50th Timeline: 1973 – Welcome, Ken Erdley

As mentioned in an earlier post, the Founding Head of School, Mary Clare Wohlford, announced that she planned to resign and move to Virginia at the conclusion of the 1972-1973 academic year.  In March 1973, the Board of Trustees named Ken Erdley to follow Wohlford as the second Head of School. Research across many schools suggests that the transition from a Founding Head is always a challenge, but the challenge was particularly great in this case because Ken was a non-Quaker whose background was in public education.  Mirroring what was happening in the world beyond the school campus, students and administrators sometimes saw things quite differently. The Board certainly saw a very qualified educator with extensive experience. Students remembered that “Ken Erdley was a change. We’d been used to a more relaxed way of doing things, more informality.  Why, he even wore a coat and tie.” Many future FSMH Heads of School accepted their position knowing they faced serious challenges, but Erdley’s task may have been the greatest.