Emeriti Faculty Brandt, Gross and Tottenham Honored

Hundreds of members of the Hawken School community, including graduates, parents, faculty and friends, gathered Friday, May 6, at the Gates Mills Campus to pay tribute to Frank Brandt, Jim Gross and John Tottenham, three of the School`s finest teachers who, after a collective 90-plus years of service to the School, are joining the ranks of Emeriti Faculty. Many of the attendees returned to Cleveland from afar for the event, which featured a program of testimonials delivered by a graduate followed by remarks from each of the retirees. The speeches were both humorous and moving, and long lines formed after the official program ended as guests sought to share a personal word of gratitude with the master teachers. Following a brief welcome from James S. Berkman, Head of School, Robert Stark, Class of 1969, stood at the dais to pay tribute to Frank Brandt, who, like Stark, arrived at Hawken in 1966. Stark said Brandt was and remains "what I want to be in life." A prolific land developer who is hailed nationally for his vision of New Urbanism, Stark paid wider tribute to the Hawken faculty, saying that in the academic years following Hawken, in college and law school, the faculty in those places could never measure up to the faculty at Hawken. "Hawken taught me how to carry myself," Stark said. It is only now, he remarked, that he has come to appreciate and understand the meaning of Fair Play, Hawken`s motto. By the time Stark finished his remarks about Mr. Brandt, the assembled were visibly moved by the sentiments he expressed about his former football coach and math teacher. Brandt, taking to the dais, was among those moved by Mr. Stark`s words and the applause that greeted his entrance. Brandt spent considerable time on his memories of Hawken, as did Jim Gross, who would immediately follow Brandt in the program. Mr. Brandt`s warmest and wittiest words came when he described the role that Gina Kennedy had on his ability to function as Hawken`s Director of Admissions for over 30 years. Saying that he and his wife, Mary Anne, played the lottery weekly with the hope of funding financial aid at Hawken for deserving students, he credited Mrs. Kennedy for fulfilling his millionaire`s dream with her decision to endow a fund for such a purpose. Frank pointed to Mrs. Kennedy in the crowd and said that there were hundreds of Hawken graduates who owe a large indebtedness to her. The remark generated prolonged applause. He thanked his staff for their loyalty and support but reserved his highest gratitude for his wife Mary Anne and his children, stating that it has been a personal honor to call two of his sons colleagues; Aaron and Brady Brandt, graduates of Hawken, followed their father on the math faculty at Hawken and like their father are active in the athletics program as coaches. He also expressed pleasure that two of his children came in from afar for the event, without his prior knowledge. Ethan Cohen, a Hawken lifer and member of the Class of 1982, introduced Jim Gross, noting that he was in Mr. Gross`s very first fourth grade class at Hawken. Cohen remembered Gross as a teacher who made learning fun and then reminded the guests just how much of an impact the teacher had in Hawken School tradition, creating such legacy events as the Mummy Wrap and the trip to Washington. Mr. Gross, who retired last academic year from classroom teaching, said he could sum up Hawken in a simple phrase: "it`s about the people." He then went on, to the delight of many in the audience, to recount the scores of teachers that filled the halls of Hawken in his 30-plus years of teaching at the School. Some bridged back, it seemed, to the days of James A. Hawken himself. He acknowledged my "second boss," Dick Davies, also an emeritus faculty member, who attended the affair in a special tribute to Gross. Family members from Milwaukee al