Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin | Winter '16

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BULLETIN THE MAG A ZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

WINTER ’16

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tradition & innovation 1990–2015

common roots

The Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin is printed using vegetable-based inks on FSC-certified, 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:

A $10 Million

Gift to Transform the Arts

shared purpose

The Baseball Odyssey of Chris Denorfia ’98

A CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL READER: Confessions of a Tree Hugger

Choate Rosemary Hall

Annual Fund

c o m m o n r o o t s

s h a r e d p u r p o s e

COVER: Tradition and Innovation meet at Choate’s i.d.Lab. A 3D printer is used to create a model of one of Choate’s iconic buildings, Archbold.

BULLETIN THE MAG A ZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

The Heart of the Matter

ABOVE: 2015 Deerfield Pep Rally included a fireworks display on upper campus in honor of our 125th celebration.

WINTER ’16

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. 1516-071/17M

Transformative student experiences are at the heart of a Choate Rosemary Hall education.

Editorial Offices T: (203) 697-2252 F: (203) 697-2380 Email: alumline@choate.edu Website: www.choate.edu

Classnotes Editor Henry McNulty ’65

Director of Strategic Planning & Communications Alison J. Cady

Photography Margarita Corporan Photography Al Ferreira Getty Images John Giammatteo ’77 Ian Morris Ross Mortensen

Editor Lorraine S. Connelly Design and Production David C. Nesdale

Communications Assistant Britney G. Cullinan

Contributors Cheryl Bardoe Noah Charney ’98 Connie Gelb ’78 Charles Hopkins G. Jeffrey MacDonald ’87 David Quarfoot Andrea Thompson Lindsay Whalen ’01 Thomas A. Yankus ’52

“Choate’s Arts Department gives students the opportunity to gain experience that will help them hone their skills and allow them to create, innovate, and collaborate not only on stage or in the classroom, but in the world,” says Kiara ’15.

Students like Kiara benefit from your generosity every day, as Annual Fund gifts support every aspect of student life.

Make your gift to the Annual Fund today, and Be Part of It. www.choate.edu/donate

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CONTENTS | Winter 2016

d e p a r t m e n t s

2 26 32

features

6

Little Gift; Big Heart How a $10 Million Gift Will Transform the Arts

On Christian & Elm News about the School Alumni Association News

Classnotes Profiles of Scott Donahue ’66, Managing Partner at Donahue, Grolman & Earle; and Rebecca Miller ’80, Brian Kenet ’82, and Janine Schultz Smith ’82, P ’16 of the Arthur Miller Foundation for Theater and Film Education; and Q&As with Dr. Laurie Patton ’79, President of Middlebury College, and Kate C. Lemay ’97, National Portrait Gallery Art Historian

8

Wall? What Wall?

The Baseball Odyssey of Chris Denorfia ’98

14

Tradition & Innovation: Tapping Old Roots in Fresh Ways/1990–2015

24

A Choate Rosemary Hall Reader: Confessions of a Tree Hugger by Noah Charney ’98

55 58 60

In Memoriam Remembering Those We Have Lost Scoreboard Fall Sports Wrap-up Bookshelf Reviews of works by Geoffrey Cowan ’60, Wendy Fairey ’60, Peter Richmond ’71, and Noah Charney ’98

64

End Note Alum-inum Anniversary Puzzle by David Quarfoot

Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees 2015-2016 Kenneth G. Bartels ’69 P ’04 Samuel P. Bartlett ’91 Michael J. Carr ’76 George F. Colony ’72 Alex D. Curtis P ’17 Borje E. Ekholm P ’17 David R. Foster ’72 Robert B. Goergen, Jr. ’89 John F. Green ’77 Linda J. Hodge ’73, P ’12 Brett M. Johnson ’88 Vanessa Kong-Kerzner P ’16 Cecelia M. Kurzman ’87

Edward O. Lanphier ’74, P ’04 Gretchen Cooper Leach ’57 James A. Lebovitz ’75, P ’06, ’10 Kewsong Lee ’82 Patrick J. McCurdy ’98 Robert A. Minicucci ’71 Tal H. Nazer P ’17, ’19 Peter B. Orthwein ’64, P ’94, ’06, ’11 Marshall S. Ruben P ’07, ’08, ’10 Anne Sa’adah Henry K. Snyder ’85

Life Trustees Charles F. Dey P ’78, ’81, ’83 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 Edward J. Shanahan P ’92, ’95 William G. Spears ’56, P ’81, ’90

Editorial Advisory Board Judy Donald ’66 Howard R. Greene P ’82, ’05 Dorothy Heyl ’71, P ’07 Seth Hoyt ’61 Henry McNulty ’65 Michelle Judd Rittler ’98 John Steinbreder ’74 Monica St. James P ’06 Francesca Vietor ’82 Heather Zavod P ’87, ’90

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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM | NEWSWORTHY

Yuriko Ogawa and Daniel Stewart with Senior Associate Director of College Counseling Eric Stahura, center

Choate-Japan Outreach Initiative

From left, Michael Carr ’76, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Dr. Alex Curtis, Headmaster

New St. John Hall Groundbreaking On October 9, the Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees and Dr. Alex Curtis, Headmaster, gathered for a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new St. John Hall. Last summer, demolition was completed on the former home to the Mathematics and Computer Science Department. In its stead, opening in 2017, will be the 37,000-square-foot St. John Hall student

center, designed by Bowie Gridley Architects of Washington, D.C. An innovative gathering space and hub of student life, St. John Hall is a facility designed for today’s students and will accommodate the School Store, snack bar, club and game rooms, as well as the Student Activities and Deans’ Offices.

Established by Tak Murata ’93, a Tokyo-based alumnus, the Murata U.S.-Japan Scholars Program provides grants for talented Japanese students to study at Choate for both summer school and the academic year. Last summer 11 students from Japan participated in Choate Rosemary Hall Summer Programs.

As part of the ongoing Choate-Japan Outreach Initiative, the School hosted the OgawaStewart family from Tokyo, Japan, in early December. Yuriko Ogawa teaches at Seikei Junior and Senior High School, and her husband, Daniel Stewart, is Foreign University Admissions Adviser at the Kaisei Academy for Boys. Yuriko and Daniel visited classes and met with Choate’s Senior Associate Director of College Counseling Eric Stahura. Says Stewart, who has taught at Kaisei for 22 years, “It is a big step for a Kaisei student to study overseas, as we do not have a tradition of doing that. Choate Summer Programs was an incredible experience for the five Kaisei students who attended.”

FACULTY CHAIRS AWARDED At the School’s 126th Convocation ceremony in September, Dean of Faculty Katie Levesque announced the awarding of two faculty chairs to veteran teachers: The Ed and Susan Maddox Chair to language faculty member Anne E. Armour and the Karl J. and Augusta O. Monrad Chair to science faculty member Frances P. O’Donoghue.

Anne Armour, a French teacher and former girls varsity soccer head coach, has served the School for three decades. “Just as a team is more than the sum of its parts, so [her] merits are much more than the kaleidoscope of contributions she has made to the School. She is, without doubt, a muse – linguist, educator, mother, athlete, musician, mentor, and so much more,” said Levesque. Of science teacher Frances O’Donoghue, Levesque noted, “Since joining the faculty in 1984 she has found tremendous satisfaction, staying power, and success in teaching adolescents in the science classroom.” In addition to her time in the Deans’ Office, O’Donoghue has been a mainstay of the interscholastic coaching ranks, having served as varsity head coach in both the field hockey and girls lacrosse programs. Choate Rosemary Hall has 22 distinguished faculty chairholders.

From left, Frances P. O’Donoghue and Anne E. Armour

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 3

2016 NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP SEMIFINALISTS Eight sixth formers have been named Semifinalists in the 2016 National Merit Scholarship competition: Nazar Chowdhury of Cheshire, Conn.; Ariel J. Feinstein of New Haven, Conn.; Jade S. Goldstein of Rutherford, N.J.; Jacob J. Klegar of Westport, Conn.; Danica M. Lee of Colts Neck, N.J.; Celina M. Lin of Wilmington, N.C.; Brian Tung of Austin, Texas; and Albert Y. Zhang of Acton, Mass. These academically talented high school seniors will have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,400 National Merit Scholarships this spring. In addition, 42 Choate students were named Commended Students in the 2016 program.

Siemens Semifinalist Announced Chiho Im ’16 was named a Semifinalist in the 2015 Siemens Math, Science & Technology Competition.

Im and his partner, Yusha Sun, a senior at A&M Consolidated High School in College Station, Texas, created a biosensor that can prove useful in detecting and monitoring the progression of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease).

Stony Brook University’s Dr. Miriam Rafailovich, of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, was adviser to the students.

Diffley Moves to Center for Admission and Enrollment Management Leadership

Director of Admission Ray Diffley will become the first Director of the Association of Independent School Admission Professionals’ Center for Admission and Enrollment Management Leadership beginning in July. He will work with AISAP Executive Director Janice Crampton to identify research projects and strategic opportunities in admission and enrollment management and to ensure that programs and services are relevant and forward-looking.

Diffley currently is on the Board of Trustees of AISAP, where he has made a significant contribution to raising the bar on all aspects of the role of an admission officer, and in particular, that of assessing candidates for success and matching them with the right school environment. Dr. Curtis said: “While we will miss Ray’s dedicated efforts on our team, this is a great opportunity for him to use and share the leadership skills he has honed at Choate to advance the admission efforts and expand the team of talented enrollment management professionals at schools like ours.”

Choate, which is one of AISAP’s founding 65 schools, will serve as the inaugural host for the Center as it launches the Certification for Admission and Enrollment Management Professionals Program.

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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM | NEWSWORTHY

Two Alumni Named Rhodes Scholars

Angela Ruggiero ’98 Inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame Angela Ruggiero ’98 was installed in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, in November.

Faculty Emeritus Tom Generous was on hand for the celebration and sent this report: “Her family, several of her teammates from Harvard and/or USA Hockey, and I watched with pride and pleasure when she spoke at the actual installation. I was filled with special joy when she praised Choate Rosemary Hall for helping her improve her skills, both athletic and academic.”

“Perhaps the best moment of the entire weekend came during The Legends Hockey Game. This match features no checking and no slap shots, so you get to see the players nearly fly around the rink, passing with wonderful precision to try to get the puck into the net. During the second half, Angela began to play forward, not defense where for more than a decade she was the greatest female player in the world. With the score tied at 4–4 late in the game, Angela eluded the opponents’ defense, and put herself right at the top of the crease, where a teammate got the puck to her. A shoulder feint here, a hip fake there, and she put the disc into the net for the tie-breaking goal.”

Wild Boars on GMA

The Choate Rosemary Hall football team appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America on December 28. The Wild Boars are celebrating their second straight undefeated season and NEPSAC Bowl title.

Last month, they capped a 10-0 season by defeating Salisbury, 48-28, to win the Bill Glennon Bowl.

Hannah G. Schneider ’10 and Russell C. Bogue ’12 are among the 32 U.S. Rhodes Scholars announced for 2016. A gifted violinist, Hannah immersed herself in the Arts Concentration Program while a student at Choate. She went on to major in Russian with a concentration in government at Georgetown, where she graduated summa cum laude this past spring. She will pursue her M.Phil. in Music at Oxford, specializing in composition. Says Hannah, “It’s heartening that the Rhodes Committee chose to support someone in the arts – classical music, no less – and I intend to do everything I can to prove that music can make a difference for humanity.” While at Choate, Russell was the Opinions Editor of The News, captain of the Debate Team, co-president of the Model UN and won the School Seal Prize. He is currently a senior at the University of Virginia, where he is a Truman Scholar majoring in politics. He serves on the UVA Honor Committee, and continues his journalistic efforts as Opinion Editor of The Cavalier Daily. Russell is looking forward to immersing himself in a completely new environment. “Being able to study at one of the world's oldest universities is a dream come true, and it’s a double blessing that I won’t be burdened with financial considerations.” While at Oxford he plans to read for the M.Phil. in Political Theory.

According to School Archivist Judy Donald ’66, Choate has had 10 Rhodes Scholars.

CHOATE AT NAIS DIVERSITY CONFERENCES The National Association of Independent Schools’ People of Color Conference (POCC) and Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) were held in Tampa, Fla., December 3–5.

The Conference’s keynote address was given

by Dr. Mae C. Jemison, who served six years as a NASA astronaut and was the first woman of color to go into space. Dr. Jemison gave Choate’s 1996 Commencement address.

A Choate contingent of 11 educators and six students attended the POCC conference in December.

The conference received high marks from students and faculty alike. Says psychology teacher Tiffany Kornegay, “Choate is in a great place when it comes to our diversity initiative.

Members of the Choate community come from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, beliefs, all of which are important aspects of their identity.

Creating spaces for all to feel affirmed will enhance the relationships between students and faculty, as well as give people an opportunity to learn about others outside of the classroom.”

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 5

Choate

WALLINGFORD

Liz Mitchell Honored

Posthumously

Elizabeth Mitchell, former Campus Visit Coordinator and founding director of the Wallingford Symphony Orchestra, was honored posthumously at Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce’s Women’s Achievement Awards Luncheon in October. Mitchell served as Board President of the WSO and was instrumental in establishing the Annual Children’s Concert Series, which has exposed hundreds of Wallingford elementary school students to classical music for the past three decades. She died of cancer last year. Liz’s son, Edward Mitchell ’79, accepted the Chamber’s award on behalf of the family.

Choate Celebrates Wallingford As part of the town’s annual Celebrate Wallingford Weekend in October, Choate sponsored a booth near Town Hall featuring a display of our 125-year history. The School also hosted an Open House, featuring the Andrew Mellon Library, Hill House Dining Hall, the Seymour St. John Chapel, and a guided tour by Dr. Curtis of the Cameron and Edward Lanphier Center for Mathematics and Computer Science.

Wallingford Schools and Choate Host Screening of Most Likely to Succeed

Front row, from left, Sarah Tankoos, Director of Operations/National Tour Manager, The Future Project; Katie Jewett, Director of Curricular Initiatives, Choate Rosemary Hall; Kevin Rogers, Director of Studies, Choate Rosemary Hall; center row, from left, Shawn Parkhurst, Director of Curriculum, Wallingford Public Schools; Ted Dintersmith, Executive Producer of Most Likely to Succeed; Katie Levesque, Dean of Faculty, Choate Rosemary Hall; Dr. Sal Menzo, Superintendent, Wallingford Public Schools; back row, from left, George Levesque, Dean of Academic Programs, Yale University; Dick Hersh, Senior Advisor to Education Studies at Yale University; Travis Feldman, i.d.Lab Facilitator, Choate Rosemary Hall.

In conjunction with the Town of Wallingford school system, Choate Rosemary Hall hosted a screening of the documentary Most Likely to Succeed in Ruutz-Rees Commons on January 7.

The movie, produced by Ted Dintersmith and directed by Greg Whiteley, critiques the model of schooling prevailing in the United States since the 19th century, and depicts one high school’s vision for an alternative. Following the film, Katie Jewett, Choate’s Director of Curricular Initiatives, moderated a panel of educators and fielded questions and comments from the audience. The panel consisted of the film’s Dintersmith; Wallingford Superintendent of Schools Salvatore (Sal) Menzo; Choate Rosemary Hall Associate Head Kathleen Wallace; and Lecturer and Senior Advisor to Yale’s Education Program Richard (Dick) Hersh. More than 100 educators, students, and parents attended.

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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM | The Arts

Little Gift;

Big Heart $10 Million to Transform the Arts by l o r r a i n e s. c o n n e l ly This fall’s announcement that the School had received a $10 million gift from businessman and investor William “Ted” Little ’49 and his wife, Fran, to renovate the main stage of the Paul Mellon Arts Center was met with thunderous applause around campus. Alex D. Curtis, Headmaster, praised the Littles’ generous donation to the arts, saying, “We are thrilled, because the Paul Mellon Arts Center is central to campus life. This I.M. Pei building was an architectural breakthrough for its time. Mr. and Mrs. Little’s generosity will allow us to make the building contemporary again, placing it at the forefront of arts education in America.”

The gift also made news in the world of philanthropy as one of the largest private donations ever for the arts in American secondary school education. The alumnus behind

this generous gift began as an unlikely patron of the arts.

William Tedrow Little arrived at The Choate School from Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1947 as a 16-year-old. His family owned the Little Brothers Wholesale and Retail Grain and Feed Company that sold, among other items, coal, chickens, and Kalamazoo Valley eggs. Ted’s main interests were athletic.

He sought to make his mark on the wood court, not center stage.

He earned varsity letters in both cross country and basketball. Says Ted, “As a young man, the only ambition I had was to play professional basketball, but Choate put me on a path to accomplish something with my life.” He credits Choate’s rigorous academic program. Physics teacher Paul Juliff said he would be the first to testify “to [Ted’s] uncon-

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 7

Kohl Weisman ’15 on guitar, Measure for Measure, 2013

“If you are going to be the best, you have to shoot higher. Think in bigger numbers and go out and get it. I know it is there.”

–ted little ’49

querable determination,” noting, “he had his fair share of difficulty with the comprehension of the principles of his subject, but he has deserved his success more surely than any boy in my classes this year.” Ted’s French master, Edward Berry, commented, “Earnest application and steady effort have helped Ted make a success of this year. He deserves a lot of credit.”

His determination and steady effort gained him entrance into the University of Michigan after serving in the Air Force. He graduated with an A.B. in Russian in 1954 and earned his M.B.A from Michigan in 1955.

In a 1991 letter to then-Principal Charley Dey, Ted wrote, “Choate saved (or perhaps better said), made my adult life.

Without Choate, there would not have been college, let alone an MBA from one of the country’s leading schools.

Without Choate, there would not have been the keen appreciation for the virtues of this great country and its system, opportunities and shortcomings.” This bittersweet reflection on his debt of gratitude to Choate marked the culmination of Ted’s 41 years as a dedicated class agent. As the head agent for the aptly named ’49ers, Ted was panning not for gold, but rather, a few substantial gifts from his classmates for the Annual Fund. He would tolerate neither shortcomings nor shortfalls. As he put it to former Annual Fund Director Ted Ayres ’46, “If you are going to be the best, you have to shoot higher. Think in bigger numbers and go out and get it.

I know it is there.”

Prior to his recent gift Ted also supported the sculpture garden at the Sally Hart Lodge & Alumni Center and the construction of Phoebe House, the Headmaster’s home. He received the School’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2014.

Ted and Fran are the grandparents of Kohl Weisman ’15, a talented musician and actor who won the Francis LeMoyne Page Prize for outstanding contribution to the creative arts.

According to Ted, seeing Kohl’s own passion for the arts made the Arts Center gift an easy choice.

A substantial portion of the $10 million will be used to refurbish the building’s major components, including the lobby, the main stage theater, the experimental theater, the scenery shop, and the Green Room. In addition to upgrading the space for theatergoers with physical disabilities, the main theater will also provide access for the hearing impaired including assisted listening devices. It will offer audiences a well-equipped, accessible experience, complete with comfortable seating. The renovation will also include updated light fixtures and various other systems with an eye toward sustainability and the latest technology for theater production.

Benefactor Paul Mellon ’25, who in 1972 provided the original funding for the Arts Center that bears his name, saw the facility “as a symbol of a meeting place of the fine arts with the liberal arts – including science – in the total learning experience.” The Littles’ magnificent gift not only echoes but amplifies Paul Mellon’s vision.

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WALL? WHAT WALL?

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 9

Feature

The Baseball Odyssey of Chris Denorfia ’98

by Thomas A. Yankus ’52

When Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, fast-forwarded himself to October 21, 2015, in the 1989 movie Back to the Future II, he came upon a news hologram announcing that the Chicago Cubs had won the 2015 World Series. In spite of the astronomical odds against their doing anything of the kind (they last won the Series in 1908), the off-the-wall prediction in the 26-year-old film gave the Chicago fans one more - spurious but semi-legitimate - reason to root for the Cubs last fall, the same Cubs who had trudged through decades of mediocrity – achingly revered as the “lovable Cubs” by their diehards – and represented a sorrier franchise than the original New York Mets. Then – voilà - here came the Cubbies with superb hitting, pitching, and defense for the entire 2015 season, exploding into the baseball playoffs with a roster of young guns that surged to within sniffing distance of the World Series until those same Mets swept them for the National League Championship.

Chicago Cubs right fielder Chris Denorfia ’98 makes a catch at the wall to retire the Milwaukee Brewers’ Shane Peterson during

the 10th inning at Wrigley Field in Chicago on August 12, 2015. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty Images)

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There is no official tally of how many MLB stadium outfield walls still bear the indentations of Chris’s flying body, but he epitomizes the ultimate generic salute to hell-bent, off-the charts courage: “HE WOULD RUN THROUGH A BRICK WALL FOR THE \ TEAM.” \ \\

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to this season that no one could have foreseen. Widely acclaimed as the cornerstone of that remarkable Cubs resurgence was Chris Denorfia ’98, a veteran presence in the clubhouse and a fiery competitor whose wall-climbing heroics and sliding, diving catches found him on a passel of ESPN Sports Center Top Ten lists and showed those Cub youngsters how the game is meant to be played. There is no official tally of how many MLB stadium outfield walls still bear the indentations of Chris’s flying body, but he epitomizes the ultimate generic salute to hell-bent, off-the-charts courage: “He would run through a brick wall for the team.” (At last check, Wrigley Field’s fabled ivycovered brick wall is still intact.) In a sport that too often rewards mediocrity, shelling out million-dollar contracts to light-hitting infielders who make a practice of jogging out ground balls or pop flies, Chris has always been the exception, sprinting on and off the field with his trademark fashionably long tresses fluttering behind him or bolting out of the batter’s box and down the first base line on every batted ball, turning singles into his signature doubles with bold headfirst slides and clouds of dust.

Of his experience in helping the Cubs’ youngsters battle their way through the vagaries of a gut-wrenching, pressure-packed 2015 National League season, Chris found it “fun to see the new kids coming up, the passion they’re playing with. It rejuvenates you, makes you feel young yourself.”

A 35-year-old who shows no signs of slowing down, Chris cleaves to the mantra “I just try to give everything I’ve got every day. That’s my mindset. I try to play the way we all played when we were kids. I’m beyond excited to come to the ballpark every day. I don’t think I would have predicted reaching this level while growing up or going to college, but it’s something I had always dreamed about.”

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ALTHOUGH THE CUBS DID NOT MAKE IT TO THE WORLD SERIES IN 2015, the prescience of that hologram added a magic

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BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 11

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Dreamers like Chris begin to show their love for baseball by sleeping in their uniforms, hugging their gloves, then morphing to pint-sized kids with big-time hopes throwing a ball in the backyard, swinging a bat in the driveway, and eventually imagining themselves climbing the ladder from Little League, through high school, Legion, and college baseball, emerging as full-blown stars and signing a professional baseball contract in the kitchen surrounded by adoring friends and beaming parents. It doesn’t matter that the sendoff to the minor leagues is often followed by a return home after a few months of foundering on the shoals of a game that grinds you up and spits you out if you can’t hack it. Just to be given the chance to test the waters is enough for most players, the attrition rate notwithstanding.

But like a jewel in the select pantheon of other young dreamers, Chris defied the overwhelming odds and brought joy to his hometown of Southington, Conn., by fighting his way through a decade of major and minor league stops – and career-threatening injuries – to surface as a fully developed major leaguer in such cities as Cincinnati, Oakland, Seattle, San Diego, and finally, in 2015, long-suffering Chicago. Chosen by the Cincinnati Reds in the major league free agent draft in 2002 after a remarkable career at Wheaton College, Chris is a baseball anomaly. As a 19th-round selection (#555), he and Bobby Korecky were the only players in that round of 30 to make it to The Show, the ultimate reward for what must have seemed like a lifetime of staring out of bus windows, catching fast-food midnight meals after hundreds of night games, banking small paychecks, facing winters of unemployment, and each spring, when major league rosters were finally determined, looking for that one name on the hallowed list of keepers. (In the history of the MLB draft, only 7 percent of 19th-round selections make it to the top.)

Chris’s frustration level was understandable: “I’ve been grinding it out year by year, sometimes without a contract until March.”

It would be a touch of revisionist history to claim that when Chris attended Choate, everyone knew that he was destined for MLB stardom. The truth is that when he arrived as a third former, he carried 120 pounds, was whippet-thin, and had to park at second base for a year on the JV team. Yes, Chris added some muscle in his fourth and fifth form years, and his bat began to produce sizzling line drives, but still … eventually emerging as a big leaguer packing 195 pounds on a 6-foot frame? Who saw it coming?

In his sixth form year, however, Chris batted .450 and hit 10 home runs, raising more than a few eyebrows, although not enough to be drafted by an MLB club. To place Chris’s thunder-in-the-afternoon slugging performances in perspective: In a 20-game season an entire Choate team might not whack 10 home runs!

LIKE A JEWEL IN THE SELECT PANTHEON OF OTHER YOUNG DREAMERS, Chris defied the overwhelming odds, in 2002, as a 19th-round selection (#555) by the Cincinnati Reds – one of only two players in that round of 30 to make it to The Show.

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SINCE CHOATE IS HARDLY A FEEDER SYSTEM FOR PROFESSIONAL SPORTS, it comes as no surprise that Chris and Tom Burr (Choate Class of 1913) share the honor of being the only Choate grads to play major league baseball.

Although Choate Rosemary Hall has produced more than its share of superb athletes, obviously it is the exception rather than the rule that engages our attention – the ones who reach the pinnacle of their sport. Since Choate is hardly a feeder system for professional sports, it comes as no surprise that Chris and Tom Burr (Choate Class of 1913) share the honor of being the only Choate grads to play major league baseball, Chris with multiple years and counting, Tom with one inning as a Yankee outfielder on April 21, 1914 in a game against the Washington Senators.

Chris’s development as a player during his Choate years did not escape the notice of Eric Podbelski, the first-year coach of the fledgling Wheaton College baseball team, recruiting for a former women’s college that had begun admitting men only nine years earlier. Eric was looking to build a strong Division 3 program from scratch, recognizing that such a possibility would come to fruition only if he could persuade young men who had stars in their eyes – and were clearly looking elsewhere – to take a chance on a nascent baseball operation that promised nothing but offered everything.

Eric appeared at a handful of Choate games during Chris’s sixth form year, the only college coach to brave the elements of early spring to take a peek at him. Wesleyan also showed considerable interest, but because of a waitlist snag, could not pull the trigger quickly enough. Jed Hoyer, a Wesleyan admissions officer and assistant coach at the time, missed his chance with Chris, but years later in 2010, as General Manager of the San Diego Padres, he finally got his man when he plucked him from their AAA Portland club, resulting in a five-year tour of duty in the Padres outfield. Then, as the newly appointed GM of the Cubs, Hoyer brought Chris to Chicago for the 2015 season to complete the circle.

Wheaton has been a powerhouse in New England baseball from the very start, winning 14 consecutive NEWMAC conference titles and leading Wesleyan coach Mark Woodworth to admire from across the diamond the player who, but for the grace of God and a sluggish wait list,

would have worn Cardinal pinstripes. As Mark recalls with a twinge, Chris went 8 for 10 in a doubleheader against Wesleyan in his senior year at Wheaton, bookending a double and a home run into the bargain.

Coach Podbelski on scouting Chris: “We saw the athleticism in all areas of Chris’s game. We thought he was a very good offensive player who would be a solid outfielder.

Chris was an impact player immediately, a well-rounded player who was very competitive and a very hard worker.

Wheaton baseball wouldn’t be what it is today were it not for some extremely talented players like Chris who were willing to take a chance before we had established ourselves. Looking back, we were very fortunate.” Fortunate indeed. Chris holds seven Wheaton offensive records (including a .467 BA), was named to the D3 All-Decade Team, and was selected as first team All-American by the American Baseball Coaches Association in 2002. Chris has fond memories of Podbelski’s miracle: “What Coach has done there is something special. Two years before I went to Wheaton, it was a JV program. When I left, it was a powerhouse.”

Surgery (elbow, missed 2007 season), back ailments (a handful), and outfield wall meetings (a slew) have taken their toll on Chris as his body was warning him to slow down, advice he blithely ignored. Chris’s long – and sometimes painful – odyssey has resulted in significant ancillary benefits other than the satisfaction of realizing his boyhood dream: the joy of competing against the best baseball has to offer, the thrill of turning around 98 MPH fastballs, the excitement of making game-saving, gravity-defying catches, and, yes, the bobblehead nod after joining the $2.6 million salary club in 2015. It has been and continues to be some kind of ride.

San Diego sportswriter Nick Canepa’s love letter in 2011 got it right: “If you don’t like Chris Denorfia, shame on you. Then you don’t like real baseball, real apple pie and real pasta. Every team should have a Chris Denorfia. Every team should have 25 players with Chris Denorfia’s attitude.”

Tom Yankus ’52, a retired English teacher and baseball coach, is the author of Montana Summer, an autobiographical account of his 1956 summer of professional baseball with the Missoula Timberjacks.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 13

.272 .988

ONLY 14 ERRORS IN 1,107 CHANCES

batting average

fielding average

“DENO”GRAPHICS M A J O R

L E A G U E

S T A T S

HEART AND HUSTLE & DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2013

“I HAD PROBABLY PITCHED ONLY

Want to see why Chris won both the “Heart

TWO INNINGS IN MY LIFETIME.”

and Hustle” & “Defensive Player of the Year” awards in San Diego in 2013? Check out “Look at Deno” on YouTube.

0.00 ERA.

On August 19, 2015, when the Cubs ran out of pitching, he stepped onto the mound to secure the final out in the ninth inning.

14

Zev Nicolai-Scanio ’18 and Jonah Berman ’18 collaborate on their lander project employing skills learned in their Reverse Engineering class, including engineering principles, hands-on prototyping (traditional and with 3D printers), and microcontroller programming.

tradition & innovation

tapping old roots in fresh ways / 1990-2015

by g. jeffrey macdonald ’87

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 15

Feature

IN 1990, CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL FELT LIKE A SCHOOL ON THE CUSP OF A NEW ERA . The centennial

anniversary prompted not only festive celebrations, but also many a conversation about priorities for the future.

President and Principal Charles F. Dey, who’d been at the helm since before Choate and Rosemary Hall merged, was preparing to step down after 17 years of service. The School’s second century would begin with a fresh page, but the script was far from pre-written.

Choate’s trajectory to date had been marked by growth and expansion, always with one eye on sustaining classical education and the other on adapting to a fast-changing world. Since George St. John’s arrival as Headmaster in 1908, the prevailing ethos had held that a bigger school could offer more and serve the needs of every stripe of student. With an enrollment of more than 1,000 in 1990, Choate had staked its place among the very largest of New England prep schools and seemed destined to stay there.

But the next quarter century would undo the notion that bigger was better. By design and careful orchestration, the student body would soon shrink by nearly 20 percent.

Admission standards would climb as Choate went from admitting 60 percent of applicants in 1991 to about 20 percent today. Yet the scope and caliber of what’s offered for students would only continue to expand.

How Choate Rosemary Hall managed to evolve in these new directions, despite three economic recessions in the intervening years, is a story of tapping old roots in fresh ways. Renewing school traditions became an intentional, identity-shaping focus soon after Edward J. Shanahan arrived as Headmaster in 1991. New initiatives burnished Choate’s long-held reputation as an innovator among prep schools.

And the generosity of new stakeholders, especially parents, opened up possibilities barely imaginable 25 years ago.

First, however, Choate would need to overcome hurdles that came with the territory of the 1990s. Tough economic times drove the need for $1.7 million in budget cuts and elimination of 19 positions in Shanahan’s first year on the job. Salary buyout programs and attrition helped minimize the hurt, but Choate felt the squeeze nonetheless and took a hard look at its finances.

p h o t o g r a p h s c o u r t e s y o f c h o at e r o s e m a r y h a l l a r c h i v e s

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CHOATE THUS BEGAN A PROCESS TO WEAVE A CLOSERKNIT COMMUNITY . Soon boarding students were no longer After 17 years at the helm of Choate Rosemary Hall, Charles F. Dey welcomed incoming Headmaster Edward J. Shanahan in 1991.

At $66 million in 1991, “the size of the endowment was small compared to peer institutions – woefully small,” Shanahan told The Bulletin in a September 2015 interview at his home in Old Saybrook. “That placed enormous pressure on us in terms of the financial aid that we awarded, faculty salaries, new construction, renovations, and deferred maintenance.”

Faced with a need to stretch resources, the Board of Trustees was cautious in April 1993 when it considered a proposal to reduce enrollment from 1,021 to 821 as a means to improve community life and lower faculty-student ratios.

Among the troubling questions: what would it mean for Choate to have 200 fewer students paying tuition?

“At this point in time, other critical needs for endowment preclude entertaining a school of 821,” the Long Range Planning Advisory Committee told the Board.

Trustees voted “to authorize the administration to look for opportunities for modest incremental downsizing (+/- 50) in the near term” and keep the door open for further reductions down the road.

But less than a year later, the Board had a dramatic change of heart. It voted in January 1994 to scale back over five years from 1,021 students to 821. The shift would result in 45 fewer jobs, and even those salary savings wouldn’t be enough to offset lost tuitions. The School would also have to defer capital improvement projects to the tune of $20 million and undertake some serious fundraising, Shanahan told The New Haven Register. Yet the Board had been persuaded that smaller would be better in the long run.

A pivotal moment came in 1993 when the Board received renovation quotes for upper campus dormitories that were falling into disrepair. A proper upgrade would require tearing down and replacing the now 1970-vintage buildings at a price tag “well beyond our means,” according to Shanahan. A more palatable option would be to dodge the cost of rebuilding dorms and repurpose the property instead.

“We went through every line item in our budget to see if we could reduce it by a minimum of 20 percent,” Shanahan said. “If we could reduce the size of the school by 200 students, we could pull this off without having a financial problem and without having to build.”

living on upper campus. Instead they all lived “down the hill” as upper campus became home to faculty and, eventually, the Headmaster’s home. Knowing everyone by name became more feasible in the revamped, more intimate environment.

These closer bonds fed also on a resurgence of shared traditions, many of which had been lost or neglected in the process of merging Choate and Rosemary Hall in the 1970s. It began with a matriculation pledge signing ceremony at the start of school in the fall. With a signature, each student vowed “to commit myself to the principles and values of Choate Rosemary Hall” and to “take my place within this special and lasting fellowship.”

Soon more traditions regained traction and even birthed new ones, including some that didn’t endure. After Rosemary’s wild boar became the official school mascot in 1995, the School convened a medieval banquet to celebrate the boar. The formal affair brought everyone together around long tables, including faculty dressed in medieval garb, to feast on “wild boar.” With great drama and fanfare, freshmen ceremonially carried in a stuffed wild boar. But the tradition was short-lived.

“I sort of liked it,” Shanahan said, “but I think it was perceived to be a little bit more formal than was comfortable for everybody.”

Other revived traditions fared better. The School Song regained a place of prominence in Choate life. School meetings ended with everyone singing it. After athletic wins, teams would climb into the stands and sing it. New students literally had to sing for their suppers – instilling the notion that you had to work to get the reward you needed or wanted.

At orientation, first-year students “were not allowed into the dining hall unless you could sing the School Song,” Shanahan recalled. “It was common experience. Plus the song has some values embedded in it that are very, very important.”

Even weekly chapel services made a comeback, albeit in a far different form than in the days when Headmasters George and Seymour St. John read scripture, led hymns, and preached sermons. The community instead gathered in the 1990s and 2000s to hear “moments of reflection” from a student or faculty member, or sometimes a talk by a speaker well-known for moral authority. Faculty members were wary at first, Shanahan said, but grew more comfortable as they saw no religious agenda playing out.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 17

c o m m o n r o o t s

s h a r e d

Closer bonds fed also on a resurgence of shared traditions, many of which had been lost or neglected in the process of merging Choate and Rosemary Hall in the 1970s.

p u r p o s e

TOP In the 1990s, the Choate tradition of “Signing the

BOTTOM In September 2005, a twice-weekly sit-down

Register� at the beginning of the school year became the Matriculation Ceremony. Students formally commit themselves to the principles and values of Choate Rosemary Hall.

Community Lunch was instituted.

18

WHILE CHOATE WAS RECLAIMING ITS ROOTS AND DOWNSIZING THE COMMUNITY, THE NEED FOR NEW CAPITAL RESOURCES WEIGHED HEAVILY . Choate’s

LEFT The Arabic and Middle

Eastern Studies (AMES) Program is one Choate’s signature academic programs.

RIGHT Students in the Science Research Program work under the guidance of a mentor scientist at a university research facility during the summer of their junior year.

endowment, valued in 1995 at $90 million, was the lowest among leading prep schools in the Northeast. Growing it by at least $80 million would allow for sustained investments in financial aid, residential facilities, and faculty support among other areas. Thus Choate kicked off an unprecedented bid to raise $100 million through the capital campaign, A Shared Commitment, which engaged more than 11,000 donors over five years en route to exceeding the $100 million goal and setting a new fundraising record for the School. New funds boosted what Choate could do, from dining hall improvements to reconfigured squash courts.

They also increased socioeconomic diversity on campus via a new $3.8 million Icahn Scholars Program, which would cover 40 percent of all expenses for 18 disadvantaged students in each form, starting in 1996. The remaining costs would be covered by financial aid, thus ensuring a full ride including books and travel budgets for students for whom “a boarding school opportunity would be the remotest of possibilities.”

“I became really close friends with a lot of the students who were there on scholarship,” said Jacqueline Salamack ’06. “They added a great dynamic to the classroom and to conversations, socially and intellectually… Choate would be a very different place for the worse if it were not for those types of programs” offering scholarships.

Choate’s perennial quest to stay responsive to an everchanging world was on display after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Security concerns affected student life. For example, students weren’t allowed to work in the mailroom during the anthrax scare, and an annual trip to Washington, D.C. was canceled. Before long, the curriculum came to feed new hunger for knowledge about Muslims and Islamic cultures. In January 2002, upper form students flocked to “Crescent at a Crossroads,” a new elective course on the Islamic world. In 2005, Choate reinstated Arabic language courses after a 30-year hiatus, and five years later a signature program in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) was born. The world had changed, and Choate was determined to keep pace.

Meanwhile Choate was taking stock of its strengths and listening to what students were saying. When students (as typical teenagers) asked for a chance to sleep in more often, a later start time one day per week became part of the schedule. Shanti Mathew ’05, a graduate student in design research and strategy, recalls how the administration increasingly sought students’ input during her time. She sees those days as helping open the door to more features of today’s Choate education, including emphases on design-driven thinking and the importance of learning from failure.

In 2005, Choate reinstated Arabic language courses after a 30-year hiatus, and five years later a signature program in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies was born. The world had changed, and Choate was determined to keep pace.

c o m m o n r o o t s

TOP Bernhard and Tenney Houses were built in

LEFT As Edward J. Shanahan prepared to step

2008 to accommodate fourth form girls and boys and eight faculty families. They were the first new dormitories to be built in 40 years.

down after 20 years as Headmaster, a multi-field athletic complex – Shanahan Field – was dedicated in his honor in October 2010.

“That’s what Choate is doing these days by going to places like Google and Pixar, companies that are doing things very differently than companies did them 50 years ago, and saying: ‘What do you look for in the people that you hire?,’ That seems like a whole new way of trying to prepare high school students,” Mathew said.

As Choate listened to students and families in the 2000s, a theme emerged: gifted students wanted to go deeper in areas where Choate already had depth to offer.

They just needed time and structures to support them.

One by one, new “signature programs” came to provide navigable pathways for students with exceptional passions and talents. The Arts Concentration helped qualified students devote the necessary time to master the piano, canvas, or camera, in part by loosening seasonal sports requirements for that cohort. The Science Research Program placed students in university laboratories during the summer of their junior year to participate in groundbreaking research. By 2010, Choate had seven signature programs.

RIGHT Choate dedicated the Bruce ’45 and Lueza Gelb Track and Field Facility in May 2007 in honor of the lead donors to the School’s largest capital campaign – An Opportunity to Lead.

Choate also invested strategically in its facilities. In May 2007, track athletes got a boost from the new Bruce ’45 and Lueza Gelb Track and Field Facility, complete with an eightlane synthetic track, three-bay storage shed, new field, and spectator stands. Then Fall 2008 ushered in the first new dormitories in 40 years on a parcel near the baseball field.

Designed to reflect the School’s values, Tenney House and Bernhard House provided two-story living quarters for eight faculty families. The new dorms also keep environmental footprints small by tapping the power of 40-ton, closed-loop geothermal wells.

To fuel the progress, Choate in 2006 embarked on another landmark fundraising campaign, An Opportunity to Lead. The goal of $200 million – twice as large as the last campaign’s – was ambitious by any measure. But the challenge was heightened exponentially by the stock market collapse of 2008 and the ensuing Great Recession, which rocked the portfolios of alumni and left more Choate families applying for financial aid for the first time.

Rosemary Hall library, 1972.

s h a r e d p u r p o s e

20

The Kohler Environmental Center (KEC) was formally dedicated in October 2012 in honor of its benefactor, Board of Trustees Chairman Herbert V. Kohler Jr. ’57, who donated $20 million towards the project. The KEC is the first residential environmental center in U.S. secondary education.

The economic downturn took a toll directly on the School as the endowment plunged 25 percent from its high of $267 million. In February 2009, the Choate News reported that 15 full-time positions, including six faculty, would be eliminated to cut costs. In a sign of the times, plans for two turf fields were postponed a year.

Challenges notwithstanding, An Opportunity to Lead exceeded its goal by a solid 10 percent. A new international generation of parents played an instrumentally resilient role, as did 50 donors who gave more than $1 million each.

By the time Shanahan turned the headmaster reins over to Alex D. Curtis in 2011, the endowment had recovered to around $240 million, and new possibilities were on the horizon.

UNDER CURTIS’ LEADERSHIP, CHOATE ONCE AGAIN TOOK STOCK OF ITS STRENGTHS as a school where

tradition and innovation went hand-in-hand. A Task Force on Community gave rise to a Strategic Plan that would yield new architecture, technology-supported learning, and experiences to equip students for a changing world.

The Task Force’s work to solicit broad input and make recommendations “reinforced the importance of community here,” Curtis said. “We realized that we needed new facilities to support community a little more strongly.”

Setting the bar high was the $20 million Kohler Environmental Center, which opened on 266 acres east of the main campus in 2012. The LEED Platinum-certified space became home to a cohort of 14 ecology-minded juniors who would bring best practices to bear, not only on scientific research projects, but also on their daily living habits as residents of the center.

Facilities were named to honor not just donors but also key leaders in the School’s 125-year history. As Shanahan prepared to step down after 20 years, the School dedicated a new Shanahan Field where lacrosse teams play today.

A new Headmaster’s residence bears the name “Phoebe House” in honor of Charley Dey’s wife, Phoebe, and the couple’s tenure at Choate from 1973 to 1991. And since 1998, the Seymour St. John Chapel has been so-named in honor of the Episcopal priest headmaster (1947–1973) who regarded spiritual formation as foundational for everything else at Choate.

In 2013, Choate’s iPad program put the devices in the hands of every teacher and student. The hope was for them to leverage the tool’s power by experimenting with it and using it to collaborate in fresh ways. To test the possibilities and learn from what works (as well as what doesn’t) would be a worthy educational experience in its own right.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 21

Choate is one of the first independent schools in the country to adopt a 1:1 iPad program. The hope is to leverage the tool’s power by experimenting with it and using it to collaborate in fresh ways. To test the possibilities and learn from what works (as well as what doesn’t) is a worthy educational experience in its own right.

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“That’s what Choate is doing these days by going to places like Google and Pixar, companies that are doing things very differently than companies did them 50 years ago, and saying: ‘What do you look for in the people that you hire?’”

–shanti mathew ’05 LEFT In December 2015, Choate Rosemary

Hall joined a national movement and held its first Hour of Code, where experienced programmers inspire novices and let them discover the joy and beauty of coding.

Dr. Curtis and student consult on a project.

RIGHT/BOTTOM In February 2015, the School’s Cameron and Edward Lanphier Center for Mathematics and Computer Science opened.

Located in the new center is Choate’s i.d.Lab, a mindset, space, and resource for the Choate community that provides a place for exploration and innovation.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 23

“We want to define the playing field. We want to be at the decision-making of: ‘What will education look like?’ We all know we’re in a key period of five, 10 or 15 years where many practices are going to be established that I suspect are going to last for a long time.”

–alex. d. curtis, headmaster

Campus spaces are now emerging to foster the type of interactions that can bolster community ties and prepare Choate students for a changing world. The new Cameron and Edward Lanphier Center for Mathematics and Computer Science is equipped not only with state-of-the art classrooms, but also casual settings to sustain conversations about big ideas beyond the classroom. Spaces to facilitate design thinking are cropping up in the form of an i.d.Lab and other i.d. sites around the campus. A new student center with a video studio will soon rise adjacent to Hill House on the former site of St. John Hall. A new auditorium is in planning stages to give the entire community a place to meet as one.

“We want to define the playing field,” Curtis said. “We want to be at the decision-making of: ‘What will education look like?’ We all know we’re in a key period of five, 10, or 15 years where many practices are going to be established that I suspect are going to last for a long time.”

Choate still has a way to go before realizing some of its perennial, long-term goals. Curtis acknowledges, for instance, the need for more socioeconomic diversity in the student body. While both ends of the financial spectrum are represented, and the School continues its efforts to attract and support full need families, middle class families are also a priority. More than ever, our efforts are focused on those who don’t qualify for a full ride but who also cannot afford full tution. In years ahead, Curtis hopes a Choate education will be viable for more families who need only partial support to pay boarding tuition. Some alumni share the hope that Choate’s high price tag won’t lead to increased homogeneity on campus.

With the 125-year milestone now behind it, Choate is trusting in its foundations to undergird the way forward.

Training in classics and critical thinking are as valued today as they were in 1890, when Caroline Ruutz-Rees gathered the first crop of young teens at the old Rosemary Farms. But just as she broke molds, raised standards, and prepared girls for a not-yet-realized-but-emerging world, Choate Rosemary Hall today honors its roots by making sure graduates won’t be startled or daunted by the world they will come to inhabit. The School expects them to be confident because they’ve already honed all the traits and habits necessary to succeed and make a positive difference.

From there, the legacy will be theirs to mold.

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common roots – shared purpose 125 Years Special Bulletin Issue Thank you G. Jeffrey MacDonald ’87 for your in-depth research and terrific reporting for this five-part series! This chapter concludes our serialized history, 125 Years (1890–1915) Common Roots: Shared Purpose.

If you missed a previous chapter, we invite you to view a special 125 Years History Edition online or download the Choate Bulletin app in iTunes. You can subscribe to the app for free to receive current news about our latest programmatic initiatives and read engaging stories about our students, faculty, and alumni.

24

choate

reader

On the occasion of Choate’s 125th celebration, we asked Choate Rosemary Hall authors from across the decades to write a tribute or recollection of their time at school.

Confessions of a Tree Hugger noah charney ’98

I remember hugging the tree. That tree, the big one in the center of campus that graced the Choate Centennial logo, before Timberland took umbrage.

I hugged the tree and, sentimental as it sounds now (and, indeed, felt then), cried. I cried because I was going to miss this place, this fantasy school that raised me from a scrawny-necked, pimply 14-yearold to a mildly worldly young man of 18. And because I was so proud of having studied there.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 25

I loved Choate unequivocally. The love affair began before I even enrolled, because my mother, Diane Charney, taught French there for many years before moving on to Yale. I was raised visiting the school and imagining what it might be like to study there. As a child, I would attend the annual spring musical, and looked up to the immensely talented grown-up-looking students who performed in it, and greeted my mother so enthusiastically after the show. I remember the scent of the carpets at Ruutz-Rees and the Arts Center: weighty, pendulous, a bit of mold and damp, but an over-arching warmth, like the inside of a cathedral filled with congregants.

I came to Choate knowing full well its history, and loving that about it. I knew of the famous alumni who had attended, of its appearance in a long list of great novels, which marks its place in the cultural oxygen of America (I was gleeful when I found that Holden Caulfield had been kicked out, in The Catcher in the Rye). Part of what I loved was the fact that I knew that, studying there, I was a part of something far greater than any of its component parts.

A school with so many illustrious graduates elevates all who attend it, and inspires in them the hope and optimism

There was an air of limitless possibility floating through the lamp-lit nights along the paths that smelled of warm grass, and the dust and wood chips of the stage beneath the chapel, and the waxy gloss of the polished wooden floor in the dining hall, watched over by that moose head that always received some inappropriate form of decoration.

I spent a semester living in Paris through Choate’s Summer Abroad program, far from parents and feeling that, if I could live there on my own, then I could do just about anything. I learned the joy of studying and interacting with teachers who were always there for you, more friend than lecturer. I audited additional classes, just to try to engage with as many of the faculty as possible – I recall my confused adviser, when I said that I wanted to take two English majors, Mr. McCatty’s “Journeys and Quests” and Mr. Loeb’s “British Literature,” at once. Above all, I idolized the students one year above me – they seemed so much more mature and cool, but rarely did I find someone who was unfriendly.

The environment was so hospitable it seemed a utopia, then and now. Those who might have been dismissed as nerds elsewhere were admired here, and there was a sense of welcome for all. We were all in this amazing place to-

As I hugged the tree on the night before graduation, I knew that I would never be prouder of having graduated from any other institution. that, decades hence, they too might be included in lists of its admirable alumni. It certainly made me want to be a better student, and a more successful graduate. When I was assigned JFK’s former dorm room in East Cottage my sixth form year, that feeling only solidified.

As I hugged the tree on the night before graduation, I knew that I would never be prouder of having graduated from any other institution. The closest I came was when I studied at University of Cambridge, in England, but that was its own, rather different brand of magic – and I was already an adult then. My college, Colby, was fine but, to be honest, it was a bit of a letdown: Choate had a far more diverse student body, full of quirky, wonderful, eccentric, ingenious students from around the world – the sort of people I wanted to be friends with, who made me feel special, who were the future leaders of whatever field might be fortunate enough to have them choose it. I was fairly smart and a decent B-plus or A-minus student, but I was surrounded by kids of another breed, future laureates in teenage bodies.

Choate was the place where they all gathered, from Greenwich to Portland to Seoul to Reykjavik, only to spread out once more, to the universities of the world. This was a unique chance to be with 800 marvelous souls, all the more remarkable because we were so young yet so thick with personality, full of potential, but still underdeveloped.

gether, a Hogwarts without fake magic but the real kind.

I strove to be a better student but, more than that, a more interesting person, through my admiration for my fellow students who were impossibly interesting and advanced for their years. Part of the aura that surrounded them was the fact that we were from all over the world, and that we were far from home (I was only 17 minutes away from mine, but it was just far enough to feel the thrill of independence), that we could do our own thing without parental interference. And so whatever came naturally to smart, imaginative, kind kids who found the world a labyrinth of wonders was multiplied by the echo chamber of the equally inspired peers around them, undampened by even the most obliging form of parenting, unchecked by prejudice or bullying (neither of which I ever saw occur during my time), and spurred by the motivation to do the place proud and, therefore, hope to become part of its legacy.

All of this was packed into the tearful farewell hug of the mother-tree at the heart of the campus. Sentimental, sure. But when the sentiments are pride, humility, inspiration, and gratitude, then let the tears flow.

Noah Charney is a professor of art history and an internationally bestselling author. His new book The Art of Forgery: The Minds, Motives, and Methods of the Master Forgers is reviewed on page 60.

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

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

OFFICERS Patrick McCurdy ’98 President

Rosemary Hall TBD San Francisco

Parisa Jaffer ’89

Kevin Kassover ’87

Vice President

Tara Elwell Henning ’99

STANDING COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Washington, D.C.

Admission

Dan Carucci ’76

Gunther Hamm ’98

Tillie Fowler ’92

Colm Rafferty ’94

Olivia Bee ’10

Annual Fund

Beijing

David Hang ’94

Gunther Hamm ’98

Communications

Hong Kong

Michelle Judd Rittler ’98

Sandy Wan ’90

Kathrin Schwesinger ’02

Lambert Lau ’97

&

Jennifer Yu ’99 Nominating/Prize Chris Hodgson ’78

Seoul Ryan Hong ’89

with

PATRICK M c CURDY ’98

P r e s i d e n t, C h o at e R o s e m a r y H a l l A l u m n i A s s o c i at i o n

Regional Clubs John Smyth ’83

Thailand

Carolyn Kim ’96

Pirapol Sethbhakdi ’85 Isa Chirathivat ’96

Student Relations/Campus Programming

BULLETIN: Why did you choose to volunteer with the Alumni Association?

ADDITIONAL EXECUTIVE

Mike Furgueson ’80

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Shantell Richardson ’99

Dan Courcey ’86

PATRICK McCURDY: My years as a student at Choate were fantastic; I loved every minute; my Choate friends are still some of my best friends.

I wanted to remain close to the School and fellow alumni beyond graduation. Being an Alumni Association volunteer extends that experience to include the whole Choate community.

Executive Director of Development REGIONAL CLUB LEADERSHIP

and Alumni Relations

Boston

Mari Jones

Patrick Clendenen ’84

Director of Development and

Lovey Oliff ’97

Alumni Relations

Connecticut

Monica St. James

David Aversa ’91

Director of Alumni Relations

Katie Vitali Childs ’95 Leigh Dingwall ’84 London

Faculty Representative

Kate Aquila ’92

B: What have you found most rewarding?

McCURDY: I love meeting alumni from all walks of life. I’ve had the chance to attend events and work on projects with alumni from seven decades, 40 states, and 26 countries. Where else could that happen? And I treasure the opportunity to give back to a school that gave me so much when I was a student.

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Los Angeles

PAST PRESIDENTS

Tom Nieman ’88

Susan Barclay ’85

Stan Savage ’92

Chris Hodgson ’78 Woody Laikind ’53

New York Sheila Adams ’01 Jason Kasper ’05

B: How did you join the Alumni Association?

McCURDY: The Alumni Association is quite simply the entire alumni body; your membership begins at graduation and carries through life.

B: How can alumni stay connected to the School?

McCURDY: That’s easy! Attend a regional event near you. Follow the Alumni Association on social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Flickr. Download the EverTrue app, and you’ll have the whole alumni directory in your hand.

Make a gift to the Annual Fund – support the School you love.

B: What are some volunteer opportunities for alumni?

MCCURDY: There are many. We try to offer something for everyone! You can sign up to be a member of the Volunteer Admission Network; volunteer for your Regional Club; be a mentor in College Connect; serve as a Class Agent; keep your classmates connected as a Class Ambassador; or host or present at a networking event … just to name a few! Contact Monica St. James, Director of Alumni Relations, at mstjames@choate.edu for more information or to sign up to be a volunteer.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 27

Alumni Gatherings and Celebrations

1

3

2

5

4 6

7

8 9

NYC HOLIDAY PARTY AT STK 1 Anne Lee ’10, Serena Elavia ’10, and

Alston Gremillion ’11 2 Tom Sanders ’07 and Channing

Tookes ’07 3 Justin Pitrack ’99, Lisa Malitz ’99, and

John Wolf ’99

4 Students learned about starting a

6 Young alumni gathered to show

9 A day of service and celebration:

career on Wall Street from Case Carpenter ’06, David Victor-Smith ’05, Nikisha Pitter Alcindor ’96, Annie Harleman ’04, and Alexandra Knights ’10 at the Career Networking Brunch in October.

5 A wonderful turnout for the Alumni Club of Hong Kong’s annual fall dinner with more than 45 alumni, parents, and friends.

their Choate pride at the New York Spirit Party.

7 Young alumni enjoyed pizza while scoring their point in the Deerfield Challenge at the Providence Spirit Party.

8 Kyle Williams ’12, Chris Danner ’06, McCullough Shriver ’09, Anjali Bhargava ’95, Vanessa Sergeon ’06, and Rachel Berger ’07 pitched their ideas and products to an enthusiastic audience of fellow alumni at a Start Up//Choate event in Brooklyn.

Seoul-based alumni gathered for their 10th annual holiday dinner and movie with 22 Sun Duk Orphanage students, hosted by Jungwook ”Ryan“ Hong ’89.

The festivity concluded with gifts provided by the Herald Corporation and other alumni participants.

10 Alumni and their families gathered for Choate Service Days across the globe. Pictured here are members of the Alumni Club of Washington, D.C., and their families who volunteered at the D.C. Central Kitchen.

28

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Celebration Finale

THE CELEBRATION OF 125 YEARS OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL EXTENDED BEYOND CAMPUS with 15 events held from Beijing to Boston and Palm Beach to Los Angeles. More than 2,200 alumni, parents, and friends gathered in locations around the world, and right here in Wallingford, to mark this important milestone. The year-long festivities concluded with a special reception for 1890 Society Members at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Highlights included an opportunity to view the highly acclaimed exhibit Frank Stella: A Retrospective, along with remarks from Michael Carr ’76, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Alex Curtis, Headmaster. More than 200 members of the Choate community gathered that night, a fitting end to our 125th year!

1

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3

4 5

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 29

WHITNEY MUSEUM RECEPTION 1 Sean Kavanagh P ’17 and

Frank Chang P ’17 2 Another stunning cake 3 Ingrid Hang, David Hang ’94, and Stacey Plaskett ’84, P ’06, ’08, ’10

4 Whitney attendees listen to

6 Current and former Trustees

7 A terrific gathering at the

Alex Curtis describe his vision for the next century.

5 Guests view a video of Choate at 125.

and their guests tour the Frank Stella exhibit.

Whitewater Films Courtyard as the Alumni Club of Los Angeles celebrated the 125th.

8 The 125th Celebration in Los Angeles was the scene of a mini ’60s reunion for Rick Porter ’68, Rick Rosenthal ’67, who hosted the event, and Carl Kugel ’66.

9 Hank Snyder ’85, Dottie

Cholnoky ’46, Alex Curtis, and Ken Bartels ’69 celebrated the 125th with the Alumni Club of Connecticut.

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9

7 8

9

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30

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Celebration Finale

LOMAX TRIBUTE CONCLUDES CHOATE’S 125 TH IN THE ARTS On December 4, 2015, Choate alumni musicians performed once again on the main stage of the Paul Mellon Arts Center in a tribute to Alan Lomax ’30, legendary folklorist and 1986 recipient of the National Medal of the Arts.

Grammy Award nominee Tift Merritt ’93 headlined the event, joined by performers including Ian Underwood ’57, a former woodwind and keyboards player for Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, keyboardist and songwriter Robert Kilgore ’76, and vocalist Kohl Weisman ’15.

Many of the numbers honored the late musciologist with renditions of songs that Lomax himself compiled and performed such as Weisman’s rendition of “Wild Ripplin’ Waters.” Director of the Arts Kalya Yannatos told the Choate News that Lomax was chosen as the subject of the 125th tribute because of his commitment to cultural equity. “The whole idea of cultural equity seemed an important theme to galvanize around . . . one that would provide a greater sense of purpose to the evening.”

Earlier that afternoon, two alumni visual artists, H. Peik Larsen ’67 and David Row ’68, spoke to students and faculty about their work in the concurrent 125th alumni art exhibit.

Call for Nominations CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AWARDS With more than 16,000 living alumni, we all know someone from Choate Rosemary Hall who has led a distinguished career, made a significant contribution to our society, or represented the School proudly throughout the world.

Help us identify your friends, colleagues, and classmates by nominating someone for a Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Association Award!

WE ARE CURRENTLY SEEKING NOMINATIONS FOR THE FOLLOWING THREE AWARDS: → Alumni Award Created to recognize alumni for outstanding achievement and contributions to their profession or life's work, this honor is presented at a school meeting in April each year. → Distinguished Service Award Awarded to an alumnus, alumna, or group in recognition and appreciation of consistent and substantial service to the School, the recipients receive the award on Reunion Weekend.

1

→ Athletics Hall of Fame Established to recognize alumni whose efforts, achievements, service, or support have resulted in a meaningful contribution to the athletic reputation of the School, candidates are inducted on Reunion Weekend.

All nominations must be received by March 1, 2016.

Send nominations to alumnirelations@choate.edu or via the nomination form on the website, www.choate.edu/alumni.

On behalf of the Nominating/Prize Committee, thank you for your consideration.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Be part of it!

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3

FEBRUARY 2016 11 – Winter Blues Happy Hour – New York MARCH 2016 24 – Start Up//Choate – San Francisco APRIL 2016 7 – Sixth Form/Alumni Transition Dinner – Choate 27 – Alumni Awards Presentation – Choate

1 The program included works from classic rock, jazz, and folk

3 Ian Underwood ’57, a former woodwind and keyboards player

genres as well as original music.

2 Grammy Award nominee Tift Merritt ’93

for Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention

MAY 2016 13–15 – Reunion Weekend – Choate 13 – Athletics Hall of Fame Induction – Choate 29 – Commencement – Choate To learn more about our upcoming events, visit WWW.CHOATE.EDU/ALUMNI.

choate rosemary hall

Reunion MAY 13–15, 2016

Don’t miss what is sure to be a memorable weekend, full of reconnecting and reminiscing with friends, classmates, and teachers. The School is planning a robust schedule of events, but Reunion won’t be complete without you!

REGISTRATION OPENS FEBRUARY 1. Go online to www.choate.edu/reunion for more details. We look forward to seeing you in May!

32

CLASSNOTES | News from our Alumni

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 33

Deerfield Day, 1996 Credit: Lionel Delevigne

Send Us Your Notes!

We welcome your submission of classnotes or photos electronically 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.

34 CLASSNOTES

1940s ’46 RH Mary Tappin writes, “I am happy to say

TOP Members of Rosemary Hall

CENTER Jack Staub ’45 celebrat-

class of 1950 celebrate their 65th Reunion in Greenwich.

From left, Janet McKallor Beck, Mak Krotzer, Marilyn Muir Pfaltz, Nancy Evans Burns, and Marian Fox Burros

ing his 88th year with his six children. From left, Nick Staub, Sharon Doty, Jack Staub ’69, Jack Staub ’45, Nancy Laughlin, Harriet Huston, Todd Staub ’70 BOTTOM Choate Class of 1950

that I’m now living in Wallingford in a retirement community that was highly recommended to me after the death of my second husband in November, 2014, in Tucson, where I had lived for 25 years. The move to Wallingford was perfect for me, as I now have a granddaughter, Esul Burton ’16, at Choate.

How delighted I am that my granddaughter now is experiencing the extraordinary experience and high standards of this School, which I experienced along with my twin sister when we attended Rosemary Hall in Greenwich.”

’47 C

Walter Blass writes, “I had my aortic valve replaced in August. In a procedure the FDA calls experimental, they snake a compressed new valve up the femoral artery. Surgeon and cardiologist expressed satisfaction, and I have regained much of my previous energy. I met classmate Igor Sikorsky for lunch as we do several times a year. Going back to six countries in Europe in April.”

1950s ’50 C

Lee Clegg writes, “Three of us from the Class of 1950 – Fritz Trapnell, Tom Ryan, and myself – attended our 65th Reunion last May. We have remained close over those years and had a grand time that weekend.”

’50 RH Marlee Turner writes, “I am in Texas for winter with family and friends. Last summer, I had a fine season with my Northern Pines B-and-B. Guests came from the UK, Germany, France, India, Kentucky, Virginia, and Berkeley. Canoe, kayak, fishing, swimming, loons all were enjoyed. Lots of life graces.”

’51 C

Hedrick Smith writes, “With the nation in some political turmoil over the lopsided inequalities in the U.S. economy and the dominance of billionaires and corporations as campaign mega-donors, I launched a website last spring (www.reclaimtheamericandream. org) to provide information on movements for political and economic reforms, with the hope that getting more information out to concerned citizens might encourage more people to get involved in grass roots civic action. The viewer interest has been great.”

’51 RH Diane French Schofield celebrated her 82nd birthday in November. She reports, “I am still going, but not as strongly, haven’t played golf or tennis in over a year. Love being in Vero Beach in the winters and New Hampshire in the summer. It’s such fun reading news about old classmates, so I hope everyone writes!”

’52 C

Art Gibbs writes, “I coached my last high school tennis match for both boys and girls. In August, I pretty much retired from playing tennis and started playing pickleball. I now teach and play pickleball six days a week. It is a great game for senior citizens.”

’53 C

Woody Laikind writes, “Bob Lindeman lives in Sarasota, Fla., where he still is active as a real estate agent. He plays an occasional game of golf with me; I winter on Longboat Key. With Arne Carlson, we all had dinner together. If there are any other Choaties in the area, please let me know at Jlaikind@gmail.com, and I will organize a dinner. Wintering on the east coast of Florida are Brad Tips, Tony Cowen, and Crosby Smith. Charlie Ard is alone in Riverside, Calif., and wishes somebody would visit him. Bob Leinbach is in Boston, still saving lives as a cardiologist at Harvard.

Bruce Hilton splits his time between Charlotte, N.C. and Barcelona, Spain. Hank Doebler passed away in 2014. Charlie Ard is in touch with his widow, Joyce.”

’54 RH Pat Sweet writes, “I continue my work lobbying for charter schools in Connecticut. It astounds me that anyone has to lobby for good schools for our urban students, most of whom live below the poverty level and are predominantly Black and Hispanic. I have gone on the board of Amistad Academy in New Haven, which is the flagship school for the 30 schools developed and managed by Achievement First, where I worked for 10 wonderful years. Amistad’s high school was rated by U.S. News and World Report as the second best high school in all of Connecticut, based on number of students taking and passing AP courses, SAT’s and college acceptances. I am happy to announce that there is a lot of Choate involvement with our Achievement First charter schools, where Choate trustees, former trustees, and Choate parents serve on our various charter school boards.

My fiancée Bill Marsh and I have spent a lot of time traveling and just returned from a glorious month in France before the horrific attacks on Paris. My kids are well. Holly and her husband Robert are renovating an historic home in Stonington Connecticut, where sailing is the big draw. My son David and his wife Lisa are building a house near the water in Exeter, New Hampshire. All six grandchildren are thriving, (two now in college, and three headed for college next fall). Bill and I will spend several months in Naples, Florida this winter before the legislative session begins in February. I look forward to biking, walking and swimming every day.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 35 LEFT The photo caption on p.

29 of the Spring 2015 Bulletin misidentified one of the Class of 1955 Bull Artists as John Ducato.

Pictured from left, Grey McGown, Skip Moss, and Geoffrey Wolff RIGHT Rosemarians from the Class of ’55. Front row, from left, Lyn Foster McNaught, Maude Dorr. Back row, from left, Liz Pathy Salett, Landa Montague Freeman, Pam Bisbee-Simonds, Betsy Angle Webster, Verena Topke Rasch, and Lucinda Paddock Day. Photo taken in Guilford, Conn., last May during Reunion Weekend

’55 C

Condolences to Grey McGown on the death of his wife of 50 years, Suzanne Shaffer McGown, on June 29, 2013. Grey notes Suzanne “was a Northfield/ Skidmore girl and a wonderful Yankee woman from West Newton, MA. She died shortly after our 50th wedding anniversary and was much loved by her children, grandchildren and me.” Grey is still living in Fort Worth, Texas, and notes he had a lot of fun with the Geoff Wolff remembrances in the spring 2015 Bulletin issue and wanted to grant the editors a "Well done!"

By coincidence, there was picture of his sister-in-law, Laura Sandifer ’51, on page 18, third from left. Says Grey, “What are the chances of that happening? Two McGowns appearing in one issue: one from Rosemary, one from Choate.”

Randy Nay writes, “I started a second career 15 years ago and have upscale travel agencies in three cities, including Houston, where I have lived since 1998. While we handle all components of leisure travel, our focus is on customized experiences throughout the world for our clients and their families and friends. In recent years our travels have taken us throughout the world and in the upcoming year we plan to visit Antarctica, host a group to South Africa, visit Berlin and Vienna to plan a future group trip, China and host a group on the new Seven Seas Explorer, which is being launched in July. My wife Lea and I have enjoyed Houston since moving here and find it an energetic city. We have 5 sons between us and 10 grandchildren.”

Wally Nichols, and his wife, Helga, are downsizing to a condo in South Dartmouth, Mass., in the near future. A three-bedroom home with ALL outdoor maintenance and snow plowing and grass cutting done by the Association – whew!

Jere Packard writes, “I spent the better part of a nice summer in Peacham, Vt. – though frustrated that I have slowed down so much with age that I do about half the chores (mostly landscaping, berry

raising and wood cutting, hauling and splitting) than I did 10 years ago. But my defibrillator has kept working well! Since fall, I have been working on an unexpectedly large teaching load as an adjunct instructor at two local colleges in northeast Pennsylvania: A Modern World History intro course and an MBA elective on the History of Capitalism at Wilkes University, and two sections of Western Civilization at Misericordia University. Quite ridiculous at my age! Was graced with a third grandson, Theodore (Theo) by son Michael and his wife Sarah and spent Thanksgiving with all of them in Annapolis.”

’56 C Bob Gaines reports, “As we gear up for our 60th Reunion this coming May 13-16, we have had inquiries as to what will be happening and who is coming. It is too early for registration, but we have heard from Clyde Buck, Geoff Bullard, Tom Gardner and others. Dave Nichols is planning on coming, although he is having some health problems that are slowing him down. Of course I will be there. Stay tuned for more info as it becomes available but be sure to make a reservation at the Hilton Garden Inn, our new headquarters, if you think you might make it: 1181 Barnes Road, Wallingford, CT 06492.

Had lunch with Dave deNeufville and as always, his inventive juices are flowing. Mike Furgueson reports all is well with his family. He is retired and lives with wife Sherley in Lyme, Conn., where they are close to grandchildren. Son Tim and wife live in Essex, Conn., and have two girls, eldest son Mike lives in Morristown N.J., and has three boys, the eldest graduating from Trinity in June, and son Scott lives in Steamboat Springs, Colo., where he teaches elementary school. Finally, Bob Gaines and his wife, Marjorie, were in Longboat Key, Fla., for a multiple birthday gala in January when his sister passed the 80 mile mark, son Robert passed the 33 mark, and nieces and nephews added another milestone to their lives.

Contact Robert at Robert@MKGhomes.com

’57 C

Paul Kurzman writes, “I continue to teach full-time in both MSW and PhD programs, with a dual appointment at the Hunter College School of Social Work and at the Graduate School & University Center of the City University of New York. Have just published my 10th book (on doctoral education), and am currently working on my next one, which will be on continuing professional education. Celebrated a joyful 50th wedding anniversary with my wife, Margaret, our children and grandchildren, and am very much looking forward to joining my classmates in Wallingford this coming spring to celebrate.”

Barry Feinberg writes, “All is well. Living in West Palm Beach, Fla. I play singles tennis five times per week. I am a second grade teacher’s assistant at a Title 1 school here, mostly helping with reading. In the past 15 years, travel has included trips to Iceland, Israel, China, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, Finland, Tokyo, Malaysia, Bali, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Greece, Sicily,Turkey, Thailand, Jordan, California, Bahamas, Russia, Ukraine and more. Yes, we love to travel!”

’58 C

Peter Goldmark writes, “I’m coming up on four years of being an independent consultant, troublemaker, and sometime columnist. I advise foundations on strategy, especially in the climate area - and also mentor a couple of dozen young people from all sectors: business, public service, social entrepreneurs, and journalists. That keeps me vaguely connected with what young people are thinking. If life is a year, then I am somewhere in late November or early December. If it is a trip around the bases, I am most then halfway from third to home.”

36 CLASSNOTES

1960s ’60 C

Alex McFerran writes, “On a spectacular New England fall day, nine classmates met for lunch and golf at the Shelter Harbor Golf Club in Charlestown, R.I. Rick Constantine was host for fellow classmates Chuck Post, Tom White, John Vinton, Ben Beaver, Nip Tanner, Bill Heyn, Diehl Jenkins and me. Great day with ’old’ friends, becoming a tradition following our 50th Reunion.”

’60 RH Sassy Saylor Watters writes, “My husband and I have left the British Virgin Islands and have become snow birds in Vero Beach, Fla. Thought I would hate it, but love it. Would love to see anyone passing through!”

’62 C

John Wilkes writes, “Three years after our 50th Reunion, Bill Chapin, Joe Pawlak with his wife, Pat, and me and my wife, Gini, decided to return to Choate to spend some time with Harriet Blanchard, the lovely wife of beloved football coach Bob Williams, who died from Parkinson’s in 2015. Before our wonderful dinner together, we also got to see Choate continue the football winning streak by beating Worcester Academy 47–10 on a chilly autumn day.”

’63 C

Richard Bole writes, “Still working in recycling, and now I’m happy that the industry is finding that single stream recycling is no good. Most communities and many others are using single stream, as is Choate, but I have never liked this method of collections since I have learned that a truism in commodity markets is ’to get the highest and best prices (sometimes any prices) everything must be almost perfectly sorted.’ For the last few years the waste companies have been promoting single stream recycling for post-consumer recycling in communities and some industrial customers.”

’63 RH For Margo Heun Bradford it’s been a year of changes: the death of a brother-in-law and the loss of her father (at 101), plus moving a 92-year-old cousin into assisted living. Margo writes ”I don’t think I could still be standing upright and with a smile, facing forward, if it weren’t for my dear friends and family.”

Rozzie Chubb Davis’s husband Eddie had an aggressive melanoma on his ear and after several surgeries and intense localized radiation, he has been deemed clean! Really rough for about seven months, she says. Eddie and their children hosted a November birthday bash for Rozzie with a western theme. High Country Cowboys flew in to sing, and boots and jeans were the dress of the evening.

Donna Dickenson’s son Anders’ play, entitled The Seven Acts of Mercy based on a Caravaggio painting, will be performed from the end of November 2016 at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre, Stratford-on-Avon. It’s particularly big news because this season will commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Donna was in the U.S. last October en route to giving a lecture in Canada, and had lunch in Massachusetts with Dabney Park, Alice Freeman and Margo Nutt. Donna and Chris celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this summer.

Penny Griffith Dix says, “Our son Morgan and wife Aterah at age 42 are expecting their first child, a girl. She will be our 8th grandchild but the first one we can visit often, as they live in Boston, just two hours drive. We are so thrilled. We are planning a trip to Newfoundland in June.”

Alice Chaffee Freeman is awaiting the release of Go With Me (the movie made from husband Castle’s book of the same name) in the spring. Meanwhile, the book Go With Me has recently acquired translations in German, French and Russian, to add to the already-published Spanish and Italian versions. Alice is accompanying Castle on book tour appearances for his latest novel, The Devil in the Valley.

Daughter Sarah is very busy as the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center’s Exhibitions and Education manager.

Doreen McClennan Gardner reports other than enjoying our daughter, her husband and their two darling kids (Emma 4 and Thomas 2) as often as possible, she is looking forward to a number of holiday events and hoping that El Niño does not pass us by this winter.

Margo Melton Nutt writes, “At 70 I still feel only middle-aged, but as my late husband, Bob, said on his 70th eighteen years ago, ’How many 140 year olds do you know?’ Had a nice week in Denver, Colorado this fall with friends of my parents’, and a lovely week in Richmond, Virginia with my cousin.

Loving retirement!”

Reeve Lindbergh Tripp writes, “We were very thankful this holiday because my husband has come through a bout with bladder cancer (two surgeries in the summer, some preventative treatments in the

fall) and seems to be absolutely fine. Nat and I continue to write and to thrive in our own funny, funky way at the end of our road in northern Vermont, with sheep and chickens and Labrador retrievers, all in fine fettle.” Reeve will be speaking about her father and the Spirit of St. Louis on May 4th in Montpelier, Vermont, as part of the Vermont Humanities Council lecture series.

’64 C

David Gens reports, “I’m still working at the Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Son Ryan, 32, is a dentist in Catonsville, Md., and daughter Jennifer, 31, is in school in Portland, Ore. Saw John Atwood ’64 at a Penn event. I am still in Sherwood Forest, Md., with wife Rose. Brother John Gens ’63 just retired from surgical practice in Portsmouth, N.H.”

John Angell Grant writes, “I so much enjoyed the 50th reunion of the Choate Class of 1964. Although I was at Choate only one year, during the third form, it was great to see many familiar faces last May, and meet some new people. Doug Myers was a good friend. I miss Tom Rahilly, who was also a good friend at Choate, and later – when we were undergrads together at Columbia. I think often of my Choate time and am interested in communicating with any former classmates or teachers. I currently live in Palo Alto, California. I got married for the first time three years ago to the lovely Martha Angell. We were married in Memorial Church on the Stanford University campus, a few miles from where we live. Workwise, I’ve had a checkerboard career, much of it as a writer. I’m currently writing a serialized novel, titled “Palo Alto Odyssey,” about life in present-day Palo Alto that runs six days a week in the Palo Alto Daily Post newspaper. www.johnangellgrant.com

Pete Johnson continues to work as a substance abuse clinician at Right Turn in Watertown, Mass., and is seeing the current opiate crisis first hand. His wife, Jan Devereux, was recently elected to the Cambridge City Council. Pete had the great pleasure of seeing Doug Myers at a recent hearing of the Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeals (on which Doug sits).

“I so much enjoyed the 50th reunion of the Choate Class of 1964. Although I was at Choate only one year, during the third form, it was great to see many familiar faces, and meet some new people.” –JOHN ANGELL GRANT ’64

’64

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 37

’64 RH Sam Barnes writes, “I am still based in Mozambique and working a few months a year for the UN, traveling a lot (Vietnam, Cambodia, Morocco, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal) this past year.

Will be back state side in May, June, July 2016. One daughter, Maya, is living and working in Mexico City.

My other daughter, Yara, moved back to Mozambique after five years of working in South Africa.”

Susan “Sukey” Heyn Billipp writes, “Andy and I celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary with the arrival of our 11th grandchild. After years of raising children and volunteer work in public schools and at the University of Texas School of Public Health, where I also earned my doctorate, I’m enjoying travel with Andy, painting, and time with friends and family.”

Karen Browning writes, “I live in Vermont with my husband, Wayne. We have two daughters and one grandchild. I currently coordinate a schoolbased mentoring program and enjoy the wonderful state of Vermont. I see Christie Sumner as often as we can coordinate.”

Becca Cook writes, “I am formally retired, but flunking at it. I continue to teach in the fall semester at the University of Toronto. This past spring, I taught at the Human Rights Centre at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. I have another book on the go: a second edition of Human Rights of Women that I first edited 20 years ago. We spend as much of the winter as we can manage in my family’s place in Florida, south of Sarasota.”

Frances “Puddy” Shellenberger Goode writes, “I live in Placerville, Calif., a small town between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe in gold country.

My husband, a master cabinetmaker, and I designed and built our house on ten acres. Our son, Trevor, is in college studying outdoor adventure leadership and culinary arts. My sister Sue ’70 is the only Rosemarian I have seen for quite a while but I did talk to Lucy Corrigall a few years ago. She is living in Guam. I work as a psychotherapist in a high school program for kids with emotional/mental health challenges and have a private practice.”

Linda Holch Gordon writes, “Clyde and I are enjoying his retirement and having the time to travel.

We recently went to Burlington, Vt. so we can visit with our son Chris and his family. We had a wonderful breakfast with Karen (Browning) and husband Wayne and Christie (Thompson) while we were there. Our daughter Lisa and her family live here in Burlington N.C. She also has two children – one a freshman at Appalachian and one a junior in high school. Tina (Johnson) Lewis just spent several days visiting with me. I am enjoying painting and exhibit in a gallery All About Art on Bald Head Island, N.C.”

Sharon Stevenson Griffith writes, “I am enjoying being a trustee on the board of the Pound Ridge Historical Society. I am involved in the local garden club, and volunteer with a group called the Yellow Finch Project that was created to enhance the lives of children with special needs/on the autistic spectrum through multi-sensory theater productions and story times. The best is having time to travel.”

Ellen Halsted writes, “I am still living on the upper east side of NYC, and involved with gardening activities and events at Carl Schurz Park on the East River. It was a joy to meet up with Susan Heyn Billipp last month who was here with her wonderful family to celebrate their daughter, Elizabeth, who ran in the NY marathon this year.”

Cindy Webb Hendrick writes, “I am semiretired, which means I have turned the business end of Woodfield Press over to a partner. I will now be responsible for the artwork only. I hope this will give me more time to develop new products and also do some long-missed fine art painting. Our middle son (of three) was married in early fall, hence no trip to Colorado. My sister, Wendy Webb Rogers ’58, came up from Florida with her daughter, Laura, to join us. The marriage was held in our field and the whole family was called in to assist.”

Molly Maddox Hyde writes, “My husband of 45 years and I moved to Green Valley, Ariz., two years ago, where I am continuing to enjoy oil painting and am represented in a gallery in Tubac, Ariz. Daughter Phoebe lives in Boston with husband John and three

children while our son, Toby, and wife Jenny live in the Cascades north of Seattle with two daughters.

Our trip to the Billipps’ place in Colorado was the highlight of our summer.”

Patty Jayson writes, “My good news is that I bought a Nordic Trak and I’m actually using it! My sad news is that we said our official goodbye to my mom a few weeks ago. Her children, stepchildren, grandchildren, and great grandchildren were all present for the little ceremony. Rosemarians Sally Brim, Caroline Parker, and Liz Pippin (all ’72), who grew up with my sister, were present too. While in Connecticut, I also saw Katie Miller, Susanne Jackson’s daughter, who is moving to the west coast.”

Claudia Bingham Meyers writes, “After ten years of struggling with Parkinson’s, my husband Thomas passed peacefully in April 2014. I took a year to reboot my life, and this past year, traveled to Salt Lake City to present Shemitic Yoga at the World Parliament of Religions. It was wonderful for me to witness how easily participants understood the essential sameness at the root of the three Abrahamic faiths.”

Susanne Jackson Miller writes, “Jeff and I are still living in the same house in Norwalk, Conn. – 43 years! Our oldest son, Gordon, and family live in Fairfield so we see them a lot. Our grandsons, Wyatt (11) and Cal (10) are wonderful. Andrew is pursuing his nursing career in Casper, Wyo. Katie is moving to Santa Monica, Calif., and Eric is completing his junior year at BC.”

Sally Schaefer writes, “I live in Annapolis, very close to my two daughters and their families. I have a grandson and three granddaughters who all make me laugh a lot! I work in Baltimore for Laureate Education, Walden University, where I have been for 13 ½ years. I am an Enrollment Advisor in the School of Nursing. I have done quite a few bike trips. Christie Sumner and I had a fun trip to Greece a couple years ago and then we did an awesome boat and bike trip in Croatia this past May. I just had a nice visit with Sally/Sarah Cothran in Charleston, S.C. while I was visiting a friend from elementary school.”

LEFT Several of Rosemary Hall Class of ’64 joined Susan and

CENTER Jane Heroy Winn ’64 with her husband, children and

Andy Billipp in September in Grand Lake, Colo., including Christie Thompson Sumner, Sally Thompson Steele, Susan Heyn Billipp, Nancy Knowles, Molly Maddox Hyde, and Karen Browning.

spouses, and six grandchildren.

RIGHT Jamie Rosenthal Wolf ’64 and husband David with daughter Kate at her wedding.

.

38 CLASSNOTES

Sally Thompson Steele writes, “My husband, Richard, and I have lived in Harvard, Mass., for 35 years. I closed my business, Thompson Steele, a few years ago after a wonderful 25-year successful run as an outsourcing full-service (project management, design, editing, layout, etc.) company for the textbook publishing world, but India and other offshore countries took over the work. I found my new calling in the Elder Care services world. After much training in outreach and home visits, I started a great program for “socially isolated seniors” – keeping seniors happier and healthier than they are/were sitting in front of the TV.”

Christie Thompson Sumner writes, “Thanks to encouragement from Susan Hennington Jordan and her husband at a recent mini reunion, I bit a large bullet and built a new house on my property in Lincoln, Vt. (I gave away my 125-year old farmhouse, and it was moved a mile up the road!) I don’t necessarily recommend building a house at our age, but now that I am in residence, I am so happy and know it was the right thing to do. The mini reunions have been wonderful for catching up and enjoying friends on their turf."

Sunie Stanton Szczepanski writes, “I just got back from Boulder, Colo., where I met my newest grandchild, Bodhi Joshua Szczepanski, born to my son, Joshua, and wife Lisa. My daughter, Amy, and her daughter, Ava Grace (10) still live in Raleigh with Amy’s dad. Adam and I divorced two years ago. I have a comfortable two-bedroom apartment in Raleigh.”

Jane Heroy Winn writes, “Tom and I have been married 47 years – must mean we are OLD! We live on Singer Island, Fla., and are retired, Tom from construction management and I from nursing. We have two daughters and a son, all married, and six wonderful grandsons. We stay active on a 30-acre property we have in Okeechobee, Fla., where we spend two days every week gardening and keeping up with the place. I play team tennis and have made lifelong friends who share my passion for tennis.”

Jamie Rosenthal Wolf writes, “Our daughter Kate, a writer and editor, married Zachary Harris on the afternoon of June 28, in a storybook kind of wedding, in a walnut orchard surrounded by bales of hay in Ojai, Calif. In the last several years I’ve segued from print journalism into executive-producing documentaries, concentrating on projects that don’t preach but whose messages instead float up from them subliminally. A number of the films have received awards. We are on our fourth springer spaniel, this one a black and white charmer named Ruby.”

1 Mary Anne Atterbury ’64

3 Classmates from the Class of

and husband Dave with their blended family 2 Ann Sears ’65 hosted a mini 50th Reunion at her home in Maine this summer. From left, Sally Hudson, former teacher Joanne Sullivan, Julie Newhall, Jancie Reynolds, school archivist Judy Donald ’66, and Ann

1966 gathered at Jamie Kirkpatrick’s wedding in Chestertown, Md. From left, Ed Miller, Chris Havemeyer, Chris Born, and Jamie Kirkpatrick 4 Cornelia de Schepper ‘66, left, attended the November 2015 wedding of classmate Leigh Johnson Yarbrough’s youngest son, Andrew, in Durham, N.C.

1

2

3 4

’65 RH Wesley Cullen Davidson and New York City psychiatrist Jonathan L. Tobkes, M.D. have written a book entitled When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need to Know. It will be published in June by Sterling, New York.

The foreword is written by Choate alumnus Cason Crane ’11, founder of The Rainbow Summit Project.

Ann Sears writes, “A Mini Maine 50th Reunion at my home. Sally Hudson, Joanne Sullivan (former teacher), Julie Newhall, Jancie Reynolds, and Judy Donald (RH ’66 and school archivist). There was a lobster lunch, lots of laughs and good conversation.

All agreed the 50th was a great success in Wallingford and Greenwich. Julie stayed on for a few days and we enjoyed the boat.”

’66 C David Holmes writes, “Peter Hovey, Chris Born, Tod Hunt, Bill Todd, Scott Donahue and many, many more of us have been working hard for our Grand Crescendo 50th Reunion coming up. May 13-15, 2016. We already have more than 60 "yesses", more than a dozen "want/hope to’s" and only 7 no’s. We are still trying to get responses from the rest. Mauricio Lopez is coming from Colombia; Jim Clark from Oregon; Peter Morris, Jamie Griffith and Tim Garson from Texas (still waiting to hear from Russ Kridel). We also have received 35 "Bios" for our "Re-Brief"- what each of us has done since ’66. If you haven’t sent yours in yet, there is still time. Please send it in digital format (with photos) to: alumnirelations@choate.edu.

We will have a Wine Tasting, some seminars, a Chapel remembrance and of course the gala dinner Saturday night. As someone said, "It’s as though Cape Canaveral launched about 150 rockets to 150 different planets. Now we get to see and hear what happened!" If you have any questions, please contact Peter Hovey pthovey@gmail.com or myself, sharbot11@yahoo.com. We will be happy to help in any way including numbers and emails of friends with whom you may wish to connect. Can’t wait to see everyone.” ’66 RH Cornelia de Schepper writes, “I attended the wedding of Leigh Johnson Yarbrough’s youngest son, Andrew, in Durham, N.C. It was a wonderful occasion, and I enjoyed visiting not only with Leigh but also her sister, Tina Johnson Lewis ’64, another RH alumna who recently moved from Boulder, Colo., to Newport, R.I. Leigh and I have visited Tina in Newport where she lives in a historic colonial house in the area called The Point.”

Leigh Yarbrough writes, “I continue to stay busy in Durham, with my children and their children living so close by. Oldest son Edwin and his two children live walking distance to my house. He manages an office for Cresa, located in downtown Durham.

Daughter Christina lives in Raleigh, and stays on the go between her job at Duke Energy, and keeping up with her two young sons! Youngest son Andrew also lives walking distance to my house, and works for Square 1 Bank, located in downtown Durham.

Andrew was married in Durham on Nov. 14, 2015, to Jane Royall, who is from Smithfield, N.C. Tina Johnson Lewis ’64, and Cornelia deSchepper also attended! I look forward to attending the upcoming 50th Reunion in May, and hope for a good class turnout for this special event.”

.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 39

CLASSNOTES | Profile

’66

Living Up to My End of the Bargain Scott Donahue ’66 WHEN I WAS A STUDENT AT CHOATE, I DIDN’T FULLY APPRECIATE MY EDUCATION. I took it for granted. Only

much later in life did I realize how my four years at Choate provided the foundation for my professional and personal successes. Someone once asked me where I’d learned to write so well, and I immediately thought of Choate, more precisely John Lincoln’s writing class.

In my sixth form year, I had the privilege of sitting next to Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel at the “Head Table” during his visit to the school, and I’ve always remembered how he turned to me at one point during dinner and counseled me that “mankind will never die for lack of information but for lack of appreciation.”

He urged us to live life in amazement and never to take anything for granted. These are words to live by.

I eventually started a community-based law firm. As my business prospered, more success meant more revenue, but it also meant greater overhead – more salaries, larger offices, costly benefits, and a more expensive marketing budget. My profits were largely eaten up by costs … and I often neglected to send Choate more than a token contribution (and in some years, nothing at all).

In choosing to create a Gift Annuity, I wanted to make up for all those missed years. As a student, Choate had never let me down. But as an adult, I felt I had let down the School. In some ways, I felt there was an implicit agreement between the School and me to do what we could for each other; and I hadn’t lived up to my end of the bargain. It was time for me to show my appreciation for all I’d gotten from my Choate education.

I’ve arranged my retirement so I can live on a fixed income.

Choate’s Gift Annuity rates represent a significant increase over market rates, translating to a more secure monthly income for me. Not only do I increase my monthly income and claim a generous charitable tax deduction, but the School can benefit now from a gift I would have made anyway as part of my estate plan.

With our 50th Reunion coming up this spring, I hope my gift will spark some of my classmates to make the same commitment.

What will your legacy be?

Join the Choate Society.

To create your own legacy, contact: Barry Tomlinson Director of Planned Giving btomlinson@choate.edu (203) 697-2071

40 CLASSNOTES

1 Lloyd Miller ’67, coach of the

3 Rick Rosenthal ’67 and wife

5 Members of the Class of

Notre Dame Prep rowing team in Towson, Md. His team won the 2015 Maryland State Novice Rowing Champs.

2 Tom Ficklin ’67 and Dana Brown, Choate’s Senior Associate Director & Director of Multicultural Recruitment, at the NAACP National Conference last July

Nancy Stephens celebrate Rick’s Emmy award for the Amazon. com hit series Transparent.

4 Carl Anderson ’67 received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (D.H.L.) from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale in October. Pictured here with wife Betsy, son Mark ’97, and daughter Neville ’93.

1972, from left, Dick Wood, Peter Jeton, Rick Floyd, Steve “Weezer” Taylor, and Terry Neff, hiking at Bryce Canyon N.P. 6 Chip Forrester ’73 and President Barack Obama, November 9, 2015 at Chip’s 61st birthday in Washington, D.C. Chip is the national Advisory Board CoChair of Organizing for Action

(OFA), an organization whose mission is to help pass the President’s national legislative agenda.

7 Peter Robinson ’70 granddaughters from Taylor Robinson and LeeLee Robinson Duryea in NYC and Locust Valley 8 George Whipple ’73 and his fiancée, Victoria, walked the 27 miles across Putnam

County, N.Y., last November raising $27,000 to support the Sundance Film Festival. George was a gold sponsor of this year’s New York Film Festival and will be a sponsor of the Tribeca Film Festival.

2 3

1 ’67 C

Carl Anderson received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale in October. His wife, Betsy, was in attendance as were his son Mark ’97 and daughter Neville ’93.

Former Choate Rosemary Hall Trustees present for the service and dinner were Connie Ferguson ’69, P ’98, Howard Greene P ’82, ’05, Gillian Mestre P ’03, ’09, and Sharon Oster P ’98, ’00, ’03. During Thanksgiving Carl saw classmate Hal Clark in San Francisco. Carl reports that Hal and his spouse, Pam, are grandparents of a second baby girl, Hallie, born in November to their son Austin ’98 and his wife Katrina. Hallie has a 4-year-old sister, Poppy. Hal and Pam’s three sons all live in San Francisco, which provides justification for frequent visits to the West Coast. Austin, Katrina and their girls regularly run into Mark Anderson ’97 and his spouse, Sarah, and their two-year-old twin boys, Duke and Jamie. Carl reports, “Hal and I are beginning to organize our 50th Reunion in May 2017. The two of us seem to once again be de facto co-chairs for the event. Our goal is a record turnout of classmates, especially those who have not attended a previous Reunion. We will be in contact with each of the class to play a part in the organization. We hope that it

4 will a memorable opportunity to reconnect and reminisce with our classmates and hopefully we will recognize each other without the aid of the big print name tags!”

Lloyd Miller coaches crew at Notre Dame Prep at Towson, Md., a girls school. He reports that his team won its first state rowing championship last April at Chestertown, Md. This event includes all high school rowing teams from Maryland and Washington, D.C.

’68 C

Peter Heinrichs formed a fundraising company in 2013 with his wife, Susan Lewis. Full Harvest Fundraising, LLC, serves churches and nonprofits throughout New England. Full Harvest offers leadership coaching and consulting for strategic planning, annual budget drives, feasibility studies and capital campaigns. On the family side of news, Peter’s daughters are all grown up: Johanna, PhD Princeton 2011; Annalies, MD U Michigan 2013; Lydia, BA Williams 2015 and now studying at Cambridge University in England. Two wonderful grandchildren: Adelaide and Theo.

’69 C

George Read writes, “I’ve traveled quite a bit since graduation in 1969. I’ve lived in Italy, Spain and France, enjoyed a career as an auctioneer at Sotheby’s, New York, appeared several times on Oprah, and now direct an art appraisal and brokerage company in Charleston, S.C. We surpassed the $25 million mark in art appraisals and sales a few years ago, a sizeable part of it for U.S. Federal Courts.”

Rob Snyder and his brother Phil ’68 held a screening of their upcoming film, The Bag, at the Macabre Faire Film Festival, in mid-January in Hauppauge, N.Y.

Miller Williams writes, “I am pleased to say that I am mostly retired. After 25 years with The Williams Companies, I took a job as President of Link, a Bermuda telecommunications company. That ended two years ago. I am still active a Chairman of Willbros Group, a NYSE energy construction company. My wife of 30 years, Constance, and I live in Asheville, N.C. I am playing more golf these days.

Constance is a thriving artist. Our son, Stephen Ryan ’02 is getting his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Antioch in New Hampshire.”

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 41

1970s ’70 C

Jim Berrien writes, “My firm is now called Ahl, Berrien & Partners and we are doing senior level executive recruiting across a broad stripe of industries including nonprofits. I spent a week in South Dakota hunting with Bill McMahon.

Jack Macauley has edited a book Noel, Tallulah, Cole, and Me, an autobiographical memoir by his great uncle John C. (“Jack”) Wilson, the accomplished producer and director during Broadway’s Golden Age. Wilson’s incredible career included staging major hits such as Bloomer Girl, Kiss Me Kate, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; managing the Westport (Conn.) Country Playhouse in the 1940s and ’50s; and serving as Noel Coward’s close friend and business manager. Completed in 1958, just three years before his premature death, Jack Wilson’s original manuscript sat in a closet for more than 50 years in Jack’s mother’s Connecticut home. During the last two years, Jack worked with drama professor and author Thomas Hischak to co-edit and bring this lost work to life.

’71 C

Dave Clarke reports, “After 25 years practicing gastroenterology in Portland, Ore., I wrote a book titled They Can’t Find Anything Wrong! for people whose pain or other symptoms are not explained by diagnostic tests. Soon after, I closed my practice and now teach about stress-related illness throughout North America and Europe.”

5

Roger LaMay, General Manager of WXPN in Philadelphia, has been elected Chair by the NPR Board of Directors. Said La May, "It’s a great honor and responsibility to be elected to lead one of the world’s leading fact-based journalism organizations. NPR is peerless in its impact on our culture and democracy."

A 30 plus year broadcast veteran, LaMay joined WXPN, the noncommercial, and member supported radio service of the University of Pennsylvania, in January 2003. He is responsible for the overall operations of the station including fundraising, programming and marketing. LaMay was Managing Editor of the Choate News.

’72 C Jim Bigwood has just published Not Just Batman’s Butler, based on the autobiography of Alan Napier, an actor whose career goes back to 1924 and who is best known today for playing Alfred on the 1960s television series, Batman. His autobiography, written in the 1970s, but not published at the time, has just been released with annotations and additional chapters authored by Jim.

Toby Chamberlain writes, “It’s a time of transitions, for many or most of us, I imagine. For me that means a change of jobs. And I’m back in a rock and roll band after many, many years. We’re four geezer hacks, but it’s great fun. And bars seem willing to have us play for them – for beers on weeknights.

Jan Martin (Lewisburg [Pa.] High School ’72] and I are pushing 25 years, and are still in Portland, Ore. For the last six years we’ve owned a second home in Italy, which is a miracle and a blessing. I plan to make it to the 45th Reunion and hope to see a lot of you there.”

7

6

8

Chip Underhill and Carl Beck met for dinner in Boston after a few years’ hiatus. Chip recently became Director of Media Relations & Editorial Services at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.

Chip describes the media element of his role as "enjoyable bedlam" when virtually all the White House contenders and their "entourage" visit the college’s nationally-known Institute for Politics. Carl is Director of Conferences for the National Bureau of Economic Research, the country’s leading nonprofit economic research organization, which counts among its research alumni 25 Nobel Prize winners and 13 past chairs of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. The conference division organizes dozens of international seminars each year.

’72 RH Stephanie Racz writes, “After graduating, I went to college and got my BA in Elementary Ed. from Johnson State in northern Vermont and taught in a two-room schoolhouse. WOW, that was ages ago. I moved to Connecticut, taught in a very large school system in New Britain, and raised my son in Farmington. I also got my master’s degree in reading and language arts sometime in the 90’s. We moved to southern Vermont 15 years ago. My son, Bryan, is now 27 and living in Colorado. He seems to have followed in my footsteps and works with children! Must be a family thing. I live with my friend Kurt, my two loyal dogs, and a very old cat named Skittles. My career in teaching young children has always been my passion and I continue to teach. I see Ann-Louise Hittle a lot and we chat about old times. Life has been tough, but I’ve gotten through it and am grateful for what I have … the simple things.”

’73 C

Jim Beloff writes, “I had a wonderful time performing my ukulele concerto, “Uke Can’t Be Serious," in October with the wonderful CRH Orchestra under the direction of Phil Ventre. It was a real treat to perform it for the whole student body at the PMAC and later in the week for visiting parents.”

Lex duPont and Laurance, his wife, are wintering in Chicago, while Lex is Director of Photography on the new television series Chicago Med.

Chip Forrester celebrated his 61st birthday in Washington D.C. on November 9, 2015. Among the guests of honor, President Obama. Chip has served as national Advisory Board Co-Chair of Organizing for Action (OFA), President Obama’s organization to help pass his national legislative agenda since 2013. The OFA board meets quarterly and following each board meeting, Chip has dinner with the President.

LEFT Matt Loeb ’78, right, CEO of ISACA, a global professional

CENTER Class of 1977 classmates met up in St. Louis. From left,

association providing training, credentialing, and advocacy for the IT industry, shared the stage with Robert Herjavec of Shark Tank fame at a recent cybersecurity conference in Washington, D.C.

David Orthwein, Gail Hearn Capelovitch, Lynn Hastings Jones, Bill Peattie, and Tim Jones. “Hoping to see all of our friends in 2017!"

George Carroll Whipple III reports that after 20 years at investment banks, including DLJ and Credit Suisse, he has joined the employment law group at Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. where he has launched a new TV show "Employment Law This Week." In spite of his busy work schedule, he still finds time to put on overalls and head to his farm in Putnam County. There, his attention is focused on preserving historic breeds such as Lineback Cattle.

Last fall a new red bull, one of only 12 red Randalls in the world, joined the herd at Pine View Farm. The hope is that the coming spring will bring new calves, furthering this species and a goal of the Livestock Conservancy (of which George has been a member for years), a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving endangered early American farm animals. (www.livestockconservancy.org).

’76 C

’74 C

Tony Lopez recently retired as a Navy officer.

After 9/11, Tony left teaching to become Seaman Lopez, taking orders from supervisors the age of his students. He quickly rose in both enlisted then commissioned officer ranks. During his retirement ceremony he was recognized for forming an elite team of native speaking Naval Criminal Investigative Service undercover operatives. As the officer in charge of the team, he deployed his NCIS Navy operatives around the world.

Matthew Murray was appointed by the Obama Administration to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Following the creation of the Global Markets unit in 2013, he became Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In this capacity, he directs the Department’s efforts to form trade policy and solve market access issues facing U.S. firms seeking to sustain and expand their business operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

’75 RH Maggie Moffitt Rahe attended classmate Kate Manning’s book talk at the Pequot Library in Southport, Conn., on Kate’s most recent book, My Notorious Life!

Dave Beecher writes, “In November, a group of the Class of 1976 met at the Yale Club in New York City. Joining Nick and Julie Campbell were Benjy Burditt, Hans Kaiser, Tom Wall, Eric Reimer, Jim Smith, and David Beecher. This all-star cast was chaperoned by its former Dean, G. Edmondson Maddox. To say that a good time was had by all would be an understatement. We look forward to our 40th Reunion in May.”

’77 RH Liz Salisbury Cameron writes, “I can’t believe that I will be eligible to retire from government service in the next couple of years! I will hopefully be retiring from the Federal Financing Bank with the U.S. Department of Treasury located in Washington.

My daughter, Airlie, is in graduate school at Science Po in Paris and just accepted her first internship with L’Oréal.”

Kitty Kean Czarnecki writes, “I am getting my master’s in speech pathology. Strange to be back in school, but it is rewarding to be pursuing this field, which combines so many of my interests.

Have enjoyed touching base with classmates this year. I heard from Jen Walser Campbell, Liz Salisbury Cameron and Abby Rhame Coffin. Gail Hearn Capelovitch and I still talk about every six months (roomies 4ever)! I went to a CRH wine event at the beautiful home of Linda McCulloch ’75 in Sonoma and did not even have to “sing for my supper” (in joke for Class of ’75 theatre people). Want to rally my classmates to come back for our 40th in 2017.

’78

Ali Adair reports that she and her mother are working on a book entitled Letters in a Box, a project to benefit Wounded Warriors. She writes, “The book is about my stepfather, Bob Stone, who was a 2nd Lieutenant and a bombardier in the Army Air Force in World War II. He did not speak to anyone about his time in the service until a little boy asked him questions about his experiences for a school project.

After Bob died in 2009, my mother and I were looking through the basement and started reading through a Saks Fifth Avenue box of (very neatly) handwritten letters that Bob’s father had kept and returned to him in the 1970s.” For more information on the book check out www.facebook.com/lettersinabox

RIGHT After 30 years together, Paco Martinez-Alvarez ’78, married his partner, MSgt. Dr. Joseph Holt, at a ceremony in Sarasota, Fla. Joe’s dad, a retired Presbyterian minister, officiated. Joe wore his Army uniform, and Paco, the suit his dad wore when he married his mom in 1938. The 1930 Franklin took them to the reception.

Pamela D’Arc writes, “I spent a fun afternoon with classmate Connie Gelb, who was in N.Y. for Thanksgiving with her son and husband. I am in close touch with Ileana Patrichi Wachtel who still lives in LA and with Georgette Coulucoundis. My kids are both living on their own so my husband and I are in the next phase – hard to believe as it all went by so quickly. My real estate business remains busy and I enjoy all aspects of helping people buy and sell homes in addition to working in new development as the Director of Sales at a new condominium, 252 East 57th Street. Happy to hear from any classmates pdarc@stribling.com

Matt Loeb has recently relocated with his wife, Lyn, to Barrington, Ill., outside Chicago. Matt is now CEO of ISACA, a global professional association providing training, credentialing and advocacy for the IT industry. At its recent cybersecurity meeting in Washington, D.C, he shared the stage with Robert Herjavec of Shark Tank fame who, as CEO of his Canadian security company, provided a keynote talk.

Matt welcomes the opportunity to connect with any Choate alumni in the Chicago area.

Allison Murray writes, “My work as a speech language pathologist continues, primarily with 2-year-olds with autism, and because of a recent alum posting by Kitty Kean Czarnecki ’77, in the Bulletin, I had the pleasure of reconnecting with her because she is now entering my field! Wishing we lived closer to help her out, but the memories of her voice as she sang on stage lift my heart and bring back fond memories! My daughter, Julia, is applying to Choate for her 9th grade year, so I’m going back to tour as a parent.”

’79

Nile Southern has released letters of his father, Yours In Haste and Adoration: Selected Letters of Terry Southern. Gore Vidal declared Terry Southern to be “the most profoundly witty writer” of their generation. As a novelist (Candy, The Magic Christian, Blue Movie), screenwriter (Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider, Barbarella), pioneer of the “New Journalism” at Esquire, and writer for Saturday Night Live, Southern had an incomparable gift for exposing the grotesqueries of the American way of life while living it to the fullest.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 43

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS of

Rosemary Hall

MOVING LEARNING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

This is your summer to dream big, take a leap forward, and discover your true potential, while learning from – and with – the very best! and motivate young women in the fields of technology, computer science, math, and environmental science.

▶ INVENTION AND DESIGN LAB – In this two-week middle school program, students design

and construct projects of their own choice in our new i.d.Lab. ▶ SCIENCE OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY – Offered in both our high school and middle school

program, this course explores the science behind sustainable living and green building design. Classes are held in our LEED Platinum-certified Kohler Environmental Center. ▶ STUDY ABROAD – Opportunities for high school students to join our five-week language

immersion programs in China, France, or Spain.

WWW.CHOATE.EDU/SUMMER

▶ ENVIROTECH FOR GIRLS – This four–week middle school program is designed to inspire

SUMMER DISCOVERY | MORE DETAILS ABOUT CHOATE SUMMER PROGRAMS

Choate SUMMER

44

CLASSNOTES | Profile DR. PATTON: I was encouraged at Choate in a unique way. When

I was editing the literary magazine Question Mark, I had long talks with English teacher Melinda Talkington about poets I had never heard of. At the encouragement of Jim and Char Davidson, I ran farther distances than I ever thought I could. At the encouragement of Terry Ortwein, I played roles that were way out of my comfort zone and I read playwrights I would never have looked at on my own. I spent hours with Art Goodearl thinking about student government. As I look back on it, there was nothing but encouragement. Although I was devoted to those wonderful guides, I don’t think I appreciated how unusual it was at the time. It’s only later, after becoming an educator, that I saw how much Choate’s guidance was formative for me.

& with

LAURIE PATTON ’79 by l o r r a i n e s. c o n n e l ly

On July 1, 2015, Dr. Laurie Patton ’79, a religious studies scholar, became the first female president of Middlebury College. She was selected for the presidency of the 214-year-old liberal arts college from a competitive field of 260 candidates. Previously Patton was dean of Duke’s Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, that university’s largest undergraduate school. In a Middlebury College interview Patton said that, a liberal arts degree is more “important and central” than ever before. “We’re hearing from employers how important it is to engage not just with critical thinking, but creative thinking.” She added, “People are seeing the value of what I call an integrated education,” which includes “learning how to turn on a dime and change careers and think about new ways of creating value and revenue.” Here she reflects on her Choate experience and shares her thoughts on why a liberal arts education is more important than ever.

BULLETIN: A three-year student at Choate, you were engaged in

many activities in your time here and garnered many accolades as a scholar-athlete. As a fifth former you were awarded the Caroline Ruutz-Rees Prize for character, influence, and scholarship; as a senior you chaired a special committee of the Student Council charged with revising the school constitution. You were also one of two students who sat on the Academic Committee with department heads and the Dean of Faculty. You lettered in cross country and track and graduated cum laude with honors in English and theater arts before matriculating at Harvard. How do you think your early engagement in these activities at Choate helped prepare you for your future role in academia?

B: Your history teacher at Choate, Tom Generous, told you to stop hanging around the Arts Center and to start writing some history. You didn’t initially heed his advice but his words certainly reverberated with you.

What classes had the most impact on you at Choate?

DR. PATTON: Tom’s class was certainly one of them! He had a no-nonsense attitude and got people to argue. Recently a student at Middlebury described me as “no-nonsense and really approachable.”

I liked that description and I think that is Tom’s legacy. I also remember philosophy class with Jim Davidson and Mark Tuttle’s algebra class. History introduced me to the meaning of the past for the present, which is what a historian of religion is always concerned about. Philosophy introduced me to the study of other systems of thought, which is what a comparative religionist does.

And I constantly wish that I had continued in math at the graduate level, because I always loved it. I think the work I did at Duke promoting women in STEM fields is a result of this regret that I didn’t pursue further studies.

B: What eventually drew you to become a distinguished religion scholar and translator of classic Indian Sanskrit texts?

DR. PATTON: That’s a complicated and good question! I knew I didn’t want to be just a scholar of English literature because the contexts of poetic creation mattered to me as much as the poetry.

I always carry around works by Robert Pinsky or Adrienne Rich on the role of the poet in society. And around the globe, many of those cultural contexts of poetic creation are religious. At Harvard I was fascinated with the medieval Celtic poets, and via that interest I became interested in India. Some scholars note the linguistic and mythological similarities in Old Irish and Sanskrit traditions, as two of the more conservative cultures of the Indo-European spectrum.

And I became fascinated by India through this connection. Once you live in India, as I did for my first year after college, it is hard not to devote your mind and heart to studying its literatures and rituals. And the University of Chicago was exactly the right place to study these topics. The poetry I write about, the Rig Vedic ritual poems of 1500 BCE, contains some of the simplest and yet most sophisticated uses of metaphor I have seen.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 45

B: In your first address at Middlebury College, you defined liberal arts education in the 21st century with three key words: innovation, adaptation, and integration. Can you expand on how these central qualities can also be emphasized more at the high school level?

DR. PATTON: I define integration as finding a place for one’s knowledge in the world. Adaptation is the ability to turn on a dime intellectually, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. And innovation is the capacity to discover new laws – not just in nature and society but also in the world of information. While the acquisition of these skills and dispositions are urgent at the college level, I think we can signal them at the high school level as well. More and more applicants to college have already begun to be innovators; they’ve started their own NGOs, or developed their own apps, or found a new way of looking at a scientific problem like local methods of water conservation. The new profiles of college students really show that these skills and dispositions are already emerging at the secondary school level.

I think young learners – indeed learners of all ages – need to embrace the fact that change is inevitable, and so is tension between inevitably conflicting goods.

1980s ’80

Doug Karlson has published his second book, a thriller called Sleeper Cell. For more info, go to www.sleepercell.info.

Rebecca Miller, co-chair of the Arthur Miller Foundation, organized A Centenary Celebration in honor of the 100th birthday of her father, the late playwright Arthur Miller, in New York City on January 25, 2016. The celebration raised funds for the foundation’s theater and film education programs, featuring notable talent from film, television, and Broadway. Actors read from Miller’s autobiography and unpublished works, as well as scenes from his classic plays, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and more. The event took place on the set of Miller’s A View from the Bridge at the Lyceum Theatre.

Choate alumnus Brian Kenet ’82 serves on the AMF Foundation Board and Janine Schultz Smith ’82, P ’16 is a member of the Founders Circle that launched the AMF January event (See profile on p. 47).

Greta Uehling, PhD, earned a Fulbright Scholar award in 2015. Her research concerns the people who are internally displaced within Ukraine as a result of the occupation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine’s east. Her research will be conducted over a period of three years.

’81 B: One of the unique qualities of Middlebury that you mentioned was the “dynamism baked into the habits of the college.” Our recent statement on the central qualities of a Choate education says, “Dynamic balance characterizes the Choate Rosemary Hall experience.” Why is this so key?

DR. PATTON: I think young learners – indeed learners of all ages – need to embrace the fact that change is inevitable, and so is tension between inevitably conflicting goods. For a high school student, those tensions tend to be about becoming an individual and being in a community. For a college learner, those tensions tend to be about being a specialist in one area of knowledge and being a generalist who can apply one area of knowledge to another. These tensions only become more apparent as one becomes a citizen of the world, or perhaps, a citizen of multiple worlds. These tensions never disappear. So learning how to make the tensions creative and not destructive is the key. That’s where the dynamism comes in at both the high school and college levels.

Bill Layton writes, “I am enjoying life in New England, splitting my time between Rhode Island and Maine, finding time to hike and explore the natural wonders of these two great states and surrounding regions in New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts. My work at Colby College is exciting, working on various teaching, research, and economic development initiatives with foundations and government agencies. After working at Hewlett Packard, Stanford, Princeton and the UN Foundation, it’s been wonderful working for the first time at a small liberal arts college. I’m amazed at the innovative ideas taking shape.”

B: What does it mean to you to be the first female president of Middlebury?

You may, in fact, be the first Choate Rosemary Hall alum to become president of a college.

DR. PATTON: I tell people that it is a happy accident that I am the first woman leader of Middlebury. The community was ready for a female president a long time ago. I think that is why it has been so easy to adjust. And it hasn’t really been something I have focused on as I have settled into this extraordinary community. I do appreciate, though, that it is a historic moment for many. I am also blessed to have followed so many extraordinary leaders who happen to have been men!

Bill Layton ’81 is splitting his time between Rhode Island and Maine, finding time to hike Mt. Katahdin in Maine and explore other natural wonders of these two great states.

46 CLASSNOTES

’83

Jennifer Tilley Farlow reports that she and Kate Bertini enjoyed catching up on a beautiful fall day in Dallas when Kate stopped by on her way to west Texas for work. Says Jennifer, “It has been so fun, with our daughters being the same ages.”

Classmates Jimmy Reardon and Danny Feibus got together at Caracol, in Houston, Texas, in November.

Andrew Lipsky writes, “1965 was an important year. Many of the Class of 1983 were born that year, and so were the Grateful Dead. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of both, a tour was organized, culminating in a Dutchess County Birthday Party at "Furthur". In attendance were Mark Pasculano, Justin “Dortch” Dorazio, Ted Danforth ’84, Sheila Baker Gujral ’82, and Sarah Hamlin ’83. We toasted the memory of Jonathan Stanley Palumbo who passed away in 2015.

On tour we hung out with Alan Reid ’80, Dave Lazerwitz ’84 and just missed Rob Levine ’84. Word was we missed many other close friends and alums, so we will look forward to 75. Some things never change.”

’84

Susan Adams writes, “On April 11, 2015, I married Bryan Deuitch in a tiny ceremony with our three kids (2 his + 1 mine) officiating. We are living happily in Princeton, N.J.”

Liam Considine and wife, Alison, welcomed their third child, Bridget Peters Considine, on July 10, 2015. Says Liam, “Our recent bundle of joy leads me to wonder if I will be the oldest dad in the class.”

’85

TOP Members of the Class of

1983 celebrated their 50th year milestones and the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead on tour, culminating in a Dutchess County Birthday Party at ”Furthur.”

In attendance were Mark Pasculano, Andy Lipsky, Justin (Dortch) Dorazio, Ted Danforth ’84, Sheila Baker Gujral ’82, and Sarah Hamlin (not pictured).

CENTER Peter Rusnak ’83 visited his youngest daughter

and new 4th former, Samantha ’18 at Choate for Parents Weekend October 24. Older siblings, Sallyan ’12 and Chris ’14 joined in family photo.

BOTTOM A mini Choate reunion at the annual St. Bernard’s School Fathers Dinner on November 23, 2015 held at The University Club in New York City.

From left, Bill Matthews ’86, Bryce MacDonald ’88, Carter Smith ’90, and Brian Halberg ’89

Lynn Grant Beck is a professional screenwriter living in L.A. Her TV movie, 12 Gifts Of Christmas, premiered on the Hallmark Channel on Thanksgiving day. Lynn writes that she is happy to touch base with any Choatie screenwriters, producers, directors living in L.A.

Jennifer Pye Gebbie writes, “I started a new position as the Director of CASA: Center for Advanced Studies and the Arts, in Royal Oak, Mich. I am so excited to be involved with a program that nurtures well-rounded young people. Our students take AP classes in English, world languages, science, social studies and math. We have vibrant visual arts classes and a robust dance program. The CASA students are wonderful and I feel so fortunate to be here. Check us out at www.casa-online.”

Debby Leckonby Thomas writes, “In November, my son Will (15) and I were headed to a lacrosse tournament on the Main Line in Philly. We stopped to see Katie Prezzano Durfee in Bedford, N.Y. Family is doing great. Her daughter is a freshman at W & L and is friends with Pam and Dave Williams’ son.

Katie’s son Teddy is a freshman at Deerfield – crazy!

Next we went to the Lehigh-Lafayette football game and ran into Rob Lubin who went to CRH and Lehigh with me. He is doing great. Then we had dinner with Kristin Beeman Dunning and her family in Berwyn, Pa.”

Quest to Learn Theater Class

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 47

CLASSNOTES | Profile

Choate Alumni

SETTING THE STAGE for SUCCESS STORY B y L i n d s ay W h a l e n ’ 0 1

’80s

THEY HAD BEEN FAMILIAR FACES ON THE PATH AS STUDENTS , making their way in and

out of the Paul Mellon Arts Center, where Rebecca Miller ’80 shuttled between the painting studio and the theater and Brian Kenet ’82 rehearsed for the title role in Moliere’s Tartuffe.

But it wasn’t until they were parents with their own families in Manhattan that their lives intersected.

“We re-met at a PTA meeting at Quest to Learn,” Rebecca says. Founded in 2009 by a team of teachers and game theorists at the Institute of Play, the groundbreaking public middle and high school designs

curriculum using the principles of play, working to engage and challenge students in new ways.

Rebecca and Brian agreed, however, there was one problem with the school’s innovative methods: there was no arts program to speak of. The conversation about how to establish a theater and film program for Quest to Learn began that night.

Rebecca and Brian’s ambitions quickly grew as they learned more about the overall landscape of arts education in New York City: only 10 percent of the city’s schools have a dedicated theater teacher.

There was an opportunity, Rebecca saw, to address the larger systemic problem and honor the legacy of her late father, the playwright Arthur Miller.

The Arthur Miller Foundation for Theater and Film Education was formed to give back to the public school system that shaped the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, with Rebecca as board co-chair alongside Sandi Farkas, founder of the nonprofit Playwrights of New York, and Brian serving as a board member.

“What we always thought was that we needed to have theater inside the school day as part of the curriculum, just like math and English,” Rebecca says.

The Foundation’s strategy initiated with Quest to Learn’s film and theater pilot program, now in its second year. The Soho theater troupe Wooster Group joined as a cultural partner, bringing in young actors to work with teaching staff in the classroom.

The student response was immediate. “The kids who are in the film and theater classes stay late because they want to,” Rebecca says. “That’s a testament both to the teachers, and what it’s like to make art.” The work continues outside the classroom.

Brian shows a photograph of a very convincing ghoul in full costume. “That’s my daughter,” he says.

“She was acting in a film that Rebecca’s son wrote and directed.”

The impact of arts in school is lasting, even for those who ultimately do not pursue a career in the field. Brian, a financial consultant to architecture and design firms and a professor at Harvard and Yale, understands the arts well, and helps to explain to potential supporters. “Funders, especially those with a background in business, always think of a return on investment. Donors are very sophisticated and know their metrics – they’re focused on outcome,” Brian says. As their fundraising efforts increase, AMF has become well versed in the many studies that support theater’s direct influence on attendance, literacy, empathy, and collaboration.

The New York City Department of Education recognizes the arts’ broader benefits. Peter Avery, Director of Theatre Programs for the DOE, is helping to expand AMF’s programming. The first step is to empower a new generation of educators, and AMF has begun training a cohort of 15 early career teachers. “We’re supporting them with mentors, visiting artists, and a toolkit of content created by the DOE,” Rebecca says. AMF also works to supply teachers with theater tickets for their students.

“If any city in the world should have more public school theater, it’s New York,” Brian says.

New York’s abundant artistic resources were on full display at AMF’s January 25th gala, celebrating 100 years of Arthur Miller. A star-studded cast, including Master Artist Council members Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, and Tony Kushner, performed Miller’s works in a one-night Broadway benefit performance at the Lyceum Theatre, home to the revival of Miller’s A View from the Bridge.

Choate involvement continues to grow, with Brian introducing longtime friend Janine Schultz Smith ’82, P ’16 to the team. A member of the Founders Circle, Janine served alongside her husband as one of the gala’s co-chairs. “I am inspired

by Rebecca, Brian, and Sandi Farkas’ vision for children and the ways in which students can truly connect to their education when performing arts is integrated into their learning,” Janine says.

Proceeds from the gala will help to bring AMF programs into 20 more New York City schools.

The event is far from Rebecca’s only major production in 2016 – the novelist and writer-director’s newest film, Maggie’s Plan, starring Julianne Moore and Greta Gerwig, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival to rave reviews, and will be making stops at Sundance, Berlin, and Dublin, before opening in U.S. theaters in May. The hope is that AMF will open the door for New York City youth to recognize and pursue their own ambitions, whatever they may be. “Arts education should be a right, not a privilege,” Rebecca says.

Lindsay Whalen ’01 is a writer and editor based in New York City.

48 CLASSNOTES

’87

Kenyon Congdon was the overall winner at the 25th Annual Great Floridian Triathlon on October 24. Competitors race a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile marathon, the same distances as the famous Ironman brand of races. He has been doing triathlons since 1984. This was his 5th Iron-Distance race and his first of that distance since 2002.

’88

Bill Brickman writes, “On June 20, I married Jeffrey Bruce Neal at Trinity Church Boston. The Brickman legacy gang – my dad, my four sisters, and my nephew were all there, as were other Choaties.”

Eric Bruggemann reports that a film he has worked on, Sunshine Superman, a documentary portrait of Carl Boenish, the father of BASE jumping, has been acquired by CNN Films for television broadcast distribution rights. Eric was the film editor.

Kathleen Leisure writes, “I’m in my second year teaching high school English and yoga at The Darrow School, a boarding school in New Lebanon, N.Y.”

Michelle Orr writes, “This past summer, I road-tripped with my three boys from Portland, Ore., to Los Angeles for two weeks and visited Kevin Kassover ’87 in San Francisco and Dean Georgaris ’88 in L.A. For the past three years I have been in a rock band with BJ Casey called The Miss Understoods; she is a lead singer and I play bass. We play cover songs from the 80s, 90s and beyond. “

’89

Mike Riskind recently celebrated the first year of his new business venture, Highwood Estate Capital LLC, which is a third party marketing firm working with hedge funds and private companies to raise capital.

fiction set in the Late Roman Empire published, called the Legend of Africanus. It took me 10 years to complete and I am proud of the outcome (available on Amazon.com).”

’91

Devon Manelski is the principal consultant and Chief Executive Officer of MarchTen Consulting – www.marchten.us – an information technology consulting company that provides project management and business analysis services to small and medium-sized businesses. While out traveling for his consulting work, he is also campaigning to be President of the United States. If you would like to learn more about Devon’s campaign, please visit his campaign website, www.devon2016.com

“During a recent solo trip to Portland, I stopped in a busy local sushi place and shared a table with another solo person; a stranger. Within five minutes we realized we went to Choate at the same time. I was seated with Althea Gregory ’87!

What are the chances of that?” –MICHELLE ORR ’88

’88 Dede Griesbauer writes, “I’ve had a tremendous year of racing, winning the Taiwan 70.3 last November and then winning Ironman Taiwan in April (the 3rd Ironman win of my professional career). I was well on my way to a long sought after qualifying spot at the Ironman World Championships. It was to be my first time back on the Big Island since my near career-ending crash in 2011. I needed just a few more qualifying points, but during Ironman Coeur d’Alene in June, I was hit by an unauthorized truck on the race course. My injuries were significant, though not life-threatening. In an instant, my Kona prospects seemed grim. Luckily, I recovered enough to scrape a few points together at Ecuador 70.3 in August and my slot was secure. On October 10, I toed the line at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.

I was the most "seasoned" pro in the field by 5 years.

I finished "middle of the pack" with what I felt was a rather ’ho-hum’ performance, but on a day where conditions were so difficult that nearly one-third of the professional field did not finish, I have to be proud with the finish.”

Wendy Tetrault writes, “I’m living in Windsor, Vt., working at Mt. Ascutney Hospital, a critical access hospital, as the Clinical Supervisor in the operating room. Really enjoyed my 25th Reunion (spring of 2014) which inducted our basketball team into the Hall of Fame. My two children, Maurice and Fern, loved seeing the campus, and especially the Science Center.”

1990s ’90

Meredith Savage writes, “I live in Phoenix (my hometown) with my husband and six-year-old son.

My business partner and I have a legal recruiting firm named D. French Advisors. I thoroughly enjoy helping an attorney find the next step in his/her career.”

Matthew Storm writes, “I had an incredible time visiting campus with Moris Finvarb for our 25th Reunion and was stunned with the evolution of campus (particularly the new robotics building) and the students that we had a chance to speak with. And also that I just had my trilogy of historical

’92

William Savage, MD, PhD at the Division of Transfusion Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston was a finalist for a $100,000 Brigham and Women’s Biomedical Research Institute (BRI) BRIght Futures award. Will’s project was “Making Blood Treatments Better.”

’93

Andrew Varela of OOAA, Inc., received the prestigious 2015 Award of Merit from The Society of American Registered Architects, New York Council, for his project - Casa Trasanquelos - in Galicia, Spain.

The OOAA design was selected from projects from New York´s most prominent architecture offices. The award-winning Casa Trasanquelos forges a direct relationship with its surrounding landscape in Galicia, Spain.

1 Bill Brickman ’88 married Jeffrey

2 David Coleman ’88 married Mara

3 Mike Riskind ’89 and his wife, Sheri

4 Harmony Caton ’92 married Samuel

5 The family of Camilo Cepeda ’93 lives

Bruce Neal at Trinity Church Boston on June 20.

Rosza on August 1, 2015, in Encinitas, Calif.

Warshauer-Riskind, welcomed Ivy Rose Riskind to their family on August 26, 2015. Ivy joins Eve (10) and Guy (6).

Stratton on April 11. Classmate Stef Johnson was the matron of honor. Seth Stratton was the best man.

in São Paulo, Brazil. From left, Arabella, Juan Antonio, Yoonkyoung, and Camilo

2

3

1

5

4

8

9

6 7

6 Birthday Celebration in New York

7 Kenyon Congdon ’87 was the overall

8 Dede Griesbauer ’88 won the Taiwan

9 Stephanie Germain Vinokour ’87 and

City for NT Etuk ’93 (center). From left, classmates Takashi Murata, Kristen Clarke, Susan Kurien, and Alexis Morley.

winner at the 25th Annual Great Floridian Triathlon in October. Cheering him on are his wife, Tamara and children Morgan, Casey and Alex.

70.3 in November 2014 and captured her 3rd Ironman in April 2015 in Taiwan.

classmate Libby Applebaum Harrison had a great time visiting NYC together last August.

50 CLASSNOTES

’94

Lindsay Mains Wells writes, “After graduating from MIT, I returned to my hometown of New Orleans, where I now live with my husband, John, and two daughters, Dawson (6) and Phoebe (4). I am now a physician specializing in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, and have my own fertility practice, which I started five years ago. Although my girls and my practice keep me very busy, my husband and I also spend our spare time renovating our house in the Garden District, which was built in 1859. Please look me up if you are ever in the area.”

and New London. We have also loved getting to be outside so much; you’re never too far from the water or a hiking trail here. In January 2015, we welcomed our second child, David Brana Leeming, to the family.

He loves chasing after his big sister Emilia, so no one is ever sitting for very long.”

’96

Josh Martino is president and legal counsel for Bono’s Pit Bar-B-Q, Inc. and Willie Jewell’s Old School Bar-B-Q, Inc. which combines his passion for small business, local philanthropic involvement, and the culinary industry. Bono’s now has 20 locations, and Willie Jewell’s has five, in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Colorado. He currently lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., with his wife, Kirsten, daughters Ella, Chase, and Mae, and dog, Mia.

Lee Lee Perry Englund and husband Jed, and daughter Eloise welcomed William “Willie” Czar Englund to the family on October 24, 2015. Currently, Lee Lee works as Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts in the American Wing at the Met Museum.

Wesley Hansen writes, “I have been working hard launching a new company, ShadowBid.com, and would be thrilled if any of my fellow Choate alumni would help test the platform."

’99

Alexis Boateng is an electrical engineer and is celebrating her 10th year as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Zach Fenton recently left the big energy company he was at and co-founded a small startup that just raised $100 million from a private equity firm to launch. He reports, “We’re a new start-up in the very traditional energy industry, which isn’t exactly what most people think of when they hear about entrepreneurship à la Silicon Valley. There is, however, entrepreneurship happening in all industries today, old and young. Our company applies smart engineering and technology to get more out of old oil and gas wells that bigger companies leave behind after they’ve been fracked, helping to make the entire energy chain much more efficient.” Check out his company at www.upcurveenergy.com

1 Jessica Fritz Aguiar ’96 and her husband, Joe, welcomed a son,

2 Jennifer Suh ’94 and her and husband, Jihan Bae, welcomed their

3 Paul Leeming ’95 and wife Julia McCarthy

Elliott John, on September 22, 2015. Elliott joins big sister Regan (3) as well as Eden (15) and Kaylee (12). Eden and Kaylee are Joe’s daughters, whom Jessica adopted on December 18, 2014.

second child, Jamie Aiden Bae, on September 29, 2015, their 3rd anniversary. Big sister, Jessica Aerin Bae, was thrilled to welcome little brother Jamie.

Leeming ’96 are now living in Stonington, Conn.

’95

Kimberly Burke and David Segadelli welcomed Giuliana Seville Segadelli to their family.

Last November, Kimberly was promoted to client service analyst at Wellington Management Co.

Paul Leeming and his wife, Julia McCarthy Leeming ’96, report, “After 10-plus years in Brooklyn, in 2013 Paul and I moved to Stonington, Conn., Paul’s childhood home. We had progressively been spending more and more of our free time here, so the move felt very natural. Paul continues to work for UBS and splits his time between New York City

’97

Joe Hocking has written a book about programming video games: Unity in Action: Multiplatform Game Development in C# with Unity 5.

’98

1

2

4

3

6 5

4 Jason Homler ’99 and his wife, Angela, welcomed a daughter,

5 Alexis Boateng ’98 married Rafael Pacheco at Hillsborough Vine-

6 Rachel Gerber ’97 married Andrew Ginsburg on July 12, 2015 at

Mariella Kate Homler, on March 27, 2015.

yards in Purcellville, Va., September 12, 2015. The couple resides in Washington, D.C.

Pellegrini Vineyards in Cutchague, NY. Choaties in attendance were Andrew Gerber ’95, brother of the bride, and close friends of the bride, Emily Cole, Whitney Rice Childs, and Heather Kollar.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 51

CLASSNOTES | Profile Another work in our collection that I love is the portrait of Toni Morrison

by Robert McCurdy. In 1993, Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature. She was the first black woman to become a Nobel laureate. The portrait is richly painted and full of immaculate detail, achieving an arresting presence from a distance and an intimate, visual conversation up close.

I am a military historian, and from my own scholarly interests, I have been drawn again and again to the figure of John J. Pershing. Most people know of Pershing as the commander in chief of American Expeditionary Forces, the mastermind of American victory during World War I. Pershing ensured that white soldiers would be buried alongside black soldiers; this was no ordinary accomplishment during the era of Jim Crow.

B: How do you and your team decide who is featured on NPG’s walls?

LEMAY: Many of our galleries have themes that help us select the portraits

&

with

KATE C. LEMAY ’97

In July 2015, Kate Lemay ’97 became a member of the history department at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. As a former professor of art history and military historian, she is looking forward to applying her experiences in teaching to the wider public. Here the Delaware native shares her expectations for the NPG. BULLETIN: How would you describe a typical day in the life of a National Portrait

Gallery historian?

KATE LEMAY: No one day is the same, but I regularly attend curatorial meetings for collaborative brainstorming and I am constantly researching and writing, whether it is to evaluate a possible new acquisition or to write an essay for an exhibition I am planning. Often I give tours in the museum galleries.

B: Which three NPG portraits best reflect America’s multifaceted story?

LEMAY: Benjamin Franklin has always interested me, in part because he

captured the attention of one of my earliest important role models – my father, J. A. Leo Lemay, who died in 2008. My dad was arguably the foremost scholarly expert on Benjamin Franklin. Fortunately for me, the National Portrait Gallery has in its collection one of the best portraits of Franklin ever made, a painting executed in 1785 by Joseph Siffred Duplessis.

– for example, America’s Presidents – but we are constantly working on new exhibitions. We use individuals, and their accomplishments, to reveal the rich depths of the American character. There is no shortage of portraits of estimable or influential Americans. Currently I am working on a show about the life of W. E.B. Du Bois and another about the iconic image of Marlene Dietrich.

B: What advice can you give to students interested in pursuing a career in the arts and humanities?

LEMAY: The liberal arts cultivate skills in critical thinking, a necessity in being successful in any job in any field. So find something you love, and go for it, because you really can’t go wrong when you choose your passion.

B: How did Choate Rosemary Hall influence your character and career path?

LEMAY: Much of my career path was shaped by a fierce independence and a

deep commitment to investigate the things that interested me. Choate honed my skills to think critically, to manage my time efficiently, and – let’s be honest – to work really, really hard.

B: Did you have any mentors at CRH? LEMAY: There are probably a lot of people that I am leaving out, but the ones

that come to mind now include Doug Price, who worked in Admission and who was both warm and funny when on dorm duty; Barbara Guardenier, whose fun-loving warmth was a great pleasure; Char Davidson, who was sensitive and wonderfully encouraging; and Daniel Chisholm, my French teacher, who jumped up and down with me in the hallway in celebration of when I passed my AP exam. Ian Morris, Alden Smith, Amy Salot, Gwen Heuss-Severance, and many more.

B: What inspired you to write about D-Day and the American war cemeteries in France?

LEMAY: My book, Triumph of the Dead: Art, Architecture, and Memory in the American War Cemeteries in Postwar France, emerged out of my dissertation. I found the topic during a seminar I took on Art and Site Specificity as part of my Ph.D. coursework. It was 2006, and my eldest brother was serving his first tour in Iraq. Currently he is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, and an Infantry Ranger. I started to wonder about Americans who had lost someone in war, and how they coped with it. It was then that I started seeing war memorials literally emerge from a landscape that previously, to me at least, was invisible. After so much research and writing, I am happy to say that the book is almost finished, and it is forthcoming in a special series on war and memory published by the University of Alabama Press.

STORY B Y c o n n i e G e l b ’ 7 8 Connie Gelb ’78 teaches English at the George Washington University.

52 CLASSNOTES

Amy Hellman reports that she recently purchased an organic Macadamia nut farm in Hawi, Big Island Hawaii with her partner, Corey. She intends to open her orchard to the public as a healing and learning space to host classes, retreats, and more in the coming months, and she looks forward to seeing you all there! E komo mai!

’02 2000s ’02

Amy Hellman reports that she recently purchased an organic Macadamia nut farm in Hawi, Big Island Hawaii with her partner, Corey. Her healing business, Manna Healing with Amy J., specializing in physical, emotional and spiritual healing using the Thetahealing® technique, a combination of applied quantum physics and psychic phenomena has relocated to Hawaii as well. She intends to open her orchard to the public as a healing and learning space to host classes, retreats and more in the coming months, and she looks forward to seeing you all there! E komo mai!”

Anthea Jay Kamalnath serves as an advisor to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and is a Franklin Fellow in the U.S. Department of State. She recently helped negotiate along with Ambassador Sarah E. Mendelson, U.S. Representative to the Economic and Social Affairs Council of the United Nations, the adoption of a General Assembly resolution.

Dwyer Kilcollin is an artist specializing in 3D modeling techniques – you can see her art at dwyerkilcollin.com – and she’s also involved in the jewelry company Spinelli Kilcollin - spinellikilcollin. com - which does high end sculptural jewelry sold through Barney’s New York.

’04

Derek Davidson married Anastasia Tess Scott – an Andover grad – in August 2015 – in Kennebunkport, ME. Choate attendees included: Mark Suchy, Jeremy Zeitlin, Frank DiVittorio, Todd Keats ’07, Anthony DePietto ’07, and Jonathan Kelleher ’11.

Alessandra Echeverria writes, “I’m excited to share that I recently accepted a position with the Relay Graduate School of Education as the manager of AmeriCorps Residency Programs. I also volunteer with the Getalong Dachshund Rescue to help find loving homes for dogs. This is the wonderful rescue that saved my dog Frank, and I love helping other families find their perfect pets.”

Cate Mingoya, who received her master’s degree in city planning from the MIT School of Architecture and Planning in June, recently conducted a comparative study that analyzed the benefits and challenges of tiny house villages. Momentum is building to adopt tiny houses to aid the more than 600,000 Americans facing homelessness. Two such efforts are Dignity Village in Portland, Ore., and Occupy Madison Village in Madison, Wis. Says Cate: “Tiny houses [freestanding dwellings as small as 90 square feet] offer an alternative approach to helping those experiencing homelessness in a way that provides the human basics – such as heat, shelter, water – while going deeper and providing autonomy, respect, and care.”.

Bryna O’Sullivan, founder of Charter Oak Genealogy, reports that she was named the 2015 Young Professionals Scholarship winner by the Association of Professional Genealogists.

’05

Ann Morrow Johnson reports that Star Wars Season of the Force, Hyperspace Mountain, and Star Wars Launch Bay, the projects she managed at Walt Disney Imagineering, all opened in November at Disneyland. The international news coverage of the opening gave her the opportunity to speak about the projects in both English and Spanish on 19 different news networks. Outside of work, the Yale School of Architecture asked her to be a guest lecturer and a guest critic for their final reviews. Lastly, her design work was published for the first time in the annual journal The Classicist.

Tochi Onyebuchi spent his third and final year of law school studying in Paris at Institut d’études politiques ("Sciences-Po") and earning, in addition to a J.D. from Columbia Law School, a Masters en droit économique at the conclusion of the bilingual program. After graduation, he began his tenure as a civil rights fellow at the Office of the New York State Attorney General, working under Choate alumna Kristen Clarke ’93.

’06

Former Choate soccer players Case Carpenter, Dane Evans ’05 and Tom Gilloran ’05 won their second consecutive NYC Urban Soccer League title with team St. Elmo FC. Other Choaties who regularly play with the squad include Tommy McQueen ’05, Spencer Gantsoudes ’06 and Alex Davidow ’04.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 53

1 Simone Chao ’00, hosted a

Quarterly Catch Up Dinner for Choate alumni in Hong Kong on October 12, 2015. Top row, from left, Simone, Arthur Mui ’04, Christopher Yu ’01, Jennifer Yu ’99, and Clifford Chow ’02.

Bottom row, from left, Patricia

Yeung ’97, Maria Wu ’97, and Angela Fan ’98.

2 Caitlin Dube ’01 and her husband, Scott Reding, welcomed a daughter, Ramona Caitlin Reding, on November 17, 2014.

3 Ali Gusberg ’00 and James

Healy ’01 were married September 12, 2015. Choate friends in attendance, back row, from left, Dan Kroeber ’00, Alfredo Axtmayer ’00, Adam Rahal ’01, Steve Baldassarri ’01, Dan Zaccagnino ’01, Mike Jones

’01, John Vaccaro ’01, Chris Eggers ’01, and Robbie Botta ’01. Middle row, from left, Nate Stanglein ’00, James Healy ’01, Ali (Gusberg) Healy ’00, Katy (Clark-Spohn) Botta ’01, Paige (Ryan) Shank ’01, and Lindsay Whalen ’01. Front row, from

left, Dayna McGill ’00, Alana (Sisson) Kroeber ’00, Jess Gusberg ’01, and Maura Farver ’01. Not pictured: Manu Nathan ’00, Ryan Vasan ’00, and Julie Goodyear.

4 Dan Leventhal ’03 married

Lindsey Grieve in Olympic National Park in Washington state in August 2015. The couple continues to live in Seattle where they have been for the last eight years.

2

1

3

4

6

5 7

8

9

5 Cate Mingoya ’04 was married

6 Jeremy White ’03 married

7 Sam Chao ’04 and his wife,

8 Krishna Nirmel ’05 married

9 Kyle McDonnell ’05 and Bob

to Cole Springate-Combs in Maine last September. Cate currently serves as the Director of Policy and Programming for Public Housing and Rental Assistance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Jessica O’Hara at Dahlgren Chapel on the campus of Georgetown on September 26, 2015. Classmates in attendance included Travis Wolf, Anna Lindel, Mark Matza, Thomas Schecter, and the groom’s sister Miranda White ’06.

Jee Eun Park, and daughter, Alexis, welcomed their second daughter, Jamie Yen Yue Chao, on July 20, 2015.

Lauren McGarry on August 15, 2015 at the Blessed Sacrament Church with the reception and celebration at the St. Regis in Manhattan.

Sherman P ’07, ’12 hosted a summer afternoon of golf at Rockrimmon Country Club (Stamford, CT) with Choate faculty. From left, LJ Spinnato, Ethan McDonnell ’09, Kyle and Bob, Stephen Farrell, and Pat Dennehy.

54 CLASSNOTES

2 1

3

4

5

7

8

6

9 1 Gwen Effgen ’06 married

’07

Constance (Lily) Haydock writes, “I am currently studying at Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne in the Executive MBA program (Sept 2015 - Sept 2016). The experience is great so far, and I would love to connect with any Choaties (if any) in Switzerland. Upon graduation, I am looking to work for a hotel asset manager or work in hotel portfolio management.”

Briana Fasone received her MFA in creative writing from Columbia’s School of the Arts. She dedicated her thesis to the late Zachary Goodyear.

Barrett LaChance was married on November 25, 2015 to Yuna Sakuma. Yuna is originally from Tokyo, Japan and the couple held a traditional shinto ceremony at the Atsuta shrine in her grandparents’ home town of Nagoya with about 35 family members and friends in attendance. Yuna attended Phillips Exeter Academy and the couple met on the crew team during their freshman year at Princeton University. The couple will be holding another wedding ceremony and reception in Old Saybrook, Connecticut in July 2016.

Claire Preston is living in Los Angeles and recently started her own company called The SunnyLion! It’s an active, beach lifestyle offering tangle-free earbuds all handwoven locally. She gives a special Choate discount! A portion of all profits goes to organizations supporting women in the Congo who are victims of the conflict mineral crisis.

Check her site at thesunnylion.com

’10

Ian Chan recently relocated from New York City to London with Bain & Company after spending a year working in the New York office. Ian has loved exploring the city of his birth, and recently hosted fellow alum Kristine Yamartino ’10. Ian is keen on getting involved with the Choate community in London, starting with the Winter Wonderland outing.

Feel free to give a shout if you would like to organize a Choate meet-up in London!

Shira Knishkowy is the Director of Publicity at Matador Records (home of Yo La Tengo, Pavement, Cat Power, Kurt Vile, Belle & Sebastian, Savages, etc.) based in NYC.

Vincent Nero in Brooklyn on March 21, 2015. Pictured here are her classmates, from left, Rana Searfoss, Maggie Boissard, Kate Deming, Rachel Levenson, and K.C. Maloney.

2 Madeline Ruskin ’06 and Alexandra Schwartz ’14 cheered on McClatchy Ruskin ’11 and Ellison Taylor ’13 as Claremont McKenna Mens Water Polo won the SCIAC Championships in California last November.

3 Barrett LaChance ’07 married Yuna Sakuma on November 25, 2015 in a traditional shinto ceremony at the Atsuta shrine in her grandparents’ home town.

4 Ashley McGeary ’08 with Michael Hsu ’08 and his mother in Taipei, May 2015. Ashley met up with the Hsu family while traveling in Taiwan.

5 Claire Preston ’07 is founder of The SunnyLion, a beach lifestyle company offering tangle-free earbuds all locally handwoven.

6 Annie Oxborough-Yankus ’08 and Paul Braude were married on June 21, 2015 on Cape Cod.

From left, Alex OxboroughYankus ’10, Tom Yankus ’52, Annie Oxborough-Yankus Braude ’08, Paul Braude, and Julie Oxborough.

7 Maggie Nixon ’09 married Joe Caron ’09 in Old Lyme, CT on August 7, 2015. In the wedding party were maid-of-honor Sofia Garcia-Garcia ’09 and groomsmen David Hollister ’09, Mike Yowan ’09, and T.C. Nixon ’11. In attendance were Nancy Miller (Dean and English teacher), and classmates Sarah Gallalee, Adam Stasiw, Kristen Raddatz, Kayla Restifo, Melissa Rybacki, Guy Dupont, and Harrison Gale.

8 Ato Bentsi-Enchill ’12, a student at Hobart, visited Choate classmate Rafiq Chatani ’12 and former prefect Matt Cheng ’10 at UPenn.

9 Caitlin Farrell ’15, a freshman at Georgetown, has been named as a unanimous selection to the Division 1 Big East 2015 All-Freshman Team.

Pictured here in a game against Virginia Tech.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 55

IN MEMORIAM | Remembering Those We Have Lost Alumni and Alumnae

’38 In 1993, Doug was corecipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and he was also the recipient of many other awards.

–DOUGLASS C. NORTH C ’38

’36 C Sergei S. Gagarin, 96, a retired aeronautical engineer, died June 20, 2015. The son of exiled Russian royalty, Serge was born in New York City and came to Choate in 1931. He was manager of the Glee Club and participated in forestry and skiing. After graduating from Yale, where he was captain of the ski team, he attended the Casey Jones School of Aeronautics at New York’s LaGuardia Airfield. He then was an aeronautical engineer at Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford, Conn. for more than 25 years, and held several patents. For almost 50 years, Serge was a director of the Tolstoy Foundation and its rehabilitation and nursing center in Valley Cottage, N.Y. An expert in American antiques, he ran an antiques business with his wife for more than 20 years. He leaves two sons, including Andrew Gagarin, 4 Lighthouse Rd., Westerly, RI 02891; and two grandchildren. ’38 C

Douglass C. North, 95, a Nobel Prize-winning professor of economics, died November 23, 2015. Born in Cambridge, Mass., Doug came to Choate in 1934. He excelled at photography, winning a School photography prize, serving as Photo Editor of the Literary Magazine, and heading the Camera Club. He then graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a triple bachelor’s degree in political science, philosophy, and economics.

After serving in the Merchant Marine during World War II, he returned to Berkeley to earn a doctorate in economics. He served 33 years on the economics faculty at the University of Washington, Seattle, then taught at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., heading its Arts & Sciences Center in Political Economy in the 1980s. He liked to describe his area of expertise as investigating “why some countries become rich, while others remain poor.” He also was involved in the newer field of institutional economics. In 1993, he was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and he was also the recipient of many other awards. In 1987, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; in 1992, he won the John R. Commons Award for economics; and in 1996 he was elected a Fellow of

the British Academy. In 1994, he was awarded the Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Seal Prize. The economics prize at Choate is named in his honor. Doug was the author of 10 books on economics and society. He also continued to enjoy photography, as well as fishing, hunting, and, 50 years ago, flying his own airplane. He leaves his wife, Elisabeth North, 145 N. Bemiston Ave., St. Louis, MO 63105; three sons; and four grandchildren. A brother, the late Henry E. North ’35, also attended Choate.

’39 C

Kenneth Schwartz, 94, a retired financial consultant, died October 1, 2015. Born in White Plains, N.Y., Ken came to Choate in 1934. He was on the boards of the Brief and the Literary Magazine, lettered in soccer, was President of the Camera Club, and played clarinet in the Band. After two years at Yale, he enlisted in the Coast Guard’s anti-submarine patrol fleet; following World War II, he returned to Yale, graduating with honors. Ken engaged in various business endeavors during his career, including market research at Lever Brothers and industrial engineering at Western Electric.

He later became a financial consultant and was a lecturer at the Wharton School of Business. He always enjoyed sailing, especially racing his Star class sailboat; he also liked photography and golf. He leaves his wife, Virginia Wells Schwartz ’41, 454 Gatewood Drive, New Bern, NC 28562; and two sons.

’42 C

Frank Kenna Jr., 91, a retired firearms company executive, died July 30, 2015. Born in New Haven, Conn., Frank came to Choate in 1940. He lettered in crew, played hockey, and was in the Glee Club and the History Club.

He went to Yale, but left to enlist in the Marines during World War II, where he served in the Marshall Islands. After the war, he graduated from Clarkson College of Technology in Potsdam, N.Y. and then joined the family business, Marlin Firearms Co., in North Haven, Conn. He eventually became President and CEO of the company and its sister, the Marlin Co., a provider of workplace communications. Frank was on the boards of First New Haven National Bank, the Second National Bank, the Connecticut Savings Bank, and the United Illuminating Co. He was a

founding member of the Connecticut chapter of Ducks Unlimited and a past president of the Manufacturers Association. He enjoyed golf, hunting, skiing, and dancing. He leaves his wife, Joan Kenna, 88 Notch Hill Rd., Apt. 335, North Branford, CT 06471; six children; 16 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

’43 C Stuart C. Whiteside Jr., 91, a retired executive of IBM Corp., died September 29, 2015. Born in White Plains, N.Y., Stu came to Choate in 1941; he was a Campus Cop and played league football, basketball, and baseball. He earned a commission in the Navy Civil Engineer Corps, and served in active and reserve status until 1961.

After graduating from Yale, Stu worked for IBM in the western United States, retiring in 1987. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, and boating, as well as woodworking, and was a member of several woodcarvers clubs. He leaves four children, eight grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. ’44 C Richard I. Goodkind, 88, a retired stockbroker, died November 12, 2015. Born in New York City, Richard came to Choate in 1942. He was in the History Club and lettered in basketball and tennis. After graduation from Northwestern University, where he was on the championship tennis team, he spent the bulk of his career on Wall Street, at one point as a partner with his brother. Later in life, he taught at the John Dewey School in Great Barrington, Mass. Richard enjoyed golfing and studying history. He leaves two sons and a stepdaughter. ’44 RH Virginia Elizabeth Moore Bosch, 87, a homemaker, died July 23, 2015. Born in Mystic, Conn., Virginia came to Rosemary Hall in 1940, She was head of the Music Club, Vice President of the Kindly Club, an Assistant Marshal, and in Philomel. She then earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut, married, and lived many years in New Jersey until moving to Florida in 1992. Virginia enjoyed camping, piano, and square dancing.

She leaves her husband, William Bosch, 7879 North Golfview Dr., Dunnellon, FL 34434; and three children.

56 IN MEMORIAM

John M. Williams, 88, a retired advertising and public relations executive, died August 5, 2015. Born in New York City, Jack came to Choate in 1940.

He lettered in tennis and was on the board of the News and in the French Club and History Club. He then graduated from Princeton and, after serving during the Korean War, began a long career in advertising and public relations. At one time he worked for the Aeolian Corp., and he retired from Dun & Bradstreet as manager of corporate communications. He won a major award from the Public Relations Society of America in 1959. Jack was the cofounder and president of Friends of the Bay, which saved the Oyster Bay Wildlife Refuge on Long Island. He was also the Mayor of the village of Centre Island, N.Y., for 19 years. He leaves his wife, Joan Williams, 13801 York Rd., Apt. W-8, Cockeysville, MD 21030; two children, Roderick Williams ’76 and Maris Williams ’77, and three grandchildren. ’45 C

William E. Beggs, 87, the retired owner of a linen supply company, died August 21, 2015. Born in Boston, Bill was at Choate for one year, leaving to join the Navy. He lettered in hockey and was in the Glee Club. After World War II, he attended MIT, Northeastern University and the Pratt Institute, then joined the family tannery business. In 1957, he bought a linen supply and diaper service, and ran that company until 1974. More recently, he built homes in southeastern Massachusetts, retiring in 1998. Bill enjoyed golf, tennis, sailing, and bowling. He leaves five children, eight grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter. Three brothers also attended Choate: Dudley Beggs ’49, George Beggs ’55, and the late Gordon Beggs ’52.

Robert E. Tolles, 88, a writer, died November 6, 2015. Born in Norwalk, Conn., Bob came to Choate in 1942.

He was Editor of the Literary Magazine, Secretary-Treasurer of St. Andrew’s Cabinet, on the Student Council, and in the Press Club and the Cum Laude Society. After Choate, he served in the Navy, then graduated from Yale. He was a reporter for the Norwalk Hour newspaper before becoming a staff writer for Sikorsky Aircraft. During the Kennedy administration, he was a foreign service officer with the U.S. Information Service in Bogota, Colombia.

For more than 20 years he was with the Ford Foundation, rising to become director of its office of reports; he later was a freelance writer and editor with several other foundations. In his spare time, he taught English as a second language, did carpentry work, and was a tax preparer for H&R Block. He also was a class agent for both his Choate and Yale classes. He leaves his wife, Barbara Tolles, 91 Bickford Ln., New Canaan, CT 06840; two children, including David Tolles ’70; and a brother.

’46 C

Henry Bilhuber, 87, a retired engineering field executive, died June 23, 2015 in Media, Pa. Born in Douglaston, N.Y., Hank came to Choate in 1944. He lettered in wrestling and track, winning a School wrestling prize; was on the board of the Brief; and was in the Choral Club and the Campus Cops. After graduating from Lafayette College, he was an officer in the Navy for three years. He then was an engineering field executive with Mobil Oil for 35 years, and was responsible for the construction of an oil rig in the North Sea jointly owned by England, Norway, and Mobil. Hank was an enthusiastic boater, owning both a schooner and a yawl, and racing in yacht regattas.

He also enjoyed tennis, skiing, golf, foreign travel, and art. He was a former president of the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild. He leaves his wife, Gloria Bilhuber, 103 N. Longview Circle, Media, PA 19063; four sons; six grandchildren; three great-grandchildren, and his twin brother, Ernest Bilhuber ’46.

’49 RH Sara Jane Whitcomb Johnson, 85, who taught needlework, died August 21, 2015. Born in Philadelphia, Sally came to Rosemary Hall in 1945.

She lettered in hockey and was President of the Kindly Club Council, head of the Chapel Committee, secretary of the Rules Committee, and in the Music Club. She then graduated from Wellesley. Sally was also a graduate of Elsa Williams, a needlework school in West Townsend, Mass., and of the Royal School of Needlework in London.

In 1981, she was one of those who sewed the wedding dress of Lady Diana Spencer for her marriage to Prince Charles. She was an enthusiastic tennis player. She leaves her husband, Charles A. Johnson, 96 Shoreline Drive, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928; four children; and eight grandchildren.

’50 C James McLachlan, 83, a retired history professor and author, died June 19, 2015. Born in Danbury, Conn., Jim came to Choate in 1946. He was associate editor of the News and editor of the Literary Magazine Supplement, and was in the Cum Laude Society and the Current History Club. After Choate, he served in the Army in Germany, then graduated from Columbia. He taught American history at several universities, including Yale and Fordham. In the 1970s, he worked on a biographical directory of every graduate of Princeton, and in the 1980s he created a course in “material culture” at New York University. Jim was the author of American Boarding Schools: A Historical Study, which was his doctoral dissertation, and many other works. He enjoyed the ballet and garden history and design.

He leaves his wife, Elizabeth McLachlan, 124 Berry Patch Lane, Chapel Hill, NC 27514; and a sister. ’51 C

Gary R. Ozaroff, 81, a retired retail executive, died August 21, 2015.

Born in Brooklyn, N. Y., Gary came to Choate in 1947. He was a Campus Cop and was in the Western Club, the Stamp Club, the Rifle Club and the Choral Club. After graduating from Cornell, he was an executive at several large retailers, including Macy’s and Dayton Hudson. He retired as Executive Vice President of the QVC Network. He leaves his wife, Melinda Ozaroff, 5117 Cantabria Crest, Sarasota, FL 34238; three children; two stepchildren; and 13 grandchildren.

Edward M. Voke, 82, an orthopedic physician, died July 14, 2015.

Born in Akron, Ohio, Ed came to Choate in 1947. He was associate editor of the News, ran track, and was in the Western Club, the French Club, and the History Club. He earned bachelor’s, master’s, and M.D. degrees from Ohio State, then practiced for two years with the U.S. Public Health Service in Anchorage, Alaska. After completing his medical residency at the University of Iowa, he moved back to Anchorage and began a 46-year practice as an orthopedic surgeon there. Ed specialized in the surgical management of spinal, hip and knee disorders. He enjoyed animals and sailing, especially on Prince William Sound. He leaves his wife, Susan Voke, 5950 N. Coatimundi Dr., Tucson, AZ 85750; three daughters; and three grandchildren.

’52 C Harry B. Stewart, 81, a real estate executive, died August 28, 2015. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Harry came to Choate in 1947. He lettered in track, was on the board of the Brief, was President of the Mineral Club, and won a School prize for excellence in manual arts. After graduation from the University of Akron and service in the Navy, he worked for the Akron Regional Development Board before obtaining his commercial real estate license. He then worked for NAI Cummins Commercial Real Estate in Akron until a few weeks before his death. An avid water skier, he had been nationally ranked both as a skier and a boat driver, and placed first nationally and second in the world in slalom competition. He also enjoyed fishing, collecting arrowheads and coins, and the outdoors. He leaves his wife, Julie Stewart, 173 Riverside Dr., Munroe Falls, OH 44262; two daughters; six grandchildren, and a sister. ’57 RH Karen Klein Dugan, 75, a retired promoter of the arts, died July 29, 2015. Born in Orange, N.J., Karen came to Rosemary Hall in 1953; she was the editor of the Question Mark, a marshal, in the Drama Club, and on the Rules Committee, the Chapel Committee, and the Year Committee.

She then attended the University of Colorado. She established the Sun Sign Center, a gallery, in Boulder, then was the first director of the Boulder Center of Contemporary Art. She was later director of cultural programs at the Boulder Public Library. She won many awards, including the Pacesetter Award and Women Who Light Up the Community.

She leaves her husband, Tom Dugan, 2945 19th St., Boulder, CO 80304; three children, seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. A sister, the late Louise “Jill” Campbell ’60, also attended Rosemary Hall.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 57

’58 C

William B. Swift Jr., 77, a piano company executive, died October 10, 2015. Born in Fort Worth, Bill came to Choate in 1956. He lettered in track, was in the Glee Club, the Maiyeros, and the Gold Key Society; and was President of St. Andrew’s Cabinet. After graduating from Texas Christian University, he was in real estate for a decade, then became an executive with the Luke Wickman Piano Co. in Fort Worth.

For years, he performed jazz as the leader of the Bill Swift Trio. He was a national leader of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity and was co-chairman of the Miss Texas pageant. He leaves his wife, Sharon R. Swift, 4912 Westhaven Drive, Fort Worth, TX 76132; three children; four grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a sister.

’59 C Carl E. Cella, 74, an attorney, died October 1, 2015. Born in Meriden, Carl came to Choate in 1955; he was in the Rifle Club and the Band. He then earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown and a law degree from the University of Connecticut. He was a clerk for a Connecticut Supreme Court judge, then on the State Judicial Board for three years. Carl was a founder of the firm of Cella-Flanagan of North Haven, Conn, and was active in Republican Party politics. He leaves his wife, Mauriann Cella, 21 Washington Ave., North Haven, CT 06473; three children; three grandchildren; and a sister. ’62 C

Stuart T. Kagel, 71, the former owner of an apparel company, died August 18, 2015. Born in Sebring, Fla., Stu came to Choate in 1959. He played varsity football and was in the French Club, the Art Club, the Rod and Gun Club, and the Altar Guild. After graduating from the University of North Carolina, he joined JC Penney Co.’s executive training program and later co-owned the clothing firm Kelly Slax.

In 2000 he co-founded 24 Seven Inc., a global strategic staffing and recruiting company. Stu was an avid outdoorsman who collected sporting art and antiques. He leaves his partner, Celeste Gudas, 24 Willow St., Brooklyn, NY 11201; four children; three grandchildren, and a brother, Colin Kagel ’54.

’80 Mark E. Cunningham, 53, the owner of a landscaping business, died October 6, 2015. Born in New Haven, Mark came to Choate in 1976; he was in the Corporation Club and tutored younger students in math. After attending the University of New Haven, he worked for the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority, and later owned ATD Field Renovators and ATD Landscaping. Mark was a longtime supporter of the East Haven Youth Hockey League, and was an assistant coach of hockey at Branford (Conn.)

High School. He leaves three children, including Patrick Cunningham, 7 Oakdale Rd., Branford, CT 06405. ’04

Moise Y. Joseph, 30, director of the Science Laboratory at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, died September 13, 2015. He was shot to death while protecting a woman from her ex-husband. Born in Miami, Fla., Moise came to Choate Rosemary Hall in 2003 after graduating from Miami (Fla.) Norland Senior High School, where he was captain of the football team. At Choate, he also lettered in football. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Florida A&M, he joined the staff as an instructor and later headed the science lab. A coworker said that Moise “was a great leader. He made the lab a great environment to work in.” He was also an instructor in the college’s first-year experience program. He leaves his parents, stepfather, three sisters, and a brother.

Faculty, Staff, and Trustees Doris Douglas Butler, widow of former Choate English teacher Robert Butler, died December 2, 2015 in West Hartford, Conn. She was 92. Born in Windsor, Conn., Doris graduated from Colby Junior College in New Hampshire.

After working briefly at Travelers Insurance Co., she married Bob Butler, who taught English at various independent schools and colleges. They were at Choate from 1960 to 1964; he left to become head of Tilton School in New Hampshire.

In what she called “an itinerant but rewarding life,” they also were at the Hun School, Douglass College, Gettysburg College, the Gunnery, and elsewhere. Bob died in 2001, and Doris moved back to Windsor. She enjoyed

painting, cooking, Bible study, and art museums. She leaves two sons and three grandchildren.

Ann Chase Twichell Hendrie, the former wife of Choate Rosemary Hall Latin and English teacher Charles Twichell, died October 24, 2015. She was 88. Born in Waterbury, Conn., Ann attended the Madeira School and Bryn Mawr, majoring in art history.

When her husband taught at Choate, she volunteered at the Paul Mellon Arts Center and was active with the New Haven Garden Club and the New Haven Colony Historical Society. She was also on the board of the Foote School in New Haven. Ann later married Robert F. Hendrie, who died in 1997.

Chas Twichell died in 2004. She leaves three daughters: Cary Twichell ’79, 652 Angell St., Providence, RI 02906; Chase Twichell; and Eliza Twichell; four grandchildren, including Andrus Nichols ’95; and four stepchildren.

Thomas H. Roulston II ’51, a Trustee of Choate Rosemary Hall for three years, died October 6, 2015. He was 82. Born in New York City, Tom came to Choate in 1947. He lettered in hockey, was Business Manager of the News, a cheerleader, and in the Altar Guild and the Press Club. He was also manager of The Judge, an occasional humor magazine. After graduating from Dartmouth, he served in the Air Force, and in 1963 founded his own investment management firm, Roulston & Co. He was a Trustee at Choate from 1980 to 1983. For 25 years, Tom was an officer of Bluecoats, a group dedicated to serving the families of police and firefighters killed in the line of duty; he also worked with public officials to find jobs for those coming out of prison, and he was on many public and private corporate and civic boards. He enjoyed travel.

He leaves his wife, Lois Roulston, 5150 Three Village Dr., Apt. 2-G, Cleveland, OH 44124; three children, Scott Roulston ’75, Thomas Roulston III ’77, and Heather R. Ettinger ’79; eight grandchildren; two great-grandsons; and a sister. His father, the late Henry D. “Dave” Roulston ’26, also attended Choate.

Margaret Jane Forelli Urciuoli ’60, a Trustee of Choate Rosemary Hall for three years, died September 19, 2015. She was 73. Born in New York City, Maggie came to Rosemary Hall in 1956. She was on the Dance Committee, in the Nativity Play, and was voted “Most Collegiate” by her classmates.

In a college recommendation letter, Headmistress Alice McBee said she had “real talent in the field of art.” After graduating from Boston University with a degree in fine arts, she co-founded Small Ideas, a company producing fine antique furniture reproductions in miniature. She also was an accomplished painter in oils and, as a hobby, produced handmade Nantucket baskets. Maggie was a Trustee at Choate from 1985 to 1988, and was also on the board of the Casey Key Library in Florida. She leaves her husband, J. Arthur “Archie” Urciuoli, 1906 Casey Key Rd., Nokomis, FL 34275; two children; and five grandchildren.

Our sympathy to the family of the following alumna whose death is reported with sorrow: Anne Russell ’48 May 13, 2013

58

SCOREBOARD | Fall Sports Wrap-up

21 CONSECUTIVE

WINS

GO CHOATE!

At 21 wins, this is the longest unbeaten streak for Choate football. Previous records were set in the 1930s by J.J. Maher’s teams.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 59 1 Hannah MacNamee ’19 brings it in at a home cross country meet.

2 Captain Albert Zhang ’16 scores a goal against Hopkins.

3 Kristina Schuler ’17 in the first round of the New England playoffs.

4 Amanda Reisman ’16 fires off one of her 12 goals this season.

5 Joe Berrafati ’17 leads a pair of opponents and Griffin Birney ’18

in a home cross country meet.

1

2

4

6 Football Captain Tyler Burns ’16 eludes a defender.

7 Choate Volleyball sets up a block at the net.

8 Andreas Piepenburg ’16 ties up the game 1-1 on Deerfield Day.

3

5

7

6 BOYS CROSS COUNTRY Varsity Season Record: 0-7 Captains: George Brencher ’16 & Matthew Y. Burlage ’16 Highlight: Placed 12th out of 15 in New England Championships GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY Varsity Season Record: 3-3 Captains: Esul J. Burton ’16 & Christina G. Casazza ’16 Highlight: Placed 12th in New England Championships FIELD HOCKEY Varsity Season Record: 6-7-2 Captains: Amanda R. Reisman ’16 & Meade R. Avery ’16 Highlight: Had the biggest win of the season at Deerfield, taking down the No. 2 seeded Big Green in the final regular season game

8 FOOTBALL Varsity Season Record: 10-0 Captains: Rory C. Tait ’16, Tyler M. Burns ’16, & Zachary A. Kastenhuber ’16 Highlights: Undefeated regular season for second consecutive year; All-New England Honorees include Abu Daramy ’16, overall NEPSAC Player of the Year; Anthony Solano ’16, offensive tackle; Tyler Burns ’16, receiver; and Zak Kastenhuber ’16, linebacker.

BOYS SOCCER Varsity Season Record: 8-6-4 Captains: John L. Shultz ’16 & Frank L. Cadwell ’16 Highlights: Strong season, tied Deerfield at end of season.

GIRLS SOCCER Varsity Season Record: 16-2-1 Captains: Kristi L. Wharton ’16 & Zoe C. Stublarec ’16 Highlights: Earned post-season berth; only one loss in regular season to Loomis; lost to Worcester in New England Semifinal

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL Varsity Season Record: 12-5 Captain: Anna K. Hackett ’16 Highlights: Earned post-season berth; lost to Loomis in New England Semifinal

BOYS WATER POLO Varsity Season Record: 9-7 Captains: Albert Y. Zhang ’16, Natt C. Chan ’16, & Omar I. John ’16 Highlight: Beat Suffield in Triple OT to make playoffs; eliminated in 1st round of New England playoffs by Loomis

60

BOOKSHELF

In this issue, an art historian takes a long look at forgery and its perpetrators, a professor of communications gives readers insight into the history of presidential primaries beginning with the 1912 Republican Primary, a memoirist sees a parallel between the books we read and how they shape our life experiences, and a premier sports journalist sets his debut young adult novel at a contemporary boarding school.

The Art of Forgery

By Noah Charney ’98 | Reviewed by Andrea Thompson

THE ART OF FORGERY Author: Noah Charney ’98 Publisher: Phaidon About the Reviewer: Andrea Thompson is the co-author, with Jacob Lief, of the book I Am Because You Are.

The economics of art is a faith-based system. Is that a Picasso, or a knock-off? Is it worth a million dollars, or a hundred? Often, the answer comes down to a feeling – the conviction of an expert, someone with long experience and knowledge of an artist’s technique and oeuvre. This connoisseur’s approval – unregulated by any institution – often provides all the authentication an artwork needs to be sold at dizzying sums in the marketplace.

Noah Charney ’98 knows this world intimately, both as a professor of art history and as a specialist in the arena of art crime (he founded the nonprofit group ARCA, the Association for Research into Crimes against Art, and has written extensively on the topic, including a novel, The Art Thief). Here he takes a long look at forgery and its perpetrators, their means and motivations, and the consequences of forged works entering the marketplace.

Forgery is a relatively docile crime, and arguably a victimless one – at least the victims, wealthy individuals or powerful institutions, seem less sympathetic by their very willingness to spend large sums of money on objects of intangible value.

For this reason, forgers often emerge in the public perception as Robin Hood figures, adroitly snookering the rich and blowing raspberries at the snobbish art world. After being caught for their forgeries, many serve a light sentence and then emerge into fame; some modern forgers have gone on to careers in television.

Charney argues, surprisingly, that money might be the least of a forger’s concerns, though the most successful can earn into the millions. Many seek revenge on an elite world that has rejected their own art; others revel in passing off their work as that of a master artist. Some, like the forger Tom Keating, treat

it as a game. Keating would set what he called “time bombs” into his forgeries: booby traps like a layer of glycerin that, should the painting be cleaned, would dissolve the paint above it, destroying the work and revealing its inauthenticity.

Advances in technology make it possible to more certainly identify forgeries: digitally documenting the unique pattern of roughness of a small portion of a painting (much like a fingerprint), analyzing the organic components of paint, using radiation to peer beneath layers. Yet someone first has to raise the red flag. Charney relates the case of Matisse’s Odalisque in Red Trousers, which was stolen in 2000 from the Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art. The thieves replaced the painting with a skillful forgery, and it took two years for anyone to notice the switch. (It was eventually recovered and returned to the museum.)

Charney treats his subject with nuance, noting with sympathy the circumstances that might lead to forgery and acknowledging the talent some forgers exhibit. (There is a limit to his admiration, though: “No matter how convincing the forgery, a forger’s work is inherently derivative.”) He recoils, though, at the crime itself – the act of creating a false story to pass off a forged painting as authentic. At its most destructive, this might involve inserting false documents into the historical record, anathema to Charney the scholar.

Yet the difficulty in combating forgery is that, to some, the historical record and scientific analysis are beside the point. The point of a piece of art is the feeling it evokes. And there are those who are willing, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, to keep the faith.

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 61

Let the People Rule

By Geoffrey Cowan ‘60 | Reviewed by Charles Hopkins

LET THE PEOPLE RULE: THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE BIRTH OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY Author: Geoffrey Cowan ‘60 Publisher: Norton About the Reviewer: Charles Hopkins is a member of the History, Philosophy, Religion, and Social Sciences Department where he teaches World and U.S. History.

Whenever my students remark that 2016 must be the most chaotic election ever, I draw their attention to 1968. In that year, the Democratic Party was rocked first by the success of anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy, then by Lyndon Johnson’s surprise announcement that he would not seek reelection, and finally by Bobby Kennedy’s assassination, resulting in a complex brokered convention in Chicago that eventually nominated Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who had not won a single primary. On top of that, former Vice President Richard Nixon returned from his “wilderness years” to win the Republican nomination, George Wallace ran on a segregation platform, and Eldridge Cleaver ran for the Black Panther Party.

The Democratic Party had another task at the 1968 Convention: reforming the primary system so that a candidate as lacking in popular support as Hubert Humphrey would not again receive the nomination. Geoffrey Cowan ’60 led a commission to propose the new rules, leading ABC News journalist Howard K. Smith to describe him as “the man who did more to change Democratic Conventions than anyone since Andrew Jackson first started them.” In setting up the new Democratic Convention rules, Cowan spent time studying the race for the Republican nomination in 1912, when former president Teddy Roosevelt returned from four years out of politics and used the then-innovative tool of presidential primaries to challenge his own hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft. Now Cowan, a professor at the University of Southern California, has written a detailed history of the race and the origins of presidential primaries.

In 1912, the progressive movement was in full swing. States such as Wisconsin and California had introduced voter initiatives, referenda, and recalls in an effort to increase democracy and bring greater power to the people. Their next goal was instituting presidential primaries, which, it was hoped, would put the choice of a presidential candidate firmly in the hands of voters, rather than party leadership.

Roosevelt, having decided to challenge Taft, quickly realized that primaries would benefit him. Taft, as the incumbent, could count on support from party leaders, many of whom he himself had appointed.

But Roosevelt, who is portrayed in Cowan’s writing as a more dynamic speaker and savvier political operator than Taft, believed he held an advantage in

states that would hold a primary. Instantly, Roosevelt became a supporter of primaries, adopting the slogan “Let the People Rule,” which also serves as the title of Cowan’s book.

Through exhaustive research, Cowan takes us through the 1912 Republican Primary season state by state, and then through the Republican National Convention (also, coincidentally, held in Chicago) day by day, as Roosevelt and his campaign managers struggled to gain the upper hand over Roosevelt’s erstwhile protégé. Cowan’s narrative features plenty of frantic letters discussing strategy, thrilling speeches that brought thousands to their feet, and suspenseful election nights spent waiting for returns. And the story is populated not only by the charismatic Roosevelt, but also by an eloquent convention floor manager, several conniving campaign operatives, and such colorful figures as a wealthy conservationist who began each day by having his valet throw buckets of ice-cold water over him, and a progressive senator who, while at Harvard, bet his classmates $500 he would eat a dozen raw eggs and his window curtain.

The race was hardly a gentlemanly affair. Even as conventional wisdom suggested the nominee had to be either Taft or Roosevelt, the race was nearly upset by the relative outsider Robert La Follett, who was both extremely popular and ideologically extreme in his time. In a desperate moment late in the race, the two campaigns tried to throw blame on each other for a decision made while Roosevelt had been president and Taft a member of his cabinet. The two campaigns made so many accusations and counter-accusations, released so many probative documents to the press, and slung so much mud, that one observer wrote that it was clear the public had no idea what to make of the supposed scandal. And when Roosevelt – spoiler alert! – lost the Republican nomination and bolted from the party, his new third party was funded entirely by only two wealthy supporters.

Cowan’s book serves as a detailed reminder that institutions we take for granted, such as presidential primaries, were once new and exciting ideas. It also serves as a reminder that, as chaotic as our political scene may seem today, there is little that America hasn’t seen before.

62

BOOKSHELF

Bookmarked

By Wendy Fairey ’60 | Reviewed by Andrea Thompson

BOOKMARKED Author: Wendy Fairey ’60 Publisher: Arcade Publishing About the Reviewer: Andrea Thompson is the co-author, with Jacob Lief, of the book I Am Because You Are.

How, and why, do we read? Novels, in particular, raise the question: What draws us to the made-up stories of strangers leading lives utterly foreign from our own?

In Wendy Fairey’s latest memoir-cum-criticalessay, she argues that in works of literature we find refuge, reflection, and affirmation. “We bring ourselves with all our aspirations and wounds, affinities and aversions, insights and confusions to the books we read, and our experience shapes our responses,” she writes, and uses her own history to demonstrate her thesis.

It helps that Fairey’s life, which also provided the subject matter of her previous book, One of the Family, is chockablock with plot contrivances: she grew up in Hollywood as the daughter of Sheilah Graham, the feared gossip columnist, whose library was stocked with books from F. Scott Fitzgerald, with whom she had a love affair. Graham eventually revealed that the genteel background she’d claimed (complete with childhood portraits) was a sham: she’d grown up in a Jewish orphanage. Later, Fairey discovered that the man she thought was her father was not, and that her true biological father was an acclaimed philosopher. And Fairey’s own love life had its twists and turns: Fairey’s husband left her, shortly after the birth of their son, for another woman, then came back; years later, she in turn began an affair with another woman, which ended the marriage.

THE HEART OF SUSTAINABILITY: RESTORING ECOLOGICAL BALANCE FROM THE INSIDE OUT Author: Andres R. Edwards ’78 Publisher: New Society Publishers

Yet the real substance of this book lies in Fairey’s invigorating, engrossing analysis of the books that map her life: Vanity Fair and Jane Eyre, Daniel Deronda, Portrait of a Lady, and Howard’s End, among others, and most influentially, David Copperfield. She has a visceral sense of herself connected to and in many ways embodied by these books. “The early reading of David Copperfield is as much a part of my personal history as anything ’real’ that happened to me,” she writes. Even more, her sense of identification with the book is intense: “But the sense of loving and being David Copperfield persisted – and has persisted to this present moment in which I write, early in a new century, nearing the end of a long teaching career, knowing I am in many ways ordinary yet still striving to count myself heroic.”

At times, Fairey’s academic persona glimmers forth, most amusingly in a précis of the ever-evolving critical reading of Jane Eyre, from contempt (from modernists) to empowerment (from second wave feminists) to charges of racism (from post-colonialists). And later in her career, she finds new paths of inquiry into the literature of India. But her real role here is as reader, someone for whom books are as integral to living as eating and drinking. For Fairey, and her sympathetic audience, the question becomes not so much why we read, but how can we read more?

SLEEPER CELL Author: Doug Karlson ’80 Publisher: CreateSpace Publishing

BULLETIN | WINTER 2016 63

Always a Catch

By Peter Richmond ’71 | Reviewed by Cheryl Bardoe

ALWAYS A CATCH Author: Peter Richmond ’71 Publisher: Philomel About the Reviewer: Cheryl Bardoe is a children’s book author whose titles include Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle, Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age, Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas, and The Ugly Duckling Dinosaur.

NOT JUST BATMAN’S BUTLER: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALAN NAPIER Author: Alan Napier, James Bigwood ’72 Publisher: McFarland & Co., Inc.

In every person’s life comes a critical moment of taking responsibility for one’s own choices and then acknowledging how these choices define one. This story follows Jack Lefferts as he navigates the peaks and precipices of coming of age at a prestigious boarding school. Is Jack a piano prodigy or an undiscovered football star? Is he a rule-follower or a rebel?

Will he follow the lead of influential adults and peers or take charge of his own destiny?

Jack’s acceptance at Oakhurst Hall as a fifth former is his big chance to “maybe feel like a winner at something. Something that was my idea. That no one ever told me I had to do.” Coming from Manhattan, Jack puts distance to the tense relationship with his father, who alternates between being consumed by business deals and wanting to live vicariously through his son. At school, Jack suddenly finds himself cast as a varsity receiver after hardly ever having played football. Meanwhile, he is expected to be the star musician at Oakhurst’s celebrated Thanksgiving concert. Both directions bring opportunities and challenges as Jack explores what it means to be a team player, whether he should use steroids to bulk up, and how much he is willing to quash others in pursuit of success.

Choate readers may recognize specific details of the story setting, such as an academic building called “St. John Hall,” an archrival called “the Green,” and references to gorgeously wooded cross-country trails.

Yet the author makes clear that Oakhurst is a fictional setting – a contemporary school where Internet and

cell phones are available for only two hours, two evenings a week and where the school’s administration and faculty seem staunchly opposed to music written after 1900. These devices heighten the stakes of the story as Jack and his friends plan a musical coup d’état with the potential to bring substantive change to Oakhurst.

The author populates the world of this story with a set of characters recognizable by anyone who has gone to boarding school. But don’t be disappointed if you don’t encounter the full range of students within its pages. Oakhurst is the setting, not the story. This is Jack’s story, told with an authenticity and internal truth that does not require being completely representative of the boarding school environment as it is today.

Peter Richmond’s first young adult novel comes amidst a long career as a premier sports journalist and author of six other books, including the New York Times bestseller The Glory Game, which he co-wrote with Frank Gifford about the 1958 NFL championship.

The football scenes in Always a Catch place readers at the dramatic center of the playing field and evoke a young athlete’s emerging sense of joy and pride in realizing a new talent.

By the end of the book, Jack reaches his own conclusions about what makes “a winner.” The connection between these pivotal experiences and the high school environment will resonate with many readers. As Jack says of Oakhurst Hall, “Where else am I going to grow up?”

WILD THINGS Author: Angela Treat Lyon ’63 Publisher: Out Front Productions, LLC

Coloring: John "Mac" Cady, age 11

64

END NOTE | 43. Shindig 47. Rocker Rose 48. Word before "on" or "on me" 49. Perch on high 52. Conical residence 53. Prefix with phobia 55. Squirrel away 59. Patella spot 61. Prospector’s quest 62. Pull-up muscles, for short 64. 1962 recipient of the

Celebration Finale

ALUM-INUM ANNIVERSARY

Anti-Defamation League’s "America’s Democratic Legacy" Award (’18) 68. Blackjack option 70. Brockovich of film 71. Drug bust unit 72. Hitched team 74. Parrots of New Zealand 77. Blows town 79. 1995 Golden Globe winner for True Lies (’76) 85. Hair-raising site 87. Body-spray brand 88. Big Island sight 89. Musk’s company 91. Dull 93. Juice units 96. "See ya!"

98. Tempe sch.

Puzzle by David Quarfoot

ACROSS

1. Some bills 5. Jumbo, on a tag 8. Agile 14. Sign of victory 17. Eight, in Latin 101 18. Common line in the plane 20. Goodbyes abroad 21. Time of anticipation

1

2

3

4

(Best Revival of a Musical) for Company (’59) 26. Romantic signoff 27. "Able was ___ ..." (famous palindrome)

5

17

18

22

23

38

39

32

28

56

95

114

115

116

124

125

130

131

134

135

50

51

109

44

45

46

61 66

75

76

67

84

98 104

126

99

92 100

DOWN

served from a straw 4. Massage therapist’s application 5. ___ in xylophone 6. 22, to Caesar 7. Easy-listening genre on the radio 8. Turner of history 9. Altar exchange 10. Common street entertainers 11. Angle on a gem 12. Verdi opera ___ Miller 13. Runnable file designation 14. Block 15. Like 22 16. Slippery sorts 19. Opposite of "buffa," in opera 25. Superman star 28. Business card abbr.

32. Tech. used in summer blockbusters 33. Webpage count 35. English New Wave band with a euphoric sounding name

Maximus 46. High schooler, typically 50. Picnic pest 51. Stereotypical Comic-Con attendee 54. Holy Roman emperor nicknamed "the Great" 56. Drink aisle suffix 57. Photog’s choice 58. 17-syllable creation 60. Nefarious 63. ___-Gotha-Altenburg, dukedom of Frederick I 65. Like some gases 66. Joie de vivre 67. Desert roamer 69. Make one’s voice heard 73. Orderly 75. Had, in a way 76. Family moniker 78. Rosemary unit 79. Morning mugful 80. Dendrite counterpart 81. Harmonize 82. Longoria of Desperate Housewives 83. Pope’s relig.

84. Best, as a dragon 86. A pop 90. Sets, as a price 92. Put on the line 94. Promotional gimmick 95. Birth certificate datum 97. Intent 99. Colorful card game 103. Shopper’s convenience 104. Morning earful 105. Iterate 106. "Be right there!"

108. Start of a kindergarten song 109. Common balloon material 110. Points on a subway map 113. Turkish bigwig 114. Serb or Croat 115. Chapeau’s perch 117. Italian noble family 119. Shopaholic’s delight 121. Source of bad luck 122. Dark gemstone 123. Wally’s TV brother, with "The" 125. U.S.N.A. part 126. Snaky shape 128. Poor grade

Win an Apple Watch!

120

119 128

127

medalist to whom a day (5/19/11) was dedicated in Sun Valley, ID (’07) 107. Student’s dread 111. Insider 112. Bart, to Homer 113. European wine region 116. Storage unit 118. Base tune 120. Well done starters?

124. 2009 recipient of a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame (’65) 127. Use a Kindle 129. Right triangle ratio 130. Bowler, for one 131. Acclimates 132. Type of bonding 133. "A Day Without Rain" artist 134. Snail mail abbr.

135. Frost lines 136. Driving need 137. Notable Choate Rosemary Hall anniversary, and a quartet of letters hidden in order in rows 1, 2, and 5 and columns 1, 2, and 5 of this puzzle’s solution

37. Zoo employee 38. Peace, to Ovid 39. Jump while facing forward 40. Skeleton components 41. Pooch of pictures 42. Nettles 44. Beowulf, e.g.

45. Emperor at the Circus

106 112

118

117

91

105

111

110

86

85 90

97 103

78

77

Groundhog Day 102. 2010 and 2014 Olympic

1. Entice 2. X-___ (tool producer) 3. Word in a candy brand

52 60

89 96

108

16

37 43

83

102 107

15

71

88 94

36

59

58

74 82

14

30

65

101

113

57

73

81

93

13

29

70

69

87

12

42

64

72

11

25

35

34

55

68

10

21

49

63

62

9

24

41

54

80

for John Adams (’85)

20

48

53

Another" band, with "The" 36. Spartacus, notably 38. 2008 Emmy Award winner

8

7 19

33

40

47

79

6

27

26 31

29. Dates 30. Long stretches 31. I, in Germany 34. "One Thing Leads to

22. Fighting 23. Locale 24. 2007 Tony Award winner

100. Bar staple 101. MacDowell of

132

129 133

136

David Quarfoot is a former faculty member. His puzzles appear in The New York Times.

137

121

122

123

Solve the 125th crossword puzzle and submit via email to alumline@choate.edu or mail to Lorraine Connelly, Editor, Communications Office, 333 Christian Street, Wallingford, CT 06492, postmarked no later than February 29, 2016. All complete and correct submissions will be entered in a drawing to win an Apple Watch. This incentive has a maximum value of $500. You must be over the age of 18 to participate in this promotion. Only one entry per person. The answers to the puzzle will appear in the Spring 2016 issue.

Choate Rosemary Hall

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COVER: Tradition and Innovation meet at Choate’s i.d.Lab. A 3D printer is used to create a model of one of Choate’s iconic buildings, Archbold.

BULLETIN THE MAG A ZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

The Heart of the Matter

ABOVE: 2015 Deerfield Pep Rally included a fireworks display on upper campus in honor of our 125th celebration.

WINTER ’16

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.

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Editorial Offices T: (203) 697-2252 F: (203) 697-2380 Email: alumline@choate.edu Website: www.choate.edu

Classnotes Editor Henry McNulty ’65

Director of Strategic Planning & Communications Alison J. Cady

Photography Margarita Corporan Photography Al Ferreira Getty Images John Giammatteo ’77 Ian Morris Ross Mortensen

Editor Lorraine S. Connelly Design and Production David C. Nesdale

Communications Assistant Britney G. Cullinan

Contributors Cheryl Bardoe Noah Charney ’98 Connie Gelb ’78 Charles Hopkins G. Jeffrey MacDonald ’87 David Quarfoot Andrea Thompson Lindsay Whalen ’01 Thomas A. Yankus ’52

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The Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin is printed using vegetable-based inks on FSC-certified, 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:

A $10 Million

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The Baseball Odyssey of Chris Denorfia ’98

A CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL READER: Confessions of a Tree Hugger