Into the Wild

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS BENNETT

INTO THE WOODS

JACKSON PARELL’S PATH TO SELF-DISCOVERY

By Adam Loyd

Jackson Parell and Sammy Potter

The 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.

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.

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.

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES GINA FERRAZI,

Parell gets some screen time in before bed.

CHRIS M. SHANE

“THERE IS NO ONE, CLEAR PATH THAT CAN LEAD TO A FULFILLING EXPERIENCE.”

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 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

CONNECTIONS

News and notes from the alumni community

A Graduation Gift

By Madhur Deora ’96; P’22, P’22

As 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

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

P R O F I L E

DIANA ZHANG ’02

Being Neighborly

By Sarah Zobel

In 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 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

P R O F I L E

JOHN DAVIS ’75

Playing the Blues

By Sandra Guzmán

WILL PANICH

When 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 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

P R O F I L E

EMILY GLASSER ’85

Empowering People With Disabilities

By Debbie Kane

Emily 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.”

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

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.

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 investment bank. “I quickly realized it wasn’t feeding my soul in the way I wanted it to,” she says. “I was missing something.” Inspired to pursue a purposedriven career, Glasser worked in arts education, managed the Museum of Modern Art’s Destination: NYC product collection, co-founded a digital arts education startup, then directed strategic partnerships for Goalsetter, a platform offering financial education and literacy to young children.

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 races to build community through socialization. The nonprofit, which has 28 U.S. chapters and 42 international locations, serves a spectrum of athletes, including wounded military personnel and veterans, children with disabilities and, more recently, dementia and longCOVID patients in the New York City area. “Not all of the athletes we serve participate in races,” Glasser says. “We take an activity that’s about the individual — running, walking, cycling — and make it about partnership and community.”

Glasser’s expertise in building strategic partnerships has paid off in other ways. Achilles athletes are

Glasser, Achilles volunteer Valerie Hartman and Hartman’s son, Charlie Levy.

participating in trials of Google’s Project Guideline, a program developed in partnership with Guiding Eyes for the Blind that uses a phone app and headphones to allow visually impaired runners to run or walk outdoors without assistance. This spring, Lyft’s Citi Bike and Achilles launched an adaptive cycling program in New York City, enabling riders with disabilities to test handcycles or “We take an activity that’s about the individual — running, walking, cycling — and make it about partnership and community.” tandem bikes in Central Park and in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. Glasser envisions expanding Achilles’ role as an advocacy organization, promoting inclusion and accessibility for different communities around the world. That vision is fed by the courage and resilience of the athletes with whom she works every day. “Achilles utilizes the unifying power of sport to make a difference in people’s lives,” she says. “I have an extraordinary team of like-minded colleagues who share a vision to create a more inclusive and accessible world. We’re not going to stop until we get there.” E

FROM EVERY QUARTER

EXONIANS MAKE CONNECTIONS AT HOME AND AROUND THE WORLD

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

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

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

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. 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 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.

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

Christina Constantine ’12, Kelsey Reese, Hannah Jung ’13, Emery Real Bird ’12 and Sabrina Thulander ’12 Bill Monahan ’82, Tim Pittman ’82, Jeanne Richards, Bill Daikin ’53 and Geoffrey Bays ’74

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB

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

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

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

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.

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)

Allan 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

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 “Although a true identity, and he remained a serious scholar of Plato throughout his life. conservative who abided On the lighter side, some have even remarked that he could resemble firmly by his principles, Socrates in one of his characteristic looks, for he would often, as Plato he maintained a mind writes, “glance up … with lowered head like a bull.” More important, remarkably open to selfhowever, Allan was a master of critical inquiry and analysis, and many a student and adult under his sharp-eyed scrutiny felt puzzled and scrutiny and thoughtful discourse.” 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

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.

Winter Song

By Daniel Zhang ’22

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.

LAUREN CROW

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.

Strengthen, Broaden and Enrich Your Alumni Experience

The Exeter Alumni Directory now o ers new ways to connect with your classmates and fellow Exonians:

BECOME AN EXONIAN MENTOR

Sign up to share your knowledge, advice and industry insights with alumni and — new this year — current Exeter uppers and seniors!