When Alan Shepard was young, he attending Pinkerton Academy from 1936 to 1940, a private high school in Derry, NH that his father attended, and where his grandfather was a trustee. During one summer, Shepard enrolled in a boat building course at Proctor Academy in Andover, NH with the hopes of constructing a boat that he could row across New Hampshire lakes with his family. After completing the rowboat, he brought it home to Derry, NH, where his family enjoyed using the boat for three decades. Boat building has since had an important role in Proctor’s history. Beginning in the late 1930s, hundreds of row boats, sailing dinghies, canoes and kayaks have been built at the school.
While at school, Shepard was interested in joining the crew team, but was too lean to make varsity. He did his best to build himself up and was able to race in the freshman and junior varsity shells (or boats.)
When Shepard graduated from Pinkerton, his father urged him to go into the Army. Instead, he attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. There he became a competitive sailor, winning several races, including a regatta at the Annapolis Yacht Club. He learned to sail all types of boats at the Academy, including the USS Freedom, a 90-foot schooner. Alan also rowed crew for the US Naval Academy and earned his varsity letter in his senior year (1944) just in time for the Letterman’s Ball. He invited his girlfriend Louise Brewer. In 1945, they were married.
Shepard furthered his naval involvement and became a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, a Naval fighter pilot and test pilot, and went on to become America’s first astronaut in space. He would later become commander of Apollo 14, and be one of the only 12 human beings to have ever walked on the Moon.
In the late 1960s, Shepard’s mother, Renza Emerson Shepard, returned the boat he had made so many years ago to Proctor Academy, where the boat house had since been renamed the “Alan Shepard Boat House”, honoring America’s first astronaut. Today, the Alan Shepard Boat House is still home to wood shop and boat-building classes as well as a metal shop and where jewelry classes meet.
In the early 1980s, the boat changed hands again when the Hart family from Randolph, Massachusetts purchased Shepard’s boat at a Proctor Academy’s fundraiser. Ms. Hart inquired to Shepard if he has indeed built the boat she had purchased, and although he had remembered building a boat at Proctor, he recommended she ask Proctor Academy directly. Hart did so, and had the boat verified by Proctor Academy. In 2015, Joan Hart decided the rightful place for the boat was at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, a museum dedicated to Shepard and his fellow space pioneer, Christa McAuliffe. The boat has remained at the Discovery Center since its donation and was featured in “Riding the Waves of History”, a temporary history exhibit on the life and adventures of the Granite State’s John E. Cooperider and their intersection with Rear Admiral Alan B. Shepard.
Go Beyond: Primary and Secondary Source Research
When visitors come through the doors of the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, they look forward to exploring hands-on STEM exhibits and to be wowed by the history and innovation of space travel. However, they do not expect to come face to face with a long wooden row boat!
When the boat was donated to the Discovery Center it was debated whether it would fit in with overall mission to inspire children and families to reach for the stars. It was decided that the boat represents an important time in our namesake Alan Shepard’s adolescence. The boat was made in New Hampshire, by a NH native, who was the first American in space, and therefore has a deep connection to the Center’s vision of being a sustainable memorial to NH space pioneers.
Alan Shepard’s nephew, David Bartlett Sherman, shared important first hand information about Shepard’s family and his interest in boat building and water sports with the Discovery Center’s Executive Director, Jeanne Gerulskis, that was influential in putting this article together.
Joan Hart, who donated Shepard’s boat to the Discovery Center, also shared letters she received from Alan Shepard and from Charles B. Will, Director of Communications at Proctor Academy at the time, verifying the boats authenticity.
Our then Director of Visitor Services, Sarah Nappo, reached out to current Director of Communications & Strategic Initiatives at Proctor Academy, Scott Allenby, who provided the images of students working on their row boats at Proctor featured in this article.
The combined photos, letters, and first hand accounts help piece together an importance puzzle. Alan Shepard’s rowboat survives as a unique piece of history in the life of America’s first astronaut and will be treasured by the Discovery Center for years to come!
