The following Trustees stepped down from Episcopal’s Board after the 2023-24 school year. Episcopal thanks them for the many combined years of dedicated service and leadership.

William L. Hughes ’79 P’12 ’16

I have been doing a lot of thinking about our school and how special it is. I don’t use the word “special” lightly. I come to it through my personal experience first as a student for four years, as a parent for seven years, and as a Trustee for six years. Here’s what I have learned and experienced about our history, heritage and culture along the way: The commitment, dedication, passion and love of school I’ve seen from the Board, faculty, staff, administration, student body, and alumni over the years have been consistently inspiring and memorable.

I also want to be clear that being a special institution doesn’t come with some guarantee of success. We all know better than that. There is no manifest destiny for high schools like ours. We have to earn our reputation every day. It’s just like life. Just because you made it to your 185th birthday doesn’t mean you will be eating cake and blowing out candles on your 200th.

As Trustees, we have been left a powerful legacy and an immense responsibility. It has always been our mission to make sure the best parts of our culture, purpose, and commitment to honor and community endures, while being courageous to abandon any that caused harm or hurt. We must connect with what has made The High School truly special and adapt to opportunities we have today.

We have continued to discover and excavate what has been a part of the High School and take head on and acknowledge the troubling issues of the past. But it is also important to understand that we are not creating anything from scratch. It is another one of those things that makes us special.

As a Board, as a school, and as a leading academic institution, our ambitions are greater and our vision must always be longer.

Thank you for allowing me to be part of the High School and this impressive group. I have learned much over the years from my fellow trustees and leave the Board knowing that the School is in great hands.

Thompson Long ’77

Serving as a Trustee was an honor, and it rekindled those powerful feelings of hope and promise I felt as a student. It brought back to me the purpose for which EHS stands; in my words, to build character and community. And no one built a stronger Board community than Charley Stillwell. He modeled patience and steadfast purpose as he steered us through Covid and this enormous capital campaign and campus expansion.

I had the great privilege to work with Lee Ainslie ’86. His wisdom and drive to expand the school and fund it with both the capital campaign and the lowest debt rates in nearly a century were genius. Sarah Akridge Knutson ’96 has continued that legacy, advancing the school’s sense of community and connection to greater Washington.

I have to single out a few people among the terrific Board members with whom I was privileged to work. Bill Hughes was a classmate of mine. His command of the English language was beautiful to see and hear. The great Jenner Wood ’70, fellow Tarheel and fellow Atlantan, will be missed. His 18 years of service showed. A great listener, his remarks were succinct, timed right, and on the money.

Special call out to Louis Smith of the EHS faculty and Trustees Jonathan Beane and Billy Peebles for navigating so productively our journey on race, understanding and belonging. These men showed principled leadership and combined it with humility and patience in our search for common understanding. It was the essence of courageous conversations at work.

Lastly, thank you to Boota deButts ’76, who survived my years as chair of the Finance Committee and who asked only one thing of me: to secure a fixed budgeting methodology for the long-term maintenance of our buildings and grounds. I am delighted that before his retirement, just in the nick of time, we were able to develop a sinking fund as a standing budgetary process. This will ensure the magnificent campus is maintained to the glory of God and for the great benefit of all who pass this way.

Ransom C. Lummis ’80 P’20

To begin my freshman year as a new boy rat at Episcopal in September 1976, my parents put me on an airplane with instructions to get a cab at National Airport and go to 1200 North Quaker Lane.  So began a unique learning experience that is no longer offered, becoming obvious to me when my daughter enrolled at a now co-ed EHS as a 9th grader in 2016. However, EHS still provides a rigorous academic and athletic program while emphasizing basic virtues such as respect for others, honor, faith, trustworthiness, and selflessness.

Initially, I was flattered to be invited onto the Board but I quickly realized the scope of work wasn’t what I expected: mental wellness, social media, the Covid-19 pandemic, the School History Working Group, etc. I did find pleasure, however, in witnessing the construction of essential new buildings, the undertaking of a comprehensive capital campaign, the evolution of the strategic plan, revamping the investment policy and management of the endowment, the celebration of 50 years of integration, etc.

During the past six years, the school’s administration consistently provided effective leadership by engaging the Board in open debate, listening, exhibiting institutional neutrality and being pragmatic. EHS is certainly different from the institution I found in 1976, but it remains the place where I, as well as my daughter 40 years later, was prepared for a life of ethical service.

Fortiter, fideliter, feliciter.

Jenner Wood III ’70 P’06

Why would you sign up for a third six-year term as a Trustee at Episcopal High School? For me, it was because EHS was a most positive experience at a critical time in my life that would influence the way I would lead my life. And that is even after staying at EHS for a post graduate year! Also, our son Jenner was at EHS from 2003-2006 and he greatly valued his experience in the community of Episcopal. Finally, I was curious to check in on Episcopal a decade after Jenner graduated.

What I found was a very strong Board with equally strong leadership by the Head of School Charley Stillwell and his staff. It was a pleasure to serve under Lee Ainslie ’82 and Sarah Akridge Knutson ’96, and to participate freely in many important issues, discussions, and decisions. Free speech is alive and well on the EHS Board, and it is good for the institution. The nurturing and caring community of 100% boarders continues to be our greatest strength, and through the McCain-Ravenel Center for Intellectual and Moral Courage, the students have extraordinary experiences in our nation’s capital. And as has been the case as long as I have known EHS, we have a fabulous faculty whose focus is on the student experience and their growth.

As I retire from the Board, I have decided to make a planned gift towards the future of Episcopal. It will be additive to a financial aid fund we set up several years ago so that a deserving student will have the same opportunity, and ultimately the advantage, to experience the Episcopal Way. Due to a matching gift from a couple of generous alums, this planned gift will be partially matched now! It has been my pleasure and honor to give back to a place that was very good to and for my family and me. God bless The High School.