Shoveling snow in front of dormitories before morning classes, treading on slippery roads and warming frost-nipped ears—Phillips Academy students are all too familiar with the wintry conditions that snowstorms bring in. Yet current students have never witnessed a true snow day at Phillips Academy. Despite recent blizzards that have swept past New England this winter, the school has continued with classes. One of the few times in recent history Phillips Academy has actually cancelled classes occurred in 1978. February 6 marks the 30-year anniversary of the Great Blizzard of 1978, when classes were called off for a day. On February 11, 1978, The Phillipian reported on the severe nor’easter, which dumped more than 30 inches of snow on Andover and other towns in the New England region. The storm lasted from the morning of Monday, February 6 until approximately 8 a.m. on Tuesday, February 7. Then-Headmaster Theodore Sizer called off classes on that Tuesday. Despite school being cancelled, students still spent much of Tuesday shoveling campus paths, fire hydrants and cars that had been buried in snow by gale-force winds. “While classes were cancelled Tuesday, students spent from two to four hours digging the school out of snow. There were two more shoveling periods Wednesday, even though classes did meet,” reported The Phillipian. According to a Phillips Academy bulletin from March 1978, Sizer then gathered over 100 volunteers on Wednesday morning and led this group downtown to help the town of Andover dig out the Town Hall, the Memorial Hall library and a housing project for the elderly. A shoveling crew from West Quad North assisted retired faculty members who lived near campus. Abbot students dug out residential homes. Victor Henningsen, Instructor in History and Social Science, was a teacher at the time. He recalled, “Led personally by Headmaster Ted Sizer, we marched down Main Street to shovel out downtown Andover. Eleven hundred students with snow shovels can make short work of even the biggest blizzard. I remember skiing down Main Street, shovel in hand, to catch up with my dorm.” Thomas Cone, Instructor in Biology, said, “I remember standing up at School Street and Main Street and looking down towards the center of Andover, and it was the most amazing scene because PA students all had snow shovels and they were shoveling all the sidewalks in front of all the stores downtown.” “From a distance, they all looked like ants working hard at something,” he said. Not all of Tuesday was spent on shoveling, however. Many faculty members who worked here in 1978 recall watching students jump off dormitory rooftops and out of windows. Henningsen, who was a house counselor in Foxcroft Hall at the time, recalled his favorite memory of the blizzard. He said, “When the storm finally subsided, I remember looking out my second-floor bedroom window and seeing total whiteness.” “As I was contemplating the scene, I heard a yell from above – ‘Look out!’ – and pulled my head in just in time to miss being decapitated by a student who had jumped out of a third floor window into the drift below,” he continued. He continued, “After watching several other bodies sail past my second floor window, I decided to go up and check it out. Encouraged by my students, I wound up jumping too. It was great fun – a bit like skydiving. You held on to the sides of the window frame and launched yourself into space, winding up in the drift with a face full of snow. Henningsen added, “As long as we had kids down below shoveling the drifts back up to the height of the top of the first floor window, it was perfectly safe.” Christopher Shaw, Instructor in History and Social Science, was a Senior at Phillips Academy in 1978 who remembers seeing his classmates leaping out of windows. Shaw said, “I remember them jumping out of Foxcroft and Bartlet. Really, any building where students could have access to the roof or high windows was fair game. I used to spend some time in Johnson, and the Johnson girls were pretty good at doing that, too.” School opened normally on Wednesday and Thursday following the blizzard. However, according to The Phillipian, “many questioned the legality of opening school Wednesday and Thursday. Their doubts were in response to Governor Michael Dukakis’ proclamation in which he declared Massachusetts to be in a state of emergency and ordered the closing of all ‘schools, public or private, and all banks.’” “[There was] nightly news TV coverage of PA as still functioning, despite the blizzard with pictures of students going to classes on cross-country skis. PA was one of the few functioning institutions in eastern Massachusetts,” said Ruth Quattlebaum, Instructor in Art and Archivist. Natalie Schorr, Instructor in French, said, “People wished that there was more time off than there was. You’d hear these long, long lists of places that didn’t have school, but Andover was one of the few places that did.” That year was Instructor in Music Christopher Walter’s first year teaching at Phillips Academy, as well as his first year in the United States after moving from England. “I’ve never seen anything like that blizzard since. Nothing close. Storms have been pretty bad, but that was tremendous,” said Walter. “You walked out the door and you were walking right into snow that was head-high,” he continued. “I remember it was very, very beautiful. It was stunning. All that brilliant white everywhere.” Marc Koolen, Instructor in Biology, said, “It was unbelievable. I almost wish it would happen again, just so people would be able to experience it again.”
