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GREENSBORO — Sixteen years ago, a group of third and fourth graders from New Garden Friends School sat under the moonlight around a sea turtle nest, watching the sand rise and fall, waiting for the baby turtles to emerge. Sitting with them was teacher and recently named co-headmaster Marty Goldstein. Goldstein remembers that night vividly, as the night he truly felt he was where he needed to be.

“It was absolutely one of those moments of spiritual connectiveness like I never felt in my life,” Goldstein said.

Goldstein shared that and other memories from his 18 years as co-headmaster of the school Friday during a dinner at The Regency Room in his honor, attended by politicians and business and community leaders. Goldstein is retiring this year and will be remembered as a central figure in growing the Quaker school into one of most highly regarded private schools in the area.

Goldstein opened a coffee shop in Greensboro after graduating from UNCG in 1976 with a degree in English and education. But he found a new calling after his children began school at New Garden.

Goldstein volunteered at the school and became a teacher there in 1987 as the school struggled with low enrollment. He helped pull the school from the verge of closing and in 1991 was named co-headmaster, leading the school alongside Dave Tomlin. Under Goldstein and Tomlin the school grew from about 60 students to nearly 300 and built a permanent home in the shadow of fellow Quaker school Guilford College.

Next year, New Garden hopes to open its new high school.

Tomlin said Goldstein’s ability to be both compassionate and a shrewd business man helped the school move forward. It is his friendship, however, that Tomlin said is Goldstein’s greatest gift.

“Marty does a lot of things well, but being your friend he does best of all,” Tomlin said.

Pat Lorenc has taught at the school for 24 years and said Goldstein isn’t just a good friend to his coworkers but to the children as well. She recalled how she had a kindergarten student once who was misbehaving. Goldstein happened to be walking by the room as the child was acting up. “Instead of reprimanding him like some might have done he just picked him up and gave him a great big hug and told him 'I think today is just one of those days when you need extra hugs.’ ”

The school named a scholarship in Goldstein’s honor last week. It will pay for the senior year of a New Garden student who shows the characteristics the school believes its namesake so exemplifies: humor, creativity and compassion to name a few.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com.