A summer of ‘inspiration and construction’ gives way to the start of a new school year

After a summer of inspiration and construction, Groton School faculty gathered before the new school year to embrace a sense of communal hope and love. 

The August 31 chapel service also featured the awarding of new teaching chairs and the announcement of this year’s recipients of the Breck Award for Teaching Excellence.

Chaplain Allison Read opened the service with a prayer adapted from one written by former Groton chaplain Jack Smith. 

“Lead us to such love for one another and our students that as knowledge grows, so may wisdom,” she said. “Give us more hope for ourselves and for our world than we would ever dare to hope alone.”

Headmaster Temba Maqubela began his customary start-of-the-year chapel talk by pointing to two significant summer activities that took place on the Circle and some of the physical upgrades taking place on campus—most noticeably, the new track and fields project and renovations to the counseling and academic skills spaces in the Schoolhouse and to the Health Center in Hundred House.

“Inspiration will continue,” he said, “and construction will abate.” 

Mr. Maqubela reflected on a recent memorial service for a former colleague and neighbor, after which he caught up with a former head of Andover, Barbara Chase. As they took stock in the number of ISL heads who had recently left their positions, Ms. Chase asked him why he was still at Groton after more than ten years.

“I told her my students, colleagues, and trustees—as well as the Groton family of alumni and parents—show up for their school and, while we stand together, we are not standing still,” said Mr. Maqubela. “Our Circle is a dynamic one. We are relevant and responsive to the needs of today’s teenagers, from mental health to mathematics, and we do this by using the maxim ‘Love more. Judge less.’”

This past summer on the Circle was anything but quiet, and Mr. Maqubela praised his colleagues for the work they did in re-opening campus to visiting students from Epiphany School in Boston for the first time since COVID-19, and for another successful iteration of the GRACE (GRoton Accelerate Challenge Enrich) summer program. This year the program welcomed fifty-five GRACE Scholars—the largest in-person enrollment since it began in 2016—for four weeks of academic challenge and social bonding. 

In honor of GRACE’s continued success and growth, Mr. Maqubela awarded the Breck Award for Teaching Excellence to Director of Enrollment Management Cort Pomeroy and Associate Director of Admission and Director of Inclusion Outreach Carolyn Chica for their leadership roles in the program.

New this summer was the inaugural Global Program for Intercultural Exchange, better known as G-PIE, which Mr. Maqubela held up as an example of Groton faculty coming together to advance the forefront of education. 

“We invited representative faculty and students from ten schools across four continents to share their views and perspectives on the state of globalism today,” he said. “What struck me and impressed me the most was how Groton faculty in STEM, history and social science, literature, world language, fine art, the classics, and theater—you, my colleagues—collaborated among each other and subsequently with faculty from across the world by successfully mounting a conference that was a true global learning opportunity.”

Toward the end of the service, Mr. Maqubela awarded new teaching chairs to six faculty members and, in doing so, implemented a change in tradition he said he’s been looking forward to for some time. As he began the announcements, he pointed to the still-empty chairs at the front of St. John’s Chapel and said, “Come, sit, and enjoy.”

So, as their names were read and their fellow faculty members saluted them with applause, they did just that, until all six chairs were full again.

Ryan H. Spring was awarded the F. Trubee Davison Chair in History, established by three generations of the Davison Family to bear witness to the life of public service and lifelong interest in history, especially American history, of F. Trubee Davison 1914. The previous holder was Jennifer B. Wallace.

Amy Martin-Nelson was awarded the Charles C. and Ann W. Alexander Chair, initially established in 2007 by the Greenhill Family as the Charles C. and Ann W. Alexander Faculty Salaries Fund and renamed in 2008 as the result of many additional donations from Groton alumni and parents, family members, and other friends. The previous holder was Andres T. Reyes ’80.

Michaella E. Chung was awarded the Paul Wright Chair in Mathematics, established in 1987 by Hugh Knowlton Jr. ’41 and William J. Schieffelin III ’41 to honor the life, work, and example of one of the school’s most respected and admired masters. The previous holder was Jon Choate ’60.

The Rev. Allison Read was awarded the John Crocker 1918 Chaplain’s Chair, established by alumni, parents, grandparents, and friends of Groton School. The previous holder was Beth Humphrey.

Martha J. Gracey was awarded the Malcolm Strachan Chair of English Literature, established in 1990 by family and friends of the Reverend Malcolm Strachan, beloved master of English, chaplain, head of the Sacred Studies Department, and a member of the Groton faculty from 1932 until his death in 1960. The previous holder was Theodore G. Goodrich.

Kate E. Dennison was awarded the Independence Foundation Chair, established in 1959 by the Independence Foundation. The previous holder was Douglas Van Dyck Brown ’57.

In other recent chair appointments, Laurie Sales has been awarded the Wallace Chair in the Performing Arts, established in 2017 by the Monte J. Wallace Foundation, on behalf of Anne H. and Monte J. Wallace P’75, ’77, ’79, GP’12, ’17, FTR ’73-’79, John H. Wallace ’75, FTR ’93-’96 and W. Gardner Wallace ’77, P’17, in honor of the Chair of the Theater and Dance Department.