Kate and Andy Mecca
You’re having lunch at the Canoe Club and the couple at the next table is playing dominoes. The next day you’re up at Ke ‘Olu and look, there’s that couple playing dominoes. A couple of days later, there they are at the Beach House, playing more dominoes. You stop by and ask, “Who’s winning?” He says she is; she just smiles.
Kate and Andy Mecca have been playing dominoes in Hawaii since the early 70’s. They used to run the Honolulu marathon and then chill out at the old Hotel Hana Maui. In the late 80s their allegiance moved to the Big Island and they’ve been coming to Hualalai since the hotel opened. Four years ago, they moved their domino set from their room at the Four Seasons to their home and became members of our community.
Kate was born in New York City, raised in New Jersey and attended the University of Pennsylvania. She became a California resident when she attended UCLA, UCSF and Stanford. She was going to become a physician, but got sidetracked in 1965 when she took a job teaching first grade at Grape Street School in Watts in L.A. Even though it was a tumultuous time for that community Kate was hooked.
Though Kate got her Masters and PhD in psychology, teaching became her passion. She gave up the glamorous life of educator in Southern California (and a stint as Snow White at Disneyland) and moved to the Bay Area. She became San Francisco school district’s itinerant reading specialist and then moved on to independent schools when she took the job as head of a small Episcopal school.
In 1976 she started her own private school, Mount Tamalpais School, named after a mountain in Marin County. “It symbolizes reaching for attainable heights.”
Kate’s school is K through 8th grade and has about 300 students with a 1 to 8 faculty-to-student ratio. Her philosophy is that kids should be taught subjects by teachers who have an expertise and passion for the subject, so even in the earliest grades students are exposed to different teachers. All her students learn Spanish, French, Latin and Mandarin before they graduate. Many of her teachers are professionals in their subjects, thus her performing arts instructors all are performers in their own right.
Kate says she and Andy met many years ago when they were working in Drug Rehab. She was quick to clarify that they were on the “professional” side of rehab not the “client” side. Hmmmm…
Kate’s perfect day here at Hualalai is to get up early and walk to Kona Village. Paddle, then have a dunk and swim laps in the Ke ‘Olu pool. A little crossword puzzle, a little lunch, a little dominoes, a couple of hours of work at home and then cocktails and dinner.
Now, about Snow White: Kate worked at Disneyland in the early 60s and said that you never “are” Snow White. You just say, “I know Snow White.” Now I wonder if her students know this little tidbit about the head of their school…
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