Elizabeth “Bitsie” Root presided over countless ceremonies at Phillips Brooks School during the nearly 20 years she served as head of the school. The most meaningful ceremony she’s ever taken part in at the school, however, took place Aug. 15, when the school’s amphitheater was the setting for her marriage to William “Bill” Epperly.
It’s the first marriage for Bitsie. Bill is a widower with three children and five grandchildren.
“School was my life,” says Bitsie, who retired in 1997. Now she and her bridegroom are embarking on a new life together.
After months of passing Bitsie as they both took daily walks in their Menlo Park neighborhood, Bill finally stopped and introduced himself to her last January. “He carried a pocket radio that played classical musical. I always thought, ‘Here comes the music man,'” she says.
After chatting, the couple exchanged phone numbers. He called a couple of days later, inviting her to a performance of “Swan Lake.” Sorry, she was already attending with a friend.
Their first date was lunch at his favorite seafood restaurant, Barbara’s Fish Trap in Princeton. Bitsie reciprocated with an invitation to the San Francisco Symphony.
“Falling in love was the easy part,” says Bill, who proposed on April 27 in the dining room of the Ahwahnee Hotel at Yosemite.
“I was just taken aback. Finally, I said yes!” says Bitsie.
The bride’s brother, Steve Root, gave her away. The bridegroom’s son, Doug Epperly, was best man. Pat Fouquet was her sister’s matron of honor.
Bitsie’s great-nephew, Ben Zdasiuk, was ringbearer. Two of the bridegroom’s children, Allen Epperly and Christine Level, and Bitsie’s nephew and great-nephew, David Fouquet and Jonathan Zdasiuk, were ushers.
The ceremony was officiated by the Rev. John Oda-Burns, who was rector of Christ Church in Portola Valley for 25 years.
The bride wore a dress with a white bodice and print skirt. She carried a bouquet with hydrangeas and stephanotis. Blue, her favorite color, was used for the flowers and tablecloths at the informal reception.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Elizabeth Root graduated from Connecticut College and had her first teaching job in Englewood, New Jersey.
She moved to California in 1958 and became interested in starting a school, Trinity Parish School, which opened in Menlo Park in 1961. In 1978, the school moved to the site of the former La Loma School in the Las Lomitas School District, taking the name of the Phillips Brooks School, according to Ms. Root. She served as head of the independent, coeducational elementary school until retiring in 1997.
After retiring, she served on the boards of Castilleja School, the International School of the Peninsula, and the Charles Armstrong School.
Bill Epperly was born in Maryland and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in electrical engineering. He moved to Menlo Park in 1967. His professional career included work at several Silicon Valley companies, where his expertise was in engineering, marketing and general management. He retired in 1986.
Golf, tennis, and tutoring in math at Hillview School, which his three children attended, have kept him busy in later years.
After a honeymoon in the Canadian Rockies, the newlyweds will live in Bitsie’s Menlo Park home. They are keeping Bill’s home, also in Menlo Park, as a guest house for family and friends.
