Teachers are a great source of wisdom and advice in all schools. Here at Hewitt, we are lucky to have teachers who are open to sharing their experiences with for the purpose of education as well as getting to know them. Mr. Kaufmann’s life has interested many students for years.
Mr. Kaufmann grew up in Davenport, Iowa, a town with a population of about 100,000 people. Within that area there was only one public high school so the grades were large. Mr. Kaufmann says he had about 800 students in his grade. After high school, his parents encouraged him to seek experiences outside of his midwestern town. “My parents had insisted that all of my siblings and myself go away to college and not stay in Iowa,” he says. Mr. Kaufmann decided to attend Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He was compelled to attend Dartmouth by his admiration for his brother’s friend, a local football hero, who also attended Dartmouth. “I looked up to him, as anyone would, and he encouraged me to go to Dartmouth so I decided to go there,” Mr. Kaufmann said. At Dartmouth, Mr. Kaufmann started as an engineering major and then became a math major however, he ended up majoring in philosophy “There is more overlap than you might think,” he told me, “there are many courses that are both math and philosophy credits,” he continued on to say.
After graduating from Dartmouth in 1964, Mr. Kaufmann joined the military and trained at the Officer Candidate School (OCS) of the Navy. “Everyone was aware that there was a draft obligation and I had no particular plans to do something right away so I thought I would rather become an officer in the navy than just hope i didn’t get drafted,” he said. Mr. Kaufmann served as a navigator, a very challenging job with much responsibility attached to it, for about three and half years. “Sailing a ship is a challenging task under any circumstances… it was a job with a lot of responsibility for someone who was 25-26 years old. The military was a positive experience for me although at the time it was often tedious,” he said.
Previously to the Vietnam War, the military and those in its service were held in high regard as a result of the effects of World War II and the Korean War. “People tend to forget that Vietnam lasted a long time, 10 years, and World War II was less than 4 years so over a period of 10 years opinion changes a lot.” Mr Kaufmann highlighted the change in opinion when he said, “In the early years, no one acted negatively to me because I was in the military. Five or ten years later i wouldn’t have worn my uniform in public for any reason and I did not for many years put my military service on my resume.”
During his time in the Navy, Mr. Kaufmann decided to become a lawyer and applied to law school while still serving . “In fact, I took the law boards while sailing from Da Nang to Hong Kong in the Captain’s cabin,” he adds. Mr. Kaufmann left the navy in January of 1968 and entered Columbia Law school in September of that year. After graduation, Mr, Kaufmann joined a bug new York City Law firm and became a litigator. He remained at that law firm for 30 years until his retirement. In 1977, Mr. Kaufmann was asked to be the village attorney for his town of Pelham Manor in Westchester. After five years, he then became a member of the board of trustees, another name for the village counsel. Then he was on the town council before being elected as mayor.
After retirement, he went back to school to get a masters in medieval history. It was during this time that Mr. Kaufmann discovered his passion for Latin. He first studied latin during the summer of 2003 so that he could take a medieval latin literature course. “I liked studying latin, more generally the classics (latin and greek), more than I liked medieval history so i enrolled in a master’s program at City University of New York.” He finished the program after about 3 years and was then asked to teach for a semester at Browning. “My first reaction was ‘ no i’m retired and i’m a lawyer’ nut my second reaction was ‘why not it might be fun.’” The next year he taught one class at Trevor Day School. “At that point I decide that i enjoyed it enough so why not become a teacher.” He was then offered a job at Hewitt. Mr. Kaufmann teaches latin here and also created a law class inspired by his daughter’s class at Friends Seminary. He has taught here for eight years and brought enormous wisdom and experience to our school.