After spending 24 years at Phillips Academy, Dr. Peter Warsaw and his wife, Dr. Ada Fan, have accepted jobs at Deerfield Academy next fall. Dr. Warsaw, currently a music teacher at Andover, will be taking the position of Academic Dean at Deerfield. Dr. Fan will join her husband at the school as an English teacher. Dr. Warsaw’s new job will be similar to that of Phillips Academy’s Dean of Studies. As Academic Dean, he will be working to help create Deerfield’s first strategic plan. “It is this responsibility that gives me great hope that my ideas might be of help in shaping the future of an educational institution,” he said. Deerfield is also giving Dr. Warsaw the opportunity to continue his love of teaching music by making him conductor of one of the school’s music ensembles. Before arriving at Phillips Academy in 1983, Warsaw taught at the Brooks School in North Andover, while Fan attended law and film school. After leaving Brooks and going on to receive doctorates, they decided that they wanted to work at a secondary school. On their decision to come to Andover, Mr. Warsaw said, “I remembered my years at Exeter. As a student there I had felt that it would be fun to return to a private secondary school to do some teaching. I wanted to, at least partially, repay the debt I owed my teachers, and I also had ideas about how I might build upon the many qualities of my Exeter education to create an even more effective environment for teaching and learning.” In Dr. Fan’s time at Andover, she has taught English at all levels, coached field hockey, worked with Search and Rescue, served as a House Counselor in Stimson and helped create Asian Arts. The couple has raised three children on campus, including current Phillips Academy student Marina Warsaw-Fan ’07 and alumna Arianna Warsaw-Fan ’04. In his years at Andover, Dr. Warsaw has also served as Orchestra Conductor, coach of chamber groups and Chair of the Music Department. He created the Intensive Music Performance program at PA Summer Session. Warsaw has also performed in concerts around the world both solo and with various orchestras, including the Boston Pops. Warsaw holds degrees from Harvard University and the Eastman School of Music. He has also performed with many notable musicians, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Dr. Warsaw sees his new position at Deerfield as a chance to do the work he considers most important to education today. He looks forward to helping Deerfield be the best school that it can be. Dr. Warsaw also says that he has mixed feelings about leaving Andover. “I will certainly miss the few students who have been willing to make a serious commitment to music here. In AP Music Theory, theory and composition IP’s [independent projects], and Music 500, my students and I have engaged in a level of inquiry, exploration and creativity that is rarely found outside a few graduate schools. I doubt I shall ever recreate those experiences, but I certainly hope that my students can,” Dr. Warsaw said. Dr. Fan has degrees from Harvard University and the University of Rochester. Although she is excited and optimistic about their move, she said, “It will be wrenching to leave Andover, but Deerfield is beautiful and the students and faculty are enormously talented, so it seems possible to make a life there.” As prominent members of the Phillips Academy community, Dr. Warsaw and Dr. Fan will be missed on campus. “Although I have known them for only four years, ever since my first day at Andover, they have treated me like I was one of their daughters. All four members of the family have made enormous contributions onto our community,” said Sol Jin ’07. Jin has had the opportunity to have both Dr. Warsaw and Dr. Fan as teachers and as mentors. Jin continued, “Peter Warsaw has been my ‘go-to guy,’ not only in music, but in life as well. Ada Fan has always graced me with her wonderful smile and never failed to make me laugh, even on those unbelievably horrible days that only Andover students know about.” Anna Klenkar ’07 said, “Aside from being wonderful and accomplished teachers, the Warsaw-Fans have always made me feel welcome and taken an active interest in my life, academically and otherwise.” Jin and Klenkar are among the many students on campus with whom Dr. Warsaw and Dr. Fan have created lasting and impacting relationships.
