Norwich — Standing at a hotel podium in her hometown Wednesday, Hartford Superior Court Judge Nina F. Elgo recalled a stooped-over elementary school teacher who called her “Lady Bird” and her high school English teacher, best-selling author Wally Lamb, who taught her to think in the “uncomfortable gray area.”

Elgo, the Norwich Rotary/Women’s City Club 2015 Native Daughter Award recipient, said mostly those teachers taught her to care about her community, her peers and everyone around her.

“The honor of being recognized as a Native Daughter of Norwich underscores the support and nurturance I was privileged to enjoy from this community as well,” Elgo said at the luncheon held in her honor, “particularly as a student in this school system.”

Elgo, daughter of Nilda and Loreto Elgo, who still live in Norwich, is currently assigned to the Civil Division of Hartford Superior Court. Prior to that assignment, as an assistant attorney general, she handled habeas corpus and criminal cases, including criminal jury trials and youthful offender matters. In 2005, she served as a faculty member for Connecticut Judges Institute.

Elgo attended John B. Stanton Elementary School and Kelly Junior High School for seventh grade. She was in the first eighth-grade class to attend the new Teachers’ Memorial School in 1975, and graduated from Norwich Free Academy in 1980. 

Elgo graduated from Connecticut College with a degree in government studies and worked as a paralegal in Boston before attending Georgetown University Law Center, where she graduated in 1990.

Elgo credited her parents for giving her a solid foundation and stressed that her school years in Norwich paved the way.

“I have many names and images of teachers in my life who made a difference in my life,” she said. She recalled Lucille Haggerty at Stanton School. Haggerty walked with a cane, but the twinkle in her eyes told students how much she cared, Elgo said.

Lamb assigned her NFA class the book “A Rumor of War” by Philip Caputo, about an officer’s experiences during the Vietnam War. The book's lesson that right and wrong are not easily discerned stuck with Elgo.

“It helped me understand that to act on one’s convictions with integrity, rather than self-righteousness and arrogance, we really need to struggle in that uncomfortable gray area,” Elgo said.

Lamb, seated in the audience, said he couldn’t recall what grade Elgo received on that reading assignment, but “she sure got an A-plus today.”

Elgo said she is pleased that her 17-year-old daughter, Caroline, feels the same way about her teachers. Elgo said her daughter and a friend recently went on a rant that it was “absolutely unacceptable that teachers are not the highest-paid people in our society.” Elgo said she agreed with that assessment.

“This award recognizes that I was graced not only by my own family but the larger family that is this community,” Elgo said, “which profoundly recognizes the importance of education, and specifically, those teachers and educators who, with our families, neighbors and friends, comprise the village that it takes to raise a child.”

c.bessette@theday.com

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