May 2015 Issue

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the

DIAL

T he V oice

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T he S tudent B ody

M ay 2015

hsdial . org

Headmaster Johnson Announces His Retirement

21-Year Tenure Leaves a Durable Legacy of Growth

Mr. Johnson dishing out valuable advice during a meeting with his advisory. Mr. Johnson’s legacy lies in and is carried on by the influence he has had on students like his advisees.

By Sydney Monroe and Alex Meyer

Headmaster Walter Johnson settles into his dark oak rocking chair just as he has done so many times before. Just from one meeting, one can witness the kind presence and relatability one might not expect to find at the absolute head of our school. Mr. Johnson, of course, has been a longtime presence on the Hackley campus. He has served as our headmaster for the past 19 years and just recently announced his upcoming retirement in 2016. Mr. Johnson leads every major change and innovation we see in the Hackley community, from overseeing the construction of new buildings to hiring new faculty members, hes has been, in his own words, “a director of a play, if you will, setting the scene for actors and performers to exhibit their talents.”

“I’ve had the ability to both witness and foster the success of others, which has certainly been one of the most valuable aspects of being headmaster.”

Mr. Johnson

His actions in recent years have come to define the Hackley campus and community, as we know it. It was Mr. Johnson’s initiative to purchase the 172 acres from the Laurance S. Rockefeller Fund in 1998, which now contain Hackley’s new fields complex and cross country trail system. After the library burnt down due to a freak lightning strike, it was Mr. Johnson’s leadership that restored the beauty of the Goodhue Memorial Library while creating an interior that actually enhanced the experience for students and for teachers. Mr. Johnson is the man behind every major action one observes on the Hackley campus. He carried Hackley into the 21st century, keeping Hackley consistently cutting edge and modern while still maintaining the warm Hackley presence we all know and love. His tenure at Hackley has certainly left an imprint, if not just physical, but intellectual and emotional as well, as Assistant Headmaster Phil Variano noted, “his legacies are very broad.” So all of this then raises the question: who really is Mr. Johnson? Who is this figure responsible for all we see and observe around us? To understand Mr. Johnson’s true value and talents as Hackley’s headmaster, one must first follow his journey in teaching. Before Mr. Johnson ever became the leader on campus

Photo by Sydney Monroe.

as he is today, he planted his roots in education a bit more humbly, at a summer camp counselor as a teenager. “This job was my first exposure to the fact that teaching was really hard,” said Mr. Johnson, “I thought that it was a great job because I could work in the mornings and then go and play tennis in the afternoons. But then, by the time I finished my first day, I was so exhausted that I had no energy to play tennis.” This experience made Mr. Johnson realize that teaching was a profession that would require diligent work and engender respect. He went on to graduate summa cum laude with a degree in English from Amherst College, and served as a teaching fellow at the University of Pennsylvania while obtaining his Masters degree. After college, Mr. Johnson served as Associate Director & Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Rosenbach Museum and Library, before finally settling into his first teaching position as an English teacher at the Trinity School in New York City in 1984. He worked there for five years, until he accepted the position as Upper School Director at the Collegiate School, also in New York City, in 1993. Mr. Johnson then traveled overseas in 1994 for a one year stint as the Principal of the High School at The American School in London. After this international job, Mr. Johnson found himself up on the Hilltop, stepping into his role in the Hackley campus in September of 1995. It was this relationship that seemed to fit the best. Mr. Johnson quickly picked up the flow of Hackley life, serving as a teacher, friend, and mentor to many, while also catching Hackley up with the rapidly modernizing times of the late 1990s. By the year 2000, Mr. Johnson had installed a director of technology, two full-time psychologists, a director of enrollment management, a registrar, and brought needed updates to the Hackley computer labs. The Hackley website and automated library soon followed. One thing came to be abundantly clear: Mr. Johnson was here for the long haul. He brought technology to the forefront of Hackley’s campus as a means to “enable the school to be more completely itself.” “These new advances strengthen already concrete Hackley values and give them more opportunities to express themselves.” Hackley has become stronger in part because it is now more ‘Hackley-ish,’” said Mr. Johnson. He created a smooth system where technology became an aspect of guidance and assistance in the classroom, but not an overwhelming presence. These Continued on page 3.

The New 2015-2016 Dial Leaders Take Charge By Lauren Fallon

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he Dial staff is excited to announce that the 2015- to continue making the Dial and the Dial Online a suc2016 Editors-in-Chief are Marc Rod and Sonia cess. During the 2014-2015 school year, the Dial online Singh. Marc was previously one of two editors for enhanced its viewership by making frequent article and the News page and Sonia was the sole editor of the Science photo updates. and Technology page. Both Marc and Sonia worked pas- “I would like to continue the Dial’s online success by sionately their sophomore and junior years, making huge posting timely publications that will get people excited to contributions to the Dial. Everyone on staff is excited to visit the site,” Benjy added. see what they will do to make the Dial the best it can be! He hopes to gain readership by making the Dial online As Editors-in-Chief, they hope to enhance the Dial’s a resourceful site for members on the Hackley campus. presence through social media, which has proved to be a “We want to include more photos and articles that revolve useful method in connecting with the student body this around everything happening at Hackley,” Benjy said. past year. “We will be updating our three social media acSonia added that she is “looking forward to working with counts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, as well as the Marc and Benjy. We are all very excited to carry on the sucnew website regularly to keep students informed on the cess of the Dial. Our sole purpose is to make the newspaper latest news the Dial is covering,” said Marc. the best it can be for the Hackley community,” she said. New online editor and current junior Benjy Renton also The Dial also has new page editors that are very excited to has big plans for the upcoming year. Benjy has played start their new roles. The 2015-2016 Dial staff is prepped an important role on the Dial staff this year and hopes and ready to go for the rest of this year and next year!

Juniors Sonia Singh and Marc Rod, the new Editors in Chief, plan the next issue of The Dial. Photo by Robert Hallock.


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