Cedar Hill Chronicle (Cedar Hill, Tex.), Vol. 9, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 13, 1973 Page: 9 of 11
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Herald Feature Tells Love
Norman and Judy
Amps, owners of
Whitehall School in
Cedar Hill, were fea-
tured in a story writ-
ten by Vivian Castle-
berry in The Dallas
Times-Herald Sunday,
December 9.
Following is the
story quoted from the
Herald:
Over the headboard
of their bed hangs a
copy of a Sister Mary
Corita painting. In a
sense, it tells the story
of Norman and Judy
Amps. For, in one let-
ter of the painting here
is the quotation, 'In the
midst of winter I final-
ly learned that there
was in me an invisible
summer."
Judy found it the day
Norman Amps arrived
in the country "to see
if we really should get
married," says he.
Norman Amps is
British. When he met
Judy aboard the Cunard
ship Caramania on a
cruise of the Greek is-
lands, he was a Roman
Catholic
She
prist.
was a Dallas public re-
lations woman. "We
ot into a discussion a-
out my theory that
priests are anach-
ronistic because they
can't marry," Judy re-
members. "He asked
me to dinner on our
next stop in Sicily to
discuss the matter fur-
ther." They ended up
discussing "ttiat
theory — and others
as the tour con-
tinued through the
Mediterranean is-
lands.
He had no quarrel
with the priesthood or
his role in the church,
said Norman Amps,
who retired with
Rome's blessings. "If
I had not met Judy, I
would be there still.
"When you are in a
situation as I was, if
you are mature, you
make decisions."
Sitting relaxed in his
office at Whitehall
School which he and
Judy opened a month
after they were mar-
ried in August, 1972,
Norman Amps exudes a
presence that fills the
room. It is a combi-
nation of confidence,
command and cordial-
ity amid the pleasant
clutter of books over-
flowing their cases,
papers covering a
painted red desk and
the comfort of brightly
colored chintz-cover-
ed sofa and chairs
bearing marks that
people have been there.
The office, a large
sunny room, its win~
dows covered in the
same happy chintz,*
spills out onto a closed- J
in greenhouse porch
with dozens of plants^
and some of the birds
(a pair of parakeets,
a parrot, a pair of
doves hovering over
their new baby) that
•comprise the growing
menagerie at the
school. Outside >; a
nanny goat noses her 3-
day-ola kid to the top of
a craggy rock pile. A
puppy cuddles in the
arm of one of the
teachers on her way to
turn in reports before
Mi i> m
M'
she leaves for the day.
The last child-filled
car has just pulled a-
way from the parking
lot outside the main
house - school where
the office serves as
the divider between the
private quarters of
Whitehall's headm as -
ter and- /headmistress.
A lei
what
THE NORMAN AMPS
lish, ma
bake;
corsfuB|On
ters
other
and
atu;
also
room&
Dotii
told
ages,
varying
Dallas, Times Herald Photo tangles
carpen-
and
cpming
L £ ni-
_ ,4>arn
Qiass-
Of Couple
collage a building. A- Whits on with The Dal -
nothe r is decorating las Times Herald and
a room for Christmas, has been in public re-
iXtension of
-car
a
£atorv
high
just
nt its
the
imilar
they
n.ex-
what
does
.■"MfSf'Slff
kmde^gartn^rs, „ work
puzzles .and. iistfem to
music at the close of
their day, has
been filled fjthIs and -
paintir^.|jlariciB^f pag-
ing aneM lots 6® * what
most adults ^Q®d call
"just playing/^' Toys
of all types spill out
onto the yaxef.
"Out ^approach is
children want to know.
We want to keep fresh
and new this natural
need to learn. We hope
to eliminate things that
stop them from wanting
to know," Norman
Amps says.
Across the way, a
huge red fearn is being
turned into learning
centers. A year ago
it held hay and horses
now Iqds learn Eng-
history, ge-
s^metimes
* iTjtid the
Another is creating a
family. Next door a
7 - year - old boy
finishes his music les-
son for the day, heaves
a sigh, remembers his
manners until henears
the door where he ex-
plodes onto the play-
§ round where a soft-
all game is in pro-
gress.
"You can stand on
that corner of our
property," says Judy,
pointing northeast
from the Cedar Hill
location of Whitehall,
"and see Dallas. You
can stand on that cor-
ner, she moves her
arm northwest, "and
see Fort Worth."
The school opened
with 56 students, it
now has 166 ranging
in age from 3 through
high school junior.
Nest year there will be
a senior class. All
subjects, texts and
programs are geared
to accreditation. The
Amps and their faculty
---now it numbers one
teacher for every eight
students—expect it
soon.
But they are not ed-
ucating kids to reflect
credit on the school by
making superior
grades in college.
Whitehall, in fact, has
no graded curricula
and sends home no
A, B, C, D, E, F's; it
sends home no grades
of that sort at ail. Its
headmaster thinks,
"one of the crimes the
U. S. A. has committed
is standardization." He
studied for 11 years on
a college level in Lon-
lations work, including
operating hew own bus-
iness for the last
decade. She still hand-
les some accounts. She
also teaches English at
Whitehall, supple-
menting textbook as-
signment with reading
from several news-
papers and vast out-
side reading. She
hopes to begin a
course in photography
soon.
With his background
in education, Norman's
choice of teaching ca-
reer was natural. The
idea that Judy join him
in their own school is
an outgrowth of their
discussions to find'
something mutually
satisfying they could do
together.
Throughout the tour
of the 10-acre White-
hall campus, a bubbly
baby, cuddled first by
Judy, then by Norman,
breaks into a broad
smile every time
someone speaks to him
—which is often.
His name is Jeremy
and he is the Amps'
bonus. "When you
reach our ages, par-
enthood isn't one of the
things you anticipate
any more. So having
a baby is a surprise
—but more of a de-
light and joy than
ever, " they said in
their Christmas let-
ter last year to friends.
Jeremy's arrival on
June 30 and the days
since then have been a
growing miracle, Judy
says. Her husband,
who calls himself the
practical one in the
. using
rec?. -
' s to-
don, France and Rome family, holds their son
anql, as a priest, was close.
"You know what is
best about all this?,"
he asks, his eyes taking
in the growing pano-
rama. 'It's that I can
watch my baby grow up.
Not many men get to do
that."
both teacher and school
administrator in Eng-
land. Judy, a Fort
Wdrth native, holds de-
rraes from Texas
toman's University.
She began her news-
paper career as Judy
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Taylor, Rick. Cedar Hill Chronicle (Cedar Hill, Tex.), Vol. 9, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 13, 1973, newspaper, December 13, 1973; Cedar Hill, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth480350/m1/9/?rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Zula B. Wylie Memorial Library.