Corky Kleiner '65

Meet Corky: BCC prepared her for Life

Corky Kleiner grew up in Manchester, NH where she graduated from St. Joseph High School for girls. In her senior year, Corky's father started a position at the Berkshire Gas Company and the whole family moved to Adams, Mass. As the oldest of six siblings, there was no option of going away to college. But the timing worked out perfectly for Corky, as she came to the Berkshires just a couple years after BCC opened. Corky's mother was a teacher and she would walk to her job and back so that Corky could use her car to drive the 18 miles from Adams to BCC every day. "That tells you how important education was in our family. It was more important than anything else."

After BCC, Corky transferred to North Adams State. To her, it simply wasn't the same and she was so unhappy that she dropped out. While her parents at that point had moved back to New Hampshire, they wanted Corky to go to Notre Dame in Manchester: "I had gone to a catholic high school for four years. I absolutely loved BCC. I loved the professors, I loved everything about it. I didn't want to go back to the nuns and I refused. My parents got so upset with me as if I had ruined my life."

Corky decided to get a job and married her husband who grew up in Adams. They started a family but Corky always knew that she wanted to go back to school. "When I grew up, we always had dinner together around the old oval oak table. And at some point, during the dinner, my parents would always bring up college. When I dropped out, I felt like a failure and I knew that it wasn't what I was supposed to do." So, after she had her second child, Corky decided to go back to college, graduated with a Bachelor of Science and eventually got her Master's degree from Notre Dame College. She became a teacher and taught sciences for many years. She eventually became the department head and continued teaching until she retired.

Corky has a wealth of beautiful memories of her former professors at BCC. "The teachers I had while I was at BCC were excellent. It was a good place to be." Starting with the first President of Berkshire Community College, Tom O'Connell. She remembers the first week of classes, when he was welcoming all students. "He said: ‘Look to your right and look to your left. In January one of the ones you're looking at won't be here.' That scared the living daylights out of me because I was always a student that had to study in order to succeed. I was a student that always struggled. So, when he said that, I was thinking ‘I don't want to be the one who is not here.' That was such a motivation for me to take it seriously and really study."

Another Professor who had a tremendous impact on Corky was Clara Park: "She was one of the very best professors I've ever had, if not the best! She made a lasting impression on me. Professor Park was a wealth of knowledge, soft-spoken and always thinking about what was being said. She loved to hear the student's interpretations on what we read and there was always a dialogue going on in her class."

Corky's memories and stories of her teachers at BCC are detailed and clear as if she graduated just a few years ago. She shares how she remembered the kind and always prepared Secretary of the President, Shirley Fowler; the impactful teachings of Prof. Marjorie Fellows and her Sociology and English classes; the "comic relief" of the handsome Mr. Clement; as well her first time listening to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture in Robert Boland's classroom. "Today I love going to art museums and listening to classical music! To me this is so important. If you have a well-rounded education, you can go and talk about things."

Corky summarizes her experience at BCC with the following words: "I was extremely well prepared at BCC. The courses were stringent and there were no gut courses. We read and wrote and discussed constantly. I loved BCC the best out of all the places I went to. The professors were very knowledgeable and demanding but caring and understanding. They truly prepared me for a successful life." Corky is living in Manchester, NH with her husband and reached out to us after receiving the annual Alumni and Friends News 2020. If you would like to share your story with us, get in touch and reach out to alumni@berkshirecc.edu.

I was extremely well prepared at BCC. The courses were stringent and there were no gut courses. We read and wrote and discussed constantly. I loved BCC the best out of all the places I went to. The professors were very knowledgeable and demanding but caring and understanding. They truly prepared me for a successful life.