A Greenhorn Gives Back -
Bob Henson

Robert N. Henson is hardly a “greenhorn.” He's been teaching music and art at Carolina Day School for 41 years. But he was a newcomer to teaching when he was first hired at CDS, and he remembers with great fondness the experienced teachers who helped him along the way.

“One of the things I remember the most is the older teachers who were working here when I came,” Henson recalls, “people like Martha Nell Lovette and Cornelia Stephens. They were all willing to take a greenhorn like me and share things I could do to improve my own teaching. Those early years were quite a wonderful experience for me.”

Henson grew up in Haywood County and attended Canton High School . From there he went to Western Carolina University , where he double-majored in music and art. He earned his master's degree in art and art history at Vanderbilt and has done post-graduate study at numerous schools, including Manhattan College, Atlanta Art Institute and UNC Asheville.

Henson came to CDS in 1964 when it was Asheville Country Day School , on the same campus but with not as many buildings as now. He had served as the choir director at First Congregational Church in Asheville , also the church home of then-headmaster Marshall Abell, who sang in the choir. In the spring of 1964 Abell was losing a part-time music teacher and a part-time art teacher. He combined them into one position and talked Henson into filling the role. Henson taught both music and art for about 10 years, until CDS hired a full-time music teacher and Henson went full-time into art.

Since that “green” beginning, Henson has evolved into one of Carolina Day School 's teaching legends. Along the way, he created the art history curriculum at CDS. And for more than 20 years, he took CDS students to see great art in museums in New York City and in Spain , Italy and Greece . His personal evolution has included an independent study in the 1970s of pre-Columbian art in Mexico , Central America and South America , which resulted in courses he has taught both at CDS and at UNC Asheville.

In June 2003, Henson established a special deferred gift to benefit the school he has served for so long. “ I was working with my financial advisor on my investment portfolio,” Henson says. “I decided that since CDS had been my home for so many years, I wanted to assign the school as the recipient of a retirement annuity. I've been aware of these kinds of gifts for years. When I purchased the annuity I told my advisor that's what I wanted to do.”

How does a retirement annuity work? When Henson retires, he will receive monthly payouts from the principle of the annuity for as long as he lives. When he dies, the principle will revert to CDS. The gift is structured in such a way to benefit both parties, first Henson and ultimately CDS. Henson adds that he has also left part of his estate to CDS in his will.

Why did Henson decide to make such a generous and creative gift?

“I'm very attached to Carolina Day School ,” he says, “mentally, emotionally, intellectually and, of course, physically. Obviously, I wouldn't have been here so long if I didn't like the place. If you like something very much you tend to foster it, to help it, to make it grow. That's what I hope my gift will do.”

He also says he wishes to honor the memory of those teachers who helped him in his early days. As to his personal plans, “ I hope to keep serving as long as I can,” he says. That will be a double gift for CDS, a deferred gift some day down the road, and the everyday gift of his teaching students, right here, right now.

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