The Asheville School Alumni Association

Welcome to this Web site, the first step in the revitalization of the Asheville School Alumni Association (ASAA).  This is a virtual home, where alumni can maintain their relationships, build new ones and expand their participation in the greater Asheville School family, from wherever they are!

The ASAA is an organization wholly governed by alumni; that has historically partnered with the School to reach mutually agreed upon objectives.  In recent years, however, the ASAA has been badly neglected.  Many alumni are even unaware the ASAA exists.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States just weeks before Alumni Weekend 2020, Asheville School cancelled the annual event.  As a result, the ASAA election scheduled in accordance with the ASAA By-laws was not held.  However, because there was only one nominee for ASAA president, Austin Bell ’05, Austin became the ASAA president for a two year term.  In the spring of 2022 the pandemic had largely passed and the School organized a traditional Alumni Weekend.

However, the School decided not to discharge its long-held responsibility to host an ASAA election.  Therefore, as in 2020, Philip Skillman ’83, nominated by 25 of our fellow alumni, and the only nominee for ASAA president, has become ASAA president and taken up the responsibility for revitalizing our organization.

The Asheville School has called itself a “threshold to a higher life.”  Asheville School students, for over a century, have formed profound and enduring bonds with one another through participation together in rigorous learning and life experiences.  Now the learning together need not end as one passes through and beyond the Asheville School threshold.  In this age of instantaneous global communication, there’s no reason Asheville School students, once alumni, cannot maintain, enhance and expand across generations their relationships; and continue a life-time of learning together.

One learns best as part of a community.  Benjamin Franklin said: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”  It is a miraculous thing, that Asheville School students are so involved in each other’s early learning and life experiences; but to realize fully the benefits of our auspicious start together, we should continue our learning together.

All Asheville School alumni are invited to join as many of the ASAA clubs that interest them.  The clubs have been created to become hubs, where alumni can continue learning about subject areas which they’ve entered as part of their careers or as part of their abiding interests.  Each club will choose its own leadership and create its own agenda.  Periodically, clubs will be called upon to present “Blues Talks” at alumni gatherings so all alumni may benefit from the learning taking place within individual clubs.

You’re invited to set up your ASAA profile and join as many of the ASAA clubs as interest you.  Also, please encourage your class representatives (ASAA Board Members) to join this site.  This site is the only place to learn about ASAA governance.