Oak Knoll’s 13-acre athletics facility in Chatham was dedicated Thursday, September 24, as the Kemmerer Sports Complex, honoring Jay and Karen Kemmerer and their longstanding commitment to the school.

The dedication recognizes the Kemmerer family’s extraordinary and unprecedented generosity to Oak Knoll. Most recently, the family gave a one-time $2.5 million gift — the largest in school history — bringing the family’s lifetime giving to more than $3 million. Their philanthropy has had a transformational impact on Oak Knoll, particularly its athletics program, expanding opportunities for student-athletes to train, compete, and thrive.

“Their love of the game, respect for education, and desire to help others is enduring, and I’m so grateful for their love of our school,” said Head of School Jennifer G. Landis, who invoked Society of the Holy Child Jesus founder Cornelia Connelly’s call for “generosity, generosity, generosity” in reflecting on the Kemmerers’ impact.

For Jay Kemmerer, an Oak Knoll field hockey past parent, the connection to athletics is deeply personal.

“It really comes down to the passion for the school. Oak Knoll is special,” Jay Kemmerer said. “It’s been a blessing being on the sidelines here.”

Karen Kemmerer also praised Head Field Hockey Coach Ali Good ’95, whose recent 450th career coaching victory was recognized during the dedication ceremony.

“Under the amazing leadership of Ali, who was a relatively new coach at the time, she inspired the girls, and she is continuing to do that,” she said. “They believed in themselves, and they had a will to win, and that is because of your leadership, Ali.”

For Melina Voliotis ’27, athletic council president, the time spent at the fields in Chatham has inevitably made them more than a place to practice and play.

“We spend countless hours here with our teammates and coaches, and somewhere along the way, it stops feeling like just another field and starts feeling like a home,” Voliotis said. “This complex gives us a place to learn discipline, resilience, teamwork, and what it means to represent something greater than ourselves.”

Cynthia Prewitt, Oak Knoll’s Director of Institutional Advancement, similarly noted that the complex is more than a physical space.

Their love of the game, respect for education, and desire to help others is enduring, and I’m so grateful for their love of our school.

- Head of School Jennifer G. Landis

“It represents a commitment to our students as we give them opportunities to grow, challenge themselves, and discover what they are capable of achieving,” Prewitt said.

Following the dedication, the Royals field hockey team wasted little time making the newly named complex feel like home, earning a 6-0 shutout victory over crosstown rival Kent Place.

Athletics have been part of student life at Oak Knoll since the school’s earliest years, but as its programs grew, so too did the need for additional space for student-athletes to practice and compete.

Despite expansions through the 1990s, capped off with the construction of Tisdall Hall in 1993, it wouldn’t be until the turn of the millennium that the school would address the need for additional outdoor playing facilities.

After years of searching the region for potential sites, Oak Knoll acquired the Chatham property, and the facility opened in 2004 with two multi-purpose playing fields, a fieldhouse, and parking.

Reflecting on the development of the Chatham facility for Oak Knoll: Promise and Purpose Since 1924, a book published in celebration of Oak Knoll’s centennial, longtime former Athletic Director Jerry Butler recalled its impact on the school’s athletics program.

“While no facilities were going to solve all our problems, when we finally got to the Chatham facility and developed that, it really launched us into being a little more legitimate in terms of an athletic program from the outside looking in,” Butler said.

In the more than two decades since, Oak Knoll estimates that more than 1,400 regular-season games have been played at the complex, with more than 550 Oak Knoll student-athletes competing there — figures that do not include postseason contests or visiting teams.