Sterling Service.

• Author: CASTANEDA, ELIZA

DENVER'S STARKEY INTERNATIONAL TEACHES WOULD-BE CARETAKERS A LONG-LOST ART

It's got to be right, or don't bother," Mary Louise Starkey's mother used to say. Starkey, founder and president of her eponymous Denver-based institute, obviously paid attention.

For a decade, Starkey International Institute for Household Management Inc. has trained service-minded people in the fine art of professional household management. That means turning raw human material into the Jeeveses of the future -- the gentlemen's gentlemen, the household managers and housemen, the housekeepers and private culinary chefs of the Computer Age, which is not to be confused with the Gilded Age.

"The highest level of service that takes place in the marketplace is in a private home," Starkey says.

The gracious "Mrs. Starkey," as her students call her, ran her own housecleaning business for 15 years prior to founding the institute. Earlier, she was a social worker and a VISTA volunteer.

Starkey's experience in placing housekeepers brought her in increasing contact with homeowners searching for household staff. Starkey soon discovered that well-trained household managers were in short supply, and in 1990 she conceived Starkey International to fill the growing need.

With more wealthy Americans than ever moving into increasingly larger residences, the demand for household help is booming. The New York Times reported recently that the number of U.S. households worth $10 million or more has quadrupled in the last decade. American houses are growing, too: 17% of all new homes built in the last year were 3,000 or more square feet, compared to only 7% of new homes in 1984.

Starkey International is housed downtown in a formally appointed 1901 Georgian mansion with 12,000 square feet of living and teaching space. The house serves as a laboratory for the students, who care for the fine furnishings, cook and serve meals in the formal dining room and practice their cleaning skills. The students, who eat three meals a day together, rotate their duties to experience every level of service. Each person will take a turn as the cook, household manager and employer (referred to as the "principal" by the students).

Starkey International offers two programs: Household Management, an eight-week course with 360 class hours, and Nanny Manager, a four-week course with 50 hours. The average age of institute students is 45, and most are college educated; many are embarking on a second or third career...