Phil Sawyer '68

1. Where did you learn about philanthropy and giving back to causes that matter to you?

 

My mother was a social worker and so, in a sense, she dedicated her life to serving others. At the same time she was a devoted alumna and gave as much as she could to Smith College – but also to other institutions that she believed in: The YWCA, her church, and various museums in New Bedford, Mass., where she lived – even though she didn’t have much spending money.  I have to admit that for me the philanthropic spirit in some cases has been more selfish. Simply put, I want the institutions that I am and have been a part of to succeed because their success makes my association with them look all the better. At the same time, there are any number of causes and institutions that I’m not directly involved with, but that do what I consider to be important work. The survival and health of most of these institutions depend almost entirely on “the kindness of strangers,” and so if I believe in their causes, I feel morally obligated to help them fulfill their mission. Otherwise, I am just a freeloader.  

 

2. What does New Hampton School mean to you? What do you think is special about this community?

 

I spent 4 1/3rd years (including summer school) at New Hampton, and so it was home for me and the scene of some of my most powerful memories and my development as both a thinker and a social being. So it was an essential part of my life, and whatever I am now, for good or ill, I am largely because of New Hampton. During the time when I attended, New Hampton was all boys and, even though the world was going through enormous changes, for a time (longer than many of us wanted), New Hampton maintained its traditions, which often conflicted with the students’ desire to be set free. But what I admire about the school now – what is special about it – is that from everything I see, it has become one of those rare environments in which nurturing and empowering the students are not just goals in a mission statement, but are enacted all the time for everyone to see.  For me, then, the specialness of the school lies in its remarkable capacity for change. When I visit the school in this era, I am touched by the faculty’s clear devotion to and investment in student success. And students’ comments reflect their receptivity to that kind of nurturing, which is really heartwarming to one who enthusiastically embraces the changes that have taken place and can see how the school has evolved to what has to be one of the heathiest environments for individual development that I have seen.  

 

3. Why do/did you choose to make NHS a philanthropic priority? Tell us about the moment you knew you would make this commitment.

 

Because I have been very involved with the reunion efforts – and because we reached our 50th reunion -- the talk about increased giving became more energetic. For a long time I was reluctant to dedicate any significant amount of money – simply because I wanted to be sure that at the end of my life I would be able to provide for my family. But then my classmate (and member of the Board) Jeff Glidden explained how I could give to New Hampton through estate planning. Because I was able to delineate a percentage of my estate that I could feel comfortable about – that is by ensuring that my kids would get the vast majority --  I figured that leaving money to New Hampton was fairly simple and not at all onerous on me or my family. One simple conversation with my friend Jeff removed any hesitancy that I had about giving to the school. 

 

Also, one important aspect to this is that the class of 1968 set up an endowment fund in honor of Tom Diehl, who had a sizable impact on the lives of many of my classmates. The purpose of the fund is to provide financial assistance to students of limited financial resources, particularly those in minority groups, to attend New Hampton. The impetus behind the fund was our class’s experience with the ABC (A Better Chance) program, which worked with the school to bring in a number of extraordinary students who went on to graduate from the school and become some of our most illustrious alumni. We envision the Tom Diehl Fund to be a great resource for the school in its admirable efforts to ensure racial equality, a goal that is dear to the hearts of the members of the class of 1968.

 

4. What was it about the particular area you are allocating your donation to that inspired you to give? Tell us why this opportunity was important for you at this time.

 

First I believe that an educational institution’s endowment is the life blood of the school and in the kind of Darwinian environment we are facing now (as I write this in the summer of 2020) it is clear that schools all over the country are imperiled – and that a differentiating element between the ultimate survivors and those that will fail will be the robustness of their endowments. And that is why our class chose to delineate an endowment fund as the focus of our 50th reunion class gift. It’s important to emphasize that our class graduated during a period of intense social and racial strife, marked by the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. That year was later characterized by the title of a documentary referring to 1968 as “a crack in time.” In addition, many of us studied and worked alongside students whose enrollment at New Hampton was due in large part to the ABC Program, and so many of those students had profound impacts on the school itself and on the students whom they befriended.  And now we are in a new phase of our evolution toward greater racial tolerance – and this new phase is both distressing and promising. This is the time for those of us who regard the fight for racial equality as being the greatest ongoing challenge to the country. And that’s why I made my pledge for the Diehl Fund – and why I encourage other New Hampton alumni who feel similarly to donate to it as well. The Diehl Fund is the class of 1968’s gift to the school, but anyone can donate to it. 

 

5. What are you hoping to accomplish through your philanthropy to New Hampton School? 

 

I would say that the two goals for me are a) to ensure that the school from which I learned so much will, as William Faulkner once said, “not just survive, but prevail” and b) to ensure that my contribution to the Diehl Fund will in some way contribute to addressing the fundamental evil and hypocrisy of racism in the United States. No nation can consider itself to be “exceptional” if it purports to love liberty while its government and citizens blindly discriminate against other human beings on the basis of something as ultimately meaningless as race. 

 

6. What would you like to convey to other parents and alumni considering support of New Hampton School?

 

Whenever I speak to alumni about their experience at the school, the response is fairly consistent: the school had a great impact on their lives and a number of students have gone so far as to say, “New Hampton saved my life.” Those kinds of responses suggest that payback is not inappropriate (depending, of course, on how much you think your life is worth). And I don’t think that it is alarmist to say to alumni and parents that if you do feel that the school made a significant difference in your life or your child’s life, and if you feel some sort of an obligation to an institution that that positively influenced your life, then there may never be a more appropriate time to support the school than right now. In addition to the enormous problems caused by Covid-19 American independent schools have a smaller pool of eligible American students who are both interested in and able to afford attending a private boarding school.  And now problems with emigration into and out of the United States negatively affect enrollment from international students, which in the past has help counter the problems caused by demographic shifts in the U.S.  I see these as enormous challenges and threats to the future of New Hampton. If we want New Hampton to ride out this perfect storm of negative events, then the solution is simple: this is the time for payback.   

 

7. The school celebrates its Bicentennial this year. What are your hopes for the school for the next 200 years?

 

First, of course, is basic survival, which is going to be tough for the majority of independent schools in the country for the foreseeable future. Second, I am particularly hopeful, in light of recent strides and investments by the school, that it will continue its progress in attracting exceptionally gifted students – and that “gifted” can encompass any number of skills from academics, theater, music, etc. – from around the world. The attainment of both of those goals is highly dependent on the generosity of alumni and their willingness to bolster the school’s endowment.