David CookIn 1982, Glynn Key was a senior at Girls Preparatory School when her classmates voted her Most Versatile.
It was a superlative that would prove most telling.
The late Sen. Howard Baker had just nominated her for an appointment at West Point. Other schools were offering her athletic scholarships. There were letters of acceptance from Harvard.
And Princeton.
And Duke.
She finally settled on the University of Virginia, an understandable choice. Key had just been selected a Jefferson Scholar. (Someone would later comment that she set the high-water mark for many applicants to follow).
At 17, she was a pioneer: black, female, and choosing to "Lean In" years before other women would, and even leaving a prank or two in her wake.
"She could be a leader, a brainiac, an athlete and a mischievous imp all at the same time," said Rebecca Sullivan, a childhood friend.
"What I remember most about her was her wry humor," said Jessica Good, who taught and coached Key at GPS. "She could zap you and you didn't even know you were zapped."
Over the next 30 years, Key would become known in the most versatile of places: from the White House to the Everglades to law firms with offices around the globe. In doing so, she became one of our city's most remarkable and accomplished citizens.
Her life should not go unnoticed.
Days before Thanksgiving, she died unexpectedly.
She was 50.
She is survived by many relatives, most notably her parents, Charles and Ruby Key.
At her funeral, people marveled.
"I could not help but feel that this extraordinary level of accomplishment, attained by someone who was barely 50 years old, simply stands out as a model of civic leadership, commitment, activism, hard work, humility, grace, and intelligence, which should surely be loudly celebrated here in Chattanooga, in Charlottesville, and beyond," said local attorney Allen McCallie.
At the time of her death, she was general counsel for a global division of General Electric, a job that required versatility. One day, Key would meet with African heads of state. The next, she would visit health clinics and all-girls schools and play soccer with kids.
During the Clinton administration, she worked with Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt as the lead negotiator in a $700 million Everglades restoration settlement, which required Key to bring together various groups with different needs and interests.
"Environmentalists, local Indian tribes, the farming industry and the federal and state governments," reads her obituary in the Washington Post.
In 1985, she became the first black female elected president of UVA's College of Arts and Sciences. She was also the Honor Committee chairwoman and a leader in the Black Student Alliance.
She seemed Jeffersonian: inquisitive, confident, in love with life.
"A good part of your education comes outside the classroom," she said at the time.
She would later serve on the board for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, as well as the university's Board of Visitors and as a member of the Seven Society.
So what can we learn from Glynn Key?
Or rather, what can our daughters?
In her book "Smart Girls, Gifted Women," the psychologist Barbara Kerr studies the shared experiences of young girls who grow into powerful and confident women.
They have mentors and supportive family. The confidence to reject unbending gender roles. A love of ideas. Time alone to explore their inner world.
Our girls may not grow up to be as global or political or hard-working and busy as Glynn Key. But they can be brave. And versatile. And devoted.
And we must remind them of these things, otherwise a junk-pop culture will steal something from them.
"She seemed to understand the meaning of life, the important things in life from an early age," said Mary Williams Wolf, friends with Glynn since the seventh grade.
Back then, GPS students would write their names down the edges or spines of their textbooks.
You know, to make their mark.
On her textbook, Glynn Key wrote something else.
"Glynn is Love," Wolf remembers.
There is no greater superlative.
Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.