Bulletin Fall 2021

ST. GEORGE’S T H E

B U L L E T I N

O F

S T.

ALWAYS A

DRAGON Introducing new Chair of the Board of Trustees DANA SCHMALTZ ’85

G E O R G E ’ S

S C H O O L

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WINTER 2015

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T HE B U L L E T I N OF ST. G E OR G E ’ S SC H OOL

F E AT U R E S

12 Making a Grand Entrance

A jewel on our Hilltop, Main Drive gets a gold-star makeover

16 Building on Our Strengths, Forging an Inspired Path to the Future An interview with new Chair of the Board of Trustees Dana Schmaltz ’85

20 The Annals of Arden Hall

Built in 1907, Arden was the first building on campus to be solely used as a dormitory. Its benefactors played a key role in the growth of the school.

26 A Tradition of Giving

Constructive service to the world was Moana Casanova ’04 this alum’s mission even before the Hilltop

28 Taking His Shot

D E PA R T M E N T S

02 L etter from the Head of School 03 Campus News 25 Alumni News 32 Class Notes 80 Student Essay 81 From the Archives ON THE COVER

Chair of the Board of Trustees Dana Schmaltz ’85 in the cloisters of the St. George’s Chapel.

Dragon hoops standout Tyler Kolek ’20 shines on a bigger stage

PHOTO BY KATE WHITNEY LUCEY

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

The Bulletin of ST. GEORGE’S SCHOOL

© 2021 St. George’s School

Jedd Whitlock Director of Advancement

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

stgeorges.edu

Alixe Callen Head of School

Suzanne McGrady Director of Communications Lindsay McLaughlin Director of Parent & Alumni Relations Jeremy Moreau Web Manager Alexander Silva Digital Communications Specialist Adam Bastien Graphic Designer Aldeia Design

INSIDE COVER PHOTO BY BRANDON KLEIN

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A LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

BY ALIXE CALLEN

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From the Hilltop

D

ana Schmaltz and I first met five years ago. A member of the search committee for St. George’s next head of school, he was the emissary sent to check me out. I think we both assumed it would be a perfunctory, 20-minute conversation. And yet, an hour later, there we sat. As Dana shared his thoughts about St. George’s — past, present and future — I found myself more and more excited about the opportunity to lead our incredible school.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Five years later, I am honored to partner with Dana and the rest of the board as we embark on our celebration of 125 years of St. George’s. On Oct. 1, our students will recognize Founder’s Day, the anniversary of the school’s opening. Those initial days, as we know, were tenuous. A small number of boys joined John Diman and his sister Emily at a house in Newport. The following year, they moved to a slightly larger home. It would be half a decade before Diman relocated the school and its students to the school’s permanent location here on the Hilltop.

In recognition of John Diman’s original vision, we are taking steps to ensure both the

beauty and the sustainability of our Hilltop home. This past year, we completed a full renovation of our beautiful Memorial Schoolhouse, restoring it to its original and intended beauty, while also providing it with necessary modern amenities, including bathrooms and an elevator (The result is stunning!). And now, we are in the midst of restoring our front drive, a project that includes moving the tennis courts to the Lower Road, replacing the existing diseased and invasive trees with lindens and Princeton elms, and repaving. Next on the list: a full renovation of the Arden, Diman and Eccles dormitory complex. All of this is outlined in our strategic plan, “Our Horizon,” a link to which is available on the St. George’s website (sgstrategicplan.org).

More immediately on our horizon is our 125th anniversary celebration, which is now scheduled for May 13–15, 2022. We hope that our entire St. George’s community will join us here on the Hilltop for a weekend of events.

Not only will we look back at St. George’s history — both the triumphs and the tragedies, but, more importantly, we will look ahead to the St. George’s of the future. Please make plans to join us here on the Hilltop for a celebration of our community.

See you in May! 

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Campus News

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IN THIS SECTION 04 Student Initiative 06 Athletics 08 Campus Observatory 11 Board of Trustees

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A Daily Dose of Black Excellence Last winter, with Black History Month less than two months away and the school community in the middle of remote learning, Alexander Gaines ’23 and Zuriel Jimenez ’23 were searching for a way to teach others about important Black figures.

“I wanted to make something that would educate kids because, when I think about it, we never really learned about any people other than MLK, Rosa Parks, and maybe Claudette Colvin in school when we were learning about Black History Month,” said Gaines. “We glossed over a lot of important people.”

“It was the same thing,” Jimenez said of past lessons. “We never did anything besides mention MLK quotes and call it a day.”

As someone interested in astronomy and physics, Gaines first learned about NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson from the recent feature film “Hidden Figures” telling her story.

“I think that’s really weird, seeing as she’s a very big part of American history,” Gaines said of Johnson. “If I knew barely anything and I was actually interested in people who look like me represented in media, it’s just hard for me to imagine what my white and non-Black peers could possibly know about those people.”

After meeting with Head of School Alixe Callen and Associate Head of School for Student

Top: Tharaly Joseph ’22 kicked off the Daily Dose of Black Excellence program in February 2021 with the first video of the series featuring novelist Toni Morrison. Bottom: Alexander Gaines ’23 and Zuriel Jimenez ’23 organized the Daily Dose of Black Excellence program in less than two months, ending with 22 videos highlighting important Black figures.

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Life Mervan Osborne in January 2021, Gaines and Jimenez created a program called “Daily Dose of Black Excellence.” Students and faculty recorded 22 short videos to show the community throughout February, highlighting important Black people in history as well as providing references to learn more.

Gaines and Jimenez wrote the scripts for most of the videos, which featured figures like Maya Angelou, Angela Davis, Dr. Charles Drew, and Robert Sengstacke Abbott.

For her video, Jimenez chose to spotlight scientist and inventor George Washington Carver because her father, who’s a teacher, was reviewing him in his class.

“We overlook the accomplishments and contributions that African Americans have made to America’s history.

Their achievements went unrecognized for so long, and even when they were mentioned, we generalized their success and their stories,” Jimenez said. “For instance, George Washington Carver is known as ‘the peanut man,’ yet when we look past his nickname we find he contributed to findings in the field of medicine. We must teach their stories of success, but we must also share their stories of adversity. We must acknowledge how the racist systems in America affect their stories and how they triumphed through adversity.”

Gaines and Jimenez spoke about the importance of growing up with role models who look like you and how that’s limited for Black children.

“In movies and TV shows and books, the main problem is they have to deal with their race and that’s their story,” Jimenez said. “During this month, when we started to acknowledge artists, scientists, and all these different types of professions, I feel like that kind of opened up a space for more conversation.”

“As much as I love learning about MLK and Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party, teaching about the Black experience and reading about it, we live it,” Gaines said.

“I don’t want to keep reading about having to survive our environment or being targeted.”

“I want to see us as wizards, I want to see us as magical things, I want to see our own version of Harry Potter,” added Gaines. “I don’t just want to see us stuck in this one bubble: We grow up without a father figure or someone gets killed in our lives because of the color of their skin and the climax of the story is finding our voices.

Sometimes I don’t want to read about something that my family members are affected by.”

Both Jimenez and Gaines are already coming up with plans for next year’s Black History Month.

“The next two years we’re here, I want to do more and more each year until I leave,” Gaines said. “I want to keep some sort of educational path going and improve it and make it more versatile and teach more. I feel like we need to try to do better than the year prior and educate more people — do something that will reach more people and move us closer to the anti-racist community that we want to be.”

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DIMA N AWA R D WINNER

Longtime educator William C. Prescott Jr. ’53, returned to the Hilltop on March 4 to receive the John B. Diman Award, the school’s highest alumni honor presented annually to an alumna or alumnus who embodies the school’s mission of constructive service to the world.

Mr. Prescott is a former SG teacher and trustee and spent his whole career in education, including a 23-year stint as the head of The Wheeler School in Providence. Head of School Alixe Callen provided the welcome at the service and the then Chair of the Board of Trustees Leslie B. Heaney ’92, P’24 introduced Mr. Prescott, who delivered a special chapel address to students and special guests. “John B. Diman Award Service 2021” is on our YouTube Channel.

LOVE! S ET! M ATCH !

Work continued throughout the summer on six new tennis courts west of the Lower Drive, which will replace the courts now located alongside the Main Drive and across Purgatory Road that have outlived their useful lifespan.

Construction began in May 2021 by J.G. Coffey Co. With sustainability a goal, materials from the old court surfaces ares being used to build the new ones. The courts will be ready for play this spring.

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ATHLETICS

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FORE! Well done to the St. George’s varsity golf team, which won the Bishop Hendricken Invitational against 11 Rhode Island interscholastic teams in May 2021 at Warwick Country Club! A special shoutout to Peter Alofsin ’21 (pictured here), who won the individual title in a field of 66 players.

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LACROSSE HONORS: Congratulations to Izzy Lahah ’23 (top right) and Riley Cochrane ’21 (bottom right) on being named to the Class B All-NEPSAC team for the spring season.

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The Rt. Rev. Dr. Hays H. Rockwell was presented with the 2020 Howard B. Dean Service Award at his home on May 27, 2021.

The Howard B. Dean Service Award, established in 2001, is given annually by the Board of Trustees to recognize any member of the St. George’ School community whose service to the school has been exceptional.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Hays H. Rockwell graduated from Brown University in 1958 and continued his education at the Episcopal Divinity School, where he received his Bachelor of Divinity in 1961. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Kenyon College, the Seminary of the Southwest, Saint Louis University, and Sewanee: The University of the South. Hays was ordained in the Episcopal Church as a deacon in 1961 and a priest in 1962, and he was consecrated as a bishop in 1991.

“Throughout his many positions of service, Hays has made a strong impact on the surrounding community,” the then Chair of the Board of Trustees Leslie B. Heaney ’92, P’24 said at the ceremony.

Hays served as the St. George’s School chaplain from 1961 to 1969, where he conducted chapel services each evening and weekend, taught Sacred Studies classes, and coached wrestling.

Following SG, he became chaplain for the University of Rochester, New York, dean at Bexley Hall in Rochester, rector of St. James Church in New York, and bishop coadjutor to the Diocese of Missouri. He was the ninth bishop of Missouri, serving from 1993 until his retirement in 2002. He has been a board member of the University of Rochester, the Missouri Botanical Garden, Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and St. Luke’s Hospital in Missouri.

During his time at St. George’s, Hays was a primary spokesperson for integration. In 1985, he wrote “Steal Away, Steal Away Home,” a novel about the first Black student at a boys’ boarding school.

He has been an enthusiastic presenter at the Alumni of Color Conferences and a passionate Chapel speaker for the school’s 2018–2019 Beloved Community Initiative, focusing predominantly on diversity, equity, and inclusion. In 1996, Hays concelebrated the Centennial Chapel Service during the school’s 100th anniversary.

Hays served on the St. George’s Board of Trustees from 2005–2017 and was a member of the Education, Student Life, and Religious Life Committees, as well as co-chair of the Chapel Altar Window Committee.

In 2006, Hays brought his unique perspective to a three-day strategic planning retreat, and in 2008 he was founding member number one of the Friends of the Chapel group, where he consistently shows his support of chapel preservation at St. George’s. He is a member of the Ogden Nash Society.

“Hays’ connection to St. George’s, and more specifically to our historic chapel, runs deep. The bishop of Rhode Island made him a priest here on the Hilltop, and our iconic chapel is also the location where he officiated his first wedding and baptism,” said Heaney. “In his Beloved Community talk, Hays credits St. George’s as the place that shaped him as a priest and a human being, but today we’re proud to honor him for his dedication and service to the community and our school.”

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The Rt. Rev. Dr. Hays H. Rockwell Receives Howard B. Dean Service Award

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Stars Shine Through Observatory Once More

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Sargent Johnson ’21 always knew there was an observatory at St. George’s, but it was a night outside of Arden dorm during his senior year when he looked up with friends Trent Lamar ’21 and Archer Newsome ’21 and saw new possibility.

“We were looking up at the stars and remembered that there was an observatory and decided we should look into trying to fix it,” Johnson said. “It’s an incredible asset for a school to have and if the school has it, we just thought it should be used.”

That night, Johnson, Lamar, and Newsome decided to volunteer as the new heads of the inactive student astronomy club with a goal of bringing the observatory back into use on the Hilltop once more.

The Sturtevant Observatory, built in 1967, was named after former head of the science department Edward Sturtevant, an SG faculty member from 1898 to 1939. It was constructed with consultation from Brown University faculty member and director of its Ladd Observatory, Prof. Dr. Charles H. Smiley.

Two anonymous donors gifted both the 12-inch Tinsley Cassegrain telescope mounted on a German equatorial mount as well as the observatory dome.

Before gaining access to the observatory, the students reached out to Brown University’s Director of Astronomy David Targan for advice on how to proceed.

“The three of us had almost no prior experience of anything to do with telescopes and astronomy,” said Johnson.

“We just came in so we could take some pictures of the mirrors to make sure they weren’t broken.”

Targan put them in touch with Robert Horton, current manager of Brown’s Astronomy Laboratories and Ladd Observatory, who also happened to be the person who helped fix the same telescope for SG in the early 90s, ahead of the Sturtevant Observatory’s rededication.

Once on North Field, the observatory was relocated to its current position at the end of Faculty Drive when the Buell and Wheeler dormitories were built in 1992.

Horton revisited the Hilltop three times throughout the 2020-2021 school year to consult with Johnson, Lamar, and Newsome. He inspected the telescope and helped handle its special mirrors so they could be sent out for a new reflective coating.

“As far as the telescope is concerned, it was just super dirty,” said Johnson. “Everything still worked besides the mirrors, which just needed to be resurfaced — and that would need to be done every three years regardless.”

Only one of the telescope’s eyepieces still functioned, so the students worked with the school to purchase a new eyepiece, a camera designed specifically for telescopes, as well as fund other minor repairs like replacing the shorted-out motors for the retractable dome.

“We put $1,200 into it and it works just exactly as it was intended to work in the 90s when they refurbished it,” Johnson said.

Johnson, Lamar, and Newsome debuted the onceagain repaired Sturtevant Observatory to a small group of sixth-formers for the super moon on April 26, 2021.

As Dragons looked up at the stars from the Hilltop telescope for the first time in years, Johnson had a sneak peek the week prior after Horton installed the refurbished mirrors.

“It was the first time I’ve looked at the moon through a telescope that’s anything close to this power,” Johnson said. “It’s just incredible to see the details on the surface of the moon that you couldn’t otherwise see.”

For someone who only really started to like astronomy after visiting the observatory, Johnson believes all students would benefit from having a functioning observatory on campus.

“It can make the students more well-rounded,” Johnson said. “Adding astronomy as a possible elective I think just broadens the curriculum of St. George’s.”

After fixing the SG telescope for a second time following a period of disuse, Horton encouraged the astronomy club to keep the program going.

With additional repairs planned, Johnson acknowledged the importance of involved students who will help oversee the observatory as well as introduce the subject to new students. Four new club heads have already been chosen for next year.

“I had always known there was an observatory here and I had always thought that it should be fixed and now I fix it with a month left in my time here,” Johnson said. “I guess I wish I had taken the initiative earlier on, just so I could have more time here to learn more about astronomy.”

Sargent Johnson ’21 in the Sturtevant Observatory. >>

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PRIZE DAY

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CELEBRATION: Ninety-nine members of the St. George’s Class of 2021 became newly minted Dragon alumni during the 123rd Prize Day ceremony on May 31.

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Dr. Sando Baysah Ojukwu ’05 is a physician specializing in pediatric endocrinology at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Boston Children’s Hospital, as well as an instructor at Harvard Medical School. Prior to her current position, Sando was an attending physician in pediatric endocrinology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Sando’s clinical research focuses on defining and ameliorating risk factors for suboptimal glycemic control in vulnerable youths with Type 1 diabetes. She utilizes Type 1 diabetes as a lens through which to advance health equity nationally and internationally.

She has had the opportunity to work in several countries, including Botswana, Liberia, Kenya, and Bangladesh.

Sando has a bachelor’s degree in biochemical sciences with a minor in health care policy from Harvard College, graduating cum laude; a master’s degree in public health with a concentration in global health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and a doctor of medicine degree from the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University. Sando completed her pediatric residency and fellowship in pediatric endocrinology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She was born in Monrovia, Liberia, and raised in Providence, Rhode Island.

She lives with her husband and son in Philadelphia.

Isabella D. Ridall ’01 is the vice president of hospitality for Safe Harbor Marinas, the largest owner and operator of marinas in the world, overseeing the company’s innovative hospitality initiatives, food and beverage, and merchandising.

She is responsible for brand development, member experiences, and amenity curation across the company’s network of 100-plus marina locations in North America. She previously worked in education and technology in San Francisco and for a scholarship-focused foundation in Nassau, Bahamas.

Isabella graduated from St. George’s in 2001 and Middlebury College in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in English literature. She serves as chair of the board for St. Michael’s Country Day School, where she has overseen a leadership transition and organizational restructuring.

She is also a trustee on the Newport Hospital Foundation Board and was previously a trustee at IYRS, a marine- and technology-oriented trade school in Newport.

Isabella resides in Newport, Rhode Island, with her husband and three sons.

Pictured below from the top: W. Keyes Hill-Edgar ’87, P’19, ’21, ’24; Dr. Sando Baysah Ojukwu ’05; and Isabella D. Ridall ’01.

The school also wishes to thank those trustees who are leaving the board for their invaluable contributions and service to our school. They are: Board Chair Leslie B. Heaney ’92, P’24; Clare Harrington, choirmaster and former head of the music department emerita; Fraser Hunter ’84, P’21; George Petrovas P’20, ’21; and David Randall ’82, P’18, ’21.

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W. Keyes Hill-Edgar ’87, P’19, ’21, ’24 is the chief operating officer of the ViacomCBS MTV Entertainment Group, managing business planning, operations, and strategy for the brands of MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, Smithsonian Channel, VH1, CMT, TV Land, Pop TV, and Logo TV in addition to their respective content studios.

A 20-plus-year veteran of ViacomCBS, Keyes was previously executive vice president for global business affairs and general counsel of Viacom Media Networks. Prior to that, he was senior vice president, deputy general counsel, and assistant secretary of Viacom, responsible for numerous areas, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate reporting and governance, and labor and employment.

Before joining Viacom in 2000, Keyes was at the law firm of Shearman & Sterling, working in their mergers and acquisitions, specialized finance, and arbitration groups, in both their Paris and New York offices.

Keyes received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College in 1991 and a juris doctor degree from Columbia Law School.

Keyes and his wife, Dr. Allison A. Hill-Edgar, have three children: W. Morgan Hill-Edgar ’19, now at the University of Southern California’s School of Dramatic Arts; John Gordon “JG” Hill-Edgar ’21, who

is in the class of 2025 at St. Lawrence University; and Ava Hill-Edgar ’24.

The Hill-Edgars split their time between Cooperstown, New York, and the Upper West Side of New York City.

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We welcome three new members to the St. George’s Board of Trustees this year: W. Keyes Hill-Edgar ’87, P’19, ’21, ’24; Dr. Sando Baysah Ojukwu ’05; and Isabella D. Ridall ’01.

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Three alumni join the Board of Trustees

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ENTRANCE a a A jewel on our Hilltop, Main Drive gets a gold-star makeover

We’re in on the secret now, but can any of us forget the first time we arrived at St. George’s? The moment when, about midway down the Main Drive, the stunning view of the ocean appeared to the east and the chapel tower rose from behind Old School?

Indeed, the entrance to St. George’s has been a showstopper ever since our founder, the Rev. John Byron Diman, purchased the land here in 1901 and Old School was sited nearly 200 yards off Purgatory Road. Now, this summer, we’ve begun a comprehensive renovation project meant to help preserve our grand entrance for the next 120 years.

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MAKING A

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Key to the new plan, according to landscape architect Tom Lee, is a mindset toward sustainability — improving the soil and limiting runoff, as well as removing invasive, non-native plants and replacing them with more appropriate species.

What remained of the original trees that lined the drive have been removed, and special attention is going toward planting heartier, native trees in a new, healthy soil mix, along with installing new lampposts along both sides of the drive (there were never any on the west side). In addition, the drive itself is being removed and repaved.

“The more you look at it today, it’s really not reinforcing that sense of procession and ceremony and arrival to the school,” Mr. Lee said.

This fall, 44 trees will be planted along both sides of the drive — 22 American linden (or basswood) and 22 Princeton elms. Eleven new lindens and elms will be planted around the circle. “We sorted through quite a few combinations of species and landed on these two,” Mr. Lee noted. One factor that went into the decision was how the trees would grow over time. “The trunk of the elm opens up into these graceful, arching branches,” he said. “The linden does not

do that — it maintains what we call the central leader – the main trunk — and then the branches start arching and creeping out. So they’re not the same, but they have some compatibility in terms of that branching gracefulness.”

Both trees turn yellow in the fall and are the same stature in terms of future size.

“What the landscape will go back to is the early days of the school, when the entrance was fully planted,” Mr. Lee said.

The new trees, however, will be placed a bit farther off the drive, so as to limit the impact of runoff from the drive on them, particularly from salt used to treat the road in winter. The light posts will be staggered so that they’re on both sides but not directly across from each other.

And unlike the existing plantings that follow the line of the Front Circle, new trees will be planted in more of a square around the circle. “Because we discovered that, when you come down the drive, at about the second or third tree from the circle in the allée, you could potentially see the [chapel] tower rising above. So that was really a happy discovery. Once we move the trees outward to frame a sort of ‘room,’ the tower comes into play.”

ALSO INCLUDED in the project was the removal of four tennis courts that sat west of the drive. The six courts across Purgatory Road were also excavated this spring, and the materials was ground and repurposed for the new courts being built along the Lower Drive leading to the athletic complex.

With its care and maintenance of the Main Drive landscape, St. George’s will fulfill at least a part of the hopeful vision of some of our first students — and certainly the vision John Diman had for the Hilltop in the early days of its development.

By May of 1901, St. George’s 34 students, who then lived at the school’s second home, Swann Villa, near the Cliff Walk in Newport, could look across Easton’s Beach and see Old School being built.

When the school opened that fall on the Hilltop, with a student body of 40, there was much optimism and hope that it would continue to expand on what was (and still is) some of the most premier real estate in New England.

Diman had commissioned his cousin, the early 20th century’s wellknown Providence architect, Prescott O. Clarke, to design Old School in the style of a Georgian manor house, and care was taken to place this first architectural jewel of the Hilltop in a fitting location on the property. With the future already in mind, the Rev.

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<< Landscape architect Tom Lee, of TL Studios, created these renderings showing (left) a reimagined landscape surrounding the Memorial Gate at the foot of the Main Drive; and (right) the planting scheme for the updated allée.

PLANT YOUR LEGACY

As part of our Plant Your Legacy campaign, donors purchased nearly 60 trees that will be planted this fall along the Main Drive or around the Front Circle for $5,000 each — enduring, visible gifts that will help keep our campus beautiful and sustainable for generations to come. A plaque in the main hall of Old School will honor their generosity.

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the school, and these spent rather a quiet day. Mrs. Swan invited them for Thanksgiving dinner, which they enjoyed very much.”

As the restoration of the Main Drive landscape got underway this summer, new trees were sourced from Northeast nurseries. The best time for planting the new trees will be this fall, according to Mr. Lee, who estimates they will arrive and be planted in late September or early October.

“To work on this beautiful landscape is incredible,” Mr. Lee said. “The allée — how it follows the land forms, the ridge, right on the spine of it that leads to Old School — and then to see from the east-west direction the ocean beyond all these trees framing the view ... To bring that back to its best state will be like art, like a gallery display of the landscape.

And that’s very exciting.” 

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“HERO DONORS” have been critical to St. George’s growth and prosperity over the last 125 years — and so it was that Diman and his young school had generous supporters from the start. In fact, it was the Newport socialite Jane Parsons Swan who donated the trees along the Main Drive — news first announced in a 1901 edition of The Dragon: “Mrs. Swan is going to present the school with trees to be planted along the avenue leading to the new school,” one of the boys wrote. “These will add greatly to the attractiveness of the grounds and approach.”

A generous benefactor of local institutions like Newport Hospital, Mrs. Swan was a parishioner at Berkeley Memorial Chapel, where Diman had been pastor.

“She must’ve been a nice lady,” said Archivist Val Simpson, who unearthed another news brief in The Dragon about Thanksgiving Break 1901: “Most of the boys left for home Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving, returning on Friday morning. Only eight remained in

“HERO DONORS” have been critical to St. George’s growth and prosperity over the last 125 years — and so it was that [founder John] Diman and his young school had generous supporters from the start.

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Diman would, the next year, invite Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., son of the man now regarded as “the father of landscape architecture” and who had taken over his father’s practice, to propose a plan for placement of new buildings and plantings. Their correspondence is housed in the Frederick Law Olmsted Papers collection in the Library of Congress.

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BUILDING ON OUR STRENGTHS, FORGING AN INSPIRED PATH TO THE FUTURE

An interview with new Chair of the Board of Trustees Dana Schmaltz ’85 What is your assessment of the school as you take over as board chair? St. George’s is in a great position right now. With Alixe [Callen] entering her fifth year as Head of School, she and her team have achieved fantastic results that have made the school stronger than it has ever been. Alixe and I share a strong belief in data, and the numbers speak for themselves on the strength

of our school. Applications are up more than 50% over the last five years, with more than 1,000 applications for roughly 100 spots for the incoming class. Despite all of the challenges posed by the pandemic, Alixe and her team kept the school open, and our students demonstrated incredible resilience and determination despite the limitations that were put in place to keep the community healthy and safe. We’ve had another great year for college placement in one of the most competitive environments ever.

Discipline incidents have continued to decrease as students continue to build a true sense of community and responsibility on the Hilltop.

Equally as important, Alixe and her team, as well as the Board of Trustees, continued to increase the commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Building on our progress and creating a welcoming and inclusive educational environment with a diverse student body that reflects our society as a whole will be one of my top priorities as chair. I want students from every background to want to come to St. George’s because they see it as a place where they can thrive in and outside of the classroom.

Likewise, our financial position has never been stronger. Our endowment is over $200 million, and our annual giving sets a new record each year. We completed the renovation of our historic Memorial Schoolhouse, which I hope everyone will get the chance to see at our 125th anniversary celebration in May. We are investing this financial strength in the areas that build on the continued success of St. George’s: (a) in our faculty and administration as we continue to increase compensation to attract the best teachers and administrators; (b) in our financial aid, which has increased almost 25% over the last five years as we seek to bring the best students to SG; and (c) in our capital budget, which has almost doubled over the last five years as we seek to catch up on years of deferred maintenance to restore the fantastic “bones” of our

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campus. Rest assured our goal is not to win the prep-school-building arms race but to literally dig out of the hole that was created over the previous decades, during which, despite best efforts, we were only investing 20% of our annual depreciation back into our facilities, which is simply not sustainable.

Trustees, working with Alixe, have finalized our Strategic Plan, which charts a path for St. George’s over the next three to five years and envisions where the school will be in 25 years. The plan focuses on a number of evolutionary and innovative initiatives to prepare the school for the future. Leslie Heaney, our previous board chair, led the development of this plan that invests more in our students, faculty, and facilities than St. George’s has ever done before. I cannot thank Leslie enough for her leadership in this and many other efforts. Leslie’s extraordinary commitment to St. George’s has been instrumental in putting the school in its most competitive position in history.

As board chair, she inherited a school in crisis over past sexual misconduct, acknowledging the real pain and anguish of survivors. Leslie has made sure we learn from that painful past while also taking the steps needed to ensure an even brighter future. I look forward to building off the strong foundation she put in place.

What are some of your top priorities as chair? The Strategic Plan highlights many of the major initiatives of the Board of Trustees. One of these is the increased sustainability of St. George’s to reduce our carbon footprint dramatically. We are exploring an interesting solar structure, whereby the school would add solar panels to the roofs of many of our buildings, reducing our climate impact while lowering our energy costs. Similarly, we can significantly reduce our energy footprint by restoring and enhancing many of our aging buildings, beginning over the next five to 10 years with our dormitories. Our location on Aquidneck Island results in high

natural gas costs, and the days of seeing dorm room windows open in the middle of February need to be put behind us. This will require some meaningful investments, but I’m confident the environmental and financial returns on these investments will be worth the cost.

Another area I look forward to discussing with our entire community is our long-term plan to enhance our campus facilities so that they are suitable for today’s educational mission. Over the last 10 years, we have invested more than $50 million in our core academic facilities through major projects on the Hill Library, the construction of worldclass STEM facilities in our Academic Center, and the complete renovation of our 100-year-old Memorial Schoolhouse. These key investments have yielded significant academic benefits for our students and faculty as we look to constantly improve on our core mission of providing a superior educational product.

The next step in this process is to hone in on the elements of our campus that are crucial to Alixe’s focus on strengthening our sense of community. This effort will entail improving our dorms — not only for efficiency but also for livability — to match the more collaborative learning processes that take place outside the classroom at today’s schools. The architectural center of SG — Arden/ Diman/Eccles, Old School, and King Hall — is truly phenomenal, but the buildings are dated, which is sometimes hard to see, as people’s eyes are constantly drawn to our beautiful view of the Atlantic. We have devised a 15-year restoration plan to preserve our history while modernizing those facilities to make them more sustainable. On top of that, we’ll improve our faculty housing as well as our wellness facilities, starting with the addition of a new fitness center. We are a community of more than 500 people (385 students and more than 130 faculty and administrators), and the physical, psychological, and spiritual health of our community is vital to making St. George’s a thriving school.

[THE] GOAL OF HELPING KIDS ON THEIR OWN PATH TO WISDOM DRIVES ME TO BE INVOLVED AT ST. GEORGE’S ALMOST 40 YEARS AFTER I FIRST DROVE UP TO THE RED DOORS OF OLD SCHOOL. As I mentioned earlier, I am also excited to continue to push harder on our ongoing DEI initiatives.

Our community has been deeply impacted by the issues around race and social justice that our country is experiencing. Although substantial progress has been made with our DEI Strategic Plan, the trustees are excited to work with the administration to increase our commitment in this area. We believe that our students benefit by living in a community that reflects the diversity of the world they will need to lead.

How does your successful professional career inform your work on the board?

In my career as an investor and an entrepreneur, I have worked with thousands of people across many companies that have many consumer brands. In building many of these brands, I have enjoyed working with diverse teams that have brought different individual perspectives from their personal experiences to the group. That diversity most often has led to better ideas and growth.

At my current firm, Yellow Wood Partners, we have more female investment professionals than male professionals. That may not seem

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For those just learning about today’s St. George’s, I believe the most important thing to understand can be summed up in two simple sayings we have on the board: “Once a Dragon, Always a Dragon” and “Dragons Forever.” No matter where you are, or what your experience was at St. George’s, I would encourage you to come back to the Hilltop to see it thriving today. You will be inspired to see the students on campus and the incredible educational opportunities the school offers. We have a lot of work to do, but as I mentioned, SG

What was your favorite meal in King Hall? To be truthful, no particular meal stands out from my time as a student. We definitely didn’t have the salad and sandwich bars that are there now, as we pretty much always had to go through the line to pick up whatever was being served. The one thing I do remember is Ms. Pierce’s high-pitched voice saying, “Eat your vegetables!” It was sometimes a tough sell with what was in the trays.

What is your favorite place on campus?

Everyone loves the view over Second Beach and Sachuest Point from the stone walls in our front fields. It is truly spectacular. That spot is special for me as well, but I also love the view looking back up to campus at sunset.

The beautiful oranges, reds, and yellows of the sky make a fantastic backdrop to our chapel, which is truly the heart and soul of our school.

That view is unrivaled and always restores my belief in the permanence, purpose, and ever-reaching goals of St. George’s. 

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My family is a strong believer in education, and we direct most of our philanthropic efforts and means to supporting various educational institutions. It is through learning that people grow, as we all search for some kind of wisdom in our lives. Our school motto is Sapientia Utriusque Vitae Lumen. I never studied Latin, but my son, Bower ’20, who took four years of Latin at SG, tells me it translates roughly as “Wisdom, the light of every life.” This is a perfect way to describe our goals for St. George’s. I love the concept of wisdom, as it can mean many things to different people, incorporating knowledge, experience, and good judgment all into one word. A good secondary education can provide students with a stepping-stone on the long path to wisdom. St. George’s provided that to me as a student, as it has to thousands of other alumni. I feel very fortunate to have had great

What do you tell alumni who haven’t recently been engaged with the school?

has never been in a better place.

I look forward to sharing that with you in whatever way possible during my time as board chair. I look forward to leaving SG in an even better place when I am done, and I hope everyone in our community will join me in this effort.

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What does St. George’s mean to you?

teachers during my time at SG who inspired and challenged me. That goal of helping kids on their own path to wisdom drives me to be involved at St. George’s almost 40 years after I first drove up to the red doors of Old School. I don’t know what drives other members of our community to keep St. George’s in their hearts and minds, but despite the challenges and triumphs the school has had over the last 125 years, I am hopeful that all of you will join me and my fellow trustees in doing everything we can to support Alixe and what she and her team are building. We have a great opportunity to take St. George’s to the next level and provide more bright, talented kids with the chance to benefit from this special place.

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like a huge accomplishment, but in an industry where less than 15% of professionals are female, we are an outlier. When we started the firm 10 years ago, we had the explicit goal to hire a diverse group of people. This goal has served us well as we have built some fantastic brands that cater to a growing multicultural, global environment.

In some ways, St. George’s School is a brand and, if you agree, it clearly is the best brand with which I have ever been associated. All of our key stakeholders — students, families, alumni, faculty, administrators, and the Newport community — may view the brand through different lenses, but I believe we all feel strongly that SG stands for something greater than each individual’s involvement with the school. St. George’s purpose as a boarding and day school is to provide a superior education for students from all over the world living in a small, diverse community — to prepare them for college and, eventually, the world beyond. The school has done this for over 125 years, and despite ups and downs, the brand continues to get stronger.

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Built in 1907, Arden was the first building on campus to be solely used as a dormitory.

Its benefactors played a key role in the growth of the school.

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The Annals of Arden Hall

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A Stutz Motor Car. All of these disparate images of the early 20th century are a part of the colorful and course-changing history of one of St. George’s oldest buildings: Arden Hall dormitory.

The construction of Arden in 1907 set the stage for a steady expansion of the school. It also helped our founder, the Rev. John B. Diman, to realize his dream: that St. George’s would take its place among the premier boarding schools in New England at the turn of the 20th century.

Now, as we embark on a multiyear restoration and remodeling of our student and faculty residential spaces, Arden Hall is once again at the center of a dynamic and ambitious plan to strengthen and enrich the school. Its renovation will be among the first of several residential building and historic preservation projects in the years to come.

Site work, in fact, has already begun on two new residential buildings west of the Lower Drive, at the intersection of Wolcott Avenue and Purgatory Road.

Eventually the buildings will be used as faculty residences, but throughout the next few years, students will live in the new spaces while existing dormitories are renovated and expanded. First in line: the Arden/Diman/Eccles complex bordering the quad.

<< Before the construction of Diman Hall in 1927, tennis courts were in front of Arden Hall.

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The 1918 flu pandemic.

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The sister-in-law of U.S. Army General George S. Patton.

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The New England textile industry.

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// FA L L 2 0 2 1 Mr. William Wood and his wife, Ellen, at a bowling green in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1921. The Woods’ generosity endures to this day.

ST. GEORGE’S was already bursting at the seams just five years after its move to the Hilltop in 1901. The school, which had started in 1896 with just 11 students — six boarding and five day — now had 88.

“Diman was clearly not happy to settle with the current numbers and remained steadfastly eager to keep momentum going on a campus design plan that would require land acquisition and construction of the professionally designed and situated facilities a premier school would demand,” says Archivist Val Simpson.

In his end-of-summer report in August 1906, the Rev. Diman wrote that “the number of boys that the school will receive during the coming year will tax its accommodations to the utmost capacity.”

Among those listed in the 1906-1907 St. George’s School Catalogue was a new boy, William M. Wood Jr., the oldest son of Mr. and Mrs. William Madison Wood, of Andover, Massachusetts. Right away, the Woods were quite forthright about their intention to support Rev. Diman’s vision for the school. Their support, in fact, set St. George’s on a course for exponential growth over those early years.

WILLIAM M. WOOD SR. was born in Edgartown, Massachusetts, on April 5, 1858, to parents who had emigrated to the United States from the Portuguese Azores. His father, whose name had been Jacinto, changed his name to Wood and found work as a steward on a steamer that shuttled between Martha’s Vineyard and New Bedford, Massachusetts.

His mother, also an Azorean immigrant, had changed her name to Madison.

By all accounts, William M. Wood Sr. grew up in poverty.

After his birth, the family moved across Vineyard Sound to New Bedford, where Wood attended public grammar school and worked summers as a cash boy in a local store.

At age 12, when his father died, he quit school and went to work in the counting room of Wamsutta Mills, a cotton manufacturer. After working stints in a broker’s office in Philadelphia, in a banking firm, and as an assistant to the treasurer of a mill in Fall River, Wood was asked to take charge of the cotton department for a mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

At nearly 30 years old when he took the helm, Wood, with his faith in large-scale, mechanized production of textiles, continued to fuel expansion of the mills — from 2,500 to 5,000 employees between 1887 and 1897.

By 1899, with his partner (and now father-in-law) Frederick Ayer, Mr. Wood had merged three small groups of woolen and worsted mills into the American Woolen Company. Following Mr. Ayer’s retirement in 1905, Wood continued to buy mills until American Woolen, at its peak in 1919, owned 56 mills and employed 40,000 people. Meanwhile, Wood himself was amassing a great personal fortune. During his leadership of the mills, he owned several yachts and houses, including a family estate in Andover, Massachusetts; a mansion at 21 Fairfield Street in Boston; an estate in Prides Crossing (Beverly, Massachusetts), on the North Shore; a summer estate on Cuttyhunk Island, which he named Avalon for the mythical island of Arthurian legend; and later in his life, The Towers, in Palm Beach, Florida.

When Mr. Wood approached Mr. Diman with the intention to make a large donation to the school upon the enrollment of his oldest son, he had certainly evolved from the poor boy of his youth. By the time Wood assumed the presidency of American Woolen, in 1905, he had begun construction of the world’s largest mill, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, which he would name the Wood Mill.

Later, demand for uniforms and blankets during World War I would continue to fortify his business.

Mr. Diman wrote to Mr. Wood on Nov. 30, 1906, explaining the current needs of the school and how such a sizable gift — $75,000 — might be directed: “Our plans for the immediate future would fall under two heads between which we have not definitely chosen,” he wrote.

“One is a make-shift plan. It is to raise about $25,000 and to add an extension to the present building that would accommodate 15 or 20 more boys, which would put us in good condition for the following year.

“The other plan, which we hardly felt able to push at present, is to put up a wholly new, handsome brick building to serve as a school home for 50 boys, and which architecturally, and in every way, would be a permanent and dignified addition to the school.”

The Woods were inclined to work with the school on the latter; however, their gift did not come without conditions. When Mr. Wood discovered St. George’s had been incorporated as a private shareholder business in 1900, he nearly threatened to rescind his offer. In a letter dated Dec. 3, 1906, Mr. Wood told Mr. Diman that he was appalled at the “commercial aspect of your most delightful school.”

It was, in fact, Mr. William M. Wood, multimillionaire businessman, who would drive a dramatic change in St. George’s charter, approved by the Rhode Island General Assembly, that would thereupon make the school a nonprofit educational institution. Wood also placed two other conditions on his gift: that the building be forever debt-free and that the land upon which it was built would “remain free of any liens or encumbrances.” The building would be named Arden, after the Woods’ family estate in Andover. While there appears to be no record of why the Woods chose that name, it may have perhaps been the choice of Mrs. Wood, the former Ellen Ayer. Ellen

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AT FIRST, Arden housed about 40 boys, though the building was not completed in time for the anticipated first day of school in 1907. In a letter dated Sept. 10, 1907, Diman requested that the students delay their arrival at school for two weeks because of ongoing construction.

They should arrive on Oct. 8, not Sept. 24, he said.

Indeed, the dormitory welcomed its first occupants, among them William Wood Jr., in October.

At the time the interior spaces for students were divided by curtains rather than walls, and the November 1907 Red & White announced its completion, noting the dining hall “will not be ready for use until after Christmas.”

Perhaps because of its place in St. George’s history, or perhaps because of the camaraderie built within its walls, Arden Hall has always had a nostalgic place in the hearts of many who’ve lived there — both students and faculty families.

One bit of interesting lore, Mrs. Simpson notes, is that the only person ever born on the SG campus was born in one of the teacher’s apartment bedrooms

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attended Radcliffe and was known to have loved literature and the arts. “Arden” comes from the Hebrew word for the garden of Eden, meaning “a place of solitude and great beauty.” Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It” features a mythical Forest of Arden, perhaps also an homage to his mother, whose name was Mary Arden.

With the Woods assured that their conditions would be met, on Tuesday, March 19, 1907, ground was broken for Arden. The construction of the brick building with white trim and trademark front portico was hailed with enthusiasm by the students.

The March 22, 1907, Red & White reports, “Work has begun on a new dormitory building,” adding, “A game of baseball was played in the afternoon on the beach among some of the enthusiasts.”

The architectural firm that designed Arden was Clarke & Howe of Providence. Prescott Clarke was Mr. Diman’s cousin, and over the years, working with various partners in his firm, he would design several of our buildings.

Blueprints in the St. George’s Archives show that the drawings for Arden were done by Wallis Howe and included the expected expansion of the building into the Arden/Diman/Eccles complex we know now. Diman and its clock tower, however, would not be erected for another 20 years, in 1927, upon a gift from Vincent Astor ’10. Just two years after Mr. Astor graduated from SG, while he was still in college, he inherited the fortune of his father, John Jacob Astor, when John Jacob died on the Titanic, in 1912. “Vincent then really ‘picked up the ball’ for SG,” Mrs. Simpson says, “funding, at least partially, numerous expansion projects and serving on the Board of Trustees from 1920–1944 and 1947–1952.”

Before the construction of Diman, three tennis courts fronted Arden on the land we now know as the quad.

Mr. Wood appears to have been somewhat critical of some of the aesthetics of Arden Hall, but Mr. Diman, in a letter to Mrs. Wood in September 1907, seems eager to quell his concerns. “With regard to the building, I may say that when it is entirely finished and occupied, I am assured that its great merits from every point of view will be apparent,” he writes. “At present it seems to please us more than it does Mr. Wood, but I hope that Mr. Wood will be a convert in time.”

Soon after the ground was broken for Arden, construction also began, in the summer of 1907, on a new dining hall, King Hall, which was built with a gift from Mr. George Gordon King, a trustee, and his sister, Mrs. Edith Edgar McCagg, in memory of their parents, Edward and Mary King.

The construction of Arden and King Hall, however, did not come without some apprehension from alumni.

On April 1, 1907, Mr. Diman wrote to alumnus Frank Howland (SG Class of 1900) in Cuba expressing thanks for Mr. Howland’s congratulations on the gifts of Arden and King Hall. He also seems to be trying to allay some concern that alumni would no longer feel welcome at the larger school.

“The school seems to be entering upon a new era,” Mr. Diman admits, “and whether in its larger growth it will gain rather than lose in its personal relationship to boys remains to be seen. We shall probably miss something that we had in our very earliest days when you and a dozen or 20 other boys made the whole school, which with over 100 boys, it will be hard to bring again. … I cannot help fearing that many of our [alumni] will not feel entirely at home in these very changed surroundings.

The only thing to be done is to keep the connection with [them] as close as we can, and I hope that they will all make a point of visiting us whenever they can do so.”

Robin Rogers ’44 and Tom Buell on the portico of Arden Hall in the early 1930s.

Robin’s mother was born in Arden.

Both Robin and Tom became faculty members at St. George’s.

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in Arden. Ilonka Roberts, daughter of Arthur S. Roberts, who served on the faculty from 1903–1946, was born in Arden in 1908. Interestingly, her son, William S. R. “Robin” Rogers ’44, would go on to teach history at St. George’s from 1956–1961 and 1974–1993.

During many years, boys of various ages have lived together in Arden. The school year 2020-2021, however, will go down in history as the year all the sixth-form boys lived in the dorm, due to COVID-19 pandemic protocols.

MR. AND MRS. William Wood had four children: Rosalind Wood, William Madison Wood Jr., Cornelius Ayer Wood, and Irene Wood. Cornelius also attended St. George’s and was a member of the Class of 1913.

The family was blessed with great fortune but also suffered great tragedy; the history of the family business was similarly rocky.

In 1912, the Lawrence textile mills were the subject of a major labor strike. In August of 1912, William Wood Sr. was indicted for allegedly engaging in a conspiracy to hire men to plant dynamite so that the strikers would be blamed.

He was found not guilty in June 1913.

Five years later, the Woods’ youngest daughter, Irene Wood, died in the Spanish flu pandemic, on Oct. 2, 1918. She was just 24 and had been married in January 1918 to Capt. Bernard L. Sutcliffe, of the British army’s Northumberland Fusiliers, who was overseas on duty when she passed.

The Woods’ oldest daughter, Rosalind, would later become the Countess F. M. Guardabassi when she married Count Francesco Guardabassi, of Perugia, Italy, an Italian artist and opera singer.

She died in 1971.  Arden Hall, now attached to Diman Hall, today.

Postlude William M. Wood Jr., Class of 1911 Following St. George’s, William M. Wood Jr. became a member of Harvard’s class of 1915, where he was said to have been an excellent student and a frequently published writer on the subject of economics. ¶ After working his way up from the lowest level of American Woolen to gain experience, William became his father’s right-hand man at the company, emphasizing the need for good employer-employee relations and good working conditions.

Following the highly contentious mill workers’ strike in Lawrence, Wood Sr. is said to have welcomed his son’s “visionary ideas,” which included on-site day care at the mills, according to the Andover Townsman newspaper. ¶ Wood Jr.’s promising career, however, was dramatically cut short. He was just 30 years old when he died in a car accident in Reading, Massachusetts, in August 1922. Reports say Wood was driving his Rolls-Royce sedan at a high rate of speed side by side with a Stutz Motor Car driven by a stranger when he careened into an oncoming vehicle and struck a telephone pole. He and his friend in the front seat, David Alexander Gardner, were killed instantly. William M. Wood Sr. is said to have arrived at the scene accompanied by an ambulance.

Cornelius A. Wood, Class of 1913 Cornelius A. Wood, who had served as vice president of American Woolen, later became a real estate and banking executive. During both WWI and WWII, he served as a Naval officer. ¶ Cornelius was a lifelong sailing enthusiast and avid yacht racer. He donated two ocean-going racers to St. George’s: the 46-foot sloop Sachuest, in 1953, and the 40-foot yawl, Hoot Mon, in 1956. Sports Illustrated magazine lauded Wood for the gifts in an article on March 5, 1956. ¶ Cornelius Wood died in May 1972 of a heart attack at the family estate, Arden, in Andover, Massachusetts. He was 78.

Ellen Ayer Wood Mrs. Wood died on July 6, 1951, at the age of 91 at her home in Prides Crossing (Beverly, Massachusetts). She was 91. The New York Times noted that among those in her family who were alive at the time of her death were three sisters: Mrs. George S. Patton of Hamilton, Massachusetts, widow of General Patton; Mrs. Keith Merrill of Prides Crossing; and Mrs. Conrad P. Hathaway of South Lincoln, Massachusetts.

William Madison Wood Sr. There are differing accounts of the end of William M. Wood Sr.’s career at American Woolen, in 1925: Some say he resigned due to ill health (he had suffered a stroke in 1924); others that he was forced out after the company lost $6 million in 1924. ¶ All reports of his death, however, are consistent: On the morning of Feb. 2, 1926, Mr. Wood, then 67 and still mourning the deaths of two of his children, asked his chauffeur to drive him out to a quiet stretch of highway in Flagler Beach, Florida, close to the Hotel Ormond, where the Woods stayed when visiting Florida following the sale of The Towers in Palm Beach, in 1925. Directing the driver and accompanying valet to remain in the car, he walked around a curve in the road, pulled out a .38 revolver, and took his own life.

Many thanks to Archivist Val Simpson for her immeasurable assistance in the preparation of this article. —S.M.

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Alumni News

IN THIS SECTION 26 Alumni News 32 Class Notes 33 Memorial List 81 From the Archives

U.S. Naval Academy sailors Gray Benson ’18 and Colin MacGillivray ’19 close out Navy’s win at 2021 Team Racing Nationals in Annapolis, Maryland, in June.

PHOTO BY DEADRISE MARINE PHOTOGRAPHY

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ALUMNI NEWS

A Tradition of Giving Constructive service to the world was this alum’s mission even before the Hilltop.

When Moana Casanova ’04 was in fifth grade, she wanted to test if Santa Claus was real. At age 10, she wrote her holiday wish list, asking Santa to give all the less-fortunate kids in her neighborhood a really great Christmas.

“I thought I would ask for something that only Santa Claus could deliver,” Casanova said about her list. “I had no idea what I meant by that, but I knew that Santa Claus was supposed to be the purveyor of Christmas miracles.”

A few weeks later, she found a box in her fireplace and a letter from Santa Claus with her name on it. The letter said that Santa really appreciated Casanova thinking of others, and it came with gifts of art supplies and books to distribute at a local day care.

As a child, it’s hard to understand the injustices and systemic problems that contribute to divisions and inequities, noted Casanova.

“You sort of understand it on a more basic level as a kid,” Casanova said. “And that was something I just wanted to try and do something about — and I thought that markers and crayons would solve that.”

When she arrived at St. George’s, Casanova approached Carol Hamblet, coordinator of student health services and wife of the late Headmaster Chuck Hamblet, about doing something similar on campus around the holidays.

Hamblet suggested Casanova sell poinsettias and, by Christmas, everyone on the Hilltop had one in their room, with all the proceeds benefiting a shelter for women and their children in Newport.

“We did different versions of that over the four years that I was at St. George’s, which was just such an incredible thing,” Casanova

said. “The holidays at St. George’s, they’re like the best time of year … and just having my own little project be part of the Christmas experience was something that was superspecial to me and amplified what the holidays are really all about.”

Casanova kept volunteering with various groups while she attended Occidental College. When working at HBO in New York in 2010, she went to the head of her department with the idea of sponsoring Christmas for local families in need. Casanova coordinated with employees, who all pitched in, and created a fund to supply items like clothes, toys, and art supplies for local organizations.

In 2012, Casanova joined the production department for HBO in California and moved to Los Angeles, where she started as an assistant and is now responsible for physical production of HBO’s original series as director of production.

“It’s a lot of nuts and bolts. We’re managing budgets and we’re managing schedules,” Casanova said.

“Creating a production plan and … when things change, we problem-solve our way through it.”

Casanova carried the tradition of giving with her to her new department in Los Angeles, where coworkers collected donations to buy gifts for local families and gathered together to wrap them.

“It’s always just been a really wonderful way to bond with friends and colleagues and classmates over the years,” said Casanova, “and to just remember that Christmas is about giving back and sort of sharing those little miracles of getting something — a good fortune — that you may not have known was coming your way.”

In 2015, they started working with a homeless service organization called PATH (People Assisting The Homeless) at its local shelter and day care called Gramercy.

The shelter focuses on women who have come off the street with children, according to Casanova, and includes studio apartments located above the day care, so children can attend the day care while their mothers are out working or at school.

In an effort to encourage sponsorship beyond the holidays, PATH asked Casanova if HBO would be interested in sponsoring a single mother with a chance at permanent housing after Christmas.

Since the HBO set furniture and props usually get repurposed on another show or get donated or sold, there was a unique opportunity, according to Casanova, and they decided to furnish the woman’s new apartment when she moved in.

“Because we’re in production, when we create these shows, we’re procuring everything that you see on-screen,” said Casanova.

“If you have a set that’s a house, that set is going to have furniture and it’s going to have couches and tables and all the various supplies in the house.”

With a lot of stuff sitting in storage, Casanova and her colleagues got a truck, hired a driver, and took the day off to bring everything over and set up the apartment.

Casanova tried to get the new apartment arranged so that it would feel like home for the mother and her child, going as far as buying laundry detergent and even providing quarters for the laundromat.

“I sort of see things logistically, so when you see that there’s a need

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Moana Casanova at the 2019 Young Professionals Sleep Out fundraiser for Covenant House, a youth homeless shelter in Hollywood, CA.

in the community, a lot of times there’s a way to meet the need and solve whatever the problem is,” Casanova said. “It’s really amazing what you can do as a community.

None of these things I’ve ever done have been on my own.

It’s all been with friends and colleagues and classmates and people like Mrs. Hamblet … it just takes a little bit of coordination, effort, and energy, but you can really make a difference for someone.”

“

I sort of see things logistically, so when you see that there’s a need in the community, a lot of times there’s a way to meet the need and solve whatever the problem is.”

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ALUMNI NEWS

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Taking His Shot Dragon hoops standout shines on a bigger stage

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Count on Tyler Kolek ’20 to be one of the first players to show up at practice.

Kolek, this year’s Rookie of the Year in the Atlantic 10 college basketball conference, says his work ethic is one of the things that has gotten him this far, and he has no intention of letting up now.

During his freshman year at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, this past season, Kolek played in 22 games for the Patriots and started in 18. He was the only freshman in the nation to average at least 10 points and two assists per game — and shoot 35% from the 3-point range.

In April, when George Mason parted ways with coach Dave Paulsen and Kolek entered the transfer portal, Kolek announced on his Twitter feed that he had committed to Marquette to play for new head coach Shaka Smart this winter.

If you watched Kolek’s final game for St. George’s — the NEPSAC Class B semifinal on March 7, 2020 — the indicators that his hard work was paying off were all there: The Dragons went into double overtime against Canterbury after Kolek nailed one of several majestic three-pointers right at the buzzer. Despite ending in a disappointing loss, the game capped the winningest season in modern St. George’s boys’ basketball history with a record of 23-4.

Kolek was named the 2020 NEPSAC Class B Player of the Year.

He was also a two-time ISL Player of the Year and the 2019 Rhode Island Gatorade Player of the Year.

When Kolek arrived at St. George’s in 2018 as a fifth-former, the Dragons had won just a few games the previous season. Key to Kolek’s decision to come to SG was Coach Dwayne Pina.

“When you’re choosing a prep school or a college you just want to be around good people who you trust

and who believe in you.” Pina, he said, had a vision for the program — and for him — that felt right.

Kolek said Pina, who before St. George’s had played at Boston College and was a coach at Bryant and Brown Universities, helped him get where he is today. “Not only basketball-wise but becoming a man,” Kolek said, “because he’s a great mentor to all the kids. Not only the basketball players but anybody in the community. He really embraces them and tries to guide them on the right path.”

Also an associate director of admission and the director of multicultural recruitment, Pina was a dorm parent in Eccles, where Kolek lived in 201920. Choosing to attend boarding school, Kolek said, helped him mature and better prepare for college. “Going to boarding school changes your perspective,” he said. “When you go to public school your whole life, you’re around the same people every day.

You’re around your family every day.

And going to a boarding school really changes all that.”

Kolek, a Cumberland, Rhode Island, native, grew up playing basketball in a Catholic Youth League. His father, Kevin, who was a standout basketball player at UMass Dartmouth, was his coach, and his older brother, Brandon (who now plays for Franklin Pierce University) was also on the team.

“Falling in love with the game — that was really with my dad. I mean, every single night we would be at the YMCA or the Boys and Girls Club just playing as much as possible and just having fun,” Kolek said.

When Paulsen was let go last spring, Kolek said he came back to Rhode Island and took some time to reflect on his rookie season. Because of the pandemic, Kolek still has four years of eligibility to play college ball.

“You really do have to adapt and change to whatever the circumstances

are,” he said. “I wouldn’t have left George Mason last year if my coach hadn’t gotten fired.”

When Kolek entered the transfer portal in April, offers started pouring in. “A lot of schools reached out, and I had to really sift through great options. But the thing that was most important to me was the relationship that I had with the people that I was committing to.

“Coach Smart did a great job with the relationship he built with me. I felt like he really wanted me to help him and his journey — and to help me. Ultimately, that’s why I decided to choose Marquette.”

That, and Marquette plays in the Big East Conference, which clearly puts Kolek on a bigger stage. In May, CBS Sports ranked the Big East No. 6 among the conferences they consider the sport’s major seven leagues in recent years. The Atlantic 10 didn’t make the list.

When we caught up with Kolek earlier this summer, he was in full training mode with the Golden Eagles and settling into his new home in Milwaukee.

The team was already on a strict, all-day schedule.

“Practice is at 7 a.m., but I like to get there at 6:15 a.m. to get some extra practice in, to get some shots up,” he said.

Players were on the court until 11:30 a.m., took a break for summer classes and lunch, and were back in the gym lifting weights in the afternoon. Then there were a few more hours on the court. Kolek said he got back to his room around 5:30 or 6 p.m. every night.

When asked about his magical three-pointers, he said, “It’s a cliché, but practice makes perfect. I’ve probably taken more shots than anybody my age at the college level, probably worked harder than anybody else.”

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At 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, Kolek said, “I wasn’t gifted with the physical attributes — the height, the arm length — anything like that. I just worked really hard, perfected my craft, and found a niche for myself.”

While Kolek hopes to play professional basketball after college, he said right now he’s just enjoying the journey.

“I’m really just trying to see where this takes me — because so far it’s taken me to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Fairfax, Virginia, and Newport, Rhode Island.

“I’ve always said that I’ve worked so hard that I owe it to myself to test my talents at the highest level. I feel like that’s what this is. This is the highest level of college basketball, and I’m just riding along the path to see where it takes me next.”

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A DRAGON SEND-OFF

Colin Seeley ’16 earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Tufts University and commissioned aboard the USS Constitution on May 22, 2021. He will deploy on the SS Jason Dunham, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, out of Mayport Naval Station, Florida.

In June, classmates CJ Holcomb, Anna Molinari, Nathaniel Nugnes, Sky Silverstein, and Katie Simmons travelled to Portsmouth, N.H., to celebrate Colin’s birthday and bid him farewell as he commences training for his deployment in the U.S. Navy.

ALUMNI NEWS

Alumni Regatta SUNDAY, OCT. 10, 2021

For updates please visit stgeorges.edu/alumniregatta

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When Thomas Andrew Vyse ’49 died on Oct. 21, 2020, he left a most generous gift to St. George’s that will benefit students for generations to come.

With the introduction this year of the Thomas Vyse ’49 Scholarship at St. George’s, Mr. Vyse has continued his legacy of granting a stellar education to those who may not otherwise have been able to afford it.

Mr. Vyse often credited his education and experiences at St. George’s for enabling him to attend the university of his choice. He gave to the school, he said, because he always felt fortunate to have had the St. George’s experience.

Born in Shanghai, China, in March 1932, Mr. Vyse and his family spent much of his youth traveling overseas for his father’s job with the U.S. State Department. With World War II raging in 1941, the Vyse family was evacuated from China and moved to various locations in South America. Mr. Vyse attributed his enduring love of travel to these early years of getting to know new people and their cultures.

Following St. George’s, Mr. Vyse went on to graduate from Princeton University with the class of 1954. He served in the U.S. Army, stationed at the 7th Army Intelligence post in Oberursel, Germany, and later attended Berkeley and Hastings College of the Law, where he was a member of the law review. Mr. Vyse established his practice as a maritime attorney in Long Beach, California, and was a member of the State Bar Association for more than 50 years.

He had many interests, including sailing, and was a decadeslong member of the Long Beach Yacht Club.

Mr. Vyse said that he and his wife, Dolores, felt grateful to have had many wonderful adventures surrounded by good friends and family. As a way of passing on their good fortune, Mr. Vyse worked with many civic and charitable organizations to secure scholarship funds for students, including future Dragons.

St. George’s is most grateful for Mr. Vyse’s generosity.

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Tom Vyse ’49 made students the focus of his lifelong philanthropy

S AV E T H E D AT E

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Charitable gift of $500,000 to support financial aid

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The C L A S S N O T E S section has been removed from this digital copy of the Bulletin to respect our alums’ privacy.

Class notes are only available in the print edition.

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Why my ankle reminds me of cherry popsicles

T

he best popsicle I ever had was the cherry-flavored one I was given when I was 11 years old. I still remember getting that popsicle like it was yesterday. It was two days after my birthday, and I had just woken up after a five-hour surgery on my ankle and I was starving. I hadn’t eaten in over 24 hours and my stomach was growling. “Would you rather have apple juice and crackers or a popsicle?” my nurse asked me. I immediately told her popsicle; I love them. I didn’t care that it was still winter, or that I didn’t know what the flavor was. The only thing that seemed to matter to me while I was still affected by the anesthesia was that I would be getting a popsicle.

Two minutes later I was faced with a red popsicle; the first lick was divine.

The cherry flavor was like none I had ever encountered in all my years. So as I listened to Dr. Dormans talk about my procedure and my recovery process to my family, I enjoyed the first of many ice pops I would have during my two-day stay in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The first time I visited CHOP, I was diagnosed with hereditary multiple exostoses, a rare bone disease characterized by growths of multiple osteochondromas — benign cartilage-capped bone tumors that can grow anywhere in the body but especially around joints. At the time, Dr. Dormans was the only specialist close to me who had experience with the disorder. I have several of these bone tumors in my knees, wrist, and shoulder — and I used to have three in my ankle. That was the point of my surgery: to remove the bones in my ankle that were causing me pain, making my ankle crooked, and affecting my ability to move.

Now every day starts the same. After I get up, I have to stretch, crack, and pop my body, or I’ll later be overcome with extreme stiffness. Some days are harder than others. Simple tasks like writing make my hands cramp up. I have to know my limits (though I can get competitive sometimes). You wouldn’t know that with every step I take, I feel pain. I don’t conduct myself in that manner. I hate being looked upon with pity. I’m pretty athletic, even though I’m advised to not play any sports. Even when I was on crutches, I managed to teach myself the Cha-Cha Slide.

Regardless, I’ve learned to live with my circumstances. I live my life to the best of my ability, even if some days I can’t touch my toes or sit cross-legged. I don’t let HME keep me from living my life. I may not be able to play sports competitively, but it didn’t stop me from walking 10 miles around London. Two summers ago, I went to England for a journalism course. My bones might have ached, but I still won all my pick-up soccer and cricket games and hiked the Malvern Hills. I might not be able to pass in volleyball because of the tumor in my wrist, but I’ve still been asked multiple times to join the track team because I am fast.

The only thing stopping me is the fact that any injury I might get in combination with HME can permanently change my body, which sucks because I’m quite clumsy and tend to fall down the stairs.

Some days I find myself thinking about the popsicles had in CHOP while learning about my new reality.

I’ve never found a popsicle as good as those cherry ones.

But some of my other favorite frozen confectioneries are the black frozen yogurt from a random shop in Iceland and chocolate gelato from a street cart in Port Elizabeth.

I guess I have a tendency to favor things I might never try again. 

This was Oluwatofunmi’s college essay. She is attending Drexel University as a Liberty Scholar this fall.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

c.1949 Louis P. Bayard Jr., Class of 1917, finishes his serve during a match against St. Mark’s School.

The first tennis courts on the Hilltop were located in the area we know now as the quad, bordered by Auchincloss and Arden/ Diman/Eccles dormitories. At the time, only Arden had been built. Old School and Sixth-Form House are in the background.

This photo is from an album that belonged to William Ackerman Buell ’14, which he assembled in his student days and which was donated to the school by the Buell family.

(Interestingly, Louis’ younger sister, Martha Pintard Bayard, became the fourth ranked woman tennis player in the U.S. in 1927, according to Time magazine.)

ST. GEORGE’ S SCHOOL PO Box 1910 Newport, RI 02840–0190

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The sun sets on the horizon as Geronimo cuts through the waters off the Bahamas with a student crew on board this past summer.