T H E M A G A Z I N E O F E P I S C O PA L H I G H S C H O O L
CHELSEA JACK ’10 Pain and Plain Language
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE Personalized Learning Experiences
|
SPRING 2018
JOHN GABLE ’83
The Dark Ages of the Internet
Linda Chiang ’18 | Incongruity | Mixed Media Linda’s artwork was honored with a Gold Key by the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. See more award winners on pages 10-11.
Color Field studies by Elsabe Dixon’s painting I and Painting II students.
Contents ON THE COVER
IN OUR DIFFERENCES 7 COMMONALITY Community members self-identified in an art installation that was part of Episcopal’s MLK Jr. Day Symposium.
FEATURES
YOUR OWN ADVENTURE 22 CHOOSE Independent studies, externships, and other personalized study
opportunities allow students to chart their own paths as they plumb the depths of their individual passions.
DARK AGES OF THE INTERNET 30 THE Internet pioneer John Gable ’83 believes we are stumbling around in digital darkness. But virtual enlightenment is just around the corner.
AND PLAIN LANGUAGE 37 PAIN National Science Foundation grant recipient Chelsea Jack ’10 is creating a podcast that she hopes will both demystify and complicate our understanding of the opioid epidemic.
OR HIP-HOP? 88 SHAKESPEARE In a presentation at the 2017 National Race Amity Conference, two EHS English teachers recognized a stigmatized musical genre as legit lit.
DEPARTMENTS
2 FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL 4 EHS SOCIAL 5 EPISCOPAL UP CLOSE THE ARCHIVES 42 FROM Finals wasn’t always just a dance — it was once an entire weekend.
NOTES 44 CLASS 47 Humphrey Tyler ’65 remembers math teacher David Walker ’43. 57 Christopher Bickford ’85 publishes a photographic ode to Outer Banks surf culture. 67 Suzanne Pinckney Pflaum ’02 helps businesses engage consumers in sustainable solutions. 73 Larry Owens ’08 makes people laugh on stage and behind the scenes.
82 IN MEMORIAM Head of School: Charley Stillwell Director of Institutional Advancement: Christina Holt Director of Communications: Billy Faires Editor: Johanna Droubay Class Notes Editor: Elizabeth Henderson ’11 Contributing Editors: Lindsay Bingham, Emily Urquhart ’08 Photographers: Lindsay Bingham, Billy Faires, Elizabeth Henderson ’11, Cory Royster Archivist: Laura Vetter Designer: Linda Loughran
Printer: Worth Higgins & Associates, Inc. Published by Episcopal High School for alumni, parents, grandparents, and friends of Episcopal High School. ©2018 Episcopal High School Please send address corrections to: Advancement Office Episcopal High School 1200 North Quaker Lane Alexandria, VA 22302 Or by email to dwr@episcopalhighschool.org
EHS
Episcopal High School does not discriminate in its admissions, or in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship programs, or in access to or treatment in any other School-administered program on the basis of religion, race, color, sex, ancestry, sexual orientation, disability, national origin, or any other protected category in accordance with applicable Federal, State, and local laws.
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
1
From the Head of School As we watch the news each day, we realize that our students are growing up in a time when developing true community and bridging our differences has never been more challenging. Amidst increasing levels of stress and anxiety felt by teens and escalating partisanship and social divisiveness in this country and abroad, we at Episcopal have been focusing our strategic conversations this year on the need to develop within our students the intellectual and moral courage to become leaders ready to unite communities rather than to divide them. We seek to do
bringing coeducation to Episcopal in 1991, and the 50th anniversary of the arrival of our first African-American students in the fall of 1968. These moments represent our School’s strong appreciation for building relationships across our differences to enrich the learning experience and to prepare us to navigate as leaders in our shrinking global community. We want our students to engage in respectful debate, to wrestle with complexity, and to build confidence in their political and spiritual perspectives no matter what their party affiliation or faith tradition. We also want them to seek common ground amidst their differences and to appreciate those core values of honor, compassion, curiosity, and respect that unite us.
We at Episcopal have been focusing our strategic conversations this year on the need to develop within our students the intellectual and moral courage to become leaders ready to unite communities rather than to divide them. this within a powerful community context where our students thrive in more areas of school life on The Holy Hill than they would at any other school. My first two years at Episcopal have taught me much about this very special school, with its timeless core values of honor, respect, and rigor and its remarkable mix of talented, creative, and compassionate adults and students. It is the powerful relationships developed here between teachers and students, and among the students themselves — relationships shaped in close proximity to one of the world’s most important cities — that create the magic of an Episcopal education. Our caring adults inspire the students to be their best selves, to pursue new interests, to take on challenges they never would have thought possible, and to pick themselves up through setbacks and difficulties. Our students gain an appreciation of their own strengths, passions, and perspectives through the friendships they develop with an intriguing and diverse group of peers from across the country and around the world.
We do know that stress and anxiety can create barriers to community and to bridging differences. It has never been more important for our faculty to find that sweet spot between rigor and wellness. We want our students to make healthy decisions as they navigate the stress around them. The close relationships that our adults develop with our students give students confidence and help them feel appreciated and inspired. As we look to develop a new Strategic Plan for Episcopal in the months ahead, we have many exciting paths to explore. How can we maximize the academic impact of the unique learning moments that our creative use of Washington, D.C., as a classroom can offer? How can we leverage fully our identity as one of the country’s only 100 percent boarding communities in terms of when and where powerful learning can occur? What can we do to attract the next generation of outstanding educators to Episcopal and to ensure the financial strength of the School long into its future? With the help of our outstanding Board of Trustees and our remarkable faculty and staff, we are committed to finding the very best answers to these questions and to creating the environment in which all our students will thrive. The future of Episcopal is very bright, and we look forward to developing gifted students and caring leaders for years to come.
This spring we stand between two critically important moments from our School’s past: our 25th anniversary of Sincerely,
Charles M. Stillwell 2
EHS Social
1
2
3
4
5
6
9
7 8
1 Mr. Stillwell read ’Twas the Night Before Christmas to the freshman class during an exam study break. 2 Teachers offered a variety of alternative assessments during the fall exam period. 3 The chamber choir performed a concert at historic St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. 4 A live performance by At the Table with Dr. King kicked off the 2018 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Symposium. 5 Ms. Pugh’s English class visited an exhibit on women in illustrating and cartooning at the Library of Congress. 6 Advisory dinners are a great way to try new local restaurants together. 7 Senior Donuts are always a good idea! 8 Students danced the night away at the 2018 Winter Carnival. 9 Ten students committed to continuing their athletic careers in college at the winter athletic signing ceremony. A total of 14 students had committed at press time, with more to be officially recognized at the spring signing ceremony.
CONNECT WITH EHS Instagram @episcopalhs
4
Facebook Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va.
Twitter @EpiscopalHS @EHSMaroon
YouTube EpiscopalHSVa
Flickr Episcopal High School (Maroon and Black)
Episcopal Up Close n VISITING SPEAKERS
SEEN and HEARD on The Holy Hill Theologian-in-Residence
Scholar-in-Residence
THE REV. BECCA STEVENS is an Episcopal priest, an author, and the founder and president of Thistle Farms, a nonprofit company whose profits go directly to supporting and empowering female victims of sex trafficking and prostitution. Women whose lives are often ravaged by drug use, incarceration, and abuse find a home, training, and employment in the Thistle Farms program. Over 70 percent of all employees at Thistle Farms are women who came through its residential program, including almost two-thirds of the managerial staff and all of those tasked with training the newest residents.
DR. ELIZABETH RICHMOND-GARZA, a polymath professor at the University of Texas at Austin, spent a week on The Holy Hill as the 2017 Ben Geer Keys Scholar-inResidence in October. Dr. Richmond-Garza serves as the Director of Comparative Literature at UT but teaches courses in three different departments: the English Department, the Middle Eastern Studies Department, and the Department of Human Dimensions and Organizations. She is fluent in French, German, Italian, Latin, Greek, Russian, Hebrew, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, and English. She also has quite the passion for theater and vampires.
In her week-long residence in January, Rev. Stevens spoke three times in Chapel, participated in classes, and offered a special informational session and discussion over dinner in Bryan Library. “If you follow a career path that involves your ideals of justice, you won’t often find yourself crying over things that go wrong or over injustices done to you,” she says. “You will most often find yourself weepy with gratitude for those who will support you and help you.”
Her ability to move from class to class and between disciplines so adroitly was a rare treat. “She connected so quickly and genuinely across so many courses and areas of study with our faculty and students,” says Assistant Head for Academics Mary Fielder. “I’ve never witnessed anything quite like it.”
The Theologian-in-Residence Program was established in 1993 through the generosity of Dick Rutledge ’51. EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
5
EPISCOPAL UP CLOSE
2018 MLK JR. DAY SYMPOSIUM The second annual MLK Jr. Day Symposium was a day-long, campus-wide initiative to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — and an attempt to intellectualize a man who is usually painted in broad strokes. Through workshops, a multimedia musical performance, an all-school service project, a community-based art installation, and faculty discussions of inequality and white privilege, this immersive event fostered greater awareness of the role Dr. King’s teachings and leadership play in the lives of all people.
6
Alumni who returned to campus to speak and answer questions about their experiences as students of color on a predominantly white campus Rasheed Cole ’03 Olabisi Fraser ’11 Aliyah Griffith ’11 Wayne Johnson ’80 Azizi Jones ’02 Rev. Rodney Rice ’79
50 Years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Thank you for creating and facilitating an open and safe space in which girls of color could thrive, relate, and empower each other. It’s very rare that girls of color are able to be in the same space together at the same time. During our workshop, I learned that although impact is heavier than intent, relationships and a deeper understanding of people come from assessing the intent [regardless of ] the effects it reaps.” — Shaunjaney Bryan ’19 in a thank you note to Jennifer Hamady, who facilitated an affinity group workshop on “Finding Your Voice”
40,000 Meals packaged in less than two hours in an afternoon service project supporting Rise Against Hunger
1968
Year when African-American students began attending Episcopal
“Seeing your work and hearing your story today made me realize that ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.’ If Ms. Mulholland and ‘The Great America’ can get through the tough times of segregation, I, too, can get through all of my problems.” — Litchfield Ajavon ’19 in a thank you note to Mike O’Brien, author of We Shall Not Be Moved, who led a session on freedom rider Joan Trumpauer Mulholland 6
The 2nd Annual MLK Jr. Day Symposium was sponsored by Episcopal’s Office of Equity and Inclusion and organized by the office’s co-directors, Molly Pugh and Joel Sohn.
n ON THE COVER
COMMONALITY IN OUR DIFFERENCES PHOTO CREDIT: ISABELLE DAVIDSON ’18
“It’s a pitter-patter of color and black and white,” says Frank Phillips, who, with the help of fellow art teacher David Douglas, conceptualized the Identity Silhouette community art project installed in the Angie Newman Johnson Gallery during this year’s MLK Jr. Day Symposium. “It’s a little bit irregular, but it’s also uniform. We wanted it to be beautiful.”
Named for a miserly French politician, silhouette portraiture was an inexpensive alternative to painting or sculpture in 18th- and 19th-century America — a form of selfrepresentation affordable to many. In Colonial and pre-Civil War times, silhouette artists would use a candle to cast a shadow of their subject’s face in profile. For the art installation in Episcopal’s gallery, Advanced Photography students used digital cameras to photograph community members against brightly lit, colorful backgrounds, creating a collective portrait of the Episcopal community that references the art form’s inclusive history. FRANK: I don’t know if you’ve heard, but people in this country are a little bit divided right now. Even with everything that’s
Community members self-identified in an MLK Jr. Day art installation. tearing us apart, we are more alike than not. In the same way, even though some of the silhouettes in this installation might give clues about a person’s race or gender or background, they’re more alike than different. I like the idea of giving people a chance to self-identify with a label that they embrace, rather than one that’s assigned because of their appearance. DAVID: And it’s not just about the kids. It’s about the whole community — students, faculty, our kitchen staff, our grounds crew… Everybody has the same platform. FRANK: I like that it’s collaborative. Because the community is collaborative. It’s different than a selfie. None of us could do this on our own. We need each other. DAVID: You’ve got 100 students in here talking
about who they are and sort of scrambling to be a part of that. It gets a dialogue going. The goal is to talk about and think about who we are in this community, and as a community. FRANK: I love that you might walk through and see that someone else wrote down the same word as you. And maybe that is the thing that connects you. Maybe you know them in another context, and now you’re seeing them in a new light. DAVID: Everything we do in the arts in some way, shape, or form references who we are. I think this project is really an attempt to celebrate who we are. And to get kids to think about how we each have our own identity, but we’re also part of a whole, and we’re all very similar in some ways. There’s commonality in our differences.
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
7
EPISCOPAL UP CLOSE
n FA C U LT Y
My HEART Is in
“IT DIDN’T STRIKE ME AS FROZEN IN TIME AT ALL. THE INFRASTRUCTURE IS NOT THE SAME AS THE UNITED STATES, BUT THESE ARE MODERN PEOPLE.”
Four faculty travel to Cuba and find a lush, modern country full of resourceful, authentic people.
Cubans don’t get all of their knowledge of current events from the Internet, however. The government blocks certain websites, and it’s expensive to have Internet at home, so hotspots are set up around the cities in Internet cafes and other, unexpected locations.
“There are all kinds of ways to become educated,” says Spanish teacher Roció Mendizábal. “It’s not always sitting in a classroom. We were students on this trip, and I think we were very good students.” Last summer, four members of Episcopal’s Spanish department visited Cuba — a Caribbean country that is a mystery to many in the United States. Guided by an educational travel group and supported by professional development funds, Sam Slack, Roció Mendizábal, Evan Solís, and Catherine Gomez-Goodnow traveled to Havana and surrounding areas on a weeklong cultural immersion. “When we were flying from Fort Lauderdale to Cuba, it struck me how green everything was,” says Catherine. More than 27 percent of its 43,000 square miles is forest, and another 60 percent is used for agriculture. “We went to Viñales, which is a stunningly beautiful national park,” she says. “The highlight was an agro-ecological farm within the park. Everything there is ecologically balanced with nature.” As part of their curriculum, the faculty saw firsthand the effects of the conservation efforts when they snorkeled in a coral reef. 8
Spanish teachers Sam Slack, Evan Solís, Catherine Gomez-Goodnow, and Rocío Mendizábal in Cuba.
“CUBA’S ARTISTIC CULTURE IS GOING TO CONTINUE TO EXPAND AND EXPLODE.” A scarcity of resources has led the country to appeal to nostalgic tourists who romanticize a bygone era. “The one thing you hear most when people talk about going to see Cuba is that it’s frozen in time,” says Sam. “But it didn’t strike me as frozen in time at all. The infrastructure is not the same as the United States, but these are modern people.” “They know about chic restaurants overseas and the newest food crazes,” says Evan. “They know about American pop culture and fashion trends. Cuba’s artistic culture is going to continue to expand and explode.”
“You might see all these young people — tourists and Cubans — congregating in a church plaza, and you wonder what is so interesting about that place. Then you realize that everyone is looking at their phones, and it’s just a place for wifi,” Sam says. Cubans don’t let these limitations keep them from connecting to their nearest neighbor to the north. Every Monday for around two American dollars, they can load a USB with the latest news and TV shows from North America and Europe. “Everybody goes to the back of a phone repair shop, puts their USBs into a port, and downloads what they want,” Catherine says. She noticed, however, that although Cubans are connected to the modern world, they are not overwhelmed by their technology. They are more enmeshed in their families and friends and don’t seem to be separated from each other by their phones and computers. Rocío teaches Advanced Spanish Literature and was excited about the opportunity to visit the home of Cuban national hero José Martí toward the end of their trip. By that time, they had run
out of cash. A tour guide offered to give a tour, but they could not compensate her.
retro feel — it doesn’t appear to have been updated since the 1970s.
“We told her we would opt for a selfguided tour, but she insisted. She said, ‘No, no, no. I want you to learn all about José Martí.’”
Other throwback artifacts around Havana include the famed 1950s American-made cars, which are alive and well on the streets. The faculty noticed that the cars were well-kept, but seemed to be more for tourism than practicality. The buildings are old yet occupied. American goods can be expensive: at a shop, a Snickers bar was locked behind glass.
The Cuban people are proud of Martí’s place in their culture. In addition to being on the front lines of the Cuban liberation movement when the country was occupied by Spain in the 1890s, he was also an author, poet, and journalist. Catherine noted that the José Martí International Airport in Havana has a
“This was different than other trips,” says Evan. “We made such meaningful personal connections with the people we met.”
The EHS Spanish faculty say they would love to take students to Cuba if the possibility arises. Until then, they’ve brought what they learned to the classroom. In addition to the poetry of José Martí, Rocío has incorporated Cuban literature to discuss independence movements in Latin America and connected that to colonization, slavery, and the U.S. involvement in Cuba. “We all left with a real love for the people that we met, their culture, and for the complexity of their lives,” says Catherine. “These are people who are strong, resourceful, and authentic.”
AMERICAN GOODS CAN BE EXPENSIVE: AT A SHOP, A SNICKERS BAR WAS LOCKED BEHIND GLASS. EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
9
EPISCOPAL UP CLOSE
n VISUAL ARTS
STATE OF THE ARTS Sixteen EHS art students received 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for the southeast region. Winners are recognized through three levels of awards: the Gold Key, the Silver Key, and Honorable Mention. Gold Key: Grace Baldwin ’18, Linda Chiang ’18, Isabelle Davidson ’18, Riley Grover ’18, Jimin Kim ’18, Emma Koppenhaver ’19, Helen Matheson ’19, Lexi Weger ’18 Silver Key: Valeria Carrion ’18, Mary Ives Giblin ’19, Isabelle Holt ’18, Payton Leeby ’19, Gardiner McGuire ’19, Lilly Wilcox ’18 Honorable Mention: Barrett Carney ’19, Mady Hand ’18
Payton Leeby ’19
10
Barrett Carney ’19
Riley Grover ’18
Grace Baldwin ’18
Mady Hand ’18
Valeria Carrion ’18
Isabelle Holt ’18
Lilly Wilcox ’18
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
11
EPISCOPAL UP CLOSE
n PERFORMING ARTS
The winter musical, Into the Woods, was a memorable melodic mashup of fairytale heroes and villains! Another in a long line of unforgettable dramatic productions, the show involved more than 50 EHS students. The cast and crew spent months rehearsing, building sets, designing lighting, and creating costumes to bring the fairytale world of the woods to life. “Into the Woods is an incredibly difficult piece, and our students did wonderfully,” says Theater Director Bill Patti. “The music is very challenging, and there are a multitude of moving parts. Our experienced cast took full advantage of their strengths to put together an exciting production. This show opens up the opportunity for us to continue to work on and engage with more difficult pieces of theater.” 12
Students in Episcopal’s Jan. 12 dance recital interpreted the thought-provoking theme You Will Be Found.
13
WHEN THEY GROW UP “ At the age of 5, Lilly told us she wanted to be a vet,” S AYS DR. HUBERT HAYWOOD ’64, FATHER OF DR. LILLY
HAYWOOD ’04 AND HUBIE HAYWOOD ’07. “SHE’S DOING EXACTLY THE WORK SHE DREAMED OF WHEN SHE WAS YOUNG.”
W
hen you ask Hubert about his connection to Episcopal, the conversation quickly turns to his children. “What can I say? I’m a proud father,” he says. “I’m grateful for what the School did for me and what it gave my children.” Lilly, who majored in English at Washington & Lee University and was captain of the W&L riding team, set her sights on working with horses. With a doctor of veterinary medicine degree in hand from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, Lilly moved to Kentucky to launch her career as an equine veterinarian with Roode & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington. She works primarily with newborn foals. Hubie is in his third year at the University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine. “He’s plugging away!” says his dad. “The thing I value most about my EHS experience is the relationships I developed with my teachers,” says Lilly. “I doubt I would have made it through calculus (and into vet school) without Mr. Stubbs, and of course I rely on the foundation that Mr. Halm gave me in biology every day. I still think about a lot of them daily and mentally thank them for all they taught me.” The benefits of her boarding school education were not confined to the classroom. “Really, discovering how to build professional friendships and learn outside of the academic day have been the most valuable lessons.”
Dr. Lilly Haywood ’04 tending to a newborn foal.
Though their lives and careers have taken them away from The Holy Hill, the Haywoods strive to stay connected to Episcopal. Hubert, Hubie, and Lilly have all returned to campus for their Reunions, and they reconnect with the School at events in their area every chance they get. All three Haywoods support the School with their gifts to the Roll Call, Episcopal’s annual fund. With their consistent support, and the support of parents and alumni just like them, Episcopal continues to provide essential programs such as academic support, library acquisitions, improved classroom equipment, athletics, college counseling, and many other student-related programs.
THESE ARE THE PROGR AMS THAT MOVE OUR STUDENTS ONE STEP CLOSER TO WHO THEY WANT TO BE “WHEN THEY GROW UP.” 14
Interested in ways to stay connected with the School as parents of EHS students or alumni? Get in touch!
EMILY URQUHART Parent Programs Officer Episcopal High School esu@episcopalhighschool.org 703-933-4046
EPISCOPAL UP CLOSE
n SUMMER PROGRAMS
SUMMER in the CITY
The Episcopal Summer Institute is academic, urban, and the perfect primer for middle schoolers interested in boarding school.
Launching this summer, the Episcopal Summer Institute will provide a sampling of life at EHS, with weeklong overnight camps designed to tap into the academic curiosities and interests of middle schoolers, all on the doorstep to the nation’s capital. Out and about in D.C. and in the state-of-the-art facilities of our historic campus, middle schoolers will deep dive into their favorite topics. Sessions run July 15-27 and explore biotechnology, creative writing, entrepreneurship, and other academic and artistic fields. The change in name comes with a realignment of the entire summer program, according to Director of Summer Programs Katie Ryan Kantz. “We have partnered with Headfirst, a company specializing in building and sustaining incredible summer programs, to take summers at Episcopal to another level,” says Kantz. “They will provide essential support with some of the logistics, marketing, and registration, which will free up our own staff and teachers to focus on creating and leading some really great summer learning experiences for kids.’’ The Episcopal Summer Institute offers sessions in four different categories. The Creative Labs offers workshops in photography, writing, and the dramatic arts. The Washington, D.C., Immersion
Series explores innovation and entrepreneurship and leadership development. The STEM Impact Series dives into biotechnology and engineering. “You can learn first-hand about Gene Therapy at Children’s National Medical Center, for example,” says Kantz, “or flex your creativity in improv exercises with the acclaimed Monumental Theater Production group, or discover environmental solutions to pollution through the Clean Air Partners expert analysis.” Because many students want to explore multiple programs, the fourth session, D.C. Discovery Weekend, is designed to allow students to unwind and explore the region through outdoor adventures and local events. This option allows campers to stay on campus over the weekend and enjoy the fun and excitement that Washington, D.C., has to offer in the summer. “All of our academic-based programs will be led by Episcopal faculty,” says Kantz, “and will reflect the level of hands-on and student-centered learning at the heart an Episcopal education.”
Questions?
episcopalsummerinstitute.org Katie Ryan Kantz | Director of Summer Programs krk@episcopalhighschool.org | 703-348-5528 EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
15
EPISCOPAL UP CLOSE
n ATHLETIC S
WINTER
WINS
William Smith ’19 The boys’ wrestling team’s William Smith ’19 finished fourth at the VISAA Championships. He earned a spot in the third-round consolation match, which is the highest finish for the Maroon since 2011.
Lexi Weger ’18 The girls’ varsity basketball team advanced to their divisional tournament semifinal with a big upset win over No. 2-seeded Flint Hill. The Maroon hoopsters also clinched a home game for the opening round of the VISAA Tournament as the No. 7 seed in the state. Lexi Weger ’18 finished the season with 1,458 points, making her the all-time leading scorer in EHS girls’ basketball history. 16
Thomas Williamson ’19 The boys’ squash team finished second in Division IV at the prestigious U.S. Squash High School Team Championships, the best-ever finish for an EHS boys’ team. The performance made EHS one of the top 50 high school boys’ teams in the country. The team also retained the coveted Amos-Willett trophy, with two decisive wins over Woodberry Forest, and finished its season with a Team Title at the Episcopal Squash Invitational.
Dawn Farquharson ’18 Litchfield Ajavon ’19 The girls’ and boys’ indoor track and field teams’ hard work this season paid off. The boys’ 4 x 200-meter team extended its season by qualifying for the New Balance High School National Championships held at Armory Track in New York City. The girls’ team took the 4 x 800-meter state title for the first time in the School’s history. The girls’ 4 x 200-meter team also won the State Championship, giving Bijee Jackson ’18 her second state win after placing first in the 55-meter hurdles in the same meet. Thomas Adkins ’20; Jane Owen ’19 Episcopal’s climbing team was one of 11 schools that competed in the Washington Area Interscholastic Climbing League’s championship meet at Earth Treks in Crystal City.
Bryce Steele ’21 The boys’ varsity basketball team started out the year with a well-earned Top 10 recognition in the Washington Post area rankings. The Maroon finished with a record of 19-10 after falling in the VISAA quarterfinals as the No. 6 seed.
Karla Domingues ’20 The girls’ squash team finished its season with an impressive 11-3 record and a strong showing at the Nationals. The team competed in Division III, the highest-ever divisional placement for the EHS squash program, ultimately taking fifth place by way of a victory in the Classic Plate final. Nicole Carino ’19, Episcopal’s No. 1 player and a 2016-17 U.S. Squash All-American, was recognized by the Alexandria Sportsman’s Club (ASC) as one of the Athletes of the Month for February, marking the first time in ASC history that the honor has been bestowed on a squash player. EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
17
EPISCOPAL UP CLOSE
n E N G L I S H D E PA R T M E N T
PHOTO CREDIT: GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING
Molly Pugh uu Lucy Goldstein ’97: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. “Because it is a graceful, beautiful, challenging epic about family. It is set in Korea, and I knew Lucy would appreciate the history and sense of place woven into the book.” Millie McKeachie uu Whit Morgan: Book of Joan by Lydia Yuknavitch. “Whit teaches Dystopian Fiction, and the reviewers gave this book high marks.” Ben Courchesne uu Louis Smith: The Great Fires by Jack Gilbert, Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith, and What Narcissism Means to Me by Tony Hoagland. “These poetry collections are personal favorites and examples of the diversity and variety of the contemporary American poetry I wish more people would encounter in and out of school.” Tim Rogers ’79 uu Molly Pugh: The Power by Naomi Alderman. “It’s all about empowerment of women (literally, women have electrical power in their bodies!). 18
What Are You Reading? In December, a dozen faculty members from the English Department gathered to exchange gifts.
Molly was the first person I thought of when I heard about the book on NPR.” Louis Smith uu Lauren Echko: Look at Me by Jennifer Egan. “The topics seem so pertinent to the challenges facing the adolescents we teach, and I thought Lauren might be interested in digging into another writer’s craft given that she is also a writer herself.” Bill Patti uu Mitch Pinkowski: I Hate Hamlet by Paul Rudnick. “I happen to find Shakespeare’s Hamlet to be insufferable, and Mitch takes every opportunity possible to sing its merits.”
Mitch Pinkowski uu Millie McKeachie: What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund. “As a sort of visually engaging study in the phenomenology of reading, I figured it was a good fit for my bright and thoughtful colleague.” Joel Sohn uu Nate Ebel: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. “Because Nate is putting out fires everywhere. And I really like her writing and characterization. I also am a big supporter of Asian writers, and I want other people to read diverse texts.” Whit Morgan uu Bill Patti: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.
“Devil in the White City is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever encountered. It traces two stories that overlap: Chicago’s attempt to be chosen as the host city for the Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the story of the serial killer who chose this event to prey on many victims.” Lucy Goldstein ’97 uu Tim Rogers ’79: We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter. “Tim teaches a Holocaust unit in his sophomore English class, and this novel is based on a true story about a family’s legacy and surviving the Holocaust.” Lauren Echko uu Ben Courchesne: The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel and The Best American Poetry 2017. “The Stranger in the Woods was an easy choice for Ben; it’s all about big talk and big topics. The story is about the last hermit, a man who lived alone for 27 years in Maine. Ben’s love of the outdoors and his desire to dig for deeper meaning in quick and long conversations about life made this book perfect for him.”
n VESTRY & SERVICE COUNCIL
A dance of origami cranes — over 1,000 of them — hang in long lines from the ceiling in Callaway Chapel’s narthex. The Crane Project was a joint venture of the Vestry and Service Council. “The cranes were made for a variety of reasons by students and adults from all over campus,” says Head Chaplain Betsy Gonzalez. “Some of them were made to express a desire for more peace in the world, the traditional interpretation of origami cranes. Some students made them while thinking about different challenges facing our world such as hunger, lack of housing, and care for our oceans. We color-coded some of those concerns with different paper. Still others made them to celebrate the community we are. They made them in dorm common rooms, around class tables, in March Library, in Stewart Student Center, and in Laird Dining Hall. All the beautiful colors and patterns are a symbol of the great strength and diversity of this community.”
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
19
EPISCOPAL UP CLOSE
n H E A LT H A N D W E L L B E I N G
The Science Of SLEEP The Episcopal campus engaged in an experiment so exciting, the administration hoped it would put students to sleep.
20
The results, Nate says, were clear enough to call for the School to consider what might be done to try and address the matter. “The responses indicated that more students were losing sleep on Wednesday and Thursday due in some part to homework load and how the periods rotate during the week,” says Nate. “The responses also made clear that our later start on Monday made a real difference in their sleep.”
Episcopal’s heightened concern about and focus on student sleep health this year began in August with conversations around At What Cost by Dr. David Gleason, a book that examines the root causes of increased levels of teen anxiety and depression. Two of the factors most intensely discussed were sleep deprivation and homework overload, and administrators spent the fall considering ways to address these concerns.
Throughout December, key administrators looked into weekly schedules at peer schools and sought other resources for ways Episcopal might address the issue.
“In the fall, we conducted a school-wide survey to investigate students’ nightly sleep and homework patterns,” says Academic Dean Nate Ebel, who worked with Dean of Students Ashley Taylor on the survey. “We wanted to get a clearer picture of which nights they slept most or least, how much sleep they were getting over the course of a week, and to what degree their nightly homework assignments might play into the picture.”
“We sent out a second survey to students to collect responses and data from the experiment and compare the results,” says Ashley. “We’ll spend the late spring and summer considering a longer-term approach to the weekly schedule. If we are confident in our findings, we’ll seek to have a new schedule in the fall of 2018. If not, we’ll seek more opportunities for trial runs until we find the most promising approach.”
From the start of the second semester on Jan. 30 until the start of Spring Break on March 3, the weekly schedule was adjusted to improve the quality and quantity of student sleep.
Trial Schedule • Mondays started at 9 a.m., per the regular schedule; all other class days began at 8:30 a.m. rather than 8 a.m.
The weekly schedule was adjusted on a trial basis to improve the quality and quantity of student sleep.
• Tuesday and Thursday schedules flipped so that long blocks met on Wednesday and Thursday. • A short break before chapel and seated lunches was added. • Seated Dinner was held on Wednesday rather than Monday evenings, and the attire was casual. • Afternoon options ran from 4 to 5:45 p.m., 15 fewer minutes than usual. • Quiet dorm began at 10 p.m. rather than 10:30 p.m. • In-room time on weekdays was 10:45 p.m. for all students.
In addition to the trial schedule, a complementary initiative known as “Project SNZ” (read: “Snooze”) was developed by Medical Director Adrianna Bravo, M.D., and introduced to students in the days leading up to the trial schedule. In a school-wide presentation, Adrianna discussed guidelines and recommendations to improve sleep hygiene, as well as the science behind why proper sleep habits are vital to health and wellness.
“I don’t know if we will have a new schedule next year or not,” Assistant Head for Student Life Doug Dickson says. “I think we need to be open to examining the results of what we observed this winter, engaging all constituents to talk about how to move ahead, and continuing to work on this issue until we find suitable solutions to make this School a place where kids can thrive and be well and healthy.”
Project SNZ Sleep Recommendations and Guidelines Developed by EHS Medical Director Adrianna Bravo, M.D.
Goals
8
hours of sleep each night. Maintain sleep pattern on weekend.
QUIET THE MIND AND BODY
ESSENTIAL OILS
Breathing exercises. Meditation apps for sleep or stress. Quick stretches or yoga poses.
Use a diffuser to mist into air. Single drop on cupped hands, then breathe in.
NO STIMULANTS
No caffeine or sugar after 8 p.m. MIND DUMP
Write it down to forget about it tonight…you can get back to it tomorrow!
REDUCE SENSORY INTAKE
SLEEP APPS
Wear an eye mask. Turn on white noise.
Sleep Cycle Binaural Beat Brainwaves Deep Sleep with Andrew Johnson
EVENING SNACKS
Bananas, nuts, chamomile tea, oatmeal, or whole grain cereal. High-protein and low-sugar foods such as cheese or hardboiled egg.
SCREENS AND LIGHTS
30
No screens for minutes pre-bed. All lights off at bedtime. Scheduled use of blue light filter on phone for several hours pre-bed.
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
21
FEATURE
your own
Independent studies, externships, and other personalized study opportunities allow students to chart their own paths as they plumb the depths of their individual passions.
———
22
I
n her freshman and sophomore years, Savannah Lambert ’14 studied Shakespeare in the classroom, digging into Elizabethan culture and language. As a junior, she starred as Lady Macbeth in the EHS Mainstage production. By senior year, she had special permission to metro into D.C. to dissect and discuss Shakespeare’s plays at the Folger Shakespeare Library on afternoons when she wasn’t rehearsing A Midsummer Night’s Dream on campus. Her breakthrough came one day at Folger studying what she had presumed to be a relatively simple play. “I had always thought of Romeo and Juliet as just a classic love story,” she says. But the instructor pushed her to look beneath the romance and consider Juliet’s experience as a woman in Shakespeare’s day. Suddenly Juliet’s struggle for independence, and her strength in resisting societal expectations, came into focus. “I think that was telling of my Folger experience in general,” says Savannah. Not only exploring interesting interpretations, but also realizing that there are new ways of reading old texts — that someone as canonized as Shakespeare can still be approached in fresh ways. Four years later, as an English major minoring in computer science at the University of Pennsylvania, Savannah is once again looking at authoritative literature through an unusual lens. For her interdisciplinary honors thesis, she is performing qualitative and quantitative analysis of award-winning contemporary fiction to investigate why female authors win national literary awards much less often than men. “It’s not enough to assume that women aren’t strong enough writers or that the gender gap among winners will work itself out in time,” says Savannah. “Instead, there are concrete steps that can be taken by awards judges, readers, and consumers to be more mindful of these biases and to actively work to change things.”
P
——— ersonalized, deep learning experiences often lead students to progress from understanding the subject matter to understanding life and affecting change. A heavily researched final project in Mike Reynolds’ History of the South class, or an externship in a senator’s office, can spark a lifelong passion and even launch a career.
“What we’ve always done really well at Episcopal is getting kids to try things that are out of their wheelhouse,” says Assistant Head for Academics Mary Fielder. “That’s one reason we have the team sport requirement. But we’re also equipped to allow students to pursue more customized, individual experiences. You can do both.” These tailored experiences include everything from private music lessons and student-designed culminating projects, to one-on-one independent study courses, opportunities to study Shakespeare at the Folger Shakespeare Library, and of course the senior-year externship, in which every student embarks on his or her own journey of discovery.
Personalized, deep learning experiences often lead students to progress from understanding the subject matter to understanding life and affecting change.
“In the next five years, we’re going to start getting millennial parents at Episcopal,” says Washington Program Director Jeremy Goldstein. “Millennials don’t shop or experience life like the people who are running the schools. They want narratives, they want a unique experience, and they want a transcript that doesn’t look like everyone else’s transcript.” In a practical sense, what does this mean for a community founded on shared experiences, and a curriculum built around core requirements? “We’re not as black-and-white as we might have been in the past in terms of what that community experience needs to look like,” says Mary. A small but significant example: concessions have been made to allow participants in the Folger Shakespeare Library’s High School Fellows Program to skip their afternoon option twice a week so that they can metro into D.C. to study, perform, and attend professional productions of Shakespeare’s plays with students from other schools, as Savannah did in the spring of 2014. “We typically want all of our students in an afternoon option with their classmates to foster teamwork and
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
23
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
collegiality and community,” says Mary, “but we realize in certain circumstances, that individual pursuit of passion, in the end, will enhance the community in a different way, and so we allow for it.” On the subject of theater, a better understanding of how theater is an exercise in community as much as any athletic competition has allowed it to grow in prominence on Episcopal’s campus and has increased opportunities for students pursuing individual passions in the arts. “We have started to view theater in terms of teamwork,” says Mary. “We even grant athletic credit for the winter musical. That has encouraged kids inside and outside the theater community to see theater in a different light.”
ADVANCED AND ELECTIVE COURSES The primary means of customizing a student’s daily schedule are Advanced and elective courses, and Episcopal’s course catalog has more electives than ever before. “Students don’t have to march through a set curriculum with others all the time,” says Mary. “There’s a lot of choice.” The High School offers 140 courses, including 45 honors and Advanced courses. Newer courses such as filmmaking, engineering, digital graphics, and entrepreneurial studies were developed in response to student interest and faculty passions. Global Online Academy, conducted virtually by independent school teachers around the world, provides additional, highly specialized options: from Arabic and Japanese, to neuropsychology, to courses such as “Power: Redressing Inequity through Data” and “Applying Philosophy to Modern Global Issues.”
S TAG E F R IG H T
JULIA MESSENGER ’18 finds her voice on stage at the Kennedy Center. Julia Messenger describes herself as a shy girl born into a veritable von Trapp family — the kind with a piano-playing grandma and cousins who sing complicated duets at the family’s annual Christmas caroling parties. “We literally sing all the time,” she says. Julia first took the stage in sixth grade as the opera-singing wardrobe in Beauty and the Beast. “There was one scene where I came out with a Viking helmet and a big wig, and I had to hit this operatic high note. That’s where it all began.” There weren’t many performance opportunities in Julia’s small hometown on Maryland’s eastern shore, and her family knew that her powerful soprano voice deserved a bigger venue. But Julia was hesitant. “I remember thinking in middle school that I could never leave my family and go to college. But the next year I left for boarding school.”
24
At Episcopal, Julia has flourished, performing at the Kennedy Center with the Choral Arts Society of Washington Youth Choir for the past three years, an opportunity encouraged and arranged by Episcopal’s former choir director, Brandon Straub. She also takes private voice lessons from EHS vocal coach Cara Transtrom, whom Julia describes as a second mother. Transtrom’s training has led Julia to compete in several major contests, including the 2017 Hal Leonard Vocal Competition in which she placed second in the nation. “Coming to boarding school, I’ve become more comfortable and confident in myself, which translates to the stage,” says Julia, who has rounded out her study of performance to include acting in Shakespeare plays and musical theater. She also takes dance classes and private dance lessons, though she never studied dance back home. In this winter’s dance recital, she choreographed her
own piece — a process she describes as “terrifying.” Being at Episcopal has meant doing a lot of scary things, says Julia. Like singing a solo sophomore year in front of 2,000 people at the Kennedy Center. “I was nervous. My hands were shaking. But I got through it, and it felt incredible. I remember a little girl with blonde pigtails ran up to me in the Hall of Nations and said, ‘I just want to say you did a really good job!’ That was so cool.” Now in her senior year, Julia tries to calm the nerves of younger students performing for the first time with the youth choir at the Kennedy Center by telling jokes and getting them to laugh. This winter she auditioned for 14 different musical theater programs at colleges and universities all over the country. “My parents love to remind me, ‘This never would have happened if you hadn’t gone to Episcopal.’”
“The shift we’ve made to electives for English in the 12th and — more recently — 11th grades allows students to pursue their passions more directly, too,” says Mary. “We have half a dozen English electives juniors can choose from, one of which is Protest Literature.”
Olivia Tucker ’19 decided that her piece would protest sexual assault on Native American reservations, where rates of sexual assault are up to 12 times the national rate, and where sexual assault is rarely prosecuted. “It’s practically decriminalized,” says Olivia.
Protest Lit is an interdisciplinary course taught by Molly Pugh that can lead in many directions depending on the interests and passions of the students enrolled in the course. Whatever causes they might cover, all students study the difference between literature and propaganda, analyzing the Declaration of Independence as a piece of progressive protest lit, for example. For their final project, they must create a heavily researched protest piece. They may choose any medium — from photography to poetry to dance to video — and any cause. Their choice is almost inevitably personal, and the end result is a call to action.
It wasn’t until she dug into her research that she made a personal connection to her subject matter. Olivia’s great-great-grandfather was a Choctaw Indian, but when she sent in a sample of her DNA to 23andMe, a genetic testing service, the results came back without a trace of Native American ancestry. “I was confused, so I looked at the service’s FAQ, and it said that if you were pretty sure you had tribal heritage but it wasn’t showing up, there had likely been an affair or rape on the maternal side. My greatgreat-grandmother was German, and if she had been raped by a white man, then it would have discontinued the native bloodline in my family.”
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
25
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
Olivia’s resulting mixed-media protest piece is a complex work of poetry, politics, and visual art. Her hand-bound booklet includes, among other things, a poem she wrote, a photo of her great-great-grandparents on their wedding day, an annotated letter to the Subcommittee on Indian and Alaskan Native Affairs written in 2012 when the Violence Against Women Act was up for renewal, and a map of the United States identifying parts of the U.S. that the #MeToo movement is failing to reach. “The #MeToo movement isn’t really permeating into the borders of Native American reservations,” says Olivia. “Everyone is saying, ‘This is such a reckoning. This is so great for all women.’ But Native American women aren’t part of this dialogue at all. I tried to express that here.” Olivia’s poetry has been published in Ordinary Madness, ROAR, The Northern Virginia Review, and Boston University’s Coup d’Etat. This spring she has been pursuing an independent study-style afternoon option she calls Afternoon Poetry, in which she is reading, writing, and workshopping poetry under the direction of EHS English teacher Mitch Pinkowksi.
26
RARE BOOKS PROJECTS In Advanced Topics in Latin, students pore over a rare edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle printed in 1453, donated to the School by Wayne Holman ’53. There is no existing translation of this particular version of the text, so the work done by Episcopal students is completely original. Cat Lambert ’11 was one of the first students to begin work on the translation, and her primary contribution was to create a glossary of symbols for use by future students. One of those students was Ben Strawsburg ’12. He distinctly remembers “the feeling of breaking new ground on a subject that has undergone thousands of years of study. Latin’s a subject that sometimes feels like it has no new ground to be broken. Being able to do something new was really amazing.” Both Cat and Ben went on to study the classics in college. Cat is a Ph.D. student in the classics at Columbia, and Ben majored in classics at the University of Richmond.
Individual pursuit of passion, in the end, will enhance the community. Cat says, “What really struck me when I was working with the rare books, investigating a culture through a language that is no longer spoken, was that I was enabling what is temporarily silent to speak and have a voice.”
SUMMER INDEPENDENT WORK Students who seek out summer internships are often eager to try out potential career paths — to ground their dreams in a real-life, working-world experience.
INDEPENDENT STUDY COURSES Designed by the student under the advisement of a faculty member, an independent study course gives a student the opportunity to explore a topic not covered by the current curriculum. “I rarely turn down an independent study application because we want students to be able to pursue those passions,” says Mary. Students who propose independent studies (about 10 per year) tend to be self-selecting. Not every high school student is ready to dive into a semester- or year-long relationship with open-ended inquiry. But those who do tend to find it exhilarating.
“I’ve always been really interested in politics,” says Henry Barrett ’18. “I really wanted to see how government works.” Henry was looking for a summer internship in a congressional office in his home state of Texas but wasn’t having much luck. He hadn’t considered that interning on Capitol Hill in the office of Sen. John McCain ’54 (R-AZ) might be an option. “My parents told me to look into it, so I reached out to my Advanced Government teacher, Mr. Goodnow.” Before long, Henry was assigned to intern in one of the biggest offices on Capitol Hill, during one of the most tumultuous summers of Sen. McCain’s tenure. Two days after Henry began his internship in Sen. McCain’s office, he
I N O VE R H IS H E AD
For RYAN GRAJEWSKI ’18, the beauty is in the breakdown. The best part of Ryan Grajewski’s independent study in data processing was that it didn’t work out the way he expected. He didn’t finish. Things went wrong. But was it a satisfying and exciting experience? “Oh, yeah,” he says. “One hundred percent.” During his junior year, Ryan worked with science teacher Kathleen Caslow to analyze a sea of raw data provided by Smithsonian Marine Biologist Dr. Carole Baldwin. Dr. Baldwin had measured the temperature of ocean waters off the coast of Curaçao every 20 seconds for five years, compiling all the data in a single Excel spreadsheet. Ryan’s job was to graph the temperature fluctuations over time, before
adding additional layers of data related to fish size and genus. “Excel couldn’t handle that amount of data,” says Ryan. So he used Tableau and Power BI — two data visualization softwares he knew nothing about. Much of his independent study consisted of learning these programs through a course he completed online. “My ah-ha moment was realizing that the data I had was completely messed up. It took weeks to figure that out. Ms. Caslow was right there beside me, equally confused,” says Ryan, who finally realized that all of the data he had input needed to be reordered. “But that’s what I really enjoyed about the project — sitting next to a teacher who was just as confused as I was. And just as awed.”
This year, Ryan and science teacher Scott Pohjola worked together to design an independent study in engineering that would help Ryan decide which branch of engineering to pursue in college: mechanical, electrical, industrial, or computer. Once again, things aren’t going according to plan. A computer engineering project first semester took way longer than expected because Ryan decided to write the code himself instead of using a pre-existing program. Now he’s behind on his goal of completing one project per engineering discipline per academic quarter. “The lesson I’ve come away with is that it’s okay to fail,” says Ryan, who prefers big, messy, open-ended problems and projects to problem sets with predetermined answers. “It’s what I look forward to every day.”
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
27
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
gathered with other interns and staffers to receive the news of the senator’s cancer diagnosis. A few weeks later, Henry watched Sen. McCain give the deciding thumbs-down to a “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act. Working in Sen. McCain’s mailroom during those dramatic days gave Henry an inside understanding of how Sen. McCain came to his dissenting decision — and how average citizens can influence policy. “Mail had been coming in by the boatload,” says Henry. “Some people were sending condolences. Some people who were in favor for the Affordable Care Act were saying, ‘You have great healthcare; please help us save ours.’ I think that was the deciding factor for him. The mailroom had gotten thousands of comments from people about why he should vote no. They completely outweighed comments in favor of voting yes.” Henry was surprised to learn that behind the image of a government divided into two opposing teams were thousands of people with nuanced views on every issue. In Sen.
McCain’s office, not every staffer agreed with his every decision, but they all believed in his integrity and dedicated themselves to him because of it. “If you have a deceptive senator or someone who equivocates and covers their tracks — it’s hard to work with someone like that. There was never a time when Sen. McCain was unclear or vague about what he believed in or advocated for.” This fall Henry will be a freshman at Princeton. He plans to study at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs and to pursue a career in law and education. SENIOR EXTERNSHIPS Whatever a student’s path at Episcopal, their high school experience will end with a month-long experience that is all their own — an externship at a D.C.-area organization or business, or an in-depth research or creative project on campus.
T H E C UT T IN G E D GE
In a Georgetown University research lab, JULIE CHOI ’18 slices and dices a potential career path. Using a small machine called a microtome, Julie Choi thinly sliced sections of lung, liver, and other human organs, submerged the paperthin slices in a water bath, and then scooped them up on sterile glass slides. For eight weeks last summer, eight hours a day, Julie prepared tissue samples for researchers at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, who would then analyze the slides under a microscope. Julie had sought out a summer experience that would help her determine which path to take in the sciences. “I was hoping to figure out if I wanted a career in a research lab or as a physician,” Julie says. Science Chair Dr. Kim Olsen put her in touch with prominent microbiologist Dr. Deborah Berry, wife of EHS math teacher Tom Berry. Dr. Berry is the director of
28
Georgetown Lombardi’s Histopathology & Tissue Shared Resource. “I had to get trained and practice a lot,” says Julie. Before her tissue samples could be used for real research, she had to prepare a hundred samples perfectly. “It was exhausting, but at the same time it was so interesting and fun that the time flew by. When it was time to go, I’d be surprised.” Despite her training and precision, there was one type of tissue Julie wasn’t usually allowed to cut: the human brain. “Those are really rare and limited, and they’re sensitive to temperature and water.” She was, however, invited to attend a brain autopsy with Georgetown pre-med students.
“It was amazing,” she says. “I had never seen a human brain with my own eyes before.” Looking at the different sizes and colors and other physical characteristics of the brain specimens, the autopsy conductor could make all kinds of inferences. “He explained how this person might have had cancer for this long, and this person might have had blackouts multiple times. Or he’d point out a lack of vitamin D.” Julie could see an obvious difference in the brain plagued by Alzheimer’s disease: it was smaller and discolored. “But a lot of the other, subtler differences in color that the conductor was pointing out, I couldn’t really see. I realized I have a long way to go. But that was motivating to me.” For her externship in May, Julie will work in a veterinarian’s office — another chance to see inside the person she might become.
Jeremy Goldstein, who runs the externship program, believes that a great externship experience can set a student’s transcript apart and make a strong case for a student’s value and potential in a college setting. “When students can show colleges that they worked for a start-up, or that they dug deeply into an academic subject, it demonstrates intellectual curiosity and an ability to go off the beaten path. It shows colleges they’d be a great addition to their community.” The remarkable externship of Augusta Nau ’15 began when she set out on a quest to identify the lone African-American man in a Reformation-era panoramic photo hanging in one of the School’s administrative offices. Long days of reading through ledgers and the diaries of Launcelot Blackford (EHS Headmaster 1870-1913) in Episcopal’s archives led her to a surprising discovery: the man in the photo was Jim Jackson — not only an employee of Episcopal for 50 years but also a founding member of the Fort Ward community established by freed slaves just north of Episcopal’s campus.
“It was upsetting to me that there was this man on our wall who had worked for Episcopal for 50 years and no one could tell me who he is because he wasn’t white,” says Augusta, who went on to study history at Williams College and is currently studying abroad at Oxford University. “He wasn’t a headmaster, he doesn’t have his name on a building, but he put a lot of work into the daily operation of Episcopal. One of the most rewarding parts of the project was being able to pull his name out so we could celebrate him for his contributions.” Last year, Augusta was invited back to Episcopal to present her findings for the entire school community at the 2017 MLK Jr. Day Symposium. Mary Fielder says, “The impact of Augusta’s work has been to connect us to that history and to the Fort Ward community” — a vibrant group of descendants of the original Fort Ward who are dedicated to preserving the community’s history.
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
29
INTERNET
THE DARK AGES OF THE
30
FEATURE
INTERNET PIONEER JOHN GABLE ’83 BELIEVES WE ARE STUMBLING AROUND IN DIGITAL DARKNESS.
BUT VIRTUAL ENLIGHTENMENT IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER. EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
31
THE DARK AGES OF THE INTERNET
In 1995, Bill Gates fearlessly predicted, “The information highway will transform our culture as dramatically as Gutenberg’s press did the Middle Ages.” He titled his book The Road Ahead, and he and other technophiles were looking down that road and seeing a bright and beautiful new horizon. Around that same time, John Gable ’83 made a few predictions of his own. From his vantage point as lead product manager for Netscape Navigator — one of the first Internet browsers and the most popular browser of the ’90s — he, too, could see into the distance. He and many Internet pioneers had already accepted the Internet’s potential and all the good it might do. But in 1997, John gave a speech in Portland, Ore., that asked the question: could this powerful new medium also have a dark side? What if, John wondered, instead of bringing people together, connecting distant cultures, and increasing our appreciation of diversity, the Internet had the opposite effect? Polarization, breakdown of civility, misinformation — these are not unprecedented byproducts of a revolutionary new technology. “People think of the printing press as the birth of the Reformation, when everybody started reading for themselves and this great Enlightenment happened,” says John. “What they don’t realize is that soon after the printing press came out, there was a lot of societal chaos and disruption. Book burnings, tribunals, challenges to authority, false accounts being written. Things got a lot worse before they got better.”
“TECHNOLOGY IS ALWAYS CHANGING. AND IT CAN CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.”
In 2012, John founded AllSides.com, a website that aims to break people out of their filter bubbles by exposing them to multiple perspectives on the daily news. For each topic — say, the State of the Union address or Russian sanctions — the site shows headlines from the left, right, and center. John is also the founder of Mismatch.org, a platform that connects students from different backgrounds and points of view via video conferencing.
“Technology is always changing,” said John in a November 2017 TED Talk he gave with his friend and co-founder of MoveOn.org, Joan Blades, at TEDWomen in New Orleans. “And it can change for the better.”
32
Far from the progressive circles of the West Coast where he forged his career in tech, John grew up in small-town Kentucky. He was raised by and among conservatives, and Episcopal was his first step outside his mostly rural upbringing. “At that time in your life,” says John, “almost everything is outside your filter bubble because you’re learning so many things for the first time.” At Episcopal, John relished religion class with its challenging, open-ended questions, and he trained zealously for cross-country, though no one in his family was athletic. But his most salient memory is perhaps the day in history class when Mr. Male played a tape recording of his plane being hit by gunfire in the Vietnam War. Afterwards, Mr. Male told the class about a time when an anti-war student stood up and shouted at him and called him a murderer. Mr. Male was visibly shaken recounting the story, and John says remembering that day has an almost physical effect on him decades later. Because of that experience, he says, “I always had a distaste for people who yell and belittle others in a self-righteous way.”
“I BELIEVE TECHNOLOGY CAN EMPOWER PEOPLE AND EMPOWER A MOVEMENT TO CHANGE THE COURSE OF HISTORY.”
For his senior externship (then called the May Program), he worked for the late Sen. Howard Baker (R-TN), who became the Senate majority leader and later President Reagan’s chief of staff, but who is perhaps best remembered for a single question: “What did the president know, and when did he know it?” As the ranking Republican on the Senate committee that investigated Watergate, Baker was the first in his party to break ranks and press President Nixon for the truth. “He was a man of enormous integrity and understood things from both sides of the aisle.” Working for Baker, John developed an affection for bridging partisan divides. “Baker was famous for bringing a Democrat and a Republican into one room and having them both say what they wanted to say about an issue, and then repeating it in a way that they could both hear where they agreed,” John says.
After studying philosophy at Vanderbilt University, John spent four years in politics, working for three senators, the Republican National Committee, and President George H.W. Bush. But by the early ’90s, there was a lot going on in another field — technology. The excitement was too much for John to ignore. “I realized technology could move the world and change things in bigger ways than I could have imagined,” he told the author of The Reunited States of America (2016), Mark Gerzon. “I believe technology can empower people and empower a movement to change the course of history.” A few years and one business degree later, John joined the original Microsoft Office team. In 1996, he co-founded KAVI, a web-based applications company that was recently sold to Higher Logic. And in 1997, Netscape Communications Corp. — “the startup that terrified Microsoft and got Americans to go online,” according to Wired magazine — hired John. He eventually became their team lead product manager for Netscape Navigator. It was around this time when John began to ponder the nature of the beast. He remembers reading Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985) by Neil Postman, who wrote about how deeply the dominant form of media can influence the way we act and think. Postman was writing in the ’80s about the impact of television. A
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
33
THE DARK AGES OF THE INTERNET
philosopher at heart, John couldn’t help but extend Postman’s theory and contemplate the unforeseen ramifications of the Internet on individuals and society. “The Internet trains your brain to think more in terms of categories,” says John. Because it supplies so much information, we are constantly categorizing in order to quickly and effectively process the influx. Our brains become search engines filtering out what is useless and different, and tuning in to what is relevant and same.
“OUR GOAL IS SIMPLY TO PROVIDE PEOPLE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES SO THEY CAN BE BETTER INFORMED, AND SO THEY CAN DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES.”
“I was concerned more than 20 years ago that this would teach us to discriminate against each other in new ways,” he says. “And I think that’s what’s happened. It’s not just that you and I may disagree on the environment or immigration, but if you disagree with me, you’re one of them. I don’t just think you’re wrong; I think you’re evil.” Today polarization is sky-high. Results of a 2014 Pew Research survey called political polarization “the defining feature of early 21st century American politics, both among the public and elected officials.” What once resembled a bell curve, with most people clumped near the center of the political spectrum and far fewer people on the extreme left and right, now looks more like a two-humped camel. Our government hasn’t been this disagreeable since the time of the Civil War, according to data analysis by the University of Southern California. But you have to go back even further — to the 15th century — to find a society similarly upended by a disruptive new technology. The people of the Late Middle Ages found themselves equal parts tickled and terrorized by Gutenberg’s shiny new printing press. The proliferation of books spread literacy, codified language, and transformed learning. These new books thrust European society into the future, but also dug up ideas once buried in the past. “Hellenic civilization had highly honed such institutions as slavery, male dominance, and organized war. Now those values came back with a vengeance,” said University of Houston Professor John H. Lienhard in a talk entitled “What People Said About Books in 1498.” He was speaking at a library conference in the late ’90s about the history of the printing press and its possible implications for the computer age.
Books even changed the way people interacted, encouraging isolation the way smartphones and social media might today. “Instead of coming together to talk with each other in person where they could understand and appreciate each other’s point of view and humanity, people started getting their information and gossip all alone, separated from others,” John wrote in a Huffington Post blog post, pointing also to the post-printing-press rise of literal fundamentalism, propaganda, and increased polarity between Catholics and Protestants. Sound familiar? “The challenges we’re seeing right now to authority of every kind,” says John, “the turmoil that’s going on in journalism and in politics — I think these are necessary growing pains, the horrible times before the Reformation and Enlightenment.”
34
Technology can save us from technology, John believes. That’s why he created AllSides with a mission “to free people from filter bubbles so they can better understand the world and each other.” It does that in part by aggregating news stories from both sides of the political spectrum and exposing media bias. The news site gets about a million views per month, and its largest demographic — about 47 percent of users — is millennials, which is unusual for websites (as opposed to apps) and particularly for news sites, which generally skew older. “We tend to get people who truly believe in the ideal of journalism,” says John. “They recognize the importance of seeing different points of view. You also have people who are specifically focused on bridging divides. In terms of our reach, we haven’t really tried to grow big yet. We’ve been more focused on perfecting it than growing it.”
DECIDING FOR OURSELVES — AND NOT LETTING TECHNOLOGY DECIDE FOR US — IS ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL.
The site’s bias ratings are meant to represent the perceptions of the American public. Diverse groups rate headlines and content without knowing the content’s source. The calculations take into account each participant’s political bias, and the results are normalized to reflect the country’s political makeup. But the bias ratings are more of a means than an end. “Our goal is simply to provide people different perspectives so they can be better informed, and so they can decide for themselves.” Even in cases where one side of the debate is more heavily backed by science and evidence, such as climate change or vaccinations, John still thinks it’s important to present both sides. “If you cut off the voices that challenge the authorities, really bad things happen. I prefer to have the debate open, not hidden.” Deciding for ourselves — and not letting technology decide for us — is absolutely critical, John says. He is especially wary of Google, with its incredible reach and targeting power. “The Google algorithm is essentially a popularity algorithm. Whatever is most popular is considered most credible.” Google even singles out the “best” result and highlights it at the top of the page in what they call a “featured snippet” whenever a question is detected, further favoring popular results and conveying a false sense of credibility.
When he launched AllSides in 2012, John told Forbes he hoped the bias detection technology he developed might someday be incorporated by search engines to bring multiple perspectives to the top of their results. “If you have technology making decisions for us, I think that’s when it goes wrong,” says John. “And I think that when you are somebody trying to win a political argument, you don’t want people to decide for themselves. You want to manipulate the information they get in such a way so they’ll come to the conclusion that you think they should come to. So there are both accidental and quite intentional movements to take people’s freedom of thought away from them without them knowing it.” Despite these misgivings, John has hope for tomorrow. “I believe that a new Reformation and Enlightenment are in our future. I think we can get there. That’s what I’m working on.”
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
35
The TV series M*A*S*H inspired Chelsea as a young writer. She says, “The dramatic (often dark) comedy challenged me to consider how humor and dryness can be useful when you’re engaging in serious topics and questions.” 36
PHOTO CREDIT: PAUL FITZGERALD
FEATURE
AND
Anthropologist and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow Chelsea Jack ’10 hopes her podcast will both demystify and complicate our understanding of the opioid epidemic.
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
37
PAIN AND PLAIN LANGUAGE
What do we talk about when we talk about the opioid epidemic? The phrase itself is technical, latinate, biomedical. You can parse those words to pieces — opion (poppy juice) + epi (upon) + demos (the people) — and still not see what Chelsea Jack ’10 believes is an obvious but overlooked part of this national public health emergency:
pain
“
wonder if we should speak less technically and demystify the conversation a bit,” says Chelsea, a Ph.D. student in anthropology at Yale University and the recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program award to study opioid use in Appalachia. “We’re talking about a crisis of pain and pain relief. I’m interested in different framings, and interrogating the language we use, and pushing boundaries in that way.” More than 140 Americans die of opioid overdose every day, making it the leading cause of death among Americans under age 50 since 2017. But numbers alone don’t necessarily illuminate the underlying roots of this crisis. “Public health experts do important things like track the source of disease outbreaks, measure occurrence, and promote access to preventive care,” says Chelsea, emphasizing epidemiologists’ essential role in achieving social
“We’re talking about a crisis of pain and pain relief. I’m interested in different framings, and interrogating the language we use, and pushing boundaries in that way.” 38
.
justice but also clarifying the difference between her work and theirs. “As an anthropologist, I believe that you can follow the story of one person or one family and learn really crucial lessons about large-scale problems.” To investigate this sweeping, national trend, Chelsea is zooming in on the life of a 26-year-old woman and her father: a rural doctor from the Shenandoah Valley who both prescribed and became dependent on opioids. She is working with the man’s daughter to produce a podcast that tells the father’s story and looks at how that story intersects with larger ones about American precarity. Economic dislocation, intergenerational trauma, and rural America are just some of the themes the podcast explores. “It’s a complicated story,” says Chelsea, “about a woman reckoning with the fact that her father — after a life shaped by trauma and pain — walked into the woods one day and disappeared.” What does it mean to disappear? When does someone start to disappear? “When folks talk about death and addiction,” says Chelsea, “the theme of disappearance is one that comes up again and again.”
“Anthropology is all about this... figuring out the ways in which conversations have been structured around division, around the idea that you can separate those people over there from these people over here.”
“
nthropologists are fundamentally writers,” Chelsea remembers her professor saying on her first day of anthro class at the Yale. Instructions for employing “thick description,” an ethnographic research method developed by the esteemed cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz, read a lot like advice to a young writer: show don’t tell; be specific; use anecdotes, examples, and quotations. “‘Thick description’ is a phrase that inspires a lot of curiosity,” says Chelsea, with characteristic carefulness in choosing her words. “It’s supposed to recognize the way that attending to people and their experiences, and the way they talk and the stories they tell, requires really good storytelling and really close attention.” Chelsea is obviously adept at both scholarly anthropological research and astute, quick-witted cultural critique. Her writing has appeared in such pointed online pubs as The Huffington Post, Quillette, The Establishment (now under Medium), and Wiley, as well as on the Bioethics Forum hosted by The Hastings Center, the think tank where she worked for two years as a project manager and research assistant. Before her doctoral studies at Yale or her master’s in social science at the University of Chicago, Chelsea grew up in rural Bedford County, Virginia, in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. “I grew up in the most beautiful place on earth, and it’s still the place I call home,” she says. “But I really wanted to be somewhere where I could access resources that would allow me to develop ideas, work as a writer, and encounter new parts of the world.” Episcopal was that place. At EHS, Chelsea learned the importance of language. “I learned that there is the world, and there are also representations of the world,” she says. “Whether it was in Mr. New’s English class, or looking at
classical texts with Mr. Streed, I was thinking about the ways in which humans talk about one another and construct stories about one another, and how there’s politics to that — how certain people have the right to construct history, to define genres, and to assert their voices in the world.” Later, Chelsea’s master’s research at the University of Chicago would further underscore the importance — and power — of language when she became curious about how opioid prescription rates differed from state to state. “I became interested not only in the way people in certain states were being prescribed more drugs than in other states, but how people were talking about that.” She found that in West Virginia, for example, the language of addiction was being used to describe issues related to the economy and labor. “Starting in the early 2000s, I found letters to the editor of local papers where people would use the metaphor of addiction and dependency to talk about chronic unemployment in the state. They’d say things like, ‘West Virginia’s always been addicted to coal.’ What social phenomena were people pointing to as they mentioned OxyContin and coal in the same breath or sentence? This was a starting point for my master’s research.” Chelsea’s research revealed how metaphors could be powerful political tools, and how the ravages of the opioid epidemic could be exploited to further political agendas. In the spring of 2017, Chelsea posted about her master’s research on Facebook and was contacted by a long-lost childhood friend who saw her post. Her friend said, “I think my dad’s story is a very odd one and might add to your research.” Chelsea didn’t know it then, but that was the beginning of an exciting new project and the exploration of a new form.
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
39
PAIN AND PLAIN LANGUAGE
“
he medium is the message,” the philosopher and media scholar Marshall McLuhan famously said. He meant that the form a storyteller (or advertiser or politician) chooses isn’t a blank slate. It can change the meaning of the message it communicates. Chelsea deliberately chose podcasting to tell her friend’s story because of the message the form naturally conveys. “What interests me most about podcasting,” she says, “is how the medium promotes listening — and just listening.” Though podcasting might sound newfangled, it’s really nothing more than on-demand radio. The big difference between radio and podcasting is that almost anyone can create and share a podcast — which means so many more stories are being told. Chelsea touches on podcasting in an essay she wrote for The Establishment about women who are creating new spaces for their creative work in the digital sphere. “Podcasts, like any technology, can change the pace and patterns of a thoughtful media consumer,” she writes. “When coupled with content explicitly by and for women, the message, in the McLuhan sense, of podcasts […] is one about engaging in social practices long championed by feminists (and decent human beings): listening to one another and recognizing untold stories.” Chelsea hopes that her podcast will be accessible and engaging enough to capture people’s attention and present an alternative narrative to the one promoted in Hillbilly Elegy, which readers have eagerly consumed since its publication in 2016. “I think a lot of Americans picked up this book as an instruction manual to Trump country,” she says. But many, including Chelsea, find Hillbilly author J.D. Vance’s story simplistic and problematic. “People who read this book are buying into an idea that’s been around a long time, which is that Appalachia is a culture in crisis,” says Chelsea. “This is a representation
“What interests me most about podcasting is how the medium promotes listening — and just listening.”
40
PHOTO CREDIT: PAUL FITZGERALD Chelsea recording her podcast about a rural doctor whose life has been touched by the opioid epidemic.
we’ve seen since JFK and Lyndon B. Johnson visited West Virginia and declared a war on poverty and economic distress.” By reproducing and sensationalizing this narrative without understanding or reporting on its complexities, we further distance ourselves from this region and its people. “Anthropology is all about this,” says Chelsea. “It’s about figuring out the ways in which conversations have been structured around division, around the idea that you can separate those people over there from these people over here — that they’re fundamentally different and there’s a hierarchy.”
helsea’s podcast is currently in development; she has completed production of a pilot and is seeking resources to produce and distribute the rest of the series. She doesn’t want to reveal too much about the plot of the story, which will be told over several episodes à la S-Town, one of the series that helped put podcasting on the map. Ultimately, Chelsea urges us to remember that underlying so many people’s use of highly addictive painkillers is pain itself: physical, psychological, and possibly cultural.
Who knows how these things manifest when it comes to communities?” Whatever those manifestations, Chelsea believes in using plain language to tell complex stories. “Conversations in certain spaces adopt a jargon of their own, and it becomes a mystifying thing,” she says. “We could talk about this crisis in more plainspoken, non-technical language, and I wonder if we would get at its sources in a more comprehensive and creative way.”
“There does seem to be, in American life, an anxiousness. Different sources of economic and financial anxiety. Different sources of uncertainty. Who knows how those things manifest when it comes to the human body?
Read, Listen, Watch Heroin(e), a Netflix Original documentary directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon Hillbilly Hellraisers: Federal Power and Populist Defiance in the Ozarks by J. Blake Perkins Pain: A Political History by Keith Wailoo Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia by Steven Stoll Removing Mountains: Extracting Nature and Identity in the Appalachian Coalfields by Rebecca Scott What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte To learn more about Chelsea’s forthcoming podcast, or to support its development, contact Chelsea at chelsea.jack14@gmail.com.
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
41
FROM THE ARCHIVES
A WEEKEND TO REMEMBER Finals wasn’t always just a dance. It was once an entire weekend. David Dougherty ’64 recalls, “At any school, Commencement Weekend is a feast. But at Episcopal it was larded with two dances, a concert, three sit-down meals a day, and a campus bursting with the visitation of hundreds of young women. The mind boggles.”
42
HAVE A MEMORY TO SHARE? Contact Archivist Laura Vetter at lfv@episcopalhighschool.org or 703-933-4011 to add your EHS recollections to our collection.
1919 Dance Card. Today dance cards are usually referred to metaphorically, but dance cards like this one were once used to track a person’s engagements for a dance or even throughout the weekend. The red cord is long enough that a woman could wear it around her wrist, and the card is small enough a man could tuck it in his pocket. This card’s interior shows what a busy weekend Finals was, with the student’s dates for each event written by hand.
Finals Dance 1949.
Through most of the 19th century, the four- to five-day celebration began with the completion of the last final exam, usually spelling, and concluded with Commencement. The festivities included chapel services, the Joint Literary Society Celebration sponsored by the Fairfax and Blackford Literary Societies, and music performed by a local, often military, band. The bands Episcopal High School booked set the tone for what always promised to be a thrilling weekend. Sometimes the Hop Committee would book the big-name bands working the colleges and universities, such as Duke Ellington for the 1954 Finals and the 17-member Tommy Dorsey Band for the 1961 Finals. With the construction of Stewart Gym, the School was able to host its Finals Dance on campus for the first time in 1914. Moving the Finals Dance on campus allowed the School to expand the weekend’s festivities to include a jazz concert in the afternoon following the last final exam and preceding the informal, Friday night dance. Upon completion of Centennial Gym, the dance relocated to this more expansive space beginning in 1938. Sometimes Finals was forever. Perry Epes ’65 will be celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary this year with his 1965 Finals date,
Gail Allinson, who drove down from Philadelphia. But things didn’t always go as planned. For the 1943 Finals, the sister of Hugh Richardson ’48, Frances, took the train to Alexandria for the weekend. But because her date, Tommy Schneider ’43, contracted measles and was quarantined in the infirmary, Tommy’s roommate, Comer Train ’43, assumed the role as her escort for the weekend. Dates invited from out of town were hosted by faculty families. Jackie Phillips, wife of beloved faculty member Allen Phillips, who taught at Episcopal for more than four decades, remembers the girls arriving with suitcases full of clothing for the weekend’s events. Randy Ruffin, daughter of Dick Thomsen ’30, EHS Headmaster 1951-67, recalls that her family, too, hosted quite a few dates for school dances, and as a young girl she admired the girls “coming down the stairs in their formal dresses with lots of tulle and crinolines.” Randy later attended as a date herself while she was a student at the Madeira School. But her fondest memory of the event comes from early childhood, when she would watch the Finals Dances from the balcony of Centennial Gym, where she enjoyed a cherished dance with her father.
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
43
Class Notes
’43
There are several ways to submit Class Notes:
John Melvin P.O. Box 1770 Pawley’s Island, SC 29585 (H) 843-237-9815 jmel@sc.rr.com
’44-’46
Class Correspondent Needed
If you’d like to volunteer to be the class correspondent or just to share an update, please contact Elizabeth Henderson ’11 at eah@episcopalhighschool.org or 703-933-4125. Bob Estill ’45 writes, “I have written my memoir, The Sun Shines Bright, available on Amazon or from the Chapel Hill Press, Chapel Hill, NC. Also available in the EHS library.” Bo Roddey ’46 writes, “I was there from ’44-’46. Among the best years of my life!”
’47
Harvey Lindsay One Colley Avenue, Apt. 900 Norfolk, VA 23510 (H) 757-423-1877 (O) 757-640-8202 harveylindsay@harveylindsay.com
George Francisco ’47 reports that he has lunch regularly with Frank Smith ’39.
Bob Richardson ’48, center, with his grandchildren. 44
1. Submit news online through the alumni portal at www.episcopalhighschool.org; 1 2. Contact your Class Correspondent by phone, mail, or email; 2 3. Write your news in the space provided on the Roll Call reply card and mail it with your 3 annual gift; or 4. Send news to your Alumni Programs Officer* by phone, email, or mail to 1200 N. Quaker 4 Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302. Advancement team members and their assigned classes are: Classes up to 1973: Brandi Vasquez, 703-933-4140, or bwv@episcopalhighschool.org Classes of 1974-96: Chelsey Hochmuth, 703-933-4167, ckh@episcopalhighschool.org Classes of 1997-2017: Katharine Farrar ’07, 703-933-4056, or kdf@episcopalhighschool.org
’48
Hugh Richardson 1819 Peachtree Road, NE, #200 Atlanta, GA 30309 (O) 404-351-0941
Nobody better mess with Bob Richardson, fourth from left in the picture below, or suffer the consequences from his six grandchildren, also shown, which include 9-year-old Malcolm in front. Bob looks sporty in the checked shirt and white pants. And that’s his granddaughter in the red shirt, who has started a four-year audiology program in Athens, OH. At Episcopal, Bob was one of the brightest students and the fine-fielding shortstop for Coach Bill Ravenel’s 1948 baseball team. He could grab a grounder, toss it to second baseman, Rufus Barkley, who would rifle it to first baseman Phil Duckett for a quick double play. Bob was also the all-important “stringer” for the area newspapers and the Baltimore and Richmond dailies. Then, EHS had no information officer and Bob was the one who sent in news of happenings on The Holy Hill. After Yale, Bob was associated with Allied Chemical and met his lovely wife, Luella, in New Rochelle, NY, while she was babysitting for his sister’s child. Sadly, Luella died four years ago, but Bob is in relatively good health and
wonders why he can’t make it to 100. Keep on truckin’, Bob! The prized pitcher and excellent hitter on ’48’s baseball team, Henry Schacht, called to say that he, wife Janet, and Lockwood Rianhard, Eddie Pryor ’50, and their wives were looking forward to a March 2018 gettogether at Vero beach that included ’48 Head Monitor “Cap’n” Jack Clarkson and wife Kirk, who Henry said live in Ponte Vedra, FL. As a young first-year boy (remember the word used to be “rat”), Henry was the best baseball pitcher and became good friends with diamond stars Harry Kaminer ’47 and Stuart Gilchrist ’47. When he finished Davidson College, Henry moved to Vero Beach where he opened and still runs the very successful Schacht Fruit Groves. Off and on for over 35 years, Henry, Harry, and Stuart would meet until Harry and Stuart’s deaths. Our esteemed Class Notes Editor, Elizabeth Henderson ’11, had a big hand in the summer publication, Four Columns, honoring the 109 members of the EHS Class of 2017. Elizabeth noted that 58 awards and scholarships were given to deserving students by donors. Fortunately, ’48 wasn’t completely left out. William Holland Wilmer was responsible for Karen Zhang ’20 receiving the Medal for Scholarship. (Our senior year, Holland won the Fairfax Literary Society Debating Contest.) As of this writing, ’48 numbers 29 members. It sure would be good to hear from
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
Holland and other classmates before we go to that Great Mass Meeting.
scandal problems at my old workplace, the University of Louisville.
Notes from another class: William A. Parker, Jr. ’45, who died Dec. 12, 2017, was nicknamed “Ace” Parker at The High School for Duke’s All-American football player. Bill was the popular varsity football manager when the team had a disappointing season, but he kept the players in high spirits with his good humor and country singing. His younger brother, Albert N. “Buddy” Parker, went to Woodberry. When asked why, Bill replied that Buddy thought the Episcopal dorms were too austere. If so, Bill wasn’t affected. He loved EHS, was always a generous supporter, and attended Reunions. He had a vast knowledge of the School recalling that during the Civil War it served as a Union hospital.
Harrison Braxton wrote while visiting Chapel Hill in January that his daughter Grace Anne will compete in the National Special Olympics in Seattle this year. He is still very active in golf rules officiating, with plans to work at collegiate and Virginia PGA events in spring and summer.
’49
Class Correspondent Needed
If you’d like to volunteer to be the class correspondent or just to share an update, please contact Elizabeth Henderson ’11 at eah@episcopalhighschool.org or 703-933-4125.
’50
Gish Anderson 915 Shoreline Drive W, Unit 142 Sunset Beach, NC 28468 (H) 910-575-3198 gishgay@earthlink.net
’51 ’52 ’53
Walter Reed (H) 707-448-3347 waltnloli@earthlink.net
Harte Crow (H) 603-643-5007 hcahcrow@gmail.com
Lamar Cecil ’50 and his step-granddaughter, Ingrid, over Christmas at home in Lynchburg, VA.
mediation in the Family Court and seeing more of my four beautiful granddaughters.” Jonathan Bryan writes that he is continuing to encourage parishes to build housing for low-income seniors. Drummond Ayres writes, “Looking forward to our 65th and hope/trust we’ll have a big turnout .... because the ranks are getting thin, and who knows where/how we’ll all be come 2023? I did my 60th at VMI last spring, and, alas, it was depressingly clear how thin and crippled up our ’57 ranks had become, though we soldiered brotherly on, sagging chins held high. Come this April, I will go to my 55th at Columbia University, and the turn-out push is on by the ’63 class agents. I’ll close with this (albeit I had to look it up these 65 years later)... Gaudeamus igitur Iuvenes dum sumus. Post iucundam iuventutem Post molestam senectutem Nos habebit humus. Let us rejoice, therefore, While we are young. After a pleasant youth After a troubling old age The earth will have us.
Ed Mullins (H) 803-782-3027 (O) 803-733-9401 ewmullinsjr@gmail.com 65th Reunion: June 8-10, 2018
’54
Ed Mullins says he is gradually adjusting to retirement — “doing some pro bono
Mort Boyd wrote that he had no news to report but gave me a good rundown on the
Charlie Covell (H) 352-336-0127 (O) 352-273-2023 covell@louisville.edu
An update from Will Bridgers says, “Pluma and I are in Charleston, but I am commuting still to my office here in Hilton Head Island during the week.” (Will and I have been exchanging notes on hurricane experiences these past two summers.) John Burress writes, “Blessed with perfect health, great friends, family and regular sports events with Charlie Tompkins. Had a great visit with Bob Baker in Durham. He is the most upbeat, positive guy I know even though he has some physical limitations due to a stroke. However, it has done absolutely nothing to diminish his bright outlook, his memory, or his ability to laugh and talk. My best to you, and congratulations on that granddaughter.” Jim Chapman wrote that he thinks he might give up skiing but apparently is still at it. His wife, Gail, has already done so. Snowfall was sparse in his part of NM as of January. He and Kirk Williams were good friends, dating back to Dolly Madison Jr. High in Arlington. Harry Gamble responded to my note, “Charles, it’s surprising I got this from you today since I just drove in from Gainesville where we spent a few days with Molly’s family and friends. I thought of you as we passed your butterfly museum on several occasions. I’m not a full member of the class, having not returned my senior year, so I am reluctant to participate in the conversation. But thanks for keeping me on the list.” Gill Holland writes, “I still do volunteer teaching in Davidson Learns, a program for older citizens. Last year and last fall I offered three courses in Chinese culture. This winter I have a course in Norwegian art (Edvard Munch) and folk tales (TROLLS!). We go to a lot of sports events for the grandchildren who live in Davidson. I write book reviews for the Pines’ weekly activity bulletin and stories EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
45
CLASS NOTES
’56
a brilliant Kinsolving,” a Rhodes Scholar and a graduate of Yale and Harvard Law.
John Mason wrote from Alexandria, VA, “No trip this past year, visiting friends overseas. It was their turn to come see us. Linda and I did get away, though, to South Carolina in the fall to see family and friends. Here in Alexandria I’m active in our Anglican Catholic church (same Prayer Book and Hymnal that we knew at EHS 65 years ago). It’s a block down the street from the June 14 shooting incident at a Congressional baseball practice. We held a vigil that evening, which overflowed into the parking lot. Since then we’ve had an uptick in new members from the neighborhood. It’s been a busy year for our Parish. I still go birding, though not as much, and I direct duplicate bridge games less often. Directors that I mentored now work full-time; I fill in for them when they need backup. As an old friend in Colombia says, the secret is to stay busy. He’s pushing ninety and works almost as much as when we were in our thirties. He’s Ernesto deLima Lefranc. Google him.”
We’re heading into 80th birthday time, and that of course includes some birthday parties — though probably not as raucous as when we were in our 20s. Bruce Rinehart had one at his and Mary’s winter place in Florida for which many of his siblings, including Jack ’52, were present. Then Parthie Shields had one here in Charlottesville that I attended, along with her former husband Fred Shields ’55, her brothers Mark Gibson ’57 and Lang Gibson ’59, and Winston Kaminer ’59.
’57
Bill Pender continues interest and study of the 28th NC Regt., CSA, of family history interest.
Another EHS alum to emulate is Walter Klingman. Walter cheerfully concedes he has Alzheimer’s but is planning a spring group trip to a food/music/poetry festival in Alpine, Texas in March and a trout-fishing trip to Colorado in July. He also hopes to come north to visit friends in Charlottesville.
for the Pines’ ‘lite’ literary magazine called the PINE POST. (The Pines is the retirement community in Davidson.)” Jack Jones responded, “Hello Charles, wish I had something interesting. All is well.”
I continue working as a part-time curator at the McGuire Center, Florida Museum of Natural History here in Gainesville, FL. I’d welcome a visit from any of you and your families if you get to Gator country. You would enjoy our big butterfly rainforest feature I’d like to show you. I’m saddened by the loss of Kirk Williams and Al Mead recently, and I’m praying for healing for Sen. John McCain. Please drop me a line and let me know you’re on the “right side of the grass.”
’55
Sandy Wise (H) 434-202-8065 (O) 614-447-0281 hawppmd@aol.com 65th Reunion: June 2020
46
Terry Cooper (H) 434-202-8065 (O) 703-931-8172 terry@cooperresearch.us 65th Reunion: June 2021
The Charley Stillwell show was here in Charlottesville quite recently and attracted a number of our contemporaries including Henry Carter ’55, Saunders Midyette ’58, Tommy Boyd ’58, and Fred Scott ’59. Also present were Dave Wood ’42 and his wife Mickey. Although they’re both in their 90s, they look at least 20 years younger. They’re examples to us all!
Another hardy soul is Fielder Israel. Fielder is about to undergo gallbladder surgery as I write but he and Gretchen fully expect to carry out their plans to snowbird to Naples, Florida, Amelia Island, South Carolina and Williamsburg, Virginia in March. Also on the up and up: Nelson Durden reports that his and Molly’s daughter, Ann Durden Donovan, is a Ph.D. candidate and mental-health therapist in Richmond.
I must also report that Henry Spalding lost his wonderful wife of 56 years, Kaye, to a 10-year battle with cancer.
Louie Gump (O) 423-282-3933 lhg703@yahoo.com 65th Reunion: June 2022
Robbie Harrison writes, “I got married January 27th in Savannah to the former Melinda Barben Colson from Coral Gables. We had a grand wedding ceremony and dinner, followed the next day by a “Shotgun Wedding Pheasant Shoot” to honor her and all her family. There were several Episcopal boys from my family in attendance.” Dillon Wooten writes, “Celebrated 80 years in business in October with party Dec. 14. Had to move in to new office due to Hurricane Matthew flood in Oct. 2016. Married to Sue since 1966; 3 daughters and 4 grandsons. All doing well.” Tom Davenport writes, “I recommend following our classmate Phil Carter on Facebook. Phil is mostly in Camden, Maine and posts his poems regularly.” Albert Ritchie writes, “As we have for the past few years, Louie Gump and Lucy, Bob Taylor and Anne, and Jennie and I had a mini reunion on the occasion of a UT football game in Knoxville. We had a wonderful meal on the lovely terrace of a new Italian restaurant on a Saturday night. That was followed on Sunday by a literary walking tour of Knoxville. Don’t scoff — we are talking about James Agee, Cormac McCarthy, Frances Hodgson Burnett and more. Any classmates who want to join us next year need only to apply.”
Now to the sad news.
Henry Blake writes, “I sure enjoyed my 60th Reunion and Buzz Ringle’s book! Buzz, write another one!”
As we heard from EHS, our classmate Gus Kinsolving passed away in March 2017. So far as I’m aware, Gus never kept in contact with his class but he was, as his Whispers entry remarked, “this paradox of paradoxes,
I’m still on the muskrat farm, collecting films for Folkstreams.net which we have modernized. I believe that Folkstreams is the oldest video streaming site in the country and perhaps the world. I work with retired professor
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
After Episcopal
A Leader Through the Wilderness Humphrey Tyler ’65 remembers former math teacher David Stewart Walker, Jr. ’43.
DAVID WALKER ’43 WAS NOT ONLY A GRADUATE OF EHS, BUT A LONGTIME FACULTY MEMBER WHO SERVED THE SCHOOL IN VARIOUS ROLES — INCLUDING ASSISTANT HEADMASTER, HEAD OF THE MATH DEPARTMENT, AND DIRECTOR OF STUDIES — FROM 1947 TO 1950, AND FROM 1953 TO 1970. BELOW, HUMPHREY TYLER ’65 SHARES HIS MEMORIES OF HIS FORMER TEACHER.
Above all, Mr. Walker was a master mathematician. He was unique in that he was genial and genuinely friendly, and yet he was a private man, who almost never indulged in sharing much of anything about himself with his students. I had him my “second senior year” for Intro to Differential and Integrated Calculus, also known as “Math 5.” It was a small class made up of students whose academic achievements were at both ends of the scholarship scale. On the one hand, there were the School’s math superstars. But there were also a handful of “fifthyear students,” which at the time was a euphemism for those of us whose less-than-stellar classroom performance dictated that we return for an additional year in order to earn a diploma. It must have been difficult to teach a class of students with such diverse abilities and enthusiasm for the relatively advanced, scientific mathematical concepts of calculus. And yet Mr. Walker never showed any frustration, and like the leader of a group of wilderness hikers, he guided us through the mysteries of differential and integrated functions only as fast as the slowest student could keep up. You could tell he truly loved the math and enjoyed having the opportunity in every class to introduce young minds to his world of calculations beyond multiplication tables and fractions.
As the man of math at EHS, he was also the School’s official sports statistician. One of the most enduring pictures in my mind is of him patrolling the sidelines of football games with a clipboard, carefully cataloguing the Maroon’s passing and rushing yardage, tackles, pass completions, and points. Many of Episcopal’s athletics statistics recorded in the latter half of the 20th century were compiled by Mr. Walker. The High School is grateful for Mr. Walker’s decades of service. He passed away on Aug. 29, 2016, in Charlottesville, Va. His obituary was included in the Fall 2016 edition of EHS magazine. A member of Episcopal’s Bell Society, David Walker left a generous bequest to EHS that will support the School’s annual fund year after year in perpetuity. Members of the Bell Society honor the traditions of Episcopal by naming EHS as a beneficiary in their estate planning. Their generosity and foresight will help to sustain Episcopal’s tradition of excellence for future generations. If you have questions about the Bell Society, please contact Rick Wilcox, Director of Alumni and Parent Programs, at 703-933-4024.
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
47
CLASS NOTES
emeritus Dr. Daniel Patterson, who some of you who went to Chapel Hill may remember.
’58
Hayne Hipp (O) 864-241-5432 HHipp@135southmain.com 60th Reunion: June 8-10, 2018
Walter Penn is doing fine. And, promises to be at the reunion but for now is working the political correctness (or incorrectness) in Lexington with Lee and Jackson. Tim Burnett is delighted his oldest grandson, Brenton Smith ’21, is now at Woodberry Forest. Oops, a freshman on the Hill. And, Tim promises on June. Rick Pietsch is struggling to keep up with Dee. With only a few hiccups in life, he is delighted where they are. Has promised to do more than play golf to get in shape. Peter Sevareid and John Brabson are bemoaning the fact that they missed the extraordinary Pawleys Island stud gathering. Both will be at the High School for the 60th. For Brabo this will be his first ever reunion of his many schools from which he graduated. (And then, note the correct English — not “graduated from.”) More on Brabo: Hiked in the Dolomites with his youngest daughter, wonderful father/child connecting. Finished long-term stint as Chair of Tampa General Hospital, and now has his medical safety net in place. Frank Middleton is loafing on Wadmalaw Island under the supervision of lovely Catherine. Claims the tide come in and the tide goes out. His focus is making no new commitments beyond visiting with kids and grands. Moncure Crowder wrote a very long note as would any retired economist. Ho hum. He will share in June. Surry Roberts cranks up the enthusiasm to join him at the 46th Annual International Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, TN. A title longer than the town. Let’s go!
48
Pope Shuford has once again taken the leadership by adding the Shuford Entrepreneurship Program as an enhancement to the Undergraduate Education at UNC. Bet those youngsters don’t even know a Germans’ weekend.
’60
Sandy Sierck, Jimmy Watts and Surry Roberts are still reminiscing about their 50th reunion, and the Dalrymple discussion about the still unknown one who moved John Amos’ bed into the shower.
’61
And, Hayne Hipp is still bragging about being undefeated in wrestling. 1-0 because Landon Hilliard and Stuart Saunders ’60 were occupied elsewhere.
’59
J.D. Simpson (H) 501-663-8631 (O) 501-377-2110 jdsimpson@stephens.com 60th Reunion: 2019
Page Dame writes, “Beverly and I moved to Sarasota, FL in June, 2017 due to my COPD which did not tolerate the cold weather of northern Vermont and the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Remarkably improved in the tropics. All are invited to stop by or stay in our guest quarters if you happen to find yourself on the Gulf Coast. I have been active with the EHS alumni office and have turned over a surprisingly large amount of material to the Archives (as a third generation legacy). Hope you saw yours truly in the Callaway video on the website and will support the Roll Call handsomely. Have just been in touch with Gaston Caperton and am in regular contact with Johnny B. Thompson, who is married to my first cousin Ashby deButts (met at our wedding 20 years ago) and Charley Matheson who is living the life of a country squire near Upperville, VA. The older I get, the more attached to the High School I become! Cheers to one and all.”
Bill Drennen (H) 304-876-1236 (O) 304-876-6400 wmdrennen1@me.com 60th Reunion: 2020
Elliott Randolph (H) 410-377-6912 Elliott.randolph@comcast.net Lanier Woodrum (H) 540-774-2798 Lbwoodrum@cox.net 60th Reunion: 2021
’62
Al Berkeley (H) 410-243-7859 alfredberkeley@gmail.com 50th Reunion: June 2022
Van MacNair reports, “I’ve been racking my brain for something interesting to share for the class notes only to realize that, at the moment, Gretchen and I are living pretty unexciting and fairly mundane lives. We moved back to the DC area from Chapel Hill a few years ago to be near our two newly minted grandsons and, as Gretchen says: “Make sure they grow up properly!” For me, that means teaching them how to make those funny noises with your armpit and the proper timing on the ‘pull my finger’ joke. They are excellent students! “Being back in DC has one major downside or benefit (depending on which way you look at it) as we have become the on-call, emergency/backup babysitters and transportation providers for the grandkids. Not a week goes by that we aren’t filling in for the nanny or to ferry one or both to school or to one of the multiple sport practices which they are participating in. It tends to keep us busy but it also allows us to spend a little quality (usually) time with the kids plus a chance to
John Chatfield writes, “Daughter, Kathryn, MD PhD, is Pediatric faculty at University of Colorado in Cardiology. Son, David, is professor of art at Aurora Community College. I am a student at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.”
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
watch them training to be the next hockey or lacrosse superstar. “I reached the three quarters of a century mark back in November which was a sobering reminder that a rendezvous with the Dark Man is out there somewhere in the future. Gretch and I have been lucky in that our health has been good so far with most of the major body parts still functioning and no ailments that being forty years younger wouldn’t cure. If I wake up in the morning and I’m not dead, I figure that’s about all I can ask nowadays. Our condo building has a well-equipped fitness center which we try to use regularly so, along with some tennis a couple of times a week, we have managed to keep our joints from seizing up like a rust gate hinge thus far. “I often reminisce on my years (five of ‘em!) at Episcopal. While I hated it most of the time I was there it didn’t take long after I left for me to realize the enormous impact it had on my life and, for better or for worst, helped shape who I am today and, for that, I am truly grateful. I hope to live long enough to see my two grandsons go there.” Tom Waring writes, “Janice and I are enjoying my third year of retirement from the practice of law here in Charleston, except for the almost annual hurricanes. I am involved with various volunteer work and helping with grandchildren of which we now have three. Luckily for us, both boys and their families live here so we see them and their children frequently. Joe will become CFO January 1 with the media company with which our family has been involved for four generations, while his wife, Silvia, works with Greystar, and they have a boy and a girl. Richard is a State Assistant Prosecutor, his wife Ashley is in a Cardiology Fellowship at MUSC, and they just had a baby girl at Thanksgiving. We are happy, blessed, and wish all the best for our fellow classmates.” Howdie Goodwin writes, “Things are fine with us. Been in touch with Stan Lawrence, Menard Doswell, and Chooch. Hope to be with those guys before too long. Ellen and I are going to Hawaii in about a month. Never been there; looking forward to it. Still working, 8 grandchildren. It’s a lot of fun when we get with them albeit chaotic at the very least! My best to everybody.”
Don Adams writes, “I am still in South Florida, pretty good health. Mostly retired, but still teaching some English as a Second Language classes. “I love traveling as much as ever, mostly to Central Europe, and I have developed a passion for cruising. Took a great Panama Canal cruise this fall as well as a few others this winter in the Caribbean. Visited the campus over Thanksgiving weekend — it seems like a new place every time I go back!” Frank Martin writes, “I have much slowed down my real estate activities, but I am spending some time finding sites for several younger Charlotte developers. In my service work, I’m still board chair of a 1,600 student K-12 charter school serving low income students and am on the board of two start-up schools with a similar mission. “Last summer, I had a pacemaker implanted to address a heart issue. My golf suffered from a 4 month lay-off during the surgeries. I now play poorly but often.” Monty Gray writes, “I don’t really have anything significant to be reported, but since I haven’t responded in many years, if ever, but always enjoy reading about classmates and other EHS friends.” “After a career as a commercial litigator in Seattle, to which we moved “temporarily” in 1972, Jill and I are enjoying retirement and travel opportunities. We have taken each of our two pairs of grandchildren to Europe, without their parents. I recommend such an excursion to all. As someone has said, the reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they share a common hostility. I’m somewhat active in church matters and rather more active in the bridge-playing community, having taken up the game again after 40+ years. Best to you and all classmates.” Alex Shuford writes, “I will give you a short update. I am retired after working for many years at Century Furniture, our family business. We were hit hard by the so called Great Recession and a flood of imports from China and others. We did survive and my son, Alex ’91, (also an EHS grad) is currently our CEO, and my daughter, Comer Wear ’95, is our VP of marketing (She was in the group of the first 48 girls that came to EHS). We have
two more daughters, Nancy and Eliza, both of whom went to Foxcroft. I live on a farm south of Hickory, NC where my wife of 49 years, Nancy Comer, breeds thoroughbreds for the race track. She sells most of them at the auctions in Kentucky as yearlings and weanlings. She has had some recent success, having bred a horse named Beach Patrol. A grade one multiple stakes winner, who finished second in the Breeders Cup mile and a half on the turf. Got beat by a nose. We, of course, had flown to California to watch. Great weekend — been better if he had won.” Chuck Weitzel writes, “My wife Jane and I continue to enjoy retirement, good health, and visits to family and friends across the US and Canada. The 2017 highlight was a 2-week trip to South Africa with short stops in Zimbabwe and Botswana. The late April weather was agreeable and in spite of concerns about malaria, very few mosquitoes were encountered. We made the customary tourist stops: Cape Town, Johannesburg, Victoria Falls, and several game preserves where we viewed animals in the wild. Our tour guide, who had authored a book about South Africa, did an excellent job presenting the history, geography, and wildlife. Some of our memorable images are: Nelson Mandela’s home in Soweto, dilapidated downtown Johannesburg compared to its suburbs, the immense size of Victoria Falls, and a group of young elephants playing in the Chobi river. We arrived back in Arizona to find that our backyard renovation project was nearly complete. This project was started in January with the removal of an in-ground swimming pool. Jane selected plants and I’m happy to report that most of them survived their first Arizona summer. The artificial grass looks great and requires zero maintenance.” Woody Efird writes, “Not really much to report here. I continue to serve on board and building committee for 800 Cherokee, the 72 unit condo at the end of Biltmore Drive, where you (Al Berkeley) grew up. We are undergoing a total repair and brick reclad project to fix original construction issues and make the building the go to place in Eastover. Hope you are doing well.” John Willingham writes, “Jane & I are enjoying retirement in Macon, GA. Our family has increased in size during the last year with the births of a great grandson and a great EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
49
CLASS NOTES
granddaughter. We also have 3 children and 3 grandchildren.”
continue to thrive in Raleigh, and their Banks’ is ready for rugby already at one plus!
designed exclusively for his comfort and aesthetic sense.
Kemble White and I talked on the telephone. He is doing well and is a delight with which to catch up. I misplaced the notes I scratched down while we talked, and rather than get it wrong, I’ll try again next issue.
Life on the banks of the Intracoastal Waterway is beautiful! We encourage any and all comers, especially golfers as our club has just done a major renovation making Morehead City CC one of the best courses on the east coast.
Personally, Muriel and I are planning our 50th wedding anniversary this June. Hard to believe. I just returned from Davos, Switzerland. It was my 19th visit there. I had been on the board of the World Economic Forum for eleven years, but got booted when we merged the US non-profit with the Swiss non-profit. This year I was under a different flag, helping launch the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. The “SDG’s” are an effort to bring the private sector and nation-states into a common effort to cut pollution in many ways and raise the quality of life for many people around the world.
We’ll miss 55, but hope our son, Joe ’03, will be able to make his fifteenth. Happy days!”
In late January, the Wall Street Journal reviewed an exhibition of Jefferson’s architecture at the Fralin Museum of Art in Charlottesville, noting Poplar Forest, which it described as “less well-known” than Monticello, but very much a Jefferson creation. Poplar Forest was built as Jefferson’s retreat from the rigors of the presidency, and Steve says it may well be the most thoroughly documented historically important home built before the Civil War. The obsessive Jefferson sent a blizzard of detailed written instructions on every aspect of the house from Washington to his corps of builders. And he minced no words about what he liked and didn’t like. For instance, he found most American architecture “ugly, uncomfortable and happily…perishable.”
I went to Alan Mead ’54’s funeral. He was a a good fellow and gracious to me when I started at Alex Brown and Sons. Sat with Elliott Randolph ’61. My very best to all. Your humble scribe— arb
May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. And rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.
’63
’64
The main room was a cube surrounded by octagonal walls, with an east-to-west skylight. This he used as his dining room. There were only two bedrooms as Jefferson wanted the house not to be for entertaining or public purposes.
Peg Stallworth: “Am answering for Jim Stallworth as he got a new left hip January 25! He is recovering exceedingly well. Funny, last spring we had installed an elevator for our ‘infirm’ friends having no idea how much it would be needed by us! His doctor has a fabulous reputation, and we are certain all will be well.
When Steve Watts went home from EHS for holidays, he went to Poplar Forest, one of only two houses that Thomas Jefferson built for himself, the other being Monticello. And when he went to bed there, he slept in the room Jefferson slept in. Who knew?
After his death, the home was sold and, in 1845, a fire destroyed the interior and the roof. The owners replaced the elaborate Palladian woodwork in a simpler — and less expensive — style. The skylight disappeared and in its place was a less dramatic conventional roof. It was this version of Poplar Forest that Steve grew up in after his father bought the place in 1946.
Cotten Alston (O) 404-310-0541 cottenalston@gmail.com 55th Reunion: June 8-10, 2018
We don’t have much news except that William’s ’00 The Painted Duck opened in late December at Tenth and Brady [ed: the Painted Pin and the Painted Duck are fabulous…they are must see stops in Atlanta for fun, a drink, and a meal.) It is The Painted Pin on steroids. FABULOUS! His wife, Mary Riddick, is due to deliver our grand baby number three (their number two joins three-year old Bill) in March. Joe and Leigh 50
I have enjoyed herding you (cool) cats for these past years of classnotes and I thank you for the opportunity to share. I will look forward to crossing your path wherever and whenever possible. If you should end up in “the ATL”, as they now say, please advise and we will break bread…in the meantime, I leave you with one of my favorite images for you and yours…it has been a great run and a real privilege to be a small part of our collective boarding puzzle…
Alex Jones (H) 617-497-2387 (O) 617-469-2582 alexsjones2@gmail.com 55th Reunion: June 2019
“It was an accident of birth,” Steve told me, “and I never mentioned it then. It was just the house where I lived.” The story of Steve and Poplar Forest is not only one of passion and boundless enthusiasm, but of a family stewardship that Jefferson would have viewed with great approval. He loved architecture and the two homes he built for himself were especially — and personally — precious to him. Both were planned and created to his very exacting specifications and
Poplar Forest is outside Lynchburg, an area then more rustic than Charlottesville or Richmond and therefore satisfactory as a retreat. The house was started in 1806 and has Jefferson’s unmistakable personal stamp.
Steve’s Dad was a preservationist at heart and loved the house, which by then had fallen into terrible disrepair. There was no heat aside from fireplaces, and that presented a real quandary. There had to be heat, but radiators would destroy the aesthetic integrity of Jefferson’s creation. So, in 1947, one of the first radiant
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
Ben Martin announced last fall his retirement as Professor of French History from LSU. He has retreated to the hillier climes of Greenville, SC, but retains the title of “Price Professor of History Emeritus”. There, he will continue as a Book Critic for the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
heat systems was installed, with pipes discreetly hidden behind plaster walls. The Watts family owned Poplar Forest for 33 years, and were delighted that it found its way into the hands of a non-profit committed not only to preserving it, but restoring it to Jefferson’s original design. The Association for Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest has already restored the skylighted roof and exterior, and a complete recreation of the beautiful — and elaborate — original woodwork is scheduled for completion within three years. The money comes from private funders, who view the home as a national treasure.
Three Pinckney generations: Saint ’65, Bryan ’98, and George with Ward Carr ’65 in Heidelberg, Germany.
Three years ago, the Association unexpectedly invited Steve to join the board, and what had been his quiet passion for the house has now become a very public — even clamorous — one. His joy at being involved with Poplar Forest is evident — just bring up the subject. Steve is of counsel at his law firm in Richmond, but plans to step away from that in a year to devote more time to travel — Scotland a particular favorite destination — and, of course, to lavish energy spreading the word about Poplar Forest.
Will Haltiwanger ’65 with Jim Lewis, one of the first EHS lacrosse coaches.
Humphrey Tyler ’65 prepping for Darwin Award.
’65
Jim Sullivan (H) 615-292-3536 (O) 615-327-5759 jsullivangrayson@gmail.com Richard Lee (H) 617-497-4523 dlee60@verizon.net 55th Reunion: June 2020
As we write, garbed in sealskins, there is irony in doing so for the spring edition of the Alumni News. The Northeast Corridor has been subject to sub-zero winds for much
As a decades-long resident of Richmond, VA, Saint Pinckney recently has been a model of restraint on all matters related to Confederate memorials and the city’s Monument Avenue. A trip to Europe last fall offered some surcease from the controversy. There, the notion of “tragic ambiguity” as applied to statuary is, perhaps, more nuanced. Saint was able to connect with his son, Bryan ’98, grandson, George, and Ward Carr in Heidelberg, Germany. Also, an interesting note and photo from Will Haltiwanger: On a bike trek with wife, Anna, last fall, he ran into Jim Lewis, one of the first (’63 and ’64) lacrosse coaches at Episcopal. Jim, it seems, has led a most committed existence. As an Episcopal minister, he has been very much on the front lines pushing for gay rights, women’s rights, and minorities.
When it is done, it will not be furnished, which is in its way even more evocative and entrancing than when such a house is filled with period furniture. Those who visit Drayton Hall outside Charleston know the unexpectedly magical experience of imagining rather than simulating, of preserving the past rather than restoring it. That’s just the way Steve wants it…though of course he also gets to visit his old bedroom.
Even as many of us congealed at the thought of, yet, another term paper at Episcopal, Ben carried this skill to a high art. He has under his belt seven books and over five hundred articles and book reviews. His documentary work with the History Channel is well worth a view. We recommend that of the “Dreyfus Affair”, wherein Ben’s commentary is central…a fascinating presentation.
of this month. In gliding past our seventh decade, it is fair to say the metabolism does not adjust to the elements as it once did. Compensatory measures are in order. Food and Drink is one of them. We recommend “Henrietta Red”, a restaurant recently opened in Nashville by Jimmy Sullivan’s daughter, Julia. Jamie Totten, “Mole” (aka R.H. Lee), and Jimmy all took it out for a spin in October with their respective spouses. (Many subjects were discussed; no opinions given.) This bistro is well worth the stop for any among our class passing through. Julia’s recipes appear in the Wall St. Journal with some regularity.
And this just in: Humphrey Tyler continues his quest for a Darwin Award. Attached, a photo of Humphrey in training at the site of the 1814 Battle of New Orleans. We look forward to other examples of this regimen, a testament to rigorous self-discipline and careful pre-planning. In August 2017, Clint Laird and Mary Lee went on a twelve day pilgrimage to Fatima (100th anniversary) and Lourdes. In February, they’ll attend, in Tempe, an opera where their daughter, Julia, has her first leading role — Therese in Les Mamelles de Tiresias. Performed in French. BF Martin would approve.
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
51
CLASS NOTES
Lastly, and for those who did not see his email, Jack Glenn will attend a Charlottesville Vietnam memorial service in April for cousin and EHS classmate, Erskine Wilde. Some investigation reveals that this monument, established in 1966, was one of the first in the country devoted to those who served in Vietnam. For any among our class who might visit, it is easily seen from along the Rt 250 by-pass. It is called the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial. Thanks to John for letting folks know.
’66
Linda and Will Pratt ’66 and Molly and Jenks Hobson ’66 at Ham House near London.
Phil Terrie (H) 607-319-4271 pterrie@bgsu.edu 55th Reunion: June 2021
Thanks to the classmates below who responded to my plea for news: Sam Dawson: “I have a new grandson. His name is Henry Jennings Dawson. He was born on September 30, 2017, was 21 inches, and weighed in at 8 lb, 14oz! Our youngest son, Patrick, wed a lovely young lady by the name of Megan this past May. And finally, I have made a change in the leadership at Camp Alleghany! I have elevated my daughter, Elizabeth, to be the Director as of January 1, 2018. I have not retired but will assume the title of Owner/Director Emeritus. This will give me more time to do other things associated with Alleghany.” Bruce Forrester: “Yes, that old shot putter, Bruce M. Forrester Jr, has had a wonderful “Hillary-Free” year with the glorious election of one Donald J. Trump (and that big tax cut doesn’t hurt either). Heck, I am even a small donor to the Donald. Now, I need to straighten out the local “establishment” Republicans to help them see the populist light. My son, BMF III, (all six foot nine of him) is a senior at The Ohio State University over in Columbus. A Russian major with a minor in Marketing. And the Brucester is a member of the OSU Rock Climbing Club. Also, I host a weekly Mad Scientist ‘Nerd Night’ at my place on Tuesday nights, sometimes called a ‘Dog Party.’ Featuring liquor in moderation and some tasty hors d’oeuvres: all the better to ply these engineers into setting mind to purpose in order the better to conjure up some of that elusive ‘Free Energy’ as in ‘Flying Saucer Motors.’” 52
Jack Sibley ’66 in his new tractor, which he hopes to learn how to operate.
Bill Harryman: “I am still alive and well. My wife Susan and I are living in The Villages, FL, in Sumter County. It is a very fast growing community, one of the fastest in the US. Florida is a great place to live compared to the last state that we lived in, Illinois. By now IL may have declared bankruptcy. Taxes are increasing and people are fleeing. Here in Florida we have had a growing economy and the budget has had a surplus. We are getting money back on our taxes. We are doing a lot of the usual retirement activities: golf, bicycling, travelling and a sport that you may not be familiar with, Pickleball. It’s a cross between badminton, tennis, and table tennis played with a solid paddle. Lots of fun. We traveled to Charleston, SC, this weekend to watch our daughter run in a 1/2 marathon. Very cold up there, but the food was great. We both liked Charleston. Our other children are all over the country, elder son in Austin, TX, daughter in NC near Ft. Bragg, and our youngest in Seattle, WA. His daughter is our only grandchild, but we have had her come down to visit for two months in the summer for the last two years. Since she is ten this year, she may be willing to visit again for a few years, until she decides that
Hillary Clinton; John Pinder ’66; daughter-inlaw Molly Buckie-Pinder, holding granddaughter Haddie; and son Ben Pinder, holding granddaughter Lily.
grandparents are fossils. Didn’t make it up for the 50th reunion. Would have liked to have been there. I’m not sure that I will make it up to EHS again, too much going on and travel is not that easy.” Bunky Henderson: “I have been able to catch up with Johnny Hooff ’67 whose son lives adjacent to our new house in Charleston. It has been great to catch up with both Johnny and Henry Smythe. A lot of good memories. And I must say our collective recall is not bad.” Jenks Hobson, “For Molly and me, retirement invites travel. In 2017 we enjoyed a Viking Cruises trip up the Danube from Budapest, a delightful experience of previously unexplored territory. We ended in Nuremberg and had a reunion with our two German exchange student ‘sons’ from the 1990s and their families. Then off to England for some time with Will Pratt and his wife Linda for the second year in a row. In October I had the pleasure of returning to perform a wedding for one of our ‘sons.’ For me, another part of retirement is continuing some bits of my long pastoral ministry. One bit is
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
support of a trade school in the hills of Haiti. I recently returned from a week in Trouin, taking my daughter & son-in-law to share what we have been doing there. This was my sixth visit there since the 2010 earthquake. I love the folks in the hills and it is definitely not a s**thole. Although I go to serve, I am always fed spiritually by my friends there. The other delight of aging is grandparenthood. We have two teenage step grandchildren and 2 year old delight named Isobel.” Howell Hollis: “May B. and I just back from Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia (watched an elephant paint, of all things) and North Vietnam (including Hanoi Hilton) with a whirlwind one-day, nuke free visit to Seoul. I kicked the retirement can down the road— not sure when that will ever get here. We now have two grandchildren from my daughter— males. They live in our same neighborhood.” Jack Sibley: “During the last week of February, I will be climbing Pico de Orizaba, the highest peak in Mexico, 18,400 feet, and two other peaks. Watch the fall issue to find out if I made it! Here’s a picture of me with my new tractor that I hope to learn how to operate.” [See previous page.] Henry Smythe: “Susu and I had dinner last week in Charleston with Lindsay and Bunky Henderson, who have recently moved here (as I learned from the EHS alumni news). It was great to see Bunky for the first time since we left the Hill in 1966. His life summary in the 50th Reunion booklet was confirmed. Blair Buck lives in New Jersey and is recently retired from decades of teaching at boarding and private day schools. We saw each other in October. Blair is as rail thin as he was in 1966. We spoke a few days ago by face time. He is doing very well and is studying how to tie flies and become a busy fly fisherman. I intend to be busy with him in that endeavor. Blair’s son, Stewart, is training in Charlotte to be a doctor. He looks remarkably like Blair, except taller.” Merrick Thomas: “I will be retiring after 39 years of ob practice—about 5,000 babies later. I love the work, but it is now a young woman’s game. Not quite sure what I will do with my time. Maybe I will renovate my barn.” Randy Wyckoff: “It is indeed a sad commentary, but my life is very mundane. You
Presiding Judge in the four counties of the Northern Neck and the County of Essex (Tappahannock). Occasionally, he sits in four additional jurisdictions in the 15th District, including Fredericksburg. Presiding in cases in two of the most challenging areas of law, Bill reports he enjoys his new position and is able to accomplish much in these difficult fields.
Billy Sullivan ’69 with son Mac ’04 and his wife, Rebecca, and twins EHS Class of 2036?
can report that I safely passed the ’70’ bar last summer. I might be the oldest guy in the class. Probably the only category that I could ever lead in.”
’67
Charles Coppage (H) 252-473-3893 (O) 252-480-2568 charles@nccoppagelaw.com 55th Reunion: June 2022
’68
Walker Moore (H) 864-543-1514 (O) 864-941-0666 moorew327@aol.com 50th Reunion: June 7-10, 2018
The class of ’68 has over 30 classmates confirmed for a fantastic reunion in June! If you are on the fence, we promise it will be worth the trip. Be there!
’69
Kinloch Nelson (H) 585-385-3103 (O) 585-264-0848 kinloch@rochester.rr.com Marty Martin (H) 919-787-5804 (O) 919-272-2106 marty_martin@bellsouth.net 50th Reunion: June 2019
In June 2016 Bill Lewis permanently closed his law practice which was started by his grandfather in 1895. Bill serves as the
John Zapf writes, “Easing into semi-retirement after 41 years of practicing law; now working only a couple days a week and I expect to fully retire by end of 2018. Been exchanging frequent texts with Bill Lane, Scott Bergland, and Patt Naul; it’s been a blast to reconnect. Looking forward to the Eagles Super Bowl championship tomorrow!”
’70
Jim Newman (H) 253-677-4697 Newman_jim@comcast.net 50th Reunion: June 2020
I received a nice email from Clay Jacob. Clay and his wife Lynn continue to live in Richmond. Their oldest son, Reade ’06 got married in September to Miss Claire Condro also from Richmond. Reade’s EHS classmates Stephen Westerfield ’06 and Clay Schutte ’06 and our classmate Gordon Graham and his wife Elaine were there. The newlyweds, as well as Lynn and Clay’s other two children all live in the DC area giving him the opportunity to visit EHS. I heard from our class travel agent Cannon Spotswood who informed me that he was in Africa three different times recently. Additionally, he went on a tour of SE Asia which included Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia with a later stop in Dubai. But he says that he is now going to slow down a bit and deal with the yard. This includes the irrigation system and some more landscaping. Cannon says that he is looking forward to seeing many of our Classmates at our next reunion. From Greenville, NC, Will Corbitt writes, “We’re approaching halfway between our 45th and 50th reunion, we should make a real big push to see how many of our classmates we collectively can get back; 45 was fun, 50 needs to be also. But we’ve got to remember that we’re really not getting that much older, are we! That half century went by in a flash, EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
53
CLASS NOTES
didn’t it? We have had more snow and cold weather so far this winter than in any several years’ combination.”
H: So a reward for Chase graduating from school yes, he going in to the real estate world with Charlie?
Bob Coffin writes, “I have received an appointment in President Donald Trump’s Administration. He is my third U.S. President to represent, following both Bushes.”
W: Exactly — But Charlie is being smart, “Don’t do it here with me, do it in Chicago — find out what you like and chase it Chase!” H: Write us, call us — We need the scoop! Best to ALL H&W
’71
Geoff Snodgrass (H) 504-895-4200 geoff@snodgrassplc.com 50th Reunion: June 2021
’72
Beau Wilson (H) 212-588-0363 (O) 212-603-6185 beauatciti@aol.com 50th Reunion: June 2022
Patrick Stewart continues to do the Lord’s Work at the Madonna House Apostolate, Combermere, Ontario. Pat serves as the Director of Madonna House Training Centre, the Assistant Director-General of Laymen of Madonna House, and the Madonna House Artist for the August 2017 art exhibit at Art Gallery of Bancroft, Ontario. He is scheduled for the art exhibit in June and July in Winnipeg, Manitoba, La Maison des Artistes Visuels Francophones. Scotty Linder reported that he has left Iron Planet after many years, and has established Scott Linder Sales for heavy equipment in Central Florida. Go get them, Scotty! Jamie Coleman took his family to London last October, and wound up in the hospital for 9 days for surgery on a perforated ulcer in his abdomen! Jamie can not say enough good things about the British healthcare system, and he never saw a bill! Glad that the Gapper has returned home to Charleston.
’73
Porter Farrell (H) 817-732-4315 pfarrell@farrellcompany.com 45th Reunion: June 8-10, 2018
Hoping to see everyone at EHS this June. Mark your calendar, and be there!
54
’76 Willie Moncure ’75 and Hunt Burke ’75 practice for their 2-for-1 haircut special at Van’s for their biannual cut, “Whether we need it or not!”
’74
Bill Stokes (H) 972-369-0540 (W) 972-839-8451 billstokes972@yahoo.com Gilliam Kittrell (H) 919-788-8171 (W) 919-880-0283 gillkitt@bellsouth.net 45th Reunion: June 2019
’75
Willie Moncure (W) 703-836-2596 william.moncure@raymondjames.com Hunt Burke (H) 703-768-1705 huntandmolly@verizon.net 45th Reunion: June 2020
Hunt: Yep 2 Great Guys! Willie: I Agree Whole Heartedly! H: So glad the “Mutual Admiration Society” could get together again on Short Notice. W: Short Notice, Charlie Nulsen just took me to lunch to catch up. He and his son are just back from Patagonia South America — Fly Fishing, hopping from one part of the country to another, Argentina is Big Long Country.
Boota deButts (H) 703-998-1487 (O) 703-933-4092 whd@episcopalhighschool.org 45th Reunion: June 2021
Greetings, my fellow members of the Legendary Class of 1976! I apologize for being AWOL, for I know every one of you turn to our class notes to see what libelous statements I have made about one of your classmates! Well let’s get right to it. We can no longer refer to Larry VanMeter as his Judgeship. He quickly corrected me. It is now his Justiceship! If you recall in my last Class Notes, which I am sure everyone keeps by their bedside tables, I said that Larry was unabashedly soliciting gifts from his classmates for his upcoming campaign. Well to no surprise to anyone, “Landslide Larry” was elected to the Kentucky State Supreme Court by urging his constituents to “Vote Early and Vote Often.” What was a surprise was that Larry was invited to teach a class at our Constitutional Law course here. It is not every day that an Episcopal student gets a Kentucky Supreme Court Justice visiting their classroom. I sat in on it and Larry was a great success. A true inspiration and living proof that you don’t have to be smart or good looking to succeed in Kentucky! Just marry way above yourself. Larry was able to convince his new bride, Lucy to join him for the trip and Shelley and I and the Van Meters were able to spend a fun evening together. All in all, Larry has done good. There was some big news in the deButts household in that our son, Hunter ’10 was married on campus this summer to Molly Higgins, a classmate from Princeton. There was a huge Episcopal contingent spanning many generations. Classmates Tench Coxe and Al Rhyne were there with their wives, Simone and June. Once we all survived the
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
wedding, the Coxes, deButts and Rhynes spent four days in the Abacos playing golf, bone fishing, eating and drinking. It was paradise. Al has always had a good golf game, but Tench has been really working on it recently and should definitely play in the next EHS/WFS Alumni Golf Tournament. Tench and Simone report that both of their sons, Tench ’17 and Zeke are doing well at Dartmouth, no surprise there! Shelley and I visited with Tench and Simone in Palo Alto before Christmas and were able to watch their youngest Isabelle a 9th grader at a dance recital. She has her Dad’s height, but fortunately for her that’s all. I tried to recruit Clarence Gaines, Kevin Wallace and Mack Benn to come back to campus to share their student experiences with our current student body as three of the earliest African American students at Episcopal. Unfortunately, they were all busy; Mack traveling in South America, Clarence headed to Phoenix and Kevin caught up with work. Clarence has a blog worth checking out. I think this link will get you to it. http:// cgscoutperspective.blogspot.com. Well that’s all the news I have from the Holy Hill. Larry VanMeter can attest to the luxury of the Alumni Cottage. It is usually always available and the price is right and the location is perfect! As always, all visitors from the Legendary Class of 1976 are welcome on campus.
’77
Class Correspondent Needed
If you’d like to volunteer to be the class correspondent or just to share an update, please contact Elizabeth Henderson ’11 at eah@episcopalhighschool.org or 703-933-4125. David Mikell writes, “I had the honor of an audience with my old roommate Wild Billy T. King le troisième near Kinsale,VA back in December. Other than his upbraiding me for flesh eating (yardbird) and scoffing at my attenuated scruffiness and his utter incomprehension of fundamental Gullah, we had a grand ol’ time... mostly at ease with what all ain’ change’ in over 40 years. Also Tommy Rhett, Martin Ferrara, Jack Blount and Tommy Clement are still at large.”
’82
Arthur Smith (H) 205-802-7180 wilchester@msn.com 40th Reunion: June 2022
Greg Peete ’83, Macon Baird ’82, David Coombs ’82, Brad Gray ’78, Mark Slack ’82, and Carl Failmezger ’82 at David’s Oktoberfest ’17
Christopher Marston ’82 visited Frank Liddell ’82 and Lee Ann Womack in Nashville.
’78
Jim Clardy (H) 704-332-4195 (W) 704-609-5570 jim_clardyjr@ml.com 40th Reunion: June 2019
’79
Bill Hughes (H) 203-861-1641 hughesbill@aol.com 40th Reunion: June 2019
’80
Staige Hoffman (H) 813-597-5059 staigehoffman1@aol.com 40th Reunion: June 2020
’81
Seward Totty (H) 859-268-8673 (W) 859-361-1568 seward.totty@gmail.com 40th Reunion: June 2021
John Trask writes, “My daughter Isabelle ’11 graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Public Policy and Management and is in Denver job hunting. Peter, 19, is in school in Tucson, and Josephine ’20 is loving her sophomore year at The High School.”
In September we lost another classmate, Byron Smith. Apparently, Byron had been battling cancer for some time — regrettably, a fact that I was unaware of. I had not stayed in touch with Byron as well as I should have. However sad as his passing was, it was equally uplifting to read, hear, and remember the many accounts of Byron. For me, Byron’s death was yet another poignant reminder that nothing can be taken for granted, and to make more of an effort to stay in touch with people. Along the lines of staying in touch, I had the pleasure of dinner and drinks with Bart Hardison when he passed through town last September. Bart is one of the most entertaining people you can be around. We laughed, told stories, and tried to solve a few of the world’s problems. It was a great night, and I regret that I do not have more opportunities to visit with the many great people that make up the Class of ’82. Notes from hither and yon: Danny Miller writes that he is still in Wayne, Pennsylvania, where he has been since 2001, working for the insurance company, AON, in their malpractice for professional’s area. Danny is able to visit Virginia to see his oldest daughter who is in graduate school for School Counseling at William & Mary. Danny’s middle son, a junior at James Madison University, is active with a group called GIVE (Growth International Volunteer Excursions) and has spent his last three summers in Tanzania — even learning Swahili along the way. Danny’s youngest is a sophomore at Richmond and is playing baseball for the Spiders. Danny’s wife, Anne, has held many positions in the education field and is substitute teaching in the area. Danny writes that to his surprise, “My wife, Anne, still comes home every day. I think she really likes our dog!!!! I do miss EHS, Alexandria and the camaraderie that we all shared for those formative years back in the 80’s. I look forward to getting back down to Virginia in time, and rekindling those relationships. All my best to everyone.” Todd Gray reports that his restaurant, Equinox, turns 19 in May and he and his EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
55
CLASS NOTES
wife, Ellen, recently opened another restaurant Manna, located in the new Museum of the Bible. “Incredibly exciting, new, and different operation. What you would call fast casual Mediterranean with American sensibility.” Todd’s son, Harrison, is a senior at Landon and waiting to hear where he will attend college next Fall. Todd writes, “Please come see us on your next trip to DC. You are a great group of friends and I can’t wait till the next Reunion!” Mills Fleming writes that his wife, Marianne, is a physician and their son Alexander is a senior at Georgia Tech (majoring in mechanical engineering). Mills is on the campaign committee to elect Ken Hodges ’84 to the Georgia Court of Appeals. Mills’ niece Sarah (daughter of Lucas Fleming ’80) was married last May and several EHS alums were in attendance including Staige Hoffman ’80 and John Dixon ’80. Jeb Burns passes along that he is “just living the dream of being a middle school boy in a 53 year old body walking alongside a bunch of middle school kids posing as a teacher...” David Coombs reports that David’s Oktoberfest ’17, an annual event at his home, was a great success and attended by several EHS alums (see picture on previous page). Dr. Bill Adamson writes that he has been a pediatric surgeon at UNC in Chapel Hill for the last 14 years, and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery for the last 8. With recent changes at the hospital, Bill and several members of his group have made the decision to move to Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando in May. Bill writes “My wife Kim is looking forward to the move since she can wear sandals and Tevas year round. My 10 year old daughter, Cadence, is looking forward to a change of school and my 7 year old daughter, Delia, thinks moving to Disney World, the land of the princesses, is the greatest thing that has ever happened to her. Perhaps a little more time for fishing and golf as well. Wondering if there are any Old Boys in Orlando…” Christopher Marston writes, “I organized a tour of Nashville last fall for the Society for Industrial Archeology (where I serve as Vice President), and led a tour of the 1823 Nashville Toll Bridge abutments, site of the 56
Class of ’86 classmates Wayt Timberlake, Rob Baker, Rob “Nature Boy” Jones, Robert MacKnight, Ashley “Hog” Moretz, Tom “The Body” Roback, Chris Giblin, Arnold Wright, Scott Moring, and Alex Bocock on a fishing trip at the Atlanta Homosassa Fishing Club in Florida.
first covered bridge west of Pittsburgh and a crossing on the infamous Trail of Tears. After touring Music Row, I met up with Frank Liddell at the Country Music Hall of Fame, where we attended an interview and performance event for his wife Lee Ann Womack’s new album, The Lonely, the Lonesome, and the Gone. It was fun to get a brief glimpse of Frank and Lee Ann’s world in Nash Vegas!” Tommy Holderness writes that he is leaving private practice to work for Legal Aid of North Carolina. Similarly, Macon Baird reports that he will be retiring from the North Carolina Foster Care program, which he has been involved with for over twenty years. And lastly, Andrew McIlwraith is still just kicking hippies’ asses and raising hell. You go Andrew! Thanks for everyone’s contributions. Keep it in the road, and please look me up if your travels bring you to the ‘Ham!
’83
Frank Vasquez (H) 804-767-5096 (W) 804-873-2212 rfvasquez@yahoo.com 35th Reunion: June 8-10, 2018
’84
Sam Froelich (H) 336-288-5711 froelich@me.com 35th Reunion: June 2019
’85
Thorne Gregory (H) 203-655-7139 (O) 212-500-3049 thornegregoryjr@me.com 35th Reunion: June 2020
The Class of ’85 is leading in new technologies. Louis Gump is the CEO of NewsON Media in Atlanta, GA, which provides on demand news streams. Daniel Davenport is also in Atlanta, GA, and is a Managing Director at LiquidHub. Tom Crampton is a Global Managing Director at Ogilvy & Mather in Hong Kong and is responsible for social media specialists globally. Scott Yeager is the CFO of iFly and SkyVentures in Austin, TX. Go iFly which is awesome fun and the revolution indoor skydiving. As far as I am aware, Patrick Weston does not know what social media means, but in January of this year reached the first anniversary of the launch of his new private equity venture Route 2 Capital Partners.
’86
Art Taylor (H) 703-543-7672 (W) 703-774-5079 art@arttaylorwriter.com 35th Reunion: June 2021
This isn’t a reunion year for us — but it seems like it’s a milestone anyway. Can it really be the members of our class are turning 50 (?!?!) this year? As I’m writing this, I’m looking ahead to my own birthday in March — a party well past by the time that this issue goes to print. (Hello from the other side of the half-century mark!) I’m curious how everyone is celebrating their big days. A big party? A quiet commemoration? Dinner with family or a blowout extravaganza? Share your stories — and pictures — for the next issue and we’ll recap. Walker Harris was the first to chime in on this — saying that he’d be joining some college friends to celebrate Will Joyner’s 50th with a fishing trip to the Louisiana Delta in February. And Chris Giblin and Tom Roback both offered up news about another fishing trip, hosted by Ed Spearman at the Atlanta Homosassa Fishing Club in Florida. Chris listed the full group of old boys who took part: “Wayt Timberlake, Rob Baker, Rob ‘Nature Boy’ Jones, Robert MacKnight, Ashley ‘Hog’ Moretz, Tom ‘The Body’ Roback, Chris Giblin, Arnold Wright, Scott Moring, and Alex Bocock.” Fifty and fishing? Is that the trend? I need to get a new tackle box.
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
After Episcopal
The Swell Won’t Wait
Photographer Christopher Bickford ’85 celebrates Outer Banks surf culture. Fifteen winters ago on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Christopher Bickford ’85 borrowed his father’s camera — a Nikon SM-2. Last summer, he published his first photography book, Legends of the Sandbar, a striking photographic ode to the surf culture of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. America’s Eastern Seaboard isn’t the first place people picture when they think of surfing. “You can look out at the beach most days of the year and see nothing, and then suddenly one day you look out and see 35 people out in the water ripping on these beautiful waves,” Chris says. “And the next day, they’re gone.” Time undulates with the waves. The surfers in the opening essay of Chris’ book answer when the ocean calls. “A life of surf is not conducive to the workday world,” it begins. Schedules and plans dissolve like sandcastle walls. “The work will get done, eventually; but the swell won’t wait for quitting time.” As the tide recedes, so do the surfers. Chris grew as a freelance photographer in the well-known East Coast vacation spot, eventually moving beyond his local roots and working as an assignment photographer for the New York Times, NPR, Surfline, and a number of other outlets. He also is a contributor to National Geographic Traveler. Chris’ book contains hundreds of photos from the past eight years. Several of these pictures have appeared in the New York Times’ Travel section and
Lens blog, as well as in international surfing magazines such as South Africa’s Surf Bomb. Chris’ book speaks not only through photography, but through essays as well, edited with the help of his friend Ed Rackley ’84. The two began working together in 2015 when Ed was writing about his own ocean adventuring — sea kayaking. “Chris built everything about this book by hand; it’s a real craftsman’s product,” Ed says. “There’s been a recent explosion of social media narratives dedicated to pro-am surfing, skate culture, rock-climbing, and any non-corporate adventure sport. But nothing in that world allows the time and space to dig into people’s lives, their local community, and its evolution over time. This was Chris’ big innovation.” In one essay, “Five Senses of the Sandbar,” Chris puts readers in the surf on a cold morning — taking off a wet neoprene suit and putting on a warm fleece and blasting the heater in the car; tasting the coffee that mixes with the salty sea air. “I want people to feel like they are there in the picture,” says Chris. Though Chris now calls the Outer Banks home, the surf is not his sole focus. He also loves to travel, turning photographs from the road into collections. “Street Symphony,” for example, highlights a season of Mardi Gras post-Katrina. He moved to London this spring to pursue more commercial photography work, and will work on a book project about the city. His book is available to purchase online at www.legendsofthesandbar.com. EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
57
CLASS NOTES
My wife, son, and I just moved last summer (which is why I missed submitting our class notes for the previous issue), and Walker and I chatted about that as well in our email exchange. “Moving sucks but you’ll forget about the hassle soon enough,” he told me, adding, “We’ve moved 8 times over the past 20 years almost all in the same neighborhood (we’re addicted to buying clunker house or lot and fixing em up).” He also reports that both sons are doing well in college (at UNC and Auburn) and that he and his wife are now “enjoying the empty nester phase of life.” Our own son just started kindergarten — another milestone for our family — so we’re years away from that. (And keeping that “50” theme going, I don’t want to start thinking where I’ll be when he’s headed off to college himself.)
Preeti Menon, Justin Beck ’89, Vincent Hodge ’89, and Suresh Menon ’89 celebrate the pinning ceremony for Justin at the Frederick Community College Associate Degree Nursing Program.
In other news — catching up on the full year — my writing has been going well. My story “Parallel Play” won two big awards in the mystery world last year, the Agatha and the Macavity, and another story of mine, “A Necessary Ingredient,” was just named a finalist for this year’s Agatha Award too, with the winner there to be named in late April. If anyone wants to read the story, it’s available for free on my website, www.arttaylorwriter. com, thanks to my publisher at Down & Out Books.
Joe Dulaney ’90, Kirk Casey ’90, John Edwards ’90, former EHS Athletic Director Mark Gowin, and David Wafle ’90 at the 2017 EHS vs. WFS Game.
And you can reach out to me through that website too with your own news. Looking for more updates for our fall class notes. Don’t let us down!
Latane Montague, Cree Wright, Douglas Owens, and Mad Man Mortay were in attendance. Latane, Cree, and I have kids that attend The High School now.
’87
’89
’88
’90
David Haddock (H) 571-286-9486 (W) 301-575-6750 davidhaddock@yahoo.com 35th Reunion: June 2022
Will Burdell (H) 505-259-9068 (O) 912-638-3611 willburdell@ymail.com 30th Reunion: June 8-10, 2018
Croom Lawrence (W) 540-878-6754 croomlawrence@gmail.com 30th Reunion: June 2019
Joe Dulaney (C) 662-519-1480 (O) 662-363-2922 joe@dulaneylawfirm.com 30th Reunion: June 2020
Greetings from Tunica, Mississippi! Ned Durden writes, “I attended the Woodberry Game this year, where we had a mini Class of ’88 reunion. John Allen, Thad Wilson, Chris Avery, William Grasty, 58
It was great to see many of you just a few short years ago at our 25th reunion and others at The Game this past year. Some of you know
that my wife, Kara, and I have been living in my hometown of Tunica where I practice law with my brother, Andy ’85. My daughter, Ameliea ’17, graduated last year and is a freshman at Wake Forest. My youngest daughter, Isabelle ’21, is enjoying her freshman year at Episcopal. I have been fortunate to see some of you on a regular basis over the past couple of years and look forward to seeing more of you in the future. David Maybank, John Edwards, Gibby Semmes, Bobby Berna, and Drew Burris got together this year for a duck hunt in South Carolina. I understand that a great time was had by all and a few tall tales were told. David Maybank is married to his lovely bride, Keri, and they are the parents of one fabulous duck dog, Blue. They live in Charleston and David is the co-founder of
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
’92
Fred Alexander (C) 704-641-4858 fcaiii@yahoo.com 30th Reunion: June 2022
’93
Walker Lamond (W) 301-580-0761 walkerlamond@mac.com 25th Reunion: June 8-10, 2018
Longtime Eagles fans Cary ’93 and Howdie Goodwin ’91 with Cary’s son, Cole, at the end of Super Bowl LII.
Maybank & Owings LLC, a law firm specializing in insurance subrogation. Bobby Berna is living in New York with his wife, Allison, and three children, Maddie, Sydney, and Jack. He and his wife are cofounders of Apple Seeds. Toby Chambers is living in Atlanta with his wife, Margaret. He has two sons. His oldest son, William ’18 is a senior on the Hill this year. He is a current member of the Board of Trustees at Episcopal. He recently co-founded Red Dog Equity LLC where he is also a managing director. Yes, he is still a die hard Georgia Bulldog fan. Kirk Casey is living the dream in Alexandria with his wife, Siobhan, and his two sons Brennan and Conlon. He founded his own business, Metro Systems, and is supplying technical staffing in multiple markets. John “The Boss Man” Edwards is living in Monroe, North Carolina. He has two children, Anna Claire (11) and John Harvey Edwards IV (8). He is the owner of Site-Prep Incorporated of North Carolina and has been a highway construction contractor for twenty plus years. Walton Smith is living in the DC area with his wife, Amy, and two daughters. He is a Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton and a leader in the firm’s Cyber Futures business. David Wafle is living in Middletown, New Jersey with his wife, Jennifer, and three strapping young sons Owen, Luke, and Dillon. David is Director of Sales-Eastern Region at Incredible Technologies. Yes ,this is the
company that brings us Golden Tee and yes, David is a master of his game. I have had the pleasure of visiting with David the past couple of years in New Jersey and seeing his sons play football, basketball, and baseball. These boys can all play ball. Several of our classmates made the trip for the Woodberry Game including, David Wafle, John Edwards, Kirk Casey, Walton Smith, Toby Chambers, Gibby Semmes, and others. It was great to see everyone and catch up with Coach Gowin after many years. He is doing well and the warm breezes of Florida have done him well. Mark Davidson is living in Los Angeles and is acting. He has been in several shows at the Theatre Palisades. He was recently cast in The Fantastics and Welcome Mr. Einstein. Bo DuBose is still living the life of Jeremiah Johnson in the mountains between Denver and Boston. His daughter, Eliza, is a sophomore at Mercersburg Academy this year. I look forward to keeping you up to date with things our classmates have been up to. I hope each of you will consider sending me an update on your lives. Feel free to send me your updates, pictures, recent news at joe@dulaneylawfirm.com.
’91
William Coxe (H) 803-404-0984 williecoxe@gmail.com 30th Reunion: June 2021
One of the highlights of my year was watching a live-stream of the EHS-WFS football game with none other than Luke David and Victor Maddux handling the play-by-play action. Gentlemen, you surely have found your true calling. The only hitch came in the 3rd Quarter when Cary Goodwin was invited into the booth and seemed to slide into some kind of glory days flashback barking defensive formations and frantically shouting for his missing helmet. It was the best two hours of television I’ve watched all year. Sibby Banks Schlaudecker came down from the mountain in Crested Butte, Colorado to visit the Nation’s Capital and catch a matinee of the Nutcracker — a Schlaudecker family tradition. But something tells me the better show was watching her Georgia Dawgs get to the National Championship. Peter LaMotte, who is a senior VP at the Chernoff Newman ad agency in Charleston, SC, was honored by the Rotary Club of that fair city. Craig Dixon is busy putting the finishing touches on the 450,000 square ft. sports complex that he is building in Northern Virginia, and when it’s done, Flynn Jarrett plans to lift all the weights. Trey Bason is an Account Executive at BMS Software, and he and Barnes Boykin are still rabid NC State Wolfpack fans. Denver Graninger spent another summer looking for archaeological treasure in Greece, and JP Wrenn just returned from another humanitarian trip to Haiti where he continues to do amazing work. Architect Val Hawkins and his family continued their world travels with a trip to Machu Picchu, Jason Light wants to sell you a house EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
59
“This never would have happened if I hadn’t come to Episcopal.” Julia Messenger ’18 page 24
60
Julie Choi ’18 page 28
Ryan Grajewski ’18 page 26
Your gift to the Roll Call supports open-ended inquiry, career exploration at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, solos at the Kennedy Center, and so much more. Read more about the adventures of Ryan, Julie, and Julia beginning on page 22. www.EHSRollCall.org
CLASS NOTES
in Atlanta, GA, and Tom Wolf is the reason they call Baltimore Charm City, USA. Finally, a big congratulations to Brian Petzold and his wife who welcomed twins Arthur and Ruby in January!
’94
Emily Fletcher Breinig (O) 214-234-4242 fletchee@hotmail.com 25th Reunion: June 2019
’95
Sarah Baltimore McElwain sarahbmcelwain@yahoo.com Pence Craddock Scurry scurryp@heathwood.org 25th Reunion: June 2020
Carter Hancock Johnston ’97, Anne Tate Pearce ’95, Tyler Bates Novak ’96, Temple Forsyth Basham ’96, Jane Pope Cooper ’96, Katie Rose Trotter ’95, Laura Morton Michau ’96, and Courtney Gunter Rowson ’95 gathered in the Bahamas for Jane Pope Cooper’s birthday.
Helen Lambeth Wells writes that she loves hanging out with her EHS neighbors, Stewart Poisson ’96 and Lizzie Wellons Hartman ’98. This has been the year of 40th birthdays! Please send in your pictures for the next one. Sarah Baltimore McElwain, Franklin Boyd, Darcy Heurtematte Langdon, Kelly Boldrick Barbour, and Pence Craddock Scurry gathered in New York for Franklin Boyd’s 40th birthday last March. Harrison Finney now has a blended family of five children (three are his own). He continues to live in the Greenville, SC area and is working in advertising. He continues to do well in all areas of life!
’96
Luke Zehner (H) 571-338-1389 zehnerlj@gmail.com Temple Forsyth Basham (H) 804-447-4238 templefbasham@gmail.com 25th Reunion: June 2021
From Temple Forsyth Basham: What up, 96ers?! Hope the crew is happy, healthy and surviving this freezing winter weather. My boys finally returned to school after nearly 3 weeks off and I’m feeling much more energetic and relatively sane as I head into my final week as a 39 year old. Bring it on, 40!
62
Brooks DuBose ’94 married Courtney Louise Springman of Atlanta, GA, on May 21, 2016, in Bluffton, SC.
It’s been a great year personally and I feel very lucky. Spy Rock is reaping the benefits of Richmond’s exponential growth (and its skilled Principals!), my job with a psychology group is fulfilling, and my boys never stop moving. (Until they go to bed, at which point I am horizontal with a glass of wine and my pal, Netflix.) I went to dinner with Laura Morton Michau when she was in Richmond for work last week. She, Court, and the girls are living in Orange and enjoying the mountains; I’m beyond thrilled to be in same time zone and state as she! Hampton Moore Eubanks helped coordinate a well-attended Alumni Holiday Party where I hung out with Carter Hancock Johnston ’97, Morgan Guthridge ’99, Tyler Meurlin, and many other Old Boys across the generations. Laura and Robert Birdsey are hosting a dinner party next month to welcome Becky McDaniel ’95 and fiancé, Matt, to Richmond where Becky will be Head
Helen Lambeth Wells ’95, Stewart Poisson ’96, and Lizzie Wellons Hartman ’98.
Class of ’95 classmates Sarah Baltimore McElwain, Franklin Boyd, Darcy Heurtematte Langdon, Kelly Boldrick Barbour, and Pence Craddock Scurry in New York for Franklin Boyd’s 40th birthday last March.
of Youth Ministry for St. Stephen’s church starting this summer. Perhaps the best (unofficial) EHS event I attended this year was Randy Shelley’s engagement party in Charleston. Randy
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
met his fiancé, Brooke, through his Hollins graduate program after wooing her with his unparalleled wit and male anatomy. They plan to elope in May when she finishes school. Although I didn’t get to see much of him at the party — he was being pulled in a million directions — I did catch up with my old friend, Garland Lynn, who was wearing the same stellar grin and Rainbow flip flops from 2000. Garland and Jacqueline are in the process of renovating a home they bought last year in Charleston and seem anxious to move in. Judging from photos the place is AMAZING so I’m hoping to be invited in 2018. Kent Lowry was slaying the crowd with his quirky jokes while Menard Doswell was his usual, happy self. It was also great to catch up with Landon Anderson (an architect), Justin Belch ’94 and James Erwin ’95. Sarah and Brian Knutson were in typical power couple mode as were the lovely Tyler and Jane Pope Cooper, who recently moved to Sullivan’s Island. Jane and I will be in the Bahamas next week to celebrate her big birthday with lots of young Old Girls, so I’ll be sure to make you all jealous with stories of sun, sand, and sin in the next issue. All the best to you in 2018!!!
’97
Bill Allen (H) 919-781-0805 (O) 919-784-8371 williamwallen@gmail.com 25th Reunion: June 2022
Hey friends (and Scott Harris)! I hope everyone has had a great start to 2018. I was a little late with my solicitation for notes, so I apologize for not leaving you enough time to get back in touch with me. I can only assume that everyone has decided to follow my lead and quit work to follow Phish full time.They don’t tour nearly as much as they used to, so if you see me in the parking lot, don’t be surprised when I charge you $250 for a grilled cheese. I need to make the most of the limited time I’m out there making ends meet. Anyway, life in Raleigh is great, and our local alumni presence continues to expand! I mentioned last time that Jim Goodwin and his family are now here, and I recently learned that Joe Segrave sees the virtues of living in my little hamlet as well. He plans on moving this summer; as his growing car dealership
painting, and decathlon. His relationship with turkey tetrazzini is one that could never be, and he often finds himself staring off into the distance, looking at nothing in particular, wondering what could have been with that delicious pile of beige.
Ladson Webb ’97 with wife Xandria and son Ladson.
network continues to expand, Raleigh offers him a chance to manage it more efficiently. It also puts him and his family squarely in the middle of the mountains and the coast, two places very important to him. It’ll be great to have him here once that sea breeze blows him this way! In other career news, Nicole Nicolette has opened her own law firm in West Palm Beach. Her attempt at making that sound boring failed though. I’d be happy doing just about anything in that part of the world. Sounds like a great move for Nicole and I’m happy she’s happy. Ladson Webb was sorry to have missed our reunion, but he looks forward to seeing everyone at the 25th, which we know will be really well attended. Right?! Anyway, he and the fam are still in Virginia Beach and they recently celebrated Ladson IV’s 2nd birthday. Ladson III also completed the undergrad portion of a 5-year BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering; he has now moved onto his thesis about redesigning wind tunnel instrumentation for NASA’s Langley Research Center. I understood every word of that. All sounds like great news and a huge accomplishment for Ladson, my 3rd Dal neighbor from freshman year. Ann Woods Byrne got married last May to Rick Byrne, and they have a baby boy on the way! By the time you guys get this magazine she ought to be a proud new Mama! Congratulations!! Life seems pretty great for Scott Harris these days. He’s recovered from having the date of our reunion completely wrong and showing up by himself. He’s a hard-working attorney in Raleigh, and in his spare time is a dutiful dad cheering on his kids at soccer, swimming,
J.W. Perry has gotten really good at replying to text messages lately, but that’s about all that’s changed for him. We grabbed dinner together recently and relived a few old times. There’s never a dull moment laughing at old stories with the kid. For other updates, be sure to stalk your classmate friends on Instagram or Facebook, which are pretty much the same thing now. You can find inspirational quotes from Finny Akers, pictures of Finny’s abs and/or other muscles, pictures of Finny wearing cool clothes, and maybe pictures of Finny doing some form of exercise. They may as well just change the name of it to Finstagram at this point. I just made that up on the spot. Pretty funny? I’m in the thick of the three-kid fire drill these days. Work has been busy but great, giving me an opportunity to travel to NYC periodically, which is a lot of fun. I don’t get out of the house much, but I do see Jim and his brother Bill Goodwin ’95, and I also run into Chip Edwards ’95, Will Stronach ’98, and David Stallings ’93 a decent amount, too. I even traded text messages with Stephen Salyer ’99 one time! Please keep in touch. I love catching up with you all, and I hope you’re all happy, healthy, and enjoying the moment!
’98
Katherine Moncure Stuart (H) 540-672-4258 katstu@gmail.com Andrew Nielson (O) 615.777.6382 anielson@servicesource.com 20th Reunion: June 8-10, 2018
Hope to see you all at Reunion this June! Check out our class website at www.episcopalhighschool.org/1998.
’99
Becky Kellam Everhart beckykellam@gmail.com 20th Reunion: June 2019 EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
63
CLASS NOTES
’00
Schuyler Williams schuyler13@gmail.com Maisie Cunningham Short maisieshort12@gmail.com 20th Reunion: June 2020
Greetings from the west coast and I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. My husband Andy and I recently bought a house in LA, so it’s looking more and more like we are going to be in California for the long haul. I got to see Elizabeth Hossfeld over Thanksgiving in Delray, Florida and Carlie Hooff Casella while I was back home briefly this fall. Very proud to report that during this year’s Woodberry game, our very own Carlie was inducted into the EHS Hall of Fame and lot of our classmates were there in support including Zsolt Parkanyi, Schuyler Williams, Miranda Thompson, Becky Arnesen Jenkins, Sarah Brown Love, Brittanny Wildman Meierling, and Betsy Watts Metcalf. Zsolt Parkanyi writes that it was his first time back on campus is seven years and that he really enjoyed participating in the EHS Connect Event. Lots of great updates from the ATL crew… Katie Elmore Thomson is happily living in Atlanta with her husband and three kids, Will (8.5), Caroline (7.5) and Annie (5). The elder two are playing lots of soccer, and Annie will be starting kindergarten this year and joining her big brother and sister at school. Kate Leggett Mabry is expecting her second child in April and has just launched her own architectural practice, MabryArch LLC. Kate is focusing on custom single-family residential new builds and renovations, while still working as a consultant for her previous firm, Summerour Architects. She would love the opportunity to help any fellow EHS alums with architectural projects and is willing to travel! Kate enjoys seeing Betsy Watts Metcalf around Atlanta and recently caught up with Lisa Manning and Kate Lummis while they were in town for a visit. In other baby news, Lillian Smith Teer welcomed Lillian James Teer to the world on October. Yoon Lee writes from Wonju, South Korea that he and his wife enjoyed a family trip to Seattle this fall and that during the upcoming Winter Olympics, the hospital where he works has been designated as one of the official Olympic hospitals and he will also be 64
Tim Garon ’99, Hannah Huffines Amick ’99, Walker Inman ’99, Katie Kaufman ’99, Stephen Salyer ’99, George Gummere ’98, Chris Pracht ’99, Morgan Guthridge ’99, Amanda Inman (spouse of Walker), Will Chapman ’99, Ali Ryniewicz (fiancé of Will Graham ’99). Suzanne Pinckney Pflaum ’02, Bryan Pinckney ’98, and George, just prior to streaming The Game.
Jessica Gummere (spouse of George ’98), Clair Clark ’99, Morgan Guthridge ’99, Annie Carlini (spouse of Pat ’99), Chris Pracht ’99, Will Coffman (spouse of Katie Kaufman ’99), Packy Everhart (spouse of Becky Kellam Everhart ’99).
Alice, daughter of Becky Kellam Everhart ’99.
onsite as an emergency physician during the Paralympics. He encouraged anyone traveling to the Olympics to please be in touch.
’01
Taylor Gillis Clement (O) 910-693-0032 tgclem@gmail.com Leah Kannensohn Tennille lktennille@gmail.com 20th Reunion: June 2021
From Taylor Gillis Clement: Hello Class of 2001! Sorry we’ve been out of touch recently. Baxter and I have two sons now, William (Wilby) and Augustus, turning 5 and 2 this spring. We’ve been busy with the guitar shop, Casino Guitars, which has won Top 100 Dealers worldwide for both of the 2 years since we opened. I’ve also recently joined a local charter school’s founding board and am realizing schools mean A LOT of work whether you’re in them or working with them!
Lindsay Whittle Comstock ’99 at the Central Park Zoo with Prather Smith Claghorn ’99 and her two boys, Jack (4) and Oliver (2).
From Leah Kannensohn Tennille: Dre and I welcomed Thomas “Bode” Tennille on September 17, 2017. He joins big brother Townsend and we are enjoying life as a family of four! In November, our family, including 7-week old Bode, traveled to EHS for the Board of Trustees meeting/Woodberry weekend. Townsend (age 4) loves the High School and had fun cheering the Maroon to victory!
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
Our class has a few new babies, and all boys to report this year. Lindsay Soyars Ward and her husband, Casey, also welcomed their second child, a baby boy in October, Benjamin “Benji” Anderson Ward. Perrin Dent Patterson and husband, Jim, recently welcomed their second child, James Frederick Patterson, on Dec 20, 2017.
The 1997, 1998, and 1999 State Championship basketball teams were inducted into the EHS Athletics Hall of Fame during Spirit Weekend. Back Row (L to R) Bryson Spinner ’99, Will Chapman ’99, Will Collier ’00, LaMarr Datcher ’98, Ron Ginyard ’99, P.X. Head ’00, Steve McCaskill ’97, and Jonathan Lee ’01. Standing Middle Row (L to R): William Stallworth ’00, Chase Peterson ’00, Darius Johnson ’21, Xavier Johnson ’19 (representing their father coach Kelvin Johnson), Manny Jones ’00, Carl Morris ’99, and head coach Tim Jaeger. Kneeling (L to R): Andrew Bovell ’98, Jon Trapp ’99, Ladson Webb ’97, and Zsolt Parkanyi ’00.
Kate Leggett Mabry ’00 and Kate Lummis ’00 caught up in Atlanta.
Annie, Will, and Caroline, children of Katie Elmore Thomson ’00.
Holt Hobgood and Jayme welcomed Colton Edwards Hobgood into this world! He reports that fatherhood is amazing! He was born 9/17/17. He is still working as Director of Design at a signage business in Raleigh. They recently moved into a new home and get to see Joe Stallworth ’03 regularly as they live about 2 miles apart. Holt let me know that they still have Lucy, their black lab, who is almost 15 — which feels like a reminder of how far we’ve all come since college. My (Taylor’s) dog, Dixie, will be 16 in May and met Holt’s Lucy while they were both young pups. Jordan Hadwin Wyndam still has her cat, Elvis who is nearly 18 (along with the new pet additions to her family: Sila, Bella (Taco), Roo and Max, all of whom Elvis does a great job of ignoring.) Libby Seaton Ayoob is still teaching at Marist. She and Nic have a son, James, born February 10th, 2017. She reports that she and Margaret Harris Glindmeyer made it to a Garth Brooks concert in Nashville over Christmas. Sarah Eissler Rhodes is busy with new precious baby number two and she and Jonathan Lee keep in touch and keep cheering on the Duke Blue Devils. Jonathan Lee reports he’s enjoying working in the Admissions Office at Episcopal and still amazed that he’s made it full circle back to the High School. If anyone makes a trip back to campus, make sure to reach out to him! He and Lauren also had a son, Grayson, in December 2016.
Lindsay Soyars Ward ’01 with her husband Casey, daughter Finley, and new son Benji.
Jonathan Lee’s ’01 son, Grayson.
David Clarke was married on September 23, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (Roll Tide). They had an outdoor wedding on first day of Fall — so naturally it was 102 degrees. In spite of the heat, a good time was had by all. Will Lombard and Will Nisbet served as groomsmen. David and his wife, Melissa, are now EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
65
CLASS NOTES
settled in about a mile away from The High School in Alexandria. Kyle Kloefkorn Dreher and her husband, James, moved to London this January with their kids Stella, Yvette, and Archer. James is working on the start up of a new Exxon Mobil project in Mozambique and Kyle is getting the family settled. They are looking forward to traveling Europe (and praying their children pick up British accents.) Carey Parker and his wife, Annie, are enjoying the excitement of living with their two year old daughter, Evie, and are expecting a new addition to their family in the form of another daughter in late March. Annie Johnston reports that she is working as a creative director at Zambezi, a mid-sized ad agency in LA. She and 3 of her co- workers got together and built a website called therottenappl.es in response to the outpouring of sexual misconduct and assault happening in Hollywood. The website is designed to let consumers know whether or not a film or tv show is tied to someone with allegations of sexual misconduct; if it’s Fresh or Rotten. The Rotten Apples officially launched on December 11th. The site has since been passed around the world and had more than 215 articles written about it including a great one with a picture in Vanity Fair.
David Clarke, Jr. ’01, Melissa Clarke, David Clarke ’70, Stuart Rhodes ’01, Will Lombard ’01, Will Nisbet ’01, Maizie Clarke ’04, Caroline Clarke Skelton ’98, Rob Whittle ’69, Jim Farrar ’70, and Caldwell Clarke ’97 celebrate David and Melissa’s wedding.
Holt Hobgood ’01 and son, Colton.
Perrin Dent Patterson’s ’01 son, James.
Check out the website: therottenappl.es; also they’ll be featured on CBS Sunday Morning News, March 4th (Oscar Sunday!) Lastly, Beezie McLaughlin Sayers has offered to take over class notes, thank you Beezie!! So you can expect to hear from her in late summer. Thank you to everyone for staying in touch and all the great pictures!
’02
Andrew Farrar (C) 919-616-6636 asfarrar@gmail.com Artie Armstrong (C) 805-341-5233 artiearmstrong@yahoo.com 20th Reunion: June 2022
Rebecca Pomeroy Shores writes, “I graduated from UNC (PhD, English) this December, and went straight into teaching a college credit literature course at Orange 66
Leah Kannensohn Tennille’s ’01 son, Townsend, cheering the Maroon on to victory!
Leah Kannensohn Tennille’s ’01 son, Bode.
Libby Seaton Ayoob’s ’01 son, James.
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
After Episcopal
A Million Heads Are Better Than One Suzanne Pinckney Pflaum ’02 helps businesses engage consumers in sustainable solutions.
Dominant western business culture dictates that an organization’s leaders must have all of the answers, and that those answers must be right. But according to Suzanne Pinckney Pflaum ’02, who practices community-centered design for Context Partners in Portland, Ore., “No one has a full perspective on any problem; they only have their own perspective. We help businesses see other perspectives by talking to their community members.” Context Partners is a design strategy firm that solves problems by engaging members of a business or organization’s community: their employees, customers, and other stakeholders. They provide companies and brands with insights and strategies for working together with consumers toward a common social good. Suzanne has dedicated her career to helping businesses find success at the intersection of community engagement and environmental sustainability. Her interest in environmental sustainability began at Episcopal with the Outdoor Program. Through rock climbing and other sports, Suzanne gained an appreciation for being outside in nature. At the University of Virginia, Suzanne studied environmental thought and practice, as well as religion. Her interest in non-Christian religions stems from a big sister/little sister relationship with a student in Nepal, whom Suzanne began sponsoring during her senior year at Episcopal.
A class on sustainability and entrepreneurship at UVA’s Darden School of Business, taken during her undergraduate tenure, changed not only Suzanne’s perspective on her post-graduate career path, but also her worldview on business. Suzanne realized that businesses had the capacity to create impactful environmental and social change. After consulting on corporate sustainability with brands like Hyatt Hotels and Nike, Suzanne earned an MBA in sustainability from Bainbridge Graduate Institute, now Presidio Graduate School. Through the innovative curriculum, where sustainability is the foundation for every course, she gained the specific skills and tools that would allow her to further her career in sustainability. Today as a design researcher at Context Partners, Suzanne uses her professional skills to make a positive social and environmental impact through community outreach and engagement. Suzanne says her primary duty is to “learn about the community; to learn from the consumers, engage them not just by getting to know them, but also engaging them in the design process itself, so that they are actually building solutions for themselves. People are more invested in that which they create.” One of Suzanne’s clients is Scandinavian furniture brand, IKEA. She has worked with them to engage the 100 million members of their loyalty program, known as IKEA Family, by connecting members to each other and to resources that allow them to live more sustainably. Vulnerability and authenticity, Suzanne says, are extremely important when it comes to building an effective sustainability strategy, and it starts at the top with the leadership and trickles all the way down. “There’s a lot of politics and positioning in business, but at the end of the day, we can’t be sustainable if we’re putting on a front. We’ll never get to the root of the problem if we’re just saying what we think other people want to hear.” EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
67
CLASS NOTES
County Correctional — a men’s prison in Hillsborough, NC. Drew, John Henry, and I will move from Durham to Raleigh this spring, and I’ll be teaching part-time for a year while we find our footing. We are thrilled for whatever lies ahead!” Artie Armstrong is doing well. He has opened a psychic detective agency with his friend, Bruton Gaster. Cases are going well and the agency has begun gaining steam within the Santa Barbara police force. The detective agency recently solved a case of a murder of a high-profile politician. Because of the miles of red tape wrapped around the case, the only details that can be disclosed are that it involved a grassy knoll and a bullet able to change direction mid-flight. If any of you have a mystery to be solved, you know who to call!
John Oelschlager ’03, Marshall Mundy ’03, Brett Major, Carrington Skinner ’03, Ted Dodson ’03, Jarrett Bell ’03, and Keith Carr ’03, gathered in Raleigh to celebrate with Carrington and Brett on their wedding day.
Will Corbitt writes, “Mary Claire and I are in still in Atlanta and expecting a girl in early April. We frequently see Lia and Easley Hooff ’04 , Rich and Anna Bryan Lynott, Dennis and Laura Faulders Jordan, Pete and Susanne Inman Frayser and Eli and Laura Duncan Scott around town.” Kit McLendon writes, “I loved seeing so many friends at our 15th reunion. My wife, Lea and daughter, Everett are looking forward to visiting EHS for our 20th reunion. It’s always great to have fellow EHS alumni visit Aspen. Grant Brown and his new wife, Laura, Andrew Farrar, John Vogler ’01 and wife Katherine, Will Nisbet ’01 and several others continue to visit Aspen regularly. My company, Rich Valley Adventures now offers luxury transportation. Keep us in mind if future travels include Colorado.” Andrew Farrar writes, “I’m still living in Richmond and working for ARMS Software where we build custom software for NCAA athletic departments. It was great to see a bunch of folks at Grant Brown and Laura Tickner’s DC wedding earlier this fall. I run into Morgan Guthridge ’99, Charlie Kingsley ’01, Daniel Gottwald ’06, Walker Francis ’06, and former faculty Gordon Winn fairly regularly in Richmond. Juliana Ladwig Soin writes, “We are expecting a little boy any day now and we have a fun, energetic 3-year-old daughter. We are moving from NY to Florida this summer and 68
James Whittle Kluttz III (Whit), son of Cameron Leppard Kluttz ’03.
we are anxious to get out of the snow and onto the beach. I have been teaching kindergarten for 9 years and my husband will be completing an orthopedic trauma fellowship. Hope to see you at Disney world!” Christine Tubesing Dufault writes, “I’m living in Arlington and working in DC at Fannie Mae. I’ve been there for over 8 years now. In December, my husband Graham and I welcomed our son Brooks.” Hunt Kushner writes, “I live in Houston and work in private equity; I look forward to seeing those who are local at the alumni reception here in a couple of weeks. I got engaged to Katie Macmillan over the holidays, and we are currently in the throws of wedding planning. My fiancée is a seventh grade teacher. Really loved the reunion last summer!” Julia McKenzie Johnson writes, “Hi all — after 2.5 years in Darien, CT, our family is moving to Hong Kong for my husband’s job. He is already there and our boys, Wells
Caroline Heyward von Werssowetz, daughter of Odie von Werssowetz ’04 and Rad, was born February 8, 2017.
(4) and Mac (almost 2), and I are moving February 4. Ged and I enjoyed welcoming some friends to visit us in Darien before our departure including Elisabeth Putney Mygatt and her family and Will Milam ’01 and his family. We are looking forward to the experience and adventure. Drop me a line if you’re coming through Hong Kong!” Will McGettigan writes, “Julie and I welcomed our second child, Michael Daly McGettigan, the morning of December 24th. We were fortunate to celebrate Christmas at home with his big sister Ella (2 years old). I am enjoying my fourth year teaching at Landon, where I work alongside Case Anderson ’03.” Giles Spurling writes, “Married for 3.5 years to wife Danielle, still in Bermuda, no kids yet, studying to be an actuary way too late in life :) I still do my reggae music, please check out the latest from Sir Dudley on YouTube. Plus FREE download at http://www.soundcloud. com/sirdudley”
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
also been traveling a lot. Went to Colombia, Panama, Ghana, and Liberia all within the last year and a half. I hadn’t been in Liberia since before my family left (for what turned out to be permanently) in 1990, so that was quite an experience. Can’t wait to see you guys at our next reunion!” Stephen Johnson married Sarah Margaret Cox, of Richmond, VA, on June 17, 2017, in Charleston, SC. Elizabeth Colyer Thompson ’04, Allie Tanner Palmer ’04, Mary White Martin ’04, Parker Woltz Mackie ’04, Katharine Ragsdale ’04, Anna Henderson Brantley ’04, Whitney Brooks ’04, and DeWitt Tillett ’04 gathered to celebrate Katharine’s wedding in Ravello, Italy.
Grant Brown married Laura Tickner (Holton Arms ’02) on October 21, 2017, in Chevy Chase, MD. Many EHS alums were in attendance.
’03
Alden Koste Corrigan (H) 443-783-4659 alden.k.corrigan@gmail.com 15th Reunion: June 8-10, 2018
Nick Stewart ’04, Odie von Werssowetz ’04, Hugo Gilbert ’04, Blake Murphey ’04, Ben O’Neill ’04, Shaw Cornelson ’04, and Harrison Gilchrist ’04 at the wedding of Blake Murphey and Heather Godsell in Cortona, Italy.
I hope everyone is doing well! It is hard to believe, but we have our fifteen-year reunion this year. I encourage everyone who can make it to attend. The reunion is a great opportunity to catch up and reconnect with classmates! Congratulations to Carrington Skinner who was married to Brett Major on October 21, 2017, in downtown Raleigh, NC. Fellow EHS classmates, John Oelschlager, Marshall Mundy, Ted Dodson, Jarrett Bell, and Keith Carr, were there to celebrate with the happy couple. Cameron Leppard Kluttz and her family welcomed a beautiful baby boy, James Whittle Kluttz III (Whit), on December 30. Sanford Zeigler recently moved back to Charleston with his wife, Susanna, and oneyear-old son, Sanford “Manning” Zeigler, Jr. He reports that life is much better after residency.
Clementine and Campbell Carlos, children of Adam and Madison Murray Carlos ’05.
Emmy Katona, daughter of Kerby and Spencer Katona ’05.
Azizi Jones writes, “Hey, fellow class of ’02 alums. Let’s see, I am working in immigration law at an amazing law firm. I recently moved to Alexandria, VA, after not having lived here since my time at EHS (I’m literally a few minutes from the High School now). In January, I participated on a panel for the school’s
2nd MLK Day Symposium with Rasheed Cole ’03 and a few other alums from different years, which was really great. After the panel, I had lunch with Head of School Charley Stillwell and Assistant Director of Admissions Jonathan Lee ’01. Always fun to learn how the school has changed. I have
’04
Caitlin Smith (C) 337-302-2444 caitlin.ann.smith@gmail.com Harrison Gilchrist (H) 804-443-5247 chgilchr@gmail.com 15th Reunion: June 2019
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
69
CLASS NOTES
Jenn and Eamon Coy and family (Andy, 7 & Levi, 4) have relocated to Frisco, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas. The Coys had a great time visiting with Riddick Beebe in Atlanta over the holidays and will miss living so close to the High School family in northern Virginia, most notably The Rev. Gail and Perry Epes ’65, former EHS teachers. From Phil Glaize, “My son Nox and wife Immy put a smile on my face all day every day. At Nox’s baptism in Winchester, VA I met up with Phil Glaize ’74, David Glaize ’07, Lucy Glaize Frey ’08, and Godmother Gretchen Byrd ’95. To all the Berk rats out there: may PyeongChang be just as rewarding as Salt Lake City ’02 was for Team U.S.A. in the second floor common room.”
Eliza Hopper ’06, Hillary Harper Molitor ’05, Alison Crossen Marschalk ’05, Alston Armfield Daigh ’05, Margaret Anne McArver ’05, Richard Lee ’05, Julia Berg Lee, Johnny Rockwell ’05, Kate Hanlan Hollo Kegan ’05, Jay Reynolds ’05, Rob Saunders ’75 celebrate the wedding of Richard and Julia. Notably missing from this picture are Henry Kegan ’05 and Richard’s godfather, George Thompson ’48.
Katharine Ragsdale married Lorenzo Bared in Ravello, Italy on September 28, 2017. Many EHS classmates were in attendance, including Whitney Brooks, Anna Henderson Brantley, William Corbitt IV ’02, Philip Hasty ’03, Parker Woltz Mackie, Mary White Martin, Allie Tanner Palmer, Yibba Colyer Thompson, and DeWitt Tillett. Speaking of Italy, Blake Murphey and Heather Godsell were married this past October in Cortona. Several of our classmates were able to make the trip to Italy and enjoyed the sights and sounds of Tuscany.
’05
Ellie Frazier kefrazier8@gmail.com 15th Reunion: June 2020
Madison Murray Carlos and her husband Adam welcomed their second child, a son, Campbell Armstrong Carlos on August 24, 2017. He joins big sister Clementine! They are also about to move from Telluride, CO to Wilmington, NC. It is very bittersweet to leave Colorado, but they are looking forward to being closer to families and EHS alumni in the southeast! Richard Lee married Julia Berg on September 23, 2017 in Charlottesville, VA. The Lees are still living in D.C. and all is going great! Will Damron enjoyed a very successful 2017 as an audiobook narrator, recording over 80 books and winning his third Voice Arts Award, 70
Elizabeth “Libby” Harrison Carrington, daughter of Elizabeth Harrison Carrington ’06.
as well as an Audie Award — the industry’s highest honor. He also published his debut novel The Tercentennial Baron, a Scottish fantasy-adventure, which has so far received stellar reviews. The book is available online at Amazon, Audible, Barnes and Noble, and elsewhere. A sequel is in the works. Spencer Katona and his wife Kerby celebrated their daughter Emmy’s 1st birthday in December. Otherwise they are still in Richmond and enjoy running into EHS colleagues from time to time around town.
’06
Molly Wheaton (H) 504-288-1990 mewheaton@gmail.com Margaret von Werssowetz Waters margaretvonw@gmail.com 15th Reunion: June 2021
Jeff Lamb ’06 with son, Sutter.
Hey team, it’s Molly Wheaton. Pretty standard update from me — I’m still working at GLG and loving Austin. Playing tennis, traveling and riding my bike in any spare time. I see all of the usual suspects regularly — I’m heading home to NOLA this week for Parker Harcus’ 1st birthday (daughter of Sarah Montz Harcus) and to meet my new nephew! I also have two EHS bachelorette parties in March: Peyton Killeen (marrying Chris Walling on May 5th in Lewes, DE) and Carrie Coker (marrying Matt Kuykendall on May 27th in Blufton, SC). Looking forward to a lot of quality time with EHS friends in 2018! Now let’s hear from everyone else. There were a lot of submissions regarding babies, weddings and moves — so here is a blanket congratulations to everyone!
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
and rattlesnakes. I was there to supervise and ensure no Dick Cheney pt 2 incidents. Ellen Elizabeth King Minnick shares, “we just had a super cute ginger baby on 11/28/2017 —- William John Minnick (aka Bill).”
Russell and Scout Douglas Osborne ’06 with daughter, Maple.
Margaret von Werssowetz Waters flexed her artistic side and submitted her update in haiku form: “Half my friends have moved / but D.C. is still stacked, and / Kingsley might move back.” Now more than ever, I feel lucky to have participated in AP English with Mrs. Waters. I can say I knew her back when! Speaking of Kingsley Trotter (mentioned in haiku), she has two important comments: “Margaret put in the last issue of class notes that Margot is a French Bulldog but she is an English bulldog. I also prefer updates from classmates that include me — food for thought!” Got it. Thank you for this contribution, Kingsley.
William “Bill” John Minnick, son of Ellen Elizabeth King Minnick ’06.
Cameron Pastrick Ruppert reports that she has been working for herself as an interior designer for the past year and a half doing residential interior design. Her daughter, Winnie, will be 2 on May 25th and they are expecting a baby boy on May 28th. Julia Rowe Wise shares that she moved jobs at Entergy — she is still working in corporate communications, but she is now working with the utility side of the company. Also this January, she started the EMBA program at Millsaps College. Anne Womble Hobart says no real updates on her end: “still have 1 baby, still married, still live in Atlanta, still tutoring, still instagramming” — keep it up, Anne, because I love following you, John and Simms on the gram! Scout Douglas Osborne notes that she and Russell had a baby. “Maple was born on
Cameron Pastrick Ruppert ’06 with her husband, Jake, and their daughter, Winnie.
September 16, 2017. We are still living in Alexandria.” Jenner Wood reports that he is still in Charlotte, NC working for Charlotte Pipe and Foundry Co as a regional salesperson. Jenner adds “You may want to mention that David Lambeth is getting married April 14 and Steve Shaw is getting married April 21.” Honour Alston Thornton is finishing up nursing grad school; “moving from Chicago to Atlanta this spring.” I’m happy that Philip Duggins has come out of the woodwork to update us. He comments, “I live in Dallas with Mason Tillett, just like old times. I work at Blackhill Partners downtown, no babies, single.” I was lucky to spend a weekend at Phil’s ranch in Texas this past fall with Phil, Mason, Thomas Duggins and Harper Cullen — the boys contributed to population control efforts for deer, coyote
Ina Dixon says, “I’m continuing to live the dream of a being a PhD student at UNCChapel Hill. Also, I saw Mary Lide Parker the other day trucking around campus with her backpack — looking just like her badass high school self! It was great.” Elizabeth Harrison Carrington had a baby on 12/24/17. Elizabeth Harrison Carrington will go by Libby — “she is named after me and my mom, grandmother, etc!” Jeff Lamb writes, “My wife Lauren and I are still loving San Francisco, and this past July added one more to the gang, baby Sutter. Picture included on previous page. As you may have guessed from the picture, Sutter’s favorite pastime is eating, followed closely by play dates with his puppy Scout.” Spencer Brown tells us these class notes updates are the first (and often only) thing he looks at when he receives mail from EHS — glad to hear that! He adds, “I just finished my second season at NC State coaching the Defensive Backs. We won 9 games including The Sun Bowl and I had the privilege of working with the best defensive player in the nation, Nagurski Award Winner Bradley Chubb. My career in college football has led me on an awesome adventure and I’m excited to see where it takes me next!” EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
71
CLASS NOTES
Caitlin Dirkes Simmonds shares “The biggest news I have is that Marshall, Cliff (our pup) and I are making the move to London! Marshall got a great job offer with the company that he currently works for in Charleston, Blackbaud. We are jumping the pond at the end of this month and will be there for at least two years. We could not be more excited about the opportunity. If anyone has any friends in London please let me know as we will need some!”
’07
Katharine Farrar 1607 T Street NW, Apt. A Washington, DC 20009 kdf@episcopalhighschool.org (C) 703-933-2974 Clark Barber 3333 N St. NW, Unit 8 Washington, DC 20009 tbarber@executiveboard.com (C) 864-325-0940 15th Reunion: June 2022
Sallie Madden started a job at JP Morgan Chase working in the Consumer and Community Bank after completing her MBA at Chapel Hill. Sally Channell is finishing up her MBA and working as a consultant at McKinsey in Charlotte starting Summer 2018. Ann Cowden tied the knot in May and is now Anne Cowden Mayer! Molly Barber and Anneka Wisker were bridesmaids and her brother, Lee Cowden ’10, was a groomsman. Katie Oswald, Allison Ledwith Glubiak, Kristina Fondren, Whitt Clement ’10, and J.T. VanMeter ’10 were all there to help Ann and husband Pearce celebrate! Congrats!!! Jeb Leva married Lauren Howell on December 16, 2017. Many EHS classmates were in attendance and part of the wedding party — Teddy Peterson, Griffin Johnson, Frank Stern, Danny Coale, Warner Blunt, Clark Barber and Spencer Graves ’08 were all groomsmen. Sally Channell repped EHS among the bridesmaids and Sallie Madden greeted all in attendance at the church: Jay Fazio, Drew McGowan, JT Jobe, Gil Lamphere, Anderson Hackney Brown, Anna Belk Elliott and Katharine Farrar. The weekend was a blast and would not have been complete if it weren’t for Gordon Winn 72
Lily Fowle ’08 and Eleanor Galloway ’08 traveled together in Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Marte Meighan Leisy ’07 married Davis Leisy on January 27, 2018.
Mike Krcmery ’07 supporting EHS with his children, Lucia and Jakub.
(lead singer of The Winn Brothers) serenading us through the night! Marte Meighan married Davis Leisy in Seattle WA on January 27, 2018 and our dear Katie Oswald was by Marte’s side as a bridesmaid. Congrats Mrs. Marte Meighan Leisy! Renee John Howard reported back that she and her husband “bought a house in Tampa, FL, so we are committing to Florida for several more years. So if anyone is in the area, feel free to reach out!” In February, Renee went on a week long trip to Trinidad and Tobago for Carnival with our very own Raecine Williams, Kelly Onyejiaka ’08 and Andima Umoren ’08.
Marguerite Kleinheinz ’08, Chris Eisenzimmer, Ann Gordon Pelletier Eisenzimmer ’08, and Wes Graf ’08 at Chris and Ann Gordon’s wedding.
Lindsey Dorman Johnson graduates from Columbia Business School in May and will be launching a premium bath towel business this summer called Georgie (www.georgietowels. com). Be sure to check it out and take your towel game to the next level. JT Jobe predicts that he will become a dog owner within the next year and he is also…. ENGAGED to girlfriend Keeley Duffey!!!! CONGRATS you two! Frank Stern popped the question to his girlfriend Amanda Pouch and they plan to tie the knot in October of 2018. CHEERS!
Franny Kupersmith van Os is still living in the Netherlands and admittedly is attempting to speak Dutch...without much success. Keep on after it Fran….jij hebt het! SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
PHOTO CREDIT: LARRY HAMILTON
After Episcopal
LOL
Larry Owens ’08 lives for his art. At Episcopal, Larry Owens ’08 was a presence on campus. These days, he’s a presence in the New York theater scene, comedy clubs, a new game show, and his first feature film, due out this year. In December 2017, TimeOut New York named Larry as one of their “comedians we’re obsessed with right now.” “The world is changing for the better,” he told TimeOut. “The hateful ideas we’re seeing flare up are old; but how we radically accept one another is completely new.” Larry’s latest gig is in the writer’s room of Paid Off, a new academically focused game show for TruTV. Contestants on the show will compete for money to pay off their student loans. “I love it so much,” he says, “because in addition to doing what I would be doing anyway — which is making people laugh — this is going to help out a lot of people and hopefully change the culture surrounding how we pay for education in this country.” The 2016 Hollywood Writers Report found that minority writers make up about 13 percent of all writers, and just 4 percent of minority writers are African-American. Larry is proud to join the ranks and bring more diversity to the profession. “When you think about all of the work that’s been produced and that gets broadcast into rooms all over the country — now I’m going to be contributing my voice to that,” he says. Last year, Larry had a supporting acting role as a college student in To Dust, a feature film starring Matthew Broderick, which he expects will be on the festival circuit this year. But Larry didn’t always see a future in show business.
At Episcopal, “I was in every club. I was on so many committees,” he says. Larry was involved in artistic groups like Daemon, a capella, and choir, but also the EHS Young Republicans and the Service Council. “I wanted to make the most of being exposed to all different types of people,” he says. He saw himself pursuing a career with an academic focus. All that changed one summer break during high school when Larry attended the renowned Stagedoor Manor theater camp in the Catskills of New York. “I learned that I could take my art seriously,” says Larry. “It could be a valuable profession — not just a hobby.” His discovery did not come without reservations. “I had a huge conflict about committing to the artistic lifestyle because you hear about the starving artist, but it’s actually one of the noblest lives to lead because it is about creation.” After Episcopal, Larry continued to pursue theater at the School of Steppenwolf in Chicago, and then moved to New York City where he immediately began working on scripts for musicals. Larry’s “big break” came when one of those scripts, then called Fat Camp, made it to industry readings and was performed twice Off-Broadway, where it was picked up and renamed Gigantic. “That was my first experience with originating a role and having writers write for me.” Larry attributes his success to taking his career into his own hands and not waiting for others to give him opportunities. He works hard to make his art. “I had to open the doors myself; I learned about how powerful I am.” See Larry this summer at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, where he will be headlining his own shows in June. Paid Off premiers this summer on TruTV. EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
73
CLASS NOTES
’08
Lucy Glaize Frey lglaize@gmail.com 10th Reunion: June 8-10, 2018
Greetings! The Class of ’08 has just a few updates for you this season (even after several attempts to coax more out of my classmates), but, of course, these are all very excellent updates. Quality over quantity, right? Ann Gordon Pelletier and Christopher Eisenzimmer were married at the Wee Kirk Presbyterian Church in Linville, North Carolina on October 21st. Marguerite Kleinheinz was Ann Gordon’s Maid of Honor, and sisters Millie Pelletier Warren ’00 and Graye Pelletier Todd ’03 were Matrons of Honor. Good friend Wesley Graf read a scripture in the ceremony. Ann Gordon and Chris recently moved from NYC to Raleigh, North Carolina. Of course, they do a good job of making time for adventure outside of Raleigh, and have already been found skiing the resort and the side country of Jackson Hole this winter. Also in the wedding circuit this fall was Leah Andress. Leah and David Brady were married in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 18th. Leah’s wedding party included Marguerite Kleinheinz, Ann Gordon Pelletier Eisenzimmer, Eliza Coker, Eleanor Galloway, Amanda Weisiger Cornelson, Lily Fowle, Carson Roberts Paschal, and Leah’s sister and Maid of Honor Caroline Andress ’11. This beautiful group of ladies was just a tiny fraction of all of the Episcopal grads at the wedding to celebrate Leah and David.
Members of the Class of 2008 celebrated Leah Andress Brady’s wedding to David Brady in November. Pictured are Marguerite Kleinheinz, Ann Gordon Pelletier Eisenzimmer, Eliza Coker, Eleanor Galloway, Leah Andress Brady, Amanda Weisiger Cornelson, Lily Fowle, Carson Roberts Paschal, and Caroline Andress ’11.
Millie Pelletier Warren ’00, Ann Gordon Pelletier Eisenzimmer ’08, and Graye Pelletier Todd ’03 celebrate Ann Gordon’s wedding.
Spencer McKenna and his wife Holly are enjoying married life in Boston. Fortunately, they got to escape the cold for their honeymoon down under, in Australia, in December. Spencer declined to share any pictures, so just imagine beautiful hikes, wine tasting, skydiving, sun, beach lounging, and delicious food and beverage. In other news outside of the Western Hemisphere, Lily Fowle and Eleanor Galloway just returned from three weeks of traveling together in Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. They had the best time hiking, exploring, eating, biking, taking selfies, visiting temples, kayaking, eating, beaching, making new friends, and eating more. It was an 74
Emmy Ragsdale ’12, Crandall Close Story ’01, Hannah Baldwin Ozburn ’03, Hanna Nation Seabrook ’05, Liz Ward Nation ’09, Kingsley Trotter ’06, Catherine Harrison ’09, Caroline Williamson ’09, Ben Shuford ’09, Bridgette Ewing ’09, Ginna Oates ’09, Henry Trotter ’13, Smith Marks ’09, Frances Stone ’09, Chis Williams ’06, Patrick Mealy ’09, Hanes Dunn ’09, Hill DuBose ’09, Bess Trotter DuBose ’09, Teddy Hobbs ’09, Will Ryan ’09, Edward Pritchard ’09, Alex Fleming ’09, Alex Smith ’10, Brown DuBose ’13, and Justin Combs ’09 at the wedding of Hill DuBose and Bess Trotter DuBose. SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
class notes were submitted there have been so many occasions to celebrate — namely weddings and proposals. Congratulations and best wishes go out to each of you! Bess Trotter (now Bess DuBose) and Hill DuBose were married in Fort Mill, SC on November 4, 2017. Many EHS alums were at the wedding to celebrate.
Hill DuBose ’09, Charles Nation (WFS ’09), Hanna Seabrook ’05, Liz Ward Nation ’09, Jeila Martin Kershaw ’09, Bess Trotter DuBose ’09, Anne Pennington ’09, and Alec Smith ’09 celebrate the wedding of Liz and Charles.
Smith Marks reports that he will be finishing his Master of Architecture program at NC State in August, and will be getting married to Kate Woodard of Wilson, NC that same month. Johnny Motley ’08 will be officiating the wedding. Jamie Utt has been living in Dallas, TX working for RSF Partners, a real estate private equity company since July of 2016. He recently proposed to Courtney Hill whom he met while living in New York City, and the two will marry in Charleston, SC on October 27, 2018.
Austin Parker ’10 (second from left) with his band Universal Sigh.
Alessandra Gavin ’12, Audrey Humleker ’10, Abby Hart ’10, and Alexa Williams ’10 attended Abby Hart’s wedding to Mark Novosel in Hickory, NC, in November.
incredible, fun, and humbling trip. They are now very full, and back to reality in Brooklyn. Also, Lily and Eleanor are going on their 9th year as roommates! (This includes 2 years spent living together on Harrison, of course.) That’s a wrap! For now, at least. Hope to see everyone on campus at our 10-year reunion in June to relive memories of “strip”, hanging out in Blackford (which ceases to exist as we know it), ice cream socials, trips to the Bookstore to fuel for practice, trips to The Center, dorm parties, and all of the other goodness we experienced on the Holy Hill 10+ years ago!
Robert Kittrell ’10 proposed to Rachel Hurley ’10 on the beach in Nags Head, NC.
’09
Billy Hackenson (H) 703-757-0445 whackenson@gmail.com Kathleen Hullinger khullin@g.clemson.edu Stockett Marr (C) 540-905-2916 j.stockett.marr@gmail.com 10th Reunion: June 2019
Hello classmates. First I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Hard to believe we graduated nine years ago. Where does the time go? It seems that we’ve all had very busy, exciting lives, but since the last time
Liz Ward married Charles Owen Nation III (WFS class of ’09) on June 17, 2017 in Louisville, Kentucky. Hanna Seabrook ’05, the groom’s sister, was a bridesmaid, Anne Pennington and Jeila Martin Kershaw were greeters, and Alec Smith was an usher. Liz and Charles live in Charleston, SC where Charles is in medical school and Liz works as an underwriter for PURE Insurance. Writing from the mountains of Colorado, Phil Dujardin shares that he moved from Denver to Crested Butte and took a new job as a project manager with a company called Eleven Experiences. Good luck in the new role, Phil. And in keeping with the Colorado updates, Carly Linthicum got engaged to Stephen Blue at the turn of the New Year. From what I can tell on social media, it seems the two enjoy being very active in the great outdoors and life with their one, maybe two, dogs! I hope everyone has a great 2018. Please don’t hesitate to submit class notes at any time. My email address is khullin@g.clemson.edu and I will gladly accept submissions all year. I know we are all eager to know what everyone else is up to. Until the next round of class notes, take care. EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
75
CLASS NOTES
’10
Whitt Clement (H) 804-353-9333 wwc3uk@virginia.edu 10th Reunion: June 2020
Lots of action to report since the last update! Abby Hart tied the knot and married Mark Novosel in Hickory, NC in November. Audrey Humleker, Alexa Williams, and Alessandra Gavin ’12 were in attendance. Congrats Abby! A large group including Gene McCarthy, Rachel Hurley, Will Stokes, Leah Dodson, James Dorsett, Coles Lawton, J.T. VanMeter, Patrick Ristau, Pen Jones, Alix Wright, Reddin Woltz, Emma Wiltshire, Hunter deButts, Charles Gillock, Chris Lopez, Barry Hughes, and Robert Kittrell returned for The Game.
Class of 2010 classmates Gene McCarthy, Rachel Hurley, Robert Kittrell, Leah Dodson, James Dorsett, Coles Lawton, Peter Pritchard ’11, J.T. VanMeter, Patrick Ristau, Pen Jones, Alix Wright, Reddin Woltz, Emma Wiltshire, Hunter deButts, Charles Gillock, Chris Lopez, and Barry Hughes at The Game.
Speaking of Kittrell, there will soon be two in our class. Robert proposed to Rachel on the beach in Nags Head, NC. Gene, Coles, Brendan Luther, Pen, James, JT, and Jordan were there to cheer them on. Robert, Gene, and Jordan later reunited at the Urbanna Oyster Festival. Ben Baldwin packed his bags for Los Angeles. He produced his first feature film this summer which is currently in post-production and is hoping it will be released in 2019. Ben also became an uncle for the second time to his sister Hannah Baldwin Ozburn ’03. Also living in L.A. is Jeannie Burke. She writes that she loves California and “hopes to be Kim Kardashian’s next surrogate. Bring on the pickles and ice cream!”
Gene McCarthy ’10, Robert Kittrell ’10, and Jordan Nulsen ’10 at the Urbanna Oyster Festival.
Elizabeth Henderson ’11 and Amanda Acquaire ’11 ran a 10K in Disney World… and survived!
After 7 years as a New Yorker, Danielle Molina moved to Nashville. She writes, “I’ve been living here since September and am loving it. I’m working at a women’s boutique and am learning all about sales and the customer side of the fashion business.” Last but certainly not least is Austin Parker. He and his band, Universal Sigh, continue to sell out concert venues. He writes, “Be sure to keep a lookout for us on tour, and like the Universal Sigh Facebook page to stay up to date!”
Nick Weeden ’11 skiing in Japan. 76
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
’12
Celeste Jones jonesch0@sewanee.edu 10th Reunion: June 2022
Taylor Kelly is headed into her second semester of graduate school in Paris, France, at the American Graduate School in Paris. She is working on a dual degree in International Relations and Diplomacy and Strategic Negotiation where she is earning French and American master degrees at the same time.
Class of 2011 classmates Stanley Gaines, Sutton Alford, and Max Graney celebrating their birthdays together.
Matt Fisher ’11 started his own Virtual Reality company!
Laura Hollister spends her days teaching 5th graders at a Title 1 School, Newlin Elementary School, in North Carolina. She also traveled across the pond to celebrate New Year’s with friends in England. The class of 2012 had a large turn out for this year’s Woodberry Game! Pictured are a few of the classmates that were able to make it back to the Holy Hill to cheer on the Maroon to beat the Tigers. Ryan Bennert and George Thorne ’11 got engaged in December! Congratulations, Ryan and George!
The Class of 2012 was represented at The Game this year. Pictured are Wells Patrick, Jack Blaine, Celeste Jones, Jack Rauch, Chase Hughes, Thomas Dudley, Armour Shaw, Chris Wasden, Marshall Weisiger, Marion Williams, Barrett Wagner, Carly Lyerly, Harrison Clement, Ben Taylor, and Chris Driscoll.
’11
Ambler Goddin (H) 703-683-4757 lag9qy@viriginia.edu 10th Reunion: June 2021
Reid Nickle and T.R. Wall are once again roommates living in the DC area. T.R. started the Real Estate Master’s program at Georgetown. Aliyah Griffith served on the EHS advisory council for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years. The council discussed ways Episcopal can better integrate service into daily life. Aliyah enjoyed being able to give back to the high school that did so much for her and her family!
Nick Weeden recently got back from skiing in Japan! Stanley Gaines moved to Manhattan in January 2017. He, Max and Sutton recently got together to celebrate their birthdays. Matt Fisher recently started his own company! It makes Virtual Reality rendered web applications. As it’s a new company, only about 7 months old, they are still working on getting the website up and running. Way to go Matt! As for me, last year I earned my Master’s in Teaching from UVA. I moved back to the Northern Virginia area to start my first year of teaching first grade!
Caroline Hagood has moved across the world to the north island of New Zealand to follow the harvest season. She will be picking and harvesting grapes at the Craggy Range winery. Hopefully she can put her forklift driving skills she finessed in Napa this past year to good use! Arnaud William Adala Moto is currently in the city of Logroño in the province of “La Rioja” four hours north of Madrid, playing his first year of professional basketball with the Club Banloncesto Clavijo in LEB ORO (second division league in Spain). Before he joined the team last fall, he earned his post baccalaureate certificate in Digital Marketing from Towson University in Maryland. In the spring Arnaud defended his country’s colors at the last African Continental Cup of basketball (Afro basketball) held in Tunisia. Despite life overseas being very different from what we are accustomed to in the USA, Arnaud is adjusting well. He says, “Logroño is a beautiful small touristic city known for its vineyards, wineries and finger food (tapas and pinchos). I am enjoying life by being open minded to embrace the culture here, making EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
77
CLASS NOTES
’14
new friends and I am attempting to visit the rest of Spain and Europe with my spare time. Nothing can really prepare you for life alone overseas, especially coming from the USA. I have been learning how to cook for myself and learning the language. But I believe that our high school experiences and the diverse sociocultural environment at EHS have a huge impact on my capability to rapidly adapt to the life overseas.”
’13
Somer Glubiak sglubiak@gwu.edu 5th Reunion: June 8-10, 2018
Cici Sobin cici.sobin@gmail.com 5th Reunion: June 2019
Taylor Kelly ’12 is in graduate school in Paris!
I just finished up my last summer of college interning and studying photography at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. I am also excited to announce that I have signed a formal job offer with Deloitte Consulting and will be returning to Northern Virginia to work as a Business Technology Analyst out of their Arlington, VA office. If any other classmates will be in the area after graduation, I’d love to catch up and can be reached at ciara2@vt.edu.
Well the year for the Class of 2013’s 5-year reunion has finally come! We are all ecstatic to get to go back to the Holy Hill to relive our days at EHS, while making new memories with our fellow classmates. Talk about reunions; this one is a big one for me in particular. My eldest brother, Josh Glubiak ’03 will be having his 15 year reunion, while my other brother, Zach Glubiak ’08 will be having his 10 year reunion, and I, of course, will be having my 5th. That being said, it will be an EHS reunion as well as a reunion for the Glubiak siblings. Katie Harlow graduated from UPenn this past spring and has taken on working for Red Bull in their entry level rotational program. She helps out their Key Account teams with sales’ performance and strategy as well as the sports marketing athlete activations team with female athlete focused projects. She’s been to Nashville, Salt Lake City, Santa Monica, and Houston in the past month and is looking forward to further growing and developing her skills at Red Bull! Kate Bickley, Ali Alford, and Sarah Merrill Barringer are still killing it up in NYC. Kate is working as a Real estate agent in NYC! Her real estate game is on the skill level of those on Million Dollar Listing NYC. Lee Stewart has entered her last semester at Clemson University. She will graduate with a major in English and American Sign Language. When asked if she was ready, she quickly replied that she was excited to be graduating and move to a big city with friends from college.
78
The Class of 2014 is finishing their fourth year of college this spring, and many of us will be graduating and moving into a new phase of our lives this coming May. As many of my former classmates begin their career search, I include a request for any alumni who find they have experience in common with the interests of my classmates to please reach out to them if you feel you could provide any insight or career advice.
Laura Hollister ’12 with her fifth grade class.
Abby Halm is working very hard on her premed courses that she’s taking in Baltimore. She is enrolled in a post baccalaureate premedical program with the hopes of enrolling in med school in the fall of 2019. Lucy Parks Shackelford is about to finish her first year of law school in Arkansas, where she can only describe herself as excited to be done with the first year. Elle Wilson has finished her semester of testing her culinary skills, and has moved to San Francisco to start her job. Crawford Horan has gone International on us. She is testing her Spanish speaking fluency while teaching in Spain. Can’t wait for the Class of 2013 to get back to EHS in June!!
This past summer Jackson Neagli completed the Middlebury Summer Language School studying Chinese. Jackson is currently spending his fall applying to law schools. Jackson finds himself primarily interested in international law, potentially as it pertains to international organizations and NGOs. He was inspired to pursue this field after interning with a federal judge at the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Jackson will be graduating from Rice University this May with degrees in Asian studies and Policy Studies and concentrations in Chinese language/culture and law and justice respectively. If you are interested in reaching out to Jackson or have any helpful advice on applying to law schools, he can be reached by email at jpn1@rice.edu. Harleigh Bean spent the summer as a Public Policy and International Affairs Junior Summer Institute Fellow at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs. Harleigh will be graduating from Washington & Lee University this coming May with a Bachelors in International Politics and Romance Languages, and a Minor in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. If you’d like
SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
this past spring! Suzelle will be graduating from the Naval Academy in May with an Honors Degree in Political Science. Isaac Kilis just finished an internship at West Monroe Partners in their customer experience practice. Emily Hennessy is spending her fall studying abroad in New Zealand, and doing a mid-semester break in Melbourne, Australia. Class of 2015 classmates Brooks Davy, Henry Willis Fleming, Drew Yardley, and Cooper Gage celebrating at a debutante ball in New Orleans.
to reach Harleigh, or believe you might have any helpful contacts for her please reach out via harleighbean@gmail.com. This past summer, Caroline Bond interned with JLL, a commercial Real Estate firm in Richmond, VA. Caroline’s role at JLL primarily focused in Project Management, which she found a real love for. Caroline will be graduating from UVA this May with a degree in Architecture and a concentration in Design Thinking. If you have any career advice or contacts to share with Caroline in her job search she can be reached via email at ceb5qn@virginia.edu. Sam Armm debuted on stage for Case Western Reserve University’s student-run musical theater group, the Footlighters, in a production of Heathers the Musical last fall, and is spending this semester out of class in a mechanical engineering co-op with Philips Healthcare in Highland Heights, OH. This coming May Addison Ingle will be graduating from the Southern Methodist University with a Major in PR and a Minor in Art History. She is excited to announce that her youngest sister, Helen Ingle ’21, joined the Episcopal family this fall as a freshman. Addison will also be having her debutante ball this November in Charleston, SC. Liz Martinelli is spending her senior year apprenticing as a copywriter at Brass Tacks Collective, an ad agency in downtown Dallas. Liz will be graduating from Southern Methodist University this May with a degree in Creative Advertising and minors in both Graphic Design and Journalism. If you have any career advice or contacts to share with Liz
in her job search she can be reached via email at lmartinelli@smu.edu. Duff Archie, John Eddins, and Connor Gribbon are pleased to announce the launch of their travel startup, OffWeGo: a web service that connects young people together to help form relationships, foster cross-culture exchange and ultimately reduce the price of the trip by splitting costs and taking advantage of group rates. Visit www.offwegotrips. com for more info and to stay up to date on the latest news. Rachel Vadhan has accepted a full time position as a Strategy Analyst at Kurt Salmon, a part of Accenture Strategy, in San Francisco after graduation. Rachel will be graduating from the University of Virginia with degrees in Economics and Global Studies. Congratulations, Rachel! Savannah Lambert spent her summer interning at 1812 Productions, an all-comedy theater company in Philadelphia, and also received a grant from UPenn to conduct independent research on the gender gap that exists among winners of prestigious literary awards. Savannah will be graduating from UPenn this May with a major in English and a minor in Computer Science. Emily Bivins just finished a PR internship at UNICEF USA in NY over the summer. Emily will be graduating from Vanderbilt University this May with a major in Medicine, Health and Society and minors in Corporate Strategy and Art History.
This past summer Natnael Kassaw completed projects in private equity due diligence work and digital payments infrastructure with BCG. Exploring research and trading in cryptocurrencies, working to build out an auxiliary alumni board for the Jack Kent Cooke scholarship foundation, and planning out logistics for an escrow firm that contracts out freelance college talent to firms. Natnael will be graduating this coming June from Stanford University with a degree in Management Science and Engineering. Natnael can be reached via email at natnael@stanford.edu. Jennifer Zhang spent her summer working at a French Gallery (Shanghai Division) called Galerie Dumonteil as their translator; there she also served as her supervisor’s personal assistant. Jennifer studied abroad for a semester in Aix-en-Provence. She will be graduating from Wellesley College with majors in French and Art History. Kathryn Matheson graduated from College of Charleston this past May and is now currently pursuing her Masters in Commerce at The University of Virginia. Kathryn is excited to spend the year with many of her former EHS classmates including Lizzie Redd and Lulu Farish.
’15
Presley Goode pgoode2@gmail.com Tyler Hartmeyer tigerpearson97@aol.com Morgan Lineberry morganlineberry12@gmail.com 5th Reunion: June 2020
Suzelle Thomas is a Battalion Commander at the US Naval Academy this fall. Additionally, her lacrosse team made it to the Final Four EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
79
CLASS NOTES
’16
Kelsey Anderson kelseymanderson4@gmail.com Andrew Karo andrewkaro@utexas.edu Priscilla Barton-Metcalfe pbarton3@jhu.edu 5th Reunion: June 2021
Many of our sporty classmates have been continuing to thrive both on and off the field at their respective colleges and universities. After redshirting his first year on the Virginia Tech men’s soccer team, Gaetan Roux scored the golden goal in the first round of the ACC tournament against NC State. Jesse Meyler reports that his Northwestern football team won 24-23 in the Music City Bowl against Kentucky. One of the bowl events was a Hot Chicken eating contest, in which Jesse ate 14 pieces in 4 minutes and broke the previous bowl record for most eaten in the competition. Sarah Jones is excited about her upcoming season on William and Mary’s Women’s lacrosse team. The team opens against reigning national champion and top ranked University of Maryland on February 11. Additionally, Zach Najera has been focusing on his music in recent months. Check him out on SoundCloud! Catherine Maybank is enjoying her new job working in Charleston this semester. Jo Jo Diaz has been working as a Resident Assistant for freshmen, and is excited about her spring softball season for Wesleyan. Dylan Michael reports that she is doing well and had a great fall semester. Akua Asante studied abroad in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, South Africa from December 26 to January 16 to delve deeper into the topic of public health. We have also been continuing to connect with one another around the globe. Natasha Ferguson hosted both her cousins Gabi Navarro-Bowman ’17 and Sofi Navarro-Bowman ’17 and classmate Maura Kitchens in Panama. At Washington and Lee University, Kelsey Anderson has recently taken up studying Computer Science, taught by Ken Lambert, the father of classmate Nathaniel Lambert. Georgia Hough spent a weekend with her sister Ellie Hough ’14 and Zoe Ashburn at Elon University shortly after Christmas Break.
80
Emma Loy ’17, Mary Ives Giblin ’19, Robert Mason ’77, Chris Giblin ’86, Alexander Green ’14, Quinn Ainslie ’15, Timmy Phillips ’15, Ann Mason ’15, Christopher Giblin ’16, Hayne Ainslie ’17, and Garth Ainslie ’84 celebrating the Rose Bowl and New Year’s Eve together in Southern California!
’17
Halle Hughes hughes.halle@me.com LizaBanks Campagna lizabankscampagna@gmail.com Stuart Greenspon sglax98@gmail.com Whit Goode whitstackgoode@gmail.com 5th Reunion: June 2022
Madeline Dolan was escorted by Hampton Brannon and Hayne Ainslie in the Junior Assembly Debutante Ball in New York City in December 2017. Several other EHS alumni were there to celebrate Madeline and the Holidays! Camden Alford also became a Debutante in December 2017 in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Many EHS alumni were there to support and celebrate Camden.
University of Virginia to continue his baseball career. LizaBanks Campagna (University of California-Berkeley) and Greta Holt (Dickinson University) are training hard to get ready for their first college women’s lacrosse season this spring. Hampton Brannon and Stuart Greenspon are also awaiting the start of their first Division 1 collegiate lacrosse seasons at the University of Massachusetts and Hobart College respectively. Matthew Webb, Emma Thorp, Lauryn King, and John Ainslie will be wrapping up their productive gap years and are ecstatic to begin their college careers in the fall.
Ameliea Dulaney, Gabi Navarro-Bowman, Caroline Knutson, Kathryn Williams, Hannah Petitti, Mary Grace Rosenberg and Greta Holt joined the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority, along with four others from last semester, at several additional universities including Wake Forest University, Washington & Lee University, Southern Methodist University, and Dickinson University. These 11 women are proud and honored to represent both Episcopal High School and Kappa Kappa Gamma together. Sen Kenneally, currently a post-grad student at Phillips Exeter Academy, signed with the SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES ONLINE! Just go to the homepage and click on “Alumni” and then “Submit A Class Note.” For help with passwords or login, please contact the Advancement Office.
Marriages
Births
Robert Lynah Harrison ’57 to Melinda Barben Colson on January 27, 2017.
Ruby Petzold on January 18, 2018, and Arthur Petzold on January 19, 2018, to Katharine and Brian Petzold ’93.
Ann Woods Cutchins ’97 to Rick Byrne on May 6, 2017. Brooks Easter DuBose ’94 to Courtney Springman on may 21, 2016. David Rust Clarke, Jr. ’01 to Melissa Chambers on September 23, 2017. Stephen Morgan Johnson, Jr. ’02 to Sarah Cox on June 17, 2017. Berkley Carrington Skinner IV ’03 to Brett Major on October 21, 2017. Katharine Coffin Ragsdale ’04 to Lorenzo Bared on September 28, 2017. Blake Winslow Murphey ’04 to Heather Godsell on October 7, 2017. Richard Bland Lee VI ’05 to Julia Berg on September 23, 2017. Clay Reade Jacob, Jr. ’06 to Claire Condro on September 16, 2017. Ann Rehm Cowden ’07 to Pearce Mayer on May 27, 2017. James Barrington Leva ’07 to Lauren Howell on December 16, 2017. Marte Frances Meighan ’07 to Davis Leisy on January 27, 2018. Ann Gordon Pelletier ’08 to Christopher Eisenzimmer on October 21, 2017. Leah DuVal Andress ’08 to David Brady on November 18, 2017. Dorcas Elizabeth Trotter ’09 to William Hill DuBose, Jr. ’09 on November 4, 2017.
Thomas Bode Tennille to Dre and Leah Kannensohn Tennille ’01 on September 17, 2017. Benjamin Anderson Ward to Casey and Lindsay Soyars Ward ’01 in October 2017. James Frederick Patterson to Jim and Perrin Dent Patterson ’01 on December 20, 2017. Colton Edwards Hobgood to Jayme and Holt Hobgood ’01 on September 17, 2017. Michael Daly McGettigan to Julie and Will McGettigan ’02 on December 24, 2017. James Whittle Kluttz III to Jim and Cameron Leppard Kluttz ’03 on December 30, 2017. Spencer Lee Powers to David and Clare Murchison Powers ’04 on December 28, 2017. William John Minnick to Bolton and Ellen Elizabeth King Minnick ’06 on November 28, 2017. Elizabeth Harrison Carrington to John and Elizabeth Harrison Carrington ’06 on December 24, 2017. Sutter Michael Lamb to Lauren and Jeff Lamb ’06 in July 2017. Wyatt Leonard Boggs to Thomas and Julie Barraza Boggs ’06 on October 18, 2017. Elizabeth Tecklenburg Long to Tracie and Rutledge Long ’06 on December 31, 2017.
Elizabeth Speed Ward ’09 to Charles Nation on June 17, 2017. Abigail Gibson Hart ’10 to Mark Novosel on November 18, 2017. EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
81
In Memoriam
Notifications received between Oct. 15, 2017, and Feb. 28, 2018.
Douglas Forrest Fleet, Jr. ’38
Edward Davis Washburn III ’40
At EHS, Mr. Fleet was a Monitor and member of the tennis squad and Centennial basketball team. After Episcopal, Mr. Fleet graduated with a B.S. in commerce from Washington & Lee University. He then went to work for TennesseeEastman Corp. for several years, during which time he was part of the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tenn. In 1945, Mr. Fleet left to help his father operate a retail drugstore. Mr. Fleet is survived by a daughter, six grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, eight great-great-grandchildren, and one great-great-great grandchild.
At EHS, Mr. Washburn was on the tennis and varsity track teams, and was a recipient of the Shakespeare Prize. After EHS, Mr. Washburn received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a master’s degree in geology from the University of California at Berkeley. He worked for Shell Oil Company in California, then moved with his wife to the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana. In 1963, Mr. Washburn returned to California where he worked as a CPA for his own accounting practice for 25 years. Mr. Washburn was preceded in death by his brother, Randolph Harrison Washburn ’35. He is survived by his wife, Liz; four daughters; two sons and their wives; and five grandchildren.
of Tazewell, Va., died January 6, 2018.
Dr. Erasmus Helm Kloman, Jr. ’39
of Washington, D.C., died January 5, 2018. At EHS, Dr. Kloman was a member of the Fairfax Literary Society and choir and served as a librarian. He was also on the Whispers and Chronicle Boards, and he played on the football, JV basketball, Centennial basketball, and varsity tennis teams. After Episcopal, Dr. Kloman attended Princeton University. While there, he joined the Army ROTC and graduated early in 1943. Dr. Kloman subsequently joined the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, which sent him to Harvard University to learn Russian. He served the remainder of the war in Algiers. After the war, Dr. Kloman attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a Ph.D. in International Relations. He moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked for various government agencies, including the CIA and Department of State. Dr. Kloman also worked in other fields and upon retiring moved to Chestertown, Md. Dr. Kloman is survived by his wife, Sue; her two daughters, and his youngest son, and his family.
82
of Annapolis, Md., died February 27, 2013.
Dr. John Campbell Colston, Jr. ’43
of Baltimore, Md., died February 3, 2018. At EHS, Dr. Colston was a member of the Blackford Literary Society, the Missionary Society, and the Stewart Athletic Committee. He played for the JV football and spring tennis teams. After Episcopal, Dr. Colston attended The Johns Hopkins University and Mount St. Mary’s College. He attended the University of Virginia School of Medicine, where he entered an accelerated program so he could be commissioned into the Navy. He completed his residency at Johns Hopkins while serving in the Naval Reserve as a lieutenant. Dr. Colston was deployed to Korea, serving as a battalion surgeon with the First Marine Division. He completed his time in the Naval Reserve in 1956, and opened a private practice in urology in Baltimore. He later became the chief of urology at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, retiring in 1991. Dr. Colston was preceded in death by his wife, Frances. He is survived by his sister, four children, and nine grandchildren.
William Bolling Izard ’43
William Anderson Parker, Jr. ’45
At EHS, Mr. Izard was a member of the Blackford Literary Society, Missionary Society, varsity football and track teams, and on the boards of The Chronicle and Whispers. After Episcopal, Mr. Izard attended Virginia Military Institute and served in the Navy. He completed his higher education at the University of Virginia, receiving a B.A. in economics. Mr. Izard held a career in insurance, becoming a partner at one firm, and then founding his own company in 1975, retiring from the business in the late 1980s. Mr. Izard was preceded in death by his brother, James Johnston Izard, Jr. ’40. He is survived by his wife, Christy; four children; two stepsons; nine grandchildren; and four step-grandchildren.
At EHS, Mr. Parker was a member of the Blackford Literary Society, Chronicle Board, Whispers Board, Missionary Society, E Club, and the rifle team. He was also a Monitor, a member of the winter track and varsity track teams, a sub waiter, a poster, captain of the Work Squad, schoolroom keeper, head of Rifle School, and manager of the varsity football team. After Episcopal, Mr. Parker served in the Navy, from which he was honorably discharged. He attended Emory University on the G.I. Bill, graduating with a B.A. degree, and then entered Atlanta Law School. Mr. Parker worked for Beck and Gregg Hardware Company, eventually overseeing a merger with Genuine Parts Company. He became the president of Beck and Gregg and also vice president and director of Genuine Parts Company. Mr. Parker is survived by his wife, Jean; three children; several grandchildren; a great grandson; and numerous cousins.
of Copper Hill, Va., died February 16, 2018.
The Hon. Judge John Worth Kern III ’45 of Washington, D.C., died January 30, 2018.
At EHS, Mr. Kern was a member of the Blackford Literary Society, Missionary Society, and choir. He was a librarian and Monitor and captain of the work squad, and he served on the Whispers and Chronicle Boards. He was also on the tennis and JV football teams. Mr. Kern received the 2d Debater’s Medal and the Latin and English Composition Prizes. After Episcopal, Mr. Kern attended Princeton University, and then Harvard Law School. Upon graduating from Harvard, he served in the CIA. Mr. Kern’s legal career led him to private practice and various positions in the federal government, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice. In 1968, he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, where he served until his retirement at the end of 2011. Mr. Kern also served as the dean of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nev., from 1984 to 1987, and was a founding member of the Judiciary Leadership Development Council. Mr. Kern is survived by his wife, Margaret “Peggie” Cantlin-Kern; five children; eight grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
of Atlanta, Ga., died December 12, 2017.
J.W. Stuart Gilchrist, Jr. ’47
of Williamsburg, Va., died June 17, 2017. At EHS, Mr. Gilchrist was a member of the varsity baseball and winter track teams, Missionary Society, E-Club, Whispers staff, and Chronicle Board. After Episcopal, Mr. Gilchrist attended the University of Virginia and later served with the 213th AAA Gun Battalion in Pusan, Korea, from Nov. 1951 to Jan. 1953. His career was spent in the savings and loan and real estate businesses. Mr. Gilchrist was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Johnson Ford. He is survived by his children, H. Victor Gilchrist and wife Kathy; Mary Gray Sachtjen and husband Barry; J.W. Stuart Gilchrist III and wife Susan; and three grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and a step-great-grandchild.
Correction: In the fall 2017 issue of EHS magazine, we printed the wrong photos for the obituaries of J.W. Stuart Gilchrist, Jr. ’47, William Rice Lummis ’47, and Frank Talbot III ’47. We deeply regret these mistakes. We have reprinted the obituaries of Mr. Gilchrist, Mr. Lummis, and Mr. Talbot with the correct photos above and on page 84. EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
83
IN MEMORIAM
William Rice Lummis ’47
Frank Talbot III ’47
At EHS, Mr. Lummis was on the Centennial basketball team and varsity tennis team. He was a Monitor, a member of the Missionary Society, the librarian for the Fairfax Literary Society, and a schoolroom keeper. After EHS, Mr. Lummis attended Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his bachelor of arts and law degrees. He was also a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. He practiced law for 23 years before becoming a senior partner. Following his legal career, he moved to Las Vegas to administer the estate of his late cousin, Howard Hughes, Jr., and serve as chairman of the boards of directors and CEO of the Howard Hughes Corporation and several other Hughes Estate Companies. Mr. Lummis was on the Old Boys Council from 1969 to 1976, a Trustee from 1981 to 1987, and co-chair of the capital campaign from 1985 to 1989. Mr. Lummis was predeceased by his brother, Frederick Rice Lummis, Jr. ’49. He is survived by his sons, Palmer Bradley Lummis ’73, Ransom C. Lummis ’80, Frederick Rice Lummis II, and William Rice Lummis, Jr.; and his many grandchildren, including Katherine Merrill Lummis ’00, Anne Lummis Wright ’02, and Virginia Isabel Lummis ’20; additional EHS relatives, including James Patrick Houstoun III ’66, Rock Nicholson Houstoun ’69, Katherine Houstoun Schutt ’98, Annette Gano McCormack ’00, Allene Gano Pierson ’09, and Russell Nathaniel Pierson ’12; and many stepchildren and step-grandchildren.
At EHS, Mr. Talbot was a member of the Blackford Literary Society, Missionary Society, and Check-up Squad. He was also a member of the varsity football and basketball teams and the spring track team, as well as a typist for The Chronicle. After EHS, he received both his bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Virginia, where he was a member of the Delta Psi fraternity, Eli Banana, German club, Bad Check Committee, and Golf Squad, as well as Vice President of Skull & Keys. He was also active in the university’s intramural athletics. Upon graduation, Mr. Talbot served in active duty for the Judge Advocate General’s Corps for the Army, after which he practiced law in Danville. He was a former president of the Danville Bar Association and executive committee member of the Virginia Bar Association. He also served on the Memorial Hospital and Danville School Boards. Mr. Talbot is survived by his children, Mary Beverley Talbott and Frank Talbott IV; three grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter. He was preceded in death by his wife of almost 65 years, Beverley Chewning Talbott, and his sister, Margaret Talbott Kelley.
of Houston, Texas, died April 17, 2017.
of Danville, Va., died July 21, 2017.
Edward Scruggs Criddle, Jr. ’50
of Wyoming, Ohio, died May 11, 2017. At EHS, Mr. Criddle was nicknamed Skippy. He was a waiter and member of the E Club. He was heavily involved in athletics, serving as captain of the varsity track team and competing on the varsity football, winter track, and Centennial basketball teams. After Episcopal, Mr. Criddle attended Sewanee, where he enrolled in ROTC, and graduated with a B.A. in economics. He later served in the U.S. Air Force. As a computer programmer, he worked in a variety of jobs before retiring in 1997. Mr. Criddle is survived by his sons and their spouses and children.
84
John Colvin Hamilton, Jr. ’50
Thomas O’Driscoll Hunter ’51
At EHS, Mr. Hamilton was a senior Monitor and schoolroom keeper, as well as a member of the Fairfax Literary Society, Honor Committee, Hop Committee, and E Club. He played on the varsity football, varsity baseball, and soccer teams. After Episcopal, Mr. Hamilton graduated from Duke University in 1954 and entered the U.S. Marine Corps as a captain and jet pilot, completing his service after five years. He attended George Washington University Law School and later became a co-pilot for Capital Airlines. In 1965, Mr. Hamilton was admitted to practice law before the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. Mr. Hamilton is survived by his brother, two daughters, and two grandchildren.
At EHS, Mr. Hunter was a member of the soccer, JV football, and tennis teams. He was a Monitor, an artist for The Chronicle and Whispers, a cheerleader, and a member of choir, Follies, Missionary Society, and the Blackford Literary Society. After Episcopal, Mr. Hunter attended the University of Virginia. After graduating, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves for a brief period of time. Mr. Hunter became an actor and moved to Italy in the late 1950s. He formed his own production company, had leading and supporting roles in several spaghetti westerns, and guest-starred on the popular television show “Gunsmoke.” Mr. Hunter was preceded in death by his father, Francis Hunter Class of 1924. He is survived by his wife, Isabelle; two daughters; a sister; and many nieces, nephews, and grandchildren.
of Arlington, Va., died February 27, 2018.
Frank Carroll Roddey ’50
of Lynchburg, Va., died September 25, 2016. Mr. Roddey attended EHS for nine months as a first-year student and was known to his classmates as Skip. He wrote for The Chronicle and was a member of the JV basketball, varsity tennis, and football teams. After Episcopal, Mr. Roddey received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served in the U.S. Navy for one year and then worked for Aetna Insurance Company until retiring in 1992. Mr. Roddey is survived by his wife, Nancy Rose; three sons; brother Oliver Fennell Roddey, Jr. ’46; and many grandchildren.
of Rowayton, Conn., died December 27, 2017.
Allan John Mead ’54
of Guilford, Md., died January 5, 2018. At EHS, Mr. Mead was a member of the varsity football and track teams, choir, glee club, and Fairfax Literary Society, for which he earned the Reader’s Medal. He was also the president of the drama club and on the board of Whispers. After Episcopal, Mr. Mead earned a bachelor’s degree from Washington & Lee University. Mr. Mead worked in New York as an institutional banker and later moved to Baltimore to continue his career in finance for several decades before retiring. Mr. Mead was preceded in death by his grandfather George Perine Class of 1891. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; two children; and two half-siblings.
EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
85
IN MEMORIAM
Augustus Bladgen Kinsolving ’56
John Brooke Spotswood II ’65
At EHS, Mr. Kinsolving was a member of the soccer and track teams; assistant coach for cake football; literary editor of The Chronicle; a Monitor; and a member of the glee club, drama club, Whispers, Missionary Society, and Fairfax Literary Society. He received the William Page Dame Medal for Reading at Sight, the Joseph Bryan Medal, and the Charles Fellows Page Poetry Prize. After Episcopal, Mr. Kinsolving attended Yale University, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and graduated from Harvard Law School. He was an attorney who spent the majority of his career with the American Smelting and Refining Company. Mr. Kinsolving is survived by his former wife, Monique; two children; and four grandchildren. He was preceded in death by several EHS relatives, including his brother, Arthur Lee Kinsolving ’56; his father, Rev. Arthur Lee Kinsolving Class of 1917; his uncle, Herbert L. Kinsolving Class of 1924; and his grandfather, Arthur Barksdale Kinsolving Class of 1881.
At EHS, Mr. Spotswood was on the boards of Whispers and The Chronicle and a member of the Missionary Society, Wilmer Literary Society, and the Fairfax Literary Society. He was also a competitive athlete who played for the junior and JV football teams, junior and JV soccer teams, and junior and varsity track teams. After Episcopal, Mr. Spotswood received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Virginia. He then attended the University of Richmond for law school and practiced law in Virginia for more than 40 years. Mr. Spotswood was preceded in death by his cousin Alexander Spotswood ’60. He is survived by his wife, Lu; two daughters; and extended family, including cousin William Cannon Spotswood ’70.
of New York, N.Y., died March 27, 2017.
Robert William Lawson III ’59
of Charleston, W.V., on January 20, 2016. At EHS, Mr. Lawson was a member of the chapel committee, Missionary Society, science club, Blackford Literary Society, and drama club, and he wrote for The Chronicle. He was also on the varsity football, varsity baseball, and track teams. After Episcopal, Mr. Lawson attended Washington & Lee University for two years before transferring to West Virginia University, from which he graduated with a degree in economics. After graduating, Mr. Lawson worked for the Securities Department of National Savings & Trust in Washington, D.C., before returning to school to obtain his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. After clerking for a year, he became a partner at the law firm DiTrapano, Mitchell, Lawson & Field before transitioning to a solo practice. He was also admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Lawson was preceded in death by his father, Robert W. Lawson, Jr., who was a coach, teacher, and member of the Board of Trustees at EHS; son Robert W. Lawson, IV; uncle E. Fontaine Broun, Jr. Class of 1926; and brother-in-law Angus Murdoch McBryde, Jr. ’55. Mr. Lawson is survived by his wife, Priscilla; son John Plumb Lawson ’90; daughter Polly and her husband and children; brothers Fontaine Broun Lawson ’60 and Lewis Peyton Lawson and their spouses, children, and grandchildren; and nephew William Luther Hand III ’73. 86
of Charlottesville, Va., died January 30, 2018.
William John Matheson ’68
of Gloucester, Va., died April 2, 2017. Mr. Matheson attended EHS from 1964 to 1965. While there, he was part of dramatics; the Wilmer Literary Society; and the JV football, junior soccer, and tennis teams. After Episcopal, Mr. Matheson went to Blue Ridge School and Virginia Wesleyan College. At the University of Virginia, he received his Master’s of Landscape Architecture in 1979 and opened a private practice of landscape planning and architecture in Virginia and Florida. Mr. Matheson was preceded in death by his father, Malcolm Matheson, Jr. ’32. He is survived by his wife, Ruth; daughter; and siblings Malcolm Matheson III ’55, Charles Tompkins Matheson ’59, Emma Roe and Alexander Moir Roe ’53, Torrey Cooke, and Lida Stifel.
Prashant P. Reddy ’85
of Richmond, Va., died August 9, 2015. At EHS, Mr. Reddy played on the basketball team. He is most recently remembered as a longtime member of the Richmond Astronomical Society, for which he served several terms on the Board of Directors. Mr. Reddy was active in the club’s events, occasionally hosting guests in his backyard for stargazing.
RETURN TO THE HILL JUNE 8-10, 2018
EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL REUNION 1953. 1958. 1963. 1968. 1973. 1983. 1988. 1993. 1998. 2003. 2008. 2013.
episcopalhighschool.org/reunion EHS
THE MAGAZINE OF EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL
87
SHAKESPEARE OR HIP-HOP? Recognizing a stigmatized musical genre as legit lit. AS THE WORLD TURNS, I SPREAD LIKE GERM BLESS THE GLOBE WITH PESTILENCE THE HARD-HEADED NEVER LEARN Lines of verse illuminated the projector screen at last November’s National Race Amity Conference in Boston, where EHS English faculty Molly Pugh and Joel Sohn presented “Musicality of Poetry: The Bard, the Poet, and Hip-Hop.” The audience guessed via text the author of each quotation. This particular rhyme, the presenters revealed, belongs to the Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man. Joel and Molly, who are also co-directors of Episcopal’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, discuss hip-hop texts alongside the literary canon in courses such as Fundamentals of Literature and Composition, Protest Literature, and Jazz and Literature. “I use discussion of hip-hop to give students the tools necessary to analyze jazz poetry and its rhythms,” says Joel. “Also, since issues in contemporary hip-hop culture parallel issues in contemporary society, we can talk about racial conflict, cultural appropriation, and serious societal problems through the lens of art.” 88
Why does it matter whether we do or don’t consider hip-hop literary? Molly: Considering hip-hop literary empowers students to think that what they consume and what they like is also subject to scholarship, that the same literary terms that they would use on a test can apply to things that they are intimately involved with. Joel: Hip hop is an art form that is often decried. It’s also the number one streamed music in the world. Whether they enjoy hip-hop or not, I want students to be critical of the type of music they consume. Am I sponsoring a narrative that I don’t buy into? And what does that mean about me as a consumer? That actually fosters a lot of critical thinking skills that I don’t think you can necessarily engage when you’re talking about much older literature that students don’t have the same relationship with.
Bob Dylan won a Nobel Prize for his song lyrics, and yet the idea of taking hip-hop seriously strikes many as laughable. Why is the genre so stigmatized? Molly: A lot of people, when they first think of hip-hop, think of misogyny. They think of homophobia. They think of gun violence. And then they think of communities that could be blamed for perpetuating violence. They tend to lump it all together. They might not see that there is some hip-hop that is purposefully doing other things.
Joel: Hip hop at this point isn’t new. But it isn’t especially old either. It takes some time for us to go back and say, “This was an important cultural moment.” And yet there are graduate students doing dissertations on Harry Potter. It’s a very small segment of people who are willing to accept hip-hop as a legitimate art form, but Harry Potter is okay because it’s safe. It’s a fantasy world. Well, so is the world of Tupac. This is not the world that Tupac grew up in. He’s creating a persona. He’s creating a narrative. So how do we justify our study of Potter, but we don’t justify the study of Tupac? Molly: All of our students are required to study Shakespeare, which is full of violence. It’s full of hatred and people being terrible and misogyny and — Joel: Racism. Molly: Right. So again, what legitimizes one form and delegitimizes another?
Why do we listen to hip-hop and think, “This is the artist’s real life,” and yet we listen to rock, maybe Tom Petty, and we think, “Oh, it’s a poem. It’s a narrative. It’s fiction.” Joel: We have a cult of personality that equates black bodies with a single narrative. If you are black performing this thing, it fulfills a cultural expectation. It is the norm. So we cannot separate a hip-hop artist from our expectations of what that hip-hop artist has lived through. In the case of Childish Gambino [one of the stage names adopted by performer Donald Glover], listeners actually understand the difference between the artist and the persona because he talks about it. Glover did not grow up poor on the streets of Atlanta. His father is a famous actor. His reality versus what he is actually producing is very different.
So how does hip-hop stack up when you compare its poetic complexity to canonized writers such as T.S. Eliot and Shakespeare?
You mention in your presentation how both Grandmaster Flash and T.S. Eliot “gazed out into their rapidly deteriorating societies and saw a wasteland.” What are some of the other themes that come up across hip-hop and more traditional literature? Molly: Search for self. Search for identity. Good versus evil. How to handle death. What does death do to the living? Almost any theme you can imagine. Joel: Lord of the Flies is often taught to relatively young children. And there are kids killing other kids in that text. Yet we talk about that as high art, as this brilliant narrative of what happens when a group of boys are left to their own devices. That is what hip-hop is trying to do. How can we talk about the world of hip-hop and how it gets at that theme in maybe a more modern way with artists who are examining their own social landscape that is more relevant to our students today than William Golding, who is fantasizing about what it would be like to live in a dystopian world of violence? We accept the violence and death there, but we’re not going to accept it in hip-hop? We have to accept it here, too, and then honor the culture that brings it to the wider world.
RECOMMENDED READING •B ook of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop by Adam Bradley •C an’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang •H ip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop — and Why It Matters by Tricia Rose •H ow to Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip Hop MC by Paul Edwards
Molly: I was just listening to Eminem, and the number of liter•T he Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed by Shea Serrano ary devices he uses is almost overwhelming. In our presentation, we talk about lexile density, which is the number of multisyllabic words per line or per block of words. You can also look at the •T he Tao of Wu by The RZA number of unique words introduced over a certain word count. By these measures, there is a lot of hip-hop that is far more •T he Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy by Steve Stoute complex than Shakespeare’s plays or Eliot’s poems. There’s also this creative flexibility that hip-hop cultivates because of the fact that it’s oral. So you can shift inflections, you can alter pronunciations in ways that sort of take it off the page and also allow it to do new things William Lexile Density Readability Level with language. Shakespeare T.S. Joel: Rock has a tendency to rhyme at 79 4.4 the end. There are very expected, very Eliot 76 6.7 regular metrical patterns. Whereas hipBob hop uses all the rhyme patterns available 54 3.4 because of the culture of hip-hop, which Dylan The RZA is: if you dare repeat something, you’re 97 14.8 (Wu Tang Clan) not being a good artist. If you copy something, but you don’t change it, then you’re also not being a good artist. You Lexile Density: Difficulty of passage based upon sentence length, have to one-up the other person. vocabulary, polysyllabic and irregular words that occur infrequently but often carry the most meaning. Readability Level: Recognizable syntax patterns and vocabulary per sentence or line in a text.
1200 North Quaker Lane | Alexandria, VA 22302 703-933-3000 | 1-877-EHS-1839 www.episcopalhighschool.org
Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID Alexandria, VA Permit No. 105
Change Service Requested
Members of the EHS community self-identified in an art installation on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.