David F. Sheldon

David is well known to alumni and friends as Middlesex’s third headmaster, leading the School from 1964 until 1990. After having worked for four years as an account executive with McCann Erickson, Inc., David came to Middlesex in 1957. For the next three years, he taught history and English before becoming director of admissions in 1960. Upon the retirement of Headmaster Monk Terry in 1964, David was appointed his successor.

While headmaster, he served as president of the School Scholarship Service and of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. He was an incorporator of Emerson Hospital and a member of the Overseers Visiting Committee for Harvard College. David was also a trustee of the Carroll School, the Charles River School, Athens College, and the Council for Religion in Independent Schools.

After 33 years at Middlesex, David became the executive director of the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. Retired since 1996, he served for a time as a trustee of the museum, as well as of Shelburne Farms and the Vermont Folklife Center.

David is a graduate of Amherst College with an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and an M.A.T. from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. He has three grown sons and two grandchildren; his son James graduated from Middlesex in 1981.