Saturday, January 16, 2010
Prep school notes: A gift to Lawrenceville
[If you don't know from prep schools, feel free to move along to the next post. - ed.]
My old English teacher Henry Woods and his wife left the Lawrenceville School $60 million yesterday, an incredibly generous gift that will have a big impact on even that august institution. The New York Times has a nice story this morning about the gift and the "ladies of Lawrenceville" who played such an important role at the school back in the day.
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Sat Jan 16, 11:29:00 AM:
My older son was Student Body President of the Peddie School in 1993 the year that Walter Annenberg gave them $100 million, which is, I think, still the single largest donation to a secondary school. He was pictured in the shot used that year in the Forbes richest 400 edition. The only time a member of my family ever did or ever will appear in that publication.
Peddie dropped its ice hockey program after that year so my younger son went to L'ville graduating in '96. While there he played for Reeal Turcotte and Regan Kerney, P'68.
JLW III
McD '63
P '67
UCB *69
By , at
Sat Jan 16, 05:21:00 PM:
Excuse me, but HOW does an English Teacher acquire 60 million dollars?? What am I missing here?
By , at
Sat Jan 16, 05:52:00 PM:
Inheritance? Careful investing combined with a frugal lifestyle?
By 
TigerHawk, at
Sun Jan 17, 11:23:00 AM:
He was from a wealthy family, but did, indeed, live very modestly. He worked at Lawrenceville for years, reputedly for $1 per year.
By , at
Sun Jan 17, 02:14:00 PM:
If you have some family money and an academic bent, the life of a teacher in a high-end prep school can be enticing. The workload is not too onerous, there is no publish or perish pressure as there is in the university world, your employer pays you to live on campus at his convenience so you have no imputed income for your housing, there's a full service gym, an infirmary with 7x24 service available, free meals are available, there's the campus ambiance, etc. All you have to do is pay your dues for a few years as a dorm parent. You can deduct the interest on your vacation/retirement home.
Things could be worse.
JLW III
