“My great-great-great grandfather started the school in 1889. He had six boys, and he wanted to make sure they were all properly educated. So he brought in tutors. They in turn formed a school here and gradually opened it up. A few years later, it was four hundred boys and a huge school facility.”
Carter Hotchkiss ’75 paints a picture of Woodberry Forest School at its inception with the pride that can only come from being a direct descendant of the Walker family. The school was a throughline in his upbringing. He remembers sitting in the bleachers at football games as a toddler and attending summertime family reunions at Woodberry. From ages ten through twelve, he attended Woodberry Forest Sports Camp, and, at thirteen, he applied for admission. “They made me come to summer school as part of my agreement to matriculate to Woodberry,” he smiled. “I came in as a third former in 1971.”
As is the case for many alumni, several of Woodberry’s most important lessons became apparent to Carter long after graduation. “I still try every day to live by the honor system, which is embedded in every boy and to treat everyone the way you would want to be treated,” he said. “I wouldn’t go into my daughter’s room when she was growing up without knocking on the door and getting permission to go in. I don’t touch other people’s stuff. I leave it exactly where it is. It’s a strong sense of integrity — trying, every day, to do the right thing.”
Carter counts learning — particularly the commitment to continue to learn — as another significant lesson from his years at Woodberry. “I had tremendous teachers. I was not a superstar student,” he said. But they instilled in him a sense of “striving to grow intellectually and spiritually. And I think the school, to this day, strives to do that — to ensure that each young man at graduation has a strong sense of learning.”
As a trustee from 2007 to 2016; a member of Parents and Alumni Assisting Woodberry, the Advisory Council, and the Sixth-Form Parents’ and Grandparents’ Gift committee; a class volunteer; a reunion chair; and more, Carter puts another lesson into steady practice.
Woodberry’s third lesson, he said, “is a willingness to give back.” He urges those who take pride in Woodberry to give back to the school, “whether it be as an alumnus or being active in the community,” he said. Carter especially values contributing to initiatives “for the benefit of young people. I really like bright young people; they’re the future of our country.”
Carter and his wife, Gina Pitrone, are members of the Walker Society and regular donors to the Amici Fund and capital initiatives, including the class’s fiftieth reunion gift this year. As noted in the article on page 12, Carter and Gina hosted the class for a reception at Towhee, their historic home near campus, to kick off their fiftieth reunion.
His pride extends to the experience his son Allen ’08 had at Woodberry, the successes Allen has enjoyed, and the sense of empathy and service that underpins it all. “Woodberry taught him a lot; it was a huge influence on him,” said Carter. Allen graduated from the University of South Carolina and has settled in Brooklyn, New York. He works as a counselor at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, “with those struggling with addiction and mental health. I’m proud of him, of his kindness and love.
He’s in an area that needs so much help.” To Carter, Woodberry means community, “the experience of coming together,” he said. Creating and treasuring a community is the legacy. But it all begins with solid personal power — power that Woodberry instills every day in the classroom, in the dormitories, on the fields, on the stage. It’s essential for alumni to put it into action to benefit both the school that fostered it and the world that needs it.
“The bonds you have and that grow with you — and the memories of them — build your character,” said Carter. “This country needs bright young people to have a strong moral compass, to understand that we’re blessed with the resources that we have, and to give back to the school.
“My hope is that Woodberry will continue to foster a strong sense of presence, a strong sense of being, and build in these young men their character, their soul, their spirit, and intellectualism.”
