UPPER SCHOOL RECOGNIZES STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT DURING AWARD CEREMONY, JOURDAN JONES ’23 RECEIVES COUNTRY DAY AWARD

Upper School faculty, staff, family members, and student body celebrated 38 student recognitions during the Upper School award ceremony. Head of School Rob Zimmerman ’98 presented the Country Day Award, which is the highest honor the school can bestow upon a student. This year, Jourdan Jones ’23 received this recognition. “No matter the setting, she is always in command of her voice... Jourdan is more than ready to be of service to the world; she is ready to lead it.”

It goes without saying that Merle was a superb classroom teacher. Indeed, when our school’s centennial history is written in three years, Merle Black will thoroughly deserve his exalted place alongside names like Pattison, Strauss, and Dunn in the school’s teaching hall of fame.

But for me and many others, his enduring legacy is his insatiable and infectious intellectual curiosity. And it’s this sense of curiosity that led to another question Merle often asked: Do you want to fight?” Now, if you heard this on a street corner or in a bar, you might flee in fear. But if you heard it in Merle Black’s classroom, you would lean in. From Merle, it wasn’t a threat; it was a generous invitation to intellectual inquiry.

Because what Merle really meant by “Do you want to fight” was “Are you ready for a battle of ideas?” It’s not so much that he sought a debate where points would be scored or victory declared; rather, he wanted you to join in the joyful quest for knowledge and truth. And he wanted you to join in because he valued lifelong learning for its own sake, not for the credential it might bestow someday.

Who could ever turn down that fight? Not I. Not when Merle beckoned me to a life of intellectual engagement, buoyed by a sense of wonder and gratitude. Not when Merle’s passionate spirit was on display every day, his voice quickening while reading a Churchill speech, his eyes welling with tears while describing the beauty of Michaelangelo’s art, and his arms straining under the weight of another pile of books destined for his garage library.

In retrospect, it seems obvious that Merle would have this effect. But at the time, it was far less certain. I was a typical 16-year-old boy whose primary interests were sports and girls (in the case of the latter, the interest was typically not mutual). To watch his authentic enthusiasm in class, though, was to be jealous of the tears streaming down his face and awed at his passion for learning. I vividly recall watching him in my sophomore year history class and thinking: “This is what serious grownups do. This is how a real man behaves.”

For that reason, it is no exaggeration to say that Merle Black has been the most important adult in my life outside of my family. His example was that powerful for me, from the way I viewed my professional trajectory to the way I viewed the world itself. In fact, I feel his influence every day I walk into work, because I would not have returned to lead Country Day without Merle’s impact. And it has been one of the great honors of my life to work alongside him these past two years.

After 35 years of exemplary teaching at Country Day, Merle retired this June. I’ll certainly miss his daily presence on campus, but I’m sure I’ll see him again soon at a sporting event or a senior seminar. And when I do, I’ll be sure to ask him “What are you reading?”

SCAN HERE TO SEE THE COMPLETE LIST OF AWARD RECIPIENTS AND READ THE FULL STORY.