|
|
|
| |
Head of School Search |
 |
|
|
|
|
April 28, 2011
To Members of The Hill School Community:
All good things must come to an end, and David and Kay Dougherty’s leadership at The Hill School unfortunately is no exception. After eighteen dedicated and transforming years at Hill, they have announced that the nineteenth will be their last and that they will retire on June 30, 2012.
David and Kay’s Hill School career began the same time as my second Hill “career” – as a parent of a new Hill student. In that regard, a comparison statistic speaks volumes about what David and Kay have done for our School. In their first year at Hill, the new students included only one relative of an alumnus. Today, 30 percent of Hill students are relatives of Hill alumni or students.
David and Kay started with a struggling all-boys' school and will end with a school that has returned to its prominence among the top ranked boarding schools in the country. In doing so, they successfully took the School co-ed without the conversion pains that many other schools experienced and have increased annual applications to The Hill by over 400 percent.
During David and Kay’s tenure, Hill exceeded its goal for its first ever, alumni-wide capital campaign -- raising over $85 million. Part of the money raised during that and subsequent campaigns have contributed to a building boom on campus, which included the magnificent Academic Center on the Quad, the Dell Village Dormitories, the Day Squash Center, the Mercer Field House, an indoor hockey rink, the Class of 1960 Alumni House, the Alumni Chapel renovation, and the gracious new entrance to the School.
David and Kay recently led the School through one of the most difficult economic eras ever, doing so with balanced budgets and without laying off any teachers. Most importantly, David and Kay have accomplished all this with warmth, love, understanding, and dedication to our students and Hill’s traditions and core values -- to what David fondly refers to as “Hillness.”
Finding a replacement for David and Kay undoubtedly will be a tough challenge. That said, we already have prepared to meet that challenge. I have asked our Vice-Chairman, Marshall Wallach '61, to chair the Search Committee, and that committee includes a diverse group of current and former trustees, including former board chair Charlie Frank '59, who headed our last Search Committee. Next week, the faculty will elect a faculty member to be on the Search Committee, and Don Silverson, Hill’s CFO, will serve as administrative liaison for the committee. I also am pleased to announce that the Search Committee has retained Wickenden Associates, the search firm that helped bring David and Kay to The Hill in 1993. Should you wish to refer a potential headmaster candidate, please do so to Marshall Wallach ( mwallach@wallachcapital.com ). As we finish the current school year and begin our final one with David and Kay at the helm, I hope that you will reflect on how The Hill has influenced your lives and join me in thanking David and Kay for making Hill a place we proudly call our alma mater. Sincerely, Thomas McN. Millhiser '67 |
|
| |
|
|