INTRODUCING OUR 12TH Head of School

The first day of the Spring Term marked an important and historic moment in the life of the school. Patrick Dorton ’86, Board Chair, and Jonathan Tisch ’72, Executive Chair of the Head of School Search Committee, addressed students and faculty at School Meeting, and formally introduced Emily Raudenbush Gum as the 12th Head of School. It was the first time the entire community had gathered following the Board’s announcement on March 15 that Raudenbush Gum had been enthusiastically and unanimously selected to serve as the next Head of School.

“The Frederick Gunn School has been here for 173 years, and over the course of that time, we have had 11 Heads of School. That’s really remarkable when you think about the tenure of each of those people, going all the way back to Mr. Gunn himself. So it is a really big deal in the life of our school, or any school with our history, when we select and announce the next Head of School,” said Head of School Peter Becker.

“It really is an exciting day,” said Dorton, who took note of the “remarkable, visible transformation” of the campus over the past 10 years, including the opening of TPACC, the creation of the Koven-Jones Glade, the installation of a new turf field, the opening of South Street Fields, the completion of two new dorms, Graham House and Teddy House, and soon, the opening of the Jonathan and Lizzie Center for Innovation and Active Citizenship.

“We’ve reconnected with our founder, we know what we stand for in the world. It’s really been amazing. I can think of no school in America that has undergone the transformation that we have over the last decade, and really this incredible change and incredible commitment to building a stronger, cooler, more interesting school has been led by Peter Becker. He certainly goes on the mantle and in the history of the school as an iconic head,” Dorton said, thanking Peter and Amy Julia Becker for all that they have done for the school, and acknowledging the members of the Head of School Search Committee, including Ashley LeBlanc, Dean of Students, and Bart McMann, Director of the Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy, for participating in an incredibly rigorous search process.

“It is truly an honor and a pleasure to be with you all on a day where the school will be handed from one dynamic head to the next,” said Tisch, who thanked the members of the Search Committee and Co-Chairs Ashleigh Fernandez and Neil Townsend P’18 ’20 for their time and commitment.

“My wife and I are honored to have allowed the underwriting of what has come to be known as ‘The Lizzie,’ which is kind of funny, because my wife loves that,” Tisch said, referring to the nickname that has been bestowed on the new building that will open in January 2024 overlooking the school’s historic Quad. “But to have a sense of the exciting future for this institution, to have a building that will be the centerpiece for learning, for innovation, for thinking about active citizenship right in the middle of the campus of The Frederick Gunn School is very, very exciting and very, very promising. And your next Head of School gets all of that. She is about learning, she is about education, she is about the values that Abigail and Frederick Gunn thought about 173 years ago. It gives me tremendous pleasure on behalf of the Board Chair and the Board of Trustees of The Frederick Gunn School to introduce the 12th Head of School, Emily Raudenbush Gum.”

It was a powerful tribute when Raudenbush Gum walked to the front of the stage to address the community in her new role for the first time and she received a standing ovation. “I am extraordinarily excited and proud to be up here,” she said. “We’re going to have an awesome spring together.”

“I just want to start by offering my thanks to the Search Committee, and to the Board, for this opportunity. But also, I just want to say how proud I am of the school and you all, how proud I am to be a Highlander,” she said, talking to the students about her new role and what it means to be Head of School. “I went to boarding school, and I still think about my boarding school. I think about those days, I think about that place, and this is your place. My job as the Head of School is to make sure that this place thrives for you, and for every alumnus or alumna who has come before us.”

“Frederick and Abigail and the school that they founded in 1850 caught my imagination all those years ago, six years ago now. Whatever it is about what they were doing has helped shape what I think is important in the world, is important in schools, and I’m not out of inspiration. I keep talking and thinking about these folks, I keep thinking about The Frederick Gunn School, and it keeps inspiring me. I’ve been thinking about longevity, I’ve been thinking about what it means to be inspired by a place deeply,” she said.

“Being the Head of School means that you get to tend to the roots of a place, so I’m going to tell you a story about a tree. Frederick and Abigail — there are so many great stories about them. This is one that I started to look at a little differently in the last couple of weeks as I’ve been thinking about this headship in a new way. This is a story about Fred walking to a tree. For most of the last five years, I have looked at this story and thought about the walk. We take

School Walk, we do Hitting Pause, we talk about getting outside.” But she reflected further on Mr. Gunn’s mindset as he walked: “He was irritated about something. He was frustrated, and he was trying to clear his mind. He somehow always found himself at this tree. Why did he go to a tree? There were other things he could have been doing. There were lots of places he could go. He didn’t. He showed up at this tree — and it’s described as this big, old, tulip tree, which has nothing to do with the flower — and he would pay attention to the fact that this tree was rooted in place, and was in the right setting. It was kind of majestic in that way, but its bark was a little messed up. It had some wounds.”

Here she paused before continuing: “There are all these incredible things about trees, but what I think is most amazing about trees is the roots. Trees go deep to thrive. They go into the soil deeper to find a sense of purpose and to find what they need in order to thrive in the world, to communicate with one another. Trees have this sense of rootedness and place. This is one of the pillars of our educational philosophy. This was given to us by Frederick Gunn as a way to think about what education can and should be.”

“What we want you to know, and what Frederick Gunn gives us, and what I think the role of the Head of School is, is that I will be here, we will be here, tending the roots of this place so that you can always come back. That is what these two are doing,” she said, referring to Tisch and Dorton, who were seated on the stage behind her. “Jon and Patrick are alumni of this school. They are demonstrating what it looks like to stay committed and rooted to a place so that it can thrive for other people. That is extraordinary. That doesn’t happen everywhere, and they’re doing it for you, and the students who will come next year, and the year after that. So what that means is, when you are given the opportunity to come back, you should do that. Five years, 10 years, 15 years, when you think about those reunions, when you think about the community that you want to come back to, we’re like your tree. You come back, you touch the soil and the bark, and you get grounded again, and you recenter yourself, and then you go back out there into the world.”

“That’s what I’m here for, that’s what I’m committed to, what I’m excited about. I am excited about a ton of things, and we’ll talk about those. Mostly, I am so grateful and proud to be part of this community, to take on the responsibilities of ensuring that you always have a home to come back to, and that this place always inspires you,” Raudenbush Gum said. “That’s what I’m most excited about.”