Richard McPherson

About Richard McPherson

Richard McPherson helped establish The Avalon School in 2003 after more than two decades of experience in the independent school education of young men. He is the former headmaster of The Heights School, an independent day school for boys in grades 3-12, located in Potomac, Maryland. Under his leadership, enrollment rose from 270 students to 460, and the number of Advanced Placement Scholars grew from three to 32. He also led the school through an ambitious building and improvement program of more than $3 million, providing an excellent foundation for shepherding Avalon and Brookewood through the coming years. Rich assumed the role of Headmaster at Avalon’s sister school, Brookewood, located in Kensington, MD, in 2016. In addition to his duties as President, Headmaster, and mathematics teacher, Rich will continue to serve as director of Avalon’s international student program.

A graduate of Harvard College (’79), Rich taught for two years before pursuing a career as an actuary in New York, where he held positions at Coopers & Lybrand and Metropolitan Life. In 1984, he was named an Associate of the Society of Actuaries. That year also marked his return to his true vocation – education. Prior to assuming the position of Heights’ headmaster in 1997, Rich taught a variety of courses, coached a host of sports and led the 1991-92 varsity basketball team to a top-twenty ranking in The Washington Post. He was the recipient of a National Endowment of the Humanities fellowship at Harvard in 1988, where he studied Aristotle’s natural philosophy.

In 2003, Rich’s leadership in the field of education, record of service to the Church, and volunteer service to the poor led to his investiture into the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem on Rhodes and Malta, commonly recognized as the Order of Malta, by His Eminence Theodore Cardinal McCarrick.

A native of Massachusetts, Rich is a devotee of author G.K. Chesterton, poetry, the Boston Red Sox, and mathematical conundrums. He, his wife Janice, and a selection of their six children – Avalon graduates Matthew (’10), Gil (’11), John Paul (’13), Michael (’17), Ann Marie and Maggie (Brookewood ’16), and a rotating roster of international students, reside in Clarksburg, MD.