BURNS JONES HEADMASTER 2015–PRESENT
arrived—I was at the National Association of Episcopal Schools Conference in Los Angeles. The location doesn’t matter; the story does. David was there, and I remember kind of getting lost and turning a corner, and there was David huddled with another younger, much younger headmaster—sorry, David—much younger headmaster in deep discussion. The headmaster turned out to be the head of an Episcopal school over in Oakland, and David immediately brought me into the conversation, and within just five minutes, I had learned prob- ably more than I had learned all day at that conference. And over the course of the conference, what I saw repeatedly, was David huddled closely together with others. People seek out his counsel. We all do because of what he brings. And when I think of the young men we’re trying to develop at the school, I think of boys who we want to be like David. Inspirations and teachers. And if we can accomplish just a little bit of that in David’s model, then our work here is true. With that in mind, I want to make a little bit of an announcement. We are estab- lishing, have established, our first master teacher chair at the school. It is a fund that is designed to support the great, amazing teachers at the school right now. It will
offer to a host of teachers not only addi- tional salary support, but additional support for their professional development. And one thing David wanted to make sure that happened as we began to think about the creation of this fund, was that we were sure that it rotated among the teachers. That it didn’t sit with one person for a long period of time. In its rotation, it recognizes the wonderful work that so many teachers, that all of our teachers, bring to the school. Two alums, Greg Lee and Bill Bennington, have spearheaded this effort, and as of this evening, they’ve already raised $650,000 towards their million-dollar goal. So, on the eve of David Forbes’ 93rd birthday… David Forbes: 92nd I thought you said you were 92. Okay, 92nd birthday. On the eve of David’s 92nd birthday, it is only appropriate that we honor the man who has done so much for all of us and for the school. Please join me in thanking David Forbes for all that he has done. And thanks to you all. It is so remarkable to see so many of you here celebrating this incredible institution, and it really means a lot to us all.
My name is Burns Jones. I am the current head- master of Cathedral School for Boys, and it’s an honor to be able, in closing this evening, to bring some remarks back where they began, and that is with David Forbes. David was an influence on me before I even arrived at Cathedral as headmaster. I was working in North Carolina as the head of a pre-K through eighth grade Episcopal school that is in its 25th year this year. And in the founding of that school, the group of people responsible looked around the country for resources that they could use to understand completely what it meant to be an Episcopal school. And when I arrived as head, I was given a stack of information, a stack of documents, that had been compiled in the years before the school was founded, and probably half of those documents were written by David Forbes. I remember one line specifically that said to the group to remember in the spiritual development of children, spiritu- ality is caught, not taught. And I can’t help but think that in the course of catching spir- itual awareness, there has to be inspiration. There has to be some motivating force, and David has been that motivating force for so many of us, and for so many institutions. The other thing I remember about David is when—I think it was the spring before I
Boyan Slat stands on the fully assembled System 001 in the Seaplane Lagoon, near the assembly yard in Alameda, CA. Credits: The Ocean Cleanup / Benjamin von Wong
BOYAN SLAT: BOY INVENTOR BY MEGAN BROWN Last fall, Boyan Slat, a Dutch inventor and entrepreneur, visited Cathedral School to speak to the Upper School. Mr. Slat, who creates technologies to solve societal problems, is the founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup—an organization that develops advanced systems to rid the world’s oceans of plastic.
Mr. Slat’s visit dovetailed with the fifth- and sixth-grade science classes’ study of the oceans’ plastics crisis. Students were inspired to hear about this large-scale effort to clean up our waters, and also to learn more about Mr. Slat’s company and the challenges that come with being a young entrepreneur. Mr. Slat is the youngest-ever recipient of the United Nations’ highest environ- mental accolade: Champion of the Earth. Amongst his many honors (which can be found online at www.boyanslat.com) , Mr. Slat’s brain-child, The Ocean Cleanup, was chosen in 2015 by TIME magazine as one of the best inventions of the year. Instead of going after the plastic, Mr. Slat devised a system though which, driven by the ocean currents, the plastic would concentrate itself, reducing the theoretical cleanup time from millennia
to mere years. In February 2013, he stopped his aerospace engineering study at TU Delft to start The Ocean Cleanup. The first cleanup prototype was deployed in June 2016. The Ocean Cleanup is now preparing to launch the first full-scale operational system from
the Port of Alameda into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Thank you to Mr. Rahlson, fifth- and sixth-grade science, for inviting the Dutch inventor and environmentalist to Cathedral to meet with us.
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