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On Thursday nights during the war years, when the world felt unsteady and the future uncertain, Mary Beth Claus Tobin mother, Margaret "Peggy" Condon Claus '43, and her classmates at 51 gathered for what they called club.
There was no winejust sweets: fudge, brownies, cookies. It was their sanctuary, a ritual of togetherness that turned campus into community.
Decades later, Tobin 76 still returns to that image. Not out of nostalgia, exactlybut for what it revealed: that community is not an accessory to learning. It is the foundation.
It a belief that has shaped her life work for more than 46 years. As founder and CEO of The Tobin Family of Schools, Tobin has built programs rooted in a premise that, at the time, ran counter to conventional thinking: children cannot learn until they feel they belong.
People look at young children and say, I want them to write, I want them to read early, she said. But one of the things I feel really strongly about is that children need to know where they fit inbecause if they dont know where they fit in, they cant learn.
That convictionformed through observation, experience, and deep empathyhas guided her from Emmanuel Fenway campus to classrooms across MetroWest, from statewide policy work to professional development initiatives, and even, unexpectedly, into the transportation business.
I knew I fit in there.
For Tobin, Emmanuel was never simply a college choice. It was a family connectionand a values statement.
Her mother, her sister, Patricia (Claus) Keating '69, and Tobin herself all graduated from Emmanuel, and she speaks of that multigenerational bond less as legacy than as orientation: toward faith, family, kindness, and meaning.
When she considered other colleges, something essential felt missing. She wasnt drawn to the spectacle of large campuses or the social performance of college life. She was looking for what her mother had found during wartimea core community. A place that felt safe enough to become yourself.
I didnt have to figure out where I fit in, she said. I knew I fit in there. So I could go ahead and learn.
She also valued Emmanuel as it was thena women collegebecause it quieted distractions.
You werent thinking about what you were wearing or whether you sounded stupid in class, she recalled. It didnt matter. I got to be me.
That sense of emotional and intellectual safety became not just a formative experience, but a professional blueprint.
Nearly five decades later, Emmanuel remains a constant in Tobin life. This spring, she will return to 400 The Fenway to celebrate her 50th reunionattending with her close circle of Emmanuel friends. Like her mother classmates before them, those friendships have endured well beyond graduation.
We just pick right up, she said. It like no time has passed at all.
The beginnings of a calling
Tobin commitment to early childhood education surfaced earlylong before it had a name.
As a child, she was observant and quiet, paying close attention to how adults spoke to children and how children responded. One moment stands out: watching a child visibly shut down after being spoken to harshly.
I remember thinking, even then, you didnt have to say it that way, she said. You could have said it differently.
By the time she was babysitting, Tobin was already practicing what would become her professional philosophy. She left parents detailed noteswhat their child ate, how the day unfolded, moments of conflict and joy.
They should know what happened, she said. They should know the struggles and the high points.
It was an early expression of what would define her career: attention to the whole child.
Learning beyond the classroom
While still a student at Emmanuel, Tobin didnt wait for the perfect opportunityshe created one.
With faculty support, she designed an independent internship that became pivotal: 12 hours a week at the Harvard Law School Child Care Center as a toddler teacher, paired with weekly meetings with the center director.
Those conversations became a practicum in leadership. Each week, Tobin arrived with thoughtful questions about curriculum design, hiring and supervision, licensing and regulation, insurance, and the realities of building a program that truly serves children and families.
At the end of the semester, she wrote a paper bringing it all together. It captured a moment of clarity: her work with young children wasnt simply meaningful. It was a calling with a blueprint.
Early childhood, before it was respected
After graduating from Emmanuel in 1976, Tobin earned her M.S. from Wheelock College and entered a field that, at the time, was often dismissed as just daycare.
When she told people she wanted to work in early childhood education, the response was frequently skeptical. But Tobin saw what others overlooked.
This is when it happens, she said. The magic happens now.
That belief guided her as she moved from teaching to leadershipand ultimately to founding her own schools.
On September 2, 1980, Tobin opened her first program. Over time, her work expanded to nine schools across five MetroWest communities, including Framingham, Natick, Sudbury, Needham, and Westwood.
When Tobin opened that first program, she was also raising three young children of her own. They came to school with her each day, grounding her work in lived experience rather than theory. The systems she builtthoughtful routines, daily communication with families, and careful attention to emotional safetyreflected both her professional training and her understanding, as a parent, of what trust requires. That same devotion to family has remained central throughout her life; today, she is a mother of four and grandmother of 13.
From the start, her approach was intentional: a strong curriculum, careful hiring, consistent communication with families, and an unwavering focus on children emotional and social well-being.