New to the history department this year is Hans Doerr, teaching both the third and fourth forms.

Aside from teaching classes, Mr. Doerr is also helping coach the crew team.. He coached right out of college, coaching year round at the Detroit Boat Club for five years. He also coached for 2 years in Seattle, and at both Blair Academy and Darlington School. Kent is his fifth team, and approximately his sixteenth year.

During his college career, Doerr rowed for The University of Virginia. He says that “rowing on a team is amazing. I mean, you’re friends with people you never would’ve been friends with otherwise. You’ve got weddings and births to celebrate for the rest of your life.” Reflecting on his experience, he explains how “having a chance to compete because it’s a late entry sport – to compete as a college athlete was pretty special and to represent your university… it was a privilege to do so.”

Outside of the classroom and away from the river, Mr. Doerr says the most fun thing he does right now is his role as a father.

Doerr says he wouldn’t mind learning Latin so he could learn other languages more easily, as well as Spanish, which he’d be interested in learning. On the topic of hidden talents, he exclaims “oh – I’m a good cook, and baker.”

On his opinion living among his students, he explains how he attended Hill, also a boarding school. “So it’s not foreign by any stretch, I’m pleasantly surprised that the halls are pretty tidy.” He finds that it’s not as noisy for his son, Robert, as he thought it would be. He says “I kinda like it. I like being around kids all the time, it’s sort of a more macro sense, especially now that I have a family.” So many people are familiar with Robert, and “it’s almost like a bygone era. You’re in a community with a few hundred people and they really do know who you are and who your kid is.”

He thought being on the river this fall was really relaxing, because the “program at Kent is so well established.” He also likes going up in the woods on the bike trail along the creek.

Compared to other schools, he finds that “Kent places a lot of trust on the students…in terms of the amount of freedom you have. The rowing, of course, is different from any boarding school in the country –  it’s sort of the Notre Dame of high school rowing, in terms of history and success.” On the religious aspect, he says he “thinks there’s a lot to be said for people to be meeting three times a week and just being quiet together regardless of whatever that means.”

Doerr says he has “a pretty wild imagination”, but he laughs, “I like History and I like stories, and I like kids, and so those three all certainly fit together very well, so that’s why I do what I do.”