Necrology

Jonathan Edwards Slater '58

Jul. 13, 1936-Jan. 21, 2025

Jonathan Edwards Slater ’58 died at his home in Santa Fe, N.M., on Jan. 21, 2025. Born in Philadelphia on July 13, 1936, Jon grew up in the suburb of Narberth and came to Hamilton from the Gunnery (now the Frederick Gunn School), a boarding school in Washington, Conn. On the Hill, he was a member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity and majored in English. Throughout his college career he was a member of The Charlatans and served on the staff of The Hamiltonian. As a freshman, he joined the Biology and Spanish clubs, continuing his membership in the latter through his sophomore year. He also played on the junior varsity tennis team in his second year and on the soccer team as a junior and senior, and joined the Literary Society in his final year.

While on the Hill he met Karen Willard, a student at Smith College, as he later recalled, at the bar at the Theta Delt house. They became engaged in 1958 and were married the following year. They had two daughters and two sons.

Following graduation, he served in the U.S. Army for two years. He attended the Wharton School and Stanford University, where he earned his MBA in 1962. Although brief, his business career began when he was hired by the Scott Paper Co. to sell, as he later put it, “paper towels, toilet paper, and sanitary napkins in the garment district in New York City.” 

Jon soon realized that this work was not for him, and found what proved to be his vocation: elementary and secondary education. He got his Master of Arts in Teaching from Columbia University’s Teachers College in 1965. In 1966, he was hired by Newton South High School, in Newton, Mass., where he taught English and assisted students with special needs. In 1971, he left the high school to teach eighth grade English and social studies at Bigelow Junior High School, before returning to the high school a year later to resume teaching English. He also became assistant housemaster and then housemaster. 

Finding the challenges of administration rewarding, Jon left Newton in 1978 to become director/principal of The Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School in New York City. A year later, he became headmaster of the McBurney School, where he presided until 1981. He then took the role of headmaster of the Latin School of Chicago. In 1989, he accepted the same position at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Mass., and, five years after that, was hired as headmaster of St. George’s School in Spokane, Wash., the position from which he retired in 2002. Having had a career that included both public and private education, Jon would later observe that both kinds of institutions were more alike than different and great teachers could be found in each.

After ending work, Jon and Karen moved to Jamaica Plain in Boston. Demonstrating once again that “retirement” can be a temporary state, Jon turned his attention to the public schools of that neighborhood, volunteering at several high schools, one of which he characterized as a large, brave, inner-city school.

As he noted in his 50th reunion yearbook, the experience was revelatory for him: “I understand now why and how poverty is the root cause of just about everything bad in our schools. It has been a bleak experience, but there are also moments of inspiring success that keep you going.” 

In 2017, Jon and Karen left Boston for Santa Fe where their younger daughter Kristen was supervising all of the volunteer agencies run by that city’s government. Karen joined one of those agencies, Kitchen Angels, which provided meals to homebound residents. Sadly, she died in 2019. Jon stepped into her role and continued making deliveries until early 2025.

Jon’s memories of his time on the Hill included English classes with Edwin Barrett, Dwight Lindley, and George Nesbitt. He credited the latter two with teaching him how to write. He summarized the benefits of a Hamilton education as follows in his 50th reunion yearbook: “I learned to write and speak reasonably well, and those skills have made all the difference because I can’t think well.” He also recalled that the Honor Code influenced his career as a school administrator.

Jonathan E. Slater was predeceased by his wife and is survived by his four children and six grandchildren.

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