News Detail

Jeff Glidden '68

9/2/2020

Reflections on my experience at The New Hampton School and why planned giving is so important to our future.

I transferred to New Hampton School from a good public school system north of Boston, in the fall of my freshman year. At our local school, I had been doing very well in math and science, and poorly in English and history. Math was easy for me, but I was a very slow reader and simply not excited or engaged at school. At my local school, it was easy for me to do very little work, and to simply “skate by”.

My parents and I visited New Hampton School in the fall of 1964, met faculty, staff, and students. I saw that the students and faculty were very engaged in both the classroom and on the athletic fields. The students at New Hampton were excited by learning.

I enrolled at New Hampton in the late fall and lived in Berry Hall as a freshman. At that time, the school bell hung above the pergola on the third floor of Berry and was rung to signal meals, changes in classes, and all important school events. It is interesting that by my senior year, I was back in Berry as a proctor. My roommate PM Costello ’68 and I had the responsibility and the honor to ring the New Hampton School bell.

And while there are many events and stories from my years at New Hampton, it is the great faculty and coaches, like Skip Howard, Tom Diehl, Austin Stern, and Bud Moore ’38 that I have thanked and so appreciated over these many years. As a very slow reader, I was intimidated by English class. However, Tom Diehl introduced us to Russian novels and I have been an avid reader ever since. And while at New Hampton, I enjoyed math, taking six math courses, many with Skip Howard. These strong learning skills, developed at New Hampton, have served me well throughout college, graduate school, and in my career as a Chief Financial Officer in Boston’s high-tech community. As I reflect on my four years, I grew up at New Hampton with a very special class of 90 student-athletes.

A number of years ago, my wife JJ and I updated our wills and estate plan. We have been very blessed with three healthy children who are now through college and well into their own lives and careers. We asked ourselves, so what’s next? What organizations have been important to us in our lives? And how can we help to ensure that the future of those institutions will benefit others? In considering these goals, we then asked, “How much is enough, for ourselves, our family, and the institutions we care about?“ After much discussion and reflection, we decided to dedicate 25% of our assets to institutions we care about.

While we have consistently supported New Hampton’s Annual Fund, as well as Reunion Class Gifts and special funds like the Meservey Renovation and Jacobson Arena projects, we also wanted to create an impactful, sustainable and perpetual gift to the School. Our Planned gift is a simple unrestricted bequest to the School. We met briefly with our attorney and made a very short (a few sentences) amendment to our existing wills. New Hampton School made a big difference in my life—I hope that our planned gift will do the same for others.

—Jeff Glidden '68

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