Baldwin School muse for 42 years

Lois C. Nosich Goutman, 86, of Rosemont, who taught drama to generations of students at the Baldwin School, died Jan. 6 at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital after a fall at home.

For 42 years, Mrs. Goutman directed a dozen theatrical performances a year in a converted stable at the private girls' academy in Bryn Mawr. After retiring in 1993, she told an Inquirer reporter that she had preferred the small, rustic space. "Kids can get lost in a large auditorium. We didn't have modern technology, so the girls had to make do and be inventive," she said.

Since her death, Baldwin graduates have shared memories of Mrs. Goutman's speech and drama classes on the school's Facebook page. One recalled that she could still recite every line of "Theophilus Thistle, the Successful Thistle Sifter," a tongue twister that Mrs. Goutman used to teach diction.

Another said she vividly recalled when she accidentally flung cottage cheese at Mrs. Goutman in the lunchroom. Months later, the teacher signed her program for Baldwin's production of The Madwoman of Chaillot. "She said that my portrayal of Pierre was 'finely textured - much better than cottage cheese,' " recalled the student, who said she graduated from Baldwin 40 years ago. "Lois had a commanding presence and a wonderful theatrical voice," said Blair Stambaugh, who was head of school from 1980 to 2006. "There was never a discipline problem in her class."

Besides her work at Baldwin, Mrs. Goutman performed in community theater and in the 1960s and 1970s directed musicals for the Rosemont Rollicks, a theater group. "She was amazing. She would be at rehearsals until 11 p.m.," said her son Christopher, a former actor who is executive producer of the daytime television drama As the World Turns.

In 1993, the year she retired, she fulfilled a long-held desire to direct a Baldwin faculty musical. The Boyfriend sold out its three performances. Each year before the holiday dinner for faculty and staff, Mrs. Goutman recited "The Night Before Christmas," with her colleagues sitting on the steps like attentive children, Stambaugh said.

For many summers, Mrs. Goutman was a counselor and drama coach at Camp Magar, a day camp on the Main Line. "She had us do improvs after picking three completely unrelated words on slips of paper," said Lisa Jo Epstein, who was also a student in Mrs. Goutman's drama classes. Epstein is founder and artistic director of Gas & Electric Arts, a theater organization in Philadelphia.

A native of Clairton, Pa., Mrs. Goutman started performing at 13 when she sang on a local radio program. She studied acting at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. After graduation, she performed in stock theater using her stage name Lois Clair. In New York, she appeared in the Broadway production of The Tempest in the 1940s and sang in nightclubs. In 1947, she married artist Dolya Goutman after a six-week courtship. The next year they moved to the Main Line when he joined the faculty of Harcum College in Bryn Mawr. He was later a professor at Moore College of Art and Design. Twelve days after the birth of their first son in 1951, Mrs. Goutman began teaching at Baldwin. She and her husband had two more sons and often collaborated on set designs for Baldwin plays. He painted a portrait for a scene in the upper school's 1985 production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

In an Inquirer interview shortly before her retirement, Mrs. Goutman pointed to a pile of letters from grateful students. "This is my immortality," she said. "Nothing I could do in theater, even as a great actress, could compare with thinking I actually made a difference in someone's life."

Since her husband's death in 2001, she stayed active in the theater, performing readings and directing, most recently at Surrey Services for Seniors in Berwyn. She loved language and poetry and was a passionate theatergoer, her son Christopher said.

Mrs. Goutman is also survived by sons Andrew and Thomas and three grandchildren.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Thomas of Villanova Church on the Villanova University campus, where friends may call after 10. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery, West Conshohocken. The Baldwin School will offer a memorial tribute to Mrs. Goutman during reunion weekend in April. Memorial donations may be made to the Baldwin School, 701 Montgomery Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010.