The Joyful REturn of Dr. Donald Cramp

10/14/2024

RE’s new Head of the Upper School promotes an ‘ethic of care’

When Dr. Donald Cramp interviewed for the job of Head of the Upper School late last year, one might say he had an ace up his sleeve. It wasn’t just that he had worked at Ransom Everglades 10 years before in a variety of roles, including Dean of Students, Interim Science Department Chair and Assistant Head of the Upper School. It wasn’t just that he was beloved – adored, even – by former colleagues, who remembered him fondly for his warm and joyful demeanor on campus. It wasn’t even the fact that he had served as a successful and well-regarded campus head already at Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart in Houston, Texas. In addition to all that, Cramp had a unique qualification: he had done his doctorate on Ransom Everglades.

“That, for me, was really important,” said Head of School Rachel Rodriguez. “I just knew that there would be nobody else who knew the school in that way – who had studied it, and had studied the importance of relationships within the community.”

To be clear, it wasn’t exactly a doctorate on Ransom Everglades. Cramp’s dissertation, which he defended in 2011, focused specifically on the Adirondack-Florida School and then the Ransom School before the 1974 merger. Nevertheless, he found himself asking questions about the school’s early institutional culture that spoke directly to his daily work as a dean and assistant upper school head.

While working toward his doctorate in educational leadership at Florida International University, Cramp found himself captivated by the idea of an “ethic of care,” a concept first developed in the field of nursing. As opposed to other moral frameworks like Utilitarianism and Virtue Ethics, an ethic of care defines moral action in terms of interpersonal relationships and responsiveness to the needs of others. Cramp had never seen the concept applied to an educational context, but he felt its urgency. He wondered: to what extent did an “ethic of care” sustain Ransom in its early days? To what extent is an “ethic of care” essential to a healthy, functioning school?

“I was able to share that, if caring attitudes prevail in a school environment, then the likelihood of the school surviving for a long, long time is really high,” Cramp said.

In his new role as RE’s Head of the Upper School, promoting an “ethic of care” has become Cramp’s priority once again. But challenges lie ahead, including and especially the challenge of scale. It was one thing for Paul Ransom to make his 12 charges feel seen and cared for at the early Adirondack-Florida School, where, as Cramp pointed out, “everybody knew everybody.” What does it take to model an “ethic of care” at an upper school with a population of over 700 students and so many moving parts?

It’s a daunting question. But if there’s one person equipped to tackle it – one person who, according to those who knew him, seems preternaturally capable of conveying care, warmth and genuine respect toward every person he meets – it’s Cramp.

“Within the first week, I was like, 'This is just fantastic.' I just fell in love with teaching.”

Donald Cramp, Head of the Upper School

From Eagles to alligators to Hurricanes

If you ask Cramp where he’s from, he’ll say “Philly,” insisting that he’s an Eagles fan to such a profound extent that he almost hesitated to take a job in the same state as the Dallas Cowboys. But the answer belies the fact that he’s actually from a lot of places. The only child of an operating room nurse (his mother) and a hospital administrator (his father), he spent his early years moving around constantly as his father was charged with revamping institutions all across North America, including hospitals at The Ohio State University and the University of Alberta. He speaks with pride about the care that both parents exhibited in their day-to-day professions.

“My father is incredibly thoughtful, and loves to be – although it wasn’t the term at the time – a servant leader,” he said. “And then my mother was also caring for people. It’s just kind of how I grew up,” he said.

He discovered his own professional calling – or at least one part of it – on a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium when he was 12 years old. Just south of the aquarium lay tide pools teeming with life among the rocks of the California coastline. Cramp was “mesmerized.”

“You can see otters living in the kelp, and apparently, during certain times of the year, you can see humpback whales off in the distance,” he said. “I was like, ‘yeah, this is it. I’d love to study this.’”

The fascination endured and pulled him to the University of Miami, where he majored in marine science and biology. At UM, he joined forces with a doctoral student who was researching the feeding habits of alligators in the Everglades – a project that required a significant amount of gator wrangling.

“We would go out on a Thursday or Friday night to the Shark Valley entrance, get in an airboat, and catch gators,” Cramp explained. “Everything from little ones – we called them ‘hand grabbers’ – to big ones. I think the biggest one I ever caught was like 12 feet. When catching smaller ones, I would hang over the side or the front of the airboat, grab it with both hands around its neck, and then just put it between my legs and hold onto it while the doctoral student would tape its jaws shut. And then we’d do the research.”

Cramp loved the science, but he didn’t love the solitude of the lab. A self-described extrovert with “the gift of the gab,” he balked at the prospect of going into academia and “counting snails or vertebrae” for hours. When an opportunity for a marine science teacher opened up at Palmer Trinity School, he took a chance on teaching – and Palmer took a chance on a 22-year-old with no teaching experience.

“Within the first week, I was like, ‘This is fantastic,’” he said. “I just fell in love with teaching.”

Cramp’s first stint at Ransom Everglades

After six years at Palmer, during which he also coached football, soccer and baseball, Cramp interviewed for a position at RE. He was tentative at first; at the time, Palmer considered itself RE’s chief rival and had just taken possession of the famous Oar. But when he met legendary RE science faculty members such as Jay Calkins, Doc Crabtree and Bob DuBard, he was impressed.

“I was blown away by how welcoming they were, how real they were, how open to making some changes they were,” Cramp said.

The new job carried other perks. Cramp got to coach football. He got to revamp the ecology curriculum. Whereas, at Palmer, he would take his students across Old Cutler Road to collect a little seawater every so often, now he could take them out on the bay.

At RE, he also pursued opportunities in administration and began to develop his signature brand of warm, compassionate leadership. Before he became Dean of Students, then-Head of the Upper School Mike Ferguson set him up to be mentored by Owen Paris, a longtime coach and assistant dean who was treasured by the community. Cramp took inspiration from Paris’s ability to be firm yet kind. “He taught me so much about being someone who really cares for people, for students, but also helps them recognize the consequences of their actions. He helped me find that balance of being able to say, ‘Yeah, you’re going to get a detention, but when you leave my office, you’re still laughing. We’re still simpatico. We’re still good,’” Cramp said.

As dean, Cramp prided himself on making the rounds, being attentive, and being flexible when necessary. He kept a stash of Bic razors in his office so that unkempt Ransom Everglades boys could clean themselves up. He would also play foosball on the senior deck and challenge students to rock-paper-scissors if he saw phones – which were banned at the time – creeping out. Above all, he endeavored to model the kind of respect and care he was expecting from them.

“It takes a lot of energy and thought to ensure that students recognize that at the end of the day, even though you’re making them shave, or you’re asking them to leave the school, that you still care for them, that you still know that they’re good kids, that they just made a mistake,” he said.

By all accounts, Cramp was effective. Faculty and staff members who knew him 10 years ago speak in reverential tones about his tenure as dean.

“I have never seen Don without a smile,” said front office support staff member Monique Regis. “He handles situations with grace and ease. Students always had respect for him even when they had to be disciplined. He has the power to speak to students in a firm and even manner, getting his message across without causing offense.”

When the time came for Cramp to move on and assume the role of Upper School Head at Duchesne, the move was intensely bittersweet – not just because he, his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Victoria and Matilda, knew “nobody” in Texas (Eleanor was born in Texas) – but also because he knew everybody at RE.

“I left here not heartbroken, but with a heavy heart, because things were really good here,” he said. “I left what I felt was a good, good place.”

“I have never seen Don without a smile. He handles situations with grace and ease. Students always had respect for him even when they had to be disciplined. He has the power to speak to students in a firm and even manner, getting his message across without causing offense.”

Monique Regis, front office support staff

Back home

Much has changed at Ransom Everglades in the decade since Cramp’s departure. The school has gotten bigger both in terms of class size and physical footprint, incorporating new facilities such as La Brisa and the Fernandez STEM Center. RE now has laptops for every student, a significantly expanded college counseling office, and a committee of teachers working to address the rise of artificial intelligence – a new technology that could very well threaten students’ sense of self-worth.

At the same time, Cramp feels emboldened and inspired by another change: The RE Way. When he read the school’s new mission statement and core values, he found the language deeply resonant, not just because it echoed his own work on the “ethic of care” – the statement explicitly invokes “caring faculty” – but also because it reminded him of the principles of Sacred Heart education that had drawn him to Duchesne. There, and here, he wants to be the kind of leader who focuses on students holistically, not just academically, and gives them the freedom to make “wise choices.”

“The importance of giving back, the importance of being inclusive, and thoughtful, and caring – that’s holistic education. No matter what, whether you’re at Ransom Everglades, Palmer Trinity, Carrollton or Duchesne, that’s what we’re talking about,” he said.

His first priority as upper school head, he says, is to be present as much as possible – and to listen to as many people as possible in spite of his natural loquaciousness.

“What I’ve been tasked to do is to be a good listener and to really observe the needs of the community – faculty, staff, students, parents, everyone,” he said. “Some things haven’t changed, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But things have changed in 10 years, and I have to be in tune with that.”

For Cramp, the return to RE represents a growth opportunity – the opportunity to lead a campus twice the size of Duchesne, with all the complexities of co-education, under a banner of care that resonates with his own convictions. But he thinks of it as a homecoming first and foremost, an opportunity for him and his family “to come back to a community I love.” And if you talk to those who knew him 10 years ago, it’s clear that they feel the same way. “Don is one of the most kind, thoughtful, and genuine people that I know,” Science Department Chair Paul Natland ’02 said. “He is very supportive, has great energy, and knows and respects the history of this place. He believes in it being a force for good in the community.”

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RE founder Paul Ransom, circa 1903

The Joyful REturn of Dr. Donald Cramp

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