Endowing the Emma Experience: The Larita Moultrie-Blue ’73 Scholarship

“If you knew Larita, you knew Emma Willard School,” shared Dr. Blue. “Her knitting friends, her Mahjong friends, her rug hooking friends—they all tell me of her fondness for the school, so I think this would make her happy to know her passion for the school would carry on.”

Larita, who originally hailed from San Diego, California, attended Northeastern University after her time at Emma Willard and earned a bachelor of science before obtaining a master of arts in international trade law from Antioch University. She also achieved a juris doctorate degree from Southland University. She and Jerome were married in 1981 and, despite never having children, they cared for many children throughout their lives together.

“She would shop all year long for Christmas presents for the young children in need and it was such a joy for her to see them happy,” recalls Dr. Blue. “She also loved to knit and would buy children little knitting kits that she would teach them with. That was how she shared her love.”
A devoted supporter of her alma mater, Larita was a consistent donor to The Emma Fund and carefully curated all of her correspondence with the school over the years. Dr. Blue notes discovering a 1970 letter in Larita's collection inviting her to visit Emma Willard, along with many photos of campus, including of Sage Tower and the new (at the time) Dietel Library.

“I’ll never forget when she handed me a t-shirt that said ‘I’m an Emma Willard Husband’ on it. And I said, ‘What will I ever do with this?’ But, of course, I wore it and it made her smile—everything about the school made her smile.”

One of the items Larita also had a passion for was collecting rare and vintage dolls, which she instructed her husband to donate to the National Black Doll Museum of History and Culture upon her passing so that other children could appreciate them. When the museum came to take the collection, Dr. Blue recalls coming across one doll in particular that stood out from the rest:

“It had a construction hat placed on it and, at first, I went to take it off, but then I thought, ‘No, she put it there for a reason.’ And I realized, it was something she had thought of, you see? That a little girl would see it someday and say, ‘I can do anything.’”

This article was written for the Fall 2025 Infinite Horizon Campaign Newsletter.