CHAnnels Winter 2010 by Springside Chestnut Hill Academy

Cha nnels

Volume 3 Issue 2 Winter 2010

Chestnut Hill Academy Newsletter for CHA Alumni and Friends

Departments Reunions 2010 Update

Profiles in Leadership

Dr. Richard P. Wenzel ’57 Microbiologist

50th Reunion: Class of 1960 Remembers Its Time at CHA by Chris Conner ’94

s the historians and pundits start to take stock of the first decade of the 2000s, Chestnut Hill Academy alum Clark Groome is immersed in what is perhaps an even more daunting task: compiling the definitive 150-year history of CHA. Compared to that Herculean feat, it seems like a relative breeze for Groome to recall the decade that preceded 1960 – his graduation year – and what was to come in the 10 years that followed.

Mystery Photo

Sports Wrap

Class Notes

Around Campus

“In the 1950s and 1960s we were all living in a vastly different time than kids are today,” Groome says. “The sexual and social revolutions – driven by Vietnam and the Civil Rights movements – hadn’t yet occurred. Most of us lived in two-parent households where only the father worked. The pressures – social, economic, and so forth – were far less severe than they are today.” Through complex times that only grow more labyrinthine by the day, the Class of 1960 has remained connected to CHA thanks in large part to the efforts of Tom White and Peter Stanley, class agents for nearly five decades. The class will be back on campus this spring for their 50th reunion. And as is fitting for men who matriculated from CHA at the precipice of that most tumultuous American Decade, time has done little to temper their thoughts about their days at 500 West Willow Grove and beyond.

Features

The modern American teenager is considered a product of postWW II society. You were among the first. How do you think your experience differs from what today’s teens encounter?

50th Reunion: Class of 1960 Remembers Its Time at CHA

Morgan Churchman: I would imagine that today’s youth have a far different outlook on America and its role in the world. I think we felt that we were the invincible saviors of freedom and believed that the world (“except those Commies”) loved us.

Members of CHA’s 50th reunion class share memories of their CHA days.

Frederic Brost: As teenagers, we were part of a coat-and-tie culture of conformity. Continued on page 2

Culturally Speaking

Culturally Speaking:

Alums Discuss the Challenges, Rewards, and Insights that Come from Living in Another Culture

Alums living in China, the Middle East, Africa, and on a Native American Reservation reflect on living in another culture.

The CHA Story: Celebrating 150 Years 4 Chapter 4: The Kingsley Years 1942-1965

t’s one thing to travel for a week or two to another country, but what is it like to make your home in another culture? What are the obstacles, the surprises? What do you appreciate? What do you miss? Recently we asked a few of our alums living and working in four very different cultures to share their experiences with us. Their reports come from Africa, the Middle East, China, and a Native American reservation here in the U.S. We think you will find their observations insightful, startling, educational, and often amusing. Our deepest thanks go to Peter Hill ’96, Tom Shiekman ’03, Adrian Gardner, MD ’94, and Greg Golden ’87 for offering us a firsthand look into another culture and helping us appreciate what it means to live interculturally.

Thomas K. Shiekman ‘03, Beijing, China Homecoming 2009 Photo recap of CHA’s annual homecoming event.

Could you describe what led up to your work within a new culture and why that specific culture?

fter studying Mandarin Chinese at Dickinson College, and living one year in Beijing as a visiting scholar in an intensive Mandarin studies program

at Peking University, I decided I wanted to find a position

working full-time on the ground in China. I was hired to work in Shanghai with the Devon International Group as a project manager, consolidating the entire global supply chain to within the bounds of China. Describe your work and some key elements of the culture that affect your work? Chinese society is dominated by flow charts. They are plastered everywhere from train stations to EVERY Continued on page 8

What experience - academic, athletic, artistic, or otherwise - best defined your time at CHA?

Today’s kids are going at least two different ways: one, back to a safer sense of followthe-crowd conservatism, and antipathetically, towards a greater sense of individualism, in thought as well as in style. There may yet still be hope.

Edward Sargent: A single, unbreakable thread linked one day to the next: Reading, going to whatever new book the last one suggested. As Rabbi Hillel is supposed to have said of the Torah, all else is commentary.

Stephen Dicke: Our experiences were probably shaped more by our parents’ experiences (and fears) associated with the Great Depression and the WW II threats to basic survival, e.g., leading to a no-nonsense attitude and impatience.

William Foulke: The music program under Al Conkey was superb. I particularly remember singing in the Mozart Requiem as a soprano, and to this day I thrill at the sound of that music. The love of classical music has been a big factor in my wife’s and my cultural life, and I date that love in my case to my time at CHA, as well as the wonderful encouragement of my mother, who was a fine pianist and deeply interested in all music.

Jack Beecham: The change has been staggering. Technological, medical, scientific and communication advances seem almost meteoric. Yet basic life for those still privileged to attend CHA is still the same: gathering knowledge, playing and socializing, all to prepare and enrich us for our remaining decades of working and living in a global environment.

Thomas White: The Wissahickon, the Cellar Rats, the Language Lab and the creation of a football program book that sold at home games were all started or revived by the Class of ’60. We also found time to renovate a room on the second floor known as the Senior Lounge where we could spend “spare” time conversing, listening to music, or just “chilling out.”

What impact did the increasingly youth-driven pop culture of your era have on you during your Upper School years at CHA? Dicke: Rock ’n’ Roll music opened up dance styles at parties. Sydney Lea: Well, I resented Elvis, not least because at our parties the girls tended to stand around the record player listening to him and oohing and aahing. Even then, though, I saw the injustice of his popularity. I loved popular black music, much of it, unbelievably, available in the record stores under the rubric of Race Records, and I recognized that that music had never been palatable to the mainstream audience until it was presented (and diluted) by a white musician.

Beecham: History, languages, literature, play, music, theatre, dance, socialization with girls - all these nurture our personhood and citizenship. They can help us find our way in the world, and deal with the challenges of the nation, the world, and the planet. CHA has been, and can be, an important part of many lives.

Churchman: I suppose that being the first generation to not blindly accept the path our parents set out for us placed us in constant conflict with them. The chasm between these generations not only widened, but became unbridgeable until later in life and then tenuous.

Brost: Don’t plagarize.

What’s the best lesson you learned from your classmates? Stevens: Money ain’t everything.

Sargent: That if I hunkered down patiently I’d outlast them. Peter Nyce: We were insulated from the world around us in a good way. We stuck to our values and morals, pretty much weeded out the crap, and kept the good stuff. We seemed Foulke: Most of my good friends at CHA were fairly conscientious students. The to know that we were destined to be leaders, not followers. lesson I learned from them — long after the fact — was: Do your homework every day and you’ll be spared the pressure of avoiding participation in class, and Describe your social interaction with Springsiders during your Upper School years. you will minimize the need to cram for tests, which always resulted in sub-par Brost: Pretty much nil on an organized level. But we more than made up for that defiresults for me at CHA. On the other hand, the improvisational skills I developed ciency on an individual level. have served me well. William Stevens: I had very little interaction with Springside girls. I came from How did your CHA influence you your first few years out of high school? What was Germantown, and felt they were mostly aloof and Social Register-conscious. I did become heavily involved with a Springsider during college years, but that had little to do the lasting influence? with the relationship between the two schools. Nyce: Aside from the self-imposed dress code of sport jacket and slacks (always with a tie), I was quietly surprised to find that my education was better than most of my colleagues. I simply knew things that they didn’t. Pretty cool!

Lea: All my girlfriends were Springsiders, and I’m still in love with each. But to my mind, relations between men and women, boys and girls, sadly, were far more constricted 50 years ago than they are now. It was almost as though a Springsider were either your romantic interest or of small interest. We boys were not led, or I wasn’t anyhow, to believe that women might have thoughts as deep as ours, despite the fact that—in my own case—depth of thought was not a strong suit, and I’m sure that many of my Springside acquaintances were reflecting on issues more important than ones occurring to me.

Sargent: In the short run, not at all. In the long run, much. I’ve come to cherish the fundamental decency of people I did not like. The mix of personalities and circumstances constituted a door through which I was able to pass into a world of insatiable curiosity. It might have been very different elsewhere. Groome: I think that CHA, and my experiences at Pomfret, always made me value the humanity that was and is private school education and the caring, competent, and humane men and women who work there. That humanity, that innate fairness, that commitment to the kids has always been a goal for me in the jobs – professional and volunteer – that I have undertaken.

What, if anything, do you remember of events in the outside world during your time in CHA? Peter Stanley: I remember the looming presence of Russia and Joseph Stalin. Clark Groome: Sputnik. Ike. A- and H-bomb tests. The Phillies losing the World Series to the Yankees (the first time) in 1950. Great jazz and folk music. The beginnings of rock ’n’ roll. Philadelphia as a major tryout town for Broadway-bound musicals. Moderate Republicans.

Which teachers and/or administrators were most influential in your development at CHA and perhaps later in life? Nyce: Easiest of all! Perot Walker, Harry Worrall, and Dave Rutter. These three men were, in my eyes, cumulatively, the kind of person I wanted to be. I looked to them for leadership and I got it! They, and my Dad, of course, have been an inspiration to me all my life.

Brost: Mrs. Roosevelt at the UN, I like Ike, the Yankees always winning the World Series, Dr. Lorenz going to Korea and actually returning, Howdy Doody, Adenauer’s efforts to rebuild Europe, American Friends Service efforts to rebuild everything else, and of course, Elvis.

Stanley: Dan Charles “knew me like a book.” He has had a lasting influence on me, as did Pappy Wales, Mr. Parachini, Harry Worrall, and Laine Santa Maria.

Nyce: CHA was pretty much my whole life in those years. The goings on in the world did not seem very important. But that next Latin test was!

Stevens: Most notably, Ted Wright, who tried valiantly to make a baseball player out of me. I hope he knows today that I came to love the sport, and eventually became a decent player, coach, administrator, and umpire! Dan Olivier, who started up the first Spanish classes and took a genuine interest in me and my love for the language. Sargent: Dan Charles, Barbara Crawford, Al Conkey. Richard Cutler, who taught me German. Richard Dunham, who tried – but failed – to teach me algebra. Mrs. Tyler who taught me a reverence for the printed word. This last seems on the way out after having been one of the key facts of the last six centuries. I wonder about this. Brost: Collectively, I am in their debt for learning from them the one thing they never taught in class: a moral sense. If you’ve visited school recently, you’ve probably noticed a lot of changes to the landscape? What traditions do you miss, and which additions have impressed you? Stevens: It’s great that the school finally has a mascot. Took over 100 years, didn’t it? I always thought “Hillers” and “Blue-and-Blue” were unremarkable. Nyce: The absence of the dining hall saddens me. Five boys at a table with a Master (maybe your favorite, maybe not) was a winning formula for social education. And when it was your turn to be “waiter,” you were on your own. It didn’t matter that your family was worth millions, you were the lowly server for the day. A great lesson in humbleness! Groome: One of the neat things about CHA is that for all its physical changes – the most impressive of which are the new art wing and the science center – the school’s main building is just as welcoming and familiar as it was in 1957 when I headed off to boarding school. The Exchange is still the heart of the place; the chapel is still down the hall to the right; the library down the hall to the left. 2

Reunions Classes of 5s and 0s Get ready for a fantastic Reunions Weekend on May 7 & 8, guaranteed to be without snow! In addition to our traditional daytime and evening social events (see schedule below), be sure not to miss the Alumni Forum on Saturday morning, when three of our alums will explore the creative impulse through their work in three very different artistic disciplines. year, our roving staff and student videographers will be looking for candi-

Im a

Continuing a new tradition started last Matt Paul ’94, Director of Alumni Relations

history de

150th

at CHA

dates to interview about their favorite CHA memories, with the intent of building an “I Made History” alumni archives as part of our upcoming sesquicentennial, which we will celebrate from September 2010 through June 2011.

REUNIONS WEEKEND SCHEDULE Visit our Alumni Portal on the CHA website for updates as the weekend approaches. And be sure to register online!

FRIDAY, MAY 7

What’s the best piece of advice you can offer the Class of 2010 as their time at CHA winds down?

9 am - 12 pm

Class Visits and School Tours

Churchman: Stretch.

Class visits and tours can be arranged through your reunion agent or through Matt Paul ’94, director of Alumni Relations.

12:30 pm

Academy Guard Luncheon

for classes of 1960 and earlier

2:30 pm

Special Academy Guard Tours

of The Rorer Center for Science and Technology

6:00 pm

State of the School

Headmaster Frank Steel ’77 shares plans for the future and recent points of pride.

6:30 pm

All-Alumni Cocktail Reception

Reunion and non-reunion alumni are invited to attend.

Sargent: Ask questions, ask why. Ask why not. Don’t settle for easy, politically correct answers because those are what you’ll get if you don’t keep at it. Lea: I think it’s really important to be in the moment. More than ever, given the increasingly competitive environment, students nowadays feel that this stage of their life is somehow merely preparatory. Then suddenly it’s your 50th high school reunion. Are you still “preparing”? I’d recommend that you think of the world you live in now as the most important one to you: Enjoy the important things, like friendship and recreation, and intellectual curiosity that is NOT necessarily of the sort that some Admissions Department may favor. Groome: In a word, my advice would be “enjoy.” They’re blessed more than they know. And in turn, the Class of 1960 finds itself blessed with the invaluable perspective that only the passage of time can grant, the depth of life experience that must seem an ocean away from the Class of 2010. They’ll soon find that distance is only a stone’s throw away, and there, just over their shoulder, is Chestnut Hill Academy.

Exchange

The Rorer Center The Rorer Center Epiphany Chapel

The Rorer Center Gardens

SATURDAY, MAY 8

11:00 am

Alumni Forum

“Art, Film, Poetry: Culturally Speaking”

Join three alumni for a thought-provoking discussion on their work in diverse creative fields. Featuring poet Syd Lea ’60, museum curator Patterson Sims ’65, and film production manager Fred Brost ’60

12:00 pm

Family Picnic

Join fellow CHA and Springside alumni and their families for a delicious picnic.

1:00 pm

Varsity Baseball vs GA

Shuttleworth Field

2:30 pm

Varsity Lacrosse vs GA

Talbot Field

6:00 pm

Memorial Service

Epiphany Chapel

CHA honors its deceased reunion-year alumni and faculty.

6:30 pm

Gala Reunion Cocktail Reception & Dinner Quad/Commons

Epiphany Chapel

Wales-Charles Fields

The CHA Story: Chapter 4 by Clark Groome ’60

The Kingsley Years: 1942-1965

The United States’ entry into World War II exacerbated the financial woes Chestnut Hill Academy already faced. During the months following Pearl Harbor the headmaster, Charles Platt, and several faculty members joined the armed forces.

solid and strong, a foundation on which could be built a Chestnut Hill Academy larger and more successful than it had ever been.”

he school’s health was so precarious that the academy’s upper four grades were eliminated just a month before the 1942 school year was to begin. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the school’s “governing board was publicly expressing doubts that the school could survive.”

Robert A. Kingsley was born in Bangor, Maine, July 24, 1899. After graduating from Brown in 1920 he taught in private schools in Maine, coming to Chestnut Hill to teach French and Spanish in 1923. After two years, he left to study at the University of Toulouse, returning to CHA in 1927.

It was in this uncertain climate that Robert A. Kingsley became Platt’s successor to head the school.

Kingsley took the reins on December 1, 1942, and set out, without delay, to rebuild. The first task was to increase the enrollment of 112, then described as “dangerously low.”

Kingsley’s daughter, Anne Blake Torrey, said in an interview for this history that her father “had to beg the board to let him take over the school – and to keep it open.”

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kingsley.

The school’s future immediately began to brighten. Only two weeks after he began, Kingsley reported to the board that there might be sufficient interest to add a 9th grade in the 1943-1944 school year. That optimism was borne out when the nine-grade school opened in September 1943 with 175 students, representing a 56 percent increase in just one year. Within a year, the board had become believers. The October 12, 1943, minutes of the board acknowledged Kingsley’s “skills, determination, and success,” and noted, “the faculty has been greatly strengthened and the high educational standards of the Academy have been maintained and broadened. … [He has] demonstrated to the community that a nine grade school is a sound educational unit.”

Elizabeth “Susie” Colt (later Mrs. E. Perot Walker), who was the headmaster’s secretary at the time, recalled that the circumstances “led many to believe that the school should close. There was at least one person standing in opposition to this drastic plan: Robert Kingsley,” she said.

A nine-grade school, however well it was received, was never the ultimate goal. The aim was to re-establish CHA as a full 12-year college preparatory school. Dr. Carl H. Delacato, who came to CHA as a teacher and administrator in 1945, said in the Spring 2006 CHA News, “Everyone who was there when there was a Senior School was unhappy when it was missing. There was a feeling that we were somehow not really a school. The plan to rebuild the Senior School was to [first] build up the Junior School. We knew that when we had enough kids, the Senior School would take care of itself. Bob Kingsley was pushing the hardest.”

“Mr. Kingsley was convinced, and he convinced everyone else concerned,” Ruth Parachini wrote in the school’s centennial history, “that what was left of the school was

only a few: Tom Ambler, Owen Boyer, John Brock, Dan Charles, Al Conkey, Barbara Crawford (the first and, for many years, the only woman teaching in the upper grades, having replaced her husband, Sam Feinstein, when he joined the Army in 1942), Betty Cressman, Dick Cutler, Carl Delacato, Chris Donner, Madeleine Harper, Amelia Lodge, Hal Parachini ’33, Bill Pass, Dave Rutter, Frank Steel Sr. ’29, Percy Wales, Perot Walker, Mary White, Harry Worrall, and Ted Wright.

s part of his rebuilding effort, Kingsley made innumerable phone calls and visits to local families, urging them to send their boys to CHA. He started a summer camp that attracted both students and faculty. He also initiated a pre-school/kindergarten program that would become the source of many students in the Junior School and, ultimately, in the Senior School as well. His efforts resulted in a rapid growth during the 1940s. From an enrollment of 112 in 1942 and 175 in 1943, the school’s student body increased to 288 in 1946 (equaling the school’s previous all-time record enrollment) and to 354 in 1950. In order to serve the students’ needs, the faculty also grew, from 15 in 1942 to 31 in 1950.

Ambler, who taught science and Bible from 1943 until 1959, said in an interview for this history, “Bob trusted and backed his faculty.” He also said that building back the Senior School was something “we always had in mind. Building the school was fun.” This enthusiasm for a shared goal gave many of the teachers the energy to take on responsibilities for several different courses, as well as serve outside the classroom as coaches and advisors. Music teacher Conkey, for example, taught, at one time or another, English, Latin, history, and math as well as music. He also coached three sports and conducted all the school’s music groups. Parachini, a faculty member since 1937, served simultaneously as the school’s athletic director and business manager. He also taught Spanish.

For the 1950-1951 school year there were not enough students returning after 8th grade for the school to support a 9th grade. While the enrollment continued to grow overall, for that one year the school was an eight-grade school. That’s the only time, other than 1942-1943, when CHA wasn’t at least a nine-grade institution. Although Kingsley clearly was the leader and the primary force behind the school’s growth, he always credited the faculty for creating an institution that appealed to an increasingly large number of local families. It was the teachers who were responsible for maintaining a quality academic program and providing “a friendly, informal and cooperative atmosphere where students and parents alike would feel at home without detracting from the scholastic program.”

As with most boys’ schools, CHA was firmly committed to boys being educated by men after the 3rd grade. Women, however, took a prominent role in other ways. On May 22, 1951, Mrs. Sydney (Jane) Lea, Mrs. George (Isabel) Reath, and Mrs. Floyd T. (May) Starr became the first three women to serve as full members of CHA’s board of directors.

Many of the faculty who came to CHA during the Kingsley years would stay on throughout the years of expansion and, in some cases, beyond. Teachers who were instrumental in the transformation and are a part of many alumni memories include, to name

1940

1942

1941 Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor; United States enters World War II in Asia and Europe

1945

1950

World War II ends

Houston Estate transfers deeds to buildings and campus to CHA

Upper four grades closed

Robert A. Kingsley becomes headmaster

Korean War begins

The next year biology was added to the mix, the first of a three-year exposure to science, followed by chemistry and physics. In Form IV (9th grade) ancient history was replaced by modern European history, to be followed by two years of American and Pennsylvania history. After two years of algebra, the students learned geometry in Form V and solid geometry and trigonometry their senior year. Their senior year also included a course entitled “Problems of Democracy” and classes in public speaking. In 1957, the school underwent one of the required evaluations by visiting committees of both the Pennsylvania Association of Private Academic Schools and the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges. According to Kingsley, those evaluations included “helpful criticism … and many commendations.” One of those committees’ chairmen closed his report with these words: The committee concludes its report in stating that Chestnut Hill Academy … represents independent education in its finest tradition, - (sic) academically, morally, and spiritually. It preserves a happy balance between insistence on the intellectual disciplines and freedom to explore and experiment with what is new and sound. As the boys grew and matured, the sports program grew with them. By their senior year, the school once again had a varsity baseball team and several junior varsity programs that would gain varsity status within a couple of years. Father and Son dinners were held to honor individual and team successes and improvement.

Brigadoon, the Players’ first musical production.

As the school grew and the need for volunteers increased, a mothers’ committee, later known as the Women’s Advisory Committee, was formed. Its first major project was a fundraising dinner dance for the parents launched in 1945. Called Hey Day, it was a major annual school event for more than 50 years.

The ‘56ers also revived the long dormant school publications: The Campus Lantern, the student newspaper; and The Caerulean, the school yearbook. (The Wissahickon, the school’s literary magazine, would reappear in 1958.)

Hey Day was only one of the many measures that were undertaken in an effort to establish a strong financial base. While there were still families whose generosity would help sustain the school, wider support was sought. To that end, in 1950 CHA became one of the first secondary schools to establish an annual giving program.

A drama group called the Players and many instrumental and vocal musical ensembles, also returned. A student government was established. To leaven school life, school dances were held during the year. When the Class of 1956 graduated, the basic elements of a diverse academic, athletic, and extracurricular program were in place.

Talk about reestablishing the upper grades began at the board level in 1947. After two years of discussion, a 1949 survey of the school’s parents was taken to see if there was interest in CHA once again becoming a 12-grade institution. That survey’s results were mixed, with many families preferring to send their sons to boarding schools rather than take a chance on a school that had no track record with high school subjects and college admissions.

For a school with no recent history with colleges, the academy’s first graduates in 14 years did extremely well: seven members of the 14-member class were accepted at and attended Ivy League schools: five at Princeton, one at Harvard, and one at Yale. The others also went to highly respected institutions. For the members of the Class of 1956 it was an exciting time. They were the school’s senior class for an unprecedented four years. Clearly they were under a microscope; how they did socially, academically, and athletically would set the bar for the classes to follow.

Two years later, however, a similar survey showed sufficient support for the move, and on April 7, 1952, the board approved a plan to add a 10th grade in 1953, an 11th grade in 1954, and a 12th grade in 1955. Costs for the expansion were figured at about $5,000 per year for three years. Five new faculty members would be needed: one the first year and two for each of the following years. So it was done. The boys in second form (8th grade) at the time the decision was made would become, in June 1956, the first class to graduate from CHA since 1942. As described in that class’s 50th reunion reflection in the Spring 2006 CHA News, their progress toward graduation posed major challenges for the school and its headmaster: Leading and managing students over four years of completely new ground.... meant adding courses and faculty one grade at a time, reestablishing a halfdozen or more athletic teams and helping create extracurricular icons, such as a school newspaper, where none existed. and [To] somehow convinc[e] the top colleges in the U.S. to look favorably on the first class of students from a small new prep school which was almost completely unknown to them. CHA met all the challenges. The school needed, of course, to add academic courses appropriate to the boys as they progressed through their high school years. Freshmen studied English, algebra, Latin, French or Spanish, ancient history, art or shop, music, and physical education.

Senior faculty in 1957 (l to r): (Back row) Mr. Ambler, Mr. Markiter, Mr. Walker, Mr. Brock, Mr. Donner, Mr. Oliver, Mr. Wright, Mr. Pass, Mr. Rutter, Mr. Santa Maria, (Front row) Mr. Cutler, Mr. Dunham, Mr. Wales, Mr. Parachini, Mr. Kingsley, Mr. Worall, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Charles, and Mr. Conkey.

Wanted...

There has always been speculation, never proven, that this class was selected to be first because it was, in ‘56er John Achenbach’s words, “A pretty good group of guys, pretty balanced with no bad apples.”

Memorabilia, Memories

Still, another member of that pioneer class, John McDevitt, observed, “I don’t think we looked at ourselves as [pacesetters]. It wasn’t impressed upon us that we had added responsibility. We just were pretty normal teenagers working our way through our high school years. I don’t think there was any pressure put on us.”

DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SHARE? If you have school memories or historical facts that you would like to share with us, please send them to Clark Groome at cgroome@chestnuthillacademy.org. If you have old photos or memorabilia that you would like to donate to the school, please send them to Diane Drinker, assistant director of Alumni Affairs, who oversees our archives.

1952

With the school’s expansion, its deferred physical needs became more acute.

1956

1953

Reestablishment of Upper School begins

Forrest Pearson ’33 Tennis Courts completed

Gymnasium named The Woodward Gymnasium

First graduating class since 1942

1957

Lower level of new gymnasium opens Wissahickon Skating Club opens

Springside moves 5th to 12th grades to Cherokee Street

Half of Rec collapses Korean War truce signed

Russia launches Sputnik I

In 1961, CHA celebrated its 100th anniversary with a gala Centennial Ball, the publication of Ruth Parachini’s centennial history, and the school’s first full-fledged production of a musical, Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon. In 1963 Mrs. T. Carrick Jordan – Jane Lea’s mother and Mahlon Kline’s sister – underwrote the entire cost of the Jordan Primary Building to house the school’s youngest boys in Kindergarten and 1st and 2nd grades. With the Jordan Building’s completion and the move of the running track from the baseball field to the football field on St. Martin’s Green, the campus was in condition to meet the student body’s needs.

The first improvement addressed was for additional athletic and locker room space. Faculty member Perot Walker, in an oral history interview conducted in 1986, summed up the situation: “The old locker rooms were primitive. There was hardly room for anybody in there to change their mind let alone their clothes.” New locker rooms, with ample room for everyone to change clothes, were completed in 1956.

Susie Colt Walker, considered by many the glue that held the growing Academy together.

Bob Kingsley announced that he planned to retire following the 1964-1965 school year. Celebrations of his time at CHA and of the extraordinary legacy that he and his beloved wife, Dolly, would leave were numerous during his last year. Reviewing Kingsley’s 42 years at the school and 23 as headmaster, Charlie Landreth ’29 summed up his importance to CHA. “Robert Kingsley,” he said, “was the savior of Chestnut Hill Academy.”

The school also needed dedicated laboratory space for the more sophisticated science courses being taught in the Upper School. C. Mahlon Kline, at the urging of his niece Jane Lea, gave the school its science building, which opened in 1959.

Kingsley was the 1965 recipient of the Chestnut Hill Community Association’s Chestnut Hill Award, the organization’s top honor. That was a fitting tribute because of Kingsley’s belief, in 1942, that Chestnut Hill deserved a quality school for boys, and that CHA, then in so much trouble, was an indispensable asset to the community.

The upper portion of the new gymnasium, a state-of-the-art basketball court with bleachers seating 700, was completed in time for the school’s centennial in 1961. Two other construction projects that were not part of the CHA campus would also affect the school. The construction of the Wissahickon Skating Club on the westernmost part of the school’s property in 1956 gave the school’s students additional athletic and recreational options.

The citation that accompanied the award said in part, “As Teacher, Athletic Coach and Headmaster, Robert A. Kingsley has made an unparalleled contribution through the disciplining of young minds and bodies to mature growth and potential service to this and other communities.”

And what is likely the most important long-term development was Springside School’s construction, in 1957, of a new campus on Cherokee Street, a five-minute walk from CHA.

When Bob Kingsley ended his tenure on June 30, 1965, leaving with the title headmaster emeritus, he left to his successor, Nathaniel Saltonstall II, a school that was strong and healthy, with an enrollment of 480 and a 50-member faculty.

In what was a harbinger of the schools’ working together in the years ahead, CHA and Springside launched a joint fundraising campaign. Its goal was to raise $700,000 for Springside and $300,000 for CHA.

The years ahead, while not as difficult as those when Kingsley took over, would provide the institution with a whole new set of challenges and opportunities. Bob Kingsley’s example of how to deal with both would be an example and an inspiration for a new generation of Chestnut Hill Academy leaders.

In a report to the community at the time of the academy’s centennial, Headmaster Kingsley said, “Never before had two schools united their efforts in a common drive for funds. The new Springside was built, and the expansion of Chestnut Hill Academy, its facilities, and its programs was given a tremendous boost.” The spirit of cooperation continued three years later when the two schools’ women’s committees opened the Clothes Closet, a used-clothing store that is still going strong. There would be more—much more—to come.

General Educational Policy. Chestnut Hill Academy seeks to develop the mental, moral, physical and aesthetic aspects of the personality of each pupil, with the idea of creating a balanced and well-rounded individual conscious of his obligations to society. Since the youth of today is destined to become the leader of tomorrow, we seek to develop to the fullest the potentialities of each child.

Faculty Growth (Line*)

Enrollment Growth (Columns)

CHA’s academic philosophy during Kingsley’s time put the emphasis on the individual student. That philosophy was succinctly described in a school prospectus printed in the late 1940s:

We hold that all children are not similarly endowed, that each one must be encouraged to develop his talents to the fullest at his own best rate; that each child’s educational program can best be stimulated by the acquisition on his part of a free and independent spirit of inquiry; that such acquisition will result in ever-increasing ability to think for himself, and to marshall (sic) facts in orderly and logical sequence before forming a conclusion.

1959

1960

Kline Science Building opens

1961

1963

CHA Celebrates Centennial

Jordan Primary Building opens

Ruth Parachini centennial history published

Balis Library opens

1964

Nathaniel Saltonstall II becomes headmaster

Upper level of new gymnasium opens Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed by United States Congress;

1965 Robert A. Kingsley retires

President Kennedy assassinated

Clothes Closet begins operations

Br*Broken line due to missing data for those years.

Faculty and Enrollment Growth during the Kingsley Years

By 1960 the school passed the 500-student mark for the first time. It was thriving athletically with most sports having returned to the Inter-Academic League. Football was the last to rejoin, returning to the league in 1962. A crew program was added in 1962, with wrestling beginning a year later.

Vietnam War escalates

Profiles in Leadership Dr. Richard P. Wenzel ’57 Globetrotting Microbe Hunter, Teacher, Researcher, Author, and Editor Shows “Infectious” Enthusiasm for His Work

his March, Richard P. Wenzel ’57, professor and former chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College, was honored with the Maxwell Finland Award. This award, given annually by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, honors a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the understanding of infectious diseases or public health. It is, according to this year’s grateful recipient, “arguably the top national honor for infectious diseases accomplishments.” Such recognition comes regularly to Wenzel, who has received awards from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Navy, the American College of Physicians, as well as his various home institutions—all in recognition of his work in medicine’s most dangerous danger zone: infectious medicine. to see the patients. This was a huge experience since the epidemic had not arrived in force in the U.S. at that time.”

Highly regarded, not only as a researcher and clinician, but also as a teacher, Wenzel has trained 50 hospital epidemiologists worldwide. He strives to emulate the many positive role models in his own life. “The best teachers I had in my training were distinguished not by their answers, but by their questions,” he says. “They provoked me, challenged my level of comfort with concepts, made me reexamine my assumptions, and they engaged me in that quest. I do my best to be that type of teacher.”

Dick Wenzel’s life has been full of exciting encounters with microbes. In 1980, while working at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, he had the opportunity to treat a number of patients who presented with a cluster of symptoms similar to typhus but, unlike typhus, involving severe inflammation of the small blood vessels of the brain. No one at the hospital had ever encountered this set of symptoms before. Could they be looking at a new disease?

Among his earliest role models Wenzel counts CHA’s Percy Wales and Dick Dunham, who, he recalls, “were inspiring teachers, had strong discipline, knew the subject well, and had a logical and interesting way of imparting knowledge. Both impressed and influenced me, and both excited me about science in general.” He also cites George Lewis, “the talented and exacting drama teacher who directed the theater productions at CHA. He opened our minds to the excitement and power of drama, theater, and human expression. I recall talking him into letting me play the role of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and can trace my love of Shakespeare to that winter of 1957.”

Despite exhaustive tests, retests, and research, and long-term follow-up examinations of the surviving patients, neither Wenzel’s team nor later researchers were ever able to definitively identify the source of this short-lived typhus-like epidemic. But the fact that his “was not a total triumph in medical discovery” is all right by Wenzel. “[T]he trip was as important as the prize: discovering or attempting to discover is energizing…I will always be grateful for the opportunity I had at UVA to recognize a new syndrome and work with an energized team to describe it.”

But the teacher with the greatest impact on his thinking and later career was Dr. Ken Goodner, chairman of Microbiology at Jefferson Medical College. It was Goodner who gave Wenzel his first “face-to-face” opportunity with an infectious disease when he recommended him for a three-month internship in the Philippines treating cholera patients. That formative experience—in which Wenzel saw and treated an average of 100 patients a day—proved pivotal for the young physician: “It was in Manila when I found complete harmony working with infectious diseases, and … a passion for travel to exotic places,” he reflects in his book entitled Stalking Microbes. It was also the experience that forever ingrained in him that you can’t separate the symptoms from the patient— that in the excitement of pursuing and trying to solve “the fascinating biochemical disease processes” that bring a patient to you, you must never lose sight of the human consequences of the disease.

Dr. Wenzel (2nd from right) with ICU colleagues after seeing patients with H1N1 swine influenza in Mexico City’s National Institute of Health.

So what does a globetrotting microbe hunter do to relax? For one thing, he writes. Wenzel is a prolific author of over 500 publications, including six textbooks, the popular press Stalking Microbes, and a new medical thriller, Labyrinth of Terror, due out this spring. He is also a veteran editor, including the first editor-at-large of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. Then there is traveling with his wife (next stop Tanzania), strumming folk songs on his acoustic guitar, playing with his grandchildren, skiing, reading, and raising sunflowers. Clearly this man has too much time on his hands. But one thing stands out among all his varied passions and past-times: a predilection for investigation and discovery. “The quest for discovery is vital,” says Wenzel in Stalking Microbes. “It is life itself.” If that is the case, then this busy microbe-busting CHA grad may just have discovered the fountain of youth.

One of the most rewarding aspects of teaching for Wenzel is the lifelong friendships that develop with former students. “You become close family members and stay in touch with them over decades, sharing both personal and professional challenges and good times.” Such ongoing relationships often lead to exciting medical opportunities. Last April, one of Wenzel’s former students, now a leading figure in the Mexican Ministry of Health, invited Wenzel to Mexico City when the H1N1 epidemic erupted there. “He asked me to visit the patients and hospitals and comment on the policies and infection control guidelines. I subsequently was invited to Colombia, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina where I visited the Ministries of Health, spoke with infectious diseases experts, and made rounds in ICUs

W hat D oes

Wor ld -R enowned M icrobe H unter R e ad?

Asked what books he recently enjoyed, Dick Wenzel offered the following: The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs Terror and Consent: The Wars for the 21st Century by Philip Bobbitt Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond The Hot Zone by Richard Preston The Cobra Event by Richard Preston South of Broad by Pat Conroy Art and Lies by Jeannette Winterson

Culturally Speaking Continued from page 1, Tom Shiekman ’03

general statement wishing everyone successful coopera-

bodies!” Needless to say, the idea of personal space and

government office. It is a very effective means to maintain

tion and good health. The irony is that after this speech, I

personal information is very different in China.

control over the processes it takes to run a nation with 1.3

am usually stuck spending the next two hours drinking too

billion people. It is not very effective when I need to find

much 110 proof rice wine called baijiu and turning down

fluid solutions to new problems. A concept that is related

offers of cigarettes that fly in from all directions. After a

to these flow charts is mei banfa (“nothing can be done”),

few plates of appetizers, the top-ranking guest will make

the number one phrase that foreigners in China hate to

a speech, followed by the second-in-command host, sec-

hear. Although mei banfa has been used in some rational

ond-in-command guest, and so on. Exotic, albeit less than

situations, it is often used

desirable local delicacies, are usually served to give guests

at very inappropriate times

a taste of the local cuisine. Only after some 110 proof wine

when the desired result is

am I able to even consider eating silkworms, grilled snake,

merely not on the flow chart

dog, or a papaya with frog semen sauce. Not trying at least

and thus unimaginable.

a bite of these dishes makes the host lose face, as it means

I have learned that mei

that he didn’t do a proper job in taking care of his guests.

It is very difficult to understand America and its place in the world without leaving its borders.

banfa also means that I

What advice would you give a young person about the benefits and challenges of working in another culture? What can they do to prepare themselves, in terms of learning specific skills or cultivating certain attitudes? Time spent abroad, be it in a summer program during college or a short assignment with your company, is extremely valuable for personal growth. It is very difficult to understand America and its place in the world without leaving its borders. I strongly believe that anyone afforded an opportunity to leave the country should take it. It is also crucial to remember that you are a guest in your host country, no matter how long you have been living there. Thus it is critical to understand and respect the cultural differences and

need to think of a solu-

sensitivities of wherever you are.

tion. One solution, I have

learned, often is spending extra time on the phone with

Additionally, open-mindedness is a must. I remember a

a supplier to show my appreciation for his “bending over

book my parents gave me when I was a child called People.

backwards” to give me the result I need. For example,

One page had a drawing of a large group of Westerners in

I have wasted hour upon hour on the phone with sup-

a city pointing and laughing at a few members of a bare-

pliers telling them that money for an order I absolutely

chested aboriginal tribe, and in the next drawing there was

need shipped today will be arriving tomorrow, and that I

a large group of the same aboriginals pointing and laugh-

am extremely sorry that the banking error prevented the

ing at a few Westerners who were standing among the

arrival of their payment. The factory general manager (GM)

thatched huts of the aboriginal village. These differences

will respond, “factory rules: no money, no shipping, mei

must be celebrated, not critiqued. It is easy to sense the

banfa.” After hours of pushing the GM to think of a solu-

obvious differences when working with another culture,

tion, he gives in. The solution is usually that the GM will

but it is important to remember that other cultures often

give the green light to the Finance Department to break

have a deeply rooted historical basis for these differences.

the sacred code of the flow chart. It is here that I must

It is hard to change a culture that has had some of its tradi-

show my utmost appreciation for the GM coming up with

tions for over 2,000 years. I advise that you understand

such a complicated solution to my problem. It does not

and behave within the boundaries that are acceptable for

matter that I had been ordering there for two years already as mei banfa usually wins, but I have learned that fawning

Tom Shiekman in front of a private business club owned by a Chongqing billionaire.

can trump mei banfa. My favorite example of the mei banfa comes from a friend who tried to order a hamburger at a local McDonalds. “Sorry sir, we only have cheeseburgers,” was the reply. “Is the cheeseburger pre-made?” The cashier went to check. “No sir, we will make the cheeseburger for you now.” Ding ding ding! “Okay, how about this? Please make me a cheeseburger, but when you get to the part where you add the cheese, just don’t do it!” The cashier went to check. “Sorry sir, only cheeseburger.” What are some highlights and challenges of your cultural adjustment? It has been an immense challenge to sift through the deeper meanings of different linguistic expressions. Mere translations from Chinese to English are never enough to understand the status of a project. I am often left feeling that suppliers are seldom telling the truth. It takes practice to understand the difference in meaning between “yes (I will help you with x)” and “yes (this should shut up Tommy for a week).” American culture is very direct, but the Chinese will think of a roundabout way to present bad news. This is part of the concept of saving face, a critical key to understanding Chinese behavior Dining culture is also a major part of the concept of face. Business dinners are banquet style and are long and tiring. They start with the top-ranking host making a toast, usually thanking all the guests for coming, apologizing for the hassle of traveling such a long way, and then making a

Not drinking when summoned to gaibei (lit. dry glass), the Chinese equivalent of “bottoms up,” also makes one lose face. Generally, the host will order far too much food, including cold dishes, entrées, soups, a dumpling/noodle course, and finally dessert. Usually at least 30-40% of food is left to waste on the table. This is a way for the host to gain face, proving that his company is so prosperous that it can afford to waste food. Doggy bags are never an option in a business setting.

wherever you are. In terms of education, I am a biased but firm believer in a traditional liberal arts educational system. Although liberal arts did not give me a “skill” in the traditional sense of the word, it did provide me with a strong background in a range of academic fields. Having a firm knowledge of Asian history, religions, traditional medicine, geography, and politics has been very beneficial to my business. A liberal arts education can give you an abundance of ways to connect to an individual who has a completely different background than you do. I believe that when starting a career in business directly out of college, liberal arts

The marathon dinners end either by the host saying “you

education provides a very strong foundation on which to

look tired,” which means that everyone should go to bed,

begin a career.

or offering to take you to a nightclub or karaoke club.

Gaining a TOEFL degree to teach English to foreigners will

Nightclubs and karaoke clubs can be either places to drink, dance, or sing, or places to drink, dance, and sing with prostitutes. By this point I usually state that I am absolutely exhausted from eating and drinking such fantastic delicacies and that I simply want to go to bed!

make you very lucrative to English-learning centers in other countries. Also, personal interest is a frequent reason U.S.based employees are offered opportunities in other countries. If two people with engineering degrees are equally qualified to manage projects in another country, often

Outside of the business world, my favorite moments are

expressing a desire to live abroad is enough of a reason for

when I am talking to taxi drivers about life. Responses to

a manager to send you there on a project basis.

my being American range from “You must have a gun,

Are you seen as a representative of America and how does

right?” to “You must be rich, why do you live in China?” It is not considered rude to ask a stranger his age, salary, weight, or marital status. It is also not considered rude to ask how many pairs of pants one is wearing in the wintertime. The elevator operator in my old apartment building used to ask me this every morning. “Ahhh, only one pair! You surely will get a cold! Foreigners have such strong

this affect your professional and personal interactions? I believe that in China I am a representative of both America and the Western World. Because of this, it is important for me to be on my best behavior at all times because I never know who is watching or if that person has ever seen a foreigner before. I find m yself consistently quelling the Chinese stereotypes of the West. It is

Four Alums Share Their Experiences of Living and Working in Another Culture

important to make sure that the Chinese understand that,

increases the odds for success. I often truly miss living in an

One of my favorite Chinese customs is how people who

like China, America is a large country with many similar

environment where effort and hard work are recognized

are very close, generally family or best friends, are not

problems. As a representative of America, I believe that it

more than what government officials you are connected

afraid to ridicule one another’s appearance. I have wit-

is important to explain clearly that all types of people are

to. When developing a relationship with business partners

nessed people tell friends to their face that they are too fat,

represented in our society: pacifists and war hawks, rich

in China, it is often more valuable to have a strong connec-

their noses too big, or they have too much acne, and that

and poor, white collar workers and unskilled laborers. This

tion to the government than a good business plan.

they need to take care of themselves. No hurt is meant by

is often a challenge as Chinese views of our country often come from state-run media or Hollywood entertainment. What have you learned from working in another culture about yourself, your own culture, what you miss about your culture and what you would like to bring back with you from your current experiences?

Were there any moments or incidents, either professional or personal, that seemed to define/typify the character of the culture/country in which you work or its people? Bribery and corruption happen every day in China at all levels of society, and its definition is very different than in

these comments and, if anything, the ability to speak freely is also an expression of a close relationship. What do you think are key elements within an educational system that are important to prepare students to work effectively globally and within different cultures?

America. Taking half of a sales commission and giving it

I believe that it is very important to teach philosophy.

I think the greatest ability of the American is the ability

to your customer as a thank you for choosing to buy your

Philosophy is under-represented in our educational sys-

to dream. I have found that many Americans believe that

products is a very common practice, often an expectation

tems. Philosophy teaches you a different way of thinking

nothing is out of reach with hard work and determina-

in certain arenas. In one humorous personal encounter,

and viewing situations; it also teaches you to try to under-

tion. The American mind often tends to believe that one

a factory boss attempted to bribe me when I told him I

stand how others may think or view the same problem.

can move up the company ranks if one exerts enough

would need to reject approximately $120,000 of goods

Supply chain management is a balancing act between the

effort and integrity. In China, job roles are extremely seg-

that he produced which were clearly non-conforming to

many moving parts of the system. Understanding how your

mented, and thus people tend to believe that they are

my required standards. The boss pulled me aside away

suppliers and customers are thinking without them telling

extremely limited in their capacity with their company.

from his colleagues and plaintively said “Please help me!

you will give major advantage during negotiations.

Interdepartmental meetings are rarely held, and people

What ELSE can I do to help you?” I had to laugh and say,

do not seem to believe that exerting extra effort will help

“Just make this product again, and this time do it right!”

gain a promotion. In China, merely playing the system, a game often laden with bribery, kickbacks, and corruption,

What are some of the cultural differences that have most surprised or amused you?

Now, with my teaching Lakota language, my work is

place as the medicine man lies bound by a blanket and

extremely influenced by cultural issues. I spent my first

ropes on the makeshift earthen altar in the center of the

seven years on the reservation becoming fluent in the

room. As is the case for most people who end up living in

language. Being hired to teach Lakota language is prob-

a situation that is significantly different from that in which

ably the greatest honor I have received during my time out

they grew up, I am often surprised when I stop to think

here as it recognizes and affirms the many, many years of

about how many things I now consider routine or even

hard work I put into learning the language and studying

blasé that I would have found remarkable earlier in life.

mers. By the fourth trip, I was a freshman at Carleton

seem ironic that I should be teaching kids their own lan-

Peter M. Hill ‘96, Pine Ridge Native American Reservation, South Dakota

Could you describe what led up to your work within a new culture and why that specific culture? hen I was still an Upper School student at CHA, I traveled with my church youth group to the Pine Ridge Native American

Reservation in South Dakota on several successive sumCollege and becoming extremely interested in Native American issues. The more I thought about it, the more I imagined myself living and working there. Shortly after graduating, I moved to Pine Ridge, where I have lived ever since, teaching high school-aged students, first in social studies and history, and presently in Lakota language. Can you describe your work and some key elements of the culture that influence your work or the way you work? I have often been asked whether, when I taught history, I discussed potentially inflammatory topics such as the Wounded Knee massacre. My answer to that is of course. My students are not unaware of how their people have been historically treated. It astounds me that many Americans haven’t the faintest idea about the scale and scope of the government boarding schools and other parallel assimilation programs. These institutions existed for the better part of a century, in all parts of the country (the largest and best known was in south-central Pennsylvania) and affected tens of thousands of Native Americans, often scarring them for life (if they survived the schools in the first place). I always tell people Google “Native American boarding schools” and see what comes up.

language revitalization movements and relevant teaching methods. There is only one other non-Indian Lakota language teacher that I am aware of on all of the Lakota reservations in the United States and Canada. While it may guage, the fact is that the language is almost non-existent among people below the age of 35. In the past five years, there seems to have been a collective realization that if actions are not taken quickly, the language could die out, just as hundreds of Native American languages from coast to coast already have. What were some of the highlights and challenges of cultural adjustment both personally and professionally?

What advice would you give a young person graduating from college or a CHA student today about the benefits and challenges of working in another culture? What can they do to prepare themselves? A certain amount of advance preparation can be beneficial, such as studying up on cultural mores, values, taboos, etc., but no amount of preparation can completely prepare one for truly experiencing life in another culture. At some point, one simply has to dive in…but be sure it is with both eyes open. I have seen many people come out here hoping to “experience” Native American culture and ending up demonstrating a shocking lack of judgment. Some people’s good sense deserts them as they try to

CHA and Carleton equipped me for many things in life,

immerse themselves in a different way of life. I have seen

but when I moved onto the reservation, I entered a world

people get themselves into serious trouble as a result, and

that nothing in my life up to that point could have fully

many have set themselves up to be taken advantage of. So

prepared me for. A lot of the myriad differences are subtle,

I guess my message is, don’t be afraid to live in a situation

but many are quite startling. I am constantly experiencing

that is foreign to your own, but don’t be naïve either.

situations that switch from the universally familiar to the distinctly unusual. For example, I might walk out of the town grocery store (which looks like any other grocery store in a low-income area) and see a bunch of kids riding their horses across the parking lot…all wearing gang colors. Or I might spend the afternoon grading students’ papers, then spend the evening at a yuwipi ceremony in a darkened room filled with people and smelling of sage and sweet grass, while various supernatural occurrences take

Are you seen as a representative of America and how does this affect your professional and personal interactions? I believe that every white person who spends time on the reservation is to some extent a representative of America, for good or for bad. A litmus test of how well one has been accepted into the community is the extent to which one is seen as an individual and not a representative of the dominant culture. On many occasions I have been

Culturally Speaking Continued from page 9, Peter Hill ’96

somebody accidently brought their cell phone

around friends who interrupt themselves from

into a sweat lodge (“Must be the Great Spirit call-

a rant about whites (generally regarding histori-

ing.”); the fact that there are no street names on

cal deeds or present-day antipathy) to assure

the whole reservation and so people just make

me that they are not talking about me. Certainly

up their own; going to the powwow grounds for

being a Lakota speaker has enabled me to

the Fourth of July fireworks—the scariest experi-

become part of the community in ways that

ence on God’s green earth because every single

would be largely impossible otherwise.

person there has enough fireworks to put on their own show and they are shooting them off

What have you learned from working in another

left and right; going shopping in Rapid City (100

culture about yourself and your own culture?

miles away and the closest town of any significant

Living for many years in another culture has

size) and seeing dozens of friends from the rez;

given me a meta-awareness about my own

teens playing basketball on an outdoor court while

culture and upbringing that I doubt I could

other kids look on from horseback. These are just

have gotten in any other way. At first, it was

some of the many images.

fascinating, and rather difficult, to return to Philadelphia on visits. Everything was so utterly different from life on the reservation. I would find the transition both jarring and

Peter Hill with the son of friends on the last day of the four-day Crazy Horse Memorial Ride, an 85-mile horseback ride from Fort Robinson near Crawford, NE, where Crazy Horse was killed in 1877, to Pine Ridge, to commemorate the life and exploits of the ancestral/cultural hero.

overwhelming. Just driving from the airport to my parents’ house, we would pass more cars

As the years have gone on, however, I have found it easier

What are some of the cultural differences that have most struck you? The cultural mandate of generosity is still very much alive, and it is the height of shame to be viewed as a stingy person. Visitors are always

to reconcile the two radically different aspects of my life.

fed, and it is impolite to refuse food, even if you are not

While it will never become effortless, I have learned to

hungry. Somebody who drops by at a mealtime will invari-

adjust my speaking style, unconsciously switching accents

ably be given a plate of whatever everyone else is eating

(although never fully), and remembering not only the

(people always make more than they will eat at a sitting).

appropriate and expected topics of conversation, but the

Giving away possessions in somebody’s name is one of

insincere. I would find myself feeling terribly over-stimu-

pace, nonverbal cues, styles of humor, et cetera.

the greatest ways one can honor them. For this reason—in

lated; bombarded by people, images, noises, advertise-

A common theme in Native American education is the

a reversal of Western culture—when someone reaches a

ments, city smells.

notion of “walking in two worlds,” and I have definitely

milestone in life, a graduation, say, or a wedding, a give-

experienced this and how it can create a great deal of

away ceremony will generally accompany it. That is, the

tension, but ultimately be very broadening to a person.

family will give away items that have been accumulated for

Living on the reservation has also given me a great deal of

the occasion, such as star quilts, Pendleton blankets, even

insight into life as a racial minority. Shannon County, which

horses. These will be given to people who have helped the

forms the bulk of the reservation, has the highest percent-

person along the way, or been important in their life. As a

age population of Native Americans (93%) and the lowest

teacher, I have received many such gifts from the families

percentage of whites (4%) of any county in the U.S. It is

of graduating students. This spirit is even in evidence at

probably no exaggeration to say that not a day has gone

funerals. Generally a funeral follows a wake that lasts a

by that I haven’t been aware of my race in some way. At

couple of days and nights (always with open casket). Then

times, I have been on the receiving end of vigorous race-

after the service and burial, the family puts on a huge meal

fueled aggression, but for the most part, it is just part of the

(often feeding hundreds of people) and gives away items

background of my day-to-day existence—the fact that I am

often totaling several thousands of dollars—a huge sacrifice

a white American and anyone who meets me for the first

for many families.

time will probably register that first, consciously or not. I

I saw a statistic a while back that Pine Ridge has the lowest

do often feel that I have to work extra hard to “win people

life expectancy in the western hemisphere outside of Haiti.

over,” and I appreciate the fact that many people probably

The rate of gang involvement on the reservation is com-

like me despite my race. Certainly learning to speak the

parable to that of an inner city. Amidst all of this bleak-

language has demonstrated for most that I am willing to go

ness, there are many reasons for optimism. Even though

wood wrapped in chicken wire and then stuccoed over.

the extra mile to be a good resident of the homeland.

their work often goes unrecognized, a great many people

I heated it with a couple of space heaters and a wood

Were there any moments or incidents, either professional or

from the local community work hard everyday to make

stove. It had no insulation, and so when the temperature

personal, that seemed to define the character of the culture

life better for everyone on the reservation. Red Cloud

would get down to -20 or so during midwinter, I would go

in which you work or its people?

School, where I work, sends more than three-quarters of

than I would probably see in an entire month back in South Dakota. Also, I would tend to forget how much faster the pace of life is in the city; how everyone always seems to be in a hurry to get somewhere, how fast people talk, and how many people have learned to be effortlessly

I grew up in Chestnut

A litmus test of how well one has been accepted into the community is the extent to which one is seen as an individual and not a representative of the dominant culture.

Hill, around the large stone Woodward houses that typify the neighborhood, and those were my ideas of normal homes. Now, however, most of the people I know live in trailers. Even among those who have houses, second floors and garages are rare luxuries. For a couple of years, I rented a home that I called my

“little house on the prairie.” It fit the name perfectly. It was about the size of an efficiency apartment, had a ceiling about 6½ tall, sat right on the ground (i.e. without any basement or crawl space) and had walls made from sawn

through a lot of wood. The nights were pitch black, with a few other house lights visible across the creek that formed the bottom of the prairie valley that my house sat on the side of. The stars were awe inspiring. I could go behind my house and walk for miles and miles across the rolling prairie without hitting a single road. In fact, I figured out once that if I walked straight west, I would hit the Wyoming border in about 70 miles, having only crossed three roads—one of them paved. Particularly when I lived at that house, I found it jarring to return to the land of large homes and concrete. I believe this is very common among people who become expatriates to their own culture.

When I think about images or incidents that typify the reservation culture, the following images spring to mind: a baby being carried around a crowded gym by a toddler (an older sibling or cousin) not much bigger; a burned-out shell of a car abandoned in the ditch after a long-forgotten accident with “Pine Ridge or Bust” spray-painted on it; an old-time log cabin with a Direct TV dish affixed to the side; the tribal radio station keeping listeners aware of herds of loose horses or cows on the road (our version of Shadow Traffic); the side of a government-issue house covered in competing gang graffiti; going to a wake and seeing dozens of star quilts on the wall and dozens of cakes with pictures of the person in better times; having a good laugh when

its graduates to college. For several years now, we have had some of the highest percentages of Gates Millennium Scholarship recipients of any school in the nation. I am always amazed at the resiliency of our students. All of them have been touched by tragedy, and all are familiar with trauma. Some parts of the world have experienced devastating events, and recovery from such collective trauma is never swift—in our case it will take generations. In the meantime, those of us living and working here simply have to do the best we can. The upside is that even through the difficult times, it is an immensely rewarding life.

Four Alums Share Their Experiences of Living and Working in Another Culture

Adrian F. Gardner, MD ‘94, Eldoret, Kenya

a visitor enamored with the plentiful natural resources and beautiful national parks—too bad most Kenyans cannot afford to visit. Along these same roads one could not

Describe what led up to your work and your desire to work within a new culture and why that specific culture?

orn in Scotland and having lived in several different countries as I was growing up, I developed a strong appreciation for the value of diversity and

an ability to adapt to different cultures and challenges. However, it was not until I visited the developing world that I truly experienced the wide range of living conditions that exist in the world. The disparities in health care that I witnessed in Eldoret, Kenya, in 2001 while working as a Brown University medical student at Moi University District Referral Hospital have helped guide my medical training

fail to be struck by the sight of women and children who were obliged to walk for miles carrying water and piles of firewood on their backs. The picture of homeless street boys roaming the city streets at night, desperately begging for spare change remains at odds with the memory of uniformed school children greeting us with big, beautiful smiles each morning. Sometimes they would remove their shoes and jog next to us during our morning runs. And then there were the Kenyan medical students, who, unable to spend more than 40 cents on their own dinner, chipped in to buy us all gifts before we returned to the US. Was there a point at which you finally felt at home? What

since then and have directed me toward a career in infec-

happened?

tious disease and international health.

I remember during my first visit to Kenya as a student in

I returned to Kenya in 2006 for one year to serve as the

2001, it took me several weeks to begin to feel comfortable

“Team Leader” of the Indiana University-Moi University Medical Exchange Program. During my year in Kenya, I developed friendships that will last a lifetime. Having completed my clinical training in infectious diseases, I plan to continue my work in Kenya—helping to build care programs and conduct clinical research. Can you describe your work and some key elements of the culture that influence/affect your work or the way you work? When I am in Kenya, I help provide clinical care to patients with HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and a host of other diseases on the inpatient wards at the District Referral Hospital, in the outpatient clinics, and sometimes even in patients’ homes. Working side by side with Kenyan colleagues, we learn from one another. Every patient interaction is influenced by socioeconomic conditions and by local culture. I also work with a number of other colleagues, American and Kenyan, to develop and improve care programs. While poverty is rampant in many parts of the country (the unemployment rate is 40% and most people survive on less than $2 per day), there is a tremendous sense of caring and community among families and neighbors at the village level. Individuals are incredibly grateful for the care they receive. Unfortunately, Kenya’s national political system has been plagued by corruption for years and leaders have highlighted tribal differences for their own political gains. Can you report some of the highlights and challenges of cultural adjustment both personally and professionally? My time in Kenya as a student was characterized by powerful dichotomies that were experienced there on a daily basis. The memory of positively inspiring days, when the medical system was functional and nearly everything got accomplished despite limited resources stands out in sharp contrast to the recollection of awful, frustrating days when nothing got done and patients died from lack of simple interventions. The image of healthy patients walking around the wards for weeks or even months after discharge because they weren’t allowed to leave without paying their bills accompanies the image of patients lying two to a bed, dying of meningitis, AIDS, and TB—patients who displayed strength and stoicism in the face of overwhelming physical and emotional pain. Who could forget driving along dusty roads through lush countryside,

walking in town. I used to walk down the street, surrounded by strangers staring at me. For the first few weeks, I perceived these stares as threatening. Then one day, I simply decided to smile in response to the stares. To my surprise, each dark face burst into a big smile with glistening white teeth. I quickly learned that the stares did not represent threats—people were just curious: What was someone

Government of Kenya health care facilities by Kenyan staff. Individual, person-to-person relationships form the cornerstone of the medical exchange program. Each American visitor in Kenya links with his/her appropriate counterpart. The patients in the program are incredibly grateful for the services they receive through the generosity of Americans who support the program. At times, I think we struggle to achieve a balance between creating dependency (feeding the myth that dollars grow on trees) and empowering Kenyans to take charge of their own future. However, the inequities are so great and the needs so basic, I think it’s hard to argue that we don’t have a moral responsibility to help. The program strives for equity in an inherently unequal context, working across gradients of poverty and resource limitations. What have you learned from working in another culture about yourself, about your own culture; what do you miss about your culture, and what would you like to bring back with you from your current experiences? We learn about ourselves when we see ourselves through the eyes of others. This is one of the greatest gifts of such an experience. You learn to live without TV, to walk rather than drive, to take deadlines a little less seriously, and to care for others within a community.

like me doing in their town? I began to appreciate what it

Looking around at the conditions in which people live and

must feel like to be in the minority. From that day forward,

work in Kenya, it is impossible to ignore the discrepan-

I felt much more at ease and relaxed in Eldoret, Kenya.

cies between the developed and developing world—the

What advice would you give a young person graduating from college or a CHA student today about the benefits and challenges of working in another culture? What can they do to prepare themselves, in terms of learning specific skills or cultivating certain attitudes? Spending time living in another culture is one of the most valuable experiences one can have. It helps us to see life through the eyes of others, understand our own background and values, appreciate diversity, and develop an ability to adapt to different challenges.

gross imbalance between the haves and have nots. I think about ways to rationalize our wealth. Somebody has to be leading technological progress, right? We work hard and we have established a society that rewards creativity. Then I think of the obstetrics ward and the next baby that is to be born into this world. Leaving the ignorant bliss of his mother’s womb, this baby will quickly learn that this is Eldoret, Kenya, not Philadelphia, PA. There will be no automated warmer for this baby; no sterile, little cot for him to lie in; if he needs resuscitation, there will be no specialist. A new life brought into this world—it sounds so

Learning another language is a good start. I would also

universally beautiful, and it is—but which world? The baby

encourage young people to read books and histories writ-

doesn’t get to choose!

ten by authors from different cultures. Many universities and other organizations offer opportunities to study and/or volunteer abroad. Are you seen as a representative of America and how does this affect your professional and personal interactions? Yes. Much of the work of the AMPATH (Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare) program is supported by the USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief ) program. All of the program’s work is carried out through

Visiting with a tuberculosis patient, Joshua and his family. The family invited Adrian to their family home and farm for lunch to thank him for his care and efforts to help Joshua, second from right.

Continued from page 11: Adrian Gardner

Continued from page 11, Adrian Gardner, MD ’94

Were there any moments or incidents, either professional or personal, that seemed to define/typify the character of the culture/country in which you work or its people? Kenyan culture is incredibly welcoming. Karibu, the Swahili word for welcome is used in many different contexts. When someone walks into a room full of Kenyans, it is expected that he/she will say hello and shake each person’s hand before addressing

We learn about ourselves when we see ourselves through the eyes of others.

the business at hand (no pun intended!) I think this simple

Culturally Speaking (collard greens) and since this was a special occasion for

Immediately after death, family members’ initial grief

this family, they had also prepared a beef stew.

reactions are not infrequently characterized by hysteria—

Each person spoke before the meal, thanking us profusely for visiting and thanking God for food and friendship. There was more food than we could possibly consume and we quickly filled our bellies. Realizing that the meal represented two weeks’ salary for the nurse and his family, we were very grateful for the opportunity. What do you do outside of work for relaxation, leisure? Is this different because of the culture you are involved in?

tradition is actually quite

Kenya is a nation of runners and some of the best mara-

telling because it typifies

thon runners in the world come from Eldoret, Kenya,

the importance of people,

which sits on the edge of the Rift Valley. I enjoy going for

relationships, and individual

morning jogs. Sometimes, the uniformed school children

respect.

run next to us (often barefoot) on their way to school. It is

I recall one example of Kenyan hospitality and generosity. One of the nurses from the hospital invited a few of

not uncommon for famous marathon runners to fly by us, breathing effortlessly despite their sprinting pace.

mothers and sisters shriek, throw their bodies on the floor and scream in prayer—their pain is tangible. Corpses are not released from the hospital until the bill is paid, so often it takes days to weeks for families to raise the necessary funds from extended family, neighbors, churches, and friends. The sight of 20 to 30 people coming to the hospital to pick up a corpse and transport it back to the home village is a reminder of how important communities are. What do you think are key elements within an educational system that are important to prepare students to work effectively globally and within different cultures? To work effectively within a different culture requires a number of important skills that educational systems can incorporate into curriculums; however, international experiences themselves also help to teach these skills—the ability to listen and understand different points of view,

us over to his home for dinner one evening. His wife had

What are some of the cultural differences that have most

prepared quite a feast! There was no electricity in the

surprised or amused you?

home—the dark room was lit with kerosene lamps that

Mourning rituals are an interesting part of any culture.

cast shadows of the cat climbing along the wooden beams

Unfortunately, the HIV epidemic and the burden of infec-

above. We sat on small chairs covered in plastic around a

tious diseases like tuberculosis have made death of young

central table. The food was prepared in another room over

people all too common in Kenya. The coffin maker’s store

an open charcoal stove and then brought to the table in

sits just down the hill from the hospital, and it is particularly

front of us. The meal included the Kenyan staples: ugali

hard to see a family buying a child-size coffin. Still, it is another

(a maize flour mush), chapati (flat bread) and sikumu wiki

visible example of how much Kenyans rely on each other.

Accordingly, I spend a great deal of time trying to develop

pleted reminded me of those days in the U.S. when I had

personal relationships, which usually involves many hours

to make a trip to the DMV or wait for the cable guy.

Gregory J. Golden ‘87, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

own biases, strengths, and weaknesses. Educators can teach

of conversation. These social obligations are often quite enjoyable, as Gulf Arabs are renowned for their hospital-

Could you describe what led up to your assignment/work

ity. There is always plenty of food and coffee, and in the

and your willingness/desire to work within a new culture

evenings, shisha [Editor’s Note: a hookah or water-filtered

and why that specific culture?

instrument for smoking tobacco.] You almost never feel

hile in Washington, DC, my law practice at Baker Botts focused upon international business transactions and involved travel to dif-

ferent countries. I had represented several clients with

to think critically and problem solve, to understand one’s

rushed and often have to beg to leave. But it would be a mistake to think that these events are just socializing; they are prerequisites to earning the trust and friendship of a potential client.

survival skills, cultivate compassion, and understanding.

Once we got settled into our home, life got much easier, and it was interesting to be one of only two Western families on our street. Our neighbors were welcoming and generous and sent us housewarming and Ramadan gifts. However, it was odd to us that our new neighbors did not deliver these gifts personally or come over and introduce themselves. Instead they would send their housekeeper over to give the gift to our housekeeper. We would arrive home to find a plate of dates or bowl of candy in the kitch-

business in the Middle East and had previously traveled to

I have also been struck by the absolute duty that Gulf

en, and not be entirely sure who sent it to us. We would

Saudi Arabia. When my firm approached me about moving

Arabs have towards family matters. You may rush across

then reciprocate by making some brownies or chocolate

to Abu Dhabi to open a new office for the firm, I was pleased

town to meet someone only to receive a text message

chip cookies and sending our housekeeper to deliver them

to take on the challenge.

at the last minute saying, “Sorry to miss appointment.

to the appropriate neighbor. There were several rounds of

Brother wants to see me.” The person sending the mes-

this gift giving, but not once was a gift delivered in person.

sage would genuinely believe that his explanation for can-

We spent a good part of our first year in Abu Dhabi explor-

celing the meeting would be readily understood because

ing the city and getting to know our way around. This took

it involved a family member. Indeed, even receiving a text

some investigation because there are no street addresses

message at all is a courtesy that would only be extended to

(or home mail delivery) in Abu Dhabi. Instead, everyone

a Westerner. Most Gulf Arabs do not reschedule meetings

navigates by landmark, such as a shopping center, unique

beforehand—they simply do not arrive at the appointed time.

building, school, embassy, or retail store. Giving direc-

Can you report some of the highlights and challenges of

tions is made more difficult because most of the major

Can you describe your work and some key elements of the culture that influence/affect your work or the way you work? Business in the Middle East is highly dependent upon personal relationships. In the United States, there is a widely accepted distinction between what is personal and what is business. (“Nothing personal; it’s just business.”) That is definitely not the case in Abu Dhabi—business is personal. In the United States, it is generally deemed a compliment

cultural adjustment both personally and professionally?

to describe someone as not “beating around the bush; he

Our first six months in Abu Dhabi were like a baby’s teeth-

gets right down to business.” That quality would probably

ing—every bite hurt. There were many frustrations as we

not be seen as a virtue by a Gulf Arab. The custom in this

tried to settle in, organize our home, and prepare for daily

region is to build a relationship over a long period of time,

life. On par, we were doing well if we could accomplish

and only then to consider business matters.

one thing per day. There is a great deal of bureaucracy and inefficiency in Abu Dhabi, and getting these jobs com-

streets in Abu Dhabi have three names, but not all of these names will appear on a street sign or map. There is usually a formal Arabic name that the locals tend to use; a number printed on the street sign that follows a rough order (e.g., “Street 2”) that most Western expats like to use but that a local would never use and which is never on a map; and finally, a colloquial name (e.g., “Airport Road”) that many residents and taxi drivers will use but that is not printed on

Four Alums Share Their Experiences of Living and Working in Another Culture

a map or street sign. It is not until you have mastered the

What have you learned from working in another culture

It seems like everything in Abu Dhabi is a negotiation. You

generally accepted landmarks that you truly begin to feel

about yourself, your own culture; what do you miss about

need to get comfortable bargaining unless you wish to

like a resident.

your culture, and what would you like to bring back with you

regularly overpay. Similarly, when there is a rule or policy

One unique cultural adjustment for us has been to come

from your current experiences?

that presents a significant problem or inconvenience, you

to grips with how the notion of Inshallah (“God willing”)

Arab notions of time are fluid, less structured, and not as

affects so much of daily life. For Muslims, and many oth-

precise as in Western cultures. As a lawyer, I essentially

ers in the region, God alone controls the future, and any

have one commodity to sell—my time—and the Arab

attempt to lay down what shall happen in the future, such

approach to time can be quite frustrating. I recognize that

Even when you prevail in a negotiation, you need to be

as that an event will occur on or before a certain time, is

this frustration is based upon my underlying belief that

sensitive to the fact that it is not “just business” to the other

presumptuous and, for the very religious, borders on the

punctuality, effectiveness, and efficiency are highly impor-

party—it can often be seen as a personal defeat even when

blasphemous. Inshallah is routinely added to the most

tant values. Here on the Arabian peninsula, however, these

it doesn’t affect that person’s livelihood. In a recent lease

mundane undertakings, even in circumstances where one

values are traditionally subordinate to other cultural values.

negotiation, the property management company for my

would not consider the future occurrence to be highly

The UAE is a modern country in many respects, but it is still

villa wanted to charge me a document prep (read, “junk”)

uncertain. Some of my favorite examples include:

a young country (only 38 years old) and the Bedouin tradi-

fee of more than $10,000. Of course, such a fee would

can often argue to the point where an exception will be made. In each case, you just need to be persistent without losing your temper.

have killed the deal, and the landlord insisted

The bank officer telling me “The PIN number

that the management company waive the fee

for your ATM card will be issued tomorrow,

so that the transaction could proceed. While

Inshallah.”

the fee was unnecessary, eliminating it entirely

I call someone to ask him to please email me a

would have caused the representative of the

document that was supposed to be sent on the

management company to lose face, so I ended

previous day. He replies, “Inshallah, I will send it

up paying a $150 fee so that no one would be

tomorrow.”

insulted and I could get my papers processed.

An Emirati friend tells me, “I will see you this

What are some of the cultural differences that

weekend, Inshallah.”

have most surprised or amused you?

Are you seen as a representative of America and

My first impression upon arriving in the UAE

how does this affect your professional and per-

was that it looked a lot like Scottsdale, Arizona.

sonal interactions?

There are a lot of American brands and stores

I am definitely seen as a representative of

here, English is spoken and printed on signs,

America. Only about 15% of the population

your cell phone works, and at first blush it feels

in the UAE are citizens and the remainder of

and looks a lot like home (but with a mosque

the residents are expats. The UAE essentially imports its entire labor force, from the guys who build the roads and buildings, to the waiters and retail personnel, to the professional work force. And with no income tax, nearly all expats (except Americans) make tax-free income and

Greg Golden with his family hiking on Sir Bani Yas, a natural island located 250 km southwest of Abu Dhabi. Sir Bani Yas Island was originally home to Arabia´s largest wildlife reserve. The reserve was established in 1971 by the late ruler and founder of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Thanks to decades of intensive conservation work and ecological investment, it is now home to thousands of large free-roaming animals and several million trees and plants.

do better than they would at home. However, unlike the U.S., where it is common for immigrants to arrive with the goal of becoming Americans, most people do not come to the UAE to become Emirati. Because most people see their time in the UAE as temporary, they tend to continue to identify with their home countries. Likewise, national origin is one of the first things that a person will note when describing someone else. So whether I like it or not, I am “Greg the American” and people’s interactions with me form part of their impression of the United States. This influences how my family and I conduct ourselves in public. We dress a bit more modestly than what is probably strictly necessary, are far more deferential on the road than we would be in the U.S. (a rude finger gesture in the car is quite a serious offense in Abu Dhabi), and are careful not to eat or drink in public during Ramadan.

tions remain strong. From a historical perspective, life in the desert was without watches, calendars, and schedules. Time was dictated by the sun and the call to prayer. There was no need for, or inclination towards, more precise arrangements. Recognizing this makes it easier to just accept the

differences. Some of the differences arise from the Bedouin traditions and others are the result

of the unique, rapid economic and social development that the UAE has experienced over the past 40 years. At first, these differences can be somewhat frustrating, but after awhile they become simply amusing, and ultimately, not really noticeable at all. a line and cutting up to the front to be served next. It is

The Arabic perspective is sometimes perplexed by why, for example, we Americans feel compelled to address a particular business issue—such as a price term in a transaction— just because it is on the agenda for the meeting. They ask, “Why do you let that piece of paper dictate what we have to talk about?” Sometimes the time indicated on the agenda is not the right time to discuss price. Perhaps the meeting is too rushed or one party is somewhat irritated about something else. It might be better to discuss the price at a different time. There is an advantage to this approach as it tends conflict.

Emirati attend college in the U.S. and regularly travel to the

surface, you soon encounter the many cultural

afternoon, Inshallah.

are strong bilateral ties between the two countries, as evi-

Eastern country with armed forces in Afghanistan. Many

you live here for a while and begin to scratch the

One frequent occurrence in the UAE is people ignoring

to promote agreement and avoid unnecessary discord or

agreement and the fact that the UAE is the only Middle

and pop culture is prevalent in Abu Dhabi, when

notion that my appointment is going to be sometime this

In general, Americans are well liked in the UAE. There denced by the recent civilian nuclear energy cooperation

on every corner). While American commercial

Were there any moments or incidents, either professional or personal, that seemed to define/typify the character of the culture/country in which you work or its people?

quite common if I am being helped by a clerk to be interrupted by someone wanting to ask a question. Sometimes the person behind the counter might tell the other person to wait, but more often the clerk will begin to help the new person, interrupting the business I was conducting. A line at a counter is usually a large crowd of people around the cashier, hold-

In the United States, there is widely accepted distinction between what is personal and what is business. (“Nothing personal; it’s just business.”) That is definitely not the case in Abu Dhabi— business is personal.

U.S. for work or vacation. And, of course, American pop

There is a joke that is told here about a young Arab boy who

ing out money until

culture is prevalent in the UAE, albeit with some editing to

was asked the question: “What is 2 and 2, Mohammed?”

the cashier grabs the money and asks for the order. You

address local sensibilities.

He replied, “Am I buying or am I selling?”

need to have sharp elbows if you want to get served.

???

Mystery Photo

from the CHA Archives

If you recognize any of the people in this picture, if you can tell us where and when it was taken or what is going on, you can be our next Mystery Photo winner. Any stories or memories you may have that go along with the picture are also welcome. Contact Diane Drinker at ddrinker@ chestnuthillacademy.org or 215- 2474700, ext. 1113.

Continued from page 13, Greg Golden ’87

Driving in the UAE is a real experience. When it comes to driving, no one is on the same page. Very few drivers use traffic signals or observe the markings painted on the pavement, and it is common for people to drive at night with just parking lights on. It is common for a person to block you in and just leave their phone number on your windshield. In order to move your car, you need to call that person and wait for him to return and move his car.

First to respond wins a free CHA T-shirt!

Usually, the offending driver will act like nothing is wrong. We’ve been struck by how much of a night culture this is, particularly during the hot summer months and during Ramadan when Muslims sleep late and fast during the day. When we first arrived, we were surprised to see so many parents out at 9 and 10 o’clock in the evening with their toddlers, hours after our older children had gone to bed. Family restaurants, parks, and children’s amusements are open until midnight or later. Conversely, going to a shopping center at 9 am on the weekend is a waste of time,

unless you intend to sit and read the paper for an hour before the stores open up.

Andrew Day

5 4 Joe Smith

What do you think are key elements within an educational

Russell Torrey

Howie Silverman

system that are important to prepare students to work effectively globally and within different cultures? I believe that foreign travel is a key element to preparing a student for working effectively in an international environ-

2 Jamie Dorskey

ment. There is great value in getting out of your comfort zone and experiencing some travel fear: the anxiety of having to navigate a city, order a meal, ask a stranger for directions, or catch a train—all at the risk of looking like an outsider, uninformed, or perhaps foolish. Successfully managing such experiences not only makes for great stories, but is a huge confidence builder for when the student

1 Kevin Johnson

later faces unfamiliar circumstances. Foreign travel also teaches the important lesson that despite the many differences between cultures, people are people. My first two trips to a foreign country were as a student at CHA, and over 20 years later, those experiences still stand out in my memory and were the subject of discussions at our last class reunion. The trips also laid the foundation

Last Issue’s Mystery Photo Thanks to Eric Watson ’77, Eric Johnson ’77, and Joe Shuttleworth ’78 who identified the students in the last issue’s Mystery Photo—students from the Class of 1977. They are identified above.

for future travel abroad in college and thereafter, which

Eric Johnson ’77 adds the following background on the scene: “I believe the room is the Math/Science Resource

helped prepare me for my new life in Abu Dhabi. I hope

Center, affectionately known as the MSRC. If I am not mistaken, that opened in school in 1971-72 (7th grade

that CHA will continue to offer such programs to its students.

for Class of ‘77), built in the space vacated by the lunch room/kitchen when it was moved to the, by this time, abandoned swimming pool facility. I do not recognize the woman standing in the back. The MSRC was generally monitored by faculty from the Math and Science Departments, where the only female teacher from this time in either department was Mrs. (Miriam) White, also the mother of Class of ‘77 student Dan White. This, however looks more like a class than open study. I cannot make out enough of what they are watching for a positive identification, but as I recall there were many short film reels (2” diameter reels similar in size to microfilm), as well as, more conventional for the time, film strips. As a guess, I would say they are watching one of those. I recall a particularly popular short film on the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows bridge, better known as Galloping Girdy. I would guess this is from 8th or perhaps even 9th grade, mainly based on my recollection that the swinging doors were taken down somewhere around 9th grade. Depending on the exact date, the room would have also contained several of what could be described as programmable calculators (the height of high tech for the time). On the other side of the swinging doors would have been (in 7th grade or so) a teletype machine connected at a whopping 300 baud to the main frame at the U of P, and later a Wang mini-computer. Lastly, a good resource for identifying this picture should be right down the hall, as Headmaster Frank Steel was also a member of this class.

Sports Wrap

istory was made this past fall season with the varsity football team earning its first Inter-Ac title in school history. Mike DelGrande, Sophomore Dustin Director of Athletics Wilson won the Inter-Ac Cross Country championship and the varsity soccer team, under first-year head coach and CHA alum Joe DiSalvo ’96, worked hard to begin to rebuild our soccer program to its rightful place at the top of the Inter-Ac.

Cross Country The Upper School cross country team started out the season with an excellent showing at the CHA Invitational. Placing second overall as a team, they were led by sophomore All Inter-Ac and 1st team All-State runner Dustin Wilson who broke the meet record and won the race in an incredible time of 15:37 over the 3.1 mile length. Dustin continued his dominance of the league throughout the season. In the Inter-Ac league championships, he won by an unbelievable 47 seconds, and the team finished in 5th place. Up next was the Pennsylvania Independent School State Championship meet where Dustin came in 2nd and the team finished in 8th place overall. The JV team continued to improve, and the Middle School team had an excellent season as well, finishing with a 3-2 dual meet record.

Soccer The varsity soccer team fought hard all season. Although their record may not have reflected the toughness that they exhibited in every game, they lost an incredible seven games by only one goal. They were in every game and were led by All-Inter-Ac senior forward Peter Adubato and junior midfielder Sam Lane. Although a number of key players are graduating, Coach DiSalvo is eager to begin getting his players ready for his second year as CHA head coach. The JV team ended the season with a 5-3 record, and our three

Fall 2009

Middle School teams continued to develop as the season progressed. Our Middle School varsity team, coached by Jeff Clark, had an excellent year, and Coach DiSalvo looks forward to these players moving up into the Upper School program next season.

Football The varsity football team, under the guidance of fifth-year head coach Rick Knox, earned its first-ever share of an Inter-Ac title. With a record of nine wins against one loss, they played the toughest nonleague schedule ever assembled for a CHA varsity football team. On their way to a 5-0 non-league record, they defeated Pennsylvania State finalist Archbishop Wood in overtime, three Catholic League powerhouses in North Catholic, Roman Catholic, and Monsignor Bonner, and eventual MAPL champion Hill School before they even entered Inter-Ac league play. Their first three league opponents were shut out except for a lone touchdown by Germantown Academy, and then for Homecoming (which had been delayed due to weather) the Blue Devils took on the Haverford School and defeated them in a thrilling overtime victory on a 10-yard run by Maxwell Award Finalist and Northwestern University commit Ib Campbell. Their final game of the season was a heart-breaking defeat to Malvern Prep 16-14. The game was back and forth the entire time, and as time expired CHA was driving to score. They were led on the offensive side of the ball by senior running back Ib Campbell (All Inter-Ac as a defensive back and the league MVP), senior fullback Tom Devlin (All Inter-Ac as a linebacker), junior quarterback Danny Gallagher, and senior wideouts Jon McAllister (All Inter-Ac as a receiver) and Pat Connaghan (All Inter-Ac as a punter/kicker). On the defensive side of the ball they were led by senior defensive end Brendan Plunkett (All Inter-Ac defensive end), senior defensive lineman Will Emory (All Inter-Ac as an offensive lineman along with Colin Kelly), and

Athletic Honors Cross Country 1st Team All State, All-Inter-Ac Dustin Wilson

Sophomore

Soccer First Team Inter-Ac Peter Adubato Sam Lane

Senior Junior

Second Team, Inter-Ac Danny Hull

Sophomore

Football All-Inter-Ac, League MVP, Maxwell Award Finalist Ibraheim Campbell (defensive back)

Senior

All Inter-Ac Tom Devlin (linebacker) Jon McAllister (receiver) Pat Connaghan (punter/kicker) Brendan Plunkett (defensive line) Colin Kelly (offensive line) Will Emory (offensive lineman)

Senior Senior Senior Senior Junior Senior

many others who made this spectacular season possible. The JV and freshman team saw steady improvement, and our Middle School teams continued to improve. One group of Middle School boys that needs special attention is our Middle School varsity team. This group of young men went undefeated for three straight years. Not losing a game for one year is extremely difficult to do, but doing this for three years in a row will be very hard to repeat. A huge congratulations goes out to all of those individuals involved with this team for the last three years including coaches, players, and parents.

More Kudos On April 8, varsity football coach John McArdle ‘ 73 will be inducted into the City All-Star Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in an event at Lincoln Financial Field. McArdle, a star baseball player at Temple University, coach of multiple sports, and a Division I baseball umpire, is being recognized “basically for everything,” according to Mike Polin, secretary of the All-Star Chapter, citing McArdle’s many facets and achievements as well as his contributions to kids. McArdle, a 13-letter man and J.L. Patterson Award winner (best athlete) at CHA, is also in the CHA Athletic Hall of Fame (2001). Contratulations to Middle School varsity football, which racked up a perfect season record for the third year in a row, adding even more proof that CHA is the region’s powerhouse to beat and offering CHA varsity football the prospect of a deep bench for the future.

HOMECOM

On a chill-edged but sunny Saturd CHA communityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;present and pa celebrate the start of a new schoo

ING 2009

day in October, members of the ast, old and youngâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;gathered to ol year and enjoy being together.

Class Notes 1960s 1967 Robert Baldi, Esq. was elected judge of the Bucks County (PA) Court of Common Pleas in November 2009, after a county-wide election. Judge Baldi had previously been nominated to a position on the Bench by Pennsylvania Governor Rendell, and was sworn in on the interim appointment in July 2009. His election is to a 10-year term, which began in January 2010. Rob writes that he had the privilege of attending a black tie event in New York City in November, honoring classmate Donald Kurtz, the president and CEO of Keystone Shipping Company. Rob reports that Don’s reception speech was both eloquent and amusing and the highlight of the night. Donald Kurtz received the annual Admiral of the Ocean Award, sponsored by the United Seamen’s Service, one of the maritime industry’s most prestigious honors. The event was held at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers and was attended by guests from all over the world. Pictured below, from l to r: Ronald Widdows, group president and CEO, Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) of Singapore; Admiral Thad W. Allen, Commandant, United States Coast Guard; Donald Kurz, president and CEO of Keystone Shipping Company.

1972

also doing the live announcing each week, introducing the band and a representative from the lead sponsor, Chestnut Hill Hospital. It is nice to be doing some good for the Chestnut Hill Community Association in this way! Still want to hear from any fellow alums who have experience in, or information on, the voice-over business.”

Ned Nalle is the executive producer of the Disney action fantasy television series Legend of the Seeker, now in its second season. 1973 Caleb Wistar, pictured below in New Zealand (“CHA grads, eat your hearts out!”), sends a shout out to the class of ‘73 to the effect that everyone who can should go to New Zealand. He had a great time at reunions and can’t wait for the next one!

1970s 1970 Rabbi Henry Shreibman was appointed director of Academic Development and associate dean of Dominican University in San Rafael, CA.

set-backs; to move forward with the Southport Marine Terminal plans to build a state-of-the-art container terminal on 181 acres in and around the Navy Yard; and to grow the regular, breadand-butter business at Tioga Marine Terminal and Paker Avenue Marine Terminal to attract new shipping lines, invest capital dollars to upgrade the facilities, and move cargo more efficiently. By deepening the river and upgrading the terminals, Philadelphia can become a first-tier port, bringing in currently scarce good living-wage jobs for longshoremen, crane operators, and many other trades. 1983 Miles Smith reports that he’s started “a great new job serving the non-profit sector at Common Knowledge (an online fundraising and marketing consulting firm, www.commonknow.com). Our son Jasper is now almost a 2 1/2 years old. “

1971 Dave Sims was recently featured in a Sports Illustrated article highlighting his years of experience in sports broadcasting and the culmination of a personal dream. During his exemplary career, Dave went from reporting on sports on Philadelphia TV to covering track and field at the Seoul Olympics. He anchored a New York City sportscast and covered NFL, NBA, and NCAA games on TV and radio. After years of never saying never, his dream job is now a reality. Dave is the play-by-play announcer for the Seattle Mariners baseball team. In his third year with the Mariners, Dave says, “This is something I’ve wanted for more than 30 years, something I’ve worked hard for, and something I thought might never happen for me.” Read more at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/ the_bonus/08/04/dave.sims/index.html. Dave is pictured below, second from left, at a CHAHaverford game with fellow CHA alums Bill Levy ‘71, Larry Haas 71, and Jim Talbot h’ 81.

1974

1969 Stephen Pearson writes “I’m doing more in the field of voice over. I had my first gig back in April doing a radio commercial spot for a NJ state college, recorded at a Philadelphia studio, Audio Post Maja. I’m currently doing an interesting gig, which includes pre-recorded promo spots on a CD to be played before each of the seven Pastorius Park Summer Concert Series performances on Wednesday evenings in June and July. I’m

1861

Pat Meehan, former U.S. Attorney, saying he wanted to help “begin to restore this country” in line with the values of his home neighborhood in Drexel Hill, formally announced he is running for the 7th District seat in the U.S. House.

1987

1978

1988

Billy Longfellow reports: “Who would have thought that after almost 12 years of marriage to my Brazilian dream girl and a few months shy of my 50th b-day, I’d be a first-time dad! What a year. We celebrated Sunshine’s 30th last December (and our 11-year anniversary) with a five-week trip to Brazil last December. She’s promoted to head the Amex Marketing Team...and we’re proud parents of a baby boy. Wow! Griff’s great; such an easy, mellow baby. Very, very social, and loves hearing people talk. Up until she got pregnant, my wife and I were taking Brazilian Ju Jitsu, with me fighting guys half my age and half my IQ, getting beat up, busted up, and broken down. The funny thing about Sunshine was that she trained with me in the men’s class (they didn’t have a women’s class)...took the local Bahraini guys to town. I figure it’s just a matter of time before she’s featured on Spike TV in the IFC as a Mixed Martial Arts Fighter! Sunshine and black belt coach Reza training at the Bahrain Mixed Martial Arts Fighting Academy. Life is great and better than anything I ever imagined, and keeps on getting better!

Richard Morris is the author of a children’s book, Bye-Bye, Baby, a funny, dark, and true-to-life tale of an older brother’s reaction to a new baby in the family. Garnering great reviews, the story is inspired by his own family’s growing pains.

1980s

SOCI ETY

Bob Hanson and his wife, Jen, and their two children, moved from Boston, MA, to Chestnut Hill in 2009 in time for their son, William, to start Kindergarten at CHA this past fall.

1990s 1990 John Talbot, his wife, Katie, and their son, Jimmy, welcomed the newest addition to their family, son Matthew Rhys Talbot, born June 16, 2009. 1991 Sam MacBride and Eileen Barrett were married in Sante Fe, NM, on July 11, 2009. They are both practicing medicine on the Navajo Reservation in Shiprock. The photo below shows all the alums who were at the wedding. Front row: Peter MacBride ‘00, Garth Harries ‘91, Ian Pilling ‘91, Mike Masland ‘91. Second row: Chris Aguirre ‘93, Charlie Neely ‘90, (Father John), Doug MacBride ‘61, Eileen and Sam MacBride ‘61, Ned McCook ‘61, Jonathan MacBride ‘85, Jim MacBride ‘57, Andrew MacBride ‘98, Susan MacBride h’06.

1980 John Estey, a partner at the law firm Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll, is also chairman of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority. Formerly Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell’s chief of staff, he is now the governor’s point person for the long-delayed Delaware River dredging project. John was appointed to this unpaid position over two years ago to navigate a 20-year battle to deepen the Delaware River and Bay channel by five feet in order to attract larger ships to the region’s seaport. The project has been plagued by interstate rivalries, environmental opposition, and politics, but John is undeterred. In a recent Philadelphia Inquirer story, he lists three challenges to this project: to sustain the momentum on the river deepening project despite recent court

Leave a legacy that lasts Join the 1861 Society today by including CHA in your will. For more information, call Matt Paul ’94 in the Office of Planned Giving at (215) 754-1623.

1993 Will Harries writes, “Caroline and I are so happy to announce that Susanna Brooke Harries arrived on Saturday, September 12th, at 1:51 in the morning!

She is 9 pounds, 4 ounces, and all reports are that she is healthy, hungry, happy, caring, and willful. Mother and daughter are both great and resting peacefully, thus I have a moment to write this note! 1994 Matt Paul and his wife, Tina, welcomed their daughter, Finley Mason Paul, who entered the world at 1:33 a.m. on September 5, 2009. All are now sleeping well!

’00, Catherine Klein Holmes ’00, Courtney Blenheim ’00, Christine Studdiford Everitt ’95, Jon Herbst ’94, Jono Frank ’69, Rebecca Morley ’00, Melen Sheppard Boothby ’68, Nick Direnzo ’00, Tim Regan ’98, Liz Frank ’00, Libby Irwin ’98, Darren Shames ’98, Neill Heins ’98, Stuart Saltzman ’99, Andrew Frank ’98, Kate Boothby ’00, Ashley Vandegrift ’92, Charlie Frank ’09, Fraser Greenwood ’03, Eric Vacca ’00,Tim Greenwood ’68, Dave Hoskins ’00, Evan Abrams ’00, Matt Hall ’00, Rich Saltzman ’00, Pete Carver ’98, Chris Wieder ’98, Mike Salvitti ’98, Thomas Greenwood ’01, James Price ’98, and Dick Boothby ’66. (Missing: Jess Marabella ’00, Merrie Brackin ’00)

1995 George Clark married Tricia Desmarais this past August on Mt. Desert Island, ME. George finished Temple Law (JD) and is working as a postal inspector. Tricia is a lawyer and works in Center City. Blaik Ross writes, “My wife, Ansley, and I would like to announce the birth of our first child, a baby boy born March 31, 2009, at South Miami Hospital. His name is Austin Phipps Ross and he is healthy and happy!” 1996 Peter Hill writes, “I am still living and teaching high school on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, as I have for the past nine or so years. I am enjoying married life with my wife, Mandy, and we are nearing our one-year anniversary. No kids yet, but we do have three horses (Mandy’s mare just had a new foal) and a dog. Starting next year, I will be teaching Lakota language full-time, in the same school where I believe that I am one of the only non-Lakota, second-language speakers ever to get such a position, and I am honored and humbled by the support of so many fluent speakers and community members. The adventure continues!” For more on Peter’s life on the Pine Ridge Reservation, see page 9 of this issue of CHAnnels. Nate Massari and his wife, Sarah, welcomed Luke Humphrey Massari on November 13, 2009. He joins brother Gabe in the dark blue ranks. Tom Mooney is a wealth management advisor for TIAA-CREF in Center City, Philadelphia. Mile Toll married Laura Gener in Barcelona, Spain, on October 10, 2009, where they reside. Congratulations!

2009

Zach Franklin reports that, after 18 months of living in Beijing, China, he began studying at Fudan University in Shanghai this fall, working toward a master’s degree in Chinese economics. The two-year program is taught in Mandarin. Zachary spent the previous 18 months in Beijing studying Mandarin at the Academy of Chinese Language Study, in addition to reporting for the Huffington Post, City Weekend Magazine, China Sports Review, and Sports Illustrated online. Zachary will also be contributing to the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (B.A. ‘07, print journalism), which recently opened up an office at Fudan University. Zachary also continues to update his DeluxZilla blog (www.deluxzilla.com), which details his time in China as well as general news stories coming out of the People’s Republic.

Donald Leatherwood of Ft. Washington, won the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston on Saturday, October 17th. Head of the Charles is the largest and oldest Head Race in the country, where boats start at 15-second intervals and race the clock over a three-mile course. It is the largest two-day rowing event in the world. Over 8,000 rowers race in 55 different categories from veteran singles to high school eights. Rowers came from around the world, as far away as Australia, across Europe, and Turkey this year. Donald, a freshman at Yale University, rowed seven seat in the winning boat in the Men’s Club Eights race. He was one of only two freshmen moved up to the second varsity eight boat for the race. Freshmen cannot row with the varsity in most men’s college races, but the format at the Head of the Charles allows it. In addition, seven seat is one of the most technically demanding seats to row. This is only the second time in Yale’s history to win men’s club eights. The last time was 1975. Donald also rowed with Yale’s freshmen eight at the 2009 Head of the Housatonic and the Princeton Chase, placing second and fifth respectively.

Edward L. Glassman has been promoted to executive vice president of Chicago Innovation Awards, LLC, the region’s foremost recognition of the most innovative new products and services introduced in the Chicago region during the prior year. In his new position, Ed is responsible for managing the process through which the awards are announced and nominations gathered. He also coordinates the event, which is attended by more than 800 civic, business, and cultural leaders. Ed s also a research consultant for the innovation consulting firm, Kuczmarski & Associates, where he specializes in primary and secondary consumer research and analysis for major consumer product companies worldwide.

2000s 2000 Evan Abrams married Lauren Shea of Redding, CT, on October 3, 2009, in Nantucket, MA. Lauren and Evan currently live in New York, NY, where Lauren attends Columbia Business School and Evan works for Credit Suisse. Those pictured below (from left to right) include the following from the CHA class of 2000: Matthew Hall (groomsman), Nick DiRenzo, Andrew Kucer, Peter MacBride, Evan Abrams (groom), David Hoskins, Richard Saltzman (groomsman), Daniel Griffin, David Buckman, Bryan Graham, and Eric Vacca (groomsman)”

2005 Adam Klotz writes, “Everything is going well for me so far post-college. I graduated in June, and I am living in San Francisco with a few of my friends from Stanford. Since the end of August I have been working as an analyst at a healthcare company called Davita, working mostly out of San Francisco and a little out of LA. We are primarily a kidney-care company and focus on providing dialysis and other services to patients in various stages of kidney disease. So far, I’ve really enjoyed my experience at Davita, as it has given me a much better perspective on healthcare as an industry, especially as it begins to really evolve on the legislative front. I’m still interested in medicine, and I plan to apply to medical school in the next year or two, so this seems like a good place for me to be in the interim period.

Jack O’Neill married Christin O’Hare in May 2009. He is an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia. 2002

2007

James Baumberger married Julia Moorhead SS’02 in Philadelphia on March 7, 2009. Attending from CHA and Springside and pictured below are, first row, l to r: Jesse Sharp-Williams SS’02, Julia Moorhead SS’02, James Baumberger ’02, Gabrielle Pittman SS’02, Jessica Samph SS’02, Marty Baumberger H’02. Second row, l to r: Pem Brown ’02, David Wolfgang ’02, Andrew Baumberger ’99.

Ross Richardson sends this link to his album that just went on sale on iTunes. All the proceeds are again going to the National Children’s Cancer Society: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ the-return-to-greatness/id354984975 2008 Ned Cunningham, who is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, continues, as he did at CHA, to supplement academics with music. He serves as a piano accompanist for The Penn Glee Club, which at 148 years old, is the oldest continuous collegiate glee club in the U.S. He arranges music and plays violin and bass guitar for the Glee Club and other Penn performing groups.

1998 Will Clark graduated from Tulane Law School in May 2009 and passed the New York Bar. He moved to New York City in January 2010 with his fiancé, Breen Sullivan, who is also a Tulane Law grad.

Bill Dorner, a cadet at West Point, participated this past November in a very special fundraising event. “We all should take the time to remember those who have served and in many cases given the ultimate sacrifice for their country. This year the United States Military Academy at West Point sponsored a 12-mile ruck march to help raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project. For those of you who are not familiar with this organization, it raises money to help wounded veterans—whether they be physically or mentally wounded—live normal lives and recover from their wounds sustained defending this great nation. (You can see more at the following website http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org).”

Matt Guidi and his wife, Elizabeth, are thrilled to announce the birth of their son, Griffin Guidi, born on September 6, 2009. Frank O’Neill is living in Dallas, Texas, and working for ORIX Capital Markets. Wade Vandegrift married Emily Studdiford SS ‘00 on June 14. The reception was at the Morris Arboretum in Chestnut Hill and attended by many CHA and SS alumni/ae, including Stuart Miller ’98, Fred Claghorn ’98, Brent Brady ’98, Tyler Vandegrift ’98, Kim Maron ’00, Katie Mootz Gormley ’99, Ann Walker Kelly ’82, Sarah Greenwood Salmon ’97, Ella Studdiford ’00, Wade Vandegrift ’98, Emily Studdiford Vandegrift ’00, Janet Studdiford Malcolm ’00, Claire Good

2003

Adam Reekie is enrolled in the MBA program at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.

Faculty Richard Parker (Headmaster 1990-2002) reports that he is a first-time grandfather with the birth of his daughter Story’s child, Douglas Kaighn Schildge, born on 11/24!! “How amazing to be a grandfather. Cheers, Pops. (aka Richard)” Zygmunt Wardzinski was visited by his former student, Doug MacBride ‘61. Doug writes: “While visiting my wife’s family in southwestern Pennsylvania recently, I had the opportunity to stop in and see Zygmunt Wardzinski in Johnstown. Ziggy is retired from a 20-year Montgomery County Community College teaching career and living with his daughter, Victoria Cope, and her husband and five children. Ziggy’s wife, Betty, died in the summer of 2006. Zygmunt’s children—Lisa, Paul, and Victoria—all followed in his footsteps and are teaching in community colleges. We reminisced about his 10 years at CHA including his first year when he coached my 9th grade undefeated soccer team. He remembered only some of the nicknames we had for many of the faculty. He was very busy in his decade at CHA raising his three young children and getting his Ph.D. from Penn. We also talked about his boyhood in Poland. He was born in 1924 and joined the Polish army when the war broke out. He was captured first by the Russians and after a stay in one of their POW camps, they sent him to a German POW camp as part of a prisoner exchange. He avoided being conscripted into the German Army only after his father argued that he was needed to work in his father’s locksmith business, which had a number of contracts with the German Army. He spent the remaining years of the war learning his father’s trade. After the war he was able to go to England to continue his education, and eventually his uncle arranged to send him to New York City to complete college. He met Betty on the ship from England when he was seated at her table for dinner. CHA was his first teaching job. Ziggy said he would be glad to hear from any of his students. His address is 160 MacRidge Avenue, Johnstown, PA 15904-2929.

Around Campus CHA and Springside School Announce New Phase of Partnership Philadelphia, PA—For the last 50 years, Chestnut Hill Academy and Springside School have enjoyed a strong academic partnership, enabling our two schools to create an educational experience unparalleled in the Philadelphia region. Central to the CHA-Springside educational model— which offers single-sex classes in the lower and middle grades and coed classes in the upper grades—are a fundamental expertise in teaching boys and girls, a knowledge of how they learn best, and an ability to provide learning environments appropriate for each stage of their intellectual and social development. Following on the success of their longstanding academic partnership and recent joint initiatives in marketing and operations, Chestnut Hill Academy and Springside School will take steps over the next three years to integrate the schools across a broader spectrum of governance, operations, and programs in order to fully realize the potential and promise of this unique educational model. Operations will continue under the existing names of the two schools. The new academic program will comprise separate lower and middle schools for boys and girls while the alignment of the curriculum and integration of

allow for clarity of mission and harnessing the full potential that integration will bring, both in terms of academic vision and operational synergy. Over the next three years the boards will be overseeing the legal, governance, and financial aspects of this unification process.

the two upper schools will take place over a period of three years: •

2010-2011 will be a year dedicated to planning the realignment of program. The schools will appoint a single department head in each subject to make curricular and alignment decisions in preparation for full integration. The team going forward, including all former chairs, will be charged with facilitating these decisions, incorporating the widest range of ideas and a vision for education in the 21st century.

•

During the 2011-2012 academic year, the schools will combine their upper school departments, develop new curriculum as needed, and put in place the necessary administrative structures to support the new upper school.

•

In September of the 2012-2013 academic year, we will open our more fully integrated and newly designed Upper School program.

Over the next three years, we will also be consolidating non-academic offices. These offices will continue the work they have been doing on planning the best means and time frame for consolidating functions and realigning personnel across the two schools. The two schools’ boards of trustees will also continue efforts to become a more unified governing body. This will

The boards and administrative leadership of both schools are excited by the potential and promise that this new phase in the schools’ partnership will bring. Springside Head of School Dr. Priscilla Sands comments, “We have an opportunity to envision and create a new educational paradigm that embodies all the best thinking and practices and to build on the power of our combined academic resources and leadership. The new energy and perspectives generated by the combining of our faculty and staff will lead to an expanded sense of possibility and smarter ways of teaching and working.” Further, notes CHA Headmaster Frank Steel, “While we create ourselves anew in many respects, we remain fully and fundamentally committed to the value and importance of single-sex education, to keeping alive our respective histories and important traditions, and to continuing our strong relationships with alumni, former faculty, and friends. In this way we hope to keep the best of what made us what we are and make the best of what we can be together.”

Dig out your old tie dye and beads, put on a Beatles album, and get ready to travel back to the sixties on April 17 when the CHA and Springside communities will be “coming together” for the school event of the year, sponsored jointly by the two schools’ parents’ associations. Be there or be square. For more information, visit www.chasscometogether.org.

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Reunions 2010 May 7-8th

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