A TRIBUTE TO DR.STEPHEN


After 37 years at Santa Fe Prep, Steve Machen retired this past May. Below is a tribute to him given by Jim Leonard at the Cum Laude awards, followed by excerpts from Steve’s Cum Laude address to the Prep community:


Steve, it falls to me, as the 9th headmaster at Santa Fe Prep over the course of your tenure at the school since 1974... and that includes 11 years when you served as head of school...to help us pause for a moment as a school and celebrate your service. It has been a remarkable run, one unparalleled in the history of this school. Lan-


guage teacher, department chair, assistant head of school, head of school, summer trip leader—and those are just the broad categories. It’s in the finer details of your work over nearly four decades that you have made


a lasting mark. Your commitment to high academic achievement, in your classroom and across the school, propelled Prep to a higher plane. Your sense of humor, par- ticularly keen in the human folly you celebrate with laughter, has brought this school a lightness of being. And your relationships—with colleagues, former stu- dents, longtime friends of the school...well, these must be your greatest treasure, and they were hard-earned. For me personally, you have been an invaluable resource. It is extremely rare, almost unheard of, for a headmaster to


Jim Leonard The Language Connection


Excerpts from Steve Machen’s Cum Laude Address


Students, colleagues, parents, friends, welcome. Jim, thank you for that generous introduction and kind invitation to speak today. As we con- template the achievements of these outstanding students, I’d like you to consider what got them here. Certainly parental support and encouragement, caring teachers, hard work, and intelli- gence played important parts. The study of language, particularly of a lan- guage and culture different from their own, was also instrumental. As they head out into the world —


within days, if they are seniors, or within months if they are juniors— the question will not be “Can they do the work?” because they have proven that they can; the real question is how they will use their many gifts. The great Argentine writer Jorge


Luis Borges wrote: “A man sets out to draw the world. As the years go by, he peoples a space


future as well as the present; students who care deeply about the state of society and the world. Many of these students have already begun to focus their intelligence on the problems of society. One need only have attended the junior Teen Action Program presen- tations the other night to see the cre- ative ways in which our students are engaging the world. We live in interesting times. Both


Artistic Steve.


with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face.” Like the Borgesian protagonist,


these young cum laude and book awardees and their classmates are beginning to “people” their space with their own sets of images. As I look around this auditorium, I see students who are engaged in their intellectual pursuits, who are concerned about the


40 SANTA FE PREPARATORY SCHOOL MAGAZINE 2011


intellect and compassion seem to be suffering in our nation, with cutbacks in spending for both education and social programs. And yet thinking, understanding our past, and valuing our cultural heritage have never been more important to our successfully confronting the problems of the future. Most of my life has been dedicated


to the study and teaching of language, literature, and culture. {…} Yet while my own investigations over the years have provided many interesting and rewarding moments, they would ulti- mately mean much less to me were they not a background and foundation for my teaching.


Steve at his retirement party at Prep.


return to the faculty of a school when a new head is hired. That’s too bad, as you have clearly enjoyed finishing your brilliant career in the classroom and I have benefitted from the depth of your experience at Prep and your wisdom. So thank you.


zx


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