Letter from the Editor

When you spend a year celebrating 150 years, you start to think a lot about legacy.

It’s a word we use often, especially in education. It sounds permanent. Settled. Like something carefully preserved over time. But working on this final Sesquicentennial issue shifted that thinking for me. The more we looked back, the more we found evidence of change.

Tabor’s legacy isn’t built on standing still. It’s built on evolution.

You see it in the details—in traditions that lasted and others that were reinvented, in symbols that shifted quietly over time, in the way each generation left its imprint without erasing what came before.

You see it most clearly in place itself. Tabor didn’t just grow—it moved. From one part of town to another, gradually embracing the waterfront that now feels inseparable from the school’s identity.

That shift did more than change the view; it shaped the entire experience. The harbor became a classroom. The shoreline became a gathering space. Maritime traditions took root—not as aesthetic choices, but as lived ones. Over time, proximity to the sea deepened into something more: a commitment to marine science, nautical leadership, exploration, and stewardship.

In many ways, Tabor didn’t simply relocate. It leaned into what made it distinct. That same pattern shows up again and again across the decades. Enrollment has grown. The makeup of the student body has shifted. Opportunities have expanded. And yet, there’s a consistency beneath it all. The photo comparisons throughout this issue make that clear. Decades apart and still connected. Different faces, different fashions, different campus landscapes, but a familiar sense of legacy that transcends time.

That’s what stands out most as we approach the closing of this commemorative year. Not that Tabor has remained unchanged for 150 years … but that it has continually adapted in order to remain true to its mission.

Legacy, I’ve come to realize, isn’t what we preserve. It’s what we continue. 

The students walking campus today aren’t just inheriting Tabor’s legacy; they’re actively building it. The traditions they shape, the culture they influence, the identity they define. Every moment becomes part of the story that someone else will look back on one day. 

One hundred and fifty years in, Tabor’s legacy is still forming. Still evolving. Still being written in real time. And that may be the most meaningful milestone of all. 

Thank you for celebrating this history with us and for continuing to shape what comes next. 

Stacy Jagodowski, Director of Strategic Marketing & Communications