reflections on a revered member of the ehs community
Compassion john m. walker, jr. retires after 40 years at episcopal high school
J
ohn M. Walker, Jr. taught, coached, advised, and inspired Episcopal’s students for 40 years. In the many positions he held over the years, Walker demonstrated an absolute devotion to the ideals, traditions, and values of Episcopal High School, as well as a gift for delivering these elements of the School’s mission to generations of students. He began his EHS career in 1969 as an English teacher and in 1974 was named assistant headmaster. Though Walker left EHS to serve as headmaster of the Adirondack Mountain School in Long Lake, N.Y., from 1979 to 1981, he soon returned to Episcopal. He returned as assistant head for student life, and after five years he assumed the duties of the director of admissions. During his tenure in admissions, Walker played a key role in the admission of Episcopal’s first female students, known as the “First 48.” In 1998, Walker was asked by new Headmaster Rob Hershey to return to the position of assistant head for student life, a position John held until 2005. “The position was an opportunity to be a part of the leadership team at an exciting time at Episcopal,” John said. In that role, he oversaw all non-academic aspects of student life. In addition to his teaching, coaching, and administrative responsibilities, Walker also was the longtime advisor of the Honor Committee. He worked closely with its student and faculty members to uphold the traditions of the Honor Code. He retired at the end of the 2008-09 school year, but his time at EHS has left an indelible mark on the School and on countless students and faculty members with whom he has worked. Here, some of the students, alumni, faculty, and staff whose lives Walker touched share their favorite stories about this “model for all.”
“Both my father and I had the privilege of being taught English by Mr. Walker. Mr. Walker never had anything to say about someone but words of praise, and I honestly believe that he never spoke one negative word about anyone. He was always filled with passion and was never afraid to make his students ‘yawp’ as loud as they could in his junior literature class, something I will never forget. He was always trying to cater to every student’s needs and definitely had a creative way of teaching, always trying to make everyone as comfortable as possible. He even invited us into his home multiple times for brunch and discussion. I have nothing but fond memories of this man, and the wonderful influence he had on Episcopal and his students will never cease to exist. “Thank you, Mr. Walker, for everything. Episcopal loves you.”
tess waldrop ’08 ( daughter of preston waldrop ’75 ) “My parents were somewhat apprehensive about my wanting to go to boarding school, but those concerns quickly disappeared after meeting with John Walker when he was head of admissions. He embodied all of the fine traits the School aims to develop in its students, and his enthusiasm about Episcopal was contagious.”
tripp presnell ’92 “Mr. Walker was my favorite and most important teacher at EHS. He not only taught me perfect grammar; he taught me how to write well and creatively. I didn’t like Shakespeare very much and was assigned to write about the metaphorical use of ghosts in tragedy. I remember not putting much effort into my term paper – I only liked to write essays and criticisms of my creation or choosing. I barely made a few points about the ghost of Hamlet’s father, which we had just read, let alone finding any other good examples, and he gave me a ‘D,’ something I hadn’t seen since I was freshman. I was shocked, but my work turned around, and I think I was somehow able to still pull a ‘B’ out of the class because his honesty in grading and his look of disappointment got some hard work out of me. “It was much the same on the junior football team. I played both ways as a tackle and on special teams and had eight tackles per game. I remember playing Landon away and outrunning one of Ricky Pfeffercorn’s kickoffs and having the ball land at my feet on Landon’s 15-yard line with no one around me. I stood and waited for a Landon player to touch the ball so I could knock it away – I was tired and forgot the difference between the rules for downing the ball on a kickoff vs. a punt. He took me out for several plays and was furious. It might have been our only victory of the year if I had picked the ball up and run. When my colleagues, Mason Hawfield and Stuart Brown, were invited up to varsity and I wasn’t, that play stuck in my mind. In fact, when I last saw Mr. Walker at the last Woodberry game he said ‘I was just thinking of you and remembered that time you thought a kickoff was a punt.’ I was a little embarrassed, but we had a wonderful conversation after that about literature and folk music in between shouting. “Anyway, I have ended up an engineer instead of a writer or a musician somehow because of a later love for math and going back to school. But, whenever I write an occasional piece of journalism, song, engineering article, or even a love letter, I still remember him giving me that capability. I still work better under pressure and like to hit the afterburner, so I still hit sluggish spots in my career where I am not
EHS The Magazine of Episcopal High School
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