William New Jr. '59 Servons Award

MONIQUE PARSONS '84

The William New Jr. '59 Servons Award was conceived to honor the legendary service to Cate of its namesake. For many years the award was presented by Bill New himself: an inventor, philanthropist, trustee, and friend. With Bill’s passing, the award now lives beyond him, a memory of the service he offered this community and a standard for those of us who would presume to follow in his footsteps. The Servons Award acknowledges service that is as distinctive and unselfish as it is impactful and memorable.

It is awarded this year to an alumna of Cate whose investment in the life and work of the School has only grown from its impressive beginnings. A native Carpinterian, she arrived at Cate as a sophomore, graduating with the Class of 1984 and going on to Princeton. A brilliant writer with a distinctive focus on religion, she earned her Masters in Journalism from the Medill School at Northwestern and then a Masters of

Divinity from Harvard. Professionally, she became a fixture on NPR, an author, and a celebrator of the connective tissue that unites all people and faith systems.

She joined the Cate Board of Trustees in 2006 and quickly stepped into leadership roles. She led our Education and Student Life Committee, helped to plan key retreats, even hosted a trip for trustees to visit peer schools in the northeast to better understand our market and our place within the constellation of boarding schools. In 2011, she became President of the Cate School Board of Trustees, the first woman and the first alumna to hold that position. Kind, thoughtful, unendingly fair, and determined always to care for the community of the School, our Servons Award winner consistently stepped into the most demanding trustee roles and carried the weight of her responsibility with patience and grace. The School’s 2014 Strategic Plan, which laid the groundwork for so much of the change on our campus and in our program is one of the meaningful byproducts of her visionary leadership and guidance.

Her efforts to expand the diversity of the Board of Trustees, and in particular to engage more alumnae in the volunteer leadership of the School have resulted in a Board today that is majority female and more reflective of the diverse heritage of our school community.

She even stepped up to lead the For Cate and Forever Campaign with her husband, virtually assuring the success of the most ambitious fund-raising effort in our School’s history. It is my great pleasure to honor with the Servons Award one of those rare keepers of the spirit of this place, Monique Parsons. Accepting the award on behalf of his mother is current 11th grade Cate student, Jules Wecker.