IN LOVING MEMORY OF... The Lawrence Academy community has lost five former faculty members over the course of this school year. Three of them, George Peabody, Jerry Wooding, and Bill Mees, each spent more than three decades at the Academy. Though the tenures of Dick Pickering and Dave Tobey were shorter, both made LA a better place in their own way and will be missed by the many students who knew and worked with them.
GEORGE PEABODY George Peabody came to Lawrence in 1963, four years after graduating from Miami University of Ohio. Fortunately for LA, he chose to put his training in mathematics to use in the classroom rather than in his intended career in the food service industry. Because of that background, however, Headmaster Arthur Ferguson put his new hire in charge of the student kitchen work program, a responsibility he shouldered for much of his 38-year career. George and his wife Kathy, who predeceased him, were kind and welcoming dorm parents in Pillsbury House, and he made many lasting friendships in the dorm as well as through his teaching, coaching, and role as a faculty advisor. Late in his career, he enjoyed traveling with student groups for Winterim trips to numerous foreign countries. George moved back to his native Ohio when he retired in 2001, though he loved to return to campus to see former students and colleagues — often wearing one of the very few extant LA blazers! He will be remembered for his kindness, his lively sense of humor, and his devotion to his family and the school he loved.
JERRY WOODING Over a 34-year career at Lawrence that started in 1979, Jerry Wooding was a luminary in LA’s distinguished science department and a beloved figure on campus. A gifted chemistry teacher as well as an outdoorsman and an avid birder, he led many outdoor hikes and Winterim trips, and his ornithology class was one of the most popular elective courses in the science department. For many years, he and his colleague and good friend Mark Haman coached the boys’ basketball thirds team together. As Mark commented, “Much of the kids’ joy of playing came from simply being around Jerry and from witnessing the delight he and I took in the joys of coaching and in the joys of each other’s company.” In 2000, the Academy awarded Jerry a year-long sabbatical. He took that unique opportunity to explore on his own, taking a six-month solo bicycle trip across the United States and then spending five months living in Italy with his wife Sharon, where he became enamored with Italian art and architecture, a love affair that lasted the rest of his life. Jerry’s ready smile and easygoing manner, which never concealed his deep dedication to his students and teaching, endeared him to generations of students.
5 6 LAWRENCE ACADEMY SPRING 2022
