Beloved Glendale High history teacher Olivia Macaulay, 63, dies of cancer
For Olivia Macaulay, actions spoke louder than words.
The Glendale High School history teacher was well known for encouraging students to learn by doing. She was also known for her numerous trips on Fulbright grants abroad to Syria and Jordan. To many, she embodied a model educator.
Olivia Macaulay died July 12 after succumbing to an aggressive form of cancer that reached her lungs. She was 63.
According to her son Sean Macaulay, 33, Olivia had battled breast cancer two years earlier. The teacher underwent surgery and chemotherapy and appeared to be in the clear.
On June 9, she traveled to Germany with the Transatlantic Outreach Program, a competitive fellowship where only 100 teachers were selected for a two-week, all-expenses paid study tour. She visited numerous cities and learned about the country’s history.
During the fellowship, Olivia Macaulay was hospitalized for pneumonia and learned she had a lung embolism, her son said. She notified her family about her condition via email, but assured them she was in good condition and could continue traveling.
After her fellowship, she traveled to Athens, Greece, but her family urged her to return to Los Angeles after hearing her voice on the phone.
“To my knowledge, she was doing OK. I have pictures of her hiking 10 days before she left,” Sean Macaulay said. “But the biggest thing we noticed, which prompted us to pressure her to come home, was her voice — it was high-pitched and short of breath.”
A friend she was traveling with also said she should return.
Olivia Macaulay arrived at LAX on July 4 and was immediately taken to the Little Company Of Mary Hospital in San Pedro, where she died a week later.
Even while hooked to a respirator and hearing her terminal diagnosis, his mom remained positive, Sean Macaulay said.
“She kept saying, ‘Everything is going to be OK. We’re going to handle this with grace and dignity.’ The next day she died. It went really fast. She didn’t speak any more words to me after that,” Sean said.
Before Olivia Macaulay pursued a career in teaching, she had dreams of playing the violin in the Los Angeles Philharmonic. At 17, after her father’s work transferred her family to Rome, Italy, she played violin for the conservatory of music there and then for the conservatory in Athens.
“She was extremely talented with music,” said Larry Frangias, one of her brothers. “She taught a lot of kids in the neighborhood piano, violin and guitar. She’d practice every day and was always trying to do the best she could.”
Described as the “healthiest person in the whole world,” she was a vegetarian and exercised daily. She would start her day early in the morning to work out before heading to Glendale High where she’d end her day at 7 p.m.
She was also part of a hiking group in the Santa Monica Mountains.
After earning a psychology degree abroad, Olivia Macaulay returned to California and worked in a mental hospital ward. She fell in love with teaching, and for 22 years she taught special education. She began working in the Glendale Unified School District in 2002 and earned the honor of Teacher of the Year in 2012.
In an interview with the Glendale News-Press in 2012, she said: “Each kid deserves to be treated with honor, respect and dignity. If they misbehave, or do something inappropriate, I think they are doing the best they can. They didn’t know to do differently, so my job is to teach them there’s a different way.”
“She was incredibly well loved by everybody and worked with students on projects that benefited the community,” said Benjamin Wolf, principal of Glendale High.
Nancy Witt, a former Glendale Unified teacher and former history social-science specialist for the district, met Olivia Macaulay when their classrooms were next to each other on campus. The two eventually became best friends.
“She was a real teacher’s teacher and everything she did — besides her parents or family — her students came first,” Witt said.
Olivia Macaulay participated in numerous enrichment activities, thinking about how she could incorporate what she learned into the classroom and improve her teaching to better help her students.
“She was an expert at guiding her students. She got them to be thinkers and writers and get the most of what they possibly could do during their high school experience,” Witt said.
In 2006, Olivia Macaulay oversaw eight Glendale students in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the Junior G8 Summit. In 2014, she and a student traveled to Normandy, France, for an institute marking the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion by Allied forces on the territory’s beaches.
“She is just a role model for everybody — always doing right by your students and always making sure you were doing the best for them,” Witt said.
Olivia Macaulay is survived by her husband, Christopher Macaulay, and her two sons, Brett and Sean Macaulay.
A memorial is being planned at Glendale High School in September.
Twitter: @vegapriscella
