An occasional look at former Loomis Chaffee community members whose work helped shape the school. A memorial service for Jane, who died this month, will be held on Saturday, September 14, at 11 a.m. at the Marlborough Federated Church, 16 Pleasant Street, Marlborough, N.H. The full obituary can be found here. 

When Juliet Rhodes ’17 spoke at the dedication of Howe Hall in 2017, her senior year, she mentioned the warmth, comfort, and safety of the building. A major reason for that over the years: Jane Mackay Howe ’49 and Glover Howe ’48, longtime faculty members and the namesakes of the dormitory. 

The dorm was formerly known as Mason Hall, a building in which Glover was dorm head when it was a boys residence hall and Jane was dorm head when boarding girls first arrived on campus and lived in Mason. 

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that if one were to turn the ‘w’ in Howe upside down, it would make the word ‘home,’” Juliet said. 

Lori Caligiuri, then the dorm head of the newly renamed Howe, also spoke at the ceremony. Lori, now the associate director of studies, held up a T-shirt bearing the new dorm slogan: “This is HOWE we do it.” 

By all accounts, the Howes did it with care and compassion. 

Jane died August 16 at the age of 92.  Glover died in 2010. The couple served in many roles on the Island from 1956 until their retirement in 1989. They raised four children on campus, each of whom went on to work at independent schools. Their son Bob ’80, now the athletic director at Deerfield Academy, was the athletic director at Loomis Chaffee.   

When Jane was notified that the dorm would be renamed Howe Hall, she wrote a letter to then-Head of School Sheila Culbert. “Glover would be highly honored and deeply touched, as am I, to know that Howe Hall will be part of stately Grubbs Quadrangle,” Jane wrote, concluding with, “Our years living on the Island were happy, fulfilling, and treasured — even to be envied. Thank you, Loomis Chaffee, for this great honor.” 

In that letter she also wrote about being woven into the fabric of the community “by caring for and parenting students.” 

Jane and Glover met in high school. Glover was a senior at Loomis and Jane a junior at Chaffee. They married in 1956 and returned to the Island. Glover first worked as an admission officer, noted the 1989 Confluence, which paid tribute to the couple’s retirement. Glover eventually became the director of admission and administrative dean of students. Jane began working part-time in the library in 1970. In 1975, she worked full-time to prepare for the boarding girls at the newly merged school. She became the dean for boarding girls and eventually became a dean of students. 

Shortly after Glover died, a comment posted on his obituary, read: “I will never forget him. He was my father for four years at Loomis from the time my own father dropped me off as a freshman. He impacted my life profoundly.”   

The same could be said for Jane. Her impact was felt far and wide by those who came to know her. The legacy of the Howes will live on not only through the brick and mortar of a building but by the warmth and caring inside that building.  That is HOWE they did it.