CAMPUS

and an oasis”—a constant to contrast the unpredictablechallenges that face a head of school. He wasted notime heading into the CA classroom: he is teaching afirst-semester English course, Writing the FeatureArticle. “It will be a great way for students to get toknow me, and for me to get to know them,” he said.John Zilliax, who recommended Hardy to replacehim as upper school principal at Milton in 2000, haswitnessed Hardy at work. “I’ve seen him teach,” hesaid. “Rick is a listener and a watcher. He wants todraw students out, so he is unusually sensitive to students’responses and their need to respond.”Hardy likes teenagers. “I like working with thembecause they’re candid,” he said. “They can see throughan adult trying to spin them a yarn.” Like most highschool teaching veterans, he understands that they arenot grown-ups, no matter how grown-up their intellectualinsights may sound. “You can begin to convinceyourself that teenagers are little adults, butthey’re not,” he said. “They are budding intellectuals,but they have very different needs.”CA’s new head of school believes some of the mostimportant moments in his classroom were times heacknowledged that he failed to handle something well.“Acknowledging your flaws is powerful and essential,”he said, adding that high schoolers are pushed to excelin everything, whereas adults can organize their livesaround the areas in which they have talent. “It’srefreshing for students to hear an adult say, ‘I bumpedup against something I don’t do particularly well.’”Zilliax believes this sense of humility makes Hardya natural match for CA, a school Zilliax knows frominterviewing for a head position here himself manyyears ago. “He’s just going to fit Concord, in myview,” he said. “He’s going to fit right in.” He remembersthe seamless transition in 1983, when Hardy—fresh off a stint at a school in St. Louis and a teachingfellowship at Brown—joined Milton’s English department.“Rick was coming into a high-powered department.The students at Milton have always regardedTom Katesthe English department as the best in the school,”Zilliax said. “What I remember is that he just fit in.He might say there was a lot of nurturing, but I don’tthink there was. His instincts are fantastic.”Good Serious SatireOn the wall of Hardy’s new office, Mark Twain occupiesprime wall space. The Twain poster includes aquote: “Let us endeavor so to live that when we cometo die even the undertaker will be sorry.”That poster says a lot about Hardy. For one thing,he is direct and unpretentious. “I view myself as afairly plainspoken individual,” he said. “I don’t standon formality.” He is a writer; he taught English atMilton for twenty-four years, before becoming upperMUSIC:“I can hear my daughter’s voice saying,‘Careful here, Dad . . .’ I like allkinds of music—Johnny Cash,Steve Earle, Alison Krauss, LucindaWilliams, Lori McKenna, Alicia Keys,Bob Dylan. Traditional Irish music,bluegrass, country music (traditional,that is), classical, jazz, rock and roll,even some gospel (Sam Cookesinging ‘The Hem of His Garment,’for instance).”FOOD:“Simple tastes: good pasta, a hotdog at Fenway, grilled pizza (whichI make pretty well), good barbecue,sushi, homemade bread. I cando a few types myself—no breadmachines, however; everythingby hand.”SPORTS:To watch: “Baseball, basketball,soccer, field hockey (I’m actuallybeginning to understand this one!),and lacrosse (very fast).” To play:“Formerly basketball, which I playedfor years until my joints complainedtoo much. Now it’s running(distance) and golf (I’m not verygood, but I do enjoy it.) I hope to getback to playing tennis and squashas well.” Teams: “Red Sox andCeltics. I’ve been a fan since I wasten years old.”HIS FAVORITE PLACE:“The Southwest coast of Ireland(County Clare and County Kerry).Del and I went there for our twentyfifthwedding anniversary. Absolutelybeautiful.”19W W W . C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y. O R G F A L L 2 0 0 9