Mr. Lambert addressed this question in the June 2002 issue of the Deerfield Today newsletter, which I've reproduced below:
"All around us at Deerfield we see those challenging words: "Be Worthy of Your Heritage." Yet, how often do we take time out to think about their meaning? In general terms, the word heritage means anything acquired from a predecessor. At Deerfield we think of heritage as something handed down by decades of former students and faculty and school personnel who have established something of quality--of class--of style.
"Is it possible to walk into the Dining Hall lobby, then into the dining room itself, without being aware that we are in a building of distinction? Is it possible to walk into the Main School Building without being conscious that this building has quality, inherent merit, and elegance? Can anyone walk into the classroom building without noticing the same things?
"One afternoon when the Main School Building was under construction, I walked in with Headmaster Frank L. Boyden. Looking at the lobby, I asked him, "Isn't it extravagant to put pillars and expensive paneling here?" He replied, "Now we are proud of this building and a century from now, people walking in will be proud, too. Doesn't that make it worthwhile?" He was so right.
"How wonderful we feel when hundreds of alumni and friends return to campus for an alumni reunion, bicentennial celebration, or the dedication of a building, often the gift of an alumnus, and appreciate the care that has gone into every aspect of the academy.
"Many years ago the school was observing Memorial Day on the village common, along with students from Bement and Eaglebrook. A stranger drove up, parked, and watched our simple but sincere Memorial Day program honoring the service people who had given so much to America. Then she drove away. Several weeks later the Headmaster received a letter from that woman, who, for the first time in her life had happened upon one of our regular services. She said she was so impressed that she wanted to do something for the school--and she asked him if he would accept a dormitory where students lived. We named that building for its donor, Mrs. McAlister.
"What pride she had in Deerfield's heritage!
"This then is our heritage. Take just a minute to think about it. Look around you. Think of how proud you are to show this campus to your families and friends. And may you have that pride all the days of your life. Indeed, it is a priceless inheritance and a worthy heritage."
For me at least, I feel the urgency of Mr. Lambert's words with his passing – the duty to preserve and pass on those simple, but significant traditions.
2 comments:
Mr. Lambert was one of a kind. I lived in Ephraim Williams sophomore year, along with Terry Murray, Rob Perkins, Dave Barnett, Jason Tuttle, Chris Tierney and Steve Black (I think), and what a fishbowl it was. I remember the various notes, each one meticulously typed, that he would post on the bulletin board on the second floor, usually with another rule to follow (or about one that had not been followed). He even would post the GPA of each EW resident on a no-names basis--how's that for adding steam to the pressure cooker? While other dorms had "feeds", residents of EW had "refreshments".
I never had Mr. Lambert for class, but it was well-known that the door to his classroom closed and locked the second the period began. Table 49 in the dining hall was always an experience: who can forget his peculiar rule of only dishing out precisely three bowls of soup for a table of 10 unless additional bowls were specifically requested! As with many of his other faculty contemporaries, he taught us the value of not just completing a task but going the extra steps to make it truly worthy. Farewell....
Great remembrances guys. I put how I felt about what "Be Worthy of Your heritage means to me" over on John Wilson's thread, but I like Mr. Lambert's interpretation as well. I should strive to remember it more often.
I remember taking Journalism with Mr. Lambert junior year. Those who had him recall he would take a pair of scissors and, if you were unwise enough to use the word "very" in a paper as a modifier (not in the descriptive sense, as I have just done), he would cut it out and leave you with an embarrassing hole and an automatic ten point deduction. Bobby Vargas once used it three times in one paper, two times in such proximity that he could hold his paper to his eyes and see through it like glasses, which he did once in class, just to tease Mr. Lambert.
It happened to me ONE TIME, cost me a an A- and have never used that despicable four-letter-word in any communication, by any means until today.
I'll also bet you anything that, descriptive use aside, he'd dock me ten points today for sheer cheek, just to teach me a lesson in bouncing back from adversity. I'd also bet he'd give me a hidden bonus at the end to balance things out.
Our loss, however, is Mr. Litwin's gain, as now another seat in the ring of honor is added in Heaven and in some wood-paneled library with tall-backed chairs, plush sofas, and a roaring fire, our great Deerfield literary lights from our "days of glory" are reading "The Waste Land," with T.S. Eliot as a guest lecturer and asking him if Ezra Pound was really all that much of iconoclast and why didn't Ernest Hemingway publish some of the anecdotes from "A Moveable Feast" before he died. Then they'll retire to a croquet court, where Mr. Lambert will exclaim "everybody pray!" before each shot as he soundly defeats all comers.
Via con dios, Mr. Lambert, and thank you for your great example.
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