DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

301.320.1016

WWW.LANDON.NET

Peter J. Gallo, Ph.D. Director of Development

Robinson Bordley ’66 Alumni Ambassador

Maria Femiano Development and Special Events Associate

Elizabeth Hudson

Assistant Director of Development for Analytics, Publications, and Endowment

Michael McCabe Director of Annual Giving and Alumni Relations

Loretta Menzen Director of Development Operations

Lucas Metropulos Director of Major and Planned Gifts

Cynthia Peters Director of Special Events

Joan Vassos Annual Giving and Alumni Relations Associate

On The Cover

New campus welcome center dedicated as Harriet Warren Way. Read more on page 6.

Landon students cheering at the Homecoming Varsity Football game vs. Episcopal.

Members of the Class of 1972 gather to celebrate their 50th Reunion. Read more on page 34.

Your support of our mission has a fundamental impact on our students –their development, their experience, and their future.

The continuous generosity of our community enables us to place boys at the center of everything we do.

A MESSAGE FROM HEAD OF SCHOOL Jim Neill

Last year was a banner year at Landon due to the devotion, generosity, and hard work of so many, whose commitment to the Landon mission ensures it remains vital. We launched an ambitious capital campaign with a large event that included the announcement of the largest philanthropic gift in Landon’s history. Hundreds joined to celebrate Landon that evening, and it was, to no one’s surprise, a wonderful occasion full of good will and excitement about our school.

That is what it is like whenever this community comes together – whether at that event last year, at a sporting or musical event, at the various events during Homecoming or Reunion weekends, or even on just a regular school day. They are uplifting times of connection. It reminds me of what one of our newer faculty members says – he’s been here a couple years – whenever I ask him how things are going: “Great – I’ve never had a bad day at Landon.” It is indeed a wonderful thing to be part of this community.

In my comments at our opening assembly this year, I highlighted a quote from an article I read this summer by the recently deceased ethical/ political journalist Michael Gerson. The quote was, “It has been said that when you choose your community, you choose your character.” It caught my eye because of the importance of character and community to the Landon experience. It spoke to what we do here. And as our Board Chair, Alex Baldwin, notes in his letter in this Annual Report, while we have begun the year with our campus changing rapidly, the calling, challenge, and reason for being here all remain the same. And they relate to those two words – community and character.

Our entire purpose is to help boys grow into the good men we need in our world today. A Landon experience asks a lot of boys who in turn have the chance to ask a lot of themselves and, indeed, of one another. We don’t expect that that journey will be perfect and keep the bar high, holding our students to a set of values that we know will serve them throughout their lives. For we know that through those difficult moments comes growth – in mind and body and character – and that challenges introduce them to their strengths and their need for one another. part of this extended community, and indeed all who will in the years to come. We are built on legacy, as the seniors have reminded us in their motto for the year – a legacy of excellence, character, and community. That legacy is strong, sound, and rooted in something meaningful. And it must be to endure.

We also do all we can to promote the sense of belonging and connection each of us wants to feel. It is always so touching to me when I hear the students authentically refer to their classmates as their brothers. It shows the connection they feel to one another and to this place. This is so important as our work is best done in and through community.

Not only do we ask them to work hard in the classroom, or to push themselves in athletics, or to tap their creativity and take risks in artistic endeavors, or to embrace our Character Pledge and live up to its standards, we ask them to hold their brothers to this overall way of being. We ask them to do all this together.

Character and community.

All of this is important because Landon is an idea that comes to life only through the people who make up the place – that comes to life in the work our boys and faculty do. Not only as individuals, but as a group learning and growing together, collectively committed to a way of being, to a set of values, and to a web of supportive relationships.

At the same time, it must remain dynamic as we continue it into the future. One very palpable way in which we are carrying the legacy into the future is in how we are transforming – or perhaps a better word for it is stewarding – our campus right now. For this work is not just for those who are here today; it is for students who have not yet even been born. It is to advance our legacy of being one of the Nation’s very top boys’ schools.

I thank all of you for being a part of this legacy and for your choice to affiliate with this institution by supporting and advancing its long-standing program of excellence, ethics, and personal development. We celebrate your choice to do so as well as that legacy by thanking all of you for your generosity to and affirmation of this community of character. We thank you for saying yes to our mission of developing wellrounded men of integrity and character who seek to make a positive difference in the world around them.

With appreciation,

This idea of Landon further comes to life in and through everyone who has gone here and been

Jim Neill, P ’24 Head of School

A MESSAGE FROM BOARD CHAIR Alex Baldwin

Dear members of the Landon community,

This is an exciting time at Landon. With the construction efforts in full swing, there are many changes on campus. Andrews House moved west over the summer to its new location, making room for the construction of the new Boehly Upper School. As Jim Neill told me when we first discussed it years ago, this project is both necessary and transformative.

Although a lot of work remains to be done, each division of the school will be in a new home with substantial improvements to each of our academic buildings. This work will enhance the boys’ educational experience through upgraded classrooms and labs, as well as foster the already strong sense of community by bringing all divisions of the school together around a central academic quad and adding more gathering space for the boys to come together. If you are not familiar with the Campus Master Plan, I encourage you to go to our campaign website (campaign.landon.net) to take a look.

Although the changes on campus are significant, what is happening in the classroom is also exciting. There are program improvements to accompany the classroom changes. Please read the story on page 8 to learn more. But what will never change is Landon’s exceptional faculty and staff who are dedicated to helping the boys learn, grow and challenge themselves. Landon remains focused on character education and ensuring that Landon Bears choose the hard right over the easy wrong. Landon also continues to cherish the strength of the Landon community and its broad diversity, so that every member of the community feels at home at Landon. The last few years have been particularly challenging on several fronts, and I am both proud of and grateful for the way the Landon community has come together to support and listen to one another.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, thank you for your continued generous support of Landon. We have made significant progress on The Campaign for Landon, but we are not done yet. The Campaign for Landon is a comprehensive campaign with an overall goal of $50 million over five years –$30 million in support of the Campus Master Plan, $10 million to grow

Landon’s endowment in support of its long-term financial sustainability, and $10 million to maintain annual giving in support of ongoing operations. I am very pleased to report that we have raised over $40 million so far toward these overall goals. Please consider making a pledge and if you have any questions, please reach out to Peter Gallo, Landon’s Director of Development, Jim Neill, myself, or any of the members of the Capital Campaign Committees.

I look forward to seeing you on campus soon.