In the 11th grade at Myers Park High School, Byron Baldwin taught us to see--not only the world around us but ourselves more clearly. Byron taught us about visual metaphor and self-expression which were very important ideas to a classroom of young sixteen year old teenagers in the seventies.

I will be forever grateful to him for his generosity of time, selflessness and tireless energy in encouraging us to see ourselves in the world around us. We became relevant, inspired and full of new purpose. Suddenly our lives mattered. And we felt like we could make a difference in the world. His classroom experience is a living example of how art can change lives.

I don’t think I’ve ever looked at the world the same since that photography class back in 1977. My name is Linda Foard Roberts and I graduated Myers Park in 1979.