Kerry P. Brennan, Headmaster, The Roxbury Latin School

West Roxbury, Massachusetts
9 October 2018

And now I stand before you having to make one of the most somber announcements I could imagine. As most of you know, on Sunday morning, after a long, courageous battle with cancer, the Headmaster Emeritus Mr. Tony Jarvis died. Roxbury Latin’s 10th Headmaster, Mr. Jarvis served from 1974 until his retirement in 2004, a rich, productive 30 years. Most of you have been lucky to meet Mr. Jarvis most recently thanks to his marvelous chronicle of RL’s history during last year’s Founder’s Day, not quite a year ago. And those of you slightly older will remember Mr. Jarvis’s Opening of Term Address in January 2016.

On both of those occasions I offered appropriately praise-filled introductions. Suffice it to say that the school we enjoy today is in fundamental ways the result of the extraordinary leadership of Mr. Jarvis. Given the health of RL today, it would be hard to believe that when Mr. Jarvis took the job in 1974 the school was on the ropes. Mr. Jarvis restored the School’s scholastic standing; appointed effective, dedicated faculty; stabilized the financial model; and insisted that a boy’s character be the true measure of his worth. “Honesty is expected in all dealings.” “We care most of all what kind of person a boy is.” “From those to whom much has been given, much will be expected.” And finally,”every boy will be known and loved” all resulted from Mr. Jarvis’s commitment to keeping a school that would transform boys and boys’ lives and inspire them to lead and serve. He regularly admonished all of us to do the right thing, to be reflective about our lives, to love each other.

You can look around this campus and appreciate the buildings that rose up during Mr. Jarvis’s tenure: the Gordon Wing, this very Smith Arts Center, the Bauer Science Center, and, finally, named by the Trustees in his honor, the Jarvis Refectory Building. For all that, however, it isn’t that he built buildings that we remember him, it’s that he built men. Thanks to a tireless commitment to every single boy in the School, Mr. Jarvis mainly through personal agency positively affected the lives and the outlook of countless boys. It was almost as if anybody could do anything if he knew that Mr. Jarvis believed in him. He held people accountable (I know something of that myself as he was my boss for 8 years), but he also appreciated talent and effort and improvement. Mr. Jarvis was a fine teacher of Western Civ, Philosophy, Psychology, and English and somehow found the time to author books, many of which still inform our lives.

For the likes of me, on whom he took a chance first in 1978, and then supported every step of the way, including with relentless enthusiasm as his successor, Mr. Jarvis taught us what it meant to be a committed, lifelong school person. He worked hard; he suffered slings and arrows; he insisted that this be a school that reflected Boston in all its diversity; he enjoyed surefire successes of boys who made it through thanks to his daily help; he went to every event; he cared deeply; and he loved the unexpected, idiosyncratic, absurd, fun and funny parts of school life. He made it all seem irresistible. And for those of us who so fiercely admired him, we could not imagine our own experiences being any less satisfying than this life in schools had been for Tony Jarvis.

And Tony Jarvis regularly reminded us of faith. He routinely reminded us that we were mortal. That death would inevitably come. He taught us how important it was to have faith and to have humility. And in his own suffering and eventual passing, he taught us how to leave this life with courage, determination, and grace.

At that Hall in 2016, you heard Mr. Jarvis say the following: “ I wonder if, in all the world, there is another room like this one in which are gathered a group of people who are as talented and hard-working, as tough and tender, as privileged as you are here…You are few in number, but in all of history, in every generation, it has always been the few – a few courageous individuals – who have changed the world. You are the few, in your generation, who can make all the difference. Why not decide now to do something great, something courageous, with your one and only earthly life?”

And especially on this day when we remember Mr. Jarvis, let’s stand and pray (please grab each others’ hands):

Dear God, on this day when for many of us our hearts are breaking,

Remind us to be thankful for Tony Jarvis; for his brilliance; for his singlemindedness; for his commitment to being great as well as good; for his concern for every boy, woman, and man in his midst; for his provocative, inspiring words from the podium; for his freely offered friendship; for his wicked sense of humor; for his deeply felt convictions (especially as one of the few Republicans in the School!); and, finally for his 45-year commitment to this School, its distinctive mission, and its perennial potential for affecting positively the lives of all those who are associated with Roxbury Latin. For all this we ARE thankful. For all this we will never forget Tony Jarvis. Well done oh good and faithful servant. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. Requiescat in Pace. Amen.