Retirements.3

by David Penner

Joe Wennik '52 retires this June after 32 years on the faculty. Serving Phillips Academy in myriad ways, he has left indelible marks in the academic, athletic and residential areas of the school, as well as in his latest arena, the Office of Alumni Affairs.

His legacies include flourishing foreign language and sports programs and a warmer and more jovial community.

More tangibly, they also include:

the renovation and enlargement of Andover's gym into a coeducational athletic center after the PA-Abbot merger;

a popular soccer camp that brings about 600 area boys and girls to the campus each summer;

an expanded regional alumni association effort;

a growing career mentor program that now lists over 600 alumni; and

campus-wide interest in Memorial Place, a breathtaking monument to alumni who died in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Born in Providence, R.I., Joe spent his early childhood moving around New England as his father climbed the sales ladder in a company that sold business machines. He attended Andover public schools before entering PA as a ninth-grader in 1948. He was one of the "scholarship kids," which in those days meant wearing a white coat to wait on tables in the faculty dining room at Commons.

As a student here, Joe played quarterback in football, defended in hockey and started at second base for four years in baseball. He earned nine varsity letters and in his senior year was captain of the baseball team. He recalls certain classes, in particular one of Dudley Fitts's accelerated English classes, in which he was the only "jock."

But young Wennik was more than a ballplayer. An honor roll student and member of the Student Council, he received the Fuller Medal at graduation. Funded by S. Lester Fuller of PA's Class of 1894, the prize recognized the senior whose life and work best exemplified "the ideals and traditions of the school."

Joe went on to Yale, where he majored in American studies and played varsity sports. Active in a range of campus organizations, he also was vice president of his senior class.

Drafted by the U.S. Army upon graduation, Joe went to Fort Dix for basic training, then to Monterey, Calif., for language study. In the wake of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, he was dispatched to Regensburg, on the Danube, to work in counterintelligence.

But Joe's calling was the classroom, and his return to civilian life took him to the Holderness School in New Hampshire, where he taught German and English and coached three sports. While on the faculty there he married Inga Kühn, whom he had met in Europe; spent two summers earning an M.A. degree in German at Middlebury College; and went to the University of Mainz as a Fulbright scholar. When the Wenniks finally left Holderness for the University of Virginia, Joe planned to pursue a Ph.D. in medieval German literature. His plans were interrupted, though, by a call from Headmaster John Kemper inviting Joe to teach German at PA.

"I had always dreamed of re-turning to teach at Andover, and when the opportunity arose I knew it might not come again. Adding to my incentive was the fact that I was being offered the opportunity to teach AP German," he recalls. "I never missed the Ph.D."

Joe taught at Andover from 1967 to 1991. Chair of the German department for several years, he spent a two-year term as vice president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German. He also was one of the original cluster deans, leading first Rabbit Pond and then the late, great Northwest Cluster. Since 1987, he has held the Walter Scott Leeds Teaching Foundation chair.

It was during Joe's seven-year tenure as director of athletics, beginning in 1976, that girls gained equal footing with boys in sports. The number of sports offerings for girls was dramatically increased, their JV teams gained more contests and more coaches, and their facilities were upgraded. Joe oversaw an enormous construction project at the gym, including the addition of the Abbot Wing and the

redesign of the building to accommodate the coeducational Andover. He also served a term as president of the New England Private School Athletic Council.

Joe returned to teaching German full time in 1983, and in 1986 began splitting his time between the classroom and the College Counseling Office. In 1991, he moved into the role he has played so successfully for the last eight years as director of alumni affairs in the Office of Academy Resources. In that post, he has overseen everything from the annual gala known as reunion weekend to new ventures that bring young alumni back to the campus to talk with students and faculty. Under his guidance the regional associations have burgeoned and the highly successful Career Mentor Program was launched. He also worked assiduously to assure that veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars would be remembered on campus, and through his efforts and those of other faculty and alumni Memorial Place was dedicated in 1994. In 1998, the Brace Center for Gender Studies presented Joe with the McKeen Award for inspired and dedicated leadership.

The three Wennik children--Stefan, Marten and Lukas--all graduated from Andover in the 1980s. Meanwhile, Inga played an active role in the school and lovingly supported Joe and the family in all their endeavors while pursuing her career in domestic and international marketing communications.

Joe has been trying to retire for a year now, but the advent of Campaign Andover has forced him to stay on a bit longer. Over the last few months, he and Inga have been overseeing the renovation of their retirement home on Plum Island in Newbury, Mass. With Inga's eye for design and Joe's feel for comfort, they have feathered an ocean-view nest from which this man for all seasons undoubtedly will continue to pursue his well-informed interests in music (jazz in particular), literature and travel.

David Penner is chair of the math department.