Still caring

Will Talamell

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The Yale College Class of 1971 celebrates its 50th anniversary this spring, and so does one of the class’s proudest projects: the Calvin Hill Day Care Center. Born of the social justice activism of May Day 1970, the center’s founding was spearheaded by Kurt Schmoke ’71 and Mary Pearl ’72, who saw that Yale’s union workers needed care for their children. They named it after Calvin Hill ’69, then a star football player for the Dallas Cowboys.

Housed in a Yale-owned converted firehouse, the center has expanded its educational mission over the years to include a full-day kindergarten, and the families now include a broad range of Yale affiliates and New Haven residents. What hasn’t changed: everyone pays on a sliding scale. The Class of ’71 has continued to support the center, as does Hill himself. Director Emerita Carla M. Horwitz says Hill visits often. On one of those visits, when Hill was introduced to the students, a child asked, “How come your daddy named you after a day care center?”