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RETIREMENTS ’01

Doug Craqbtree

"You could teach math to a chicken," wrote former Headmaster Ted Sizer in awe-struck praise of Doug Crabtree some years ago. Hundreds of Doug's present and former students echo that praise as Doug prepares to retire after 30 years of distinguished teaching at Phillips Academy.

"Supportive, challenging, clear and accessible," are words alumni use to describe Doug in the math classroom. "Always welcoming," "My favorite teacher of all time," "He never gave up on those of us who struggled. . . . I still picture that impish face and half smile," "A wonderful teacher who could make difficult concepts seem easy," are other refrains.

Fine teaching means making connections, transmitting some sense of humanity. With Doug you sensed early on that life was bigger than Morse Hall, bigger even than math, that your teacher cared about you as well as your factoring of quadratic expressions. Doug's students recall a math teacher who listened carefully and walked quietly, who knew his math and adorned his classroom with art.

Doug's formal education is deep and broad. He majored in mathematics at Bowdoin College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1960 as a Bowdoin Scholar. He earned a master's degree in math from Harvard University in 1961 as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and completed a Ph.D. degree in mathematics at the University of North Carolina in 1965, writing his dissertation on Schur Matrices. During teaching stints at the University of Massachusetts and Amherst College from 1964-71, Doug published six research articles on matrices in mathematical journals. He came to PA in 1971 as instructor in math, house counselor and coach.

In the late ’70s, Doug's talent for writing turned from research articles on matrices to precalculus text material for Andover students. With two colleagues, he turned that material into a best-selling precalculus textbook in the early ’80s. In recent years, Doug has written, with two other colleagues, a modern "Reform Calculus' text, now widely used in high schools across the country. Doug's co-authors all speak of the clarity he brings to their collective work and thank him for gently mediating their bubbling differences.

Comments about Doug from current students include: "He knows his stuff (hell, he wrote the text!)," "Dr. Crabtree is a human being in class," "He explains things really well," "I had a D at midterms, but after meeting with Dr. Crabtree periodically I ended up with a 5. I've never felt as comfortable in a math class as I did this year," and "Dr. C should get a couple
more pairs of corduroys." Some former students, now teachers themselves, speak of his ability to inspire confidence in his students, and they describe how important that was to their development. As a mentor for younger teachers, Doug advises and encourages; he also sets an impressive example from which all may learn.

At the end of a formal evaluation of Doug's teaching some years ago, his department chair wrote, "Doug's classes are full of excitement, variety, conjecture and confirmation by a variety of techniques. He keeps coming back to students with questions—probing, comparing, generalizing and
always waiting for a full response, trying to get them to imagine, to check out particular cases, to think. A master teacher—no posturing, no baloney, always clear, fair, patient and supportive."

Reaching beyond his own classroom, Doug taught in the first few Andover-Dartmouth summer institutes for math teachers from select inner cities. Other summers he taught in Math and Science for Minority Students, or (MS)². When Doug stepped down from his five-year stint as chair of the mathematics department, the dean of faculty wrote that his tenure had been distinguished "by constant concern for people and by a sympathetic, fair and supportive manner."

Over the past 30 years, Doug has served on a host of important academy committees. Teaching faculty particularly appreciate his tireless and effective efforts for 25 years on the Faculty Benefits Committee, which he chaired for the last five years. Doug brought to this advocacy work the same qualities that have endeared him to students: his own penetrating intelligence and clarity of expression, a gracious manner and great good humor. He is rightly proud of helping the school institute an early-retirement plan and establish faculty benefits for committed partners.

Doug and his wife, Shane, have raised seven children between them: Bill ’80, Peter ’82, Scott ’84, and Laura Crabtree ’86, and Mary, Haig ’80 and Roger Townsend ’85. The couple will retire to their new home in Andover, stay active in Christ Church and keep up with their expanding family, which now includes seven grandchildren. Doug expects to do some consulting work on benefits packages; Shane will continue her work as an artist.

Approaching the early-retirement "fork in the road," Doug heeded Yogi Berra's advice to "take it." And his old friend, the mathematician-poet Addison Crowe, scrawled for Doug and Shane:

Gently walking the forest, he searches.
Eyes closed, she draws the horse.
Together they ride; the way is light.

Members of the math department salute Doug as a teacher,
a writer and an advocate, and salute him with great affection for being himself.

Nathaniel Smith is a longtime colleague of Doug Crabtree's in the math department.