HEAD’S AWARD Established in 2017 by Head of School Peter B. Fayroian H’18, the Head’s Award honors alumni, parents, or friends of Northfield Mount Hermon whose philanthropy has a significant impact on the life of students, faculty, and staff.
Richard “Dick” Gilder ’50 A member of the Northfield Mount Hermon Board of Trustees from 1968 to 1976, Richard “Dick” Gilder ’50 was a lifelong supporter of the school and is receiving this award posthumously. A devotee of history and an outstanding philanthropist, Dick had a lasting impact on the way we interpret the past and look toward the future. His transformational gift for a new science and math center at NMH remains the largest cash gift in the school’s history. Currently under construction, the Gilder Center will help NMH bring math, science, and technology education to an even higher level. Dick was a four-year student at NMH and earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University in 1954. He enrolled in Yale Law School but after one semester went to work as a broker and dealer with Chicago-based investment bank A.G. Becker and Co., where he rose to vice president by 1963. In 1968, after briefly working as a broker for Neuberger and Berman, a private, independent, employee-owned investment management firm in New York, Dick started his own brokerage firm in New York, Gilder Gagnon Howe and Co. LLC. and acquired a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. In addition to his lead gift for the Gilder Center, Dick made gifts for financial aid at NMH as well as substantial contributions to the school’s capital campaigns and lecture programs, and to his reunion gifts. He also supported the Rhodes Arts Center theater, which was named the Lois C. Chiles Theater in honor of his wife, an actress. The Wall Street Journal called this gift a tribute to Gilder’s “Two Loves”: Northfield Mount Hermon and Lois Chiles. “Dick Gilder epitomized the NMH mission of living and acting with humanity and purpose,” Head of School Brian Hargrove said. “As a proud and loyal member of the Class of 1950, Dick supported his alma mater at every turn. Dick’s financial support