NMH Magazine : Winter 2004

I Weep But I Rejoice

Many people—mostly alumni—sent comments to NMH in the immediate wake of the trustees’ decision to consolidate the school on the Mount Hermon campus and reduce enrollment. The emotions these correspondents expressed ran the gamut from fury to sorrow to enthusiasm. Here is a small sampling of their voices.

As a freshman here at NMH, I’ve loved the sense of community, the large student body, and the range of diversity that make NMH special. 
I didn’t want to go to any other prep school like Deerfield or Andover, and now I feel as if that is what we will be.
—Sabrina Savinski ‘07

The news of NMH becoming one school on one campus is the right move, as far as I am concerned. The school is not about buildings but about the growth of each student.
—Mary Heist ’49 

Tough decision, but an inevitable one. It is critically important that the experience—not just the educational, but what sets the school truly apart—be maintained and allowed to flourish. Now more than ever before, our community and our world needs this. NMH has an attitude, culture, and milieu that are unique and worthy of being sustained.
—Lawrence H. Bernstein ’63 

I’m crushingly disappointed but desperately trying to keep an open mind about it. 
—Lynette Settles ’79 

I weep but I rejoice. The school will remain strong. It must have been 
an awful decision to make.
—Margaret Taylor Bliss ’52 

I am truly saddened by this news. While I recognize the financial realities,      I wish there were some other way to balance the economic interests of NMH with the tradition and culture that both campuses embodied.
—Will Korman ’88 

If you must go to one campus, wait until all of us old broads are dead.
—Mary Marschner Doherty ’57

Looking strictly at the long-term survival of the school, I can understand why the board decided as it did. To lose the school completely would be the far, far greater loss. I can only hope that Mr. Moody would agree with this decision.
—Robert Hermann ’78 

When my daughter was looking at boarding schools, I naturally tried to interest her in NMH. She applied and was accepted, but she chose Taft. In retrospect, I think the cohesiveness of the Taft campus (plus the quality of its buildings) was a big factor. The competition is keen. I believe that a unified campus will strengthen the school in the years to come.
—Andrew A. Strauss ’71 

It is the dual-campus diversity which makes NMH unique in the world of prep schools. As someone who lived on both campuses and knew their differences well, I think you should reconsider.
—Mary Starr Hope ’94 

I like to think that whatever changes come about in the use of the Northfield campus, the halls and paths and great white expanses of Siberia will echo with our struggles and triumphs, our laughter and tears through the ages.
—Kate Alling Throop ’61 

I loved my four years at NMH, but when I was looking at boarding schools, the large size and two campuses were the two biggest negative aspects.        I think the school is heading in the right direction, even though it saddens   me to imagine NMH without Northfield as I knew and loved it.
—Lauren Hugel ’02 

I feel as though a close friend has died. The best years of my life were spent on the Northfield campus. Twenty-six years later, I still go there to recharge my spiritual batteries. Yes, the head understands the need, but the heart is deeply saddened.
—Heidi J. Nelson ’78

I always thought of the two campuses as yin and yang, each with its own beauty to offer. The two coexist very well, and it would be a travesty to sunder them.
—Tom Foley ’96 

I know that this decision was never intended to be a win-lose situation, but speaking as one who attended during the “segregated” years, somehow it feels like the girls have lost and the boys have won.
—Nancy Stevens ’68 

I hope we can learn from our experiences in the merger and recognize the genuine grief that will be felt by the generations of women at Northfield. I also hope we can honor the Northfield campus traditions and buildings and create a living legacy and archive on the one campus to those memories.
—Holly Hoxeng ’72 

I went from Northfield to Radcliffe. Now both schools have been “shifted”—both taken over by the male school. I find the reasons about why the Northfield campus was given up to be inadequate. I suspect, like at Harvard, it had to do with alumni giving. 
—Susanna Whitney Grannis ’55

I’m hoping this restructuring will get rid of the “Northfield-artsy, Mount Hermon-sports” mentality that so many students and teachers had.
—Valerie Farabee ’02 

While I will have to be convinced of the path you have chosen, I commend you for not taking half-measures.
—Philip G. Neuwirth ’92 

My instant reaction was to conjure up an image of natural progression. 
It just seemed logical and, in retrospect, inevitable.
—Frank Shorter ’65 

We worried in the ’70s that going coeducational would ruin the stronger of the schools—Northfield—and it looks like we were right. I am deeply disappointed.
—Barbara Mead Wise ’73 

If this new direction is the only hope the school has for survival, it can count on my continued support, as I hope NMH will be an option for my children when they are of age. I wish, however, that the school had been more forthcoming about any concerns before making a decision this weighty.        —Jeff Leyden ’80

Northfield is my home. I have no memory of Mount Hermon nor any affectionate recollections of my days there. East Hall is where I would visit if I return. You are closing my school. That is all I know.
—Anthony Sakovich ’81 

Selling Northfield will only kill the little bit of “alternativeness” that NMH still has.
—Eliza Goldberg ’03 

I understand the rationale and the need, but, as a Northfield alumna, 
feel the loss of “my” campus. I send my sincerest good wishes for a brilliant future for the one school.
—Cora Lee Gethman Gibbs ’42 

I am stunned and surprised and a little saddened by this announcement, but I am so very, very thrilled with the education my son, Chris Keck ’06, is experiencing at NMH that I fully support the decision that you have made. I couldn’t be happier with what the school is doing to shape an extraordinary boy into an extraordinary young man.
—Mary McDowell, current parent