Governor Dummer Academy, the country’s oldest independent boarding school, was founded before the Revolution. Jokes about its name have been around roughly as long.
There’s “Dumb and Dummer.” And: “Getting smarter at Dummer.” And this: “Students who go in come out Dummer.”
The school is named for William Dummer, an acting governor of Massachusetts who donated land to start the school. Over the years, students and alumni have accepted the ribbing about it with varying degrees of annoyance or indifference.
“We all get over it,” said student Kelsey Johnson, 18. “There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a person’s name.”
But in a move that has outraged some, the school’s board of trustees recently decided the smart thing to do was to drop “Dummer” from the name. The trustees have not announced a new name.
Board of Trustees President Dan Morgan announced the decision to “refine our school’s name” in a letter last month. A name change, he said, would broaden the academy’s appeal beyond the region, to places where the Dummer name could be a turnoff.
“We have come to realize that our name, particularly when heard for the first time, can stand in the way of our gaining our deserved recognition,” Morgan wrote.
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Compiled from news services and edited by Curt Wagner (cwwagner@tribune.com) and Martin Gee (mtgee@tribune.com)
