Rich and Betsy Lamb celebrate 40 years of educating and inspiring Cranbrook Kingswood students

A growing number of Cranbrook graduates are shaping the future of technology and the digital world in which we live, thanks in part to the inspiration they found in the classrooms of Betsy and Rich Lamb. This year, the Lambs mark four decades at Cranbrook where Rich has led the computer science program and Betsy has led a groundbreaking robotics program, all designed to help students learn to problem solve, think on their feet and grow. Alumni and faculty are invited to gather on Friday, June 9 of reunion weekend to celebrate the many contributions the Lambs have made to campus life and to toast to many more.
Alumni involved in tech careers around the world note the significant contributions the Lambs made in launching their fledgling interests while they were at Cranbrook Kingswood. “Betsy and Rich Lamb are model educators, dedicated to helping students find their passion and to curating learning journeys focused on creative exploration and self-discovery,” says Joshua Siegel, ’07, an entrepreneur and educator who recently won the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, which honors young inventors.
 
“Much of the technology education for which Cranbrook is now known would not have been possible without the concerted efforts of the Lambs,” says Siegel. “Both Betsy and Rich are effective facilitators, mentors, leaders and inspirers who empower their students to take control of their education and succeed. It seems to be a Lamb family characteristic to be able to identify latent passion and untapped skills and to foster the growth of both toward convergent ends.”

That word “facilitator” is one that Betsy Lamb returns to often when describing the roles she and Rich play in the lives of their students. “A good educator is nothing more than a good facilitator,” she says. “I provide opportunity for the kids and what they choose to do with it is up to them.”

Rich adds, “Kids appreciate the autonomy they are given. It’s important to let the kids discover what they need to know.”

The Lambs are both prep school graduates who first met at a school dance. They stayed in touch during college with Betsy earning a degree in history and aspiring to become a teacher while Rich pursued a degree in psychology, so he could take computer courses. After three years on the East Coast, they found themselves at Cranbrook in 1977, contributing to campus life as so many young teachers do – by living in the dorms.

For Rich, it was an experience that made him remember his own days as a boarding student. “I remember what it was like,” he says. “Many times I felt alone and unsure of what to do. I try to help students that I feel are in a similar position, particularly in a boarding situation.”

As Rich settled into the Upper School, building a computer science program that sought to stay in step with groundbreaking technological advances, Betsy found a way to turn her history degree into a highly successful tenure as a science teacher in the Boys Middle School, where her influence is still felt in today’s curriculum.
Over time, Betsy introduced the robotics program to Cranbrook, working hand in hand with volunteers from the automotive and other technology industries to lead students to local, regional and national competitions.

Siegel joined that robotics program as a sixth grader. “Every weekend, I looked forward to spending time in Gordon Science for robotics,” he says. “Mrs. Lamb was always scouting for new projects or finding competitions that would require students to learn something new. I remember when the robotics team got to use a speech synthesis recognition system Mrs. Lamb bought for the team – over a decade before such technology entered the mainstream.”

That ability to help students challenge themselves is one shared by Rich. Says Siegel,” Rich was a wonderful mentor. He always went the extra mile to seek out opportunities for his students to have success. It takes a special person to turn thinking about hard problems algorithmically and debugging code, spending hours looking for a missing semicolon, into one’s formative memories from high school. And yet, that’s something that Doc Lamb is uniquely capable of, and one of the things that makes him such an impactful educator.”
For the Lambs, one of the greatest rewards is to see their students working together and striving to crack new problems. “It is so neat to see the students become completely engrossed in the process of problem solving,” says Betsy. “The best moments are when the teams are hard at work, the music is flowing, the older kids are sharing building skills with the younger teams, and everything in the lab is just humming. There is nothing like these moments.”

Over the years, Betsy and Rich found ways to ensure that their students graduated with skills they could one day apply in their careers. “The workplace of the future will be teamwork based and will need strong leaders,” says Betsy. “We really concentrate on these aspects. When a student really ‘learns’ process, they then own the skills that led to their success. They emerge with experience and the ability to solve problems that will stay with them forever.”

The Lambs have savored the successes of their former students. “It’s great to see a student succeed,” says Rich. “Sometimes the kids will come back after a number of years and they’ll bring up stories you don’t remember and you didn’t realize they made a difference. It’s nice when they come back and say, ‘Now I get what you were saying.’”

For alumni like Siegel, the Lambs have made an enduring difference in their lives. “I am deeply grateful for the nurturing environment Mr. and Mrs. Lamb created for students at Cranbrook, and in particular, for helping expose me to a topic that would later become my passion,” he says. “The Lambs set me up for success as an engineer, researcher, and entrepreneur and did the same for many students before and after me. I know that their contributions have already gone on to change the world for the better and will continue to do so.”
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