ABOUT

(a 1st person Narrative)

As both my parents were teachers, I grew up on independent school campuses. Starting as an infant at New Hampton School in New Hampshire - then to Chadwick School in Los Angeles - then to Southern Arizona School in Tucson - then back to New Hampton through graduation in 1965. I went to Yale - dropped out (it was the mid-60s after all!) - hitchhiked around the country - met my wife Karen in Denver - married and went back to Yale, graduating as a Scholar of the House in 1970. After two years at a child care center in Concord, NH, I received my M.A. in Early Childhood Development from Goddard College in 1972, and in 1973 helped found Sant Bani School in Sanbornton, NH. In 1980 I received an Ed.D. in Curriculum Development from Boston University.

Karen and I lived on campus while we raised our two children, Chris and Nick. Having retired in June of 2017, it is fun to say I began as head of school when I was 26 and stepped down when I turned 70! Along the way I have had the opportunity to help lots of schools and teachers and administrators across the country and in several countries. My fifty years involvement in education includes over forty years on the Advisory Council of the New Hampshire Commissioner of Education, six years as a commissioner with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (where I evaluated over 75 schools) and work with schools across the U.S. as well as in Bhutan, Canada, Colombia, Guatemala, India and Venezuela.

As an independent scholar my main interests are the New England Transcendentalists – Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the Alcott Family: their educational pedagogy and how they were inspired by the spiritual wisdom of Asia. In 1995 I acquired, edited and published the manuscript of A Long Fatal Love Chase, a gothic thriller by Louisa May Alcott that became a New York Times best seller.

My spiritual quest in the ‘60s culminated in receiving initiation in 1968 from Master Kirpal Singh (1894-1974) of New Delhi, India. In 1976 I became very close to Sant Ajaib Singh (1926-1997) of Rajasthan, India. In 2002 I published Rainbow On My Heart: A Memoir of the Early Years of the mission of Sant Ajaib Singh based on my travels with Sant Ji and over 25 trips to India.

For more on who I am and photos of my family, click here.

P.S. We now live in an 1815 house on Main Street in New Hampton Village - where it all started for me so many decades ago. Indeed, what goes around, comes around!

 
 
 
With my Uncle Toot (Ray Stuart Bicknell) on the campus of Chadwick School outside of Los Angeles, circa 1950. Uncle Toot became a legendary coach at Bowdoin College.

With my Uncle Toot (Ray Stuart Bicknell) on the campus of Chadwick School outside of Los Angeles, circa 1950. Uncle Toot became a legendary coach at Bowdoin College.

 

Family Shots - Past & Present