Marie Spottswood; Guided Oakwood School Growth

Marie Spottswood, who took over a faltering Oakwood School in North Hollywood in 1954 and guided it into lower and upper division campuses where children were treated “as plants that should grow naturally,” died Wednesday.

She was 90 and had retired as the private school’s director in 1974.

Started in 1951 with the help of Robert Ryan, the late actor, and other parents facing split sessions in the public schools, Oakwood blossomed during Miss Spottswood’s tenure from an elementary school with 60 pupils on Moorpark Street into a combined grammar and high school with 390 students.

Miss Spottswood had been a teacher and principal at the Ethical Culture Schools in New York and had planned to retire to a warmer climate in 1954 when Ryan and Elizabeth Harmon, a former Ethical Culture student, asked her to take over Oakwood, then three years old.

Interest in Chinese Culture

She brought with her Ethical Culture’s liberal arts curriculum and added to it studies of Southern California Indians and the Spanish influence on Los Angeles. She also developed courses on the Chinese, a culture she remained interested in throughout her life.

She also introduced the remedial reading, writing and spelling system developed by Anna Gillingham that concentrated on the right-left brain theory.

History Role-Playing

Students were cast as Indians or Vikings as they learned history, while those learning to read were placed in “readiness” groups that corresponded to their abilities, regardless of age. Sports were non-competitive, field trips were plentiful and folk dancing and folk music were requirements.

Stray animals wandered the campus and were serenaded by recorder music. Each student was required to learn the instrument, even if only to master a simple tune or two.

In 1968 Oakwood graduated its first 12th-grade class at a separate campus on Magnolia Boulevard. Today’s enrollment has reached 550.

Born in Mobile, Ala., Miss Spottswood graduated from Randolph-Macon College in Virginia before taking graduate work at Alabama and Tulane universities.

She joined the Ethical Culture Schools in 1929 and earned her master’s degree in 1932 from Columbia University in an era when the concepts of John Dewey were gaining popularity.

In lieu of flowers, contributions have been asked by Oakwood School to establish a Marie Spottswood Memorial Library Fund.