S02 Maya Stevens Bamford (1939 - 1947), 1915 - 1993

Maya Stevens Bamford was born April 30, 1886 in Kilrea, Northern Ireland to Joseph Rea and Margaret Hazlett Bamford. She graduated with honors from Queen's University of North Ireland with a B.A. degree, and from Cambridge University in England with a diploma with honors in the theory and practice of education. In addition, Miss Bamford studied French literature and poetry for one year at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.

After her arrival in the United States in 1915, Miss Bamford taught at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore

Miss Bamford joined the faculty of Miss Nightingale's Classes as Junior Headmistress and mathematics teacher in the fall of 1919. Her role in the school's administration and academics increased over the years, and she became headmistress in 1939 following Miss Nightingale's retirement, a role in which she served until her own retirement in 1947. Her students and fellow teachers and staff described her later as brilliant, a firm disciplinarian with a fiery temper, but also as having a lively sense of humor. Miss Bamford is credited with the school's strong academic orientation and supervising the construction of the schoolhouse in 1929, at which time it was renamed the Nightingale-Bamford School.

Miss Bamford died on January 17, 1978 in Rockland, Maine. A memorial service was held at the Nightingale-Bamford School on March 15, 1978.