John Brown, Thetford Academy’s 2025 Employee of the Year
August 25, 2025
Reliable. Hard working. Kind. Steady. Organized. Helpful. Dedicated. These are some of the many awesome adjectives shared in response to the prompt: What words come to mind to describe our colleague John Brown?
Congratulations to Director of Buildings and Grounds John Brown, the recipient of the 2025 Peters Family Dedicated Employee of the Year Award! Initiated by TA educator and alum Ted Peters ‘63 in honor of his parents, the annual award spotlights a Thetford Academy employee for their deep commitment to nurture, support, and inspire the school community. Ted always had in mind that the award would be open to all employees – those working inside classrooms as well as those working outside of the classroom – because it takes a team effort and diverse areas of expertise to keep a school thriving.
In his role, John Brown ensures that our enormous, multifaceted campus is beautiful, clean, safe, and ‘all systems go’ every day of the year – fall, winter, spring, and summer. He leads a team of five staff who work across three shifts (school day, swing, and evening) to keep our school buildings and grounds in top notch condition. In addition to the daily rhythms and work, John has also overseen major projects (planned and unplanned) from the annex wheelchair lift installation in 2024 to the pandemic response planning in 2020.
John is heading into his tenth year of service at Thetford Academy. He brought 16 years of experience in the private sector as a superintendent and project manager at Estes and Gallup into his current position. When reflecting back on the transition, he remembers a sense of excitement and relief in making the leap to TA. ‘Less stress and more joy’ was how he thought of his new job at the time – and he’s happy to report he still feels the same way (except on the occasional winter morning when the boiler isn’t behaving).
John likes the variety that his job entails. He’s a supervisor, a maintenance guy, a landscaper, an administrator, a custodian, and through it all, a troubleshooter and a fixer. When asked what his favorite tool or machine in the maintenance shop is, he answered assuredly: the welder. When asked why, he shared that he appreciates the combination of artistic ability and fabrication knowledge required. Plus, it’s a skill he learned later in life and he likes the challenge of trying new things.
John also enjoys the overlap as a TA dad. The father of two, Emily ‘18 and Lizzie ‘27, John has overlapped at the school with both of his daughters. ‘I get to be more involved as a parent. I don’t have to miss games or art nights. It’s so seamless being at school already.’
There are many different roles required to make a school great. Our school wouldn’t be what it is without the 2025 Dedicated Employee of the Year. Congratulations, John!