Wyatt R. Haskell
2007 Outstanding Alum of the Year
By Amy Murphy '91
On the weekend of April 20-22, 2007 , the Class of 1957 gathered for their 50 th reunion. For those who have not seen the school in a while, the campus may have been virtually unrecognizable. Gone is the dorm circle, replaced by the new dorms with interior hallways and warm, inviting commons rooms. Among the festivities at Alumni Weekend was the dedication of named spaces, including the Haskell Commons in the new boys' dorm, named after Indian Springs's Outstanding Alum of the Year Wyatt Rushton Haskell '57 and his brother Preston H. Haskell III '56.
When asked why he chose to attend Indian Springs, then a new experimental school in rural Shelby County, Haskell replies that he wasn't really responsible for the decision. He is descended, he says, from a line of academic achievers, including an especially illustrious group among his mother's brothers, including the uncle after whom Haskell is named, who was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University . When his parents saw the potential of the new school, they eagerly accepted the chance to send their sons to what promised to be a wonderful educational opportunity. At this new school, Haskell discovered a faculty willing to take a particular interest in him and do everything they could to help him succeed. In an environment where he was not just a face in the crowd, the young man thrived and developed a desire to return the favor to the school. After finishing at Indian Springs as a member of the third graduating class, Haskell attended Amherst College , where he found an environment similar to the one in which he had thrived at Indian Springs. After graduating with a major in American history, Haskell narrowly missed winning a Rotary Scholarship, but his father nevertheless kindly supported a year of study in Vienna . After his year in Europe , Haskell returned to the Northeast for law school at Yale. The German he learned in Vienna served him well when, after graduating from Yale in 1965, Haskell received fellowship from Oxford University to serve as a Visiting Research Assistant at the University of Muenster's (Germany) Institute of Comparative Law.
Haskell eventually returned to his hometown of Birmingham , becoming a founding member of the law firm Haskell, Slaughter, Young, and Rediker, specializing in public finance. His law practice has thrived, enabling Haskell and his family to give back to their community and the greater world in many ways. Haskell has seen Birmingham through many changes, including the city's transformation from a town dependent upon coal and steel to a center of medical research. Haskell has supported the public higher education that has aided Birmingham in this transition, helping to create a Fund for Excellence at UAB, intended to recruit and retain top faculty at the university. He has also done a great deal to support the city's cultural initiatives, including serving as a director or trustee for the Alabama Ballet, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the Birmingham Music Club. Such is Haskell's support for civic and community causes in Alabama that he and his wife, Susan, received the "Outstanding Philanthropist" Award from the Alabama Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals in 2005. Haskell's philanthropy is not limited to his hometown but encompasses the wider world. In 2001, he helped fund two vision-science researchers from UAB to attend an international conference in Prague , a conference organized by his roommate from his year in Muenster. As a trustee of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington , D.C. , he wanted to help make the Folger less a refuge of the scholar and more of a national treasure for the broad public. The Haskell Center for Education and Public Programs, a state-of-the-art facility for outreach and education at Folger, opened in 2000. Always grateful to those who mentored him in his youth, Haskell also helped establish the Henry Steele Commager professorship at Amherst , named after the legendary historian who also took the time to take a personal interest in his students. The Wyatt Rushton Fellowship in Law at Trinity College , Oxford , is named after an uncle who studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Trinity College and died shortly after serving in World War I.
Haskell has also been a long-time supporter of his high school. When asked why he has supported Indian Springs over the years, Haskell shrugs and replies that he would not have done everything he has done without the foundation Indian Springs gave him. “Without Indian Springs,” he says, “I would not have gone to Amherst . If I had not gone to Amherst , I would not have gone to Yale. And if I had not gone to Yale, I would not be in the position I am in now.”
Indian Springs, Haskell says, started a pattern of privileged educational opportunities that have given him outstanding opportunities in life. For Haskell, giving back to Indian Springs is not at all about seeing his name on a plaque, but repaying a sense of obligation to the school and the faculty members who took an interest in a teenage boy and helped shape him into the man he has become. |
