Phillips Exeter Academy

2025 Graduation Remarks

Members of the Class of 2025: 

It is now my honor and privilege to deliver a farewell address. 

First, parents and families, thank you for giving your children the opportunity to receive an Exeter education. You have given them a great gift. Along the way, you have made many sacrifices. Thank you for entrusting your children to our care, for supporting them during their time here, and for being here today to celebrate all that they have accomplished. You have every reason to be happy and proud of these young adults who are about to become the newest members of our alumni community. 

One of my strongest memories from my own graduation was a brief conversation my father and I had with my lacrosse coach after the ceremony. Coach Seabrooke spoke about my contributions to the team and perhaps said something about my leadership. I don’t recall his exact words, but it meant a lot to me, and I think it meant a lot to my father who had never seen me play here. Parents, I hope you have enjoyed many similar conversations with teachers, coaches and other mentors over the last couple of days, and perhaps you will have more such opportunities during lunch after this ceremony. 

And now, to members of the Class of 2025, let me say first – congratulations. You have seized every opportunity presented to you during your time here, and you have met every challenge. You have thrived in your classes, clubs, athletics, the visual and performing arts, community service, leadership roles, and in many other ways. In short, you have succeeded at Phillips Exeter Academy. Because of what you have learned and how you have grown, you are ready for what lies ahead, in college and beyond. 

John and Elizabeth Phillips founded our school in 1781 because they believed youth was the critical period in a person’s development. They believed that if youth from every quarter were imbued with knowledge and goodness at this school, then they would go out and improve their communities and create a better world. We hold to that belief today. I believe that every one of you can and will find ways to make a positive difference in the world, on whatever scale you choose, and in whatever ways you choose. 

There is no doubt that we live in a world where there is a pressing need for more citizens and leaders who focus on bringing people together, seeing our common humanity, finding common ground, and building a better world for all to enjoy. We see this need on every level – locally, regionally, and globally. 

With that thought in mind, I would like to share three thoughts with you this morning that I believe will serve you well as you go forward in life. 

1. Non Sibi 

First, I hope you will always keep the words non sibi in your hearts and minds. These words were inscribed on our school seal in 1782 because they represent the very spirit and purpose of our school. Non sibi. Not for oneself. 

We are an independent school with a public purpose: to unite goodness and knowledge and inspire youth from every quarter to lead purposeful lives. 

We boldly proclaim that we seek to graduate students who are motivated by their concern for others and the world around them, and who understand that an Exeter education is an extraordinary gift to be used for the benefit of others as well as for oneself. We seek to graduate students who are motivated by this philosophy to confront the challenges of their day and who strive to make the world a better place not just for some, but for all. 

You have demonstrated a commitment to non sibi during your time here, in the many ways you have contributed to the life of our school, and in the many ways you have supported each other. You have understood that when we balance our needs with the needs of others – that is when we are our best selves. You are ready to carry this forward. 

Just as non sibi is the guiding spirit and ethos of our school, I hope non sibi will be a guiding principle for you in the years ahead and throughout your lives. 

2. Humility and Kindness 

Second, I hope you will stay humble and act always with kindness toward others. 

Wherever you find yourselves next year, people will expect you to be intelligent and capable. They will be watching to see if you are kind and have humility. 

One way to think about this is to understand that in life we tend to be known by our nouns, but we are appreciated and remembered for our adjectives. Our nouns are sometimes beyond our control. We don’t always get the job, promotion or award that we seek. But our adjectives are within our control. We can always be kind and humble. We can choose to persevere in the face of disappointment, and act with grace in moments of triumph. We can choose to be respectful toward others, and we can decide every day how we want to make others feel. In making these choices, we reveal our character. In making these choices, you will reveal your goodness. 

You will recall that at opening assembly I talked about seeking complex truths. Humility is critical here as well, as it opens the door to listening to others with curiosity, empathy and respect; to being open to different points of view; to being comfortable engaging across differences and to having courageous conversations about difficult subjects. I described these as Harkness skills, and as goodness and knowledge skills. These skills, while essential to your learning at Exeter, also will provide the foundation for everything you do and everything you will accomplish in life. 

Humility and kindness will make you more effective advocates for the kind of world you want to live in. 

3. Gratitude 

Lastly, I would like to offer a few words about gratitude. 

I hope you leave here today with feelings of joy in all that you have accomplished. I hope you feel pride in being part of a school where hard work is valued, where teachers and coaches challenge you to be your best, and where students delight in each other’s successes and accomplishments. I hope you feel prepared for what lies ahead, and confident that the bonds of friendship forged here will endure for your lifetimes. 

But on top of all that, I hope you leave today with a deep sense of gratitude. Gratitude for the education that you have received, for the many transformative experiences that you have enjoyed, and for the friendships gained along the way. Gratitude to all who have supported you during your time here – your families, teachers, advisers, mentors, and all others who have helped or cared for you in any way, including those who have worked largely behind the scenes. 

I hope your gratitude extends to prior generations of teachers and Exonians who have helped create and shape the Exeter of today, and who have thereby made your experiences at Exeter possible. In this way, I also hope you will come to appreciate your place in the history of our great school. 

While it might be hard to imagine today, in time you will have opportunities to help us consider and decide how Exeter needs to continue to evolve to be the best Exeter that we can be. Prior generations of Exonians have done this throughout the history of our school. This will be a form of non sibi born of your gratitude for your time here. 

Non sibi, humility and kindness, and gratitude – one can readily see they fit together nicely. You will aim high in life, as you have aimed high in coming here, but 

  • If you are motivated by your concern for others and the world around you, 
  • if you act with humility and kindness toward others, and 
  • if you remain grateful to those who have helped you along the way, and to those who have opened paths that you now travel, 

then you will be well on your way to leading purposeful lives. 

Acting in this way will not diminish the challenges of our day, which are considerable and many – we know that. These qualities will not shield you from disappointment, nor guarantee success. But they will strengthen your sense of purpose, help you confront the challenges that you see, and help you lift those around you who are in need. 

You might ask: will doing these things really help me change the world that so badly needs changing? I say in return, start with the sphere of influence that you have. If you treat others with respect and gain their trust, your sphere of influence will grow. If you stay true to your principles, your sphere of influence will continue to grow, you will be asked to take on more responsibility, in time you will be asked to lead. You will have opportunities to make a positive difference in the lives of others, in ways that you cannot even begin to imagine now. 

And keep in mind, every time you change one person’s life, for that person, you have quite literally changed the world. 

In closing, I want to say I have great affection for the Class of 2025. I have enjoyed watching you have fun, find joy, thrive, and make lifelong friends. It will be exciting to see what paths you choose in life and what adventures you enjoy along the way. I hope you will return often to share your stories with your teachers and future generations of students. 

It will be deeply meaningful to your teachers and other mentors to be reminded of how they have impacted your lives during your time here. It will be equally meaningful to future generations of Exeter students to hear your stories and be inspired by your examples. 

To the Class of 2025, I wish you success in all your future endeavors. You will always be the great Class of 2025. You will always belong to each other, and you will always belong here. 

Congratulations! 

'You have met

'You have met

every challenge'

Scenes from graduation 2025

A tradition of caring

It is our custom at Exeter to publish a Memorial Minute when an emeritus faculty member dies. These are read in their entirety in faculty meeting and published in condensed form in the Bulletin. You will find a Memorial Minute for Jack Heath, instructor emeritus in English, included in this issue.

These are deeply moving tributes. We often are surprised to learn about aspects of a former faculty member’s life that we did not know, and amused by the anecdotes that former colleagues tell. Perhaps more than anything, we are inspired by the stories alumni share about the way their lives were impacted by their former teachers.

Alumni describe how these faculty members demanded the best of their students, helped them grow in confidence, and in many cases helped them develop passions that they carried forward in college and beyond. I have contributed a few stories myself about the way Exeter teachers affected my life as a student. Fundamentally, the alumni stories included in Memorial Minutes show how Exeter faculty care for and about their students. We are moved by these stories, and we are inspired to do all we can to have similar impacts on the lives of our students today.

Teachers, of course, are not the only adults on our campus who influence our students in positive and profound ways. During my Senior year, my dormmates and I were told that Dunbar Hall would be closed midyear for renovation and that we would be distributed across several other dormitories. My group, headed for Peabody Hall, had just one question: “Who gets Mr. Johnson?” Mr. Johnson was our custodian, and it meant a lot to us when we learned that he would be working in Peabody with us.

For three years, Eddie Wilber handed me my gym clothes before every soccer, hockey and lacrosse practice, and he gave me my uniform on game days. Mr. Wilber knew my name and he knew my size. He made me feel good about myself, and good about being at Exeter. I think of him every time I see the plaque that bears his name by the equipment room in the gym.

Dr. Heyl stitched me up after I took a skate in the eye during my Lower year. To this day, I don’t understand how he managed to do that without leaving any visible evidence of a scar. It was a pretty serious injury, but he made me relax and feel as if everything was going to be OK. He did more than close the wound; he took all the worry out of the experience. He cared.

Alumni across all generations have similar stories to tell about adults who were important to them during their time at Exeter — teachers and other adults who touched their lives in important ways and who made them feel at home when far away from home.

Our school’s mission is to “unite goodness and knowledge and inspire youth from every quarter to lead purposeful lives.” The adults in our community — in whatever capacity they serve — lead purposeful lives right here, as they care for our students and prepare them to lead their own purposeful lives. New stories are created every year. It all starts with caring.

I, Too, Miss Rice

Yoon moved into the room across from mine, the second international student in our dorm. I was the first; packed up my life in Shanghai and came here for boarding school two years ago. Yoon often sat alone at lunch, staring at the rotisserie chicken before returning it barely touched. One night, I ordered from Kaju and knocked on his door.

His desk was cluttered with empty Haitai chip bags.

“Kimchi soup and rice?” I asked.

The umami smell filled the room.

Yoon suddenly said, “I miss rice,” and burst into tears.

I nodded, shoving a chopsticks-full in my mouth.

Oscar Zhu ’27 is in his lower year at the Academy. This piece was originally published in The New York Times on February 13, 2025, as one of 20 winners in the paper’s third annual 100-Word Personal Narrative Contest.

This article was first published in the spring 2025 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.

John Bascom Heath: A Memorial Minute

John Bascom Heath was born in 1923 in Lawrenceville, New Jersey to Mary Darwin and Harley Willis Heath. Jack grew up on the campus of the Lawrenceville School from which he graduated and where his father taught science for many years. His undergraduate career at Yale was interrupted by a three-year stint in the military where he rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant in Patton’s Third Army and earned the Bronze Star. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale in 1946 and began his teaching career, first at Exeter in 1947 and then at Germantown Academy for one year, before returning to Exeter for good in 1949. For nearly 40 years, Jack certainly was a force for good at the Academy.

Principal Kendra Stearns O’Donnell described his exemplary service at Exeter as “rooted on traditional school ground: the classroom, the dormitory, the playing fields.” He was the “consummate school man.” History instructor Jack Herney recalls the figure Jack cut on campus: with his “rumpled sartorial style. . . he looked the picture of the absentminded, disheveled but wise savant.” Heath once wrote that “teaching, coaching, and doing dorm and committee work are demanding; but we do get good vacations, and ought to work hard in term time. The happiest people,” he continued, “work the hardest, or, to put it a better way, are the most involved, and I think the involvement causes rather than results from the happiness.” Jack was certainly involved at the Academy and in the Exeter community at large. By his own accounting, then, Jack was a very happy man, always looking to “put” the world he inhabited “a better way.”

Jack’s numerous titles at the Academy reflect the range of his contributions. He was appointed the Thomas S. and Elinor B. Lamont Professor of English. He served as English Department Chair from 1973-1983, the Dean of Faculty from 1983-1987, and Acting Principal for one year when Principal Stephen Kurtz took a sabbatical. From 1956-1971 he was varsity head coach of the soccer team, where his wing players would often hear him shouting “Gotta have it” from the sidelines, pushing them to hustle after every ball. He also coached basketball and baseball, serving as Commissioner of Club Baseball from 1962 1973. He spent the 1967-1968 school year teaching in Barcelona, Spain with the School Year Abroad program. Jack also served as adviser to the Exonian and on countless committees: the Academy Planning Committee, the Faculty Affairs Committee, the Appointments and Leaves Committee, and the Student-Faculty Committee on Student Life, to name just a few. He received the Faculty Prize for Academic Excellence in 1967 and the Rupert Radford Faculty Fellowship Award for distinguished and faithful service in 1988. It is no wonder that Jack was also an honorary member of the Class of 1952 and was recognized in 1991 with the Founders’ Day Award.

Jack was also a distinguished public servant in the town of Exeter, and he was once called “the most respected man in town.” He and his wife Patty ran the Cub Scouts for two decades. Jack brought soccer to Exeter, founding the first youth soccer program and introducing it to Exeter school system. He was a School Board member, spokesperson for the Exeter Voter League, president of the Rockingham County Trust, secretary and board member of the New Hampshire Farm Museum, and Secretary of the Exeter River Watershed Association. He served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, as well.

For many summers he ran Kamp Kill Kare, a summer camp for boys in St. Albans, VT, where his father had also worked.

After those summers in Vermont, from 1979-1983, Jack worked as director of the Exeter Writing Project, a precursor to many of our summer institutes for educators. Barbara Ganley, an attendee who was also a former student of Jack’s at the Academy, describes his impact in that summer program:

On the practice field of Jack’s English classroom, students encountered a teacher who pushed and encouraged them to stand out in that field day after day. He held his students to high standards, and his compassion guided them to become more competent writers and more perceptive readers. Philip H. Loughlin ’57 credits Jack for instilling in him a lifelong love of literature. And Tom Gross ’70 shares that Jack “was always very kind to me and seemed to take a genuine interest in trying to help a not-very-good student.”

Reflecting on her time as a Prep in Jack’s English class, Barbara Ganley shares: “Without him, I wouldn’t have made it through my Prep year much less go on to teach writing or to become a writer myself. . . . [A]s I sit at my writing desk, I remember his urging me to reach for a sentence as clean as a bone. To work for it. And of his quiet encouragement that of course I could do it.” Vinson Bankoski ’81 recalled similar guidance.

“Mr. Heath’s English class,” he writes, “helped me identify what Exeter was really about and why I was really there.” After reading aloud in class a draft of a paper he had written about his grandfather who recently passed away, Vinson took in Jack’s feedback and sat down to work at his revision:

Jack’s son Sam relates the experiences of author Dan Brown ’82 his Lower year in Jack’s class. On Dan’s first composition, alongside the red C-minus, Jack had written in all capital letters “KEEP IT SIMPLE.” This was Jack’s “essential philosophy,” Sam explains. You can hear echoes of that philosophy each fall when Dan Brown speaks to the Prep class about writing.

“Sometimes,” Jack wrote in 1956, “when a class is just right – the boys are attentive, even the silent member of the class has something to say, and the bell rings unnoticed, [I am] sure there is no better way to make a living.” Other former students recall Jack’s sense of humor. David Lamb ’58 visited campus on a whim while passing through in 1981, twenty-three years after he had been kicked out during his senior year for running a gambling ring in his dormitory. David, a successful journalist at the time, was invited to sit in on a faculty meeting. He writes: “Several heads, now covered with gray hair or little hair, turned toward my seat in the back of the room. ‘Why, Lamb,’ said my former English teacher, Mr. Heath, as though he had seen me only yesterday, ‘I thought you’d be at the dog track today.’”

That sense of humor served Jack well in his administrative roles. Former counselor, Mike Diamonti, remembers his interview for a faculty position in 1983: “Knowing I had no prior boarding school experience, Jack explained the core teaching, coaching, and dorm responsibilities. I replied that although I liked sports I had never coached and wasn’t sure I could take on that responsibility, even at the club level. Jack replied by saying, ‘there are only two things you need to know about coaching. When you win you say, coaching shows, and when you lose, you say coaching isn’t everything.’

Former Chief Financial Officer Jim Theisen spoke about working with Jack in the year when Principal Steve Kurtz was on sabbatical, leaving the Academy in Jack’s capable hands. Jim went to Jack on a delicate personnel matter. “Jack listened intently and confirmed it was a big issue,” Thiesen explains. “He said let us both sleep on it and confer tomorrow. I left and slept like a baby knowing it was now on his plate. Returning the next day I could tell him the problem resolved itself and did not need his help. He said, ‘Good, I forgot you talked to me.’ It was the best MBA management lesson I got…and from an English teacher!” Jack Herney confirms that Jack’s style was to “never rush into any decision. He made decisions based on the evidence he had at hand, and he didn’t look back or second-guess himself.”

A father-figure to many students and a mentor to many colleagues, Jack was also a devoted husband and father to four boys. In 1947, he married his beloved wife Patricia Espy Kreutzer. All four Heath sons (Jeffrey ’67, John ’70, Samuel ’72, and Harley ’75) attended the Academy and played varsity soccer. Jack served as dorm head of Wheelwright Hall for twenty-three years. When Jack dug out a piece of lawn in front of the faculty entrance to plant irises, he may have been the first faculty member to plant a garden on campus. Colleagues marveled at his green thumb and stewardship of natural spaces, qualities that guided his work on the first piece of property he ever owned – a house and nine acres in Newfields where the family moved in 1968. “People would be amazed,” Jack once told his son Sam, “at what happens when you put a seed in the ground and you water it.”

One of the seeds that was planted for Jack in his youth was the power of community. He lost both of his parents by the time he was eighteen, and the Lawrenceville School community was there for him. As you have heard this morning, Jack brought his full self to serve the Academy community. One Thursday morning as he neared retirement, Jack opened up to the community in a Meditation delivered in Phillips Church on December 10, 1987. He spoke of his relationship with death, referring to himself throughout in the third person:

Whether he was caring for his family, students, colleagues, town, country, or for the land, Jack committed his whole self. He believed, Sam tells us, that we “must accept people as they are” and “hold everyone,” including ourselves, “to the highest standards of integrity.” In closing, an image of Jack moving between the work that he loved seems fitting. This, too, comes from his son, Sam: “How many times did I watch him come home between classes, switch into muddy overalls, and hoe a few rows of beans or take down a couple of trees before putting back on his khakis, tying his bow tie, and returning to campus for a 5:25 class. He never raced, he puttered, with purpose, and he finished what he began.”

Jack died May 28, 2018, at the age of 95. He is survived by his sons Jeffrey, of Ann Arbor MI and Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso; Samuel, of Exeter, with Sandra del Alczaar and their children Aymara and Santiago; and Harley, of Wolfeboro NH, with Stacey Lessard and his children Rory and Addie.

I move that this Memorial Minute be spread upon the minutes of the faculty and a copy sent to the family.

Respectfully submitted,

Brooks Moriarty

This Memorial Minute was first published in the spring 2025 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.

Spring break, world edition

All told, 85 students plus faculty members traveled together over March break to learn and grow.

One group explored Andean culture in the Secret Valley of Peru while another headed to the nation’s capital to learn about programs that address poverty, food access, housing and homelessness. In Alabama, a group studied civil rights, justice and the ongoing legacy of slavery. Latin and Greek students visited the ancient cities, temples, amphitheaters and markets of Sicily and Campania where the primary Latin and ancient Greek authors they study lived or worked.

But the most vocal group of Exonians of them all was the Concert Choir. Thirty-nine students and Music Instructor Kris Johnson made a weeklong trek through Northern Italy. Stopping in Florence, Verona, Mantua and Venice, the group performed in stunning venues along the way — all while exploring both historic and contemporary Italian art, cuisine and culture. Hear their voices and see more behind the scenes from the trip on their Instagram – @PEA_Choir_Italy.

In total, five groups traveled to Washington, D.C., Montgomery, Alabama, Northern Italy, Sicily and Campania and Machu Picchu, Peru. Swipe through to see photos from the trips.

This article was originally published in the spring 2025 edition of The Exeter Bulletin.

Immersive

Immersive

Theater

By the numbers

80

hours to paint a gym floor onstage

46

cast and crew members

22

body microphones

200

lighting cues

90

minutes running time

Exeter Annotated:

Exeter Annotated:

Presence of the Past

The Secret Societies

The Secret Societies

The Final Quarter

Exeter boys basketball team wearing t-shirts printed by Tilton