Biography
Peyton (Randy) Helm graduated from Yale College in 1970 with a major in archaeology. As an undergraduate Helm wrote for the Yale Record, belonged to Fence Club and the St. Elmo Society, served as a Deacon of the Church of Christ in Yale, and was active in helping plan the campus response to the May Day demonstrations in the spring of his senior year. Helm is also the dad of a Yale alumnus, Randolph Burton Helm ’04.
After a three-year period of alternative service in Kentucky following graduation, Helm spent the rest of his working life in higher education. He completed a doctorate in ancient history at Penn, where he also taught and held various administrative positions, then spent 15 years at Colby College in Maine as vice president of college relations and professor of classics. For the next 12 years he was president and professor of history at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. After a few months of failed retirement, he served for a time as interim chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.
Now successfully retired, Helm divides his time between his home in Maine, with his dog Bogart, and frequent weekends in Cambridge with friends. He is delighted by the opportunity to serve on the YAA Board of Governors, and hopes that his experience in higher education equips him to be a useful participant in its work.