Richard Melvoin

Richard Melvoin served as head of school at the Belmont Hill School in Belmont, MA for 25 years, from 1993 to 2018. A 1973 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, with an M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from the University of Michigan. Melvoin began his career at Deerfield Academy, where over fourteen years he taught, coached, directed plays and served as History Department chair and Dean of Studies. He returned to Harvard in 1988 as Assistant Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid and Lecturer in History and Literature. In 1993 he was appointed Head at Belmont Hill. He is the author of New England Outpost: War and Society in Colonial Deerfield (W.W. Norton, 1988), Chapel Talks (a compendium of talks from his years at Belmont Hill), and numerous essays on boys, education and school leadership. Melvoin has been a member of the Board of Overseers at Harvard University, where he served on the Visiting Committee for the Graduate School of Education; the Boards of Trustees of The Winsor School, the Haverford School, and the Epiphany School; the Board of Directors of The Steppingstone Foundation; and the Board of Directors of Facing History and Ourselves. He also served as Board president of the International Boys’ Schools Coalition and president of The Headmasters Association.