Exeter Receives Record Gift For Faculty and Staff Endowment Initiative
25 million earmarked for named chairs and professional development
January 13, 2005

Exeter has just received a single commitment of $25 million. Fund-raising officials at the school believe that this is the largest gift dedicated to faculty support ever given to an independent secondary school. The funds from a donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, will endow four distinguished professorships, six teaching chairs and three instructorships as well as create a fund to support professional development activities for both faculty and staff.

In keeping with the school’s long-standing commitment to support teachers at all levels, the distinguished professorships will honor accomplished senior teachers, the teaching chairs will be for mid-career faculty and the instructorships will encourage talented teachers in early stages of their careers. Additionally, the gift will establish an endowed fund to support professional development opportunities for faculty and staff.

The Faculty and Staff Endowment Initiative represents a new endeavor in secondary education. Through fundraising, the school seeks to endow 29 faculty positions. No secondary school, and only a handful of select colleges and universities, has attempted anything similar. In addition to funding a teacher’s salary the endowed positions will also carry a professional development award that will permit the instructor to keep course materials current and relevant, attend conferences, travel or pursue other academic
enrichment activities.

“I made this gift to recognize and honor the Exeter teachers who were so influential in my life,” says the donor. “More than any other factor, teachers make Exeter the great school that it was during my time and that it is today. I owe a great deal to the superb Harkness teachers and coaches who taught me excellence, discipline and character; Exeter was truly the standout experience of my educational career, and my teachers made it so. I continue to be impressed with the brilliance of Exeter’s faculty today, and by making this gift in perpetuity I want to ensure that Exeter students of the future will always have such leaders and mentors to guide and influence them.”

Principal Tyler C. Tingley made the announcement of the gift to more than 750 alumni/ae, parents and friends of the Academy who had gathered in New York City on January 12 to celebrate the launch of the school’s $305 million comprehensive fund-raising effort, The Exeter Initiatives. Tingley said, “As has happened at other extraordinary times in Exeter’s history, a member of our community has stepped forward to ensure exceptional teaching and learning is never compromised or diminished at Exeter. In doing so, the donor makes a clear statement about what is central to the Exeter experience—teachers. Especially important are the teachers who live and work in a boarding school who daily guide the young people to be good citizens and leaders in a complex world.”

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