elementary school teacher founders
She graduated from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts with a drama degree. After college, she worked as an elementary school teacher. She then attended the master’s program at the University of Pittsburgh focusing on autistic children.
She became involved after her 15-year-old daughter was raped at her high school. Rather than merely protest, she enlisted two friends to found the center. Oleta Margaret Kirk was born July 12, 1927 in Bozeman, Montana to Howard Manning Kirk, who was a geologist, and Margaret Maxey.
Because of her father’s job, she and her family traveled to many places around the world such as Turkey and Haiti.
From that marriage, she had two children, Maxey and Rebecca Mary. Shortly after the birth of Rebecca Mary, the marriage ended.
This marriage quickly ended. She died in 2005 of a lung biopsy.
