Foote Prints Fall 2015
On the cover For 100 years, The Foote School has developed curious and creative learners. The founding values that launched Foote a century ago are alive and well at the school today. On this page As part of a national campaign called “Do One Thing,� Foote students wrote down small ways they can help protect the environment, and showcased them in the Jonathan Milikowsky Science and Technology Building.
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From the Head of School Reflections on Foote’s 100th birthday by Head of School Carol Maoz News at Foote Foote runs a road race, donates iPods and learns about sustainable food systems.
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Cracking the Code With a new technology curriculum, Foote blazes a digital trail into the 21st century. On a Mission Can a child’s curiosity be scientifically measured? Yes, and Foote is helping to pioneer the way. Horizons at Foote Foote’s new summer enrichment program had an incredible first year. Foote’s First Fifty How an acorn planted 100 years ago became the great oak that is The Foote School.
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Graduation 2015 Eighth Grade Celebration Faculty Farewells & Honors New Board Members Report of Giving Reunion Day Class Notes Looking Back Why I
Foote Prints Fall 2015 14
A New Look for Foote Prints
Foote Prints is published twice a year for alumni, parents, grandparents, and friends. Editor Andy Bromage Class Notes Editor Cheryl Nadzam
W E L C OM E TO THE N EW FOOTE PRINTS.
Notice anything different? To ring in our Centennial year, we are re-launching our school magazine with a new look and expanded content. Our goal is to preserve what readers have come to love about Foote Prints while offering new features that delve deeper into the people, learning and traditions that make the Foote community so special. Thanks to everyone who responded to our reader survey last spring with thoughtful feedback. We’ve incorporated many of your suggestions, and you’ll see more in the future. In this issue, the first of two marking our 100th birthday, you’ll find a graphic timeline charting Foote’s first 50 years (p. 14), feature stories on technology (p. 8) and non-cognitive learning (p. 10), and a new curriculum infographic (p. 6). We will also continue covering Grandparents Day, May Day and other big events. Special thanks go to Angie Hurlbut, a Foote parent and designer who created the magazine’s new look. Angie really gets Foote and she combined that understanding with a unique design sense to create a beautiful product that truly reflects our school.
Design AHdesign, Angie Hurlbut Thea A. Moritz Photography Stephanie Anestis, Judy Sirota Rosenthal, Andy Bromage Board of Directors George Atwood Richard Bershtein, President Kim Bohen Constance ‘Cecie’ Clement ’62 James Farnam ’65 Rosa Holler, PTC Co-President Suguru Imaeda Francie Irvine George Knight Nadine Koobatian Michael Krauss Richard Lee, Vice President Cindy Leffell, Vice President Glenn Levin Melissa Matthes Jennifer Milikowsky ’02 Stephen Murphy, Treasurer Zehra Patwa, Secretary Jason Price Kathy Priest Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89, PTC Co-President Kiran Zaman
We hope you’ll like it as much as we do. Send your feedback to abromage@footeschool.org.
Ex-Officio Carol Maoz, Head of School
Happy reading,
Visit us online www.footeschool.org
Andy Bromage, Editor
The first issue of Foote Prints came out in 1970—a modest, four-page magazine put together by a few devoted alumni. Over the years, the magazine added new features, columns by faculty and alumni, and (in 2006) color.
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The Foote School does not discriminate in the administration of its admissions or educational policies or other school-administered programs, and considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, or non-job-related physical disability.
Message from the Head of School
Carol Maoz with Eugenia Whitney Hotchkiss ’35 at Reunion Day
Foote Turns 100 A S ED UC ATORS OF YOU NG CHILDREN , we naturally look
toward the future, focusing on the knowledge, skills and values that our students will need to succeed in the 21st century. As The Foote School marks its centennial year, we pause to look back and reflect on our school’s remarkable journey, how it grew from a living room full of young learners into the beautiful campus and nurturing community it is today. Foote has been a place of discovery and growth for generations of children and families. I was reminded of this at Reunion Day this past May, when I had the pleasure of visiting with two of Foote’s oldest living alums, Eugenia Whitney Hotchkiss ’35 and Eugenia Lovett West ’36. Eight decades after graduating, they had returned to Foote to celebrate their 80th and 79th reunions, respectively. To have an alumna celebrating her 80th reunion is an incredible thing by itself. But it says something important about our school that these remarkable women—best friends since their Foote days— would stay connected to their elementary school, and to each other, over all these years. I hear from alums frequently about the lasting impact Foote made in their lives. As you’ll read in this issue of Foote Prints, the Eugenias can still recite—in unison—lines from the Christmas plays they performed in the converted stable that housed Foote from 1923 to 1958. This year’s graduation speaker was another alum, Clinton White ’82, who spoke movingly about the role Foote played in his decision to pursue a career as a diplomat and humanitarian with USAID. You will find many more examples in this magazine of the meaningful contributions our alums are making all over the world, and the part that Foote played in their journeys.
Much has changed at Foote over its first century—new buildings, expanded faculty, a more diverse student body, new programs and curricula, stronger ties with New Haven. In these pages, you will read how our new technology curriculum is using 21st century tools to enhance student creativity and collaboration, and about an exciting new initiative to assess our students’ non-cognitive skills, which research shows are critical for school and life success. But what is truly notable about Foote at 100 is all that has not changed: the spirit of curiosity in the classroom; inspiring teachers who value children as individuals and treat their every question with respect; the sense of stewardship toward each other and our environment; and above all, a genuine love of learning that makes Foote a joyful and vibrant place to be a child. I wish that Martha Foote could see the incredible community her little school has become, and know that the vision she pioneered a century ago is alive and well in our classrooms today. I hope you will join us in celebrating this amazing milestone during Centennial Weekend in May 2016, and come back to the place you can always call home. Sincerely,
Carol Maoz, Head of School
2016
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Fall 2015 | 03
Foote News in Brief
More than 170 runners joined Team Foote for the 2015 New Haven Road Race.
Centennial Festivities Off and Running got off to a running start on Labor Day with 175 people joining Team Foote for the New Haven Road Race. To mark our 100th birthday, Foote set out to recruit 100 runners for the race but ended up surpassing that goal by a mile! Students, parents, grandparents, faculty, staff and alumni all came out to run and to volunteer by handing out t-shirts and water. Team Foote had 111 runners in the 5K (including 33 students), 21 runners in the 20K and 43 in the half-mile kids’ fun run. The New Haven Green was awash in maroon running jerseys bearing the new Centennial logo designed by Foote parent (and 5K participant) Angie Hurlbut. Many families ran together, and Foote students F O OT E ’ S C EN TEN N I AL YEAR
were seen holding hands and supporting one another as they crossed the finish line. On East Rock Road, Foote students, faculty, staff and alums handed out water to parched 20K runners. Bill and Julie Moore, past Foote parents, have run an official water station at that location for more than three decades; Julie worked at Foote for 30 years—as a Kindergarten Associate and in the Alumni and Development Office— before retiring in 2013. Foote’s big turnout made the news, as well. News Channel 8 and WFSB-TV both included mentions of Foote’s Centennial in their reports about the race. Find links to those clips, and more photos from the event, at footeschool.org/About/News/ArticleID/38.
If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Eat ’Em to Foote on Earth Day with a message about protecting the environment, and a plate of food that made students squirm. The chef and owner of Miya’s Sushi in New Haven visited campus on April 22 bearing sushi rolls made with jellyfish and crickets. Sixth graders gathered to hear him talk in the Jonathan Milikowsky Science and Technology Building. Many held their noses and bravely ate the exotic fare, while others couldn’t stomach the thought. Bun has worked for years to raise awareness about the harmful BU N LAI ’8 4 C A ME BA C K
Bun Lai ’84 shares cricket sushi with 6th graders.
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effects of invasive species by collecting them from Long Island Sound and elsewhere and preparing them into creative dishes on his restaurant’s menu. At the all-school Earth Day assembly, he spoke about sustainable food systems and was presented with Foote’s Environmental Stewardship Award. “That award means more to me than practically any award I’ve ever gotten,” Bun said. “It’s astounding to me, decades after my time here, that Foote School students remain such a thoughtful, creative, and engaging group of young people. I wish all children had the opportunity to go to schools like Foote—because if they did, the world would be a much better place.”
A Playlist to Bring Back Memories I N T HE SPRI N G , Foote held an “iPods for Alzheimer’s” drive
to collect unwanted personal music players for a therapy program that helps patients with dementia. The community service project was part of the national Music & Memory Project and was the brainchild of music teacher Sarah Heath, seventh grader Noah Lee and his father, Dr. Ben Lee, an associate professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. In June, the Lees delivered 20 iPods donated by Foote families to the Connecticut Alzheimer’s Resource Center in Plantsville,
www.footeschool.org
Sarah Heath, Noah Lee, Dr. Ben Lee
Digital Foote Prints our website recently, you’ve missed a lot. There are more ways than ever to connect with Foote and keep up with the latest school and alumni happenings. IF YO U H AV E N’T V IS ITE D
Find the latest school and alumni news on our new Foote News blog. www.footeschool.org/news Read Foote Prints online (current issue
and back issues) anytime at www.issuu.com/footenews Like us on Facebook:
School site: www.facebook.com/FooteSchool
“It’s really gratifying to see how the music heals them.”
Alumni site: www.facebook.com/FooteAlums
—Noah Lee, Grade 7
www.twitter.com/FooteSchool Connect with Foote alums, parents and friends on LinkedIn:
http://tinyurl.com/nk89uno Explore Foote’s roots and check out old photos and history on our Archives Blog: footearchives.blogspot.com
connect with us
where patients will receive individualized playlists with help from trained volunteers. As Dr. Lee explains, research on the brain has shown that music can help patients with dementia recover memories, improve moods, boost cognitive skills and unearth long-buried memories. To connect the effort to curriculum, Heath’s seventh and eighth grade music classes watched and discussed “Alive Inside,” a short film about an unresponsive nursing home resident named Henry who comes back to himself through music. It’s a power the Lees know well: They have a family ensemble called the “Forget Me Nots” that has performed for dementia patients in nursing homes and hospitals for years. “It takes a lot of effort, practicing pieces over and over,” says Noah, an accomplished violinist. “But it’s well worth it. It’s really gratifying to see how the music heals them.”
Follow us on Twitter:
Take a virtual tour of campus with our interactive map. www.footeschool.org/about/campus-map Browse our new online curriculum guides. www.footeschool.org/lower-school/ curriculum, www.footeschool.org/ middle-school/curriculum
Fall 2015 | 05
Connecting the Dots 3 What Does Interdisciplinary Learning Look Like?
S O CI A L S T UD I E S
interdisciplinary curriculum is to guide students to make thematic connections between literature, social studies, science, art and math. Last year, as they have for some 30 years, grades 1 and 2 explored the wonders of eastern Native American cultures through a series of hands-on projects. Focusing on a topic in-depth across different subjects helps children retain information because they are constantly looping back to essential questions that guide their study, says Grade 2 teacher Margy Lamere. Adds teacher Sue Delaney, “It helps them connect to the place they live, it helps them connect to the past, and to see similarities and differences between cultures. Mostly, they just love it. And when they love it, they learn it and remember it.” T H E G O AL OF F OOTE’ S
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B U I LD I NG W I GW AM S
IMAGINING T H E P A S T
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Children learned about traditional Native American homes by visiting a real wigwam built on campus by their teachers, building one of their own in their classroom, working in groups to create miniature wigwams, and using a plastic dome and incense to learn how convection would have heated them.
In October, students visited the summit of East Rock to sketch what they saw and imagine what the area looked like when Native Americans lived here long ago. In the classroom, they practiced cartography by building a 3-D map of what they observed.
Animals—especially deer—played a large role in sustaining early Native Americans. Children read books about many animals and built life-size models of a beaver and turkey, measuring, cutting and painting each body part while learning about their habitats.
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Patience and perseverance were the keys to making reed baskets like the ones Native Americans used to carry and store items. With help from parents and teacher Ângela Giannella, students worked carefully to weave a traditional basket either tall or small. Like the children themselves, no two were exactly alike.
After hearing storyteller extraordinaire Len Cabral tell a Native American-style folktale about Coyote, Old Man Winter and the Seasons, students re-imagined the story in a different way. Each class wrote and illustrated its own version— sequencing it into beginning, middle and end—and created an original title.
Children gathered acorns, pokeberries and marigolds in the fall to make natural dyes the Native American way. With parents’ help, they boiled the plant materials over open fires on campus and tossed wool skeins into the vats. Then in art class, they wove the yarn into colorful bookmarks.
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With a new tech curriculum, Foote blazes a digital trail into its second century
CRACKING THE CODE
in May, and a class of third graders has just filed into the Lower School technology lab for an experiment in digital storytelling. With students seated on the floor, Lower School Technology Coordinator Julianne Ross-Kleinmann explains the task: work in pairs to create an animated story using Scratch, an easy-to-use program designed by the MIT Media Lab to introduce children to computer coding. Each story must have three scenes, two characters and dialogue. I T ’ S A MON D AY MORNING
Then she explains the twist: Each group will create a beginning to their story, then move to another computer and add a middle to another group’s story. Finally, the students will move to a third computer and tack on an ending to yet another story. Julianne calls this collaborative exercise a “pass-it-along story.” At that, the students eagerly fan out to the lab’s iMacs and get to work. Two boys select a playground backdrop for their story, and arrange blocks of Scratch code to add two characters to the screen: a striped cat and a blue dog.
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The next task is trickier: how to use the coding language to move the cat and dog from the playground to their next scene, a baseball stadium. Julianne offers guidance but doesn’t tell them how to do it. “Scratch is meant to be facilitated, not taught directly,” she explains. “You’re supposed to open it up and experiment.” After five minutes of trial and error, the boys figure it out— just as a time bell rings and students scurry to the next computer. Technology instruction has been an exciting part of the Foote experience since the school got its first computer, an Apple II, in 1979, and it has evolved organically as technology has changed. But last year, a curriculum review process resulted in Foote’s first school-wide scope and sequence for teaching technology skills. A committee of faculty and staff spent a year reviewing current curricula, visiting other schools and researching best practices in the academic and professional literature to chart a course for Foote’s digital future.
The newly defined tech curriculum has two main goals: teach children the technology skills they will need in the 21st century—from keyboarding and text editing to using spreadsheets and multimedia tools; and guide them to become good digital citizens, able to understand their role in the digital world and make positive decisions about their uses of technology. To achieve that, technology tools will continue to be integrated into classroom learning, while dedicated tech classes will thoughtfully introduce students to new skills that build upon their growing base of knowledge. Starting in Kindergarten, Foote students begin to learn how to use a mouse, type on touch screens, collect data to use in spreadsheets and safely explore the Internet. By sixth grade, they are learning to use Google Docs, evaluate online sources, protect their online identity, produce multimedia presentations, and manipulate data sets to determine probability and statistics. Classroom teachers routinely incorporate technology to enhance curriculum. First graders use VoiceThread for an oral storytelling project about their grandparents’ upbringing. Third graders build and program Lego robots during STEM class. Seventh graders manipulate complex algebra problems on a touch-screen smart board. Tech tools also connect Foote to the wider world. As part of learning about the 50 states, fourth graders last year participated in a “mystery Skype” session with students from another school in an unknown location. Each class had to use maps and ask questions about geography, climate and local attractions to determine the other’s location.
Also last year, Foote tested out a one-to-one program that assigned a Chromebook and school-based Google account to each fifth grader for supervised use during school hours. The Chromebooks were stored in classroom cabinets and came out for work on research papers, math spreadsheets or interactive presentations. Grade 5 teacher Jake Burt says the relatively inexpensive, cloud-based computers opened new avenues for collaboration while helping students learn responsibility for their device. Teachers, meanwhile, were careful to balance tech time with the “plastic arts” of creating by hand, adds Grade 5 teacher Jim Adams. “They need to learn the skills of handwriting and painting and physically how to erase without ripping their paper,” Jim says. “Typing and online programming are also important things they need to know, so why shouldn’t they start now?” The overarching philosophy, says Head of School Carol Maoz, is about exploring new ways to layer technology onto the curriculum to make learning come alive and prepare students for the 21st century, while at the same time preserving the emphasis on hands-on work. “Tech will never replace the teacher, or the roundtable discussion or reading Shakespeare in its original form,” adds Carol. “Those are things we value. The interactions between students and outstanding teachers are the heart of education.” > Read more about technology at Foote, and see examples of student work, on Julianne’s blog, at blog.footeschool.org/ross.
TECH NOL O G Y AT FO O TE isn’t limited
Last year, fourth graders added a digital
to labs and classrooms. In the art studios,
component to their long-running Chinese
digital media are giving students exciting
paper-cutting project. After carefully cutting
tools for creative expression.
out animal images, students digitally photo-
As part of a professional development project, Art Associate Mike Golschneider and Middle School Technology Coordinator Tony Bures teamed up to begin sketching a digital art curriculum that builds upon successful projects that integrate art and tech, and design new ones that tie into curricular units
graphed and imported them into Photoshop, learning to use layers, filters and color to create an Andy Warhol-inspired image (as pictured here). “Technology and art are both inherently creative endeavors,” says Mike, “and they offer excellent opportunities for innovation both by students and teachers.”
in each grade and impart essential skills.
THE ART OF TECH Fall 2015 | 09
Can a child’s curiosity be scientifically measured? Yes, and Foote is helping to pioneer the way.
On a Mission
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Now in its third year, and expanded to include more than 80 schools on three continents, the Mission Skills Assessment collects data each fall from a scientifically based survey given to 17,000 students in grades 6, 7 and 8. The assessment has three parts: a student portion that asks questions about work habits and attitudes toward learning; a teacher assessment of each student; and a situational judgment in which students are presented with a hypothetical (“You are feeling stressed about the amount of homework you have”) and asked to indicate how often they react in certain ways to that situation (“I blame myself for having put off my homework,” or “I try to get organized to get on top of my homework.”)
F R OM I TS F OUN D ING 100 YEARS AGO , Foote School has
imparted to generations of students that curiosity, creativity and good citizenship are just as important as the skills and knowledge they learn in classrooms. To read a student’s description of art class from a 1930s issue of Foote Notes, you’d think she was talking about present-day Foote. “When the class draws decorative pictures, each pupil uses her own imagination,” eighth grader Katherine Smith wrote in 1931, “and, therefore, all of them turn out differently.” Foote’s founding values remain at the heart of its mission today and a groundbreaking new initiative called the Mission Skills Assessment is providing new tools to measure them. In 2011, Foote joined with 21 other Kindergarten through Grade 8/9 independent day schools across the country to form a data-sharing group that could compare class sizes, financial aid and other information. Called the Independent School Data Exchange (INDEX), the group also focused on best practices for teaching the 21st century skills that are the building blocks for success. Five years earlier, in 2006, a report titled “Are They Really Ready to Work?” had raised alarm bells when 400 U.S. employers surveyed said that college grads entering the workforce lacked important “soft skills” such as teamwork/collaboration, work ethic, communication and creative thinking. The INDEX schools, including Foote, all emphasized these non-cognitive skills alongside their core curricula of math, science, literature and world languages. In fact, these character traits appear, in one way or another, in each school’s mission statement. But how could schools assess whether they were effectively teaching those skills? And how could such data be used to improve student learning? To answer those questions, INDEX teamed up with Princeton-based Educational Testing Service to develop a reliable tool for measuring six “mission skills”—curiosity, creativity, collaboration, ethics, resilience and time management.
What’s so exciting about the initiative, says Head of School Carol Maoz, is that contrary to the notion that children either “have it or they don’t,” research has documented that these skills can be taught and developed. “We now know that these are teachable skills when you integrate them into your method,” says Carol. “It’s incredibly exciting to be at the forefront of this important research that we hope will influence educational reform.” Participating schools are sharing results from the assessments to improve teaching, but have agreed not to identify individual students or to use scores for marketing purposes. What Carol can report is that Foote ranks at or near the top among peer schools in all six of the mission skills. Simply walk around Foote’s campus and you’ll see the mission skills on display, says Head of Middle School John Turner. They are woven into the curriculum at every grade level, from the curiosity of Kindergartners hatching chicks in a classroom incubator, to the collaboration and resilience shown by eighth graders working together to climb the campus ropes course. Foote teachers create learning environments that promote creativity and collaboration, and help children feel safe taking risks that stretch them academically and emotionally, knowing their teachers and peers are there to support them. Foote’s inquiry-based approach to teaching develops children’s natural curiosity by letting their questions drive the discovery process. Teachers, in turn, model these mission skills, whether encouraging novel solutions to math problems, volunteering to lead community service projects, or collaborating with one another to review and improve curricula. “We collaborate as a school,” says Carol, “because we understand that it will ultimately help us get a better result.”
> Read more about the Mission Skills initiative at footeschool.org/missionskills.
Fall 2015 | 11
Horizons at Foote
Foote’s New Summer Program Makes a Splash
BY JA IME C O L E EXE C U T IV E D IR EC TO R H O R IZ O NS AT FO O TE
had an incredible inaugural summer! We welcomed 48 low-income New Haven Public School students to Foote’s campus for a six-week academic and cultural enrichment program. Each morning, Kindergarten, first and second grade students were warmly greeted with hugs and cheers. The positive spirit lasted throughout the day. In our effort to nourish the whole child, food was an important part of the program. The children enjoyed healthy breakfasts and lunches each day. Meals were served family-style so there was plenty of good conversation, modeling of proper manners and trying new foods, which added lots of fresh fruits and vegetables to the children’s diets. H O R I Z ON S AT F OOTE
The children spent their mornings engaged in small-group, project-based learning in literacy and math. With a 4:1 student to teacher ratio, every student received plenty of individual attention. A reading specialist worked with small groups of children to provide extra support. We introduced STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) into the curriculum with classes building remote-control cars and spin-art machines from Legos, using motors and gears, time in the computer lab, planning, sketching and building marble runs, and watching tadpoles grow. The program’s twin goals were to make learning fun and reverse summer learning loss to help close the achievement gap for our kids.
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Afternoons focused on cultural enrichment and swimming. Swimming is an important part of every Horizons program and this summer we saw its impact first-hand. The first week students clung to the side of the pool, timid and afraid to venture in. Most had never been in a pool. By the end of the six weeks the children leaped in and looked forward to showing off their new swimming skills. There were many victories in the pool, from bobbing underwater and venturing into the deep end to swimming without a flotation device. The confidence gained in the pool spilled over into so many facets of the children’s lives. They were encouraged to challenge themselves, and taught that it is okay to make mistakes, learn from them and then try again. Yoga, gymnastics, sports, art, music and field trips were other highlights in the afternoons. The Kindergarten created and tended a garden. In art class, each child created an abstract art masterpiece on canvas. They painted in their classrooms, sketched in the garden and visited an art gallery and a museum. We went to the beach to explore and to a farm to pet animals and take a hayride. Art Afternoon, with 12 different art stations, allowed the children to explore their creativity with shaving cream painting, happiness mobiles, a mural and fairy houses. Our last day featured a kid-size carnival complete with water slides, face painting, games, popcorn and ice cream.
In six weeks, we became a family and created connections that will sustain us until we reunite next summer. Horizons children return to the program for nine summers. They receive full scholarships, funded through independent donations and grants. Each year, as our students move up, we will enroll a new class of 16 Kindergartners. Horizons at Foote staff will stay in touch with the children and their families throughout the school year and host several Saturday events in the fall and spring. The first was a cookout on September 12. This consistency allows us to truly impact the lives of our students. The best part of the six weeks, however, had little to do with academic progress or cultural exposure. A powerful sense of community was built. Trust grew between teachers, students, families and new friends. Joy was evident on the children’s faces, in their engagement in classroom activities, and in the squeals of happiness on the playground. Recent Foote alumni were terrific as interns—reading aloud to students, playing games of all kinds, or comforting a child with a scraped knee. It was clear to all that the children felt safe, nurtured and nourished. In six weeks we became a family and created connections that will sustain us until we reunite next summer. > Horizons at Foote is part of a network of more than 40 summer programs held on the campuses of independent schools and colleges across the nation. To learn more about Horizons at Foote and see photos of the summer, visit www.footeschool.org/Horizons or our Facebook page, Facebook.com/horizonsatfoote.
Fall 2015 | 13
Centennial
How an acorn planted in 1916 became the great oak that is Foote School
Foote’s First Fifty 14 | Foote Prints
June 5, 1902 Martha Babcock Jenkins (later Foote) graduates from Bryn Mawr College, having studied new child-centered theories about education. At college, she completes a year-long class project imagining an ideal school.
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ooking back on it, the story of how The Foote School came to be is as unlikely as it is remarkable. In the autumn of 1917, a 38-year-old mother of three young children, Martha Babcock Foote, found herself in charge of a fledgling school she had joined as a teacher the year before. Mrs. Kingsley Blake, a Yale professor’s wife, had been holding classes for neighborhood children in the living room of her Trumbull Street home, using folding tables and chairs that she put away at the end of each day. In the summer of 1917, she moved from New Haven, and asked Martha Foote if she could carry on with their school, which had come to be known as “Mrs. Foote’s.” The wife of a Yale chemistry professor, Martha had no space for the school and no money to run it. But she had something more important: a vision. Grounded in new child-centered theories about education, the Bryn Mawr graduate believed that learning should be a joyful experience, rich in art, music, drama and literature—a departure from the colder model of education prevalent at the time. With equal parts determination and resourcefulness, and a dedicated community of parents, Mrs. Foote’s School opened that fall in a rented garage on Huntington Street. Martha Foote personally paid the $100 rent from the $250 she had earned teaching the year before. When the school opened that year with 15 children—three of them Mrs. Foote’s—its future was anything but certain. In fact, it would be almost a decade until The Foote School
found its first permanent home, in a converted carriage house on St. Ronan Street. But like a carefully tended garden, the school grew a little at a time, welcoming eager new students, a dedicated and inspiring faculty, and families that would become the sustaining roots of a growing school community which, incredibly, marks its 100th year this fall. As we celebrate our first century—and plan for Centennial Weekend in May 2016—we are digging through the archives to tell the amazing story of our school. For all that has changed over the past century, what stands out are the things that have not: The same lively spirit, thrill of discovery and love of learning and teaching that launched Foote a century ago are alive and thriving today. This issue of Foote Prints will attempt to cover the first 50 years of school history, and the second 50 will be covered in the magazine’s spring issue. A special commemorative book celebrating all 100 years—with great photos, scraps of history and long-lost memories—is in production and will be available for purchase at Centennial Weekend, May 13, 14 and 15, 2016. When she visited campus in September 1958 for the opening of the Gym/Assembly building, Martha Foote remarked, “I can hardly believe that these beautiful buildings are the great oak that has grown from the little acorn that sprouted 42 years ago.” One can only imagine what Mrs. Foote would say if she could see the school today.
> Read more about Foote’s history online at footearchives.blogspot.com.
A page from Mrs. Foote’s photo album includes a photo of Dick Sturley, the son of the school’s second headmistress, Winifred Sturley, for whom the Sturley Room is named.
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trailblazers
1916 1916 Mrs. Foote joins Mrs. Kingsley Blake, who had been teaching neighborhood children for several years in the living room of her home on Prospect Street and later at 88 Trumbull St. in New Haven. The school became known as “Mrs. Foote’s School” or simply “Mrs. Foote’s.”
1917 Mrs. Blake moves away from New Haven, leaving Mrs. Foote’s fledgling school without a home. Luckily, a parent finds Mrs. Foote a room to rent above a garage on Huntington Street. She pays the $100 yearly rent from her $250 salary. School opens in the fall with 15 students, three of them Mrs. Foote’s children. Screens are set up to divide age groups, hang paintings and serve as sets for school plays. Mrs. Bailey joins Mrs. Foote as a second teacher and the school hires a man to clean up after school.
Martha Babcock Foote Founder and Headmistress, 1916–1935 “When Martha Foote was on her way through Bryn Mawr College at the turn of the century, new and revolutionary notions [about education] were challenging the old,” wrote Reverdy Whitlock in his 1994 book The History of The Foote School. “Young Martha Foote liked them. Her mind was open and receptive to them. She would do what she could to find a fertile soil in which they could take root.” As she began her fledgling school, Martha Foote embraced new theories—radical at the time—that learning should be joyful and purposeful, with the goal of helping the child “appreciate the best in literature, art and music that he might become a worthwhile and responsible citizen.” Those founding ideals, forged at the dawn of the last century, have guided Foote
Thanksgiving tableau. Foote’s oldest photo c. 1922
School ever since. Oil painting of Martha Babcock Foote, circa 1905, by Mary Foote, Harry Ward Foote’s sister.
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1910s
1917 United States enters WWI 1920 American women get the right to vote
Tassy Gesell Walden and Walter Perry, class of 1926, in a performance of the play “Orpheus and Eurydice” in Mrs. Berdan’s garden
1919–22 The school outgrows the rented room, and moves several times in the next few years to homes in East Rock of parents who took them in. 1921 Mrs. Foote’s daughter, Margaret Foote (Class of 1935), born on Sept. 17. School did not open until October that year.
1922 Foote moves to the Charles Morris House on Prospect Street and expands faculty. Mrs. Carmalt teaches music in the parlor, two Yale students help at recess and Anna Berdan holds art classes in the laundry room. “When the class draws decorative pictures,” one early Foote student wrote, “each pupil uses her own imagination, and, therefore, all of them turn out very differently.”
1923 School moves into a converted carriage house on Saint Ronan Street. New teachers join the school: Blanche Beach is hired to teach 6-yearolds, Mary Anna Berdan teaches history and Larry Noble works on the playground. Emily Beecher teaches domestic science to the older girls, who are allowed to cook hot lunch for themselves once a week. The school expands through eighth grade, forms a Parent-Teacher Association and adds a formal athletics program. Natalie Gordon hired as athletic director, sets up point system as incentive for athletic achievement. School day extended to include afternoon classes. Many students walk home for lunch; those from suburbs are treated to hot lunch at school. 1924 Mrs. Foote hires Winifred Sturley, who teaches English, math, geography and history.
Margaret Foote in eighth grade, 1935
1920s 1929 Stock market crash triggers Great Depression. Enrollment continues to increase at Foote, as Yale faculty are largely insulated from effects of crash.
Charles Morris House on Prospect Street (left) and the carriage house (above).
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Football in 1937 (far left), and Field Hockey, circa 1932
1930 Student Council begins, with representatives from the grades.
1931 School is incorporated as The Foote School Association, Inc., giving it bylaws and formal structure. Yearly tuition increases from $125 to $310, with an extra $12 charge for milk. First issue of Foote Notes, 200 copies printed. “The afternoon was spent selling magazines around the neighborhood,” the editors reported. “Everyone bought at least one copy and the money poured in to the treasurer in streams.” Maroon and Grey chosen as school colors. “A banner was needed for some special occasion and my mother volunteered to make it,” Herb Harned ’34 would recall. “She had gray and dark red felt (nearly maroon) available and sewed the word ‘Foote’ on the banner. The banner occupied a fairly conspicuous place in the hallway at the school presumably until it was consumed by moths.”
1932 Miss Gordon starts a posture campaign. Basketball introduced as sport, played at Trinity Parish Gymnasium. Yale lends Foote use of field at Prospect and Canner streets for hockey, football and soccer practices. 1933 First interscholastic sporting event—a football game against Hamden Hall Country Day School—ends in defeat for Foote. 1934 May Day celebration held on the property of Mrs. Holcomb York. 1935 Mrs. Foote retires. Winifred Sturley becomes headmistress.
Winifred Sturley, 1937
1930s
1932 Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
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1939 Wizard of Oz film premieres
trailblazers 1940 Mrs. Stella Nahum begins annual school trips to the Metropolitan Opera. 1941 Foote admits 28 British students from Oxford, housed by local families, sent to the U.S. to escape the war.
1943–44 Margaret Foote ’35 (Mrs. Foote’s daughter) teaches fifth grade, and invites her class to Dwight Chapel for her wedding to Franz Oppenheimer. 1948 Foote School grows to 186 students, 16 faculty and staff, has annual operating income of $56,000 and gives out $4,775 in financial aid.
Winifred Sturley English teacher and Headmistress, 1924–1955 Winifred Sturley came to New Haven in 1922, only to return to her native England six weeks later when death cut short her husband’s professorship in Yale’s Physics Department. She came back to visit in 1923 and met Martha Foote one afternoon at the home of art teacher Anna Berdan, where students were performing the play Orpheus and Eurydice. Then and there, Mrs. Foote asked her to join the faculty, and Mrs. Sturley accepted, going on to teach English, math, geography and history before succeeding Mrs. Foote as headmistress in 1935. “Mrs. Sturley is one of the kindest people alive,” wrote student Lisa Farrel (later Lisa Totman, longtime third grade teacher) in a 1956 Foote The third grade in 1943
Notes essay titled “A Remarkable Person.” Amidst a depression and world war, Mrs. Sturley shepherded the school through a period of growth while staying true to its
1940s 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. enters WWII. Many Foote boys served in the war.
1948 Big Bang theory formulated
founding ideals. “We want to help each individual child do the best job of learning that he can do,” she wrote upon her retirement. “We believe that happy living comes from increasing power, which itself comes from happy learning.”
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In January 1958, students carried “what books and supplies they could from the old school to the new,” Mr. Pennypacker wrote at the time. “Grade 5 tagged along behind because they could not stand not to be in on the excitement. It was a grand occasion.”
traditions 1954 Enrollment reaches 210, leading to the search for a new location. Foote purchases 5.8 acres along Loomis Place for $75,000. School selects architect Carleton Granbery of the firm Perkins and Will to design new campus. French Canadian lumberjack clears land, with students chipping in to help; sale of firewood nets school $200. 1955 Mrs. Sturley retires. That June, she is awarded an honorary degree from Yale for her leadership in elementary education. Kendall Pennypacker chosen to become school’s third head.
May Day As early as the 1920s, Foote students performed English country dances in a springtime celebration that would become the May Day tradition. With the patient, enthusiastic
1956 Enrollment reaches 214, with a waiting list of 144. New bylaws open Foote School Association membership to all parents/guardians.
and loving guidance of music teacher Jean Shepler, May Day grew over four decades
1957 Foote secures $100,000 loan to complete Phase 1 of building the new campus. Board member H. Everton Hosley, Jr. appeals to parents, past parents, alumni and friends to donate $150,000 to supplement the loan. 1958 Foote moves Upper School to new campus on Loomis Place, while Lower School students remain at the carriage house. With Foote’s expansion causing growing pains, and facing an increasingly assertive and divided board of directors, Pennypacker submits his resignation. 1959 D. Elizabeth Churchill becomes Headmistress. During her tenure, Foote adds new buildings, begins the Halloween Parade and joins a sports league with Hopkins, Hamden Hall and other independent schools. Construction of five Lower School classrooms, gym/assembly hall and playing field finished. Donations permit the purchase of land extending the school to Canner Street, allowing for construction of a playground and parking lot.
to become a rite of spring beloved by Foote students, parents and teachers alike. Every grade participates in the joyous celebration that, for students, is the culminating study of collaboration and movement in music class. Mrs. Shepler made a recording of herself playing the piano accompaniment for the third grade maypole dance; that recording has since been digitized and provides the maypole soundtrack to this day. While much
Kendall Pennypacker
remains as it was on those first May Days, a few things have changed: Students now dance on grass (weather permitting) rather than asphalt, all dances are now co-ed, and ninth graders dress in colorful, whimsical costumes for the fun (and competitive)
1950s
Sleights Sword Dance.
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1954 Supreme Court rules school segregation unconstitutional
Class of 1959 at Loomis Place
D. Elizabeth Churchill (far left) and Frank Perrine
trailblazers 1960 New Foote buildings receive award of merit at the Boston Arts Festival. Common Unit constructed to house administrative offices and dining room.
1966 Middle School Building completed. Designed by architect Henry Miller, the project finished $5,000 under budget.
1960s During the 1960s, Foote found itself ranked in the top third scholastically of all elementary private schools in the U.S.
1967 Mrs. Churchill retires as Headmistress. Frank Perrine becomes Headmaster. In the 1968 yearbook, students wrote of their new head, “We all liked him from the beginning, but he really won us over when he appeared one recess to play football.”
Margaret B. Hitchcock Foote English teacher, 1931–1957 One of Foote’s most legendary teachers, Margaret Ballou Hitchcock—“Hitchy” to her students—was a demanding yet inspiring
Kindergartners in the fall of 1964
lover of literature who embodied the high standards and joy of learning that have come to define Foote. “She was full of energy, of gusto, of wonderful enjoyment, marvelous humor that erupted all the time,” recalls Joanne John Turnbull ’41 in The History of The Foote School. “She gave us all a sense Foote School cheerleaders, 1965
that there was literally no limit to the study and enjoyment of literature, and the joy of developing one’s own ideas—that it could be a lifelong adventure.” Recalled another student, “Though she was undoubtedly a terror to some of her students and could be hard on anyone who didn’t meet her standards, I found her class a thrilling experience. Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, Poe, Emily Dickinson truly came alive for us
1960s
that year.”
1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech
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1916
Foote Turns 100!
One of the earliest school photographs, this picture from 1930 shows the older Foote students in the Trinity Parish House gym, downtown on the corner of Wall and Church streets, where athletic classes were held for many years.
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2016 Ready, Set, 100! The entire school turned out on a sunny spring day to be photographed on Rike Field with East Rock in the distance. The Foote School has been part of the fabric of New Haven for 100 years, and will celebrate this historic milestone with a series of events this school year, leading up to Centennial Weekend in May 2016.
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Graduation 2015
A C R E AT I VE AN D CL OS E-KNIT CLAS S
of ninth graders said farewell to Foote on June 10 in a moving and musical graduation ceremony. The last class to graduate before Foote’s centennial year, the 19 students of the Class of 2015—many of whom came to Foote as Kindergartners—departed for their next chapter with lessons and memories to last a lifetime. Graduation speaker Clinton White ’82, a senior foreign service officer with USAID, urged students to follow their passions wherever they lead, saying his own Foote
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experience inspired him to pursue a career as a diplomat and humanitarian. Before proud parents, teachers and classmates in the Hosley Gym, students were awarded diplomas and academic and athletic prizes, and shared photos of their Foote years in a touching slideshow. The grads also performed on hand bells and steel pan drums, playing the Coldplay songs “Viva La Vida” and “Clocks”—the latter a fitting reminder about the passing of time, and the end of an era the grads will never forget.
“You care deeply about diversity, fairness, the environment and the human condition. Perhaps most notable, though, is that you are comfortable in your own skin and you feel safe enough in this environment to have shared some very deep emotions with one another.” —Head of School Carol Maoz, in remarks to the graduating class
Accolades & Gifts Foote School Prize Elsa Rose Farnam, Jared O’Hare, Zev York Margaret B. Hitchcock Prize Victoria Fletcher, Adelyn Garcia Academic Achievement Award Elsa Rose Farnam Honorable Mention: Liza Diffley, Dylan Sloan, Zev York Jean B. Shepler Fine Arts Prize Charles Shaw Athletic Achievement Award Anli Raymond, Will Wildridge Class Correspondents Anli Raymond, Will Wildridge Hannah Lee Diploma Judy Cuthbertson (former MAG teacher) Class Gift Financial Aid, China Program Visiting Fund Ninth Grade Parents Farewell Gift Three advanced, digital microscopes for middle school biology lab
Graduates Will Attend Avon Old Farms Cheshire Academy Choate Rosemary Hall Deerfield Academy Guilford High School Hamden Hall Country Day School Hopkins School North Branford High School Ridley College Wilbur Cross High School The Williams School Top: From left, Emily Zetterberg, Tess Friedman, Liza Diffley and Hannah Volk; Center: Brothers and sisters of the graduates read a graduation wish to the departing class; Above: Jared O’Hare, Tess Friedman, Zev York and Anli Raymond present former MAG teacher Judy Cuthbertson with the Hannah Lee Diploma.
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Graduation 2015
‘Be Bold, Be Brave and Don’t Be Afraid’ The following is an excerpt from the graduation address by Clinton White ’82, a Foote alum and senior Foreign Service officer for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
beyond words to celebrate this wonderful day with you. It’s really exciting to be here and to be a part of the last class to graduate before embarking on the Centennial. You should all feel a sigh of relief to have accomplished this goal. I am sure there are a number of parents in the audience also breathing a sigh of relief. I A M H ON ORED
Just like you, Foote School is a very special place for me and my family. It’s a home away from home with so many fond memories like going to the library, playing four square, going down to Naples Pizza on a Friday, or learning about ancient history. So just to set the record straight, I am a Grey, and back in the day we used to rock it. As you sit here on your day, so many thoughts and emotions travel in your mind. But just for a few moments leave the thoughts of tweets, instagramming, and candy crushing aside. Kids, I am speaking to your parents. So what makes a school like Foote so special? Well for one, it is one of the best grammar schools in the country. It’s a school built upon a classical education in this modern age that still emphasizes creative thinking. Within this framework, it provides the tools to be successful in whatever one chooses to do in life. The school has also had industrious heads of school, like Frank Perrine, Jean Lamont and Carol Maoz.
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Their visions put us on an evolutionary path of growth and development in our formative childhood years that you will learn to cherish well after departing this school. We should all give them a round of applause for that. And for the class of 2015. I understand one of your favorite songs is “Centuries” by Fall Out Boy. I like it, too. This is a song about empowerment: “Some legends are told, some turn to dust or to gold, but you will remember me.” Your legacy begins at Foote and you can be whoever you want to be in life. For me, it was serving a higher purpose—an awakening of my social consciousness to serve in a career dedicated to humanitarian assistance around the globe, to help those who could not speak for themselves escape from extreme poverty and fight for human rights. As a Foreign Service officer with USAID, I have been able to do this. Nelson Mandela once said that in this new century millions of people in the world’s poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved and in chains. They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free. Now here is a man who rose from a jail cell to become one of the most influential presidents the world has ever seen. I happened to visit that cell on Robben Island and could not imagine what he endured. You are in an era where your years at Foote saw the election of our first African American president, and who knows what story will be told in the upcoming election—and whether another first will be achieved.
“Your legacy begins at Foote and you can be whoever you want to be in life.” —Clinton White ’82, graduation address
The Ninth Grade Handbell Ensemble performs the Coldplay song “Clocks.”
I spent years in West Africa working to improve the lack of education facilities and problems as basic as not having books for young kids to learn. It is truly a rewarding experience when you see young girls have an opportunity to attend school for the first time in a community. I was in Pakistan, which was named the world’s most dangerous country at that time. During my first month in that country, there was a bombing at a Marriott Hotel not far from my home. The blast caused me to fall out of my chair. Having the will to stay there to work with the government of Pakistan on programs to strengthen accountability and reduce corruption was important. Then to move to Egypt for four years, thinking it would be more relaxing, only to find ourselves right in the middle of a revolution—Arab Spring. What if I told you that it was the youth of that country using social media to organize and mobilize people into the streets to cry for freedom, social justice and bread? Yes, bread, as certain foods and gas were, and still are, being subsidized by the government and there was an attempt to raise these prices. Then when the government shut down the internet, they still were able to flood Tahrir Square demanding change. Being around people who have the will to succeed at all costs is what keeps me motivated, and I was glad to have been there to help implement programs to support the citizens of Egypt. Now Foote played a large role in my career. How was this achieved? Everyone these days talks about cracking the code. Scientists are trying to crack the genetic code to find better cures for cancer. USAID is trying to find ways to end poverty. Even the Disney show “Dog With a Blog” is trying to crack the code of family life. At Foote, there are two things that come to mind: friendship and teachers. During these formative years, you learn how to get along with other kids from diverse backgrounds. My class was one of the most diverse; in fact 20 percent of our class
was African American. Our class bonded together, in school and out. You should embrace this diversity, as it is something you will encounter throughout your life. It has helped me in my career overseas and in the U.S. Friendship is the sweetest gift this world has to offer. Next are the teachers. Foote’s teachers are the best academically, but they also truly care about you and want you to succeed. I might not have always paid the closest attention in class; in fact Mr. Sandine might have called me a rascal a few times. However, they have planted the seeds of learning that will grow inside of you. This will bring out the best in you. For me, Mrs. Ross for Latin and Mrs. Solowitz for math both did this. My history teacher, Mr. Osborne, had a heart of gold. The way he connected with the students was amazing and when he departed in my eighth grade year, there was not a dry eye in the class when he told us. Then there was Mr. Willis. I remember going to Eaglebrook soccer tournament and it always seemed like the coldest day of the year—and this was before Under Armour. He never allowed us to wear sweat pants on the field. You would start running around freezing thinking ‘why?’ But soon you would forget all about the frigid air, and focus on the game with your teammates. Teachers truly bring out the best in you. So in closing, my advice to you is to be bold, be brave, and don’t be afraid. Seek out what it is you want to do. One of the most famous American writers, Mark Twain, once said that the two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you found out why. And if I could add a third day, it is the day you graduate from Foote. Remember, your legacy has begun. Good luck to the class of 2015 and thank you. > Find video of Clinton White’s speech and more graduation photos on our website, at www.footeschool.org/graduation2015.
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Eighth Grade Celebration
E I G H T H GRAD ERS W ERE celebrated as a
class of budding scientists, writers, mathematicians, actors and humanitarians at the Eighth Grade Celebration (formerly Recognition Day) on June 9. Surrounded by their families, teachers and peers, 24 departing students received certificates while 25 were introduced as the ninth grade class of 2016. The path to the Hosley Gymnasium, where the ceremony was held, was lined with soapstone animal sculptures the students spent weeks meticulously carving in art class. Musical talents were on display as
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well, as eighth graders performed pop hits by Katy Perry and Calvin Harris on handbells and steel pan drums. Activity club leaders recapped student accomplishments this year—raising $250 for Ebola patients, taking Foote’s student newspaper online for the first time, creating a mobile app and publishing it to the App Store—and handed the reins to their successors. Eighth graders were also honored for outstanding achievements in academics and sports.
> Find more photos on our website at www.footeschool.org/celebration2015.
Departing Eighth Graders Will Attend Choate Rosemary Hall Holderness School Hopkins School Hotchkiss School Loomis Chaffee School Phillips Academy Andover Proctor Academy Westover School Wilbur Cross High School
“We hope that you will be independent of mind, and yet also willing to join others for a common cause—whether a classroom project, a whole-school event, or a task that will lift and reshape a community” —Head of Middle School John Turner, in remarks to the eighth grade
Accolades & Gifts Academic Achievement Award Sam Curtis, Clara Li, Bruno Moscarini Honorable Mention: Edie Conekin-Tooze, Ian Mentz, Siraj Patwa, Liam Podos The Barbara Riley History Writing Prize Bruno Moscarini Athletic Award Grady Bohen, Nicola Sommers Maroon & Grey Award (Field Day Winner) Grey Team: Co-Captains Elsa Rose Farnam, Vincent Kenn de Balinthazy Parents Farewell Gift Lower School Technology and Financial Aid Student Council Gift Integrated Refugee & Immigration Services (IRIS) New England Mathematics League Students in grades 6–8 competed with peers around New England in the Math League contest, answering questions covering advanced arithmetic, algebra and geometry. Grade 8: Team placed third in the New Haven region, and 11th out of 93 schools overall. Clara Li finished 22nd in New England. Grade 7: Team placed first in New Haven region, and fourth out of 89 schools overall. David Metrick finished first place in New England; Noah Lee finished sixth.
Top: Elizabeth Koobatian and Damon Swift; Center: Siraj Patwa with his parents, Huned and Zehra Patwa; Above: Ninth grader Dylan Sloan announces Elena Miko as the new “Falco” mascot.
Leadership Roles for the 2015–16 School Year Ninth Grade President Maddie Milazzo Student Council President Liam Podos Amnesty International Ida Brooks, Abby Cunningham China Ambassadors Sam Curtis, Maddie Mulligan Chorus Fiona Jennings, Graley Turner Community Service Caroline Huber, Kiki Magid Club of Applied Sciences Anjali Mangla, Jake Nadzam Environmental Action Group Christopher Gore-Grimes, Grace O’Keefe F-STAND Christopher Gore-Grimes, Serena Levin, Evie Pearson Footenotes (Literary Magazine) Kyle Shin Foote Steps (Yearbook) Belle Crocco, Abby Cunningham Jazz Rock Ensemble Pablo deVos-Deak, Hilal Zoberi
Grade 6: Team placed second in the New Haven region, and 11th out of 99 schools overall. Ting Li finished 14th in New England.
Model Congress Parker Jones, Kevin Mani, Matt McCarthy, Liam Podos, Sebastian Shin
National Latin Exam Roughly 153,000 students from every state and 20 foreign countries took the 2015 National Latin Exam, answering questions on grammar and syntax, Latin sayings, and Roman history, religion and culture. Forty-two Foote students received awards for scoring above the national average.
SPI (Student Newspaper) Liam Podos, Neal Shivakumar, Jerry Sun Falco Elena Miko
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Faculty Farewells to three beloved and dedicated faculty members this year, who together devoted nearly six decades to the school and its children. F O OT E S AI D GOOD B Y E
Jenny Byers ’65
Sue Delaney
Carol Poling
Jenny Byers ’65 has been a member of the Foote family for more than half of its 100year history: nine years as a student (she started in Kindergarten), 50 years as an alumna and 29 as a much-admired French teacher. Exuberant and thoughtful, Jenny inspired in her students a genuine love of the French language and culture, which she developed during post-college years spent teaching in Lausanne, Switzerland and at the Lycée International in Paris. At Foote, she taught both Lower and Middle School classes and chaired the Modern Language Department for 13 years. She was faculty advisor to community service for five years, and began Foote’s relationship with St. Ann’s Soup Kitchen in Hamden. Outside of school, she has been active in numerous organizations and causes including the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Doolittle Lake Company in Norfolk, Conn. (she was the first female president), the Edgerton Park Conservancy (she serves as vice president) and, recently, as a passionate advocate for saving roadside trees threatened with removal by utility companies. She also translated a series of letters between Albert Schweitzer and Larry Mellon from French into English, which became the book Brothers in Spirit. Luckily for Foote, Mademoiselle Byers returned this year to teach a few classes, so we can wait a little longer before saying au revoir!
Sue Delaney has taught a generation of first and second graders at Foote, inspiring them with her passion, her sense of curiosity and a seemingly effortless ability to make learning come alive. She joined Foote as a Kindergarten assistant in 1989 and became a Mixed Age Group teacher five years later. With a glowing smile that lights up the classroom, Sue eagerly welcomed all types of learners and nurtured their academic and social spirit, developing an enduring sense of mutual trust and respect with her students. Her contributions and commitment to Foote extended well beyond the classroom. She chaired the Professional Development Committee, served on the Faculty Council and the search committee for a new Lower School Head, and was treasurer of the Sunshine Fund, which sends flowers, food, gifts and remembrances to faculty and staff members in times of joy and sorrow. Sue was a longtime member of an informal Foote quilting group that makes beautiful quilts for the babies of Foote faculty members. A lover of classical music, Sue (along with the entire Foote faculty and staff) was treated at a farewell luncheon to a wonderful musical performance by two Foote parents, violinist Yaira Matyakubova and pianist Andrius Zlabys, whose children Sue taught. It was a fitting tribute to a teacher who made a lasting impact on so many children.
Learning Support specialist Carol Poling has been with Foote on and off since 1982. She taught four years in the Learning Support Program before moving to Kentucky with her husband Wes, where she taught elementary school. After 18 years, Carol came back to Foote in 2004, first to cover a leave for Lane English and later returning to LSP. Warm and thoughtful, Carol approached all of her students with kindness, patience and a belief in their abilities. Her genuine enthusiasm for teaching reflected the school’s motto, “Gladly will I learn and gladly teach.” Carol also served many years as the faculty liaison to MOSAIC, the Foote diversity organization formerly known as the Multicultural Affairs Committee. In that volunteer position, she devoted countless hours to bringing speakers to campus to lead stimulating conversations with students and parents during Unite Through Understanding Day and evening presentations hosted by MOSAIC. Her attention to detail and collaborative spirit made her a pleasure to work with for her MOSAIC co-chairs and the entire Foote faculty.
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Faculty Honors and staff members were celebrated for a major milestone: 15 years at Foote. At a faculty luncheon in the Hosley Gym, colleagues paid tribute to the honorees, speaking movingly about the difference they have made in the lives of their students and Foote families. Below are excerpts from those speeches. I N A PRI L , F I VE F ACU LTY
Adam Solomon, Grade 5
Bette Donahue, Front Desk
“It’s hard to quantify what makes a good teacher, let alone a great one, but that’s what we decided to do. We’ve put together a series of random statistics that quantify Adam Solomon the teacher. Number of students taught: 259. Committees he’s served on: 24. Number of times he’s been referred to as ‘the nice one’: 2,451. Number of times he’s politely laughed at our jokes: 166. People who have positively benefited from Adam’s enthusiasm, work ethic, patience, ability to listen and innate understanding of what makes a great environment for student growth, safety and achievement: 3,893. Thank you, Adam.”
“Bette greets parents, students and faculty at the front desk with a beautiful smile and a hello. The kids love talking to her. Bette is always ready to help, even when she is very busy answering the phone. She is also an amazing artist. She takes her paintings everywhere for exhibits but she doesn’t advertise it. She inspires a lot of people here and I am one of them. Bette is my role model. She has a huge heart and she gives a lot of herself to us.”
—Jim Adams and Jake Burt
Tina Hansen, Latin “Tina is one of the kindest and calmest people I know. No matter how crazy our days can become—popcorn burning in the microwave, phone ringing at the same time— Tina handles everything with her calm and pleasant attitude. I asked Tina’s students for their thoughts on Ms. Hansen. This is what they said: ‘Ms. Hansen is a teacher who made a dead language a lively and interesting one.’ ‘She is very kind and always makes sure that we learned the material.’ ‘Nicest teacher and the most patient person.’ Clearly Tina is very much loved by her students.” —Özler Kayaarasi
—Ângela Giannella
New Faculty 2015–16 Foote welcomed eight new faculty members for the 2015–16 year with a diverse range of teaching experiences. Among them are two Foote alums. Front row, from left: Chinese Guest Teacher Luo Jingbo, Grade 1 Teacher Grace Peard ’05, Specials Associate Candace Franz, Grades 4 & 5 Associate Samantha Mashaw ’04, Learning Support Specialist Tracey Ruotolo. Back row, from left: Grade 4 Associate Andrew Zielinski, Grade 2 Teacher Chester Sharp, Teacher Intern Tyler Reid.
Julian Schlusberg, Drama “Julian retired from Hamden High after 30 years and thought this would be a relaxing ‘retirement job.’ I don’t know anyone whose retirement job means working six days a week all year long. He is here every Saturday during the school year working with his casts. He is here most of the summer for summer theater. When that ends, he prepares the welcome mat for new teachers as head of the Faculty Orientation Committee. We all feel lucky and blessed to have a colleague with such amazing passion for teaching children. I hope you stick around another 15 years so my own children can experience you as a teacher!” —Colleen Murphy
Bill Manke ’91 After School Program “Fifteen years ago, I was asked to interview Bill. Here are a few of my notes: Bill says he will probably only be around for a year; he loves playing; he is excited to be a role model for so many kids; he is flexible and happy to help out doing anything. Fifteen years later, Bill has done a lot around Foote: After School Program teacher and assistant director, admissions person, advisor, bus circle, gym teacher, stand-in Girl Scout leader, front desk, and much more. Many things about Bill have changed over the years, but he is still the same genuine, calm, caring person.” —Dawn Walsh Fall 2015 | 31
From the Board President
On all fronts the numbers are strong. But, of course, most important is how the school feels to its students and families.
At 100, Foote is Strong as Ever the school’s Board of Directors, I’m delighted to report that after 99 years The Foote School is in great shape! Most importantly, Foote has wonderful, inspiring teachers and a terrific Head of School. Joyful learning, effective planning and continuous improvement have characterized Carol Maoz’s six years at Foote. The faculty has engaged in a thoughtful curriculum review process in which each area of Foote’s program was considered thoroughly with opportunities for faculty to visit other schools, learn about recent research and best practices, and share ideas about challenges, possible enhancements and goals. Each year, the curricular review process provides time for continued reflection and opportunities for teachers to share strategies and skills. ON BEH ALF OF
Foote is a founding member of INDEX, a group of outstanding independent schools across the country. Each school in the group has more than 400 students enrolled in grades K-8 or K-9. While there are many similarities among these schools, Foote stands out in significant ways. One important factor is that the school has no debt. Foote is able to focus on its daily work and plan for the future without needing to set aside funds to pay for past projects. Another important measure on which Foote excels is financial aid. Foote’s financial aid program is among the strongest of any elementary school in the country. Last year the school provided more than $1.6 million to nearly a quarter of Foote students, who would otherwise have been unable to enroll. Financial aid supports socioeconomic diversity at Foote—one of many measures of diversity that describe the school’s current families. In addition to sharing benchmark data, the 90 INDEX schools are working together to measure the growth of young people in six key areas: curiosity, creativity, collaboration, ethics, resilience and time management. Decades of research—as well as decades of experience at Foote!— demonstrate that non-cognitive skills are as important
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as cognitive skills in academic and life success. These six “mission skills” have formed the core of Foote’s educational philosophy for a century. New scientifically based assessments provide innovative tools to measure how successfully our curriculum is meeting the goals outlined in our school’s mission. The results have affirmed our approach to teaching and learning, with Foote students performing at or near the very top in all six areas. On all fronts—applications, enrollment, the Foote Fund (formerly the Annual Fund), endowment and others—the numbers are strong. But, of course, most important is the daily school experience, how the school feels to its students and families. With five children attending Foote I have plenty of opportunities to visit classrooms, meet with teachers and hear reports from children in Kindergarten through Grade 9. I can assure you that it is great to be a child at Foote! Every classroom shines with engagement, enthusiasm and genuine pleasure at learning. The connections between teachers and their students are obvious, and even the casual visitor sees the collaboration between teachers that provides the foundation for each day’s work. As we begin this Centennial year, the Board of Directors is committed to ensuring that Foote School’s next century is characterized by the same joyful and thoughtful educational opportunities that have made it so special in its first 100 years. Please join us in celebrating this important milestone!
Richard Bershtein President, The Foote School Association
Board of Directors Meet Foote’s New Board Members
George Atwood P ’19
Jason Price P ’23 ’24
Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89 P’23
George has worked at Yale for over 20 years overseeing administration and investment of charitable trusts. He lives in Killingworth with his wife Annie who teaches Kindergarten in the Haddam-Killingworth school district. Their daughter Caroline attends Tufts University, their son Ted attends Lawrenceville School and youngest son Roddy is in Grade 5 at Foote. George, Annie and their family enjoy sailing at the family summer house in Blue Hill, Maine, or wherever sailing races take them. George received a BA in economics from Tufts University, an MBA from Yale School of Management and is a chartered financial analyst.
Jason Price is a partner in Exaltare Capital Partners, a private equity investment firm, where he specializes in investments in lower middle market firms and family-owned businesses seeking growth capital to professionalize operations. Prior to that, he served as a senior vice president at Cigna Investment Management and as head of private equity investment for the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, where he oversaw a $4 billion private equity investment program. He serves on the boards of All Our Kin and the Promising Scholars Fund. Jason earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BA in business administration from Morehouse College. He lives in New Haven with his wife Christina and two sons, Jason (Grade 2) and Jacob (Grade 1).
Amy attended Foote from Kindergarten through Grade 9. She earned a BA with honors from Trinity College in Hartford and an M.Ed in administration and strategic planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was a 1998 Teach For America corps member and taught Kindergarten at C.E.S. 73 in the South Bronx, where she was active with Project Read and Project Art. Amy has also taught at The Fessenden School in Newton, MA, and was director of admissions and financial aid at Cold Spring School in New Haven. Amy currently serves as board president at Bethesda Nursery School. She lives in Hamden with her husband Jeff, a superintendent for Achievement First, and their two children.
on the Development Committee, where he led an effort to increase alumni giving. Also departing was Judy Chevalier, P’13, ’16, ’24, who served on the board for 10 years, completing two four-year terms and two years ex-officio. As Treasurer, she played a central role in guiding Foote during the economic downturn in 2008 and during the construction of the Jonathan Milikowsky Science and Technology Building and the
renovation of the Middle School Building. The board also thanked Christina Herrick P’15, ’18, who served on the board the past two years in her role as co-president of the PTC. Christina has been a dedicated PTC volunteer throughout her tenure as a Foote parent and has played leadership roles in many PTC events and projects during the past decade.
Departing from the Board At the June meeting, Board President Rich Bershtein expressed thanks on behalf of the Foote School Association to three board members completing their terms. The board recognized the many contributions of Bruce Mandell P’15, ’18, who served from 2011–15, bringing insight based on extensive experience with other nonprofit boards as well as the corporate world. Bruce served
Fall 2015 | 33
Report of Giving
Supporting Foote — Then and Now P R E PAR ATI ON S FO R Foote’s Centennial
have provided an opportunity to dig into Foote’s history. It is a story about love of learning and love for Foote. Most striking to me are the many characteristics of the school that have remained strong and unchanged. By the time the first issue of Foote Notes, the student magazine, was published in 1931, May Day was well established, fifth graders were studying Greek myths, learning about medieval history involved turning the classroom into a castle, and drama was a beloved part of the program. In 1934, an eighth grade girl reported about art class, “When the class draws pictures, each pupil uses her own imagination, and, therefore, all of them turn out very differently.”
them and their families, and how much they enjoy (or miss!) their involvement in the Foote School community. Again this year, that great appreciation of Foote was demonstrated in strong financial support. The Annual Fund received more than $640,000, an increase of 3 percent above the previous highest total. For the third consecutive year, a remarkable 90 percent of current parents contributed. The funds contributed will support a broad range of classroom projects and field trips, as well as faculty salaries and Foote’s very strong financial aid program. We are grateful to all who have made support of Foote School — as volunteers and as donors — a continuing priority. Mrs. Foote’s little school has grown and changed, but it is still a joyous place, and it is still sustained by the strong support of the Foote family. Thank you!
Mrs. Foote’s little school is still sustained by strong support from the Foote family.
Throughout its first century, Foote teachers, students and parents demonstrated their deep appreciation of their special school in myriad ways. As members of the Board of Directors and the Parent Teacher Council, library volunteers and, in recent years, host families for visiting Chinese students and teachers, the Foote community has stepped up to support and sustain the school. Many have told me how much Foote means to
34 | FootePrints
I hope to see you at Centennial Weekend, May 13–15, 2016! With warm regards,
Ann Baker Pepe Director of Development and Alumni Programs
A Terrific Year for PTC THE PAR E NT TE ACHE R CO UN CIL had
another successful year! Thanks to the generosity of the Foote community and the many volunteers who enthusiastically donated time and energy, we had a series of fundraising and community building events. From Fall Family Fun Day, book fairs and author visits, the barn dance auction, May Day picnic, faculty appreciation breakfast and golf outing, we made new friends, strengthened bonds and fortified our community. We are happy to report that due to hard work and generous contributions, we raised $55,000 during the 2014–15 school year. These funds will be disbursed school-wide to directly benefit Foote students, helping to fund field trips (such as those to Mystic Seaport and Deer Lake), special events and resources for classroom teachers, the summer read-aloud program, community outreach, and teacher development. When we work together, we directly enrich our students’ learning experience. Thank you! Rosa Holler and Amy Sudmyer PTC Co-Presidents, 2015–16 Christina Herrick, PTC Co-President, 2014–15
Fall 2015 | 35
Parent Participation Foote School parents maintained a very high level of participation in the Foote Fund (formerly the Annual fund) in 2014–15, with 90 percent of parents contributing. Congratulations to parents of ninth graders, who reached 100 percent participation toward their Farewell Gift.
Class of 2015
Class of 2016
Class of 2017
100%
94%
88%
Amanda & Ray Diffley f Marcy Stovall & Jim Farnam ’65 f Barbara & Jeffrey Fletcher Jennifer & Alan Friedman f Lynne Banta & Javier Garcia Nicole Musayeva & Khanlar Gasimov Shannon Callaway & Phil Haile f The Kenn de Balinthazy Family Amy Justice & Joseph King f Erin & John McCallum Judy & Kevin O’Hare f Grey Maher & Aaron Pine Cjet & Cindy Raymond f Susan C. Shaw f Gilbert Shaw Leslie Stone & Michael Sloan Eve Volk Annie Wareck ’85 f The Wildridge Family** f Iain York f Heather & Fred Zetterberg f
Asefeh Heiat & Masoud Azodi f Jill London & Mannie Berk f Chay & Richard Bershtein f Kim Bohen & Doug James f Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen & Turner Brooks Sue & Dean Chang f Christine & Vincent Chiocchio f Adam Tooze Karen & Pat Crocco Tina & John Cunningham f Alex & Beth Curtis f Silvia & Rich Gee Rosa & George Holler Alison & Christopher Illick f Nina Scherago & George Jones Meghan & George Knight f Nadine & Greg Koobatian f Pamela Chambers & Peter Kosinski ’79 f Marjorie Weinstein-Kowal & Christopher Kowal Mislal Andom & Michael Lake Janet & Robert Lewis f Herta Chao & Ray Li Nancy Levene & Kathryn Lofton The Matthes Theriault Family f Jamie McCarthy f Alinor Sterling & Steve Mentz f Jennifer Foley & Joseph Miko Barbara & Michael Milazzo Lisa & Philip Miller f John W. Mills** Cristina Baiocco & Giuseppe Moscarini f Pamela & David Mulligan Zehra & Huned Patwa f Hilary & Erik Pearson f Elizabeth Stewart & Joseph Pignatello Judith Chevalier & Steven Podos f Claire Priest ’86 f Heidi Downey & Douglas Royalty Fatima & Jose Santoro Amy Stevens & Mark Scanlan Musa Speranza & Joseph Shin f Karen Kennedy & Alex Sommers Andrea & Brian Sorrells f John Wareck ’84 f Elizabeth & Steven Wilkinson f
Leslie Virostek & John Cobb f Lurline deVos & P. J. Deak f Sheila Lavey & Mike Dooman* f Shirley Dorvil Ute & Hugh Dugan** Krish & Viji Erodula f Steven & Elizabeth Broadus Eskridge ’88 Susan & Stephen Farrell f Candace & Burvée Franz f Lynne Banta & Javier Garcia Rachel Lampert & Rick Goodwin** f Judith & Simon Gore-Grimes Rebecca Gratz May & Samir Habboosh Sabrina Diano & Tamas Horvath Jessica & John Illuzzi f Zulhija & Yar Jabarkhail f Miriam & Jeff Jennings f Lissa Sugeng & Michael Krauss f Christine Chung & Hochang Lee Alexandra Hokin & Glenn Levin** f Elizabeth & David Lima Lisa & Ted Lovejoy Rakhee & Bhupesh Mangla Susan & Andrew Metrick f Cheryl & Geoffrey Nadzam f Tina & Walt Oko f Shannon Petty Wendy & Dan Price f Megan & Peter Raymond Christin & Ben Sandweiss f Allyx Schiavone ’85 f Belinda Chan & Peter Schott f Meltem & Emre Seli The Shin Family f Joni & Brady Stone f Phoebe & Tom Styron Qizhi Yang &Yongnian Sun** f Lisa & Lindsay Suter f Elisa & John Turner f The Wildridge Family** f Shamila Zubairi & Asad Zoberi
36 | Foote Prints
*Deceased
**Matching Gift Program Participant
f
Donor to the Foote Fund (formerly the Annual Fund) for five consecutive years
Class of 2018
Class of 2019
Class of 2020
94%
93%
87%
Chay & Richard Bershtein f Lisa Brody Christine Barker & Claude Carlier f Nancy Clayton & Brad Collins f Karen & Pat Crocco The Curran Family f JoAnn Hong-Curtis & Jeptha Curtis f Ute & Hugh Dugan** Keith Gipson Shannon Callaway & Phil Haile f Tracy & Eric Hanson Dorothea & Robert Harper-Mangels f Bonnie & Randy Harrison f Debra & James Healy Christina Herrick f Rosa & George Holler Caitlin Simon & Gregory Huber f Alison & Christopher Illick f Cindy & Dean Karlan The Khokha Family Pamela Chambers & Peter Kosinski ’79 f Kim Yap & Andrew Lewandowski f Herta Chao & Ray Li Susan Walsh & Emmanuel Logiadis Yollanda London f Alison MacKeen & Scott Shapiro Lillian Garcia & Bruce Mandell f Basmah Safdar & Abeel Mangi Talbot Welles ’81 & Tom Mason f The Matthes Theriault Family f Alinor Sterling & Steve Mentz f John W. Mills** Rachel Ebling & Edward Moran f Cheryl & Geoffrey Nadzam f Angie Hurlbut & Andrew Nyhart f The O’Keefe Family f Beverly Gage & Daniel Perkins f Dana M. Peterson & Owen S. Luckey ’83 Stefanie Markovits & Ben Polak Lisa & Joseph Rebeschi Eera Sharma & Oscar Rollán f Fatima & Jose Santoro Meltem & Emre Seli Kelly & Ben Small Ellen & Derek Smith Clarky & Jeff Sonnenfeld f Amy & Bob Stefanowski Suman & Manish Tandon Elizabeth & Steven Wilkinson f Lan Lin & Wu Yan f
The Adae Family f Kerin Adelson & David Grodberg George & Annie Atwood Andrew & Sarah Netter Boone ’89** f John & Deborah Carpenter ’82 f Ann Pingoud & Marc Chung f Kate & Sam Doak Laura & Jim Erlacher f Naila Khadri & Umar Farooq f Elizabeth & Niall Ferguson Candace & Burvée Franz f Lynne Banta & Javier Garcia Kathy Park & Scott Gettinger Laura Goldblum f Judith & Simon Gore-Grimes Nicole Korda-Grutzendler & Jaime Grutzendler Liz & Chris Hansen ’86 Tina Hansen & Adam Hopfner f Jessica & John Illuzzi f Avlin & Suguru Imaeda f Nina Scherago & George Jones Iris & Naftali Kaminski Nadine & Greg Koobatian f Romy & Stanley Lee Lori Blank & David Low f Basmah Safdar & Abeel Mangi Buffy & Matt McCleery f Lisa & Philip Miller f Kim Morris f Kiran Zaman & Sabooh Mubbashar f Duffy & Eric Mudry Pamela & David Mulligan Tina & Walt Oko f Cathy & Christophe Pamelard f Rebecca Paugh f Claire Priest ’86 f The Rinaldi Family f Patricia Abbenante & Camilo Romero Allyx Schiavone ’85 f Inger & Robert Schoelkopf Amy Marx & Robert Schonberger f Jennifer Milano & Michael Sessine Andrea & Brian Sorrells f Amy Stevens & Mark Scanlan Kelly & Derek Streeter Herralan Noel-Vulpe & Marian Vulpe Annie Wareck ’85 f John Wareck ’84 f Zhirong Jiang & Zhiqun Xi Iain York f
The Adae Family f The Anestis Family f Rachel Arnedt Lisa Brody Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen & Turner Brooks Jaime & Shawn Cole f Tina & John Cunningham f Renée Perroncel & Neal DeLaurentis** f Tracy & Brian Earnshaw f The Freeman Family Jacqui & Stephen Fritzinger f Carolyn Kuzmeski & Saul Fussiner f Idaisa & Andrew Gomes Jessie Royce Hill & Daniel E. Goren Rebecca Gratz Avery Grauer ’87 f Randi & Hassan Haraj-Sai Elise & David Hergan Rosa & George Holler LaShawn Jefferson & Nicholas Sambanis** Carolyn & Jonathan Johnson Rebecka & James Jones The Khokha Family Camille & Jon Koff Catharine Krog & Jose Ramos** Gail & Joseph Labadia f Mislal Andom & Michael Lake Renee & Sumit Mehra Susan & Andrew Metrick f Kiran Zaman & Sabooh Mubbashar f Victoria & Stephen Murphy Eera Sharma & Oscar Rollán f Krystn Wagner & José Salvana Abha Gupta & Stephen Scholand Amy & Steven Sheinberg Heide Lang & Mark Siegel Kelly & Ben Small Ellen & Derek Smith Molleen Theodore & Andrew Leonard Jennifer Tucker f John & Elisa Turner f Thea Buxbaum & Gar Waterman f Samantha & Daniel Wong Susan Chan & Gideon Yaffe Yaira Matyakubova & Andrius Zlabys Lori & Robert Zyskowski** f
Fall 2015 | 37
Class of 2021
Class of 2022
Class of 2023
94%
90%
94%
Roya Hakakian & Ramin Ahmadi Suzanne & Jason Alderman Heba Abbas & Amaar Al-Hayder Sumiya Khan & Ather Ali Chay & Richard Bershtein f Andrew & Sarah Netter Boone ’89** f Elizabeth Gill & Jacob Burt Amy Caplan ’88 f Ann Pingoud & Marc Chung f Nancy Clayton & Brad Collins f Sarah & Hugh Corley JoAnn Hong-Curtis & Jeptha Curtis f The d’Amuri Family Amanda & Ray Diffley f Emily & Christopher Fasano Elizabeth & Niall Ferguson Jennifer & Alan Friedman f Nicolas Gangloff Jenette & Noah Ganter f Kathy Park & Scott Gettinger Keith Gipson Judith & Simon Gore-Grimes Tina Hansen & Adam Hopfner f Avlin & Suguru Imaeda f The Ionescu Family Özler & Ege Kayaarasi f Claire Kilmer Meghan & George Knight f Deborah & David Laliberte** Susan Lampley Amy S. & J. Richard Lee Kim Yap & Andrew Lewandowski f Mona Gohara & Kiran Makam** Buffy & Matt McCleery f Alexandra & Carlos Mena Martin Moreland Kim Morris f Jacinta O’Reilly Cathy & Christophe Pamelard f Jessica Sager & Sachin Pandya Owen S. Luckey ’83 & Dana M. Peterson Stefanie Markovits & Ben Polak Naomi Senzer & Brad Ridky Clarky & Jeff Sonnenfeld f Erin & Jeremy Springhorn Joni & Brady Stone f Kelly & Derek Streeter The Witt-Paul Family Yue Suo & Yong Xiong Lan Lin & Wu Yan f
Kerin Adelson & David Grodberg Mamta & Yash Agarwal Almudena Villanueva & David Bach Kim & Phil Birge-Liberman Lori Blank & David Low f Michelle & Kossouth Bradford ’87 Xiaoling Yuan & William Chaine Carine Sakr & Louis Chaptini Christine Won & Hyung Chun Tracy & Brian Earnshaw f Harold Ellis Candace & Burvée Franz f The Freeman Family Maria Lara-Tejero & Jorge Galan Nicole Musayeva & Khanlar Gasimov Valentina Greco & Antonio Giraldez Laura Goldblum f Avery Grauer ’87 f Cara & Robert Hames Elise & David Hergan Caitlin Simon & Gregory Huber f Jessica & John Illuzzi f Britt-Marie Cole-Johnson & Craig Johnson Carolyn & Jonathan Johnson Preethi Varghese-Joseph & George Joseph Hee Oh & Seong-June Kim Camille & Jon Koff Lissa Sugeng & Michael Krauss f Katie & Michael Lipcan Briah & Spencer Luckey ’85 Pu Zhang & Chao Ma Melinda Papowitz & Gary Markowski Melissa & Timothy McCormack f Elizabeth Donius & Kenneth McGill The McPartland Family Rachel Ebling & Edward Moran f Duffy & Eric Mudry The Rinaldi Family f Annette & Kurt Roberts Eera Sharma & Oscar Rollán f Amy Marx & Robert Schonberger f Shipra & Vinod Srihari Cristin Siebert & Eduardo Urios-Aparisi Christine Ko & Peter Whang Lan Lin & Wu Yan f
Annie Ducmanis & James Adams Mamta & Yash Agarwal Carrie & Bill Bergantino f Kimberly Johung & Francis Chan Sarah & Hugh Corley The d’Amuri Family Denise Quinn Dobratz & Erik Dobratz Emily & Christopher Fasano Madeleine & Arpad Fejos Idaisa & Andrew Gomes Jessie Royce Hill & Daniel E. Goren Stephanie Kwei & David Greer Jennifer Griffiths f Hayden & Jeremy Holt Alison & Christopher Illick f The Khokha Family John Kittrell III ’92 Sandra Dias & Frank Kowalonek** Bo Wang & Jinyu Lu Mona Gohara & Kiran Makam** Katherine Campbell & Matthew Maleska** Melissa & Timothy McCormack f Alexandra & Carlos Mena Kiran Zaman & Sabooh Mubbashar f Pamela & David Mulligan Cheryl & Geoffrey Nadzam f Stacey & Joe Natale The Possick Family Christina & Jason Price Naomi Senzer & Brad Ridky Patricia Abbenante & Camilo Romero Abha Gupta & Stephen Scholand Amy & Colin Sheehan Stacey Eder Smith & Cutter Smith Kelly & Derek Streeter Jeffrey & Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89 Irena Vaitkeviciute & Hassam Tantawy Molleen Theodore & Andrew Leonard Erica & Gordon Weiss Annie Wareck ’85 f Iain York f Yaira Matyakubova & Andrius Zlabys
38 | Foote Prints
*Deceased
**Matching Gift Program Participant
f
Donor to the Foote Fund (formerly the Annual Fund) for five consecutive years
Class of 2024 90%
Understanding the Terms
Suzanne & Jason Alderman Heba Abbas & Amaar Al-Hayder Sumiya Khan & Ather Ali The Anestis Family f Almudena Villanueva & David Bach Elif Kongar & Mert Bahtiyar Chay & Richard Bershtein f Andrew & Sarah Netter Boone ’89** f Jamie & Benjamin Bruce** Jaime & Shawn Cole Katherine Lybrook & Daniel Cornfeld Zeynep & Engin Deniz Denise Quinn Dobratz & Erik Dobratz Dempsey & Peter Fitton ’89 Anna Lachowska & Bryan Ford Jenette & Noah Ganter f Judith & Simon Gore-Grimes Katerina Politi & Mark Graham Janie Merkel & Jonathan Grauer ’85 f Stephanie Kwei & David Greer Liz & Chris Hansen ’86 Caitlin Simon & Gregory Huber f Mary Reynolds & David Huyssen The Ionescu Family Britt-Marie Cole-Johnson & Craig Johnson Michelle & Todd Kennedy Catharine Krog & Jose Ramos** Gina Lombardi The McPartland Family Jeannie & Allan Myer Christine & John Pakutka Judith Chevalier & Steven Podos f Rebecca Good & Manuel Rivera Annette & Kurt Roberts Brenda Carter & Adam Solomon f The Witt-Paul Family
The Foote Fund (formerly the Annual Fund) supplements tuition income. Foote Fund dollars support program, faculty salaries, financial aid—virtually every part of the school’s operating budget. Without the Foote Fund, Foote’s budget wouldn’t balance, and we would have to reduce offerings to our students or increase enrollment or raise tuition to make up the difference. The Foote Fund is an annual effort, starting in September and ending on June 30 each year. Parent volunteers reach out to encourage all parents to contribute. This is especially important because grant applications are strengthened when we can report high participation figures. A Capital Campaign is a fund-raising effort over several years to raise money to improve campus facilities or strengthen endowment. Contributions are often multi-year pledges. A capital campaign allows the school to undertake significant capital improvements that could not be funded by the operating budget or the Foote Fund. Endowment is critical to a healthy school. Endowed funds are invested with the goal of providing a stable, sustainable source of annual income. Interest from endowed funds supports critical goals in perpetuity. Foote’s current endowment of $9.3 million provided $334,850 last year to support student scholarships, faculty professional development and other priorities. The National Association of Independent Schools recommends that an independent school maintain endowment equal to or greater than its operating budget, which in 2014–15 was $12.8 million.
Fall 2015 | 39
Donors
winifred sturley associates
fr ank perrine associates
($10,000 to $24,999)
($1,000 to $2,499)
The individuals listed below have made a contribution to the Foote Fund (formerly the Annual Fund), an endowed fund or the capital campaign. We have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this list. Please contact the Development Office if you note errors or omissions.
Anonymous Stephen Altshul Foundation Constance Clement ’62 Rachel Lampert & Rick Goodwin** f Melanie Ginter & John Lapides f Cindy & David Leffell f Alexandra Hokin & Glenn Levin** f Lillian Garcia & Bruce Mandell f Susan & Andrew Metrick f Kathy & George Priest f Gail & Jim Vlock
Anonymous (2) The Anestis Family f Asefeh Heiat & Masoud Azodi f Almudena Villanueva & David Bach Marshall Bartlett & Margaret Wilmer Bartlett ’58 Carole & Arthur Broadus f John Burbank ’79 Anne Tyler Calabresi ’48 & Guido Calabresi ’46 f Sue & Dean Chang f Annie Clark f Barbara & Samuel P. Clement ’65 Jaime & Shawn Cole f Maura & Joe Collins Becky & Ted Crosby ’59 Catherine Smith Cuthell ’68 f John Deming ’66 Elizabeth Daley Draghi ’77** Jessica Drury Bieler ’75 Steven & Elizabeth Broadus Eskridge ’88 Sharon Oster & Ray Fair Daniel K. Fleschner ’94 f Barbara & Jeffrey Fletcher Marie-Christine & Patrick Fourteau Jennifer & Alan Friedman Lee Gaillard ’52 f Josh Geballe ’90 Dr. Amira Gohara Laura Goldblum f Maxine Goldblum f Margaret Clement Green ’61 f Shannon Callaway & Phil Haile f Elizabeth Harper f Kent A. Healy ’46 Alison & Christopher Illick f Ann & Mike Johnson Holly Johnson ’81 Nina Scherago & George Jones Peter Kagan ’83 Meghan & George Knight f Nadine & Greg Koobatian f Marjorie Weinstein-Kowal & Christopher Kowal Philomena & John LaViola Amy & Richard Lee Jane & Richard Levin Elizabeth & David Lima Mona Gohara & Kiran Makam** Katherine Campbell & Matthew Maleska** Carol & Michael Maoz** f Buffy & Matt McCleery f Jennifer Milikowsky ’02 Pamela & David Mulligan Kiran Zaman & Sabooh Mubbashar f
We have indicated—with the symbol f — those individuals who have contributed to the Foote Fund every year for the past five years.
h. everton hosley, jr. associates
the head’s circle ($50,000 & above)
($5,000 to $9,999)
Anonymous Apple Pickers Foundation The Foote School Parent Teacher Council f Ann Lane Marshman ’41* & Donald Marshman Sharon & Daniel Milikowsky The Seedlings Foundation f
Anonymous Susan & Wick Chambers ’62 Elizabeth & Niall Ferguson Betsy & Len Grauer f Richard & Wendy Hokin** Lisa & Philip Miller f Kim Morris f Zehra & Huned Patwa f Judith Chevalier & Steven Podos f Lauren L. McGregor & George J. Romanik f Happy Clement Spongberg ’60 f Annie Wareck ’85 f
martha babcock foote associates ($25,000 to $49,999) Anonymous Chay & Richard Bershtein f Lissa Sugeng & Michael Krauss f
margaret ballou hitchcock associates ($2,500 to $4,999) Anonymous Christine & Vincent Chiocchio f Renée Perroncel & Neal DeLaurentis** f James D. English ’46 f Dorothea & Robert Harper-Mangels f Christina Herrick f John T.R. Holder ’76 f Jessica & John Illuzzi f Avlin & Suguru Imaeda f Camille & Jon Koff Deborah & David Laliberte** The Matthes Theriault Family f Duffy & Eric Mudry Claire Priest ’86 f Mary Garber-Saleh & Faisal Saleh Catherine & Robert Sbriglio f Mary Sanders & Mark Shifman Stacey & Cutter Smith Clarky & Jeff Sonnenfeld f
40 | Foote Prints
*Deceased
**Matching Gift Program Participant
f
Donor to the Foote Fund (formerly the Annual Fund) for five consecutive years
Cheryl & Geoffrey Nadzam f Stacey & Joe Natale Marv Neuman Angie Hurlbut & Andrew Nyhart f Christine & John Pakutka Ann Baker Pepe & Greg Pepe f Christina & Jason Price The Rinaldi Family f Musa Speranza & Joseph Shin f Erin & Jeremy Springhorn Amy & Bob Stefanowski Susan Swords Stevens ’62 Diana T. Stovall f David Totman & Lisa Farrel Totman ’56 f Cary Twichell ’76 f Herralan Noel-Vulpe & Marian Vulpe The Wildridge Family** f Loli Wu ’82** Lori & Robert Zyskowski** f
susan o. bishop associates ($500 to $999) Anonymous (6) Melinda Agsten f Lucy & Gordon Ambach f Annie & George Atwood Natalie & Samuel Babbitt ’42 David Bechtel & Serena Totman Bechtel ’84 Kris Estes & Stephen Binder ’78 Andrew & Sarah Netter Boone ’89** f Courtney Broadus ’84 & Christian Meyers f Joseph Camilleri f Margaret Bluhm Carey ’59 Denny & Kathy Hirata Chin ’67 Christine Won & Hyung Chun Nancy Clayton & Brad Collins f Anne Campbell Clement ’39 Roseline & Douglas Crowley ’55 The Curran Family f Beth & Alex Curtis f JoAnn Hong-Curtis & Jeptha Curtis f Deborah Everhart & George H. Davis Jonathan Davis & Rachel Totman Davis ’86 Michele A. DePascale Susan S. Ellis Laura & Jim Erlacher f Jeralyn Fantarella Marcy Stovall & Jim Farnam ’65 f Naila Khadri & Umar Farooq f Foote School Drama Program Foote School Summer Theater Program The Freeman Family Kathy Park & Scott Gettinger Judith & Simon Gore-Grimes Julia Coley & Jerry Goren Bonnie & Randy Harrison f Sabrina Diano & Tamas Horvath
Sandy Allison & Jim Horwitz f Eugenia Whitney Hotchkiss ’35 Caitlin Simon & Gregory Huber f Jody Sindelar & Roger Ibbotson Francie Irvine Preethi Varghese-Joseph & George Joseph Amy Justice & Joseph King f Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin & Mohit Sarin f Gail & Joseph Labadia f Campbell Langdon ’76 Deborah Freedman & Ben Ledbetter Christine Chung & Hochang Lee Janet & Robert Lewis f Katie & Michael Lipcan Basmah Safdar & Abeel Mangi Melinda Papowitz & Gary Markowski Erin & John McCallum Anita & Joe Milano Matthew Milikowsky ’95 Deborah & David Moore f Phyllis Morra Cristina Baiocco & Giuseppe Moscarini f Nina Nyhart The O’Keefe Family f Elizabeth Reigeluth Parker ’60 f Anne Martin & John Pescatore Grey Maher & Aaron Pine Erik & Joanell Pingoud f Stefanie Markovits & Ben Polak The Possick Family Wendy & Dan Price f Martha & Larry Reina f Annette & Kurt Roberts Anne Sa’adah ’69 Naomi & Shin Sakurabayashi f LaShawn Jefferson & Nicholas Sambanis** Margaret Sbriglio
Amy Stevens & Mark Scanlan Belinda Chan & Peter Schott f Peter Setlow ’57 f Amy & Steven Sheinberg The Shin Family f Susan & Linfield Simon Amy & Bob Stefanowski Phoebe & Tom Styron Victor M. Tyler ’42 The Udelsman Family Lynne & Ralph Valentine André Warner ’98** Suzanne Weinstein Christine Ko & Peter Whang Elizabeth & Steven Wilkinson f The Witt-Paul Family
foote friends ($250 to $499) Anonymous (2) Barbara Kinder & Joe Adams Kerin Adelson & David Grodberg Suzanne & Jason Alderman Nick Appleby & Bethany Schowalter Appleby ’82 Katharine Arnstein ’63 f Joanne & Paul Bailey Christine Wilmer Barkus ’69 Donna & Bill Batsford f Raina Sotsky & Morris Bell Natalie Wilmer Blenk ’62 Betsy Bradburn-Assoian ’69 f Mary Jo & Kelly Brownell Marc Caputo Christine Barker & Claude Carlier f Suzanne Jackson Cartier ’52 f Fall 2015 | 41
Mary Ann Bickford Casey ’52 Ann Pingoud & Marc Chung f Jay & Dody Cox f The d’Amuri Family Ning Wei & Xing Wang Deng f John Detre ’74 Margaret DeVane Amanda & Ray Diffley f Kate & Sam Doak Evan Drutman ’79 Lee Dunham ’55 f Emily & Christopher Fasano Danielle Flagg ’81 Edith & Stephen Flagg f Candace & Burvée Franz f Nicole Musayeva & Khanlar Gasimov Julia Getman ’85 Barbara Gibson f Idaisa & Andrew Gomes Anne Brooks Gwaltney ’72 Tracy & Eric Hanson Janet Madigan & Robert Harrity Rosa & George Holler The Ionescu Family Kim Bohen & Doug James f Margaret Bozyan Jefferys ’49 Nancy Ely Kales ’55 f T. Jay Kleeman, MD ’81 Sandra Dias & Frank Kowalonek** Mislal Andom & Michael Lake Susan Thomas Lampley Helen Lankenau Morgan Lee ’07 & Family f Amy & Jonathan Levin ’87 Lisa & Ted Lovejoy Rakhee & Bhupesh Mangla Nancy & Hugh Manke f Kristin Hawkins & Tony Markese
42 | Foote Prints
Rita A. McDougald-Campbell Alexandra & Carlos Mena Aditya Mehta ’99** Divita Mehta ’97** Sandra J. Frawley & Perry L. Miller ’58 John W. Mills** Victoria & Stephen Murphy New Haven Road Race f Joanna Baumer Noble & Lawrence Noble f Judy & Kevin O’Hare f Tina & Walt Oko f Beverly Gage & Daniel Perkins f Elizabeth Stewart & Joseph Pignatello Claire Richards ’76 Yuri Sakurabayashi ’06 Christin & Ben Sandweiss f Laura & Gary Sklaver Carolyn & Clifford Slayman f Leslie Stone & Michael Sloan Ellen & Derek Smith Margie & Alan Starensier Suman & Manish Tandon Ellen & Leigh Turner f Cristin Siebert & Eduardo Urios-Aparisi Eve Volk Norma E. Volk Dinny & Charles Wakerley Barbara Wareck f John Wareck ’84 f Thea Buxbaum & Gar Waterman f Betsy & Harry Welch ’42 Caleb Wertenbaker ’88 C. Lawson Willard ’47 Caroline Hendel & John Wysolmerski Elaine Yaffe Iain York Pat & John Zandy James W. Zirkle
*Deceased
**Matching Gift Program Participant
f
maroon & grey ($1 to $249) Anonymous (31) The Adae Family f Justus Addiss ’73 Cecle & Josef Adler Anne & Nicholas Afragola f Sarah Afragola ’01 Mamta & Yash Agarwal Roya Hakakian & Ramin Ahmadi Heba Abbas & Amaar Al-Hayder Caron & Norman Alderman Sumiya Khan & Ather Ali Arthur Amend Mark Dollhopf & Marjo Anderson Rachel Arnedt Elif Kongar & Mert Bahtiyar Lotte & Bernard Bailyn Laura Kautz Baker ’62 f Edward Lang & Catherine Balsam-Schwaber ’86 Tizzy Freedman Bannister ’74 Emily M. Barclay ’61 Nancy & Joel Becker Ruth & Bernard Beitel Mr. & Mrs. Robert C. Berenbroick Jill London & Mannie Berk f Ina & Sidney Berson Margaret Berthold f Peter Bluhm ’54 f Halcy Bohen f Jack Bohen ’11 W. Frank & Elisabeth Bohlen James Boorsch ’47 f Elizabeth Borden Michelle & Kossouth Bradford ’87 Melissa Bradley ’57 Thompson Bradley ’48 f Thomas Brand ’88 Elise Braun ’46 Matthew Breitling & Jennifer Jackson Breitling ’91** f Frances & Jonathan Brent Mary Lou Venter Briggs ’53 Mike Bright ’95 Bruce Bunting & Jessie Brinkley ’64 f Elizabeth Brochin Linda & Art Brody Lisa Brody Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen & Turner Brooks Peggy & James Brown Jamie & Benjamin Bruce** Mary Bundy ’09 Christine & James Butler Jon Butler ’98 Evan Butler ’99 Lucas Butler ’03 Barbara Endres & William Butler
Donor to the Foote Fund (formerly the Annual Fund) for five consecutive years
Diane Buxbaum Kela Caldwell ’09 Omari Caldwell ’13 Shelley Caldwell Ann Calkins f Amanda Calkins ’98 Susan Canny ’96 f Amy Caplan ’88 f Francine & Robert Caplan f Caren & Tom Carpenter John & Deborah Fong Carpenter ’82 f Linda Hamilton Carr ’42 Rives Fowlkes Carroll ’57 The Carroll Family f Linsley Craig Carruth ’85** f Carolyn & Richard Cavallaro Rev. Carol Ann Bradburn Celella ’72 f Dorothy Clark Chadwick ’73 Xiaoling Yuan & William Chaine Patty Chamberlain Grace Chambers Kimberly Johung & Francis Chan Belinda & Frederick Chen Beverly & Richard Chevalier Christina Ching-McGrath ’06 Rob Clark ’68 f Sarah Clark & Gus Spohn Fran & Edwin Clayton f Edward Coady ’05 Leslie Virostek & John Cobb f Alyson & Gary Cohen Jill Lacy & David Coleman Ellie & Harris Coles Merrill Barden Collins ’85 Albert (Bud) Conrad ’55 Liam & Alison Considine Yves Corbière ’95 Sarah & Hugh Corley Kendall Cox LeClerc ‘98 Karen & Pat Crocco Erin Crowley & Alex Crowley ’83 f Ken Crowley ’76 Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Crowley Sara Armstrong & Peter Crumlish Dotty & Allan Curhan Perry Curtis ’45 Judy & Hugh Cuthbertson f Susan & Fred Danforth Charles B. Dayton ’36 f Lurline deVos & P. J. Deak f Ted De Barbieri ’96 Leticia & Victor de Dios Dominic De Renzi Cynthia Deng ’07 James Deng ’10 Jane & Bill Dennett William C. DeVane ’84 Jonathan DiMaio ’02
Miriam & Daniel DiMaio Natalie DiMario ’13 Verdi J. DiSesa ’64 James Doak Mary Alice & James Donius Doolittle Club Shirley Dorvil The Douglas Family f Deborah Sherman & Sarah Drury ’72 Ute & Hugh Dugan** Jennifer Dunning ’75 Ann S. Earley f Tracy & Brian Earnshaw f Elizabeth DeVane Edminster ’47 Brinley Ford Ehlers ’83 Elizabeth Jonas & Tom Eisen Barbara T. Ellinghaus Krish & Viji Erodula f Amy Estabrook ’72 & Philip Ross ’64 Sally Factor James & Jo-Ann Farnen f Susan & Stephen Farrell f Garrett Farrell ’09 Caitlin Farrell ’12 Dylan Farrell ’11 Tagan Farrell ’17 Michael & Michele Fasano Madeleine & Arpad Fejos Doris Drisler Ferguson ’42 f Polly Fiddler Dempsey & Peter Fitton ’89 Anne Camp & John Flanders f Marty & Tom Foley Stephen Fontana ’78 Thomas Fontana ’82 f Anna Lachowska & Bryan Ford Linda & Gary Friedlaender Jamie Fuller Sondra Lender & Ben Fussiner Carolyn Kuzmeski & Saul Fussiner f Nicholas Gangloff Jenette & Noah Ganter f Lilliam & Felix J. Garcia** f John Gardner ’45 David Garlick & Elissa Schpero Garlick ’92 Garmisa/Pinchbeck Family Nancy Gaylord ’53 f Flora Vaccarino & John Gearty Toddie & Chris Getman f Keith Gipson Susan Baserga & Peter Glazer Jenny Chan & Jonathan Goldstein f Carol & Mike Gordon Carol Gordon ’53 Jessie Royce Hill & Daniel E. Goren Katerina Polit & Mark Graham Maria & Charles Granquist** f Rebecca Gratz
Avery Grauer ’87 f Janie Merkel & Jonathan Grauer ’85 f Estate of William Greaves ’49* Valentina Greco & Antonio Giraldez Lois & Ken Greenberg Mrs. Richard R. Griffith Nicole Korda-Grutzendler & Jaime Grutzendler May & Samir Habboosh Heidi Hamilton f Liz & Chris Hansen ’86 Randi & Hassan Haraj-Sai Reyna & Ken Harrison Debra & James Healy William K. Healy ’44 Ann C. Twichell Hendrie Brook Hersey ’74 f Ross Hicks ’04** Hilary Fayen Higgins ’81 Frederick Hilles ’52 Grace M. Holden ’66 Richard Hooker III ’60 Sally Hopfner Briane & Stephen Horner Carla & Robert Horwitz Sarah Hotchkiss ’95 Arthur Howe III ’68 f Judith S. Hull ’63 Henry Hunt ’68 Mary Reynolds & David Huyssen Carol B. Isaacs f Zulhija & Yar Jabarkhail f Herrick Jackson ’54 f Bonnie & Ed James Fall 2015 | 43
Lily James ’14 Louise Bluhm Jeanne ’54 Miriam & Jeff Jennings f Britt-Marie Cole-Johnson & Craig Johnson Ed Johnson ’54 f Faith Sargent Lewis Johnson ’57 Carolyn & Jonathan Johnson Kathleen Johnson f Loretta & John Johung Rebecka & James Jones Gerald Kahn Iris & Naftali Kaminski Cindy & Dean Karlan The Kenn de Balinthazy Family Michelle & Todd Kennedy The Khokha Family Claire Kilmer Nancy & Jackson King Gretchen Kingsley Janice & John Kirby John Kittrell III ’92 Alex Kleiner ’00 f Diana & Fred Kleiner f Thomas Kligerman ’72 Elisabeth Sacco Klock ’98 Pamela Chambers & Peter Kosinski ’79 f Catharine Krog & Jose Ramos Timothy La Farge ’44 Kate Brooks Laing ’82 & Charlie Laing Jean & Nick Lamont f Maxine R. Lampert Kirsti & John Langbein f Natalie Lapides ’08 Alexandra LaViola ’06 John LaViola III ’09 Emma Ledbetter ’03 f Romy & Stanley Lee Nick Lehmann ’90 Jay Lender ’84 Mary & David Lesser Nancy Levene Betsey Converse Lewis ’37 Herta Chao & Ray Li The Lichtman Family Carrie James Lightner ’88 Mimi Lines Cynthia Albert Link & Lawrence Link f Susan Walsh & Emmanuel Logiadis Gina Lombardi Yollanda London f Mary & Herman Long Karen & Bill Longa** f Lori Blank & David Low f Briah & Spencer Luckey ’85 Dana M. Peterson & Owen S. Luckey ’83 Pu Zhang & Chao Ma Alison MacKeen & Scott Shapiro Carole & Robert Mangels 44 | Foote Prints
*Deceased
Margaret & Marc Mann Lynn Street & Donald Margulies Catherine Martin ’13 Edward Martin ’15 Janet Alley McClure ’65 Dalton Cox McCurdy ’96 Elizabeth Donius & Kenneth McGill The McPartland Family Renee & Sumit Mehra Alinor Sterling & Steve Mentz f Jayne & Ted Merkel Jennifer Foley & Joseph Miko Barbara & Michael Milazzo York Miller ’64 Sara Kirby Mitchell ’87 Barbara & John Monahan Rachel Ebling & Edward Moran f Julie & Bill Moore f Jean Moreland Martin Moreland Sarah Morse Marsha & Ira Moses Melanie Crowley Mullan ’84 Mary P. Murphy ’92 Jeannie & Allan Myer Ryan Nally & Jennie Bailey Nally ’88 Joan & Michael Nast f Jonathan Nast ’94 f Sarah Nettleton ’64 Barbara & Bill Nordhaus Jane Whittlesey North ’45 f Jacinta O’Reilly Patricia Fiorito Oakes ’60 f Deborah Johnson & Joseph Paolillo f Rebecca Paugh f Libby & Trevor Peard f Melissa Castleman & Jordan Peccia
**Matching Gift Program Participant
f
Emily Peel Leah Pepe ’04 Laura & Frank Perrine f John W. Persse ’73 f Andrew Martin & Catherine Petraiuolo ’83 f Mrs. Edward Petraiuolo, Jr. f Eligio A. Petrelli ’53 f Elizabeth Petrelli ’96** Richard L. Petrelli ’57 Shannon Petty Millie & Barry Piekos f Jane McCall Politi Carroll & Stanley Possick Elizabeth Prelinger ’68 Andrea & Klaus Radebold f Carol Miller Rand ’57 Marie & Richard Raymond f Megan & Peter Raymond Lisa & Joseph Rebeschi Bruce L. Reynolds ’57 Deborah Blanchard Richardson ’49 Naomi Senzer & Brad Ridky Barbara Riley Andrew Rivera ’06 Rebecca Good & Manuel Rivera Eera Sharma & Oscar Rollán f Emily Rome ’87 Carol & Stephen Ross Chelsea Ross ’06 Donald O. Ross ’62 Diane Palmeri & Albert Rossini Taylor Rossini ’12 Fred Rossomando Heidi Downey & Douglas Royalty Joanne Saccio Susan & Joseph Saccio Lena Sadowitz ’92
Donor to the Foote Fund (formerly the Annual Fund) for five consecutive years
Jessica Sager & Sachin Pandya Susan Devine & David Sakheim Krystn Wagner & José Salvana Kris Sandine ’79 Robert D. Sandine f Jack & Letha* Sandweiss Dr. & Mrs. Clarence Sasaki f Ilene* & Robert Saulsbury f Susan Sawyer & Michael Kaplan Max Sbriglio ’12 Sylvia Schafer ’77 Marlene & Jerry Scharr Allyx Schiavone ’85 f Alison & Jim Schleifer f The Schneider Family Inger & Robert Schoelkopf Abha Gupta & Stephen Scholand Amy Marx & Robert Schonberger f Tanina Rostain & Richard Schottenfeld The Mark Schpero Family Carol Dorfman & William Segraves Meltem & Emre Seli Trisha Kelley & Mark Senzer Jennifer Milano & Michael Sessine Hilary Shank-Kuhl ’68 f Gilbert Shaw Amy & Colin Sheehan Claire Shubik-Richards ’88 Heide Lang & Mark Siegel William Silva ’66 William K. Simpson Meg McDowell Smith ’69 f Penny & Bernard* Snow Sandra & Henry Snow f Elaine Solomon Linda & Charles Sommerfield Karen Kennedy & Alex Sommers Andrea & Brian Sorrells f Lucy & Wayne Spaar Joyce Geiger Spencer Ginger Stevens ’96 f Flo & Roger Stone Katherine & Kenneth Stone Brandon Stone ’07 Andrew Stone ’09 Mary & A. Douglas Stone John Stratton ’54 Kelly & Derek Streeter Jeffrey Sudmyer & Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89 Yongnian Sun** f Lisa & Lindsay Suter f Erin Sweeney ’02 f Shannon Sweeney ’00 f Katharine M. Swibold ’75 Maria Swift Denise & Donald Terry Andrew Leonard & Molleen Theodore Diane E. Thompson
facult y & staff
Adam Tooze Grier Torrence ’69 Dr. & Mrs. Robert Touloukian Ann Hunt Tritz ’45 Mrs. Josiah G. Venter f Paul & Carol* Virostek Eve & Heinrich von Staden Sheila & Lawrence Wartel f Erica & Gordon Weiss Bonnie Welch ’79 f Elizabeth B. Welles Tom Mason & Talbot Welles ’81 f Sandy & Dick Whelan Betty & Jim Whitney Marie Wilkinson ’79 Diane & Scott Williams Ted & Lois Willis Amy Mulligan Wilson ’85 Michelle & Joshua Wilson Robert F. Wing ’53 f Robin Woerner ’04 Emily Mendillo Wood ’51 Harriet Calhoun Wrenn ’43 f Zhirong Jiang & Zhiqun Xi f Yue Suo & Yong Xiong Lan Lin & Wu Yan f Dr. Ruth & Arthur York Sylvia Thayer & Philip Zaeder f Anika Zetterberg ’13 Lenore & Albert Zimmermann f Yaira Matyakubova & Andrius Zlabys Shamila Zubairi & Asad Zoberi
James Adams & Annie Ducmanis Lara C. Anderson f Lynne Banta & Javier Garcia Carrie & Bill Bergantino f Kim & Phil Birge-Liberman Tim & Kris Blauvelt Andy & Alison Bromage Jacob Burt & Elizabeth Gill Jeannette Byers ’65 f Rachelle Byron Mary Beth & Andy Calderoni f Amy Caplan ’88 f Deborah Fong Carpenter ’82 and John Carpenter f Jaime & Shawn Cole f Kelly Connellan Liam & Alison Considine f Jay & Dody Cox f Tina & John Cunningham f Amanda & Ray Diffley f Bette Donahoe f Jennifer & Alan Friedman f Jacqui & Stephen Fritzinger Silvia & Rich Gee Ângela & Fernando Giannella f Tristen & Bruce Giovanelli Cara Given Lauren Goldberg Susie Campbell Grimes ’75 & Tim Grimes Cara & Robert Hames Tina Hansen & Adam Hopfner f Sarah Heath & Franz Douskey f Hayden & Jeremy Holt Michael Kane Özler & Ege Kayaarasi f Joseph LaMacchia Margy & Rich Lamere f Sheila Lavey & Mike Dooman* f Leslie & Marshall Long f Bill Manke ’91 f Carol & Michael Maoz** f Karla Matheny & Family f Michael McCabe & Donna Rehm-McCabe f Melissa & Timothy McCormack f Brad & Becky McGuire f Elizabeth Mello Michael Milburn f Colleen & Michael Murphy f Cheryl & Geoffrey Nadzam f Susan Neitlich & Matthew Broder f Sally Nunnally f Cathy & Christophe Pamelard f Hilary & Erik Pearson f Ann Baker Pepe & Greg Pepe f Carol & Wes Poling f Denise Quinn Dobratz & Erik Dobratz Cjet & Cindy Raymond f Fall 2015 | 45
Julian Schlusberg Susan C. Shaw f Tricia Simon Kelly & Ben Small Adam Solomon & Brenda Carter f Andrew Sweet Deborah Teason & Michael Bergman Jay Trevorrow John & Elisa Turner f Erika Villa f Dawn & Scott Walsh f Toby Welch ’73 Alexandra Wittner Kim Yap & Andrew Lewandowski f Jennifer & Mark Youngblood Heather & Fred Zetterberg f
farewell gif ts The parents of departing eighth and ninth graders contributed to Farewell Gifts in appreciation of their children’s experiences at Foote. One hundred percent of the ninth grade parents contributed to purchase two digital phase-contrast binocular tablet microscopes for the ninth grade biology program. Amanda & Ray Diffley Marcy Stovall & Jim Farnam ’65 Barbara & Jeffrey Fletcher Jennifer & Alan Friedman Lynne Banta & Javier Garcia Nicole Musayeva & Khanlar Gasimov Shannon Callaway & Phil Haile The Kenn de Balinthazy Family Amy Justice & Joseph King Erin & John McCallum Judy & Kevin O’Hare Grey Maher & Aaron Pine Cjet & Cindy Raymond Gilbert Shaw Susan C. Shaw Leslie Stone & Michael Sloan Eve Volk Annie Wareck ’85 The Wildridge Family Iain York Heather & Fred Zetterberg Parents of departing eighth graders contributed to support Financial Aid and Lower School technology. Jill London & Mannie Berk Kim Bohen & Doug James Christine & Vincent Chiocchio Alison & Christopher Illick Pamela Chambers & Peter Kosinski ’79 46 | Foote Prints
*Deceased
Marjorie Weinstein-Kowal & Christopher Kowal Mislal Andom & Michael Lake Herta Chao & Ray Li The Matthes Theriault Family Alinor Sterling & Steve Mentz Cristina Baiocco & Giuseppe Moscarini Zehra & Huned Patwa Hilary & Erik Pearson Elizabeth Stewart & Joseph Pignatello Lauren McGregor & George Romanik Heidi Downey & Douglas Royalty Karen Kennedy & Alex Sommers Amy Stevens & Mark Scanlan Adam Tooze John Wareck ’84 Elizabeth & Steven Wilkinson
In Honor of Anne Calabresi ’48 and Guido Calabresi ’46 Anonymous In Honor of John Climie Amy & Steven Sheinberg In Honor of Liam Considine The Kenn de Balinthazy Family In Honor of the birth of Chiara Lorraine LaMacchia Julian Schlusberg In Honor of the birth of Leo Samuel Matz Julian Schlusberg
honor ary gif ts In Honor of the Foote Theater Program: Frank Alberino, Cathy Mason, Julian Schlusberg Jennifer Foley & Joseph Miko In Honor of Lara Anderson Carole Broadus Elizabeth Broadus Eskridge ’88 In Honor of Hans and Conner AndersonDollhopf Marjo Anderson & Mark Dollhopf In Honor of Tim Blauvelt Carole Broadus Elizabeth Broadus Eskridge ’88 **Matching Gift Program Participant
In Honor of the birth of Rowan Bromage Julian Schlusberg
In Honor of the birth of Carson James McGuire Julian Schlusberg In Honor of Sarvesh Mehta Aditya Mehta ’99 Divita Mehta ’97 In Honor of Michael Milburn The Kenn de Balinthazy Family In Honor of Kelly Moran’s engagement Julian Schlusberg In Honor of Tristen Oifer’s engagement Julian Schlusberg
f
Donor to the Foote Fund (formerly the Annual Fund) for five consecutive years
In Honor of Frank Perrine Betsy Bradburn-Assoian ’69 In Honor of the birth of Victoria Anne Plante Julian Schlusberg In Honor of Carol Poling Laura Altshul Donna Batsford Saylor Heidmann Catherine Martin ’13 In Honor of Deb Riding Carole Broadus Elizabeth Broadus Eskridge ’88 In Honor of Julian Schlusberg The Kenn de Balinthazy Family In Honor of the birth of Andrew Rhodes Schnabel Julian Schlusberg
memorial gif ts In Memory of Jane Baserga Susan Baserga & Peter Glazer In Memory of Helen McClure Bluhm Margaret Bluhm Carey ’59
In Memory of Orten Pengue, Jr. Kristin Hawkins & Tony Markese In Memory of Orten Pengue, Sr. Julian Schlusberg In Memory of Robert Sbriglio Margaret Sbriglio
In Memory of Margaret Brooks John & Deborah Fong Carpenter ’82 Kate Brooks Laing ’82 & Charlie Laing
In Memory of Fred Sheets Julian Schlusberg
In Memory of Bill Burns Julian Schlusberg
In Memory of Jean Shepler Betsy Bradburn-Assoian ’69 Elizabeth Prelinger ’68
In Memory of Charles Catania Julian Schlusberg In Memory of Anna Huntington Deming ’35 Melinda Agsten John Deming ’66
In Honor of Adam Solomon Pamela & David Mulligan
In Memory of Mike Dooman The Foote School Board of Directors Sheila Lavey’s Advisory Group
In Honor of Betsy Welch Bonnie Welch ’79
In Memory of Penny Farrel Bonnie & Ed James
In Honor of the birth of Sebastian Youngblood Julian Schlusberg
In Memory of Gloria Fontana Stephen Fontana ’78 In Memory of Arthur Howe, Jr. Arthur Howe, III ’68 In Memory of Sigurd Jensen Julian Schlusberg In Memory of Clarence London Yollanda London In Memory of Jonathan Milikowsky ’98 Elisabeth Sacco Klock ’98 Laura & Gary Sklaver In Memory of Sidonie Miskimin ’69 Betsy Bradburn-Assoian ’69
In Memory of Ben Sklaver ’92 Jeannette Byers ’65 Melanie Ginter & John Lapides William Silva ’66 In Memory of Winifred Sturley Lee Gaillard ’52 In Memory of Josh Venter Becky & Ted Crosby ’59 In Memory of Margarete Zuccon Dody & Jay Cox Lynda & Benjamin Johnson John & Janice Kirby Sara Kirby Mitchell ’87 Carol & Stephen Ross
foundations & funds Stephen Altshul Foundation Apple Pickers Foundation The Goodwin Levine Foundations Inc. I. & B. Neuman Foundation, Inc. RISC Foundation Incorporated Sasco Foundation Seedlings Foundation
gif ts in kind Chay & Richard Bershtein The d’Amuri Family Yaira Matyakubova & Andrius Zlabys
In Memory of Al Morra Phyllis Morra In Memory of Margaret Foote Oppenheimer ’35 John Deming ’66 In Memory of Marie Pengue Julian Schlusberg
Fall 2015 | 47
gif ts to endowed funds
Frank M. Perrine Scholarship Fund Elizabeth Daley Draghi ’77
Martha Brochin Endowed Fund Elizabeth Brochin Susan Canny ’96 Melanie Ginter & John Lapides Penny & Bernard* Snow
Milos Saccio Fund Mary & David Lesser Joanne Saccio Susan & Joseph Saccio Penny & Bernard* Snow
Centennial Endowment Fund Chay & Richard Bershtein
Phyllis Brown Sandine Memorial Scholarship Anonymous Anne Sa’adah ’69 Kris Sandine ’79 Robert D. Sandine
S. Prescott Bush Clement Endowed Fund John Deming ’66 Happy Clement Spongberg ’60 Timothy and Mary P. Doukas Endowed Fund Susan Swords Stevens ’62 Pat & John Zandy The C. Dary Dunham School Spirit Fund Catherine & Robert Sbriglio Max Sbriglio ’12 Polly Fiddler Art Fund The O’Keefe Family Catherine & Robert Sbriglio Max Sbriglio ’12 Martha Babcock Foote Scholarship Fund John Deming ’66 Jean G. Lamont Scholarship Fund Anonymous Margaret & Marc Mann Rita A. McDougald-Campbell Mary & A. Douglas Stone
Levin Endowed Fund for Library Materials Jane & Richard Levin Mary P. Murphy ’92 Library Fund The O’Keefe Family Jonathan Milikowsky ’98 Scholarship Fund Jennifer Milikowsky ’02 Laura & Gary Sklaver
LaViola Family Scholarship Fund Philomena & John LaViola Hannah Lee ’06 Memorial Fund Melanie Ginter & John Lapides Amy & Richard Lee Margie & Alan Starensier In Honor of Alan Starensier’s 80th birthday Cecle & Josef Adler Ina & Sidney Berson Ellie & Harris Coles Dotty & Allan Curhan Sally Factor Jennifer & Alan Friedman Garmisa/Pinchbeck Family Mike & Carol Gordon Lois & Ken Greenberg Marlene & Jerry Scharr The Schneider Family
48 | Foote Prints
In Honor of Josie Lee’s ’13 17th birthday Margie & Alan Starensier In Honor of Sharon MacKinnell’s retirement Amy & Richard Lee In Honor of Carol Poling’s retirement Amy & Richard Lee Charlie Lee ’21 In Honor of Kathy Starensier’s retirement Amy & Richard Lee In Memory of Marilyn Schneider Amy & Richard Lee
*Deceased
Jonathan Milikowsky ’98 Technology Fund Melanie Ginter & John Lapides Jennifer Milikowsky ’02 Jean Shepler Miller Scholarship Fund Elizabeth Daley Draghi ’77** Judith S. Hull ’63 Jay Lender ’84 Orten L. Pengue, Jr. Scholarship Fund Natalie DiMario ’13 Foote School Drama Program Foote School Summer Theater Program Kristin Hawkins & Tony Markese Fred Rossomando Catherine & Robert Sbriglio Max Sbriglio ’12 Julian Schlusberg The Wildridge Family **Matching Gift Program Participant
f
Marian Spiro Fund for Science Enrichment Renée Perroncel & Neal DeLaurentis
matching gif ts American Express Bank of America Foundation Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Chemtura Corporation Covidien Deutsche Bank ExxonMobil Foundation, Inc Ford Foundation Gartner Group General Electric Hearst Corp Intermountain Industries Petroglyph Energy Foundation Microsoft New York Life Foundation Open Society Institute Pfizer Inc. Pitney Bowes T. Rowe Price UBS United Technologies
stars (schools together for arts resources) New Haven Road Race
gif ts for special purposes Chay & Richard Bershtein Melissa Bradley Susan & Linfield Simon Ellie Warburg Class of 1945 Visiting Artist Program Apple Pickers Foundation
Donor to the Foote Fund (formerly the Annual Fund) for five consecutive years
horizons Anonymous (2) Stephen Altshul Foundation Marie & Warren Andiman Diane & Walter Ariker Donna & Bill Batsford The Reverend & Mrs. Richard E. Beattie Chay & Richard Bershtein Joy Bershtein Halcy Bohen Jack Bohen ’11 Kim Bohen & Doug James Andy & Alison Bromage Christine Barker & Claude Carlier Elizabeth Gill & Jacob Burt John & Deborah Carpenter ’82 Circle of Life Midwifery, LLC Jaime & Shawn Cole The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven Kelly Connellan Tina Gray Cunningham Judy & Hugh Cuthbertson The d’Amuri Family Derek Simpson, Goldsmith Cheryl Earle Caty James Everett ’91 Emily & Christopher Fasano The Foote School Third Grade David Foster Freeman Chiropractic Lynne Banta & Javier Garcia Silvia & Rich Gee Give Greater Google, Inc. Stacy Graham Steuart Gray Veena Raghuvir & Ryan Haug Horizons National Student Enrichment Program, Inc. Caitlin Simon & Gregory Huber Jody Sindelar & Roger Ibbotson Francie Irvine Lily James ’14 Jean & Nick Lamont Stacey Lane Beverly Hodgson & John Leventhal Carrie James Lightner ’88 Margaret & Marc Mann Carol & Michael Maoz The McCabe Family Becky & Brad McGuire Patricia Melton Alexandra & Carlos Mena Susan & Andrew Metrick Victoria & Stephen Murphy The New Haven Investment Fund LLC New Haven Road Race
Cathy & Christophe Pamelard Zehra & Huned Patwa Ann Baker Pepe & Greg Pepe Nilvio Perez Richard L. Petrelli ’57 Jack Ciccolo & Sid Phillips Judith Chevalier & Steven Podos Debra Riding & Oliver Barton Kathleen Santomasso The Seedlings Foundation Susan C. Shaw Amy & Colin Sheehan Pamela Simonds Smart Family Foundation, Inc. Barbara Stern Alison Thurber David Totman & Lisa Farrel Totman ’56 Massimo Verardo Erika Villa Dinny & Charles Wakerley Dawn & Scott Walsh Annie Wareck ’85 Gary Winfield Kiran Zaman & Sabooh Mubbashar Bob Frank & Raffaella Zanuttini Heather & Fred Zetterberg In Honor of Laura Altshul Beverly Hodgson & John Leventhal Dawn & Scott Walsh
In Honor of Jaime Cole’s dedicated leadership Ann Baker Pepe & Greg Pepe In Honor of Andrew McLaren Diane & Walter Ariker In Honor of Debbie Rhoads Dawn & Scott Walsh In Honor of Lisa Farrel Totman ’56 and David Totman Dawn & Scott Walsh In Honor of the Zetterberg Family Richard Beattie Kelly Connellan
gif ts in kind —horizons Anonymous Chabaso Bakery Costco Wholesale Francine Freeman Harald Hille ’52 Alexandra Mena Amy & Colin Sheehan Stop & Shop Trader Joe’s Dawn & Scott Walsh
In Honor of Kim Bohen Halcy Bohen
Fall 2015 | 49
Endowed Funds In the early 1980s, the Board’s Finance Committee recommended the purchase of zero coupon bonds as a strategy to create the school’s endowment. It was an important decision for the school — when the last of the zero coupon bonds matured in 2003, the initial investment of $310,000 had returned $1,655,450. Over the years Foote’s endowment has continued to grow, and now stands at $9.3 million. A distribution is made annually from interest earned on invested funds.
unrestric ted endowment S. Prescott Bush Clement Endowed Fund — established in 2007 in honor of S. Prescott Bush Clement ’35. The proceeds are used at the discretion of the school’s Board of Directors.
endowment for curriculum enrichment Martha Brochin Endowed Fund for Library Books — established in 2004 in memory of Martha Brochin, a Foote School parent and much-loved pediatrician.
Margaret Brooks Endowed Fund — established in 2010 in memory of Madame Brooks, French teacher at Foote and parent of Preston ’79, Kate ’82 and Nat ’87. The fund supports the school’s Modern Language Department. Polly Fiddler Art Fund — established by parents and former students in recognition of Polly Fiddler’s outstanding work as an art teacher at Foote for more than three decades (1978–2009). The fund supports the school’s studio art program. Levin Fund — established by Mr. and Mrs. Richard Levin to fund the purchase of books and materials to enrich and extend the collection of the Frank M. Perrine Library. Kindergarten and Mixed Age Group Programs Fund — established by the parents of Foote students Aya and Hadi Abu-Alfa in 2010 to support and enrich the Kindergarten and Mixed Age Group programs. Library Endowment — gifts to endowment intended to support the Frank M. Perrine Library. Jonathan Milikowsky Memorial Technology Fund — created by classmates, family and friends in memory of Jon ’98, to provide annual support to the Technology Department, particularly for new technology and innovative uses of technology.
Marian W. Spiro Fund for Science Enrichment — established in honor of Marian Spiro, science teacher at Foote from 1970–89, to enrich and enhance the school’s science programs. Friends of Foote Theater Endowment — established in 2002 by David and Deborah Moore, to fund costs associated with the outstanding drama program. Jean Shepler Miller Music Fund — established in 2009 by alumni who studied music with Mrs. Shepler during her long career at Foote (1953–91), the fund provides support for the school’s Music Department.
endowment for facult y professional development Joya Marks Endowment for Professional Development — created in 2001, and in 2007 named in honor of Joya Marks, Lower School Head (1993–2007), this fund provides support for professional development opportunities to enrich the lives and work of Foote School teachers. Violet Talbot Endowed Fund — established by parents and faculty in honor of Kindergarten teacher Violet Talbot at the time of her retirement in 2001 to provide support for teacher training and for financial aid for children of color.
endowment for financial aid Benevento Family Scholarship — established in 1987 by the Benevento Family. Simone Brown Fund — established in memory of Simone Brown, Class of 1981, following her death in 1983. Carolyn Foundation Endowment — established by generous gifts from The Carolyn Foundation in 1989 and 1998, this fund has grown to over a quarter million dollars, providing significant annual funding for financial aid for children of color from New Haven. Celentano Scholarship Fund — created to recognize the many contributions of Freddie Celentano, who worked at Foote as a member of the maintenance staff from 1963–77.
50 | Foote Prints
Janis Cooley-Jacobs Scholarship Fund — established in 1999 after the death of Foote parent and pediatrician Janis Cooley-Jacobs. Timothy and Mary P. Doukas Fund — established in 1997 by Mr. and Mrs. John Zandy in memory of Mrs. Zandy’s parents. Martha Babcock Foote Fund — established in memory of the founder and first Head of School, 1916–35. Margaret Hitchcock Fund — established in memory of Margaret Ballou Hitchcock, Foote English teacher and head of the Upper School from 1931–57. Jean and Edward Kirby Endowed Fund — established in 2013 by their son, John T. Kirby ’69, in recognition of their love of the school and the central role it played for three generations of the Kirby family. Jean G. Lamont Endowed Scholarship Fund — established in 2004 in recognition of Jean Lamont’s commitment to diversity and a strong financial aid program during her tenure as Head of School from 1992–2004. Hannah Lee Memorial Endowed Fund — established in memory of Hannah Lee ’08, 1993–2004, this fund provides annual support for the school’s financial aid program. LaViola Family Scholarship Fund — established by Philomena and John LaViola in honor of their grandchildren, Alexandra LaViola ’06 and John LaViola ’09. Jonathan Milikowsky Scholarship Fund — established in 2007 in memory of Jon Milikowsky ’98 by his parents, Sharon and Daniel Milikowsky, brother Matthew ’95 and sister Jennifer ’02, the fund provides financial aid for a student in grades 6–9 who demonstrates intellectual curiosity, cheerful engagement with classmates and teachers, kindness, optimism, and appreciation and respect for others. Pasi-Sachdev Family Fund — created in 2005 by the Pasi-Sachdev family to reflect their deep appreciation of the Foote School community. Orten L. Pengue, Jr., Scholarship Fund— created in 2008 by parents and students in honor of Ort’s many contributions to Foote’s theater program. Frank M. Perrine Scholarship Fund — established in 1991 in recognition of Frank’s many contributions to Foote as Headmaster from 1967–92.
Phyllis Brown Sandine Memorial ISIS Scholarship Fund — established in 2002 by ISIS (Inner-City Scholarships for Independent Schools) in honor of Mrs. Sandine, a Foote parent and longtime friend of the school and an advocate for early childhood education. It provides financial aid funds specifically for New Haven children enrolled at Foote. Gene J. Takahashi Scholarship Fund — created in 2010 by Dean Takahashi and Wendy Sharp, Kerry Takahashi ’07 and Kai Takahashi ’09, in honor of Dean’s father. Anne Schroeder Vroman Scholarship Fund — created in 2006 by Barent Vroman in memory of his wife, a member of the class of 1946.
endowment for learning support Milos Saccio Fund — established in memory of Milos Saccio ’83, 1967–79, who was a sixth grader at Foote at the time of his death, this fund annually provides learning support with the intention of helping children reach their full potential.
Classical Book Fund — established in 1996 to honor Latin teacher Carol Ross, and used annually to provide library and classroom resources to enrich the study of classical Greece and Rome. Fund for Community Outreach — established in 2012 to provide funding for meaningful community outreach programs offered at Foote in support of the greater New Haven community. C. Dary Dunham School Spirit Fund — established in recognition of Dary Dunham’s leadership of Foote as Interim Head of School, 2007–09, it funds campus activities that build a sense of community. Faculty Professional Development focused on reading instruction — established in 2013 to provide professional development for Foote School teachers and learning support staff in methodologies that support students with dyslexia and other reading challenges. Friends of Foote Theater Fund — established in 2002, this fund provides support for expanded opportunities in educational theater made possible by the construction of the Robert D. Sandine black box theater.
restric ted funds The school also appreciates and relies upon the support provided by Restricted Funds. These funds are not endowed — the principal is spent as needed over the years. Current Restricted Funds include: Fall 2015 | 51
May Day
52 | Foote Prints
May Day 2015 As they have since Foote’s earliest days, students assembled on a grassy field to perform English country dances for parents during the annual May Day celebration. The highlight of Foote’s longest-running tradition is undoubtedly the maypole dance performed by third graders, ending in a bright and joyous flurry of ribbons. Find more photos from this year’s May Day online at www.footeschool.org/mayday2015.
Fall 2015 | 53
Reunion Day
A L U M N I F ROM THE CLAS S ES ending
in 0 and 5 returned to Foote on May 9 to reunite with classmates on a beautiful spring day. The last official reunion before next year’s Centennial Celebration, the gathering drew one alumna marking her 80th reunion (see sidebar), another celebrating her 10th, and everything in between. After catching up over coffee and donuts in the Perrine Library, alums converged in the Hosley Gymnasium to honor two special alums with the 2015 Alumni Service Award. Margaret “Muffie” Clement Green ’61 was honored for her work in organizing the school archives, named for alumna Anna Huntington Deming ’35. Muffie catalogued hundreds of old photographs, student work and memorabilia in preparation for Foote’s Centennial.
Leland Torrence ’68 was honored for serving as the school’s owner’s representative on numerous building projects—from the art/ theater/gym construction in 2001 to the Jonathan Milikowsky Science and Technology Building in 2012. Ann Baker Pepe, director of Development and Alumni Programs, paid tribute to three recently deceased members of the Foote community: Stuart Clement ’34, Margaret Foote Oppenheimer ’35 (daughter of school founder Martha Babcock Foote) and longtime staff member Margarete Zuccon. Head of School Carol Maoz paid tribute to retiring French teacher Jenny Byers ’65, who spent 38 years at Foote (nine as a student and 29 as faculty.)
“Many of the characteristics you valued in the school as you knew it continue today,” Carol told alums. “Even as we consider new programs, technology and educational experiences, we’re committed to staying true to Foote’s core values: the dedication of the teachers and their high expectations of even very young children, the many opportunities for collaborative work, and the support of creativity and individual perspectives.” The celebrations continued into the night at individual class gatherings around the New Haven area, a warm-up for Foote’s big 100th birthday party next spring.
> Find more photos from Reunion Day at www.footeschool.org/reunion2015.
Above: Foote French teacher Jenny Byers ’65 (right), celebrating her 50th reunion, and her mother, Jane Byers; Left: Muffie Clement Green ’61, winner of the Alumni Service Award, with Head of School Carol Maoz (right)
“Who else would devote a Saturday afternoon to creating a timeline of the school’s locations, heads of school, enrollment numbers and highlights of all sorts—from the first football game against Hamden Hall to author John Hersey’s graduation speech?” —Annie Wareck ’85, introducing Alumni Service Award winner Muffie Clement Green ’61
54 | Foote Prints
“I remember Lee and his great spirit, his can-do attitude and his loyalty to the class and the school. He has been a brick, a real worker and a great friend to Foote for over 45 years.” —Former headmaster Frank Perrine on Alumni Service Award winner Leland Torrence ’68
Above: Leland Torrence ’68, winner of the Alumni Service Award Far left: Brianna Berkowitz ’00 with husband Michael Ryan and son Luke Left: Sam Clement ’65 (left) and Eric Triffin ’65
‘It Sticks With You 80 Years’
“It sticks with you 80 years because you did the same play every year,” says West. Other memories remain clear eight decades later: being served mead, rather than orange juice, in the mornings; learning folk tunes like “Bonnie Charlie” in music class; and many wonderful teachers. And yogurt.
Eugenia Whitney Hotchkiss ’35 (left) and Eugenia Lovett West ’36 reminisce in the Perrine Library.
W H EN EUGEN I A LOVETT WES T and
Eugenia Whitney Hotchkiss graduated from Foote, FDR was president, the Golden Gate Bridge was not yet complete, and Foote School consisted of a few dozen students in an old carriage house on Saint Ronan Street. Two of the school’s oldest living alums, Hotchkiss (class of 1935) and West (class of 1936) returned to Foote to celebrate their 80th and 79th reunions on May 9, and shared memories from Foote’s early days. The women grew up two doors from each other on Trumbull Street, walking or biking
to school each day, and have remained friends ever since. West got her break as a mystery novelist after sending her first manuscript to Hotchkiss’ husband, Joe (Foote class of 1933), who was then editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest. The pair remembers Martha Babcock Foote, the school’s founder and first headmistress, checking in on classes. They recall May Day dancing, memorizing poems such as Alfred Noyes’ “The Highwayman,” and they can still recite lines from the annual Christmas play in unison.
“We knew about yogurt before anybody else, because [a classmate’s] father had been to the Middle East,” says Hotchkiss. “We didn’t have it, but we knew about it. So when it became popular, we thought, we’ve known about this for years!” For all that’s changed, both feel Foote’s guiding spirit has remained the same. “The thing about your headmistress is she [gets] the picture about what this school is all about,” says Hotchkiss, “because it’s still the same fun learning experience for the children.”
> Watch video of the interview at www.footeschool.org/reunion2015.
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Reunion Day
Clockwise from top right: Bob Sandine with James Kerr ’90; Charles Hosley ’65 and Babs Currier Bell ’55 outside the gymnasium named for their father and step-father, respectively, C. Everton Hosley, Jr.; Members of the Class of 1985 in the new playground climber designed by classmate Spencer Luckey. Top row from left: Spencer Luckey, Jon Fay, Allyx Schiavone, Merrill Barden Collins. Below: Annie Wareck and Linda Grossman; A reunion of Clements. From left, Amy Estabrook ’72, her mother Bushie Clement Estabrook, Muffie Clement Green ’61, Sam Clement ’65, Happy Spongberg Clement ’60, Cecie Clement ’62; Sid Nathan ’00 and wife Amy Nathan; Babs Currier Bell ’55 and former faculty member Annie Clark
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Foote Goes to Washington E A C H Y EAR, F OOTE hosts gatherings
for alumni in cities around the country, from New York to Silicon Valley. On May 4, alums converged in the nation’s capital for an event at the American Foreign Service Association, co-hosted by Clinton White ’82, a senior foreign service officer with USAID and this year’s graduation speaker (see page 26). The Washington D.C. event
drew 13 alums—the oldest from the class of 1945, the youngest from 1999—for a cocktail party featuring remarks by Laura Abrahams Schulz, Director of Global Engagement at the National Security Council. It was a wonderful gathering of Footies and, for one night at least, it seemed that Washington was in perfect harmony.
If you’re interested in hosting an alumni gathering, please contact Amy Caplan ’88 in the Alumni and Development Office, at acaplan@footeschool.org.
From left, Clinton White ’82, Head of School Carol Maoz, Amy Caplan ’88, Kevin Huff ’77, Dean Phillips ’73, John Canellakis ’73, Molly Jennings ’99, Joe Longa ’95, Rives Fowlkes Carroll ’57, Dickson Carroll. Missing from photo: Will Amatruda ’56, Jessie Brinkley ’64, Grace Holden ’66, Jane Whittlesey North ’45, Lee Ann Richter ’96
.
Mark Your Calendars! FO O TE W IL L C E L E BR ATE I T S 10 0 T H
year with a variety of activities on- and off-campus during the 2015–16 school year. The highlight will be a Centennial Celebration weekend on May 13, 14 & 15, 2016. All members of the Foote community—past and present—are invited to help celebrate the school’s first 100 years and reconnect with friends, classmates and teachers.
> Find more information about Centennial plans at www.footeschool.org/centennial.
Fall 2015 | 57
Class Notes
“Our reunions now are like the convening of editors, brought together to refine, rewrite, redress and relaunch our shared history that keeps us both together and looking forward to the future. And now a call for more editors when we have the chance to celebrate 100 years of Foote School.” See page 63.
1932
1942
We are sad to report the death of Catherine “Kitty” Booker Barclay, who passed away on April 19, 2015.
Class Correspondent: David Hitchcock, Jr. HitchDL@aol.com
1933
1945
We are sad to report the death of Gertrude Rose Prescott, who passed away on March 19, 2015.
Class Correspondent: Dr. John Gardner jhgardner@earthlink.net
1935 We are sad to report the death of Susan Darling, who passed away February 11, 2011. Betty Smith Ewing is proud to still be living independently in the same house for the past 55 years. We extend our condolences to Anne Rose Hilliard, whose sister Gertrude Rose Prescott ’33 passed away in March.
Michael Robert Mansergh Buchanan writes that, sadly, many classmates have departed, though there are many wonderful memories. He is closing in on his 85th birthday and when asked how he is, his standard reply is, “If it were nice out, I’d be playing 18.” Michael keeps busy as the treasurer of two active community organizations.
1936
1946
Class Correspondent: Elizabeth Reeves Goodspeed 111 Hunter Avenue New Rochelle, NY 10801
70th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondent: Kent Healy Kent.Healy@verizon.net
We are sad to report the death of Elisabeth Simonds Burns, who passed away on September 10, 2012.
Jennifer Griswold Hillhouse is retired, though she remains active as a volunteer in the community as well as at election polling sites. One grandson graduated from law school and the other three from college. Her daughter Margaret is moving “away,” as Alaskans say, meaning south of Canada. Jennifer declines invitations to move into senior housing and will die at home with her woodpile in order. She regrets not making the reunion due to excessive commitments. Kent Healy works full time as a civil engineer designing and supervising the construction of foundations, bridges, bulkheads and towers with the help of five grandchildren as assistants.
1939 Class Correspondent: Anne Campbell Clement shclement@comcast.net
We’d love to hear from you! Please contact your class correspondent or Cheryl Nadzam at cnadzam@ footeschool.org to share news about you and your classmates, or visit www.footeschool.org/alumni/alumninews
We are sad to report the death of William Duffy, who passed away September 7, 2014. We extend our condolences to Edie Rose Hopkins, whose sister Gertrude Rose Prescott ’33 passed away in May. Edie writes that her sister lived in Maine at the time of her death. Edie and Anne Hilliard are both doing well, with Edie painting and Anne gardening.
1941 75th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondent: Nancy Redway Pugsley 88 Notch Hill Road Evergreen Woods, Apt. 355 North Branford, CT 06471 203-488-8312 58 | Foote Prints
1947 Class Correspondent: Gladys Bozyan Lavine GBLavine@gmail.com
1948 The Class of 1948 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Cheryl Nadzam in the Alumni Office at cnadzam@footeschool.org.
Betsey Mendell Grobe writes that she had a delicious lunch with classmate Nancy Tuttle Adams and her sister Harriet Tuttle Noyes ’47 to celebrate Nancy’s 80th birthday. She sends special thanks to Holly Adams and Fritz Grobe for making it all work. Nancy is in Arlington, MA, in an assisted living facility near her sister Harriet and both are aging well!
1949 The Class of 1949 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Cheryl Nadzam in the Alumni Office at cnadzam@footeschool.org. We are sad to report the death of William Greaves, who passed away on September 27, 2014. He was a well-known author and professor of linguistics at Glendon College in Toronto, and had visited Foote in 2004 to share his fascinating research on bonobos with students.
1950 Class Correspondent: Mary Pigott Johnsen jlmpjohnsen@west-point.org In June, Nancy Curtis was interviewed on NPR’s “All Things Considered” about changes to U.S. policy on American hostages. Nancy waged a 22-month battle to free her son Theo, an American writer and freelance journalist, from Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria. Theo was released in August 2014.
1951 65th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondent: Emily Mendillo Wood birdofmilford@gmail.com Emily Mendillo Wood reports that her son Col. Rawson Wood is a pilot and doctor working as commander of the base hospital at Travis Air Force Base in Sacramento after spending two years in South Korea. Her daughter Leila Wood Stuhr ’82 works as a specialist veterinarian and lives in Ridgefield, CT with her two boys, 10 and 12. Emily spends most of her time traveling here and there and spends winters in Florida. Diana Long lives in droughtstricken California and is counting on Foote to produce a generation living within a sustainable ecosystem.
CLASS OF 1955 — 60TH REUNION Douglas Crowley, Nawrie Meigs-Brown, W. Lee Dunham, Nancy Farnam Charles, Sherwood Willard and Barbara “Babs” Currier Bell We had excellent attendance for our 60th reunion with seven classmates and two spouses present. Many of us were the hard-core regulars from past reunions but for the first time, Penny Reynolds Roosevelt and her husband Kermit joined us. They came Friday night for dinner at Roseline and Douglas Crowley’s for what has become the highlight of our reunions: a delicious dinner in a very comfortable house with the most gracious hostess and host. On Saturday, Penny and Kermit continued on their annual pilgrimage to Nantucket and Nancy Farnam Charles joined us for the festivities at the school. The news from the regulars was primarily about the joys of home and grandparenting. Nawrie Meigs-Brown with her husband David continues enjoying life and gardening in a Woods Hole house that has been in her family for years. Sherwood Willard and Maggie have moved to a comfortable condominium in Bloomfield which allows Sherwood plenty of time to golf. Nancy Farnam Charles and Bob, whose health has been a concern for Nancy, are living on her same family land in Wallingford. Lee Dunham and Nancy continue in Belmont. And Babs Currier Bell has shown the most gumption, selling her house in Milford and moving to Maine where she will be closer to her daughter. We all had a good time reminiscing and trying to reconstruct our bike routes to school. We vowed not to wait another five years for our 65th but to assemble again on May 13, 14 and 15 in 2016 for the school’s Centennial Celebration.
1952 Class Correspondent: Harald Hille harald.hille@gmail.com Nancy Osterweis Alderman reports that she and Myles go on pretty much as usual. Two grandchildren are out of college and gainfully employed while the other two are still in college. The nest was so empty that they got a Springer Spaniel puppy — now that is real work. Nancy is happily running Environment and Human Health, Inc. and loving it, although at times the environmental harms to health seem overwhelming. They are working hard to educate the public about the dangers of synthetic turf fields, which continue to be installed everywhere. Each field contains
40,000 ground-up rubber tires as infill, and the infill contains numerous carcinogens that “off-gas.” The safest field is still a grass field. Myles runs a Civil War roundtable and plans to go to Charleston in October and visit Civil War sites. Lee Gaillard and his wife spent a wonderful week in England in mid-May. They attended two concerts at St. Martin-in-the-Fields and visited Westminster, where Lee travelled in 1956–57 on an EnglishSpeaking Union fellowship between Choate and Yale. They also visited major exhibits at The National Gallery, The Imperial War Museum, The British Museum and others. On the writing front, Lee had a three-part series on astronomy published in Reflector, the quarterly magazine of the Astronomical League. He wrote another on the dangers Fall 2015 | 59
posed by asteroids. His article on UFOs in March, featured in their local paper, followed by an evening presentation in the local library, went far better than expected! This summer, they went to Maine for two weeks to view Hudson River School paintings in various galleries and museums. We extend our condolences to Lee, whose brother David Lindsay ’53 passed away in 2014. Harald Hille continues doing translation for various clients, including the U.N., where he worked full-time before retirement. Harald developed an interest in contemporary Swedish authors. He has been translating a play by one author about a remarkable woman, Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1945), who was a Russian Marxist feminist activist in the early 20th century and the first female People’s Commissar (Social Affairs) in the first Bolshevik government after the Revolution in 1917. Kollontai was the Soviet Ambassador to Sweden from 1930 to 1945, which saved her from Stalin’s purges, trials and executions in the 1930s. That and a family reunion brought Harald to Sweden for a week in May. There has been a very lively discussion going on in Sweden for some years now about immigration, assimilation, multiculturalism, etc. About 15 percent of the population now is foreign-born, which has forced Swedes to reconsider what it means to be Swedish.
1955
1953
Kevin Geenty writes that with the arrival of spring comes many hours in the vegetable garden, fishing, spring turkey season and motorcycling. His wife Mikki’s gymnastics judging season is over after three to four months. They are considering a trip to Ireland. Rives Fowlkes Carroll and her sister Carol Miller Rand were in
Class Correspondent: Robert Wing wing@astronomy.ohio-state.edu We are sad to report the death of David Lindsay, who passed away in 2014.
Class Correspondents: Nawrie Meigs-Brown nawrie@comcast.net Lee Dunham LDunham@sandw.com See reunion write-up on page 59. Elizabeth Levy Stroman’s new book The Art and Life of Jean Varda was published in June 2015. For more information about the book, check out www.vardabook.com. She sends best wishes as she was unable to attend the reunion. Michael Porter was in Stockholm during the reunion and is heading back to Helsinki soon. His wife Barbara flew back to California to help out with their daughter Anne’s new baby.
1956 60th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondent: Will Amatruda willtam88@hotmail.com
1957 Class Correspondent: Kevin Geenty kevin@geentygroup.com
1954 The Class of 1954 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Cheryl Nadzam in the Alumni Office at cnadzam@footeschool.org. Edward Johnson remains retired and is enjoying sleeping late. Edward is active with the local fire department, church and food co-op. He also keeps busy with many community activities. Edward and his wife are focusing on traveling more and volunteering less for 2015. Lavinia Meeks is happy to read about some old friends in Foote Prints and having been class secretary for a brief time, she will keep reaching out. 60 | Foote Prints
San Diego celebrating their aunt’s 96th birthday. Rives’ mother is turning 99 in the fall so she and her sister plan to be rocking in their chairs well after 100! In May 2013, Rives spontaneously decided to retire from directing her summer day camp after 36 years. This wise decision has opened up welcome time and space to travel, read, exercise, spend more time with grandchildren who live nearby, focus more on learning French, and put together a book of her father’s letters from WWII. She never expected to be so interested in this war, but as a context for his experiences, it has been fascinating. The family spent a week at Lewes, Delaware, in July, and by chance, Carol and some of her family were in nearby Bethany Beach at the same time. Dickson is also in the process of retiring, so more fun ahead. Carol reports that it’s pretty fortunate to have two nonagenarians in the family. Many of you will remember her mother, who is happily living in Hamden at The Whitney Center, where JoJo Johnson Stone lives with her siblings. Carol and her husband Larry had a wonderful trip in May to the Dalmatian Coast, starting in Slovenia, continuing via ship to Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, and Greece. Dubrovnik is as wonderful as the pictures so often seen of the lovely port area, but even better is its four-mile wall, which still surrounds the town, despite being damaged in the war during the ’90s. They did the usual summer things: tennis, reading, gardening, concerts, walks with their new puppy, and golf for Larry. They continue to enjoy the beautiful view in Sharon looking out over the Housatonic River Valley. Tristram “Tim” Gaillard retired from real estate and started a furniture and art business called “No 2 Alike” — furniture and art(ifacts) re-purposed from antique woods and machinery parts. If interested, email Tristram at gaillard5@smugmug.com. Tim and Grace moved to a large contemporary ranch house with a huge workshop and few stairs. Life is good! We extend our condolences to Tristram, whose brother David Lindsay ’53 passed away in 2014.
1958 CLASS OF 1960 — 55TH REUNION Happy Clement Spongberg and Patricia Fiorito Oakes
Class Correspondent: Eric Berger ericberger@aol.com
1959 The Class of 1959 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Cheryl Nadzam in the Alumni Office at cnadzam@footeschool.org.
1960 Class Correspondent: Happy Clement Spongberg happyspongberg@earthlink.net Elizabeth Reigeluth Parker is still enjoying her job with Carolina Ballet in Raleigh — one of the highlights is being the grandmother in The Nutcracker. Elizabeth and her husband Richard have four children spread around the country and three grandchildren. “We are very lucky and hope to get back for the 100th celebration!”
1961 55th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondent: Muffie Clement Green m_c_green@sbcglobal.net
1962 Class Correspondent: Donald O. Ross dross@winvcounsel.com Caroline Woodman Quarrier is an RN in New York and Connecticut, hoping to obtain her CCRN. Caroline has one daughter, one son-in-law and one grandson. Her sister and brother live in Maine.
1963 Class Correspondent: Susan Stratton susan@strattonpartners.com Judith Hull recently moved to Maryland’s eastern shore and extends a warm welcome to stay in their guesthouse to all who bike, kayak and boat!
1964 Class Correspondent: Verdi DiSesa verdi.disesa@gmail.com
CLASS OF 1965 — 50TH REUNION Sam Clement, Eric Triffin, Jenny Byers, Jim Farnam, Janet McClure, Cameron Henning, Charles Hosley, David Kleeman, Jonathan Hooker Eleven of our 28 surviving members of the Class of 1965 assembled in Leete’s Island at Janet Alley McClure’s house after the Foote reunion program for a wonderful dinner and party (Janet, Jenny Byers, Sam Clement, Jim Farnam, Cam Henning, Jon Hooker, Charlie Hosley, David Kleeman, Josh Miner, Lucy Pugsley and Eric Triffin). We were joined by four distant class members via Google Hangout (Arthur Adelberg, Bonnie Foord Calhoun, Woody Lord, and Beverly Bronson Theuer) for a total of 54 percent connecting to the party. The site was absolutely beautiful and a reprise of our annual class picnics at the beach and of our 25th. We reminisced over many old pictures and yearbooks and shared stories of how life has treated us in the years since Foote. We learned that members and spouses are starting to retire, of children and grandchildren, of careers spent in public health, banking, construction, or urban planning. And we toasted those who could not make it and those who have passed on (Jack Brennan and Emmy Glen). Many warm feelings and memories rippled through the event (although we generally avoided politics). There was a sense that we should not let 10 years go by before we reassemble.
1965
1966
Class Correspondent: Eric Triffin Eric_Triffin@aya.yale.edu
50th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondent: John N. Deming, Jr. jndjr@yahoo.com
See reunion write-up. Samuel Clement was amazed that their 50th Reunion has come and gone — so successfully! With over half of the class attending the reunion or visiting via Google Hangouts, Sam extends his thanks to the fine reunion committee. David Kleeman is trying to retire and get back to making sculptures and furniture. David enjoyed the 50th Reunion. Julie Ripley Miller lives in southwest Georgia with her children — Hannah (24), Johnathan & Julia (15) and Stephen & Sarah (9). They spend time riding horses and enjoying the South.
Grace Hammond Boss is finishing a new home, keeping her busy on her historic farm. She is taking classes in the Adventures in Learning program at Colby Sawyer College in New London, NH. The highlight of this spring was her daughter’s graduation from Boston College. And her son is enjoying his first job in Natick, MA. Grace feels blessed and enjoys her daily walks with her 6-yearold Pyrenees. Henry Margenau suffered two strokes last August and September and had to learn to walk and talk again. He regained 90 percent of his speech, and after months of physical therapy can walk with no Fall 2015 | 61
assistance. He lost 50 percent of his eyesight in both eyes and can no longer drive. “So needless to say, I am no longer working and am officially retired.” He and his wife Cynthia celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary in June. “I got married at 12 (only kidding).” They raised two sons, now in their 30s. Their youngest, Kurt, is the lead game designer for Naughty Dog in Santa Monica, CA, and was responsible for the “Uncharted” series of games as well as the game “The Last of Us.” Scott, their oldest, is the head IT tech for a nonprofit company in Orlando. Henry got in touch with an old college friend and found that she was friends with Dick Elston, who is now living in Montana. Dick works out of his house and spends his time between California and Montana. He is on Facebook. Henry is happy to still be “kicking,” and will start doing volunteer work in the local hospital with stroke victims. He looks forward to the 50th next year —“God willing”. Brooks Kerr did not get to Reunion as hoped this year, but John Deming was delighted that Grace Hammond Boss and Guy Crosby were there from New Hampshire and Vermont, respectively. At lunch, these two engaged in a provocative discussion about taxes in those two states. John saw Curtis Sutro ’73 before he left for the summer to Tennessee and he reports that Ginny Sutro Morse is doing well and working in the Boston area.
1967 The Class of 1967 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Cheryl Nadzam in the Alumni Office at cnadzam@footeschool.org.
1968 Class Correspondents: Rob Clark rclark@perrigo-inc.com Liz Prelinger prelinge@georgetown.edu George W. Holden was promoted to chairman of the Psychology Department at Southern Methodist University. His daughter Meg is a new attorney working in New York City. His son John is at Yale School of Architecture and his other son Paul is a junior at Yale.
1969 Class Correspondent: Meg McDowell Smith megsmithvt@gmavt.net
1970 The Class of 1970 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Cheryl Nadzam in the Alumni Office at cnadzam@footeschool.org.
1971 45th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 The Class of 1971 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Cheryl Nadzam in the Alumni Office at cnadzam@footeschool.org.
CLASS OF 1970 — 45TH REUNION Henry Lord, Peter Salisbury and Jim Tapscott
1972 Class Correspondents: Amy Estabrook heyamo@snet.net Cathy Hosley Vouwie chv79@hotmail.com We are sad to report the death of John Roland Hare, who passed away on May 17, 2015. Sadly, his mother Sylvia Hare also passed away in March. Amy Estabrook hosted a luncheon on her terrace when Greta Nettleton and Ruth Collins were in town for their Hopkins reunion. Cathy Vouwie, Greta, Ruth and Amy had a wonderful time catching up. It was the first time for Amy and Cathy to see Ruth in 43 years but the friendship remains the same as though their Foote days ended only yesterday. Louise Preston Werden reports that her oldest, Leland, had plans to trek for a month in Nepal but upon his arrival in Katmandu joined the earthquake relief effort as well as completing a trek of the Annapurna circuit. Leland is a doctoral student living in Costa Rica. In August, Pemi, one of three daughters, will be visiting the U.S. for a month from her home in Australia. When Louise retires, she plans to travel to see the kids in their far-flung destinations! Emily Freedman Stoller offers a place to stay for classmates visiting D.C. Her home is a short walk to the Metro, making it great for touristas! Emily would love to catch up with Foote friends.
1973 Class Correspondents: Peter Hicks phicks@websterbank.com Members of the Class of 1975 and former Foote faculty gathered at the home of classmate Susie Campbell Grimes on Reunion weekend.
62 | Foote Prints
John Persse johnpersse@bhhsne.com
1974 The Class of 1974 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Cheryl Nadzam in the Alumni Office at cnadzam@footeschool.org.
1975 Class Correspondent: Jessica Drury sjsaz@optonline.net See reunion write-up.
1976 40th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondent: John Holder johnholder@comporium.net Ken Yanagisawa is the managing partner of Southern New England Ear Nose Throat & Facial Plastic Surgery Group, LLP, with eight offices in the Greater New Haven area. Ken serves as the chair of the Socioeconomic and Grassroots Committee, Board of Governors, American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and continues as Chief of Otolaryngology, Saint Raphael Campus, Yale-New Haven Hospital. He serves as a starter and administrative official at numerous local swim meets. All five of his children are thriving, with Katie in medical school in Maine, Michael working at Epic in Madison, WI, Mark working in Philadelphia, Jon in local college, and Kevin in high school, swimming and playing the violin and trumpet.
1977 Class Correspondent: Elizabeth Daley Draghi gdraghi@sbcglobal.net
1978 Class Correspondents: Nell DeVane Eleanor.devane@espn.com Stephen Fontana stevef1701@aol.com
1979 Class Correspondent: Bonnie Welch Bonniewelch@taftschool.org
CLASS OF 1975 — 40TH REUNION Susie Campbell Grimes, Jessie Drury, Joanie Bigwood, Bo Sandine, Jonea Gurwitt, Patience “Duby” McDowell Forty is a terrifying number, particularly when used to define years. It takes a certain character to confront such a reality and it appears the Class of 1975 has just the character needed to stare down the encroachment of time. In relative terms, the Class of ’75 arrived on campus for Reunion in droves and our numbers dominated the luncheon line. With a swagger well deserved, we boasted of having such luminaries as Bob Sandine at our table and had to rearrange chairs when it became clear that our table was the table. Then, like days of yore, we roamed the hallways of the main building stopping briefly to take a small group shot in front of Marion Spiro’s science room to send along to our beloved teacher in hopes of cajoling a memory or two from her of those magical days when we elicited sighs of exasperation with our uncensored questions during the sex education segment of our science curriculum. The girls’ bathroom hadn’t changed a bit, and it was everything we could do not to launch a soggy woggy onto the ceiling with the hopes that it would dry to a cement-like consistency in time to drive Freddie’s (Bunch of Bananas) successor crazy. But such alma mater enthusiasm found true expression later that same afternoon at the house of Susie Campbell Grimes. Via Belgium, Joanie Bigwood and her affianced Jeff arrived on the heels of Duby McDowell, Jonea Gurwitt, Cessy Bickel, Reedie Field King, Miles Alderman, Georgia Fiedler Griscom, Bo Sandine, Roger Smith, Jennifer Dunning, Katie Wolfgang, the Class Secretary and a sundry collection of husbands, partners, lifelong loves and wannabe members of ’75. But that does not adequately cover the brilliant guest list because we also hosted Peg Campbell, Joanne Bickel, Jean Kelly, Phyllis McDowell, Nissa Simon and Bob Sandine. And there was Francie Irvine, Ted Willis, the Totmans and so many other teachers who came by to reunite through recounted stories and memories of Jay Bovilsky and Jean Shepler. It was a melange of bittersweet, incredulous, hilarious, ridiculous and wonderful. And here the intangible comes into play. Reunions can be dreadful affairs with awkward silences and furtive glances at the door. But our class has never been one to define itself through individuals but as a collective. And even as we screamed our way into the teenage years, we always saw and accepted each other as essential elements in a wildly creative, clever, diverse and idiosyncratic prologue to a story that continues to be written as it is lived. Our reunions now are like the convening of editors, brought together to refine, rewrite, redress and relaunch our shared history that keeps us both together and looking forward to the future. And now a call for more editors when we have the chance to celebrate 100 years of Foote School. And find solace in the fact that we only celebrated 40 of those years. Suddenly I am feeling very young. See you spring chickens next year.
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1980 Class Correspondent: Liz Geller Brennan gelbren@aol.com See reunion write-up. We are sad to report the death of Jonathan “J” Palumbo, who passed away on April 25, 2015. “The Class of ’80 was deeply saddened by the loss of J Palumbo. He will be greatly missed, and it was he who often brought our class together,” writes Liz Geller Brennan. Julian Harris had an opening reception in May of his recent work “Love Letters” at a gallery in Tribeca. “Love Letters” has been integrated into the art direction of a French play called The Workroom.
1981 35th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondents: Jennifer LaVin jen2766@gmail.com Nicolas Crowley nyjcrowley@hotmail.com Mike Prichard is the vice president of design for Miselu in San Francisco. They launched his new iPad-sized piano keyboard with a successful Kickstarter campaign. Mike will
sing the role of Dr. Dulcamara in Donizetti’s opera The Elixir of Love this June in Concord, MA. Hilary Fayen Higgins traveled with her son Ronan back to Germany in June to spend time with friends in Burghausen and refresh their German language skills. It was incredible how fast Ronan’s German skills returned after just a week with his friends. She met with a few clients and attended the Laser Photonics trade show in Munich. Ronan enjoyed seeing technology in action. They also took a side trip to Croatia to see the cascading waterfalls at Plitvice National Park. Looking forward to the next reunion! Nicolas Crowley moved to Montreal a year ago and loves it. Nicolas works at the plane and train maker Bombardier. Congrats to Patrick Clendenen, who has been appointed to chair the Business and Corporate Litigation Committee of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section. Jennifer LaVin writes that after 15 years in the Boston area, she and her husband Geoff Payson are moving to southern Maine, where they found a fixer-upper right off Wells Beach. Jennifer’s life science communications consulting business continues to go well and Geoff has returned to his comedy roots, performing in Portland and Ogunquit and producing comedy shows. They would love to see classmates traveling to or through the area!
1982 Class Correspondent: Bethany Schowalter Appleby bappleby@wiggin.com
CLASS OF 1980 — 35TH REUNION Steven Brennan, Liz Geller Brennan, William Perrine The Class of 1980 Reunion was small this year. Liz Geller Brennan and her husband Steve attended and really enjoyed seeing Bill Perrine and Eamon Roche with his wife Sarah Blanton ’93 and their two beautiful children. We hope the Centennial will rally more classmates to come. 64 | Foote Prints
Alexia Prichard is a video producer at the educational nonprofit Facing History and Ourselves in the Boston area. Her documentary film The Dirty Truth about Coal is being shown regularly by the Sierra Club and was broadcast on PBS. Leila Wood Stuhr lives in Ridgefield, CT with her two boys, 10 and 12, where she works as a veterinary specialist. Bethany Schowalter Appleby saw Torben von Staden at their Hopkins reunion. Torben is living in Los Angeles and looking the part as CEO of VehiTrust. We extend our condolences to Julia Talbot, whose husband Robert passed away suddenly in June. Clinton White gave the ninth grade graduation address at Foote this year and classmates Debbie Fong Carpenter and Bethany Schowalter Appleby were in attendance. Bethany’s son Kilian ’06 graduated magna cum laude from Purchase
Lucy and Kathleen Ehlers (twin daughters of Brinley Ford Ehlers ’83) at Camp Kiniya in Colchester, VT.
Lisa Sandine Schuba ’83 with Bob Sandine and Kate Grant Kellogg ’84 in front of Foothill Elementary School in Boulder, CO where Lisa is the principal and one of Kate’s children is a student. College, State University of New York, in Theater and Performing Arts. Her daughter Susan (Leana) ’06 is living and working in State College, PA. Her son Aidan ’11 is at the University of Miami.
1983 Class Correspondent: Brinley Ford Ehlers Brinleysf@aol.com Jocelyn Wolfe Schulman started a handbag business in 2013 and launched a website in May. Jocelyn would love to hear what you think about her designs so check out www. twomoonshandbags.com. Lisa Sandine Schuba welcomed her father, Bob Sandine, and Kate Grant Kellogg ’84 to Foothill Elementary School in Boulder, CO, where Lisa is the principal and one of Kate’s children is a student. After completing her 20th year teaching math at St. Luke’s School in New Canaan, Brinley Ford Ehlers
packed up her husband Terry and 11-yearold twin daughters Lucy and Kathleen and headed for the shores of Lake Champlain in Vermont for the summer. They are working at Camp Kiniya while their girls are going to camp! “Can’t wait for Foote’s big birthday in 2016. Hope everyone from the Class of ’83 will try to come!” Kirsten Mendillo started a women’s tennis apparel line that is 100 percent made in the USA. The company is named Wilhelmina Wetmore (www.wilhelminawetmore.com) after her grandmother, and joins the fight to bring back American clothing manufacturing from China and other unregulated markets. Kirsten also started working for Black Knight Financial Services, which she is really excited about, in data and analytics business development and sales. “Busy but good! Looking forward to seeing everyone at the big reunion!”
1984 Class Correspondent: Ann Pschirrer Brandt annie.brandt@rocketmail.com Kate Grant Kellogg visited Lisa Sandine Schuba ’83 and her father Bob Sandine at Foothill Elementary School in Boulder, CO, where Lisa is principal and Kate’s child is a student.
1985 Class Correspondent: Carter LaPrade Serxner lapserx@gmail.com See reunion write-up. Merrill Barden Collins is looking forward to a family trip to Alaska this summer including a visit to Denali, the namesake of their oldest child. Merrill had a great time connecting at Foote’s Reunion, and was recently honored at Connecticut College with the staff citizenship award. Erich Bentz lives in the vineyards overlooking Vienna, Austria with his wife Theresa and two children, Lara (8) and Axel (4). He travels to Russia and eastern European countries regularly.
CLASS OF 1985 — 30TH REUNION Annie Wareck, Allyx Schiavone, Merrill Barden Collins, Jonathan Fay, Linda Grossman, Spencer Luckey It’s hard to believe that 30 years have passed since the Class of 1985 graduated from Foote! Though there were few, Annie, Allyx, Merrill, Jon (Fay), Jon (Grauer), Linda and Spencer reconnected as if it was still the 1980s. We kicked off the weekend on Friday night with a “fiesta” at the Grauers’ home. While we enjoyed some adult beverages, we looked out at our children playing in the backyard and reminisced about our days at Foote. On Saturday, we continued our childish ways playing on the Lower School playground, managing to fully experience the newest Luckey Climber on campus. At lunch, our conversations ranged from our favorite Foote memories, as well as those we’d like to forget, to our careers, family life and so much more. The evening ended with a “specially organized” Taste of New Haven Tour hosted by Colin Caplan ’94, highlighting New Haven’s cutting edge restaurant scene that is a far cry from when we were at Foote. We left the night promising to all come back and rally the rest of the crew for Foote’s Centennial Celebration.
An illustration by Elisha Cooper ’86 depicting English Premier League soccer was published in Sports Illustrated.
1986 30th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondent: Jody Esselstyn jesselstyn@gmail.com Elisha Cooper’s sketchbook illustrations of Champions League soccer games in England
were featured in the March 9 issue of Sports Illustrated. Mercy Burwell Colberg has settled in St. Louis, MO, where she is a social media director for a real estate company and also teaches dog agility. Mercy is a busy mom/wife and looks forward to showing off the St. Louis area to all friends who visit.
Friend Mercy on Facebook if you want to connect! For a second summer in a row, Jody Esselstyn is enjoying working as a camp nurse at Camp Miniwanca on the shores of Lake Michigan while her three kids (Edie, 13; Sarah, 11; and George, 6) participate in camp. When not at summer camp, Jody and Fall 2015 | 65
1996
her family live in Charlottesville, VA, where they’ve been for the last 15 years.
20th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondents: Brett Nowak Nowak.Brett@gmail.com
1987 Class Correspondents: Jonathan Levin jdlevin@stanford.edu
Katy Zandy Atlas katy91@gmail.com
We extend our condolences to Roslyn Morrison, whose aunt and guardian, Ilene Saulsbury, passed away in June.
1988
CLASS OF 1990 — 25TH REUNION
The Class of 1988 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Cheryl Nadzam in the Alumni Office at cnadzam@footeschool.org.
John Daley, Adam Bovilsky and James Kerr
1989 Class Correspondent: Toya Hill Clark trose7@hotmail.com
1990 Class Correspondent: Amy Crawford amycohncrawford@mac.com
1991 25th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondent: Bo Bradstreet ebradstr@gmail.com Ashley Fitton and husband Rob welcomed their daughter Elizabeth “Libby” Vitari, who was born on Thanksgiving Day 2014! Cousin Archer Fitton is a current first grader at Foote and Libby came to watch him and enjoy May Day.
1992 Class Correspondent: Katie Madden Kavanagh katieblee@hotmail.com We extend our condolences to Sam Hall, whose father Peter Dobkin Hall passed away in May.
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1997 Class Correspondent: Eliza Sayward elizasayward@yahoo.com
Yoon-Ho Alex Lee is an associate professor of law at University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law and lives with his family in Pasadena, CA.
Andrea Miller gave birth to a second child and daughter, Noa Rengito-Miller, on May 26, 2015. Noa joins her happy brother Mateo, who is 21 months. Andrea’s dance company, Gallim Dance, will premier a new work at the Joyce Theater in New York City in December before touring in the U.S. and abroad. Emily Williams Covino and her husband welcomed a baby, Michael, in August 2014. Emily works in the development office at Yale School of Medicine.
1994
1998
Class Correspondent: Arna Berke-Schlessel Zohlman arna.zohlman@gmail.com
Class Correspondents: Andrew Lebov aklebov@gmail.com
1995
Elisabeth Sacco saccopotatoes@gmail.com
1993 Class Correspondent: Jenny Keul jennykeul@gmail.com
Class Correspondent: Jack Hill seaburyhill@aol.com
Elizbeth “Libby” Vitari was born on Thanksgiving Day to Ashley Fitton ’91 and husband Rob Vitari.
Laura Abbott married Jason (Jay) Miner on June 6, 2015 at their family farm in northeastern Connecticut. Laura completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco, in June as well. We extend our condolences to Mary Hall, whose father Peter Dobkin Hall passed away in May.
Noah Charney, an art historian and writer, was featured on NPR’s “Fresh Air” discussing his new book The Art of Forgery, which traces a tradition of fakes and forgeries that dates back to the Renaissance. Noah is the founder and president of The Association for Research Into Crimes Against Art, a nonprofit research group devoted to the issue of art crime.
Liz Antle-O’Donnell displayed her artwork “Momentary Landscapes” at the Kehler Liddell Gallery in New Haven from June 4 through July 5, 2015. The exhibit investigates the conversation between natural and manmade landscapes, using telephone polls, electrical towers and street lights as the primary subjects. She explains, “The collection invites viewers to reflect upon structures and systems that are so integrated into our daily lives that we rarely take notice of their inherent implications.” Congratulations to Al Drucker and his wife Jennifer whose son, Lucas Wyatt Drucker, was born
December 25, 2013. Al and Jennifer welcomed a second son, Logan Mitchell, on July 4! Al is an R.N. in the emergency room at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, NY. Gwyneth HartmanMcClendon and her husband, Scott Hartman, are happy to announce the arrival of their daughter Eleanor on June 18. Her sister Emma ’02 was there for the delivery.
Costa Rica last year and enjoyed traveling this summer in England, Scotland and Thailand. Emma McClendon is the assistant curator for fashion at the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She’s now researching a show about denim.
2003
1999
Class Correspondents: Courtney Holmes msholmes@att.blackberry.net
Class Correspondent: Jeremy Zuidema jmzuidema@gmail.com
Adam Shapiro adamshapiro1488@gmail.com
Elliot Drucker married Nikole Rafter on May 31, 2014. They recently moved to Melrose, MA with their two huge puppies, Michael and Patrick. Elliot is working with Accenture Consulting in its Boston office.
2000 Class Correspondents: Alex Kleiner alex.m.kleiner@gmail.com Shannon Sweeney smsweeney07@gmail.com
Laura Marris holds a BA from Yale and an MFA from Boston University. She has received a fellowship at the MacDowell Colony, a Daniel Varoujan Prize from the New England Poetry Club, and was a semi-finalist for the 2015 Boston Review/ Discovery Prize. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Prelude, Washington Square Review, Meridian, DMQ Review, H.O.W., Secousse, The Brooklyn Rail and elsewhere. She has taught poetry at Boston University, both as a lecturer in the Creative
Writing Department and through Robert Pinsky’s massive open online course “The Art of Poetry.” She is currently working on a translation of Louis Guilloux’s novel Le Sang Noir for the New York Review Books Classics. Visit her website at www. lauramarris.com. Jennifer Milikowsky is the cofounder of an exciting start-up called Passenger Pigeon, which helps connect people who need to ship items with drivers who are already on the road. They are currently operating between cities along the D.C. to Boston corridor, so you can sign up today to ship or become a driver for the service within that region, or sign up to be notified when they launch in your area!
2004 Class Correspondents: Dillon Long know33@gmail.com Dana Schwartz dana.schwartz5@gmail.com Samantha Mashaw returned to Foote in September as a 4th/5th grade associate
See reunion write-up. Becca Williams is a nurse in the surgical intensive care unit, and studying at New York University for an APRN focused on adult and geriatric medicine.
2001 15th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondents: Adam Jacobs 14 Tanglewood Lane Woodbridge, CT 06525 203-393-1760 Cassie Pagnam cassie.pagnam@gmail.com
2002 Class Correspondent: Hope Fleming 47 Old Quarry Road Guilford, CT 06437 203-453-9400 We extend our condolences to Kit Luckey, whose mother Ettie Luckey passed away in May. Elise Silverstone is living in Charleston, SC, teaching second grade. She went to
CLASS OF 2000 — 15TH REUNION Kara Zarchin (wife of Rob Madden), Shannon Sweeney, Caitlin Kobelski, Brianna Berkowitz, Sid Nathan The class of 2000 celebrated their reunion at Foote School over lunch in the gymnasium looking at photographs and reminiscing about time spent together. They were pleased to take a tour of the new buildings, fittingly led by Jay Cox, Libba Cox’s dad, and hear about what Foote is like for students today. We encourage classmates to reach out to us if they would like to help plan or participate in future reunions or Foote events. We all had a great time and realized that with a little encouragement from a wonderful place like Foote you can turn your third grade interests into your career, as so many ’00 alums seem to have successfully done! Fall 2015 | 67
teacher. We extend our sympathies to Jacob Baldwin, whose mother, Barbara Geller, passed away on August 30. Jacob will begin a master’s program in Philadelphia this fall in preparation for a career in teaching.
2007
2010
Class Correspondents: Kenny Kregling kkregling@snet.net
Class Correspondents: Brandi Fullwood brandi.n.fullwood@gmail.com
2005
Symphony Spell symphony.spell@gmail.com
Clay Pepe cppepe@rollins.edu
We extend our condolences to Walker Luckey, whose mother Ettie Luckey passed away in May. Morgan Lee spent the summer at Columbia for an economics program and is now studying abroad in Rome. He will return to Bates for his final term and graduate in the spring. Gaelen and Lucca Markese are both working in Philadelphia (separate jobs), and sharing an apartment!
Joseph Camilleri traveled to Nicaragua to engineer clean water systems for rural villages. He would love to connect with old classmates that left before ninth grade. Maggie Peard returned to Foote as an intern in the Horizons summer program. Caroline Agsten and Carl Hooks both spent the summer in China as part of the very competitive Critical Languages Scholarships program. Gabriel Knisely worked as an intern in Foote’s Development and Alumni Office and focused on creating an online timeline of Foote’s history in preparation for this year’s Centennial.
Class Correspondents: Gabriella Rhodeen gabriella.rhodeen@gmail.com Josh Levine writes that he’s living in Seattle, launching and supporting new primary care clinics with Iora Health, and enjoying his 20s! Grace Peard returned to Foote this fall as a first/second grade teacher!
2006 10th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondents: Audrey Logan logan.audrey@gmail.com
2008
Adam Gabbard adamdgabbard@yahoo.com
Kate Reilly Yurkovsky ker2140@barnard.edu
We extend our sympathies to Sadie Baldwin, whose mother, Barbara Geller, passed away on August 30. Jack Dickey made the cover of Time Magazine twice this year with his article “Who Killed Summer Vacation” this past June and “The Power of Taylor Swift” last November. Audrey Logan worked as an associate producer on the documentary The Hunting Ground, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival and has since screened in theaters and on college campuses across the country. The project provides an in-depth view of the realities of sexual violence on U.S. college campuses.
On May 9, 2015, Andrew Haskell graduated from Emmanuel College in Boston, MA with a degree in graphic design. He returned to Hamden after graduation.
Angela Moore ’05 at Reunion Day
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Class Correspondents: Michael Milazzo mike.milazzo12@gmail.com
2009 Class Correspondents: Chris Blackwood christopher.blackwood@tufts.edu Eva Kerman edk2123@barnard.edu We extend our condolences to Hayden Dunham, whose father Jack Dunham passed away in May. Summer Irving reports that her mom wrote a book, Forget Me Not: An Alzheimer’s Love Story, that carries a Foote School May Day theme. Congratulations to Mary Bundy on her new job as an intern at Roger Paul, Inc. Eva Kerman adopted a 5-year-old rescue Yorkie named Matilda. Maddie Buhl was back at Foote this summer, working as an assistant teacher in Foote’s new summer program, Horizons. In the fall she’ll be a senior at Miami University of Ohio.
2011 5th Reunion, May 13, 14, 15, 2016 Class Correspondents: Nate Barton natebarton95@gmail.com Britney Dumas bdumas13@gmail.com We extend our condolences to John Dunham, whose father Jack Dunham passed away in May. Winnie Agnew finished her first year at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music as a performance and music education major. Aidan Cobb worked as a teaching intern in Foote’s new summer enrichment program, Horizons, before heading off to college. Jack Bohen and Gabe Zanuttini-Frank worked for the Horizons program at Sacred Heart University, where the program directors are two Foote School teachers: Brad McGuire (Director of Athletics) and Jess McKinney (Kindergarten). Dahlia Lefell was a summer intern in Foote’s Development and Alumni Office, focused on Centennial projects.
2012 Class Correspondents: Harrison Lapides yalehockey20@comcast.net Cassidy McCarns cmccarns@bates.edu Cassidy McCarns graduated from Branford High School, where she was named offensive player of the year and made the All-SCC Team for soccer. Cassidy will attend Bates College in the fall. Harrison Lapides was an intern for Horizons at Foote, the school’s summer enrichment program for low-income New Haven students. Sam Burbank worked on campus in the Summer Adventures program.
2013 Class Correspondents: Lawson Buhl lbuhl17@choate.edu Anika Zetterberg azetterberg16@choate.edu We extend our condolences to Eliza Dunham, whose father Jack Dunham passed away in May. We also extend our condolences to Nicholas Palumbo, whose father Jonathan “J” Palumbo passed away in April. Julian Markese is a senior at Hopkins. Last year, he switched from soccer to becoming the
football kicker midway through the season. He also had a fantastic lacrosse season and was voted most improved player by his teammates. Shafton Haley, Anika Zetterberg and Ella Cowan deWolf spent the summer teaching reading, math and swimming to New Haven public school students in the new Horizons at Foote enrichment program. Olivia Podos, who worked with the same children last year at Footebridge, joined them as a volunteer for a week before heading off to a summer program at Duke.
2014 Class Correspondents: Robinson Armour robinsonarmour@gmail.com Sophia Matthes Theriault sophiamtheriault@gmail.com Kyle Gelzinis was back in the Foote School theater as an assistant with the Summer Theater Program.
2015 Class Correspondents: Anli Raymond Agcsoccer15@gmail.com Will Wildridge wwildridge19@choate.edu
In Memoriam Catharine “Kitty” Hooker Barclay ’32 April 19, 2015 Gertrude Rose Prescott ’33 March 19, 2015 Susan Darling ’35 February 11, 2011 Elisabeth Simonds Burns ’36 September 10, 2012 William Duffy ’39 September 7, 2014 William Greaves ’49 September 27, 2014 David Lindsay ’53 2014 John Roland Hare ’72 May 17, 2015 Jonathan “J” Palumbo ’80 April 25, 2015
Foote is turning 100! Save the Date for Centennial Weekend
May 13, 14 & 15, 2016 Because we’ll need your help to blow out that many candles!
Fall 2015 | 69
Looking Back
Shelter from
of 1939, facing the threat of aerial bombardment by Nazi Germany, Great Britain undertook an evacuation of cities that would be the largest mass movement of people in its history. In just four days, Operation Pied Piper moved more than 3 million people—most of them school children—into the countryside where it was thought to be safer from Hitler’s bombers. I N T H E D ARK D AY S
Evacuations continued as the war intensified, and in the summer of 1940, a handful of Yale faculty members organized an effort to take university children from Oxford and Cambridge into their homes. Despite a series of bureaucratic setbacks, the group managed to find accommodations for 247 British children. In 1940 and 1941, 28 of them were enrolled at The Foote School.
A Christmas card from the Bacon family in 1942 showing John Cooke at lower left
English kids to America was not so lucky: In September 1940, the SS City of Benares was sunk by a German submarine, killing 77 children and ending Britain’s campaign to evacuate children overseas.
“The torpedo must have passed six feet under us,” says John, now 80, speaking by phone from his home in France. “I could actually see the wake in the water.” Another ship carrying
Foote’s role in educating British children during the war is a prominent part of the school’s history, but the names and ages of all the children were unknown until very recently. Discovered in a box of old papers in the school archives last year is an audit of Foote’s finances from 1941 by the New Haven accounting firm Petze & Co. The yellowing, carefully typed report lists every child enrolled at Foote that year, denoting British children with a capital “B” next to their names. That document gave Foote its first complete list of British students and shed light on a consequential chapter of the school’s history, says Muffie Clement Green ’61, who volunteers curating the Anna Huntington Deming ’35 Archives.
Above: A recently discovered document provided the first complete list of British students at Foote during the war.
John Cooke was one of three British first graders at Foote that year. He was placed with the Bacon family in North Haven,
One of those was 5-year-old John Cooke, the son of an Oxford medical dean. John survived a perilous journey across the Atlantic with his mother, two sisters and 104 other Oxford children. He can still recall the sirens wailing onboard the ship when it came under attack from a German U-boat.
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the War
During World War II, Great Britain sent thousands of children overseas to escape Hitler’s bombing. Twenty-eight of them found refuge at Foote. whose six children attended Foote and where he passed the seasons exploring the woods and creek behind their rural home. His two sisters were placed in other homes: 11-year-old Jean with an elderly, childless Yale faculty couple; and 2-yearold Judy with a family in Middletown. Despite the separation, John says, “It was a blissful time. I was really out in the country.” The experience left a deep impression on John, who went on to a successful career as a zoologist and wildlife filmmaker. In 2000, John got a deeper glimpse into these formative years when he found a trove of letters between his mother in wartorn England and his American foster mother, Grace Bacon, written over the four years he spent in the U.S. and at Foote. He has compiled the letters—97 in all—into a memoir titled, Safe Keeping: Voices From a Vanished World. Seven decades later, John still retains vivid memories of Foote. “I had climbed into the branches of a tree in the school playground and was raining lighted matches onto the crowd of onlookers below,” John writes in his memoir. “One might well imagine the dire consequences that could follow such an escapade, but fate intervened. The head teacher realized that I had simply been giving a dramatic enactment of the London blitz for the benefit of my classmates.” John was a mischievous boy and a less-than-stellar student. At one point, his foster mother gave him the choice of repeating a year at Foote or going to a neighborhood school, to which young John replied, “I just hate school—but I think Footes is the best one there is.” Two other British children, Kit Braunholtz and his twin brother Ted, arrived at Foote from Oxford in the fall of 1940 and were enrolled as sixth graders. They were placed in North Haven with the Waterman family, who had three school-aged children and two more away at college. “Our parents told us to be good ambassadors for England, to be polite and not to complain that things were different from home,” Kit recalls in an interview. “From the start, we felt we
were a part of the family, and were treated exactly the same as the other children.” Kit found Foote to be a much warmer environment than his English school. He fondly recalls classmates and teachers (Mrs. Hitchcock, Mrs. Sturley, Mr. Bailey), as well as classes, activities and a small part he had in a school production of The Tempest. “Mr. Bailey taught Geography and the first term we covered Latin America,” Kit remembers. “His method was to assign each pupil a country which we could learn all about and then tell the rest of the class about. I still think that was an excellent method. My country was Colombia and I still feel I am more interested in and know more about it than any other Latin American country.” In 1944, John and the twins, Kit and Ted, got word that they and other British schoolchildren were to return home on an aircraft carrier headed to Britain. After four years of relative comfort in the U.S. and at Foote, they found adjusting back to school in Britain a challenge. “It seemed like going back to the middle ages, with prefects allowed to cane boys for very small offenses and in general an oppressive and unhealthy atmosphere,” Kit recalls. Another British student, Rosalind Baker Tolson, who came to Foote as a fifth grader in 1940 with her sister, also recalls a stark cultural difference. In America, children “were treated with respect and listened to, and everyone was much more friendly,” Rosalind wrote in a 2014 letter to Foote. Foote’s impact on its British students was lasting, and likewise so was their impact on Foote. Along with the friendships, learning and stories that are now part of the school’s history, the spelling of the school color “grey” (rather than the more American “gray”) is a vestige of our British students that survives at Foote to this day. Above: John Cooke during his stay in America
> Read John Cooke’s memoir online at www.footeschool.org/LookingBack. Fall 2015 | 71
Why I Teach Thirty years in, I’m still forging my own education through teaching. B Y DE B RA RI D I N G
W H E N I W AS A K I D , I wanted to be a journalist, a forest
ranger, a justice of the Supreme Court. It wasn’t until I was in college, working with kids in New Haven, that I had any inkling I might become a teacher. I grew up in a homogenous community outside Salt Lake City before coming to New Haven for university. Looking back, the most meaningful part of my college education may have been living in this city. I was interested in the character of its diverse neighborhoods, its pockets of incredible wealth and abject poverty. I started teaching New Haven kids in an after-school program and then in a summer program, and that is how I met my husband Oliver. During my junior year, I attended a dinner discussion with Bart Giamatti, then president of Yale, on the topic of education. One student asked, “What would you say is the main problem facing schools in the United States?” Giamatti looked around the room, then asked his own question. “Which of you plans to be a teacher?” No one raised a hand. “That,” he said, “is the problem with education in our country.” After graduation both Oliver and I got jobs in New Haven public schools. We didn’t intend to become teachers, exactly; teaching in New Haven just seemed like an engaging thing to do. As I found that first year, teaching was hard work—nearly impossible. When I was trying to decide whether to return for a second year, an experienced colleague told me, “Look, Deb. If you want to change the world, you might as well stay on the front line.” It might sound naïve, but I actually do want to change the world. For so many of our major problems—entrenched poverty, environmental degradation, racial prejudice—experts point to education as the solution. That means teaching. I want to help children develop open-minded attitudes, in addition to teaching them skills and content. How can we develop the humility to listen to new ideas? How can we recognize that people’s different ways of seeing the world stem from different experiences? How can we make the unknown interesting instead of threatening?
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There’s a powerful emotional component of teaching, too. I spend a year with young people, sharing in their vulnerabilities and victories. A girl cries because her project has broken on the way to school; 20 minutes later she regains her composure and gives a confident oral presentation. A boy is so afraid hiking up Bear Mountain he cannot take another step; a half hour later he is giving hugs and high fives at the summit. And, of course, regular life also happens along the way—the birth of a younger sibling, the confusion of puberty, the loss of a grandparent. At its best, teaching gets to the core of living. Thirty years in, I’m still forging my own education through teaching. Planning a course for younger students requires a deep understanding of what is most important about a topic, and classroom discussions always push me to find out more. To me, teaching is sharing an ongoing conversation about the world. The other day at my son Ben’s soccer practice, I spotted a stick bug. I’d never seen one and I was so excited. Naturally, I rounded up the little brothers and sisters on the sidelines, and some of the parents too, and we investigated. One boy told us about the tarantula he had seen in Mexico; a girl Googled stick-like insects on her phone and told us all about them. Then we moved the bug to the grass so it wouldn’t get hurt, and that was a big project because we were all a little scared of it. As we watched the kids linger around the bug’s new home, one of the moms turned to me and said, “You are such a teacher!” Why do I teach? At this point I would say I teach because that’s who I am. Debra Riding teaches sixth and ninth grades, is co-chair of the Humanities Department and coordinator of the China Program.
A celebration 100 years in the making! Foote School Centennial Weekend May 13, 14 & 15, 2016
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Classroom Visits Talks Panel Discussions Singing Networking Fair Mini-May Day & Field Day Evening Gala Musical Performances Find more info at www.footeschool.org/centennial.
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The Foote School 50 Loomis Place New Haven, CT 06511 www.footeschool.org (203) 777-3464
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ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Notice: Postal regulations require the school to pay 75 cents for every copy not deliverable as addressed. Please help us contain costs by notifying us of any change of address, giving both the old and new addresses.
Mark Your Calendars
Nov
Young Alums Day
Jan
Scratch Day
May
Centennial Weekend
Wednesday, November 25, 2015 Graduates and students from the classes of 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 are invited back to Foote to see classmates and former teachers.
Saturday, January 23, 2016 Foote will host a day of Scratch coding and computational thinking activities for Grades 3–7. Registration opens in December. Watch for details on our website.
May 13, 14 & 15, 2016 Alumni, students, parents and friends are invited to celebrate Foote’s 100th birthday with class-year dinners, talks by alumni, a mini-May Day and evening gala. www.footeschool.org/centennial
Foote Prints Vol 42.2