On Thursday, April 26, 2012, The Hill School welcomed Liz Duffy, the 12th Headmaster of The Lawrenceville School, as our Chapel speaker. Mrs. Duffy was invited by Headmaster David R. Dougherty to speak to The Hill community; Headmaster Dougherty spoke to the Lawrenceville students and faculty in November.

Calling the Doughertys “valued colleagues,” Duffy recalled her first visit to Hill as a new headmaster during Hill vs. Lawrenceville Weekend and how David and Kay drove her around Hill’s campus on their golf cart. She said, “I have a deep respect and admiration for David, Kay, and The Hill.”

She read a letter that recently was sent to Headmaster Dougherty from John Shilts, a long-time Lawrenceville track coach who is retiring after this season (his son, Chris, is a former Hill teacher and track coach). At a recent Hill vs. Lawrenceville track meet, Bill Yinger ’95, Hill’s head track coach, presented Mr. Shilts with framed Hill and Lawrenceville track jerseys. Coach Shilts sent the letter to Headmaster Dougherty thanking The Hill School and remarking on the great rivalry between “two of the greatest independent schools.”

Headmaster Duffy spoke about our schools’ shared history and Hill School students’ “shared future with Lawrenceville students.” She remarked that together, our schools have 310 years of tradition between them (Hill founded in 1851, Lawrenceville founded in 1810), and “schools like The Hill and Lawrenceville were built to last.”

“I hope all of you find ways to use your Hill education to help your communities and the broader world.”

In speaking about the schools’ similar missions to educate young men and women, she stated, “your potential is what motivates the faculty and staff. Your teachers want to help you fulfill your potential.” Headmasters also want to embrace that potential. In retirement, she noted that headmasters don’t want to leave buildings as legacies, but rather know that they played a role in “the generations of students whose lives we’ve touched and shaped in some small way.”

In speaking about the future, she said, “This current global community requires a different style of leadership.” As students go off to college and pursue careers, she urged them to “think of each other and your Lawrenceville peers as colleagues and partners.”

“I hope many of you have enduring memories of our rivalry. I hope you also infuse new meaning by creating 21st Century collaborations with them and create a new legacy.”

She then presented David and Kay with custom-made “HillVille” t-shirts, which she hopes they will wear at a future Hill-Lawrenceville gathering when they retire to Wilmington, N.C.

She concluded by saying: “Here’s to many more centuries of shared competition and collaboration.”