University of New England

Deborah Morton

It was the fall of 1884 that Deborah N. Morton was invited to fill a vacancy in the faculty of Westbrook Seminary.  Thus began her lifetime of devotion to the institution.

She had entered the school as a student in the fall of 1876 and had been graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1879.  Teaching in her home town of Round Pond in Bristol filled the next few years.

With her return as a member of the faculty of the Seminary in 1884, opened an ever-widening sphere of influence which goes on to this day.  She was appointed teacher of grammar, rhetoric, and algebra.  In 1885 she became Preceptress and teacher of French and rhetric.

During the next two years, Morton studied French privately and in the summers attended Sauveur College of Languages.  In 1888, a year’s leave of absence was granted to her for study in France and Germany.

In 1917 Morton left the seminary believing that she would like to be free to engage in club and war activities.  At that time she was president of the Womens Literary Union, and was active in the YWCA war council. 

When, after five years of freedom from school cares, Morton returned to the seminary to continue the teaching of French, there was general rejoicing in the school among the alumni, who, in their visits from time-to-time, had missed her welcoming presence.

Many of the summer vacations of her busy teaching career were taken up with organizing and conducting trips to Europe, acting as interpreter in French and German.  Other summers were spent in study at Middlebury College, the University of Vermont, and the Sorbonne in Paris.

Morton’s deep interest in art led her into the informal teaching of various groups in the study of painting, sculpture, and architecture.

In 1930, a three months’ leave of absence was spent on a Mediterranean cruise, marking her fourteenth trip to Europe and the Near East.

Morton’s long and whole-hearted service to the Seminary makes her an important link between the Westbrook of the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century.