It was an auspicious recommendation, not only because Mr. Roettinger was a longtime PMSS Board Member who had given much assistance to the School, but also possibly due to his description of his niece: \u201cEsther is one of the most brilliant & charming girls I have ever known & has a lot of common sense.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ethel de Long Zande<\/a>, PMSS co-director, was pleased that Mr. Roettinger wished to place his niece at PMSS and suggested that she could work at the Big Laurel school to \u201chelp with the little children in day school and have sort of continuation school for the young people who are getting restless but who cannot very well be taken in up her until they have had a little more work.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In her letter of application to Mrs. Zande, dated April 23, 1925, Esther questioned whether she should teach grade school a year before applying to PMSS. Mrs. Zande agreed to that arrangement, writing \u201cYou will have standards of comparison which will be most helpful to you and will be bringing a good deal more to your work here.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although at first Mr. Roettinger felt that Esther was ready for work at PMSS, he changed his mind after discussing the issue with his daughter, Elisabeth<\/a>. She had worked at PMSS in the summers of 1914 and 1915 and visited often with her father. She advised that Esther should have a year\u2019s experience teaching elsewhere first, fearing that Esther would become homesick at Big Laurel, which was \u201centirely too remote for a young girl just coming out of college.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Two years later, in June 1927, Esther wrote from her hometown of Detroit that she was following up on her uncle\u2019s encouragement to work at PMSS that summer. Although she stated that she had \u201cvery little actual experience in social work,<\/em>\u201d she \u201cdid case work in connection with one <\/em>[college] course for a year, did volunteer work in Detroit at a small settlement school for a year, …mainly entertainment work,” <\/em>served as a substitute teacher, and was currently teaching high school English. \u201cI<\/em>…enjoy it but my ambition is to get to Pine Mountain.\u201d<\/em> She would be free to leave for PMSS on July 1, 1927.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mrs. Zande welcomed her to PMSS and described a vacancy in which she might fit well. It was a position at the \u201cmodel home, a cottage up on the hill by our infirmary\u2026. We want it to be, not simply a place where the girls get experience in keeping house\u2026, as they will later on in their own homes, but one where the neighbors love to drop in. I have been very anxious to find somebody this summer, who would live there, canning the garden stuff\u2026, see the neighbors, and have a tea-party for them occasionally\u2026.\u201d <\/em>Additional activities may be filling in when the Far House housemother takes a day off, help in the office, and possibly some tutoring. (The Model Home was also called \u201cCountry Cottage<\/a>\u201d and later, \u201cPractice House.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, Esther\u2019s dream to work at PMSS was taking shape, as she wrote to Mrs. Zande that \u201cIt all sounds perfect to me and I can hardly wait to get there. \u2026 I\u2019m so anxious to do something so very worthwhile as this kind of work is and only hope I\u2019m qualified to do my part.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither correspondence nor records have been found in the PMSS Archives covering her summer at Model Home. It was likely a successful summer, though, as Mrs. Zande indicated in a September 1927 letter to Esther. Mrs. Zande had heard from Esther’s uncle that Esther was \u201centhusiastic<\/em>\u201d about her time at Pine Mountain. Mrs. Zande also reported that Mr. Roettinger sent $50 for the addition of two rooms to the Model Home. Esther then sent $50, as well, to complete the amount of the $100 that she had planned to raise for the Model Home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, as Esther wrote in the last letter in her file, dated December 12, 1927, she was \u201cbusy with school, primarily, the direction of two plays, playing the lead in another and much social gaiety\u2026. It must be lovely at Pine Mountain at Christmas time. How I wish I could be there, not only then, but so many times. \u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Michigan Death Index, Esther Talley Roettinger was born on December 9, 1904, and died on November 24, 1976, at Grosse Point Farms, Michigan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n See Also: \u00a0<\/p>\n Title<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Esther Roettinger<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Alt. Title<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Esther Talley Roettinger ; Esther T. Roettinger ; Miss Roettinger ;\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Identifier<\/p>\n<\/td>\nESTHER ROETTINGER: Applying for a PMSS Position<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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ESTHER ROETTINGER: After Pine Mountain<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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ELISABETH ROETTINGER<\/a><\/strong>, Staff – Biography
ESTHER ROETTINGER CORRESPONDENCE<\/a><\/strong>, 1925-1927
PHILIP ROETTINGER,<\/a><\/strong> Board Member – Biography<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ESTHER ROETTINGER Staff<\/a><\/blockquote>