Friday, September 20, 2024

BRIDGEWATER STATE UNIVERSITY ALUMINAR

“A COOKIE & ME”

KATHY (KERAS) TEAHAN

While earning her English degree at BSU, one of Kathy (Keras) Teahan’s part-time jobs was as a “salad girl” in the kitchen of the Toll House Restaurant in Whitman.

In 1997, her first year in the legislature, a third grade class from Somerset asked, then, Representative Teahan to help them make the Toll House chocolate chip cookie, the Official Massachusetts Cookie. 

 

In this Aluminar, Teahan will share research, adventures and challenges that she enjoyed as she developed a passion for politics and a book about Ruth Wakefield’s famous cookie.

Register to get the zoom link for the Wednesday, December 9, 2020 @ 12:30 p.m. discussion 

here

 

Kathy Teahan, ’69, lived in Whitman, Massachusetts, the home of the Toll House Restaurant.

 

While working her way through college, one of her summer jobs was as a salad girl at the restaurant.

 

After college she taught in East Bridgewater at the Gordon Mitchell Middle School.

 

One of her treasured activities was having her eighth grade students write picture books for third grade partners.

 

Reading has always been her pleasure and she enjoys watching her grandchildren develop a love of reading, as well as creating stories for them.

Teahan served in the Massachusetts Legislature from 1997-2007. Social justice is a passion for her.

 

She served on the Whitman School Committee for six years and in the past, has volunteered in classrooms, food programs, scholarship committees and several outreach programs including Habitat for Humanity.

 

Throughout her years in the legislature, she worked for justice, quality education for all, improved health (especially oral health) and equal rights.

 

She currently helps others seeking positions in public office and works with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston on social justice issues. 

 

In 2007, Kathy published a children’s book, The Cookie Loved ‘Round the World, which tells the history of the creation of the Toll House Chocolate chip cookie.

When Teahan moved to Harwich Port in 2008, she started writing a memoir about her ten years in the Massachusetts legislature.

 

Concerned by the troubling political division and the systemic racism in the United States, Kathy finished her memoir in September 2020.

 

Her goal is to leave a better world for her grandchildren and children throughout the world.

 

Kathy was married for 26 years to the late Bob Teahan. Bob was a BSU Alumna and is in its Athletic Hall of Fame.

 

She is the mother of Anne Teahan-Dunning, Jean, Bob and John Teahan, and is blessed.