At the pinning this weekend of the Class of 1959, the ceremony which marks a class’s entry into the 50 Plus Club, the Head of Schools briefly recounted as she always does the winding life-path of each man in attendance. She touched lightly on their many memberships and professional achievements, and then shared what was written about them by their teachers and Thompson and Vivian Webb when they were boys more than fifty years ago. At this year’s ceremony, as in all that I’ve witnessed in the past 10 years, the men sat and listened and were stunned silent. They were surprised I suppose that the words and thoughts of their teachers and headmaster had survived along with them more than 50 years, and too, by the realization that they were really known here, seen and known when they were boys.

Susan Nelson tells parents at the beginning of every school year that she and the school can make few promises, in fact, she says, mainly just this, “I promise you that your sons and daughters will be known. They will be known and they will be cared for.”  For a long time these words just struck me as old-fashioned, gooey and sentimental. In fact, I often observed parents in the auditorium looking at each other in mild confusion. Is that the job of a school?  Isn’t that the role of parent and family?  Well, of course, yes, in answer to both questions. It is the role of the family to know the son and know the daughter, but strangely it is also the miraculous sum-total of what happens to you here at Webb.

I finally get it. I saw it this weekend on the faces of Webb alumni from the fifth to the fiftieth reunion. Each of them did indeed enter Webb as students, as strangers, but then they became known, known for their character, for their uncommon gifts, for their flaws and frailties, and more. They were known here. They are still known. Distance has not diminished it. Years have not diminished it. This knowing has survived even beyond death as classmates gathered and remembered even those no longer among us.

As I think about it all this morning, I see that beyond the learning and skills and academic achievement, even beyond college placement if you can believe that, of all the things that happen for you and to you at Webb, this is the most powerful and lasting. You were known here. You will always be known.