Mr. Charlie Frankenbach, the Russel Murray Bigelow Teaching Chair and instructor in English, has taught and coached at the school for 37 years.

He has taught English at all grade levels and is currently teaching the Senior elective, “Who Did What? Detective Fiction and Film.”

He is a former head of the English department and was interim Dean of Faculty in 2023-2024. He was awarded the Lufkin Prize in 2021. Mr. Frankenbach has coached Varsity and JV Basketball and runs the Fly Fishing cocurricular in the spring.

What led you to start teaching here?

I taught at Loomis for two years after college. After that, I went to graduate school and got married to my wife, Lauren.

Our really dear friends, John and Christie Cooper, had gotten their jobs at Hotchkiss the year before. I was in graduate school in Indiana when they called and told me there’s a position here that I should apply for.

I got a job as a half-time study skills teacher, as well as teaching two courses of English.

I also began to coach JV basketball. Lauren and I moved into Buehler, and that was how my career here started.

What are some notable teaching moments that have left a strong impression on you?

There are millions of those moments. However, there’s one particular moment I always keep coming back to, which has always stayed with me. I had an honors class years back, during the year my dad passed away. I could sense that they knew that I was not my normal self. I remember in the midst of it thinking that they were really being remarkably understanding for young people.

I hope I didn’t bring my troubles into the classroom, but at some level you’re always bringing yourself to it, especially since we were studying works that sometimes went directly to the theme of family.

I come back to that as a moment that highlights the remarkable synergy between students and teachers in this community. For me, it reaffirmed the fact that the students that come here are exceptional people. They were remarkably empathetic and understanding.

A large part of why I love to teach is because we learn from the students all the time. For example, I like to footnote kids or perceptions I have in English class. That part of it is pretty awesome.

What are your plans for your retirement?

I don’t have many specific plans. My wife and I are going to move to Rhode Island, and one of our daughters is getting married. I would like to fish as often as possible. After that, I have no idea.

I’ll keep reading books. It’s going to be interesting to read, like I do in the summer, when I’m not always thinking, “How would I use this book in a classroom setting?”

What advice would you offer to students?

So much of this seems cliché, but it’s very, very true—how quickly your time at Hotchkiss goes, so be mindful of that fact.

I was just sitting at breakfast this morning with two students I taught last year. They’re about to be Upper-Mids, and they were telling me how fast their time here went by. That’s what happens, because you get so immersed in the place.

Something I say all the time is to not wait for a Hotchkiss experience to happen to you; students need to make their own Hotchkiss experiences happen. You have to make your experience happen for you and get after it.

Pursue your interests, but also be wide open to the myriad interests that can happen if you throw yourself into different things.