November 30, 2022

 

Dear St. Christopher’s Community,

 

I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. It is terrific to be back on campus with the boys and our esteemed colleagues.

 

We are fortunate to benefit from a long-tenured faculty and staff at St. Christopher’s. Teachers who join St. Christopher’s early in their career often find a home and stay for decades, raising their children here and becoming part of our parent and alumni communities forever.

 

With such longevity and seniority among our faculty, from time to time we will experience a wave of retirements and departures that represents a generational shift, a seminal moment in the life of our School. The end of the 2022-2023 school year will mark such a shift. It is with both pride and sadness that we announce the following faculty retirements, listed in ascending years of service to St. Christopher’s.

           

Rusty joined the Upper School faculty in 2005 as a member of the Arts Department. As an accomplished working director, Rusty brought an extraordinary level of professionalism to theater at St. Christopher's and St. Catherine's, elevating the Ampersand program in the community. Among his many contributions to St. Christopher's, he designed the Creativity through the Arts course, a class for 9th grade students that helped broaden their perspective of the arts. He shared his love and passion for different cultures by leading domestic and international X-Term trips. Rusty worked closely with students to create an Upper School Film Club that has been a hit amongst the boys. A dedicated teacher and advisor, Rusty has cared deeply for his students. Rusty will retire at the end of this semester.

 

Sue joined St. Christopher’s in 2000 and quickly established herself as a premier Spanish language teacher–capable of reaching and teaching students who find language acquisition particularly challenging while also inspiring our elite linguists who pursue the breadth of our AP curriculum. She is an engaging instructor who is constantly varying the pace and activity of lessons while reinforcing the objective for the day. She has been a respected champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the Upper School over the years, as well as a trusted colleague and effective chair of the World Languages department. Sue was instrumental in establishing the Peer Advisor program with Dr. Kim Hudson. She also worked to create St. ChristoCURES, a student fundraising group for Massey Cancer Center that consistently sets records among schools in terms of participation and money raised. Perhaps most importantly in terms of her lasting impact, Sue has been a compassionate advisor and advocate for countless students over her two-plus decades of service.

 

Billy joined St. Christopher’s in 1996 and has become a central figure in the identity and culture of the Upper School. As a long-serving Dean of Students, Billy demonstrated the ability to be both liked and respected by his students yet also dole out student discipline with firmness and fairness. Through his leadership, St. Christopher’s expanded the advisory program and enhanced important aspects of student and parent programming, including many health and wellness initiatives. Billy has been a popular and highly-relational history teacher, instilling in all his students an appreciation of the subject, as well as an ability to write and analyze complex information effectively. A mainstay in the wrestling gym, Coach Abbott has been part of numerous successful wrestling teams–a trusted and important teacher in our athletic classroom.

           

Jim joined St. Christopher’s in 1990 and since that time has served as one of the country’s most respected and longest serving college counselors. Jim possesses keen insight into the constantly shifting college-application landscape, sharing valuable perspectives with St. Christopher’s families and local and national colleagues. Jim has been a trusted confidant for three headmasters and countless members of the School’s faculty and administrative team and is as responsible as any other individual for the creation and wordsmithing of the last several strategic plans. Jim has the ability to ask piercing and thought-provoking questions that get to the heart of whatever challenge a colleague or St. Christopher’s family may be facing, and he always positions matters to serve the best interests of the boys in our care. His insight into college counseling has regularly been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other national publications. In addition to his many administrative responsibilities, Jim has been an invaluable basketball and baseball coach, as well as an effective teacher of public speaking. Jim will continue to work in the College Counseling Office in a part-time capacity through the fall of 2023, easing the transition to his successor.

           

Gene came to St. Christopher’s as a 7th grade student and graduated in 1978. In 1986, he returned to his alma mater as a cross country coach and Middle School teacher of English, Latin, health, and creative writing. He instilled a love of literature and writing in countless students over nearly four decades. Gene's class was always a favorite for boys as he mixed in important material with humor and his famous stories. Among his many gifts, students and colleagues alike remember Gene for his generosity, heart, and a wicked sense of humor. In the classroom and on the track, Gene paid special attention to the students who struggled with classwork or to the runner who wasn’t the fastest. In his last few years at St. Christopher’s, Gene joined the communications team, writing heartfelt and poignant alumni and faculty retrospectives for StC Magazine and the Alumni newsletter. Gene retired from St. Christopher’s in August and can now be found in Brooklyn with his grandson or kayaking on the James River.

 

Corydon joined St. Christopher’s in 1984 and has taught 8th grade English for nearly four decades. Corydon also taught 7th grade history and 9th grade English over the past decade and served as the JV golf coach in addition to coaching soccer, watermen, tennis, and a short stint as shot put coach. Corydon has a special ability to connect with 8th grade boys and get the most out of them academically. Students in his class learned proper grammar use, writing mechanics, and how to read analytically. Former students would always come back to the Middle School and talk about how well prepared they were for the expectations of the Upper School due to Mr. Baylor's class. Corydon reinvented many elements of his class and his teaching style throughout his career, keeping his content and pedagogy current with best teaching practices.

 

Ron joined St. Christopher’s in 1972 and since then has established himself as one of the School’s all-time legendary teachers, teacher-leaders, and coaches. Ron’s influence in the classroom, the English Department, the Upper School, and the St. Christopher’s community at large cannot be overstated. He has become synonymous with rigorous teaching and learning at the School, and countless alumni are quick to name Ron Smith as among the most challenging–and positively influential–teachers of their lives. Whether demanding the most of his students in their syntax, diction, or creative writing or exhorting his football players to compete with tenacity and discipline, Ron knows how to get the most out of young men through a combination of high expectations and relentless care for student growth and development. The author of five highly-respected books of poetry, Ron has given readings and poetry presentations in Dublin, London, Paris, Salamanca and Rome, experiences and achievements he has been able to draw upon as STC’s first-ever Writer-in-Residence. Like his fellow retirees, Ron’s retirement leaves a hole–and a sound legacy–in the fabric of the St. Christopher’s faculty.

In sharing the news of these colleagues’ retirements with faculty and staff just before Thanksgiving, I acknowledged the striking loss of over 180 years of collective St. Christopher’s experience, coupled with my firm belief that the next generation of legendary faculty is in our midst right now, ready to step forward to fill the holes of these teaching giants through their own impact and legacy.

 

During Reunion Weekend 2023 (May 5-6) and at other moments this spring, we will celebrate these educators’ many contributions, and we will keep you posted on those plans in the months ahead. For now, please join me in thanking these individuals for their incredible service to St. Christopher’s.

 

Gratefully,

Mason Lecky

Headmaster