Faculty and Staff

Faculty and Staff Portrait, Millbrook, Dutchess, New York, c. 1907. Bennett College Collection

Over its 80+ years, Bennett employed hundreds of people on its faculty and expansive network of administrative, household, office, kitchen, infirmary, residence hall, library, bookstore and security staff, including many local residents from Millbrook and its surrounding towns. The early years of the school were remarkable for the number of women in leadership and faculty positions.

At its start in Irvington, May Friend Bennett “was the school” - holding the offices of registrar, head of permissions, and principal, etc. The school’s steward, chief engineer, and housekeeper all reported to her directly.

In 1905, Edith Duble, an alumna of the school, took over management of the School’s business affairs, serving as treasurer, trustee, and member of the School’s executive committee until her resignation in 1929.

By the time the school moved to Millbrook, staffing had expanded to 25 faculty and staff members. In a letter from 1917, as the United States was entering World War I, Miss Bennett listed some of her employees including a “Turkish baker and his Armenian assistant, the Swiss cook and the Greek kitchen-man, the English house-man and the Irish pantry-man, and the Japanese butler…Scots, Finns, Norwegians, and Swedes”. Her letter lamented the loss of “the men in our kitchen” to the war effort and attests to the international staff’s ability to “live under the same roof together”.

Courtney Carroll, Yearbook, Bennet College, Millbrook, New York, 1953. Bennett College Collection.

In 1919, English actor and playwright Charles Rann Kennedy and his wife Edith Wynne Matthison, close friends of May Bennett’s since 1911, joined the school’s faculty as heads of the drama department. See: Theater and the Arts.

Courtney Carroll was hired in 1921 by May Friend Bennett as the school’s Assistant Principal and Miss Bennett’s planned successor. Following Miss Bennett’s death in 1924, Miss Carroll saw the school through the Great Depression and World War II - serving as the school’s Principal from 1924 to 1935 and President from 1935 to 1957. Miss Carroll is credited with starting the school’s long running Child Study Program and Nursery School, which opened in 1934 and operated continuously through the school’s closing in 1977. 

Donald Eldridge, Yearbook, Bennett College, Millbrook, Dutchess, New York, 1957. Bennett College Collection.

Donald Atkins Eldridge was appointed as the third President of Bennett in 1957 and served until 1973. Eldridge’s tenure spanned a shifting cultural landscape and the civil rights movements which gave rise to increased integration of Bennett’s student body in the 1960s and 70s. 

Under his leadership, the school’s Board of Trustees adopted a long-range master plan which led to a multi-year capital campaign and the construction of Carroll Hall,  the Mellon Center for the Arts (1966), and a new Science Building (1972) along with other campus expansions and renovations. He also helped develop a new Overseas Service program, inviting international faculty to teach in Millbrook and encouraging students to travel abroad as part of their education. 

In 1966, Eldridge oversaw the relocation of several campus buildings, including the East and West cottages, when a bypass of State Route 44 moved the road from where it originally ran through the main Bennett campus. The new route ran to the south and west of the campus, connecting with Route 82.

Eldridge was also responsible for increasing faculty salaries and purchasing additional real estate specifically for faculty housing. “With the improvement in housing, Bennett has been able to increase the number of men teachers, who [as of 1966] comprise about half the faculty.” Arguing the staffing change benefitted students by “provid[ing] not only a sound educational atmosphere but the important advantage of hospitality for students in family homes.”

J. William Nystrom, Yearbook, Bennett College, Millbrook, Dutchess, New York, 1971. Bennett College Collection.

Dr. J. William [Bill] Nystrom was appointed Dean of the College in 1970 and as the incoming fourth President of Bennett in 1972. Under his administration, the school continued to work towards the goal of increasing enrollment and expanding the science department’s offerings. In 1976, he announced the school’s partnership with the New York Institute of Technology to offer third and fourth year courses for Bennett students. 

Dr. Nystrom served as President through the school’s closing in 1977 and on the Board of the Bennett College Foundation until 1983.