Page 4 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 1 Fall 2012

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The central design, celebrating
the development of the Human-
ities Program, is represented by
an owl perched on a book, with
pen, pencil, and brush behind it.
The owl is a symbol of wisdom,
and the pen/pencil/brush
symbols represent the arts and
literature. The book the owl is
perched on is a symbol for
learning; it represents the
merging of history, philosophy,
and religion in the humanities
curriculum. In the upper-left
corner an ‘at’ (@) key from a
computer keyboard is carved
to symbolize the first School-
assigned e-mail addresses for
students. The upper-right
corner of the plaque has a
closed book with initials DVH,
representing the end of Tenth
Rector David Vern Hicks’s Rec-
torship. In the lower right
section, a female symbol with
the Roman numerals XXV inside
represents the 25th anniversary
of co-education at St. Paul’s
School.
The central design of the plaque,
symbolizing the November 2000
presidential election, shows a
ballot from Florida – complete
with hanging chads – being
claimed by both the Democratic
donkey and the Republican el-
ephant. The shield in the upper-
center of the carving features
an element from the coat of
arms of the Henley-on-Thames
Town Hall, representing the
crew’s trip to England that
June to compete in the Henley
Regattas. The crossed sword
and torch represent the Sixth
Form senior prank, inspired
by the movie Braveheart . The
Blass Clubhouse is carved at the
bottom-center of the plaque,
representing the redesign and
rededication of the original
clubhouse, which was built in
1893. Lord Fermoy’s clock is
shown in front of the clubhouse.
The central motif of the plaque
is an adaptation of the St. Paul’s
School Sesquicentennial logo,
with St. Paul in the center sur-
rounded by the four shields
– pelican, book, sword, and
the Episcopal Church. A scroll
ties them together horizontally
with the dates 1856–2006. In the
upper-left of the plaque is an
open bookwith the initialsWRM,
representing the beginning of
William R. Matthews’s Rector-
ship. The book symbolizes the
Rural Record, a journal of day-
to-day life at St. Paul’s School,
kept from 1857 into the early
20th century. The upper-right
corner represents the spiral of
Hurricane Katrina, whichdevas-
tated New Orleans and the Gulf
Coast just prior to the beginning
of the school year. The bottom
corners are carved with spiral
waves representing the damag-
ing waters of the flood inMay of
2006 that resulted in the School’s
closing three weeks early.
New Form Plaques
Editor’s note: Using a grant from the Form of 1973 Mentor Fellowship, SPS Archive Assistant Lisa Laughy, who moon-
lights as a woodcarver, has been charged with reviving the form plaque project. The project was initiated in 1921 by
Fourth Rector Samuel Drury and carried out by original woodcarver John Gregory Wiggins, who memorialized School
history in wood from 1921 to 1953. Production of the plaques ceased in 1990 – until Laughy’s proposal to reignite the
tradition in the spring of 2010. The printing of these plaque descriptions in Alumni Horae returns to another tradition
of introducing the completed panels to SPS alumni in the pages of the magazine.
In 2011, the revival of the Club
Cup competition was the big
event of the school year. The
cup itself is represented in the
center of the plaque with the
symbol above it of the winning
club, the Delphians – the Greek
letter Delta surrounded by a
laurel wreath. In the upper-left
of the plaque a closed book is
carved with the initials WRM,
representing the end of Wil-
liam R. Matthews’s Rectorship.
The book symbolizes the Rural
Record, a journal of day-to-day
life at St. Paul’s School, kept
from 1857 into the early 20th
century. The upper-right corner
holds amap of Japanwith circles
radiating from the epicenter of
the devastating earthquake and
tsunami that occurred inMarch
2011. The lower left and right
sections of the plaque repre-
sent the crew competing at the
Henley Royal Regatta in June
2011. A shield superimposed
above and to the left of the crew
features an element from the
coat of arms from the Henley-
on-Thames Town Hall.
1996 2001 2006 2011
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