In the Folk Tradition

Though he worked as a member of President Truman’s White House staff, and at the same time served as Board Chair at GDS, some would say the most influential and memorable role Philleo Nash had in GDS’s early days was his work as a musician and storyteller.

“In the early days, Philleo came to play the guitar and sing folk songs to the children,” said Edith Nash, his wife and GDS’s second Head of School. “We sang Woody Guthrie songs and many of the mountain folk songs in the Cecil Sharp collection. Philleo invited Alan Lomax to sing at one of our early money-raising events, and Pete Seeger came to sing with the students when his brother Mike was a student.”

In fact, Pete Seeger was frequently seen at GDS during the Grasslands days (1945–55). He would come in on cold mornings to stoke the school’s old furnace.