ALUMNI PROFILE
corey olds ’84: “dare to belong, to own, and to transform” By John Xeller, Alumni Relations Manager/Special Events Coordinator Corey Olds ’84 grew up in Ohio and attended Rectory for two years from 1982-1984. It was a time, he said, when geography mattered a lot more than it does now. His classmates assumed at first that he was a farmtown, country kid. Olds was grateful he enrolled in Rectory’s summer program prior to his first year as a student because the incorrect first impression his classmates had of him subsided by the first day of the fall term. He had discovered Rectory through a middle school friend’s mother who served as a Rectory board member. Her eldest son had attended Rectory and hosted Olds during his campus visit. Although the Atlanta contingency was larger, Olds recalls that boys from Ohio had a fair representation at Rectory in the 1980s. Olds was cognizant of difference from the beginning. His first full year was eighth grade, and he said that most students had started at Rectory in seventh grade. Despite starting later than his classmates, and being aware of being one of the only students of color in his class, Olds says that the achievement gap and socioeconomic differences were less apparent at Rectory than at his former Ohio day school. In Ohio, he arrived at school each day from a different neighborhood than his classmates, on the city bus, and often exhibiting different personal taste in terms of dress and interests. Olds remembers Rectory in the 80s as one of the coolest places that he had known at the time. Rectory’s dress code, required participation in sports, and standardized expectations for student etiquette helped him perceive similarities with his classmates instead of differences. Olds recalls that the “preppie code” was unspoken, but neatly observed. Boys toted around their books in a white canvas boat bag with blue straps and a blue bottom. Students cultivated new skills in the classroom and on various sports teams, got fired up about the annual coed dance, savored proctor (student leader) privileges, and created mix-tapes that celebrated the legendary tunes the decade had to offer. When asked about dorm life, Olds said, “We were all part of the same community. We all followed the same rules. We were all in the same boat of being away from home.” It was a tight-knit community, but dorm life could feel isolating at times as well. The infrequent contact with parents and the world beyond Rectory made Olds appreciate some of the smaller pleasures in life. He remembers his corner room in Upper Memorial where he was afforded the luxury of a bird’s eye view of the campus. He was excited when a letter came for him in the mail. He took advantage of opportunities to travel on the weekends to local classmates’ homes or nearby cities via Amtrak. Olds spoke at length
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THE RECTORY NEWS | FALL 2021
about the annual co-ed school dance, which was a highlight of the year for the Rectory boys. He described an “informal social committee” made up of a bunch of boys with the latest equipment in musical technology who mixed songs for the dance. Girls came on a bus from a school in Massachusetts, and while the dress code was loosened for the dances, there were few liberties the boys could take to stand out. Another highlight of the year, Olds remembered, was parents’ weekend, which took place each October. The two main benefits of parents’ weekend to Olds were getting to travel off campus and eating non-dining hall food. Everyday food wasn’t bad, he said, just bland. The exceptions were when parents were coming to campus; the meal just prior to their arrival, Olds said, was always really good because, he thought, Rectory wanted the students to tell their parents what good food they were eating. After nearly 40 years, Olds’ memories of Rectory remain vivid and influential. In his ninth-grade year, he received the Most Improved Player award in varsity baseball and the Most Valuable Player award in varsity football. “Maybe I’ll see you in the NFL one day!” chimed former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle on Parents’ Day in 1983. Pete Rozelle’s stepson was one of Olds’ teammates on that squad coached by Walt Dagle. Also among Olds’ accolades, he remembers being awarded a silver cup at the1984 graduation ceremony, along with Donald Rundlett ’84, for being the best-dressed student and having the neatest dorm room. He recalls the moment he found out that he had been selected as one of about a dozen ninth-grade dormitory proctors. As a proctor, he can still remember enjoying the privileges of an unsupervised study hall in his own room, the first crack at hot water in the shower, being able to enter the dorm without faculty presence, and ordering pizza twice a week as opposed to once on the weekend. However, he remembers pondering why he was the only proctor required to serve as a waiter as opposed to supervising other waiters and recalls this making him feel like he was being treated differently. When he needed adult help, he gravitated to coaches more often than teachers, and of those, he said, “Mr. Seaward and Mr. Dagle topped my list.” Taking his entire Rectory experience into account, Olds considered how the students of today might relate. As for what advice he would share with current students, Olds states, “For those students who look like me, I would tell them that they should speak openly and stand up for their truth; that they should dare to belong, to own, and to transform the spaces they inhabit;
