Jacquelyn Harvey Thomas

Jacquelyn Thomas. Just to say the name evokes an age — a bygone age in the life of the Academy — but also an inheritance that we, its present denizens, enjoy in ways that perhaps we don’t realize or that we take for granted. Nothing that Jacquelyn Thomas did was not thorough, executed to her exacting standards; this Memorial Minute will seek to do service — and tribute — to her accomplishments and to her abiding spirit and legacy. Settle in: It will last longer than a minute.

Jackie (as she was known to us) was born in Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania, and spent her early life in nearby Camp Hill. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Gettysburg College, earning her bache-lor’s degree, and married David Thomas in 1954. In 1957, the couple moved to Exeter, where David had been hired to teach classics at The Phillips Exeter Academy (as it was called then). Their three daughters were raised on campus and all graduated from PEA — those details will acquire greater significance as we proceed. While raising those daughters — in the fourth-floor apart-ment of Wheelwright with a hot plate (no kitchen), where dishes were done in the bathtub — and later in Ewald and in haunted Gilman House* — Jackie pur-sued, and achieved, her M.Ed. in library science from the University of New Hampshire.

She began her long and illustrious career at the Academy in 1971, first work-ing as a staff person in the Davis Library before being appointed the first female Academy Librarian in 1975. During her tenure, Jackie transformed the newly constructed Class of 1945 Library (which many referred to as her library) into the intellectual and cultural center of the Exeter campus and indeed of the surrounding town. Early on, Jackie began computerization of the library’s collection and accelerated the presence of technology. She welcomed thousands of visitors from all over the world, who had made the pilgrimage to view Louis Kahn’s iconic building. Upon Jackie’s appointment as James H. Ottaway Jr. ’55 Professor in 1990, Principal Tom Hassan remarked, “Under her leadership, the library has been not only a haven for scholars [conducting independent research, panel discussions, lectures, symposia], but also a venue for an array of events that broadened and deepened our [cultural] awareness.”

These events included musical concerts, theatrical productions, authors’ readings and scholarly lectures, as well as the Lamont Poetry Series (which Jackie co-founded with Corliss Lamont, and which continues to bring to campus a pantheon of poets, whose first was Jorge Luis Borges). Under Jackie’s supervision, events even extended to the construction of a sand mandala in the center of Rockefeller Hall by a group of visiting Tibetan monks. Each and every event, every detail — down to the fall faculty party’s enormous shrimp bowl — bore the singular “Jackie stamp” of excellence, meticulous organization, class and style. Her response to those with ideas about enhancing the Academy’s cultural life with the use of the library’s space or funds was ever and always her signature gruff “Just ask!”

Jackie joined the faculty in the initial days of coeducation, and one of her most influential roles in the 1970s through the 1990s was as a member of the Committee to Enhance the Status of Women. That committee advocated the inclusion of women on the faculty and staff and, beyond that, worked to support women faculty members in the early years. It hosted mentoring programs, profes-sional development opportunities and even a national conference for women educators in boarding schools.

Co-committee member and for-mer Dean of Students Susan Herney recollects: “[Jackie] was instrumental in designing the various workshops we thought vital to having our voices heard and becoming a visible presence. One workshop was teaching listen-ing skills, and another, ‘In a Different Voice,’ [addressed] how women make decisions differently than men. [It was] led by Carol Gilligan, a psychologist at Harvard. Afterward Jackie said, ‘Did you notice how uncomfortable the men were in both settings? . . . Did you notice they were dropping pencils, shifting in their seats?’ … These workshops were work-ing. Men were learning, perhaps in some cases for the first time, what listening could be and how women came at deci-sion-making differently than they did. [Jackie’s] persistence, dedication to her values, intellectual honesty and courage were key to much of what the committee accomplished in its early years.”

Jackie was also a founding member and chair of the Child Care Governing Board, which supported young families at the school, helping them to balance home life and professional responsibilities. This was a time before Academy child care. Herney recalls that Jackie’s “doggedness in pushing forward child care for faculty was crucial to the recruit-ment and retention not only of women faculty, but men as well. From the very beginning, she shepherded the founding of the Harris Family Children’s Center. Unlike many women faculty at the time, Jackie had been a faculty wife, raising three daughters, living in a dorm and supporting Dave in those early years in the ’50s when they arrived at Exeter. This gave her a much broader and keener perspective on the needs of both women faculty and staff.”

Jackie served on a host of other faculty committees that touched virtually every aspect of Academy life. Among them: the Funds Committee; the Lamont Poets Committee; Admissions; Alumni Affairs and Development; Appointments and Leaves; the Calendar Committee; the Lowenstein Committee; the PEA History Project; and the Technology Steering Committee. Add to this her roles as adviser to library proctors, day student adviser and coach of club tennis. To say that Jackie was contiguous to the school’s beating heart would not be an overstate-ment. On the occasion of her having to travel off campus for a school evaluation, she wrote to Dean of Faculty Andy Hertig, “Don’t make any far-reaching decisions without me.”

Later in her career, Jackie oversaw the production of a number of publications including pieces on the Bennett Fellowship, a volume of Memorial Minutes and Collected Letters: Friends of the Academy Library. She produced an informational pamphlet on the library, as well as a booklet on its architecture and history. Upon her retirement in 2010, the Academy established the Jacquelyn H. Thomas Fund for the Class of 1945 Library, which continues to benefit Academy life through the acquisition of books and other materials and support of library programs. In 2021, she received one of the Academy’s highest honors, the Founders’ Day Award, for “exceptional service to the Academy.” It was a fitting conclusion to and culmination of her 64-year associa-tion with the school.

Jackie died peacefully on January 21, 2023, at RiverWoods in Exeter. She was predeceased by her husband, David, and is survived by her daughters and their families. She survives in the legacy she left us. We feel her presence when we enjoy what’s good about this place; when we aspire to make what’s good better; in those moments when we achieve (or hope to achieve) that rare quality she embodied: excellence.