Memorial Minute: Jacquelyn Harvey Thomas

Jacquelyn Thomas. Just to say the name evokes an age—a bygone age in the life of the Academy—but also an inheritance that we, its present denizens, enjoy in ways that perhaps we don’t realize or that we take for granted. Nothing that Jacquelyn Thomas did was not thorough, executed to her exacting standards; this Memorial Minute will seek to do service—and tribute—to her accomplishments and to her abiding spirit and legacy. Settle in: It will last longer than a minute 

Jackie (as she was known to us) was born in Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania, and spent her early life in nearby Camp Hill. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Gettysburg College, earning her B.A., and married David Thomas in 1954. In 1957, the couple moved to Exeter, where David had been hired to teach Classics at The Phillips Exeter Academy (as it was called then). Their three daughters were raised on campus and all graduated from PEA—those details will acquire greater significance as we proceed. While raising those daughters—in the fourth-floor apartment of Wheelwright with a hot plate (no kitchen), where dishes were done in the bathtub—and later in Ewald and in haunted Gillman House (more on that 3 in the endnote)*—Jackie pursued, and achieved, her M.Ed. in Library Science from the University of New Hampshire. 

She began her long and illustrious career at the Academy in 1971, first working as a staff person in the Davis Library before being appointed the first female Academy Librarian in 1975. During her tenure, Jackie transformed the newly constructed Class of 1945 Library (which many referred to as her library) into “the intellectual and cultural center of the Exeter campus” and indeed of the surrounding town (Jim Ottaway, Jr., remarks to Exeter faculty, May 2, 1990). Early on, Jackie began computerization of the Library’s collection and accelerated the presence of technology by accommodating the Library’s Telecommunication Center. She welcomed thousands of visitors from all over the world, who’d made the pilgrimage to view Louis Kahn’s iconic building. Upon Jackie’s appointment as James H. Ottaway, Jr. Professor and Academy Librarian in 1990, Principal Tom Hassan remarked, “Under her leadership, the Library has been not only a haven for scholars [conducting independent research, panel discussions, lectures, symposia], but also a venue for an array of events that broadened and deepened our [cultural] awareness.” These events ranged from musical concerts and theatrical productions to authors’ readings and scholarly lectures; they included the Lamont Poets Series (which Jackie co-founded with Corliss Lamont, and which continues to bring to campus a virtual pantheon of poets, whose first, at Jackie’s invitation, was Jorge Luis Borges). Under Jackie’s supervision, events even extended to the construction of a sand mandala in the center of Rockefeller Hall by a group of visiting Tibetan monks. Each and every event, every detail—down to the fall faculty party’s enormous shrimp bowl—bore the singular “Jackie stamp” of excellence, meticulous organization, class and style. Her response to those with ideas about enhancing the Academy’s cultural life with the use of the Library’s space or funds was ever and always her signature gruff “Just ask!” 

Jackie joined the faculty in the initial days of co-education, and one of her most influential roles in the 1970s through the 1990s was as a member of the Committee to Enhance the Status of Women. That committee—which advocated for the inclusion of women faculty and staff and, beyond that, worked to support women faculty in the early years—hosted mentoring programs, professional development opportunities and even a national conference for women educators in boarding schools. Co-committee member and former Dean of Students Susan Herney recollects, 

[Jackie] was instrumental in designing the various workshops we thought vital to having our voices heard and becoming a visible presence. One workshop was teaching Listening Skills, and another [called] “In a Different Voice” ([addressed] how women make decisions differently than men. [It was] led by Carol Gilligan, a psychologist at Harvard). Afterward Jackie said, “Did you notice how uncomfortable the men were in both settings? . . . Did you notice they were dropping pencils, shifting in their seats?” . . . These workshops were working [Herney went on]. Men were learning, perhaps in some cases for the first time, what listening could be and how women came at decision making differently than they did. [Jackie’s] persistence, dedication to her values, intellectual honesty and courage were key to much of what the committee accomplished in its early years. (Remarks made at Jackie’s memorial service, March 25, 2023) 

Jackie was also a founding member and chair of the Child Care Governing Board which supported young families at the school, helping them to balance home life and professional responsibilities. (This at a time before the existence of Academy childcare.) Susan Herney again recalls, 

[Jackie’s] doggedness in pushing forward childcare for faculty was crucial to the recruitment and retention not only of women faculty but men as well. From the very beginning, she shepherded the founding of the Harris Family Child Care Center. Unlike many women faculty at the time, Jackie had been a faculty wife, raising three daughters, living in a dorm and supporting Dave in those early years in the ’50s when they arrived at Exeter. This gave her a much broader and keener perspective on the needs of both women faculty and staff. (Ibid.) 

Jackie served on a host of other faculty committees that touched virtually every aspect of academy life: Department Heads, Funds Committee, Lamont Poets Committee, IT Governance Web, Academic Technology Committee, Admissions, Alumni Affairs and Development, Appointments and Leaves, the Blackboard Implementation Team, Bookstore Advisory Committee, Calendar Committee, CDAP Governing Board (Chair), Child Care Study Group, Co-education Committee, Curriculum Committee, Faculty Life and Responsibility Committee (Co-Chair), IT Governance Instructional Technology, Junior Studies Working Committee, Lowenstein Committee (Chair), PEA History Project and the Technology Steering Committee. Add to this her roles as adviser to Library Proctors, Day Student Adviser and coach of club tennis. To say that Jackie was contiguous to the school’s beating heart would not be an overstatement. On the occasion of her having to travel off 6 campus for a school evaluation, she wrote to Dean of Faculty, Andy Hertig, “Don’t make any far-reaching decisions without me.” 

Later in her career, Jackie oversaw the production of a number of publications including pieces on the Bennett Fellowship, a volume of Memorial Minutes and Collected Letters from the Friends of the Academy Library; she produced an informational pamphlet on the Library, as well as a booklet on its architecture and history. Upon her retirement in 2010, the academy established the Jacquelyn H. Thomas Fund for the Class of 1945 Library, which continues to benefit academy life through the acquisition of books and other materials and support of Library programs. In 2021, she received one of the Academy’s highest honors, the Founders Day Award, for “exceptional service to the academy.” It was a fitting conclusion to and culmination of her sixty-four-year association with the school. 

Jackie died peacefully on January 21, 2023, at Riverwoods in Exeter. She was predeceased by her husband, David, and is survived by her daughters and their families. She survives in the legacy she left us. We feel her presence when we enjoy what’s good about this place; when we aspire to make what’s good, better; in those moments when we achieve (or hope to achieve) that rare quality she embodied: excellence. 

I move that this Memorial Minute be submitted to Jackie’s family and be spread upon the minutes of the faculty. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Todd Hearon 

*Jackie enjoyed telling of the ghost of Gillman House, where she and Dave lived when the house was a boarder residence: The inexplicable sound of a ball bouncing in the basement that would stop when they opened the door; the invisible force that grabbed an electrician’s hand as he reached into a wall—and that sent him fleeing across campus, vowing never to return.