Georgian, Winter 2017

GEORGIAN

Vol. 89

No. 01

pu bl i c at i on of ge orge scho o l, ne w tow n, pennsy lvania

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WINTER

we lc o m e sam

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g e o r g e s c h o o l i n n ovato r s

math madness

te d x g e o r g e s c h o o l

2017

New Head of School Sam Houser

Sparking Innovation and Creativity at George School

Students go Cougar Crazy for Math

Exploring Innovation in Science, Engineering, and the Arts

INSIDE

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Vol. 89 | No. 01 | WINTER 2017

03 PERSPECTIVES George School Innovators 04 Meredith Monk ’60 07 Tomáš Zeman ’99 08 Kenneth Wilson ’52 08 Jessie Mooberry ’10 09 Sarah Dohle ’01 09 Zachary Martinez ’09 and Hilary Pearsall ’10 10 Jamal Elliott ’92 12 Meredith Meyer Grelli ’03 13 Peter Crown ’61 13 Dana Falsetti ’11 14 David Larkin ’79 16 David Luria ’54

Innovation: Bancroft Classroom 102, recently renamed the Independence Room, now has a tiered seating area at the edge of a low-key performance space so students can more actively explore literature. Photo by Bruce Weller

16 Richard Grausman ’55 16 Francesca Kule Kennedy ’84 16 Lane J. Savadove ’85 17 Kevin Lewis ’99 17 Kareem Afzal ’93 18 Charles Willson ’66 19 Hannah Galantino-Homer ’85 20 Matt Morris ’89 20 Victor Khodadad ’85 21 Mario Capecchi ’56 21 Martha Wilson ’65 22 Art Henrie ’47 22 Joseph Ravenell ’92 23 Colette Weber

FEATURES

Math Madness: A new level of math popularity has swept the school, causing a collaborative atmosphere in the library Study Hub where students talk about mathematics with peer tutors and teachers. Math Help team members are featured above. Photo by Alyson Cittadino

01 Welcome Sam 25 Math Madness 28 TEDxGeorge School 36 Alumni Weekend 2017

32 CAMPUS NEWS & NOTES 38 ALUMNI TELL US 51 IN MEMORIAM

Front Cover: Meredith Monk ’60 is a composer, singer, director, choreographer, filmmaker, and performer/creator in and across multiple disciplines as well as an innovator of “extended vocal technique.”

Photo by Julieta Cervantes

Welcome Sam Shortly before the end of the 2014-2015 academic year, Sam Houser visited George School for the first time as part of the head of school search.

He was impressed. He was taken by the beauty of the campus, as many are, but he was just as taken by the people. He watched students interacting with one another and with teachers, and, unlike at universities, he saw faculty, staff, and students working together. Heading a secondary school, he realized, would be very different from his position as a senior college administrator. He was hooked.

Now, Sam is George School’s ninth head and he continues to see what he saw on that first visit. The students, he says, are “substantial. They are poised, comfortable with themselves, friendly, and smart. They care about each other.” “During the interview process, I was impressed by the high academic quality of George School and the warmth and durability of this community,” he told faculty and staff after a month on the job. “There’s a sense, not solely of hospitality here, but of real love and respect.”

Except for a stint teaching at Lincoln School, a Quaker girls’ school in Providence, Rhode Island, Sam spent his pre–George School career at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. With a PhD in classical philology from Brown, he taught Greek, Latin, and the history of science before becoming vice president for strategic initiatives and chief of staff in 2007. He also served on the board of Wilson College, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Though Sam anticipated that his next position would be heading up a school, he assumed it would be at the college level.

However, a fellow Wilson College trustee suggested that he consider an independent school, launching him on a circuitous path that led him from Lancaster to Newtown.

Arriving on August 1, 2016, Sam has settled into a renovated Sunnybanke with his energetic Lakeland Terrier Francie. Sam and his partner Jim both shuttle back and forth between Lancaster and Newtown.

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HEAD OF SCHOOL SAM HOUSER greeted new students and their families during registration.

Community members see Sam around campus walking Francie, working out in the Fitness and Athletics Center, or during his weekly Friday afternoon open office hours. Little by little, he is also meeting individually with the faculty and staff, and he is already impressed by their energy, great ideas, and willingness to come together to do what’s needed.

“I look forward to learning and living at George School with you,” Sam said in his remarks to incoming students. “I feel lucky to be a member of the freshman class!” Like them, Sam is soaking up and getting to know the school and honoring his first-year status by doing shift.

Looking to the future, he envisions George School tackling change by being “resilient and responsive to students’ needs,” rather than letting change happen to it. He draws a parallel to the academic field he loves. “Classics departments who learn how to teach about the ancient world in innovative ways thrive. Those who continue to teach as they did 20 or 30 years ago do not.”

But while change is both inevitable and desirable, Sam knows that the substance of that change will take time to unfold. “Unfortunately, I can’t offer a sweeping vision of George School just yet,” he said at the school’s opening banquet. “That would be pretty presumptuous after four weeks, and in any case I’m interested in our shared vision more than I’m concerned about my own thoughts.”

He anticipates that changes will evolve from strategic planning—due to start this winter—and will involve examining the applicability of a George School education. Applicability, he feels, must go beyond career relevance to life relevance, such as the community-building that is already so well taught here.

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Whatever change is to come, Sam knows that George School will remain true to itself.

In an opening speech, he described the school’s mission as “to educate and nurture young people to the highest standard we are able and to do so consistently with the Quaker values that are at the very soul of this school—not least rigor in the pursuit of knowledge, including self-knowledge.”

He continued, “We hold the ingredients to make wise changes that are authentic, good, and even groundbreaking among independent schools,” rooted in “a tradition that is restless, striving, and optimistic as much as it is devoted to simplicity and candor.” Above all, he promises, decisions will be guided by the question, “Is this good for students?”

Sam speaks readily about George School’s excellent academic and formational education.

“There’s a lot of there there,” he puts it. He wants the student and academic experience to be “sterling, one that is demanding and that stretches them.” And he wants the outside world to know it.

Sam also talks freely about George School’s prevailing sense of family: “We have a community that’s raising a family of 540 children every year,” he told faculty and staff. “Like all families, we have (and will have in the future) our deeply held convictions, our disagreements, our joys, triumphs, sorrows, and regrets—our histories or, if you prefer, our baggage. There may even be an eccentric aunt or uncle among us. All of this is to say that George School strikes me as a perfectly normal family, a vibrant school and a healthy community.

I am even happier to be here now than I expected to be when I accepted the call to become head of school.”

PAU L F O R E M A N

PERSPECTIVES

G E O R G E

S C H O O L

I N NOVAT OR S George School is a place that sparks innovation and creativity—a place where students learn to think independently, take risks, be creative, and persevere through difficult challenges. In this issue of the Georgian we share the stories of twenty-six George School alumni innovators, two pioneering teachers, and our recent TEDx conference that explored scientific, entrepreneurial, and artistic innovation.

We would not paint a complete picture of innovation at George School, however, if we did not also highlight the ground broken by students themselves.

Here is a sampling: •W hile at George School, Ken Kao ’08 designed a nanoparticle-coating process that increased the power output of PEM fuel cells, an emerging alternative energy source. It earned him recognition as a finalist in the annual Intel Science Talent Search, sometimes called a “junior Nobel Prize.”

He is now pursuing a master’s in electrical engineering at Stanford University with an emphasis on human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence.

•T he Art Department’s first 3D printers arrived in 2014, and students quickly got busy using them on projects from planning set designs to creating

models that could predict the structural integrity of their woodworking. This fall, Advanced Ceramics students built their own ceramics 3D printer.

• Demi Straulino ’15 won second place in a Toyota scholarship competition for her teen video, “Car Safety Drawing Animation.” Currently a student at Parsons School of Design, she has created animated videos for other clients, including “Quaker Myths Busted” for George School.

•N ine students spent their summer interning for Enterra Solutions, where they took part in a project to harness big data from weather information sites, design artificial intelligence programs, and engineer a low-cost, portable, water-filtration system for communities in Nepal.

As teacher Chris Odom described, “Our advanced computer programming and robotics students outpace our faculty’s existing knowledge base.

We run to keep up with them.”

It’s a truth applicable across departments.

While teachers push students, students push back and push forward, setting the stage for another cycle of innovation sparked by a George School education.

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C A M E R O N W I T T I G C O U R T E SY WA L K E R A R T C E N T E R

George School I N N O V A T O R S

Meredith Monk ’60 I N S P I R I N G A N E W WAY OF HEARING AND SEEING

“Innovation has a lot to do with not being afraid to find your own way to doing something, and not depending on something that’s happened before you.”

Composer, singer, director, choreographer, filmmaker, and performer/creator in and across multiple disciplines as well as an innovator of “extended vocal technique,”—it is a long list of descriptors, but it doesn’t adequately explain who Meredith Monk ’60 is or what she does.

Meredith has spent over fifty years exploring the voice largely without language—at least not in the traditional sense. Words never quite do her art justice. For Meredith, the voice is both the

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ultimate instrument and a universal, eloquent language in and of itself. Most of her compositions do not use text.

“The voice can delineate energies for which we don’t have words—fundamental human energies,” she explains. “Because most of my music does not have words, it makes people respond to it in a direct way, in the way that instrumental music goes right to the heart. When I do use text, I use it almost as a litany, a list, a chant rather than a narrative.”

Neither has she codified a vocabulary to pin down her work, lest it detract from the nuance and evolving nature of her pieces.

Coming from a musical family, Meredith was active in voice and dance at George School and pursued a course of study in combined performing arts (voice, dance, and theater) at Sarah Lawrence.

Afterwards, she settled in New York and began integrating different performance forms, but in the mid-1960s, she had a revelation. In an article she wrote called “Voice: The Soul’s Messenger” she says, “I realized that within the voice are myriad characters, landscapes, colors, textures, ways of producing sound, wordless messages. I intuitively sensed the rich and ancient

PERSPECTIVES

“ Society encourages distraction. Work, especially live performance, is an antidote—the relationship between performers and the audience, the energy between them, all in the same space at the same time.”

power of the first human instrument and by exploring its limitless possibilities I felt that I was coming home.”

Meredith describes her career as a tree with two main branches, of which the larger one is what is now called “extended vocal technique” or “vocal art.” Exploring the voice reinforced her vision of it as organically integrated with the body. A course she teaches, for example, is entitled Dancing Voice/ Singing Body.

The other stout branch of Meredith’s life’s work comprises composite or multi-perceptual forms, including opera and film, which weave together music, movement, image, gestural elements, objects, light, and text. She strives to create “a holistic form in a culture that fragments forms.”

Western European art traditions, she explains, are based upon “the idea that singers sing, actors act, and dancers dance.” Instead Meredith embraces the fluidity of interdisciplinary performance. “What I find interesting is between the cracks of these art forms. It is an affirmation of our perceptual, physical, intellectual, and spiritual essence as human beings.”

Meredith integrates space as well as voice and body, and many of her performances are site-specific. “Early on, I got tired of the frontal presentation of a proscenium and began making works that included casts of seventy-five or more in large architectural spaces.”

Though she did not set out to be an innovator, Meredith believes that most artists try to break new ground. For her, that means “discovering something I haven’t heard or seen before and creating something that audiences haven’t seen before. It’s a lot of risk. I try to start from zero. It’s not comfortable. You have to tolerate the discomfort and the fear of being in the unknown. I take it a little at a time. I start with beginner’s mind (what Buddhists

call ‘I don’t know mind’). When I get the first clue, curiosity begins replacing fear.” She finds what was there all along. “The process of discovery has really kept me feeling alive. Asking questions and offering questions is what art is all about.”

It is not surprising that Meredith sees a connection between her creative process and two significant practices in her life: meditation (she is Buddhist) and meeting for worship. “I continually come back to a place of inner quiet as the source of my creativity and sense of well-being,” she wrote.

Her discipline of daily work allows for inspiration to discover all that sound can be.

Meeting was not her only George School influence. “I had such a wonderful, luminous education there,” she remembers.

Music Department Head Richard Averre “recognized immediately that music was my soul,” and he shepherded her on varied musical experiences: a jazz quartet with close harmonies, a choral performance of the Fauré Requiem alongside French teacher Mme. Vickery, and a senior composition class with talented classmates.

But Meredith found non-musical mentors, too. “I am grateful to Mr. Keskinen,” she wrote for her 50th reunion, “for always encouraging my love of performing. He also taught me that to be a writer or an artist [in high school, Meredith thought she might become a writer] one has to be alert to the moment, always curious, interested, and open hearted.”

Reflecting now, she says that in addition to knowledge and discipline, the true gift of George School is that “you have these teachers who really see you.”

It would take pages to detail Meredith’s performance history and still more to list her accolades. Significant among the former are singing at Carnegie Hall, for His Holiness the Dalai Lama,

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L E I G H VO G E L , G E T T Y I M AG E S

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MEREDITH MONK ’60 received the National Medal of Arts from President Obama in September 2015.

Since 1984, the National Medal of the Arts has recognized outstanding contributions to excellence, growth, support, and availablity of the arts in the United States. It is the highest award given to artists by the United States government.

and with two groups she founded: The House, a company with an interdisciplinary performance approach, and Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble.

Notable among the latter are a MacArthur Fellowship (the so-called “Genius Grant,” with which she bought land in New Mexico), two Guggenheim Fellowships, three Obies, and the National Medal of Arts.

“What I’ve tried to do in my life is to offer a new way of seeing and hearing in the hope that it will inspire people to be awake and aware in their present life. Society encourages distraction. Work, especially live performance, is an antidote—the relationship between performers and the audience, the energy between them, all in the same space at the same time.”

And it is an antidote for more than distraction. This spring, Meredith performed in Istanbul despite—and to some extent, because of—the dangerous events there. She concluded the concert with a Turkish lullaby.

“I had always believed in the power of music and art to be a healing force, something that transcended culture.” It brought listeners to tears. “I have played in fifty countries in my life. This was one of the most meaningful.”

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So to the biographical descriptors above, we can add community-builder, healer, and, above all, pioneer, with the possibilities of the voice serving as her continually advancing frontier. Meredith blazed, and blazes, her own trail.

“When I started working with the voice as an instrument, there wasn’t anyone working that way.

It was lonely. Looking back, I’m glad that there was no precedent. I had to find my own way and find my own unique voice. I believe there’s only one of us in the universe. Our task is to fulfill our potential.

“When I was doing my early work, there were none of these labels or categories (like ‘extended vocal technique’) for these areas of investigation,” she follows up. “Now, it makes me laugh to think that they are ‘schools.’ I was just working, trying to discover fresh ways of doing things. I believe that my love of learning, my desire to remain curious and risk hanging out in the unknown no matter how uncomfortable that might be began at George School. I will always be grateful.”

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George School I N N O V A T O R S

Tomáš Zeman ’99 DESIGNING NEW PRODUCTS AND USER EXPERIENCES

“My interest is in new product innovation.

We think a lot about what problems we can solve and how we can make people’s lives more delightful.”

“I am a designer who researches,” reads the headline on the webpage of Tomáš Zeman ’99.

For him, the two functions are inextricably linked.

As a product/UX designer—the UX stands for “user experience”—he and other members of his team conduct ethnographic design research to “understand how people interact, work, and live” before shaping products and services.

Though he can’t discuss his current work for Google, Tomáš cites a former project for Eventbrite, the large ticketing marketplace, as an example of how research informs design. Before the latter could begin, the team had to understand how

consumers socialize and invite each other to organized group events.

Tomáš sees what he does today as an outgrowth of George School experiences: of studying woodworking and design with teacher Carter Sio ’76 and “learning a lot not just from Carter but from the other students;” of being part of a project that looked at campus life at other boarding schools and compared the different choices made; and of living with students from around the globe.

“It made us ask questions about our own culture and think deeply about the choices that we make in our lives. That’s a lot of what I do now in my work as a designer.”

“Understanding what can be learned from other people is key to innovation—having all of that information, being inspired by it, and acting on it.”

In addition to Google Brand Studio and Eventbrite, Tomáš’s clients have included Autodesk, Karbon, and change.org. After receiving a BS in film from Boston University and working in film and set design in New York, he got an MFA from California College of the Arts, where his interdisciplinary studies combined graphic design, industrial design, and interaction design, which is the design of how people interact with one another and technology.

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George School I N N O V A T O R S Kenneth Wilson ’52 LEVERAGING SUPERCOMPUTERS TO STUDY PARTICAL PHYSICS Kenneth Wilson ’52 is the first alumnus to win a Nobel Prize, awarded in Physics in 1982 for his theory on critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions, such as the transformation of a substance from a liquid to a gas. He was a pioneer in leveraging supercomputers to study particle physics.

Following this work on phase transitions, Kenneth focused on quantum field theory and quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the newly proposed theory that protons, neutrons, and other subatomic

particles are composed of smaller particles called quarks at Cornell University. He created a version of QCD on a space-time lattice that made it possible for the first time to analyze the forces that bind quarks together.

As he required more and more computing power, Kenneth was instrumental in the creation of five scientific supercomputer centers by the National Science Foundation, one of them at Cornell.

Kenneth left Cornell in 1987 to go to Ohio State University where he helped found the Physics Education Research Group. There he focused on physics and science education.

Jessie Mooberry ’10 DELIVERING FOOD, MEDICAL SUPPLIES, AND HOPE Jessie Mooberry ’10 spent the last two years designing, building, and funding the first humanitarian cargo unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) non-profit, Uplift Aeronautics. “Our work was innovative because it was hard. Nobody else was willing to take on the challenge,” said Jessie.

“The Syria Airlift Project came from a real need on the ground,” she continued. “In Syria, people were facing starvation and medical deprivation. Our team

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of volunteers thought through ways to break the siege without risking more lives.”

Small conveyor belts of drones, Berlin Airlift-style, would have a chance to get medical supplies through and bring hope and attention to the situation on the ground.

“So,” she said, “we built one-meter wingspan, $1,000 airframes which could travel 100 to 150km round trip, just far enough to reach Aleppo from the Syrian border.”

Jessie is currently an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Stanford Peace Innovation Lab. She has her commercial drone license and is working to become a licensed private pilot.

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Sarah Dohle ’01 LEARNING ABOUT FOOD PRODUCTION FROM THE LIMA BEAN When Sarah Dohle ’01 talks about lima bean genetics, people laugh and feel comfortable asking questions and sharing their thoughts about food production, genetic engineering, and organic food choices. “If we all know a little more about what goes into food production, it helps us make informed decisions about how we eat and how

we can support agriculture,” explained Sarah, a speaker at TEDxGeorgeSchool. She spent some of her time as a graduate student with the Genetic Resources Group at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Columbia studying the diversity of lima beans. She is working to develop insect-tolerant varieties and to understand the mechanisms of resistance. Sarah is an assistant professor in the Plant Science Department at Delaware Valley University teaching crop science classes to the next generation of growers, researchers, and eaters.

Zachary Martinez ’09 Hilary Pearsall ’10 I N S P I R I N G P AT I E N T- F O C U S E D HEALTHCARE Zachary Martinez ’09 and Hilary Pearsall ’10 work for Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, an organization with the mission of improving the health of Camden residents by enhancing the quality, capacity, coordination, efficiency, and accessibility of the healthcare system.

The Coalition of Healthcare Providers uses a unique cross disciplinary approach with teams of data scientists, nurses, social workers, physicians, businessmen, and lawyers all working together to provide intensive case management and care coordination to some of the most vulnerable patients in the city.

The team focuses their work on systems change. For example, patients often do not have a car, and public transportation is lacking. This makes it hard for them to make an appointment or get to the pharmacy.” said Zachary. “Rather than simply filing complaints, or finding better ways for our patients to get rides, we requested and analyzed the data from the contractor currently providing transportation for them and discovered a pattern of service that could be improved.” The team advocated that a revised request for proposals be issued with new quality requirements.

“We begin our work with the patients’ perspectives. We ask them what their goals are and what drives them, then create a shared vision of the progress we’ll make together,” said Zachary.

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George School I N N O V A T O R S

Jamal Elliott ’92 CHANGING CHARTER SCHOOLS

“In a world full of violence, we have to work on solving problems without violence, to work on being more caring and understanding.”

Jamal Elliot ’92 started his education in a Philadelphia public school before attending George School and Haverford College. He is back in a city school again. But this time, he is a chief operating officer and affecting change at the K–8 Wissahickon Charter School.

Jamal is helping guide the school toward its— and his—goal of providing urban youth with an education they deserve. As he puts it, “All students should be afforded the respect that places like George School and Haverford give students.”

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It all began for Jamal in North Philadelphia, where he was raised by his mother and grandmother and where he attended neighborhood schools, “where I never felt shortchanged.” In ninth grade, however, after a school official identified him for a scholarship at George School, he made the short trip and significant adjustment to boarding school life in Newtown.

“It was quite apparent when I got to George School that there were some things that had been missing.” Jamal admits about his primary school educational experience. Notable among them were the “Quaker values the school embeds in students who are not necessarily Quaker, fundamental principles that resonated with me: seeing the best in everyone, nonviolence and peaceful ways of problem-solving, reaching decisions through consensus.

Most are incredible traits we want to see in each other,” and, because he does not consider them inherently religious, “they can be in public schools and in individuals, too.”

He had his watershed moment during the second semester of his junior year at Haverford.

Reading Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol in a course called Schools in American Cities, he realized that the bleak educational experience described in the book’s case studies “is what kids

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“ Wissahickon has allowed me to impact kids in an urban setting and to do it in a way that’s organic, supporting them in a place that has values that mirror what I had at George School.”

in neighborhoods like mine were going through.”

He took other classes that tackled issues of class and gender taught by diverse faculty and determined that he wanted to “be part of the education world.”

After graduating, Jamal worked with retired school administrator Spencer Davis to start a private school in the impoverished Mantua-Belmont neighborhood. When charter school legislation passed in 1997, the plan changed, and Jamal became a founding teacher at the Family Charter School in 1998.

“Family Charter School focused on trying to uplift families, having monthly family dinners where we had conversations about life,” he explains.

“It worked, but in hindsight, the idea was incredible but not feasible. It was really small and operated more like a private school.” In time he moved on.

After a brief stint in minority recruitment at Ursinus College, Jamal found Wissahickon Charter School—or, more accurately, it found him.

He had been wondering: “How could I be more impactful in helping young urban poor kids?

I felt I needed to be in a place that was progressive and that would allow me to grow, probably in an administrative role.”

His twin sons attended the school, and in 2005 he was approached about becoming its dean of students. In 2007 he was promoted to co-leader alongside CEO Kristi Littell.

Wissahickon Charter School is located in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, where Jamal also lives. Its three-part mission is unusual: “an integrated environmental focus; recognizing the importance of service learning—peace, conflict resolution, and community building—as part of a prioritized social curriculum; and an emphasis on family involvement at all levels.” Though Jamal was not part of the school’s founding in 2001, he has spent the better part of twenty years helping make charter schools into forces for positive educational change.

“We can’t be afraid to change,” asserts Jamal.

“The dumbest thing we as educators can do is to do

the same things that haven’t worked. I’m upset that there’s a divide between charter schools and district-run public schools. If I try something different, we’re seen as competition.”

At Wissahickon, doing something different has meant embracing Responsive Classroom and Developmental Design (in Lower and Middle Schools, respectively). “Working on solid principles, their philosophies speak to the building of community,” a key component of the school’s focus on children’s social and emotional development.

Jamal’s contributions to Wissahickon are varied. He helped open a second campus to serve an additional 500 students in 2014 and launched an inhouse Behavioral Support Team that works one-onone with kids with significant behavioral issues.

His mark is seen as much in tone as in facilities and programs. He is proud of “helping the staff—a majority are white women—try to understand the folks that they’re serving,” while helping families understand teachers. He is a strong proponent of admitting when you are wrong rather than trying to save face. “When you can tell a family member you handled something badly and will work on fixing it, your credibility goes so much higher.”

Jamal also puts considerable emphasis on conflict resolution. “In a world full of violence, we have to work on solving problems without violence, to work on being more caring and understanding.” Aware that dangers lurk in students’ neighborhoods, he wants to “teach kids how to get out of a situation. I push that really, really hard.

I don’t ever want to find out that one of our kids was hurt or killed because they engaged in something they could have gotten themselves out of if we had taught them the skills.”

The combination has worked—for the students and for Jamal himself. “Wissahickon has allowed me to impact kids in an urban setting and to do it in a way that’s organic, supporting them in a place that has values that mirror what I had at George School.”

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George School I N N O V A T O R S

Meredith Meyer Grelli ’03 BRINGING TOGETHER PEOPLE OF ALL STRIPES TO CREATE COMMUNITY

“It’s hard to innovate if consumers don’t come along for the ride.”

Sometimes being innovative means going back to the way things were done a long time ago and giving it a contemporary twist. In 2010, Meredith Meyer Grelli ’03 and her family were inspired to open a craft distillery in Pittsburgh after visiting vineyards around Niagara on the Lake. The culmination of family ideas and ideals— not to mention her and husband Alex’s experience in food, drink, and community development— became Wigle Whiskey, the city’s first new distillery since Prohibition.

Originally, western Pennsylvania was home to 4,000 distilleries, each making its own brand of rye whiskey. But Prohibition brought about their demise.

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By the time Wigle (pronounced “wiggle”) opened in December 2011, the industry had consolidated so much that all rye whiskey sold in state liquor stores came from just two major producers. “We were living through the most uninteresting spirits environment,” she explains.

Just as opening a distillery in Pittsburgh was novel, so were Wigle’s goals: to not only make whiskey and profits, but “to support the community, economic, and agricultural systems on which we depend” while engaging and educating consumers.

Today 100,000 visitors a year come for tours and tastings as well as to frequent fundraisers and other community programs. Wigle is committed to using only certified organic grain (it’s the largest buyer of organic grain in Pennsylvania) and to transparency about its distilling practices.

Then there is the innovation of the products themselves—mostly whiskey, but also other spirits—to which Wigle devotes considerable resources. It does this in three ways: through a yearlong course Meredith teaches at Chatham University, that takes students through a stagegate process to develop new products; through Whiskey Whim, a fast-cycle (monthly) experimental whiskey; and by “tinkering with the current portfolio for continuous improvement.”

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Peter Crown ’61 C R E AT I N G T H E A U D I O COMMENTARY TRACK Peter Crown ’61 invented the audio commentary track that is used on movie DVDs so directors and producers can narrate the film and tell behind-the-scenes stories about it.

The very first audio track was for the 1984 Criterion Collection laserdisc edition of the original 1933 King Kong movie.

Dana Falsetti ’11 P R O M O T I N G B O D Y- P O S I T I V E YOGA Yoga Teacher Dana Falsetti ’11 travels the world to teach classes that focus on body-positive fundamentals.

“The power of visualization is so important to me,” Dana told People magazine in a February 2016 article.

“People see my photos and it’s someone who looks a little bit more like you or just someone in a bigger body doing something that you think you can’t do, and you start wondering, oh, maybe I could do that.”

According to her website, Dana started practicing yoga after years of binge eating, struggling with

It featured film historian Ronald Haver and his first words were, “Hello, ladies and gentlemen, I’m Ronald Haver, and I’m here to do something which we feel is rather unique. I’m going to take you on a lecture tour of King Kong as you watch the film. The laserdisc technology offers us this opportunity and we feel it’s rather unique — the ability to switch back and forth between the soundtrack and this lecture track....”

confidence, gaining and losing weight in bouts of depression and anxiety, and crazed attempts to find a little peace. In college, Dana was unhappy with aspects of her life, so she started visiting the gym in hopes of making a permanent change. However, even after she dropped several pounds, she realized nothing had changed.

“My physical body changed, but my body changes every single day and always will. I was still me. I brought myself and all of my habits and tendencies and fears with me to my ‘new body,’” she said.

Eventually, Dana tried yoga on a whim—just to try something new.

“I walked in having the largest body in the room on top of being the begin-

ner, and yoga was hard. I couldn’t hold down dog for five breaths, my shoulders were on fire, and all the while it seemed everybody else was popping up into optional headstands like it was no big deal. I remember thinking that would never and could never be me. I thought my body would limit my practice, but eventually I learned that only my mind sets limits.”

Today, Dana travels throughout the country and aroud the world leading yoga seminars and retreats, she offers online classes, and trains yoga instructors. She is also a published author.

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David Larkin ’79 E N G I N E E R I N G B I O L O G I C A L LYG U I D E D R A D I AT I O N T H E R A P Y

“To innovate you need everybody at the table. You first come up with an idea, and it has all kinds of defects. You send that across the table to your teammates.

They’ll fix it and come up with more great ideas. Bringing minds together is critical. There’s no other way to succeed.”

When David Larkin ’79 talks about medical inventions he has helped to develop—from a single-port robotic surgery platform to a biologyguided radiotherapy system for targeted cancer treatment—you would think that there’s no “I” in innovation. For him, it is about building teams. To tackle problems that at first seem impos-

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sible, you have to operate as a real team. You have to believe in the best idea, not your idea,” he explains.

As Vice President of Engineering at RefleXion Medical, David leads a team working on the aforementioned, potentially groundbreaking radiotherapy system, but the ground of his own inventiveness was broken decades ago.

“My dad was an engineer. I had a natural inclination toward building things,” he remembers.

Undergraduate and graduate study in engineering cemented his career path, but his years at George School played a role, too.

“It’s not just the science program. The values that George School instills—they’re not just moral.

They’re the things that work best if you’re trying to make an engineering team.”

Included in his “what I learned at George School” list are “treating everyone with respect, thinking clearly, and believing in something bigger than yourself.” Rather than flaunting egos, he continues, “everyone on the team has to be very comfortable with being ‘wrong.’ That’s really the heart of rapid iteration because it creates the emotional outlook that lets people move on to something better. I call it ‘being wrong often’—you’re

PERSPECTIVES

“ Innovation is such an innate part of my life. It’s what I do. I’m always trying to think of a better way to do something. If I see a problem, I’m thinking immediately how to make it better. It’s almost instinctive.”

constantly adapting, looking clearly at the evidence in front of you, looking for something better than our last idea.”

This clear-thinking and collaborative approach has served David well as he has served on several engineering teams. Shortly after grad school, he worked for Adept Technology, creating robots for all sorts of industries and purposes, from packaging Pepperidge Farm cookies to making hand grenades to assembling transmissions. After starting his own company with friends, he joined another startup, Intuitive Surgical, where he ran a group developing a surgical robot: the da Vinci SP (SP stands for single port).

Not yet approved by the FDA or available on the market, the da Vinci SP differs from the earlier generation da Vinci System in that it enables three surgical instruments and a camera to go through one port at the belly button.

As David sees it, the beauty of the project is not only that it will offer a less-invasive alternative, but that it “created a lot of innovation and spin-off possibilities. We had to develop the miniaturization of the camera and the motor drives. When we started, no one thought it was even possible, but we ended up solving all the problems. It ends up breaking down barriers elsewhere, expanding what people think is possible. We focused on one big project, but the sub-parts can then be applied to other projects.”

In 2014 RefleXion Medical wooed David, and after fourteen years at Intuitive Surgical, he felt it was time to move on. “No matter how sophisticated surgical robotics was, it would never be able to do what this new technology would,” he feels.

The idea behind the RefleXion technology is to use PET (positron emission tomography) scans to guide high-intensity x-rays to kill cancer cells.

Until now, the precision of radiation therapy has been limited by the imaging available and the fact that “we’re mushy sacks and things move around,” as David puts it.

By using PET, a nuclear medicine imaging technique in which the radioactive decay of fluorine-18 reveals the exact location of tumors (photons are emitted at 180-degree angles, creating traceable lines), “we can get a tumor to signal where it is, so the system can constantly detect those lines through the body and shoot x-rays back along those lines.”

David hired the engineering team that built the first prototype and, with investment money raised, are making the first product.

“It’s a big advance for radiotherapy,” he says.

“The really exciting thing is that if we can sense where the tumor is, it doesn’t matter whether there’s only one tumor anymore. It enables us to bring radiotherapy back into the mix for metastatic disease.”

And just as the da Vinci SP has shown promise beyond the project itself, so may this one. “If you look at RefleXion’s investors, some are drug companies,” he explains. They are hoping that its ability to treat multiple sites will make it useful in conjunction with immunotherapy.

“Innovation is such an innate part of my life.

It’s what I do,” David asserts. “I’m just always trying to think of a better way to do something. If I see a problem, I’m thinking immediately how to make it better. It’s almost instinctive.”

So is working alongside similar—but not too similar—minds who are likewise imagining better solutions. According to David, engineers “think of the future in terms of scenarios—what could happen and the probabilities of each. It’s helpful to think not of one path but multiple paths, each with its own risks. Product development gives you a finite amount of money and time. You can’t afford to bet on just one option. Thinking about multiple possibilities makes the mind more innovative.”

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George School I N N O V A T O R S David Luria ’54 E N H A N C I N G T R AV E L W I T H HANDS ON INSTRUCTION David Luria ’54 began teaching photography in January 1999, when he conducted his first Monuments & Memorials Photo Safari in Washington DC. Over 4,500 safaris and 32,000 participants later, David has expanded his love of photography into a full-time business with 150+ unique itineraries. Washington Photo Safari is a winner of Trip Advisor’s Certificate of excellence.

Richard Grausman ’55 C R E AT I N G C A R E E R S THROUGH CULINARY ARTS Richard Grausman ’55 founded Careers through Culinary Arts Program in 1990, a program that helps disadvantaged youth get scholarships to culinary school where their job training helps prepare them for college and careers in the restaurant and hospitality industry. Today the organization works with over 17,000 students nationwide. In 1997, Richard won the President’s Service Award for his work.

Lane J. Savadove ’85 E N E R G I Z I N G T H E AT E R

Francesca Kule Kennedy ’84 D I S R U P T I N G R E F R I G E R AT I O N Francesca Kule Kennedy ’84 is part of the team at Phononic, a Durham, North Carolina semiconductor company that has designed and developed a refrigerator that runs with no toxic coolant and has no compressor. Named one of the 2016 Disruptor 50 companies

by CNBC, Phononic now sells medical refrigerators that are used in labs and hospitals, but later this year it will enter the consumer market.

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Lane J. Savadove ’85 draws fresh insights from classics of theater and literature as the artistic director of the Philadelphia-based classic theater company EgoPo. Admired for its imaginative, movement-based ensemble work and bold risk-taking, EgoPo has received critical acclaim for the work of its repertory ensemble.

PERSPECTIVES

Kevin Lewis ’99 EXPLORING MARS Planetary scientist Kevin Lewis ’99 is a member of the NASA Curiosity rover team that conducts research into the geology and climate of Mars to prepare for the planned 2030 human journey to the planet. He shared his research at TEDxGeorgeSchool in December 2016.

In 2014, the Curiosity team and scientists found evidence that ancient Mars offered environmental conditions with all the requirements for supporting microbial life, if any ever existed on Mars. In Curiosity’s first extended mission, the team is using the rover on the lower portion of a layered mountain to study how Mars’ ancient environment changed from wet conditions favorable for microbial life to harsher, drier conditions.

The central research questions of Kevin’s work also include the origin of our own planet’s uniquely habitable conditions within the solar system today. Kevin’s work has found links between climate variability in the thick sequence of sedimentary rocks and the forces that may be responsible for climate change.

Kevin is an assistant professor, Earth & Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

Kareem Afzal ’93 T U R N I N G WAT E R I N T O F U E L Kareem Afzal ’93, and his company PDC Machines, are part of a team called SimpleFuel that was named the finalist in the H Prize Competition sponsored by the US Department of Energy. SimpleFuel developed a home-scale hydrogen refueler that can provide a 1-kilogram fill to vehicles in fifteen minutes. The system

design was unveiled at the Alternative Clean Transportation Expo 2016 and featured a sleek white design that is easily deployable, requiring standard utility hookups for electricity and water.

The company has moved from the construction to the demonstration phase of the competition, when it will conduct regular fills to show that the system is operational. For some of the fills they will also use a fuel cell

electric vehicle that will be driven by members of the team. Cost information and a minimum of two months of operational results are due to the Department of Energy at the end of the demonstration phase. The results are expected to be announced early this year.

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Charles Willson ’66 T E A C H I N G FA M I L I E S TO PROVIDE HOME CARE

“Finding innovative ways to address health at the community level can be as important as finding new medicines or treatment plans.”

Thanks to enhanced intensive care units and advances in today’s medical field, infants and children are surviving previously fatal anomalies, premature births, and traumas much more frequently. However, many of these infants and children become dependent on technologies, such as tracheostomies and ventilators, to stay alive.

George School alum Charles F. Willson ’66, has helped to create an innovative system of care management in his eastern North Carolina community to help these children.

Launched in 2009, The Center for Children with Complex and Chronic Conditions at Children’s Hospital, spans the hospital, the

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primary care medical home, community based services, and the family’s home. This model allows all members of the care team to practice top-level, professional care. A team of nurses, care coordinators, and hospital administrators’ trains parents to properly take care of their children at home, significantly reducing the number of hospital readmissions. Charles and the team have successfully reduced the yearly readmission rate from 75 percent to below 50 percent.

“Our program is different,” explained Charles.

“We help the children go home to a family welltrained to deliver almost hospital-level care in their own homes.” The center focuses on creating a wellconstructed program of parent education and care coordination. It is crucial that care coordinators meet the child and family on our transitional care unit in the hospital, assess the strengths and needs of the family, and determine how to best serve the needs of the child.

“A lot of care coordination in other programs is done over the phone by care coordinators who have never met the family or the patient,” explained Charles. “We make home visits within a week of hospital discharge to assess how the family is coping with these new stresses. The foundation of excellent care is the personal relationship between patient and family and the medical team. Our care coordinators are the foundation of our team.”

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Hannah Galantino-Homer ’85 FINDING BEAUTY IN THE EQUINE HOOF

“Science is a very creative field.

The questions aren’t handed to you.

Knowing what you don’t know is as important as knowing how to find things out.”

The late Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro broke his leg in the Preakness in 2006. Though the fracture itself was treated successfully at the New Bolton Center (Penn’s world-renowned largeanimal hospital), it led to laminitis, a hoof disease that is the second-most-common reason horses must be euthanized. In 2007, Penn’s veterinary school created a program to research laminitis, and it put Hannah Galantino-Homer ’85 at its helm.

Hannah waxes rhapsodic about the beauty of the equine hoof, which contains many, many folds (lamellae) that enable it to support the horse’s weight. “Horses have evolved to the edge of the cliff,” she explains. “The hoof is their weak point— their Achilles heel, as it were, and laminitis their arrow.”

Veterinary disease research is a different animal from human disease research. Hannah and her colleagues must be creative and collaborative to compensate for the relative lack of resources and knowledge. There are a handful of others researching laminitis around the world, but most do clinical work. Hannah strictly does research, using a discovery-mode approach—the so-called “omics” (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics).

With the equine genome now sequenced, she collects and synthesizes huge amounts of “data that will point us in the direction of what to follow up upon.” It is different from the traditional scientific method of developing and testing hypotheses. “Diseases are so complicated that if you only do hypothesis-driven studies, they will be biased according to what you think you should look for.

You don’t know what you don’t know. You need to do broader discovery-based studies.”

“Being well-rounded is important for science,” she added. “If you have a background that stretches your mind in different directions, it helps you come up with creative ideas. Data and software help you analyze, but only up to a point. Then you need to do tons of research and wonder how this change affects other changes. There’s a creative side that’s very important.”

THE HOOF’S INTERNAL BEAUTY was put on display at Philadelphia International Airport in 2014-2015 as part of Larger Than Life: Cells Made Visible, an exhibit spurred by an annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology. The images were created through confocal microscopy at Hannah’s lab.

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Matt Morris ’89 CONNECTING CAREGIVERS AND CLINICIANS Matt Morris ’89 is Founder and CEO of VisibleHand, Inc. a company that developed mobile software that allows front-line caregivers to receive behavioral guidance from clinicians. The information is specific to each patient, based on what is most likely to help that individual, given the behavioral symptoms he or she is displaying.

Therapists are able to monitor caregiver-resident interactions from a distance and communicate with caregivers using a secure messaging feature. The entire healthcare team is connected in real-time. VisibleHand’s software brings the entire treatment team together to provide the best care for each individual as quickly and effectively as possible. Matt shared his lessons learned at TEDxGeorgeSchool in December 2016.

The constant flow of behavioral data has allowed VisibleHand to

develop analytics that predict when a person’s behavioral issues are most likely to occur. This allows staff to proactively address behavioral needs, such as engaging a patient with dementia in a conversation about their favorite childhood activity, just before a time when the resident is likely to become depressed.

Reports and analysis tools also allow therapists and physicians to track the effects of reducing or changing a patient’s medication levels.

Victor Khodadad ’85

merge classical music and bring it, not only into everyone’s home, but to everyone’s personal electronic device.

“Music draws people in like nothing else,” explains Victor. “If we can create a short opera with an engaging and entertaining story that someone can enjoy on the go, interest in opera can grow nationally and even internationally. In short, opera is cool and we are dedicated to proving that.”

Victor shared his vision for building new audiences for opera at TEDxGeorgeSchool in December 2016.

C R E AT I N G A N E W A U D I E N C E FOR OPERA Victor Khodadad ’85 is the co-founder of New Camerata Opera. By updating this centuries-old art form, delivering it via a digital platform, and creating new operas for children, New Camerata Opera hopes to lead the charge in finding innovative ways to help build audiences for operas, old and new. The organization has commissioned composers to write new, short operas that can be filmed and posted to YouTube. The idea is to

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PERSPECTIVES

Mario Capecchi ’56 M O D E L I N G N E U R O P S Y C H I AT R I C DISORDERS Mario Capecchi ’56 is best known for his pioneering work on the development of gene targeting in mouse embryo-derived stem cells. This technology allows scientists to create mutations in any desired gene, giving them virtually complete freedom to manipulate the DNA sequence in the genome of living mice. His work in this area revolutionized the study of mammalian biology and is used to understand countless diseases by scientists worldwide. In 2007, he was recognized for this achievement with the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

Because nearly all biological phenomena are mediated or influenced by the activity of genes, gene targeting permits the analysis of the most complex biological processes such as development, learning, normal and aberrant behavior, cancer, immunology, and a multitude of congenital human diseases. Currently his research which sheds light on the possibility of a physiological basis—hardwired into the genetic code—for numerous psychiatric disorders­including obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and schizophrenia.

Mario shared his recent research at TEDxGeorgeSchool in December 2016.

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Martha Wilson ’65 KEEPING THE WORLD SAFE FOR AVA N T- G A R D E A R T Martha Wilson ’65 is a pioneering feminist artist and the founder and director of Franklin Furnace, a New York City-based cultural institution dedicated to supporting and preserving avant-garde art. Her early performance work, video, and photo-text projects were influenced by feminist politics that explore women’s traditional roles, investigating identity and subjectivity.

In the 1980s she began a series of satirical performances of right-wing political figures in which she impersonated Alexander Haig, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Tipper Gore. Most recently, she performed as Donald Trump in November 2016 at a Washington DC exhibition of Martha Wilson and Franklin Furnace. In 2011, Independent Curators International published the Martha Wilson Sourcebook: 40 Years of Reconsidering Performance, Feminism, Alternative Spaces.

Martha started Franklin Furnace, a revolutionary artist-run center in Tribeca dedicated to “keeping the world safe for avant-garde art.” Under her visionary direction Franklin Furnace moved to the Pratt Institute in 2014 where it can share its substantial archives as it is digitized

by Pratt and preserved for the future.

In December 2016 the Museum of Modern Art library curated an exhibition at MoMA that focused on the collection, “Back in Time with Time-Based Works: Artists’ Books at Franklin Furnace, 1976-1980.” The curator of the exhibition was another George School graduate Dave Senior ’94, senior bibliographer at the MoMA Library.

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George School I N N O V A T O R S Art Henrie ’47 BUILDING A BETTER LIGHTBULB Back in 2005 Art Henrie ’47 came up with an idea to change the standard light bulb. His idea was to trim the base so that it was easier to install in tight spaces.

“I applied for a patent and learned that a light bulb company already had a patent on a very similar idea,” said Art. “That company has never done anything with it.” Art encourages another entrepreneur to take a look at the idea. “That company may not have the patent any more.

It is a logical improvement.”

Joseph Ravenell ’92 FINDING THE INTERSECTION OF HEALTH AND COMMUNITY ADVOCACY

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Joseph Ravenell M.D. ’92 started the Men’s Health Initiative at New York University, a program designed to address colon cancer and hypertension—the two leading disproportionate causes of death among African-American men over the age of 50—both of which can be prevented by timely diagnosis and treatment.

“So why are these two diseases so differentially deadly for black men?” he asked. “Because, too often they are either untreated or undertreated in black men—in part because of our lower engagement with the primary healthcare system.”

His eureka moment happened in the barber chair at Denny Moe’s Superstar Barbershop in Harlem, when Denny Moe remarked, “Hey Doc, you know, lots of black men

trust their barbers more than they trust their doctors.”

Joseph took the comment to heart and he realized that the black barbershop is the perfect place to talk about high blood pressure and other concerns within the community. “It’s a place where we don’t feel threatened or threatening,” he said.

Joseph has teamed up with more than 200 barbershops and trusted community venues to reach more than 7,000 older black men in New York, offering blood pressure readings at barbershops and health education at churches, mosques, and social service agencies.

Joseph shared his remarkable results at TEDxGeorgeSchool in December 2016.

PERSPECTIVES

Colette Weber RESHAPING PROGRAMS TO IMPROVE LEARNING

“I am constantly thinking about how we can do things differently. My colleagues are a great source of inspiration and we often work together.”

English Department Head Colette Weber has a plan to make improvements to Bancroft, enhancing its traditional beauty while reshaping its interior to improve learning. This year, with the opening of a performance space called the Independence Room, the transformation has begun.

It is the latest in a series of innovations Colette has been part of at George School. In addition to the new room, they include the Academic Summer Program, a more structured process to help new students acclimate to George School, and Thinking Across Disciplines, a sophomore metacognition

project. Whether developing new programs or reimagining eighty-eight-year-old bricks and mortar, she is committed to using an understanding of how people learn best to help students do just that.

What unites the disparate initiatives that Colette and her colleagues have created is the goal of making students more active and engaged in their education. Some of this stems from her British background.

“In England, they tend to teach literature and theater together more than here,” she explains, resulting in more time acting and public speaking.

“Speaking skills are really critical,” she adds.

“More importantly, recent brain research stresses the importance of movement to activate different areas of the brain. If students are active, they’re more likely to learn and to take risks.

Studies show that being in one place too long is not good for the brain. It is better to do something than listen to something.”

The Independence Room (so dubbed because fellow English teacher Terry Culleton donated funding from his Independence Chair) brings that goal to fruition. In what was formerly a computer lab before the era of student-provided laptops, the space has tiered seating looking onto a performance area that can be illuminated with spotlights. Colette describes it as “a low-key performance space—not as scary as a stage.”

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“ Recent brain research stresses the importance of movement to activate different areas of the brain. If students are active, they’re more likely to learn and to take risks.

Studies show that being in one place too long is not good for the brain. It is better to do something than listen to something.”

In her own department, faculty take classes there “for a more active exploration of literature,” acting out scenes or doing dramatic poetry readings, as she did with a class on T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” shortly after school began.

The literary magazine Argo uses the room for meetings, and she hopes that other groups will host performances from slam poetry and stories to presentations for parents and other community members.

Recent research supports the engaged learning model at George School, and Colette, along with other faculty, has used this new knowledge to improve pedagogy and curriculum. She created and is the coordinator for Thinking Across Disciplines (TAD), a three-week sophomore project that gets students to learn about how they learn. Now in its fourth year, it’s like a mini Theory of Knowledge, the very popular upper-class epistemology course.

In English and history classes, TAD participants research a metacognitive topic—perhaps the role of memory or the influence of emotion on learning—and make comparisons across disciplines. They may examine their problem-solving processes in English and math or draw connections between how they visualize possible outcomes on a sports field and in a science lab.

The project culminates with student presentations in the library. It’s another way, explains Colette, that we “take advantage of these wonderful small classes and close community.” Sophomores may find the subject difficult, but they come to realize—sometimes a year or two later—how much they learned about how they think. As a result, many change their approach to schoolwork, increasing their participation in and responsibility for their own education.

With the Independence Room up and running, Colette has continued improving Bancroft.

The renovated lobby now has a bookstore coffee shop vibe, a space that “celebrates reading, writing, and literature.” She added a small lending library where student and faculty book reviews are welcome.

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The earlier innovation that Colette and fellow faculty developed was the Academic Summer Program (ASP). Designed to provide a foundation for success, ASP helps freshmen who come from disparate backgrounds to more quickly reach a comfort level at George School.

“George School has a particular way of teaching—very discussion based. Participation is a big part, as is taking control of their own learning and communicating with teachers,” Colette says.

For many students, this concept of self advocating is new territory. In one-week sessions, ASP teaches students—twenty-five the first year, eightyfour this past summer—important skills for success at George School.

Over its thirteen years, ASP has evolved to meet the needs of students. As incoming freshmen have become more tech-savvy, the program has segued from teaching them how to make a PowerPoint presentation to how to organize themselves digitally.

“We build the program each year as a team,” says Colette. “It’s created out of people’s particular talents and interests. We try things that don’t fit in the regular curriculum and are a little creative but we are yearning to try in a classroom setting.”

For the last few years, the theme has been how to think—and journal, take notes, draw, etc.—like Leonardo Da Vinci. The curriculum is interdisciplinary and applied. “Our approach is to spark students’ interest and show them how academics are related to real life.” And, as with many a George School learning opportunity, the culmination is a presentation with oral and digital components.

Taken together, Colette’s innovations at George School are responses to one question: “How can students learn better?” She takes the same active approach that she encourages in her students, bringing about change so that they indeed learn better.

FEATURES

GEORGE SCHOOL MATH TEAM includes Kerry Chen ’19, Bill Cui ’17, Larry Gong ’19, Ben Dorph ’18, Allen Huang ’17, Gregory Levy ’18, Eric Liang ’17, Sumanth Maddirala ’18, Tony Tian ’19, Thy Tran ’17, Sam Shi ’18, Tim Yi ’19, Yiwen Jiang ’17, Yue Wu ’17, Giang Khuat ’17, Sophia Guo ’18, Yasmina Cobrinik ’17, Jedd Tam ’18, Kevin Zhou ’20, Peter Zha ’20, Rex Zhang ’20, Jennifer Chang ’19, John Wang ’19, Martin Ma ’18, Quoc An ’19, Bach Pham ’19, and Michael Lazzaro ’18 (not all team members appear in this photograph).

Math Powerhouse Cougar craziness is spreading. Call it “math madness” or “math hysteria,” but a new level of interest and success in math has swept George School. There are more math offerings, more strong math students, and more interest in math than ever before.

Students are distinguishing themselves on the school’s new Math Team and in nationwide math competitions, not to mention in impressive math and math-related (e.g., engineering, computer science) postsecondary programs and careers. George School math is indeed hard, but for many students, that’s why it’s cool.

The math curriculum has changed significantly over the last decade. The IB program has long provided many of George School’s most challenging courses, but as recently as 2008, only one student took Higher Level (HL) math, while the rest of the IB diploma candidates chose the Standard Level (SL). (To earn a diploma, students must take at least three of six IB subject exams at the Higher Level.)

Fast forward to 2017, when not only are eighteen students taking HL math, including juniors, but five more are taking a new “higher higher level” class, called Further Math, that covers post-calculus topics. This is in addition to the forty-five students in SL math, twenty-seven in AP calculus, and eight in AP statistics. Meanwhile, these increased numbers are matched by increased performance.

From 2008 to 2016, George School’s mean IB SL and HL scores rose 1.14 and 1.57 points, respectively, with the HL average reaching 5.0 (on a 1–7 scale).

Expansion of the math curriculum does not end with IB, however. Among recently added courses are two in statistics (including AP), three in computer science (including AP), and Advanced Algebraic and Geometric Analysis, a “problemsolving, proof-writing, critical-thinking kind of class,” according to Department Head Kevin Moon.

With twenty-one carefully crafted course options, students have greater flexibility. Choices for freshmen, for example, have gone from three to

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“ We have been building a community of students who are excited about math and enjoy the camaraderie of math.

They’ve been working together so long. They love solving difficult problems, and they love sharing solutions.

At this level they are looking for elegant solutions.”

five so students can see more challenging math earlier. The goal is to enable all students to go as far as they can.

During the same period, the Math Department has increased its use of technology “for engagement and in support of learning the math, not to take shortcuts,” Kevin says, “but there’s still a lot of chalk. We’re even more focused on teaching students to understand concepts, solve challenging problems, and become creative mathematicians.”

Not surprisingly, more prospective students interested and strong in math are choosing George School, creating a surge of math talent.

Supporting and reflecting this challenging environment, Math Help began in 2011. Two or three peer tutors and a faculty member are available in the library’s Study Hub four evenings a week. “Everybody goes there,” explains Kevin.

“Students at all levels drop in to prep for a test, get homework help, or ‘get unstuck.’ They may do a few problems and move on. Peers really have a profound effect on one another.”

Another sign of the math boom is participation and performance on the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC), whose

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purpose is to spur interest in math and identify exceptional math talent. Although George School students have taken these tests for decades, their numbers and results have increased exponentially.

Where once six or eight students would sit the exams, in recent years the number has swelled to around 130 to 160—that’s 25 percent to 30 percent of the student body taking a math test voluntarily.

Though some receive extra credit, many simply want to stretch themselves.

Several have been able to stretch even further.

Depending on their age, the top 2½ percent or 5 percent of scorers are invited to the next level, the AIME exam. In a recent year, fifteen George School students qualified for the AIME, and so far two recent grads have made it to the level after that—an honor reserved for the nation’s top 220 students.

Yet another option for the numerically inclined, the Math Team competes in the fall interscholastic Math Madness tournament. Run

by AreteLabs (formerly Interstellar), it is modeled after the collegiate March Madness basketball tournament, with round-robin competition followed by a single-elimination bracket.

FEATURES

George School has achieved quick success.

In 2014, the team’s first year, it came in twelfth in the Sweet Sixteen. In 2016, the team ranked thirteenth at the end of the competition among the 500 schools that took part.

“Considering that some schools with 2,000 or more students are playing, and many of the schools are specialized math and science magnet schools, ours is a huge accomplishment,” shared Kevin, also the team’s coach.

Weekly competition is made up of online problem sets and is measured by both speed and accuracy. Teams are comprised of girls and boys, boarders and day students. In some weeks George School has ranked as high as second in the country based on that week’s top five scores. Kevin is quick to point out that the individual students who rank in the top five change regularly.

All of these factors have contributed to George School’s rising tide of math interest and proficiency. Adding to the excitement is that it is being accomplished in a very George School way: supportively and collaboratively.

“We have been building a community of students who are excited about math and enjoy the camaraderie of math,” says Kevin.

It is as evident in Math Help as it is after the Higher Level exam, when, according to IB coordinator Ralph Lelii, students stay and discuss the test excitedly. Kevin is not surprised: “They’ve been working together so long. They love solving difficult problems, and they love sharing solutions. At this level they are looking for elegant solutions.”

Among students of varied ages and abilities, he sees a “new chemistry in the Math Department. They’re all in this together. They’re all working hard. They are talented students helping each other.”

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An Innovative TEDx Returns to George School Eighteen months after the first TEDxGeorgeSchool came to the Fitness & Athletics Center, a second installment of George and TED’s excellent adventure was back on campus. Saturday, December 3, brought another day of “ideas worth spreading,” and the sequel was even better than the original.

This time the event was held at Walton Center, a venue that “looked and felt exactly like the TED conference that I had attended in Vancouver,” according to TEDx curator Ralph Lelii. The vibrant, attentive audience reached almost 400— especially impressive since the average TEDx draws 150 people. Participants came and went over nine hours of intellectual stimulation that Ralph likens to “two weeks of college in one day.” Sitting and concentrating for that long was made easier by the theater’s recently upholstered seats and by action breaks, in several campus buildings, during which participants could choose among activities—such as tai chi, 3D printing, a handbell choir, a cheesetasting, and playful brain games.

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Unlike the June 2015 event, the second TEDx was purposely held during the school year so students could attend. “We had 105 students registered for the day, which is astonishing,” explains Ralph.

“You’re not talking about a heavy metal concert.

You’re talking about people talking about genetics and Mars exploration and human trafficking. Having 100 students was beyond my wildest dreams.” The rest of the audience was comprised of prospective families, alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and members of the local community.

Speakers represented an enormous breadth of careers, topics, and ages in their roughly fifteenminute TED talks. Of the thirteen presenters, six were alumni, including Nobel laureate Mario Capecchi ’56, who, as Ralph puts it, “made what was basically a graduate lecture in genetics accessible for high school students.” Other George School graduates spoke about lima bean diversity and health care in underserved communities, opera and software development, and the aforementioned Mars exploration of the Curiosity Rover.

FEATURES

Additional speakers included an agroecologist and a structural engineer, physicians and entrepreneurs. The founder of BalletX, Christine Cox, went beyond discussing contemporary ballet and brought two dancers to perform. Ralph hoped that hosting such diverse speakers, including alumni, would correct a misperception. “George School has historically been seen as an art school, and I think it’s as good as any art school in the country. But we’re also a powerful science and math and humanities school.”

Though TED stipulates that its TEDx offshoots (the “x” designates an independently organized event) not have themes, there was a common thread through many of the talks. “Of our thirteen speakers, eleven used the word innovation,” says Ralph, who feels that hearing from innovators is especially important for today’s students, who may need to create careers that don’t yet exist. Whether they were talking about starting companies, inventing technologies, or, as Mario Capecchi admitted, using funding from one project to pay for an exciting new one, “Sometimes you have to trust your gut and take a risk.”

What did not change markedly from George School’s first TEDx experience was the time and effort it took to coordinate it. Applying to TED took eight months, while the on-campus organizers—Ralph, Susan Quinn, and a committee of faculty and staff—spent countless hours handling logistics and finding speakers, who are not paid for time or travel. Ralph estimates that he made 1,000 calls and emails. It was worth it.

Those who attended and presented at this latest TEDxGeorgeSchool wholeheartedly enjoyed it. Positive reviews have poured in. One person described the talks as “inspiring and thoughtful.”

Another lauded “the wonderfully diverse group of speakers and the creative ‘in between spaces.’”

A presenter said, “I was inspired, humbled, touched, challenged, and had FUN all the way through.”

In addition to personal enlightenment for hundreds of people, Ralph appreciates the institutional and community benefits. “TEDx brings vivacity, brings interest, brings energy to the campus, and brings a great deal of pride.”

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TEDXGEORGESCHOOL featured a number of Action Break options for audience members including: playful brain games, musical fun, jazz dancing, a cheese tasting, 3D printing, handbell choir, desk exercise class, tai chi, a coffee tasting, and a community sing-along.

Here is a complete list of the December 2016 speakers and TEDxGeorgeSchool talks: Sarah Dohle ’01: What can lima beans teach us about food production?

Andrea Barthello: Playful learning for problemsolving instruction and brain training.

Kevin Lewis ’99: Exploring Mars.

Anthony Goldbloom: The jobs we’ll lose to machines—and the ones we won’t.

Christine Cox: Reinventing ballet.

Joseph Ravenell ’92: The intersection of health and community advocacy.

Alison Grantham: Building a better food system.

Eric Haseltine: What will be the next big scientific breakthrough?

Sigrid Adriaenssens: Form follows force—designing for strength, economy, and beauty.

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Mario Capecchi ’56: Modeling neuropsychiatric disorders in the mouse.

Radhika Thekkath: Creating eyes-free and hands-free access to internet content.

Wanis Kabbaj: What a driverless world could look like.

Kanani Titchen: How to spot human trafficking.

Timothy Block: Incubating innovation.

Matthew Morris ’89: Putting customers on your development team.

Victor Khodadad ’85: Creating a new audience for opera.

Alice Rawsthorn: Pirates, nurses, and other rebel designers.

To learn more about TEDxGeorgeSchool, visit tedxgeorgeschool.org.

This Year I Resolve

TO DO GOOD

As you consider your resolutions for 2017, please think about updating your will to include George School.

Everything—from scholarships, to faculty compensation, curriculum innovation, and athletics— can be supported with a bequest.

Help create extraordinary opportunities and shape the future of George School.

Contact Chief Development Officer Doug Seaberg at 215.579.6575 or dseaberg@georgeschool.org.

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Campus News & Notes

BY SUSAN QUINN

Here is some of what you have been missing if you haven’t been visiting the George School News & Events section of our website at georgeschool.org/news.

Students Participate in Mock Presidential Debate On Friday, October 14 students from the Junior State of America club participated in a mock presidential debate. Students represented all four presidential nominees—Izzy Robinson-Cloete ’20 as Dr. Jill Stein, Andrew Castle ’17 as Gary Johnson, Sydney Johnson ’17 as Hillary Clinton and Quinn Otto-Moudry ’17 as Donald Trump. They discussed several important issues including gun control, national security, and the gender gap.

George School Sets Green Tone George School’s recent construction and renovation projects were featured in an overview of green construction trends in Bucks County schools.

The article highlighted the Anderson Library’s green roof and geothermal heating-cooling system, which uses an intricate underground piping system to help keep the library cool in

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the summer and warm in the winter. Also featured was the Fitness and Athletics Center that opened in 2014, with a green roof and solar panels.

their study of ecology. During the trip students tested water quality, kayaked through a salt marsh, took a tour of the dunes, and learned about seining.

Students Explore Wetlands Ecology On Thursday, October 27 IB Biology students traveled to Island Beach State Park, New Jersey to supplement

Freshman Class Celebrates Shakespeare The freshman class spent fall term studying the plays of Shakespeare and participated in a workshop on Taming of the Shrew with Eleni Delopoulos, lead teaching artist from the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater.

Eleni helped them understand the scenes and increased their comfort with the language, gaining an appreciation of the physical and funny aspects of Shakespeare’s drama. At the end of the program, students performed scenes from the play for an audience of classmates, parents, faculty, and staff.

CAMPUS NEWS & NOTES

See How They Run Amazes Audience Members The George School production of See How They Run left a packed Walton Auditorium audience roaring with laughter on November 4 and 5, 2016.

The farce, commonly identified as the “genre of slamming doors,” was set in 1946 and concentrated on a Russian spy trying to escape from a nearby American base. The cast included Violet Myles ’17, Kat Stein ’18, Sydney Johnson ’17, Nathan Zelesko ’17, Noah Fischer ’17, Zachary Sharma ’18, Paul Ruziskey ’17, Elliot Landor ’17, Tucker Ballantyne ’18, and Gabrielle Conard ’17.

Student Woodworking on Display Since 1984 the “Box Project” has been the first assignment for students in Woodworking & Design with Carter Sio ’76 and more than 800 artfully designed and constructed boxes have been created to date.

Students begin building the boxes by hand about five weeks into the fall term after they have learned how to use and maintain their tools. The project takes an entire term to complete and the finished projects are displayed in Main Gallery at the end of the term.

Career Workshops with Alumni Inspire Students The Parents Association sponsored George School’s annual Career Workshops featuring lawyer, fundraising consultant, and Congressional Black Caucus Foundation fellow Renee A. Mayo ’93, vice president at JP Morgan Chase Dominique Cherebin Martinez ’03, resident physician Wi Hyun (Brian) Lee ’04, head field hockey coach at Lafayette College Jennifer Stone ’00, and chief technology officer at VICE Media and Content Creation Studio Jesse Knight ’97. The event included a panel discussion led by Head of School Sam Houser.

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Students Discover Local Volunteer Opportunities George School hosted a Service Learning Fair for our students, students from local schools, friends, and neighbors on Sunday, September 11 in the Fitness and Athletics Center. With more than thirty local non-profit organizations in attendance, the fair allowed our community to explore volunteer opportunities in the Greater Philadelphia and Central New Jersey areas.

Chris Odom Authors New Robotics Textbook George School math and science teacher Chris Odom is the author of a new robotics textbook, Physical Computing & Robotics with the Arduino IDE. Starting with Hello World, the reader moves through functions, data types, computer mathematics, serial keyboard input and output, logic statements, and loops.

Students Named National Merit Semifinalists Dana Homer ’17 and Eden McEwen ’17 were named semifinalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship competition. Eight students were named commended students–Ephraim Benson ’17, Sydney Johnson ’17, Scott Kozarsky ’17, Tyler Mahlmann ’17, Jonathan Quan ’17, Clarence Rodgers ’17, Hedaya Walter ’17, and Nathan Zelesko ’17.

George School Cross Country Invitational Over 700 athletes from thirty-two teams across the Delaware Valley competed in the 64th annual George School Cross Country Invitational on Saturday, September 17. The George School varsity boys’ cross country team clinched second place over some very talented competitors. Scoring for George School were Jeffrey Love ’19 (5th in 16:54), Alex Carideo ’17 (15th in 17:37), Darayus Gorimaar ’19 (25th in 18:13), and Charlie Trey-Masters ’19 (38th in 18:41).

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CAMPUS NEWS & NOTES

Faith Boucher Named Goalie of the Week Faith Boucher ’17 was named Goalkeeper of the Week

by Philafieldhockey.com for September 30. Faith posted her fourth shut-out of the season—and her second back-to-back—helping the Cougars beat Peddie School 1-0 on September 24 and the previously unbeaten, Friends Select School on September 27.

Laney Pope Named Volleyball Player to Watch George School varsity volleyball team co-captain Laney Pope ’17, a four-year varsity player and second-year captain, was named one of the players to watch this season by the Bucks County Courier Times. Other key players on the team highlighted by the paper include Ashley Silver ’18, Alyson Riben ’17, Hannah Witts ’18, Nadia Arenas-Purvinis ’18, and Royalti Richardson ’17.

Equestrian Team Named Reserve Champion The George School varsity equestrian team hosted their second Interscholastic Equestrian Association home show on October 26 and was named overall reserved champion. In the open class, Jaime Baran ’17 placed third Over Fences and fourth in Flat.

In the intermediate class, Michaela Drake ’18 finished second in Flat, Dixie Hurst-Blair ’20 placed second Over Fences and third in Flat, and Vittoria De Franceschini ’17 finished sixth Over Fences. Greta Karr ’17 won her Over Fences class, Dana Homer ’17 was second, and Yasmina Cobrinik ’17 was sixth.

Fifteen Students Selected for Golden Teams The Bucks County Courier Times announced its Fall 2016 Golden Teams, recognizing the Lower Bucks County high school athletes who had standout seasons this fall. Fifteen

Nora Greer ’19, Alex Long ’20, and Anna Picciano ’17.

Shannon McGinnis ’17 was named to the Field Hockey Second Team and Julia Wilson ’18 received an honorable mention. Laney Pope ’17 received an honorable mention for Volleyball.

Jeffrey Love ’19 was named to the Second Team for Boys’ Cross Country.

Gunhee Han ’17 and Nick Lilley ’17 received honorable mentions for Boys’ Soccer. Kaelan Frederic ’17, Chet Kogut ’17, and Shadimere Coles ’17 received honorable mentions for Football.

George School varsity athletes were recognized by the paper for their achievements.

Yasmeen Malik ’17 was named to the Girls’ Soccer Second Team with honorable mention received by Anna Coleman ’17, Bonnie Devenney ’17,

George School Swimmers Named Athletes to Watch George School varsity swim team members Jonathan Lessiohadi ’18 and Zoe Valdepenas-Mellor ’18 were named to the Five Athletes to Watch lists for the upcoming boys’ and girls’ seasons by the Bucks County Courier Times.

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Return and Reconnect at

ALUMNI WEEKEND

2017 F R I D AY, M AY 5 - S U N D AY, M AY 7

This year’s Alumni Weekend celebration will be filled with community-wide events designed for all alumni—not just reunion classes—as well as current students, parents, and faculty.

F R I D AY, M AY 5 : KICK OFF YOUR REUNION Meet up with your George School friends at the All-Alumni Welcome Reception.

S AT U R D AY, M AY 6 : Attend the All-Alumni Gathering to honor distinguished alumni and retiring teachers, and get to know new Head of School Sam Houser. Events and activities are planned for everyone—and of course reunion classes will hold their parties on Saturday night.

photos from Alumni Weekend 2012

S U N D AY M O R N I N G , M AY 7 : Close out another wonderful Alumni Weekend by attending meeting for worship and brunch—a perfect way to end a great weekend!

The Class of 1962 posed for their 50th reunion picture on the steps of South Main.

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FEATURES

Round up your friends, pack up your family, and prepare to join us for a memorable weekend.

For more information about planning your return to campus visit, go to: www.georgeschool.org/alumniweekend

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Alumni Tell Us For Alumni Contact Information: Visit our alumni website: www.georgeschool.org/alumni Contact the Advancement Office T. 215.579.6620 E. advancement@georgeschool.org

1944 T. Vail Palmer, Jr. writes, “Although I served as editor of Quaker Religious Thought for several years, my first book—Face to Face: Early Quaker Encounters with the Bible—was published in July by Barclay Press.

This book is projected to be the first volume in a three-volume series.

I recently did a book reading and signing at a special event at Pendle Hill Quaker Conference Center.

Now a resident in Albany OR, I am a recorded minister of Freedom Friends Church (unaffiliated) in Salem OR.”

1945 Joan Seltzer Semple writes, “Our four sons, their wives, their children, and four great-grandchildren arrived to celebrate my husband Brooks’ ninetieth birthday in June. My ninetieth followed in August. Life is good and too busy. Where are those quiet golden years?”

1947 Cynthia Crooks Carpenter writes, “Still glowing from the wonderful visit to campus in May 2016.

Thanks again to all who made it possible. I hope to make it back for Class of 1947 reunion (Douay Version).”

1948 Patsy Morrow writes, “I am still living in Mexico, just south of Puerto Vallarta. Anyone coming my way is welcome to come stay. I have lots of room.”

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1949 Florence Kille Benson writes, “I continue to enjoy life at Glenaire, a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) in Cary NC. I am looking forward to playing chair volleyball and corn toss when we compete in “Olympics” against residents from two other CCRCs. I soon will be making a short trip to the Outer Banks when my son visits from his home in Hawaii. I also have a daughter who lives nearby in Raleigh NC. I continue to visit Durham Friends Meeting occasionally. I would love to hear from other GS graduates who may live nearby.”

1952 Valle Brewer Ingram writes, “George School Cass of 1952 65th reunion, May 2017. My, how time flies! The coordinators of our class reunion committee are already busy preparing for our 65th reunion in May 2017. Below are the committee members who did much of the heavy lifting in 2012 and in years before and who we hope will take similar roles this year if they can: Diane Siesel Orr, Valle Brewer Ingram (coordinators), Lee White (class president), Shirley Morrell Loder (yearbook with V. Ingram), Bruce and Anne Dawson (Friday/ Saturday dinner reservations), Jeney Blanchard McCoy(auctioneer), Bob Philipson (auctioneer), Jim Alden (class reunion giving), Townley Biddle Neill (Saturday dinner entertainment). Our main goal for this reunion is to reach out to all class alumni and encourage those who we have not seen in a while to try their best to attend in 2017. We know everyone will be amazed at the growth and beauty of our campus today. We think our alumni class is a pretty active group. It has been our tradition in reunion years to publish a currentyear yearbook with pictures and news about the lives of our classmates. You can view the entire 2012 yearbook online at opus52.com/opus12. You can also view videos we filmed in 2012 of 1952 reunion dinners and events at opus52.com. Since 2002 we have held

an auction to raise money for subsequent reunion activities and class gifts. Class members donate auction items which can be anything from a painting to a mini-vacation. We look forward to seeing as many graduates of our 1952 class as possible in 2017.

Sadly, this year we will miss our dear friend and at one-time student body leader, Bill Nelson, who passed away in December 2013. He was the glue that held our class together through the years and an outspoken supporter of George School. We are excited and looking forward to being with you all again and will be sending emails and letters to everyone with detailed reunion plans for our class in the coming months.”

Nancy R. TenBroeck writes, “Still living in historic/notorious Salem MA, retired and in good health.

Regards to all classmates and fellowGeorgians.”

1953 John C. Raushenbush writes, “Middle grade fiction, Mike Mulligan, the Magic Eagle of Yellowstone, about a thirteen-year-old boy and his eagle friend, was published in November.”

1954 Jean Lindsay de Streel writes, “I graduated from Sweet Briar College in 1958 and received a masters of science from the University of Bridgeport when I returned to the US after working for the government in Argentina. Taught in Fairfield and Darien CT, and in NY and WI. In 1963 I married Quentin de Streel. Our daughter Margaret de Streel is presently the news editor for the international editions of the Wall Street Journal. Our son Giles Lodge de Streel is a systems administrator for Penn State. His wife Nancy de Streel and their son Carter live in Spring Mills, PA. I lost Quentin to pancreatic cancer in 1998. I taught ESL in Phillipsburg NJ for 27 years.

As I approach 80 years in November I keep my arthritis under control by three main activities; dog sports, tai chi, and going up and down my many steps in my 1848, small two-houses-

ALUMNI TELL US

1948 Patsy Morrow ’48 shared a photo of a few horses at the ranch.

1952 The 1952 reunion photo from 2012 was sent in by Valle Brewer Ingram ’52.

1954 Eileen Thompson ’54.

1955 Michael L. Ingerman ’55.

1963 Sara (Sally) Kelso Chambers ’63.

1957 Garry Thomas ’57 with Mario Capecchi ’56, Werner Muller ’56, and Helen Muller.

1969 William S. Patterson ’69 shared a photo of brother Rob Patterson ’69 from summer 2015 at his home in Charleston-James Island SC, just starting chemo and 7-month battle with cancer.

1964 Margo Vitarelli ’64 shares her artwork with the note, “Herbivorous fish help clean and replenish the coral reefs of the world, eating the algae, which if too plentiful, clog and inhibit the reefs from growing. Stop overfishing!”

1965 William (Bill) G. Barton ’65 with the crew after winning the fifth race.

1967 Sandy Pitman Purinton ’67 and Ed Purinton.

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together colonial overlooking the Lehigh River near the forks of the Delaware. George School made a wonderful difference to me as I lived so far away in Caracas, Venezuela.

My heart bleeds for that country and its people.”

Robert (Bob) A. Freedman writes, “Marisa Harris and I spent a delightful half of our late summer vacation with Alison Rhoads Schechter and her husband, Alan, at their “camp” on Moose Pond ME. Everyone in New England who has a house on a lake seems to call it a “camp” no matter that it is fully winterized, with all relevant facilities, and can sleep at least six adults plus God-only-knows-how-many children in the loft. Typical Down-East understatement, I guess.”

Charlot te Cory Partin writes, “To read some of my prize winning poems, visit www.FanStory.com, select community, and look for me under RYME4U. I learned the methodology of writing poetry at George School. Mr. Evan Jones was my teacher at the time.”

Eileen Thompson writes, “It has been almost 20 years since I migrated to Texas from the East and absorbed a completely new culture and geography. Over the years, I substituted in three Dallas area school districts, temped for the Dallas Visitors Bureau, and was crew leader for the Dallas County Census in 2000. I have remained in touch with Linda Vaughn High, at whose home we rendezvoused for an evening during our 25th reunion in 1979. Linda sold her home in Sellersville and has moved to Foulkeways in Gwynedd PA. She is relishing her life there with her cat and enjoys meeting compatible retirees. Linda’s daughter lives nearby and visits often.”

1955 David (Dave) W. Atkinson writes, “I have returned to the vibraphone after my retirement from the practice of law and am currently

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appearing at several jazz clubs in the Denver CO area. Check out my latest CD “When The Sun Comes Out” where I am joined by pianist Eric Gunnison as the two of us play some of the great jazz standards. The CD should be available on CD Baby and some of the streaming services in the very near future.”

Richard I. Grausman writes, “Although I have stepped down as chairman of C-CAP, I remain active as chairman emeritus. I think you will find our 2015 Annual Report extremely interesting. The work we have done in 25 years is reflected in its pages.

Even I am impressed with the photos and quotes. I hope that you will enjoy reading through the publication.

My daughter Jennifer Grausman’s documentary Art and Craft is up for an Emmy this month. If you haven’t seen it, look for it on iTunes and Amazon Prime.”

Michael L. Ingerman writes, “I have spent most of the last two years learning how to live from my wheelchair after a spinal cord incident in November 2014. I continue to be active in the Nicasio community as the manager of our multi-organization database and as secretary of the Nicasio Volunteer Fire Department. The redwood trees surrounding our home continue to grow and we watch each day with awe and appreciation.”

1956 Charles (Solly) W. Palmer writes, “Just completed a long hospital and rehab stay following a kidney issue. Hopefully the treatments resolved the issue! Would love to re-connect with any classmate! Email me and find me on Facebook as well!

Cheers to all!”

1957 Garry Thomas writes: “I dropped in on Alumni Weekend briefly this past May and was treated to a free lunch by the Class of ’56! I realized that some of my best friends at GS were in that wonderful class and were still fun to talk with 60 years later.

Werner Muller ’56 and I had two years with the AFSC in Tanzania in common and were in each other’s weddings; Connie Archbald ’56 and I spent the summer of 1956 together in the German work camp; Mario Capecchi ’56 and I were two of Stan Sutton’s “boys” for three years of undefeated wrestling seasons; and Natalie (Nan) Scull Watkins ’56, whose dad was my dentist for almost 10 years! Others too might want to consider crashing off-year reunions! I look forward to our own 60th next year.”

Judith ( Judy) Taylor Uehlein writes, “Now that Carl ’58 is fully retired we have been indulging in our love of travel! We are about to head to far off SW Australia for a couple of months where I will be birding and wildflowering and Carl will golf. We are still in our Alexandria VA home of 43 years—fear of dismantling the house the main reason. The rest of the family, daughters Sara ’88 and Christine ’86, also doing very well.

1958 Peter (Pete) B. Ashelman writes, “During my 1957-58 senior year, I attended a classical, only-inGerman “Gymnasium” in Duesseldorf, Germany as an exchange student from George School in the AFSC School Affiliation Service. My Westtown wife and I hosted our all-US citizen offspring in our new home in Potomac Highlands WV this summer including our daughter’s son and two daughters, early educated in Tokyo Japanese schools and their son’s two daughters, raised and educated in Qingdao Chinese schools but now using English in prep for IB studies at Qingdao Amerasia International School.

David (Dave) R. Perera writes, “My wife Cherill and I moved from Lopez Island to a continuing care retirement community (Panorama) in Lacey WA. We will have better access to our four children and five grandchildren, avoid lengthy ferry lines, and be closer to health care providers.”

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1960 David (Dave) J. Schiller writes, “I’ve retired from Horace Mann School, where I spent 34 years as a teacher, department head, and head of the Upper Division. I’m hoping someone will tell me what to do next!”

1961 Kathryn Waddell Takara received the 2016 lifetime achievement award from the Honolulu NAACP as an “Agent of Change.” She recently returned from a month in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where she visited her daughter while speaking and reading her poetry in a dozen places. She is a retired University of Hawaii professor and currently a writer and publisher.

She has authored eight books and won an American Book Award. She coordinated several national conferences on African Americans at the University, has lectured seven times in China, and has been a featured speaker internationally. She is active with American Pen Women, The Links, and Rotary. In 2013 she was knighted into the Orthodox Order of St. John, Russian Grand Priory in Honolulu. She raises orchids in a splendid country garden and enjoys family, travel, teaching, performing, book clubs, and mysticism.

1962 Margaret (Meg) Emory Stackpole writes, “My husband and I are happily living in a lovely cottage at Kendal in Lexington VA. His health concerns perhaps hastened our move, but we are both finding much to engage us actively at Kendal and in the community (which boasts two colleges, museums and galleries, good eating, and breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley). I retired at the end of April after 30 years as a children’s librarian and publicist at the Free Reading Room in Rye NY.”

1963 Eric S. Blumberg writes, “I am continuing to practice psychotherapy in private practice, working whenever possible with trauma victims using

EMDR Therapy. It is very rewarding because of the relatively quick improvement compared with any other method. At home I enjoy my granddaughter Ally, now age 4, as often as Lori and I can visit her, usually every two weeks. My wife is finishing her BSN and is very busy serving those who need dialysis.”

Sara (Sally) Kelso Chambers writes, “Just back from a glorious trip to the Canadian Rockies, including Lake Louise. In October 2016 we were at my 50th college reunion in Ann Arbor MI. I’m still very active, hiking and swimming every week thanks to all the sports I played at GS! I love living in the Northwest.”

1964 Anne H. Brinton writes, “Our daughter, Rhiannon Brinton, was married in August to Shaun Fontenelle in Ithaca NY. They met in Brooklyn NY where he was a civil engineer. He is originally from South Dakota. They are both residing in Denver CO where he is supervisory general engineer/assistant chief of facilities for Eastern Colorado Division of Veteran Affairs. We are so happy for them both.”

Kathryn McCreary writes, “It’s been a very productive summer in hot Central California. My large garden keeps family and friends well fed, and I have plenty left over to share with homeless folks in town.

This year I discovered slender white eggplant, so delicate and delicious in all my old eggplant recipes. I have also experimented with growing yams, something nobody I know has tried.

I see they love to take over the whole place, with their rapidly expanding vines and their lovely flowers. I just hope they are as busy underground, and we will be able to find many tasty potatoes when the growing season is over. I challenged myself in the spring to finally translate a book my father left to me, Die Weisse Rose (The White Rose). With the help of my dictionary and some research, I was able to complete my translation in Septem-

ber. It is the account written by the sister of two college students who were executed in 1943 because of their resistance activities in Germany. It is a very compelling book, partly because some of the rhetoric coming out of the current presidential campaign is an echo of the rhetoric of those times.

I continue to be inspired by people who are able to “speak truth to power,” even when the danger they face is terrifying. Hans and Sophie Scholl have joined a small crowd of powerful voices I carry with me because of their dedication to human rights, and because of the clarity of their message.

It is timeless. (I would be happy to forward my translation to anyone who is interested.)”

Margo Vitarelli writes, “Hello classmates, I just attended the IUCN conference held here in Honolulu HI in September. Check out their website: International Union of the Conservation of Nature. So much is going on now to “save the planet.” I did a piece of art for a show that linked art to science that was put on in connection with the conference. The show was called Art-Sci, where artists and scientists paired up to inspire and collaborate on the works displayed.

My art was a silk screen print, limited edition of 24, and brought attention to the importance of coral reefs to the health of the planet.”

1965 William (Bill) G. Barton writes, “I won the Atlantic Class National Championship in late July sailed at the Niantic Bay Yacht Club and am still floating high on it!”

Robert Frederick Lyons writes, “I wanted to share with you that my mother Marion Rose Lyons died in September 2016. She was an assistant to the George School business manager and informally served as an extra mother for many of the boarding students. Marion was a very positive and loving person who embraced life all the way, and helped others to do so.

She loved friends, family, and singlemalt scotch. Marion is deeply missed

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1970 Roger L. Kay ’70 shared a photo of his granddaughter, Catherine Lily.

1973 Eleanor (Ellie) S. Lathrop ’73 at the helm cruising in Glacier Bay.

1976 Hank B. Siegel ’76, shown with his family, received the American Gem Society Triple Zero® Award in recognition of his leadership in the jewelry industry.

1978 Howard I. Molitch ’78 shared a photo of his canoe, “Water Moccasin.”

1982: Carolyn Powelson Campbell ’82 shared a photo of her mother Alice Roberts Powelson ’42 who was a house mother in Austria at the AFSC Children’s Village.

1982: Tobi B. Elkin ’82.

1984 Walter J. Hoffmann ’84 has a discussion with Dr. Dinah Gonzalez-Braile and her daughter Marisa Kalafer ’20 who were reading one of the new signs on campus that describe the history of the Newtown Rail Line.

1985 Jennifer A. Muth ’85 and Michelle Medleycott ’85 masked and ready to walk in the parade of the Society of St. Anne.

1986 Jennifer (Jen) Schmitt Perry ’86 with her son Griffin.

1989 Kristin Moore Major ’89 with her family on Isle of Palms, Summer 2015.

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ALUMNI TELL US

by her family and friends. We know she touched many lives. She lives on in our hearts.”

and enduring good nature. We have all lost the nicest guy in the world and a dependable friend.”

1966

1970

Charles (Chuck) K. Esser writes, “I really enjoyed our class reunion, especially Jeff Speller sharing his experiences with us over dinner. Had a really good visit with Robert Klein in Seattle. Looking for a number for Tim Knowles.”

Richard (Rich) G. Fisher writes, “Been retired from Kraft Foods for nearly four years now.

Keeping myself busy with photography (mostly wildlife) and travel.

I’ve been on photographic safaris in Botswana, Iceland, Canada, Minnesota, exploring Hamburg and Berlin as a trailing spouse as my wife attends music workshops, hiking and attending a family workshop in Colorado, and walking and playing with our 5-year-old golden retriever. We live just north of Chicago.”

1967 Sandra Pitman Purinton writes, “I retired from elementary school counseling five years ago. For the last two years I have been working part time as a group facilitator at Gilda’s Club, a cancer support community. Our daughter and her two young children live with us and my husband Ed and I are helping raise them. Our son is a clinical social worker in Philadelphia. For the past 18 months Ed and I have been challenged with his coming down with brain cancer. Thankfully he is in remission and doing well. I hope that all of you from the class of ’67 are doing well also!”

1968 William (Bill) N. Farran III writes, “In March, I retired from Innophos (food ingredients manufacturer) as general counsel and am now with C4 Consulting as an executive coach. Our second grandchild is due around Thanksgiving (Brad ’96 is the proud father; Kate ’98 is the proud mother of Jack, age 7). Thanks in part to GS values, I work with an American Bar Association commission on the ‘lawyers’ role in assuring every child’s right to a high quality education’ and on the Education Subcommittee of the ABA’s Civil Rights and Social Justice Committee.”

1969 William S. Pat terson writes, “Warm greetings Class of 1969. Dear twin brother Rob had to leave us all here on earth for a Sunday afternoon tea time in heaven in January 2016.

Always a kind gentleman with a smile

Roger L. Kay writes, “A bit of coming and going this year. Catherine Lily Laimböck arrived in June to join her brother, my grandson, Josef, in Los Angeles. My dad departed in July at 90 years old. We laid his ashes to rest at the military cemetery in Bourne MA. Daughter Melissa is at college studying international relations and Arabic at Washington University in St. Louis MO. And we still have son Addison at home for one more year as he finishes up at Wayland High School.”

1971 Tod J. Kaufman writes, “While Barrie led two classes in art glass sculpture at art schools in Nagoya, I lectured at Nagoya University law school in Japan this spring. The cherry blossoms were at their peak during our travel to Hokkaido where our daughter Paula was teaching English.

I was re-elected to an eight-year term in May and am presently chief judge for the fourth time for West Virginia’s largest state trial circuit. I am sorry I missed our 45th; notwithstanding the fact that I felt Tony should have been awarded alumni of the year. I confess to being biased on this one!”

1972 Amy A. Jarret t writes, “Hi, all classmates! 2017—next year—is our 45th reunion year. Hope you all will be coming back to GS. Barbara

Winn, Brenda R. Palmer, Val K. Morrissey, and I got together to talk about the reunion and catch up on what we have been up to since earlier this year. We have talked about a couple of places to have dinner and just plain catching up with members of the class since the 40th reunion.

See you all May 5-7, 2017!”

1973 Eleanor (Ellie) S. Lathrop writes, “I retired in early June 2015 and am loving it. I’ve taken two trips to NJ to visit family. Hiked in Yosemite. Drove across the country by myself in my van converted into a camper for one. I picked up my husband, Al Deichsel, in Boston for the return trip. Spent February in Palm Springs and headed back again.

Recently returned from two weeks on a sailboat in Alaska. I’m now in Bend OR ready to embark on a bicycle trip through the high Cascade lake area including around Crater Lake. I also play lots of golf and occasionally substitute teach yoga classes at our YMCA. Life is good.”

1974 Adam R. Kraar writes, “My play In Loco Parentis will be presented at Bristol Riverside Theatre (BRT) on April 3, 2017 at 6:00 p.m., as part of their American Rising Reading Series. The play is set at a co-ed Quaker boarding school during the Vietnam War. The reading will take place at the BRT Studio, 201 Cedar Street, Bristol PA, not far from George School. For further information, visit: http://www.brtstage.org/onstage/#americaRising

1975 Terry A. Benczik writes, “This year I was not yet healthy enough to travel to our reunion. (I’ve been wrestling with a little bit of lung cancer and at times have had issues walking and speaking.) So my friend extended her trip to the Northeast by another day and came to visit me in New Jersey. But she kept a wonderful secret from me. She arranged my good friend and classmate Chuck

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MacGill to show up on my doorstep as an additional surprise so that the three of us could be reunited. (It seemed the three of us were always together in high school). The both of them really touched my heart and lifted my spirits in an indescribable way. It was an additional ‘class reunion’ prompted by this year’s reunion in May.” Pamela (Pam) J. Holberton writes, “I will publish my third book, my second for children, as soon as I get out of being in a cast for four months from breaking my right foot.

It is entitled The Feelings Caper. It is a story about a boy who loses his feelings because of a harsh father but finds them again in a magical world.

Otherwise I am in touch with Kate Rogers and Nan Mugge Alden regularly.”

1976 Sarah V. Chace writes, “I’ve just relocated to Williamsburg VA for a new job teaching leadership at a nearby college. I could not be happier with this new turn of events, and I feel closer than ever to George School.

I was sorry to miss the reunion last year, but I did get to see Harry Bogaev and Becky Armstrong ’75 while on a trip to the Land of Enchantment last fall. I love being in touch via Facebook, and send my warmest regards to all.”

Hank B. Siegel received the American Gem Society Triple Zero® Award in recognition of his leadership in the jewelry industry and for his countless accomplishments and contributions to the industry and the communities he serves. The term “Triple Zero” represents the highest grade in the AGS Diamond Grading Standards.

1978 Howard I. Molitch writes, “Hi to all long lost friends! What’s new for me is spearheading a project to create “Sitting Bull National Forest” by renaming Custer & Black Hills National Forests. The petition received over 15,700 signatures from 50 states

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in the first 4 weeks, so off to good start. And if you like the idea, then please share it with your circle, and by all means sign the petition (link below). On a more mundane note, just doing well with health, work, and play (woodworking and such). Cedar strip kayak ‘Water Moccasin’ was a recent project. Thanks, and I hope all are well. https://www.change.org/p/usdasecretary-tom-vilsack-rename-custerand-black-hills-national-forests-tositting-bull-national-forest.”

this past year, and my aunt Carol Roberts Todd ’47 the previous year. My mother, Alice Roberts Powelson ’42 resides at Frasier Meadows Memory Care in Boulder CO. She is well taken care of, and her time as a house mother at the AFSC Quaker run Children’s Village in Bad Aibling, Austria after World War II is part of a German doctorate student’s work on how the AFSC and Quakers helped the orphans find families to take care of them.”

Emily Rojo Schot tland writes, “I am working as a reading specialist in NYC and doing a graduate program in teacher leadership at Brandeis University. Other sources of joy include tap dancing, biking, and soaking in the culture of this urban life.”

Tobi B. Elkin writes, “Dear Friends and Classmates, I’ll be setting out on a rail and writing adventure in early October as part of Amtrak’s Writers Residency program! I’m honored to have been selected as one of 24 writers to participate in the program which will enable me to work on my own writing project. Please follow me on Facebook, Twitter (@tobielkin), and Instagram (telkin) as I travel coast-tocoast from NYC to Chicago, then to Whitefish, Montana (the gateway to Glacier National Park, which Chris Kardish says is amazing!), and on to Seattle. From Seattle, I’ll board Amtrak’s iconic Coast Starlight and travel down the Pacific Coast to Los Angeles CA with a stop in San Jose to visit family. From LA, I head back to NYC with a brief stop in Chicago. I’ll do my best to document the journey on social media. While I’ve traveled various segments of the Pacific Coast Highway by car, I haven’t made the trip by rail. Here is the link to the release on participants: http://blog. amtrak.com/meet-writers-selected2016-amtrak-residency-program/.”

1979 Patricia Moir Newell writes, “Moved out of Washington DC to a 47-acre farm in western Maryland.

Living with my horses, sheep, chickens, ducks, donkey, cats, and dogs.

Feels like I finally found where I belong. Come visit!!”

1981 Susanna (Sue) Bush Manstein writes, “Johanna Josephson Schoeller and I hosted the Philadelphia area barbeque for incoming Amherst freshmen and alumni in August. Her daughter Maggie is a sophomore and my daughter Lila is a junior at Amherst College.”

1982 Carolyn Powelson Campbell writes, “I have gone back to school for a post-baccalaureate in Speech and Language Pathology, and hope to get certified as an aide, and later go for a masters. My husband Tom continues working for the government as an advisor about disruptive and emerging technologies. While I am studying, I may privately tutor several South Korean students in ESL over Skype, as well as tutor on local elementary, middle school and high school students. I am sad to report the death of my uncle Kirk Roberts ’40

1983 Michael (Mike) W. Baker writes, “I might be moving to Miami and am wondering if any classmates are there.”

Editor’s note: Check out GS Connect alumni mobile app powered by Evertrue, for easy access to our alumni directory including an “alumni nearby” map. www.georgeschool.org/connect.

ALUMNI TELL US

Audrey B. Pass writes, “Just dropped off my daughter in sunny California where she is a freshman at UCLA. I remain a true blue New Yorker, enjoying my role as the chief marketing officer of the Empire State Building and parent company, Empire State Realty Trust.”

1984 Walter J. Hoffmann writes, “I enjoyed finally completing the project honoring George Hart ’37 regarding the Reading Railroad’s Newtown Branch and how it shaped life at GS from the 1890s to the 1980s. I learned that some of my classmates rode the train on various occasions, including Kate Bruton, Laura Goldberg Saluja, Francesca Kule Kennedy, and Chris Rohner. I also heard from alums from the Classes of 1940 through 1979 who shared great memories of taking the train to get to work or fun times in Center City, as an alarm clock, or for purposes they chose not to specify. I even learned who was responsible for the railgreasing prank in the 1920s. (See the GS 100th Anniversary history book for more details.) I also saw my first pictures of the station building’s demise in 1971. Not my favorite pictures, but they did fill blank spots in the historical record. The dedication ceremony in April 2016 was a great deal of fun. Thanks to Larry Eastwood and Cory Amsler for sharing memories of George, his love for trains, and his work documenting activity around the railroad station.

I’d also like to thank Odie Lefever, Dave Long, Mike Gersie, Vincent Campellone, and Nancy Starmer for their help and support of this endeavor. Now, could someone please tell Wendy Margulies that the ‘Stairs to Nowhere’ really do exist?”

Hannah Gosnell Schneider writes, “It’s so great being reconnected to GS after 32 years and seeing this amazing school through fresh parent eyes. My daughter Emma ’19 is a new sophomore boarder this year and is already flourishing. Feeling delayed gratitude that I got to go there too.

Many of my teachers from the early 1980s are still there!”

1985 Victor Khodadad writes, “I am a co-founder of New York City’s newest opera company New Camerata Opera!

The opening main stage production, The Count of Luxembourg and Other Tales: A Viennese Pastiche was performed in October. The production was sung in German with English dialogue and supertitles and accompanied by chamber orchestra. A big shout out to the many GS alums who have supported our efforts. For info and tickets please visit www.newcamerataopera.org.”

Jennifer A. Muth writes, “Living in New Orleans is fun year ‘round, but peaks on Mardi Gras day. It was made even more fun when Michelle Ann Medleycot t Joyce came down to join the celebration! We masked and walked in the parade of the Society of St. Anne.”

1986 Rudy Berk writes, “What an excellent 30-year reunion. It was great seeing you all, and I can’t wait till the next time we can all get together for something. Thank you all for helping me remember how to go strong into the wee hours. If not sooner, then I will see you all in 2021!”

Jennifer ( Jen) Schmit t Perry writes, “It was so good to see everyone at the 30th reunion this year.

Even more special to go with my son Griffin who was born there and left at age 8. He felt like it was his first reunion and enjoyed seeing returning graduates, faculty, and staff that had touched his life. He just graduated and left for college. Hard to believe.

Love to you all.”

1989 Kristin Moore Major writes, “My husband, David, and I are still living just outside Charlotte and raising three boys (David John, 13, Zachary, 11, and Austin, 9). I have placed my legal career on long-term

hold to raise our sons. I remain licensed in NC and help a variety of non-profits (our Episcopal church parish and the NC Labrador Retriever rescue group). Our eldest son spent three weeks this summer at Davidson College in Davidson NC and I credit my time at GS for the courage to let him go on that adventure!”

1990 Daniel (Dan) B. Davies writes, “My family and I discovered camping this summer in South Jersey. It has been a ton of fun for all of us. A highlight has been observing bald eagles soaring above the marshes and rivers.

Our kids have become avid little anglers and have really embraced being plugged in to nature. I work and travel frequently in the tri state area (PA, NJ, & NY) and look forward to meeting up with GS alums.”

Editor’s note: Check out GS Connect alumni mobile app powered by Evertrue, for easy access to our alumni directory including an “alumni nearby” map. www.georgeschool.org/connect.

Daniel (Dan) J. Freedman writes, “I keep getting calls from Steve Jo. I’m not sure why. I keep asking Tony Winter to come with me to Toronto to harass the members of RUSH, but he’s not interested.

I wished Peter Flood a happy birthday on Facebook, but he didn’t ‘like’ my message.”

Leslie S. Schreiber writes, “After 20 years of living in Vermont, I have moved to the Washington DC area!

I’m enjoying attending Georgetown and George Mason University to study Leadership Coaching, Organizational Development, and Human Centered Design Thinking. I had lunch with Scot t Seraydarian recently in Doylestown PA. Would love to reconnect with more mid-Atlantic alums.”

1992 Ryan R. Adams writes, “Hello classmates, alum and friends! I am pleased to share that I enjoyed time at the amazing alumni weekend this

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year. The company, campus, and activities were superb, and it was great to get caught up with so many of you, albeit too briefly. Class of 1992...we need to get our game on for our 25th next year! Overall, the Adams clan has been enjoying the outdoors (Jennie and I recently did a half marathon in NYC), traveling (to Key Largo this year) and trying to keep up with our two boys (who go to NFS and play a ton of sports). We live in Yardley and I work in NYC in the media industry.

If you’re in Union Square or near GS please drop me a line. Always great connecting with old friends.”

Devan Anding Norris writes, “I recently started with Delta Air Lines, and am a first officer on the 737 based in New York. The travel is wonderful and my new job allows me to visit friends all over the country.

It also gives me plenty of material for my column in Aviation for Women magazine!”

1993 Elijah (Lije) S. Dornstreich writes, “Gennifer Miller Dornstreich ’99 and I welcomed our second daughter Penelope in December 2015. She is doing great! Big sister Miriam is two-and-a-half and a very good mentor. We live outside Philly in Elkins Park.”

Jonathan ( Jon) M. Zlock writes, “Hey, um, y’all. Just a quick update from the Zlock family. My wife Molly and I moved to Nashville in June 2015 with our twins, Deacon and Harper. I took a job as the director of communications for LEAD Public Schools, Music City’s largest non-profit charter school network. Molly is an assistant dean and the Title IX coordinator at Belmont University. We just bought our first home and Deke and Harper are adjusting splendidly to the south.

If you’re ever in the area, don’t hesitate to reach out. Much love to all!”

1994 David (Dave) V. Senior writes, “I’ve organized a small exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New

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York with Martha Wilson ’65 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the art space and archive, Franklin Furnace, which Martha founded in downtown NYC in 1976. We will show historical documents, artists’ books, and videos from the early days of the space. It will be on view thru January 7, 2017.”

Jonathan ( Jon) C. Slaght writes, “My translation of Vladimir Arsenyev’s 1921 cultural and natural history classic, Across the Ussuri Kray, came out in September from Indiana University Press. This Russian book was partial source material for Akira Kurosawa’s 1975 Academy Award winning film, Dersu Uzala. My translation, which took three years to complete, includes several hundred annotations, nearly 40 photographs from Arsenyev’s expeditions, and two maps.”

1996 Do (Roderick) H. Kim writes, “I am thrilled to share that my daughter Charlot te Kim ’20 is a freshman at George School this year! I am very proud of her and I am sure that she will have a wonderful year at GS.”

1997 Henry Capellan writes, “I’m living in Manhattan with my wife Becca and our 2-year-old son Wesley.

I work in equities at Oppenheimer and my wife is a publicist for actors.

I have stayed in touch with Jevon Thoresen and Kevin Edwards over the years. In addition, I run into Dashiell Flynn ’95 often and coincidentally our wives graduated from Phillips Andover Academy together.

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoyed the summer.”

1998 Elizabeth (Lizzy) A. Falconi writes, “In February 2016 my husband Steve and I welcomed our second child, Caleb Arthur Black-Falconi, into the world! Our older daughter Amelia is adjusting very well to life as a big sister and we are all enjoying our new life as a sleep deprived family.”

Jody A. Guokas writes, “I live in

Asheville NC where I started one of the area’s leading green building firms focusing on infill, custom homes, and green renovations, and have built more than 100 new homes. I was also selected as the builder for the 2015 HGTV Urban Oasis and built a home for the current mayor. I married my wife Jessica in 2013 and our first son Birch was born in 2014. Second son Jet, arrived in 2015. Life is good and busy!”

Ama K. Karikari-Yawson writes, “Hello Pennsylvanians! I pray that you all are well. I made a huge life change in August of 2015.

After years as a corporate attorney at both Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton and Citigroup Inc., I quit my job to become a full-time author, storyteller, and educator. It was such a tough decision given the fact that I have two young children to raise with my husband. But I LOVE my new life. I perform my best-selling fable, Sunne’s Gift, at colleges where I teach career planning, at school assemblies where I teach bullying prevention and college essay writing, and at corporations were I do cultural sensitivity, diversity, and harassment prevention training sessions. I’d love to visit your organization. Email me at milestalespublishing@gmail.com.”

1999 John D. Fort writes, “I am teaching chemistry and geology at Chaffey High School, one of the top 15 most beautiful campuses in California. I was excited to be in touch with my former GS teachers Paul Machemer ’65, Rob Orr ’76, Bill Enos, and Steve Jo ’90 and enjoyed their feedback on my opening lesson plan, ‘Modeling Respect in the Science Classroom.’ My students love hearing stories about mythical and faraway places like Ntchisi Mountain in Malawi and the Neshaminy Creek Trestle in Newtown, PA. Please send us ROCKS from where you live. (Flat rate priority rate boxes work great for this!) Chaffey High School Geology Department; 1245 N Euclid Ave, Ontario CA 91762.

ALUMNI TELL US

1990 Leslie S. Schreiber ’90 and Scott Seraydarian ’90.

1993 Elijah (Lije) S. Dornstreich ’93 shared a photo of daughters Penelope and Miriam.

1994 Jonathan C. Slaught ’94 translated Across the Ussuri Kray

by Vladimir Arsenyev.

1998 Elizabeth (Lizzy) A. Falconi ’98 shares a photo of her husband Steve and children Caleb and Amelia.

1998 Ama K. Karikari-Yawson ’98.

1999 Kathryn (Kate) C. Machemer Kiernan ’99 married Karl Kiernan in Hertfordshire, England.

1999 Angi R. West ’99 shared a photo from her wedding to Matt Drury.

2000 Kristin Collier Taddeo ’00 shared a photo of her daughter Kayla Taddeo.

2001 Kalindi Attar ’01.

2002 The July wedding of Corey C. Spells ’02.

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Kathryn (Kate) C. Kiernan writes, “Hi everyone. Lots has been going on in the last year and thought it was about time to catch up with everyone from GS. I am still living in England and loving life here. In the summer of 2015, I saw the culmination of 4 years of hard work pay off when the England U19 Women’s Lacrosse team, who I was managing/ assistant coaching, won the bronze medal at the World Championships. It was an amazing experience. Hockey/ lax people will be pleased to know that I carried on Nancy Bernardini’s (fac) tradition of writing an inspirational poem mentioning everyone involved. Then in a small intimate ceremony, I married a wonderful British man Karl Kiernan in December 2015, in Hertfordshire England.

Being so close to Christmas, only family were able to make the journey over but joining us on the day were: Pam Machemer (ffac), Paul Machemer ’65 (fac), Robert Machemer ’92 (fac), and Corona Machemer ’60. The day was typically rainy but perfect despite the groom having the flu. The day included a Quaker ceremony upholding the GS tradition where many wise words and amusing stories were shared. This summer for our honeymoon, Karl and I drove 3,000 miles around the States visiting various sites and grooving to great American radio. One of the highlights had to be meeting up with Greta Anderson ’01 over po’boys in New Orleans! The trip was brilliant and culminated back at GS, visiting family and seeing the next Machemer generation becoming obsessed with soccer!

Angi R. West writes, “In August 2016 I married my beloved Matt Drury from Louisville KY. George School family was in full force: Jody Guokas ’98, Lucy Lang, Linnea Wilson Hayward, Michael Files ’00, Hamilton McNut t ’00, Becky Marshall-Peel (also married this year!), Becky Collins (getting married in October!), John Baker, Alex Cohen, Rick and Carolyn Waghorne (p ’99), and

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Laura Sat terthwaite. Hmmm I hope I’m not forgetting anyone! We had a weekend I will never forget in Hot Springs NC.”

2000 Kristin A. Collier writes, “The past twelve months have been filled with joyous life milestones which included getting married to Jason Taddeo in Philadelphia in November 2015. Fellow alums Julie and Andrew ’04 Carten attended.

Then we celebrated the birth of our daughter, Kayla Sophie, in September. Looking forward to many more adventures to come.”

Fenna C. Mandolang writes, “Hello from Buffalo NY. As of May 2016 I am a proud first time home owner (and landlord too). Among other benefits, this means I can more readily and warmly welcome guests to my home. If you are visiting Niagara Falls or passing through on the NYS Thruway, consider stopping by for a tea or a free night of accommodation.”

Kai Xing writes, “In March we welcomed our daughter Kailey! She is a wonderful baby and her older brother is trying to like her. Started restoration on a 1971 BMW 3.0CSi and am trying to juggle that with life.”

2001 Kalindi At tar writes, “I have been living in an indigenous village in the mountains of Oaxaca Mexico for the past 8 years. There I have a social venture, supporting more than 200 Zapotec women who spin organic cotton thread from their homes on a locally replicated, wooden Gandhi wheel. The thread is hand woven or dyed with local herbs and other natural materials. The fabric is then embroidered and joined to make a wide array of clothing. Visit www. facebook.com/khadioaxaca. I also helped to start a school specializing in alternative education. Visit https://www.facebook.com/Ecovillananda-Artesanando-la-Tierra337385639612525/?fref=ts. My husband and I run a small retreat space

that focuses on yoga, breath work, and meditation.”

2002 Corey C. Spells writes, “I am still living in London and got married in Berkeley CA in July. I had a lot of my GS family in attendance and we all had a great time!”

2003 Theodore ( Ted) R. Colegrove writes, “I just married the love of my life Andrea Tramontana in August 2016 in Bethlehem PA. Ross A. Hollister writes, “I left Afghanistan last fall to start a masters program in foreign service at Georgetown University and spent this past summer working with a Syrian governance organization in southern Turkey. I’m planning to work on US foreign policy toward South Asia after graduating.”

Christopher (Chris) A. MacDonald writes, “My wife Carrie and I are pleased to share the arrival of our first child, a baby girl. Clara Avery MacDonald was born in September 2016. We are both looking forward to spending a few months at home with Clara this fall.”

2004 Daniel (Dan) C. Suchenski writes, “I am the executive director of the Governor’s STEM Council for the State of Delaware and we had our third annual Delaware STEM Symposium and Educator Awards Ceremony in Newark Delaware at Clayton Hall. Find out more at: www.delawarestem.org.”

2005 Jason Hellinger writes, “I have just wrapped up my time in the Managed Care Rotational Program at Cigna. I recently accepted a new position as a process engineer on the Operating Effectiveness team for Cigna’s senior segment business.

Really enjoying Baltimore and getting to travel a bit!”

ALUMNI TELL US

2003 Ross Hollister ’03 and Ian Rhodewalt ’03.

2003 Christopher (Chris) A. MacDonald ’03 shared a photo of Clara Avery MacDonald.

2003 Theodore (Ted) R. Colegrove ’03 sand Andrea Colegrove.

2006 Michael (Mike) J. Murphy ’06 married Caitlin Zambon.

2008 Daniel (Dan) P. Vari ’08 and Dr. Kelly Bradley-Dodds ’87 discovered their GS connection at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.

2012 Bryce T. Miller ’12.

NO NEWS

C L ASS NOTES keep the fun going!

FROM YOUR

Send your update today

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for the next edition.

And don’t forget to send pictures!

DE ADLINE IS MARCH 1, 2017.

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2006 Michael (Mike) J. Murphy writes, “I married Caitlin Zambon in August 2016 in Philadelphia PA. In attendance were my brother and best man Vincent Murphy ’03, my sister Margaret Murphy Zuegner ’99, Bill Ross ’03, and Zachary Logan Gould ’03.

2007 Anima T. Acheampong writes, “Hello GS! After graduating with a BA in Psychology from Wesleyan University, I decided that I wanted to be in school forever and went on to earn my BSN in an accelerated program at DeSales University. I now live in Philly and work as a registered nurse in the Neonatal/Infant Intensive Care Unit at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Every work day is a new adventure! I remain grateful for the love of community that GS instilled in me. I volunteer throughout the local community as an active member of The Junior League of Philadelphia.

Lastly, I can’t believe our ten-year reunion is coming up. That’s scary.”

Alison L. Craw ford writes, “Enjoying the beginning of my sixth year of teaching in Boston. So appreciative of the values George School instilled in me and the inspiring teaching and mentorship I received at GS! I was delighted to run into retired history teacher John Davison (ffac) at my Haverford College reunion in May and have the chance to catch up!”

2008 Daniel (Dan) P. Vari writes, “I attended Lehigh University and am currently a fourth year medical student at Jefferson Medical College.

I am currently applying for a pediatric residency. I met Dr. Kelly Bradley-Dodds ’87, who attended Bryn Mawr College and then Jefferson Medical College and is now an attending physician with Einstein Healthcare Network after previously serving as the Pediatric Residency Program Director at Crozer Keystone Health System. I met Kelly while I

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was doing a pediatrics rotation at St. Christopher’s. We are not the only members of our families with George School roots as we both have siblings who attended including Kelly’s sister Amber Bradley ’95 and my brother Gabor Vari ’96. Kelly is also the daughter of recently retired history teacher and associate head of school Fran Bradley (ffac).

We are both looking forward to returning to George School for the next alumni day.”

2009 Olivia K. Burns writes, “It was great to see lots of old friends and teachers at this past alumni weekend.

Since then, a lot has changed for me.

I’ve moved to Washington DC, taken a summer class at Georgetown, interned in the US House of Representatives, and accepted a full-time offer as a financial economic associate in a consulting firm here in the district. As always, each new person I meet is a chance to share my GS experience and how the people I met there shaped who I am today.”

Kabir Chopra writes, “I’ve had the pleasure to work on two incredible projects this fall. The first is a new play from Hypokrit Theatre Company, Chokher Bali, based on the classic story by Rabindranath Tagore. I played one of the leads in this modern adaptation. The second project is Horror Time with the one and only James Franco! I’ve had the pleasure of participating in his summer Masterclass at Studio 4 NYC where I was one of 11 screenwriters working on a feature length horror film.

We start filming this fall, so stay tuned! This summer, we participated in the Asian American Film Lab’s 72 Hour Shootout. Our short film “Vanilla” was written, shot, and edited within 72 hours and we took home three prizes!”

2012 Bryce T. Miller writes, “Following my graduation from RPI, I am seeking employment in the New York Capital Region while volunteering

as the Membership Coordinator at a local makerspace.”

Editor’s note: Check out GS Connect alumni mobile app powered by Evertrue, for easy access to our alumni directory including an “alumni nearby” map. www.georgeschool.org/connect.

2015 Natalie H. Abulhawa writes, “I’m starting my athletic training clinical work next semester, and my advisors are in the process of deciding what school they’ll be sending me to.

They have it narrowed down between GFS and Shipley. I wonder if I can rock GS Athletic gear to work?”

2016 Tran Anh H. Nguyen writes, “I wanted to skip commencement meeting for worship, fearing that it would bore me like the others. I decided to go and sit with my friends. Twenty minutes in I looked around at everyone and tears kept rolling down my eyes until I was fully bawling. Stood up to stutter a few words as my friends followed me one by one, all with tears down their eyes. George School was unforgettable.”

Class notes for this issue were received as of September 20, 2016. Class notes received by March 1, 2017 will be included in the next Georgian.

The “Alumni Tell Us” and “In Memoriam” sections of the Georgian are shared online. If you do not want your name to be included in notes from others, please contact us at advancement@georgeschool.org or 215.579.6564.

The views and opinions expressed in class notes do not necessarily represent those of the school. Notes submitted for publication might be edited due to space limitations and Georgian style guidelines.

IN MEMORIAM

In Memoriam Gertrude (Trudy) Mitchell Bell ’30 February 19, 2016 Trudy died at Normandy Farms Estates in Blue Bell PA. She was 103.

Trudy is survived by her children, four grandchildren, and four greatgrandchildren. A lifelong Quaker, Trudy grew up in Hockessin DE and graduated from both Swarthmore College in Swarthmore PA, and Columbia University School of Library Service in New York NY. Trudy had many fond memories of George School, including Miss Thwing’s hiking class and the popular toboggan run. Her mother, Lillian Cloud Mitchell class of 1898, was also a George School graduate.

John H. Wood Jr. ’33 April 1, 2016 John’s family was very active in the Society of Friends, and throughout his life John remained a committed and active member of Middletown Monthly Meeting, Bucks County Quarterly Meeting, and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. As part of his involvement, he served on many committees, and held a variety of leadership positions, including Clerkship of Middletown Monthly Meeting. John graduated from Swarthmore College in 1937 and went on to receive a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia PA. Early in his legal career, he worked for the City of Philadelphia, the War Labor Relations Board, and the firm of Duane, Morris, and Heckscher. He later opened a law office in Langhorne PA and was active in the Bucks County Bar Association. He was an active member of Kiwanis and a board member of Jeans Hospital, and Friends Fiduciary Corporation. John is survived by his four children, John C. Wood ’63, Roger F. Wood ’65,

Elizabeth Wood Fritsch ’69, and Susan Yardley Wood ’75; seven grandchildren, including Timothy A. Fritsch ’03; and six great-grandchildren. He also is survived by his sister, Sarah Wood Fell ’45; and a niece.

Miriam (Molly) E. Eyre ’38 April 1, 2016 Molly was a beloved daughter, sister, and aunt. She is survived by her nephews, nieces, seven great-nieces, five great-nephews, and their families.

Molly was a former George School Trustee from 1966—1974.

John R. Cary ’41 June 29, 2016 John Richard Cary was a loving partner and father, Quaker, professor of German literature, exuberant accordion and piano player, cheery optimist, and lover of peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches. He was passionate about grammar and linguistics, as well as the value of civility of all persons. Reading the New York Times from cover to cover, he could be counted on to provide clippings of interesting articles and cartoons. John entered Haverford College in Haverford PA, just in time for Pearl Harbor and the draft. John’s Quaker beliefs and ideals led him to gain conscientious objector (CO) status. John served with the Civilian Public Service in a logging camp and later joined a CO unit acting as a subject in tests of hearing protection equipment considered for use by soldiers in the field. In 1946, John returned to Haverford, finished his degree in German and then went on to take a doctorate at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore MD. Among his many activities, he excelled on the cricket and soccer field. He received a teaching post at Haverford, where he remained for thirty-seven years as a tenured professor in the German department. John’s Quaker faith was an important part of his world view

and he deeply valued being part of different Quaker communities.

Married for sixty-five years, John and his wife Cathy raised four daughters.

Mary Elizabeth (Liz) Ridge Allison ’43 August 14, 2016 Liz is survived by her three sons David Allison ’68, Geoffrey M. Allison ’72, and Stephen G. Allison ’75, and six grandchildren.

Liz was an avid golfer, loved to play bridge and travel. She was an active member of the Langhorne Garden Club. For many years she did volunteer work at Doylestown Hospital and Phillips Mill. Her family and friends will remember Liz for her great sense of style, loquaciousness, and warmth.

Mariane Buckman Ewing ’44 October 6, 2016 Mariane was married to Charles Henry Ewing, ’44, who she met at George School. She grew up on the campus of George School for much of her life, because her father was the business manager. A birthright Quaker, Mariane was very grateful for her time at George School. She is survived by a daughter and son as well as three grandchildren.

Alice E. Duncan ’44 March 23, 2016 Born in Toronto Canada, Alice was a longtime resident of the greater Washington DC area. She was a career nurse serving as the Chief of Cancer Nursing Service for the Clinical Center at The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda MD in the 1970s.

She received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University School of Nursing at New York Hospital in New York City and a master’s degree in nursing from Boston University in Boston MA. Alice is survived by her brother, John O. Duncan ’45, and sister-in-law, one niece, and four nephews.

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Charles (Charlie) S. Hough ’44 March 9, 2016 Charlie was an architect in Philadelphia for forty-five years. While at George School, Charlie was president of his class and captain of the track team. He served in the Navy during World War II and earned degrees in art and architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia PA. He designed buildings for many of the Quaker schools in the region, as well as libraries, medical facilities, retirement communities, and other public structures. His proudest moment was dismantling and relocating the Twelfth Street 1812 Quaker Meetinghouse from its site in Philadelphia to George School in 1974. In addition to his work as an architect, Charlie was a busy civic volunteer. He served for two decades on the Zoning Hearing Board and the Planning Commission of Whitemarsh Township in Pennsylvania, was active in the founding of the William Jeanes Memorial Library in Lafayette Hill PA, and was a member of the Plymouth Meeting Historical Society. He served for many years on the George School Committee, and was a member and officer of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He was an active member, trustee, and property manager of the Plymouth Monthly Meeting. The Houghs were enthusiastic travelers, touring seventy countries. Charlie also enjoyed photography, listening to opera, making furniture, camping, gardening, delving into family history, and restoring his 1946 Willys Jeep. He is survived by his wife of sixty-three years, his daughter, sons, and four grandchildren.

Edgar (Ed) P. Leggett ’44 January 19, 2016 Following graduation from George School, Ed enlisted in the Navy where he served as a radio technician. After his discharge, he attended Rensselaer

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Polytechnic Institute in Troy NY, graduating in 1951 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He was a member of the Delta Phi fraternity as well as the Glee Club. He worked as a Research Engineer for General Motors in Bristol CT, for Daystrom Instruments in Archibald PA, and ABC-TV in New York. In the late 1970s, he began working as a broadcast engineer for WETA Channel 6 in Arlington VA, retiring in 1991. Ed became a very active member of the Goose Creek Quaker Meeting in Purcellville VA which he joined in 1983. He was especially dedicated to working with the library committee. Ed is survived by his sister, Katharine Legget t Downham ’48; his nephews and numerous great nieces and nephews.

M. Barbara Gilpin Beddall ’46 January 29, 2016 A graduate of Beaver College (now Arcadia University) in Glenside PA, Barbara was an active volunteer, including working at The Encore Shop, which benefits Chester County Hospital in West Chester PA. She was a former member of the Kennett Square Golf and Country Club and Hershey’s Mill Golf Club. Barbara and her husband spent many winters in Naples FL. She was a lifelong Quaker and is survived by her daughter, sonin-law, and one granddaughter.

Ann Hough Parkhurst ’48 July 18, 2016 Ann lived a long, creative life full of art, antiques, golf, and tennis.

During her time at George School, she was sophomore class treasurer, played field hockey, and learned to play bridge. Ann graduated from the University of Arizona in Tucson AZ in 1952. A lifelong athlete, Ann excelled at tennis and golf. She also enjoyed painting. She is survived by her husband, children Maeryta Ann Parkhurst Medrano ’7 1, Elizabeth Parkhurst Medrano ’74,

Scott Palmer Parkhurst and Charles Hough Parkhurst; two step-children; and ten grandchildren.

Nancy Finkbiner McCahan ’49 March 14, 2016 Nancy graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton IL in 1953 with a degree in psychology. She taught kindergarten at Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square PA before moving to Barrington RI. After raising her children, she began a successful career as a real estate agent. Nancy was active in numerous charities, including The United Way of Southeastern New England and The Junior League of Providence. She was a dedicated member of Barrington Presbyterian Church and a talented artist. She is survived by her children and seven grandchildren.

Charles (Chuck) H. Haines ’49 April 8, 2016 After graduation Chuck joined the Navy, serving during the Korean War on the USS Bataan. After returning home from the Navy, Chuck attended the University of Tulsa in Tulsa OK. He started his career with Sun Oil Company in 1960 as an assistant manager. He married his wife, Ann, in 1962. For the past twenty-five years Chuck has enjoyed spending time with family, playing golf, taking long walks, traveling, and gardening.

Chuck was a gentle, kind man who had an infectious smile, and wonderful laugh, who loved his family more than anything in the world. Throughout his journey with Lewy Body Disease, he maintained his sense of humor and generous nature. He was a loving husband of fifty-three years, father of four, grandfather of nine, and uncle to many nieces and nephews. Chuck was preceded in death by his mother, father and sisters. He is survived by his wife, son, three daughters, nine grandchildren, and several nieces, nephews and cousins.

IN MEMORIAM

John (Jack) P. Kelly II ’50 September 10, 2015 Jack was a graduate of Lehigh University in Bethlehem PA and proudly served his country as a Corpsman in the Navy. Jack summered on Long Beach Island NJ where he met the love of his life. He was the co-owner of Dover Appliance and Refrigeration and Dover Air Ducts, and of Crescent Farm Nursing Home. Jack took special pleasure in the fellowship of many groups throughout his life, including the Delaware Veterans of WWII, Delaware Veterans, Inc. Post #2, Holy Cross Church (Guidelines Committee), his friends in politics from both sides of the aisle, his friends in business, and his Irish setters. He was a member of the 123rd Delaware General Assembly representing the 27th Representative District from 1965-1967. Jack enjoyed golf, house restoration projects, the Philadelphia Eagles and Flyers, gin and tonics, his pipe, and peanuts. He took special dislike in the rest of the NFC East, especially the Dallas Cowboys. Most of all, Jack cherished the time spent with his family and friends. He is survived by his loving wife of sixty years, his children and their spouses, eight grandchildren, three greatgrandchildren, his brothers and their spouses, and many nephews, nieces, and cousins.

Elizabeth (Lili) Sweet Armstrong ’50 February 20, 2016 Lili was a medical anthropologist, an accomplished scholar having attended Goucher College in Baltimore MD, New York University, and Columbia University in New York City. Lili and her husband, Don traveled throughout the world lecturing at medical meetings and she worked at a refugee camp at the Thai and Cambodian border. While living in New York and New Mexico, Lili loved to entertain, talk politics, go birding and cook— especially Chinese food­— and shared

many wonderful meals with family, friends, and colleagues. Lili is survived by her devoted husband of sixty-two years, Donald Armstrong MD, ’49 and their four children Rebecca Armstrong ’75, Alison Armstrong ’7 7, Priscilla and Bradford, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Sarah (Sally) Canfield Smith ’51 September 11, 2016 Sally received her bachelors degree from Radcliffe College in Cambridge MA in 1955. She was, for many years, the head of St. Ann’s Preschool in Brooklyn NY. Following her retirement, she moved to the Canfield family farmhouse in Arlington VT, and became active in the community. She was a member of St. James’ Episcopal Church, where she served on the vestry committee and helped produce the church bulletin. She was a volunteer at the Martha Canfield Library in Arlington VT, serving on the collection committee and working at the library book sales. She volunteered at the library’s Russell Vermontiana Collection and created a walking tour guide to historic houses in Arlington.

She was also a member of the Arlington Garden Club and the Association of American University Women, and she led a weekly Bone Builders class in East Arlington. Sally is survived by her children, sons-in-law, daughterin-law, and six grandchildren.

mayor in the late 80s and early 90s, died after a long battle with heart failure. He attended Cornell University in Ithaca NY, earning a BA in history and a PhD. After winning the election for City Council in 1971, Christopher was a serious proponent of innovative housing rehabilitation and neighborhood development programs. While serving on council, he was co-chairman with Los Angeles Mayor Thomas Bradley on the National League of Cities for the league’s task force on general revenue sharing. Chris lost a run for the state Senate against the Republican incumbent in 1982 and it was the only defeat of his political career. One year later came one of Chris’ final acts in City Council, a contentious battle over gay rights.

After the president of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce refused to allow the Gay Alliance of Genesee Valley access to the chamber’s banquet hall, Christopher warned against allowing the city to “write a blank check for bigotry.” He began hosting a weekly six-minute political talk segment in 1984, To the Point With Christopher Lindley and in 1989 became deputy mayor. Following his retirement as deputy mayor, he volunteered and enjoyed his grandchildren. He is survived by his wife, two sons, three stepsons, two brothers, and eleven grandchildren.

Richard T. Dare ’51 December 22, 2015 Richard is survived by his children and their spouses, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and many other family members and friends.

James R. Quigg Jr. ’51 June 3, 2016 James was a resident of Richmond IN at the time of his passing. He received his bachelor’s degree from Miami University in Oxford OH and received his law degree from the Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington. He served in the United States Army Reserves.

Christopher Lindley ’51 September 30, 2016 Chris, who brought his quick wit and strong will to city government as Mayor Thomas P. Ryan’s deputy

Allen C. Starkey ’52 February 15, 2016 Allen graduated Pennsylvania State University in State College PA in 1956. For more than forty years,

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he worked as a chemical sales representative for Rohm and Haas Corporation. Allen enjoyed rugby, cheering on the Nittany Lions, and travel. He is survived by his loving wife of fifty-nine years, his brother and daughters, four grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews.

Eugene P. Bachmann III ’53 May 21, 2016 Eugene graduated from Lafayette College in Easton PA in 1958.

Following a two-year service in the United States Coast Guard, he worked for over twenty years in his family’s textile business in Philadelphia.

His life’s passions included sailing, fishing, gardening, and a profound love of animals. He is survived by his former wife, three children, and four grandchildren.

J. Stephen (Steve) Guyton ’55 July 4, 2015 Steve graduated from Colgate University in Hamilton NY where he received a BA in geology with a minor in economics and was a member of ATO Fraternity. Steve went on to attend the University of Michigan where he received a MS in Geology.

Steve was an independent oil operator/consultant for various oil and gas ventures. He was a member of several professional associations including the American Association of Petroleum Geologist, South Texas Geological Society, and West Texas Geological Society. He enjoyed road trips with friends and family and loved traveling and exploring new places. His other passion was education which was instilled in him by his mother. He supported and contributed to the education of his children and grandchildren. It delighted him to see them pursuing their dreams, going to college, and receiving their degrees and diplomas.

He was always encouraging. He is survived by his wife, daughters and their mother; brother, Thomas H.

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Guyton ’62; six grandchildren; one great-grandchild; brother-in-law; and many numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Mary Butler Bode ’56 October 3, 2015 Carol Knight John ’58 June 12, 2016 Carol was a member of the Religious Society of Friends and belonged to Westfield Friends Meeting in Cinnaminson NJ. She attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia PA, where she received a degree in occupational therapy.

Carol taught occupational therapy at Ithaca College in Ithaca NY. Carol was a hiker, sailor, marathoner, triathlete, gifted teacher, master gardener, and prolific quilter. Whatever she undertook she did with energy, passion, and generosity. She will be remembered with love for operating Wonderful Wheelchairs, a charity which restores and repairs wheelchairs for the needy, and for her commitment to the Tompkins County Quilter’s Guild. Carol is survived by her husband; sister Mary Anne Knight Hunter ’54; brother Robert W. Knight ’62; children Walter S. Harley ’81, John C. Harley ’85, and Rachel Harley Mitchell ’88; grand son; six stepchildren; and many step grandchildren, cousins, nephews, and nieces.

Dillwyn P. Paiste IV ’58 May 2, 2016 Born in Atlanta GA, Dill was the only son of Dillwyn Parrish Paiste III and Elizabeth Walton Paiste ’28.

He grew up in Natick and Wellesley MA, and Lancaster PA, graduating from both George School and the University of Maine. In 1963, he went to work for Crocker Burbank Paper Company in Fitchburg MA and continued with successor companies including Weyerhauser Corporation, James River Corporation, and Custom Papers, Inc. before retiring in 1999 from Fibermark, Inc. as Vice President

of Sales and Marketing. He loved the variety of working in the specialty papers field and was one of the three people who developed archival mat board. Prior to his retirement, he was a board member of the FitchburgLeominster Massachusetts Red Cross, and organized every Bloodmobile at his mill for many years. He was also a member of TAPPI (a paper industry organization) and the CCA in Maine.

After retiring, he was a member of the Success by Six board as well as heading the finance committee at Phippsburg Congregational Church that raised funds to finance the construction of the Linden Tree Meetinghouse.

His major passion was Family Focus, for which he worked tirelessly as both a board member and board chair.

Jean-Claude Kaufmann ’61 Patricia (Pat) Harned Kelly ’61 January 24, 2016 Pat was born in Philadelphia, raised in Wayne PA, and educated at George School, Endicott College in Beverly MA, and Temple University School of Nursing in Philadelphia PA. “Miss Pat” was a certified Montessori teacher, and devoted her life to the teaching of children. Pat is survived by her sister, Nancy Harned Ingersoll ’64.

Thomas (Tom) F. Thomas Jr. ’61 May 6, 2016 Tom developed his love for woodworking and furniture making while at George School. His family continues to enjoy the fine pieces he made over the years. He attended Windham College in Putney VT and then served in the US Navy for two and a half years. Tom started Essex Boat Company and worked in the family business, Thomas & Muller Co., Inc., before establishing his own company Thomas & Muller Systems, Ltd. He enjoyed the challenges of finding engineering solutions to customers’ problems. He is survived by his wife, three sons, grandchildren and brother Peter M. Thomas ’59.

IN MEMORIAM

Karen Aufmuth Hasskarl ’66 April 9, 2011 Karen was a resident of Bristol VT. Louisa L. Chase ’69 May 8, 2016 Louisa’s turbulent canvases, with their landscape-derived images and ghostly torsos and hands, made her one of the brightest young stars in the much-heralded resurgence of painting in the 1980s. Louisa grew up in Mount Gretna PA, before enrolling in Syracuse University in Syracuse NY with the intention of studying classics. She found her way to art and earned a degree in printmaking in 1973. She received a MFA from Yale in New Haven CT in 1975. She taught at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence RI from 1975 to 1979 and at the School of Visual Arts in New York City from 1980 to 1982.

Peter Henner ’69 September 29, 2016 Peter was a well-known environmental and labor lawyer who was particularly interested in taking on corrupt corporate and governmental entities. Most recently, he sued Empire State Development for mismanaging the money designated for rural broadband development. Peter and his wife spent the past twentyseven years rock climbing, skiing, and backpacking the Chilkoot trail, hiking

the Inca Trail, trekking in Nepal, and hiking every summer in the Canadian Rockies. Peter competed in many chess tournaments including an international tournament in Reykjavik Iceland. For years, he wrote a chess column in the Altamont Enterprise.

Emily Simson ’76 March 30, 2016 Regina L. Winters ’87 April 3, 2016 You simply cannot find anyone who did not like or respect Regina. This was because of her capacity to see the humanity in everyone as well as her own decency, which was evident in every conversation you had with her. A graduate of Yale’s School of Architecture in New Haven CT, she built her own company from scratch and located it in the heart of Fair Haven. Her architecture is steeped in respect for the environment, and she worked to expand the green revolution to include buildings that served low income families. She left her mark on New Haven and will continue to do so. Regina served as director of the Livable City Initiative and headed up New Haven’s Housing Authority.

She led the design for the new Q House and lived to see that vision fully funded.

Staff Edward (Ed) J. Baker June 9, 2016 Ed Baker was a former director of advancement at George School. He passed after battling cancer. He is survived by his wife, Carol Ann Baker, children Sarah A. Baker ’99, Karen Baker Campellone ’82, and her husband Vincent R. Campellone, Susanne Baker Hodgin ’87 and her husband Michael S. Hodgin, and grandchildren, Taylor Campellone ’14, Tyler V. Campellone ’12, Alec D. Hodgin ’16, and Ian D. Hodgin ’15.

Grace Matis April 21, 2016 Grace was a retired George School Teachers’ Aid.

Notification of deaths was recorded as of October 6, 2016.

We edit and publish information provided by families of deceased alumni, faculty, staff, and trustees.

Notes submitted for publication might be edited due to space limitations and Georgian style guidelines.

Printed using soy-based ink on paper containing recycled fiber. Cover and text stock are certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) and contain 10% post-consumer recycled fiber.

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THE ANNUAL FUND IMPACTS EVERYTHING! Contributions to the Annual Fund help ensure the continued excellence of the George School experience. From the latest technology and classroom innovations to books, supplies, equipment, and maintenance.

Your support is essential to everything George School is and does.

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STAY CONNECTED

HOLD THE DATES

Visit the alumni website at georgeschool.org/alumni to stay connected. Submit a class note, find friends, update personal profiles, check out upcoming events, and much more.

THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2017

THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017

Head of School Event at Yale Club in New York

Head of School Event at City Club of Washington

THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2017

FRIDAYâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;SUNDAY, MAY 5-7, 2017

You also can see what is happening at George School by visiting our Facebook page at facebook.com/georgeschool, following us on Twitter and Instagram @GeorgeSchool, and enjoying our blog at georgeschool.org/voices.

Head of School Event at Pyramid Club in Philadelphia

FRIDAY & SATURDAY, APRIL 7 & 8, 2017 Dance Eclectic

SUNDAY, APRIL 9, 2017 Grandparents and Special Friends Day

Alumni Weekend

FRIDAY & SATURDAY, MAY 19 & 20, 2017 Spring Theater Performance: Godspell

SUNDAY, MAY 28, 2017 Commencement

GEORGIAN

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WI N TE R 2 0 1 7 | VOL. 8 9 | NO. 01

GEORGIAN EDITOR Susan Quinn georgian@georgeschool.org 215.579.6567

GEORGIAN STAFF Alyson Cittadino

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© 2017 George School

Georgian designed by Rutka Weadock Design

Note: If you have received multiple copies of this issue at your address, please contact us with updated address information at advancement@georgeschool.org or at 215.579.6572.

PHOTOS: Inside Back Cover: A Bancroft Hall stairwell surges with life as students move from the Language Department classrooms to their next class or free period.

Back Cover: Students study and thrive in the beautiful atmosphere of the Anderson Library, a LEED certified building sited across from the meetinghouse.

(Photos by Bruce Weller)