Inside the Exeter Bubble

Founder's Award The 2013 Founder’s Award was awarded at Assembly on Friday to Susan Herney ’69, ’74, ’83 (Hon.), the wife of retired history instructor Jack Herney and the first female Dean of Students at Phillips Exeter Academy.According to the Academy’s website, the annual Founder’s Day Award is awarded to "an alumnus, alumna, faculty emeritus or emerita, retired staff member, parent or friend who has demonstrated exceptional service to the Academy." Two other qualifications posed by the Academy include that the service must be "beyond what is regularly contributed by others doing similar service" and the nominee must still be living.The prestigious Founder’s Day Award was first given out in 1976 to H. Hamilton "Hammy" Bissell, for whom Bissell House, home to the Admissions Office, is named. For the 38th Founder’s Day Award, Herney stood out as the perfect recipient due to her lifelong dedication to the Academy and its community.At the Assembly on May 17, the classes returning for their reunions as well as the current student body and faculty gave a long standing ovation to welcome Herney on stage after trustee David Horn ’85 summarized her "binding love of Exeter."Herney kicked off her speech by saying that she was "deeply honored and humbled" to be included on the list of people who came before her. She delivered poignant and candid anecdotes of how she, a young woman from a small town farm, came to take over such important and pioneering roles at Exeter.Although her round-the-clock work at Exeter ended in 2009 along with her husband’s retirement, Herney will be deeply remembered for both guiding the Academy in the right direction and personally impacting the people she met. Senior Class Rings The Senior Class Ring Ceremony was held on May 16 at 8:15 p.m. in the Love Gym, amid a series of reunions happening on campus.Seniors were greeted by rows of tables displaying the ring boxes when they entered the event. They were asked to contain their excitement and not open the boxes until later to keep in line with the ceremonial traditions; all seniors put on their rings together.Many seniors felt that the ring almost became a physical and material representation of their time at Exeter."I bought the ring because I feel that it is a traditional way of commemorating my four years here at Exeter," senior Kelvin Lee said.Senior Elizabeth Gong agreed. "At first, I wasn’t going to get it because it was too expensive, and I don’t even like rings, so I knew I wouldn’t wear it a lot," she said. "But when I asked my friends around me why they got rings, I realized that it’s something I’d treasure."Following the walk to the bleachers, the Class of 2013 was greeted by a standing ovation from select members of the Class of 1963. The evening included greetings by Class of 1963 co-presidents Jim Peterson ’63 and Gordon Black ’63, followed by a speech from Class of 2013 president Alex Yang."I felt honored that they came all the way back to welcome us into the alumni family," Gong said.Lee agreed. "My favorite part of the ceremony was when alumni from the Class of 1963 stood up and welcomed us into the gym. I felt as if I was becoming a part of something bigger than simply my four years here at this school, and [was] creating a special connection with the thousands of Exonians who have come before me."