Phillips Exeter Academy

Phillips Exeter Academy (also called Exeter or PEA) is a coeducational independent boarding school located in Exeter, New Hampshire. It is considered by many to be one of the finest secondary schools in the United States. It was established in 1781 by John and Elizabeth Phillips. Due to this, it shares a long standing (and friendly) rivalry with sister school, Phillips Academy, also known as Andover. Like Andover, the school's primary Latin motto is Finis Origine Pendet, meaning "the end depends upon the beginning," and it is scrolled across the bottom of the school seal. The school's secondary motto, Non Sibi, located in the sun, means "not for one's self." Exeter graduates may, if they wish, receive a class ring with the school seal with the text "Sigill Phillip Exoniensis Academiae - Nov Han 1781" surrounding. The "Deed of Gift," written by John Phillips at the founding of the school articulates a second pedagogical philosophy in addition to that of self-sacrifice: "though goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous." Since a 1930 gift by Edward Harkness, the school's principal mode of instruction has been by discussion, "seminar style", around an oval table (known as the "Harkness table.") Phillips Exeter has been co-educational since 1970; prior to that time, it was an all-boys school. The school is also known for its library, designed by Louis Kahn. Philips Exeter was the inspiration for the Devon School in John Knowles' novels, A Separate Peace and Peace Breaks Out. As Exeter, NH was the birthplace of author John Irving, it is said that the town and the school appears in many of his books, most notably, A Prayer for Owen Meany.

Notable Alumni

\n*Lewis Cass (1792)\n*Daniel Webster (1796)\n*John Adams Dix (1810)\n*George Bancroft (1811)\n*Franklin Pierce (1820)\n*Robert Todd Lincoln (1860)\n*Frederick Winslow Taylor (1874)\n*Booth Tarkington (1889)\n*James Agee (1928)\n*Pierre DuPont III (1930)\n*Adolph Coors III (1933)\n*Arthur Schlesinger Jr (1933)\n*Joseph Coors (1935)\n*Gore Vidal (1943)\n*George Plimpton (1944)\n*John Knowles (1945)\n*Pierre Dupont IV (1952)\n*Jay Rockefeller (1954)\n*Stewart Brand (1956)\n*H. John Heinz III (1956)\n*John Negroponte (1956)\n*Peter Benchley (1957)\n*Daniel Dennett (1959)\n*John Irving (1961)\n*Peter H. Coors (1965)\n*Judd Gregg (1965)\n*Kent Conrad (1966)\n*David Eisenhower (1966)\n*Fred Grandy (1966)\n*Joyce Maynard (1971)\n*Dan Brown (1982)\n*Chang-Rae Lee (1983)

External Links

\n* Philips Exeter Academy website\n* PEA Alumni/ae website\n* Philips Exeter's "A Separate Peace" website