THE SEARCH
ENDED AND
THE BALDECCHI
YEARS BEGAN
By Thomas W. Miller (H’07),
Board Chair 2004 - 2006
On November 6, 2003, Rob Brewer; Kim DeCamp; Gail Weissinger, former faculty
member; and I drove to Asheville School to meet with one of the five final candidates
for Head of TLS. We jointly prepared a memo of our collective observations and
conclusions from our meetings with parents; administrators; faculty; trustees;
Arch Montgomery, the Head; and ten students. Although we were concerned
about Chuck’s young age, it is remarkable how accurate our observations were
about the man who morphed into the fantastic Head we have had for the last
15 years. I want the TLS constituents to enjoy our observations:
• “ Chuck is a big picture person who is described as a
visionary and forward thinking.”
• “ Chuck is a very good person to work with who is all-
inclusive and is open-minded about acknowledging
when he is wrong, after which he apologizes.”
• “ When bad news has to be communicated to a family,
Chuck will invariably call himself rather than have the
assistant deal with the family members.”
• “ His enthusiasm and camaraderie appear to be
infectious.”
Tom Miller
16
• “ He is an outstanding teacher who enjoys being
around people and selling the school so much he will
unquestionably be a very successful fundraiser.”
• “ Chuck treats everyone well … he is able to get along
very well with all parents and students regardless of
their backgrounds.”
• “ He is a fantastic teacher.”
• “ All who work with Chuck find themselves having a
good morale because he is pleasant and happy.”