Winthrop Senior Tutor To Leave At End of This Academic Year

Winthrop House Senior Tutor Courtney B. Lamberth will step down at the end of this academic year, leaving another vacancy for College administrators to fill.

Lamberth announced her resignation before spring break in an e-mail message sent to all Winthrop House students.

The announcement comes just seven months after the Winthrop House Masters announced their resignations.

Lamberth, who has worked as the House’s senior tutor for the past three years, said she wants to devote more time to her family and her academic work.

She said she hopes to return to the book project about Immanuel Kant’s understanding of freedom that has remained on the back burner during her time as the primary administrator and academic advisor in Winthrop House.

“My decision is also informed by the simple desire to spend more time with my two year-old son, Sampson, and my husband David,” she said. “Sampson is growing up so quickly, and I feel as if I am missing too much.”

Lamberth’s teaching position as a lecturer in the study of religion will expire when she steps down as senior tutor.

“If a job happens to open up in my field in the Study of Religion here, I would love to return to teach, but that’s not likely, so I’ll probably end up teaching somewhere else,” she said.

Lamberth said she decided to step down before she learned that Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 would be forced to resign at the end of this academic year. And her decision to leave the senior tutor’s post has no connection to the masters’ resignation, she said.

“Winthrop House and the College are undergoing big changes, but my decision to step down is independent of them,” she said.

Winthrop House Master Paul D. Hanson praised Lamberth for combining her “impeccable judgment with warmth and charm” that enabled her to offer assistance to students.

Winthrop House Assistant to the Masters Karen Reiber pointed to a toast at last year’s Winthrop House Senior Dinner—when one student said he wished Lamberth could be cloned so other Houses “could have the benefit of her care and commitment”—as an example of students’ respect and admiration for Lamberth.

“She shares information easily and sees what we do as part of a team’s work for the students at Winthrop House,” Reiber said. “Selfishly, I wish she’d continue here, but as her friend, I know she has made the right decision for her.”

Lewis described Lamberth as a “wise, compassionate, and tireless” senior tutor.

“Her service to the House during the difficult days and weeks following the death of a student were everything anyone could hope for from those charged with care of the student body,” he said.

Lamberth’s colleagues described her as a model senior tutor.

“During my own time as a senior tutor, Dr. Lamberth was the colleague I turned to most often for advice, and I think many of the other senior tutors have done so as well,” said Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education John T. O’Keefe. “She’s universally respected by those who work with her daily, and we’re all going to miss her a great deal.”

Some Winthrop students said they will be sad to see Lamberth leave.

“I can understand...the job demands a lot of her time while it’s her son and husband who matter most,” said Daniel B. Tomlin ’03. “Everyone thinks it’s a loss to Winthrop House, I only wish that there’s a way she could do both roles.”

Lamberth said she will miss the students, tutors and staff of Winthrop House.

“This was a difficult decision,” she said.

She added that working with the senior tutors, Lewis and other members of the Administrative Board, “many of whom are not only friends but true role models...personally and professionally” has been a “particular privilege.”

Lewis said Lamberth’s decision to step down stemmed from the need to balance academic and personal ambitions.

“When people are good at so many things and want to do them all superbly, they have to make choices; that is what happened here,” Lewis said.