CLASS NOTES
IN MEMORIAM BY NOELLE ANSON
Walton G. Congdon
Ask Walt Congdon how he was doing, and the inevitable answer was: “Fine as frog’s hair,” said English teacher Meg Donnelly. Walton Greenleaf Congdon, science teacher extraordinaire at NMH for 38 years, died on 12/3/12, after suffering a heart attack. He was 80. Born on April 5, 1932, Walt grew up in Arlington, Vt., and spent his youth in physical pursuits, such as swimming, hiking, and exploring his home state. He also discovered amateur radio, which would become a lifelong passion. After graduating from Arlington High School in 1950, Walt went to Amherst College, where he majored in psychology and minored in chemistry and religion, graduating in 1954. He then joined the army for a two-year stint and was assigned to the Signal Corps. He went to Micronesia and, while close to Eniwetok Atoll, witnessed some of the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons there. He also developed a lasting affinity for the “warm waters and people of the Pacific.” By the time he mustered out of the army in August 1956, Walt had been offered a job teaching chemistry, physics, and general science at Mt. Hermon School, and he joined the faculty in September. He met his future wife, Elizabeth “Betty” Madden, in
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1957 at a summer job at an Episcopal conference for teenagers, where they were both counselors. They married in 1958. By 1963, the Congdon family included two children, and Walt was enrolled in a master’s program in the physical sciences at Wesleyan in the summers and earned his master’s in 1965. In the 1960s and early 1970s, in addition to teaching, coaching, and studying, Walt, now “Mr. C.” to his students, applied his talents to developing a new physical science course for ninth graders as part of a national program; to working on committees focused on the merger of Northfield and Mt. Hermon; and to leading pre- and postmerger committees dealing with academics, school governance, the work program, and discipline. In 1973, he was asked to divide his time between classroom teaching and counseling, which he did for two years. He then took a year’s leave in 1975–76 to develop a counseling program at Hawaii Preparatory School and moved the family to Hawaii’s Big Island. When they returned, Walt became the first director of the freshman program from 1976–79, after which he returned to the chemistry classroom until his retirement in 1994. John Rees, who taught across the hall from Walt, called him a “brilliant and thoughtful colleague, always willing to help or consult and never judgmental.” John said that “at times, Walt yelled ‘Eureka’ so loud…that my students and I would literally jump.” David Rowland claimed that Walt had “a voice like Jehovah…and [occasionally] helped out the theater program by providing a most impressive off-stage voice.” Among his numerous awards and honors were the Elizabeth Howe Rueckert Faculty Fellowship, which he held from 1987–91, and the William H. Morrow Award presented to him by the NMH Alumni Association in 1995. Walt pursued cycling, canoeing, music, reading, and travel, but the two passions that engaged him the most were amateur radio and alternative energy. He served as president of the Franklin County Amateur Radio Club, taught licensing classes, and led the licensing exam team for years. Antennas and photovoltaic arrays sprouted in his Northfield backyard, and he installed a system at his cabin on the Connecticut River that used water power to generate electricity. He also volunteered for years as a tour guide for the area’s largest wind farm, in Searsburg, Vt. As colleague Craig Hefner put it: “Walt and Betty’s house in Northfield was off the grid almost 365 days per year. Walt didn’t just talk about sustainability, he walked the walk every day.”
Walt is survived by his wife, Betty; son Nathan ’79; daughter Joy ’81; two grandchildren; his brother, Stephen; and several nieces, nephews, and cousins. Memorial contributions in his name may be sent to NMH’s Ayers-Gilbert Fund for Sustainability and the Environment, c/o Kristin Kellom in the Office of Advancement, One Lamplighter Way, Mt. Hermon, MA 01354. ♦
Mary Lighthall Compton ’44
Mary Lighthall Compton ’44, assistant librarian at NMH from 1976 to 1991, died October 14, 2012, of a brain tumor at 86. Mary wore many hats during her long association with the school, including being parent of three NMH alumni, faculty wife, dorm parent, class teacher for MH ’62, tireless reunion volunteer for her class, and friend and mentor to younger faculty and their children. Mary was born April 20, 1926, in Syracuse, N.Y., the elder of two children. She grew up in Darien, Conn., where she attended public schools until she came to the Northfield School for Girls for her final year. She began dating her future husband, William “Bill” Compton ’44, when they were college freshmen at Oberlin College, where Mary majored in religion. They graduated in 1948 and were married August 6, 1949. After her marriage, Mary joined Bill at Mt. Hermon, where he taught history. She was thrust into boarding school life as