Getting Virginia Marti Veith to sit long enough to tape an interview is nigh unto impossible. She'd far rather be showing off the award-winning work – ball gowns made from duct tape, fashion drawings, videos – of some of the 300-plus students enrolled at Virginia Marti College of Art and Design, which she single-handedly founded in 1966.

When she finally settled behind a paper-covered desk at the school, however, she spoke forthrightly and passionately of the people, events and accomplishments – both personal and professional – that have shaped her into the nationally recognized “designing woman” and educator she is today.

When and where were you born and raised?

I was born in 1929 in January in Cleveland . There were five children and I'm the third – a real middle child.

My parents were Romanian immigrants, and when my dad [Peter Sabau] started making money as a furrier, he bought a farm in Medina [County]. As long as he lived we always had a farm.

During the Depression in the '30s, we lived on the farm and I went to school near Grafton. Growing up on that farm was really good training for life. We milked cows and we cleaned out the barn. We had horses on the farm – we were always outside.

When the war started, we moved into Cleveland and eventually we lived at 114 th and Detroit . I graduated from West High School in 1947. I wanted to go to college, so I took the college prep program – and I couldn't wait to get out of school.

When I was 19, I became a Christian….and I wanted to help people, so I started the nursing program at Fairview Hospital . I simply couldn't do it. I think I was too sympathetic to handle what I was seeing. After about 6 months, I realized that I wasn't meant to be a nurse, but I also realized there were other things I could do. Always intrigued by art and design, I started at the Elizabeth Kardos Dress Making School here in Cleveland before going to Cleveland College . Additional studies at the Cleveland Institute of Art prepared me for further study in New York . I spent my last year of study at L'Ecole Guerre-Lavigne [in Paris ]. As you can see, my education didn't just come from one place – it came from many places.

You grew up during the Depression and WWII. How do you think that's shaped who you are today?

I think we were comfortable. We had the farm, and my dad had the fur shop. I think the biggest thing that shaped me was my parents. They were hardworking immigrants.

…Probably my father had the most influence on me. [Laughs] He used to line us up every Sunday morning and check our hands, our nails, our hair, our shoes. Do you remember the father in The Sound of Music ? That's my dad. He was tough, but he was a great father too.

How did you get your start as a designer?

I was sewing at a young age – probably 6 or 7. My mom and aunt sewed, and they'd show me what they were doing or how to help them. That's the way I first learned.

In the beginning, I worked freelance, designing furs for my father. Then [in 1963] I opened Virginia Marti Bridal Salon. I loved designing bridal gowns, but having a bridal shop is different. The shop made good money, but [laughs] brides are difficult to work with…I stayed in business until 1972.

Designers should never open a retail shop [laughs] until they need a tax write-off.

When did you found Virginia Marti College of Art and Design, and what led you to start the school?

I started the school because it was a business that I could do and still raise my kids – when the kids were on school vacation so were the students in the school – and I started it because of the bridal shop: I couldn't find any trained people to make the gowns I was designing. Everyone would say they knew how to sew, but operating a sewing machine isn't knowing how to sew.

I opened the school in 1966 in the basement of the [bridal] shop. There were 10 students in the first class and I washed-out 6 of them. All I taught then was fashion design and haute couture – everything from how to use a thimble to hand sew to how to draft and drape a pattern. I was teaching the way I was taught and they weren't getting it. I never realized that students wouldn't understand. At the schools I'd attended there were no dropouts. I couldn't believe students would pay me money to teach them and then drop out.

You are the mother eight and a very successful business woman. How were you able to balance being a “single parent” with being the head of an ever-growing design school?

I have always lived five minutes from where the business was and I always had good housekeepers. They were like grandmothers to my children.

And I did a lot of praying. I had six boys and two girls, and they could be mischievous. It was fun raising them, but it was tough, too.

Teaching is always a two-way street. What do you think you have learned from the 41 years you have spent educating future designers and artists?

[Laughs] That's a hard question.

One thing I've learned is not to overextend myself. How many things can you do and do them right?

Another thing is the importance of patience. There are so many different personality types and to deal with all of them you have to have patience. For example, if someone isn't doing their homework, you can't get angry, you have to find ways to motivate them, mentor them, coax them into doing what they are capable of doing.

And I learned about compromise – you have to be able to bend – and to never take anything for granted. Just because a person knows something well does not guarantee that they can teach it to others.

And the importance of liking people. If you don't like people, there is no place for you in fashion design.

What do you do when you aren't “taking care of business” at Virginia Marti College ?

Things for our mission – especially the orphanages – in Kenya . [ Mission to the Fatherless, www.missiontothefatherless.net ]

When Herb [Veith] and I got married – in 1993 – we were invited by a pastor to go to Africa .

When we were there, we saw so many street kids, sitting along the streets with all their belongings in feed sacks. Herb asked one boy – through an interpreter – what he'd like, and the boy said a bar of soap so he could wash in the river.

Who could walk away from that? The little boy was so polite – all the children were – and just needed a chance. And that's what we are giving them at the orphanages we founded.

I think God has a purpose for everyone and we [she and Herb] have decided that we are going to help children, mainly in 3rd World countries. One way we help is to donate all the profits from the fabric store we have at the school…to Mission to the Fatherless and the orphanages the mission supports.

At the orphanages the children are learning a trade. In the first group of kids, about 15 learned tailoring. They all found jobs – and a future.

You are a poster child for successful aging. How do you stay so fit and energetic?

I used to do a lot of walking – Herb still does – but I hurt my leg coming home from Africa last year. When I'm better I'll be walking more.

[Laughs] And I get a lot of exercise every day. I walk the halls at the school and I'm going up and down the stairs – it's 50 steps up to my studio – every day.

But I think what you mean is how do I stay active. And the answer to that is that I'm excited about what I'm doing. And I'm doing a lot. At school I have meetings and I walk the halls and I do lecture classes. And I'm working on a book – I'm putting things on tape when I think of them – on human anatomy and design. And I'm designing a line of clothes – using fabrics from the fabric shop because all the profits from there go to the mission – that are going to be sold only on the Internet.

At 78, are you thinking about retiring?

No. I'm having so much fun right now. Why should I retire?

I always say to myself: Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I don't care how old you are, that's the way you have to think about things.

As we age, we have choices to make: I've chosen to continue ‘doing' things.

What did I not ask that I should have?

You asked me before [the tape recorder was turned on] if I thought I was unique – you called it being a myth buster – and the answer to that is no. I've found things that I like to do, and I'm doing them. Look at Grandma Moses, she started painting at 78, and continued painting till she was over 100.