Founder Carmelita Hinton’s unspoken charge was clear, says long-time Green Mountain Orchard owner Bill Darrow ’39:“Brush money under the table and let’s not discuss it.”

The fact is Mrs. Hinton was a pretty shrewd businesswoman herself. This Omaha, Nebraska merchant’s daughter, whose father owned two financial newspapers, bought Elm Lea Farm for a song—$20 thousand—and sold a dream called The Putney School in the middle of the stock market crash. How’s that for moxie, marketing genius and visionary salesmanship? So, it should surprise few that, from Wall Street and Main Street, The Putney School has an impressive crop of alums who are successful entrepreneurs, business people and captains of industry.

You name it, they provide or produce it: from household products, to research instruments, to brand name organic foods at a store near you. They start circuses, launch web servers, run recording studios and are major players in the pharmaceutical industry. They own boutiques, farm organically and build investment firms from scratch . . . turning millions into billions.

Take Elizabeth Harris Warner ’85.When a back injury sidelined her from horseback riding at Putney, this vegetarian had to opt for an alternative afternoon activity. She chose to develop and prepare meals for vegetarians school-wide. Twenty years later, she’s parlayed her knack of food preparation and event management into Elizabethan Fare, a catering and event planning company located in Putney. “I didn’t know how to cook before I came to Putney, because we grew up on frozen Stouffers and crap like that,” says Warner. “But it was that skill set developed at Putney that has helped keep money in my pocket.”

It wasn’t about money in the pocket, but concern for the environment that fanned the entrepreneurial flames of Lisa Siegel Foster ’77.The L.A.-area veteran school teacher discovered an alarming fact while on location in Australia with her film producer husband and children: that some U.S. cities spend 17 cents in disposal costs for every plastic grocery bag that ends up in a landfill. In the land down under, she was also introduced to a viable alternative: reusable bags. It prompted Lisa to launch her own namebrand called 1 Bag At A Time, now sold in stores in more than 20 states. “Without Putney, I’m not sure I would have had the gumption,” says Foster, who remembers well the school’s orientation and preoccupation with sustainability.

In the case of industrialist Jeffrey Hollender ’73, it wasn’t gumption, but exposure to the outdoors that would affect this native New Yorker’s long-term business plans. Before arriving on The Hill, Hollender had only seen education through the narrow prism of academics and sports. Then came Putney, where—among other things— Jeff tapped his first maple tree, opening his eyes to the importance of protecting Mother Nature in a new way. One result? Jeffrey launched Seventh Generation, a leading brand of recyclable and natural household and personal products, including diapers, bathroom tissue and cleaning products sold both on Amazon.com and at Target.“The most important thing I got from Putney was that it was more holistic—less segmented and compartmentalized-in the way that it approached education,” said Hollender, whose Vermont based company employs 60 and grosses $100 million a year.

Hollender is not alone in serving a massive consumer base. Others include Erik Leo ’77 who co-founded Sovernet Communications, one of the largest internet service providers in southern Vermont; Nell Newman ’78, who is CEO of Newman’s Own Organics product line.

While Leo and Newman sell in huge denominations, other Putney business types work markets that are small—yet no less competitive or demanding—by comparison. Entrepreneur Emily Bramhall ’75 owns Bramhall & Dunn, a high-end Martha’s Vineyard-based boutique that sells custom-woven rugs, sweaters, blankets and scarves, as well as pottery, jewelry and other gifts. For Bramhall, who has to “dirty” her hands in so many aspects of running her business, Putney was great preparation. “We grew our own food, milked our own cows and did our own dishes,” remembers Bramhall, who studied weaving under Libby Mills and jewelry making under Robin Campbell. “We just found out what we needed to do and figured out a way to do it.”

Birmingham, Alabama businessman Merritt Pizitz ’55 was also excited by the freedom to figure things out and the exposure to learning beyond simply reading, writing and ’rithmetic. Pizitz says, because he knew he’d eventually return home to help run a string of family owned department stores, Putney’s focus on agriculture and the outdoors was a breath of fresh air. “That’s why I majored in English instead of business when I went to Washington and Lee for college,” says Pizitz, president of Pizitz Management Group, underscoring how Putney gave him permission to look beyond what was in front of him and truly seize a liberal arts education.

That same liberal arts education is what allowed portfolio manager Joan Farr ’49 to think liberally, critically and sometimes “outside the box” on Wall Street—key skills in business. Fifty-three years after she arrived on a very male-dominated Wall Street, Farr credits Putney faculty such as history teacher Bruce Menefee and the school’s intellectual climate that allowed for varying viewpoints.“ Putney gave me the appreciation for different points of view, the importance of listening and trying to keep an open mind,” said Farr, adding that her ability to think independently is vital in making sound investment decisions.

Close on Farr’s heels on Wall Street was Lorna Power ’54, who spent over 40 years as an investment research analyst and portfolio manager. She says shattering the gender ceiling of the financial district was not her goal, but being on top of her game was. “I was not a pioneer by choice. Nor was I super-conscious of being a female. I was just super-conscious of doing my best,” says Power, adding Putney taught her to go where her heart told her to go, and to always reach for her best.

That same freedom to follow your heart’s desire is the message recording artist and studio owner Ben Winship ’77 learned at Putney. Even though Ben studied forestry in college and worked in the industry in the Northeast, the Southwest and Alaska, his heart was always in music. It’s the reason he eventually reshuffled his career deck, headed to Jackson Hole, WY and dove “head first” into bluegrass. Ben says mustering the courage to follow his bliss was a key lesson Putney taught him.“It can’t just be a good idea theoretically; it’s got to be a good idea in your heart,” says Winship, who owns The Hen House recording studios and is a member of Loose Ties, which recently appeared on NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion. “It’s got to be in your heart, and I think everything about Putney teaches that.”

Eliot Ferguson ’93 is another musician and recording studio owner. He says, like many students of his era, he used to complain about the non-stop pace of classes, household and work jobs, afternoon and evening activities and homework. But not anymore. He credits Putney’s break-neck pace for preparing him for his role as business manager and drummer for the gypsy punk band, Gogol Bordello—who have appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, in Rolling Stone magazine and The Wall Street Journal. “Putney kept you busy every minute of the day,” says Ferguson, who claims the school gave him the best memories of his life—including an undefeated lacrosse season his senior year.“It taught you how to manage your time and be productive.”

Entrepreneur Richard Goodwin ’59 echoes Ferguson’s sentiments and offers similar kudos to Putney in the area of time management. “There was a tight schedule, but still a lot of freedom to start a project and do it,” says Goodwin.“People weren’t saying,‘No, you can’t do it!’They were saying,‘Yes, you can!’”That same can-do attitude propelled Goodwin to give up teaching and start a company out of his laundry closet in 1970. Now, 36 years later, Goodwin has turned his initial $10 thousand investment into a multi-million-dollar company called NeuroProbe, Inc.—a maker of biomedical research instruments. Not bad for a dyslexic kid from Connecticut who showed up on West Hill in the mid-’50s.

Like Goodwin, who had no blueprint for success and faced a lot of trial and error, entrepreneur Carter Brown ’78 tells a similar tale in his own school of hard knocks. With less than two years of college and time at Ringling Bros. clown school under his belt, Brown decided to incorporate his own circus— part physical theater, part juggling and part Vaudeville. And who gets credit for the two-hour act called Lazer Vaudeville, and the Boulder Circus Center—a for-profit circus school Brown and his wife own and operate? Brown points to his parents, former Putney drama teacher and stepmother Joyce Devlin, whom he watched stage direct, and former theater technical director Ken Brown, who taught him stage craft.Those two, as well as former mime teacher Barry Mallis, were key mentors that have allowed Brown and his wife to make a living under their own big top. “My best advice is to do what you love, and then figure out how to make the rest follow,” says Brown, hinting that he’s had to learn to do his own books, marketing and accounting.

That Brown and other Putney entrepreneurs have been less than- prepared to run their own businesses is what most troubles asset investment strategist Ron Fielding ’66. Fielding arrived at Putney in the mid’ 60s, the recipient of a boarding school scholarship program for Boston-area newspaper delivery boys. Passing up the chance to go to Hotchkiss, Fielding came to Putney, impressed with the farm, the lack of coat and tie, and more personal approach of teachers and students. After graduation and earning a master’s in economics and an M.B.A., Fielding hung out his own shingle as an asset investment advisor. His firm opened its doors with a portfolio under $5 million and two employees in 1982. Fielding sold to Oppenheimer Funds in 1996 with a management portfolio worth $3 billion and 54 employees. His beef with his alma mater? Putney produces more entrepreneurs than Andover or Exeter, yet it’s not assisting the potters and musicians it produces, who will have to be conversant in marketing and money management.“ Putney’s aversion to entrepreneurship didn’t deter me,” says Fielding, who added the school provides a fine education and qualified he’s not advocating it be turned into a trade school. But many Putney artists “aren’t going to business school. They are going into the arts and they need to know certain business skills.”

And Fielding is not alone in his criticism. Entrepreneur Scott Reed ’67, who once tried to sell his jewelry professionally, and now owns his own for-profit organic farm and consulting firm in western Massachusetts, sees some merit in Fielding’s claim. “I think it would have been great to have some chance to learn entrepreneurial skills,” says Reed, who learned jewelry making under Robin Campbell and earned a fine arts degree from Antioch. He reflects,“I had no ability to sell myself and sell what I was making.”

Even current Putney junior John Tupouniua ’08 acknowledges Putney provides little opportunity to learn business skills. “I really want to go into accounting,” he says.

But Carmelita Hinton biographer Susan Lloyd ’52, author of the book, The Putney School: A Progressive Experiment, says, historically speaking, money and money management have never been the school’s curricular focus.

“We were not asking how we could make more money, but how we could do more good,” recalls Lloyd of her time at Putney.“We were taught not to prepare for the world, but change it.”

Still, former Putney parent and senior board of trustees member Ira Wender P ’77 insists Putney does a great job cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit in its students. As an example, he pointed to his long-time Putney friend Ken Landis ’42, whom he met at Swarthmore. Wender noted that Landis and other Putneyites he knew on campus there bore certain key traits that would complement a successful career as entrepreneurs. First and foremost is that they are less likely to run with the crowd and more likely to be self-reliant.“People who come out of Putney aren’t going to be happy simply making money,” says Wender.“Money is not what motivates them. And I don’t think that’s bad.”

Putney’s current Chief Financial Officer Randy Smith took an even more expansive view. His position is that the school provides plenty of opportunity to develop responsible and flexible decision- makers regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. “I think Putney prepares you to do whatever you want, whether it’s business, making money or making a difference,” says Smith.

To Smith’s point, what Peng-Siu Mei ’55 wanted was not to master business skills, but to master the English language. Putney made that possible, giving the Chinese immigrant a scholarship and tutoring help. Twenty years later, the Harvard-trained student who later earned his Ph.D., launched Mei Technology Corporation, a computer software and hardware development firm, which, at its height, had 11 offices nationwide and employed just under 300. “Putney gave me my first chance and helped me when I came to a new country,” says Mei.“They let me work at my own pace . . . and treated me like everyone else.”

Mei and other Putney entrepreneurs also know that to succeed in business is to problem solve. Former Putney trustee and technology entrepreneur Barnaby Dorfman ’86 got a crash course in it during what can only be called Putney’s lean years. When former Putney School Director Barbara Barnes ’41 cut back on students, faculty and staff in the name of Putney’s survival in the mid-1980s, Dorfman became one of the 125 students expected to do more with less. It proved a mixed blessing for the student who would later become chief products officer at Peerflix. While Math Teacher Johnny Caldwell ’46 and Physics Teacher Ed Shore were putting him through the paces inside the classroom, he had his hands full outside. He chaired the household jobs committee, directed the theater tech crew and headed AM Barn his entire senior year. The era’s “all-handson-deck” approach taught Dorfman the power of possibility thinking. “It doesn’t matter whether it was getting an earthbound cow back on its feet, or jerry-rigging a spotlight in the theater, students learned to problem solve,” says Dorfman, whose career highlights include managing 130 locations of a bakery and café chain by age 24 and selling a start-up to Amazon.com. “Prioritizing and getting things done on a tight timetable are key elements of success in business.”

Still, Sierra Autocars, Inc. owner Lathrop Hoffman ’42 of California says making all the money in the world means nothing unless one is guided by sound ethics and integrity. “I’m sure there are a lot of successful people in business who are real bastards,” says Hoffman, who has owned car dealerships throughout southern California. “Don’t become one of them!”

It’s safe to say apple orchard owner Bill Darrow ’39 didn’t make that mistake. In fact, he passed his business on to his sons, as his father did to him. His parting piece of advice to Putneyites who want to be successful business people? “Go to work for one,” says Darrow.