Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin | Winter '19

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BULLETIN THE MAG A ZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

WINTER ’19

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MAY 10-12, 2019

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The Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin is printed using vegetable-based inks on 100% post consumer recycled paper. This issue saved 101 trees, 42,000 gallons of wastewater, 291 lbs of waterborne waste, and 9,300 lbs of greenhouse gases from being emitted.

In this issue:

ALL ROADS LEAD HOME Navajo alumni return to their roots

AT THE CENTER OF THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE

CALL OF DUTY Looking back at The Great War

ON THE COVER Wynette Whitegoat ’08 is a social worker who has dedicated much of her professional life to helping Native American children succeed in school and life.

DEERFIELD DAY 2018 The historic rivalry

between Choate and Deerfield celebrated its 75th anniversary on November 10! Since 1944, Choate has hosted athletic contests in even years and Deerfield has hosted them in odd years. This scene captures the enthusiasm of the traditional Friday night pep rally.

WHEREVER YOU GO… GO CHOATE! Whether it was a big break on the Main Stage, an opportunity to build connections, or an introduction to an academic passion, your Choate experience set you on your life’s journey.

By supporting the Annual Fund, you help students set their course for success.

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WWW.CHOATE.EDU/DONATE

Thank you for your support.

CONTENTS | Winter 2019

f e a t u r e s

8

All Roads Lead Home Navajo alumni go back to their roots

16

At the Center of the Student Experience Creating a meaningful social learning environment at St. John Hall

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Call of Duty The Choate School and Rosemary Hall join The Great War efforts

departments

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Letters

Remarks from the Head of School

On Christian & Elm News about the School Alumni Association News

Classnotes Profiles of Paul Draper ’54, winemaker; Chris Vlasto ’84, Senior Executive Producer ABC News; Ted Bailey ’99, CEO and Founder of Dataminr; Lauren Wimmer ’94, jewelry designer; and Alix Verley Pietrafesa ’03, Founder and Director, Alix of Bohemia

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

Bookshelf Reviews of works by Reeve Lindbergh ’63, Ian Lendler ’92, David Auerbach ’94, and Kate Lemay Clarke ’97

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End Note

My Remembrance of Things Past

by Joseph M. Stafford ’46

BULLETIN THE MAG A ZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

WINTER ’19

Letters

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. CRH181201/18.5M

Editorial Offices T: (203) 697-2252 F: (203) 697-2380 Email: alumline@choate.edu Website: www.choate.edu Director of Strategic Planning & Communications Alison J. Cady Editor Lorraine S. Connelly Design and Production David C. Nesdale Classnotes Editor Henry McNulty ’65 Communications Assistant Brianna St. John Contributors Jonas Akins Annabel Cady Lorraine S. Connelly Donald W. Firke Rhea Hirshman Jeffrey MacDonald ’87 Kevin Mardesich ’87 Joseph M. Stafford ’46 Andrea Thompson Leslie Virostek Photography Laura Barisonzi Bazhnibah Photography Al Ferreira John McCreary Ross Mortensen David C. Nesdale

Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees 2018-2019 Alexandra B. Airth P ’18 Kenneth G. Bartels ’69, P ’04 Samuel P. Bartlett ’91 Peggy Brim Bewkes ’69 Caroline T. Brown ’86, P ’19 Marc E. Brown ’82 Michael J. Carr ’76 George F. Colony ’72 Alex D. Curtis P ’17, ’20 Borje E. Ekholm P ’17, ’20 Gunther S. Hamm ’98 Linda J. Hodge ’73, P ’12 Jungwook “Ryan” Hong ’89, P ’19, ’22 Parisa N. Jaffer ’89 Daniel G. Kelly, Jr. ’69, P ’03 Vanessa Kong Kerzner P ’16 Cecelia M. Kurzman ’87 James A. Lebovitz ’75, P ’06, ’10 Takashi Murata ’93 Tal H. Nazer P ’17, ’19 Peter B. Orthwein ’64, P ’94, ’06, ’11 Anne Sa’adah Life Trustees Bruce S. Gelb ’45, P ’72, ’74, ’76, ’78 Edwin A. Goodman ’58 Herbert V. Kohler, Jr. ’57, P ’84 Cary L. Neiman ’64 Stephen J. Schulte ’56, P ’86 William G. Spears ’56, P ’81, ’90 Editorial Advisory Board Judy Donald ’66 Howard R. Greene P ’82, ’05 Dorothy Heyl ’71 P ’08 Seth Hoyt ’61 Henry McNulty ’65 Michelle Judd Rittler ’98 John Steinbreder ’74 Monica St. James P ’09 Francesca Vietor ’82 Heather Zavod P ’88, ’90

FOR PASSION, NOT PROFIT I read with interest the article in the Winter 2018 Bulletin re: organic farming. I have a different cut on it. Seven years ago, I committed about 15 acres of our Georgia farm to an organic venture. It felt good to participate, but I have since closed it down.

I was not doing any of the labor, but those who did worked like dogs to produce great vegetables for local restaurants and institutions – for very modest profit. I determined that commercial organic farming on a small scale is only for those who are passionate and not for those who are motivated by even a modest profit. I sincerely commend those who try but caution all who do to go in with their eyes open.

On the other side of the coin, for 33 years we have operated a private hunting and shooting club on our farm which has worked well. I just wanted to offer a bit of caution to young people who get caught up in the organic movement.

Sandy Morehouse ’59 Mansfield, Georgia

LARGER THAN LIFE The Rev. Bob Bryan came to Choate the same year I did. He was also a neighbor across the street on Curtis Ave. I had him for history in Fourth Form. I recall his sermons being meaty and entertaining.

One night during American History, he and his wife welcomed our class to his home to see old footage of Lindbergh, Gene Tunney etc., and of course, with his gift for mimicry, he gave us his best FDR impressions. The evening was topped off by ice cream and cake along with movies of his sea plane adventures in Canada and Labrador. He was truly larger than life.

And what a life it was. (See obituary on p. 55.)

David Cook ’61 Shirley, Massachusetts

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BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 3

Remarks from the Head of School

Dear Alumni and Friends of Choate Rosemary Hall, This fall, we celebrated a historic milestone: the 75th anniversary of the storied rivalry between Choate and Deerfield. In history teacher Jonas Akins’s Choate Talk to students and faculty adapted for the Bulletin (p. 26) we’re reminded that “At Deerfield Day … you are playing for something larger than yourselves … we are out there, together, to make our school proud.”

The enduring spirit of Deerfield Day being “out there, together, to make our school proud” is at the very core of the Choate alumni and student experience. In this issue of the Bulletin you will read about our Choate alumni college athletes – Christine Etzel ’15, Caitlin Farrell ’15, Yasmine Reece ’15, Charles Bellemare ’17, Omar John ’17, and Sydney Jones ’17 – all of whom had incredible accomplishments this fall at the college level, receiving national recognition. But beyond the sports arena, this spirit imbues and shapes all fields of endeavor and lifelong goals – some recognized yet some unsung.

There is perhaps no better demonstration of the relevance and impact of a Choate education today than in the feature “All Roads Lead Home,” the story of four Navajo alumni who chose to go back to their roots to help their Native American communities reclaim and revitalize their culture, education, health, and environment (see p. 8).

These extraordinary alumni are living out the burden of responsibility by working among their communities and making our school proud.

And finally, “At the Center of the Student Experience” (see p. 16) is a journey back through the conception, design, and implementation of a new daily schedule and the construction of a new student center. The allotment of time and space were inextricably linked as we sought to make modulations to the pace of student life and bring to fruition a new student-centric campus building with specific objectives in mind: to encourage social engagement, to help students build relationships and make new connections, and most important, as sixth former Daniel Heredia notes, “to give students a dedicated space to just be.”

Whether our students are at work or at play, their purpose is always larger than themselves – they are “out there, together, to make our school proud.”

With all best wishes from campus,

Alex D. Curtis Head of School

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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM |

2019 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists Seven sixth formers have been named Semifinalists in the 2019 National Merit Competition: Joanna Ding of Shanghai, China; Sarah M. Koljaka of Branford, Conn.; Kathy J. Lee of Los Angeles, Calif.; Se Ri Lee of Seoul, South Korea; Annabelle L. Strong of Wallingford, Conn.; Alexander I. Wilkinson of New Haven, Conn.; and Jonathan H. Wu of Wilton, Conn. Sixth former Senen Antunez-Tierney was named a National Hispanic Scholar. In addition, there were 29 Commended Scholars in this year’s competition. These academically talented high school seniors will compete for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships this spring.

choate on the move Peter Singer, 2018 Charles Krause ’51 Fellow in Rhetoric Peter Singer, the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton and Choate’s 2018 Charles Krause ’51 Fellow in Rhetoric, spoke to students and faculty at an all-school special program on October 5. As an introduction to the program, Choate’s Chamber Chorus performed “The Life You Can Save,” composed by Gustav Alexandrie, with lyrics based on words from Singer’s seminal work, Famine, Affluence, and Morality.

Singer, who currently splits his time between his native Australia and Princeton, is a philosopher and ethicist who has written extensively on topics such as poverty, animal rights, and a concept called ”effective altruism.” He is also the founder and board chair of The Life You Can Save, a nonprofit that fights extreme poverty.

In lieu of a speaker’s fee, Singer asked that the funds be given to a charity of Choate’s choosing.

Students and faculty voted that the donation be made to the Against Malaria Foundation.

Play the video to watch Choate’s Chamber Chorus performing “The Life You Can Save.”

On December 1, Choate Rosemary Hall faculty members presented at the 2018 TABS (The Association of Boarding Schools) Annual Conference, this year held in Washington, D.C. Head of School Alex Curtis, Dean of Faculty Katie Levesque, and Dean of Students James Stanley delivered a presentation on “Student Life 2.0: Designing Time and Space for Today’s Students.” They shared how evaluating the pace and quality of life for students, faculty, and staff together with creating a student-centric space for active student collaboration and engagement can transform a school community. (See article “At the Center of the Student Experience” p. 16). Choate Director of Strategic Planning & Communications Alison J. Cady presented on the topic of building positive community relations and proactively working with an institution’s neighbors. Institutions need to be a presence in their neighborhoods whether through community service volunteering, investing in public events and celebrations, or providing channels for feedback. Mb Duckett Ireland, English teacher and Fourth Form Dean, presented on the topic “Beginning the Gender Audit” with Joanne Lembo, of Phillips Exeter Academy, a workshop on understanding gender-expansive identities, and the basics of performing a school gender audit.

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Author Catherine Chung Visits On October 9, Choate Rosemary Hall welcomed author Catherine Chung as the Summer Reading Series speaker. Her novel Forgotten Country, published by Riverhead Books in March 2012, won an Honorable Mention for the 2013 PEN/Hemingway Award. It was also picked for Booklist’s Top 10 Debut Novels of 2012 and appeared on Bookpage’s and The San Francisco Chronicle’s Best Books of 2012 lists.

Chung’s novel centers on two sisters, Janie and Hannah, as they navigate their roles as daughters in the face of loss. The story is interwoven with Korean folklore and history, bringing to life a story of immigration, identity, duty, and family. Introduced by Ellen O’Rourke ’19 and Lily Ding ’20, and interviewed by English teacher John Cobb, Chung answered questions from students about her personal writing process, the ways she weaves Korean folklore into her prose, the problematic nature of fairy tales, and how her writing has evolved. Students joined Chung after the interview for a book signing in the afternoon.

Alumni College Athlete Newsmakers Choate alumni college athletes had some incredible accomplishments this fall. Christine Etzel ’15, Caitlin Farrell ’15, Yasmine Reece ’15, Charles Bellemare ’17, Omar John ’17, and Sydney Jones ’17 have had an outstanding fall season at the college level, receiving national recognition.

Caitlin Farrell ’15, senior forward for the Georgetown Soccer team, was selected as one of three MAC Hermann Trophy Finalists. This award is the “most coveted individual honor in NCAA Division I soccer.” This award is given annually to the top male and female players in the country.

Caitlin is the first ever female in Georgetown history to be named as a finalist and the second in Georgetown history. In addition to this honor she has been named to the BIG EAST All-Tournament Team while earning Most Outstanding Offensive Player of the tournament and was also named to the United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-South Regional First Team and First Team All-American. The women’s Hoya soccer team came up short in the National Championship game, losing in penalty kicks after two overtimes to UNC. Caitlin Farrell ’15, senior forward for the Georgetown Soccer team.

BULLETIN RECEIVES 2018 BRILLIANCE AWARDS Choate Rosemary Hall took home two top design awards, earning a silver for the printed magazine Winter 2018 Bulletin issue, and a gold for the “Modern Farmers” magazine article feature design in the inspirEd School Marketers 2018 Brilliance Awards competition.

The Winter 2018 issue featured articles on the School’s sustainability initiatives and alumni farmers. Judges praised the magazine “for keeping a consistent content theme – and institutional differentiator, profiles of alumni in a common industry.” The judges also liked that the features took “a whole-school approach to include points of view from the institution, students, faculty, and alumni.” InspirEd is an online professional development resource and community for PK-12 private school marketing and communications administrators in the U.S. and abroad. Special congratulations go to the Communications team: Alison J. Cady, Director of Strategic Planning & Communications; Lorraine S. Connelly, Editor; and David C. Nesdale, Design.

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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM | NEWSWORTHY

COLONY HALL UPDATE PROJEC T ON T IM E A N D ON BU D GET

Last January, Head of School Alex D. Curtis announced the official naming of the new auditorium being built adjacent to the Paul Mellon Arts Center. Named in honor of lead donor and Trustee George F. Colony ’72 and his wife Ann, the new 50,000-square-foot Ann and George Colony Hall will be the ideal location to bring the entire school community together. Designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Colony Hall is the realization of a longtime goal of the School’s Strategic Plan – to allocate appropriate resources so that the entire school community can gather to share, celebrate, and reflect.

The project is on time and on budget, says Construction Management Project Director Rick Saltz: “All the important components of the building are being done with some degree of simultaneous coordination. Interior spaces are being fitted with HVAC duct work, plumbing, and electric wiring. Wall studs and wallboard were completed in December. The auditorium is now scaffolded in order to reach the ceiling to install HVAC, lighting, and ceiling finishes over the next few months. On the exterior, the curtain wall window frames and glass have been installed on the west side of the building.”

With ample seating for faculty, staff, and students, the auditorium will serve not only as the venue for all-school meetings, but as a performance hall that can accommodate both large and small audiences. The space will provide an acoustical setting suitable for the spoken word or amplified music, as well as a more reverberant sound for symphonic music. The west side of the auditorium will include a music classroom wing with a recital hall, providing rehearsal space for Choate’s major music ensembles. Surrounding the recital hall will be additional practice rooms, faculty offices, a percussion studio, and a green room for performers. The backstage area will contain musical instrument lockers and storage for music.

Open stairs in the lobby will lead both to the auditorium’s balcony and to a new dance studio, with changing rooms and an office for the dance program. At the top of the building, a third level entrance will lead from the top rows of the balcony to a woodland path along the hillside.

Colony Hall is scheduled to open in Fall 2019.

Choate Faculty and Students Attend NAIS Diversity Conferences Sixteen faculty members and six students traveled to Nashville to attend the National Association of Independent Schools 2018 People of Color Conference and the Student Diversity Leadership Conference from November 28 to December 1.

Faculty members had dinner at Woolworth on 5th, one of the foremost historic sites of the civil rights movement. On February 13, 1960, a group of college students from historically black universities walked into downtown Nashville locations of three five-and-dime stores, sat down at their lunch counters, and asked to be served. Because of the Jim Crow laws at the time, they were refused. The student-led movement that followed led to multiple arrests and national media attention. The protests started the process of desegregation at downtown lunch counters.

Some workshops that faculty attended included “Tools for Cultural Competency in Schools” and “Real Talk: How to Engage in Difficult Conversations at Your School.” Choate Wellness Director Holly Hinderlie presented with some colleagues on the topic “To Buffer or to Broadcast: Helping Schools Face Current Events in Nursery Through Grade 8.”

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 7

Choate

WALLINGFORD

Community Service Day Embraces the Environment On October 12, half of the student, faculty, and staff population traveled off campus to assist 11 community organizations in Wallingford, New Haven, and Woodbridge with service work related to sustainability and the environment. More than 50 Choate community volunteers traveled to the Wallingford Land Trust to clean up properties still damaged by last May’s tornadoes that closed Sleeping Giant and Wharton Brook state parks. Other teams of volunteers stayed on campus to remove overgrowth

and invasive species in specific locations, including the cross country course. Director of Community Service Melissa Koomson, Director of Student Activities Jim Yanelli, and the Community Service Advisory Group joined Ms. Koomson and Choate’s student Conservation Proctors in planning this year’s all-school event. Our school’s tradition of service, dating back over 100 years, began with Rosemary Hall’s Kindly Club (1912) and The Choate School’s St. Andrews Society (1913).

1 Siri Palreddy ’20 (center)

4 About 55 Choate community

and Jonathan Geller ’20 (right) pack food items at the Connecticut Food Bank location in Wallingford.

volunteers traveled to the Wallingford Land Trust to clean up properties still damaged by last May’s tornadoes that closed Sleeping Giant and Wharton Brook state parks.

Photo credit: David Zajac for the Record-Journal.

2 Iris Parsons ’21 plants bulbs

on campus.

3 CiCi (Cecelia) Curran ’20

helps the campus look brighter by clearing invasive species.

Occaest ea est, volor andel ex eseque plistia natur? Qui ut poreiusdae volorendio. Ist, quissed qui reraecearum quae re nobis es adipsa experumquat volores sequae. Ut restibus repelendis dolessimint ab illandae min eum qui omniet quae as

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Check out this video of Choate’s Community Service Day at the Connecticut Food Bank.

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Cover Story

All Roads Lead Home

By Leslie Virostek

A Choate Rosemary Hall education can take you anywhere.

These Navajo alumni chose to go back to their roots to help Native American communities reclaim and revitalize their culture, education, health, and environment.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 9

Window Rock, Arizona – capital of the Navajo Nation.

Photography by BAzhnibah

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A

t the school founded by Kayla Begay ’07, students begin the day with a run on a nearby trail. They head east because it’s traditional to run toward the rising sun, and in a circle, because that sacred symbol is powerfully embedded in Navajo culture. Begay’s school, the Dził Ditł’ooí School of Empowerment, Action and Perseverance – also known as DEAP – puts Navajo culture at the center of the educational experience. In addition to the academic subjects one would expect, the school focuses on leadership, connection to the land, wellness, and empowerment through cultural revitalization. “We’re trying to be more than just a school,” she says. “We are building community and we are building our nation.”

Begay has come full circle, as have her fellow Navajo Choaties Wynette Whitegoat ’08, Lane Franklin ’09, and Joni Tallbull ’06. As teenagers, all left the Navajo Nation – a reservation about the size of West Virginia, with a population of some 350,000 – seeking exposure to the world and an education they couldn’t get at home. They have returned to be leaders and facilitators, change agents and stewards, and, most of all, believers in the resiliency of their people.

REDEFINING EDUCATION The Navajo Nation, which straddles northeast

Arizona, northwest New Mexico, and southeast Utah, includes a mix of public, private, and federally administered Bureau of Indian Education schools. Begay launched DEAP in 2014 as a New Mexico public charter school for students in grades 6 and 7, expanding a grade with each subsequent year. In 2020, DEAP will graduate its first senior class.

Begay, who has a master’s degree in education from the University of New Mexico and who was a Teach for America educator for two years, is both a teacher and an administrator. At one point or another she has taught every subject, but her favorite is Diné studies. (Diné is what Navajo people call themselves.) “I get to teach a lot of traditional things, like weaving, moccasin making, and cooking traditional food,” she says. “It makes me feel connected to my ancestors.”

This is an important point, given that compulsory western education – first imposed by the United States government on Native Americans in the late 19th century – was so destructive to Navajo culture for many decades. “Our people have endured a lot, so much trauma,” she says.

“Our resiliency is one of the most beautiful things about us.”

Begay’s educational leadership has not gone unnoticed. In 2013 she was named an Inspired Schools Network Fellow by the Native American Community Academy, and in 2014 she became a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network Fellow.

Begay’s journey to becoming an educator does not involve a turning point or epiphany. “I didn’t choose this work. It chose me,” she declares, noting that she does feel the call of a cultural imperative: “It’s our sacred duty to pass on knowledge.”

When Begay arrived at Choate, she landed in a whole new world – socially, culturally, academically. “I had never been off the reservation before,” she says. So began her journey not only to gain an understanding of the wider world but also to ask, as a Native American, “Where is our place in it?” She went on to Occidental College in Los Angeles, a school known for social justice activism, where she majored in sociology and education. After eight years away from home, she says, “I came back as an adult who realized: We in our community have a lot of issues. What are we doing about them? How am I contributing?”

In the field of education, these issues include a high dropout rate.

In the Navajo Nation, fewer than 60 percent of adults have completed high school and fewer than 10 percent have a college degree. Having experienced different educational philosophies, courses of study, and approaches to learning – and having explored her personal and cultural identity and history – she began to grapple with some big questions: “What is the proper education for the Diné people? What does success look like for the Diné people?”

Her school is the beginning of an answer. “We need to take ownership of our path,” she says. “That is my life goal.”

SUPPORTING PARENTS FOR THE SAKE OF CHILDREN Like her friend

Kayla Begay, Wynette Whitegoat has dedicated much of her professional life to helping Native American children succeed in school and in life. A social worker, she spent about three years working for the Parents as Teachers National Center. The nonprofit organization, which is based in St. Louis, uses an evidence-based model of parent education to enhance the early development and school readiness of children. The organization’s Family and Child Education Program (FACE) was specifically designed to address the unique challenges that confront Native American children. Whitegoat’s work as a FACE technical assistant brought her back to the Navajo Nation, as well as the Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota, and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indian Reservation, which comprises scattered areas of North Dakota, Montana, and South Dakota and many other tribal communities.

On a typical visit, her specific tasks would include connecting with administrators at the participating Bureau of Indian Education schools and doing observations and data audits to ensure that FACE’s parent educators were adhering to the evidence-based curricula developed

by Parents as Teachers. She notes that how the parent educators relate to parents is an important aspect of the program. “It’s the idea of partnering with these parents and reflecting with them, as well as acting as facilitators of information,” she says. FACE staff members can connect families to a variety of resources and interventions, but families themselves are empowered to take an active role in assessing their own needs and making goals in partnership with their parent educator. This aligns with Whitegoat’s “very macro approach” to being a social worker.

The overarching question that motivates her is: “How do we build systems that empower people?”

Over the course of her time with FACE, she saw how the program made a difference – for homeless families who were able to find public housing, for parents who received the support they needed to earn a GED, and for teen parents who learned how to become the parents they wanted to be for their children.

Whitegoat recalls one young parent who started with little education but who ultimately became a tribal council member. “Think of it – going from not having much of a future to being a major stakeholder in your community,” she says. She witnessed heartbreaking outcomes as well: the families who were really trying but who still struggled in spite of the interventions.

“That’s hard to see,” says Whitegoat. And it reminds her of how fortunate she has been. Whitegoat grew up in similar conditions. She says, “I’ve had so many opportunities that got me to this point.” Coming to Choate (“one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through”) was just

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 11

“I came back as an adult who realized: We in our community have a lot of issues.

What are we doing about them?

How am I contributing?”

For Begay’s students, having their language and culture taught in school validates their identity. “The kids see that what they have is valuable.”

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Wynette Whitegoat ’08 is Assistant Director at the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.

one of them. She went on to join fellow Choaties Kayla Begay and Joni Tallbull at Occidental College, earning a B.A. in psychology and sociology and receiving a Dean’s Leadership Award for Equity. At Washington University in St. Louis, where she earned a master’s degree in social work, she was a Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies Scholar. Whitegoat says her education gave her the tools to see societal frameworks, and a language to articulate the systems of oppression that characterize the history of Native peoples. “I grew up with a sense of not appreciating who I was,” she says, noting that in American culture today there are very few “positive and truthful representations of indigenous peoples.”

She was drawn to social work by the desire to break cycles of oppression and to honor the Navajo philosophy of kinship that calls for people to take care of each other. “It is who I am,” she says. “There is so much resilience in Navajo and Native American history. My goal is to support people in building the resilience in their characters.”

Whitegoat is about to embark on a new job as Assistant Director at the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at Washington University, where she will continue the Center’s work in fostering the cultural, educational, and professional lives of the Scholars as they give back to tribal communities. She says that someday she will go back to live in the Navajo Nation. Her dream is to create a nonprofit centered on mentoring and connecting children to role models in the community, and providing college and career counseling. For now, she says, “I’m giving back in the best way that I can.”

FINDING PATHS TO HEALTH AND WELLNESS It’s safe to say that when

he was a sophomore on Choate’s varsity wrestling team, Lane Franklin was not thinking about a sacred duty to share knowledge. Yet when Coach Christopher Milmoe tapped him to demonstrate a move to his teammates, Franklin discovered his inner educator. From that point on – even before he became captain his senior year – he took on the role of a peer teacher and coach on the team. The passion and the pattern continued. After Choate, he enlisted in the Air Force and became a physical training leader and a diet therapy technician, working with people with diabetes. At Fort Lewis College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology, he became a peer tutor. Today, as a fitness specialist at the Tsehootsooi Medical Center’s brand-new Nihi Dine’é Bá Wellness Center in Fort Defiance, Ariz., Franklin is still acting as a coach and a teacher. Through the facility’s Clinical Personal Training Program, he works one-on-one to improve the health and fitness of high-risk patients who may have diabetes, heart disease, or other serious medical conditions.

He notes, “The name of the facility means ‘For the People’ and that’s exactly what I do for my job – I work for the Navajo people. It’s extremely rewarding to be working a job that allows me to follow my passion, and more importantly be home helping my community.”

Native Americans have the highest rate of type 2 diabetes in the United States. Franklin notes that one of the greatest challenges to the health of his community is that the area is a proverbial “food desert,” where there are more fast-food chains than grocery stores with healthy options. In addition, people need to learn to think more holistically about their health. “There’s this huge misconception that once you start working out at the gym you can eat whatever you want,” says Franklin. “That’s not true. You are what you eat.”

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“The name of the facility means ‘For the People’ and that’s exactly what I do for my job – I work for the Navajo people.

It’s extremely rewarding to be working a job that allows me to follow my passion, and more importantly be home helping my community.”

Like his Navajo Choate peers, he realizes that the Navajo people need to draw upon the resources of their history and culture as they face challenges, whether in education or health care or environmental reclamation. The medical center where he works has a patient care model that incorporates the Navajo kinship way of life. The questions he grapples with include: “How do we define wellness and well-being?

And how do we get there?” Franklin says, “We’re reclaiming our health in our own way. It’s on our own terms.”

When he’s not working, Franklin is often to be found at a local gym, where he volunteers as a coach to help people with strengthening and conditioning. He sees the gym as a setting with the potential for building community among those who are trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. In turn, says Franklin, “Community builds fitness.”

Whether on the job or volunteering, Franklin says that the most rewarding thing is seeing behavior change: “When it clicks for people that their greatest investment is in their health.”

Looking forward, Franklin would like to earn a degree in physical therapy. He would like to travel more as well. He considers his Choate term abroad in Spain to be among the formative experiences of his youth, and he enjoyed traveling with the Air Force in Europe and later working as at CrossFit instructor in Australia.

“But I will always come home,” he says. “That’s where my family is.”

Lane Franklin ’09 is a fitness specialist at the Tsehootsooi Medical Center’s brand-new Nihi Dine’é Bá Wellness Center in Fort Defiance, Ariz.

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�We want to be a resource for people who aspire to go into any of the sciences or engineering, and we want to increase representation of Native Americans in those fields.�

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 15

Joni Tallbull ’06 credits Choate with helping her develop the discipline and academic skillset she needed to be successful on her educational journey.

RECLAIMING THE ENVIRONMENT When she was in fifth grade, Joni Tallbull told her father she wanted to be a doctor. “But if you are a doctor, you have to be around sick people, maybe even bring sickness into your house,” he reasoned. “If you work in an environmental job, you’ll get to be outside all the time.”

This made sense to Tallbull’s 10-year-old self, and it makes sense to her now when she reflects on it. “Natural resources are so important, and the Navajo people have a really strong tie to the land,” she says.

Today, Tallbull is a senior environmentalist with the Navajo Nation’s Division of Natural Resources. Her focus is on ongoing groundwater remediation at four remediated uranium mills – work that does indeed take her outdoors on a regular basis. About once a week she makes a visit to one of the four sites she is responsible for monitoring – two in Arizona, one in Utah, and one in Shiprock, N.M., where she is based.

Her work dovetails with the efforts of the Abandoned Mine Lands Reclamation Department (AML), which addresses physical hazards of abandoned mines on the Navajo Nation. There are about 500 abandoned uranium mines, 300 abandoned coalmines, and 30 abandoned copper mines on the reservation, as well as many mill sites where uranium was processed. A timeline of the Navajo Nation’s complex history of mining includes high demand for uranium during the Cold War; negligence on the part of the federal government and private companies that did little to inform Navajo miners and residents about the health dangers of radiation; implementation of new environmental regulation after the founding of the EPA in 1970; and a number of Congressional interventions, including the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978 and the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990. Most recently, a court case brought by the EPA resulted in the largest-ever settlement agreement dedicated to environmental cleanup.

Tallbull’s position is funded through federal grants, but she primarily works in assisting in the U.S. Department of Energy’s remediation of UMTRA sites and corresponding communication with Navajo and other stakeholder agencies. She also acts as a liaison to people living near the mines, or remediated mill sites, some of whom are entitled to compensation, and some of whom simply want to know that their groundwater is safe. Tallbull monitors fieldwork being performed by her agency and by Department of Energy contractors and provides technical feedback on results they produce. Given the region’s history, Tallbull feels that she has a responsibility to be an advocate for her

people, to ensure that the Navajo Nation’s priorities and policies are enforced and incorporated. When she and her Navajo colleagues look at subsurface water flow and physical and chemical characteristics of a site, their technical expertise is paired with traditional approaches and sensibilities. Mainly, they seek not to impose a fix or system on the environment, but rather to always be “working with how Mother Nature is already working.”

Tallbull credits Choate with helping her develop the discipline and academic skillset she needed to be successful on her educational journey. She has a bachelor’s degree in physics with an emphasis in chemistry from Occidental. But hardcore science is only one aspect of her work. She too is a kind of teacher. Even when she has a long to-do list for the day, everything changes when a person seeking her expertise comes into her office or approaches her on a site. “I make it a point to drop what I’m doing to help them, whether that means explaining history and regulations or figuring out whom to send them to in order to get their questions answered,” she says. “Sometimes they just want someone to listen to them.”

Each site is different in terms of geology and in terms of how people use the groundwater. The tough part is providing the explanations people need. “It’s a challenge trying to inform someone whose first language is Navajo,” says Tallbull. “The terminology can get really technical really quickly,” and she has limited Navajo fluency to adequately describe the sites. But this kind of interaction can be the most rewarding thing she does on any given day. Tallbull is gratified when “someone is able to walk off a site and say they feel empowered by the information or by the fact of forming a connection or relationship.”

She likes seeing remediation efforts pay off, but more than anything she would like to see the Navajo Nation develop the human talents and resources it needs to solve its problems, environmental or otherwise.

Formal education and professional advancement are critical, and Tallbull is part of a group of professionals who created a local chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. “We want to be a resource for people who aspire to go into any of the sciences or engineering,” she says. “And we want to increase representation of Native Americans in those fields.”

She herself would like to eventually pursue a master’s or doctoral degree. She says, “The biggest motivation for me is growing and learning, and building capacity within the Navajo Nation.” ◼ Choate had a five-week exchange program with Window Rock High School on the Navajo reservation from 1995 to 1999, and that program led to a desire to admit Navajo students as regular members of the student body.

Through the Icahn Scholars Program, these and other Navajo students over the years have received the funding and support they needed to enroll.

Leslie Virostek is freelance writer and freequent contributor to the Bulletin.

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BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 17

Feature

At the Center of the Student Experience B y l o r r a i n e S . C o n n e ll y

Designing a new campus building is an opportunity to create common spaces with specific objectives in mind: to encourage social engagement, to help students build relationships and make new connections, and ultimately to foster academic success. St. John Hall student center has achieved that and more. p h o t o g r a p h y B y Al F e r r e i r a

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“St. John Hall is a facility designed for today’s students. The student center draws the community together and offers opportunities for work and play in a contemporary, light-filled environment.”

–HEAD OF SCHOOL ALEX D. CURTIS

Many of the trends driving the world of higher education – demands for new learning tools, teaching styles, and a more learner-centric environment – whereby students can be more active participants in their own learning process have had reverberations at the secondary school level. In a recent Forbes article, “How Generation Z Is Shaping The Change In Education,” author Sieva Kozinsky notes, “Generation Z has officially entered college.

And just as the Millennials before them, this generation is disrupting the way learning happens in higher education.

But these differences go beyond just a greater dependence on technology. Gen Z-ers tend to embrace social learning environments, where they can be hands-on and directly involved in the learning process.”

At boarding schools in particular, expectations around creating a meaningful social learning environment have shifted dramatically beyond the classroom – to residential life, extracurricular and club offerings, as well as facilities to support student down time. Like musicians with a precision-calibrated tuning fork, Choate’s educators are poised to listen intently to the hum produced as they strike the right pitch for student learning.

In its efforts to tune into the student experience, administrators at Choate Rosemary Hall have examined the flow of time and space, weighing how each of these impacts the student experience. (See Spring 2018 Bulletin, “Choate Unfurled: Time and Space for Teaching and Learning.”) From the conception, design, and implementation of a new daily schedule to the construction of a new student center, to the continuing evolution of student life, the student experience at Choate has been transformed.

Time Flows At a recent presentation at The Association of Boarding Schools’ annual meeting in Washington, D.C., Head of School Alex Curtis, Dean of Faculty Katie Levesque, and Dean of Students James Stanley shared the School’s efforts to provide transformative student experiences, the overarching goal of the School’s 2013 Strategic Plan.

Levesque acknowledges the challenge of speaking to an audience of educators, all of whom are working within different kinds of limitations and constraints. “Administrators have different fixed and malleable puzzle pieces with

which to work,” she says. “So the question becomes how to optimize the student experience within your own existing resources. Some of the enhancements we talked about did require capital resources, but some did not.”

The implementation of Choate’s new daily schedule, for instance, says Levesque, was done at little cost. Discussions about the schedule occurred for more than a decade. In 2015, senior officers charged a 16-member faculty committee to create a new daily schedule. That schedule, introduced at the start of the 2017–18 school year, includes 70-minute class blocks that meet three times a week, lunch blocks for all students, and two “sleep-ins” a week (until at least 9:00 a.m.) for the majority of the student body.

“When there were six academic periods a day, 22 percent of that time was spent transitioning between classes. With longer class blocks there is less wasted time.”

–DEAN OF FACULTY KATIE LEVESQUE There was a careful calibration of time, notes Levesque: “When there were six academic periods a day, 22 percent of that time was spent transitioning between classes. With longer class blocks there is less wasted time.” But another major driver for changing the schedule, she says, “was increased flexibility in pedagogy for students and teachers.

Many colleagues, from a range of departments, weighed in, saying the kind of work they wanted to do and the type of discussions they wanted to engage students in were a challenge in a 45-minute block. With 70-minute classes, there has been a pedagogical shift to use time to maximize student learning.” Other, perhaps more subtle, outcomes of the new schedule are strengthened relationships between faculty and students, and a slower pace of life. “If students hear a Choate Talk at school meeting and the topic resonates, teachers now have the time to pause for some class discussion rather than jumping right into the lesson of the day,” she notes.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 19

LEFT With its expansive

open areas and multiple meeting areas, St. John Hall is a convenient get-together space for club life.

RIGHT Fourth Form Dean Dana Brown (center) takes a moment to spontaneously check in with some of her charges.

The building is adjacent to Hill House, where a renovated space provides easy access to both the Dining Hall and the College Counseling Office.

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Space Flows With the new schedule, how are minutes

“During the design phase, students were invited to field test a variety of furnishings and were quizzed about their needs in focus groups.

Students had input on both the space and program.”

–DIRECTOR OF STUDENT ACTIVITIES JIM YANELLI

Fifth Form Dean Julia Brown chats with Daniel Heredia ’19 and Annabelle Strong ’19.

gained being purposefully spent, and where do students choose to spend their time? Since its opening in spring 2017, students have flocked to St. John Hall. The LEEDGold 37,000-square foot student center was designed contiguous to Hill House Circle. Says Levesque, “The facility feels natural, which is a compliment to the architect’s design process. It is a great place to have a snack, to study, or use as a home base for group projects. It achieves multipurpose use very well; and there is always a healthy interplay between adults and students.”

Perhaps it feels natural and organic because students were hands-on and directly involved in creating a social learning environment that was best suited to them. Says longtime Director of Student Activities Jim Yanelli, “Students were engaged in building design from the beginning. During the design phase, a design challenge was held in select houses during Mug Nights. Students were invited to field test a variety of furnishings and were quizzed about their needs in focus groups. In Memorial House, teams of students participated in a challenge by submitting 2-D drawings and then 3-D dimensional models of what they would like to see in the newly designed space. “Students

Press play to check out Daniel’s guided tour of St. John Hall

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 21

had input on both the space and program,” says Yanelli.

“The game room, media room, the ring of club spaces around a central core, and a centralized café were all student-initiated ideas that were fully realized.” From his perspective, says Yanelli, St. John Hall is the “great equalizer in terms of kids having access to each other and to program. “Lines between day students and boarders, boys and girls, third formers and sixth formers … no longer exist.

All students are there all of the time. Just like each residential house has a common room for gathering, we are, in essence, the community’s Common Room.”

Says Daniel Heredia ’19, of Brooklyn, N.Y., “The nature of the building, with its expansive open areas and multiple meeting areas for students and club life, is a get-together space for all types of use. Its convenient location has helped foster heightened attendance to Choate’s wide range of clubs, many of which may have gone previously unknown prior to the building’s collaboration rooms, and it has given students a dedicated space to just be.” Heredia, a member of the Technology Students Association, HispanicLatinx Forum, writer for Lorem Ipsum (a satiric publication), and co-president of the Tech Crew that helps manage event logistics at St. John Hall, spends a fair amount of time there. He adds, “It is clear that students at Choate are willing to make tons of connections with their peers, no matter what they are doing. People can bond over their pastimes, academics, and other passions.”

Rooms such as the kitchen and the Bay Room, used for cooking or media viewing, respectively, give students a dedicated space to share their interests with others.

Heredia also notes that many essential student services, such as banking and ground transportation, are now more easily within reach at the Student Services Kiosk. “A big drawback of the old student center was finding the time to make the 10-minute trek down to Gunpowder Creek. That required advanced planning.”

In addition to student support services, the facility houses social gathering and collaboration spaces for all students, locker space for day students, deans’ offices, a Publications Suite, the Choate Store, and the Tuck Shop café. The building is adjacent to Hill House, where a renovated space provides easy access to both the Dining Hall and the College Counseling Office.

“It is clear that students at Choate are willing to make tons of connections with their peers, no matter what they are doing. People can bond over their pastimes, academics, and other passions.”

–DANIEL HEREDIA ’19

It Works! Having the deans’ offices in a discrete zone within the student center promotes mentoring and counseling within the context of a more informal atmosphere.

The facility belies the fact that there are 19 administrative offices in the building, including offices for Equity and Inclusion, International Students, and Day Students.

Says Third Form Dean Nancy Miller, “Since moving our offices into the building in 2018, I’ve seen more kids on a day to day basis in the Deans Offices than I ever have in my 16-year career as dean.” What’s more is that going to the Deans’ Office no longer holds a punitive association: “The Deans’ Office has become part of the daily fabric of student life.”

Dean of Students James Stanley also notes the benefit and ease of connecting with students. “I can step out of my office, wander by a roll-out chess game, and catch up with a kid in a casual way.” Stanley shares an anecdote from earlier this fall when students had a rare moment – an all-school free period. “There were hundreds of students here. The building was totally alive. I asked a sixth former, ‘When you were in the third form, where would you have been if you had an all-free?’ His reply, ‘Probably back at my room just hanging out.’” The building, says Stanley, has brought students together in a common space far more frequently. “Students who might have been hanging out in their dorm rooms playing video games in isolation are now playing together in the video game room.”

Creating a learning environment where students are encouraged to be less dependent on their electronic devices and engage more meaningfully with one another was one of the topics Professor Sherry Turkle, Founding Director of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self, addressed in her groundbreaking book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. She reinforced this notion when she presented to Choate faculty in 2011. Having an attractive student center to lure students, who might otherwise choose to spend time alone, is an added bonus, and again meets yet another goal of the 2013 Strategic Plan to “capitalize on the abundance of existing student groups to bolster active engagement in campus life.”

Adds Stanley, “The building just works on so many levels. The verticality of the building and its open architecture – a space with no dead ends – was intentionally created with teenagers in mind. On the first floor you can hear kids talking to each other in the Tuck Shop; the second-floor student lounge is another gathering place, and on the third floor, a community table, and small project/study rooms offer a more quiet space used for collaborative work or group study. You can actually hear a difference in sound on each of the floors,” he notes, “and, most important, a teenager can enter the building, scope out the scene, and walk through unnoticed, without feeling

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Choate News Managing Editor Vincenzo DiNatale ’19 and Alex Yoon ’19, Editor-in-Chief, sit at opposite ends of the table to finalize an upcoming issue with news staff editors, from left, Abbie Chang ’19, Kate Spencer ’20, Grace Zhang ’20, and Laila Hawkins ’19. ”As the managing editor of The Choate News, I’ve seen how the Publications Suite has given the newsroom a central location on campus, encouraging more students to write for the paper.”

–VINCENZO DINATALE ’19

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 23

self-conscious or awkward.”

The center also serves as an environment for shared experiences. During the World Cup, the Bay Room, with its drop-down screen, was brimming with soccer enthusiasts. The midterm elections drew dozens of kids together to watch election results on the Apple TVs in the first-floor common space. As a prelude to spirit week, the third-floor project room was used to design Choate banners for Deerfield Day. Earlier in the fall, Fifth Form deans Julia Brown and Pat Dennehy put the kitchen to good use by hosting a pancake breakfast for their charges.

Creating Community Perhaps most redefining in terms of creating an integrated community is the location of day student locker space. Formerly relegated to basements or less central spaces, day student lockers are now prominent. It’s impossible to walk through the building without passing by the well-appointed locker space, kittycorner from the Choate Store. Says Day Student Director Mary Liz Williamson ’94, “Day students are always seeking to integrate themselves into the life of the School and most of our residential spaces are just not created for that.” As day students stake more of a claim in St. John Hall, they are effortlessly integrated into the hub of activity. She notes, “The building successfully meets different needs for all of our students.”

Day student prefect Vincenzo DiNatale ’19, of Wallingford, agrees that St. John Hall has increased day student exposure to the greater community significantly. “The student lounge is now in a convenient location, and the electronic lock system has made storing belongings much easier compared to the lounge I used as a third and fourth former. It not only serves as a home base for day students but also as a center for student life. In the past, boarding students didn’t have much cause to visit day student lounges on campus – a major reason for limited interaction between boarders and day students.”

Vincenzo, one of nine day student prefects, has seen firsthand how St. John Hall has shaped social experiences for underclassmen. “When I’m on duty in the building, I see boarders and day students together sharing study spaces, eating in the Tuck Shop, and shopping at the Choate Store,” he says. Because St. John Hall also houses club meetings, events, and social spaces, day students constantly have the opportunity to interact with the greater community – “an opportunity,” says Vincenzo, “that was hard to find before.”

Aside from fostering more relationships among the student body, St. John Hall has had a profound effect on other aspects of student life as well. Vincenzo adds, “As the chairperson of the Committee on Student Activities, I’ve seen how the building has impacted club life: club leaders have access to more meeting spaces and new resources such as the kitchen and the project room.”

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Fifth former CiCi Curran ’20, of McLean, Va., frequents St. John Hall several times every day whenever she has a free period, or at night before study hours. “I’m there maybe slightly more on the weekends as I have more spare time,” she observes. CiCi says that what draws her to the center on any given day is “anything from club meetings, studying, watching a movie, sleeping on the comfortable beanbags, or just ordering food.” CiCi adds, “Without a doubt, having a central area on campus helps enormously with collaborative effort and makes it much easier to spend time with others. I think it makes for a better community as it’s very open to students from all backgrounds, day/boarder and upper/lowerclassmen.”

“The fact that the School made such a great effort to build such a great place for students is more than a philosophy, it indicates that student enjoyment and happiness are top priorities.” –CICI CURRAN ’20 BOTTOM Students are now able

TOP Work and play are key

to order popular Tuck Shop menu items – burgers, fries, a variety of salads, chicken tenders, and milkshakes – from an online app so that the food is waiting for them when they arrive.

elements of student life as a restorative game of ping-pong provides class day relief.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 25

Dean of Students James Stanley wanders by a roll-out chess game and catches up with students.

Modulations to Residential Life The transformations in time and space are emblematic of the overall improvements in residential life, says Associate Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life Will Morris. Over the past few years, several campus residences have undergone a series of common space renovations to encourage small scale gatherings. A ping-pong table was added to the basement of Clinton Knight; a group study area in the basement of McCook House, a video projection room in Archbold, and food prep areas in East Cottage, Edsall, and Quantrell. These modified spaces are places where students can gather within their own homes. Another programmatic change, Morris notes, is that fourth and fifth formers can continue living in their same residence for two years, providing a continuity to the student experience.

Collaborative student and academic spaces, where all students can congregate regardless of their affiliation, are becoming more commonplace around campus, most notably in Lanphier Center, the Andrew Mellon Library, and the Dining Hall, now open from sunrise to sunset. Morris notes there are other subtle shifts that have reframed the pace of residential living.

The Lifelong Wellness curriculum implemented this year to promote student health and wellness is an effort to encourage healthy lifestyle choices and develop best practices. For third and fourth formers, wellness seminars meet four times a term in a designated form/adviser slot during the class day and are team taught by faculty from many departments assisted by student volunteers from the fifth and sixth forms. Older students participate in their own wellness seminars once a term, with an increase in wellness offerings occurring in the spring of the sixth form as seniors prepare to go on to college. This intentional four-year wellness programming offers students different approaches to mental health awareness, to the importance of sleep, to eating well, among other topics important to adolescents.

“The wellness curriculum, once shouldered by advisers, is now a stand-alone program within the class day, creating not only a more equitable delivery of how day and boarding students are receiving information on important topics, but also allowing faculty advisers to refocus on the advising system and its main purpose – the individual care and wellbeing of our students,” says Morris.

Says Morris, “Residential life is another area where we can demonstrate dynamic balance, one of the central qualities that Choate teaches, whereby young adults are free to develop their individual identities and their sense of self against a backdrop of meaningful and productive collaboration and engagement with others.”

Showing St. John Hall off to prospective students and families has become a point of pride for Admission’s Gold Key student ambassadors. It has without a doubt been a game changer. “Our facilities are on par with those of many small liberal arts colleges,” notes Director of Admission Amin Gonzalez. He adds, “The commitment to student space and the building’s conceptualization, the work/play balance, and the inclusion of the various individuals there, positively registers with families. It sends a signal that we have made a significant investment in student life in concert with other strategic goals.”

And from the student perspective, says Gold Key Ambassador CiCi Curran, “The fact that the School made such a great effort to build such a great place for students is more than a philosophy, it indicates that student enjoyment and happiness are top priorities.” ◼

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Choate Talk

The Call of Duty

by Jonas Akins

Walker Ten Eyck Weed ’15

November 11, 2018 marked the centenary of the Armistice that ended the Great War. A hundred years ago, our schools – Choate in Wallingford, and Rosemary Hall in Greenwich – answered the call to duty. The Choate School was much smaller in those days, with 237 boys in the 1918-1919 school year. Rosemary Hall was even smaller, with only 129 girls. Both schools contributed to the war effort, on campus and off.

Hezekiah Scovil Porter ’15

Alexander Thomson Burr ’13

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 27

While the faculty at Choate resisted the idea of forming an Officer Training Corps until 1917, Caroline Ruutz-Rees, the formidable headmistress of Rosemary Hall, volunteered to lead the Connecticut Division of the Women’s Committee of the Council on National Defense and served on the executive boards of the Connecticut Women’s Land Army and the Woman Suffrage Association. In both Wallingford and Greenwich, the boys and girls grew potatoes and victory gardens, with each girl allotted 25 hills to tend, while the boys worked 20 acres of farmland just off campus.

The boys also raised funds for an ambulance of the American Field Service and, after the faculty agreed in April 1917, the Choate Battalion was formed, with four companies drilling on a regular basis, in uniform, on what became Maher Field.

In Memorial House, a panel over the fireplace in the Common Room records the names of 15 of the 16 boys who had been at Choate before the war and who gave their lives in the service of the Allies. While the imagery of the panel suggests that they all died in glorious combat, the reality is that most of them died of disease or in accidents. Here are the stories of three Choate boys and, perhaps surprisingly, one Kent boy.

Walker Ten Eyck Weed, Class of 1915, left before graduating, though he did earn his varsity letter in football. He eventually joined the Navy and, after attending mechanical school at MIT, was assigned to Cape May Air Station. It was there, in February 1918, that he was piloting a seaplane when the steering cable snapped, sending the plane crashing to the ground. As the three gasoline tanks exploded, he was able to free himself from the wreckage on the beach and set off for the sea in order to extinguish his smoldering clothes. Turning back, however, he saw that his observer, William Bennett, was still in his harness in the burning plane. Weed at once returned to the cockpit and succeeded in extricating the observer, suffering burns that later resulted in his death.

For that extraordinary heroism, Weed posthumously received the Navy Cross, America’s second highest military award, after only the Medal of Honor. Weed had been married earlier that February and his son was born exactly one week after the Armistice was signed.

Hezekiah Scovil Porter, Class of 1915, was a native of Higganum, Conn. He lived in Atwater and Hill House and, in addition to serving as a prefect, he was a member of St. Andrew’s cabinet, was president of his fifth and sixth forms, president of the Athletic Association, captain of the 1915 baseball team, and, as he was graduating, was voted most popular, most to be admired, the boy who had done the most for Choate, and the most likely to succeed. After the United States joined the war at Easter 1917, Hez left his studies at Yale and joined the 101st Machine Gun Battalion, with which he deployed to France in the autumn of 1917. He wrote back to his old school in January of 1918, thanking them for the cigarettes that the boys had sent out, along with taking the opportunity to compliment the News Board for being “on the job.” In July 1918, at Chateau Thierry, Hez was killed while resupplying machine gun ammunition through a crossfire. His commanding officer,

Philip S. Wainwright, another Yalie, wrote to the Porter family after his death. “He was a splendid soldier and always did his full duty cheerfully and without hesitation … his death was a glorious one, coming in the midst of our attack on a difficult German position, and he died as every good soldier wishes to, if it must come to that, with his face to the enemy, and be assured that he did not die in vain.”

One of Porter’s teammates on that 1913 nine was Alexander Thomson Burr, Class of 1913. A native of Chicago, he spent a year at Hotchkiss before joining Choate. While here, he was a star of the baseball team and the founding president of the St. Andrew’s Society, an early precursor of today’s community service. “Tommy” Burr was one of the best baseball players in Choate’s history and the only one of our graduates to have played major league baseball for the Yankees. He appeared, for half an inning only, in center field against the Senators. After returning to Williams, he too answered the call, first with the American Field Service and, later, with the Army Air Corps. It was with the Air Corps, on October 12, 1918, less than a month before the Armistice, that he died in the Gironde, when his plane collided with another during a gunnery exercise. Headmaster George St. John recorded that when he went to inform Kimball, Burr’s younger brother, then in the fourth form, he was told, “I won’t believe it! That kind of thing doesn’t happen to Tom.” And that boy from Kent: Charles Treadway Ayres McCormick, Jr. had left Kent at the end of his fifth form year in June 1917 to join the Marine Corps. From his barracks, McCormick wrote to Father Sill, the Episcopal monk who had founded Kent, “Please wish Joe and Sam and Wink the best of luck with their respective teams for me. Above all, for the love of Mike, beat Choate about 100–0.” Kent’s football team had lost to Choate, 14–20 in 1916, but the team of 1917 did McCormick proud. While the score wasn’t 100–0, Kent did put up 61 to Choate’s 3.

McCormick was killed a few months later at the Battle of Soissons.

I find it fascinating, and not a little bit moving, that a young man, about to head off to war, would think so carefully of his old team and the game they were about to play against Choate.

What we do still matters. I don’t expect anybody to have to pull a teammate out of a burning fuselage or to hustle ammunition across an open field under withering shell fire. But I do expect you to look out for one another. At Deerfield Day, which comes on the heels of Veterans Day, I’d like all to understand that you are playing for something larger than yourselves. While some on the fields and courts and courses may content themselves with being worthy of their heritage, I rather like the idea that we are out there, together, to make our school proud of us.

Excerpted from a Choate Talk given at School Meeting on November 6 in commemoration of the centenary of the Armistice. Jonas Akins is a member of the History, Philosophy, Religion, and Social Sciences Department and served for six years as an intelligence officer in the Navy. He formerly taught at the Kent School.

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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.

ADDITIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS Dan Courcey ’86 Executive Director of Development and Alumni Relations Mari Jones Director of Development and Alumni Relations Monica St. James Director of Alumni Relations PAST PRESIDENTS Susan Barclay ’85 Chris Hodgson ’78 Woody Laikind ’53 Patrick McCurdy ’98 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Sheila Adams ’01 Carolyn Kim Allwin ’96 Susan St. John Amorello ’84, P ’15 Alatia Bradley Bach ’88 T.C. Chau ’97 Jaques Clariond ’01 Alexandra Fenwick ’00 Michael Furgueson ’80 Margaux Harrold ’06 Elizabeth Alford Hogan ’82 Dewey Kang ’03 Kreagan Kennedy ’10 Lambert Lau ’97 Shanti Mathew ’05 Shantel Richardson ’99 Michelle Judd Rittler ’98 Kathrin Schwesinger ’02 Ally Smith ’09 Jessy Trejo ’02 Mary Liz Williamson ’94, Faculty Representative

Boston Sarah Kornacki ’10 Lovey Oliff ’97 Sarah Strang ’07 Chicago Maria Del Favero ’83 Connecticut David Aversa ’91 Katie Vitali Childs ’95 London Ed Harney ’82 Elitsa Nacheva ’08 Los Angeles Alexa Platt ’95 Wesley Hansen ’98 New York Sheila Adams ’01 Jason Kasper ’05 Rosemary Hall Anne Marshall Henry ’62

HONG KONG R ECEP TION

John Smyth ’83 Vice President, Regional Clubs and Annual Fund

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LONDON R ECEP TION

San Francisco Ian Chan ’10 Samantha Vaccaro ’98 Washington, D.C. Dan Carucci ’76 Tillie Fowler ’92 Olivia Bee ’10 Beijing Gunther Hamm ’98 Hong Kong Sandy Wan ’90 Lambert Lau ’97 Jennifer Yu ’99

D.C. R ECEP TION

David Hang ’94 Vice President, 1890 Society

REGIONAL CLUB LEADERSHIP

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Seoul Ryan Jungwook Hong ’89, P ’19, ’22 Shanghai T.C. Chau ’97 Michael ’88 and Peggy Moh P ’18 Thailand Pirapol Sethbhakdi ’85 Isa Chirathivat ’96 Tokyo Robert Morimoto ’89 Miki Ito Yoshida ’07

5

N YC SERV ICE DAY

OFFICERS Parisa Jaffer ’89 President

Alumni Gatherings and Celebrations

CHICAGO R ECEP TION

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 29

CHOATE 1890 SOCIET Y EV ENT / N YC

3

4 6

5 7

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1 Reception hosts Jennifer and

4 Patricia Sweet ’54 and

7 Ken Bartels ’69, P ’04 and

Peter ’83 Dunne P ’20

Carolyn Wiener ’66

2 Peter Rusnak ’83, Kiki Shea

5 Bill Brown P ’19, Caroline

Jane Condon P ’04, with their son Mac ’04

’75 and husband Brian Shea, Maria Del Favero ’83

Brown ’86, P ’19, and Linda Barnett P ’09, ’19

3 Liz Hogan ’82, Head of

6 David Hang ’94, Kristen

School Alex Curtis P ’17, ’20, Fred Horowitz ’82, P ’14

Edwards, Nate Edwards ’98

8 Sabrina Jiang ’11 and

Grayson Warrick ’12

30 30

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION | Hall of Fame

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

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

2019

Each year on Reunion Weekend the Alumni Association recognizes outstanding athletes whose contributions and achievements left an indelible mark on the School. This year, six alumni will be inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame during Reunion Weekend on Saturday, May 11.

Harold Bailey III ’99 scored over 1,000 points during his Choate basketball career and set the second highest high jump record (6’4”). As captain of the Brown University team and its first perimeter player, he led the 2003 team to its best season in the school’s history.

Harold currently works as a Vice President for Institutional Sales at CFRA Research.

At Choate Dick Diehl ’59 served as co-captain of varsity football for two years, lettered in baseball for three, and was named Athlete of the Year in 1959.

At Harvard he lettered in both football and baseball, played on the Ivy League Championship football team, and was a baseball All-American, All-Ivy League, and Most Valuable Player. Dick is an orthopedic surgeon in Pasadena, California.

Tim Fleiszer ’94 earned 6 varsity letters in football, hockey, and track during his two years at Choate and was named Athlete of the Year in 1992. At Harvard he was a

four-year varsity football star and an All-Ivy selection and academic All-Ivy honoree.

Following Harvard, he played on five teams in the Canadian Football League, including the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Montreal Alouettes, Edmonton Eskimos, and Saskatchewan Roughriders. Tim is the only person to have won four Grey Cups with four teams. Tim is the Executive Director of the Concussion Legacy Foundation Canada and a partner in Gil Scott Sports Management.

Soccer star Dane Murphy ’04 collected First-Team All-State, All-Region, and AllFounders League honors at Choate and led his University of Virginia team into the NCAA tournament in 2008. He went on to play professionally with D.C. United, VFL Osnabrück, VFL II, and the New York Cosmos. After serving as the head scout for the Cosmos and technical director for Real Salt Lake, he was named technical director of D.C. United in November 2018.

Claire Sullivan ’04 scored over 1,000 points in her Choate career and received the Excellence in Basketball Award each of her four years. She led Lehigh’s 2008 team to its best four-year record and holds the school record for career assists and second all-time points scored. Claire is a public defender in Seattle.

While captain of the Choate swim team,

Caroline Wilson ’09 set seven of the 16 individual records, all of which still stand today. As a member of the varsity swim team at Williams, she was named the 2013 NCAA Division III Athlete of the Year; she is also a 13-time Division III National Champion and seven-time Division III NCAA national record holder. Caroline currently teaches and coaches at Blair Academy.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 31

Career Webinar Series

CAREER GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT – A WEBINAR SERIES FEBRUARY 13, 20, 27, & MARCH 6 12:15 P.M.

Are you interested in making a career change? Are you happy in your field but unsure how to take the next step?

Are you just breaking into the workforce? Take advantage of our upcoming webinar series and gain insights from alumni experts in the field!

featuring…

’95

’67

’00

’02

Spencer Penhart

Doug Eisenhart

Aileen Axtmayer

Gerard McGeary

Founder, Penhart Performance Group

Associate Director of Employer Relations, Career Education Center, Simmons College

Holistic Career and Health Coach; Owner, Aspire with Aileen

Co-Founder and COO of Repetere

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

February 2019

March 2019

April 2019

13, 20, 27 – Webinar Series Career Growth & Development 28 – New York StartUp//Choate

6 – Webinar Series Career Growth & Development 8 – Atlanta Blue and Gold Happy Hour 12 – L.A. Alumni and Parent event 13 – San Francisco Alumni and Parent event 14 – Seattle Alumni and Parent event 22 – Durham, NC Blue and Gold Happy Hour

9 – Sixth Form Alumni Dinner

Be a part of it! Learn more about upcoming events at: www.choate.edu/alumni

May 2019 10-12 – Reunion Weekend – Classes ending in 4s and 9s and all post 50th alumni 11 – Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

32

CLASSNOTES | News from our Alumni

From the Archives Mountaineering Club, 1979.

Send Us Your Notes!

We welcome your electronic submission of classnotes or photos in a .jpg format to alumline@choate. edu. When submitting photos, please make sure the resolution is high enough for print publication – 300 dpi preferred. If your note or photograph does not appear in this issue, it may appear in a subsequent issue, or be posted online to Alumni News on www.choate.edu. To update your alumni records, email: alumnirelations@choate.edu or contact Christine Bennett at (203) 697-2228.

’79

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 33

34 CLASSNOTES

1940s ’40 RH Rosemary Coon Taylor writes, “I have pleasant memories of times at Rosemary Hall, walking through the catacombs to get to dinner, Wednesday afternoon teas, Shakespeare plays, learning a long poem – like Wordsworth’s Recollection of Early Childhood that had to be recited before graduation – High table in the Dining Room, Chapel – a good background for a long life. I hope graduates today benefit likewise for all the years they have to come.” ’48 RH Vera Martin Crawford lives in North Andover, Mass. She reports that she went to a reunion several years ago.

Imogene Bragg Geoghegan is living in a retirement community where she goes to aerobics three times a week, goes to more movies than she can count, attends courses at the University of Delaware, and volunteers at a church program for people from the streets of Wilmington. She is physically active but would get failing grades in cellphone activity!

Dorothy Braden Holbrook has a home in North Carolina from May through October and retreats to Florida for the winter. She remembers trying to crack a coconut by throwing it into a sink at Rosemary Hall and all Hell broke loose, including the sink. She’s well and enjoying life.

Edie Thurlow Keasbey recalls her memories of Rosemary are not great due to some unhappy encounters with Miss Baker in the infirmary. She recalls, ”our day of reckoning when we went one by one into the library to find out if we had passed ... We had!” All in all, she says she did have some good times in spite of it all.

Luisa Hegeler Kuhn reports that she has four children, three sons and a daughter, and 10 grands, one in the Coast Guard and one in the Marine Corps. Luisa lost her first husband in an auto accident and later married Bowie Kuhn, the Commissioner of Baseball. ”We led a very glamorous life and eventually moved to Ponte Vedra, Fla., in 1990.” She has done a lot of volunteer work and has been chairman of several boards – ”Horrid work” – and on the Vestry at some of her churches. ”In other words, I’ve done a lot of stuff.” Luisa spends time in Quogue, Long Island in the summer.

Shirlee Mitchell writes, “Now after 70 years and three months we do have a class letter!

After Rosemary Hall, I went West to Mills College in California in order to see the rest of the country but never finished college. I’m envious of the college group these days. They have so many more interesting choices in courses and travel. Anyway, I became a ski bum for two years, which was fun, and then eventually got married, had four children, nine grands, and

three great-grands. They’re all healthy and doing well.

I moved to Hanover, N.H., in 1973, which was a good move for the whole family. I worked as a recruiting secretary in the Dartmouth Football Department for many years, more fun and interesting than you might imagine! Later I became an aide for the fifth grade at the Hanover Elementary School and finally ended up in the children’s section of the Dartmouth Bookstore.

I have done volunteer work in Hanover at a little home near the hospital for children with cancer and now spend some time once a week at a Food Shelf for families who are in need. I’m still living in Hanover but spend my summers in Maine where I never know how many family members will be coming or going from one week ‘til the next! It’s a happy time and lots going on. Thanks to all of you who wrote! In the meantime, stay upright and as Hester Macquire used to say as she was running lickety split down the hockey field, ”’Straight on, girls, straight on!’”

Betty Funk Peacock reports this is a big year. She and her husband will be celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary. He will be 90, she will be 89. They have two children, six grands, and seven greats! Betty lives in Illinois, but spends the winter in Arizona. Her interests have always been gardening and landscaping.

Ann Chatin Playfair reports she planned to attend the reunion with Renee Koltun Taubman but Renee was unfortunately tethered by doctors in California. Cesti has been playing the piano and coaching the internet for the over 50s–85s. This is coming to an end as ”anyone over 50 is online and the 85s are wherever the over 85s go!” She lives in Woodstock, N.Y. Anyone is welcome to visit in July/August when it’s crazy on the church green.

She returns to London from mid-September to mid-October.

Mary Kniffin Snyder has been working for the Maritime Museum of Bermuda. Her daughter and son-in-law have a house in Small Point, Maine.

Audrey Stahl Whiteman deserves the blue ribbon! She not only turned up as the only member of the class at the 70th reunion but she has responded with a most informative letter. Stahlie was married twice, has three children who are ”fabulous,” eight grands, two great-grands, plus several step-grands and a step-great-grand … a very full family. She worked for 33 years in New Jersey managing the unmanageable Managed Care Act. Retired in her 80s, worked at a local high school for three years and said, ”That was enough!” Stahlie now lives happily with her daughter. ”All in all, I’ve had a very full and good life!” She just got back from her third cruise. ”It was a blast.”

’49 C

Lynn A. Parry writes, “Shared a lovely dinner at our 65th Princeton Reunion with Dan Ritter, both still in good shape!”

1950s ’51 C

Judson D. Hale writes, “I recently celebrated 60 years with Yankee Publishing in Dublin, N.H. (Yankee Magazine and The Old Farmer’s Almanac) as well as 60 years of happy marriage with Sally. I still can be found at the office every morning (often napping). Very close to sons Judson Jr., Dan, and Chris and their families. Incidentally, how in the world did we get to be this old?”

’51 RH Diana Brothers McGhie just retired. Didi writes, “I celebrated my 86th birthday on November 1 and am planning to redesign the back garden, read more books on the PBS 100 best novels list, keep in touch with the ladies of 1951 and enjoy life to the fullest. Loved my Rosemary Hall experience.” ’52 C

John Seid is enjoying retirement with his Belgian wife of 50 years in Brussels, Belgium. He has lived in Brussels since 1966, but makes frequent trips to visit nine grandchildren, and one great-grandson near Atlanta, Ga.

’55 C

Jere Buckley writes, “Recognizing that the time may come when one or both of us are no longer willing or able to cope with the demands of our log home and lakeside camp in Webster, N.H., Caryl and I now also have an apartment at the Birch Hill Continuing Care Retirement Community in nearby Manchester. We go back and forth between the two facilities in accordance with our whims and the weather. It’s a new adventure!”

Mike Corwin writes, “My wife and I celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary on October 5 ... And they said it wouldn’t last!”

Jack Winkler extends a welcome to get in touch to any members of the Class of 1955 (or adjacent years) who happen to be passing through London. He writes, “I would value seeing old classmates again on this side of the Atlantic. Incredible as it might seem to friends who knew me then, I ended up as an academic, working at the University of Kent, Imperial College, Cranfield University, and finally at London Metropolitan University, as the world’s first professor of nutrition policy. This unexpected development was as the result of winning an English Speaking Union exchange scholarship during my final year at Choate. I was sent to Highgate School in London, a short bus ride from where I now live, quite near the centre of the city. It would be a pleasure to have a reunion with fellow members of ’55, either here or in some convenient location in central London. I hope I am inundated with responses.”

Email Jack at jtw@blueyonder.co.uk

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 35

’56 C Walter Forbes writes, “In 2012 I had several medical adventures because of my cardiac condition. It wasn’t until the fall of 2013 that I could breathe well enough to sing. I gathered several of my Nashville friends, some of whom I’d played music with since the 1970s, and made what I was quite sure would be my last recorded album. Thanks to an eminent cardiologist from Los Angeles I have had five years of steadily improving health. So, in 2015 when a friend, Cousin Bob Clement, invited me to record in his new studio there came my second last album, Just for Fun. We enjoyed working together, which then led in 2017 to my third to last album, Fifty Years Later. My albums can be found on CD Baby or from my website, walterforbes.com. My wife, Kitty, is a published poet and still wakes me up laughing. We sing together and dance in the kitchen. Daughter Kate Forbes is a successful actress and a Choate graduate. She has a daughter at Georgetown and a son in private school in Chattanooga. Our son Trey successfully deals with his mental illness and works full time at The AIM Center (a psycho-social rehabilitation club house model for the mentally ill). He lives with us and is a delightful, thoughtful man as well as a talented musician. Our youngest daughter, Jennie Hart Robinson, who has lived on our property in Macon County Georgia, for 30 years, teaches yoga, has a successful wedding venue business, and is mother to three grown sons. Best regards to all, I have many fond memories of my time at Choate.”

Bob Gaines writes, “Your class agent was on a trip to Pamplona, Spain for the Running with the Bulls celebration when class notes were due, so apologies for not having prepared or contacted classmates for notes. However, we were not gored or trampled by a bull. Most injuries occur when runners fall and break an arm or leg or crack their skull.

Pamplona was part of a trip with two other couples that started in Bordeaux with visits to some vineyards in Medoc and St. Emilion; then stops in Biarritz, San Sebastian and Barcelona before Marjorie and I, on our own, did an overview trip of Italy including Palermo, Taormina and Mt. Etna in Sicily; followed

by Naples for the Amalfi drive and Pompeii; the University of Bologna, Venice, Esty (to visit Resy, Seo Cavani’s widow and her son Fillipo, who acted as our interpreter) and finally Lake Maggiore for a scenic rest. Wonderful wines in France, lots of good pasta and mediocre pizza in Italy but fantastic venues and experiences. Twenty three days total, mostly by train with a second-class Eurailpass and we each only had a single carry-on roller bag which was key to easy traveling.”

Jon Hawley writes, “Peggy and I continue to live year-around in Frankfort, Mich., on Lake Michigan’s beautiful northeastern, dune-lined coast.

I have retired from a several-state career in academia, Congressional staff service, and public affairs

consulting. Peggy continues her professional painting career (peggyhawleystudio.com), and I have been involved for more than a decade in the restoration of nearby Point Betsie Lighthouse and serve on several nonprofit boards. I also have authored a couple of local histories. I am pleased to remain in phone contact with Choate roommate Blake Johnson, in sunny Hawaii.”

’57 C

Steve ”Smokey” Gilford writes, “Because of my writing, I continue to be invited to speak to community groups, colleges, and other organizations that have an interest in the WWII Home Front, Kaiser Shipbuilding, or the history of Kaiser Permanente. My American roots music groups, Jam Nation and Home Made Jam, play regularly around Sonoma County. I get a lot of satisfaction with my work on the WWII Victory Ship, SS Red Oak. Last month, we started the engines for the first time in 50 years. Meanwhile, I continue working on what is likely my last book, one on nursing history.”

Luis Armando Roche writes, “Life goes on.

My wife Marie and I are celebrating our 80th birthdays on November 21. Salutations to all of you at Choate Rosemary Hall.”

’58 C

Bob Harrison recently visited Adam Bianchi ’57 in Santa Barbara. Says Bob, “Adam was the captain of the basketball team in 1957 and I followed him as captain in 1958. He was an excellent player while I managed to foul out of practically every one of our games. Adam was as graceful as a ballet dancer on the court while my style was more closely identified with King Kong. Over the years my wife Chula and I have visited SB from our home in Honolulu, and I’ve enjoyed playing tennis with Adam. One of the few downsides of living in Paradise is the distance from friends and family.”

Bob Harrison ’58, left, from Honolulu recently visited Adam Bianchi ’57, right, in Santa Barbara.

’59 C Paul J. Mejean writes, “In the almost 60 years since graduation, I cannot recall ever having submitted a classnote. It’s time to do it now. After graduation I went to Princeton where I majored in economics. Upon graduation from Princeton I went directly to Harvard Business School where I majored in finance. After HBS I joined the investment banking firm of Loeb Rhoades which, through merger, became Lehman Brothers. Bit by bit I worked my way up the ladder at Lehman, finally becoming a partner of the firm. My specialty was providing financings and merger/acquisition advice primarily to technology companies. Thankfully, I left Lehman Brothers years before the big crash (luck, not genius) and went to a smaller firm where I had larger ownership opportunities. When that firm was acquired I took my team and with them formed a new investment banking firm exclusively focused on technology companies. On the personal side, after graduating from HBS I moved into NYC. In 1974, I married a smart and beautiful Norwegian woman. Inger and I had our first child, Suzanne, in 1980 and our second, Alexander, in 1983.

I retired in 2010 and Inger and I are enjoying the life in Quogue where we have developed many friendships. Our daughter is an independent film editor and producer, primarily of documentaries, and lives with her husband and daughter in Los Angeles. Our son is a real estate developer in NYC and lives just outside the city with his wife and son. We enjoy visiting them frequently and having them visit us.”

Frank J. Pagliaro writes, “This year we continued our travels, which now total 43 countries and six continents. In March my wife and I flew to Mexico and spent several days in Puebla and then drove to Oaxaca, which was the main point of the trip. We stayed in an old nunnery (no nuns left) that was 300 years old and now very fancy. The arts in Oaxaca are amazing, as is the food, and we visited the gallery in a small town where colorful wooden statues are hand-carved and painted. Several of them were incorporated into the movie Coco by Pixar. In May, we stopped in London for several days before flying to Cape Town and then on to Namibia where we spent two weeks at four different camps. The scenery and animals are spectacular and I actually saw three lions attack and kill a kudu about 150 feet from our tent. I am still lawyering (about half time) in both New York and California and spare time is spent with our four grandchildren. I have been in communications with Scotty Whitlock and we hope that many of you will join us at the Reunion in May.”

Julien Robert Ransone writes, “As an active oil and gas consultant, I am working for a private mineral and royalty family office here in Dallas, Texas.

I am on the advisory board of a family office and also a significant private company, both located in Austin, Texas.”

36

CLASSNOTES | Profile Paul Draper with his vineyard team, from left: David Gates, operations; Eric Baugher, winemaker; Paul; and John Olney, winemaker.

KEVIN MARDESICH ’87 : How did you go from a farm in Illinois, age 12, to Choate as a lower form student?

PAUL DRAPER: Choate’s admission officer did a presentation not far from our home near Barrington. I had an adventurous spirit being raised on a farm where my father raised virtually all our food. I would ride my horse alone for miles through the oak forests.

KM: What skills did Choate teach you over the next six years?

PD: As fine as Stanford was afterwards, the academic rigor of Choate was

unmatched. After class, we’d play touch football or wrestle. It was a needed break from Choate’s intense studying. I was also introduced to what became my vocation through my good Choate friend George Erlanger’s Swiss parents who lived in New York City. I joined George and his parents and learned to appreciate the concept of fine wine bringing a sense of ritual to a meal.

KM: What might be some impressions you have reflecting back on your family?

PD: I would credit my father for encouraging me to explore a larger world. He

’54

Paul Draper

The Secrets of the Winter Vine Ridge Vineyards Chairman Paul Draper will turn 83 this March. It will be a new season, Spring. Paul has resigned as CEO, yet after 50 years building Ridge, he offers wise counsel as chairman while his team fully takes over. Paul now spends as much time as possible with his beloved grandchildren Caden, 6, and Brynn, 2.

Taking a 40,000-foot flyover of California’s winemaking industry, Paul observes climate change: the five-year drought worsened already dry California.

Paul helped Ridge capture winter storm water instead of allowing 70 percent to run off to the ocean, drilling 3-foot-wide reverse wells down to the aquifer.

Ridge now has a bio-reactor to recycle all wash water. Vines are only irrigated until the roots have gone deep. “Quality vs. quantity,” Paul muses. His winery also installed fire-pump systems to combat “superfires.” During the Cold War, Paul helped put out potential fires; now in 2019, he and his crew seek CalFire training.

Yet, Paul notes, there have always been challenges over his 50 years of leadership. Ridge’s wines have reaped each Fall what they sow in Winter. Paul remains one of three Americans to win Europe’s Decanter Man of the Year Award for his wines avoid modern additives. In this interview, he reflects on Choate’s refined rigor, too, its introduction to his career, and the importance of loyalty to your team.

only asked me to write and let him follow my life. His high principles had a profound affect on me. He was a Victorian born in 1884 and was not expressive, although we loved each other. Our breakthrough moment came soon after when a friend he had not seen in 40 years hugged him and my father hugged him back. I gave him our first hug. My mother was the adventurer. She studied at Grenoble for a summer and also took the Orient Express to Istanbul with her best friend.

KM: How did your skills develop during intelligence work under Choate alumnus President John F. Kennedy ’35?

PD: I was at Stanford doing grad work when I got a call to immediately fly down to Panama where U.S. troops had fired into the ground to disperse a crowd demanding ownership of the canal. Panama exploded in protest and the U.S. embassy and U.S. citizens were ordered out of Panama. Under the small program set up by JFK that I had joined, the idea was to open dialogues, but diplomats and political officers were confined to the canal zone. The man who had taken control of the protests was a Castroite headquartered at the university and no American official would talk to him. I was asked to fly down and see how we could defuse the situation at least in the short term. I got off my flight in Panama and the cab would only drive me five-blocks-out from the university.

I walked up and asked to talk to this leader. He received me and assumed correctly I would communicate his demands on how to move forward. After listening and taking notes, I left to write my report. I hope it helped in the next days and weeks of diffusing the situation. This idea of JFK’s was to set up a small group of younger individuals who could get to know the up-and-coming political leaders. In a crisis, one of us could call or fly down to see if the situation could be diffused quietly without confrontation.

Through Paul’s experience, he has proven that a fine wine, like a smooth diplomatic solution, can be cultivated over time through skill and leadership.

Kevin Mardesich ’87 Kevin Mardesich ’87 teaches Story at UCLA Extension. He first interviewed Paul Draper ’54, Chairman of Ridge Vineyards, in June 2011. This follow-up interview was conducted in December 2018. For more information on Ridge’s wines, please visit www.ridgewine.com/visit/estates/

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 37

’59 RH Anne Carter Bossi worked as a field rep for Heifer Project International in the Northeast USA and Newfoundland for 23 years before retiring in 2000 to become a full-time goat farmer and cheesemaker, which she is still doing with her husband, Bob Bowen. She writes, “We milk 100 goats year-round and make and sell many kinds of goat cheese to stores, restaurants and at farmers markets in coastal Maine. We have four wonderful grown kids and five grandkids. I am in touch with Patti Deutsch Winter, Barbara Brittain Edgerton and Judy Wilson Nessa.”

1960s ’60 RH Muriel “Muggins” Badgley is cheering for the LA Chargers, where grandson Michael Badgley is now the starting kicker.

Heather Ellison Browning writes, “I welcomed my first granddaughter in October. Life is wonderful living in Florida. Bonita Springs was hit hard by Hurricane Irma, but we were lucky to have only a couple of trees and bushes down and a few leaks, our house stood strong.”

’63 RH

Sandy Little Beard was able to go with the

family last March to London and Paris. She writes, “My husband John had a son get married this last winter, which was a most happy event as he is 47. They are now going to have a baby, so we will have 8 grandchildren between us. Some live in San Francisco, some live in Boston and my son in Charlotte, so we travel around to visit them all.” Sandy and John live in Charlottesville, Va. Rozzie Chubb Davis is back in Georgia (from Montana) for the winter. She writes, “Hurricane Michael left our place relatively unscathed except at our main home place, which had lots of old trees downed by a rogue mini twister. Blessedly, no damage to any buildings, people or animals.”

Donna Dickenson has been invited to give a TED Talk in February, and also to present a paper at the Pontifical Academy in Rome next April – both surprising and gratifying, she says. She and Chris also had a wonderful trip to Vancouver Island with daughter Pip in September, cycling along the beaches by the Pacific and enjoying unusually copious sunshine.

Penny Griffith Dix writes, “My family news is that we all (15 out of 16) gathered at the Outer Banks this summer for a week’s get together. Grandkids aging from 21 to 2. We had such fun and great memories.

Dennis and I spent 10 days in Iceland in August. I still love my docent work at the New Britain Museum of

American Art as well as my other volunteer activities. Next year we have planned trips to Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. We figure we need to get as much traveling in while we are active and in good health and most importantly, have a thirst for knowledge and new experiences.”

Alice Chaffee Freeman writes, “There really isn’t any news except for my happy life painting, reading, listening to music, hopping about on little trips and spending time with family and friends. I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be than Vermont or anyone I’d rather be with than Castle (husband), Alex (son, 44), Sarah and her husband Daniel (both 40), and our disorderly longhaired dachshund, Freddy (7). I get to see Chris Murray McKee, Judy Hetzel Jones, Margo Melton Nutt, Lorna Tighe deZengotita, Vicki Brooks, Betsy O’Hara, Margo Heun Bradford, Jeanie McBee Knox and Rosemarians from other classes who live nearby. I miss Holly Smith acutely. What’s important to me at this point in life is connection: keeping in touch with friends I cherish; being kind and generous, finding the humor in advancing age, enjoying every day as it comes.”

Angela Treat Lyon writes, “I moved from Hawaii to Chico, Calif., in August. It was quite the adventure, moving across the ocean. It’s strange to wake up and have the air be cold and crisp after sweet, warm Hawaiian air for 50+ years, but I’m enjoying it. I’m loving meeting up with some old friends, and some good new people, and lots of other artists.

Looking to have a show of my new watercolors in December.”

Betsy O’Hara and husband Clive seem to be enjoying life in Portugal. She’s been posting some gorgeous photos on her Facebook page.

’61 C David Cook marked his 16th year announcing for the PGA Tour’s Dell Championship, part of the FedEx Cup. Dave writes that he has “fond memories of all the wonderful good faculty who meant so much to us educationally and socially. One I hadn’t thought of in a while was Milton Schroeder (son is Bob ’64).

He was a true gentleman and coach and would have been proud that I played baseball and softball until turning 70. There is a Choate faculty pantheon and to me, Milt is right up there with Jack Davison, Burr Johnson, etc., and much respected.” ’62 C

Deaver Brown writes, “After starting the Umbroller stroller in manufacturing with classmate Alex Goodwin Levitch, then APC with UPS in semi tech, I am now running Simply Media in high tech creating and selling downloadable eBooks and audiobooks. We own and create our own content, a

craft much helped by Choate and masters such as Burr Johnson, Gordon Stillman, and David Rice, plus contributions of thoughts from Choate Classmates Donald Liberman and John Kasson, later to be my Harvard roommate. A great retirement project because PDFs do my traveling and the FAANG group and Walmart my selling. See us live and in action at simplymedia.com.”

F. John Wilkes Jr. writes, “On September 16, Gini and I invited 24 friends to Port Liberté to help celebrate my 75th birthday. I guess I was one of the older ones in the Class of ’62. I so well remember sitting in the library with Mr. Rice during my entrance interview to be accepted into Choate in 1957. ‘John,’ he said, ‘Ordinarily we wouldn’t take a boy like you.

But your father came here in 1925.’ He coughed. ‘This time, we will make an exception. You’re a freshman at Daytona Beach High School. So, you can either come to summer school and enter the fourth form in the fall, or, in September, you can simply come to Wallingford and be in the third form.’ Mr. Rice did not know that I had both a motorcycle and an 18-yearold girlfriend in Florida. I said, ‘I guess I’ll be seeing you in September.’”

’62

Happy 75th, John!

F. John Wilkes Jr. ’62 celebrated his 75th birthday on September 16, 2018 in Port Liberté with wife Gini, and 24 friends.

38 CLASSNOTES

Ann Mason Sears ’65 hosted a mini reunion in Maine with a classic lobster lunch. From left, Hannah Sears ’93, Jancie R. Olson, Judy Donald ’66, Ann, former Rosemary Hall head Joanne Sullivan, and Durinda F. Chace.

Anne Markle ’66 celebrated the wedding of her son, Brinton Markle, to Phillipa Hunt in Whitefish, Mont., on August 18, 2018. From left, the bride and groom and Anne and her husband, Cappy. Also present was Gusty Lange Ettlinger ’66.

Dr. David Knight ’68 met Linda Zhang ’98 at the recent American College of Surgeons meeting in Boston. Linda is a surgeon at Mt. Sinai in NYC, where she is also involved in global health. They share a common experience of working to improve surgical care in Liberia.

’63 C Lane Morrison writes, “I bought myself a Case-IH combine for my birthday present and have harvested over 5,000 bushels of grain this fall. It is an awesome machine.”

’66 C Noel Hynd writes, ”A newly revised and expanded edition of my 1988 nonfiction work on the New York Giants baseball club, The Giants of the Polo Grounds, was published in October. (The original edition was an Editor’s Choice of The New York Times for several weeks.) The new edition has 150 new pages and more than 100 illustrations. I sought reminiscences from many people who remember the old ball park in upper Manhattan and was pleased to include contributions from former faculty Tom Yankus ’52 and 1965 classmates Bart Bramley, Gordon Taylor, Dave Baines and Doug Cooper.”

’68 RH Susan Kraus Nakamura is happy to share

’64 C

Henry Mixsell writes, “I have recently retired after 50 years of teaching Spanish, coaching, dorm parenting, college counseling, assistant headmastering, middle school directing, and official school photographing. My wife, Sally, Head of School at Stoneleigh-Burnham School for the last 10 years, and I have moved back to Hamden, Conn., to be closer to old friends and family. (Coincidentally, our youngest son Hayden, who works at Miss Porter’s, lives a block away from Choate on North Whittlesey Avenue.)

Thanks to Facebook, I am still in contact with Roger Williams, Nat Benchley, and Rob ‘63 and Margo Ayres.

I enjoy keeping up with Choate and friends through the beautiful Bulletin.”

’65 RH Wesley Cullen Davidson did a book signing of When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need To Know (Sterling, 2016) on November 17 during the weeklong Miami Beach Book Fair.

Sayre Shields Lukason writes, “As my time spent in caring for my grandsons, aged 2 and 3, has increased, my time spent teaching Kindermusik and instrumental music has decreased. Retirement projects have been set aside. Happily, I still see Betsy Webster and Gusty Lange ’66 on occasion.”

Ann Mason Sears visited with Karin I. Jones in Longboat Key, Fla., in November. Karin continues to teach occasional courses at the Sarasota College. This summer in late August Ann hosted a mini reunion in Maine joined by Jancie R. Olson, Durinda F. Chace, Joanne Sullivan, Judy Donald ’66, and Hannah Sears ’93. Ann reports that Carlie Mayer Feldman stayed a few days with her faithful dog in September on her way to visit family members in the Camden area.

’66 RH Victoria Brewer writes, “I’m alive and still pushing. I live on an organic alfalfa farm in the heartland. If anybody is interested email me at toymiok@ gmail.com. I’m not on Facebook.” ’68 C Dr. David Knight met Linda Zhang ’98 at the recent American College of Surgeons meeting in Boston. Linda is a surgeon at Mt. Sinai in NYC, where she is also involved in global health. They share a common experience of working to improve surgical care in Liberia although had not met prior.

Says David, “After we had talked about Liberia for a while, Linda saw that my name badge indicated I was from Connecticut. She told me that she grew up in Wallingford and went to Choate; it seemed a remarkable coincidence when I told her that I was a Choate graduate also. Then I asked her what year she graduated, and she said ‘1998.’ I replied that was the year my oldest daughter graduated; she looked at me in amazement and said, ‘Oh my God you are Jess Knight’s dad!’ It’s really a very small world.”

that after living for 20 years in Tokyo, Japan, where she lived with her husband Takuji and 3 children, she has now been back stateside for the past 21 years.

She has recently welcomed her newest granddaughter, Nina, and welcomed her latest litter of Vizsla puppies as well. Susan continues to show, hunt, and breed her Vizslas under the kennel name of Suzu Vizslas in North Salem, N.Y. She totally enjoyed her 50th reunion back in Wallingford, where a great time was had by all reconnecting after such a long time.

Nancy Shippen feels that she is being well used as Assistant Clerk of the Friends Peace Teams, a Quaker organization engaged in community-centered, grassroots peacebuilding in 13 countries. In January she will attend a coordinators’ gathering of Peacebuilding en Las Américas in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. She is also active with the Alternatives to Violence Project, providing three-day workshops in Massachusetts prisons and with AVP-International.

’69 RH Penny Smith Custis writes, “I have been living near Lake Tahoe in Minden, Nev., for 38 years.

Always thought I would move back to my favorite state, Vermont, but met my husband, who is a local guy, here and never made it back east. I have been retired for 16 years and enjoying life in the foothills of the beautiful Sierra Nevada. Never had kids, just lots of dogs. Would love to say hi to Peggy Brim and Nancy Zerbey and Katie Griggs ’70.”

Amanda Miles writes, “Hard to believe 50 years ago we were sixth formers, finally wearing red tams all together every morning. Can’t wait to see all our classmates in May :) Meanwhile, I’m splitting time between Florida and Maine – great balance of weather and beauty. Be back together soon. Yeah!”

Kathy Billings ’71, who resides in Scarborough, Maine, recently published a book, From a Distance: Scattered Memories and Stories of Love, that captures the essence of family and compassion. Available on Amazon.

1970s ’70 C Jim Berrien writes, “I now know what Worthy Johnson was talking about, as we have just had our first grandchild. Worthy calls it life’s dessert. I agree.

My firm, Ahl, Berrien & Partners, continues in our search for work, with a big focus on nonprofits. Had dinner recently with the Miners and with Jay and Missy Moorhead as surprise guests. The beat goes on.” ’70 RH Sallie Groo writes, “It turns out I am not moving to Colorado but still plan to teach meditation, probably in Los Angeles or California’s Central Coast. In any case, I’d still like to connect with any renegade classmates in SoCal! I’m recovered enough from Rosemary in the ’60s to want to say hi again – I hope you are/do too!”

Kitty Hayes writes, “Tim and I took a third walking tour with the Wayfarers, this time through Brittany and Normandy. While in Normandy, one highlight was that our guide arranged a special afternoon in Tour-en-Bessin where centuries of my grandfather’s family is buried. The mayor of the town gave us a tour of the church. Located nearby, we visited his childhood home, where a very distant relative resides. Relatives from Bayeux joined us for a reception in the chateau. After the Wayfarers tour ended, we visited three other chateaus where family still reside.

One, ‘Monceaux’, is a 500-hectare farm north of Paris.

Staying here in the 1763-built home of the family was a unique thrill. We had a very special anniversary!”

Paying it forward…

Gifts through your estate, gifts that pay you income, and other types of planned gifts provide critical support to Choate Rosemary Hall students while delivering financial and tax benefits to you and your family. These gifts will have an impact on our School for generations to come.

Have you considered the ways in which a gift to Choate Rosemary Hall can work for you?

Join the Choate Society today.

For more information, please contact Mari Jones, Director of Development, at (203) 697-2451 or mjones@choate.edu.

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

40 CLASSNOTES

Jody Gelb has been back on tour with Wicked since February 2018.

She writes, “Life on tour has been a joy.”

’74 ’71 C

Matthew C. Carroll serves as Assistant Department Head for Marine Engineering Technology at Texas A&M University in Galveston. He won the TAMUG Vice-Presidential Award for Student Relations in 2017.

William C. S. Remsen is continuing his architectural conservation work on a monumental 1,000-year-old Islamic mausoleum in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. In addition to his other historic preservation projects in the USA and elsewhere, he serves on various boards including the Gloucester Historical Commission. His daughter Sara recently completed her graduate work in engineering and design at MIT and sold her augmented reality software startup company. Daughter Allie is at Georgetown Law and son Peter, a junior at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, is currently perfecting his Arabic and interning at the Jordanian Foreign Ministry in Amman.

Jim Campbell writes, “I have been signed by McGraw Hill to write a book on Bernie Madoff. I am Assistant News Director at WGCH Greenwich Radio, and host a nationally syndicated radio show, Business Talk with Jim Campbell. I also host a crime show, Forensic Talk with Jim Campbell. I have two grandchildren, Rory and Owen Canniff, sons of one of our twins.”

Stephen Davis, a senior fellow at Harvard Law School, will be doing a second year as visiting professor teaching corporate governance at IAE business school at Aix-Marseille University in France.

’73 RH Liz Sargent Montaner writes, “Richard and I moved to downtown Annapolis from Severna Park, Md., about five years ago and love every minute of our life in this small historic city by the Chesapeake Bay. Annapolis is about a half hour drive to D.C. and Baltimore during non-commute times. We spend a lot of time cruising in our old Dyer to various creeks and rivers in the middle bay and enjoy Navy football games along with local music concerts. I joined the real estate profession about 12 years ago after a 25-year career in magazine ad sales and it seems to be a perfect fit for me at this point in my life. Our son also lives in town and our daughter is an oncology nurse.”

’72 C

Jason Danielson, John Gelb, and Steve Monroe, along with their wives, shared a pre-show dinner in late September at Otto Enoteca. It was three nights before the formal opening of the new off-Broadway hit Girl from the North Country, playing at the Public Theatre in Lower Manhattan. It features songs from Bob Dylan’s canon and an ensemble cast highlighting the talents of our classmate, Steve Bogardus. A critic the following week called Steve’s performance ”solid as a rock!” Glenn Close ’65 was spotted in the balcony bar after the show.

’73 C Jim Bertles writes, “Forty-five years later, I am still very happily married to my wife of 37 years with three grown kids (two of whom went to Deerfield!) and three young grandchildren. Life is keeping me very busy. Living in Palm Beach, Fla., during the winter and Connecticut in the summer, playing not nearly enough golf, and still working fulltime with our New York-based investment advisory firm. I’d love to reconnect with any old friends who might find their way to Palm Beach. I do keep up pretty actively with Drew Casertano ’74, but that’s about it. Oh, and I love the fact that Choate football is such a powerhouse.”

’74 C

Tony Lopez has been working as a licensed private investigator. He is lead investigator for the Tennessee Veteran Caucus and other Veterans’ organizations. Investigations lead to improved veteran assistance and civil court rulings in favor of veterans.

TOP Jody Gelb ’74 joined the national tour of Wicked at San Diego

Civic Theatre last October. Jody plays Madame Morrible with Jackie Burns as Elphaba.

BOTTOM Ed McCormick ’78 and a few of his classmates got together

in Kingston R.I., to cheer on URI Football Head Coach Jim Fleming.

From left, Marc Jeton, Bob Schwab, Coach Fleming, Ed and Chris Hodgson.

’74 RH Jody Gelb has been back on tour with Wicked since February 2018. She writes, “Life on tour has been a joy. My dad will be turning 92 in February 2019 and we will celebrate with him in New York City.”

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 41

Rex Florian ’74 on a scuba dive at Monumental Elk Horn Coral Dive Site - The Chairs Dutch West Indies, South East Coast, Bonaire.

’75 C Merril Yu, of Manila, Philippines, writes that in 2013 he was the recipient of the 18th Mabuhay Gold Award (the hotel industry’s award for Hotelier of the Year). Presently, he is President of LBP Service Corporation, a 22-year-old, top-600 corporation in the Philippines in Manpower Solutions. ’75 RH Amoret Phillips lives in Boone, N.C. She writes poetry while living in the woods by the New River, helps people recover from PTSD, and demonstrates how to heal through the arts. She has four children and seven grandchildren.

’78 C

Paul Miller Sr. writes, “My third child of three has graduated from Smith (2018) and is now employed with Infosys in Austin, Texas. Joining her in Austin is her older brother, who graduated UArts Philadelphia and he is now working in animation at Bioware. My middle child, Mary, graduated Bryn Mawr and Drexel and is a senior statistician at Lilly in Indianapolis. Now beginning empty nesting with my wife, Annette, of 28 years. God has been very good to us. Been a fantastic journey! Not bad for a kid from the South Bronx!”

’79

Terry (Richard) McClenahan writes, “Buffalo is still good to us, three years since our move from NYC’s Upper West Side. My wife Kara Kelly, MD, continues to do great things as Pediatric Oncology Chief at Roswell Park Cancer Institute & Oishei Children’s Hospital. Last September was my 41st ‘rowing anniversary’ since CRH fifth form. In 2018 my Buffalo River Rowing Club entered five Masters summer sprint races (1k). We went to three fall Head Races, 5K on twisty rivers. I’m the most experienced person on the squad.

If anyone lives in Western New York or you’re visiting Niagara Falls, please write at terrymcclen@yahoo.com.”

42 CLASSNOTES

1980s ’80

Ben Bahn writes, “I bought a house in D.C. I’ve given up suburban living and am enjoying city life. If any of my classmates need a place to crash in D.C., I’ve got it. Also, I’m celebrating 10 years as a business analyst at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association in D.C.”

Michael Lewyn blogs regularly at planetizen. com and marketurbanism.com and continues to live in Manhattan and teach at Touro Law Center in Long Island. He just wrote chapter 15 of the book Engineering Standards In Highway Design Litigation.

’81

Tim Dorn writes that he has been living in Eldorado, Texas for two years. “My brother and I own a pretty ranch down here. We’re doing well. My father, John (Class of ’45), is doing great. Ninety-one years and going strong.”

Stephanie Hazard reports that classmate Wass Stevens is teaching an audition technique class at the acclaimed Susan Batson Studio in NYC. Both Stephanie and classmate Alex Kroll are his newest students.

’82 Hilary Hoagland-Grey writes, “I recently returned home from spending two weeks in Georgia working with the American Red Cross on the response to Hurricane Michael. I spent my time distributing emergency supplies, including water, snacks and MRE meals, tarps and clean-up supplies. While Georgia may not have been hit with the same effects as the Florida Coast, Michael was still a category 2 storm when it hit the area and the damage was immense. This is the second October in a row I have volunteered with the Red Cross. Last year I spent three weeks in St. Croix in the response to Hurricanes Irma and Maria. I also got to spend a few days with classmate Chambers Boyd Moore and her family at her home in Louisville, Ky., in September. It’s always good to see her, but much too long between visits!” ’83 Jeremiah Foster writes, “I recently participated on a panel at Columbia Law School in NYC at the Software Freedom Law Center’s Fall event. This is the third time I’ve participated in their events, all for continuing education credit, which ought to astonish my classmates, hopefully in a positive way. The panel discussion was on open source software and autonomous vehicles.”

1 1 Cammie Hunt ’83 raced at

Ironman Maryland, on September 29, 2018, finishing in 13:34:43. It was a life-changing experience! She thanks all the Choaties who encouraged and followed her on this journey!

2 Heather Price-Garcia ’89

renovated her home in Old Town, Alexandria, earlier this year. Her daughter Elizabeth, age 10, practiced a little amateur archaeology on one of the well dissections in progress.

3 Gardenia Cucci ’86 was

having dinner at Belle Haven Club in Greenwich, Conn., this summer with her sons Gavin

2

’85

Jeff Hamond directs the Philanthropy Practice at Van Scoyoc Associates, a lobbying and consulting firm in Washington, D.C. He also curates an online series of philanthropic success stories. If any of his classmates are involved in the philanthropy space and they have a great story to tell, he wants to hear from you!

’86 Jerry Farrell Jr. traveled to Mongardino, Italy, near the City of Asti, in October for the rededication of Terpone Chapel. Farrell and his wife, Natalie Campisi, own and recently restored an 1850s farmhouse in Terpone. The Terpone Chapel, located almost directly across the street from Farrell’s home, was built during the late 19th century by Giuseppe Audisio, Farrell’s great-great uncle. Farrell’s greatgrandparents, Michael Audisio and Emilia Ollino Audisio were born in Terpone, grew up together, married in 1900, emigrated to the United States, settling in Wallingford in 1904. The farmhouse is considered a UNESCO World Heritage site, as it contains an “infernotto” or “crutin,” a special kind of wine cave, dug in volcanic rock beneath the house in the 19th century. Says Farrell, “It’s a small farmhouse, but some

3

Galiardo ’20 and Luke Galiardo ’22 and was surprised and delighted to run into Miles Spencer ’81 and Angie ’88 and Chris ’87 Lodge.

4 August gathering of Choaties

at Squam Lake, N.H, classes spanning from ’47 to ’81. From left, Mike Furgueson ’80, Carley Fazzone ’81, Dr. John Baay ’49, Liz Goulian Kahle ’80, Jeff Kahle ’80 and John Baay Jr. ’80.

5 Hilary Hoagland-Grey ’82

spent two weeks in Georgia working with the American Red Cross on the response to Hurricane Michael.

4

5

1

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 43

“After being head writer of the children’s television series Arthur for 18 years, the show is finally ending. So grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the life of that sweet bespectacled aardvark. I shall miss him dearly.”

–PETER HIRSCH

’86 of my business work brings me to Italy often, so it’s good to have a base to work from.” Farrell’s law practice, located in Wallingford, Conn., focuses on liquor law. From 2006 to 2011, Farrell served as Chairman of the Connecticut Liquor Control Commission, the chief regulatory agency for wine, beer, and spirits in the State of Connecticut. “Having a home in Terpone we wanted to do something for the community, so restoring the chapel was a natural thing to do,” Farrell said. The restoration involved installing a new ceramic tile roof, renewing the stucco of both the inside and outside walls, and installing a new tile floor. The tiles for the floor are antique tiles recovered from another church site. Farrell’s parents, Jerry Farrell Sr. and Mary Ann Audisio Farrell, P ’86 and ’87, were part of the Mass and festivities.

Ben Feldman, lead attorney of Feldman, Golinski, Reedy + Ben-Zvi PLLC (FGR+B), known as the firm of choice for financiers, artists, independent film and television and many Broadway plays and musicals (from The Great Comet of 1812 to Be More Chill), is pleased to announce Jonathan E. Rebell, Esq. ’93 (NBCUniversal, Viacom) has joined the firm of counsel. This addition will expand the firm’s practice with expertise in digital media, emerging technologies, and on-demand video platforms such as the recently launched STAGE Network, a firm client. Rebell will be handling his own practice and working with the other partners. Ben says, “We are thrilled that Jon has decided to join our team. It has been my wish to enhance the services offered to our clients. By adding Jon, we are more fully able to offer expert representation across all mediums and platforms.”

Peter Mills Finfrock writes, “I’m settling into a new and marvelous reality, making the most happiness from my newfound disability, MS. It struck me, as it does so many, in my 40s. But I formed a closed Facebook group for many of my other classmates who are living with chronic conditions, called Sickly Round Table. Thankfully my particular case is not painful, though I am very easily fatigued, and also

overheat at temperatures I used to think were very mild, anything above 76 degrees and all my other symptoms come out, like spasticity and incoordination, and brain fog. My biggest regrets are that I can no longer do my various recreations, dancing, rock climbing, and cooking. Cooking involves being able to stand for long times in a hot kitchen and timing is very important, but I end up rushing myself so I can sit down, and then les jeux sont faits: a mediocre meal. This wouldn’t be awful except under my father’s care I became a strict foodie who likes to keep a commercial-quality kitchen. When I had more energy and didn’t require 12 hours of sleep every day that worked well enough. But my grandfathers were both pioneers in their fields, and one of those fields was neurosurgery. So, I know that sleep is how your brain repairs itself, by bathing it in cerebrospinal-spinal fluid (csf). Plus, it sounds like I’m working really hard by sleeping. I’ve also started a Patreon page for my memoirs @patreon.com/user?u=6245400.”

’87 Paul Grabowski writes, “In September, I was the recipient of the Legal Marketing Association’s Marketing Professional of the Year award. This award is given to an individual member who has made significant contributions to the legal marketing industry, LMA, the Southwest Region (or its predecessor chapters) and its members, and has consistently demonstrated at the highest levels of leadership, innovation and mentorship. Also in September, my firm, Bracewell LLP, received the 2018 WebAward for Outstanding Achievement in Web Development from the Web Marketing Association. Since 1997, the Web Marketing Association’s annual WebAward Competition has been setting the standard of excellence for website development. Independent expert judges from around the world review sites in 96 industries. The best are recognized with a WebAward, which helps interactive professionals promote themselves, their companies, and their best work to the outside world. The WebAward competition is the

premier award recognition program for web developers and advertising agencies. Finally, I have been re-elected as the president of the Board of Directors of HITS Theatre. HITS Theatre is the only nonprofit musical theatre education program in Houston with over 1,000 students and 60 productions throughout the year. We provide professional-level training in acting, dance, singing, music, technical theatre and media with a goal of enriching lives by broadening cultural experience and developing talent while enhancing the cultural climate for children and their families in the city of Houston and the surrounding communities.”

’88 Alison Hunt Perruso lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband Rick. She is a high school history teacher and enjoys traveling the world. She and Rick traveled to Borneo last summer and are headed to Egypt this winter. She caught up with Laura Norton Jacquier on a trip to Paris a few years ago. ’89

Heather Price-Garcia and her husband, Rick, completed a basement renovation of her home earlier this year. She writes, “In the process, two wells dating back to the late 1700s and mid 1800s respectively were uncovered. Not unusual for Old Town, Alexandria, but because our home was originally built by George Washington as a rental property, both Mt. Vernon and the City of Alexandria Archeological Departments got involved. Over 3,000 artifacts were uncovered including coins, buttons, china, keys, shoes and even a hand-blown beer bottle with beer still in it.”

Mike Riskind moved with his wife and three children to Delray Beach, Fla. Mike runs a third-party marketing and placement agency business that raises capital for hedge funds, real estate developers, and entrepreneurs while his wife, Sheri, is an artist and interior decorator. They plan to spend their summers at their home near Woodstock, N.Y.

44 44

CLASSNOTES | Profile

Media Adaptors & Disruptors

Chris Vlasto ’84 and Ted Bailey ’99

At this rare moment in history, as mass communication takes a giant leap forward via the explosion of social media, ABC News Senior Executive Producer Chris Vlasto ’84 and artificial intelligence pioneer Ted Bailey ’99 find themselves pursuing a common cause. Both aim to make journalism stronger in a time when dramatic changes are battering the news industry.

For Bailey, it’s about using technology to help journalists – as well as first responders, hedge fund managers, and other professional clients – to spot important developments before they’re reported in the press. He is CEO and Founder of Dataminr, a fast-growing startup that combs through 500 million tweets a day and other sources of public information, from social media to aviation sensors that detect when a plane might be in distress. Clients get alerts about what’s happening a few hours, minutes, or seconds before everyone else knows.

“We’re in the business of trying to discover things that aren’t yet known,” Bailey told the Bulletin in an interview at Dataminr’s Manhattan headquarters.

“We’ve made the journalists more agile. We’ve brought them to the new frontline of information in the world.”

For Vlasto, it’s a matter of doing what journalists have always done: sift truth from fiction, then report what passes muster quickly, compellingly, and accurately. Now it’s done, however, amidst a sea of tweets, posts, and alerts. A 30-year news veteran, he is head of ABC News’ investigative reporting, where he oversees a team about 60, including many with Dataminr accounts tailored to their beats.

Vlasto sees investigative journalism enjoying a renaissance, in part due to the public’s voracious appetite for coverage of the current administration.

In this environment, where a social media explosion meets a controversial presidency, old-fashioned methods such as calling sources, corroborating claims, and providing essential context are as important as ever.

“The scary part now, in my world and as a boss, is: you can’t make a mistake in this climate anymore,” Vlasto says in his corner office at ABC’s midtown headquarters. “You will be destroyed in social media. I’d rather get beat on something than be wrong.”

In a nutshell, Bailey is using tech to feed journalists’ need for speed. Vlasto is feeding their need for accuracy by training a generation to make extra-sure that what they’re hearing or reading on the web is true before repeating it in their own reports. Bailey’s venture and Vlasto’s career are complementary projects, waged by two Choaties who don’t know each other but who nonetheless find themselves side by side in the trenches of adaptation.

ABC News Senior Executive Producer Chris Vlasto ’84

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 45

Adjusting to disruptive change has fast become a matter of survival in the hard-hit news industry. Newsrooms slashed staffing levels by 23 percent from 2008 to 2017, according to the Pew Research Center.

Social media has been the most disruptive force to emerge during Vlasto’s career, he says, and not just because Internet advertising has upended many of traditional media’s business models. In fact, TV news shows are still profitable, he noted, including ABC’s World News Tonight and Good Morning America, which he produced before heading up investigations. But social media has nonetheless changed the landscape and impacts how journalists at ABC do their jobs.

These days, when a reporter at ABC gets a story, it no longer holds for even a few hours until the evening newscast. Instead scoops or “scooplets,” as Vlasto calls them, are published immediately to the web. An editor’s approval isn’t sufficient anymore to get a story out. In preparation for the ferocious social media gauntlet, every piece now undergoes a three-tiered review by fact checkers, lawyers, and Vlasto.

The significance of social media’s impact on news organizations and on human civilization isn’t lost on Bailey. In his office, where walls are whiteboards with new ideas scrawled in blue marker, he leans back on a small couch and reflects on the history of mass communication. Prior breakthroughs allowed the few to reach the many via printing press, radio, and TV, but the few were still the ones with the proverbial megaphones. No more.

“You’ve gone from various means by which a limited set of people disseminate information to the masses disseminating information to media,” Bailey says. “It is epically profound … Think of it on a multi-thousand-year framework. This is radical.”

All those voices have shifted dynamics for journalists, and not always for the better. Unlike in the 1990s, when Vlasto’s team used anonymous sourcing to break the Monica Lewinsky story, today’s social media pressures would make such a story difficult to pull off.

“Today, if that occurred, I think the pressure would have been to out our source or not run the story,” Vlasto says. “It would have been very hard for the news division to stand behind [it].”

Dataminr helps news organizations manage one crucial aspect of the social media tempest. It provides what Bailey calls a “tip sheet” for journalists at ABC News, and other major news outlets across the globe. Reporters get a heads up on what Dataminr is detecting, such as patterns when bystanders are chronicling events of an earthquake, an explosion, or a massacre as they’re happening in real time. It’s roughly akin to when police scanners used to squawk in newsrooms, except now the “scanner” is tracking events across the globe.

The police scanner “was limited to what the police were seeing,” Bailey says with a chuckle. “Now it’s coming from everyone from the age of nine to 90.”

Dataminr’s technological fix for the problem of being late to spot important developments helps ABC News, at least to a point. It’s become indispensable, Vlasto says, for following sudden, unexpected events such as disasters.

For his investigative team, Dataminr’s service provides a trigger that sometimes shifts attention. If a competitor breaks a story, for instance, ABC News knows immediately, hustles to confirm facts and post its own report within minutes. Likewise if alerts suggest a cabinet resignation or an investigation leak might be in the works, reporters pivot off other projects to see if there’s fire or just smoke.

Though alerts based on social media can be gems, oftentimes the leads don’t pan out, according to Vlasto. As tips come from myriad directions on the social media landscape (not just Dataminr), the investigative unit now spends about 30 to 40 percent of its time “chasing ghosts” that don’t turn into stories, Vlasto says. But looking into promising leads is nonetheless essential, as is vetting to make sure nothing that’s furnished is fake. “The amount of resources that we spend killing stories is a real burden on the system,” Vlasto says.

Dataminr doesn’t aspire to replace journalists or become a source of directto-consumer alerts, Bailey says. Engineers are encouraged to keep tweaking algorithms so clients don’t either miss important developments or get more information than they need. For journalism clients, the window is wider than for those in other fields, Bailey says, because the clients are in the business of doing their own investigations. Dataminr would rather furnish them with a few leads that don’t warrant news coverage.

In a social media age, Vlasto’s team is constantly navigating among blogposts that don’t have their facts straight and administration leaks, many of which are intended to mislead the press. For that minefield, there’s no tech fix. Instead, he trains a rising generation of reporters to call sources and make sure nuances aren’t missed in a flurry of tweets, texts, and emails. That kind of diligence, coupled with expert analysis and historical context, is where he sees journalism proving its enduring value – even, or perhaps especially, in an age of information overload.

“I see my purpose as keeping things accurate and true,” Vlasto says. “Because that’s the brand. All we have is the brand. And as soon as people can’t trust the brand, you’ve got nothing.”

G. Jeffrey MacDonald ’87 G. Jeffrey MacDonald ’87 covers religion, ethics, and social responsibility among other subjects for national news outlets. His stories have appeared in TIME magazine, the Washington Post and many other publications.

CEO and Co-founder of Dataminr Ted Bailey ’99

46 CLASSNOTES

1 Fabio Blancarte ’9 joined

3 Three generations of Todds

Emily Demarchelier ’95 in Mexico for her birthday where she introduced him to a rustic part of Mexico he’s never been to – to surf secret surf breaks, fish, and eat coconuts.

at Deerfield Day 2018, from left, Trip Todd ’95, Amanda Todd Lynch ’98, and Bill Todd ’66

2 Emily Falcigno ’96’s photo

series, In Her Words, a visual diary for everyday women, appeared on a billboard in Times Square! Connect on Instagram @inherwordsdiary or hello@inherwordsdiary.com to learn more about the book she is creating.

1

2

4 Celeste Peterson ’94 and her

daughters Siri and Anna visited Katy Oliver Challenger ’94 at Katy’s new house in Stowe, Vt., in September. Pictured clockwise from top, Celeste’s daughter Siri, Katy’s daughter Olivia, Katy, Celeste’s daughter Anna, and Celeste. Katy also has a son Grant, not pictured.

4

3

1990s ’91 Anne M. Glass, Ed.M., Head of School at the Purnell School, is the New Jersey nominee for the 2019 Sam Kirk Educator of the Year Award. This award is given each year to an educator who has made outstanding contributions in the field of education for students with learning differences.

Zen Honeycutt aka Mignon Zen LaBossiere announces the release of her first book, Unstoppable: Transforming Sickness and Struggle into Triumph, Empowerment, and a Celebration of Community.

Available on www.MomsAcrossAmerica.org or Amazon.

Yvette Jackson has been appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Music at Harvard University, effective July 2019. She will join the Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry graduate program and develop classes for the Theater, Dance, Media undergraduate program. yvettejackson.com ’92

Katherine Marsh is back in D.C., after three years in Belgium. Her latest young adult novel, Nowhere Boy, recently launched with great reception. It is a People magazine kid pick and Amazon best book of the month. She brought her skills as

a journalist and fiction writer to her latest work as well as her experience as an expat and parent. It’s a story about the sacrifice and the friendship between a young Syrian refugee and an American boy living in Brussels and speaks to the current political moment.

’93

Gretchen Roberts lives in Morrison, Colo., with her husband Toby and three daughters – Aliza, Rosie Jack, and Clementine. She raises funds and manages a social enterprise for the Denver Public Library Friends Foundation. The enterprise houses a bookshop, rare book auctions, a volunteer program, and an online storefront. She and her husband grow and preserve much of their food every year.

Coincidentally, her husband Toby’s three uncles Sam, Pete, and Joe Mygatt went to Choate as well!

’94 Tom Ayres considers himself lucky to be in Boston if not only because it allows him to keep in close touch with Ahmed Al-Saleh, Susan Pandya, and Alex Koppenheffer, among other Choaties. In his recent travels, he caught up with David Lai and Alejandro Eder in Los Angeles and Amy Rabinowitz Huffman and Jessica Hughes in Nashville.

Kate Phillips Clegg welcomed a second son, Lewis Alexander Luxton Clegg (Lewis), born on February 14, 2018.

’96 Daniel C. Brocks, M.D. writes, “I am currently living and working in the Boston area with my beautiful wife Elyse and two wonderful kids, Madeline, age 4, and Cooper, 20 months. I recently became the Chief Medical Officer at BostonSight, a nonprofit group committed to treating and researching solutions for severe corneal and ocular surface diseases.”

Emily Falcigno writes, “I recently learned the power of making a vision board. For my photo series of small battles and triumphs of everyday women, I wanted to have an In Her Words photo on a billboard so women can look up and see something they can relate to. Gotta aim high, right? Nine months later on Nov. 2, I was looking up at my billboard … in Times Square! Among the spectators was one of my role models, Elizabeth Luby ’04. Connect on Instagram@ inherwordsdiary or hello@inherwordsdiary.com to learn more about the book we’re creating.” ’98 Barbara Zektick writes, “After 10 years in the public sector, I have joined the law firm of Alexander & Cleaver as an attorney and government relations consultant.” In this role, she represents clients on government relations, legal and procurement matters before the Maryland General Assembly and local governments.

CLASSNOTES | Profile

’94

Lauren Wimmer

Jewelry That Endures For a little girl who loved beading and jewelry, the choice was obvious. What better artist to write about for an elementary school art class report than Frida Kahlo? “Kahlo always had the most amazing jewelry in her paintings,” says Lauren Wimmer ’94. “And when I was older, I recognized that the jewelry was often deeply symbolic.”

Now, Lauren’s love of symbolism, ceremony, and texture shines through in her own art – her jewelry. Her pieces have been displayed and sold in museum and specialty stores around the globe, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Barnes Museum in Philadelphia, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Philadelphia Museum, Bergdorf Goodman, and Henri Bendel.

Lauren, whose mother was an artist and art professor at the University of Wisconsin, grew up surrounded by the visual arts. Ten years in Catholic school exposed her also to the intricate symbolism of the church’s iconography, and centuries of magnificent painting, sculpture, and architecture. “Our Catholicism included a healthy dose of irreverence from my mom,” she says. “But I learned to embrace the beauty of the devotional objects.”

During Lauren’s years at Choate Rosemary Hall, the most enduring impact on her aesthetic sense came from a semester in Italy, and from her classics teacher, Diana Beste. “She brought the language, the personalities, the history to life,” Lauren says. Lauren became intrigued with the fall of Rome, “obsessed” with what was preserved in the archaeology of Pompeii, and drawn to the physical materials of the classical world. “There is something moving about the texture of objects that have aged,” she says, “and that have shaped themselves out of ruins.”

Sometimes, Lauren designs what she imagines literary characters might wear. She went through a major Dickens phase, and some of her creations reflect, for instance, the tangles at Satis House described in Great Expectations.

Another favorite is Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. “I love visualizing the portals described in his work,” Lauren says, “and how he takes seemingly everyday things and turns them into otherworldly tokens.”

At Wellesley, where she majored in art history and sculpture, Lauren used the school’s foundry to learn casting and fell in love with creating clay models and pouring bronze. She also spent another semester in Italy, absorbing the ruins, churches, and galleries, and experimenting with printmaking – an experience that reinforced her preference for working in three dimensions.

But when she moved to New York after graduation, she had to scale down the size of her three-dimensional creations. While working at a gallery specializing in African and Oceanic art, and then briefly in marketing, she took classes in metalcrafting and wax carving. “Those courses dovetailed with my lifelong compulsion to work with beading of all kinds,” Lauren says, “and, at that point, jewelry chose me.” She began selling her work and, in 2003, quit her day job and made Lauren Wimmer Jewelry (www.laurenwimmer.com) her full-time occupation.

It’s not an easy business, with a great deal of competition, and an expectation that the artist will make products available through wholesale, retail, craft shows, and online outlets. Especially now that she is, with her husband, Odinn Johnson ’94, the parent of two young children, Lauren says that she is “less interested in hustling and schlepping” (although she does some shows and sells from her website), and more focused on establishing ongoing relationships with clients.

“I’ve never been interested in chasing trends,” she says. “I’m designing for someone who knows her own sense of style.”

Lauren’s line includes her “cast,” “beaded,” and “wrapped” collections.

The “cast” collection explores the balance between organic and geometric – abstracted forms that are also reminiscent of the natural world. For these, Lauren carves in wax the models that are then cast in silver or gold; after casting, she does the finish work. For her “strung” pieces of beaded jewelry, she adds materials such as bone, wood, horn, and glass to pearls, rock crystals, and semiprecious stones. The “wrapped” collection is her most recent addition. Responding to a request from her brother’s fiancée for embellished napkin rings to complement simple wedding china, Lauren developed a process for making jewelry from hand-dyed silk ribbons and hollow metal rings.

“I like to keep my designs on the edge of abstract so that people can see what they want to in the objects,” Lauren says. “And my goal going forward is to spend less time on marketing and more time working on the pieces and interacting with clients. Trends don’t hold meaning. If you have a piece of mine, I want it to be special for you, something that will last, and that you will cherish.”

Rhea Hirshman Rhea Hirshman is a freelance writer based in New Haven. She also teaches women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Connecticut in Stamford, and is a former member of the Choate Rosemary Hall English Department.

48 CLASSNOTES

2000s ’00

Ali Fenwick writes that while racing in the 2018 New York City Marathon in November, she and Sean Thomas ’99 found each other among the tens of thousands of runners on the course and ran the last two miles together. Both former Choate track co-captains, Thomas, found Fenwick around Mile 24 and they crossed the finish line moments apart. It was Fenwick’s first marathon and Thomas’s second.

Caroline Staudt, a cross country captain during her tenure at Choate and a track co-captain with Fenwick, and Sean Gerlich, who also ran track and XC at Choate, also completed the race. It was Staudt’s eighth marathon and first in NYC and Gerlich’s sixth total and third NYC – he ran his first three marathons while still a student at Choate.

’03

Allison Lami Sawyer is launching the League of Worthwhile Ventures, a seed investment fund focused on artificial intelligence applications. She would love to hear from other Choaties operating in the AI or machine learning space! www.theleagueventures.com

’04 Kelly Dormandy has been hired as Assistant Athletics Director – Strength and Conditioning at Loyola Marymount University. Dormandy has served as head strength and conditioning coach with the Los Angeles Sparks since 2015. While heading the operation for the Sparks, Dormandy has also worked as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at USC since 2012, developing and implementing all aspects of annual strength, speed and agility, ACL injury prevention, energy system development and recovery programming.

Ariel Faulkner-O’Brien was promoted to CMO of Punchbowl – the company behind the critically acclaimed technology platform for online invitations. She and her husband Chris moved from Philadelphia to Greater Boston in May. 1 Terry Wong ’89 married Jean

3 Simone Chao ’00 married

Kim on August 19th, 2018 in Cambridge, Mass. Classmates Jason Melillo, Mark Serencha, Ed Laibl, David Chrzanowski, and Duncan Phyfe attended.

Stephen Morgan in Surrey, UK, on August 10, 2018, with the loving support of Ann Wang ’00 as her bridesmaid, and blessings from many Choatie friends.

From left to right, Roland Yau ’00, Henry Lau ’02, Jeremy Canceko ’00, Jeein Ha ’00, Stephen and Simone, Ann, Christopher Yu ’01, Wanwirote Varophas ’00, and Kristal Hui ’01.

2 Spencer Curtis ’06 married

Taylor Coon on June 9, 2018 at Sleepy Holllow Country Club in N.Y. From left, Tim Brettingen, Ron Stempien ’59, Michael Bonassar, Spencer, Taylor, Ashley Bairos, Jacob Baranoski, and Jonathan Desjardins.

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BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 49

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5 1 Friends from the class of

3 Luke Matarazzo ’10 married

1994, from left, Sarah Hunter, Amanda Redmond Arcand, Celeste Peterson Paulsson, were reunited at Jessica Hughes’s spring 2018 wedding.

Kimberly Neubert in August at the Gramercy Park Hotel. Kim is a Hopkins alum.

2 Jillian Reid ’06 married Tom

Gilloran ’05 at the Whiteface Lodge in Lake Placid, N.Y., on September 1, 2018. Members of the wedding party included, from left, Andrew Walsh ’05, Mike Kelly 05, officiant Kevin Hawkins ’05 (kneeling), Alexandra Hughes ’05, Janie Garnett ’06, Lexi Bohonnon’ 06, Ian Grajewski ’05, James Gilloran ’08, Jillian and Tom, Amanda Carpenter ’05, Maggie Carter ’06, Tom Sperry, David Reed ’68, Gillian Munson ’88, and Brandon Reid ’68.

6

4 William Copp ’04 married

Emma Craft on October 20, 2018, at Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club in Oyster Bay, N.Y. Choate alums (who are also family) from left, Lily Colley ’08, Hilary Copp ’07, William, and David R. Holmes ’02.

5 Dave Watson ’95 married

Laura Sullivan in July at Windmill Beach on Cape Cod. 6 Grace Peard ’08 married

Brian Wettach in September in Kent, Conn. All Grace’s bridesmaids and bridesmen were Choaties. Brother Bowen Peard ’11 officiated the wedding.

50

CLASSNOTES | Profile

’03

Alix Verley Pietrafesa

Clothing with a Story She is a highly regarded designer of one-of-a-kind and limited edition women’s clothing, but Alix Verley Pietrafesa ’03 originally thought her career path might lead her to the stage. She was active in fine arts, dance, and drama at Choate Rosemary Hall, taking roles ranging from the young Antigone in Sophocles’ tragedy to an 80-year-old woman in Noel Coward’s Waiting in the Wings. ”But, one day, I realized that, to act professionally, you have to audition and wait for someone to hire you,” Alix says. ”And I never wanted to be in a position where I have to rely on someone else in order to do my work.”

Alix also loved the visuals of theater – especially the transformative power of costuming. Working with her hands has always come naturally – perhaps not surprising, given a father (Robert Pietrafesa ’73) who comes from 10 generations in textiles and tailoring (and who made his own wedding jacket) and a mother from a long line of artists (and who made her own wedding dress). Now very much her own boss, Alix creates clothes that resemble works of art.

Although Alix grew up in Cazenovia, N.Y., having a French mother meant a fair amount of time spent in Europe. She also went overseas for college, graduating from Scotland’s University of Saint Andrews with a degree in art history. At university, Alix began sewing in earnest, inspired by her dissertation research on Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti and his time period. Intrigued with the idea that clothing could tell a story about a person, and fascinated by the style of the Bohemians of Paris, the Bloomsbury group, and her mother’s clothing from the 1970s – “I’ve always been a bit of a hippie,” Alix confesses – she used garment-making as a creative outlet.

After graduation, Alix worked briefly in New York’s garment industry – and hated the environment. So she went home every night and sewed her own creations. She sold her first collection out of her apartment and, with the proceeds, traveled to London, where Alix of Bohemia (alixofbohemia.com) – a name conjured by a comment from Alix’s mother – was established in 2009.

For the next few years, Alix shuttled between London, Hong Kong, and New York. In London, she bartered with Roma by mending their clothes in return for fabrics. She became intrigued with old textiles, and the idea of incorporating into her creations what she refers to as “items that have had a life.” Each oneof-kind item was like a painting – a colorful, textured composition that might include cutouts from vintage quilts, appliqués, and materials and embellishments gathered during her travels.

A trunk show in Greenwich Village in late 2014 became a turning point for the business. ”All of a sudden, Vogue and Bergdorf Goodman were contacting me,” Alix says. She was working 14 to 16 hours a day, selling garments faster than she could make them. When Bergdorf wanted to place an order, Alix told them that she didn’t do production work. Instead, she made 40 one-of-a-kind jackets, worked Bergdorf’s floor, and sold virtually all within a couple of hours.

“When they put one of the last few in their window, with my name visible,” she remembers, “I realized that I had come into my own as a designer.”

Although Alix continues to produce one-of-a-kind and custom work, Alix of Bohemia clothing is now sold in boutiques stateside and overseas, as well as online. Six women work with Alix in a spacious studio in Brooklyn’s Red Hook section. One, a master tailor, generates the patterns from Alix’s original creations so that her designs can be replicated, but Alix’s hands touch every garment and write each personalized tag. With a rich background in the arts but no formal training in fashion design, Alix says, “I do everything backward from what you learn in fashion school. Instead of starting with a sketch, I use the materials as my palette.”

Those materials range from Afghan blankets to Bulgarian embroideries, Japanese boro, and Mexican textiles. Alix travels widely and spends months sourcing fabrics. She uses only natural fibers — no leather or fur. Attentive to sustainability, she is always on the lookout for old and antique textiles. Her satellite studio in Mallorca, Spain, puts Alix between New York and India, where she has been working with local artisans to develop original fabric designs.

Alix’s next collection will be created entirely from fabrics featuring her original artwork.

Sometimes, Alix has a hard time parting with the fabrics she has collected.

But, she says, “I chose to work in this medium because it has a real life. When someone buys a garment from us, it becomes part of their story, and I’m happy to see it go to a good home.”

Rhea Hirshman Rhea Hirshman is a freelance writer based in New Haven. She also teaches women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Connecticut in Stamford, and is a former member of the Choate Rosemary Hall English Department.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 51

Lt. Jeremy White, USNR, was a recipient of a care package from the student Choate Veterans Support Group. He writes, ”My wife was able to forward it onto me via a friend at the Embassy in Tunis.

Came to me at a perfect time. I had recently picked up some sort of stomach bug. I pretty much lived off of all that oatmeal and dried cranberries that was sent.”

’07

Grace Kelly writes, “I recently moved to Los Angeles to continue my pursuits of writing and performing. The second season of my comedy web series, Dating My TV, premiered at the Valley Film Festival in LA in November 2018. Season Two will be available online mid-January 2019. For more info and a good giggle visit www.datingmytv.com.”

’09

McCullough Shriver won the 2018 Hamilton Entrepreneur’s Pitch Competition. A 2013 graduate of Hamilton College, McCullough is the founder of activewear brand Sweetflexx, manufacturers of leggings with built-in resistance bands that allow wearers to exercise throughout their daily routines. The company was honored in December by the Orthopaedic Foundation for entrepreneurial endeavors and innovation.

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’10

Molly O’Rourke writes that taking care of newborns and postpartum mothers has become a shared experience for her and KC Benchimol at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. KC works as a floor nurse after doing her undergrad in nursing at Penn and has since completed her masters in women’s health. Molly took a more convoluted route to nursing – after a few years of research in Baltimore, she switched gears and graduated Penn’s accelerated nursing program in December. She is entering the Nurse Practitioner program for Midwifery and Women’s Health in May. Choate Philly friends include Chip Lebovitz, who, is across campus for his first year at Wharton for business school, and MacKinsie Neal who is finishing up her time at Penn Law.

’18

Mpilo Norris, who is taking a gap year, writes, “I am on an 8-month adventure throughout Southern and Eastern Africa. My goal is to learn about and appreciate Africa from non-traditional perspectives such as business, politics, and education. My first stop is in Botswana where I’ve spent time working at the marketing firm Horizons Ogilvy, allowing me to visit institutions across the country, including the University of Botswana where I’ve learned about strategic planning and management. Over the remaining 6 months, I will be traveling to Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique, engaging in activities such as political internships, teaching English, and social work.”

1 Nessim Mezrahi ’00 and his

3 Mpilo Norris ’18, left, and

5 Avi Khachane ’04 and

6 The annual Bates College

daughter, Orly, at her first soccer tryouts in Bethesda, Md.

reporter Njanji Chauke for SABC news at the Global Expo Botswana - a symposium of domestic and foreign enterprises designed to help develop the country.

Vanessa Goldstein Khachane ’04 welcomed River Hazel Khachane to the world on May 1, 2018. Mom and Dad are doing well and excited to raise a future Choatie!

Parents Weekend A Cappella extravaganza on October 6 featured two former Choate a cappella presidents: Gabi Bradley ’15, now a 4-year veteran singer in the Bates Merimanders, and Eben Cook ’18, a new voice of the Bates Crosstones.

2 Ali Fenwick ’00 raced in the

2018 New York City Marathon in November, and found Sean Thomas ’99 on the course and ran the last two miles together.

4 David Holmes ’02 welcomed

a daughter, Olivia D. Holmes, on September 19, 2018.

52

IN MEMORIAM | Remembering Those We Have Lost Alumni and Alumnae

’32 C

Henry N. Barkhausen, 103, the retired owner of rock quarries and a conservationist, died October 6, 2018. Born in Green Bay, Wis., Henry came to Choate in 1928. He was on the Board of the Literary Magazine, Business Manager of the Choate News, and in the Cum Laude Society, and was among those his classmates voted “Most Gentlemanly.” He started at Harvard, but left when his father died to help run the family engineering business. During World War II he served in the Navy, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Commander. After the war, he returned to Northwest Engineering, but eventually left to open limestone quarries in Illinois and Arkansas. In 1970, he became Director of the Illinois Department of Conservation, and later he and his wife were involved with conservation causes. Henry was a life Trustee of the Illinois Nature Conservancy, and a visitor center in the Cache River Wetlands area is named for him. He enjoyed sailing, particularly in wooden gaff-rigged boats, and built a number of them. He was a co-founder of the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History. He leaves his wife of 77 years, Alice Barkhausen, 851 Pembridge Dr., Lake Forest, IL 60045; five children, including Henry Barkhausen ’65, David Barkhausen ’68, and John Barkhausen ’73; 11 grandchildren; four step-grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren.

’39 RH Elizabeth Taft Freeman, 97, active in the community, died September 12, 2018. Born in North Kingstown, R.I., Ibby, as she was known, came to Rosemary Hall in 1936. She was in the Choir, Philomel, the Kindly Club and the Music Club, and was a 1st Team hockey player. She was a volunteer for many organizations in Rhode Island, including Butler Hospital.

A former President of Animal Rescue Rhode Island, Ibby started its Paws to Read program. She leaves two daughters; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. Her mother, the late Mollie Gardner Taft ’02, attended Rosemary Hall, as did her sister, the late Frances Taft ’36, and a niece, Juliette Taft ’59.

’40 C

John C. Clement, 95, the retired head of an investment firm, died August 27, 2018. Born in Quantico, Va., John came to Choate in 1937; he lettered in crosscountry, was a cheerleader, and was in the French Club and the Cum Laude Society.

After graduating from Yale, he was a First Lieutenant with the Marines and was wounded on Iwo Jima. He was President of the Devon Investment Corporation. Active in the community, John helped parolees find employment, served Meals on Wheels, was a road patrolman for the St. Petersburg, Fla., police, and in 2005 was named that city’s Rotarian of the Year. He enjoyed playing tennis. He leaves four children.

’41 RH Virginia Will Yeager, 95, active in the community, died July 22, 2018 in Manlius, N.Y. Born in Syracuse, Ginger, as she was known, was at Rosemary Hall for one year, and then attended Syracuse University. In Manlius, she was a member of Park Central Presbyterian Church, the Junior League, the Visiting Nurse Association, and several other organizations. She leaves two daughters; two grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and a great-great grandson. A sister, the late Joyce Will Burdick ’39, also attended Rosemary Hall. ’42 C Herman F. Froeb, 94, a retired physician, died October 11, 2018 in La Jolla, Calif. Born in Forest Hills, N.Y., Herman came to Choate in 1937; he lettered in soccer, was Business Manager of the Brief, and was a cheerleader. He then earned degrees from Princeton and the Duke School of Medicine. He served as an Army Captain of a MASH unit in Korea, receiving a medal of commendation for his work on hemorrhagic fever. His medical career was varied. After a year at New York’s Bellevue Hospital, he studied pulmonary diseases in France, pursued a fellowship at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, spent eight years at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, and then entered private practice until he retired in 2004. Herman’s work was instrumental in documenting the effects of second-hand smoke on nonsmokers, and influenced nonsmoking regulations. He leaves his

wife, Helen Froeb, 8336 Paseo del Ocaso, La Jolla, CA 92037; five children, including Herman Froeb Jr. ’72; and 10 grandchildren. Two brothers, the late Cornelius Froeb ’36 and the late Charles Froeb ’41, also attended Choate.

’43 C

Donald Holbrook Jr., 94, a retired executive of a construction firm, died July 18, 2018 in Palm Harbor, Fla. Born in Cambridge, Mass., Don came to Choate in 1939; he played league football and hockey and was in the Choir. He worked for many years with the Williams Co., a construction firm in Tampa, Fla. Don enjoyed hunting, boating, skiing, tennis, and golf. He leaves his fiancée, Jan Gatewood, 259 Lake Tarpon Dr., No. 4, Palm Harbor, FL 34684; two children; seven grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and a great-great-grandchild.

’44 C Robert D. Batchelar, 92, a retired engineer, died August 19, 2018 in Camp Hill, Pa. Born in Jersey City, N.J., Robert came to Choate in 1942; he lettered in wrestling. He served with the Navy in World War II, then earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Princeton. Robert worked for many years with the Nopco Chemical Co. in Harrison, N.J. A past President of the Northern New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Plant Engineers, he enjoyed boating, camping, fishing, and photography. He leaves a son, Peter Batchelar, 173 Harmony Ln., Titusville, FL 32780; three grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. A brother, the late Jackson Batchelar ’47, also attended Choate.

William H. Weigle Jr., 94, a retired pilot, died September 12, 2018.

The son of missionaries, Bill was born in Tsing-Tso, China, and came to Choate in 1941; he was in the Glee Club. When the United States entered World War II, he left Choate to enlist in the Army Air Corps, and saw much action in Europe, particularly during the Battle of the Bulge and the “bridge too far” Battle of Market Garden. He was awarded an Air Medal with seven battle stars.

After the war, Bill earned a degree from Cornell, worked on the family farm, then was the chief pilot for the ClarkAiken Co. in Lee, Mass. He also worked

in sales for Lenox Machine Co. He was active in the town of Egremont, Mass., serving as a selectman; he also scoured military bases for surplus generators and firefighting equipment for Massachusetts towns. Though he never formally graduated, Choate awarded Bill a diploma in 2000. He leaves his wife, Jean J. Weigle, 58 Baldwin Hill Rd., No. W-3, Great Barrington, MA 01258; a son; four children; and five grandchildren.

’45 C Henry C. Gill Jr., 90, the retired president of a silver firm, died October 1, 2018. Born in Brockton, Mass., Henry was at Choate for one year. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he earned degrees from Harvard and its Business School, then worked for Reed and Barton Silversmiths in Taunton, Mass., until his retirement as president in 1992. Active in the community, Henry volunteered for the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, the Southeastern Massachusetts Development Commission, the United Way, and other organizations. He was named Taunton’s Man of the Year in 1975. In retirement, he was Chairman of CapeAbilities, a disability services agency. He enjoyed fishing, sailing, and skiing. He leaves two children, including H. Bail Gill, 17 Hawthorne Rd., Medfield, MA 02052; and seven grandchildren.

Thomas L. Kempner, 91, a retired investment banker, died October 9, 2018 in New York City.

Born in Pittsburgh, Thomas came to Choate in 1941. He was captain of varsity squash and varsity tennis, in the Cum Laude Society, a Campus Cop, Advertising Manager of the Brief, and in the Press Club. After graduating from Yale, he served in the Navy, then worked for Carl M. Loeb & Co., which had been founded by his grandfather.

He became a General Partner in 1957, and after the firm merged into Shearson American Express, he was Chairman and CEO of Loeb Holding Corp. Thomas was on the boards of many private and public companies, and co-endowed, with his son Thomas, a chair in computer sciences at Yale.

He and his late brother, former Choate Rosemary Hall Trustee Carl Kempner ’41, established the Alan and Margaret

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 53

Kempner Chair in biological sciences at School in 1971. Thomas leaves his wife, Ann Kempner; three children, including Thomas Kempner Jr. ’71, 123 East 73rd St., New York, NY 10021 and Adeline Kempner ’73; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Other family members who are alumni include a nephew, Peter Loeb ’78; a niece, the late Ann Loeb Bronfman ’50; and nephews Carl Kempner Jr. ’71 and Michael Kempner ’74.

James A. D. Pollock, 91, a retired marketing executive, died June 30, 2018 in Mystic, Conn. Born in New York City, Jim came to Choate in 1942; he lettered in squash and was manager of varsity football. He served in the Navy, then earned a degree from Brown. He joined Lever Brothers, then moved to General Foods before founding Karr-Dorr Foods in Weston, Conn., in 1976. Later, Jim started Target Sales Management and Granitaur Marketing. He enjoyed golf and crossword puzzles; he completed the New York Times daily crossword until three days before he died. He leaves his partner, Barbara MacDougall, 2600 North Flagler Dr., No. 611, West Palm Beach, FL 33407; two children; six stepchildren; three grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

Alan N. White, 90, the retired owner of a men’s clothing store, died August 19, 2018. Born in New Haven, Alan came to Choate in 1943; he lettered in squash and was on the board of the Brief. After attending Yale, he was a medic in the Army in Colorado. He then returned to Connecticut to work for White’s of

New Haven, a haberdashery founded by his father and grandfather. The company also marketed hats under the White’s name, which were sold in 200 department stores. When designer Ralph Lauren started the Polo line in 1967, he first approached the White family about selling the clothing. Alan later opened Miller White in Philadelphia and Whitehaven, a clothing liquidator. He enjoyed golf and was a founder of the Woodbridge, Conn., Country Club. He leaves two children, including David White ’73, 28 Turtle Bay Dr., Branford, CT 06405, and a sister.

’46 RH Ruth Fuller White, 89, an artist, died October 5, 2018 in Manchester Center, Vt. Born in Houston, Ruth came to Rosemary Hall in 1941; she was known for the excellence of her artwork. After studying at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, she became an artist, specializing in painting and needlework designs. When she was married to a diplomat, Ruth lived in Iceland, Iran, France, and Poland before returning to Vermont, where she ran an art gallery in Manchester.

She particularly liked horses – both painting them and riding them – and was an accomplished equestrienne.

She leaves three children; three stepchildren; several grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

’48 C

George W. Crampton, 88, a retired lawyer, died October 24, 2018.

Born in Moline, Ill., George came to Choate in 1946; he lettered in track,

was President of the Weather Club, was Associate Editor of the Choate News, and was in the Ski Club. After earning a law degree from Northwestern, George was a founding partner in the Rock Island, Ill., firm of Van Der Kamp, Crampton & Snyder. George was a licensed Coast Guard Captain, ham radio operator, scuba diver and sportsman. He leaves four sons and eight grandchildren.

Herbert Montague Richards Jr., 88, a rancher, died June 4, 2018 in San Francisco while on vacation. Born in Kohala, Hawaii, Monty, as he was known at School, came to Choate in 1945.

He was in the History and Western clubs. After attending Wesleyan, he graduated from California Polytechnic State University. He then was in management at the Kahua Ranch on the Big Island for many years. An innovator, Monty was the first rancher in Hawaii to use artificial insemination and the first to use high-intensity rapid-rotation grazing; he also installed one of the state’s first wind farms.

Active in the community, he was the founding president of the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board and was on many other boards, including those of the Council for Agricultural Research, the Nature Conservancy, the Bank of Hawaii, and the United Church of Christ. He won several awards, and others are given in his name. He served 16 years on the University of Hawaii Board of Regents. He leaves his wife, Elly Chong, 21 Craigside Place, # 3-B, Honolulu, HI 96817; four children; nine grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; two brothers; and a sister.

’49 C Richard C. Porter, 87, a retired economics professor, died August 3, 2018 in Ann Arbor, Mich. Dick, a son of longtime Choate mathematics teacher George F. Porter, was born in Hartford and entered Choate as a first former in 1942. He lettered in baseball, was on the Board of the Literary Magazine, was Assistant Managing Editor of the Choate News, and was in the Cum Laude Society. After earning degrees from Williams and Yale, he was briefly an economic adviser in Karachi, Pakistan. He then taught for two years at Yale before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan, where he taught economics for 35 years. He was also an economic adviser in Africa, Asia, and South America. Dick wrote several books, mostly dealing with economic policy involving water and waste. He enjoyed backpacking, bicycling, and scuba diving. He leaves his wife, Mary Porter, 1012 Scott Pl., Ann Arbor, MI 48015; a son; and two grandchildren.

His brother, the late Jerry Porter ’52, also attended Choate. ’50 C

Robin L. Farkas, 84, Chairman of the former Alexander’s department store chain, died July 10, 2018 in New York City. Born in New York, Robin came to Choate in 1948; he was Associate Editor of the Choate News and was in the Camera Club. After earning degrees from Harvard and its Business School, he served in the Army and then joined the Alexander’s chain, which had been started by his father; it eventually had 11 branches.

He rose to be its Chairman and CEO. Robin was also a philanthropist who

’50 Tony developed the concept of behavioral momentum, the tendency for repeated actions to persist despite challenges. The theory was applied to subjects as varied as developmental disabilities and fossil fuel consumption.

–JOHN A. “TONY” NEVIN

54 IN MEMORIAM

was active in the community. He was Chairman of the New York City Police Foundation and the New York State Dormitory Authority, and on the Executive Committee of the New York Metropolitan Merchants Association.

The performing arts center at Harvard is named in his honor. He was also active in Democratic Party politics in New York and Wyoming. He leaves five children; eight grandchildren; and two brothers, including Jonathan Farkas ’67, 930 Fifth Ave., No. 18-H, New York, NY 10021; and Bruce Farkas ’56. Another brother, the late Alexander “Sandy” Farkas ’47, also attended Choate, as did a nephew, Alexander Farkas ’88.

Norman E. Langdon, 85, a retired real estate developer, died July 29, 2018. Born in East Sandwich, Mass., Norman came to Choate in 1946; he played league soccer. After graduating from Brown, he spent many years developing real estate in New Hampshire and Maine. A Cub Scout leader, Norman was also employed at a hardware store in Damariscotta, Maine.

He leaves two children.

John A. “Tony” Nevin, 85, a retired behavioral psychologist, died September 23, 2018 in Vineyard Haven, Mass., of pancreatic cancer.

Born in New York City, Tony came to Choate in 1946. He lettered in tennis and squash and was President of the French Club, on the board of the Brief, Secretary-Treasurer of the Camera Club, and in the Cum Laude Society.

After graduating from Yale, he served with the Coast Guard, then completed graduate studies at Columbia. On the faculty of Swarthmore, Columbia, and the University of New Hampshire, Tony developed the concept of behavioral momentum, the tendency for repeated actions to persist despite challenges.

The theory was applied to subjects as varied as developmental disabilities and fossil fuel consumption. A sailor from an early age, Tony once brought a schooner from New Zealand to Panama. He was on the boards of several Martha’s Vineyard nonprofits and, with his wife, co-founded Good House Associates, which built affordable homes. He leaves his wife, Nora Nevin, 20 Harbor View Ln. No. 162, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568; five children; two stepsons; four grandchildren; and three step-grandchildren. ’51 C Richard Gachot, 85, an artist

and advertising executive, died August 31, 2018 in Old Westbury, N.Y. Born in New York City, Richard came to Choate in 1946; he was a Campus Cop and, as Art Editor of the Choate News, contributed cartoons to the newspaper.

After studying art at Yale, he began a long career with Trans-World Display Corp., a New York advertising firm; one of his major campaigns was for Chiquita bananas. Richard co-founded the Historical Society of the Westburys and was President of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities. He also created art, particularly sculpture, and had a one-man show at the Hecksher Museum in Huntington, N.Y. in 2014.

He leaves five sons: Richard Gachot ’77, 3712 Kennelwood Rd., No. B, Austin, TX 78703; Theodore Gachot ’78; Peter Gachot ’80; Paul Gachot ’86; and John Gachot ’88. His brother, the late Charles Gachot ’50, also attended Choate.

Peter D. Horne, 85, a bank executive, died October 25, 2018. Born in Chicago, Peter came to Choate in 1947. He was Circulation Manager of the Choate News; in the Glee Club, Choral Club, and Maiyeros; and was in the Cum Laude Society and the Ski Club. After graduating from Princeton, he served in the Air Force. Peter then returned to Chicago, where he spent 34 years at Continental Bank and 10 more years at Cole Taylor Bank. Active in the community, he was a former Chair of Chicago Commons, Treasurer of the Winnetka Historical Society, and an active volunteer with Evanston’s Connections for the Homeless. He enjoyed fly fishing. He leaves his wife, Patricia Horne, 425 Davis St., Unit 1006-N, Evanston, IL 60201; five children; 14 grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter. Two brothers, Benjamin Horne ’54 and Theodore Horne ’61, also attended Choate.

John David Rowland, 85, a retired executive of an insurance agency, died July 23, 2018 in Milwaukee following heart surgery. Born in Racine, Wis., Dave came to Choate in 1948; he was a Campus Cop and on the Debate Council, and he won a School prize for excellence in history.

After earning degrees from Cornell and the University of Wisconsin, he became the third generation to run the family business, CRB Insurance Agency. Active in the community,

he was a President of the Racine Chamber of Commerce, President of the Wisconsin Independent Agents Association, a Director of M&I Bank of Racine, and President of St. Luke’s Hospital’s board. In 1963, he was named the Jaycees’ Man of the Year.

Dave loved the outdoors, especially duck hunting in Canada; he also enjoyed golf and music. He leaves his wife, Judy Rowland, 3900 N. Main St., Apt. 227, Racine, WI 53402; three children; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

’53 C Peter T. Pope, 84, the retired President of a forest products company, died October 27, 2018. Born in San Francisco, Peter came to Choate in 1949; he lettered in football, was Secretary-Treasurer of the Western Club, and was in the Chess Club and the Weather Bureau. He then earned degrees from Stanford and its Business School. After serving with the aviation branch of the Army, he joined Pope & Talbot, a forest products company founded by his great-grandfather in San Francisco. He rose to be its Chairman and CEO, retiring in 1999.

Peter also founded Pope Resources, which owns and manages timberland in Oregon, Washington, and California.

He was on the boards of Newhall Land and Farming Co., Pacific Northwest Bell, the Cypress Lawn Association, the American Paper Institute, and other organizations. An enthusiastic pilot, he built and flew his own ultralight plane. He leaves four children and nine grandchildren. ’55 C John B. Ducato, 81, a retired bank executive, died May 1, 2018. Born in San Francisco, John came to Choate in 1952; he was in the Automobile Club, the Press Club, and the Western Club, and was on the board of the Brief. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, then was a banker for many years. Before retiring to Sedona, Ariz., he was an Executive Vice President of the Bank of San Francisco. He leaves his wife, Candace Ducato, 299 West Mingus Ave., Apt. 203, Cottonwood, AZ 86326; and two daughters.

’56 C John Nickerson Watters Jr., 81, a longtime life insurance agent, died September 20, 2018 in Allentown, Pa. Born in Cambridge, Mass., Nick, as he was known, came to Choate in 1953. He was co-captain of varsity football, lettered in hockey and crew, won awards in football and crew, and was Vice President of the Athletic Association. He was also President of the Rod and Gun Club, Chairman of the Dance Committee, and on the Student Council. After Choate, he graduated from Bowdoin, then joined the Marine Corps. He spent more than 50 years with the MassMutual Life Insurance Co. in Allentown, specializing in disability insurance and family business succession. He leaves his wife, Carol Watters, 205 No. Broad St., Allentown, PA 18104; two daughters; and four grandchildren. ’59 C

William Kevin McGrath, 78, the head of a ship brokerage, died September 25, 2018 in Salisbury, Conn. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Kevin came to Choate in 1955; he played league football, squash, and lacrosse.

After graduating from Georgetown, he worked in Norway at Klaveness Shipping. He later founded the New York ship brokerage Seafair International Corp. He leaves his wife, Anne “Lull” McGrath, P.O. Box 394, Salisbury, CT 06068; two daughters; and four grandchildren. A brother, James Brian McGrath ’60, also attended Choate.

’67 C Merrell C. Wreden, 69, an advertising executive, died of cancer June 24, 2018. Born in New York City, Merrell came to Choate in 1963; he lettered in lacrosse, was Business Manager of the Literary Magazine, and was in the Automobile Club. After graduating from the University of Virginia, he worked in advertising and marketing for Harold Cabot & Co. in Boston. He and his wife then lived in New Hampshire, and subsequently moved to Richmond, Va., where he was an advertising and marketing executive for Remington and the AMF Corp. He leaves his wife, Deborah Wreden, 3230 Farcet Terrace, Midlothian, VA 23112; three children; two grandchildren; and two brothers. His grandmother, Jean Derrick ’08, attended Rosemary Hall.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 55

“Bob was a born adventurer who found a way to make his living doing what he loved most: Flying around on complicated missions of salvage and mercy and just plain fun, while everything else in his life trailed along behind him trying to keep up.” –ALLEN FLETCHER ’65

Former Faculty Robert A. Bryan, chaplain and history teacher at Choate for seven years, died December 12, 2018 in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. He was 87.

Bob was probably best known to many Americans as half of a comic storytelling duo who recounted, in a thick Down East accent, “Bert and I” stories set in rural and coastal Maine. An Episcopal priest, he founded the Quebec-Labrador Foundation in 1961 to foster community service and leadership, particularly among young people, in isolated fishing communities on the Quebec North Shore. He was Archdeacon Emeritus of the North Shore Anglican Church of Canada.

Born in Mill Neck, Long Island, Bob was a graduate of Hotchkiss; Hebron Academy in Hebron, Maine; Yale; and the Yale Divinity School.

When he was a Yale undergraduate, Bob and fellow student Marshall Dodge recorded a series of anecdotes involving Maine characters, which they called “Bert and I,” for a small private record label. The recording saw unexpected success. It has never gone out of print, has sold 1 million copies, and spawned several follow-up records. In 1957 Bob, who since childhood had been fascinated by flying, received his pilot’s license and in 1958 was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church.

In 1959, he was hired by then-Headmaster Seymour St. John to be the School chaplain. In his autobiography, Bob wrote that at Choate, “My job stretched beyond the spiritual. I taught history and comparative religion, and coached the varsity crew, co-coached the junior varsity hockey team, and was player-coach of the faculty hockey team, called the Wobblies. It was a near perfect job for me; not only did I do gratifying work with young people but I also remained engaged in competitive sports.” He used royalties from “Bert and I” to buy a bright yellow plane, which he used to travel to the Quebec North Shore and once, memorably, he landed on a Choate soccer field.

According to retired longtime crew coach Ben Sylvester, “Bob’s coming was a godsend for Choate crew. One of his first projects was to persuade the School to dredge a 3,900-foot channel for rowing and

piloting. When sand eventually reduced the channel to 2,000 feet, Bob took to the air, and found a 41-acre lake 12 miles away in Guilford,” still used by Choate crews today.

Bob was at Choate from 1959 to 1963, and again from 1964 to 1967. He took a leave of absence in 1963–64 to work with young people in Labrador, and left Choate three years later to head the Grenfell Mission there. The 1967 Brief was dedicated to him: “Chaplain, comic, coach, and friend to … Choate students,” it read, “the Reverend Robert A. Bryan now leaves to head the Grenfell Mission of Labrador. For his energy and enthusiasm during his stay here, and for his service to our School community, we praise and thank.”

Among the Choate alumni who knew Bob well is Allen Fletcher ’65. “Bob was a born adventurer,” Allen remembered, “who found a way to make his living doing what he loved most: Flying around on complicated missions of salvage and mercy and just plain fun, while everything else in his life trailed along behind him trying to keep up.

He came to know the people of the Labrador coast in the context of his adventuring, and he fell hard for them – I think before he fully understood what was happening.”

Bob spent decades heading the foundation he had started, which serves 22 towns in an area of 250,000 square miles. He logged more than 19,000 hours flying to remote villages. At his foundation’s 50th anniversary in 2011, he wrote, “QLF has always been about people and community, service and leadership, the excitement of remote places, and the stewardship of natural and cultural resources.” A tribute written several years ago said, “Mr. Bryan had a vision, and has lived to see it extend far beyond what he ever could have imagined.”

Bob’s first wife, Faith Lamb Bryan, died in 2000. He leaves his wife, the Rev. Patricia Peacock; three children, including Sandy Bryan Weatherall, P.O. Box 376, Ipswich, MA 01938; nine grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

56

| Fall Sports Wrap-up

Senior football captains from left: James McCarthy, Hunter Burns, Clay Zachery, and Spencer Witter take turns raising the trophy for the 5th straight Bill Glennon Bowl title.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 57

The fall season came to a close with four varsity teams in the NEPSAC Class A Tournament! Girls volleyball qualified as the #6 seed, upset #3 Andover, and advanced to the semifinals against Exeter, where they lost at home. Boys soccer qualified as the #5 seed, losing against #4 Taft in the quarterfinals. Girls soccer qualified as the #5 seed, facing off against #4 Worcester Academy in the quarterfinals, and losing by one goal. Girls cross country won Founders League. Boys cross country placed 4th. Mustafe Dahir ’19 was the first runner from Choate in 16 years to qualify for the Cross Country National Championships. Choate football remains undefeated, 48–0, earning their fifth straight Bill Glennon Bowl title.

BOYS CROSS COUNTRY Varsity Season Record: 3–6 Captains: Mustafe A. Dahir ’19, Parth K. Mody ’19 Highlights: Wins against Taft, Trinity Pawling, and Princeton Day. Placed 4th at the Founders League Championships and 9th at NEPSAC Championships.

GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY Varsity Season Record: 5–2 Captains: Claire D. Gussler ’19, Hanna N. MacNamee ’19 Highlights: Defeated Taft and Lawrenceville. Won the Founders League Championships! Placed 7th at NEPSAC Championships.

FIELD HOCKEY Varsity Season Record: 4–12 Captains: Kaleah T. Haddock ’19, Kaitlyn L. O’Donohoe ’19, Tracey J. Stafford ’19 Highlights: Great wins over Miss Porter’s, Loomis, and Hopkins School

FOOTBALL Varsity Season Record: 10–0 Captains: Hunter T. Burns ’19, James F. McCarthy ’19, Spencer D. Witter ’19, Clarence E. Zachery III ’19 Highlights: Won the Bill Glennon Bowl; fifth straight undefeated season.

Will Powers ’19 played at the AllAmerican in January, the first player in the School’s history to qualify.

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL Varsity Season Record: 9–11 Captains: Julia M. MacKenzie ’19, C. Noelani Uyeno ’19 Highlights: Qualified as the 6th seed in the NEPSAC Class A tournament.

They upset #3 Andover to advance to the semifinals at home versus Exeter.

The match went to five sets, where they came up short.

BOYS SOCCER Varsity Season Record: 11–4–5 Captains: Aaron H. Lake ’19, Brendan Kish ’19, William S.C. Eichhorn ’19 Highlights: Qualified as the 5th seed in the NEPSAC Class A Tournament.

Lost in the quarterfinals against #4 Taft.

BOYS WATER POLO Varsity Season Record: 5–13 Captains: Matthew M. Anastasio ’19, Thomas D. Wachtell ’19, Oliver L. Chessen ’19 Highlights: Defeated Suffield and Williston.

GIRLS SOCCER Season Record: 11–3–4 Captains: Hannah S. Huddleston ’19, Nicola K. Sommers ’19 Highlights: Qualified for NEPSAC Championships Class A tournament as the 5th seed. Faced against #4 Worcester Academy in the quarterfinals and lost by one goal.

58

| Fall Sports Wrap-up

2

1 1 Mustafe Dahir ’19 is off to a good start at home against Andover

on his way to a season that took him to the Nationals.

2 Girls soccer co-captain Nicola Sommers ’19 controls the ball in

league game vs. Williston Northampton.

3 3 Girls field hockey captain-elect Brooke Wise ’20 sends a rocket

upfield against Deerfield.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 59

4

5

6

7 4 Girls varsity volleyball celebrated their 3-0 win against Northfield

5 Goalie Jackson Haile ’19 looks to make a pass on a counterattack

7 Girls cross country leaves the starting line against Andover in

Mt. Hermon School at home.

in game against Suffield.

6 Tife Agunloye ’21 takes a shot on goal versus Deerfield in a 1–1 tie.

our first home meet, with seniors Lilly Bar and Claire Gussler in the middle leading the way.

60

BOOKSHELF

In this issue, a member of the original Microsoft team who created the typing indicator offers a cautionary tale on our relationship with technology; a memoirist examines her private life and public persona; a historian explores the ties between art, architecture, war memory, and Franco-American relations; and a fifth grade reviewer finds a happy medium between tomboy and princess.

Bitwise: A Life in Code

By David Auerbach ’94 | Reviewed by Donald W. Firke

BITWISE: A LIFE IN CODE Author: David Auerbach ’94 Publisher: Pantheon About the Reviewer: Donald W. Firke is former Dean of Faculty at Choate Rosemary Hall.

With clarity, precision, and insight, David Auerbach tackles a bold subject: how technology (specifically, computer coding) has shaped both his life and aspects of all of our lives through its impact on a variety of social and cultural activities. He feels that we all need to be ”bitwise” in addition to being worldwise. It’s a little like needing to be both ”book smart” and ”street smart.” To be bitwise is to understand ”the hidden layers of data structures and algorithms beneath the surface of the worldly data that computers store.”

Being bitwise allows us to recognize that there are significant differences between the world we live in and the world that is encoded in computers, and ”to be able to translate our ideas between the two realms.”

It would be easy to consider Bitwise a memoir, but it is more than that. From Auerbach’s description of learning at the age of seven to program using the language Logo, to his work on Microsoft’s version of Instant Messenger in the ‘90s and Google’s data acquisition and analysis in this century, he provides us with many insights into his feelings about his work with computers, his experience in two very different corporate cultures, and the growth of the internet and Big Data. In addition, he weaves in many references to philosophy, literature, and popular culture that serve to connect his personal experiences to larger social and cultural issues.

Auerbach shows the powerful impact of computers on topics as diverse as the evolution of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) from its original form and purpose to its current 5th edition; Facebook’s ”Like” button and the decision to add five additional sentiments (love, haha, wow, sad, angry) that users can select; and the MyersBriggs Type Indicator, a very popular (and extremely computer-friendly) way of identifying and assigning different personality types.

The fact that his book is difficult to pigeonhole illustrates one of Auerbach’s central points: although labels are an essential aspect of simplifying the world

in a computer-friendly manner, they come with negative impacts in a number of important areas. First, a label can be wrong. Facebook attempts to identify its users’ ethnicities from their online activities, and in consecutive years they identified Auerbach as Asian and African-American. (He is neither.) Labels also compress an entire group to a single signifier, thereby removing nuanced differences between members of the group. In addition, ”the more a society reinforces particular taxonomies, the more inertia these taxonomies create against social change.”

Auerbach provides timely insight into a number of situations. For example, he describes how Cambridge Analytica could use for political purposes the personal data of millions of Facebook users, and he reminds us that Cambridge Analytica is just one of thousands of companies (and, potentially, foreign governments) that use this information for marketing and other purposes. He also describes the difficulties Facebook encounters when, in response to criticism from both liberals and conservatives about bias in its evaluation of sources, it attempts to refine its efforts to evaluate and summarize world events for its Trending Topics feature.

Bitwise is a cautionary tale of our relationship with technology. The threats that Big Data pose to our privacy are real. Data collection, analysis, and sharing on the part of Google, Facebook, and governments are massive efforts and getting larger. Yet Auerbach remains cautiously positive about the future: ”I believe we can address the wide-scale catastrophes threatened by global warming, unsustainable ecology, and the possible failure of our increasingly complex infrastructure only through the development of further, more advanced technologies. We may blow ourselves up before we save ourselves, but I don’t consider halting or reversing technological progress to be a plausible option.”

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 61

Two Lives

By Reeve Lindbergh ’63 | Reviewed by Andrea Thompson

TWO LIVES Author: Reeve Lindbergh ’63 Publisher: Voyage About the Reviewer: Andrea Thompson is a freelance writer and editor and the co-author, with Jacob Lief, of I Am Because You Are.

Reeve Lindbergh’s title bears many meanings. As she sets out in the introductory essay, it describes her split persona: her private life on a farm in Vermont, and her public life as the daughter of aviators Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. But it also describes the lives – and deaths – of Charles and Anne, their double lives as parents and as adventurers; it is the split between young life and aging life; the lived life and the mediated – the written – life.

In this essay collection, Lindbergh (who previously published memoirs of her famous family, as well as novels and many children’s books) takes a smallsubject approach: using intimate, domestic moments as a window into the deep upheavals of life. People fall ill; they lose the sharp-honed edge of their minds; they die. In the natural world that surrounds her on her farm, Lindbergh finds strength and beauty in the ebbs and flows of life, the threads of the familiar and the strange that connect us all from generation to generation, from public to private, from birth to death.

The youngest of Charles’s and Anne’s children, Lindbergh was removed from the most cataclysmic events of her parents’ lives: the transatlantic flight that propelled her father to mega-stardom, and the kidnapping of their first child, a crime that fascinated the nation, then and since, with its combination of celebrity and morbidity. The invasive nature of their fame propelled her parents inward, and Lindbergh’s understanding of their work and, especially in the case of her father, early life, comes mainly from reading the books they both wrote.

In these essays, Charles Lindbergh looms large, as one senses he did in the family, though mostly as an abstraction. He remained peripatetic throughout his life, which meant periods of absence from his American family. (As was revealed many years after his death, and several years after Lindbergh published her first memoir of her parents, Charles had relationships – including children – with three other women in Europe.) As Lindbergh recalls, “In one of our conversations late in her life, my mother made the suggestion to me that my father would have been happier ‘as some kind of warrior monk,’ roaming the world in pursuit of great adventures. I agreed with her then, but thinking about him now, I realize that the

role of warrior fit him, and the notion of adventures all over the world, but he certainly wasn’t a monk.”

Still, it is Anne and other women in the family who emerge most clearly – elegant writers, devoted gardeners, accomplished hostesses. Her mother was a woman of many firsts: the first woman to be licensed as a glider pilot; the first winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction (for her memoir of flying with Charles over the North Pole to Asia); the first woman to pilot an open-cockpit airplane across the North and South Atlantic. Anne’s own approach to writing infuses Lindbergh’s own. “Writing is the way I stay aware of being alive, the way I find out what I’m thinking, the way I understand the world,” Lindbergh observes. “As my mother once wrote, ‘In our family, an experience was not finished, not truly experienced, unless written down ….”

Yet even as her parents permeate these essays.

Lindbergh’s own quietly powerful observations of the world are what lingers. On the view outside her window, she turns the cliché, “Can’t see the forest for the trees,” into a moving observation of the powers of stillness and reflection: “As I sat for longer periods, and looked not at the forest trees but into them, the view began to change and deepen. I began to see the lift of upward curving branches, lighter on the top and rich with rounded darkness underneath. I saw the way these trees fit beside, in front of, and behind one another, sharing soil and sunlight. Where I once saw a wall of trees and called it ‘woods,’ now I see shape and movement and the slow dance of living and growing that I mistook for stillness. I learned that when I was impatient or distracted in my watching, I couldn’t see.”

62 BOOKSHELF 62

Triumph of the Dead

By Kate Clarke Lemay ’97 | Reviewed by Jonas Akins

TRIUMPH OF THE DEAD: AMERICAN WORLD WAR II CEMETERIES, MONUMENTS, AND DIPLOMACY IN FRANCE Author: Kate Clarke Lemay ’97 Publisher: University of Alabama Press About the Reviewer: Jonas Akins is a member of Choate’s History, Philosophy, Religion, and Social Sciences Department.

Kate Clarke Lemay, who has contributed to the pages of the Bulletin, has recently published a masterful treatment of America’s efforts to memorialize the dead of the Second World War in France. Drawing on a rich secondary literature of memorialization, extensive archival research, and personal visits to many of the sites under examination, she advances a compelling argument about the vital role of America’s war dead, and their commemoration, in shaping the post-war world.

With at least 64 temporary cemeteries in Europe at the conclusion of hostilities in 1945, the American Battle Monuments Commission took on the herculean task of consolidating those cemeteries into 14 permanent cemeteries, holding some 80,000 graves of soldiers and nurses killed during, and in the immediate aftermath of, WWII. Lemay is able to mark a particularly poignant role that this removal and concentration played in Normandy, where there are few memorials for the French themselves, many of whom had, apparently, taken to using the temporary cemeteries as sites of memory and sites of mourning, to use the phrase first popularized by Yale’s Jay Winter. With many Normans having suffered under the Allied bombing and bombardment that preceded the D-Day landings, their relationship with the Allies, and America, was already a complicated one, even before the Americans removed their honored dead to a few sites, more suitable for presidential photo opportunities.

Building on a concise comparison of the German cemeteries in Normandy and their American counterparts, the book moves into a consideration of the diplomatic role that America’s cemeteries were intended to play through the “Design and Control of Memory” and “Militarism and Aesthetics.” With ten full color photographs, many taken by the author, the scale and detail of the memorials are both examined, with particular emphasis paid to the threshold design of the cemeteries, considering what greeted visitors,

before they encountered the neat rows of Latin crosses and Stars of David. With a fascinating investigation of the role that religion played in America’s conception of its post-war role, Lemay is able to underscore the point that every facet of the cemeteries was considered completely and almost nothing left without intentionality.

At another level, the details of the murals and carvings, particularly those depicting military action, are strikingly beautiful, though it’s not clear that the average visitor to Normandy or Epinal would stop to inspect the decoration with anything approaching the insight that Lemay has. With access to the papers of Malvina Hoffman, the sculptor of the bas-reliefs, and the correspondence of Eugene Francis Savage, the artist responsible for the “simply exquisite … tour-de-force mosaic” at Epinal, a comprehensive picture of the artists at work, and working to meet the multiple demands of multiple organizations, emerges.

Interestingly, Lieutenant Ray Theodore Wilken Jr. ’40, in whose memory the football field in front of the WJAC was given, is buried at Epinal, having first been buried in a temporary cemetery, at Oise.

Situating her analysis of cemeteries overseas in the time in which they were commissioned and understanding the myriad ways in which design choices matter, both home and abroad, Lemay has made a valuable contribution to the literature of war, memory, and culture, while writing a book that is still accessible to the casual reader. With the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII approaching in 2020, questions of America’s contributions, and its current role in the world, are likely to receive more frequent attention. Triumph of the Dead is a wonderful way to consider where we, as a nation, have been. As I tell my HPRSS students, it’s only by understanding how we got to where we are that we’ll have any hope of influencing where we’re going next.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2019 63

The Absolutely Positively NO Princesses Book

By Ian Lendler ’92 | Reviewed by Annabel Cady The Absolutely Positively NO Princesses Book is about two girls named LaDeeDa and Lita. Lita is an outdoors kind of girl who likes hiking, climbing trees, working on a farm, and telling scary stories. LaDeeDa likes to pretend that she’s a princess and likes fairy tales, glitter, makeup, and picking out people’s outfits. In the beginning of the story the girls don’t get along.

They disagree on everything and don’t want to do any of the same activities. But after Lita hurts LaDeeDa’s feelings, she feels bad, and they find a happy medium between their two personalities.

The reader doesn’t have to choose between being LaDeeDa or Lita; you can like them both for their differences. The illustrations by Deborah Zemke are inviting and colorful, and kids will love them. Kids of all ages will enjoy this book because it teaches a good lesson, is funny, and is cute.

The Absolutely Positively NO Princesses Book Author: Ian Lendler ’92 Publisher: Creston Books About the Reviewer: Annabel Cady is a fifth grader at Rock Hill Elementary School. She loves to read and dance.

Editor’s Note: The Absolutely Positively NO Princesses Book is Lendler’s seventh children’s book. His other books include One Day a Dot (2018), Little Sid (2018), and Saturday (2016). Originally from Wallingford, he now lives in San Rafael, California with his wife, two children, and their hungry dog.

THE GIANTS OF THE POLO GROUNDS: REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION Author: Noel Hynd ’66 Publisher: Red Cat Tales Publishing

IN SEARCH OF THE CANARY TREE Author: Lauren E. Oakes ’94 Publisher: Basic Books

NOWHERE BOY Author: Katherine Marsh ’92 Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

64

END NOTE |

My Remembrance of Things Past b y J o s e p h M . S t a ff o r d ‘ 4 6

The school bus used to drop me off on New York Route 17 above Maple Springs. When I had a little money, I would walk down to the village general store for a Coke and a candy bar to savor while I walked a half-mile to our dock on the edge of Lake Chautauqua, where I kept a small boat. Getting out on the water by myself, I had visions of catching the elusive muskellunge that probably outweighed me by 10 pounds. It was 1944, and except for a slight accent, I seemed like any other 16-year-old kid from western New York.

Four years earlier, my family and I were still living in our native Romania. Virtually all of Europe was under Nazi domination, and the situation in Bucharest was deteriorating fast. I was dismissed from school 10 minutes early every day to help me avoid the gangs of older boys who threw rocks at me because I was a Jew. Everything changed when my father received a whispered warning at our dinner table from Cornelia, our cook. Our names were on a list of people the

notorious Iron Guard planned to round up the next day. We fled our home at once with a few valuables and the clothes on our back. We soon learned that the Iron Guard had indeed come knocking, and finding our car still sitting in the garage, they moved on, expecting to find us soon enough. Many other families weren’t so lucky, as we received reports of the escalating brutality tearing Romania apart. We traveled for the next year from Istanbul to Jerusalem to Basra on the Persian Gulf, to Karachi on the Arabian Sea, and to Bombay, until my uncle was able to arrange visas for us to join him in the U.S., where we arrived three weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Our families pooled their resources to revive a textile mill in Jamestown, N.Y., which was soon running around the clock, employing 2,000 people in three shifts, to produce khaki worsted wool fabric for military uniforms and blankets. We had made a good life in our new home, and my parents’ thoughts turned to my education. At the suggestion of our neighbor Roddy Jones, a Choate alumnus, an interview was arranged for me at the school. It was a two-day drive from Maple Springs to Wallingford. I remember wearing my good suit and how Wardell St. John, the dean of admissions, greeted us warmly.

My life took its next major turn that very day when I was accepted to attend Choate.

In addition to offering a top-notch academic environment, Choate and its faculty helped me further assimilate into my new life in the United States. I was active in sports and enjoyed cross-country running, wrestling, and sculling. I sang tenor in the Choate Chapel choir.

E. Stanley Pratt, who had honed John F. Kennedy’s oratory 10 years earlier, helped me refine my English skills, and my accent all but disappeared. I made lifelong friendships. When I graduated from Choate in 1946, I was a young man on the cusp of adulthood, grateful for the experience that prepared me for Yale, where I graduated in 1950 with a B.S. in Industrial Administration. I was prepared to return to western New York to help run our family business, but this time the draft changed my direction, and I was soon back in Europe as a lieutenant in the Air Force using my language skills in cold-war military intelligence. When I came back home to the United States, I turned to Wall Street, where I remained for the rest of my 40-year career, finishing as a member of the New York Stock Exchange and as managing partner of my firm.

I remember pulling the door of the car shut and staring through the windshield. Roddy turned the key and the engine rumbled to life.

He looked over at me and said, “You ready?” I nodded, and he put the car in gear. I waved to my parents as we sailed out onto the road to Wallingford with Roddy behind the wheel. I didn’t know then how profoundly my world was about to change and improve. Now in my 91st year, I’ve recorded as much as I can remember of those days and of the interesting life I’ve been fortunate enough to lead. My memoir, My Mostly Oral History to May 2018, awaits the curious reader in the Alumni Authors section of the Andrew Mellon Library.

Joseph M. Stafford ’46 resides in New York City.

ON THE COVER Wynette Whitegoat ’08 is a social worker who has dedicated much of her professional life to helping Native American children succeed in school and life.

DEERFIELD DAY 2018 The historic rivalry

between Choate and Deerfield celebrated its 75th anniversary on November 10! Since 1944, Choate has hosted athletic contests in even years and Deerfield has hosted them in odd years. This scene captures the enthusiasm of the traditional Friday night pep rally.

WHEREVER YOU GO… GO CHOATE! Whether it was a big break on the Main Stage, an opportunity to build connections, or an introduction to an academic passion, your Choate experience set you on your life’s journey.

By supporting the Annual Fund, you help students set their course for success.

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BULLETIN THE MAG A ZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

WINTER ’19

Change Service Requested

MAY 10-12, 2019

We’ll see YOU under the tent.

Press play for highlights from last year’s festivities.

The Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin is printed using vegetable-based inks on 100% post consumer recycled paper. This issue saved 101 trees, 42,000 gallons of wastewater, 291 lbs of waterborne waste, and 9,300 lbs of greenhouse gases from being emitted.

In this issue:

ALL ROADS LEAD HOME Navajo alumni return to their roots

AT THE CENTER OF THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE

CALL OF DUTY Looking back at The Great War