Toward the end of my letter to the Deerfield community this past September, I mentioned the successful conclusion of our Strength of Heart Campaign for Deerfield. Now I would like to thank everyone who made this campaign such an overwhelming success. When Peter Fallon, our poet in residence during the 1996-97 school year, wrote the bicentennial poem The Deerfield Series: Strength of Heart, he could not have known that it would become the source of our campaign title, but what more appropriate title could there have been? With great "strength of heart" our Deerfield family came together under the leadership of campaign chair and then Board President Bob Dewey. It would be, he said, "The most ambitious campaign ever for an independent school." And if it was, our campaign soon became the most generously supported, in its fundraising achievements and its extraordinarily broad participation, so much so that we have considerably exceeded our goal of $125 million, a year ahead of time.

How could I possibly begin our annual report issue of Deerfield without thanking everyone who has helped make these great accomplishments possible? The Homecoming Captains who rallied their classmates to return to campus; the alumni who participated in Bicentennial symposia; members of the campaign steering committee and the events committees; of course everyone in our Alumni and Development Office; our terrific faculty, who continue to provide a transforming educational experience to Deerfield students; and our staff who provided exemplary support throughout the campaign. Without all of them the academy could never have engendered such loyalty from its graduates.

I also wrote about that great project still awaiting us-the construction of a new science, math and technology building. Normally, the annual report issue of Deerfield asks its contributors to reflect on the events of the past year, but for this issue I propose to do the opposite. I would rather anticipate what is emerging as the most ambitious and truly the most exciting project in the history of the school, and I would like readers of our magazine to share in my excitement.

For one thing, the planning for our new building has indeed taken up a fair amount of time already, so that any reflection upon the past year would necessarily include some mention of that planning effort. Led by Dean of the Faculty Richard Bonanno, our planning committee has met weekly for over a year. The committee includes the department chairs of mathematics, science, and computer science, other selected faculty, and senior administrative staff. Jeff Louis, chair of the Buildings and Grounds Committee of the Board of Trustees is on the committee, as is Jim Davies, president of Architectural Resources, Cambridge, the best science building planner that one could find anywhere. Our group has met every Friday afternoon for an hour, or as long as necessary, to accomplish the business of the day and carry it forward. When people have not been able to be in attendance, they have teleconferenced with us instead. The minutes of each meeting are scrupulously kept by the dean of the faculty, who then set the agenda for the following week. Because the planning has been so highly disciplined, we all have confidence that the building that will emerge from it will be successful.

That confidence was considerably fortified a year ago when David Childs '59 accepted my invitation to be our design architect. David was a mere sophomore at Deerfield when I was a senior, so that I suppose it would have been difficult for him to turn me down. And while he will always be a sophomore in my view, the fact is that he is the chairman of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and has become one of the most eminent architects in America. I have no doubt that what David designs for us will be the most striking teaching facility that one could find anywhere.

Of course we must raise the money for the building, and for the strengthened academic program that will occur inside of it. When it is finished it will stand as Deerfield's testament to the past and future, just as our Strength of Heart Campaign has. If I can speak for our faculty, our alumni, and our parents, I think I can say that during these remarkable years we have wanted to do everything we could possibly do to secure our position and sustain our reputation, thereby bequeathing to the next generation all the results of our work. It reminds me of a speech Meera Viswanathan once gave to a Deerfield audience, where she quoted from a gravestone in the Old Deerfield burial yard: "She done what she could."

Going directly from the conclusion of our Strength of Heart Campaign to the fundraising for this project would be inconceivable were it not for the strength of our school, to which the contents of this issue of Deerfield will attest. In this way the new science, math and technology building becomes a metaphor for Deerfield Academy at this time, and really, for all time.