2007 Founder's Day Award Recipient

Citation for K. Tucker Andersen '59
Awarded at assembly on May 18, 2007
read Tucker Andersen's remarks

K. Tucker Andersen ’59 - For more than 20 years, you have brought the endurance and passion of a long-distance runner to your roles as an Academy trustee and as a leader in the class of 1959. Your creative intellect, disciplined mind and sharp eye for opportunity have seen Exeter through a period of significant growth and change, and into a position that bodes well for the future.
            In 1957, you were a quiet, self-conscious new upper attending Exeter on a newsboy scholarship. But Hammy Bissell ’29, the man who recruited you, had a nose for go-getters. You soon settled in, made friends and perfected the nightly dash across campus to check in on the last stroke of 10 o’clock. At Exeter, you began to see yourself in a new way. In particular, you discovered the importance of believing in your ability to determine your own future, even if it meant marching to the beat of a different drum. That discovery gave you the confidence to turn down Harvard and Yale for an experimental program at Wesleyan University, where you designed your own course of study in mathematics, psychology and Christian ethics.
            After working as an actuary and as a programmer and systems analyst for several years, you began a highly successful career in the hedge fund business at Cumberland Associates. You took over the business and expanded it only a few years later. The firm’s partnership approach to investing defied Wall Street conventions but led to success. You retired as chief investment strategist in 1999 and you remain a Cumberland consultant today while running your own investment business. Meanwhile, you and your wife, Karen, raised two daughters and dedicated much of your lives to helping individuals and institutions. You also took up running marathons. Last year, in October of 2006, you ran a record 31st consecutive New York marathon. You are so dedicated that you once tried to run on crutches, and you have not missed a day of training since 1992.
            By this evidence, Exeter knew you to be a gifted, tenacious and compassionate leader when you were asked to join the trustees in 1989. During your tenure, you chaired the executive and the investment committees, and you served as vice president from 1993 until the end of your term in 1999. As vice president, you pioneered an effective partnership approach to leading the trustees that remains in practice today. A prolific reader and aficionado of provocative ideas, you arrived at many meetings with an armload of books you thought might enlighten your colleagues. But the spirit in which you voiced strong convictions and astute questions was always collaborative, as you sought nothing less than the best possible decisions for Exeter.
           Yours has been a strong voice for fiscal discipline with respect to stewardship of the endowment, and you are always careful to distinguish between wants and needs. As an innovative leader of the investment committee, you welcomed non-trustee members who had valuable industry expertise or institutional knowledge, and you focused the committee’s efforts on a long-range investment philosophy. As a result, Exeter’s endowment has experienced extraordinary growth of more than 450 percent since you joined the Trustees in 1989. In addition, you have helped develop policies to ensure Exeter spends its endowment wisely, so as to be able to meet the needs of successive generations of Exonians.            
            Since 1989, you have been an influential leader in the Class of 1959 Academy Building Endowment Fund effort because you believe so strongly in the value of the project to Exeter and in the Academy Building as a symbol of our academic community. You championed the middle-income scholarship initiative and you were a key player in developing a program to help scholarship students purchase computers. You advocated an increase in annual expenditures for the upkeep of our campus and a pragmatic, program-first approach to new construction that has resulted in outstanding facilities for science and community. In an era of rapid economic, social and technological change, the Academy has valued your vision and wise counsel and your obvious love for the school.
            Tucker, Exeter is truly fortunate to have you at its side. You have never sought recognition or special thanks for what you have done for the school, preferring to direct all praise toward others. So it is with particular pleasure that Exeter honors you today with the 2007 Founder’s Day Award.

read Tucker Andersen's remarks

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