Wheeler, Dortch set to retire in May

High School English Teacher Ann Wheeler and Sixth Grade Science Teacher Amy Dortch have announced that 2024-2025 will be their final years of teaching.
By Juanita I.C. Traughber, Director of Marketing & Communication

After a combined 75 years at University School of Nashville, faculty members Ann Wheeler and Amy Dortch will say farewell to students and English and Science Department faculty. 

Wheeler joined USN in 1985 after earning her Ph.D. studying 20th century fiction and went on to become English Department Chair. She fondly remembers her first year at USN when a faculty member and the senior class planted Harlequin Romances with her name on their book covers and left them around the school.

“The joke grew, the students started a whole mock investigation to discover the master criminal forging my name — and,  finally, I came out of my room, laughing.  I’ve been laughing with students and colleagues daily ever since. I’m going to miss that.

Wheeler said she prefers not to use “the ‘r’ word” but said she will spend the next few months with her brother in Georgia, attending a storytelling festival, taking long walks, reading leisurely, and visiting the Berkshires. 

“[Until then,] most of me is determined to savor every minute I  have left — all the casual hallway interactions, all the goofy classroom moments. They have been the fabric of a good life for me for a long time,” Wheeler said. “So if you catch me with tears in my eyes at some point in the next few weeks, don’t worry or feel bad.  Every inch of this place is filled with memories for me, most of them good.”

Sixth Grade Science Teacher Amy Dortch closes out more than three decades at USN in May. She said when her family moved to Nashville and her younger siblings enrolled at USN, she fell in love with the school and wished she could have attended too but was already in college. She finally got a chance to sit in USN classrooms in 1992 as a Middle School science teacher, and her daughter Rose ’06 graduated from USN. 

“My heart and soul are in this place,” Dortch said. “I feel like I'm leaving things in good hands.”

Dortch, who also coached the mountain biking team, said she plans to spend retirement traveling and enjoying the outdoors out west.

Both Wheeler and Dortch taught long enough to watch their former students become their colleagues.

Be sure to share your best wishes with these faculty when you see them or reach them at awheeler@usn.org and adortch@usn.org through May 2025.
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