Fahey returns to lead Big Red field hockey

The Exeter Athletics Department has announced the return of Samantha Fahey as head coach of the Big Red field hockey program as well as an instructor in the Academy’s Department of Physical Education.

“We are thrilled to be welcoming Samantha back to Exeter in our physical education department and to lead our field hockey program,” said Director of Physical Education and Athletics Jason Baseden. “Samantha has proven to be an impactful mentor and leader. Her knowledge and passion will undoubtedly have a positive influence our entire community and the total student experience.”

Fahey served as Big Red’s head field hockey coach in 2013 before leaving Exeter to join the coaching staff at Columbia University. In addition to her time on the field at PEA, Fahey was also the director of the Seacoast United Field Hockey Club.

“I am thrilled to rejoin the Exeter community and the field hockey program as head coach,” said Fahey. “Having previously been a part of the Phillips Exeter tradition, I have longed to return and continue to build on the team’s foundation of excellence and commitment.”

Fahey has spent the last five years as the first assistant at Columbia, where she was heavily involved with on-field preparation and training and served as the program’s recruiting coordinator.

Fahey enjoyed a decorated playing career at the University of New Hampshire, where she was an America East first team all-conference selection in 2003 and was a National Field Hockey Coaches Association second team all-region honoree. That same season, she was named to the America East All-Tournament Team and America East Academic Honor Roll. She helped the Wildcats reach the America East Championship final and NCAA tournament in 2000 and the America East semifinals in 2002 and 2003.

After her playing career, Fahey had coaching stops at Michigan State University, UNH, Harvard University and also served as an assistant coach for the USA Field Hockey Junior High Performance Program before arriving in Exeter in 2013.

Fahey earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from UNH and later completed a master’s degree in Kinesiology and Sports Administration at Michigan State. Samantha and her husband, Tom, have two boys, Liam and Landon.

Faculty farewells

After a collective 98 years of service, four faculty members retire from the Academy ranks this summer. Across campus — in the dorms, classrooms, music halls, theater and library — these individuals have made a lasting impression on generations of Exonians. Their wit, intelligence, laughter and friendship will be deeply missed. Students, alumni and colleagues paid tribute to the four in the pages of the 2021 PEAN yearbook. Here we share a few of their parting memories and accolades.

Zuming Feng

Stephen G. Kurtz Teaching Chair and Instructor in Mathematics, 1995

“When Mr. Feng came to the Academy in the spring of 1995, all of his colleagues in the Mathematics Department knew immediately that somebody very special and unique had joined our team. Mr. Feng became a force in the International Mathematics Olympiad program starting in the 1990s and continuing to this day. He has had many important roles in that program, including being the coach of the U.S. Olympiad team and the team leader. Mr. Feng’s presence has attracted to PEA some of the brightest and most-able high school mathematics students in the world for the last 25 years. His work with these students, as well as hundreds of other students as head of the Math Club and math teams at Exeter, is unparalleled and will be impossible to replace. Although known for working with these top students and their intense training, Mr. Feng was also a great teacher for the entire range of Exeter mathematics students. He was gentle, kind and understanding to those who struggled with math, and his sense of humor and big smile was appreciated by all. A close colleague writes: ‘Through my regular contacts with Mr. Feng, I have become a better problem solver and a more complete mathematical thinker. He has enriched the lives of the students who have been lucky enough to experience his tutelage, and he has been a gracious and valuable colleague. He shall be missed.’ It is not an exaggeration to say that Mr. Feng has been one of the most important and impactful mathematics instructors in the history of the Academy.”

— Eric Bergofsky, Instructor in Mathematics

Sarah Ream ’75

Instructor in Theater and Dance, 1997

“Sarah, you have been a remarkable gift to Exeter and your retirement leaves a hole that cannot be filled — by anyone! Having worked with you on numerous committees, seen countless plays you have directed, and listened to many notable speeches you have given to various groups, I think I can say that you are among the brightest and most capable people I know. Your wit, your ability to come up with the most perfect turn of phrase for any occasion, and your unflappable determination to do good and just work at this school is unparalleled. So many plays you have done include a deep and meaningful educational experience for your students: conversations with the playwright, historical research, panel discussions and on and on. Over and over again, I have seen how students who work with you in theater are doing so much more than performing — they are learning about their world in a deep and meaningful way. … Whether you are giving a meditation, talking to alumni groups, making a presentation to the faculty about curriculum review, fundraising for the future Goel Center for Theater and Dance, or introducing a new faculty member, your words are always beautifully crafted and filled with humor, humility and wisdom. Listening to you talk is like viewing Van Gogh’s Starry Night or listening to a Brandenburg Concerto: All one can do is laugh out loud and marvel that anyone could create that! … It is hard to envision an Exeter without you, and you will be sorely missed.”

— Brad Robinson, Instructor in Science

Peter Schultz

Michael V. Forrestal ’45 Chair in Music and Instructor in Music, 1989

“Peter Schultz has brought laughter and music to Phillips Exeter Academy for 30 years. He has been the conductor of the concert band, the co-conductor of the chamber orchestra, a coach and organizer of chamber music, department chair and a teacher of music theory. Frustrated with the textbooks available for teaching music, he wrote his own series of texts and exercises for studying theory. Mr. Schultz is a master of puns; his mind seems to contain a whole separate set of operations for formulating clever wordplay. He has been a trusted adviser to generations of Exonians, known for providing doughnuts and conversation around the Harkness table in the music building’s atrium each week. Mr. Schultz served as my mentor when I arrived at the Academy, and he treated me with the kindness and warmth of true friendship. Anyone who lives on the north side of campus is familiar with the strains drifting from Mr. Schultz’s home as he practices his flute late into the evening. Mr. Schultz and his wife, Ms. Watt — an oboe instructor at the Academy for many years — have decorated our campus with their music for decades, and the silence they will leave behind is modulated by memories of their delightful, ever-present laughter.”

— Kristofer Johnson, Chair of the Department of Music

Gail Scanlon

James H. Ottaway Jr. ’55 Chair and Academy Librarian, 2011

“A champion of human rights, justice and racial equity, Ms. Scanlon made our library a hub of programs that could bind the curricula across departments and could foster collaboration. Via her outreach to the non-arts departments, math and science found a home in the ‘’45 Celebration’ display; our Music Department colleagues installed exhibits of music and architecture in this grand space; and dialogue was encouraged with her offering the library for gatherings and readings to storytellers and poets. As our angel of the Lamont Poetry Committee, she supported this work with all the resources she could muster, and with great kindness and patience. And when snow would close the roads, and no one could drive to our school, she would sleep on a colleague’s couch the night before in order to open the library to the students who needed it for their history research papers — a great opportunity of found time during a no-classes snow day. And in addition to all this work, one could find her doing dorm duty, as an affiliate to one of our two all-gender dorms, with sweet grandmotherly care and wisdom.”

—Tatiana D. Waterman, Instructor in Science

See All

The Exeter Bulletin

commonmedia

Fahey returns to lead Big Red field hockey

Faculty farewells

Zuming Feng

Sarah Ream ’75

Peter Schultz

Gail Scanlon

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