Brand New Day Pine Crest’s fourth president, Henry M. Battle, Jr., chats with sixth graders.
Board of Trustees Appoints School’s Fourth President n “This is what I really love to do,” says Battle, after gently quizzing students on Pine Crest facts. “I’ll be spending a lot of time in the classrooms.” The Board of Trustees recently appointed Battle as the School’s fourth president. He started February 1. “Hank has both a business and educational perspective and, most of all, understands the needs of students,” says Trustee Chair Walter Banks ’61. A published author, noted and esteemed administrator in independent schools, Battle leaves the Forsyth Country Day School outside of Winston-Salem, NC, where he served
12 years as headmaster. “Hank has the kind of energy that this School needs to propel second millennium learners especially with our new state-ofthe-art Lower School on the Boca Raton campus and a new Upper School Academic Center debuting in Fort Lauderdale this fall,” says Dr. Lourdes Cowgill, who has led Pine Crest for more than 15 years, after holding many positions during her 36 years at the School. “I am pleased to pass on the torch of Dr. Mae McMillan to him.” Battle has been an independent school teacher, coach, and administrator for more
than 30 years, and he has served as the headmaster of top independent schools. Battle earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and completed post-graduate work at Union Theological Seminary, the University of Virginia (where he was both Jefferson and Lassen fellows), and Columbia University Teachers College (where he was a Klingenstein Visiting Fellow). In addition, Battle is a respected scholar and a published author of many articles on education, children, and leadership. A member of numerous professional associations, Battle also has served on the boards of many prestigious organizations. While at Forsyth Country Day School, he significantly expanded the campus and school facilities, grew enrollment substantially, elevated the School’s academic and co-curricular standards, and increased the School’s original endowment of $699,000 by 1,688 percent - ensuring quality, growth, and stability. Battle also served as headmaster at Stratford Academy in Macon, Georgia. He has held administrative positions at the Lovett School (GA), St. Anne’s-Belfield School (VA), and Charlotte Latin School (NC). He is a third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a second-degree black belt in Karate. He enjoys reading, playing the guitar, and attending student performances and games. At Forsyth, Battle taught a popular course to seniors called the Headmaster’s Internship. His class was designed to enlist help from students in leading and improving the school, and he and his students traveled to other schools across the country to benchmark their programs and policies. Battle and his wife, Linda, have two daughters, Lindley and Markey. Lindley, a 2009 Forsyth graduate, is taking a year off from Maryland Institute College of Art to serve as a missionary in Uganda, and Markey is in the sixth grade. Pine Crest Magazine Fall/Winter 2010-11
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