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Last week's champagne reception at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology to celebrate the preservation of more than 1,000 acres of Estabrook Woods crackled with excitement. The crowd in attendance knew history was happening. Busy Harvard President Neil Rudenstine took the time to be there himself and gave a rousing welcoming speech.
But of all the good things that were said, the one that demands to be repeated and remembered was uttered by Trudy Coxe, the state Secretary of Environmental Affairs.
Coxe used two important words in describing the rare and wonderful cooperation among private citizens, town boards, state government, conservation agencies and a major university that had resulted in the preservation of this priceless land: "model" and "inspiration."
Those words should stay in the minds of people involved in negotiations between the town and Middlesex School concerning the school's potential expansion into the woods.
The director of the museum singled out the late Dr. Richard Taylor, Concord resident and Harvard field station director, as an inspiration for the preservation agreement being signed by Harvard.
A name that wasn't mentioned in the same regard, but could have been, was that of Monk Terry, former headmaster of Middlesex School. Terry, like Neil Rudenstine, was an educator who knew his priorities. He threw himself into the Estabrook Woods preservation effort as a complement to all that he did at the school, as part of his educational mission.
Nationally ranked schools like Middlesex strive to generate programs and initiatives that will serve as models and inspirations to other educational institutions. Monk Terry provided a unique and far-reaching one: Save Estabrook Woods.