For hundreds of Williston Academy alumni, Sarah Wallis Stevens was a warm and compassionate presence in an era of strict boarding school rules. Dubbed Williston’s “den mother” by many, Sarah was the wife of longtime Headmaster Phillips Stevens and was known for her playful manner, her weekly teas and homemade cookies, and her trademark halo of braids. Small wonder that then Arts Department Head James Gardner, who taught at Williston between 1955-1967, chose to memorialize her in sculpture. Gardner worked first in clay, then cast the bust in bronze. Created sometime in the 1960s, the bust was presented to the Stevens family, and it has remained a fixture in various Stevens homes—until this year, when the family graciously donated it back to the school. Sarah’s sculpture will soon grace the entryway of the Phillips Stevens Chapel, a reminder of the welcome she extended to generations of students.