"Men of Avon" Video

Earlier this fall, Bryan Zaros, our director of choral activities, put together this video to celebrate the history of "Men of Avon." If you have not yet seen it, do take a look.  Thanks to Bryan, his choral groups, Archivist Carol Ketcham, and everyone else who had a hand in this video.

Don Pierpont Saved My Life

On the occasion of the sixty-fifth anniversary of the school's re-opening and the forty-fifth anniversary of Don Pierpont's death, Pierpont-era alumni gathered on campus this weekend to remember their Provost at a dinner and fireside chat on Friday evening and a Chapel service on Saturday morning. At both events, participants stood up and spoke about their particular memories of "Pierps."

The Chapel Ready for the Don Pierpont Service

There were, frankly, tears shed in both the Commons Room (Friday evening) and the Chapel as alumnus after alumnus recounted the profoundly positive impact that Don Pierpont had on their lives. Many stories followed the same outline: confronted with a vulnerable, unsuccessful, perhaps misbehaving boy or young man, Pierpont somehow saw potential no one else could recognize, provided a second (or more) chance and then helped the young lad find - and believe in - his best self. Pierpont's legendary compassion was on full display, perhaps best in the story of a meeting between Pierpont, a student, and Dean Kincaid. The dean pointed out that the student was failing most of his classes, had been drinking in the dorm, and had recently stolen Pierpont's car! Pierps's response? "Don't confuse me with facts"! That student stayed at Avon, graduated, and is grateful to Don Pierpont for the happy life he has enjoyed since then.
Of course, as with any gathering at which Don Pierpont is remembered, there were repeated references to Ho Jo's!

Who Was Mrs. Riddle?

Anyone who seeks to understand - let alone write about - the history of the school has to wrestle with the question of who Mrs. Riddle really was. We know the basics, of course: daughter of Alfred A. Pope, graduate of Miss Porter's, first registered female architect in Connecticut, Lusitania survivor, and founder of Avon Old Farms. We know that she had a reputation for eccentricity writ large. We know that she was, to put it mildly, strong-willed. We also know that these attributes have been caricatured in a series of popular myths/exaggerations about Mrs. Riddle. (She did not, for example, choose Percy Kammerer as Provost simply by finding his name in a telephone directory, and she did not have a roof torn down simply because it did not sag correctly.) The questions we confront are: how eccentric and strong-willed was she, and to what extent was she to blame for the departures of three Provosts and two entire faculties during the Founder's Era?

Theodate Pope Riddle

Certainly, there was a widespread perception at the time that TPR could be difficult to work with. Cal Magruder '46, for example, recalls that most of the faculty and most of the students sided with Provost Stabler rather than TPR in the conflict that would lead to his departure and the school closing. Time magazine chose to highlight the founder's eccentricities (and her progressive views on education) in their March, 1944 article on the closing. They no doubt enjoyed using the word "warped" to describe the sag in Avon's roofs and "Warped to Order" as a sub-heading for that section of the article. However, Time also chose to perpetuate the phone directory myth and suggested that Francis Froelicher and Percy Kammerer had "quit" after "rows," presumably with TPR. The reality is that neither of them had "quit" and that both had been guilty of behavior unbecoming of a provost and potentially damaging to the school.
Eddy Custer '43 was an exception to Cal Magruder's rule. He wrote his brother Tom ('36) that he has "always thought Mrs. Riddle was wonderful and Stabler horrible," but went on to quote his mother, the history teacher John S. Custer's wife, as referring to TPR as "a spoiled and ruthless old woman"! "Mother said Mrs. Riddle had imposed conditions under which Mr. Stabler could not possibly stay, but she didn't say what the conditions were." Frankly, it is hard to imagine. Provost Stabler had already instituted religious services at school - appointing himself "Rector" - and changed the name of the school.  It is not as thought TPR never let him take the initiative. Would that Eddy (Dad) or my grandparents were still around to shed some light on the subject.
As I get closer to being "finished" with my chapter on the Founder's Era (long-time readers will know that I have already both a) claimed to have completed such a draft and b) observe that "finished" is not a word one can ever truly apply to history), I am confronted with the necessity to address these questions. At the moment, I am inclined to conclude that a healthy measure of the anti-TPR sentiment of the day stemmed more from the biases of the day than from her own, admittedly quite real, idiosyncrasies. Once I have organized my thinking and taken a stab at the conclusion of this chapter, I'll write another post on this issue. In the meantime, do share any thoughts or understanding you may have!