Greenhill Mourns Legend Christine Eastus

Greenhill mourns Legend Christine Eastus who passed away in her home on Sunday, August 14.

 

A longtime English teacher, Eastus came to Greenhill in 1970. She quickly earned the respect and admiration of her colleagues, supervisors, and students as she worked to engage all members of the English department from prekindergarten through grade 12, establishing a language arts program that was one of the best in the country. She sponsored the school’s literary magazine, Montage, to national acclaim, and her leadership of the student council empowered Upper Schoolers to take ownership of their school experience and accountability for their learning.

 

Eastus demanded excellence from her students and worked relentlessly to bring new and diverse voices into the English curriculum. Throughout her 20+ years as English Department Chair, Greenhill garnered a national reputation for the rigor and excellence of its writing program. Whether she was opening the world of Tolstoy to an AP class or reading aloud from Moby Dick at Christmas dinner, Eastus lived a passionate life on her own terms and modeled lifelong learning and engaged citizenship.

 

Eastus is the daughter of former Greenhill Latin teacher Kate Cecil, the mother of two alums – Madalyn ’78 and Vicki ’79 – and grandmother to another alum – Alexa Derryberry ’20. Among her greatest joys as a grandmother was driving carpool for Alexa once she was admitted to Greenhill.

 

Established upon her retirement from Greenhill in 2005, the Christine Eastus Scholarship Fund provides support to an Upper School student who shows promise in the humanities. The Eastus family has requested no flowers be sent but that contributions be directed to the scholarship fund at Greenhill. A Celebration of Christine’s life will be held on Saturday, November 12, from 2:00 - 4:00 pm, in the Montgomery Library at Greenhill School. 

You can view the obituary published in the Dallas Morning News here.

To make a gift to the Eastus Scholarship Fund, please visit our giving page here: https://www.greenhill.org/make-an-online-gift

Choose “Eastus Scholarship Fund” from the designation drop down menu.