Amy Bullard (Perry) Lloyd
Born August 11, 1955. Died May 2, 2024.
Amy was born in Boston MA to Martha (Keith) Perry and Edward A. Perry. She was the youngest of four children. Amy moved from MA to Webster Groves MO before starting school. She attended the Webster Groves public school system-Bristol Elementary, Hixson Junior High, graduating from Webster Groves High School in 1973. Amy started college at Tulsa University for a year and then earned her bachelor’s degree in special education from Fontbonne University in St. Louis in 1977. She immediately went to work for the St. Louis County Special School District as a high school teacher of the severely handicapped. That same year Amy married Alan Lloyd and in 1985, they had a son, Stephen. Amy and Alan renovated an 1892 Victorian home in the Benton Park neighborhood of St. Louis, MO. Amy loved old buildings and antiques and old people (really, all people). Amy was always involved in her community doing volunteer work, and in community leadership and activism. She was a founder and president of the Benton Park Historical Neighborhood Association. She volunteered for the Special Olympics as well as being a docent in the 1849 Henry Shaw House at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Amy, Alan, and Stephen moved to California in 1987 so that Alan could attend graduate school. In California Amy was the founding board Vice President for the Stanford Arboretum Children’s Center and was the lead for earthquake preparedness in her Escondido Village community. She taught Middle School in the Palo Alto Unified School District. During this time Amy and Alan had a daughter, Alice, in 1988. In 1995, Amy’s family of four moved to Austin TX so that Alan could take a position at The University of Texas at Austin. Amy taught 5th grade at Barton Hills Elementary in the Austin Independent School District (AISD). She went back to school to earn her master’s in education administration in 2005 from The University of Texas at Austin. Amy was an Assistant Principal at Barton Hills Elementary and then Clayton Elementary before becoming the Principal of Cunningham Elementary for 9 years, all within the AISD. She was completely committed to the cause of children and the underprivileged and to the causes of diversity, equity, and social justice in all walks of life. During her time in Austin, Amy dedicated time to volunteer at Ten Thousand Villages, a fair-trade store and organization. She eventually became chairman of the board of directors for the store, and after her retirement from school administration, she was hired to be the store Managing Director. She retired from the store in 2022, rejoined the board and remained involved in this cause until her passing. She was also the president of the board for Go Austin/Vamos Austin (GAVA), an organization devoted to community health and empowerment. Amy instigated the foundation of Partners for Education, Agriculture and Sustainability (PEAS) Farm in 2011. Amy described herself as: “Proud Retired Principal-Fiercely devoted to-Undoing Racism-Cultural Empowerment-Fair Trade-Social Emotional Health-Environmental Justice-Raw Creativity.”
In addition to all her professional accomplishments, Amy loved to party, she loved concerts and festivals, she loved to garden and to eat out, she loved HGTV, Jumble, being late, and scarves. She loved to camp when she was younger, and she loved to travel in comfort in later years enjoying many trips around the US and to Europe, Mexico, Canada, and Australia. Amy was generous to a fault, she was a constant advocate for all those around her, and she had many deep friendships. In the year
before her death, the family moved from Austin TX to Pittsford NY and bought another old house to work on. Amy was in her element at the end, enjoying her new house, her new town, her new neighbors, and her new grandson. She was a beautiful, loving, compassionate, and passionate person and is sorely missed by everyone who ever knew her. She left the world a much better place.
Amy struggled with diverse cancers over the last 20 years of her life, and she eventually succumbed to metastatic breast cancer. She is survived by her husband Alan Lloyd, her son and daughter-in-law Stephen Lloyd and Helen Lloyd, her daughter Alice Lloyd, and her grandson Desmond Lloyd; her brothers: Carlton (and his wife Eleanor), Roderick (and his wife Cheryl), and Nathaniel Perry; her nieces and nephews: Nikki Perry, Ellen (Lloyd-Reilley) Rackley (and Ellen’s husband and son, Heath and Harper), Jack Lloyd-Reilley, William Lloyd-Reilley (and his wife Savannah), Shannon Messer, Miranda Johnston, Stephanie Russell; her in laws: David Lloyd, Mary Lloyd, Martha (Lloyd) Messer, Janice Lloyd, Larry Messer, John Lloyd-Reilley, Michele German, and Robert Sherman.
We will celebrate Amy’s life on October 19, 2024, at 1 PM at Barton Hills Elementary School in Austin, Texas. Live music, free food, and door prizes
We are so sorry for the loss of such a lovely person. Our kids attended Barton Hills Elementary in the early 2000s and we remember Mrs. Lloyd fondly. She was always cheerful, pleasant, and very fair-minded when it came to handling kids. May her memory always be a blessing.
Amy was a passionate advocate for Dual Language Ed. and worked very closely with me when I was assistant director of Multilingual Ed with AustinISD. As soon as I arrived at Cunnigham to see about her program she sat me down and said “Claudia, we have to make DL happen here! It’s about social and language justice.” She trusted me to work with her staff and her families to figure out how to make the program to her standards- “nothing less than great”! She saw the potential in all people and children. She inspired me to do the real work of education – equity. I will forever remember her as my mentor and my kind friend. I am so sorry for your families’ loss but Amy will always be remembered by so many of us in her Austin ISD family.
While serving as AISD’s Chief Academic Officer I met with Amy as the principal at Cunningham Elementary. We were just rolling out a new Social & Emotional Learning program in AISD. Amy was one of our biggest advocates, but at this time she was distraught over the pressure she was getting from her supervisors to raise test scores. She just did not believe in the recommendations they were making for requiring her teachers to do endless test prep. As we brainstormed together her commitment to her students and teachers and to always do what was right for kids was clearly evident. We continued our conversations and discussed a model from El Paso called Microsociety Schools. As we examined the model you could visibly see the joy that it brought to Amy’s heart because it was so aligned to her core beliefs as an educator. Her strategic and innovative nature kicked in as she now could envision the future of her school. It was a perfect fit for the school she had always dreamed of leading. After collaborating with her teacher leaders and parent leaders a Cunningham MicroSociety school where students created and managed their own miniature society within the school day was created. Systems were created where learning was relevant to students’ lives and intent on helping them develop into leaders, entrepreneurs, and confident citizens. Cunningham provided student-centered, real-world learning that required shared responsibility across grade levels.
This is how I will forever remember Amy….that beautiful smile, her endless commitment to her school community, the joy in her heart when she knew she was doing what was right for kids! May her spirit live in all of us as we continue to try to do what is right for our children.
I am still in shocked and saddened that she us no longer here. I’m one of the bilingual teachers for the Vietnamese students and Ms. Lloyd was always there supporting me and the children. I’ll always remember her beautiful smile and how kind she was.
I hope she is happy wherever she is! She did one time visited me in my dream and I woke up from that feeling happy that she knew how much I truly missed her!
Mrs. Lloyd was an amazing teacher with a big heart. She was my sons’ fifth grade teacher at Barton Hills Elementary. Always patient with a listening ear. This world is a better place due to her.