From the Magazine: The Return to Coeducation
In 1937, citing a decline in enrollment of female students, KUA closed its doors to girls for nearly four decades. In February 1974, the Board of Trustees voted to re-admit young women. A few of the pioneering women in the earliest days of the return to co-education reflect on their experience 50 years ago.
Although many private schools excluded female students, Kimball Union welcomed female students from its earliest days.
These young women went on to become social reformers and suffragettes, pioneers, teachers, and missionaries. But in 1937, citing the Great Depression’s impact on a decline in enrollment of female students, the Academy closed its doors to girls for nearly four decades.
Jane Fielder H’13 P’90 ’91, former KUA archivist and daughter of former Headmaster Fred Carver, grew up on the KUA campus. While her three brothers attended the Academy, she attended Gould Academy, where girls were admitted during her high school years. “It was hard because KUA was our home and we girls loved every inch of it, but that’s the way it was.”
In the early 1970s, a trend in coeducation was taking hold in the United States both in private schools and in higher education—and KUA chose to follow. In February 1974, with the appointment of Headmaster Thomas Mikula, the Board of Trustees voted to re-admit young women.
At the time of his appointment, Mikula said, “In choosing Kimball Union, we all elect to come and live together in this, our school community. Young, old, male and female, of different races, of different abilities, we all come to learn and work together. We must have a complete representation of society which exists in this country. The young people must be of both sexes, and both must be given equal opportunities with equal expectations of meeting the highest goals their various abilities will allow.”
In a letter signed by all 11 of the girls in the 1974-75 entering class, they wrote, “We are determined that this first coed class in 40 years at KUA be remembered for its achievements, contributions, and involvement in worthwhile endeavors. Since we are the first coeds, we feel we must try to be outstanding in order to help set the standards for the many coeds that will follow us. Although we are presently few in number, we have the KUA spirit; and we coeds are here to stay.”
At Reunion 2024, a few of the pioneering women in the earliest days of the return to co-education reflected on their experience 50 years ago.
Meredith Liben ’77
Liben chose to follow in her brothers’ footsteps rather than attend the local public school. Ten day students and one boarder comprised that pioneering cohort. Liben halfheartedly jokes that 11 was the ideal number, as it allowed the school to field a field hockey team.
“None of us had ever held a stick and there were no wins,” she says. “In fact, the faculty wives all went to practice so we could scrimmage, even though it didn’t help.”
While the Academy opened the doors to the campus, it fell short in preparing for the needs of a female student body. That first female boarder resided in a “dorm” in the home of faculty member Georg and Katy Feichtinger. A powder room in the home of Headmaster Mikula—a short hike up the hill—was used by day students as a restroom.
“We were sturdy farm girls, and we’d just change in the dressing room off the stage and then go home,” she says of her three years at KUA. “But we were just so glad to be here. It was not the school it is today, and I am just blown away when I come here now.”
Liben attended Oberlin and pursued a career in teaching, working at a day school in Michigan, followed by 20 years of teaching at an alternative school in Harlem in New York City. She and her spouse founded their own school before becoming nationally recognized for their reading programs. “Peter Holland was one of my teachers at KUA, and he is probably why I became a teacher,” says Liben, who lives in Vermont.
Jennifer Kurth Borislow ’78 P’07 ’10
Borislow was among the first class of boarding girls who arrived on The Hilltop. Her father, Wilfred Kurth II ’50 H’07, was an alumnus and chair of the Board of Trustees, which made KUA a familiar and safe place for her to leave home for her educational experience.
“I ventured up here and most of my friends at home thought I had done something wrong and was being banished to boarding school!” she says of her decision to leave her home in Massachusetts.
But her time as boarder, first living with the Huse family in Frost House with eight girls and then in Densmore Hall, cemented the KUA experience as her own. “Although we were pioneers and on the cutting edge, it was a very welcoming place. I was the manager of the boys hockey team. They won the championship that year and I got to travel with them.”
Borislow attended Dickinson College and today owns an employee benefits firm. Her connection to the Academy has been unwavering. After a 20-year stint on the KUA Board of Trustees, she is now back for another five-year term. Borislow’s daughters attended KUA and one met her husband here.
“To see the evolution of the school has been remarkable, especially in the field of women. The buildings have all changed, but the spirit of the campus remains the same.”
Stacia Cobb Cooper ’79
Leaving New York City for rural New Hampshire would be “pretty daunting” for a 14-year-old girl at any time, but for Cobb Cooper to arrive early in the return to coeducation it was quite a leap. Yet, she describes her time at KUA as one that offered a sense of community and a launching pad for the future.
“Having a group of girls to surround you and be with you is pretty amazing,” says the former four-year boarding student. “We had a basketball team, and when I say it was bad, it was bad. We just had to learn from scratch. I had never heard of field hockey, but I loved it.”
Sports aside, her time at KUA was shaped by strong teaching, particularly from female faculty members. “If you get the right teacher, you can be good at anything. I think about those faculty members who would be there for us, just opening their homes and baking us cookies.”
She notes that faculty members Steve and Joan Bishop remain a constant touchpoint between all the women who are now in their 50s. “I think the one thing we all have in common is the Bishops. We still address them as Mr. and Mrs. Bish, and that is out of respect for their time on campus with the kids.”
Cobb Cooper was part of A Better Chance, a program championed by former Headmaster Mikula that places high-performing students of color in top independent high schools. “The education and discipline I got here really trained me so that I was launched and got a strong start in the work environment.”
She became one of the first African American directors at a large insurance corporation. Today, she serves as manager of Product Regulatory Forms at Brighthouse Financial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Susanne Stillson-Strong ’77
Stillson-Strong is one of 14 family members to attend Kimball Union since the mid-1890s. The return to coeducation gave her the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of her great-grandmother and grandmother, who both attended the Academy.
Although Stillson-Strong spent only one year as a day student, her time on The Hilltop made a lasting impression. “I didn’t understand the gift I was given until later,” she says. “I was in an incredibly diverse community of people who didn’t look like me or sound like me.”
Stillson-Strong returned went on to become a teacher and administrator in independent boarding and day schools. In 2014, she found her way back to KUA, where she served as registrar until her retirement at the close of this academic year.
