Thad Bennett ’80 elected to Kent School Board of Trustees

The Rev. Thaddeus (Thad) Bennett, Class of 1980, has been elected to the Kent School Board of Trustees.  Bennett has been serving for over 30 years as a priest in the Episcopal Church in the dioceses of Connecticut, California, Los Angeles and Vermont.  His varied career included serving on staff for two bishops, coordinating the Episcopal Church on the Pacific Coast, serving four congregations as a parish priest, and as founder of three HIV/AIDS organizations. His election to Kent’s Board came partially as a result of his commitment to “serving the under-served and speaking out about the love of God for all people.”  As he is fond of saying, “God loves you.  No exceptions.”

Bennett grew up in Mendham, New Jersey and attended Kent School (Class of 1971), Dartmouth College ’76 and General Seminary ‘80.  Thad says, “The education and inspired mentoring I received at Kent are the foundation from which I have done everything.  Kent gave me the skills and courage to look at things honestly and try to change them for the better. I look forward to helping Kent continue to be a place of excellence and challenge for young people”.

Thad in the Kent yearbook, 1971!

The sport of rowing also was integral to forming him as a young person.  He was a coxswain at Kent and Dartmouth and was the first Executive Director for the national governing body for the sport, which is now US Rowing, and is the President Emeritus of the Friends of Dartmouth Rowing.

In 2017 Bennett, his spouse, George, and their two cats, Harvey and Calvin, moved to Conway, MA to be closer to family and friends.  He is a volunteer rowing coach at Deerfield Academy and a member of the Friends of the Field Memorial Library.   He studies the spirituality of dry stone wall building in his spare time.