The newspaper that broke the news of a misconduct lawsuit against a midcoast school failed to mention the paper’s intimate connections with Hyde School.
The question is: Why?
And how could they?!
After all, Sumner Hawley of Bath, who founded the school with Joe Gauld, was married to Jean Gannett, daughter of Portland Press Herald publisher Guy Gannett.
Gannett’s daughter inherited the Portland paper from her father and was its top executive at the time Hawley played an instrumental role founding the school.
The paper last week first reported a lawsuit alleging student abuse at the school but made no mention of the decades-long, intertwined, intimate relationship between the two organizations.
Hawley’s history with Hyde dates to 1965, when he brought to Gauld’s attention the availability of property in Bath that would become the site of the new school in 1966.
The Gannett/Hawley connection to Hyde was more than just a passing 1965 fancy over a real-estate find.
In fact, to this day, the school’s “planned giving fund” is named the Sumner Hawley Society.
Hawley wasn’t just a benefactor – he became a member of the Hyde faculty.In 1976, the Maine State Legislature adopted a joint resolution praising the school – and his work as Hyde’s dean.
“WHEREAS, The Legislature has learned of the Outstanding Achievement and Exceptional Accomplishment of Sumner Hawley, Dean of Faculty … has Won the Acclaim of this State and of our Nation We the Members of the Senate and House of Representatives do hereby Order that our congratulations and acknowledgement be extended.”
When Hawley died in 1993 his obituary identified him as a co-founder of the Hyde School, which dedicated an alumni house in his memory.
As for whether the newspaper he married into consciously went soft on Hyde over the years, a former long-time Portland Press Herald staffer (author of this article) has a distinct memory:
“I remember a standing, non-verbalized order, ‘be good to Hyde.’”
Jean Gannett, scion of Maine’s largest newspaper conglomerate, is buried alongside Sumner Hawley at Oak Grove Cemetery in Bath.
With secrets?
