Word: kemper
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Lucky Me? These ideals and necessary compromises are the day-to-day concern of John Kemper, who entered the prep school world not as an Old Boy but as a West Pointer and professional soldier. Those were strikes against him in 1947, when the trustees plucked him out of the Army at 35 to become Andover's eleventh headmaster. As it turned out, Kemper's gifts for hard analysis and easy leadership galvanized Andover. Today, Harvard College's Dean John Monro calls Kemper "one of the really great headmasters...
Like Exeter's Principal William Gurdon Saltonstall, whom he calls "a fast friend and a mortal competitor," Kemper is the first to ask whether his school is using its wealth wisely. The last thing he wants Andover to be is a shoehorn to slip grade-getters into prestige colleges. He worries about the lucky-me attitude that afflicts many Andover boys. He wonders how to teach them a sense of humanity and public service. He wants the school to serve. "We should be identified with public schools," he says. "Our job is to be available to anyone who wants...
College Campus. In trying to serve, Kemper has vastly improved his school. With 436 acres and 139 buildings, it has more students than half the nation's four-year colleges. Its 80,000-volume Oliver Wendell Holmes Library tops three-fifths of all college libraries. Its Addison Gallery of American Art, with works from Homer to Hopper, would do a sizable city proud. Its 85-man faculty is superior to most college faculties, and some teachers get paid more-up to $12,000, plus fringe benefits that add as much...
Andover boys tend to measure this gift in one word: college. In 1951, Andover's courses were already so collegiate that John Kemper spurred Andover, Exeter and Lawrenceville to join Harvard, Yale and Princeton in setting up the nationwide (1,358 schools this year) Advanced Placement Program. Now 50% of Andover boys take college courses, from calculus to philosophy. Of 208 boys going to 39 colleges this fall, Harvard took 42, Yale 39, Stanford 20, Columbia 12, Princeton 11. Of 115 new students that Harvard accepted this year as sophomores, 20 were Andover graduates. The average Andover graduate, says...
Andover could not redress the balance in the Depression and war years of Headmaster Claude Moore Fuess, the veteran English teacher who preceded John Kemper. Instead, the scholarly Fuess (rhymes with peace) strengthened the curriculum, notably in science, history and fine arts, and lured brilliant scholars such as Classicist Dudley Fitts...