Foote Prints Spring 2018

Foote Prints Spring 2018

On the cover A mixed-media sea turtle by fifth graders Holly Pisani and Sophie Stevens-Scanlan On this page Inspired by art teacher Mike Golschneider’s own artwork, fifth graders created environmental trash art from garbage they collected on campus and in nearby Edgerton Park. The new project ties into the fifth-grade ecology curriculum and creates a snapshot of human environmental impact in a way that expands students’ respect for the planet.

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From the Head of School Securing Foote’s Future Life Coach For Athletics Director Brad McGuire, it’s about how you play the game.

Number Crunchers Foote’s MathCounts team is winning big, a reflection of the school’s strong math program.

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Strength in Numbers Forty years ago, Foote School created a nest egg for its future. Now a new campaign aims to sustain Foote’s mission for a second century.

‘The Best Educational Experience Ever’ Academic trailblazer Hanna Holborn Gray ’43 on how Foote School lit the spark of her extraordinary journey in education Foote News in Brief Connecting the Dots Grandparents Day Alumni Achievement Award Legacies at Foote List of Alumni Donors

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Class of 2014: Where Are They Now? Young Alums Day Class Notes Reunion 2018 Schedule Why I Teach

Foote Prints Spring18 20

Spring 2018 | Vol. 45 No. 1

The Foote School

50 Loomis Place, New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 777-3464 | www.footeschool.org Foote Prints is published twice a year for alumni, parents, grandparents and friends.

Editor Andy Bromage Class Notes Editor Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89 Design AHdesign, Angie Hurlbut Thea A. Moritz Photography Stephanie Anestis, Joe Charles, Judy Sirota Rosenthal Copy Editor Anne Sommer Contributors Ann Baker Pepe, Amy Caplan ’88, Deborah Fong Carpenter ’82, Joe Charles, Amanda Diffley, Lauren Goldberg, Hanna Holborn Gray ’43 Board of Directors Richard Bershtein, President George Atwood Kim Bohen Melissa Castleman, PTC Co-President Wick Chambers ’62 Constance ‘Cecie’ Clement ’62 Danielle Ginnetti, PTC Co-President Rebecca Good Suguru Imaeda Francie Irvine George Joseph George Knight Nadine Koobatian Michael Krauss Richard Lee, Vice President Cindy Leffell, Vice President Melissa Matthes Jennifer Milikowsky ’02 Stephen Murphy, Treasurer Annie Murphy Paul Zehra Patwa, Secretary Jason Price Kiran Zaman Ex Officio Carol Maoz, Head of School

seventh and eighth graders performed The Servant of Two Masters, an 18th-century comedy by Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni, in the Sandine Theater. Under the direction of Drama Chair Julian Schlusberg, students brought the lighthearted story to life, infusing the characters with energy, enthusiasm and empathy—skills they developed over their years in Foote’s K–9 drama program.

IN D E CE MB E R ,

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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.

From the Head of School

Carol Maoz teaching a sixthgrade humanities class about Islamic art and culture

Securing Foote’s Future to celebrate its centennial in 2016, two things that I have long known about our school became even clearer. The first was a reminder that the strength of our community comes from its people: the generations of students, teachers, parents and friends who have passionately supported our school. The second is that Foote School has made positive and lasting impacts in our community and in the wider world. Every day, Foote alumni are working to advance science, medicine, the arts, social justice, education and so much more.

W HE N THE FO OTE S CH O O L G ATHE R E D

From its founding, The Foote School has relied on community support to sustain it. When Mrs. Foote needed a space for her fledgling school, parents generously opened their own homes, converting playrooms and attics into classroom spaces.

Today, the school is on sound footing. We have a beautiful campus, solid enrollment and no debt. Most importantly, we have a joyful community of students, teachers and parents who live out our school’s motto, “gladly will I learn and gladly teach.”

But we cannot rest on past success. To keep Foote School strong for another 100 years, we must evolve and innovate.

To that end, we are engaged in a new campaign, Secure Our Future: The Centennial Campaign. The goal is to double our current endowment of $11.2 million in order to achieve four objectives: attract and retain the best teachers; increase faculty of color; sustain socioeconomic diversity; and ensure robust enrollment.

Each of these has played a critical role in keeping Foote strong and accessible to a diverse cross-section of our community, and they will remain important in the coming decades.

This issue’s featured story explores the purpose and promise of our campaign in greater depth. I want to address just two of our aims here: sustaining socioeconomic diversity and attracting the best teachers.

The number of requests for financial aid—and the dollars needed—are increasing every year. We have invested substantially in financial aid because we know that a diverse community enriches the experience of all our students by exposing them to different viewpoints and backgrounds, preparing them for the world they will enter. The reality is that we cannot keep pace with demand for aid. Maintaining our cherished diversity now depends on growing our endowment.

Without question the quality of our faculty and staff is essential to the achievement of our mission. We must sustain our commitment to hiring the very best teachers we can find.

The lasting impacts of close teacher-student relationships have defined our school since its founding. Educators like Winifred Sturley, Margaret Hitchcock, Jean Shepler and generations more, who took a personal interest in their students’ growth and learning, quite literally transformed children’s lives.

This is the power of The Foote School’s approach to learning and the promise of securing our future for the next century and beyond. I hope you will join me in doing all you can to support this critical effort.

Enjoy this issue and stay in touch.

Carol Maoz, Head of School Spring 2018 | 03

Foote News in Brief

The Haven String Quartet performing for Lower School students in the Sandine Theater

Learning to Listen Closely Foote hosted the Haven String Quartet as this year’s Ellie Warburg Class of 1945 Visiting Artist. The acclaimed ensemble, which includes Foote parent and orchestra director Yaira Matyakubova on violin, performed at three assemblies in the Sandine Theater. The four musicians also led interactive workshops about aspects of music history and theory for every class in the school— 23 in total!

FO R A W E E K IN JANUARY,

Over the week, students learned about the music of Shostakovich and Brahms, as well as innovative works by modern composers such as Steve Reich, who used tape loops to create “phasing” patterns. The quartet wrapped up its residence with a family concert in the Hosley Gym featuring the music of Haydn, Ives, Shostakovich and Vrebalov.

This visiting artist program was established in 2016 with funds donated by the family and classmates of Elinor Bozyan Warburg ’45, a devoted Foote alumna and lover of the arts. The program brings a different visiting artist to Foote each year to work with—and perform for—students and faculty. The daughter of a Yale music professor and organist, Ellie earned a B.A. in music theory from Wellesley College in 1953 and also played organ.

The Haven String Quartet serves as the permanent string quartet-in-residence and teaching faculty for Music Haven, a New Haven-based nonprofit that runs a tuition-free strings program for underserved youth.

Foote students of every age were thoroughly engaged with the quartet’s workshops, in large part because Foote’s music teachers prepared the students for the material that would be covered—and that made for some sweet harmony!

Repurposing Yarn for Shelter Animal Beds to weave the beautiful Unity Project, a diversity activity that started the school year (see page 18). The web was eventually cut down, but all that yarn went to a good cause rather than the landfill. Middle School students in the Environmental Action Group repurposed the yarn to make 15 animal beds that were donated to IT TO O K 2 2 0 S K E INS O F YAR N

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The Animal Haven, a shelter in North Haven. EAG members cut and sorted the yarn into pillowcases, with assistance from Head of Maintenance Dave McGaffin (who donated the pillowcases), as well as Kindergarten Associate Lynne Banta, Receptionist Char DePalma and Director of Development Ann Baker Pepe (who helped students sew them into animal beds.)

STARS Lights the Way for Young Artists (Schools Together for Arts Resources) program returned this winter after a year off.

Students from Foote and two New Haven public schools (Celentano and Strong) got together over five Saturday mornings to learn art, cooking and Spanish. Founded in 1995, STARS is a free, donor-funded program that aims to expand understanding and break down barriers between teachers, students and families from different backgrounds. The workshop locations alternate between Foote and our partner schools, and teachers collaborate on the program.

THE LO N G - R UNNING S TAR S

The Arts Paper, the publication of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, visited STARS this year and found classrooms buzzing with happy children engaged in hands-on activities. They were blending paint to render the northern lights; learning

about—and cooking—food from Morocco, Mexico and Japan; making bread from scratch; and creating animal puppets inspired by a bilingual story.

Kindergarten teacher Lynne Banta making jam with students in the class “Cooking with Stories.”

Serving Our Community THE HALLOW E E N PAR A D E AND FA IR

Spanish teacher Sally Nunnally teaching the bilingual course “Hello/Hola!,” in which first and second graders from Foote and Strong-21st Century Communications Magnet School heard multicultural stories, acted them out and sang in both English and Spanish

is a beloved celebration at Foote that gives students an opportunity to help organizations serving our community.

This year’s fair raised $970 for Columbus House homeless shelters.

Foote students raised another $1,537 for UNICEF by collecting donations while trick-or-treating. In November, Foote families donated 1,472 cans of food and $250 for turkeys to St. Ann’s Soup Kitchen during the annual Thanksgiving food drive. Ninth graders won this year’s “Golden Can Award” for donating the most canned goods as a class. At Foote, service learning projects build empathy and awareness of critical social issues, foster cooperation and empower students to become the change they want to see in the world.

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Foote News in Brief

Parent Birke Gregg leading a family yoga class

Celebrating the Arts with Open Studios Foote was an official host for City-Wide Open Studios, New Haven’s biggest visual arts event. Nine artists connected to Foote—parents, faculty and staff—exhibited paintings, mixed media, photographs and fabric arts in the Jonathan Milikowsky Science and Technology Building on October 21 and 22. More than 300 visitors wandered through the building, taking in the artwork, chatting with artists and enjoying seasonal refreshments.

FO R A S E CO ND YE AR ,

Parents Kwadwo Adae, Michelle Bradford and Eliza Myers, along with past parent Joe Velardi and receptionist Char DePalma, exhibited beautiful paintings. Parent Theresa Nast showcased her collection of whimsical dresses. Fourth grade teacher Toby Welch ’73 shared photos he and son Sam captured at political rallies, while art teacher Mike Golschneider exhibited imaginative animal collages made from trash.

Across campus, children from Foote and other schools happily created their own masterpieces with the help of parent Jeannie Myer and other volunteers, while parent Birke Gregg led family yoga sessions for kids and adults.

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Parent Kwadwo Adae with his oil paintings

Visitors peruse oil paintings by past parent Joe Velardi (center).

MOSAIC Event Breaks Down Bluegrass B LU E GR A S S I S S O ME TIME S

thought of as a purely “Southern” music, but it’s actually a blend of influences from the rural South, Northern cities, and disparate parts of Europe and Africa. The music and cultural history of bluegrass were brought to life for Stacy Phillips and His Bluegrass Characters with Foote faculty guests in the Sandine Theater the Foote community on October 25 at an evening concert presented best bluegrass musicians, including Foote’s Director of

by Foote’s diversity organization, MOSAIC (Multicultural, Communications, Andy Bromage, on guitar.

Open-Minded, Supportive, Accepting, Inclusive Community).

More than 80 people gathered in the Sandine Theater to The group was joined by Lower School music teacher Tina hear Stacy Phillips and His Bluegrass Characters play a Cunningham, retired music teacher Sarah Heath and Data variety of bluegrass and old-time stylings and explain Services Manager Mike McCabe for a jam session that the cultural, social and economic forces that shaped this capped off the festive and enlightening evening. unique art form. Stacy is a Grammy-winning Dobro and fiddle player whose band features some of New England’s

Girls Varsity Basketball Goes Undefeated to the Girls Varsity Basketball team, which achieved a perfect 8–0 record this year!

It’s the first time in at least a decade that a Foote sports team has gone undefeated, says Athletics Director Brad McGuire. The girls showed hustle, determination and teamwork as they faced Choate, Renbrook, Wintergreen, Christian Heritage, Williams, Hopkins, Independent Day School and Kingswood-Oxford. “They pushed each other and competed day after day at practice,” says team coach Eric Einbinder. “Every day felt like a game. These girls played an incredible team game and every player contributed to the success of the team.”

CO NGR AT U L ATI O N S

The Girls Varsity Basketball team with a ball signed by each player and coach Eric Einbinder to commemorate their perfect season

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Foote News in Brief

Fifth grade teacher and author Jake Burt (center) with students from Mauro-Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet School

Book Fair Goes Big featured two outstanding special guests. Author and illustrator Deborah Freedman (Blue Chicken; The Story of Fish & Snail; This House, Once) spoke to students in grades K–3 about her creative process and led them in a creative project blowing watercolor paints through plastic straws. Meanwhile, Grade 5 teacher Jake Burt spoke to a standing-room-only crowd of parents and older students in the theater about his debut novel, Greetings from Witness Protection! The PTC-sponsored event ended with a pizza and ice cream social in the Hosley Gym, where children and families socialized and purchased an array of great books thoughtfully chosen by Foote’s librarians.

Earlier in the day, Jake spoke to students at Mauro-Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet School in New Haven about the writing and publishing processes. As a bonus, each Mauro-Sheridan student got a copy of Jake’s book.

THI S YE AR ’ S B O O K FA IR

Author and illustrator Deborah Freedman reading to students

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Music We Love

Digital Foote Prints

Recommendations from Foote’s music teachers “ O N A S TAR RY NI GHT ”

PR OTE S T MU S I C P L AYLI S T

BY VAR I O U S AR TI S T S

BY VAR I O U S AR TI S T S

This album, which was a favorite in our house when the children were younger, is a collection of lullabies from around the world. It is a beautiful assortment of melodies that are soothing and inspirational. The music is mesmerizing and is helpful for winding down at quiet time for any age. Artists featured include Flora Purim, Bobby McFerrin, Airto Moreira and Jim Brickman, to name a few.

I love these songs because they tell the stories of our nation—the struggles and triumphs of the last 100 years. These artists used their voices and the power of music to create positive change. Today, these songs can inspire us to come together, be engaged citizens and let our own voices be heard.

—Tina Cunningham, Grades K–3 “ CO P L AND COND U C T S CO PL AND ” LO ND O N S YMPH O NY O R CHE S TR A & CO LUMB IA S YMP H O NY O R CHE S TR A

Aaron Copland, an American composer whose music has always been among my favorites, wrote “Fanfare for the Common Man.” It is an expansive piece for brass instruments and percussion that was intended to be accessible to all people. He also used American folk music when scoring his ballets “Rodeo,” “Billy the Kid,” “El Salón México” and “Appalachian Spring.” They are all worth listening to and can all be found on this album.

—Ellen Velardi, Grades 4–6

FO LLOW FO OTE O N INS TAGR AM

@TheFooteSchool to see snapshots that capture our #loveoflearning in classrooms, as well as special occasions like #mayday, #fieldday and the #halloweenparade.

Feeling #nostalgic yet?

“ We Shall Overcome” sung by Mahalia Jackson “ This Land Is Your Land”

by Woody Guthrie “ The Hammer Song”

by Pete Seeger “ Turn! Turn! Turn!” sung by The Byrds “ Young, Gifted and Black”

by Nina Simone “ Imagine”

by John Lennon “ Blowin’ in the Wind”

by Bob Dylan “ Respect” sung by Aretha Franklin “ Big Yellow Taxi”

by Joni Mitchell “ We Shall Not Be Moved” sung by Mavis Staples —Deadra Hart, Grades 7–9

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Connecting the Dots

Reuse, Recycle, Reimagine as a practicing artist, art teacher Mike Golschneider creates mixed-media animal portraits from trash he finds in the woods and parks, on the beach and in his neighborhood. He exhibited several of his beautiful collages when Foote hosted City-Wide Open Studios in October. Art Chair Karla Matheny encouraged Mike to bring the project to fifth graders to complement their study of ecosystems.

I N H I S O W N W ORK

Fifth graders created their own animal collages using 44 pounds of trash they collected from campus and nearby Edgerton Park. Mike presented lessons about dimension, layering and texture. Students experimented with different ways of reshaping and reforming the garbage into colorful and imaginative images of a whale, a lion, a sea turtle and other animals.

It was hardly the first time Foote students have produced artwork in the style of a particular artist. But when the artist is their own teacher, it is especially exciting. And when that artist’s interests overlap with a core theme of the curriculum, what could be better?

(top) A lion by fifth graders Nia Bradord and Caroline Hergan (above) Students collected 44 pounds of trash from campus and Edgerton Park to create animal collages. (left) Art teacher Mike Golschneider sharing with students a fox portrait he created from found trash

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Fifth graders created their own animal collages using 44 pounds of “found objects� (otherwise known as trash).

(top) A fox by Kaylee Geballe and Joy Kim (left) A falcon by Ella Rinaldi and Sofia Urios-Siebert (below, left) A panda by Krish Agarwal, Owen Sessine and Roy Ellis (below) An elephant by Odie Adelson-Grodberg and Mead Franz

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Grandparents Day

Writing fall poems together in third grade

Sharing a diagramming activity in first grade

Laura Greendyke (right), assisted by Julie Moore, participates in the Unity Project.

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Labeling parts of a world map in sixth grade

Honorary Grandparents Day Chairs Theresa and Frank Adae with their grandson in seventh grade

Hema and Sudhir Shah with their eighth grade grandson

Music faculty member Debby Teason teaching grandparents and special friends to play steel pans

On October 6, 468 grandparents and special friends attended our 26th annual Grandparents Day. Guests spent the morning with their grandchildren in classrooms and later participated in faculty-led minicourses in which they made Chinese moon cakes, learned computer coding and much more. The morning ended with an all-school assembly featuring songs, student poetry and a video of last year’s Service Learning Day.

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Faculty Profile

LIFE COACH For Athletics Director Brad McGuire, it’s about how you play the game. his stature, his voice, his love of sports and, especially, his heart. As Foote’s athletics director, Brad works tirelessly to teach, coach and mentor students in every grade—from Kindergarten to ninth—and to pass on his genuine passion for athletics and good sportsmanship.

E VE RY THIN G A B O U T B R A D M CGU IR E I S B I G:

He does so with patience and calm, encouraging students while also setting high standards for accountability and independence. Ask his colleagues for words to describe Brad and you’ll hear: positive, gregarious, approachable, inclusive, even-keeled, dedicated.

He is also collaborative and open to new ideas. “We used to split up students by gender for basketball units,” says fellow physical education teacher Colleen Murphy. “Three years ago, it was 10 minutes before the next class and I said, ‘Let’s try splitting them up by skill level and not by gender’ and Brad said okay. He’s always open to changing things for the benefit of the kids.”

“He’s the last person at Foote just about every day,” adds physical education teacher Eric Einbinder. “Whether he’s

out there coaching or just waiting for a bus to get back from an away game, he never leaves it to someone else to wait for the kids to get picked up.”

“And he likes to talk,” says Eric. “If he gets ahold of you, you’d better cancel your next meeting.”

Brad is a natural physical education teacher, but that’s not the career he had planned. Raised in Hoosick Falls, New York, a small town northeast of Albany, Brad studied business administration at Marist College while playing quarterback for their Division I football team. (He ranks seventh in all-time passing yards at Marist.)

“I thought I was going to be a big New York City businessman, in sports marketing,” Brad says. Indeed, after graduating he landed a job with Velocity Sports and Entertainment in Norwalk. “But a lot of people had been telling me I would be a good teacher.”

He decided to take a job as a Kindergarten teaching assistant at Greens Farms Academy while earning his master’s in early childhood education at Manhattanville College. That same year, he began teaching in Horizons, the national network of summer programs for lower-income public school students. He would go on to head a new Horizons program at Sacred Heart University. Last summer marked his fifth at that program, and his 10th overall with Horizons.

He came to Foote in 2007 when Ted Willis was athletics director and was appointed to that position in 2013 when Ted retired.

As teachers, Brad and his counterparts make physical education fun while developing fundamental motor skills in students. In a single day, the PE faculty will teach first graders ball-tossing games that develop spatial awareness and cooperation, help eighth graders build resilience and self-confidence on the campus ropes course, and much else in between. Along with skill-building, an equal focus is sportsmanship and teamwork.

Brad helping a student tie her shoe at Field Day in 2008

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“We will intentionally play games where one team wins and the other loses, because we feel like knowing how to handle both situations appropriately is a huge life skill,” Brad says.

Brad McGuire in 2017 coaching students on the campus ropes course, part of the eighth grade’s outdoor education unit

“ If student athletes know how to be respectful—to officials, to athletic facilities, to whoever is transporting them—they will represent themselves well in life.” is that kids develop a love of, or interest in, physical activity, whether playing traditional sports or yoga,” he adds. “We try to expose kids to as much as possible and hope that the active lifestyle will stick in their brains.” “ THE OTHE R E ND GOAL

On top of a full teaching load, Brad coaches all three seasons (girls soccer, boys basketball and girls softball) and coordinates Foote’s interscholastic sports program, which has grown to 152 athletes on 18 separate teams. This year, almost 80 percent of students in grades 6 through 9 participated in at least one interscholastic sport.

Brad says his coaching philosophy has two main pillars: respect and accountability. “If student athletes know how to be respectful—to officials, to athletic facilities, to whoever is transporting them—they will represent themselves well in life.”

As athletics director, Brad has expanded sports offerings at Foote in response to student interest. He established a crosscountry team with Ted Willis and, later, a squash team.

“Adding those two has created a good balance between team sports and individual sports without sacrificing numbers,” says Brad, adding that participation in sports overall is up.

He has also helped open more sports to interested sixth graders, who are now able to participate in any sport when

spots are available, and he has brought in Foote alumni athletes to speak to students about their college athletics experiences.

In addition to PE and sports, Brad has played an important role in Foote’s China Program, chaperoning five trips. Deb Riding, the China Program Coordinator, says Brad has been an indispensable partner, helping students cope with cultural challenges and homesickness on the two-week excursion. He is positive, open-minded and even-tempered when unforeseen challenges arise.

“He is a shepherd figure, making sure everyone is safe,” says Deb. “There was one year when the Xi’an train station was so crowded we couldn’t walk, so we made this snake line and hung on to each other’s backpacks. Brad was at the end and said ‘don’t let go no matter what.’ He was the one to make sure everyone got through safely.”

The reason he goes to China year after year is the same reason he teaches and coaches: Every year presents new students and different challenges, as well as new opportunities to support their growth as young adults.

“It’s always amazing to see the kids step up,” says Brad. “You get a lot of real-life connections on that trip.”

Like the connections students make in athletics.

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Number CRUNCHERS Feature

MathCounts team members solving problems at a Saturday morning practice session

Foote’s MathCounts team is winning big, a reflection of the school’s strong math program. in December, middle school students packed into the Twichell Room for a raucous competition. Seated on the grey carpet, the students roared as their teams took their places on opposing sides, waving homemade signs to cheer them on.

D U R IN G S T U DY HALL O NE DAY

It wasn’t a pep rally, and it wasn’t an early Field Day. It was a math competition—and it spoke volumes about the culture of learning at Foote today.

what are the coordinates for point C? Express your answer as an ordered pair.”

Foote’s 4-year-old MathCounts club has already achieved remarkable success. In 2016, Foote’s team of “mathletes,” as they are called, finished first in Connecticut, beating 99 other schools. Last year, the team finished second in the state.

The students were gathered for the “countdown round” of this year’s MathCounts tournament, a national program that promotes mathematics achievement through a series of fun and engaging bee-style contests. Students in grades 6 through 8 sat at tables with game show-style buzzers as math teacher John Hay quizzed them on a series of problems spanning algebra, geometry and general math.

Foote students have won accolades individually as well, qualifying to be part of the four-person Connecticut team at the national MathCounts competition. David Metrick ’17 went to nationals twice and Ryan Yang ’20 went once, making Foote the only team in Connecticut to send students to nationals three consecutive years. Foote Math Chair Megan Williams has twice served as the Connecticut team’s coach at nationals, an honor that goes to a faculty member from each state’s number one school.

One such question, which a team of sixth graders answered with ease, read: “A segment with endpoints A(2, -2) and B(14, 4) is extended through B to point C. If BC = 1/3 AB,

The team’s success is a reflection of Foote’s strong math program, which works to meet every student at the level that is appropriate for him or her. In the Lower School, Math

16 | Foote Prints

Specialist Heather Zetterberg works with students individually and in small groups to reinforce classroom learning and provide skill-specific support. In the Middle School, the Math Department emphasizes outside-the-box approaches to problem-solving and can create classes with as few as two students in order to meet individual needs.

Another factor in the MathCounts team’s success is dedication.

Once a month, students spend a Saturday morning at Foote engaged in practice competitions with multiple rounds.

Additional weekends require travel to compete with peer schools at the regional and state competitions.

The school takes special pride in the number of girls on Foote’s MathCounts team. Each year the number of girls on Foote’s 10-person team has increased—from just three the first year to six in the current group.

“Our girls are feeling more confident about their abilities in math and are not shying away from competition, which is something that commonly happens in this age group, especially in math and science,” says Megan. “The fact that they are willing to put themselves out there and compete in this subject is very encouraging.”

In 2016, Foote finished first in Connecticut, beating 99 other schools.

Last year, Foote finished second.

Assisting Megan and John is a third MathCounts coach, Andrew Metrick, the father of David ’17 and Amy ’20, and the Michael H. Jordan Professor of Finance and Management at the Yale School of Management. He says the club supports Foote’s math program by giving students another way to engage with the subject.

“Some people respond to the beauty of a subject. Some people respond to grades and some people respond to competition,” says Andrew.

And word about Foote’s top-notch math curriculum is getting around. “When we recruit faculty members at Yale,” Andrew adds, “they’ve heard Foote has a very good math program.”

In its first year at Foote, 29 students took part in the MathCounts written test for a chance to represent Foote in contests outside of school. This year, 60 students participated.

Eighth grader Jasmine Xi says MathCounts has challenged her in new ways that help her in math class. “It gave me new ways to think about problems,” says Jasmine, who is in a twoperson Algebra 2 class. “MathCounts pushes me to do problems quickly and gives me new tricks and experience.”

To math teacher John Hay, the fact that MathCounts is challenging is part of its appeal. “It takes them out of their comfort zone. They have to face difficult problems knowing they might not get everything right.”

Adds fellow eighth grader Sophie Vulpe, “I like that it’s an abstract form of mathematics that deviates from the traditional school curriculum and allows us to delve into more abstract topics for our level.”

That’s true, says seventh grader Amy Metrick. “I went to the state competition last year thinking I would do pretty well.

I’d never encountered something that hard, but that’s the fun. It’s hard for you and hard for everyone else, so you just try to do the best you can.”

Foote’s 2018 MathCounts team

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Around Campus

18 | Foote Prints

A key theme of Foote’s curriculum is that we are all alike and we are all different. To reinforce that message, Foote started the school year by creating a beautiful public art installation called the Unity Project. Students, teachers, parents, grandparents and alumni wrapped yarn around metal poles with labels such as “I love the arts,” “I am biracial/multiracial,” and others with which they identified. The project facilitated classroom discussions about diversity and inclusion and created a powerful symbol of the individual and collective identities within the Foote community.

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Centennial Campaign Forty years ago, Foote School created a nest egg for its future.

Now a new endowment campaign aims to sustain the school’s mission for a second century.

Strength in

Numbers

20 | Foote Prints

C

indy Leffell has a prop she uses when talking to potential donors about Secure Our Future: The Centennial Campaign, a new fundraising effort that aims to double the school’s endowment.

In one hand, she holds a thin slip of paper with a series of typewritten letters. It’s her fourth-grade report card from Sussex Elementary in Shaker Heights, Ohio, which at the time was one of the best public schools in the country.

In the other hand, she holds a thick stack of reports from every Foote faculty member who taught her two children, Alex ’09 and Dahlia ’11, over their combined 18 years at the school. These reports are filled with pages of thoughtful, personalized insights (that her Kindergartner, for instance, was “capable of verbalizing feelings well but sometimes forgets to give equal weight to the opinions and feelings of peers”).

It’s a powerful illustration of the deep connections that Foote fosters between teachers and students and the impact they make in the lives of children and families.

“I look back at these from time to time and realize that the teachers really understood and got to the essence of who my children were,” says Cindy, a member of Foote’s Board of Directors who, along with Board President Rich Bershtein, is co-chairing the Centennial Campaign.

Cindy is heading up the campaign—and personally supporting it—because she believes it’s her responsibility to give back to the school that did so much for her own children and because she values Foote’s mission and the role the school plays in the greater New Haven community.

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“My children are now in college and as I see them continue on with their education, I appreciate more and more the education they received at Foote—the creativity and the embrace of learning, not just from books and in the classroom but from the world and their community and each other,” she says. “This is the school where they spent the most years, and they were critical years.”

The Centennial Campaign is a direct outgrowth of a strategic planning process that brought dozens of faculty, board members, parents and alumni together in 2013 to chart a future course for Foote School.

While previous campaigns have focused on facilities, the Centennial Campaign is focused on supporting Foote’s precious human resources: the students, families and faculty that make up the heart of the school. Specifically, the four key goals are to sustain socioeconomic diversity; increase faculty of color; ensure robust enrollment; and attract and retain the best teachers.

The means of achieving these goals: double Foote’s endowment, which stood at $11.2 million as of late February.

Doing so will provide a larger source of annual income to support the school and lessen reliance on tuition dollars.

Since being announced on Centennial Weekend in 2016, the Centennial Campaign has made solid progress, securing $3.9 million in donations and pledges from alumni, Board members, parents and grandparents (past and present).

Foote is well-positioned to undertake this campaign. The school has strong enrollment, zero debt and a beautiful, modern campus. But like all independent schools, especially those in New England, Foote faces changing demographics that pose long-term challenges and are impacting Lower School enrollment at Foote and across Connecticut.

22 | Foote Prints

“We have a unique opportunity to invest in Foote’s people to build a stronger foundation for our second century,” says Cindy, “and the best way to do that is to increase our endowment.”

of Foote School’s 102-year history, the endowment is relatively new. It was the construction of the Foote School library, in the early 1980s, that led indirectly to the creation of the school’s endowment. That capital campaign raised about $300,000 more than needed. Thenheadmaster Frank Perrine worried that the money would be depleted a little each year until it was gone, and he wanted to find a way to protect it as savings and let it grow.

IN THE CO NTE X T

He spoke to Burton Malkiel, then the dean of Yale School of Management and a member of Foote’s Board of Directors. Burt and others on the Board, including Grayson Murphy, discussed low-risk ways to invest the money that would maximize returns while maintaining liquidity for emergencies.

As it happened, their timing for investing could not have been better. Interest rates were at an all-time high; U.S. Treasury securities—about as risk-free an investment vehicle as one could get—were available with interest rates as high as 13 percent. A plan was devised that would invest the library windfall in zero coupon bonds—mostly U.S. Government bonds, but also a few private bonds offered at even higher rates. In 1984, Foote began to purchase zero coupon bonds that would mature in 12, 15 or 20 years.

The plan succeeded brilliantly. When the final bonds matured in 2003, the initial investment of $310,000 had returned $1.6 million.

“ W hether it’s implementing the latest research, attracting the best and brightest teachers and students or fostering diversity, this represents a huge opportunity to make the school stronger.”

—andy rapkin,

Foote Parent

Keeping Foote Strong The Centennial Campaign’s four goals

1 By 2016, Foote’s endowment stood at $9.6 million, a result of generous gifts, wise investment decisions and careful stewardship by Foote’s Investment Committee. Each year, Foote takes a distribution from interest earned on the endowment—around $400,000 last year—to support the school’s operating budget.

Without those funds, and the more than $750,000 in donations to the annual Foote Fund, the school’s budget would not balance and it would be necessary to raise tuition further or cut programs.

Foote’s yearly tuition increases are slightly below the average for independent K–8/9 schools across the country, according to figures compiled by the Independent School Data Exchange (INDEX). But the percentage of annual revenue that comes from endowment is far lower at Foote than at similar independent schools, INDEX data show. If the campaign succeeds in meeting its target, Foote would go from “below average” (25th percentile) in this measure to “outstanding” (near the 75th percentile).

Sustain socioeconomic diversity by growing our endowment to offset tuition increases and meet the rising demand for financial aid

2 3

Increase faculty of color to better reflect our increasingly diverse student body

Ensure robust enrollment by investing in people, programs and facilities, while reducing dependence on tuition dollars

4

Attract and retain the best teachers by ensuring that we continue to offer competitive salaries and benefits

Indeed, a larger endowment will give Foote a competitive advantage at a time when school options are proliferating— from independent, magnet and charter schools to online learning and “unschooling” programs. No longer are places like Foote the sole alternative to public schools.

More importantly, says Foote parent Andy Rapkin, a bigger endowment will give Foote the freedom to choose a path that best serves its students.

“Whether it’s implementing the latest research, attracting the best and brightest teachers and students or fostering diversity, this represents a huge opportunity to make

Spring 2018 | 23

What is Endowment?

Impact of Endowment

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 $11.2 million provided nearly $400,000 last year to support student financial aid, faculty professional development and other priorities. Every additional dollar drawn from our endowment is one less we need from tuition income, which will keep the school affordable for more families.

the school stronger,” says Andy, who is a member of the campaign’s Parent Committee and the father of two Foote students.

And because Foote’s endowment is relatively small, gifts have the potential to make a big impact, observes Constance “Cecie” Clement ’62, a member of Foote’s Board. “That’s one of the reasons I’ve chosen to contribute to the Centennial Campaign,” says Cecie, who also volunteered to serve on the Campaign Steering Committee.

Cecie credits Foote with inspiring her love of learning and giving her self-confidence that has carried her through life.

“Some of my greatest teachers were from Foote,” says Cecie, who is deputy director at the Yale Center for British Art. “My ability to express myself in writing and verbally really stems from my experience at Foote. So I think of Foote more often than my other educational experiences. I feel my gift will help enable future generations of students to have the same extraordinary experience that I had and that Foote students are benefitting from today.”

have a common thread, it is the understanding that in order to remain strong, Foote School must evolve and innovate while sustaining core values such as hiring the best teachers (to ensure the highest-quality instruction) and offering robust financial aid (to ensure economic diversity.)

IF THE C AMPAI GN ’ S GOAL S

Foote has invested substantially in financial aid with the knowledge that a diverse community benefits everyone and prepares students for the world they will enter. Last year, Foote awarded $1.7 million in financial aid to approximately

24 | Foote Prints

22 percent of our students—a commitment unusual among independent primary schools.

Still, the number of requests for financial aid—and the amounts needed—are increasing. A larger endowment will offset tuition increases that put Foote out of reach for some families and help preserve the socioeconomic diversity the school values so highly.

Likewise, Foote’s current student body is more ethnically diverse than ever. And while the school has made strides in hiring more faculty of color, there is clearly more room to grow.

“It’s an unfortunate fact that finding diverse candidates can be difficult,” says Jason Price, a Foote parent and Board member. “Sometimes that means you have to be very intentional and direct in faculty recruiting—and that requires resources.”

It’s an investment with a big payoff for Foote students, especially those of color. When students see teachers and administrators that look like them, Jason observes, it makes a real impact.

“It allows them to see themselves in that position of authority and to learn from different perspectives,” he says.

“They see that we all have the same goal but we approach those goals in different ways that have to do with our backgrounds. Having that diversity of thought makes us all more well-rounded and hopefully better citizens.”

Attracting and retaining the best teachers is a third goal of the campaign. Teachers play a critical role not only in classrooms but also in shaping Foote’s educational program.

Secure Our Future: The Centennial Campaign Foote now benchmarks faculty salaries with the best K–8 schools in the country. Growing our endowment will enable Foote to continue drawing the best teachers by providing competitive salaries and benefits, as well as ongoing opportunities for professional development.

Ensuring robust enrollment is the campaign’s final goal, and the foundation on which Foote’s long-term strength is built.

A larger endowment will help fund renovations, technology purchases, campus maintenance and other ongoing priorities, while reducing dependence on tuition increases.

Campaign Steering Committee Richard Bershtein, Co-Chair Board of Directors Cindy Leffell, Co-Chair Board of Directors George Atwood Board of Directors Constance “Cecie” Clement ’62 Board of Directors

Taken together, the campaign goals are ambitious. To succeed, it will take the entire Foote community—past and present—coming together as it did on Centennial Weekend, says Cecie.

Michael Krauss Board of Directors

But it’s a goal with enormous promise for Foote School and its students. Just as Cecie was transformed by her Foote experience nearly 60 years ago—and Cindy Leffell’s children were almost half a century later—Andy Rapkin is now watching his two children, second grader Lucy and first grader Nate, becoming curious and creative students with a deep love of learning.

Ann Baker Pepe Director of Development and Alumni Programs

“They are becoming individuals,” Andy says, “and Foote is enabling them by giving them the confidence to become who they want to be.”

Amy Sudmyer ’89 Assistant Director of Development and Alumni Programs

Carol Maoz Head of School

Amy Caplan ’88 Associate Director of Development and Alumni Programs

Honorary Campaign Committee Judy Chevalier Annie Clark Jay Cox Melanie Ginter Martha Vietor Glass ’68 Richard and Jane Levin Bruce Mandell Sharon Milikowsky Libby Peard Frank Perrine Dean Takahashi Parents Committee Mona Gohara, P’21, ’23 Michael Krauss, P’17, ’22 Rich Lee, P’08, ’09, ’13, ’21 Cindy Leffell, P’09, ’11 Kiran Makam, P’21, ’23 Andy Rapkin, P’25, ’26

“ We have a unique opportunity to invest in Foote’s people to build a stronger foundation for our second century.”

— cindy leffell Centennial Campaign Co-Chair

> For information about the Centennial Campaign, visit www.footeschool.org/campaign.

Spring 2018 | 25

Alumni

Foote alumna Ai-jen Poo ’89 went to the Golden Globes as Meryl Streep’s “date” on January 7, one of eight activists who joined forces with actresses to raise awareness about sexual harassment and other critical social issues. As executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Ai-jen has spent 20 years organizing and advocating for the nation’s 2.5 million nannies, housekeepers and home care workers—an undervalued and vulnerable population. “When I walked into Meryl’s hotel room for our first meeting, the kettle was boiling. Over a cup of chamomile tea, we sat together and talked about how best to honor survivors and share the stories of domestic workers the following night,” Ai-jen wrote of her experience in Cosmopolitan. “On the night of the awards, after taking a shot of vodka for courage, we stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of countless cameras, shared our message with the media, and cheered others on who were doing the same.”

Photo credit: DAMON WINTER/The New York Times/Redux

26 | Foote Prints

Spring 2018 | 27

Alumni Achievement Award

Transforming Lives Through Music Tom Brand ’88, founder of the Elm City Girls’ Choir and United Girls’ Choir, will receive the 2018 Alumni Achievement Award on Reunion Day. started as a casual gathering of 16 girls in a New Haven living room, with Tom Brand ’88 at the piano leading them in song.

THE E LM CIT Y GIR L S ’ CH O IR

This year, the choir celebrates its 25th anniversary as Connecticut’s premier female choral group. Over its quarter century, the organization has expanded to include 32 affiliated ensembles under the umbrella of the United Girls’ Choir and has given more than 4,500 girls ages 5 to 18 the opportunity to sing, conduct and become peer leaders in a supportive community.

experience in that group inspired him to establish a girls’ choir program with a similar philosophy and goals.

Over the years, the Elm City Girls’ Choir has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and has toured in England, Puerto Rico and China. Despite those accomplishments, Tom says the music is secondary to the larger purpose.

To honor Tom’s accomplishments, Foote will present him with the Alumni Achievement Award at Reunion Day on May 5, which will feature a special performance by the Elm City Girls’ Choir.

“Although we certainly strive for artistic excellence, our most important goals really have nothing at all to do with music. We’re not just here to sing a chord precisely in tune, or even to hit all of the right notes. Our main purpose is much more humanistic. We’re here to be kind, loving and empathetic, to support one another, and to spread joy.

Singing brings us together as a community and helps us accept and appreciate each other’s differences.”

Tom discovered his love of singing at age 9 when he joined New Haven’s Trinity Choir of Men and Boys, and his

True as that is, the girls are exceptionally talented and energetic performers, as anyone who has heard them can

28 | Foote Prints

attest—a result of Tom’s belief that excellence and fun are not mutually exclusive.

alma mater), which closed last summer amid shaky finances and shrinking enrollment.

Tom and his staff recruit choristers from dozens of schools in New Haven and the surrounding region. The program offers sliding-scale tuition, provides $150,000 a year in financial aid and has never turned away a family for an inability to pay.

“A lot of children in this country grow up without ever having an opportunity to sing in a choir—that’s not right,” says Tom. “We have to make it as accessible as a public library, which is to say free and open to all, with a bus route that takes you there.”

Tom has developed new programs to give even more young people opportunities to sing, perform and gain leadership skills. He recently established the Saecula Choir Foundation, a nonprofit that sponsors an intergenerational choral institute, several performing ensembles and underwrites music education scholarships for students who would otherwise be unable to afford high quality musical training.

For now, the Elm City Girls’ Choir will celebrate 25 years of empowering girls through music with an extravaganza in Yale’s Woolsey Hall in June, featuring dozens of choir alumnae.

Those who have learned under Tom, or worked alongside him, say he’s a person of great musical talent whose passion and energy bring out the best in his choristers. Choir alumnae describe a sisterhood that developed their selfesteem, social skills and musical literacy while fostering lifelong friendships.

“Tom challenged me to be a better version of myself and supported me to achieve experiences far beyond my wildest imagination,” says Leah Suffern, an alumna of the Elm City Girls’ Choir who recently graduated from St. Olaf College, where she served as president of the college choir.

“Singing together is one of the most wonderful things a group of people can do,” he says. “It’s an act of sharing our voices, no matter how modest they may be, with the goal of creating something beautiful, something powerful, something inspiring, something transformative.”

Tom Brand will conduct the Elm City Girls’ Choir in a special performance on Reunion Day.

June Hale, a retired music teacher who has worked closely with Tom over the years, says he is a rare individual who “generates his own inspiration.”

“He bubbles over with great ideas, sorts through them to find those with true merit, and then proceeds to bring them to fruition—all in the time it takes most of us to wake in the morning, stretch, work the cobwebs out of our brains, and wonder what we should do with our day,” says June, who serves on Saecula Choir Foundation’s board.”

Indeed, Tom has big ambitions for the choirs and foundation, even as family life has brought new joys and responsibilities (he and partner Rebecca Rosenbaum have 18-month-old twin boys and an 8-month-old girl). He envisions a far-reaching choir program that gives every student in every school the opportunity to develop their musical talents.

He also dreams of creating a choir boarding school similar to the American Boychoir School in New Jersey (Tom’s

The Elm City Girls’ Choir

Spring 2018 | 29

Legacies at Foote

CHILD R E N O F ALUMNI have been

attending Foote School since at least the 1950s, and more than a few families span three generations. This year, 41 students have parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles or other relatives who attended Foote.

30 | Foote Prints

Sam Mason, son of Talbot Welles ’81; Addison Franzen, daughter of Polly Coassin Franzen ’99; Marley and Barrett Hansen, children of Christopher Hansen ’86; Wolf, Kurt, Penelope and Felix Boone, children of Sarah Netter Boone ’89; Benjamin and Abigail Kruger, children of Avery Grauer ’87; Julia and Gemma Grauer, daughters of Jon Grauer ’85; Graham Possick, son of Jeff Possick ’89; Garrett and Natalie Curtis, step-cousins of Wendy Fischer Magnan ’82 and Brad Fischer ’80; Eliot Soto, nephew of Vanessa Soto ’98; Gus Nast, son of

Jonathan Nast ’94; Lexi Baez, daughter of Tim Gabbard ’05; Keillor and Archer Fitton, sons of Peter Fitton ’89; Ellie and Charlie Sudmyer, children of Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89; Nicholas Carpenter, son of Debbie Fong Carpenter ’82; Julien and Sophie Gangloff, children of Amy Caplan ’88; Matias Candelo-Diaz, nephew of Yami Diaz ’99; David and Max Garsten, great nephews of Ruth Healy ’43, Bill Healy ’44 and Kent Healy ’46; Miia Brooks, cousin of Preston Brooks ’79, Catherine Brooks Laing ’82 and Nathaniel Brooks ’87; Josie Cancro,

daughter of Allyx Schiavone ’85; Rohan Shivakumar, son of Claire Priest ’86; Will and Kaylee Geballe, children of Joshua Geballe ’90; Stella Wareck, daughter of John Wareck ’84; Malachai and Levi York,children of Annie Wareck ’85; Nia Bradford, daughter of Kossouth Bradford ’87; Clyde Luckey, son of Spencer Luckey ’85; Lucy and Ella Peterson, daughters of Owen Luckey ’83; Ella Buxbaum, niece of Elyse Buxbaum ’87 and Deborah Buxbaum Myers ’88.

Spring 2018 | 31

Alumni Giving

Why I Give A S ALUM S , we know that many alumni share our great appreciation for

1930s

The Foote School. As Board members, though, we are aware that a very small percentage of alumni contribute to the school. Fewer than 9 percent of Foote alumni make gifts to Foote each year (except in our centennial year, which saw a slight uptick). Those who contributed last year or have given this year (through February 1) are listed by decade. Each has his or her own reason for supporting Foote, and several alumni donors explain why they make Foote a priority.

Anonymous (1) Charles Huntington ’33* Eugenia Whitney Hotchkiss ’35 Julia Wallace Taussig ’37 f David Calhoun ’38* P. Linwood Urban ’38 Anne Campbell Clement ’39

We ask you to join us in sending an annual contribution to the school. We all have a role in doing what we can to support Foote’s mission by keeping the school strong. It is important to support institutions we believe in and that have benefitted us, so that they continue their good work and benefit others long into the future.

Please join us in supporting and sustaining our special school! You can send a check to Foote or make a gift online at the school’s website, www.footeschool.org/give.

With very best regards, Cecie Clement ’62

32 | Foote Prints

Wick Chambers ’62

*Deceased

Jennifer Milikowsky ’02

**Matching Gift Program Participant

f

1940s Anonymous (3) Edward T. Calhoun ’40 Eugenia Tyler Copp ’40 Samuel Babbitt ’42 Linda Hamilton Carr ’42 f Doris Drisler Ferguson ’42 f David Hitchcock ’42 G. Harold Welch ’42 Harriet Calhoun Wrenn ’43 f Timothy LaFarge ’44 Davida Gordon Madden ’45 Jane Whittlesey North ’45 f Anne Hunt Tritz ’45 f Guido Calabresi ’46 f James English ’46 f James Boorsch ’47 f Susan Hilles Bush ’47

Donor to the Foote Fund for five consecutive years

C Centennial Society

Elizabeth DeVane Edminster ’47 f Gladys Bozyan Lavine ’47 Jane Karlsruher Shedlin ’47 C. Lawson Willard ’47 f Anne Tyler Calabresi ’48 Margaret Bozyan Jefferys ’49 Deborah Blanchard Richardson ’49

1950s Anonymous (1) Marcia Tucker Boogaard ’50 Margaret De Noyon Saadeh ’50 Emily Mendillo Wood ’51 Nancy Osterweis Alderman ’52 Mary Ann Bickford Casey ’52 Theodore Gaillard ’52 f Harald Hille ’52 Frederick Hilles ’52 Mary Lou Venter Briggs ’53 f Nancy Gaylord ’53* f E. Anthony Petrelli ’53 f Robert Wing ’53 C f Herrick Jackson ’54 f Louise Bluhm Jeanne ’54 f Edward Johnson ’54 f John Stratton ’54 Nancy Farnam Charles ’55 Douglas Crowley ’55 f W. Lee Dunham ’55 f Nancy Ely Kales ’55 f Nawrie Meigs-Brown ’55 Elizabeth Leavy Stroman ’55 Lisa Farrel Totman ’56 f Melissa Bradley ’57 Rives Fowlkes Carroll ’57 f Tristram Gaillard ’57 Kevin Geenty ’57 Faith Lewis Johnson ’57 Richard Petrelli ’57 Carol Miller Rand ’57 Peter Setlow ’57 f Margaret Wilmer Bartlett ’58 Elizabeth Bohlen ’58 Ellen Feinstein Esrick ’58 Perry Miller ’58 f Margaret Bluhm Carey ’59 f Frederick Crosby ’59

Elizabeth Reigeluth Parker ’60 f Emily Barclay ’61 Margaret Clement Green ’61 Pauline Vietor Sheehan ’61 Wick Chambers ’62 f Constance Clement ’62 f Samuel Howe ’62 Donald Ross ’62 f Susan Swords Stevens ’62 f Thomas Sturgess ’62 Katharine Arnstein ’63 Judith Hull ’63 Marcia Southwick ’63 Susan Stratton ’63 Christopher Tunnard ’63 Katharine Adams Walker ’63 Jessie Brinkley ’64 f Catharine Barclay Fender ’64 York Miller ’64 f William Newton ’64* Philip Ross ’64 Nicholas Rostow ’64 Alexander Vietor ’64 Jeannette Byers ’65 f James Farnam ’65 f Janet Alley McClure ’65 Gerrit Crosby ’66 John Deming ’66 William Silva ’66 C f Sayre Weaver ’66

James Bigwood ’68 Rob Clark ’68 f Catherine Smith Cuthell ’68 f Arthur Howe ’68 f Elizabeth Prelinger ’68 f Hilary Shank-Kuhl ’68 f Leland Torrence ’68 Christine Wilmer Barkus ’69 f Betsy Bradburn-Assoian ’69 f Anne Sa’adah ’69 Meg McDowell Smith ’69 f

1970s Robert O’Connor ’70 James Tapscott ’70 Carol Ann Bradburn Celella ’72 f Amy Estabrook ’72 Anne Brooks Gwaltney ’72 Greta Nettleton ’72 Edward Venter ’72 Catherine Hosley Vouwie ’72 Justus Addiss ’73 f Dorothy Clark Chadwick ’73 John Persse ’73 f Elizabeth Smith Reed ’73 Ellen Sherk Walsh ’73 George Welch ’73 Elizabeth Freedman Bannister ’74 John Detre ’74

Why I Give I give more to The Foote School than to my university. I do that because I believe strongly in what the school offers its students and what it gave to me many years ago. And I know that my gift is needed more at Foote and is more likely to impact the lives of students more directly.

Selfishly, that gives me greatest satisfaction.

1960s Anonymous (4) William Henning ’60 Richard Hooker ’60 Patricia Fiorito Oakes ’60 f

—samuel f. babbitt ’42

Spring 2018 | 33

1980s

Brook Hersey ’74 f Barclay Welch ’74 Sarah Blake ’75 Jessica Drury ’75 Susan Campbell Grimes ’75 Patience McDowell ’75 Roger Smith ’75 Katharine Swibold ’75 Katherine Wolfgang ’75 Rachel Cartmell ’76 John Holder ’76 C f Campbell Langdon ’76 Cary Twichell ’76 f Thomas Wellington ’76 William Alderman ’77 Elizabeth Daley Draghi ’77 f Christopher Neville ’77 Margaret Smith ’77 Stephen Binder ’78 Stephen Fontana ’78 Evan Drutman ’79 f Elizabeth Holt ’79 Elizabeth Welch ’79 f Marie Wilkinson ’79

Anne Wareck ’85 f Christopher Hansen ’86 Claire Priest ’86 f Kossouth Bradford ’87 f Avery Grauer ’87 f Jonathan Levin ’87 Emily Rome ’87 John Sasaki ’87 Amy Caplan ’88 f Alicia Fox ’88 Justin Goodyear ’88 Jennie Bailey Nally ’88 Claire Shubik-Richards ’88 f Caleb Wertenbaker ’88 f Sarah Netter Boone ’89 f Jeffrey Possick ’89 Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89

Anonymous (3) Julian Harris ’80 Peter Neuman ’80 Mark Righter ’80 Holly Johnson ’81 Talbot Welles ’81 f Bethany Schowalter Appleby ’82 Deborah Fong Carpenter ’82 f Thomas Fontana ’82 f Stephen Holt ’82 Robin Jenkins ’82 Haven Tyler ’82 Loli Wu ’82 f Pierre Crowley ’83 f Owen Luckey ’83 f Catherine Petraiuolo ’83 f William DeVane ’84 Melanie Crowley Mullan ’84 John Wareck ’84 f Linsley Craig Carruth ’85 f Jonathan Grauer ’85 f Spencer Luckey ’85 Allyx Schiavone ’85 f Peter Walts ’85

1990s

Why I Give

As I had children of my own (now 12 and 14) and appreciated how much they were learning from their own dedicated teachers, I realized how important Foote had been to me. Mrs. Bishop, in particular, made me love reading and writing. I remember enthusiastically embracing writing to the point that I looked forward to every free essay she assigned.

Joshua Geballe ’90 Nicholas Lehmann ’90 Ryan Bader ’91 Chandra Benevento ’91 Jennifer Jackson Breitling ’91 William Manke ’91 f Jeremy Angoff ’92 Mary Murphy ’92 Lena Sadowitz ’92 Elissa Schpero ’92 Daniel Fleschner ’94 f Jonathan Nast ’94 Mike Bright ’95 Matthew Milikowsky ’95 Grayson Murphy ’95 Susan Canny ’96 f Nora Elton ’96 Elizabeth Petrelli ’96 f Beau Stengel ’96 Virginia Stevens ’96 Stephen Fair ’97 Katharine Lorimer ’97 Divita Mehta ’97 Amanda Calkins Baker ’98 Katherine Clark-Spohn Botta ’98 Elisabeth Sacco Klock ’98 Andrea Luedecker ’98 S. André Warner ’98 Polly Coassin Franzen ’99 Aditya Mehta ’99 James Meyer ’99

—loli wu ’82

34 | Foote Prints

*Deceased

**Matching Gift Program Participant

f

Donor to the Foote Fund for five consecutive years

C Centennial Society

2000s Anonymous (1) Caitlin Cahow ’00 Alexander Kleiner ’00 f Rebecca Levin ’00 Shannon Sweeney ’00 Sarah Afragola ’01 f Peter Lorimer ’01 Jonathan DiMaio ’02 Jennifer Milikowsky ’02 Erin Sweeney ’02 f Sarah Albert ’03 Matthew Carpenter ’03 Emma Ledbetter ’03 f Samantha Mashaw ’04 Zachary Bell ’05 Edward Coady ’05 Timothy Gabbard ’05 Andrew Gewirtz ’05 Elizabeth Peard ’05 Michael Wysolmerski ’05 Christina Ching-McGrath ’06 Alice Cox ’06 Yuri Sakurabayashi ’06 Samuel Craft ’07 Brian Wysolmerski ’07 Natalie Lapides ’08 Edmund Link ’08 Lily McCarthy ’08 Michael Milazzo ’08 David Tam ’08 Christopher Blackwood ’09 Kela Caldwell ’09

2010s Julia McCarthy ’10 Clayton Pepe ’10 Michael McCarthy ’12 Taylor Rossini ’12 Maxwell Sbriglio ’12 Omari Caldwell ’13 Nat DiMario ’13 Thomas Craft ’14 Duncan Tam ’14 Edward Martin ’15 Zachariah Pine Maher ’15 Nathanial Krauss ’17 Anjali Tandon ’18

Why I Give Of all the schools I attended, Foote had the greatest hand in making me the person I am today. I was on significant financial aid when I attended. In a big public school, I would have missed out on so much of the arts, academics and community support that Foote offers. I would not have learned how to take safe risks. I would not have had so many adults in my corner. I want other kids who may not otherwise have the resources to have the same opportunity.

—elisabeth sacco klock ’98

Why I Give

Foote never limited learning to the classroom; it inspired curiosity, wherever and whenever.

—s. andre warner ’98

Spring 2018 | 35

Alumni

Class of 2014: Where Are They Now? Vikram Amar Robin Armour Ben Barton Aaron Baxter Andrew Baxter Dana Baxter Caroline Berberian Anastasia Blaisdell Vicente Bobadilla Riquelme Nate Bogardus Tyler Brown-Ortiz Eli Burrell Nathan Chang Elise Cobb Declan Colberg Rody Conway Tommy Craft Morgan Curtis

36 | Foote Prints

Yale University Choate Rosemary Hall ’18 Williams College Syracuse University Brandeis University Tufts University Davidson College Becker College Phillips Academy Andover ’18 University of Michigan Wheaton College Occidental College Yale University College of the Holy Cross Salisbury School ’18 Syracuse University Deerfield Academy ’18 Wake Forest University

Marcelo De La Mora James Deakin Matt Diemand Chase Douglas Linda Essery Robert Fitch Juliet Friedman Patrick Gallagher Kyle Gelzinis Sarah Gillis Lucy Hanson Claudia Horvath-Diano Thor Illick Jeremy Irzyk Jordana Irzyk Henry Jacob Lily James Courtney Joshua

University of Chicago Boston College Syracuse University Franklin Pierce University Dartmouth College Keene State College University of Vermont Choate Rosemary Hall ’18 George Washington University Gap Year, Bates College Boston College George Washington University Hopkins School ’18 Williams College College of the Holy Cross Yale University Mount Holyoke College Quinnipiac University

The Class of 2014 and faculty advisers in sixth grade

Max Karlan Nico Kenn de Balinthazy Logan Knight John Koobatian Daniel Kuriakose Elena Levin Lauren Low Nathanael Matos Sophia Matthes Theriault Abigail McCabe Natalie Muskin Noah Nyhart Amelia O’Keefe Coral Ortiz-Diaz Anees Patwa Will Raccio Gemma Raymond Simon Schaefer

Gap Year, University of Chicago Hofstra University Gap Year, New York University University of Chicago Purchase College Brown University Smith College Bard College Proctor Academy ’18 Lawrence University St. Lawrence University George Washington University Tulane University Yale University Washington University in St. Louis Choate Rosemary Hall ’18 Mitchell College University of Miami

Claudia Serino Zoë Sernyak Taylor Smooke Virginia Stanley Annika Swift Duncan Tam Timothy Tompkins Holden Turner Sasha Valone Adam Velardi Sarah Volk Sofie Weiss Lena Wencker

St. Lawrence University Gap Year, Yale University Nutmeg Conservatory Middlebury College Vassar College Emory University Rochester Institute of Technology Bowdoin College Amherst College University of Connecticut Clark University New York University Tulane University

Spring 2018 | 37

Young Alums Day

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, 86 alumni from the Classes of 2015 through 2018 reunited on Loomis Place for Young Alums Day to catch up with each other and former teachers. Friends from the Class of 2017 embrace.

Members of the Class of 2017

38 | Foote Prints

Members of the Class of 2018

Members of the Class of 2015 reminisce while looking at photos from their Foote days.

Math Chair Megan Williams hugs a former student from the Class of 2016.

Members of the Class of 2017

Spring 2018 | 39

Class Notes

“ I look back on our years together, realizing what a charmed existence we lived in a school that nurtured us as well as provided a terrific education.”

—Nancy Curtis ’50

1935

1940

We are sad to report that Betty Smith Ewing passed away on September 19, 2017. Betty was born in St. Louis, Missouri on August 11, 1921.

She grew up in New Haven, where she attended Foote and The Day School and graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in English Literature. After graduation she worked at Yale University Press in association with the Yale Series of Younger Poets. She married Bob Ewing in 1947 and they moved to West Hartford. Bob passed away in 1997. Betty was an avid reader and enjoyed discussing books with her friends.

We send our condolences to her family.

We extend our sympathy to Eugenia Tyler Copp, whose brother, Vic Tyler II ’42, passed away on October 3, 2017.

1937 We extend our sympathy to Charles Smith, whose sister, Betty Smith Ewing ’35, passed away on September 19, 2017.

We’d love to hear from you!

1938

Please contact your class correspondent or Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89 at asudmyer@footeschool.org to share news about you and your classmates, or visit www.footeschool.org/alumni.

80th Reunion, May 5, 2018 We are sad to report that David W. Calhoun passed away on December 24, 2017. David came back to Foote for his 75th Reunion in 2013, accompanied by his wife Louva. They lived in Bethany, Connecticut. Prior to his death, David sent the school an 11-page typed recollection of his time at Foote, noting “Foote School was a good grade school because it was not an interruption in life. It was what you did weekdays, right up there with home and family.” He added, “What I remember best about the teachers [at] Foote School, the ones who taught best, was their direct, simple, sincere approach to teaching. They were adults who knew more than we did, believed we needed to know what they could give us, and showed pleasure at our progress.”

1942 Class Correspondent: David Hitchcock Jr. hitchdl@aol.com We are sad to report that Vic Tyler II passed away on October 3, 2017. Vic was a man who combined a sharp mind with a huge heart. He kept in touch with Foote School classmates and they were his closest friends. After Foote, Vic attended Milton Academy and Phillips Academy Andover and graduated from Yale College. Vic also earned a master’s of engineering from Yale. He was generous in many ways and a pioneer in using technology in daily life.

In 1970 his Concord Computing Company created the first machines that electronically approved credit cards as they were used. We send our condolences to his wife, Mary, and their four children.

1939 Class Correspondent: Anne Campbell Clement shclement@comcast.net Edie Rose Hopkins is still in her apartment and up and about. She paints and occasionally sells her work. Edie reports that she has five great-grandchildren so far!

40 | Foote Prints

An Academic Life: A Memoir, by Hanna Holborn Gray ’43, was released April 10

by Princeton University Press.

1943

Karen Wylie Pryor ’46

75th Reunion, May 5, 2018 Hanna Holborn Gray’s book, An Academic Life: A Memoir, was released April 10 by Princeton University Press. Foote will host a book signing with Hanna Gray on May 17 from 9 to 10 a.m. Please join us.

A behavioral scientist who pioneered a kinder way to train animals

1945 Class Correspondent: Dr. John Gardner jhgardner@earthlink.net Pamela Pond Goss now has three greatgrandchildren, ages 5, 2 and 1! She sends her regards to all. Michael Buchanan writes from Keene Valley, New York.

“We still live surrounded by forests and mountains for sons and grandchildren to climb. Our son, John, has climbed some more than 400 times and his son, Andrew, who has climbed 39 peaks, is well on his way to becoming a 46er.”

1946 Class Correspondent: Kent Healy kent.healy@verizon.net

1947 Class Correspondent: Gladys Bozyan Lavine gblavine@gmail.com Since leaving Foote, Stephen Waters has been involved in every aspect of schools.

Steve and his wife, Jane, participate in a New Hampshire Accountable Care Committee to control health care costs and improve outcomes and patient satisfaction. They have overcome the intimidating feelings of initial sessions with health care professionals and have come to a fuller, if not complete, understanding of the complexity of health care issues.

Reynolds Gordon and wife Janet are enjoying winter in Scottsdale after a scary surgery in the fall. All is well now and they are looking forward to seeing classmates in 2022. Harriet Tuttle Noyes and her husband, Bob, are planning to ‘age in place’ and to adapt their longtime home on Spy Pond in Arlington, Massachusetts so they can remain there. Harriet credits Foote with her longtime connection, as a parent and board member, to The Cambridge Friends School and its approach to learning.

It Just Clicked a dog with a clicker, you can thank Karen Wylie Pryor. That also goes for cats, horses, birds, zoo animals—even humans.

IF YO U ’ VE E VE R TR A INE D

Karen is the behavioral scientist and animal trainer who helped devise the widely used method of clicker training that favors positive reinforcement over punishment.

Like most dog owners at the time, Karen trained her family Weimaraner using a choke chain. But after graduating from Cornell in 1954, she moved to Hawaii and became a dolphin trainer. At Sea Life Park she pioneered the use of “operant conditioning.”

Karen’s innovation was simple but revolutionary: She would blow a whistle whenever the dolphins performed a desired task and reward them with fish.

By marking a behavior as it happens, the animal learns which actions are being rewarded.

“It was a completely new way to train,” says Karen. “And it didn’t matter what kind of species we were working with.

They all responded beautifully.”

Indeed the method can be, and has been, applied to stop almost any type of undesirable behavior—from cats scratching furniture to messy roommates. Karen has even helped New York’s Montefiore Medical Center employ clicker training to

teach medical residents basic surgical techniques, such as how to grip a drill and how to stabilize a drill tip.

The breakthrough was the subject of Karen’s bestselling book Don’t Shoot the Dog!, first published in 1985 and since translated into 18 languages. She hit on the clicker as a training device years later when a colleague saw a newspaper ad for a plastic clicker device. It turned out to be the perfect behavior marker for animal training and has earned Karen worldwide acclaim.

Karen Pryor Clicker Training has since become a leading resource for operant conditioning and clicker training method, and hosts two annual “Clicker Expos” (three-day conferences that teach the method to animal owners).

Karen sold off the last of her shares in the company in 2017 and is now at work on her 11th book, an autobiography containing stories from her multifaceted career (she also spent a decade as a consultant to the tuna industry, developing practices for dolphin-safe fishing). She lives in Boston with a clicker-trained rescue cat named Leo and has taken up competitive ballroom dancing.

“I like to watch the clicker magic continuing to grow,” says Karen, “because when people come into that world, they see things differently. It changes your perspective and makes learning new skills much easier.”

Spring 2018 | 41

Kent Healy ’46

“ The town has been very good to me.

I thought it would be a good time to give back.”

Selected to Lead he decided to run for office at age 84 and he gives a succinct answer.

A S K K E NT HE ALY W HY

“I’ve been around long enough so I felt it was my turn.”

Kent is currently serving a three-year term as one of three selectmen in West Tisbury, a town on Martha’s Vineyard that he’s called home since 1983. Last year, he beat a 10-year incumbent for the seat, though Kent stresses he wasn’t running against his opponent but rather “for the town.”

As a civil engineer, Kent has worked for decades on issues related to Massachusetts’ estuaries, particularly Tisbury Great Pond. The town of West Tisbury owns part of the pond, where rising nitrogen levels have led to algae blooms that inhibit the growth of eelgrass, a crucial habitat for oysters and other shellfish.

The problem has fueled debate in town about the causes of pollution and what to do about them. A study by the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth blamed agriculture and residential septic systems around the pond.

Kent has performed his own testing and monitoring and is less certain that septic systems contribute so heavily to the pond’s nitrogen imbalance. It’s 42 | Foote Prints

important to be sure, he says, because fixing the systems would be expensive for the town and local homeowners.

“I’ve been involved with the pond for 50 years,” says Kent, who had a summer job dragging oysters from the pond in 1952 and for decades has cut the channel opening the pond to the ocean.

After earning a Ph.D. from MIT, Kent worked for LeMessurier Associates in Boston, where he was part of the team that designed the foundation for Boston City Hall, “which is still standing firm and strong,” he notes. From 1964 to 1983, he taught civil engineering at the University of Connecticut. “I was a very good teacher but you need more than that nowadays,” says Kent, who maintains a private practice.

He moved to Martha’s Vineyard with his wife, Maureen, who served as executive secretary of West Tisbury (akin to town manager) for 15 years.

They raised five children, four of whom still live on the island.

With the Vineyard’s population increasing, there are greater demands on government services and Kent feels he’s in a good position to help.

“I know a lot about the town and the buildings,” says Kent, who hasn’t ruled out running for re-election in 2020.

“The town’s been very good to me.

I thought it would be a good time to give back.”

Jim Boorsch is preparing for a March move to Whitney Center in Hamden, which is a major disruption not much mitigated by the familiar surroundings. Good luck, Jim, and by the time this reaches print, we hope all is smoothly settled. Boola boola! Jane Karlsruher Shedlin, an intrepid world traveler, was told her cancer is not growing so she is now in a maintenance care program. After a bout with flu put her back in the hospital, she canceled her planned trip to Australia and instead took a river trip in Portugal with her daughter.

She will be making more travel plans soon.

Her kids and grandkids are all well, with the youngest, Heidi, heading to Syracuse University in the fall. An important part of Susan Hilles Bush’s life is getting together with friends, which gets better as we age, unlike so many things. Sukie is amazed that in her 85th year she managed a trip to India in the Buddha’s footsteps. Sukie’s illreceived Ph.D. thesis, now 50 years old, has been published in Chinese by the Beijing University Press. Most of Sukie’s life is now focused around family and the interesting choices made by her grandchildren.

Elizabeth DeVane Edminster and her husband, David, moved to an independent living apartment. The actual move was a great upheaval but it was absolutely necessary. Elizabeth has enjoyed marvelous visits from Sukie, Harriet and Gladys, and would welcome visits from others. Gladys Bozyan Lavine lives alone on Aquidneck Island in a house too big except for summer and weekends. Since her husband, David, died seven years ago she has learned the pleasures of solitude. Gladys welcomes visitors. For part of the year her only remaining sibling, Pat, lives next door with her family. Gladys has the usual age issues, mostly comical, but she feels well and rooted to her salty home.

1948 70th Reunion, May 5, 2018 The Class of 1948 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89 in the Alumni Programs Office at asudmyer@footeschool.org.

We extend our sympathy to Anne Tyler Calabresi, whose brother, Vic Tyler II ’42, passed away on October 3, 2017.

1950 Class Correspondent: Mary Pigott Johnsen jlmpjohnsen@west-point.org Five of our 15 classmates reported in, with Vicki Meeks Blair-Smith getting the prize for the fewest and most words (17 current and approximately 1,000 in her Christmas letter!). The seasonal letter featured her husband, Bear, plus sailing, dogs, Bear’s doings, arthritis, dogs, kayaking, Bear, boats, yard work, swimming and jigsaw puzzles. Did I mention Bear? Vicki is an active lady whose best line was about stored and surplus sextants: “But if you think a sextant is a device used in sexting, you can’t have one.” Margot DeNoyon Saadeh still commutes to the Middle East to see her husband, George, and daughters Randa and Karen, one in Bahrain and one in Dubai. The balance of her family is in West Hartford and Boston, including precious children and grandchildren. Margot mentions a broken shoulder with subsequent physical therapy as one of the discomforts of being in our 80s. Nancy Curtis writes, “I look back on our years together, realizing what a charmed existence we lived in a school that nurtured us as well as provided a terrific education.

In the war years, we felt safe. We remember the Yanks tossing chocolate bars to French children in 1944, CARE packages and the Marshall Plan. Three years ago I retired from a long career in the museum field.

I enjoy good health and now have time to make art again, something I’ve hardly done since leaving Foote.” Nancy goes on to write, “If you have Netflix, please watch Theo Who Lived, a documentary about my son, Theo Padnos, a journalist, who was taken hostage by Al Qaeda in Syria and held captive for 22 months. The film shows his endurance through this horrific nightmare and his understanding of what jihad is like for those who participate in it. It also depicts the desperate efforts by me and my family to find out what had happened and obtain his release.” From her home since 1967 in Bennington, Vermont, Tordis Ilg Isselhardt also claims good health after cancer treatment four years ago and no longer needs glasses (except for reading) after cataract removal. She has been rehearsing with the Benn County Choral Society for a May performance of Verdi’s Requiem with 200 singers and a full

orchestra. Her family of three sons and their families celebrated the holidays together, while back in May there was “a glorious 80th birthday weekend for me!” Lastly, Mary Pigott Johnsen is still playing tennis and golf, plus doing some volunteer work, and is feeling lucky to still be able to do so.

The last issue of Foote Prints featured the responses from our male classmates, which means there was nothing. The men do exist, though, so perhaps threats and fake news may bring results to appear in the next issue. Hopefully the 10 non-respondents are well and we will stay connected. After all, for some it has been 73 to 75 years, a worthy relationship!

1951 Class Correspondent: Emily Mendillo Wood birdofmilford@gmail.com

1952 Class Correspondent: Harald Hille harald.hille@gmail.com Lee Gaillard reports, “Last summer we drove across the country to Eugene, Oregon so my wife, Ann, could take on the rectorship of St. Thomas Church. We traded in our two old cars, bought a new one, bought a house and are settling in. This summer we hope to explore the Northwest.

I continue to write and hope to do some volunteer work with local veterans.”

the trip hard to resist.” Celestine La-Farge Nicolas writes from the Netherlands that her home, a lovingly restored 17th-century watermill and garden, suffered damage from recent violent wind events but that she is well and is looking forward to attending our reunion in May. For many years now, she has been teaching Irish dance and giving workshops in Ireland and throughout Europe. Celestine was in New Haven briefly last summer and visited with Eligio Petrelli.

Celestine has a plan brewing to teach the Sleights Long Sword Dance to alumni at reunion if there’s time! Brenda Sweeney Filley is still “playing lots of tennis, and loving it.” She lives in Guilford, Connecticut with her son, Dave, and his family. Marilyn Jordan Schulz and her husband, Roger, had a busy year. Their year included trips to New Orleans, Munich, Zurich, and St. Lucia, as well as a family visit in Pennsylvania, despite a bout of physical difficulties. They’re not complaining but note that “it takes hard work to grow old!” Bob Wing suffered a minor stroke last April, which made him realize that, at our age, good health cannot be taken for granted. Even so, he was able to visit a mountaintop observatory in Chile in December to continue his observing programs. Bob will remember 2017 as the year of the great American eclipse, which he

1953 65th Reunion, May 5, 2018 Class Correspondent: Robert Wing wing@astronomy.ohio-state.edu Mary Lou Venter Briggs writes from Sun Valley, Idaho, that the skiing is good but that they’re hoping for more snow! She and her husband, Jim, are expecting visits from all four of their grown children and four of their eight grandchildren. Mary Lou is sad to miss reunion but she will be absent for a good reason: She will be on a Williams College-sponsored trip. One of the trip highlights will be a visit to the Normandy beaches in France, something that she has always wanted to do. She writes, “That, plus the added presence of David Eisenhower, author and grandson of the general, made

Brenda Sweeney Filley ’53 at her home in Guilford, Connecticut with her sons Jamie and Dave on July 4, 2017

Spring 2018 | 43

witnessed from Oregon with his son Roger’s family—a great experience, especially for the 13- and 11-year-old grandchildren.

1954 The Class of 1954 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89 in the Alumni Programs Office at asudmyer@footeschool.org.

Ed Johnson is enjoying his winter hobbies: snow shoveling and sleeping late, in that order. Stephen Mendillo is still active in theater and television, as well as The Actor’s Studio. Stephen moved from Milford, Connecticut to Los Angeles, California.

1955 Class Correspondents: Nawrie Meigs-Brown nawrie@comcast.net Lee Dunham ldunham@sandw.com Nawrie Meigs-Brown writes, “I’m on several local boards, including our active little library and The Associates of The Marine Biology Laboratory. I do a lot of walking with my big, black Labrador Retriever.”

1956

1960

Class Correspondent: Will Amatruda willtam88@hotmail.com

Class Correspondent: Happy Clement Spongberg happyspongberg@earthlink.net

We are sad to report that George Spencer Berger passed away on October 26, 2017.

Spencer lived in Jamestown and Newport, Rhode Island for the last 27 years. According to his obituary, Spencer had impeccable clothes and a big heart. He was a holistic counselor and a talented designer. We send our condolences to his brother, Eric Berger ’58, his nephew, Tim Berger ’01, and his niece, Lolly Berger ’02.

Happy Clement Spongberg has started singing in a church choir and working for the island food pantry. Richard Hooker and his wife, Donna, split their time between Rochester and Canandaigua Lake, New York where they have a seasonal house. They also continue to run the annual Rochester International Film Festival in April. This year they took trips to visit family in Michigan and to ski in Vermont.

1957

1961

Class Correspondent: Kevin Geenty kevin@geentygroup.com

Class Correspondent: Muffie Clement Green m_c_green@sbcglobal.net

Kevin Geenty is still assisting his daughter, Kristen, and The Geenty Group Realtors.

He enjoys hunting and riding motorcycles.

He reports that the two weeks he spent in Ireland this past June was his best trip ever!

He is already in the planning stages for his trip next year to Scandinavia, Switzerland or Poland.

1962

1958 60th Reunion, May 5, 2018 Class Correspondent: Eric Berger ericberger@aol.com We extend our sympathy to Eric Berger, whose brother, George Spencer Berger ’56, passed away on October 26, 2017.

Kerry Triffin writes, “I now have two grandchildren, Theo and Lois, and one more in the oven; Molly is expecting.

Molly’s younger sister, Emily, is getting married in February in Costa Rica to a wonderful gentleman named Matt.”

1959 The Class of 1959 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89 in the Alumni Programs Office at asudmyer@footeschool.org.

Richard Hooker ’60 and his wife, Donna, packing up their house on the Finger Lakes for the season

44 | Foote Prints

Class Correspondent: Donald O. Ross dross@winvcounsel.com From class correspondent Don Ross: “Dear classmates, I have heard from three of our classmates—seems just the boys.

Nothing from any of the girls, so maybe next edition.” Tom Sturgess writes, “It has been a long time and I regret not being in the country for our 55th reunion. I promise to be available in May 2022. I am now the proud grandfather of Charlotte (4) and Henry (2), who keep Marilynn and me busy. They are in Norwalk, Connecticut, which is only 75 minutes from our home in Farmington. God’s gift to getting old is grandchildren. Marilynn and I are currently enjoying our time as volunteer docents at Farmington’s Hill-Stead Museum, which houses one of the country’s finest collections of impressionist paintings, including works by Monet, Manet, Degas, Cassatt and Whistler. As a UConn alumnus I am, of course, a strident Husky basketball fan. I am also a season ticketholder to their rising Hockey East program. Last year I realized a longtime objective: returning to Vietnam and retracing my steps of almost 50 years ago. A wonderful organization of former Army and Marine veterans from the Vietnam War conducts tours throughout Vietnam for those who want to return.

Marilynn and I joined 22 others (Army, Marine, Navy and Air Force veterans, along

with family and friends). I was fortunate to return to two of my former firebases on the DMZ. Many of my fellow travelers had also served on the DMZ, so laughter and tears were abundant. The Vietnamese people were as friendly and accommodating as one could possibly hope. I met several former adversaries, both VC and NVA, and we exchanged greetings as all former combatants do, with respect. I miss everyone from ’62. Hope to see as many as possible for our 60th.” Amos Galpin writes from the West Coast, “I don’t know if this qualifies as ‘news’ but I am using a bunch of my time training for the National Time Trial bike race in June. This is a fun goal, as I now enter the 70-plus category. I managed to get a silver medal when I was 40, and I have been going to the race for the last several years, mostly accompanying friends. I hired a coach in July and have been working steadily.

I raced 12 races cyclocross last fall. I crashed in the last one, giving myself double vision, which I still have. I’m hoping it will get better.

I raced my bike in Europe three summers, entering a variety of races leading up to the World Championships in San Johann, Austria.

I entered road races, hill climbs, time trials and matched sprints. My best finish was 20th in the Worlds. Competing in big groups, around 100, taught me how to ride/hide in the peloton. The climbs were absolutely gruesome for me, so I worked my way toward the front before the beginning of the climbs, knowing that I would drift back inexorably.

Sprints were crowded and scary, with a big surge at about 500 meters and then a second thrust for the line. I loved it anyway. Elise and I are in Sun Valley for the winter. We are cross-country skiing and I’m playing a good bit of hockey, some with my grandkids, who are just starting. Other times I’m grinding away on a stat bike in the greenhouse, which is a pretty nice place to do such a thing. I’ve been taking hyperbaric treatments for my eyes—anyone familiar with that? What a crazy thing! I traded in my guitar for a paintbrush quite a few years ago and I made a painting of my brother George and me standing in the backyard when I was about 6. At the time, Sam Howe and I were inseparable, living almost next door to each other. Very good days! We were going to Foote in the old building on Saint Ronan Street. I remember the coal truck loading coal through the chute in the building next door. I hope to see some of you in the next year. I trust you have more interesting stories to tell.”

Alden Shattuck writes, “Amos, I think of your parents every New Year’s Eve. My parents would celebrate the New Year at your house on your mom’s schedule: Greenwich Mean Time. That seemed pretty lightweight to me for a long time but I adopted the policy a couple of decades ago and now haven’t been awake to see the ball drop since back when I was young and athletic. I also ride a bike a couple of hours daily under the Florida sun. I vainly attempt to stave off deterioration by doing that, logging many hours in the weight room and carrying on a love-hate relationship with an ergonomic rowing machine. I can relate to your age group cycling aspirations because I followed a corresponding course in sailing. For about three decades I enjoyed taking myself pretty seriously as a masters Laser sailor and did everything I could to make myself as good as possible. Each year I would peak for the Masters World Championships and I made the podium in my division 11 times, reaching the top step twice. Then about two years ago—as I prepared for a Florida State Championship regatta for which the weather forecast promised a nasty, cold, windy, rainy event—I followed John McEnroe’s lead: never officially retired, but just stopped showing up. I now fill all those hours that I used to train out on the water with retired-guy stuff or by tinkering around the house, cars, garage, yard and boats. My grandson (one of nine grandkids) now races my boat while I tow him out there, carry his Gatorade and bananas and tell him how not to make all the mistakes that I made. He just became the first member of the fourth Shattuck generation to attend Choate. I also have a nice powerboat. I keep busy maintaining the boat and taking trips with my wife, Heidi, to visit our favorite stops up and down the East Coast from Nassau to Nantucket each year. Amos, were you with us the weekend we climbed in a window in the old school and trashed the art room?

Or aren’t you saying? I hope the statute of limitations has run out on that crime so I finally can get a good night’s sleep.” Finally, Sam Howe and I had dinner in Andover, Massachusetts where Sam lives. He looks just the same and has the same great stories. Sam just retired. His wife could not join us because she is still working harder than ever. Please keep the emails coming!

So great to hear from you all!

Jennifer Hunt ’63 with her Doberman Pinscher, Cool Hand Luke, who was awarded his CDX obedience title in summer 2017

1963 55th Reunion, May 5, 2018 Class Correspondent: Susan Stratton susan@strattonpartners.com Jennifer Hunt writes, “I am still adjusting to South Carolina culture and politics, although at least Richland County is Democratic and Lindsey Graham does not represent the majority here. My Doberman Pinscher, Cool Hand Luke, was awarded his CDX obedience title last summer. I had hand surgery before Christmas and still can’t type. I am enjoying taking studio art classes at USC, despite hand limitations. I am happy to be retired and in good health.

Cally Johnston Galpin reports that the living is still very good in the Idaho mountains!

She spends most of the weekends snowboarding with her grandsons and their boarding buddies. “We don’t have a lot of snow this year but the mountain is still pretty darn fun and we are easy to entertain.”

Spring 2018 | 45

1964

George Holden ’68

Dr. No Spank is a leading expert on the negative effects of spanking children. The chair of the Psychology Department at Southern Methodist University, George is an influential and outspoken voice on the subjects of parenting, discipline and family violence.

His Twitter handle is @DrNoSpank.

GE O R GE H O LD E N

George’s interest in childrearing began in high school during an internship at a Head Start center. “I had the realization that how children were being parented is so influential to their development.”

He majored in psychology at Yale and later earned a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He went into his research without a firm opinion but has become convinced spanking is harmful after publishing more than a dozen research articles.

In 2011, he led a groundbreaking study that gave mothers digital recorders to capture audio of their parenting at bedtime. Originally aimed at studying yelling, the focus later shifted to spanking. “We heard slaps and spanks and realized it was the first time we had real data on what goes on in homes around corporal punishment.”

Children who are spanked are more aggressive toward peers, parents and others, studies have shown, and 46 | Foote Prints

Class Correspondent: Verdi DiSesa vdisesa@cchosp.com We are sad to report that William Newton III passed away on January 27, 2017. Bill entered Foote in pre-Kindergarten and stayed through eighth grade. He was a member of the rocket club. After Foote, Bill went on to Wilbraham Academy. The Foote School is grateful for Bill’s decision to include the school in his will. His bequest will support Foote’s priorities, including attracting and retaining outstanding teachers and the school’s strong commitment to need-based financial aid.

are more likely to engage in dating violence, spousal abuse and to spank their own kids. Spanking has also been linked to higher rates of depression and anxiety as well as other problems.

Evidence also shows spanking is ineffective in preventing future undesirable behavior. To George, whether it works is not the point. “Just as we as adults believe it’s our right not to be hit by someone else, I also believe it’s a child’s right not to be hit by a parent or anyone.”

“ There’s no question that spanking is not a good practice and is ineffective.”

Spanking is still the norm in the U.S., where up to 90 percent of parents say they sometimes spank. Nineteen states still permit paddling in schools. These numbers are slowly coming down as ideas challenging physical punishment reach a wider audience and as places such as hospitals establish “no spank zones.”

“There’s no question that spanking is not a good practice and is ineffective,” says George. “Now the research is looking at how to change parents’ attitudes and behaviors.” To further national efforts to end corporal punishment of children, he cofounded and is President of the U.S. Alliance to End the Hitting of Children.

1965 Class Correspondent: Eric Triffin eric_triffin@aya.yale.edu Soon after publication, the editors of Foote Prints were made aware that the fall 2017 issue incorrectly reported that Robin Parker Salisbury had passed away. We deeply regret this error and any confusion or sadness that it may have caused Robin or her classmates.

We have implemented a more thorough process for confirming reports of alumni deaths to ensure that this will not occur again. Our thanks to the classmates who alerted us to the error, and to Robin for her acceptance of our sincere apologies.

David Kleeman and his wife moved to Martha’s Vineyard to join four of their five grandchildren.

1966 Class Correspondent: John N. Deming Jr. jndjr@yahoo.com Christopher Bluhm writes that after 37 years working for Chevron in exploration and production geology (30 years) and economic decision analysis (seven years) in the San Francisco Bay Area, he retired in September.

He says he looks forward to new adventures.

John Deming writes, “I had the pleasure of seeing two of our class athletes at the YaleUnion hockey game in January. Vicky DiSesa was enjoying the game from the Yale side and Fred Alford, former dean of students at Union College, was even happier over on the Union side as he cheered the Dutchmen to a 3–2 victory over the Bulldogs. Both

1970 The Class of 1970 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89 in the Alumni Programs Office at asudmyer@footeschool.org.

We extend our sympathy to Sandra Vlock, whose brother, Michael Vlock, passed away on September 29, 2017.

1971

Anne Sa’adah ’69 married Charles Maier on August 5, 2017, in Little Compton, Rhode Island. The wedding was performed by former Foote faculty member Rev. Bob Sandine.

Vicky and Fred are doing well and I hope the rest of our class is finding their own kind of exciting entertainment.”

1967 The Class of 1967 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89 in the Alumni Programs Office at asudmyer@footeschool.org.

1968 50th Reunion, May 5, 2018 Class Correspondent: Liz Prelinger prelinge@georgetown.edu

1969 Class Correspondent: Meg McDowell Smith megsmithvt@gmavt.net Anne Sa’adah married Charles Maier on August 5, 2017, in Little Compton, Rhode Island. The wedding was performed by former Foote faculty member Rev. Bob Sandine. Former teacher Mary Sharpe and her husband, Rick, were also in attendance.

Charles is the Saltonstall Professor of History at Harvard University. Anne writes that she and Charles share many interests and a long friendship; they are living in Cambridge.

The Class of 1971 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89 in the Alumni Programs Office at asudmyer@footeschool.org.

1972 Class Correspondents: Amy Estabrook heyamo@snet.net Cathy Hosley Vouwie chv79@hotmail.com We extend our sympathy to Emily Freedman Stollar, whose mother, Carol Freedman, passed away on December 12, 2017.

Classmates may remember Emily’s mother as a class mom, as one of the co-heads of the Nearly New Sale, and for welcoming them to the Freedman home with freshly baked after-school treats.

1973 45th Reunion, May 5, 2018 Class Correspondents: Peter Hicks phicks@websterbank.com 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 Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89 in the Alumni Programs Office at asudmyer@footeschool.org.

We extend our sympathy to Elizabeth “Tizzy” Freedman Bannister, whose mother, Carol Freedman, passed away on December 12, 2017.

The Freedman house on Highland Street was a frequent gathering spot for Foote students, and many classmates will remember that Tizzy’s mother loved to bake after-school treats. In addition, Carol Freedman was a consummate volunteer at Foote, serving as a class mother in addition to other roles.

1975 Class Correspondent: Jessica Drury sjsaz@optonline.net From class correspondent Jessie Drury: Littered with miscreants, ne’er-do-wells and scoundrels run amok, the Class of ’75 is, as its secretary, my agita. Hoping to dilute and elevate the existing tawdry reputation that I am forever attempting to rehabilitate, I am submitting news from voices not heard in decades. But this set of notes will prove how truly Sisyphean my task is as the raconteur of my classmates’ exploits. And so, with this caveat in place, I ask that you read on. Old faces will become our new memories with Michele Brantle Rogat, Melanie Stringer, Emlyn Hughes and Michael Howard, who have joined the conversation that bounces around our collective. The narratives offered are much better presented in their own words, and so I will now let our scattered brethren detail their most recent accomplishments. I begin with Michele.

“When we last met, I was working for the American Embassy in Bonn, Germany.

However, all the embassies moved to Berlin after the wall came down. I couldn’t move to Berlin because my husband, Carsten, a German Air Force officer, was assigned to Cologne, Germany. I was fortunate enough to land a job as a procurement assistant with the United Nations Volunteers Headquarters in July 2000 and literally moved right across the street from my embassy office. During the course of my 12 years at UNV, I rose through the ranks and ended up as the head of administration. I then saw an advertisement for a position in Vienna that was exactly what I was doing in Bonn, but at a higher pay grade. Of course, I applied! To my surprise, I was selected. I moved to Vienna in November 2012. The kids (Naomi and Alexander) joined me in January 2013.

Carsten was stationed in Berlin at the time, so he only came to Vienna on weekends. But good things come to those who wait and Carsten was selected as the senior military adviser to the German permanent mission to Spring 2018 | 47

OSCE here in Vienna in 2015. So the family was finally back together again. Naomi and Alexander just graduated from the Vienna International School in May of this year. Alex is currently doing a postgraduate year at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania with the hope of getting a Division 1 basketball scholarship to college in the fall. Naomi began her studies at Pepperdine University.

We spent Christmas in California before becoming full-fledged empty nesters.” I chuckle as I segue to the next account because there is no way Emlyn could be experiencing empty-nest status. Why, you ask? Read on. (P.S. Yes Emlyn, you are a member of the Class of 1975 whether you like it or not. We do.) “I am not sure that I count as the Class of 1975, since I left Foote for Hopkins in 7th grade. But, I was at Foote for eight years (I flunked Kindergarten). So, what the heck. I am a professor of physics at Columbia. I have been here for approximately 11 years and before that I was a professor at Caltech for 11 years. I spent the last 12 years doing particle physics at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, but I have recently stopped the commute across the Atlantic. However, I am still traveling a lot because I have become interested in the nuclear weapons testing program that the U.S. conducted in the Marshall Islands in the 1940s and 1950s. This is where we tested hydrogen bombs and decimated a country.

So I am spending lots of time and effort in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I am even a technical diver and am certified to 50-meter depth. More importantly, on the family front, I have six children: five boys and one girl. Yes, my daughter is spoiled. My eldest son, who just turned 30, got married last summer in Costa Rica to a girlfriend that he has been with since high school. So that is my big news for 2017. My daughter is actually a junior at Hopkins and lives in New Haven, pretending that she is a college-age kid and independent. I think that what she is doing is now legal, since she is 16 years old. Before this age, I am not so sure. Hope that all is well with the Foote crowd. Sorry that I missed the reunion! I was on a boat out of email contact with eight college students in the middle of the Pacific doing radiation studies for a month last summer. None of these kids had ever been without the internet.” Michael Howard writes, “After selling my company several years ago, I got involved in leading a start-up called MariaDB. It’s a database company, part here in the 48 | Foote Prints

Duby McDowell ’75, Maggie Grimes ’07, Susie Campbell Grimes ’75, Carly King, Joan Bigwood Osborn ’75, Jessie Drury ’75 and Zoe Bieler at the curtain call of Joan’s play Or Current Resident produced at Theater for the New City in New York City

Melanie Stringer ’75 serving as a minister in her church U.S., part in Helsinki, Finland, and other parts spread all over the globe. Because of the distributed nature of the company, I travel a lot. Recently, I had the pleasure of closing a funding round with the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg; Alibaba in Hangzhou, China; and Intel, located in Santa Clara, California. And in a few weeks, I head to New York City for our annual gathering of customers, prospects, partners and employees at our user conference. As a result, board meetings, customer meetings and partner meetings must thwart the forces of time zones, languages and jet lag. It’s hard for me to believe, but MariaDB is my fifth start-up and like most of my colleagues in Silicon Valley, there are high highs and low lows, like the arc of a Hollywood script. With that said, I’m surrounded by smart, ambitious people whose age and speech

Roger Smith ’75 received a gold record for his company’s technological contributions to the music industry. patterns are much closer to those of my two daughters. My eldest, Rebecca, is finishing up medical school at Washington University in St Louis, and my younger daughter, Sophia, is graduating from University of Puget Sound in Tacoma and will be starting graduate school at Johns Hopkins.

Admittedly, as their father, I am very proud of my daughters’ achievements and ambitions but am bewildered by the thoughts of St. Louis or Baltimore. California has a way of doing that, making one bewildered

regardless of one’s natural cynical disposition. But not to worry, Foote always stands fresh and impervious.” Roger Smith shared incredible news of his own. He writes, “Taking physics at NYU from Professor Lawrence Bornstein in 1981 was a life-altering experience for me. Up to that point I had never really been very interested in the academic aspects of going to school (sports and socializing were much more fun!). I have spent the last 37 years surrounded by technical folks who all have a solid grounding in physics, and it feeds an important part of my soul. As a side note, I was just awarded a gold record in California last week for my and my company’s technical contributions to the commercial success of the band Dragonforce. I share this because the technology is all about using a wireless 3-D accelerometer ring on the hand of the guitarist to control a series of moving filters and a pitch shifter to create crazy sounds in a way that is very crowdpleasing. It is a great combination of physics and music!” Myles Alderman shares, “Linda and I celebrated our 30th anniversary this year with a nice quiet weekend in Stowe, Vermont that included hiking the magnificent back of Mount Mansfield and great meals at restaurants we love. MH (Myles III) got his pilot’s license this past December (thanks to his uncle Bill for sharing his passion for flight). MH is loving his first year working toward a Ph.D. in molecular cell biology, genetics and development at Yale. In addition to his lab work, classes and time on the Yale Graduate and Professional Student Senate, he has been making it to his fair share of Yale football and hockey games with my dad (not sure which of them loves it more). Brooks is finishing up his last year at Kenyon and is starting to explore options that might be available for a PoliSci major who has a lot of national campaign and Capitol Hill experience and who was president of the Kenyon Republicans when they voted to not endorse the party’s 2016 nominee for president.” Dodging the bomb cyclone and explosive bombogenesis caused by a disruption in the polar vortex, Melanie Stringer writes from her southern enclave, “I am currently teaching eighth grade physical science in Orlando, Florida. I have two adult kids (Amber and Mike) and a fur baby (Charlie.) I’m also an ordained minister who teaches a little and preaches a little.

Blessings to the greatest class at Foote!”

Morgan Stebbins confirmed the age-old adage, “The world is a very small place. I see Jonea Gurwitt in yoga class (taught by my wife!) every Tuesday! It was pretty crazy when we first saw each other.” He went on to write that he has “started a new dog training biz (at coldspringdogsports.com); wrote some published bits on the persona, gender-image fluidity and the healing of compulsion (and still working as a Jungian analyst in New York); am still living in the woods; and am training for a new triathlon season. That about covers it—apart from being obsessed by the ‘Outlander’ series!” I Googled “Outlander” and for those of you unfamiliar with this series, here are some of the words the creator used to describe it: “vengeance, destruction of family, swords, herbs, gambling, spirituality.” Lite stuff. Or Current Resident, written by our own Joanie Bigwood Osborn, was performed at the Theater for the New City in Manhattan.

Duby McDowell, Susie Campbell Grimes and I went to see the play last week and were joined by Susie’s daughter, Maggie, and my daughter, Zoe. Joanie’s daughter, Carly King, was in the play. The play itself wrestled with a number of very dark but terribly relevant issues of today that included the dangers of social media and the struggles of lower-middle-class families.

Joanie later reported that a retired theater critic had compared the work to Ibsen, which captures the plight of the socially sidelined. I would like to say that after the play we gathered to talk about the nuances of the performance, but the truth is we saddled up to a table at the Harvard Club and immediately began reminiscing and updating late into the evening. Is it any wonder that I love this class?

1977

1976

1981

Class Correspondent: John Holder johnholder@comporium.net

Class Correspondents: Jennifer LaVin jen2766@gmail.com

We are sad to report that Chris Festa passed away on June 19, 2017. Chris was born in Athens, Greece, and attended Foote (from Kindergarten through ninth grade) and Hammonasset School and graduated from Skidmore College. He had varied interests and eclectic collections but will perhaps be remembered best for his warm smile, his love of foreign cars and his gentle demeanor.

We send our condolences to his wife, Denise.

Nicolas Crowley nyjcrowley@hotmail.com

Class Correspondent: Elizabeth Daley Draghi gdraghi@sbcglobal.net We extend our sympathy to Eleanor Freedman Deardorff, whose mother, Carol Freedman, passed away on December 12, 2017. Classmates may remember Eleanor’s mother as a class mom, as one of the co-heads of the Nearly New Sale and for welcoming them to the Freedman home with freshly baked after-school treats.

1978 40th Reunion, May 5, 2018 Class Correspondent: Stephen Fontana stevef1701@aol.com

1979 Class Correspondent: Bonnie Welch bonniewelch@taftschool.org

1980 Class Correspondent: Liz Geller Brennan gelbren@aol.com Congratulations to Bill Perrine, who has been appointed Head of School at Marin Horizon School in Mill Valley, California.

Bill will begin this role in July 2018. Julian Harris writes that he “is playing (music) a lot. There’s a new venue near my house in Bushwick called Father Knows Best. It’s super-cool and off the beaten path.” He played there in November 2017 with James Joughin ’78.

Nicolas Crowley changed jobs at the beginning of December, joining the global mining company Rio Tinto. He writes, “I’m still based in Montreal but travel quite a bit to Australia and different remote places in Canada.”

Spring 2018 | 49

1982

Kevin Huff ’77

Class Correspondent: Bethany Schowalter Appleby bappleby@wiggin.com

A U.S. intelligence engineer who credits his Foote math and science teachers with inspiring his career.

Intel Inside has built a 31-year career as a top-level systems engineer for U.S. intelligence agencies—and he traces his success to two inspirational Foote teachers.

K E VIN H U FF

One was Lola Salowitz, his math teacher, who had an unusual approach to grading homework. She would hand it back to students without telling them what they’d done wrong, Kevin recalls.

Students simply had to keep trying until they figured it out.

“There was one particular instance in which I was dumbfounded. I handed in the homework two or three times until I finally got it right,” he says. “She taught me the need for diligence and discipline in thinking.”

The other teacher was Marian Spiro, Foote’s longtime science department chair, who, Kevin says, always made science interesting. “When I left Foote I had a love and aptitude for math and a curiosity for science, and that translated into my desire to design cameras.”

He attended the Rochester Institute of Technology to study photographic science and instrumentation, a discipline that later became imaging science. After graduating, he landed a job with a U.S. intelligence agency and moved to Washington, D.C., where he’s been ever since.

As a government systems engineer, Kevin supports the technical aspects of 50 | Foote Prints

providing intelligence to policymakers.

Beyond that, there’s not a whole lot he can say about his work (including the name of the agency that employs him).

On the plus side, that means he “can’t take work home.” The biggest downside is that he can’t discuss his work with anyone—even friends and family.

That has not stopped Kevin from working to promote opportunities for other black scientists and engineers, though. He was an active member and past president of the National Society of Black Engineers, D.C. Alumni Chapter, which promotes STEM ideas and concepts to bring more minorities into the sciences.

We extend our sympathy to Mark Michael, whose father, Charles Reid Michael, passed away on March 6. Charlie served as president of the Foote School Board of Directors from 1979 to 1983. Charlie’s leadership guided Foote during a period of great growth.

Charlie is survived by his wife of 53 years, Cindy. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, Charlie came to Yale School of Medicine, where he was a professor of physiology until his retirement. Charlie is remembered fondly by many in the Foote community, including former headmaster Frank Perrine, with whom he worked closely. Bethany Appleby writes, “Aidan Appleby ’11, our youngest, will be graduating from the University of Miami in May. Looking forward to the end of tuition payments!” Julia Talbot writes, “Greetings from Chicago. Am quickly approaching an empty nest (with any luck). Son Sam is a sophomore at Reed College in Portland, Oregon and might be the only person of his generation to dislike Portland. Daughter Ellie is a senior in high school, applying to schools mostly out East. Celebrated turning 50 in a number of ways, but the best was a vacation to swim across Martha’s Vineyard, aka John Cheever’s The Swimmer, minus

“I want other people to understand that it’s possible to work for the intelligence community. All of these organizations that people think are super secret are looking to recruit bright minds to be engineers as well as linguists and analysts.”

Aside from work, Kevin and his wife Doris are focused on raising their 13-year-old twin girls, both of whom share their father’s aptitude for math.

One thing he’s not focused on is the war of words over U.S. intelligence agencies embroiling Washington.

“The people in this community understand the validity and necessity of the job they do, and the noise on the political side is just that,” he says. “We have a job to do. It’s not political. It’s intelligence gathering.”

Clark Thompson ’82 in front of the Central Bank of Mexico

From the Class of 1982, Clark Thompson, Mark von Schlegell and Paul Giamatti met up at Loli Wu’s party in New York in September 2017. Steve Holt and Bill Rees were also in attendance. swimming any actual pools. Plenty of room for anyone who wants to visit.” Ben Allison and his daughter, Ruby, attended the 60th Grammy Awards on January 28, 2018. Ben serves as president of the New York chapter of The Recording Academy. Clark Thompson writes, “I left the bank-owned blockchain technology startup R3 in December to join ConsenSys, a cryptocurrency and blockchain strategic advisory and venture incubator.

Having spent much of last year advising central banks on digital currency initiatives (11 cities, nine countries, in four months), I’m looking forward to a year of work where I get to own what I build. ConsenSys is a global experiment on a grand scale in the power of decentralization: over 600 people with no hierarchy, something I’m still getting my head around after about a month with the company. I’m based out of Brooklyn and living in Garrison, New York with my wife, Laura, and four dogs. Lydia (21) is a third-year zoology student at St. Andrews in Scotland, and our son, Gus (23), is based in Philadelphia. Last year I celebrated my own 50th birthday, as well as the 50th birthdays of many of our classmates. I was glad to see Bethany Appleby, Cate Currier, Haven Tyler, Steve Holt, Loli Wu, Paul Giamatti, Mike Drury, Mark Osborne, Mark von Schlegell, Bill Rees and Kate Brooks Laing at various celebrations. Mike, Steve, Mark Osborne and I also celebrated collectively with a boys’ weekend at my house in Garrison.”

1983 35th Reunion, May 5, 2018 Class Correspondent: Brinley Ford Ehlers brinleysf@aol.com

Clark Thompson’s 50th birthday party, July 2017, in Garrison, New York. From left, Mark Osborne ’82, Clark Thompson ’82, Cate Currier ’82, Bethany Schowalter Appleby ’82, Kate Brooks Laing ’82, Alicia Thompson Churchill ’80

Ben Allison ’82 and his daughter, Ruby, attended the Grammy Awards in January.

1984 Class Correspondent: Ann Pschirrer Brandt annie.brandt@rocketmail.com

1985 Class Correspondent: Carter LaPrade Serxner lapserx@gmail.com We extend our sympathy to Eric Michael, whose father, Charles Reid Michael, passed away on March 6. Charlie served as president of the Foote School Board of Directors from 1979 to 1983. Charlie’s leadership guided Foote during a period of great growth. Charlie is survived by his wife of 53 years, Cindy. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, Charlie came to Yale School

of Medicine, where he was a Professor of Physiology until his retirement. Charlie is remembered fondly by many in the Foote community, including former headmaster Frank Perrine, with whom he worked closely.

1986 Class Correspondent: Jody Esselstyn jesselstyn@gmail.com We extend our sympathy to Christopher Hansen, whose father, Eric Hansen, passed away on November 18, 2017. Andrew Slayman reports that he is a farmer in Somerville, Maine. Beth Ferholt writes, “I have written a book with my Swedish colleagues, teachers as well as researchers, about exploration and adult-child joint play in preschools. We are now working on an English edition! As always, Spring 2018 | 51

continued trips to Antarctica. Ai-jen Poo attended the Golden Globe awards as Meryl Streep’s date on January 7, 2018. Ai-jen was one of eight activists who joined forces with actresses to raise awareness about sexual harrassment and other critical social issues.

See photo on page 26.

1990 Class Correspondent: Amy Crawford amycohncrawford@mac.com

We extend our sympathy to Eve Fitzpatrick Sansone, whose mother, Ruth Fitzpatrick, passed away on November 23, 2017, and to Cathy Hansen Sherrick, whose father, Eric Hansen, passed away on November 18, 2017.

We extend our sympathy to Geoff Hazard, whose father, Geoffrey Hazard Jr., passed away on January 11, 2018. David Holley is enjoying life in the Bay Area. He accepted a postion as an organizational effectiveness consultant. David is currently working to structure business practices and procedures for a media production company.

1989

1991

Class Correspondent: Toya Hill Clark trose7@hotmail.com

Class Correspondent: Bo Bradstreet ebradstr@gmail.com

Ari Friedlaender spoke at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History in October 2017 as part of the museum’s Nature’s Narrators series. His talk was titled “Seeing Below the Surface: Combining Science and Art to Expose and Protect Antarctica.” Ari is living in Santa Cruz, California where the whales in Monterey Bay keep him busy, as do his

We are sad to report that Peter Votto passed away on November 8, 2017. Peter attended Foote from Kindergarten through sixth grade and then attended Hamden Hall. Peter was the husband of Maria Lisa D’Ascanio Votto, and father of two children: Gianna, 2; and Peter, 1.

A new book by Elisha Cooper ’86 The cover of a new book authored by Beth Ferholt ’86 and colleagues about preschool best practices in Sweden my studies of empathy in classrooms are partially inspired by my childhood and early adolescence at Foote. The activities described in this book remind me particularly of the wonderful work that Mr. Baldwin designed for and with my fourth grade class!”Elisha Cooper’s picture book, Big Cat, Little Cat was named a 2018 Caldecott Honor Book.

1987 Class Correspondent: Jonathan Levin jdlevin@stanford.edu Jon Levin writes, “Our daughter Madeline started high school this fall, a major transition for me and Amy which Madeline handled with perfect aplomb. I had a lovely and chance meeting in New York with Emily Finkelstein ’89 and her husband Mark Chan.

I would love to hear from any classmates for the next Foote Prints.” Like Jon, David Mazieres is also a professor at Stanford in the computer science department. David is part of The Stanford Secure Computer Systems group, where he investigates ways to improve the security of operating systems, file systems and distributed systems.

1988 30th Reunion, May 5, 2018 The Class of 1988 needs a class correspondent. If you are willing to help collect news from your classmates, please contact Amy Stephens Sudmyer ’89 in the Alumni Programs Office at asudmyer@footeschool.org.

52 | Foote Prints

Colin Caplan ’94 leads first- and second-grade students on a tour of New Haven in November 2017.

1992 Class Correspondent: Katie Madden Kavanagh katieblee@hotmail.com We extend our sympathy to Lisa Votto, whose brother, Peter Votto ’91, passed away on November 8, 2017. Mary Murphy is very excited to report that she launched a web-based app called Little Birdie Me (www.littlebirdie.me). It is a platform to help people communicate their gifting preferences so that they can give and receive gifts more sucessfully, as well as get gift ideas and manage all of their gift-related information in one place.

1993 25th Reunion, May 5, 2018 Class Correspondent: Jenny Keul jennykeul@gmail.com

1994 Class Correspondent: Arna Berke-Schlessel Zohlman arna.zohlman@gmail.com Adam Leventhal is proud to announce the birth of Joshua Matthew Leventhal, born on August 9, 2017. In November 2016, Colin Caplan led Foote students in first and second grades on a lively tour of New Haven. Colin is an architect, historian, author and expert on the city. As part of the first- and secondgrade social studies unit, “Here and There/ Now and Then,” the children compared New Haven to Nairobi, Kenya, and compared present-day New Haven to the way the city appeared in the past.

Landon Charles Franzen, son of Polly Coassin Franzen ’99

Daniel Leventhal ’00 and Dean (left), Adam Leventhal ’94 and Joshua (right) and with Adam’s first son, Will

1995 Class Correspondent: Jack Hill seaburyhill@aol.com

1996 Class Correspondents: Brett Nowak nowak.brett@gmail.com Katy Zandy Atlas katy91@gmail.com

1997 Class Correspondent: Eliza Sayward elizasayward@yahoo.com

Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017–2018.

Andrea is the founder and artistic director of Gallim Dance and will be creating new works designed to engage with the museum’s galleries.

1998 20th Reunion, May 5, 2018 Class Correspondents: Andrew Lebov aklebov@gmail.com Elisabeth Sacco Klock saccopotatoes@gmail.com Liz Antle-O’Donnell is the new gallery director at Kehler Liddell Gallery in New Haven.

Andrea Miller is the first choreographer to serve as artist in residence at The

Alex Kleiner ’00 and his wife, Alexandra, with son Teddy

Brianna Berkowitz ’00 and her new baby, Crosby, born on October 10, 2017

Spring 2018 | 53

1999 Class Correspondent: Jeremy Zuidema jmzuidema@gmail.com Polly Coassin Franzen and husband, Jason, welcomed a son, Landon Charles Franzen, on February 2, 2018.

2000 Class Correspondents: Alex Kleiner alex.m.kleiner@gmail.com Shannon Sweeney smsweeney07@gmail.com We extend our sympathy to Alfie Koetter, whose father, Fred Koetter, passed away on August 21, 2017. Brianna Berkowitz is happy to report that she is still living in Austin, Texas, with husband Mike, 3-year-old son Luke, and new baby Crosby, born on October 10, 2017.

Alex Kleiner and his wife, Alexandra, and 11-month-old son Teddy have moved back to New Haven. Alex took a job at a private equity firm in Stamford. Daniel Leventhal is proud to announce the birth of Dean Robert LeventhalGrieve, born on April 19, 2017.

2001 Class Correspondents: Adam Jacobs 14 Tanglewood Lane Woodbridge, CT 06525 203-393-1760 Cassie Pagnam cassie.pagnam@gmail.com

The wedding of Leah Pepe ’04 and Dane Rasmussen. Footies in attendance included Samantha Mashaw ’04 (far left) and Scout Sanders ’04 (third from right).

2002 Class Correspondent: Hope Fleming 47 Old Quarry Road Guilford, CT 06437 203-453-9400

2003 15th Reunion, May 5, 2018 Class Correspondents: Courtney Holmes msholmes@att.blackberry.net Adam Shapiro adamshapiro1488@gmail.com Ginger Cline received a master’s degree in refugee studies at University of Oxford.

She is now pursing a J.D. at Harvard Law School.

2004 Class Correspondents: Dillon Long know33@gmail.com Dana Schwartz Danaschwartz5@gmail.com

Elizabeth Calderoni ’04 and Neil Whiteside at their wedding on September 9, 2017, in Old Saybrook, Connecticut 54 | Foote Prints

We extend our sympathy to Dana Schwartz, whose father, Michael Vlock, passed away on September 29, 2017. Elizabeth Calderoni married Neil Whiteside on September 9, 2017 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

Elizabeth completed her master’s in adultgerontology acute care nurse practitioner

Peter Ferrante ’04 married Nikki Mollusky in New Jersey in May 2017.

(AGACNP) in May 2017 and is working as a nurse practitioner at Hartford Hospital.

Peter Ferrante is finishing his chief resident year in podiatry at New York University— Langone Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. He married Nikki Mollusky in New Jersey in May 2017. Leah Pepe married Dane Rasmussen on September 30, 2017.

Leah and Dane live in Salt Lake City with two dogs and a bunch of chickens. Leah is working for Bolt, a new e-commerce platform.

2005

2008

Class Correspondent: Gabriella Rhodeen gabriella.rhodeen@gmail.com

10th Reunion, May 5, 2018 Class Correspondents: Michael Milazzo michael.milazzo12@gmail.com

Amy Gobel finished graduate school in June and is now living in Florida. Amy started a rotational program in the Consumer Medical Devices division at Johnson & Johnson. She currently works in their contact lens group (they make Acuvue), coordinating function across all the other groups in the supply chain.

2006 Class Correspondents: Audrey Logan logan.audrey@gmail.com Adam Gabbard adamdgabbard@yahoo.com We extend our sympathy to Susanna Koetter, whose father, Fred Koetter, passed away on August 21, 2017. Kate Monahan is working as a program associate for a Quaker investment firm called Friends Fiduciary Corporation in Philadelphia.

2007 Class Correspondents: Kenny Kregling kkregling@snet.net

Kate Reilly Yurkovsky kate.yurkovsky@gmail.com Since the passing of Edward Torrence in August, we have received many notes from Edward’s classmates, including these: Last August one of the best friends that I will ever or could ever have died.

We made too many memories to count.

They are mine alone now. When you grow up alongside someone, you either grow apart or you grow together. Over the years, Ed and I ventured through the spectrum of life together; we laughed together, cried together and everything in between. I would not be who I am without having grown up with Ed. To those of us who knew him well, his name will always be a byword for loyalty, generosity and ingenuity. There are still 7.5 billion people breathing on Earth. None of us can fill the void left by his departure.

Instead, we can remember how much his life meant to us and be grateful for the time we spent with him.—John M. Gallalee Edward was a person who loved in a fierce way: friends, whom he cared for like it was

his charge; animals, the tender things of the world; music. He would get so worked up about Aphex Twin or a new chord progression that he’d seem almost angry.

So strong was his passion. I loved that about Ed and that is how I’ll remember him.

—Miles Marguiles Edward’s fierce loyalty, intellectual curiosity and unapologetic humor came together in a way that made him unforgettable. Growing up by his side was a journey filled with the peaks and valleys that transform friends into brothers. Ever since we were kids, we knew that, regardless of what happened, we were in this together and all that mattered was what we were going to come up with next.

Edward will always be in my heart wherever I go and I will always cherish the friendship we shared.—Jackson Shaw In other Class of 2008 news, Gabriel Nudel is the chief operating officer at Bignay Inc (Giflybike) in San Francisco. Giflybikes are electric bikes that fold in one second. Evan Horwitz is in his second year of an M.F.A. acting program. He is studying directing at Brown/Trinity Repertory Company. Evan reports that he visited his sixth-grade teacher, Lynne Valentine, in Colorado this summer and that he could hardly keep up with her! He writes, “She changed my life 10 years ago and I am so lucky to still call her a friend.”

Symphony Spell symphony.spell@gmail.com Kenny Kregling is finishing his degree in physical therapy. Kerry Takahashi and her brother, Kai ’09 are working for Zume Pizza in Palo Alto, California. Zume delivers fresh pizzas with locally grown ingredients made, in part, by robots. Kerry is a product manager doing a lot of strategy, organizing and bridging design and technology.

Zume Pizza is expanding from Mountain View and Palo Alto to most of the rest of the Bay Area. Symphony Spell writes, “I moved to Hawaii on New Year’s Day! I’m a community manager at an eco-feminist hostel and intentional community on the Big Island. I’m excited to be working alongside nature and empowering women.

Even though I just got here, I have learned so much about healing, patience and love from this magical island; I am ecstatic to call it my home.”

Edward Torrence ’08 Spring 2018 | 55

Tazer Landow ’10 (right) and his business partner, George Watts

2009 Class Correspondents: Chris Blackwood christopher.blackwood@tufts.edu Eva Kerman edk2123@barnard.edu Caroline Monahan is living in Park Slope and working as a marketing coordinator for a liquor importing company called Proximo.

Caroline loves living in New York City and seeing friends. Kai Takahashi and his sister, Kerry ’07, are working for Zume Pizza in Palo Alto, California. Zume delivers fresh pizzas with locally grown ingredients made, in part, by robots. Kai is a visual product designer, aka web/app/graphic designer, working on user interfaces and some marketing/branding as well. Zume Pizza is expanding from Mountain View and Palo Alto to most of the rest of the Bay Area.

2010 Class Correspondents: Brandi Fullwood brandi.n.fullwood@gmail.com

working in Stamford, Connecticut at ISG as an IT support analyst. Tazer Landow is living on a houseboat in Seattle, where he has started a video production company called Holler.

His talents as a cinematographer have already given him opportunities to shoot a wide variety of projects, including commercials for clients such as Dockers and Norwegian Airlines. You can check out his work online at www.holler.film or follow @hollerfilm on Instagram. Briggs Harlan is living and working in Denver, where he loves skiing, camping and hiking. Briggs is working for Gravity Brewing.

Caroline Agsten graduated from Middlebury College in May and is now in Taiwan on a Fulbright grant to teach English for 11 months.

Mila Rostain visited Caroline in the fall.

2011 Class Correspondents: Nate Barton natebarton95@gmail.com Britney Dumas bdumas13@gmail.com

2012

Clay Pepe cppepe@rollins.edu

Class Correspondents: Harrison Lapides yalehockey20@comcast.net

We extend our sympathy to Julia Vlock, whose father, Michael Vlock, passed away on September 29, 2017. Cameron Swift graduated from Sacred Heart University in May. He is

Maya Harlan is studying in Copenhagen for the spring semester. Maya is enjoying Wesleyan, playing on the soccer team and looking forward to being a senior!

56 | Foote Prints

Kyle Gelzinis ’14 ran into his Mixed Age Group teacher, Judy Cuthbertson, at L’Orcio in New Haven in November.

2013 5th Reunion, May 5, 2018 Class Correspondents: Lawson Buhl lbuhl@umich.edu Anika Zetterberg wxyzberg@comcast.net We extend our sympathy to Teddy Vlock, whose father, Michael Vlock, passed away on September 29, 2017.

2014 Class Correspondents: Robinson Armour robinsonarmour@gmail.com Sophia Matthes Theriault sophiamtheriault@gmail.com Annika Swift is a first year at Vassar College.

She is studying chemistry and Chinese.

Sasha Valone is now attending Amherst College. Jordana Irzyk is a freshman at College of the Holy Cross. Jordana reports that Elise Cobb is also at Holy Cross.

See Class of 2014: Where Are They Now on page 36.

2015

In Memoriam

Class Correspondents: Anli Raymond agcsoccer15@gmail.com Will Wildridge william@wildridge.org

Betty Smith Ewing ’35 September 19, 2017

Max Brigham is co-captain of the varsity basketball team at Westminster School. He will attend Trinity College in the fall.

David W. Calhoun ’38 December 24, 2017

2016

Vic Tyler II ’42 October 3, 2017

Class Correspondents: Omid Azodi omid.azodi@cheshireacademy.org Evelyn Pearson evie.pearson11@gmail.com

George Spencer Berger ’56 October 26, 2017 Andrew Zielinski married Sheila Reagan on June 18, 2017.

2017

William Newton III ’64 January 27, 2017 Chris Festa ’76 June 19, 2017

Class Correspondents: Graley Turner graleyturner@gmail.com

Peter Votto ’91 November 8, 2017

Hilal Zoberi hzoberi20@choate.edu

Merritt Clark, Former Faculty November 2, 2017

Graley Turner is having a great time at Hopkins, where she is doing lots of theater and art!

Charles Reid Michael, Former Board of Directors President March 6, 2018

Faculty News With sadness we report that former math and substitute teacher Merritt Clark, father of Learning Support Program teacher Sue Shaw, passed away on November 2, 2017.

Jean Lewellyn, former fourth-grade teacher, was awarded The Spirit of the Vineyard Award in December 2017. The award is given annually to a person who has contributed to the Martha’s Vineyard community by the length and breadth of his or her volunteer service. Third- and sixth-grade associate teacher Andrew Zielinski married Sheila Reagan on June 18, 2017. Middle School math teacher John Hay and wife Jen welcomed a baby boy, George John Hay, on September 25, 2017. Fifth-grade teacher Jake Burt’s first book Greetings from Witness Protection!, a middle grade fiction, came out in October.

His second book is set for release on October 2, 2018.

George John Hay, son of math teacher John Hay, born September 25, 2017

Jake Burt with his first book, Greetings from Witness Protection!, released in October 2017 Spring 2018 | 57

Reunion 2018 Join classmates, faculty and friends!

With special celebrations for classes ending in 3 and 8, from 1933 to 2013.

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; —

excerpt from a poem by william wordsworth recited by generations of foote students

Schedule of Events May 4 & 5, 2018 Friday, May 4 3:30 pm Watch Foote School boys play baseball against The Country School 5 pm Enjoy wine & cheese on the deck of the Bozyan Outdoor Classroom, Jonathan Milikowsky Science and Technology Building

Saturday, May 5 10 am Join classmates, faculty and friends for coffee and registration in the Main Building 11 am Attend the assembly honoring Alumni Achievement Award recipient Tom Brand ’88 12 noon Class photos 12:30 pm Lunch with classmates in the Hosley Gym 2 pm Open meeting of the Alumni Council in the Harkness Room, Jonathan Milikowsky Science and Technology Building evening Individual class dinners

58 | Foote Prints

Fore for Foote

Reunion Chairs and Contacts Class of 1953 Robert Wing wing@astronomy.ohio-state.edu Class of 1958 Eric Berger ericberger@aol.com Barry Stratton barrystratton@yahoo.com Class of 1963 Kathy Arnstein kbarnstein@verizon.net Judith Hull nearchlresearch@gmail.com Susan Stratton susan@strattonpartners.com Class of 1968 Rob Clark rclark@perrigo-inc.com Cathy Cuthell cathydavid@aol.com Leland Torrence lelandtorrence@lteweb.com Class of 1973 Peter Hicks phicks@websterbank.com John Persse johnpersse@bhhsne.com Class of 1978 For information regarding your class, contact Amy Sudmyer ’89 in the Alumni Programs Office at asudmyer@footeschool.org.

Class of 1983 Brinley Ford Ehlers Brinleysf@aol.com Lisa Sandine Schuba lisa.schuba@bvsd.org Class of 1988 Amy Caplan avcaplan@gmail.com Jonathan Lieber jwlieber@hotmail.com Class of 1993 Jenny Keul jennykeul@gmail.com Abigail Paine abigail.paine@gmail.com Bess Paupeck besspaupeck@gmail.com Class of 1998 Kathleen Murphy Galo kcgalo@gmail.com Elisabeth Sacco Klock saccopotatoes@gmail.com Class of 2003 For information regarding your class, contact Amy Sudmyer ’89 in the Alumni Programs Office at asudmyer@footeschool.org.

Class of 2008 Mike Milazzo mike.milazzo12@gmail.com

Join us!

Sunday, May 6 Fundraising Golf Tournament The Course at Yale 11:30 am

Golfer registration & check in ($210 per player)

11:30 am

Buffet lunch

11:45 am

Range open

12:30 pm

First tee time followed by consecutive starts

Sponsored by the Foote PTC. All proceeds help support school programs.

For more information, please contact Mark Anestis, markanestis@gmail.com.

Kathryn Yurkovsky kate.yurkovsky@gmail.com

Spring 2018 | 59

From the Archives

60 | Foote Prints

Foote alumni of a certain age will remember an eighthgrade project about The Pilgrim’s Progress, the 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. Legendary Foote English teacher Margaret Ballou Hitchcock assigned her students to make a poster with a series of annotated illustrations depicting the allegory’s progressions. Foote alumnus Renn Gordon ’47 saved his poster and shared it with the school archives this year. Though slightly faded and brittle from age, the poster has held up remarkably well and is a rare example of student work from the early days of The Foote School. Thanks to Renn and his family for saving and sharing this treasure!

Spring 2018 | 61

Looking Back

‘ The Best Educational Experience Ever’ Academic trailblazer Hanna Holborn Gray ’43 on how The Foote School lit the spark of her extraordinary journey in education

BY HANNA H O LB O R N GR AY ’43

The following is an edited excerpt from An Academic Life: A Memoir by Foote alumna Hanna Holborn Gray ’43, released on April 10 by Princeton University Press. The daughter of academics, Hanna fled Hitler’s Germany with her parents in the 1930s and emigrated to New Haven, where her father was a Yale professor. She has studied and taught at some of the world’s most prestigious universities and was the first woman to serve as provost at Yale. In 1978, she became the first woman president of a major research university when she was appointed to lead the University of Chicago, a position she held until 1991. That same year, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to education. became my much beloved school from the fourth grade on, and I continue to think it the best educational experience ever. It was both rigorous and mildly progressive in allowing students to go at their own rate in a variety of subjects such as math. It was coeducational not only in classes but, until the sixth grade, in sports and always in the round-robin baseball and soccer played during recess.

THE FO OTE S CH O O L

The arts were emphasized: music (primarily choral), art class (drawing, painting, art appreciation) and drama.

62 | Foote Prints

I loved being on the stage and can remember my first role in which I wore a yellow costume, lay down on the floor, and was tripped over by a small boy, after which I rose and said, “My name is Banana Peel. I am a menace to public safety.”

Every year the big question was which girl and boy would be selected as Mary and Joseph to star in the medieval mystery drama that depicted the story of Christ’s birth. The winners represented the nearest equivalent to prom queen and king we had at our school.

Another major tradition was May Day, a combination of performance (including both sword and maypole dancing, rehearsed for weeks beforehand) and garden party. It took place on the extensive lawns of the Yale Secretary’s house down the street from Foote’s.

We had first-rate teachers at Foote’s. Some were Yale faculty wives. The most memorable teacher, I think for all Foote graduates, was Mrs. Margaret Hitchcock, wife of a selfeffacing Yale professor, who spent her entire career as the fearsome and creative English teacher for the upper grades.

A Bryn Mawr graduate who encouraged me to attend her alma mater, she was uncompromising and frighteningly direct in her critical judgments and in her love—and her ability to communicate this quality—for literature. She was a demon for correct pronunciation and grammar and a

Mrs. Hitchcock was uncompromising and frighteningly direct in her critical judgments and in her love for literature. severe editor of our weekly essays.

She wasted no words in cataloging our deficiencies.

Decades later on my return to New Haven, I spoke to a ladies’ reading club that Mrs. Hitchcock presided over. Terrified of speaking in her presence, I had never been more nervous. She approached me afterwards and, to my relief, said, in her familiar booming voice, “That was quite good, Hanna. You didn’t split a single infinitive.”

I think it often happens that the single most influential teacher people have encountered in school is an outstanding English teacher who awakened students to the beauties and complexities of literature and to the world of ideas.

The Foote School required French from the early grades on. We began Latin in seventh grade. We read our first Shakespeare, I think it was Julius Caesar, in sixth grade, as we were studying Roman history. Before that, of course, came the Egyptians and the Greeks. Medieval history and literature dominated seventh grade; American history and literature (beginning with Puritan texts) the eighth. Every eighth grade class was given the project of reading and creating a large illustrated map of The Pilgrim’s Progress.

By the time of graduation from Foote’s, we had completed advanced algebra, read widely, including the essential novels of Dickens and a great deal of English poetry, were reading French classics as well, and in general had had a good education in writing and grammar.

The Foote School had an English headmistress, Mrs. Winifred Sturley, whom we revered and who helped make us into little Anglophiles. Her educational standards and tastes came from her English background and these were reinforced when, in 1940, a largish contingent of English

schoolchildren, mostly from Oxford, were sent to live with families, primarily but not exclusively connected with Yale, for the duration of the war.

The Foote School was transformed by the presence of so many English children, and Mrs. Sturley was determined that they should not have fallen behind their peers when returning home at war’s end; this had an effect on the level of our curriculum as well. Deep and lasting friendships and memories arose out of the English invasion of New Haven. When I arrived to study at Oxford, I found many hospitable friends there. In the main, the temporary migration was a success that added to our education in every way. It also brought the war still more vividly home to us.

In addition, Mrs. Sturley invited girls in the upper grades to learn knitting and come to her home twice a week after school. There we knit Bundles for Britain (ours were wool liners to wear under helmets). For a time, when Finland was under attack, we knit for the Finnish ski troops as well. I have no idea whether these minor items were ever received by even a single fighting man, but we certainly felt as though we were somehow contributing to the war effort.

At my graduation from The Foote School, I gave a talk on behalf of my class that was meant to be amusing. The next day my father summoned me to his study and offered a comprehensive critique of my performance. If you want to be a radio comedian, he said (and that was, indeed, my ambition at the time), these are the things you need on work on. …

Excerpted from An Academic Life: A Memoir by Hanna Holborn Gray. Copyright © 2018 by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by Permission Spring 2018 | 63

Why I Teach The faces walking through my door fill me with excitement about the potential for reaching my students.

BY AMANDA D IFFLE Y

A S I D R IVE IN TO FO OTE

each morning from Old Saybrook, if I am not chatting with my son Ryan about afternoon logistics or his latest assignments, I am usually thinking about my third grade students.

taught a few years ago. She gives me a hug and we exchange quick hellos. I make a mental note to follow up soon with her daughter’s Middle School advisor to see how she is doing.

I wonder how a quiet girl in my class is feeling, having just come back from her grandmother’s funeral, or think about a boy who was anxious about his Taekwando test the night before. Sometimes I am trying to figure out how to reach a particularly reluctant writer during our personal narrative lesson that day, or how to help a child who is struggling to learn multiplication.

These small interactions each day may seem ordinary to some, but they are at the heart of why I teach. I am constantly connecting with people on this campus who enrich my life: students past and present, colleagues and parents. I am building relationships that, in some cases, could last a lifetime.

After arriving in my classroom, I unpack picture books, math papers and composition books from my bags. The children begin to trickle in and I greet each one with a smile and a cheerful “Good morning!” so they know how glad I am to see them.

I slide open the dividing door to Mrs. Schnabel’s room and say hello, catching up quickly about our own children or the recipes we’ve tested on our families. We chat briefly about that day’s lunchtime affinity groups, in which children eat and chat with classmates who share a passion for sports, books, animals or other interests.

During small breaks in the day, I email a parent about how her child adjusted after a tough goodbye that morning, and check in on a student who is out sick. I read an email from a parent whose son had a challenging night of homework, and reply with suggested strategies for helping him at home.

At the end of the day, as I walk my students along the path to Loomis Place, I bump into a parent whose daughter I 64 | Foote Prints

I have been a part of the Foote community for 24 years.

I still keep in touch with students from my early years here who are now having children of their own, and with colleagues who have moved all over the country and the world.

Teaching keeps me connected in a way I never would have imagined when I began my career in my early 20s. I cannot think of many occupations where each September begins a new cycle of wonderment and challenge. The excitement and butterflies I experience each first day of school remind me of why I am here, in my classroom at Foote School, so many years later. Those magical moments, and the promising faces walking through my door, fill me with anticipation about the potential for reaching my students— through a math lesson, an interaction on the playground, a conference about their writing, or even just a hug after a tough day. And I believe that, in some small way, these connections will have a positive impact on their lives.

Amanda Diffley has taught third and fourth grades at Foote since 1994 and is the mother of Anna ’13, Liza ’15 and Ryan ’21.

Have You Thought About Making a Legacy Gift to Foote?

John Holder ’76 did.

Will you join him?

John Holder ’76 attended Foote for just one year, but it made a significant impact. As an eighth grader, his family moved to New Haven from Rock Hill, South Carolina so his mother could attend Yale Law School.

At Foote, John encountered teachers who combined high academic standards with a deep caring for him as a person. He fondly recalls Mr. Friday, Mrs. Mahnensmith, Mrs. Wilkinson, Madame Brooks, Mrs. Shepler and Mrs. Spiro, among other teachers. These connections helped him through a difficult adjustment to a new school.

“A tiny graduate student apartment on Prospect Street was a very different living experience than a big house in the countryside outside a small southern town,” says John, who is now a political science professor at Winthrop University. “It was a lot to deal with, but that year made a lot of things possible over the rest of my life and I’m deeply grateful.” ______________________________________

Foote’s Centennial Campaign to double the school’s endowment will succeed only with a combination of outright and legacy gifts. We hope you will consider joining John and others who have put The Foote School in their wills.

“ Although I attended for only one year, Foote influenced my life and development.

It’s important to me to be able to make that opportunity available to others.”

For additional information, or to have a confidential conversation about planning a legacy gift, please contact Ann Baker Pepe, Director of Development, at (203) 777-3464 or abakerpepe@footeschool.org.

John Holder teaching at Winthrop University in South Carolina, where he is a professor of Political Science

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

May

Reunion

Oct

Grandparents Day

Friday, May 4 & Saturday, May 5, 2018 Join classmates, faculty and friends on Friday for a student baseball game and wine-and-cheese reception.

On Saturday, enjoy coffee, an assembly, lunch, an open meeting of the Alumni Council and individual class dinners. With special celebrations for classes ending in 3 and 8, from 1933–2008. More information and registration at www.footeschool.org/reunion2018.

Friday, October 5, 2018 Grandparents and special friends are invited to visit grandchildren’s classrooms, participate in faculty-led minicourses and enjoy an all-school assembly.

Foote Prints Vol 45.1