Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin | Spring '23

She Kills Monsters, Winter Term PMAC Main Stage student production.

Produced by Bari Robinson Jr.

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CONTENTS

DEPARTMENTS

Remarks from the Head of School

Letter from Alex D. Curtis

Remarks from the Head of Student and Academic Life

Letter from Jenny Karlen Elliott

On Christian & Elm News about the School

Alumni Association News

Awards and Updates

Classnotes

Profiles of Malcolm Byrne ’73, Deputy Director and Director of Research at the National Security Archive; Amy Talkington ’88, a prizewinning filmmaker; and Mariana Atencio ’03, an award-winning journalist, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker

In Memoriam

Remembering Those We Have Lost

Scoreboard

Recap of Fall ’22 and Winter ’23 Sports

Bookshelf

Reviews of works by Roger Vaughn ’55, Patrick D. Joyce ’85, James Kaiser ’95, and Tochi Onyebuchi ’05

End Note

The Ties That Bind by Dan Chang ’93, P ’26

FEATURES

How Do We Inspire the Next?

Investing in Students, Faculty, and Infrastructure

Fully Wired Team 7407

Choate Robotics Program

Making Community the Goal

Restoring Pawtucket, R.I., Through Sports

The Bold Life of Herbert V. Kohler Jr. ’57

Honoring a Legacy of Leadership

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. CRH201201/17.75M

Editorial Offices

T: (203) 697-2475

Email: sdavis@choate.edu

Chief Communications Officer

Alison J. Cady

Editor

Susanne Davis

Design and Production

Todd Meagher

Ann Marie Nolan

Beth Ann Strong

Classnotes Editor

Henry McNulty ’65

Contributors

Alex Ashford

Mallika Beach-Mehrotra

Christine Bennett

Gam Bepko

Dan Chang ’93, P ’26

Stephanie Gold

Kim Hastings

Rhea Hirshman

Sydni Marmor

Nolan Silbernagel

KeriAnne Tisdale

Leslie Virostek

Bekah Wright

Photography

Joey Avena

John Giammatteo

Gruber Photographers

Tom Kates

Follow us!

Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees 2022-2023

Danya Alsaady P ’17, ’19, ’23

Kenneth G. Bartels ’69, P ’04

Caroline T. Brown ’86, P ’19

Marc E. Brown ’82

Seth J. Brufsky ’84

Yahonnes S. Cleary ’96

George F. Colony ’72

Alex D. Curtis P ’17, ’20

Elizabeth M. Ferreira ’92

Katherine B. Forrest ’82

David A. Fraze ’84

Kristen M. Garlinghouse ’85

Gunther S. Hamm ’98

Elizabeth A. Hogan ’82

Jungwook ”Ryan” Hong ’89, P ’19, ’22 ’25

Kelly Green Kahn ’86

Daniel G. Kelly Jr. ’69, P ’03

Vanessa Kong Kerzner P ’16, ’19

James A. Lebovitz ’75, P ’06, ’10

Christian B. McGrath ’84, P ’18, ’21

Takashi Murata ’93, P ’25

George F. Pyne, IV ’84

M. Anne Sa’adah

Life Trustees

Bruce S. Gelb ’45, P ’72, ’74, ’76, ’78

Edwin A. Goodman ’58

Cary L. Neiman ’64

Stephen J. Schulte ’56, P ’86

William G. Spears ’56, P ’81, ’90

Letter from Our Editor

A school magazine tells the stories of an institution, and I am honored to join the Choate Rosemary Hall community as the new editor of the Bulletin. Stories connect us, show our humanity, inspire us to see new vistas and try new things. I am inspired by the question: What’s Next? That question prompted my own transition from years of university teaching and a university writing role, to join Choate. Considering new possibilities requires taking risks, and through risks, we grow. Choate’s campaign slogan, Inspire the Next prompts the question, how do we do that? The question relates to how we tell Choate’s story overall. I invite everyone in the Choate community to share with me ideas for Bulletin stories and for re-envisioning how we tell them. It has been said that there are only so many stories in the world — but the ways we tell them are new for every age. One thing I know as I look out my office window at a rhododendron bush swelling with blossoms — spring is a perfect time for new ideas about what is next.

With warm best wishes,

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Visit us! www.choate.edu

Susanne Davis Bulletin Editor sdavis@choate.edu

Correction: The Fall 2022 Bulletin incorrectly listed the author of the profile on Ethan Winter, “Add Solar and Keep Farming.” The article was written by G. Jeffrey MacDonald ’87.

Dear Choate Rosemary Hall Community,

« Featured on cover: Ryan Froeb ’23, member of Advanced Robotics Concentration program.

Dear Alumni and Friends of Choate Rosemary Hall,

A few months ago, on a chilly night in New York City, we held an exciting and historic event: the public launch of our Inspire the Next capital campaign. It was a wonderful evening that celebrated a campaign which will provide essential funding for financial aid, faculty support, and campus infrastructure that will secure our School’s future. In so doing, it will also ensure that our students continue to have their opportunities to become extraordinary — in whatever way they define that for themselves. The event was also the first occasion for Anne Bergen, our new Chief Development Officer, to meet our community. I hope you will join me in welcoming Anne, and I trust you will share your stories of Choate Rosemary Hall with her as they will make all the difference in helping her to learn about our beloved School.

As I know, and as Anne is discovering, our alumni, students, faculty and staff are the essence of Choate. On campus and around the world, our community members are making tremendous impacts. This issue of the Bulletin captures some of that breadth and depth through stories: one about two alumni from different graduating classes who are using soccer to revitalize downtown Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and its riverfront; and the other featuring the leadership and legacy of Herbert Kohler ’57, who served with great distinction as the Chair of our Board of Trustees, established the Kohler Environmental Center in 2012, and was a proud Choate parent and grandparent. In addition, profiles honor our remarkable Alumni Award recipients and Hall of Fame inductees for their contributions to our School.

I hope you enjoy this issue of the Bulletin, that you find ways to share your stories with us, and that you will join us as we seek to Inspire the Next

With all best wishes from campus,

Alex D. Curtis Head of School

Minds ALWAYS Open

LEARNING DOESN’T STOP WHEN SUMMER BEGINS

Choate Rosemary Hall’s unique summer programs provide engaging and innovative curriculum for learners to widen their worlds as they pursue their creativity, curiosity, and passion for discovery.

Students of all ages explore new concepts and advance their skills through programs for elementary, middle, and high school.

JOIN US FOR SUMMER PROGRAMS 2023

ON CAMPUS PROGRAMMING

ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT (Grades 6-12):

Full Session: 5 weeks, June 25 – July 28

Session I Workshops: 2 weeks, June 25 – July 7

Session II Workshops: 2 weeks, July 9 – July 21

JOHN F. KENNEDY ’35 INSTITUTE IN GOVERNMENT (Grades 9-12):

5 weeks, June 25 – July 28

ENGLISH LANGUAGE INSTITUTE (Grades 6-12):

5 weeks, June 25 – July 28

THEATER ARTS INSTITUTE (Grades 6-12):

4 weeks, June 25 – July 21

ONLINE PROGRAMMING

TEST PREP COURSES (Grades 6-12):

5 weeks, June 26 – July 28

May be taken in conjunction with any other program, including all two-, four-, and five-week offerings.

PLUS MORE!

YOUNG ARTIST, SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL, and ATHLETICS ADVANTAGE programming information is available at CHOATE.EDU/SUMMER.

Are you ready to widen your world this summer?

Scan the QR code and submit an interest form today!

QUESTIONS? Contact us by phone at (203) 697-2365, or email at choatesummer@choate.edu

Dear Friends of Choate Rosemary Hall,

With each month on campus, I am more and more inspired by all that our students learn and do. Our students strive and push each other, and, even more awe-inspiring, through their exploration and hard work they become and celebrate truer and more authentic versions of themselves. At school meetings, where students share with me trophies, accolades, and awards in recognition of their success, our entire community gets to applaud and honor their hard work and commitment. In this issue of the Bulletin, you will read about just a few of those endeavors and achievements — in scholastics, athletics, robotics, and the arts. What I love most about our community is the awe, pride, and joy Choate students express about and for their peers when they excel.

Our students do not take this journey alone. The passionate commitment of faculty and staff members support students as we grow and learn together. Organized by adults and students together, Choate’s Diversity Day brought to campus keynote speakers Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, and Ndaba Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela. Students, faculty, and staff hosted and attended related workshops throughout the day for reflection and conversation.

As you will read in this issue, the robotics program at Choate engages experienced and novice students in a myriad of ways. Supported by a firstrate facility and dedicated faculty, our students are pursuing their passions for robotics in the classroom, through FIRST Robotics competition, and by sharing their knowledge with the community at LEGO League events.

Through building strong relationships and creating an environment that draws out the best in each of us, we help our Choate students to thrive. I am so grateful to be learning and growing with you all in this community.

With all best wishes from campus,

Jennifer Karlen Elliott Head of Student and Academic Life

Anne S. Bergen Appointed Chief Development Officer

Anne S. Bergen joined the Choate community in mid-February as the newly appointed Chief Development Officer. In her role, Anne will oversee the School’s fundraising efforts, including annual and leadership giving, as well as alumni engagement. She will also help to lead the recently announced Inspire the Next campaign.

Most recently, Anne served as Director of Parent Gifts at Yale University. Responsible for fundraising from the parents of Yale College students, Anne supervised staff and directed all aspects of major gifts, annual fund, and volunteer programs designed for Yale parents.

Prior to Yale, Anne served as Chief Advancement Officer at The Brearley School in New York City, where she oversaw all aspects of fundraising and alumnae relations. While at Brearley, she conceived and executed the school’s largest-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign, raising over $105MM. Also notable among Anne’s accomplishments at Brearley, she implemented best practices in cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding major gifts; supervised yearly annual giving; oversaw an extensive database upgrade; sustained a robust alumnae relations program; and strove for inclusivity in all initiatives.

Previously, after receiving her degree from Colgate University and beginning her career as a fundraiser at several other not-for-profits, she worked in University Relations at Wesleyan University, where she served in various roles including Director of Stewardship, Director of Campaign Planning, Campaign Director, and Director of Development.

National Merit Finalists Named

Nine members of the Class of 2023 were named Finalists in the 2023 National Merit Competition: Joy C. An of Seattle, Wash.; Chloe Su Yi Chan of Hamden, Conn.; Catherine M. Cronin of Cheshire, Conn.; Je-Won Im of New Haven, Conn.; Alyssa C. Jaster of Glen Ellyn, Ill.; Grace S. Liu of Havre de Grace, Md.; Nathan Nicholas of Zurich, Switzerland; Stephanie R. Wang of Wallingford, Conn.; and Ryan Yumrui Yang of Easton, Conn.

Design Matters: A Look at How

We Gather

“A few years ago, we might not have realized just how important the physical footprint of our school was to us. But in 2020, in a very real and stark way, we were collectively reminded that our school campuses are not merely places for learning, but for significant acts of gathering — gatherings stitch together an essential tapestry of community.” Head of School Alex D. Curtis and Director of the Independent School Leadership M.Ed. at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development Carrie Grimes discuss why design is important in “Design Matters: A Look at How We Gather” in the Spring 2023 edition of Independent School Magazine

Two Students Named 2023 Regeneron Scholars

Ryan Yang ’23 of Easton, Conn., and Ryan Kim ’23 of New Haven, Conn., have been named top Scholars in the 82nd Regeneron Science Talent Search — the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and mathematics competition for high school seniors.

Kim’s project entry focused on applying artificial intelligence learning toward traffic impact. His work, titled “A Novel Affordable Artificial Intelligence of Things System for Real-Time Traffic Optimization and Emissions Reduction,” would anticipate various temporal, economic, environmental, and health benefits.

Yang presented his research for his project, titled “Aggregation in the Mirror Space (AIMS).” He was inspired to work on this new low-cost, gossip-based distributed machine learning framework after noticing existing methods used linear aggregation. Yang’s systematic method was published in IEEE MILCOM 2022.

Both Scholars are members of Choate’s Science Research Program.

Scan QR code to read the full article online.

Diversity Day 2023 –United in Difference

On Monday, January 16, students, faculty, and staff gathered for the School’s 32nd Diversity Day. The program theme “United in Difference” emphasized the intersection of shared experiences through differences in race, gender, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic class, geographical origin, and sexual orientation.

Choate welcomed keynote speakers Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, and Ndaba Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, for keynote addresses that highlighted the continued legacies of two men with different approaches to the unified goal of ending oppression for marginalized groups.

Ndaba Mandela is the co-founder and co-chairman of the Africa Rising Foundation and serves as an executive director for UN AIDS. Ndaba was recently named one of the “28 Men of Change” by BET.

Ilyasah Shabazz is an author, educator, and producer. She serves as co-chairperson of the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. Currently, she is an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

Workshops were offered throughout the remainder of the day. Topics included, “History, Narrativity, and Dismantling Master Narratives,” “Race and Medicine: Historical and Contemporary Issues,” and “Overcoming Differences through Debate.”

Held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day since 2014, this year’s Diversity Day was organized by the Office of Equity and Inclusion, Choate Diversity Student Association (CDSA), and over 100 volunteer facilitators.

Choate Athletes Raise Awareness of Adaptive Sports Program

On Sunday, February 12, Choate ice hockey players took to the ice on sleds during a scrimmage with a team from the Gaylord Adaptive Sports program. The program, located in Wallingford, serves to improve the lives of individuals with a physical disability or visual impairment through adaptive sports and recreation. The charity game was organized to raise money for the Gaylord Sports Association Wolfpack sled hockey team.

Players used sleds designed with two hockey skate blades underneath, and by using two sticks with metal ends to propel themselves. Girls ice hockey co-captain Sophia Rodham ’23 recalled the competitive match saying, “It was a very humbling experience. These players are very talented at what they do.”

Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Congratulations to the thirty-one Choate Rosemary Hall students who were awarded Connecticut Regional Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards, the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious scholarship and recognition program for teen artists and writers. Two writing scholars were recognized as American Voices Nominees, a group of seven students who received a perfect score from both judges. A ceremony is planned by the program for the writing scholar award recipients and a regional exhibition is being held for art scholars’ compositions.

Scholastic Writing Awards Recipients

Joy An ’23 Gold Key

Max Leventon ’25 Gold Key, Honorable Mention

Isabel Maida ’23 Gold Key, Honorable Mention

Hyewon Son ’24 Gold Key, Honorable Mention

Isabella Wu ’24 Gold Key, Honorable Mention, American Voices Nominee

Minzhi Zhang ’24 Gold Key, Silver Key, Honorable Mention, American Voices Nominee

Mikayla DaSilva ’24 Silver Key

Ryan Kim ’23 Silver Key

Ryan Lee ’24 Silver Key

Carson Ling ’24 Silver Key

Claire Liu ’24 Silver Key

Hannah Quan ’26 Silver Key

Andreas Wimmershoff Gonzalez ’24 Silver Key

Aidan Cha ’25 Honorable Mention

Gigi Chen ’24 Honorable Mention

Katherine Chong ’25 Honorable Mention

Sofia Galarza ’23 Honorable Mention

Lauren Kee ’24 Honorable Mention

Zoe Plunkett ’24 Honorable Mention

John Reach III ’24 Honorable Mention

Grace Yoon ’26 Honorable Mention

Elena Zhang ’24 Honorable Mention

Scholastic Art Awards Recipients

William Gao ’24 Gold Key

Henry He ’25 Gold Key

Yujin Kim ’23 Gold Key, Silver Key

Yuki Zhang ’24 Gold Key, Silver Key, Honorable Mention

Paola Diaz del Castillo Rosique ’23 Silver Key

Isabella Wu ’24 Silver Key

Katherine Chong ’25 Honorable Mention

John Jannotta ’25 Honorable Mention

Rocky Zi Yuan Wan ’24 Honorable Mention

“ To secure a vibrant future for Choate Rosemary Hall, we need to act now. Intentional planning, thoughtful growth, and your support will ensure our School’s vitality. Our task is as large as it is essential — to inspire the next generation of difference-makers and passionate leaders requires the investment, commitment, and vision of our dedicated community. Together we will Inspire the Next.”

Head of School Alex D. Curtis

–

How do we inspire the next?

At Choate, students are encouraged to be curious, taught to discern, empowered to explore, and motivated to hone skills that will serve them throughout their lives. Harnessing the power of our dynamic learning community, Choate graduates are prepared to pursue opportunities at the highest level and become the next engineer, actor, community volunteer, entrepreneur, educator, philanthropist, ecologist, or surgeon.

Investing in the people who make Choate extraordinary — today’s and tomorrow’s students and faculty — is the purpose of Inspire the Next: The Campaign for Choate Rosemary Hall

A collective endeavor with an ambitious goal of $300 million, gifts to the School are providing support for immediate needs through the Annual Fund, growing the endowment for essential funding including student support and faculty salaries, and fueling the infrastructure required to advance innovative programs and core curriculum.

With magnificent early support from donors at all levels, the campaign celebrated its public launch in January and aims to garner further participation from donors at all levels. We are tremendously grateful to the 7,750 donors who have already contributed.

Unrestricted, annual support helps Choate maintain its excellence. Celebrating his 25th Reunion this year, Justin Graham ’98 says, “To say Choate is graduating world class people is an understatement. Talking with students and teachers about the conversations taking place in classrooms today is inspiring. I believe deeply that Choate plays a critical role in developing the leaders and contributors of the future, and it is in this spirit that I am committed to supporting the School financially every year.”

Annual Fund support helps to fuel every aspect of campus life including everything from curricular initiatives to athletics and financial aid to faculty support. Collectively, gifts to the Annual Fund make a demonstrable difference in the lives of our students and faculty, and every gift counts in this comprehensive campaign.

annual support our faculty

At Choate, our teachers are invested in our students and their success well beyond curricular achievements. When asked what he looks forward to each year, faculty member Ben Small replied, “I love meeting the new students in the first few weeks of school. They are equal parts excited, nervous, and curious, and maybe homesick, too. I am excited for them. They will begin to discover who they are and how they fit into this world, and we can help them unlock their potential. It is terrific to be able to play a small part in that development and to encourage students along that journey.”

Investing in increased salaries for teaching faculty will improve our ability to attract and retain outstanding teachers. Leading the way toward this goal, a generous former Trustee has agreed to match all gifts made to the endowment for faculty salaries through June 2024.

There are many powerful ways you can invest in Choate’s students and faculty. No matter the amount contributed, our Choate community is coming together to Inspire the next generation of leaders, innovators, and difference-makers.

Almost 50 percent of the financial aid budget is provided by donors. Tak Murata ’93 sums up his motivation for establishing a scholarship in this way: “Knowing who you are and expressing your ideas on paper is not something taught in traditional Japanese education. I loved that Choate gave me the confidence to have a view and to put my views into words and on paper. Participating in class was an expectation. I learned to express myself and understand the importance of exchanging ideas with my peers. I want to see more Japanese students have this opportunity.”

As we strive to assemble a community of creative, passionate, and intellectually curious students from a wide variety of backgrounds, financial aid is of utmost importance. We continue to increase resources for financial aid, so that cost is never a preventative factor for students who are admitted to Choate.

financial aid student experience

A Choate education extends beyond what students learn in class. This spring students participated in cultural travel programs ranging from Math & Mysticism in Egypt to the Korean Diaspora in Philadelphia. Ashley Sinclair, Director of Global Engagement, shares the value of these excursions, “The world is a different place today; people are more connected than ever, and we are learning that our choices and actions have a far-reaching impact. Preparing our students to address global challenges like climate change, public health, food security, and access to education, is more important than ever. While our students are learning about these issues in the classroom, getting handson experiences is invaluable in helping our students to be global-ready.”

Cultural travel, enrichment activities, and other developmental experiences come with a cost above tuition, and therefore can be prohibitive for families. To ensure that all students have access to the full breadth of a Choate education, the School created the Beyond the Classroom Fund. Where cost is a barrier for students, Beyond the Classroom funds provide everything from athletic gear to special events to off-campus travel.

1 Patrick McCurdy ’98, Goga Vukmirovic ’96, and Hank Snyder ’85

2 Michaela Clary P ’26 and Susanne Denison P ’25

3 Dan Kelly ’69, P ’03 and Arvind Kadaba ’03

4 Geoffrey Fletcher ’88 and Alex D. Curtis

5 Miriam Bartels, Jane Condon P ’04, Ken Bartels ’69, P ’04, and Mac Bartels ’04

6 David Fraze ’84 and Kristen Mautner Garlinghouse ’85

On January 26, more than 200 alumni, parents, and friends gathered in New York City to celebrate the launch of Inspire the Next: The Campaign for Choate Rosemary Hall.

1 Will Gilyard ’98, and Jason and Christina Price P ’26

2 David Javdan ’86, and Anastasia and Julian Salisbury P ’26

3 Jim Lebovitz ’75, P ’06, ’10 and Vanessa Kerzner P ’16, ’19

4 Michael Carr ’76, George Colony ’72, Tony James ’69, and Alex D. Curtis

5 Arvind Kadaba ’03 and Dewey Kang ’03

6 Yahonnes Cleary ’96 and Michael Carr ’76

7 Patrick Senatus P ’24 and Darcie Silverman Cattani ’95

8 Beth Curtis, Dan Kelly ’69, Sam Bartlett ’91, and Gunther Hamm ’93

9 Jillian Ruben ‘08 and Kyle McDonnell ’05

FULLY WIRED TEAM 7407

by LesLie virostek

On a given weekday in the Winter Term, the glass-walled space of the Johannes J. Shattuck ‘93 Robotics Laboratory evokes a first impression of epic clutter and total randomness: a couple of students are leaning over a circuit board at a work-table island that, like every other flat surface available, is strewn with cables, wires, batteries, pliers, and assorted tools. LEGO toy pieces lie next to “swerve drive” wheel components. There’s a sprocket here, a pneumatic cylinder there. At another table a student is cutting a foam swimming pool noodle into segments. The ambient noise gives some indication of what the other students scattered throughout the lab are doing at the computer-aided design stations and in the adjoining machining workshop: computer clicks, a whirring-vacuum sound, the banging of mallets, the buzzing of drills, and such chatter as “Righty tight-y, lefty loose-y” and “Has anybody seen the …?”

Don’t be fooled by the seeming chaos. What’s happening here is the highly purposeful activity of Team 7407, the Choate Rosemary Hall Wired Boars. Diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity and drawn from multiple states and countries, this cohort of students is combining its collective knowledge and skills to design, fabricate, and assemble an autonomous robot for matches in a premier league of interscholastic robotics. It’s part of their curriculum in the Advanced Robotics Concentration (ARC) signature program. Among

its capabilities, their robot will be able to lift, carry, and place objects in precise locations and arrangements, all while deciphering April Tags — they look a bit like QR codes — which will help it accurately position itself to perform tasks in different areas of the competition arena. For these students, achieving division semi-finalist status at last year’s world championships in Houston, Texas, is less a point of pride than a source of motivation. They’re in it to win.

A MULTI-FACETED, FAR-REACHING ROBOTICS PROGRAM

One of the most constantly used spaces on campus — during the class day, after school, in the evening, and on weekends — the 1,500-square-foot lab suite in the Lanphier Center for Mathematics and Computer Science is the home and hub of a wide-ranging, multifaceted, highly impactful Robotics Program. On one end of the spectrum, it offers students an opportunity to explore a new interest through introductory and intermediate courses. On the other, the intensive ARC curriculum provides deep theoretical learning and the vital experience of the design engineering process to prepare students for college engineering programs and related STEM careers. On the extracurricular side, there’s a Sunday Team for novices, hobbyists, or anyone who wants to participate in robot building or competition. Meanwhile, student volunteers of all levels of expertise teach robotics and STEM concepts in three campus programs for children from preschool age through middle school. Perhaps the best thing about the Robotics Program is that it embodies the best of Choate: a welcoming environment for diverse groups of students, academic rigor and intensity, collaborative and hands-on learning, a spirit of fearlessness in the face of challenge, service to the greater community, and an overall aim to foster innovation and positive change in the world and the workplaces of tomorrow.

Established in 2009, the Robotics Program features a suite of six courses under the aegis of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. Some 70 students are enrolled in robotics classes in any given term. Faculty member Andrew Murgio, who co-heads the program, says that the introductory course is a “low pressure” environment where novice students — or those whose main academic interests may lie elsewhere — can learn the basics and experience the joy of making a functioning robot. “They are so excited when they realize: ‘I just built this and it is actually moving on the floor,’” says Murgio. “And then they send a video of it to their mother.”

Leanna Robie ’25 took the introductory course last year and says there is plenty of room at Choate for robotics enthusiasts of every kind. Her participation on the low-key Sunday Team enables her to balance her interest in robotics with her commitment to playing varsity squash. She says, “It’s an environment that allows me to feel like I’m part of the robotics community without being part of the intensive ARC team.”

I think the team’s extensive resources and everyone’s collective drive to do well at competitions helped me explore my interests. There was always so much passion and knowledge that circulated the lab. It really made for an engaging learning environment. While it definitely got stressful at times, seeing others passionate about STEM really helped me push myself to learn more and try things that I wouldn’t have otherwise considered trying.”

ARC IS THE CROWN JEWEL

One of eight specialized signature programs at Choate, ARC has been the centerpiece of all things robotics since 2018. Students who are accepted into the program complete a sequence of three honors-level courses, starting with Robotics Design and Fabrication and ending with Autonomous Robotics. The Winter Term course in-between is wholly dedicated to the FIRST Robotics Competition. (FIRST was founded by inventor Dean Kaman and stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.”) During class time and in required afternoon lab sessions and additional weekend meetings, students work collaboratively to create a competition robot that can perform tasks autonomously and be operated by student “drivers” using remote controls. “Our Sunday Team and the introductory classes use VEX robots, which have pre-made component pieces that you have to assemble,” explains Murgio. “But in the FIRST league about 90 percent of the robot is custom designed and manufactured.”

The kickoff for the competition season, which includes local and regional events leading up to nationals and worlds, happens in early January, with a livestream revelation of game rules and tasks that the robots must perform. From there students start organizing into sub-teams in CAD design, programming, fabrication, assembly, and communications. Sixth-former Sherry Li ’23, who is a CAD sub-team lead and also a programmer, loves the frenzied energy of the period right after kickoff. “You have 20 to 30 students trying to work together and build off of each other’s ideas,” she says. “And at the end of the first two weeks we have this entire vision of everyone’s thoughts.”

Prototyping comes next. Does the robot need to lift something? The students will create one or more versions of a suitable “elevator” component. (Those foam pool noodles, by the way, are used as bumpers around the edge of the robot’s square wheelbase.) The team’s previous robots and aggregate competition experience will inform both their robot design and game strategy. Students will “stress-test” the robot in early competitions, with every short qualifying match giving an opportunity to uncover flaws that might require redesign before the bigger events.

Following the successful footsteps of Choate’s early robotics teams, which qualified for VEX World Championships three times, Team 7407 has garnered over a dozen accolades. These include awards for industrial design, innovation in control, and first place at the 2022 New England FIRST District Granite State Event.

— Peter DiNatale ’21, currently pursing a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Northeastern.

PREPARATION FOR COLLEGE AND CAREER

Altogether the ARC experience gives students key skills to pursue future careers in STEM fields, says faculty member Dee Clark, who was a professional engineer and a vocational engineering teacher before coming to Choate. An example is computer-aided design. “The software and the process of creating a 3D model is directly applicable to industry,” she says. Other industry-relevant skills include CNC manufacturing, which involves programming a machine to cut complex geometries; mechanical assembly and familiarity with a variety of tools; and electrical engineering to integrate the software, hardware, and mechanical components.

Clark says that project-based learning is ideal for teaching the engineering design process. Students must learn how to fail — and how to make design improvements accordingly. “Sometimes I give vague instructions on purpose so that there is more for students to figure out,” she says. “Sometimes students get frustrated, but it’s all part of the magic!”

Teachers and students agree that one of the most vital skills that ARC teaches is how to work as an engineering team. Sidharth Rao ’23, a lead programmer who plans to be a computer science and engineering major in college, says he was always most comfortable working individually. “Until I joined ARC, I needed to do everything myself,” he says. Being part of a large team of students means relying on the work of peers and “having to trust other people to have your back.”

Throughout the process of creating their robot and operating it in competition, Choate’s Wired Boars receive support from several mentors who are STEM professionals. These include a cybersecurity expert working at Electric Boat and a mechanical engineer at a plastics recycling start-up company. Mentoring is a key aspect of the program, in part because it’s a model used in industry, according to Dee Clark. She notes, “All engineering jobs involve mentorship.” Robotics mentors exemplify the many types of STEM jobs that students might aspire to. But their role is mainly to be a resource, according to Sidharth. He says, “The mentors are very knowledgeable, and they provide help, but they let the students lead.”

OUTREACH AND SERVICE

One of the most successful and well-resourced teams in FIRST competition, Choate’s Wired Boars embrace the mantle of leadership and work to lift up other teams. As part of a national Open Alliance project, they share knowledge and field questions from other teams with less experience, often describing programming and engineering solutions they’ve developed to address difficult aspects of robot design. A key feature of FIRST is that the organization is grounded in the concepts known as “coopertition” and “gracious professionalism,” which encourage teams to be supportive of one another, to

cultivate an ethos of kindness and inclusivity, and to be ambassadors for STEM learning and robotics.

In that spirit, ARC students mentor the Sunday Team and collaborate with other student groups, including the Computer Hardware Club and the GirlTech Club, to help create a positive and farreaching STEM community at Choate. In 2021 ARC students launched three FIRST LEGO League teams for children of Choate faculty and staff members. The Discover group for preschoolers is mostly play-based learning. In the Collaboratory at the Wallingford Public Library, Asher Ciardello ’24 and Cam Merrit ’26 have mentored the elementary-aged Explore

cohort, which has learned about how energy is collected, transferred, and used. “Our prompt is to find a problem in the community and then find a solution,” says Asher. “So we have been talking about rising energy costs and teaching the kids about renewable energy.”

Garrett Curtis ’24 and William Gao ’24 are among the volunteers with the Challenge group. They’re helping their middle school charges to program LEGO robots to perform tasks on a table-top track and to research and create poster presentations on topics that interest them, including gravity batteries and nuclear energy.

Choate Robotics really helped expose me to what engineering would be like, and it gave me some valuable skills to work from. Ultimately, Choate Robotics taught me how to think and make in an iterative, evidence-based way, as well as how to effectively coordinate people and teams.

My current work isn’t directly related to what I learned at Choate, but robotics and its programming component did put software engineering on my radar as a career. Ultimately, I think it was the general sense of problem solving and reasoning fostered by robotics and the Choate STEM curriculum that has been most helpful in my later education and current career.”

MAKING AN IMPACT

Other than a championship banner, the most coveted prize of the FIRST season is the Impact Award. Last year was the first that Choate vied for it, preparing a video and a written submission documenting Team 7407’s hundreds of volunteer hours of service and outreach, in addition to their goal of promoting diversity and equity in STEM fields, where many groups have historically been underrepresented. On average, more than 40 percent of ARC students are women and about 50 percent are people of color.

“We don’t want to reflect today’s STEM workforce,” the students wrote. “Instead, we want to mold our team to cultivate diverse STEM cohorts of tomorrow…We hope to change the demographics of the field to encourage innovation and equal representation.”

This goal is already becoming a reality, thanks to alumni of the Robotics Program who have graduated in recent years. Almost 100 percent of ARC participants go on to study STEM in college, many at prestigious institutions such as MIT, Yale, Georgia Tech, and the University of Southern California. There can be no doubt that the passion for learning and collaborating, the highly developed skills, and the positive ethos of the Choate Robotics Program are making their way into the world.

Choate Robotics was the first place that I was truly introduced to the concept of the design process. While at Choate, I didn’t realize that engineering would be the specific path I ended up going down, but in hindsight, robotics is one of the most pivotal experiences that led to me pursuing mechanical engineering. Choate Robotics taught me how to voice my ideas, collaborate, compromise, and commit to my decisions. Most importantly, Choate Robotics was the first place that I really considered engineering or robotics as a field I was capable of being a part of, and for that, I cannot thank the program enough.”

– Katrina Gonzalez ’17, software engineer for Microsoft

– Mariam Abugri ’18, working as a process engineer at Procter & Gamble in Pennsylvania

Making Community the Goal

by rhea hirshman

The five-mile-long Seekonk River flows through the heart of Pawtucket, Rhode Island — a birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. A tidal extension of the Providence River, the Seekonk has long been the home to the Brown University mens rowing team. It was also, for well over a century, the dumping ground for the toxic effluvia spewed by the manufacturing plants that lined its banks, inundating the area with everything from fuel waste to heavy metals. “The word I use to describe the state of that river when I rowed at Brown,” says Brett Johnson ’88, “is ‘apocalyptic’.”

Dan Kroeber ‘00 & Brett Johnson ’88

Now, thanks to Brett, his business partner, Dan Kroeber ’00, and Choate Rosemary Hall connections, the area around the Seekonk is undergoing a fullscale renaissance — the Tidewater Landing Project — anchored by a multipurpose stadium and the presence of the Rhode Island Football Club, a professional soccer team in the United Soccer League (USL).

Pawtucket, a city of 75,000, has experienced long-term socioeconomic decline with the loss of its manufacturing base and persistent vacancies and blight in its downtown commercial area. It had been on the verge of bankruptcy for several years. In 2018, its only hospital closed its doors. That same year, the Pawtucket Red Sox (the “PawSox”) — the triple A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, Rhode Island’s only professional sports team, and a source of great pride for the city — announced that, after nearly 80 years, they were abandoning Pawtucket and the state for a new home in Worcester, Mass.

On the same August day in 2018 that the PawSox’ departure was announced in the Boston Globe, a casual dinner party invitation from one Choate board member to another set in motion a sequence of events that culminated in the Tidewater Landing Project.

That August morning, Brett had run into Marshall Ruben, a Choate trustee and parent, near Marshall’s home in Watch Hill, R.I. Although he had to turn down Marshall’s impromptu dinner party invitation for that evening, Brett was curious about Marshall’s remark that the guest of honor — Rhode Island’s then-governor, Gina Raimondo — was likely to be in “a very bad mood” at the event.

“I learned from Marshall about that morning’s announcement that the PawSox were leaving the state,” Brett says. “I called the CEO of United Soccer League (USL), and made a bid to buy the option for a USL franchise in Rhode Island.”

In 2015, Brett had put together a syndicate to acquire a professional soccer team for Phoenix, Ariz. — which he named Phoenix Rising — and had been thinking about other markets for a USL franchise. “Rhode Island was the best untapped market in the country for a new pro soccer team,” he says. “It’s a melting pot of West Africans, Colombians, Italians, and Portuguese in a small geographic area — all communities devoted to soccer but with no local team to call their own.”

With that perspective in mind, Brett made his next call to Dan Kroeber. Dan, a civil engineer who lives in Wallingford, had years of experience designing athletic facilities — including major projects at Yale and Choate’s junior varsity baseball field and the Class of 1978 Field. He also had Brett’s complete trust. Another chance encounter — this one at a Choate classmate’s 2016 wedding — had put Dan back in touch with James Healey ’01, who had invested in the Phoenix Rising soccer team and who then connected Dan to Brett. In the fall of 2017, Dan was the person Brett turned to for advice when the team proposed plans to build a new stadium and training center on a former landfill owned by the city of Phoenix.

After a thorough site evaluation, Dan gave Brett the news: “I don’t care what they offer you,” he told Brett. “The costs and risks are enormous. Don’t do it.”

From that moment on, Brett says: “I knew that Dan was my guy. A lot of people

would have tried to make it work because he and his firm could have had a very lucrative contract. But that’s not who Dan is.”

So when he decided not only to bring a soccer team to Rhode Island but to create a sports-anchored real estate development project that could transform an entire region, Brett again called on Dan, this time to mastermind the details of a comprehensive plan to revitalize downtown Pawtucket and its riverfront. They met with the mayor and the governor and spent time with community leaders. The proposal they submitted to the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation was announced as the winner of the selection process and given the go-ahead in December of 2019. In 2020, Dan and Brett incorporated a series of affiliated entities for the Rhode Island project into Fortuitous Partners — the developer of record for the undertaking.

When completed, Tidewater Landing will be a sports and entertainment hub for the entire state and region, with a 10,500-seat-multipurpose-stadium scheduled to open next year. The Rhode Island Football Club already has over 4,000 season tickets deposits, and music acts have inquired about performance possibilities. The site, much of which is scheduled for completion in 2026, will feature retail stores, a food hall, commercial spaces, and over 500 units of multifamily housing, including affordable units. The project also includes a pedestrian bridge connecting the two sides of the river for public use, public parks, a river walk extending along both sides of the Seekonk River, and an expansion of public transportation. The venture will create thousands of temporary construction jobs and permanent facilities jobs.

The Rhode Island Football Club is also in the process of launching a charitable foundation that will use soccer as a force to create positive influence in the lives of Rhode Island’s youth.

There have been some nightmare moments for Fortuitous Partners. “Working through a pandemic,” Brett says. “And supply chain issues. Labor and material shortages …” Dan adds, “We came through COVID-19 and got our permits and were on budget and ready to launch into building in December of 2021. Then Putin invaded Ukraine and the world shifted with the cost of construction materials skyrocketing overnight. We couldn’t go back. We had already raised and spent money. There was a gigantic hole in the ground waiting for a stadium to be built. We had to keep going forward.”

And they did, with both their public sector and private investors — the project is supported by a public-private partnership — pitching in again to close the gap. The private investment is one of the largest in Rhode Island’s history. And, among those investors are at least 20 individuals associated with Choate Rosemary Hall — alumni and alumnae, trustees, and parents.

This project, Dan and Brett say, is a testimony to the power of the Choate network — both through chance encounters and through planning. “This was a low-income community that had suffered blow after blow,” Dan says, “and when the PawSox left Pawtucket, the heart was torn out of the town.” Brett adds:

“Every Choate Rosemary person supporting this endeavor believes in the importance of giving back and the power of sports to bring together a community and revitalize a city. They are helping to restore that heartbeat.”

The BOLD LIFE of Herbert V. Kohler

by bekah Wright

Jr. ’57

A self-proclaimed teenage “scofflaw,” Herb saw his course changed by what would become a lifelong passion. He delighted in relaying the tale of how he arrived at The Choate School. “Herb was a great raconteur and loved to tell a story,” says Alex D. Curtis, Head of School. “They were always funny, full of life, and inspiring at the same time.”

Born in Sheboygan, Wis., on February 20, 1939, Herb was sent to Phillips Exeter Academy at 14 after the death of his mother. “He got kicked out of Exeter for being caught calling his girlfriend from the basement phone too many times,” David says.

A follow-up to the tale comes from his granddaughter Tait Kohler ’21. “According to Papa, a family driver picked him up from Exeter and drove him directly to Choate,” she recounts. “Hat in hand, he walked up to the admissions office, handed them his application, then sweet-talked his way in.”

Unlike Exeter, Choate stuck. “Beyond an important educational experience, a lot of growth happened for Herb at Choate, for which he was grateful,” Dr. Curtis says. Some of that growth came via the unexpected.

As a student, Herb lived in Hill House. “Dad’s residential adviser was also his wrestling coach,” David says. “Every morning, his RA would approach him in a wrestling stance, lock up with him, and throw him around, saying, ‘For the son of a bathtub baron, you certainly do smell like hell.’”

Herb graduated from Yale in ’65 with a degree in business administration. His father coaxed him into joining the family’s 1873-founded plumbing

business, Kohler, Co. The deal the two struck: Herb would work there only if it was on his own terms. With his own vision leading the way, Herb spent 57 years innovating Kohler, much of that time as president and CEO. In 2015, he stepped into the role of executive chairman, passing the president and CEO torch to David.

Herb’s vision for the company stretched beyond plumbing and into the hospitality and golfing worlds. A golfing dream of Herb’s came to fruition in 2021 when the Whistling Straits golf course he built hosted the Ryder Cup.

Despite running an international empire, Herb always made time for family and Choate.

FAMILY TIES

Following in Herb’s footsteps at Choate was David ’84, along with granddaughters Rachel Proudman ’19 and Tait Kohler ’21. Having three generations of Kohlers attend Choate brought joy to Herb. Dear to the Kohler family were graduation ceremonies followed by celebratory meals at The Library, where Herb had a favorite table and a penchant for the menu’s raw seafood. “These were some of our most precious times together,” Tait says.

Rachel’s graduation took place in 2019. “My classmates were chattering, ‘Who’s that old man onstage?’” The common consensus — he was falling asleep. “He wasn’t,” Rachel says. “Whenever he was in deep thought and listening intently, he’d lower his head and look at the ground.”

Then, Dr. Curtis called Rachel’s name. “As I was receiving my diploma, Grandpa, who was wearing a full gown in the heat, walked over, gave me a hug, kiss on the cheek, and whispered, ‘I’m so proud of you.’” In the photos taken during that moment, Rachel says, “You can feel the tie we both had to Choate. The school forever changed my life and was one of the most impactful things in his life, as well.”

Tait vividly recalls that day. “I remember crying from the audience,” she says. Two years later, her 2021 graduation became known for a terrible storm that soaked the crowd at the outdoor event. Despite the downpour, a proud Herb beamed from the front row. “He was declining in health,” Tait says. “Yet, he flew from Wisconsin and sat through the entire ceremony just to see me walk across the stage for five minutes.”

You can feel the tie we both had to Choate. The school forever changed my life and was one of the most impactful things in his life, as well.”

– Rachel Proudman ’19

Herb Kohler ’57

Choate lost a force to be reckoned with on September 3, 2022, with the death of alumnus Herbert V. Kohler Jr. ’57. Kohler’s presence is very much still part of Choate. As his son David Kohler ’84, says, “He moved the things he touched.” Among them: Choate Rosemary Hall.

Herb and David began working together at Kohler in 1996. “We shared more — family, our Choate bond, Kohler careers, hunting, golfing, fishing — than we did with any other person on the planet. Even though we were different people, because of our common experiences, we understood each other at a deep level.” This resulted in a powerful dynamic. David says, “We pushed and challenged one another, all while creating.”

Rachel spent a summer at Kohler as an intern. As did her grandfather, she chose a factory position. “Working at the factory allowed for seeing the company fully, from the most basic level,” she says. “For me, that meant physically manufacturing something that would eventually be sold to consumers.”

Working alongside Herb brought with it many life lessons. David says, “He was a great role model; very distinguished, yet humble, disciplined while being charismatic, bold, ambitious, creative, a builder.”

KOHLER ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER

One of Herb’s building projects encountered a roadblock. When looking to build a golf course at Choate, research determined the project wasn’t feasible. “He could have taken his ball and gone home, but he pivoted,” Marshall Ruben P ’07, ’08, ’10, a friend of Herb’s and fellow Choate Board of Trustees member, says. A new idea emerged: the Kohler Environmental Center (KEC).

Dr. Curtis was impressed by Herb’s approach and attention to detail with the KEC project. “He didn’t try and keep the school the same as it always was; instead, he encouraged Choate to dream big, not set boundaries, and lead through excellence.” Such determination saw the KEC developing its yearlong Environmental Immersion Program

combining education and research. The building itself earned Platinum LEED-certified status. Additionally, Dr. Curtis says, “We’re seeing former KEC students emerging as leaders in environmentalism, but also bringing a sustainable lens to other professions.”

Herb’s grandkids remember the KEC being built and its 2012 unveiling. Later, they’d have their own firsthand experiences at the center. When Tait attended Choate, she checked out the completed project. Skipping the campus shuttle, she trekked over. “The walk reminded me of my grandfather,” she says. “The KEC is in the middle of the woods; even in the dining space, glass walls let you see the beautiful nature outside.”

Rachel would join Herb at the KEC when he was visiting. “Whenever Grandpa came to Choate, he’d stay in the KEC’s guestroom,” Rachel says. “He’d invite me to brunch with the kids who lived there. Seeing him engaging with students about their passions in that environment was beautiful.”

Struck by this, too, was Dr. Curtis. “Herb truly listened and took a personal interest in each person. I was amazed that beyond running an international company, he was involved in so many different things, including Choate.”

CHOATE’S BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Herb joined Choate Rosemary Hall’s Board of Trustees in 1994, serving as its chairman from 2005 to 2011. Collaborating with Herb brought with it myriad projects. Hank Snyder ’85, who served alongside Herb, says, “The Board was functioning at its highest during Herb’s tenure as chairman.”

Ruben concurs. “I was amazed by his commitment. He never missed a board meeting; more importantly, he was a hundred percent present. He focused his attention on the matter at hand in an extraordinary way.”

KEC Dedication Ribbon Ceremony 2012

The board’s goals were a group effort. “Herb’s management style was extremely effective,” Ruben says. “He delegated and let people do their thing. At the end of the day, we wouldn’t let him down.” Snyder echoes this. “We were able to get so much done because of a mutual directness of purpose, trust, and respect for one another.”

Herb’s drive was infectious. “His focus on the school, excellence, and innovation weren’t just words for him,” Ruben says. “It was substance.” Snyder agrees. “We flew our own path and became the lodestar other schools compared themselves to,” he says. “It was a magical time. You can look around the campus today and see the results.”

SERVING AS INSPIRATION

Beyond the students at KEC, Herb inspired many. Among them, his granddaughters. “He believed the highest standard of Choate came through its challenges and what its different environments hold,” Tait says. “Like Papa, I have a sense of passion and performance. Mine grew through Choate’s art program.” With that in mind, “I wanted to find a place on campus where I was my truest self, outside of academics.” Embodying that for Tait in several ways was Colony Hall. “There’s a tree right outside of Colony dedicated to my grandfather that I walked past every day on my way to art classes.”

Lending support to his granddaughters’ goals saw Herb showing up at various Choate events. “I was on the varsity tennis team, and he made an active effort to fly out for all the matches,” Rachel says. Nerves were always at an all-time high for Rachel during those matches. Then, she’d catch sight of her grandfather standing next to the court. “He always had this twinkle in his eye. I’d see that twinkle, and my nerves disappeared.”

Support also came through what Rachel terms a “tough love mentality.” “Knowing you could accomplish anything, he pushed you to your limits and asked hard questions,” she says. “The challenge led me to articulate what was important to me and made me reach for the highest goals.”

Dr. Curtis also experienced this firsthand. “You had to be well-prepared for a conversation with Herb because he knew the right questions to ask and wasn’t shy about asking them,” he says. “I always felt we came out better as a result of that.”

THE LEGACY LIVES ON

“Grandpa had a wild spirit with no limits,” Rachel says. Herb’s loved ones are determined to carry this spirit forward, building on the foundation he laid. David declares, “We want to continue to evolve and preserve his passions, from the Kohler Co. to Choate, ensuring they’re vibrant and creative, while positively impacting the community, people, and world we touch.” Of his father, David says:

Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees 2005

Very few true characters like that have walked the face of the earth as he did in his own unique, independent way.”

Herb Kohler with Mazie St. John at the dedication of St. John Student Center, 2017

2007 Campaign Launch: An Opportunity to Lead

MWENDE WINDOW SNYDER ’93

On Tuesday, May 9, Mwende Window Snyder ’93 received the 2023 Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Award. This is the highest recognition the School bestows upon a graduate. The Award recognizes alumni whose outstanding professional achievements have brought prestige to the School.

Window can best be described as a trailblazer in the world of cybersecurity. Before cybersecurity became part of our vernacular, Window was shaping the way major technology companies deal with security threats. She has been building security technologies into platforms and operating systems for more than 20 years.

Window has served as the Chief Security Officer at Square, Fastly, and Mozilla. She was also a senior security strategist at Microsoft, acting as security lead and signoff on Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003. She spent five years at Apple, responsible for security and privacy strategy and features for OS X and iOS.

In 2004, she co-authored Threat Modeling, a manual for security architecture analysis in software.

Most recently she is the founder and CEO of Thistle Technologies, a modern security platform designed for the Internet of Things (IoT) and embedded device manufacturers. In creating this company, Window is addressing a known gap in security. Through Thistle, she provides protection for the everyday objects we use that connect to the internet via embedded devices like kitchen appliances, cars, thermostats, and baby monitors.

Window is a graduate of Boston College, where she served as president of the Association for Computer Machinery. She is among the youngest alumni invited to serve on the Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees.

In addition to addressing the full campus community at School Meeting, Window spent time throughout the day with Choate students who were interested in careers in technology and cybersecurity.

CHRISTOPHER M. HODGSON ’78, P ’12, ’14, ’17

Each year during Reunion Weekend, the Alumni Association recognizes the alumnus or alumna who has enhanced the School through their outstanding service by honoring them with the Distinguished Service Award. This year’s honoree is Christopher M. Hodgson ’78, P ’12, ’14, ’17.

Throughout his life Chris has continued to serve his alma mater as a Class Agent for the Annual Fund and Reunion Volunteer in each of his nine reunions. For more than a decade he was a member of the Alumni Association Executive Committee, serving as Communication Chair, Chair of the Nominating and Prize Committee, and from 2012 to 2014 President of the Alumni Association. In this role, he joined the Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees, where he served on the Development, Alumni, and Parent Relations Committee as well as the Audit Committee.

At Choate, Chris was a member of the varsity football, varsity ice hockey and J.V. baseball teams. He was on The Brief Board, a member of the Radio Broadcast and Spanish clubs, and on the Honors Committee. He earned a B.A. from the University of Vermont and went on to attend The T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond.

Chris is a three-time Choate parent (Kate ’12, Brooke ’14, and Jack ’17) and a senior partner at Berchem Moses in Milford, Conn.

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

The Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Association’s mission is 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

President

Elizabeth Alford Hogan ’82

Vice Presidents

Jaques Clariond ’01

Justin Graham ’98

Lena Sullesta Jessen ’92

Dewey Kang ’03

John Smyth ’83, P ’20

Additional Executive Committee Members

Chief Development Officer

Anne Bergen

Director of Development and Alumni Relations

Mari Jones

Director of Alumni Relations

Andrea Solomon

Alumni Association

Past Presidents

Susan Barclay ’85

David Hang ’94, P ’25

Chris Hodgson ’78, P ’12, ’14, ’17

Parisa Jaffer ’89

Woody Laikind ’53

Patrick McCurdy ’98

Members

Melissa Barrett ’88, P ’21, ’23

Sam Chao ’04

John Glanville ’73

Chris Herzog ’99

Ashley Holt ’11

David Javdan ’86

David Kestnbaum ’00

Jack Kingsley ’87

Lambert Lau ’97

Bradford Mak ’96

Duby McDowell ’78

George Ramirez ’11

MaryLiz Williamson ’94, Faculty Representative

REGIONAL CLUB LEADERSHIP

Boston

Gabby Rundle Robinette ’06

Sarah Strang ’07

Chicago

Maria Del Favero ’83

Jacqueline Salamack Lanphier ’06

Connecticut

David Aversa ’91

Katie Vitali Childs ’95, P ’24, ’26

Los Angeles

Wesley Hansen ’98

Alexa Platt ’95

New York

Derrick Gomez ’98

Leah Lettieri ’07

Rosemary Hall

Anne Marshall Henry ’62

San Francisco

Ian Chan ’10

Albert Lee ’02

Washington, DC

Olivia Bee ’10

Dan Carucci ’76

Tillie Fowler ’92

Beijing

Matthew Cheng ’10

Gunther Hamm ’98

Hong Kong

Lambert Lau ’97

Sandy Wan ’90

Jennifer Yu Cheng ’99

London

Tatiana Donaldson ’13

Elitsa Nacheva ’08

Seoul

Rae-Eun Sung ’97

Shanghai

Michael ’88 and Peggy Moh P ’18, ’23

Thailand

Isa Chirathivat ’96

Pat Sethbhakdi ’85, P ’18, ’18, ’20

Tokyo

Miki Yoshida ’07

Hall of Fame

ATH L E T ICS

Each year the Alumni Association recognizes outstanding athletes whose contributions and achievements have enhanced the School’s athletic program and reputation. On Saturday, May 13, two athletes and a long-time coach will be inducted into the Choate

Rosemary Hall Athletics Hall of Fame. Orthwein Family Director of Athletics

Roney Eford will lead the ceremony during Reunion Weekend in the presence of fellow alumni, teachers, coaches, and families.

CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

DANIEL “HAM” MAGILL III ’63 was an athletic powerhouse at Choate, competing in football, basketball, cross country, and baseball, but he truly made his mark as a four-year member of the varsity tennis team. Named captain in his fifth and sixth form years, Ham led the varsity tennis team to two championships with overall team records of 10-2-0 (1962) and 10-1-0 (1963). For these outstanding seasons, the team received the Upshur Moorhead Tennis Cup both years. Beyond his athletic accolades, Ham was an excellent student and member of the Choate community, earning a place in the Cum Laude Society, the School Seal Prize in 1962, and the Aurelian Prize — voted by the senior class and awarded to the boy they considered to be the most outstanding member in character, scholarship, and leadership.

After Choate, Ham played tennis for three years at Princeton before graduating early in 1965. Ham went on to receive his medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Magill has served as a cardiologist in Athens, Ga., for more than 20 years. In 2017, Ham was inducted into the Georgia Tennis Foundation Hall of Fame.

BRIANA MASTEL ’13 was a four-year tri-varsity athlete in field hockey, soccer, ice hockey, and lacrosse. Because of her outstanding leadership, Briana was a tri-varsity captain of the girls ice hockey, soccer, and lacrosse teams in her sixth form year. She received awards for the Greatest Contribution to Athletics in each of her four years at Choate. Passionate about the entire school experience and “leaving Choate better than when she started,” Briana was a recipient of the School Seal Prize at Commencement.

Briana earned her B.A. in psychology and Spanish at Harvard, where she served as a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and competed on the varsity women’s hockey team, leading the team as captain in her senior year. She earned myriad accolades including being named three times to the All NEPSAC Team, ECAC Hockey All-Academic team all four years, and winning the Dooley Award for sportsmanship, among others.

After Harvard, Briana played two seasons of professional hockey for the Boston Pride, where she was an Isobel Cup Champion and member of the 2020 regular season championship team. She also served as a Team Leader for USA Hockey and an on-ice assistant for the New England East Coast Wizards youth hockey team.

Briana currently serves as Assistant Director of Admissions at the Middlesex School in Concord where she is also the head coach of girls varsity hockey.

DOUG JAMES enjoyed a 43-year career at Choate, as an iconic and beloved English teacher and coach. During his tenure at Choate, Doug served as the head coach for varsity football from 1974 to 1981 and 2003 to 2007, and the head coach of the J.V. football team from 1981 to 2003. The varsity team celebrated nine winning seasons out of the 11 coached by Doug, going undefeated (8-0) in the 1980-81 season. In fact, he coached undefeated seasons for varsity, J.V., and thirds football teams.

Doug was head coach for the most memorable Deerfield Day football game on the books when in 1978, an 85-yard touchdown pass won the game and beat a previously undefeated Deerfield.

Doug also served as a varsity baseball coach during his 43-year career, first as assistant varsity head coach and then as head coach from 2011 to 2017. Under his leadership as head coach, the baseball team had an impressive record of 75-30 and won two league championships.

Since retiring in 2017, Doug continues to live in Wallingford with his wife, Kim Bohen. He is the proud parent of six Choate alumni.

CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL REUNION

’23

BRINGING BACK OUR BOARS!

REUNION WEEKEND 2023 (all classes ending in 3s and 8s)

FRIDAY, MAY 12 – SUNDAY, MAY 14

SCHEDULE HIGHLIGHTS

FRIDAY | 5.12

• Campus Tours with Gold Key Student Tour Guides

• Class Receptions and Dinners

• Music, Dancing, and Catching up with Classmates

SATURDAY | 5.13

• Fun Run!

• Class Meetings and Activities

• Alumni Panels: eSTEAMed Women and Entertainment in the Modern World

• Discussion with Jim Campbell ’73, Author of Madoff Talks: Uncovering the Untold Story Behind the Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme in History

• Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

• Toast to Gold and Blue Reception for all Alumni

• Leadership Reception with the Head of School and Presentation of the 2023 Distinguished Service Award

SUNDAY | 5.14

• Chapel Service Honoring Deceased Alumni

• Farewell Brunch

More than 1,000 alumni have already signed up for Choate’s new career networking hub.

What are you waiting for?

ChoateNexus gives you access to: our alumni business directory, job postings, mentorship opportunities, and so much more.

Whether you are looking for advice from someone who has been in your shoes or hoping to connect with alumni working in your industry, ChoateNexus is where you want to be.

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1940s

’46 RH Dorothy Montague Cholnoky writes, “I am lucky to have fond memories of my days at RosemaryGreenwich, and especially my years of service as a Trustee at Choate.”

’48 RH Shirlee Sanderson Mitchell lives in Hanover, N.H. She worked for years as an administrator for the Dartmouth football teams, and goes to all the athlete contests. She loves needlepoint, reading political novels and walking her Labrador on the beach where she summers in Small Point, Maine. She has nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

1950s

’51 C Ted Mack wrote just before he passed away in Feburary, “Our Head, Seymour St. John, went to Yale with Jack Kennedy. When a Congressman, Kennedy was invited to school. He held several chats with selected upper formers. I participated in one — one of my fondest never-to-be-forgotten memories of Choate days!”

’52 C Miguel Suarez writes, “In June , I drove my wife, Yolly, and my daughter, Yoli, with her 10-yearold son, Carlos, from Mijas Pueblo to Sitges, Spain, Viaduct of Millau, Pont du Gard, Annecy, Mont Blanc, Lauterbrunnen (Jungfraujoch), Castlenaudary (Canal du Midi), and back to Andalusia. I drove 6,800 kilometers. Not bad for an 88.6-year-old. One of the best trips of my life. In November, my wife and I flew to Spain. We drove all over Andalusia, mainly to small towns. I celebrated my 89th birthday while in Fuengirola with Spanish friends.”

’53 C Arthur Richardson writes, “My wife and I moved to Charleston, S.C., from Honolulu so I might return to the East Coast and because my son and family live and work in Hamburg, Germany. As a

history buff, I love that Charleston is among the most historic cities in America where many of the buildings date from the 18th century — plus, the restaurants are among the best in the country. I volunteer as a docent at The Gibbes Museum of Art, the only fine arts museum in the city; come and visit and I’ll give you a tour.”

’55 C Jack Winkler writes, “I am now retired, so not doing much of interest, but it is worth repeating my long-standing offer: If any members of the Class of 1955 (or thereabouts) come to London, they would be most welcome if they invited themselves to a reunion at my house, just give me a call: (+44) (0)20-7226-1672.”

’56 C George Gamble writes, “Dancing horses, you ask? Yes, my wife, Nancy, and I have made a first-ever feature length movie of our dancing horses! The horse breeds we dance are Andalusian and Friesian, breeds originally from Spain and the Netherlands. The film was streamed in April by Lionsgate entertainment group, featuring actors Billy Zane from Titanic and film star Amber Midthunder from her recent film, Prey.”

Alfred Vinton writes, “It has been a while since I have been able to return to Choate. I have lived in London since 1977 and retired in 2015 from a private equity firm after a career in banking and finance. I built a home in Carmel, Calif., (Santa Lucia Preserve) in 2006 and spend about three or four months a year there. Otherwise, I’m doing a fair bit of traveling, some of it cultural/educational (recently Jordan/Egypt/Southeast Asia) and some golf-related trips around the US and the UK. I have given up tennis due to knee injury, and have devoted much time and effort to improving my golf. The family is doing well, with my five kids all living in the US. It would be nice to get back to Choate at some point in the near future.”

’57 C Jan Beyea writes, "The Senate passed a bill in 2022 that includes disability support for veterans exposed to plutonium during cleanup of nuclear weapons debris. It was very satisfying for

me, having published papers in recent years with Princeton professor emeritus Frank N. von Hippel on the scientific justification for such support. We also served as expert witnesses for the Yale Veterans Legal Services Clinic, major advocates for this component of the legislation. This year, I have had a research paper accepted by the journal Radiation Research. It’s all traceable to my favorite class at Choate, physics with Mr. Garrison."

Barry Feinberg writes, “My wife and I sold our Florida and North Carolina homes and bought a house in Hampton, N.H. It’s great to be back in New England after 35 years away. But we do avoid the cold weather and spend January through April in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.”

Walter Lockwood writes, “Upon retirement from the Foreign Service, we moved to the Pacific Northwest and built our dream house on the water in Blaine, Wash. Mountaineering in the magnificent North Cascades, the study and pursuit of wildflowers, immersion in the ‘universe’ of lichens, and photography have consumed most of my attention over the past 25 years. I have co-authored publications on these topics. Things have slowed way down, but it has been a wonderful ride.”

Peter Sipple writes, “After 25 years heading independent schools and 50 as an Episcopal priest, I have settled in Guilford, Conn., with my wife, Margaret. Avocations include singing and choral direction, woodworking, and parish ministry. Son Matt has followed in school leadership and daughter Jen teaches art. Both kids and grandkids have taught and studied abroad for many years in international schools. I have stayed in touch with Art Trotman ’57 and his wife Kate, and was pleased they could attend a recent concert of Yale’s ‘Classic Whiffenpoofs,’ which I led. It’s a special joy to remain active with singing friends from many years back.”

’58 C James Dwinell III writes, “I saw a number of Choate friends (Jim Whitters and Susan Moore, David and Carol Rawle, Chris and Kit Norris, and Dick Murdock) last fall in Vermont at a wonderful celebration of Bruce Nelson’s life. We were reminded

Shirlee Sanderson Mitchell ’48 has 9 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren.

Miguel Suarez ’52 in Chamonix - Mont Blanc. Baños de la Encina valley north of Jaen, Spain.

Morris Everett ’59 then and now! He’s still got it! He has won a tournament in every decade of his life.

what an accomplished and caring person Bruce was. He touched many lives of many people in many facets of life. All were better because of this association.”

Byron Goff writes, “I retired on my birthday in 2022. I had a good run practicing law in Arizona. I got what we all get in the end — lots of stories. I’m now engaged in a volunteer project and looking forward to what the future might bring.”

1960s

’60 RH Elizabeth Shera Haeussler writes, “My husband died in September 2022. His funeral was changed because of Hurricane Ian and finally occurred October 21. I attended Rosemary Hall only for my freshman year, but all my children are graduates of Choate Rosemary Hall. My granddaughter applied, but was waitlisted and attended a boarding school in Florida. I graduated from Wellesley and received an MDiv at Drew University. I became Greek Orthodox in 1996, joined the choir, and spent some time learning Byzantine notation for chant and working with the homeless. I am now trying to settle his death results and the apartment. Hopefully by the fall I will be back to some semblance of normal.”

’61 C Maurice Heckscher writes, “No more squash for me, but I have fallen in love with pickleball. Won the Delaware Senior Singles (80+) and am headed for the Nationals in Pittsburgh this July!”

’61 RH Sue Bristoll Sayles writes, “I’m still working with autistic kiddos and love the challenge. This is my fifth year. My own kids are coming up on 55 and 53. I’m 39 and holding, and suffice to say, I’ve been holding for quite some time. Our grandkids are 19, 21, 21, 23 and 27. Where does the time go? Two are graduating from college in May. Two are out of college and the ‘baby’ is a college sophomore. Hope all of you are staying safe and keeping well. Love staying in touch with friends from RH after all these years!”

’62 C Deaver Brown writes, “Choate has a long history of being involved in politics and world affairs from JFK 1935 and Adlai Stevenson 1918 as graduates to our world trips by Mr. Low to China to Mr. van Straalen and Mr. Ayres to the Soviet Union, Ukraine, Poland, and Finland, which Phil Issenman ’62 and I were on in the summer of 1962 before going to Harvard. Even then, Ukraine was recovering from war and the Nazis’ having bombed out Kiev. Kudos to Choate back then, as it continues its traditions now.”

James Lenfestey, after a career in academia, marketing communications, and journalism on the editorial board of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where he won several Page One awards for excellence, has published two collections of personal essays, and seven collections of poems, edited three poetry anthologies, and co-edited Robert Bly in This World (University of Minnesota Press). In 2020 he received the Kay Sexton Award for significant contributions and leadership in the Minnesota Literary Community. As co-editor, in 2021 he published the poetry anthology, The Uncommon Speech of Paradise: Poems in the Art of Poetry (White Pine Press). Milkweed Editions will publish his next poetry collection, Body Odes, Praise Songs and Other Oddities and Amazements in the fall of 2024.

F. John Wilkes Jr. writes, “Despite Gini’s and my due diligence in practicing vaccine protocols, we both managed to catch COVID on our way home from a captivating Mediterranean cruise last spring. Luckily, it came just as we were leaving our last venue, Venice, via speedboat for the airport. During our cruise aboard the Oceania Riviera, we also visited the myriad cultures of Spain, Croatia, Montenegro, and France, where I still have friends from my 1966 Peace Corps days in the Ivory Coast. After a threeyear hiatus, I have returned to ski racing on the New England Masters’ circuit this winter. Moving up the ladder over my fellow competitors who grew up skiing at lunchtime in Vermont grade schools is a challenge. I’m currently making headlines as a substitute teacher at Bayonne High School. That, too, is a challenge. But I’m facing it with courage and

fortitude, as well as trying to have a bit of fun. Things have certainly changed at secondary schools since I left Wallingford! Ending 2022 in style, we sailed on our ‘almost’ annual Queen Mary holiday cruise to visit the islands of the Caribbean at Christmas. I have at last completed the first re-write of my fictional memoir. The new version of The Star Gazer is now available on Amazon (you may have to scroll down a few pages to find it). By the way, the first several chapters are free online (https://wilkes1019.wixsite. com/thestargazer), and Chapter 3 is all about Choate.”

’62 RH Anne Marshall Henry writes, “This summer, in Scarborough, Maine, Dick and I visited with Sally Corlette Thebaud and her daughter, Cindy Thebaud, USN Ret. Sally turned 90 July 7. She was our chemistry teacher fifth form year at RH as well as my adviser and class adviser our sixth form year.”

’63 C John Calfee Jr. writes, “It is hard to believe that the class of ’63 will be celebrating our 60th reunion this May. It seemed like only yesterday I was back at Choate for our 50th. God willing and the creek don’t rise, I and my wife, Andrea, plan to be in Wallingford this May. I see or hear from classmates periodically. Paul Buddenhagen called to see if I was going to return. I see Rick Bole in Cleveland, and hear about his tennis exploits. I know we have lost some of our most memorable classmates; but there are still a few of you left to reminisce with, and I hope you will stir your stumps and return.”

’63 RH Vicki Brooks writes, “Daughter Katie lives in Denver with her husband and three-year-old Riley. Son David works at JP Morgan and lives in the West Village. Vicki and husband David finally traveled in 2022, first to a Brooks family reunion and later to Italy, Slovenia and Croatia.”

Tina Close writes, “I moved to Montana in June 2016. After 35 years in Jackson, Wyo., it was an enormous wrench. But now the four of us ‘kids’ are in the same town, as well as daughters, nieces, nephews and Jessie’s grandchildren.” One dog and four small parrots also keep Tina company.

Alfred Vinton ’56 spending Christmas at home in Leicestershire. Barry Feinberg ’57 and his wife Minerva in Puerto Vallarta. Peter Sipple ’57 and wife Margaret.

F.

1 In January 2023

John Wilkes Jr. 52 participated in the New England Masters GS race at Stratton Mountain

2 Anne Marshall Henry ’62 and husband, Dick, visited with Sally Corlette Thebaud and her daughter, Cindy Thebaud, in Maine.

3 Susan Hennington Jordan 64 and her husband, John, founded a not-forprofit volunteer service organization, Friends of Bald Rock. Pictured here are volunteers removing graffiti at Bald Rock Heritage Preserve, Cleveland, S C , October 2022

4 Author photo of James Lenfestey ’62 for his next poetry collection, Body Odes, Praise Songs and other Oddities and Amazements due to release fall of 2024.

5 Class of ’64 forever friends: Patricia Sweney du Pont, Christie Thompson Sumner, Sally Schaefer, and Susanne Jackson Miller

Donna Dickenson writes, “I’ve been archiving my publications on Google Scholar and Research Gate. The latter has 255 entries, to my amazement: books, articles and invited lectures. Archiving entails writing abstracts and adding keywords for everything, so I’d put off the laborious task, but I’m pleased I finally did the job. It made me realize the common threads throughout my work, which is very satisfying despite the apparent disparity between the feminist biographies and the medical ethics. Throughout, I’ve been concerned with making sure women’s voices aren’t silenced.”

Anne Carroll Furman has become a snowbird, and bought a place in Delray Beach, Fla. She writes: “We have rented for 10 years, but when the prices went to the ultimate highest they could go, we bought. I have not gotten any smarter since high school!”

Jean McBee Knox writes, “Our cold New Hampshire winter was brightened by being in the cast of the wonderfully witty musical Guys and Dolls, which had six sold-out performances in Plymouth. I never expected to reinvent myself at age 77 as part of a Mission Band! We travel once a month to Massachusetts to visit our two grandchildren and attend Boston Symphony concerts. The rest of the time I’m busy with writing, conservation, woodblock prints, and library work here in Sandwich.”

Angela Treat Lyon writes, “Busy as ever. In the process of writing two books, and creating two others with some of the art I made last year. I’m delighted to say I just published the fourth and fifth volumes in my series, Inside Secrets: Stories I’ve Never Told Anyone, my adventures as a woman, artist, mother, hitchhiker and international traveler, and general mistake-maker. Volume 6 will be a few months down the road. As if that isn’t enough, I’m opening an Etsy store.”

Chris Murray McKee writes, “I absolutely can’t believe it was 60 years ago that we graduated and went our separate ways out into the world. My life turned international as we forged careers in the Foreign Service, with many years in Central America and lastly in Egypt. Along the way we had kids and now grandkids (five granddaughters) and are now watching

in amazement as they become interesting, challenging and delightful members of society. After wonderful adventures, Tom and I settled in New Hampshire and I developed another career in real estate.”

Margo Melton Nutt writes, “I broke out of the COVID cocoon and spent three weeks in France in September. Time at home is spent doing volunteer work for the church and Friends of the Norwich Public Library (of which I am president).”

Mary Ford Schadt writes, “We are well in western North Carolina, and are continually entertained by our menagerie, consisting of Shetland sheepdogs, mallard ducks and pair of Canada geese and visiting Muscovy ducks. I still volunteer in the children’s section of the local library and keep busy needle felting and experimenting with resin art.”

Reeve Lindbergh Tripp writes, “We are staying cozily at home, enjoying the sunshine. We have no sheep anymore, but still have chickens in the barn and our two cheerful Labs in the house, and we see children and grandchildren when they visit. I’m working on bits and pieces of writing, and was asked to do an introduction for another anniversary issue of my mother’s book, Gift from the Sea, which is still in print, amazingly. In fact, this will be the 70th anniversary edition.”

’64 C Kim Masters earned an M.A. in Egyptology at the University of Manchester, UK, in December. He’s now in a two-year course on biomedical Egyptology, involving bones and mummies.

’64 RH Susan Hennington Jordan writes, “My husband, John, and I founded a not-for-profit volunteer service organization, Friends of Bald Rock Heritage Preserve, in the fall of 2021 to assist the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources to restore a 165-acre heritage preserve near our home in Cleveland, S.C. The preserve features acres of granite outcroppings that have been littered and spray-painted for decades. Our volunteers have been pressure-washing graffiti off the rock and collecting litter, while collaborating with the Clemson University Landscape Architecture Department. The

Clemson study team is researching graffiti mitigation methods, and other designed sustainable solutions that will protect and preserve headwater streams, the forest, and rare and threatened plant and animal species. A new grant to study the history of the preserve will provide perspective to help shift the culture from vandalism to conservation. We are inspired by our dedicated members, donors, volunteers, and partner organizations. Check us out at friendsofbaldrock.com In our spare time, we’re entertaining our seven grandchildren, hiking and exploring the Upstate SC mountains.”

Christie Thompson Sumner writes, “Over the last year, a few of us ’64s have gotten together to catch up in Connecticut and Florida; some of us are off to Morocco this spring. It feels as if we haven’t changed, but as you see by photos (and class date), we have! Still friends after all these years.”

’65 C Stephen Buck writes, “I have been gently following the Rolling ’65 Reunion and have been enjoying it. Dawn and I went to Cuba for two weeks in late February. Before that, I flew to Aspen from Boston to ski for a week with my brother John (Choate ’66) and a friend of his. Dawn and I still meditate every morning in a sangha of two, which smooths out some of the bumps of life.”

Tom Courage writes, “In advance of our 55th reunion scheduled for May 2020, Peter Schaeffer convened a group to plan for reunion events we might undertake. An early focus of the group, in addition to reunion, was the strengthening of the Will Ireland Fund, a scholarship named for our late classmate, and which John Callan, Laird Davis and the Ireland family had been instrumental in creating. Dick Bott played a significant role in our promotion of the scholarship. The 2020 reunion, of course, did not happen, but the group found that it enjoyed meeting and working together. Rather than disbanding, the group morphed into a permanent committee that has been meeting every week by Zoom for the past several years. All classmates are invited to attend and receive minutes of these meetings. (In fact, all Choate alumni are welcome to attend.) Conversations

Stephen Buck ’65 and spouse Dawn Kramer.

James Smith ’65 and Rita enjoying their new home at Avenida Lakewood.

Carlie Mayer ’65 enjoys making quilts in her spare time.

range widely, including current travel and other activities, discussion of current events, books and movies of interest, and importantly, provision of mutual support and assistance to our classmates. In one case, John Callan and Rob Simpson arranged suitable housing and caregiving support for a disabled classmate and his wife. In a critical element of the group’s activities, Chris Meyer administers a program in which classmates with professional or other subject matter expertise give TED-type talks on matters ranging from problems of aging to the history of photography. To date, more than half of our classmates have participated in the meetings or talks, and many others indicated that they appreciate being updated about their classmates through the meeting minutes. Those who have participated have enjoyed the the support, friendship, and knowledge shared among us on a continuing basis in our ‘Neverending Reunion’.”

Henry McNulty writes, “For the past two years my wife, Anne, and I have been deeply involved in environmental matters, through our church in Cheshire, Conn., with three land trusts, with the interfaith group Cheshire Creation Care, and more. This year I joined a fledgling statewide group whose goal is to ban the sales of 50- and 100-ML plastic ‘airline bottles’ of liquor — a major problem for waterways, because they slip through the gratings of storm sewers.”

James Smith writes, “Maybe it was dumb luck rather than market intelligence, but Rita and I sold our Golden, Colo., single-family home in March 2022, figuring (correctly, it turned out) that we were at the top of the market and it was time to cash out and move into a 55+ rental community nearby. We are enjoying life in this vibrant community of 250 seniors, where we know far more people and have far more friends that we had in the isolation of our 300home subdivision. I’m still a full-time broker/owner of Golden Real Estate, but expecting to sell it and retire this year or next and spend more time traveling the world. We have a big bucket list!”

’65 RH Glenn Close writes, “I have lived full-time, in Bozeman, Mont., for the last three years. My entire family is here, including my daughter, Annie, and her husband, as well as my three siblings and various nieces and nephews. I continue to work. Last year, I was part of three incredibly different film projects: The Deliverance, directed by Lee Daniels and co-starring Andra Day, Monique and Aunjanue Ellis, Omar Epps and others. We shot in Pittsburgh, a city I really fell in love with. The second project was the small but impactful role of Carmel Snow, the editor of Harper’s Bazaar, in a series for Apple+ called The New Look. It’s about Chanel and Dior between the World Wars, and the world of French couture. The creator and head writer is Adam Kessler, who was one of the creators and the head writers on Damages. I really think a LOT of people will love the new series. The

last project was Back in Action, starring Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz. It’s a ‘spy romp.’ I play Cameron’s kick-ass, British, former MI6 mother. It was fun — a lovely group of people. I got to do some energetic stunt sequences. Then thankfully home to Bozeman, big snow, and family. I am part of a citizen advocacy group working to get best practices mental health care in our county. It is a fight, to say the least. But we battle on. The nonprofit that we started 11 years ago, Bring Change to Mind, is going strong, establishing BC2M clubs in high schools across America — stigma free spaces where kids can learn about mental health, find solace, be vigilant and become mental health advocates, themselves. When home, I seek silence. Read a lot. Play backgammon with my sister and speak to my daughter at least once a day. And I have my Havanese sidekick, Sir Pippin, always by my side. I have never loved life more. Greetings and love to all.”

Wesley Cullen Davidson writes, “I was sad to learn that my English teacher, Judith Richter, has passed away. My sister, Dancy Cullen ’60, an Optima awardee, died in January 2023 in Carmel, Calif.. Sandy and I divide our time between Vero Beach, where I see Annie Harris Milliken ’66, and Fishers Island, N.Y. We have put the Fishers Island house on the market. At our age, we want comfort and convenience, not island living without amenities. Les Hencken (Lesley Starbuck), Kathy Ketcham and I get together regularly in New York City. Friendships cultivated since the 10th Grade at Rosemary Hall. I’m still writing about LGBT issues and addiction (we lost a son to drugs in 2016). My website is https://wesleycullendavidson.com. Looking forward to a reunion.”

Abigail Erdmann writes, “Days flow into weeks, weeks into years. I am still wearing my yoga clothes 90% of the time since my husband put in a yoga studio with a heated cork floor, but I am out in the world a lot, (old women get to wear what we want), picking up grandchildren once a week, rabble-rousing in Brookline with a very dynamic and mixed group around racial justice and equity, co-teaching a memoir writing class to women who live in affordable housing, helping raise funds for The Neighborhood Birth Center where black and brown women can give birth or terminate pregnancy with providers who are also black and brown, and beginning to collaborate on a book about our beloved alternative school, School-WithinA-School (SWS), where I taught for 45 years. Most days, I am grateful for my good enough body and mind, my kind and lovely husband, children, and grandchildren near me and in good health but lest this sound too ideal, I also have rough days filled with sadness and frustration at the growing limitations of my mind and body, the injustice in the world, the stupidity of too many in Congress, and the cruelty of the war in Ukraine. I feel grateful for the lifetime friendships that started at Rosemary and still hold deeply, although my own teaching is a radical pivot from how we were taught.”

Sarah Kernochan writes, “At our advanced age, I’m surprised to find myself still employed, though this time I’m writing in a form I’ve never tried: the libretto of a musical. My collaborators, James Lapine, Alan Menken, and Nell Benjamin, are all dazzling pros, so most of my job is to sit back and gawp (and learn). My best friends are still the ones I made at the Pink Prison, and I have survived the COVID era thus far by monthly Zooms with classmates Margot Botsford, Deborah Choate, Lisa de Lima, Anne Woodhull, and ‘Glenniebop’ Close.”

Carlie Mayer writes, “I still live in Sag Harbor, am still doing massage/healing/health coaching and making quilts when time and body allow. My sister Margot died in 2018 and brother Tom died in 2019, so I was in a very dark place for a while, but I spent a lot of time with each of them and helped them go through it. Although I got divorced, my ex and I are still good friends after 53 years! I live with my dog and cat and am enjoying what’s left. The house where I grew up, Old Mill Farm, in Round Hill, has been saved from developers! There is an effort to create an Arts and Education Center called Foundation House, focusing on health, wellness, and climate! Check it out on Google. https://greenwichhistory. org/foundation-house-at-old-mill-farm/. Mel Gibson bought it from us when my dad died, and he made many improvements both inside and to the gardens.

Sue Bauer Napier writes, “I’m enjoying my life in Lexington, Ky., and it’s hard to believe I’ve been here 20 years! Last year was filled with travel to Hawaii, Alaska, and many points in between. My daughter and her two girls live in Athens, Ga., and we visit as often as we can. Eldest granddaughter Kenzie Howell is a freshman at Clemson, and her sister Elizabeth is active in competitive cheer. Lots of travel there too! After 40plus years, I’ve retired from judging horse shows but still enjoy practicing real estate in the Horse Capital of the World. Sadly, Judy Richter passed away November 30. She had dealt with some health issues, but her death was unexpected. It’s my understanding that a memorial service will be held in May (the day after Mother’s Day) at her Coker Farm in Bedford, N.Y. For updates or questions feel free to e-mail sue@rhr.com or phone (859) 533-2097.”

Ann Mason Sears writes, “As we pass the milestone of 75 years, there’s time to reflect, relax, and be grateful for our stable lives in this unsettling time. Herb and I continue to mix Florida warmth with boating and cruising, then skiing in Vermont. Enjoying all the time with children and the grandchildren with lots of family gathering each summer in Maine. Now that COVID rules have relaxed, it’s time to arrange a classmate gathering for lunch in August in Maine again.”

Kathleen Ketcham Wikowitz writes, “I was fortunate enough to see Lesley Hencken Starbuck a lot this year, as she, too, lives in Manhattan. Wesley Cullen Davidson also comes into New York on occasion and the three of us always celebrate our

birthdays together as well as fun meals around the holidays. My sister unfortunately died this year from ALS, a truly debilitating disease. I am not sure if you knew that Stassman died and her husband Harvey died last summer. They had both been quite ill and I am so happy that they are finally together again. Harvey was lost without her. As for me, I am about to move out to Long Island near my family. I am just too old for New York City. I can’t keep up and I am very nervous with all of the crime. I write this with love and fond memories.”

’66 C Noel Hynd and his wife, Patricia White Hynd ’88, spent 12 icy days in Paris in January. Before departure, they caught up in Los Angeles with old friend Bart Bramley ’65.

’66 RH Edwina von Gal writes, “I have been inching toward retirement from my landscape design firm, but finding myself ever more engaged with environmental activism and The Perfect Earth Project. We are all stressed about the increasing realities of climate change and biodiversity loss, which seems insurmountable. However, through changing land care practices there is a great amount of difference that individuals can actually make, and collectively it becomes exponential. I would so love working together with you. Write me! Edwina@perfectearthproject.org”

’67 C Selby Hinkebein writes, “Took my oldest grandson to the Deerfield Weekend to see the 100th Game. On a picture-perfect Saturday afternoon, Choate defeated Deerfield to end the regular season undefeated, which is becoming a somewhat regular occurrence under Coach Spinnato. Our team was amazing — Smitty and I would be shrimps, as our line must average 270 lbs! Choate is a VERY different school now since becoming co-ed. The NA club simply doesn’t exist.”

Dick Terry writes, “I’m working full time with people with autism. Choate instilled me with the passion to serve. Can never go wrong when you are proud of what you are doing.”

’68 C Jack Crews writes, “Skutch Mason, Spottswood Dudley, Vernon Glenn and I gathered at Skutch’s house on the water in Lewes, Del., last spring. Surrounded by a stack of Briefs, an even larger stack of Choate newspapers, and a hand-painted (by whom, I do not know, but probably someone from West Wing 2) “Beat Deerfield” banner, together we were able to conjure up some great and some notso-great memories. Our wives, while tolerant, didn’t really seem to understand.”

Vernon Glenn writes, “I am not retired; I’m just changing planes. After 45+ years of litigating and trial work, I have concluded my active practice of law and am now an author. The third book in the

Eddie Terrell Lawyer trilogy will be released soon. I’ve started work on my next book. My three very enjoyable children are allegedly ‘grown up’. I travel about and go to Chapel Hill a lot. I have delightful friends, among them smart and gorgeous girls. I have recently reconnected with old friends from Choate and former housemaster Dudley Ladd. I am having a fine life and am grateful for it all. My website: cooperriverbooks.com”

’69 C Greg Hooker reports he is now a grandfather, with Hudson Rory Hooker (now 1) born Feb. 25, 2022. In semi-retirement, Greg also continues to host his radio music show, “The Getaway” weekday afternoons in Vermont. You can stream the show at www.wdevradio.com.

’69 RH Vickie Spang writes, “I’m still adjusting to retirement (admittedly strange that I miss the 1,000 lawyers I used to work with at my former firm)! I enjoy frequent visits with former classmate/ roommate Helen Halpin. I still annoy her! LOL.”

1970s

’70 C Franklin Sullivan writes, “I’m pleased to announce that I have formed a 501(c)3 nonprofit called Worms for Warriors (wormsforwarriors.org), dedicated to enhancing the lives of our US military veterans through the sport of fishing. WORMS is an acronym for Working On Rehabilitation and Mental Stability. Many of our veterans return from active duty with physical and mental challenges, and it is our belief that fishing provides a means of rehabilitation for the body and mind. By making this activity more affordable, we hope to give many more veterans access to this opportunity. Donated funds will be used to secure the equipment, supplies and labor necessary to scale lure making activities, to make sure the tackle gets to the various organizations and participants of veteran tournaments, and to communicate the mission of Worms for Warriors to all those who may want to contribute.”

’71 C Frank Gerold writes, “I’m still practicing law. After years of working for insurance companies, I have changed my practice. I am now honored to represent African and Balkan claimants for injuries sustained in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. An underrepresented group. Good to do justice for the poor.”

’72 C Chuel (Dale) Hwang writes, “I checked out a long time ago from Hotel California, but did manage to leave it last summer. Now residing happily in Hawaii. Come visit.”

1 In Los Angeles, December 2022, Noel Hynd ’66, Patricia White Hynd ’88, and Bart Bramley ’65.

2 Class of 1968 friends, Skutch Mason, Vernon Glenn, Jack Crews, and Spottswood Dudley enjoyed lunch together.

3 Lunch with Class of ’68 friends. From left to right, Dan Morris, Rory Cartwright, Phil Nadeau, and Brett Hall

4 Tim “T Barny” Barnard ’75 with his sculpture CIRCO X on El Paseo in Palm Desert, Calif

Gregor Knauer writes, “This year, I went to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade, a phenomenon that has endured from the Vietnam era in response to the ’unilateral coercive measures’ imposed by youknow-who. We delivered material aid, and explored Cuba’s model of perseverance and resilience. In today’s climate of DEI, we’re primed to end the blockade against these long-suffering neighbors, and shut down the US base and prison at Guantánamo. Basta ya.”

Jeffrey Townsend retired in 2022 from a career that spanned the movie business (20 years as a production designer and second unit director), the emerging field of online and mobile content creation (15 years as a writer, designer, director, and producer), and teaching (seven years teaching filmmaking at a skills center). In 2023 he and his wife of 30 years, Patrice, will move to Bellingham, Wash., to be closer to their daughter, Sadie. Their son, Wiley, has been a character animator in Canada for eight years. A recent highlight for Jeffrey was playing drums for the who-needs-a-rehearsal reunion band, The Dean’s List, at Choate last May. He enjoyed time at Reunion with classmates Doug Pease, John Gelb, Kim Oler, Paul Carty, Chip Underhill, Geoffrey Houser, Stephen Bogardus, and George Colony.

’73 C Jim Bertles writes, “Big year in the Bertles family. Expecting our sixth grandchild, our investment firm just went through a big merger and went public in early January, working harder than ever, not playing enough golf despite living in Florida, and traveling way too much. Don’t hear much from my old Choate friends other than Drew Casertano ’74, and would love to hear from others.”

Angus Macdonald writes, “I recently moved to Florida from New England. Spent much of my career in corporate finance financing and generally evaluating high-tech health care companies independently and with midsized and large investment banking firms. I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with good Choate friend Ollie Maggard in private equities over time. Ollie also keeps his hand in lacrosse over the years in the Vail Shootout with friends from Middlebury rounding out their teams. I have three children and two grandchildren; eldest is son Jamie, who lives in Redondo Beach, Calif., with his fabulous wife, Leela, and their two kids, Isla and Tommy. They bring tremendous joy to grandpa Angus and our extended family. Eldest daughter, Hope, is a fashion designer in New York. My youngest, Alexandra, is a student at Pitzer College, one of the California Claremont Colleges. I’ve been a lifelong sailor, which brought me to Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and the Elizabeth Islands. On these sailing travels I frequently see good friend Hal Herrick and his fabulous boys and their lovely wives and kids. The newest Herrick is a darling girl name Halle, which gives real estate professional Hal a namesake grandchild. Hal’s also famous in Nantucket, coastal

1 Mike Furgueson ’80 and fellow classmates, Chris Craig, Tony Quinn, Rob Harteveldt, and Jeff Kahle, got together to celebrate Tony’s birthday.

2 Libbi Spencer Intemann ’82 gathered in November to cheer Choate on to its 42–30 victory against Deerfield. In front of the Choate float from left to right, Jim Loughlin, Libbi, Patti Daly, and Tom Daly.

3 Andrea Learned ’86 interviewing KEXP DJ John Richards at his plant-based, Seattle bar.

4 Tony Lovell '82 with his dog, Rita Book, who is the latest addition to Bayview Farm.

5 George Zeller ’79 and Lynn in Egypt 2022.

Malcolm Byrne

REVEAL THE PAST TO AVERT FUTURE CRISES

Whatever knowledge we have today about American foreign policy and international relations, Malcolm Byrne can guarantee that we are in for some big surprises down the road. He should know. He has spent nearly four decades following the paper trails of declassified documents to uncover the hidden history of recent conflicts, crises, and controversies.

The author or co-author of nearly a dozen books on the Cold War, the IranContra Affair, and U.S.-Iranian relations, Malcolm is the Deputy Director and Director of Research at the National Security Archive. It’s an independent, nonprofit organization that leverages investigative journalism, multinational scholarship, and public interest legal action — particularly Freedom of Information Act litigation — to push for governmental transparency and accountability.

As its name implies, the Archive is also a resource, providing journalists, scholars, and the public with access to a wide variety of declassified documents that might otherwise be difficult to obtain. Malcolm supervises the curation process, helping to identify and obtain key items for the Archive’s collections. Recent additions include a declassified brief on Taliban connections to Afghanistan’s illicit drug trade and a 1960s-era assessment of nuclear weapons safety and security. Malcolm pursues his own research interests and advises other researchers. His work has taken him around the world, often to one-time (or current) U.S. adversaries, including Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, and Iran.

Partnering with like-minded people and organizations is also part of Malcolm’s work. He has organized several major conferences on conflicts such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War, recruiting politicians, scholars, and former adversaries from all sides to share official documents and first-hand knowledge.

“World history needs all the information, not just what Americans know,” he says. For a conference in the 1990s, Malcolm’s negotiations with General Viktor Kulikov, the former commanderin-chief of the Warsaw Pact, led to the public revelation of an adjutant’s diary. The contemporaneous account provided new evidence that Polish leader Wojciech Jaruzelski would have welcomed Soviet troop intervention to quash the anti-communist movement in Poland in the early 1980s, despite his public statements to the contrary.

Malcolm’s most recent book, Republics of Myth: National Narratives and the U.S.-Iran Conflict, is based on primary documents — many declassified and acquired through the Freedom of Information Act — and analysis from both sides of the fraught history. It is coauthored with John Tirman and Hussein Banai, the latter an Iranian-born political scientist providing key cultural perspectives.

Malcolm’s engagement with world issues goes back to his time at Choate, where he studied Russian all four years and visited the Soviet Union through a school-sponsored program. He would later teach in Eastern Europe and research international topics while working for a reporter at the Washington Post. After pivoting to earn a master’s degree in Soviet studies and economics from Johns Hopkins University, Malcolm was on the brink of entering the Foreign Service when he was invited in 1986 by former colleagues from the Post to join the nonprofit they’d started a year earlier. At the time, the convolutions of the Iran-Contra scandal were just coming to light, with much digging and dot-connecting to be done.

“It was like a history start-up,” Malcolm says. “We were working minimum 12-hour days, with more than an occasional all-nighter.” An early victory was securing an injunction to prevent the outgoing Reagan Administration from erasing its emails. Years later the final ruling would decree that electronic government communications have the same legal status as paper documents.

A proponent of open government, Malcolm says the battle against “securacrats,” those in government who prioritize secretkeeping over accountability, is never ending. Historically, he notes, the classification system has been manipulated by officials of every persuasion and party, often in the service of hiding what is politically inconvenient. “A lot of former officials will tell you that just because a document is classified doesn’t mean that our republic will fall if it is revealed,” says Malcolm. “We want to know — when it is safe to know it — how decisions were made and whether we did it in the right way.”

Malcolm hopes that uncovering the secrets of recent history will help us to avert future crises. But he remains motivated by the knowledge that the Archive’s work has already produced definitive results. He says, “It has changed the way we understand events in our history and in our lifetimes.”

by LesLie virostek P ’15, ’17, ’20 Leslie Virostek is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to the Bulletin

New England, and the Carolinas as a champion sports fisherman and charter captain. I’ve also gotten to see Peter Hoffman ’74 and some other Choaties on these Nantucket trips. I keep in social touch with many Choate friends such as Danny McDonough, Michael Napolitano, Nate Otis, Charlie McCurdy and Lisa Maddox, Stan Ross, Steve Davis, Jon Macey, Geoff Houser ’72, and others. Look forward to seeing many of you this spring!”

’75 C Tim “T Barny” Barnard is still creating sculpture, now in his 43rd year. He lives in Alexander Valley, Calif., with his wife, Melinda, and their yellow lab, Clara. 2022 was a great year for T Barny. It ended in November with the installation of “Circo X,” his 9-foot-tall bronze, for a two-year stay on the El Paseo in Palm Desert, as part of their Cultural Arts Program. Besides the foray into Public Art, Barny had six events across seven months last year. His three major galleries in Laguna Beach, Carmel, and Santa Fe, held T Barny exhibitions, and he hosted three different events at the T Barny Gallery & Sculpture Gardens. He writes, “If you are ever in Northern California, stop by.” Bob Kaiser spent his birthday in Madrid and Barcelona. While in Madrid, he celebrated the occasion with his dear friend Juan Ignacio Durán, whom he met during his sixth form year when Juan Ignacio attended Choate’s winter semester on an exchange program with the American School of Madrid. Bob swears he helped create the program with everyone’s favorite Spanish teacher, Señor Juan E. López, but adds that may just be an age-enriched memory. Bob also went on the exchange program to Madrid during the spring term. That was his second extended time in Spain facilitated by Sr. López. Bob’s first time in Spain was during the summer of 1973 when Sr. López led his inaugural summer in Spain program based in Valladolid. That trip was organized by the Northfield Mount Hermon School, housing participants with families in Valladolid and León. Sr. López led the Valladolid group. Bob teases us with plans to write about how that all came together. Alison Aiken, ’76, also joined Bob on the exchange program in Madrid that spring term. Bob wants to know where Alison is today. ‘Hey Alison, where’s GG?’”

’75 RH Annis Campione writes, “I left the position as Executive Director of Visual Arts Mississauga in May 2022. It was eight wonderful years, but it was time for a change. I spent the winter acting as a cat-nanny for friends while the next chapter of my life unfolds. As I like to say, ‘All will become clear’.”

Kate Manning writes, “Scribner published my third novel, Gilded Mountain, in November. Drawn from true stories of 1900s Colorado, it’s a portrait of Sylvie Pelletier, daughter of Quebecois immigrants, who finds the courage to speak out against injustices in Moonstone, a mountainous marble-quarry town.

Gilded Mountain was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, an Indie Next pick, and one of Amazon’s 100 Best Books of 2022. NPR called it ‘a wild adventure.’ Writing it was another sort of adventure, one that started in my parents’ attic, where I found an old photograph that sparked the story. After 10 years working on it, it’s been a great pleasure and privilege to talk about the book, especially as it has brought me back in touch with some old friends and extraordinary teachers from my days at School, where I learned so much about history and literature from the likes of Gwen Severance and Rhea Hirshman. These days, I’m at work on a new novel, and happy to speak to book clubs here and there. I’ll be on the road again in Colorado in May, at the Mountain Words Literary Festival in Crested Butte. Hope to see some familiar faces! (better go find my glasses...)”

Caroline Radlow writes, “After 10-plus years, my part-time work with horses, mostly at a private barn, has come to an end, due to attrition, alas. I have worked full-time in human services since 2009 and am now working for the North American Family Institute at their Concord, N.H., location and hope to continue working for years to come. I am still writing and am working on my memoirs.”

’78 RH Rosanna Tufts writes, “2022 was all about the surgery and chemo. Diagnosed with a Stage 4B cancer early in the year, I achieved complete remission by the end of it. The carol of the year was All I Want for Christmas Is a Head of Hair. Thanks to the stellar staff at Greater Baltimore Medical Center for getting me through it!”

’79 C George Zeller writes, “2022 was a great year for traveling. With COVID restrictions eased, Lynn and I were able to visit South Africa, Egypt, Liechtenstein, and Rwanda. This is our last year at the American School in Cameroon. Next year we will be teaching in Algeria.”

1980s

’80 Cheryl Stahl Borek writes, “In July, I was the first person to complete a thru-hike of the newly minted Appalachian High Route, a 350-mile loop that traverses portions of the Black Mountain Crest Trail, the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, and the Appalachian Trail, and includes many of the highest peaks in the southern Appalachians.”

Michael Lewyn writes, “Brian Harris visited me and some other alums (in particular, Rory Costello and Greg Tartaglia) in NYC in January. I have been very busy at work; as chair of Touro Law’s Institute on Land Use and Sustainable Development, I am co-organizing the school’s annual conference on land use issues.”

Jim Sherman writes, “I had two career events come along this past fall. First, I bought back my company, ShermansTravel Media, from a PE firm that bought the majority of it back in 2007. Second, my book is finally coming out in October 2023.

HarperCollins is the publisher for Smart Startups — What Every Entrepreneur Should Know; Advice from 18 Harvard Business School Founders. Check it out!”

Eve Stern now lives in Tucson, Ariz., after 37 years in Cambridge, Mass. She’s a writer (mostly poetry but working on a prose book); she also works with traumatized dogs and horses. She stays in touch with a few classmates through Facebook.

’81 Tom Colt writes, “I am in my sixth year working as a college counselor at Shanghai American School. Travel restrictions related to COVID were finally lifted in January 2023, and now my wife and I are able to explore more of East Asia after a threeyear hiatus.”

Janet Goodman writes, “I’m happy to be back on the East Coast and settled in the beautiful Hudson Valley, after 20-plus years in Northern California. My daughter, Mabel, and I had the good fortune to spend Thanksgiving with the Kashgarian family in New Haven in 2022. Tons of fun with Michaele ’79, Thea, their spouses and children, and Dr. Kashgarian, all of whom are thriving. In addition to Mabel, who lives in New York, I have two sons, Virgil and Cosmo, who live in Berlin. All of my kids are fully functioning as adults, a phenomenon which constantly amazes me.”

Joseph Lawton III writes, “I am an interventional cardiologist in West Columbia, S.C., with the Lexington Heart and Vascular Center, and will have been in practice for 25 years this summer. I am excited about the Kohler Environmental Center, especially by providing the leadership to protect our planet. My wife, Coles, and I spend our free time in the North Carolina mountains and on the South Carolina coast, mostly being out in nature. Would love to connect with my old roommates from Choate!”

’82 Andrea Learned writes, “I launched a podcast in January: Living Change — A Quest for Climate Leadership. For it, I talk with surprising validators, not the usual ‘climate leader’ suspects, about how their personal values are integrating with their professional pursuits, with the potential for significant climate influence. For my fellow alums who are in the climate and sustainability worlds; I hope it inspires.”

Tony Lovell writes, “I’m living on Cape Cod with dogs and goats. Would love to know if any classmates have any photos of the band Off the Record playing, such as at The Last Hurrah or at the Student Center.”

TOP LEFT Debbie (Fong) Carpenter ’85, who is the Office Coordinator for Choate Summer Programs, and Dr. Kara Thompson ’85 reconnected when Kara dropped off her daughter, Juliana Dlabal, for Choate Summer Program’s Theater Arts Institute on June 26, 2022.

TOP RIGHT Class of 1985 Mike Morse, Debby Leckonby, Kristin Beeman, Katie Prezzano Durfee, Courtney Ingraffia, and Brad Gottsegen in NOLA.

BOTTOM LEFT Lynn Grant Beck ’85 with the cast of All American at the closing night party on June 26, 2022.

BOTTOM RIGHT 3 Choaties! L to r: Ruby Cameron ’23, Sadie Cameron, Ginger Cameron, Piper Cameron ’25, and Alison (Gillmor) Cameron ’89.

Josh Margolis writes, “We wanted to share with the Choate community the sad news of Peter Brown ’81’s passing in December 2021. We are, however, blessed to have recorded Peter’s beautiful voice in the last years of his life and are releasing this album of jazz standards on Mifflin Street Music.” Josh and James Joughin (’81) are among a stellar cast of musicians put together by mutual friend and producer Julian Harris. You can find the album on Spotify.

’84 David Mills writes, “My poetry collection, Boneyarn, won the North American Poetry Award and was a finalist for the Housatonic Award. it’s the first book of poetry about slavery in New York City, where the oldest and largest slave cemetery in the United States is located.”

Emile Westergaard writes, “I live happily in Lima, Peru, next to the Pacific and its surfers. I spend my days building an online education platform and working on my Buddhist musical Sha Sha Wonderland. Peace.”

’85 Lynn Grant Beck’s play, All American, was produced at the Hollywood Fringe Festival last June. It was nominated for Best Drama and won the Hollywood Encore Producer Award. She was just hired as a writer on the TV thriller Cypher on the Roku Channel.

Katie Prezzano Durfee writes, “Debby Leckonby, Courtney Ingraffia, and Kristin Beeman had a girls’ getaway in New Orleans this January. Lots of fun and laughs and late nights with the old facebooks. We enjoyed a great dinner with Brad Gottsegen and Mike Morse and their lovely wives. Already getting the ’85 crew together for our 40th reunion.”

Michael R. Mullin writes, “I published a novel in March: Gothic Revival is a psychological thriller inspired by the creation of Frankenstein.”

Alexander Trotter writes, “I spend my time between London, Lagos (Nigeria), and Paris. I’m a trustee of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the largest supporter of young African entrepreneurs. The fast food restaurant business I co-founded in Nigeria in 2018 has grown to 30 stores and is looking to expand regionally. At the end of 2021, we received private equity investment from a fund backed by the IFC and UK and Dutch governments. I’m also quite involved in Oxford University’s Africa Initiative. Happy to see alumni in Lagos, London or Paris.”

’86 Jerry Farrell was recently awarded a cannabis license by the State of Connecticut in an extremely competitive process, as Connecticut begins the sale of adult use cannabis. His company, Quinnipiac Valley Growth Partners, will soon begin building out a large-scale cultivation facility, as well as two dispensary locations. Jerry was previously affiliated with CTPharma, a medical marijuana producer, which recently was sold to Verano Holdings, a multistate cannabis grower. He credits his term as Connecticut Commissioner of Consumer Protection, and the expertise he developed, with his involvement in this highly-regulated industry.

Peter Finfrock writes, “I met Serafine Klarwein ’88 recently in a North African restaurant in Palma de Mallorca. It was a wonderful blast-fromthe-past moment, picking up right where we left off so many years ago. Later we ran into David Dinielli ’86 in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC. We saw the Laurie Anderson exhibit at the Hirshhorn and the NMAAHC, which David hadn’t yet had the opportunity to see.”

’87 Gabriel Kahn writes, “I’ve been living in LA now for almost 15 years, and teaching at USC for 13. And the 10 years before that I was overseas, so I’ve been out of the Choate loop for ages. But I do occasionally get Choate grads as students, and even one from … Deerfield. If you’re ever in LA, look me up.”

Amanda Murray is living in Quogue, N.Y., and enjoying life as a Corcoran real estate agent in the Hamptons. Having finally broken up with book publishing (after a 30-year career as an acquiring editor/Editorial Director in New York), she’s kicking herself for not having done it sooner. This year she sent her eldest to boarding school, and wonders if her parents felt the same mix of joy/hope/regret/ wariness when they sent her off to Choate. She enjoys following her classmates on social media, and would love to see them in person if and when they’re in the area.

’88 Kate Byrnes writes, “In November, I moved to Stuttgart, Germany, to serve as the Civilian Deputy and Foreign Policy Advisor at U.S. European Command for the next three years.”

Diana Timpson writes, “I’ve never had a press release, thought I’d share my first. I’ve been in Seattle for almost 17 years and all the hard work is paying off (with more work...) https://www.hntb.com/ press_release/diana-timpson-joins-hntb-as-seniorproject-manager-of-rail-transit/”

’89 Alison Gillmor Cameron writes, “I had a great long weekend boat trip to Martha’s Vineyard this past summer! My daughters, Ruby ’23 and Piper ’25, connected with Marissa ’24 and Chloe ’23 Jacobs for ice cream at Scoops! My girls are loving Choate!”

I love painting. I love music. I love writing. Film puts it all together.

Amy Talkington

She has made her mark as a prize-winning indie filmmaker, with projects that have been screened at Sundance, Tribeca, and the Pompidou Centre of Paris. She’s published a young adult novel that’s been translated into German, Italian, and Chinese. She’s written screenplays for all of the major Hollywood studios. But it wasn’t until March of 2020 that mainstream America’s millions of bingewatchers discovered the talents of Amy Talkington.

That’s when Hulu released the limited series Little Fires Everywhere. Amy served as a writer and co-executive producer for the hit drama, which was created by Liz Tigelaar and adapted from the novel by Celeste Ng. One of Hulu’s most watched shows, it was nominated for five Emmys — including Outstanding Limited Series — and a Writers Guild of America Award for Long Form Adaptation, among other accolades. The story features an artist as a lead character, and one of Amy’s favorite parts of the project was curating the pieces of art that helped to propel the narrative, episode by episode. She also wrote the series finale.

As with Little Fires, many of Amy’s projects have at their heart the social and emotional life of young characters. The “big feelings and big ideas” she had as a teen are still accessible when she’s creating those voices. “I think I still live in that teenage brain,” she says. “It was the most creative time of my life, and so I like to revisit it in my writing.”

Amy’s own teen drama cast her as a serious artist who was not thriving at the single-sex school that her mother and grandmother attended before her in Dallas. Initially opposed to the idea of boarding school, her parents finally conceded, “If you get in, you can go.” With help from her mom, she prepared a portfolio of her artwork to submit with her application to Choate, where the prominence of the Paul Mellon Arts Center spoke to the school’s commitment to the arts. “I lived there,” she says of the building where she immersed herself in her creative work under the tutelage of Reggie Bradford. A highlight was her solo show of paintings in the PMAC gallery.

Another mentor was her creative writing teacher, Melinda Talkington (no relation). “She lit my fire as a writer,” says Amy. “I went [to Choate] solely focused on art, but it ignited my academic success across the board.”

In college Amy took a detour into rock journalism. Brazenly calling the record company for a favorite band, she obtained free tickets to a show. And what began with an article for a student publication led to an internship at a music trade magazine, with subsequent opportunities to write music reviews and interview big-name recording artists.

College was also where Amy developed an interest in filmmaking. She says, “I love painting. I love music. I love writing. Film puts it all together.”

Graduating from Barnard College with a B.A. in art history in 1993, she earned an M.F.A. in film directing from Columbia in 1999. Festival prizes for her short films soon followed, along with recognition by Filmmaker magazine as one of

“25 New Indie Faces to Watch.” Her innovative film The New Arrival (2000) would make film history as the first 360-degree interactive movie.

These days, directing, producing, and show running all have appeal for Amy. But whatever else she is juggling, she is writing. Lamenting the “endless development” of feature films and the screenplays that “never see the light of day,” she has pivoted more toward television and streaming formats. Unlike films, which center on the director’s cinematic vision, television is driven by the narrative and the crucial process of ongoing adjustments to the storyline. Says Amy, “One of the draws of TV is that the top person on the set is the writer.”

Amy’s upcoming projects include producing and writing a series called DIX, which mines some of her own experiences as a teen rock journalist. “I love the process,” she says of the long hours she spends writing. “I love finding other voices and imagining being other people.” Most of all, she seeks “to write things I really believe in. I’m putting something into the world that I can stand behind.”

by LesLie virostek P ’15, ’17, ’20 Leslie Virostek is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to the Bulletin

On Dec. 1, Ryan Jungwook Hong ’89 hosted the first postpandemic dinner for Choate Rosemary Hall alumni in Korea. Over 20 alums from classes of 1985 to 2016 joined in the festivities filled with great conversations, generous gifts, and delicious plant-based food. In a simple but memorable ceremony, Ryan, who had led the group since 2010, also passed the torch to Rae Eun Sung ’97, who now serves as the Chair of the Korea Alumni and Parent Network.

1 Sam, June, Penny Bach Evins ’90, and Sam VI.

2 1990 Classmates Deborah Thalheimer Long and Dana Brentt spent a girls weekend in Arizona, Spring of 2022.

3 From left to right, Jason Hancock ’93, Jon Hancock ’92, Brad Robie ’91, and Jordan Schweizer ’92 in Red Lodge Montana for a Celebration of Life event for Brad’s Uncle Ed and Aunt Dorothy.

4 Class of 1992 at the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City: (top row, left to right) Betsey Geller Keely and Monica Darer; (bottom row, left to right) Marti Johnson, Danielle Elkin Block, and Wende Valentine.

5 York Lo ’95, right, is reunited with Choate faculty Will Gilyard ’98. York was Will’s prefect in Atwater ’94-95 when Will was a third former.

6 Boston magazine announcement of Tonya Mezrich ’91 as the new Lifestyle Editor.

7 Post-COVID gathering in Bangkok. Geoffrey Kao ’96, Varuntida Varutbangkul ’96, Grace Cheung ’94, and Isareit Chirathivat ’96.

1990s

’90 Taylor (Stephanie) Copelin writes, “I am living in Philadelphia with my husband and teenage daughter. We all love it! Recently I started a new job at a Community Development Financial Institution, helping them grow their resources. Celebrated some big birthdays this year, a highlight was a ‘Studio 50’ party thrown by Suzanne Darmory ’90.”

Penny Bach Evins writes, “My family is moving from Richmond, Va., to Bethesda, Md., in July for a new career opportunity. I will assume the privilege of serving Holton-Arms School and am excited to attend any Choate reunions in the area.”

Deborah Thalheimer Long writes, “Dana Brentt and I met up for a girls’ weekend in Arizona last spring. We had a blast catching up while hiking, practicing yoga, and just chilling. We did have a scorpion crawl into our room one night, which provided added excitement. Dana handled it well!”

’91 Tonya Chen Mezrich writes, “After spending two years in Vermont during the pandemic, I returned to Boston and took over as the Lifestyle Editor for Boston magazine Check out the lifestyle section of the hard copy magazine, which comes out monthly. Let me know if you have any fashion news in the Boston or New England area! On another note, I see Vicki Owens at least once or twice a year, and Natalie Jen lives around the corner from me!”

Severa von Wentzel writes, “Hello from London, where my two competitive swimming teenagers keep me busy. Highlights last year were Amy Lehman’s celebration in Sicily with classmates Roxanna Sherwood and Bene Cipolla. Another was a backpacking trip up Mount Katahdin joined by my niece and current Choatie, Sundari ’25, classmate Silja Voss’s daughter Nia, my son Theo, and former Bryn Mawr professor Sophia, which we completed thanks to the younger ones’ carrying Sophia’s pack for four hours up the steepest parts taking turns. I remain very involved with my alma mater, Bryn Mawr, as a trustee. Please get in touch if you pass by London. Happy 50th to us all.”

’92 Amy Allman Dean writes, “Barclay DeVeau ’92 executive produced the acclaimed film To Leslie (2022), which garnered Andrea Riseborough an Academy Award for best actress.”

Marti Johnson writes, “It was great to grab a weekend away in Mexico City with old Choate friends. We took a photo at the Frida Kahlo Museum, where we met another Choatie from class of ’96 because we had the banner out! I live in Portland, Ore., and work in cybersecurity protecting the electric grid. I was proud to see my son graduate with Choate’s Class of ’22. My free time is spent watching my daughter play soccer and I am super grateful for the new friends I’ve made on campus the last few years.”

Len Liptak writes, “On December 6, I took a company I founded, ProSomnus Sleep Technologies, public on Nasdaq. Kevin Murphy ’92 is General Counsel, and several Choaties helped along the way!”

Katherine Marsh writes, “My sixth novel for readers age 10 and up, The Lost Year, was published in January. The New York Times Book Review called it ‘an engrossing mystery that kept me on the edge of my seat.’ The book, which centers on the 1932-33 man-made Ukrainian famine or Holodomor, was inspired by my Ukrainian grandmother Natasha’s family history. I was helped in my research by a number of academics, notably former Choate Russian teacher Matthew Lenoe, who accompanied a group of us to the Soviet Union in 1991 for the Choate-Russia exchange, and is now a Soviet history professor at the University of Rochester.”

Sara Schaefer Munoz was recently named Deputy World Editor for The Wall Street Journal, overseeing the organization’s foreign news coverage. Sofia Schaefer Munoz, daughter of Sara and husband Juan Felipe Munoz, is in the Class of 2023 at Choate.

’93 Amy Cohn Crawford made a career change last year, and is now in her second year of teaching Latin at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, where both her children attend. Her daughter, Molly, is a freshman and her son, Jack, is a senior. He recently received news that he was accepted to Bowdoin College, Class of ’27.

Sal Nuzzo was one of six witnesses appearing before the US Senate Judiciary Committee on January 24, investigating Ticketmaster Live Nation in response to complaints of monopoly practices and antitrust violations in response to the Taylor Swift ticket crash.

Hannah Sears lives, works, and volunteers in the District of Columbia. She recently passed a Top Secret-SCI-Full scope polygraph interview and investigation process; however, the clearance may not be “active.”

’95 York Lo writes, “I’m glad to have made it back to Wallingford twice in September, the first time checking my son Max into Mem as he joined the Class of 2025, during which I also caught up with Will Gilyard ’98 at our old dorm, Atwater. The second time, I was invited to speak at the Rotary Club of Wallingford at the invitation of former Choate Bulletin editor and fellow Rotarian Lorraine Connelly (wife of our former history teacher John). The Choate Interact Club which I started almost three decades ago is still going strong under the sponsorship of Wallingford Rotary, and I am currently President-Elect of the Rotary Club of Cambridge, Mass., which meets regularly in Harvard Square and just celebrated our 100th anniversary last year.”

Rachel Self writes, “I am deeply honored to have been selected as an Honorable Mention Bostonian of the Year by Boston Globe Magazine,

along with the amazing Vineyarders who rose to the occasion when 49 migrants landed on our island in September. There are only 17,000 people living yearround on Martha’s Vineyard. Dropping 49 people off here was the equivalent of dropping 1,887 people in downtown Boston or 24,407 people in New York City. Our community provided a sterling example of how problems are solved the real American way, with teamwork, empathy, compassion, kindness, and a willingness to do the hard work to help our fellow man. When you love people, and treat them like people, and act on reason instead of fear, and sacrifice just a little of your time and energy, you can make an amazing difference.”

’96 Katie Davis published her third book about kids and technology in March. It’s called Technology’s Child: Digital Media’s Role in the Ages and Stages of Growing Up (MIT Press, 2023). The book examines technology’s accelerating impact on the full arc of child development, from toddlers to 20-somethings. Katie is Associate Professor at the University of Washington and Director of the UW Digital Youth Lab. For nearly 20 years, she has been researching the impact of digital technologies on young people’s learning, development, and well-being. (Learn more at katiedavisresearch.com)

Emily Falcigno writes, “Remember Reflections? Here’s mine: My most heartfelt achievement of 2022, The Visionary’s Journey podcast Season 1 Episode 9, is my gift to those of you who are floundering through the terrible 42’s – 5’s, or don’t feel like you have big news to share. You’re doing a good job. To Julia McCurdy, Adam Uris, and Josh Martino, thanks for reconnecting. P.S. If any of you know Bono, please send him this episode! Thanks for encouraging me to be my weird self.”

’97 Kate Lemay writes, “On April 28, 2023, an exhibition I co-curated, 1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions, opened at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. I co-authored and co-edited its accompanying scholarly catalog, which will be published by Princeton University Press in June. For this show, my co-curator, Dr. Taína Caragol, and I made research trips to 74 archives in the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Spain. Needless to say, I am thrilled to see this show come to fruition!”

Alison Vasan writes, “I finished 10 years of medical training at Duke (medical school, internship, residency, and fellowship) in June 2022 and moved to Seattle. I am enjoying working remotely as a neuroradiologist for Greensboro Radiology in N.C.”

’98 Ayse Zeynep Askin Erten writes, “I am happy to share that I have recently relocated to Germany, to a small town near Nuremberg, from Istanbul, Turkey. I live here with my husband and 10-year-old daughter. We look forward to the opportunity to travel around Europe.”

’99 Angelina Fryer writes, “I have enjoyed reconnecting with classmates recently, including getting to see Jamie Schroeder in San Francisco and John Elias in DC this past year, and corresponding with Amy Phillips often about theater. I’ve also been able to see a number of Choate people through my participation in the Alumni Equity & Inclusion Committee. I’m approaching the second anniversary of working at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, where I was recently promoted to the position of Senior Staff Attorney. After some professional upheaval during the early pandemic, I am glad to be working with a team I like in a position I really enjoy, and I’m finding remote work remarkably agreeable. I’ve looked forward to making my Carnegie Hall debut — I performed Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “A Sea Symphony” with my chorus, the Grace Church Choral Society, there in April.”

2000s

’00 Otessa Ghadar writes, “I have moved to Australia with my partner, as I was lucky to receive several fellowships to pursue my doctorate in media, as well as to create a new web series. As a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wollongong, my thesis, ‘Streaming Wars: The Revolution that Brought Us More of the Same,’ explores the commodification of dissent within digital media and social movements, with attention to diversity and inclusion.”

’03 Martha Farnsworth and her husband, Cory Farr, welcomed their first child, April Farnsworth Farr, on November 13, 2022. After two years in Washington, DC, they are now living in Dublin, Ireland, where Martha works as a Foreign Service Officer for the Department of State.

’04 Max Fisher writes, “I’m coming off a busy few years at The New York Times, where I’m a columnist and foreign reporter with datelines from 15 countries and counting. My reporting in Brazil was the subject of a documentary on F/X and my

reporting in Sri Lanka was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. My book, The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World, was named one of the best books of 2022 by NPR, The New Yorker, and Adam King ’04. After a stint in London, I may be moving soon to Los Angeles and would love to connect with folks in town.”

’05 Ian Grajewski writes, “My wife, Leslie, and I welcomed Ian ‘Siggy’ Sigmund Grajewski II, born October 6, 2022 in Chicago. Siggy was eagerly welcomed by his older sisters, Daisy and Mary Jane, and we have since been enjoying ourselves as a new family of five. Look forward to having all of the kids travel back to Wallingford for our 20th Reunion and hopefully one day walking the campus as fellow Choate students!”

’07 Greg Manz is now Deputy Communications Director for Tennessee’s Department of State.

’08 Ashley McGeary, after seven years in Washington, DC, is returning to Asia with a move to Singapore this year. She hopes to connect with alumni in the area as she settles. She’s also picked up pickleball recently, and is quite eager to play with other Choate alums in Singapore. Drop her a line if you’re in the area!

Marla Spivack writes, “I relocated to Washington, DC, last September to join the World Bank as an economist in Education Global Practice and a member of the Young Professionals Program. I’m excited to be back in Washington and to start this new chapter of my career.”

’09 Daniel Hartsoe writes, “Since moving to Washington, DC in early 2022, I have been coaching several ultimate teams in the DC area. In addition to serving as head coach for the University of Maryland women’s team and for a top high school girls team, I joined the coaching staff of Truck Stop, the top men’s club team in DC, for the 2022 season as an assistant coach. After winning the two premier regular season tournaments this summer and being ranked No. 1

in the nation for most of the season, we finished second at the USA Ultimate National Championships in October. After the season, our coaching staff won the Coach of the Year Award from the sport’s premier news site.”

’14 Gabriel Davis writes, “In the years since attending Choate, life has taken a number of turns! Yet the most consequential decision I’ve ever made has been, and may always be, rooted in my Choate years: taking Arabic. Since I began taking Arabic, I graduated and went on to spend a gap year living in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where I picked up Hebrew. After that, I spent my college years majoring in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago, from which I graduated with honors after studying abroad in Morocco, presenting research in Qatar, conducting original research on militant groups in the Levant, and serving as the Editor-in-Chief of UChicago’s studentrun Arabic magazine. I followed up my time there by winning a Critical Language Scholarship and a Boren Scholarship, which brought me back to Morocco to study Arabic for eight months before COVID-19 kicked me out of the country early. Afterward, I moved to Washington, DC, where I founded The Overseas Dispatch, a registered 501 (c)(3) nonprofit that helps young writers cultivate the skills to write about global affairs. Now, I live in Amman, Jordan as a Fulbright Scholar, where I am conducting research on Syrian refugees and the NGOs that operate in the Middle East. I’m also a non-resident fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and a fellow in the 2023 cohort of the Foreign Policy for America NextGen Initiative. After finishing my Fulbright, I’ll be attending Johns Hopkins’s School of Advanced International Studies to receive an M.A. in International Relations, with a focus on humanitarian aid in the Middle East. I can’t complain!”

’21 Sabrina Carlier writes, “This summer, I will spend seven weeks in Amsterdam with the NYU International Theatre Workshop program through NYU Tisch Drama.”

Ayse Askin Erten ’98 with daughter Ada in famous Weissbergergasse Nuremberg.

(l-r): Angelina Fryer '99, Joshua Stager, and John Elias '99 attend the signing of the Respect for Marriage Act on December 13, 2022.

Washington, DC Truck Stop after winning the U.S. Open tournament in August. Daniel Hartsoe ’09 is in the back row, second from the right.

Will Tenney ’10 is an accomplished music business executive. He made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list last year.

Mariana Atencio

A High Tolerance for Difficulty and Danger

An award-winning journalist, Mariana Atencio is also an entrepreneur and motivational speaker. In a viral TEDx talk and in her best-selling memoir, Perfectly You, she encourages others to do what she has done: stop worrying about being different, and lean in to the lived experiences that make you unique. The native of Venezuela says, “By bringing your authentic self to the table, you will create ripple effects of change.”

Mariana brings her bilingualism, cultural knowledge, and experience as an immigrant to bear on her work as a journalist. She also draws on what may be her superpower: a high tolerance for difficulty and danger. As a young reporter for Univision, Mariana traced gun trafficking on both sides of the Mexican border, in an investigation of the ATF’s controversial “Fast and Furious” undercover operation. It earned her a Peabody Award. Later, as a national correspondent for NBC News, she would report from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and such places as the Syrian border and Haiti. “You don’t know when you are going to sleep, eat, or take a shower,” she says of these intense assignments that she

prefers to sitting behind an anchor chair. “It’s almost like you are in another world, leading your team into battle for a greater purpose.”

Mariana left network news in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, to start her own media company, GoLike (the name derives from a hashtag her followers use). On a day-to-day basis, she’s often juggling a number of projects. She might be pitching stories to networks, reminding decisionmakers why a topic is important to cover. Or she might be working on the logistics and security for the “boots on the ground” stage of production. In post-production, the focus is writing and making the story come to life.

Being her own boss means Mariana has the agency to “be more intentional about the projects and issues I take on.” She notes, “The news cycle doesn’t allow you to delve deeply into underreported issues in different communities.”

The high femicide rate in Latin America is a topic she touched upon in a recent podcast called Lost in Panama, which re-investigates the mysterious disappearance and death of two Dutch tourists in 2014. Camping in the jungle for weeks, Mariana also interviewed reluctant local witnesses, pursuing leads suggesting that a dangerous local gang may have murdered the women, contrary to the official story of misadventure while hiking.

Mariana’s desire to be a journalist — and perhaps her comfort-level with dangerous situations — stems from her experiences growing up in Venezuela. In April 2002, when a failed coup against Hugo Chavez led to general strikes and the suppression of the free press, Mariana was among those getting tear-gassed in the pro-democracy protests. “I learned the value of real freedom and what happens when it is taken away,” she says.

Choate — where she “realized the power of public speaking” — played a role as well. Wanting to explain the national crisis at home to her classmates at Choate, she undertook the challenge of delivering a speech for the PrattPackard contest. Placing second, she lost the top honor to a student whose topic was “how to eat a hamburger,” a fact that was both humbling and motivating. “English was my second language. That defeat early on taught me the responsibility of holding a mic and commanding the stage. After that, I told myself: ‘I want to be the best,’” she recounts.

Mariana describes Choate as one of the most cherished but most challenging academic experiences of her life, which helped her secure a spot at Georgetown University and later a merit scholarship to Columbia.

Mariana is currently developing a podcast about how Colombian society is moving forward after its 70-year civil war. Another project in the works is a television program about policing in America in the post–George Floyd era. By giving voice to the lived experiences of women, immigrants, communities of color, and members of law enforcement, Mariana hopes it will build bridges.

Thanks to the feedback on social media, she knows her reporting can make people rethink their perspectives. She says, “Human beings will surprise you most of the time — for the better — especially in dire situations.”

by LesLie virostek P ’15, ’17, ’20 Leslie Virostek is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to the Bulletin

1 A baby boy, Simon Ender Zhao, was born on December 15, 2021 to Rebekah Carroll Zhao and husband Aaron Zhao. A first grandchild to Matthew Carroll ’71, and the first great-grandchild of Dave Carroll C ’46.

2 Sofia Munoz ’23, and Cayetano Munoz, children of Juan Felipe and Sara Schaefer Munoz ’92 (photo March 2019).

3 In February 2022, Hillary Comb ’99 and husband Mike welcomed their first child, Henrik Maitland Jacobs. Photo of Henrik with grandfather, Gardham Comb ’54.

4 Martha Farnsworth ’03 and husband Cory Farr welcomed April Farnsworth Farr on November 13, 2022.

5 William M. Copp ’04 and Emma Copp celebrated the birth of their daughter, Cora Catherine Copp, on April 21, 2021.

6 Ian “Siggy” Sigmund Grajewski II — born October 6, 2022 to Ian Grajewski ’05.

7 Mark Serencha ’89 wed Rebecca Martin in June 2020. The couple held “Cheers to Two Years” celebration in June 2022. Fellow Class of 1989 friends from left to right: Trevor Day, Scott Regan, Brian Newberry, Rebecca Serencha, Mark Serencha, David Chrzanowski, and Jason Melillo.

8 Lauren Branchini celebrated her wedding to Zachary Masi on July 1, 2022 in Lansing, N.Y. Classmates (left to right) Rachel Deming, Glenna DeRoy, Lucy Volkmar, Lauren, Ariana Branchini ’07 (Lauren’s sister and matron of honor), Cassie Pagnam, Liza (Wehrly) Andrews, and Zoe Holder were in attendance.

9 Kaitlin Kunkler ’06 married Josh Wright in Scottsdale, Ariz. on October 29, 2022. Some of her closest friends from Choate were in attendance — Margaux Harrold was a bridesmaid, Zoe Osterman (Gunther) ’07 came from Colorado, Sarah “Sal” Albert came from Hawaii, and Chris Langstaff came all the way from Amsterdam! Pictured: Sarah, Zoe, Chris, Kaitlin, and Margaux.

10 Jennifer Murane Bashian ’08 married Cooper Hanley Hopkins on September 25, 2022 at JM Cellars Winery in Woodinville, Wash. They currently live in Los Angeles and work in entertainment.

1 Elitsa “Ellie” Nacheva ’08 married Christopher Rawson on July 9, 2022 in Sofia, Bulgaria. From left, they were joined by Laura Reid ’07 as a bridesmaid, Lin Georgis ’09, Min Yeoh ’09, Kim Solow, Jack Fallon, Matthew Canaran, and Dan Lerman.

2 Michael Grisanti ’10 married Stephanie Nowak on October 15, 2022 in Bluemont, Va. In attendance were classmates Sarah Kornacki, Olivia Bee, Jonathan Maddalone, Sam Craft, Anthony Perugini, and Scott Hansen.

3 2010 classmates, Caroline Gregory, Rachel Green, Yuliya Oumarbaeva, and Alexander Kerman celebrated Yuliya’s wedding together.

4 Rebecca Han ’10 married David Sarkis Levonian on November 5, 2022 at the Kimpton Marlowe in Cambridge, Mass. The couple reside in Boston.

5 Diane Gremillion ’12 married Daniel Evans on June 4, 2022, at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Georgetown, with a reception at Chevy Chase Club. From left to right: Emily Brown (bridesmaid), Kaelyn Quinn, Harris Weber, Catherine Wall, Diane, Daniel, Alston Gremillion ’11 (matron of honor), Aditya Rajagopalan ’09 (groomsman), Julie Kang, and Archeta Rajagopalan ’15.

6 Alyssa Montesi and Austin Hubbert, both Class of 2013, were married on March 26, 2022 in Newport, R.I. Classmates in attendance, from left to right: Alastair Clements, Mikayla Conway, Jack Murren, Christina Montesi ’11 (maid of honor), Alyssa, Austin, Emily Sokol, Matthew Floyd, and Josephine O’Neil.

7 Hayley Ricardo ’13 married Nitin Jha in Patna, India on April 17, 2022. They live in Edinburgh, Scotland.

| Remembering Those We Have Lost

Alumni and Alumnae

’40 RH Anita Lippitt Clay, 100, active in the community, died November 27, 2022. Born in the Netherlands, Nita came to Rosemary Hall in 1937. She was Vice President of the Kindly Club, Vice President of the Music Club, Chair of the Parlor Committee, and an Assistant Marshal. After graduating from Sweet Briar College, she was a corporal in the Army Air Corps. Relocating to Savannah, Ga., she was active in the Society of the Colonial Dames, the Salzburger Society, and other nonprofit groups. She enjoyed playing the accordion and was an active member of Christ Episcopal Church. She leaves three children, six grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. Several cousins attended Rosemary Hall, including the late Theodora Gongaware ’61; Alice Steyaart ’62, 17 Richard Davis Dr., Richmond Hill, GA 31324; and Joan Varney ’66.

’44 RH Virginia Carol Hurlbutt Stocking, 95, a singer, died February 26, 2022 in Williamstown, Mass. Born in Charleston, W. Va., Carol came to Rosemary Hall in 1939; she was in the Music Club and the Choir, was fourth form President, was manager of the Answer Book, and was Treasurer of Chickens. After attending Smith and Columbia, she married her husband, a choir director and organist. Carol’s main passion was singing; she performed at Carnegie Hall and in many other venues. She also enjoyed poetry, gardening, swimming, and tennis. She leaves five children, two stepchildren, seven grandchildren, five step-grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and 11 step-great-grandchildren.

’45 C Richard L. Cretella, 95, an insurance executive, died October 10, 2022 in Branford, Conn. Born in New Haven, Dick came to Choate in 1943; he was in the Orchestra, the Choir, and the Choral Club. After serving in the Navy in Guam, he graduated from Yale, worked in the advertising business, then moved to Washington to be Press Secretary for his father, U.S. Rep. Albert Cretella. He later had a career in the insurance industry, starting Connecticut Associates Ltd., a large property

casualty agency. Dick enjoyed painting, gourmet cooking, boating, and skiing (which he pursued until age 90). He leaves five children, including Richard “Rex” Cretella ’83, 181 Goose La., Apt. A, Guilford, CT 06437; 14 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a sister. A nephew, Adam Abbate ’96, also attended Choate Rosemary Hall.

Bruce A. Littman, 95, a retired salesman, died January 1, 2023 in Chicago. Born in New York City, Bruce came to Choate in 1940; he lettered in football and wrestling, and was in the Band. After service in the Navy, he attended the University of Illinois, then worked in sales for EKCO Products. Bruce enjoyed the water, and for two years he and his late wife, Ethel, lived on a boat in Florida. He leaves three children, 13 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

’46 C David I. Hitchcock Jr., 94, a retired U.S. Information Agency officer, died September 4, 2022 in Rockville, Md. Born in Salem, Mass., David came to Choate in 1942. After graduating from Dartmouth, he served in the Army, worked briefly for CBS News, then joined the newly formed U.S. Information Agency. His work took him to Vietnam; to Japan, where he helped build American studies programs; and to Israel as public affairs officer for the U.S. Embassy. David enjoyed swimming, sailing, and music, particularly Gilbert and Sullivan. He leaves his wife, Lee Hitchcock, 9707 Old Georgetown Rd., Apt, 2-B, Reston, VA 20190; four children; and six grandchildren.

Joseph M. Stafford, 94, a retired investment executive, died December 19, 2022 in New York City. Born in Bucharest, Romania, Paul emigrated to the United States in 1940 and was at Choate for one year. He was on the Debate Council and in the French Club, and won a School speaking prize. After graduating from Yale, he was in the Air Force for two years, then began a career on Wall Street, retiring as Managing Partner of Adler, Stafford & Co., with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Joe enjoyed world travel, sailing, rowing, and gardening. He leaves his wife, Barbara Roder-Stafford, 50 East 79th St., Apartment 12-D, New York, NY 10075.

’48 C Henry James Jr., 92, a lawyer and conservationist, died October 14, 2022. Born in Portland, Ore., Henry came to Choate in 1945; he was Captain of varsity soccer and played trumpet in the Orchestra and the Golden Blues. After graduating from Williams, he served in the Army in Korea, then graduated from law school at the University of Virginia. He enjoyed a lengthy law career in Charlotte, N.C., in private practice and as General Counsel of the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of Charlotte. Henry also supported a bird sanctuary, Wing Haven, for many years. He leaves his wife, Sally James, 2615 Carmel Crescent Dr., Charlotte, NC 28226; three daughters; nine grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

’49 C Henry Blodget, 92, a retired bank executive, died January 4, 2023, In Stamford, Conn. Born in New York City, Hank came to Choate in 1944. He was an outstanding athlete, lettering in tennis (captain), squash, hockey, and soccer (captain), and winning two School awards in squash and soccer; he was also on the Student Council and in the Maiyeros. After graduating from Yale, he served in the Navy as an Ensign, then started a 25-year banking career at First National City Bank in New York. He finished his career at Putnam Trust Co. in Greenwich. Hank continued playing tennis, and in retirement was the No. 2-ranked player in the 70-and-over category in the USTA’s New England district; he also enjoyed foreign travel. He leaves three children and six grandchildren. His father, the late Donald Blodget 1913, attended Choate, as did a brother, the late Donald Blodget Jr. ’45.

James Rollins Eddy, 91, a retired state legislator, died January 20, 2023 in Sanford, Fla. Born in Collinsville, Conn., Jim came to Choate in 1945; he was in the Current History Club and on the rifle team. After graduating from Duke, he served in the Air Force, then earned a law degree from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. Starting in 1963, he served four terms in the Florida state legislature. He then returned to private practice, and was a Municipal Judge and Tax Magistrate Judge. Jim was President of the Pompano Players, a community theater

Richard O. Lowy, a radiation oncologist, established the Maybelle Clark McDonald Cancer Center at Providence St. Vincent’s Hospital in Portland, Ore.

He was also fond of dogs, devoting much of his time to animal therapy, and helped found several canine crisis response teams.

group, and the founder of Pompano Flyers, a sport civil flying club. He leaves his wife, Jeannie Lee Eddy, 8106 Plantation Lakes Circle, Sanford, FL 32771; six children and stepchildren; and several grandchildren.

Richard R. Pentland, 91, a manufacturer of rubber molded products, died December 26, 2022 in Worcester, Mass. Born in North Tonawanda, N.Y., Dick came to Choate in 1945; he lettered in squash and was in the Current History Club. After graduating from Hobart College, he served in the Navy. He founded Lastomerex, now Jefferson Rubber Works, a company now run by his son. Dick enjoyed travel and sailing. He leaves a son, two daughters, and seven grandchildren.

’51 C Edgar J. “Ted” Mack III, 89, a retired exporter, died February 23, 2023. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ted came to Choate in 1948; he was President of the Rifle Club and Advertising Manager of the Press Club. After graduating from Princeton, he served in the Army, then began a career in worldwide exports of American products; he lived overseas for years. Ted enjoyed world travel and tennis. He leaves his wife, Barbara Mack, 1071 Celestial St. Apt. 1602, Cincinnati, OH 45202; three children; four grandchildren; a greatgranddaughter; and two brothers, including Stephen Mack ’54. Two nephews, Kristoffer Mack ’82 and Kristoffer Mack ’12, attended Choate Rosemary Hall.

Harold B. Smith Jr., 89, a manufacturing executive, died October 1, 2022 in Lake Geneva, Wis. Born in Chicago, Hal came to Choate in 1947; he was in the Cum Laude Society and the Glee Club, and was on the Debate Council and the board of The Literary Magazine. After earning degrees from Princeton and Northwestern, he began work at Illinois Tool Works Inc., a company founded by his greatgrandfather. He held many managerial and executive roles, and retired as President of the company. Active in politics, Hal was a member of the Republican National Committee for 20 years and was a six-time delegate to the Republican National

Convention. He served on the boards of several organizations, including Rush University Medical Center, Northwestern University, the Adler Planetarium, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. He leaves four daughters; 10 grandchildren; a great-grandchild; three brothers, including David Smith ’54, 224 Gulf Shore Blvd. North, Naples, FL 34102; a nephew, Ethan Winter ’92; and a niece, Sylvia Baggish ’93.

’52 C Philip K. Goodwin, 88, a retired bank executive, died February 16, 2023 in Orleans, Mass. Born in New York City, Philip came to Choate in 1948; he lettered in wrestling (manager), was in the Automobile Club, and was a Campus Cop. After graduating from Yale, he had a 38-year career in banking with Chemical Bank and, later, Chase Bank, which took him all over the United States and Europe. In retirement, Philip lived on Cape Cod; he was an avid reader, especially of books on World War II. He leaves his wife, Dinny Goodwin, 10 Mill Pond Rd., Orleans, MA 02653; two sons, Chris Goodwin ’81 and Scott Goodwin ’83; and two grandchildren.

Richard I. Johannesen Jr., 88, a retired investment executive, died December 19, 2022 in Stowe, Vt. Born in Yonkers, N.Y., Dick was at Choate for one year; he was in the Cum Laude Society and the Glee and Choral clubs. After earning degrees from Williams and Columbia, he worked for Salomon Brothers in New York for 29 years, rising to Vice President and manager of the bond market research department. He co-authored The Price of Money, 1946-1969, an Analytical Study of United States and Foreign Interest Rates. In 1992, Dick moved to Stowe, where he served on several community and state boards. He leaves his wife, Marcia Johannesen, 87 Whitney La., Stowe, VT 05672; two children, including Andrew Johannesen ’85; and three grandchildren.

Peter V. Vanstory, 89, a retired sales executive, died October 24, 2022 in Greensboro, N.C. Born in Greensboro, Peter came to Choate in 1949; he was in St. Andrew’s Guild, was Chair of the Altar Guild, and was Treasurer of the Southern Club. After attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he

served in the Marines, then was an insurance and bank executive, retiring as a Vice President of Carolina Bank. Peter was an active member of First Presbyterian Church, and was the first President of the Greensboro Prison Ministry. He leaves three children, three grandchildren, and a brother.

’54 C Roger Healey Jr., 86, a retired military officer, died January 23, 2023 in Smithfield, Va. Born in New York City, Roger came to Choate in 1950; he was President of the Weather Bureau and in the Automobile Club. After graduating from Yale, he entered the Army, where he served for more than 20 years in Vietnam, Korea, Panama, Brazil, and in the Pentagon, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Roger also earned an MBA at the University of Texas. He served six years as a Green Beret, and among his many awards and decorations were the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Air Medal, and several more. In retirement, he ran bed & breakfasts in Wrightsville, Pa., and Smithfield. He enjoyed all outdoor activities, including canoeing, caving, hiking, and hunting. He leaves two children, six grandchildren, and three greatgrandchildren. His father, the late Roger HealeySr. 1918, and an uncle, the late Giles Healey 1920, also attended Choate.

Richard O. Lowy, 85, a retired radiation oncologist, died October 4, 2022 following a fall. Born in East Orange, N.J., Richard came to Choate in 1951; he was in the Weather Bureau and on the board of The Choate News. Before graduating from Williams, he was a medic in the Navy for three years. He then completed his studies at the New Jersey College of Medicine, San Francisco General Hospital, and England’s Royal Marsden Hospital. Moving to Portland, Ore., he established the Maybelle Clark McDonald Cancer Center at Providence St. Vincent’s Hospital, which he directed until he retired. Richard was fond of dogs, devoting much of his time to animal therapy, and helped found several canine crisis response teams. He also enjoyed scuba diving, gardening, photography, and race walking. He leaves his wife, Marcy

Lowy, 14145 Northwest Evergreen St., Portland, OR 97229; three children; and four grandchildren.

Boynton H. Rawlings, 87, a retired lawyer, died December 20, 2022 in Normandy, France. Born in El Paso, Texas, Boynton came to Choate in 1951; he lettered in football and was in the Glee Club, the Choral Club, St. Andrew’s Cabinet, and the Altar Guild. He then earned degrees from Princeton, Stanford, and the University of Strasbourg. Boynton had a lengthy career in international corporate law with a focus on French-American commercial affairs. He enjoyed all types of music; one of his pastimes was singing American ballads while playing the banjo, occasionally accompanied by his dog. He leaves his wife, Kathy Rawlings, at L’Ancien Presbytère, 14340 Montreuil-en-Auge, France; three children, including Laura Rawlings ’82; two stepdaughters; and five grandchildren.

George A. Stetson II, 87, a retired teacher, died January 28, 2023 in Centreville, Del. Born in Boston, George came to Choate in 1950; he lettered in football, hockey, and baseball (co-captain), and was Secretary-Treasurer of the Athletic Association. After graduating from Boston University, he served in the Marine Corps. He then taught history at Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Del., for 35 years. George volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and was a youth hockey coach. He leaves two sons, including Matthew Stetson ’84, 101 Baston Rd., North Yarmouth, ME 04097; a daughter; three grandchildren; and a brother, Richard Stetson ’58.

’55 C Lawrence C. “Skip” Moss, 85, the retired owner of a packaging company, died January 30, 2023, in Vero Beach, Fla. Born in Lockport, N.Y., Skip came to Choate in 1952. He played bass in the Orchestra and the Golden Blues, was Co-Business Manager of The Choate Literary Magazine, was Treasurer of St. Andrew’s Cabinet and was President of the Camera Club, winning a School photography prize. After graduating from Brown and serving in the New York State National Guard, he acquired

Corson Manufacturing in Lockport, which under his leadership became one of the largest folding paper carton companies in the Northeast. In retirement, he owned several small companies in Vero Beach. He enjoyed world travel, musicals, photography, and vacationing in the Adirondacks. He leaves his wife, Joy Carter Moss, 4251 Diamond Square, Vero Beach, FL 32967; three children; and six grandchildren. A cousin, the late Peter Castle ’55, also attended Choate.

Nathan P. Reed, 86, a retired surgeon, died January 27, 2023. Born in Boston, Nathan came to Choate in 1952; he lettered in soccer (manager), was Business Manager of The Choate News, and was in the Altar Guild. After earning degrees from Harvard and Albany Medical College, he was an Army Major in Monterey, Calif. He then moved to Delmar, N.Y., where he had a private practice in general surgery for 35 years. Nathan was a President of the Albany County Medical Society, and from 2005 to 2017 was the Medical Director of the New York State Health Department Office of Professional Medical Conduct. He enjoyed boating, rooting for the Red Sox, and playing chess or cards with family. He leaves his wife, Doris Reed, 17 Woodmont Dr., Delmar, NY 12054; three children; five grandchildren; and a sister. His cousins Reginald Ray ’48, the late William Clark ’50, John McLean ’55, and David McLean ’57 attended Choate. A nephew, Christopher McLean ’93, attended Choate Rosemary Hall. Other Choate alumni were his brother, the late Burgess Reed ’51, and an uncle, the late William Clark 1925.

’55 RH Carolyn Foster McNaught, 84, a retired educator, died October 4,

2022. Born in Bryn Mawr, Pa., Lyn came to Rosemary Hall in 1953; she was in the Kindly Club, and was head Boarder Marshal and choir mistress. After graduating from Smith, she taught at the Buckingham School in Cambridge, Mass., and St. Bernard’s School for Boys in New York. She and her husband then moved to Lenox, Mass., where he was Headmaster of the Berkshire Country Day School, and later to New Canaan, Conn., where he was Head of the Upper School at the New Canaan Country School. Lyn became Executive Director of the Horizons Student Enrichment Program, and was later on Horizons’ national board. She leaves her husband, Michael McNaught, 411 Elm Rd., Falmouth, MA 02540; two children; and three grandchildren.

’56 C C. Bingham Blossom, 84, a stock market analyst, died October 7, 2022 in Hunting Valley, Ohio. Born in Cleveland, Bing came to Choate in 1953. He lettered in baseball and squash, was in the Cum Laude Society, and was Managing Editor of The Choate News. After graduating from Yale, he was an analyst with Foster Brothers, Weber & Co. in Toledo, Ohio, then with Roulston & Co. in Cleveland, and later in private practice. He was also President of his family’s philanthropic arm, the William Bingham Foundation. Bing was a butterfly enthusiast, creating a backyard natural habitat as a sanctuary, and he asked that milkweed plants — crucial to Monarch butterflies — be planted in his memory. He leaves his wife, Deborah Blossom, 33850 Fairmount Blvd., Chagrin Falls, OH 44022; two sons; four grandchildren; a brother; and two sisters.

’56 RH Susan Rohrer Breig, 83, died November 22, 2022 in Redding, Conn. Born in Lancaster, Pa., Susan came to Rosemary Hall in 1954; she won an athletic award and was Captain of basketball and in the Riding Club. After graduating from Mount Vernon College in Washington, DC, she lived many years in Wallingford. Susan excelled at athletics, especially tennis, golf, basketball, field hockey, hiking, biking, and kayaking. She also loved music. She leaves two sons, six grandchildren, and a brother.

’57 C Eric Ravndal III, 83, an Episcopal priest, died February 4, 2023 in Orlando, Fla. Born in Orlando, Eric came to Choate in 1954; he was captain of varsity football, winning a trophy in the sport, lettered in golf, was Chairman of the Student Council, and was President of the Southern Club. After graduating from Harvard, he served in the Navy, then was a real estate broker in Winter Park, Fla. In 1977, he answered a call to the priesthood and moved with his family to Oconomowoc, Wis., where he earned a Master of Divinity degree at Nashota House Theological Seminary. He then was Rector of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Apopka, Fla. Eric enjoyed singing, was Chair of the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, and was a lifelong golf enthusiast. He leaves his wife, Sarah Ravndal, 1302 Country Club Oaks Circle, Orlando, FL 32804; four children; 10 grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

’58 C Oakley V. Andrews, 82, a retired lawyer, died February 15, 2023, in Naples, Fla. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Oakley came to Choate in 1955; he lettered in football and track, and

was on the Honor Committee. After earning degrees from Yale and Case Western Reserve School of Law, he was a partner with BakerHostetler in Cleveland for almost 50 years, specializing in estate planning. An accomplished pole vaulter in his younger days, he attended the 1960 Olympics in Rome as an alternate. Oakley enjoyed restoring vintage motorcycles, bird hunting, cooking, gardening, and reading. He leaves two daughters, three grandchildren, and a brother, Horace Andrews ’56, 3 Caroline Meadows, Apt. 210, Chapel Hill, NC 27517.

’59 C Henry Miles Jaffe, 82, a lawyer, magazine publisher, and real estate investor, died February 15, 2023 in Chilmark, Mass. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., Miles came to Choate in 1956; he lettered in basketball, was Senior Editor of The Choate News, and was President of the Chess Club. He then earned one degree from Harvard and two from Yale. He began as a lawyer for a Wall Street company, then started his own firm, did civil rights work in Mississippi, and was involved with European and New Zealand real estate. Miles enjoyed biking, tennis, skiing, and boating. He leaves his wife, Julie Jaffe, P.O. Box 194, Chilmark, MA 02535; and two stepsons.

’59 RH Leslie Ann Smith Elger, 81, active in the community, died January 15, 2023 in Mequon, Wis. Born in Pittsburgh, Leslie came to Rosemary Hall in 1955. She was President of her sixth form class; in Philomel and Dramu; on the riding team; and she won a School prize for excellence in Latin. She then graduated from the University of Michigan. Leslie

C. Bingham Blossom, a stock market analyst, was a butterfly enthusiast, creating a backyard natural habitat as a sanctuary, and he asked that milkweed plants — crucial to Monarch butterflies — be planted in his memory.

was a lifelong advocate for animals, caring for dogs, cats, horses, and other animals. She enjoyed birding, gardening, and riding. She leaves three daughters, five grandchildren, and a sister.

Anne Cullen “Dancy” Kittrell, 80, a retired clinical psychologist, died January 22, 2023. Born in Philadelphia, Dancy came to Rosemary Hall in 1955. She won the Optima award; was on the hockey, tennis, and badminton teams; was Chair of the Athletic Association; and was in the Kindly Club. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence, she earned master’s degrees from the University of California, Davis and Fresno State, and a Ph.D. from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, Calif. She maintained a counseling practice in San Francisco focusing on adult development, and retired to Carmel, Calif. Dancy enjoyed gardening and the novels of Edith Wharton. She leaves her husband, Charles Kittrell, 26340 Carmelo St., Carmel, CA 93923; two sons; five grandchildren; and three siblings, including Betsy Cullen ’57 and Wesley Davidson ’65.

’60 C John A. Alexander, 80, a retired insurance agent, died December 5, 2022 in Dallas. Born in Dallas, John came to Choate in 1957; he was in the Southern and Rod & Gun clubs, and was on the board of The Brief. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he served in the Navy in Vietnam. He then returned to Dallas and, after working for IBM, was a property and casualty agent with Alexander and Alexander of Texas. One of the accounts John handled was H. Ross Perot’s two presidential campaigns. He enjoyed metalwork and restored a blacksmith shop. He leaves his wife, Jennifer Alexander, 4811 Bluffview Blvd., Dallas, TX 75209; two sons; three grandchildren; and a sister.

William R. Barrett Jr., 80, a retired banking executive, died December 26, 2022. Born in Montgomery, Ala., Bill came to Choate in 1958. He was in the Cum Laude Society, the Chess Club, Astronomy Club, and Glee Club, was on the Associate Board of The Choate News, and won a School prize in public affairs. After graduating from Princeton, he was with JP Morgan Co.

for 33 years, including time in London and Tokyo; he then was on the board of the Morgan Stanley Private Bank. Bill was an enthusiastic woodworker, and enjoyed making furniture for family and friends; he was also an accomplished singer and guitarist. He leaves his wife, Penny Barrett, 28 Pinckney Landing Dr., Sheldon, SC 29941; a daughter; five grandchildren, including Oscar Hellandsvik ’22; and a brother, Anthony Barrett ’73. His father, the late William Barrett 1934, and an uncle, the late Hugh Barrett 1933, also attended Choate.

Dale F. “Tuck” Dorn, 80, an executive of an oil company, died February 22, 2023 of cancer. Born in San Antonio, Texas, Tuck came to Choate in 1956; he was in the Art Club, the Rod and Gun Club, and the Spanish National Honor Society. After graduating from Stanford, he worked for many years with the family firm, Forest Oil Corp., in Alaska and Colorado. Tuck enjoyed adventure. He ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain (meeting Ernest Hemingway in the process); explored uncharted parts of the Colombian Amazon; tracked tigers in India; and retraced the route of Captain Cook through the South Pacific in a sailboat. He also spent years in conservation work with the African Wildlife Federation. He leaves his wife, Lacey Dorn, 421 Morningside Dr., San Antonio, TX 78209; a daughter; and three siblings. His uncles, the late Clayton Dorn ’38, the late John Dorn ’45, and Richard Dorn ’43 attended Choate, as did his cousin, Forest Dorn ’73. Another cousin, Timothy Dorn ’81, attended Choate Rosemary Hall, as did a niece, Courtney Hughes ’94. Peter E. Van Nice, 80, died December 7, 2022 in Lakeside, Mich. Born in Chicago, Peter came to Choate in 1956; he was on the Board of The Brief. After earning degrees from Northwestern and the University of Chicago, he was in the Marine Corps. Peter then held various positions in business and philanthropy. He worked at International Harvester Co., was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, and was dedicated to conserving land and creating nature preserves, including Chikaming Open Lands in Sawyer, Mich. He leaves his wife,

Jeanette Van Nice, 14340 Lakeshore Rd., Lakeside, MI 49116; two sons, Errett Van Nice ’88 and Anthony Van Nice ’93; five grandchildren; a brother, Paul Van Nice ’63; nieces Leslie Palumbo ’83 and Alison Palumbo ’88; and a cousin, Jennifer Denniston ’84.

’61 C Forrest L. Jones II, 79, the retired owner of a cooking products store, died December 26, 2022, in Los Angeles. Born in San Francisco, Forrest came to Choate in 1961; he was on the board of the Press Club, in the Ski Club, and he managed the Golden Blues. After graduating from Hamilton College, he served in the Navy in Vietnam and Cuba, then moved back to San Francisco, where he ran Forrest Jones Inc., an upscale kitchenware store on Sacramento Street. The store also showcased local chefs. It expanded to other locations in San Francisco and San Rafael, closing in 2007. In retirement, Forrest moved to Belize, where he developed a sailing program for local children. He leaves two sons, an adopted daughter, two grandchildren, and two sisters.

’62 RH Jean Redpath Becton, 78, a silversmith, died February 3, 2023, in Lincoln, Mass. Born in South Orange, N.J., Jeannie came to Rosemary Hall in 1959; she was a Marshal and head of the Grounds Committee. She studied silversmithing and sculpture at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and earned a degree in fine arts from Tufts. After working at the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, she and her colleagues created their own studio at Motherbrook Arts and Community Center in Dedham, Mass. Jeannie enjoyed gourmet cooking and choral singing, and was an active environmentalist. For years she was on the board of the National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA. She leaves her husband, Henry Becton, 9 Musketaquid Rd., Concord, MA 01742; three children; five grandchildren; and two brothers. A nephew, Ian Redpath ’96, attended Choate Rosemary Hall, and a cousin, Sally Steele ’64, attended Rosemary Hall. Lois Lione Cathcart, 78, a retired media production executive, died September 18, 2022. Born in Stamford,

Conn., Lois came to Rosemary Hall in 1959; she was in Dramu, the Shakespeare play, and The Nativity play. After graduating from Northwestern, she was assistant director on an award-winning documentary, Home for Life, then was a production assistant on TV commercials. Lois later oversaw her husband’s medical office for 39 years. She enjoyed ice cream, theater, and musicals. She leaves her husband, Paul Cathcart, 1364 Rock Rimmon Rd., Stamford, CT 06903; three children; eight grandchildren; and two siblings, including Lynne Webb ’63.

’63 C Michael M. Smith, 77, a retired banker and veterans supporter, died May 13, 2022 of a heart attack in San Diego, Calif. Born in New York City, Mike came to Choate in 1960; he was on the board of The Choate News and in the Russian Club. After graduating from Colby College, he served in the Army in Korea and then earned a master’s degree from New York University. He worked for several banks, including Great Western Bank in San Francisco. He then worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs on loan guarantees and for the American Legion, assessing care in veterans hospitals. Mike enjoyed world travel, visiting every continent except Antarctica. He leaves a friend, Houston Wray; two brothers, including Tony Smith ’65, 257 Park Hill Ave., Unit 1-E, Yonkers, NY 10705; and a sister.

’64 C John G. Lathrop, 76, a retired headmaster, died February 13, 2023. Born in Montclair, N.J., John came to Choate in 1961; he was in the Glee, Current History, and Republican clubs. After earning degrees from Penn and Harvard, he was Director of Admissions at the Fay and Brooks Schools, Head of the Middle School at Brunswick Academy in Lawrenceville, Va., and Headmaster of Powhatan School in Boyce, Va. He was also on the boards of several independent schools. A history buff, John took part in Civil War reenactments and was a tour guide at battlefields. He also enjoyed Gilbert and Sullivan, and singing in choirs and glee clubs. He leaves his wife, Sheila Lathrop, 2924 Southeast Fairway West, Stuart, FL 34997; two stepsons; two grandchildren; and a sister.

’65 C Thomas G. Austin, 75, an investment finance executive, died November 9, 2022. Born in Houston, Tom came to Choate in 1961; he was on the Honor Committee and the Board of The Choate News, and was in the Press Club and the Gold Key Society. After earning degrees from Southern Methodist University and the Thunderbird School of Global Management, he was an executive with Holiday Inn and later an investment counselor. Tom was active in Enterprise for Youth, a San Francisco program for disadvantaged young people. He leaves his wife, Roulhac Austin, 3170 Southern Ave., Apt. 3, Memphis, TN 38111; and a brother. His father, the late Donald Austin 1927, also attended Choate.

’66 C John R. Okerson, 74, a retired airline pilot, died December 21, 2022. Born in Freehold, N.J., John came to Choate in 1962. He was in the Spanish Club, winning a School prize for excellence in Spanish, and played woodwinds in the Band, the Orchestra, and the Golden Blues. After graduating from the University of Virginia, John was a pilot in the Navy. He then was a Captain with Southern and Delta airlines, flying 747-400s. He leaves his wife, Jo Ann Okerson, 3928 Green Spruce Bend, Lakeland, TN 38002; two daughters; and two siblings.

William B. Woody, 74, the owner of a bed-and-breakfast, died February 10, 2023 in Tryon, S.C. Born in Tryon, Bill came to Choate in 1962. He lettered in track, was SecretaryTreasurer of the Art Club and Vice President of the Stamp Club, and President of the Rifle Club, winning two School prizes in marksmanship. He then graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bill owned the Foxtrot Inn in Tryon, and also was on the Town Council there. He also spent many years working with his brother for Competition Tire at NASCAR races. He leaves two children, six grandchildren, and his brother.

’68 C John H. Billings, 73, a retired brewmaster, died March 4, 2023 in Nashville, Tenn. Born in Nashville, John came to Choate in 1966; he was in the Altar Guild and lettered in football and

wrestling, winning a School award in the latter sport. After earning degrees from The University of the South and Vanderbilt, he was a brewmaster for Stroh’s Brewery in Detroit and Pittsburgh Brewing Co. in that city. He leaves a nephew, K. LeMoyne Harwell ’94, and a cousin, Susanna Howe ’89. His father, the late F. Tremaine Billings 1929, also attended Choate.

’71 RH Renee Williams Boyd, 69, an artist, died October 1, 2022. Born in Stamford, Conn., Renee came to Rosemary Hall in 1968; she was in the Afro-American Society, the Art Club, and the Camera Club. She earned degrees from the University of Bridgeport and the University of Maryland Global Campus. Renee created works of art from any medium. She leaves her husband, James Boyd, 41 Ursula Pl., Stamford, CT 06902; and five siblings.

’74 C Alan W. Richey, 66, a retired medical doctor, died January 2, 2023, in Arlington, Va. Alan, whose parents were in the Foreign Service, was born in Asmara, Eritrea, and came to Choate in 1970. He was in the Cum Laude Society and Gold Key and was on the board of The Choate News. After earning degrees from Duke and the Georgetown School of Medicine, he practiced internal medicine in northern Virginia, retiring in 2022. He leaves his wife, Jean Brown, 2837 23rd Road N, Arlington, VA 22201; a daughter; and two sisters, Elizabeth Beck ’73 and Susan Gaylord ’78.

’87 C Kate R. Regan, 53, a musician and educator, died October 6, 2022 of cancer in Madrid, Spain. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., Kate came to Choate Rosemary Hall in 1984. She was the leader of the Whimawehs and in the Festival Chorus; lettered in hockey and field hockey; and was in the Cum Laude Society, winning School awards for academic excellence and instrumental music (violin). After earning degrees from Brown and Stanford, Kate formed a jazz-rock trio, In Violet, in San Francisco, and then was a special education teacher near Jackson, Wyo. From 2002 to 2008, she was a content manager for LeapFrog in San Francisco and Beijing,

Douglas G. McGrath REMEMBERED

Renowned film director, actor, and playwright Douglas G. McGrath ’76 died November 3, 2022 of a heart attack in New York City. He was 64. At the time of his death, he was acting in a one-man off-Broadway play he had written about his early adolescence in Midland, Texas, Everything’s Fine. Doug came to Choate in 1973 where, perhaps not surprisingly, he won two School prizes for excellence in dramatics. He then went to Princeton, where he performed in and wrote for the 130-year-old Princeton Triangle Club, one of the country’s oldest collegiate theater troupes. After Princeton, he became a writer for Saturday Night Live, then wrote screenplays and humor pieces for magazines until Woody Allen asked him to co-write the screenplay of the 1994 film Bullets Over Broadway. He also wrote and directed the films Emma, Nicholas Nickleby, and Infamous

As an actor, Doug appeared in many films, including seven directed by Allen, and on television. He more recently was nominated for a Tony award for the book, Beautiful, The Carole King Musical. In its obituary, The Washington Post said that “Mr. McGrath’s interests and career — stage, screen, magazines, books — defied easy labeling. He seemed to like it that way, constantly shifting gears and always offering a breezy appraisal of his successes and poking fun at his missteps.”

In television, he acted in the HBO series Girls, Amazon Prime series Crisis in Six Scenes, and the Netflix western limited series Godless.

Doug was also known for his documentaries, including His Way, about film producer and talent manager Jerry Weintraub, and Becoming Mike Nichols. He was the co-author of the 1981 humor book Save an Alligator, Shoot a Preppie.

Doug leaves his wife, Jane Reed Martin McGrath, 277 West End Ave., Apt. 3-D, New York, NY 10023, and a son. His father, the late R. Searle McGrath ’42, and a brother, Alexander McGrath ’80, were alumni, as were an aunt, Katherine Heidel RH ’43, and a cousin, Emily Cooke ’05.

then taught music in Madrid. She enjoyed swimming, running, skiing, and art. She leaves a daughter; her stepmother; two siblings; her partner, Elena Ferraris; and her former partner, Raquel Rozados Lopez.

’89 C Hilary Shay DiMauro, 51, an audiologist, died December 27, 2022 in Hartford, Conn. Born in South Korea, Hilary grew up in Cheshire, Conn., and came to Choate Rosemary Hall in 1987. She was a House Prefect in Jessup, and then earned degrees from American University and Southern Connecticut State University. Hilary enjoyed spending time with her large Shay family at Fairfield Beach in Connecticut during the summer. She leaves a brother and a sister.

’91 C Sallyann Gindel Brink, 50, died of cancer January 15, 2023. Born in Meriden, she was at Choate Rosemary Hall for one year, lettering in field hockey and track. She leaves her husband, Damon Brink, 1625 Camels Hump Rd., Huntington, VT 05462; a son; and three sisters.

’04 C Price Meropol McMahon, 36, died December 20, 2022. Born in Boston, Price came to Choate Rosemary Hall in 2002; she lettered in field hockey, basketball, and softball, and was with the Environmental Action Coalition and Choaties Against Hunger. After graduating from Vanderbilt, she worked for Price Waterhouse Cooper, then American Express and the British clothiers Burberry. She leaves her husband, James McMahon, 64 Whittier Rd., Wellesley Hills, MA 02481; two children; her parents; and two brothers. Cousins Marcus Tauber ’87 and Hayes Tauber ’90 also attended Choate Rosemary Hall.

Faculty, Staff, and Trustees

Stanley Davis Phillips ’61, a Choate Rosemary Hall Trustee for eight years, died November 20, 2022. He was 80. Born in High Point, N.C., Dave came to Choate in 1957; he was President of the Rod & Gun Club, Captain of the skeet team, manager of varsity football, and on the board of The Brief. Despite the childhood amputation of his left leg, he was an excellent dancer and Chair of the Dance Committee. Dave founded and led several High Point companies, and at the time of his death was Chairman and CEO of Phillips Industries, Inc. He was, at various times, Secretary of Commerce of North Carolina; chair of the Special Olympics; on the boards of the North Carolina Department of Transportation, Wake Forest University School of Management, Wake Forest Medical Center; and U.S. Ambassador to Estonia. He was a Choate Rosemary Hall Trustee from 1989 to 1997, and created a lecture series at School. He also received the Alumni Seal Prize. He leaves his wife, Katherine “Kay” Phillips, 24 Valley Fields Farm, High Point NC 27265; four children, including Lillian Phillips ’91, Katherine Klegg ’94, and Lucy Phillips Yared ’01; four grandchildren; and a brother.

Jeremiah Lawrence Pond ’55, who taught science at Choate for five years, died February 16, 2023 in Durham, N.H. He was 86. Born in Cambridge, Mass., Larry came to Choate in 1951, where he lettered in wrestling (captain), winning a School prize in the sport, and football; was in the Cum Laude Society; and was Chairman of the Student Council. After graduating from Wesleyan University, he taught for many years at the high school and college levels, and was at Choate from 1963 to 1966. A lifelong parachuting enthusiast, he was an Army paratrooper and parachute instructor, co-founding the country’s first sport parachuting school in Woodbury, Conn. In May 1965, he parachuted onto Choate’s athletic fields from a plane piloted by the School’s Chaplain, the Rev. Robert Bryan, while the student body watched. Larry and his late wife, Gloria, were early environmentalists;

among their accomplishments was persuading Choate to stop the use of the poison DDT on School property. He leaves a granddaughter. A brother, the late Nathan Pond ’50, also attended Choate.

Judith H. Richter, who taught English at School for six years, died November 30, 2022 in Greenwich. She was 83. Born in Boston, Judy graduated from Smith and taught English at Rosemary Hall from 1961 to 1967. She then began a lengthy career as a horsewoman. She and her husband, Tom, owned a horse farm in Greenwich, and in 1977 moved to a 104-acre farm in Bedford, N.Y. Judy won many honors, including Horseperson of the Year in 1974; she was inducted into the National Show Hunter Hall of Fame in 2004, won the Pegasus Medal of Honor in 2020, and wrote several books about riding. She leaves two sons and two granddaughters.

Jean F. Topping, who taught French and headed the Language Department at School for a combined 25 years, died January 20, 2023 in Brentwood, N.H. She was 88. Born in New Haven, Jean graduated from Northfield, earned a bachelor’s degree cum laude from Radcliffe and moved to France, earning a Certificat d‘Aptitude from the Institute de Touraine, Tours. After briefly teaching there, she returned to the United States and taught at Rosemary Hall from 1957 to 1959. Jean then taught French and English in Ethiopia and at schools in New Hampshire. She returned to Choate Rosemary Hall in 1974. “Jean had a remarkable ability to be fully present in the moment,” remembers her former colleague Ann Nesslage. “Talking with a student or colleague, listening, head bent, to a piece by Schbert, sitting on a rock studying a waterfall.” French teacher Anne Armour adds, “Much is understandably made nowadays of how to respect others. Jean embodied the simplest, sincerest, most powerful version of that. I was more than fortunate to have had her as one of my first examples of a teaching colleague and a friend.” Besides being Department Chair and Section head, she held an endowed teaching chair for 10 years. At her retirement, her “love of learning and selfless devotion to your students and

your School” were cited. Jean enjoyed choral singing, horseback riding, hiking, birdwatching, archaeology, and photography. She leaves a son, Roderick Topping ’82, 184 Dwight St., Apt. 2, New Haven, CT 06511; and a brother.

Frank W. Zurn ’45, a Choate Trustee for four years, died October 15, 2022. He was 95. Born in Erie, Pa., Frank came to Choate in 1943. He co-captained the varsity squash team, was Photographic Manager of The Brief, and was on the Student Council. After graduating from Cornell, he served in the Navy, then moved to New York to sell mechanical drives to refineries, power plants, and the Navy. Under his direction, Zurn Industries grew from $12 million in annual sales to more than $400 million, acquiring dozens of mechanical companies. Before age 40 he was elected to the Young Presidents Organization of America, the Chief Executive Organization, and the World Business Council. Frank lectured widely and was the author of publications on security analysis. A Choate Trustee from 1972 to 1976, he was also a director of the Cornell Research Foundation and St. Vincent Health Center. Frank was an avid boater and competitive racer, winning many races. He leaves his wife, Martha Jane Zurn, 2113 Lakeview Dr., Apt. 9C, Sebring, FL 33870; two sons, including Peter Zurn ’72; two daughters; several grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and two brothers, including Roger Zurn ’61. A daughter, the late Lisa Victor ’76, attended Rosemary Hall, as did a brother, John Zurn ’43.

Our sympathy to the friends and families of the following, whose death is reported with sorrow:

Edward H. “Ted” McKee ’53 December 12, 2018

Leanne La ’26, who made All-American this season in varsity co-ed wrestling.

SCOREBOARD | Fall 2022 Sports Wrap-Up

Fall 2022 marked one of the most successful athletic seasons in Choate’s history! Through hard work and dedication from the athletes and coaches, each program enjoyed thrilling moments and created unforgettable memories. The varsity programs combined for an extremely impressive overall record of 72-36-4, a win percentage of .667%. The varsity football team went undefeated during the regular season and won the Founders League title, qualified for the Mike Silipo Bowl, and finished as NEPSAC Finalists. Girls varsity soccer also finished as Founders League Champions as well as WWNEPSSA League Champions, and advanced to the NEPSAC Division A Semifinals. Boys varsity soccer were Co-Founders League Champs for the first time since 2003, and returned to the Class A Tournament for first time since 2018 with a home game as No. 4 seed. Both girls varsity volleyball and boys varsity water polo qualified for the New England Playoffs, with water polo defeating Deerfield to advance to the semifinals. Choate won Deerfield Day 2022!

FALL 2022

BOYS CROSS COUNTRY

Varsity Record: 2-6

Captain: Michael Korvyakov ’23

Highlights: Finished 4th out of 9 teams at Founders League Championships. Regular season victories over Trinity-Pawling and a close, 27-28 win over Hotchkiss.

GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY

Varsity Record: 4-2

Captains: Sarah Markley ’23, Megan Mitchell ’23, Heidi Small ’23

Highlights: Finished 3rd overall at Founders League Championships and 8th at New England Championships. Regular season wins over Andover, Deerfield, Hotchkiss, and Northfield Mt. Hermon.

FIELD HOCKEY

Varsity Record: 4-13

Captains: Sophia Rodham ’23, Cadence Secreto ’23, Sabrina Wang ’23

Highlights: Recorded first-ever win on new Class of ’76 Turf Field with win over Ethel Walker, also victories over Kingswood-Oxford, Miss Porter’s, and Hopkins.

FOOTBALL

Varsity Record: 8-1

Captains: Harrison Keith ’23, Jon Marvan ’23, Benjamin Wable ’23, Michael Zack ’23

Highlights: Went undefeated during the regular season and won the Founders League title, qualified for the Mike Silipo Bowl, and finished as NEPSAC Finalists. Harrison Keith ’23 named NEPSAC Player of the Year.

BOYS SOCCER

Varsity Record: 13-4-3

Captains: Dylan Clack ’23, Sean Dallaghan ’23

Highlights: Co-Founders League Champs for first time since 2003, and returned to NEPSAC Class A Tournament for first time since 2018 with a home game as #4 Seed.

GIRLS SOCCER

Varsity Record: 15-2-1

Captains: Ava Gizzie ’23, Emma Kirk ’23, Sophia Zhang ’23

Highlights: Finished as Founders League Champions as well as WWNEPSSA League Champions, and advanced to the NEPSAC Division A Semifinals. Head Coach Rick Koczak named Connecticut Girls Soccer Association Prep/Private Coach of the Year.

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL

Varsity Record: 14-5

Captains: Valerie Guadian ’23, Fay Pahuja ’23, Jane Rak ’23

Highlights: Started season with 7 straight wins, earned another trip to the New England Playoffs.

BOYS WATER POLO

Varsity Record: 12-3

Captains: Sam Anastasio ’23, Finn Lutton ’23

Highlights: Qualified for New England Tournament for first time since 2016 as No. 4 seed. Defeated Deerfield to advance to the semifinal game.

1 Olympia Wolff ’25 goes up for a spike during a home match.

2 Nick Rubino ’24 avoids the rush as he tries to connect with one of his receivers.

3 Yohan Lake ’24 eyes up the ball for a possible scoring opportunity.

4 Girls varsity soccer celebrates a goal during Deerfield Day. The Wild Boars won 4-1.

5 Varsity field hockey players line the field as they prepare for a regular season game.

6 Luke Callaghan ’23 pushes through during a home cross country race.

7 Garett Curtis ’24 looks to pass to a teammate after a save.

8 Captain Megan Mitchell ’23 leads the pack as she competes in a home cross country race.

SCOREBOARD | Winter 2023 Sports Wrap-Up

The Winter 2023 season marked another extremely successful term for Choate Athletics, with multiple teams bringing home championships, qualifying for playoffs, and accomplishing many feats of athleticism. The varsity wrestling team enjoyed an unforgettable season, as the Wild Boars were Co-Founders League Champions, sent 11 wrestlers to Nationals — where four were named All-American — and the girls’ team placed 5th overall in the nation! Also claiming a Founders League title this year was the boys varsity swim and dive team, winning the league in back-to-back years for the first time since 2011-’12. The girls varsity swim and dive team finished as a close runner-up at the Founder League Championships. On the New England level, the boys varsity squash team won the New England “Class B” Championship, while the girls varsity squash team finished as runner-up at these championships as well. Additionally, boys varsity basketball, girls varsity basketball, and girls ice hockey all qualified for the New England Playoffs.

WINTER 2023

VARSITY CO-ED ARCHERY

Varsity Record: 1-0

Captains: Hiasa Yu ’23, Austin Zhao ’23

Highlights: Defeated the Meriden Archery Club on February 13, 196-149. Austin Zhao ’23 finished 2nd overall at the National Indoor Archery competition held in Massachusetts.

BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL

Varsity Record: 19-7

Captain: Alan Mashensky ’23

Highlights: Strong regular season of 19 victories resulted in Founders League Runner-Up. Wins included victories over Taft, Andover, Exeter, Loomis, and Deerfield. Qualified for the New England Playoffs as No. 4 seed.

GIRLS VARSITY BASKETBALL

Varsity Record: 13-9

Captains: Kameryn Perry ’23, Norah Saluja ’23

Highlights: Big wins included a Double OT thriller over Andover and 70-29 win over Deerfield to end the regular season. Qualified for New England Playoffs.

BOYS VARSITY ICE HOCKEY

Varsity Record: 3-19-2

Captains: Primo Baldassarre ’23, Daniel Mahoney ’23, Evan Partridge ’23

Highlights: Wins over Berkshire, Pomfret, and a thrilling home victory over Deerfield during a Saturday night game.

GIRLS VARSITY ICE HOCKEY

Varsity Record: 11-11-2

Captains: Sophia Rodham ’23, Cadence Secreto ’23

Highlights: Finished the season on a 4-0-1 run to qualify for the New England Playoffs. Regular season wins over Taft, Berkshire, Hill, and Deerfield.

BOYS VARSITY SQUASH

Varsity Record: 12-8

Captain: William Ji ’23

Highlights: Won the New England “Class B” Championship. Regular season wins over Westminster, Salisbury, Berkshire, and Avon.

GIRLS VARSITY SQUASH

Varsity Record: 12-5

Captain: Rachel Miller ’23

Highlights: Finished as runner-up at the New England “Class B” Championships. Regular season highlight included defeating Deerfield for the first time in recent years.

BOYS VARSITY SWIMMING & DIVING

Varsity Record: 5-4

Captains: Sam Anastasio ’23, Zach Halna du Fretay ’23

Highlights: Back-to-Back Founders League Champions for the first time since 2011-’12. 6th place finish at New England Championships. Wins over Loomis, NMH, Hopkins, Avon, and Suffield.

GIRLS VARSITY SWIMMING & DIVING

Varsity Record: 3-6

Captains: Cat Cronin ’23, Mealy Cronin ’23, Grace Furtado ’23, Victoria Layden ’24

Highlights: Finished Runner-Up at Founders League Championships, 7th overall finish at New Englands (14 points behind 4th). Mealy Cronin ’23 school record 100-meter butterfly, Victoria Layden ’24 school record 100-yard backstroke.

VARSITY CO-ED WRESTLING

Varsity Record: 15-3

Captains: Sean Cytrynbaum ’23, Gannon Haley ’23, Sachi Mehra ’23

Highlights: Best record since 2016 as the Wild Boars were Co-Founders League Champions. Second-place finish at “Class A” Tournament. Girls New England Runner-Up. 11 wrestlers qualified for Nationals with four qualifying as All-Americans. Girls finished 5th overall at Nationals.

1 Khaden Bennett ’23 pulls up a jump shot during a home regular season game.

2 Captain Cadence Secreto ’23 concentrates on the puck in a home game against Hotchkiss.

3 Charlotte Flynn ’25 competes hard for a point during a home squash match.

4 The Founders League Champion in the 100-freestyle, Michael Xu ’25, takes his mark before diving into the pool.

5 Boys squash claims the New England “Class B” Championship.

6 Kameryn Perry ’23 jumps up to complete the break-away layup.

7 Teammates Jake Kavanagh ’23 and Tommy Greenhaw ’24 celebrate a goal against Deerfield.

8 Girls varsity swim and dive team celebrates their second-straight runner-up finish at the Founders League Championship.

9 Archer Austin Zhao ’23 placed 2nd at the Archery National Championships in February.

In this issue, an internationally published journalist recounts in narrative form, aided by full-color photographs, the story of the first time two multihulls competed for an America’s Cup match, in 2010; a novelist twines Beatles history and Soviet-era intrigue into a spy thriller; a speculative tale of woven perspectives imagines a postapocalyptic world; and an award-winning author/photojournalist guides readers to the best of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Learning to Fly

By Roger Vaughan ’55 | Reviewed by Nolan Silbernagel

Grit. Determination. Adversity. Skill. Courage.

These are all central themes to Roger Vaughan’s Learning to Fly: America’s Cup XXXIII 2010, which takes the reader through an in-depth look into the competitive world of sailing and showcasing not only what entailed winning this major international competition in 2010, but what was at stake as well.

The story focuses on multibillionaire and avid sailor Larry Ellison, who helped fund, manage, and oversee the team and overall monumental project of developing and transitioning 156 years of American sailing from using a monohull to a multihull. Vaughan’s writing, extensive research, and countless interviews with key figures truly illustrate to the reader that this was not going to be an average day of sailing in the bay. The overall development and final execution of the massive multihull yacht took years of planning, and hundreds of individuals with all varying levels of expertise, including sailors, engineers, carpenters, deckhands, working 60-65 hour weeks with one common goal in mind — to build the most advanced multihull yacht to date.

From the initial conversations, to the assembling of a massive team, to the painstaking details that go into creating a ship like this, Vaughan does a masterful job of truly making the reader feel as if they were also in the meeting rooms and shipyards as BMW Oracle Racing campaign’s ship, USA 17, was being created.

After years of hard work, numerous setbacks (up to and including the week of the long awaited race) and multiple disasters which could have ended the campaign early, such as the masthead completely snapping off during a practice run, Ellison’s team was ready to take on Switzerland’s Société Nautique de Genève Alinghi, which was being overseen and managed by another multibillionaire, Ernesto Bertarelli.

The race was held in Valencia, Spain, in February 2010, and while there was a significant amount of buildup throughout the book about this major race, and USA 17 had a lot of respect for Switzerland’s Alinghi, Bertarelli’s ship was ultimately no match for its American counterpart, as Ellison expertly recounts just how superior USA 17 was designed and built to easily win the first two races to claim the America’s Cup.

Also helping truly illustrate the sheer magnitude of what was built by this innovative team were colored photographs throughout the book. It can sometimes be hard to really imagine just how large of a structure this multihull yacht was (including how huge a 200-feet sail is), but being able to see the final product as it is being described within the book certainly adds another level of appreciation for what was being accomplished here. The images also added an intriguing amount of detail, whether it was pictures from group meetings, initial test designs, or practice runs on the water.

Overall, by winning the America’s Cup in historic fashion, the members of BMW Oracle’s USA 17 embodied the American spirit of daring to be great, overcoming any challenge that might come one’s way, and to ultimately always achieving success.

LEARNING TO FLY

Author: Roger Vaughan ’55

Publisher: Choptank Word Bank

About the Reviewer: Nolan Silbernagel is the Assistant Director of Athletics and Head Boys and Girls Swim Coach at Choate Rosemary Hall.

BACK IN THE USSR

Author: Patrick D. Joyce ’85

Publisher:

Spy Pond Press

About the Reviewer: D. Gam Bepko works in the Financial Office.

Back in the USSR

By Patrick D. Joyce ’85 | Reviewed by D. Gam Bepko

Side 1

“Jet planes screamed down the runway, thumping and skidding. An electric guitar twanged. Drums rolled to a crescendo.”

Back in the USSR (Spy Pond Press) by Patrick D. Joyce ’85 begins the same way as the opening track of the same name from The Beatles’ White Album. And much like the White Album, you may dive into this book thinking you’re landing in familiar territory, but you end up getting an unexpected and enjoyable adventure.

Harrison George — a boarding student at the exclusive Charles Froate Hall Academy in Conn. — is flying into Moscow to spend his winter break with his parents, both of whom are American diplomats at the U.S. Embassy. With his Walkman at the ready, his winter break plans are to listen to music, daydream, and spend time with his dear friend Prudence, the daughter of foreign correspondents.

But Harrison’s plans quickly go awry when he and Prudence spot the Mystery Woman — a beautiful darkhaired Russian that he had first seen at the airport — en route to the Metro. They quickly ditch their lunch plans — or rather, Prudence makes the decision for them — and follow the Mystery Woman, who is already being followed by a man dubbed The Overcoat that they had seen earlier lurking outside of Prudence’s school. After the accidental discovery of a dead body that disappears as suddenly as it had appeared, Harrison and Prudence find themselves tangled up in a web of deceit, secrets, and unrequited love.

Side 2

“With our love, we could save the world …”

While George Harrison wrote this particular lyric for “Within You Without You” from The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the message of love is evident through The Fab Four’s catalog of music. Paul and Linda McCartney, John Lennon and Yoko Ono — both relationships are iconic and synonymous with enduring love. It’s also a recurring theme of Back in the USSR — unrequited and reciprocal, blossoming or in steady bloom, inwards and towards others. The heady effect of love propels the characters and the story into unexpected places.

The Beatles were more than a quartet of musicians — they were a sheer force of nature, releasing thirteen albums in less then ten years, and dozens more as solo artists after their breakup in 1970. The impact they had on pop culture and recording music is immeasurable. Countless movies and books have been made about and inspired by The Fab Four. Critics will say they were in the right place at the right moment in time, but would anyone else have had the same sort of influence? It seems unlikely.

Side 3

“All families keep secrets. Maybe some more than others.”

Secrets abound in Back in the USSR — Harrison hides the details of his daily adventures from his parents, and they do the same to him for different reasons. Prudence has her own secrets that she keeps from her parents and Harrison. And with the setting of the story being 1980’s Cold War eraSoviet Union, secrets and spying are the norm. The first time Harrison calls his roommate Max at his home in Detroit, he hears a click-click on the line and immediately remembers that he needs to be careful of what he says, which leads them to recite their messages on a tape recorder and play them backward over the phone to confuse the Soviet agents listening in.

Not all secrets come to light over the course of the story, but the biggest secret of all — the location of a particular vinyl pressing of the White Album — and what several people will do to find this record is at the heart of this novel.

Side 4

“But could a Beatles album save the world?”

You’ll have to read this novel to find out. For me, it was wonderful to rediscover the love I had for a band I got into half a lifetime ago and has served as inspiration in my own works and outlook on life. It was fun to read, then stop to reread sections to see if I had found an Easter egg or a glass onion. Back in the USSR is YA-friendly but will appeal to adults who listened to The Beatles as well as anyone who enjoys a good espionage romp.

GOLIATH

Author: Tochi Onyebuchi ’05

Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

About the Reviewer: Mallika R. Beach-Mehrotra is a science teacher at Choate Rosemary Hall.

Goliath

By Tochi Onyebuchi ’05 | Reviewed by Mallika R. Beach-Mehrotra

In his novel, Goliath, Tochi Onyebuchi ’05 cracks open the Pandora’s Box currently residing in the back of most people’s minds — what will a future with extreme climate collapse look like? How will the chips fall when humanity reaches an irreversible point of change? Of disaster? Climate change is an irrefutable fact of our current society and of future generations. It is an issue that looms over any thought for our society and ways it needs to change. Additionally, environmental activism cannot be decoupled from societal issues such as gender equality, racism, oppression, etc. Tochi Onyebuchi masterfully weaves together these topics in a haunting look at one possible global future.

A moving novel that follows a group of people in New Haven, Conn., as they eke out a living in a post-climate apocalypse world, Goliath wrestles with the themes of environmentalism, class inequity, and how to live in a world that has forgotten you. The characters are a diverse group of survivors, each with their own histories, traumas, and secrets, left behind on Earth after the wealthy have colonized space. It is inherently a book about our current systemized oppression, the historical and future impact of gentrification, and the realities of how and who a space colony system would cater to. What decides who gets to escape a beleaguered planet and a society fighting over scraps of resources? This is the crux of the novel. Who and what decides the fate of humanity as it balances on a knife’s edge?

Goliath is a nonlinear, character driven story written in refined prose that might feel challenging to some readers but is worth the effort to digest. It is a kaleidoscope of stories, intersecting time, location, and emotion yet staying fragmented as Earth’s cities themselves have become disconnected. There are terms, “historical events,” and technologies that are not explained as you read. This book takes you on a journey and it is up to the reader to fill in the blanks as they read through the fractured stories that are

slowly glued together as the book goes on. Each snapshot of a character’s life provides an opportunity for the reader to engage with its meaning and how it fits into the overarching theme of community and “solastalgia” — the longing for a home that is no longer quite the same and the distress caused by environmental change.

Woven within the story that is a biblical retelling of ‘David and Goliath’ is a potential history of what our next one hundred years might look like. Elements of nature surge through the story. Rich, vivid detail of a wrecked planet slowly reclaiming itself provides the backdrop to our characters’ lives. It is a grim and dark future of environmental disasters, plague, crumbling infrastructure, irradiated land, and air toxic to breathe. There are no clear answers in this book, no magical moment where all the problems of Earth are solved — just an unending desire of each character to keep going day after day and to connect with those around them.

This novel would be a delight for fans of the hit show Black Mirror, as it explores the potential ways technology would accompany us in post-climate collapse. A modern literary science fiction marvel, Goliath provides possibilities for the augmentation of humanity with technology such as mechanized police drones, bodies made faster and stronger with technology, and a need for lungs augmented against the poisoned air. It is a complex, complicated story of exploitation, violence, hope, and longing written in a cerebral and abstract way. Goliath draws you in and forces the reader to pay attention to every moment — the world Onyebuchi has created is incredibly complex yet familiar at the same time, but it is up to the reader to catch the details and shape the world in their imagination as they read. The variety of storytelling tools from journals, news articles, straight prose, and the large cast of characters make this book an intriguing collection of moments from the not-so-distant future.

Rocky Mountain National Park: The Complete Guide

By James Kaiser ’95 | Reviewed by Sydni Marmor

Whether your idea of adventure is a forty-mile trek through the backcountry wilderness, a cozy car camp by the fireside, or a luxurious retreat overlooking a setting sun, James Kaiser’s guide for Rocky Mountain National Park will take you on a full sensory walk through the wilderness, all without stepping outside your door. Kaiser weaves together narratives of nature, community, and adventure to help you plan out an unforgettable trip to the Rocky Mountains.

Kaiser starts us off with an introduction to life at Rocky Mountain National Park, sharing with us the basic principles and guidelines for a fun-filled adventure. Whether you enjoy stargazing, fishing, horseback riding, rock climbing, winter sports, backpacking, or a leisurely walk in the woods, Kaiser offers guides and insights into how to plan your adventure. Kaiser helps the reader to understand not only how to build a robust trip, but to also understand the heritage and culture of the park. He streams together the ways in which Rocky Mountain National Park has utilized community to continue to thrive in its history. From understanding the impact of the Gold Rush to the wildfires of 2020, he brings together the ways the park and its surrounding community have come together to ensure and protect its survival for future generations.

The guide is broken into sections, so readers can pick where to start planning or which activity calls

to them most. Kaiser’s guide is inclusive in utilizing stunning photos, detailed maps, and trail guides to help the reader choose where they most want to visit and explore. Within various suggestions, Kaiser offers the reader tips and tricks to take into the park with them. If you enjoy an immersive climbing and camping experience, tackling the 14,259-foot Longs Peak would be my recommendation. Kaiser will walk you through how to successfully summit Colorado’s northernmost fourteener. Kaiser’s guide will help you understand how to navigate this nontechnical climb with tips and tricks to having a pleasurable and challenging experience. If your idea of adventure is not traversing through the Narrows, Kaiser’s guide includes recommendations to wander around Moraine Park and explore the stunning views of Fern or Cub Lake. A particular favorite is the 26-mile Continental Divide loop, in which you can tackle a short section of 3,100-mile trail guiding ambitious hikers walking from the U.S. border near Chihuahua, Mexico to the border with Alberta, Canada.

Regardless of your choice of adventure, Kaiser’s guide will lead you on an adventure of a lifetime. Written with a passion for the outdoors, James Kaiser’s guide for Rocky Mountain National Park is a must-have for any budding or avid hiker’s bookshelf.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK: THE COMPLETE GUIDE

Author: James Kaiser ’95

Publisher: Destination Press & ITS Licensors About the Reviewer: Sydni Marmor is a licensed mental health counselor at Choate Rosemary Hall.

GOTHIC REVIVAL

Author: Michael Mullin ’85

Publisher: BookBaby

THE LOST YEAR: A SURVIVAL STORY OF THE UKRAINIAN FAMINE

Author: Katherine Marsh ’92

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

TECHNOLOGY’S CHILD: DIGITAL MEDIA’S ROLE IN THE AGES AND STAGES OF GROWING UP

Author: Katie Davis ’96

Publisher: The MIT Press

The Ties That Bind

My teenage years are somewhat fuzzy, but I distinctly remember enjoying my time at Choate.

Third form year — sharing pizza and mug nights with my cheerful dormmates in Mem House; fourth form year — eating in Ruutz-Rees and enjoying the woodland freedom of upper campus; fifth form year — realizing that college was around the corner and focusing (too late!) on my studies; and sixth form year — cherishing the last few precious days together with my classmates. In retrospect, although the formal education and opportunities were fantastic, my most cherished memories involved moments of camaraderie, kinship, and school spirit. As an only child, I found that the Choate experience made me feel like part of a huge family with hundreds of wonderful, surprising, and interesting siblings (and part of an extended family with generations of additional relations!). However, as I grew older I became involved with different things, and my connections with Choate slowly faded.

Last fall, when my son enrolled at Choate, those old memories and connections came roaring back. However, we both quickly realized that things had changed since my time. Bright-eyed young faculty members from my day were now grizzled and wise department heads, old buildings were now gleaming and new, and traditional activities from my time were replaced with completely new ones (Monday night jacket and tie in the dining hall has been replaced with off-campus ice cream socials at Mr. D’s). The old comic book store in Wallingford is sadly now gone, and students no longer wait in line after study hour to use the pay phone to call home (instead they use gleaming school-provided iPads and Wi-Fi to call at their convenience).

As a parent, I was reassured but also a bit shocked to see my son walk away without a backward glance when I dropped him off on

campus, and to realize that my little boy was growing up. During our phone calls, I listened to his happy stories of his favorite hangouts and daily adventures, and I found myself reminding him to focus on his studies, go to sleep early, and eat his veggies. He was luxuriating in his freedom, and I was torn between wanting to rein him in and encouraging him to spread his wings. It made me reflect back to my own Choate experience and wonder how my parents had felt, and how they had navigated the tricky path that leads to trusting your child to develop their own priorities, set their own boundaries, and learn from their own mistakes.

We each have our own high school experiences and perspectives, but the common bond is Choate. It is the universal thread that binds us and that allows us to share our adolescent memories, mistakes, and accomplishments with someone who understands, who was there, and who can relate. When I am with him, my old memories become sharp and clear again, and I can feel the crisp New England air on my skin and see the turning of the leaves into red and gold. And when he speaks of his experiences, I recall my own that mirror his own, and the old nostalgia is replaced with fresh new memories. To the school upon the hillside, it is great to have you back in my life once again.

by Dan Chang ’93, P ’26 Dan

Counsel

Dan enjoying a day outside with his family.

Chang ’93, P ’26 is a Senior Special

at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He lives in McLean, Va., with his children, Jason ’26 and Sophie, his wife, Jenny, and his fluffy white dogs, Chase and Hope.

333 Christian Street PO BOX 5043

Wallingford, CT 06492-3800

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As part of our commitment to environmentally sustainable practices, the Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin is printed using UV inks that emit zero Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) emissions. Printing has offset 24.4k lb. of paper consumption by reforesting 294 trees, and used 100% renewable wind power energy.