Spring/Summer 2024 Deerfield Magazine

DEERFIELD

MAGAZINE

Greetings and welcome to this heftier-than-usual issue of Deerfield Magazine! So many great things have happened on campus since our last issue, and we felt the need to share them with you. From inspirational guest speakers at School Meetings, such as US Ambassador Bridget Brink, to a picture-perfect day for the Class of ’24’s Commencement, Spring Term flew by, and before we knew it, Reunion Weekend was upon us. Thank you to all those who made the trip back to campus, and “0s” and “5s,” we’re already looking forward to hosting you June 6 to 8, 2025.

Now, campus is anything but quiet; from construction projects, including the renovation and expansion of the Dining Hall, which is well underway, and summer programs—the Experimentory and the Deerfield Academy Summer Arts Camp—to Admission tours and a stray visitor or two from Historic Deerfield, one of the few places to find true peace and quiet is depicted on our cover: at the river. While not included in Dan Hodermarsky’s feature article, which you will find on page 38, I was delighted by the serendipity of coming across Deerfield River Shallows, High Summer, 1983, in the beautiful book that was published in Dan’s honor earlier this year, and I am so pleased to share it with all of you. My sincere thanks to Duncan Christy ’70, who authored the Forward in Hodermarsky and wrote “A Good Human, Good to the Bone” for us.

Beginning on page 22, Deerfield’s championship-winning varsity baseball team is featured in an article written by one of our newest alumni: Adam Lipman ’24. Adam was embedded with the team for an alternate study focused on baseball journalism this past spring, and the result is excellent; his energetic style brings the season to life—from its early days in Florida to a nail-biting conclusion on our new turf field at the south end of Old Main Street.

At the end of the school year, we said goodbye to several long-term community members, including Director of Dance Jen Whitcomb, Laboratory and Research Supervisor Robin Lempicki, and Theater Technical Director Paul Yager. Combined, their service equals nearly 100 years, and literally thousands of students positively affected; you may read about them beginning on page 32. Also retiring from Deerfield but reticent about her departure is Director of the Head of School’s Office Judie O’Donnell. Arriving in the fall of 2009 as Special Assistant to then Head of School Dr. Margarita Curtis, Judie has been an integral part of the Head’s office and the Board of Trustees since day one. She will be missed for her steady, good humor, her unfailing attention to detail, and, personally by me, for her truly superior knowledge of grammar. Thank you, Judie, and forgive me for “putting you in the magazine.”

Finally, if you read nothing else in this edition of Deerfield Magazine, I recommend turning to page 48, where you will find Thriving in a World of Pluralistic Contention: A Framework for Schools, written by Head of School Dr. John Austin. Some of you may recall that Dr. Austin received a grant from the E.E. Ford Foundation to explore and address some of the challenges facing schools today, including what the role of schools should be in political and social affairs, how that role is expressed in classrooms, and how to create school climates that foster open, nonpartisan, and courageous inquiry. The result is an extraordinarily thoughtful and well-researched piece of writing, contending that academic pluralism is essential for promoting such independent thought and courageous inquiry and necessary for creating a new generation of independent thinkers and leaders. This is, of course, at the core of the Academy’s mission, and Deerfield will continue to lead the way in this vital work.

As summer winds down, please take a moment to send us your letters, emails, and class notes—we enjoy hearing from you! And remember, you can always find the latest news and information about all things Deerfield on our social media platforms and at Deerfield.edu. With my best wishes—

Jessica Day Director of Communications/Editor-in-Chief

Production Manager Steve Berman Director

Communications/ Editor-in-Chief Jessica Day

Delgado

ASHLEY AWARD RECIPIENT: ALI BERRY ’05

Alexandra “Ali” Berry ’05 was presented with the 2024 Ashley Award at School Meeting on April 3. Ali, who began her career as a teacher in Houston, TX, has worked at innovative educational startups including KIPP, Amplify, Relay Graduate School of Education, the Global Science of Learning Education Network, and the XQ Institute, which she helped to launch and continues to work with today. As director of learning, research, and practice at XQ, Ali supported educators, students, families, and others in their efforts to reimagine high school education in the United States by fueling America's collective creativity in an effort to transform secondary education so every student succeeds, regardless of background, gender, or zip code.

In her recent role as CEO of Composer, Ali built and launched a global platform to provide young people greater access to high-quality civics and citizenship education. Ali currently leads a consulting firm that specializes in strategic support, program management, and product development services to organizations focused on driving social impact.

Named in honor of Tom Ashley, Deerfield Class of 1911, the Ashley Award was created by the Executive Committee of the Alumni Association to recognize young Deerfield alumni/ae who demonstrate exemplary character and extraordinary devotion to a people, cause, or place. It honors those who can serve as an example for current students and their fellow alumni. //

“There is even more importance in the value of a liberal arts education (today) because having the foundational knowledge, the key literacies and skills you need, prepares you to be able to think critically and to evaluate arguments and make sound judgments for yourself.”

—Ali Berry ’05

Backstage l to r: Sheryl Koyama, Ali Berry ’05, Toby Emerson, Mark Scandling; Marc Dancer

AMBASSADOR BRIDGET BRINK

The Deerfield community welcomed United States Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink on April 17. Ambassador Brink (pictured here wearing her favorite "vyshyvanka"—a traditionally-styled Ukrainian dress) spoke at School Meeting about the importance of "agency and action," and posed a question to students borrowed from the poet Mary Oliver: "Tellme,whatisityouplantodowithyouronewildandprecious life?" She noted that in her experience, the most important matters in life rest on love: love of family, friends, and country. Ambassador Brink also noted that a boarding school experience, such as at Deerfield, helps young people to answer challenges in life, and the opportunity at Deerfield is to build the leaders of tomorrow, upon which the United States and the rest of the world will depend.

"Be led by your values; your education gives you the tools to solve the challenges of today and tomorrow . . . the world is full of problems, with the opportunity for human agency to take action and make a difference in the lives of those around you." Ambassador Brink also noted that through her work, she has learned that small kindnesses matter, as do large acts of courage.

Ambassador Brink has served in the US diplomatic corp for nearly 30 years. She was nominated as ambassador to Ukraine by President Biden in 2022, and confirmed unanimously by the US Senate on May 18, 2022; shearrivedinKyivonMay29.PriortoservingasambassadortoUkraine, Ambassador Brink served as ambassador to Slovakia. //

THIRD ANNUAL DEERFIELD FORUM

As part of our ongoing and collective work as an educational institution dedicated to student thriving and free and open inquiry, Head of School John Austin and the Academic Affairs Office presented the third annual Deerfield Forum on April 11. This year's event focused on the question: “DoestheUnitedStatesneedanewConstitution?”The2024Forumwas the culmination of yearlong discussions related to the US Constitution, which all students received a copy of at the start of the school year.

NewYorkTimesOpinioncolumnistJamelleBouie,YaleUniversitySterling Professor of Law and Political Science Akhil Amar, and moderator Jeannie Suk Gersen, Harvard Law School professor, discussed the history of the Constitution and some of the current debate related to it, and then engaged with students, who asked terrific questions.

As an institution, Deerfield has long believed that diverse perspectives fuel creative and innovative thinking and build empathy and consideration.TheForumencouragesschool-widediscussionandhelpstoensure diverse perspectives on issues of contemporary urgency, in addition to providing regular and sustained opportunities for listening and conversation among the student body.//

STUDENT ART

This spring's annual Student Art Exhibit did not disappoint, and featured the work of artists from several fine arts classes. The von Auersperg Gallery is open to the public during the school year, Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm, and information on exhibits may be found online at deerfield.edu/academics/von-auersperg-gallery

ALBANY ROAD

CELESTIAL EVENT: ECLIPSE PARTY

Cocurricular activies began a little later than usual on April 8 so the school community could gather to experience the 2024 total solar eclipse —95 percent of which was visible from campus. As you might imagine, the eclipse brought out a large portion of the student body and a lot of enthusiasm from Mr. Calhoun and the Science Department!

The next full solar eclipse in Deerfield, MA will be on August 12, 2026

FESTIVE PHOTOS

PROM + SPRING FAMILY WEEKEND

From one last prom in the "old" Dining Hall to Spring Family Weekend, campus was buzzing with excitement and joy this spring! Families visited their students’ classes, went on an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the Dining Hall before renovations began, and enjoyed a performing arts showcase, among other events. Scan the QR code above for more Deerfield photos. //

/// Photographs by Matthew Cavanaugh ///

ON THE GREEN WITH Brendan Creagh

VARSITY GOLF

“You couldn’t have paid me to play golf when I was in high school,”marvels Varsity Golf Coach Brendan Creagh.

As a three-sport high school athlete into contact sports—soccer, hockey, lacrosse—Coach Creagh couldn’t wrap his mind around the sport.

“I couldn’t understand why somebody would want to walk around in funny-looking pants for four hours. It just didn’t make any sense.”

Brendan Creagh arrived at Deerfield 27 years ago with a completely different mission: to be the boys varsity hockey coach. Four years out of college, he played professional hockey, bouncing around the minor pro league with vague thoughts of playing in Europe.

“When I was offered the [Deerfield] job, I was playing the best hockey of my life, but it was the kind of thing where I saw into the future, and playing minor pro hockey isn’t a long-term profession,” recalls Creagh, noting that hanging up the skates wasn’t easy. 1

ALBANY ROAD

But as with many former "pros," Creagh began to find the sport of golf more and more intriguing. “I think once you retire from competitive sport, you’re looking for something to compete at and have the camaraderie—the teammates and the competition—and golf is that for many former athletes.” After years of playing golf and twenty years coaching hockey, Coach Creagh assumed his current role as head coach for the varsity golf team in 2016. He is credited for turning Deerfield’s golf program into one of the top programs in the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council. “I have learned a ton about the sport of golf just in my conversations with him,” says Director of Athletics and Cocurricular Program Bob Howe, highlighting Creagh’s absolute commitment to working behind the scenes year-round to make the program successful.

As a physics teacher, Coach Creagh can really geek out on the golf swing, though he maintains that his job is not to alter students’ swings—he sees the golf swing as a particular athletic motion that doesn’t lend itself to people making unsolicited recommendations. “Early on in my career, we got a Trackman golf simulator in our facility here, and that’s helped enormously just to understand what club path means, and spin rates, and club-to-face paths, and all sorts of different metrics you can measure,” explains Creagh, emphasizing the hours he has spent in the simulator both alone and with the team studying the perfect swing. “We’re also lucky enough to have three slow-motion HD cameras, so not only can you get the numbers for the swing—the ball speed, the spin rate, your attack angle—and what does that look like, but you also see the swing so you can watch it, slow it down, draw on it.”

Golf is an individualized sport where players have their own needs and goals. A successful coach must be agile and able to coax the best out of each player and get the best out of the team as a whole. “On the Deerfield team, there is a place for you to be an individual, to have your own needs and meet those needs, but we want to do this in the context of a team atmosphere. So, advocating for yourself and understanding what you need, but doing that within the context of the team, is really important,” says Creagh. Current Yale University golf team member Will Lodge ’22 credits Coach Creagh with

equipping him with the practices and skills to make his college career a success. (Will and his Yale teammates did in fact win the 2024 Ivy League Men's Golf Championship this spring.) “Some of the most important lessons and values I learned from Mr. Creagh are the importance of preparation, the desire to win, and to be respectful in both victory and defeat,” says Lodge. “Mr. Creagh was extremely invested in everyone’s success and he did everything he could to help us achieve our aspirations. He instilled a fire to succeed and win in all of us.”

Deerfield's program has attracted a higher level of talent in recent years, and one of the biggest changes Coach Creagh implemented this year was a new international tournament that he and a few other coaches in the league formed; in May, 120 players competed in a two-day tournament at the Crumpin-Fox course in Bernardston, MA. “Most of the golf that matters to kids is their summer golf,” explains Creagh, emphasizing that, during the months when school is not in session, students usually gain the rankings that help in the recruitment process. “We’re trying to turn that on its head a little bit. Sometimes independent schools are a little bit at a disadvantage because our kids have limited travel in the spring and the fall to play in some of these tournaments, so we’re trying to build the tournament into our normal schedule just so they get access to not only this type of competition but also the exposure to the colleges.”

After nearly three decades spent in this little pocket of New England, hitting life’s major milestones, Coach Creagh will be on sabbatical during the upcoming school year, and he is on a quest to answer the big question: What did it all mean? “Originally, one of the hardest parts for me about teaching and coaching at Deerfield was, I’d finish the day, and I wouldn't feel like I’d accomplished anything,” recalls Creagh. “I’d worked in construction when I was in college, and so you’d reach the end of the day, and you'd turn around, and you’ve built something; or you played in a game, and you either won or lost, and it felt like there was some sort of tangible thing you accomplished. But early in my teaching career, I would finish the day and feel sort of empty—like I didn’t understand what it all meant.” During his sabbatical, Creagh will be golfing and fly fishing around the world while visiting Deerfield alumni and parents to collect their stories about Deerfield’s impact.

“I have spent a lifetime here,” he says. “Deerfield has meant a lot to me, and I think that understanding what it meant—and means—to other people will sustain me for the rest of my career; something to keep me charged and ready to go, and enthusiastic,” he says, recalling a recent conversation with an alumnus who credits much of his success to his Deerfield experience.

“Deerfield is not about the impact of one person on another, it's about the community as a whole. I didn’t specifically change this guy’s life, but I was part of something that did.” // 2 3 4 5 6

Melanie Onufrieff SWIMMING

ON DECK WITH

Mark Spencer SWIMMING

/// by Daniella Vollinger ///

Scrawled on a yellowing sheet of lined paper, stowed safely away and reviewed occasionally, is a list of nine “full-life qualities” Mark Spencer penned when he graduated high school. These were young Spencer’s best insights into what a fulfilled life should look like: play guitar regularly, take cooking classes, live near work, family, and friends, write a book, go fishing, and coach. So when he noticed an ad for the assistant boys' varsity swim coach posted, Spencer, a former high school swim team captain, headed right over to the Dean of Faculty. “I told him, ‘I think I can do this.’”

“Intelligent swimming” is a term Coach Spencer coined that encapsulates his coaching philosophy. He encourages his swimmers to be mindful of everything they’re doing out of the water—sleep habits, nutrition, fitness— and how they swim. “A true aquatic technician” is how Director of Athletics and Cocurricular Program Bob Howe refers to Coach Spencer, praising his ability to focus the team’s energy on peaking at the right time. “Intelligent swimming is helping [swimmers] understand how the underwater part of their swim is going to be faster than their above water for a certain amount of time. It’s an understanding of how they can work at a rate that puts them in the right breathing, so we do a lot of aerobic and anaerobic training, a lot of heart-rate training,” says Coach Spencer, maintaining that there are always lessons in what they’re working on, though these lessons may not always be apparent. “They may do a set and think it was hard, and they may not know that they just learned from it how to breathe only once during 25 yards in the water or whatever I’m working on during a particular day. There’s such a science to it.” As 2024 team Captain Akira Atornphatai ’25 summarizes: “Every day, we strive to become one percent better in the sport.”

As with many other sports in the independent school leagues, swimming has moved toward specialization. “Ten years ago, the league could be more even across the board because we were all sort of coming into it where the kids in our high schools were competing in swimming but also doing other sports,” explains Spencer.

“And now we have a league of kids who do the traditional—which is us—and some other schools that are specialists, and that’s all they do. So that’s been a newer challenge for us.” Coach Spencer embraces Deerfield's multi-sport model that encourages students to grow and explore—they are, after all, students first. “Some [students] think they have to swim 24 hours a day 12 months out of the year, and that’s the only way to be successful, and they have to drop everything else they do. They can’t be part of the band, the debate team, or another school sport because they have to have a singular focus, and the kids feel that pressure.” Former Deerfield and University of Michigan swimmer Miles Smalcho ’16 notes that he was at first hesitant to embrace the Deerfield model but ultimately saw the benefit: “When I initially thought of attending Deerfield, I thought I would be giving up on the ability to be an elite swimmer without access to swimming year-round. However, by attending Deerfield, I could not only continue to perform at a high level in the sport, but I also cherished the opportunities outside of swimming.”

And with the intelligent swimming philosophy in play, the swim program has been successful. “The boys’ swim team finished in third place [at the New England Championship this spring] behind the larger Exeter and Andover programs, but what is most remarkable about these results is that we should have been the second-place finisher,” comments Howe. “And we are this successful with students who prioritize swimming but aren’t in structured programs all year, like some of our stiffer competition,” he adds, referencing an unfortunate incident this past season when a student was penalized for wearing a swimsuit that broke an obscure rule (on logos) that ultimately got the team booted from their second-place spot. “We outswam everybody except Andover . . . Andover is like the Yankees . . . Everyone knows we’re not going to beat the Yankees. No one cares. They win every year. But the second-place team, that’s the one we’re all fighting for,” says Coach Spencer.

Looking back on his Deerfield swimming years, Smalcho can appreciate the life lessons. “It wasn’t just about swimming fast; it was also about having fun in practice and learning to grow,” he says. “The coaches created such a trusting and positive environment that you weren’t afraid to do anything.” Assistant Swim Coach Melanie Onufrieff—or “Coach Chill” as the swimmers call her—a former high-school swimmer and collegiate rower who coached highly competitive college rowing for decades, tries to bring a tone of positivity and a big-picture outlook, noting that endurance athletes tend to be Type-A personalities who are quite hard on themselves. “When I look back on my own athletic endeavors, I remember discovering the things I thought would matter down the road, don’t really matter. My medals are in a drawer. I don’t even look at them,” remarks Coach Onufrieff. “But you think about the people you were on these teams with and the experiences you’ve had, and how much fun it was, and then you also have this sort of armor built up through participation in sports that you get to use in other things later . . .. You develop the muscles and the capacity to manage other hard things.”

At the beginning of each season, the swimmers write up three goals: one for themselves, one for the team, and one that puts the focus outside of themselves and is more of an exercise in character development. “I care about them being the fastest swimmers they can be, but I also care about them being the most fully realized humans they can possibly be,” stresses Coach Onufrieff. In the pool area hangs a giant records board that holds the names and times of every record holder, and each team member looks to landing on that record board as their ultimate goal. “Not only were the coaches significant in inspiring me, but the past great swimmers were always a great inspiration, particularly with the ability to see the records up on the wall above the pool every day during practice,” recalls Smalcho. And when ninth graders and other new students come into the program, Coach Spencer has them look at the board: “I say, ‘That’s your goal, and I can help you do that.’’’ //

A CONVERSATION

MODERATOR MARK SPENCER, DEAN OF COLLEGE ADVISING

MS

Deerfield Academy was fortunate to host three-time New York Times best-selling author, Jeffrey Selingo, on campus in April. Jeff has written about higher education for over two decades. His in-depth reporting and storytelling have provided practical insight into the future of higher education and the workforce. During his visit to Deerfield, Jeff met with Deerfield’s Board of Trustees and College Advising staff. Additionally, on May 23, the College Advising Office hosted a Q & A webinar for current Deerfield parents. Jeff’s latest book, Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions, was published in 2020, named among the 100 Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times, and was the focus of our webinar conversation. Who Gets In and Why takes readers on a journey through the selection process from inside three admission offices (Emory, Davidson, and the University of Washington), revealing what really matters to the college admission gatekeepers. Below are some excerpts from our Q & A conversation with Jeff. (The full conversation is available on our College Advising website—scan the code below).

Good evening . . . so, let me just start with the opening question, why did you decide to write this book ( Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions )?

I think the main reason I wrote it is because I think that most of the parents in the room tonight, probably, went to college in the 80s and 90s, right? And it was around the early 2000s that college admissions really started to change. And so about seven years ago I reread a book called The Gatekeepers; it was based on a New York Times series in 1999 that Jacques Steinberg, who then was at the New York Times, wrote about Wesleyan University [from the perspective of] an insider in the admissions process. As I was reading that book in about 2015, I realized just how much the admissions process had changed since he wrote that book in the late 1990s. And so, I decided that it might be time to write this book. Around that same time, I was reading a book called Fast Food Nation, which took us inside the process of something that we kind of interact with every day—whether we eat fast food or not. It took us through that process of how a hamburger is made, how the potatoes get to McDonald’s, and all that other stuff. And I thought, that would be really interesting to show people kind of how an admissions class is put together over the course of a year.

So that’s what I did. I followed a group of seniors through the process in 2018–2019 [who] were applying to all different types of colleges.

MS

MS

I wonder with the research and work that you’ve done on higher education, what do you think are the most significant changes to occur in the admissions industry over the last 15 years or so?

Well, one of them is just the volume of applications. I think that’s the big difference between even as late as the 80s and early 90s, when college admissions was largely a regional business. What started to happen in the 1990s, and then really took off in the early 2000s, is that those selective colleges, not only the Ivy and ‘Ivy-plus’ schools but the institutions right below them at that time in the rankings—places like the University of Southern California, Emory, University of Chicago, those places that were even more regional back in the 80s—they all became nationalized. And why did they become nationalized? Because what ended up happening was that, well, first of all, you had the rise of the rankings and you had the common app that went on the internet. So, people started to find out about these other colleges. The internet in general started to spread information much more easily than snail mail did back then. And then the ease of communications and travel really changed our perception of distance, right? And so how did that change admissions? Atlanta students, who probably would have gone just to Emory in the 1980s, now started to apply to the same set of schools and those included schools in Boston and LA and Seattle. And so did top students everywhere. What ended up happening was not only did the number of apps rise at these top schools, but the number of top students applying to those institutions started to rise.

And that is the biggest difference today compared to 20 or 30 years ago. Let me just end with this statistic, Mark, because I think it’s pretty illustrative of what we’re talking about here. If you take the most selective colleges in this country, we’re talking about maybe about 40 or 50, that accept under 20 percent of their students today, back in the early 2000s they maybe got about 300,000 to 400,000 applications [in total] in a typical year. They now get three times overall that number of applications, right? So, they’re getting closer to a million, and some closer to two million, applications compared to what they were getting in the 1980s; and, this is the most important fact: They haven’t increased the size of their classes.

One of the things that you reference in your book is that this admission process is one of the most mysterious, misunderstood, and debated aspects of American higher education—why is it so?

We have a really hard time just understanding and dealing with what we mean by merit. The reason why colleges like this [ambiguity] is because it gives them a chance to shape a class the way they want to shape a class. I think the most important thing I learned in writing my book is that colleges have priorities. They may want students from all 50 states. They may want more engineering majors from North Dakota. They want a balance

between men and women. They want a balance between, you know, geographic diversity, racial and ethnic diversity. Some colleges—many colleges in fact—need full-pay students or close to full-pay students. They need athletes to fill their teams, they need people for their debate team, and they need people for their orchestra; they have all of these requirements that are fulfilled by the admissions office.

You may not fit exactly what they need in a particular period of time. That doesn’t mean that you’re not qualified. It just means that you don’t have what they need at that particular time. And so, I think it’s really important as we talk about admissions rates [that we understand this]. So, if a college has a 25 percent acceptance rate, you might have a zero percent chance of getting in because they have way too many students like you or you might have a 90 percent chance of getting in because they really need a student like you.

I think that [this process] is inherently unfair. I get that. And that’s why it’s important to know that it’s about [the college’s] priorities, and the more you go into this process knowing it is about their priorities and fulfilling those priorities in the admissions process, the more sane I think you can remain during this process.

I would love for you to reflect a little bit more on your belief that what one does at college is actually more important than where one goes to college, and I think that’ll help [our families) a little bit because I always say kids need to be authentic in this process, which goes along with what you’re saying.

Yeah, I mean, does just going to an Ivy/Ivy-plus school matter in short, right? Look at the Raj Chetty research that just came out last summer that was on the front page of the New York Times.

As David Deming, who’s at Harvard, pointed out to me—I’m writing a new book about this, and I spent some time with him he said, going to a highly selective college is like getting, you know, you’re gonna play the lottery of life, and you’re getting a couple of tickets where somebody who is going to college but not as highly selective might only get one ticket, right? You might just get a few more tickets. But it doesn’t mean if you go to a less selective college, you don’t get any tickets, right? You still have very good chances of ending up in these elite jobs by doing the right activities in college.

Is there a difference between a school ranked in the top 10 and a school at 125? Sure. But is there that much of a difference between ranking in the top 10, top 20, top 30, 40, 50? The differences between these schools are pretty narrow. And where you could actually kind of leapfrog over [any advantage of] those top schools is by what you do when you get to college. In other words, the courses you take, the activities you participate in, the internships that you get. Now, going to a highly selective college, you might have a little bit easier path, I understand, in getting some of these internships, but I am talking to a bunch of different employers [for my next book], including big employers like McKinsey and others that are hiring now at a wider swath of schools. In fact, this is one thing that the pandemic changed because of virtual hiring and things like that. It’s a much easier path now. Is it a little bit more work at the slightly less selective schools, probably, but it’s not as impossible as I think some people think it is.

And that is the message that I really want to get out, tonight in particular, and that, to be honest with you, I’m trying to get out in my new book, not to say don’t, apply to these dream schools, but in many cases, they are dreams. And it’s hard. It’s hard to get into some of these places. And there is a wider group of institutions that have just as good outcomes, if you look at salaries, when it comes to jobs. And, I would also argue that your upbringing, and your parent networks, and going to a place like Deerfield, also matters in terms of these outcomes after college as well. Rather than look narrowly, I really want to encourage people to perhaps open that aperture of the lens a little bit.

What helpful advice do you have for applicants to mitigate the stress of this application process?

I think it really comes down to working with your counselor to come up with a balanced list. The students I see who are most stressed in March and April, who are disappointed in the choices that they have . . . it all goes back to that original list of institutions that they applied to. They likely have a list that is a little bit

over-indexed on reach schools. Everybody thinks they’re going to be the one to win the Powerball. And at the end of the day, there is only one winner.

There’s always going to be outliers with admission decisions, but I think the more you work with your counselor to have a list that’s balanced, the happier you’re going to be and the less stress you’re going to have through this process.

“Packaging students.” There’s lots of different advice that floats around about that . . . you’ve got to be pointy or got to be broad and make sure you have community service or need to make sure you apply to a really obscure major to “package yourself” so that you have the best chances in the college process. So as someone who has spent time at committee tables at a number of different schools, how would you talk about that? Like how would you advise students and families about walking their way toward that process?

I always remind people: High school is a special time in life. It’s a time of discovery. And I think we’ve turned it, or colleges have turned it, into a game of hoops that we feel like we need to jump through to get to these places. You may want to play that game and I’m not saying you shouldn’t, if that’s really what you want, but you might be disappointed on the other side and you will turn around, I think, when you graduate high school and say, what did I just do all that for? //

Jeff Selingo’s next book will be published in late 2025. In it, he will address the recent changes in admissions, discuss why we need to open the aperture on the college search process, and offer guidance on what makes a “good college.”

ALBANY ROAD

On Sunday, May 26, 201 members of the Class of 2024 received their diplomas as the Academy celebrated its 225th Commencement ceremony in perfect spring weather.

The class elected Isaac Bakare and Adaugo Nwaokoro as class speakers; each shared both highlights and challenges from their time at Deerfield. The Robert Crow Award for academic excellence was presented to Justin Ahn, and CJ Williams was awarded the Deerfield Cup.

This year’s keynote speaker was George Loening ’84. The investment newsletter that Mr. Loening began writing in his Deerfield dorm room his sophomore year ultimately led to his founding Select Equity Group in 1990. Today, Select Equity manages over $35 billion dollars in US and international public equities, private equity and venture capital, serving foundation,

endowment, corporate and public pension, individual and sovereign fund clients. In addition to Mr. Loening’s extensive personal philanthropic efforts, Select Equity and its Foundation have donated more than $130 million to charity through a unique employee-directed giving process.

Through humorous and wise anecdotes, Mr. Loening offered the class several pieces of advice, and in conclusion said, "Remember: The best measure of your character is you. The road to truth is through doubt. Find your calling. Surround yourself with the best and smartest people you can find. And cherish and maintain the friendships you have built here." //

A recording of Commencement 2024 and a full transcript of Mr. Loening's speech may be found online at deerfield.edu/parents/events/commencement

COMMENCEMENT

Justin Ahn The Robert Crow Award

CJ Williams The Deerfield Cup

George Loening ’84 Keynote Speaker

Adaugo Nwaokoro Class-Elected Speaker

Isaac Bakare Class-Elected Speaker

ALICE BY HEART FUN FACT #1

♥ It took 4 months to make the costumes for the winter musical.

Brent Hale / Deerfield Academy

FUN FACT #2

♥ The Queen had a 5 second quick change done right off stage before reentering!

STUART LITTLE

Stuart Little is traveling to Scotland for the

Academy Theater presents

4

HEADS OF SCHOOL

b:

REUNION WEEKEND 2024

900 alumni and friends returned to campus June 6–9 to celebrate friendship and school ties at Reunions. Some alumni shared their knowledge and experience in such seminars as “The Psychology of Inheritance” and “Interactive Entertainment and the Games Industry,” and many attended an afternoon screening of The Holdovers. Everyone enjoyed the music and cheer, the New England Clam Bake under the Great Tent, and the memories, old and new. //

Bob Kaufmann, John Austin f: Margarita Curtis, Eric Widmer

Greatest number of attendees

ALUMNI AND FRIENDS ON CAMPUS

LOBSTERS

GALLONS OF CHOWDER

DEERFIELD BASEBALL’S STELLAR SEASON

PLAY-BY-PLAY

BY ADAM LIPMAN ’24

Deerfield Baseball is more than a team.

The best label for it is a brand. A type of play that involves crucial traits and priorities for winning games. A 16-4 record for the 2024 season and the first championship in 15 years indicate an underlying methodology for success.

Implemented by Deerfield’s spectacular coaching staff of Patrick Moriarty, Ray DeMartino, Marc Dancer ’79, and Kevin Kelly, Deerfield Baseball has four underlying principles: character, fundamentals, pitching, and defense. The advent of the temporary dining hall, which finished construction this past spring and currently occupies a large portion of Headmaster’s Field, put those values to an immediate test with the relocation to the gorgeous new turf field at the end of Old Main Street. The team had to learn the intricacies of playing with different ground under their feet. The change would not hinder this squad for a second, contributing to an 11-2 record at home and both playoff wins. To best convey how Deerfield finally emerged to win it all, four stories—from practice in Florida to the grand finale—encapsulate the season.

Courtesy of Adam Lipman

Dedicated to Defense:

Playing solid and consistent defense is a core tenet of Deerfield’s brand of baseball. Each practice is filled with drills, keeping every player ready for game days. This year’s exceptional performance on the field extended to the entire roster. Deerfield turned 24 double plays, fueled primarily by the impeccable middle infield tandem of Conor Moriarty ’24 and Gavin Rigney ’24. Fletcher Waterman ’24 took away the running game, catching 45 percent of attempted base stealers. Among ten new players on the team, postgraduates Sawyer Ramey ’24 and Malachi Costello ’24 had a particularly challenging task for the season: each had to learn an entirely new position and master it. Both had played exclusively at shortstop for their baseball careers and never needed to branch out to other spots on the diamond, but due to Deerfield’s already having Conor Moriarty established as a sure-handed shortstop and leadoff hitter, they needed to push themselves. Ramey stayed in the infield, shifting over to third base, and Costello traded the dirt for outfield grass, moving to center field. They essentially had to relearn baseball, establishing new instincts, footwork, and fielding methods. And they were willing to do whatever it took to help the team win. Their first opportunity to do so came on the preseason trip to IMG Academy. Now further from first base, Ramey strengthened his throwing arm to thwart speedy runners. Alongside the other outfielders working under Coach DeMartino’s direction, Costello meticulously practiced his routes and throws in the rangiest position on the field. The emergence of these two players heavily contributed to Deerfield’s extraordinary run prevention and pitching. After a jaw-dropping play by Ramey, Coach Dancer remarked to the driver on the way back to campus that Sawyer looked like Brooks Robinson, the most outstanding defensive third baseman in MLB history, on the play.

They essentially had to relearn baseball, establishing new instincts, footwork, and fielding methods. And they were willing to do whatever it took to help the team win.

RollingpreseasonthroughatIMGAcademy inFL.

Amidst the preseason trip to IMG Academy in Florida and with roaring planes overhead, Deerfield Baseball continued their pregame work. Green shirts and white pants contrasted the reddish-brown turf infield, laced with the mysteries of pellets and chips.

A New Captain Emerges:

Amidst the preseason trip to IMG Academy in Florida and with roaring planes overhead, Deerfield Baseball continued their pregame work. Green shirts and white pants contrasted the reddish-brown turf infield, laced with the mysteries of pellets and chips. Forming a 90-foot circle between first and second base, the team began their work on the ground, staring into the clean blue sky and its rippled clouds. Shifting to standing, the team readied to watch their captains, Conor Moriarty and Gavin Rigney, perform the stretches for reference of copying. As the captains stepped forth, a voice emerged: Coach Moriarty had an issue with the practice. Someone was missing from the captain’s area in the middle of the circle. Well aware of the significance of the moment, he calmly stated that catcher Fletcher Waterman needed to get inside the ring. Waterman smiled sheepishly, put his head down slightly, and jogged toward the middle. After his offseason of hard work and leadership, this honor matched its recipient. Waterman took charge between seasons, using last year’s experiences to realize himself as a leader. As a catcher, he knew the pitching staff intimately, and that knowledge gave him credibility as an essential voice—that extended to the rest of the defense, and reflected critical planning and communication skills. Waterman consistently led by example, taking the time to practice hitting and game planning. In the fall and winter, he found ways for younger players to join in and refine their skills. After having little room to take charge among a squad stacked with seniors last season, Waterman created his own opportunities and an environment where his natural leadership boosted the team.

CaptainFletcherWaterman

Risley

Sports Photography

Griffin’s Perfect Game:

In the 122-year history of Deerfield Academy Baseball, no pitcher had ever thrown the elusive perfect game. There had certainly been worthy attempts, with the most recent no-hitter thrown by Henry Gustavson ’20 against Cushing Academy on May 2, 2019. The greatest day on the mound took place on April 17, 1948, when senior Thomas Casagrande pitched in a 16-0 rout of Wilbraham Academy. That day, which was so exceptional that neither the nor the Scroll could get the facts straight, resulted in the third no-hitter in school history, with a mere hit-by-pitch holding the performance back from ubiquity in Deerfield Athletics lore.

On May 1, 2024, postgraduate Griffin Dupuis took the mound on a finger-numbing day against Cushing Academy in a must-win game. Deerfield, reeling from a disappointing doubleheader against Phillips Exeter, could not afford to give up any more ground in the playoff race. Dupuis, the freshest arm within the rotation, needed to step up for the team. His prior start against Cushing proved a significant challenge, as he labored through five innings against a disciplined lineup. That pressure served as a perfect motivator, forging the most dominant and spectacular baseball performance ever for the Big Green. In nine innings of work, Dupuis annihilated the Cushing lineup, striking out 13 of the 27 batters he faced, throwing 75 of his 103 total pitches for strikes, and silencing a league rival entirely. Dupuis transformed from a mortal pitcher to an invincible force that day. Blowing past his season high of five innings and 90 pitches, Dupuis dug deep for the strength to pitch the two extra innings, giving Deerfield additional chances to find a win. Ultimately, after Deerfield erupted for six runs in the top of the tenth, the lengthy layoff between innings necessitated a pitching change.

With the top of the Cushing lineup set to bat, Deerfield turned to new junior Connor Niemiec ’25 for three outs, with history on the line and nerves frenzied. The leadoff man struck out looking on five pitches. The next batter struck out swinging on six. With one out to go, stomachs become butterfly exhibits. Niemiec worked the third batter into a 1-2 count, leaving one more strike as the last step to perfection. The at-bat turned into a fierce duel of foul balls and close takes. Now, in a 3-2 hole and in danger of issuing a walk, history came down to the next pitch. A ball would spoil the perfect game, and a strike would finish it. With utmost precision, Niemiec elicited the final swinging strike, overpowering the last Cushing hitter, sealing the game, and etching Dupuis, catcher Fletcher Waterman, and Niemiec himself into Deerfield Baseball history.

#8:GriffinDupuis

The Magical Moment:

On May 19, 2024, extra innings tolled for the second time in back-to-back games. Having sent Andover home on a walk-off sacrifice fly from Connor Mudd ’26 in the semi-finals, Deerfield looked for more late-game magic in the championship game against Worcester Academy, the reigning champion. Griffin Dupuis authored six innings of one-run baseball, ending his Deerfield career with a fantastic outing. Connor Niemiec entered in the seventh inning to pitch however many extra innings Deerfield needed. He battled through four innings total, with three of them in extras, before sending it back to the offense for the bottom of the tenth.

There are some scenarios you can imagine in baseball: a walk-off hit, a crucial double play, or an upending strikeout are all realistic endings to the story. For Deerfield’s magical season, none of those options fit the bill. Instead, the zaniest, most unbelievable play won it all for the Big Green. Worcester, on their third pitcher of the game and scoreless since the fifth inning, desperately needed quick outs as their pitching depth depleted. Deerfield, meanwhile, was positioned to walk off the ball game, requiring only one run. Jake Rohan ’24 led off with a base hit past the diving Worcester second baseman.

At this point, the craziness began. Deerfield, in a bind because of an unfortunate lineup substitution, had to forfeit the designated hitter and send pitcher Connor Niemiec to the plate. For reference, Niemiec had not swung the bat once all year—not in a game, not in practice, not even for fun. His assignment was to step up and bunt the ball so that Rohan could advance to second base. Unaware of that information, Worcester pitched to him as they would any other hitter. Niemiec failed to lay the bunt down, got himself stuck in a two-strike count, and could not confidently square up the ball, fearing that it would go foul and turn into a strikeout. Not able to hit or bunt, he seemed to be out of options. In a truly unexpected turn of events, he didn’t need to choose because the ball hit Niemiec on the leg, sending him to first base and putting the winning run into scoring position with no outs. Sawyer Ramey stepped up to the plate with a chance to win it all for Deerfield. On the brink of exploding with glee, the packed crowd briefly hushed for the at-bat that could make history. The first pitch came to the plate. Putting the team first as Deerfield players do, Ramey bunted, moving Rohan and the winning run 90 feet closer to home plate.

Will Machnik ’26 followed with the sole task of finishing the job. He got the sign from Coach Moriarty to initiate a safety squeeze, laying down a bunt to allow Rohan to hustle home from third base and score. Machnik needed to put the ball in play, or else Rohan would run all the way home just to be tagged out. The first pitch was unsuitable for the bunt, ranging too far inside on his hands. Worcester’s catcher received the ball, and the worst possible outcome for Deerfield appeared imminent. Rohan, caught in a pickle between third and home, retreated toward the base to avoid the out. The catcher fired the ball to the Worcester third baseman. The throw went wild and deflected off the third baseman’s glove. Rohan raced home, sliding in as the team stormed the field, creating a 20-man pile of joyous celebration at the plate. The crowd burst out of the stands to join the players and plant a Deerfield flag in the mound. The championship game ultimately served as the most “Deerfield” game of the season: the team pitched incredibly with a flawless day on defense, bunted when needed, and leaned upon one another and played as one to deliver the knockout blow to the defending champion, making Deerfield history. I’ll repeat what I said about the team on the broadcast as my closing statement for the season: “These guys . . . these are winners”. //

As commentator for the last two seasons, I have had the privilege to cover and learn about Deerfield Baseball on and off the field. This has been a highlight of my Deerfield experience and has motivated me to pursue a degree in Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. From spring training at IMG to scouting reports to the broadcasts to postgame videos and an alternate study for my senior spring centered around baseball journalism, the rich and abundant stories always drove me to work harder. This article is the culmination of my time with the team and the stories that formed an historic and unforgettable season.

Central New England Preparatory School Baseball League Champions!

Since his arrival at Deerfield in the summer of 2011, Dr. Ivory Hills has worn several hats in addition to his trademark sleek brown fedora: first chemistry teacher, then interim director of sustainability, KIPP-STEP director, academic dean, and most recently, dean of faculty and assistant head of school for strategy and planning. Now the breadth and depth of Dr. Hills’ experience and skills are sure to be vital in his new role as Head at St. Mark’s School in Southborough, MA, a position he assumed on July 1.

Prior to his tenure at Deerfield, Dr. Hills was a senior research chemist at Merck Research Laboratories where he led medicinal chemistry teams involved in drug development for Alzheimer’s disease, migraine, schizophrenia, and colorectal cancer. And as much as he enjoyed that work, Dr. Hills opted for a career move to education, where he felt there were greater chances for success.

“At Deerfield we graduate 200 students every year—there isn’t the possibility of zero success (as in the pharmaceutical industry),” he recently said. We have successes every day, and those can amplify through the ripples of our graduates doing good things out in the world, so the scales are different, and the frequency of good outcomes is different. I’ve found I’m happier when I see a positive impact every month or week or day.”

Along with his wife, Chrissy, and their daughter Sophie, Dr. Hills will bring to St. Mark’s his strong belief in the power of community and traditions. “Community is something that will fray if you’re not actively trying to build it every day,” he commented, “like Deerfield, St. Mark’s has a great school spirit, and I want to preserve, bolster, and maintain it. St. Mark’s is strong, but I think much of what I’ve learned at Deerfield can be selectively implemented in a way to take the school to the next level.”

Founded in 1865, St. Mark’s “educates young people for lives of leadership and service,” and when Dr. Hills reflects on what he learned in each of his roles at the Academy over the past thirteen years, his answer fits well within that mission: “People matter,” he says, noting that he’s learned that solving puzzles—whether in the laboratory, classroom, or office—requires effective teamwork. “The part (of my work at Deerfield) that I’ve found joyful and of greatest service to the school, and by extension to the students, is trying to help adults work effectively with each other with a team mentality; if the adults at Deerfield continue to work well as parts of teams, and if they ever say ‘we do this team kind of thing because Ivory once said it was a good thing to do,’ that would make me feel good, but it’s not about me, it’s about the school.”

Thank you for your service to the Academy, Dr. Hills, and all best wishes for success in your new role from Team Deerfield!

SEEK TO LEARN THAT WHICH CANNOT BE TAUGHT

DEAN OF FACULTY DR. IVORY HILLS BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS / MAY 19, 2024

Good afternoon, Deerfield.

As we conclude our Deerfield Days and approach Commencement, I hope to offer a perspective that encourages reflection over the next week. Instead of starting at the beginning, I’ll start at the end: I suggest that you seek to learn that which cannot be taught. That’s it. Now you can ignore me, because my lesson is that most of the interesting stuff is probably not learned in schools. Thanks! We’re done.

In truth, I have more to say. I didn’t have time to write short remarks; thus, you get to sit through the long version. Throughout my life, I’ve explored teaching and learning—sometimes as a learner, sometimes as a teacher, ideally inhabiting both roles simultaneously— meandering back and forth, like the Deerfield River on a lazy summer day. I would say that at Deerfield we have a pretty good educational program; however, when I think back over the most important things I have personally learned, I suspect they are nowhere to be found in any course catalog. It’s quite interesting, because I know that good and deep learning does occur in our classrooms, but some of the best and most important learning isn’t explicitly in a teacher’s lesson plan.

I intentionally use the ‘paired imagery’ of the interplay between two different interrelated ideas, like teaching and learning, because this allows us to explore some topics by setting the conceptual boundaries. Neither yin nor yang, by themselves, is the truth; but perhaps the truth can be somehow interpolated between, or extrapolated beyond, these poles. Thanks in advance for wandering with me.

Also, why not have some fun at Baccalaureate? I’ve learned over the years that, at Deerfield, you can get murmurs of affirmation from the audience, if you share profound-sounding statements. The best method is to use the rhetorical device of anti-parallel restatement. For example, ‘true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.’ [pause] Thanks for playing along.

I’ll also get a two-for-one by invoking the wisdom of a famous and learned person to bolster my own position. Murakami said, “The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.” [pause] Good job—keep it up.

From a thematic perspective, much of what I have to say will seem incoherent; however, the persistent form will be that of the Janus-like pairing of two ideas. Janus seemed fitting for today; just in case you don’t know, Janus is an ancient mythological figure, presiding over beginnings and endings; the past and the future; the idea of duality. Incidentally, as the god of comings and goings, Janus is also the god of doors.

I should point out that the binary approach has limitations. Very rarely is the binary sufficient to map out all possible space and it may constrain your thinking. I encourage you to think beyond the binary. After all, there are at least three kinds of people in the world, those who can count, and those who can’t.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

I hope all of you can count by now. After all, we seem to inhabit a world that rewards getting the right answer. Ironically, some of the best learning I’ve observed occurs when students aren’t giving answers, but when they are asking questions. While answers are important, many of the problems we encounter have perfunctory solutions, easily solved by algorithmic AI. The real value-add is not in finding the right answer but in asking the right question. The best Deerfield classes are environments that foster the asking of questions—the more the better. Questions can be uncomfortable. Questions imply that you don’t know. Questions mean that you have more work ahead of you. Answers feel better, both when you give and receive them. However, if you think about the best learning that can be done—the learning that is productive, meaningful, and engaging—you will find there is a question, problem, or challenge that you simply can’t leave alone. I like to call these ‘splinters in the brain.’ Trust me, splinters in the brain are good things. An answer tends to be a terminus, leaving no room for additional discovery and discussion, while a question invites partnership and portends a learning journey. A journey that might take you there and back again like Frodo and his friends: “All that is gold does not glitter; Not all those who wander are lost.” (Tolkien)

When we give answers, we highlight our cleverness and conclude conversations. I posit we can be more effective together by asking more questions. We should ask tough ones. We should craft them jointly. We should refine and clarify them. We should make sure they are meaningful. In doing so, we open conversations, invite dialogue, and we learn together—the work of a school.

KNOWING & NOT-KNOWING

What is it that we’re even learning? To be honest, I don’t quite know. There is no map of the future. This is likely uncomfortable for you—Voltaire reminds us that “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” What I can say is that I really enjoy spending time with people who are seeking the truth. I am allergic to people who claim they have found the truth.

Empirical falsification, of the kind described by Karl Popper, and used by real scientists, does nothing to tell us what the truth is. Empirical falsification can only tell us what the truth is not. In my youth, I was amused to hear non-scientists claim, ‘science has proven, such and such’. Science cannot do that.

Science can only construct falsifiable hypotheses that can be disproven by clever experiment. If one cannot accumulate evidence to disprove a hypothesis, then the hypothesis is still in the running as a model for describing reality. Think about this very carefully; the best scientists spend all of their time thinking about how to convince people they are wrong, not that they are right. By failing, they succeed. If you have a belief that you are actively trying to tear apart and it is still standing, you may have something worth sharing.

Now that I’m an old man, it does not amuse me to have non-scientists invoke science to justify their positions. This is dangerous. This is taking advantage of a known shortcoming of our meat-computer. You and I are human. We like certainty. Each of you will need to figure out, on your own, how to deal with this; however, I offer the tools of ‘not yet’ and ‘for now.’

Reality is unstable and in flux. Kierkegaard is famous for saying ‘Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.’

When you are uncertain and make a self-limiting declaration, use the ‘not yet’ affix. For example, ‘I don’t understand any of the math we went over today.’ Well, ‘not yet.’

When you are too certain and filled with high self-confidence, thinking you know how the world works, employ the ‘for now’ affix. ‘This is what I know to be true.’ Well, ‘for now.’

I strongly advocate updating as you go along. One of my favorite poems is by Delmore Schwartz, ending with a couplet I find most profound: ‘Time is the school in which we learn, Time is the fire in which we burn.’ For you chemists out there, I invite you to consider the similarities between combustion and cellular respiration. Burning, always burning . . ..

Understand that the ability to change your mind when you get new information is a ‘superpower.’ This power can manifest in a variety of ways—perhaps quantitative methods such as Bayesian statistics or qualitative methods such as journaling. Dickinson highlights the path: ‘dwell in Possibility.’ These are simple tools to keep an open mind and preserve the possibility for additional nuanced learning. This will enable you to be more effective and make fewer mistakes, regardless of what priorities you choose to follow.

PLAYING TO WIN OR PLAYING TO PLAY

The immortal bard told us that ‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.’ I don’t want to demean or trivialize all of your hard work and achievements, but it’s kind of a game, isn’t it? Or at least one can use the idea of games to frame the act of living.

James Carse has a fabulous book, entitled Finite and Infinite Games. Like a punch to the brain, he starts with, “There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.”

We live in a competitive world that is frequently framed as zero-sum, despite the evidence to the contrary. All the finite games that you play, and might play, are built on the arbitrary rules of the contest. “All the limitations of finite play are self-limitations.” Make sure you are playing the right games and make sure you are keeping score with the right scoring system. Also, never forget that every finite game requires an opponent—another entity to play with. It saddens me to think that we live in the age of the so-called ‘mic-drop’. To say your piece and then to walk away leaves too much of value on the table. To do it with bravado is simply wrong. Murakami said “Always remember that to argue, and win, is to break down the reality of the person you are arguing against. It is painful to lose your reality, so be kind, even if you are right.” Even if you are right, for now.

Anyhow, an infinite game is one in which the purpose of the game is to keep the game going. We can do this via collaborative meaning-making, through productive and perpetual conversation. There is no need to win an argument or debate. Keep the game going, and going, and going. To declare a winner, the game must come to a conclusion, to an end. For my part, I’d rather keep playing than win the game of life.

You are an individual and you are a collective. That collective, if you allow room for it, could e xpand to all of humanity.

ADDITION & SUBTRACTION

Sometimes less is more. Lao Tzu shared, “To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.”

YOU & YOU

Interestingly, I offer my remarks in English. It is a language with limitations, and I was a horrible French student; thus, I essentially have no choice but to use English. Yes, the French would characterize my ability as horrible, horrible. An oddity of the English language is that the second person singular pronoun is ‘you’ and the second person plural pronoun is ‘you,’ unless you’re from the south, then the plural is y’all.

You are an individual and you are a collective. That collective, if you allow room for it, could expand to all of humanity. When playing games, it is more fun to have someone to play with. Invoking modern mythology, I’ll simply share that the great triumvirate of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman are unrivaled in their respective domains; however, they choose to be on a team together. Trust me, if these three feel like they need to be on a team with friends, so do you. Furthermore, if you think the world is zero-sum game and you need to win by conquering your enemies, then I remind you that Abraham Lincoln offered

the master-strategy by providing a question, not an answer: “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

However, I do guide you to make sure you choose your friends judiciously. Over time you will become the average of your five closest friends. Make sure they are more capable than you are, so that you can learn from them—never let them know you’re bringing the average down. Related to this is my belief that an effective relationship is one, in which, through no malice or ill-intent, both parties think they are getting the better end of the bargain. For my part, I have been, and continue to be, the beneficiary of many relationships. I can only strive, strive, strive to give as much as I receive.

I should be clear on two items. Number one: The point of a relationship is NOT to gain advantage—it has its own value in simply being. Number two: I was an OK French student. Saint-Exupéry gave us the answer in The Little Prince. “Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Vraiment! Well, our time together grows short—it is the fire in which we burn. In a very unscientific way, the mind seeks meaning where there is none, I will do the same by fabricating meaning through the lens of time. When

I first came to Deerfield during the summer of 2011, most of the Class of 2024 was beginning their journey of formal education by starting kindergarten. What a journey! Additionally, you (or y’all) started your high school adventures in the fall of 2020. Those were tumultuous times, but you came to understand that the only way forward was through. Tolkien shared this sentiment.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Some of you have hung on for the duration of these remarks. I’m grateful for both your time and attention. Next week we’ll celebrate your hard work and growth. We will do so not as an ending, but as a beginning; as a commencement. For my part, I hope that these remarks have put you into a reflective mood for the next week. I actually don’t hope that I’ve ‘taught’ you anything today, for if that were the case it would mean you haven’t truly wrestled with any of these ideas. Instead, I simply hope that I’ve kindled in you a burning desire to seek to learn that which cannot be taught.

Thank you. //

ALBANY ROAD / RETIREMENTS

Jennifer Whitcomb

Director of Dance

35 YEARS

Jennifer “Jen” Whitcomb arrived at Deerfield with the advent of coeducation in 1989. The Academy was eager to start a dance program —and not just any dance program, but one championing dance as being on par with the rest of the curriculum. “That was the deciding factor for me,” says Jen. “I would be starting a program that recognized dance as the legitimate academic pursuit that it is. Deerfield was unusual in that thinking. I also loved the idea of founding a dance program for the newly enrolled girls at such a momentous time.”

Jen began with five dancers in the old West Gym and went on to build a beloved, comprehensive program that today instructs nearly 100 students each year, from beginners to pre-professional dancers. The 2024 Spring Dance Concert featured 58 girls and boys, 138 costumes, and 17 dances.

Jen retired in May after 35 years as Director of Dance, a role in which she nurtured students’ artistry while teaching them leadership skills and compassion.

“Human decency is the cornerstone of this dance program,” she says. /// by Emily Boutilier ///

Brent Hale

Jen grew up in the Boston area. She spent her childhood raising and training horses and started dancing in high school at the Cambridge School of Weston. “The dance director there changed my life,” Jen says. “Right away, I knew that dance was what I wanted for my life. Dance encompassed everything that meant the most to me: creativity, physicality, intellectual challenge, emotional expression.”

Jen studied dance and education at Sarah Lawrence College while also training professionally in New York City. After graduating with a BFA, she returned to Boston to perform with Boston Dance Collective and the Massachusetts Dance Ensemble. She also taught dance in public schools.

“But cities were never for me,” she says. “I had grown up in a barn with horses. When I met my husband, we decided to raise our kids in the country. We left Boston and bought six acres up on a hill in Wendell, in the middle of the woods.” She earned her state dance teacher certification at the University of Massachusetts in 1987.

Two years later, Deerfield called. At the time, Jen taught dance to younger students—including the children of several Academy teachers—at the Bement School. “When I came to Deerfield and started teaching teenagers, especially the beginners, it felt like I was reliving, over and over again, my own experience of falling in love with dance,” she says.

As she developed the program at Deerfield, Jen held that her interests in dance would not take priority as a guiding principle. “What mattered was to welcome all different dance styles,” she says. “I’m a dyed-in-the-wool contemporary modern dancer, but I love everything. From the beginning, we had hip-hop dancers, we had ballerinas.”

Today, dancers at the Academy study modern, jazz, ballet, pointe, hip-hop, and contemporary techniques.

“The program has grown up with no single pinnacle of stylistic achievement,” Jen says with pride. “We do not emphasize ballet over hip-hop or contemporary dance over jazz.” Jen views dance from an inclusive lens. “There’s no such thing as a perfect body for dance,” she says, “and therefore, dance is an internal experience: Do you feel joy when you’re doing it? That is the most important thing.” She also views it as a communal experience. “To see the students dancing together in unison—that’s what I care about.”

Another guiding principle was to notice what her students wanted and needed. Right away, Jen realized they were eager and ready to learn choreography.

“And through their efforts as choreographers, they become more determined, create new goals, and collaborate with other dancers to achieve them,” she says. “Watching them grow and carry those leadership skills over into other aspects of their lives at Deerfield was really exciting.”

JENNIFER STARTED THE DANCE PROGRAM IN 1987 WITH:

5 DANCERS THE 2024 SPRING DANCE CONCERT FEATURED:

58 DANCERS

138 COSTUMES

17 DANCES

Indeed, that is the aspect of the job she’ll miss the most. “Kids are guaranteed mood-enhancers,” Jen says. “I’ll also miss my incredible group of adjunct dance teachers, our amazing costume designer, my technical director, and all the wonderful characters in the arts department. But most of all, I’ll miss the students.”

What’s next for Jen? “I am curious about what I will become,” she says. “I didn’t start dancing until I was 15. There’s been a life before dance; there will be a life after dance. I’ve got other things calling to me.” Those include becoming fluent in Spanish, studying classical guitar, and traveling to Costa Rica to learn about the country’s climate initiatives.

“I’m a big gardener,” she adds. “I grow my own food. I also hear horses calling—but I’m not listening!”

As she looks back on her career, Jen has a message for those first five dancers who arrived in 1989, as well as for the hundreds who, in the decades that followed, learned to plié with grace and choreograph with conviction: “Tell them I say thank you, and that they’re the reason I went home happy, exhilarated, and satisfied every single day.” //

Robin Lempicki

Laboratory and Research Supervisor

by Emily Boutilier

Brent Hale

Robin Lempicki was working in a research lab, ready for a change, when her husband sent her a Deerfield job posting. The Academy was hiring a manager for its science labs. Robin decided to apply, but only because she wanted to brush up on her interview skills.

To her surprise, the job turned out to be the perfect fit.

Twenty-four years later, Robin retired in May as the Academy’s Laboratory and Research Supervisor, a role that made her a constant— if behind-the-scenes—force in every biology and chemistry class, whether students were exploring the structure of cells, the ecosystems of forests, the function of the immune system, or the editing of genes, to name just four lessons.

For more than two decades, Robin did it all: She set up and broke down each day’s labs. She prepared the next day’s chemicals. She worked with teachers to design and test new experiments. She also managed the lab equipment budget and placed supply orders—for table salt, copper plates, filter paper, rubbing alcohol, and the many other materials that high school science experiments require. In addition, she served as the resident expert on lab safety.

Robin also quietly ensured that every Deerfield student benefitted from a high-quality lab science curriculum. “I take pride in knowing that if Deerfield Academy did not have a position like mine, the students would not have the same hands-on experience,” she says.

Today, Robin especially appreciates how the Academy supported her professional development. “They wanted me to excel at what I did,” she says. “To get that support means a lot. I also really appreciated the opportunities to travel with students, which allowed me to get to know them in a completely different way. It was an amazing opportunity, and I encourage all faculty to try it.”

Over the years, Robin accompanied students on four one-week visits to St. Lucia to study marine biology. She says those trips represent “the icing on the cake” of her Deerfield career, and she still treasures the thank-you notes she received from students after those excursions.

All the labs complement what the teachers are teaching— I enjoy seeing the students learn about a topic in class and then head to the lab to see that topic and concept come to life. It is important to encourage students to try many different areas of science, to let them explore and figure out where their passions lie.

Because of Robin, generations of students gained a deeper understanding of, for example, lactose intolerance, antibiotic resistance, and electrophoresis. They explored the effects of caffeine on blood pressure and the effects of climate change on ocean currents. They saw first-hand how different metals conduct electricity.

“All the labs complement what the teachers are teaching,” she explains. “I enjoy seeing the students learn about a topic in class and then head to the lab to see that topic and concept come to life. It is important to encourage students to try many different areas of science, to let them explore and figure out where their passions lie.”

Robin came to Deerfield from the University of Massachusetts, where, after graduating with a BS in forestry, she worked in a psychology lab for almost 13 years. As she considered what she wanted to do next, her initial goal was to work in biotech. But then she landed the interview at Deerfield.

“Because I thought of the interview as just practice, I was very relaxed,” she recalls. She became increasingly interested in the position as she talked with the science faculty. What ultimately convinced her? During the interview process, she realized how supportive and collaborative her colleagues would be. “And after 24 years, I have no regrets,” she says.

Now Robin is looking forward to excursions of her own. “I’m excited to start my next adventure—not having to wake up to an alarm clock every day, sailing and living on our 32-foot sailboat for the summer and fall in Maine, and doing a lot of hiking,” she says. There is much she will miss about Deerfield. She values every hour spent collaborating with her colleagues and the day-to-day friendships that came out of that work. “When there is a strong bond between people, you don’t want to let anyone down,” she says. “Productivity and happiness go up.” She will also miss watching groups of students file past her glass-walled prep space into the labs of the Koch Center, ready to begin the experiments she meticulously prepared for them. “Being around kids keeps you young,” she says.

When Robin recalls that long-ago job interview at Deerfield, it reinforces an overarching life philosophy for her: “Most of us work for a good portion of our lives. So, find something that you are passionate about, and that keeps you motivated,” she says. //

Technical Director

Paul Yager

by Daniella Vollinger

Brent Hale

“I’m not retiring from life!” quips Technical Director Paul Yager. “Just leaving on a high note.” After 35 years at Deerfield Academy and 102 productions, last fall’s production of Dracula marked Paul’s 100th show at Deerfield— a goal that he wanted to hit before retirement. Colleagues and about forty former students attended the closing show to celebrate the milestone. “This gathering felt, in many ways, like a family reunion,” says former student Sarah Wilson Merlo ’96. “The quality of the scenic elements for [Dracula] was stellar. But what resonated most was the community of people gathering from all across the country—some still working in the arts, but many others now in business, law, medicine, and other professions—to honor this one person who had made a meaningful difference in all of our lives.”

While studying acting in college, Paul worked in the costume shop and with the crews, building sets, hanging lights, running audio, and on professional productions. He came to the practical realization that the technical side of theater would be much more marketable as a career. In December of 1989, Deerfield’s theater department was working on a production of The Diary of Anne Frank but could not execute the set design. “They had a beautiful design from an outside designer, and they had a cast and a director, but they had no one to build the set,” recalls Paul, who replied to the job posting for Deerfield’s firstever technical director. “They said, ‘Please come and talk to us because we’ve already started production, but we have no one to build this set!’”

To this day, that first set remains one of Paul’s most memorable builds, and there have been many remarkable sets, including numerous two-story builds and one where a basketball floor was laid in the Black Box theater. Aside from budget, the only limitations have been time and labor—not imagination. “We’re usually able to come up with a good working solution for whatever we choose to do with a production,” says Paul, referring to his crew, which consists entirely of students involved in the technical production cocurricular program. “These kids are in here working hard, using tools, building these sets, and I don’t treat them as children but as mature co-workers,” he says, emphasizing that he aims to equip students with the confidence they need to make creative decisions, along with a healthy dose of wisdom.

“I often refer back to the life lessons Mr. Yager taught us in the shop,” notes Merlo, now an attorney. “Work hard, but have fun doing it. Take pride in your work. Clean up after yourself. Support your team. Measure twice, cut once. The show must go on. Girls can use power tools.”

Current college student and drama major Sophia Wolbach ’23 can relate: “I often find myself thinking back to the time I was blessed enough to share with him: Would Mr. Yager have allowed for this egregiously unswept scene shop?

Would he urge me to unionize the student workers? What clever dad joke would he crack about this set design?”

Work hard, but have fun doing it. Take pride in your work.

Clean up after yourself. Support your team. Measure twice, cut once. The show must go on. Girls can use power tools.

Life lessons Paul Yager taught us.

—Sarah Wilson Merlo ’96

Paul’s office walls are covered with stage passes from the A-list performers with whom he has worked, moonlighting as a professional union stagehand backstage for touring rock and roll shows, theater productions, and Broadway productions. His expertise in this area has enriched the experience for Deerfield students. Chris Kibler ’10 remembers the performance of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a “smash hit,” attributing their success to Paul’s skills and ability to draw on his extensive experience. Paul’s educational background in acting informs his process, which he says is to serve the playwright’s words: “When you have the actors in the play, you walk them through the lighting—this is what we’re trying to accomplish here, and maybe stand in this position. Though I certainly do not give the actors actual direction, I think it helps if an actor has helped to move a scenic piece around or helped when we were hanging a door so they know how the door is put together— they know how hard they can slam it if they need to.”

Current Academy Trustee Jack Chen ’08 refers to him as one of the “unsung heroes” of Deerfield, a sentiment that is shared by many who have been fortunate enough to have spent time with Paul in the Black Box. Chris Clark ’03 credits Paul for setting him on a path that led to his career in the entertainment industry. “Every Deerfield student, even if they never met Mr. Yager, had a more enriching Deerfield Experience because of the time, talent, and wisdom that he shared with those of us who were fortunate enough to have our education placed directly in his hands,” says Chris. “I hope that someday I can look back on my life and know that I’ve had a fraction of the positive impact on the world that Mr. Yager has had.”

For Paul, leaving on a high note means that after three and a half decades, he still loves to work alongside students daily. “I certainly don’t want to get to the point where I’m tired of that,” he says. “I have loved this opportunity and all the opportunities Deerfield has afforded my family and me. And I will miss the students every day.” //

A GOOD H UMAN, G O O D TO THE B O NE

Dan in his studio, ca. 1995 by Anna Hammond

THE BRILLIANT LIFE AND LASTING WORK OF DANIEL

HODERMARSKY

I remember seeing Hodo for the very first time and being struck by how differently he carried himself compared to all the other teachers I had at Deerfield. He made me feel different in his presence, too. As soon as you walked into the art room, anything seemed possible and every creative exploration was encouraged without hesitation. I always felt like he was on a mission to unleash everyone’s native talents in whatever way they chose to express them.

Deerfield in the autumn of 1969 was a culturally arid place. Athletics and academics reigned supreme as they always had. But the arts? They were barely an afterthought.

What was there? For freshmen who fancied the stage, a hoary antique called Pyramus and Thisbe dramatized the famous myth about toga-clad lovers conversing through a wall: a costume drama! For singers, the Glee Club regularly presented tuxedo-clad, white students interpreting what might be termed “Spirituals Lite,” one of which was the zesty “Ride the Chariot in the Mornin’, Lord.” Faces of color were few and far between.

Frank Boyden, the truly legendary headmaster, had retired the year before after 66 years at the helm, and Headmaster David Pynchon did what he could to guide Deerfield Academy into a modern age. It wasn’t easy: A Deerfield Scroll article heralded four masters with over 200 years of accumulated service between them.

However, 1969 - 1970 was to become an annus mirabilis for Deerfield, a year which would leave it profoundly changed and irrevocably changing. And as responsible as any for the “sea change” was Dan Hodermarsky, a teacher starting that year, and the examples of life and work he inspired.

A new volume, Hodermarsky (The Artist Book Foundation), captures that life and the prolific output it contained. It will be of extra appeal and significance to Deerfield students and alumni because many of the landscape studies and watercolors are set in and around the Academy. “Hodo,” as he was affectionately known, accomplished much in a long life, and his story is like his art: powerful and colorful.

The volume brings together a life in art, and even a quick and simple glance reveals the range in every sense of the term: subject, technique, theme, meaning, execution. Inspiration. He was fond of painting in series, and here is only a partial list of them: Peasant Series, Penobscot Nation Legend Series, Paradise Tree Series, Chautauqua Series, Ambergris Series, De Profundis Series, Mexican Series, Gold at the Shore Series. And each series a true series exploring different nuances and facets of the subject at hand.

TOM HENRY ’73

by Duncan Christy ’70

BATTLEFIELD DEER

Beyond the art room was Hodo’s studio, filled with easels holding paintings in progress and canvases leaning against every wall. And then came the inner sanctum of his tiny office, where the world of his haunted figures came to mind and then appeared across his studio.

They’re pleasing, striking, by turns energetic and serene as they range through their various subject fields. But one doesn’t page long through Hodermarsky before encountering another definitive catalyst in his art: war and its tragedies. More specifically, war and its atrocities.

He was 19 years old when he saw war for the first time while World War II was still very much raging. He was assigned to the “Bastard Battalion” in Europe, so called for their unrelenting exposure to battle. He more than saw it first-hand; he lived it. Horrifying realities of death were commonplace, and he was deeply traumatized. He was also recording that imagery of dead and dismembered comrades and opponents to put on canvas. A signature is a pair of paintings which face each other in Hodermarsky, ”Detonated Man” and “Raw Meat” (Plates 17 and 18). The titles foretell the thrust: two barely human figures slaughtered beyond recognition, spurting blood and flesh, very much of a piece with the famous ectoplasms of Francis Bacon. The difference: Hodermarsky’s came straight from the battlefield.

Class with Hodo. / Deefield Academy Archives

HODERMARSKY

War left him with what would be his most powerful paintings. It also left him, as it left so many, with PTSD—post-traumatic stress disorder. For years he carried tranquilizers in a pocket of his jacket to ward off the brutality of a memory and an attack. Few knew. But none will be surprised in seeing some of Hodermarsky, wincing at the corpses.

In overview his life looks like this: Artist. Student. Soldier. Teacher. Husband. Artist. Mentor. Father. Artist. Always an artist, that is, through the many slopes of life, always coming back to painting. “He painted because he had to,” his daughter Maria says of her father. “It was his way of taking in the world, of responding back, of processing, of valuing.

“His art allowed his many unspoken unspeakable experiences to be metabolized and rendered on canvas. Through making art he could step away from those experiences—physical, existential, emotional—and move the experiences from formlessness to form.” Which is what he taught his students; teaching by personal warmth and artistic example from Day One at Deerfield. Tom Henry ’73 remembers one process in detail and what he calls “Hodo’s free-spirited approach to pushing the boundaries.

“I remember seeing Hodo for the very first time,” Henry says, “and being struck by how differently he carried himself compared to all the other teachers I had at Deerfield. He made me feel different in his presence, too. As soon as you walked into the art room, anything seemed possible and every creative exploration was encouraged without hesitation. I always felt like he was on a mission to unleash everyone’s native talents in whatever way they chose to express them.

l: Raw Meat, 1970 / Oil on wood / 24 x 24 in.

r: Dismembered Bleeding Man (War Series), 1970 / Oil on canvas / 46 x 46 in.

“Beyond the art room was Hodo’s studio, filled with easels holding paintings in progress and canvases leaning against every wall. And then came the inner sanctum of his tiny office, where the world of his haunted figures came to mind and then appeared across his studio.

“To be able to create in Hodo’s studio, surrounded by his arresting paintings, was unusual. Totally immersed in his world, I couldn’t help but be energized and creatively unleashed. So it was in a little room off Hodo’s studio that the first iteration of the sculpture that became ‘Connection’ came to life in 1971. I was fascinated with Minimalism that was popular in contemporary art at the time, and in particular, Tony Smith. This style became my focus for the Spring Term, and I made additional sculptures for the end of year art show which were displayed outdoors, installed beyond the baseball diamond outfield and in vivid colors.

Hodo encouraged me to create beyond my hesitant, conservative boundaries, and this empowered me to imagine these sculptures, much larger in scale than the more familiar table top creations. Hodo was also the driving force of the fabrication in nearby Hatfield, MA, of the steel sculpture that was delivered to campus the following fall, and now stands near the Boyden Library today, 50 years later. Every time I see the sculpture I’m reminded of this incredible experience so many decades ago and still today feel Hodo’s unique influence as a creative spirit in my life. I’m deeply grateful for our time together and miss him dearly.”

Hodo’s career as a teacher began in 1955 in his native Cleveland at institutions including the Cleveland Institute of Art. Notably,

HODO LEGACIES

Stephen Hannock ’70

Hannock’s work hangs in the Metropolitan Museum, the National Gallery in Washington, DC, as well as in the homes of numerous collectors. Hannock was at Deerfield for one year as a postgraduate to improve his academic scores and thus qualify as a stellar, All-American goalie for any of a number of prestigious colleges that wanted him in their nets. He didn’t lack access to the arts, he lacked direction, a natural talent who had little idea of how – or why – to develop. Then Hodermarsky spotted him in a Studio Art class that he had revitalized.

it featured an involvement with the Bussed-in Arts Program for the Cleveland Supplementary Education Center. “He ran a Title III inner-city arts program for poor kids who had no art in their schools,” daughter Maria explains. “They would be bussed to the converted factory where he worked for art lessons. He was committed to bringing art to people who wouldn’t have access to it.”

One of those was Stephen Hannock ’70, often recognized as Deerfield’s most celebrated alumnus in the fine arts. Hannock’s work hangs in the Metropolitan Museum, the National Gallery in Washington, DC, as well as in the homes of numerous collectors; the musician Sting, a friend, is his daughter’s godfather. Hannock was at Deerfield for one year as a postgraduate to improve his academic scores and thus qualify as a stellar, All-American goalie for any of a number of prestigious colleges that wanted him in their nets. He didn’t lack access to the arts, he lacked direction, a natural talent who had little idea of how—or why—to develop. Then Hodermarsky spotted him in a Studio Art class that he had revitalized. “Just go out and draw,” Hannock remembers with tones of both affection and awe of his mentor’s instruction. “Draw anything you want. Then bring me the results every two weeks.” The two, both “new boys” in effect that year, would remain close through their entire shared life. (continued on p. 46)

And so a school year began. Before it was through it would

Flooded Oxbow for Dan Hodermarsky (Mass MoCA #213), 2015 polished mixed media on canvas— which hangs in the Hess Center for the Arts at Deerfield Academy.

HODERMARSKY

By students pushing back for the most idealistic of motives, that life was about a lot more than check-ins and correct equations.

Tom Henry ’73

Hodo encouraged me to create beyond my hesitant, conservative boundaries, and this empowered me to imagine these sculptures, much larger in scale than the more familiar table top creations. Hodo was also the driving force of the fabrication in nearby Hatfield, MA, of the steel sculpture that was delivered to campus the following fall, and now stands near the Boyden Library today, 50 years later. Every time I see the sculpture I’m reminded of this incredible experience so many decades ago and still today feel Hodo’s unique influence as a creative spirit in my life. I’m deeply grateful for our time together and miss him dearly.”

He had a marvelous laugh, this great bear of a Polish-American male; we heard it often that year. As every class would hear hereafter.

T:

Dan on his Raleigh, ca. 1973 / Deerfield Academy Archives

DEERFIELD EXHIBITION

SELECTED WORKS

MAY 5-JUNE 20, 2024 / VON AUERSPERG GALLERY

PLATE 19/20/21

War Triptych, 1970 Oil on canvas

PLATE 57

De Profundis #4, 1993 Oil on Masonite

FIGURE 20

Winter March (War Series), 1970 Oil on canvas

Ambergris Series

Series

be found

Historic Women and Men Series

These paintings—along with Hodermarsky’s extensive body of work—can

in Hodermarsky , published by The Artist Book Foundation / North Adams, Massachusetts

DEER ISLE, ME FIELD

And so a school year began. Before it was through it would feature things once unimaginable at Deerfield. Arts Festival, thrown together on all but a whim and a song, turned the campus upside down. It was a thrilling winter week of poets, musicians, scientists and other luminaries drawn from a panoply of fields all sharing their expertise and reputations. A spring Independent Study program for the senior class allowed students to select and concentrate in a field or on a program. With the Vietnam War raging, a statement was made in behalf of a moratorium on the war, much of the senior class rising in spontaneous protest. Instead of a staid Commencement entertainment involving, yes, the Glee Club, a farcical variety show actually mocked, if gently, faculty as well as school mores. Whew!

And through it all one sensed or even knew that someone even more Bohemian than any student was delighted by it all. By students pushing back for the most idealistic of motives, that life was about a lot more than check-ins and correct equations. He had a marvelous laugh, this great bear of a Polish-American male; we heard it often that year. As every class would hear hereafter.

LIVING ON AT DEERFIELD:

The Hodermarsky Summer Study Grant Program

In 1991, I organized a group of alumni to start an endowed fund honoring Hodermarsky. The Hodermarsky Summer Study Grant Program was established as a way for students to have summer arts enrichment opportunities that they otherwise could not afford.

There were to be a score of years being Hodo. During that time Deerfield blossomed and blossomed, powered by that initial original eruption which would not cool but only glow hotter.

He retired in 1989. There were ten more halcyon years of painting-infused retirement in Deer Isle, ME, before dying—as he probably would have wished— of a heart attack in his studio. Reflecting his Slavic heritage, he would have enjoyed and laughed heartily, that kielbasa was served at his memorial service.

“He made everyone he loved feel safe and secure in his love,” Maria recalls tenderly of her father. “He loved his large family without exception. He loved people. He was a good human being, good to the bone.”

A decade or more ago, I stood with his widow Nancy in the living room of the home they had shared on Deer Isle. Dan’s paintings dominated, principally bright still lifes of the nearby sea. The two had adored each other, it was always clear. Like her husband a robust and outgoing woman of both cheer and candor, she said firmly, “His work will be recognized.” Yes, it will. Deservedly. //

In the three decades since its establishment, the fund has enabled about 200 Deerfield students to pursue a wide variety of summer opportunities, including painting, creative writing, instrumental music, singing, acting, dance, and film. Dan Hodermarsky, with his warmth and incredible ability to encourage creativity of all sorts, was such an inspiration to me and many others. We wanted to make sure he was remembered even by future students who never had a chance to meet him.

Catriona Hynds, chair of Deerfield’s Visual and Performing Arts Department, said of the Hodermarsky summer grants, “Students return to campus eager to share their newfound knowledge with their peers, and their confidence is palpable. Some experience profound epiphanies throughout their summers, which then impact their college choices and careers thereafter. Students are exhilarated, challenged, inspired and in many ways changed by their experiences.

“For many, summer study programs can be a tremendous financial strain on their families, and the Hodermarsky grant alleviates some of this burden,” Hynds said. “It seems fitting that this grant, which celebrates the legacy of a legendary art teacher, has the extraordinary and far-reaching impact on so many artists of the future. We are deeply grateful for the astonishing opportunities it provides.”

—Noel Rubinton ’73

Thriving in a World of Pluralistic Contention:

A Framework for Schools

In the summer of 2019, my family and I returned to the United States after an absence of nine years. During that time, I had served as Headmaster of King’s Academy in Jordan. It was a turbulent moment of history in the Middle East, one of turmoil, conflict, and civil war.

As I took up my new position as Head of School at Deerfield Academy, I soon discovered that the United States was facing its own challenges; not war, but what one astute journalist had termed “high conflict,” a special category of conflict more akin to war: high stakes, winner-take-all, and zero-sum. Social and political division had deepened. Public discourse had become more acrimonious and coarser. Schools had become more fractured—their communities brittle and prone to conflict. Shared assumptions about the role of independent schools in public affairs and longstanding commitments to principles of free and open inquiry and nonpartisanship in the classroom had eroded. Most concerning, a climate of wariness, distrust, and suspicion had taken root among students; they seemed to be seeking the safety and comfort of like-minded peers, retreating into digital bubbles, and, generally, keeping their heads down—trends that were only deepened by the pandemic.

In the fall of 2021, I offered some remarks to our school community reflecting on these new realities and sketching, tentatively and as best I could at the time, a way forward. Those thoughts led to a proposal to the Edward E. Ford Foundation, the formation of a Task Force of Heads of School, and, finally, the drafting and publication of this Framework.

For me, the principles advanced by the Framework come from a place of conviction: a conviction that schools are, first and foremost, places of learning. That schools exist for students and in support of their full autonomy and flourishing. That learning, in essence, is a great adventure, and at its best, an encounter with new and challenging ways of thinking. That the purpose of schools is to enlarge the vision of young people, deepen and sustain their curiosity, and increase their appreciation of the world’s complexity.

In diverse school communities, these aspirations can be elusive. The Framework seeks to capture—and resolve—tensions that sit, sometimes uneasily, at the center of schools.

It acknowledges the critical role school leaders play in voicing, advancing, and defending educational principles while also recognizing the need for restraint and humility when speaking on matters of social and political concern.

It affirms our faculty’s freedom to teach but also each student’s freedom to learn.

It acknowledges the value of expressive freedom as a source of human flourishing, as well as the norms that temper that freedom and create the conditions necessary for its responsible exercise.

It makes the case for intellectual diversity, while recognizing that there is—and should be—considered debate around how that diversity is framed in the classroom and in curricula.

I doubt that this Framework, or its principles, will find favor with everyone. It will disappoint those who seek to protect children from challenging material and uncomfortable questions. It will challenge those who have an overly expansive view of the public purpose of schools, and it will likely frustrate those who see schools—and classrooms—as platforms for political advocacy and social change.

And that is all to the good. The Framework is intended to provoke, challenge, and foster conversation. Ultimately, I hope the Framework will support schools as they wrestle with fundamental questions of mission and provide direction to those seeking to prepare our children for a world of pluralistic contention and civic engagement. Lastly, and most importantly, I hope it will inspire confidence and trust in our schools, and the teachers who work tirelessly on behalf of our children. Their work has never been more important, consequential, or in need of recognition.

Dr. John Austin Head of School

Deerfield Academy May 1, 2024

The Challenge

American independent schools are among this country’s greatest resources, models of innovation, excellence, and expanded opportunity, and for that reason, they enjoy uncommonly high levels of public support. And yet, they face challenges similar to those besetting other educational institutions, including public schools, colleges, and universities: rising polarization, intense politicization, and as a result, increased community conflict.1

These challenges include increasing litigation in the areas of admission, curriculum, student behavior, adult misconduct, risk management, and employment; the erosion of long-standing traditions of judicial deference to the independence of schools; loss of public confidence in the ability of teachers to provide instruction on sensitive or controversial subjects; and frequent, often hostile, attacks on schools from parent groups, lawmakers, and increasingly, the media.2

Well-organized parent groups at both public and private schools have mobilized to combat what they see as political bias in hiring, school programming, and curricula, sometimes in alliance with legislators seeking to curb the freedom of schools to establish programs and curricula. Independent schools have come under unprecedented levels of media scrutiny, and are regularly caricatured in the press. The 2021 cover story, “Private Schools Have Become Truly Obscene,” in a leading national publication, captured the often hostile tone of this coverage, mischaracterizing independent schools as “indefensible” places of entitlement and entrenched privilege despite the fact that independent schools have become dramatically more accessible, more representative of the American public, and more welcoming to students of all backgrounds over the past several decades. In the 2023-24 school year alone, independent schools provided $3.24 billion in financial support to students and their families.3

Together, these trends have placed tremendous strains on independent school Boards, school leadership, and their faculties. Boards, for instance, found themselves more directly involved in the day-to-day operations of schools as they sought to meet the challenges of the recent pandemic and the urgent—and unprecedented—decisions that moment required. Long-standing traditions of school governance and shared understandings about the appropriate roles of Heads of School and their Boards have eroded. One in three Heads of School and one in five Trustees report that Boards fail to operate within the boundaries of their distinct roles.

Heads of School have sometimes struggled to reconcile the different interests of competing constituencies, meet the needs of a politically diverse parent body, and bridge a growing divide between the political views of parents and teachers. Ninety-seven percent of school heads cite polarization as one of the leading challenges they face. Like their counterparts in American colleges and universities, they have faced considerable pressure to publicly address a wide range of social and political events, and to issue expressions of institutional solidarity and affirmation to various groups within their school communities. It should not surprise us that turnover among school leaders at all levels has increased, while length of tenure has declined. Levels of morale among those working in schools have likewise declined, with fewer and fewer young adults expressing interest in pursuing careers in education.4

Most significantly, schools have seen precipitous declines in the health and well-being of children. Students report, and medical data confirms, rising levels of anxiety and depression among young people, increasing levels of social isolation, and diminished opportunities for meaningful peer connection. Fear of peer censure, driven in large part by social media, has led to increasing levels of self-censorship among young people, a chilled speech climate, and, often, an atmosphere of wariness and suspicion.5

These trends raise important questions about the future of independent schools, their legitimacy, and the unique status they have been afforded as nonprofits, including:

• What should the r ole of schools and school leaders be in political and social affairs, especially during moments of intense political conflict?

• Ho w is that role expressed in program, curriculum, instruction, and professional standards for faculty and school leaders?

• Ho w do we create school climates that foster open, nonpartisan, courageous civic inquiry?

• Ho w do we promote among students curiosity and open-mindedness, build intellectual resilience, and foster in them the willingness to explore— and express—their own convictions and commitments?

A FRAMEWORK FOR SCHOOLS

The Purpose: A Catalyst for Reflection and Intentionality

Although independent schools serve a small fraction of the American public, we hope this framework will prove useful to schools of all types: public, parochial, or charter. We hope that it will support Boards, school leaders, and faculty as they seek to enhance the expressive freedom of students, foster in them the habits of curiosity and critical analysis, and prepare them to thrive— and flourish—in a world of pluralistic contention.

The purpose of the framework is not to mandate a uniform approach to these complex issues—our schools are much too diverse for that—but to encourage conversation within school communities, offer a vehicle for institutional reflection and assessment, and provide an opportunity for shared understanding and consensus among various school constituencies and stakeholders.

Schools may adopt the framework (or parts of it), revise it in the context of their own missions, or reject it entirely. We view each of these outcomes as a positive one, and we will develop opportunities where schools can engage directly with the framework, including survey instruments to explore campus climates.

Three Pillars of

Academic Pluralism

The challenges independent schools face are not new, nor are they unique. Since the early 20th century, colleges and universities have faced challenges similar to those that secondary schools are now navigating. To meet those, colleges and universities have, over time, developed a body of principles to navigate political and social conflict. These include the American Association of University Professors’ 1915 Declaration of Principles, the University of Chicago’s 1967 Report on the University’s Role in Political and Social Action (commonly known as the Kalven Report), Yale University’s 1974 Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression (the Woodward Report), and the University of Chicago’s 2014 Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression (the Chicago Principles). This body of thought has, in turn, led to other more recent statements of academic principle on such issues as campus speech, content warnings, and institutional neutrality and stance-taking at Stanford Law School, Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, the University of Wyoming, Vanderbilt University, Northwestern University, and Williams College, among many others.6

These statements of principle have a unique claim on the attention of independent schools and their students. Taken together, they outline the norms, standards, and values governing the colleges and universities into which many of our students will graduate and the ethos we hope to impart to them as young scholars and citizens, forming the core tenets of what we might think of as “academic pluralism.” Moreover, these time-tested principles have played an important role in preserving the integrity of these institutions through the ups and downs of political and social turmoil.

This framework draws on these founding documents, adapting them to the unique needs of all secondary schools and the students they serve, and updating them in light of contemporary research on the promotion of nonpartisan inquiry.

Unlike universities, schools are not principally concerned with research and the production of new knowledge. Their purpose is more crucial: to introduce young people to the values, practices, and conventions of disciplined inquiry—what the journalist Jonathan Rauch calls the “constitution of knowledge.” Initiation into these practices—including the value of expressive freedom as a source of creativity and human flourishing—is an essential precondition for learning, inquiry, and the testing of ideas.7

The framework rests on a simple assumption: that schools are, first and foremost, places of inquiry and exploration, preparing students for the freedom, rights, and responsibilities they will enjoy as adults. Teaching and learning are distinct from advocacy and activism, and nonpartisan teaching is vital to creating an intellectual climate within schools that promotes, sustains, and deepens courageous inquiry. Avoiding political entanglements that exceed a school’s reach and resources will help foster a climate of intellectual exploration free from political tilt or ideological bias, support student autonomy and self-formation, and provide educators with an invaluable design principle against which program, instruction, and curriculum can be assessed.8

These mutually reinforcing pillars support the central goal of the framework: to form students as “distinct thinking individuals,” skilled in the habits of independent thought, conversant with the norms of disciplined inquiry, and empowered to discover, develop, and courageously express their own political and civic commitments.9

Our schools serve diverse populations, representing a range of values and beliefs, and they include students and families across a broad spectrum of political orientations. Through a renewed commitment to expressive freedom, disciplined nonpartisanship, and intellectual diversity, independent schools can effectively serve politically and demographically diverse populations, continue to hold the trust and confidence of the public, and protect themselves from outside interference and attack.10

The framework is structured on three pillars:

STUDENT

AUTONOMY AND SELF-DETERMINATION

A COMMITMENT TO:

EXPRESSIVE FREEDOM

DISCIPLINED NONPARTISANSHIP

INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY

LEARNING AND INQUIRY

Educating for Expressive Freedom

There is abundant evidence that many Americans, particularly young Americans, have lost faith in the ideal of expressive freedom as a defining value. That loss of faith crosses political and party lines and extends deeply into our schools.11

Two arguments have been advanced against the ideal of expressive freedom in schools, both recent and pervasive. The first argument frames the school—and the classroom— as a therapeutic space and holds that the first priority of discourse should be to “cause no hurt.” Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Snyder call this the “safety and security model of learning.” The second objection is political. It holds that speech is itself a “weapon wielded by the powerful to subjugate the oppressed,” reinforcing relationships of subordination and hierarchy.12

Given the recent prominence of these ideas, it should not surprise us that overall support for expressive freedom among college-age students has declined over the last decade and that levels of self-censorship among young people, largely driven by fear of peer censure and amplified by social media, have increased among all student groups, with substantial impacts on student well-being. While students continue to voice support for the expression of unpopular views, only a slight majority of college-age students are confident in expressing disagreement with teachers and peers.13

Independent schools have a crucial role in reversing these trends by fostering norms of expressive freedom and inculcating in their students a robust understanding of the essential role that freedom plays, when responsibly exercised, in advancing inquiry and knowledge. Schools, in this way, are much more important than colleges and universities, since it is there, during the formative years of adolescence and young adulthood, that the intellectual sensibilities of young people are shaped. To that end, schools should actively and intentionally seek to advance the ideal of expressive freedom with, as one university president remarks, “an eye to engagement and dialogue.” We identify three dimensions of this expressive ideal. Each of these is essential, and each is meaningless without the others.

Conscientiousness of Expression:

Social media has dramatically changed the conditions under which young people engage with one another. A considerable body of research has demonstrated that social media use foments conflict and diminishes well-being. As Suzanne Nossel, the CEO of PEN America, remarks, “The speech promoted by engagement-driven algorithms is long on outrage and virtue signaling, short on nuance, balance and basic politeness,” teaching young people “a discourse of absolutes—the antithesis of the pluralistic give-and-take that our society desperately needs.”14

Schools, Nossel suggests, should respond to this challenge by promoting an ethic of “conscientiousness.” This means:

• teaching y oung people to understand the impact of their speech on others;

• pr oviding them with the skills—and opportunities to practice—speaking with consideration, civility, and temperateness;

• encouraging thoughtful self-regulation and civility;

• and charging them with activ ely co-creating with peers a climate of mutual respect where all voices are welcome and heard. 15

Courage of Expression:

Expressive freedom is an essential bulwark against tyranny and injustice. Without it, we have no art, no literature, and no knowledge. When students are unable or fearful of speaking freely, they miss important opportunities to develop critical faculties of the mind.

It is therefore necessary to cultivate in students the dispositions to express confidently and courageously their own opinions and arguments, even when they run counter to prevailing orthodoxies, peer beliefs, and the threat of what the novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls “social censure.”16 This includes:

• fostering in y oung people the ability to respond to views that seem unreasonable and upsetting;

• cr eating a climate where intellectual risk-taking, mistake-making, and question-asking are cherished; 17

• and encour aging the broadest possible range of speech among students.

A commitment to expressive freedom necessarily excludes certain categories of speech—bullying, harassing, and threatening speech—that are legally prohibited. As the University of Chicago’s 2014 report notes: “The freedom to debate and discuss the merits of competing ideas does not, of course, mean that individuals may say whatever they wish, wherever they wish. The university may restrict expression that violates the law, that falsely defames a specific individual, that constitutes a genuine threat of harassment, that unjustifiably invades substantial privacy or confidentiality interests, or that is otherwise directly incompatible with the functioning of the university.” Those restrictions may also include the prohibition of slurs. As the Woodward Report states: “No member of the community with a decent respect for others should use, or encourage others to use, slurs and epithets intended to discredit another’s race, ethnic group, religion, or sex.”18

Toleration of Expression:

Two-thirds of college students believe it is sometimes acceptable to shout down a controversial speaker, while a quarter believes it is permissible to use violence to stop someone from speaking on campus. Yet toleration of upsetting and offensive speech is a time-proven way to peacefully manage conflict, promote dialogue, and foster understanding. That was the argument advanced by Frederick Douglass in his “Plea for Speech in Boston,” where he affirmed the right to listen. “To suppress speech,” he wrote, “is a double wrong: it violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.” And it informed Pauli Murray’s defense of Alabama Governor George Wallace’s right to speak at Yale in 1963. More recently, Robert P. George and Cornel West have argued that “all of us should be willing—even eager—to engage with anyone who is prepared to do business in the currency of truth-seeking.” They write: “The more important the subject under discussion, the more willing we should be to listen and engage—especially if the person with whom we are in conversation will challenge our deeply held—even our most cherished and identity-forming beliefs.”

Fostering toleration of expression requires:

• cultiv ating in students a willingness to listen deeply and patiently, even in the face of provocation;

• encour aging students to engage regularly with arguments with which they disagree or find offensive, unwelcome, or wrong-headed;

• cultiv ating in them an ethic of generosity, a spirit of charity, and an assumption of good faith on the part of peers.

Each of these is a precondition for fostering in young people that rarest of qualities: a willingness to change one’s own views.19

Disciplined Nonpartisanship on the Part of School Leaders and Teachers

Over the last decade, many schools have expanded the scope of their mission to embrace a range of public purposes, actively committing to “building the capacities of students to advocate for social justice beyond the classroom.” Other schools have weathered accusations of conservative partisanship, particularly religious and “classical” schools embracing a more traditional curriculum. Faculty, as well, have become more outspoken—and assertive— on matters of social, economic, racial, and environmental justice, among other issues.

Nonpartisanship remains an essential means for securing and retaining the trust of a diverse public, and it is well-established across a range of professions as both a matter of principle and, in the case of independent schools, law. The University of Chicago’s Kalven Report famously advanced an argument for neutrality in political and social action. To protect their core mission—the discovery, improvement, and dissemination of knowledge—educational institutions, its authors wrote, “must maintain independence from political fashions, passions, and pressures.”20

Independent schools are governed by similar restraints. As a matter of law, schools registered as 501(c)(3)s must refrain from partisan political activity. That includes a legal obligation neither to support nor oppose political candidates or advocate on their behalf.21

Stance-taking by School Leaders:

The first responsibility of school leaders, after ensuring the physical safety of students, is to create a space where curiosity and inquiry can take root and flourish. Public stance-taking on the part of school leaders can undermine that goal by establishing an orthodox view, chilling campus inquiry, and marginalizing those with dissenting views. This is particularly true during periods of heightened political controversy. School leaders, therefore, should adopt a position of studied, principled nonpartisanship on questions of social and public concern unrelated to their school’s core educational mission. When they do feel compelled to speak, they should do so with modesty, recognizing that stance-taking on issues of public controversy can inadvertently narrow the aperture of campus inquiry, preempt discussion and dialogue, and divide students into insiders or outsiders, depending on their views.22

Two caveats: First, silence by campus leaders on issues of public controversy or current events should not be taken as acquiescence or approval of a position or policy or as insensitivity to the suffering of others but as the necessary means of creating space for the expression of student uncertainty and of views that might otherwise remain unvoiced. As the Kalven Report emphasizes, the presumption against stance-taking derives “not from a lack of courage nor out of indifference . . . but out of respect for free inquiry and the obligation to cherish a diversity of viewpoint.”23

Second, public stance-taking on the part of Heads of School should not be confused with their obligation to uphold core values within their schools. School leaders can affirm and uphold the values that support a kind, caring, and inclusive community—a community free from bullying, harassment, and discrimination— without endorsing a particular political program or philosophy. The best way to educate for thoughtful citizenship and student engagement is to remain neutral on contested political and ideological questions that are open to reasonable disagreement.

Stance-taking by Faculty:

Independent school teachers rightly enjoy tremendous freedom in matters of instruction, curriculum, and the selection of classroom materials. This freedom distinguishes independent from public schools, where curriculum and instruction are subject to democratic oversight in the form of elected school boards and state legislatures. That freedom to teach is fundamental to independent schools and should be respected and honored.

At the same time, it is widely recognized that academic freedom is different from, and more limited than, freedom of speech, and that the expressive freedom of independent school teachers is bounded by specific academic duties, including a duty to the integrity of a teacher’s discipline or field of study and established norms of truth-seeking.

The autonomy of students and their right to be free from coercion is a core principle of all professional organizations that work with children—the educational equivalent of the medical profession’s Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. Students have a fundamental right to determine their own values free from coercion, ideological tilt, and inappropriate adult influence. As early as 1915, the AAUP Declaration of Principles warned that “the teacher ought . . . to be especially on his guard against taking unfair advantage of the student’s immaturity.” That restraint is even more important when working with younger students. They are more susceptible to adult influence, and they may not yet possess the critical skills or breadth of knowledge necessary to perceive bias in the presentation and selection of material, especially on questions of public controversy.24

The first duty of secondary/high school teachers, therefore, is to recognize the asymmetrical relationships of power that inhere in the teacher-student relationship, and the potential conflict of interest between a teacher’s duty to actively support a student’s intellectual growth and autonomy and the expression of their own partisan and political beliefs.

To that end, teachers should exercise considerable discretion when expressing their own views and beliefs in the classroom, using that freedom sparingly and only when it supports the intellectual agency of students. Diana Hess, Dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin, calls this the “pedagogical tools approach.” Such an approach defers to the professional judgment of teachers in deciding when and how to share their views on a contested issue but recognizes the dangers on the part of teachers of over-sharing, grandstanding, and the unnecessary interjection of personal views.25

Overcoming the ubiquitous nature of political bias requires sustained and disciplined effort. Like professionals in related fields, teachers should adopt strategies that seek to mitigate, if not eliminate, political and partisan tilt in the curriculum, and embrace what Michael Walzer calls the “standard of liberality,”—the practice of alerting students to counterarguments, encouraging speculation, and inviting skepticism. Additionally, teachers ought to refrain from the introduction of material extraneous to their discipline, especially if it exceeds their expertise or classroom responsibilities.26

Faculty have a right to engage in political activities off-campus, outside of school activities, and on their own time. Yet teachers cannot reasonably expect privacy when speaking in their private capacity as citizens, especially on social media. Teachers at the secondary school level should, therefore, carefully consider how their extramural speech may impact students’ perception of their fairness, especially in matters of grading and evaluation, and their ability to mentor and care for students who may hold different beliefs.27

Intellectual Diversity in Schools

Most independent schools have long sought to graduate young people who are prepared for intellectual and civic leadership. That aspiration is most fully realized when students are given abundant and meaningful opportunities to engage with intellectually diverse arguments, perspectives, and views. Exposure to diverse and heterodox ideas inoculates students against unthinking conformity and uncritical orthodoxy, and remains a precondition for informed civic engagement.

Students are ill-served when they are shielded from the discussion of issues that are open, contested, and unsettled in the public sphere but closed on campus. Rather than protect students from new ideas or reflexively affirm existing beliefs and commitments, schools should routinely ask students to engage with material that discomfits, unsettles, and runs counter to prevailing orthodoxies. Schools, in short, should envision learning as a sustained encounter with the challenging and the unfamiliar. The classroom, in particular, is a place where established beliefs and commitments are explored and tested against competing arguments.

Intellectual diversity is not, as it is often framed, simply a matter of hiring an intellectually diverse faculty, as important as that might be. Rather, schools have a positive duty to expose students to a wide range of ideas and debates in the formal curriculum of the school, in their libraries, and in programming beyond the classroom. Nor should it be confused with what has been called “bothsidesism,” a superficial balance of views uninformed by scientific or scholarly consensus. The goal of an intellectually diverse curriculum is not reflexive balance or even completeness but the intentional inclusion of competing arguments and theories.28

The educational value of intellectual and argument diversity is well-established. It finds expression in the Greek ideal that we learn best through discussion and Socratic questioning, in medieval religious traditions of disputation, and modern forms of dialectic.

Schools have a particular interest in advancing argument diversity since it is founded on long-standing assumptions common to the scholarly enterprise:

• That ideas and theories ar e always in dialogue and conversation with one another;

• That cultur es and traditions of thought are themselves plural, hybrid, and heterogeneous rather than unitary or monolithic;

• That academic disciplines ar e themselves fields of contestation and argument;

• That the study of the past enlarges and enriches our understanding of the present. 29

ALBANY ROAD

The 1915 Declaration speaks of the duty to set forth “justly and without suppression or innuendo the divergent opinions of other investigators . . . the best published expressions of the great historic types of doctrine upon the questions at hand.” It speaks not simply of exposing students to a range of arguments but of the need “to habituate them to looking not only patiently but methodically on both sides before adopting any conclusion upon controverted issues.”30

That call to curate diverse materials in support of open inquiry has since been taken up by a broad range of professional organizations. The Library Bill of Rights, first adopted in 1939, includes not only a principle of non-exclusion—“material should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation”—but also, and perhaps more importantly, a positive duty of providing materials “presenting all points of view on current and historical issues.”31

Intellectual diversity is a defining feature of all fields of study and disciplines, but it is crucial to the study of contemporary issues of justice and social change. As the 1915 Declaration notes, the partial or slanted presentation of a “controverted” issue is a special challenge in the domain of social science, as it remains today for disciplines that are openly political in their orientation. “The chief menace” to intellectual diversity, the Declaration notes, is no longer “ecclesiastical” censorship, as it once was (and occasionally still is), but political conformity and ideological orthodoxy, especially in the discussion of what the Declaration calls “grave issues in the adjustment of man’s social and economic relations.” In approaching these issues, the Declaration counsels not only patience and intellectual humility but also deep engagement with “that breadth of historic vision which it should be one of the functions of institutions of learning to cultivate.” In other words, questions of social and economic justice should be approached as open, unsettled, and informed by diverse traditions of thought, present and past.

Central to the project of creating intellectually diverse programs and curricula is the active stewardship by teachers and schools of what the Declaration calls “all genuine elements of value in the past thought and life of mankind which are not in the fashion of the moment.” Schools should guard against what one scholar calls “the provincialism of the contemporary,” and embrace their essential role as stewards of historically diverse canons of thought and philosophy.32

Generally, the more a given program is engaged with issues of contemporary social and political controversy, the greater the need to open discussion to the full range of theories and perspectives. In as much as discussions of social justice are informed by contemporary theories of social and political transformation, they should be studied within the context of alternative and competing theories of change and social improvement; only then are students able to test their own views against competing ideas. That is why professional associations in history and social science have long emphasized diversity of thought and theory to check against bias and protect the intellectual autonomy of students. The American Historical Association’s Statement on Standards of Professional

Conduct states that “students should be made aware of varying interpretations.” The American Political Science Association’s Statement on the Essential Role of Social Scientific Inquiry states that there can be no scholarly inquiry without “openness to diverse viewpoints and the possibility of robust disagreement.” And the American Library Association’s statement on the Freedom to Read states: “It is in the public interest for publishers and librarians to make available the widest diversity of views and expressions, including those that are unorthodox, unpopular, or considered dangerous by the majority.”33

Students crave opportunities to explore and discuss issues of historical debate, ethical complexity, and civic controversy, and embracing controversy in the classroom remains a proven way to excite and sustain student engagement.34

A range of fields offer models for the support of intellectual diversity in teaching and learning:

a. Philosoph y: The disciplinary norms of philosophy—the practices of “affective neutrality in the discussion of moral and political issues,” cognitive empathy (the ability to understand the reasoning of others and to fairly and generously reconstruct the arguments of others), precision in the definition of terms—all emphasize the understanding of diverse arguments.

b . Law: Law education has long embraced Socratic dialogue and the case method as a way to broaden discussion on contested legal doctrine, including the sustained study of dissenting legal opinion.

c. Debate: Debate-centered education encourages young people to consider heterodox arguments and perspectives, emphasizing the skills of listening and persuasion.

d. Liter ary Study: Teachers of literature have long recognized the value of a diverse canon. The rediscovery of neglected works and authors and the more inclusive and expansive canon that resulted remains one of the greatest humanistic accomplishments of contemporary literary scholarship. 35

Schools should strive for that same diversity of thought and expression in all disciplines, all fields of study, and all programming, but particularly in those primarily concerned with the sphere of human values.

The Call to Action

The values of expressive freedom, nonpartisanship, and intellectual diversity are already central to independent schools. One hope of this framework is that it will offer opportunities to highlight the work of faculty and schools across the country in each of these areas, and facilitate the sharing of effective practices.

If academic pluralism is to take full hold in our schools, teachers, school leaders, trustees, and parents will need to collaborate to advance it; there are exciting opportunities in almost every area of school life.

Boards can employ the framework to assess school mission and clarify priorities; schools can seek opportunities to educate parents about the value of intellectual diversity, school-wide approaches to expressive freedom, and stance-taking, and they can provide maximum transparency in the publication of curriculum and instructional standards. A commitment to such clarity will foster trust among various constituents and strengthen that sense of common purpose so essential for student well-being. Schools can engage students in an active and central role in creating a culture of conscientious, courageous, and tolerant expression. Programmatically, schools can deepen practices that support dialogue and the exchange of views via school newspapers and other publications, forums and colloquia featuring speakers with competing views and opinions, programs in debate and public speaking, and simulations that require perspective-taking such as the Model United Nations, Model Congress, and historical role-play. Schools can provide students with orientations on the value of expressive freedom and educate them about the history of censorship and expressive freedom, including philosophical and legal debates around its value and limits.36

Schools can—and should—build upon existing efforts around inclusion by adopting intellectual diversity as a fundamental educational aim and by developing structures that promote confident, “purposeful pluralism,” including a school-wide emphasis on rhetoric and argument literacy. And they should, when necessary, reassess school practices that might inhibit intellectual risk-taking and chill expression, including overly permissive cell phone policies, expansive and punitive speech codes, restrictive discussion protocols, and curricular structures that sort students into what one scholar calls “intellectual affinity groups,” thereby shielding students from new and challenging ideas.37

Faculty most directly shape school culture, creating curriculum and modeling for students norms of academic inquiry. They will, therefore, play a defining role in leading these efforts. Schools must provide faculty with the resources and professional opportunities to study, augment, and advance intellectual diversity across all programs, particularly the classroom.

Those opportunities include developing:

• principles of cour se design that foster open inquiry;

• curricular structur es that support engagement with diverse ideas, both past and present;

• common intellectual e xperiences that center argument diversity;

• and standar ds of instruction that minimize political and partisan tilt.

This framework, and the practices outlined within it, seeks to make the case for academic pluralism as an essential means for promoting independent thought and courageous inquiry. But it will take all of the energy, resourcefulness, and creativity of teachers to bring it fully to life in the lives of students. That is the important— and exciting—opportunity ahead, one for which the faculty of American independent schools is uniquely suited.

SCAN FOR A DIGITAL COPY OF THE FRAMEWORK + ENDNOTES

the Common Room

1949

“As I plan to attend Reunion this year, I suppose I should bring classmates and others up to date. After Deerfield, I attended Oberlin College and Harvard Medical School, interned at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, and did a residency in internal medicine at the University of Chicago. I stayed on there, becoming a gastroenterologist in the process, for 15 years before moving to New York in 1973. I married Jessie Kindel of Grand Rapids, MI, in 1960, and we had a daughter, Elisabeth, and a son, Thomas. I then did research at Rockefeller University and the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and joined Smith, Kline, and French in 1985. After several retirements, including 15 years working for Forest Laboratories, I have been fully retired for about seven years.

For those interested in athletics, I was a three-time all-American soccer player at Oberlin. I only recently learned that my Deerfield fellow fullback, Charlie Ufford, was also an all-American soccer player at Harvard! I was also co-captain of the lacrosse team at Oberlin and played with the Boston Lacrosse Club during medical school.

Unfortunately, Jessie, my wife of 60 years, died in 2020 from complications of a bowel surgery. I am comforted by two wonderful children and five grandchildren.

I am still in good shape, considering, and enjoying a very full life. Among other things, I sing with the New Amsterdam Singers in New York. When the time comes, I will move to the Mather, a retirement community in Evanston, IL.”—Bob Palmer

1949 REUNITED

1952

“I worked for William Blair, a Chicago -based investment banking firm, for over 59 years. My responsibilities included managing the Research and Investment Management departments. We started with about 45 employees and ended up with over 500 by the time I retired in 2022. Originally, I am from Kalamazoo, MI, and I still retain the house I grew up in and a beach house near Saugatuck, which we use in the summer. In the winter, we live in Chicago. We have three children and seven grandchildren. I have been married to Sonja for over 64 years.”

—Conrad Fischer

Bob Palmer, Bill Galliard, Tom Young

Please consider leaving a legacy at Deerfield. Include the Academy in your will or trust, or designate Deerfield as a beneficiary of an IRA or insurance policy. Enjoy the satisfaction of investing in future generationsof Deerfield students and faculty. Thanks to you, Deerfield will endure.

To become a member of The Boyden Society, simply notify the Office of Advancement that you have included Deerfield in your estate plans. The society honors the legacy of the legendary Frank L. and Helen Childs Boyden.

or call 413-774-1584 to speak with a friendly staff member. For

The Bank was where student smoking was tolerated but far from endorsed. For those admonished for the evils of nicotine, to enjoy a puff, they were banished to the equivalent of the Arctic Circle on the upper level.

THE BANK

Recalled by Peter Bolles ’54

After a storm and a property clean up, you find things lying around that you thought you had lost forever. Not long ago, such was the case for me, but instead of a storm, it was an asbestos removal project at my Las Vegas townhouse. Once the walls and ceilings were removed and replaced by sheetrock, it was time to move my files back into the home office. As you might suspect, moving out was a lot easier than moving back in. While completing the clean-up project, I searched for a letter from my grandfather in one of several file boxes scattered around the garage. Instead of grandfather’s letter, I came across a file folder with memorabilia from our 50th Reunion, a letter from Tom “Spook” Kellogg, and a long-forgotten, mysteriously discarded, and seriously misfiled Marlboro cigarette.

As I sat down on the patio to go over the Deerfield memorabilia, it was Tom’s letter and the lone Marlboro that reminded me of so many days at Deerfield, from my first evening arrival at John Williams House in 1950 to the last day at the Bank in 1954. The Marlboro also reminded me of an unlikely lunchtime tradition and a June day— the last full day before graduation at the First Church of Deerfield.

Every day after lunch, before afternoon classes, come rain, shine, or snow, a lonely figure would walk out on the upper level past the baseball field and disappear over the edge of the Bank. My most memorable image was of Tex wrapped up in a raccoon coat against the cold, struggling through a foot of snow in the middle of winter to get to the Bank before disappearing over the edge. The Bank was where student smoking was tolerated but far from endorsed. For those admonished for the evils of nicotine, to enjoy a puff, they were banished to the equivalent of the Arctic Circle on the upper level. With dreams of athletic glory in my head, I did not dare tempt myself with a trip to the Bank. Since my earliest school days, our school principal, Lena Jenkins, had instilled in me a fear of smoking. Even when queried about the Camel habits of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, our school principal assured us that cigarettes were sinful and that we would be doomed to the equivalent of a life of sin if we crossed the line and took a puff. That school-boy perception of sinful living and athletic failure was reinforced in high school by the remote location and sinful perception of the Bank. Forget that some faculty members enjoyed a puff or two on the Dining Hall steps before lunch and after dinner, as the lonely walker headed to the upper level’s precipice and over the edge for his daily puff.

After lunch on the day before graduation, we gathered on the Dining Hall steps. My favorite PG, Bill Skinner, may have said, “Hey, Aggie, let’s join Tex and go to the Bank.” Whoever made the announcement is not important. What was important was that a rather large group, including folks like class officers and Stump, PG Walt, Tom, Buzz, and the big-brain guys like Lew and Peter, all headed to the Arctic Circle to join Tex.

The Banksters already there were more than happy to share their stash of fresh nicotine sticks, which were also used as chips in various games of chance. It was a beautiful New England late spring day, so we played cards and lingered well into the afternoon. My grandfather and parents were about to make an appearance. I didn’t think a quick exit to say hello, accompanied by a fresh breath of nicotine, was a good idea so PG Bill and I made a hasty exit for a little personal cleanup.

Walking back with Bill in the late afternoon sun after my first visit to the Bank, for some unexplained reason and after four years, I felt like I was finally a full-fledged, certified member of the Class of ’54. Thanks to Tex and the Bank, I found classmates who gathered to socialize and not compete for grades or excellence on the field of play. We were there to share friendships formed over the years as classmates; friendships that would linger awhile on this glorious late spring day and then 24 hours later be changed forever as we left Pocumtuck Valley.

The next day was graduation. Instead of gathering at the Bank after the church service, we gathered on the steps of the senior dorm and sang one last song. I was standing next to Bobby Shelton, and for maybe the first and only time in four years, we sang with tears streaming down our faces.

Sitting on the Las Vegas patio with Tom’s letter in hand, along with a lonely Marlboro, reminded me of that young man’s memorable journey, traveling by train 3,000 miles in 1950 from a town of 1,500, located on one-and-a-half square miles of rolling hills surrounding a valley just north of San Francisco, to a school of 500 located on 330 acres in a historic New England town of 5,000. Tom’s letter and that one cigarette reminded me of that day at the Bank before graduation and what a diverse group we were, from great athletes like Tom, Bill, Walt, Asko, and Doc, to great students like Fred, Peter, Lew, Don, and Rex.

That afternoon at the Bank we were all on equal footing as classmates, nobody more superior, nobody more inferior. Tex and others might not have made big headlines in the Scroll, but they were important to complete the fabric of our class. We were all indispensable classmates in the Pocumtuck Valley on that last June day in 1954 as we took one last puff together at the Bank.

In memory of and to honor Tom and Tex and so many others who joined us over four years in the classroom, on the fields, or at the Bank that day I lit up the lone and long discarded cigarette on a patio in Las Vegas, surrounded by desert sand and cactus. It was a reminder that, unlike the last puff on a nicotine stick, the lone cigarette was stirring up memories of classmates and their headmaster and his school touched by Colonial history . . . and a band of equals about to be separated who were sitting together one last time on a ledge to take in the view . . . surrounded by fields of green tucked away in a Massachusetts Valley . . . where memories last forever.

This morning, I woke up to the sound of the rustling leaves and birds chirping as the morning sun’s soft glow began to break through my bedroom window. Like clockwork, it happens every fall; I find myself looking back over the decades to the early morning quiet of Albany Road and the coat of many colors of the New England hills and Pocumtuck Valley. How could it be that so many years have passed since I hustled in the early morning fall light to get my clothes on and head with classmates to the Dining Hall and the first check-in of the day?

In the dining room, the heavy ceramic coffee pots were on their way as Red Sullivan said the morning prayer, and then a chorus of voices broke out as breakfast was served. It was the start of another Deerfield day. The routine was now familiar: After breakfast, a run to the dorm and then to the classroom building, where another four check-ins awaited us as we attended morning classes. Then another check-in, another prayer, another parade of ceramic coffee pots followed by platters filled with our midday meal. After lunch, it was back to another check-in and an afternoon class. Classes over for another day, we raced to the gymnasium.

We scattered down the slope in uniforms or work clothes behind the gym, where another check-in waited for us, and then practice and scrimmages began. The fall colors received little attention as we went through our afternoon practices, whistles blowing and shouts of enthusiasm echoing in the late fall afternoon sun. Practice over, it was a sprint to the showers, the mailbox, and a quick stop at the school soda fountain. Timed just right, the residents of the Bank could get in a quick puff while the rest of us could stroll over to the Dining Hall where the faculty smokers greeted us through light wisps of smoke on the steps leading to the dining room. Another prayer, another check-in, followed by a parade of ceramic coffee mugs, the trays filled with dinner just a few steps behind. After dinner, it was over to the library and the evening School Meeting. With a little luck, the residents of the Bank could make a quick smoke stop before it was check-in time . . . when it came time for the School Meeting, it was all-hands-on-deck.

A clap of the hand and silence dominated the lobby as the Headmaster made a few remarks. Faculty members spoke up if games had been played, won or lost, and special events were on the horizon, like the annual Choate Weekend with cross country, soccer, and football matches. Finally, the Headmaster spoke of the changing colors of fall and reminded us to make sure we looked to the hills and their fall festival of colors. With a clap of his hands, the meeting was over, and we were off to the dorms, homework, and, of course, another check-in. At lights out at 10 pm, another day at Deerfield had come to its last check-out, and another day was done in Pocumtuck Valley.

This morning, at the opposite end of the county, as I listened to the rustling leaves and the sounds of the birds, I knew how much I missed the annual rhythm of the hills of Pocumtuck Valley and the ageless lane of Albany Road. I often return to Deerfield not so much for the memory of check-ins and classes, but for the lasting and lingering images of friends and classmates now departed and memories of a special spot, with structures from another century, streetlights on Albany Road echoing the past with their soft evening glow cast over fallen leaves, and a Headmaster who reminded us to “Look to the Hills.” //

1965

Ed Flickinger’s widow Karen, and their daughter Carrie, found his memorial bench, given in his honor by his classmates, on campus recently.

1966

Jed Horne passed along some updates, including news about his recent book. “Jane’s sister married an interesting guy. Over the past couple of years, Brian Bisesi and I have collaborated on a book about his career as a blues musician. It was published in April by the University of Mississippi Press: Out of the Blue, Life on the Road with Muddy Waters.

In 1978, Brian, then barely in his 20s, is sitting in a nightspot in the Jersey suburbs to catch a performance by Waters. Lead guitarist Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson is out sick. “Not to worry,” one of the band members tells Waters. “That white boy in the fifth row knows all our material and plays a pretty mean guitar. Bring him up here.” Brian rises to the occasion, and Muddy keeps him on as a full-time road manager, bean counter, and fill-in guitarist. It was the beginning of a lifetime career that took Brian all around the world—Europe, Japan, US—as Muddy Waters opened for the likes of Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones (who took their name from one of his songs) and so on. By the time of Waters’ death, a few years later, Brian was well enough established in blues circles to win a Grammy and never need a day job again.

He’s a great guitarist and a great storyteller. Once I convinced Brian that there might be a book in all this, my role was to clean up the writing and see if we could find a publisher.

As I write this note, Jane and I are just up from Mexico for Jazz Fest in New Orleans. One of the big draws this year is the Stones. If Mick gets too hoarse, Brian tells him there’s a Deerfield Glee Club veteran member in the audience, ready to hop up on stage and fill in on vocals.

Meanwhile, life goes on. While their parents take a quick birthday trip to Morocco, we’re off to babysit in NYC for two of our half-dozen grandchildren. Then it’s on up to Maine for some auld lang syne with friends and family, Sam Hayes among them.”

William Briggs reminded us it’s a small Deerfield world out there:

“As a storyteller at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, I was taking a group out to see the famous Island Hole #17. It turned out that Lance Reising ’69 and I identified each other as Deerfield grads.”

1967

Managing partner of the Towne Law Firm, James Towne, recently returned from a meaningful journey to Ukraine, where he witnessed the remarkable resilience and determination of the Ukrainian people in the face of ongoing challenges posed by war and devastation.

Throughout his visit, he had the privilege of meeting extraordinary individuals who embody the spirit of Ukraine’s unyielding resolve. One particularly moving encounter involved a young woman, trained as an attorney, who had chosen to dedicate her life to a different role supporting her country. When asked about her motivation, her response was simple and profound: “Because my country needs me.” Her commitment is a shining example of the collective purpose driving the Ukrainian people’s quest for survival.

During his time in Ukraine, Jim also learned about a powerful symbol that has become prevalent—the tattoo that reads “Time to be a hero.” Originating as a defiant response to the early atrocities of war, particularly the targeting of women for their Ukrainian pride and the subsequent violence they faced, this tattoo has evolved into a symbol of strength and unity for girls and women across the nation.

One poignant aspect of his visit was the unnerving experience of locating and seeking shelter during air raid alerts that went off day and night (alongside individuals directly affected by the conflict). Amidst blaring sirens, they found refuge in shelters, and he witnessed their courage and resilience in the face of adversity. Spending hours together, they adapted to the reality of the situation with a sense of “Que Sera Sera,” acknowledging their limited control over luck and fate. The stark reality of living under constant threat underscored these individuals’ daily challenges, yet their unwavering spirit and determination to press on were truly inspiring.

1968

John “Wali” Walbridge passed along the following sad news: “ Charles Laughinghouse was a one-year senior with a broad smile and an inquisitive mind. He passed on October 1, in Las Vegas. Sorry and saddened to announce this news to the class. Hope you are well.”

1973

“Goodie Fest IV will be held on Labor Day weekend. Saturday night, we will have Bil Lepp and Josh Goforth, two nationally recognized storytellers; Sunday night, we will have the Grand Slambovian Circus of Dreams, all performing in our barn. RVs, tents, and hotel guests are welcome. I talked about this at Reunions with some of you. Clif, Emmer, and Jimbo didn’t attend but better come to this. For more enticing details, email me at danielehrgood@icloud.com.” —Dan Ehrgood Noel Rubinton shared that “The Class of 1973 had the largest contingent of alumni at the May 5 Deerfield reception for an exhibition of the artwork of Dan Hodermarsky, our beloved former teacher and friend who died in 1999 but is greatly remembered. Larry Jerome, Dan Johnson, Bob Prior, Stewart Read, Noel Rubinton, and Lee Stempel were there along with Head of School John Austin and other alumni, faculty, and students. People told stories about Dan and also celebrated the magnificent new book, Hodermarsky, about his life and work just published by the Artist Book Foundation. Afterwards the celebration continued with dinner at the Deerfield Inn along with one of Dan’s daughters, Lisa, master artist and student of Dan’s, Stephen Hannock ’70, and others who also helped produce the exhibition.”

1974

“I retired last May after 32 years of teaching mostly Economics and AP US History at Cairo High School in Cairo, GA, just north of Tallahassee. However, next fall will mark my 26th year of service as the color analyst for Cairo High Syrupmaker football radio broadcasts. ‘I was the Gabe Kotter of the 21st century.’”

—Blair Dickinson

77

1977

For our second annual Class of ’77 Class ski trip, Jim Wade brought us together again with his amazing organization including fantastic lodging, driver-on-demand, massages, and even snowmobiling. Randy Farr surprised us on Saturday flying in from Chicago and cooking us a delicious Mexican feast. We were so fortunate with epic conditions again in Park City and Deer Valley, and we just hung out together. Loved it.

Bob Dewey had to leave prior to our photo shoot, but our gang included (L to R) Townley Paton, Jim Wade, Andy Ling, Randy Farr, Jim Gilbane, Tucker Smith, (back row) Wayne Wall, Dave Martin, Jim Gilmore, Hamilton Davidson, and (up on the mantle) John Curtis. Rumor has it the group is increasing!

Notes continue on page 73

Bob Dewey had to leave prior to our photo shoot, but our gang included (L to R) Townley Paton , Jim Wade , Andy Ling , Randy Farr , Jim Gilbane , Tucker Smith , (back row) Wayne Wall , Dave Martin , Jim Gilmore , Hamilton Davidson , and (up on the mantle) John Curtis

DA at Snowmass!

Thanks to Adam Feiges ’83 for sharing his sticker find! More ’83 news on page 73!

/// by Josh Guthman, Assistant Director of the Annual Fund ///

Margot Pfohl ’97 knows exactly when her competitive gene kicked in.

It was the evening of February 29, smack dab in the middle of Deerfield’s seventh annual Day of Giving—and it was all Art Dwight ’79’s fault. Margot and Art, lead volunteers for the Classes of 1997 and 1979, found themselves locked that day in a fierce and distinctly Deerfield-ian battle to see whose class could generate the most gifts to the Academy within a tight 30-hour window. It was at 6:12 pm, when another wave of gifts from the Class of ’79 poured in, that Margot sensed that her team might lose the competition. “We don’t like losing when it comes to class participation,” said Margot. “And the Class of ’79 was neck and neck with us!”

By day’s end, the competition between ’79 and ’97, along with contributions from a record-breaking 1,440 donors, and including alumni from classes stretching across more than 80 years of the Academy’s history, led to Deerfield’s most successful Day of Giving ever.

“All of our Days of Giving have been fantastic, and none would have been successful without our dedicated class agents—they’re a very special group with a tremendous amount of Big Green spirit,” said Director of the Annual Fund Kellie Houston. Each year, the Annual Fund team partners with alumni volunteers to help support everything from financial aid and academics to the arts and athletics. “But this fun rivalry between ’79 and ’97 transcended anything we’d seen before,” she added. “Both classes exceeded 100 donors, and keep in mind it’s the participation number that counts, easily breaking the previous record of 61. It was incredible, and it all benefits Deerfield— win, win!”

2024 DAY OF GIVING STATS

RECORDBREAKING!

Total donors 1,440

Total dollars $1 million+

MOST EVER!

Top ten classes by NUMBER OF DONORS 1979, 1997, 1980, 1998, 1995, 1986, 1991, 1974, 1988, 1973

Ben Villa ’97 P’26 had sensed that ’79 would make its inevitable push. Even before things got heated, he emailed his classmates:

“We cannot/must not lose an online fundraiser to a class that still has fax machines and landlines.”

Early on, it looked like Margot’s ’97 crew would carry the day. They had banked 22 gifts during the Day of Giving’s early-bird phase, which put them atop the class leaderboard even before the big day arrived. And when the Day of Giving officially kicked off just after dawn on the 29th, they pushed their total to 41. That put them well past their friends and longtime rivals from the Class of 1998—known Day of Giving heavyweights who, during the previous six years, had bested all classes three times.

“We just wanted to win, and early on I saw the numbers and thought, ‘Oh, we’re doing this!’” said Margot, who, along with a dedicated band of ’97 class volunteers, had been reaching out to classmates in every way possible: text, email, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram. “But then all of a sudden, it was like ‘Wait a second! Who are these guys?’”

“These guys” were a band of self-described brothers and rebels from the Class of ’79 with a storied history of hijinks and altruism. (Yes, both.) Over the years, Art and his classmates had developed a signature style of coordinated action. They’d wait and then wait some more before pouncing. For their 40th Reunion, more than 100 of them registered for the weekend at precisely the same minute, sending the computers along Albany Road into a tizzy. Another year, every single member of the class donated to Deerfield, hitting a practically unheard-of 100 percent class participation rate for giving.

So, when the “youngsters” from ’97 moved into first place early on, the brothers from ’79 did what they had always done: Waited to strike.

“We saw ’97 was in the lead early, and we didn’t think much of that,” said Art. Sure enough, ’79 vaulted themselves into contention by late morning before the two classes traded the lead as the clock tick-tocked into the afternoon.

Ben Villa ’97 P’26 had sensed that ’79 would make its inevitable push. Even before things got heated, he emailed his classmates: “We cannot/must not lose an online fundraiser to a class that still has fax machines and landlines.”

But ’79 would not be denied. Once Art and his gang had tallied 65 gifts, setting a new Day of Giving record, they thought they’d bested ’97 for good. “At that point, I was thinking we’d call it,” said Art. “We broke the record. ’97 is never gonna catch up to us. And then all of sudden ’97 started rising and out of nowhere got really close to us. And I was like, ‘Whaaaat?!’”

Quickly, the ’79 class leaders convened what they called a “war council,” and Art himself blasted a “mayday” video to the class, calling on his brothers to deliver in, as he put it, “the toughest fight we’ve ever had” in the class’s decades of work raising money for Deerfield.

The mayday call did the trick. By the close of Day of Giving, ’79 had claimed the laurels of victory with 104 donations. But, ’97 was only three behind. “We do hate losing,” said Margot, “but to do what we did and to lose to Art and his class—they’re wonderful competitors, and we’re okay losing to them.”

The spirit of generosity and friendly competition that animated the ’79/’97 tussle overflowed to classes from the 1940’s through the 2020’s as well. For the second year in a row, Daniel Hirsch ’13 teamed up with his brother Michael ’18 to offer a matching challenge for young alumni. Participating in Day of Giving, both brothers explained, is like returning home to the school that did so much to shape them.

“Part of what’s so fun about giving back and continuing to be involved with Deerfield is it’s our way of reliving part of our time there,” Daniel said. “There aren’t a lot of ways to do that, and the Day of Giving—feeling like you’re back, like you’re part of this bigger community—is one of the best.” //

THE COMMON ROOM

1983

1 Da vid Morley and Laura Kimble

2. Seen hanging out in St. Johnsbury, VT, for the eclipse, Dave Shelton and Mark Beaubien !

3. Happy Anniversary, Nelse Clark !

4. l to r: Doug Cruikshank , Jim Wilmott ’82 and Doug Schmidt recently met in NYC to dispense sage college advice to Emma Wilmott ’24 , months before her halcyon days begin at Yale.

5-7. 1983 gang! (see JK’s notes)

8. Congrats to Rob McGill for his current travels in Thailand!

9. John Cianciolo on the occasion of his 60 th birthday

10. Wills Elliman

11. Bob Keirstead and Ben Patton

Big congratulations to David Morley and Laura Kimble as they tied the knot this spring! They are a formidable pair of realtors in the Bahamas and now a lovely married couple!

Wills Elliman is thriving and continues to make the most of it by building his real estate business and mastering LinkedIn!

“After nearly 13 years leading corporate communications at BlackRock, I’m transitioning this month to be a part-time senior advisor at the firm. Working with Larry Fink, his senior leadership team and my amazing colleagues in BlackRock Corporate Communications has been the highlight of my career. Stepping back is bittersweet, but I’m looking forward to the next stage of life—consulting for BlackRock while pursuing other interests outside the firm. Thank you to all my BlackRock colleagues who made this such an incredible journey.” —James Badenhausen

Ben Patton passed along the news that he and Bob Keirstead “reconnected at last year’s Reunion and—as a career Air Force pilot—I got him to take part in a filmmaking workshop for vets in my NGO Patton Veterans Project held in WY in January. A patriot and now budding filmmaker!”

John Knight sent along congratulations to Geoff Bennett: noting that Deerfield Associates was pleased to share the following announcement made this week by Charley Stillwell, head of school at Episcopal High School, located in Alexandria, VA: “It is a pleasure to let everyone know that our search process to find our next chief financial officer has been successfully completed. It is a tall order to find a wonderful individual ready to step into Boota deButt’s big shoes, but I am excited to announce that Geoffrey Bennett, the current CFO at Ransom Everglades School in Miami, has agreed to join our community this coming summer. Geoff is especially excited to join our 100% residential boarding community, having been a student at Deerfield Academy and a parent of four boarding school attendees.” Doug Cooney, principal of Deerfield Associates, added, “It was a sincere pleasure working with Charley and the Episcopal High School community for the first time and on such an important search. EHS is our 158th client in the education sector. Everyone in ABOPS knows and has great respect for Boota. I have personally known Geoff for a decade and have waited for the right opportunity to encourage him to explore and ultimately match with this high-profile position, which matches up nicely with his many talents and excellent work experiences. We wish Geoff and his family all the best in joining the Episcopal High School community.”

While congratulations are in order for John Cianciolo on the occasion of his 60th birthday, it was universally agreed that his daughter Lilly should get all the praise for the SURPRISE 60th she unleashed.

It started with an abbreviated Peloton ride when Bob Keirstead (from Illinois), Will Piersol (from Colorado) and local driver John Knight showed up in his driveway. (CC was overhead later saying, “I’m gonna kill her!”)

Phase-one surprise visitors included: Knight, Keirstead, CC, Piersol and Doug Schmidt! More school friends from Deerfield and Boston College descended on a bar in Narraganset for further shenanigans. Thanks to Nelse Clark (MA), Spence Brown (CT) and Jim Wareck (CT) for joining in the fun!

Kudos to all the classmates that were able to answer the call for John, but especially class spokesman, Bubba Keirstead!

THE COMMON ROOM

HIGHLIGHTS ALUMNI-ATHLETE

A selection of highlights of Deerfield alumni competing collegiately curated from their respective school websites. This issue includes those competing in the winter and spring seasons. We welcome all alumni to share any news about your collegiate careers.

Max Abene ’22

Colby College (Men’s Ice Hockey)

•P layed in six games during his sophomore campaign for the Mules

Natrel Allen ’22

Bowdoin College (Men’s Basketball)

•Started and played in five games during his sophomore season

Robert Amundson ’22

Bates College (Men’s Swimming & Diving)

•N amed a NESCAC Winter

All-Academic selection

•H elped the Bobcats place fourth at the NESCAC Championship

Luca Antongiovanni ’20

University of North Carolina (Men’s Lacrosse)

•Appeared in two games in his senior season

Grace Arcoleo ’22

Union College (Women’s Basketball)

•N amed to the Liberty League

All-Academic Team

•Appeared in all 27 games with 23 starts as a sophomore, averaged 4.7 points and 4.7 rebounds per game; led the team and ranked fifth in the Liberty League with 64 assists while also ranking second on the team with 26 steals; averaged a team-best 28.7 minutes per game

Peter Aznar-Klein ’23

Williams College (Men’s Golf)

•H elped the Ephs to an eighth-place finish at the NESCAC Golf Championship

Nate Baker ’19

Bowdoin College (Men’s Lacrosse)

•P layed in nine games in his senior campaign

•N CAA DIII Men’s Lacrosse Championship Semifinalist and NESCAC Championship Semifinalist

Ethan Barnard ’19

Bowdoin College (Men’s Lacrosse)

• U SILA Second Team All-American and First Team All-Region

•First Team ALL NESCAC

•USILA Scholar All-American

•N CAA DIII Men’s Lacrosse Championship Semifinalist and NESCAC Championship Semifinalist

Fulton Bayman ’20

University of Notre Dame (Men’s Lacrosse)

•H elped the Fighting Irish win back-toback national titles with a final record of 16-1 on the season; played 13 games as an attackman during his senior season, totaled eight points off four goals and four assists

Esme Benjamin ’20

Rhodes College (Women’s Tennis)

•E arned a spot on the All-SAA honorable mention team

Ginger Berry ’21

College of the Holy Cross (Women’s Swimming & Diving)

•Placed second in the 200-yard backstroke (2:14.08) and the 100-yard backstroke (1:01.40) in season opening win at Iona

•2 024 Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholars for academic and athletic achievement

Wells Bligh ’21

Brown University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•Played in four games; earned three starts

Sydney Bluestein ’21

Amherst College (Women’s Swimming & Diving)

•Named to the 2024 Academic All-America Women’s Swimming & Diving Third Team for NCAA Division III

•P laced eighth in one-meter diving at the NCAA Championships, posting an 11-dive score of 433.60 to earn First Team All-America honors, awarded to the top eight finishers in each event

•Earned All-NESCAC honors; named to the NESCAC All-Academic team

Maddie Boger ’21

Hamilton College (Women’s Lacrosse)

•Saw action in three games this season

•NESCAC Championship Quarterfinalist

Henry Bonnie ’20

Dartmouth College (Men’s Lacrosse)

•E arned honorable mention All-Ivy League Honors

•Enjoyed a career season, finishing second on the team in goals (19) and third in points (24); recorded five multi-goal games this season, including two hat tricks

Trey Bourque ’21

Skidmore College (Baseball)

•Named to the 2024 Academic All-District® Baseball Team, selected by College Sports Communicators

•All-Liberty League

Honorable Mention honoree; finished in the top-10 in the Liberty League in multiple statistical categories including runs scored (7th -39), RBI (10 th -34), doubles (6th -11), and home runs (7th -5)

Lauryn Broecker ’23

Assumption College (Women’s Ice Hockey)

•Played in six games in her rookie campaign

•NEWHA Championship Tournament Quarterfinalist

Carson Brown ’22

Johns Hopkins University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•Academic All-Big Ten honors for the 2024 season

•Played in nine games for the Blue Jays

•NCAA DI Men’s Lacrosse Championship Quarterfinalist

Avery Burns ’22

Connecticut College (Women’s Basketball)

•Named to the 2023-24 College Sports Communicators (CSC)

Academic All-District® Men’s and Women’s Basketball Team

•P layed in 22 games in her sophomore season

Grace Caligiuri ’22

Colby College (Women’s Ice Hockey)

•P layed in 12 games in her sophomore season, making a total of 31 saves

•NESCAC Championship Semifinalist

•Named to the NESCAC All-Academic Team

•Named to the 2024 Liberty League

All-Academic Team

Charles Braff ’21

University of Virginia (Men’s Squash)

•Finished the season with an 8-3 record

Finn Broder ’23

University of Pennsylvania (Men’s Rowing)

•R aced in the 5V8+ that finished in secondplace vs. Northeastern, finished first vs. Princeton/Columbia, against Navy and Harvard finished in second-place and claimed first vs. Cornell this season

•At the EARC Sprints finished in sixth-place in the Grand Final rowing in the 5V8+, four seat

Carsten Carey ’20

Dartmouth College (Men’s Rowing)

•Finished in second-place at the Eastern Sprints Championship in the Grand Final of the 2v8+

Kenny Carlisle ’23

Bates College (Baseball)

•M ade four appearances for the Bobcats in his rookie season

Bailey Cheetham ’19

Johns Hopkins University (Women’s Lacrosse)

•Academic All-Big Ten Team for the fourth time in career

•N amed to the 2024 IWLCA Senior All-Star Team

•A s a graduate student captain, led the Blue Jays and ranked third in the Big Ten with a career-high 35 assists this season; 35 assists are the most for JHU since 2018 and are the seventh most in school Division I history; finished her career as the program’s all-time leader in assists by a midfielder with 63; scored 14 goals and totaled a career-best 49 points in 2024; totaled 43 goals, 63 assists and 109 points along with 78 ground balls, 32 caused turnovers and 32 draws in 75 career games.

•Scored the overtime winner and handed out four assists in win at #5 Michigan in Big Ten Quarterfinals

•Advanced to the second round of the NCAA DI Women’s Lacrosse Championship

Darien Chiang ’23

Claire Cummings ’21

Bates University (Men’s Rowing)

•Coxing the 2V8+ placed fourth as a team out of eight schools in the D3 point standings at the 2024 IRA National Championship Regatta

Sam Chutkow ’22

Carleton College (Baseball)

•P layed in 32 games this season for the Knights, scoring 12 runs

Maddie Clough ’20

Santa Clara University (Women’s Water Polo)

•Played in all 29 games in her senior season with third most goals (23) on the team, the most from a single season in her career

Keri Clougherty ’21

Boston College (Women’s Ice Hockey)

•P layed in all 36 games for the Eagles on Defense, registering three points on the season

•Awarded the ACC Top six for Service Award for demonstrating outstanding dedication to community service and outreach programs

•H ockey East Championship Tournament Semifinalist

Travis Cobain ’23

Lake Forest College (Men’s Basketball)

•Contributed minutes in seven games in his sophomore campaign

Jackson Coutu ’22

Providence College (Men’s Lacrosse)

•Played in 12 games in his sophomore season

Katrina Csaky ’21

Georgetown University (Women’s Rowing)

•Earned CRCA Scholar Athlete Honors

•Finished in fourth-place at the Patriot League Championships

•Won Team Points Trophy at Dad Vail Regatta

Yale University (Women’s Rowing)

•Won Women’s Club 8+ at the Head of the Charles sitting in three seat

•Medaled by placing third at the Ivy League Championship in Yale’s 3V 8+ crew

Billy Curtis ’21

Middlebory College (Men’s Lacrosse)

•USILA All-American Honorable Mention

•Fifth on Middlebury’s career list with 104 assists and set a program record with seven assists in a single game

•2024 NCAA Division III Men’s Lacrosse Quarterfinalist and 2024 NESCAC Championship Tournament Finalist

Angela Czeremcha ’21

Springfield College (Women’s Basketball)

•Named to the 2023-24 CSC Academic All-District® Women’s Basketball Team

•Started in all 28 games for the Pride, producing 13.5 points per contest and 11.6 rebounds per game, along with 54 assists, 17 blocks, and 46 steals

•H onored the NEWMAC Women’s Basketball Defensive Player of the Year and received WBCA Honorable Mention All-America honors

Teddy Danzinger ’20

Dartmouth College (Men’s Rowing)

•Helped the Big Green capture multiple medals at Eastern Sprints Championship

Zach Davis ’20

Union College (Men’s Rowing)

•Named Scholar All-Americans by the United States Intercollegiate

Lacrosse Association

•Received USILA All-America Second Team honors

•Led all Union midfielders with 25 goals and 18 assists for 43 points and grabbed 28 ground balls and causing five turnovers

•Liberty League All-Academic Team selection

•NCAA DIII Championship second round

Brian Delduchetta ’23

Gettysburg University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•CC Championship Tournament Finalist

•Saw action in 18 games for the Bullets

Cooper DeMallie ’22

Middlebury College (Men’s Lacrosse)

•NESCAC All-Academic honoreein spring 2024

•P layed in all 21 game this season, registering 16 points

CC DesLauriers ’23

University of Vermont (Women’s Ice Hockey)

•Appeared in 20 games in rookie season

Chandler Dicks ’23

College of the Holy Cross (Men’s Track & Field)

•At the NEICAAA Championship, tied for seventh in the high jump clearing 1.91m.

•At the Patriot League Championship, shared eighth jumping a 1.85m mark

Tripp Didden ’22

Johns Hopkins University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•Academic All-Big Ten honors for the 2024 season

•N CAA DI Men’s Lacrosse Championship Quarterfinalist

Joe Dowling ’21

Harvard University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•A ppeared in 10 games during his junior season

Grace Dumond ’22

Salve Regina University (Women’s Ice Hockey)

•Played in 25 games in sophomore season

Daisy Dundas ’21

Dartmouth College (Women’s Rowing)

•Finished in sixth-place in the Grand Final in Dartmouth’s 1v 8+ crew at the Ivy League Championship

•At Head of the Charles (in the fall) she raced in the seven seat of the Dartmouth entry to the Club Eights event, placing second in a time of 16:26.2 (behind Deerfield alum Claire Cummings of Yale)

Bennett Eun ’23

Matt Fiero ’22

Bowdoin College (Men’s Lacrosse)

•N CAA DIII Men’s Lacrosse Championship Semifinalist and NESCAC Championship Semifinalist

Nick Gaensler ’22

Brown University (Men’s Rowing)

•M ember of the 2V8+ crew that finished in fifth-place at the IRA Championship, helping the Bears finish in fifth-place overall

•Rowing in the 2V8+, helping the Bears capture the Eastern Sprints and IVY League Championship

Thomas Gale ’19

College of the Holy Cross (Men’s Ice Hockey)

•A ppeared in 19 games, making 18 starts and finished season with a 8-8-2 record, 2.41 goals-against average, and .917 save percentage in 1093:31 minutes of work

•N amed AHA Goaltender of the Week in November

Yale University (Men’s Squash)

•CSA Team Championship Semifinalist

George Fauver ’22

Bates College (Men’s Rowing)

•Rowing in the 1V8+ placed fifth as a team out of eight schools in the D3 point standings at the 2024 IRA National Championship Regatta

•Finished in sixth-place in the Grand Final of The National Invitational Rowing Championship in the Bates 1V8+ boat

•NESCAC Spring All-Academic selection

Abigail Fernald ’22

Connecticut College (Women’s Track & Field)

•Won the 4x800 relay title and set new school record (9:11.30) at New England Championship, the fifth fastest time ever at NE D3 Championships

•Ear ned NESCAC and D3 qualification in the 1500m at the Silfen Invitational with a second-place finish in a time of 4:38.64 and went on to finish 21 st at the NEICAAA Championships

•Named to the NESCAC All-Academic team for both Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field

•E arned All-America Second Team honors after placing 11 th in the Mile at the Indoor Track & Field Championship

Callia Ferraris ’23

Middlebury College (Women’s Ice Hockey)

•N amed Second Team All-NESCAC in her rookie campaign, played in 29 games and registered 16 points

•N ESCAC Tournament Champion and NCAA DIII Championship Tournament Semifinalist

Matthew Gardner ’20

Assumption College (Baseball)

•P itched in nine games during his senior campaign, making a total of 34 appearances for the Greyhounds during his four-year career

•Advanced to the second round of the Northeast-10 Championship

Morgan Giardina ’22

Johns Hopkins University (Women’s Lacrosse)

•Academic All-Big Ten Team

•Advanced to the second round of the NCAA DI Women’s Lacrosse Championship

Savannah Gibbs ’22

Carnegie Mellon University (Women’s Basketball)

•Earned All-UAA Second Team and UAA All-Academic honors

•Started 23 of 24 games played, averaged 13.8 points per game in 29.5 minutesper game

Kikka Giudici ’20

Princeton University (Women’s Rowing)

•Finished fourth overall at the NCAA Rowing Teams

•Named CRCA Scholar Athlete

Kade Goldberg ’21

Georgetown University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•N CAA DI Championship Men’s Lacrosse Quarterfinalist

•Played in 15 games and tallied 14 points

THE COMMON ROOM / ATHLETE HIGHLIGHTS

Liam Griffiths ’21

Harvard University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•Played in eight games for the Crimson and registered seven assists Connor Guest ’20

Amherst College (Men’s Lacrosse)

•I n his senior season, played in eight games for the Mammoths, concluding his career by registering at total of 28 goals in his career

•N amed Academic All-NESCAC for the spring 2024 season

Emma Gurnell ’22

Assumption College (Women’s Ice Hockey)

•Played in all 36 games for the Greyhounds, registering 11 points and 77 shots

•Named to the NEWHA All-Academic Team

•NEWHA Championship Tournament Quarterfinalist

Christina Halloran ’20

Williams College (Women’s Ice Hockey)

•A ppeared in all 24 games; totaled three goals, three assists, six points, 49 shots and led the team with 31 blocked shots, ranking in a tie for seventh in the NESCAC in blocked shots

•N ESCAC Championship Tournament Quarterfinalist

•Recipient of the Kate Hogan Women’s Athletic Award

•Named to the NESCAC All-Academic Team

Carter Hampson ’20

Hamilton College (Men’s Lacrosse)

•Played in all 16 games this season

•N amed to the NESCAC All-Sportsmanship team and the NESCAC All-Academic Team

Quinn Hampson ’22

Tufts University (Men’s Track & Field)

•H elped the Jumbos distance medley relay to a third-place finish at the Indoor Division III New England Track & Field Championships

•Finished 16th in the 5000 m race at the NESCAC Outdoor Track & Field Championship, helping the Jumbos with the NESCAC title

Tory Hansen ’21

Cornell University (Women’s Rowing)

Mikey Holland ’19

Babson College (Men’s Ice Hockey)

•N amed to the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) announced its Academic All-Conference team

•NEHC Tournament Quarterfinalist

Will Holland ’20

Babson College (Men’s Ice Hockey)

•N amed to the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) announced its Academic All-Conference team

•NEHC Tournament Quarterfinalist

•Played in all 26 games

Porter Hollen ’20

Brown University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•S aw action in five games as a senior midfielder

•Finished the season with five shots, two shots on goal, and one caused turnover

Kelly Howe ’22

William Smith College (Women’s Ice Hockey)

•N amed to the New England Hockey Conference All-Academic

•N amed NEHC Player of the Week. Played in all 27 games and second on the team in goals with 11, added two assists for 13 points

•N ew England Hockey Conference championship tournament semifinalist

Charlotte Iler ’23

Colorado College (Women’s Lacrosse)

•Started and played in nine games, recorded 25 goals and seven assists

Javier Irizarry ’19

A mherst College (Baseball)

Kiernan Keller ’22

Franklin & Marshall (Baseball)

•Named to the College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA)

Academic All-District® Team

•M ade eight starts on the mound, earning a 3.33 ERA in 48.2 innings; earned two saves in his four relief appearances and struck out 45 batters during the 2024 campaign

•N amed to Second Team All-Centennial Conference

Jackson Kinsler ’23

Boston University (Women’s Ice Hockey)

•P layed in 26 games for the Terriers during her first-season

Sophia Knoblock ’23

Butler University (Women’s Lacrosse)

•A ppeared in nine games, starting six, scored eight total goals, with a season-high four at UConn

Olivia Konar ’22

Kaley MacDonald ’23

Harvard Univeristy (Women’s Ice Hockey)

•Played in all 30 games on the season, totaling even points with three goals and four assists and finished third on the team in blocked shots with 50

Alton Machen ’20

Amherst College (Men’s Track & Field)

•Broke the Amherst school record in the 110m hurdles, running a time of 15.05 seconds to finish third at the 2024 NESCAC Championships and earned his first career All-NESCAC honor; with the podium finish, helped the Mammoths claim second-place at the NESCAC Championship

Jane Mallach ’20

Colorado College (Women’s Track & Field)

•Member of the Tigers Track & Field teams that won Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship for the first time in program history

•M ember of the 3V8+ crew that finished in seventh-place in the Grand Final at the Ivy League Championship

Brooks Hauser ’22

Tufts University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•NCAA DIII Men’s Lacrosse Champion

•P layed and started all 21 games and recorded 49 goals and 30 assists

•Named to the NESCAC All-Academic Team

Jake Higgins ’20

College of the Holy Cross (Men’s Ice Hockey)

•Played in 32 games and recorded a career-high nine points on five goals and four assists

•Atlantic Hockey Championship Tournament Semifinalist

Meghan Holland ’23

Colgate University (Women’s Lacrosse)

•Appeared in eight games making one start

•In his senior campaign for the Mammoths, started in 12 games and scored four runs on the season, defeated Bowdoin in a best of three series in the NESCAC Quarterfinals

Lisa Ito-Bagshaw ’21

Hamilton College (Women’s Ice Hockey)

•P layed in 29 games, registering seven points on 38 shots

•NCAA DIII Women’s Hockey Championship Quarterfinalists and NESCAC Championship Tournament Finalist

Sara Ito-Bagshaw ’22

Bowdoin College (Women’s Ice Hockey)

•N amed NESCAC Player of the Week in December

•P layed in 25 games, registering five points on the season

Emma Kahle ’22

St. Lawrence University (Women’s Lacrosse)

•Earned Liberty League All-Academic Honors

Karim Kane ’20

Northeastern University (Men’s Rowing)

•Sat in the two seat in the third varsity eight that had a second-place finish in the petite final at Eastern Sprints, crossing the line at 5:49.628 (5/19)

•S at in the two seat in the third varsity eight that had a fifth-place finish in the petite final at the IRA Championships, crossing the line at 5:57.592 (6/2)

Cornell University (Women’s Rowing)

•Honored with CRA Scholar Athlete Award

•Part of the 2V8+ crew that finished in second-place in the Petit Final at the Ivy League Championships

Matt Lazzaro ’22

Penn State University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•Appeared in two games for the Nittany Lions

Simi Lawal ’23

Tufts University (Women’s Track & Field)

•Finished in 10th-place at the 2024 Division III New England Championships in the 100-meter dash

•At the NESCAC Outdoor Track & Field Championship, ran a new collegiate-best time of 12.68 seconds to take 14th -place in prelims in the 100-meter dash, and led Tufts in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.72 seconds for 10 th -place

Will Lodge ’22

Yale University (Men’s Golf)

•Named to the Division I PING All-Northeast Region Team

•Finished in 12 th -Place at the NCAA Regional Event in Louisiana

•Helped the Bulldogs win the IVY League Championship

Derek Long ’23

Mercy University (Men’sBasketball)

•A ppeared in 14 games in his rookie season and scored 13 points with nine rebounds and five steals

Josephine Louis ’23

Colorado College (Women’s Track & Field)

•Member of the Tigers Track & Field teams that won Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship for the first time in program history

Ned Lynch ’19

Army (Men’s Lacrosse)

•Served as team captain, started all 14 games and recovered 17 ground balls and caused nine turnovers

•Named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll

Rachel Mark ’23

Princeton University (Women’s Rowing)

•At Head of the Charles in the fall, she raced in the bow seat of the Princeton entry to the Club Eights event, placing third in a time of 16:29.9

•Helped the Tigers win their seventh consecutive Ivy League Championship

Marissa Massey ’20

Army (Women’s Lacrosse)

•Started all 17 games for the Black Knights; totaled 29 draw controls, 10 caused turnovers, 21 ground balls and two goals

Natalie Meyer ’23

Princeton University (Women’s Rowing)

•Helped the Tigers win their seventh consecutive Ivy League Championship

Zach Milton ’19

Middlebury College (Men’s Ice Hockey)

•Named NESCAC Winter All-Academic Team

•NESCAC Championship Semifinalist

Johnnie Moriarty ’23

Cornell University (Men’s Rowing)

•Helped the Big Red finished 12 th out of 24 teams at the IRA National Championship

•Placed third in the Petit Final in the 3V8+ at the Eastern Sprints

Billy Mrowka ’22

Skyline College (Baseball)

•In his sophomore campaign played in 28 games for Skyline

Tyler Mudd ’21

Boston College (Baseball)

•In his junior season, made nine appearances on the mound for the Eagles

Caleb Newman ’20

Cornell University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•Saw action in two games this season

•IVY League Championship Semifinalist

Lila Nottage ’22

Brown University (Women’s Rowing)

•Rowed in the bow seat of the Brown “B” entry at Foot of the Charles, finishing 18 th in the fall season

•At the spring Ivy League Championship helped the D4 crew finish in seventhplace, helping the Bears to a team secondplace finish at the Ivy League Championship

Jaxon Palmer ’21

Middlebury College (Women’s Track & Field)

•E arned Outdoor USTFCCCA

All-Region honors in both the Javelin and Hammer for the second-straight year and third time overall

•N amed Outdoor All-NESCAC two times (Javelin and Hammer), marking the third and fourth time receiving the honors in her career

•N ESCAC ChampionHammer Throw - 46.12m

•S econd in the Javelin38.41m, set the region’s thirdlongest distance

•At Division III New Englands, launched the hammer 46.23m, which was the third-farthest throw in the Mideast

George Panagopoulos ’21

Tufts University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•Started and played in all 21 games for the Jumbos

•NCAA DIII Men’s Lacrosse Champion

Bryce Pang ’22

Lehigh University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•P atriot League Champion and NCAA DI Championship Quarterfinalist

Kyra Parsons ’23

Wellesley College (Softball)

• Competed in 17 games with two pitching appearances as a first year; recorded two hits, scored five runs and two stolen bases

Jimmy Patton ’20

Harvard University (Men’s Rowing)

• Finished in second in the Crimson’s B-Boat at the Head of the Charles

John Patton ’23

Yale Univeristy (Men’s Rowing)

•Finished in third-place as a team at the Eastern Sprints

•Fifth-place finish for the Bulldogs at the IRA National Championship; in the Grand Final, the first varsity crew including John took fifth-place

Oscar Patton ’23

Princeton Univeristy (Men’s Rowing)

•H elped the Tigers finish in second-place overall at the IRA National Championship, marking the highest finish for the team since 2016; member of the 3V8+ crew that had a photo finish to earn a second-place medal

• C laimed the Rowe Cup at the Eastern Sprints with the 3V8+ claiming the gold medal in their Grand Final race

Nick Pecora ’20

Lehigh University (Men’s Lacrosse)

• G arnered USILA Scholar

All-American honors

•Started in 31 games over the past two seasons, racked up 195 saves in 2024, the seventh-most in a single season

•Named the Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Week four times throughout his career

•Patriot League Champion and NCAA

DI Championship Quarterfinalist

Andy Pelc ’21

Skidmore College (Baseball)

•P layed in 29 games in his junior year for the Thoroughbreds and recorded 13 runs

•N amed to the 2024 Liberty League All-Academic Team

Aidan Philie ’20

Bowdoin College (Men’s Lacrosse)

•NCAA DIII Men’s Lacrosse Championship Semifinalist and NESCAC Championship Semifinalist

Austin Philie ’19

Bowdoin College (Men’s Lacrosse)

•NCAA DIII Men’s Lacrosse Championship Semifinalist and NESCAC Championship Semifinalist

•Named to NESCAC All-Sportsmanship Team

Larrabee Pollack ’23

Boston College (Women’s Rowing)

•At Head of the Charles she raced in the two seat of the Boston College entry to the Championship Fours event, placing ninth in a time of 19:06.1; rowed in the six seat of the BC “A” entry at the Foot of the Charles, finishing seventh

•At the ACC Championship, finished in second-place in the Petit Final in the Eagles 1V8+ boat

•Recipient of the team’s Freshman of the Year Award

Andrew Preis ’23

University of North Carolina (Men’s Lacrosse)

•A ppeared in all 14 contests, earning four starts at midfield during freshman campaign in Chapel Hill

Henry Prince ’23

Bates College (Baseball)

•P layed in all 21 games in his rookie season, scoring a total of eight runs

Charles Richards ’23

Harvard University (Men’s Rowing)

•Rowed in the 2V8+ that helped Harvard claim the Harvard-Yale Regatta

•Finished in fifth-place in the 2V8+ boat at the IRA Championship

•Second in the 2V8+ at the Eastern Sprints

Silas Reed ’20

Tufts University (Baseball)

•N amed to the 2023-24 Academic AllDistrict® Baseball Team, selected by College Sports Communicators (CSC)

•N amed American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) All-Region one Third Team honoree

•I n senior season, was the ace for the Jumbos’ pitching staff, finishing the season with a 7-2 record, 3.95 ERA and 1.32 WHIP as he pitched 70.2 innings. ranking third in the NESCAC with 64 strikeouts and threw three complete games with two being shutouts

•Named to the NESCAC Spring All-Academic Team

Georgia Sackrey ’23

University of Pennsylvania (Women’s Rowing)

•At Head of the Charles she raced in the three seat of the University of Pennsylvania entry to the Club Fours event, placing third in a time of 18:13.8

• Contributed to a team 10 th -place finish at the NCAA Championship

•Finished in fourth as a team at the IVY League Championship

Michael Scharfenberger ’21

Georgetown University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•S aw action in three games in goal for the Hoyas

Griffin Schutz ’21

University of Virginia (Men’s Lacrosse)

•NCAA DI Men’s Lacrosse

Championship Semifinalist

•N amed USILA Third Team

All-American, Inside Lacrosse Third Team All-American, and USA Lacrosse Third Team All-American

•Honored to the All-ACC Team

•U SA Lacrosse Magazine Preseason Third Team

All-American

Elliott Seymour ’23 Colby College (Baseball)

• M ade three appearances in rookie season for the Mules

Bennett Stankovits ’20

MIT (Men’s Lacrosse)

•P layed in 15 games; registered nine goals and seven assists on the season

Sarah Stonestreet ’21

Hamilton College (Women’s Lacrosse)

Maggie Tydings ’20

Johns Hopkins University (Women’s Lacrosse)

•Academic All-Big Ten Team for the third time in career

•Advanced to the second round of the NCAA DI Women’s Lacrosse Championship

Cole Van Meter ’22

Boston University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•Appeared in two games as a sophomore

•Patriot League Championship Finalist

Merritt Wurts ’21

•S aw action in 15 games, recorded 16 goals and six assists

•NESCAC Championship Quarterfinalist

•Named to the NESCAC All-Academic Team

Thomas Stull ’21

Richmond University (Men’s Lacrosse)

•P layed in 13 games, picked up 30 ground balls and caused 16 turnovers

•Atlantic 10 Championship Finalist

•Named Preseason All-Atlantic 10

Nina Tanaka ’21

Georgetown University (Women’s Rowing)

•Earned CRCA Scholar Athlete Honors

•Finished in fourth-place at the Patriot League Championships

•Win Team Points Trophy at Dad Vail Regatta

Marnie Todd ’23

Dickinson College (Women’s Lacrosse)

•Appeared in 15 games off the bench during her rookie campaign totaling six draw controls, four groundballs, one assist and caused one turnover

Yale University (Men’s Squash) SA Team Championship

Amherst College (Men’s Squash)

•NESCAC Championship Team Quarterfinalist

Ben Zimmerman ’21

Hamilton College (Men’s Ice Hockey) amed NESCAC Winter All-Academic Team

•NESCAC Championship Semifinalist

’04

CRICKET WHITTON

SPANX CEO

/// by Emily Boutilier ///

When Caroline “Cricket” Whitton ’04 first visited the Atlanta headquarters of Spanx, she noticed an old board game framed in a shadow box outside the door of the company’s founder, Sara Blakely. Introduced in 1966, What Shall I Be: The Exciting Game of Career Girls extols all six career options available to women. You read that correctly: all six, and none is “CEO of a global brand.”

Cricket instantly bonded with Blakely over the folly of limiting girls to just six careers (which in the game are: teacher, airline hostess, actress, nurse, model, and ballet dancer). “There is no one blueprint,” Cricket says, “for how women in our generation are successful.”

Here is Cricket’s own blueprint: In February, after driving digital-first growth at companies including Wayfair and Design Within Reach, Cricket, a former skier and rower at Deerfield, was named CEO of the shapewear and apparel brand Spanx, a company with the name recognition and devoted customer base that most brands can only dream about. Under Cricket’s leadership—first as president and now as CEO—Spanx is aiming high. The go-to black trousers in any woman’s wardrobe? The favorite sweatsuit? The most flattering leggings? In Whitton’s vision, all of those are Spanx.

“I realized early in my career that I’m growth-obsessed,” Cricket says. “My vision is that we are the brand that gives you that best item in your closet. We are creating products that make you want to get rid of all the others.”

Courtesy of SPANX

Deerfield teachers also modeled for her how to give effective feedback to her team.

“I’m in a high-growth business,” Cricket says. “I go back all the time to how Deerfield teachers created the space for us to grow. There has to be trust and mutual respect. Our teachers assumed good intentions and challenged us to think differently.”

The path to the corner office is rarely a straight line. Cricket’s is no exception. “When I was 15,” she says, “I never would have said I’d be the CEO of a company.” She arrived at Deerfield as a shy teenager and an accomplished ski racer, the second of four sisters. Though her parents attended public high schools, one sister after another fell in love with Deerfield.

Cricket describes her high school experience as transformational. In AP US History, Tom Heise started every class with a question that sparked a lively debate. From that experience, Cricket saw that there is rarely one right answer to any question—a lesson she now conveys to her team.

Deerfield teachers also modeled for her how to give effective feedback to her team. “I’m in a high-growth business,” Cricket says. “I go back all the time to how Deerfield teachers created the space for us to grow. There has to be trust and mutual respect. Our teachers assumed good intentions and challenged us to think differently.”

Perhaps most importantly, she learned at Deerfield that “your authentic self is the best version of yourself.” She explains: “I think about the role of the declamations, how I was able to bring my personality into experiences outside my comfort zone. At Deerfield, however, non-mainstream your interest is, everyone cheers and recognizes it. That has been a key part of who I am as a leader, especially a leader of women in my organization. You don’t have to act like someone else.”

Deerfield shaped Cricket’s personal life too: she married her best friend and classmate, Nick Hammerschlag ’04. They live in Coconut Grove, FL, with their two daughters, ages eight and six.

Cricket graduated from Yale with a history degree and then began her career in asset management in New York City. “But I wasn’t passionate about the product I was selling,” she says. She eventually connected with the CEO of the hundreds of websites that would become Wayfair, the e-commerce giant in home goods and furnishings.

“I left my steady finance career—I think my parents thought I was crazy—and went to this place that was inventing a lot of what we now expect from transactions in digital channels,” she says. “I was thrown into supplier relationships and margins. I was doing everything from building banners for the site to setting the pricing strategy. I fell in love with it. That was the turning point for me.”

From there, Cricket was drawn to Spanx because of the company’s laser focus on understanding its customers, and because she saw so much opportunity for the business to grow. She arrived in 2017. “We were the inventors of modern shapewear, and we had started to build a leggings business,” she says. “During my first six months here, I did some testing on the leggings business with current customers and overall digital testing. Our leggings were amazing, and I felt like we had a right to play and a right to win in that space.”

She decided to make a large purchase of leggings inventory. That was the first big risk she took at the company. “It was terrifying,” she says, “because you never want to disappoint your customer. But that fall we started getting messages from people saying, ‘Spanx pants changed my life.’”

Today, 75 percent of the business at Spanx is clothing. (The other 25 percent is shapewear and other intimate apparel.) “We have one of the best-selling sweatsuits in the world right now,” Cricket says. “So many people said, ‘What right do you have to be in sweatsuits?’ And I said, ‘We can deliver a better one because we always start with the customer and what she wants. We bring our understanding of women’s bodies and busy lives to everything that we build so that we can create, I think, the best version of every product that is essential to her wardrobe.”

How does the company gain that understanding? Cricket explains that Spanx uses real women as fit models for all sizes, from extra small to 3X. The 750-person staff is mostly women. The board of directors is all women—a true rarity in the corporate world. “This sends an important message to the overall market,” Cricket says. “Ultimately, we sell products for women. At the leadership level, we believe that female voices bring something unique to the table.”

All this reinforces Cricket’s point about authenticity. Indeed, she models authenticity for her team. They know about her passion for rescuing dogs and horses, for example, just as they know that her daughters may bound into her home office during a video call.

“Early in my career, I felt like I was acting or playing dress up,” Cricket says. “You’re putting on a suit and being serious. And there’s a role for that. But the world is changing quickly, and we really need women who bring their unique experiences, perspectives, and selves to the workplace.”

That’s true for everyone—airline hostess, actress, or CEO. //

L, l to r: Rob McCarthy, Dewey Brinkley, Bill Nook, Craig Creelman, Matt Day, Dan Schwenk

R, l to r: Curry Ford, Dave Goodridge, Matt Ripperger

Bottom, l to r: Curry Ford, Dewey Brinkley, Matt Day, Rob McCarthy, Craig Creelman, Bill Nook, Matt Ripperger, Dave Goodridge, Dan Schwenk

1990

“Nine of us from the great class of 1990 got together for mini-reunion in Sea Island, GA, in late April of 2024. I came from Nashville, Matt Day from Bend, Oregon, Curry Ford, Bill Nook and Matt Ripperger from the NYC area, Rob McCarthy from Boston, Dan Schwenk from the Cape, Craig Creelman from New Hampshire and Dewey Brinkley from Raleigh, NC. It was a group that represented the varsity football team, the Mellow D’s, the crew team, band, varsity baseball, and the Deerfield Scroll. We played golf and hung at the pool and beach while catching up. Plans are already underway for another reunion in 2025!” —Dave Goodridge

DA next-gen lax teammates / Churchill Hoof coached daughter Camilla and teammate Elsie (daughter of Nelson Erickson ’97 ) in a successful season for the Alexandria Lacrosse Club grade 5/6 Girls.

92

1991

Churchill Hoof coached daughter Camilla and teammate Elsie (daughter of Nelson Erickson ’97) in a successful season for the Alexandria Lacrosse Club grade five and six girls.

1992

On Saturday, April 13, in Brighton, UK at Morena Di Luna, Maureen Paley and Angel Abreu celebrated a gallery opening.(above)

1998

Tom Bloomer ’98 met up with Carson Brown ’22 at the Hopkins Blue Jays Alumni Smoker in Baltimore, MD, to discuss further ways to develop the DA-JHU lacrosse pipeline. The Smoker is an annual tradition where alumni officially meet the current team before the season’s first game. (right)

96

“Leslie Yeransian ’96 and Tom Dolsak welcomed their fifth child, Isaac George, to the family. God is laughing, thus his name.”

Pictured l to r: Joan Denckla ’94 , Angel Abreu ’92 , and Rachel Reingold ’92

1999

“I really wanted to bring my family to Deerfield for this year’s Reunion, but it is proving impossible! So, writing a class note for the first time seemed the next best thing. My family (husband Olegario and I, and our kids Pablo (10) and Rafael (7)) live just outside Washington, DC, in the most wonderful town on earth, Cheverly, MD, filled with amazing neighbors and friends. I am a federal public defender in DC, focusing on what happens after what you hear in the news—not the arrest or the trial or the sentencing, but the years-long aftermath. My clients have been imprisoned for many decades, and during that time, the laws have changed, or our understanding of what is just has changed, or their health has become perilous, and I work to reduce their sentences. I love my work. When not working or at school, you’ll find us reading (me), coaching soccer (Olegario), playing soccer (Pablo and Rafa), drumming (Pablo), Lego-ing (Rafa), and sitting around the firepit (Olegario and me) while our kids shoot on the enormous soccer goal that dominates our front yard (sorry neighbors’ cars!). We’ll try to make the next Reunion because I would love to show my kids one of the first places that deeply nurtured my love of writing, a love that later led to, in one instance, the release of a juvenile serving a life sentence who is now a good friend.”

—Joanna Munson Perales

2006

“My husband and I recently welcomed our second child, Anderson Nicholas Flanders. Our family of four moved to the Main Line during the pandemic, where Clayton works as a derivatives trader at Susquehanna International Group, and I am the co-director of Prenatal and Neonatal Neurosurgery at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Here are our two children pictured together!” (left) —Tracy Flanders ’06

2007

Eric King and Allison Henry, were married in front of family and friends in October 2021 and in Houston, TX, in 2023. In February 2024, they went on their honeymoon, visiting Mount Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar! (left)

2009

Congratulations to Alec Bewkes ! His short film, Shut Up, Jack premiered at the Tribeca Film Festivalin June. Alec’s film—which he wrote, directed, and starred in—was among only a few films accepted out of over 8,000 entries.

2020

After being a part of the Mello Ds at DA, Elliot Flagg formed a band at UVA, The Jellies. He is lead singer and plays guitar and keys. Elliot wrote “Move on” and “Unwind.” This spring, the band released their first album, which you can find on Apple Music and Spotify. (right)

2021

The family of Shane McCarthy, who tragically passed away on November 30, 2023 due to complications from bacterial meningitis, has created a non-profit organization: McCarthy Brothers Bond (mccarthybrothersbond.com) as a way to remember and honor the special relationship between Shane and his elder brother Colin. MBB provides opportunities to siblings and families of individuals with complex heath conditions and developmental disabilities by providing scholarships in their local community and beyond. Angela and Mike, who are also part of the Deerfield community as employees, said that Colin was one of Shane’s biggest supporters and had a great influence on Shane’s character and life, despite being non-verbal and non-ambulatory. “Throughout the course of the boys’ lives we did our best to provide balance for them both, but it was not always easy. There were many sacrifices that Shane made, many missed opportunities and missed experiences. Through McCarthy Brothers Bond we want to help siblings and families to be together but also support and provide opportunities for the typical sibling so that they have the chance to shine independently.”

Selby Jenkins ’09 and Nicolas Kaiser married in the Cotswolds, England, in September 2023, and 13 Deerfield alumni, representing five classes —1975, 1979, 2007, 2009, and 2010— attended!

As a young Deerfield student, Edoardo Ballerini used to walk out into the cow pastures surrounding the Academy and read books, sometimes out loud. The surroundings were bucolic, he recalls, and the activity relaxing. In retrospect, he concedes, it may have been a bit strange. “I remember being out in the fields with the cows one day reading a book of Wallace Stevens’s poems when my English teacher came walking by and asked what on earth I was doing,” recalls Edoardo with a chuckle.

Though Edoardo didn’t realize it at the time, this leisure activity was, in a way, an oblique foreshadowing of his subsequent career. Today, he is an actor whose credits range from The Sopranos to the recent A Murder at the End of the World as well as an award-winning audiobook narrator whose plaudits include the American Library Association’s Booklist 2023 Voice of Choice award and two-time winner of the Audiobook Publishers Association’s Best Male Narrator Audie Award, among many others. Edoardo admits he didn’t originally envision this career path— in his younger days, he aspired to be a writer—but does acknowledge that early life experiences prepared him well for such a career. “My father is a poet, and he took me to many readings and literary salons as a child. My mother also writes fiction, so literature has always been a part of my life.”

EDOARDO BALLERINI

ACTOR /// by Lori Ferguson ///

Acting, conversely, came into Edoardo’s life in a more backhanded manner. After graduating from Deerfield, he attended Wesleyan University, earned a degree in English language and literature, and then set off to Rome to study Latin with a Vatican priest. “I quickly decided that was not for me and began looking for something else to do,” he says with a smile. An ad in a local paper for a burgeoning American theater company caught his eye, and he decided to investigate. “I hung out with them for a bit and then returned to New York and joined the acting community. I was doing well—landing a series of small and large parts and making a living—and then, in the late 2000s, someone asked if I would be interested in recording an audiobook. It was a random thing, but I decided to give it a try and discovered that I liked it very much; it was acting married to my literature side.”

The rest, as they say, is history. In the years since, Ballerini has recorded a host of audiobooks, from Tolstoy’s War and Peace to Thich Nhat Hanh’s meditation book Peace is Every Step and Jess Walter’s best-selling Beautiful Ruins, for which he won the 2013 Best Male Narrator Audie Award. The New York Times Magazine dubbed him the audiobook world’s most reliable narrator and described him as “the Voice of God.”

Queried as to the reason for his incredible popularity, Edoardo demurs. “I prefer to let others speak to this subject,” he says. He will, however, postulate a potential explanation. “My friend Jess Walter has described me as ‘a writer in sheep’s clothing,’ and I think there’s some truth to that,” he observes. “Narration allows me to wed my literary interests to my acting skills, and as a result, I find the work deeply satisfying.”

Most recently, Edoardo turned his attention to a project with deep personal resonance: the narration of the 1966 book The Headmaster by John McPhee ’49, a profile of longtime Deerfield Headmaster Frank Boyden. Required reading for all students when Edoardo entered the Academy in 1984, the book recently resurfaced in his memory.

“I came back to this work because my son is twelve, and I have recently been thinking about myself at that age,” he explains. “I re-read The Headmaster and was transported back to my years at Deerfield. It was so interesting to go back in time to that world; the Academy I knew in the 80s was so different from the mid-60s version that McPhee describes, but certain values remain. Deerfield is a beautiful place, but it was also extremely competitive. Some parts were great, and some were very hard for me. Re-reading the book was cathartic—it helped me to understand what the school was trying to do.”

Thinking other alumni might also appreciate the opportunity to revisit their educational experience, Edoardo reached out to the publisher, Macmillan, and proposed recording an audiobook version. They responded positively and contacted McPhee, who endorsed the undertaking. Edoardo says, “I would never have pursued the venture if John had said ‘no.’”

The audiobook was released on May 21 of this year, and Edoardo couldn’t be more pleased. He notes that recording the work has renewed his appreciation for the time spent at Deerfield. “I don’t think that my years at the Academy impacted my career per se, but the ethos I encountered there lingers,” he says. “The discipline and formality of the institution left a lasting impression. To this day, I value an attention to manners and believe civility matters. As an adult, I have always tried to handle myself with decorum, and I have tried to pass this on to my children. Revisiting The Headmaster all these years later allowed me to reflect more broadly on those lessons,” he concludes, “and I hope that it does the same for other alumni.” //

Jeff Vespa; Audiobook artwork courtesy of Macmillan Publishers, 2024

“The discipline and formality of the institution left a lasting impression. To this day, I value an attention to manners and believe civility matters. As an adult, I have always tried to handle myself with decorum, and I have tried to pass this on to my children. Revisiting The Headmaster all these years later allowed me to reflect more broadly on those lessons,” he concludes, “and I hope that it does the same for other alumni.”

Scan to hear a

sample of Edoardo’s reading of The Headmaster

FROM THE ARCHIVES: 1990

Colorful, high energy, witty, and non-traditional. These descriptors work equally well when describing Jillian Whelan’s creations or the artist herself. She has a fresh eye and an unabashed enthusiasm for trying new things, and her career journey is a testament to this: from selling fancy doorknobs to celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow and Oprah Winfrey to participating in large-scale projects such as the development of Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s West Side. “I grew up in the construction world—my father worked on numerous large-scale government contracts—so I came to the work naturally. I’m very good at working with the trades, and I have a knack for taking complex projects across the finish line.”

But those are hardly Jillian’s only talents. She is also a gifted fine artist, a passion she has nurtured since childhood and returned to in recent years. She hasn’t completely left the design world—“I’m really into interiors, and I can’t say ‘no’”—but Jillian now spends the lion’s share of her time creating brightly colored abstract works and provocative realist satires at ColoringWheelz, her art and design studio in her new hometown of Miami, FL.

Not surprisingly, Jillian’s works are as vibrant and engaging as she is, with big, bold assemblages bursting with color. “When I started making art again, I wanted to do something fun and different that featured movement and texture while also bringing order to chaos,” she explains. Some pieces are abstract, with titles like “Beach Blues” and “Blue Marble.” They are lively and inviting, beckoning viewers to come close and explore their vibrant surfaces set aglow by glitter, crystals, and mounds of paint in dizzying numbers. Others are pointed, witty satires—for example, “Sunny State, Shady People,” an oversized pair of sunglasses—that challenge the viewer to stop and think. All reflect light like a prism and exude a staggering sense of tactility. In short, they beg to be touched.

JILLIAN WHELAN

ARTIST /// by Lori Ferguson ///

Thanks to the protective resin coating Jillian applies once a piece has been completed, such impulses can be indulged. “I want to appeal to all the senses, and you know people like to touch the artwork, even when they know they’re not supposed to, so I try to keep my works safe,” she observes with a chuckle. “And much like a building, I want my pieces to be durable. Art is an investment, so I want my creations to be tactile and inviting and have a long shelf life.”

These playful artworks may seem surprisingly whimsical from a Parsons School of Design graduate with a reputation for creating cultivated corporate interiors. Still, for Jillian, it’s all part of the journey. “Growing up in St. Petersburg, FL, I was really into art, but I didn’t know how to direct that passion,” she explains. “Deerfield transformed my talent into a usable skillset and trained me as an artist. Then I went to American University and earned a finance degree so I would possess the skills necessary to run a business.”

A searing loss in her senior year in college—her beloved younger brother passed suddenly—drew Jillian back to the arts. “My brother and I were very close, and when he passed, my mindset shifted,” she recalls. “I needed to get back in touch with my creative side.” Thus, the degree in interior design from Parsons followed by a successful turn in interior design and project management. It’s hardly surprising that her blended career as a visual artist and sometime designer feels like a logical next step. “My art started as a hobby that has turned into a business, and I couldn’t be happier,” she observes. “The pace can be crazy at times—especially since my husband and I recently welcomed a new baby—but I love what I do, and I’m privileged to have wonderful clients who allow me to explore my creative impulses. I’m quite fortunate.”

Deerfield was a magical place, filled with gifted faculty and a diverse student body . . . The culture was respectful and kind, and the community was supportive. Everyone had the space to be themselves, and the Academy found uniqueness in each of us.

Jillian believes her interests and skills coalesced beautifully because of her time at the Academy. “Deerfield took my talent and developed it into an integral part of who I am,” she asserts. Had I not attended Deerfield, I would not have dedicated the necessary time and attention to my art with a focus that has enabled me to thrive professionally in the years since.

“Deerfield was a magical place, filled with gifted faculty and a diverse student body,” she concludes. “The culture was respectful and kind, and the community was supportive. Everyone had the space to be themselves, and the Academy found uniqueness in each of us. I’ve enjoyed an interesting journey in the creative space thus far in my career thanks to seeds sown at Deerfield. They took my innate talents and helped me develop them into something special.” //

PENINSULA

SAN FRANCISCO

FAIRFIELD

PALM BEACH

BOSTON

1945

John B. Hills

February 10, 2024

William S. Stout * February 5, 2024

1947

Gilbert Doan Jr. January 27, 2024

Purdy C. Jordan * November 30, 2023

George W. Laub May 1, 2024

1950

Peyton R. H. Pinkerton May 4, 2024

1951

Stephen M. Boyd April 7, 2024

David Preston * March 26, 2024

Thomas C. Reed

February 11, 2024

1952

Meredith Wood Jr. January 2, 2024

1953

Joel S. Mitchell Jr. March 24, 2024

Tom R. Ragland III April 23, 2024

1954

Harold J. Akey November 22, 2023

Randall A. Kezar April 23, 2024

1955

Arthur J. Atkinson Jr. February 24, 2024

Wayne E. Fillback May 15, 2024

Albert R. Smith II June 9, 2024

1956

Jonathan D. Blake * May 21, 2024

1957

Peter S. Goltra June 10, 2024

Thomas J. McKee April 30, 2024

Charles S. Rubinger * April 30, 2024

James S. Welles March 16, 2023

1958

George D. Marshall March 13, 2024

1959

Dana A. Jewett Jr. February 21, 2024

1960

Peter W. Blake

March 1, 2024

Edward K. Kaplan February 7, 2024

George E. Summers * May 10, 2024

1962

Frederick T. Koyle Jr. March 15, 2024

1963

Ruwe Halsey

September 28, 2023

1964

Jonathan B. Clarke

January 2024

1966

Gerald E. Piepiora

March 10, 2024

1967

Jeffrey M. Jensen June 2, 2024

Jonathan P. Kenneth

February 28, 2024

1968

Jonathan R. Childs

March 8, 2024

1969

Stephen L. Stange March 1, 2018

Stuart A. Young III February 20, 2024

1971

Craig S. Chadwick February 24, 2024

1972

George D. Hardesty III April 24, 2024

1982

John D. Widdemer Jr May 19, 2024

1989

Forrest J. Clingerman April 21, 2024

1996

Sturges J. Karban April 9, 2024

2011

Antonio James Andreas February 12, 2024

* Boyden Society Member

In Memoriam as of June 17, 2024. Please go to: deerfield.edu/commonroom for the most up-to-date information on classmates, including obituaries.

OBJECT LESSON / Hodermarsky sketches from the Academy Archives

Deerfield