Latest News

There is a new batch of faculty at Williston, including a new Head Athletic Trainer and member of the Williston community, Ansel Garvey. Garvey grew up in Westfield, and his wife is from Easthampton, so for him and his family, moving to campus is a “huge coming home,” he said. About his first few days...

Abigail Touhey ’22 – Girls Varsity Cross Country Abigail picked up where she left off last year, by dominating the girls varsity cross country dual meet against Kent, coming in first out of 31 runners.  She took the lead from the opening gun and was never seriously challenged.  Abigail’s enthusiastic and determined work ethic at...

Henri Bourque has some talents that are easy to see as the Wildcat’s starting quarterback — a great throwing arm, poise in the pocket, solid scrambling skills. But there are several other sides of the senior that can’t be seen on the football field Since joining the chess club in his elementary school in Claremont,...

Start-up entrepreneur, youth hockey coach, NHL executive, and most-recently, filmmaker Bryant McBride ’84 will be the Williston Northampton School’s 179th Convocation speaker on September 13, 2019. McBride has more than 20 years of experience as an executive, entrepreneur, and investor. In the past 10 years, he has focused on building businesses that link technology, family,...

Williston welcomes 10 new faculty members to campus this year. We extend a hearty welcome to them all! Tina Berghoff (Science) (not pictured above) Tina returns to the Williston faculty in a part-time capacity teaching two sections of AP Psychology. She previously served as our Academic Support Coordinator from 2014-2016. Tina earned a BA in...

Launched in the fall of 2016, the Grum Project is Williston’s five-year visiting artist program, which has featured artists in a variety of genres. Guests have included a Grammy-Award-winning multi-instrumentalist/ethnomusicologist, a poetry-slam champion, a photographer whose work explores social media, and a dancer-filmmaker transfixed on athleticism of baseball. Funded by a generous alumna from the...

The 22nd Writers’ Workshop Series at Williston Northampton School presents four authors whose work spans a spectrum of genres and forms. The Writers’ Workshop course is an honors two-trimester class where students study fiction and nonfiction. Students also engage with these visiting authors, who attend classes, discuss their creative process with the broader community, and...

New students, fear not! Thousands of Wildcats have walked this path before you and these 12 alumni offer the following encouragement as you look toward your first day at Williston. “When I arrived at Williston, I was a shy student athlete and did not know if I was going to fit in. I was coming...

An Inspiring Example Few alumni have shown more dedication to Williston than Henry Zachs ’52. In honoring him with the Founders’ Award at Reunion in May, Head of School Robert Hill III noted that “Henry’s encyclopedic knowledge of his class, his deep connection to his classmates, tireless service to the school, and generous philanthropic commitment...

A Lifelong Learner When French teacher Sue Michalski received Williston’s Hagedorn Family Faculty Chair, in 2014, the award came with an actual chair, which Sue placed in her office. But thanks to the accompanying five year-stipend, Sue has been able to do the opposite of sitting around. In recent years she has used the funds...

The Woman Behind the Instructorship For years, longtime Williston Northampton School teacher and administrator Karin O’Neil had a quotation from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu hanging on her office door: “A leader is most effective when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, his troops will feel they did...

A Personal Award Twenty-five years ago, Janine Whipple was a new graduate of Westfield State with a degree in mathematics and doubts about her decision to go into actuarial work. That all changed when Associate Head of School Karin O’Neil hired her to teach at Williston, launching Janine on a career that continues today. “I...

Giving Made Easier Katie France ’08 is one busy person. To fit in a phone interview this past spring, as she was completing her residency at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine (she specialized in oral medicine and served on the executive board of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly), she made time...

Doing Whatever It Takes To those familiar with Ted Babcock ’68 and his history of academic, professional, and personal achievement, his recent success spearheading his class’s record-breaking 50th reunion gift to the school of more than $300,000 may not seem that surprising. This was, after all, a man who, despite dyslexia, earned degrees from the...

In It For the Long Run Ask Dick Goss ’70 about his longstanding support for Williston—gifts to the Williston Northampton Fund for the past 27 years, membership in the Elm Tree Society—and by way of an explanation, he cites Chariots of Fire. The 1981 British film about Olympic hopefuls at Cambridge University in the 1920s...

A Lifetime of Making a Difference For more than six decades, James Maxymillian ’56 has closely followed the financial health of Williston, parsing the school’s annual reports, noting the past tough times with concern, and celebrating the more recent successes. And all through that period—over the course of 62 years—he has steadily supported the school,...

A Tale of Two Letters To many in today’s digital generation, writing letters is a quaint ritual from a long-gone age. But for W. Alan Dayton ’43, a former trustee who died last September at age 92, correspondence was a skill that proved pivotal in shaping his life—and in shaping the future of Williston. Alan...

Learning to Be a Leader Marie Hamilton was determined to give her daughter the educational opportunities she didn’t have as a child. And so, when Amber Hamilton ’94 was in middle school, her mother, then a manager for Macy’s credit services, bought a home in a very well regarded and wealthy New Jersey suburb, thinking...

A beloved teacher’s family launches a new financial aid fund. Generations of Williston students remember Language Department head and Spanish teacher Cathleen Robinson for her remarkable contributions over a career that spanned nearly three decades: faculty advisor to the Willistonian; founder of the Areté tutors; developer of the Western philosophy and Latin American history courses;...

Forging Her Own Path Becca Macdonald ’11 has never been one to take the conventional path through life. From her success as a grade-school violinist to her achievements rowing at Notre Dame, she tends to approach interests not with a gingerly dipped toe, but with total immersion. Consider her senior year at Williston: although no...