06-05-2022 Hall of Fame - Flipbook - Page 22
22 Baltimore Sun Media | Sunday, June 5, 2022
BALTIMORE SUN’S 2022
BUSINESS AND CIVIC HALL OF FAME HONOREE
DEBORAH PHELPS
D
eborah “Debbie” Phelps remembers the school
counselor in her Western Maryland hometown who
told her years ago she “really wasn’t college material.” Some high school students might have been
crushed, but for Ms. Phelps, it was pure motivation.
“I thought, ‘Well, I will prove you wrong. I will go to
college, and I will be successful,’ ” said the 71-yearold executive director for the Education Foundation
of Baltimore County Public Schools.
She would not only graduate from West Virginia’s
Fairmont State College in 1973 with a degree in home economics, she would later
get her master’s in education management from Loyola.
Perseverance and determination have defined Ms. Phelps’ career in education, from her decades in the classroom to her years in school administration and
support. They are traits she also nurtured in her children, daughters Hilary and
Whitney, and son Michael, the famed Olympic gold medalist.
When her eldest, Hilary, developed passion for swimming at age 9 — and
wanted to learn how to swim faster — Ms. Phelps signed her up for lessons at
the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, known for developing Olympians. “If they
wanted to open a door, I wasn’t going to shut it,” Ms. Phelps said. Even when it
meant predawn wake-up calls and hours on the road.
For inspiration, she drew from
the example of her mother, a hardworking woman from Western
Maryland named Leoma Davisson
who always found a way to make
things work. Ms. Phelps racked
up miles on her minivan driving to
the pool from her home in Harford
County, all while teaching home
economics full time. The kids did
homework in the car and always
smelled like chlorine.
When it comes to her own
parenting philosophy, Ms. Phelps
says: “Allow your child to explore
… to fall on their face, to pick themselves up.” She is adamantly against
helicopter parenting.
Through the years, Hilary
and Whitney continued to swim
competitively.
But it was Michael who, in 2000,
became at age 15 the youngest male
to represent the U.S. in the Olympics in years. His mom, meanwhile, became “Baltimore’s favorite
mother,” in the words of a 2011 Sun
profile.
Ms. Phelps recounted her
years as an Olympic mom in her
2009 memoir, “A Mother for All
Seasons.” In the book’s prologue,
she explained that she’s a bit of
an easy crier, prone to tears even
at some “inopportune occasions.”
Friends and family refer to them as
“DP [Debbie Phelps] moments.” She
still gets them, for example, when
talking about her grandchildren.
After a few years of the long hauls
between Harford County and the
pool in Baltimore, Ms. Phelps and
her children relocated to Towson,
where she took a position with the
Southwest Academy for the Arts
and Sciences. There, she devel-
oped an award-winning nutrition
and food science middle school
curriculum and designed a Food
Science Lab, bringing her background in home economics into the
21st century.
She later transitioned into school
administration, becoming principal of Windsor Mill Middle School
when it first opened in Baltimore
County. “My fingerprints and my
heart prints are all over this schoolhouse,” she told The Sun in 2009.
She worked there until 2012. That
year, when the was on “Olympics
No. 4,” Ms. Phelps was informed
that she had been recommended to
lead Baltimore County’s Education
Foundation, a nonprofit that raises
money for schools through area
businesses.
Was it a job she wanted? Well,
she’s diplomatic: “You work at the
pleasure of your superintendent,”
Ms. Phelps said.
With trademark grit, Ms. Phelps
made the most of it, expanding the
foundation’s grant program and
opening two resource centers to
provide teachers with supplies they
and their students need to succeed.
Kim Schatzel, president of
Towson University, called Ms.
Phelps a “tremendous advocate”
who has raised the foundation’s
profile and advocated for new
support, all the while drawing
on her experience as a classroom
teacher and principal. “Her leadership in that space has been phenomenal,” Dr. Schatzel said.
Ms. Phelps, Dr. Schatzel said, is
someone she can always count on.
“If I text her, she calls back immediately. She’s a great friend.”
Ms. Phelps plans to retire in
2024, culminating a 50-year career
in education. What might her own
next chapter include?
“I might go back to school,” she
said. “I’d like to be Dr. Phelps.”
If only her high school guidance
counselor could see.
“Her leadership in
[education advocacy
and fundraising] has
been phenomenal.”
— Kim Schatzel, Towson University
president
AT A GLANCE
Age: 71
Hometown: Westernport, Maryland
Current residence: Baltimore
Education: B.A. Fairmont State
College; master’s degree from Loyola
University of Maryland.
Career highlights: Executive
director of The Education
Foundation of Baltimore County
Public Schools, principal of Windsor
Mill Middle School.
Civic and charitable activities:
Board member: The Michael Phelps
Foundation, Towson Chamber of
Commerce. Member of the Women’s
Leadership Institute of Baltimore,
Advisory Board Notre Dame of
Maryland University.
Family: Three children, and a
combined nine grandchildren.