David Kern

1977-1979

When The Rev. David Kern was appointed Head of School in November 1976, his charge from the Board of Trustees was to reinstitute academic rigor with the return of co-education to The Gunnery for the first time in 56 years.

• Ordained an Episcopal minister,  Kern graduated from New York University with an undergraduate and a master’s degree in education and human relations and from the Berkeley Divinity School in New Haven.
• Prior to  The Gunnery, he served for seven years as head of Sphere, Inc., a consortium of 14 schools concerned with moral and religious education based in Hartford. He was also a faculty member and Director of The Greater Opportunity Program at Hotchkiss School. Prior to that he served a number of parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. He and his wife, Peggy, had five children.
• In the fall of 1977, the school welcomed 43 girls and 147 boys. Among the nine senior girls, Nicki Lazare McDonald ’78 was named a prefect and Andrea Wells ’78 was named class valedictorian.
• Early in his first year, Mr. Kern presided over the refurbishment of Brinsmade’s first floor into a student center with a snack bar and an art studio broken into three sections: ceramics and pottery, painting and drawing and art history, and a small library.
• Nine new sports were offered and girls dressing rooms and facilities were installed in Memorial. Bourne dorm was renovated to include a common room and new bathrooms to house the new female students. A new arts program was introduced to take the place of the arts classes previously offered at Wykeham Rise.