Trustees
Trustees Thacher’s Newest Trustees Dedicated Alumni, Parents, and Friends Join Board
Brian J. Back and Kathleen J. Back are serving on the Board this year as Parents’ Association Presidents; they are members of the Program and Development Committees. Brian graduated from Claremont Men’s College in 1972, earned a master’s degree from Claremont Graduate School in 1974 and a Juris Doctorate from University of Santa Clara in 1977. He practiced law in Ventura County for 22 years in the area of civil litigation with an emphasis in real property. He first practiced at Nordman, Cormany, Hair & Compton, and later with the firm of, Arnold, Back Mathews, Wojkowski & Zirbel, which he co-founded. He was appointed to the Ventura County Bench in 1997 and is currently the presiding judge of the Ventura County Juvenile Court. Among his many volunteer activities are coaching youth soccer and basketball and serving on the Los Robles Hospital Board of Trustees, including a term as Chair. He has also served on the executive committee of the Real Estate Section of the State Bar of California. He currently co- chairs the Ventura County Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council and the Commission for Children and Families First.
Kathy graduated from Scripps College in 1973, earned a teaching credential from San Jose State University, and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Santa Clara in 1979. She did an externship with the California Court of Appeals and completed her last year of law school at UCLA. She has worked as an Estate Planning Attorney in Ventura County since 1980, first for Nordman, Cormany, Hair and Compton and then for Arnold, Back, Mathews, Wojkowski, and Zirbel. She has given her time to many organizations in various capacities including teaching art classes for elementary students, tutoring, serving on school site council and the Los Primeros Structured School Educational Foundation, serving as a room mother and/or team parent nearly every year and doing special projects for various organizations serving the homeless and needy. She has also co-chaired the Thacher auction for the past two years. Brian and Kathy live in Camarillo and have five children: Gavin CdeP 1997, Shannon CdeP 1998, Michael CdeP 2001, Laurel ’03, and Heather. page 24 The Thacher News
Elizabeth Broome Grether and her husband John served as Presidents of the Parents’ Committee last year; in the past, she served as Auction Co-Chair and Chair as well as Chair of the Faculty-Staff Appreciation Day, Grandparents’ Day, and various Class Barbecues. This year Betsy is beginning her tenure as a Trustees of Thacher’s Board by serving on the Program and Buildings & Grounds Committees. Betsy is a landscape architect by training (she has bachelor degrees from USC in Art History and Cal Poly in Landscape Architecture). She has served in numerous capacities with Ventura County non-profit organization including Las Patronas Auxiliary, La Paloma Auxiliary of Childrens’ Home Scoiety, Mesa Union Schol, and the Pleasant Valley Swim Team Board. She has been particularly helpful in connection with plans for campus improvements at Thacher. She and John live on a ranch in Somis that grows lemons, avocadoes, and vegetables; they have three sons: Robert CdeP 1999, Ted CdeP 2001, and Russell ’03
Cecilia Healy Herbert and her husband Jim reside in San Francisco with their three children: James and Alex CdeP 2002, both of whom attend Stanford, and another daughter Deirdre, who is just beginning her freshman year at Thacher. Cecilia received her bachelor’s degree in Economics and Communications from Stanford and then attained her MBA with an emphasis in finance from Harvard University. She worked for 17 years at J.P. Morgan in New York and San Francisco, doing international and domestic corporate finance, with a two-year hiatus in the mid-seventies, when she worked at Signet Bank in Virginia. She retired from Morgan as a Managing Director and head of Morgan’s San Francisco Office to be home with their children.
She keeps involved with finance in her volunteer work where she has chaired or been a member of various finance and investment committees at Schools of the Sacred Heart, Groton School, Catholic Charities of the Bay Area, California Pacific Medical Center, and the Archdiocese of San Francisco. She is also a Trustee of The Montgomery Funds, a family of mutual funds based in San Francisco. On Thacher’s Board, Cecilia is serving on the Finance and Trustee Committees.
Lance R. Odden and his wife Patsy met Thacher’s Board last June when he was one of the key speakers at the Aspen Retreat. He is the former Headmaster of The Taft School (29 years) and has served as president/chair of The New England Association of Schools and colleges, The Headmasters Association, The Connecticut Association of Independent Schools, A Better Chance, and the Independent School Commission of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience relating to independent schools and continues the strong link between Thacher and Taft that started with Sherman Day Thacher and Horace Taft. Lance is now the president of Prospect Consultants, Senior Advisor of Warburg Pincus, Inc., and Director of ChancellorBeacon and Irwin Financial Services. Lance matriculated from Phillips Academy to Princeton where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1961; he then earned a master’s from the University of Wisconsin. Various institutions have awarded Lance with doctorate degrees (Middlebury, Hamilton, and Piedmont Colleges), The Taft Alumni Citation of Merit, the Nadal Award for Service to Interscholastic Athletics, and the Princeton Day School Alumni Award. He is serving on Thacher’s Program Committee and the Personnel Sub-Committee.