He was one among New England’s highest-paid boarding faculty leaders. His sudden removing has left a college stuffed with questions.

Suffield Academy is reeling from the removing of its longtime headmaster amid a purported tax investigation.

The Connecticut boarding faculty has employed a disaster public relations company and guaranteed board members the college’s personal funds will not be beneath investigation, in accordance with present and former board members and public communications.

Mother and father and alumni, in the meantime, have largely been left at the hours of darkness for the reason that faculty introduced on Oct. 22 that Charles Cahn III, who had led Suffield for 22 years and was set to retire subsequent summer time, had been positioned on go away, efficient instantly, after the college discovered of “an investigation by the Inside Income Service involving [Cahn].”

One of many highest-paid boarding faculty leaders in New England, Cahn was broadly thought to be a transformational determine at Suffield, a practically two-century-old faculty of about 420 college students close to the Connecticut River between Springfield and Hartford. Simply days earlier than the announcement, the college had hosted a celebration in his honor throughout dad and mom’ weekend. Different plans to fete Cahn — and proceed his legacy of fund-raising success — have been within the works.

“Everybody cherished Charlie,” stated one dad or mum of current Suffield graduates (the dad or mum, like others interviewed for this text, didn’t need to be named in an article concerning the investigation).

Because the announcement of Cahn’s removing, the college has stated virtually nothing about what has occurred. An Oct. 27 e mail to the college neighborhood from the brand new head of college, Cahn’s previously-named successor Casey Bobo, didn’t even point out Cahn or the purported IRS investigation. The college has declined to reply any questions from the Globe. On campus and in alumni circles, wild rumors are filling the void.

Behind the scenes, faculty officers have informed board members that the investigation considerations solely Cahn’s private funds, not the college’s, in accordance with board member Tracy O’Keefe. The board, she stated, has been informed that the college “is cooperating with the IRS and offering info.”

Reached by telephone, the chair of the board, Frederic B. Powers III, who signed the unique Oct. 22 announcement, stated, “It’s a non-public matter. … I can’t remark.” He and others stated the college has retained a disaster PR agency to deal with the fallout.

Cahn didn’t reply to requests for remark, nor did the IRS.

Till his sudden removing, Cahn was a revered determine at Suffield, the place he, his spouse, and their youngsters have been like the college’s first household. Their names are on buildings and scholarship funds. Their household photographs are utilized in advertising supplies.

His fund-raising prowess contributed to a change of Suffield’s 350-acre campus, together with new athletic facilities, a eating corridor, and tutorial buildings. The college has stated it invested $120 million in development and renovations throughout Cahn’s tenure.

He traveled in the USA and overseas for fund-raising occasions. Earlier than the announcement of his go away, Cahn was as a consequence of seem at alumni occasions in Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, San Francisco, Boston, and New York Metropolis over the approaching months.

Final yr, Powers and a former board member introduced that Suffield’s endowment had surpassed $100 million, double its worth from simply six years earlier. Rising the endowment, Powers and trustee emeritus Daniel R. Tisch stated, was “a central space of focus of Head of College Charlie Cahn and our Board of Trustees.”

Annual tuition for boarding college students is $79,400. About two-thirds of Suffield’s college students are boarders, and about one-fifth come from overseas.

Cahn’s pay mirrored his fund-raising success and campus stature. In 2014, he was one of many highest-paid boarding faculty heads in New England. Since then, his pay has greater than doubled, and complete compensation topped $1 million annually from 2020 via 2024, in accordance with the college’s publicly accessible tax returns. That’s greater than the heads of essentially the most elite New England boarding faculties comparable to Andover, Exeter, Deerfield, and Groton.

Cahn introduced early final yr that he deliberate to retire on the finish of the 2026-2027 faculty yr.

Cahn got here to Suffield in his 20s as an English instructor and lacrosse coach, and he shortly climbed the ranks. He served as head of admissions and dean of the college, and in 2004 turned head of college at age 34.

Alongside the way in which, he married a fellow Suffield instructor, Hillary Rockwell. She was a Suffield lifer. The daughter of a longtime instructor, she was raised on the college’s campus. Throughout Cahn’s tenure, she continued instructing and coached the ski staff. The couple raised their two youngsters on campus and despatched them to Suffield.

Apart, maybe, from his youth, Cahn seemed the a part of the pinnacle of a conventional New England boarding faculty. He wore plaid blazers and had a floppy, side-parted hairdo. However dad and mom and alumni stated he appeared like a savvier enterprise govt than a few of his predecessors, who had a extra tutorial air.

He was identified to just about everybody as Charlie and sought to embody Suffield’s id as a friendlier different to New England’s most elite personal faculties.

His few detractors questioned whether or not an excessive amount of of a cult of persona had constructed up round him.

The college’s board, in any case, exerted itself to maintain Cahn. They struck a retention settlement that boosted his pay and elevated his wage into rarefied air. They even created an endowment known as the Charles Cahn III Head of College Chair, “honoring Charlie Cahn’s historic affect.”

Certainly, till the Oct. 22 announcement that he was on go away, there was no signal of the college souring on its longtime chief.

The college had continued to prominently function the Cahn Students Fund, a scholarship program for lower-income college students, in its advertising and fund-raising supplies.

Cahn, his spouse, and their youngsters helped choose the candidates who would obtain scholarships from the fund. It was a means, the college stated, to proceed the Cahn household’s legacy past Charles Cahn’s deliberate retirement.