(BALTIMORE – September 15, 2026) – Cornell Tilghman. Jackie Green. Leroy Wilson. Denise Sims.
Catherine B. Orange has been far more than a teacher to me. She has been a mentor, a friend, and someone I could always talk to.
Truthfully, she is like a mother.
Ms. Orange was patient with me. She believed in me and helped shape the person I would become.
I first met her when she taught me seventh- and eighth-grade English at William Hugo Lemmel Junior High School. Lemmel had a tough reputation. It was the kind of school where you had to know how to defend yourself.
None of that mattered when you entered Ms. Orange’s classroom.
She was about the lesson. She was about the business. She was sharp as a tack, and she came to school looking sharp every single day. Ms. Orange commanded the classroom because she knew her subject, respected her students, and expected us to learn.
She also knew each of us.
During a recent conversation, Ms. Orange reminded me of something her students used to call me while we were reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
“They said, ‘That’s your Tom Sawyer,’” she recalled.
At first, I questioned what she meant. Tom Sawyer wasn’t exactly an innocent character, especially through the lens of race and slavery.
But Ms. Orange explained it.
“You were always talking, always doing something,” she told me. “You were always up. You always had something to say. You could always answer questions, and you put your own spin on everything.”
That was me.
I was Ms. Orange’s Tom Sawyer—not because of the troubling parts of the story, but because I was always into something, always thinking and always ready to put my own spin on the lesson.
All these years later, she still knows me.
When I told her about my doctoral program, she immediately asked how I was doing in school.
“All A’s?” she asked.
I explained that at this level, it is not just about the grades. It is about submitting assignments when professors ask for them and participating in class.
“Well, you make sure you do that,” she responded.
That is Ms. Orange.
Decades have passed, but she is still my teacher. She is still checking on my work. She is still making sure I do what I am supposed to do.
And she already knew that class participation would never be a problem for me.
“You’re not going to have any problem with participation,” she said.
She knows her Tom Sawyer.
As I grew older, I came to understand that Ms. Orange came from the same kinds of Baltimore communities that shaped so many of us. She understands our young people because she knows where we come from. Her love for Baltimore and its children is as genuine as it gets.
Her service did not end in the classroom. Ms. Orange has been a stalwart leader at Arena Players, one of the nation’s oldest continuously operating African American community theaters. For decades, she has helped preserve and advance an institution that is essential to Baltimore’s cultural history.
She has devoted her life to teaching, mentoring, serving, and opening doors for others.
We are grateful for every lesson, every word of encouragement, and every ounce of service she has given to our city.
My schoolmate Cornell started the effort to bring Ms. Orange’s former students together and give her the recognition she deserves. We thought it fitting to celebrate her as a Joe Manns Black Wall Street honoree on Wednesday, September 30, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Black Wall Street COLIN’S.
The invitation extends especially to her former students from William Hugo Lemmel Junior High School and Baltimore City College, where she served in the Baltimore City Public School System.
This is our opportunity to honor a woman who did far more than teach English.
She taught discipline. She taught excellence. She taught us to think for ourselves. She taught us to take our education, our responsibilities, and our futures seriously.
Some teachers give you lessons for a school year.
Ms. Orange gave me lessons that have lasted a lifetime.
She was my teacher. She became my mentor and my friend.
And somewhere along the way, she became like a mother.
For me, Catherine B. Orange will always be an icon.
