WALKER SOCIETY PROFILE: Pat and Barbara Bassett

While Pat Bassett is not an alumnus, the ten years he spent on the Woodberry faculty following his graduation from Williams College laid the foundation for his decades of service in independent school leadership.

“Barbara and I were 21 years old when we first started there and were still at a very formative stage in our lives. Like a lot of first-year teachers, I was clueless. I barely kept a step ahead of the boys,” he says. “But I got my roots at Woodberry. It taught me what good strategic planning and governance look like in a quality independent school education.”

As a member of the English department, Pat drew the task of pushing boys to engage with poetry—an experience that showed him just how unique the Woodberry community was.

“I had to have a good sense of humor and a real repartee, back and forth, challenging the kids. I taught on a trimester basis, so I taught literally every Woodberry student for a decade and so much appreciated the nature of the boys there and their strong allegiance to the school,” he says.

Since he left the school in 1980, Pat has been a giant of American secondary education and served as headmaster of Stuart Hall School in Staunton, Virginia, and Pomfret School in Connecticut before becoming president of both the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS) and later the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). In his decades leading and advising schools, Woodberry has always stood out in comparison to its peers.

“At Woodberry there’s a loyalty to what the school stands for that exceeds the most prominent colleges. I know thousands of schools, and there’s not one whose honor system can compare to the honor system at Woodberry—not one,” he says. “There are also few schools that can compare to Woodberry in alumni participation in the annual fund, and I think that’s a testament to how good the school has been forever.”

In his tenure on the board of trustees, Pat has noticed that the school’s culture of giving has had a profound impact on its evolution in recent years.

“Woodberry’s financial strength is directly tied to the board’s investment acumen. They’ve had banner years, often way ahead of what the market return tends to be, not to mention that the Amici Fund keeps adding a ton of money every year. The draw on that does so much—not only to allow the school to be stable, but also to invest in their programs as much as they want to.”

For Pat, joining the Walker Society stems from strong ties to Woodberry’s core principles. He and Barbara established a charitable remainder unitrust, or CRUT. The CRUT pays income to the Bassets each year, which they have chosen to use to make gifts to Woodberry and to establish a tuition assistance scholarship fund in the endowment. After their deaths, the balance in the trust will go to Woodberry.

“The school has matured to become much more progressive, much more open-minded. But even so, it has a kind of sturdiness that’s been rooted historically. Woodberry, of course, is still all-male and still has the honor system and character emphasis that made my migration from Williams to Woodberry so natural. I believe in giving back to the school because it really gave me a trajectory into my career in leadership.”