My high school was a small boarding school in New England. David Sheldon was the headmaster during my years there. He recently passed away but I wanted to share this scrap I unearthed from an old notebook.
I think it’s a snippet from a letter sent out when he was announcing his retirement. I was too young and restless to appreciate his wisdom and graciousness fully but this stuck with me enough to save it.
I have felt always that a headmaster required those traits identified as necessary for a successful Congressman:
- the friendliness of a child,
- the enthusiasm of a teenager,
- the assurance of a college boy,
- the diplomacy of a wayward husband,
- the curiosity of a cat,
- and the good humor of an idiot.
Those characteristics come more readily at age forty and fifty than at sixty-one and lead me to believe the School needs a fresh eye and new energy.
David F. Sheldon
Mr. Sheldon passed away at age 93 last June.