Lenox School Alumni Mark Final Reunion with Scholarships, Service, and a Musical Send-off

Following the party, however, the alumni are leaving behind a legacy they hope will positively affect the Berkshires and beyond in perpetuity. In 2024, the Lenox School Alumni Association (LSAA) established the Legacy Fund to support scholarships and service-driven organizations; the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation now administers it in perpetuity to provide grants and scholarships to educational and community partners. Past recipients have included Shakespeare & Company, Christ School in Arden, North Carolina, Trinity Church in Lenox, Christ Church Episcopal School in South Carolina, and various disaster relief and humanitarian efforts.

In 2026, the effort expanded further with the addition of the Curry Fund, to which any future donor may specifically dedicate their gift. Named for Rev. Robert L. Curry, the Lenox School’s longest-serving headmaster, the Curry Fund will support national organizations, such as A Better Chance (ABC), which broadens educational opportunities for students whose access to independent secondary schools has historically been limited.

According to LSAA President Bob Sansone, the Lenox School was founded in 1926 and built a reputation for academic rigor and competitive athletics, guided by its motto “Not to be served, but to serve.”  Declining enrollment in single-gender schools and broader institutional challenges led to the school’s closure in 1971, but while the campus fell quiet, its alumni did not.

“Lenox School brought boys together from many backgrounds, geographies, and ethnicities to live together, learn together, and understand and respect each other, all in service to others, long before other schools understood the importance of doing so,” he said.

“It’s always been the mission of the school—and its alumni—to serve and to follow in the footsteps of masters,” said Sansone. “They took chances on us, and that paid great dividends.”

Each October, alumni gather at Shakespeare & Company for a reunion weekend that includes the LSAA’s Charlie McGee Memorial Golf Tournament (honoring an alumnus), a business meeting and campus tours, a hymn sing at Trinity Church, a memorial table recognizing those who have passed, and Hall of Fame inductions celebrating individuals and organizations who embody the Lenox spirit. Among those honorees is Shakespeare & Company’s late Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer, recognized for the theater company’s longstanding friendship and partnership with the alumni community.

Photo Caption: Alumni gather at the 2016 Lenox School Reunion in front of St. Martins Hall, which still stands on Shakespeare & Company’s grounds and once housed classrooms, dormitories, and a dining hall. Photo courtesy of the Lenox School Alumni Association.

Tom Rush is a celebrated singer-songwriter, guitarist, and storyteller whose career has helped shape the American folk music landscape for more than six decades. A key figure in the 1960s folk revival, Rush is renowned for his distinctive guitar style, warm voice, and engaging stage presence, blending heartfelt ballads, blues, and humor-filled storytelling.

Rush played an influential role in launching the careers of artists including Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and Jackson Browne, while continuing to champion emerging talent through his acclaimed Club 47® concert series. His landmark 1968 album The Circle Game is widely credited with helping usher in the singer-songwriter era.

The LSAA has been unique from its inception. It was founded over a decade after the Lenox School closed in 1972. Unlike most alumni groups, which support a living, evolving institution, LSAA founders believed that the motto of the school –not to be served but to serve–and the nature of the community which the school had established–the ideals rather than the physical place itself–were timeless and should be preserved.