Alumni Spotlight: Tim Quinn '96

Tim Quinn graduated from Westminster in 1996 and later returned as a faculty member. He is currently Head of the Upper School at the Tatnall School in Delaware where he lives with his Wife, Sarah, and two young children, Connor and Annie. Despite his busy schedule, Tim still finds ways to give back to Westminster in various meaningful ways, and has remained a great ambassador for the school. Tim took a few minutes to catch up with us and reveal why he maintains such a strong connection with Westminster.

My experience as a student at Westminster was so positive, that, despite moving quite a bit (Massachusetts, Connecticut, back to Massachusetts, South Korea, back to Connecticut, Wisconsin, and now Delaware) I have never actually left school. My current post has me as Head of the Upper School at the Tatnall School in Wilmington, DE. Tatnall is PK-12 School of about 600 total students. It’s much like Westminster in its small size and its emphasis on community. Because of the strong community, Tatnall in known as “the family school” in Wilmington, and my own family takes that quite literally, as my wife, Sarah (former Westminster faculty as well) is the Director of Upper School Admissions, and my children, Connor (5) and Annie (3) are both students in the pre-school.  

I feel extremely fortunate to have had the opportunities that were given to me, and in addition to working to provide those opportunities for others in an attempt to equal the playing field in our society, I also feel obligated to give back to those institutions that helped me get to where I am today - both personally and professionally.

Naturally, my perception of Westminster has changed over the years. I’ve had the opportunity to see it from many different perspectives, inside and out. I’ve also worked at many different schools, which has given me quite a unique lens by which to view any school. All schools, even those considered great schools by the masses, have their challenges and have ways in which they can grow, and Westminster is certainly not exempt from that, but what makes any school a place where students can thrive is the quality and character of the people there, in particular the faculty. The world has changed and Westminster has changed with it, but the quality and character of the faculty has not changed, which is why it remains an outstanding place for a student to spend what many would consider the most important years of their adolescence.

I’m back on campus enough and in touch with enough faculty regularly that for me, the best thing about reunion will be to connect with former classmates that I have not seen or spoken to in a while.

It really comes down to “Grit & Grace” - both in the more common interpretation of a balance between toughness or grittiness and gracefulness in one’s conduct, as well as in its more complex original Latin form, “Virtute et Numine,”which, in a more strict translation, gives us “by human righteousness and divine grace.”

The first, more modern “Grit & Grace” gives us two virtues that we should make a part of our lives, but that are seemingly opposed to one another. To be “gritty” and to be “graceful” at the same time is quite a trick to pull off, and although I often fail, I strive to strike that balance each day. Grit seems to come a little more naturally to me, but I am working hard on the grace.

There also lies a contradiction at the heart of the original Latin, which poses a more existential problem - why do things happen? Is it human action from free will that drives the world or is it some divine will that is at work? Or perhaps in our more modern, secular age we might wonder if genetics and biological/evolutionary determinism have predestined all things and we are just cogs in a wheel with the illusion of freedom. We’ll never know the answer, but I have come to believe and seem reminded of this every day that both are true. We control a few things, but so much is out of our control, and an understanding of this central fact of our existence is critical to living a productive and happy life. To believe solely one or the other can only lead to frustration and despair.

As you can see, I’ve done a good deal of reflecting on Westminster’s motto, and this more than anything exemplifies how Westminster has shaped my life.

This is such a difficult question for an educator to answer. There is so much advice I would love to give, but most of it would seem like nothing more than trite platitudes. Every Sixth Former is unique and they deserve individually tailored advice from someone who knows them well. But, because I can’t resist saying something, I’d like to tell them all to read the book Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life by William Deresiewicz. It really is a must read for everyone in their generation. Oh, and they should all spend less time on their phones (sorry, Sixth Formers, I’m already becoming an old crank).