Much-loved educator killed in the States

FRIDAY, FEB. 10: A Bermudian mentor and educator was killed yesterday in a road accident.

Alma Foggo York, 74, was walking across Puluski Pike in Huntsville, Alabama before 6am when she was involved in a collision with a car.

The driver is said to have stopped, according to WHNT News.

Mrs York was a Huntsville resident but was born and raised in Bermuda. Known by many as Dean York, she was a mother figure to many Bermudian students who attended Oakwood College in Huntsville and Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster, Massachusetts.

Police spokesman Harry Hobbs told US media that the accident happened just north of Heritage Christian School.

Mr Hobbs said Ms York was apparently walking in the left lane of the northbound lanes of Pulaski Pike when she was in collision with a 2003 Dodge Neon that was heading north.

She was employed as the Dean of Students at Atlantic Union College in the 1990s and was the Head of Nursing at Oakwood prior.

Mrs York was known for helping students get to college and settle in.

Dwayne Caines, Government’s Director of Communication and information, spoke of his memories of Ms York.

“Dean York was a mother to most of the students that were at Oakwood during my time.

“She gave us guidance and support as well as a maternal comfort that most of us still needed in our developmental years.

“Once a quarter she would bring the Bermudians to her home where her infamous ice-cream — as well as her rule of not drinking until half an hour after you had eaten your meal — was a strict but awesome reminder of her care and love that she had for her students.”

He continued: “She was a dear confidant and a mentor.

“Bermuda has truly lost a giant and may God’s peace be with her family and friends.”

Howard Ebbin, pastor of the Rockaway Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Southampton, also spoke highly of Mrs York: “My memories of Dean York started when I felt God had called me to pastoral ministry. I had made an appointment to see her at the Adventist Youth Center. 

“During my journey into Hamilton, I had mixed emotions of the certainty of my calling. I pulled over on the roadside and prayed, ‘Lord if you have called me into ministry, when I arrive at Dean York’s office, I would like her to acknowledge my call to being a pastor’.”

He continued: “When I arrived, I had never seen her before and neither had she known me. When I walked into the office, she said, ‘So you have been called to ministry’.

“I responded, ‘Who told you that’ and she said, ‘I can see it all over your face’.”

Pastor Ebbin said when he arrived at Atlantic Union College, Ms York opened her home to him for meals, posts and pans and more. “My wife remembers how we laughed with her at Pizza Hut or Dean York would weasel her way into getting me to go on one of her fishing trips.

“She was an inspiration. I praise God for the life of Dean York.”

Mrs York leaves behind a daughter and a grandson.

Huntsville police say the driver will not be charged in connection with her death.