Toby Ayer

Growing up in Vermont, Toby Ayer spent many summers performing as a juggler in Circus Smirkus, a travelling international youth circus. He studied physics and linguistics at MIT, where he learned to row and competed for four years on the heavyweight team. As a Rhodes Scholar, he earned a graduate degree in linguistics at Oxford and rowed in the University Boat Race, breaking a seven-year losing streak in 2000.

Ayer was an assistant heavyweight crew coach at Harvard for two years, and the varsity boys coach at Brookline High School for four years. He taught physics to freshmen at MIT for seven years, during which time he also taught linguistics at MIT, Harvard, and Northeastern. He has continued to row competitively, winning medals at the Head of the Charles, Canadian Henley, the Elite and Masters National Championships, and the European and World Indoor Rowing Championships.

Ayer is the Chair of the Science Department and the Head Crew Coach at Salisbury School in Connecticut, where he teaches physics and lives on campus with his wife and two children.