MARY HALPIN CARTER

Raising the Bar

Raising the Bar.

That’s the phrase David Lockwood, Trustee Emeritus, keeps using when asked about Mary Carter’s impact on The Derryfield School. And Dr. Carter did raise the bar, every day, whether that meant advising a student, breaking ground on a new building, empowering creative teachers, or even announcing Head’s Holiday from the back of a motorcycle.

Mary Carter wore many hats at Derryfield—including, of course, a familiar straw one adorned with ribbons of maroon and white. She was admissions director, teacher, advisor, a dean several times over, and most importantly mom to three Derryfield alumni (Louisa ’13, Polly ’16, and Martin ’18).

Once she became Head of School, Mary became an agent of profound academic, physical, and cultural change at Derryfield. She was, in the words of retired faculty member Chuck Sanborn, “a visionary.” While Dr. Carter always remained true to the School’s core values, she was far-sighted about Derryfield’s future, and focused on how to best guide the School’s students on their own unique pathways of personal fulfillment.

“Mary is courageous in her ability to be ambitious and dream big,” says Lindley Shutz, Associate Head of School & Dean of Academics. This became very clear when Dr. Carter launched and led efforts to build the Athletic and Wellness Center, Science and Innovation Center, and tennis complex— while simultaneously guiding a faculty-driven revamp of the School’s entire academic program.

Former Derryfield Board Chair Paul Leyden remembers that, at first, the Master Facilities Plan seemed almost surreal. “It was like, we can’t do all that, because it just looked like so much!” Yet when the ongoing dining commons project is completed, that grand campus vision will have become a reality thanks to the largest capital campaign in school history.

Meanwhile, the new academic vision was a three-year collaborative effort focused on 21st-century skills, project-based learning, and real-world applications. STEM and Design Thinking were emphasized, students were encouraged to follow passion pursuits in dozens of exploration courses, and AP courses were replaced with student-driven Advanced Topic classes. Even the schedule was revamped to improve the student experience.

Many institutions, and heads, would have balked at undertaking such bold steps simultaneously. Dr. Carter saw it as a key to success. “She believed that all of these things would come together in integrated ways, some we didn’t even imagine when we began,” Ms. Shutz says. “And that turned out to be true”

These momentous changes were made by another of Dr. Carter’s leadership skills. As Head of Middle School Mark Blaisdell said during her last day on campus, “Mary really specialized in realizing human potential.”

As head she attracted talented and successful people, and kept them at Derryfield with leadership that envisioned how they could grow, and challenged them take risks and find success. “One of her talents is raising people up, giving them responsibility, and raising levels of expectations,” says Paul Leyden.

This leadership not only produced these many collaborative accomplishments during her tenure, it created a legacy that will benefit Derryfield for years to come because those teams of inspired hard workers remain. “It’s a new group of leaders here that she’s developed and mentored, and that’s a legacy I think she should be really proud of,” says former Board Chair Brad Benson.

A decade ago an accreditation team from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges issued a challenge. "They said that Derryfield was still a gem too hidden,” says former Associate Head of School Susan Grodman. From that point on Dr. Carter made it a mission to widely share all the terrific things faculty and students were doing on River Road.

The School’s community expanded geographically; busses welcomed students from the Seacoast and Massachusetts while the School partnered with agencies to attract more international students. Derryfield intentionally strengthened off-campus connections, engaging alums and parents around the world, sending every student out on an Independent Senior Project and building relationships with businesses and organizations in Manchester and throughout New Hampshire.

“She has really tried to make the students the focus of her work,” says Trustee Emeritus Ellie Cochran ’69. “But the way Mary has approached being the Head of School has really also looked at how Derryfield can be the best it can be in the community.”

As all who worked with her can attest, Dr. Carter tackled all these many tasks with a seemingly limitless reserves of positivity and energy.

“It always astounded me, and frankly it concerned me after a few months of working with her,” David Lockwood explains. “Can someone maintain this level of work ethic and enthusiasm for an extended period of time? As I learned, Mary could.”

Dr. Carter’s leadership style embraced having a presence. Whether it was a PFA event, a fundraiser, or a faculty meeting she seemed able to be everywhere—yet to give every task and personal encounter her undivided attention. “She’d take an important call from a parent, then be on the sideline at a game, and then take in a show,” says Paul Leyden. “And she’d do it all with a smile.”

That smile, and that laugh, are undoubtedly among the things that everyone at Derryfield will miss the most.

Whether the occasion called for dressing as a knight (so that Hefty might steal the show as the dragon) or inviting a student to pie her in the face on stage, Dr. Carter’s leadership was joyful. “Mary just likes to have fun,” says Ms. Shutz. “She’d often say to teachers, ‘if you’re not having fun something is not going right in your classroom.’”

That quick sense of humor could relieve tension, for example while learning on the fly how to deliver the Derryfield educational experience, remotely, during a global Pandemic. Director of Enrollment and External Affairs Kathleen Rutty-Fey ’87 remembers how often humor carried the day during the endless Zoom meetings of 2020. “Mary created an environment that said ‘we’ve got this,’ but, also, ‘let’s laugh a little bit and understand that things are a bit absurd right now.’”

Dr. Carter’s laugh was a familiar sound in the halls whenever she shared a moment with a student, parent, or a colleague. “She really was just someone to lean on and felt like my friend every single day at Derryfield,” says Sam Grondin ’17, one of Dr. Carter’s many advisees. People across the Derryfield community felt the same.

Mary opened her heart, and even her home to the Derryfield family. The Carters (including Cordelia and Hefty) hosted the parents of every admitted student at the blueberry farm. During the pandemic, Dr. Carter lunched with each of the international students, knowing that it was especially difficult to be away from family in uncertain times. When 2020 graduation rolled around, and an in-person ceremony was out of the question, she spent three days on a bus personally visiting and congratulating each graduating senior.

“When Mary comes in she’s smiling, she’s happy, she knows everyone’s name asks how their day is,” says Hannah Kelsey ’16. “The culture that Mary creates with her positivity trickles down throughout the school.”

That culture is built on a foundation of kindness and belonging, a community where each child can bring their authentic self and strive to create a sense of belonging for others as well.

During Dr. Carter’s tenure Derryfield launched intentional efforts to increase belonging and diversity, including strategies to welcome students of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Because belonging requires making Derryfield accessible to as many people as possible, Derryfield also launched the equitable tuition model to help serve more deserving students. Most recently, the Board of Trustees launched the Amoskeag Scholars program. These meritbased scholarships make it possible for bright and motivated students from underserved populations to attend Derryfield tuition free, and a total of 14 scholars, 2 for each grade, will be enrolled by 2024.

Those scholars, like all Derryfield students, also benefit from the Leading for the Common Good program, an initiative to help students learn and practice many different kinds of leadership in a culture of inclusion and kindness. “I think Mary’s vision was that everyone needs the opportunity to practice leadership skills in many different contexts,” says Ms. Shutz.

As these talented and confident students graduate, and go on to lead various institutions and aspects of society while grounded in the core values learned at Derryfield, they create an everexpanding ripple effect and a powerful legacy.

Now, Dr. Carter has embarked on a new adventure as Head of School for St. Luke’s School in Connecticut.

None of us who shared her time at Derryfield will ever forget the way she ‘raised the bar’ across so many different aspects of the School. And while future students won’t meet her in the halls, they will still feel the impact of her legacy throughout the community.

Dr. Carter leaves the school with record enrollment, fiscally sound, with an academic program that’s innovative and strong, and a campus that has been transformed.

“There were many tremendous accomplishments, but all of those accomplishments were possible because of who Mary is,” says Ms. Grodman. “The human side of it, the kind of leader she is, why people respect and love and care about her in the way that they do is the story that needs to be told. That’s what we’ll all remember the most.”