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News and Events from Winter Term
Anouncing Access Exeter
A Journey of Exploration and Discovery
ACCESS EXETER is a new program of accelerated study in the arts and sciences slated to begin next summer. Geared toward students entering grades eight and nine, it will provide them with access to the wide range of resources available at the Academy. The 120 participants will share in a five-week partnership of cooperative learning and sharpen their skills of observation and expression. Students and teachers will work together within the classroom and beyond.
The term is divided into four academic clusters: America and World War II; The Land and the Sea; Problem-Solving: An Odyssey of the Mind; and The Global Community.
Students who participate in ACCESS EXETER will be part of a community of 120 students and more than 20 proctors, interns and teachers. Residents will live in one of several small dormitories or houses, each staffed with faculty members and proctors. Day students will be affiliated with one of the dorms or houses.
ACCESS EXETER students may choose to take music lessons, sing in the Glee Club, or play in the Orchestra. Wednesday and Saturday afternoons are reserved for off-campus excursions: whale-watching, visiting museums in Boston, hearing open-air concerts, seeing theatrical performances or attending a Red Sox baseball game. In the late afternoon, four days per week, students will play a variety of sports, including tennis, water polo, soccer, aerobics and basketball.
For more information, please contact Doug Rogers, director of the Summer School, at 1-800-828-4325, ext. 3488. Or visit the Summer School website at summer@exeter.edu.
Cum Laude
Congratulations to the 16 members of the class of 2002 who have been inducted into the Exeter chapter of the Cum Laude Society, the national honor society for secondary-school students modeled on the Phi Beta Kappa Society. The students' grade-point averages rank them in the top 5 percent of their class. Shown here at their November induction dinner are (front row, left to right) Rebecca Ettlinger of Virum, Denmark; Kathryn Sullivan of Woodside, CA; Pema McGuinness of Hong Kong; Diana Zhang of Salem, NH; Corina Yen of Lexington, MA; Yuna Larrabee of Middlebury, VT; Olga Gorodetsky of Stony Brook, NY; (back row) Michael Katz of Portsmouth, NH; Nathaniel Webb of Harrison, NY; Patrick Fitzsimmons of Newburyport, MA; Grady Snyder of Goleta, CA; Eun Cho of Dove Canyon, CA; William Tsao of East Hanover, NJ; Silas Culver of Bangor, ME; and William Deringer of Fly Creek, NY. Not shown is Juan Felix of Los Angeles, CA.
'Seeing the Perfect Soul'
John Phillps Award-Winner Patick Lydon '68
"I have no house, no car, no bank account," said Patrick J. Lydon Jr. '68, who was given the 2001 John Phillips Award during assembly on October 9. But as director of a residential program for the mentally and physically challenged, Lydon said he had something more valuable: the opportunity to change lives.
In presenting the award, Alan Jones '72, president of the General Alumni/ae Association, told Lydon, "For nearly three decades, your work with the Camphill Communities of Scotland and Ireland has helped ensure that those in your charge have the opportunities to recognize their full potential as human beings and to live their lives with dignity and respect."
The John Phillips Award recognizes and honors an Exonian whose life and contributions to the welfare of community, country and humanity exemplify the nobility of character and usefulness to society that John Phillips sought to promote in establishing the Academy.
Lydon first joined a Camphill Community in Duffcarrig, Ireland, in response to a newspaper ad. Based on the teachings of philosopher Rudolf Steiner, the Camphill Movement was founded in 1940 by Austrian pediatrician and refugee Karl Konig to offer children with disabilities a close-knit community in which they could develop and thrive. Although he knew little of farming and virtually nothing about mental disability or the tenets of the Camphill Movement, Lydon said he soon realized that this was "the concrete reality" of what he had vaguely imagined.
Today he, his family and volunteer co-workers oversee Ballytobin, a Camphill Community, that has grown since its opening to a community of about 80 individuals.
At Ballytobin, residents learn through specially designed classes and therapies (many based in art, music and movement). Learning occurs not only in classrooms, but also on the 14-acre farm and garden, where students can explore the natural world and their connection to the plants and animals around them. In the sheltered environment of Ballytobin's farm, Lydon explained, students and co-workers become interdependent, each learning and being enriched by the other.
Lydon told the assembly, "Camphill strives to develop a culture of human recognition in which the disabled person becomes the absolute equal, a transcending equal who is the teacher, the pathfinder."
Reading from the award citation Jones said, "Your gift for recognizing the human potential in those who are disabled, for seeing what your brother Christopher calls 'the perfect soul inside the damaged vessel,' has made and continues to make your work so special and so necessary.
"For living a truly exemplary life of non sibi, for taking the road less traveled and mapping out a beautiful and precious new terrain, for humbling us, and for helping us to see the humanity and potential in all humans, we honor you today with the John Phillips Award."
Lamont Poet Paul Muldoon
On October 19, acclaimed Irish poet Paul Muldoon spent a full day on campus visiting classes and giving the first reading in this year's Lamont Poetry series. The author of such works as New Weather, Madoc: A Mystery and The Annals of Chile, Muldoon has been called the most charismatic poet of his generation. Formerly a student of Seamus Heaney at Queens College, Belfast, he is now the Howard G.B. Clark Professor of the Humanities and Creative Writing at Princeton University, as well as a professor of poetry at Oxford. While at PEA, Muldoon met with uppers who have been reading from his most recent book, Hay, and with students in English 411, a creative writing course. In early May, the Lamont Poetry Series will mark its 20th anniversary with several special events, including a reading by poet Stephen Dunn.
Trustee Roundup
The trustees of the Academy met from Wednesday, October 24 to Friday, October 26. The meetings took place a day earlier than usual, due to the Saturday, October 27 dedication ceremony for the Phelps Science Center. The current trustees were joined on Friday by more than 30 former trustees who returned for the dedication ceremony and an update on the state of the Academy.
On Wednesday, October 24, the trustees took part in a conversation with the faculty about teaching at the Academy and joined the dorm heads for dinner that evening.
At their meetings the board:
Approved going forward with the construction of four faculty houses to be located to the east of the tennis courts, and discussed an aggressive plan to continue to add housing units to the Academy's inventory as well as remodeling dorm apartments;
Approved plans for the renovation of the Thompson building into an Academy Center, pending funding through gifts;
Approved moving forward with the next steps in design and approval to install an elevator in the Academy Building to improve access;
Approved renovation of Amen Hall this summer.
The group also discussed the American's with Disabilities Act and Exeter's progress in complying with it. While the Academy has made considerable headway, there is still much to be done. The trustees discussed the concept of "universal access" as opposed to "handicapped access," and adopted the following resolution:
"To fulfill our mission of embracing and respecting diversity, the Trustees endorse the goal of universal access to our campus and facilities. We should continue to identify and implement ways of making our community more accessible. Of equal importance is fostering a culture which embraces all individuals. Our goal is inclusion, not just compliance with regulation."
Also discussed were the Academy Master Plan and potential fund-raising initiatives that could help achieve emerging AMP goals. Key issues that have surfaced in discussions with alumni/ae, and from the work of faculty-trustee task forces, include faculty housing and compensation, student financial aid, and the renovating of existing facilities to enhance faculty and student interaction.
The concluding act of the trustees on Friday was to approve the following resolution in honor of those alumni lost in the World Trade Center collapse:
"In light of the horrific events of September 11, 2001, the Academy Trustees have established a fund, with the transfer of $50,000 out of the endowment, to honor those alumni who lost their lives in the World Trade Center atrocity and its aftermath. The fund will support scholarships or visiting speakers addressing world issues."
Also Heard on Campus
Table Talk with Alex Beam '71 | by Bill Ewing
Alex Beam '71 would like to endow a Butt Room at Phillips Exeter Academy. No matter that the Academy is now smoke-free or that he himself hasn't smoked in 25 years-the Jacob Alexander Beam '71 Butt Room would serve as a fitting monument to his boarding school experience. "When I was at Exeter, the Butt Room was the place where people kibitzed," recalls Beam. "My own children are completely shocked when I tell them about it. The idea that I spent four years of my life in a basement room, smoking cigarettes and playing bridge! It's just unthinkable. "
He's joshing, of course, but the mischievousness of this sentiment is vintage Alex Beam. A social and cultural commentator for the Boston Globe's Living/Arts section whose twice-weekly column stirs up more than its share of reader-response, Beam delights in challenging popular conventions and going after sacred cows.
"I once wrote a magazine article called 'Why Are Newspaper Columnists So Boring?' " says Beam. "The modern newspaper columnist tends to put out this predigested pap: 'Gosh, this war is terrible'; 'Gosh, George Bush shouldn't be president.' " It would be fair to say that Beam's column has a very low pap content. It is, rather, chockfull of strong (if not always popular) opinions, keen wit and intelligence. Covering everything from pop culture and lifestyle issues to current events, religion and politics, Beam deftly shifts from serious to laugh-out-loud funny, often many times within a single piece.
"Someone once described my column as having a tone of malicious good cheer," says Beam. "I'm always trying to amuse and flirting with informing. I'll use humor to make points, sometimes very bleak points. I like to keep the reader guessing. I like to keep myself guessing."
Take his column from September 13, for example, provocatively titled "The Day That Nothing Changed." This piece, which Beam says generated more response than anything he has ever written, acknowledges the sadness and horror of the events that had occurred two days prior, but questions how much our lives really will change in the long run. In his opinion, which ran counter to those of most other journalists that historic week, Americans will never surrender their right to a Disneyland vacation or a long drive in their cars. We just won't tolerate the inconvenience.
In a lighter mood, Beam wrote a piece in October that provided a brief history of brow (as in high brow, middle brow and low brow), making his own addition to the lexicon: Oprah-brow (located somewhere near the middle but aspiring desperately to move up the brow scale). Game show host Bob Barker and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith have also been recent subjects, allowing Beam to delve deeply into what he derisively refers to as "trash culture." Harvard University (or simply "WGU," short for World's Greatest University in Beam lingo), Garrison Keillor, Norman Mailer, Massachusetts senator John Kerry and Boston mayor Thomas Menino have all been caught in the crosshairs over the years. "I'm hard to pigeonhole, and that's fine by me," says Beam. "Some people like what I do and some people don't. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about it."
In addition to his column for the Globe, which he has been writing since 1993, Beam is also the author of a new book called Gracefully Insane (Public Affairs), about McLean Hospital outside Boston. "McLean's is a very high-profile mental institution-many famous writers from the 1950s and 60s were patients," says Beam. "You could almost call it a celebrity mental hospital. I thought it would be a fascinating and original subject for a nonfiction book." Many will recognize McLean's as the setting for Susanna Kaysen's memoir Girl, Interrupted and the 1999 movie based on the book. Other well-known McLean alums include Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton, and musicians James Taylor and Ray Charles. "The book is a series of nonfiction stories about the people who have been at McLean's over the years," says Beam. "It was quite a trip into other people's lives."
Beam is also the author of two novels, Fellow Travelers (St. Martin's Press, 1987), and The Americans Are Coming! (St. Martin's Press, 1991), and has written for Atlantic Monthly, Slate and DoubleTake. He began his journalism career as a fact checker at Newsweek in 1977, after graduating from Yale (with degrees in Russian and literature) and working briefly with the House Select Committee on Intelligence and the U.S. Information Agency in Russia. From Newsweek, he moved on to Business Week as a correspondent and then as bureau chief in Moscow and Boston. He joined the Boston Globe as a business reporter in 1986.
It could be said that Beam really started his writing career back at Exeter where he was a contributor to the Exonian; he also found time between smokes to participate in the debate team and act in a few plays. He is quick to point out, however, that it was a very different era. "The war in Vietnam was still on, the draft was still on, Richard Nixon was in the third year of his first term," Beam recalls. "People were down on institutions, and the fact is, we were too far away from the center of anything and had to find objects of authority to lash out at. I guess, in a sense, our anger was directed at the Academy itself."
Beam admits that it took him nearly 20 years to fully appreciate his Exeter experience. "For a long time, my friends and I never talked about Exeter or came back to visit," says Beam. He has since been back for his 25th reunion and spoke at a recent alumni/ae gathering in Boston. Says Beam, without a trace of his customary irony, "I'm glad so many of my classmates pulled through so well and are making terrific contributions to society."
'Faculty Wives and Daughters Remember':
Stepping Out on Stage and Screen
Phillips Exeter may be in the middle of a quiet, picturesque New England town, but that does not prevent the larger world from intruding. Thirty years ago, during the spring and summer of 1971, Hollywood came to campus to shoot the film version of John Knowles' novel A Separate Peace. The filmmakers recruited scores of Exonians to take part, including Rebecca Hogg, wife of science instructor John Hogg.
The Hoggs' daughter, Margaret Upham of Woodstock, CT, remembers her mother enjoyed the experience, perhaps because she found herself playing a familiar role: that of faculty wife serving tea to a group of students, something she herself often did when she lived on campus with her family during the 1940s.
An article from the July 27, 1971, issue of the Boston Globe describes the scene this way: "As for Mrs. John C. Hogg of Exeter, whose husband for 30 years taught science at the Academy, she wore the very same beautifully made gown of silver gray and dark brown silk, with a handsome mantilla (she called it a fascinator) she wore in 1942." Enjoying tea with her were seven other local residents who "walked, laughed, conversed and took their tea as if to the manner born."
Margaret Upham recalls that after the scene was completed, her mother grew concerned that some of her private conversations were captured on tape. She wrote producer Robert Goldston of her concerns: "Whatever I may have said at any time about myself or the school does not bother me, nor does my general talk, but I would be very sad to cause my children embarrassment by my chatter. So if I am on record would you cut out of my conversations all references to my young ones."
Goldston responded promptly, assuring her that "any appearance you may make in the film will not embarrass you or your grandchildren in any way."
In 1947 another faculty wife, Nancy Heyl (whose son, John Heyl '71, would later go on to play Phinny in A Separate Peace), acted in a March of Time film, Lost Boundaries, starring Mel Ferrer. Many other wives acted in Exeter Players productions as well as the Gilbert and Sullivan Sunday afternoon presentations. Dramat allowed Joan Lyford and Nancy Heyl to be students as well as teachers, making them the first faculty wives to do so. Lyford went on to establish her own school of drama for children, the Backpack Players.
The "Faculty Wives and Daughters Remember" project is accepting memories and photos. If you have something you would like to contribute, or know of someone who would like to be contacted, please notify Connie Brown, 64 Allard Hill Road, Conway NH 03818, or email her at conniebrown@danbrown.com.
Concert Choir Announces Spring Tour
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The celebrated PEA Concert Choir, under the direction of Stephen Kushner, returns to the concert stage March 15-20, 2002, with a series of performances in New Haven, Princeton, Baltimore, Alexandria (VA), New York and Boston. Watch your mail and the PEA website (www.exeter.edu) for more information about these concerts, including exact dates and locations. And then join us for an evening of beautiful music.
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She's Got Game
Photographer Geoffrey Biddle '68 is the co-curator (and one of the featured photographers) in Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?, a home-run of a photo exhibition on view through January 2 at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The exhibition (and an accompanying book, edited by Biddle) chronicles the astounding changes that Title IX has wrought in women's sports, at both the amateur and professional level. In February, the exhibition travels to Salt Lake City in time for the opening of the Winter Olympics.
Lamont Gallery Hosts
'American Prints from the Mayer Collections'
Brice Marden Drawings Also Exhibited
It was, notes Lamont Gallery director Sam Heath '72, the perfect marriage of movement and medium. In the early part of the 20th century, many American artists, seeking, in Heath's words, "to articulate a growing national self-consciousness," broke away from European notions of style and subject matter to focus on "the lives of ordinary Americans at work and at play, in their homes, on the streets and in the fields." Their medium of choice was often the fine art print, whose immediacy and affordability matched the democratic spirit of their subjects.
 | Thomas Hart Benton's lithograph Haystack was one of 65 prints featured in the fall exhibition Of, By and For the People: American Prints from the Jan and Frederick Mayer '45 Collections.
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 | Martin Lewis, one of the most accomplished printmakers of the 1920s and 1930s, is well-known for his etchings of New York, including Glow of the City.
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 | Collectors Fred and Jan Mayer (at rear) visit with members of the Academy's art department.
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Also on view was a suite of recent drawings by Brice Marden, loaned by collectors Don and Doris
Fisher P'72, '75 and '79.
This fall members of the Academy community experienced that democratic spirit firsthand when the Lamont Gallery presented Of, By and For the People: American Prints from the Jan and Frederick Mayer '45 Collections. The show, which featured 65 prints by 44 artists-including striking lithographs and etchings by such well-known figures as Thomas Hart Benton, Edward Hopper, John Sloan, Grant Wood and Milton Avery-amounted to "a celebration of American popular life and artistic vision during the 1920s and 1930s," says Heath.
Jan and Fred Mayer are well-regarded art collectors and patrons whose works are exhibited around the country (and who endowed the Academy's Mayer Art Center, which houses not only the Lamont Gallery but also the Academy's handsome studio art facilities). They had collected widely in other periods before becoming interested in American prints after seeing an exhibition at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth. "This was at a time when the art market was through the roof," says Jan Mayer, and paintings by artists like Benton and Wood were selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, black-and-white lithographs by the same artists were not only available and affordable, they were important works of art in their own right-rich in detail and filled with powerful contrasts between light and dark. The Mayers were hooked.
Their collection has since grown to more than 150 prints, far more than they can hang in their Colorado home. Says Fred Mayer with a chuckle, "We had to come to Exeter to be able to really see and enjoy them."
Brice Marden's 'Rock Collection'
The Academy also benefitted from the generosity of two other esteemed collectors, Don and Doris Fisher of San Francisco. The Fishers-whose sons Bob '72, Bill '75 and John '79, are all Academy alumni-loaned the Lamont Gallery a small but significant parallel exhibition: a suite of recent drawings by the contemporary American artist Brice Marden. These fluid abstractions, collectively entitled "Rock Collection," were drawn in ink using twigs and sticks, something Marden first began doing in 1973. "One of the things I like about drawing," Marden said in a 1998 interview, "is that it's a very direct form of expression. There's so little between you and the expression. It comes right out of you."
Ice
Memories
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| The journal and other materials belonging to famed arctic explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928)-the first person to reach the South Pole-are now on view in the Special Collections of the Academy Library. |
"Gjoa is a yacht of 46 tons, 73 feet long and 20 feet wide, and draws 10 feet when loaded. She is not especially built for Arctic ice-covered water, but has been strengthened by oak planks, cross beams & knees & everything else that can serve to break ice." So begins the handwritten journal of Captain Roald Amundsen (1872-1928), who first navigated the Northwest Passage from east to west and who located the true, magnetic North Pole. The original manuscript, along with other materials from Amundsen's voyage, including a hand-drawn map, are currently on display in the Special Collections on the fourth floor of the Class of 1945 Library.
Amundsen, one of the greatest figures in polar exploration, counted a number of firsts in his career: he was the first person to reach the South Pole; the first European to make the journey through the Northwest passage; and the first person to cross the Arctic by air.
The Amundsen collection came to the library in 1937 as part of the bequest of Albert Lee, class of 1887, a former editor of Harper's Weekly, Collier's National Weekly and Vanity Fair. But it was another bequest, that of William Koshland, class of 1924, which brought the collection to the attention of Jacquelyn Thomas, James H. Ottaway Jr. '55 Professor and Academy Librarian. With funding from Koshland's gift, Thomas commissioned specialists to examine the library's special collections, and in this process the ship's log, Amundsen's journal and other material from Lee's collection once more came to light.
The first account of Amundsen's adventure was published in the February 3, 1906, issue of Collier's magazine. Thomas says that she has a copy of that publication but is searching for the original. The journal is filled with tales of visits from the local Eskimos who camped near the icebound Gjoa, accounts of bounteous feasts and stark fasts and a 700-mile journey across the Yukon to Eagle City, Alaska. It was at Eagle City, then a town of 200 residents, that he wrote the journal.
Outstanding Achievement
For the fifth consecutive year, PEA's Alumni/ae Affairs and Development Office received national recognition when CASE, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, honored it with its 2001 Circle of Excellence Award for educational fund raising. Here, CASE Chairman Jack Ohle (left) and CASE President Vance Peterson (right) congratulate Harold Brown '74, PEA's director of alumni/ae affairs (second from left), and Jim Theisen '40, '66 (Hon.), PEA's director of alumni/ae affairs and development (second from right), on the award.
English Instructor by Day, Rock Star by Night
That's faculty member Toby Jones (left) harmonizing with singer-songwriter Livingston Taylor (right) during Taylor's October 12 concert at the Academy. A talented guitarist who's been performing for many than 20 years (including a stint with a rock band in Cleveland), Jones occasionally plays at local clubs; during a September gig at the Atlantic Grill in Hampton, he was joined onstage by Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish.
Exoniana: Do You Remember?
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| Do you have any recollections regarding the actions shown in this mystery photo? What are these students doing? The first person who sends (via U.S. mail only) the correct answer will win a great prize. Answers and/or reminiscences will be published in the next issue. Mail to: Exoniana, c/o The Exeter Bulletin, Phillips Exeter Academy, Communications Office, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833.
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Answer to the Last Issue:
Exonians from past to present recognized the Dickie (aka Dickey) slip. In the 1938 first edition of A Dictionary of Exeter Language, William Harvey and James Fisher identified a Dickey slip as "an invitation to chat with the dean sent to deserving (?) students for many reasons (all bad)." The current edition of The Parents' Handbook defines the word Dick as "a verb form of 'Dickey,' meaning both the act of a student missing a class and the act of a teacher turning in an absence slip, as in 'I dicked that class,' and 'I just got dicked.'"
"Over the years," explains Academy archivist Edouard Desrochers '45 (Hon.), " 'Dickey slip' has become nothing more than the colloquial term for absence slips, and few Exonians are aware of the origin of the term."
The legend begins with two men: Dean Kerr (Edwin Silas Wells Kerr), the Academy teacher/administrator from 1928 to 1953, and Dickie Kerr, the only White Sox baseball player found to be "squeaky-clean" in the Black Sox baseball scandal of 1919. The Academy students of that era began calling the dean "Dickie Kerr" because he was also known for his honesty. The absence slips summoning students to the dean's office quickly became known as "Dickie slips."
And The Winner Is:
George B. Higgins '45 of North Eastham, MA, who received a Cross pen engraved with the Academy seal for being the first person to mail in the correct answer. "You better believe that I recognized the Dickey slips pictured in the fall Bulletin. Furthermore I still have in my 1945 yearbook several examples to prove their role and purpose. They served, at least in my case, to be a summons into the presence of Edwin Silas Wells Kerr, the awesomely feared (and justly so) dean of the Academy. In one instance I can testify they were used to notify me that I was to see Wells Kerr because I was on academic probation, and it is so noted on the summons. Another summons records the fact that I was up for being 'sent down,' a beautifully cutting euphemism for the act of expulsion.
Unwritten Rules
The Exoniana photo in the fall Bulletin are what were called "Dickey slips." As James Fisher and I wrote in the first edition of the Dictionary of Exeter Language, they were requests (?) to see Dean Kerr about an infraction of one of Exeter's unwritten rules, such as a missed chapel or an unexcused absence. I received one when I slept through chapel upon returning from a Thanksgiving weekend trip to New Haven, CT, in November 1936.
William P. Harvey '38
Austin, TX
Watch yourself
As I recall we used to refer to those slips as a "Dickey." If you received one, your heart sank. First of all, you had a pretty general idea of what you had done, and second, the last person you wanted to face was Dean Kerr.
My marks had not been the greatest, and as I walked into the office the dean met me halfway, grabbed me by the shoulder and began to shake me like a dog with a dejected rat. "You watch yourself!" the dean told me. "Your family's been coming here a long time. You bring your grades up, or you're out of here!" About that time he let go and I was out of there, a mass of terror and consternation, but with the realization that I had better watch myself, which I did and eventually managed to graduate, thanks in no part to a very fine man, the dean. I didn't realize how fine he was until some time after I had graduated.
Frates S. Seeligson '42
San Antonio, TX
Bad Boy
I believe the items shown were called "Dickey slips," and when you got one, it meant you had been a bad boy. Two friends and I received them when we were caught throwing snowballs into an open window of Langdell Hall. The slips requested an appearance in the dean's office (E.S. Wells Kerr), and in my case, resulted in a period of disciplinary probation.
David G. Gregor '47
Watertown, NY
Dead meat
The items pictured in the fall Bulletin are the famous "Dickie slips," named after Dean Kerr. They were given to students to prompt visits to the dean's office, usually because of some infraction that one needed to explain. The good news was that if you got one written in pencil, it was from the dean's secretary and you most likely were not in too much trouble. However, if you received one written in ink, you knew you were dead meat. Those were written by the dean himself, and prompted a personal visit to the dean's office where you generally heard about your failings in life.
I remember I received one ink slip back sometime in 1964 or so. It seems that the maintenance crew in Dunbar Hall was not pleased about the collection of pop bottles in my room, around 100 or so. You were supposed to clean up your room before leaving on vacation, something I kind of forgot. After being summoned to the dean's office and told to promptly dispose of them, I ended up having to rent a wagon from one of Jeff Fleischmann's children in Dunbar Hall to haul all the bottles back to the Court Street Market. Thanks for bringing back some memories from a great time at Exeter.
Joseph G. Kubit '66
Sagamore Hills, OH
Man of the Year
These are what we used to call "Dickey slips." If it was made out in pencil, it meant you were to visit the dean's secretary who we knew at the time as Mrs. Stebbins. If this slip was addressed to you in ink, it meant you were to report to the dean. Needless to say, an inked Dickey slip was usually not a good thing. During my four years at Exeter I received numerous penciled slips for things like missing a class or not showing up for a religious service on Sunday. Up to three and you were OK. Inked slips kicked in at three unexcused absences.
I remember receiving an inked slip from Dean Kessler in January '68 of my prep year. I had been voted "Man of the Year," by those cheeky folks at the Exonian. I was the entire issue of the paper and Dean Kessler invited me into his office to discuss it. To his credit, he was concerned about the "attention" directed toward this naive little prep, but the dean had a reputation for being tough as nails and I must admit I was a lot more scared of him than I was of anybody in the student body.
Edward J. Crummey III '71
Studio City, CA
Are Dickies still issued?
That photograph in the fall Bulletin is of Dickies! This answer may arrive too late, but since it appears that Dickies have been phased out, I'm not too worried. I had my fair share of them for early morning classes, and I am very disappointed if they are no longer issued! Those things scared me enough that now (13 years later) I finally get out of bed early. If I remember correctly, four of them qualified you for a visit to the dean and restrictions.
Jean Z. Tsai '88
New York, NY
Editor's note: Yes, Dickies are still issued today for absences. Our photograph depicts an old Dickie slip from the Academy archives next to the Dickie slips currently in use.
Edward J. Crummey III '71
Studio City, CA
Forty winks
Much to the chagrin of my adviser and my mother, I received many of these attendance slips or "Dickies" during my time at Exeter. Most can be attributed to the residents of the Phillips Building, whose classes were much less important than a couple extra minutes of sleep.
Michael E. Stashak '90
Atlanta, GA
Cold sweat
While I can only boast of a modest collection (though I am told that 1993 was a vintage year), there can be no mistaking a pile of "Dickies." Eight years later and I still occasionally wake up in a cold sweat due to nightmarish visions of scraps of officialdom stuffed in my P.O. box. I can only hope that this letter will serve as therapy and help to release my heart, mind and soul from the torment that the aftereffects of a missed class entailed.
Samuel T. Bull '93
New York, NY
Restrictions
If I remember correctly, three "Dickies" put you on restrictions. I think I consistently received two "Dickies" each semester while at PEA!
Linda M. Jenkins '93
Washington, DC
Linda M. Jenkins '93
Washington, DC
Clean Slate
They are "Dickies" and no, I've never received one!
Luke J. Ireland '99
Exeter, NH
Thank you for taking time to share your memories.
— Alice Ann Gray
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Correction
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The following names were omitted from the 2000-01 Report of Giving, published in the fall 2001 Bulletin. The alumni/ae affairs and development office makes every effort to include the thousands of gifts received by the Academy each year; we apologize for the omission.
Dr. John A. Ordway '38
Mr. Gerry C. LaFollette '50
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