Old School: Chapter 9: Bulletin Summary & Analysis

Over the years, the narrator reads every alumni bulletin, learning about his former peers and teachers. Dean Makepeace dies of a heart attack in 1967. He taught at the school from 1930 to the day he died, excepting 1961–1962. The headmaster retires in 1968 and is eventually replaced by Mr. Ramsey, who invites the narrator back as a visiting writer many years later. The narrator is unsure of what to do. He worries that he is simply trying to achieve a satisfying ending to his story. He also wonders if he has been invited back only because he attended the school. He feels like an imposter and declines the invite.

The following spring, the narrator meets Mr. Ramsey by chance in a hotel in Seattle. They catch up until the narrator can’t help but apologize for declining the invitation to the school. He recalls the day he was expelled, and Mr. Ramsey says that the narrator doesn’t know the half of the story about that day. Mr. Ramsey says he hopes the narrator doesn’t bear hard feelings toward the school. When the narrator says he doesn’t, Mr. Ramsey asks why he won’t visit. The narrator explains that he doesn’t feel he belongs in the company of Hemingway and Rand. Mr. Ramsey says he most certainly does, and the narrator agrees to visit.

The narrator asks about the story of the day he was expelled. Mr. Ramsey says that it concerns Dean Makepeace: he explains that the dean’s leaving and the narrator’s expulsion are connected in an odd way. When he finishes the story, the Dean calls over the history master at the school and introduces him to the narrator. As the two men talk, the narrator contemplates the story he’s been told.