Principal Emeritus Stephen G. Kurtz, 1926 to 2008

Principal Emeritus Stephen G. Kurtz '44, '46, '78, '87 (Hon.); P'77 died on Thursday, January 24, 2008 after a short but valiant battle with pancreatic cancer. Steve Kurtz was the 11th principal of Exeter and led the school from 1974 to 1987.

Funeral services were held on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at Christ Church Georgetown, 3116 O Street, NW, Washington, DC.

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Memorial Service on Campus on May 3, 2008
Interested alumni/ae are encouraged to join the Academy and the Kurtz family in celebrating Steve's life and his lasting impact on our community during his tenure as principal and beyond. This service coincides with reunions for the classes of 1973, 1978 and 1988.

Memorial Service in Honor of Stephen G. Kurtz '44, '46, '78, '87 (Hon.); P'77
May 3, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Phillips Church
Tan Lane, Exeter, NH 03833

Reception to follow

Please do not hesitate to be in touch with Jan Woodford in the Alumni/ae Affairs department if you have any questions: jwoodford@exeter.edu; (603) 777-3414.

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Remembering Stephen G. Kurtz
A letter to the Academy community from Principal Ty Tingley.
The obituary from the Washington Post on February 1, 2008

Join an online discussion
An online discussion group for alumni/ae called "Reflections about Principal Steve Kurtz" is now active. Exeter alumni/ae can join this group via the link on the main page of the alumni/ae site at http://phillips.exeter.edu. (Participants must be registered for ExieNet.)

Making a gift in honor fo Steve Kurtz
The Kurtz family has asked that donations in honor of Steve be directed to "The Steve and Jeanne Kurtz Faculty and Staff Fund." Checks should be made out to Phillips Exeter Academy, and the fund indicated on the remarks line. (For more information, contact the Academy's stewardship office: (603) 777-3558)

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A letter to the Academy community from Principal Ty Tingley

January 24, 2008

To The Academy Community,

It is with sadness that I write to tell you that Principal Emeritus Stephen G. Kurtz '44, '46, '78, '87 (Hon.), P’77 died this morning after a short but valiant battle with pancreatic cancer. Steve was the 11th principal of Exeter and led the school from 1974 to 1987.

He will be remembered for the faithfulness and the generosity with which he served this school.

As principal during the early years of coeducation, Steve not only encouraged girls as students, but also, working with the Committee to Enhance the Status of Women, brought women into the mainstream as full partners in the life of the Academy. His concern and caring for students was evidenced in an increasingly compassionate and warmer community. Steve supported the faculty in its development of the new curriculum and spearheaded the fundraising for the bicentennial capital campaign. Financial challenges marked his time as principal and, in concert with a concerned board of trustees, Steve was able to place the institution on a firm financial footing.

He returned to campus on numerous occasions and many of you may remember him as a wise and lively panel member alongside Principal Emerita Kendra Stearns O’Donnell and myself at the October 2004 launch of The Exeter Initiatives.

Steve’s interest in Exeter remained keen, and after the recent announcement of the financial aid initiatives designed to make Exeter more affordable he wrote this to Chuck Harris '69, president of the trustees: “Your success means that the finest values and education in this country of ours can go on in renewed strength for generations to come.”

As principal Steve was intensely interested in issues of diversity and in 1981 he asked the Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid to look at the composition of the school. As a result of this examination, the school redoubled its efforts in the area of financial aid and minority recruiting.

Steve graduated from Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania. He taught and served in administrative posts at Wabash College and Hamilton College, and was interim president of Athens College. He was also on the faculties of William and Mary, Columbia, and American University. In recent years he had spent his time in Washington, D.C. and on the Maine seacoast.

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Obituary
The Washington Post
February 1, 2008 Friday

Stephen Guild Kurtz, Historian and Educator

Stephen Guild Kurtz, 81, a historian who was a professor at the College of William and Mary and at American University, and who was also the principal of Phillips Exeter Academy, died Jan. 24 of pancreatic cancer at Georgetown University Hospital. He lived in Washington.

Dr. Kurtz was a historian of the Revolutionary War era and published three books on early American history and the presidency of John Adams. He spent his academic career as a teacher and administrator in colleges and secondary schools.

He was born in Buffalo and graduated from Princeton University. He received a doctorate in history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1952.

After teaching at the Kent School in Kent, Conn., he spent a year in Athens on a Fulbright fellowship as a professor at the English-language Athens College. He was a history professor and dean at Wabash College in Indiana from 1956 to 1966.

From 1966 to 1972, he lived in Williamsburg, where he taught history at William and Mary and edited the papers of John Marshall, who was chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835.

Dr. Kurtz was a dean and professor at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., from 1972 to 1974, then was appointed principal of Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H. He presided over the 200th anniversary of the prep school and made adjustments to its curriculum and disciplinary system.

He retired from Phillips Exeter in 1987 and moved to Washington three years later. He taught history at American University for several years and, in the early 1990s, was acting headmaster of the Bullis School in Potomac.

He spent summers in Pemaquid, Maine.

His marriage to Katherine Godolphin Kurtz ended in divorce.

Survivors include three children, Sharon Kurtz Thompson of Alexandria, Thomas Patterson Kurtz of Wiscasset, Maine, and Stephen Godolphin Kurtz of Sudbury, Mass.; and four grandchildren.

-- Matt Schudel

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