived as principal, along with her fellow Franciscan sisters, the school began to recover and grow again.

“She said to me, ‘Ms. Carolyn, if it hadn’t been for you, St. Anthony would have closed -- because you didn’t leave,” Lenhardt recalled. “At first, Sister Catherine and I were the only teachers.’”

Over the next 25 years, St. Anthony continued to grow. Children at the school outperformed their peers and the school was able to boast an almost 100% high school graduation rate for students who completed their elementary years there.

By 2013, under former pastor Fr. Patrick Tuttle, a parish and community-wide fundraising effort led to the construction of a new, $6 million school building to ensure the school’s future. Noecker retired in 2019. "Ms. Carolyn" was persuaded to to stay on for a few more years.

Ms. Carolyn: 'God granted my prayers to work with children'

As the new school year begins, Lenhardt says it will be strange not being there to greet the students and help guide them.

She doesn’t have any world travels or big adventures planned for her retirement. She doesn’t fly – she says she discovered during a field trip with one of her first groups of students that being on an airplane triggers severe claustrophobia – and has no interest in traveling by ship.

Though she won’t be working at the school every day, she won’t be too far away – she's already signed up to volunteer at the school, serving her former colleagues and another generation of St. Anthony teachers and students.

“That’s the only job I ever wanted – to be a teacher,” she said. “God granted my prayers to work with children. It’s the satisfaction of helping them see they can achieve their goals.”

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: 'Ms. Carolyn' honored for 53 years at Greenville's St. Anthony School