Feb 12, 2004

Volunteer of the Week: Norma Faulkner

Norma Faulkner is having the best time of her life. The Almaden resident spends free time volunteering for not one, but three organizations and loving every minute. Besides her philanthropic pursuits, she enjoys retirement with her husband of 43 years, Dick, spending time with her two grandchildren 5-year-old Madison and 4-month-old Aubrie, winning writing contests and hiking at nearby Almaden Quicksilver County Park.

Faulkner began her career at San Jose Unified School District teaching rambunctious fifth graders science and art. She married, and when her two daughters started elementary school, she tutored homebound children and started substitute teaching. “A job requiring the discipline of a drill sergeant and the talents of a court jester,” the quick-witted Faulkner laughs. Full-time teaching followed. Seeing a San Jose Museum of Art docent presentation in her class on the experience of art, the seed was planted.

In 1982, the job market took a downturn and Faulkner was laid off. She enrolled at San Jose State, earning her master’s degree in instructional technology. Offered a position at Applied Materials, she accepted, starting as a secretary and working her way up the corporate ladder to service marketing, “a job that was like wearing an expensive pair of shoes that didn’t fit.”

An emergency surgery caused Faulkner to reprioritize her life, retiring after 15 years with the company to pursue her altruistic desires. She remembered the art docent and signed up for the museum’s “Let’s Look at Art” (LLAA) program. After the six weeks of training, she now visits classrooms from kindergarten to sixth grade, encouraging the understanding of visual language by group discussion and display of art reproductions.

“Norma has become an integral part of the LLAA program in just a few years,” Linda Higgins, president of LLAA said. “In addition to being a docent in the classroom, she is a co-chair of Continuing Education. Norma helps set up speakers for the LLAA general meetings that occur every other month and/or study trips focusing on more art exposure for the membership.”

LLAA began in 1968 by San Jose Junior League with 17 docents visiting 29 fourth grade classes. In 1973, San Jose Museum of Art took the reins. Last year the educational program visited 450 classes with a total of 10,455 students at 83 schools in Santa Clara County. The program for this year already has scheduled 8,000 presentations for this year. The museum is one of the few in the country that offers a community outreach program.

The energetic Faulkner also volunteers at Montalvo Performing Art Center in Saratoga; ushering and serving beverages a few times a month when authors and celebrities perform. On holidays she donates her time at Sacred Heart Community Center passing out food and toys at Christmas.
An Almaden resident since 1964, Faulkner hikes Almaden Quicksilver Park four times a week, enjoying the solitude and beauty. A lover of words, she entered Los Gatos Times Valentine’s Day contest in 2003 and won first place for a charming essay on meeting her husband by asking him to pass the salt at San Jose State’s cafeteria. A vacation is planned to New Orleans later this year.

The day of our interview, Faulkner displayed with delight a blue and white sailor dress purchased for grandbaby Aubrie and soft pink pajamas for Madison. Her goal in retirement is to “build happy memories with my granddaughters, write, hike, volunteer for things important to me, and enjoy my friends.”

“It is,” she says, “perhaps the sweetest time of all.”

For more information on the Let’s Look at Art program or volunteering call (408) 291-5393 or e-mail jshapiro@sjmusart.org.

—By Jeanne C. Lewis