AnnuAL rePOrt 2011 - Winchester College

dAn gordon
✤A
gLoBAL PersPeCtIVe
2
dan’s brother John similarly
enthuses: ‘My year at Winchester was
the single most important year of my
academic life in all of sixteen years
through to law school and business
school. And I am hugely grateful
to dad. There is no question he
derived tremendous gratification
from his association with Winchester.
he felt he received much more than
he gave and Winchester treated
him with extraordinary courtesy
and consideration.’
Al cherished contact with
Winchester and became a generous
benefactor to the school. A plaque
in Cloisters commemorates his
financial support for restoration work
to mitigate an architectural decay
which horrified him. fascinated to
discover Anthony trollope was a
Wykehamist, Al donated his entire
collection of trollope first editions
to the school.
John recounts a visit by his father
to gieves & hawkes in Winchester,
where he was politely informed he
1
could only buy the Winchester
ties he had his eye on if he was a
Wykehamist. Confessing that he
was not, but simply had to have the
ties, a compromise was eventually
reached. Al could buy the ties, but he
could never wear them on British soil!
Continuing the family tradition,
dan is a director of the American
friends of Winchester College
(AfWC) which fosters ties between
the school, old Wykehamists and
parents in the Us. dan is also
Chairman of the Albert gordon
sports fund, created almost 10 years
ago by his father and which dan
sees as ‘an advocate for sport at
the College.’
Al’s fascination with human
interaction and the benefits of
personal relationships also fostered
a programme in which one or two
graduate students from the University
of Pennsylvania teach or coach for
a full academic year at Winchester,
where they are now known as
gordon Junior fellows.
3
4
The
aim was to see
how schools encourage
students to develop a sense
of themselves as citizens of
the world through curriculum
development, student
exchanges, study abroad
opportunities, service
learning projects and
further initiatives.
The global education forum
– ‘done by the seat of our pants,’
dan confides – was inspired by
this exchange programme. The aim
was to see how schools encourage
students to develop a sense of
themselves as citizens of the world
through curriculum development,
student exchanges, study abroad
opportunities, service learning
projects and further initiatives.
hosted by the Center for the
study of Boys’ and girls’ Lives and
the AfWC at the graduate school
of education of the University of
Pennsylvania, the global education
forum was held in April 2011,
bringing together ‘some of the
finest minds in the world of global
education.’ Consisting of lectures,
facilitated working groups
overseen by Winchester Junior
fellows, and discussions, the forum
examined the objectives of schools
providing students with global
education programmes on how
schools can cultivate global awareness.
There was a fantastic response
from schools. The involvement of
the AfWC, the Winchester Junior
fellows, dan gordon and the
presence of the headmaster, dr ralph
townsend, at the gef helped magnify
the presence of Winchester in the Us.
The gef aims to incorporate greater
student involvement and a larger
body of international schools to
increase diversity at the next forum
– planned for early 2013 – while
attempting to preserve its personal
and intimate nature.
Al gordon’s donations to
Winchester College over a
9 year period %
1 Unspecified 15.7%
2 Chapel 11.4%
3 Albert gordon sports fund 15.6%
4 e house 5.4%
5 College hall 15.7%
6 squash 15%
7 oil Painting 0.9%
8 Archives 5.6%
9 Cloisters 14.7%
1 Class of 1967, John gordon
(E, 1966-67), seated second
row, far right.
2 Class of 1969, dan gordon
(E, 1968-69), seated second
row, far right.
3 A plaque in Cloisters
commemorates Al gordon’s
financial support; ‘He loved
this place from afar’.
4 dan and Al in Moberly Library
on a visit in March 2002.
5 An aerial view of Cloisters.
6 The first edition trollopes.
7 Anthony trollope (Coll, 1827-30)
dedication to his son, henry.
30 WINCHESTER COLLEGE
ANNUAL REPORT 2011
31
5
7
6
7
6
8
9 1
15.7 %
5
4
3
2