april 2008
features
Alumni Award Recipient: David Bruton
Alumni Award Recipient: John Hoffman
A Decade of Commitment and Caring
Reaching Higher to Reach Kids
Nearly sixty years after coming to George School as a student, David Bruton ’53 can still be seen walking its tree-sheltered paths several times a week. Today, David is clerk of the George School Committee (GSC), the school’s governing board. He is one of the school’s caretakers, using the experience that grew from seeds planted more than a half century ago to help guide the school through an exciting time. He brings to the task both considerable energy and a considered approach, always with an eye to ensuring the long-term health and vibrancy of the school. In addition to being a George School alumnus, David is the father of a graduate (Kathryn ’84), but he readily admits that he wasn’t very involved with the school until former head David Bourns invited him to join the GSC a decade ago. In the years since he was a George School student, David graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School and embarked on a legal career at the Philadelphia-based firm Drinker Biddle & Reath. He was at the firm his entire career (now officially retired, he works in arbitration) and served as managing partner and chairman of the litigation department. Several cases he was involved in went to the Supreme Court, and he presented the oral argument in one that concerned the separation of church and state in education. For many people, that would be the highlight of a legal career. In looking back, David speaks most glowingly of the freedoms he enjoyed: to take part in a broad range of cases, from corporate to education to civil rights issues; to learn new things from each case, and finding continuing intellectual challenge. He credits George School with helping in key ways. “One of the things my George School education did was to give me a sense of confidence and a desire to be independent and to think for myself,” David says. Since good writing is sometimes even more important to a litigator than persuasive speech, David feels “really blessed that my George School education helped me understand the glimmerings of what good writing is about.” With a lifelong commitment to education and opportunity, David has had many secondary and
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postsecondary schools as clients and has served on the boards of both another school and a Philadelphia area social service agency for children. Bringing his skills and passion to the GSC was a natural. David is enthusiastic about the “wonderful, vibrant way in which the school has operated” and about this “thrilling time to be involved.” He identifies four major initiatives that the GSC has had a hand in that he believes will not only ensure the long-term stability of George School, but also provide it with opportunities for continued change. These are the nearly completed curriculum review process, led by Head of School Nancy Starmer, undertaken by the school as a whole and the faculty in particular; the school’s commitment to leadership in environmental sustainability; the building of the new green learning commons and library; and the long-range planning for Barbara Dodd Anderson’s transformative gift. As in his career, David is involved in a broad range of activities at George School. As Nancy Starmer describes, “He’s been very supportive of the faculty, supportive of faculty housing and compensation, and supportive of the library. I’d be hard pressed to find an area where he hasn’t been involved and committed.” David Bruton has brought to the GSC and to the school a mixture of energy and deep thinking, what Assistant Clerk Joe Evans appreciates as his “wise, thoughtful, and deliberate approach and his vision for George School.” A vision, Joe points out, that is born of love.
andy popkin
by Andrea Lehman
by Andrea Lehman Giving back to your alma mater can involve opening many things – your heart, your checkbook. In the case of John Hoffman ’73, it also involves opening doors. Within seven years of graduating from George School, John began what was to become his life’s work: identifying high-achieving, low-income students from New York City and matching them to and preparing them for academically challenging independent schools, including the one he attended and which made a big difference in his life. It began slowly and serendipitously, when John, in his mid-twenties and on the fast-track at Pepsi-Cola, met with then Head of School David Bourns and Director of Admission Barry Koppock about how to use unspent financial aid funds to increase student diversity. In concert with people he knew in the New York City recreation department, John was able to identify several strong candidates who enrolled at George School. For a couple of years, John continued to recruit students through the recreation department, but he realized that to find the most academically qualified students, he would have to go directly through schools. Dr. Albert Oliver, the second-in-command in the New York City school system, supported John’s efforts from the beginning. With Oliver’s help, John was able to identify more students than George School could take, so he established rela-
tionships with other independent schools interested in bringing bright students of color to their campuses. When Dr. Oliver was tragically killed in an auto accident, John felt led to quit his lucrative corporate job at Pepsi-Cola and start a not-for-profit organization dedicated to giving deserving students the opportunities that schools like George School could provide. In 1983, John did just that, founding the Albert G. Oliver Program. The program identifies high-achieving African-American and Latin-American seventh-graders in New York City and provides them with the information and preparation necessary to enroll and be successful at top independent schools. The idea of students coming back and providing service to their community has been an integral part of the program since its inception. After ten years, John began to feel that “the schools themselves had to get better. They needed more faculty of color.” So in 1994, John founded the Independent Teaching Project, a teacher placement program for minority teachers. He missed working with kids, however, and in 1998 John became director of high school placement at De La Salle Academy, an independent middle school in Manhattan for intellectually talented, low-income kids. During his twenty years with the Oliver Program and De La Salle Academy, John estimates he helped send more than one thousand students to independent schools. To date, the Oliver Program has sent eighty-four Oliver Scholars to George School and another twenty-one students have come from De La Salle. According to John, George School “raised in me the consciousness of the importance of helping others, minding the Light, doing God’s work, and doing work that has real intrinsic value. I personally think that the essence of work and life is making a difference.” If making a difference is the yardstick, then John certainly measures up. One former Oliver Scholar, Yasmine AbdulMani ’96 shares, “John was concerned about our future and what direction we were going with our mind and our soul.” Now the New York Metro program coordinator at A Better Chance (an organization that, like The Oliver Program, recruits, refers, and advocates for bright students of color to attend independent schools), Yasmine views John as her mentor and supporter since she was thirteen. “Many people expect certain things of you coming from a boarding school. John just expected the best of us. He saw this potential in us and challenged us to meet it and would not accept anything less.”
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