PRESS KIT: Bio of Harry Dresser, Jr.

Harry Holland "Dutch" Dresser, Jr., Associate Head of School and CIO

As director of studies at Gould Academy and one who is fond of math and science, Dr. Harry H. "Dutch" Dresser sees the new $4.4 million Science Center as a dream come true ö one he has held for a very long time.


After graduating from Cape Elizabeth High School in 1962, Dutch planned a career teaching science. He earned an undergraduate degree in science education at Gorham State College and a master's in educational administration at Goddard College.

Before embarking on a teaching career, Dutch served on active duty in the U.S. Naval Reserve, assigned to the USS Fiske (DD842), where he worked on the ship's gun fire control computer, an electro-mechanical computer about the size of a Volkswagen beetle. His aptitude with computer technology has continued to play a key role throughout his career.

Dutch began teaching science at Shead Memorial High in Eastport, Maine. Then, from 1969 to 1977, he taught biology, geometry and celestial navigation at The Hinckley School in Hinckley, Maine. He also served as the school's director of athletics and director of studies.

After returning to school to complete a doctorate in science education at the University of Maine, Dutch was hired by Gould Academy in 1979 as the assistant headmaster, director of studies and math teacher.

About the same time, Radio Shack introduced its first line of personal computers. Dutch was hooked. He learned to operate and program computers, and, by the early '80s, created a computer lab at Gould for students. He also installed Gould's first computer network, which was simply a bulletin board service that students could access through computers with telephones in the dorms.

Over the years, Dutch has assured Gould's position as a secondary school technology leader by introducing multiple hardware, software, and systems improvements and innovations. Along the way, he has helped many others, including the Federal Government, the State of Maine, the local public school system, nearby communities, other schools outside of Maine, and commercial Web developers to implement significant technology improvements

Despite the demands of being a nationally known technology leader and director of studies at Gould, Dutch has maintained his early love of teaching. Today, he instructs young people in the application of computer technology in robot construction and programming and continues to teach celestial navigation. The magnificent celestial sphere that Dutch designed for the lobby of McLaughlin Science Center is not only a work of art. It is also, fundamentally, a teaching model that will instruct future generations of students and others to understand, intimately, their specific relationship to the universe from a finite location in Maine.

Dutch's service also extends outside Gould. He is active in town government, serving as chairman of the board of selectman in Bethel. Also, he served as a member of the Governor's Task Force for the Study of the Increase in Tax-Exempt Property.

He is married to Elaine S. Dresser, originally of Eastport, Maine. The couple has three children: Erika '86, married to a Gould Academy math teacher; Derek, '87, Gould Academy Director of Technology philteacher; and Charles, a Gould senior.

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