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Luellia Vesta Harvey was born May 8, 1861,  in
Hicksville, Ohio. She was blessed with a natural ability and desire to learn, and after
she graduated from high school, she likewise demonstrated an ability
to teach. After two years working as a schoolteacher, she went to Ohio Wesleyan University, where
she
would eventually meet John Cassedy. When she
graduated with a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan, it was with the highest grade point average the school had
ever seen. She left Ohio to teach at Central Female College in
Lexington, Missouri, but it was only a matter of one school year before she and
John decided to marry and she joined him at Lasell Seminary. While she had no formal teaching position
at Lasell, she sometimes assisted her husband, and she became very popular
with the students.
Soon after John accepted a new position at Norfolk
College for Young Women, she was also given a position and the title of "Lady
Principal." But she was as anxious as her husband for a school of their
own to apply their personal approach to education of young women.
At National Park Seminary, she demonstrated a
sensitivity to issues that might prove divisive or exclusionary. When she
learned that Charlotte Priest had been secretly
organizing a literary society among a select group of students, she became
concerned about the effect it might have on the other girls. Her response was to
organize a public sorority ("Geuth-Hebrew Society") as an
alternative to Priest's group ("Chiopi") and to build the first
sorority house for Geuth (which later became Alpha Epsilon Pi). However,
the clubhouse for Chiopi soon followed, and Charlotte Priest was encouraged to develop
the sorority system at NPS.
Another example of this sensitivity occured in 1909
when clothes-consciousness became a potential problem. She intervened to
prevent extravagence in the 1909 Commencement exercise, since it might have the
effect of stratifying the student body to the detriment of some of the girls.
Eventually this problem was resolved by instituting a school
uniform.
Unfortunately, around this time, she began getting
sick. It was kept from the students, but she had surgery at Johns
Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for uterine cancer. The surgery was not totally
successful, as it spread. She was moved to Boston for more surgery, but it was found to have
affected her whole lower body. She died on Valentine's Day, 1910. The news
was withheld from the students so they could enjoy their holiday dinner, but when
they were told the next morning, the students sat in silent shock. The great
influence Vesta Cassedy had had on the success of the school became apparent
after she was gone.
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