Class News

Terry Holcombe ‘64 accepts Yale award for Kurn Hattin Homes

May 4, 2018

Yale University and the Yale Club of Walpole sponsored a trip on May 4 to New Haven for the Kurn Hattin students graduating from eighth grade. KHH Trustee Terry Holcombe '64 — a former Yale Vice President and current Walpole resident — accepted on behalf of the School a formal award from "the President and Fellows of Yale University congratulating the Kurn Hattin Homes for Children on 125 years of service to the youth of New England."

The students toured the campus which, with its cloistered courtyards, stained glass windows, gargoyles, and high-arched Gothic buildings, brought to mind Harry Potter and Hogwarts. They visited the Sterling Library, Beinecke Rare Book Library, science laboratories, and the Rotunda Memorial to graduates and faculty who perished in the nation's service.

The KHH group was hosted for lunch in Timothy Dwight College by Professor Mary Lui, the Head of the College, and Yale students. They divided the afternoon between a guided visit to natural-history exhibits at the Peabody Museum and the recently renovated Yale University Art Gallery, where they viewed the works with a docent and had a drawing class.

In its residential program for youth at risk, Kurn Hattin Homes has a continuing population of around 100 students in grades kindergarten through eight, with an average stay of about two years, after which they return to their hometown schools or go on to high school at places like Vermont Academy or the Hershey School in Pennsylvania. The School is supported by an endowment and current gifts, principally from individuals. Where they can afford it, parents or caretakers pay small fees as well. Currently 30% of the students at KHH come from New Hampshire, many from the area spanning Keene and Claremont.

The School is renowned for its Select Choir, which recently presented at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York and The Congregational Church in Walpole. They have been invited to perform the National Anthem at a Red Sox game on July 9, and will be featured at the Horse Thieves biennial event in Walpole this fall.