Mrs. Martinez-Fonts DeGaal taught first Latin and then Spanish at St. Mary's High School from 1965 to 1992. Like so many other freedom-loving Cubans, she fled her beloved native Cuba in 1960 after the communist revolution devastated her country, she felt blessed to have settled in Manhasset with her husband and five children. She began teaching at St. Mary's a few years later, and one daughter and three sons went on to graduate from the high school. 

 

Her children established the Martinez-Fonts Family Memorial Scholarship in loving memory of their mother, whom they consider to be their first teacher, instilling in them a love of faith, a love of family, and a love and gratitude for the freedom they had all found in America, their adopted country. Their mother's commitment to Catholic education and her passion for life-long learning greatly enriched and influenced their own lives — and those of her grandchildren. 

 

Her two oldest grandchildren, Lliki Larrea Moyer of Deland, FL and Andrew Martinez-Fonts who resides in Berlin, Germany, have volunteered to be the younger generation's stewards of the family scholarship, ensuring that the next generation can be involved and engaged in keeping their grandmother's legacy alive. If you had Mrs. Martinez-Fonts as a teacher and wish to help continue this legacy, please join those that have created this scholarship.

 

The family have requested that the scholarship be awarded to a young woman, who in the estimation of the faculty, exhibits academic excellence in the Spanish language, is someone who embodies Mrs. Martinez-Fonts' passion for learning, and who demonstrates an appreciation for the benefits of a Catholic education.