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Convex Character

Charlotte Morris, math teacher, celebrates 25 years at Trinity
Torey Burston ’12 was convinced his career as a student-athlete was over. It was May of his senior year at Trinity, and his dream of going to Villanova had been crushed. A glimmer of hope appeared with a conditional offer from VCU for a walk-on spot on the basketball team, but there was one big problem. “My SAT score was a little bit low, and they said that I couldn't qualify for the first semester,” Burston recalls. “At that moment, college felt out of the picture.”
 
Enter Charlotte Morris. Teaming up with fellow math teacher Diane Monaco ’81, the two reached out to Burston with an offer he couldn’t refuse. “She said, ‘I'll tutor you in SAT Math, and we'll get you straight.’” Every evening for the next month, Morris provided pointers on polynomials, while Burston buckled down. “I threw my phone away for four weeks and worked with her, and I ended up being able to qualify to go to VCU the next semester.”
 
Burston is now the student life coordinator at Trinity and isn’t shy about sharing this. “Mama Morris and Mama Monaco saved my life,” he boasts. “My heart is forever in debt.”
 
While Burston’s tale of a Titan turnaround may be the most prominent, there are dozens, if not hundreds, more journeys of mathematical persistence and achievement that have begun in room C-1, the math hallway at Trinity, where Morris, the head of the department for over a decade, has taught with an intrepid attitude and infectious smile. 
 
Path to Pittaway

The child of two educators, growing up as a “faculty brat” on the campus of Woodberry Forest School until kindergarten — and then following her father, Dr. Robert Cox, to Hampton Roads Academy, where he served as headmaster from 1972 to 1987 — convinced Morris of one thing: “I was adamant about never being an educator!”
 
After earning her BS in math and statistics at JMU, she worked as a trust officer at Bank of America in Richmond. “I disliked every minute of it,” she says. “I came home every day unfulfilled.” When she looked back on her most fulfilling moments, she realized all of them involved tutoring classmates in high school math and teaching horseback riding at summer camp. And she was inspired by Mrs. Fichter, her high school math teacher, who “instilled my love for the beauty and clarity of math.”
 
Her first stint as a Trinity teacher lasted only one year (1993-94), in which she taught all geometry classes. After taking time off to raise her young children, she returned in 2002 and never looked back. In that time, she has expanded her repertoire to nearly every math class offered at the school, but her passion is trigonometry. Any alum of a Morris classroom remembers the sign in the corner reminding students not to “kill kittens” by making calculation errors while simplifying rational functions. 
 
“Charlotte has perfected her method for teaching IB Maths: Analysis SL/Pre-Calculus Honors,” says colleague Mitch Farleigh ’79. “She pushes her students hard, but not for the sake of making their lives harder. She does it to make them stronger math students and better prepare them for the future.”

A Prime Example

Morris’ indomitable community spirit has often put her at the helm of some of the most popular extracurricular activities that Trinity is known for. Every February, her enrichment class prepares Trinity juniors for the SAT. Every March, she and the Mathletes celebrate the world’s most famous irrational number, Pi, with a week of games and puzzles. And every October, students fill Dunn Courtyard with creative gourds at the annual Halloween Pumpkin Carving contest — a tradition started by Morris and the Operation Smile Club. From 2007 to 2018, the club raised funds for the eponymous international charity, providing more than 150 facial reconstruction surgeries to children with cleft palates. The club also generated kaleidoscopic community events like the Miles for Smiles Color Run.
 
As a Senior Class Sponsor, she helped empower seniors to be a positive force within the school for 20 years. The senior class elected her graduation speaker for the ceremony in 2007, the year of Virginia’s 400th anniversary. Comparing them to the settlers of Jamestown about to embark on an uncharted voyage across the Atlantic, she told the seniors to have courage to face hurdles, and promised them the rewards of discovering their own path. 
 
Morris herself is no stranger to such intrepid journeys, challenging herself again and again over the years through outdoor adventure, horseback riding and river exploration. She spent over 25 years at all-girls Camp Strawderman in the Shenandoah Valley, learning and teaching horseback riding in a setting focused on outdoor living and building strong character. At Trinity, she worked closely with the late Bill Snead, social studies teacher and head of the Trinity Rivers Program, and chaperoned more than a dozen trips to Camp Sheridan, the 9th-grade rite of passage now called the Freshman Class Retreat. 
 
In 2024, she received the Faculty Discovery Award from the Trinity Board of Trustees. With the accompanying grant, Morris spent a week at a working ranch in the Rocky Mountains, learning herding techniques, animal care, cattle-moving strategy and about the importance of land restoration.

A Leader who Listens

When you talk to colleagues and former students about Charlotte Morris, the one thing that they all agree on is that Morris is a world-class listener. “No matter what I was going through, pressures of school or otherwise, it felt like Mrs. Morris had the answers,” says Liam O'Neil ’25. “She is the type of person who will listen intently, without judgment, and that's a very rare thing.”
 
“Math is not a subject that comes naturally to us. It is a series of steps that must be explained, taught and understood,” says Robert Morris ’15, Charlotte's former math student and son. “My mother always had the incredible ability to navigate this process with an abundance of patience. She would never move to the next step until she was confident that you understood the first.”
 
“I can honestly say that my mom is one of the best teachers I have had,” says Ashley Morris Houser ’13. “During my years at Trinity, I realized that she is a ‘mom’ to so many more than just my brother and me,” says Ashley, “As a new mom myself, I can only hope to be half as nurturing and supportive as her.”  
 
“The same qualities that make her a great teacher also make her a great department head,” says Farleigh. “She is always there to support us but allows us to be ourselves and find successes in our own ways.”
 
The trust she has shown her fellow math teachers has built their confidence. For Stacey Woodson, the transition from teaching in a test-driven public school to Trinity was a welcome change. “She told me, ‘Don’t rush it where they're not understanding. Take your time,’” recalls Woodson. “I could try different things in the classroom and not feel like I wasted a day because of a standardized test coming.”
 
Becky Currier has taught math with Charlotte for 20 years and praises Morris’ energy, insight and compassion. “She never hesitates to step in and fill a gap, and always does it with a smile,” says Currier. Whether by sharing new approaches or insights, helpful articles or lessons, she “challenges us to be our best every day.”
 
“She's super organized. She has high expectations that she applies to herself, and then she models it for people,” says Diane Monaco. “Charlotte is the ultimate professional in everything that she does.”
 
Cool in Crisis

A case can be made that it has been Morris’s quiet, steady leadership by example that has helped guide the Trinity community through three of the biggest disruptions of the last decade and a half. 
 
“When Page Mauck died, it was devastating,” says Diane Monaco, recalling the spring break in 2016 when the Trinity community learned about the tragic death of her fellow math teacher and beloved community member. Monaco says it was Morris’ dutiful, steady leadership that helped them make it through. “We all wanted to just go into a room and cry, but she helped us recognize that we needed to put the kids first and help them continue to learn — honoring everybody’s grief, but continuing to do what we needed to do.”
 
Nearly four years to the day later, the Trinity community learned it would not be coming back from spring break at all, following nationwide school closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later that summer, Morris was asked to help lead the planning committee for the school’s safe reopening that fall. “Like most educators during the height of the pandemic, I was uncomfortable in my home-classroom environment, worried about students on the other side of my screen, and frustrated with trying to deliver content in a meaningful way,” she recalls. After spending the summer researching, listening to experts and meeting frequently to stay abreast of the latest developments, the team devised plans and policies to keep the community safe through a hybrid remote and on-campus daily schedule. “I believe that Trinity did an outstanding job of opening school and creating an environment for teenagers to have as much of a normal life as was possible at that crazy time,” she says. “I never want to return to those days, but I have confidence in the ability of our school to work together and pull through just about any obstacle.”
 
When former Head of School Tom Aycock announced his retirement in the winter of 2014, Morris was serving as the faculty representative to the Board of Trustees. Morris was tapped to serve on the committee tasked with finding Trinity’s fourth head of school. “I was impressed with the support we received from all constituents and the amount of time/effort our board members (who have other full-time jobs) put forth in finding the best person for the job,” she says. As a result, the committee recommended Rob Short, who has now led the school with a caring and community-focused style for the past 11 years. 
Proof of Excellence
How does Morris herself account for her longevity as a math teacher and consistently active community participant over two and half decades? “I think when you've been in a place for 25 years, you have to grow along with the school and with the world,” she says. “Teenagers are always going to represent the change in how we learn and what we learn, so you have to adapt and adjust and move with them.” 
 
Also playing a big role in the length of her tenure is the school’s warm and welcoming community. “Trinity feels like family to me,” she says. “The people here embraced me, as well as my husband and children. The faculty and staff are passionate about what they do and feel both supported and safe in their jobs. The students are fun and engaged. They bring me joy on a daily basis.”
 
Token of Appreciation

Charlotte’s favorite anecdote is one that also demonstrates her humility and dedication to Trinity. Tom Aycock, the former head of school, asked Morris to name one thing he could do to make her time in the classroom feel better. Feeling relatively content and supported, she said, “Tom, the only thing you could do for me is give me a window.” For a few months, she went about her teaching without giving the conversation much thought and went home for Christmas Break. “When I walked in for the first day of school in January and opened my door, there was a window in my classroom! It was one of the greatest gifts that anybody could have given me. It made me so happy.”
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