Saturday night, Bob and I went to the Cliff Dwellers' Club downtown for a marvelous dinner to pay tribute to Joseph Becker for his forty years of service (and counting, we hope!) as first a teacher and coach at and then (most of those years) Headmaster of Gordy's alma mater, Roycemore School of Evanston, IL. Let me tell you all about a remarkable leader of a remarkable school. When I was growing up in the 1960s, a product of not only the NYC Public Schools but Brooklyn College, part of the public tuition-free City University of New York, the idealistic near-radical in me swore that I would never send any child of mine to any institution as elitist as a private prep school. Fast forward to when Gordy came along and attained school age. Our local public school did not offer preschool classes and we were committed to the Montessori system, so Gordy's first school was Rogers Park Montessori, a private secular school (albeit one housed in a Lutheran church). As he entered kindergarten there, it soon became apparent he had some special educational needs that combined physical assistance with availability of a gifted program, something his current school could not meet, nor could our neighborhood public school. He did not fit the demographic profile sought that year by the magnet schools (and we were not willing to hold him back a year in case they needed more boys the next year), and parochial school was out of the question--we're an interfaith family and he was already getting Sunday school training at temple. The psychometrician who tested him for his unique learning disability (dyspraxia) suggested Roycemore, and it was a marvelous fit. And this hot-headed wild-eyed '60's radical found herself a prep school trustee there for several years! (Moral: never say never! And keep an open mind). Roycemore is located in a landmark building abutting the Northwestern University campus (and the property is owned by Northwestern---in a couple of years it'll move to its own larger wholly-owned building in north central Evanston). The student body usually ranges between 200-220, ranging from jr. kindergarten through high school. It is a college preparatory school, with an extremely high college acceptance rate and small class sizes. It has learning assistance and gifted programs--and the Advanced Placement kids in the Upper (high) School can actually take their classes on the Northwestern campus for college credit. The student body exactly reflects the demographic makeup of the Chicago northside area--not the North Shore suburbs in which it's located, and to that end Roycemore is committed to making sure that no qualified student is turned away for lack of funds. Those who can pay full tuition also tend to give generously to accomplish that and a terrific fundraising auction and generous alumni endowment fill in the rest. The kids are all supportive of each other--no cliques, and even the seniors help assist the littlest ones. Which brings us to Joseph Becker. When was the last time you encountered a school principal who knew and was loved by every one of his students, from the four-year old preschoolers to the graduating seniors? The fact that Roycemore has some of the most dedicated alumni you'll ever see--Gordy, his friends, and older alums alike regularly return for school events such as Carnival, the Palio athletic festival, soccer and basketball games and the auction banquet--is due in no small part to Joe Becker's dedication. It's a tribute to him that though his politics are diametrically opposed to mine (and to many of the rest of the Board of Trustees), all of those differences melt away in his dedication to the school, the kids, equality and excellence. He is a man who was born to teach, born to lead, and born to guide and shape lives. Long may he continue to do so!