The Exeter Bulletin, summer 2017

The Exeter Bulletin SUMMER 2017

Discoveries Ahead The class of 2017 embarks

Your generosity this past school year has made the full Exeter experience a reality for all of our students.

Thank You EXETER.EDU/GIVE

The Exeter Bulletin

SUMMER

Principal Instructor Lisa MacFarlane ’66 (Hon.); P’09, P’13 Editor Karen Ingraham Associate Editor Genny Beckman Moriarty Class Notes Editor Janice M. Reiter Contributing Editor Karen Stewart Creative Director/Design David Nelson, Nelson Design Communications Advisory Committee Daniel G. Brown ’82, Robert C. Burtman ’74, Dorinda Elliott ’76, Alison Freeland ’72, Keith Johnson ’52, Yvonne M. Lopez ’93 Trustees President John A. Downer ’75 Vice President Wole C. Coaxum ’88 Suzi Kwon Cohen ’88, Marc C. de La Bruyere ’77, Walter C. Donovan ’81, Mark A. Edwards ’78, Claudine Gay ’88, Peter A. Georgescu ’57, David E. Goel ’89, Jacqueline J. Hayes, Esq. ’85, Jennifer P. Holleran ’86, Lisa MacFarlane, Sally J. Michaels ’82, Deidre O’Byrne ’84, Kerry Landreth Reed ’91, Dr. Nina D. Russell ’82, Peter M. Scocimara ’82, Serena Wille Sides ’89, J. Douglas Smith ’83, Morgan C. Sze ’83, Kristyn M. Van Ostern ’96 and Nancy H. Wilder ’75 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 printed on recycled paper and 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 2017 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

“TODAY, WE ARE SIGNIFYING THE END OF ADOLESCENCE AND THE BEGINNING OF ADULTHOOD, AND THAT’S TERRIFYING, BUT ALSO EXHILARATING.” —page 28 2 • T H E

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IN THIS ISSUE

Volume CXXII, Issue no. 4

Features

28 Commencement

The class of 2017 graduates from Exeter

36 Mission Magnified

For 50 years, Exeter Student Service Organization (ESSO) has helped Exonians translate non sibi from theory into practice

By Melanie Nelson

Departments 36

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Around the Table: Non Sibi, Faculty News, Letters to the Editor, Campus Life, Exeter Deconstructed and more

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Table Talk with Aaron Epstein ’04

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Inside the Writing Life: Lincoln Caplan ’68

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Sports: Former world champion Fiona Bayly ’85 is still breaking records. Plus, spring sports roundup.

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Connections: News and Notes from the Alumni Community

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Alumni Profiles: Luigi Einaudi ’53, Paul Outlaw ’74, Kerry Kuykendall Smith ’90, Sean Davis ’92 and Adrienne Harrison ’97

108 Memorial Minute: Peter Greer ’58 112

Finis Origine Pendet: Amid the Relic Bones, by Sarah Fahey Courchesne ’98 —Cover illustration by Sam Falconer

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A drone’s-eye view of the Academy lawn on June 4 before the graduation ceremony begins. — Photograph by Patrick Garrity

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AROUND THE TABLE

What’s new and notable at the Academy

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Honoring Our Past, Embracing Our Future

By Principal Lisa MacFarlane ’66 (Hon.); P’09, P’13

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he rhythms of life at Exeter stream along by

day; by month, season, and term; and generationally, across decades and centuries. Those of us who live and work here become part of that current, are moved and swayed by it: the daily class schedule, the ebb and flow of assemblies and meditations, weekly athletic events, and end-of-term performances. We are buoyed by the entry of a new class every fall and reflective over the departure of a cherished one every spring. In June, we honored the great class of 2017, the 236th class to graduate from the Academy. It was a breathtakingly beautiful day, filled with joy, pride, and bittersweet farewells.

The built and natural environments have their rhythms, too, as we steward the land upon which our predecessors built a sure foundation. This spring, we gathered to say goodbye to the stunning European beech tree on the Gilman House side of the library lawn, and to welcome “baby beech,” lovingly planted and carefully tended just a few feet from its predecessor’s root system. We celebrated the grand, old tree, claimed by disease, and shared stories about its impact on generations of Exonians. Inspired by this, and inspiring all of us in turn, the class of 2017 bestowed a gift that links their time at the Academy with that of the many classes who have come before them, including the class of 1967, who

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generously matched the senior class donation in honor of their 50th reunion. The gift creates a fund to ensure that the wood from our beloved tree will be made into objects of beauty and, in the spirit of founder John Phillips, “usefulness to (hu)mankind.”

The class gift ensures that we will retain the past as we embrace the future, creating something new from the old, something beautiful from the cutting down and cutting away. It is a fitting symbol for Exeter, representing continuity and honoring tradition while embracing and welcoming change. From the middle of that great tree, its wood now seasoning in a nearby barn, will come some yet-to-be-realized work of art. A Harkness table? Frames for the portraits that crowd the walls of Assembly Hall?

One student suggested coasters wrought from pieces too small to be used for any larger purpose. (I am reminded of 1947 alumnus Donald Hall’s book of essays, String too Short to be Saved.)

And the baby beech will continue to grow, its leaves turning a coppery color every autumn, its spring foliage a deep purple every spring. The rhythm of its life will be in concert with our own, and new generations of Exonians will seek comfort in its shade, and strength and support from its limbs. E

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Equal Justice Advocate SERENA CHO ’17

By Genny Beckman Moriarty

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or her activism on behalf of racial and

social justice, Serena Cho ’17 was named a Distinguished Finalist in Massachusetts for a 2017 Prudential Spirit of Community Award, granted annually to the nations’ top youth volunteers. A few days later, she also received a President’s Volunteer Service Award from the office of President Barack Obama. She calls both honors “totally unexpected,” yet this Exonian has embodied non sibi throughout her time here.

Like so many other students, Cho learned the value of service through her involvement in Exeter Student Service Organization. As a member of clubs such as Tutoring for Children, ESSO Squash and Gal Pals during her prep and lower years, Cho formed relationships with area children that made her ESSO experience among her happiest and most meaningful at Exeter. “I was humbled by the changes I could make,” she says, “and I began actively searching for outlets through which I could make a difference in others’ lives.”

It was a keynote address by civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson that awakened her passion for racial and social justice and gave her the resolve to “tackle the injustices of the world,” Cho says. Stevenson, who spoke during Exeter’s 2015 MLK Day, is founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama, a nonprofit organization that advocates for prison reform and an end to mass incarceration and the death penalty. Cho says she was transfixed by Stevenson’s talk about the racism inherent in America’s criminal justice system and “moved by his resolve to fight for equal justice.”

Wanting to learn more, Cho applied for a fellowship through the Student Council and spent the following summer traveling the country — from Boston to Chicago, San Francisco and Montgomery — to interview ex-prisoners, lawyers, judges, professors and social workers. Her

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interview with a man who had spent 26 years in prison for manslaughter was transformative for her. “The idea of talking to him scared me at first, but by the end of the interview, we were both in tears as he spoke about his experience in the prison system, the circumstances that led to his crime, and his rehabilitation process,” she recalls.

By the end of the summer, Cho had compiled 14 interviews and seen a significant shift in her worldview. “I was very sheltered as a child,” she says. “I didn’t know anything about activism, race or social justice.” Based on her interviews, Cho produced an hour-long documentary about the intersection of racism and mass incarceration in America.

One year after Bryan Stevenson’s speech, she had the opportunity to screen her film, In the Trenches: Race and Incarceration in the American Justice System, during Exeter’s 2016 MLK Day. Since then, Cho has interned with the American Civil Liberties Union; helped produce a radio show with a professor from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice; examined themes of race and gender through film at the Telluride Association Summer Program; and worked with the nonprofit group Boston Mobilization to help organize campaigns, lobby legislators and develop a curriculum on mass incarceration.

Cho, who helped found the Council for Equity and Social Justice at Exeter, describes the profound changes her work has brought into her own life: “My perspectives and beliefs on race, justice and incarceration have developed and expanded through my discussions, advocacy and activism. Most importantly, it has prompted me to ponder my own identity and role as an Asian American woman in advancing justice — something I had tried to conceal and erase over the years. My identity is so much more realized now, and I feel proud of who I am.” E

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Welcome New Trustees These four alumni began their tenures as Academy trustees on July 1, 2017. We welcome and thank them for their willingness to serve the Academy in these positions of leadership.

Suzi Kwon Cohen ’88 is the chief investment officer for Mousse Partners Limited, based in New York City. She oversees the investment activities for a diversified portfolio of funds and direct investments across all asset classes.

Prior to joining Mousse in early 2016, Cohen was at the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) for nearly 11 years. At GIC, Cohen was a managing director and head of both the Funds and Co-Investments Group and the Direct Investments Group for Private Equity in the Americas. Before joining GIC in 2005, Cohen was a vice president at Quadrangle Group, a private equity firm, and prior to that, a principal in Credit Suisse’s Private Equity Group (which later merged with DLJ Merchant Banking). Cohen started her career in investment banking as an analyst in the Leveraged Finance Group at Credit Suisse and as an associate in the Technology Group at Deutsche Bank.

Cohen graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in economics and comparative literature, and she has an MBA from Stanford Business School. She is a member of the Investment Committee for the Collegiate School and the Advisory Council on Economics for Brown University. Cohen resides in New York City with her husband, Andrew Booke Cohen, and their two sons.

Claudine Gay ’88 is the Wilbur A. Cowett Professor of Government and of African and African-American Studies at Harvard University and the dean of social science for the school’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Gay studied at Stanford University for her undergraduate degree in economics and, in 1998, earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Government at Harvard University.

Before being appointed dean in 2015, Gay served for five years as the director of graduate studies for Harvard’s Department of Government.

Her research and teaching interests are in the fields of American political behavior, public opinion, minority politics, and urban and local politics. Her work has been published in numerous political science journals, and she is an editor of Outsiders No More? Models of Immigrant Political Incorporation (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Outside of her Harvard responsibilities, Gay has served

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on the editorial boards of various professional journals and is a former vice-president of the Midwest Political Science Association.

Gay is married to Christopher Afendulis, Ph.D., a senior research associate in health care policy in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. They have one son and live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Peter A. Georgescu ’57 is chairman emeritus of Young & Rubicam, one of the world’s foremost commercial communications companies. Georgescu came to the United States in 1954 after having spent seven years in a forced labor camp during the Communist occupation of his native Romania. Upon his arrival in America, he was invited by Principal William Saltonstall ’24 to attend Exeter. Georgescu went on to earn an undergraduate degree in political science at Princeton University and, later, an MBA from Stanford University.

Georgescu spent his entire 37-year career at Young & Rubicam, helping transform the company into the premier integrated, publically traded, comprehensive communication company of its time. From 1994-2000, he served as chairman and CEO of Y&R Inc. He is the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a vice chairman of New York-Presbyterian Hospital. From 2000 to the present, he has served on the boards of directors for six publically traded companies. He is also the author of three books, including his latest, published this spring, Capitalists Arise! End Economic Inequality, Grow the Middle Class, Heal the Nation (Berrett-Koehler Publishers).

Since 1965, Georgescu has been married to Barbara Anne Armstrong Lipman. They have one son and three granddaughters and reside in Manhattan.

Kristyn A. (McLeod) Van Ostern ’96 is a

finance professional and small business owner living in Concord, New Hampshire.

She currently works as a strategy and finance consultant at Brook Hollow Advisory and as co-founder of Wash Street, a small business dedicated to changing the way people do laundry. Van Ostern served previously as associate vice chancellor and chief financial officer of the Community College System of New Hampshire, in finance and strategy at the Timberland Company, and as the state budget director for former New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch. She holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business

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at Dartmouth and a bachelor of arts in international relations and Hispanic studies from Connecticut College.

Van Ostern currently serves on the Board of Directors of Stay Work Play New Hampshire, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that promotes the state as a favorable place for recent college graduates and young workers to live and be employed. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees

of Red River Theatres, an independent nonprofit cinema in the state capital of Concord.

Van Ostern is married to Colin Van Ostern, the vice president of Workforce Solutions at Southern New Hampshire University and the 2016 Democratic nominee for governor of New Hampshire. The couple live in Concord and have two sons. E

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR FROM PAY PHONES TO SMART PHONES

A word to thank you and all the caring folks who compile the quarterly Exeter Bulletin. I always appreciate this fine publication.

Related to the piece “Cyber Living” in the [spring] issue, PEA has come a long way since the six decades ago when I was there. There were no phones then in student rooms. If there was an emergency at home, parents could call the faculty adviser, who would relay the message and enable conversation. I lived in Peabody, and the only regular way to communicate with the outside world on that part of the campus was a pay phone in the basement of the Academy Building. Students could have record players, but having a radio was grounds for expulsion!

Probably the administration’s mindset was that a radio would distract from academic pursuits?

Best to you, George Gentsch ’59 St. Petersburg, Florida

TREATING ALL GENDERS RESPECTFULLY

I enjoyed Melanie Nelson’s clever snapshot of students’ digital community in [the spring issue’s] “Cyber Living.”

In my role as one of the Academy’s psychologists, I speak frequently with students about their forays into cyberspace, so I related to much of her article. Just one statement felt incomplete. Listing examples of social media’s wounds, Ms. Nelson cited: “the sexual objectification of girls and women.” Very true ... and also for boys and men.

Many male students have come to my office to discuss how degraded they feel when peers see only their physical selves; how pressured they feel when peers comment on their proximity to some ideal physique; and how humiliated they feel when online posts ridicule their sexual inexperience or perceived underperformance. Let’s keep working toward more respectful treatment of all genders — both online and off.

Dr. Christopher Thurber Psychologist Counseling & Psychological Services

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LAUNDRY AS HARD LABOR?

In his [spring 2017] letter responding to Melanie Nelson’s [winter] feature, “From Ideas to Actions to Solutions: Social Innovation at Exeter,” Mr. [Arthur] Gilcreast posits that the innovation of the washer and dryer are proof positive of the unlimited value of industrial innovation.

He goes further, stating that Exeter, as a school pledged to excellence, should expunge certain pronouncements from these pages as they embarrass the institution. That he sees the drudgery of washing clothes (and drying them) as hard labor strikes me as hilarious. That he sees great value in the rapid degradation of the clothes (and environment) by dryers, which consume more than 6 percent of residential energy, seems a rather simplistic view. Furthermore, the innovations of the 19th and 20th centuries have, by some sociologist’s estimates, increased the drudgery of “women’s work” many times over. As for the mellifluous odor of much-worn clothing, which so offends his olfactory, I recommend to him that Industrial Revolution innovation: the vinaigrette.

Walk in balance, Alexander P. Lee ’93 Founder, Project Laundry List Barre, Vermont

CORRECTION

In the profile, “Aida Conroy ’09: From Student to Harkness Teacher,” we referred to Conroy as the head of Harkness outreach and training at The Noble Academy.

Although Conroy has led professional development training for Noble teachers on how to use Harkness in larger classes, she does not hold an official title as head of outreach and training.

We’d love to hear from you! Submit your letters for possible publication to bulletin@exeter.edu. Or, mail them to The Exeter Bulletin, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH, 03833. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

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Faculty News THE ACADEMY IS PLEASED TO SHARE THE FOLLOWING NEW A P P O I N T M E N T S , W H I C H W E N T I N T O E F F E C T O N J U LY 1 .

Sami Atif, interim dean of multicultural student affairs

Mathematics Instructor Sami Atif has been appointed to the position of interim dean of multicultural student affairs. Prior to joining the Academy community in 2012, Atif was a university teaching assistant and a math teacher of special learners in the Capital School District of Dover, Delaware. He is a proud graduate of two historically black colleges and universities ­— Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and Delaware State University. At the latter, he earned a terminal degree in applied mathematics.

Beyond teaching a wide range of courses in the Academy’s Mathematics Department, Atif has travelled extensively with the Exeter Mathematics Institute to offer professional development to middle and high school mathematics teachers around the country. Even abroad, Atif has extended the reach of student-centered learning and mathematics through his visit to the Abaarso School of Science and Technology outside of Hargeisa, Somaliland. He has also served as a dorm head in Abbot Hall for both summer and regular sessions and as a recent leader in the Anja S. Greer Conference on Mathematics and Technology.

Atif has been an adviser to the Afro-Latinx Exeter Society and to the Academy’s Muslim Student Association. In his new role, Atif hopes to infuse existing programs with fresh energy, to facilitate campus-wide discussions on culturally responsive classrooms, and to embed justice, equity and inclusion in all Academy practices.

Karen Lassey, assistant principal

Former Dean of Academic Affairs and Mathematics and Science Instructor Karen C. Lassey is the Academy’s new assistant principal. A summa cum laude graduate of Amherst College who holds a master’s degree from the University of New Hampshire, Lassey joined the Exeter community in 1996. From 1996 to 2012, she taught several levels of mathematics along with introductory and advanced placement physics and served as dorm head of Amen and Dunbar Halls.

In 2012, she was appointed dean of academic affairs, a role she has since held.

Lassey brings to the role of assistant principal extensive knowledge of student performance as well as student discipline and crisis management. A passionate advocate for equity and inclusion at the Academy, she has served as an adviser to the Feminist Union and most recently as a member of the Gender Inclusion Task Force.

To complement her new role at Exeter, Lassey this summer begins a doctoral program in educational leadership at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a former Army captain who participated in Operation Desert Storm (1991) and Operation Restore Hope (1993). Lassey has three children and lives in Exeter with her cat and two dogs.

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Director of Admissions William D. Leahy has been appointed to the newly created position of dean of enrollment management and external relations. In his new role, Leahy will work with the directors of Admissions, Financial Aid, Institutional Advancement, Communications and Exeter Summer — focusing on the full experience of all Exonians and their families as each enters, leaves and remains connected with the Academy.

Leahy became Exeter’s director of admissions in May 2016, bringing with him nearly 30 years of enrollment management experience at the secondary school and collegiate levels. Prior to beginning his tenure at Exeter, he worked as global director of enrollment at Avenues: The World School, director of admissions at Phillips Academy Andover, dean of admissions and financial aid at the Hotchkiss School, director of financial aid at St. Paul’s School, and assistant director of admissions at Boston University. He earned a bachelor of arts in psychology from Boston University, and later returned to complete a master’s degree in educational leadership.

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

William Leahy, dean of enrollment and external relations

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

Christina Palmer, director of student well-being

Christina Palmer is Exeter’s first director of student well-being, a position that will focus on best practices in student care and on the prevention of sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual violence through enhanced training and education. A graduate of Springfield College, Palmer holds a master’s degree from Southern Connecticut State University and is currently completing her Ed.D. at Boston College.

Prior to Exeter, Palmer was director of guidance and clinical services for the Brookline, Massachusetts, public school system, a district encompassing nine schools and serving 7,700 students. A steadfast student advocate, Palmer brings to the Academy expertise in the key areas of social and emotional learning, restorative justice, cultural competency, gender identity, mental health, civil rights compliance and risk management. She is also a licensed marriage and family therapist.

Palmer’s office is situated in the Phelps Academy Center. She lives in Hampton, New Hampshire, with her son, Henry, and their black lab, Odie.

Ellen Wolff, dean of faculty

English Instructor Ellen M. Wolff has been appointed Exeter’s new dean of faculty. A magna cum laude graduate of Colgate University, she holds a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. from Brandeis University. Wolff joined the Academy’s English Department in 1995 and has served as department chair since 2015. Deeply committed to student writing, she helped to inaugurate Exeter’s first writing center last year. She has served as chair of the Discipline Committee and as co-chair of the Academy’s last comprehensive curriculum review. She has also served as resident faculty in Wheelwright Hall and as dorm head in Dunbar Hall. In 2013, she was appointed the Thomas S. and Elinor B. Lamont Professor of English.

An ardent supporter of students and colleagues of color and of racial and equity literacy, Wolff has been asked to oversee a task force on community, equity and diversity.

She will be moving back to campus this summer and will be affiliated with Amen Hall.

Her son Aidan graduated from the Academy this spring. E

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An Eco-Spring SCHOOL CLOSES ON A GREEN NOTE

As living sustainably becomes increasingly inextricable from responsible citizenship and stewardship, members of the Exeter community did their part during the spring months to help effect change and increase awareness.

ZERO-WASTE GRADUATION There was even more reason to celebrate commencement on June 4. Attended by approximately 3,000 guests, the ceremony’s picnic was Exeter’s first large-scale zero waste event, thanks to extensive planning and collaboration by the Academy’s Facilities Management and Dining Services staff. From the compostable serviceware, including plates made from naturally fallen palm leaves and wooden utensils, to food safety protocols that of compost ensured all leftovers could be generated by donated to local shelters, the goal was clear: Let nothing go to waste.

Two stations, staffed by volattendees. unteers to help attendees correctly sort their compost from their recyclables, helped to ensure the success of that endeavor, as did details like the presence of stations with pitchers of water and recyclable soda cans and the conspicuous absence of any garbage cans. The buzz among the crowd was largely positive as they finished their meals and sorted their scraps — their “footprint” a little lighter as a result.

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CLIMATE ACTION DAY

On April 26, regular classes were suspended for Exeter’s third annual Climate Action Day, featuring workshops, service projects, speakers and films dedicated to environmental protection. Students and faculty braved wet and windy weather for field Learn more at work such as transwww.exeter. planting dozens of edu/CAD white pine seedlings on campus and planting beachgrass stems on storm-damaged dunes in Massachusetts. Students chose from a range of other activities as well, from hands-on work that included invasive species removal at a nearby conservation area to discussions and presentations about sustainable ranching, sessions journalism in the age of climate offered. change, the economics of solar farming, and more.

seedlings.

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commemorative Nalgene water bottles distributed to guests.

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BABY BEECH PLANTING In late April, the community mourned the removal of the massive European Beech tree that had stood on the library lawn for about 130 years, serving as a school icon and place of repose for generations of Exonians. Just four days later, Facilities Management staff members planted a new 20-foot European “baby beech” in the same spot. The Academy dedicated the new tree during a ceremony in May honoring outgoing Trustee President Nicie Johnson Panetta ’84. Eight Art 208 students also presented Panetta with a collaborative drawing of the original beech tree (left).

The original tree was

50 feet tall.

A fully mature beech tree can sequester

746 pounds of carbon dioxide.

DORM CLEANOUT Each spring, students pack to go home and choose to leave a lot of personal items behind. Last year, in an effort to reduce the amount of items that end up in landfills, Exeter’s Green Umbrella Advisory Group in partnership with student environmental proctors piloted a dorm cleanout effort. The impact was immediate. About 3,700 pounds of materials were diverted from the trash and donated for reuse to area nonprofits.

This year, Exeter adopted a similar directto-donation model and provided students and dorm heads with three main collection points for donating gently-used items such as clothing, shoes, books, textiles and functioning electronics, which were given to Goodwill Northern New England. In two hours on May 31, the community collected 4,382 pounds of items of potential waste for the nonprofit, an 18 percent diverted for recycling. increase over last year’s donations.

2.7 tons

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Bridging Security and Health Care in Iraq A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H A A R O N E P S T E I N ’0 4

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s a new lower looking forward to his first day

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of classes at Exeter, Aaron Epstein ’04 was midflight from Miami to Boston on Sept. 11, 2001, when his plane landed abruptly in New Jersey. After learning of the catastrophic events that had taken place that morning in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon, Epstein and his parents scrambled to collect their luggage, find a rental car and make their way north on I-95, passing a blacked-out New York City along the way. They arrived without incident, but the events of that day and the ensuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Epstein says, “shaped my worldview.

They sparked a desire to focus on national security.”

Epstein had his first of three internships with the State Department the following summer.

He later studied Arabic and focused on Middle Eastern culture while earning his bachelor’s degree in economics and international policy studies from Rice University. He also landed several national security and counterterrorism internships and worked with the White House Council of Economic Advisers, where, he says, “I learned a lot about spending and budgets and the mixing of business and intelligence.”

After graduation, Epstein worked for a major defense industry firm in its advanced systems, intelligence and electronic warfare divisions and received a master’s degree in intelligence and security studies from Georgetown School of Foreign Service. But, in that winding way in which a life’s purpose sometimes reveals itself, his trajectory took a few more turns. Volunteering as a medic revealed an avid interest in medicine. “I was relentless in asking questions of the attending ER docs. I wanted to know everything I could,” he says. A medical mission to Cambodia with a fellow paramedic furthered his interest. “I could save lives by working in the security field, but it might take a lifetime before seeing the impact.” Inspired by the possibility of helping in more immediate and tangible ways, he enrolled at Georgetown’s School of Medicine.

During his first year of med school, Epstein began reaching out to friends and former colleagues in the national security world and building on relationships he’d forged with members of the Iraqi and Kurdish military communities in his earlier career. Knowing there were troubling gaps in the medical services available in the region, he was hoping to lay groundwork for safely operating medical missions there. “I was beginning to think providing access to quality health care and medical training might be a more

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effective way to build lasting security in those communities,” he says.

Epstein pauses before adding: “To fortify a population, you could arm it with every weapon under the sun, but I don’t see that as a role to be taken on by humanitarians, and historically that has only led to more suffering. Governments can do that — unfortunately, there is a never-ending stream of weapons available in all parts of the world — but I don’t see that as an ethical way to alter outcomes.”

In 2014, Epstein founded the Global Surgical and Medical Support Group (GSMSG), a nonprofit organization that provides high-level medical relief and training in conflict zones, particularly in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Epstein says that part of the country, which has taken in massive numbers of Syrian refugees and internally displaced Iraqis fleeing ISIS, is a notably open and tolerant one. “Those qualities have drawn refugees to the area, and I believe they’ll ultimately contribute to the Kurdish community’s success and longevity,” he says.

“But the ongoing crises have left the local populations and medical infrastructure overwhelmed and in desperate need.” Epstein mentions the “golden hour,” the first hour after a trauma occurs, in which immediate access to emergency medical care is critical to a good health outcome.

“By providing quality EMT care and training in a region that completely lacks it, we can give the Iraqi population this golden hour,” he says.

His initial forays with GSMSG involved bringing one or two surgeons over for short medical missions, but Epstein and his crew have since built up a large network of volunteers, including 450 American veterans of the Iraq War eager to help by returning as medics and providing triage support in the region. He attributes the advocacy of early supporters — like his mentor Sister DeDe Byrne, a nun and former Army surgeon who runs a low-income clinic and teaches surgery at Georgetown — for helping the organization to also attract a roster of more than 100 physicians and surgeons from top-tier U.S. medical institutions. Byrne, who accompanied Epstein on his first medical mission to the Kurdish region of Iraq, now sits on the advisory board of GSMSG. She and the other volunteers finance their own missions, which can last anywhere from two weeks to two months.

The larger goal of GSMSG, Epstein says, is to fortify the medical system: “Because if you can survive what literally hits you, you can survive the proverbial storm.

I initially went into the national security field optimistically, but I’ve seen this: Governments and established institutions can send all the Band-Aids, blankets and tents on earth, but if the people they’re trying to help don’t develop indigenous human capital to utilize what

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is given to them, then the fundamental problem doesn’t change. It’s just not a sustainable solution to have a population be eternally reliant on outside help. If we can bring in the expertise to train people to provide their own medical care, that will create real change.”

In addition to providing a full array of on-site medical, surgical and much-needed psychiatric care to the warravaged population, GSMSG experts offer crucial in-depth training in complex medical procedures, including cardiothoracic and acute-trauma resuscitation techniques, to local medical staff. Over the course of nine medical missions, volunteers have trained more than 100 surgeons and surgical professionals, 150 medical doctors and diagnostic specialists, and 750 combat medics. In addition, they work with local ministries of health, medical directors, facility managers and community leaders to prevent and manage crises and build and sustain the medical infrastructure. “We are the only group who provides such broad support and high-end instruction from U.S. board-certified physicians,” Epstein says.

Eventually, the GSMSG team would like to offer similar support in other areas of the world, but first they want to perfect the model in Iraq. Epstein lays out his long-term plans for what that could look like: “We’re hoping to set up a medical university at a fixed facility, in partnership with leading medical schools in the U.S., to provide the full spectrum of training for everyone from field medics to surgeons.”

Such an enterprise requires a great deal of funding, so Epstein has been pursuing grant opportunities through the State Department and private charities. In talks with potential donors, he says, he often discusses planned self-obsolescence for GSMSG: “We want to help change the medical system so that over a period of years, the local personnel can take over and we can phase out. That might be a bad long-term business idea, but we aren’t in it for a profit.”

Epstein, now in his fourth year of med school, with plans to specialize in trauma surgery, was named a Fulbright specialist by the State Department in January, allowing him to serve as a health care, peace-building and security consultant to foreign institutions. He was recently contacted through Fulbright by the Kurdish consulate regarding potential collaboration. No matter how much he takes on, or how his plans evolve, Epstein remains motivated by the possibility of building a more secure world: “Whether this is an unfortunate commentary on governments today, I don’t know; but I do think one person with enough drive and a large enough network can generate grassroots change on a scale that even governments can’t achieve.” E

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CAMPUS LIFE AT A GLANCE

DIANA DAVIDSON ’18

ACHEL LUO ’17

DIANA DAVIDSON ’18

SPRING DANCE CONCERT The Dance Company celebrated favorite moments from film at the Spring Dance Concert.

ESSO KIDS CARNIVAL Sarah Kopunova ’18 coached a young friend during a T-ball game at ESSO’s field day in May.

SPRING MAINSTAGE Olivia Liponis ’17 and Perry Asibey-Bonsu ’17 appeared in the spring mainstage production of Rimers of Eldritch.

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JOANNE LEMBO

RACHEL LUO ’17

SENIOR NIGHT This lively bunch of friends hammed it up with silly props on Senior Night.

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

RACHEL LUO ’17

PRINCIPAL’S DAY After announcing Principal’s Day with a faculty-led flash mob dance routine, Principal Lisa MacFarlane shared a moment of joy with students and teachers.

DORM TEA Ashley Lin ’17, Joey Edell ’17 and Jo de La Bruyere ’18 at the Langdell Hall tea.

SENIOR TIME CAPSULE The class of 2017 gathered in the Library Commons to open up time capsules that had been sealed since the beginning of students’ prep year.

DAN COURTER

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

PROM Jon Wang ’17, Marie Leighton McCall ’18, Abby Africa ’17 and Aum Bhuva ’18 showed off their style before heading to prom.

WELCOME DINNER The class of 1967 welcomed seniors into the alumni community during the 50th reunion in May.

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EXETER NOW, NO WAITING Fill in the gaps between issues of The Exeter Bulletin by following us on social media. Our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts are constantly abuzz, capturing the sights and sounds on campus. Here’s some of what we’ve recently posted:

#TBT WITH A TWIST Everyone loves old photos, but we work a little harder on our “Throwback Thursday” posts, returning to the site of the original image to recreate the scene. The posts have been a big hit on Instagram.

Follow us at www.instagram.com/ phillipsexeter

PROM NIGHT! The Phillips Exeter Academy prom is where style and substance collide. See a photo album from the big night at bit.ly/PEAprom2017.

Follow us at www.facebook.com/phillipsexeter

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THE FINISH LINE

JOANNE LEMBO

Prom, Senior Night, graduation – the end of the year is a whirlwind of activity.

We gathered highlights from our various social channels and published them together in a “story” on Storify.

See it at www.storify.com/ PhillipsExeter/commencement-weekend-2017

SENIOR MOMENT Another class of outstanding scholars has completed its journey through Exeter, and two student-driven projects on Instagram helped tell the class of 2017’s story. Senior Rachel Luo shot and posted 237 brilliant portraits of her classmates (above) throughout winter and spring terms at www.instagram.com/ rluophoto. Meanwhile, upper Menat Bahnasy ’18 asked seniors what they’ll miss most about Exeter (above, right) and published the best of the responses on our main account: www.instagram.com/phillipsexeter.

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EXETER DECONSTRUCTED

IN DESIGNING THE PHELPS SCIENCE CENTER’S ATRIUM to accommodate an animal skeleton, the architect originally imagined a full-size model of a Tyrannosaurus rex. As luck would have it, the Science Department was able to get on a waiting list with Dave Tayor P ’82, a Massachusettsbased biology teacher who, as part of his curriculum, recovers and prepares whale skeletons for display in museums.

In May 2000, Science Instructor Townley Chisholm P’10, P’11, P’14 received a call that the body of a 2-year-old male humpback had washed ashore in Cape Cod.

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WHALE SKELETON

The Exeter-Andover rivalry is as strong as it was a century ago, but sadly, school fight songs and other marching band ditties are no longer part of PEA’s athletic contests. This song sheet from 1908 tells a lot about school spirit and how it was expressed during a different time, and it has beautiful cover artwork as well.

“Cheer now for Exeter and show them our spirit true, no line can stop our men from crashing thro’ the line of blue … .” (Written by Chandler W. Ireland, class of 1909)

THE RECOVERY TEAM, which included Chisholm and fellow Science Instructors Chris Matlack P’08, P’15 (then chair of the department), Sydnee Goddard P’12, P’13, and Rich Aaronian ’76, ’78, ’98 (Hon.); P’94, P’97; Dr. Tom French of the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife for Massachusetts; and Exeter seniors Freddy Kullman ’00 and Reed Macy ’00, spent an entire day removing the flesh and fat from the carcass with giant flensing hooks.

AFTER THE FLESH WAS REMOVED FROM THE BONES, the recovery team separated, photographed, and buried the skeleton in beds of horse manure as part of a cleaning process that utilizes maggots and bacteria. It took nearly six truckloads of manure and four months of decomposition for the bones to be cleaned.

ONCE READY, THE BONES WERE BROUGHT TO THE ACADEMY and stored in the Facilities garage, which offered appropriate open space. Two biologists from the College of the Atlantic, located in Bar Harbor, Maine, led the articulation process. PEA students from Aaronian’s Physiology class helped bleach the bones with hydrogen peroxide and toothbrushes.

THE SKELETON WAS COMPLETED IN SEVERAL SECTIONS, each designed to be no wider than the skull (about 5 feet across), in order to fit through the doorways of Phelps Science Center. A reinforcing steel rod runs through each vertebra of the 30-foot, fully articulated skeleton. Adult male humpbacks can grow to 45 feet.

GERRY HILL IN THE FACILITIES DEPARTMENT constructed metal frames to transport the skeleton sections to the science center, where they were hoisted on small hydraulic lifts and suspended from poles reinforced by girders and hung from the ceiling.

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Breathing Life into the Law A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H A U T H O R L I N C O L N C A P L A N ’6 8

By Daneet Steffens ‘82

L

incoln Caplan ’68 has been writing about

American law since 1974 when, interning for The New Republic after his first year of law school, he covered the oral argument in United States v.

Nixon — the landmark Supreme Court ruling that said a president’s power is not absolute, which led to Richard Nixon’s resignation. Most recently, his reporting about the death penalty and other legal topics has been running on the website of The New Yorker and in other magazines. He co-founded the general-interest Legal Affairs magazine where he nurtured the work of Emily Bazelon, now a staff writer of The New York Times Magazine; John Swansburg, a senior editor of The Atlantic; and Nicholas Thompson, editor-in-chief of Wired, among others. He teaches writing at Yale College and Yale Law School. As a reporter of meaty subjects with far-reaching impact, Caplan brings a distinctly humane angle to his work, championing the best of citizenship-based politics and bearing eloquent witness to some of the most critical challenges of our time.

Q: You’re an advocate for the Harkness system as an educational tool with national potential.

How else did Exeter influence your life?

Caplan: I totally bought the notion that Exeter was a national high school.

Of all of the great institutions that I’ve been lucky to attend, it’s still the most important to me — for my education, for my sense of belonging, and in terms of close friendship. My most recent book, about the Supreme Court as a political institution, is dedicated to my friend since our prep year together, Rob Shapiro ’68.

Q: You’ve been writing for The New Yorker for decades, but it sounds like your earliest piece still resonates for you.

Caplan: I’ve been fortunate to have two New Yorker chapters: in the past few years, writing for its website, and for a dozen years early in my career, writing for the print magazine. I started out writing for the “Talk of the Town,” which had a wonderful spirit to it. At the time, all the pieces were unsigned; that liberated you to engage in a modest form of invention. It was lovely to know that you were writing alongside people like Lillian Ross and

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John McPhee — it felt like a kind of joint enterprise. My first piece was about Father Flye, an early teacher of the writer James Agee ’28, before he went to Exeter. They stayed in touch — there’s a gentle volume, The Letters of James Agee to Father Flye, which is really about a young man finding his path and growing up. When I got the opportunity to try my first Talk piece, it felt natural to write about Father Flye.

Q: How did that happen?

Caplan: The person who gave me that opportunity was Robert Bingham ’43, who was the magazine’s executive

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columnist Anthony Lewis, who wrote with special editor. I had written to Bingham — it must have interest about the law, but by no means only about been in 1978 — and said, “Here are my clips. Am the law: I realized that he was writing about the I anywhere near the mark of writing for The New Supreme Court in a way that made ideas and their Yorker?” He wrote back, “Dear Mr. Caplan, I can’t consequences come alive. I also discovered New tell you much about writing for The New Yorker, Yorker law correspondent Richard Harris, and fell in except you should stick to the law because you’ll love with John McPhee’s narrative pieces. I just got make more money. But when you’re next in New it into my head that Harris needed to go about his York please call me and stop by.” I thought it would reporting more like McPhee, and McPhee needed be a 10-minute visit and a pat on the head, but we talked for 45 minutes! Then he said, “My friend John to be interested in the drama of ideas, like Harris.

They combined into a two-person McPhee said that his friend Bill constellation that I set my course by.

Bradley has had more contributors to his Senate campaign than Q: So when did you fall for any candidate in history. How do journalism?

“WATERGATE you account for that?” I thought Caplan: The first week of my for a second, and said, “Rock New Republic internship, there were INFLUENCED MY concerts. If you count everybody hearings about a world food crisis.

GENERATION: who buys tickets for concerts When the editor said, “Who wants that Bradley’s been using as to cover this?,” everyone else averted WE SAW THAT fundraisers, that adds up.” And their eyes and I shot my hand up. he smiled, and said, “What I got to go to Capitol Hill, found a JOURNALISTS would you like to write for The trove of materials, and filed copy that HAD A SOCIAL New Yorker?” got reshaped into a lead editorial. I I remember the feeling of totally hooked. I found that all AND POLITICAL was opening the letter letting me the things that I liked — reading and know the magazine had bought digging, talking with people who PURPOSE AND that piece, which included a were involved in significant controCOULD MAKE A versies, putting two and two together, check for $550 — $500 for the piece and $50 for expenses. figure out and explain tough social DIFFERENCE. ...” to Then, as often happened, issues and why they matter — they the piece sat for about a year. were all part of this work.

Meantime, I was selected to be a Watergate was unfolding at White House Fellow. The week the time and that gave journalism that I started the fellowship, my piece ran. It was an importance it hadn’t had since World War II. I thrilling. thought journalism might be a great way to make a living, except that I wasn’t confident that I could Q: Did you always want to be a journalist?

Caplan: At Harvard, I couldn’t make any claims to make a living at it: that was one of the reasons I went to law school. I was also interested in the lawyers being on a path to journalism — the writing courses who had worked for Robert Kennedy when he was that were important to me were poetry courses with a senator for New York — I saw him as a model for a the translator and poet Robert Fitzgerald and the progressive approach to politics that would address poet Elizabeth Bishop and a fiction course with the issues of class as well as race, and that was inspiring. novelist Carter Wilson. To the extent that anything But I also decided that doing apprenticeships — law I did then might be in any way connected to what school, clerking for a judge, working at the Boston I’m doing now, it was my interest in photography: Consulting Group to learn about corporations, being Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a great work a White House Fellow — those were all useful things of witness about Depression-era tenant farmers in to do before trying to write the kinds of things I Alabama, entranced and kind of haunted me. His wanted to write. co-creator was the photographer Walker Evans. I really admired his clear, elegant, intimate work.

Q: There’s a really optimistic thread running Evans and others like Dorothea Lange, those folks through your work: a belief in the institution of the had an impact on what I have aspired to in my law, the importance of good education and faith in reporting. good citizenship. Is that what drives you?

At law school, I discovered The New York Times Caplan: Watergate influenced my generation:

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We saw that journalists had a social and political purpose and could make a difference — they took down a dishonest, corrupt government — and Lewis was an important model for me. After Bush v. Gore, when the Supreme Court ended the 2000 election by making George W. Bush president, Lewis said that he no longer believed in the idea of continuous progress for the American experiment. My sense from American history is that there have been zigs and zags: There have been periods when xenophobia has had a nasty influence it shouldn’t; slavery and racism were and remain great stains on the American project. There are lots of reasons to see that that continuous progress is something to hope for, but not count on.

What impressed me most about Lewis’ work was how he explained the workings of the American constitutional system and what it takes for it to thrive — I’m more convinced by that than by his loss of optimism. His earlier work gave me reasons to believe in the system, and also to believe that a big part of it for journalism is — as one of my buddies puts it — to hit ’em while they’re up, to have a role in holding people with power, public and private, accountable. There’s something thrilling about that, that facts matter, that facts explained clearly and powerfully matter, that facts explained clearly and powerfully in a narrative can give people pleasure as well as challenge their thinking.

It’s just as important now, given my age and stage in life, to see younger colleagues doing quality work that matters, and doing it, as Agee wrote in one of his poems, “High-souled in joy and hungry for the fight.” The sense of helping people realize that they have a talent for a particular kind of expression and work and watching them fulfill that, that’s a satisfaction that’s hard to measure, but really deep. E

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I N

R E V I E W

Alumni are encouraged to advise the Bulletin editor (bulletin@exeter.edu) of their own publications, recordings, films, etc., in any field, and those of 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: Bulletin Editor, Phillips Exeter Academy, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833-2460.

ALUMNI 1944—Kenneth W. Ford. Basic Physics: A Resource for Physics Teachers. (World Scientific, 2016)

1979—Nathan Bennett. Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO [updated edition]. (Stanford Business Books, 2017)

—Building the H Bomb: A Personal History. (World Scientific, 2015)

1984—Christopher Atamian, translator. Fifty Years of Armenian Literature in France. (The Press at California State, 2016)

1956—Peter Brooks. Flaubert in the Ruins of Paris: The Story of Friendship, a Novel, and a Terrible Year. (Basic Books, 2017)

1989—Carolyn M. Edy. The Woman War Correspondent, The U.S. Military, and the Press: 1846-1947. (Lexington Books, 2016) 1992—Roxane Gay. Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body. (Harper, 2017)

1959—Daniel C. Dennett. From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds. (Norton, 2017) 1960—Rev. Jacob Watson. Enso Morning: Daily Meditation Gifts.

(O-Books, 2016) 1962—Brian B. Kelly. Our American, A Romance of Moscow. (Brick Hill Roads, Ltd., 2017)

1996—Lydia Peelle. The Midnight Cool: A Novel. (Harper, 2017) 1998—Kaitlin Solimine. Empire of Glass. (Ig Publishing, 2017)

1998—Paul Yoon. The Mountain: Stories. (Simon & Schuster, 2017) 1971—Roland Merullo. The Delight of Being Ordinary: A Road Trip with the Pope and the Dalai Lama. (Doubleday, 2017)

FAC U LT Y Matt W. Miller. “Arthur’s” [poem].

IN Leaving Home, Finding Home.

(Nimrod International Journal, spring/ summer 2017)

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Runner’s High F O R M E R W O R L D C H A M P I O N F I O N A B AY LY ’ 8 5 I S S T I L L BREAKING RECORDS

By Brian Muldoon

F

iona Bayly has not stopped running

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since 1982, when she joined Exeter’s cross-country team during her lower year. Nearly 30 years after helping to rewrite some of the school’s cross-country record books, Bayly hasn’t stopped winning, either.

Her post-Exeter career features a long list of accomplishments that includes a distinguished career at Dartmouth College, multiple USA Track and Field New York Masters Runner of the Month awards, and an ever-expanding list of 5k, 10k and half-marathon victories at venues that span the nation.

Last March, Bayly and five of her teammates from Urban Athletics took first place while setting a world-class record in masters running (a racing division for runners over 40) in the coed indoor marathon relay at the New Balance Track & Field Center at the Armory in New York City. That was a nice feat, but perhaps nothing compares to the achievement of becoming a world champion.

With swimming part of her racing repertoire since the early 2000s, Bayly earned a spot on Team USA in 2014 at the International Triathlon Union Aquathlon World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, where she won a gold medal and secured the world championship in her age group.

“Competing for and being part of Team USA is another branch of my athletic career,” Bayly says, “but at each stop along the way, I always trace it back to my time at Exeter. It seems like just yesterday, I was covering the [cross-country] course ... over roots of trees and through the grass. If you put me on the bridge that leads out to Phelps Stadium today, my feet would just go.”

Bayly arrived on campus as a soccer, ice hockey and lacrosse player. While she remained part of the ice hockey program throughout her tenure, she made the switch from soccer to cross-country in her lower year after finding success in local races over the summer. The transition paid immediate dividends; she was named team MVP

for three straight years and served as team captain in her final two years, while going undefeated and becoming the Interschol champion in 1984.

“I gave a lot to the running program, but Exeter gave much, much more back to me in terms of participatory support, encouragement and love,” Bayly reflects. “In my lower year, coach Rick Parris very much became like a father figure. He knew how to make it fun. We always loved to be together as a team, and practices were always a wonderful, wonderful experience, but Rick also gave me every freedom to explore my strengths.”

Two of Bayly’s biggest strengths may be determination and stamina. She would log a couple of miles on her

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leave New York, a city that I love. I am glad I tried it, but I didn’t have the right mindset. I need to have a balancing act of a job.

A job keeps me balanced.”

Bayly’s motivation and desire to compete still beckoned. She has been part of the Urban Athletics running club since 1992 — the year she moved to New York City — and cherishes the atmosphere the team brings to what is often thought of as an individual sport.

“Running is one of those sports where each person literally covers the same ground,” she says. “We are all going through the very same conditions whether it be mud, sleet or rain.

Everyone experiences the same course and nobody gets an easy path when it comes to running.”

Just as she was on the leading edge of women’s running while at Exeter, she is now at the forefront of masters running, as the sport is gainFiona Bayly ’85 (yellow shoes) and ing more and more popularity. Bayly is own before classes and her teammates after setting a the best masters runner in the tristate follow that with a team practice world-class record in NYC. region, one of the best in the nation, and in the afternoon, before capping USA Track and Field consistently courts her to compete many nights with a third run of the day along the banks of in race circuits around the country, where she is often the Squamscott River. found crossing the line ahead of her 22- and 23-year-old “Exeter was perhaps the most intense portion of my counterparts. life,” she says. “I recognized that I loved running, and Those younger competitors whom she consistently those factors instilled in me the desire to keep pushing in strides by are eager to pick her brain for training tips, race order to handle the rigors that academics and athletics strategy and nutrition regimens, but one thing she cannot can put on you. The demand of very challenging classes teach is her thirst for competition. makes you focus on something other than academics, “While I am running, I always feel as if I have someand it’s the same for athletics. I graduated cum laude, but thing to prove,” Bayly says. “I had a couple rivalries I don’t think I would’ve been able to do that without the with girls from NMH [Northfield Mount Hermon] and spectacular challenges running gave me.”

Andover, and I still get that aggressiveness when I race Bayly still tries to manage her time equally between today. The only time in my life that I am aggressive is in work and sports, fitting in her training alongside responmy races: I feel as if I am 10 feet tall and I just push and sibilities at the American Museum of Natural History, push and push. As a masters runner now, knowing that where she serves as the assistant to the director for the I can become one of the best in the nation turns into Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. She did once motivation, and it gives me such satisfaction to know that attempt to put the balancing act behind her, leaving her job at the Wildlife Conservation Society to focus solely on I can still go up against top-tiered talent.”

Bayly is still leaning on some of the lessons coach her sport. She began competing in triathlons, and after Parris taught her three decades ago. She tries to mimic winning her first race on the wheels of an aged road bike, her running patterns and training from her time as a Bayly secured a cycling sponsorship and set her sights on student, and she appreciates the lifelong mark that Exeter the 2008 Summer Olympics. left on her.

She quickly realized, however, that the lifestyle wasn’t “It was the running that allowed me to make a name for her. for myself,” she concludes, “but it was the people at “You eat, sleep and train, and I was not good at it,” she Exeter that helped me negotiate growing up as a teenager. says. “I always tell people I was a professional athlete for Lessons from Exeter will last your entire lifetime.” E all of about six months, but I got bored. I didn’t want to

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SPRING SPORTS GIRLS TRACK & FIELD RECORD: 3-1 SECOND PLACE AT INTERSCHOLS

Head Coach: Hilary Coder Assistant Coaches: Toyin Ikwuakor, John Mosely, Mark Hiza, Michele Chapman, Jeff Holmes, Kelly Coder, Brandon Newbould, Ted Davis, Steve Holms Captains: Sarah Brown ’17, Margaret Coogan ’17, Gwendolyn Wallace ’17 MVP: Margaret Hock ‘19

GIRLS CREW RECORD: 3-9 FOURTH PLACE AT NEW ENGLAND INTERSCHOLASTIC ROWING ASSOCIATION CHAMPIONSHIPS

Head Coach: Sally Morris Assistant Coaches: Becky Moore, Allison Hobbie, Avery Reavill, Sarah Nute Captains: Maya Blake ’17, Honor Clements ’17 MVP: Nora Epler ’17

GIRLS WATER POLO RECORD: 5-8

BOYS CREW RECORD: 5-7 SECOND PLACE AT NEW ENGLAND INTERSCHOLASTIC ROWING ASSOCIATION CHAMPIONSHIPS

Head Coach: Andrew McTammany Assistant Coach: Melissa Pacific Captains: Emily LaRovere ’17, Autumn Herness ’17 MVP: Isabelle Wise ’19

Head Coach: Albert Leger Assistant Coaches: Greg Spainer, Townley Chisholm, Avery Reavill ’12, Sarah Nute Captains: Francisco Baviera Maloney ’18, Stone Sulley ’17 MVP: John Ragone ’17

GIRLS LACROSSE RECORD: 16-1-1

Head Coach: Christina Breen Assistant Coach: Porter Hayes Captains: Isabella Edo ’17, Emily Ryan ’17, Kelsey Detels ’17 MVP: Hannah Gustafson ’17

BOYS AND GIRLS CYCLING RECORD: 1-0 IN DUAL RACES SECOND PLACE AT NEW ENGLAND ROAD CYCLING LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Head Coach: Don Mills Assistant Coaches: Vicki Baggia, Patty Burke-Hickey, Tim Whittemore Captains: Erik Carlson ’17, Josh Hemintakoon ’17 MVP: Bryce Morales ’19

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BOYS BASEBALL RECORD: 14-6

Head Coach: Dana Barbin Assistant Coaches: Nat Hawkins, Tim Mitropoulos ’10 Captains: Collin Shapiro ’17, Harrison Money ’17 MVPs: Nicholas Moore ’17, Collin Shapiro

BOYS LACROSSE RECORD: 15-3

Head Coach: Bill Glennon Assistant Coach: David Huoppi Captains: Myles Haigney ’17, Bradley Ingersoll ’17, Mac Perry ’17, Tamer Sullivan ’17 MVP: Matthew McShea ’17

BOYS TRACK & FIELD RECORD: 3-3 SECOND PLACE AT INTERSCHOLS

Head Coach: Hilary Coder Assistant Coaches: Toyin Ikwuakor, John Mosely, Mark Hiza, Michele Chapman, Jeff Holmes, Kelly Coder, Brandon Newbould, Ted Davis, Steve Holms Captains: Garrett Pitt ’17, Atticus Stonestrom ’17, Marvin Bennett ’17 MVPs: Garrett Pitt, Atticus Stonestrom

GOLF RECORD: 6-1 IN DUAL MEETS FIRST PLACE AT KINGSWOOD OXFORD TOURNAMENT

Head Coach: Bob Bailey Assistant Coach: Ian Willikens Captains: Charlie Dubiel ’17 MVPs: Charlie Dubiel 17, Stella Woo ‘17

BOYS VARSITY VOLLEYBALL RECORD: 11-3 NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONS

Head Coach: Bruce Shang Assistant Coach: Susan Rowe Captains: Mitchell Kirsch ’17, Graham Rutledge ’17 MVP: Ben Swett ’17

GIRLS TENNIS A RECORD: 3-4

Head Coach: Jean Farnum Captain: Melissa Lu ’17 MVP: Melissa Lu

GIRLS SOFTBALL RECORD: 1-12

Head Coach: Nancy Thompson Captains: Brittani Chapman ’17, Lauren Fidelak ’17, Daria Moody ’17 MVP: Ella Johnson ’18

BOYS TENNIS A RECORD: 1-6

Head Coach: Fred Brussel Captains: Cameron Gruss ’17 MVP: Sergio Escobar ’17 ALL PHOTOS COURTESY PEA ATHLETICS/BRIAN MULDOON, EXCEPT BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL (BEN SWETT) AND BOYS AND GIRLS CREW (NEW ENGLAND INTERSCHOLASTIC ROWING ASSOCIATION).

COMMENCEMENT

2017

This page: Myles Haigney receives his classical diploma from Principal Lisa MacFarlane. Facing page, clockwise from bottom left: Kelvin Green delivers the invocation for the senior class; Faculty members give a warm send-off to Sarah Irene Brown and classmates during the processional.; Abigail “Abby” Africa and Raul Galvan before the ceremony; Alexandra “Ally” Grounds in line for her diploma; and classics scholars Daniela Nemirovsky, Efia Nuako, Kelechi Nwankwoala, Jordan “Bliss” Perry, and Declan Saviano.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARY SCHWALM

More photos, stories and video of the ceremony, including Principal MacFarlane’s full remarks: www.exeter.edu/graduation.

Nearly 3,000 people gathered

on the Academy lawn on Sunday, June 4, to celebrate Exeter’s 236th graduating class. In her welcome to these families and friends, Isabella “Bella” Edo ’17 spoke of the challenge she and other graduates had in “balancing the excitement and anxiety” conjured by reaching such a milestone. “Today,” she said, “we are signifying the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood, and that’s terrifying, but also exhilarating.” Edo and her 321 classmates make up the largest graduating class in almost 20 years, one that Principal Lisa MacFarlane ’66 (Hon.); P’09, P’13, described in her speech as “a class that sings — figuratively as well as literally. … You take action that extends Harkness beyond the classroom and into the world.”

Good luck to the class of 2017. You will be missed.

We hope that you will return often to your home here at Exeter.

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This page, counterclockwise from top: Graduate Charis Edwards’ dino-mite shoes reflect her theatrical spirit; Isabella Edo welcomes parents and family members; Principal Lisa MacFarlane speaks about “living Harkness”; Instructor in Modern Languages Ming Fontaine, appointed in 1988, and Academic Support Counselor Pamela Parris, appointed in 2004, retire this year, along with Instructor in Mathematics Patricia Babecki, appointed in 1993; and Ali Abbas Hassani, Joshua Hemintakoon and Autumn Herness await their turn on the stage. Facing page: Diploma in hand, Graham Rutledge kicks up his heels to celebrate.

“… being at a place where you’re not always the best has been humbling. Through failure, we’ve learned that just because something doesn’t work out the first time, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try again. This effort and diligence is evident in all disciplines the members of this class are involved in.”

—ISABELLA EDO ’17

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“And certainly, among the qualities I admire most in all the Exonians I have met — and this amply includes you, class of 2017 — is the restless questioning, the fierce curiosity, the eagerness-to-know qualities that Harkness inspires.”

—PRINCIPAL LISA MACFARLANE

GRADUATION PRIZES The Yale Cup, awarded each year by the Aurelian Honor Society of Yale University to the member of the senior class who best combines the highest standards of character and leadership with excellence in his studies and in athletics: Benjamin Swett, Exeter, New Hampshire 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: Isabella Edo, Boxford, Massachusetts 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: Carissa Chen, Tustin, California Aivant Goyal, Overland Park, Kansas The Williams Cup, established in memory of George Lynde Richardson Jr. ’37, and given annually to a student who, having been in the Academy four years, has, by personal qualities, brought distinction to Phillips Exeter: Hillary Aristotle, Jakarta, Indonesia 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: Autumn Herness, Wausaukee, Wisconsin The Thomas H. Cornell Award, based on a vote by the senior class, is awarded annually at graduation to that member of the graduating class who best exemplifies the Exeter spirit: Eric Tang, El Cerrito, California The Multicultural Leadership Prize is awarded annually to the member 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 and other aspects of identity.

Lauren Wilson, Southfield, Michigan The Cox Medals, given by Oscar S. Cox Esq., 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: Hoyeon “Kelly” Lew, Exeter, New Hampshire Xiaoyu “Sally” Ma, Shanghai, China Joanna Papadakis, North Hampton, New Hampshire Alec Sun, Lexington, Massachusetts Eric Tang, El Cerrito, California 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: Joanna Papadakis, North Hampton, New Hampshire 3 2 • T H E

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This page: Joanna Papadakis is recipient of The Faculty Prize for Academic Excellence, in recognition of holding “first rank” in the class. Facing page: New grads Austin Scronce, Matthew McShea, Paul MacDonald, Nicholas Moore and Noah Maercklein; and Carissa Chen and Aivant Goyal share the honors as recipients of the Perry Cup, awarded for “outstanding qualities of leadership and school spirit.”

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“There have been many changes at the Academy, challenges and opportunities, and bittersweet endings and new beginnings, and you have handled them not only with intelligence — but that is not surprising, and probably the least of it — but also with maturity and generosity and grace.”

—PRINCIPAL LISA MACFARLANE

This page, from top: Friends Ji Won Sung, Lauren Wilson, Jena Yun and Isabella Thilmany; Liam and Aidan Oakley pose with their mother; and Class Marshal Rachel Luo sits alongside Jacob Malasek, Noah Maercklein and Hannah MacKay, with David O’Donnell in the next row. Facing page: One of the first on his feet, Philippe Louis cheers alongside his classmates as the ceremony ends.

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MISSION

MAGNIFIED

Fo r t he p ast 50 ye ars, the Exete r St ude n t S e r vi ce Org a n i zat i o n ( E SS O ) h as hel p ed Exonians translate n o n si b i f ro m t h e o r y i n t o p ra ct i ce

T

By Melanie Nelson

he detritus of busy Exeter students forms the stage setting, as it were, of the second-floor Academy Center offices of Director of Service Learning Liz Reyes and Exeter Student Service Organization Program Assistant Maureen Costello. Vibrantly colored hula hoops are propped beside giant unopened jugs of lemonade. On a center table lie photos of Exonians sporting green ESSO T-shirts as they celebrate the acquisition of their “dragon,” Academy vernacular for the short red buses that transport students to off-campus activities. It is a warm and festive space where service-minded students come to hash over ideas, seek advice, and sometimes, say Reyes and Costello, receive a little prodding.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of ESSO, an umbrella organization that now encompasses some 71 student-run clubs and organizations focusing on everything from food insecurity among Seacoast New Hampshire residents, to teaching chess to local “THESE TUTORS WANT school children, to fundraising to find a cure for cancer. With TO BE WITH OUR GIRLS. ... broad and significant student participation — last year at least 650 Exonians were involved with ESSO programs — and a netTHEY ARE EXEMPLARY work of 45 community partners, ESSO has grown from humble ROLE MODELS.” beginnings into a robust and far-reaching force for good.

—Lisa Warne, parent of Hannah, pictured To get a sense of ESSO’s impact on local residents and on below with ESSO tutor Meghana Chalasani ’17 the Exonians who are involved with it, the Bulletin talked with a range of individuals, including program participants, program managers, club founders and student board members. What follows are snapshots of how ESSO has touched their lives, and of how the organization pushes our students to realize, in very concrete ways, the school’s historic mission.

LISA WARNE

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INSTILLING A LOVE OF LEARNING

When Lisa Warne and her husband and three daughters moved to Stratham, New Hampshire from Shelburne, Vermont, five years ago, it was to be closer to a large city (Boston) and, she adds, for the good schools. “We’ve always been academically minded,” says Warne, whose

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RACHEL LUO

daughters entered the second, third and fifth grades, respectively, upon the “ESSO IS A family’s arrival. Shortly thereafter, two Academy students visited Stratham BIG, AMAZING Memorial School, which houses grades three through five, to speak about PEA and its impact on their lives. That evening, Warne says, her thirdPRESENCE THAT grader, Rachel, came home and announced she was going to Phillips Exeter.

REALLY GUIDES “Rachel’s zeal inspired us to check out the offerings at Exeter,” Warne explains. With 36 student-run programs that are free and open to children in ME IN MY LIFE.” the greater Exeter community, ESSO instantly appealed to the family. Warne —Grace Gray ’19 initially enrolled her daughters in ESSO sports lessons (basketball, skatAbove: ESSO Field Day fun ing, tennis, Frisbee), later adding in a few academically focused clubs (art, with Exeter area children. robotics, computer coding) and music lessons. Noting the positive influence of these activities on Rachel, older daughter Hannah and younger daughter Kate, Warne and her husband eventually decided to register all three girls for ESSO tutoring. Their timing was perfect — for the past three years, each daughter has had the same PEA student tutor. “It’s considered math tutoring,” Warne says, “but Katie [Lee ’18], Maria [Lee ’18] and Meghana [Chalasani ’17] also talk about science and philosophy with the girls. These programs have had a tremendous impact on our family.”

While ESSO tutoring has undoubtedly sharpened the Warne sisters’ aptitude with figures, their mother says it has done much, much more. “These tutors want to be with our girls,” she emphasizes, “and beyond passing along knowledge, they are exemplary role models. They make our daughters feel like there is a buzz happening here on campus, like learning doesn’t have to be a chore. Thanks to the encouragement of Katie, Maria and Meghana, our girls know their dreams and goals are achievable. At Exeter, they’ve learned that learning is awesome.”

CONNECTING ACROSS GENERATIONS

Sitting in the sweetly decorated common room of Exeter’s 277 Water Street, a senior housing complex situated along the town’s bucolic Swasey Parkway, are Mary Dupré, a native of nearby Newmarket, New Hampshire, and Doris Murphy, who was born and raised in Exeter. Murphy, age 80, is a retired Rite Aid cashier who raised her five children mostly on her own. She is plainspoken in the way of someone who has grown to understand, and expect, life’s ups and downs — frank, but not cynical. Dupré, 88, reared seven children before returning to college to study English and

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CHRISTIAN HARRISON

anthropology, and worked as an archaeologist until her retirement. Thoughtful and soft-spoken, she is the longtime writer and distributor of Water Street’s monthly newsletter.

Murphy is gesturing to various rectangular tables spread around the room. “This table is usually used for Scrabble,” she notes, pointing to the one at which she is seated. “That one over there is used for dominoes.” Murphy motions to a third table by the big picture windows that look out over the town’s tidal river.

“Most of the time the card players are over there.” She pauses for a moment, before “THE NEW STUDENTS ... adding, “The card players tend to get carried away.” Her friend Dupré concurs, but then remarks, “Some weeks it BEFORE YOU KNOW IT, seems like the dominoes group is the noisiest.”

ARE HUGGING US, TOO.” The women are referring to an ESSO program called —Mary Dupré (left) with Doris Murphy Games with Seniors, which each Sunday afternoon unites at 277 Water Street Exonians with residents of Water Street to play games together. “It’s really fun,” Murphy enthuses. While Games with Seniors, founded in 2015, is a relatively young program by ESSO standards, Dupré and Murphy have resided at Water Street long enough, 11 and 16 years, respectively, to have participated in other ESSO activities, including a computer assistance program, Adopt-a-Grandparent, and, in Dupré’s case, Latin lessons.

Murphy, who loves how “cheerful, helpful and polite” the Exeter students are and clearly looks forward to their weekly visits, is certain that the fondness is reciprocal. “I think one of the reasons they enjoy coming to spend time with us is because we are the age their grandparents would be; I think they are sometimes missing their grandparents,” she explains.

For her part, Dupré relishes how quickly students who are new to the program begin to express their affection. “It is interesting to see the kids come in in the fall. There are usually a few repeats, and the repeat students already know us, so they greet us with a hug. The new students see that, and before you know it, they are hugging us, too.”

OFFERING CLASSROOM HELP AND NEW CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Steve Adler’s towering presence belies a calm, almost yogi-like personality. One can only imagine that such sereneness serves him well as the principal of Exeter’s Main Street School, home to 460 students in grades K-2. A 30-year veteran of New England public schools, Adler has served as principal of Main Street for the past nine years, during which he has also come to know numerous ESSO volunteers. “We have a long history of Academy students coming here to help in a variety of ways,” he explains. “For us, that is just lovely.”

Beyond occasional performances by PEA’s choir and Theater and Dance Department, or oneoff projects such as painting hopscotch and four-square patterns on the school’s blacktop, several Exonians, Adler says, are in Main Street on a regular basis. “Many work with our second-graders,” he says. “They help edit the children’s writing, do computer activities with them, assist with research, partner read and even make papier-mâché dinosaurs. Sometimes they help the teachers

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run lessons; other times they simply sit with students during snack and talk with them. Our teachers love having them as volunteers, because they are caring, compassionate and good listeners.”

According to Adler, another significant boon of having ESSO volunteers at Main Street is the cultural diversity they bring: “We have had many Academy students share with our kids about their racial or ethnic backgrounds and traditions. Given that our district is somewhat homogeneous, that has made a real impact.”

HONING CONFIDENCE THROUGH SHARING

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

When Gwen English and her husband, Henry Ferrell, moved to Exeter in the early 1990s so that he could join an area urology practice, English, who had previously worked in advertising, decided to apply for a part-time job caring for toddlers in what is now the Academy’s Harris Family Children’s Center. “I thought it would be an interesting way to meet new people, and I liked being with children,” she explains. After spending nearly a decade at the Harris Center, and simultaneously becoming very involved with municipal and environmental projects, English, together with Ferrell, decided to adopt a child. In August 2005, they flew to China to meet their new daughter, Natalie, then 21 months old.

While the responsibilities of motherhood called English away from her work at Exeter, she remained connected to the community. That made it easy, when, in 2007, she decided to approach the Academy about starting a club geared to children adopted from China that focused on Chinese lan“OUR TEACHERS LOVE guage. Laurie Loosigian P’99, P’01, P’05, then ESSO’s director, was HAVING THEM AS “very receptive to starting up the program,” English recalls.

Now nearly 10 years old, ESSO’s Chinese Culture Club, English VOLUNTEERS.” explains, “has morphed over time into much more than just a pro—Principal Steve Adler, gram for learning Mandarin.” Moreover, she adds, it’s gone from Main Street School being a club for kids adopted from China to one for kids whose families are simply interested in China, including those who may be considering a move overseas.

Generally led by two to three Chinese Exeter students, Chinese Culture Club is geared to area children up to sixth grade. It meets every other week in the basement of the Academy Center, and while the academic and extracurricular interests of the club leaders tend to dictate the themes of each gathering, topics are always viewed through the lens of current or traditional China.

As the club’s only and longtime adviser, English, who attends each gathering and meets with the co-heads for planning purposes during off weeks, enjoys watching Exonians grow and develop as they engage with local children.

“At the end of their time here, they’re different kids,” she says of the Academy club members.

“They are stronger and more confident, and I think that is because

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“IT OPENS UP A WORLD OF CONNECTING WITH OTHERS AND MAKING NEW FRIENDS.”

—Grace Gray ’19

they are part of a group that embraces their culture and from whom they feel great warmth.”

GAINING A SENSE OF IDENTITY

“Trying new clubs was a defining characteristic of my prep year,” explains Grace Gray, an effervescent rising upper from Richmond, Virginia, who, during winter term of her lower year, was selected to serve as one of eight ESSO board members.

“Eventually, I found a few that really resonated for me.” One was ESSO Reading Buddies, a reading partner program held once a week at Exeter’s Lincoln Street School. Gray grew so enamored of her eager pupils and so committed to the program that she was elected a club head in the spring of her prep year, an honor usually reserved for older students.

“Another club that is really important to me is ESSO Gal Pals,” she says. “Three of my cross-country teammates ran it when I first joined as a prep. Basically, every other week, on Tuesday evenings, we meet with a group of special-needs women in the Phillips Church basement. We hang out and color, sing karaoke and have dance parties. I am especially close to one woman named Melissa, who is really amazing.”

As a new ESSO board member, Gray is serving as one of two children’s club coorEND OF THEIR TIME HERE, dinators, each of whom is responsible for working with the co-heads of 15 to 20

“AT THE THEY’RE DIFFERENT KIDS.”

—Gwen English, founder of ESSO’s Chinese Culture Club.

Pictured below: Club co-head Jessica Zhao ‘17 with a young friend.

AMELIA LEE ‘19

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different children’s clubs. With her fellow board members, she is also undertaking three big-picture ESSO projects: examining how to incorporate service learning into Exeter academics; rebranding ESSO in order to attract even more Exonians to the program; and collaborating with Exeter High School’s Key Club on a number of joint community projects, such as a recent field day, held at Exeter, and a morning spent clearing brush along the Swasey Parkway.

As much as academics or running, ESSO is a defining aspect of Gray’s Exeter experience. “For me, every day that I am involved with ESSO reminds me of who I want to be as a person,” she says. “It opens up a world of connecting with others and making new friends. ESSO is a big, amazing presence that really guides me in my life. In a way, it’s given me a sense of identity.”

AMPLIFYING NON SIBI

When he arrived at Exeter as a new lower from Overland Park, Kansas, Aivant Goyal ’17 recalls, he initially and intentionally got involved with Junior Computing Program (JCP), an ESSO club dedicated to teaching local children how to write computer code. However his deeper involvement with ESSO happened more by accident. “I had made plans to go to the mall one Saturday to see a movie with a friend,” he explains. When that friend overslept, and Goyal set out to find her, he happened to pass the Phelps Science Center. Peeking in the window, he recognized another girl he knew doing LEGO MINDSTORMS (a popular early robotics program) with local school children. “She didn’t know where our mutual “ESSO HAS friend was, the one who overslept,” Goyal says with a laugh, “but she asked me to stay and help, and I was hooked.” By the time he was an upper, he had SHOWN ME become a co-head of both ESSO Robotics and ESSO Computer Programming, HOW EASY IT and later was selected to become the ESSO board member in charge of off-campus clubs.

IS TO CHANGE Goyal, who will attend the University of California, Berkeley, starting this SOMEONE’S LIFE fall, and plans to study computer science and business, is grateful for his ESSO experiences on a number of levels. “Besides being fun,” he says, “they’ve given AND THEN TO me another perspective on life. Now, with these experiences, when I see probAMPLIFY THAT.” lems come up, I understand how to get organized and work around them. Also, —Aivant Goyal ’17 and without wanting to sound cliché, ESSO has shown me how easy it is to change someone’s life and then to amplify that.”

Case in point: Through a senior project inspired jointly by his work with ESSO and by the writings of moral philosopher Peter Singer, Goyal is hoping to soon begin “implementing non sibi” beyond Exeter. With the advice and encouragement of Reyes and of Academy Trustees Mark Edwards ’78; P’12, P’14; Peter M. “Scotch” Scocimara ’82; P’16, P’18; and the Academy’s Chief Financial Officer David Hanson, he has begun early marketing of his mobile app, Project EnGive, a philanthropic platform that allows schools to compete against one another to see how many students they can get to donate to myriad local, national and global causes. “The ESSO board members recently spoke with a lot of alumni,” Goyal explains, referring to Exeter reunion gatherings to which the group was invited this spring. “A question we often got was, ‘How are you going to use ESSO going forward?’ If all goes as planned, Project EnGive is one answer to that question.” E

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“I AM EAGER TO HELP BUILD AN INCREDIBLE FUTURE ... FOR GENERATIONS OF EXONIANS TO COME.”

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CONNECTIONS

News and notes from the alumni community

Imagining the Future

By Chuck Ramsay P’17, P’21

CHERYL SENTER

the summer of 2015 when I received a call from alumnus Chuck Goldberg ’67 with news about professional opportunities at Exeter. I had worked at the Academy from 1998 to 2006 as a regional director of major gifts, and I loved my eight years working for recent Founder’s Day Award honoree Jim Theisen and with many other wonderful colleagues. I learned a lot during that time, and the team in Alumni Affairs and Development (now Institutional Advancement) accomplished a lot, including securing the philanthropic support necessary to build the Phelps Science Center and Phelps Academy Center and to launch Exeter confidently into the 21st century with the successful Exeter Initiatives campaign.

I left in 2006 to lead the major gifts program at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, helping to launch its $300 million campaign. Much to my delight, in the fall of 2014, my stepson JP entered Phillips Exeter as a new lower, and his mother, Sarah, and I began trekking up to campus on a regular basis to visit him. These visits, plus our involvement with the Parents Committee, reminded me of what a remarkable place Exeter is, and I began to dream about the possibility of returning. Through our connection on Facebook, Chuck knew of my new relationship to PEA as a parent. He provided me with the nudge I needed to take the leap and return to the Academy.

I am delighted to now be leading the Principal and Major Gifts programs. We have an incredible team

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in Institutional Advancement, and this is an extraordinary time in the Academy’s 236-year-old history.

The South Campus renewal is transforming our campus as the David E. Goel and Stacey L. Goel Center for Theater and Dance and the new field house begin to take shape.

Both will be ready to open in early 2018. Simultaneously, Principal Lisa MacFarlane is leading a strategic planning process that will take us to new heights in the coming years. Exeter takes seriously its role as a leader in secondary school education. I am looking forward to working with alumni, parents and friends, from places as close as Boston and as far away as Shanghai, to secure the resources necessary to change our students’ lives.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention that my daughter, Annabel, is enrolled as a prep in the class of 2021. Imagining the opportunities for her during the next four years at Exeter is thrilling to say the least. I am eager to help build an incredible future for her and for generations of Exonians to come. E CHRISTIAN HARRISON

I

was enjoying a long weekend on Nantucket during

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LU I G I E I N AU D I ’53

A Call to Serve

By Lynn Horowitch ’81; P’19

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after World War II, from 1948 to 1955. When, at his n January, Luigi Einaudi ’53 stepped to the podium graduation from Exeter, the younger Luigi earned several to accept the Defense Department’s 2016 William J. prizes, his grandfather had two reactions, both valuable Perry Award for Excellence in Security and Defense lessons: “He said, ‘I am so glad for you. Trying to do your Education. He was ready to deliver a thoughtful best is a big thing in life.’” But he added, “What I know is speech about multilateralism to a Washington, D.C., nothing compared to what I audience of about 200. In don’t know.” looking out at many of his Einaudi kept those former colleagues from lessons in mind throughout his years as a diplomat his career, which included with the Organization of 11 years at the RAND American States and the Corporation, a global policy State Department, Einaudi think tank; service as a felt compelled to share an distinguished visiting fellow impromptu thought before at the National Defense he began. Public service, he University; and membership said, “is like the priesthood, in the Council on Foreign a calling.”

Relations and the American Einaudi has followed Academy of Diplomacy. that calling throughout his He’s shared his insights into lifetime. After graduating Luigi Einaudi ’53 (middle) accepts an education foreign policy and diplofrom Exeter and Harvard, award from the U.S. Department of Defense. macy with his students at he served a stint in the Army Harvard, Wesleyan, UCLA and now, in his “retirement,” before returning to Harvard for his Ph.D. in government. at Georgetown, Cornell, the National Defense University In 1974, he joined the State Department, working first and the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Brazil Institute, as well under Henry Kissinger and focusing on Latin American as the universities of Turin and Rome in Italy. policy. He was named ambassador to the Organization of In his three years at Exeter, Einaudi wasn’t involved in American States and is the only American to have led the community service, concentrating instead on his studies, OAS, serving as its acting secretary-general in 2004 and as well as track and field and cross country. He does 2005. Einaudi oversaw efforts that established a lasting credit Exeter, which he calls his “true alma mater,” with peace between Ecuador and Peru, the achievement of teaching him how to write: “One of the reasons that I was which he says he is most proud. successful in my career is that I can convey information in Successful diplomacy, Einaudi says, requires a succinct form.” In fact, he adds, when he held the title adherence to basic tenets. Among those that guided of director of the Office of Policy Planning, Congressional him: “There are 35 countries in the OAS. Some in the Caribbean are very small, but they need to be listened to.” and Public Affairs for the Western Hemisphere at the State Department, he often told people that his job title Calling international law “the glue that holds the world was simply “writer.” together,” Einaudi paraphrases Benito Juarez, a former Exeter also instilled in Einaudi an ideal of utopia — the president of Mexico: “Peace is respect for the rights and belief that a better world is possible. In remarks at an interests of others.” And, Einaudi adds, “Democracy Exeter assembly in 2006, he shared what public service among countries is as important as within countries.” means to him, explaining, “Non sibi does not mean selfEinaudi follows in a family tradition of service. His less in the sense of denial of self; rather, it means working father, Mario Einaudi, was a professor of government at beyond yourself with others, in society and in the world, Cornell, where he founded the Center for International for the common good.”

Studies. His grandfather, for whom Luigi was named, Wise words from one who answered the call. E served as the first elected president of the Italian Republic

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P A U L O U T L A W ’ 74

Devoted to his Craft

By Genny Beckman Moriarty

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ndurance. Luck. Connections. Ambition. Talent.

When asked what advice he would give to young people hoping to build a life in the arts, Paul Outlaw ’74 names these qualities as crucial for

success.

Though he doesn’t dismiss the need for talent, Outlaw does put it last on his list. “You have to have something in you, a calling,” he says, “but you need the other qualities first.

Without those, talent can be squelched.” Elaborating on the first trait, he adds: “Many people fall by the wayside.

They give up. But if you stick with it, there is some measure of success to be had in just being committed to your art.”

A Los Angeles-based experimental theater artist and vocalist whose work explores themes of race, sexual identity, American history and violence, Outlaw has devoted a lifetime to his craft, which he first began to hone onstage in Fisher Theater as a student in the early 1970s, and later at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

A genre-busting artist, Outlaw has been involved in a diverse range of projects, including indie films, a play that traces the journey of a 300-year-old vampire “from slave to abolitionist to diva,” and solo performances across the U.S. and Europe. He has also recorded songs for a number of film soundtracks and recently appeared as a guest artist on Splendor & Misery (Sub Pop Records), an album by the hip-hop group Clipping, fronted by Tony Awardwinning Daveed Diggs, of Hamilton fame. Short-listed for a Hugo Award, it’s the first record album nominated for the science-fiction prize since 1971. (Their competition includes two iconic episodes of “Game of Thrones.”)

In January, Outlaw returned to campus for the first time in 19 years, to screen the 1993 film Schwarzfahrer (Black Rider), as part of the Academy’s annual MLK Day programming. The film, in which his character outwits

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an elderly train passenger who subjected him to a racist tirade, won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short. Directed by Pepe Danquart, Schwarzfahrer was Outlaw’s first starring role in a film, and it was a combination of luck, connections and talent that got him the part: “I had been living in Germany for about 10 years and was getting ready to move back to the States when I learned that a friend’s friend, who worked in casting, was looking for a German-speaking actor who could play an African immigrant.” One of the few black actors living in Berlin at the time, the young expat fit the bill.

Although it took some prodding by Outlaw, a self-described Oscar fan, for the producer to consider entering the film on the festival circuit, the movie has since become a part of film history. In addition to winning at the Academy Awards, it has been taught in the film program at Columbia, screened at high schools in several countries to help facilitate discussions around race, and viewed more than a million times on YouTube.

Outlaw attributes Schwarzfahrer’s enduring success to the fact that even though it arose out of a particular time and place — after the Berlin Wall had come down and German society was confronting new xenophobia and racism — the film still resonates today: “In 2017, with the polarization of the left and right and the increase in hate crimes, [the film] retains its timeliness. A lot of the things the old woman says about the influx of foreigners in Germany, we’re seeing that attitude now in America.”

As for Outlaw’s longevity, he has all the qualities he mentioned — plus adaptability — to thank. “I make a living through so many streams,” he says. “Unless you are a constantly working TV or film actor, you’re always struggling. If you accept that as the nature of the beast, you won’t become desperate.” E

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KERRY KUYKENDALL SMITH ’90

Taking to the Skies

By Sarah Zobel

F

or Kerry Kuykendall Smith ’90, a day at work

means taking a Boeing 737 for a spin. Smith, a production test pilot at the company’s Renton, Washington, factory, flies the jets before their exteriors have even been painted. Later, when a plane is delivered to an airline, she will fly with the company pilots and crew to make sure they’re completely satisfied.

But initially, Smith’s task is to really push each airplane, ensuring that everything works, and seeing what happens in worst-case scenarios: She tests the flight controls and backup systems, radios, navigation equipment and the radars, checking for any flaw before shutting down the engines one at a time and relighting them. With so much engineering and math involved, the job nurtures Smith’s analytical side.

“That’s what being a test pilot is — it’s not really being gutsy. I mean, you can’t be scared, but in the end, it’s about fully understanding how the aircraft is supposed to function, and then executing the best plan to safely and efficiently test that functionality,” says Smith.

Though the job may sound daunting to those on the ground, Smith says she’s just happy to be flying brandnew planes.

“In the Navy, I flew F-14s — those are old planes and you’d have something break all the time. That’s why they like to have military pilots as test pilots: They have a lot

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of experience with things not going right, and they know how to go through emergency procedures and make judgment calls on what to do,” Smith says.

It’s a career she was drawn to as early as eighth grade, when her science teacher, a finalist for NASA’s Teacher in Space Project, showed The Right Stuff in class. As an upper at Exeter, Smith wrote to then-President George H.W. Bush to ask why women weren’t allowed to fly fighter planes. She received a response stating that the administration felt it was the nation’s desire that women stay out of combat.

“I thought it was ironic that they got so many requests, they had to create a form letter,” Smith says. Undeterred, she enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy, confident she would eventually have her turn at the controls. She was right: In the autumn of Smith’s senior year, the National Defense Authorization Act for 1994 allowed women in combat.

“Half my career is timing,” says Smith. Indeed, after three years flying the F-14, with deployments to the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, she was accepted into the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. Admission is competitive, but Smith says administrators were specifically looking for F-14 pilots the year she applied. Only once was her timing off: Though she also earned a master’s degree in Astronautical Engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School and long hoped to serve as a pilot astronaut on the space shuttle, whenever that opportunity arose, she was either deployed overseas or the victim of budget cuts.

NASA is now looking for younger pilots for Mars missions, and although Smith would still jump at the chance to travel to space, she acknowledges there is plenty to keep her busy. Along with testing 737s, she is helping Boeing with development projects, looking ahead to the near-term future of aviation. She’s also the mother of two young sons who don’t bat an eye at her day job.

Smith is aware that some of her female compatriots have had gender-related issues, but feels fortunate that she has not, beyond the self-awareness that comes of being the only woman in squadron meetings. She’s grateful to have been part of an elite group, the 1,800 or so U.S. Naval aviators who are active at any given time, and that her work challenges and exhilarates her — mentally, physically and emotionally — in an office that is unmatched by any on Earth. E

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G I V I N G

B A C K

A D M I S S I O N S R E P R E S E N TAT I V E S : S E A N D AV I S ’ 9 2 | A D R I E N N E H A R R I S O N ’ 9 7

Seeking out Future Exonians

By Karen Stewart

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Admissions representatives conduct one-on-one hen Sean Davis ’92 returned to campus meetings in or near their hometowns, and those in major for his 25th reunion in May, he attended cities sometimes assemble in groups to meet families Harkness classes and reconnected with and conduct interviews. Others, like Adrienne Harrison classmates. He also caught up with ’97, conduct interviews by video conference. Harrison Jonathan Lee ’17 from Highland Beach, Florida, whom he lives and runs a legal consultancy had last seen when he interviewed Sean Davis ’92 and Jonathan Lee ’17 firm in the Netherlands. “Being an Lee for admission to Exeter. admissions representative … keeps For Davis — class agent, reunion me involved with the Academy,” she organizer, and current class vice says. “And, until I have amassed a president — volunteering to help certain amount of wealth, the best Exeter meet off-campus interview asset I have to give back is time and demands is just one more way of information.” staying connected to the Academy.

Back in Amsterdam after her Admissions representatives conduct 20th reunion (for which she was some 700 interviews between committee chair), Harrison hosted October and February each year, a newly graduated Exonian who sharing first-hand information was traveling around Europe. And, with applicants and providing the during her reunion, she squeezed Admissions Committee with interin a visit with Megi Topalli ’18, of view notes and feedback.

Tirana, Albania, whom Harrison “What I’m looking for [in candiinterviewed and recommended dates] is that intangible — unbridled for admission: “I try not to look at enthusiasm,” says Davis. It was candidates and see myself … but just that kind of enthusiasm that I saw in Megi a lot of me, and I brought him to Exeter from Buenos recognized that her confidence and Aires. His debate coach gave him a drive could lead her to feel embarbook on U.S. boarding schools and rassed at encountering a challenge. I from there, he says, there was no remember telling her that asking for turning back. Today, Davis is based help is not a sign of weakness, and to in Jupiter, Florida. He does developnot wait until it is too late.” Harrison ment work for the Salvation Army Megi Topalli ’18 and Adrienne Harrison ’97 says it was rewarding to hear that and has teaching commitments and when they met recently, Megi a consulting practice on the side. mentioned that advice and said she had taken it to heart.

During interviews, he says, “It quickly becomes apparent As for Jonathan Lee, he will head to Brown University which kids are hungry for Exeter. Jonathan had that spark following a summer internship at Massachusetts General — the desire to learn.”

Hospital studying stem-cell therapies for cancer. He After meeting Lee in 2013 Davis wrote, “It is really a remains grateful to Davis for predicting his future: “When great privilege when I have the opportunity to interview I was interviewing, he told me that at Exeter, I would be someone who is incredibly enthusiastic about the possisurrounded by students who were motivated and inspirability of going to Exeter.” He cited Lee’s eighth-grade class tional, and I would want to emulate what they’re doing. schedule, which included taking advanced math classes, water polo and music lessons at other area schools because He was right.” E he had outstripped the offerings at his own middle school.

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Harkness on Holiday E X E T E R P R O V I D E S N E W AV E N U E S O F D I S C O V E R Y F O R A D U LT S

By Melanie Nelson

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hile Exeter has long extolled the merits of study-abroad experiences for students, it has also done a particularly good job over the last 25 years of engaging alumni, parents and friends in overseas adventures through Exeter Expeditions. Run by the Office of Institutional Advancement, Exeter Expeditions typically offers several travel programs in a given year, each lasting approximately seven to 10 days. Best of all, Exeter instructors with deep knowledge of the subject matter serve as guides for the duration of each trip, and the group size is kept small to ensure a Harkness-like experience.

and Juliet, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of the Bard.

Like the Singers, Dick Mansfield ’52 and wife, Ellie, have also been to London with Ream. “Sarah gave us a good mix,” says Mansfield, “and she brought a lot of value to the experience.” Importantly for the Mansfields, the Haymarket Hotel, where the group stayed on their trip, is located just a few minutes from Trafalgar Square — providing easy access not only to the West End theaters where many of the plays are performed, but also to the

PLAY ALL DAY: THEATER IN LONDON

New Hampshire Seacoast residents Karl and Paula Singer P’86, P’88, P’91, P’94, P’98 know Exeter, and Exeter Expeditions, very well. The parents of five Academy graduates, they’ve had ample opportunities to become acquainted with Exeter’s instructors, particularly those in the theater. “All five of our kids took Introductory Theater,” explains Karl, a semiretired physician who has played viola in the Academy’s orchestra for the past 44 years. “And when our youngest son, Andrew, was at Exeter, we met Sarah Ream [’75; P’09, P’11].” Years later, when the couple saw that Ream, who worked in theater in London for 12 years after she graduated from Yale, would be leading a trip there, the stars, as it were, seemed to be aligning. The Singers signed up for the 2014 junket, and ended up liking it so much that they returned again in 2016, both times with Ream as their guide.

The Singers found the group size and dynamic to be ideal for the many plays Ream had selected and for the Harkness discussions held each morning to discuss the previous evening’s show. “It’s fascinating how everyone sees the plays differently,” says Paula, “how everyone filters them through their own experiences.” What’s more, the Singers add, the range of productions was wonderfully varied on each trip, with 2014’s itinerary offering adaptations of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel, and Moira Buffini’s Handbagged, a comedy about the relationship between Queen Elizabeth II and Margaret Thatcher. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights was a highlight of the 2016 slate, along with William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo

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Participants in the London tour stayed in close proximity to the theater district in the city’s West End.

museums and pubs that became favorite destinations.

Beyond Ream’s knack for choosing riveting plays, say the Singers and Mansfields, she maintains strong professional connections to London-based playwrights, actors, directors and producers that add another dimension to each trip, whether that means having a personalized backstage tour of a film set, dinner with a stage and television actress, or a voice lesson at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.

TAKING FLIGHT: BIRDING IN COSTA RICA

J.B. Nutter ’63 discovered Exeter Expeditions by way of his daughter, Laura, a member of Exeter’s class of 2005.

As an Academy student, Laura took biology with Chris Matlack P’08, P’15, becoming so enthralled with the subject that she decided to pursue a career as a biology

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REDISCOVERING HEROES: KEY SITES OF THE GREAT WAR

Exonians reveled in Costa Rica’s natural wonders with birding expert and Biology Instructor Chris Matlack.

teacher. “Chris really inspired Laura in her work,” says Nutter, who reconnected with Matlack when the former was on campus for his 50th Exeter reunion in the spring of 2013. “Chris knew I was interested in birds,” explains Nutter, “so when he told me he and another long-time biology instructor, Rich Aaronian ’76, ’78, ’97 (Hon.); P’94, P’97, were going to be running a birding trip to Costa Rica the following March, I said, ‘Sign me up!’”

The group traveled mainly in Costa Rica’s northeastern Heredia Province, an area known for its spectacular bird species and, says Nutter, for the La Selva Biological Station, one of the world’s most important tropical research sites. The collective goal of those on the trip, which Nutter describes as “superbly organized,” was to see the quetzal, the region’s symbolic bird known for its bright plumage and long tail feathers, and a variety of larger parrot species. Matlack and Aaronian’s extensive knowledge, along with that of a local Costa Rican eco-tourism specialist who joined the group, led participants to both of these species and numerous others, with a few frogs and sloths thrown in for good measure.

“It was wonderful birding and huge amounts of fun,” says Nutter, who returned to Costa Rica with Matlack and Aaronian for the 2015 Exeter Expeditions trip. “Chris and Rich are fanatics about birding, so even during rest periods or evening cocktails, they would say, ‘C’mon, let’s go see some birds.’ In fact, during our very last night, when we were staying near the capital of San José, they had us out birding on the hotel grounds.”

In addition to the excitement of observing new bird species, says Nutter, he loved the chance to “get to know fellow Exonians” on his two trips to Costa Rica. A lifelong outdoorsman, he is delighted that Matlack and Aaronian are organizing another bio-adventure for next March to Costa Rica’s Osa region, where, he hears, one can see at least five species of wildcat.

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History lover and new Trustee President Tony Downer ’75; P’06, P’06, P’07 says he came away from his 2016 Exeter Expeditions trip to the significant sites of World War I with his “head spinning … in a good way.” Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Great War, the program, adds Downer, was “very well thought out in terms of structure and content,” while the intimate group size of 16 people made for rich and engaging conversations.

Designed and led by Emeritus History Instructor Jack Herney ’46, ’69, ’71, ’74, ’92, ’95 (Hon.), the trip incorporates major battle sites, memorials and cemeteries in France and Belgium while simultaneously examining the war through a distinctly Exonian lens. Notes Downer: “Jack is a masterful storyteller, and what he did exceptionally well was draw a connection between Exeter and this story of global significance. For example, he had researched Harry Butters in the class of 1909, who perished in the war, and we were able to visit Butters’ grave site near the French village of Méaulte. By focusing on the Exeter thread, he helped the group further identify with the war and its human toll.”

While visiting the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, Exeter alumni helped fold the colors at the end of the day.

Herney, too, thoroughly enjoys the trip, which gives him the opportunity to discuss with more seasoned “students” several of the most important sites along the Western Front. “The beauty of this tour is that the participants are old enough to have really studied World War I,” he says. “Plus, everyone in the group has a story — a grandfather or other family who served in the war or was somehow connected. That’s what makes it so moving.”

To learn more about upcoming Exeter Expeditions, look on this issue’s back cover or go to www.exeter.edu/ expeditions. E

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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.

BOSTON Members of the Exeter Association of New England enjoyed two events this spring.

ANNUAL RECEPTION Area Exonians came together at the association’s annual reception on March 29 to fraternize with fellow alumni and to hear guest speaker Connie Liu Trimble ’80 (right), the 2016 John Phillips Award recipient. Todd Truesdale and Leonie Glen with their classmate.

Nicholas Madamidola, Chris Lee and Tommy Cefalu, all from the class of ’16

Kate Villa ’90 and Peter Rodis ’72

Tom Swift ’60 and wife Joanie and John Snow ’79

Trustee Nicie Johnson Panetta ’84; Janney Wilson ’83; Jennifer Sudduth Walsh ’83; P’20; Science Instructor Rich Aaronian ’76, ’78, ’97 (Hon.); Sarah Pratt Dawley ’83; and Coordinator of Academic Support Services Pam Parris ’97 (Hon.) Andrew Kang ’11, Valerie Zhao ’11, Qian Qian Tang ’06 and Lisa Koplik ’09 PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAN COURTER

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Grace Yin and Ellen Xiang, both class of ’15

Julian Serrao ’08 and Niko Grapsas ’09

DJ Carcieri ’06, Will Reynolds ’66, Nathan Allukian ’06, Myron Allukian P’06 and Kyle Tufts ’06

Anita and Robin Lincoln ’53 and Allison and Brij Khurana ’03 MILK STREET KITCHEN Christopher Kimball ’69 and his team at Milk Street Kitchen hosted Exonians for a cooking demonstration on April 4. Kat Orlov ’09 participates in the lesson.

Ann and Bill Strong ’69 Maura Fitzgerald and Allen Carney ’68

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WASHINGTON, D.C. The regional association provided two occasions for Exonians to mingle with classmates: the annual reception on April 20 and a happy hour on March 21.

ANNUAL RECEPTION Alumni, parents and students joined in the fun: Trustee Nicie Johnson Panetta ’84, Emilio Abelmann ’21, Charles Abelmann P’19, P’21 and Bert Keidel ’64; P’21.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LINDSAY KING

Brice Humphrey ’03 and wife Katherine; Hazel Cipolle ’04 and Omid Banuelos ’04

Bill Dakin ’53; P’78; GP’12, GP’15; Parker Jayne ’65; P’94; and Irv Foster ’65

Scott Mitchell ’94, Halie Craig ’12 and Jessie George ’04

Moonlan Zhang ’16, Tyler Hou ’17, Lizzy Kim ’16 and Tan Nazer ’16

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Trustee Serena Wille Sides ’89, Anil Gupta P’20, P’20 and Jeff Eggers ’89

Peter Taliaferro ’65 and guest speaker Connie Liu Trimble ’80

Sophie Berhie ’10, Ainsley Fahey ’13 and Sarah Hannigan ’14

ASK ME ABOUT ... The Exeter Association of Washington, D.C., held conversations about career experiences with eight professionals, in classes ranging from 1971 (Gregory Miller, hospitality and information technology, and Bill Rawson, law) to 1998 (Marcelle Moroze Yeager, professional development).

Marcy Moroze Yeager ’98 and Saul Mercado ’97 Bill Stokes ’82; P’19 and Ken Swanberg ’59

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NEW YORK CITY Alumni attended a women’s convocation and a theater performance this spring.

THE EXETER ALUMNAE CIRCLE’S inaugural event, Celebrating Exeter Women, was attended by 105 Exonian women, including special guest Principal Emerita Kendra Stearns O’Donnell ’31, ’47, ’63, ’89, ’89, ’91, ’97 (Hon); P’00; GP’20 and featured speaker Trish McEachern Regan ’91, host of The Intelligence Report with Trish Regan on Fox Business Network. Pictured here: Chloe Gavin ’72; P’01; Jenny Young du Pont ’78; P’08, P’12, P’14, P’15; Principal Emerita O’Donnell; Kim Welch ’72; and Debby D’Arcangelo ’82.

Christine Williams Fitzgibbons ’88 and Jean Tsai ’88

Christine Shim ’93, Ciatta Baysah ’97, Leila Berkeley ’97 and Dina Hamdy ’89

Hannah Kushnick ’03, Abena Agyemang ’03, Shannon Guy ’04 and Katherine Powers ’03

Alice Hogan ’76, Paula Gifford McKenzie ’76, Lucia Chapman ’76 and Genisha Saverimuthu ’02

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PUBLIC THEATER A group of Exonians enjoyed an evening performance of Latin History for Morons starring John Leguizamo (second row center) at the Public Theater in lower Manhattan.

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UNIVERSITY GET-TOGETHERS Young alums look forward to greeting their Exeter comrades.

CORNELL Exonians at Cornell University connected with friends at a get-together hosted by Michael Baldyga ’15 and Luis Verdi ’15.

YALE Yalies got together for a night out at the Cask Republic: Jun Park ’16, Kevin Zhen ’16 (host), Vincent Vaughns ’16, Rebecca Ju ’16 and Ethan Romero ’16.

Diana Wang ’14 and Jay Lee ’15

EXETER LEADERSHIP WEEKEND

Roger D Ng-A-Qui ’13, Darby Henry ’13, Carlin Zia ’13

Reunion, regional and class volunteers will be invited to campus for Academy updates, 2018 planning meetings and gatherings with current students.

September 22 and 23, 2017

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www.facebook.com/phillipsexeter

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Exeter REUNIONS

2017

For more photos visit www.exeter.edu/alumni.

Reunion photos by Dan Courter, Christian Harrison, Maxine Weed, Rachel Luo ’17

1997: Music by Fantastic Planet in “The Bowld” 1942: Spence and Caroline Martin talking with Ann Warren Lockwood ’81, director of IA alumni and parent relations

Class of 1947 with family and friends 1952: Bob Lloyd, Tim Cogan, Stan Phelps

1957: Todd Lee, Tadhg Sweeney, Peter Sobol Members of the 1967 hockey team

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1977: Classmates joined Friday’s assembly speaker Chris Graves for a quick photo 2012: Classmates enjoyed a morning on the river

1962: Harkness discussion in Latin Study New honorary members of the class of 1972: Thomas Hinkle, David Weber, Rick Mahoney ’61

1982: Ignite presentations with Eric Steel (right) 1987 Class volunteers

Early morning bird watching with Rich Aaronian 2002: Lolly Gorodetsky, Christina Farrell Danka, husband Troy and daughter Morgan

2007: Evening reception 1992: Saturday reception

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PEA ARCHIVES

Peter Connor Greer ’58 1940—2013 Honorary member, classes of 1971, 1981, 1983, 1997 and 2000. First Bates-Russell Distinguished Faculty Professor (2000–2005). Appointed Cowles Professor of Humanities (1987). Recipient of the Brown Family Faculty Award (1994), Rupert Radford ’56 Faculty Fellowship (1997) and George S. Heyer Jr. ’48 Teaching Fund Award (2007).

“If you are going to choose a colleague to work with you on a committee, in a dormitory or on the Athletic fields, and you want the work done well, with thought, good judgment, warmth, reliability, compassion, dedication, support, sustained enthusiasm and fun, you choose Peter Greer.”

— Academy Librarian Jacquelyn Thomas, “Career Review: Peter Greer,” November 14, 1986

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eter Greer was born in Cambridge,

Massachusetts, on October 1, 1940, and spent his childhood in Nashua, New Hampshire; he entered Phillips Exeter as a lower in 1955, lived in Dunbar Hall and graduated in 1958. Though he later described his academic career as “undistinguished,” he was socially active in a number of student groups: the Student Service Group, Band, the Royal Exonians, Les Cabotins, the Biology Group, all-club crew and varsity crew, and he was captain of the golf team. His nicknames, according to the yearbook’s graduation issue, were unpromising and unassuming: “Weeney,” “Twig” and “Tweet.” (More on “Twig” and “Tweet” later ... ) After Exeter, Peter was happy to move on to Yale, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts. Pursuing an early plan to become a writer of fiction, he spent some months

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in Spain, Morocco and France (studying at the Sorbonne) before enrolling for two years in the Writers’ Workshop at Iowa, where he labored, with professedly lackluster results, toward an MFA. That degree left unfinished, he set off for Colombia, South America, for a two-year stint with the Peace Corps, an experience that he later saw as the first stage of his true adulthood. Though he did return to graduate school in 1977 and ’78, earning his master’s degree at Berkeley, his real career as a teacher began upon his return to the States, when he accepted a one-year position at Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

Exeter came calling in 1968, and though it was against all his former thinking (he’d vowed after graduation that he’d never come back), Peter accepted a position by invitation in the English Department that year. A recommendation from Brewster described him as an ideal candidate for a life in independent schools, a young man passionate about teaching who “wouldn’t fight the system.” Years later, in a piece for The Exeter Bulletin, Peter revealed that he’d returned “because he thought he could help make students happier [here] than he’d been himself.” He was offered “bachelor’s quarters” in Hoyt Hall, and in the coming years racked up an impressive résumé of dorm abodes — what might stand as a record: Wheelwright, Wentworth, Merrill, Webster, Main Street (then newly “North,” with Peter strategically placed by the administration to conciliate student resistance to the new North/ South division), Merrill again (or was it Hoyt? the records differ), Soule (where he appreciated the trust of being the first single male placed in a girls dorm), and Knight House, as an affiliate.

Outside of dorm life, Peter threw himself into myriad activities on and off campus, traveling with students to Africa in 1969 and crossing the Sahara in a small caravan of Land Rovers. Following his marriage to Barbara Tsairis in 1973 and the birth of their daughter, Alexandra (Lexie), he worked for School Year Abroad in Rennes, France, and, later, led students on the Stratford program.

He advised the Model Railroad Club, Student Council and the Dialogue Society; coached hockey, basketball, girls squash and — in the early ’80s — something called “varsity landscaping,” and was instrumental in reshaping Outdoor Challenge, adding to the existing outdoor sports program a literary component, with readings by naturalist writers such as Thoreau and Emerson. His friend and senior colleague Bob Bates ’29, the globally renowned mountain climber, was an inspiration to Peter in this as in other areas, not only in the rock-climbing component of the program, but in Bob’s activity as a conservationist and as a human being with inexhaustible curiosity and eagerness for experience. According to one student, Jan Mueller ’81, “Our most important and memorable times

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with Peter were spent in hiking boots and old sweaters, with packs on our backs and dirt on our faces. In swim shorts, jumping blindfolded from the balcony of the old pool as part of a ‘trust’ exercise, in climbing harnesses on the granite boulders of Pawtuckaway State Park, in soggy jeans on a slowly sinking log raft on the Exeter River, or in damp sleeping bags under a tarp on a rain-soaked ridge.”

Once, Mr. Greer sent his Outdoor Challenge students off on their own to traverse the White Mountains’ Presidential Range, with the only instructions being, “See you on the other side” — which they did not reach, having been thwarted by bad weather and potential hypothermia. Safety protocols and Academy insurance coverage have been duly instituted since then.

Peter was chair of the English Department from 1989 to 1994 and was passionately devoted to the department’s writing curriculum, co-authoring such foundational documents as “The Teaching of Writing in the Exeter English Department.” He did much to reimagine the prep-year English experience as the Academy’s first interdisciplinary curriculum, and in that capacity as leader and designer earned the title “Father of Junior Studies.” He served as a mentor to scores of young faculty members, both individually and in small groups that met in his Phillips Hall classroom weekly or biweekly during the teachers’ first years; in these and in so many other endeavors, he was a model of generosity and wise counsel.

Peter’s service to the school was extensive — one is tempted to say exhaustive, as evidenced by his committee involvement: He was a member of the Executive Committee; the first Lamont Poet Committee, where he was instrumental in getting Jorge Luis Borges to the Academy as the first Lamont Poet; the Activities Committee; the Admissions Committee; the Discipline Committee; the Principal’s Advisory Committee; the Committee on Shared Responsibility; the Faculty Fund; Peer Observation; Math Evaluation; the Environmental Task Force; the Ballytobin Selection Committee; and the Curricular Review Committee during the 1980s that radically transformed the school — amid fierce opposition — overhauling the schedule and inaugurating the shift from semesters to trimesters. Peter served for 17 years as secretary of the Friends of the Academy Library; was the chair of the “Exeter Remembered II” project, which produced the retrospective anthology Transitions; served as co-editor of Meditations, volumes II and III; worked with the Exeter Humanities Institute; and organized the 2005 June Colloquium on Environmental Education.

During the 1990s, Peter served on the Principal Search Committee, and in 2002 he chaired the committee responsible for the renovation of Phillips Church. Trustee James G. Rogers ’63, who served with Peter in both of those latter roles, noted: “The beautiful restoration of

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this building, including the new organ and stained glass window, was founded on important thinking about welcoming members of a variety of belief systems very different from the church’s Christian beginnings. Peter cherished that part of our work most — creating opportunities for all members of our community to feel welcome and respected.”

Phillips Church was a place near Peter’s heart, perhaps ironically so for this self-proclaimed atheist, and he spent many hours there as coordinator (the first) of the meditation program. He was a frequent contributor himself, delivering close to 20 meditations in all, in which he built up a veritable memoir of his boyhood and his

“HE RAISED A SURPRISING

its comprehensive vision as an institution of goodness, fully supportive of youth from every quarter.

But it was in the classroom that Peter’s deepest and most durable legacy of service at the Academy abided.

He was a Harkness teacher extraordinaire — vintage Harkness — of that golden generation of teachers hired in the late 1960s and ’70s, whose influence has been profound and far-reaching not only upon their thousands of students, but to many of us in this room who cut our teeth under their mentorship and tutelage. The many testimonials from former students, and parents of those students, speak to Peter’s “uncanny way” of drawing even the mutest of students into conversation, shepherding them in their ideas and insecurities, nurturing their developing voices on and off the page. “The word that keeps coming to my mind when I think of [Mr. Greer],” writes one former student, “is generous.

[He was] inspiringly generous as a teacher. [He] gave of [his] entire self to [his] students — a vast gift of friendship and mentorship that went well beyond the call of duty.” Another student, Katherine Hinckley Jenkins ’91, wrote, “Peter … was popular, beloved, one, I’m sure, of the most heavily visited faculty members when reunion weekends rolled around.

When he was my teacher, he did his best to draw me out of my muteness in class. When we met in conferences over my writing, he encouraged me, prodded me, challenged me.” Sally Murray James ’80 wrote, “Great teaching is a form of love. Peter straightened out our prose, he sharpened our reading and our reasoning skills, and in class discussions he raised a surprising number of questions about the connections between the printed page and the human heart. But more than that, he offered us a bargain for which no student thinks to ask: Throw yourself wholly into this business of learning, take real risks with your ideas and in your prose, and I will cheer you on with unalloyed delight.”

One of Peter’s most popular courses and most influential was the senior elective Literature and the Land, which he established in 1981 and taught for 26 years. He considered this course his greatest achievement, and students testify to it as “one of the greatest gifts” of their Exeter education. One student, Sarah Smith ’88, wrote years later: “While the course material [which extended the earlier, Outdoor Challenge syllabus into an ever-growing list of 20th-century naturalist writers: Annie Dillard, Rachel Carson, John McPhee] was absolutely riveting,

NUMBER OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE PRINTED PAGE AND THE HUMAN HEART.”

mother’s early life; his father’s illness and death; his love of the land, birding and golf; his delight and pride in his daughter, Lexie; his marriage to Dale Atkins in 2004 and their taking up a new life together on Union Street; and his bouts with cancer, following the diagnosis of myeloma in 2005.

Peter’s long and multifaceted service to the school fulfilled the Brewster prediction of him as ideal for Academy life; if he didn’t exactly “fight the system,” his influence was so widely felt that he can be called an agent of change nonetheless. His second wife, Anja Bankoski Greer, to whom he was married for 16 years until her death from cancer in 1998, was his partner in this as in other ways, though the changes she sought — in the system she fought — centered on such issues as scholarship support, academic support for inadequately equipped students, and gender equality. From their respective positions of authority — Anja as academic dean, chair of the Math Department and founder of the Summer Institute that still bears her name — the two of them used their differing styles and temperaments throughout the 1980s and ’90s to help the school realize

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inspiring and engaging to both mind and heart, there was something so much more to the experience than that. It was the example I witnessed in [Peter] as an educator, colleague, friend, parent and partner which began to help me shape my own vision for a future in education and for an adult life in general. At a time when so many of my peers were assessing opportunities for the most lucrative career pathways which could provide the greatest amount of material wealth and ‘success,’ in [Peter] I observed a man who had such richness in life, community and spirit and who truly loved what he did. ‘That is the type of life I want to pursue,’ I can vividly recall thinking at the time.

Ralph Waldo Emerson so eloquently defined success in his piece, but [Peter] embodied it in how [he] lived and loved each and every day. The authenticity with which [he has] lived has always been a beacon for me.”

Peter retired in 2007 after 39 years of teaching but, despite his illness, kept vigorously active outside the Academy. He traveled extensively with Dale — Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Belize, Prague, British Columbia, France, the Adirondacks — the list goes on — Beirut, Israel and Jordan, the latter where he taught for a year at King’s Academy and served as department chair.

Back home in New Hampshire, he volunteered at the Kensington Social Library; an avid birder and conservationist, he placed 32 acres of his family’s Brentwood land into a conservation easement overseen by the Southeast Land Trust. He loved to walk these wooded acres, alone or with like-minded enthusiasts, on the lookout for the occasional golden-crowned kinglet, the rare brown creeper, or familiar black-throated green warbler, scarlet tanager, veery, flicker, wood peewee, ovenbird and greatcrested flycatcher. “Twig” and “Tweet.” He remained in his element.

Friendships remained central, taking many forms on many different occasions, from the dinner party to the poker table, the Survivor group to the squash courts, and, of course, the golf course, a lifetime enthusiasm that Peter paid tribute to in his final meditation. His friend and partner in the game, Roland Merullo ’71, reflects: “You learn about people very, very quickly when you play golf with them. On the course, Peter cared very much, and in the very best way. ‘Oh, Peter!’ he’d say when he hit a bad shot. And when he hit a good one there was a recognizable glow. Mainly, he wasn’t totally wrapped up in himself, and shared gladly in the triumphs of his playing partners, and soothed them in moments of despair. That was a sign of what he was: a good man.”

On December 8, 2013, we lost a good man. Peter died, surrounded by his loved ones, after a protracted, courageous and characteristically optimistic battle with cancer.

He is survived by his first wife, Barbara; their daughter, Lexie ’94, and Lexie’s wife, Victoria Jackson; by Vinnie

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’81 and Greg ’83 Bankoski, Anja’s sons; and by Dale and her son, Colin Mixter.

In reflecting on Peter’s legacy at Exeter, his longtime

friend David Weber writes: “He helped transform the school from the proud, austere, authoritarian one he himself attended in the 1950s to the more global, more forgiving, more democratic (small d), more collegial community of partnerships it has become.” Peter was also about transforming people into more “receptive” human beings, more passionately attuned to the life around them, in land, in literature, in relationships. He led by example. David continues, “That his own ego did not get in the way was one reason why he was quickly, easily, and lastingly loved by both men and women. … He formed strong relationships with people of all ages, irrespective of gender, profession, ethnicity, class, or sexual orientation. … Peter was, then, gifted in the act and the celebration of relationship. Though he had a well earned, deep sense of who he was, he didn’t impose himself on others; he only offered himself. His openness to new relationships as well as to new dimensions of old ones was part of his infinite eagerness for experience.” Former student Chang-Rae Lee ’83 echoes: “Peter’s primary mode, the mode he made into a beautiful and living art, was his remarkably comprehensive engagement with whatever was at hand, whether that was a bird to watch, or a novel to discuss. … A close reader is what Peter was, likely the best we’ll ever know. His complete and passionate attention to the textures and contours of world-and-being gave him — and everyone around him — an appreciation of this life in all its startling variety … the process itself the very joy.”

And for those who loved him, that is the presence that abides. From Sarah Smith: “ … your spirit will remain alive each and every day of each and every spring (and every other season of the year) within the countless number of us whom you taught to appreciate the changing of the seasons, whom you taught to notice the small and miraculous moments in nature’s rhythms and whom you taught to see the endless possibilities within new beginnings.”

And Sarah Courchesne ’98: “When I see a gray-haired man in a khaki vest standing at the edge of a field, binoculars raised, spotting woodcocks in early spring, it takes a nearly physical effort to remember that it can’t be him.

It seems the only thing more powerful than his absence is his presence.” E

This Memorial Minute was presented at faculty meeting on January 30, 2017.

It was written by English Instructor Todd Hearon, with gratitude to Emeritus English Instructor David Weber and Ilo Weber for their good counsel and clarifications, and to Roland Merullo ’71 and Peter’s students for the use of their words.

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Amid the Relic Bones

By Sarah Fahey Courchesne ’98

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were strong enough to support the weight of a man, and so where the nails would have been placed. I was transfixed. The resurrection and the life were sidelights to me. The fate of the body fascinated. I grew up to be a bone collector, a dissector.

The Minke whale was not an individual known to science. There is a laminated sheet on the wall explaining how it washed up dead, the processing of its bones, how they were trucked to a farm, buried, dug up and cleaned.

We know vastly more about this animal’s body dead than we knew about it living, before it was suspended high in this foreign element.

It may never have been seen by human eyes at all. Under its raftered ribs, one of my students looks out the window and spots a bird banded with code U05.

“That’s Sebastian,” she says. “We shared a moment together. He wanted my lunch.” I can’t stop them from giving the birds names.

Every year, it’s the same thing.

Assemble a team of new students, travel to the island, catch birds. Thousands of them over the years. Reteach the trapping, reanswer the questions. In the afternoons, the long hours get threadbare under the weight of the monotonous work and are restitched by my students’ jokes, and yelps of fear, and grinning pride, releasing a bird with their own hands.

The gulls sit stoic in all weather on their nests on the ground. As with many other wild things, most of their young will not survive the year. They incubate their eggs in a boneyard of last year’s dead. The students and I circle the island, and the line from Heaney comes looping back, “To labor and not to seek reward.” Grime builds up on our skin until we can scrape it off in curls with a fingernail. There is feces in my ear. Walking single file, trailing the group with a rebar trap digging into my shoulder, my cadence is a zen chant, “chop wood, carry water,” and I think I glimpse enlightenment, but it was only out of the corner of my eye, and maybe it was just a bird. E

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ast week, I brought a group of my community college students out to Shoals Marine Lab on Appledore Island in Maine. Most have never been anyplace like this. They don’t have the right shoes for the job. The days are long, and we lug heavy traps and gear buckets out onto the exposed, east-facing rocks. We wait for wary birds and recite memorized poems to each other. I know “The Owl and the Pussycat” and Seamus Heaney’s “St. Kevin and the Blackbird.” My students get quiet, watching the ocean rush into a slot in the cliff. They feel sorry every time we flush an eider from her nest.

We study the breeding ecology of gulls, something we can only do during the short weeks when they are incubating and raising chicks, and some disturbance is inevitable. We banded an adult gull on our first day of work, and it did not return to its nest right away. A neighbor gull came and ate the eggs. I overheard one of my students, Sury, talking to another scientist about the fate of that nest. “Oh, the parents will probably lay a second clutch of eggs, and those babies will have a chance,” the scientist told her. “But not these ones,” Sury said, eyes on the kicked up ground and shell fragments.

In the lab’s dining hall, there is the skeleton of a Minke whale suspended from the rafters. In the mornings, before the throngs arrive for breakfast, I sit beneath it and look through its rib cage to the cross-shaped sternum. In the quiet and dust-moted space, I am transported to the Catholic church of my childhood. I went to Mass every week until I went to Exeter. I was an altar server, offering the priest water to wash his hands, tending the candles. God had a human form, looming over us in the crucified Christ angled over the altar. Catholicism is corporeal, a forensic religion. The ladder rung ribs jutting through the skin, blood at the wrist and ankle, a slice in the chest letting a trickle of fluid escape the pericardial sac. We learned from a nun which bones in the arm

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EXETER FAMILY WEEKEND 2017

PHOTOS BY RACHEL LUO ’17

Save the Date!

OCTOBER 13-16, 2017 Family members of current students are warmly invited to spend an autumn weekend on campus and experience the richness and variety of life at Exeter.

• Visit your student’s Harkness classes • Attend Lisa MacFarlane’s assembly • Take in sports team practices and music ensemble rehearsals • Hear from the College Counseling Office • Tour the campus • Get to know other Exeter families from around the world

Watch your email for more information.

A program of events and travel information will be available closer to the date at www.exeter.edu/familyweekend.

20 Main Street Exeter, NH 03833-2460 Parents of Alumni: If this magazine is addressed to a son or daughter who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please email us (records@exeter.edu) with his or her new address. Thank you.

EXETER EXPEDITIONS 2018

EDUCATIONAL TRAVEL PROGRAMS The spirit of Harkness and the passion of Exeter instructors create four extraordinary travel opportunities.

LONDON THEATER

July 21-28, 2018

This is your ticket to a week of extraordinary drama and lively Harkness discussion in the theater capital of the world.

WWI – ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF THE WAR

October 6-13, 2018

Get to know France and Belgium through the key sites of the Great War while simultaneously examining this world-changing event through a distinctly Exonian lens.

NORTHERN LIGHTS OF ICELAND March 6-12, 2018 Explore the pristine beauty of Iceland and learn about the country’s commitment to sustainability during special outings in one of the world’s prime viewing spots for the Northern Lights.

COSTA RICA BIRDING EXPEDITION

March 3-11, 2018 Encounter abundant biodiversity and the beauty of Drake Bay on the Osa Peninsula, home to Corcovado National Park and the region’s most exotic birds and animals.

For more details and registration information, visit www.exeter.edu/expeditions.