b'C H A P T E R T W OBeyond having a distinctive appearance and authoritative voice, he enters the lists with a long memory, firm convictions, and a temporizing streak of benevolence. He first came on the Chatham scene in 1949 when, fresh from three years duty as an ensign in the Navy Air Corps, he drove down to the Cape in his 37 Ford convertible to start teaching at the Main Street School.3 Soon, he was named head, in turn, of teachers associations in Chatham, Barnstable County, and Newton, Massachusetts. Afterward, he worked up through the hierarchy of the National Education Association, the largest teachers organization in the nation, and by the mid-1960s, he had reached NEAs presidency. That led to other jobs in teachers and labor groups in California, Florida, and New Bedford. As of 1984, he returned to Chatham full-time as a realtor, and, increasingly, as a willing, vocal, unhesitant participant in town affairs.It was not long before Batch got to know a like spirit, Lew Kimball. Tall and erect,Kimball has been a calm, cool supporter of FCWs activities ever since its founding. When he speaks, its in a resonant voice that any producer of radio commercials would envy. But beneath mere sound quality, theres a consistent underpinning of good sense and reason in what he has to say. He can draw on 42 years of experience in independent schoolsas teacher, coach, director of admissions, and headmaster (in Santa Barbara,California, McLean, Virginia, and Dover, Massa Before settling year- chusetts). In twenty years as a school head, heround in Chatham in learned a lot about working with boards of1999, Lewis Kimball trustees, as well as coping with fractious students,(Lew) devoted a lifetime to independent school aging school plants, and thirsty budgets. education.Summering in Martha Stone, Batch Batchelder, andChatham in the eighties, Lew Kimball -these longtime FCW directorshe shouldered tasks for epitomize both the strengths and diversity ofthe new Friends of Stage Friends board members going back to theHarbor Waterways.Ever since, hes been a director beginning in the summer and fall of 1983. and often an officer.Names, faces and backgrounds may have changed, but quality has seldom been compromised.25'