Alumni News

By Marisa Demers

A typewriter, glue, paper, and the tenacity of Rose Chatfield-Taylor MacMurray ’35, brought the inaugural issue of The Potomac Term to life in 1960. Years before independent schools had marketing departments and alumni magazines had glossy covers, Rose was a parent volunteer and Potomac School board member who saw a need: Potomac was expanding its footprint with new buildings and more students, and Rose’s newspaper-style publication sought to keep the community informed and connected.

Rose and her fellow contributors wrote about the opening of the new Lower School building, the construction of new faculty housing, and how the first class of Middle School boys were getting physically fit and ready to play sports. Rose and friends also referenced a very modern communications dilemma in their first issue. After the school increased faculty salaries, the editorial staff wrote: “Have you heard? The chances are you haven’t, because bad news travels faster than good; and often word of authentic achievement fails to reach the group it would interest the most.”

The Term, as it is more commonly called, kept its newspaper-style design for about 30 years, but it was constantly evolving. The usual writeups about book fairs, fundraising totals, and incoming and exiting board members gave way to meatier stories about the heart of the Potomac experience. In the classroom, laboratory, and on stage, articles spotlighted life on campus, from a teacher’s mission to instill creativity in her students to school musicals to hands-on learning experiences. 

Initially coined as a periodical for families and friends, The Term eventually expanded its reach to alumni. Intermittent postings of alumni news that began in 1961 became a regular fixture in the late 1960s. Soon, pictures of reunions and alumni gatherings filled the pages. In 2006, it officially began to refer to itself as Potomac’s alumni magazine.

By 1999, The Term had switched to the traditional magazine format readers are familiar with today. Just as Rose used The Term to connect families to the school, staff used the magazine format to delve deeper into a Potomac education. Facing the end of the millennia, interim headmaster Peter Briggs wrote in his message for The Term, “Any successful school near our nation’s capital that isn’t thinking hard at the millennium about multiculturalism, technology, environment, learning styles, the media, adolescent psychology ... is doing its students (many of whom are your children, grandchildren, and great- grandchildren) a profound disservice.”

Now, a new iteration of The Term is here. The redesign reflects the power of storytelling to inspire students and alumni to lead lives of purpose, and as Rose envisioned, bring a community together. As the original editors wrote, “Now that Potomac is expanding, and life itself seems to be accelerating, we at the school are resolved to stay in close touch with all our families and friends.”

Read more stories from the The Term.