Headmasters

Private schools, Prep Schools, Boarding Schools. Teachers, who initially were all male, were frequently called masters. The term is from the British Independent School tradition. The lead teacher became the Headmaster. In the United States, in elite private schools (modeled after the British), most were boarding and college preparatory, masters and headmaster were frequently used titles. Rector was substituted for headmaster in some religious schools.

When I went to Holy Ghost Prep (1961-65) a Headmaster managed the school and supervised the faculty. When I joined the faculty in 1974, the Headmaster was Father Francis Hanley. He had previously served as Athletic Director. During his tenure he grew enrollment, increased academic standards, expanded the athletic and extra- curricular activities programs, and hired more lay faculty. Although Hanley had hired me as a librarian-teacher, he began to respond positively to recommendations I was making for changes.

Hanley had immediately offered me a position when I decided not to return to St. Michael’s elementary school in Levittown. He wanted me to transform the library which was disorganized and underutilized with an older semi-retired Brother Dominic as Librarian. In addition I would teach English classes, Juniors. I began to write Hanley about situations and issues I thought needed change, corrections. They ranged from a faculty pay scale to the elimination of academic grouping. He responded, giving me increased responsibility, appointing me Dean of Faculty Student Services, then Assistant Headmaster.

Deerfield Academy administration buildidng. Recorder/Paul Franz

I recently reread John McPhee’s “The Headmaster” (1966). It’s a profile of Frank Boyden, Headmaster of Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, MA. “Starting in 1902 at a country school that had an enrollment of fourteen, Frank Boyden built an academy that has long since taken its place on a level with Andover and Exeter. Boyden, who died in 1972, was the school’s headmaster for sixty-six years. John McPhee portrays a remarkable man “at the near end of a skein of magnanimous despots who…created enduring schools through their own individual energies, maintained them under their own absolute rule, and left them forever imprinted with their own personalities.” More than simply a portrait of the Headmaster of Deerfield Academy, it is a revealing look at private schools in America.” (Barnes and Noble).

Diane and I have visited Deerfield several times and walked the Academy campus. It was recently the setting for the film, “The Holdovers.” A Deerfield student Dominic Sasso joined Paul Giamatti in a heart warming Christmas story. Sasso is the son of our a friend of our son-in-law Rob. A film worth viewing. My recollection of “The Headmaster” is Boyden’s relationship with students and strong support of mandatory sports for all students.

“Gradually he acquired more teachers & spent less time in classrooms himself. He assembled a sound faculty and gave its members freedom to teach as they pleased. His own mark was made in moral education rather than in academic disciplines. His first-hand relationships with his boys has always been extraordinary & Deerfield students for 60 yrs. have been characterized by the high degree of ethical sensitivity that he has awakened in them. This is the area within which his greatness lies. The school has no printed rules or set penalties. & the headmaster has fired only five boys in 64 yrs. Unlike other prep schools Deerfield boys have very little free time-almost all their hours are programmed for them. There is no particular system at the school. The headmaster says: “We just treat the boys as if we expect something of them & we keep them busy.” He has believed in athletics, & required all students to participate throughout the school year. Tells about the headmaster’s two sons & one daughter, all in academic work. His son John is director of admissions at Deerfield” (New Yorker).

Another fictional headmaster I’ve recently encountered is the Rev. Francis Prescott, D.D. Described as the leading headmaster in American secondary education, he is the creation of Louis Auchincloss in “The Rector of Justin.” The story is set in the 1940s at a New England Episcopal boarding school for boys, named Justin Martyr. As war rages in Europe and the world order changes, the eighty year old headmaster Prescott is set to retire. His life story is told through several people in his life. The first is Brian Aspinwall, a new English teacher on the faculty. 

“Aspinwall tries to capture the essence of Prescott’s greatness, which seems obvious to him because of the stellar reputation that the school has developed over the many years of his tenure as headmaster. . . . At the end of the story, his last diary entry, he admits defeat in his quest to pin down how the larger-than-life Prescott led Justin Martyr to its current prominence, and speculates that it had something to do with his one-on-one interactions with its students. He is right about that, but the complexity of those interactions, and the social chain reactions they triggered, worked in a way that no one anticipated and only a few understood” (Dorothy E. Pugh). “The Rector” is not an easy read like McPhee’s “The Headmaster.”

At Holy Ghost Prep a new Headmaster was appointed in about 1977. Father James McNally had been one of my math teachers in the 1960s. He had just learned what was called “modern math.” Math wasn’t my thing, I didn’t learn a lot. But Fr. Jim was an open, friendly, sincere Spiritan (Holy Ghost father). He didn’t arrive until August, so I was left with planning the upcoming year. Some of my decisions were controversial. For instance, I scheduled basketball coach Tom Kazor to teaching five days a week. Hanley had giving him free Fridays to work on his real estate business. He also bullied kids in class and on the court. Father McNally basically supported my position which led us to court case a year later when we failed to renew Kaczor’s contract. He actually won several thousand dollar settlement; money well spent. 

Father Jim at a family party.

I’ll never forget Jim McNally’s first week as Headmaster. He sat down with every faculty member and all other staff questioning them about their concerns related to HGP. He’d flop down in a chair in my office and ruminate about things that needed to be done. He said I’d retain my position as Assistant Headmaster for a year when he’d review my performance. We got along great; but he made very clear when I could be in charge of a decision and when he wanted input or control. 

At a faculty meeting (don’t remember if with Hanley or McNally) Father Henry Brown, a HGP legend, declared he was resigning as disciplinarian. A position he’d held for years. He claimed that the administration wasn’t supporting him. I spoke up saying I would handle discipline but would not take the title disciplinarian. Many students remember me for my disciplinary duties but discipline was about 10% of what I did. 

For almost ten years Father McNally and I were a team. We made major academic changes to the curriculum, developing course descriptions, semester courses, advanced courses, eliminating total tracking. Finances changed: development of a salary scale, major tuition increases, health coverage for women faculty, splitting order and school finances, fundraising. We hired an Academis Dean, Guidance Counselor, Art and Music teachers and an Alumni Director. Activities and Sports programs grew. 

But in the late 1980s our administration ended. Father McNally and I were both removed from our positions. For several years the school floundered until Father Jim McCloskey, a graduate, was appointed. Father McCloskey took the school in new directions, including the elimination of the Headmaster position in favor of a President and Principal in charge of the educational programs. 

Speaking of headmasters, we shouldn’t forget:

“For the bulk of the Harry Potter series, Dumbledore was the Headmaster of Hogwarts, and for many fans he will always be the most iconic witch or wizard to lead the school. However, even within the original series, there were a few notable Hogwarts Headmasters over the years. Dolores Umbridge, Severus Snape, and Minerva McGonagall all held the position during Harry’s time at school (or when he should have been at school, but was off chasing horcruxes). Not much is known about the earliest headmasters of Hogwarts . . .” (Screen Rant).