David Hicks – Rhodes scholar, writer, translator of ancient Greek classics, and former headmaster at top independent schools in Texas and New Hampshire – will succeed Jim McCallie as president of Darlington August 1, John Thatcher ’44, chairman of the Board of Trustees, announced. McCallie, who retires June 30, 2000, after more than 20 years at Darlington, will become president-emeritus.
“Anyone who has been in my role for 20 years would like to be succeeded by someone of his credentials,” said McCallie, who in his new position will concentrate on completing Darlington’s current $37 million capital campaign. “David Hicks is one of the premier school heads in the country, and I’m honored to have him succeed me.”
No stranger to independent schools, Hicks is a graduate of The Stony Brook School on Long Island, N.Y.; has taught history at St. George’s School in Newport, R.I.; was an assistant to the president at The Westminster Schools in Atlanta; and has headed St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Jackson, Miss., St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas, and St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H. Most recently, he served as interim headmaster at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, Va., in 1997-98.
Hicks, a resident of Richmond, Va., completed his bachelor’s degree in English at Princeton University in 1970, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his master’s degree in philosophy, politics, and economics at Oxford University, England, in 1972, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. His studies also included a Russian language program at the University of Moscow.
“David Hicks is a tremendously renowned figure in the world of education,” Thatcher said. “He recognizes that Darlington’s reputation and achievement are on the path up, and he hopes to take Darlington to a higher level, which Jim McCallie started.”
“My family and I are excited about our move to Rome and about joining what seems to us a wonderful community at Darlington,” Hicks said. “We love the culture of fair-mindedness, achievement, hard work, good fun, and concern for others we have found at Darlington. We’re as eager for our children to be a part of it as we are for ourselves.”
Hicks’ 1981 book, Norms & Nobility: A Treatise on Education, won an Outstanding Book Award from the American Library Association in 1982. He is also author of numerous articles, reviews, homilies, and essays, including “The Strange Fate of the American Boarding School,” published in The American Scholar in 1996.
He is currently completing a modern translation from the ancient Greek of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations with his brother Scot Hicks, headmaster of Hillsdale Academy in Hillsdale, Mich.
In 1972-75, Hicks taught strategy and policy at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., while serving in the U.S. Navy. He then went to Briarcliff College in West-chester County, N.Y., where he ran for Congress in 1976.
Active in the Episcopal Church, Hicks serves on the board of the Episcopal Evangelical Education Society. He has served on the boards of a number of educational institutions, including The Stony Brook School; Mid-South Association of Independent Schools; Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas; School Year Abroad in Andover, Mass.; and The Independent Teaching Project in New York, N.Y.
He currently serves on the boards of Campion School in Athens, Greece; the Society for the Preservation of Greek Heritage in Washington, D.C.; The Concord Review in Concord, Mass.; and the Patmos Society in Patmos, Greece.
Hicks’ wife Betsy Barnum Hicks is a film producer now teaching graduate classes in advertising at Virginia Commonwealth University. In Rome, she will return to free-lance work as a commercial film producer. Previously a producer with Fallon McElligott, one of the nation’s leading advertising agencies, she has produced commercials for United Airlines, BMW, and Coca Cola.
The Hicks family will move to Rome in August with their three sons, eleventh-grader David, eighth-grader Peter, and sixth-grader Jack.
After McCallie announced in early 1998 that he would retire, the board of trustees conducted an extensive 10-month search culminating in the selection of Hicks. Board Chairman Thatcher appointed a search committee in May. Headed by Board Vice-Chairman Fred Kennedy ’60, the committee comprised six other trustees, Suzy Gilbert, Bob Grizzard ’73, Gordon Lee Hight ’62, George Johnson ’54, Dr. Frank Stegall ’62, and Thatcher; and a faculty member, Thatcher Chair of English David Powell. The committee worked with educational consultant Dr. Jim Wickenden of Princeton, N.J., during the search.
