Richard Parkhurst, native of Winchester, Massachusetts, and member of the Phillips Academy class of 1911, may have been the most avid Andover sports fan in the history of the institution. Parkhurst perceived the members of the baseball and football teams as heroes and documented each game for the Phillipian with incessant enthusiasm. His scrapbook contains cluttered images of star players, game recaps, and various other features on the athletes. Parkhurst disregards his personal life completely and focuses on the performance of others. The abundance of tickets contained in his scrapbook indicates that he regularly attended music recitals and theatre performances. Despite the limited time he spent at Phillips Acacdemy, he exposed himself to all dimensions of the school and embraced the role of an audience member.

In accordance with his devotion to Phillips Academy athletics, Parkhurst was a valuable sports writer for the Phillipian. Among the programs and news clippings in his deteriorated scrapbook is a certificate for the Means Prize, the school’s longstanding and most coveted award for original composition.

Parkhurst’s large blue scrapbook surprisingly lacks any information about him. Parkhurst created his scrapbook in a way that recounted where he went but never describes his impact on the community. He attended Dartmouth College.

by Paul McGovern, Class of 2015

 

Scrapbook Box 14