When Derek Beard ‘90 arrived on Proctor’s campus as a sophomore in the fall of 1987 he already had an affection for the outdoors. Growing up on a large plot of land in Connecticut, Derek loved to spend time exploring outside and felt fortunate to have parents who recognized and encournaged his love of nature. His forestry class with Dave Pilla during his senior year simply solidified that passion. On Wednesday morning, Derek returned to Proctor's campus to share his professional work as a forester for the state of Massachusetts with another generation of budding Proctor foresters.

As a boarding school in a small, rural, New England village, Proctor Academy is hard to separate from the town of Andover. Proctor’s campus lies at the geographical center of town, spanning both sides of Main Street and abutting residences on North Street. Our buildings, fields, and ski area visible to all passersby. Proctor's faculty and staff live throughout Andover, and our local elementary school has been filled with faculty and staff children for over a century. The work of Proctor and the work of the town go hand in hand. 

On the heels of a phenomenal Senior Dinner and Commencement, Reunion 2016 continued the positive vibes on campus with the largest alumni reunion Proctor has ever held! This year's alumni reunion celebrating all graduating years ending in 1's and 6's brought record numbers of alumni to campus to reconnect with each other, faculty and staff, and the campus they called home during their time at Proctor. 

Every commencement has a speaker, and most commencement speakers share a similar message of encouragement to graduates as they enter the 'real world'. Proctor's 168th Commencement welcomed Pudu '16's mother, Leymah Gbowee, to campus not only to watch her daughter graduate, but to share powerful words with the Class of 2016. Her message was less one of encouragement and more one of a directive to the graduating class, and we thank her for the impact she left on all of us. 

Proctor Academy observed its 168th Commencement Saturday morning as 95 members of the Class of 2016 received diplomas in front of family, friends, faculty, staff, and alumni. Each graduating class has a unique personality. This group's personality has been evolving since the fall of 2012 when freshmen members of the Class of 2016 were first packing their bags for Wilderness Orientation. Because each class is so different, every Proctor graduation takes on a personality to match its graduates, meaning this year's celebration of the senior class was certainly one to remember! 

For more than sixty years, Proctor Academy students have built boats in the school's woodshops. Originally, the building of these boats was a necessity for those students wishing to take part in Proctor's sailing team that competed in regatas around New England throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. In recent decades, the building of boats in the Alan Shepherd Boat House is a rite of passage for many students looking to craft their own vessle. For Doug Park '01, his passion for boat building fostered at Proctor in the woodshop and aboard the Harvey Gamage on Ocean Classroom led to a career working on wooden boats for Redd's Pond Boatworks. 

Each year approximately 20% of the Proctor Academy's graduating class goes on to compete in NCAA athletics at the collegiate level. The Class of 2016 is no exception with 22 of 95 members of the class pursuing careers at the collegiate level, including a remarkable eight NCAA Division 1 athletes! Thank you to all members of the Class of 2016 for their contributions to Proctor's athletic programs over the past four years. Thank you, also, to James Neylon '16 for helping put this article together on the majority of our Division 1 athletes, and to Rich Tilton P'16, '18 for the photography. 

Each week in our Parent Page newsletter, we profile a faculty or staff member in order to help our internal community get to know each other on a different level. This week's Parent Page will feature a profile on Brooks Bicknell '77 that we thought we would share on The Buzz as well! Check out other Faculty/Staff profiles on our past Parent Pages HERE!