|
|
|
|
|
| |
20 Questions with Dr. Michael Nill, December 2009
|
|
“This is year fifteen. I came in 1995 to be head of the Middle School.” Four years later he was appointed Assistant Head of School, and in 2000 he became the Interim Head. In December of 2001, Dr. Michael Nill became Head of School. He will retire in June, 2010 and sat recently for an informal chat with our staff writer Jeff Stanley.
1. Had this been a long-time career goal? Did you think while you were in college, ‘one day I shall be the head of a private school?’ Absolutely not. I was at Columbia’s Klingenstein Program getting a Master’s in private school leadership. But I never thought about being a head. I didn’t know if I would be very good at asking people to support a school financially.
2. Did it turn out that you were? What I discovered is if you’re really passionate about a place then asking for money becomes natural. 3. Were you a practicing Quaker or involved with Quaker schools before coming to BFS? I had never set foot in a Quaker school. I had some ideas and was aware of some stereotypes about it. I heard ‘Oh, a Quaker school, they can’t make decisions.’ 4. Did you find that to be true? We have been making the decisions that we need to make. The most important piece of this is not that everyone should agree but you get to have opportunities to voice your views, and that must be respected. But after that there’s a need for a decision.
5. What do you think has been your overall mission here? To give the institution the sense that it could be the best.
6. Did that seem like a problem here when you first took charge? Before, BFS seemed self-conscious about praising itself, that it was living in the shadow of other places. We grew to be proud. Having pride in yourself is a key piece of success in moving forward.
7. What’s your least favorite part of the job? It’s hard to make difficult decisions that you know will negatively impact individuals.
8. What do you like best about your job? The days that I taught. I’m not teaching this year but for many years I taught Latin in the Middle School. I’ve co-taught Theory of Knowledge in the Upper School’s IB Program. It’s a philosophy course. 9. Tell us about your philosophy background. I had a Catholic upbringing and a seminary background. I toyed with being a philosophy and history major. I love languages. I concentrated on Latin and Greek, and got a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Classics.
You’ve been underutilized. We have a Ph.D. in philosophy under this roof and all they did was make you Head of School!
(Laughs) I do well with combining vision with detail work. My mother was a visionary, and my dad was an accountant so I took the strengths of both.
10. Your mother was a visionary – what do you mean by that? She thought big. She was a housewife but she didn’t do much housework; that was my dad’s job. She’d talk to me for hours about philosophy, but she hadn’t gone to college. She got a degree when she was in her mid-50s.
11. Where was this? Where did you grow up? Pittsburgh. I had a protective family. I wasn’t really allowed to go anywhere or do anything on my own, and I didn’t have any siblings. That left books.
12. And what degrees did you get? My undergraduate degree was at Fordham. I have a Master’s in Classical Languages from Johns Hopkins, a Master’s from Teachers College, and my Ph.D. is from the University of Texas at Austin.
13. It’s hard to picture you in Texas. What did you think of Austin? Oh, I loved Austin! I was terrified at first. I only had the concept of an Easterner, that it would be horribly dry and horribly flat, but it was this incredibly green place with all these lakes, liberal people, and a big music scene. On July 1st my wife and I are planning to move there.
14. You’re moving to Austin? That’s a pretty huge change! I still have a few friends there. I started and ran a bookstore there.
10. You ran a bookstore in Austin, Texas? Tell us about that. It had a relatively small stock, but it was hand-picked. The idea was we would only pick books of quality that were worth reading. (Laughs) This place actually survived. I was in Austin a few years ago and I went to Book People – it’s the largest independent bookstore in Texas. There was a timeline on the wall showing the evolution of the store and that it began as a small place started by graduate students from the University of Texas in the 1970s. I asked the assistant manager what the store was called then because I didn’t remember any bookstore in the 1970s called Book People, and he said, ‘Oh, it had a different name then. It was called Grok.’ That was the name our store – from the novel, Stranger in a Strange Land. Book People was our store!
16. Did you start it on your own? It started in a house. I started it with our next door neighbor for $5,000. Imagine today starting a business for just $5,000!
17. How does your wife feel about moving to Austin? My wife Irene is from the Bronx. We wanted a warmer climate, and I wanted a place with a big library. Irene’s friend just moved there and bought a house so we’re starting a little community there.
18. What do you do when you’re not at BFS? This job does tend to be 24-7. What about the woodworking, how’s that coming along? This summer I made a lateral file cabinet. I did not finish but I learned how to use these intimidating saws. I can now make rabbets and dadoes without the fear of injuring myself. I am hoping to devote time to this in Austin, perhaps on a daily basis.
19. The most important, probing question in this column: you’re on a desert island, what three things would you take with you? A good friend. Anyone in particular? I would want to bring my wife.
Smart answer. What else? I assume this is a rather lengthy stay on the island? Sure. So a book wouldn’t serve much purpose because you’d read it and that would be it. Let’s loosen the rules a bit. Let’s say a set of woodworking tools is a single thing. And let’s say there are a lot of trees on the island, plenty of wood. OK, woodworking tools and a library. Can I bring a whole library? With the Internet, sure. Just bring a laptop. Good point.
20. Last question: what’s one thing that’s always in your fridge? Milk or OJ.
|
|
|
|