50th Timeline: 1979 – The Board Announces the Departure of Ken Erdley

After six challenging years in and outside of Mullica Hill, the Board announced that there would be a new Head of School in the 1980s.  Ken Erdley had worked hard to move the School beyond its founders, and he had succeeded. Many institutions fail and collapse when the early founders depart, but staff, teachers, parents, and students all worked together to keep the school moving forward even when during a time when the national economy was in recession, inflation soared, and social problems like drug use accelerated.  While acknowledging that things had not always been easy adjusting to the second Head, no one questioned his personal character. “He was always open and truthful,” one recalled. “He was a gentleman” even after the Board announced that his contract would not be renewed and hosted a “wonderful Christmas party” despite being downhearted. Trustee Deborah Welsh Smith took over as Acting Head of School while the Board began its process of finding the right person to be the next leader.  They found one eventually, but they ended up searching farther afield than they had imagined, eventually choosing a man who was not only from outside of the local area but who had been born in the United Kingdom! Before he stepped down, the campus would be utterly transformed and never again look as it did in this photograph from 1979.