Bulletin Spring 2020

ST. GEORGE’S T H E B U L L E T I N O F S T . G E O R G E ' S S C H O O L // S P R I N G 2 0 2 0

Warner Bros.

‘Wonder Woman’ Diane Nelson ’85 reflects on a remarkable career in Hollywood - p. 28

ST. GEORGE’S SPRING 2020

T HE BU L L ET I N OF ST. GEORGE'S SCHOOL

F E AT U R E S

D E PA R T M E N T S

14 Caring for Our Campus

0 2 Letter from the

Unraveling architectural and structural mysteries during the renovation of Memorial Schoolhouse

Head of School

0 3 Campus News

31 A Global Mind

2 7 Alumni News

A passion for science and travel inspires Irene Luperon '15 to pursue a career in global medicine

4 3 Class Notes

36 After Addiction

7 6 Student Essay

Jason Whitney '90 got his life back in recovery and now he's helping others

39 Tagging Great White Sharks John King '70 studies the recent resurgence of white sharks off Cape Cod

ON THE COVER The St. George's Bulletin is published biannually. It's printed on 8pt. Stirling Matte Cover and 70# Stirling Matte text by Lane Press, South Burlington, Vermont. Typefaces used include Antwerp, Brix Sans and Brix Slab. Please send correspondence to bulletin_editor@ stgeorges.edu.

Diane Nelson '85 at home in Los Angeles.

P H OTO BY T R E VO R S M I T H

© 2020 St. George's School The Bulletin of ST. GEORGE'S SCHOOL OUR MISSION In 1896, the Rev. John Byron Diman, founder of St. George’s School, wrote in his “Purposes of The School” that “the specific objectives of St. George’s are to give its students the opportunity of developing to the fullest extent possible the particular gifts that are theirs and to encourage in them the desire to do so. Their immediate job after leaving school is to handle successfully the demands of college; later it is hoped that their lives will be ones of constructive service to the world and to God.” Today we continue to teach our students the value of learning and achievement, service to others and respect for the individual. We believe that these goals can best be accomplished by exposing students to a wide range of ideas and choices, in the context of a rigorous curriculum and a supportive residential community. Therefore, we welcome students and teachers

Jedd Whitlock '94 Director of Advancement Cindy Martin Associate Director of Advancement Suzanne McGrady Director of Communications & Marketing Jeremy Moreau Web Manager

of various talents and backgrounds, and we encourage their dedication to a multiplicity of pursuits — intellectual, spiritual and physical — that will help to enable students to succeed in, and contribute to, a complex, changing world.

Alexander Silva Digital Communications Specialist Anna Beckman Designer

stgeorges.edu

02

A LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

BY ALIXE CALLEN

st. george’s school

// SPRING 2020

From the Hilltop

B

y all appearances, today is a typical

What I can tell you is that our plans for 2020-21,

early spring day on the Hilltop. Though

the school’s 125th year of operation, are big

the wind still packs a punch, the sun is

and bold. We are looking forward to a yearlong,

shining, the daffodils are bursting, and

communitywide celebration, culminating with a full

a subtle sheen of green reflects across

weekend of events May 14-16, 2021. Please mark

the landscape. But today is anything but typical.

your calendars now. We hope that all of our Dragons

Since we made the decision a few weeks ago to move

– alumni, parents, past parents, grandparents, and

to online learning in the face of the coronavirus

friends – will join our students and faculty here

pandemic, the Hilltop echoes with silence.

on the Hilltop as we commemorate this important

My goal since arriving at St. George’s has been to cultivate a community that sings with purpose,

milestone and celebrate the exciting future of St. George’s School.

respect, pride, and joy. Over the course of the past

As we face the uncertainty of the coming months, I

weeks, our faculty and staff have strived to replace

have found comfort in the words of the St. George’s

the physical silence here on campus with a vibrant

School Hymn, particularly stanzas 4 and 5:

virtual community. Using the various online tools available to us, our students, scattered all across the globe, have engaged in remote coursework and community building, ensuring that the bonds that they have built with each other and their teachers persist despite this challenge.

Today, as the Bulletin goes to press, we have not yet made a plan for students’ return. Our hope is that we can recoup part of the spring term and that some of our annual rituals, including Prize Day, can proceed as planned. But, without a crystal ball, we cannot yet make that determination.

Here let Thy Love and Truth abound, Changeless as yonder changeless sea, And ever may these walls resound With grateful voices praising Thee.

For, brighter far than sun or star That shines above this windswept slope The greatness and Thy glory are; Our sun of life and star of hope!

In this moment of uncertainty, I cannot wait for our community’s return to this windswept slope.

st. george’s school

//

03

SPRING 2020

Campus News

Caitie Cotton's American Studies class, an advanced course in English and history, spent D period out on the lawn last fall.

Photo by: Chip Riegel

IN THIS SECTION

06 1 0 1 8 23

Remembering Beth Horton Winter Musical Pie Race Art and Writing Awards

Geronimo Prepares for Another Transatlantic Voyage Geronimo was set to embark on yet another journey across the Atlantic this spring as we continue to offer a variety of compelling school-at-sea experiences to our students.

The last transatlantic trip took place in 2015-17. While this trip was to have begun this May, we are tracking the ever-evolving coronavirus situation and have not yet set a new date for departure. Here Program Director and Captain Mike Dawson and Captain Jill Hughes weigh in about their plans and hopes for the upcoming trip.

What will the transatlantic journey look like in terms of ports and crew?

MD: The 2020 journey across the Atlantic will be split into two trips. The first will be an alumni trip from Charleston to Bermuda in late May-early June. Then eight students will join Geronimo in Bermuda after the last day of school. Along with four professional crew led by Captain Jill Hughes, they’ll sail the rest of the way — close to 3,000 nautical miles — across the Atlantic. They will stop in the Azores, then continue on to Lisbon, Portugal, where they will participate in an international tall-ships race from Lisbon to Cadiz. That crew will return home from Cadiz, Spain. Another group of students will join the boat in Cadiz and sail to Barcelona (via Gibraltar and various ports in Spain). Spanish teacher Neile Golding will join the crew on that leg of the voyage.

What is your expected date of departure and how long do you expect it will take?

MD: The student crew will board Geronimo in Bermuda on June 7 and hope to be in Lisbon by July 2. It should take about two weeks to get to the Azores, and then another week or so to Lisbon.

What is top-of-mind for you as you prepare to take the boat across the Atlantic again? What challenges are there, particularly for a boat the size of Geronimo?

MD: I would say safety is the No. 1 priority. We have added a professional crew member, are fortunate to have a very experienced chief mate, and have three students who have sailed on Geronimo, on one of our longer school-year trips. We will take time to train students even before they set foot on the boat.

CAMPUS NEWS

What’s your pre-trip mindset?

MD: Jill and I are looking forward to this voyage and being able to offer this experience to our students.

The Geronimo program is really thriving right now — and we have all-time highs in terms of applications and student participation. I attribute much of that to the enthusiasm and positive energy of our student crews, and I feel really lucky to be a part of it. We hope to continue to offer high-quality experiences to our students that positively challenge and bring out the best in them. ■

What are the benefits for students of touring those European areas by boat?

MD: Sailing to Europe and the Mediterranean gives us an opportunity to engage our students in different ways. Of course, our route down the east coast of the U.S., to the Bahamas and Caribbean is an amazing experience for our students to be a part of, but our two-year transatlantic voyage allows us to offer different challenges and opportunities. In my mind, the ability to offer students the unique opportunity to sail across the Atlantic — on our way there, and then on our way back in 2022 — is hard to beat. Imagine the sense of accomplishment each student feels at the end of any of our trips, but these in particular. Each leg of the voyage is different. Some are more focused on cultural exploration and others are more voyage-focused — and students will have the opportunity to apply for an experience that best suits them.

Our goal is to find ways to challenge Captain Mike Dawson at the helm of Geronimo, which our students and have them rise to was scheduled to depart on another transatlantic trip this spring. The schedule is now up in the air due to those challenges. This could mean the COVID-19 pandemic.

SPRING 2020

What goes into preparing for a transatlantic trip that’s different than going down to the Bahamas?

MD: Aside from being a different mindset for the crew — wrapping your head around the idea of being at sea for multiple weeks — access to food, fuel, and spare parts are the major differences between a long ocean passage and sailing down the coast. We will be well set up with provisions before even leaving the U.S. We have plenty of fuel capacity, a watermaker capable of 35-plus gallons per hour, a new set of sails, a few more spare parts than normal, and lots of redundant safety and communication equipment.

Did you find out some things on the last transatlantic trip that you’ll use this time around?

MD: We learned much on our last voyage — in terms of the places that were the best fit for us and those that were not — and that will help us craft our itinerary to optimize the experience for students. We also made many connections along the way that we look forward to re-establishing.

For example, we will spend a large amount of time in Greece — and have developed great contacts to assist us with logistics and cultural exploration.

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JH: For me, too, it’s trying to think of all the unexpected issues that could arise during the voyage given that we’ll be far from resources. I’m trying to consider things both big and small — anything from making sure we have spare parts for the mechanical equipment we rely on to making sure we don’t run out of butter half way across.

Luckily, even when we’re not making trips across the Atlantic, Geronimo still routinely completes blue-water passages, giving both Mike and me a good sense of what needs the vessel and crew have.

sailing across the Mediterranean Sea from Spain to Greece, or it could mean pushing your comfort zone by visiting a new place and having a genuine cultural experience. At the end of their Geronimo experience, we hope our student crewmembers have a genuine sense of accomplishment, self-confidence, an ability to work with others in a tight-knit community, and a better sense of themselves.

st. george’s school

Our route will be determined with a close eye on the weather, but we might expect to see long stretches of light wind centered around the Bermuda High (a large area of high pressure) if a typical weather pattern settles in.

05

06

IN MEMORIAM

st. george’s school

Remembering Beth Horton

// SPRING 2020

One of St. George’s most beloved, long-serving faculty members, former Head of Instructional Services Emerita Beth S. Horton P’79, ’85, died on Aug. 4, 2019. She had celebrated her 85th birthday in July.

During her 25 years at St. George’s (1975-1999), Ms. Horton tutored hundreds of students, many of whom went on to prestigious careers and many of whom kept in touch with her — sharing their difficulties and successes long past Prize Day. Indeed, even in her retirement years Ms. Horton took great delight in the strong bonds she developed here on the Hilltop.

Ms. Horton made an indelible mark at St. George’s through

“Beth had the unique skill of being a student's ally — as well as a parental guide.“ LO I S H A R R I S O N ’ 82 her tireless support of students who learn differently or who face academic challenges. She is the esteemed namesake of our Horton Center for Learning, as well as the Beth Horton Endowment for Instructional Services, which was established upon her retirement.

Because of the generous support of scores of donors in honor of Ms. Horton, the endowment now funds a faculty teaching chair, as well as free and open access to academic coaching services for all students.

Several of Ms. Horton’s former students said she helped them successfully navigate the academic — and social — challenges of high school.

IN MEMORIAM

those — like me — who struggled mightily in high school.“

SPRING 2020

confidence and voice to

//

“She so seamlessly gave

st. george’s school

Celebrated author David Gilbert ’86 P’20 called Ms. that everything was in Greek, like a dyslexic must have.

Horton “the patron saint of desperate students” in a It was very humbling.” letter to Assistant Head of School for External Affairs In her later teaching years, her compassion and kindemeritus Joe Gould at the establishment of the instrucness were clear to her students. tional services endowment.

“Her smile lit up a room and she always reached out “I always looked forward to our meetings knowing I with a hug during our conversations,” said Elena Kissel could speak with impunity about the slights and scorns ’77. “I know several members of the Class of 1977 who of boarding school life,” he wrote. “Her encouragement said that they would never have graduated without the and humor and humanity always left me cheered.” guidance and dedication of Beth Horton.”

Lois Harrison ’82 said Ms. Horton always offered a Stewart Steffey ’97, now a Spanish Teacher and coach safe haven. "Beth had the unique skill of being a stuat Belmont Hill School, called Ms. Horton an “amazing dent's ally — as well as a parental guide,” she wrote. lady who made such a difference in my life. She so And Carol Anne Riddell ’84 called Ms. Horton “a lovseamlessly gave confidence and voice to those — like ing, steady presence in the turbulent world of teenagers me — who struggled mightily in high school.”

— a devoted ally, a witty friend and, It’s probably safe to say many of when necessary, my firm reminder those who spent personal time with to get it together!”

Ms. Horton are in possession of a Ms. Horton was a pioneer in the small notecard with many lines of field of academic support, chamgratitude written in her tiny, meticpioning students with learning ulous, cursive script. differences even before research She was at once “old school” popularized the need for educators and “progressive” – ever cordial in to pay close attention to “learning her social graces and ever-vigilant styles” in their classrooms. She grew about crusading for the causes in the instructional services departwhich she believed deeply, including ment — called the Language Training gender equality.

Program when she inherited it in “Beth Horton’s place in the panCAROL ANNE RIDDELL ’84 1975 — from a part-time set of tutors theon of St. George’s greats was who met with 20-25 students per long ago secured,” wrote Director year, to two full-time faculty memof College Counseling and Head of bers who met with 100 students per year at the time of the Department of English Emeritus Gary Cornog. “A her retirement. teacher and mentor whose kindness, understanding, Her close colleague at the time, Linda B. Cari, Beth support, and instruction earned her the devotion of Horton Chair in Instructional Services and Head of a generation of students, she is deservedly honored Instructional Services Emerita, said, “Beth made my through the school’s creation of the Horton Center for St. George's experience a profoundly positive one. We Learning—a vital engine of the school’s curricular creworked together for years without one disagreement ativity and student support.” or rough spot, and we have remained friends ever since.

Ms. Horton is survived by her daughter, Alison Horton Beth truly loved the school and her students. When I vis'79 of New Canaan, Connecticut; her son, Schuyler ited her at her home last year, she showed me a closet Horton '85, and daughter-in-law Juliette Horton of filled with files and letters from her former students.”

Guilford, Connecticut; four grandchildren; her sister, Even some of Ms. Horton’s closest friends, however, Robyn Helmer of Greenwich, Connecticut; and a niece, did not know the deeply personal reasons she came two nephews, and their families. to have such compassion for struggling learners. She "Another great one has passed,” said Peter Collins hadn’t told many about the difficult medical recovery ’85. “Heaven has better grammar now." ■ she had after a 40-foot fall off a cliff in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, when she was a junior in high school. The mental repercussions of the fall were far more severe than the physical ones, she said.

Ms. Horton herself described the incident in a 2011 St. George’s Bulletin magazine article. “I lost my ability to read,” she recalled. “I could only concentrate on a word at a time and I could gradually master a phrase … and finally I could read and remember a sentence …

“When I returned to school I had the first experience

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IN MEMORIAM

st. george’s school

Foxhall A. Parker '43

// SPRING 2020

Dedicated alumnus Foxhall A. Parker ’43, P'80 remembered for his kindness and generosity.

One of St. George’s most faithful and devoted Dragons, long-serving trustee Foxhall A. Parker ’43, P'80 died on Dec. 28, 2019. He was 94.

Mr. Parker, known to many as Foxy, was one of the school’s leading benefactors and a stalwart supporter of all things St. George’s. He joined the St. George’s Board of Trustees in 1989, and during his faithful 21 years of service, was board secretary and treasurer, as well as a member of the Building & Grounds, Development, Investment, and Executive committees. He was elected an honorary trustee in 2010.

Former Chair of the Board of Trustees Betsy Michel P’85, ’89, who served as Chair of the Board of Trustees from 1989-1999, recalls Foxy as one who “never needed to dominate the conversation.”

“But when he had something to say he did so and we not only appreciated, we paid attention to his insights,” she said. “He got to the point — and made his.”

Beginning in the late 1970s, Mr. Parker also served as a class agent, enthusiastically rallying his classmates to contribute annually to the St. George’s Fund, as he himself did. Indeed, Mr. Parker was one of our school’s most devoted supporters – and it seemed no project or need escaped his interest and participation. He would just as readily contribute to restoring the chandeliers in the chapel as he would to the construction of the new 70-foot Geronimo in 1997. For his exceptional generosity over the years, he became a member of the Diman Society, whose members provide extraordinary resources to advance the school’s mission and vision. He was also a member the Ogden Nash Society, for having made provisions for St. George’s in his estate plans.

“Foxy was a great Dragon and never turned down a request to support SG in any way that he could,” said Francis “Skip” Branin ’65, P’06, who was Chair of the Board of Trustees from 2004-2015. “He was a true gentleman in every possible meaning of that word — quiet yet purposeful, always with a kind smile for everyone around him.”

The school was fortunate to have recently honored Mr. Parker publicly for his contributions to the school by presenting him with the 2019 Howard B. Dean Service Award in May 2019.

After St. George’s, Mr. Parker graduated from Dartmouth College and the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth.

He served on active duty in the Navy during World War II, from 1943-1946, and later in the Naval Reserve.

For much of his career, Mr. Parker worked as a mechanical engineer and consultant at the Bard Parker Co., a medical instruments manufacturer cofounded by his father Morgan, St. George’s Class of 1913, who at age 22 invented the first disposable medical scalpel. The company later became a division of Becton Dickinson and Co. of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, and was sold to Aspen Surgical Products Inc. in 2010.

Mr. Parker and his wife Helen always held St. George’s close to their hearts and were attendees of countless SG events over the decades. The couple had two daughters, Mary Parker Davidson of Eagle-Vail, Colorado, a member of the St. George’s Class of 1980; and Patricia Parker Mueller, of Vail, Colorado. Helen’s brother, Ernest M. Walker Jr., was also a St. George’s graduate, a member of the Class of 1955. And Mr. Parker’s cousin, John McLeran, was a member of the SG Class of 1960.

Since 1999, the Parker Family Courtyard has graced the entrance to the Drury/ Grosvenor Center for the Arts, celebrating what St. George’s has meant to the Parker Family — and providing an enduring reminder of what they have meant to the school.

Ms. Michel said she still has great memories of a fundraising trip she and Foxy took to Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.

“Great memories because we had lots of driving time – ‘getting-to-know-each-other-better time,’ she said. “He was a gentle, kind man, with an endearing shyness, a keen mind — and a sharp wit.” ■

We'll be celebrating the 125th anniversary of the founding of St. George's throughout the 2020-21 school year, culminating in a gala event on Saturday, May 15, 2021. All alumni, parents and friends are invited to return to the Hilltop. We'll honor the reunion classes of both 2020 and 2021 over the weekend as well.

Please visit: www.stgeorges.edu/125th

‘‘What Happens Monday’’

This year's winter production "What Happens Monday" was an original musical created by students, for students, through a creative process called "devising." A lighthearted snapshot of one momentous New Year’s Eve in a small-town diner, the performance kept audiences of all ages chuckling, while considering the role of stereotypes in their own lives, past and present.

"What Happens Monday" demonstrated what can happen when we give each other the time, space, and kindness to be ourselves. – Director Sarah Ploskina

CAMPUS NEWS

Belle Garnett ’22

What experience with theater have you had? And what role will theater play in your life in the future?

It was definitely a unique experience to be a part of. I think a lot of what is missing from high school theater is the foundational part of the creative process. We were lucky enough to be given the chance to try our hand at some of the other skills a potential career in theater could hold, like not only acting but scene writing and composing.

I grew up in New York City, so theater has always been a big part of my life. I loved going to see Broadway shows when I was little, and I took various acting classes around the city. After participating in a lot of junior productions of classic shows, I came to St. George's and was in last year's production of “Fiddler on the Roof.” I was one of two freshmen in the cast so it was a great opportunity to connect with the more experienced upperclassmen. I still keep in touch with a lot of last year's seniors who were in the musical with me. Coming into this year, the cast had a wide variety of experience in theater, but honestly I think that is what made our show good. We had so many people with different perspectives working hard to make our show appealing to all audiences. I hope to participate in the musical for my next two years on the Hilltop, and I believe musical theater will always hold a strong place in my heart.

Tell me about your character and/or what information from real teenage life that you think made its way into the musical.

My character was the jock, a happy-go-lucky basketball player who eventually reveals to the group that she feels trapped in her stereotype. Her whole life is set on winning every game, but she realizes in the diner that there is more to life. In her song, “It's Gonna Be Great,” which I also wrote for the character, she sings ironically about scenarios that might get others down, but in her words, “it's gonna be great.” Throughout the song, she also has a little breakdown about not really enjoying basketball all that much. This was a pivotal moment for me to act because it felt very real. The jock's moment of realization about a lack of enjoyment of her supposed “thing” leads her to realize that not everything always has to be great.

Opposite page, clockwise from top left: Chyra Williams ’20; Madeline Oberting ’21, Xiaoyang Hua ’20, and Tessa Brown ’23 / Aristo Wang ’20 / Lana Gaige ’20 backstage / faculty members Ted Sturtevant, Nova Seals, Kate Longo, Cheryl Larson, and Sarah Ploskina / band members Daniel Ziadie '20, Vincent Chen '22, and Alex Wang '22.

My best moment ever in making or performing "What Happens Monday" was ...

The best part was definitely the final curtain call of our Sunday matinee. We had organized to thank our stage manager and faculty members, who worked so hard on this production — notably, our director Mrs. Ploskina and music director Dr. Longo. They worked hand in hand bringing together the music and scene work. They believed in us throughout the whole process and were there to support us every step of the way. That moment on stage where we were finally able to thank them for all they had done was truly magical and one I will never forget. ■

SPRING 2020

What was it like to be part of the making of an original musical?

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Belle played “The Jock” in this year’s production of “What Happens Monday.” Students wrote the script and the music for the show alongside Theater Director Sarah Ploskina, Music Director Kate Longo, and Technical Director Ted Sturtevant.

st. george’s school

Q&A with

13

14 st. george’s school

// SPRING 2020

arl Jay, director of historic preservation for Shawmut Design and Construction, never underestimates the creative genius of a famous architect.

As the full renovation and restoration of Memorial Schoolhouse has proceeded over the last 10 months, Jay — who has led the restoration of some of New England’s most notable historic buildings, including Trinity Church in Boston and MIT’s Great Dome — has been consulted on a number of schoolhouse construction issues. And a few have had him channeling Charles McKim, William Mead, and Stanford White, the renowned designers of our beloved, turn-of-the-century structure.

Of course, renovating a building can unearth mysteries no one can solve: Why was this material chosen? Why was this built this way? Was this a cost-saving measure or a design choice? But Jay, a lifelong history buff who collects antique construction tools, doesn’t completely stop trying.

“There's always that question: What was in the architect's mind?” Jay said following a walk-through of the Schoolhouse site last month. he first warning signs that the renovation of Memorial Schoolhouse would not be challengefree came when construction crews started removing the old windows last summer. Though

no one would’ve guessed it by just looking, what they found surrounding the window openings was limestone framing that was nearly crumbling.

“It certainly wasn’t your average, grade A, Indiana limestone,” Jay said. But while most might quickly deduce that using the less-than-pristine limestone was a cost-savings measure, Jay is less definite.

“Was it [cost] — or was it intentional to build some texture into the building?” he surmised. “Yes, it turned out that it was of a lesser grade than you would see on, say, your chapel. But sometimes a significant architect has an idea, about the aesthetic or whatever — does this stone work better with the brick? Was there an idea? Was it intentional?

“Maybe it's a little far-fetched, but it's something I always wonder about,” he added.

Whatever the reason for which the limestone was chosen around 1920, though, it had big — unexpected — cost implications in 2020. It was part of the reason the originally predicted $11 million project has ballooned to $13 million and fundraising is ongoing.

“Until you did a really close-up survey of every stone, every opening, it was hard to tell exactly the extent of the hairline fractures and spalling,” Jay said. What resulted was a 152-page report from the masons detailing the issues – and the options. “The information was there for the school to make a very

Background photo: The Study Hall, c. 1920.

Above, top to bottom: William Mead, Charles McKim, and Stanford White of the famed architecture firm McKim, Mead and White — designers of Memorial Schoolhouse. / The original 1920 plan for the second floor of the Schoolhouse.

16 st. george’s school

// SPRING 2020

Terracotta tiles, five-to-six layers thick, were discovered inside the walls of the schoolhouse during the renovation.

educated decision,” he said. In the end, every original limestone window surround was removed, used to make a mold, and replaced with an exact cast-concrete replica, the benefits of which are numerous, according to Jay. With increasingly strict building codes, engineers now have a hard time calculating the tensile strength of limestone in header conditions — like the tops and bottoms of window frames. In cast-stone replacements, however, reinforcement bar can be installed and engineers are much more comfortable predicting the load the material will bear.

“A full replacement made more sense,” he said. “It will be good for another 100 years.”

for in the updated floor plan, however, was challenging. “To have [the tiles] laid up like that and then plastered — that was a big discovery,” Jay said.. “All of the new openings had to have special treatments for steel headers to help support the load.”

Despite the challenges of the renovation, however, at press time the project remains on course and Memorial Schoolhouse is scheduled to reopen in time for the 2020-21 school year.

“The building does have good bones, as they say,” Jay said.

“The masonry was well-built. The floor systems are great.

It's a well-built building,” Jay said. “It’s just that time took its toll on the limestone and code has changed.” Things he finds particularly beautiful about the schoolhouse are the natural light that flows in f the limestone was one surprise, no one through the windows, the pairing of expected what was inside Memorial the schoolhouse and the chapel, and Schoolhouse’s walls either.

Memorial Hall. “It's so important to “They're made up of five-to-six layers maintain features like that,” he said.

Carl Jay, Director of Historic of structural terracotta tile, which is Historic restoration decisions are Preservation for Shawmut Design really, really unique,” Jay said. “In class A simply not easy, Jay noted. But while And Construction buildings, at most we usually find maybe the preservation expert knows full well two layers of this tile. But to have five the emotions that run high over issues layers — it's remarkable. It's just not something you see.” like removing trees or replacing original parts, he makes a Jay channels the architects again. “Now, again, was the studied argument for choices made in the interest of progress. architect looking at building a mass to help with both sound “Buildings have to evolve,” he said. “Systems change. Use transmission — where there would be classrooms — and changes. You still can maintain the character of the building potentially fireproofing?” he ponders. and it's nice if you can keep [historic elements], but a lot of The terracotta tile found in the schoolhouse, he said, times there's a reason that you have to make modifications.” was sold as “fireproof construction.” And, heck, maybe the And he thinks McKim, Mead and White would agree. ■ masters were tired of having their classrooms disrupted by the chattering of students outside. It was also a system that was quicker and easier to install. Creating the new openings called

17 st. george’s school

// SPRING 2020

A view of the interior of the Study Hall during renovation. At left, the temporary railings surrounding the new elevator shaft.

Clockwise from top: Runners sprint off the starting line at the Annual Pie Race; Shirley Hersey, baker of hundreds of prized pies over the years and the wife of the late former physics teacher Ted Hersey, who founded the race — along with John McLeran '60, the alumnus who won the very first Pie Race in 1959; McLeran crossing this finish line this past fall. Opposite page: A 1959 clipping from The New York Times.

CAMPUS NEWS

SG math teacher Douglas Lewis took over running the Pie Race when Ted Hersey retired in 1999. When McLeran

SPRING 2020

Back on the Hilltop

had reached out to him about an interest in running the race again this year, Lewis called Shirley to see if she would want to attend.

“I’m just so flattered that Doug [Lewis] has carried it on after we left and he’s done such a good job,” Hersey said. “I always wanted to see what it was like now. I’m just thrilled to be back on campus and to see everybody and to see it in action.”

McLeran said the Pie Race course was very similar to what he remembered.

“It really was a reminiscence of … just what a blessedly most beautiful place it is to walk around and run around,” he said.

“What a wonderful adventure in architecture to just run around the campus and see the new structures. It seems three times bigger than it was when I was here.”

Hersey estimates she baked about 30 pies a year, over 1,200, during her tenure as the prized pie baker. When asked how she managed such a monumental task, Hersey said she used to make her own pie crust the night before.

“I would make the crusts the night before and then when I got home from school, I would just start,” said Hersey.

“And it was a time when I was teaching, so I’d get up in the morning and go to do school work.”

Hersey said she would always make apple pies for the prizes, but for the very first Pie Race, she made a blueberry pie since she had just moved to the area from Maine.

McLeran said he recalled winning an excellent blueberry pie that year because, “I remember some difficulty getting it off my face and my best gabardine wool pants

//

Thousands of students have taken part in St. George’s annual Pie Race since it was first started in 1959 by the late former physics teacher Ted Hersey.

As one of the Hilltop’s most longstanding and memorable traditions, the latest cohort of Dragons – some in quixotic costumes – lined up at the starting line to compete for dozens of homemade pies in the 61st annual event.

However, the fall 2019 race had two very special guests.

Getting into position beside the other student and faculty runners (and in full running gear himself) was John McLeran '60, the alumnus who won the very first Pie Race in 1959.

Sitting in a small all-terrain vehicle on the sidelines and ready to cheer on the runners was Shirley Hersey, wife of Ted Hersey and baker of hundreds of prized pies over the years.

McLeran didn’t win the race this year, but he finished in a very respectable 27th place.

“Exhilarating and delighted to run,” he said after the race. “It actually went a lot faster than I thought. Just to have the opportunity to revisit the campus, I’ve only been back once since I left in 1960, what a treat.”

And this time, Shirley Hersey didn’t have to spend hours baking the night before.

“I had a chance to enjoy it more,” Hersey said. “I’ve never had such a royal treatment in my life.”

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61 Races, 1,200 Pies

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… I’m quite sure it was gone by next morning.”

McLeran said he decided to return to the Hilltop and run the race primarily out of a curiosity to see what the campus looked like today as well as the opportunity to meet staff and students and get a sense of how the school has changed.

“And to see if I could finish the race,” he added.

// SPRING 2020

Carrying On the Tradition

At the conclusion of the 61st annual Pie Race, SG academic registrar and math teacher Melanie Lewis, wife of Doug Lewis, presented both Hersey and McLeran with their very own pies.

The group went to Doug and Melanie

Lewis’ house on campus after the race for tea, which just so happened to be the home that Shirley and Ted Hersey lived in when at SG. Doug spoke about some of Mr. Hersey’s old and strange categories for awarding prize pies and how he attempts to carry on the tradition.

“I just couldn’t keep track of it,” Lewis said of the pie categories. “And then I asked him after he retired, how did you keep track of it and he said, ‘Sometimes I would just look at a kid and see if they just looked like they needed some special recognition,’ and he would make something up.”

Shirley Hersey said she appreciated the work everyone has done to keep Ted’s

William C. Prescott Jr. ’53 to Receive Diman Award T his year’s highest alumni

honor, the John B. Diman Award, will be presented to William C. Prescott ’53.* The Diman Award is presented annually during Alumni Weekend to an alumna or alumnus whose personal accomplishments or public service contributions are greatly valued by St. George’s School.

Mr. Prescott is a lifelong educator who has spent his entire career as a teacher, administrator, head of school, and trustee. His teaching and educational leadership has influenced thousands of students — from a multitude of backgrounds and experiences — throughout decades.

After Prize Day at St. George’s, Mr. Prescott went on to major in English at Harvard — and it may well have been his stint as a summer school teacher back on the Hilltop prior to his senior year that cemented his career choice.

Following Harvard, he came back to the Hilltop to teach English for one year, spent two years as a graduate student at Brown, earning his master’s degree in English, then returned to teach at St. George’s from 1961-68. During that time, he also served as Athletic Director and Dean of Students, worked in Admission, and coached baseball.

He left the Hilltop for a position at the University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, where he was head of

tradition alive.

“I just feel very honored and I just think Ted would never believe that it would have happened. It’s leaders like Doug who have carried it on,” Hersey said. “I’m thrilled because the purpose of it was to have fun and to bring people together and to see that happening now, it’s just so rewarding.

It really is.”

“It was a thrill just to think back on 60 years ago,” Lewis said. “There were so many things that are here right now that weren’t here 60 years ago and to have two big pieces of St. George’s history and to have … today’s students to be able to share some time with people from the past, I think that’s one of the great strengths of St. George’s." ■

the English Department and later head of the Upper School.

In 1975, he was appointed headmaster at the Kingswood School/Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and in 1980 he moved back to Rhode Island to become the sixth headmaster of the Wheeler School in Providence.

Mr. Prescott spent 23 years at the Wheeler School and is credited with overseeing landmark campus improvements as well as educational initiatives that promoted diversity, community service, the arts, and greater understanding of learning differences. The Prescott Library at Wheeler is named in his honor.

Mr. Prescott has also served on a number of boards and educational associations, including as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Independent Schools. He was a devoted member of the St. George’s Board of Trustees from 2007-2019, and a member of the board at the Bancroft School in Worcester, Massachusetts, and at Friends Academy in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts. He is currently a founding trustee of Our Sisters’ School, a tuition-free middle school for girls in New Bedford, Massachusetts, founded in 2008, and Head Emeritus on the Wheeler School Board of Trustees.

Mr. Prescott’s father, William C. Prescott, Class of 1920, graduated from St. George’s, as did his brothers — Stephen Prescott ’56 and David Prescott ’61 — and two uncles, Oliver Prescott Jr., Class of 1916, and Bryant Prescott, Class of 1917. Mr. Prescott has three grown children: Robert, Simonne and Suzanne. He and his wife, Suzanne, live in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. ■ * At press time a date had not yet been set for the ceremony which usually takes place during Alumni Weekend. Stay tuned for updates.

T

he Nathaniel P. Hill Memorial Library is located in the core of campus, but it’s the facility’s position serving the many needs of students and faculty that place it at the center of the Hilltop community. With 30,000 volumes, 1,500 reference titles, and a large audiovisual collection, the library’s doors are open nearly 14 hours a day, 84 hours a week.

Since students at St. George’s routinely work on college-level projects and assignments, the resources available at the library are not what one would typically find in a high school facility.

As a member of the Ocean State Libraries consortium and with subscriptions to electronic databases like JSTOR and ProQuest Research Library, students have access to a wide variety of tools for their education, like the full text of The New York Times going back to 1851.

There are college universities that don’t even have access to some of the resources St. George’s does electronically, because they can be cost prohibitive, according to Director of Library Services and Archives Nova Seals (above, right).

“Sometimes it just makes sense to partner with other institutions or organizations to give your patrons, in this case our students, access to resources that it might not make sense or be possible to acquire for them,” said Seals.

With degrees in library studies and science and backgrounds working at college libraries, Seals and Assistant Director of Library Services Laura Hooper (above, left) both stay current on research trends and work to make sure the information literacy skills students learn are transferrable from high school to college.

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“It’s kind of the best of both worlds,” Hooper said of SG’s facility.

“It’s smaller where you get to know everybody, but you still have the resources that you might get at a small college library.”

A Resource for Teaching

// SPRING 2020

The library’s resources extend to St. George’s faculty and staff as well.

Seals and Hooper try to support the curriculum across all of the disciplines on campus, frequently reaching out to department heads for input.

“We go out of our way to figure out creative ways to bring subject areas and interests that don’t normally use library resources very much into the library or we’ll go of the school, but also the personal interests of so many there,” Seals said. people on campus.”

Whether it’s helping a student with a statistics assignSince Seals arrived as library director, the library has ment comparing library DVD rental data to the increased focused on expanding recreational resources like games use of streaming services or collecting materials on a for- and books on hobbies. The first puzzles at the library were eign country ahead of the yearly Global Studies class trip brought from Seals’s own home and she had no idea how overseas, the library can help get materials to support popular they would be, she said. teachers’ lessons.

When students formed a “puzzle club” last year, she “If it’s going to be useful for a class, we just order it, if we was surprised when they told her they had a chat group can find it,” said Seals. “Sometimes it’s sort of difficult if specifically for updating each other on the progress of some of the language teachers give us an esoteric item that puzzles housed at the library and when they were comhas not been available since 1960, but for the most part, we pleted or cycled out. Another group of students really tend to get the things that people ask us for.” enjoyed the library’s Bananagram game and implored Seals also oversees the St. them to order more.

George’s Archives, another re“We try to meet the needs source in the library for teachers and sometimes the desires of and students. School Archivist the community,” Seals said.

Valerie Simpson regularly sets “And OK, if it’s going to be up exhibits in the library on topanother Bananagram set that ics relevant to what’s happening will help you live here more on campus and works with stuhappily, we’ll order another dents and classes to talk about Bananagram set.” alumni and show materials from That’s all part of the beauty the school’s collection from that of the Nathaniel P. Hill Me- LAURA HOOPER, Assistant time period. morial Library, according to Director of Library Services “It’s nice when she can make Hooper, where the schedule is that connection to current stufull of things like classes and dents and they start to see the tutoring sessions, but it’s the value of the archives and the history of the school beyond impromptu stuff like students coming to use a study room where they currently are,” Hooper said. or day students needing a place to crash for a while that makes it a community building.

More Than Academics “We’re a home for so many different things that hapPeople visit the library for meetings, projects, and class pen,” Hooper said. “Both planned and unplanned every work, but some just stop by to hang out or to take a break day.” ■ and work on a puzzle.

“One of the special things about this library is we know just about everybody in the community who comes in, at least by face, if not by name, and can be very welcoming,” Hooper said. “We’re able to serve the academic needs

e know just about everybody in the community who comes in, at least by face, if not by name, and can be very welcoming.

CAMPUS NEWS

Several SG students were honored for their work in this year's Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, including more than a dozen of our artists who won coveted gold and silver keys.

Congratulations to all of our talented writers and artists!

Henry Welch ’21 "Apples to Apples" - Silver Key, Sculpture

Ethan Smith ’21 "Wave" - Gold Key, Sculpture

Mengxi Lu ’22 "People Among People" - Gold Key, Drawing & Illustration

Nathan An ’21 "Library on a Canyon" - Honorable Mention, Architecture & Industrial Design

CAMPUS NEWS

“The reason I make art is that I simply enjoy making things.

Throughout the years, though, I became more passionate about it since I was able to bring meaning into some of my pieces. I find it helpful to express myself in a different way to people. I really enjoy doing that.”

—Daly Cheng ’20

Daly Cheng ’20 "Still Life" - Honorable Mention, Painting

Julia Talley ’20 "Figure in Field" -Silver Key, Photography

Sion Park ’20 "Catherine" - Honorable Mention, Photography

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// SPRING 2020

Mengxi Lu ’22 "Self Portrait" - Honorable Mention, Drawing & Illustration

Ricky Lotuff ’23 "Self Portrait" - Gold Key, Drawing & Illustration

Madeline Carlson ’22 "Faces"- Honorable Mention, Painting

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// SPRING 2020

Christopher Elvin ’22 "Self Portrait"- Silver Key, Drawing & Illustration

SCHOLASTIC WRITING AWARD WINNERS in the categories of Personal Essay & Memoir, Poetry, Critical Essay, and Short Story: MARY GRIFFIN '20, MIN LEE '23, and LILY WEBBER '22 won Gold Keys for their submissions.

AMELIA FRELINGHUYSEN '22, MENGXI LU '22, NIKHIL SHARMA '21, AND MARY GRIFFIN '20 were awarded Silver Keys.

PARKER HAN '22, GRACE TATOROSIAN '22, and PRISCILLA ZHU '23 received Honorable Mentions.

Daly Cheng ’20 "Lost in Translation" - Gold Key, Drawing & Illustration

Simon Li ’20 "Room 201" - Silver Key, Drawing & Illustration

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SPRING 2020

Alumni News

Imani Capri '97 returned to the Hilltop in February to deliver a special chapel talk as part of our Beloved Community Initiative. Ms. Capri is a speaker, writer, author, and on-air radio personality whose mission is to elevate the voices of women and girls across the globe.

IN THIS SECTION

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Alumni News Class Notes Memorial List Student Essay

ALUMNI NEWS

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Warner Bros.

// SPRING 2020

‘Wonder Woman’ Former Warner Bros. exec Diane Nelson ’85 reflects on a remarkable career in Hollywood It was 2001 and Diane Whelan Nelson ’85 was sitting in a nearly empty movie theater in Edinburgh, Scotland, with J.K. Rowling, famed author of the “Harry Potter” novels. As head of the Potter franchise at Warner Bros. Studios, Ms. Nelson was there to show Ms. Rowling the very first footage the writer would see of the movie based on her wildly popular book series. Ms. Nelson had hand-carried the film canisters over on the plane.

“We showed her the first trailer, where Hagrid brings the birthday cake,” Ms. Nelson recalled, “and she cried. … It was the most wonderful day — to be a part of that and to watch the woman who I liked and respected so much get to see her creation come to life.

“I had lots of special moments like that throughout my career that you could never, ever duplicate.”

PHOTO BY TREVOR SMITH

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ALUMNI NEWS

// SPRING 2020

because Warner Bros. was such a good company,” she said, “so to be able to move from film to television to video games to consumer products, I was very fortunate and was able to thrive because … I could build consensus and business performance.”

She found out fairly quickly, however, that the “commercialism” of that first job in corporate promotions wasn’t something she wanted to do for long.

“The way we would think about tie-in promotions strategically is ... ‘how do we make sure that this movie is ubiquitous wherever consumers are going in their day?’ So if they're going to Wal-Mart, you want them to see end-cap promotions that have all of the Frito-Lay brands that feature the ‘Batman and Robin’ movie on the bags and on big displays. And then if they go down a different aisle, you want them to see it on the cereal boxes. And then if they go to the gas station, they'll see it over and over.

“From my perspective, it's hard to live with yourself when that's what your job is,” she added, “but that's what I did in my first few years there.”

Fortunately, her corporate promotions role came to an end when Barry Meyer, who would eventually become Warner Bros. CEO, picked up on Ms. Nelson’s entrepreneurial skills and asked her to build a family entertainment department.

He wanted her to focus on the company’s kids brands, build a business strategy, and try to get the company’s various departments to collaborate. “But I was completely left to my own devices to choose how I wanted to do that,” she said.

Ms. Nelson was on maternity leave in 1999, when she started reading the “Harry Potter” series; the first three books had just come out and Warner Bros. had secured the rights to make the movies. The studio was in early development on the first film. “I decided that was a perfect project for me. I knew there would be at least seven books and, therefore, at least seven movies, and there would be games and merchandise and all this other stuff. That was the property I could do the most good for the company on.”

Ms. Nelson would become the head of the Harry Potter franchise — and the Warner Bros. representative who worked

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O

ne thing you realize after interviewing Ms. Nelson is that she managed her career — not the other way around. She knew what she hoped for and what suited her — and made the decisions that helped her become one of the highest ranking executives at Warner Bros. in a tenure that lasted more than two decades.

Ms. Nelson was a day student at St. George’s. Her father was commander of the Newport Naval Base and commodore of the last destroyer squadron in the United States. After St. George’s she attended Syracuse University, pursuing a dual major: Advertising and English in the school’s S.I. Newhouse School of Journalism.

At the end of the summer after graduating from Syracuse, Ms. Nelson and her then-boyfriend Peter, whom she’d met her freshman year, camped across the country and settled in San Francisco, where she sought a job at Foote, Cone & Belding. At the time, the advertising firm, she said, was “one of the biggest and most prestigious agencies in the world and was doing the Levis 501 Blues campaign, which was a really big deal then.” Peter was a graphic designer, and he and a friend had started writing spec scripts for "The Simpsons" on the side.

Eventually the couple moved to Los Angeles in 1994, the year after they were married in the St. George’s Chapel. “I was going to transfer to the Foote, Cone office in L.A. — they offered me a position — and I thought about it and said to myself, you know, when in Rome, I should really try entertainment, so I got a job at Disney,” she said.

For a short time, Ms. Nelson worked in Disney’s software division before being recruited to Walt Disney Records, which created the movie soundtracks for animated films like “The Lion King,” “Pocahontas,” and “Toy Story.”

“It was a great training ground and I really did think about it that way,” she said. “It was the best experience that you could get in entertainment.” The corporate culture, however, didn’t suit her. “It was really political, very aggressive, and I knew kind of deep down that it wasn't going to be a long-term home for me.” The whole time she was at Disney, she said, she had “one ear open” for jobs at Warner Bros..

Her opportunity came when she was named Director of Worldwide Corporate Promotions at Warner Bros. in 1996.

The company wanted to get into the feature animation business. “And they wanted someone to … get the divisions to work together in support of these films,” Ms. Nelson said.

“I did it based on the relationships that I was able to forge — not based on any mandate from the top. It was a very, very different culture from Disney, and it worked for me.”

That first job at Warner Bros. was “ill-defined and potentially very challenging,” however she saw it as an opportunity to see how the whole studio worked. She hoped the experience would allow her to figure out what part of the business she was most interested in. “My thought was that if that particular part of the company liked the work that I was doing, maybe I could transition in there,” she said. “In hindsight, it was probably the best decision I ever made in my career.”

In essence, she became a generalist in a specialists’ world.

“Many people got in a job and stayed there for 30 years

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Diane Nelson ’85, then DC Entertainment President, (left) was on hand to help celebrate the designation of Wonder Woman as its Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls in a ceremony on Oct. 21, 2016. The date also marked the iconic superhero's official 75th anniversary. Also pictured are Lynda Carter, star of the 1970s television series; Gal Gadot, star of the 2017 “Wonder Woman” feature film; United Nations Under Secretary General Cristina Gallach; and Patty Jenkins, movie director of “Wonder Woman.”

most closely with J.K. Rowling — for 12 years. In the beginning, she traveled from L.A. to London or Scotland to Diane Nelson '85 at home in Los Angeles. meetby with Ms. Rowling or the filmmakPhoto Trevor Smith. ers every four to six weeks. “In some cases I would fly a couple times a week back and forth,” she said.

Three years into the Harry Potter role, she also became the executive vice president of domestic film marketing and then built the division Warner Bros. called Global Brand Management.

“It was kind of doing what I'd done on ‘Harry Potter’ for our event film strategy,” she said. She worked on the “Batman” movies, “Superman Returns,” “Happy Feet,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and a number of films that crossed all of the company’s businesses.

Throughout the rest of her 22-year career at Warners Bros., she started Warner Premiere, Warner Bros.’ directto-DVD and short-form, digital-content business; took over DC Comics, rebuilding it into DC Entertainment, relocating the business from New York to Burbank and growing the business four-fold in nine years; ran DC Entertainment; became President and Chief Content Officer of Warner Bros.’ video-game division; and took the reins as president of Warner Consumer Products — filling several of these roles at the same time.

At one point there were nearly 3,000 people working in the three business units that she oversaw.

When she decided to step away from her responsibilities at Warner Bros. in June 2018, she said she knew it was the right time. AT&T was in the process of acquiring the studio, and she was

worried the business would turn “more into a short-term numbers game” than the place of creativity and collaboration she had known. “That, and I had essentially run every division that I could aspire to,” she said. “I didn't quite know what else I wanted to do.” And then there were the random life events that confront all of us at one time or another. “My dog Barney died, my son was in a car accident, and I'd had major back surgery,” she said.

The day that Warner Bros. publicly announced her departure in May 2018, she got a call from her old friend Jeffrey Katzenberg, the film producer for whom she’d once worked at Disney who’d been trying to woo her to DreamWorks a few years earlier.

He and Meg Whitman, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, were fundraising for Quibi, a new short-form video platform, and wanted to see if she’d join their team. She eventually took a position as COO of Quibi’s content team, and it was positive, she said, but she only stayed for a short time.

“I don't know if it's life sending you these signals, or maybe I went back too soon, or maybe I just shouldn't have gone back at all, but … I wasn’t willing to be as selfish as I had been in the previous 22 years.

“I mean I was gone [from home] a lot. When I talk about being in the U.K. for Potter and all of that, I missed birthdays and anniversaries and things I'm not proud of to do all that work. And so I wasn't going to do that again.”

These days, Ms. Nelson finds herself happy being “semi-retired,” caring for her parents and, in general, focusing on

her family. She’s even reengaged with several of her SG classmates, thanks to Sam Brown ’85, a standup comedian, actor and writer who just a few years before his death from pancreatic cancer in 2012, visited her in L.A. “He came and had lunch with me and he listened to what my experience was like at school and how I felt very distant [being a day student] — and both he and Fritz Michel ’85 are the ones who really created a bridge for me,” she said. “Subsequently, I’ve built a lot of relationships that I never had while I was actually at school.”

She and her husband Peter, who along with screenwriting has also authored several children’s books, will welcome a new puppy to the family this spring (he’ll join Barney’s brother Fred, shown on the cover), her back has healed, and her mother is doing well after two major surgeries last October.

Her son Charlie, 20, is fully recovered from the car accident, and taking music production and sound engineering courses. Her son Christopher, 15, is finishing up his freshman year at a nearby independent day school.

Figuring the boys had the chance to meet J.K. Rowling, I tell her they must have loved having her in the entertainment industry.

“Both of them met Jo many times,” she said. “They were immersed first in ‘Harry Potter’ … and then all these movies … and then DC Comics and all the stuff — and they were never impressed with any of [what I did] — until I ran the video game division,” she said.

“When I ran the video game division, there was a little bit of ‘OK, maybe our mom is cool.’ Not much, but a little bit.” n

Ms. Nelson has said she would love to connect with more SG alumni.

She may be reached at dewnelson@ gmail.com or find her on Instagram at @dewnelson1.

ALUMNI NEWS

A SUMMER IN TAIWAN This past summer, Luperon traveled to study cognitive neuroscience at Taipei Medical University in the Graduate Institute of Mind, Brain, and Consciousness Department. Luperon had some previous experience traveling to Asia after a St. George’s trip to a boarding school in Shanghai as part of a Chinese class, but she had to handle living in a foreign country by herself for her Taipei internship.

“It was my first time travelling abroad without family, without being in kind of a school program… for me it was very eye-opening. It was overwhelming at first,” Luperon said. “After that, I feel so confident going anywhere in the world now, essentially. It really gave me my solo travel wings.”

She worked for 10 weeks with Dr. Jihwan Myung, a specialist in circadian rhythm biology in the body, on his research with mice and gained experience in an animal lab setting. Luperon said Dr. Myung was a great mentor who took time to explain everything they were doing, even in the middle of publishing a journal article, and always tried to enhance her experience.

“I loved it and I’m so grateful for that

experience,” said Luperon. “Especially with my hopes of being in global medicine and continuing to travel abroad.”

THE VALUE OF MENTORS Luperon said she appreciates all of the teachers she had at SG “who always encouraged me and pushed me to go outside of my comfort zone, saw potential in me before I did, especially when it comes to academia and a black woman in science.”

Luperon, an active member of both the Chapter Basileus of the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority and the Black Student Association, offered some words of encouragement to any current or future students or alumni of color “to continue to push forward.

Use their experiences to shape what they do. They need to advocate for one another and need to get young black and brown people through programs that set us up for success.”

As Luperon gets more research experience, she hopes to start working in hospitals to shadow nurses and doctors as she considers going for a master’s degree in nursing after graduation or a program for public health.

“My goal is to continue to explore new communities, live in different places and travel, meet new people, and continue to find and work towards finding my dream job and where I fit in this large picture of global medicine,” Luperon said. “They say find something you love to do, it’s just putting the pieces together.” n

SPRING 2020

ENTERING A WIDER WORLD The biochemistry program at USC was intense and fulfilled many of the pre-medicine requirements Luperon needed for neuroscience, but she didn’t know how she wanted to contribute to the field of medicine until she learned of a path that merged with her interest in global studies.

“I’ve always been interested in global studies after taking global studies at St. George’s,” said Luperon.

“I took that elective course my senior year and then my freshman year at USC, I took another class called global studies from the perspective of art.”

Last year, Luperon enrolled in a progressive degree program where a student can get an undergraduate degree and a one-year master’s degree certification in five years. This program will allow her to graduate from USC

in December 2020 with a master’s in global medicine as well.

“I have a minor in Chinese, I’m a first-generation immigrant from the Dominican Republic, and I’ve always lived in super diverse communities,” Luperon said. “So, it was a part of me I didn’t know I could incorporate … into a full-time career.”

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M

ental health problems can range from the stresses of puberty in middle school to serious neurological conditions.

When Irene Luperon ’15 enrolled at the University of Southern California as a biochemistry major, she had already encountered some of the effects mental health problems can have on families. That’s part of the reason why she decided to switch her major to neuroscience during her sophomore year.

“I found that in my general biology classes, I was very interested in the development of the brain and those aspects of neurology,” Luperon said.

“So that led me to neuroscience.”

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Irene Luperon '15 on campus at USC.

A Global Mind: Irene Luperon '15

31

A Transgender Woman’s

Trans-Country Road Trip While on sabbatical from Groton School during the 2018-19 academic year, Tommy Lamont '79 spent five months driving across the southern United States. The following is an excerpt from the essay she wrote and shared with us upon her return.

M

y first stop was the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, which hardly qualifies as the South.

But it seemed appropriate to begin my journey through the southern United States and its remarkable history by visiting the birthplace of American Democracy.

Unfortunately, or perhaps ironically, all but two of the National Park historic sites in the city were closed due to the government shutdown that December. I then drove south to Washington, D.C., where I stayed with old friends and tried to find less visited sites to explore.

From the nation’s capital, I headed east to Annapolis, Maryland, where I spent one day and night with a former

Tommy (right) with SG classmate Cam Trowbridge '79.

colleague and his family. That evening we had dinner at an Irish pub by the harbor in the old town, sampling the local crab cakes and fish and chips. I was surprised at how friendly the staff were because we were not exactly what I would have considered the usual patrons of an establishment in a town with a reputation as a bastion of conservatism. I was fully prepared to be confronted or laughed at by the staff and the patrons, including perhaps some cadets from the nearby United States Naval Academy.

After all, we were one transwoman, two gay men, one of whom is African American, and one 2-year-old AfricanAmerican child. As we departed the restaurant it was slowly dawning on me that I was greatly under-estimating Americans’ openness to change. Six months later, to my further surprise, I would find myself at the Naval Academy graduation in Annapolis as the guest of a former student. And the cadets were terrific.

How far we Americans have come was made apparent to me at my next stop, Colonial Williamsburg. At the old armory, I stood at the back of a group of tourists and listened intently as an interpreter dressed in colonial clothing explained the many different types of weapons used by colonials in the 18th century. When the interpreter had finished his spiel, he asked if anyone had a question. Just like I used to do in Mr. Hollins’ classes, I immediately raised my hand and the docent called upon me. As I asked him about the development of standardized parts for muskets, the other tourists turned around, likely expecting to see a person whose physical presentation matched the deep voice that they heard asking the question. I didn’t see their expressions. But I can only imagine that the other visitors were surprised to see me.

Now, I don’t pass especially well as a woman no matter

33 st. george’s school

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how much I might try. At five feet, eleven inches, I am tall for a woman. I also am broad shouldered and muscular, the latter a consequence of having played football, ice hockey, and several other sports while a boy and a young man. Let’s just say that even if I do not open my mouth and say a word, I stand out as a woman, and not because I am pretty. If my voice is not enough of a clue as to my birth gender, then my many other habits and affectations that are the result of being a man for fifty-four years, such as my John Wayne-like gait, usually confirms for most people that I was not born, nor raised female.

It is at moments like this one in Colonial Williamsburg that most transgender people worry that “the gig is up,” that they have been “read” as an “imposter”, someone “in drag,” a “crossdresser,” a “freak.” Many trans folk respond in these situations by hurriedly scurrying away in deep embarrassment, utterly dejected at having failed to pass in their preferred gender. Some decide to never again speak in public or otherwise draw attention to themselves. Indeed, so great is the trans person’s desire to be seen by society as they see themselves, that being read as transgender can be devastating to a trans person.

I know trans people who take months, even years, to recover from this sort of experience and then eventually develop enough courage to try once again to go out in public. This was my own experience decades ago. But since then I have come to understand that if I demonstrate confidence in public then people around me, including total strangers, will have confidence in me. It does not matter if they realize that I am not like most woman. If I project an aura of confidence, others will likely see me as a strong, confident person who has every right to be out in society and enjoying the public sphere.

After departing Colonial Williamsburg, the other tourists may have talked amongst themselves for a bit about the “transgender” person they just saw. Yet they also perhaps noted how knowledgeable and enthusiastic about history that trans person was. They may come to appreciate that they and I share a good deal in common, more in common than they ever thought. And they may come to accept, perhaps subconsciously, that I, and other trans folk, are not the threat to them and Western civilization, that they might have imagined. The docent in the armory seems to think as much; sensing my interest and expertise in history he insisted that I stay behind the group and listen to him explain some local military history. I was grateful for his passion for history. But I was more grateful for his willingness to see me as a human being. ■

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Tommy Lamont ’79 is a history teacher at Groton School in Massachusetts. She taught history at St. George’s from 1991-1997. She has been active in New England’s transgender community for more than 25 years and has been living full time as a woman since June 2018.

Above: Visiting Philadelphia. / With SG classmate Carina Sayles '79. / With docents at the Manassas National Battlefield Park. / With Hilary Kinney '79.

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Pages of Discovery Katherine Whitney ’80 and Leila Emery ’98 graduated from St. George’s School 18 years apart, but the two would unwittingly cross paths years later at a writing workshop in California. The happenstance led to not just a friendship with roots hidden on the Hilltop, but a partnership to co-edit a non-fiction anthology, “My Shadow is My Skin: Voices from the Iranian Diaspora.”

It was one of the instructors who suggested at the end of the workshop in 2015 that Whitney and Emery collaborate on a project highlighting the Iranian diaspora, eventually resulting in the 32-essay collection published by the University of Texas press in March 2020.

Although the pair had worked together for several years, with Emery sometimes flying from her home in North Carolina to meet with Whitney in person in California, they didn’t realize their SG connection until a random social media post one of them made about SG choir near the halfway point of their project.

“We already knew we were both from Massachusetts … we had a lot of these really interesting connections, but the St. George’s one just floored us both,” Emery said.

“The randomness of it and the irony, that this little writing workshop in Berkeley, California, brought us together and then we ended up sharing this amazing connection.”

“It was totally crazy because we had already been working together for two years when we realized it,” added Whitney.

identity,’ which I didn’t really feel like I had,” Whitney said. “My role is very undefined in terms of how a non-Iranian mother would be shepherding these two kids along, in terms of their culture, so writing for me is a way to explore that and come to a greater understanding. This writing workshop was a really exciting opportunity, to be able to sit and write with these other people.”

Emery’s mother is Iranian and her father is American, but growing up she said she had few chances to interact with other Iranians besides her own family.

“I had always focused on my Iranian identity … exploring that issue in my own writing and trying to figure out what that means to me and how to navigate it,” Emery said. “So when I saw the description for the workshop, I thought that would be a wonderful way to not only explore my own writing in more depth, but also meet other writers who were themselves Iranian or had some connection to Iran, which I had never had the opportunity to do before.”

Katherine Whitney ’80

Exploring Identity Whitney and Emery also have more in common than their alma mater and it was the reason they each attended the writing workshop, which focused on exploring Iranian and Iranian-American identity. The workshop included attendees of not just various writing experience, but different connections to the Iranian diaspora as well.

Whitney and Emery both came by their Iranian identity in different ways.

Whitney’s husband is Iranian and they have two Iranian-American children together.

“I realized that writing is a way for me to better understand my place in the diaspora and also my ‘Iranian

Leila Emery ’98

Besides their different connections to the diaspora, Whitney and Emery have different writing backgrounds they brought to the book too. Whitney has a background in art history and has her own firm that develops exhibitions for museums. Emery is a poet with a background in comparative literature and now works as a medical editor.

“I thought this could potentially be life changing and, in my case, it really was because not only did this book spring from that experience, but I also made lifelong friendships … and really feel so much more a part of the greater Iranian-American diaspora than I ever did before,” Emery said. “I understand my identity more than I ever did and I think my writing has improved as a result too.”

New Voices Part of Whitney and Emery’s goal was to broaden the definition of the Iranian diaspora beyond those who initially left the country after the Iranian revolution in 1979, according to Whitney.

“That was kind of a turning point where a lot of people, of many different generations, left” Whitney said of the revolution. “My husband was 15. Some people came with their whole families. There was a lot of movement then and all of the generations who’ve been born to those people who fled are also part of that diaspora.”

Iranians have dispersed all over the globe since the revolution, but Whitney and Emery’s anthology focuses on stories of Iranian-Americans.

With 110 submissions, including their own, the co-editors had a large selection of essays from diverse writers of varying perspectives, backgrounds, ages, sexual orientations, and geographic locations to choose from.

“It’s just a really incredible representation of what the modern diaspora is,” said Emery, adding, “We started to get these essays that dealt with topics that really haven’t been written about by Iranians all that often.”

Whitney and Emery organized the 32 selected essays into three themes – Light/Shadow, Coding/Decoding,

and Memory/ Longing.

Each theme discusses personal aspects of being Iranian-American, such as feelings of identity, senses of belonging and not belonging, the importance of language when it comes to understanding culture, and how both firsthand and secondhand memories of a country that in some ways no longer exists can impact who you are.

Another mission of the book was to show the different sides of Iran and its culture, Above, clockwise from top left: Leila Emery with her parwhich is especially ents in Iran at Christmas; The Whitney/Farzaneh family at important now because Persepolis in Iran ; The Anthology, "My Shadow is My Skin: Voices from the Iranian Diaspora," published in 2020. of the way Iran is often portrayed in the media, according to Whitney.

“It’s really important to understand that this is not a monolithic culture,” Whitney said. “It’s a group of people who have stories that are very similar to our own and if we can find those connections, people to people, person to person, it will hopefully provide a context for greater empathy and less animosity.” ■

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ALUMNI NEWS

Having celebrated 28 years sober, Whitney is now an assistant professor in the College of Education and the program coordinator of the Collegiate Recovery Community (CRC) at Penn State University.

Last summer he was the recipient of the Association of Recovery in Higher Education’s Cornerstone Award for Student Support during the association’s 10th annual conference in Boston and was lauded by his peers and by former students, who credit him with transforming their lives. Bestowing the award, Matt Statman, program manager of the University of Michigan’s Collegiate Recovery Program, said, “Jason's

SPRING 2020

J

ason Whitney ’90 says his “moment of clarity” came while backpacking to Brazil in 1992. A sophomore at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Whitney was coming to terms with what he described as a “single-minded obsession to drink and use drugs every free minute of my life.” “In those days, I had been going through a cycle in which I was trying to change my life and stop partying … and then I would backslide — sometimes by that same afternoon, maybe later in the week,” Whitney said. He went to treatment midway through his sophomore year. Newly sober, Whitney started going to meetings of the 12-step group that met three times a week on campus. There were about 40 students in the group, and Whitney said they gave him hope, but that he grew increasingly restless. “I had gotten the chemicals out of my system, but still college wasn’t making sense to me, and nothing felt real.” He disenrolled from CU Boulder a second time, embarking upon his yearlong backpacking journey. Within a week, he got a job at a treatment center in Mexico City, where he spent several months. He celebrated his one-year sober anniversary there.

He continued backpacking through Central and South America, growing increasingly miserable, when it dawned on him that he was making things way too hard for himself. He suddenly realized, after struggling for so long, that what he needed was to go back to Boulder, and he became certain that he could find happiness as a student in recovery with the support of the community that was there. “I just couldn't get any traction. I had to find other people who were doing the same thing. I just could not do it alone. There was a vibrant young people's recovery scene at Boulder — and it absolutely saved my life.”

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After Addiction

st. george’s school

Jason Whitney ’90 got his life back in recovery.

Now he’s helping others get back theirs.

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commitment to recovery and higher education is so genuine and so sincere.

The work he has done to advocate for collegiate recovery on his campus and for individual students is a model for us all.”

The conference in Boston last June was also a watershed moment for Whitney in that he presented the results of his 2017 study on the lived experiences of students in recovery at CU Boulder, the University of Michigan, and Penn State in a keynote address.

Nationally, Whitney served on the board of the Association in Higher Education and co-founded the Association of Recovery in Higher Education’s Student Leadership Summit and Recovery Ski-athon in Keystone, Colorado, a conference which drew 200 students from collegiate recovery programs across the country.

When Whitney and some colleagues founded the collegiate recovery program at Penn State in 2011, they started with eight students. They currently support 30. At the time, there were a few dozen such groups on college campuses around the country; now there are 150 and growing.

“We're not talking about students who do a little bit of binge-drinking,” Whitney said. “The technical term for what these students have is ‘early-onset severe substance use disorders with an especially chronic and persistent course.’”

Many of them have a history of treatment, sometimes multiple treatments, according to Whitney. Some of them come from the wealthiest families in Pennsylvania and others come from poverty. “It's a very equal-opportunity destroyer,” he noted.

To become members of the Penn State CRC, students commit to attending peer-support seminars, and work with a supplemental recovery program, often a 12-step program such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA). To bolster that support, he also founded ROAR House – an acronym for Residence of Addiction Recovery – which currently houses 14 students on campus.

The Penn State CRC mainly works by providing students with a viable peer-support community. “Without support, these students tend to fare poorly. When given proper support, they achieve higher-than-average GPAs, graduate at higher-than-average rates, and they stay sober at some of the highest rates ever studied, especially for this population. A 2014 study of students in 29 Collegiate Recovery Programs found a mean annual relapse rate of just 8 percent.”

Whitney grew up in Woodside, California, a celebrity enclave where the town government maintains a network of equestrian trails. It’s one of the wealthiest communities in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and the home of Neil Young and Joe Montana. Joan Baez would show up at his parents’ pool parties. “It’s zoned for horses and rock stars,” Whitney quipped. “150 percent of the kids I knew from home were on drugs.”

When Whitney arrived at St. George’s in 1986, his life was in upheaval, and yet his drinking and drug use made a difficult time even more chaotic.“ Those were tough years in a lot of ways,” he added. His parents split, and he saw several of his closest friends break the rules and be dismissed from school. His use became increasingly out of control, even then. “I really loved the school, and I understood the need for rules, and yet I broke them every day.

Sometimes I would look in the mirror and ask, ‘What’s wrong with you that you would constantly risk this opportunity?’”

He credits St. George’s with first putting the idea of recovery into his head. A school-sponsored visit to campus by a group from the Freedom from Chemical Dependency program, he said, had a powerful effect on him.

“They had these people in recovery who were in their 20s, and one of them was an actual graduate of St. George's, which I couldn't believe.

“I was so anxious to talk to that SG kid that I actually sought him out afterwards,” Whitney said.

“That was the first time I'd ever heard anyone like me say, ‘Yeah, I love recovery. I go to A.A.’ That was a pretty important moment. He was laughing and talking about getting high in all the same places I was currently getting high in. I thought, wow, this guy's got massive credibility with me.”

After graduating from CU Boulder, Whitney got a job teaching English at The Gunnery School for six years.

Later, he moved to Santa Barbara and taught English at Dunn School.

He now lives in State College, Pennsylvania, with his wife Anne, who is a professor of education at Penn State. The two have two children, Emily, 12, and William, 7.

“One of the reasons this issue is near and dear to my heart is that I have experienced what it's like to have your life fall apart as a result of a substance abuse disorder — and I've also experienced several years of college in recovery,” he said. “And I have to say that my years in recovery were vastly more happy, meaningful, and worthwhile in every possible way.” ■ Above: Jason Whitney '90 receiving the Association of Recovery in Higher Education’s Cornerstone Award for Student Support during the association’s 10th annual conference in Boston in June 2019.

tagging great white

SHARKS From June through October, John King ’70 can be found steering his 24-foot center console sport fishing boat, the Aleutian Dream, in the waters off Cape Cod. If he’s lucky, a 15-foot, 2,500-pound great white shark will be swimming just below him.

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For the last eight years, King has been working with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries to try and understand the recent resurgence of white sharks in Cape Cod waters after almost 80 years of no sightings.

Now, on a busy day and with a spotter pilot above, King might interact with 25 great white sharks in seven hours on the water.

13th generation Cape Codder, King graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. After college, he worked as a vessel captain running a large king and snow crab operation in Alaska for seven years until he decided to change things up.

“I think St. George’s gave me the opportunity to think big in a lot of different ways, so my career bumped into slightly different variations,” King said.

“But in the end, it was confidence in my ability to make things happen in a lot of different environments.”

Shifting away from a lifestyle of actively going to sea, King developed four companies over 25 years – three in the biotechnology industry. One was Rosetta Inpharmatics, which was acquired by pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. in 2001 and where King was in charge of worldwide business operations and planning for the research division.

“I used to call it managing genius,” said King.

“Because I worked with some really bright people who just needed some guidance on strategic thinking, planning, budget execution, operation execution.”

When King retired in 2008, he relocated from the West Coast to his family’s hometown of Chatham on Cape Cod. Always fascinated and interested in the ocean and its conservation, he started looking for projects to get involved with in the area.

Joining the Fight With a strong interest in photography, King and his wife, Pamela, have spent a decade traveling the world, photographing different animal species and environments as a way to tell stories that enabled conservation.

When a great white shark shocked the region after it was found stranded in a salt pond on Naushon Island

John King '70 and Pamela King on Cape Cod.

in 2004, the couple no longer had to travel around the globe to photograph these apex predators.

“I definitely had a very big fascination with sharks and specifically with great white sharks, predicated in large part on the unbelievable footage that came out with the Planet Earth documentaries in 2006,” said John King. “I was determined to see these animals in their natural environment, so in the late 2000s, we were traveling to South Africa to actually see them and photograph them … But when they showed up here at Cape Cod, it was a dream come true.”

The main prey for great white sharks is grey seals, which were once hunted close to local extinction by fisherman in the 19th and 20th centuries. When the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972, seals were protected and the population has since resurged. But as seals returned to Cape Cod shores, so have great white sharks to hunt them, bringing the fish closer to land and humans.

When King and his wife connected with Dr. Greg Skomal, a marine biologist for the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries, they agreed to help him study the sharks.

“The challenge was for me figuring out how I could help him do his work,” King said. “And that led to meeting a couple of social entrepreneurs who were in the region who wanted to start a nonprofit to do just the very same thing.”

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy was founded in 2012 with a mission to support scientific research, improve public safety, and educate the community to inspire white shark conservation. In 2014, the nonprofit made an agreement with Skomal to fund a five-year population study of great white sharks in the area to establish an important baseline of data.

Up Close and Personal With King’s love of being a part of the action and the science, he and Pamela decided to modify a vessel they owned and turn it into a research platform for the study – donating their time and resources in the early days necessary to run the operation.

“It was an experiment when we modified it, but it’s turned out to be the absolutely perfect platform to do the work,” King said. “It’s fast, it’s close to the water, it’s shallow draft and it allowed the researcher to get quite close to the shark without disturbing it.”

The population study entailed photographing sharks with an underwater camera

Top to bottom: Seal Island 2013, taken by John King in South Africa; King steering his converted boat the Aleutian Dream off the coast of Cape Cod, trying to tag a great white shark; Shark spotted off Coast Guard Beach in Eastham, Mass. in 2016.

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and building a database of individual identifications of sharks using characteristics like scars, color patterns, and fin shapes. Data collection was completed in 2018 and the results are currently being analyzed, according to King.

Now, the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy has embarked on a new fiveyear study with the state, focusing on understanding the day-to-day movements of white sharks when they get to the region.

“This is one of the few areas in the world where you have the proximity of white sharks hunting seals in areas where people are using the beaches and swimming and sailing Aboard the Aleutian Dream. and surfing,” King said.

“Many areas of the world where white sharks occur are remote from public access, so it’s important to study them for the protection of the species, but also to keep the public safe.”

King and scientists have been working to put acoustic tags on white sharks that last several years and will transmit a constant radio signal specific to that shark. Those radio signals will be picked up by receiver buoys when the sharks go within 100 meters of them and register a path. That information gets routinely downloaded via Bluetooth and shared with researchers to study areas the sharks frequent to examine possible correlations between things like when they’re hunting near beaches or offshore to variables like weather and moon phases.

“We are working to set up an array of receiver buoys that will give us much more information about what our sharks are doing locally,” said King. “This population has not been studied at all, so fundamental questions like where they mate, where they have their babies are unknown. It will be a long time before all those questions get answered, so my guess is we have years and years and years of productive research, which will continue the mission.”

together now for six and a half years and it’s just as exciting after 2,000 interactions as it would be after the first one.”

Although he spends a good deal of time helping out on the water, King’s role as a board member at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy enables him to make an impact on land as well by advising local governments, helping develop programs in schools, and making communication tools so the public is aware of risks.

“The difficulty is that we have 200 years of history where humans were using the marine environment without the presence of sharks and seals and, so, got some bad habits,” King said. “So really the only good strategy is for humans to modify their behavior and be a little bit more shark smart about how they behave.”

As seals and white sharks return to the northwest Atlantic, King takes it as a sign that the marine ecosystem is returning to a balance it once had.

“The seal resurgence and the recurring return of great white sharks is absolutely a sign of a healthy ocean, a healthy environment,” King said. “And that should be treasured.” ■

Knowledge is Power Since the studies began, King and the team have spent hundreds of hours observing great white sharks hunt and behave off the coast of Cape Cod with close to 2,000 interactions so far, he said.

“It’s an absolute thrill. Every single time we see one,” said King. “It doesn’t get old … We’ve been working

More info: www.wildcapecod.com

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Class Notes

The St. George’s Board of Trustees meets on campus four times a year — in late September/early October, December, February, and late May/early June — but members devote dozens of hours beyond that to shepherding and supporting our school. Among other duties, they steward the school's mission, develop strategic goals and objectives, and approve the annual budget. Hailing from across the country (and “across the pond”), they lend professional expertise and key financial support, and are integral liaisons to our alumni and families. Eighteen of the 26 trustees serving in 2019-20 are alumni. Attend a St. George’s reception and you’re bound to meet a few of them.

Front row, left to right: Kirtley Horton Cameron '91, P'23; Fraser L. Hunter, Jr. ’84, P’21; Alixe Callen P’21, Head of School; Leslie Bathgate Heaney ’92, P'24, Board Chair; Clare G. Harrington. Middle row, left to right: Michael S. Kim ’88; James T. Dyke '87, P'21; Meade Thayer ’70; Dana L. Schmaltz ’85, P’17, ’20; April S. Anderson ’86, P’20, '23; David S. Halwig ’68; Frances S. Fisher P'22; Tad Van Norden ’84; William C. Dorsey ’70. Back row, left to right: Rebecca Bliss P’22; Timothy P. Burns P’13, ’16, ’18; Hugh M. Jones, Jr. ’77, P’18, ’20; The Rt. Rev. Dr. W. Nicholas Knisely Jr.; Joseph C. Hoopes, Jr. '62; George N. Petrovas P’20, ’21; Peter C. Cook ’85. (Missing from the photo: Rodolphus Bethea, Jr. ’87; Eleanor Dejoux P’21, ’24; Anthony R. Mayer ’81; E. Stanton McLean ’90; and David C. Randall ’82, P’18, ’21.)

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CLASS NOTES

st. george’s school

BECOME A CLASS CORRESPONDENT! See an empty place where your class column should be and want to see it filled? Reconnect with old friends? Rally the class for your next reunion? Contact the Alumni Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or ClassNotes@stgeorges.edu.

// SPRING 2020

1939/40/41

Please contact the Alumni Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or ClassNotes@ stgeorges.edu if you would like to volunteer to serve as class correspondent or to submit an update.

1942

Phillip F. Thomas, 540-486-4167

1943/44/45

Please contact the Alumni Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or ClassNotes@ stgeorges.edu if you would like to volunteer to serve as class correspondent or to submit an update.

1946

David H. Couch, dc-mlc@verizon.net

1947

Please contact the Alumni Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or ClassNotes@stgeorges.edu if you would like to volunteer to serve as class correspondent or to submit an update.

1948

Peter O. C. Austin-Small passed away on Aug. 1, 2019, and we honor him for his many years of service as correspondent for the Class of 1948. He will be missed.

1949

C.Jackson Shuttleworth Jr., 631-331-6098

Above, top to bottom, left to right : Jack Hopkins ’50, his granddaughter Sarah Appleton, and wife Judy visited the Hilltop last summer. / J. Ford III ’50 sporting one of the happi coats he has designed for his Princeton class reunion “P-rades.” / USS Thresher Monument honoring shipmates of Ted Hussey ’50.

1950

John T. Bethell, john.bethell@verizon.net n After a series of falls, reports Joe Burnett, “I went to my cardiologist and found that I had auricular flutter, an arrhythmia starting from an abnormal focus in the left auricle of my heart. The cardiologist destroyed or ablated that area, and I now have normal rhythm and shouldn’t fall anymore.”… Last September Joe was honored at the investiture of the first holder of the Dr. Joseph W. Burnett Professorship of Dermatology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Joe had raised more than $4 million to endow the chair. “The first occupant,” he notes, “is Dr. Thomas Hornyak, an internationally recognized authority on pigment cell biology, melanoma, and

skin cancer.” n From his Sarasota, Florida, retirement community, Howard Crowell writes: “We’re more than a little involved in running a Model Yacht Club here at the Glenridge (I’m the ‘commodore’), and it’s great fun. There are some 21 sailboats, all of the same class, and our racing skills are improving daily. We sail a radio-controlled Dragon 65, a reasonable investment but accompanied by a six-hour rigging challenge. Once in the water it sails remarkably like the real thing. Winds are always tricky on our small lakes, but that is part of the challenge. Otherwise, we’re holding up pretty well.” n Jerry Ford has played a creative role in the regular reunions of his Princeton class of ’54. He explains: “After graduating from Princeton I was a U.S. Marine assigned to Japan.

CLASS NOTES

1952

Francis B. Lentz ’40, Sept. 12, 2018 Frederic C. Wheeler, Jr. ’40, Nov. 29, 2019 Lawrence W. Earle ’42, Jan. 30, 2019 William S. Glazier, II ’43, Feb. 5, 2020 Foxhall A. Parker ’43, Dec. 28, 2019 Peter O. C. Austin-Small ’48, Aug. 1, 2019 William R. Swirbul ’49, Oct. 16, 2019 Stephen D. Booth ’51, Aug. 19, 2019 Michael Harvey-Smith ’51, Nov. 27, 2017 Frederick S. Holmes, Jr. ’52, Sept. 7, 2019 Lawrence B. Thompson ’54, Sept. 15, 2019 Jonathan Howe '55, March 3, 2020 C. Dalley Oliver ’55, July 25, 2019 William A. Briggs, Jr. ’59, Former Faculty Feb. 2, 2020 Thomas K. Kimmel Jr. ’61, Oct. 23, 2019 Michael F. Stone ’63, Nov. 11, 2019 Hiland G. B. Doolittle ’64, Feb. 26, 2020 Ryckman R. Walbridge ’66, Feb. 19, 2020 Charles P. Wilkinson ’70, Oct. 9, 2019

Mitchell Pierson Jr., mitchpierson@gmail.com

George Peterson III, agpeterson3@yahoo.com ■ Bob Maddock writes: “I am long-winded as usual. In doing research for another book, ‘Ministering Angels in Support of God’s Army,’ I found some interesting information about Brigham Young that practically no one knows. “It turns out he was probably the first agronomist in the U.S. before the science was even known. He ran an experimental farm, 2 square miles, known as ‘The Forest Farm.’ Our home is on a very small part of it. The reason for its name was all the mulberry trees planted there to begin a silk industry in Utah. They did get some silk, but it was not practical and the effort was abandoned after about 21 years.

However, Brother Brigham was successful in introducing sugar beets into worldwide production and for a time the LDS Church owned Utah, then Utah & Idaho Sugar Company. If you come out to Salt Lake City, you can still see the memorial to this

COMMUNITY Beth S. Horton P’79, ’85, Faculty Emerita Aug. 5, 2019 Donald M. Sykes, Jr., Former Faculty Nov. 26, 2019

effort. My wife and I live in the ‘Sugar House’ district of the city. The Church sold out in about 1980 when they decided that churches should not be in any commercial ventures. Brother Brigham was also instrumental in introducing alfalfa into worldwide production. “He was also apparently keeping up with research done

by Louis Pasteur on germ theory and Joseph Lister on antisepsis. About the time Lister published his treatise on antiseptic practices – 1872 – Young decided it was time to begin to send church members, including women, back east to study medicine and bring back the up-to-date information and start practicing medicine in the Utah territory. “Among the early pioneers in Utah Medicine was Seymour B. Young (his nephew) who went to the College of Physicians and Surgeons in

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MEMORIAL LIST

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Beal on our marine railway (which is my department), and the owner removed nine tons of external ballast from the keel to prepare for her rebuild.” n Ted Tansi was recovering from a bout of pneumonia when we checked with him last fall, but he e-mailed this poetic status report: All I can tell you Is that my conversation with my body Has not gone well It’s saying I am getting older and Will tell me that more often And it does Ted is living at American House in Bonita Springs, Florida. n Finally this from Kent Turner: “Barbara and I are getting along well in our retirement community in Endwell, New York. I am enjoying reading about the settling of the American West, and watching business news on CNBC.” n N.B. Exactly 10 years have passed since Kent relinquished the curatorship of this column to the present incumbent. We then had valid addresses for 24 active classmates, out of a graduating class of 43. We are now down to a round dozen.

So it goes. n

st. george’s school

Back in Princeton, we were preparing for our fifth reunion and casting about for a theme. In Japan, I had seen and been impressed with ‘happi coats,’ a traditional garment worn for festivals, so I created one for our class. The Japanese theme has remained with us for the past 60 years.

So in addition to a happy career as an architect, I have had a sideline as a reunion costume designer.” n Ted Hussey writes: “Last September, more than 56 years after she was lost, USS Thresher (SSN 593) was given a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. The simple stone honors the 129 men lost when the nuclear-powered submarine sank during deep-diving tests off the coast of Massachusetts. Of those men, 69 had been my shipmates. I rode the ship down the ways during launching and served in her for two years. I was transferred to USS Skipjack nine months before Thresher was lost on April 10, 1963. The deadliest accident in submarine history led to the establishment of the subsafe program, which upgraded the design, building, testing, and operations of our submarine force. In the 56 years since its inception, we have not lost a sub that has been through the program.

Every year, in April, former crew-members and the families of those who were lost gather in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for a memorial service. Nancy and I have attended several. Though we did not attend the Arlington dedication, we sent our granddaughter Lauren and her husband, Hospital Corpsman Second Class Joe Marsh, USN, to represent us. He is stationed at Walter Reed Medical Center, near Washington, D.C.” n Jay McLauchlan writes: “I kept fit last summer by building (without help) a 45-foot, 34-ton granite retaining wall on our property in Gloucester, Massachusetts, creating a raised garden. Previously a bank of thorn bushes, it is now full of hosta, weigela, and spirea — a vast improvement. I continue to sculpt imaginary deep-sea creatures in my studio, in preparation for a new show in the spring. My volunteer work at Maritime Gloucester, a working waterfront museum and aquarium, is rewarding. Last year more than 2,000 students were exposed to the fundamentals of ocean science, and through them, their parents are more aware of the plight of the oceans. We also hauled the 80-foot schooner Sylvina W.

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CLASS NOTES

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New York City, graduating third in his class of 208. He was married with three kids; his wife got a job and put him through medical school. On return to Utah, he began using occupational therapy to treat the insane. It worked – about 100 years ahead of his time. He taught the inmates farm labor while his wife, Elizabeth Riter, taught home production skills. “Shortly thereafter, three women went east to medical schools. Esther Romania Pratt (1839-1932), received her degree from Medical College of New York. She took advanced training surgery at Women’s College of Pennsylvania and did a further residency in Boston. She became an ophthalmologist who did some of the first cataract surgeries west of the Mississippi.

Dr. Ellis Reynolds Shipp (1847-1939) studied at University of Philadelphia Women’s Medical College and became an OB-GYN physician. She delivered 5,000 children and set up a school for midwives. Martha Hughes Cannon (1857-1932) studied at the University of Michigan and went on to establish a public health department in Utah. She also ran for the state senate and beat her own husband for the seat, becoming the first woman to obtain significant public office in the U.S. “At the time of Brigham Young’s death, he had seven physicians in attendance including Seymour Young. He probably died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm, which no one at that time could treat successfully. “I thought some of this might interest the young women attending St. George’s these days. Even back in the “dark ages” at the time of their great grandmothers, there was a part of the U.S. that thought women should be physicians.” n David Hare writes: “Many thanks for your message — always read class news with interest. Just to let you know Jan and I are living in the village of Steeple Ashton close to Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England.

Managing just fine, getting a bit slower and more forgetful. Play a bit of golf, nine holes mainly (no buggies). I do a weekly shift in the village shop (which used to be the village school) run by volunteers — essential for keeping up with local gossip (maybe some fake news). Two daughters live nearby and son and family settled in New Zealand a few years ago. Almost given up sailing. Last trip to the States was with a U.K. dinghy team. We shipped

our own boats for team races in Buzzards Bay against two U.S. teams (East & West Coast) and Canadians. Glad to say we fluked through. Otherwise, bits of cruising to the Med, Turkey. Some mentioned in a book — ‘Sea & Islands’ by Hammond Innes — rather long ago! Helpful as a reminder of days gone by as I do forget!” n Spoke to Tod Shields, who I always called Ted, about life in Michigan, where he is happily retired. It happened that while we talked his wife Carrie was outside raking leaves. He does enjoy walking his poodle and a Cavalier King Charles spaniel though. Tod spoke vigorously in favor of enjoying retired life at 87. n Carol and Tim Sturtevant live a deserved good life in Vero Beach for much of the winter but venture north for the holidays. Tim says they are renting an apartment again this year near the golf course in Newport for the summer. Carol had a setback earlier this year but is doing fine now. n Carl Grashof lives in a retirement community called Bellingham near West Chester, Pennsylvania, with spouse Marita, which is near her children. He has limited his singing talents to his community — lucky residents! He plays lots of bridge and walks his black Lab, Nina, religiously.

Overall, a peaceful time for them. n Congratulations to Irene and Barry Sloane who late this summer celebrated 60 years of marriage (not including eight years of

courting). They met as blind dates at an SG prom, ah! To encourage all the family to attend the ceremony, he sent out invitations in January. Barry, as most of us are, is wrestling with neck arthritis, which is squeezing his nerves. Hope for relief may lie with CBD or cannabis, a medical derivative of the hemp plant, which has been recommended by his doctor. Let’s find out if it works; we could all use it somewhere! n George Kilby has closed down his business enterprises and considers himself retired with his lovely wife, Farley.

She has back problems, which were considerably relieved with a successful operation. They have been avid skiers from their house in Carbondale, near Aspen, but like many of us, as for George, it’s a sport of the past. Farley, I believe, is still on the slopes. n

1953

William C. Prescott Jr., wprescott@ wheelerschool.org

1954

Please contact the Alumni Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or ClassNotes@stgeorges.edu if you would like to volunteer to serve as class correspondent or to submit an update.

Anthony C. Booth '53 stopped by campus for a quick tour with his wife Barbara, their son Eric and his wife Lisa, and their grandkids, Anna and Nathan.

CLASS NOTES

of civility on campus. Eventually, of course, we developed an affection for our teachers and surreptitiously bestowed on them the ultimate honor of a nickname such as “Red Wille,” “Granda Danda,” “Teddy Bear,” “Creeping Jesus,” Booby,” “Pip,” “Spud,” “Mr. Pete,” and so on. “The curriculum, at that time, was standard English, math, science, history, religion, various languages, and elective courses in mechanical drawing and art. The classes were intense because the teachers were dedicated to imparting their knowledge of their subject and adopted various methods to achieve their objectives. Woe to the student who incorrectly conjugated a French verb in George Wheeler’s class.

He tilted his chair back, resting both arms along the blackboard tray with his hands grasping erasers that he could launch with deadly accuracy. Pity the Latin student who misconstructed a sentence and was penalized a stroke on Chauncey Beasley’s game of ‘Golfus Latine.’ Too bad for those of us who had to suffer in fifth-form English, laboriously working our way through a tome titled ‘Modern English Usage.’ (I have never since tried to diagram a sentence). My extra-curricular activities comprised of singing (choir and octet), student governance (Council and Prefect), theater, photography, and sailing. The experiences of sailing ‘Sachuest’ on weekend excursions to Bristol and then on to Block Island with Norrie Hoyt and fellow students intensified my lifelong interest and enjoyment of being on a boat.

I was not a great athlete, so happily occupied the sidelines to cheer on our sport gladiators and photograph them.

The loyalty of the faculty to us students is more than amply demonstrated by my experience in our senior year. I was editor of The Lance, with Jim Keegan as faculty advisor. Near midnight on a February evening in 1955, we were in his apartment putting the last touches on what we were going to send to the printers. Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Bill Schenck, our Harvard-educated head of the History Department confronted me and demanded ‘Hutchinson, where have you applied to college”?’ I confessed that my grandfather and my two uncles all graduated from Williams and that is where I had applied. ‘No matter,’ he said, “I’ve made an appointment for you in two

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make a real difference in their lives. I retired but am still dealing with the consequences of some unfortunate decisions made when I sold my machining business. Nothing catastrophic, but it keeps me busy chasing crafty deadbeats.

In addition, we are in the throes of selling our New Hampshire real estate and unloading the fruits of years of collecting stuff, which now resembles millstones hanging from our necks. I’m sure this is an oft’ told tale in our cohort. One of my Rules to Live By has become ‘Never love something that can’t love you back.’ We have been traveling a bit including several trips to Asia, as one of our kids works for Nike and has spent the last 10 years upgrading their production methods as they double their output to 2 million pairs per day. That’s right — per day! The kids in that family are fluent in Mandarin and English. “Like the rest of you we are dealing with the reward of aging and trying to do it with as much grace as we can muster. “I hope all is well with all of us.” n Now on to Dan Hutchinson with some memories worthy of a careful read.

They end with a sadness of the sort that started this edition of ’55 class notes. “The fall of 1951 in Middletown was mild and mostly sunny, and the excitement of starting a new chapter in my life at St. George’s enhanced the impact of the beautiful campus with an expansive ocean vista. What to expect in the coming days and weeks of my third-form year and the years thereafter? I had no experience with boarding school – my father, Class of ’18, had died in 1947 when I was 10 years old, so I never shared his memories of the Hilltop. A lot of new ground to plow! “It happened that we had a relatively compatible group of students in our class, but with widely varying backgrounds and experiences. Similarly, the faculty comprised mostly married men with excellent academic credentials from a range of institutions and with a variety of personal interests, so the process of getting to know everyone was a challenge.

However, that process was greatly facilitated by what I came to see as the community support and mutual respect of all the participants, including the engagement of the faculty wives who occasionally hosted small groups of us for tea and generally contributed greatly to the level

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Thomas H. Stevenson / Robert L. Ceres, rceres@ cox.net ■ I feel compelled to start on a sad note. The first shoe fell several months ago, when we received the letter from St. George’s of the passing of our classmate Dalley Oliver. I will not dwell further on this as I thought the school did a very nice job with this notification to all of us, which I thanked them for. I will only add, that Tom Stevenson was our only classmate (that I know of) who kept track of Dalley the last years of his life, and he was a blessing for Dalley as most of his family pre-deceased him. The latest sadness came more recently, when David Hoopes notified me that his assistance with these notes would be minimal for a time, as he and his family mourned the loss of his wife Katherine, after a lengthy battle with cancer. I am not sure how many of us had the pleasure of getting to know this lovely lady. I do know that those of us fortunate to have had this opportunity, including Sparky Watts, Roger Smith, Tom Stevenson, and myself, were rewarded richly by her hospitality, intellect, and kindness. Most memorable for us was her hosting us on our past ski adventures in Vermont. She and David welcomed us into their home on several such occasions, which were always great fun and a real treat for us. Please drop Dave a card, or give him a call if you can. n In the last bulletin, I promised an update from Roger Smith on his move to Colorado, and an update from Dan Hutchinson, whom we have not heard from in ages. First up is Roger. “After spending five-plus decades in New England, wife Martha and I moved to Longmont, Colorado (Boulder County) in Dec 2017 to join the last of our 10 grandkids who moved west. They are in Wyoming, Montana, California, Oregon, and Colorado, ages 29 to 4. Most everyone is doing pretty well considering the size of the family, with a couple of exceptions at either end of the continuum.

We have experienced minimum culture shock in our new digs, as most of our neighbors are outlanders like us who followed their kids and grandkids out here.

There is a lot to be said for Colorado — including 300 sunny days per year.

“Martha is medical director for a local clinic treating the opiate addicted community, which she enjoys as she can

st. george’s school

1955

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CLASS NOTES

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days with the Dean of Admissions at Harvard and I’m going to drive you to Cambridge. Be prepared!’ After graduating from Harvard, I performed three years of active duty with the Navy, graduating from OCS in Newport in February of 1960, with duty assignments on an aircraft carrier in the Sixth Fleet, and teaching assignments at OCS. In 1963, I embarked on an eclectic career in international banking and financial operations starting with the Fidelity-Philadelphia Bank’s Edge Act foreign investment subsidiary, then to SmithKline & French Labs as international treasury manager on the corporate staff, and finally to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, eventually serving there as a supervising examiner in the international supervision department. Throughout my career there was much travel, interesting and challenging business issues, and the opportunity to interact with a host of managers in a variety of environments. My personal life has presented some challenges. After nearly 20 years of marriage and two children, my first wife left me. I remained a bachelor for about 12 years, and then I met wonderful Kathy, my present wife. We both sang in our church choir (a pursuit I continued from the time I sang in the St. George’s choir and Octet, and the Harvard Glee Club) and have been happily making music together for nearly 24 years. In 2014, my son Dan Jr., committed suicide, an event that could have, but did not, shake my spiritual faith, thanks in part to the firm religious grounding provided by St. George’s. With the exception of nearly a year spent on assignment in Switzerland, Philadelphia’s Main Line has always been my home base.

I now serve on the Vestry of my church, and I have just retired from the Lower Merion Affordable Housing Corp. after many years as a board member and treasurer, devoting my free time to golf.

We are grateful to have found and been able to now occupy a residence at a retirement community in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, where we have room for overnight visitors should any classmate have need for shelter in the area.”

1956

Robert S. Ingersoll III, robertsingersoll@aol. com ■ The Wizard of the Brandywine,

The Wizard of the Brandywine, a.k.a. Todd Breck '56.

a.k.a. Todd Breck, reappeared after a decade’s absence to entertain and instruct the grandchildren of Bob Ingersoll’s wife, Lynn, on the importance of caring for and preserving our environment.

As eerie harmonica music from atop a boulder revealed his presence, the bearded Wizard appeared in full robe and pointed hat regalia from his Brandywine River domain. “Be mindful of the ferns,” he told the young ones. “That’s where the fairies live.” It was 10 years ago that the Wizard provided similar instruction to several of Bob’s grandchildren who now practice planet preservation into their teen years. Todd’s musical wizardry continues to blossom in this his ninth decade. In addition to gigs with Whirled Peas and Gunpowder Lane, two bands he has assembled to play an eclectic mixture of folk, blue grass, blues and ballads, Todd, as lead singer and songwriter, has released three CD albums in the last few years, all produced in Nashville, Music City, U.S.A. And a fourth is in the works for this year.

To get the whole story, including Todd’s philosophy and creative process, as well as an opportunity to hear selections from recent albums, check out his remarkable website. It is toddbreckmusic.com, and includes a video — “Inside Job” — narrated

by Todd describing the Nashville scene and singer songwriter phenomenon he has experienced firsthand. You will be in for a real treat!

1957

Please contact the Alumni Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or ClassNotes@stgeorges.edu if you would like to volunteer to serve as class correspondent or to submit an update.

1958

Jeffere F. Van Liew, comrepro@aol.com n Doug McCurrach — a self-described “very, very bad alumnus” — writes from his home in Jupiter, Florida: “I have been largely out of touch except for a single contribution to Class Notes some years ago, a drink in Washington, D.C. with (as I recall) Jeff Van Liew, Leff Lefferts and others, some very enjoyable email exchanges with Jeff Savastano, and a long-ago couple of letters with Dave Williams ’59. David, I did enjoy your update in the Summer 2019 alumni bulletin and so regret to learn of the loss of your beloved Molly. Currently, I’m in touch with Blayney Colmore ’59 (a talented writer, observer and episcopal minister

CLASS NOTES

(her parents had their doubts), going to California (where Marcia lived), and going back to college (USC, cum laude, with a B.S. in finance). I could not have done all of that had it not been for my five years at SG! Thank you all for your tolerance of me!

st. george’s school

1959

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William A. Briggs, Jr. passed away on Feb. 2, 2020, and we honor him for his many years of service as correspondent for the Class of 1959. He will be missed. Ted Scull has graciously volunteered to take over the reins for the Class of 1959. Please send updates to tedscull41@gmail.com n With great memories of his friendship and appreciation for his long and dedicated service to the school, we remember Bill Briggs ’59. Bill was a stalwart Dragon whose relationship with St. George’s and with his classmates was strong and unwavering. He was a trustee from 19701994 and Director of Development from 1978-1985. And in 2009, he was awarded the Howard B. Dean Service Award, for exceptional advocacy on behalf of the school. For decades, the job of keeping his classmates informed and engaged with the school remained important to him.

Bill’s first column as class correspondent was published in the St. George’s Bulletin in 1993 and his last was just this past fall in 2019. “I don’t have to mention all the great things Bill did for [our] class,” Derek Storm ’59 wrote in an email to his classmates following his death. “You all know about them. I will miss him.” Even as a student on the Hilltop, Bill was known for his enthusiasm and work ethic. “Take ability, ambition, and spirit; mix it with confidence and tact; stir it up, and you have Bill Briggs,” wrote classmate David Williams in the 1959 Lance. In his sixth-form year, Bill was elected a school prefect, and was also a dorm prefect, president of the Acolytes Guild, Library Association, choir, and Civics Club; secretary of the Society of St. George, vice president of the Dramatic Association; business editor of The Dragon, sports editor of The Lance, played football and baseball and was captain of the swim team. And even with his involvement in nearly every aspect of school life, Bill’s grades never faltered.

He was an Honor Roll student, a National Merit Scholar semifinalist, and winner of

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who is seeing to the considerable needs of my spiritual side.) Blayney has a sort of newsletter of observations, 'Notes from Zone 4,' which I heartily recommend to anyone. You can get it from Blayney at blayneycolmore@gmail.com. For me, I am long retired after a career first with the Navy, and then with Lockheed Martin.

Have a wonderful Italian wife, Daniela, and a talented daughter, Mila. I think fondly of our days together on the Hilltop.

If anyone’s interested in more, its dmccurra@gmail.com and I would love to hear from you. Finally to Jeff Van Liew: others and I appreciate your valiant efforts to keep us whole and up to date — with very little help from me. I will try to do better to stay in touch." n As for me, I will be 82 in September 2020. I stay very busy running my real estate company (vanliewrealestateadvisors.com), running, and living at the Nissequogue Point Beach Club, a private beach club founded in 1927. My first job was a lifeguard there in 1955, in Nisseqogue, Long Island, New York (north shore about 50 miles from Manhattan).

I am driving for Uber – do about 6,600 miles per month – New York, Long Island, and the tri-state area are really busy! I had bladder cancer about three years ago, and to date it seems to be licked! I have had three back operations and a right shoulder reverse shoulder replacement operation (due to my many years of playing tennis). I get up at 4 a.m. every morning, go to bed at 11 p.m., and work seven days a week. That’s about all my news to date!

Stay well! Stay in touch (that means all of you Class of ’58 members)! If we are all breathing and walking, maybe we can meetup on the Hilltop next summer! Always your friend! Jeff Van Liew n PS - Hanging on my wall, over an SG chair Leff willed to me after his death due to lung cancer, is a watercolor painting of the Hilltop by Dick Grosvenor (my wrestling coach for five years) that he painted in 1990. It was a gift from my brother Fred, who lives in Middletown. (We all attended Dick’s funeral at St. George’s two years ago.) n PPS - I have soooo many fond memories of our years at SG! I will always be grateful for their patience with me for all those years (they did put me back twice)! I never really grew up until after my years in the army in Europe, meeting Marcia (at Leff’s wedding), marrying her

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Above, top to bottom: Remembering Bill Briggs '59, pictured here on the left receiving the Howard B. Dean Service Award in 2009 from Bill Dean '73 for his exceptional service to St. George's. / Tom Winslow '59, Sheila Winslow, Peter Archer '59, Mary (friend of Stone Coxhead), and Stone Coxhead '59.

the Harvard Club of Rhode Island Prize, for the student of the fifth form whom the headmaster and the faculty deem "most worthy in scholarship, effort, and character.” After St. George’s, Bill earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Princeton University, where he studied architecture, and worked at firms in Connecticut and Chicago, before his ties to St. George’s brought him back to the Hilltop. Bill was the middle child of his family and grew up in New York City with his older brother, Anthony S. Briggs, now deceased and who graduated from St. George’s in 1956, and his younger brother Henry H. Briggs, who was a member of the SG Class of 1961. For years he had lived in Newport and Jamestown, Rhode Island, but had since moved to Sarasota,

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CLASS NOTES

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// SPRING 2020

Florida. Bill leaves his wife, Joan; his children, all of whom graduated from St. George’s — Elizabeth H. Briggs '82, Wendy Briggs Powell '84, and William A. Briggs III '88 — six grandchildren; seven nephews; and four nieces. A memorial service was held at Trinity Church in Newport on Feb. 29. n Tom Winslow writes: “We had a mini-reunion in San Francisco. Sheila and I were in the SF Bay Area visiting our son Jonathan Winslow ’03, who is currently taking graduate studies at Cal, Berkeley. Peter Archer hosted a cocktail party in his wife Kate’s beautiful home overlooking San Francisco Bay for us and Stone Coxhead, who was accompanied by his close friend Mary.

Unfortunately, Kate was out of town. After a few drinks, we all headed out to a wonderful local restaurant in the Presidio for dinner. It is always great to keep in touch with our wonderful classmates!”

1960

Peter R. Bartlett, prbartlett42@gmail.com

1961

Gaylord C. Burke Jr., gaylordburke@gmail.com ■ It was a beautiful day on the West Coast (before the fires began) when I asked our class to provide news for the Alumni Bulletin and reminded them that our 60th Reunion is coming in 2021. That year, the school will be celebrating its 125th anniversary and although we may not be the center of attention, it would be a good year to attend to enjoy the gala event. It prompted the following interesting replies: Tom Allen writes that he has been spared, fortunately, by the Kincaid Fire in Sonoma County, California, near his home and he is still enjoying his systems consulting business working with nonprofits. n Albert (Toby) Roberts writes: “I am currently the complete and utter subject of a near 2-year-old granddaughter, Zoe Roberts.” n Bill Hayes writes: “Nothing much to report on my part, other than I attended the JV rendition of the New York City Alumni Cocktails and Report on the State of the School by Alixe Callen in Greenwich last Thursday. I say, ‘JV’ because it was a much smaller and intimate gathering than what we normally experience at the New York Yacht Club, which was held the

Above, top to bottom: D. Dana Jones '61 memorial bench. / At the dedication of the memorial bench, Dana Jones '61's wife, Joan, their son, Anderson, and the grandchildren, Fisher and Ella. / Bill Batchelder '61 and Pete Bouker '61 out on the links.

night before. I was certain I was the oldest person there, until I looked up and saw Allan Johnson ’62 offering me a drink.

Being a newcomer to the fifth form, I didn’t really know Allan that well, but he was originally a member of our class, who stayed back a year ... and then succeeded Freddy Stetson as Senior Prefect. He lives in Rowayton, Connecticut, where I lived for three years before moving to New Canaan. I never got to what he is doing these days, but his wife Krissy is a realtor in Darien in the same office as my daughter’s mother-in-law — small world, and of no interest to most, I’m sure. Alan sends his best to all his old classmates — and I feel like I have connected a couple of dots for the Class of ’61 By the way, if enough of us follow up on your suggestion to attend our 60th, we can easily vie for Center of Attention honors. See you there.

Best, Bill” n Chris Jenkins writes: “Not much news from me either. Mostly recovered from the two hip replacements last year. A replacement of my 1999 original hip replacement and then six weeks later another hip replacement after getting an infection in the replaced one. Maybe I should have the doctor put in a zipper instead of staples next time? Tish and Dick Eggleston stopped in Warrington, Virginia, a few months ago on their way to Washington. We see them when we go to Stuart, Florida, for January and February.

Always fun being with a fellow conservative. Looking forward to seeing them again this winter Also looking forward to our 60th. At times, I cannot believe it has been so long. Take care, Chris.” n Alden Keyser writes: “Hello Classmates! Ginny and I just returned from a two-week trip to Tuscany and Rome. Also, we recently sold our New Hampshire house and moved back to Duxbury, Massachusetts, which we left in 1987 when my company moved its headquarters from Boston to Newburyport, Massachusetts. We now have two condos, one still in Sarasota and now one in Duxbury. It was very tough to leave Eastman, but we did not see Northern New Hampshire in our long (maybe)-term future, and this simplified matters and made everything turnkey. I am involved with the John and Priscilla Alden Site and Museum in Duxbury, which recently became a National Historic Landmark.

I still try to play golf and pickle ball and

CLASS NOTES

George H. Helmer wbi@vermontel.net ■ Pete Andrews: “Hannah and I are moving in January into the Carolina Meadows Retirement Community here in Chapel Hill – a great community; come join us! New address will be 125 Carolina Meadows Villa. It’s hard to leave the house that was built for us nearly 40 years ago, but a good time to get onto one floor, be part of a stimulating and politically diverse community, and stay ahead of the growing waiting list of boomers! Also, I have finally completed the third edition of “Managing the Environment, Managing Ourselves: A History of American Environmental Policy,” to be published in February. Watch for it if you are interested in environmental issues.” ■ Bill Edgar: “If you are desperate for news, our grandson, John Gordon HillEdgar ’21 plays No.1 on the SG tennis team.

His grandfather never rose above JV!” ■ Dick Ely: “Ely, the geek, here. We are actually staying momentarily near the beach in Ipanema, Brazil; heading for the islands

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1962

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projects and one week in South Africa and Swaziland. It simply was amazing having nearly all family members on such a memorable trip. Otherwise, I am still enjoying my work with international NGOs. The luxury of old age, provided one is not poor, is that one can really focus on what is fun. Looking forward to seeing you all in 2021. Unbelievable that 60 years then will have passed since our graduation.

Best, Peter.” n We also want to remember D. Dana Jones, who died on Aug. 19, 2017. Dana’s brother, Jeremiah W. Jones ’70, with contributions from classmates, family and friends, dedicated a memorial bench under their father’s memorial tree on King Hall Terrace on Sunday, June 23, 2019. Jeremiah wrote, “It was a beautiful day (10+)! Dana’s wife, Joan, their son Anderson, and the grandchildren, Fisher and Ella, were there [along with the rest of the Jones family]. The School Chaplain, the Rev. Dr. Jackie Kirby presided and it was perfect.” n On another somber note, we all are saddened to learn of the recent deaths of Thomas K. Kimmel Jr. and Sandy Page, wife of Dick Page. They will be sorely missed. n So, looking forward to seeing all of you at our Reunion, May 14-16, 2021!!

st. george’s school

enjoy boating. A month ago, I went up to a fishing camp with some buddies and did a lot of fun things except catch the elusive trout. We were informed by a local, ‘Oh, not many people come up here his time of year.’ However, there were some people there and they were actually catching fish.

I am still able to ski. This winter I have trips planned to Beaver Creek, Snowmass, and Breckinridge – time to go into training. My best to all. Hang in there.” n Fred Stetson writes: “Great to hear from you, and good to catch up with Bill H., Chris and Alden.

In Vermont, it is that season of year when I hope to mow the lawn for the last time, and time is running out for tomatoes.

Since our 50th Reunion, Katie and I have moved to a new house in the so-called New North End of Burlington. We are about 40 yards from the Burlington Bike Path, which offers views along the shorelines of Lake Champlain. (Among other things, at night, you can see the distant lights of Dannemora Prison in New York, where a couple of guys tunneled their way out a few years ago.) In other recreation news, I still play tennis and squash as often as possible, and soon I will take out the skis and return to Sugarbush. For us 70-plus downhillers, the price is right (if paid well in advance) – $130 for the season, exclusive of weekends and major holidays. In recent years, we have traveled to Hawaii a couple of times, to visit Katie’s daughter, Jenny, a busy archaeologist.

My daughter, Liz Stetson, is a landscape architect, and she and her firm worked for several years on the Tippet Rise project in Fishtail, Montana. Reminds me that Lew Stackpole once had a home in Red Lodge, Montana. Look forward to seeing all of you in 2021. All the best, Fred.” n Peter Woicke writes: “Beautiful fall day here on the Chesapeake Bay today. After two tough years health-wise (knee replacement twice, prostate surgery, and radiation treatment as well as hip replacement), 2019 was a better year. We enjoyed a great summer in the D.C. area, despite politics going from bad to worse. In August, Hanna and I took the whole family — four grandchildren (the oldest graduated in the spring and is doing cancer research at the Dana-Farber Institute in Boston and could not join us) a daughter, son, and daughter-in-law on a two-week trip to Africa: one week in Ghana seeing development

51

Sandy Scull '62.

in a few days to scuba. Rest assured brothers, one of our houses in California is not in a fire path and all are welcome to visit.

Lemme know. I am working on wind and hydro projects around the U.S. Wind-gust prediction technology with partners, far smarter than me — moving into proof of concept demo testing this winter. Three small hydros left in Maryland, New York and New Hampshire. I am still happily and healthfully living with wife four. I feel so lucky to have lived, played, and loved all over this planet. Peace.” ■ John Ruthrauff: “In 2019 I worked on influencing the Group of 7 (G7) summit, hosted by France.

This included working with NGOs from G7 countries and attending NGO/French government meetings in Lyon and Paris.

A new collection of poetry, 'This Far,' by my wife, Kathleen O’Toole, was released in October. We still sail our Bristol 29 six months a year, which we share with three other families." ■ Sandy Scull: “With the power out here in Marin County and as the fire is raging to the north, it’s a good time for an overdue update. My last round of PET scans revealed the cancer is temporarily arrested, but no further reduction in the size of the tumors. The adjunct medicine I am taking has caused some fatigue and unwanted weight loss due to loss of appetite. I am cutting back on some prescriptions so the wind does not blow me over. Otherwise, life goes on. Jill and I had a lovely Vermont summer and fall. The tomato plants just went on and on! Now

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there is snow on the ground for more than a week and temperatures in single digits.

Four cords are stacked in the garage, the mowing deck has been swapped out for the snow blower, and the skis are getting 'tuned.' So, in the recent Facebook words of my neighbor, Wimby Hoyt ’63, I say, 'Bring it on!' ”

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Mills, Inc., is celebrating the company’s 200th year. ■ In the Adirondacks, George Earle won a 12-boat sailing regatta last summer in his 120-year old gaff-rigged sloop and finished fourth in the Yacht Club handicap race (20 boats in four classes). ■ Fully recovered from a heart attack at his Adirondack camp, Tommy Thayer is back on the pickleball courts of Santa Barbara.

SPRING 2020

1963

Robert C. Chope PhD, rcchope@sfsu.edu ■ Greetings from Northern California, where we continue to monitor fires and hope for rain. I received a nice note from Lucien Wulsin describing the terrific time he had with Peter (Joel) Huber, who was visiting in Southern California. Some pictures were included in the missive and I must say that all of you would recognize Peter immediately. He remains engaged with continuing intellectual interests. On the Hilltop Peter consistently beat me in chess, often with fewer than 10 moves. Lucien has written quite a compelling essay on impeachment that I hope many of you will be able to access. He remains politically involved and is on the steering committee of a group of deeply concerned lawyers, aptly titled Lawyers Defending American Democracy.

It is a group of diverse and nonpartisan attorneys who have established careers as judges, U.S. attorneys, law school deans, managing partners of law firms, and other independent activities. Bobbi and I continue to travel with extended trips to Alaska for three weeks and to Hawaii for a fortnight. We are currently at home for a while. Your classmates and I would enjoy hearing from you whenever you feel compelled to send me a note.

1965

Jonathan M. Storm, deadeye@well.com ■

1966 Lewis "Kirk" Coonley '64 returned to SG for the first time since his graduation and toured campus with his wife Linda on July 26.

tutor immigrant children every afternoon, while he somehow manages to paddleboard, kayak, and work full time from his Florida home. Colin Hanna and Pricie took a “fantastic” 15-day Viking River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. It was nearly 1,174 miles long, passed 67 locks, and went through five countries ■ Dick Verney, CEO of Manadnock Paper

William C. Strachan, wstracha@cox.net ■ Denis O’Neill writes: “ ‘The long and winding road…’ As I scribble these notes I am aware that not all of the class has made it this far. With a tip of the hat to them, it’s fair to say they are gone but not forgotten — same as our mid-60s adventures on the Hilltop; memorable years indeed. The writing game led me west from Boston in the mid-1980s, after working at WGBH TV on such wonderful shows as ‘Mystery,’ ‘Masterpiece Theatre’ and ‘Frontline.’ Got two movies made in the ’90s – ‘The River Wild,’ and a Scotland based indie film with Robert Duval and Michael Keaton called ‘A Shot at Glory.’ The writing continues: I wrote and self-published a memoir of my senior year at Dartmouth called ‘Whiplash: When the Vietnam War Rolled A Hand Grenade into the Animal House’ describing

1964

Robert E. L. Taylor III, retaylor3d@gmail.com ■ Bob Delgado, Ford Ballard and Mike Morris met at SG to celebrate our 55th Reunion and bemoan the absence of most classmates. ■ In June 2018, while Kirk Coonley was hiking in England’s Lake District and the borders area of Scotland, his summer cabin in southern Colorado was incinerated in a wildfire.

Undeterred, almost a year later he left his hot and humid home in North Carolina and moved his home to Colorado Springs, Colorado. ■ Hugh Nevin says he and Eliza

Duby Joslin '65, Richie Sayer '65, Toby Pell '66 P'95, Jim Gublemann '65, and Steve Lirakis '66 aboard Mahubas at the Ida Lewis Yacht Club in advance of the final race of the North American 12 Metre Regatta. Jim also received the Ted Turner trophy on Sept. 19 at the annual meeting of the 12 Metre for his work in promoting the vessel class.

CLASS NOTES

William L. Campbell, billcam2000 @yahoo.com n John Poth sold his company. “I don’t know if I am completely comfortable with the new owner to continue the legacy of the company I started with my wife over 25 years ago. However, the good news is that for the first time in 25 years I actually went on vacation without constantly thinking about the company — and answering emails and phone calls! I am still trying to figure out what ‘retirement’ actually means. As one of my recently retired compatriots has

SPRING 2020

1968

Peter H. French, phfrench4@gmail.com ■

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1967

st. george’s school

an era we all lived through when our shared college class of 1970 became the first to graduate with a diploma and a draft number. Three years ago, Sky Horse Press released my novel of ‘The River Wild’ based on my original screenplay. I added three sons to the mix with first wife (and now good friend) Deborah McLeod.

Two are out of college and making their way forward. The third has a year of college to go. Getting on in age has made me all the more aware of the continuity of life – where we came from, who we’re connected to, where we’re going ... ultimately to parts unknown. Good kids and a close circle of kindred spirits has made that a joyful journey. Being in the outdoors (usually with a fly rod in hand) has been a lovely substitute for the spiritualism we once took away from the chapel on the hill. The goal is to have some fun, do some good, and leave the campsite better than I found it. My memories of St. George’s – only two years in the making, compared to some of you – are sweet and strong. Deep within those rocky gorges, Denis” ■ Howard Dean writes: “I ran into Jim Ewing, whom I had not seen since his fantastic post-graduation party in June of 1966. We were at a fundraiser for Perry Gershon, who is running for Congress in Jim’s Long Island district. “He and his significant other live in Mexico much of the year. He looks great. Thinner than I, but I have more hair. He was a delight to spend time with. Hoping he will come to the 55th in two years.”

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Above, top to bottom: Tom Cummins '68, Kyle Cummins, Kelly Campion, and Frank Campion '68 in Paris. / Syd Thayer '68, Dana Thayer, Elaine Brown, and Bowdy Brown '68.

stated so eloquently, “I wake up in the morning with nothing to do and by the end of the day I get half of it done.” So, for right now, that is my plan.” n Kyle and Tom Cummins had a chance to meet with Kelly and Frank Campion in Paris. “We returned whence Kyle proceeded to break her ankle and receive nine screws and a swell non-rust metal plate. I became her man Friday. Finally, we got to Edgartown where she rested and got ready for travels.

I visited Peru for a lecture and then went to Ecuador to play with the grandchildren. Kyle and I then went to South Texas for the opening of a study center and a tour of the border with members of the sheriff's department. It was very, very interesting and deeply disturbing at the same time. We stood at the Rio Grande, looking across, talking about the human

condition. Kyle has just now returned from Ecuador where she was trapped by the general strike and roadblocks. She needed to get back as her medicine was running low and so her friend who drove up the mountain from the jungle convinced the strikers to let them pass the blockades of metal bits and pieces as well as burning tires, etc., and masked armed strikers.

The world is in a terrible state as I write: here, throughout America, and the rest of the world. And we thought we would make it a better place.” n Kathryn and her dad Steve Romeyn have collaborated on a house in Bali. Their story, or a version of reality, ended up on “House Hunters International,” the HGTV Series. n No weddings or grandkids for Larry Luddecke to crow about, “but kids are all well and thriving all over the country,

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// SPRING 2020

giving us plenty of visiting opportunities.

Son Carson is a second-year law student at SMU in Dallas — Law Review and enjoying law school as much as that is possible. Stu, the teacher, is married and living in Denver managing a brewpub — two years of teaching in a rough school in Springfield, Mass. necessitated a break. Maybe he will go back, maybe not.

Daughter Georgia is still in Brooklyn working for David Chang/Momofuku restaurant group. All are happy with wonderful ‘significant others’ in their lives. We knew we were blessed when all six (our three plus their partners) got together WITHOUT US in Dallas a few months ago, just because they could and because they are all still best friends. Comforting to know they will have each other after Carol and I head off into the great beyond! As for me, I am still playing, composing, and recording, until I can't! Carol is still working from home as a mortgage broker. Nothing to complain about except a dodgy knee, 20 unwanted pounds, and bit of tinnitus from 55 years of playing loud rock ’n’ roll — first world problems, all good. Cheers from Arlington!

Let us know if anyone is swinging through Boston with a little extra time on their hands. n Art Coates was busy with garden work in Vermont. Jessie revamped most of the gardens around the house adding mulch after all the weeding, tilling, dividing, and transplanting. “Looking forward to very productive flowerbeds next year with enriched soil and a minimum of weeding required.” n Dana and Syd Thayer were hosted by Elaine and Bowdy Brown for a delightful breakfast spread on their home turf of Menonaqua, just a fourmile bike ride from Dana’s family camp in Wequetonsing. Gotta love those north Michigan names. Syd continues on with daily substitute teaching in Pelham middle and high schools; Dana is one year out from retiring. “Son Sam is getting married to a great woman in San Francisco in April 2020 and Brooke is working hard in New York City and is our companion on rigorous hikes and at NYCFC soccer games at ‘the Stadium.’” n Giancarlo Alhadeff enjoys being in the same city as his son, his daughter-in-law, and their sons. “Makes for a lively time and the close proximity to the grandchildren means that we can have an informal involvement in their development. What fun! I look forward to

seeing more of our classmates in London.

Loved seeing Frank Campion and sorry we missed Andy Botsford. Do visit. The natives are very friendly indeed!”

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Charles C. Spalding Jr., cspalding@spaldingcpa.com

Stuart C. Ross, stuartross318@gmail.com ■ In the run up to our 50th Reunion in May, this time we have a different kind of class notes, certainly a bit more somber as we celebrate the lives of four classmates – Rob Gardner, Joe Holloway, Charlie Wilkinson and David Batcup – who all left us recently but who each led extraordinary lives. So we don’t have a complete bummer this time around on the Notes, I am happy to share a long missive from Craig Fees, from the other side of the pond in bucolic old England. n First, some remembrances: For Rob Gardner, we have this heartwarming message from his son Rob: “My father was from Chicago. Bulls, Bears and Cubs. The cold and the poverty were things a boy like me from the west side of California could not understand, or so I was told. Ever since he was a little boy, my father was an anomaly. The pale skinned, black kid on a unicycle. The geek building ham radios and crystal clocks.

The kid who got himself into a prestigious private school in Rhode Island. First in his family to graduate from college, Rob graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. and went on to become a programmer. He then taught inner city youth in Los Angeles how they too could embrace being anomalies and pursue a future in technology. When I think of him, I think of his curiosity. His excitement of discoveries in space. His desire to see the world. His love for his grandchildren and his sons. I think about the sacrifices he made that still provide for me today. I travel, I am comfortable and I am happy. I wish I could give him a hug and thank him for everything.” n Next, we finally confirmed that we lost Joe Holloway 20 years ago at the age of 47, but through some brilliant sleuthing by Meade Thayer, we are fortunate to see this recent message from his longtime partner Mark Nadler, a world-renowned New York

City cabaret entertainer. First, here is a short bio of Joe from oionline.com: “Holloway was a modern dancer, choreographer and revered teacher. He was also a highly successful director and producer of theater, producing musical theater both on and off-Broadway and was a founding member of New Directions Theatre. Holloway was part of a lost generation of American modern dance and theatrical choreographers whose work was cut short by the AIDS epidemic.” Here is the reminiscence from Mark Nadler, about Joe and last September’s benefit performance in Wheeling: “When I was 19, I met Joe Holloway. He was a 29-year-old dancer, choreographer, and theatrical director. Joe and I fell quite madly in love and he and I were together until he died in 1999. We were partners for almost 18 years. “I was wondering how I would honor the 20th anniversary of Joe’s passing when a mutual friend called me.

Valerie Feit was my dance teacher when I was at Interlochen (where I went to high school). Before I met her, Valerie was in a small dance company with Joe. Valerie wanted me to know that she had discovered a video of herself dancing a piece that Joe choreographed called ‘Miracle of the Rose.’ I asked Valerie if it would be possible to teach a young dancer the piece and she said that she would love to do that. So Joe’s two brothers, Pete and John Holloway, and I are launching a scholarship fund in Joe’s name for young dancers from Joe’s hometown of Wheeling, West Virginia. This is specifically for kids who would, otherwise, not be able to afford it, to study dance at the Oglebay Institute in Wheeling. We’ve already raised enough money to fully fund four outreach programs, which bring dance to incarcerated children, homeless children, handicapped children and those living at or just above the poverty line.

There is enough left over to provide over a dozen full scholarships. All in Joe’s name!

At the inaugural fundraising event, an extraordinary ballerina named Jennie Begley is going to perform ‘Miracle of the Rose’ — over 40 years after it was created.

Tonight, through Jennie, Joe will be living, breathing and fully self-expressing in front of an audience made up of people who knew him and his family — and their children and grandchildren. In his wildest

CLASS NOTES

SPRING 2020

"WILKINSON, Charles Proctor. The Man, the Myth, the Legend. Charlie spent part of his youth being educated in Paris, which sparked a lifelong love of language and culture. Charlie was also a passionate environmental conservationist and master diver in his teenage years, a passion that translated to a love of marine ecology, which he studied at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. In the 70s, Charlie turned that love into a business, offering

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imaginings, he never dared to dream that a piece of his choreography would be seen in a live performance 20 years after his death. So is there life after death? Tonight, the answer, without question, is an unequivocal YES!” n Jere Jones was looking through the Boston Globe only a few weeks ago and just happened to come across this obituary (slightly edited here) for Charlie Wilkinson, who was our classmate for a short time in third form.

st. george’s school

Remembering four members of the Class of 1970.

Top: Joseph Holloway '70 performing with his dance partner and collaborator Dr. Valerie Feit. At left, top to bottom: Rob Gardner '70. / Charlie Wilkinson '70.

Above: David Batcup '70.

underwater services to commercial shipping vessels, leading him to many remote locations around the world, a favorite of which was Belize. An avid tennis player, Charlie took home quite a few trophies and cups. Though he was generally modest about his victories, he usually would weave an amusing tale or two about a particular match or tournament. A lifetime academic, Charlie helped establish the Environmental School, an alternative education facility for high school students in Lynn, Massachusetts, and served as principal there for many years. He established vegetable gardens at the historic Gardens at Blythswood and worked together with neighbors and community members to establish conservation efforts in Swampscott and around the Greater Boston Area. He continued to work on his academic and entrepreneurial pursuits while maintaining the property and gardens, until his passing on Oct. 9, 2019. Survived by: Charles Proctor “CP” Wilkinson, II, son of Charles and MT Thompson-Wilkinson, Gail (Dombrowski) Wilkinson, beloved wife."

—Published in The Boston Globe on Oct. 15, 2019 n David Batcup was an exchange student from the UK sixth-form year and went on to lead an incredibly accomplished life. Sadly, it ended just weeks ago in a tragic hit-and-run accident outside London. David had just left a Law Rocks battle-of-the bands event at the Bedford pub where staff from several leading law firms performed to raise money for charity.

He had worked for over 35 years in criminal courts on high profile cases involving murder, money laundering, large-scale drug importations, and historic sexual abuse. David graduated from University College London and was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1974. He became head of his chambers before retiring that position in 2000, when he was appointed as a part-time judge in the Crown Court. A spokesperson for David’s chambers, Charter Chambers, said: “He had so much more to give. He was a committed family man, devoted to his wife Janet and to his daughter Rebecca of whom he was immensely proud, especially as she begins her adult life at university.

His chambers said he would be remembered as a “warm, modest, loyal, open and big-hearted family man” and for his

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// SPRING 2020

Craig Fees '70 and Andy Fort '70 helping St. George slay the dragon in the Cotswolds.

“cheerful and optimistic outlook on all things.” It added: “Always a kind and generous man, he nurtured many junior barristers through pupillage and into practice. He had a particular strength in that he was genuinely interested in everyone he met, he never forgot anyone, even those of brief acquaintance. n Well, after all that somber news, I think we can all take heart in the fact that Craig Fees is still very much with us. Many of you may have already seen this photo of Craig and Andy Fort helping St. George slay the Dragon in the Cotswolds just this fall. So here’s his 49-year update, slightly edited: “I’m trying to think of the right metaphor for why I haven’t shared my story already; but all I can visualize is this small human being swimming for all he’s worth in the turbulent wake of a powerful ocean-going transatlantic passenger ship, which of course is St. George’s. Even now, I have not even stopped to take off that yellow rain mac. So, post-1970. I am married, and

have two children who, in their ways, are changing the world. Fiona and I are happily settled in a small village in England, with several fruit trees and a vegetable patch, and just this year a new flowerbed. After the wrench of falling off the S.S. St. George into the sea of life, I grew into a theater major at Occidental College in Los Angeles, specializing in technical. Post-graduation I worked for U.S. Sen. Warren G. Magnuson, then Chair of the Commerce Committee, answering constituent mail and stirring up government departments on their behalf; and partly an elevator operator in the Senate side of the Capitol building. I then wandered in Europe before returning to Occidental for a master’s in theater and theater history (“Medieval Theater in Indo-European Context,” 1981). I won a Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellowship to study abroad for a year, and so became a Ph.D. student in the Institute of Dialect and Folklife Studies at the University of Leeds here in England just at the time Mrs. Thatcher was eviscerating the universities.

Within two years, my department was gone, and I had fallen well and truly into a different world, to which I had been introduced by a blizzard within my first months at Leeds, having hitched with camping and recording equipment in a backpack down from Yorkshire to the North Cotswold town of Chipping Campden. There I began the seven-year journey to my Ph.D., through archives and oral history ('Christmas Mumming in a North Cotswold Town: With special reference to Tourism, Urbanisation and Immigration-related Social Change,' 1988).

In the school I began an even longer journey, first as a volunteer for five years — trading my labor for meals and a place to stay while carrying out my research — and then as a part-time member of the therapeutic team, in what was a self-governing therapeutic community for children with very deep emotional and psychological needs. Needless to say, it affected the pace at which I completed the Ph.D., and I was able to draw on the deep experiences we all had at St. George's. In 1988, having completed the Ph.D., I was asked by a small charity based at the school to advise on, and in 1989 to initiate, the creation from scratch of an Archive and Study Centre devoted to a particular range of

approaches, broadly indicated by terms such as “therapeutic community,” “milieu therapy” and “planned environment therapy.” I was living and working with people with deep needs of all kinds, and expressed outwardly in delinquency, addiction, self- and/or other- damage. Oh the things that happen when your inner world is at variance with the general consensus about the nature and reality of the outer. That was my work for the next 30 years, from which I came away in December 2018. “While archivist for the Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive and Study Centre I designed and directed in 2010-2011 a Heritage Lottery Fund-supported project called 'Therapeutic Living with Other People’s Children: An oral history of residential therapeutic child care c. 1930-c.1980' — snazzy titles are my specialty — which allowed me to bring together everything we’d learned as a very active and engaged Archive over the preceding 20 years. It won two national awards — “Most Impactful Archive” from one organization, and “Archive of the Year” from another, in which our small charity rose to first just above a groundbreaking regional University/County Archive, newly built with millions in funding. “Apart from working for a charity for most of my employed life, I helped to found one, the Guild of Handicraft Trust, in Chipping Campden, which established and runs Court Barn Museum in the town. I have been a trustee of several, and am a trustee still of the Oral History Society and of the Squiggle Foundation (devoted to exploring and building from the work of psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott).

Given that a startlingly large proportion of my time in England has gone into voluntary and pro bono work of one kind or another, I know that I have gone overboard in repaying the many gifts I got from St. George’s as a scholarship holder.

Some debts, however, renew themselves relentlessly, and make it impossible to repay. All in all, I am the same person I was in 1970, but perhaps a little older.” ■ Well, that is enough for now, and certainly enough obits to last us a long, long time.

Everyone else, see you in May!

CLASS NOTES

1973

John H. Stewart II, johnstewartathome@ yahoo.com

H. Andrew Davies, hchixdigme@aol.com / William G. Dean, wdean7@aol.com ■ I had a nice catch up with the Conrad Nagle of our class, Henry Reed Nolte, who is in the full bloom of adulthood and has become known by his middle name. Those of us with the slight scent of gasoline on our family crest will not soon forget his father Henry’s long shadow on the mighty Ford Motor Co. as he served as a key adviser to three, count them, three, presidents. After Denison and an MBA at the University of Chicago, he joined General Foods and his climb up the corporate ladder has been swift, and UP – he’s the puppetmaster behind the humongous sale of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox to Disney and had only a few t’s to cross and i’s to dot before a well-deserved retirement beckoned. ■ Also DEE-lighted with a recent email exchange with Rob White, alive and well and in his seventh year as a big muckety muck at Williams College. His three children are thriving, as is his darling Kaatje, known as the Circe of Prospect Street by her admiring Princeton contemporaries Danny Slack and Rob Dickey. Only drawback, a year ago heart stent placement – he was encouraged that the whole thing seemed to bore the staff and doctors cross-eyed.

Rob, that’s good. As Seinfeld says, “The last thing you want is guys scalping tickets outside your operating room, and staff from other departments saying, ‘Oh, I GOTTA see this!” ■ Godspeed to Scooter Milliken, wherever you are, and a

1974

Michael H. Walsh, mhwnpt@gmail.com ■ So to recap quickly, last May was our 45th reunion and we had a surprisingly large turnout! About 38 peeps showed up — this out of a class of 86 people and six of them have passed. Jimmy Allen came from the North Shore of Long Island for his first reunion and Sue Coen Small finally came to the Friday night dinner at the New York Yacht Club. We all had a blast catching up. That party just zips by! ■ I had a theme going for our 45th. It was Teacher Appreciation Party, “Who was your favorite teacher and why?” It’s a good question to ask for after-dinner toast and powerful to see the effect certain teachers had on students to this day, me included. (FYI, Gil Burnett won the most votes). ■ That was in May and come August, I had to go down to New York to move out of my apartment.

While there, I decided to call all classmates living in New York: Harris Healy, Craig Fitt, Anthony Mason, Paul Rogers, Doug Dechert, Ken Bainton and Stephen Hopkins. ■ Harris invited me to dinner at the University Club, whose headquarters is one of those, big, giant, classic, Glided Age, Roman/Greco, Stanford White, architectural masterpieces uptown at 1 W. 54th St. at 5th Ave., Harris seeming to be an esteemed member. His father was a member and so was his grandfather! We started out on the balcony overlooking the Museum of Modern Art’s sculpture garden. I wanted to know more about Harris’s family because the more I get to know him, the more I realize he’s from one of these old time New York families whose ancestry goes way back to the founding of Manhattan, a real New York Yankee.

His mother, 92, was out at their country place near Morristown, New Jersey (where Alec Walsh is from). His maternal grandfather is Eli Whitney Debevoise, who started the prestigious law firm now known as Debevoise and Plimpton. His father was a lawyer there and that’s where his dad met Harris’ mother — at one of the boss’s (grandfather’s) dinner parties.

Harris talks sentimentally about the view from his bedroom overlooking Central Park growing up on Fifth Ave at 98th.

He has a photographic memory about all

things NY, keeping me informed about city politics, scandals and current events.

He also has some wacky observations about our SG days that made me laugh.

Thanks, Harris, for treating me to a steak at the University Club. ■ Craig Fitt invited me to the Yale Club, for breakfast. It is a tall building right up by Grand Central on Vanderbilt Avenue. They had just completed a major renovation on the rooftop terrace and, man, what a beautiful job they did. I felt like I was at the Palm Beach Club. The view of downtown was sunny, shiny, and “fabulous.” All I was thinking while being seated by the well-dressed maître d’ was, “Damn I’m glad I went to St. George’s and volunteered to be the class correspondent!” I ordered the eggs benedict and asked Craig about his job.

He works as a banker at UBS in the capital markets group, where he leads a small team responsible for helping corporations get rated by the rating agencies, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. He also heads up the bank’s recruiting efforts at Yale University where he went to college (along with David Wanders and Alec Walsh’s wife, Sally). I then asked about Craig’s husband, Bruce. What does he do? “He’s a decorator.” When and why did you two get married? “I just wanted to make it official.

We’d been together for about 10 years.

We got married long before the Marriage Equality Act passed when same-sex marriage first became legal in Massachusetts.

We did it in a little town called Great Barrington, Massachusetts, right in the front hall of the Justice of the Peace’s B&B that she and her husband ran on the side.

We’ve been married almost 11 years now.”

Craig and I always end our conversations rehashing our family’s histories. He had no idea I was from a family of 10 and we were once a singing act. ■ After, on the street, I called Paul Rogers and told him I just had a terrific breakfast with Craig on the roof terrace of the Yale Club. “I didn’t get into Yale!” We talked about Paul’s family. I had heard through the Newport grapevine that his mother had just died in June and I wanted to offer my condolences. ■ I then called Doug Dechert who got mad at me for not meeting him for a drink! Doug’s promoting a book he’s currently involved with, “War Story.” He also texted me a picture of Steve Bannon and him together at a book signing. ■ Sandy Foster came

SPRING 2020

1972

BOOM-SHAKALAKA to boot!

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Jeffrey Longcope, jlongcope@earthlink.net ■ Philip Marshall (aka “Mole”) continues his work on elder justice and is spearheading the StampOutElderAbuse.org campaign — when not traveling to distant domains (spurred by early adventures in the U.K. with Gilbert Burnett) and serving as a board member of the Newport Restoration Foundation (spurred by an introduction to Newport’s cultural jewels

by Richard Grosvenor ’69).

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1971

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CLASS NOTES

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// SPRING 2020

Left, top to bottom: Sandy Foster ’74 and his wife Linda visiting the Hilltop. / Beverly Joslin Muessel ’74, Mike Walsh ’74, and Mary Gooding ’74 at Nancy Parker Wilson ’77’s Greenvale Vineyards for the 2019 SG Newport Reception. / Mike Walsh ’74 and Sandy Foster ’74 at Wyndham Resorts Newport. / Craig Fitt ’74 and Mike Walsh ’74 at the Yale Club in New York. Above, top to bottom: Doug Logan ’74, author of "BoatSense: Lessons and Yarns from a Marine Writer's Life Afloat." / Anne Jenkins ’74 with her daughter Abi ’11 in Maui, Hawaii. / Harris Healy ’74 in the library of the University Club in New York.

CLASS NOTES

his book, “Thanks for being the guardian of the W.C.E.” ■

st. george’s school

1975

Ann Kiker, annie.kiker@ gmail.com. Ann Kiker has graciously volunteered to take over the reins for the notes of the Class of 1975.

Clifford L. Dent, dentcliff@gmail.com

SPRING 2020

1976

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through town. He was dropping off one of his daughters for her first year at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and decided to take his wife on a little tour of Newport while in New England. I met him at the Wyndham Hotel in Middletown.

He is living up in Rochester, New York, and has been teaching at the Harley School up there for the last 40 years.

Sandy’s originally from the North Shore of Boston. He went to grammar school with Andy Vermilye and Paul Rogers. After graduating from SG, he studied for a year in England (as did Craig Fitt). He ended up at Swarthmore College outside of Philly (Chris Walker was there too). He majored in English. Not long after Swarthmore, he got the job teaching history at the Harley School. “Rochester’s a good city to live in on a teacher’s salary.” He is also very involved with the community theater scene in Rochester, either performing or directing musicals with the five different nonprofit theater companies located there (who knew?). After 20 years of being married to his job teaching, he met his wife in a production of “My Fair Lady” where they both auditioned and got the leads. They have one set of identical twin girls. His sister graduated from SG three years after we did. Sandy is very unpretentious, honest, dedicated to his job, and endearing. He has funny stories about his naughty exploits back in school (who knew?). He also has very fond memories of everyone in our class. He told me to say “Hi to all!” He said he would make a concerted effort to attend our next reunion, (gasp, our 50th), “on a teacher’s salary.” ■ Anne Jenkins called me from the cargo bay of some obscure, industrial port on the west coast of Oregon. “I’m waiting for them to load up my car and ship it to Hawaii,” she said. Anne has moved from the high altitudes of Leadville, Colorado, to Maui, Hawaii. She sounded excited about the change. ■ Last but not least, Doug Logan has a book out. It’s called “Boat Sense.” He had a book signing at the Jamestown library where he first spoke about why he wrote the book. I knew Doug was into boats, but had no idea he was THAT into boats! There were many hard-core sailors in the crowd. I saw Mary Gooding, Beverly Joslin Muessel (with husband Mike) and Doug’s wife, Melissa.

After he spoke, Doug signed my copy of

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1977

David A. Todd, dtodd@wt.org ■ Last night was the end of 160 games of major league baseball. It was a crazy ride, full of surprises, odd victory dances, baby shark masks, and a disappointing end for some (alas alack the Astros!). But, but, but! ... Spring training starts again soon, and hope springs anew. ■ Our class seems to have its own cycle of birth, graduations, marriages, round-number birthdays, work, holidays, retirements, new careers, and death as well. Here is a sampling from the wonderful class of 1977: Dick Corroon writes that all is well. Dick is living in Wilmington, Delaware, with two sons in college and another son and a daughter still in high school. He also tells that he “had the good fortune of running into not one, but two former SGS classmates at a surprise 60th birthday party in New York City. It was Elena Thornton Kissel and Belinda Buck Kielland … great catching up with them both!” ■ Ben Edwards reports on the joys of “becoming a proud sexagenarian, and the attendant benefits thereof, namely riding on all London transport for free, coupled with the unbridled (and encouraged) practice of calling anyone between 20 and 30 a ‘whippersnapper.’ Now where’s my crossword and pipe?…Zzzzzzzzzzz.” Other than putting youngsters in their place, Ben says that he had a relaxed summer, in a slow ricochet between London and Koestenberg, with fun weekend trips interspersed (notably Cornwall, which is absolutely stunning – if you’ve not been there you should definitely go!). Despite his (our?) advanced age, Ben adds, “We are looking forward to a West Coast trip in November to mark my uncle’s 90th (he lives in Olympia), and we plan to start with a California ‘hospitality

Above, top to bottom: Peter Maduro '77 with granddaughter Isabel Alyce Madura. / Sandra Thornton Whitehouse '77 and her husband Sheldon Whitehouse walking the wedding aisle with their daughter Molly at Rosecliff in Newport.

check; with Peter Barbaresi, amongst others, while there.” ■ Alison Eyre calls in to say that she is a family physician in Ottawa, Ontario, now looking forward to figuring out how to work less and travel more. She explains, “I am about 150 miles from where I grew up. I was raised in Montreal and we care for the ‘farm’ that my folks bought in the 1970s. My father came to Montreal from New Jersey to head up a shipping company in the mid 1960s. We came to Ottawa after medical school for jobs. My heart still lies where I was raised. However, we are in the interior

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// SPRING 2020

of British Columbia where our middle child is organic farming and our son is headed to Texas to do a firefighters course. They travel!” ■ Kevin Leys writes that he is still at the Jersey Shore (Asbury Park area) with his three girls finally starting to head out (though living at the beach always brings them back in the summer). His oldest is living and working in NYC, his middle child (a recent graduate from the University of South Carolina) is in London interning for one of his Lloyds of London clients, and his youngest is a sophomore at Ole Miss. Kevin also still has a lot of family in Rhode Island. In fact, his niece, Mary Leys ’20, is a school prefect at St. George’s this year! ■ Bob Linville is living it up in Colorado, juggling hard work, fun holidays (a great family vacation with excellent food in Great Britain), and new experiences with a fly rod. When I heard from him, he gave both the weather and sports report in one fell swoop: “Winter arrived early in Colorado this year. Skiers are very happy. It is shaping up to be a good ski season. Golfers, not so happy. I think I’ve only played three or four rounds this year. October to November is usually a great time to play golf in Colorado. Not 2019. So I am putting away the clubs and taking out the skis.” ■ Shelley Randall sent the update that she has officially opened her Yoga Barn and Workshop in Holderness, New Hampshire, teaching kids, parents and others. She invites all SGSers to check it out if you're in the area!

Meanwhile, she is winding down her family law practice, although she has a few guardian ad litem cases left. Generally, she feels like a real New Englander, lucky to live in Holderness. ■ Sandra Thornton and her husband Sheldon Whitehouse were delighted to walk the wedding aisle with their daughter Molly, off to marry Adam Klazmer at Rosecliff, in a reprise of Sandra and Sheldon’s big event 33 years ago. ■ My Maine Critter Cam keeps showing pictures of some animal loping by in the Down East woods. Could be a fast-moving yeti, but word has it that it’s Peter Troast on one of his ultra marathons. Please keep an eye out. ■ Sometimes life happens all at once, sad and happy, both an end and a beginning. This year, Peter Maduro said goodbye to his dear mother, Alyce Maduro, departed at 103 years old, and hello to young Isabel Alyce Maduro. ■ I

hope that you are all negotiating the ups and downs, twists and turns, of life well.

What a roller-coaster! Buckle up, and keep in touch.

1978

Leslie M. Greene, lmg4187@optonline.net

1979

David F. Bayne, dfbayne@aol.com

1980

1981

Please contact the Alumni Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or ClassNotes@stgeorges.edu if you would like to volunteer to serve as class correspondent or to submit an update.

1982

Please contact the Alumni Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or ClassNotes@stgeorges.edu if you would like to volunteer to serve as class correspondent or to submit an update.

David T. Gardner, davidgardner61@gmail.com

Above and left, top to bottom: Students Bailey Randall '21 and Emily Dyke '21 and their mothers traveled to Hollywood to meet actor Julie Bowen '87 on the set of ABC's "Modern Family." The visit was one of the prizes won at the 2019 Dragon Cup Golf Tournament, which benefits the St. George's financial aid program. / Veronica Toro '87, Chandra Cannon '88, and Neil O'Grady '87. Above right , top to bottom: Greg Chopoorian '81, Neil O'Grady '87, Anne Kuzminsky '81, and Mike Walsh ’74. / Veronica Toro '87, Chandra Cannon '88, and Neil O'Grady '87. / 1987ers Matt Carballal, Bert Okpokwasili, Keyes Hill Edgar and Neil O'Grady at the SG reception in New York City at the New York Yacht Club.

CLASS NOTES

Lela Simpson-Gerald has graciously volunteered to take over the reins for the notes for the Class of 1983. Please send updates to lelasg@gmail.com Brian M. Duddy, bduddy @maximgrp.com

Eugene P. Hanrahan Jr., ladagene@netscape.net / C. Fritz Michel, cfritzm@mac.com

1986

Please contact the Alumni Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or ClassNotes@stgeorges.edu if you would like to volunteer to serve as class correspondent or to submit an update.

1987

Paul A. Kekalos, pkekalos@mac.com ■ Alison Rogers Knight writes: “My husband Jimmy and I still live in Connecticut and celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary last August! We have spent the last 26 years watching our five boys amazingly grow up into five young men. Our oldest, Jimmy, played football at Dartmouth and graduated in ’18 and is now working and living in NYC. Our second, Jack, played lacrosse at UVM and graduated in ’19 and is now traveling in Australia. Our third, Charlie, is a third-year at UVA. Our fourth, Whit, is at St. Lawrence where he’s playing lacrosse and frequenting our old watering holes. Finally, our fifth, Will is a sophomore at Brunswick School here in Connecticut. We are getting used to a quieter household! I hope you are well!” ■ Keyes Hill-Edgar writes: “Morgan graduated from St. George’s last year (Class of 2019), and is now extremely happy at the School of Dramatic Arts at USC. JG is a fifth-former at St. George’s now (Class of 2021), playing tennis, and working hard all around. Ava is an eighth grader and doing the boarding school tour circuit.

Allison and I are trying to take the terror out of our impending empty nesting.” ■ Neil O’Grady writes: “Have been keeping busy. In July, I went to the Newport Tennis Hall of Fame Open with Veronica Toro and her son, Geoffrey, introducing him to all

1988

Michelle Doty, mmd@ cmwf.org / Alfred Jay Sweet IV, ajsfour@gmail.com

1989

Sissy Dent Aerenson, sisharris@me.com and welcoming Almus Thorpe, almusthorp@ gmail.com, as a new class correspondent.

We sincerely thank Stafford Vaughey Meyer and J. Craighill Redwine, Jr. for their years of service. ■ Eric Wiberg shares the New York Post's Dec. 19 review of his book UBoats in New England: Submarine Patrols, Survivors and Saboteurs 1942-45: "Shortly after Hitler declared war on the United States in December 1941, German Uboats attacked the waters of New England throughout the rest of the war. Some were sunk by the Allies; others surrendered. Thirty-four Allied merchant or naval ships were sunk by these subs. A fascinating look at a slice of WWII history."

1990

Tyson P. Goodridge, tyson.goodridge@ gmail.com ■ Thanks again to all of you who gave during our record-breaking class participation for SG’s Day of Giving back in April of 2019. I think 68 percent of our class gave some money to the school.

This calls for a toast and celebration when we arrive back on the Hilltop — now in May 2021 — for our ... slightly belated …

30th Reunion. Look forward to seeing y’all there. Book those flights, line up babysitters, and find an Airbnb close to campus.

Look forward to seeing y’all there. ■ On to the notes… Here on the North Shore of Boston, life is good. My boys are 16 and 14, happy and healthy, and, gulp, one of

SPRING 2020

1985

them might be looking at St. George’s.

Eric Wiberg ’89 and I are seeing quite a bit of each other every Sunday as both of our sons are playing on the same tackle football team. Weebs and I are constantly chuckling on the sidelines reminiscing about our days running around in the mud on the football field. ■ Lauren Russell writes: “My 13-year-old daughter Libby just completed the online form for the SG prospective student book and will start the process next fall. Her oldest sister, Sawyer, will graduate from the Kent School this year and we are eagerly waiting to see where she will be going to college — hoping for somewhere in SoCal so Mom and Dad have a reason to visit the warmer weather on a more regular basis! Our third and middle daughter, Gretchen, is a sophomore at Choate. We love visiting them and have already made a dozen trips to Connecticut this fall to watch field hockey games. We are still in Annapolis, Maryland, doing the Maine Cottage furniture thing. Hoping to one day open a flagship in Boston or somewhere in New England so we can get back to our brand roots. But for now, the catalog and internet sales are keeping us happy and busy.” ■ BIG news from Kate Denckla! — “Dragons Unite! Frank Prince ’91 and I have exciting news! After 26 years away from the Hilltop, I found my Prince in the mountains of Western North Carolina. We are so happy to announce our engagement to be married next spring!”

■ Stanton McLean: “All good here. Kids growing up fast - 15, 13, 8. Insane. Last summer was outstanding. Rented a place in Saunderstown, R.I., and spent a lot of time on campus and at Second Beach.

Saw a lot of Jeremiah and Zach Klann and Mr. and Mrs. as well. Zach is the head hockey coach, and having a ton of success, at Salve. Jeremiah is finalizing the rollout of his patented technology for ‘active and technical clothing,’ which is exciting. From there - flew up to Billy Bush’s house in North Haven, Maine, and got to spend a week with him and his daughter, Lillie, his folks, and some other family. Lots of lobsters and cove swims. Incredibly peaceful place — a lot of chilling.” ■ Jay Miles: “Still working in the solar industry and about to enter my 10th winter living in Park City, Utah, with my son Parker (16) and daughter Hadley (14). Hadley’s

//

1984

sorts of fun Newport things like sailing, the mansions, and of course St. George’s and Second Beach. SGS was a ghost town. But, we had dinner with Chandra Cannon with whom Veronica also went to Bates College.” ■ In September, I was in Providence for business and saw Greg Chopoorian ’81, Anne Kuzminsky ’81, and Michael Walsh ’74. I was in Newport for a day, but missed Alicia Conway and Chris Ottiano due to schedule conflicts.

Oh well, next time. ■

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been getting treatment for leukemia but is recovering well and expected to end chemo this spring. She is on her way to a full recovery. We always look forward to our annual January birthday visit from Rodney Woodstock but looks like this winter he is spending his lift-ticket money getting married instead. I am sure I will see some SG folk at his Florida ceremony this winter. Caught up with Bob Edenbach last winter too. He came out our way with his baby son and wife looking for the legendary Utah powder skiing and he did not leave disappointed. I had a visit to Newport this past September and was re-amazed by all the sights and sounds around the Hilltop that was just back in session. Hope to see you all the reunion soon.” ■ Alex Condon: “Not much new to report on our end. Fortunately, no impact from hurricane Dorian, managed to not panic and stayed local. Lily, 14, is loving St. Andrews where she starts on the varsity volleyball team. Phoebe, 11, and Annabel, 8, are following in her athletic footsteps.

Piper, 3, is busy at home raising our dog Oliver, 1. I’m just getting older and Kate keeps looking younger. Recently had my 20-year Vanderbilt MBA reunion; just

Left, top to bottom: Kate Denckla '90 and her fiancé Frank Prince '91. / Tyson Goodridge '90 and Eric Wiberg '89. / Stanton McLean '90 and Billy Bush '90. Above, top to bottom: Justin Craib-Cox '90 and his family, who live in London, happened upon this replica of a WWII mobile kitchen while visiting the Portsmouth (England) Historic Dockyard. If you look at the "presentation" text, you'll notice it says the St. George's community donated three mobile kitchens to the war effort in England in 1941. / Stanton McLean '90 with his children Oliver, Elizabeth and Myles on the 50 yard line.

CLASS NOTES

st. george’s school

Marriages CONGRATULATIONS

//

Dean Carballal ’90 to Merideth Bray Feb. 18, 2018

SPRING 2020

Rodney Woodstock ’90 to Carrie Pazda Jan 11, 2020 Ed Vietor ’95 to Kendall Tracewski Nov. 23, 2019 Colin Wood ’96 to Emad Chedid June 1, 2019 Laren Bell-Thomson ’97 to Kiernan Griffin [ 1 ] /June 23, 2018 Ali Ingersoll '00 to Aaron Watkins [ 2 ] /May 18, 2019

1

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1

Will Rabbe ’00 to Brittany Prime Feb. 2, 2019 Keating Simons ’01 to Luke Rosa [ 4 ] /May 11, 2019 Kate Humphrey ’05 to Zak Toomey May 4, 2019 Katherine Straus ’05 to Nate Braudrick Sept. 22, 2018 Annabel de Braganca ’07 to Andrea Papi June 22, 2019

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Rob Morgus ’08 to Maja Bijelic Sept. 8, 2019 Devin O’Rourke ’08 to Samantha Doherty Sept. 20, 2019 Campell McNicol ’09 to Henry Mumford [ 3 ] /Sept. 7, 2019 Emma Reed '14 to Josiah Souder [ 5 ] /April 5, 2019 1. Lauren Bell-Thomson '97 to Kiernan Griffin. / 2. Ali Ingersoll '00 to Aaron Watkins. / 3. Diana Hocker Harper '01, Kate Ackerman '01, Keating Simons Rosa '01, Luke Rosa, Sophie Dier '01 and Caitlin Sherry Reisman '01. / 4.

Wedding of Campbell McNicol '09: includes Aly Mulhern, Ryan Mulhern '91, Jen Noesen '08, Campbell McNicol '09, Oliver Fornell '12, Wells Howe '09, Betsy Stavis '08, and Izzy Evans '09. / 5. Emma Reed '14 to Josiah Souder.

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Babies

C o n g r at u l at i o n s Walker Sinclair Rives to Emily and Clay Rives ’93

James Louis Warren Schmid to Maggie and Paul Schmid ’00

Eleanor James Griffin to Kiernan and Lauren Bell-Thomson Griffin ’97

Lavinia Elizabeth Brooks to Michael and Katharine Nottebohm Brooks ’01 (with sisters Bella, 4, and Charlotte, 6 )

1 - Sept. 1, 2019

2 - Feb. 21, 2019

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1

Leo Augustin Clukies to Victoria and Chris Clukies ’98

Aug. 29, 2018

Sona Mulcahy Riff-Coffey to Adam Riff and Chris Coffey ’98

Dec. 20, 2018

Vivienne Antoinette Cousteau to Ashlan Gorse and Phillippe Cousteau ’98

May 23, 2019

Rob Currin to Sam and Katherine Nielsen Currin ’01

12 - July 15, 2019

Teiyoung Kim to Leehong Kim and Yoori Oh ’01 (pictured with big sister Vine, right)

Levon Johnson Salvo to Mike and Hilary Hopper Salvo ’98

Jack Tait Sooy to Matthew and Lauren Mackay Sooy ’04

Ivey Elizabeth Boglioli to Sarre and Steve Boglioli ’99

Caleb Ogechukwukanma Corvah Ojukwu to Randy and Sando Baysah Ojukwu ’05

Zoe Katherine Ducas to Alex and Ben Ducas ’99

Charlotte Sanchez to Kiko and Ellen Roberts Sanchez ’05

Oct. 7, 2019

May 13, 2019

Gardner Daniel Emrick to Mike and Kelly Sullivan Emrick ’99

Sloane Elizabeth Lee Weil to Lindsey and Cole Weil ’05

Gardner Bouldin Long to Brittany and Elliot Long ’99 6 - Oct. 2, 201 9

Daniella Jiwoo Hahn to Shin and Christy Kim Hahn ’06

Jacqueline Cynthia Areson to Robert and Katie Irving Areson ’00

Bella Reina Ward to Derrick and Dominique Ward ’13

Oct. 7, 2019

5 - Sept. 11, 2019

Oct. 18, 2019

Field Henry Cramer Fox to Kate Fox and Corey Cramer ’00 ( faculty)

Oct. 3, 2019

Meredith Jones to Cheryl and Alex Jones ’00

7 - July 14, 2019

13 - June 2, 2019

14 - Jan. 28, 2019

Nov. 24, 2019

15 - June 12, 2019

Aug. 7, 2019

Nov. 9, 2019

Feb. 27, 2019

Communit y Grant Bertrand Buckles to Virginia Buckles and Devon Ducharme ( faculty)

16 - Feb. 5, 2020

Adeline Dudley McShera to Ryan and Cait Thiem McShera ’00

Margaux de Bruin-Lamou to Karen de Bruin and Audrey Lamou ( faculty)

Cameron Hains Romero to Gregory and Barbara Lord Romero ’00 (pictured with brother Jaime)

Juliette Normant Lang to Julie and Joe Lang ( faculty) (pictured with brother Louie)

8 - Oct. 15, 2019

9 - Aug. 14, 2019

5

11 - Feb 2, 2020

Lauren Kiely to Sarah and Greg Kiely ’98 (pictured with big sister Amelia)

4 - Sept. 7, 2019

4

Enzo Cerenzia to Christina and Justin Cerenzia ’01 ( faculty)

Benjamin “Benji” Grosvenor to Sarah and Andrew Grosvenor ’01 (pictured with dad and big brother Theo)

3 - Nov. 2, 2018

3

10 - April 7, 2019

Jack “Hughes” Fletcher to Claire and Nate Fletcher ’98

Sept. 16, 2018

2

Nov. 04, 2018

17 - Oct. 15, 2019

18 - Feb. 26, 2020

CLASS NOTES

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8

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SPRING 2020

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another reminder about our age. Look forward to our 30-year!” ■ Tom Peters: “We are still living in the Seattle area and things are going well. Two of our kids are playing premier-level soccer, which means we never have any time. Even so, if anyone makes it out to this corner of the country, get in touch and I will make time to catch up.” (Hey, Tom, bring some more of that wine you brought to the 25th!) ■ Jen Burgess Marcotti: “Meeting Alixe Callen and seeing Justin Craib Cox and Stanton McLean at an alumni event in London has galvanised me into writing something! Our news ... we have been in London for so long now that it is home.

I work for a jewelry designer, Gabriele covers soccer for ESPN, and we have two daughters (9 and 12 years old), who are thriving. Life is good and I send love to you all!” ■ Per von Zelowitz: “On the professional side, I joined PwC and am leading a venture studio developing and commercializing fin-tech software products and businesses. On the personal side, Astrid, 9, is the high scorer on her soccer team and Gustav, 11, is in the math club. Karin’s business, Nordic Health and Wellness, is growing with most of her focus on children’s nutrition. Life is good in Summit, New Jersey, and I welcome a visit in NYC or N.J. anytime from the SG family.” ■ Whit Hammett: “It has been a busy year. Allison and I have moved again, just down the road this time, and are looking to build an in-law cottage for my parents age 88 and 90. Our oldest son Noah, 19, started his freshman year at The College of Charleston and is doing great. Eli, 17, is a junior at the local high school in our town of Manchester, Massachusetts, and he is starting to look at colleges. Walker, 14, is in 8th grade, also in Manchester, and is enjoying playing soccer. We are all looking forward to a healthy winter of skiing as much as possible. I am still at Mark Richey Woodworking, 21 plus years and still learning every day. I have been able to catch up with Andy Crocker a bit, as he is also in Manchester, and as well, I have seen a bit of Bill Durgin and his growing family in Brooklyn, N.Y. They are doing great. Of course, I also get to catch up with Tyson Goodridge on occasion, as he lives in a neighboring town. Looking forward to the reunion!” ■ Kris Mariaca: “I have been in South America for most of

the last month. We are almost done with our new house and will be moving up to the mountains next fall. Really looking forward to seeing you and everyone else at our 30th. Wow! It is hard to believe it’s been that long.” ■ Jason Whitney: “In July, I was awarded the Cornerstone Award for Student Support from the Association of Recovery in Higher Education, which is the highest honor bestowed by that organization. I also presented a keynote in July at ARHE’s national conference on the findings of my study of the lived experience of students in Collegiate Recovery Programs at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Michigan, and Penn State. I am currently designing several courses for a new Addiction and Recovery minor at Penn State. I am involved in Penn State’s Consortium to Combat Substance Abuse, a 10-year, $273 million project dedicated to prevention, outreach, and support to address the substance-use-disorder crisis facing the state and the nation.

I’m really psyched about all of it! Come visit if you are ever in State College, Pa.!

Miss you all tons!”

1991

Please contact the Alumni Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or ClassNotes@stgeorges.edu if you would like to volunteer to serve as class correspondent or to submit an update.

1992

Sara Ely Hulse, sse@cbsnews.com

1993

Geoffrey C. Siebengartner, geoff@siebengartner.com

1994

Please contact the Alumni Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or ClassNotes@stgeorges.edu if you would like to volunteer to serve as class correspondent or to submit an update.

1995

Carolyn Sclafani Mowat, carolynsclafani @gmail.com

Lt. Col. Andrew Atkins '96 was our guest speaker at St. George's annual Veterans Day Chapel Service.

1996

Anthony L. Champalimaud, alchampalimaud

@gmail.com ■ Marot Martin Angstrom writes: “As many of you know, the mountains have called and the Angstroms have answered! We have moved to the Colorado Front Range, enjoying all this place has to offer. Amidst all the changes, one thing has stayed the same: my commitment to place-based education and its long-understood and research-backed power to promote learning, growth, and community impact.

My work with the Place Network of the Teton Science Schools grows, reaching not only those who trek to the Tetons, but also students, families and schools across the country.”

1997

Jonathan W. Foster III, jfoster06417@yahoo.com ■ My wife Laura and I welcomed our second son, Samuel, on Nov. 1. Both mother and baby are doing well. Our oldest will be 3 and I have already started to kick the soccer ball around the yard with him. I was able to talk to a number of classmates over the summer and encourage anyone coming to the Newport area to reach out.

■ Lauren Bell-Thomson got married last year to Kiernan Griffin, and now lives in North Haven Connecticut. “We welcomed our beautiful daughter Eleanor James Griffin on Feb. 21, 2019, (6 pounds, 9 ounces and 19 inches long). Things are awesome and I am still in touch with fellow SGers Carla Brillembourg, Jamie Haines, and Liz Irving. Got up to Newport last fall for Middlesex Weekend and watched the girls’ field hockey team take the win in overtime – brought back great memories of being on the Hilltop.”

CLASS NOTES

Lindsey Houston Salmony, lindsey.salmony @blackbaud.com ■ Hi everyone, 2019 seems to have been a busy and wonderful year for many in our class, so I will dive right into it! ■ Chris Coffey and his husband Adam Riff had daughter, Sona Mulcahy Riff-Coffey, in

December 2018. Sona and her big brother Will are doing great. Chris runs the New York practice of political consulting and venture capital firm Tusk Ventures. He has been there more than seven years. ■ Nate Fletcher and his wife Claire also shared big news in that they welcomed their first child into the world last year. Jack

// SPRING 2020

Above, top to bottom: Mike Mann '98 with wife Carlyn and daughter Sophie, born July 31, 2017. / Left to right: Josie Hewitt Marston '98, Fraser Ross Maloney '98, and Caroline Secor Masterson '98 in Florida.

“Hughes” Fletcher was born in September 2018. Nate wrote that Hughes is keeping them busy and they are having lots of fun.

The family is building a home in central Denver and looking forward to the future there. ■ Also in Colorado, Cal Viall and his wife Monica are proving that twin 4-yearold children won’t slow life down. They took a Spring Break trip to Costa Rica to visit family. While they were vacationing, they took over a beach and spent time with five other families from Carbondale, Colo. Cal also reports that he checked off a bucket-list item in January and went heli-skiing in British Columbia (with members of The String Cheese Incident, a bluegrass band hailing from Crested Butte, Colorado.). He says 2019 brought a deep ski season in the winter, and a great summer of rafting, biking, and camping.

Cal is now a partner in AROS, a company that specializes in lighting control systems and motorized window coverings for highend residential and commercial properties.

He also runs an Airstream rental company during the warmer months. He connected with Chris Clukies in Golden Gate Park and reports that Chris and his wife are now proud parents of a baby boy! ■ Greg Kiely and his wife Sarah welcomed their second daughter Lauren in November of last year. Their oldest, Amelia, is enjoying her little sister. Greg wrote, “If anyone is down on Cape Cod, give us a shout; we’d love to show everyone the local spots.” ■ Antonia (Kerckerinck) Kannengiesser wrote in to say that she and her family (her husband Frank and kids Magnus, Luisa, and Sofi) moved overseas in 2018. She said, “We moved to Germany last year to get away from Trump! We will hopefully be back after the next election.” ■ Mike Mann and his wife Carlyn are parents of Sophie, who turned 2 on July 17. Mike reports that Sophie is blissfully free of the “terrible twos.” He also just received tenure at George Washington University.

(I cannot decide which deserves more applause, a blissful toddler or earning tenure. Perhaps the toddler earns the “slow clap.” Anyways, congrats, Mike!)

Mike also wrote, “Amit Mathews is now the proud father of a troupe of three children. He has been successfully building his own online business, cramfighter.com.

As for Todd Nims, this is still in the wind, yet he appears to be a successful movie

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// SPRING 2020

Katie O'Kane Tobin '98 on left, Fraser Ross Maloney '98 on right, with their daughters in London.

producer in Saudi Arabia.” ■ Very much not in the wind is Philippe Cousteau. He and wife Ashlan Gorse welcomed daughter Vivienne Antoinette Cousteau on May 23. When he wrote to me in the spring, he noted that he was filming the sixth season of his television series, “Awesome Planet” (which received its fourth Emmy nomination) and signed a book deal with Harper Collins to work on a children's book series. He and Ashlan are also the hosts of a new virtual-reality experience exploring the ocean that launched at Tribeca Film Festival. The threesome is enjoying living in their new house in Los Angeles. ■ Leila Emery is living in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her fiancé and many plant babies.

She currently works as a medical editor for RTI Health Solutions in Research Triangle Park and is a co-editor of the forthcoming nonfiction anthology, “My Shadow Is My Skin: Voices from the Iranian Diaspora” (UT Press). Her poetry has recently appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review and Parentheses Journal. ■ Rashad Randolph

has had a busy year. In July, he accepted a position as the Assistant Principal of Student Life at Ethical Culture Fieldston School in Riverdale, New York. Prior to that, he was Upper School Diversity and Equity Coordinator and a dean at The Packer Collegiate Institute in downtown Brooklyn, where he spent 11 years. In the spring, he led 16 Packer students through Cuba for part of their spring break. He wrote, “I continue to have a connection with Newport through my work with The Newport Folk Festival and The Newport Jazz Festival (produced by Jay Sweet ’88). This summer will be my 19th year working with the festival and I will continue my role helping run things backstage and running the main stage. If people are in Newport in late July and early August, I would love to see them (especially at the festivals). I’m regularly in touch with Carlos Gonzalez, Greg Kiely, Brandon Horner, Shana Spitzman, Scarlet Deford, Tanita Williams, Maya Ray, Aisha (Harris) Montgomery, Leila Emery, and a little with Fraser (Ross) Maloney and Rohan Gopaldas. It’s crazy that so many of us are now married and/or have children. I’m neither and still hitting the road, loving life, and playing music when I have time.” ■ Speaking of Fraser, she says she is still residing in New York City.

This summer, she took a family trip across the pond to visit Katie (O’Kane) Tobin in London. She wrote, “It was so much fun to see Katie and take our daughters to tea together. Last spring I also got to see Caroline (Secor) Masterson and Josie (Hewitt) Marston and their gaggle of kids in Florida, which was such fun! Everyone seems to be doing great.” ■ Katie also wrote in, saying that she and her husband Brendan love living in London. “Our girls Willa, 5, and Rose, 3, are great and enjoying every moment,” she said. “We’ve loved seeing Fraser, Susanne (Leath) Wright, and Cliff Brown when they’ve been over this way.” ■ Hilary (Hopper) Salvo and her husband Mike welcomed their first baby boy, who was delivered six weeks early on Sept. 7. Levon Johnson Salvo, weighed 4 pounds, but is thriving at home these days. He was named after the musician Levon Helm and his middle name was Hilary’s late mother’s middle name. Mike, Hilary, and their dog Party are so in love.

■ As for me, I am still living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with my husband Richard and two boys, Ian, 7, and Wes, soon to be 4. The highlight of our year was a summer of travel that I do not think we will ever be able to top. Most memorable was our trip to Greece in August. Opa! (Cheers!)

Erendira Guerrero-Pimentel '99 recently visited the Hilltop with her family from Ventura, California.

CLASS NOTES

2000

Jennifer Vandemoer Mitchell, mitchelljv @gmail.com ■ Hi everyone! It has been so great to hear from all of you and see some of you either in Aspen or on our travels. Dave and I spent our 10th wedding anniversary with friends in London and around Ireland and we got to catch up with Serene Saliba Murphy over dim sum in London, which is always a blast.

I caught up with Andy Roberts and his family in Mattapoisett at the beach over the summer and got our kids together, and of course, I see an SG alum almost every day in Colorado, which is just amazing.

Hope you all are well and have a wonderful New Year! ■ Barbara Lord Romero says: “Cameron Hains Romero was born on Aug. 14, 2019, named after SG alum Cameron Bierce Hume! I just got a dragon sweater for Jamie and she has a pacifier so …” ■ Cait Thiem says: “Adeline Dudley McShera was born Oct. 15, 2019. Addie joins big brother Skip and (canine) big sister Cassidy. Together with my husband Ryan, we run Red Barn Architecture out of a (red) barn at our home in Ipswich, Massachusetts. We do both residential and commercial work, including breweries (a personal favorite project type). Cheers to 20 years!” ■ Will Rabbe married Brittany Prime last February at St. John’s Church on Lafayette Square in Washington D.C. They live on Capitol Hill, where they bought a home last year. ■ Alex Jones says: “Cheryl and I welcomed Meredith Jones into the world on July 14, 2019. She is cute and I am excited to

be a dad. We are living in Bermuda.” ■ Serene Murphy says: “Nothing really new to report except that I loved seeing Jen and Dave Mitchell as they passed through London! Need to figure out if I can make it to the reunion but definitely going to try!”

■ Anna Holm says: “Sending a quick hello from Sweden! Hope all is well with you all!

This year’s reunion would be fun to come to; we will see if I can make it happen. ■ Paul Schmid says: “Maggie and I moved to Milton, a suburb of Boston, last summer and just welcomed baby No. 2, James Louis Warren Schmid on Nov. 14, 2019.

It is always fun to regularly get together with the group of SG alumni in the Boston area. This summer, we had a great time catching up with Tom Nottebohm on Nantucket.” ■ Katie Areson says: “I am living and working in Burlington, Vermont, working as an OB/GYN. We just had our third child, Jacqueline Cynthia Areson, on Oct. 18, 2019. Peter, 4, and Gabriella, 2, are adjusting well! ■ AJ Crane says: “We moved up to Lake Tahoe in June 2018 and are expecting our third boy this March!” ■ Chris Fouts and family recently relocated to Houston, Texas, for his work and are adjusting to the heat! He has been able to catch up with Erica Burrill Franz and her family, who live in the area.

2001

Mary Turner Oehmig and Justin P. Cerenzia, sgclassnotes2001@gmail.com ■ Across the continent, Yoori Oh welcomed a son, Teiyoung, to the family in Jan. 28, 2019. They have been in Korea while Yoori has been working in New York City, flying back and forth! ■ Katharine Nottebohm Brooks reports: “My husband Michael and I welcomed our third little lady, Lavinia Elizabeth “Livie,” on April 7, 2019, and could not be happier. Loving life in Charlottesville and embracing the chaos and joy of three girls! (Charlotte, 6, Bella, 4, and Livie, 7 months). ■ Andrew Grosvenor and his wife Sarah are still in Concord, New Hampshire. They welcomed baby Benjamin to their family on June 2, 2019. Benji and his big brother, Theo, are both doing great! Andrew is playing a ton of music with his band, Andrew North & The Rangers, and recently wrote a song with Colby Hewitt. Be sure to check it out! Look for “Andrew North” on Spotify,

SPRING 2020

Anne Victorian farmhouse built in 1890.

She has a 4-year-old named Belle who greatly enjoys telling her mother what to wear. ■ While we missed Charles Parker at the reunion, he did provide this update: “I’m living in Salem, Massachusetts, and have been married for four years this August to my wife Jennessa. We have two kids, Jeffrey (named after my brother) who is 2 and Penelope who was born in January 2019. I am working as a VP for a small local bank, Marblehead Bank. I run our retail division and I am in charge of the day-to-day operations of our four branches. I try to spend my time when I’m not working or parenting, playing as much golf as I possibly can!”

//

I. Andrew McLaughlin, iamclaughlin@gmail.com / Anne Harvey Sharpe, adharvey8@ gmail.com ■ Everyone writing in who did not make the 20th reunion has expressed remorse. For those who were there, a great time was had by all. ■ Elliot Long reports in that his wife Brittany gave birth to a baby boy, Gardner Bouldin Long, on Oct. 2, 2019. The kid is a stud, just like his starting-quarterback father. ■ I heard through the grapevine that Kelly Sullivan Emrick had her third child in October, a boy, also named Gardner. She is living in Needham, Massachusetts, with her family and working as a physical therapist. She now has three sons. ■ Brooke Fetzer Macon: “We are still living in Rowayton, Connecticut, and love our town. Our three kids all go to our local elementary school, which has been fabulous. They are in first, third and fifth grades now ... that is seriously hard to believe. They keep Charles and I super busy all week long with their activities. They all love soccer and tennis and are looking forward to paddle and skiing this winter. We took an amazing trip this summer with my entire family to the South of France and to Kenya on safari. It was such an unbelievable experience for the kids and for all of us. Now everyone is gearing up for all the holidays!

We love running into Anne in town and seeing updates about others through the Bulletin and social media!” ■ Ben Ducas and his wife Alex welcomed a daughter Zoe Katherine Ducas on Oct. 7. They are enjoying New York City, and spend a lot of time in Middletown on the weekends.

■ Hunter Knight chimed in, “Yo! Use my Gmail account please!” You got it, Hunter!

■ Liv Wilson Thompson says she is still living in South Florida, but had some news on others: “Steve Boglioli had a fourth girl on Oct. 7 named Ivey Elizabeth.” Congrats Steve! I suggest the SG Chapel and the New York Yacht Club for all the weddings!

■ Helena Marrin Grant is currently writing a book on personal style for women called “Put A Belt On It: Dressing for the Life You Deserve Starting with What You Have.”

Since 2015, she has been building a style empire to empower women in their daily wardrobe choices while dividing her time between Connecticut, Boston, and the Adirondacks, where she and her husband are completing renovations on a Queen

st. george’s school

1999

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CLASS NOTES

2002

st. george’s school

Dorothy Billings Zani, dorothybillings@gmail. com / Gerrit M. Lansing, gerrit. lansing@gmail.com / Dana T. Ross, danatross@gmail.com

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2003

Bradley G. Hoover, bgh3175@gmail.com

SPRING 2020

2004

James F. Bittl, jamesbittl@gmail.com / J. Garth Fasano, garthfasano@gmail. com / Julianna C. Howland, julianna. howland@gmail.com / Katharine Sheehan Ronck, katharineronck@gmail.com

2005 Crawford Currin, son of Katherine Nielsen Currin '01, and Laura Oehmig, daughter of Mary Turner Oehmig '01.

iTunes, etc. You can also follow his music on Instagram @andrewnorthrocks. ■ Congratulations to Keating Simons Rosa who was married to Luke Rosa on May 11, 2019! Kate Ackerman, Caitlin (Sherry) Reisman, Diana (Hocker) Harper, and Sophie Dier attended. This spring Keating also celebrated with Annabel (Prentice) Botterill, along with Kate, Caitlin, and Sophie, in Maine for her bachelorette party. The report is it was a great weekend!

Keating is now a dietitian at a pediatric hospital in Chicago, where she lives with her husband. ■ Closer to my home (Lookout Mountain, Tennessee), I take great pleasure in being able to spend time with Katherine Nielsen Currin’s middle son, Crawford, when we carpool to “our school” together. I teach the Three’s Class, and my daughter Laura and Crawford are in a class together as well. Future Dragons in the making! ■ Romain Rigby was in Hanoi, Vietnam, upon receipt of our email.

He says “Xin Chao from Hanoi!” and that all is well with him. ■ On a final note, I would also like to acknowledge and congratulate our classmate, Sandy Restrepo for receiving the prestigious Diman Award at St. George’s in May 2019 (the highest alumni honor!). Sandy has been doing incredible work in immigration law. We are very proud of our fellow classmate!

Christina Saldivar Garcia, c.saldivar311@ gmail.com ■ Katherine Straus married Nate Braudrick on Bainbridge Island, Washington, back in September 2018.

Annie Lemelin, Lauren Bakios, and Ellen Roberts Sanchez were all able to attend and now finally understand why Katherine is still on the West Coast after all these years. ■ Allie Simons is engaged to Andrew Milmoe (Lawrence Academy alumnus) and is looking forward to celebrating her nuptials with SG friends in July. We cannot wait and hope her dog, Cheeto, makes an appearance.

■ Prunie Brox moved back east from Jackson, Wyoming, and recently finished

Mona Bhagia Sen '03 visited the Hilltop in August 2019 with her husband, Shiraj, and son, Ari.

a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. We are all very impressed. ■ Annie Lemelin is back in New Orleans learning the ropes of the law scene. ■ Ellen Roberts Sanchez is still living in New York City and taking a break from jewelry design as she and her husband Kiko welcomed a baby girl Charlotte (Cha Cha) this past May. They just attended Cabot Lyman Barry’s son Ben’s first birthday in October. ■ Cam Blanks is engaged to Connie Shaheen (Brooks School alumna) and they are excited to celebrate their wedding in November in Boston. Everyone had to

Head of School Alixe Callen (not pictured) joined a delegation of SG students and faculty for this year's People of Color Conference and Student Diversity Leadership Conference in Seattle in December 2019, where they also had the chance to meet up with to meet up with Trustee Meade Thayer '70 and former faculty Adam Choice '06.

CLASS NOTES

2008

Alexandra E. Cahill, alexecahill@gmail.com Westley A. Resendes, west.resendes@gmail. com

SPRING 2020

2007

Marisa A. Rodriguez-McGill, mrodriguezmcgill@gmail. com

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2006

st. george’s school

make sure it was really happening as they announced the news on April Fool’s Day! Taylor Yawney will definitely be there; he will be the best man. ■ Matilde Davis is still living in Atlanta, and loves traveling.

She visited Japan earlier this year, and will travel to Zambia soon. ■ Cole Weil and his wife, Lindsey, moved to Seattle this summer and welcomed a baby girl, Sloane, to the family. Everyone is happy and healthy.

■ In addition to her full-time position in experiential marketing, Bailly Roesch has recently been cast in a pilot, which starts shooting in the beginning of December. If picked up, she will be realizing her dream of being an actress that she had while at St. George’s. ■ James Arcidiacono is still working in medical device sales in San Francisco. He has a serious girlfriend. He and Mike Soros recently got together for the first time since 2005; that was a blast.

■ As previously mentioned, Cabot Lyman Barry’s son, Ben, turned 1 in October, and Ellen Roberts Sanchez and her daughter “Cha Cha” came to his first birthday party in NYC! Kate Webbe Rahe could not make it, but visited Maine this summer to meet Ben. ■ Kate Humphrey is still living in Detroit, working on real estate development in the city's Housing and Revitalization Department. She was also recently married in May 2019. ■ Lauren Elaine Bakios, M.D., graduated from the Warren Alpert Brown University School of Medicine Urology Residency training program on June 15, 2019. Lauren completed the five-year urologic specialty training program, which includes a year of general surgery and the required 10,000 hours in urologic surgery training necessary to become an expert in the specialty of urology.

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Caroline O’Connor '10, Sydney Mas '10, Lauren Hilton '10, Shealagh Coughlin '10, Esme Yozell '10 and Eliza Ghriskey '10 in Newport.

2009

Isabel H. Evans, izzyevans22@gmail.com ■ Hello all! Hope everyone in the ’09 class is having an enjoyable life! For those of you who were at reunion, it was a treat to reminisce over drinks with you.

Some memories from that event … ■ Kevin Shelton showed up 10 times more Canadian than I personally remember! He is living in Canada and just sounds very Canadian. It was very nice to see you, Kevin. Catherine Esposito is just so fun to talk to; she keeps it real and was giving facials to those who wanted them. Espo, you are a delight. I also spoke to Jeff Ryan, who is working in finance and living in Boston. Anyways, to be honest, I mostly spoke with Mr. Simpson and Ellen Minor at the rink party so that’s really all I got. ■ In other latest news, my dear friend Callie McBreen is engaged to be married! Not to a St. George’s person, but to a respectable British man. Her wedding will be chic! ■ In other nuptial news, Campbell McNicol was married in October to Henry Mumford in a beautiful ceremony. The Mulherns and Krista Peterson (former first lady) also attended the wedding, along with Betsy Stavis ’08, Wells Howe, Jen Noesen ’08, and Ali Fornell ’08 who was very pregnant. I think by the time this is printed she will no longer be pregnant though. Wells is

also engaged, but I don’t know the details.

Also Nam Hee Kim, voted most likely to be out of dress code in our yearbook, got engaged at St George’s! Go, Nam Hee! ■ Johnny Norfleet won the US Team Race Sailing Championship in August for the second year in a row, along with Miranda Bakos '14 Johnny and Alex Cook got together in Marblehead recently and caught up on old times. ■ I’ve been getting lots of fun catch-up time with S.J. Tilden recently. For Halloween, he dressed up as Bernie Sanders and it was the most liberal I have ever seen him! But don’t worry, he really has moved from the conservative curmudgeon he used to be. ■ Anyways, that’s all I have! If you are displeased with anything, you can email me next time with your updates. But the nice thing about ’09 is that everyone can appreciate a little joke

Mary O’Connor ‘11, Lauren Hilton '10 and Kelty O’Brien '10 in San Francisco.

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CLASS NOTES

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or a gentle troll! It’s funny, the younger the generation, the more sensitive they seem to be to a little good ol’ fashioned ribbing.

Strange.

2010

// SPRING 2020

Eliza R. Ghriskey, elizaghriskey@gmail.com ■ Hello fellow dragons! A friendly reminder that we will now celebrate our 10th reunion in May 2021. Here’s hoping that it will be just as silly as last time. I know how badly each of you want to be mentioned here, so you better be back on the Hilltop!

Now, onto the updates! Love hearing from some of you as always. ■ Well, another one bites the dust and swapped states with me. Caroline O’Connor moved to California last summer for a stellar new job in technology at PIMCO in Newport Beach.

Obviously, she chose a spot only a few steps from the ocean. As much as I miss her, I am happy to have another excuse to visit the West Coast/Best Coast. Speaking of visitors, she recently hosted her sisters, Mary O’Connor ’11 and Meggie O’Connor ’14, for the Villanova-USC basketball game. Wearing all of Caroline’s clothes, the three sisters were as competitive about the game as they are about everything else. Thankfully, Mary had no horse in the race or else it would have resulted in one of my favorite things: a classic O’Connor sister fight. ■ Teddy Swift recently left Denver, Colorado, for Washington, D.C., to attend Georgetown’s MBA program in real estate. Be sure to reach out to him in a couple of years if you are looking to buy in our nation’s capital. Emma Byrd, who is in her second year at GWU Law, is especially excited to be reunited with Eggsy, Teddy’s wiener dog, whom she is very fond of. Honestly, she probably likes Eggsy more than Teddy, even though Eggsy is truly the spawn of Teddy. ■ Ashley Winslow recently made the move from Florida back to her home state of Maine to be closer to family. She recently became a licensed attorney there and is now working for a personal injury firm as an associate attorney. In her spare time, she is an assistant coach for the local high school girls’ hockey team. ■ Is it me or am I hearing a whole lot of wedding bells for our class? Matt McCarthy got engaged in August to Morgan McCall, at a beautiful resort in Italy with the McCarthy family

in tow. I can only imagine that Alana McCarthy ’12 was hiding in the bushes, taking photos when Matt got down on one knee. Hayden Fownes proposed to his college sweetheart, Jenna Laske, at MetLife stadium during the Patriots-Jets Monday night football game. Allie Barrows was married in Santa Monica, California, to her handsome husband, Andy Sallberg, back in October and the ceremony had a beautiful backdrop of the ocean and palm trees. I have one question for the rest of you: Is everyone in love? ■ Kelty O’Brien has been seeing a lot of our SG pals recently! She traveled to Seattle with Caroline O’Connor and Shealagh Coughlin AND had dinner with Lauren Hilton and Mary O’Connor in San Francisco. You might remember a few notes ago how I mentioned that Kelty travels more than anyone I know? She is off to South Africa for work this fall, Patagonia for Thanksgiving and Costa Rica to ring in the New Year. I am thinking of booking her as my travel agent. She is still working for Facebook, really loves it and has learned a lot, which makes the hour-plus commute to Menlo Park bearable. ■ Courtney Jones, who is now living in Philadelphia, wrote in saying, “After 5 years of working as a registered nurse on an adult oncology unit, I have transitioned to working at a fast-growing start up, Trusted Health, as a nurse advocate! In August, I completed my fourth Ride to Cure Type 1 Diabetes in Sonoma, California, and raised over $17,000 for Type 1 Diabetes research!

Looking forward to riding again next year!”

■ Charlotte Deavers wrote in, mentioning that she will be running the New York City Marathon for the THIRD time! We will be cheering you on from the sidelines, Deavs!

■ Polly Murray’s Instagram feed is full of skiing, mountain biking, hiking and climbing, but unfortunately, she broke her ankle last spring and has had to take a break from all of the activities. In the meantime, she has stayed on for a Ph.D. in structural engineering in Boulder, Colorado. Speaking of school, Suzy Reynolds graduated in August with her master’s in occupational therapy from Wesley College in Delaware.

She recently passed her board exam and will be starting her career in the next few weeks/months (who knew that the licensing process takes forever?!) in Philadelphia.

Suzy also let me know that Molly Boyd graduated from Boston College Law

School last spring and recently passed the bar! Congrats, guys! ■ Last July, Mrs. O’Connor fled to D.C. while Sydney Mas, Shealagh Coughlin, Esme Yozell, Lauren Hilton and I moved in for the Newport Folk Festival with the O’Connor sisters.

We laughed, danced, and chatted our way through the weekend at our usual haunts (Second Beach, The Landing, Perro Salado, Fort Adams, and the O’Connor’s front porch). Some highlights included: Sydney teaching Lauren’s son how to swim, meeting Kai Dolbashian’s (Class of 2011) new girlfriend so I could give her the ol’ stamp of approval (which I know was 100 percent necessary), seeing my saucy friend Lauren O’Halloran, and congratulating Erin Monahan ’11 and George Mencoff ’11 on their upcoming nuptials, which will be taking place at St. George’s (of all places)!

Oh, and the music was good too. ■ Sydney Mas, Shealagh Coughlin, Caroline O’Connor and I flew out to Colorado in September to camp and hike at Great Sand Dunes National Park. Surprise, surprise, I can be outdoorsy. We were joined by Alex Hare’s girlfriend, Kelly, who now knows so much SG gossip that she could probably write the class notes on my behalf without missing a beat. ■ I’ve realized that I mentioned Caroline O’Connor a lot in these notes. I hope she is stoked about that as she is still dying to be mentioned in Greetings from the Hilltop one day. Hope all is well with the rest of you! Cannot wait to see you in May.

2011

Sophie C. Flynn, sophie. flynn@gmail.com

2012

Jack I. Bartholet, jack.bartholet@gmail.com

CLASS NOTES

2013

st. george’s school

Theresa A. Salud, theresasalud@gmail.com ■ Apologies for the radio silence … but we are back in business! Lots of updates for this year, so I will just jump right in it: Austin Sheerer just graduated from St. Andrews in June and started his master’s degree in geophysical hazards (basically natural disaster geology) at UCL in London for the next year. ■ Shannon Leonard is in her third year of optometry school and starting rotations in May. ■ CJ Park graduated from pharmacy school at Northeastern in May and started working for the pharmaceutical company, GSK. ■ Callie moved to Cali! Callie Reis moved from New York to California and is working in equity trading. ■ Miriam Elhajli was scheduled to put out the first two singles of her debut record “Observations” on Nov. 11. ■ Roommates and now co-workers, Becky Cutler and Theresa Salud both started new jobs as UPWARD rotational analysts at Yext, a medium-sized technology company in New York. They now also live with Jessica Hom, who recently started her own permanent makeup side business. Check out her work on Instagram: @slj_pmu_jessica! ■ Will Fleming just took a new job as sales manager for a company called MILKWEED, a business that makes CBD-infused confections like chocolate truffles, gumdrops, and marshmallows. Will currently lives with Alex Elron ’12 in Burlington, Vermont.

■ Yet another pair of SG roomies, Colby Burdick and Allie McLane recently moved to Chelsea, New York. Colby started a new job as a crash researcher for “The TODAY Show” and Allie is now an associate at the Guggenheim Museum. ■ The three musketeers, Peter Kohler, Ben Rickabaugh, and Andrew Harris, were sightseeing together in Chicago when I checked in. ■ And last but not least, Dominique (Samuel) Ward got married last year and is now adding a poodle named Teddy and a baby girl to their family. Dominique is currently working with a production studio teaching dance classes to little girls and they are looking to build from the ground up in the next two years!

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// SPRING 2020

Above, top to bottom, left to right: Pearson Potts '12 and his sailing team (pictured above, with Potts second from the right) successfully defended the Prince of Wales Bowl at the 52nd U.S. Match Racing Championship, beating seven other teams in J/22s during races held Oct. 4-6, 2019 in San Francisco, California. / Will Fleming '13 at his previous job at Stone Cutter Spirits. / Miriam Elhajli '13 / Derick Ward and Dominique Samuel Ward '13.

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CLASS NOTES

st. george’s school

// SPRING 2020

Above, top to bottom, left to right: Members of the Class of 2014 at their fifth reunion last spring. “Five years since graduating and we all still get together as much as we possibly can!” wrote Maggie Malloy. Pictured are Cecilia Masiello, Lexi LaShelle, Caroline Yerkes, Maggie Maloy, Callie Randall, Alexa Santry, Annabella Doyle, Katherine Bauer, Hannah Macaulay, Peyton MacNaught, and Kathryn Coughlin. / Buchanan Burnham Summer Scholar Will Simpson '14 delivered a lecture at the Newport Historical Society on Sept. 5 called "Frère et Concitoyen: A Newporter in Revolutionary France," about William H. Vernon's years in France. / Caroline Yerkes ’14 and her sister Charlotte ’23 visit the “Red Carpet Photo Booth” during Family Weekend in October.

2014

Caroline Yerkes, cyerkes2@tulane.edu ■ Caroline Yerkes has volunteered to be your class correspondent. Thank you, Caroline! Please keep in touch with her at the email address above. Caroline was back on the Hilltop last October during Family Weekend to visit her sister, Charlotte Yerkes ’23. ■ Cameron Cluff reports he is now living in Washington, D.C. ■ Charlotte Dulay is a combat medic in the U.S. Army. “Next year, I will be deploying to Korea for nine months

and also applying for the army’s physician assistant program,” she wrote from Hinesville, Georgia, in November. “Once accepted, I hope to pursue surgical or emergency medicine in PA and obtain my officer status as 2nd Lieutenant and continue to move up in the ranks until I decide to retire from the military.” ■ Aubrey Salmon is living in Richmond, Virginia. He is an investment banker at Harris Williams. ■ Timothy Archer is working as a real estate salesperson at Island Realty in Jamestown, Rhode Island.

“We had a great class at SG, and I am looking forward to seeing you all again in the future,” he wrote. ■ Last April, Emma Reed married her long-distance boyfriend from high school, Josiah Souder, last April. “We moved to Boston and I work as an accountant for a home care company,” she reported. ■ Julian Turner is living in New York City and working at “a startup in the food/beverage technology space.” ■ Jeffrey “Bud” Fralick is finishing up graduate school at Columbia University with plans to

CLASS NOTES

2017

Christine Dejoux, cgdejoux@gmail.com / Eva Killenberg, evakillenberg@gmail.com / Henry Savage, hsavage@bowdoin.edu

2018

Grace K. Hammarskjold, grace.k.hammarskjold22 @dartmouth.edu

2019

Please contact the Alumni Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or ClassNotes@ stgeorges.edu if you would like to volunteer to serve as class correspondent or to submit an update.

Above, top to bottom: For the second year in a row, Emily Kallfelz '15 was the USRowing U23 Female Athlete of the Year! Emily was honored at the 2019 Golden Oars Gala on Nov. 7 at the New York Athletic Club's Manhattan location. Kallfelz is a six-time national team member and won her third consecutive medal in the women's single sculls at the 2019 World Rowing Under 23 Championships. / Hannah Todd '14, David Todd '77, Margaret Todd '17, David Randall '82, Stuart Randall '18, and Bailey Randall '21 in Houston, Texas.

graduate in May. He’s been pursuing a master of science degree in sustainability science and is working as an intern in the Environmental Protection Bureau for the New York State Office of the Attorney General. “Not sure what comes next after graduation yet, but contemplating law school!” he wrote. ■ Since graduating from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 2018, Maggie Maloy has been working as menswear product coordinator for

Fisher + Baker, a functional menswear company. She’s living in Minneapolis.

2015

Please contact the Alumni Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or ClassNotes@ stgeorges.edu if you would like to volunteer to serve as class correspondent or to submit an update. ■ Julia Goins is living in Boston and is in her first year of

SUBMIT A NOTE

Please contact your class correspondent or the Advancement Office at 1-888-I-CALL-SG or classnotes@stgeorges.edu

SPRING 2020

Thompson W. Davlin, thompson.davlin@ trincoll.edu

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2016

st. george’s school

a Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Simmons University. ■ Amy Nuytkens graduated from Syracuse University with a BFA last May. She majored in communications design and minored in entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises. Over the summer she worked on her jewelry/art business and had an art opening at the Kings Lens and Friends gallery in downtown Newport. She is currently working at CVS Health as a graphic production designer and living right near SG in Middletown! ■ Eddie Liu is living in Madison, Wisconsin and is on a gap year before dental school.

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"My position as a middle child has allowed me to be both a leader and a learner."

SPRING 2020

The View from In-between I have found myself stuck in the middle for the past 17 years. In the story of my life, I am a middle child, an obvious part of my list of idiosyncrasies. As I progressed through high school, this list begins to read more like a novel. I bounced around friend groups, never confining myself to a set group of people. Even my own name became something blurred between two lines, never knowing to identify myself as my real name or the moniker most knew me as. Being caught in the middle for so long, I have learned that life is more interesting when you can see it from different angles.

Fifty-two percent of American presidents have been middle children. America’s greatest television shows would not be the same without their middle children.

In theory, thanks to being sandwiched between my two brothers, I get to compare myself to some of the greats: John F. Kennedy, Stephanie Tanner, Abraham Lincoln, Lisa Simpson. What I have discovered about being a middle child is that when parents were too busy micromanaging the first or forgetting to pick up the third at soccer practice, I was given the opportunity to watch.

Being the middle child has taught me to learn from my older brother’s mistakes while being a role model for my younger sibling. Because my older brother calls me once a week, I make a point to check in with my younger sibling weekly as well. My position as a middle child has allowed me to be both a leader and a learner.

My social life has also rendered me caught in the middle. I have never confined myself to a specific group of friends. Instead, I have waded through the social pool of life, wanting to connect with whomever I cross paths.

I am friends with people of different backgrounds, ages, and interests, and from each of them, there is

This was Caroline's college essay.

something to be learned. My roommate taught me that stress relief is a game of “Just Dance.” My friends who surf show me that waking up at the crack of dawn can be worth a few waves. When you shut the door to human relationships, the only window that opens leads to a dead end. Being able to connect with people from all walks of life has made me a more open-minded and sensitive companion.

Before high school, I thought I had the middle figured out. I had made it my own unique place; I loved being a middle child, and I loved the diverse people I surrounded myself with. Though at times it presented challenges, the middle was nothing I could not handle. However, when I began my new school, I quickly developed “CK” as a new nickname. At first, CK seemed unfamiliar, an external persona that could not possibly be me. I had been known as Caroline my whole life, and I never thought that would change.

Despite how strange it felt, I soon grew into my new name. One of my good friends said to me, “I can’t even imagine calling you Caroline. You’re always going to be CK in my mind.” I never expected to be caught between two names, but as a result, I have learned an important lesson. Change is inevitable, whether it is a new name or a new school, change itself does not matter as much as how one responds to it.

Being caught in the middle of familial, social, and personal aspects of my life has allowed me to experience it from all angles. Call me what you will; I am a drawing outside the lines, a modern-day Malcolm in the Middle. I see the beauty in life from multiple perspectives. I am grateful for this and think I will stay in the middle for just a little longer.■

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Dickens Discovery A note from one of the most famous writers in history turns up in the Hill Library One of the joys of archives work is when an unexpected find turns up.

One such occasion took place in 2016, when a library staff member, while conducting a routine inventory in the stacks, noticed a handwritten note taped inside the cover of a biography of Charles Dickens.

When she brought the book to me, I immediately went to compare the signature on the note — which

appeared to be Dickens’ — to other published versions and got so excited I kept exploring.

The note is dated Feb. 1, 1842, and finalizes preparations to attend a dinner at Papanti’s Hall in Boston that evening. It is addressed to the merchant and politician W.W. Greenough. I believe the body of the note was written by an assistant and that Charles edited the message

before adding “Faithfully yours” and his distinctive signature.

I got even more excited when I was able to track down a printed transcription of the note's contents in “The Pilgrim Edition: The Letters of Charles Dickens Volume Three 1842-1843” (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1974).

At the time, Dickens was about to turn 30, had already written half a dozen wildly popular books, and had recently arrived on his first visit to America.

W.W. Greenough’s granddaughter-in-law and the daughter of architect Whitney Warren, Charlotte Warren Greenough, was an active member of Newport’s high society.

An avid book collector associated for many years with the Redwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport, Charlotte had likely acquired the Dickens biography when it was published in 1946, and added both her book plate and the note the family had kept.

After Charlotte’s death in 1957, her daughter donated many cartons of books to the Redwood, and because of the close association of the Redwood with St. George’s, the biography was likely passed along to our library without the note having been discovered.

The book and letter have been added to the Special Collection in the St. George’s Archives.

—Archivist Valerie Simpson

ST. GEORGE'S SCHOOL P.O. Box 1910 Newport, RI 02840-0190

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Burlington, VT 05401 Permit No. 19

Dragon fans cheer as varsity basketball player Dominic Mello ’21 runs down the court after scoring in a playoff game vs. Rivers School on March 4, 2020. The team had the winningest season in modern St. George’s boys’ basketball history with a record of 23-4 and reached the NEPSAC Class B Semifinal on March 7, 2020, which they lost in a heart-stopping doubleovertime game against Canterbury.