For more than twenty years, parents and grandparents of the graduating class have made a capital gift to the school to celebrate their boys and leave a lasting legacy at Woodberry. This year, the Sixth-Form Parents’ and Grandparents’ Gift raised $570,000 to establish the Class of 2025 Endowment for Faculty Support with 100 percent participation from parents of the graduates.
“This gift is a way to honor the class and acknowledge the culture of philanthropy that has shaped the school for generations,” said Gina Hogue, who co-chaired the gift committee with her husband, Stuart ’92, when announcing the gift on Amici Night. “We rallied around the idea of giving back to the very people who give so much to our boys — Woodberry’s exceptional faculty.”
Income from the endowment will be used each year to care for the faculty. The funds will support teachers’ salaries and benefits, the upkeep of campus housing, and tuition assistance for faculty children. This past school year, 79 percent of teachers had an advanced degree, and sixteen faculty members had taught at Woodberry for more than twenty years. Woodberry houses 97 percent of its teachers on campus, a mark almost no other boarding school can match. Woodberry teachers also serve as advisors, mentors, and coaches.
“What truly makes this place what it is are the people who breathe life into it,” Stuart said on Amici Night. “Woodberry is a shared community led by extraordinary faculty members who dedicate themselves to ensuring every single boy here has the opportunity to be the best version of himself. . . It is their dedication that we are here to recognize — an unwavering commitment that Woodberry legend Paul Huber ’68 in his memoir called ‘going beyond the ordinary.’”
Stuart shared several examples of faculty going “beyond the ordinary,” ranging from teachers who open their homes to boys on Saturday nights to eat pizza and watch football, to physics teacher Greg Jacobs promising students they could shave his head if they score well enough on the AP exam, to chaplain John Amos taking members of the lyrical analysis club to concerts on the weekends.
“Woodberry is such a special place,” Stuart said. “I felt that when I graduated thirty-three years ago, and I feel it even more today as a proud dad, about to see my son [Ridge ’25] graduate.”
Gina encouraged the graduating class to build on the legacy their parents and grandparents were leaving by supporting Woodberry with their own philanthropy and returning often to campus to renew their ties with each other and the school’s outstanding faculty. She closed her remarks with a final word of thanks for the men and women who “give so freely and generously” of themselves to support Woodberry boys each day.
