Headmaster's Remarks at the Centennial Dinner
Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen, members of the Kent Family:
Fr. Frederick Herbert Sill, OHC had the vision, humbly yet purposefully, to found his Kent School in a converted farmhouse on the banks of the Housatonic River and bring a quality church-centered education to boys from “families of modest means.”
From the beginning Kent has been “a School in the Lord’s service” – study, work and worship.
A vision lived out daily in the School’s motto: Simplicity of Life, Directness of Purpose and Self-Reliance.
We are so pleased that members of our beloved Founder’s family are here this evening.
Skip and Louisa, I’m sure you are especially proud on this occasion of the one-hundredth.
We thank you for the gift of your family to all of us.
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Headmaster Richardson W. Schell with Kent School
Orchestra and Chorus in The Springs Center.
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Nothing survives in this world without being cared for by human beings, and certainly not for one hundred years
[philosopher Michael Oakeshott].
Thanks to the shared labors of generations of faculty and students in the pursuit of learning over these last ten decades;
Thanks to the inspired coaching of all our teams in every sport; in every activity;
Thanks to the careful stewardship of our staff at all levels;Thanks to the support of thousands of alumni, parents, grandparents and friends of Kent;
And thanks to the wisdom and diligence of our Trustees;
Five hundred and seventy boys and girls are now living and learning at Kent today.
They are preparing for the finest colleges and universities, and for lives of purpose and service to the common good.
The alumni and alumnae have gone forth from here with this ethic of care.
Collectively, they have made untold contributions to society in these one hundred years.
In daily life, in the care of their families and communities, they live out the School’s ideals.
Kent sons and daughters have distinguished themselves in every field of human endeavor, in every industry and profession, every discipline and vocation.
In times of peace they work to keep the world safe.
In times of war they served and sacrificed, and continue to serve at home and abroad in defense of freedom for all.
Kent is a school for leadership.
In this new century, as in the last, our alumni are taking leadership roles around the world -- in education, business and government, public health, the arts, in church and society.
From your own hometown to the United Nations, you will find a Kent person working to make the world a better place.
The celebration this evening gives us the opportunity to share our appreciation with each other for the good education we have all received here.
And to resolve that the best that this School has become in its first century will be preserved and enhanced in its second.
One of Kent’s poets Robert Silliman Hillyer ’13 made “always” the signature word of our School Song.
Let us here tonight resolve that Kent School will always be a singularly worthy and distinctive institution so that hearts may always wake in young content between the hills and river shore.
This is our noble work for the years ahead.
This work will include – indeed require -- continued endowment-building for faculty support and student scholarship assistance.
As well as ongoing attention to the modernization of the infrastructure and beautification of our campus.
In this regard, I am pleased to announce that the parents of the Class of 2007 have already begun the effort to raise the seed funds for our next major building – the proposed Centennial Dorm -- to be sited just 200 yards from this Springs Center where we are gathered this evening, along Chapel Road, with a marvelous southwestward exposure to Mt. Algo. In just the first few weeks of this Centennial Year the Sixth Form parents have already committed 100,000 dollars for this purpose – to ensure that our campus remains beautiful and competitive in every way for the coming generations. In this exciting multi-year project we will all be asked to play our part.
With care, our School will continue to grow in stature.
Again, in the words of our poet, written fifty years ago:
Blest was the school where so much brightness shone
From frugal windows in that simple place,
Blest is the school that grows as Kent has grown
Without diminishment of zeal or grace.
Truth does not weaken when more widely sown,
Nor vision become dim in ampler space;
For every hill we climb, a higher hill
Reveals unfolding vistas further still.
Now, as we turn our attention to the future, and to mark the beginning of our next Century,
The Kent School Orchestra & Chorus will perform, under the direction of Charles Emerich,
the Kent centennial composition by the American composer Robert Shelton of Illinois,
entitled Bright Auroral Skies.
The efforts of all who have cared for Kent from its founding in 1906 and who care for our community’s well-being today have pointed the way to the bright auroral skies of our future.
Again, Congratulations to all -- Kent 100 Years!
Temperantia, Fiducia, Constantia.
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