BULLETIN THE MAG A ZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL
In this issue:
MODERN FARMERS Seeking fulfillment from the ground up
WINTER ’18
FROM FOOTPRINT, TO HANDPRINT, TO LASTING IMPRINT: Choate's Sustainable Future
END NOTE: A Mustang Muses
COVER: A bird’s eye view of the Kohler Environmental Center, a
model for sustainable living and learning. Illustration by Studio Muti.
p.16 Modern farmer Jos Thalheimer ’01 operates his own farm Riverweb in Phillips, Maine. For most of the year he spends 75% of daylight hours outside.
BULLETIN THE MAG A ZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL
WINTER ’18
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. CRH171127/17.5M
Editorial Offices T: (203) 697-2252 F: (203) 697-2380 Email: alumline@choate.edu Website: www.choate.edu Director of Strategic Planning & Communications Alison J. Cady Editor Lorraine S. Connelly Design and Production David C. Nesdale Classnotes Editor Henry McNulty ’65
Communications Assistant Brianna St. John Contributors Cheryl Bardoe P ’21 Nancy S. Burress P ’17 Lorraine S. Connelly P ’03, ’05 Kim Hastings P ’15, ‘18 Alexander Kveton ’06 Nancy Miller Ann Cumming Schlee ’50 Brianna St. John Andrea Thompson Leslie Virostek P ’15, ’17, ’20 Gil Walker
Photography Julia Discenza ’10 Ross Mortensen Illustrations Muti – Folio Art
CONTENTS | Winter 2018
departments
2 3 26 30
Remarks from the Head of School
50 56
In Memoriam Remembering Those We Have Lost
Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees 2017-2018 Alexandra B. Airth P ’18 Kenneth G. Bartels ’69, P ’04 Samuel P. Bartlett ’91 Peggy Brim Bewkes ’69 Michael J. Carr ’76 George F. Colony ’72 Alex D. Curtis P ’17, ’20 Borje E. Ekholm P ’17, ’20 Gunther S. Hamm ’98 Linda J. Hodge ’73, P’12
On Christian & Elm News about the School Alumni Association News Q&A with Jonathan Rebell ’93 Classnotes Profiles of Edwina von Gal ’66, Founder, Perfect Earth Project; Ed Kelly ’74, Chief Xpansion Officer, Wholesome Wave; Anthony S. Marino ’91, Chief Marketing Officer, thredUP; and actor and activist Jin Ha ’08
Scoreboard Fall Sports Wrap-up
Jungwook “Ryan” Hong ’89, P ’19 Parisa N. Jaffer ’89 Brett M. Johnson ’88 Daniel G. Kelly, Jr . ’69, P ’03 Vanessa Kong Kerzner P ’16 Cecelia M. Kurzman ’87 Gretchen Cooper Leach ’57 James A. Lebovitz ’75, P ’06, ’10 Takashi Murata ’93 Tal H. Nazer P ’17 ’19 Peter B. Orthwein ’64, P ’94, ’06, ’11 Anne Sa’adah
Life Trustees Bruce S. Gelb ’45, P ’72, ’74, ’76, ’78 Edwin A. Goodman ’58 Herbert V. Kohler, Jr. ’57, P ’84 Cary L. Neiman ’64 Stephen J. Schulte ’56, P ’86 William G. Spears ’56, P ’81, ’90
60
Bookshelf Reviews of works by Noel Hynd ’66, Marie Betts Bartlett ’75, Gwen Strauss ’81, Charlie Jane Anders ’87, and Lauren Markham ’01
64
End Note A Mustang Muses by Nancy Miller features
8 16 24
Editorial Advisory Board Judy Donald ’66 Howard R. Greene P ’82, ’05 Dorothy Heyl ’71, P ’08 Seth Hoyt ’61 Henry McNulty ’65 Michelle Judd Rittler ’98 John Steinbreder ’74 Monica St. James P ’06 Francesca Vietor ’82 Heather Zavod P ’88, ’90
From Footprint, to Handprint, to Lasting Imprint Choate’s Sustainable Future Modern Farmers Seeking fulfillment from the ground up Rosemary Hall: Reminiscences from Ann Cumming Schlee ’50
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Remarks from the Head of School
Dear Alumni and Friends of Choate Rosemary Hall, In the throes of winter, it is hard to imagine the arrival of spring, but we know it’s around the corner and with it the promise of revitalization and revival it brings to our bodies and spirits. In this issue of the Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin, we celebrate the groundbreaking of Colony Hall, made possible through a generous lead gift from Trustee George F. Colony ’72 and other munificent donors. Colony Hall will have a new auditorium with ample seating for the entire community for school meetings and guest speakers, as well as dedicated spaces for our music and dance programs. The facility will be the fourth LEED-certified “green building” to be built on campus since 2012. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the most widely used green building rating system and a globally recognized symbol of sustainability achievement. The story on the School’s 10-year sustainability effort, From Handprint, to Footprint, to Lasting Imprint (p. 8) outlines the strides we are making as a community towards a more sustainable future. Our sustainability efforts have been enhanced by our trailblazing students living at the Kohler Environmental Center and some 71 graduates of the Environmental Immersion Program, as well as by the dedicated students and adults who have articulated the School’s sustainability goals and remain committed to making sustainability an integral part of curriculum, student life, and school operations. Several of our alumni profiled in this issue are committed to sustainability practices in their respective fields. Choate’s Modern Farmers (p. 16) are dedicated to the complex world of food production that sustains us all. They truly are “the trailblazers on the cusp of fundamental questions that are as global as they are local.” And then there are those individuals – Edwina von Gal ’66, promoting non-toxic landscaping practices through her Perfect Earth Project; Ed Kelly ’74, addressing food scarcity issues through the non-profit Wholesome Wave; and Anthony Marino ’91, tapping into the consumer market for recycled clothing – who are all engaged in activities that use modern technological advances that will ensure our planet’s sustainable future. In my role as the head of a school founded in 1890 (and a graduate of a school founded in 1509!), I am keenly aware that any long-term sustainability model must look beyond one’s own time and tenure. In his book on Renaissance artist Leonardo daVinci, Walter Isaacson notes that the 15th century of Leonardo and Columbus and Gutenberg was “a time of invention, exploration, and the spread of knowledge by new technologies. In short, it was a time like our own.” Choate Rosemary Hall will use all the tools and technologies that are available to us in our own time to ensure that our future is secure and sustainable. We must also be mindful in our planning by creating the living model of what we envision as our school of the future, by building healthy relationships and making community wellness a priority, and by remaining disciplined in our spending and investment decisions. In the sweep of history, perhaps the Choate Rosemary Hall of 2018 is in its Renaissance, experiencing a rebirth that will ensure its continued relevance in the future. How exciting for our students, faculty, and staff to be living and learning together in this, our own time. With all best wishes from campus,
Alex D. Curtis Head of School
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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM | NEWSWORTHY
Colony Hall Groundbreaking ABOVE Choate Rosemary Hall
ON JANUARY 26, a groundbreaking was held for the School’s new
Trustees gather on January 26 for the groundbreaking of Colony Hall. From left, Samuel P. Bartlett ’91; Cecelia M. Kurzman ’87, Alexandra B. Airth P ’18; Brett M. Johnson ’88; Peggy Brim Bewkes ’69; Parisa N. Jaffer ’89; Chair of the Board of Trustees Michael J. Carr ’76; George F. Colony ’72; Head of School Alex D. Curtis P ’17, ’20; Daniel G. Kelly, Jr. ’69, P ’03; Buildings and Grounds Trustee Committee Chair Kenneth G. Bartels ’69, P ’04; Peter B. Orthwein ’64, P ’94, ’06, ’11; Gretchen Cooper Leach ’57; Borje E. Ekholm P ’17, ’20; Vanessa Kong Kerzner P ’16, ’19 and Gunther S. Hamm ’98.
Colony Hall with Board of Trustees in attendance. At school meeting on January 16, Head of School Alex D. Curtis announced the official naming of the new auditorium being built adjacent to Paul Mellon Arts Center. Named in honor of Trustee George F. Colony ’72 for his lead gift, and made possible through the generosity of many other lead gifts, the new 50,000-square-foot Colony Hall will be the ideal location to bring the entire school community together. Designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Colony Hall is the realization of a longtime goal of the School’s Strategic Plan – to allocate appropriate resources so that the entire school community can gather together to share, celebrate, and reflect. With ample seating for faculty, staff, and students, the auditorium will serve not only as the venue for weekly all-school meetings, but as a performance hall that can accommodate both large and small audiences. The space will provide an acoustical setting suitable for the spoken word or amplified music, as well as a more
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reverberant sound for symphonic music. The west side of the auditorium will include a music classroom wing with a Recital Hall seating up to 100 people, providing rehearsal space for Choate’s major music ensembles. Surrounding the Recital Hall will be additional practice rooms, faculty offices, a percussion studio and a Green Room for performers. The backstage area will contain musical instrument lockers and storage for music. Open stairs in the lobby will lead both to the auditorium’s balcony and to a new dance studio, with changing rooms and an office for the dance program. At the top of the building, a third level entrance will lead from the top rows of the balcony to a woodland path along the hillside. Said Dr. Curtis, “As a school we are committed to ensuring our facilities foster a cohesive, vibrant campus community. Those moments when we can be in the same room at the same time are the ones we treasure most.” Colony Hall is scheduled to open in 2019.
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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM | NEWSWORTHY AWA R D S
2018 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists Eight sixth formers have been named Semifinalists in the 2018 National Merit Competition: Jonah Q. Berman, of New Haven, Conn.; Nils A. Lovegren, of San Jose, Calif.; Alan Luo, of Hong Kong; Zev J. Nicolai-Scanio of Wallingford, Conn.; James P. Rose of Locust Valley, N.Y.; Madison E. Sakheim of Hamden, Conn.; Alyssa Shin of Seoul, Korea; and Nicole E. Yao of Acton, Mass. These academically talented high school seniors will have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships this spring. Twentyone Choate students were named Commended Students in the 2018 program In addition, five sixth formers were named National Hispanic Scholars. They are Sebastian Chang of Linwood, N.J.; Mirialie DeJesus, of Chelsea, Mass; Marta Garcia Ferreiro, of Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Phillipe Mendez, of New York, N.Y.; Bruna Paiva Oliveira, of New York, N.Y.; and Julianna Ruggeri of New Haven, Conn.
CHOATE’S SIEMENS SEMIFINALISTS
Social justice activist Tarana Burke gave the all-school keynote address at the Diversity Day progam on January 15.
Tarana Burke at MLK Day On January 15, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Choate students, faculty, and staff engaged in a student-run Diversity Day program. The keynote speaker for the all-school meeting was social justice activist Tarana Burke, senior director of programs at Girls for Gender Equity. Burke has dedicated more than 25 years of her life to laying the groundwork for the international “MeToo” movement before it went viral this fall. She shared the story behind the genesis of the movement that won her and other courageous individuals recognition as 2017 TIME Person of The Year.
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Throughout the day, Choate students participated in peer-led, small-group workshops designed for reflection and motivation of social activism in one’s own life. In the morning, faculty attended an interactive workshop on building strategies for cultural competency conducted by Robert Greene, a principal at Cedar and Burwell Strategic Consulting. His article about issues of identity and cultural differences, “Seeing it Through,” appeared in the 2016 issue of Independent School magazine.
Rohin Shivdasani ’18 (left) of Chapel Hill, N.C., and James Rose ’18 (right), of Locust Valley, N.Y., were named Semifinalists in the 2017-18 Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. This is the nation’s premier competition in math, science and technology for high school students. This year out of the more than 1,860 projects submitted, 491 students were recognized as Semifinalists. Two of these students are members of Choate Rosemary Hall’s Class of 2018. Over the past five years, Choate Rosemary Hall has had six Semifinalists and one regional finalist in the Siemens Competition.
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Sarah Platt ’18 as the Cat and faculty children in the fall production of Brundibár.
TEACHING ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST Through MusiC
On December 2 and 3, under the direction of Choral Director Alysoun M. Kegel and collaborator David Eiduks (voice faculty), students performed the children’s opera Brundibár. Originally performed by children in Nazi concentration camps, the opera served as an allegory for resistance. Earlier in the fall, playwright Tony Kushner, who co-wrote with illustrator Maurice Sendak the children’s book, Brundibár, spoke to students about the history of the piece and its relevance today. Before Sunday evening’s performance, cast members had an opportunity for some experiential learning as well. The group visited Ela Weissberger, who was 11 years old when she performed the opera in the Terezin concentration camp. She is the sole survivor of that original performance and now lives in a retirement community in upstate New York. Says cast member Sarah Platt ’18, “Visiting Ela had a tremendous impact on our performance Sunday evening. As soon as Ela walked into the room of her retirement home, a feeling of admiration swept over our cast. She graciously sang two songs with us and a duet with me. We both sang the role of the Cat. Hearing her recount stories of living in the concentration camp, and traveling around the world to see Brundibár performances with her daughter made me connect with her at a much deeper level. I think everyone carried the weight of the history on their shoulders when they performed on Sunday.” In total, 12 Choate students and 6 faculty children were in the cast and performed to standing-room-only audiences. Tony Kushner’s visit was made possible through the generosity of Patti Kenner GP ’18 and the Thalheimer Educator in Residence Program.
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CHOATE STUDENTS TRAVEL TO JAPAN FOR GLOBAL SYMPOSIUM In November, two fifth formers, Abigail Chang ’19 of Wallingford, Conn., and Owen Orthwein ’19 of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (center), attended the Think for the Future Global Symposium hosted by Seifu Nankai Senior High School in Osaka, Japan. They attended the conference with students from Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Both students were part of peer panel discussions that included the Future of Air Travel and Global Leadership. This is the second year Choate students participated in the symposium.
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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM | Q & A
TENQUEST10NS
rd o f e y cs r oe cnt oer o f a t h l e t i dir
Before coming to Choate this fall, Roney was a member of the senior leadership team and held the Director of Diversity/Athletic Director roles at Buckley Country Day School in Roslyn, Long Island. He is a graduate of Marquette University, where he played basketball for four years, after which he played professionally for eight years throughout Europe, Asia, and with the Milwaukee Bucks summer NBA league. Roney has two master’s degrees – one in educational leadership, and another in sports management. A current doctoral student, he recently published his first book Inspiring the Student Athlete. No stranger to the independent school world, Roney graduated from Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts, and then attended New Hampton School in New Hampshire as a post-graduate. Roney currently serves as a Trustee at Berkshire School.
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1 For more than a century, sports teams at your college alma mater,
Marquette, have been known as the Blue and Gold. How does it feel to now be a part of Choate’s Blue & Gold athletics teams? RONEY EFORD: It feels great to wear the blue and gold again and it was coincidental that Choate shares the same colors as Marquette. I can keep my old college sweatshirts! 2 Tell us more about your athletic career at Marquette (1992-
1996), and then as a pro-athlete. RE: Three of my four years at Marquette, our teams made it to
the NCAA Championships. Our team was privileged to make it to the Sweet Sixteen in 1994 where we lost to Duke. A four–year starter, I was a member of the student-athlete council and captain of the basketball team during my senior year.
! e r fi h t i you w ff o t r Sta e knows how
past No on e h t n i ed perform y or athletically icall day. m e h c d a a e c a n i ve to w LETICS a h u o y TH as TOR OF A D, DIREC –RONEY
EFOR
3 What is your definition of “student-athlete?” Why is this balance
important to maintain at a secondary preparatory school level and beyond? RE: A student-athlete is first and foremost a student – the rigor in the classroom must match the rigor on the athletic fields or courts to create a healthy balance. There are so many demands on students that a healthy balance is essential. 7 Choate is a member of the Founders League and a member of 4 Your athletics philosophy speaks “to instilling a life-long passion
for athletics along with character development.” You’ve said about winning, “It’s important to win with high character.” Tell us more about how athletic programs build character. RE: The athletics program is an extension of the mission of the School. It is important to win but not at all costs. It is also important to instill character in our students. Learning how to bounce back from a loss, or mentally processing that one hasn’t played well, or learning how to become a great teammate, these are all valuable life lessons, just as much as finding success. Handling adversity, facing defeat, and developing a teamwork mindset are coping mechanisms that students will need throughout their lives.
the New England Preparatory School Athletics Council. What is the value of sharing important information that relates to our peer competitors, for example, concussion management protocol? RE: It is positive to have a group of peer schools that can collaborate with each other for the goal of enhancing the athletic experience for all students. We as a staff work diligently to stay up to date on the new concussion protocols. This is essential and includes webinars, conferences and trainings that are available to us. We collaborate with our peer schools to share best practices so we have the best knowledge for our students. 8 In what ways do you hope that the athletics program can engage
students if they are not an elite or varsity athlete? RE: Every student, whether they participate in an intramural or
5 How important is the role of the coach as mentor? Can you name
someone from your past whose mentoring you have admired or hope to emulate? RE: The role of the coach/mentor is crucial in the development of our students. In my own experience, I greatly admired Charles Twiggs Myers, a history teacher and cross country coach at Berkshire School who passed away last year. In my senior year at Berkshire, he made me captain of the cross country team. It was a co-ed team and we were inspired by the support, confidence and care he expressed to each and every member of the team. I played for Lawrence Frank at Marquette, who is now the Executive VP of Basketball Operations for the Los Angeles Clippers. He is another coach who led by example. 6 This fall senior Taylor Christiana ’18 tried out for the JV football
team as a kicker, becoming the first girl to play on a Choate football team. Do you see other firsts in Choate athletics, pushing the barriers of tradition? RE: I think it was wonderful that she became the first girl to play on Choate’s football team. She did a fantastic job and hopefully inspired many girls and other students by her example – If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish any goal.
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interscholastic sport, should have the best experience possible. They should continue to develop their skills, have fun and cultivate a lifelong passion for their particular sport. 9 What is the most important book on athletics and/or resource
or philosophy on leadership that you have embraced? How do you employ it in your own work? RE: Some favorite titles include: Good to Great by Jim Collins, Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek, and Steve Covey’s classic, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I am constantly viewing TED talks on leadership. 10 What was your experience playing professional athletics internationally? RE: My experience was one that was life changing. I am very fortunate and appreciative to have had the opportunity to travel the world – Reykjavík, Tokyo, London, Beijing, and Seoul – while playing a sport. It has also taught me that food is universal. I truly love all types of great food. It has also taught me that communication is essential when living abroad. Finally, my experience has taught me to always think on a global level which aligns well with our global community here at Choate.
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From to
to
Footprint,
Handprint,
Lasting Imprint Choate’s Sustainable Future
b y l o r r a i n e s . c o n n e l ly | i l l u s t r at i o n b y m u t i - f o l i o a r t
Choate Rosemary Hall has long been committed to preparing its students for success not only in higher education but for their entire lives. Focusing on the traditional areas of academics, athletics, and the arts, the School has long sought to inspire students to think critically, to work both independently and collaboratively, and to improve their communities. Now, increasingly, there is another dimension to life and learning at Choate: sustainability.
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W
hile the School has greatly expanded physically in recent years, there has been a conscious effort to minimize its carbon footprint. Three facilities are LEED-certified: the Kohler Environmental Center (2012), the Lanphier Center for Mathematics and Computer Science (2015), and the St. John Hall student center (2017). A fourth, Colony Hall, a 50,000-square-foot facility, is being built adjacent to the Paul Mellon Arts Center as its architectural and programmatic complement. But Choate’s commitment to sustainability goes far beyond creating environmentally responsible buildings. Perhaps less outwardly visible, but no less vital, is the goal of ensuring that in meeting the School’s present needs, “we do not decrease the potential of current and future generations to meet their needs,” as referenced in the School’s sustainability statement. This “seventh generation” approach to implementing long-term objectives is guiding the School’s path forward as it moves toward a sustainable future. It is a nod to the Seven Generations sculpture in front of the Seymour St. John Chapel, which is itself a reference to the Iroquois Confederacy principle: “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” Leading the charge is a phalanx of dedicated students and adults who have articulated the School’s sustainability goals and are committed to making sustainability an integral part of Choate’s curriculum, student life, and school operations. Members of the School’s Sustainability Committee, which includes representation from dining services, facilities, custodial services, academic departments, staff offices, and residential life, meet twice monthly to discuss wide-ranging issues from ordering reusable ceramic mugs to planning for campus-wide awareness campaigns like the mid-January Electronics Recycling Week and the annual Green Cup Energy Challenge. The latter is a five-week interscholastic competition directed at reducing energy consumption, changing behaviors, and raising student awareness about resource conservation.
ST. JOHN HALL LEED FACT: Approximately 86.8% of the construction waste generated was recycled. This equals 2,838,220 pounds of waste diverted from landfills. This is equivalent to the weight of over 6 Statues of Liberty!
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from footprint to handprint Physics teacher Katrina Linthorst Homan has been involved with the Green Cup Challenge since its inception in 2007 and created (in conjunction with our Facilities Department) the Hydro Cup Challenge, an interdorm spring competition to raise water conservation awareness. Appointed in 2011 as the School’s first Director of Sustainability, she was asked in 2015 to speak at the National Association of Independent Schools’ annual conference about Choate’s involvement with the Protostar management metric, a certification system for campus sustainability that not only benchmarks an institution’s physical plant operations and energy consumption, but also evaluates purchasing, investments, landscaping, and curriculum programming. Choate earned a Protostar bronze rating in 2011, followed by a silver rating in 2013. In 2016 Homan and Director of Residential Life Will Morris also co-presented on the topic “Educating for Sustainability in Student Life Programs” at The Association of Boarding Schools’ national conference. Choate’s initiatives continue to be a national model for how to make schools more environmentally sustainable. Homan led the development of the School’s Statement on Sustainability and also has oversight of Conservation Proctors (C-Proctors), a student leadership organization, as well as various campus groups, including Eco-Reps and Student Activists for Environmentalism. She is also the faculty coach for the Farming Intramural that students can take in lieu of athletics. She is no tree-hugging dreamer, but a realist who says, “Change in an organization has to be done in an efficient and healthy way.” For this reason, she has chosen to measure what matters most – lasting positive change. A key component, she says, is: “How can we at Choate incorporate sustainability into our daily activities?” Homan was intrigued by the concept of environmental handprints articulated by Professor Gregory A. Norris, co-director of the Sustainability and Health Initiative for Net-Positive Enterprise at the Harvard School for Public Health. He explains: “Footprints are the negative consequences of all that it takes to sustain a person or an organization for a year –the total planetary ‘cost’ of your presence. Handprints represent the benefits of your presence: they’re the positive changes that you bring into the world during this same year. If footprints are what we unavoidably take, handprints are what we intentionally give.” Choate students have also responded to the concept of environmental handprints in concrete and creative ways. Last fall, for example, two C-Proctors made hand-drawn designs to place on recycling bins, increasing awareness of what materials – paper, plastic, glass – get recycled. At the end of each school year, C-Proctors visit dorm common rooms to gather donated clothing, books, school supplies, functioning electronics, storage units, bedding, etc. These items are stored and then donated to local agencies. In December, C-Proctors also host an annual sale called The Thrifty Boar. All proceeds are donated to charity. Students, Homan says, feel empowered when they realize their individual efforts can create a ripple effect: “Wow, I can really do this. I can have an impact on the environment.”
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“Footprints are the negative consequences of all that it takes to sustain a person or an organization for a year. Handprints represent the benefits of your presence: they’re the positive changes that you bring into the world during this same year. If footprints are what we unavoidably take, handprints are what we intentionally give.” –DR. GREGORY NORRIS, CO-DIRECTOR OF SHINE
creating core value Much of the work and implementation of sustainability as a core value in residential life and advising falls upon Director of Residential Life Will Morris. “One of the ways you demonstrate integrity, respect and compassion, core values of our School,” he says, “can be understood through the concepts related to sustainability.” Morris says it’s important to construct “a living environment for our students where good sustainability practices are modeled. So when students walk around campus, they see we are prioritizing systems, and behaviors, and activities that suggest this is not just something we say is important, but something we actually put into practice.” Direct instruction and experiential learning and programming are also essential to develop the skills and the attitudes that shape values. Last spring, noted environmentalist Bill McKibben spoke at an allschool special program. “It was terrific to see such positive energy on campus,” says Science Department head Ben Small. The momentum continued this fall when the Paul Mellon Arts Center featured two environmental films as part of its season programming. In September, The Age of Consequences, an award-winning documentary about climate change, was screened. Its executive producer, Sophie Robinson, answered questions afterward. In December, A Plastic Ocean, a film about the consequences of our disposable lifestyle, was also shown.
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Morris acknowledges that in any educational institution there are competing priorities and at Choate sustainability must take its place among other pressing needs. “There are some schools,” he says, “where sustainability is the core philosophy. At our School, sustainability is one of several complementary components of what we try to do.” Key questions, he explains, are: “Do we have a vision statement for sustainability? Are there systems and structures in place where sustainability is incorporated into decision-making and our institutional framework?” At Choate, the answer is yes. Morris and other colleagues recently engaged in a curriculum review tasked with establishing sustainability, in all of its facets, as a core value in our academic program, particularly in courses required for graduation. There are also nonscience courses that focus on environmental issues, for example, “Environmental Economics,” “Environmental Ethics,” “The Greening of America,” “Environmental Art,” and next year, a new multidisciplinary course, “Climate Change: From Knowledge to Action.” Choate English teacher Dr. Stephen Siperstein, who proposed the course, says: “To think about sustainability, we need to start with the question ‘What are we trying to sustain?’ which I think often gets jumped over, moved past too quickly. But that’s the key conceptual, philosophical question. All disciplines should be marshaling their tools and bringing them to bear on these important questions of our time.” Siperstein, co-editor of the collection Teaching Climate Change in the Humanities, will co-lead the Environmental Literature Institute at Phillips Exeter Academy for the third time this summer. The Institute provides other educators the tools to examine this complex issue.
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economies of scale The Sustainability Committee has set as a goal reducing the School’s carbon footprint by 30 percent of 2005 levels by 2025 and 80 percent of 2005 levels by 2050. These are ambitious goals for the physical plant, and require a multifaceted approach. Overseeing that charge is Mark Cappello, Director of Facilities Services, and Steve Cahoon, Manager of Energy Management Systems. Cappello was a facilities manager for Yale before coming to Choate last September. Cahoon has been a key member of the Sustainability Committee for the past 10 years. Both men are aware of the challenges in dealing with a 458-acre campus with a variety of buildings spanning almost 250 years, the oldest dating back to the mid-1770s, the newest to 2017. A $4.5 million annual budget for general maintenance is stretched like leather candy among more than 100 capital projects per year. Each project gets a nibble. But even small efficiencies can add up to impressive numbers. Adding light harvesting sensors, switching to LED lighting, installing high efficiency boilers, replacing a gas guzzler for a hybrid vehicle all help ensure that Choate’s future is indeed sustainable. Says Cahoon, “If we can forecast the budget to do upgrades from one, two or three years down the road, that’s what’s going to get us greater efficiencies.” Following the 2012 completion of the Kohler Environmental Center (KEC) which houses Choate’s signature Environmental Immersion Program, the School has committed to an unwritten standard that all new construction and major renovations of existing buildings will meet, where possible, LEED-certification specifications. Project teams often face the dilemma of constructing an innovative green building from the ground-up or maintaining the status quo. The LEED certification process can be time consuming and the commissioning is costly. Says Cahoon, “Each new building that we’re constructing is high-performing. If you look at our energy profile, our carbon footprint is getting better and better.” Notes Cappello, “I’ve seen a great deal of consistency at Choate in terms of the type of choices that are being evaluated, and there’s a uniqueness here. You have a net-zero facility that’s faculty-led and that has a student program that really doesn’t exist anywhere else.”
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“I’ve seen a great deal of consistency at Choate in terms of the type of choices that are being evaluated, and there’s a uniqueness here. You have a net-zero facility that’s faculty-led and that has a student program that really doesn’t exist anywhere else.” –
—MARK CAPPELLO, DIRECTOR OF FACILITIES SERVICES
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IMPRINTS with IMPACT A $4.5 million annual budget for general maintenance is stretched among more than 100 capital projects per year. Even small efficiencies can add up to impressive numbers.
308 12 LED fixtures have replaced sodium vapor lamps within a 2-3 year period
584
renovated spaces with on/off light sensors, 50 light harvesting sensors in Lanphier and 92 in St. John Hall
125,000
SQUARE FEET OF NEW FACILITIES added to the campus while reducing our carbon footprint
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Gator Diesel Utility Vehicles have replaced larger trucks (6 in Athletics, 5 in Facilities, 1 in IT)
SCHOOL GOAL:
carbon footprint reduction of 2005 levels by 2050. GOCHOATE!
17,918 lbs.
of organic matter from the salad department of Hill House Dining Hall was composted in 2016-17 at the KEC; on average 80 lbs. per day of food waste is moved from the Dining Hall to the KEC for composting
109,175kWh NET PRODUCTION OF PV ENERGY produced by the KEC in 2016-17. (357,866kWh produced / 248,691kWh consumed)
1,500 PRESERVE WARE REUSABLE DISHES made of recycled plastic that can be used for any campus event
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LEADING the CHARGE Here’s how some of our students are making sustainability an integral part of their Choate experience.
71
students have participated in Choate’s Environmental Immersion Program since 2013
INCREASE FROM 2011 OF STUDENTS ENROLLED IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Student leaders committed to green living:
30 C-PROCTORS & 44 ECO-REPS
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net-zero living and learning The Kohler Environmental Center, funded by Herbert Kohler ’57, is Choate’s inspiration, model, and guide for sustainable living and learning. An environmental research and education center located on the east side of the main campus, it houses 16 students and four prefects and has three working laboratories, two classrooms, and a greenhouse. A 296-kilowatt ground-mounted solar array provides as much electricity as the center uses over the course of a year. During the summer, solar panels produce more energy than needed, and supply that energy back to the town’s electric grid. As Program Director of the KEC, Joe Scanio oversees and continues development of the multidisciplinary Environmental Immersion Program, a year-long residential program open to fifth and sixth form students, the long term ecological research at the site, and the Sustainable Food Project. He is also responsible for the general management of the building and surrounding land. Last spring, Scanio and Associate Head of School Kathleen Lyons Wallace, members of the KEC Advisory Committee for a decade, presented at the American Institute of Architects annual meeting with RAMSA architects Kevin Smith and Graham Wyatt. Their topic: “The Kohler Environmental Center: Lessons from Net-Positive Living.” In addition, the KEC was one of five projects to receive an Award of Excellence from the AIA for its “sustainable solution to a unique opportunity of marrying a high-performance building with environmental educational programming.” The KEC is now in the process of seeking net-zero building certification from the International Living Future Institute. Since 2013, 71 students have participated in the EIP Program. In many cases, the program shaped their college majors or future career choices. Remy Hutheesing ’17, a freshman at Washington University in St. Louis, is taking a seminar at the Tyson Research Center, the college’s environmental field station. He hopes to conduct research on aerosol science and to explore how environmental engineering might help mitigate the effects of air pollution. “After my year living in the KEC and my two years doing research there,” he says, “I have learned how to live with a sustainable mindset.” Two seniors at Stanford say their awakening at the KEC will likely translate into careers beyond college. Aitran Doan ’13 participated in the EIP program during her sixth form year at Choate. She spent her gap year before entering Stanford working in Hartford, Conn., building community gardens in an abandoned parking lot. She then spent eight months in the Ecuadorian Amazon volunteering in a local health clinic and living with a family who managed an eco-lodge. She joined the Stanford Coalition for Planning an Equitable 2035 and plans to continue to study the intersection of racial and class equality with environmental justice after college. Courtney Pal ’14 was a C-Proctor and also the co-president of the Students Against Climate Change club at Choate. During her fifth form year, she lived at the KEC.
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The KEC has joined the Harvard Forest’s “Our Changing Forest” program. “We provide them with data from forest plots at the KEC that they can use as part of a larger dataset to look at changes in forest growth throughout New England.” –JOE SCANIO, PROGRAM DIRECTOR OF THE KEC
Like Aitran, Courtney has continued to engage others around environmental issues, in particular how those issues intersect with other movements for social justice. She has organized for fossil fuel divestment, for increased faculty diversity in the environmental sciences at Stanford, and more recently, for Stanford to provide community benefits to its neighbors during its upcoming expansion. This past summer, she worked at California Rural Legal Assistance. She’s hoping to pursue a career in environmental advocacy through citizen engagement, policy, or law. She says the KEC provided a broad introduction to sustainable choices that she continues to make in her own life: “I learned how to advocate for institutional green energy policies in addition to reducing my own energy consumption. Since then, I have learned that I can connect environmental sustainability to a web of other issues that are just as important to a just society.” Elise Hummel ’18 says her experience at the KEC was not an immediate call to action, but a call to renew her faith. Some environmentalists view God’s command in Chapter 1 of Genesis “Be fruitful and multiply” as a false justification for pillaging the earth’s resources. Hummel takes another view, advocating for Christianity as a friend, not foe, of the environmental movement. “Its values of love and humility force its followers to examine the problems of climate change and environmental justice and to act as stewards to protect God’s creation,” she says.
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lasting imprint An advocate for environmental literacy, Scanio has brought an impressive array of speakers to the KEC and networked extensively with university ecologists. Former Trustee David Foster ’72, Director of the Harvard Forest, spends a significant amount of time with KEC students each fall on their annual field trip to the Forest, a 4,000-acre ecological laboratory and classroom in central Massachusetts. The KEC has joined the Harvard Forest’s “Our Changing Forest” program. Says Scanio, “We provide them with data from forest plots at the KEC that they can use as part of a larger dataset to look at changes in forest growth throughout New England.” EIP students also have access to the larger dataset. Emery Boose, Senior Investigator at the Harvard Forest, has advised Choate on a 10-meter-tall weather tower in the process of being installed at the KEC. The tower is modeled on the weather tower at the Harvard Forest and will record valuable ecological data such as temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, and more. It will be important not only for students in the EIP Program, but to outside researchers as well. Increasing environmental literacy also benefits our youngest community members. Once a month, 120 kindergartners from the nearby Moses Y. Beach Elementary School are bused to the KEC for three hours of hands-on learning in the woods. Kindergarten teacher Adrienne Ferretti and media specialist Anne Porier, co-founders of the Kinderwoods Program, realized that kids weren’t spending a lot of time outdoors anymore and some had never really been to the woods. They approached Lena Nicolai, the KEC’s greenhouse manager, with an idea for a partnership program. Says Nicolai, “The KEC has always sought ways of increasing environmental literacy. I’m really grateful that we have branched out with this program because it’s definitely increased our sense of place in environmental education.” The KEC has also partnered with the Wallingford Public Library and the town Parks and Recreation Department on outdoor learning programs. Choate Summer Programs offers an EnviroTech Institute for middle school girls interested in environmental science, biology, and math, as well as two classes on the Science of Alternative Energy for middle school and high school students. With plans for a weather station and a second solar array in the works, we have come a long way from a New York Times front page headline Sunlight powers a telephone call for first time dated October 5, 1955. The story about a Bell Telephone company engineer harnessing the light of the sun to power a rural telephone circuit in Americus, Georgia, some 60 years ago now seems quaint. But in the years ahead, Choate students will no doubt avail themselves of our premier facilities and educational programs to harness new energies and make new imprints that will ensure our planet’s sustainable future. Support for Choate’s Sustainability Program is provided by the Dilmaghani Fund.
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Feature
MODERN Seeking fulfillment from the ground up b y c h e r y l b a r d o e | Would you consider becoming a farmer? Even if you already have a fulfilling
career, the idea may not be far-fetched. Several Choate alumni and alumnae have gone into farming, after initially pursuing other directions. They represent new trends for young people entering this field. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that even as the overall farmer population is aging, the number of farmers younger than 35 has increased since 2007. In addition, a 2017 survey by the National Coalition for Young Farmers found that 75 percent of respondents did not grow up on a farm and 69 percent had college degrees. Following the paths of these alumni offers a peek into the complex world of food production that is the foundation of our survival. These trailblazers are on the cusp of fundamental questions that are as global as they are local. And each farmer has found the work both more challenging and more fulfilling than he or she expected.
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Jos Thalheimer ’01 and wife, Larissa Williams, in a greenhouse at Riverweb Farm in Phillips, Maine.
growing fulfillment Jos Thalheimer ’01 never expected to become a farmer. For the first decade of his professional life, Jos lived in Manhattan, where he led initiatives to help Generation Xers and Millennials find their focus in philanthropy. Meanwhile, he developed an affinity for shopping at year-round farmers’ markets, appreciating the quality of seasonal, locally sourced foods. Life was good. As Jos approached his 30th birthday, he itched for a more physically active job, with more time outside. He also still wanted a career that felt purposeful in contributing to community. With his passion for food and farmers’ markets, a new path quickly became clear. He moved to Maine in 2012 and started working for a local farmer. He credits his experiences at Choate for giving him the courage to set out on this bold new path. “My family and friends reacted with an enormous amount of healthy and loving skepticism,” Jos recalls. “People were reasonably concerned about my not knowing anything about farming. Plus, in New York, there were probably 600 people who lived in my building; and now I live in a town with 300 full-time residents.” Six years later, Jos operates his own farm, Riverweb, in Phillips, Maine. He met and married his wife, Larissa Williams, a biology professor at Bates College. And for most of the year he spends 75 percent of daylight hours outside. “Some days are lovely and some days are icy and cold,” Jos says. “I’m out there either way, because animals must be fed.” Even fine weather can bring some measure of inconvenience. “Once we had plans to go to a party,” he explains, “but there is a weather window to what we do and, on that day, we had to cut hay.” Waking before sunrise to tend to emails and administrative tasks, Jos is also responsible for Riverweb’s marketing, selling, customer relations, deliveries, bookkeeping, and hiring. Jos is devoted to the work. “I would not give this up for anything,” he says. “Eating is one of the most intimate things we do because food is literally being integrated into our bodies. I love offering food that people can feel proud of buying.”
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Most Riverweb crops are sold through farmers’ markets, CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscriptions, and to local customers. Its beef, pork, and goat are ordered online for delivery throughout Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Popular crops include tomatoes, kale, carrots, onions, and dozens of other fruits and vegetables. Breaking into this business requires a steep learning curve, and Jos is glad to have an education that cultivated curiosity. “Every week I have to learn new things to make Riverweb successful,” he says. “Fortunately, I was exposed to so many interesting things at Choate that encouraged me to learn and push myself.” Jos also appreciates the willingness of fellow farmers to share their experience. “I interact with lots of farmers every week, and one of my team is a sixth-generation farmer,” he says. “I try to learn everything I can from our working together.” Riverweb comprises 650 acres: 500 acres of woodlands and 150 acres in cultivation. (By comparison, Central Park in New York City is about 850 acres.) The fields of Riverweb have been farmed for generations and have survived a nationwide trend toward farm consolidation. In 1935, according to the USDA census, the average U.S. farm was 150 acres. By 2016 that number had changed to 440 acres. The USDA also reported in 2012 that more than half the nation’s farmland is owned by the 4 percent of farms that are at least 2,000 acres. Amid this backdrop, Jos is proud to represent a medium-sized, commercial farm, with a strong emphasis on sustainability. The mission he has set out for Riverweb is to produce delicious, nutrient-dense foods, with the least impact on the land, while providing a good living for the farm’s employees. “Riverweb is what people want to believe is part of the farming economy,” Jos says. “What I want is for Riverweb to achieve its goals in tight alignment with the values of safety, resilience, and curiosity.”
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“I WOULD NOT GIVE THIS UP FOR ANYTHING. I LOVE OFFERING FOOD THAT PEOPLE CAN FEEL PROUD OF BUYING.”
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“THIS IS TRULY MODERN FARMING. THIS APPROACH IS BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, BETTER FOR THE ANIMALS BEING RAISED, BETTER FOR THE FARMERS, AND THE CONSUMERS CAN FEEL BETTER ABOUT THE PRODUCT THEY ARE BUYING.”
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Jennifer Milikowsky ’05 of Walden Hill
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inspired by acorns While at Choate, Jennifer Milikowsky ’05 discovered a passion for science that led her to become a wildlife biologist. In her first job, she hiked from sunup to sundown tracking the reintroduction of the red-cockaded woodpecker, a keystone species of the Everglades. Next, she camped in rainforests to study the critically endangered Kiwikiu, a bird endemic to a 20-square-mile habitat on the slope of one Hawaiian volcano. Long hours in the wilderness spurred Jennifer to wonder: “How can we create value from forests that would have a financial impact that promotes conservation?” This led Jennifer to Yale, where she completed master’s degrees in business administration and forestry. Immersed in New England’s woodlands, she noticed an abundance of acorns which reminded her that Spanish farmers have raised hogs on acorns for centuries, creating one of the world’s most famous and expensive forms of pork. “Acornfed pork literally melts in your mouth,” Jennifer says, explaining that acorn-fed fat has a lower melting point than other pork fat. She began to visualize a new type of pork production for New England that would turn acorns into a commodity that could be sustainably harvested. To test the market, Jennifer produced three “acorn-finished” hogs. This meant that the animals ate only acorns during the final three months of life, when they were packing on the pounds. Jennifer then distributed the pork to Boston and New Haven restaurants that celebrated locally sourced foods. Chefs responded enthusiastically. Recruiting farmers to the new approach, however, proved a bigger challenge.
Area farmers already knew that pigs love acorns, but they also recognized that acquiring acorns on a significant scale would increase their costs. “This was a risky proposition,” Jennifer explains. “Farmers operate on slim margins and don’t get any reward on their investment until the end of the season. I had to convince them that the resulting pork would be worth a premium price.” After speaking with dozens of farmers, Jennifer synthesized her scientific and business acumen to create Walden Hill, a brand that sells heritage-breed hogs that are sustainably raised and finished with acorns. Jennifer and partner Tylan Calcagni facilitate the collective of New England farmers whose pork is sold through Walden Hill. “We do the earliest step of harvesting acorns to produce the feed,” Jennifer says, “and then the final steps of marketing and distributing the end product.” Walden Hill also assumes financial risk by paying a deposit on each pig at eight weeks of age. This stabilizes cash flow for farmers and guarantees them a buyer. “I needed the farmers to take a leap of faith in us,” Jennifer says. “Taking on risk, so that we have a stake in the pigs from an early age, was a good way to do that.” Jennifer jokes that she is an “acorn farmer” because she drives around New England each fall collecting up to 200,000 pounds of acorns. Sources range from parks, to school campuses, to families. Many people rake and remove acorns anyway, Jennifer says, because the nuts feel like marbles underfoot. Walden Hill needs many sources because the annual acorn production of a single tree varies from almost no acorns to hundreds of pounds. Three years after founding Walden Hill, Jennifer sees its future as strong. Current clients include restaurants and butchers, and Jennifer envisions a future with products on retail shelves. “Based on the feedback from our customers,” she says, “I’m more convinced than ever that we are on to something special.” Walden Hill offers the efficiencies of large-scale agriculture – centralized marketing and distribution – while allowing smaller farms to thrive and maintain their individuality. A fifth-generation farmer joined because the increasing complexities of doing business had almost pushed him out of hog farming after decades of investment. Meanwhile a young farmer joined because Walden Hill’s handling of marketing and distribution makes it possible to focus on production. “This is truly modern farming,” Jennifer says. “This approach is better for the environment, better for the animals being raised, better for the farmers, and the consumers can feel better about the product they are buying.”
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from farm to table to big ideas In his earliest memories, Alessio Manti ’08 recalls walking with his father through the fields of their organic olive farm just outside of Rome. Then Alessio’s family moved to the New York City area and transitioned to an urban lifestyle. In college, however, Alessio’s interest in farming renewed as he discovered food to represent “a fascinating intersection of health, public policy, environmental issues, and culture.” After college Alessio worked at farm-to-table restaurants, as a grower on an urban organic farm, and as a client manager for a network of greenhouse farmers who supply local supermarkets. He also trained and worked as a professional chef. “Because I’ve worked both as a supplier and as a consumer,” Alessio says, “I can see how markets shape consumer decisions, and how that trickles down the chain to influence how food is grown. The most fundamental and pressing questions occur at the farm level.”
Alessio Manti ’08, candidate, Master of Science in Agricultural Economics, at Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Alongside farm consolidation, the last century has also brought advances in technology and a dramatic rise in agricultural productivity. According to the USDA, the average yield of corn rose from 39 bushels per acre in 1950 to 153 bushels per acre in 2000. In the same half-century, the average amount of milk produced per cow increased from 5,314 pounds per year to 18,201 pounds per year. “A major advantage of industrialized farms,” Alessio explains, “is that they turn out a lot of product with remarkable dependability.” The downside, he says, is that “this food system depends on tremendous amounts of inputs—water, nutrients and pesticides—and every few years even more inputs are required to achieve the same result.” The importance of this issue is underscored by a consensus among experts that the world will need another explosion in agricultural production, plus increased efficiency in delivery systems, in order to avoid widespread hunger in the 21st century. Earth’s population is currently around 7.5 billion and by 2050 may grow by as much as a third, nearing 10 billion. The Dutch have a head-start in addressing this challenge. About two decades ago, they made a national commitment to figure out how to grow more with less, and today the small country of the Netherlands is second only to the United States in the value of its food exports. The Dutch have found their niche with vegetable crops that can be cultivated year-round in high-tech greenhouses. Wageningen University & Research Centre, near Amsterdam, is a focal point of this research and attracts students from 100 countries to attend its agricultural graduate programs.
“I CAN SEE HOW MARKETS SHAPE CONSUMER DECISIONS, AND HOW THAT TRICKLES DOWN THE CHAIN TO INFLUENCE HOW FOOD IS GROWN. THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL AND PRESSING QUESTIONS OCCUR AT THE FARM LEVEL.”
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Alessio is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Wageningen. His goal is to use real-world practice to promote sustainable farming. He also wants to challenge U.S. public policy to invest more in sustainable farming initiatives. “These are important questions that will require hard work on a daily basis for decades,” he says. Alessio attributes his interest in improving systems to his foundational education. “Choate taught me that it is all right to dream,” he says. “It encouraged me to think big, to be communityoriented, and to imagine how I can make a difference.”
fourth-generation farmer During 22 years as a horticulturalist, John Casertano ’87 has observed the trends in U.S. farming first-hand. “Decades ago,” he says, “the thinking about productivity focused on yield per square foot. Now it is about yield compared to environmental and financial costs.” John also knows what aspects of the farming lifestyle are timeless: “There is a clear sense of accomplishment in growing something, and the close connection to the natural cycle is very satisfying.”
Although John grew up on the farm that had been purchased by his great-grandfather in 1929, he did not work there until he was an adult. After college, John started his career as a teacher before joining the family business. By that point, Casertano Greenhouses & Farms, in Cheshire, Conn., was shifting its products to focus wholly on flowers and landscaping plants. John began as a potter, worked several years as a grower, and then served in the shipping department before moving into sales and management. Today he is the CEO and president of the nursery, which sells to independent landscapers and big-box retailers. The nursery employs 100 to 180 people, depending on the season. “I spend about half of my day in the office,” John says, “and half of my day in the greenhouses or fields. Most of my job is supporting my team in problem-solving.” One thing John likes about this industry is that it is as cooperative as it is competitive. He often tours other greenhouses and exchanges ideas even with direct competitors. “Everyone in this business is subject to weather and elements that are truly beyond our control,” John says. “That provides a valuable perspective about our place in the world. It also promotes a feeling that we are all in this together.” Technology has sparked dramatic changes since John first began this career. Building materials have better insulating properties, heating systems are more efficient, and computers help growers create ideal growing climates year-round. With the press of a button, for example, growers can open mechanized windows throughout a greenhouse to vent it evenly. The nursery submits data several times a year to a Dutch organization that provides certifications of sustainable practices. In addition, the nursery has a water management plan that uses almost all recaptured water and creates no runoff. He sees even more automation ahead. The innovations are needed because the work is labor-intensive, but it is difficult to find employees who enjoy working in the elements. The irony, John says, is that “we are putting more distance between ourselves and the crops, even though our business is to nurture a hobby that helps people connect to nature.” John’s own calling is rooted in that connection and the sense of self that people draw from having a strong relationship to a place. “Farming means long hours, and keeping things alive under adverse conditions,” he says. “It’s managing people to create a living for everyone involved. It also means having an attachment to a piece of earth and feeling responsible for it. In today’s world, that is unique.” Cheryl Bardoe is a children’s book author. Her fifth book, Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain, (Little, Brown and Co.) will be published in June. John Casertano ’87, CEO and President, Casertano Greenhouses & Farms, Cheshire, Conn.
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from the Archives
Rosemary Hall: A Rich Foundation by ann cumming schlee ’50
Rosemary Hall, 1947. Students gather on the steps of the ”new“ Gym.
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I FIRST WENT TO THE ROSEMARY JUNIOR SCHOOL AT THE AGE OF FOUR , but even before that, the school and the mysterious name Ruutz-Rees were familiar to me. My grandmother, Nancy Houghton, had worked for Headmistress Caroline Ruutz-Rees; my mother, another Nancy Houghton ’23, was an old Rosemarian who taught there. I was raised on stories of “CRR,” to whom they were both devoted. The exact nature of my grandmother’s job was vague, but it was to do with making ends meet – a skill at which my grandmother was very good and, by her account, CRR very bad. Her particular despair had been CRR’s summer visits to Italy, from whence she would return with anything from stone lions to wrought iron gates – and one year, gallons and gallons of pink paint – hence the “pink building.” The gardeners at the school were all Italian. One day, CRR noticed a particularly personable young man, Seraphino, working the grounds, who shyly confessed his aspirations to be a painter. She put him to work immediately on the mottoes and illuminations that decorated the classrooms in the main building. There was some difficulty finding a suitable text for the Math room, but eventually she hit upon Edna St. Vincent Millay’s line, “Euclid alone has looked on beauty bare.” The lettering was in place, and Seraphino promised to complete the job over the weekend. He did – by painting a nude! I used to gaze with awe at the paint that had hastily been added to cover it up, alone privy to its secret. My mother loved being taught Latin by CRR. She said girls were never allowed Latin-English dictionaries, but only Latin-French, so that they might learn the word in two languages at the same time. Another Latin teacher renamed her pupils with the nearest Latin equivalent. My mother was allotted the name “Volumnia,” presumably at random, because she was always particularly skinny. Years later, an elderly woman bore down upon her at a cocktail party in New York shouting “Salve Volumnia!” Co-Headmistress Mary Elizabeth Lowndes was very small, but it seemed that people went in fear of her. In her final year at Rosemary Hall, my mother was Fire Captain and Captain of Hockey, had earned the Optima medal, and had just gained entry to Vassar. She remembered how, with all these glories fresh upon her, she had seen Miss Lowndes advancing towards her on a path. She had hoped for congratulation, but instead, Miss Lowndes reached up, gripped the lapels of her blazer, shook her slightly and said, “Houghton, you’re slacking!” At the beginning of World War II, my mother taught English, math, and Latin at Rosemary Hall, and I was left to explore the buildings. The old gymnasium had a particularly pleasant smell of dust and wood. The new gymnasium smelled of stone and damp, and the chapel deliciously of candle wax and, at the Nativity Play, of straw. By 1944, the Junior School had been amalgamated with Greenwich Country Day. That summer, my mother had hoped that we might rejoin my father, who was serving in Africa. Our passage was delayed, and Headmistress Eugenia Jessup ’10 kindly allowed me to join the second form until we could go. I was to be a real Rosemarian! I was to have a (second hand) blue tam and a blazer, a chapel cape and a hockey tunic. I was thrilled.
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In the war’s final year, my mother helped supervise knitting for the armed forces. Gamesmistress Hester Macquire kept chickens in what had been the science room of the old Junior School, and we had to clean out the hen house. We were also taught how to fold bandages for the wounded with sterilized rulers. This was under the supervision of Mrs. Loveridge in the “catacombs,” a dark complicated region that contained the Shakespeare Closet and a sewing room where secondhand uniforms were fitted to their new owners. Mr. Delbos, a little man with bright blue eyes, taught art. “Great fun,” he would say, peering at our efforts, but his mind was often elsewhere. Once, while he was painting, he heard the chapel bell and realized that he must have lost track of time. He snatched up his gown and hurried to his usual seat in the front of the staff pews. The wedding march began to play, and it dawned on Mr. Delbos that these were not his colleagues at all, but the relatives of some unknown bride. With such a cast of characters it is not surprising that the Chore Play – a student parody of School life – was a highlight of the year. I remember the excitement when my mother’s actual clothes were borrowed for the performance. She said that in the many years she had watched the play the humor, a1though often pertinent, was never cruel. And so it proved. That August, my mother and I were at last able to get passage on a ship to Cairo where my father was serving with the British Army. We lived there for two years, and I attended a day school of very cosmopolitan character in a suburb of the city. When my parents decided to send me to a school in Switzerland, I rebelled, and demanded to be sent instead to an English girls’ boarding school. I was duly enrolled. Indeed, there was a chapel and a library, but the pervading atmosphere of the place was chill in ways not fully accounted for by the faulty central heating system. And it took itself solemnly. The Chore Play would have been unthinkable there. Perhaps the comparison is unfair. I arrived after the bitter winter of 1947 had chilled a country still exhausted and impoverished by war, but when I left in 1951 the aspiration most frequently urged upon us was to be at all times “Suitable.” Suitable for what, I still wonder. For service? For marriage? It was supposed that we knew. Each year, five or six students were selected to try for university. When I suggested to the new headmistress that I should join their ranks, she suggested that I leave the school. I was, she added balefully, like a jelly that kept overflowing the mold. I like to think it was my early education that preserved me from taking up the shape she had in mind. Certainly, the experience showed that the English tradition on which Miss Ruutz-Rees and Miss Lowndes drew could take many different courses, and how richly the school they founded in Greenwich was informed with their personal qualities: the love of beauty, the highest standards of behavior, intellectual excitement, and blessed humor. Ann Cumming Schlee ’50 is a novelist who lives in England. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997. Ann was a faculty member at Rosemary Hall from 1955-57.
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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION The Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Association’s mission is to create, perpetuate, and enhance relationships among Choate Rosemary Hall alumni, current and prospective students, faculty, staff, and friends in order to foster loyalty, interest, and support for the School and for one another, and to build pride, spirit, and community. OFFICERS Parisa Jaffer ’89 President
London Ian Chan ’10 Ed Harney ’82
David Hang ’94 Vice President, 1890 Society
Los Angeles Alexa Platt ’95 Wesley Hansen ’98
Patrick McCurdy ’98 Past President John Smyth ’83 Vice President, Regional Clubs and Annual Fund EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Sheila Adams ’01 Carolyn Kim Allwin ’96 Susan St. John Amorello ’84, P ’15 Alatia Bradley Bach ’88 T.C. Chau ’97 Jaques Clariond ’01 Alexandra Fenwick ’00 Margaux Harrold ’06 Elizabeth Alford Hogan ’82 Dewey Kang ’03 Kreagan Kennedy ’10 Lambert Lau ’97 Shanti Mathew ’05 Shantel Richardson ’99 Kathrin Schwesinger ’02 Allie G. Smith ’01 Jessy Trejo ’02 Jeffrey Veber ’83 Mary Liz Williamson ’94, Faculty Representative REGIONAL CLUB LEADERSHIP Boston Lovey Oliff ’97 Sarah Strang ’07 Chicago Maria Del Favero ’83 Jacqueline Salamack ’06
Alumni Gatherings and Celebrations
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New York Sheila Adams ’01 Jason Kasper ’05 Rosemary Hall Anne Marshall Henry ’62 San Francisco Kevin Kassover ’87 Tara Elwell Henning ’99 Washington, D.C. Dan Carucci ’76 Tillie Fowler ’92 Olivia Bee ’10 Beijing Gunther Hamm ’98
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Hong Kong Sandy Wan ’90 Lambert Lau ’97 Jennifer Yu ’99 Seoul Ryan Jungwook Hong ’89, P ’19 Shanghai T.C. Chau ’97 Michael ’88 and Peggy Moh P z’18
1890 SOCIET Y EV ENT / GR EEN W ICH, CT
Thailand Pirapol Sethbhakdi ’85 Isa Chirathivat ’96 Tokyo Robert Morimoto ’89 Miki Ito Yoshida ’07
Connecticut David Aversa ’91 Katie Vitali Childs ’95
6 BEIJING / CHINA
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NEW YOR K HOLIDAY PA RT Y
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BOSTON R ECEP TION 1 The Heimbold family
6 Alumni and parents gathered
graciously hosted members of the 1890 Society at their home in Riverside in September. 2 Chelsea Staniar P ’20, Melissa Barrett ’88, P ’21, Aundrea Amine P ’19 3 The Heimbold family home. 4 Maura Craig P ’13, ’18, Kristy Harteveldt P ’15, Rob Harteveldt ’80, P ’15, Aundrea Amine P ’19 5 Whitney George ’76 and Eric Propper ’76
in Beijing (pictured), Hong Kong, Seoul and Shanghai when Choate administrators traveled to Asia in December. 7 Emily Herzig ’07, Taryn Scott Pike ’07, Anthony White ’07, and K.C. Maloney ’06 8 Rob Patch ’78, Tom Yankus ’52, Chip Robie ’78, Duby McDowell ’78, Ellen Goodman ’78 9 Jaques Clariond ’01, Justin Pitrack ’99, Chris Herzog ’99
10 Class of ’91 alumni (left to right) Yolanda Smalls Payne, Roxanna Sherwood, Giancarlo Peressutti, Ulysses de la Torre, Jillian Backus Sullivan and husband Brendan, Daniel Kamensky 11 Justin Graham ’98 and Kathryn Greenberg ’98 were among alumni at the recent Seattle Reception. 12 Anne Tinker P ’88, ’94, John Henderson ’60, P’88, ’94, Myco Huynh ’08
13 Alex D. Curtis, Head of School. 14 Izzy Derber ’13, Mikayla Conway ’13, Briana Mastel ’13, and Sophia Kaufman ’13 15 Alex D. Curtis, Omar John ‘17, Charles Bellemare ’17, and Maria Cabrera Aguado ’17 16 Alumni and parents joined Alex Curtis at the Harvard Club in Boston for a reception and conversation about the School today.
SE AT TLE R ECEP TION
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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION | Q & A
B: Tell us something about your own career, first at Nickelodeon and now in the corporate legal department of NBCUniversal. The landscape of digital media and technology is changing so rapidly. As a lawyer, how do you keep up with those changes and permutations? JR: It definitely takes some effort! I happen to enjoy this area of the law, so that makes it easier to keep up. Much of what I encounter today was barely on anyone’s radar when I started practicing in this area. I probably learn the most by having an open flow of communication with my colleagues outside of the legal department. They help me learn what the trends are and where I should be focusing my efforts. It’s then up to me and my team to figure out how to apply relevant legal principles to the new medium or technology. I also participate in industry events and read a lot – newsletters, magazines, blogs, and so forth – all that helps me keep up.
with
JONATHAN REBELL ’93
2 5 TH R E U N I O N V O L U N T E E R
BULLETIN: You will be celebrating your 25th Reunion this May. What
made you decide to volunteer on the Reunion Committee? JONATHAN REBELL: Although I was only a student at Choate for two years, its impact on my life has been tremendous. I am extremely proud to be a Choate alumnus and I am particularly proud of so many of my classmates. I have been to past reunions, but I volunteered for the Reunion Committee this time around because I think the 25th reunion year is special and I want to make it a great weekend that all my classmates will be excited to attend. B: What aspect of the Reunion are you most excited about? JR: My Choate friends remain some of my closest friends. I always look forward to spending time with them, especially the ones I don’t get to see regularly. I also love being back on campus and having the opportunity to be nostalgic but also to see what has evolved since the last time I visited.
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B: You’ve been very involved in fundraising efforts for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, a nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grantmaking organization. How did you get involved with that? JR: While at Choate I started doing volunteer work, and that has continued throughout my life. I was first introduced to Broadway Cares by attending its annual ”Gypsy of the Year” competition, which raises millions of dollars every year. A gypsy in the theater community is a member of the chorus, ensemble, or a dancer. At this event, I learned about the great work Broadway Cares does to support essential social service programs through grants to over 450 AIDS and family service organizations across the country. Over the years I became more involved with the organization and a few years ago I was invited to join its National Leadership Council. B: What inspires you as a volunteer? JR: When I see others giving of their time, money or other resources, it inspires me to examine how I can contribute. Fundamentally, I believe all people have a responsibility to help improve the lives of others in the ways we can. Not everyone can do everything all the time. But I believe everyone can do something at some time, so that’s what I try to do. B: Do you have anything you want to say to your classmates to encourage them to attend Reunion? JR: Dan Zalcman is buying the first round of drinks.
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ALUMNI AWARD CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Be part of it! February 2018
12 – Hong Kong Reception 14 – Bangkok Reception
March 2018
2018
alumni award
Geoffrey S. Fletcher ’88 Each spring, Choate Rosemary Hall presents the Alumni Award to an alumnus/a for outstanding achievement in his or her chosen profession. This is the highest award the School bestows upon its graduates. The 2018 Alumni Award will be presented to Geoffrey S. Fletcher ’88 at school meeting on April 24 in recognition of his outstanding work as a screenwriter and director. Initially working with a video camera and cast of action figures, Geoffrey Fletcher began making films as a child. A graduate of Harvard University and NYU’s Tisch Graduate Film Program, Geoffrey Fletcher is the first African American to win an Academy Award in the category of writing, directing or producing for his screenplay, Precious: Based on the Novel ”Push” by Sapphire. While earning his M.F.A. in directing at NYU, Geoffrey’s work won numerous awards, including one from the Directors Guild of America. Precious, presented by executive producers Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, received six Academy Award nominations and two wins. It also received the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Awards at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. It is only the third film to do so in the festival’s history. Precious also won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, making it the only film to win the top prizes at both Sundance and Toronto. Among other notable honors, Geoffrey was heralded by Variety as one of its ”10 Screenwriters to Watch,” and he received the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. Geoffrey’s feature directorial debut Violet & Daisy received the Cinevation Award, given for imagination, inspiration and innovation in cinema from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Violet & Daisy was an official selection of the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival as well. Geoffrey is currently writing I Am A Man for Sycamore Pictures about the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers strike, a watershed event in the U.S. Civil Rights movement that culminated in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. For his trailblazing efforts to tackle critical issues in his films, we are pleased to honor Geoffrey S. Fletcher with this year’s Alumni Award.
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1 – NY – Young Alumni Networking at LinkedIn 14 – LA – Career Networking 16 – San Francisco – Career Networking 28 – DC – National Portrait Gallery
April 2018
5 – Boston – Career Networking event 10 – NY – Finance Breakfast 23 – Sixth Form – Alumni Dinner 24 – Alumni Award
May 2018
11 – Alumni Association Meeting 11 – Athletics Hall of Fame Inductions 11-13 – Reunion Weekend – Classes ending in 3s and 8s and all post 50th alumni Learn more about upcoming events at: WWW.CHOATE.EDU/ALUMNI
may 11-13, 2018 CLASSES ENDING IN 3s AND 8s & ALL POST 50TH ALUMNI
REGISTRATION IS OPEN!
Gather your friends and make your reservations today! www.choate.edu/reunion
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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.
’27 From the Archives Undated photograph from a 19261927 Rosemary Hall scrapbook.
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32 CLASSNOTES
1950s ’50 C Pete Hillyer (Pa.); Erick Van Duyne, (Mich.); and Eyvind (Marc) Faye (Calif.) have exchanged season’s greetings every year since graduation, keeping somewhat up-to-date on health, children, and activities. They annually invite each other to visit and have done so about once in 60-plus years. In 2017 they finally talked by telephone and found little has changed. All are still married to their wives, enjoy their lives and travel a little. ’51
C Eric Seiff, Chairman of the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection, has received the 2017 Isaac Hecht Law Client Protection Award for his 35 years of public service. Eric is a charter member of the New York Fund and has served as its chair since 2010. He has had a 58-year legal career as a public and private practitioner and litigator.
’52 C
Peter Decker has a new book, The Go-Backer. This historical novel follows a family from Vermont who goes west to homestead but soon joins the ranks of failed homesteaders who return (the ”gobackers”) to their eastern roots.
’53 C
Woody Laikind writes, “It is only a few more months till our 65th Reunion in May. So far, four classmates have told me that they are returning. Please try to come back. I promise you a wonderful weekend, filled with reminiscences, nostalgia, updates on Choate and how it has changed. You need to make a reservation at the Courtyard by Marriott. I’m planning some surprises (think about making our undefeated wrestling team weigh in to see what class they would wrestle in now – just joking). But I do have a few things that I think you will enjoy. Contact me at Jlaikind@gmail.com with questions.”
’54 RH Linda Berry Trimble writes, “Although we still have our home in Chatham on Cape Cod where we continue to enjoy the summer and early fall, we did move from Seabrook Island, S.C. three years ago to Bonita Springs, Fla. where we prefer the warmer climate. While in S.C., we enjoyed being close to the Charleston area, but eventually found the winter months getting too cold. We continue to play golf and do some extra walking, but no longer play tennis. We are both active with club activities and also participate in golf events with the Bay State Seniors Golf Association, where John is the treasurer. Our daughter, Dede Trimble Griesbauer ’88, is happily married and living in Boulder, where she continues to train as an Ironman triathlete. Our son presently lives in Atlanta but has spent a number of years in San Francisco. We both look forward to our 60th college reunions next year (mine at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., and John’s at Dartmouth). Lastly, we particularly enjoyed having dinner the last two years in neighboring Naples with Pat Bisbee Sweet and Bill Marsh.” ’55 C
Sloane Griswold writes, “Lost my wife of 40 years, so have been busy down-sizing to a small apartment and doing lots of traveling. Active with the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the safe boating scene. Tennis every morning with other dinosaurs, and splitting time between Florida and the Connecticut shore.” Dick Lambrecht writes, “After 81 years in Michigan, my wife, Reita, and I have completed a long-considered move and relocated permanently to Florida last September. Our new residence at Plymouth Harbor is just west of downtown Sarasota with outstanding views of the downtown, Sarasota Bay, the Intracoastal Waterway, Longboat Key and more. Although we will miss family, friends, clubs and organizations in Michigan, we are meeting the
200-plus residents here and making use of the pools, restaurants, wellness center, woodworking shop, auditorium and more readily-accessible amenities for easy living. Hurricane Irma rolled through just five days before our arrival but our new home was relatively unscathed and our move was completed on schedule.”
’57 C
Luis Armand Roche has been writing novels for the past year, mostly in Spanish. All can be ordered either at Amazon or CreateSpace.com. He and his wife, Marie, live in Caracas, Venezuela.
’58 C Jacques Moreillon Ph.D., writes, “During my last meeting with Nelson Mandela in April 2004 at the HQ of his Foundation, I told him that I was working on a document that would tell the story of our 14 meetings, especially of the six ’interviews without witness’ that took place in his cell on Robben Island between 1973 and 1975 when I was Delegate General of the ICRC for Africa. I specified that this story would have to wait until 2015 before it could become public, considering ICRC rules on access to its own archives. Mandela knew the ICRC well and understood the necessity of such rules. But he was also eager to ensure that an ‘outsider’ who had been both a witness to, and an actor in, that period would leave his independent testimony that one day could become public. Indicating that ‘no one is eternal,’ he stressed his trust in the staff of his foundation and their capacity to respect an embargo up to 2015 or even beyond if necessary – which they did! Thus it is now, two years after the end of the embargo and 12 years after my writing the text, ‘Moments with Madiba’ that it is available on the website of the Nelson Mandela Foundation at www.nelsonmandela.org/news/entry/moments-with-madiba. His successors at the head of the Nelson Mandela Foundation have done a remarkable job in keeping these objectives alive,
’52 Tom Yankus ’52 Inducted into Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame On November 18, Tom Yankus '52 was inducted into the 2017 Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame at The Chatham Bars Inn. His daughter Alex Oxborough-Yankus ’10 was the presenter before his acceptance speech. Pitcher Tom Yankus’s baseball journey began at Choate before heading off to Williams College, where he played varsity ball and was named to the Williams College All-Time Baseball Team. He then signed with the New York Yankees in 1956 and played minor league ball in Montana, Washington, and North Carolina, before serving in the Navy. In the Cape League, the left-hander played three seasons for the Orleans Cardinals and distinguished himself with three winning seasons, a no-hitter in the 1965 Fourth of July game, and as a member of three All-Star teams (1963-65). He spent 56 years teaching at Choate and coaching baseball.
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Rosemary Hall ’65 classmates had a mini-reunion in Maine last summer.
Larry Morin ’58 and Dick Diehl ’59 reunited in October as part of Larry's trip to California in celebration of his 55th Stanford Reunion.
in particular through a stunning website that prides itself in having some 12 million viewers. I encourage anyone interested in Nelson Mandela to have a look at the following link: https://www.nelsonmandela.org/.” Larry Morin writes, “In the process of preparing for our 60th Reunion this coming May, I have enjoyed several recent phone and email conversations. The most interesting has been my email exchange with Jacques Moreillon, who has lived in Switzerland for many years. My phone conversations with Paul Bennett have brought out details about his personal and occupational experiences that deserve much more recognition than he seems to realize. Next, as part of our trip to California for my 55th Reunion at Stanford, we had the fantastic opportunity to stay with Dick ’59 and Kathy Diehl at their beautiful home in Pasadena for four days and nights. Dick was a member of C ’58 for four years and always has considered himself to be a member of our class, even though he stayed an extra year and graduated with the Class of 1959. And most recently, and from our frequent visits to Essex, Conn., to see Nancy’s mother, I reached out to Lindsay ’Lin’ Smith, and had a lively post-Thanksgiving lunch in Westbrook.” Dennie Williams writes, “As a former Hartford Courant news reporter, specializing in investigative news for almost four decades, and then a freelancer afterward for another 10 years, I became motivated. As a consequence, I am now writing a book entitled Life Exposures, including interrogations of North Korean spies, induce career investigative reporting – now a fading art. The volume still has a tough section to develop concerning the variety of inquisitive stories worked into the news by myself and fellow reporting partners. Two years as a Choate student, as well as four years at Middlebury College with a B.A. in American Literature, inspired me to eventually get into the swing of it. But my U.S. army intelligence experience as an investigator in Korea and Washington, DC definitely stimulated this epilogue.”
’59 C
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Lin Smith ’58 and Larry Morin ’58 had a lively postThanksgiving lunch in Westbrook, Conn.
Ivan Light writes, “I have signed a contract with Routledge to produce a new book on the sociology of entrepreneurship called Forms of Capital: From Luther to Trump. This book contains 10 chapters of which five have already been published, so my junior colleague (Leo-Paul Dana) and I need only generate five new ones. Recently enjoyed a birthday: 76 trombones in the big parade.”
1960s ’60 RH Stuart (Sassy) Saylor Watters writes, “Sadly, my husband died recently; takes a while to work through that. Hopefully winter will find me in Vero Beach, Fla., until the end of April. Sun and sky and of course sand will help, I am sure.” ’62 C Alan Neely reports that he is still based in Atlanta and 2017 was a banner year. “Butchie (Helen) and I marked 50 years of marriage and celebrated in Scotland with the whole family in June. I achieved a goal set 25 years ago by running my 100th triathlon in September. I graduated in May from Georgia State with a master’s in English started in 1966 but interrupted by military service and a career in consulting. Unofficially proclaimed the University’s ’Slowest Student on Record’ by GSU President Mark Becker.” F. John Wilkes writes, “What a year! My two sons, Johnny and Nat, tied the knot – Nat in July with Kit in Redondo Beach, Calif., and Johnny in September with Sarah out on Long Island. Both weddings were fantastic! And, as an extra bonus, I got to see one of the women I love again – that wonderful redhead, Marge Small, my ex-mother-in-law, who, at 93, is still going very strong. Johnny seems to like his job at Aon in NYC, while Nat is searching for a better position in advertising on the West Coast. I am slowly making my way back from being hit by a Mercedes while riding my bike on March 12, 2016. I’m on my bike again, and tried skiing on the baby slopes of Stratton Mountain last March. So far, the leg and back (both broken) seem to be holding up.”
John Wilkes ’62 at his son John's wedding in Long Island last September.
’63 C Richard Holden Bole writes, “Finally retiring from my recycling company – first, will arrange to give a speech at a plastic manufacturing conference requesting they reform the plastic numbering system and place the number of plastic in large insignia on every plastic part produced in America. Then go to Ohio legislature and request reform to Ohio’s terrible Worker’s Comp. System. Then visit older brothers, then friends. Then play with grandchildren. Sound good?” ’65 RH Susan Hall Mygatt writes, “My family is growing. Last May, my youngest of three daughters had her first child, a girl named Ruth. My other two daughters are expecting in early 2018, so I will go from one grandchild (Charlie, now 3 ½) to 4 in less than nine months! I’m looking forward to more nights of interrupted sleep.” Ann Mason Sears writes, ”At our mini RH reunion the end of August at my house in Maine, we had Julie Newhall and her guest from Holland, Jancie Reynolds Olson, Sally Hudson, Joanne Sullivan, Judy Donald ’66, my daughter Hannah Sears ’93 and myself. Great fun and lobster meal. Julie stayed a few days, explored the area and joined in a boat ride. Save the Date, August 27, 2018, for next year’s Maine reunion. We have extra rooms to stay if you wish to stay or come early. Carlie Mayer Feldman also joined me for a visit in Maine. When I am in Longboat Key, Fla., Karin Int-out Jones is just down the road in Bird Key - always fun to connect. This was a sad fall for our class with the loss of Wendy Winslow Lofting and Julie Clark Goodyear. I will keep the class posted about the addition to our memorial tree and bench on the campus of Choate Rosemary Hall in Wendy’s and Julie’s memory. searssunshine@comcast.net.”
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CLASSNOTES | Profile
Edwina von Gal
Making Change Yard by Yard
’66
In pursuit of the perfect lawn, Americans put millions of pounds of chemicals into the earth each year. Of the 30 most common lawn pesticides, 17 are probable or possible human carcinogens, 11 are linked with birth defects, 14 are associated with neurotoxicity… the list goes on. Not to mention that these chemicals enter our aquifers and estuaries and are toxic to fish and aquatic organisms. Edwina von Gal ’66 has had enough. In 2013, the award-winning landscape designer launched the Perfect Earth Project, a nonprofit that promotes toxinfree lawns and landscapes by spreading the word about the dangers of pesticides and by sharing organic techniques. Many individual properties across the country have gone green with help from Perfect Earth, and the campuses of dozens of organizations – from the Philip Johnson Glass House in New Canaan, Conn., to the Battery Conservancy in New York City – bear the “PRFCT Place Toxin-Free” seal of approval. There are 40 million acres of lawn in the U.S., and Perfect Earth seeks to make a measurable difference by converting individual lawn owners and landscapers into land stewards. “Our mission is to spread this information,” says Edwina. “It’s about making change person by person, yard by yard.” “Organic” doesn’t necessarily mean “expensive,” Edwina notes, if we change lawn maintenance “from a product-based system to a process-based system.” For example, mow higher for longer blades, more photosynthesis, deeper roots, and healthier grass. Leave the clippings as mulch and grow a little clover in with the grass to make fertilizer unnecessary. Reseed in the fall, and there will be less room for the weeds in the spring. Simplicity and sustainability have long been features of Edwina’s work since she founded her eponymous landscape firm in 1984. Native species are emphasized, as is the creation of spaces that don’t feel forced. One notable project is the Wave Field – a living art installation made of grass – at the Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, N.Y. Edwina was invited to participate by artist and architect Maya Lin – best known for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. – a frequent collaborator. She is currently working on creating a sustainable environment for a Lin-designed library at Smith College. A project with another famous architect was what first spurred Edwina’s environmental activism. Hired by Frank Gehry to design the park landscaping for his Museum of Biodiversity in Panama City, Edwina went to Panama in 2002 to get to know the area’s native plants. She ended up buying land in the Azuero region, experimenting with sustainable building types, and becoming involved with a native tree reforestation project led by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. This led to founding, with some friends, The AzueroEarth Project, a nonprofit that brings together local stakeholders and global experts to work on chemical-free habitat restoration, sustainable land use, and environmental education.
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photo credit: inez & vinoodh
Edwina’s concept of herself as a doer and change maker has its roots in her experiences at her alma mater. An unassuming girl from a small town, at Rosemary Hall she found peers who read the New York Times every day and were engaged in conversations about politics and ideas. “It launched me into a whole new way of being,” she says. “I realized I could walk out of there and do something.” Her path to becoming the kind of landscape designer who is featured in Architectural Digest and the New York Times Magazine, began in her own yard in the 1970s. When Edwina became a mother, she decided to grow all her own food, even hiring a farmer to plow up her lawn with his tractor. Edwina furthered her experiential education by taking courses at the New School and the New York Botanical Garden. Working for a time for a real estate management company in New York, she did landscaping for the properties in the firm’s portfolio. She also became conversant in “archi-speak.” As one who frequently collaborates professionally with architects, she needs to understand both literally and creatively “the voice that I’m trying to respond to.” Now semi-retired from her business, Edwina spends much of her time developing and disseminating the Perfect Earth message via its website (www. perfectearthproject.org) and traveling around the country to give presentations about sustainable landscaping to community groups and professional organizations, including the American Society of Landscape Architects. In November, she gave a TED Talk as part of a series about innovation. This year, Perfect Earth will launch more programs in schools, healthcare facilities, and neighborhoods to promote safe, healthy landscapes. leslie virostek Leslie Virostek is a freelance writer.
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’67 C Selby Hinkebein writes, “My wife and I traveled to France in late September. Of course, we visited the Musee d’Orsay and the Louvre. We happened to hit the Louvre on a Sunday along with about a million French, as that day was free admission. After muscling past the hordes in front of the Mona Lisa, we went to the room that has the David and Ingres. Could not help but reflect on Art 5-6 and how much of an impression it made on me, although I did not realize it at the time. Since I was voted most likely to be a wino, I felt honor-bound to have some good wine. Went with two great Chablis, a Dauvissat and a Raveneau. Cheers!” ’67 RH Marylou Lange writes, “What an amazing 50th year class reunion from many in our class! It was an immediate connection by all and a sign of what Rosemary Hall gave to each of us in strength of character and just being there for each other. Great to be greeted with such interest about Rosemary Hall from the students who are now at School. My work at Rockland Psychiatric Center for more than 30 years as a psychologist continues to be rewarding and challenging. I took a wonderful long vacation this fall; I biked from Prague to Vienna, then a week in Mallorca, Spain and then back to Prague.” Barbara Medina writes, “We lived in Washington for 31 years. I have been retired from teaching in a Montessori school for three years and we decided it was time to move. We now live in Pagosa Springs, Colo. The elevation is more than 7,000 feet and the population is less than 2,000 people. It’s the perfect combination. The hiking and biking are great and we are looking forward to winter activities. We have bought an older house that will get some TLC over time. We are looking forward to an exciting retirement!” Toni Wiseman writes, “The Southern Vermont/New Hampshire contingent of RH ’67 gathered for lunch this fall before the snow fell. I was lucky to get together Leigh Hyde Adams, Debi Brighton, Sally Hall Hansel, Anne Brower DuBosque, and Missy MacLeod Whitmore.”
’68 C
Phil Snyder headed to LA in December for screening of the film The Bag, co-directed and produced with his brother, Rob Snyder ’69. The film premiered at the Culver City Film Festival.
’68 RH Anne Lawson-Beerman writes, “Ginger Perry, Kathy Teichgraeber Merrill and I have been e-mailing about getting together to celebrate our 50th reunion. If any other RH alumnae are interested in reconnecting, please e-mail me at albeerman@gmail.com.”
’69 C
Jay F. Kavanagh writes, “My wife, Mary, and I now call Williamsburg, Va., home. I retired from Honeywell Aerospace (formerly AlliedSignal Aerospace) in Phoenix in December 2012 after
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17-plus years. I was a Senior Contracts Manager in the Law & Contracts Department. We relocated from Scottsdale to Williamsburg which we had visited several times and liked all the history the area had to offer. Besides, Mary and I wanted to be closer to oldest son Ben (USNA ’98) and his family (get grandkids!), who reside in nearby Chesapeake, Va. Ben is currently a practicing attorney in a Virginia Beach law firm. Middle son Brian (USMA ’00) is Deputy Brigade Commander, 210th Field Artillery Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, currently stationed at Camp Casey, South Korea on a one year rotation (his third now). His family resides in Honolulu. Our youngest son, Brad, is disabled, and lives with us here in Williamsburg. We are very proud parents and love all of them. Looking forward to seeing all my Choate friends and classmates at our 50th class reunion in Spring 2019. If you are ever in or near the Williamsburg area, give us a shout!” Miller Williams writes, “Constance and I have been living in Asheville, N.C. since 2006. In 2016, I became Chairman of Willbros Group, a NYSE-listed energy construction company serving North America. I am also Chairman of Brightfield, a company owning and selling electric vehicle charging stations. My golf game is improving. I look forward to our 50th Reunion gathering in 2019!”
’69 RH Cathy Lee Davis is pleased to say that her elder son, Colin, is graduating from college. Amanda Miles writes, “Fellow Rosemarians remain my closest friends after all these years. Carolyn Miller aka Corky, Virginia Bartholomew aka Baba, and Lisa King aka King. Recently bought a lakeside cottage in Maine so I am officially a Snowbird – 6 months in Florida, 6 months here. Lucky!” Elise Hume Papke writes, “Big news from Milwaukee is that the UWM School of Public Health was accredited, bringing my total accreditations to 2 (one program, one school)! Our youngest, John, is in his last year of school in Chicago. Two daughters in Milwaukee, and our third daughter in New York, pursuing acting. I’m already looking forward to our summer trip to the Apostle Islands, and did finally walk around a cranberry farm.” Vickie Spang writes, “Still enjoying life in California as head of the marketing department of a major law firm. Saddened by the recent death of classmate Janice Klumpp. She played Teddy Roosevelt in the play Arsenic & Old Lace, in which I directed her at Rosemary. She was a very good actress and a great person.” Sara Woodhall writes, “Clyde (Esch) and I are still blissfully happy and last fall celebrated our 8th anniversary together with 2 weeks in Spain – an amazing trip with my Spanish coming back enough so that we could go to little places that did not speak English. Our granddaughter, Ellie, is 22 months (the
daughter of my daughter and son-in-law, Christina and Mark Moreno. Christina is pregnant with our grandson due in the New Year. Clyde’s 98-year-old mother passed away last year. The entire Esch family is flying to Kodiak, Alaska next August to spread her ashes over Old Woman Mountain - where her husband’s ashes were spread. We are both still working - I am the Major Gift Officer for the College of Liberal Arts at Wright State University in Dayton. I love it! Clyde is a chiropractor and still loves what he does. We have a Cessna 182 (single propeller - 4 seat plane). We love to dash off to dinner or lunch at nearby places (Louisville, Indianapolis, Cleveland etc.) or go to Chicago for the weekend or visit friends in Michigan, etc. Our doors are always open and we would welcome any buzz wuzzers to drop a line and stop by… we have the room.”
TOP/LEFT Miller Williams ’69 is Chairman of Willbros Group, a NYSE
listed energy construction company serving North America. He is also Chairman of Brightfield, a company owning and selling electric vehicle charging stations. TOP/RIGHT Bill Barnes ’66 and classmate Michael Garroway met together in September in Château-l’Evêque, France and traveled with their wives to the Lascaux Caves in the Dordogne. MIDDLE The Southern Vermont/New Hampshire contingent of RH ’67 gathered for lunch in fall. In attendance, Leigh Hyde Adams, Debi Brighton, Sally Hall Hansel, Anne Brower DuBosque, Missy MacLeod Whitmore, and Toni Wiseman. BOTTOM Phil Snyder ’68 headed to LA in December for screening of the film, The Bag, co-directed and produced with his brother, Rob Snyder ’69.
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36 CLASSNOTES
TOP/LEFT Linda Briggs McCulloch ’75 survived the California wild-
fires in Sonoma County last October. TOP/RIGHT John R. Parziale, M.D. ’75 Clinical Associate Professor of Orthopedics at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, was named “2017 Distinguished Clinician” by the American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. BOTTOM George Whipple ’73 and his wife, Victoria, welcomed a daughter, Elizabeth Marie, in April 2017.
Chip Lamb ’75 in his one-act play, Headshot, performed at the Silver Circle Arts Center in Putnam, Connecticut, last summer.
’75
1970s ’71 C Dave Clarke writes, “I closed my gastroenterology practice in Portland, Ore., to teach psychosomatic medicine and medical ethics. I also visit grandchildren in Denver and Dallas.” ’71 RH Hope Gallagher Ogletree writes, “As Director of Development of the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University, I had the opportunity to create an important new program for them around their alumnae. We held our inaugural Women’s Philanthropy Summit on November 6, 2017 at Fordham’s Law School to thunderous applause and support among alumnae from across the University’s nine schools. We taught the concept of women’s giving circles, and while it’s not a new concept, it has not made its way from the Midwest to the East Coast in a large number of educational institutions – either at the prep school level or within higher ed. A large part of my devoting the last 10-plus years studying this approach has been in part because of my graduating from Rosemary Hall and Wheaton College, both when they were women’s institutions. Each institution has had a different approach with varying degrees of success when it comes to engaging their previous constituents, many of whom are at an age when giving significantly to their institutions both with outright gifts and bequests makes this concept timely.”
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’72 C Stephen M. Monroe writes, “Had fun with John and Sherry Gelb at the premiere of M. Butterfly on Broadway starring Jin Ha ’08. Peter Robinson ’70 was also there. Meanwhile, my third daughter graduated from University of St Andrews in Scotland and returned home last July. One more to go (a sophomore at Dartmouth)! Our 45th Reunion was great fun, but we need more of you! Please put the 50th on your calendars! Second weekend of May 2022.” Haigh Scott Reiniger writes that he has kept in touch with classmate Jacqueline de la Begassiere RH ’72 since their school days. He attended Jacqueline’s coming out party and graduation party for the Class of ’72 at Jacqueline’s family’s Center Island, Oyster Bay home. He adds that Jacqueline, a former Eileen Ford model, married Farouk Younes, an Egyptian polo player, and that the couple has two daughters in New England schools. Jeffrey Townsend writes, “After spending 20 years working in feature films as a production designer and second unit director, and another 15 years in marketing, digital film production and youth fiction, I have found fulfillment in the classroom setting.” He is in his third year teaching high school juniors and seniors at SEATech, a skills center in Walla Walla, Wash., where he is the audio and video production instructor. He has been married to his wife, Patrice, for 24 years, and they have a son,
Wiley (22), who is a character animator at Cinesite in Vancouver, B.C., and a daughter, Sadie (18), who is currently working with inner-city children as an intern with the Valpo Surf Project in Valparaiso, Chile.
’73 C
Stephen Davis, a senior fellow in corporate governance at Harvard Law School, will be a visiting professor at the business school of the University of Aix-Marseille in April 2018. Lou Good retired from the National Park Service and lives in Page, Ariz. Enjoying outdoor recreation and living on the Colorado Plateau, he says ”Hey, I finally found something I’m really good at doing: retirement!” George Whipple reports that in April 2017, he and his wife, Victoria, welcomed a baby girl, Elizabeth Marie. Together, they journeyed to Paris, London, Maine and to Kentucky for the solar eclipse this summer. George continues his role on the red carpet for NY1 covering the New York Film Festival, Costume Institute Gala and other noteworthy film and television projects. In September, he was elected to the board of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and he also participated as a Sundance Circle member at the annual Sundance Film Festival in Utah. George is still heavily engaged in active law practice. He was elected to the board of directors of Epstein Becker Green in 2017 and was recognized as one of the top lawyers in Workplace and Employment Counseling by The Legal 500 United States.
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’74
C Matthew Murray, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Europe, the Middle East and Africa under the Obama Administration, has been selected as an International Member of the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) of Afghanistan. The MEC is an independent agency created in 2016 to monitor and evaluate the anti-corruption efforts of the Afghan government and the international community and report on a regular basis to the President, Parliament, and people of Afghanistan, as well as to the international community, regarding the state of the fight against corruption.
’74
RH Anne Ayres Mosychuk has moved back to Connecticut after 23 years in Florida. She moved to be closer to her mom and also to her first granddaughter, born at the end of October. Her son John works as an attorney for the state of Connecticut and he and his family live in Manchester. James, her younger son, is an officer in the Navy and will be married in August 2018. Says Anne, “Both daughters-inlaw are named Kristine and they are both wonderful women.” Anne will remain working in the brokerage business with Raymond James – this time on the independent side with RJ Financial Services. (She can walk to work!)
’75 C Timothy H. Barnard (T Barny) writes, “We started the season with an opening at my newest gallery, Kelsey Michaels Fine Art, in Laguna Beach. Showing my art in the same town I spent many of my childhood summers, creating my earliest abstract sculptures from sand, is a wonderful feeling. We then hosted an International Sculpture Day event here at the studio. We are still slowly moving toward getting a Guinness world record for largest painted paper Mobius. Who would guess that working with an international organization takes time?! Then, my sculptures went to their annual summer retreat at the Bohemian Grove. Some of them returned in the fall, rested and ready for my yearly Santa Fe show at Hunter Kirkland Gallery in September. Back home, we were hit in mid-October with the terrible Sonoma County fires. We packed 27 sculptures into my truck, then sat tight until we were forced to evacuate for four days. Luckily, our house was OK, and we returned to participate in Sonoma County Art Trails Open Studio. There was an incredible camaraderie among our visitors, a community bond I see now more than ever throughout the county. We wrapped up the season by participating in the Harvest Summit in November. I displayed 10 of my pieces at the event held at La Crema Estate Winery in Windsor, Calif. The forward-thinking, cross-industry event was a perfect match with my work.” James Hitselberger writes, “I am living in Michigan’s western upper peninsula along Lake Superior. I host travelers from around the world via couchsurfing.com and via the bicyclist hosting site warmshowers.com.”
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John R. Parziale, M.D., Clinical Associate Professor of Orthopedics at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, was named 2017 Distinguished Clinician by the American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at its annual assembly in Denver, Colo., on October 14, 2017. Dr. Parziale has been a member of the Brown faculty since 1986. He has clinical interests in occupational medicine, nerve compression syndromes and golf-related injuries, and is a senior mentor for medical students.
’75 RH Linda Briggs McCulloch, Sonoma resident and executive chef, reports that her home in beautiful Sonoma Valley was not damaged in the horrific firestorm this past October. The fire did surround her neighborhood on three sides and the fire was stopped less than a half a mile from her home. #sonomastrong #visitwinecountry cuisinebylela.com
’78 C
Jonathan S. Baker has relocated to the East Coast and visits Anne H. Levine frequently. Says Jonathan, “Anne has a beautiful home on Cape Cod in Dennis proper. We laugh so hard we can’t breathe!” J.R. Hellman writes, “I continue my lifelong career in sports television and radio adding sports consulting in the past 2 years – working on NFL project for Oakland Raiders and advising Noah Barnes with sports expertise, media and contacts. He is 11 years old – youngest person in history to walk across the USA – more than 4,000 miles from Florida to Blaine, Wash., raising awareness for Type 1 and 2 Diabetes. He’s had it since 16 months old, trying to raise money to find a cure for 30 million people in the U.S. impacted by this disease. Just had my former employer, Portland Trail Blazers – spent 10 years in ’Rip City’ producing all of their NBA games on television and radio as well as talk shows and specials, coaches and players – host Noah and his family as honored guests at Orlando vs. Portland game. Learn more at noahsmarch.com and follow his daily journey at noahsmarchfoundation.com.”
is directly associated with my years at Choate. Back in the fourth form, required reading included The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, and Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro. I would like to thank Mr. Menon for his patience and understanding as he helped me get through my fourth form English class. I have run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain as described in The Sun Also Rises. I was a member of the Orlando Shakespeare Guild during a performance of Macbeth. I had one more activity to complete my fourth form English class. I came up with the idea to relaunch myself, get back in better shape, and have an amazing experience and celebration. So, I decided to celebrate by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. I don’t camp, I’m not a huge fan of the snow, as many of my fellow Choaties would verify, and I’m not used to the altitude. So, I gave myself an amazing goal. After months of training, changing my eating and drinking habits, and trying to learn how to breathe with lower oxygen content, I began the hike. I took the envelope along with me with Choate written on it to help inspire me in the upper altitudes and when the climb became more strenuous.” Elisa Buono Glazer writes that after five memorable years at the Brookings Institution, she has returned to work in the museum arena. On June 12, she became director of external affairs for the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s Museums of Asian art. She welcomes all to visit the galleries which have reopened after extensive renovation and reinstallation of the collections. Hal Malkin brought son Leo to Choate and dinner with classmates. He reports, “I also attended the Choate reception in Seattle and reconnected with Amy Levin Ragen and Lora Fassett Mason.”
’78 RH Joan Bigwood writes, “Joanie is hitting her stride as a writer. Her original stage play Or Current Resident will be produced from February 8 to February 25 at Theater for the New City in the East Village; all Tri-State alums are cordially invited! With her second husband, Jeff, Joanie moved from Palo Alto in May 2017 to a darling village in Seacoast, N.H. Woods, water, and the best damn dog make their new lives simply sublime. See you at the reunion? Hope so!”
Ed Eastwood ’79 climbed Mount Kilimanjaro on August 31, 2017.
’79
Ed Eastwood climbed Mount Kilimanjaro on August 31. This was after nine months of training. He writes, “Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro has been on my ’Life List’ for several years. I don’t like the term ’Bucket List’ because of its negative connotations. I chose Mount Kilimanjaro for several reasons, and one
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CLASSNOTES | Profile
’74 Ed Kelly
Riding the Wholesome Wave Like his colleagues at Wholesome Wave, Edward “Ed” F. Kelly ’74 P ’07, ‘12, speaker at Choate’s Matriculation Ceremony last September, wants to leave behind the ultimate gift—a sustainable planet. What bequest could possibly be more important? Wholesome Wave, a national non-profit, where Ed has been chief expansion officer for the past year and a half, was started 10 years ago in Bridgeport, Conn., by celebrity chef, sustainability pioneer and four-time James Beard Foundation honoree Michel Nischan at the urging of the late actor Paul Newman. Nischan, who came from a hardscrabble Midwestern farming family and has two children with type-1 diabetes, was Newman’s partner in the Dressing Room, a popular and innovative restaurant that was located on Connecticut’s Gold Coast and closed in 2014, six years after the actor’s death. The socially conscious Newman exhorted Nischan, “If you’re serious about changing the world through food, go do it!” Newman practiced what he preached. The Dressing Room’s name was a pun that simultaneously referred to his acting career and his line of Newman’s Own salad dressings, which he began in 1982. It generated more than $300,000 in profits. “Let’s give it all away,” the actor declared. That was followed by Newman’s Own
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Pasta Sauce in 1983, and then lemonade, microwave popcorn and salsa, and by now, more than 100 products. In 2005, the Newman’s Own Foundation was created to ensure the actor’s legacy would continue, with more than $485 million contributed to charities to date. “Nischan’s Wholesome Wave has got good Newman’s Own DNA running through us and Newman’s Own has been a good funding partner,” says Ed. Ed brought to Wholesome Wave two important attributes: experience with marketing and branding in the food arena and a personal commitment to giving back. His long career in media began in 1978 as a research assistant at People magazine and he retired in 2013 as CEO of American Express Publishing, whose titles included Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure and Departures. His advice to Choate students at Matricualtion? “Expand your network … What I have come to value most are the people I met while at Choate and those I have come to know through the alumni network.” He added this factoid, “I’ve been hired four times in my career. Three times by a Choate alum. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.” He met Nischan in a park in Aspen, Colo. during the 2012 Food & Wine Classic. As chief expansion officer at Wholesome Wave, Ed was charged with overseeing the marketing, public relations, and development teams as well as brand building, communication and revenue generation. On January 1, Ed moved to the board of directors, where he could continue his oversight, while Jacqueline Grace, formerly of the Girl Scouts of America, became chief development officer. One in five Americans is food insecure, says Ed. Forty-four million Americans rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the food stamp program. They spend $67 billion in SNAP funds and another $60 billion of their own, representing a $127 billion economy in themselves. A whopping trillion dollars per year is spent dealing with dietrelated illnesses. Wholesome Wave’s programs touch over 500,000 people annually, but its goal is millions. With help from donors like Target and the Sampson Foundation, the non-profit helps people in poverty afford fruits and vegetables. Main programs include doubling SNAP (food stamps) when spent on produce, and empowing doctors to prescribe produce. Farmers are thrilled, because it drives new customers to them. “For the consumer, farmer, taxpayer and environment, it’s win-win-win-win,” says Ed. Wholesome Wave is only beginning to scratch the surface of its potential to bring about positive change. The future appears to be a reloadable debit card, which will allow the programs to move aggressively into retail. “That’s where the home run is,” says Ed, “the cards will be able to track cardholders’ purchasing behavior, rewarding those who make good use of the program.” “Our goal is to change the world through food,” Ed says. “Poverty should never be an obstacle to eating fruits and vegetables. Our vision is affordable, local, healthy food for all.” For more information, see wholesomewave.org. gil walker Gil Walker is a longtime freelance writer based in Connecticut with an endless appetite for food, wine, travel and adventure.
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1980s ’80 Michael Lewyn recently received tenure at Touro Law Center on Long Island. In addition, Palgrave Macmillan published his book Government Intervention and Suburban Sprawl. He continues to blog at marketurbanism.com and planetizen.com on urban affairs. Kenny Tung had an article, ”Establishing a Legal Function Beyond Home Jurisdiction,” published in LegalBusinessWorld. See link http://lbw2017us7. legalbusinesslibrary.com/html5.html?page=46 ’81
Rob Falk recently became General Counsel at Truth Initiative, a nonprofit aiming to reduce youth who use tobacco. He adds, “I continue my side gig as a triathlon/running coach. I recently started taking an improv class. All else is subject to change without notice.”
Michael T. van der Veen was re-elected to the Board of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. He will serve a three-year term.
’85 Scott Weinhold writes, “In August, I began a three-year assignment as Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, responsible for all U.S. Government public diplomacy programs in Turkey.” ’86
Jerry Farrell, Jr. lives in Wallingford, on North Elm Street across from Faculty Square. Having served as the top government regulator of liquor and medical marijuana in the administration of former Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell, Jerry has returned to the private sector, opening multiple businesses in those fields. Responding to opportunities in states which have legalized medical marijuana, Jerry founded Buona Verde Associates, which assists clients in applying for new state medical marijuana licenses, either as growers or dispensers. The Law Offices of Jerry Farrell, Jr. advises clients in the liquor and wine business on licensing and trade practice issues; clients include
retailers, wholesalers, importers, and affiliated vendors. Connecticut Liquor Law Educational Services teaches the management and staff of restaurants and retail stores about best practices in the sale and service of alcohol to the public. Connecticut Liquor Compliance Associates focuses on so-called private compliance, inspecting liquor establishments to ensure they comply with federal and state liquor laws. Andrew Meehan writes, “My wife, Anne, and I welcomed our first child, James Patrick Meehan, on July 6. I have been impressed by Dr. Curtis’s and the Board’s efforts to address the issues of past abuses and promote full disclosure and honesty. It is the best path and only legitimate path forward.” Sandeep Teja, M.D., writes, “I became a neurosurgeon and practiced in DC and then started a neurosurgery program in my hometown – Charlottesville, Va. I completed my residency with Paul Danielson ’84. I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah last year to join a practice here. My work has been remarkably fulfilling and I’m thankful for the opportunity to care for people. Since I’ve been here, I’ve enjoyed the outdoors, the fly fishing and the moto riding.”
’81 Miles Spencer launched Mixed Emotions, a card game that helps kids learn emotional skills in a fun, unobtrusive way. WWW.SNOITO.ME
CLOCKWISE/FROM TOP LEFT 1 Members of the Class of ’83 and ’84 – Leslie Hunt Palumbo
’83, Andy Lipsky ’83, Sarah Hamlin Gibson ’83, Tag Mendillo ’83 and Ted Danforth ’84, and their respective family members sprinkled in, celebrate Thanksgiving in Millbrook, N.Y. 2 Anna Cheung ’86, husband, Canny, and their adopted 18-
month-old son, Aiden. The family resides in Hong Kong. 3 Noel Williams ’84 and George Stein ’84 former Choate class-
mates and football players. bumped into current Choate players at the Stanford vs. Notre Dame game. Good thing they were in Choate attire! 4 Sandeep Teja, M.D., ’86 a neurosurgeon in Salt Lake City,
enjoys the outdoors, the fly fishing and the moto riding. 5 Robert Geary ’85 capped off 2017 by completing four trail
ultras (26.2 miles), one ½ IronMan distance (70.3 miles) triathlon and a full Ironman race (140.6 miles). 6 Ed Harney ’82 and daughter Samantha ’15 scuba diving and
enjoying Arabian nights full of culture in Aqaba, Jordan. Ed reports a transformative outcome from his right knee replacement.
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’87
Harlan York was the first-ever winner of New Jersey’s Immigration Lawyer of the Year from Best Lawyers in America in 2012. He has won this award again for 2018. Former immigration chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association and former co-chair for the New York State Bar Association CFLS Committee on Immigration, he has also served on the American Immigration Lawyers Association National Practice Management Committee and authored the 2015 book, Three Degrees of Law (reviewed in the Fall 2015 Bulletin).
CHOATE SERVES
’88 Lisa Kaplan writes, “After traveling through Asia and South America for the first nine months of 2017, my boyfriend and I flew back to the U.S. to help with hurricane relief in Texas and Louisiana. We have been volunteering with All Hands and Hearts, gutting, sanitizing and rebuilding homes. It’s been an amazing, rewarding experience. Looking forward to getting back on the road in South America in the spring of 2018.” ’89
Dr. Fonda Gravino was recently President of the Connecticut Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Gravino completed her residency in family medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She is board certified in family medicine and is currently an assistant professor at the UConn School of Medicine. As an aside she reports that she met Angela Ruggiero ’98 in October while attending an event at Boston University’s Agganis Arena for Women’s Ice Hockey Team USA vs. Team Canada commemorating former Team USA players. Fonda played for Choate’s Girls Varsity Ice Hockey Team all four years and was co-captain her 6th form year. Keith Sauer Wilding writes that when not hiking with his family in New Hampshire, he is the Department Head for the Paramedic Emergency Medicine program at NHTI, Concord’s Community College.
LEFT Keith Sauer Wilding ’89, and daughter Abigail hiked 48 of the highest peaks in New Hampshire. Keith & Abby were assisted in achieving their goal by wife/mom Heather Wilding-White ’89 and son/brother Cameron. Pictured here atop Zealand Mountain.
RIGHT 1987 Classmates Stephanie Germain Vinokour, Randy Steinberg and Libby Applebaum Harrison celebrated Libby’s birthday at her home in Los Angeles in September 2017.
TOP Jillian Backus Sullivan ’90 and son Fitz traveled on a 12-day service project to Cambodia in February 2017. They volunteered at
schools and orphanages in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. MIDDLE/BOTTOM Choate graduates from classes of 1988 through 2008 celebrated Service Day in Hong Kong on November 18, 2017 at St.
James Settlement Elderly Center. Alumni participants and their family members included Irene Lai ’88; Sandy Wan ’90; Charlotte Chan ’91; Andrea Lai ’91; Carolyn Yeh ‘96; Vivienne Lai ‘96; Lambert Lau ’97; Angela Fan ’98; Jennifer Yu ’99; Henry Lau ‘02; Arthur Mui ’04; and Andrea Mui ’08. Choate alumni in Hong Kong also participated in a 11-schools beach clean-up day at Shek O beach on November 6, 2017. Schools represented included Andover, Choate, Deerfield, Exeter, Groton, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, Milton, Northfield Mount Hermon, St. Paul’s and Taft.
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’91 Tonya Mezrich writes that her young adult book, Charlie Numbers and the Man in the Moon, was published in November. She says, “It was always my dream to have a book in the Mellon Library in the section of alumnae authors, and now it can come true! It takes place in Boston and DC, and here is a brief summary: Charlie Lewis is recruited to use his mathematical prowess to discover what happened to a box of stolen moon rocks in this follow up to Bringing Down the Mouse.” The book has received glowing reviews from School Library Journal.
what a place to be…
’92 Ian Lendler has two children’s picture books coming out at the beginning of 2018. First is Little Sid, the semi-true story of the Buddha as a young prince. It weaves together traditional Buddhist fables in a way that is (hopefully) fun for kids to read. The second is One Day a Dot, the story of the universe from the Big Bang to dinosaurs to you (in under 36 pages, for those who got bored in Physics 101). Adam Rose reports that he has a graphic novel (comic book) for all ages coming out through a small UK publisher by the name of Markosia. Playground and Hobby Squad encourages a return to outdoor activities and old school hands-on hobbies through the use of timeless (in some cases: forgotten) child hood playground games, unplugged/ hands-on hobbies, and healthier eating.
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Jason Hancock writes, “The rock band Phish and the Class of 1993 are still partying like it’s 1999. Last July and August felt like ’93 all over again thanks to the Phish residency at Madison Square Garden. Billed the ’Baker’s Dozen,’ the 13 shows brought together many classmates such as Phil Edwards, Jason Hancock, Charlie Dixon, Mike Fitzpatrick, Max Jellinek, Geoff Hazard, Lea Sinnamon, Elisabeth Weed and Kevin Barry, just to name a few. Rumor has it that the class is working hard to convince Phish to play at the 25th Reunion coming up next spring.” Sarah Elizabeth (Acheson) Rand writes, “I am reestablishing my Connecticut roots with my move to Danbury, Conn., with my two boys, Max (11) and Jack (7), who are both attending Wooster School, where I am a middle school dean of students and have been teaching middle school art for the past 11 years. We are enjoying living the lake life with mountain views in the Lake Waubeeka Community. Looking forward to connecting with old friends at the reunion this spring!” Alex Sheftel writes, “A couple years ago, I was astonished to discover that a paper to which I was asked to contribute also had Dr. Aaron Baggish (also class of ’93) as a co-author. Amazing coincidence. You can read the article on the Insulin-like growth factorbinding protein 7 (IGFBP7), here: www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/pubmed/25248814”
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JUNE 24 –JULY 27, 2018 Follow your own path to discovery by focusing on a particular area of interest, or by combining passions in our discipline-specific programs. We offer 2-week, 4-week, and 5-week academic programs for middle and high school students.
APPLY NOW: WWW.CHOATE.EDU/SUMMER
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CLASSNOTES | Profile
Anthony Marino
’91 ’90
Secondhand Clothes, Firsthand Fun
Anthony Marino ’91 was CEO for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Hotels Group when he arrived home one night to find a distinctive green polka-dot box on his kitchen table. “I need to show you something,” his wife, Courtney, told him. “Everyone I know is talking about this company.” Inside the box was a gorgeous cashmere sweater from thredUP.com, now the nation’s largest and fastest growing apparel reseller. The sweater would have retailed new for $200, but she purchased it for $60 on thredUP, in almostnew condition. A week after Courtney’s initial shopping experience, Anthony returned home to find a second green polka-dot box on the table. This time, Courtney urged him to contact thredUP’s CEO: “You should talk to him and learn more about this business.” As he considered moving to thredUP, where he is now Chief Marketing Officer, Anthony saw the roads of his career converging. After graduating magna cum laude from Princeton, he entered the world of telecommunications at Bell Labs. Harvard Business School lured him next with the opportunity to experience its high energy, intellectually alive, and socially diverse community. It sparked a
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passion and excitement comparable to what he’d felt on arriving at Choate as a fourth former. Upon earning his MBA from Harvard, Anthony went to work for the Rockefeller family and their venture capital firm, Venrock. Then came the call from Virgin, which Anthony regards as a company that’s always “reinventing industries and changing consumer perception.” In the four years since Anthony joined thredUP, the re-commerce leader has reinvented the clothing resale industry. They transformed a musty and unpredictable consumer experience into one that’s fun, convenient, and rewarding. “Secondhand clothes, firsthand fun” is their tagline. In the process, they have also made consumption less conspicuous for shoppers, upcycling tens of millions of women’s and kids clothing items per year. They created a marketplace that takes clothing items, once seen as consumables, and turns them into durables with extended life and value. thredUP, as Anthony depicts it, appeals to shoppers who want the unbeatable pricing of secondhand clothing without the hassle of going to a thrift store, sorting through racks at a discount store, and being disappointed when they can’t find their size in items they want. “thredUP takes the best items from the closets of the entire nation and makes them accessible . . . If you’re looking to buy a red J.Crew dress, chances are you’ll find a thousand of them to choose from on any given day on thredUP. And we’re adding fresh product every minute.” Thirty thousand new arrivals are added daily; this staggering inventory is in part attributable to the simplicity of thredUP’s “clean-out kits.” Listening and responding to the psychological reasons we all hang onto clothing we don’t wear, thredUP came up with a convenient system that allows us to free up space in our closets and feel good about it: “Just go to thredUP.com and order a clean-out kit, which is like a hamper-sized recyclable bag. We’ll send it to you for free and then you fill it up with women’s and kids clothing, accessories, or jewelry that you’re no longer wearing. Put the bag outside your front door and we’ll pick it up for free. We then process those items, sell them, and pay you for the things we sell.” Items that don’t resell are either donated to charity or recycled into other textiles. The company aims for 100% reuse, so that nothing ends up in a landfill. The business’s mission extends beyond clothing, to raising awareness of human impact. Customers who have an abundance in their closet can make the cleanout process even more rewarding by donating the proceeds from their bags to charities of their choosing (“the karmic win-win”). Following the recent hurricane, the company allied with a food bank in Houston, part of an ongoing endeavor to offer timely options for turning unwanted merchandise into value for someone else. thrEDIT, the company blog, shares thoughtful tips for intentional, stylish, and sustainable living, educating those interested in reducing their carbon footprint. While thredUP is a business, and by definition has to generate profit, the company thinks of itself as a learning institution. Anthony affirms that everyone there is both a teacher and a learner: “In a startup environment, there’s no playbook. We’re inventing every day, so you have to be flexible, embrace ambiguity, and be as comfortable with breaking plans as you are with making them.” Taking risks and reaping the rewards is something Anthony learned at Choate: leaving home for a new place where he wasn’t sure he belonged, opening himself to the unexpected and acknowledging that it was OK not to have the answers going in. He met with success across the board: as a standout scholar, Student Council and Class president, prefect, varsity crew team member, and recipient of the inaugural Hart Citation. His teachers, he recalls, pushed him hard but did it in a supportive and nurturing way: “That’s really influenced how I’ve tried to evolve as a leader and a manager. I love creating high-performance environments that are mindful of the team’s needs, and conscious of the inevitable ups and downs of start-up life. The way my Choate teachers motivated me, built my confidence, and pushed me in very healthy ways stays with me always.” kim hastings p ’15, ’18 Kim Hastings is a freelance writer, editor, and translator.
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THE UPSIDE OF UPCYCLING
CLOTHING RECEIVED AT THREDUP IS RESOLD, REPURPOSED, OR RECYCLED. THE GOAL IS FOR 100% REUSE SO THAT NOTHING ENDS UP IN A LANDFILL. Of the 17 million items thredUP UPcycled in 2017, they collectively saved:
12
150
BILLION
MI L L I ON
POUNDS OF
GALLONS OF WATER
C02 EMISSIONS
14
MILLION POUNDS OF CLOTHING FROM LANDFILLS
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44 CLASSNOTES
1 Christian ’05 and Tessa Tookes ’13
2 Omar Itum ‘02, Jonathan Winter
3 Photographer James Kaiser ’95 made
4 Davina Chang ’92 on vacation with
5 Bo Leland ’02 is finishing his 10th
are in a Brooklyn-based folk duo called Tookes. They are releasing their debut album in early 2018, and have been performing around NYC and parts of the Midwest.
‘02, Dewey Kang ‘03, Kerem Aksoy ’02, and Matthew DeSantis ‘03 visited the Kingdom of Bhutan at the invitation of HRH Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck ‘03, for the beVOYAGEUR Solutions Summit 2017.
the cover of the November 2017 issue of National Geographic for his photo of a Costa Rican waterfall. James was featured in the Fall 2016 Bulletin.
her cousins Valerie Chang Greer ’93 and her daughter Isla Greer, Douglas Chang ’99 and his children Grace Chang, Elliott Chang, Annabelle Chang, and Emma Chang, and Heidi Chang Xavier ’96 and her daughter Avery Xavier.
year as a police officer in Hollister, Calif. He is currently assigned to the detective bureau. He lives on the coast 1/4 mile from the Monterey Bay with his 6-year-old daughter, Emeline.
’95
Andrea Sims continues to be an Associate Professor in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures at Ohio State University, but as of September she has taken up a joint appointment as Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics. She is excited about her new position in Linguistics, which brings with it new teaching assignments and interesting possibilities for new research collaborations.
’96 Matt LaMotte was featured on Billboard magazine’s annual 40 Under 40: Music’s Young Power Players list this year. Matt is Senior VP/head of rock and pop marketing and artist development at Interscope Geffen A&M. He has worked at Interscope since 2005 (he helped build Lady Gaga’s Myspace page and website), and rose to Senior VP in 2017. He led the campaigns for Lana Del Rey’s Lust for Life, which bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and Imagine Dragons’ Evolve – the biggest rock album of 2017. ’98
Elizabeth Childs Sommer and her husband, Matt, moved from Seattle to Kittery, Maine this Summer, so they’re back on the East Coast. Elizabeth started a new job as the Brand Manager at Lindt & Sprungli at their U.S. Headquarters in Stratham, N.H., and she has enjoyed connecting with her classmates.
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2000s
’04
’00 Aaron Painter published a best-selling book called LOYAL: A Leader’s Guide to Winning Customer and Employee Loyalty.
Jessie MacLeod is a curator at Mount Vernon and was the lead curator for Mount Vernon’s first path-breaking exhibit on slavery. She spearheaded the exhibit and also wrote the text for the accompanying catalog.
’01
’05
Joanna Cantor will publish her first novel this May. It’s a coming-of-age story titled Alternative Remedies for Loss (Bloomsbury Press).
’02
Omar Itum led a group of industry experts and leaders to the Kingdom of Bhutan at the invitation of HRH Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck ’03, for the 2017 beVOYAGEUR Solutions Summit. A Choate contingent met with the highest ranks within Bhutan’s public and private sectors to discuss and provide solutions in contribution to the development narrative of the majestic country.
’03
Dr. Mary Banks wed Dr. Jonathan Branch in North Carolina. They met through the same family member who inspired her to go to Choate: her grandmother, Virginia Newell. Virginia Newell also attended the same college as Jonathan’s grandmother in Talledega, Ala. in the early 1940s. Jonathan is a cardiologist in Greensboro, N.C. and Mary is continuing her medical training at UNC Chapel Hill in internal medicine with the goal to train as a cardiologist as well. Allison Lami Sawyer is running for the Texas House of Representatives in the 2018 election. The campaign website is www.allisonfortexas.com.
Katerina De Vito writes, “I’m living in Reykjavik, Iceland doing research on a Fulbright grant. If any other Choaties are living in Iceland, or come through on vacation, let me know! I’d love to meet up for a drink and catch up.” Alexandra Miele was featured on the inaugural Forbes list of America’s Top Next-Generation Wealth Advisors. She is a Wealth Management Advisor for the The Andriole Group in Madison, Conn. Tochi Onyebuchi writes, “My young adult debut novel, Beasts Made of Night, hit the shelves on October 31, 2017, to rave reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, NPR, and Booklist. The story of Taj, trying to eke out a living in the city of Kos, has appeared in iBooks Most Anticipated YA Books of the Fall, io9’s All the Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Keep On Your Radar This Fall, and elsewhere. This whole journey as a debut novelist has been a whirlwind – between attending the Brooklyn Book Festival and New York Comic Con, to doing book signings and, even quite simply, to seeing a thing I wrote with my name on it on a shelf in a bookstore or library. And the seeds for so many of these blossoms were planted at Choate.”
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’96 Matt LaMotte was featured on Billboard magazine’s annual 40 Under 40: Music’s Young Power Players list this year.
E
OM
LC WE
ES!
I BAB
CLOCKWISE/FROM TOP LEFT 1 Lauren Shockey ’02 and husband, Ross Fabricant, welcomed a
son, Miles Winthrop Fabricant, on October 7, 2017. The family resides in New York City. Says Lauren “Can’t wait to show Miles around Choate one day!” 2 Kate Biddiscombe McKillop ’03 and her husband welcomed a son Donald Robert McKillop III on May 15, 2017. The family resides on the Loomis Chaffee campus.
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3 Lucy Phillips Yared ‘01 and husband Pierre, welcomed twins Kath-
erine Lucy Yared and Pierre Davis Yared on October 13, 2017. 4 Adam Leventhal ’97 is proud to announce the birth of Joshua Matthew Leventhal born August 9 and Daniel Leventhal ’03 is proud to announce the birth of Dean Robert Leventhal-Grieve on April 19, 2017. From left, Daniel and Dean, Adam and Joshua. Adam’s older son, Will, is in the center.
5 Emily Lovejoy White ’06 and husband, Chris, welcomed daughter
Cameron Lovejoy White on September 9, 2017. 6 Kathleen Murphy Galo ’01 and husband welcomed a second
son, Matias Charles Galo, on July 17, 2017. Matias joins big brother Joaquin, now 2½.
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46 CLASSNOTES
’06
Miriam Bischoff married fellow Boston College Eagle (Class of 2010) Ted Brisbin in Frederick, Md., on October 16, 2016. Choate classmate Caroline Luby was her maid of honor. The couple currently lives in the DC area. Miriam works at a startup strategic communications strategy and PR firm called CURA Strategies, focused on clients in the healthcare and wellness areas. She is still very close with Choate classmates Molly West (her former roommate), Lena Gayraud, Caroline Luby, Molly Biddiscombe, and Emily Lovejoy White, and is to this day so grateful for her time and connections made at Choate!
Gabrielle Reisner is pursuing a career as a folk singer under the name Gabrielle Marlena, and recently completed a cross-country tour. Her album cover was drawn by her classmate Katerina Gribkoff. She writes, “I drove across the country and back last fall, stopping in 30 cities along the way and playing 25 gigs in 35 days to promote my debut album Good Music For You. I performed in a variety of spaces, from rooftops to living rooms to coffee shops to concert venues. The best part of the trip for me was reconnecting with so many old friends along the way, including Choate classmates.”
’07
’13 Caroline Agsten received a Fulbright grant as an English Teaching Assistant in Taitung, Taiwan. Her grant year began in August 2017 and concludes in July 2018. JaVaughn Flowers (“J.T.”), of Portland, Ore., is among the 32 American citizens chosen as 2018 Rhodes Scholars. J.T. graduated from Yale in May 2017 with a B.A. in political science. He is a Truman Scholar, whose thesis examined policy gaps in Portland’s sanctuary city policy for undocumented immigrants. He played varsity basketball for Yale before devoting his time to A Leg Even, an organization that facilitates the academic and professional success of low-income students. At his Yale graduation, he was awarded the James Andrew Haas Prize, given annually to the member of the senior class “whose breadth of intellectual achievement, strength of character, and fundamental humanity shall be adjudged by the faculty to have provided leadership for his or her fellow students, inspiring in them a love of learning and concern for others.” After graduation, he returned to Portland to work in Representative Earl Blumenauer’s field office. At Oxford, he will study comparative social policy. He was awarded the Yale Jefferson Medal for Public Service.
Nicholas Grava and Christopher Grava ’10 have completed work on an orphanage called Intsikelelo they founded in South Africa. Their work has been featured as the cover article on an architectural magazine in South Africa. www.facebook.com/ earthworksmag/ Lizzy Walbridge writes, “For more than a year, I’ve been happily working at WGBH (PBS producer and station) in Boston. I’m on the team of producers who make the digital games, websites, apps, and content for your favorite PBS Kids TV shows, like Arthur and Curious George. I like the job so much that I bought my first home in the area! Faculty friends and classmates are welcome to visit my new place in Somerville. No babies yet: just a giant cat named Richard.”
’08
Vivian Brodie, a specialist at Christie’s Auction House, was nominated for Forbes’ 30 Under 30. At Christie’s she is responsible for $30 million in annual sales as head of both online sales and midseason post war and contemporary sales. She is also cofounder of Young & Starving, a nonprofit that supports underrepresented artists.
2010s
’14 Dylan Farrell, along with a teammate from Harvard and a college sailor from Brown, capped a remarkable week of sailing over Thanksgiving break to finish second overall at the 2017 Lightning World Championships in Salinas, Ecuador. The young American team qualified for the international competition two summers ago with its strong performance in the 2016 North American Championships held on Lake Ontario. At Worlds, 56 teams from 12 countries and five continents competed in nine races over the course of four days of championship sailing. The college trio opened the competition with a first place finish in Race 1 and went on to post a series of strong daily results that put them on the podium as the 2017 Runners-Up. In first and third place are older, more experienced sailors from Argentina and Puerto Rico, For Dylan and his teammates, their 2017 result was an exciting debut on the World Lightning stage.
LEFT Dylan Farrell ‘14, along
with a teammate from Harvard, and a college sailor from Brown, finished 2nd overall at the 2017 Lightning World Championships in Salinas, Ecuador. Podium Picture: Dylan is third from the left.
RIGHT Karen Shure ’17, a host at RL Restaurant in Chicago, met David Fried ’77 last summer. He was wearing his Choate tie to a dinner at the restaurant. Says Karen, “I am amazed at how over 40 years after his graduation, Choate remains part of his life. The Choate alumni network is one that I am so proud to be a part of.”
’11 Ethan Underhill has moved to Cambridge, Mass., to join Vantage Partners, a global management consultancy. With direct heritage from the Harvard Negotiation Project, Vantage specializes in helping companies transform the way they negotiate and manage relationships with key business partners. Since relocating from Washington, DC, Ethan has enjoyed reconnecting with Boston area classmates and mentors, volunteering with a Congressional campaign, and picking up a guitar again. ’12 Eva Kerman writes, “After graduating with a B.A. in Psychology from Barnard in 2016, I’m graduating with my B.S. in Nursing from NYU’s Accelerated Second Degree program. I’m moving to Buffalo this December to pursue my career in nursing.”
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BULLETIN | WINTER 2018 47
CLASSNOTES | Profile
’08
Activist First ARTIST SECOND Yoonjin Ha ’08 was happy to be in a classic diner; it’s rare to find a place near Times Square not overpriced and kitschy. He hasn’t had time to explore, because he’s been busy co-starring in the Broadway revival of M. Butterfly, the award-winning play by David Henry Hwang, produced by Choate alumnus Ben Feldman ’86. Jin was working with stars such as Hwang, director Julie Taymor, and actor Clive Owen, yet he seemed at ease. Part of this speaks to his training; the rest speaks to how grounded he is in himself – as an artist and, most important to him, as an activist. He was not always sure what path he was on, but it’s now clear that the paths to his profession and self-actualization were inextricably linked. Born in Seoul, South Korea, he and his family first moved to Hong Kong and then to Connecticut so his sister, Jeein ’00, could attend Choate. On reflection, he said that his mother and father moved to this country “so that their children did not necessarily have to toil in a world that is not fulfilling for them.” At Choate, Jin acted frequently, but he also played football, sang in the Maiyeros, and was Student Council President. After Choate, he attended Columbia to study East Asian Languages and Culture and recognized that while his experience at Choate was invaluable, as an immigrant and a person of color, he had tried so hard to assimilate to prep school culture that he had neglected his own. Living in diverse New York City, he realized the amazing history, identity, culture within him and wanted to get to know that – who he was as an Asian-American, and how he fit or did not fit into the fabric of the country. To find his passion, however, Jin would need to go back to his roots.
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Jin Ha
After two years of feeling as if he were going through the motions, Jin took a year off, and lived in South Korea teaching English to kindergarteners. During his last two months, his mother came, and they shared an apartment. At the time, Jin planned on going into finance. His mother asked him why. He responded honestly: he wanted to make a lot of money quickly. His mother told him, “Great. Don’t do that, because you will be miserable.” Jin remembered the reason his family emigrated in the first place, for him to have opportunities he otherwise would not have had. This newfound permission gave him new direction: he would finish his degree at Columbia, then apply to graduate schools in acting, and see if that was the will of the universe. It was. Yet he still had reservations about acting; it seemed narcissistic. That changed at a screening of Sing Your Song, a documentary that chronicled singer and actor Harry Belafonte’s significant contribution to civil rights both in the United States and internationally. Jin was struck how Belafonte always put his activism before his career. He saw “there was something so much bigger than [Belafonte] and his career as an artist. [Activism] anchored him, it seemed.” That would be Jin’s anchor too, and it has taken him through graduate school, all the way to Broadway. What drives Jin is bigger than himself. He knows that onstage his body makes a political statement: it fights for representation. Recent controversies of whitewashing roles originally written as Asian onstage and onscreen make this more urgent. To him, that practice tells Asian audiences, “You don’t deserve to be in your own body; you don’t deserve to represent yourself onscreen or onstage.” That his first two professional jobs – Hamilton, which casts mostly actors of color as white historical figures; and M. Butterfly, which challenges Orientalism and gender politics – align perfectly with his beliefs, makes his success more serendipitous. Like Belafonte, Jin found something that helps him push through the days he is tired, and summon the energy to perform his best for that one audience member who could be affected. He understands, too, that in order to accomplish this, his acting has to be great. “I want my work to be undeniable,” he said. “I want [it] to transcend.” His work in M. Butterfly was undeniable, and his sincerity was reinforced towards the end of our conversation, when he let slip something he, admittedly, had not yet said aloud – “I love my job.”
by alexander kveton ’06 Alexander Kveton is a playwright living in Brooklyn, New York.
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48 CLASSNOTES
LET’S CELEBRATE!
1
2
11
10
8
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9
7
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BULLETIN | WINTER 2018 49
3
4 1 Lauren Finkelstein ’08
married Yoav Gray on July 6, 2017 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Classmates, from left, Jill Mastroianni, Erin Grajewski William, Lane McVey Goggin, Lily Ackerman, Caroline Shumway, and Caroline Hart. 2 Jonathan Deng ’04 married Linsey Elizabeth Lee in Eagles Mere, Penn, on June 3, 2017. Classmates, from left, Grant Carpenter, Muayyed Rashid, Mauricio Osorio, (J.D.’s cousin), and John Beuttenmuller. 3 Austin Rees ’09 and Avery Green were married on October 1, 2016 at Nutwood Plantation in LaGrange, GA. 4 Dr. Mary Banks ’03 wed Dr. Jonathan Branch in North Carolina. Bridesmaids and
Choate classmates included Sophia Aladenoye and Nicole LeFave. 5 Kathryn Maresca ’03 married Chase Faull on November 4th in Pawleys Island, S.C. 6 Shanellah Verna '05 married Bryan Harris on April 22, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Attendees included LeAnne Armstead ’04, Myescha Joell ’04, Queenette Young ’05, Vanessa Le ’05, Eric Rodriguez ’05, Rishonda Thomas ’05, and Kenny Hernandez ’05. 7 Alexandra Miele ’05 married John M. Hoda on September 29, 2017 at Trinity Church in New Haven, Conn. 8 Mary Foster ’10 and Jeffrey Legunn married at the Tradition Golf Club in Wallingford,
Conn., on September 3, 2017. Choate faculty and alumni in attendance included all three bridesmaids: Ellie Foster ’08, Leah Rosen ’10, and Bailey Bennett ’10. 9 Gretchen Tabor Schell ’05 married William Paul Froehlich III on November 11, 2017 at the New Haven Country Club. 10 Gavin Polizzo ’98 married Robyn Campbell in Kiawah Island, S.C., on Oct. 8, 2017. 11 Miriam Bischoff ’06 married Ted Brisbin in Frederick, Md., on October 16, 2016. Choate classmate Caroline Luby was her maid of honor.
6
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5
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50
IN MEMORIAM | Remembering Those We Have Lost Alumni and Alumnae
’38 C
Thomas McMorrow Sr., 96, a writer, filmmaker, and theater critic, died September 28, 2017 in Englewood, N.J. Born in New York City, Tom came to Choate in 1934. He ran track, was in the Glee Club and the German Club, and was on the staff of the Choate News. He then went to Yale, but left after a year to work for the Washington Times. He was an Army medic during World War II. After the war, he was an actor. He and his wife-to-be founded the Orange County Playhouse in Westtown, N.Y., where one of the company’s employees was the then-unknown Walter Matthau. For more than a decade, he was an on-camera reporter for Movietone News, the newsreel company. Tom wrote and produced baseball movies for the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. He was also a theater critic for the New York Daily News. In his later years, he wrote a book, Words of Wit and Wisdom, that was used in English classes at Choate Rosemary Hall. He leaves his wife, Joan McMorrow, 155 West Hudson Ave., No. 41, Englewood, NJ 07631; three children; and four grandchildren. A brother, the late Fritz McMorrow ’43, also attended Choate.
’39 C
W. Malcolm Parry, 96, a retired patent attorney, died July 27, 2017 in Greenwich, Conn. Born in New York City, Mal came to Choate in 1936. He was Chairman of the Student Council, Vice President of the sixth form, President of the Athletic Association, a cheerleader, and on the board of the Choate News. He was also captain of varsity soccer, lettered in basketball and baseball, and won a School prize for excellence in Spanish. His classmates voted him one of those named “Most Influential” and “Most Respected.” He then started at Yale, but left to join the Army Air Corps, serving in the South Pacific. After the war, he graduated from Yale and earned a law degree from New York University. For years, he was the senior partner of the international patent and trademark firm now known as Ladas & Parry. Despite the fact that he himself didn’t play hockey, Mal was instrumental in raising funds for Choate’s hockey rink, named for his roommate and friend Bill Remsen ’39. He leaves his wife
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(the sister of Mal’s baseball teammate Bill Hirschberg ’40), Mary Louise Parry, 3 Georgetown North, Greenwich, CT 06831; five children, including David Parry ’76 and Jack Parry ’79; and seven grandchildren. A stepbrother, the late Alec Barnum ’40, also attended Choate, as did two nephews, Tom Courage ’65 and Brian Parry ’81.
’41 C
William B. Robbins, 94, a former executive of Hardee’s Food Systems, died August 6, 2017 in Morehead City, N.C. Born in Orange, N.J., Bill came to Choate in 1938; he lettered in hockey, was a Campus Cop, and was on the Common Room Committee and the Library Committee. He attended the Babson Institute for Business Administration, but left to join the Army Air Corps. After World War II, he established Chatham Laboratories in Whippany, N.J., and developed a new type of household powdered bleach. He then was with the Young & Rubicam advertising agency, handling several major accounts. In 1969, he became Vice President of Hardee’s Food Systems, building the fast-food restaurant chain from 169 franchises in nine Southeastern states to nearly a thousand in 36 states. In retirement, Bill was active in bringing Teen Challenge, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, to Vermont, where he had a seasonal home. He was also an avid golfer. He leaves two children; five grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.
’42 RH Helen Foster Watkins, 92, an artist, died September 26, 2017. Born in Newton, Mass., Helen came to Rosemary Hall in 1939. She was Vice President of her fifth and sixth form classes, President of the Kindly Club Council, on the Answer Book Board and the Library Committee, and Vice President of the Music Club. She was also on the hockey First Team and earned 10 bars on the Committee. After graduating from the Franklin School of Professional Art in New York, she exhibited her watercolors in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Helen was a Girl Scout leader for many years, served two terms as President of the Fairfield, Conn., Visiting Nurse Association, and was a Hospice volunteer. She enjoyed golf, gardening, and travel. She leaves her
husband, William Watkins, 26 Mill Hill Rd., Southport, CT 06890; two children; and five grandsons.
’44 C
William McE. Miller Jr., 91, a retired missionary and former head of an aeronautical firm, died September 27, 2017 in Princeton, N.J. The son of missionaries, William was born in Meshed, Iran, and came to Choate in 1942; he lettered in track and won a School prize for excellence in Bible study. The cartoon by his picture in the Brief showed a futuristic airship, coincidentally predicting his later career. Following Choate, he spent six years in the Naval Air Force. He then earned degrees from Princeton, the Biblical Seminary in New York, and Princeton Theological Seminary, and joined the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, traveling worldwide. In 1967, William became President and CEO of Aereon Corp., a Princeton-based firm working to develop lighterthan-air hybrid airships. By 1971, a prototype, nicknamed the Deltoid Pumpkinseed, had been constructed and flown, but the airship never went into production. In 2016, William was elected to the Aviation Hall of Fame of New Jersey. He was also a trustee of Scripture Union, USA and helped develop Children’s Ministries Inc. He leaves a sister and several nieces and nephews.
’45 C
Channing “Sandy” Baxter, 89, an insurance executive and church organist, died June 30, 2017. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Sandy came to Choate in 1941. He was Assistant Advertising Manager of the Choate News, was in the Choral and Glee Clubs, and won a School prize for excellence in organ playing. After attending the Juilliard School of Music, he earned a degree in economics from Yale and worked for stock brokerages and Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co. in Newark, N.J. He also earned an Associate in Organ degree from Trinity College, London, and had a side career as a church organist and choirmaster in New Jersey and Florida. Sandy was a member of the American Guild of Organists, and invented some synthetic mixture stops for the organ. He leaves three children, including Paul Baxter, 2105 N. Steptoe St., # 43, Kennewick, WA 99336; three grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
’45 RH Barbara Burroughes Lloyd, 89, a retired florist, died November 20, 2017. Born in White Plains, N.Y., Barbara came to Rosemary Hall in 1943; she was President of the Philomel Chorus and head of the Dance Committee. She then graduated from the Ambler School of Horticulture, now part of Temple University. After bringing up her family in Dedham, Mass., she and her husband moved to Chocorua, N.H., in 1974, where she started Queen Anne’s Lace, a floral business specializing in locally-sourced flowers. Active in the community, she founded Caregivers, an organization serving non-driving residents; the town designated her Chocorua’s Citizen of the Year in 2014. Barbara enjoyed gardening, landscape design, rug-hooking, other crafts, and home design. She leaves five children, including David Lloyd, 199 Argilla Rd., Ipswich, MA 01938; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. A sister, the late Carolyn Burroughes Westerlund ’49 and a sister-in-law, Eleanor Lloyd Helm ’46, also attended Rosemary Hall. 46 C Sandy A. Mactaggart, 89, a retired land developer and educator, died July 3, 2017 in Islay, Scotland. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Sandy moved to Canada at the beginning of World War II and came to Choate in 1944. He was Editor of the Literary Magazine, a Campus Cop, on the Library Committee and in the Press Club. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard, he moved to Edmonton, Alberta, where he co-founded a firm that developed housing and commercial properties in western Canada. In the early 1980s, he devoted his life to higher education. Sandy was on the boards of the University of Alberta and the American University of Beirut, and in 1990 was named Chancellor of the University of Alberta. He was a founding trustee for several organizations in Edmonton, including the Citadel Theatre, the Tempo School, the Boys and Girls Club, and the Edmonton Art Gallery. He enjoyed flying, piloting hot air balloons, sailing, collecting Chinese Imperial art, and auto racing in the Can Am Circuit. He leaves his wife, Cécile Mactaggart, 751 Fifth Avenue, Apartment 305, New York, NY 10022; three children; and seven grandchildren.
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BULLETIN | WINTER 2018 51
Samuel D. Young III, 89, an executive of automobile dealerships, died October 18, 2017. Born in Grand Rapids, Mich., Sam came to Choate in 1944; he lettered in cross country, was on the Board of the Brief, played French horn in the Orchestra, and was Secretary-Treasurer of the Ski Club. He attended Michigan State University, but left to join the Air Force. Starting in the 1950s, he owned several Chevrolet dealerships in Utah. He also was a President of the Utah Auto Dealers Association, President of the Davis County Chamber of Commerce, President of the Layton, Utah Rotary
Camp, which served inner-city and suburban children; was a member of the Delaware Valley Association of Exceptionalities, which served children with learning disabilities; and was on the board of the Cult Awareness Network. Josie enjoyed tennis, bridge, needlepoint, art, and music. She leaves three children, nine grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter. A sister, the late Leila Frank Gerrish ’42, also attended Rosemary Hall.
registered architect, and also managed a $900,000 housing rehabilitation project for West Springfield, Mass. Randy enjoyed hiking, camping, bicycling, cross-country skiing, and singing; he was a member of the Springfield Symphony Chorus for many years. He leaves his wife, Anne Matthews, 420 W. Minnesota St., Brookhaven, MS 39601; three children; nine grandchildren; and a brother, Graham Raynolds ’49.
an investment counselor for Fort Hill Investors Management Corp. of Boston. He then co-founded Bradford Gordon Partners in Boston, where he served for more than 40 years. Mac was an active member of Pilgrim Church in Sherborn, Mass., where he was a Deacon and on several committees. In his leisure time, he enjoyed being with his family in Camden, Maine. He leaves two children and five grandchildren. Two brothers, the late Reid Morrison ’50 and the late Peter Morrison ’52, also attended Choate.
’38
Thomas McMorrow Sr., and his wife-to-be founded the Orange County Playhouse in Westtown, N.Y., where one of the company’s employees was the then-unknown Walter Matthau.
Club, and was a Flotilla Commander of the Coast Guard Auxiliary. A sailing enthusiast, Sam and his wife lived on a houseboat on Lake Powell, Utah, for many years. He also enjoyed square dancing, cycling, gardening, bird watching, and photography. He leaves his wife, Marian Young, 2196 East 1075 North, Layton, UT 84040; six children; 31 grandchildren; 45 greatgrandchildren; and three great-great grandchildren.
’46 RH Josephine Frank Zelov, 89, active in community life, died November 8, 2017. Born in Savannah, Ga., Josie came to Rosemary Hall in 1942. She earned six bars on the Committee; was President of the Music Club, Fire Captain, and Prize Day Marshal; and was on the Rules Committee and the Problems Committee. After graduating from Connecticut College, she married and later moved to Bryn Mawr, Pa., where she was a volunteer in many community organizations. She was Chair of the Denbeigh Day
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’47 C Philip J. F. Hendel, 88, a retired investment banker, died July 29, 2017 in New York City. Born in New York, Phil came to Choate in 1944. He played league tennis and basketball, was in the Press Club, and won Honorable Mention for a School prize in Spanish. He went to Yale, but left to serve in the Army in the Korean War, attaining the rank of Lieutenant. After graduating from Yale, he joined the investment banking firm of G. H. Walker & Co., and later joined J. Bush & Co., where he was Vice President when he retired in 2002. Phil enjoyed travel and tennis, including paddle tennis. He leaves his wife, Patsy Hendel, 500 E. 77th St., New York, NY 10162; four children; and seven grandchildren. Randolph Raynolds Jr.¸89, an architect, died May 27, 2017. Born in New Haven, Randy came to Choate in 1944; he was in the Choral Club and played league soccer, hockey, and baseball. After attending Bard College, he graduated from the University of Arizona and later attended the Boston Architectural Center. He was a
’48 C
Herbert S. Meyers, 86, a retired executive of a handbag company, died July 11, 2017 in Westport, Conn. Born in Norwalk, Conn., Herbert came to Choate in 1946; he lettered in soccer, was Sports Manager of the Choate News, and was in the History Club. After earning degrees from Harvard and its Business School, he served in the Army, then joined the family handbag business, Meyers Manufacturing Co., in Norwalk. Herbert was fond of the arts and was a longtime member of the Board of the Westport Arts Center. He leaves his wife, Vivian Meyers, 13 Blue Ribbon Dr., Westport, CT 06880; three children; and nine grandchildren. Gordon M. Morrison Jr., 87, a retired investment counselor, died November 3, 2017 in Hopkinton, Mass. Born in Boston, Mac, as he was known at School, came to Choate in 1946. He was President of the History Club; in St. Andrew’s Cabinet; on the Student Council and Debate team; and won School prizes in history and public speaking. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard, he was
’49 C Richard D. Barrett, 85, a retired bank executive, died September 5, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Born in Cincinnati, Dick came to Choate in 1945. He was a Campus Cop and in the Western Club, the Choral Club, the Glee Club and the Maiyeros. After graduating from Yale, he served in the Navy, attaining the rank of Lieutenant JG. At first he worked for Reynolds Metal Co. in Richmond, Va., but soon switched to banking. He was with banks in Washington and New York, ending as Executive Vice President of First American Bank in DC, where he started the firm’s international banking division. He was later a fundraising consultant. Dick was an accomplished singer and guitarist, and for many years was a member of the Augmented Seven singing group. He also enjoyed ballroom dancing, sailing, photography, and travel. He leaves two children, a stepdaughter, and six grandchildren. A son, the late David Barrett ’74, also attended Choate.
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52 IN MEMORIAM
’49 C
Marcus Hallsted Christ, 86, a retired state Supreme Court justice and former county comptroller, died November 12, 2017 in Easton, Md. Born in New Hyde Park, N.Y., Hal came to Choate in 1945; he lettered in football and was manager of varsity squash and tennis. He then earned a B. A. from Colgate and a law degree from New York University. He had a long career as a partner of a law firm in Mineola, N.Y., serving as President of the Nassau County Bar Association. He also was a former Comptroller of Nassau County. From 1982 to 1992, he was a justice on the New York State Supreme Court. After he retired, he and his wife moved to their farm in Trappe, Md., where he was a farmer, hunter, and fisherman. Hal also enjoyed sailing his Grand Banks yacht along the East Coast and the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. He leaves four children, including Marc Christ Jr. ’74, 2040 Brick Kiln Parkway, Mount Pleasant, SC 29466. A brother, the late Philip Christ ’47, also attended Choate.
’50 C Charles Gachot Jr., 86, a retired investment broker, died September 28, 2017 in Waquoit, Mass. Born in New York City, Charlie came to Choate in 1945. He lettered in soccer, was President of the Choate News, was on the Board of the Literary Magazine, and was in St. Andrew’s Cabinet and the Camera Club. After graduating from Penn’s Wharton School of Business, he was in the Air Force for two years, attaining the rank of First Lieutenant. He was a broker for many years with the Philadelphia firm of Woodcock, Moyer, Fricke and French. He later headed the family’s New York-based meat business, Charles Gachot Inc., and was President of the Meat Purveyors Association of New York. He leaves his wife, Barbara Gachot, 33 Hamblin Point Rd., Waquoit, MA 02536; five children; and a brother, Richard Gachot ’51. Several nephews also attended the School, including Richard Gachot ’77, Theodore Gachot ’78, Peter Gachot ’80, Paul Gachot ’86, and John Gachot ’88.
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Charles Henry McQuiston, 83, a retired copy editor, died February 2, 2016. Born in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., Henry, as he was known, came to Choate in 1944. He was Associate Editor of the News, in the French Club and the Chess Club, and several times won a Schoolwide current affairs test. After retiring as an editor, he worked for the U.S. Postal Service. He enjoyed gardening, hiking, stamp collecting, and mountain climbing. He leaves two children and five grandchildren. His father, the late Charles McQuiston ’15, also attended Choate, as did Henry’s late brother, Alan McQuiston ’54, who died last year (see below).
’51 C Lee Chadeayne, 83, a former university professor, died March 25, 2017 in Boston. Born in White Plains, N.Y., Lee came to Choate in 1948; he ran cross-country and was in the French Club. After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees from Columbia, he was a professor of German and French at Ohio State University, Boston University, and Northeastern University. He then retired to found Wordnet, an international online translation service. A charter member of the American Literary Translators Association, Lee also belonged to the American Translators Association and wrote the newsletter for both organizations. He leaves his wife, Evelyn Chadeayne, 25 Adams Ln., Adams, MA 01778; two children; and a brother. Herbert P. Ladds Jr., 84, the retired President of a specialty machine company, died October 17, 2017 in Brunswick, Ga. Born in Birmingham, Ala., Herb came to Choate in 1948. He lettered in football and baseball and was Chairman of the Student Council, Secretary-Treasurer of the sixth form, President of the Western Club, on the Dance Committee and in the Press Club. After graduating from Williams, he served in the Air Force. He then worked for True Temper Corp., the hardware products company, for several years, and in 1971 joined Columbus McKinnon Co. in Amherst, N.Y., which makes lifting and positioning equipment for riggers. He became President and CEO in 1982, expanding the company to Canada,
Mexico, China, Europe and South Africa, retiring in 1998. Herb was a director of several upstate New York companies, including Fibron Products, Eastman Machine Co., Utica Mutual Insurance Co., and R.P. Adams Co. He enjoyed birding, gardening, flying kites and singing. In recent years he lived in Georgia. He leaves his wife, Dolly Ladds, P.O. Box 30126, Sea Island, GA 31561; three children; and seven grandchildren.
’52 C
George W. “Bill” Sherman, 83, a retired bank executive, died June 23, 2017, in Ireland while on vacation. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., Bill came to Choate in 1948. He lettered in basketball and baseball, was Vice President of the Current History Club and Assistant Advertising Manager of the Brief, and was on the Honor Committee. After graduating from Dartmouth, he spent two years in the Navy, attaining the rank of Lieutenant JG. He then moved to Kansas City and spent many years in the banking industry, including positions with United Missouri Bank and the Mercantile Bank and Trust Co., both of Kansas City. Bill enjoyed sports, particularly baseball. He leaves his wife, Gayle Sherman, 2250 Lake Pointe Dr., Lawrence, KS 66049; two children; and six grandchildren.
’54 C Alan E. McQuiston, 82, the retired executive of a marketing firm, died October 7, 2017 in Southbury, Conn., from complications of Parkinson’s disease. Born in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., Alan came to Choate in 1950; he lettered in hockey and was in St. Andrew’s Cabinet and the Press Club. After graduating from Dartmouth, he worked in the direct marketing industry for many years, forming McQuiston Enterprises in 1972 and Prisma Direct Response in 1991; he retired in 1996. He was active in town life in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., serving on the PTA and the Zoning Board of Appeals as well as coaching Little League. He later moved to Durham, N.H., and Woodbury, Conn. He leaves his wife, Betsy McQuiston, 24 Woodbury Hill, Woodbury, CT 06798; three children; five grandchildren; and two step grandchildren. A brother, the late Charles Henry McQuiston ’50, also attended Choate.
’55 C
Robert D. Brickman, 80, a retired thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon and lawyer, died of cancer November 19, 2017 in Charlottesville, Va. Born in Cleveland, Bob came to Choate in 1953. He was in the Cum Laude Society, the Glee Club and the French Club, and won honorable mention for School prizes in mathematics and science. He then earned degrees from Princeton and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Completing his residency at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, he was on the university’s faculty until 1972, when he moved to Norfolk, Va., to establish a private surgical practice. Bob then studied law, earning a degree from Washington & Lee School of Law in 1989. After practicing law for two years, he became an executive for medical affairs at the Sentara health network, retiring in 1997. He and his wife then lived aboard their boat in the Caribbean for three years. They moved to Crested Butte, Colo., in 2000, where he was on the board of Gunnison Valley Hospital for eight years. He leaves his wife, Susan Brickman, 508 Lexington Ave., Charlottesville, VA 22902; five children, including Catherine B. Lloyd ’81, Marguerite Brickman ’83, Susan B. Greer ’85, Barbara Brickman ’88 and William Brickman ’88; and eight grandchildren, including Samuel Lloyd ’10.
’58 C William Conger “Tony” Beasley Jr., 75, a retired writer and editor, died August 9, 2016 in Kansas City, Mo. Born in St. Joseph, Mo., Tony came to Choate in 1956. He was on the Student Council and the Board of the Literary Magazine, was in St. Andrew’s Cabinet and the Art Club, and won a School prize in public speaking. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Columbia and a master’s from New York University, he returned to the Kansas City area to teach American literature at Park University in Parkville, Mo. He then turned to writing and editing, working with Universal Press Syndicate and McMeel Publishers. He also wrote dozens of books in multiple genres. In 1995, he won the Western Writers of America Spur Award for We Are a People of This World: The Lakota
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Sioux and the Massacre at Wounded Knee. He also won a Thorpe Menn Award for Literary Excellence and a World Hunger Media Award for a series on pollution and poverty. In the 1980s and 1990s he was co-publisher and editor for the literary publishing house Woods Colt Press. Tony enjoyed travel, and was happy that his writing took him to Patagonia, the Himalayas, England, Suriname, and elsewhere. He leaves his wife, Betsy Beasley, 5900 Ward Parkway, Kansas City, MO 64113; and two children.
’59 RH Susan Webster Slavin, 76, a retired jeweler, died July 25, 2017. Born in Shelby, Mont., Sue grew up in Saudi Arabia, where her father was an executive with the Arabian American Oil Co., and came to Rosemary Hall in 1957. She was in Philomel, and her classmates voted her “Best Dancer.” In 1962, she married a Coast Guard officer, then lived in seven states in 16 years. Settling in San Antonio, Texas, Sue began a 30-year career in jewelry sales and management, working with Mission Jewelers, Shaw Jewelers, and other firms. Sue enjoyed cooking, dancing, gardening, and making heirloom Christmas wreaths. She leaves three children, including Albert P. Slavin II, 2400 Medina Dr., New Braunfels, TX 78130; six grandchildren; and a sister.
’62 RH Paige Husted Duff, 73, a former publicist and decorator, died November 3, 2017 in West Palm Beach, Fla. Born in New York City, Paige came to Rosemary Hall in 1958. She played softball and was in Dramu, the Choir, the fire squad, and the debate society. After graduating from Briarcliff College in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., she became a
publicist and decorator. Paige married a retired airplane pilot in 1985, and they traveled extensively, eventually settling in West Palm Beach. She leaves a brother, Bill Husted, 345 Fillmore St. # 203, Denver, CO 80206. Her mother, the late Leila Kilner ’38, also attended Rosemary Hall, as did three aunts: the late Joan Hunt ’42, the late Hope Carragan ’40, and the late Marguerite Hill ’45. An uncle and three cousins attended Choate: Tod Hunt ’66, Dan Hunt ’67, Christopher Hunt ’70 and the late Torrence Hunt ’40. A niece, Keary Ryland ’88, attended Choate Rosemary Hall.
’64 C Mark Mullaney, 71, an executive of health care organizations, died of lung cancer September 18, 2017 in Hull, Mass. Born in Concord, Mass., Mark was at Choate for one year; he lettered in football and baseball, and was in the Glee Club. After graduating from Boston College, he spent 35 years as a health care administrator for various firms, including Retina Associates of Boston. Mark was President of the Wellesley, Mass., Little League, and a founder of Voice of the Faithful, a Boston-area group formed to help shape structural change in the Roman Catholic Church. He was an avid golfer. He leaves his wife, Katheryn Mullaney, 88 Cadish Ave., Hull, MA 02045; three sons; and seven grandchildren. His father, the late Joseph M. Mullaney ’24, also attended Choate. ’65 C
John W. Blair, 71, a residential construction contractor, died November 10, 2017 in Pittsboro, N.C. Born in Raleigh, N.C., John was at Choate for one year; he lettered in football and baseball, winning School awards in each sport. After graduating
from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, John owned several businesses in and near Pittsboro, including selling log homes, managing a marina, and operating a boat storage company. He served on the Board of Trustees of the Pittsboro United Methodist Church, and enjoyed fishing, bird hunting, and boating. He leaves a brother, Henry Blair Jr., 603 South Walton St., Bethune, SC 29009; a sister; a special friend, Judy Peele; and several nieces and nephews.
’65 RH Wendy Winslow Lofting, 70, an artist and actress, died October 4, 2017. Born in New York City, Wendy came to Rosemary Hall in 1962. She was President of the IV form, head of Dramu, a marshal, a cheerleader, on the Student Government Committee and in the Fingernails. After Rosemary Hall, she attended Simmons College in Boston. She later illustrated children’s books and performed at the Delaware Theatre Company, winning an award for a one-woman show in which she portrayed Harriet Tubman. She was interested in environmental issues, and belonged to several conservancy groups as well as the Blackfoot Challenge Organization. She leaves two children, one grandchild, and two sisters. Her father, the late Thomas “Scudder” Winslow ’34, and a stepbrother, R. Bruce Campbell ’68, attended Choate.
’75 C Frank H. Buntin II, 61, a state conservation officer, died August 30, 2017 in Charlemont, Mass. Born in New Haven, Frank was at Choate for one year; he lettered in football. He then graduated from Brown, where he was a member of its 1976 Ivy League championship team. Frank worked
for many years for the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, mainly at state parks. He enjoyed landscaping and coaching youth athletic teams. He leaves his wife, Cathleen Buntin, P.O. Box 195, Charlemont, MA 01339; two children; his father; and three siblings. Bruce R. Replogle, 60, a music promoter and pastoral counselor, died November 17, 2017. Born in Newport, R.I., Bruce came to Choate in 1972; he was in the Drama Club, the Astronomy Club, and the Gold Key Society. He went to William and Mary and Oxford, then worked for a time in the television industry before becoming, in 1980, a publicist for John Lennon and Yoko Ono, specifically to promote their Double Fantasy album. He later formed Rock Management USA to book professional rock acts such as Duran Duran and Aerosmith. Bruce then took a new turn; he completed a thesis in pastoral counseling, attending GordonConwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, Harvard Divinity School, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. He became a pastoral counselor for a time, before returning to the rock music industry in 2007 to promote British acts. He leaves his parents and four brothers.
’02
Aaron Wise Smith, 33, a newspaper editor, died August 21, 2017. Born in Philadelphia, Aaron came to Choate Rosemary Hall in 1999; he lettered in swimming and water polo, and was in the School’s Festival Chorus. After graduating from Wesleyan, Aaron was an editor for the New Haven Register. He leaves his mother, Mary W. Smith, 8 No. Main St., Essex, CT 06426; his father, Stephen Smith of Lakeland, Fla.; and three brothers.
In 1980, Bruce R. Replogle became a publicist for John Lennon and Yoko Ono, specifically to promote their Double Fantasy album. He later formed Rock Management USA to book professional rock acts such as Duran Duran and Aerosmith.
’75
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54 IN MEMORIAM
Faculty, Staff, and Trustees Donald F. Bilodeau, a locksmith at Choate Rosemary Hall for 13 years, died November 29, 2017 in Meriden, Conn. He was 87. Born in Meriden, Don was a Navy veteran who formerly owned Office Typewriter Co. of Meriden for several years. He was Choate’s locksmith from 1987 until he retired in 2000, and was praised for his customer service and problem-solving skills. Don, a former President of the Meriden Lions Club, enjoyed hunting, fishing, golf, and motorcycling. He leaves his wife, Pauline Bilodeau, 680 Bee St., Meriden, CT 06450; nine children; 21 grandchildren; 32 great-grandchildren; and three siblings. Kristin Keitel Hernberg ’76, a Choate Rosemary Hall Trustee from 1978 to 1982, died September 7, 2016, near Seattle, Wash. She was 58. Born in Palo Alto, Calif., Kristin came to Rosemary Hall in 1972. She was in Christian Fellowship and was a student representative on the committee to select a new School chaplain; she
Kristin Keitel Hernberg won the Flora MacDonald Bonney prize, given to the sixth former who “without the honor of elected office, contributed most unselfishly to the School community.”
’76
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was also on the Science Curriculum Committee and was a volunteer at Wallingford’s Gaylord Hospital. She won the Flora MacDonald Bonney prize, given to the sixth former who “without the honor of elected office, contributed most unselfishly to the School community.” After attending Smith and graduating from the University of Rochester, Kristin earned a physician’s assistant degree from the Rochester
Institute of Technology. She worked at Unity Hospital and Cascade Behavioral Health. She enjoyed sketching, cooking, and knitting. She leaves her parents, four children, two grandchildren, and a sister, Karin Keitel ’78, 3918 Haven Rd., Minnetonka, MN 55345.
Karen Josephson, who taught dance and theater at Choate Rosemary Hall for five years, died November 30, 2017 in New Haven. She was 71. Born in Sioux Falls, S.D., Karen earned several degrees: a B.A. in English from the University of Iowa, an M.A. in dance from Wesleyan University, a B.A. in religion from the Pacific School of Religion, and a Ph.D. in religion and the performing arts from the Graduate Theological Union at the University of California, Berkeley. She taught English at FDR High School in New York City before coming to Choate Rosemary Hall in 1988. “Karen is a very well trained, gifted teacher,” wrote Gale Silverberg, then chair of Choate’s Arts Department. “She brings sensitivity and patience to her classroom and to her work with young actors on the stage.” She worked at School part-time from 1988 to 1991, and full-time from 1992 to 1994. After Choate, she taught religion at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. Born to deaf parents, Karen enjoyed sharing her skills for sign language interpretation on the stage and as an educator. She founded a dance company and a theater group. A feminist and activist, she enjoyed gardening, sewing, cooking, reading, painting, and writing. She leaves her husband, Walter Josephson; three children; four grandchildren; and a sister. Richard S. Robie Jr. ’50, a real estate executive who was a Choate Rosemary Hall Trustee for 12 years, died November 24, 2017 of cancer. He was 85. Born in Boston, Dick came to Choate in 1946; he was in the Glee Club, the Choral Club, and the Automobile Club. He graduated from St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., then served in the Army as a military police lieutenant in Germany. Returning to Massachusetts, he joined the family rent-a-car business and helped restructure it into a commercial real estate company, Robie Enterprises,
which he led for more than 40 years. Active in the community, Dick was a former President of the Boston Rotary Club and on the board of the Suffolk Franklin Savings Bank and the Hundred Club of Massachusetts. He was a Choate Rosemary Hall Trustee from 1978 to 1984 and 1985 to 1991; he also served terms as a Trustee of Shore Country Day School in Beverly, Mass., and of St. Lawrence. He was an avid sailor, especially in his Concordia yawl, which he sailed up and down the East Coast for nearly 50 years. He also taught coastal navigation at Power Squadron and was a former Commodore of the Eastern Yacht Club. Dick also enjoyed racquet sports and travel, organizing family sailing and skiing trips as well as an African safari. He leaves his wife, Ann Robie, 7 Kimball St., Marblehead, MA 01945; five children, including Chip Robie ’78, Doug Robie ’82, Beth Robie ’84, and Brad Robie ’91; and 10 grandchildren, including Richard Robie IV ’06 and Eliza Robie ’07. A brother, Donald Robie ’56, also attended Choate.
Our sympathy to the families of the following alumni, whose deaths are reported with sorrow: Juliet Helen Flynt Marillonnet ’41 May 22, 2017 Thomas S. Morgan ’49 September 20, 2017 Joan Barnewall Skinner ’48 June 12, 2017 Janice Klumpp Allee ’69 August 24, 2017
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“Julie Goodyear is the true definition of altruism. For at least two decades, she invested in me with love, solace, and guidance. Because of her, I aspire to make the world a better place for everyone.” – FORMER ICAHN SCHOLAR OCTAVIO SANDOVAL ’06 ’65 RH Julie Clark Goodyear ’65, who was a part of the Choate Rosemary Hall community for nearly 50 years, first as a student, then dorm parent, then admission officer, then recruiter for one of Choate’s most successful scholarship programs, died November 9, 2017. She was 70. Born in Riverside, Conn., she was the widow of longtime Choate history teacher Zachary Goodyear, who died in 2013. Julie was at Rosemary Hall from 1960 to 1962, then attended the Institut Montesano in Gstaad, Switzerland, and graduated from Chatham Hall in Chatham, Va. She majored in French at New York University, where she met Zack; they were married in 1969. After coming to Choate that year, Julie was a dorm parent for more than 20 years in various residences including Hill, Woodhouse, Bungalow, and East Cottage. “Throughout her life, my mother was enlivened and invigorated by all aspects of the Choate community – from its energetic and creative students, to the community of the boarding school campus, to the intellect, wit, and kindness of her fellow faculty members,” recalls her son Trevor Goodyear ’95. In 1986, she became an admission officer. She relished the job of admission officer because, she said, everyone was always “putting their best foot forward.” She held that post until 1995, when she left to study architecture at Yale and later earned a master’s degree in liberal studies from Wesleyan. After a few years living in non-dorm housing in the 1990s, she and Zack decided they missed the close interaction with students and moved to Logan Munroe, where they advised girls for the first time, and planned the “Full Moon Fête,” an annual dorm party. In 2000, Julie began recruiting students with burgeoning potential and significant financial need for Choate’s new Icahn Scholars program. Her work brought her to locations across the country, including a Navajo reservation that she returned to year
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after year, interviewing and recruiting students. “Julie Goodyear embodies the very best of those men and women who have committed their lives to independent secondary school education,” then-Assistant Headmaster Ed Maddox wrote. “We lost a strong and effective force in admission when Julie left Choate. Consequently, we were delighted when she returned, this time as the person hired by Carl Icahn to recruit students for a special financial aid program that he is funding.” All of the 237 Icahn Scholars who attended Choate were personally recruited by Julie; she later worked with the Icahn Charitable Foundation to develop and manage seven New York City charter schools. “Julie Goodyear is the true definition of altruism,” said former Icahn Scholar Octavio Sandoval ’06. “For at least two decades, Julie invested in me with love, solace, and guidance. Because of her, I aspire to make the world a better place for everyone.” Julie cherished Choate as a warm and supportive community in which to raise her two sons, as a catalyst for her commitment to altruism and progressive values, and as a source of intellectual stimulation. “It is no exaggeration to say she loved Choate like a family member,” recalls her son Justin Goodyear ’91. She leaves her sons, Justin, 855 James St., Pelham, NY 10803, and Trevor, 10867 Bucknell Dr., Silver Spring, MD 20902; four grandchildren; a brother; and her mother. Julie’s grandmother, the late Verna McCutcheon Logan ’01, and a great-aunt, the late Marion McCutcheon ’02, also attended Rosemary Hall.
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SCOREBOARD | Fall Sports Wrap-up
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Kamsi Iloeje ’19, Blake Migden ’19, Elyse Cornwall ’18, Lani Uyeno ’19, and Anabel de Montebello ’18 shut out Hopkins School (3-0).
VARSITY VICTORIES The fall season came to a close with varsity football going undefeated, and three varsity teams making the playoffs. Choate football earned their fourth straight undefeated season and another Bill Glennon Bowl defeating Avon 48–27. Girls varsity volleyball defeated Deerfield in the finale of the regular season, earning a #1 seed in the playoffs. They earned their second straight New England title with a five set win over Exeter in the final. Boys varsity soccer made the playoffs as the #8 seed, but lost to Berkshire. Girls varsity soccer started playoffs as the #4 seed, but unfortunately came up short in the opening round.
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SCOREBOARD | Fall Sports Wrap-up
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1 Goalie Jackson Haile ’19 prepares to block a
2 Co-Captain Griffin Birney ’18 and Mustafe Dahir
3 Sebastian Barquin Sanchez ’18 prepares to
4 Joe Young ’18 hands the ball off to running
shot against Deerfield Academy.
’19 run in the lead against Loomis at a home meet.
block a shot in game against Worcester Academy that resulted in a 1-1 tie.
back Rashaud Conway ’19 in our Parents Weekend win over Worcester Academy.
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6 BOYS CROSS COUNTRY Varsity Season Record: 5–3 Captains: Griffin J. Birney ’18, Matthew Woo–Joon Kim ’18 Highlights: 4th in Founders League; 6th at New Englands; Mustafe Dahir ’19 broke the school record on the home course with a time of 15:58. GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY Varsity Season Record: 4–3 Captains: Kay J. Ingulli ’18, Mehreen A. Pasha ’18 Highlights: Won Founders League. They backed that up with a 6th place finish at New Englands. Lilly Bar ’19, Sarah McAndrew ’20 and Kay Ingulli ’18 led the way this season. FIELD HOCKEY Varsity Season Record: 4–11 Captains: Riley M. Marchin ’18, Madison E. Sakheim ’18, Alexis M. Takashima ’18 Highlight: Best game was an upset victory over local rival Hopkins; 7 players made the National Academic Squad. FOOTBALL Varsity Season Record: 9–0 Captains: Peter J. Fitzgerald ’18, Shane B. Sweitzer ’18, John V. Tessitore ’18 Highlights: Won the Bill Glennon Bowl; fourth straight undefeated season BOYS SOCCER Varsity Season Record: 10–4–5 Captains: Zachary R. Lopes ’18, Sebastian Barquin Sanchez ’18 Highlight: Made playoffs as #8 seed – lost in first round to Berkshire. GIRLS SOCCER Season Record: 11–4–4 Captain: Emily N. Clorite ’18 Highlights: Beat defending champion Loomis in a thriller; senior captain Emily Clorite ’18 propelled the young squad to another great season. GIRLS VOLLEYBALL Varsity Season Record: 19–3 Captains: Elyse L. Cornwall ’18, Anabel L. de Montebello ’18 Highlight: Won second straight New England title, led by captains and All-New England players Elyse Cornwall ’18 and Anabel de Montebello ’18 and New England Player of the Year Lani Uyeno ’19 BOYS WATER POLO Varsity Season Record: 6–11 Captains: Oliver L. Chessen ’18, Benjamin Zhao ’18 Highlights: Beat Staples twice and sophomore Andrew Berzolla ’20 was named to the Second-Team All-League.
7 5 Hanna MacNamee ’19 finishing strong against NMH
7 Emily Clorite ’18, Samantha Brown ’20 and Madison
during Deerfield Weekend at home meet. 6 Kaitlyn O’Donoghue ’19 starts one of her signature 3-D attacks against Hotchkiss.
Mandell ’18 celebrate a shut-out against Phillips Exeter Academy (7-0).
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GOCHOATE! 2/9/18 10:07 AM
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BOOKSHELF
In this issue, a fantasist offers a glimpse of the future where war looms on the Korean Peninsula, famine spreads across the world, and devastating superstorms gather in the Atlantic; a journalist chronicles the departure of twin brothers from El Salvador as they seek refuge in the U.S.; a novelist offers a historical account of a real crime that occurred in the 1940s; and two children’s writers help young readers understand tragic historical events.
All the Birds in the Sky By Charlie Jane Anders ’87 | Reviewed by Andrea Thompson
ALL THE BIRDS IN THE SKY Author: Charlie Jane Anders ’87 Publisher: Tor Books About the Reviewer: Andrea Thompson is a freelance writer and editor and the co-author, with Jacob Lief, of I Am Because You Are.
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Patricia and Laurence meet as awkward middleschoolers: As she chases ravens across the sky, she collides with him, smashing a device he wears on his wrist. But he’s not wearing a watch – she’s broken a homemade time machine that can propel Laurence two seconds into the future. And she’s no birder – she’s longing to find the Parliamentary Tree, an avian gathering place, where seven years earlier a congress of birds asked her the Endless Question (“Is a tree red?”). All the Birds in the Sky is part fantasy, part fairy tale, but Anders, the editor-in-chief of io9 and the author of Choir Boy, grounds her novel in a world that feels disturbingly real. As Patricia and Laurence wend their way to adulthood – she an avenging witch, he a technologist attempting to build a wormhole to another universe – much that surrounds them is ours. Students on an environmental rescue mission reference James Cameron’s Avatar, and tech geeks plaster their office with posters of “The Gossip.” War looms on the Korean Peninsula. Famine spreads across the world. Devastating superstorms gather in the Atlantic. Patricia and Laurence operate as the embodiment of opposing forces: nature versus technology. She longs to roam through the woods, but her parents forbid her to do so. He despises outdoor activities,
but his parents force him on weekend camping trips (the friendship develops when he pays her to convince his parents that they are spending time outdoors together). Meanwhile, Laurence tinkers with ray guns, dreams about rocket ships, and constructs a supercomputer in his closet. Adding to the drama is the presence of a sinister assassin, who has had a vision of the apocalypse, with Patricia and Laurence at its center: “Death and chaos, engines of destruction, whole cities crumbling, and a plague of madness. And at the last, a war between magic and science that would leave the world in ashes.” Determined to eliminate them in the interest of saving the world, but forbidden from outright killing them, he manages to drive a wedge that separates the pair for a decade. As the cataclysm whirls ever closer, Patricia and Laurence, now adults, are drawn together once more. Suddenly, both sorcery and science are on the brink of destroying humanity. Will Patricia and Laurence fulfill the assassin’s prophecy, or will they find a way to pull the world back from catastrophe? Anders doesn’t flinch from the violence of devastation, but she also has a fundamentally romantic vision of the world: it’s possible that love really can save us all.
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The Far Away Brothers By Lauren Markham ’01 | Reviewed by Nancy S. Burress
THE FAR AWAY BROTHERS: TWO YOUNG MIGRANTS AND THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN LIFE Author: Lauren Markham ’01 Publisher: Crown About the Reviewer: Nancy S. Burress is a Spanish teacher and Co-Director of Programs in Spain.
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Twin brothers Ernesto and Raúl Flores are compelled to leave their native El Salvador by a combination of poverty and imminent threats to their lives by the growing drug gangs. Chronicled in detail by Lauren Markham, their story (names changed by the author for their safety) begins after they leave for the U.S. border with one goal: survival. The 17-year-olds depart one by one, preceded by an older brother. In their wake remains a large family struggling to make it day to day, heavily in debt and also in danger. The urgency at home (and for those children who head north) is to avert having to sell the family land. The teenagers travel north with only the help of expensive “coyotes,” human smugglers (part of the reason for the family debt), and their father’s entreaty to keep their “manos limpias” (clean hands). They make it, but the trauma that Raúl suffers during the trek will go on to make adjustment to the new environment all the more challenging. Markham conducted extensive interviews with the Flores family in El Salvador and the U.S. and employed professional fact checkers. The result of her two years of investigation is a story that represents the all too frequent and heartbreaking experiences of unaccompanied minors, children forced to grow up fast for their own survival and that of families counting on them back home. The challenges of navigating the U.S. immigration system, initially with no legal counsel and very limited English, are daunting. With little adult guidance and crushing economic pressure, the twins suffer stresses many young Americans would find hard to fathom. But the boys continue to be teenagers turned young adults, and they even socialize and have girlfriends. They want to study, but at the same time they need to make money to pay their living expenses and also send back home; their parents, and especially their sister Mariela and her young children, desperately need help. They alternate making good and bad decisions and are met with tremendous obstacles, yet also find occasional reasons for hope.
Their new lives make them question their priorities. Can they afford to send money back home? How can they even keep their heads above water in their new home? The inevitable happens: Ernesto and Raúl forge relationships, and along with them responsibilities. That is when Markham, who has worked for the past decade in the fields of refugee resettlement and immigrant education, enters the picture, as she becomes aware of the boys’ plight at the Oakland International High School. The father’s “manos limpias” advice is still with the boys as they try to manage their increasingly complex situation. The boys’ lives overlap with the 2016 presidential campaign, with scenes of crowds on television shouting “Build the wall!” The reader will turn the page on this one with a combination of dread and hope. With the accounting of the Flores twins’ experience along with data on the thousands of minors of all ages arriving in America, Markham makes clear the moral imperative of changing how we handle unaccompanied children arriving at our borders.
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Ashes from a Burning Corpse By Noel Hynd ’66 | Reviewed by Brianna St. John With so many police procedural shows and murdermystery novels to choose from, it’s easy for the idea of death to seem small. Crimes - murder stories in particular - are wrapped up in neat snippets, quickly moving through the processes of investigating and apprehending a criminal without looking at how one crime can cause an echo. Ashes from a Burning Corpse, the new noir thriller by Noel Hynd ‘66, rebuts the idea that death exists in a vacuum. Returning readers to the smoky, war-torn 1940s, Hynd invites us to meditate on the impact of one death, one crime, and the shockwaves it sent ricocheting through an entire island, across countries, and through decades. The novel is a fictionalized account of a real crime investigated by Hynd’s late father, journalist and true-crime writer Alan Hynd. It is the first book in a trilogy examining the three cases that had the biggest impact on his father’s life: the case of Charles Ponzi, the Charles Lindbergh kidnapping case, and this, the murder of Sir Harry Oakes. In Nassau, the Bahamas, in 1943, Oakes – one of the richest men in the world – was murdered. The wounds on his body baffled police, as did the ritualistic ways the body was abused after death. All the evidence pointed to one suspect: a man Alan Hynd and his colleagues knew was innocent. Noel Hynd’s novel does not rush through the murder investigation or the cover-up that followed. It lingers on who the victim was and why so many people wanted him dead. It builds tension to nearly unbearable levels showcasing a world torn apart by war and introducing characters who cut their teeth
ASHES FROM A BURNING CORPSE Author: Noel Hynd ’66 Publisher: Red Cat Tales About the Reviewer: Brianna St. John is a communications assistant at Choate Rosemary Hall.
BEASTS MADE OF NIGHT Author: Tochi Onyebuchi ’05 Publisher: Razorbill
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DIAMONDS IN THE WATER Author: Daniel McCrimons ’71 Publisher: Balboa Press
on illegal dealings during Prohibition. The story simmers in tropical heat as violence and espionage hunt Alan across the island. It uses history to give a behind-the-curtain look at the power struggles that took place in the Bahamas in the 1940s, taking names from history and giving them new life on the page. Most important, Hynd dares to take more than a passing glance at how this murder rocked the island, and at how the investigation haunted Alan Hynd in his search for the truth. While thoughtful and methodical, the novel is anything but slow. Rather, it makes use of its deliberate pace, letting us dip into Alan’s mind. While the mystery itself is gritty, Hynd’s respect for his father and his father’s work shine through, especially in the scenes depicting Alan’s home life. Family and home serve as a balm against the horrors inflicted out in the world, making these moments seem more gentle and intimate. They strike a necessary balance with the smoldering thriller taking place alongside them. Both the older and the younger Hynd keep the reader guessing to the very end, as potential villains peer from around every corner. While some readers may know the outcome of the investigation, Hynd adds new flair and mystery by showing how this murder was felt not just by residents of the Bahamas, but by the journalists and police who investigated it. It makes for an edgy, exciting read, and lays the groundwork for what will surely be a thrilling historical trilogy.
THE WRONG SIDE OF COMFORTABLE: CHASE YOUR DREAM. DISCOVER YOUR POTENTIAL. TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE. Author: Amy M. Charity ’95 Publisher: Grinta Press
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Alumnae Authors Introduce Young Readers to Important Moments in History
| Reviews by Cheryl Bardoe
Even amidst today’s myriad of electronic devices, picture books remain a perfect technology. With immersive imagery and focused text, they transport children deeply into a story. Designed to be a shared experience between adult and child, perhaps even read ensconced in a snuggle, they spark contemplation and conversation. Two alumnae have recently harnessed the power of picture books to help young readers understand tragic events that provide historic context to modern life.
The Hiding Game By Gwen Strauss ’81 | Illustrated by Herb Leonhard In the Nazi-occupied France of 1940, young Aube Breton and her parents are in hiding. Her father, André Breton, is among the most famous founders of the Surrealist movement. Her mother, Jacqueline Lamba, is a well-known painter. The family finds refuge in a villa in southern France, where an American journalist named Varian Fry and his assistant Danny Bénédite, are helping thousands of Jews, intellectuals, and artists flee. With the threat of a Nazi raid ever present, Aube practices hiding in a kitchen armoire and worries for those already in concentration camps. She also bears witness to daily acts of courage and hope as those in hiding bond together to preserve the best of the human spirit even in times of terror. With visits from such luminaries as Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, and Marcel Duchamp, Aube seems to be in a secret artists’ colony as everyone waits for a safe moment to escape.
The author, who currently resides in France, is the great-niece of Bénédite, who alongside Fry later received the Legion of Honor medal from the French government. This story offers an intimate look at the operations of the now-famous rescue operation. For young readers first learning about the Holocaust, this story is honest about the dangers of the time, while focusing on the strength of human endurance. Backmatter completes the book with historic photos, context about the artists, suggestions for further reading, and the author’s personal reflection about her great-uncle. Strauss’ previous picture book, Ruth and the Green Book, received wide critical acclaim, including being an Honor book for the Jane Adams Peace Prize and being named a Most Notable Middle Grade Reader by the American Library Association.
THE HIDING GAME Author: Gwen Strauss ’81 Illustrator: Herb Leonhard Publisher: Pelican Publishing
Poppy’s Purpose Written and Illustrated by Marie Betts Bartlett ’75 This story explores the events of 9/11 from the unique perspective of Poppy, a commuter train car who loves transporting passengers back and forth from New Jersey to Manhattan. On that fateful morning in 2001, Poppy is abandoned at an underground station as the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapse above her. Scared and confused, Poppy remains trapped under piles of rubble, hoping eagerly to be of service again. When rescuers discover Poppy, she is surprisingly unharmed. Poppy is instantly recognized as a symbol of resilience and of the multitudes of people whose lives were changed by the tragedy. Poppy cannot return to service, however, because water has trickled into the underground tunnels and
ruined her engine. Poppy eventually discovers a new calling when she is installed at a museum. Now when people walk through Poppy’s doors, they come to remember and reflect. In addition to writing the text, Bartlett did extensive research to create the former New York skyline through painstaking, cut-paper collage. The book is inspired by the true story of PATH car 745, now on display at the Shoreline Trolley Museum in East Haven, Connecticut. Poppy offers a sensitive surrogate for introducing children to a historic event that defines the world into which they were born. Her tale highlights the endurance of hope and the process of finding new purpose in life when everything has changed.
POPPY’S PURPOSE Author and Illustrator: Marie Betts Bartlett ’75 Publisher: G. Boreas Publishing
About the Reviewer: Cheryl Bardoe P ’21 is an award-winning children’s book author.
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END NOTE |
A Mustang Muses by nancy miller I am a “mustang” – no, not the fancy car that we all lusted after as teenagers and certainly not the stallions who prance around the high desert – rather, I am a person whose prior enlisted service qualified her for transitioning to officer rank. I started my Choate career as a secretary in the Summer Programs Office. I had my first interview on a snowy day in February when most people would not have ventured out. The day before I was to start my new job, my mother had a stroke and died. My very first inkling of the sort of community I had become a part of was when the late Zack Goodyear, who was then the head of the Summer Programs and barely knew me at all, showed up at my mother’s memorial service. I have been at Choate for more than 30 years, and on the faculty for 25. I never wanted to be a teacher – primarily because my father explained to both my sister and me that a woman needed a career she could “fall back on” and that teaching and nursing would be the best choices. I did not want a career to fall back on. Rather, I began my career after college in the executive training program at Bonwit Teller – a luxury department store in New York – moved to San Francisco in the summer of 1968, where I really did wear flowers in my hair, and finally ended up in Connecticut and at Choate in the late 1980s.
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In the early 1990s, I was approached by the English department head who needed someone to teach one section of third form English. With some trepidation, I agreed, and began what has become my calling. Fifteen minutes into my first class, I discovered that this career was not one to fall back on, but one to celebrate! In 2003, I applied for the job of Form Dean for the class of 2006. I have been in the Deans’ Office since then, and when the class of 2018 crosses the stage in June, I will complete what former faculty Tom Yankus called “the best job in the school“ and will have to face the fact that my life, which has revolved around this place, will change. My career here has been filled with lots of scary and exhilarating experiences. Here are some of them: My birthday is May 15. Two years ago, my husband died on May 12. On the morning of May 15 that year, I was asked to come out to the steps of Hill House, where most of the class of 2015 was gathered (unbeknownst to me) to sing “Happy Birthday“ and to present me with a bouquet of flowers. A student walked into my office, unhappy and burdened by the weight of school. We talked, and I suggested that she might like a book that I had just finished – Everything I Never Told You. She borrowed it, and four months later at graduation returned it to me saying that the book changed her life. My classroom shimmered and sparkled with young men and women trying to understand Euripides’ Medea. The boys hated her, the girls adored her, and we found ourselves arguing about literature that is thousands of years old and finding meaning and relevancy in an ancient, somewhat misogynistic text that spoke to us across the ages and into a classroom here at Choate. It was a warm day at the end of the spring term and I came to school wearing a dress that I made to attend the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Marin County in 1969. I shared my knowledge of the counterculture and life on the West Coast at its height with an Honors U.S. History class. A student asked: “Mrs. Miller, don’t you think it’s odd that you are now a member of the establishment, dealing with discipline and student dress violations?” Sheepishly, I responded that everyone grows up! This community and everyone in it have been my support, my rock, and my joy since the very first day that I drove across the snowy roads in February for my interview. More than that, though, this community has allowed me to be proud of myself, to impact young lives and to have them impact me in numberless ways – ways that I am still learning about: the kindness of young men, the warmth of young women, and the blessings involved in being a teacher. Excerpted from a talk given by faculty member Nancy Miller to the Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees.
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