DAWN ANNETTE TAYLOR BUIE

Born in 1949 in Long Beach, California to Nina Blanch Ostrom and Jehu Swithin Taylor, Dawn Annette (Taylor) Buie was a conscientious child, the ultimate good girl who always strove to please her parents and do the right thing. She has always been very creative and artistic with a great sense of humor, an infectious laugh, and a skill for talking. During high school, Dawn discovered that she had a talent for art and decided to pursue an art major at California State University - Long Beach.

Dawn greatly enjoyed her college years studying art and forming friendships, though the competition at the Art Department was intense. After graduation, she had hoped to study graphic design, but finances were tight and she ended up going back to college to obtain her teaching credential. Her first job was as a teacher in a difficult neighborhood in the Long Beach area. A creative and dedicated educator who genuinely enjoyed children, Dawn also brought her talent for art into the classroom.

In June 1978, she married Charles “Larry” Buie, also a public school teacher, and the two began their life together. After a quick one year stint in Colorado, Dawn and Larry moved back to California, much to the relief of both their families. The two had 2 children together — Kristen Jill (Buie) Allison & Gregory Taylor Buie (who would later become one of the founders of Escuela Vera Angelita!). Just before having her first child, Dawn took a break from teaching to raise the children. She raised them in a very practical way, always with an eye toward the future (as her own mother had raised her). She thought constantly about what they needed to do in order to be successful and have meaningful, independent, happy lives in the future. A natural teacher, Dawn was an excellent mother and strong role model.

Dawn later returned to teaching — the second phase of her career — when her children reached young adulthood. She worked first as a teaching aide for children with learning challenges and then as a 3rd grade teacher at a new school (Canyon Rim Elementary) in Anaheim Hills, California as part of the school’s inaugural class.

In late 2008, Dawn was unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage 3C ovarian cancer and had to retire early. She valiantly fought through the illness, enduring several surgeries, multiple rounds of chemotherapy, and other health complications. Despite these challenges, Dawn persevered. Today, she is a proud cancer survivor.

At her retirement party, her son Greg spoke proudly about his mother: “As a teacher who has taught hundreds of young people over the years, as a mother who has raised two children, as an active member of countless groups and organizations, as a friend and colleague, as a citizen of this world…my mother has always committed herself to helping others and doing her part to make this world a better place now and in the future. She is honestly one of the most thoughtful and genuinely caring people you will ever meet. Mother, if you have ever doubted whether your life has had meaning, look around this room, think of your classroom and all the lives you’ve touched there…we’re all around you, constantly reminding you that your life has had great purpose and that your impact can never be erased. The bridges you’ve built will always be there.”

In the years that would follow, she would witness both her children build their families, establish careers, and settle into their own homes. Not long after the birth of their first grandchild Cade, she and Larry moved to Riverside, CA to be closer to him and later his sister London. They enjoyed many adventures together, caring for the two of them, traveling the country in their RV, and taking both domestic and international trips, including trips to Europe and Japan. Today, Dawn continues to enjoy spending time with her children and now 4 grandchildren (with grandsons Samuel & Dilan joining the family through an international adoption from Colombia in 2022) and is always busy planning her next adventure.

The poem “The Bridge Builder” by Will Allen Dromgoole has always been one of her favorites and is a fitting commentary on the impact of her life as a wife, mother, grandmother, and teacher:

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide --
Why build you this bridge at the eventide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pit-fall be,
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."