Andy Chappell Named Head of The Derryfield School
Andy Chappell, Roxbury Latin’s Assistant Head for Program, has been elected the Head of School at The Derryfield School in Manchester, New Hampshire, a role he will begin on July 1, 2022.
Founded in 1964, The Derryfield School is a day school serving 400 students in Grades 6-12. Recognized as one of the top schools in the region, Derryfield attracts boys and girls from more than 50 different communities in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Known for its ambitious academic standard and its effective outreach in the community, Derryfield represents an admirable example of aspiring independent education.
In his announcement of this news, Headmaster Kerry Brennan shared the following with the community: “Andy Chappell’s contributions to Roxbury Latin are peerless. Having come to RL in 1997 fresh out of the University of Virginia, he has gone on to fill virtually every role an adult can at Roxbury Latin. A fine teacher of Latin and Greek, Andy served a stint as an effective Chair of the Classics Department. He went on to become the Director of Admission, the Director of Studies and, for the past two years, the Assistant Head for Program. Andy has been an energetic, successful coach of baseball and soccer teams, and served as Class Dean over the years in Class V, Class III, and currently in Class II. He is a dedicated, loving advisor. Every evolutionary program we have launched over the past decade bears Andy’s distinctive fingerprints, from the junior class experience with RL@Work, to the imagining and building of the new athletic facilities, to systems for faculty assessment and curriculum development, to the expansion and deepening of our summer programs, to the establishment of RL’s Penn Fellows Program.
Andy is a bright, energetic, catalytic schoolman who has been dedicated to the realization of this old school’s distinctive mission. His leadership talent has been in evidence in all sorts of ways and in all sorts of places. He gives freely of his gifts and represents the very best combination of regard for tradition and eagerness for progress.
For me personally, Andy has been a reliable, inspiring partner eager to engage with new ideas, new projects, and new people in service to creating the finest school community we could imagine. I will miss him greatly, as all of us will. But I am convinced that he will be a brilliant head of school bringing a masterful sensibility to his new dignities and opportunities. Lucky Derryfield for having chosen Andy to lead their fine school. We have benefitted from having Andy with us for 25 years, and he and his wife, Kate, and son, Brady, have all contributed magnificently to our quality and dynamism. They and daughter Samantha will delight in moving to New Hampshire, to Derryfield, from which Kate graduated, and her father, Marcus Hurlbut, himself a former RL teacher and Dean of Students, served as Headmaster for 11 years.
Over the next several months, we will have plenty of opportunities to celebrate Andy, to thank him for all that he has meant to RL, and to wish him well. For now, though, please join me in offering him our congratulations.”