Howe Hall!

May 16, 2017

Dear Members of the Loomis Chaffee Community,

At the May meeting of the Board, the Trustees of The Loomis Institute voted unanimously to rename Mason Hall after Glover Howe '48 and Jane Mackay Howe '49, who as alumni and longtime faculty members dedicated their lives to the school. Accordingly, the former Mason Hall is now Howe Hall.

Glover Howe worked at Loomis and Loomis Chaffee from 1956 until his retirement in 1989, and Jane Howe worked for the school from 1970 until her retirement in 1989. They are the only faculty couple in the school's history to both serve as the dormitory heads of Mason Hall — Glover when it was a boys' dormitory and Jane during the first years of boarding girls on the Island.

A 1948 graduate of Loomis, Glover returned to the Island in 1956 as associate business manager and over the next 10 years served in other roles, including director of physical plant & services and associate director of admission. In 1966, Glover became the director of admission, a position he held until 1975 when he took on the role of administrative dean. During his 33-year tenure at the school, he also served as alumni secretary, dean for day boys, advisor to the Student Council, assistant to the headmaster from 1980 until 1982, and dormitory head from 1961 until 1975.

On the occasion of Glover's retirement from Loomis Chaffee, then-Assistant Headmaster Woody Hess shared the following about his colleague and friend: "Glover is the kindest person in our community. Generosity is as natural to the man as breathing, and his active, personal kindnesses are daily, even hourly, occurrences. … [H]is ability to balance an intense commitment to this community with an equally powerful dedication of time and effort to help individual students … are [his] twin legacies … . He has the needed wisdom and the confidence that help individual students … who are struggling to gain the self-esteem to make it at Loomis Chaffee."

A 1949 graduate of Chaffee, Jane's professional life at school began in 1970 as a part-time assistant librarian, a role she held for five years. In the fall of 1975, then-Headmaster Fred Torrey announced that Jane would be the first associate dean of girls and the first head of a girls' dormitory — Mason Hall — beginning in the fall of 1976. She held these roles until 1989 and 1978, respectively.

As she prepared to leave the dormitory in 1978, then-Headmaster John Ratté wrote, "You have contributed mightily to the establishment of a girls boarding division that has stability, discipline, affection, and vitality; an element of the whole school, and especially of the boarding school, that gives us hope for the future." She also served as assistant director of admission, coordinator of the Junior Human Sexuality Lecture Series, a teacher in the Sophomore Seminar, faculty representative to the Board of Trustees, a member of the Interdorm Visitation Committee and Rules Committee, and a volunteer to the counseling staff. She ably led a group of work job students in gardening projects around campus.

Glover passed away in December 2010, and Jane lives in Marlborough, New Hampshire. Their children are Cynthia E. Howe '74, Kenneth G. Howe '77, Robertson R. Howe '80, and Judith Howe Gobbi '83. Their grandchildren who have attended Loomis Chaffee are Tyler Dewdney '07, Morgan Dewdney '15, and Erin Howe '19.

Glover and Jane guided thousands of girls and boys through their Loomis and Loomis Chaffee experiences and served as exemplary mentors to generations of faculty members. As noted by Woody Hess in 1989, "By the very way [Glover] and Jane lived here and worked here, they gave dignity to what all of us here do. They make us prouder to be doing this work in education."

We welcome this opportunity to name the dormitory that Glover and Jane led as dormitory heads and called home for so many years. It is our hope that the name Howe Hall inspires all who pass through its doors to follow in the loving, caring, and purposeful paths paved by Glover and Jane.