Georgian, August 2006

Georgian A Publication of George School, Newtown, Pennsylvania Volume 78 • Number 2 • August 2006

For the Generations

Located just west of Sunnybanke, overlooking the woods and the girls’ varsity lacrosse field, the new Generations Gazebo is a reunion gift from the Class of ’81 to George School. The Class of ’81 held a dedication ceremony for the gazebo during Alumni Weekend 2006. (See the exterior pictured on page 30.)

INSIDE THIS GEORGIAN CAMPUS NEWS & NOTES

ALUMNI TELL US

Read all about what’s been happening

Read news from classmates and friends,

on campus recently.

and see reunion class photos from Alumni Weekend 2006.

Section begins on page 4.

Section begins on page 9.

In This Issue

Volume 78 • Number 2 • August 2006

Campus News & Notes................ ...................................................................................4 Alumni Tell Us & Reunion Photos...............................................................................9 In Memoriam................................... ................................................................................ 40 Stay Connected Submit a class note.

1. Fill out the online form available at: http://www.georgeschool.org/explore.asp?content=160 2. Or send it by email to: georgian@georgeschool.org 3. Or send it by postal mail to: Georgian, PO Box 4438, Newtown PA 18940-0908

Update your contact information.

1. Fill out the online form available at: http://www.georgeschool.org/explore.asp?content=157 2. Or modify your profile in the online community 3. Or contact the Advancement Office: - By phone at 215-579-6564 - Or by email at advancement@georgeschool.org - Or by postal mail at PO Box 4438, Newtown PA 18940-0908

Contact other alumni.

For contact information for other alumni: 1. Visit the online community at: http://alumni.georgeschool.org 2. Or contact the Advancement Office: - By phone at 215-579-6564 - Or by email at advancement@georgeschool.org - Or by postal mail at PO Box 4438, Newtown PA 18940-0908

Visit the online community.

http://alumni.georgeschool.org See class homepages, update personal profiles, contact friends, check the event calendar, see photos, and more.

Visit the George School website. http://www.georgeschool.org

Interested in connecting with George School alumni in your area?

New Regional Alumni Association Launches 2006-2007 Washington, DC New York, NY Boston, MA San Francisco, CA Boca Raton, FL Philadelphia, PA

To participate in a regional alumni association or launch one in your area please contact Alumni Director David Satterthwaite ’65 at 215-579-6578 or david_satterthwaite@georgeschool.org.

NOTE: Pages removed from this document to protect the privacy of GS alumni.

Alumni may login to the alumni community at http://alumni.georgeschool.org to view the full version of this issue.

Campus News & Notes

By Juliana Rosati Campus Activities Camp, Gale, and Swayne Retire

Retiring faculty members Nelson Camp and Barbie Gale ’71, and retiring staff member Kingdon Swayne ’37, were honored at the All-Alumni Gathering on Alumni Weekend 2006. At the gathering, Head of School Nancy Starmer described all three retirees as Friends “whose participation in the George School community embodies the best of what we think of when we think of Quaker values and practices.”

Of Nelson, who has taught drama at George School since 1988, Nancy said, “We will miss his skillful direction in our theater program, his thoughtful contributions to community discussions, his many small acts of kindness, his imagination, and his unfailing good humor.”

Barbie returned to George School in 1977 to serve as aquatic director. Since then, Nancy said, “Barbie has distinguished herself not only by the care with which she carries out all of her many responsibilities as assistant girls’ athletic director, physical education coordinator, advisor, and coach, but also as a person who takes care of others.”

Kingdon, who is retiring from his position as George School’s archivist, was born and raised as a faculty child on the George School campus, served as a member of the George School Committee (GSC) from 1974 to 1988, and was clerk of the GSC from 1976 to 1984. Nancy noted that former Head of School David Bourns described Kingdon as “one of the most generous GS benefactors in the twentieth century” because of his many gifts of time, leadership, and endowments to George School.

Alumni Present Career Workshops

The following eight alumni returned to George School as Career Workshop speakers on Monday, April 24: Robert Burchman ’96 (wealth manager), Andrew Cantor ’77 (graphic designer), Meg Hagele ’88 (café owner), Lucy Judson ’69 (physician assistant), Katharine (Kejy) Judson-Yager ’95 (physician assistant student), Kassem Lucas ’90 (attorney), Dawn Timmeney ’79 (television news anchor), and Clay Tyson ’81 (entrepreneur and rock climber). Career Workshop is an annual program that introduces George School students to a variety of career options. The alumni speakers and eight others, including Ted Tally, parent ’07 (screenwriter), talked about their educational backgrounds, career paths, and current positions, explaining day-to-day responsibilities and providing students with advice on how to select a career.

Cougar Crazies Promote School Spirit

If you attended a George School athletic competition during the 2005-2006 academic year, from lacrosse to volleyball, at home or away, there’s a good chance a group of students sporting forest green shirts and green-and-white face paint urged you and the other George School spectators to chant “We are GS.” Known as the “Cougar Crazies,” the group was founded by seniors Andrew Biros, TJ Hunton, and Liam ScullyWolfe this past fall to increase attendance at athletic events and promote positive energy both at the games and in the George School community in general. “We tried to go to as many sporting events as possible,” says Andrew. “It had a positive effect on the community. It united the school. I really think it united our class too. People I wouldn’t expect to be yelling really got into it. It was a lot of fun.” Armed with banners they created themselves, when the Cougar Crazies showed up at a game they led personalized chants for every player, coach, assistant coach, and trainer involved.

Assistant Boys’ Athletic Director Glenn Curry says, “The Crazies were able to pack the Alumni Gym during basketball season.” He adds, “Their positive energy and enthusiastic cheers, along with the cheerleaders, helped make the Alumni Gym a fun place to be and inspired our teams.” Girls’ Athletic Director Nancy Bernardini recalls, “One woman from another school commented to me after the girls’ Cougar Classic basketball tournament that she loved the spirit of our students and that they made it fun to watch a game—and did it in a positive manner!”

Students Meet Class of ’81 Annual Fund Challenge

With the goal of encouraging students to become regular participants in the Annual Fund after they graduate from George School, members of the Class of ’81 presented a challenge to the student body as part of their 25th reunion celebration. The class offered to match, dollar for dollar, any Annual Fund donations the students made during the first two weeks of May, and to give a party if at least 81 percent of the student body had donated to the Annual Fund by midnight on May 12–13, the moment when Alumni Day would officially begin. “The Class of ’81 came up with the idea,” says Annual Fund Director Diane Barlow. “They wanted to help reverse the trend of declining participation rates in alumni giving to GS by engaging the students while they are still on campus.” Student Council members and prefects worked with the Class of ’81 to lead the effort, and by the deadline, 82 percent of the student body had participated, raising $525, which the Class of ’81 then matched. Diane states, “We weren’t sure if the students could pull it off in time, but they did! Our student body is very cohesive, and when they get behind something, it’s bound to succeed.”

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Campus News & Notes Recent Assemblies Assembly Monologues Explore Differences

Actor, psychologist, and poet Michael Fowlin presented an April assembly entitled “You Don’t Know Me Until You Know Me.” Michael has worked with adolescents across the United States through peer mediation, diversity workshops, violence prevention, and gender sensitivity training. During the assembly he performed seven monologues, portraying a variety of characters in order to show the emotional struggles and anxieties that people often hide behind “masks” that help them to cover up their differences. Michael told students that they don’t have to get rid of their masks, but that they should realize that what is behind their masks is more interesting and beautiful than the masks themselves. His monologues portrayed the following characters: an African-American child with attention deficit disorder, an African-American high school football captain who chose to keep his homosexuality a secret, a white male high school student who believed he had been racially profiled, a high school girl of Korean and Indian descent who was angry about gender inequities at her school, an African-American high school student who felt that his aspirations and areas of interest led others to perceive him as “acting white,” a child with Down’s syndrome, and a child of Dominican and Mexican descent who suffered a family tragedy and became suicidal until his teacher helped him to believe in his value as a person. Michael encouraged students to think of positive, nonviolent responses to difficult situations and to realize that each person is inherently beautiful. He challenged students to say hello to ten people at George School whom they had never spoken to before when they left the assembly. This assembly was funded by the Walter H. Mohr Endowment Lecture Fund. Michael received a standing ovation.

Holocaust Survivor Speaks at Assembly

Frida Herskovits, a survivor of the Holocaust, presented a May assembly. She described the horror of what happened to her family when the Nazis began the terror of rounding up and torturing Jews in concentration camps. By the end of the war, both of Frida’s parents and seven of her sisters and brothers had been killed in a concentration camp. Only three members of her immediate family survived: Frida, a brother, and a sister. Sixty-one years later, Frida says it is still difficult to speak of the heinous acts she witnessed but she believes “I am alive today so that I can tell the story.” She believes that “hate is a disease” and that “we have to work hard to find a cure. Hate shouldn’t exist.” Following her presentation, the audience asked her questions such as “What helped you get through your experience?” to which she replied, “I just never gave up.” In response to a question about how her faith in God was tested, she said, “I can’t explain it but I am a stronger Jew now.” Students gave Frida a standing ovation. Since Frida does not accept pay for her speaking engagements, a donation will be made to the Henry Ricklis Holocaust Memorial Committee in Monroe Township, New Jersey, in Frida’s name.

Internationally Recognized Expert Speaks at Assembly

Jean Kilbourne, EdD, an internationally recognized expert on mass media, gender issues, and addiction, gave a lecture in May entitled “Deadly Persuasion: Advertising and Addiction.”

Known for her pioneering work on the topics of alcohol and tobacco advertising and images of women in advertising, Jean was named by the New York Times Magazine as one of the three most popular speakers on college campuses today.

Illustrated with slides of various advertisements, Jean’s lecture encouraged students to become critical viewers of advertising images. Jean stated that average Americans are currently exposed to more advertising than ever before, spending approximately two years of their lives watching commercials.

Jean argued that although the tobacco industry claims that its advertisements aim to convince adult smokers to switch brands, the real purpose of tobacco advertising is to get children addicted to nicotine, which kills more Americans per year than alcohol, cocaine, heroin, fires, car crashes, homicide, suicide, and AIDS combined. Jean explained why she believes many cigarette advertisements are designed to appeal to children and argued that many alcohol advertisements function similarly. She also argued that images in many advertisements for tobacco, alcohol, and other products objectify women’s bodies and therefore create a cultural climate that is conducive to violence against women. Her lecture was funded by the Class of 1936 Endowed Fund.

Jean’s visit was inspired by members of the student organization Women’s Issues Now (WIN). WIN educates members of the George School community about harmful depictions of women in popular culture, violence against women, and other issues that impact the quality of women’s lives in the United States and around the world. Tiffany Thalappillil ’06, one of the group’s leaders, says, “We try to bring these issues up in the GS community in order to raise awareness.” Melissa Rosvold ’06, also a leader of the group, adds, “Our group sponsors Love Your Body Day, which lets us as a campus address body image issues and enforces the idea that everyone is beautiful.”

G e o r g e S chool, August 2006

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Campus News & Notes

Math Students Achieve High Scores

The following ten George School students qualified to take the Mathematical Association of America’s 2006 American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME): Mike Chen ’06, Danielle Glick ’06, Kenny Kao ’08, Jordan Kardos ’07, Scot Lawrie ’07, Dana Olson ’06, Emily Rendall ’06, Jarad Rosenberg ’06, Jeff Stevens ’06, and Robert Wojno ’06. In order to qualify for the AIME, the students had to rank in the top five percent nationally (or score at least 100 out of 150 possible points) on the American Mathematics Contest (AMC) 12, or rank in the top one percent nationally (or score at least 120) on the AMC 10.

Open to high school students in North America, the AMC 10 and AMC 12 are exams that require students to solve extraordinary problems using precalculus concepts. George School’s math department administers the exams each year.

Math Department Head Kevin Moon describes taking the exams as “a unique and challenging mathematical experience not for the faint of heart.” The exams are designed to challenge the most talented students and develop their problem-solving abilities.

Woodworking Student Wins Award

PJ Yurcak ’06 won a Student Award for Excellence in Design in the 2006 Philadelphia Furniture and Furnishings Show in April. Her entry, a bench crafted from maple, was one of two student pieces that woodworking teacher Carter Sio ’76 selected to represent George School’s woodworking and design program in the show’s high school competition this year. Evan Rutstein ’06 designed George School’s other entry, a chair made of maple and walnut.

“I was really excited to go to the furniture show,” PJ says. Her bench, she explains, was inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph. She created it in response to a class assignment that required each student to design a piece of furniture inspired by a letter of an alphabet.

PJ and Evan are both students in Carter’s Advanced Woodworking and Design class, a yearlong arts course open to students who have completed a year of the Beginning Woodworking and Design course. Students in the advanced class work on original, individual projects, from the design stage through completion.

“This was the twelfth year for this competition, and in those twelve years, the George School program in woodworking and design has come home with at least one award each year,” says Carter.

Photos: Juliana Rosati

Of Special Note

Science Students Win Awards at Fairs

George School’s four participants in the Bucks County Science Fair held in March all received awards for their science projects. Inna Alecksandrovich ’07 won the First Place award in the Engineering category, won the Women in Science and Engineering Award, and was one of three students to receive an Excellence in Engineering Award presented by CKS Engineers, Inc. Jack Carrozzo ’06 won the Second Place award in the Mathematics category, Kevin Miller ’09 won the Third Place award in the Mathematics category, and Keith Irwin ’09 won the Honorable Mention in the Earth and Space category.

Projects by students in grades nine through twelve were judged alongside one another at the fair, which took place at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

As a result of their performance at the Bucks County Science Fair, Inna, Jack, and Kevin went on to compete in the Delaware Valley Science Fair in April at the Fort Washington Expo Center in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. At that fair, Inna won the First Place award in the Engineering category of the eleventh-grade science fair, the International Society for Optical Engineering Award, a NANO/BIO Interface Center Award, the First Place award from the Society of Women Engineers, a scholarship from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, and a Yale Science and Engineering Association Award. Jack won the Honorable Mention in the Mathematics category of the twelfth-grade science fair as well as the American Meteorological Society Award. Kevin won the Second Place award in the Mathematics category of the ninthgrade science fair.

PJ Yurcak ’06 won a Student Award for Excellence in Design in the 2006 Philadelphia Furniture and Furnishings Show. Her entry, a bench crafted from maple, is pictured above. The maple and walnut chair pictured below was the other George School entry this year,

by Evan Rutstein ’06.

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Campus News & Notes Ruben Davis ’06 and Qiuhong Hunsicker ’06 were both named winners of George School’s first Quaker Leaders Essay Contest. Established by John Templeton Jr. ’58, MD, the new annual contest invites all George School students to write and submit a biographical essay about a leader from the first one hundred years of Quaker history.

Coincidentally, both of this year’s winning essays are about John Woolman (1720–1772), an American Quaker abolitionist who convinced many Quaker communities to renounce slavery and who also worked against poverty, war, and the mistreatment of Native Americans. In his essay, “John Woolman: The Quiet Advocate,” Ruben describes John Woolman as “disarmingly humble in speech, especially for such an outspoken man.” Ruben states, “This humility forced people, Quakers and non-Quakers, to listen to the unpleasant truths he had to offer, though it was the passion behind his messages that made people change their minds.” In her essay, “John Woolman’s Call Lives On,” Qiuhong reflects, “The legacy Woolman left behind is a marvelous call to all of us as citizens of this world. It is a message calling us to look into our conscience, to turn away from any wickedness and to identify the goodness within us, so that we can be effective motivators in promoting changes to make our world a better place.”

Five judges, including three members of the George School Religion Department, evaluated the essays, which they were given without the authors’ names. They judged the essays on the basis of their historical accuracy, use of original sources, analysis of the leader’s perspective and impact, presentation of the leader as a role model within the Religious Society of Friends, and presentation of the leader as an agent of change.

Awards and Honors Updates

Ruben Davis ’06 progressed from the Finalist level of the National Achievement Scholarship Competition to become one of approximately 800 students in the United States to win an Achievement Scholarship award.

Hee Yoen Uee ’06 won an Art Portfolio Silver Award for paintings and drawings she submitted to The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards competition. She was one of 1,100 students in the United States to win a national award in the competition.

In addition to Liberty Slater ’08 (as announced in the April 2006 Georgian), Devon Hodge ’06 and Max Liebmann ’09 were recipients of Commendation Awards at the Fifth Annual Boston Invitational Model United Nations Conference, which they attended with George School’s Model United Nations club in February.

Arts Department Update Community Concert

The George School Community Chorus (a group made up of George School students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, friends, and neighbors) and the George School Orchestra presented a concert on Sunday, May 7, in the George School Meetinghouse. The choral performance featured Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, which is sung in Hebrew.

Among the orchestra’s selections was the overture to The Magic Flute by W.A. Mozart, in honor of his 250th birthday.

Drama Students Perform Humorous Noises Off

Students in Nelson Camp’s Advanced Drama class and Scott Hoskins’s Stagecraft class presented the comedy Noises Off on Friday, May 26, and Saturday, May 27. Written by Tony Award-winning playwright Michael Frayn, Noises Off portrays the comic antics that arise both onstage and offstage as a struggling theater troupe takes a show on tour. Characters include an inexperienced actress who keeps losing a contact lens onstage, a director who is romantically entangled with two of the women in his cast and crew, and a timid actor who gets a nosebleed every time he sees a conflict between two of his fellow actors. The first act is a dress rehearsal of the play within the play, Nothing On. For the second act, the set is reversed so that the backstage arguments and romances among the actors in Nothing On become the focus. In the third act, the set is reversed again. The actors give their final performance of Nothing On, and the disastrous effects of their backstage struggles on the performance become hilariously clear.

Ben Goldberg ’07 notes that the complicated stage directions in Noises Off require a high degree of coordination between all of the actors. “Farces are really challenging plays,” he says. Amanda Darby ’06 agrees. “In a farce, you depend on everyone else,” she says. “You have to get the right cues from everybody.”

Dance Eclectic Photo: Maddy Wiley

Two Seniors Win Quaker Leaders Essay Contest

Dance Eclectic, an exciting annual production by George School dance students, was held on Thursday, April 27, Friday, April 28, and Saturday, April 29, in Walton Center Auditorium.

G e o r g e S chool, August 2006

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Campus News & Notes The Birds of George School

By Don Houghton, campus resident and parent ’00 Perhaps it was because we were particularly weary of winter when March rolled around that nature’s transition through spring here on campus this year seemed especially impressive.

From the earliest daffodils through the lilacs of May and dogwoods of June, each week brought fresh examples of just how beautiful the George School campus really is.

It comes as no surprise, then, that in addition to its flora, the campus is host to a wide variety of fauna, and when George School biology teacher Pacho Gutierrez ’77 had the idea to organize Wednesday morning (from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m., before classes) bird-watching walks, he was consistently joined by eight to ten other members of the community, including students, faculty, and staff, who were grateful for the opportunity to develop or hone their bird identification skills. Luke Musher ’06, already an accomplished amateur ornithologist, proved to be especially adept at locating and identifying birds by sight, and by their songs.

The group went out eight times, and we compiled an impressive list of confirmed sightings (see below). And considering that there was a bald eagle pair fishing at Core Creek Park only minutes away from campus all spring, this has already been quite a year for watching birds at George School.

Thanks, Pacho!

Pictured above is a Baltimore oriole’s nest the George School bird-watchers spotted being constructed in the large sycamore tree near the location of the former George School pond. The photo was taken by Pacho Gutierrez ’77 (fac) with the use of Walt Hathaway’s (fac) spotting scope.

Confirmed Sightings Warblers: Blue-winged, yellow-

rumped, palm, magnolia, black-andwhite, Canada, chestnut-sided, blackthroated green, common yellowthroat, northern parula, American redstart, yellow-breasted chat

Sparrows: Chipping, field, song,

Thrushes: Wood thrush, American robin, veery

Ducks: green-winged teal, wood, mallard

Swallows: Tree, northern roughwinged, barn

white-throated, European house, swamp

Orioles: Baltimore, orchard

Woodpeckers: Red-bellied, downy,

Mimics: Gray catbird, northern

Blackbirds: Red-winged, brown-

Wrens: Carolina, house

hairy, northern flicker

headed cowbird, common grackle

Other sightings: Spotted sandpiper,

ruby-crowned kinglet, mourning dove, killdeer, Carolina chickadee, blue jay, northern cardinal, indigo bunting, cedar waxwing, American crow, white-breasted nuthatch, great blue heron, belted kingfisher, tufted titmouse, eastern kingbird, Canada goose, white-eyed vireo, blue-gray gnatcatcher, chimney swift, ring-billed gull, (red fox)

mockingbird, European starling

Finches: House (including a yellow morph), purple, goldfinch

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NOTE: Pages removed from this document to protect the privacy of GS alumni.

Alumni may login to the alumni community at http://alumni.georgeschool.org to view the full version of this issue.

Many thanks....

to the 2,316 alumni, parents, grandparents, and friends who have made gifts to the 2005-2006 Annual Fund. Together we have surpassed our goal of $900,000 and raised $905,159 for George School!

Special thanks to the Young Alumni Board for offering the Young Alumni Challenge to Classes 1985 through 2005. New and increased gifts from 221 young alumni plus the $15,000 match from the Board total $34,402 in new support.

Special thanks also to our parent community for contributing a total of $192,842 to the Parent Annual Fund, with $64,916 in gifts contributed to the Senior Parent Gift Fund in support of faculty professional development.

The final list of names and numbers will be included in the 2005-2006 Report of Gifts to be mailed in the fall.

For information on the annual fund contact Annual Fund Director Diane Barlow at 215-579-6581 or annualfund@georgeschool.org.

To make a gift online, visit http://alumni.georgeschool.org/donations and select the “Donate Now” link.

Georgian Volume 78 Number 2 August 2006 Georgian Editor Bonnie Bodenheimer georgian@georgeschool.org 215-579-6567

Georgian Staff Peggy Berger Debbie Chong Kim Colando ’83 Odie LeFever Alice Maxfield Juliana Rosati David Satterthwaite ’65

Note: If you have received multiple copies of this issue of the Georgian at your address, please contact us with updated address information by phone at 215-579-6564 or by email at advancement@georgeschool.org. © 2006 George School Printed on recycled paper with environmentally friendly ink.

Cover photo: Bonnie Bodenheimer Reunion class photos: Showstopper Photography

Advancement Office George School PO Box 4438 Newtown PA 18940-0908 http://www.georgeschool.org

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