The Exeter Bulletin, summer 2022

T H E E X E T E R

The Exeter Bulletin THE COMMENCEMENT ISSUE | SUMMER 2022

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Congratulations Class of 2022

Thank you.

The lessons I’ve learned at Exeter will stay with me for the rest of my life. ... Exeter is more than a place of just exceptional education, it is a home full of as much love and life as you go looking for.

Thank you, Exeter!

—Zara Ahmed ’22

You made the difference.

Gifts to Exeter are transformative. Thanks to your support, students like Zara learn to unite knowledge and goodness and go forth to lead purposeful lives.

SUMMER

The Exeter Bulletin Principal William K. Rawson ’71; P’08

Trustees President Morgan C.W. Sze ’83 Vice President Deidre G. O’Byrne ’84 Una Jain Basak ’90, Wole C. Coaxum ’88, Suzi Kwon Cohen ’88, Elizabeth A. “Betsy” Fleming ’86, Claudine Gay ’88, Scott S.W. Hahn ’90, Ira D. Helfand, M.D. ’67, Paulina L. Jerez ’91, Giles “Gil” Kemp ’68, Eric A. Logan ’92, Cornelia “Cia” Buckley Marakovits ’83, Sally J. Michaels ’82, Samuel M. Maruca ’73, William K. Rawson ’71, Michael J. Schmidtberger ’78, Peter M. Scocimara ’82, Sanjay K. Shetty, M.D. ’92, Kristyn A. (McLeod) Van Ostern ’96, Janney Wilson ’83 The Exeter Bulletin (ISSN No. 0195-0207) is published four times each year: fall, winter, spring and summer,

by Phillips Exeter Academy 20 Main Street, Exeter NH 03833-2460 Telephone 603-772-4311 Periodicals postage paid at Exeter, NH, and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA by Cummings Printing.

The Exeter Bulletin is sent free of charge to alumni, parents, grandparents, friends and educational institutions by Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH. Communications may be addressed to the editor; email bulletin@exeter.edu.

Copyright 2022 by the Trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy.

ISSN-0195-0207 Postmasters: Send address changes to: Phillips Exeter Academy Records Office 20 Main Street Exeter, NH 03833-2460

YOON S. BYUN

Director of Communications Robin Giampa Executive Editor Jennifer Wagner Contributing Editor Patrick Garrity Class Notes Editor Cathy Webber Staff Writer Sarah Pruitt ’95 Editorial Coordinator Maxine Weed Creative Director/Design David Nelson, Nelson Design Contributing Designers Rachel Dlugos Jacqueline Trimmer Photography Editor Christian Harrison Communications Advisory Committee Daniel G. Brown ’82, Robert C. Burtman ’74, Dorinda Elliott ’76, Alison Freeland ’72, Keith Johnson ’52, Yvonne M. Lopez ’93

“WE ARE WISER, STRONGER, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, WE’VE BUILT A FAMILY OF LIFELONG FRIENDS.” —page 26

IN THIS ISSUE

Volume CXXVI, Issue no. 4

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Features 26 Commencement 2022 Highlights from this year’s graduation celebration.

32 Challenge and Triumph The epic story of the History 333 term paper.

By Sarah Pruitt ’95

38 Into the Wild Jackson Parell ’18 on becoming the youngest person to hike the Calendar-Year Triple Crown.

By Adam Loyd

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Departments 6

Around the Table: Heard in Assembly, faculty farewells, Exeter history on eBay and more

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Inside the Writing Life: Jake Crane ’00

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Sports: Meet Matt Callahan ’09, the new head boys lacrosse coach, and today’s three-sport student-athletes

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Connections: Madhur Deora ’96, Diana Zhang ’02, John Davis ’75 and Emily Glasser ’85

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Class Notes

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Memorial Minute: Allan D. Wooley ’54; P’84

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Finis Origine Pendet: Daniel Zhang ’22 COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY MARY SCHWALM

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Students enjoy some afternoon down time with friends under the festive red umbrellas outside of Wetherell dining hall.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARY SCHWALM

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AROUND THE TABLE

What’s new and notable at the Academy

Letters to the Editor The spring 2022 issue of the Bulletin raised the bar for such publications. Eye-catching and informative. I have not commented on such, ever.

W. Manuel ’60 I was so sad to read about the death of my adviser and — in so many ways — the woman who made Exeter so possible for me, Betsey Farnham. I will never forget meeting Mrs. Farnham in New York (my hometown) at an admitted-students gathering a few weeks before my prep year. I remember her intense smile and her excited query, “Are you psyched?”

I wasn’t. A whole bunch of my family had gone to the Academy (my sister was at Andover), but I suffered from anxiety brought on by OCD. The idea of losing control and living alone in a dorm was terrifying for me. Fortunately, the great Tom Hassan (at that time, head of Admissions) had sherpa-ed me to Wentworth because of Mrs. Farnham. I’m grateful.

I remain mad and sad that I didn’t know Mrs. Farnham was ill. Maybe, when we are to meet again, she will greet me with the question, “Are you psyched?” Knowing what I know now about my time under her tutelage, I will be.

Tripp Whitbeck ’99

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I greatly enjoyed the note about the Perrin Fellowship. I was privileged to know Jim [Perrin] during his final years when he was a regular bridge player at the Woodfords Club in Portland.

Despite his advanced card skills, he was both fun and helpful as a fellow player. He also would sing during the annual club theatrical — in French and with an exquisite voice. At the time, I didn’t know about his cruise ship days.

Murrough H. O’Brien ’63 In the winter 2022 issue [of The Exeter Bulletin], you put out a call for Exonian scientists. I work in a building named after Daniel E. Koshland Jr. Max Staller ’04 Editor’s note: Thanks to Max Staller’s letter, we learned that Daniel E. Koshland Jr. ’37 was an American biochemist. He reorganized the study of biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and was the editor of the leading U.S. science journal, Science, from 1985 to 1995. He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

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Eimer Page, Jeff Ward and Patricia Burke Hickey

Familiar Faces, New Spaces F A C U LT Y M E M B E R S S T E P I N T O N E W R O L E S AT T H E A C A D E M Y Eimer Page, Dean of Faculty Page began her Exeter career as an instructor in English in 2004 and served as the director of Global Initiatives since the program’s inception in 2012. She started a fiveyear term as dean of faculty on July 1. Her vision, strong organization and risk management skills, and collaboration across campus departments and with other schools and organizations have resulted in the growth of Global Initiatives to its current offerings of 17 term programs and up to 20 additional travel programs for our students across five continents. Over the years, Page has also served on numerous campus committees, including Appointments and Leaves. She was dorm head in Dunbar Hall from 2008 to 2013 and has been recognized for her accomplishments, both inside and outside the classroom, with the Charles E. Ryberg ’63 Teaching Award, the William Lambert ’45 Dormitory Adviser Award and the George S. Heyer Jr. ’48 Teaching Award.

Jeff Ward, Director of Exeter Summer Ward brings much experience to his new position, having served as an instructor, dean and, most recently, interim director of the Exeter Summer program. Ward has also taught in the Department of Chemistry at Exeter since 2004, was dorm head at Knight House for 10 years, has served on several faculty committees and has been an Admissions reader. He also hosts his own weekly radio

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show on Exeter’s WPEA. Ward has received the William Lambert ’45 Dormitory Adviser Award and the Brown Family Faculty Fund Teaching Award.

Patricia Burke Hickey, Director of Global Initiatives Burke Hickey embarked on her latest experience at the Academy as the new director of Global Initiatives on July 1. Burke Hickey has been an instructor in English at Exeter since 1996, full time in that role since 2013.

She has also served on several committees and working groups over the years, and was dorm head in Langdell Hall and an affiliate in Amen Hall and Gould House.

Burke Hickey has also coached junior varsity/varsity cycling and has been an Admissions interviewer. She has been involved in Exeter’s Global Initiatives program, including chaperoning a Chinese co-learning student trip to study urban migration in March 2014, and a March break student trip to South Africa in 2018. Prior to joining Exeter, Burke Hickey taught at the American International School in Vienna, Austria, and while at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, she led alpine and desert trips with students and volunteered with mountain rescue. While traveling, Burke Hickey has led workshops for students on facilitating discussions about cultural differences. She has received the William Lambert ’45 Dormitory Adviser Award and the Brown Family Faculty Fund Teaching Award. E

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Heard in Assembly S O U N D B I T E S F RO M T H I S S P R I N G’S S P E A K E R S E R I E S Compiled by Maxine Weed and Sarah Pruitt ’95

Ron Suskind, journalist, author, filmmaker “The dilemma, and it’s, in a way, a dilemma for democracy, is how do we talk about things [such as climate change] that are so difficult to discuss, that utterly envelop us, that are giant problems that seem to have no solutions? It’s hard to talk about them. It’s hard to look right at them and say, ‘What do we do?’

How do we make progress in unison when we’re so deeply and powerfully divided in so many slices, so many ways?”

To watch videos of these assemblies, go to exeter.edu/live.

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ELENA SEIBERT

Tommy Orange, novelist, author of There There “Some people have asked, ‘Why did you write something so sad?’ … The reaction from Native [American] people is the complete opposite. There’s a joy and excitement about the book, and people feeling like their lives are represented in these pages.

People that they know, their relatives, they can see them in the characters. That feels really good.”

Hrishikesh Hirway ’96, musician, podcaster “Making [Song Exploder: A Netflix Documentary Series] felt like an evolution born out of that original mission statement I’d made for myself, which is: I want to make things, and I want to make new, unique things. Which actually meant holding on to the idea that I did not have a plan … I just had to identify the things that I was excited by and the doors they presented, and then walk through those doors and pursue those passions as hard as I could.”

Matt McGill ’92, lawyer “In hundreds of years, tens of thousands of cases, never before has a draft opinion of the Supreme Court been leaked to the press. … The contents of the leaked opinion, while surely important, do not matter nearly as much as the fact of the leak itself and what that means. What it means is that someone within the court is attempting to subvert the decision-making process of the court. It is an attempt to bring external forces, public opprobrium, maybe even violence, in an effort to change the outcome of a case.”

Lauren Selig ’94, entrepreneur, executive film producer “I wanted to basically tell the world — and to tell myself, more importantly — that you’ve got to really love what you do every single day. It’s just too hard to exist if you don’t. So make the change that you need to make in order to be able to have the life that you want to have.”

Robert Bauer ’70, professor at New York University School of Law, former White House counsel “Unless they’ve already come to the conclusion that you’re an enemy, people of goodwill do care about what others think. If they’re given a chance for a conversation — and sometimes the doors have to be closed — they will enter into that conversation with you. But they’re making themselves vulnerable, and you have to recognize that. You have to listen, and you have to make yourself vulnerable. You have to approach it with humility.” E SU M M E R

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Climate Action Day

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undreds of Exonians, faculty and staff fanned out across campus and around the Seacoast to study challenges to our environment and, in some cases, dig into the problem during the Academy’s annual Climate Action Day. Now in its eighth year, Climate Action Day raises awareness of climate change, teaches students about the natural world and reflects on environmentalism as an integral part of human existence. Here are a few highlights from the day.

Keynote message CHRISTIAN HARRISON

Daniel Schrag, director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, offered a sobering assessment of Earth’s current and coming predicament — and of humankind’s inability to grasp the enormity of the problem. Climate change, he says, requires collective action and long-scale commitment, two efforts that humans are not very good at.

While Schrag didn’t sugarcoat his message, his final note was one of optimism: “There are opportunities to lead the world forward.”

On-campus service

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

Behind the Academy’s tennis courts, a group of some 40 students gathered to plant trees, native shrubs and flowers — including echinacea, milkweed, winterberry, bayberry and aster. “I think we have over 100 plants right now,” says Armanee Stenor ’23, one of the leaders of the Native Shrub and Pollinator Garden project. “Everybody’s expected to plant at least two.” Stenor and Ty Carlson ’22 organized the project as the service component of their Biology 470: Human Populations and Resource Consumption: Implications for Sustainability course. “We’re focusing on different things that would attract pollinators,” Carlson says, referring to bees, butterflies and other pollen-carrying species that are vital to the survival of many plants and crops.

Alumni collaboration

PATRICK GARRIT Y

Armed with scores of seedlings, students dug in at Saltonstall Farm, land with long Academy roots, to learn about crop life cycle, pest and weed management, and the fertilization their plantings require.

Saltonstall Farm is owned and operated by Sophie Saltonstall ’07 and her husband, Kyle. Saltonstall, whose great uncle was the ninth principal at PEA, grew up on the farm; she is the third generation of her family to serve as the property’s steward. Although it can be hard to find poetry in a row of turned-over soil, 120 members of the class of 2025 drew the connection between the lines of verse they are studying in English class and the work they are doing at the farm. The common text for preps this term was Lace & Pyrite: Letters From Two Gardens, a correspondence of poems between Aimee Nezhukumatathil (from her New York State flower garden) and Ross Gay (from his Indiana fruit and vegetable garden). E

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Priceless Exeter History … on eBay? PA B LO B A R R U T I A ’9 2 P R E S E N T S RARE GIF TS TO THE ACADEMY

By Sarah Pruitt ’95

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Principal Bill Rawson, Pablo Barrutia and Jack Herney

ometime in 1772, John Phillips Esq. signed his

name on the opening pages of his copy of Tristia, a collection of letters in verse by the fifth-century Roman poet Publius Ovidius Nasonis, better known as Ovid. On Feb. 11, 1929, Edward S. Harkness affixed his signature to a certificate for 50 shares of preferred stock in the New London Ship and Engine Company.

Few people would see the link between an 18th-century book in Latin and a stock certificate from one of the most fateful years in financial history.

But when Pablo Barrutia ’92 stumbled on these items on the auction site eBay nearly a decade ago, he immediately took notice. “Among the things I’ve always got my eye out for is anything related to Exeter, given how much Exeter means to me,” he says.

Barrutia guesses that Phillips most likely had the book in his collection in 1781, when he and his wife, Elizabeth, founded Phillips Exeter Academy. He also knew that Harkness signed that stock certificate just a year before his historic $5.8 million gift to the Academy.

As a seasoned eBay user, Barrutia waited until the closing seconds of each auction to place his bid and snagged the book for just over $100. “Of course, it’s priceless from any Exonian’s perspective,” he says.

In May, Barrutia returned to Exeter for his 30th reunion and chose the occasion to donate the two items — along with a photograph of celebrated philanthropist William Boyce Thompson, class of 1890 — so current and future Exonians can benefit from these links to the school’s history. Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08 accepted the donation on the school’s behalf, along with Magee Lawhorn, head of Archives and Special Collections at the Class of 1945 Library. History

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Instructor Emeritus Jack Herney ’46, ’69, ’71, ’74, ’92, ’95 (Hon.), whom Barrutia has consulted over the years about Exeter-related items he has considered acquiring, was also on hand for the occasion. “I’m imagining Greek and Latin students coming over and getting to look at and learn from this,” Rawson says of the book. “This is a direct connection between our Classics students, present and past.”

Lawhorn believes that this edition of Tristia is the first volume from the founder’s personal library to join the school’s collections. “Most of our collections come from individual donors,” Lawhorn says. “We don’t have the means to really seek out and purchase rare books, so we get excited when we can ingest them, especially one with this provenance.”

Barrutia’s enthusiastic support of the Academy goes far beyond his eBay acquisitions. Inspired by his experience as a four-year scholarship student, he established the Pablo E. Barrutia and Ben Eugrin Scholarship Fund with an Exonian friend and fellow financial aid recipient.

He also hosts regular recruiting events for potential Exeter students, particularly from underrepresented communities, at his home in Milwaukee. In 2016, the Academy honored Barrutia’s contributions with the President’s Award.

Now that the book, stock certificate and photograph are safely in the Jay Whipple Special Collections Vault, Barrutia is keeping an eye out for other great finds. He has amassed an impressive collection of artifacts related to the history of Wall Street — particularly in his own field, high-yield bonds — but Exeter memorabilia will always have his heart. “I’m forever grateful for the friendships I’ve established and the doors that were opened,” Barrutia says. “Without Exeter in my life, who knows where I’d be?” E

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CAMPUS LIFE AT A GLANCE

OFF-SITE LEARNING: After spring term ended, biology students headed to Montana’s Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem where they spent a week studying wolf reintroduction, grizzly bear conservation, and how to monitor the effects of climate change.

CUTTING THE RUG: Dancing was all the rage at this year’s prom.

STUDY PAWS: Students take a “paws” from their work this spring to cuddle with some beloved campus pups.

TINKER TIME: A community of makers visited the Design Lab during MakerFest 2022.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY E.J. BARTHELEMY ’23 AND CHRISTIAN HARRISON

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A Fond Farewell Exeter is blessed with some of the finest instructors in the world, many of whom have dedicated their profes-

sional lives to teaching “youth from every quarter” at the Academy. This year, four of our beloved instructors retire with the honorary distinction of emeriti. This designation is awarded by the principal to those retiring faculty members who have met certain years-of-service criteria and is designed to encourage their continued involvement in the Academy’s academic life and intellectual community. We are thankful for their combined 133 years of devotion to the students and to their craft. Their presence in the classroom will be missed.

W. GORDON COOLE

PETER VORKINK

Associate Athletic Trainer, appointed in 1987

Instructor in Religion, appointed in 1972

“Gordo has been a steady presence in the gym for both our students and coaches. He has a way of keeping things in perspective and kept all of us grounded.

Whether in the role of trainer, dean, instructor, coach or colleague, Gordo would appear for anyone ready for his expertise or wisdom.” — Don Mills, instructor in Physical Education

“It is hard to imagine the Academy without Peter Vorkink, and certainly hard to imagine the Religion Department without him. Perhaps this is because of the hard and necessary questions he helped students ask themselves — questions about who they were becoming, who they wanted to become and what really matters to them. These are the signposts that guide a life, and he combined their weight and significance with a sense of humor that left the halls echoing with the sound of laughter coming from inside his classroom.” — Kathleen Brownback, instructor in Religion, emerita

VIVIANA SANTOS Robert W. Kesler ’47 (Hon.) Distinguished Professor and Instructor in Modern Languages, appointed in 2001

“We will miss Viviana in our department meetings, where her ability to analyze situations was always appreciated and a good source for reflection and advice. Viviana’s teaching style made her very approachable to students. Her classroom was both a comfortable and intellectually challenging space.

We will miss her.” — P. Fermín Pérez-Andreu, chair of the Department of Modern Languages

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RALPH SNEEDEN B. Rodney Marriott Chair in the Humanities and Instructor in English, appointed in 1995

“Mr. Sneeden is legendary, not because he rests upon a pedestal but because he steps back, creates space and trusts students to rise to a challenge. … In his classroom, every moment of learning is legendary because every moment I am in wonder.” — Otto Do ’22

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Lifelong Service R E T I R E D H I S T O RY I N S T R U C T O R A N DY H E R T I G H O N O R E D W I T H F O U N D E R S ’ D AY A WA R D

By Sarah Pruitt ’95

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

he encountered during his long career.

“Their eagerness to learn and tackle the challenges of adolescence inspired me on a daily basis,” he said.

After growing up in Winchester, Massachusetts, Hertig arrived at the Academy as an upper in 1955. He acknowledged that he didn’t particularly enjoy the experience, adding, “If you had told me I would spend most of my adult life here, I would have been dismayed, to say the least.” But after undergraduate studies at Harvard, a stint in the U.S. Army, and graduate work in history at Berkeley, he returned to campus as an instructor, having concluded that he could hardly hope to find better students than those at the Academy.

Hertig’s early years on the faculty coincided with the school’s momentous transition to coeducation, an experience he spoke about extensively in his acceptance speech. “The first years were difficult,” he recalled. “Early on, the small number of female students and faculty undoubtedly felt isolated and sometimes misunderstood.” Hertig and his wife Anne helped ease that feeling for many of those early female students, moving into Wheelwright Hall soon after it switched to a girls dorm and staying for the next 16 years.

Kendra Stearns O’Donnell, the first woman to serve as Exeter’s principal, appointed Hertig dean of faculty. In that role, Hertig advocated having more women in leadership positions, as well as a more diverse faculty overall. At O’Donnell’s request, he stayed on as dean of faculty for two years past the five-year term, then returned to the classroom full time in 1995.

In recognition of his exceptional teaching, Hertig previously received such major faculty awards as the Rupert Radford Faculty Fellowship Award, the Brown Family Faculty Award and the George S. Heyer Jr. ’48 Award. Many of his colleagues recall the statement he delivered at his final faculty meeting in 2013, when he — as Wilson read from the award citation — “spoke eloquently of the faculty’s duty to help lead the school, and to be thoughtful, honest and caring with students and each other.” E

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ver the course of his 45-year career at Exeter, Andy Hertig ’57; ’31, ’69, ’83 (Hon.); P’83, P’86, P’88 made a lasting impression as an instructor in the History Department, department chair, two-time director of the Washington Intern Program, dorm head of Wheelwright Hall and father to three Exonians (Stephanie ’83, Chris ’86 and Jenny ’88). He also served a seven-year stint as dean of faculty, during which he made faculty compensation fairer and more transparent. In recognition of his leadership among the faculty and his enduring connection with generations of Exeter students, he was presented with the 2022 Founders’ Day Award in May. “Your humility, integrity and steadfast belief in the importance of the faculty voice helped shape the Academy’s faculty into a true community, governed by civility, respect and a sense of utmost care for one another,” General Alumni Association President Janney Wilson ’83 said when delivering the award citation.

The Founders’ Day Award was conceived by Principal Stephen G. Kurtz and established by the Trustees in 1976.

The General Alumni Association gives the honor annually in recognition of devoted service to the Academy. In accepting this year’s award, Hertig expressed gratitude for his supportive colleagues and for the “literally thousands” of students

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Seniors Make Their Mark

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favorite rite of spring at Exeter is the advent of Senior Bookmark season in the Class of 1945 Library. For the last 30 years, the library staff has invited graduating seniors to submit a list of their favorite books or media to recommend to other readers. These lists are then made into personalized bookmarks to commemorate their lives as readers and to share with the community. This year’s collection of 41 bookmarks is as eclectic as our student body. Some lists feature childhood favorites, others the classic canon. “The bookmarks have been an enormous success and more importantly a fun Exeter tradition,” says Metadata Librarian Abby Payeur.

We asked Eleanor Bolker ’22 to share some thoughts about the books that made her list:

“These books all paint a portrait of what it means to be human.

They are all centered on and driven by their characters, characters who shimmer with life, characters with depth and complexity and truth to them. When you’re a kid, you’re often seeking a character who is ‘relatable,’ who thinks like you or cares about the same things or shares some piece of your identity and experience. I think that’s an important part of figuring out who you are — it certainly was for me.

But each of the books contributed to something even more powerful than that for me: the ability to see myself in characters who were not necessarily like me in their identity or experience or even thinking, but who share in the most real way the beating heart of what it is to be human. That is what books are for.”

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ON STAGE

Anne Chen ’22 gets a lift from her fellow dancers in Alice in Wonderland.

Dance Students and Theater and Dance Department faculty reimagine Lewis Carroll’s classic tale in this spring’s narrative dance rendition of Alice in Wonderland at The David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Theater and Dance.

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Sophie Zhu ’24

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOY CHI ’23, CHRISTIAN HARRISON AND WILLIAM PARK ’22

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Theater

Nia Harris ’25

In a school first, the Theater and Dance Department stages its spring play in the Fisher Squash Center.

“Performance doesn’t only live inside the walls of a theater,” says Theater and Dance Instructor Blythe de Oliveira Foster, who codirected the student-written production of Open the Gate with English Instructor Sahar Ullah. “Sometimes what we need and want to communicate asks us to risk speaking in unexpected places and transforming those places in the process.”

Music The Forrestal-Bowld Music Center resounds with the melodies of our faculty musicians.

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EXETER DECONSTRUCTED T H E S C H O O L W E L O V E I N D E TA I L

By Patrick Garrity

The Gavit Cup

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oseph Lamont Gavit, class of 1917, arrived at Exeter at the beginning of his upper year. A gifted writer, Gavit took after his father, John Palmer Gavit, himself a playwright and newspaperman. “He is a very wizard with his pen,” the yearbook said of him, but the younger Gavit also made his mark as president of the debate society, a church monitor and secretary-treasurer of the senior council.

Sadly, just three years after graduating from Exeter, Gavit died of typhoid fever while a student at Harvard. His grieving parents established an annual prize in his name to be awarded to an upper “chosen by classmates and the principal of the Academy in special recognition of character and quality … in conduct, work, and play.”

In a letter to Principal Lewis Perry, Lucy Lamont Gavit and John Palmer Gavit specified that “the choice should not be made primarily on the basis of scholarship or marks, or primarily on the basis of athletic prowess or distinction; or of any other single factor,” but rather for “character as a whole.”

Gavit’s father presented the Gavit Cup to the first recipient on graduation day in 1923. “His mother and I have come here today to present to this school a modest token in his memory,” he said. “A symbol of no great intrinsic value, but of exceptional significance.”

This spring, the Gavit Cup was awarded for the 100th

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time, one of the school’s longest enduring prizes among the scores awarded to deserving Exeter students. Krish Patel ’23, a day student from Dover, New Hampshire, is the newest holder. His challenge is to strive to live up to the cup’s legacy.

At the cup’s first awarding, Perry said: “A great many memories cluster around the name Joe Gavit. Those of us who were here in 1917 remember him with great affection. I hope that Joe got something from Exeter; I know that Exeter got much from Joe.” E

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In-flight Movie A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H S C R E E N W R I T E R J A K E C R A N E ’0 0

By Daneet Steffens ’82

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hat would compel an Exonian to write a screenplay about an Andover alum?

His heart — and an appreciation for against-all-odds stories.

Screenwriter Jake Crane ’00 first read the dramatic account of two U.S. Navy pilots — Phillipian Thomas J. Hudner Jr. and the Navy’s first Black aviator, Jesse LeRoy Brown — over an emotional weekend. “By the time I got to the end I was in tears,” he says of devouring Adam Makos’ Korean War bestseller Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice. “I knew it was a special story and I wanted to be a part of it.” Come this fall, Crane’s film adaptation of Markos’ book will be released nationwide by Sony Pictures. It will be his first feature-length screenwriting credit.

A graduate of Vanderbilt University and Columbia University’s film school, Crane is at work on his next passion project, another adaptation, this time of sportswriter Bill Plaschke’s book Paradise Found: A High School Football Team’s Rise From the Ashes. “This is one of the biggest in-the-face-of-all-odds stories that’s come out in the last couple of years,” Crane says. “It’s about what this coach, with his love of his players and his love for his community, was able to do in trying to restore what they had all lost” in the California wildfires.

We caught up with Crane to hear about the joys of screenwriting, the challenges of bringing nonfiction to the big screen and, yes, that age-old Exeter-Andover rivalry.

Did you always know you wanted to write screenplays?

I read way more books than I saw movies as a kid. But I ended up taking a screenwriting course [in college] thinking, “This will be an easy A.” It wasn’t an easy A, and I loved it. Then I got a job at Miramax, reading screenplays from the slush pile as well as the scripts of movies that were being made at the time, like Cold Mountain and The Aviator. The incoming stuff was both good and bad, but it’s valuable to read bad screenplays as much as it is to read good screenplays.

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At Exeter, was there a particular experience that influenced your career path?

Absolutely. I went to Exeter for a postgrad year to play basketball, to have an extra year of high school. The change-maker was the class I took with [English Instructor] Harvard Knowles, who sadly just passed away. At my previous high school, I had been pretty much an A student; I wasn’t really challenged. I walked into [Mr.] Knowles’ English class and turned in my first paper and he said, “Look, I’m not even going to give you a grade on this because it’s so bad. But I’m willing to work with you because I see that you don’t understand how to write.” I learned more in that one year at Exeter than in all my years at Vanderbilt and Columbia.

Exeter taught me how to be discerning and interrogate things, how to be a better math student and, thanks to [Mr.] Knowles, how to write.

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L I F E

There’s a robust history of successful movies adapted from books, both fiction (To Kill a Mockingbird, Little Women, The Color Purple) as well as nonfiction (All the President’s Men, A Beautiful Mind, Goodfellas). Was the weight of that tradition upon you as you worked on these screenplays?

Both Devotion and Paradise Found are based on real life; the sources just happened to be nonfiction books. I think adapting literature is tougher, and I’ve not endeavored to do that yet because I think there’s a consciousness created by the book. You mentioned To Kill a Mockingbird, and most people read that in school; they have an idea of what it is. So when you go to adapt it, what are you bringing to adapting that book that makes it different from just

during the Korean War. I don’t know what it’s like to be in a squadron of aviators. But I do know what it’s like to be a dad and a son. Connecting to Tom [Hudner’s] son and Jesse [Brown’s] brothers, understanding them as human beings, that was really important in forming the characters I was creating on the page. And Hudner had gone to Andover, so some of my jokes with his son were inevitably about Exeter being superior to Andover. You know: “The Exeter writer writes a movie about an Andover hero” sort of thing.

Was it different working on Paradise Found?

It’s a bit different because it’s so current and all the people involved are alive. Also, it’s technically a sports movie. I spent a lot of time with Bill Plaschke, the book’s author, as well as with the coach, Rick Prinz. But in terms of the players, you can’t have every player’s perspective — it’s just not possible.

I had to think, “How do we focus on a few of the players, four or five, get their perspectives, and amalgamate all of the unique personalities into those five people?”

For me, it’s this coach’s story. The kids are great and they endured just as much as Rick did, but in terms of making it a successful movie, we’re going to filter it through the eyes of this man who has dedicated his life and career to this town and to this team.

“When you’re adapting true stories, you want to be true to what happened, but you also have to weigh the fact that the movie is a work of drama, and you’ll have to invent things.” reading the book? With true events — Devotion, for example, is based on two real people and their squadron — it’s a bit easier. Not easy certainly, but easier than adapting a great work of literature.

What are some of the challenges of turning a nonfiction story into a feature film?

When you’re adapting true stories, you want to be true to what happened, but you also have to weigh the fact that the movie is a work of drama, and you’ll have to invent things. As long as you don’t betray the core of who these people are or what actually happened, you can be successful. I always want to be respectful and do as much research as possible to mine the elements that are true, but also know that I’m writing a movie within a condensed time frame — you can’t get everything in there.

It’s a dance that you do.

You spent a lot of time with the families of the aviators in Devotion, getting to know them, getting their perspective of their parents’ stories.

That was key for me because I don’t know what it’s like to live in the 1950s. I don’t know what it’s like to fly a plane

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What do you love about the art of screenwriting?

I was originally a math person, and math is very structured and organized. For me, screenwriting is way more mathematical than people think. Certainly, there’s imagination and inspiration and all that stuff, but it’s also about order and structure. One of my professors at Columbia taught this method: Think of your movie in eight sequences — each sequence is a minimovie, and you need to figure out how to build them in a satisfying way so that you reach an inevitable but unexpected conclusion. That is the goal of every screenplay I write. And with adaptation, it’s about: How do you make the most out of an already great story? How do you come in and take material that already exists and make that the best version possible that’s imaginative and wants to make people watch it? It’s finding those right notes and becoming a kind of orchestra conductor. E

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Alumni are encouraged to advise the Bulletin editor (bulletin@exeter.edu) of their own publications, recordings, films, etc., in any field, and those of their classmates, for inclusion in future Exonians in Review columns. Please send a review copy of your published work to the editor to be considered for an extended profile or review in future issues. Works can be sent to: Phillips Exeter Academy, The Exeter Bulletin, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833.

ALUMNI

1947—Bill Felstiner. Deep Time.

(El Bosque Editions, 2022) 1954—Jonathan Aldrich. The Old World in His Arms: Collected Poems. (Wolfson Press, 2021) 1956—William Peace. Granduncle Bertie.

(Austin Macauley, 2022) 1965—Ridge Kennedy. Murder & Miss Austen’s Ball. (Hedgehog House, 2021) 1966—Alfred “Kirby” LaMotte. The Nectar of This Breath. (Saint Julian Press, 2022) 1967—Jonathan Galassi. School Days: A Novel. (Other Press, 2022) 1967—Robert Matisoff. Red Ivy. (selfpublished, 2022) 1980—Peter Josephson. “The Character of Political Life in Locke’s Second Treatise,” article. (The Beginning of Liberalism: Reexamining the Political Philosophy of John Locke, edited by Will R. Jordan, Mercer University Press, 2022) 1981—Claudia Putnam. “Double Negative,” essay. (Split/Lip Press, 2022) 1984—Evan Goldfischer, editor. Practice Management for Urology Groups: LUGPA’s Guidebook. (Large Urology Group Practice Association, 2020) 1984—Mark McGurl. Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon.

(Verso, 2021) 1985—Dana Pilson. “Daniel Chester French’s Lady in Green,” article. (Fine Art Connoisseur, February 2022) 1991—Bryan Rigg. Conquering Learning Disabilities at Any Age: How an ADHD/LD Kid Graduated From Yale and Cambridge, Became a Marine Officer, Military Historian, Financial Advisor and Caring Father. (Fidelis Historia, 2022)

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1992—Sean Davis. Solving the Giving Pledge Bottleneck: How to Finance Social and Environmental Challenges Using Venture Philanthropy at Scale. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) 1994—Emily Pérez. What Flies Want: Poems. (University of Iowa Press, 2022) 1995—Marlo Hunter, director. American Reject, film. (2022) 2001—Adam White. The Midcoast: A Novel. (Hogarth, 2022) 2006—Mairead Small Staid. The Traces: An Essay. (A Strange Object and Deep Vellum, 2022) FAC U LT Y Erica Lazure. “(Almost) Everything I Know About Writing Fiction I Learned From the Newspapers,” essay. (Writer’s Digest, March 23, 2022)

—“Concerning Craft: On Keeping a Broom,” essay. (Little Patuxent Review,

February 2022)

Matt Miller. “Equinox,” poem. (North American Review, spring 2022)

—“Middle Distance,” poem. (The Greensboro Review, spring 2022) Christopher Thurber. The Unlikely Art of Parental Pressure. (Hachette Go, 2021) FORMER BENNETT FELLOWS Kim Coleman Foote. “Mama’s Boy,” fiction. (Iron Horse Literary Review, issue 24.1, 2022)

—“What We Knew (The South, c. 1918),” fiction. (Green Mountains Review, Dec. 26, 2021) —“Man of the House,” fiction. (Ecotone, issue 30, spring/summer 2021)

Katherine Towler. “Eulogy,” fiction.

(Ploughshares, spring 2022)

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S P O RTS

Home Field Advantage D E C O R AT E D P L AY E R M AT T C A L L A H A N ’0 9 R E T U R N S T O L E A D B O Y S VA R S I T Y L A C R O S S E P R O G R A M

By Brian Muldoon

BRIAN MULDOON

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n Friday, May 22, 2009, senior

captain Matt Callahan ’09 and the Big Red boys lacrosse team topped Andover 9-4 to cap a terrific spring season and secure coach Eric Bergofsky’s 300th victory. “Under the lights, packed stadium, beat them, storm the field,” says Callahan, describing the game as if it happened yesterday. “That win against Andover is one of my favorite memories during my time as a student.”

Thirteen years later, Callahan has the opportunity to make some new Exeter/ Andover memories. After returning to the Academy last fall as an associate director of admissions, he was named head boys lacrosse coach in March. Callahan is just the 10th head coach in the history of the program, which started in 1935. Callahan succeeds legendary coach Bill Glennon, who spent 23 years as an assistant and the last eight as head coach.

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“I was so happy to be involved in the decision to elevate Coach Cal and serve as his assistant coach as we start the Coach Cal era,” Glennon says. “Matt is an excellent coach as well as a terrific leader and mentor of young men. … It is so special to have one of our own come back home to lead a strong program with a tradition of excellence.”

Callahan’s first season in the driver’s seat was a successful one as he helped guide Big Red to a 12-4 record. “This year has been a lot of fun,” he says.

“My greatest joy is spending time with the team. We have great kids — they are thoughtful, genuine, kind and competitive.”

Callahan knows what it takes to be a successful Big Red student-athlete. He entered the Academy as an upper and found a home on the lacrosse field. During his two campaigns as a player, he was highly decorated. He earned the Joseph T. Gifford Memorial Lacrosse Trophy as MVP, the Defensive Player of the Year award, and All-New England honors and All-America honors during his senior year.

While success on the field came easily, adjusting to campus life proved tougher. “I was a little homesick, even just being an hour away,” Callahan says. “Learning

“My greatest joy is spending time with the team. We have great kids — they are thoughtful, genuine, kind and competitive.”

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to navigate academic struggles took some time. Having a team full of friends really helped me buy in to the Exeter community, become more engaged and find more success. One of the reasons I wanted to come back is to help students that are in a similar space.”

Callahan went on to attend Tufts University, where he continued to excel on the field. He was a two-time

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first-team All-America, all-region and all-conference honoree. He served as team captain for the Jumbos in his senior season and was the recipient of the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association William C. Stiles Memorial Award as the nation’s top defender in 2013. In December of that year, Callahan was selected by the Denver Outlaws in the Major League Lacrosse supplemental draft.

Already at work for an investment bank, Callahan decided not to join the Outlaws, but he soon realized that his love and attention was still on the turf. He often escaped to the Tufts field in the afternoon to help at practice before returning to the office. “My adviser at Tufts once told me that I should do something that I think about while I’m pumping gas because that is what your mind naturally wants to gravitate towards,” he says. “I took that to heart. I thought about lacrosse a lot.”

The following year, an assistant coaching position opened at Tufts and he jumped into coaching full time. Callahan spent three years helping lead the Jumbos to three Final Four appearances and back-toback national championships before moving on to Brown University, then Catholic Memorial School in Massachusetts. “I find leadership and culture building fascinating, especially when working with young people,” he says. “Lacrosse is a combination of creativity, schematics and structure, and I could not be happier being on the field every day.”

Callahan leans on his experience as a player to help guide his coaching style and is thankful for the camaraderie of his fellow coaches. “The greatest part of this year has been my relationship with Coach Glennon,” he says. “The relationship has evolved from him being my coach to him being one of my closest friends.

We have such a great staff of people.

I could not have navigated this year without all of them.” E

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Three-Sport Athletes For some, competing in one or two sports just isn’t enough. In fact, 11 members of the class of 2022 played interscholastic sports in all 12 terms of their Academy careers. Among them, Jake Shapiro ’22. “If there were eight seasons, I’d play eight different sports,” he says. His enthusiasm, along with that of fellow three-sport athlete Molly Longfield ’22, was recognized this year with the Philip Curtis Goodwin ’25 Award, presented annually to the male and female studentathletes who best embody the qualities of sportsmanship and participation.

How did they juggle it and what did they learn?

JAKE SHAPIRO

soccer, ice hockey, baseball

MOLLY LONGFIELD

field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse

SPORT-ACADEMIC BALANCE

Shapiro: “I did not know how to use my time well for academics in my first

year. I did homework during lunch or free blocks and didn’t spend much time with my friends. I made the decision in my lower year to make more time for friends. I found that having a social life makes it easier to get work done and helps with not stressing out.”

Longfield: “Your social life is very intertwined with your sports and academics. You learn how to multitask — doing work outside of class can also become social hour to a certain extent. Sports made my time management a lot easier.”

LEARNED LIFE SKILL

Shapiro: “The skill that all three sports have in common is not a physical

skill but a mental skill. You have to learn to work with people — different teammates, teammates with different backgrounds. Playing on three teams gives you a chance to know more people on campus.”

Longfield: “I’ve been learning to take care of my body. I used to go, go, go and just let Sunday be my day off, but I’m learning that my body needs more than that. Tessa Shields ’21 got me more into lifting, which is another form of recovery and injury prevention.” E — Brian Muldoon

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SPRING SPORTS BOYS VOLLEYBALL RECORD: 6-2, SECOND PLACE IN NEW ENGLAND

Head Coach: Bruce Shang Assistant Coach: Suzan Rowe Captains: Chris Antosiewicz ’22, Charlie Thibault ’22 MVPs: Chris Antosiewicz ’22, Charlie Thibault ’22

BOYS CREW FIRST BOAT: SECOND PLACE IN NEW ENGLAND W. HART PERRY CUP NEW ENGLAND POINTS TROPHY

BOYS TENNIS RECORD: 3-6

Head Coach: Will Abisalih Captains: Erik Nystedt ’22, Peter Roth ’22, Benjamin Vigneri ’22 MVP: Clark Pearson ’23

Head Coach: Albert Léger Assistant Coaches: Tyler Caldwell, Townley Chisholm, Steve Carr Captains: Weiyi Huang ’23, Alex Luque ’22 MVP: Andreas Lorgen ’22

BOYS TRACK & FIELD SECOND PLACE AT INTERSCHOLS

Head Coach: Hilary Hall Assistant Coaches: Brandon Newbould, John Mosely, Mark Hiza, Steve Holmes, Ron Edmiston, Levi Strickland, Christina Zeigler Captains: Trevor Chun ’22, Aiden Silvestri ’22, Bradley St. Laurent ’22 MVP: Aiden Silvestri ’22

CYCLING NERCL CHAMPIONS

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Head Coach: Meg Blitzshaw Assistant Coach: Steve Altieri Captains: Lindsay Machado ’22, Ginny Vazquez-Azpiri ’22 MVP: Grace Emmick ’22

BASEBALL RECORD: 12-10-1

Head Coach: Don Mills Assistant Coaches: Jeff Palleiko, Jeanette Lovett, Jose Molina Captains: Owen Loustau ’22, Ale Murat ’23 MVP: Owen Loustau ’22

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GIRLS WATER POLO RECORD: 2-8

Head Coach: Tim Mitropoulos ’10 Assistant Coach: Dana Barbin Captains: JR Bozek ’22, Jake Shapiro ’22 MVP: Josh Morissette ’22

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SOFTBALL RECORD: 7-7

Head Coach: Liz Hurley Assistant Coach: Jeremy Russell Captains: Taylor Nelson ’22, Izzy Reyes ’22, Alex Singh ’22 MVP: Taylor Nelson ’22

BOYS LACROSSE RECORD: 12-4

Head Coach: Matt Callahan ’09 Assistant Coaches: Jim Breen, Bill Glennon, David Huoppi Captains: Baron Fisher ’22, Charlie McGurrin ’22, Shep Seba ’22 MVP: Charlie McGurrin ’22

GIRLS CREW FIRST BOAT: NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONS, 11TH IN THE NATION

Head Coach: Sally Morris Assistant Coaches: Becky Moore, Greg Spanier, Hadleigh Weber Captains: Emma Lyle ’22, Charlotte Pulkkinen ’22 MVP: Jacqueline Luque ’22

GOLF RECORD: 7-4

GIRLS TRACK & FIELD FOURTH PLACE AT INTERSCHOLS

Head Coach: Bob Bailey Assistant Coach: Gordon Coole Captains: Brian Adams ’22, Jeannie Eom ’22 MVPs: Brian Adams ’22, Angelina Gong ’25

GIRLS TENNIS RECORD: 1-5

Head Coach: Gayatri Ramesh Captains: Bailey Cooper ’22, Josephine Elting ’22, Cecilia Treadwell ’22 MVP: Elizabeth Lavin ’23

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Head Coach: Hilary Hall Assistant Coaches: Ron Edmiston, Mark Hiza, Steve Holmes, John Mosely, Brandon Newbould, Levi Strickland, Christina Zeigler Captains: Ifeoma Ajufo ’22, Catherine Uwakwe ’22, Kaitlyn Flowers ’22, Avery Hastings ’22 MVP: Avery Hastings ’22

GIRLS LACROSSE RECORD: 11-4-1

Head Coach: Christina Breen Assistant Coaches: Alexa Caldwell, Kristen Kjellman Marshall, Kerry McBrearty Captains: Molly Longfield ’22, Kate Mautz ’22, Victoria Quinn ’22, Kathryn Welch ’22 MVP: Molly Longfield ’22

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN MULDOON AND ED MORAN

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Congratulations CHERYL SENTER

COMMENCEMENT 2022

D

“You are ready to be … citizens and leaders who will act with empathy, understanding and respect for their fellow human beings and who will work together to break patterns of injustice and form a better world.”

P R I N C I PA L B I L L R AW S O N

CHERYL SENTER

azzling sunshine bathed campus in June as Exeter celebrated Commencement on the front lawn of the Academy Building for the first time since 2019. The joyous occasion began with 312 members of the class of 2022 confidently striding from points on the south side of campus and crossing Front Street to take their seats. Proud and excited teachers, family members and friends lined the procession to offer congratulations as the graduating seniors passed.

After welcoming those gathered, senior class president Bona Yoo kicked off the ceremony by inviting her classmates to remember their younger selves, and to reflect on how far they had come. “We took this crazy bet on ourselves, picked up our bags, left everything we knew and congregated from all corners of the world to live together in Exeter, New Hampshire,” she said. “We had to start from scratch and build with what we had, and what we had was each other.”

In addition to revisiting some “snapshots of bliss” — including a sunrise walk with her roommate and celebrating the first football win over Andover in eight years this past fall — Yoo also acknowledged the “gut-wrenching lows” she and her classmates endured together, particularly the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “For the past two years, we’ve been fighting pretty hard to stay connected and to keep our traditions alive,” she said. “We learned how to connect and to stay resilient. We stunned each other with our talents, our capacities to listen and our ability to challenge one another’s values and notions.”

“We are wiser, stronger, but most importantly, we’ve built a family of lifelong friends this early on in life,” Yoo concluded. “That is truly a rare thing.”

Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P ’08 spoke eloquently from the lectern, beginning his remarks by noting the special connection between himself and the class of 2022. “Your first Assembly was my first Assembly,” he said. “You were nervous and excited preps; I was your nervous and excited new principal.” Rawson lauded the students’ accomplishments and pursuit of excellence in the classroom, the arts and athletics, as well as how they had worked to make the school a more equitable and inclusive community, among other contributions. “I also admire the way you have cared for and supported each other,” he continued.

“You always show up for each other. In doing so, you have set a powerful example for the classes that will follow.”

Rawson repeatedly drew parallels to his graduation from Exeter 51 years earlier, at one point quoting from a speech made on that day by his classmate Roberto Garcia ’71. Rawson echoed Garcia’s statement of optimism and purpose, and his emphasis on the importance of “human connections” when it came to making a difference in the world. “You are ready to take your place in the world and follow the examples of generations of Exonians who have come before,” Rawson said. “You are ready to be the kinds of citizens and leaders that our world needs — citizens and leaders who will act with empathy, understanding and respect for their fellow human beings … and who will work together to break patterns of injustice and form a better world.” — Sarah Pruitt ’95

Class of 2022!

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COMMENCEMENT 2022

Classical scholar Hansi Zhu dons her wreath.

MARY SCHWALM

“I think everyone in my class cares a lot about the way that they impact other people. I don’t know how much of that is a result of COVID and being alone for so long and then having to relearn all these social dynamics. But I think everyone is uniquely aware of how their actions impact not only their friends in their immediate circle, but the grade beyond.”

MARY SCHWALM

SENIOR UNITY

Below: Sophie Fernánndez wears a Russian pretzel necklace representing her experience in Exeter’s Russian program and army boots honoring her future commitment to the military.

CHERYL SENTER

MARY SCHWALM

ANNE CHEN ’22

Evan Gonzalez and Elijah Porras

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COMMENCEMENT 2022

MARY SCHWALM

The Thomas H. Cornell Award, based on a vote by the Senior Class and awarded annually to that member of the graduating class who best exemplifies the Exeter spirit.

Dorothy Baker, Baltimore, Maryland

Aiden Silvestri accepts the Yale Cup.

Graduation Prizes

The Yale Cup, awarded each year by the Aurelian Honor Society of Yale University to that member of the senior class who best combines the highest standards of character and leadership with excellence in his studies and in athletics.

Aiden Silvestri, Newtown, Pennsylvania The Ruth and Paul Sadler ’23 Cup, awarded each year to that member of the senior class who best combines the highest standards of character and leadership with excellence in her studies and in athletics.

Kate Mautz, Exeter, New Hampshire

The Multicultural Leadership Prize, awarded annually to the member or members of the graduating class who has most significantly contributed to educating the community about, and fostering greater understanding around, topics of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, ability, religion, spirituality, or other aspects of identity.

Zara Ahmed, Burlington, Massachusetts Adam Belew, Stone Mountain, Georgia Mali Rauch, Cypress, Texas Marina Williams, Elk Grove, California The Cox Medals, given by Oscar S. Cox, in memory of his father, Jacob Cox, are awarded each year to the five members of the graduating class who, having been two or more years in the Academy, have attained the highest scholastic rank.

Audrey Aslani-Far, Rye, New York Emma Finn, Annapolis, Maryland Valentina Kafati, San Pedro Sula, Honduras Bona Yoo, Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey Felix Zou, Shenzhen, China The Faculty Prize for Academic Excellence, given to that member of the graduating class who, having been two or more years in the Academy, is recognized on the basis of scholarship as holding the first rank.

Audrey Aslani-Far, Rye, New York

The Perry Cup, established by the class of 1945 in honor of Dr. Lewis Perry, eighth principal of the Academy, and given annually to a senior who has shown outstanding qualities of leadership and school spirit.

KG Buckham-White, Smyrna, Georgia

CHERYL SENTER

The Williams Cup, established in memory of George Lynde Richardson Jr., and given annually to a student who, having been in the Academy four years, has, by personal qualities, brought distinction to Phillips Exeter.

Neil Chowdhury, Bellevue, Washington Emma Finn, Annapolis, Maryland The Eskie Clark Award, given annually to that scholarship student in the graduating class who, through hard work and perseverance, has excelled in both athletics and scholarship in a manner exemplified by Eskie Clark of the class of 1919.

Anne Chen, Woodbridge, Illinois

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KG Buckham-White (left)

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COMMENCEMENT 2022

MARY SCHWALM

MARY SCHWALM

Russell Tam

SENIOR GROWTH

PATRICK GARRIT Y

Cyrus Braden and Marina Williams

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“When I came to Exeter I was really worried. I felt impostor syndrome.

Everyone here is so much smarter than I am, I thought. I have learned my self-worth. I really can do this. I really can handle the work. I really can do what my classmates are doing.”

AKILI TULLOCH ’22

Watch Principal Bill Rawson’s remarks and view more photographs from graduation day at exeter.edu/2022-graduation.

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SENIOR CLASS!

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Challenge and Triumph T H E E P I C STO RY O F T H E H I ST O RY 3 3 3 T E R M PA P E R

By Sarah Pruitt ’95 PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTIAN HARRISON

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Y

ou wake with a start, uncertain of where you are.

A sharp ache in your neck reminds you — at your desk, slumped over its scratched surface, your laptop pushed to the side. When you poke at the keyboard to wake it from its own slumber, your bleary eyes dart immediately to the clock: 2:15 a.m. Panic surges through your body and you’re instantly, painfully awake.

You take in your surroundings: Books — so many books — laid out on the bed, the desk, the floor. Some with their spines flattened, others bristling with tiny Post-its in neon hues. Your internet browser tabs contain a dozen more scholarly articles, not to mention those newspaper stories from the 1920s you painstakingly tracked down during hours spent in the Class of 1945 Library.

And, of course, you see the hard copy of your rough draft, marked with your teacher’s nearly illegible scrawl.

Your thesis was vague, your argument meandered, you used the wrong format for footnotes and bibliography.

And the draft is only six pages long.

Willing the panic to subside, you walk to the window, push it open and peer into the darkness. The night air still carries a chill, but you can see cherry blossoms on a few nearby trees. Then you notice a light in a neighboring dorm, and two more in the dorm next to that. You have no idea whose rooms these are, yet in that moment you imagine other students at different points around campus, seated at their own desks. You are not alone. They too are in the midst of that classic Exonian rite of spring: writing the U.S. history term paper commonly known as “the 333.”

I remember my own experience with the assignment well. As the daughter of an Exeter emeritus history instructor — my father, Bruce Pruitt, taught from 1973 to 2009 — I inherited his love of the subject matter, but I also inherited his perfectionism, and the related (as I now, years later, understand it) tendency to procrastinate.

I composed the final draft of my 333 largely in the wee morning hours of the due date, without the help of the internet, on a clunky Toshiba laptop that was thrillingly high-tech to me at the time. The rough draft was in fact only six pages long, and I’m certain that at one point I did not believe I would ever be able to get it done.

Yet despite the History 333 term paper’s fearsome reputation, and despite any individual struggles, I think most Exonians would agree with me: It’s that very challenge — the feeling of owning your work, of pushing your limits and achieving something that once seemed impossible — that makes it such an enduring, and important, part of the Exeter experience.

While many high school history curriculums are organized around preparation for Advanced Placement exams or other standardized tests, studying history at the Academy involves little memorization of dates or battle locations or branches of royal family trees. Instead, the Harkness approach to history centers on in-depth critical reading and independent thinking, combined with classroom discussions that often draw meaningful connections between past and present. Writing is an essential part of that approach, as is giving students a solid grounding in how to do research and craft an analytical argument.

The 333 is the capstone assignment of the three-term U.S. history sequence, a requirement for graduation that is most often taken in a student’s upper year. In the fall term, students focus on the nation’s colonial origins up to the outbreak of the Civil War and complete a library research assignment. In the winter, they build upon that experience, learn about the period between 1861 and 1941, and write a short research paper of five to seven pages. By spring term, devoted to U.S. history after 1941, they are ready to confront the 333 — known prior to the 1986-87 school year as “the 32.”

Though it is unquestionably the longest paper that most students will write during their time at the Academy, the required length of the 333 has been adjusted over the years. Currently, it is 12 to 15 pages, or approximately 4,000 words, along with footnotes and a bibliography — heavy on the primary sources. “It’s become more involved,” says Bill Jordan, longtime history instructor and director of the Washington Intern Program. “The availability of sources has dramatically expanded. You used to have to go down and use the microfilm to read The New York Times, and now you just press a button and you’ve got a million articles right there.”

“If there’s one piece of the Exeter experience that gives students the best preparation for writing papers, it’s the 333,” says Betsy Dolan, dean of college counseling.

In addition to preparing students for the rigors of college academics, the process of writing the paper offers students an opportunity to take ownership of their work in a way that remains rare among high school assignments, she says. From choosing a topic to tracking down sources to finding the perfect pointed research question, she adds, the 333 requires significant agency, self-knowledge and self-discipline. The term paper’s very length and difficulty also contributes to the unique feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that students get at the end.

‟It’s that very challenge — the feeling of owning your work, of pushing your limits ... that makes [the 333] such an enduring, and important, part of the Exeter experience.”

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PHOTO COURTESY OF LAYNE ERICKSON

Layne Erickson, Exeter’s first alumna to graduate from West Point, wrote her 333 about the 1976 decision to admit women to the military academies.

lot of disrespect and unfairness and genuine harassment, but I was really inspired by the steps that they took to push through it,” Erickson says. “I thought, someone really does need to take on that challenge to be the next group. Every year, somebody’s got to be next.”

The process of writing the 333 itself pushed her limits, as Erickson was forced to restructure her entire draft based on feedback from her teacher. “I rewrote that whole thing in three or four days,” she says. “I would not say I look back on the 333 fondly, but I do look back on it with respect, as quite the challenge.”

Looking back on their 333 experience, many students view

it as a process of learning not just about a particular historical topic but about themselves. For some, the experience leaves a more lasting mark, fueling a calling to a future career. “When you go to alumni events, virtually everybody remembers what they wrote their 333 about, and they love talking about it,” says Emeritus History Instructor Jack Herney ’46, ’69, ’71, ’74, ’92, ’95 (Hon.).

Layne Erickson ’18 certainly recalls finding such meaning in the process of writing her 333 — albeit by accident. When all the books for her first-choice topic (the use of animals for military purposes) were taken, she picked another book at random off the shelf to see where that led her. The book was Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point by Stephen E. Ambrose, and it included a section on the first women to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1980.

Erickson ended up writing her 333 on the classes of 1980 at the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy, all of which made the decision to admit women in 1976. As a senior, she applied to all three service academies, and this spring she became the first Exeter alumna to graduate from West Point. “Upon doing that research, I saw not only the darker side of the challenge, where these women were being faced with a

Peter Orszag ’87 won a Negley Prize (see sidebar, “The

Negley Prize Explained”), given to one of the year’s best American history essays by an Exeter student, for his History 32 term paper, “The Joint Chiefs of Staff: The Need for Reform.” Orszag, who later served as director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in the administration of President Barack Obama, says the experience of researching and writing his paper — combined with his participation in the Washington Intern Program during his senior year — helped propel him toward a career in public service. “That paper, along with my senior thesis at Princeton and my Ph.D. dissertation, were kind of the pillars of my educational evolution,” Orszag says. “The attractiveness of public service was part of the educational ethos at some of the schools I attended before Exeter, but it really was turbocharged while I was there.”

The process also helped build Orszag’s love of writing. Currently CEO of financial advisory at the investment bank Lazard, he has maintained a sideline, writing columns for Bloomberg News. “I’ve always found it clarifying for the thought process when you have to put something down ‘on paper,’” Orszag says. “The experience associated with the History 32 paper was beneficial because it reinforced the importance of writing clearly and well, and that’s something I’ve continued to enjoy to this day.”

‟That paper, along with my senior thesis at Princeton and my Ph.D. dissertation, were kind of the pillars of my educational evolution.”

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The Negley Prize Explained

Arya Palla ’23 and History Instructor Sally Komarek meet in her classroom. Below: Komarek and students in the Class of 1945 Library.

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On June 17, 1946, Richard V.W. Negley of the class of 1906 wrote from his home in San Antonio, Texas, to E.S. Wells Kerr, then serving as the Academy’s first dean. The subject of his letter was a somber one: Negley’s two sons, Albert Sidney Burleson Negley ’31 and Richard Van Wyck Negley Jr. ’33, had both died in World War II. Richard Jr. was killed in action in the Pacific, while Albert was reported to have perished while being held as a Japanese prisoner of war.

“When the government was proceeding to the settlement of [Richard Jr.’s] account at the War Department, it seemed to Mrs. Negley that it would be appropriate to use some portion of the money due him to establish a small endowment at Exeter in his memory,” Negley wrote.

“Later on, Albert had to be included in the plan … for he was as devoted to Exeter as Dick.”

With the $2,640 in “New York exchange” that was included with the letter, the Negleys endowed the Albert Sidney Burleson Negley 1931 and Richard Van Wyck Negley Jr. 1933 Memorial Fund, to be used for one of three purposes: purchasing books for the Academy Library; rewarding members of the Golden Branch, a literary society that sponsored debates; or as a prize for an outstanding history essay written by an Academy student.

The first Negley Prize was awarded to Stewart Brand ’56, who as a senior wrote a paper on “The Army and the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge” for a U.S. history course then called History 4. Brand went on to create The Whole Earth Catalog, a forward-looking bible of 1960s and ’70s counterculture that would be cited as an inspiration

by Apple founder Steve Jobs and other tech visionaries.

Today the Negley Prize is an annual tradition, awarded for the year’s best essays in American history. Teachers in the History Department submit term papers they find exceptional to be considered for the honor each year. The winning essays — sometimes two or three, sometimes as many as six — are selected by a committee based on writing style, scope and quality of research, and are announced in the fall following the spring in which they are completed.

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Prizewinning 333s Since 1998, the winning Negley Prize papers from each year have been bound in a single volume and stored in the Center for Archives and Special Collections in the Class of 1945 Library. We have chosen 12 intriguing titles that reflect the wide-ranging interests of Exeter students over the past 23 years, and their willingness to delve deeply into issues that remain all too relevant in the present day.

“Illusions of Immortality: U.S. Public Health Authorities and the Spanish Flu Pandemic, 1918-1919” Diana Gentry ’01 “Scandal and Sabotage: Richard Nixon’s Theft of the 1968 Election” Tom Langer ’04

“From Ambivalence to Acceptance: American Attitudes Towards Linguistic and National Identity” Sally Pei ’06 “The Tuskegee Syphilis Study: A Medical Experiment Swept Under the Rug” Hillary Fitzgerald ’07

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“They Bit the Hand That Fed Them: How the United States Spawned Global Terrorism During the SovietAfghan War” Kevin Chen ’11 “The Equal Rights Amendment: How the ERA Lost the Ratification Battle and Remained a Triumph for the Women’s Movement Despite Its Death” Alero Egbe ’13 “‘A Battle Royal’: The Role of Religion and Politics in the Brandeis Confirmation Struggle” Rohan Pavuluri ’14 “Psychiatry’s Own ‘Wonder Drug’: Chlorpromazine and Its Portrayal in the 1950s Media” Arianna Serafini ’16

“Medicine as Social Control: Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and the Classification of Homosexuality” Elliot Diaz ’19 “Packing Heat: How the National Rifle Association Shaped the Interpretation of the Second Amendment” Sam Farnsworth ’20 “A Legacy of Black Empowerment: The Unseen Triumph of the Harlem Renaissance” Osiris Russell-Delano ’21 “Guantanamo’s Role in the War on Terror: Exception or the Norm?”

Samantha Moore ’22

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Research and analytical writing, along with Harkness

discussion, have always been the pillars of Exeter’s history curriculum, but a single lengthy term paper was not always given as much prominence. Herney, who joined the faculty in 1968, says that while assigning a U.S. history term paper was established tradition by the early 1970s, “it didn’t have the cachet, or the notoriety, that it later had.”

The change seems to have occurred sometime in the early 1980s, when the U.S history course was divided into two semesters: History 31 and History 32. At the end of the second course, the final term paper became known as the 32. Beginning with the 1986-87 school year, when the Academy began operating on a three-term system, History 31 and 32 became History 331, 332 and 333.

Over the next three decades, articles chronicling the struggle and satisfaction of producing the 333 would become springtime fixtures in The Exonian. “Every Upper’s Nightmare,” read one headline from 1994 (the year I completed my 333). “The 333 is hell,” the paper’s board opined in 1996. “Do you really think it’s a coincidence that 333 is half of 666?” In a 2005 article headlined “The Terrors and Triumphs of the 333,” Hyan Park ’06 spoke with a number of current seniors who looked back on the paper as “a milestone of their Exeter careers” and “a valuable and meaningful experience.”

Flora MacIvor ’03 found academic confidence in writing the 333.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FLORA MACIVOR

As with Orszag and Erickson, the process of writing her 333 taught Flora MacIvor ’03 about herself, as much as about the topic she chose: the anti-Communist crusades and mass arrests that peaked in the years after World War I. “I had this idea in my mind of what I was going to say and what I was going to argue,” MacIvor recalls. “But then when I started researching, the research did not support what I believed personally.”

Having never worked with primary sources before arriving at Exeter her lower year, MacIvor dove into those she found in the library, and let them guide her to a conclusion different from the one she had initially assumed. “I think that’s something that’s stuck with me my whole life,” she says. “It’s great to have a personal opinion, but then when you actually start to look at what the facts are, you have to be ready to admit that you’re wrong.”

MacIvor’s experience also gave her the confidence to take on the yearlong challenge of writing a thesis, an option but not a requirement for her as a history major at Duke.

She went on to earn a master’s in cultural studies at the University of Toulon in France and is now a professor of English as a foreign language at Aix-Marseille University.

When the U.S. history courses were renumbered in 2016 to more accurately reflect their academic rigor, the change didn’t sit well with some students. “I remember we insisted on continuing to call [the term paper] the 333, because the 333 meant something,” says Erickson, who was among the first students to take History 430. “I don’t even remember the number they changed it to.”

“We were all told we had to call [the paper] ‘the 430,’ but students just couldn’t move on from it,” recalls Reference and Instruction Librarian Kate Lennon Walker, who has helped students conduct research for their U.S. history term papers for the past 14 years. “I think they will always write a 333, no matter what the course number is.”

Given how large the 333 has loomed over the years, it’s not surprising that, six years after the course number change, the brand endures. “I remember being a prep and a lot of the uppers in my dorm at the time talking about staying up late nights writing their 333s,” says Keanen Andrews ’23, who wrote his term paper this spring on the rise of the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, known as Black Wall Street, and its destruction at the hands of white rioters in 1921 for History Instructor Nolan Lincoln’s 430 class. “It was in the back of my mind when I was a younger student and, now that it’s done, I know it was difficult and challenging, but I do feel complete. I put everything into the paper, and I enjoyed it.” E

‟It’s great to have a personal opinion, but then when you actually start to look at what the facts are, you have to be ready to admit that you’re wrong.”

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PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS BENNETT

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INTO THE WOODS J A C K S O N PA R E L L’ S PAT H TO SELF-DISCOVERY

By Adam Loyd

Jackson Parell and Sammy Potter

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T

he fanfare along the roadside near Etna Summit, in northern California, was minimal. No cheering crowd, no news crews, no breaking of finish-line tape — just a small family celebration. And that’s exactly how Jackson Parell ’18 wanted it.

A lanky 20-year-old with a wide smile and blond mop of hair, Parell had put foot to ground more than 10 million times over the past 10 months and in doing so had quietly become the youngest person to complete one of the rarest feats in distance hiking, the Calendar-Year Triple Crown.

It’s a challenge that requires hikers to walk the entirety of the Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail between New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve of a given year. That’s roughly 8,000 miles of trail across 22 states with an elevation gain equivalent to hiking to the summit of Mount Everest 100 times.

Parell documented his final day hiking with an Instagram post. The caption read: “It’s good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end,” a quote by writer Ursula K. Le Guin.

Remarkable as the end of an experience, he says, the day itself held no more significance than the 294 days that preceded it. Each day started and ended in a sleeping bag with thousands of steps in between and provided fulfillment. The title Parell now carries, simply a byproduct of committing to something that provided clarity in uncertain times both for himself and the world at large.

The ambitious plan to complete the Triple Crown was born in the early stages of the pandemic. After contracting COVID-19 in 2020, Parell and a group of his Stanford classmates, including Sammy Potter, were sent off campus to quarantine. While in isolation in Jackson, Wyoming, the two sparked a friendship. Later that year, as Potter was back home in Maine and Parell was vacationing at his family’s cottage in New Hampshire, they reconnected, spending a day together hiking in the White Mountains. On that trip, Potter floated the idea of devoting a year to doing little else but hiking. Within weeks, Parell and Potter had committed to it, and for the next seven months they trained, planned their routes and researched every facet of what the journey would entail.

On Jan. 1, 2021, Parell and Potter set off, eventually hiking through fatigue, bouts of giardia, blisters, boredom and even wildfires to become just the 11th and 12th people ever to complete the Calendar-Year Triple Crown.

We caught up with Parell, now back at Stanford, to hear about his adventure and how he might never have taken the first step without his Exeter experience.

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CHRIS M. SHANE

Sammy Potter and Parell bask in the sun.

For most, completing just one of these trails would be a major accomplishment. What made you want to hike all three?

I think in part there was the allure of this challenge, which was really appealing. The other side of it, and maybe this is something that people who attended Exeter can identify with, is that when you get out of Exeter, you enter this great big old world with a lot of things that you can do. I ended up flip-flopping around on majors and extracurriculars and ideas for my career. I was starting a lot of things and not really finishing them. I wanted to have a very finite challenge that I could start and finish and feel as though I accomplished something. … Also, I knew this was the only time in my life that I would have the luxury of a year off, as well as the physical ability to be able to undertake something like this.

Have you always been a hiker?

Actually, I had done little to no hiking before I came to Exeter. In Florida [where I grew up], of course, your main connection with the outdoors is the ocean. My first introduction to hiking was through a program at Exeter. During spring break, Mr. [Jason] BreMiller led trips to Utah with the National Outdoor Leadership School. We spent 10 days in Utah, and I remember falling in love with being immersed in nature. I was surprised by how quickly I was able to form lasting connections with the 12 other people on the trip. … We were all working together toward a common goal and there was no other distraction. Exeter is a place where you can get pulled in every direction, but those 10 days really just let me focus on the relationships around me and brought me closer to everyone that was there.

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Did you and your partner, Sammy, hike together the entire time?

We walked together maybe 15 percent of the time because we had completely different paces. I like to take my time during the day. I walk at a slower pace but take fewer breaks, whereas Sammy hikes quickly and takes longer breaks.

Did your differences in hiking styles, personalities or habits cause friction?

We were mutually invested in making sure that both of us got to the finish line, so there was never any conflict.

I think it ended up being a special partnership. Ten months hiking alone in the wilderness can get really lonely; having someone out there who is sharing the same emotional and physical burden is important.

Even with the mutual support, I imagine there were highs and lows.

There were some days that were the best days of my life.

And then there were others that were just the absolute worst.

And maybe some days that were both?

I remember one day hiking through the Smokies, and there was about a foot and a half of snow on the ground.

We woke up that morning [to climb Clingmans Dome] and it was subzero. At breakfast, our oatmeal was freezing as we were eating it. We got above the cloud layer at right about sunset and watched the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen. There was a sea of clouds in every direction and a couple of mountains poking up and over them.

We could only spend five minutes up there because we wanted to get down below 6,000 feet before it got dark.

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CHRIS M. SHANE

GINA FERRAZI, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Parell gets some screen time in before bed.

By the time we got to a connector road, the temperature had dropped another 10 to 15 degrees and it was snowing, so we decided to sleep in a public restroom. It’s funny.

Earlier that day I had been in this incredibly euphoric state watching the most beautiful sunset; then I’m sleeping on the floor of a public restroom. I think that kind of captures what the experience was like. In the same day you can have both of those things happen.

What would you do if you felt sick or got hurt?

A month in, I had the most searing back pain. It probably had something to do with how much we were carrying. All of that weight, between 25 and 35 pounds, depending on conditions, resulted in this stitch in my back that honestly made it hard to breathe. I had to do a little bit of trail medicine. I took a rock and put it between my back and my backpack, and it just relieved the pressure on the muscle that was in pain. There was so much adrenaline rushing through my body. There was so much excitement for what was to come, I was not going to let a stitch in my back take me out. I think it’s funny that the rock is what saved me.

Did you ever want to quit?

There are moments on trail where that is all you want to do. At the end of the day, it’s a deeply personal experience. You’re out there for yourself. In moments of injury and moments of doubt, it was always turning inward that pushed me forward.

What does it feel like to finally be done?

It’s a little bit anticlimactic. We walked for so long and so far that it had become our life. To fathom not having to

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“THERE IS NO ONE, CLEAR PATH THAT CAN LEAD TO A FULFILLING EXPERIENCE.” get up and walk 32 miles a day, when I took that final step, it was pretty inconceivable. What made it special was that most of my family was there the day we finished. My dad brought beads and all these Mardi Gras celebratory accessories, and we got to share a beer together. I think that finishing only hit me in the weeks and months afterwards when I was like, wow, I get to just sit on this couch and look outside or eat whatever I want, whenever I want.

That’s amazing. All those little realizations slowly culminated into a feeling of closure.

Was it difficult reassimilating to life as a student?

I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a really tough adjustment. The way I was able to approach life out there is so much different than when I’m at school. [At Stanford,] I feel pulled in every which direction, much like I did at Exeter. It was nice to have a single goal and a very clear way to accomplish that goal, which was just to get up every morning and walk.

Can you share one thing you learned from this journey?

That there is no one, clear path that can lead to a fulfilling experience in life. At Exeter, there can be a mind-set that there is one clear track to finding fulfillment and that is: finishing up high school in a really good way that puts you in a good place for college, that puts you in a good place for a job, then you have a family and then, I don’t know, you grow old and die. I realized that getting up every day and walking could bring me as much fulfillment as almost anything else in my life. That was a really cool thing to realize and has shifted my perspective of the future. E

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CONNECTIONS

News and notes from the alumni community

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAMIAN STROHMEYER

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A Graduation Gift

By Madhur Deora ’96; P’22, P’22

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s I sat on the Academy lawn on a gorgeous June morning, surrounded by family and friends of the graduating class of 2022, I was filled with joy, nostalgia and pride. Listening to class president Bona Yoo’s Commencement address, I felt that she spoke to both the parent and the alumnus in me. Her reflections on everything that Exeter has meant to the class of 2022 — deep friendships and community, living up to the school’s mission, growing up during their time there — made me proud and content for my daughters, Krisha ’22 and Naisha ’22, and also brought back memories of my time as a student. It was almost as if she were carrying me back to my time at Exeter and encouraging me to relive my memories and re-understand what the school meant for me.

I turned up at campus 28 years ago, a day after landing in America from India for the first time, unprepared for all that I had signed up for.

It was a time when Exeter was more disconnected from the outside world — news traveled slowly, and it was hard to be in regular touch with friends, family or even parents. Exeter felt special in all the ways it still does today, but it also felt like a regular, isolated, small town with a department store, a movie theater and a convenience store where Me & Ollie’s now is.

So much has changed, yet many of the important things have held strong. Just as I learned everything from Shakespeare and Russian to NFL rules (before the Patriots had won their first Super Bowl!) and how to precisely land the perfect squash serve, my daughters have grown in ways that I couldn’t have imagined. While they started at Exeter more prepared — having grown up in a diverse school, and having traveled around the world in their early years — the adults and their peers at Exeter have helped them to expand their horizons and ambition. They have learned to make lifelong friends, push themselves academically and in sports, and find new interests in hobbies and community engagement. It has been incredibly gratifying to see them grow in confidence, independence and intelligence.

From the time we dropped our daughters at Exeter Summer three years ago, we have been enveloped with the generous warmth and care of the Exeter community. We have had the privilege of thanking Principal Bill Rawson at Saltonstall House for the school’s efforts during COVID; running into Dean Weatherspoon and his wife outside Elm Street dining hall; and enjoying numerous Zoom calls with faculty, advisers and college counselors. These opportunities to renew my connection with the Exeter community as a parent over the past three years, the inspiring words of Principal Rawson and others at the graduation ceremony, and the act of writing this reflection have encouraged me to encounter the privilege of my Exeter education (or as I often describe it, “the greatest gift that I ever received”). It has nudged me to pursue a life that lives up to the true potential of an Exeter education and the spirit of non sibi. While I hope that my kids embody the spirit and gift of Exeter in their lives, I feel that I must do the same in ways that I have been too busy or distracted to do so far. In this way, Exeter has renewed its gift to me, for which I am even more grateful. E

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Madhur Deora ’96 with his daughters, Naisha ’22 (left) and Krisha ’22, on graduation day, June 5, 2022.

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Being Neighborly

By Sarah Zobel

I

n the spring of 2020, a colleague invited Diana Zhang

’02 to co-found a nonprofit that he hoped would reinvent the donor paradigm. She didn’t hesitate.

“Me being me, it was a hell-yeah type of moment,” she says with a laugh. “I love taking inklings of ideas that resonate, rolling up my sleeves, and trying to figure out how to make it happen.” Within seven weeks, they had pulled together their founding volunteers and kicked off the first version of their proof of concept.

What they came up with is NeighborShare, an online-giving platform where donors can “direct help to the people who need it the most, when they need it,” Zhang says. To do that, they partnered with on-the-ground experts who know their communities best.

These “community heroes” — including case managers, social workers and teachers in 26 states — identify people with pivotal needs of $400 or less to share their stories on NeighborShare’s website. There, potential donors can search by geographic location and by type of need — bills, groceries, child care, medical, transport, etc. — and offer direct help, one to one. “We built a needs aggregation engine in this rich, individualized way that allows donors to choose the segment that resonates the most with them,” Zhang says.

“How a person defines their community and what matters most to them is unique.”

Zhang likes tackling those intractable problems, she says, tracing the origins of that critical thinking to her time around the Harkness table. “This concept was compelling to me,” she says. “It felt so common sense and needed.” To date, NeighborShare, working in collaboration with over 60 local and national nonprofit direct-service organizations, has helped over 4,300

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people overcome “micro-moments” of need that would have otherwise gone unmet.

This spring, Zhang was selected to participate in the 2022 Presidential Leadership Scholars program (PLS), a collaboration among four U.S. presidential foundations that brings together a national cohort of around 60 midcareer leaders each year. They meet monthly during the program to focus on leadership principles such as strategic partnerships, vision and communication, and decision making. Zhang says the program has helped her expand beyond her “financial services bubble.” She went on sabbatical from a senior executive position at investment management firm Bridgewater Associates to be NeighborShare’s founding CEO. Similar to her experience at the Harkness table, PLS has allowed for meaningful dialogue with a diverse set of perspectives — career military professionals, the head of a state Medicaid program and a professor who studies racial discrimination, among others. “Imagine this group talking about something as polarizing as Roe v. Wade, but in a collaborative way that engages each other toward social change,” Zhang says. “The program is here to help us become leaders at this next level. How can we develop a more collaborative approach to tackle the nubbiest problems this country faces?”

Going forward, Zhang will focus on helping expand NeighborShare’s targeted, hyperlocal impact to a sustainable national scale, but as a volunteer and board member.

And while she finds gratification in NeighborShare’s work, she knows there’s always more to do. “I go to bed every night feeling good that we’ve helped some folks,” she says, “and then I also feel this intense pressure and urgency of, OK, how do we help more?” E

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Playing the Blues

By Sandra Guzmán

W

hen John Davis ’75 was 10 years old, his

older brother, Ned Davis ’72, brought home an album that forever changed his life. From the first song, “Help Me,” the classic hit on Mississippi blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson’s More Real Folk Blues, young Davis was hooked. It began a four-decade love affair that has taken Davis, a North Carolina-born classical pianist, deep into the annals of Black culture, specifically researching, writing, archiving and playing the music of forgotten enslaved composers. “I was knocked out by the sheer power of that sound, transported really,” he recalls. “Up to then, I thought the only kind of music that had that kind of genius, virtuosity and earthy directness was Beethoven and Chopin.”

In that moment, Davis vowed to learn everything he could about blues culture, which included listening to and collecting all kinds of Black music, including urban and country blues, soul, funk, gospel and their predecessors: spirituals, work songs and various tunes of the slave period. “By the time I went to Exeter, I must have collected around 1,000 records,” he says. “My poor father hauled all my stuff back and forth every year. Back then, there was nothing to do in Exeter on Saturday nights, so we would sit around our dorm rooms and spin discs. I remember listening to Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon at Langdell, blasting the music with friends up to 11 p.m.

Luckily, I never got in trouble.”

After the Academy, Davis attended Brown University, in part because Providence had an impressive blues culture and many top blues artists played in town. During the day, he studied Russian history and Russian literature.

At night, he went to hear the blues.

After graduating from The Juilliard School, where he studied piano, his career excavating and disseminating obscure African American roots musical masters deepened. Davis grows emotional remembering one watershed day: “I was in the library of Juilliard reading Keyboard Music of Black Composers: A Bibliography, and I looked up this guy named Blind Tom, whose real name is Thomas Wiggins. He was an enslaved pianist and one of

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the first well-known early American pianists of any background. I realized that a few pieces written by him were at Lincoln Center, so I ran across the street. I thought this would be nice music to program, learn and play. What I didn’t know then was that this would launch me on a 30-year odyssey.”

In 1999, he recorded the groundbreaking album John Davis Plays Blind Tom as a tribute to the great pianist. He has also curated several exhibitions, including a 2017 show at Brown featuring the sheet music of Wiggins and other obscure early American Black composers.

This year, the 64-year-old was one of 26 international artists to receive the Rome Prize, given by the American Academy in Rome to support innovative and cross-disciplinary work in the arts and humanities. The prize came at an auspicious time, he says. Last summer, after 25 years of research, Davis recorded a 22-piece album. It features a piece by master pianist Basile Barès, the first published slave composer, and Louis Moreau Gottschalk, a New Orleans creole piano prodigy, among others. He is currently curating a companion exhibit for the New Orleans Jazz Museum, slated to open next spring. “I thought, if I won, I would write a book about the stream of early African American pianists and pianists influenced

by Black music and Black culture,” he explains. “Now I am going to work on the New Orleans project.”

“I am not sure I would have been as happy just playing Chopin and Beethoven, as much as I love that music,” he says. “Unearthing and sharing forgotten early African American piano works feels more historically relevant and is a better reflection of who I am as an American artist. I am honored to play a part in bringing this unfairly neglected music to the general public.” E

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Empowering People With Disabilities

By Debbie Kane

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mily Glasser ’85 is emphatic about what she believes is missing in today’s conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion. “The ‘I’ in DEI must include people with disabilities,” she says. “They are an indispensable part of the American story, yet they frequently find themselves on the sidelines. Our goal is to change that narrative.”

As president and CEO of Achilles International, Glasser works to provide athletic programs and social connection for members of the disability community. It’s a mission that Glasser takes to heart. “My daughter has a chronic illness that limits her activity,” she says. “I have a sister-in-law with multiple sclerosis, a nephew who’s on the autism spectrum, and my mother-in-law has lupus.

Given that one in four Americans lives with a disability — the country’s largest minority group — it’s no surprise that I have family members with disabilities.”

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Emily Glasser ’85 (left) fist bumping Achilles athlete Mary Johnson, an above-the-knee single amputee, at the Hope & Possibility race in New York, in 2021.

Long before she arrived at Exeter as a lower, Glasser developed a passion for community service from her parents, beginning with family volunteer stints at a Chicago food bank, near where she grew up in Lake Forest, Illinois. “I’m mindful of the importance of service and giving back to the communities in which I’m a part,” she says. “Once I had children of my own, my interest in making a meaningful difference in others’ lives took on renewed resonance.”

She followed her sister, Mary Glasser ’83, to Exeter and immediately joined the school community. An athlete, she swam, played field hockey and tennis, and often ran the trails behind the football stadium. She happily recalls

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having vigorous conversations around the Harkness table and building close relationships with other students and teachers. “My years at Exeter were probably among the most impactful years of my life,” Glasser says. “The students were learning from each other, making mistakes, and figuring out how to work through them. The importance of community was really imprinted on me there.”

After graduating from Dartmouth College, Glasser worked as a financial analyst at an Glasser, Achilles volunteer investment bank. “I quickly realValerie Hartman and Hartman’s son, ized it wasn’t feeding my soul in Charlie Levy. the way I wanted it to,” she says. participating in trials of Google’s Project Guideline, a “I was missing something.” Inspired to pursue a purposeprogram developed in partnership with Guiding Eyes for driven career, Glasser worked in arts education, managed the Blind that uses a phone app and headphones to allow the Museum of Modern Art’s Destination: NYC product visually impaired runners to run or walk outdoors without collection, co-founded a digital arts education startup, then assistance. This spring, Lyft’s Citi Bike and Achilles directed strategic partnerships for Goalsetter, a platform launched an adaptive cycling program in New York City, offering financial education and literacy to young children. enabling riders with disabilities to test handcycles or An avid runner, Glasser joined Achilles in 2019 as a support runner for a young man on the autism spectrum. “It was so moving to know that my standing alongside him gave him an opportunity to move his body,” she says. Bursting with ideas after her experience, Glasser offered feedback to a friend at Achilles about ways to improve the volunteer experience and grow the organization.

She stepped into the CEO role in late 2019, after the retirement of Dick Traum, the organization’s founder and the first person with a prosthetic leg to complete the New York City Marathon.

Glasser and her team are utilizing Achilles’ focus on running and road tandem bikes in Central Park and in Brooklyn, Queens races to build community through socialization. The and the Bronx. nonprofit, which has 28 U.S. chapters and 42 internaGlasser envisions expanding Achilles’ role as an advotional locations, serves a spectrum of athletes, including cacy organization, promoting inclusion and accessibility wounded military personnel and veterans, children with for different communities around the world. That vision disabilities and, more recently, dementia and longis fed by the courage and resilience of the athletes with COVID patients in the New York City area. “Not all of the whom she works every day. athletes we serve participate in races,” Glasser says. “We “Achilles utilizes the unifying power of sport to make a take an activity that’s about the individual — running, difference in people’s lives,” she says. “I have an extraorwalking, cycling — and make it about partnership and dinary team of like-minded colleagues who share a vision community.” to create a more inclusive and accessible world. We’re not Glasser’s expertise in building strategic partnergoing to stop until we get there.” E ships has paid off in other ways. Achilles athletes are

“We take an activity that’s about the individual — running, walking, cycling — and make it about partnership and community.”

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C O N N ECT I O N S

FROM EVERY QUARTER E XO N I A N S M A K E C O N N E C T I O N S AT H O M E A N D A R O U N D T H E WO R L D Please note, all photos are identified left to right unless otherwise indicated.

NEW YORK The Exeter Association of Greater New York welcomed alumni and parents to its annual reception at Cipriani.

Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08 gave an Academy update.

Geema Masson, Vivek Masson ’93 and Rohit Malik ’96

Ciatta Z. Baysah ’97 with Shelly Bhowmik ’03, Rhoda Tamakloe ’01 and Seisei Tatebe-Goddu ’01

Alistair Fatheazam ’09, Reid Fitzgerald ’07 and Eb Gyasi ’09 Philip Kalikman ’04, Alea Mitchell ’97, Youn Lee ’97, Patrick Deem ’97

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SAVE THE DATE FOR REUNIONS

2023!

If your graduation year ends in 3 or 8, mark your calendar for reunions 2023. We’d love to see you on campus to reconnect with old friends and discover new ones.

Michael Kang ’16, David Larar ’16, Hiro Kuwama ’16 and Alex Grounds ’17

May 5-7 40th Reunion, Class of 1983 35th Reunion, Class of 1988 30th Reunion, Class of 1993 25th Reunion, Class of 1998 20th Reunion, Class of 2003 15th Reunion, Class of 2008 May 18-21 50th Reunion, Class of 1973 May 19-21 55th Reunion, Class of 1968 45th Reunion, Class of 1978 10th Reunion, Class of 2013 5th Reunion, Class of 2018

Jeremy Bates, Dave Bechtel and Julio Peterson, all class of 1986

May 23-25 70th Reunion, Class of 1953 65th Reunion, Class of 1958 60th Reunion, Class of 1963

NEW YORK PEA’s Women’s Leadership Circle held its inaugural in-person reception this spring. Hosts Renée S. Edelman ’73 and Chloe J. Gavin ’72 welcomed members to the home of Claudia Romo and Richard Edelman ’72.

Bottom row: Grace Yoon Kilroy ’93; Jean Yun ’87; Catarina Schwab ’92; Renée Edelman and Chloe Gavin; second row: Heather Lamberton ’95; Veronica Juarez ’00 and Helen DuBois ’74; third row: Morgan Dudley ’77, director of institutional advancement; fourth row: Audrey Vanderslice ’20 and Kate Lehman ’93.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. Exonians from around the Beltway enjoyed their annual reception at The National Press Club. History Instructor Bill Jordan provided an update on the Washington Intern Program and current student interns shared their experiences.

David Kim ’20, Velen Wu ’20, Rachel Won ’20, JD Jean-Jacques ’21, Caleb Richmond ’21, Hojun Choi ’21, Sophie Liu ’21, Alicia Gopal ’21 and Emily Cloonan ’19

Cody Ling ’07, Eb Gyasi ’09, Bayly Hassell ’10, Sophia Berhie ’10, Erika Desmond ’08, Matt Rawson ’08 and Sarah Fenn ’08

Christina Constantine ’12, Kelsey Reese, Hannah Jung ’13, Emery Real Bird ’12 and Sabrina Thulander ’12

Instructor in Health Education Brandon Thomas with Mutsa Elting P’22

Bill Monahan ’82, Tim Pittman ’82, Jeanne Richards, Bill Daikin ’53 and Geoffrey Bays ’74

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB

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WASHINGTON, D.C. The Exeter community hit the links of the historic Langston Golf Course, the first 18-hole course in D.C. to allow Black players, to raise funds for students of color and lowincome students this spring.

Darrel Boyd, Mike Plater and Mike Oneal, all class of 1974

Julian Bobb ’90, Nat Hoopes ’99, Tim Harr ’68 and Gordy Whitman ’68

Tom Bailey, Bill Bennett ’68 and Kimberly Robbins

President of the Exeter Association of Washington, D.C., Lori Lincoln ’86, Billy Davis, Louis Crozier and Eric Curry

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C O N N ECT I O N S

CHICAGO The Exeter Association of Chicago hosted alumni, parents and their guests at RPM Seafood in June for an evening to celebrate community.

Jennifer Adams ’02; Hassan Adams ’01; Russell Weatherspoon ’01, ’03, ’08, ’11 (Hon.), dean of students; Jim Peterson ’63; and Raoul Oloa ’08

Prabhu Velan ’93, Kate Tomford ’95 and Birdie Soti ’93

Allegra Grant ’16; Stephanie Bramlett, director of equity and inclusion; and David Grant P’16

Joe Baldwin ’06, Meredith Lester ’07, Michaela Kleber ’07, Mika Devonshire ’08 and Mark Nelson ’07

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SAN FRANCISCO Exonians gathered at the Fort Mason park to enjoy conversation, lunch and outdoor games.

Views of the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge offer the perfect backdrop for this Exonian get-together.

Hosts Gabrielle Kivitz and Dave Tsai, both class of 1993

Diana Wang ’14, Korinayo Thompson ’13, Mandy Lu ’16, Dana Tung ’15 and Max Kirsch ’16

Ozzie Ayscue ’80, Susie Stitt P’82, Britt Stitt ’54; P’82 and Christian Ayscue ’13

Susie Schuster ’93, Tatiana Harrison ’93, Susie Gelbron ’91 and Bebe Reed ’26

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SCENES FROM

REUNIONS 2022

We never would have guessed that when the 2019 reunions came to a close, it would be three long years until the next. To say we were ready is an under­statement! This past spring, we were thrilled to welcome back more than 950 alumni from 16 classes to celebrate, reminisce, renew old friendships and make new memories. Thank you, alums! We missed you!

For more photos, visit www.exeter.edu/reunionphotos.

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R E U N I O N P H OTO G R A P H Y BY C H R I ST I A N H A R R I S O N , C L E A R E Y E P H OTO.C O M , LO U I S E M C P H I L L I P S, DAV I D J. M U R R AY A N D DA M I A N ST R O H M E Y E R

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. submitted on April 1, 2022 Columns were

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Memorial Minute Allan D. Wooley ’54; P’84

Chair of the Department of Classical Languages, Instructor in Classical Languages and Bradbury Longfellow Cilley Professor of Greek, Emeritus (1936-2020)

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llan Wooley was born in Rumford, Maine, and graduated from Phillips Exeter

Academy in 1954. He earned his B.A. at Bowdoin College in 1958 and Ph.D. in classical philology from Princeton University in 1962. After teaching at Duke University and Gould Academy, he joined Exeter’s Department of Classical Languages in 1968.

In his life as an instructor at a residential school, Allan applied an almost superhuman energy, diligence and critical thinking to every duty or project. In addition to coaching and sitting on a variety of committees, he lived, along with his first wife, Anne, and their daughter, Helena, in Wheelwright Hall, in Merrill Hall as dormitory head, and for 12 years as head in Ewald. Allan considered the role of faculty in residential life a vital support to both academic achievement and personal and ethical growth.

While uncompromising in his high expectations for student behavior, he nevertheless thought seriously about the adequacy of the Academy’s rules and traditions governing that behavior. For instance, in his early years, an era when a faculty member’s directions to students held almost unquestioned authority, an instructor ordered one of Allan’s advisees to cut his long hair. After much consideration, Allan concluded that students did after all have some rights and stood up for the boy.

In all discussions of school business, Allan expressed himself forthrightly and incisively. He strongly opposed bureaucratic intrusions on the connection between adviser and student, and urged his colleagues in faculty meetings and the administration in numerous memos to consider systematically the root principles and philosophies of the school’s procedures and policies.

As a classroom instructor, Allan won universal respect for the seriousness and rigor he brought to the teaching of ancient Latin and Greek, and many found the exceptional challenges he posed to be inspiring. Although he could be tough and gruff in dealing with students, his genuine concern for their learning and their general well-being was apparent. His sharp wit and almost mischievous pleasure in class could often shine through. He was known to remark upon a student’s inadequate effort to compose a sentence in Greek, “You could say that, but it wouldn’t be Greek.”

Although he sought to preserve his discipline’s traditional emphasis on language

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and on reading Greek and Latin texts, Allan was a forward-thinking, innovative teacher.

Deep investigations of language and the brain, for example, produced new approaches to assisting those learning the basics of the languages. He created elective courses that attracted more than one generation of students, and he co-wrote or co-edited several books, both for publication and for use in the department’s Latin courses. He was instrumental in examining and revising his department’s curriculum and, late in his career (2002-03), he took the opportunity to teach at School Year Abroad in Viterbo, Italy.

In the 1970s, Allan discovered in computer programming yet another rich field for his relentless curiosity and creativity. He became a leader in academic computing at the Academy, serving as computer coordinator in 1984-85, teaching computer programming, and developing educational software for a variety of emerging platforms. His advocacy of computer technology freed his department from typewriters and created a departmental webpage well ahead of these developments at the Academy. He masterfully combined his talents as classicist and programmer in his courses, but perhaps nowhere more so than in Greek Views of Life, a course on Greek philosophy that was cross-listed in Religion and the only humanities course at the time that experimented fully with computer-assisted instruction.

Allan’s study of Greek philosophy seemed to lie at the core of his identity, and he remained a serious scholar of Plato throughout his life.

On the lighter side, some have even remarked that he could resemble Socrates in one of his characteristic looks, for he would often, as Plato writes, “glance up … with lowered head like a bull.” More important, however, Allan was a master of critical inquiry and analysis, and many a student and adult under his sharp-eyed scrutiny felt puzzled and even exasperated by his questions.

As was true for Socrates, however, his goal always was to prompt others to reconsider the basis of their values.

Although a true conservative who abided firmly by his principles, he maintained a mind remarkably open to self-scrutiny and thoughtful discussion.

Allan retired from full-time teaching in 2004 and passed away on Aug. 22, 2020, his wife, Ilene, at his side, at their home in Morgan, Vermont. Up to the final weeks of his life, Allan’s intellectual vigor remained unabated, especially as a scholar of Greek philosophy and a computer programmer. Amid his many pursuits, he always nurtured a vital concern for his former department, former students and the Academy. For all Exeter gave him in his time as a student and as an instructor in the way of learning, inspiration and field of play for such a fine intellect, Allan Wooley returned those gifts in more than due measure to his students, colleagues and school. E

“Although a true conservative who abided firmly by his principles, he maintained a mind remarkably open to selfscrutiny and thoughtful discourse.”

The Memorial Minute excerpted here was written by Paul Langford (clerk of the Trustees, George Shattuck Morison Professor of Latin and instructor in Classical Languages); Andy Hertig (Independence Foundation Professor, chair of the Department of History, dean of faculty and instructor in History, emeritus); Patricia Hindman (instructor in Mathematics and admissions officer, emerita); Harvey Lederman; and Nicholas Unger (Wheaton J. Lane, class of 1921, Bicentennial Professor in the Humanities and instructor in Classical Languages). The full remarks were presented at faculty meeting in April 2022 and are available online at exeter.edu/memorialminute.

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Winter Song

By Daniel Zhang ’22 LAUREN CROW

Winter whimpers softly when it dies.

Weak ice gives and surfaces decay.

Warm winds want to wring the soil dry, but the wet gray rot will not go away.

The rabbit limped across the shallow meadow.

The dog was hungry. The grass was red.

Over frozen earth, you say to tread slow.

Our muddy feet means winter hasn’t fled.

Your fingers limped across my shivering skin.

The shaded trees know some disease between us.

Late snow stifles what trembling birds begin.

Spring would not come as soon as she had seen us.

Your fingers threshed the oil from my hair.

Winter left but wouldn’t tell me where. E Daniel Zhang ’22 is the recipient of a Lewis Sibley Poetry Prize, given annually to students with the most promising collection of original poems.

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Exeter Family Weekend

Save the Date!

OCTOBER 21-23, 2022 Come visit the Exeter student in your life this fall and share in the richness of their Academy experience. Program details to come!

PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY 20 Main Street Exeter, NH 03833-2460 Parents of Alumni: If this magazine is addressed to an Exonian who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please email us (records@exeter.edu) with their new address. Thank you.

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