Robert A. Albert ’51

Rob, however, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, miles away from the Welsh countryside where he now resides with his wife, Revel. He came to the Academy as an upper middler and was instantly impressed with the rigor and opportunity he encountered.

From Exeter, Rob went on to Harvard, earning a degree in English and honing the rhetoric and debating skills he’d first begun tapping at Exeter as a member of Branch-Soule, PEA Senate and Student Council. After receiving his law degree from Columbia and working in New York for a Wall Street firm, Rob was sent to London to open the first office of an American law firm since World War II. “I was supposed to open it in Paris, where all the American firms were located, but the clients were in London, plus,” he adds with a chuckle, “my French wasn’t very good.” Rob eventually became the doyen of the American legal community in London, which is now the largest center of American lawyers outside the U.S.

Despite the immense body of water separating the New Hampshire Seacoast from the British Isles, Rob has managed to stay connected to the Academy not by visiting campus frequently (although he did make it back to his 50th reunion last spring), but by bringing Exeter to the U.K. “When I first came over here [to London],” says Rob, “I met David Parry ’59, who had attended Exeter on an English Speaking Union scholarship for a few terms during his gap year. He was absolutely in love with the place. We figured there must be other Exeter grads in London who’d be interested in getting together.”

An initial luncheon event organized in 1964 by Rob and David turned out to be the genesis of the Exeter Association of Great Britain. Soon annual dinners were being planned, most often at Rob and Revel’s house. “They just seemed to get bigger by the year,” recalls Rob. “By 1986, at the last black tie event held at our home in Holland Park, 38 alumni/ae and their guests sat down to dinner in our dining room.”

In 1993, when Rob was honored with the President’s Award for his efforts on behalf of Exeter in the U.K., he had been president of the Exeter Association of Great Britain for 25 years, still the longest tenure ever of a regional officer. Today Rob continues to assist with the organization of the now famous annual dinner in London (he is the Association’s Honorary Chairman for Life). When asked what has kept him so energized and committed throughout the years, Rob immediately recalls his days at the Academy. “Exeter was the most formative part of my early life, and the building of whatever I am today I attribute to the Academy. That unique blend of a dedicated faculty coupled with a committed student body in a small New England town joining together in common cause—the pursuit of excellence—allowed the boy to be-come (or at least begin the journey to becoming) a man.”

In honor of Rob’s lifelong devotion to Exeter, a U.K. alumnus has established the Robert A. Albert, 1951, United Kingdom Fund, to which the donor hopes others will contribute in order to foster increased connection between Phillips Exeter Academy and the U.K. The Albert Fund may be used to support the Academy’s student term in Stratford, England, or to underwrite general travel, research and/or sabbaticals for Exeter faculty in the British Isles.

Rob says his reaction to being informed of the fund was one of “amazement.” “ I was absolutely gob smacked,” he recalls with his usual sense of mirth. Rob’s hope for the fund is that it will allow more Exonians and faculty to experience the art, literature, theater—and joy of life—of the U.K. in the way that he has. Exeter’s hope is that Rob Albert ’51, Mr. U.K. for PEA, will always be there to introduce them to it.