ANDOVER (MA)
Andover News [Andover, MA]
August 20, 2026
By Dave Copeland
Two Phillips Academy alumni have reported they were sexually abused as students by the boarding school’s former medical director, who was convicted more than a decade ago on federal child pornography charges, school officials disclosed Thursday.
Richard Keller served as Phillips Academy’s medical director from 1992 to 2011. He was arrested in 2012 and pleaded guilty the following year to two counts of receiving and one count of possessing child pornography.
In a letter to alumni Thursday, Head of School Raynard Kington and Board of Trustees President Eric Zinterhofer said two former students have since come forward to report that Keller sexually abused them while they attended Phillips Academy.
The school did not identify the alumni or say when the alleged abuse occurred.
One of the two alumni provided Andover News with a statement describing the lasting effects of the alleged abuse and criticizing the Academy for failing to protect students.
“A predator like Richard Keller is only capable of harming victims to whom he has access,” the alumnus wrote. “Phillips Andover provided Richard Keller with this access.”
The alumnus said the reason for speaking publicly — while remaining anonymous — was to help others who may have had similar experiences.
“I hope that knowledge of Richard Keller’s crimes during his tenure at the school is widely disseminated, so that other survivors know that they are not alone,” the alumnus wrote.
The survivor also described experiencing severe emotional consequences after leaving Phillips Academy, including heavy drinking and a suicide attempt. The alumnus said years of therapy and family support eventually changed how they viewed what happened.
“When I look back on the boy that I was at Phillips, I no longer see a failure,” the alumnus wrote. “I see a child who deserved to be guided and protected at all costs.”
In their letter Thursday, Kington and Zinterhofer thanked the two alumni for coming forward.
“We are thankful for their courage in coming forward and sharing this information with the Academy,” they wrote.
The allegations represent a change from what the school knew following Keller’s 2012 arrest. At the time, Phillips Academy told the community it had “no reason to believe” any students were involved in or affected by Keller’s alleged criminal behavior.
Keller pleaded guilty in November 2013 and was sentenced the following year to 78 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release.
Federal prosecutors said Keller had purchased child pornography on 19 occasions and that some of the material was shipped to the student health center at Phillips Academy.
The Academy said Thursday it remains willing to hear from other alumni who believe they were harmed by Keller or anyone else at the school.
“We recognize that people process trauma on their own terms and timelines, which is why Andover remains open to hearing from alumni, no matter how many years have passed since they were harmed,” school officials wrote.
School officials said Phillips Academy has since strengthened its policies, training and programming and is working with Learning Courage, a survivor-led nonprofit that advises schools on sexual misconduct prevention and trauma-informed responses.
“On behalf of Phillips Academy, we extend our deepest apologies to those who have been impacted by any form of misconduct at Andover,” Kington and Zinterhofer wrote.
The school said alumni can report misconduct directly to Phillips Academy, through its third-party EthicsPoint reporting service or to the Sanghavi Law Office, which has previously served as an outside investigator for the Academy. Criminal reports can also be made to the Andover Police Department.