BCD today spring 14 by Berkshire Country Day School

Berkshire Country Day School

BCDToday SPRING 2014

BCDToday

2013-2014 Board of Trustees Paige Smith Orloff President

SPRING 2014

Ted Glockner ’82 VICE PRESIDENT

Christopher Ferrone TREASURER

Marianna Poutasse SECRETARY

Paul Lindenmaier ex-officio

B. Stephen Boyd David Hosokawa Lisa Kantor Paul Lindenmaier Daniel Lipson Colin Mathews Tom O’Neil Andrea Patel Ellen Perry Alli Sheehan Mark Smith Eleanore Velez Cara Vermeulen Alexis Watts Koethi Zan

Once a year, on Alaska Day, the Lower School community celebrates wintertime in the Berkshires, as well as the culture and customs of Alaska. Students spend the afternoon ice skating, sledding, building ice sculptures, learning to mine for gold, and more. As this cover photo reveals, our older students join the festivities by helping our youngest students. Alaska Day was started by former student Kevin Hirt ‘06 during his time in the Lower School, and is continued in his memory by his teachers and friends.

Administration Paul Lindenmaier

Cover Photo by John Dolan.

Head of School

Carmen Dockery Perkins Associate Head of School

Gwen Connolly Director of Finance

Feature:

Learning Outside

Director of Development

Alicia Rossie

10 Alumni Events

Amy Elmore

Director of Admission & Financial Aid

Editor: Amy Elmore Assistant Editor: Joanne DelCarpine Design: Julie Hammill, Hammill Design Printer: Quality Printing Company, Inc. Photography: John Dolan, Amy Elmore, Eric Korenman, Paul Lindenmaier, Alicia Rossie

2 Campus News

13 Alumni News & Profiles 28 Legacies

A Message from the Head of School

The Country Day School movement grew out of the progressive education movement that traces its roots to late 19th century America. Country Day Schools were, and are, designed to provide the educational rigor, learning environment, community and values that rank them with the very best independent schools. The school buildings and campus landscaping are intentionally designed with the goal of creating inspirational environments where learning and culture are fostered. Berkshire Country Day School’s campus, while originally created as a working farm, is the perfect setting for a school. With several smaller buildings and stone walls framing courtyards, gathering spaces, and play areas, the campus and common spaces cultivate community, encourage independence, promote a regard for the environment, and provide boundless opportunities for exploration, outdoor learning, and play. As affirmed during our master planning process in 2011, if we were to design a school from scratch, we would have intentionally created BCD to be the way it is today. Our campus is essential to all of the learning and interactions that occur here. The physical space – buildings and natural spaces – inspire our students and teachers to work together and know one another. As you will read in this issue of BCD Today, the grounds, fields, trails, and structures offer unique and concrete learning opportunities in science, math, French, and the other subjects that comprise our multi-faceted program. Of course, the bucolic physical setting and uniquely beautiful environment at BCD would mean nothing without the talented educators who bring meaning, inspiration, and life to these spaces. The unifying characteristic that enriches the education and personal fulfillment of every BCD student’s experience are our truly remarkable teachers. These talented and dedicated faculty members bring our Country Day School to life and inspire the individual promise of each student. The stories of some of these individuals, past and present, are included in this issue. We hope that you enjoy this edition of BCD Today. I encourage you to visit. I am confident that you will enjoy renewing your relationship with our school, the BCD community, and this special campus.

Paul Lindenmaier Head of School

berkshirecountryday.org

s pu

IWITNESS PROJECT Grade 8 History teacher Sarah that allowed for further introspection, Pitcher-Hoffman collaborated proactive work in the community, and with Eighth Grade Integrated a way to gain a deeper understanding Studies teacher Susan Benner this of the Holocaust and its far-reaching fall to engage students in service effects on world history. This project, work through the IWitness the IWitness Video Challenge, was Video Challenge. IWitness is an inspired by the 20th anniversary of the educational website developed movie Schindler’s List. by USC Shoah Foundation – The Over the course of the project, Institute for Visual History and students watched video testimony from Education that provides access Holocaust survivors and were inspired, to nearly 1,300 full-life histories as Oskar Schindler was, to make a and testimonies of survivors difference in their communities. They and witnesses to the Holocaust worked in groups or alone to make this and other genocides for guided difference through service. Then they exploration. IWitness brings the created a video essay that included human stories of the Institute’s both the clips that had inspired them as Ruby Merritt ’15 and Ayva Schiff ’15 Visual History Archive to well as the footage from their project. secondary school teachers and their students via engaging The videos were screened and judged by Mrs. Benner, multimedia-learning activities. The activities are designed to Ms. Pitcher-Hoffman, and every member of the class. be participatory, academic, and student-driven. Collectively, they chose one video, which was sent to Ms. Pitcher-Hoffman wrote, “One of the most memorable the IWitness challenge. The chosen video, Hugs and and powerful moments of last year’s Grade 7 class trip to Gloves, was produced by Ruby Merritt and Ayva Schiff. Washington, DC was our visit to the Holocaust Museum. Over The video’s stated focus is to reveal prejudice in the the years, the faculty has noted that this significant experience local community, and features interviews with Pittsfield is one that our students continue to process and discuss all the residents at The Christian Center in Pittsfield, MA. The way through the Grade 9 year, across subject matters, as well film can be viewed by visiting: http://iwitness.usc.edu/ as across the different eras of history they study.” SFI/IWitnessChallenge/Winners.aspx. This fall the Upper School had the rare and relevant Ruby and Ayva’s video was selected as the Region I opportunity to meet and talk with Holocaust survivor Winner of the 2013 IWitness Video Challenge, and they Michael Stoll. Soon after, Grade 8 students were guided to won the Make A Difference Award from the JFK library for participate in a meaningful service learning project, one their work.

Spring 2014

pu m Ca S EW

STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE Last summer, BCD’s Board of Trustees made a commitment to respond to the current demographic, competitive, and economic challenges that are impacting the Berkshires. The Board embarked on a strategic planning process last fall, facilitated by Christina Drouin, a leading independent school consultant. After evaluating multiple options, the Board voted unanimously to adopt a series of initiatives and a financial plan for the upcoming year. Each of the initiatives derive from our core values and philosophy as articulated by BCD’s Strategic Plan in 2009, as well as from the results of the surveys of current parents, past parents, alumni, faculty and staff, and students that were conducted in the Fall of 2013. These initiatives include: 1. To serve a fluctuating enrollment, retain a smaller core of full-time faculty collaborating to deliver an invigorated curriculum within a more flexible, responsive staffing model. The new model envisions a future that invests more in faculty pay, resources, professional development, and career planning than in the past, while also developing a foundation for richer electives for students. 2. Improve BCD’s core curriculum, with an initial focus on the humanities and writing mastery. 3. Build an expanded, more flexible arts program. This will include more interest-driven electives in higher grades, and art classes in lower grades that more deliberately integrate our program with fine and performing arts resources available throughout our region and community. 4. Combine grades 1 and 2 in a vertical classroom to provide a broader, more flexible educational and social environment that responds to and supports young learners during these two years of personal, intellectual, and academic development. 5. Enhance and clarify our Preschool program by implementing an approach informed and influenced by the Reggio Emilia teaching model, an internationally known and renowned preschool pedagogy that aligns with BCD’s mission and values. If anyone is interested in learning more about these initiatives, they are encouraged to contact Paul Lindenmaier, Head of School.

Social Skills Professional Development A recurring question at faculty meetings over the last couple years has been, “How do we continue building a community that utilizes common language and practices which best uphold BCD’s core values of originality, quality, respect, sustainability, community, wellness, and citizenship, across grade levels?” In response to these conversations, teachers were offered professional development workshops at the start of the school year that focused on this overarching question. Preschool and Lower School teachers attended a Responsive Classroom© workshop which was designed to deepen their understanding of the RC model they practice

at BCD regularly. Middle and Upper School teachers attended the Developmental Designs workshop offered by Origins©, a middle-school social curriculum which stems from Responsive Classroom’s© program. These trainings helped teachers to identify and understand clearly the developmental bridges our students cross between grade levels. The faculty’s common goal is to make those transitions as seamless, developmentally appropriate, and supportive as possible, and the trainings helped the group develop skills and language to meet this goal.

berkshirecountryday.org

s pu

Latin at BCD All sixth graders at BCD begin their study of Latin, a program offered through the Grade 9. Latin is an important core program at BCD for many reasons including: • Most of the English language is composed of words that come from Latin or Greek words, with Latin being the larger of the two. Students who learn Latin vocabulary are exposed to the Latin root words, prefixes, and suffixes, thus strengthening their English vocabulary. • Studying Latin expands students’ vocabulary and enhances their reading comprehension skills, thus benefiting their study of other subjects. Furthermore, because Latin students must read carefully for proper translation, they develop the habit of reading closely for accuracy. • Through understanding how to translate back and forth between Latin and English, Latin increases comparative analysis skills and improves critical thinking skills. • Latin offers a very in-depth study of literature and history. • Students that have studied Latin tend to have better writing skills because they have learned to express their thoughts clearly and concisely. In addition, although English does not derive directly from Latin, most of its grammatical rules do.

The Pioneer Valley Classical Association held its annual Classics Day at Mount Holyoke College on January 17, 2014 and Berkshire Country Day School was one of more than eleven schools in attendance. BCD’s Latin students, in grades 7, 8, and 9, enjoyed participating in workshops and contests with their peers from Academy Hill, Amherst, Belchertown, Berkshire, Lenox, MacDuffie, Mt. Greylock, Pittsfield, Reid, Taconic and Williston.

BCD students received the following awards. Congratulations to Mrs. Fawcett and our BCD Upper School students! ART CONTEST: Model 1st Place Lighthouse at Alexandria by Cameron Sweener ’14 (attending Lenox HS) 2nd Place One Story House by Rachel Kantor ’15, Michelle Lipson ’15, & Ruby Merritt ’15 3rd Place Vesuvius and Pompeii by William Blomquist ’16 & Charlie O’Neil ’15

Spring 2014

COSTUME CONTEST: 1st Place Seven of The (Nine) Muses by Elena Brown ’16, Beatrice Case ’16, Samantha Elliott ’16, Dorree Ndooki ’16, Stella Piasecki ’16, Taylor Slonaker ’16, & Hayley Syrett ’16 ORAL INTERPRETATION: Intermediate (Poetry) 1st Place Alexander Lederman ’15 2nd Place Stephen Taglieri ’15 Novice (Poetry) 2nd Place Samuel Ferrone ’16 3rd Place Taylor Slonaker ’16

CERTAMEN: Novice / Latin I 1st Place Samuel Ferrone ’16, Alexander Lederman ’15, Finn Mathews ’16, & Evan Sylbert ’15 Myth 1st Place BCD Red: Noah Beckwith ’15, Henry Dolan ’14, Alexander Lederman ’15, & Toby Van Schaick ’16

pu m Ca S EW

Donation to World Languages Program The World Languages Department at BCD is proud to announce the arrival of 12 mini-iPads to the language classrooms. These innovative teaching tools were procured thanks to a generous grant from the Sidney and Beatrice Albert Foundation. Elizabeth Downes, Department Chair of the World Languages Department, explains how the project got its start: “I used to teach in the Silicon Valley,” she said, “and in that school there was a state-of-the-art language lab where students would go at least once a week to hone their listening and speaking skills. When I got to BCD I missed that rich teaching tool, and I wanted to recreate it for my students here — however, building a language lab was not feasible. Then along came the iPad and I realized that it really was possible to recreate that experience here at BCD. We were lucky enough to have the very generous support of a local foundation to support the project.” With the grant, Mme. Downes purchased 12 mini-iPads, styluses, headsets, and a flat-screen television for the French classroom. All Middle and Upper School language students will have access to this technology once the training has gotten off the ground. Mme. Downes explains: “Each French and Spanish class will have a scheduled “lab” time with the iPads.” The primary purpose of the technology is to provide a language lab for students, but the equipment can also be used for cultural and artistic enrichment.

Parents’ Association Speaker On March 5, 2014, the BCD Parents’ Association and the Berkshire Hills Regional School District hosted a free community discussion with Marje Monroe and Doug Fodeman, nationally recognized experts in the area of Internet safety. The speakers presented on the latest issues and concerns about children’s use of the Internet and cell phones, and offered specific strategies to help parents deal with these concerns.

Class of 2014

Beginning in Preschool, each of our classes regularly venture off campus throughout the year to visit and learn from our local area museums, cultural sites, and businesses. This year, Grade 9 students took a deeper look at several organizations by doing internships during the week before Spring Break. Henry Dolan, motivated by his interest in film, spent the week working in the Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) offices. The main focus of his work for them was marketing and research. Henry helped to promote a screening of A Place at the Table, and assisted in organizing the last-minute details of that event. He also research film submissions for the upcoming film festival, and created spreadsheets containing data on the films. Andrea Velez spent her week interning as a teacher at BCD, and had a lot of fun doing it. She spent the majority of her time leading physical education classes. She also spent time with the Preschool students, and helped to organize the all-school math fair on Pi Day. Kendall Pollart interned at TP Saddleblanket with local designer and BCD past parent Tasha Polizzi. She started her time in Tasha’s studio, and then traveled to Dallas, Texas to assist in marketing the fall collection. Her work included helping to organize a show of the line-up, some modeling, and observing close-up how the business runs. All three students agreed this was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about subjects that interest them, and gain real work experience in the community.

berkshirecountryday.org

U AT

D BC

Learning Outside The Berkshire Country Day School outdoor spaces— the fields, walkways, pond, streams, and trails—are natural extensions of the classrooms. From our Preschool to our Grade 9, and from lessons in math to French, BCD teachers encourage students to observe, learn from, and respect their natural surroundings. This approach is rooted in the Country Day School educational philosophy, as well as more general developmentally appropriate best practices. In the short features that follow, you will read about how different teachers make use of the campus to inspire and educate their students.

Spring 2014

D BC URE AT

Physical Education with Gail Heady When Gail Heady arrived at the School in 1978 she was given the opportunity to create a physical education program. A native of the Berkshires with a great love for the outdoors, she found the BCD campus was the ideal space to create a program which encourages students to engage in and enjoy outdoor physical activities. “I want my students to learn how to create an active life, and to find activities that they can enjoy throughout their life.” She provides age-appropriate ways for the kids to be active outside: hikes, tag, and fun at the pond with the youngest children; and cross-country skiing, archery, ice skating, and kayaking with older children.

French with Elizabeth Downes The goal in Grade 4 French class is to help students develop the confidence and ability to understand and speak basic French with an authentic accent. Classes are conducted primarily in French by having students recite, sing, learn, and converse in the language. Grammar and vocabulary are presented in a variety of ways designed to elicit the students’ active participation. An important theme of the year is Nature Studies, and this theme is translated into many activities and lessons. These include reading and listening to stories, singing songs, playing games, performing short skits, cooking and taking short hikes in nature. This is the recitation that starts each Grade 4 class: La terre entière fait tout pour me plaire: le ciel, le soleil, la lune, l’étoile, la montagne, la fleur, l’homme et l’animal. Chacun offre comme cadeau tout ce qu’il y a de bon et de beau. Translation: The whole earth makes everything to please me: the sky, the sun, the moon, the star, the mountain, the flower, the man and the animal. Each one offers as a gift all that is good and beautiful.

berkshirecountryday.org

U AT

D BC

“Teachers in all schools should use their whole campus and the surrounding area as a teaching space. If you are teaching integrated learning, it just makes sense.” – Julie Milani, Grade 1 teacher

Beginner 3s with Sarah Cooke

Grade 1 with Julie Milani

The Beginner 3s curriculum is informed by the Reggio Emilia teaching model, the internationally known and renowned preschool pedagogy. This approach to education is guided by fundamental principles, including one that identifies the environment as a teacher, recognizing that the space in which students learn has the potential to inspire children. With this in mind, BCD’s Beginner 3s teacher Sarah Cooke is very mindful of how she prepares the classroom for the children and how they observe and interact with the surrounding fields, trails, and buildings. The students begin by learning to closely observe the world around them, and then with the guidance of Ms. Cooke, they learn to communicate their observations through art, stories, music and writing. Natural cycles, such as seasons, plant growth and decay, and the water cycle, provide frameworks for the students to observe change, learn about patterns, and to document this learning. Through the fall, winter and spring, the students walk trails, visit the garden, and observe how the campus changes through the year. This habit of being outside also creates a respect and love for the outdoors in the children.

“Teachers in all schools should use their whole campus and the surrounding area as a teaching space. If you are teaching integrated learning, it just makes sense,” explained Grade 1 teacher Julie Milani. Ms. Milani applies that approach to her curriculum with a special focus on trees. Each year her class chooses one tree to study, to observe its changes through the seasons. The class learns scientific drawing, fine-tuning their observation skills through their detailed sketches in the different seasons. Through this careful observation, they learn the seasonal cycle and changes of the tree. They learn about conservation through their relationship with this one tree, as they observe its health and care for it through the year. The tree provides math lessons such as how to measure circumference and how to measure the distance of branches from the trunk, as well as lessons in classification skills through learning to sort leaves and seeds.

Spring 2014

D BC URE AT

Monkey bars!

Sledding! – Stella ’24

– Zora ’24

Cross-country skiing, going into the woods with Mr. Gore for science, sledding at recess, canoing on the lake, ice skating and playing on the playground at recess. – Halle ’19

Anytime outside is my favorite time.

Ball tag. – Jack ’17

– Gus ’20 berkshirecountryday.org

EVE

A Conversation with Five Alumni By Debbie Jaferian

Before gathering in Fitzpatrick Hall for Thanksgiving Soup last November, five BCD alumni spent time with our Upper School students to reflect on their experience at BCD. Together they explored how BCD helped to shape them as thinkers, workers, and people engaged in community and the world. The themes that connected these alumni were the importance of community, the benefits of being open rather than risk averse, the benefits of academic rigor, and the enrichment provided by the arts on their life. Here are some highlights in their own words:

Tony Belanger ’98

“From BCD I went to Lenox High School and then on to college. I traveled to Japan and taught English. I continued my schooling and for my last class I taught English at a University in Shanghai. I love languages. I love education. I audit classes here at BCD because I like to learn from my former teachers.”

u “My teachers at BCD allowed for a kind of questioning and curiosity. My hunger for learning and understanding was encouraged and promoted each day.”

u “I had a preconceived notion that schools are for knowledge. I don’t think that any more. School is about learning how to think.” When asked what advice Tony could give to current students at BCD, he said, “Use your minds. Think, consider and challenge. Don’t be afraid to challenge ideas that teachers pose to you. Be willing to have a discussion.”

Julia Reynolds ’11

“After graduating from BCD, I started at Pittsfield High School and then transferred to Darrow School in New Lebanon later in my sophomore year. The transition was a challenge, but the confidence I gained at BCD helped me find an environment that was smaller and more fitting for me.”

u “As a student at BCD, I learned to try new things, take on leadership roles, and work on projects I never thought would interest me. It’s real life. You have to interact with all different kinds of people.”

u “The collaborative group work and confidence I gained at BCD has been invaluable to me.” Advice from Julia: “Don’t be afraid to stick up for yourself. You don’t have to completely change because you are moving into a new phase of your life. It’s great to discover new parts of yourself.” 10

Spring 2014

ni um Al TS N

“After graduating from BCD last year, I am now attending Buxton in Williamstown, Massachusetts, a boarding school of 80 students with a very strong arts program. I have continued my work in theater, music, and art that I began as a student at BCD.”

EVE

Rebecca van der Meulen ’13

u “At BCD I learned how to have a conversation with my teacher and

others, not just sit in the back of the class and take notes. That has helped me a lot in high school.”

u “There is such great academics at BCD, and I learned time management.

At Buxton I am able to complete all my work and still have time to do the extra things I like to do.”

When asked for her advice to current BCD students, Rebecca said, “Don’t be afraid to try new things.”

Quintin Pollart ’11

“After attending BCD for ten years, I went to Berkshire School, which is where I am today. What I have found in high school is that all my passions from BCD are now magnified and focused. Art history, history, and music, which I studied at BCD, have evolved into independent projects in Renaissance learning, classical music, and woodworking.”

u “The thing I am most grateful for from my BCD education is the holistic approach to the humanities. Instead of just learning a list of vocabulary words and how sentence structure works, you learn how to think about literature and art. It has helped me a lot.”

u “I thought I was going into high school to focus on academics and AP courses and getting into college. Instead, my Dean of Academics said to me, “Don’t look at the course catalog, make something up. So I built three classes for myself that didn’t exist before. I was able to explore my passions as well as taking four AP classes.” Advice from Quintin; “Go for it, academically, socially and artistically. Be out there. Don’t hold yourself back!”

Marcia Mitchell ’98

“After BCD I went to Deerfield Academy and then Tufts where I majored in Economics. I worked for Morgan Stanley on the fixed incomes derivatives trading desk. I also had a sevenyear career as a professional model. Now I am a social media manager for several accounts across the US with a small, startup company. I have found work that I really enjoy and I am having fun.”

u “BCD language studies allowed me to connect with people anywhere I traveled. No matter where I went I felt confident to breakdown what people were saying to me.”

u “Mr. Peterson helped me to realize that moving on to boarding school would require a significant emotional adjustment. I knew I was ready academically, but I didn’t realize the major personal adjustment I would need to make.” Advice from Marcia; “Make sure you stay open-minded as you go through different challenges in life and meet different people and encounter different situations.”

berkshirecountryday.org

TS N

ni EVE Al um

Thanksgiving Soup One of BCD’s most important values is “Community.” The School works deliberately to “establish trust, cooperation, and accountability within an atmosphere of belonging where we all invest in the success and well-being of each other.” This work is done on a daily basis, but there is one day – Thanksgiving Soup – when this value is celebrated and given even more focus. Every student is invited to bring one ingredient to add to the Thanksgiving Soup, parent volunteers prepare the meal and set the tables, and then the community – current students, parents, faculty members, and alumni – sit down together to share a meal. This past fall, 75 alumni returned to campus for the event. Some arrived early to join the alumni panel for Upper School students. Everyone enjoyed a presentation by the Kindergarten and Grade 9 classes about gratitude, as well as joined in our yearly tradition of singing at the end of the meal.

2013 Fall Homecoming On Saturday, September 28, 2013 a new tradition began at BCD. Over 50 alumni and their families came home to the Brook Farm campus over the course of the day: some in the morning to rediscover the campus with a Family Hike and Nature Exploration led by BCD’s Nature Enrichment teacher Aimee Gelinas; and others to enjoy an evening reception in the library, complete with a slideshow, a display of yearbooks and memorabilia, and light hors d’oeuvres. Committee members Phil Deely ’61, Ted Glockner ‘82, Suzannah Zeif ‘84 Van Schaick, Rachel Siegel ’89, and Hunter McCormick ’05 2S did a great job of making the day happen. We hope to see more of you at next year’s Homecoming. Please mark your calendar for September 27, 2014.

Spring 2014

ni um Al S EW N

Alumni News What is a Class Agent? Class agents volunteer to represent their graduating class to the BCD administration. They assist BCD in communicating news and information to their classmates about upcoming school and alumni events via social media, email, phone calls, and occasionally good old-fashioned snail mail. They also lend a hand in keeping their classmates’ contact information current in the BCD files. This position is a wonderful way to stay in touch with your classmates. If you would like to volunteer as a Class Agent, please contact Joanne DelCarpine at alumni@berkshirecountryday.org.

Class Agent: Lila Wilde Berle

Economics. The cold in Chicago this year reminds him of the days at BCD in the late 40’s and early 50’s!

50 Class Agent Needed

Fran Colt Schneidau shares, “So long

ago, but remember so very well the wonderful Misses Baker and Cowhig - 7th and 5th grade teachers from whom I learned so much. Wish so much I could thank them, for in grade school I took these dear ladies for granted. These days I am in my 37th year as a reporter with WCBS NewsRadio 880 in NYC. I cover stories in CT. Love this job. So fortunate to have it. Miss the beautiful Berkshires and the funsters at BCD back in the day. So very lucky to have gone to BCD. I truly loved it there - hey gang, remember those lunches at the Lenox Inn up the street?!”

54 Class Agent Needed

Class Agent: Dr. Donald Gulick

Class Agent Needed

Class Agent: William F. Barrett

Rev. Dan Hatch writes, “I was married

Oct 28, 2013 to Maribeth (Bets) DeJong from Grand Rapids, MI. She has been working with Nordstrom for 30 years in regional HR. We live in Mill Valley, CA close to my son Ted and family, and enjoy time with grandchildren, now 8 and 13. My daughter, Meg, is a Professor of Biology at Penn State’s WorthingtonScranton campus. Bets’ son, Nate just graduated from the University of Arizona, lives in Tucson, and is searching for work in Environmental Science. Bets and I enjoy yoga, travel, and hiking. For fitness I row crew four days a week.”

Houston Stokes writes, “Our second

Class Agent: Susan Bisacca McNinch

grandchild was born at 2:00 AM EST on 27 January 2014. Her name is Natalie Ann Stokes. Proud parents are William and Melissa Stokes, and her brother is Thomas William Stokes, age 2.” This summer Houston and his wife Diana celebrated 35 years of married life with a Viking River cruise on the Rhine from Basel to Amsterdam! Houston is in his 47th year at the University of Illinois, Department of

Monty Euston is enjoying retired life in Lake Tapps, WA, southeast of Seattle, after moving from Syracuse, NY. His two daughters and a son are all working in the Seattle area. He still hears from some BCD grads including Christine Jastram ’57 Ragsdale.

Class Agent: Sandra Bardwell Bernard

63 Class Agents: Churchward Davis, Jr. & Paul Denzel

Peter Wheelwright shares, “My novel,

As It Is On Earth, received the 2013 PEN/ Hemingway Honorable Mention for Literary Excellence in Debut Fiction. I am now spending the year on sabbatical from Parsons the New School for Design (where I am Associate Professor) finishing up a new novel about the New York City water supply system...no kidding; lots of drama there!”

64 Class Agents: Dr. Elizabeth Beautyman & Frank MacGruer

Jeff Covel says, “I continue to reside in Arlington, VA, twice retired from probation and parole work (federal and state) and currently working parttime for Arlington County as a school crossing guard. My family and I enjoy

berkshirecountryday.org

Class Agents: Dr. Jonathan R. Aronoff, Thomas Gibson, Dale Pinkham Cavanaugh, Mary Jean Weston, Renee Rutkowski Junewicz

Class Agents: Daniel Gibson, PhD & Frank Kittredge, Jr.

69 Class Agents: Molly Kapteyn Boxer, Cynthia Spencer, and Paula Leuchs Moats

Frannie Johnson Terwilliger writes, “I have wrapped up 33 years of teaching middle school. It was the best job I could have imagined. Now we are off in search of new adventures, but BCD remains close to my heart.”

listening every holiday season to the holiday record we made at BCD for the 1963/1964 holiday season (see attached picture). I doubt many of these vinyls still exist.”

65 Class Agent: William Campbell

Elizabeth Morgan Graf writes, “Robert

and I continue to enjoy being retired from our regular jobs and putting our time into volunteer work with local civic and community organizations, helping sit for our 19-month-old grandson in near-by Atlanta, visiting our other grandchildren on the west coast, and traveling in general. I continue to visit Stockbridge and the Berkshires at least once a year, where it still feels like home.”

66 Class Agent: Thomas Rich

Sonya Zack says, “I have been living in Boston for almost 40 years & am presently working in finance for a real estate investment firm. My husband & I live near the Charles River and are always out in our kayaks or canoe. I remember BCD fondly and value the great academic foundation that it gave me.”

Spring 2014

70 Class Agents: Barbara J. Cooperman, Dr. Jonathan A. Fletcher, Lisa Alberti, Ada Seyffer Patterson

Lisa Alberti shares, “I am still happily

living in NYC. I am the Associate Head of School at Trevor Day School. I consider my experience at BCD to be a very important foundation for me as a learner and educator. We were provided a wonderful mix of innovative programs (Cuisenaire rods, Orff instruments, Bonnie Prudden movement classes) and traditional curriculum (Latin, chorus, Shakespeare). If anyone has children interested in the teaching field I would be glad to speak with them. I am the mom of a 15 year old - a real happy kid who loves soccer and life. We have a home in Richmond, MA, so we spend lots of time in the Berkshires. I see Barbara Cooperman all the time in NYC and Amanda Aldrich has just moved to Providence, RI so I get to see her when I visit my sister!” Barrie Brusila and her husband Mitch are in their 19th year of business together as Mid-Maine Forestry, a consulting firm. Their work, two energetic teen daughters, gardening, and outside recreation keep them busy.

Carrie Crane is now living in Boylston,

MA as a practicing artist and MFA candidate at Lesley University, and still loving patches of color taking shape on a page. She lives with her husband, Christopher, and son Daegan, who is graduating from a school as cool as BCD, Parker Charter School in Devens, MA. Debra Ann Dodd Rajkowski writes, “Hello 44 years later! After BCD I went to a new school each year, and after a year of college I continued to travel around the country finally settling in one place for 33 years now. This hamlet, not far from Glacier National Park, Montana, is where I live with my husband and raised our 7 children. I’m an aspiring artist - see www.Debrianna.co/ Dan Gibson shares, “I am still working with great interest and excitement in the Graybiel laboratory at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, doing software development and data analysis.”

72 Class Agents: Fredi Steven-Hubbard Hungate, Nina L. Aronoff, Nina Ryan, and Sue Cooperman Cox

Johanna Bergmans Musselman shares,

“It’s been a joy to reconnect with many BCDS classmates on Facebook the past few years! After more than 10 years in the Boston area, my family will be relocating to Princeton, NJ in 2014. I have been a stay-at-home mom for 13 years, but have started a training program to get ready to return to paid employment. The program is called reacHIRE and is a startup designed to get experienced women connected with companies through internships. I’m excited!” Curtis Buttenheim says, “After years of avoiding the inevitable, I’ve moved to Las Vegas rather than commute.”

ni um Al

Class Agent: Byron Walker

Nicholas Gilman writes, “I am a food

journalist living in Mexico City. My book, Good Food in Mexico City: A Guide to Food Stalls, Fondas and Fine Dining, won a Gourmand Cookbook award. My web site is www.goodfoodmexicocity.com Ginny Hustvedt shares, “I’ve been busy over the past year. I planned and participated in my own wedding which took place on May 11th. My husband and I were together for 11 years before he popped the question! We spent our honeymoon in Bryson City, NC, and fell in love with that part of the country!! We also went on vacation in Washington State where we rented a beautiful house on Whidbey Island, went to Mt. Rainier, and spent time in the northern Cascades. Seattle was awesome, and we had lunch in the Space Needle. I’m still working for St. Anne’s church, an historic church in Annapolis. I will be retiring from there in April 2015 after 20 years. I plan on taking photography and art/crafting classes and perhaps working on a temp basis until my husband retires from the Federal Government. All is well here!!”

Key, FL 34228. Come on down and get away from the snow and shoveling!”

designer, and her collection Anni Maliki www.AnniMaliki.com can be found online.

Ginger Deely Halstrom just got back

from a bucket list trip of bareboating in the British Virgin Islands with her family. She writes “The adventure was fabulous, especially as my sister, Ann Deely ’77 and her fiancé joined in the experience!”

77 Class Agents: Christopher J. Kittredge, Eric Hudson, Catherine Clucas & Julia Lord

78 Class Agents: Elizabeth England, Kate Kapteyn Baldwin, Mark McInerney, John Fawcett & Holly Harwood Ellerton

79 Class Agents: Elisa Blanchard, Jennifer Greenfield, Matthew Wohl & Carolyn Butler

80 Class Agents: Liza White Turley & Martha Capers Pavao

Anni Crofut is living in Housatonic, MA with her husband and boys, one of whom is a 6th grader at BCD. Anni is a jewelry

S EW N

Class Agents: Kevin Sprague & Jessica Ryan Lapinski

Melissa Namiot shares, “5 years to the

day of our very first date, I was married, on August 16 at Elm Bank in Wellesley, to Frank E. Majewski, Jr. My parents and my brothers Andrew Namiot ’80 and Keith Namiot ’84 were in attendance, and we are all so thrilled to ’officially’ welcome Frank’s children Riley (16yrs), Lilly (14yrs) and Frankie (10yrs) to our family. Aside from being related to a few BCD Alums, I have been in contact with some other alums as of late, via social media (Cathy Hayne ’81, Will Laidlaw ’81, Liz Colker ’82, Matt Strassler ’81, Neil Beckerman ’82, etc.), Jess Hill ’84 via phone and of course, my fellow classmate Kevin Sprague ’80

periodically via email. My brother Keith did his first Josh Billings this fall, and it was fun to see Mr. Miller and Mr. Fawcett! I was there as Keith’s transition person and had a great time hoofing it through the woods between the camp and boat launch at the bowl! Talk about bringing back memories of Field Day at BCD!

Class Agents: Dr. Adam Begley, Hannah Toffey Peters, Alan Cooperman, Mitchell P. Nash, & Scott Schiff

75 Class Agents: Kimberly Defino Mattoon & Thomas Jendrock

76 Class Agents: Ben Barrett, Dan Braun, Dr. Kelton Burbank, Gregg Petricca, Josh Braun, Mary Potter See, Timolin Cole Augustus, Virginia Deely Halstrom, & Patty Buttenheim

Patty Buttenheim says, “Hi BCDers - After 30+ years in NYC, we have moved to Florida. For anyone visiting the Sarasota/Tampa area, please don’t hesitate to give a call. New address is: 2369 Harbour Oaks Drive, Longboat

The wedding of Melissa Namiot ’81

berkshirecountryday.org

ILE ROF

ni P Al um

ETHAN FLOWER ’83

Years and grades at BCD: Grade 1 (1973/74), and Grades 5-9 (1978-83) What are your fondest memories from BCD? My fondest memories are hanging out on the second floor in the main building in a small room just by the stairs where I learned to use an Apple II and its floppy disk drives. A few of us used the modem into the phone line to connect to certain mainframe bulletin boards before there was the Internet. I remember owning a few boxes of floppy disks that I protected with my life. This was made possible by the generosity of The Sprague Family, who donated the computer to the School. Where did you go once you left BCD? Josephine Abady, who ran the Berkshire Theatre Festival at the time where I began working professionally as an actor, suggested I study theatre at The Interlochen Arts Academy at the top of Michigan. I would suggest to anyone aspiring to be an artist of any kind to check it out. The mixture of academia and art is fantastic. I would send my kids there in a heartbeat, if we ever acquire any. After graduating from Interlochen, I was awarded a full scholarship at Carnegie Mellon University to double major in Drama and Musical Theatre. My favorite thing about CMU was that they used this form of communication where you could use a computer and message a fellow student in a simplified forum of inter-collegiate social networking. You typed a short message to them and it would be instantly sent to a personal virtual inbox stored for future retrieval. The drama course proved to me to be walking backwards, since I did not believe that artists needed degradation to then be built back up again. Artists by nature must be individual and unique. After four months I dropped out, left a lot of money on the table as they say, and said goodbye to my friends, the early form of e-mail, and Bridget (my girlfriend from Wisconsin.) Later that year, after teaching spring skiing at Butternut and landscaping for the summer in Stockbridge, I ended up on an airplane to London. I watched rehearsals at the National Theatre for a play called Entertaining Strangers starring Judi Dench and directed by Sir Peter Hall. Four weeks later, I enrolled in the three-year course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). For a rebellious child I certainly ended up in a lot of academies. I would watch from behind the stage as Tony Hopkins and Judi Dench played opposite each other in Anthony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. I learned to be an English theatre actor. I lived there for six years, working on the stage. Where are you living now? After London, I made my way back to New York and, after a few years, landed in Hollywood. Film and TV is what I really love to focus on.

Spring 2014

What are you doing now? In January, I have a project on IFC called The Spoils of Babylon, where I have a fun scene with Tobey Maguire. I also star in a film distributing worldwide called Dragon Day, about a Chinese cyber-attack that implodes the USA, and the family that tries to survive it. Look for it in 2014 on all the usual movie channels. I also have a film coming out sometime in the late 2014/15 called Room 105, where I play opposite Lorraine Nicholson (who is Jack Nicholson’s daughter). I just shot a TV pilot called Rolling and a TV show is being developed from my film Dragon Day. You never know what happens to these projects, but I hope you will get to see my face more and more. You may have seen me at your local ATT store over the holidays in a 1950’s throwback commercial. You can keep up to date with my work by liking my official Facebook page at Facebook.com/EthanFlower.Official and at ethanflower.com What are your plans for the future? I am getting a little more into producing my own projects so that I have a little more control of the content of my work. So send me your scripts. I will be living and working wherever my craft takes me. Acting sometimes involves traveling but for now my wife and I live happily in the heart of Hollywood. How do you think your time at BCD influenced the choices you’ve made? BCD was a great environment in which to grow up. It was filled with thinking outside of the box, so I was able to nurture that side of my personality. I believe that BCD empowered me to believe I was indeed someone special who had a right to be proud and stand up for my own unique choices. What about your time at BCD are you most thankful for? I was very close to being expelled when I was in eighth grade. I was a troublemaker by nature, always going against the grain. Although I was of generous spirit, I would often find myself in fistfights. Having the last name of Flower in the 70s wasn’t the easiest thing to deal with as a boy. I can’t remember exactly what it was that landed the feather onto the camel’s back, but it was Sir James Fawcett (he should be knighted) who played Akademos and saved me by pleading my case. I am very thankful to him for seeing beyond my rebellious antics, and understanding that I was indeed an intelligent and creative kid. My olive fields grew protected and I graduated smiling from BCD. What advice can you offer current students at BCD? Enjoy and trust in the brilliance of your individuality, even if it gets you a little close to the edge. We are all truly original, and bring good forward momentum and change to the world.

ni um Al

82 Class Agents: H. Davis Nadig, Ted Glockner & Steve Zuckerman

83 Class Agents: Amelia Burkhart Irose, Hillary Stritch Beadell & Linda Pollard Azzara

84 Class Agents: Dr. Dani Beckerman & Melanie Frager Griffith

Katie Blum Berryhill writes, “I’m living

Nicholas (14) and Tyler (12) on our 27acre animal sanctuary called Bluebird Farm. I house up to 50 animals in crisis, rescued from slaughter houses, abuse, religious ritual, abandonment, cock fighting and other situations. The animals range from farm animals to domestic to wildlife, many are special needs: blind, crippled, amputees and brain damaged animals. It’s like the isle of misfit toys. Still making Art on the side. Glad to see many of you on social media and occasionally get to visit with some of you in person.” Bobby Pratt says, “I recently had a great time having dinner with Noah Elkin ’84

who was in Denver, CO for business.”

in the San Francisco Bay Area with my husband, son, and daughter. We just celebrated our son becoming bar mitzvah in 2013. I teach astronomy and college algebra full time for American Public University System, an online university, and I’m hoping to complete my Ph.D. in Science Education through the University of Wyoming this year. A few months ago, Suzanne Hayne ’84 and I met for lunch and had a wonderful time catching up.

Larry Trabulsi shares, “Living in the

Suzannah Zeif Van Schaick says, “My shop, Second Home, specializing in upcycled home furnishings and accessories, is doing well and expanding! Look for us on Main Street in Great Barrington this Spring. If you haven’t been, please stop by and see me!”

85 Class Agent: Cara Petricca Carnevale

Doug Altshuler shares, “We moved to

Vancouver, BC two and half years ago and we are enjoying our new life here. My son Daniel is now eight years old and my son Gabriel is five years old. I recently received a grant from the Human Frontier Science Program to study how birds use visual information to guide their flight.” Cara Petricca Carnevale writes,

“My husband Marc and I are living in Cheshire, MA with our two sons

Boston area and just celebrated my 6th year with Capital Hotel Management (CHM), a hotel investment advisory and asset management firm where I am a Vice President Having a lot of fun with my two boys Ryan (9) and Owen (6) and my wife Mary. All is good!”

86 Class Agents: Joel Kalodner

Class Agents: Laurie Bemis de Ris, Rachel Masters & Sheela Siegel Clary

88 Class Agents: Courtney Smith MacDonald, Dr. Jennifer Ballen Riccards, Joni Guerrette Olsen & Rachel Sagalyn

Erica Auerbach Fine writes, “I live in Newton, MA with my husband, 9-yearold twin daughters and 5-year-old son. My girls are always asking for stories from when I was in their grade. Last year (2nd grade), I recounted: Ms. Hen(nick) reading Roald Dahl to her chicks; Jim, Jonathan & Ross offering to build me a house and then making fun of me for years for exclaiming ’I don’t want no house’ when they started with the toilet (a cardboard box lined with a garbage bag); making Thanksgiving soup; Fridays

skating at the Boys Club. This year (3rd) I tell them about: the mad minute (which they are now doing in school); dodge ball; playing with Caitlin in the little house in the playground; shop with Mr. Miller, art with Mrs. Rockwell, PE with Mrs. Heady. And although they are not there yet, they love the story from 5th grade when I accidentally pulled the chair out from Mrs. Fletcher sending her slamming onto the floor (sorry!) and when Mr. Fawcett threw my books out the 2nd floor window in 8th (deserved!). I work as a finance lawyer at a life insurance company and visit the Berkshires often with my family.”

S EW N

Currently, I am contracting at Fidelity Investments as a Systems Analyst/ Release Manager in Rhode Island.”

Joni Guerette Olsen is working part time

and learning the ropes as the mom of a highschooler. She and her husband Scott are expecting a little boy in April. Cam and Trevor are so excited to be big brothers!

89 Class Agents: Jay Crosby & Sara Monsonis

Maya Robertson Johnson says,

“Hey Class of ’89! I am still living in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. I work in Canton, MA at Computershare. I am a Transfer Agent. My kids have gotten so big, they are 11 (my daughter Catey) and 14 (my son Alan). If anyone is ever in Rhode Island, give me a shout!”

90 Class Agents: Taj Monjardo & Zoe Suzette Alsop

91 Class Agents: Jenny Macioge, Casey Fitzpatrick & Kit Crosby

92 Class Agents: Marc Mandel & Sara Munson

93 Class Agents: Benjamin Alsop & Sage Calamari

Lilly Donohue Smith shares, “I’m not

certain when I last updated, but we had a new baby, Ruby Alice, last August. We also

berkshirecountryday.org

ILE ROF

ni P Al um

JAY CROSBY ’89 Years and grades at BCD: 1982-1988; Grades 3-8 What are your fondest memories from BCD? My fondest memories include, unfortunately, frequent trips to the assistant principal’s (Mr. Douglas) office. While I may have been considered a difficult kid at BCD, my intent was never malicious. The lessons learned from Mr. Buttenheim, Mr. Douglas, Mr. & Mrs. Fawcett, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Livsey, Mrs. Sadhigi, and so many more were truly formative. When I am in the classroom or abroad with a difficult student, I often think back to the many times I wound up in the principal’s office at BCD and the advice I received. I cannot help but have patience and understanding for my students, and I often find myself internally smiling as I think, “please, I invented that one!” Where did you go once you left BCD? I attended George School in Newtown, PA, graduating in 1992. I then went to Trinity College in Hartford, CT, graduating in 1996 with a BA in History. Finally, I attended Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY, graduating in 2001 with a MA in Education. I have traveled quite a bit over the years, primarily to the Caribbean, Mexico, and southern Africa. Where are you living now? I live in Mamaroneck, NY. What are you doing now? I am a middle school history teacher at Brunswick School in Greenwich, CT. I also run a non-profit called Leadership Exchange www.lecommunity.org. In 2003, my family created a non-profit called Somarela to provide direct support to AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in southern Africa. Prior to his death, my father was planning to move to Botswana to not only become a pilot working with various conservation projects, but also to set up a basic needs center for street children. The Leadership Exchange grew from this. Every summer we lead service learning trips to Botswana and Zimbabwe, providing direct aid and support to organizations that meet the needs of children at risk and their families. In the past, we have painted schools, tutored, and built a number of pit latrines. We built a home for a family this past summer. The mission of Leadership Exchange is twofold: to focus on the social and emotional growth of teenagers and adults through cultural exchange and service-learning trips, and to advance humanitarian work in developing nations through direct funding. Through service learning trips and exchange programs, participants are able to learn about and understand members of their own peer group who come from disparate backgrounds. What are your plans for the future? This spring we will be traveling to Haiti with students from Monument Mountain Regional High School to work with a local school on building a computer center and painting, and to exchange ideas and cultures. This pilot trip will hopefully lay the groundwork for future trips to Haiti. I am also eager to begin bringing students from Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Haiti to the US. While we have had students from Botswana visit the US in the past, I would like to make it an annual event. These exchanges allow kids the opportunity to find similarities in peers outside their comfort zone, both domestic and abroad.

Spring 2014

The trips have been a transformative experience in the lives of our students, adult chaperones, and the organizations with whom we partner. We are compelled to act as responsible global citizens—to use our economic and educational resources and privilege to reach the global community. We learn that privilege must not only be accompanied by responsibility, but more importantly, must be tempered by compassion. How do you think your time at BCD influenced the choices you’ve made? BCD instilled in me a strong sense of community, responsibility, and compassion. Mr. Douglas and others always supported me despite my every attempt to thwart their assistance. As I mentioned earlier, I was not an easy student to have in the classroom. The teachers at BCD never gave up on me and gave me many of the tools I use today as an educator. BCD taught me what it means to care for someone other than myself. It took a while to sink in, but ultimately, I was able to use these skills to build my program and develop my ability as a teacher. What about your time at BCD are you most thankful for? BCD gave me the room to mature as a student and always supported me through my many struggles as a learner; I am incredibly grateful for the patience and support of the School. However, I am most thankful for the friendships that developed at BCD. I still have many very close friendships that started as early as 3rd grade with Mrs. Valentine. What advice can you offer current students at BCD? Take advantage of every moment they have with their families, their friends, and the School. BCD is a wonderful and safe place, but sometimes we lose sight of what we have. It all goes by so fast, we need to focus on slowing down. This is an exciting time and information is right there at the literal touch of a button (or iPhone screen). It’s easy to become desensitized to the noise. Stop. Look at a sunset. Say thank you to the store clerk. Tell your parents that you love them. Recognize the privilege that you have and use it for positive change.

ni um Al

94 Class Agents: Dr. Danielle Gulick, Marc Lanoue & Valentina Clark

Danielle Gulick writes, “I got married in

the Florida Aquarium on 10/13/13, to Dr. Joshua Gamsby, and I finally became family to my adorable 6-year-old stepson, Nathan. I am now in my second year as Assistant Professor in Molecular Medicine at the University of South Florida Health where I am conducting research into neuropsychiatric disorders with Josh and also directing the Medical School Neurology course.”

95 Class Agents: Timur Pakay, Eva Jaffe & Gabrielle Cosel

96 Class Agents: Joanna Munson & Rebecca Geehr

97 Class Agent Needed

Andrew Levine is still living in Atlanta,

going on 14 years. He shared that he “finished an MBA at Emory in 2009 and began working at Colliers International as a commercial real estate broker. I also married my wonderful wife Marya in 2009. We met at a Home Depot and got engaged on the Great Wall of China during the Olympics in 2008. We celebrated the arrival of a baby boy, Everett Owen Levine on January 2, 2013. Everett is doing great, I fell in love with him from the moment I saw him. He is starting on solid foods, and though we have not yet taught him his ABCs we will be sure to emphasize the “BCD” portion when he gets there. I have already starting looking around at schools to find that certain “vibe” that we want for him. My basis for comparison will always be the high bar set by BCD.”

98 Class Agents: Anna Pouls, Anthony Hao Belanger & Molly Cosel

Anthony H Belanger shares “After a

final semester teaching in Shanghai, Tony recently received an MS in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and celebrated with a month-long trip to Japan. He still teaches online and writes educational songs for Yo Yo Chinese, a program for learning Mandarin.” Chelsea Pollen Cohen moved to

Baltimore with her husband and their new baby, Shira, who was born October 2013.

99 Class Agents: Brynne Kennedy, Emily Zwerner, Laura Burton & Zachary Snyder

Michael Mark Pierz entered the priesthood in May of 2013. Prior to his ordination Michael was a deacon based at St. Mary’s Church in Lee. Pierz, 29, is a native of Austria who moved with his family to Lee. He attended St. Mary’s School until 1996, then transferred to and graduated from Berkshire Country Day School. He graduated from Lenox Memorial High School in 2002. After earning a degree in hotel and restaurant management from Northern Arizona University in 2007, Pierz returned to the Springfield diocese to begin his seminary studies, which he completed in Rome. Pierz, proficient in several languages, plans to continue advance studies in Rome following his ordination. 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Class Agents Needed

02 Tess Hardcastle says “Since leaving

BCD I attended Berkshire School and Kenyon College. After graduating from Kenyon, I moved to Athens, Georgia, where I currently work as a high school English and yoga teacher.”

S EW N

have a three-year-old son, Wyatt James. We are living in a Belmont, MA and both my husband and I are architects.”

04 Emily Harrigan is a second-year law

student at BU School of Law in Boston. Audrey Procopio joined Quality Printing Co. in Pittsfield as director of marketing and human resources in the fall of 2013.

05 Class Agents: Emily Ryan & Janet Butterworth

Wilson Baer won both The Lucius Lyon

Prize in Latin and The Lafayette Sabine Foster Prize in Greek at Brown University in 2013. Kaitlyn Drees will be graduating from Northeastern University in Boston this spring. She is completing the five-year nursing program. This past fall she spent her third Co-op in London, England, working in a nursery. This summer she will be a camp nurse at Camp Ramaca in Hinsdale, where she was a counselor last year. She has plans to apply for a public health position on an Indian Reservation in Montana for fall employment. Megan Krentsa graduated from George Washington University this past May with a major in international relations and Spanish. But her passion has been medicine, having worked as an EMT for four years in school. She is working full time at the George Washington University Hospital in charge of the training facility, which has over 900 classes a year for recurring training for Physicians and RNs, as well as the community at large. She is also enrolled full time in Medic School, still working as an EMT and doing practical training with a medic unit. Mare McCormick got married last

winter and is living in Colorado with her husband, who serves in the Army. Paige Pasquini graduated from St.

Lawrence University with an Atrium Baccalaureate Cum Laude in May 2013. She majored in sociology and fine arts.

berkshirecountryday.org

She continued her education at Kripalu School of Yoga where she graduated with a 500-hour Ayurvedic yoga teaching certificate. Paige is currently living and teaching yoga in Burlington, Vermont at Body Resolutions and Jenke Arts.

06 Class Agent: Allie Epstein

Anna Lucia Lister graduated from Harvard University in May 2013, and is now working for JP Morgan in NY City.

08 Class Agent Needed

Ann Alexander is in her junior year

at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, expecting to complete degrees in two majors, Latin and Economics. Ann spent her first semester of college in Florence, Italy in the NYU/F&M program in residence at Villa Pietra. During that fall break, she traveled from Italy to Israel and before the year was up, she traveled twice to London. Last summer, Ann was fortunate to receive a travel grant for research from the F&M Classics Department to return to Italy, traveling on her own through Rome, Naples, Herculaneum and Pompeii. Ann is quick to thank Mrs. Fawcett at BCD for lighting the spark and giving her a strong foundation. Adding to her busy life at college, Ann studies bassoon and plays in the symphony orchestra and various chamber groups. With her involvement in several college organizations and demanding studies, Ann has little spare time but is very happy. Last spring, the Alexanders relocated to Stamford, Connecticut to be near family. Matt Drees is currently serving in the US Navy, stationed in San Diego, California. John Frelinghuysen is a junior at Rollins College, retired President of TKE fraternity, Class Senator, Communications Major, and loving his Florida life.

Spring 2014

Thomas & Michael Harrigan are both

second-year engineering students at Syracuse University. Kerry Krentsa is in the middle of her third year in school at the University of Stirling in Scotland. She is studying Film and Media and her specialty is film editing. She loves living in Scotland and is planning to visit many of her friends this year who are studying abroad in various cities in Europe. Her fourth year would normally involve writing a dissertation, but for the Film and Media program, she will be producing a short film. Sarah Lister is a junior in Graphic Design

and Creative Advertisement at Johnson and Wales in RI. She spent her summer as intern in Boston working for Allen & Gerritsen, Inc. Eli Merritt is attending Ohio Wesleyan

University, which recruited him to play Lacrosse. He is working toward a degree in Fine Arts/Sculpture. Tate Pasquini is a sophomore at

Community College of Vermont where he is majoring in Business. His roommate is BCD alumni David Graziani ’08! They are both enjoying skiing recreationally at Sugarbush and working as landscapers during the summer months. Anastasia Whalen writes “I graduated

from Northeastern in 2012 and currently live in Brooklyn, NY and work at Penguin Random House as an assistant to the Random House Speakers Bureau.”

09 Class Agents: Claire M. Meyer & Roya Daemi

Byron Hutchison is a student at NYU’s Stern School of Business in New York City. He is preparing for the spring semester abroad in Shanghai! For the last two summers, he has worked as an intern with US Congressman Chris Gibson (NY-19) assisting constituents, especially those with needs from the Veterans’ Administration.

Morgan Schuler is in her second year at Bard College, Majoring in Art History

10 Class Agents: Darby Bailey, Dylan Cole-Kink, Joshua Shapiro, Isaak van der Meulen & Benjamin Wheeler

AnaMei Boyd graduated from Miss Hall’s School in June 2013, and received the History Department prize. Ivy Ciaburri graduated from Miss Hall’s School in June 2013. She received the Mansfield E. Pickett Latin Prize, the Iive Rouse Science Award, and the Meus Honor Stat Key. Olivia Dolan graduated from Millbrook School in June 2013 and entered Trinity College. Lauren Graham graduated from

Miss Hall’s School in June 2013, and received the Meus Honor Stat Key. Avery Hutchison graduated from Milton

Academy in 2013. This spring, he will be traveling to French Polynesia to board the Picton Castle as a sailing trainee for four months. In the fall of 2014, he will join the freshman class at the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland. Katherina Lister graduated from

Monument Mountain HS and decided to go to McGill University in Canada with a concentration in Biology. Sam Merritt is a senior at Berkshire

School and a High Honors student. He was recruited to play lacrosse at Swarthmore College in the fall, and will pursue a degree in Engineering Isaak van der Meulen - During winter

break from Ithaca College where he is studying broadcasting, he toured Israel on a free ten-day trip sponsored by Taglit Birthright Israel for young adults of Jewish heritage to explore their cultural roots. He floated on the Dead Sea, snorkeled in Eilat, hiked the Golan and Masada, visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, and

ni um Al ILE

PROF

FIONA BRESLIN ’07 2S

Grades attended: 6-9 (2000-2004). What are your fondest memories from BCD? Meeting teachers including Ned Douglas, Mrs. Jones, Mr. Massini, Rob and Gini Peterson, Geoff Ashworth, and Mrs. Broderick Scarpa. I also enjoyed the art room with Dawn Masiero, Mrs. Cromwell, and Janie Goldenberg, and friendships made with people like Tim Butterworth, Leila Campoli, and Hannah Morris (to name a few); peers who I am still friends with to this day.

What are your plans for the future? Keep pursuing illustrative work and improve my skills. I would also like to continue living in interesting places I am compatible with.

Where did you go once you left BCD? After BCD I transferred to Monument Mountain; a great school. I then attended one year at UMASS where I joined the campus radio and later graduated from The New School University in Manhattan with a degree in journalism.

How do you think your time at BCD influenced the choices you’ve made? I met some students and teachers who I would still call friends today. We also read great books at BCD and got the opportunities to travel and engage with interesting events, a favorite of mine was Classics Day. This was all invaluable, as was the chance to learn Latin, which has helped with learning many other languages such as French, Spanish, Italian, and English. Plus, it was fun! BCD was a compassionate place, and I thank the School for offering students different curricular and extracurricular options. I agree with the school mantra “Learning is Discovery.”

Where are you living now? I have been based in NYC and Western, MA my whole life but am currently abroad; first to Berlin and then to Venice, Italy where I came in July 2013.

What advice can you offer current students at BCD? From my experience, some of the friends you are making now might stick with you forever; that is a great feeling to know.

What are you doing now? I am a fashion journalist and illustrator; I also work in stores and in fashion showrooms assisting designers. I can also teach people how to draw and sketch.

berkshirecountryday.org

11 Class Agents: Camilla Norris, Quintin Pollart, Grace Rossman & Harley Waller

William Benner is an AP Scholar with

honors and a National Merit Scholar semi-finalist. Jack Corcoran writes “After leaving

Isaak van der Meulen ’10 on a camel in Israel

rode a camel after spending a night in a Bedouin tent. He says it was an amazing travel experience. Kelt Wilska shares “I graduated from

Monument Mountain in June and am now a freshman at Hamilton College where I made the dean’s list for the first semester.”

BCD I attended The Putney School in Vermont for 2 years, and then moved with my family to Bronxville, NY. I graduated a year early from Bronxville High by stacking classes during my junior year, adding independent studies to acquire extra credits, and completing my senior year online in the summer. Hampshire College offered me a full ride to attend their school. I accepted, and that’s where I find myself now, studying primarily history/politics and music.” Harrison Newman had a great football

season at Hollis Brookline and just enrolled at University of New Haven, where he’ll study Emergency Medicine and Fire Science Technology. He can now wear a pager without it getting confiscated by Mrs. D-P! This summer, he’s super excited about traveling to Israel with his sister Sara on the Birthright Israel tour.

Quintin Pollart was selected to be a

member of the Cum Laude Society at Berkshire School in recognition of his academic achievement, and has been accepted through early decision to Bates College for fall 2015.

12 Class Agents: Hallie Yong Novak, Peyton Schiff, Bryce Schuler & Estevan Velez

Bryce Schuler is attending Berkshire

school where he is on the varsity alpine ski team.

13 Class Agents: Sam Kittredge, Elise Ghitman, Sam Capeless & Nick Roszkowski

Harper Glantz is attending Monument

Mountain Regional High School, and is an occasional contributor to Disney’s Babble. com. She was recently a subject in Cynthia Wade’s film “Selfie,” produced by Dove and the Sundance Institute. You can read about Harper’s experience in the film here - http://www.babble.com/beauty/ me-my-selfie-and-i-redefining-beauty-andflaws-in-selfie/

BCD still has $30,000 to raise to meet its Annual Fund goal. Please consider giving online at www.berkshirecountryday.org/giving by the last day of the fiscal year on June 30, 2014.

BCD Annual Fund Give every year. Make a difference every day.

Spring 2014

ni um Al ILE

PROF

Photos by Jane Feldman www.janefeldman.com

Christopher st. clair ’10 2S

I am Christopher St. Clair, BCD class of 2010 2S. I came to Berkshire Country Day Secondary School as a ninth-grader in the fall of 2006 and left in the summer of 2007 with the closing of the high school. I graduated from BCD with High Honors. When I first arrived at BCD, I was incredibly nervous: out of the entire school, I was the only new student. I had not made any close friends during my last three years in the New Lebanon Public School system, and now here I was surrounded by another school of strangers, most of whom had known each other for as long as they could remember. I quickly learned, however, that my experience at BCD would not be what I had expected. My teachers and peers possessed a true dedication to learning. This made me love my classwork, but what occurred outside of the classroom is what really amazed me about BCD. It was a community. I remember clearly Mr. Clifford coaching us in the three R’s of soccer (and of life in general): Respect yourself, Respect your opponent, and Respect the game. That really sums it all up for me. Our teachers respected us, we respected each other, and we all respected our school. This respect was plain to see in our theater teacher Mr. Howard. That year I took part in our production of The Secret in the Wings, the most exhausting production I have ever been in. The play was a surreal collage of fairytale vignettes where nearly every actor played at least three characters with up to a dozen costume changes. The lighting booth had the most intimidating set of cues I ever heard of. However, Mr. Howard led us through it. No matter our age or talent, he treated us as equals and gave us the guidance and the liberty to make the play our own. I am now a music teacher, and this above all else is how I aspire to teach. Another of my fondest memories from BCD is of our end-of-theyear trip to China. I was in tenth-grade Social Studies that year, so the tenth-graders and I packed our bags and flew for sixteen hours straight from JFK to Beijing. We walked on the Great Wall, explored the Forbidden City, haggled with peddlers for five-dollar Rolex knock-offs, and quickly learned that actual Chinese food is nothing at all like what we have back home. We each even got to live with a foster family for a week. That above all else illustrated to me the greatest lesson that I took from our trip: no matter how different another person’s culture or traditions might be, we are all really the same when it comes to heart and home. The experience itself, however, is not why this is one of my fondest memories of BCD. Instead, it is that I felt equally

comfortable among the tenth-graders as among the students of my own year. While at BCD, I had friends in every grade. There was no segregation by age or sect whatsoever. The whole school was one big clique. Nowhere was this shown to me more than on the day when everyone was asked to come to the dining room for an all-school meeting. There we were told that BCD2S would be closing at the end of the year. Then, one by one, every student and every teacher spoke about what BCD meant to them. I have rarely seen such a wealth of emotion, grief, and actual love as I saw then. Nearly everyone was crying, and all at the loss of a school. It was only my second week, and I had only just begun to make friends among my classmates, but it did not take long after that for me to figure out why our school was loved so much: it was a family. After leaving BCD many of my schoolmates and I enrolled in Bard College at Simon’s Rock and together we took the plunge into the life of early college. Four years later I graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Jazz Performance and Audio Engineering. I also had the privilege of designing my ideal thesis: I created an album. I gathered four of my classmates into a band and together we wrote four original jazz and fusion instrumental songs. I organized the rehearsals, arranged the material, and recorded, mixed, and mastered the album. I also transcribed each composition and wrote a dissertation analyzing their structure and recounting the process of creating the recording. Finally, we performed our compositions in front of a live audience, including my thesis committee. Now, I am living in my hometown of New Lebanon, NY with my fiancée Amy. We are to be married this July. I work as a Studio Engineer at Muddy Angel Music & Arts in Richmond, MA (the same studio where I recorded my thesis and interned for my major). I also give private music lessons, which is the most rewarding work I have ever done. Finding more students to teach is currently my greatest endeavor. Whatever the instrument, they all speak different dialects of the same language, and teaching the intricacies of that language is my greatest passion. If you have a love for the language of music, either as a complete beginner or as a furthering of your passion, write to me at christopher@ muddyangel.com. Whether or not you are seeking a teacher, I would be delighted to give you whatever assistance I can. If I were to give any advice to the students at BCD today, I would say this: pay attention. There are not many places like BCD in our world, and you will have left sooner than you think. Stop and look. See the camaraderie, respect, and love you have for your friends and your teachers. They are family, and all that really matters is our time with our family.

berkshirecountryday.org

Skylar Graff is currently living in

Syosset NY, attending Syosset High School. He is a sophomore. He is an accomplished athlete, and plays baseball, not only for his high school team, but for the LI Titans, a wellrespected travel baseball team. Sam Kittredge is a sophomore at Pittsfield High School. He is in the Accelerated Academy taking two AP classes, plays clarinet in the school band, and will be appearing in the theater production of You Can’t Take It With You. He is on the cross-country ski team and looks forward to seeing BCD students on the trails. Francesca Lally received the Art

Purchase Award for Photography at Miss Hall’s School in June of 2013. Emma & Jacob Lezberg are now black belts in Uechi-Ryu karate! They had their test in November of 2013, and passed with honors. Rebecca van der Meulen writes

“At the end of February, I will be travelling to Nicaragua with Buxton School for the annual all-school trip to study the culture. My project group will explore Nicaraguan media sources such as local television, radio, newspapers, and magazines.”

14 Class Agents: Jesse Cassuto & Jackson Rich

Elizabeth Hinds is enjoying her first

year at Monument Mountain Regional High School. She loved participating in Shakespeare and Company’s Fall Festival’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and is pursuing an interest in photography. Ruth King is having a great time at

Millbrook School. She made the Honor Roll in academics and the varsity soccer team, and will play lacrosse in the spring. Last summer, she did community service work and lived with a family in Costa Rica through a wonderful program called Global

Spring 2014

Routes, and this summer, she intends to do the same in Nepal. Zephyr Maliki is currently at Monument

Mountain Regional High School, and playing regularly with his band HIGHLAND at venues around the Berkshires. Cameron Sweener is enjoying his freshman year at Lenox High School. He was in the Shakespeare & Company Fall Festival play of King Richard III, he won 1st place in the Classics Day model building with his to-scale model of the Lighthouse at Alexandria, and he is performing in the musical Pippin this spring.

have enjoyed visiting and hearing about today’s BCD through my brother Emile, a current BCD third grader.” Carolyn Peterson was married two and a half years ago to a young man from Connecticut College, her alma mater. They were married in New London, and now live in Brooklyn, NY. After three years working in the lower school at Trevor Day School, she is now teaching kindergarten at Success Academy, a charter school in the Lower East Side.

Molly Weinberg received High Honors at Pittsfield High School for the fall quarter. She is also a member of the club Peace Jam.

Vlad Zeygerman graduated with an associate’s degree in Liberal Arts from BCC in 2009. He has worked at local AT&T since 2009. Vlad also was certified 2nd degree black belt in Karate in May 2013, and traveled to Jamaica in November 2013 for vacation.

05 2S

Trevor Sweener is having a great 7th

grade year at Lenox; especially in wood shop, CAD, gym, and of course academic courses! He is looking forward to baseball tryouts once the snow melts.

01 2S Class Agent: Rita Lanoue Toombs

02 2S Class Agent: John Curtis Kowalski

03 2S Class Agent: Richard Brooke Gilder

04 2S Class Agent: Alexis Picheny

Gwen Miller shares “After getting a great K-9 education at BCD, I graduated from the Berkshire School in 2004; attended the University of Vermont; served as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Syracuse, and then received a Master’s degree in city and regional planning at UMass-Amherst. I am currently working at the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission as a planner, and

Class Agents: Hunter McCormick & Jane Clausen

Jane Clausen attended Skidmore College for Studio Art after graduating from BCD 2S in 2005. She has since been working full time for BCD’s favorite photographer, John Dolan, in New York City as his studio manager. She also freelances as a graphic designer and pursues her love of photography and drawing on her own. Thinking back to her days at BCD, she feels honored to have had such an intimate schooling experience. BCD was like being part of a big family. Jane also really loved being a “faculty brat” as her mom, Kathy Clausen, taught there for the past 20 years. Tarsi Dunlop lives in Arlington, VA

and continues her work as Program and Operations Manager at the Learning First Alliance, a partnership of national education associations committed to strengthening and supporting public education for all students. She was just recently accepted to Georgetown University’s spring 2014 cohort for their Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program. She recently joined a leadership committee to guide

ni um Al

Hunter McCormick was promoted in September 2013 from Senior District Executive to District Director at Boy Scouts of America Western Massachusetts Council. His responsibility has shifted from Berkshire County to Hampden County, and he is now a supervisor. Patrick Toole says “I graduated from

the University of the Arts with a BFA in Film & Digital Video in 2009. Last year I edited a feature length documentary film with veteran filmmaker Robert Drew (known for his films following John F. Kennedy in the white house, “Primary” and “Crisis.”) Now I work as a freelance editor and video producer while teaching filmmaking workshops with students in high school and younger.”

06 2S Class Agent: Ariel Kaphan

Thomas Frelinghuysen loves living

the NYC life as a Click Model and

performing in stage combat roles at The Metropolitan Opera.

Hudson, NY. She enjoys keeping up with the many BCD alumni in the city!

Bobby Peterson is a golf professional

Rosie Taylor graduated from Smith

splitting his days between New Orleans, LA in the winter time and Manchester, VT where he works at the Ekwano Golf Club as an assistant pro. He is married to a wonderful gal from Rapid City, South Dakota, where he was married one and a half years ago. She is teaching at Akili Charter School in New Orleans, LA.

09 2S

S EW N

planning for the 10th anniversary celebration of the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network, an organization she’s been involved with since 2005. Finally, Tarsi is now a yogi and spends many evenings a week in her local studio perfecting her yoga asanas and taking some time away from the hustle and bustle of life in the nation’s capital.

College in 2012 majoring in Medieval Studies. She has spent the last eight months in Scandinavia traveling and learning Swedish for her upcoming graduate studies.

Class Agent: Ben Tobin

07 2S Class Agent: Arielle Picheny

Carlos Kaufman lives in Phoenixville,

PA and works as Senior Purchasing Analyst at Sabic Inc. in Exton, PA. Carlos continues to enjoy traveling and recently visited Turkey, where he appreciated all he learned in Mrs. Fawcett’s classes when he visited the archeological museum in Istanbul.

08 2S Class Agent Needed

Carina Kaufman lives in Brooklyn, NY and works as residency coordinator at Flux Factory in Long Island City and at Marlow Restaurant in Williamsburg. She spent the summer working at Art OMI on the international residency and loved being back in the area and living in

Abbe Baptiste Charbonneau graduated from Russell Sage College in May 2013 with a BS in Health Sciences. She is presently employed by United Cerebral Palsy Association of Berkshire County as an Individual and Family Advocate. Ben Tobin writes “I am currently

working at Mount Holyoke College in the Office of Communications full time as the videographer/digital media content specialist. I’m also working on a documentary about New York Times Best Selling author Greg Ruth entitled The Drybrush Master.”

10 2S Class Agent: Jamila Benkhoud

Come visit! 2014 Fall Homecoming Saturday, September 27, 2014 Thanksgiving Soup Tuesday, November 25, 2014

berkshirecountryday.org

In Memoriam Diana Harwood 1939-2013

Gordon Clem 1931-2013

Diana Frances Piatkowski Harwood, a lifelong resident of Gt. Barrington, passed peacefully at her home in November, 2013. During her life, she participated in many different vocations including owning her own catering business and seafood market; certified nurse’s assistant and home health aide; paralegal; sales associate at the Red Lion Inn; administrative assistant at the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce; steward at the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) in Gt. Barrington; and she will be remembered for her tireless dedication to the Gt. Barrington Garden Club, of which she was a member for 42 years. Diana worked for a few years at Berkshire Country Day School as well. Gail Heady wrote the following remembrance, with some help from Eugénie Fawcett:

Former BCD Board Member Gordon Clem passed away in September, 2013. Before retiring to the Berkshires in 1995, he served St. Thomas Choir School in New York City beginning in 1955 as a member of its faculty, and then as its headmaster from 1967 to 1995. While at St. Thomas, he organized an annual training workshop for math and science teachers from the U.S. and abroad which has continued at the Dana Hall School for the last 50 years. In addition serving on the BCD board, he was a leadership volunteer for Harlem’s Children’s Store Front School, St. Luke’s School, The Bement School, the Church of the Heavenly Rest Day School, The National Association of Independent Schools, and New York State Association of Independent Schools. He also founded the St. Thomas Soup Kitchen, which continues taking 350 lunches onto the streets of NYC every Saturday. Former faculty member Anna Zaffanella sent the following remembrance:

From 1967-79 Diana wore numerous hats at BCD: parent, employee and volunteer. Her children, Heidi, Holly, and Scott, were all ’lifers’, and her husband Bill served on the board. My memories of Diana began in the BCD store which was located in the small library room we use now. I can remember letting the students bring some change in so they could run over during lunch and recess to purchase an eraser or a pencil they needed for the day, or perhaps a snack from the glassed-in enclosure. Diana was helpful and friendly with all of the children coming in to buy a little item with their precious money. If they forgot their money, an IOU would be written on a piece of paper for them to bring it in the next day. Diana was instrumental in keeping the store well stocked with necessary items for school. She insisted that BCD pay her for this position, but then she donated the money back to the school, so that the School would be aware of the value of the work. She did not believe it should be a volunteer position. In her generous way, she was a wonderful cook, making the delicious

lasagna, tossed green salad, and rolls for the nervous athletes awaiting their awards and the commentary from the coaches at the annual Sports Dinner. In those days, we had field hockey awards and soccer awards to present. Diana’s children were all involved actively in the sports arena, with loud cheers from their mom. For her final employment at BCD, I remember her sitting and greeting everyone for the day, writing down late slips, answering the phone, and chatting with many a parent. Her desk was located at the bottom of the entryway so there was no getting by her. Diana was a wonderful individual who enjoyed her time at BCD, and she was a well-respected woman. She leaves her husband, William F. Harwood, to whom she had been married for 52 years, her daughters, Heidi ’77 Little of Moncks Corner, SC, Holly ’78 and her husband Dean Ellerton of North Andover, MA and her son, W. Scott ’79 and his wife Karyn Harwood of Weston, CT and their families. – Gail Heady

Spring 2014

A Special Friend of BCD Gordon Clem and I met in 1990 in his office at St. Thomas Choir School in New York City. I was nervous meeting this legendary school principal whose name I saw inscribed in the corner stone of the prestigious school, but after only few minutes I felt completely calm and at ease. Gordon had this special power of coming across as a simple person even though you knew yourself to be in the presence of a giant in the world of education. Like the superb teacher that he was, after few sentences he made sure that the focus was on you, the visitor, and not on him.

In M IA

OR EM M

Jane Pratt Fitzpatrick 1923-2013 The reason for my visit to Mr. Clem was that I had started a summer program for foreign students who came to the Berkshire to perfect their English and to learn the American way of life. Students were from Italy, Norway, France, Germany and Turkey, and they loved their experience in the bucolic hills of our region. However, the big attraction for them was a visit to New York City. For the first two years of the program we had a day trip to the Big Apple which was demanding and gave the students only a taste of the city: They wanted more, so I set out to find a way to offer a longer visit to the city. Mrs. and Mr. Fawcett suggested that Mr. Clem, a good friend of theirs, may be able to help. He did indeed offer to host my foreign students in his wonderful school, which was empty in August. This was a very special gift. The summer program went on for many years, and our foreign students were lodged at St. Thomas Choir School for many of those years. Eventually Mr. Clem retired and came to live in the Berkshires. While here he helped BCD in many ways: he contributed his experience to our Board; he worked closely with our elementary school teachers in introducing new teaching techniques in math; and he made himself and his council available on campus. Indeed, Gordon Clem was a formidable friend of Berkshire Country Day School—a friend that our school community will not easily forget. – Anna Biasin Zaffanella

Jane Pratt Fitzpatrick, founder of Country Curtains, longtime owner of The Red Lion Inn, and former Board Member at Berkshire Country Day School died peacefully at her home on Prospect Hill in Stockbridge in November 2013, ten days short of her 90th birthday. Jane was well known for her passion and grit. She and her husband Jack were admired and respected both as a business leaders and as generous supporters of many Berkshire organizations. The Fitzpatrick name can be found on walls at the Berkshire Botanical Garden, the Colonial Theatre, MASS MoCA, and of course our own Fitzpatrick Hall. Former BCD Head of School Rob Peterson sent these reflections. Memories of Jane and Jack Fitzpatrick I vividly remember the first time I met Jane and Jack Fitzpatrick at a luncheon that Donald Oakes, former head of BCD and my mentor, organized at The Red Lion Inn. Donald explained to me that the Fitzpatricks cared deeply about the Berkshires; that their spirit was infectious, and they would help connect me to others in the community off campus. Donald also told me that the Fitzpatricks strongly supported BCD. They had been involved grandparents when their grandson Casey ’91 attended the school, and they wanted to meet the new head, and learn about my visions for BCD. It was a lively lunch and Donald was right on all fronts. The Fitzpatricks did indeed care deeply about BCD and were always supportive in helping the School become stronger. I approached them for a major gift to support the building of a new indoor multipurpose facility for theater and athletics, and they happily granted my request. Fitzpatrick Hall remains the most beautiful gym and multipurpose building I have seen on any school campus. In addition to this most generous gift, they also willingly

volunteered to sponsor BCD’s first gala, featuring composer John Williams, at Seiji Ozawa Hall. Thanks to their contacts and visibility, the school raised almost $150,000 at this special afternoon event. I know that the school could never have attracted such a renowned artist without the Fitzpatricks’ involvement. The Fitzpatricks were the consummate philanthropists. They singlehandedly helped propel BCD into a new generation. I loved Jane and Jack, and treasured every time that I saw them. They always commented favorably on BCD events and successes that they had heard about, and reached out in special ways to make my family’s experience at BCD and in western Massachusetts memorable. The Fitzpatricks’ belief in their community and in BCD was infectious, as Donald Oakes had said. They infused a sense of Berkshire pride in everyone they knew, and they worked tirelessly and gave generously to make the Berkshires a vibrant and healthy place for all of us to live. Their legacy will always live on in the Berkshires and at BCD because of their grace, spirit, and love. – Rob Peterson

berkshirecountryday.org

BCD Legacies Who was your most inspiring teacher at Berkshire Country Day School? For alumni who attended the School between 1945 and 1965, Adeline Cowhig often tops the list, and for alumni here between 1965 and 1975, Eleanore Aronoff is oft mentioned. To acknowledge their work at the School, we asked alumni to help us write the follow two features on these extraordinary educators. We invite you to suggest other teachers to feature in this new section of the magazine. Please send memories or comments about your favorite teachers so we can feature them in future editions of BCD Today.

Grade 6 with Mrs. Cowhig, 1962

Adeline Cowhig began teaching Grades 5 and 6 at BCD when the school opened in 1945, and stayed through June of 1965. The School’s first yearbook (1960) was dedicated to her. It reads: “Now I want your divided attention.” For almost as long as the School has stood, we students have had this demanded of us by the faculty’s senior member. If our attention was not quickly forthcoming, then the request was repeated three times. Not four, but exactly three times. Sometimes we grumbled (even talked of revolution), yet we knew that it was always by the highest academic and personal standards that we were being called, and we responded. For fourteen years of dedicated teaching, endless patience, and seemingly unwarranted confidence in our halting abilities, this issue of The Penguin is gratefully dedicated to Mrs. Joseph Cowhig.

Spring 2014

Despite the fact the Mrs. Cowhig passed away over 30 years ago, she is alive and well in the memories of her former students. Houston Stokes ’53 shared this sentiment a few years ago, “By far the best teacher I had at BCD was Mrs. Cowhig, who taught 5th and 6th grade.” Fran Colt ’51 Scheidau mentioned her in the first sentence of her update this year, and later added: “…There was no teacher like her. Not before or since. We were all so lucky to have her. I can hear her voice as clearly now as I did when she ruled the 5th and 6th grade classroom. When, after she explained something new to all of us, one of us would pose a question, “Mrs. Cowhig ...do you think...?” she would reply without hesitation “I don’t think.....I KNOW!” I would give the world to see her once more and tell her how much she meant to me.” Upon receiving a note from BCD with these remarks, Margaret Goggins (Mrs. Cowhig’s granddaughter and a former BCD faculty member) replied, “It is always such a treat to know how fondly she is remembered. As a current teacher, I find the memories of Grandma Cowhig to be ones I aspire to. I hope students will say such nice things about me many years from now…. I have scanned the letter and sent it on to her 2 daughters, 12 grandchildren, and to 37 great grands. There are too many teachers in the bunch to count! We have preschool teachers, high school teachers, special education teachers, religion teachers, Teach for America and World Teach teachers just to name a few! I think the love of children and information has been passed down from our Grandma!”

Eleanore Aronoff took over Grade 5 at BCD in September 1965, and stayed through June of 1975. The paragraphs under her 1967 class’ yearbook photo contain this sentence: “We found our study of the Bayeux Tapestry so interesting that we designed and embroidered our own tapestry.” Carolyn Crane ’71 was a member of that class. She shared these memories with us. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbithole, and that means comfort.” I was first inclined to memorize these lines many years ago when I was in fifth grade at BCD and Mrs. Aronoff had us read, but mostly she read aloud, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. Since then, in my family, we have reread and listened to again and again this wonderful tale of adventure and character, along with its darker sequel The Lord of the Rings. And of course we have seen all the movies many times each. However, even with all the time that has past, whenever I think of that opening line, I think of fifth grade. And then I remember the tapestry. The tapestry. Wherever did that tapestry go? Mrs. Aronoff, one of BCD’s best, believed in approaching education from all angles. My memory of this is all a bit faded but I know she had us make a tapestry, a Hobbit tapestry, quite large as I recall (of course I was smaller then). I think there were mountains and rivers, maybe barrels, maybe gold. I suspect there was a comfortable hobbit-hole, but most definitely there was a big, green dragon. He was many shades of green, and he was breathing fire. All stitched by our young, little hands. I had already learned embroidery and needlepoint from my grandmother and truly enjoyed it. I loved watching the patches of color grow and take shape. I loved experimenting with stitches and knots. And while I know that I spent more than my share of time on that tapestry, I have no recollection of ever being told to get back to schoolwork. I also remember Mrs. Aronoff ’s warm amusement and pleasure while my classmates and I worked. I suppose we stitched as she read but I don’t quite recall. After years of this tapestry appearing in my memory, I finally thought to contact BCD to track it down. About a year ago I told my story to Amy Elmore. Intrigued, she said she would look into it. But the tapestry seems to have disappeared. I know we didn’t finish it and it may have been passed on to the next fifth grade class or maybe folded up and put away in a closet that later needed clearing out. When I heard back from Amy with the news that it could not be located, I was initially disappointed. As time has passed though and even as I write this, I realize it is unlikely the real life tapestry would ever live up to the one in my imagination; the one I’ve carried with me all these years; the one that brings me back, with great fondness, to hobbits and Mrs. Aronoff ’s fifth grade class.

berkshirecountryday.org

Berkshire Country Day School Where you belong. PO Box 867 Lenox MA 01240 Change Service Requested

MISSION

THE SCHOOL’S PHILOSOPHY

Berkshire Country Day School exists to

Berkshire Country Day School is dedicated to encouraging

inspire the individual promise of every

academic excellence at the highest level and to realizing

student, that each may become an

each student’s potential for well-rounded development.

exemplary citizen of the world.

We provide a stimulating and challenging education in a supportive and nurturing environment. In the spirit of

VISION

inquiry and discovery, students learn to be resourceful and

Distinct in program, adventurous in spirit,

responsible. In an atmosphere of mutual respect, students

engaged in a changing world

learn about community and caring for others. Berkshire Country Day School is a place where each student can meet

THE SCHOOL’S VALUES

success as a 21st century learner.

Originality, Quality, Respect, Sustainability, Community, Wellness, Citizenship

FSC