University Trustee Elizabeth "Liz" Duffy '88, the newly appointed head of the prestigious Lawrenceville School, swears she has a terrible memory. But it's nearly impossible to believe her. Duffy remembers the names, countenances and idiosyncrasies of her elementary and high school teachers at North Andover Middle and High Schools.
Duffy blissfully recalls how her ninth grade geometry teacher, Mr. McGowan, joked all the way through arduous proofs and how Mrs. Hammond, her high school English teacher, "marched" the class rigorously through American literature.
"They had very different personalities. Mr. McGowan was a jokester and a prankster and Mrs. Hammond was more serious though no less passionate," Duffy said.
During a recent interview, Duffy may have "forgotten" to mention crucial resume items, such as her authoring two books. Instead, she reflected on her early mentors' shaping her interest in both language and the sciences and inspiring her own passion for education.
Now she's on the other side of the teacher's desk.
On July 1, Duffy, a molecular biology concentrator at the University and a Massachusetts native, will take the helm of one of the country's most prestigious private schools as its first female head since its founding 192 years ago. She will be Lawrenceville's 12th headmaster — a post that brings her back to central New Jersey, a five minute drive from Princeton.
Duffy said the opportunity is "exciting and a little daunting." Part of that anxiety may come from the fact that the school became coeducational in 1987, and the previous headmaster, Michael Cary, held the position for 27 years.
"Mostly it's just a huge honor," Duffy said. "You want to make sure your legacy lives up to that of your predecessors. Someday someone will write the next history of Lawrenceville, and I'll be in it. That's humbling."
As she prepares to fill a position that has until recently been held by men, Duffy looks to fellow molecular biologist and leader President Tilghman for inspiration.
Duffy was proud of Princeton when the institution chose Tilghman as its new president. By the same token, Tilghman was thrilled to hear Lawrenceville selected Duffy.
"I think Liz is an inspired choice for Lawrenceville," Tilghman said. "I admire the search committee who took some risk in reaching out beyond the pool of head masters to find someone who is highly committed to the highest quality of education for young people."
Duffy knows there is a potential backlash to the appointment of a female head of the school.
"I realize there are some people who aren't excited," she said.
But the decision to appoint Duffy — made by a board of alumni from the school's pre-coeducational days — was unanimous, and Duffy said, "there are members of the search committee who have daughters who have gone to Lawrenceville or spouses who are quite accomplished in their own right," she said. "One member of the search committee said it was historic that I had made it to the finalist pool."
The school
Although she did not attend Lawrenceville, Duffy has grown to admire the school's commitment to diversity and a rigorous curriculum. Classes at Lawrenceville include an english seminar on James Joyce's Ulysses and BC Calculus.
Duffy was also enamored of the faculty's concern about the intellectual growth of the students as individuals and community leaders.
Part of Lawrenceville's mission to groom the next generation of leaders depends on the residential house system. In the houses, students — boarding and nonresidential — can foster close relationships with each other and their faculty supervisors.
"What I heard over and over was how much parents felt the faculty cared for their kids and took a personal interest in their wellbeing," Duffy said. Her husband, now approaching his 25th Lawrenceville reunion, still receives a Christmas card every year from his residential house supervisor.
Plans for the school
Duffy has not yet had time to delineate all her plans as head of the school, but she wants to maintain the vibrance of a school that "cares immensely about the intellectual growth but also about a student's growth as a whole."
She hopes to refurbish some of the buildings on the campus and looks forward to planning for the school's bicentennial in 2010. "That's a fun opportunity to celebrate where we've been and look critically at where we've been," she said.
Duffy's familiarity with Lawrenceville did not start until she met and married her husband, John Gutman, a Lawrenceville alum and Princeton resident.
Duffy, who claims she has never been on a track anywhere, said she always jumps at every opportunity.
Becoming a Tiger
One of three children of a retired lawyer and computer programmer, Duffy grew up in a two-story red brick house in what she describes as the typical small, New England town.
"It was the stereotypical small town that someone grew up in," she said of the predominantly Irish-Catholic North Andover, Mass. "It was wonderful growing up in a place where I felt like I was related to all of the town."
Duffy sought the same small-town atmosphere when she was undergoing the college process. Valedictorian of her high school, Duffy had options. But when she visited Princeton and drove up the tree-lined Washington Road, she knew she was born to be a Tiger.
"No one from my school had ever gone to Princeton. But what excited me was the emphasis on undergraduate education and the strong reputation in science and math," she said. "Also, it was just beautiful. My parents went to Amherst and Ohio College. Princeton was a much bigger university with that same campus feel."
Duffy's first semester at the University cemented her decision to major in the sciences. "It was just such a pleasure," she said. One experience in a chemistry class in particular showed her that Princeton's method of teaching was truly unique and suited to her intellectually curious mind. "I had to design a periodic table on an exam in Chem 203. It was the first time I had learned something on an exam. It showed me that science at Princeton was not just about memorizing facts," she said.
Not only was Duffy's scientific mind active in the University, but she also played an active role in programs beyond FitzRandolph Gate and said those experiences were among her most memorable.
She lent a hand to the Student Volunteers Council, leading a tutoring program in Trenton, coaching soccer and basketball at a school for the deaf and organizing volunteer opportunities.
As an upperclassman, Duffy got on the SVC steering committee and organized the first Special Olympics at the University and endeared herself to the SVC staff. Duffy found the experience so rewarding she stayed at the University for three years after graduating to be the full-time staff coordinator of the volunteering program.
"Liz never sat down," said Associate Dean of Religious Life Sue Ann Steffey Morrow, who helps coordinate the SVC. "She leaned on the desk or the edge of a chair, with a pencil in her hand, a pad, a list of things to accomplish."
Morrow said that under Duffy's care, the number of programs doubled in size. "[The programs] deepened in the quality of the community service," Morrow added.
Oreo and cream blend-ins
Morrow introduced Duffy to her to-be husband Gutman during a dinner party at Morrow's home on Alexander Street. Morrow officiated the couple's marriage in Hamilton Courtyard in Mathey College on what she remembers to be a hot Labor Day. The wedding reception was held in Holder Hall; and instead of wedding cake, the Princeton pair served banana, Oreo and cream blend-ins from Thomas Sweet's on Nassau Street.
Though she's only 36 years old, Duffy comes to Lawrenceville with a sturdy background. After graduating from Princeton Magna Cum Laude she stayed on as a full-time administrator of SVC ("still her favorite job") and assistant master of Rockefeller College. She toyed with the idea of going to Divinity School to learn more about community work, but then a friend sent her a Harvard Business School application. She perused the class syllabi and found that it was not all number crunching.
"I had been in Princeton for seven years and was ready to leave, but I had zero interest in finance. I had no idea [business school] was also for general management," she said. Duffy ended up at Stanford where she obtained a degree in general management and a certificate in public interest.
"She was multitasking before we had the term," Morrow said.
Though Duffy describes business school as "like learning a foreign language," she used the credentials to enhance her commitment to educational justice. Following a brief stint at J.P. Morgan in 1992, Duffy moved to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to work as a program associate, raising money for the grants and "teaching and technology" initiatives for liberal arts colleges.
While at Mellon, Duffy coauthored a book on colleges and financial aid and another on nonprofit organizations. The former is now required reading for the Trustee's search committee for a new dean of admission, of which she chairs. She is also executive director of the Ball Foundation, an organization committed to improving public K-12 schools and their career programs nationwide.
Duffy said she was never worried about "the next step." As she, her two children, Lucy and Teddy, and husband prepare for "moving back home to Princeton," Duffy said she has always embraced opportunities with eagerness. Many agree she will impart her energy and progressive vision to an antiquated, outdated system.
"I can easily imagine her preparing for a Board of Trustees meeting, teaching a senior seminar on the future of technology or the 20th century novel, comforting a student who is confused, inspiring the faculty with new course initiatives," Morrow said.
Tilghman offered some final words of advice before Duffy takes on her new role.
"Always look for the very best people to work with you, and ignore their gender. The best strategy is to find people who are better than you — who will make you look good," she said.
The Lawrenceville School, a private, selective school for grades nine through twelve, is located five miles south of Princeton.
The school has 784 students from 25 countries, and its average class size is 11. Lawrenceville's tuition for boarding students is comparable to the University's.
Lawrenceville has 17 dormitories and 10 classroom buildings on its 700-acre rural campus.
(Information from the Lawrenceville School website.)
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