Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin | Spring '17

CONTENTS | Spring 2017

departments

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A Message to the Choate Rosemary Hall Community On Christian & Elm News about the School

Alumni Association News

Classnotes Profiles of G. David Forney ’57, MIT Adjunct Professor; Herbert V. Kohler, Jr. ’57, President & CEO, Kohler Co.; Kristen Clarke ’93, President & Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; and author Bronwen Dickey ’99

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In Memoriam Remembering Those We Have Lost Scoreboard Winter Sports Wrap-up

Bookshelf Reviews of works by David R. Foster ’72, Stephen Davis ’73, Bronwen Dickey ’99, and Alan Felsenthal ’99

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End Note

Becoming a Better Teacher by Deron N. Chang

features

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An Unexpected Education A reflection by Caty James Everett ’94 JFK at 100

by Jeffrey C. Laikind ’53 and Henry McNulty ’65

Journalism and Nonfiction Storytelling: The First in a Series of Articles Highlighting Choate’s 21st-Century Curriculum

COVER: St. John Hall student center cupola.

LEFT: Interior stairwell of St. John Hall.

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A Message to the Choate Rosemary Hall Community It has been a month since Nancy Kestenbaum delivered her report concerning adult sexual misconduct to the Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees. The School released her report in full that day, and in the intervening weeks we have grappled as a community with the important underlying issues.

Many of you have asked why the School chose to approach this topic in this way. The Board of Trustees decided in October 2016 to commission a thorough independent investigation into the past and promised to release it in full – regardless of what the report might reveal – because our core values of integrity, respect, and compassion require nothing less. As a governing body, we decided unanimously that nothing short of honestly confronting the School’s history could help us adequately affirm and include the voices of alumni survivors and protect our students, both current and future. Given our unwavering commitment to student safety, the choice was entirely clear.

We have received thoughtful feedback from the Choate community since the report’s release. Alumni have expressed compassion for classmates who suffered abuse, anger at those adults who broke their trust, and affirmation of the School’s efforts to examine its past. The overwhelming majority of responses from the community have expressed, above all, support for the School for confronting this difficult issue in a way that reflects our values. We appreciate every email, letter, and call that we have received.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 3

BULLETIN THE MAG A ZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

On behalf of the School community, we again express our profound apologies to all survivors of sexual misconduct.

We hope that by addressing this issue directly, we provide validation and support to those who suffered from abuse, learn from the past, and live up to the core standards outlined in our Statement of Expectations. We also hope that Choate’s efforts to address this issue openly and honestly will advance the broader conversation in the world of education as school leaders confront this difficult topic.

Publishing Ms. Kestenbaum’s report is only one piece of an ongoing process, and we remain committed to taking all needed steps to prevent future misconduct and address any breaches in a frank and transparent manner. We will never cease our vigilance to reexamine our practices continually as we desire to be at the forefront of the standard of care in matters regarding sexual misconduct. We must work together to ensure that the wellbeing of each member of our community – supported by a healthy school culture – remains paramount.

Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin is published fall, winter, and spring for alumni, students and their parents, and friends of the School. Please send change of address to Alumni Records and all other correspondence to the Communications Office, 333 Christian Street, Wallingford, CT 06492-3800.

Choate Rosemary Hall does not discriminate in the administration of its educational policies, athletics, other school-administered programs, or in the administration of its hiring and employment practices on the basis of age, gender, race, color, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, genetic predisposition, ancestry, or other categories protected by Connecticut and federal law. Printed in U.S.A. CRH170309/17.5M

Editorial Offices T: (203) 697-2252 F: (203) 697-2380 Email: alumline@choate.edu Website: www.choate.edu Director of Strategic Planning & Communications Alison J. Cady Editor Lorraine S. Connelly Design and Production David C. Nesdale Classnotes Editor Henry McNulty ’65

With all best wishes from campus,

Communications Assistant Britney G. Cullinan

Michael J. Carr ’76 Chair, Board of Trustees

Alex D. Curtis Headmaster

ALUMNI RESOURCES Alumni who have information to share regarding inappropriate behaviors or sexual misconduct during their time at school should contact: Kathleen Wallace Associate Headmaster klw@choate.edu or (203) 697-2496 Alumni who wish to access a therapy fund that has been established to support alumni who want help paying for current therapy needed because of adult sexual misconduct they experienced during their time at Choate should call RAINN’s Choate-specific line at (888) 227-0498.

Immediate crisis counseling is available for alumni through RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) at (800) 656-4673 or www.online.rainn.org.

All communication will be handled confidentially.

SPRING ’17

Contributors Kerri Cahoy ’96 Deron N. Chang P ’19 Lorraine S. Connelly P ’03, ’05 Beth Curtis P ’17, ’20 Sam Doak Mb Duckett Ireland Caty James Everett ‘94 Connie Gelb ’78 Mark A. Gosztyla Kim Hastings P ’15, ’18 Jeffrey C. Laikind ‘53 Henry McNulty ’65 William Nowak ‘06 Andrea Thompson

Illustration Whooli Chen Photography Al Ferreira Photography Getty Images Richard Howard Ross Mortensen Risley Sports Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees 2016-2017 Alexandra B. Airth P ’18 Kenneth G. Bartels ’69, P ’04 Samuel P. Bartlett ’91 Peggy Brim Bewkes ’69 Michael J. Carr ’76 George F. Colony ’72 Alex D. Curtis P ’17, ’20 Borje E. Ekholm P ’17, ’20 John F. Green ’77 Linda J. Hodge ’73, P ’12 Jungwook “Ryan” Hong ’89, P ’19 Brett M. Johnson ’88 Vanessa Kong Kerzner P ’16, ’19 Cecelia M. Kurzman ’87 Edward O. Lanphier, II ’74, P ’04 Gretchen Cooper Leach ’57 James A. Lebovitz ’75, P ’06, ’10 Kewsong Lee ’82 Patrick J. McCurdy ’98 Robert A. Minicucci ’71 Tal H. Nazer P ’17 Peter B. Orthwein ’64, P ’94, ’06, ’11 M. Anne Sa’adah Henry K. Snyder ’85

Follow us!

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Life Trustees Bruce S. Gelb ’45, P ’72, ’74, ’76, ’78 Edwin A. Goodman ’58 Herbert V. Kohler, Jr. ’57, P ’84 Cary L. Neiman ’64 Stephen J. Schulte ’56, P ’86 William G. Spears ’56, P ’81, ’90 Editorial Advisory Board Judy Donald ’66 Howard R. Greene P ’82, ’05 Dorothy Heyl ’71, P ’07 Seth Hoyt ’61 Henry McNulty ’65 Michelle Judd Rittler ’98 John Steinbreder ’74 Monica St. James P ’06 Francesca Vietor ’82 Heather Zavod P ’87, ’90

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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM | NEWSWORTHY

REVVED UP! Choate hosted its first home robotics tournament in February, competing against 45 different teams. Choate’s Robotics Team

went on to compete in the VEX World Championships tournament for the second year in a row.

ROBOTICS TEAM

Returns to Worlds

The Choate Robotics Team participated in the VEX Robotics Southern New England Championship on March 4 and 5. The team fielded six robots, with three advancing from the qualification round to the elimination round. All three were quarterfinalists in the tournament, and Choate team 6106A won the Amaze Award, presented to a team “that has built a competition robot that clearly demonstrates overall quality. A solid mechanical design along with demonstrated robot programming, robustness, strong performance, and consistency are key attributes for this award.” Based upon World Skills Rankings, 12 students from the Choate team traveled to Louisville, Kentucky April 19–22 to compete in the 2017 VEX Robotics World Championship. They competed with over 500 teams from more than 40 countries, and were the only team from New England to earn the Teamwork Award. This is the second consecutive year that the Choate Robotics Team has competed in the championship tournament.

BU L L E T I N W I N S

CASE B R O N Z E AWA R D The Bulletin: The Magazine of Choate Rosemary Hall won a bronze recognition in the independent school magazine category in the 2017 CASE District I Excellence Awards. The Excellence Awards are annually bestowed on individuals and schools doing innovative work in the fields of special events, fundraising, stewardship, volunteer engagement, alumni relations, student alumni initiatives, advancement services, and communications. Congratulations to Alison J. Cady, Director of Strategic Planning & Communications; Lorraine S. Connelly, Editor, Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin; and David C. Nesdale, Graphic Designer.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 5

SPECIAL PROGRAM SPEAKER

Bill McKibben, 2017 Charles Krause ’51 Fellow in Rhetoric Bill McKibben, the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, was the 2017 Charles Krause ’51 Fellow in Rhetoric. McKibben, a noted author and environmentalist, spoke to students and faculty at an all-school special program on April 18.

McKibben’s 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change and has been translated into 24 languages. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, named to imprint on people’s minds the 350 parts of CO2 per million in the atmosphere that scientists believe is safe. 350.org has organized 20,000 rallies around the world, spearheaded the

resistance to the Keystone Pipeline, and launched the fast-growing fossil fuel divestment movement.

Students found McKibben’s talk inspiring, says science department head Ben Small, “The next morning campus was covered with sidewalk chalk signs saying ‘350,’ ‘Only together can we unite against climate change!’ ‘Connect the dots’ and ‘What is your carbon footprint?’ It is terrific to see such positive energy on campus.”

McKibben was introduced by former Environmental Immersion Program student Arielle Landau ’17 and spent some time talking and visiting with current EIP students at the Kohler Environmental Center. He also met with three current student leaders, Lucas Ferrer ’17, Zoe Reid ’17, and Anselm Kizza-Besigye ’17, who earlier in the year made a presentation to the Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees’ Investment Committee, encouraging the School’s fossil fuel divestment.

In addition to supporting the Krause Lecture, the Krause Fund also supports the Student PrattPackard Declamation Contest, and the Goodyear Presentations in World History.

Choate

WALLINGFORD

Choate’s Director of Curricular Initiatives, Dr. Katharine Jewett, Wallingford Superintendent of Schools Dr. Sal Menzo, and Blake Kohn of the National Network of Schools in Partnership.

A COLLABORATION FOR INNOVATION

Choate Rosemary Hall Orchestra at Carnegie Hall The Choate Rosemary Hall Orchestra, conducted by Philip T. Ventre, performed at a Symphonic Series Recital on April 10. This was the orchestra’s second invitation to play at Carnegie Hall. More than 90 parents, alumni, and friends were in the audience. The orchestra performed Rachmaninoff’s “Moderato” from Piano Concerto No. 2, featuring pianist David Park ’17, and Dvorak’s “Carnival Overture.”

Director of Curricular Initiatives Katharine Jewett and Wallingford Superintendent of Schools Sal Menzo were co-presenters at the 36th Annual New England League of Middle Schools Conference in Providence, R.I., on March 31. Their topic: “Collaboration for Innovation: A Public-Private Partnership in Wallingford.” Says Dr. Jewett, “Our goals are to work together as neighbor schools in a symbiotic relationship that leverages our respective strengths and to create meaningful shared educational experiences for all of our students.”

The theme of “Dream, Design, Do” has been a hallmark of Dr. Menzo’s tenure. In September 2014, Choate administrators and Dr. Menzo traveled with students from both Choate and Wallingford to Silicon Alley in NYC, visiting Quirky, IDEO, and General Assembly, all innovative firms that specialize in new models for learning, buying, selling, and thinking. The school systems also collaborated on Tina Seelig’s Stanford University online course, “Creativity, Music to My Ears.” Some 44,000 students of all ages from around the world participated, including several dozen from Choate and Wallingford. In 2016, Choate and Wallingford co-sponsored a community screening of a documentary film about a new way of doing school, Most Likely To Succeed. Other ongoing collaborative outcomes include HUBCAP Wallingford, a community, business, and education partnership.

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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM | On Campus

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 7

st. john hall … what a place to be On April 10 the school community celebrated the grand opening of the new St. John Hall student center. The interior of the 37,000-square-foot, three-story facility, designed by Bowie Gridley Architects, Washington, D.C., is a series of open, airy, and interconnected spaces – a facility designed for today’s students.

The student center will be a central gathering space that promotes interaction among students and between students and faculty that will allow the community to come together. It includes a variety of spaces for small and large group gatherings, the Choate Store and Tuck Shop Café, Deans’ and Student Activities offices, meeting rooms, student project rooms, and club spaces. Contemporary in design, it is a building distinctively of its time, imbued with tools and technology that will allow future users to keep pace with evolving developments in education. In an interview with the Choate News, Dr. Curtis said, “This is a significant statement about student life and its centrality. St. John Hall is one of the only purpose-built student centers, that I know of, among our peer schools.”

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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM | Our Readers

BULLETIN READERSHIP SURVEY RESULTS ARE IN! In partnership with CASE (the Council for Advancement and Support of Education), Choate Rosemary Hall conducted a magazine readership survey to collect information regarding how our constituencies view the Bulletin. Parents, alumni, and friends of the School were polled about their reading habits, content preferences, and recommendations to enhance communication and connection with the extended community.

The online survey was sent out via email to 13,714 alumni and a link was also posted on the website and printed in the Fall 2016 issue of the magazine.

Of the 703 total responses, 62 percent indicated they read every issue of the Bulletin, 25 percent read most issues, 11 percent occasionally read an issue, and 2 percent never read an issue. Fifty-seven percent read all or most of the magazine. This last statistic, according to CASE, is 4 percentage points higher than that of Choate’s independent school peers.

In terms of format, 75 percent of survey respondents prefer to read the magazine in print; 18 percent reported reading both the hard copy and electronic version. Nearly 72 percent typically keep issues for one month or more, suggesting that readers return to, and rely on, the Bulletin as a reference. Indeed, readers reported that they get most of their information about the institution from the magazine or email from the School. Seventy percent believe the Bulletin to be a credible source, generally portraying Choate accurately and objectively.

Ninety-four percent of the survey respondents feel that the Bulletin strengthens their sense of personal connection to Choate. In evaluating content, readers were asked to rate their interest in knowing about 44 different topics, which were condensed into five general areas: academics and intellectual life, campus life, alumni life and activities, institutional affairs, and general-interest topics. Survey

results show that readers are most interested in learning about classmates and events occurring on campus; the top six responses – classnotes, obituaries, institutional history and traditions, campus facilities and growth, alumni in their professions, and individual alumni profiles – had to do with keeping in touch with classmates and staying updated about developments at the School.

Readers expressed further interest in admission policies and results; current student achievements; alumni chapter activities; and campus cultural events and performances.

In recalling particular articles or issues, readers cited the 1890–2015 history series (which ran Fall 2014 through Winter 2016) commemorating Choate’s 125th anniversary and the recent reminiscence about Bruce Springsteen’s 1976 performance at the PMAC (Spring 2016) as being among the most memorable.

Specific suggestions for future features and new angles included a day in the life of today’s Choate students, pieces on college placement and preparedness post-Choate, and student-generated content.

We thank you, our readers, and survey respondents for your valuable feedback and look forward to continued engagement with our constituents. As we plan ahead, the survey results will provide direction and help shape our future publications. If you did not have a chance to complete the survey and have comments to share, please contact Lorraine Connelly, Editor, at lconnelly@choate.edu

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57%

75%

read most – to all – of each issue 4 percentage points higher than independent peer schools

prefer to read the Bulletin in print

94%

73%

agree that the Bulletin strengthens their personal connection to the School

spend 10–60 minutes with issue

What topics are you most interested in knowing about?

Classnotes In Memoriam Institutional history and traditions Campus facilities and growth Alumni in their professions Individual alumni profiles 1

Not interested

2

Somewhat Interested

3

Interested

4

Very interested

Analysis of the (CASE) Bulletin Magazine Readership Survey by Director of Institutional Research, Corey M. Wrinn / February 27, 2017

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Reflection

An Unexpected Education

B y C a t y J ames E v ere t t ‘ 9 4

IT WAS EARLY IN MY SIXTH FORM YEAR AT CHOATE when a teacher asked me to speak to the student body at the Chapel for our weekly Reflections hour. I was honored at the request, but grew increasingly anxious as the time approached – who was I to offer any sort of wisdom to my esteemed peers and faculty?

I wasn’t sure how my speech would be received.

The title of it was “Enivrez-Vous,” a French phrase that easily translates to “Get Drunk” and was the name of a poem I loved by Charles Baudelaire. “De vin, de poésie ou de vertu, à votre guise”; I wanted to exhort my fellow classmates to lift their heads up from their allconsuming daily schedules, to think long and hard about who they were and who they wanted to be, to tap into whatever nascent passions might be stirring within them. I worried that Baudelaire’s message to “Be continually drunk! with wine, with poetry, or with virtue” would be lost on an audience of adolescents, for whom getting drunk had but one meaning and was ripe for a lot of potential guffaws. But I wanted to make sure they didn’t leave Choate without the life-affirming, enlivening moments I had experienced with students and teachers alike, both in and out of the classroom.

Fast-forward 22 years. Late last summer, my 5-year-old son James got really, really pale.

His normal level of energy was far more than we could contain, and by contrast he was lethargic and exhausted. We thought he had a bad cold that would run its course, a leftover virus from camp that all the other kids had succumbed to, but on our annual August visit back to New England to see family it became clear that something wasn’t right. We took him to a nearby ER to be safe, worried about Lyme or mono, and life changed abruptly once the blood counts came back: James had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the blood

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 11

and bone marrow that was completely foreign to us and seemed to come out of nowhere.

While the prognosis was encouraging, I was devastated … and in deep grief.

We have come a long way since then, and suffice it to say we have been through the mill.

It has been just over six months of a grueling 3-year treatment protocol, and we are now through the most intense phase. James was even given the go ahead to start his own formal education just the other week: Kindergarten, six months late. He is full of energy now despite the rounds of chemo, bounding down the steps in the morning in his beloved Warriors jersey to hop in the car and head to school. His classmates and teachers adore him, friends jockeying to sit next to him and show him the ropes, rather than treating him like the sickly bald kid they could so easily dismiss him as. It has been an education for me to see how his natural positivity becomes infectious, draws others to him, and how their support combined with his love of learning means that he has joined his classmates without skipping a beat.

tary school in New Haven, and every once in a while on frosty late fall mornings he would pull over next to the golf course in Wallingford. We would leap out of the car excitedly, breathing out puffs of freezing cold steam, kick off our shoes and careen across the golf course, our bare feet crunching on the thin layer of frost that lay atop the short grass. The whoops of delight were loud and spirited and infectious as we chased each other across that enchanted expanse. After 10 minutes or so, exhilarated and nearing frostbite, we would clamber back into our white tank of a car and pull on our socks and shoes, knowing that we would be late to our school and anticipating the reproachful stare of the teacher – but intensely aware of how worthwhile the diversion.

Those frost-encrusted fields are what I spoke about as a 17-year-old sixth former in my Reflections speech. These are the teaching moments – the virtues – in life that help us to learn, love, and live on. The unexpected education we receive, the experiential moments we remember with friends, teachers, parents,

I llus t ra t ion b y w h ooli c h en

These are the moments I try to give my children now as they grow up far too fast: slow down, look around.

While James was not able to enter a classroom for six months due to his severely compromised immune system, it was a reminder to me that learning happens in so many different ways, through so many different forums. We have all received quite an education just by virtue of what he has endured since his diagnosis. The fact that we have laughed with abandon in the face of some brutal moments is a lesson in resilience. It has made me reflect on my own childhood experiences.

When I was young, learning happened in bedtime talks with my mother, where she took the opportunity to discuss any oddball question I had and fuel my curiosity about life that much more. Learning happened in the unexpected thrills of stolen moments on a given day. My father, who is retiring this year after 43 years as an English teacher and coach at Choate, would often drive us from the Choate campus where we grew up to our elemen-

siblings, colleagues are all reminders that emotions and experiences are powerful catalysts for learning, connecting, and even healing. These are the moments I try to give my children now as they grow up far too fast: slow down, look around, claim the moment.

Thank you, Choate – and thank you, Mr. James a.k.a. “Dad” – for instilling such a compelling lifelong philosophy of learning in me as a student, a parent, a partner, a professional, and a human being. My children thank you as well.

Caty James Everett ‘94 is the Founder & President of Red Bridge Leadership, where she works with leaders and teams to increase their effectiveness and impact. She is currently at work on a book called This Being Human on resilience and vulnerability through a movement she calls radical humanism. You can read her blog at: www.caringbridge.org/visit/jamesknoxeverett/journal

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Feature

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 13

Feature

100

JFK@

As we approach the centenary of John F. Kennedy's birth on May 29, 2017, two contributors explore JFK’s life and legacy. Jeffrey Laikind ’53 asks an important question: “What was Jack Kennedy like as a roommate, someone who lived on your corridor or in your house, shared a class with you, or played on a team that you were on?” Henry McNulty ’65 explores the role the young congressman played in shaping our modern-day curriculum by suggesting the introduction of a course on public affairs and government. p h o t o g ra p h s cour t es y o f t h e c h oa t e arc h i v es

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LIFE at CHOATE B y J e f f re y C . L ai k in d ’ 5 3 May 29, 2017 will be John F. Kennedy’s 100th birthday, an appropriate occasion to revisit his Choate years. Many books have been written about JFK, and most mention his having gone to Choate, some in passing, others in greater detail.

I attended Choate from 1948 until my graduation in 1953, and while 13 years separated JFK and me, he and I had many of the same masters, lived by the same school rules and regulations, and resided in two of the same houses – East Cottage and West Wing. We had one other thing in common: we were outsiders who had to establish ourselves. He was a Catholic boy, and I a Jewish boy at a school where White Anglo-Saxon Protestants prevailed.

What was Jack Kennedy like as a roommate, someone who lived on your corridor or in your house, shared a class with you, or played on a team that you were on? How did he do academically? What were the things that shaped him during those four critical years in his life?

Using source material from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, including written reports from his housemasters, teachers, coaches, and classmates, as well as letters from then-Headmaster George St. John and administrators George Steele and Wardell St. John, I have discovered some answers.

EARLY INFLUENCES

What influences did JFK’s years at Choate have on him?

How might they have helped mold his character, shape his views of the world, and, finally, influenced decisions he made as our 35th president?

Jack was a second son, preceded at Choate by older brother and favorite son Joe Kennedy Jr. ’33, who was a superstar and recipient of the Harvard Crimson Football Award given to the outstanding sixth-form athlete. In following Joe Jr. at Choate, Jack had to meet the challenge of defining himself in ways his older brother did not.

JFK’s fifth and sixth form roommate, best friend, and acolyte LeMoyne Billings was also a second son, preceded by older brother Tremaine ’29, who was also a superstar and went on to become captain of the Princeton football team. And finally, George St. John’s second son, Seymour ’31, was preceded at Choate by an older brother, Jim ’28.

Jack relied on his quick wit, followed by pranks, to create a circle of friends, of which he became the center. Jack was also a sickly boy. Both boys respected their father, but as Rip Horton’s oral history indicates, Joe and Jack were highly competitive, often getting into brotherly spats. In a letter from George St. John to Joseph Kennedy Sr., George wrote, “I am ready to bet right now that Jack will follow in Joe’s footsteps, though he may have to go through a lessening, immature phase in the meantime. My oldest son, Jim, was always mature. Our second son, [Seymour], I worried a good deal about. Then in his last year at school … he has been one of the finest … fellows that a father could ever wish for” (November 1, 1933).

It’s fair to conclude that Jack was influenced by trying to live up to an older brother with whom he could not possibly compete as an athlete. He may have tried to establish his own identity in other ways – by being a prankster, by not following rules, and by creating his own inner circle.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

In his third form year, John F. Kennedy ’35 lived in Choate House (pictured above), which was taken down in 1966 so that Steele Hall could be built. In the fourth form, he was in East Cottage and fifth and sixth forms, he was on the second floor of West Wing, both of which have since been renovated.

Jack Kennedy was an indifferent student at Choate. He did well in subjects he liked, but put little effort into subjects he didn’t care for, such as Latin and French. He showed an aptitude for English and history – he liked Russ Ayres' history class, and received good reports from him – yet despite his ability as president to speak publicly, at Choate he never received higher than a C+ in public speaking.

In his third form year, Jack got a 40 on his final algebra exam. George St. John wrote to Joseph Kennedy Sr., “Jack, at present, lacks the stability and the power of concentration to do a really effective job.” And so it went throughout his four years. He graduated with a 72 average and never got above the third group.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 15 FROM LEFT: Ralph “Rip” Horton, John F. Kennedy, and Lem Billings out-

side Moran’s Pharmacy at the corner of North Main and Center Streets, Wallingford, circa 1930s. (Photo © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

“When he flashed his smile he could charm a bird off a tree . . .”

– George St. John

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HOUSEMASTERS AND SCHOOL DAYS

Jack’s housemasters were a major factor in his Choate experience. Earl “Cappy” Leinbach, his third form housemaster, saw something in the young boy. “He is in all respects a fine citizen,” he wrote. Cappy’s friendship lasted into JFK’s presidency, with correspondence continuing as late as 1961.

His experiences with J.J. Maher, his housemaster during his fifth and sixth form years, however, were contentious to say the least. “Jack takes a great deal of understanding…

Jack is young in his ways, and sometimes childish in his antics,” Maher wrote.

Jack probably set a school record for most days spent in the Archbold infirmary. He suffered from many ailments: rashes, asthma, pneumonia. He spent the summer of his fifth form year at the Mayo Clinic, where he was treated for colitis. In the sixth form, he was excused from sports “due to illness.”

Amazingly, during his four years at Choate, with all his illnesses, Rose Kennedy, Jack’s mother, never once visited her son in Wallingford. She did, however, accompany her husband to Europe many times during those same four years. How must a young Jack have felt, spending so much time in the Infirmary, yet not being visited by his mother?

Not having her present during Choate’s annual Mother’s Day tea? (In those years, Choate had a Mother’s Day in the spring and a Father’s Day in the fall.) Her absence must have hurt, but perhaps developed in him an independence and self-reliance that he would draw upon in the future.

THE BOY DOWN THE CORRIDOR

If you were at Choate when Jack Kennedy was there, how would you as a fellow student or master feel about him if he was on your corridor, in a class, or sat next to you in the dining room? Here are some quotes from reports by masters and other boys at Choate.

“When he flashed his smile he could charm a bird off a tree….” –George St. John “He was a very mediocre student. He did have one flair … and that was a flair for writing. He had too good a sense of humor. I’ve never seen him disturbed or hurt, or his feelings wounded by any event or occurrence.” –Ralph “Rip” Horton, Choate ’35 “In the morning hours in the classroom … he was all school. In the afternoon, he was all boy, and from then until just before dinner it was athletics and rough housing and horsing around and just having a whale of a time.”

–Harold Tinker, English master, Choate 1923-1962

“In the morning hours in the classroom ... he was all school. In the afternoon, he was all boy, and from then until just before dinner it was athletics and rough housing and horsing around and just having a whale of a time.”

– Harold Tinker, English master, Choate 1923-1962

c 1934 – In a relaxed pose, Jack, at right, and his three friends (from left), Ralph “Rip” Horton, Lem Billings, and Butch Schriber, appear at ease with one another, as young friends might be for the camera. Jack and his companions are dressed in the fashion of the time for boys attending an elite boarding school.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 17

THE MUCKERS: REPERCUSSIONS AND IMPACT

Much has been written about JFK and the Muckers. In his sixth form year, he and a group of friends planned a practical joke that caused George St. John to call an all-school meeting at which time he called the pranksters “muckers,” a term used derogatorily in Boston to describe Irish immigrants, who could find work only sweeping the Boston streets free of horse manure, or muck. Jack immediately named his group, which grew to 13 sixth formers, “Muckers.”

He had a Wallingford jeweler make up a pin with a shovel, and each Mucker had one. They mischievously planned to dump a pile of manure in the dining room during Winter Festivities, but someone alerted Headmaster St. John of the scheme, and he called all the Muckers into his study in the morning and threatened to expel them.

But between morning and the time that they needed to catch a train out of Wallingford, he changed his mind. He sent a telegram to Joe Sr., asking him to come to Wallingford for an in-person meeting with Jack present. Joe Sr. arrived, and the three met. Jack was then asked to excuse himself and George St. John and Joe Sr. met privately, allegedly for six hours. No one knows what was discussed, but at the end of the meeting, Jack was reinstated. When Joe Sr. met his son, his comment was “If it had been me, I would have started the name of the club with an ‘F’.”

CONCLUSIONS

Jack Kennedy was fun and imaginative. He was a good guy to live near, one who made dorm life interesting and enjoyable, and was always ready to buck authority or the established norm. I think I would have liked him.

He was voted most likely to succeed in his class. While he had serious health problems, he suffered through them with good humor. Nevertheless, he needed to establish his own identity, and did so by being funny, charming, and mischievous.

Because he felt the need to live up to his older brother, this pushed him in certain directions. In his own right, he was a leader, not a follower. Jack was himself at Choate.

He benefited from his lifelong friendships with Cappy Leinbach and Seymour St. John, and fought against J.J. Maher’s inability to see his pranks as simply a rebellion against authority.

I think any of us would have been glad to be his friend.

JFK remained connected to Choate throughout his life. And as we celebrate what would have been his 100th birthday, we should mark Choate’s lasting influence. Choate guides its students, allows them to grow, and ultimately builds them for the future.

Jeffrey C. Laikind ’53 is past president of the Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Association. In honor of President Kennedy’s centennial, in May 2017 the JFK Library will unveil a special exhibition titled “JFK at 100: Milestones and Mementos.”

A LEGACY of SERVICE and RESPONSIBILITY B y Henr y M c N ul t y ’ 6 5 Reminders that John F. Kennedy ’35 was a Choate graduate can be found all over the School today – from his portrait and bust in Archbold to the John F. Kennedy Special Collection in the Andrew Mellon Library, his name on the Alumni Seal Prize plaque in the dining hall, and more.

But perhaps Kennedy’s greatest continued presence at Choate Rosemary Hall is something that doesn’t bear his name but was created at his behest: a political science course now called American Government and Politics.

It has changed its name and its curriculum several times in the past almost 70 years, but the public affairs course remains true to the vision Kennedy expressed in September 1946 at a dinner celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Choate School.

As the penultimate after-dinner speaker, Kennedy said: “It seems to me that Choate and schools like it, and colleges too, have been taught by men who have taken small interest in the contemporary life around them…. In the future … the men who teach at Choate must instill in its students an active interest in our politics and the national life around us.”

Choate, he said, can continue to do “great work … by interesting their students in politics.”

Several faculty members supported the idea. “We are grateful to Jack for placing emphasis on this problem,” wrote veteran English master Harold L. Tinker the following January. “It has done us good … to be reminded of our responsibility and our opportunity.”

In May 1947, a faculty committee was assembled to study creating a new course in politics; Choate masters Russell Ayres, Hugh Packard, and Gordon Stillman were suggested by then-Headmaster George St. John as members.

Later that month, faculty member Earl G. “Cap” Leinbach (who had been Jack’s housemaster and coach) wrote to the presidents of Harvard, Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth, asking for their help. “[The] Headmaster has appointed a Choate Faculty Committee to plan a course in civics and government,” he told them. “We seek the advice and help of the best men who would be willing to work with us in an advisory capacity.”

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By the fall, planning was well underway. “Cap Leinbach has been in touch with you, I know, about our projected course in government,” the new Headmaster, Seymour St. John, wrote to Kennedy. “The idea is your baby, and we have been working on it from several angles for several months.”

The committee was set to meet in early December 1947.

“Naturally,” St. John wrote Kennedy, “what we should like best of all would be to have you join us for the conference.”

JFK, who was then representing Massachusetts’ 11th District in Congress, had a previous engagement and had to decline, adding, “I would appreciate very much, when it is convenient, hearing from you as to the progress that was made.”

“Largely through the impetus given

by Jack Kennedy in a stirring talk at the Fiftieth Anniversary Ceremonies, …the School this year has initiated a new course entitled Public Affairs.”

– Choate Bulletin, Fall 1948

In 1958, Senator John F. Kennedy received the School’s first Alumni Seal Prize. Headmaster Seymour St. John, left, and history master Courtenay Hemenway, right, look on.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 19

By January 1948, Courtenay Hemenway, head of the history department, had developed a course outline.

“For the first year, one medium-sized section will be organized,” his plan read. “Boys in this section will be of varying abilities, but will be boys with real interest in history and social studies…. Class will meet as a unit three times a week for discussion, questions, and instruction.

Each boy will meet with three or four others, and the instructor, twice a week for work on projects, for checking on the reading, and for more personal questions.”

In the fall term of 1948 – by coincidence, an election year – the new course was up and running. “Largely through the impetus given by Jack Kennedy in a stirring talk at the Fiftieth Anniversary Ceremonies, which emphasized the apathy and ignorance of the majority of secondary school students in political affairs, the School this year has initiated a new course entitled Public Affairs,” the Alumni Bulletin reported. “Mr. Hemenway will be the mentor and will see to it that such subjects as world politics, economics, and governmental structure are covered. No definite textbook will be followed, but Time, Newsweek, The Commonweal, The Nation, The Congressional Digest and newspapers representing different parties, sections, and blocs will point the way to a comprehensive coverage of national and world events.”

By the early 1950s, the course did include textbooks, including Philip Dorf’s Visualized American Government and, later, works by the noted political writers Clinton Rossiter, Walter Wriston, and George F. Kennan.

A few years later, the curriculum of what was then called History VI (Public Affairs) had not only history texts but novels such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon. By the late 1950s, students also – appropriately – read Kennedy’s own Profiles in Courage.

In 1958, when Jack Kennedy came to Wallingford to accept the School’s first Alumni Seal Prize, he again warmed to the topic of keeping students interested in politics.

“I realize that most Americans are not concerned about the education of politicians,” he told students, faculty, and administrators. “No education is considered necessary for political success, except how to find your way around a smoke-filled room. Unfortunately, this disdain for the political profession is not only shared, but intensified, in our academic institutions.” Except, that is, at Choate.

The Kennedy-inspired course, a sixth form elective, was called Public Affairs until 1970, when it became American Political Institutions and was led by history teacher Stephen

Longley. A regular component – which continues today – was an annual trip to Washington, D.C. to give students an opportunity to meet politicians, aides, lobbyists, Supreme Court justices, journalists, and others who are part of the American political scene.

For many years, history teacher Zachary Goodyear taught the course; he kept the name American Political Institutions for the fall term and used Effecting Political Change in the spring.

Today, this two-term course, now known as U.S. Government and Politics, is taught by veteran history instructor Ned Gallagher as a two-term sequence. “It begins with what I might call Civics 101,” he says. “The three branches of government, the Constitution, looking at elections – the nuts and bolts.” This is followed by a weeks-long seminar involving whatever political issues are topical, and includes a field trip to the State Capitol in Hartford.

Since 1973, students have also formed a “Model Congress,” with each writing a bill and presenting it. “I call it practice in the art of politics,” Gallagher says. It involves party organizations, elected leaders, Committee assignments, and full floor proceedings with all three sections of the course meeting together.

And in January, there’s the much-anticipated three-day trip to Washington to meet with those involved in political life. This year’s included meetings with several alumni: Alec Johnson ’04, a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy of Connecticut; Brian No ’06, another legislative assistant; Pete Meachum ’91, chief of staff for Representative Sean Duffy of Wisconsin; U.S. Representative Suzan DelBene ’79 of Washington; Chris Wendell ’96, a senior planning officer in the State Department; and U.S. Representative Stacy Plaskett ’84, of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Separate from the course is a five-week summer program, also led by Gallagher, called the John F. Kennedy Institute in Government. The program, open to high school-aged students and now more than 30 years old, is built around a core of courses that introduce students to how politics works in Western civilization, how American democracy functions, and public policy issues of the moment.

It also includes a Washington trip.

In 1963, in one of his last messages to Choate, President Kennedy said, “I know that Choate continues to teach high ideals of public service and public responsibility.” For the past 69 years the course he inspired has continued to do just that.

Henry McNulty ’65 is a frequent contributor to the Bulletin.

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BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 21

MD375:

Journalism and Nonfiction Storytelling B y L orraine S . C onnell y JOURNALISM AND NONFICTION STORYTELLING, NOW IN ITS THIRD YEAR, IS ONE OF MORE THAN A DOZEN MULTIDISCIPLINARY COURSES BEING OFFERED AS PART OF CHOATE’S EVER-EVOLVING CURRICULUM. THESE COURSES OFFER A ROBUST CROSS-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH THAT BRINGS TOGETHER MORE TRADITIONALLY DISPARATE TOPICS SUCH AS JOURNALISM AND STATISTICS, WHERE PATHOS Mike Peed worked on the editorial staffs of The New Yorker and The New York Times before joining Choate’s English department.

AND PYTHAGORAS FIND COMMON GROUND.

Mike Peed and math teacher Nick Molnar lead twiceweekly seminar discussions.

T

WICE A WEEK, 13 students in Mike Peed and Nick Molnar’s Journalism and Nonfiction Storytelling course gather for a double-block period in the Seminar room of the Andrew Mellon Library during the height of the lunch wave. Ignoring the low growl of their churning stomachs, these students are hungry for something more as they begin critiquing the week’s photo essay assignments.

A few weeks earlier, the class hosted veteran Associated Press photojournalist Julie Jacobsen, who talked about her work and shared some of her photos. For their own curated photo essay assignments, students heeded her advice “to be flexible” and “to capture the essence of life passing in front of you.”

Amir Idris ’17 and his group were tasked with uncovering and reporting stories of the employees responsible for feeding the community: the School’s food service workers. On a mid-January afternoon, Amir went down to the Hill House Dining Hall kitchen, camera in hand, to interview and photograph the subject of his photo essay. Kevin was busy

…what emerged from the exercise was an empathy and respect for SAGE Food Service workers that neither student had consciously expressed before. hand-dipping trays of chocolate-covered strawberries to be served later that evening at the First Hurrah, the mid-winter fifth and sixth form dance. Says Amir, “Individuals who work in the kitchens don’t get many opportunities to see students enjoy what they produce. I thought about that later that evening at the dance. I wished Kevin could have seen how much we enjoyed his work.” And of course, Amir thought about how other students at the dance, in general, “have no idea about the work and craftsmanship that goes into feeding the student body.”

Another classmate, Sabrina Xie ’17, looks at Amir’s photos and examines them for composition guidelines and remarks, “There’s an almost perfect nexus in that photo.” She is analyzing the image for “the rule of thirds” in which an image is divided into nine equal segments by two vertical and two horizontal lines. The theory is that placing points of interest at the intersections or along the lines will enable the viewer to interact with the image more naturally.

Next, Katharine Li ’17 discusses her portrait of Mike, a dishwasher.

Says Katharine, “I expected the workers I interviewed to be tired and worn out by their repetitive chores, but they were amazingly cheerful, in a humble sort of way.” Although the photo essay assignment was intended to humanize subjects while adhering to the guidelines of good storytelling and photocomposition, what emerged from the exercise was an empathy and respect for SAGE Food Service workers that neither student had consciously expressed before.

The class then discusses Katharine’s decision to convert her color photographs to black and white through Photoshop. Was the choice purely one of aesthetics, or was it intentional: to portray the behindthe-scene workers (the American working class) in black and white as opposed to the technicolor lives of the more privileged student body?

As co-teachers Peed and Molnar lead the class through a guided discussion, a series of provocative questions are asked: “What thoughts do we want people to have from a photo? What emotions do we want people to feel? What conversations do we want people to have?”

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 23

TOP “Mike is a happy and

BOTTOM LEFT Kevin prepares

indecisive guy. He estimates that he has worked at Choate maybe 13 years. His 6 a.m. bus from New Haven to Wallingford is maybe an hour long. He doesn’t mind the commute, but sometimes it gets a little crowded.” Photo by Katharine Li ’17.

chocolate-covered strawberries for a formal dance, the First Hurrah. He says, “They will be delicious.”

Photo by Amir Idris ’17.

BOTTOM RIGHT Does choosing to portray the kitchen worker in black and white say something more when juxtaposed to the technicolor lives of the student body? Photo by Katharine Li ’17.

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In this course, students learn to tell a single story in five formats, while learning new skills and being challenged to think in original and compelling ways.

An exhibition of 18th-century Japanese scroll paintings by Kitagawa Utamaro at Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum.

These paintings have been reunited for the first time in nearly 150 years. Photo by Sabrina Xie ’17.

RIGHT Pins can be seen

FAR RIGHT Some students

around campus on backpacks and bags. Arielle Landau’s ‘17 purse showcases an array of these circular signs of political expression from various rallies she has attended. Her newest pin, “Purse Power“ is from the 2017 Women’s March on Washington D.C. Photo by Stephanie Grossman ’17.

harbor discreet signs of political passion in their rooms, like copies of the New York Times the day after the Women’s March and tattered posters of female empowerment. They serve more as a reminder to one’s self than an emboldened statement for others. Photo

by Leah Salzman ’17.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 25

ONE STORY / FIVE FORMATS The evolution of this course supports the findings of a curriculum review process that began in the spring of 2015 and that will continue with the implementation of a new daily schedule next year with class blocks expanding significantly, from the current 45 minutes to 70 minutes.

Other significant changes are also on the horizon. Last November, Choate’s faculty voted to drop Advanced Placement designations from the courses they teach.

While Choate’s curriculum will continue to be informed by the AP program, it won’t be constrained by it, explains Director of Curricular Initiatives Katharine Jewett. “Freedom from the Advanced Placement program will create a greater opportunity for interdisciplinary courses and reflects the thinking of recent findings by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that have linked interdisciplinarity to increased learner motivation and engagement as well as to more finely honed critical thinking skills,” she says. Many of our peer schools – Andover, Exeter, and Lawrenceville – for example – do not use the AP designation.

Though some might worry that dropping the AP designation will reduce rigor in the curriculum, this course suggests otherwise. For their end-of-term experiences, Peed and Molnar’s journalism students produced a portfolio of their work that included a 500-word news story; a 600-word slice of life story modeled on a New Yorker “Talk of the Town” piece; a photo essay; an infographic; and a podcast, all on one topic of their choice. In this course, students learn to tell a single story in five formats, while learning new skills and being challenged to think in original and compelling ways.

Says Peed, who worked on the editorial staffs of both The New Yorker and the New York Times before joining Choate’s English faculty, “We began the term by studying the personal essay model and the works of Joan Didion, Peter Hessler, and Ian Frazier, among others.

After discussing several examples, students then submitted their own personal pieces. We then turned their attention to a single-issue project.”

Some groups chose a topic close to home, like the SAGE workers or the local dynamic between Choate and the town of Wallingford, which produced an authentic podcast of an encounter between local high school students and Choate students at the Wallingford movie theater.

Another group turned their focus to an exhibition of 18th-century Japanese scroll paintings by Kitagawa Utamaro at Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum. These paintings have been reunited for the first time in nearly 150 years. The last group decided to tackle politics and women’s issues, both on campus and post-Inauguration at Women’s Marches in D.C., as well as the satellite rally in Hartford, Conn.

Says former editor of The Choate News Bryce Wachtell ’17, whose group focused on the topic of politics and women’s issues, “Choate students and high schoolers, in general, often find themselves at an impasse, wanting to effect political change but unable to have their voices heard in elections.” His group captured photographs of various displays of feminism, from dorm-room posters to defiant pins, from shiny bumper stickers to marches across the nation. Their photo essay demonstrated that “[Students] can have their opinions validated. They are making a difference.”

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A jogger runs through the Choate campus. Photo by Alex Needham ’17.

JOURNALISM IN THE DIGITAL AGE Finding one’s voice, whether personal or political, is a critical skill, one that is encouraged in this demanding multidisciplinary course.

Says mathematics teacher Molnar, “One of the goals of the journalism course is to train students to communicate better in all forms and transmit clear thoughts on the page through data, graphs, or infographics, and having students find their voice in a spoken format as well.” He adds, “Allowing students to investigate any story that they want and follow their own interests is one of the appealing aspects for students.”

Molnar, who has taught the course since its inception says, “It’s great that we’re continuing to evolve the Journalism course, and that it’s evolving to a place that meets students’ needs and continues to meet student interest.”

The following week’s assignment turned to creation of the infographics, where students learn to use data to tell a story. As they begin this project, Molnar cautions students to always find a primary source and to provide context for their data. He reminds them of an article they read earlier for class, “Data Without Context Tells a Misleading Story,” and a quote from the director of the Institute for Media Innovation at Columbia University, “Data inherently has all the foibles of being human. It’s not a magic force in society; it’s an extension of us.”

After a brief tutorial on the app they will work with, students have a week to collaborate on an infographic with data culled from credible sources. The group reporting on SAGE found some salient food prep facts: 160 to 200 pounds of fruit are served per day; 260 pounds of meat (excluding the deli line); there is zero percent food waste; all leftovers are donated to the Columbus House homeless shelter. The group examining town-gown relations focuses on population statistics, racial and ethnic diversity, and presidential election results, citing City Data and HomeFacts.com as sources. (For every 100 Wallingford residents, there are two Choate residents.) The Tale of Three Paintings group focuses on the provenance or chronology of the ownership, custody, and location of the three scrolls. The Women & Politics group focuses on election night results, post-election polling, and the global Women’s Marches and garners statistics from the Pew Research Center; the D.C. Metropolitan Police; and the Cook Political Report Popular Vote Tracker.

These varied assignments are forcing students to be observant, dig deep, and be facile in a number of modes, reflective of the goals in the School’s Central Qualities of a Choate Education (Fall 2015 Bulletin) where Choate students are expected “to learn to express themselves effectively in a variety of media and languages.” The statement embraces the pillars of effective communication which “require attentive listening, gathering and assessing relevant information, and the ability to formulate and express a meaningful statement or argument.” And last, “our digital age demands facility with changing technologies, while also reminding us of the continued importance of human connections.”

The assignments are also preparing students for the future of journalism in the digital age. At a time when staffs and circulation numbers at magazines and newspapers are shrinking and the very viability of print journalism is being called into question, students are being equipped to become the next generation of storytellers.

Many colleges and universities have already expanded their writing programs to include courses like the one Peed and Molnar are teaching.

Northeastern University’s new “Story Lab” course is a partnership between Esquire magazine and the School of Journalism’s Media Innovation Program. “Students take an iconic magazine story and reimagine how it might be presented in the digital age. Northeastern professors teach the class, Esquire writers and independent journalists regularly visit in person or via Skype. The magazine benefits from the partnership because the staff learns fresh storytelling possibilities from the next generation of journalists” (“Storytelling Reimagined” in Northeastern Magazine Fall 2015).

The final piece in MD375 students’ portfolio is an eight-minute podcast. For this project, Academic Technology Support Specialist Morgan Harris gives the class a brief introduction to the Soundtrap app they will use to create their podcasts. They are familiar with the podcast medium, having been eager consumers of Serial, a podcast hosted by the radio program This American Life. In its first season, Serial won a Peabody Award for its innovative telling of a long-form nonfiction story involving the reinvestigation of the 1999 murder of a Baltimore high school student. They listen to a few other podcasts – Profiles: NYC, a daily series that combines first-person narrative audio with photography to create one-minute glimpses into the lives of strangers, and some episodes of SongExploder, a podcast where musicians deconstruct their songs, and tell the story of how they were made.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 27

“Journalists must be interested in things. It’s not enough to say, simply, I want to be a storyteller.…

Observe, reflect, pick up details, and put them down in your notebooks. Stories are everywhere, and they demand to be told.”

– MIKE PEED

At the final presentation, each group shares extensive portfolios filled with meaningful investigative reporting, and nuggets of vivid detail in the slice of life pieces. The podcasts take different approaches, each group using individual music selections as a thread to drive home the narratives. The structural restraint of their podcasts shows a high level of sophistication for a group of nascent storytellers. The students have mastered each element of their portfolios and, most important, have learned to tell a story compellingly, coherently, and elegantly.

Peed shares these words of advice with his students before they leave for spring break: “Journalists must be interested in things. It’s not enough to say, simply, I want to be a storyteller. You’ve got to gain access into a world by being curious about something. Allow yourself to become interested in things and become observers of life. Observe, reflect, pick up details, and put them down in your notebooks. Stories are everywhere, and they demand to be told.”

A Tale of Three Paintings infographic focuses on the provenance or chronology of the ownership, custody, and location of the three scrolls.

The group of students reporting on SAGE found some salient food prep facts.

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Alumni Gatherings and Celebrations

choate rosemary hall alumni association mission

To create, perpetuate, and enhance relationships among Choate Rosemary Hall alumni, current and prospective students, faculty, staff, and friends in order to foster loyalty, interest, and support for the School and for one another, and to build pride, spirit, and community.

OFFICERS Patrick McCurdy ’98 President Parisa Jaffer ’89 Vice President David Hang ’94 Chris Hodgson ’78 John Smyth ’83 ADDITIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS Dan Courcey ’86 Executive Director of Development and Alumni Relations

REGIONAL CLUB LEADERSHIP Boston Lovey Oliff ’97 Sarah Strang ’07 Chicago Margaux Harrold ’06 Maria Del Favero ’83 Jacqueline Salamack ’06

THE RUSSI A N TE A ROOM / N YC

Connecticut David Aversa ’91 Katie Vitali Childs ’95 London Ian Chan ’10

Mari Jones Director of Development and Alumni Relations

Los Angeles Alexa Platt ’95 Wesley Hansen ’98

Monica St. James Director of Alumni Relations

New York Sheila Adams ’01 Jason Kasper ’05

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PAST PRESIDENTS Susan Barclay ’85 Chris Hodgson ’78 Woody Laikind ’53

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Rosemary Hall Volunteer Needed

2 STA RT UP//CHOATE | SA N FR A NCISCO

San Francisco Kevin Kassover ’87 Tara Elwell Henning ’99 Washington, D.C. Dan Carucci ’76 Tillie Fowler ’92 Olivia Bee ’10 Beijing Gunther Hamm ’98 Hong Kong Sandy Wan ’90 Lambert Lau ’97 Jennifer Yu ’99 Seoul Jungwook Ryan Hong ’89 Thailand Pirapol Sethbhakdi ’85 Isa Chirathivat ’96

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STA RT UP//CHOATE | SA N FR A NCISCO

A LUMNI NET WOR K ING | CHICAGO

1 Alumni, parents, and students enjoyed a light luncheon

3 This year’s StartUp//CHOATE presenters included: Tara

at the Russian Tea Room after a performance by the Choate Rosemary Hall Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

2 Budding and seasoned entrepreneurs gathered at Uber Headquarters in San Francisco for the annual StartUp// CHOATE panel.

Elwell Henning ’99, Anthony Marino ’91, Woody Marshall ’86, Bo Oh ’06, Chris Miksovsky ’87.

4 The Alumni Club of Chicago hosted a networking event at Groupon Headquarters with featured speakers: Maria Del Favero ’83, Sarah Marmor ’83, and CJ Montano ’96.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 29

1

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3 ST. JOHN H A LL DEDICATION | A PR IL 12, 2017 1 Members of the St. John family were on hand to dedicate

the new St. John Hall. Pictured here are: Christopher Amorello P ’15, Susan St. John Amorello ’84, P ’15, Chair of the Board of Trustees Michael Carr ’76, Mazie St. John, Headmaster Alex Curtis, Gordon W.S. St. John ’80, and Ashley St. John.

2 After the dedication, attendees toured the building and

enjoyed a reception outside the new Tuck Shop Café.

3 Members of the Board of Trustees joined Alex Curtis,

the St. John family, key donors, and faculty members, along with the architects and builders at a ceremony dedicating the new building to the legacy of Headmaster George St. John and his wife Clara.

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION | Awards

C H O AT E R O S E M A R Y H A L L

AT H L E T I C S H A L L FA M E OF

2017

Each year the Alumni Association recognizes outstanding athletes whose contributions and achievements left an indelible mark on the School. The following alumni were inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday, May 12.

2017

inductees:

alumni award

ELIOT BERRY ‘67

KRISTEN CLARKE ’93 The Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Award honors distinguished alumni for outstanding accomplishments in their profession – the highest award the School bestows upon its alumni.

The 2017 Alumni Award was presented at School Meeting on May 3. This year’s recipient is Kristen Clarke ’93, President & Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. One of the country’s most important national civil rights organizations, the Lawyers’ Committee seeks to promote fair housing and community development, equal employment opportunity, voting rights, equal educational opportunity, criminal justice, judicial diversity, and more.

Clarke formerly served as the head of the Civil Rights Bureau for New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, where she led broad civil rights enforcement on matters including criminal justice issues, education and housing discrimination, fair lending, barriers to reentry, voting rights, immigrants’ rights, gender inequality, disability rights, reproductive access, and LGBT issues.

She spent several years at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) where she helped lead the organization’s work in the areas of voting rights and election law across the country. She worked on cases defending the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act and also testified before Congress and state legislatures.

Prior to joining LDF, she worked at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Civil Rights Division, where she served as a federal prosecutor in the Criminal Section of the Division, handling police misconduct, police brutality, hate crimes, and human trafficking cases. She also worked on voting rights and redistricting cases through the Division’s Voting Section.

A 1993 graduate of Choate Rosemary Hall, Clarke received her A.B. from Harvard University and her J.D. from Columbia Law School. Her honors and awards include being recognized among 2016 Alumni of the Year by the National Black Law Students Association, and the New York Law Journal’s 2015 Rising Stars (see profile on page 48).

Eliot was a star member of the legendary 1967-68 Choate tennis team that dominated all competition. He played football, squash, and tennis at Choate and continued all three sports at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was named an All-American in squash and was nationally ranked in that sport. He was signed by the Steelers and the Falcons as a placekicker but did not play for either team. Sadly, Eliot passed away in 2008; he was posthumously inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame as the Class of 1967 celebrated their 50th Reunion.

ANNE HARDY BORIS ‘87 After 30 years, swimming sensation Anne continues to hold the School’s record in the 200 meter free, 200 yard free, and 400 meter relay.

The only person to beat Anne’s times in the 100 yard free, 100 meter free, and 400 meter free at Choate was a 2014 alumna who swam the 400 meter free with a time 00.02.22 faster than Anne’s, and set a national record while doing it. To echo coaches Todd Currie and Bob Burns, ”Anne was astonishingly fast!” Following Choate, Anne continued to set records at Harvard where she and her team continue to hold the 400 and 800 meter free relay records, and where she was named Academic All-American.

JAN FLASKA ’92 A tri-varsity athlete at both Choate and Bowdoin, Jan coached all three sports when he returned to Choate for three years to teach. He has coached men’s soccer at the University of Chicago, women’s ice hockey at Harvard University, and lacrosse at Boston University and the University of Chicago. He is currently serving as the Dean of Spiritual and Ethical Life at Deerfield Academy.

Where he finds the time to serve as head coach of the Slovakia National Lacrosse team is anybody’s guess. Jan intends to lead Slovakia to the world lacrosse championship games in Manchester, UK in 2018.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 31

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION | Remembrance As the Nation marks the 100th anniversary of the United States’ entry into the Great War, the Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Association pauses to remember the 16 young alumni who died in service to their country in World War I to whom Memorial House is dedicated. Their names, inscribed above the mantel in the Mem Common Room, have greeted a countless number of boys upon their arrival at Choate. The cornerstone for the building was laid by 3-year-old William Choate Atwater, nephew and namesake of Judge Choate, in 1921 and contained “a list of the Choate alumni who gave their lives in the Great War; names of the 280 people who made possible by their gifts the erection of the building; a 1921 quarter; the May 29, 1921 edition of The Choate News; and two Prize Day programs.”

Lieutenant Harold Bartlett Bradley ’14 Royal Flying Corps Second Lieutenant David Charles Bispham ’16 Royal Flying Corps First Lieutenant Alexander Thomson Burr ’13; Williams ’17 U.S. Army Aviation Corps Private Thomas Ripley Dorr ’13; Williams ’17 U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Edward W. Hatch ’20 U.S. Army, 58th Pioneer Infantry, Headquarters Company Second Machinist Mate Cyril Henius ’18 U.S. Naval Reserve Second Lieutenant Elisha Boudinot Keith ’11; Lehigh ’15 U.S. Army Infantry, 27th Division Second Lieutenant George Gibbs Mansfield ’16 U.S. Army Aviation Corps First Lieutenant Edward McClure Peters, Jr. ’06; Harvard ’16 U.S. Army Infantry, 16th Division Machine Gun Battalion Private First Class Hezekiah Scovil Porter ’15; Yale ’19 U.S. Army, 101st Machine Gun Battalion, Company B, 26th Division Ensign Curtis S. Read ’08; Yale ’18 U.S. Naval Aviation Corps Captain Donald Gardner Russell, M.D. ’04; Yale ’09; Yale Med ’14 U.S. Army, Pershing’s First Regulars Private Stephen Higginson Tyng IV ’15 U.S. Marine Corps Second Lieutenant Edward Marion Walsh ’14; USC ’18 U.S. Army Aviation Corps Private First Class Curtis Stevenson Webster ’18 U.S. Army, Company B, 104th Military Police Ensign Walker Ten Eyck Weed ’15 U.S. Naval Reserve Flying Corps

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CLASSNOTES | News from our Alumni

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BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 33

34 CLASSNOTES

1940s ’48 RH Edie Keasbey writes, “Sorry I can’t attend the reunion in May. Spring is a really busy time for serious gardeners like me. I am very lucky to be in good shape and still able to be busy with the nonprofit, Friends of the Great Swamp, and the many activities on the river that flows in two directions!

Dotty Holbrook and I keep in touch, and the last I heard Sandy was still about.”

’49 C

Spencer Merz writes, “I still put both feet on the floor every morning, then tend to the other details associated with The Golden Years.”

1950s ’51 RH Marilyn McManus Bauch writes, “Flew to New Jersey from Arizona to visit family in August. Had to get out of the Arizona heat for a while and tried to get together with Didi, Peg and Joan in NYC for a little reunion. Peg couldn’t travel to NYC in the heat, and then Didi got sick – but I did see Joan. Will try again for a get together next year. Anyone want to join us?”

Emily Howe Buttaro writes, “After living a long time in Aberdeen, S.D. – I decided to sell (very reluctantly) and move to St. Paul, Minn., and live with my daughter and her husband, where I have my own apartment. Mighty big change from the prairies to lakeside. Daughter and her husband train sniffer dogs.”

Liz Evans Hamilton reports, “My husband, Barry, and I have been living on our farm in Warrenton, Va., for the past 25 years, and are still enjoying it very much. I am a member of the Warrenton Garden Club. We spend five months in Virginia and the other three at our cottage on Cape Cod, where I renew old friendships each summer. I see and have frequent contact with Didi Brothers McGhie, and love to reminisce about Rosemary. Our oldest daughter lives in Portland, Ore., and has one son who married last summer and who also lives in Portland. Julie, our

middle daughter, lives in San Francisco with husband Tom, who works part time in S.F.C., and the rest of the time in New York. Their daughter Molly (age 22) just graduated from Colby College. Their son Peter is a junior at Washington & Lee University. Our youngest, Betsy, lives in Santa Fe and is married to a professor at St. John’s College. I would love to hear from any classmates at BarryLizhamilton@yahoo.com.”

Eunice Beers Hunter has sold her house in Connecticut and has moved to Florida.

Diana Brothers McGhie writes, “My daughter Claire and I went on a road trip to Maine to see son Mark and family and Alec, then went down to the Cape for a quick visit with Liz Evans Hamilton.

Granddaughter #3 will finish her semester in Spain and then is off to China for an internship.”

Elsie Guion Pierot passed away in April 2004. She was a jewelry artist, and her work was displayed at museums in N.Y.C., and Connecticut.

For 40 years, she was founder and president of the “Resale Company” and an estate sales specialist.

She leaves four children – Robert, Catherine, Ted, and Felicia, 13 grandchildren and one great granddaughter.

Margaret Hart Rogers writes, “I still live in Cos Cob – and have done so since 1963! I have been living in a one-level house looking over the Bible Street Park. I love to see the activity with the kids’ sports, and the dog walkers in the early mornings. I’m active in the Greenwich Woman’s Club, Dingletown Community Church, and the Old Greenwich Yacht Club – and that is enough. I am in contact by phone with Didi – we both have sons living in Maine. I am also in contact with Emily Howe Buttaro and Cynthia Zimmerman. Cindy and I did a trip to Maine several years ago which was a lot of fun – and now am thinking about driving up to Indian Lake in the Adirondacks to visit her – but it is a four-hour drive!

Last spring, I had a wonderful conversation with Janan Turner Sleeper, who lives in Florida with her husband. We found out that we have one thing in common – and that is that she and her husband have a cottage on The Isle of Man and I have relatives

living there and have been there many times. Located in the Irish Sea between Ireland and Scotland, it is a most charming place. My son Rob is still in the Army and is a Master Sergeant and has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan with the troops he had trained.

My daughter Lesley is working at the New Canaan Country Day School in the nurse’s office. My two grandchildren are growing up fast. Robert is now in the fifth grade and Caitlyn (living in Maine) is in the second grade. I guess you would say that I am an old grandmother – or Nanny as they call me.”

Janet Bushman Spencer writes, “In 1992, we moved from Devon, Pa., to Carlisle, Pa., upon Doug’s retirement from pediatrics, and mine from interior design. We built our house, designed by us, and eventually a two-stall farm as well. We had a great life there for 16 years caring for two rescue horses, and joining in the activities of our Unitarian Congregation. By 2008, we reluctantly decided to move to a retirement community, where there is support with health issues. We are enjoying the community with lots of woods and trails to walk on and classes to take, such as pottery.”

Franny Chaffee Taliaferro writes, “How am I? Good so far – reasonable health, great family, lots to do. I divide my time between New York and West Cornwall, Conn., and am attached to various groups in both places. Most of them have something to do with books. Last fall I saw Pat Sweney Hart at her apartment in Episcopal Homes in St. Paul. Pat was not always part of the conversation, but when I suggested that we sing – always a favorite activity when we were at R.H. – she immediately broke into ‘Rosemarienses’ with all the Latin words intact. I was deeply impressed.”

Libby Jones Thorne writes, “Last summer, we sold the house we had for 18 years in South Carolina.

There comes a time when too much is too much.

We had already scaled down, so the children did not need anything else. Getting rid of a houseful of pianos, furniture, paintings and sculptures – not easy.

Life is much simpler.”

’51 “Last fall I saw Pat Sweney Hart at her apartment in Episcopal Homes in St. Paul … when I suggested that we sing – always a favorite activity when we were at R.H. – she immediately broke into ‘Rosemarienses’ with all the Latin words intact. I was deeply impressed.” –FRANNY CHAFFEE TALIAFERRO

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’54 RH Isabel Malkin reports in as a newly minted 80-year-old and blessed to be here. She sees Sherry Sutter Breed and Kay Iselin ’57 and recently attended a lecture about the wife of the founder of Boeing Aircraft, who attended Rosemary Hall in its early years and, with her two sisters, left the ”very progressive” girls’ school. ’56 C

Lee Gaillard writes, “Storm Stella’s 41 inches of snow kept us busy up here in the Adirondacks in mid-March. In other areas, I’ve had four photos accepted for display in three juried art shows, have presented a PowerPoint analysis to our Rotary Club and the local library of the role of luck in the Battle of Midway, and have submitted to journals an essay on Hemingway and his demons and another on how John Keats went about revising one of his odes. Just recently, I have been asked by an independent West Coast producer of a film on Pentagon acquisition practices to help with an analysis of problems faced by the V-22 Osprey tilt-prop aircraft used by the Air Force and the Marine Corps.”

Tom Perera writes, “I have retired as professor emeritus after teaching and researching neuroscience for 35 years at Columbia and Montclair State universities. My wife of 57 years, Gretchen, and I live on a farm high in the mountains of Vermont. We travel widely and often and enjoy sailing and diving.

For 30 years, I have been hunting for, researching, restoring, writing and lecturing about and selling German WW-II Enigma Machines. My company, EnigmaMuseum.com, provided the Enigmas that starred in the movie Imitation Game and appeared in Snowden.”

’57 C

Barry Feinberg writes, “Life continues to be good. Tennis (singles) four times a week. I volunteer as an assistant third grade teacher at a Title One school here in West Palm Beach, Fla.”

W.H. (Bill) Lathrop writes, “I noted on page 2, of the Fall 2016 Bulletin a piece by Bob McIntyre ‘54 in which he describes his ‘long-held belief’ that he and John F. Kennedy were the only two people in the world with four things in common. Well, I graduated from Choate with the Class of 1957. I received a Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree from Cornell University. I served as an officer in the United States Navy for five years. I received a master’s degree in engineering from Stanford University. I received a certificate from Harvard Business School for successful completion of a five-day course. I picked a bunch of California Bay Leaves and left them with a guard at a gate to The White House to be used in preparing clam chowder. The gift was subsequently acknowledged by a letter from President George Bush. Now with the experience of three of us, I wonder how many Choate graduates have had similar experiences? I suspect these achievements have long since met the purposes of their time and are now best forgotten as we move forward.”

Luis Armando Roche writes, “My wife, Marie-Françoise Roche, and I are working on films and writing books. You can purchase all my books and films on www.amazon.com. You just mark down Luis Armando Roche and all the items will appear (books and films). My wife and I will travel in May to Bethesda, Md., where my two sons have three restaurants: Bold Bite in Bethesda (for doughnuts and breakfast), Tapas Bar also in Bethesda for a Spanish meal, and Bold Bite at Union Railroad Station. While in Bethesda we will see our grandsons, Antonio and Amanda Roche Booker. Then we go to Georgetown to visit our other son Alvaro Roche and their two children: Sofia and Sebastian Roche. I hope our reunion goes well. We do see Carlos Hellmund ’55 and Luis Fernando Sanchez in Caracas on occasion.”

’58

’58 C

Ian Y. Bennett writes, “I have been asked to be the keynote speaker at the Wharton Graduate Emeritus Society luncheon to discuss my business interests in Africa (hpn.africa.com). This is my 50th reunion year as a Wharton MBA. While being the luncheon speaker is exciting, the Wharton and Choate reunions fall on the same weekend. I take every opportunity to participate in Choate gatherings.

Most recently, I was in Wallingford with my wife, Louise, to participate in the dedication of the house named after Jack Davison. Jack was the best football coach I ever had.”

’58 RH Marty Straton writes, “I won Palm Beach County’s Volunteer of the Year award from United Way in 2013. I’m busy feeding the homeless, helping the vets, working with the elderly, helping a poor family get jobs, food, etc., and helping a five-star early childhood education program for the poor called Opportunity, though I am no longer on the Board of our little school. I was Vice President and Hospitality Chairman of the English-Speaking-Union, where we gave scholarships to students to study abroad and then worked for them for five years, resigning recently. Busy with Garden Club of Palm Beach, former officer of The Colonial Dames and being Chaplain of the Daughters of the American Revolution.” ’59 C

J. Robert Ransone writes, “I have recently partnered up with friends in a new entity, SRD Capital Advisors www.srdcap.com. We currently have three clients in the energy space, and we are charged with raising capital for two of the three clients.”

“I take every opportunity to participate in Choate gatherings.

Most recently, I was in Wallingford with my wife, Louise, to participate in the dedication of the house named after Jack Davison. Jack was the best football coach I ever had.” –IAN Y. BENNETT

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’57

G. David Forney

The Man Who Launched a Million Modems As Managing Editor of The Choate News, G. David Forney ’57 was keen to communicate information quickly and accurately. For example, Forney and his “Newsie” colleagues put out a special edition after the 1956 Choate-Deerfield football game by having Bruce Nelson ’58 phone the story to Forney at Van Dyck Printing Co. in New Haven, so that the paper could be printed and delivered before the team and its fans arrived back on campus.

While his contributions to the News may not have been part of the impressive body of work that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers considered when it awarded Forney its 2016 Medal of Honor “for pioneering contributions to the theory of error-correcting codes and the development of reliable high-speed data communications,” they certainly were an early indicator of Forney’s lifelong productivity.

Forney keeps a well-preserved three-volume bound series of the 1954–57 News, which communicates the buzz and youthful energy of his experience at Choate, while also testifying to Forney’s skills

in writing, leadership, and organization. Forney has remained close to many “Newsies” throughout his life, including classmates Mason Morfit (his Choate roommate), Stanley Stillman, and Stewart Hudnut, the late Jay Parsons and Charlie Rentschler (his roommates at Princeton). Forney recalls that the News was “the only place where you could stay up past 10:30 at night” at Choate, and notes with pride that in his senior year the News became the second paper in the country to adopt a six-column format (the Wall Street Journal being the other).

Recognized as “the man who launched a million modems,” Forney does not fit the stereotype of an engineer as a technologyoriented introvert who prefers to be tinkering in the lab and may not communicate well. Forney’s lifelong and deep appreciation for the liberal arts effectively shatters this stereotype.

An avid reader, Forney came from a home where quality education was a priority, and attended New Canaan (CT) Country School for grades 1-9. Choate, with its focus on academic excellence and strong liberal arts curriculum, was a natural next school.

Forney particularly recalls his Honors English teachers at Choate: Porter Dean “Pete” Caesar ’34, in the fourth form, who commented with relish on the faculty thumbnail sketches in The Brief; Harold Tinker in the fifth form, who had “very high standards” and was more reserved, but nonetheless appreciated wit and humor; and Charles “Chuck” Rice in the sixth form, whom Forney and classmate Tom Wrubel once startled with a stirring rendition of the first verse of The Canterbury Tales, to the tune of the Whiffenpoofs’ “Tear It Down.”

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CLASSNOTES | Profile Despite his enjoyment of the liberal arts, Forney decided to major in electrical engineering at Princeton. He was undoubtedly inspired by his new (1956) stepfather, aviation pioneer James McDonnell (Princeton ’21), and his new stepbrothers Jim (P ’58) and John McDonnell (P ’60). Even though he took only the “absolute minimum of engineering courses,” which allowed time for liberal arts and rugby, he still won the 1961 Howard J. Samuel Prize as the top engineering undergraduate at Princeton.

During his senior year at Princeton, Forney read Léon Brillouin’s 1956 book Science and Information Theory. Information theory was then a relatively new field of research, stemming from Claude Shannon’s landmark 1948 paper, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” which talked about how to communicate information efficiently through a “channel” by “encoding” and “decoding.”

He decided to pursue graduate studies at MIT, where he became part of a community of intellectual powerhouses in the area of information theory, including Shannon himself, Forney’s graduate advisors Robert Gallager and John Wozencraft, and other future industry leaders such as Irwin Jacobs (co-founder of Qualcomm).

Forney has a unique ability to dive deeply into the highly abstract and mathematical constructs used in information theory, and surface with innovative and practical approaches for applying them to real-world problems. In his 1965 MIT doctoral thesis, he developed a technique of “concatenating” codes, using multiple layers of encoding and decoding, that in principle solved the problem of getting to Shannon’s “channel capacity” with reasonable implementation complexity, and that was adopted in the following decade for practical space communications applications.

After MIT, Forney joined a 12-person company called Codex Corporation. Some of his early work at Codex included developing the “first codes in space,” which were used by NASA on the Pioneer spacecraft. His most important contribution to Codex was his design in 1970 of both the algorithms and the circuitry for the company’s first successful “high-speed” telephone-line modem (9600 bits per second), which became the basis of Codex’s subsequent commercial success, as well as of all later modem standards.

Codex was acquired by Motorola, Inc. in 1977, when Forney had become Vice President of Research and Development of Codex. He served as a Motorola Vice President until his retirement in 1999. In 1996, he became (and still is) an Adjunct Professor at MIT. Forney has three children and nine grandchildren. In 2006, he married Elizabeth Coxe of Cambridge, and they reside in Cambridge and Westport, Mass. This year their Christmas card was one of Liz’s still-life paintings, entitled “Steady Habits” (after an old nickname for the state of Connecticut). This phrase is also an appropriate moniker for this native son, who since 1965 has consistently produced high-impact journal articles on topics across the fields of information theory and communications technology.

He pioneered much of the technology underpinning the Internet and today’s communications backbone.

So, the next time that you hear the familiar sound of an incoming message, you should realize that your smartphone has a modem chip in it, running code that implements Forney’s algorithms.

Dr. Kerri Cahoy ’96 Dr. Kerri Cahoy ’96 is Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and leads the Space Telecommunications, Astronomy and Radiation (STAR) Lab.

1960s ’60 C

Bob Buck, executive director of the Eastern Amputee Golf Association, reports that the EAGA and 17 other grassroots adaptive golf organizations in the USA have joined the newly created United States Adaptive Golf Alliance as founding members. Bob is honored to serve as vice chairman. The mission of the USAGA is to serve the special needs community through their inclusion in the game of golf, including but not limited to access, instruction, and competition at all levels. The coalition started and grew from the desire of several parathlete golfers and adaptive golf organizations that were collectively frustrated by failed efforts to form one voice to speak and act nationally to bring adaptive golf to the disabled population and as a paralympic sport to future Olympic Games.

’60 RH Heather Ellison Hervan Clark Browning writes, “I married Hill Browning 10 years ago, and we are now living in Bonita Springs, Fla., full time. I try to keep in touch with Tisha Pratt, Martha Stobbs, Linda Braun, and Sterett Kelsey. Sadly, many friends are dying, aging is hard work, I seem to be patching all the time, teeth, eyes, innards (5 operations). Not my face – I earned these wrinkles! For fun, I am basket weaving with a great group of creative lady friends, playing mahjong, trying to keep the brain functioning!

And reading also to keep the brain working. I acquired eight grandchildren along with my son’s one. Love them all! My sister Ginny ‘58 died about two years ago, and I keep in touch with her children. I would love to see any classmates who are in the Naples or Bonita Springs area.” ’61 C Frank Bushnell writes, “For two years, I’ve been secretary of the Waco, Texas, Brazos Forum, an organization with the mission of encouraging the study and appreciation of various forms of American art, including decorative, architectural, fine, and performing. Each year, The Forum invites national experts to give presentations that contribute to a theme at a two-day session. As we were looking for speakers who could relate the visual and performing arts, I saw in the Winter 2016 Bulletin an article about Dr. Kate Lemay ’97, historian at the National Portrait Gallery. The Forum invited Kate, who spoke with great enthusiasm in an interesting presentation regarding her project of curating memorabilia of Marlene Dietrich. Jean and I enjoyed it and, particularly, visiting with Kate at length at an evening social affair.”

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CLASSNOTES | Profile

’57

Herbert V. Kohler, Jr.

Defining Gracious Living It’s the all-American story that almost wasn’t. Because when Herbert V. Kohler, Jr., left his family home in Kohler, Wisconsin in the fall of 1953, he had no intention of returning to join the family business. After graduating from Choate in 1957, Herb was determined to make his own way. He enrolled at Yale University, and upon graduation found work in Connecticut.

When his father asked him to come back to join the company, Herb, after much hesitation and consideration, accepted his invitation … on one condition: that his father would have nothing to do with any promotion or discipline, and that Herb would be free to make his own way in the company. To be sure, for the last 50 years, he has indeed conducted business at Kohler “his way.”

During Herb’s 43-year tenure as President and CEO, Kohler Co. has grown and evolved into a company that reaches across the world. With a constant focus on maintaining a single level of quality, Kohler remains dedicated to its mission of contributing to a higher level of gracious living for those who are touched by its products and services. Herb has established and kept true to the guiding principles that support and enable the mission. In 2015, Herb passed the post of leadership to his son, David ’84, but Herb remains Executive Chairman and is excited as ever about the markets that the company serves.

With tremendous admiration for Kohler – both the man and the company – Beth Curtis P ’17, ’20, wife of Choate’s Headmaster, Alex Curtis, traveled to Wisconsin this winter to spend some time with one of Choate’s most fascinating alumni.

BETH CURTIS: What better place to begin our interview than with Kohler’s mission “to contribute to a higher level of gracious living for those who are touched by your products and services.” Tell us a bit more about the mission and your leadership in support of it.

HERBERT V. KOHLER, JR.: I am often asked how I evaluate our success relative to our mission. If I were to run into you three, four, or five years from now and ask about your experience with a Kohler service or product that you purchased in the past, and it made you smile, I believe, in some way, this company has improved your sense of gracious living. And our five guiding principles ensure that we do that – consistently.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 39

BC: Without divulging the secrets to Kohler’s success, I’m assuming it is these guiding principles that help ensure Kohler remains cutting edge in all your product areas.

HVK: Absolutely! In fact, the first principle is exactly that: to live on the leading edge of design and technology in product and process. You must know what and where the “leading edge” is. That’s not easy to determine, but you have to know where the edge is so that you can improve upon it. You never want to copy what is already out there – that will only add clutter to the marketplace; rather, you have to advance it in a meaningful way.

BC: Given that Kohler is a family-owned venture, do you feel that you have a different kind of responsibility than you would as President and CEO of a publicly-owned company?

HVK: I am grateful every day that we are a privately-owned company because we are able to accomplish so much more.

We introduce 30 to 40, sometimes 50, new products a year just in kitchen and bath. Because we are privately-owned, we can try various ideas and if we fail, we can get up off the ground, brush ourselves off, and do it again. Over the past 40 years we were able to produce an average compound growth in book value of 10.2% per year, and that compares to the S&P500 of 7.7% per year. So, we have outgrown the average, publicly-owned company and I attribute that to being privately-owned.

BC: And to think, in the early days some doubted the Kohler family’s business plan.

HVK: Our company was founded in 1873 in Sheboygan which is four miles down the road from where we are sitting. In the late 1890s, my grandfather felt that the town was too congested and would stifle the vision he had for the company’s growth. So, he decided to move four miles out into the country to the juncture of two Indian trails alongside a river. Naysayers couldn’t comprehend moving away from all utilities – it had to be a colossal mistake, they thought. The Sheboygan Press called it “Kohler’s Folly.”

BC: Shortly thereafter, your grandfather passed away and the torch was passed to the next generation. In touring the museum and learning about this impressive campus, I was especially struck by the history of the American Club. Today, it is an elegant, five-diamond hotel, but it was constructed for an altogether different purpose.

HVK: Yes, the American Club was built in 1918 by my uncle, Walter, who was a man of remarkable vision and social consciousness.

He believed “a worker deserved not only wages but roses as well.” As President of the company at that time, he sought to support the many European immigrants who had come to work at Kohler, and that’s what the American Club did. New to the country, these workers could live at the club for six to nine months until they got their feet on the ground and earned enough money to buy land on which to build homes for their families. English art critic John Ruskin once said, “Life without labor is guilt, labor without art is brutality.” That quote resonated with my uncle, and it is reflective of our values to this day.

BC: Yes, whether in the design of new products, the Arts/Industry program, sponsoring artists, or exhibiting extraordinary collections at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, the arts are highly valued – and supported – here at Kohler.

HVK: My sister, Ruth, has devoted much of her time and talent to our arts programs and she has done a remarkable job. Arts/ Industry is a fascinating collaboration between an art center, a manufacturer, and artists who live two months to two years in residence and make products in our factories. We allow them to interject themselves into our processes. They use those processes to make products. This program has been wonderful in generating all sorts of art and, to an extent, has influenced our work, the company’s work, and product lines that we sell to the public.

BC: Can you share with us more about your family?

HVK: Well, my mother, Ruth De Young, was a very accomplished

lady – she was women’s editor of the Chicago Tribune and a renowned historian – and I admired her greatly. She passed away when I was 14 years old, but I still remember well the many road trips across the state and country we took together in search of history… and not just because I would always get terribly carsick!

My father was nearly 50 when I was born, but we shared many interests. We both loved the outdoors and he would take me fishing and horseback riding – and that is how I really got to know him.

Certainly, I would say, one of my father’s greatest contributions to the company was “The Bold Look of Kohler” – the logo developed in 1965 which has obviously withstood the test of time. Not only does it describe the products we make, but, in many respects, it also describes our attitude – that is, the mentality of Kohler.

My wife Natalie, as general counsel, withstood a severe legal challenge and maintained our privacy, while at the same time, producing our leading-edge advertising.

BC: You must be proud that your three children – Laura, Rachel, and David – are all involved in the company.

HVK: Of course. But, it’s important to know they came because they genuinely wanted to be here. As kind and well-intended as he was, my father’s desire to have me work here almost turned me away completely. So, I made a promise that I would never initiate a conversation with the children about the company.

If they were interested in learning more or becoming more involved, they could ask. In the end, they all came, but not before working somewhere else after earning their masters’ degrees.

BC: Speaking of schooling, we haven’t talked much about your time at Choate, but with your 60th reunion approaching this spring, do you have any reflections on your time as a student?

HVK: When my father sent me to boarding school, I was a classic “scofflaw” – there wasn’t a rule I didn’t break, a regulation I didn’t bust. After getting kicked out of Exeter, I found Choate. And after a relatively short amount of time, and with much credit to Mr. Stanley Pratt, I gained great respect for the institution. It literally turned me around. It was absolutely remarkable. I will always appreciate Choate for such a life-changing experience.

A Few of His Favorite Things VACATION DESTINATION: Africa – if you ever have the opportunity to visit the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, you must … it’s nothing short of awesome.

HISTORICAL FIGURE: Living – George H. W. Bush – a dear friend and fishing/golf buddy. Deceased – Teddy Roosevelt – a fellow scofflaw

DOPPELGANGER: Ernest Hemingway – when I visit

Cuba, I am forever mistaken for him … they know he is dead, but they look at me and oh my, it is like he is reincarnated!

MUSICAL: The Sound of Music – it reminds me of my family roots in the Bregenzerwald area of Austria.

MOVIE: Open Range – I was in it! (Along with Robert Duvall, Annette Bening, and Kevin Costner) PASTIMES: Fishing, hunting, golfing, and white water rafting FAVORITE CLASS AT CHOATE: Oh, my word!

Probably math. But don’t hold me to it … or look up my grades!

A FAVORITE ACHIEVEMENT:

Serving for six years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Choate Rosemary Hall where I founded the Kohler Environmental Center

40 CLASSNOTES

“I am impressed with how Choate has evolved over the past 50 years. It seems a strong contemporary educational force. Part of me wishes I were 13 years old, and could do it again!” –JOHN ANGELL GRANT

’64 ’61 RH Sue Bristoll Sayles has relocated from Connecticut to Massachusetts. She states, ”This island has been my happy place all my life and I’m thrilled to be here!” New address is PO Box 2510, Vineyard Haven, MA. 02568.

’62 C

F. John Wilkes writes, “I have posted a short video on the Internet at dailymotion.com titled “Choate Class of 1962 55th Reunion DVD” about our four years at Choate from 1958 to 1962. Hopefully some of the scenes (Festivities, Classes, Sporting Events, Past Reunions, etc.) will get you thinking about coming back to Wallingford on May 12 for our 55th reunion. You won’t want to miss Jim Lenfestey’s presentation of his trip through China and his latest book of poetry, Seeking the Cave, on Saturday morning, as well as reminiscing with your classmates at dinner Saturday night in the Dining Hall about days of yore. I hope you’ll come along for this ride back to the future. See you there.”

’63 C Bob McIntosh writes, “I retired from law practice (WA State Attorney General’s Office) in 2000, but am still running our five-generation family tree farm south of Olympia. Some travel, lots of reading, less running because of an arthritic hip, but still a day or two each week in the mountains. I am trying to reach the 50 state high points, with only Wyoming, Montana (hard), and Delaware (easy) left to go. Our sons Brian (Harvard ‘11) and Colin (Puget Sound ‘14) both played soccer in college, then taught math and coached soccer for Teach for America. Brian now works for Edcite, an ed. tech start-up in San Mateo.”

Penny Griffith Dix is enjoying her eighth grandchild, Aaliyah, who is almost one and ready to walk any day. Penny and Dennis will travel to Phoenix to see grandchild Cali graduate from high school.

They will have three grandchildren in college this fall.

Summer plans are for a trip to South Africa to visit Cape Town followed by a photographic safari. Dennis continues enjoying his work with Connecticut towns and Penny continues to enjoy her docent art work.

Alice Chaffee Freeman says that she is having a ”creative surge,” painting again, making jewelry, and enjoying life. She visited Holly Smith in Florida in March.

Anne Carroll Furman connected with Sharon Stevenson Griffith through Facebook, and met up in Florida in March.

Chris Murray McKee went to Costa Rica this winter where she visited an old friend from when she and Tom lived there. Her son, Ethan, and his wife will be leaving Qatar at the end of the school year and moving to Thailand. Tom and Chris plan to visit them in Thailand next December.

Margo Melton Nutt had a great week in Philadelphia in February, visiting half a dozen art museums.

Judy Shaw Richardson and husband Norris are still very involved in Rotary, Hawthorn Hollow Nature Preserve (they just built their own observatory!) and the Racine Zoo and Racine Historical Museum.

Cindy Skiff Shealor and her husband, Bob, attended their 50th college reunion at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida in late March. “Yikes! All I have to say is, it seems impossible!!” Cindy says.

Reeve Lindbergh Tripp is finishing up a book for Brigantine Media (small Vermont press based in St. Johnsbury). It’s personal essays, and will be titled Two Lives, to be published this summer.

’64 C John Angell Grant writes, “I really enjoyed attending the 50th reunion of the Class of 1964 a few years back. It was great to see old friends and acquaintances, and meet new ones. I am impressed with how Choate has evolved over the past 50 years.

It seems a strong contemporary educational force.

Part of me wishes I were 13 years old, and could do it again! Here‘s some of my news: Recently Academica Press published a book I wrote on the plays of T.S. Eliot. This project began as a master‘s thesis a few years ago in Stanford Universitys Master of Liberal Arts program, and now it‘s turned into a book. It is entitled Women and Religion in the Modern Drawing Room Plays of T.S. Eliot. You can read more about the book on my website: johnangellgrant.com, along with information about libraries that carry the book, or how to order it. I‘m looking forward to the 55th reunion, and for any of you who are Eliot fans, and recall his famous line about youth and aging at social events, ‘I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled….‘”

’63 RH Vicki Brooks went to California to see daughter Katie, and then to Mexico for a week’s vacation in March.

Donna Dickenson is about to bring out book number 25 (!), a substantially rewritten second edition of her most cited tome on property in the body, covering issues like surrogacy and egg sale. As for her very first book, a biography of Emily Dickinson (published in1985), it’s coming out in an Indian edition.

Heather Ellison Hervan Clark Browning’s (RH ’60) son, Alex Clark with Heather’s grandson, Evan.

Hardy Jones ‘61 received the NOGI Award, for his work in marine conservation, from the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences in Las Vegas last November.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 41

’64 RH Linda Holch Gordon writes, “My husband and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary last October with a great trip. We are doing a lot of traveling including several trips to Burlington, Vt., to see our son, Chris, and his family. Our daughter, Lisa, and her family live in Burlington N.C. where we still live. Our four grandchildren range from 3 to 20 years old, so we have lots of fun with all of them. I am still painting coastal scenes. The All About Art Gallery on Bald Head Island, N.C., carries my paintings, jewelry and cards. We are still on Nantucket for part of the summer.

If anyone is nearby, it would be fun to catch up.”

’65 RH Wesley C. Davidson writes, “Recently, I attended the annual two-day True Colors Conference, Storrs, Conn., at the University of Connecticut. Over 2,000 LGBT students were bused in from various high schools on March 17. With a college student, I presented a workshop ‘Staying Out of the Closet.’‘’ Wesley is the author of When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need to Know.”

Ann Mason Sears has decided that warm, sunny Longboat Key, Fla. works perfectly for the winter. “We rent out our townhouse during the high season, and we live on our boat at the marina. The front berth is available but tight living space! During the fall and late spring, we are in our home, so we are happy to have visitors. Just down the road on Bird Key is classmate Karin Int-Hout Jones, so we are able to visit. We still enjoy skiing at Mad River Glen in Vt. so we return north during part of the winter. We were able to see Sunset Boulevard - and Glennie’s fabulous performance. I will have a mini-reunion mid-August at my home on the coast of Maine - details to follow. searssunshine@comcast.net “ ’66 C Alan Donaldson writes, “I became Senior Counsel at my law firm, Davidson Dawson & Clark, this year. Daughter Holly (Taft ’07) married Adam Casella, a Hotchkiss grad (yes, a mixed marriage). Barbara and I have a small place in Vermont now, near Rusty Davis.

Sorry to have missed the 50th. We were traveling, and we are planning to travel more while we are still upright!”

Noel Hynd writes, ”I spent a week at the New York Yankees Fantasy Camp in Tampa in January.

Attendees formed teams which were managed by former Yankees. My co-managers were Jim Leyritz and Jesse Barfield. Our team was called The Evil Empire. I played outfield and am happy to report I had several chances but didn’t drop anything. At the plate, I demonstrated an uncanny skill at hitting directly at infielders. In the final game, I batted against Orlando ‘El Duque’ Hernandez and I managed to hit a ball into the seats. Unfortunately, the seats were behind the home dugout. Five pitches into the count, I grounded out. But the week was great. Wait till next year!”

Rick Jones writes, “I have been in the Charlottesville, Va., area since graduating from UVA in 1970. My wife, Pat, and I live on a farm east of town where we have plenty of dogs, horses, and a barn cat. I have worked in the real estate development and property management business for the past 45 years. Still love it. Two of our sons are close by, with the third, who is married with two children, in D.C. Looking forward to catching up with good friend Spook Stream for our big KA reunion here in April.”

’67 C

Douglas Bongartz-Renaud writes, “After 26 years working for ABN Amro Bank, I left the Netherlands and moved to Southeast Asia in 2011.

Still working independently doing bank Treasury, ALM and Risk Management advisory and training work in Asia, the GCC, and Africa. Also, along with raising a 9-year-old and assisting the wife with her fashion business, am engaged in a PhD research project at a Malaysian University, writing a book on Bank Funds Transfer Pricing, and taking the Harvard edX CS50 course online. That’s keeping me out of trouble....

Any Choate alumni passing through Jakarta / Kuala Lumpur please give a shout - dbongartzrenaud@ gmail.com.”

Rick Rosenthal writes, ”A Thousand Junkies, a film produced by my company, Whitewater Films, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 22nd at the Cinepolis Chelsea - NYC.”

’67 RH Helen Truss Kweskin retired last summer after 45 years of teaching high school English and serving in various administrative positions at King School in Stamford, Conn. She is currently keeping up with four grandchildren under the age of five, as well as traveling back to Rwanda for a sixth visit, where she works with teachers and helps as a board member of the Urukundo Home and Learning Center.

Helen and her husband, Ed, were recently hosted in San Miguel de Allende by long-time Rosemary friend and classmate Valerie Patrono Marchese and her husband, John.

Sarah Hall Wood writes, “On to the next chapter of my life filled with a beautiful new granddaughter Peyton, a grandson on the way, and a newly published children’s picture book - The Condiment Chronicles ... Please Pass the Ketchup. Having a great time with my author events and meeting a ‘sea of children’! Looking forward to the 50th reunion!” ’69 C John Connell writes, “After 37 years in Vermont, I was invited in 2014 to design a really special project on Cape Cod. Mashpee is a seminal ‘new urbanist’ community that was planned in the ‘80s

by Duany, Plater Zyberk (Andres Duany is Choate ’67) to counter the blight of strip malls taking over the peninsula. Today it is a well-known shopping destination and pedestrian-based community. My challenge

TOP On a recent visit to South-

BOTTOM Rosemary Hall 1967

ern California, Bill Barnes ‘66, an increasingly skilled artist, took time to sketch Patricia White Hynd ‘88, wife of Bill’s classmate Noel Hynd.

MIDDLE Noel Hynd ‘66 at the New York Yankees Fantasy Camp in Tampa in January with co-manager Jim Leyritz.

classmates gather at the Charleston wedding of Kelsey Green Bryant’s daughter.

From left, Lissy Stevenson Bryan, Sarah Hall Wood, Robert Gardiner Hynson (Choate ’63), Kelsey Green Bryant, and Catherine Gardiner Allport.

42 CLASSNOTES

Sara Woodhull ‘69 and her husband, Clyde, hit the slopes.

was to demonstrate that factory delivery (prefab) could be employed to create mixed-use buildings characterized by energy efficiency; traditional design (Cape & Island vernacular); low construction cost and affordable and market rate units. So, I moved my little family – April Smith (loving wife) and Tristan Connell (teenage son) to Providence, R.I., from which I commute to work on the Cape. That was in 2014, and the fruits of that move are starting to be visible – both at home and at work. April works from home as a project manager for Equifax, and Tristan is in ninth grade at the Moses Brown School. Life is full but I miss the mountains … so I return whenever feasible.”

William H. Woolverton has been appointed as Managing Director - U.S. at DMS Governance Ltd., the worldwide leader in fund governance with more than 225 professionals representing leading investment funds with assets under management exceeding $330 billion. Bill was former Senior Managing Director and General Counsel at Gottex Fund Management (Gottex).

’69 RH Kathleen Bennett Bastis writes, “I continue to embrace living in NYC having moved back 7 years ago. Since I retired I have devoted myself full time to creating art. I share studio time at the Art Students League – it’s a great community of artists and when you add the drill press and band saw into the equation – it’s just about perfect. I also work in a studio that’s in the 2nd bedroom in my apartment. My practice continues to be inspired by salvaged materials. My second solo show – Tossed and Found opens April 25 and runs through May 20 at First Street Gallery in Chelsea, N.Y. Oldest son, Greg, still lives in San Francisco working for a tech start-up and other son, Nick, is living in Lithuania – making his way as an artist. I’m looking forward to seeing old friends at our 50th reunion in 2019!”

Ann Singleton Davis writes, “Not much going on in my life. Trying to get organized for my right hip replacement in May. After that, who knows? However, I have started going out to the gun range with a couple of friends once a week. Been doing some easy target shooting with a little .22 Ruger target pistol and trying to get used to something bigger so if I decide to go for my carry permit, I can pass. Am looking forward to pulling out the over/under shotgun to do some skeet shooting.”

Connie Terry Ferguson writes, “I’m just back from two weeks in Africa. The first was spent at two different camps on the Okavango Delta in Botswana where we saw everything but rhinos. People have been telling me going on safari is a life-changing experience and they were right. It definitely makes one look at the world in a different way – deeper, past face value. This was followed by traveling from Pretoria to Cape Town, South Africa, on the Blue Train, a 26-hour trip. We spent a few days in that city with a ride in the funicular up to Table Mountain, learning about the effects of apartheid at The District Six Museum then explored the area around Cape of Good Hope and finished with some vineyard tours before heading back home.”

Carol Hart, M.D. writes, “I will be visiting Grace Bergius Uhlein in Scotland in May.”

Alison Norton writes, “Glad to report that our youngest child, Alison, will be married on April 22 in Duck, N.C. Our second grandchild was born last July.

Reese joins her big brother, Winn, age 4. We are busy with wedding plans. The devil is in the details, but I have a superb partner in Marshall. We will celebrate our 45th anniversary in June.”

Elise Hume Papke writes, “It’s been a busy year, with lots of work on teaching and accreditation.

I’m now teaching the Master of Public Health Capstone course, along with the Field Experience. The highlight this fall was co-teaching a law and public health seminar with my husband at the Marquette Law School. We have one more piece to write for the accreditation for the school of public health, with the decision expected in June. I’m planning two weeks of vacation to celebrate! Our two oldest daughters are in Milwaukee, and our third daughter is in New York City.

Our son is in Chicago, with a year to go in college!”

Sara Woodhull writes, “Our biggest news is that our first granddaughter was born February 27, 2016. She was truly a miracle baby as there were lots of issues prior to her birth. She is Ellie Jean (Jean was my mother, my son-in-law’s mother and grandmother) Moreno. She is the light of our lives.

We both still work and love what we are doing. Clyde is still a chiropractor and I am raising money for the College of Liberal Arts at Wright State University. We had a lovely 2-week trip to Spain last fall – the trip of a lifetime – I had not been since I lived there in 1971 and 1972. We celebrated our 8th anniversary – life is good!”

’67 Sarah Hall Wood ’67 celebrated her newly published children’s picture book The Condiment Chronicles ...

Please Pass the Ketchup.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 43

1970s ’71 RH Katherine Tyson McCrea is a professor at Loyola University School of Social Work. She is carrying out violence-prevention efforts, developing youth mentors for community children, in Chicago’s high-poverty, high-crime neighborhoods (savinglivesinspiringyouth.weebly.com) and studying their impact. She lives in Evanston with her husband and three children. ’72 C Chip Truwit writes, “Regrettably, I will be unable to attend the Class of ‘72 reunion this May, as my daughter, Christina, will graduate from Allegheny College that same weekend. Christina is our second; Peter graduated in ‘14 from Colgate, and now works out of San Francisco as an Associate with SeraphGroup, a nationwide Structured Angel group. Christina is looking to study architecture. My wife, Paula Picard, and I still live in Wayzata, Minn., having moved here some 23 years ago. A few years ago, we moved down the street. We’re now on Lake Minnetonka, where I sail my SeaRail-19 and relax with our Maltipoo Oliver. Paula focuses on meditation and yoga. In addition to my position as chief of radiology at Hennepin County Medical Center, I’m also serving as Chief Innovation Officer, working on new approaches to deliver care to our safety-net population whose health is so constrained by social determinants of health (transportation, housing, employment, food, etc.) that health often falls to the bottom of the list. In this role, we’ve founded Upstream Health Innovations, specifically focused on moving care ‘upstream’ from the emergency room.

Sorry to miss the reunion.”

Create a Lasting Legacy When you think of Choate Rosemary Hall, do you think about the education that prepared you for college and beyond, the classmates who expanded your world view, the friendships that continue to enrich your life?

’73 C

You can honor your experience with a gift that lives through time.

Planned giving allows you to create a lasting legacy and can also benefit you today and for years to come. Gifts through your estate, gifts that pay you income, and other types of planned gifts support the School while delivering financial and tax benefits to you and your family.

’75 C

Join the Choate Society today.

Pete Reader is the author of the fantasy book series The Goedwyne Chronicles. He is currently writing book four, due out this summer. He balances his writing with chairing the theater program at Seton Hall University.

Chris Szechenyi started a new branch of his investigative firm, On Point Investigations, for investors such as private equity and venture capital firms that need due diligence done before executing deals. The new firm, On Point Due Diligence, is a subsidiary of his six-year-old investigative firm, which employs researchers and investigators from coast to coast.

He developed the investigative and due diligence expertise after a 25-year career in journalism, working for Mike Wallace at 60 Minutes and other outlets. His firms are based in the New England area, where he lives with his wife and four-year-old dachshund, Oscar.

For more information, please contact Mark Lufkin, director of major gifts and planned giving, at (203)697-2117 or mlufkin@choate.edu.

The William Gardner & Mary Atwater Choate Society The William Gardner and Mary Atwater Choate Society, named for the founders of both Rosemary Hall and The Choate School, honors individuals who have remembered the School in their estate plans through charitable bequests, trusts, or other provisions. With more than 550 members, The Choate Society represents a substantial investment in future generations.

44 CLASSNOTES

’76 C Hans Kaiser writes, “I stayed with Nick Lefferts in Denver last summer on my way to and from the Vail Lacrosse tournament. Nick, his wife, Annie, and his sons, August and Owen, are all great and were the perfect hosts. During a late afternoon thunderstorm, Nick and I enjoyed a few ice cold Kokanees on his front porch as we reminisced about our days at Choate. Nick is still teaching at Kent Denver and, as I’m told by others, is a favorite of the students. No surprise there. Nick Campbell keeps promising to organize a get-together for a group of us, but so far, he’s not proffered any details. I talk with Fritz Mitchell regularly, and he is well. We tried organizing a joint family trip to the Bahamas but with kids in college and work, etc., it proved too daunting a scheduling task. But someday…. Life in Annapolis goes on as does the polling business. Interesting year in politics, I’ll leave it at that.”

James Olcott writes, “I am continuing to write my memoir about my brilliant, clever, lucky, and five-time divorced father – blogged every Thursday at 4:16 p.m. In terms of remunerative employment, I am currently working in an IT project for Briggs & Stratton in Milwaukee. Alums in the area are invited to reach out to me on my website: thebernardolcottstory.com.” ’76 RH Alexandra Bowes writes, “I am living in San Francisco with my husband, Stephen, and spending my time painting in my studio as well as designing, building, and selling simple renewable farmhouses in Sonoma County. My husband and my son, John Charles (29), run an organic plant-based food business called Forager. My daughter Emma will attend Stanford BS this fall and my daughter Daisy will graduate from Middlebury in May and start working at Lazard in New York this summer.”

’77 C

David L. Fried writes, “I am still living in my home town of Wallingford with Miriam, my wife of 30 years, where I have been practicing dentistry for 26 years. I was in the Air Force for three years, and continued my military career as the state dentist for the Connecticut Army National Guard, retiring after 23 years as a Lt. Colonel. Since then, I have been busy teaching part-time at the UConn Dental School, and traveling to Honduras on service mission trips with dental students caring for the citizens of Comayagua.

I am the vice president of the Connecticut State Dental Association, representing organized dentistry’s legislative and public health initiatives.”

’77 RH Lori Kavanagh writes, “Bill and I moved to Denver in Oct 2012: a job opportunity for Bill and a fun adventure for our family. Four and a half years and many many adventures later, we are in the process of returning to Andover, Mass., which was home for 25 years. We loved living in Denver as well as exploring Colorado and surrounding states, but are happy to be moving back to our East Coast family and friends. Unfortunately, a family commitment will prevent us from attending Reunion … I will be thinking about all!”

Jean Tabin writes, “I can’t make Reunion, as my third grandchild is due that week! I’m living in Park City, Utah, and working at the Moran Eye Hospital in Salt Lake City. My youngest, Daniel, is a senior in high school. I’m also keeping very busy with my ‘kids’ that joined our household from our local Refugee Foster Program.”

Leslie Merrell Zimmerman started a nonprofit, Caswell County Local Foods Council. Grant money has seeded a farmer’s market, an Inspected Community Kitchen and now a monthly Community Building Lunch, introducing and educating the large rural county to the value of fresh produce one bite at a time.

’79

Brad Welch, who went on to attend Duke and Wharton, has recently sold Welch Financial after 21 years. It’s a service company that handled 22 families’ wealth management needs in his home town of Tampa, Fla. Along with his wife, Sally, a classmate from Duke University, they raised three sons. They lead marriage ministry as well as fathers’ ministry in Tampa Bay. Young Bradley (Choate ‘08) played strong safety for Duke and is currently in his first year at Harvard Business School, but will be working in LA in venture capital this summer. Logan (Choate ‘09) played shortstop at the University of Maryland, where he was an economics major and has worked Corporate Executive Board (CEB on the NYSE) at their corporate headquarters in Northern Virginia.

Their youngest son, Schuyler, is a tennis player and attends UNC in Chapel Hill. He breeds, trains, hunts, and competes in dog competitions with his kennel of Portuguese water dogs, the youngest of which, Sambalabambababy, is related to the Obama family dog, Sunny.

1980s ’80 Michael Lewyn writes, “My book, Government Intervention and Suburban Sprawl: The Case for Market Urbanism, is available either from Amazon or from the publisher, palgrave.com.”

Marty Piombo recently got together with Craig Kramer, Michaele Kashgarian, and John Graham (all Class of 1979) for a great dinner in San Francisco - chatting on everything from the election to Choate hockey and sending kids to boarding schools. ’81

Tom Colt writes, “I am living in Pittsburgh and working at Shady Side Academy as a college counselor. I have been working in the summer as a narrator for Just Ducky Tours of Pittsburgh. In July, my wife, Megan, and I will be moving to Shanghai, China, where I will be working at the Shanghai American School.“

Michael T. van der Veen was named in the December 2016 issue of Suburban Life magazine as a “Justice Seeker” and 2016 Top Attorney, who readers of the magazine turn to in “times of dire need” for assistance in the area of personal injury law.

’82 The Rev. Adam Greene was installed by the Diocese of Florida as Head of Episcopal School of Jacksonville during Episcopal’s annual Founders’ Day chapel service on March 14. Adam is the third Episcopal priest in the school’s history to be named head of school. The service was attended by faculty and staff, students, current and past Board of Trustees members and many long-time supporters of the school, honorary trustees, and trustees emeriti.

’81 Gwen Strauss has written a picture book for children ages 7-10 entitled The Hiding Game, which focuses on Jewish and political refugees in Marseille, France, trying to escape the Nazis in 1940 and 1941.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 45

Choate

Rosemary Hall What a place to be... this summer.

JUNE 25–JULY 28, 2017 ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT

Follow your own path to discovery by focusing on a particular area of interest, or by combining passions in our discipline-specific programs.

We offer 2-week, 4-week, and 5-week academic summer programs for middle school and high school students.

TOP LEFT Peter Robinson ’70 has four grandchil-

BOTTOM David Teeple ’76 has two sculpture

dren between his son Taylor and daughter Leelee Duryea. He lives in New York City.

TOP RIGHT Michael T. van der Veen ’81 was named in the December ’16 issue of Suburban Life magazine as a “Justice Seeker” and 2016 Top Attorney.

exhibitions in the Berkshires this summer at Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Mass., and The Mount, the Lenox, Mass., home of Edith Wharton.

ATHLETICSADVANTAGE Take your game to the next level with a week of focused training and skill development.

Taught by Choate’s coaches and team members, this co-ed day program helps athletes refine their own skills as well as learn what it takes to play on a team.

2017 OFFERINGS • June 26–June 30: Baseball • July 3–7: Basketball • July 25–29: Girls lacrosse Young Artists SUMMER Program in

The Rev. Adam Greene ’82 was installed by the Diocese of Florida as Head of Episcopal School of Jacksonville during Episcopal’s annual Founders’ Day Chapel service on March 14.

Maggie Moffitt Rahe ’75 and Annie Lewis Drake ‘75 visited Sun Valley, Idaho, in February to spend time with classmate Chelle Coe Gourlay ‘75. From left: Chelle, Maggie, and Annie.

PERFORMING &VISUAL ARTS The Young Artists Summer Program in Performing & Visual Arts seeks to develop an appreciation for live theater and visual arts in grades K-7 students.

Grades K&1 uncover their innate creativity as they are introduced to the basic skills of theater and visual arts. Grades 2-7 gain foundational skills in acting, singing, dance, theater games, improvisation, voice projection, mask-making, and movement.

2, two-week sessions: Session I: June 26 - July 7 Session II: July 10 - July 21

LEARN MORE AT: WWW.CHOATE.EDU/SUMMER

46 CLASSNOTES

Sheila Baker Gujral writes, “In June 2016 I completed a Graduate Certificate in Sustainability through the Harvard University Extension School. It was a whole new way to go to school (raising your hand electronically, Skyping with professors, doing group projects with people in China, Italy, Mexico, and Spain via Google Hangout) which worked well for me, since I wasn’t willing to relocate. In August 2016, I started my new job as Municipal Environmental Specialist at the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, a statewide organization that provides leadership, education, and support for environmental commissions and

Clockwise/ from top left: Bert Ulrich ’82 is the multimedia liaison for film and TV collaborations for NASA . Pictured here, top row second from left, on break during Tomorrowland filming at Kennedy Space Center with former NASA administrator Charles Bolden, astronaut John Grunsfeld, producer Jeffrey Chernov, director Brad Bird, and actors George Clooney, Tim McGraw, and Britt Robertson.

Bobby Vanech ’86 and his youngest son, John Robert Vanech (Bo), who was born on Sept 10, 2016.

Lisa Kaplan ’88 and boyfriend Ruben Millor embarked on a yearlong journey to travel the world.

Pictured here at Mt. Fansipan, the tallest peak in Vietnam at 3143m.

Amelia Conrad Dalgaard ‘89 has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Motor Press Guild, the nation’s largest automotive media association.

Homeland season 6, episode 5, Filming at Sutton Place on Halloween in NYC. Sunday Stevens ‘88 (with angel wings) and Emmy-nominated Director of Photography Dave Klein.

other local boards and public officials, and partners with other organizations to advocate for strong state and regional environmental policy. Loving the new job and the great group of supportive, bright, and dedicated people with whom I work.”

Bert Ulrich oversaw NASA’s participation in the recent hit film Hidden Figures. Ulrich is the multimedia liaison for film and TV collaborations for NASA. His past credits include The Martian, The Avengers, Men in Black 3, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and Tomorrowland.

’84 Peter Gardner writes that his new book, Pearl Diving - Haiku, Longer Poems, and Short Stories, is available on Amazon.com for kindle, kindle Mac, and paperback. It is an exploration of the spiritual odyssey of life.

George Stein writes, “I am the proud owner/ director of Meadowbrook Country Day Camp, a private day camp, in Long Valley, N.J. In addition, we have created a free camp program for inner-city kids from Newark, called ‘Heart and Soul.’ In late April several of us from the 1983 Choate football team met in Las Vegas for a mini-reunion. Our head coach, Lou Young, flew in from Hawaii!”

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 47

’85 Dr. Jennifer Keates Baleeiro is currently Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Hematology Oncology at Children’s Hospital at Erlanger in Chattanooga, Tenn. She writes, “I recently served as the Annual Fund chair for the Creative Discovery Museum and am now the executive chairman for the American Cancer Society for Hamilton County. My son, Carlos Paxson, attends the second grade at Bright School and my daughter, Sophia Katharine, attends the sixth grade at Baylor School. We have recently purchased a horse farm that is open to the public, Scenic City Equestrian Center at Phoenix Farms, LLC in Ringgold, Ga. My husband, Carlos Eduardo, is medical director of Pulmonary and Critical Care at Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga. We welcome riders to visit Sceniccityequestrian.com.” ’86

David Feiner writes, “The past year has been huge for Albany Park Theater Project, the youth theater company that I co-founded 20 years ago. We were honored to receive the prestigious MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

In July, Albany Park Theater Project premiered Learning Curve, an immersive performance that places audiences within the walls of a Chicago public high school and in the shoes of its students. APTP’s youth ensemble co-created Learning Curve with Third Rail Projects, the Brooklyn-based company behind the long-running immersive hit Then She Fell. Learning Curve immediately became the hottest theater ticket in Chicago (even tougher to snag than Hamilton), and was the only show to make the Best of 2016 list of all of Chicago’s major theater critics, an unprecedented feat for a youth-driven theater. I personally discovered the transformational potential of theater in the life of a teen. The PMAC was my first home away from my parents. I learned independence and the potential of my imagination and my work. I learned to collaborate, I learned stagecraft, I learned to be more open-minded. Most important of all, I

learned how to create community through the way that Bob Mellon, Terry Ortwein, Gale Silverberg, and Paul Tines created a community out of all of us who came through the PMAC theater program. Without a doubt, my life’s work would not be Albany Park Theater Project if not for my time at the PMAC.”

Lauren Gold Gillett writes, “I was nominated by my current boss (President of the Chazen Companies) and several mentors for an Athena Award, which I received in November. The Athena Award is part of a national program which recognizes women (and men) who are role models, mentors and people who make a difference in their local communities.” Lauren, who lives in Duchess County, N.Y. also, received an award from Hudson Valley Magazine as one of 15 Women in Business, featured in the December 2016 issue for her professional achievements as Senior Principal and Vice President of Human Resources for the Chazen Companies for the past 10 years and her community involvement.

Paul S. Grabowski writes, “I have been elected President-Elect for HITS Theatre in Houston.

HITS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with two major goals for grade 1 through 12 children in the arts: education and performance. In a given year, we produce more than 60 different classes and productions serving more than 1000 students, with many receiving partial or full needs-based scholarships.

The highlight of HITS’ year is our free-to-the-public Broadway-style production at Miller Outdoor Theatre each spring, which attracts more than 30,000 people over six performances and features a predominantly student cast.”

’88 Lisa Kaplan writes, “In January, my boyfriend, Ruben Millor, and I sold our homes and most of our ‘stuff,’ quit our jobs, and embarked on a year-long journey to travel the world. So far, our travels have included Japan and Southeast Asia. You can follow our adventures at: www.whywaitworldtour.com.”

Kirk Mettler writes, “I have a new job as a data scientist for the IBM Center for Advanced Analytics. My daughter is a sophomore at Hamden Hall, where she goes to school with David Henderson’s son.”

Sunday Stevens met up with sophomore and junior year roommate Catherine Vignolo Giller in Brooklyn, N.Y. She writes: “Catherine, who is living in Connecticut, came to meet me while I was living in Brooklyn for the filming of Season 6 of Homeland – which filmed all over NYC and the outer boroughs from July 2016 to March 2017. Finally, back in LA and happy to have escaped the March nor’easter.”

’89 Gloria Hedlund writes, “I have co-authored a programming book, Coding iPhone Apps for Kids: A Playful Introduction to Swift (available on Amazon).

I’m just coming off writing it over the past 2.5 years of nights and weekends. It is targeted towards kids ages 10-plus and their parents, and teaches Swift programming. I started developing apps in 2011 after the birth of my fourth child, Dagmar Hedlund.

I decided to write this book back in 2013 when I was searching for an iOS programming book for my daughter, Jackie, for Christmas and I found that there was nothing out there for kids.” Gloria lives in Concord, Mass., and works as an iOS developer for the healthcare company LumiraDX in Waltham, Mass. She has four children: Jacqueline, 12, Gretchen, 10, Jude, 8, and Dagmar, 6.

Indira Cesarine Senftner writes, “In 2014, I opened an art gallery in TriBeCa, The Untitled Space (untitled-space.com), that highlights women in art.

Our last exhibit, Uprise, was featured in Newsweek, “Protesting with Paint: The Growing Movement” (January 2017) and Harper’s Bazaar, “How Feminists Are Staging Their Own Protests with Paint” (February 2017), and many other publications, as well as my own work as an artist which was featured in the exhibit.”

’86 “The PMAC was my first home away from my parents. I learned independence and the potential of my imagination and my work. I learned to collaborate, I learned stagecraft, I learned to be more open-minded. Most important of all, I learned how to create community…” –DAVID FEINER

CLASSNOTES | Profile CG: Your parents immigrated from Jamaica. What role did they play in your life?

KC: They instilled discipline at a very early age. They came here in part to pro-

vide greater educational opportunities for their not-yet-born children. Those values were instilled in me at a very early age.

CG: Who were your mentors at Choate?

KC: Zack Goodyear stands out. One day he hauled us up to Hartford to watch

a hearing in connection to Sheff v. O’Neill, one of the longstanding cases concerning school desegregation. That experience opened me up to the role that civil rights lawyers play in our country.

CG: What sports did you participate in?

KC: I ran cross-country and was varsity for three years, and one winter I wres-

tled. I was the only girl on the team. There were maybe one or two girls across boarding schools in New England who wrestled. We were very much outliers.

CG: Were you involved in extracurricular activities?

KC: I did the yearbook. I spent a lot of time in the darkroom printing my own

photos and developing the film. I also worked on the student-led judicial council.

In my sixth form year I organized a program called Building Bridges, which was about embracing diversity, celebrating race, gender, and LGBT. CG: Did you find Choate to be an inclusive and supportive community?

KC: Connie Matthews was a faculty member who was a mother figure for a lot

of the students of color. She was the person that folks would lean on whenever they felt like they were going through a difficult patch.

’93

Kristen Clarke

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES As President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Kristen Clarke ’93 spearheads civil rights enforcement on voting rights, criminal justice, education and housing discrimination, immigrants’ rights, and LGBT issues. The national civil rights group, formed in 1963 at the behest of President John F. Kennedy ’35, enlists the private bar in providing legal services pro bono to victims of discrimination. “We’re seeing unprecedented challenges when it comes to civil rights,” says Clarke. “We’ve made progress but now, sadly, we’re seeing some of that progress unravel.”

CONNIE GELB: How was your transition from New York City public school to

CG: How did your experience at Harvard influence your decision to go into public interest law?

KC: I was elected President of our Black Students Association as a sophomore.

We had a very active year of protests aimed at raising the level of social consciousness around issues of race and inequality. In my third year I did a semester abroad in South Africa one year after the collapse of Apartheid.

CG: What are the most pressing civil rights issues of our time?

KC: Threats to the right to vote. Frankly, we see so many states that are putting

laws on the books that are specifically designed to make it harder for Americans to vote. There has also been an uptick in hate crimes, so we launched a new national initiative to combat hate called Communities Against Hate.

CG: How can Americans continue to build a more inclusive, accepting nation?

KC: It’s important for young people to consider careers in public service, and

for people in positions to contribute to support the work of nonprofits, whether that’s volunteering your time or making a donation. I am so heartened by the energy we have seen with marches that are happening all across our country.

CG: Where do you draw your strength and inspiration?

KC: I draw a lot of inspiration from my son. I know that the work that I’m

doing is helping to ensure that we’re leaving the world in a better place for his generation. I do my work because I feel very driven to give back. I feel incredibly blessed for the opportunity to be able to go to Choate. Choate opened the door for me to go on to Harvard and Columbia Law School. I feel a deep sense of gratitude and great obligation to lead a life that is about giving back.

boarding school?

KRISTEN CLARKE: It was made easier by Prep for Prep, which helped prepare

me for what an independent school experience would be like. I arrived at Choate with a small community of friends – other participants in the program.

Connie Gelb ’78 Connie Gelb ’78 is a freelance writer and teacher based in Washington, D.C. For the past three years she has taught a course entitled U.S. Multicultural Perspectives at George Washington University.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 49

1990s

’96

’90

Matt Kraus writes, “In the fall of 2016, I started an exciting venture as the director of wellness for Purchase College, SUNY in Westchester, N.Y. Working with college students is fun and challenging in all the good ways. At the Wellness Center, we provide counseling about substance use, teach mindfulness and yoga, and offer preventive health ideas to students. I have worked in a lot of environments over the years, and calling a college campus home is wild. I also provide counseling in a private practice a few nights a week.”

Chris Nigro writes, “I was promoted to principal at Griskelis Young Harrell, an architecture firm in Chicago, on January 1. One recently completed project for a corporate client features a custom-built beer refrigerator, bar, and golf simulator for a tenant amenities space.”

Ryan Williams on a cross-country promotional tour for his book The Influencer Economy.

’92 Sara Glenn married Brian Reinhardt in Door County, Wis., on Feb 18, 2017. Sara and Brian are owners of True North Real Estate, the top-producing brokerage in the ”Cape Cod of the Midwest.” ’94 Caty James Everett writes, “My 5-year-old, James, was diagnosed with cancer six months ago, but he is doing great, and just started kindergarten this past week. It is blood and bone marrow cancer (aka leukemia), so the most common form of pediatric cancer and curable, so we’re on a very positive and life-affirming track.” See page 10 for Caty’s reflection piece on her son’s illness.

1

2

’97

Tejas Parikh and his wife, Dana, have lived in Charlotte, N.C. since 2012. Tejas is a partner with Carolina Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Center and specializes in interventional spine and pain medicine. He writes, “We have had a busy 15 months with the birth of our son, Veer Parikh, and building our new house. Dana has taken a hiatus from her practice to be with our son and to make our house into a home. We are truly enjoying Charlotte. If anyone’s in the area, please don’t hesitate to visit. I am looking forward to seeing many classmates at our 20-year reunion in May!”

’99 Ted DeBarbieri writes, “I was recently appointed an assistant professor of law and director of a new Community Development Clinic at Albany Law School. We have a specific focus on serving immigrants, women, formerly incarcerated, and domestic violence survivors, who are involved in entrepreneurship. My wife, Kate Seely-Kirk, and I moved to Albany in December with our son, Oliver, who turned one year old in March. We are excited about the move and look forward to connecting with alums in the area.”

Ellyde Roko Thompson was promoted to partner at her New York law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, on January 1.

3

4

5

6 1 Yahonnes Cleary ‘96 and his

3 Sarah N. McLaughlin ‘97 was

4 Tejas Parikh ‘97, his wife,

6 Sarah Handyside Daily

wife, Marcie, welcomed their second daughter, Lena Bonnie Cleary, on January 30, 2017.

2 Ryan Williams ‘96 in D.C., on his book tour with classmates, from left, Trevor Shattuck, Jed Williams, Jordan Lloyd Bookey, Ryan, and Trillium Sellers Rose.

married November 12, 2016 to Michael Patrick Porteous in New Orleans, LA. In attendance, from left, classmates Jennifer Shipp, Abby Burgoyne, Sarah McLaughlin Porteous, Lauren Dolinski, Omara Hernandez

Dana, and their 15-month-old son, Veer Parikh.

5 Jill Krista Janeczko Freedman ’99 and her husband, Andrew, welcomed their first son, Pierce Charles Freedman, on February 21, 2017.

‘98 and her husband, Sean, welcomed a son, Nathaniel Stevens, on November 22, 2016. Nathaniel joins big brother Calvin, who will turn 3 in May. The family resides in New York City.

50 CLASSNOTES

2000s ’00

Ben McGuire became a shareholder in March of Greenberg Traurig, LLP, a global law firm with more than 2,000 attorneys in 38 offices throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Ben is a member of the Public Finance Group in the firm’s Boston office, and focuses his practice on tax-exempt financing for state infrastructure projects, hospitals, public and private colleges and universities, private schools, and other nonprofit organizations.

1

2

’01 Chris Miller writes, “I finished residency and fellowship training in orthopedic foot and ankle surgery at Yale and then Brigham and Women’s hospital.

I am now working at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. We have two kids, now three years and 18 months. My wife is working outside Boston as a psychiatrist. If you are in the Boston area, let me know!” ’02

Mark Osborne, assistant general counsel for GROW Financial Federal Credit Union, was one of 15 top legal finalists recognized by the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Kathrin Schwesinger writes, “I just started a new job as a corporate lawyer again after handing in my dissertation, joining White & Case LLP in New York. My firm recently moved to the same building as Dewey Kang ’03 and Alex Wentworth-Ping ’04. I am looking forward to many a Choate lunch with them.”

3

’03

Anna Lindel writes, “I married Nathaniel Wyeth on Crebilly Farm in West Chester, Pa. The farm has been in Nat’s family for three generations (owned now by cousins on his mother’s side), and has a small family chapel on the property - the chapel is where Nat proposed, so it was wonderfully full circle to have our wedding there. In January, we hosted a reception here in D.C. for our extended family and friends.

Fellow Choaties Honey Godwin Harris, Allison Kessler Vear, Jeremy White, and Emily Neagle ‘01 helped us celebrate! I continue to work in the Institutional Advancement office at Sidwell Friends School in D.C., where I am the assistant director for Alumni Engagement Programs. I work primarily with young alumni on events, programming and fundraising, and am also an assistant coach for the girls’ crew team. Looking forward to seeing everyone at our 15th Reunion next spring!”

’04

Nikki Bowen, principal at Excellence Girls Charter School Elementary Academy, run by Uncommon Schools in Brooklyn N.Y., was featured in People magazine on February 7. Nikki, who won

4

5

1 Jessica Goldstein Malzman

2 Chris Miller ’01 is now working

‘02 and husband Ari, welcomed their second daughter, Remi Harper, on November 17, 2016.

Remi joins big sister Quinn (2 years old).

at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He and his wife, have two children, three years and 18 months.

3 Joshua Ho-Walker ’02 married Lillian Goldenthal in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, at

Spruce Point Inn on July 16, 2016. Choaties in attendance, from left, Kerem Aksoy, Ann Monahan, Mei Lan Ho-Walker ’99, Joshua and Lillian, Genevieve Fare, Lauren Shockey, and Walton Ward.

4 Anna Lindel ’03 married

Nathaniel Wyeth on Crebilly Farm in West Chester, Pa. 5 Nikki Bowen ’04, principal at Excellence Girls Charter School Elementary Academy, was featured in People magazine on February 7.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 51

CLASSNOTES | Profile

Bronwen Dickey

’99

Making Her Own Mark In the winter of 1997, Bronwen Dickey ’99, then in the fourth form at Choate, was bereaved: her father, the poet and novelist James Dickey best known for Deliverance, had died in January of that year. She’d taken a leave of absence to be with him, and when she returned to campus her make-up work included a personal essay for English teacher Tom Yankus ’52. Bronwen described her final visit with her father: I remember him looking up at me through all the tubes and the plastic with tears in his eyes. He did not have the strength to cry, but I think he knew it would be the last time we saw each other. All I could do was burst into tears and flee from the room. Here was the man that changed my diapers, made me peanut-butter sandwiches (with the crusts cut off), showed me how to throw knives and to shoot a bow, read me poetry, stayed up with me all night when I was sick, taught me to play chess, came to all my recitals, braided my hair, watched movies with me, checked my homework ... and he was dying. Dying.

And where was the pride in his death? Where was the glory in being the human part of an oxygen tank?

The essay was later published in Newsweek, where Bronwen’s brother Christopher was an editor; Christopher, seeing their father’s illness worsening, had been the one to arrange for Bronwen to attend Choate. “I was 14 and I think he saw that my father didn’t have much time left and wanted me to be in a place that was safe and relatively stable,” Bronwen told NPR’s Terri Gross last year. “That provided a level of structure that I really needed.”

The essay marked the first byline of what is now a diverse writing career, which has sent her scuba diving in Belize and Palau, sailing aboard a cruise ship with conspiracy theorists, and delving into the history of a much-maligned canine for her first book, Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon (see review on page 63).

The idea of writing for a living had, in fact, been cultivated at Choate.

Yankus was “a wonderful influence,” says Bronwen. Her professors at Duke further encouraged her, including the novelist Reynolds Price, who set a disciplined example of writing every day.

Despite her family’s connections to the literary world, success didn’t come automatically. After two years of graduate school at Columbia, Bronwen scrambled for work, copyediting for People magazine and writing photo captions for Islands. “I was highly aware of what I still didn’t know,” she says.

But she learned, and bigger pieces eventually arrived. Today, she is a contributing editor for Oxford American, and has written for The New York Times, Slate, and other media. Earlier this year, her work – the piece about the conspiracy theorist cruise, which ran in Popular Mechanics – was nominated for a National Magazine Award.

Pit Bull grew out of a story she wrote for Garden & Gun, and is both a meticulously researched portrait of the breed and a patient investigation into how dogs are used as proxies in the conflict between humans. Proof positive: Bronwen has suffered online vitriol and threats from anti-pit bull activists who take issue with the generally sympathetic cast of the book.

Bronwen says that the intensity of the blowback was unexpected. “It’s a small group of people,” she says, “but a small group of people can make your life difficult. It was embarrassing and irritating.”

Examining dogs through the lens of human failings also allowed for personal reflection: Her family serially adopted and then neglected dogs, to the disdain of their neighbors. “What my neighbors did not know was that the suffering of the dogs outside our home was a symptom of the suffering inside it,” Bronwen writes. “My parents were highly intelligent, generous, and compassionate people, but they were cursed with crippling addictions that numbed their consciences, stunted their ability to make good decisions, and rendered them unable to deal with the responsibilities of everyday life.”

Recently, Bronwen began work on a new book, about the war on drugs.

Originally from South Carolina, she now lives in Durham, North Carolina, with her husband, Sean Sondej, an administrator at the Duke Hospital. When she first came north for Choate, she feared snobbery and, perhaps, a continuation of the bullying that had marked her elementary and middle school years. “While the kids at Choate were very sophisticated, they were extraordinarily kind and open-minded,” she says. “To see such a diverse group of students embrace each other and support each other was amazing.”

Andrea Thompson Andrea Thompson is the co-author, with Jacob Lief, of the book I Am Because You Are.

52 CLASSNOTES 1 Caitlin Jackson ‘06 and LT Jonathan Erwert

eloped in New Zealand on January 2, 2016.

2 Vanessa Dube ’05 married Gary Le on September 17, 2016 at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

First row, from left, Alice Muglia, Gary and Vanessa.

Second row, from left, Shanellah Verna, David Bloys, John Forte ’81 (Vanessa’s uncle), Charlie

Dube ‘04, Jess Morten ‘04, Caitlin Dube ‘01, Emily Brenner (faculty), and Courtney Clark Morrison.

3 Nick DeChello ’08 married Alana D’Auria on November 26, 2016 at Choate. Classmates in attendance, from left, Ron Coleman ’07, Patrick Thurston ’07, Philip Risman, Christopher Krokus, and Freddy Masotta.

4 Tyler Jorgensen ’06 married Maureen Kienle

in October 2016 in Charlottesville, Va. Choaties in attendance, from left, Emily Ackerman, Geoff Anderson, Frank Hamilton, Rence Coassin, Tyler, Eliot Jia, Jeff Berry, Case Carpenter, and Brian No. 5 Madeline Ruskin ’06, Yasmine Reece ’15, and Choate Life Trustee and former Board Chairman

Edwin A. Goodman ’58. Photo taken at Mr. Goodman’s firm in Manhattan, where Yasmine assisted during Wellesley College school break.

6 Gareth & Erin (Grajewski) Williams ’08, were married on September 24, 2016, in Bermuda where the couple resides. Many Choate alumni and parents were in attendance.

1

2

3

5

4 the Choate Seal Prize in 2004, earned her B.A. in anthropology with a certificate in African American Studies from Princeton. She then was a 2008 Teach for America corps member. She previously taught first and second grade and was Dean of Students at Leadership Prep Bedford Stuyvesant. Regarding her own Choate and Princeton educational experiences, Nikki told People, “Going to all of these schools made me realize how unfair it is that our country has really low expectations for kids who come from lowincome communities.” Excellence Girls, a public K-8 school in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, serves a population where 98 percent of the students are either African American or Hispanic and 78 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch.

’05

Ian Grajewski and his wife recently moved to Chicago from Austin. Ian started a new job as a director in the Mergers & Acquisitions Strategy Advisory group at KPMG, LLP. He looks forward to bumping into any and all Choate alumni either in Lincoln Park or near his office in the Aon Center.

6 ’06

Peggy Ekong writes, “It is my pleasure to share that I was honored with the ‘Top 30 under 30 in Apparel’ award in 2016 by Apparel Magazine. I was nominated by my current company, Macy’s, and selected by the Editor-In-Chief. Carl Icahn not only unlocked educational barriers for me, but also was the most influential mentor who helped me choose my buying career path in retail.”

Arika Prime writes, “My newest info to share is that I am now teaching high school computer science at Rye Country Day School, and loving it! I was previously working at Juilliard as the Manager of Digital Media Services and before that at the Museum of Science in Boston. I’m thrilled to be able to share my industry experience with up and coming programmers, and particularly to be able to empower my female students in their pursuit of computer science.”

’08

Nick DeChello is working in strategy for Stanley Black & Decker and his wife, Alana, is an attorney in North Haven, Conn.

’11

Willem Delventhal writes, “During my junior summer at Roger Williams University, I secured an internship at Lumosity, the brain training gaming company. I spent the summer learning an intense amount of code and porting over three of their games from a web-based programming language to be usable on Android devices. When I went back to school for my senior year, I asked whether I could become a full-time employee upon graduation. I was hired as a junior software engineer, building children’s developmental games in their LumiKids venture. Fast forward, a year and a half after my hire date, I’ve just been promoted to Senior Software Engineer! Even though LumiKids unfortunately proved to be a dead end as a revenue stream, I was offered a new position within the company. So here I am, a 24-year-old Senior Software Engineer who makes brain training games for work and has a thousand side projects for fun.”

’14 Anna Horowitz received the Fragrance Scholarship from the Women in Flavors and Fragrance Corporation. Anna, who has been an intern at WFFC, is on track to earn her bachelor’s degree from Brown University in the science of perfumery in 2019.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 53

IN MEMORIAM | Remembering Those We Have Lost Alumni and Alumnae

’36 C

John E. Brewster, 97, a retired executive of an actuarial firm, died December 10, 2016 in Wheaton, Ill. Born in Madison, Wis., John came to Choate in January 1935. He was on the Board of the News, in the French Club and Cum Laude Society, had the highest rank in his sixth form class, and won honorable mention for School prizes in English, Latin, and mathematics. He was one of those named “Best Student” by his class. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Yale, he started his actuarial career with Prudential in Newark, N.J., but World War II intervened; he served in the Pacific with the Army Air Corps. After the war, he joined Marsh & McLennan insurance brokers in Chicago, retiring in 1984 as the firm’s vice president.

John enjoyed singing, performing with the Chicago Symphony Chorus for a decade. He also liked swimming, biking, and hiking, climbing in Zion National Park at age 80. He leaves his wife, Cornelia Brewster, c/o Bonnie Brewster, 1220 N. Main St., Wheaton, IL 60187, five children, 11 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.

’38 C

Theodore T. Horton, 97, a retired industrial engineer, died December 14, 2016 in West Hartford, Conn. Born in New York City, Ted came to Choate in 1935; he lettered in basketball, was a cheerleader, and was Business Manager of the Brief.

He then went to Princeton, but his studies were interrupted by World War II. Ted spent four years in the Army Air Corps, attaining the rank of First Lieutenant as a pilot in the Pacific.

After the war, he graduated from the University of Hartford, then worked many years for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft division of United Technologies Corp. in East Hartford. He also served a term as President of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers. He enjoyed golf and world travel. He leaves two children, including Peggy Anne Quagliaroli, 48 Westwood Rd., West Hartford, CT 06117; four stepchildren; and 13 grandchildren.

’39 C John P. West, 95, a retired industrial engineer, died September 28, 2016 in North Branford, Conn.

Born in New York City, Johnny came to Choate in 1935; he lettered in crosscountry and was Business Manager of the Literary Magazine and Circulation Manager of the News. He graduated from Princeton, then joined the Navy, where he tested diesel oil filters and supervised repairs to ships’ hulls.

After World War II, he was a research engineer for the Bakelite Division of Union Carbide, and later was an engineer for other firms, including Johnson & Johnson. Johnny was an avid antique car enthusiast, and owned several rare vintage automobiles. He leaves four children, including John P. West Jr., 500 School St., Cotati, CA 94931; 15 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren. A brother, the late Davenport West Jr. ’37, also attended Choate. ’40 C

Frederick N. Hubbell, 94, the retired owner of a metal finishing firm, died August 15, 2016 in Arlington, Texas. Born in Bridgeport, Conn., Fred was at Choate for one year; he lettered in basketball and track. He went to Princeton, but left in 1942 to serve in Italy in the Army in World War II, attaining the rank of First Lieutenant.

After the war, he was a researcher in the chemical and metal finishing industries, and in 1977 founded Dura-Tech Processes, a specialized metal finishing business serving the oilfield industry, in Mansfield, Texas.

Fred enjoyed watching, playing, and attending sports events, especially golf and baseball. He leaves three children, six grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.

’41 C Ross M. Barnes, 92, a retired industrial engineer, died March 6, 2016 in Tucson, Ariz. Born in Newark, N.J., Ross came to Choate in 1937; he lettered in soccer, was on the boards of the Press Club and the News, and was in the French Club. During World War II, he served in the Army in Italy. He graduated from Princeton, then worked at Bristol Brass in Bristol, Conn., and Formsprag Corp. in Detroit. He and a friend later purchased and ran Cook’s

Industrial Lubricants in Linden, N.J. Ross enjoyed playing tennis, organizing many tournaments in Monmouth Hills, N.J. He leaves three children, including Edwin M. Barnes ’69, 1221 Greenland Ave., Nashville, TN 37216; two stepdaughters; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

’43 C Frank W. Ford Jr., 91, a retired lawyer, died January 7, 2017 in Stuart, Fla. Born in New York City, Frank was at Choate for one year; he played league football, hockey, and baseball.

After Choate, he was in the Navy’s V12 program at Yale, then served in the Navy until 1945. He attended Georgetown Law School and was a patent examiner in the U.S. Patent Office, then was employed by the Legal Division of the Pentagon’s Signal Corps.

For many years, Frank was a partner of a New York law firm, specializing in patent and intellectual property cases, including the 1975 Xerox vs. IBM suit.

He enjoyed golf, skiing, tennis, and the arts. He leaves his wife, Damaris Ford, 100 Palmetto Trail, Hobe Sound, FL 33455; a daughter; and a sister. ’45 RH Rhoda “Polly” Winton Kraft Cutler, 89, an artist, died of cancer January 1, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Born in Spokane, Wash., Polly came to Rosemary Hall in 1942. She earned five bars on the Committee and was captain of basketball, Choir Mistress, President of the Music Club, Assistant Fire Captain, Secretary of Philomel, and on the Chapel Committee. She attended Mills College in Oakland, Calif., then studied French at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. After Polly and her first husband divorced, for many years she was the wife of syndicated political columnist Joseph Kraft; asked in 1965 about her interests, she replied “painting and politics – a good balance.” Her paintings, done as “Polly Kraft,” mainly watercolors and oils, were shown in galleries in New York and Washington; they included portraits, still lifes, and landscapes.

After Joseph Kraft died in 1986, she married White House counsel Lloyd Cutler, who died in 2005. She leaves two sons, four grandchildren, and a brother.

’47 C William A. Hardy Jr., 87, an international farm manager, died February 3, 2017 in Shoshone, Idaho.

Born in Honolulu, Bill came to Choate in 1945; he lettered in track, was Vice President of the Ski Club, and was a Campus Cop. After graduating from Trinity College in Hartford, he managed farms both in the United States and overseas, including the Wye River Palm Oil Plantation in Krabi, Thailand. Bill enjoyed skiing, hunting, and hiking in Sun Valley, Idaho, and world travel.

He leaves his wife, Lesley Hardy, P.O. Box 407, Sun Valley, ID 83353; three children; two stepchildren; four grandchildren, including Nini Casser ’07; and four step-grandchildren. His niece, Hope Reed ’81, attended Choate Rosemary Hall; a brother, the late Frank M. Hardy ’51, attended Choate. ’48 C

Peter C. Stead, 86, a retired social worker, died May 18, 2016 in Northfield, Minn. Born in Bridgeport, Conn., Pete came to Choate in 1944; he was in St. Andrew’s Cabinet and on the Board of the Brief. He then graduated from Colorado College, spent two years in the Army, and earned a master’s degree in social work from Wayne State University. He spent his entire working life at the Veterans Administration, where he became the director of a program for alcohol and drug abuse recovery; the nationally recognized program was the subject of an article in Social Work magazine in the 1970s.

Pete retired in 1992. He enjoyed birding, walking his German shepherds, and traveling. He leaves his wife, Teresa Stead, 1000 Cannon Valley Dr. No. 140, Northfield MN 55057. A niece, Sarah Duble ’73, and a nephew, David Duble ’81, also attended Choate Rosemary Hall.

’48 RH Phebe Elsworth Williams, 86, active in civic causes, died January 10, 2017. Born in New York City, Phebe came to Rosemary Hall in 1944. She was on the Kindly Club Council and the Rules Committee, was Head Day Boarder Marshal, and was on the hockey and tennis teams. She then graduated from Vassar. In 1964, she, her husband, and their family moved to Kirkwood, Mo., where she was involved in the community. She was

54 IN MEMORIAM 54

a curator of the Kirkwood Historical Society and the Mudds Grove Museum and was a board member of the Missouri State Historical Society.

Phebe also volunteered in the local schools and worked with community preservation groups. She enjoyed literature, antiques, interior decorating, and poetry. She leaves three sons and seven grandchildren. Her sister, the late Elizabeth Elsworth Starbuck ’41, also attended Rosemary Hall.

’66

’51 RH Diane French Schofield, 82, died October 14, 2016 in Vero Beach, Fla. Born in Mobile, Ala., Diane came to Rosemary Hall in 1946. She was Vice President of her third form, President of her fourth form, Assistant Day Boarder Marshal, and in the Kindly Club and the Dramatic Club. She lived in the New York City area much of her life, moving to Vero Beach 20 years ago. She leaves her husband, John Schofield, 1250 W. Southwinds Blvd., Apt. 216, Vero Beach, FL 32963; a daughter, Noelle French Winsor ’80; and a granddaughter.

’58 C Scott A. Brooks, 77, a retired stockbroker, died February 14, 2017 in Stowe, Vt. Born in Carbondale, Pa., Scott came to Choate in 1956.

He lettered in football, which he co-captained, and in lacrosse; and was Vice President of the Ski Club, Secretary-Treasurer of the Western Club, and manager of the Golden Blues.

After graduating from Princeton, he joined the family firm, J. H. Brooks & Co., manning the company’s seat on the New York Stock Exchange. He then organized J. P. Morgan Equities and later returned to J. H. Brooks. In 2005,

’60 C Frederic H. Gaskell Jr., 73, the owner of telecommunications companies, died November 9, 2015 in Durango, Colo. Born in Rye, N.Y., Rick came to Choate in 1958; he lettered in soccer, was Secretary-Treasurer of the Radio Club, was on the Sixth Form Advisory Committee, and was in the Glee Club and the Automobile Club.

He then earned degrees from Cornell and the University of Santa Clara. Rick worked for IBM in various places for 19 years, then became interested in other technologies. After working for several start-ups, he founded Oasys Systems

After graduating from Penn State, he began working in television and film at WQED in Pittsburgh. He then did sound production in New York and Los Angeles on films, including Apollo 13, The Grifters, Striking Distance, and many dozens more. –JOHN B. SUTTON ’51 C

W. Tinsley Ellis, 83, a retired lawyer and law professor, died February 25, 2017 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Born in Fort Lauderdale, Tinsley came to Choate in 1947. He lettered in track and played trombone in the Band, of which he was President, and the Orchestra, where he was Vice President. He earned degrees from Emory University, Emory Law School, and New York University Law School.

He was a partner in a New York law firm for many years, specializing in estate planning, trusts, and probate. He later was an Adjunct Professor of Taxation at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. Active in the community, Tinsley was a founding Chairman of the Hollywood, Fla., YMCA; President of the South Broward Bar Association; Chairman of First United Methodist Church; on the Board of Assembly at Emory; and a longtime Board member at Nova Southeastern, among many positions. He received several awards for his volunteer work. He leaves his wife, Judith Ellis, 2200 South Ocean Lane, Apt. 605, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316; four children; and four grandchildren.

’57 C

Henry L. “Mick” Caulkins Jr., 76, a mechanical engineer, died October 31, 2016 in Cheboygan, Mich.

Born in Grosse Pointe, Mich., Mick came to Choate in 1954. He was President of the Rod and Gun Club, Vice President of the Skeet Club, and on the Board of the News; he also was manager of the varsity tennis team. After Choate, he graduated from Yale and studied forestry at the University of Michigan.

Mick was an executive with Waterways Navigation Co. in Detroit, which owned ships, and later he owned and operated the Anchor Inn Marina in Cheboygan.

Active in the community, he was on the boards of the Citizens National Bank and the Cheboygan Memorial Hospital. He enjoyed world travel and great food and wine. He leaves two children, including Lee Keller, 2953 Wendover St., Marietta, GA 30062; and five grandchildren. His brother, the late Ralph Caulkins ’43, also attended Choate.

Scott moved to Stowe, where he was a coach for the town’s lacrosse program.

He enjoyed skiing and spending part of each summer on Martha’s Vineyard in a home his great-grandfather had built.

He leaves two children and a sister. An uncle, Cadwallader Evans III ’34, and a cousin, Tom Brooks ’42, also attended Choate.

’59 C Donald R. Strain, 76, a retired executive of a mechanical contracting firm, died February 7, 2017 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Born in Poughkeepsie, he came to Choate in 1956. He lettered in crew and won a school crew trophy, and was in the Ski Club, Glee Club, and Camera Club.

After graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he was an executive with the family firm, C.B. Strain and Sons, until he retired. Don enjoyed skiing, especially in Vermont and Colorado. He leaves his wife, Pamela Strain, 20 Great Pyre Way, Pleasant Valley, NY 12569; two children; two grandchildren; and a brother.

in Saratoga, Calif., and later founded Cobalt Automation in Colorado. He retired in 2013 and enjoyed skiing, golf, and traveling. He leaves his wife, Cathy Gaskell, PMB 244, Durango, CO 81301; two children; and five grandchildren.

Three brothers attended Choate: Jim Gaskell ’62, Pete Gaskell ’64, and Tom Gaskell ’71; as well as a nephew, Kenneth Schaal Jr. ’63.

’66 C

John B. Sutton III, 68, a TV and movie sound producer, died December 5, 2016 in Oakley, Utah. Born in Pittsburgh, John came to Choate in 1962; he lettered in football and was in the Press Club and the Automobile Club. After graduating from Penn State, he began working in television and film at WQED in Pittsburgh. He then did sound production in New York and Los Angeles on films, including Apollo 13, The Grifters, Striking Distance, and many dozens more. In 1999, he moved to Park City, Utah, where he owned two clubs, including one affiliated with the Sundance Film Festival. John enjoyed fly fishing, golf, drumming, and film.

He leaves two former wives, including Nancy M. Sutton ’70, P.O. Box 529,

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 55

Midway, UT 84049; three children; four grandchildren; and a sister. His father, the late John B. Sutton Jr. ’37, also attended Choate.

’75 C

Keith S. Orenstein, 59, an attorney, died January 14, 2017. Born on Long Island, Keith came to Choate in 1972. He was in the Press Club, the Chess Club, the Gold Key Society, the Cum Laude Society, and the Spanish Honor Society. He was also a copy editor for the News and won a Spanish award. After graduating from Columbia and earning a law degree from Boston University, he practiced in New York City for many years, specializing in matrimonial law. An avid reader, Keith liked James Joyce in particular. He leaves three children, two brothers, and his parents.

’85

Patrick Sean Donovan, 49, an industrial marketer, died of cancer January 5, 2017. Born in Meriden, Conn., Sean came to Choate Rosemary Hall in 1981; he lettered in riflery and was in the Gold Key Society and the Science Club. He also did technical work for School dramatic productions. After earning degrees from Cornell and the Columbia School of Business, he was a marketing analyst for Kidder, Peabody in New York City. Later, he was in strategic marketing and communications for multinational and start-up companies in various industries. Sean coached Little League and was Chairman of the St. Mary School advisory board in Ridgefield, Conn. He also enjoyed domestic and international travel. He leaves his wife, MaryEllen Donovan, 11 Harrison Court, Ridgefield, CT 06877; and two children.

’87

Daniel W. Caskey, 48, a golf club manager, died October 18, 2016 in Oakland, Calif. Born in Princeton, N.J., Dan came to Choate in 1984; he lettered in cycling, was a disc jockey on the campus radio station, and was President of the Amnesty International Club. He then graduated from Tulane.

He was outdoor operations manager at Springdale Golf Club in Princeton, and later at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Dan enjoyed hockey, biking, skiing, and gardening. He leaves three siblings.

’90

Christopher A. Pilaro, 44, a filmmaker and outdoorsman, died of cancer February 16, 2017 in Hailey, Idaho. Born in Paris, Chris came to Choate Rosemary Hall in 1987. He was co-captain of varsity wrestling, won two wrestling awards, and also lettered in lacrosse. He then attended Prescott College in Arizona. Chris made or worked on several award-winning documentary films, including Children in America’s Schools in 1996, Blue Vinyl in 2002, and The Greater Good in 2011. He was an expert alpine skier, snowboarder, surfer, climber, and skateboarder, and was an Outward Bound mountaineering and rockclimbing instructor. For 20 years he was Chair of the National Selection Committee for the Ron Brown Scholar Program, providing college grants to African American high school students nationwide; in 2006 he co-wrote a book about their stories, I Have Risen.

He leaves two sons, his parents; and a brother, Andrew Pilaro, 45 Meadowmere Ln., Southampton, NY 11968.

’92 Francesca Filesi, 43, died March 3, 2017 in Italy of complications of multiple sclerosis. Born in Colombia and raised in Chicago and Florida, Francesca came to Choate Rosemary Hall in 1990. She was Vice President of the International Club, in the Arts Club, and won a School prize for photography. In her college recommendation letter, her counselor wrote, “Known as a gracious and generous individual with a bubbly personality and a good sense of humor, Francesca pleased many instructors with her creative spirit and warmth.” After Choate, she attended the Rhode Island School of Design, and while there was diagnosed with MS. Francesca was an artist, and even after she lost dexterity in her hands she continued to paint with her feet. She leaves her parents and a sister, all in Italy. ’97

Michael J. Murphy, 37, a teacher and attorney, died December 25, 2016 in Providence, R.I. Born in Westerly, R.I., Mike came to Choate Rosemary Hall in 1994. He was on the Environmental Action Committee, was a house prefect, and won a lacrosse award in his fifth form year.

After graduating from the University

of Southern California, he taught at Xianning Teachers University in Hubei, China. More recently, he was an attorney with the Peace Corps in Macedonia. He leaves his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Murphy, 24 West St., Ashaway, RI 02804; two brothers; and four sisters.

’08

Jose L. Rivera II, 27, in the Massachusetts National Guard, died December 5, 2016. Born in Houston, Texas, Jose came to Choate in 2004.

Despite not knowing how to swim when he entered School, he played on the varsity water polo and swimming teams. He also was in the Korean Friendship Alliance, the Russian Club, and the Investment Club. After Choate, he attended Tufts, where he was President of his fraternity, Zeta Beta Tau. Jose enjoyed world travel. He leaves his parents and a brother.

Trustee

’38 C

Richard Remsen Jr., 96, a Choate Trustee from 1971 to 1974, died February 18, 2017 in Jupiter Island, Fla. Born in Mineola, N.Y., Dick came to Choate in 1935. He lettered in soccer, hockey, and baseball, and won a School prize for excellence in athletics. After graduating from Dartmouth, he was in the Navy during World War II, attaining the rank of Lieutenant. He then worked for Carlisle DeCoppet, a New York Stock Exchange odd-lot broker, until he retired in 1972. Dick enjoyed playing squash, winning the U.S. Doubles Championship in 1952, and golf, winning several championships, including the World Super Senior Golf Championship in 1991. He leaves three children, including Rick Remsen ’74, 240 E. 82nd St., Apt. 11-D, New York, NY 10028, and Martin “Jay” Remsen ’75; six grandchildren, including Zachary Remsen ’07, Margaret Remsen ’09, and William Remsen ’14; and a brother. Two of his brothers also attended Choate: the late William C. S. Remsen ’39, for whom the School ice hockey arena is named, and Frederick D. Remsen ’46.

Other of Dick’s relatives who attended Choate include cousins Richardson Pratt ’41, Thomas Pratt ’66, and David Pratt ’70, and nephew William Remsen ’71.

“Francesca Filesi was known as a gracious and generous individual with a bubbly personality and a good sense of humor, Francesca pleased many instructors with her creative spirit and warmth.”

’92

56

SCOREBOARD | Winter Sports Wrap-upap-up Girls varsity basketball had their best finish in a decade, as the runner-up in the Eight Schools Tournament, and placing 2nd in the New England Tournament, losing to Marianapolis in the finals. Girls varsity squash won the Division II National Championship and finished 6th at the New England Tournament. Boys and girls varsity swimming teams placed 2nd at the Founders League Championships, and had 4th and 5th place finishes respectively in New Englands.

Sophomore diver Kobe Tray ‘19 broke his own school record and won the Founders League. Wrestling finished 3rd overall at the Class A League Championships, with two wrestlers qualifying to compete in Nationals.

ARCHERY

SQUASH

Varsity Season Record: 4-0 Captains: Riley Choi ’18, Jack Kim ’17, Claire Stover ’17 Highlights: Varsity won all four of their meets; 2 wins against Meriden Boys and Girls Club, and wins against Northwest JOAD and Algonquin Archers JOAD.

Boys Varsity Season Record: 6-14 Captain: Dylan Muldoon ’17 Highlights: The team qualified for the A division New England Tournament and finished higher than initially seeded.

BASKETBALL

Girls Varsity Season Record: 16-5 Captains: Caroline Soper ‘17, Olivia Van den Born ’17 Highlights: Won Division II National Championship; 6th place at New England Tournament

Boys Varsity Season Record: 12-12 Captains: Tyler Daly ’17, Owen J. De Graaf ’17, Colin F. Donovan ’17, Jake MacKenzie ’17 Highlights: Beat Andover; Beat Deerfield; only Class A team to beat Suffield during the regular season.

Doubled last year’s win total.

Girls Varsity Season Record: 19-9 Captains: Elise Cobb ’17, Nicole Hiller ’17 Highlights: Finished 2nd in Eight Schools Tournament; 2nd place finish in New England Class A Tournament

ICE HOCKEY Boys Varsity Season Record: 9-14-2 Captains: Robert Goggin ‘17, Craig Uyeno ’17 Highlights: Beat Deerfield twice; won against powerhouses Avon and Kent Girls Varsity Season Record: 11-7-2 Captains: Cameron Leonard ’17, Kristin Schuler ’17 Highlights: Big wins over Nobles and Williston; Cam Leonard ‘17 holds the school record at 10 career shutouts; Schuler and Leonard received league honors

SWIMMING Boys Varsity Season Record: 7-2 Captains: Tristan So ’17, Jason Weng ’17 Highlights: 4th place finish at New Englands; broke 200m free relay record Girls Varsity Season Record: 7-2 Captains: Calla Chan ’17, Cecilia Zhou ’17 Highlight: 5th place finish at New Englands

WRESTLING Varsity Season Record: 19-3 Captains: Nicholas Bradley ’17, Sam Madden ’17 Highlights: 3rd at Class A League Tournament; Colin Myles ‘17 and Matt Cuomo ‘19 qualified for Nationals

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 57

Elise Cobb ’17 (#22) Senior girls captain during the New England Championship Finals vs Marianapolis Prep.

58

SCOREBOARD | Winter Sports Wrap-upap-up

TOP LEFT Owen De Graaf ’17 was a frontline contributor and captain for the varsity boys basketball team.

TOP RIGHT Effie Tournas ’20 carries the puck through the neutral zone.

BOTTOM LEFT Noah Nyhart ’17 competes against Max Fern from Brooks during the New England Interscholastic Squash Association tournament.

BOTTOM RIGHT Freshman Jordan Obi ’20 drives to the hoop in the

New England Championship quarterfinals against NMH.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 59

TOP LEFT Jason Weng ’17 set the school record in the 100m breaststroke this year and earned an All-American recognition.

LEFT/CENTER Nick Bradley ’17 attempts to take down his opponent.

TOP RIGHT Chance Gorman ’18 celebrates his goal vs Berkshire School. Choate won the game 3–2.

BOTTOM LEFT Grace Zhang ’20 was a part of an impressively strong group of 3rd formers on the team.

RIGHT/CENTER Girls varsity squash captain and senior Olivia Van

den Born.

BOTTOM RIGHT Diver Julianna Ruggieri ’18 prepares to take flight.

12

60

BOOKSHELF

In this issue, a lawyer and corporate governance expert provides an “essential field manual” for the everyday investor; an environmentalist delves deeply into the ecological history of Martha’s Vineyard and examines conservation strategies; a poet debuts his first book of poems, and a nonfiction writer debunks the stereotypes of aggression associated with a certain breed of dog.

What They Do With Your Money: How the Financial System Fails Us and How to Fix It

By Stephen Davis ’73, P ’14, Jon Lukomnik, and David Pitt-Watson | Reviewed by Sam Doak

WHAT THEY DO WITH YOUR MONEY: HOW THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM FAILS US AND HOW TO FIX IT Authors: Stephen Davis ’73, P ’14, Jon Lukomnik, and David PittWatson Publisher: Yale University Press About the Reviewer: Sam Doak teaches economics, world history, and entrepreneurship and is Dean of the Class of 2019.

An old fable goes that a jovial fellow from America’s Heartland travels to New York City, where he is enthralled along the waterfront by the boats of financial barons and brokers. After passing some time in reverent admiration, he remarks to his host, “And where are all the customers’ yachts?”

This weathered critique finds fresh – and timely – wind in a new book, What They Do With Your Money.

Authors Stephen Davis ‘73, Jon Lukomnik, and David Pitt-Watson have crafted a meticulous exposé of how the financial system has us all in a craps game played with loaded dice. It is a book to boil the blood of an Everyman Investor, and since that’s all of us in an age of self-funded retirements, it is an absolute must-read.

Incentives gone wild, political capture, irresponsibility, lack of fiduciary obligation, inefficiency, regulatory mismanagement, faulty corporate governance, information distortion – the book reads like a morality tale for the 21st century and contains a series of caveats for us all. The authors present practical advice for the investor and sound loud calls to action on a collective level to bring our financial system back in line with its fundamental purpose. In a time when the spread of sound economic principles and capitalism are alleviating poverty and raising standards of living around the world, we have a financial system that continues to serve insiders at the expense of their customers. It persists even in the aftermath of the systemic crisis of the Great Recession. This book has a few things to say about what to do about it.

Recent financial traumas have both eroded trust and seen a surprising persistence of structural and attitudinal vulnerabilities. The book points out that the very first financial institutions arose from within faith-based communities, where communal trust and moral bonds created the capacity for lucrative financial risk-taking; trust verification and social fabric are foundations of capitalism’s success, and so we are left with the challenging question of where we will find such trust and responsibility in the complexity of contemporary financial life. Whether you think that should come from regulatory or from cultural wellsprings, there is robust consideration of both in this book.

At root, What They Do With Your Money does yeoman’s work in considering the underpinnings of prosperity and the critical role financial capital and an efficient banking system play in delivering prosperity for all. It’s an ethics of accountability. By echoing the moral imperatives of free enterprise and criticizing systemic abuses, the authors have written a capitalist manifesto for the people at an important moment of historic inflection. If I had two books to recommend to recent students about to embark on a lifetime of dreams – and the earning and saving to support those dreams – it would be What They Do With Your Money and David Swensen’s Unconventional Success. Both are essential field manuals for informed citizens and Everyman Investors footloose in the world.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 61

A Meeting of Land and Sea: Nature and the Future of Martha’s Vineyard

By David R. Foster ’72 | Reviewed by William Nowak ’06

A MEETING OF LAND AND SEA: NATURE AND THE FUTURE OF MARTHA’S VINEYARD Author: David R. Foster ‘72 Illustrations: Brian R. Hall Photography: David R. Foster Publisher: Yale University Press About the Reviewer: William P. Nowak ‘06 teaches mathematics and economics in the Environmental Immersion Program and lives at the Kohler Environmental Center.

Know what bathymetry is? I didn’t either. But regardless of whether you currently do, David Foster ’72’s A Meeting of Land and Sea will serve as a gentle guide to this ecological concept, while also delightfully touring you through several millennia of ecological history on Martha’s Vineyard island.

This attractive hardcover volume gives a multidisciplinary, ecological account of Martha’s Vineyard, interspersing alluring full-page color photographs, also taken by Foster, neatly annotated maps, technical charts (with accessible explanations), and charming historical anecdotes.

Throughout, Foster tactfully combines his reverence for nature with a broader and ecocentric perspective, allowing him to provide the reader with valuable insights into the Vineyard’s natural environment. For example, many Vineyard residents see island erosion as a persistent worry, with recent accelerations in sea level rise only heightening the threat. Foster, however, highlights that, to some extent, this is a natural process. Indeed, after being carved out by Miocenic glaciers, the Vineyard has been sinking in rising ocean waters for the past 20,000 years. Though perhaps possible to delay, this process cannot be stopped.

A Meeting of Land and Sea reminds the reader that, despite human technological advances, we must still defer to nature. Some threats to the status quo are known, but entirely unavoidable: Seas will continue to rise, regardless. And some threats, very simply, are unknowable. From coyotes to caterpillars, Foster takes time to detail the ecological impacts of some of these previously unforeseen stimuli. While working to intelligently prepare for the future, Foster does also seem to advocate a peaceful acceptance of human limits. “Overall, we could benefit from less hubris,” he writes. “Except in our actions to conserve it from ourselves, nature doesn’t need us to care for it.” Such Zen-like wisdom permeates this work.

Before even considering future conservation strategies, though, Foster delves deep into the ecological history of the island. Citing Teddy Roosevelt (“The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future”), Foster uses his own

and others’ ecological research to paint a comprehensive picture of the various island ecosystems. Soil cores and pollen counts allow Foster to broaden his time perspective, and the reader comes away with a clear sense of what the Vineyard-scape looked like, even in prehistoric times.

More recently, Foster is able to rely on the historical record, and his comprehensive investigation of historical documents delineates how human interactions impacted the land. The reader learns of the precipitous rise and fall of agrarian land use in the 19th century. At the time, the decline in this industry was met with much local consternation. In retrospect, though, the nation’s Midwestern agricultural outsourcing was seen as, perhaps, a boon for the Vineyard and New England more broadly, as it allowed the region to take the forefront on issues of environmental conservation.

In more recent times, the island has come under environmental stress from commercial development, making it the vacation destination it’s known as today.

Foster reports on historical and current conservation efforts: failures like Senator Ted Kennedy’s dropped Island Trust bill, and successes like the establishment and efficacy of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

Seeking balance, Foster advocates an increase in sustainable agrarian land use, hypothesizing that “when we oversee the source of our food and other products, it is likely that we will apply greater care – environmentally, ethically, socially.” Further, he includes specific, policy-oriented solutions for moving M.V. towards this more harmonious future.

Foster makes continual reference to legacy and inertia – in essence, reminding us that today’s ecological processes are derivative. Yet the reader reflects, upon concluding A Meeting of Land and Sea, that legacy and inertia apply in a broader sense. We see the legacy of these past environmental stewards present in his work. Surely, Foster’s reverence for the place and his passion for sustainable progress sustain this noble inertia, and A Meeting of Land and Sea confirms his legacy.

62 BOOKSHELF

Lowly

By Alan Felsenthal ’99 | Reviewed by Mark A. Gosztyla “So, where did the arrow land?”

Ask any Choate alum this question and, with any luck, they flash back to third form year English and the palace at Ithaca. Odysseus has, with the expertise of a bard stringing his lyre, strung the bow the suitors failed to string and fired an arrow through a row of axes that have been gathering dust since the Greeks sailed for Troy. According to the contest laid out by Penelope, he has won her hand in marriage, much to the chagrin of the soon-to-be-dead suitors.

But what about the arrow? Homer never tells, and the reader is left to ponder. Maybe it’s a riddle: What arrow, once loosed, is sure never to find its target?

Alan Felsenthal’s ’99 first collection of poetry, Lowly, is an invitation to ponder these familiar questions of endlessness.

The book begins with “Two Martyrs,” a competition in suffering, wherein each competitor – keeps coming back to life in order to die a more spectacular death than the other. What feels like a riff on the phoenix is complicated by Felsenthal’s tragicomic exit strategy: LOWLY Author: Alan Felsenthal ’99 Publisher: Ugly Duckling Presse About the Reviewer: Mark A. Gosztyla, a former lecturer in the English department at Tufts University, teaches writing and poetry in Choate’s English department and lives in Delbos House with his wife, Amy, and their two young children, Lillian and Waverly.

Soon they were no longer considered martyrs but brothers whose punishment for misusing fire was to continue misusing it.

The sonnet “Holly,” which follows, presents its speaker and beloved on the bank of a river, there until night falls. They catch and take home a fish, look inside it to figure “how’s / it structured.” They find a wishing bone and “[ask] for day, which / we knew is where the river was.” Note “is” and “was” both in the final line: past and present are made simultaneous, and in this magic, the poem urges the reader back to its opening, to a literal return to the river. The poem uncovers another cycle like the two martyrs but with less seemingly Sisyphean results.

A bit later, “‘But the Birds Divided He Not’” directly addresses the western poetic tradition, moving from Genesis to Coleridge’s albatross, and then to the now of the ocean and its infinite collection of plastic offal. The description here borders on surreal, but is recognizable. A baby seabird dies on a beach as a result of eating the plastic, and in the final stanza, the maggots take over,

The maggots say: Ye shall be clean.

The poets look dirty as yesterday.

They go home and attempt to split a mussel through metaphor.

Their beards left to grow, grow.

It’s hard not to laugh at the poets’ futility, an illustration of the urban myth of human hair continuing to “grow” after death.

A few longer poems punctuate the book’s brief lyrics. “My Domestic Poem,” a response to a request to “write about something / you do every day, something domestic,” is at times a darkly humorous (“I go to the grocery store when I can’t / make eggs with what’s in the fridge”) contemplation of bedbugs acquired via metropolitan upholstery, a chair covered in fabric is a divine throne of the city you visit when sitting down, and when you go you leave with an echo of that seat.

The poem’s more serious moments attempt to make felt the experience of something taking over your thoughts. The echo of that thinking, the poem, becomes a sort of permanent record.

Lowly ends on a high point, with “The Last Traces of Bluffs Fading Out,” a meditation on the landscape of memory. The speaker recalls a wild place fighting to retain its nature, “as if a will / to retain sharp and uneven / ridges could impersonate a heart.” But what does the poem fight? Simply geography? No. While the speaker describes hills, mountains, and ravines, what’s really experienced is, “the red / sandstone that turned to a torso / I saw in the old museum.” The shift in scale crystallizes a moment of perception; then the poem cracks into a new, imagined landscape, revealing the layers of inner life as if blasting a hillside to uncover its strata.

In Lowly, Felsenthal shows his reader that every moment is constructed of epochs, as if Homer’s axes are all still somewhere lined up and somehow, in all our lives, the arrow still flies.

BULLETIN | SPRING 2017 63

Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon

By Bronwen Dickey ’99 | Reviewed by Mb Duckett Ireland

PIT BULL Author: Bronwen Dickey ’99 Publisher: Knopf About the Reviewer: Mb Duckett Ireland joined the English faculty in 2010 and was an inaugural faculty member for the Environmental Immersion Program in 2012 where she developed the course Literature and the Landscape. She currently serves as chair of the Diversity Education Committee.

Imagine a pit bull. Certain images come to mind: a blocky head with a strong jaw, a shelter dog, maybe a certain aggressive quality. Pit bulls have a bad rap in America, and Bronwen Dickey ’99 is out to change that. Pit Bulls: The Battle Over an American Icon works against these popular stereotypes by exploring the sociological and historical roots of this reputation.

America’s demonization of the pit bull – and the constant expansion of the term to cover many dogs with a similar shape but not actually of a bull breed – lie at the center of Dickey’s exploration. The book’s opening explodes the most common traits associated with pit bulls. Dickey debunks many of these stereotypes, citing moments in history important to the pit bull’s story. Before pit bulls became associated with dog fighting rings in the 1970s, they were the classic American pet.

The pit bull, in fact, used to be a canine American icon. Known for their reputation as the “sidekick” to a happy family life, pits appealed to the average American family. They were leveraged by marketing firms in advertising and fought beside troops at the Battle of Gettysburg and in Normandy. Popular American figures – Helen Keller, Jack Dempsey, Dr. Seuss, and Teddy Roosevelt, to name a few – kept pit bulls.

Dickey details the journey of media-related scrutiny in opposition to a body of knowledge that existed before the 1960s and the following dramatic increase in news coverage of dog bites. Before the villainization of bully breeds, the University of Vermont’s Dr. Henry Parrish led a study of dog bites as canine household companionship exploded across the country. Though his team noted that younger male dogs accounted for most bites at the time, they found no single dog breed most responsible. The researchers instead attributed most of the bites to human factors; children didn’t know how to interact appropriately with young dogs and parents weren’t supervising them well enough.

BREAD TOAST CRUMBS Author: Alexandra Stafford ’99 Publisher: Potter/ TenSpeed/Harmony

THE INFLUENCER ECONOMY Author: Ryan Williams ’96 Publisher: Ryno Lab

So, what happened? Dickey cites a string of murders and political assassinations that led Americans to fear their safety at home in new and profound ways.

Citizens – particularly those in majority African American neighborhoods who were at best ignored, and at worst hunted, by law enforcement – sought guard dogs to help keep their families safe.

Then one story in the New York Times brought dog fighting into the popular imagination and started an uncontrollable frenzy. The Los Angeles Times joined the game and began referring to pit bulls as “killer dogs.” Three or four dog-bite-related fatalities garnered an amazing amount of attention. Dickey includes pictures of some of the dogs from these attacks to show the range of canines labeled “pit bull.” Dogs that look like Labradors, shepherds, and Jack Russell terriers all conveniently fell into a single category. Pit bulls lived at the center of media coverage of dog-fighting rings from the 1970s into the early 2000s. Any dog guilty of an attack became a “pit bull” because only “pit bulls” would attack.

As the media linked the breed to violence, it fell from its place as the typical American family dog.

Retrievers moved into homes while pit bulls took refuge in shelters. As the price of purebred dogs rose, shelter dogs became the only ones some families could afford. One resident from Durham, N.C., summarized the root of the issue at a city council meeting: “We used to be in chains. Now our dogs are in chains.” A nonprofit organization, the Coalition to Unchain Dogs, builds fences for families who can’t afford them.

Through the history of a single dog breed, Pit Bull makes broader implications about the way humans categorize man’s best friend and, in turn, categorize each other. Dickey’s story is as much about human nature as it is about a breed of dog. The problem she exposes is two-fold. As she notes in her conclusion, “justice for animals cannot happen at the expense of justice for humans.”

THE HIDING GAME Author: Gwen Strauss ’81 Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.

64

END NOTE |

Becoming a better teacher

By Deron N. Chang

Four years into my Choate career, I was chosen by my peers to chair the Faculty Forum, an elected group whose task is to bring concerns to the administration and also assist in making decisions that impact the faculty. I had no idea what inspired their confidence in me.

It’s no coincidence that it was under my relatively “green leadership” that the Faculty Forum collapsed and then had to be replaced two years later by the Faculty Committee. I thought the School would certainly not trust me again to be a leader of the institution. But Choate did give me another chance. That year, I received a handwritten note from the Dean of Faculty stating, “Deron, I appreciate all that you have done in your young career and I hope that you will continue to bring your energy to Choate for years to come.” The Dean of Faculty and other administrators encouraged me to stick things out; they gave me rule number 1: See the potential in others that they cannot yet see in themselves. I now apply that rule to my teaching.

During my early years, my science department chair was John Ford, a man who commands respect the moment you meet him. He has been here for nearly 40 years. You could forgive him for being oldschool, but in his teaching, this is not the path he has chosen. As one of the School’s academic technology specialists, I have been working closely with him on how to use the iPad as a teaching and learning tool. Furthermore, he has been a champion for the adoption of the new daily schedule that will roll out next year. He is one of the leading proponents for changing the way we teach. He does this because he knows that these changes will allow his biology and chemistry students to learn science better. That is what drives him. Through him, I have learned that it is never too late to learn and improve. He is responsible for my rule number 2: Always look to refine how you are teaching, even if you think what you are doing works.

In 2003, a former Trustee did something for me that has had the most significant impact on my career. I was awarded a Silas Chou Technology Prize. As a Trustee, Mr. Chou developed this prize to encourage the use of technology in the classroom. It offered the most important commodity in a Choate teacher’s life: time. As a recipient, I was given a course reduction to explore even more ways to enhance my classroom teaching. During this time, Kathleen Wallace, by then science department chair, encouraged me to develop what is now one of the School’s six signature programs – the Science Research Program.

So, Mr. Chou gave me the time, Kathleen Wallace gave me the guidance, and an alumnus, Jonathan Miller ’03, gave us a generous gift that let this dream become a reality. The Science Research Program allows students who are passionate about science to dig deeply into research in a decidedly nontraditional classroom experience that has arguably become one of our most successful programs on campus because we did not limit our thinking and we got the support from three pillars: our administration, our trustees, and our alumni. Which brings me to rule number 3: Surround yourself with people who can help you become a better teacher.

These three rules – See the potential in others; always refine your craft; and let others help you to become a better teacher – developed as a result of listening to and trusting my colleagues. Only now, as I enter my 22nd year at Choate, can I look back and see how little I knew when I first arrived and how much I benefited from the generosity of those around me. I hope to repay the efforts of my mentors not only with my gratitude, but also by serving as a bridge between their knowledge and new faculty who arrive at Choate.

I feel blessed to be a member of this faculty, and I am grateful for the vision and support that has allowed me to do what I love for more than two decades.

Deron N. Chang P ’19 is a former Independence Foundation Chairholder and was recently elected as co-chair of the 2017-18 Faculty Committee.

What a remarkable place to be.

Katie Childs ’95

I have always been a proud alumna of Choate Rosemary Hall, and I still am to this day.

Living in Wallingford, I am fortunate to be back on campus often.

Whether helping coach Girls Water Polo or planning events for the Alumni Club of Connecticut, I love remaining involved with the School.

Working with today’s student athletes gives me an appreciation for my own experience and for the importance of giving back. I want future students to have the opportunity to take advantage of all that Choate Rosemary Hall has to offer and enjoy the same positive experience I had.

ANNUAL FUND

Please join me in supporting the School with an Annual Fund gift today.

www.choate.edu/donate

Katie Childs ’95 Wallingford, Connecticut