Estelle Leroy

Student

“Whenever I want to quit, I’m drawn back by the wonderful feeling among all the people who work in the Emeritus office.”

The first two days of the week are special in Estelle Leroy’s schedule. On Mondays she volunteers part-time at the Emeritus office helping the regular staff with administrative duties. And on Tuesdays she takes her favorite class—art history with Lillian Staple. “It’s a two-year course that takes in all of civilization from cave paintings through to contemporary art,” Estelle explains. And she adds with a smile, “there’s a wonderful spirit in the class and Lillian is the guiding light behind it.”

Estelle, who used to work as an executive secretary with an aerospace company, has been volunteering with Emeritus for 10 years. “I felt this was a good way of paying back for what I’m getting out of Emeritus College,” she says. “I feel I’m doing something for them because they’re doing so much for so many people.” Together with her husband of 57 years, Estelle has completed anthropology, computer science, plays and playwrights, and art history classes.

Estelle, who plays tennis three times a week and loves reading fiction, moved to California in 1932. She remembers fondly the early 40s when she and her husband owned a chicken ranch in the San Fernando Valley, a completely rural area at the time. A trip to Hollywood Boulevard and the movie palaces was a major outing, she remembers. “When I think of the short time I lived on the ranch, it had a great impact on me,” says Estelle. “The days were much slower than today.”

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