This time last year, Celeste Myall knew next to nothing about LaGrange or LaGrange College. That changed in a hurry when her husband, Dan McAlexander, was announced as 25th president of the liberal arts institution on April 16.

Nearly one year and hundreds of handshakes later, Myall has learned a lot about both the college and the community. And, with her husband’s inauguration coming up a week from Friday, she’s beginning to feel at home in her role as the college’s first lady .

A classical violinist, conductor and violin teacher, Myall was on the faculty of Belmont College in Nashville, Tenn., where her husband was provost before succeeding Stuart Gulley at LaGrange College on July 1. She’s put her music career aside to become an enthusiastic partner in her husband’s work.

“I see my role as to help Dan and make friends for LaGrange College,” Myall said. “It’s Dan’s work, but we can both believe in it, and there are ways I can be helpful.”

The college has “so many wonderful friends,” she said, and one of her first priorities has been to meet as many of them as possible.

That includes being hostess at many functions in the Vernon Street residence provided by the college for its presidents.

“It would be difficult not to feel happy in a house like this,” Myall said.

The “first couple” has blended their own family pieces into the college’s furnishings and, with advice from art professor John Lawrence, hung several paintings from the college’s Lamar Dodd collection in the residence.

“It’s like living in an art gallery. It’s wonderful,” Myall said.

The home is “great for entertaining,” and the couple frequently hosts college functions there. Myall admits to being a novice at formal entertaining, but has gamely poured herself into it, occasionally calling on former LaGrange College first lady Marianne Murphy or other more experienced local hostesses for advice. She also gets ample help from National, the campus service provider, and Aramark, its food vendor.

Living in the presidential home is a new experience for Myall, but she is no stranger to campus life. She’s been involved in higher education, one way or another, almost every day since she graduated from high school in Kansas City, Mo., which she considers her hometown.

Myall met her future husband when both were junior music performance majors at the University of Kansas. She was studying violin; he was, in her words, “the best pianist in the school.” They married soon after graduation and headed for New York to earn graduate degrees in music, he at Julliard and she at Manhattan School of Music. He later earned a doctoral degree from Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music.

Myall and McAlexander spent nearly two decades in Abilene, Texas, where for several years they taught in the music department at Hardin-Simmons on opposite ends of the same hall. She continued to teach, she said with a grin, when McAlexander “went over to the dark side” to become an administrator.

Myall also was concertmaster of the Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra for 15 years, conducted the Abilene Collegiate Orchestra and founded the Abilene Youth Orchestra. When they moved to Belmont, she joined the faculty, directed its summer music camps and musical theater programs and played with the Nashville Symphony.

Although her role is different now, she finds it satisfying because she shares her husband’s passion for higher education and because, as first lady, she has opportunities to spend time with students.

“I love college students. There is no more hopeful time in life than college. I miss teaching them,” she said.

She feels her husband has “an impressive range” of experience as an administrator and that his background as a professor gives him helpful insights and perspective. During his first weeks on the job, McAlexander held individual, one-hour, get-acquainted meetings with every faculty member. It was a demanding commitment, but rather than tiring, Myall saw it energize and inspire him.

“He’d come home so enthused, so impressed, each time with a new story about some amazing person,” she said.

As a teacher herself, she’s found it touching to see the level of involvement La-Grange College faculty members have with their students. During recent exams, for example, college teachers showed up, voluntarily and unexpected, at the tutoring center to relieve student tutors, so they could study for their own exams.

“Lots of schools talk about providing a personal touch, but LC truly has it,” Myall said.

Though full-time employment is not now an option, Myall has welcomed opportunities to be part of the local music community. She filled in with the LaGrange Symphony when assistant concertmaster Callie Hammond was on maternity leave and played in its recent Pops concert.

“It’s quite a good orchestra, and (conductor) Patricio Cobos was very gracious to me,” she said.

She was in the orchestra pit for the college’s fall production of “Brigadoon,” recently conducted a performance at First Presbyterian Church and expects to do more conducting from time to time.

“Conducting is easier to pick up and put down than performing,” she said.

She spends time keeping up with her two grown daughters – Anne, a choreographer, dancer and actress, married to a composer and based in New York; and Alice, a political organizer in Washington, D.C. And she is pleased that her sister, retired teacher Camille Myall, moved to LaGrange to be near them.

“She’s a great friend, and we see each other all the time,” Celeste Myall said.

She and her husband enjoy traveling, something they’ve had little time for lately, but hope to do again. They like to read and “always have fun together,” Myall said.

And she’s finding they enjoy working together on behalf of LaGrange College.

“Dan’s passionate about it, and so am I. We see it as taking a good situation and trying to make it better. It’s always good to dream,” she said.