Board of Trustees

Rick joined the Board in 1970 and served as its president for six years, from 1985 to 1991. In 1996, he was named a trustee emeritus and continues to lend his advice and assistance to the Board today.

A 1963 graduate of Harvard, Rick first worked for the National Shawmut Bank as an analyst. Joining the Federal Street Capital Corporation in 1965, he served as vice president while earning his M.B.A. at Boston University. He is now a partner emeritus of and an advisor to Charles River Ventures, a firm that he helped found in 1970. In addition to his association with Middlesex, Rick is a past chairman of both the WGBH Educational Foundation and the Museum of Science in Boston, and he continues to be active in both organizations. He is also a trustee of the Sea Education Association.

Four generations of the Burnes family have graduated from Middlesex, beginning with Rick’s uncles, James ’29 and Kennett ’33, and his father Bunny ’35, who was a trustee from 1957 to 1959. Rick’s brothers—Bear ’57, Ken ’61, Dan ’64, and Andy ’68—are all alumni, as are three nephews, Jamie ’92, Rick ’94, and Alex ’04, and two nieces, Jennifer Burnes Fulton ’85 and Eliza Burnes Brown ’98. Rick’s grandnephew, George Fulton ’21, begins the family’s fourth generation to attend Middlesex. Rick has three grown children—Sarah ’85, Gordon, and Ethan—and nine grandchildren.

In addition to this extensive family legacy, it is the challenge of keeping Middlesex in the first rank of educational institutions that has drawn Rick to his work as a trustee. Schools like Middlesex, he believes, have the ability to send educated graduates into the world to become productive leaders and contributing members of their communities.

Having served as Middlesex’s Head of School for 13 years, Deirdre retired in June 2003 to her home in Martha’s Vineyard, where she and her husband Ed spend six months of the year; the other six are spent in Bonita Springs, Florida. She continues to lend her administrative expertise to schools and other institutions as the senior partner in Educators’ Collaborative, the longest established independent school consulting firm. Since joining the firm in 2003, Deirdre has assisted more than 125 schools with identifying their heads of school and has been retained by them for strategic planning and board governance training.

Deirdre holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Rochester, an M.A. in English from the University of Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. in English from Tufts University. Beginning her career in education as a college admissions officer, Deirdre joined the University of Massachusetts in 1978 as director of freshman admissions. The following year, she became dean of admissions, responsible for total undergraduate recruitment and admissions. Promoted just two years later as the dean of academic support systems, she was soon appointed assistant chancellor and then vice chancellor for university relations and development, a position she held for seven years. For ten years, Deirdre also enjoyed serving as an adjunct lecturer in the Women’s Studies Program, teaching courses on women in management and higher education and on Asian American women. Seeing a wonderful opportunity at Middlesex, she became the fourth head of school in 1990. In 1992, she resumed teaching, taking on a section of English, and began serving as a faculty advisor for several students each year.

Previously, Deirdre served as a trustee of the Council for the Advancement of and Support of Education (CASE), the Educational Records Bureau (ERB), Independent Educational Services (IES), the College Board, Emerson Hospital, Falmouth Academy, Fay School, and the Louis August Jonas Foundation. 

First appointed a trustee in 1980, Jim served two terms as president of the Middlesex Board, from 1991 to 1999 and from 2004 to 2007. He is now a trustee emeritus.

Jim’s 20-year banking career began in St. Louis and concluded in Boston. Over his career, Jim has served on numerous boards, including John Hancock Funds, Virtus Funds, and Stifel Financial.

A 1969 graduate of Harvard with a B.A. in American history, Jim earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1971. He then spent two years with the Peace Corps in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he taught in the master’s degree program at Tribhuvan University. Judith Oates is a registered, self-employed architect. The Oates family legacy at Middlesex continues with their son Justin ’98 and granddaughter
Olivia ’29.

Before serving as Middlesex’s Board President from 1999-2004, Mike was the national chairman of The Campaign of a Century. A trustee since 1993, Mike has followed the example of his father, the late Royall Victor ’32, who served on the Board from 1958 to 1961. Mike believes that Middlesex had an enormous impact on his growth and development as a young man and hopes to carry on the magnificent job that his predecessors have begun in shaping one of the top small, coeducational boarding schools in the country.

After graduating from Middlesex, Mike attended Yale University and served in the U.S. Army’s Security Agency for three years. Following his honorable discharge, he returned to Yale and earned his B.A. in economics. Mike began his career in banking in 1964 at Chemical Bank. After serving as vice president and general manager of Chemical Bank’s branch in Paris, he was appointed senior vice president in the corporate division in 1978 and was named head of Chemical’s U.S. Group in 1980. In 1997, Mike retired as managing director of the Chase Manhattan Corporation’s Chase Securities, Inc. Prior to the 1996 merger of Chemical Banking Corporation and Chase Manhattan, he held a similar position with Chemical Bank. A former member of Cercle Interalliee, he has served on the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in France and the American Club of Paris.

Mike is passionately committed to supporting private education and to issues of conservation and the environment. Since his retirement from the banking industry, he has devoted much of his time to coastal preservation on the island of Palm Beach. Increasingly concerned about environmental and educational issues in his home state of Florida and around the world, Mike serves on the Board of the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties. He has also devoted significant time to his work on the board and executive committee of the Atlantic Salmon Federation and other conservation organizations.

Among his other board affiliations, past and present, are U.S. Industries, USI Atlantic Corp., Jacuzzi Brands, Inc., Marine Harvest International, Sea Research Foundation, the New York City School Volunteer Program, the Angler’s Club of New York, Turtle Bay Music School, Palm Beach Civic Association, White Memorial Foundation, White Memorial Conservation Center, and Housatonic Valley Association-Green Print. Mike’s stepdaughter, Laura Waldorf Griffen ’88 is also a Middlesex graduate.