The Presidents’ Teacher
KAREN EARNSHAW
At least three Marshall Islands Presidents, including Dr. Hilda Heine, were students of Dianne Brandhorst. Sadly, Dianne died in November in Columbia, South Carolina, at the age of 79.
“I was one of Mrs. Brandhost’s biology students in grade 10 or 11, as were Ministers Kessai Note and Donald Capelle. We were all in the same
class. I am not sure if Chris Loeak was her student as well, as he was a grade younger than us,” Hilda said.
“She was an excellent biology teacher. Science was not my favorite subject but she made her biology class really fun and interesting.”
The background was that after finishing college, Dianne joined the Peace Corps and served in Africa. There met her husband, Allan. According to her obituary, a few years later, she and Allan accepted positions teaching in the Trust Territory of the Pacific. While there, she taught biology to Marshallese adolescents, including three students who would later become President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.”
The obituary tells of how “she learned as much from the Marshallese students as they learned from her. Lecturing one day, she had a difficult time making herself heard over the sound of the crashing surf outside her classroom. ‘Talk under the waves,’ her young students advised her. So she did. That little bit of local wisdom — to make herself heard by not competing with the white noise of the world — would guide her in her career as a teacher but also as a mother, a friend, and a conversationalist.”
While living in the Marshalls, the Presidents’ teacher gave birth to her first son, Kurt, in 1968. Her younger son, Craig, was born three years later, in 1971. This was after she and Allan had returned to the United States.
Footnote: This story first appeared in The Marshall Islands Journal on December 17, 2021.
More stories about education in the Marshall Islands can be found at:
Education Archives • Marshall Islands Guide (infomarshallislands.com)
