In Loving Memory of George Peabody, Jerry Wooding Bill Mees, Dick Pickering, and David Tobey

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.

BILL MEES

Bill Mees’ long and distinguished teaching career began at Milton Academy, two years after his 1960 graduation from Bates College. A seasoned veteran by the time he found his way to Lawrence in the fall of 1977, he would, over the next 33 years, teach French, Spanish, and English. At various times, he served as language department chair, director of studies, dean of faculty, and drama coach.

While Bill’s brilliant pedagogy earned him awards for excellence in teaching, he was also generous in his donations to fundraising efforts for the Academy, which honored him by naming its new performing arts center after him and another former faculty member, Arleigh D. Richardson. Upon his retirement in 2010, 50 years to the day after his graduation from Bates College, Lawrence Academy announced the J. William Mees Visiting Scholar Program, which allows the Academy to invite scholars in various academic disciplines to visit the school and interact with students.

Bill’s retirement was filled with travel to Europe, collecting American impressionist art, and sharing his prodigious culinary talents with his friends and former students. Bill touched many lives, and his own was a life well lived, for the good of others.

DICK PICKERING

A member of the LA faculty from 1965 to 1973, Dick died on Jan. 22, a victim of cancer. He was 85. At Lawrence, he taught English and succeeded Bob Shepherd as director of admissions. He also coached the undefeated 1972 boys’ varsity soccer team to a league championship, which, years later, earned them a place of honor in LA’s Athletic Hall of Fame. After LA, the Pickerings moved to Maine, where Dick began a new career with Tom’s of Maine in the early days of the “health food” movement. They spent happy years on Paddy’s Creek in Cape Porpoise, mucking around in boats. After Tom’s, Dick owned Cape Hardware and Cape Floor Refinishers, then Meadowside Antiques after moving to two 18th century homes in West Kennebunk.

Dick’s wife Jane predeceased him in 2019. He is survived by their three children, Tina, Richard, and Nathan; seven grandchildren; and three step-grandchildren.

DAVID TOBEY

Dave Tobey was 82 when he died on Feb. 1, 2022, at Cape Cod Hospital. He taught math at LA from 1963 to 1968; his personal warmth, easygoing manner, and sense of humor endeared him to his students. After Lawrence, he returned to his native Harwich, Mass., to run the family business. In Harwich, he served on the finance and school committees, and the conservation commission. He also coached Little League for many years.

Dave is survived by his wife, Evelyn, four children, and six grandchildren, in addition to one sister and many nieces and nephews.