Career comes full circle for retiring educator

LYNN – After 26 years Gretchen Hosker is preparing to take her final bow at the Little Theatre School but not without a little drama first.”We’ll have this little (reception) Tuesday,” she said. “I always cry but I will make it so I don’t. I’m ready.”The Lynnfield Street school combines music, drama, play and movement with academics, and will play host for a reception from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. where students past and present are invited to stop in to say goodbye and good luck to Miss Hosker.Hosker said it’s not so much that it’s time for her to move on but that she has other things she wants to accomplish.”I could do this forever. I love it,” she said. “But in order to do something else, it has to be time.”Hosker was 10 years old when she opened her first “school.””It was 1970 and I opened the Sunshine Nursery in my garage,” she said. “I always knew I would do this but my mother would say, ?Honey, you really should be a nurse.'”Hosker said she charged parents 25 cents, had six kids she would teach for four hours then give them lunch and send them home.Despite her early venture, Hosker did become a nurse but a chance meeting changed everything. Hosker said she was working the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift at Salem Hospital when she realized one of her patients was her former Girl Scout leader. She said the woman was surprised to find Hosker had become a nurse because she always thought she would be a teacher. Then she offered Hosker a job.”That was it,” she said. “I went back to Salem State and got my certificate.”A couple of years later, Hosker learned through her in-laws that the Little Theatre School was for sale and she decided to go for it. She is only the third owner of the school that was established in 1944 by two women, one who danced vaudeville and one who was an elocutionist.”That’s how it got the Little Theatre name,” she said. “And it’s always kept that theme. There has always been a musical director at the school.”Hosker was 27 when she became the new owner and working with women who had more experience, she said.”It was kind of hard, but they were such quality people that it wasn’t a problem,” she said.Aside from one who left when she came on board, she said she didn’t have anyone leave for the first 10 or 15 years and the initial replacement she hired only retired last year after 25 years of working with Hosker.”The joke was you had to give me two years’ notice before you could leave,” she said. “We had stability.”The staff also had deep friendships and a built in support system, which Hosker said proved invaluable over the years.”I would wake up smiling every single day and wanted to go to work,” she said. “There wasn’t one day, unless maybe I was sick, that I didn’t want to go in because I was working with my friends.”It wasn’t just teachers who Hosker had high praise for, either. She said her best hire was actually a Classical High School student, Eric Held, who cleaned for her. His mother worked at the school and asked Hosker to give her son a shot and she did.”The place was never so spic and span and everyone noticed,” she said. “And I’ve never found anyone as good.”Held went on to attend Boston College. She also had former students who attended Harvard, Tufts University and other top colleges. She also counts herself fortunate that all of her brothers and sisters children came through Little Theatre, and she had students who were the children and grandchildren of former students.”There is a lot of loyalty here,” she said.She is also lucky in that she leaves her career with no regrets and plans for Phase II, going back to nursing.”I will miss the people ? “It’s been a good run though, I had a good and loyal staff, and I feel I’ve treated people well,” Hosker said. “What more can you ask for?”