Changes for Andover

Founded in 1778, Phillips Academy, Andover, is the nation's oldest preparatory school. In 1903, far from the nation's richest and by no means the best, Andover got for its new headmaster an alumnus and onetime instructor. In succeeding years, under his influence, the school grew rich and great. From Nice, France last week came word that Headmaster Alfred Ernest Stearns, 61, was resigning because of ill health. Accepting regretfully the resignation, the trustees announced that Latin Instructor Charles Henry ("Charlie") Forbes, a short, chubby, popular classicist, possessor of one of the world's best Virgil libraries, would continue to serve as acting headmaster. And Andover men everywhere began speculating as to Andover's future growth under a new headmaster, one who it is hoped may also be chosen from the school's faculty.

Headmaster Stearns, a tall, thin, large-nosed pedagog who had graduated from Amherst and taught at Hill School, brought to Andover two things: an austere determination to maintain pure intellectualism against the encroachments of vocational education; and much zeal for arousing alumni interest in the school. He resisted tinkering with College Board requirements, campaigned to get more students for a full four-year course. In his later years Headmaster Stearns grew less companionable with his students and his sermons frequently emphasized the necessity of repenting sin.

Andover, like its cousin and rival Phillips Exeter Academy, has been famed for its mature atmosphere which, with its size (660 students), makes it resemble a small college. Of late its physical expansion has been remarkable. Out of the alumni spirit which Headmaster Stearns succeeded in evoking grew the benefactions of Andover's most notable latterday friend, Morgan Partner Thomas Cochran. Football player, classmate of Headmaster Stearns (1890), Benefactor Cochran was a leader in establishing a pool from which the school has received $11,000,000 in anonymous donations. He gave $1,000,000 for maintaining the trees and shrubs on Andover Hill; a fund for sabbaticals for the older teachers, the Addison Gallery of American Art (TIME, May 25. 1931). Since 1928 a whole new Andover, in Georgian style, has been sprouting on the hill. Last week this seemed a great monument to ailing "Al" Stearns. And it also seemed a yardstick by which Thomas Cochran and the other trustees would certainly be obliged to measure the calibre of Andover's next headmaster.

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