Having quietly taken over for long-time Choate Rosemary Hall Headmaster Edward Shanahan, who retired at the end of the last school year, Alex Curtis (shown at left) gets his moment of pomp and circumstance on Wednesday when he is invested as the school's president.

The ceremony, which will be conducted on the lawn of Archbold Hall at 11 a.m., will feature a speech from Sir Ken Robinson, an education expert (shown in photo below)

Robinson led a national commission in England in1998 on creativity, education and innovation.
The report issued by that panel was published in 1999 to wide acclaim.

Robinson was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 for his contributions to cultural relations between the United States and England.

Curtis became headmaster of the school in the beginning of July. Before coming to Choate, he spent seven years as headmaster of Morristown-Beard School in New Jersey.

Curtis is only the third headmaster at Choate since it merged with Rosemary Hall in 1974.

Curtis was hired last November, just nine months after he had signed what trustees with Morristown-Beard called a "long term contract" to remain at the New Jersey school.