Carolyn Conforti-Browse ’79 vividly recalls a moment early in her 40-year career at Blair that brought a smile to her face. While on duty in Locke Hall, a student confessed, “I love my geometry teacher, Mr. Browse, but I still haven’t met Mrs. Browse.” 

This incident inspired a good deal of laughter in the Browse house, as Carolyn realized that their goal of maintaining independent identities had perhaps been too successful! Over the decades, Carolyn and her husband, Latta Browse, have continued to build complementary legacies while carving out their own unique paths—Latta as a math teacher, advisor and head girls’ cross country coach, and Carolyn as Dean of Campus Life, Director of Leadership Programs, English teacher and assistant softball coach. 

Together, they have raised their children, Tyler ’08 and Annelies ’13, while mentoring countless students whose lives they’ve touched both in and out of the classroom. Their combined 80 years (give or take) at Blair speak volumes about their dedication to the School and impact on the community. 

In this issue’s “Outside the Classroom,” Carolyn and Latta share their extraordinary journey, reflecting on life, work and family in the place they’ve called home for so long.

Questions for Latta & Carolyn 

How did you two meet? 

Latta: We met at Blair, when we were young faculty. I had been teaching here for two years, and Carolyn was recruited when she came back for her fifth reunion. 

Carolyn: When I met Latta, he was so rude! He didn’t even say hello to me, even though [former admission associate] Heidi Rowe introduced us.

Latta: I had just finished up a run! I’m thinking, here is a student my colleague is introducing me to—I’m sure I said hello—but I wasn’t hanging around at that moment. 

Carolyn: We really became friends that year, mostly in the softball season. A couple of his advisees were some of the key players on the team and he was coaching baseball back then, so it was a topic we easily connected on.

How have you navigated a shared Blair experience? 

Latta: Together; it’s really cool having the same job at the same place as my spouse, in the sense that we know each other’s jobs and lives so well. Separate from the personal, we know the professional, and I think that it must be difficult to come home to someone who really doesn’t understand what my day was like. I think that is key, and when we had kids and they came here, they had a pretty full picture of us as parents and teachers, and we had a full picture of them. 

Carolyn: When we got married [in 1987], there were almost no working couples. [Former Director of Advancement and Strategic Planning] Monie Hardwick stepping into a variety of roles at Blair while Chan [Hardwick] was Head of School was the first working couple, and [former faculty members] Kathy and Dick Malley. When we were engaged, older faculty asked me if I would continue to work! It was a different era—no childcare, mostly male faculty—and I often found myself the lone female representative at a Board meeting—at age 28! It was really important to us to maintain our separate voices and distinct identities. We had different styles at first of caring for students, and we disagreed on things, so it was important to keep our opinions independent.

What has been the most rewarding part of working at Blair? 

Carolyn: It’s just so hard to say. When I say teaching, I think coaching. When I say coaching, I think teaching. When I say either of those, I think advising or dorm life. It’s just impossible to decide, it’s all been so powerful. In different years, it’s been different domains. Some years, you know you’ve done the most meaningful work you could do in the dorm setting. Some years, it’s the classroom or as a coach. It really shifts through periods. 

It’s also been meaningful to mentor younger faculty members, but also to be inspired by colleagues and by students. Our students are incredibly inspiring. 

Latta: Teaching, advising and coaching. I’ve been coaching girls’ cross country for 20 years, and it’s become a key part of my identity, but teaching math is also fun. And then advising is super important. The most significant change at Blair since I’ve been here was Chan Hardwick’s introduction of the system whereby students pick their advisors. I think that is everything. All three of those matter so much to me, and those are the pillars on which I built my life here.

Questions for Latta 

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Latta: I never wanted to be a teacher. When my parents dropped me off at college, my father said, “Son, don’t do anything you’ll be ashamed of later,” and my mom said, “Dear, we just want you to be happy, but please don’t be a teacher.” After college, I had halfhearted interviews as a math major with banks and financial firms, but I didn’t make it to any second interviews and knew I had to do something! My family has an adventurous spirit so I decided I’d join the Peace Corps. I thought, “That’s an adventure; as a math major, I’ll teach math.”

I taught high school in Malaysia on an amazing adventure, had a wonderful time and came back at age 26 determined to get a real job and still got nowhere. I “panic applied” to every boarding school I could think of and got offers from Peddie, Lawrenceville and Blair—and, obviously, I chose the right one. I left Blair after we got married to study Islamic Studies at Columbia because I still wasn’t sure about teaching, but, after two years there, I realized that I didn’t want to be an academic. Everything kept bringing me back to teaching, so at age 33, I decided this is where I was meant to be. 

Carolyn: It was the classes of 1989 and 1990—he loved them so much. Those classes sealed the deal.

What was it like raising children at Blair? 

Latta: It was great, kind of a Norman Rockwell sort of small town America. As a kid, you just get so much positive feedback. Everyone loves you, and I don’t think it spoils faculty children. It’s such a beneficial view to feel like the world loves you and it’s such a positive place. This was before there was a daycare center, but Karen Hazen, wife of former Athletics Director Dan Hazen, did an unbelievable job of loving and taking care of our kids when they were young. She was indispensable to their early lives, to have her come over every day and not only be their grandparent but also teach them. We couldn’t have done it without her and that was wonderful for them to have.

Questions for Carolyn

Can you tell us about your time teaching in Belgium? 

Carolyn: Ever since Latta’s Peace Corps experience, he wanted us to have an international adventure. Tyler was at a perfect age, and so we went for it. It wouldn’t have been possible if Chan Hardwick had not understood and paved the way for us to leave and return to Blair within the next few years if we wanted to. 

I didn’t really want to go; Latta was the driving force behind it. But then I went, loved it and didn’t want to come back. And Latta was homesick for Blair so badly. 

It was a great adventure for me. He had gone on those adventures, but I hadn’t, so it was a life-changing experience. Teaching in a day school gave me an entirely new perspective. I was doing a lot more student-facing work in the international school, and he was teaching five sections of 30 students back-to-back, so it was much easier for me to connect into the student community. And when Annelies was born, we decided, “Let’s go back!”

What advice do you give new faculty members at Blair? 

Carolyn: If you love kids, if you have a sense of humor about yourself and you love your subject content—no matter what it is—you will be successful. That doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes, but you will be successful in this job and you will have fun with it. You have to give yourself permission to enjoy it and find the fun. I can vividly remember my first week here thinking this was the best job in the whole world, and I still think so today.