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Beverley Bozarth Cogan painted these watercolors of the Basking Ridge, Short Hills, and Pottersville Campuses for 360° virtual tours on Pingry’s website.
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Pottersville Campus
Short Hills Campus
Pingry Dreams Big in Pottersville
A Bold Move for a Bold Future
Time flies
when you’re presented with an unexpected, time-sensitive opportunity that could change the course of your institution’s future. And now, because it seized that opportunity, Pingry is continuing its history of expansion.
Throughout the School’s existence, Pingry has constructed buildings, merged with another school, and moved to new campuses to accommodate the growth of the student body, the decision to become coeducational, the need for new facilities, and its desire to continue improving on its mission. Just think of the transitions from a schoolhouse to Parker Road, from Parker Road to Hillside, from Hillside to Bernards Township, and the merger with Short Hills Country Day School—in every case, considerable debate, exploration, and foresight led to Pingry’s growth as an institution.
It happened again this past winter, when Purnell School in the rural community of Pottersville—just 15 miles from the Basking Ridge Campus and 30 miles from the Short Hills Campus—announced in February that it would cease operations at the end of the 2020-21 school year. Consisting of numerous buildings, athletics spaces, a garden, and a pond spread around a campus of more than 80 acres, with 100,000 square feet of fully air-conditioned academic space, the property offers facilities that Pingry did not have, including—significantly—employee housing (on the wish list since the 1980s) and dormitories that could open a world of possibilities for using the campus after hours or over weekends for immersive experiences.
Upon learning that Purnell would be selling the campus, Chief Financial and Operating Officer Olaf Weckesser P ’25 acted quickly by notifying Head of School Matt Levinson and the Board of Trustees. “The timing was unexpected, so we had to think quickly about what we might do with a third campus if it became available at an attractive price,” he says. The driving forces behind the decision were the aspirations of the 2018 Strategic Plan and the Buildings and Grounds Strategic Plan for the Basking Ridge Campus.
“The property gives us a big portion of what is included in the Buildings and Grounds Strategic Plan—employee housing, student housing, an environmental education center, a farm neighborhood, and space for experiential education,” Mr. Weckesser says. “In the past, it would have required years, if ever, for us to get there. We would have had to fundraise, design the space, get building permits, and build the space.”
After close collaboration between, and due diligence by, the Board of Trustees, Administrative Team, and other employees from March to May, Pingry purchased the property to achieve its goals at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time; importantly, Pingry has no plans to
Art studio.
Visionary Changes Through Philanthropy
Pingry’s expansion over the years, including campus moves and construction, has been made possible by countless benefactors, such as the vision and generosity of the late William S. Beinecke ’31, P ’61, ’64 who enabled Pingry to move from Hillside to Basking Ridge. Some donors were significant at former campuses (such as J. Mortimer Townley, Class of 1880, and Dean Mathey, Class of 1908). Community members who supported recent capital campaigns (The Campaign for Pingry; Blueprint for the Future) enabled the School to modernize its facilities on both campuses and construct the Miller A. Bugliari ’52 Athletics Center. In many cases, donor support is reflected in named spaces and buildings such as Beinecke House, Bristol Gymnasium, Engel Dining Room, Hauser Auditorium, Hostetter Arts Center, Hyde Athletic Building, Hyde and Watson Gymnasium, Kreh Gymnasium, Macrae Theater, The Carol and Park B. Smith ‘50 Middle School, Temares Family Stadium, and The Wilf Family Commons. What are the possibilities for the Pottersville Campus?
Pottersville Campus At-A-Glance
83 acres
22 buildings 56 dorm rooms of varying sizes Housing units of varying sizes for employees Community and collaboration spaces Classrooms and labs
Indoor athletics facility Performing arts building Community “quad” 2 athletics fields
5 tennis courts
Ropes course
One of the areas on the Pottersville Campus where ideas for programming were offered during October’s In-Service Day. become a boarding school, but the School will use the dormitories so that students can enjoy overnight experiences. Thus, the School now has a K-12 experiential education campus—a shared space for all students—the Pottersville Campus.
Experiential Education, K-12
The Pottersville Campus provides a unique environment that Pingry did not previously have: a shared space for all students to immerse themselves in experiential education. True, the School has been incorporating this approach to learning into its curriculum for years, but this new campus provides an outlet dedicated to it.
Overnight immersive experiences to dig deeper into a topic, dorms that enable the School to “invite the world” and host experts-in-residence, outdoor learning resources, space for ISPs (Independent Senior Projects) and other K-12 experiential and immersive experiences, and more interdisciplinary learning are just a few items on Upper School Visual Arts Teacher Rebecca Sullivan’s list as Director of Experiential Education and Pottersville Programs. Overseeing the K-12 experience, she and her “Ex Ed Team,” with faculty from all three divisions, are collaborating with the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools to bring experiential programs at Pottersville to all students.
Faculty members need space to dream big, and they have it. In fact, during an In-Service Day in early October, they explored the campus and participated in a collaborative tour experience during which they contributed to programming vision through prompts at key locations. “Teachers are excited about the expert-in-residence possibility, and they are thrilled to showcase passion programs,” Ms. Sullivan relates. During this first year, through various events, Pingry is helping students and employees become familiar with the campus and develop a sense of place, including the chance to think about pilot programs.
“A Blank Slate” for Wellness and Other Purposes
More than one administrator describes the Pottersville Campus as a blank slate, the chance to design a new space for Pingry and not retrofit existing spaces on either of the other campuses. “From a wellness perspective, students can enjoy physical and artistic activities, new experiences, and a journey to explore a new place. I think of it like camping out in your backyard versus going to a state park,” says Tim Lear ’92, P ’25, ’27, ’30, Upper School English Teacher and Assistant Head of School for Guidance and Student Life (his analogy is actually spot on, since the Pottersville Campus is located just south of Hacklebarney State Park, and hiking trails exist nearby).
For another outdoor comparison, “a playground for things we’ve dreamt about” is how Mr. Lear’s colleague, Assistant Head of School Dr. Delvin Dinkins, views this blank canvas. “It’s a home for extending all the things that we’re trying to do well, and things that are in the margins that can get more emphasis in Pottersville, like experiential education, farming, civic engagement, and global education— important programs, but programs that are tough to introduce fully in a crowded field [of other programs on our other campuses].” Dr.
Dinkins also uses the word intentionality: “We can design this space specifically for what we need. It’s a way to have everybody dream together and feel a sense of shared purpose.”
Overnights—for Students and Guests!
“The overnight component is essential,” Mr. Lear declares, referring to the student dorms. “Currently, we need to rent space for an overnight activity or we can’t do it at all. In Pottersville, we can extend the day and the week in a healthy way—students can enjoy an overnight with dinner, brainstorming, and a change of scenery. That is transformative. Some of the most restoring, recharging experiences I’ve had professionally are retreats and conferences with colleagues, sharing thoughts over a meal.”
Along with students having the chance to spend more time together in a relaxed setting outside of the usual school environment, the space for overnight stays also means that Pingry can host events and other groups, which has not been possible (or at least, not easily feasible).
Employee Housing
The Pottersville Campus gives Pingry something it hasn’t had since the School was in Hillside: spaces for employees to live on campus. In recent years, Pingry has found “Using the residential capacity, we can offer an option for visiting students and Pingry students to live together for the duration of the exchange. It would help to deepen the bonds, living together in community for two weeks, improving their language skills, and expanding their intercultural understanding.”
—UPPER SCHOOL HISTORY TEACHER, FORM V/VI DEAN OF STUDENT LIFE, AND FORMER DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL EDUCATION AND ENGAGEMENT JULIA DUNBAR
Visionary Leadership: Behind the Scenes with Trustees Jeff Edwards ’78 and Ian Shrank ’71
What appealed to the Board about purchasing the property?
JE: Pottersville could impact all parts of our 2018 Strategic Plan, and it’s an asset that offers employee housing, student wellness in a beautiful location, and dorm space for overnights. There are some duplicate facilities, like the theater and dance studio, but that means more access for more students, and we may find other uses for them. Overall, we saw a lot of interesting things that required exploration to validate that they would be useful, but initially, it was a matter of, “This is an extraordinary asset that we should learn more about.”
Can you describe the Board’s fiscally conservative approach and what convinced the group that the purchase made sense?
JE: The Board is always very thorough in looking at their fiduciary responsibility, but the trustees were more careful and more thorough, and had a higher standard of diligence in this case, than I’d ever seen before. They felt it was a unique and compelling opportunity at a very attractive price relative to what we were getting and what could be done with it. Considering its proximity to both campuses and its dormitory space, there are only going to be so many campuses like that.
IS: There are many rental opportunities, just as there are at Basking Ridge and Short Hills, there will be some revenue from employee housing, and we’ll have income from third-party leasing of the fields and buildings. Prior to the purchase, the Board made exploratory phone calls to likely renters, and many were quite enthusiastic.
JE: It’s important to point out that the first consideration was, did the purchase make sense strategically? Then, once it crossed that threshold, we approached the financials—the financials were important, but second in the Board’s mind.
How does this purchase help with the School’s plan for buildings and grounds?
JE: The buildings and grounds plan should support the Strategic Plan—what do we need to be able to support those initiatives? As one example, employee housing has been on the “wish list” since Pingry moved from Hillside to Basking Ridge, and we’ve never done it. One reason is that building housing is expensive, and the School felt there were more pressing needs for the money. Now, we’ve been able to fulfill it.
IS: A number of people have said that the cost of this acquisition could be justified just by the employee housing because Basking Ridge and Short Hills are expensive areas to live, so there are not many options for younger faculty. We’ve lost some teacher candidates who wanted to work at Pingry but couldn’t afford to live nearby. Just addressing that concern alone will bring a huge benefit to the School, with our ability to hire our first-choice faculty. In comparing costs for building housing on our current land versus buying it at Pottersville—it’s not even close.
The purchase occurred at the transition from Mr. Edwards’ tenure as Chair to Mr. Shrank’s tenure, and you both signed the June announcement to the Pingry community. Can you discuss the overlap?
JE: The way the timing fell, I was quite active in the March–June time frame, but it wouldn’t have made sense to proceed without Ian’s support. Everybody was looking to him for leadership, and the Board needed to see us working together on this and supporting it mutually.
IS: At first, some people on the Board were a little more skeptical than others, but Jeff saw the value almost immediately and made sure we all understood and saw the value and potential. The Administrative Team provided information, ideas, and most importantly, enthusiasm. Jeff got the Board over the line of being enthusiastically in favor, and I brought it to closing in August.
JE: That’s really important—from the Board’s standpoint, the Administrative Team made an incredibly effective case, and enthusiasm from administrators and faculty was crucial in convincing the Board that this made sense.
As you reflect on the past few months, why was Pingry in a position to make this purchase?
JE: First, we have a growth-oriented mindset in our administration and faculty, in terms of evolving our pedagogy to serve our students better. Second, the Board supports that mission and the administration. Third, we have financial strength. The fact that we had a successful capital campaign [Blueprint for the Future, completed in 2016] and had done so much renovation allowed us to be forward-thinking about what needed to be done next.
it challenging to attract and retain teachers in national and international searches due to the high cost of living (the housing market, in particular) in the neighborhoods surrounding the Basking Ridge and Short Hills Campuses. So, with housing in Pottersville, Pingry now has a valuable tool for recruitment. “Our housing is reasonably priced [at a significant discount from market rent], it provides a close commute, and it takes away the pressure of a new employee’s immediate living situation. They have time to look at where else they might want to live,” says Lindsay Holmes-Glogower ’99, P ’33, Director of People Operations and Talent Development.
It’s not just recruitment, though. Employee housing can also serve a valuable role in community building and retention. “Organically, the community will build itself,” Ms. Holmes-Glogower says. “People can get to know their colleagues better and be more a part of the community because their commute is shorter. So, there’s the community itself and allowing people to engage in the larger community, whether that means going to games or a weekend activity.” Thanks to Brook House on the new campus, Pingry can also provide temporary housing, thereby accommodating various circumstances (planned and unplanned) that can affect employees, which helps with morale and retention.
Helping Everyone Feel Included
Keeping in mind Pingry’s renewed focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), employee housing may also help further diversify Pingry’s faculty and staff, a prospect that excites Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Gilberto Olvera P ’29, ’33. He is also anticipating that Pottersville, as the proverbial “blank canvas,” will be “a space that can make everyone feel welcome. What could we see around the campus that would foster a sense of belonging? How can we tell the Pingry story in a way that makes everyone feel included?” He also wants to make sure that alumni, whether they graduated decades ago or last year, feel like they belong.
Mr. Olvera’s wish list in Pottersville includes the creation of a “multicultural studies center” for, among other purposes, retreats for Pingry’s numerous student, parent, employee, and alumni Affinity Groups, and displays of art and other objects to represent the cultures at Pingry. He also has in mind hosting a DEIB summer institute for educators from across the country, as well as DEIB conferences for Middle School and Upper School students—Pingry students and students from other schools. “If we wanted to do that now in Basking Ridge, we would probably need 10 classrooms, but where are we going to find 10 classrooms in the middle of the week? Pottersville gives us space.”
In Pottersville, Further Development of Seven Core Competencies
Pingry will focus on seven core competencies for all students (these seven are expanded from global competency and cultural competency called for in the Strategic Plan):
• Critical thinking/analysis • Information navigation • Creativity and innovation • Communication • Collaboration • Intercultural and global citizenship • Personal growth and well-being
The goal is for students to have a grounding in academic content and “habits of mind, skills, disposition, and attitude toward the world” in Dr. Dinkins’ words.
“They’re a tool for reflection on what we’re doing inside and outside the classroom, and they will support future programming, lesson planning, and coursework,” he says. “If a program is being developed or ‘dreamstormed,’ we can make the competencies part of that process. Pottersville can act as a sandbox for exploring and understanding the competencies—not that they can’t be integrated into what we’re doing in Basking Ridge or Short Hills, but Pottersville provides an ‘on ramp’ because there’s no history. And we can create an expectation that the competencies are the reason some programs happen.”
The Purnell School Scholarship
Pingry is honoring Purnell’s legacy and alumnae by establishing The Purnell School Scholarship for Girls, a need-based scholarship with preference for girls.
The high ropes course.
Global Education and Engagement
The concept of “global education” sounds like it requires students to leave the country, but it’s not necessary. Pingry wants to ensure that more students have access to immersive programming more frequently, compared with approximately 20 percent of students who currently participate in a global travel program by the time they graduate. The Pottersville Campus enhances that access—once again, the student dorms make a huge difference.
For students studying Chinese, German, and French, Pingry has been running Upper School exchange programs that usually involve hosting students from a partner school for about two weeks and then having Pingry students visit the partner school. “The housing opens doors for us to do exchanges with other schools whenever travel is possible,” says Dr. Gillian Johnson, Upper School Spanish Teacher and Interim Assistant Director of Experiential Education (Global Engagement). “Our visiting students can stay in the dorms. Plus, we have the flexibility to pursue more partnerships with other schools.”
Dr. Johnson also envisions language immersion experiences over long weekends or during summers, such as one being planned this winter for students taking French, giving them the chance to speak in French, prepare
“Our office’s mission is to strengthen relationships in pursuit of philanthropic support, so we need to find opportunities to bring people together. The Pottersville Campus is a shared space, so everybody has a stake—this is a place where we can hold community-building events, like all-parent meetings or Reunion events. The possibilities
are endless.” —HOLLAND SUNYAK ’02, DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
The theater.
Vision, Purpose, Impact: 2018 Strategic Plan
French food, watch French films, and more. When trips return, Dr. Johnson can tap into her experiences of running study-abroad trips in graduate school. “It’s not just travel,” she says, “but travel with a purpose.”
Summer Programs
Purchasing the Pottersville Campus directly impacts two areas associated with summer: Pingry’s summer programs and Pingry’s summer rentals. Summer programs—specifically, Pingry Summer—benefit from extra indoor athletics spaces, athletics fields, a theater, tennis courts, and a ropes course. Summer academics can be more experiential, and the School also plans to rent out those spaces.
“For summer, it’s a new horizon,” says Cindy McArthur P ’29, Director of Auxiliary Programs and Interim Director of Operations. “Big Blue Summer can use the campus for field trips. With the dorms, we can expand our offerings, such as being able to accept non-local children interested in taking a summer course at Pingry. The ropes course adds adventure opportunities. Hiking trails near the ropes course add another opportunity to create programming.”
The Open Question
“A new horizon” has likely been referred to by others in Pingry history when the School has made a move for expansion. Of course, it has been only a few months since Pingry purchased the property, and the full impact of the Pottersville Campus will not be realized for years, but the possibilities are truly tantalizing for what Pingry, and the student experience, will become. In the words of former Board of Trustees Chair Jeff Edwards ’78, P ’12, ’14, ’18, “Being open-minded to the question of ‘What can more space—more assets—do for the School?’ has been part of what’s made Pingry such a successful place today.”
PURPOSE AND DISCIPLINES Pottersville expands student access to immersive, learning-by-doing programs and supports the development of core competencies
GLOBAL EDUCATION Pottersville enables Pingry to host the world (guest speakers, artists-inresidence, exchange students) STUDENT WELL-BEING Pottersville provides a place outside of the traditional academic setting and mindset EMPLOYEE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT Pottersville enables recruitment and retention, as well as K–12 collaboration MAXIMIZING IMPACT Pottersville broadens Pingry’s engagement with a wider community
Dr. Ashley Jackson ’04 Plucks Away at the Harp While Uncovering the Overlooked in Music
If such a thing were possible, at one time in her life Dr. Ashley Jackson ’04 could have performed a musical trio all by herself—piano, violin, and harp. All three were part of her childhood. But she felt the need to focus on one instrument and, coupled with her love of school, Dr. Jackson has created parallel careers on stage and in higher education and devotes a considerable amount of time to promoting the music and stories of Black artists.
The sequence of her three instruments began with piano. Her piano teacher thought she might want to try a second instrument and was able to use a family connection to introduce Dr. Jackson to the harp. At age seven, she discovered similarities between the two instruments—the piano and harp have similar
musical ranges and require the musician to use both hands in similar ways—so the addition of harp seemed natural. And she loved its sound.
“It is a unique, beautiful instrument. Nothing else sounds like it. The sound can be extremely relaxing and spiritual, and the harp exists in many cultures,” she says.
Then, Dr. Jackson added violin lessons for several years before realizing, in high school, that something needed to give if she was going to make the time commitment to play an instrument “at a high level.” Feeling the need to narrow her focus, Dr. Jackson considered the opportunities to play the harp in various musical settings, and the social aspect of playing with other instrumentalists.
“The harp allowed me to play in an orchestra, which is something that pianists rarely get to do. There’s also a demand for harp in social settings, such as weddings and private events, and I came to appreciate the variety of opportunities to play, even at that younger age. And all of this is in addition to playing chamber music and solo repertoire,” she says of her decision. Dr. Jackson bought her first harp in high school, from Lyon & Healy Harps in Chicago. (She still plays the piano for fun or to try new ideas, and makes use of her training as a pianist and violinist.) hile focusing on harp and studying harp on weekends at The Juilliard School, she satisfied other musical cravings during her Upper School years at Pingry. She spent four years with the Balladeers, including serving as the ensemble’s president her senior year. “I’m not a trained singer, but it was another opportunity to make music,” she reflects. Dr. Jackson also played violin in the School’s orchestra and played harp when opportunities arose—for musicals, accompanying the Glee Club, or even playing a solo during
assemblies. “There were lots of opportunities to make music in a comfortable, familiar environment,” she says of her Pingry years. For her ISP (Independent Study Project, at the time), she recorded a CD of French harp music. “I wanted to document some material that I had learned for my recitals at Juilliard, and I also wanted to learn other music. I’m very much into thematic programming and [with this project I] could focus on a particular style of music from a particular time period. A lot of standard repertoire for the harp comes from France at the turn of the 20th century because the modern harp was improved in France at that time,” she says. During her ISP, Dr. Jackson brought her harp to school, and rehearsed and recorded in her own practice room. Capping her senior year was Pingry’s Music Award. “As I’m hearing myself talk about my ISP,” she says, “I’m smiling because I’m working on my debut album.” That would be Ennanga, which is both a type of harp in Africa and Uganda and a composition by African American composer Wil-
W
Dr. Ashley Jackson ’04 performing Alice Coltrane’s Prema with The Harlem Chamber Players on June 19 (“Prema” means “love” or “affection” in Sanskrit). The piece was part of a concert honoring Juneteenth and commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Writing in Seen and Heard International, Rick Perdian noted, “Its most profound passages on this night came when Ashley Jackson played sparkling swirls of sound on the harp to the chordal accompaniment of the strings.” Watch a video of the concert at pingry.org/extras.
BOB CURTIS, PHOTOGRAPHER FOR THE HARLEM CHAMBER PLAYERS
liam Grant Still for harp, strings, and piano; the album will include “Ennanga,” music by Alice Coltrane, and arrangements of spirituals by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. “It’s a conversation between different Black musical styles,” Dr. Jackson says, having made harp arrangements of many of the pieces that were written for piano. To help offset the costs of hiring musicians and producers, Dr. Jackson applied for and received a PSC-CUNY (Professional Staff Congress — City University of New York) Research Award through Hunter College, where she works. (Some music from her album is featured in her film In Song and Spirit, produced by The Harlem Chamber Players during the pandemic.)
igher education had been in the back of her mind during H her college years, in addition to being a profession al musician, so she heeded the advice of her harp teacher at Yale University, where she was Principal Harpist of the Yale Symphony Orchestra and received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Music degrees through Yale’s competitive, five-year combined B.A./M.M. program.
“I love school,” Dr. Jackson says simply. “I enjoy writing, and my harp teacher had her doctorate. She said, ‘Ashley, you play very strongly. You also write very well. Get your doctorate.’ I was thinking about careers in higher education, either as a professor or an administrator, and it’s a helpful degree.” She pursued her D.M.A. at Juilliard, with doctoral research on African American composer and pianist Margaret Bonds and her collaboration with poet Langston Hughes. That research later culminated in an album of Bonds’ music, The Ballad of the Brown King & Selected Songs; Dr. Jackson performs on the album and wrote the liner notes. She also delivered a lecture about Bonds and Civil Rights at Juilliard, based on her dissertation.
As fate would have it, Dr. Jackson has both roles, professor and administrator, and is now in her third year at Hunter. She’s an Assistant Professor of Music and the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Music Department (primarily an advising role). With those responsibilities, Dr. Jackson is also committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in higher education. “I realized early on that my presence on stage and in my classrooms gave me a responsibility to give back. And with the doctorate, part of it was
Dr. Jackson performed in the 2014 premiere of What Did Freud Dream About?, a mixed-medium immersive performance of opera, dance, harp, and abstract painting, curated by Roya Sachs. The performance featured bass-baritone Davóne Tines.
to give back to the next generation—to tell stories of Black musicians, or serve as a kind of role model as a young Black harpist,” she says. “That commitment looks like a) a commitment to excellence, and b) a commitment to weaving in stories about underrepresented groups in classical music. As American artists, and students studying in America, we have a responsibility to learn about our brothers and sisters, who come from all walks of life.”
What has Dr. Jackson observed in higher education and in the performing arts that presents a challenge to diversity and inclusion? Two words: upholding tradition.
“In my first year at Hunter, I taught an Intro to Music History course for mostly non-Music majors. I asked the students to write down the first word they think of when they hear the phrase ‘classical music.’ Along with composer names like Beethoven, they used words like ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘traditional.’ Classical music can embrace other musical traditions, not just the standard European canon. It’s a living artform. So, I said to myself, for every lecture I will feature a woman or person of color performing a piece. I’m going to talk about Black contemporaries of well-known composers. It’s not to say, ‘Okay, here is the Black person’ or ‘here is the woman composer,’ but just that music was created and performed by more than the usual suspects.” far as diversity in performance, Dr. Jackson advocates for developing new music that spans genres and artistic disciplines. “I’m willing to be flexible, and spanning genres is fun. I grew up in a multi-genre household, with soul and jazz, so it’s only natural for me to want to expand to other styles.” It’s also important to her that artists have a deep understanding of cultural and ethnic diversity so they can develop intellectually and artistically.
“As artists, we are committed to communicating with one another. To be able to speak, we have to understand who we’re talking to and remember that music is supposed to bring people together, not separate us. Being open to different musical traditions . . . takes our playing to a different level because we are able to draw from other techniques. And we can be hired to play in diverse venues and are equally comfortable in those spaces.”
Interestingly—and it’s not something people might think about—the harp itself can be a bit of a conundrum when it comes to new music. “The harp gives composers a certain level of intrigue because it’s more unfamiliar than, say, piano or violin,” Dr. Jackson explains. “But on the other side, because it’s not a common instrument, some composers are hesitant to write for it or they’re not sure how to approach it. I like working with composers and helping them feel more comfortable writing for the harp.” How does she work with them? “Especially during the pandemic, I’ve had several opportunities to speak to freshmen or young college students who are composers. And these seminars focused on the technicalities of the instrument—what works and what doesn’t. I was there to give them an overview of how the instrument works so that they can feel more comfortable executing their musical ideas. When I’m working with professional composers, I typically receive music in a fairly complete form, after which I will make some edits and point out some things that might work better, and we just go from there.” Along with these seminars, Dr. Jackson has lectured and written about music. Her lectures have focused on Margaret Bonds and Langston Hughes, the underrepreAs sentation of Black artists in classical music programming, and other subjects pertaining to Black artists in classical music. Her writing, in the form of essays, appears mostly on her website, ashleyjacksonharp.com, and some pieces have been published in the online magazine NewMusicBox and the Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music. “I wrote a lot at Pingry . . . and I like telling stories,” she says. The finale of one of her essays serves as a fitting summary of Dr. Jackson’s commitment to diversity in performance and in education: “Performers, keep demanding new spaces; teachers, keep challenging your students to stretch their imaginations, to seek music that speaks to them and resonates with their hearts and of those around them; and administrators, make room for us at the table, because we have a lot to bring, and the revolution is just getting started.”
JULIA COMITA
above: George E. Dimock, Class of 1908. left: Mr. Springer’s letter to Mr. Dimock, launching the years-long process of preparing the book.
THE BEGINNING OF
The Beginning of Wisdom
“In twelve years Pingry will celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of her founding . . . and I have had in mind the desirability of having a history of Pingry ready then.”
This was the beginning of the letter that started it all—a letter dated June 20, 1949 from then-Headmaster E. Laurence Springer to then–Latin Teacher and Head of the Classics Department George Dimock, Class of 1908, expressing the Board of Trustees’ intention to have Mr. Dimock write the early history of the School up to about 1938.
One day after receiving this letter, Mr. Dimock embarked on an enormous project that resulted in hundreds of pages of correspondence: individual letters to alumni of the Classes up to 1935, seeking their memories; alumni responses (many handwritten); and many more letters with follow-up questions and answers. Mr. Dimock retired from Pingry in 1950, and English Teacher Dr. Herbert Hahn used his own research and Mr. Dimock’s letters to write the book—The Beginning of Wisdom, the story of Pingry’s first 100 years, published 60 years ago in November 1961. To commemorate the book’s 60th anniversary, enjoy these letters that constitute a tiny percentage of the letters written for this project, all housed in Pingry’s Archives!
facing page, top right: The steps needed to identify faces in a
photograph! facing page, bottom left: One of the first letters written by Mr. Dimock after receiving his assignment.
at right: Response from Norman F. Charlock, Class of 1902, in which he reveals the origin of The Class of 1902 Emblem Award. below: Response from Charles N. Fowler, Jr., Class of 1899, which references the purchase of the Parker Road Campus. His father, Charles N. Fowler, served as President of Pingry’s Board of Trustees from 1892–1918 and played a major role in Pingry’s transition to Parker Road.
above: Russell Leary, Class of 1898, checking if Pingry has four photos that he has in storage. at left: One of the many handwritten responses to Mr. Dimock, from Warren Blauvelt, Class of 1886.
at right: O. P. (“Orel”) Keeney, Class of 1906, references a photograph of the 1906 Baseball Team. below: Response from Edward “Ted” Weeks, Class of 1915, Editor of The Atlantic Monthly.
facing page and at left: Correspondence with Caroline O. Pingry (Caroline Oakley Pingry), granddaughter of Dr. John F. Pingry. Her parents were James and Ida Pingry; James was one of Dr. Pingry’s six children, the others being John, Francis, Julia, Mary, and Relief. In the first letter, Caroline references clippings that she found in her grandfather’s scrapbook and among “Uncle John Pingry’s papers.” In the second letter, Miss Pingry is asked about the pronunciation of “Pingry” (“Pin-gry” or “Ping-gry”). In the third letter, she responds (“Ping-gry”).
postcard below: Henry C. Bigelow (Class of 1888) hoping to “sit in” on a reading of the book to the “undergrads.”
