Groton School Quarterly, Fall 2010

P.O. Box 991 Groton, Massachusetts 01450-0991

Change Service Requested

Non-profit ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID North Reading, MA Permit 140

Groton School Quarterly

Groton School

Groton School Quarterly Fall 2010 | Vol. LXXII, No. 3

Fall 2010 • Vol. LXXII, No. 3

Saying goodbye to 125, four past Senior Prefects; (L) John Keyes ’60, Carol Seeley ’95, (R) Nora Bundy ’09, and John Tarpey ’75 blow out the candles on the cake celebrating the School’s 125th year.

In this Issue: Reunion Weekend ~ Prize Day ~ Chapel Talks ~ John Tulp Retires

“At Groton, extraordinary teachers formed a special connection with our kids—inspiring, pushing, coaching, listening, and nurturing. We established an endowed fund for faculty support to ensure that outstanding teaching continues to be a hallmark of Groton.”

—Clare and Sterling Brinkley Fall 2010 | Vol. LXXII, No. 3

Contents Circiter | Featured on Campus 3

Reunion Weekend 2010 A Celebration of Groton’s 125th Birthday and Five Year Reunion Forms

18

Prize Day 2010 Speeches, Awards, Diplomas, College Matriculations

3

Per Circulum Locuti Sunt | Voices on the Circle 39

A Tale of Two Mothers A Chapel Talk by Amy Cunningham Atkinson ’79, Trustee

43

Home A Chapel Talk by Eugene Chong ’10

46

A Comfort without Conformity A Chapel Talk by Margo White ’10

49

2010 Baccalaureate Address A Chapel Talk by Richard B. Commons, Headmaster

Sterling ’10, Clare, Georgiana ’10, and Sterling Brinkley

39

Personae | People of Note 52 52

John Tulp, Upon his Retirement

by Kate Dennison, faculty member, P’ 12, P’ 12

Establishing or contributing to a fund for faculty support is one of the most significant ways that alumni and parents can express their appreciation for the impact that a teacher has had on them or their child. Contact John MacEachern, Director of Development and Alumni Affairs, at jmaceachern@groton.org or 978-448-7580 to learn more about supporting superb teaching at Groton.

Groton School uarterly Grotoniana | All Things Groton 56

Gallery News Exhibits change at the de Menil and Brodigan Galleries

58

Spring Productions Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling, Under the Stars, an Evening of Dance by the Groton Dance Company

62

Spring Sports Varsity Team Season Recaps

69

New Releases Alumni Publications

70

School News Groton Women’s Network, GSAA announcements

56

58

In Memoriam | As We Remember 72

Louis S. Auchincloss ’35

74

Harold T. Meryman ’39

75

Reginald Foster III ’49

76

Guido Rinaldo Perera, Jr. ’49

78

Samuel D. Williams ’55

64

Notabilia | New & Noteworthy 80

Form Notes

119 Marriages, New Arrivals, Deaths

74

Grotoniana | All Things Groton

FROM THE EDITOR

Groton School uarterly Fall 2010 | Vol. LXXII, No. 3

Saying Goodbye to 125

A

Vaughn Winchell

s we get older, many of us use birthdays as a moment for reflection, for looking back over the past, or imagining the future. We take stock of ourselves on the special day, giving rise to thoughts which are often thoughts about the passing of time, about age, and the opportunity for managing change—in our own lives or in the lives around us.

It would seem Groton’s 125th year brought much the same kind of thinking to those of us here at School. Not limiting ourselves to a single day of such rumination, we have spent the year looking back over our past and imagining, and planning for our future.

The last issue of the Quarterly carried a summary of where we stood in a yearlong, self-evaluation process, as we anticipate the NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) visiting committee’s arrival in October.

Their visit will result in a report on the health of the School based on our own self-evaluation. Commendations and recommendations will give us both a (never in doubt) formal accreditation, good for a span of ten years, but, more importantly it will also render an objective report from a committee of peers who have studied carefully and critically who we say we are and how well we are living up to our own goals.

The creation and pursuit of those goals was the outcome of a strategic plan established in 2004, and coevally with the 2010 NEASC effort, a new set of strategic goals for the School has been developing through the leadership of Rick Commons and the Board of Trustees. With direct faculty participation in strategic planning exercises this year, and through the use of the NEASC self-evaluation document developed by the faculty, the Board will settle on a new set of goals and strategic plan later this fall.

In the meantime, we begin our 126th year in anticipation of all that the new academic term brings. Quite apart from the exciting circulation of ideas mentioned above, a new entry of students joins the School, and the changes and new dynamic that will result from their contributions to the life of the School will be exciting to watch. With this seasonal new beginning, I invite, as always, your comments and contributions to the Quarterly as we begin our 87th year of publication.

John M. Niles, Editor Quarterly@Groton.org

2 | Quarterly Fall 2010

Editor John M. Niles Graphic Design Jeanne Abboud Contributing Editors Julia B. Alling Amybeth Babeu Elizabeth Wray Lawrence ’82 John D. MacEachern Andrew M. Millikin Melissa J. Ribaudo Rachel S. Silver Photography All photography by Arthur Durity unless otherwise credited.

Editorial Offices The Schoolhouse Groton School Groton, MA 01450 Phone: 978-448-7506 E-mail: quarterly@groton.org

Other School Offices Alumni Office 978-448-7520 Admission Office 978- 448-7510 The views presented are not necessarily those of the editors or the official policies of the School.

Groton School of Groton, Massachusetts 01450 publishes the Groton School Quarterly three times a year in late summer, winter, and spring, and the Annual Report once a year in the fall.

Circiter | Featured on Campus

2010 On Friday evening, May 14, Reunion Weekend commenced with a celebration of the School’s 125th year. Members of Reunion and non-reunion forms, current and former faculty, parents and students filled the central tent, for dinner, awards and tributes. Beyond class visitation, rehearsals and afternoon athletic contests, Saturday’s morning program featured three panel discussions exploring the notions of service, the inquiring mind, and 21st century education. The spirit of the weekend can be only partially conveyed by the excerpts and images that follow.

REUNION WEEKEND

Welcome to Reunion Weekend and Groton’s 125th Birthday Celebration Amy C. Atkinson ’79 Trustee, Alumni Association Chair

I

would like to take a moment to recognize and remember the eight Groton headmasters who have served this school so ably and with such strength of mind and spirit over the last century and a quarter. Their steadfast care of Groton School and their vision and leadership has touched all our lives—in this tent, around this Circle, and in circles beyond—in some way. I will read each of their names, followed by a moment of silence. We are deeply grateful for their service: the Reverend Endicott Peabody; the Reverend John Crocker; the Reverend Bertrand N. Honea; Paul W. Wright; the Reverend Rowland J. Cox; Acting Head Peter B. Camp; William M. Polk; Richard B. Commons.

Amy C. Atkinson, 79

Cui Servire Est Regnare Award

T

he Cui Servire Est Regnare Award is presented each year to a younger graduate of the School who, through his or her exceptional contributions to Groton and the larger world, has truly lived up to the School’s motto in life and work.

George C. Biddle who graduated from Groton cum laude in 1980 came to Groton from the Buckley School in New York City in 1976. While at Groton, he was the associate editor of The Circle Voice and played on the soccer, squash, and baseball teams.

His Groton classmate Jim Conzelman told me this week that when George arrived at Groton, he seemed like any typical, New York City independent-school kid. Then, during the summer after his fourth form year, George’s father decided it was time to

4 | Quarterly Fall 2010

Reunion Weekend toughen him up a bit. He sent George and a Groton classmate to a ranch in a very unglamorous part of Montana to work as a cowhand and all-around gofer. According to Jim, this experience in the Montana wilderness, sharing time in a crowded bunkhouse with a bunch of tobacco-chewing roughnecks, may have planted the early seeds of George’s later humanitarian work.

George graduated from Harvard College with a degree in government in 1984, and was awarded a master’s degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins in 1989. He is now the executive vice president of the International Rescue Committee, or IRC, a leading volunteer organization that provides relief services for refugees and victims of violent conflict around the world. George oversees the IRC’s U.S. programs, international programs, and advocacy departments, which combined operate in 42 countries worldwide and in 23 cities across the United States. In 1989, he founded and then served as president of the Institute for Central American Studies. At the helm of an organization of his own creation, George systematically assembled a diverse board of Latin American politicians, businessman, and intellectuals to assist post-Cold War Central America in its transition from violent conflict to peace and democracy. One of the institute’s primary focuses was reconciliation between former combatants in El Salvador. George has been a director of Infante Sano and the Fund for Global Human Rights, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has served on the advisory board of Harvard University’s Project on Justice in Times of Transition and of The Harbor in New York City, and as an advisor to the Civil Courage Prize. Mr. Biddle is on the executive committee of Virtue Foundation, the Coalition for International Justice, and the Friends of the Bronx Charter School. He has also served as a career advisor at Groton since 1988. He and his wife, Leslie Ann Dougherty, live in London with their five-year-old son, Nathaniel.

It is with deep admiration that I ask Groton’s 2010 Cui Servire Est Regnare recipient, George C. Biddle, to come forward.

George Biddle 2010 Cui Servire Est Regnare Award Winner

I

have to tell you that I really am truly humbled and deeply honored to accept this award. I say that because I know there are so many deserving graduates who also could have accepted this award this evening and be recognized for what they are doing. I should also say, from what I understand because I have a few friends who have children here, that there are a number of students at Groton today who are doing remarkable things in public service, both here in communities in the United States and internationally. And so there are some great Cui Servire Est Regnare model students here who are poised to accept an award in the future. So, Rick, congratulations for all the great work that is going on among the student body today.

As I was thinking about returning to Groton and my time here, my thoughts first turned to my advisor when I was here, Warren Myers. He was a classics scholar, a wonderful human being, indeed. He was also a mentor and a role model for me. He was kind. He was thoughtful. He was insightful. Yet, he was also demanding. And like so many of my fellow classmates, each of us had a faculty member or a few whom we were especially close to and who helped to guide us in those formative years. They were a remarkable group who always had our best interests at heart and for that I am grateful.

Groton gave me an outstanding education and introduced me to so many lifelong friends, many of them who are here tonight. And that is a gift you have for your entire life. And it certainly ingrained in me a tremendous sense of responsibility. It also helped to keep me on the right path and headed in the right direction during my teenage years.

I am grateful for that, as well.

I’d like to speak briefly tonight about the organization I currently work for, the International Rescue Committee, because it has been a privilege for me to be associated

Groton’s 2010 Cui Servire Est Regnare recipient, George C. Biddle '80.

Groton gave me an outstanding education and introduced me to so many lifelong friends, many of them who are here tonight.

And that is a gift you have for your entire life. And it certainly ingrained in me a tremendous sense of responsibility.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 5

Circiter | Featured on Campus

Today there are over 40 million uprooted or displaced people, essentially homeless people, in the global community. It’s a staggering number. It’s not one that most people are aware of. And they live in all parts of the planet.

Jonathan Choate '60, member of the faculty, leads members of the Form of 2010 in a 125th Birthday rendition of "Blue Bottles."

6 | Quarterly Fall 2010

with the organization for the past 20 years. The International Rescue Committee has a very simple mission. We go to crisis zones to rescue and rebuild lives. Essentially, we focus on people who have had to flee from conflict, from persecution, or from natural disaster. We strive essentially to bring people from harm to home.

Today there are over 40 million uprooted or displaced people, essentially homeless people, in the global community. It’s a staggering number. It’s not one that most people are aware of. And they live in all parts of the planet. In most cases they literally have had to get up and flee on a moment’s notice, and they are not able to bring with them anything of what we take for granted in our lives. They leave their homes. They leave their possessions. They leave their livelihoods. And oftentimes they also have to leave their loved ones. And they don’t know where their journey will take them, and they don’t know how they’re going to survive.

This is where the International Rescue Committee steps in. It supports the uprooted by working with them to help them address their own needs. It helps them to provide very basic but critical services to get them through these difficult times, but also helps them to get back on their feet, get back to their homes, and rebuild the life that they had before. We provide clean water, sanitation, we help build schools and health facilities.

We provide safe environments for women and children, and we help to develop livelihoods as well.

Perhaps, more importantly, we also provide hope. And I think that’s the thing that I feel most proud of in being associated with an organization like the International Rescue Committee. Currently, as Amy mentioned, we work in 40 countries and serve around 15 million people across the globe. But the real heroes are our staff who actually live and work in these countries where we have operations. And they are really the most difficult and dangerous places on earth. From Afghanistan and Iraq to Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. About a month ago, I spent a week in the Congo, eastern Congo, and it really brought home for me the selflessness of the people I have the privilege of

Reunion Weekend working with. For those of you who don’t know, Congo is the largest country in Africa in terms of its geography—actually it’s the third largest, but it’s enormous when you’re there. And it’s also suffered through a ten-year conflict that has claimed more than 5.4 million lives. That is also a fact unknown to most people in the world, and it’s mainly due to the fact that the services that they require have broken down. There is no access to health care; there is no access to jobs; there is no access to clean water. And people perish in those circumstances. But the IRC has developed a partnership with the British government where we’re working with thousands of villages across the Congo to work with the community leadership and identify projects that will help get the people of Congo back on their feet—digging wells, building roads, building bridges, building health clinics, and providing a sense of hope for the future.

And that’s why I am very proud to be associated with the IRC, but it’s also why tonight I’d like to accept this award on behalf of my colleagues there, because I am part of an organization that is doing things that I feel privileged to be associated with. And so tonight I thank Groton, and I thank all of you for listening to me for a few minutes.

But I want to accept the award on behalf of all my colleagues at the International Rescue Committee. Thank you very much!

Perhaps, more importantly, we also provide hope. And I think that’s the thing that I feel most proud of in being associated with an organization like the International Rescue Committee.

DISTINGUISHED GROTONIAN AWARD Introduced by Amy C. Atkinson ’79 Trustee, Alumni Association Chair

T

he Distinguished Grotonian Award annually recognizes a Groton graduate whose life of highly distinguished service has truly reflected the values of the School. This evening it is an honor to introduce the 2010 Distinguished Grotonian, who is a member of Groton’s Form of 1965. Our distinguished Grotonian graduated from Harvard College in 1968, and received his law degree from Boston College Law School in 1973. He is now serving his ninth term as member of the United States House of Representatives in Washington, D.C, and he made history in 1992 by becoming the first African American elected to Congress from Virginia since Reconstruction, and only the second African American elected to Congress in Virginia’s history. This year’s distinguished Grotonian serves on the House Judiciary Committee where he is chair of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. He also serves on the Committee on Education and Labor and the Committee on the Budget.

Over the years, he has become known as a tireless champion of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, fighting to protect the civil liberties of all Americans. He has fought to protect the rights of children with disabilities to obtain a free and appropriate education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. He sponsored the Death in Custody Act, signed into law by President Clinton, And he has led efforts to pass comprehensive juvenile justice reform and crime prevention legislation. Prior to serving in the United States House of Representatives, this year’s distinguished Grotonian served in the Virginia House of Delegates and then in the Virginia Senate.

While at Groton he was a member of the Missionary Society, the band, the glee club, and the choir. He was president of the chess club and captain of the squash and fives teams; he rowed crew, played football and baseball, and was the Athletic Store manager. His classmate, Hunter Lewis, remembers that he was among a select group of the Form of 1965 who received zero black marks over the course of their entire Groton

A stroll around the Circle on Friday evening of Reunion Weekend.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 7

Circiter | Featured on Campus career. He was a pioneer at Groton, being one of only a handful of African Americans at the School, and was here when the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King was invited to speak at Groton. He has led a life of goodness and service to others that reflects both Dr. King’s values and the values of Groton School. I am deeply honored to announce that the 2010 Distinguished Grotonian, from Groton’s Form of 1965, is the Honorable Robert C. Scott.

2010 Distinguished Grotonian Award Winner, the Honorable Robert C. Scott Excerpts from Representative Scott’s remarks The Honorable Robert C. Scott ’65

Groton instills the confidence, the will, and the determination that inspires all of us to make the world better by serving others and, because of that, I have tried to conduct my life and career with the belief that the most meaningful life is one committed to service to others.

Members of the form of 1970 on the dias at the Saturday reception facing l to r: David Walton and Geoffrey Dunn.

8 | Quarterly Fall 2010

M

r. Commons, alumni, graduates, parents, friends, thank you very much for the award, and I am very much honored by this recognition.

I came to Groton because my parents understood that a good education gives you the tools with which you can profoundly affect your own life and that of your family and community. But it just gives you the tools, and what you do with the tools becomes important.

I was inspired by the motto Cui Servire Est Regnare. Service to others is one of the School’s core values and is really an expectation that you will conduct your life with service to others. Groton instills the confidence, the will, and the determination that inspires all of us to make the world better by serving others and, because of that, I have tried to conduct my life and career with the belief that the most meaningful life is one committed to service to others. Now, Marian Wright Edelman, the founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, often says that service is the rent we pay to be living. It is the very purpose of life. Not something that you do in your spare time. Service is what life is all about, and I agree with her. And let me say that it is not so much what you choose to do professionally that matters, as long as within your choices, you fulfill that expectation of service.

After graduating from Groton and doing my undergraduate years at Harvard, I joined a group of men who were committed to service, a fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, the first intercollegiate Greek letter fraternity established by African Americans. It is now over 100 years old, and its men have demonstrated their commitment to leadership and service. And they continue to address social, political, and cultural issues affecting our country. The members of the fraternity include former Massachusetts Senator Ed Brook, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, 20 members of Congress including nine current members, and numerous other leaders. Each of them and many others are participants in that grand construction effort making the nation and world a better place for all. After graduating from Boston College Law School, I returned home to Newport News, Virginia, to practice law. I served as president of the Newport News branch of the NAACP and was one of the founding leaders of the local Legal Aid Program, the first federally funded legal aid program in our part of the state. That continuing expectation of service inspired my 15-year tenure in the Virginia General Assembly, where I sponsored legislation benefitting my constituents by improving education and promoting economic development, crime prevention, and social services.

I entered Congress in January 1993 because of my continued commitment to building a strong national foundation, having education, job creation, health care, and

Reunion Weekend crime prevention as key elements of that foundation.

As you know, health care has been a dominant issue during this current Congress and, we need to build a health-care system that offers long-term benefits, not quick fixes that cut corners. As a member of the Education and Labor Committee, I have been actively involved in education issues with a mind towards providing greater educational opportunities that will build lasting benefits for our nation. As a product of Booker T. Washington Elementary School, which was an underfunded racially segregated school in Virginia, and having seen, on the one hand, the racially segregated education underfunded in Newport News and, on the other hand, Groton, I know the good and bad in education policy.

And I don’t have to tell you that a well-educated citizenry is an essential component for building a strong nation, because democracy simply can’t work when voters are not educated. And our economic competitiveness in a global, hightech, information-based economy depends on maintaining a well-educated workforce.

Perhaps the most direct impact I have had in Congress has been my position as chair of the Subcommittee on Crime of the House Judiciary Committee. Because when it comes to crime, we essentially have a choice. We can reduce crime, we know how to do that. Or we can play politics, and we know how to do that. And so I have been serving the country by working to create a social justice system and a criminal justice system that say that no person is going to be left alone or unsafe. I am committed to helping build a nation that we can all look to with pride and live in with confidence and a sense of safety and security. The challenge of social justice is to evoke a sense of community that we need to make our nation a better place, just as we make it a safer place. And when we fight for the poor and the socially disadvantaged, we are doing that because we want to leave a community and a world better than the one we found. The privilege of having attended Groton carries an expectation that we will use that privilege in service to the public. And what I learned here at Groton has guided me through a career of public service as a practicing attorney, state legislator, and now as a member of Congress, hoping to be one of those carpenters building that great house that we call the United States of America. So, thank you again for the recognition.

Amy C. Atkinson ’79 Trustee, Alumni Association Chair

O

ur next two speakers this evening need little introduction, as Bill Polk—our keynote speaker tonight—and Rick Commons are well known and loved by us all. So many beautiful things have been said about Bill over the years, so I will just mention one tonight that has stuck with me personally about knowing Bill.

Bill Polk came to Groton just as I was leaving the School. We overlapped in our time as head and student for only nine months between his arrival in September 1978 and my departure in June 1979. Yet, somewhere during that short time, he managed to impart his definition of “character” to me—this elusive concept of “character” that is so central to the mission of Groton School. Bill said “character is when someone does the right thing even when others aren’t looking.” It’s a definition I now tell my own two children and anyone else who will listen. Bill Polk, of course, personifies his own definition of the word. It is why he has earned the trust and respect and love of our diverse and intimate Groton community. Bill, thank you for being back here with us tonight.

Form of 1995 members, H. Willing Davidson, Darren Van Blois and Michael Keating ascend to the afternoon reception at the Athletic Center.

The challenge of social justice is to evoke a sense of community that we need to make our nation a better place, just as we make it a safer place. And when we fight for the poor and the socially disadvantaged, we are doing that because we want to leave a community and a world better than the one we found.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 9

Circiter | Featured on Campus Keynote Speaker, William M. Polk ’58

E William M. Polk ’58

Tonight we celebrate a special birthday, one that reminds us of different chapters of the School’s history.

Members of the class of 2005 stand to participate in "Blue Bottles."

Caption

10 | Quarterly Fall 2010

ach of us as graduates has our own memories of this place, some good, some painful, some funny, some remarkable. Being here this weekend will add more to the memory bank. We have also shared a common formative experience that has helped to shape the people we now are, whether we graduated five or 50 years ago.

Tonight we celebrate a special birthday, one that reminds us of different chapters of the School’s history. We remember those chapters entitled: Endicott Peabody, Jack Crocker, Bert Honea, Paul Wright, Roland Cox, Peter Camp –acting head, yours truly, and Rick Commons.

And let us also remember other major players in those chapters whose contributions to this community made such a difference: Fanny Peabody, Mary Crocker, Patricia Honea, Margaret Wright, Mary Cox, Pat Camp, LuAnn Polk, and Lindsay Commons.

At the School’s 100th birthday, Paul Wright told the students that he had shaken the hand of Groton’s first graduate, George Rublee. “So,” Paul announced, ”If anyone wants to shake the hand that shook the hand of the first graduate, see me after dinner.”

If anyone here tonight wants to shake the hand that shook the hand of the man who shook George Rublee’s hand, see me after dinner!

George Rublee of Milwaukee, who would go on to a distinguished career in the law and public affairs, arrived at Groton for the opening of School on October 15, 1884, with 23 other students. George Rublee’s parents paid $500 in tuition and $20 for what was then called “washing.” The Rector handed out a weekly allowance of $.25 to each student, $.05 of which was to be put in the collection plate on Sunday.

Ellery Sedgwick 1890, who later became a Groton teacher and then a trustee, once said to the Rector, “Well, Groton has had its ups and downs.” The Rector stared at him and demanded, “Sedgwick, what do you mean ‘downs’?” “Why,” replied Sedgwick, “You began with George Rublee and have never done so well since.”

Reunion Weekend In the 1920s in response to a question on the admissions application, “Describe The Ideal School,” a lad wrote, “The ideal school which I have in mind would be one in which the lessons would be easy, the time for work short and the place of recreation handy. Long vacations are recommended, also short terms. In my opinion a school like that would stop any father from worrying about the education of his sons.”

Need I say, that does not describe Endicott Peabody’s ideal school. The Rector thought being at school rather than on vacation was much healthier for students. In 1934, he took pleasure in announcing that sixth formers gained weight while at school and lost an average of 5 pounds during the Christmas and Easter vacations.

Endicott Peabody did not envision his School primarily in institutional or scholastic terms. A main tenant of the Rector’s School was that it should be a family, a place in which its smallness makes possible a close student-faculty relationship and enables every student to know to some degree every other student.

In many conversations with Paul Wright, I heard him say about a Groton graduate, “I knew him intimately.” He knew us all intimately.

Some, of course, regretted though never resented his intimate familiarity as they discussed with him their black mark situation.

Although few people have Paul’s keen sense of observation, most Groton faculty shared and continue to share his knowledge of students and to know the lifelong friendships that develop between teachers and students. During a Reunion Weekend, we are certainly aware of the lifelong friendships that develop between student and students.

The School’s size also engendered, and continues to do so, a strong sense of community, enabling the community to gather together in Chapel, at Roll Call and Sit-down meals, and as forms at Parlor and Fac Supper. At one meeting of the Coeducation Committee in the early ’70s, I argued that eliminating Chapel, Roll Call, Sit-down meals, Parlor and Fac supper would change Groton far more radically than coeducation. These practices are important to the lifeblood of the place because they reinforce the kinds of relationships and the sense of community so essential to a Groton experience.

From the outset the Rector’s idea of family included those who could not pay the full tuition, a commitment the School has maintained with increasing vigor with each succeeding headmaster. The School family has become more diversified economically, geographically, racially, socially. And very happily, in 1975 the definition of family expanded to include women, a most significant and enhancing decision in Groton’s life.

At the core of the Groton experience stands the faculty. The Rector recognized this when he stated, “The power of the School lies in its teachers,” and each of his successors has embraced that view. The first three Groton teachers, Peabody, Gardner, and Billings, represented, in Ellery Sedgwick’s words, “the sum of human divergence.”

Human divergence and strong personalities, many enlivened by striking intellectual gifts, have been and are the hallmarks of Groton teachers.

William Amory Gardner, whom a student described, “as never confining himself to the subject at hand,” said, “It takes two to teach.” The teachers, representing the faculty side of the equation, in Gardner’s time and since, have been to varying degrees athletic, compassionate, eccentric, humorous, passionate, scholarly. Of the early faculty, one was a Civil War veteran who survived the Andersonville prison; another went on to become a department head at Harvard; another the police commissioner of New York; yet another the author of Believe It Or Not. One teacher turned down a college presidency to remain at Groton. Many, including a number of women, have gone on to become heads of other schools.

Tim Cunningham '50 (standing) speaks with a classmate at the reception.

The School’s size also engendered, and continues to do so, a strong sense of community, enabling the community to gather together in Chapel, at Roll Call and Sit–down meals, and as forms at Parlor and Fac Supper.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 11

Circiter | Featured on Campus

The Rector was famous for writing on report cards “Could do better,” or if he was in a mellow mood, “Doing fairly well but could do better.”

Zack Taylor '64, P'00, P'05, former Trustee registers for Reunion Weekend.

12 | Quarterly Fall 2010

All of the men and women on the Groton faculty have embraced Jack Crocker’s admonition that the best teachers should “communicate expectancy” and that “people of various levels of ability should be encouraged to reach their potential standard.”

He went on to speak about “the intimacy of personal relationships, incentives, and encouragements to help students over humps.”

Most of my early experiences as a student at Groton involved facing one large hump after another. During my first two years as a student, I was an equal-opportunity failure. I failed each course once but fortunately not all at the same time. Even the most scholarly among the faculty saw something in me that was hidden from myself, and they spent many extra hours with me encouraging me over the humps. Many students have had that experience at the School.

The Rector was famous for writing on report cards “Could do better,” or if he was in a mellow mood, “Doing fairly well but could do better.”

According to one graduate, “Could do better” should be rendered into Latin and stamped on the diplomas to remind relaxing graduates that much is expected of them after graduation.

One student, an aspiring writer, once handed in an English paper with his favorite passage from Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front included without quotation marks or a footnote. The following week, when his teacher asked him to stay after class, the enormity of what he had done hit him, and he realized he might be expelled. Handing the student the composition book with the Remarque passage circled, the teacher said, “You can express yourself better than this,” and turned his attention to a stack of papers on his desk.

“The test of Groton,” Jack Crocker once told the trustees, “is what graduates will be like as human beings when they are your age and mine.” Members of the faculty have always tried and continue to try in and out of the classroom to find ways to help students meet this long-term test.

Most significantly, at the center of Groton’s history is the fact that it is a church school. This means that the School’s mission is not to educate the rich young rulers that the Gospels talk about who obey the law and do everything right but cannot give of themselves. The task of the School is to confront the rich young ruler in each of us so we develop our gifts and use them in the service of others. This means that Groton is a community of hope.

Kaethe Weingarten, a clinical professor at Harvard Medical School, has written: “As a 17-year survivor of three bouts of cancer, I think a lot about hope. I no longer think that hope is a feeling, an attribute of mine, but rather the result of collaboration among my doctors, my family, my friends, my colleagues, and me. I believe we ‘do’ hope together. My job as a patient is to resist isolation and to reform my goals as illness encroaches on my ability to achieve them. Theirs is to resist indifference and to stay with me, each in his or her own way. Few people lose hope who have compassionate witnesses.” At its best, Groton is a school of compassionate witnesses.

What so many have experienced and continue to experience at Groton are teachers, staff, friends, dorm- and formmates who resist indifference, people who on good days or bad days, when the sun shines or the rain pours, as best they can in their own distinct ways are compassionate witnesses and “do” hope. Hope is a quality that all of us recognize and embrace, while sometimes not being aware of its coming at us. Life is only fulfilling in the presence of hope.

Hope is the quality at the heart of Groton School that brings us graduates back here, in mind if not in body, again and again, as a touchstone for our lives.

Reunion Weekend

Caption

Richard B. Commons, Headmaster

T

hank you, Amy, George, Bobby, and Bill. It’s not easy to follow Bill Polk, though I daresay it’s a bit easier to follow him to this podium than it is to follow him as headmaster of Groton School. There are predecessors, and then there are predecessors. Bill’s quarter century of brilliant leadership certainly casts a tremendous shadow; and yet Bill has steadily sought to diminish it, casting it deliberately only when the heat is really on—to give me shade.

Allow me a story of the first time I met Bill Polk. When I came to interview at Groton in 2002 as one of six semifinalists for this job, like all of them, I was invited to stay at the Headmaster’s House with Bill and LuAnn. Changing clothes for my first meeting, I realized to my horror that I had forgotten to bring a belt to go with my suit.

I was profoundly nervous to begin with, and the forgotten belt seemed to suggest that I wasn’t fit for the interview, much less the job. The options were to keep one hand on my hip, in a modified balletic posture that would keep my pants from falling down, or to admit my situation to the legendary headmaster to whom I had only a one-in-six chance of meaning anything in a week. With considerable difficulty, I explained my situation to Bill, who replied as if we’d been roommates since second form. “Whatever you need,” he said with a hand on my shoulder. I will always remember that moment— the way he gave me a shot of confidence and a sense of belonging, not to mention a decent belt.

A little more than six months later, in late June, Bill and I met in the headmaster’s office—his office, which was about to become mine. He had a well-organized batch of files—ongoing matters, areas of particular concern, and other things he thought I should know at the outset. It was a serious meeting. We talked for a couple of hours,

Richard B. Commons

Above: Saturday afternoon Reunion Reception in McCormick Library gets underway.

Above right: Headmaster Commons recounts a "Bill Polk '58" story during the Reunion Weekend 125th celebrations.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 13

Circiter | Featured on Campus

“The optimistic thing I can say to you is that my duty this evening is to be like the Victorian child: to be seen and not heard; and you will have to listen, frankly, for just five minutes.”

Panelists who addressed the question, What does a great education look like in the 21st Century?

Standing: Charles Foley II '89, James Bundy '77, Trustee; Abigail J. Simmons '00, Peter Rowe, '66, Alice Perera Lucey, '80. Seated L to R: Geoffrey Gund '60, Moderator, Craig Smith Jr. '85

14 | Quarterly Fall 2010

and then, just before he walked out the door, he reached into the desk and pulled out a red belt. “Just in case,” he said with a sly smile and that reassuring hand on my shoulder.

It was Groton red, with little zebras chasing each other all the way around it. I wore it to the office every day that summer, hoping people would ask about it so I could say casually, “it was a gift from Bill.” Bill, what an unexpected gift your friendship and support have been these last seven years.

When we began to plan for the 125th celebration, Doug Brown ’57, master of the woodshop and the School archives, was kind enough to hand me a copy of the 1960 Groton School Quarterly—75th Anniversary Supplement. It contains copies of all of the speeches given on the occasion of Groton’s 75th, including, somewhere in the middle of things, the remarks given by Jack Crocker. I turned eagerly to that page, looking for direction and inspiration. The first paragraph, verbatim in its entirety reads: “The optimistic thing I can say to you is that my duty this evening is to be like the Victorian child: to be seen and not heard; and you will have to listen, frankly, for just five minutes.”

I suddenly understood Doug Brown’s purpose in sharing the document, and I have taken Mr. Crocker’s words to heart. Having spent half my allotted time already, I will use the balance to highlight just a few of the exciting developments at the School.

The first highlight is Groton’s current admission profile. We received over 1000 applications this year for fewer than 90 places. In 2004 we had fewer than 600 applications, and, with a higher yield on admits today, we have become approximately twice as selective in the last five years. Yet our selectivity is not exclusivity.

We now award financial aid to nearly 40 percent of the student body, and the simultaneous growth of our applicant pool and our financial aid budget ensures that Groton can enroll the most talented, motivated, kind, and deserving students anywhere.

The second highlight is the biggest change to the Groton curriculum in recent years alongside one critical way in which it will remain the same. Two years ago, we added Mandarin Chinese to our modern language offerings—the first non-Western language to be taught at Groton. There were five students in Chinese 1 last year, and this year there are 18 students studying at three different levels. Alongside that change, after an extensive study, this past fall the faculty voted overwhelmingly to preserve our distinctive dual-language requirement, requiring all second and third formers to take Latin or Greek alongside their modern language.

The third highlight is this beautiful and historic campus, which increased in size by nearly fifty acres in 2006 when we purchased the abutting fields to our north, and which were protected forever in 2007 when we helped to conserve 360 abutting acres to our south and west, all the way down to the Nashua River. This intimate Circle is now surrounded by nearly 400 acres of Groton-owned fields and woods, and our borders are protected by another1200 acres of conservation land.

The last of the highlights I’ll share tonight is Groton’s increased commitment to recruiting and retaining the strongest teachers in the business through faculty salaries that are in the top decile of the boarding school universe at every age group and benefits that match those of our most highly endowed peers in every benefits category. It’s a powerful formula: draw the best students and the best faculty together, and give them a community devoted to inspiring lives of character, learning, leadership, and service.

Despite all of this exciting progress, and even in the very midst of celebrating our School’s illustrious 125-year history, we are not resting on our laurels. In fact, tomorrow

Reunion Weekend

And so, even as we celebrate our history with appreciation for what Groton has meant to the world and to its graduates, even as we revere those things that have not and will not change about the School, we recognize also that we must continue to evolve in order to have the same outsized impact in the future. morning’s panel discussions, led by 22 deeply knowledgeable alumni from various forms, will focus on three key areas of strategic focus for Groton’s future.

First, the panel discussion titled “The Development of the Inquiring Mind” will focus on how we must evolve in our teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Second, the panel discussion titled “Cui Servire Est Regnare: As Important Today as Ever” will focus on service as part and purpose of a Groton education. The third panel is titled with a simple question—one we must answer with wisdom and conviction as we look to our next 25, 50, even 75 years: “What Does a Great Education Look Like in the 21st Century?”

And so, even as we celebrate our history with appreciation for what Groton has meant to the world and to its graduates, even as we revere those things that have not and will not change about the School, we recognize also that we must continue to evolve in order to have the same outsized impact in the future. This ambitious mix of tradition and evolution requires loyalty to the School and belief in its possibilities. You would not be here tonight if you did not feel them both, and I thank you for joining in this celebration of all Groton has been, is now, and will become.

Al Kilborne '65 makes a point at the Reunion reception held in McCormick Library.

The Blessing:

T

he birthday blessing was offered by the Reverend Edward B. “Ned” Gammons, Jr., ’52 who graduated from Harvard College in 1956 and from the Episcopal Theological Seminary in 1959. He is the son of the late Edward Gammons who was a member of the Groton faculty, director of music, and organist at Groton from 1941 to 1974.

Father of all, on this happy night of celebration, we give you our thanks and praise that for a century and a quarter your guiding and sustaining hand has enriched us with a lively heritage. In each generation, you have lighted our way to truth and for service.

And now on this birthday, watch over our School as it ventures into a new century and a quarter. Draw us away from the easy contentment of nostalgia and privilege.

Instead, lead us to new journeys and fire us with a vision of deeds yet unwrought, songs yet unsung, and seas yet unsailed. Keep us unafraid of change and of our own failure.

Instead, so fill us with your spirit that we may find our full humanity in serving your creation and all your creatures. And so, my brothers and sisters, we bless the one who has blessed us in this place and blessed us this night, in this feast. Amen

2005 Formmates Jamil Sylvester-John and Chrissie Oken stride toward the Reunion tent and the 125th festivities.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 15

Reunion Weekend •

1

•

• 2

•

6

Clockwise from top left: 1. Gordon Gund ’57 answers a question in panel discussion flanked by (l) Jay Rogers ’91 and (r) George Biddle ’80. 2. Alumni and friends leave the Schoolhouse after the morning panels. 3. Panelists and audience in discussion of “Cui Servire Est Regnare: As Important as Ever.” 4. Standing panelists from L to R: Moderator John Finley, IV ’88, Dr. Sallie Smith ’85, Katya Fels Smyth ’89, Peter Magowan ’60, George Biddle ’80, The Hon. Robert C. Scott ’65, Gordon Gund ’57 and John Rogers, Jr. ’91. 5. George Biddle ’80 responds during panel discussion. 6.

Dr. Callie Rogers Emery ’90 responds during “Inquiring Mind” panel discussion.

•

5

16 | Quarterly Fall 2010

3

• 4

Reunion Weekend

• •

1

•

2

7

•

3

•

Clockwise from top left: 1. Thomas Sutro ’85 and Jake Congleton, both former faculty enjoy the reception in McCormick Library.

2. Facing (L) Lee Barnes and (R) Jim Sheffield speak with form mates at the Saturday reception. 3. Phil Levis ’95 responds during “Inquiring Mind” panel discussion. 4. “Inquiring Mind” panelists included L to R back row: Moderator Dr. David Black, Jr. ’80, Phil Levis ’95, Dr. Archibald Perkins ’75, Seated L to R: Henry Bakewell Jr. ’55, Dr. Callie Rogers Emery ’90, William Nitze ’60, and Ellen Curtis Boiselle ’85. 5. “21st Century Education” panel and audience in the Hall. 6. Reunion participants revive the game of Fives. 7. Henry Bakewell ’55 speaks with daughter Ann Bakewell Woodward ’86, new president of the GSAA, at the reception.

6

• • •

4

5 Quarterly Fall 2010

| 17

PRIZE DAY

Eighty three students in the Form of 2010 received their diplomas on the sixth day of June. The Form, representing twelve states and five foreign countries will attend 62 colleges and universities in the fall. Forty two members of the form received Prize Day awards for their excellence in academic fields, leadership contributions and artistic or athletic excellence. Congratulations to the Form of 2010.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 19

Circiter | Featured on Campus

Prize Day 2010

Richard B. Commons, Headmaster

B

efore we begin the tributes and awards of Groton School’s 125th Prize Day, I want to welcome once again the families and friends of the graduates who have come from near and far to celebrate the accomplishments of this remarkable group of students.

As we begin, allow me to introduce the people on the stage behind me. The trustees are Charles Anton ’75, P’10,’12, Grant Gund ’86, Jamie Higgins P’02,’06, Andrew Paul P’11, Polly Reeve ’78, P’07,’09,’11, Will Thorndike ’82, and Tory Walsh ’80, P’10. Also with us is our keynote speaker for today’s ceremony, Governor Mitt Romney, whom I will introduce formally in a short while.

Thank you all for being here today. Special thanks also to Connie Brown, our expert registrar, and Hugh Sackett, who personally selects the book given for each prize and has been doing this quiet service for the School and its graduates since 1973.

My first duty and privilege today is to introduce the president of Groton’s Board of Trustees, Jamie Higgins, parent of James ’02 and Palmer ’06, who will hand diplomas to the graduates today.

Richard B. Commons

20 | Quarterly Fall 2010

James H. Higgins, P’02,’06, President of the Board of Trustees

T

hank you, Rick. I can already see the nervousness from here! Let me quickly give my assurances to all: I won’t keep you long from our celebrations today!

You know, I love Prize Day. Of course, we have other memorable days each year.

I think of them as being “crescendo moments.” Each has its own rhythm and magical symbolism, and each holds a deep bond across many Groton constituencies. There is no higher point for parents, faculty, and I think even students, than Parents Weekend. Lessons and Carols is a beacon of devotion for all who are part of the School community, including our town. Reunion Weekend is a revelry of deep friendships for alums of all generations.

But to me, Prize Day is different. It’s different because it belongs exclusively to the graduates, you the Form of 2010.

And, it is not just a moment of school-year crescendo. It also marks a fulcrum point in your lives—that point just between having received all that Groton can give to a student, and going forth to live what the Rector memorably called “the active work of life.”

But what is it exactly that Groton has sought to give you during your time here as students and with which it expects you to challenge and contribute to your life’s “active work?”

Well, this year our whole community has been engaged in one of our periodic strategic reviews, so we’ve been thinking a lot about just how best to express Groton’s enduring mission, that gift that is promised to all of you.

All those hours in the classrooms and labs; all those tests; all that competition on the athletic fields and stretching of your limits and passions on the stage and in the studios; all those moments together at Roll Call, Sit-down Dinner, Parlor, and Check-in; all those times of personal reflection, effort, and perhaps even struggle, in search of spiritual meaning in Chapel—what is the central purpose of all that?

Prize Day 2010

The Govil family stands with Summa Cum Laude graduate, Harsh Govil.

from others. So too will be the case in your life beyond Well, it will come as no surprise to all those who have the Circle. had Mr. Goodrich’s Sixth Form Expo challenge to “peel Be humble enough to see the merits of the good ideas of the onion” of meaning, that in the end, Grotonians are others, and not just of your own. Be grateful enough to say most comfortable with the power of simplicity. thank you openly and publicly to all who have offered you All who know and love the School agree that its help, no matter how small. If these are your habits, I know mission, its gift to you, is to inspire in you a life of constant that in the “active work” of your life you will continue to learning, of leadership, of character, and of service.

That is a powerful purpose, and that statement is the “peeled-away” While at Groton, you did not learn and achieve, you did not compete essence of being a Grotonian. But if that inspiration is the purpose of the and win through your own efforts alone. You received ideas and place, how then does one retain that strength, and were given both challenge and support from others. essence and continue to carry out such a life when the tests, and games, So too will be the case in your life beyond the Circle. and plays, and Chapel that prepared learn, you will command the respect necessary to lead, you you for it are no longer there? will maintain the integrity of your character, and you will I know there can be many answers to that question, continue to serve others beyond yourself. but let me suggest two important, interrelated habits It seems to me to be most fitting on Prize Day, of all that I believe can always be relied upon to give you the days, before all the attention is turned rightfully onto you, strength to realize Groton’s gift to you as you go about that we should give you one last piece of Groton’s gift—the your life’s “active work.” Retain in all your pursuits a opportunity to express your gratefulness to your parents sense of humility, and make time in your daily life to and your families, to your faculty and your friends, for it show your gratefulness to others. While at Groton, you is they who have made your gift from Groton possible. did not learn and achieve, you did not compete and win I know this is an unrehearsed and unscripted moment, through your own efforts alone. You received ideas and but I would like to ask all of you, the Form of 2010, to strength, and were given both challenge and support

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 21

Circiter | Featured on Campus please now stand, to turn and face all those who sit behind you, and from whom you have received so much. I know that you would like to give them a heartfelt round of your grateful applause. * * *

Now, let me finish with the same note of personal sentiment as I have in each of the past years that I have had the privilege to be on this dais.

I have found in my own life that there are very few times when one is surrounded by so many family and friends who admire you so greatly, love you so much, are so appreciative of your friendship, are so proud of your accomplishments, and who wish you so much success in your future.

This Prize Day at Groton School is one of those times.

Drink deeply of today, for it will sustain you for the rest of your lives.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the entire Groton community, I salute you, the Form of 2010.

Richard B. Commons, Headmaster

T

hank you, Jamie, for those words and for your leadership and stewardship of Groton School.

Our celebration today includes a fond farewell not only to members of the Sixth

Cum Laude graduate Tae Kyu Uhm stands with his mother and brother Joon Ho Uhm '13

22 | Quarterly Fall 2010

President of the Board of Trustees, Jamie Higgins P'02, '06 speaks to the form of 2010.

Form, but also to those members of the faculty who are moving on to new destinations.

ANDREW SHEPPE joined us this year in what was conceived as a part-time role, but the quality of his coaching and dorm-heading, his tutorial in Arabic, and his commitment to the full Groton experience have made his impact on the community far greater and more lasting than we could have anticipated. Andrew will return next year to Holderness School, his alma mater, where he will teach history and coach football and lacrosse. Andrew, you and Kristen will be missed; will you please stand and be recognized?

DANNY SILVERMAN has been a teaching intern in physics this year, role-modeling the virtuous combination of an active and disciplined mind and a palpable kindness of spirit. He returns to Yale, his college alma mater, to enter a master’s program in urban education studies, which includes a two-year teaching commitment in the New Haven public schools. Danny, we are sad to see you go but happy for your fortunate students. You will make a difference in their lives, as you have in ours. Will you please stand?

KATIE SIMON has been an intern in English, teaching Fourth Form English and an elective in South African literature, and coaching cross-country, winter running, and track. Katie’s maturity, sincerity, and optimism bring out the best not only in her students but in her colleagues as well. Next year she will teach and coach at Northfield Mount Hermon, which is a very lucky school. Katie, we wish you and Eric great happiness at your new school and in your new life together. Will you please stand?

We have said goodbye to HENRY WALTERS before, but I’m grateful that it didn’t take. Like a patient falconer, Groton was able to lure him back. The only problem with that metaphor is that the falconer generally lures the falcon with rodents, and we lured Henry with students.

Regardless, he came and filled a sabbatical opening in English, teaching Third and Fourth Form as well as a fascinating array of electives and tutorials, coaching

Prize Day 2010 basketball and baseball, and allowing us to marvel up close at the ancient art of falconry. He has inspired countless students with his reverence for language, commitment to pure self-expression, and mischievous sense of humor.

Henry, may your migrations bring you back this way again. Will you please stand?

DREW KESLER came to Groton two years ago to fill consecutive sabbaticals in science, and he has taught all levels of physics, coached soccer and crew, and run a dormitory known for its spirit and personality. In addition to embodying the “triple-threat” model that is so valuable in boarding schools, Drew is always looking for ways to contribute to the common good of the community. It is not unusual to see him with toolbox in hand heading to fix a colleague’s car or to repair the swings on the playground.

Drew’s family has added much to the spirit of the campus, as he, Maryanne, Tess, and Colin are the first to carve pumpkins on Halloween, fly kites on a windy day, pack down the fresh snow on the sledding hill, or bring faculty families together for a hayride. Drew, as you and your family head to Newark Academy in New Jersey, you go with our deep respect and abiding affection. Will you please stand?

JAMES COVI has been at Groton for three years, teaching World History and Sacred Texts and coaching soccer and hockey. World history is James’s particular area of expertise, and he has made a highly sophisticated approach to the subject thoroughly accessible to his students. His students describe him as a teacher who

Registrar Connie Brown and faculty members John Conner and Hugh Sackett review the Prize Table before the ceremonies begin.

encourages new ideas, preferring deep and original thinking to knowledge of dates and facts. He treats his students with respect, both intellectually and personally, making his classroom a distinctly collaborative place, where every member of the class has responsibility for the learning of all.

When I asked James what he will miss most about Groton, he was quick to answer that it is the students, “who impress me and have influenced me in ways they probably don’t grasp.” This speaks not only to James’s humility, but also to the relationships he has built here at Groton. James, we thank you for all you’ve given us, and

The Bedrossian family stands with graduate Ariana Bedrossian.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 23

Circiter | Featured on Campus we wish you the very best as you head back out west to Lakeside School in Seattle. Will you please stand?

Over the past five years this community has felt the sincere warmth and generosity of spirit of SARAH WEBB. Always there to extend a helping hand or an encouraging cheer, Sarah’s passion for environmentalism, sustainability, and service has left a lasting imprint on the School and the experience of countless students. Sarah’s leadership of Groton Community Service has expanded our horizons, extending the Circle to include communities near and distant—from right here in Massachusetts to as far away as the Dominican Republic.

Graduate Robert Black stands with his family Sarah ’12, mother Lorayne and father Dr. David Black ’80, member of the faculty.

Baking treats, wiping tears, taking students to Donelan’s or Johnson’s, and insisting on mutual respect and order, Sarah has also provided a home a way from home for the girls in her Third Form dorm. Although Sarah will take leave from Groton School professionally, she will continue to reside on campus with her husband, Will, and we take solace in knowing that her hopeful, friendly, and caring presence will continue to be a part of our community. Will you please stand?

TOPHER ROW has served Groton for eight years as an inspiring teacher of religion and ethics, a devoted assistant chaplain, and an expert coach of rowing and squash. His Sacred Texts class is known to be challenging, but his students say that the combination of his knowledge and passion makes the course truly exciting. This combination has made his ethics elective in the works of C.S. Lewis one of the School’s most popular, a course which students often describe as among the very best they have taken at Groton.

Beyond his teaching, chaplaincy, and coaching, Topher has given a great deal of time to influencing students through one-on-one conversations in the Dining Hall

24 | Quarterly Fall 2010

or the dormitory, and a number of his advisees, rowers, and students will remember him as a profoundly positive influence in their lives. Topher, as you head off to Europe to study church architecture in your capacity as curator of the Trinity College Chapel, I speak for many students and colleagues in expressing gratitude for all you have given to Groton. Will you please stand?

Our final faculty farewell is to JOHN TULP, whose teaching, coaching, leadership, and presence on the Circle over the past twenty-one years has been so magical, so affecting to students and colleagues alike, that his retirement leaves us with a substantial challenge: how to make sure that the magic he has created here does not depart entirely with him.

As a teacher of classics, the holder of the Sharrard Billings Chair in Classics, and the longtime chair of the Classics Department, John might be identified by those who do not know him well as chiefly a classical kind of guy. But that would be much too limiting. In fact, his style and his substance tend in equal or greater measure toward the romantic. Oh, he has the classical order and structure and symmetry and proportion held loosely in one hand, and his students know that they cannot get away with an absence of logic and discipline in anything they present to Mr. Tulp; but freedom and imagination and the beautiful chaos of nature and self are unmistakably his other, higher mode. This intellectual and even spiritual tension between “modes of order and disorder” is an element essential to John’s magic.

“Modes of Order and Disorder”—that is the name of John’s famous elective course, which has changed the way many a student thinks about the world. One colleague describes its impact this way: “It was a class on intellectual history, but undertaken with the premise that the outcome was still hanging—still hangs, currently—in the balance: taught as if from the point of view of the detective, rather than the archeologist. … Everything was in play there, everything was on the table: Freud, the mathematics of fractals, neo-Raphaelite painting, all subjects, all systems of thought, all modes of expression, and the stakes were very high. … [The class provided] a sense that all our various disciplines are hammering away at the same stubborn wall with the same insistent urgency, the way Macduff hammers at Macbeth’s gate while the porter ignores him. The stakes are high! There is something urgent—call it murder-that-willout, call it original sin, call it the fountain of youth, call it Ishmael, call it the secret of life—it’s behind the wall, and we’ve got to design some sort of Trojan horse to get us inside it. John’s teaching is one incarnation of that horse.”

As you can see, for colleagues and students alike, John’s teaching represents a kind of Platonic ideal. Combining intellectual urgency with a gentle and witty personal touch, he forges in his students true loyalty to the academic endeavor, loyalty to the other students in his class, and, inevitably though humbly, loyalty to him. And these essential

Prize Day 2010 relationships do not end with the period bell, the end of a term, or a graduation.

I will spare John any more of this embarrassment, as I know he has his canoe already strapped to the top of his car, pointed at some hidden stream full of unwitting trout, whose beautiful fate I am just postponing with my ramblings. John, you will be missed far more than these mere words can say. Will you please come forward for a token of Groton’s esteem and gratitude? * * *

And now I would like to address THE FORM OF 2010, to whom this day belongs. Characterizing your Form isn’t easy—there are so many distinct characters within it. When one takes the microphone at Roll Call, you appear to be one thing, and then your Form alters, morphing entirely into something else as the next prefect takes the stage. Your Form is wicked smart, intensely hard-working, socially and politically conservative; and yet you’re also laid-back, anti-establishment, and a little bit crazy. How do these opposite attributes, these modes of order and disorder, coexist in you?

I have the sense that your Form functions in small groups rather than large—that the best times you’ve had at Groton have been with the other prefects in your dorm or the other students in your three-person tutorial.

Even watching you enjoy the Circle this spring—and you were blessed with warmest, sunniest, most beautiful senior spring of any sixth form in a century—I observed a deliberate variety of activities rather than large gatherings of the greater form.

As one of you put it to me, “our Form is not one to gather around the campfire together to sing Kumbaya”; and yet, as another said, “My close friends have become my family, and I can’t imagine my life, now or in the future, without them involved.” Another offered, “I love the big events—the formals, the St. Mark’s bonfire—but the smaller moments that won’t make the cover of The Quarterly—the

Cum Laude Graduate and Head Prefect Will Stankiewicz stands with his family.

Magna Cum Laude graduate Will Stemberg stands with his mother former Trustee Dola Stemberg, P'98, '10 and Rylan Hamilton, '98.

late-night, long conversations with friends—these will stick with me just as much, or maybe more.”

What will stick with me about the Form of 2010 is how engaged you have been with the big issues. Even as the School has celebrated its 125-year history this year, we have begun strategic planning for the future, and you have made your voices heard on subjects ranging from the Chapel to admissions, from the classics requirement to the role of athletics. You are passionate about what is taking place here, and the debates within your Form are, in many cases, representative of the larger discussions about the culture and identity of the School as we move fully into the 21st century.

Despite the spectacular April afternoons and long May sunsets on the Circle, it hasn’t been an easy spring for the Form of 2010. We have had much to concern us and much to debate. Even Parlor has been less about ping-pong and chocolate chips of late, and more about what is right and what is wrong.

As I said Thursday in Chapel, I will not soon forget standing before you all in the back living room of the Headmaster’s House explaining my decisions, listening for well over an hour to your articulate reactions and, in many cases, strong criticisms. But here’s what I won’t forget either: when the Schoolhouse bell struck ten, and all of you stood up to go and lead your dorm check-ins, even my most outspoken critics paused to shake my hand, look me in the eye, and say thank you.

And so, I want you to know that when you climb these steps and walk across this stage to shake my hand again, I will be thanking you. For what more could Groton ask of its prefects than to stake out moral ground and stand firm upon it while never failing to extend a respectful hand?

I will conclude, and give over to one who will capture Quarterly Fall 2010

| 25

Circiter | Featured on Campus the spirit of the Form much better than I, but let me say to the Form of 2010, that in the handshakes you are about to receive, I hope you will feel the strength and warmth of our thanks for all you have given of yourselves to Groton. * * *

And now it is time to hear from a representative of the Form of 2010, one who spoke to us back in December, in one of the most compelling Chapel Talks of the year, of being “finally ‘lost enough to find myself.’” Her formmates asked to hear from her again, and I am delighted to welcome to the podium ANNA CONSTANCE PURCELL.

I would continue, but the letter gets riskily passionate thereafter.

Groton has given me the capabilities to perform such acts—no, not those of young girls stalking literary moguls— but rather those characterized by audacity and potentially spectacular results. The hours I’ve spent watching Mr. Tulp leap onto less than stable desks in his classroom; the miles I’ve run with Mr. Lyons and his dog, George, all three of

Anna Constance Purcell ’10

A

mongst the ever-changing flow of books, homework assignments, papers, and miscellaneous packages from my mother, two objects have cemented themselves on my desk for the past three months: a small, unsealed, stamped and addressed envelope and a letter, both to: Jonathan Safran Foer, 646 2nd Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11215. For those of you who are unaware of Jonathan Safran Foer’s literary brilliance and his edgy, contemporary style, he is the author of several books: Everything Is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and his most recent work, Eating Animals. The letter reads: Dear Jonathan: I don’t mean to alarm you, but I think we may be soul mates. In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, you write, “Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.” I, too, can feel the strain, Jonathan. The world moves impossibly quickly, with recent crises like Hurricane Katrina and the devastation of Haiti being left behind by new, more pressing events like a Greek economy at the edge of collapse and the environmental destruction of the BP oil spill. Over the course of the past two years, so many things in my life have morphed and altered since I read your words. Many would say I have blossomed in that time, though in terms of my height, my sentiments remain ambiguous. Yet, one thing has remained constant: my unfailing adoration for you, for your work, perspectives, and ideas.

Not only are your words beautifully lyrical, your mind-- witty, innovative, and brilliant--but you are also charmingly handsome, your face-- a striking hybrid of Stephen Colbert and Jake Gyllenhaal.

26 | Quarterly Fall 2010

Anna Purcell '10 addresses her Form.

us trotting along the beautiful and serene paths of the Town Forest; the sincere fear I felt in The Program as a large male Marine stood above me demanding I continue the push-up regimen, even as my feeble arms wobbled under the pressure; the tedium of morning after morning spent studying alone in the Dining Hall, minutes and sometimes even hours before the Dining Hall staff had arrived; the patience Mr. Sheppe exhibited every Arabic class this term as I struggled through past-tense verbs, vocabulary words, and my penchant for calling every number, despite its value, “thamanea” or “eight”; reading Crime and Punishment with Mr. Goodrich and afterwards, as I had convinced myself that everyone was an axe-murderer, dealing with my subsequent paranoia; in the midst of sixth-form fall and the college process, when I may or may not have wept on the exercise bike, only to peer over at four bewildered, but genuinely concerned fourth form boys— sorry guys, sometimes my life truly is tragic; conversations in the Dining Hall, conversations with the cross-country team, conversations with my best friends, my dorm mates, my roommate. These things are the pieces of Groton that have prepared me for the future, that have given me a foundation from which I can pursue anything.

As my days on the Circle dwindled and time unfolded with unprecedented rapidity, I sought a monumental realization, something that would thread together all the fragments that have constituted my last four years as a

Prize Day 2010 Groton student. However, as I stand before you, I can honestly admit that such a realization never came—or rather, not one of the quality which I imagined. I had always pictured the moment, sitting in Chapel, when I would finally understand Mr. Walters’ Chapel Talk. An event like this, I thoughtfully mused, would truly prove my worth as a mature Groton student, a sixth former with impressive intellectual capabilities. Sadly, this year, Mr. Walters ended with a curve ball. After pairing up with one of the more enigmatic faculty members, my own advisor, Mr. Creamer, I endured twenty minutes of painstaking mental gymnastics. They told us, “When you place two objects next to each other and they collide, a star is created!” I looked at Mr. Creamer’s projected pictures of trees and leaves. Nothing made sense. The only level of understanding I reached that day is the possibility that Mr. Walters’ Chapel Talks were social experiments, and that in fact, even he did not understand the meaning of his alliterated and self-created poems.

Instead, I leave Groton with all of my fragments; these different pieces that I know, in ways unclear to me now, will prove to be invaluable in my future endeavors.

Similarly, I believe that you, the Form of 2010, will all leave these wrought-iron gates with your own pieces— your own maniacal letters, your own conversations, your understandings, or misunderstandings, the friendships each of you have formed with teachers and fellow students alike, different places around Groton where you have shed your inopportune and often embarrassing tears. I’m sure, after witnessing your talents, character, integrity, and mental acuity over the last four years, many of you have had the sort of realizations that make Mr. Walters seem like an illiterate pauper. But, if by an off chance you, like me, haven’t completed your picture of the past four years flawlessly, I leave you with the words of another writer whom I harbor intense, passionate feelings about.

Unfortunately, William Stafford—rest in peace—died in 1993. Since I was only one year old, and barely cognizant at the time, he unfortunately wasn’t able to receive one of my dazzling expressions of adoration. In his poem, “For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid,” he writes: There is a country to cross you will find in the corner of your eye, in the quick slip of your foot--air far down, a snap that might have caught.

And maybe for you, for me, a high, passing voice that finds its way by being afraid. That country is there, for us, carried as it is crossed. What you fear will not go away: it will take you into yourself and bless you and keep you.

That’s the world, and we all live there.

Cum Laude graduate and 2010 Choir Cup winner Cristina Hackley stands with her family

I hope that you, my impressive formmates and lifetime friends, you the Form of 2010, leave today with the knowledge that you have the pieces, however fragmented they may be, to do anything, to overcome the fears and obstacles that present themselves to you in the coming years. With a foundation rooted in a Groton education, I am certain that we all have the capabilities to pursue great things, wherever our separate lives may lead us. Thank you. * * *

Awarding of Groton School Prizes (see p.33) * * *

Richard B. Commons, Headmaster

A

nd now I have the distinct honor of introducing our keynote speaker, Willard Mitt Romney, who governed the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and who, according to polls and pundits, is currently the leading candidate for the 2012 Republican nomination for President of the United States.

Governor Romney graduated from Cranbrook School in Michigan, which is not unlike Groton in its mission and national reputation. At his high school graduation, according to the Boston Globe, June 12, 2005, he was awarded the prize given to a student “whose contributions Quarterly Fall 2010

| 27

Circiter | Featured on Campus to school life are often not fully recognized through Mitt Romney’s Address to the Form of 2010 already existing channels.” His contributions since then, in public service and private enterprise, have been hank you very much, Rick. recognized through every existing channel, all over the It’s an honor to be here with you today, to country and the world. be asked to address the graduates at Groton Governor Romney received his bachelor’s degree with School. For someone of my generation, of highest honors from Brigham Young University in 1971. course, it’s both impressive and somewhat sobering to In 1975 he was awarded an MBA from Harvard Business look at the names of the former graduates of this great School, where he was named a Baker Scholar, and a J.D., institution. Dean Acheson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

Averell Harriman and, of course, literally scores of others From 1978 to 1984, Governor Romney was a vice of our great countrymen. But I have learned over the president at Bain & Company, Inc., a leading management years that you have to be careful not to let your superior consulting firm. In 1984, he founded Bain Capital, education go to your heads. I was pretty proud of my one of the nation’s most successful venture capital and academic credentials when I went out to Utah to help investment companies. Several years later, he returned to organize the Olympic Winter Games there, but one Bain & Company as the CEO. day when I was walking by my Governor Romney first gained house I happened to come upon a national recognition for his role in rancher at a farm who was looking turning around the 2002 Winter over a herd of sheep and, feeling Olympics as president and CEO of somewhat in a sporting mood, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.

I said to him, “If I can guess the Governor Romney has said he felt exact number of sheep in your compelled to step into this role by herd, can I have one?” And he said, both the urgings of his wife, Ann, “Sure.” I said, “2142.” He said, and by the memory of his father, “Amazing! You have guessed the George Romney, who had been a exact number.” So I picked up my successful businessman, three-term animal and began walking away. governor of Michigan, and a tireless He said, “Wait a second! Wait a advocate of volunteerism in America. second! If I can guess your name He was elected governor of and what you’re doing here in Massachusetts in 2002, and presided Utah, can I have my animal back?” over a dramatic reversal of state I said, “Sure.” He said, “You’re fortunes and a period of sustained Mitt Romney, that guy that’s come economic expansion. By the time he here to run the Olympics, right?” left office, the unemployment rate was I said, “Yeah, that’s true. How did lower, hundreds of companies had you know?” He said, “Put down expanded or moved to Massachusetts, my dog, I’ll tell ya.” and, in the last two years of his term, People at the top don’t always the state had added approximately know as much as they think they Headmaster Commons and Prize Day Speaker 60,000 jobs. In 2006, Governor know. And my advice to you today Gov. Mitt Romney before the Ceremonies begin.

Romney proposed and signed into is going to follow from that very law a private, market-based reform that has since ensured that every Massachusetts citizen has health insurance.

Governor Romney has been deeply involved in community It’s not a liberal thought, and civic affairs, serving extensively in his church and it’s a conservative thought. numerous charities including City Year, the Boy Scouts, and the Points of Light Foundation. Governor Romney and Question authority, even if it’s his wife, Ann, have been married for 40 years and have five usually right. sons, five daughters-in-law, and fourteen grandchildren.

Governor Romney, on behalf of the Form of 2010 and Groton School, I welcome you to the Circle as the simple observation. It’s this. It’s not a liberal thought, it’s keynote speaker for our 125th Prize Day. a conservative thought. Question authority, even if it’s [Ed. Note: The introduction above is largely quoted usually right. I went to an Episcopal school that was not from http://www.freestrongamerica.com] unlike Groton, called Cranbrook School in Bloomfield

T

28 | Quarterly Fall 2010

Prize Day 2010 Hills, as Rick has indicated. It’s in Michigan near Detroit.

Cranbrook had a sister school in England called the Harrow School, and we took a great deal of sibling pride, if you will, in the fact that Winston Churchill was a graduate of the Harrow School. We also shared a school song with Harrow, which we sung regularly at our assemblies.

And often in the six years that I was at Cranbrook and that we sang that song, the lines as I sung them would bring a reminiscence in my mind, a thoughtfulness or a daydreaming to my mind about what the question might have as an answer when it finally occurred. Here’s what the words said. I won’t sing them.

Forty years on, when afar and asunder, Parted are those who are singing today, When you look back, and forgetfully wonder What you were like in your work and your play, How will it seem to you, forty years on?

What would it be like, I wondered, to be forty years older? How would it be then to look back on my years in school? Well, now it’s been a little over forty years since my graduation, and I know some of the answers to those questions.

One of them is this. A good deal of what I learned as a young man turned out not to be so. In health, for instance, I learned that eating foods high in cholesterol, like eggs and lobster, raised your risk of heart disease. But now I know there is good as well as bad cholesterol, and it so happens that lobster and eggs happen to be good for you. I learned in science that the planet was cooling and that we were facing the return of an ice age. I learned that our agricultural system would soon be unable to keep up with the world’s population growth. Socially, I had learned that cigarette smoking was cool, and fortunately for those who took it up, it had no health consequence whatsoever. Politically, I learned that Detroit was about to become a model city for the entire nation. And I also learned that we had to go to war in Vietnam in order to stop the spread of communism.

So much of what I learned turned out not to be so.

That observation, that the conventional wisdom may be incorrect, that the authorities may have it wrong, has been a very important factor in the degree of success I have enjoyed in business or in public service and, particularly, in my personal life. Let me explain. When I was a brand new MBA, most seasoned business executives and experts dismissed the notion that someone like me might be able to teach them something about their own business. I remember being ushered into the office of John Morgan, the owner of the John Morgan Knitting Mills in Tamaquah, Pennsylvania. He had asked our consulting firm to send some experts to come in and help him with his business. He imagined that I would be 50 or 60 years

Former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney, addresses the Form of 2010.

When he looked up from his desk and he saw me with an even more junior associate sitting next to me, he stood up, raised both hands in the air, and said, “Boys, boys! They sent me boys, and I needed men!” old. When he looked up from his desk and he saw me with an even more junior associate sitting next to me, he stood up, raised both hands in the air, and said, “Boys, boys!

They sent me boys, and I needed men!” His reaction was not terribly unusual, I imagine, but his way of expressing it was. But, fortunately, armed with some conceptual tools I had been taught and with a reasonably well-trained mind and also armed with, if you will, a perspective that comes only from being an outsider not blinded by convention and corporate traditions, we were in fact able to help businesses like John Morgan’s Knitting Mill. And we built a consulting firm that now has thousands of employees around the world.

Another example. The wisdom of conventional authorities asserted that in the long run you simply can’t beat the stock market. How could one person, or a handful

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 29

Circiter | Featured on Campus of people for that matter, consistently know more than millions of people around the world that are following the market and following companies? Fortunately for me, we questioned that thinking and consequently organized our own investment company, and it has vastly outperformed the market for more than a quarter century. Another example. When Will Stemberg ’10’s father, Tom, came to me about his idea for a store that would sell office supplies, the experts I talked to, every single one of them, agreed that it would never work. Convenience, they said, was what businesses wanted today. Business people would never go to a store to buy their supplies when they could have a salesman deliver them to them. Fortunately for me and for a number of others, we questioned the thinking of the experts, and Staples now employees 91,000 people in 27 countries.

Now, questioning authority also proved to be every bit as valuable in my public service. As governor of Massachusetts, I was told that without raising taxes we could not balance the state budget. We did. I was told that the best way to improve our state’s schools, our public schools, was by reducing the classroom size. It wasn’t. I was told that we couldn’t get everybody health insurance without having to raise taxes or breaking the state budget.

We did. And, of course, I was told that a Republican, especially a rich, male, Mormon businessman like me, could never be elected the governor of Massachusetts.

Perhaps the most important decision of my life where questioning authority has made a huge difference was in my personal life. You see, when I was in school it was very much frowned upon by the socially elite to marry young and to have a large family. But I fell in love with a high school sophomore when I was a senior, and she and I got married when she was 19. Together we have, as Rick indicated, five sons, five daughters-in-law, 14 grandkids and nothing begins to compare with the happiness that has brought me.

Marrying Ann was the best decision of my life.

Question authority. As your speaker, Anna Purcell, said just a moment ago, audacity. Bring audacity to life. It will invigorate your life. And let me add it will also invigorate the nation I love. Let me explain that. My business work required me to travel a good deal around the world. I was often struck by the extraordinary differences in the economic success and standards of living in different countries, often in countries that were right next door to each other. Look at Mexico compared with the United States. Consider the economic success of Chile and the economic peril next door in Argentina. Israel on a per capita basis has become the innovation capital of the world. But the Palestinian territories are still decades behind. How is it that such disparity exits in two nations so close to one another? I read a book on the topic by an author, named Jared Diamond, called Guns, Germs and Steel. He explains that a good deal of the difference between the weak and

Graduate Coco Minot stands with her father Winthrop Minot '69, and sisters Hilary '02 (right) and Amory '05.

30 | Quarterly Fall 2010

Prize Day 2010 the strong has to do with the geography they got in the first place. The geography that has iron ore in it allowed the people to make swords with that iron ore and to kill their neighbors and become strong. Some geography has bad germs, like the germs that cause malaria and yellow fever, and they, of course, tend to burden the people who were living in those areas. And, of course, some land had plentiful rivers and streams and that eased commerce and trade, and others didn’t. So, in his view, geography makes all the difference.

That explained a part of what was going on, but it was missing something, at least in my view. And then I read a book by a professor at Harvard named David Landes.

The book is called The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. He studies the rise and fall of virtually every great nation in the history of the earth, and he looks at what caused their rise and what precipitated their decline. After some 500 pages of relatively scholarly analysis, he says this: “If we can learn anything from the economic development of the world it is this. Culture makes all the difference. What people believe, for what they will sacrifice, how they live their lives.”

It’s not the geography of the land that has made America.

It is the geography of the American heart that has made America. What is it about America’s culture that’s led us to become the most powerful nation in history? I believe it includes the value we attach to education, to hard work, to family formation, to our willingness to take risks, to our innovativeness, to our pioneering nature. And, not incidentally, to our inclination to question authority. To challenge the conventional, the conventional wisdom.

The freedom we prize has enabled American pioneers to strike out in directions of thinking and innovation that would never have been possible to people living under the thumb of a king or a society laced by rigid bounds of class or a religion that was intolerant of science and discovery.

America is what it is in part because men and women questioned authority. From Columbus to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. From John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan. And from Franklin to Edison, to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

Now I’m not suggesting that you shred your textbooks or dismiss the wisdom of the Groton faculty. In fact, most of what you learned from authority and from conventional wisdom is right. Let me underscore that. Most of what you learned from authority and conventional wisdom is right. Some of the best decisions of my life came because I followed the counsel of people with more experience than I had. Get a good education, they said. Exercise to keep healthy. Put family and faith first in your life. Work hard, it’s invigorating. Usually what authority says is spot on. But not always.

So when you hear your college professors, or career experts, or journalists, or politicians—particularly

Form of 2010 senior leadership, L to R: Head Prefects Will Stankiewicz and Courtney Fogarty, House Prefects Will Stemberg and Cristina Hackley.

politicians—question what they say. That’s the first step.

And the second step is this. Look at what they say but test it. Gather data to determine whether it is accurate or false. And then experiment, and think, and make your own conclusion. When I was serving as governor, for instance, and I was told that classroom size was the key to improving our schools, we went to get the data to find out whether the experts were right. You see, every one of our 300 school districts in Massachusetts tests its kids every year. And so we have for each school district the capacity to get an average student achievement score. And we can also determine for each school district the average classroom size in that district. So if the experts were right, we would expect that if we compared the average student’s score with the average school classroom size, we would see a strong, compelling relationship. There was no relationship at all.

As a matter of fact, in the school district with the smallest classroom size, Cambridge, their students performed in the bottom 10 percent of those of the state. The experts, it turned out, were wrong. What I and my colleagues and my predecessors did to improve our schools has instead led Massachusetts’ K through 12 education to be number one in the entire nation. That privilege to question authority, to test it out and pursue your own life path was bought at an incalculable price. I hope you recognize and appreciate

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 31

Circiter | Featured on Campus the greatness of America and the greatness of those who made it their life’s legacy.

That was brought home powerfully to me in 2002 at our Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. It was at closing ceremonies. The vice president was there. He asked me to choose one athlete to sit with him. I chose Derek Para to represent all the American athletes. Derek was Hispanic American, about 5’4” tall. Derek was told that he couldn’t possibly compete in a sport like speed skating. He was a roller blader, hadn’t skated. He strapped on skates and beat some of the big guys from Minnesota and Michigan and Wisconsin and came to the Olympic games. He skated his heart out and won a silver medal and a gold medal. And so I asked Derek to come sit with the vice president. I asked Derek as he was coming into the box, “Derek, what was the most memorable experience in your Olympic games.” And it was not the silver medal. And it was not the gold medal. He said it was being honored to carry in the flag that had flown above the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

To carry that flag into opening ceremonies. He was one of eight athletes chosen by his colleagues to do so. He said as they carried it in and as it was announced he expected the crowd to bust into cheers. But instead complete silence.

Total reverence. And he said so he carried the flag and stopped in front of the choir, and they began performing the national anthem. And he said, “Mitt, it was hard to hold onto my emotions as they were singing those words and I was holding that flag.” And then he said, “The choir did something I hadn’t expected.” Now I knew what was coming because as the guy running the Olympic games I got to choose the version of the national anthem the

Members of the Form of 2010 begin to gather for their Form picture.

32 | Quarterly Fall 2010

choir was singing. And the version I chose was from the 1930s where you repeat the last line. And the second time the sopranos go up an octave. “Oh, say, does that star spangled banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” And he said, “This time as they sang it, a gust of wind blew into that flag and lifted it in our hands.” And he said, “As it did so,” he said, “I thought that it was as if the spirits of all those that had fought and died for American liberty had just blown in the flag.” It is that love of liberty that we must cherish and prize, as we recognize our right to choose our life’s course was paid for at an enormous price.

“Forty years on, when afar and asunder, how will it seem to you, forty years on?” I believe you will see America finally acknowledge the fiscal calamity that would await us if we don’t mend our borrowing ways. I believe we will free ourselves from oil and keep the planet from melting down. I believe you will see American values once again esteemed throughout the world. Human rights, free enterprise, personal freedom. I believe world poverty will retreat and that prosperity will advance. Much of this will depend on you and your generation of Americans. In the past, American values have helped lift billions of people out of poverty. The blood of American men and women have helped free the oppressed from tyranny. America’s revolution threw off the yoke of political oppression and opened the way for free men and women to question, to dissent, to innovate, and to pioneer. That is who we are. That is in your DNA. Question. Search. Discover.

Discover for yourself. The nation depends upon it.

May God be with you in that quest.

Thank you.

G ROTO N SCHOOL PRIZES

CHARLES LANIER APPLETON PRIZE Awarded to a member of the Sixth Form who has greatly served the School.

THE PERRY HISTORY PRIZE Given by Mrs. Eliza Endicott Perry to the best scholar in the field of history.

Courtney Elizabeth Fogarty and Michael William Stankiewicz

Arthur Austin Anton

THE HISTORY AND LITERATURE PRIZE Given by the late Right Reverend Julius Atwood to the best scholar in the combined fields of history and literature.

THE THORPE SCIENCE PRIZE Given by Mrs. Warren Thorpe to that member of the Sixth Form who has been the most successful in developing an appreciation of the spirit and meaning of science.

William Davis Stemberg

Julia McKinney May and Weon Jae Choi

THE ROGERS V. SCUDDER CLASSICS PRIZE Given in memory of Rogers Scudder, who was a distinguished teacher of classics at Groton and a much-loved member of this community.

THE BUTLER PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN ENGLISH Given by Mrs. Gilbert Butler.

Georgiana Kingsbury Brooke Brinkley THE ROSCOE C. THOMAS MATHEMATICS PRIZE Given by the Sixth Form of 1923, and awarded to a member of the Fifth Form for excellence in mathematics.

Anne Ballantine Badman THE DENNIS CROWLEY DRAMA PRIZE Given by Todd C. Bartels ’01 to a member of the Sixth Form who has made the greatest contribution to the theater program.

Mary Livingston Kinsella

Jisoo Min Quarterly Fall 2010

| 33

Circiter | Featured on Campus THE GEORGE LIVINGSTON NICHOLS PRIZE Awarded for the best essay on an historical subject.

Edorado Saravalle

The Harvard Book Prize Given by Harry Eldridge ’20 in memory of his brother Francis H. Eldridge ’24.

Julia Winslow Metzger

THE MODERN LANGUAGES PRIZE Hilary Harling Ross and Connor Patrick MacKenzie THE HUDSON MUSIC PRIZE Given by the friends of William Clarke Hudson ’56 to show the recognition of effort and progress in music during the school year.

Jane Jaiwon Bang and Ian Michael Storey Anderson THE CHOIR CUP Awarded each year to the Sixth Form chorister who has exhibited musical growth in sight-reading and vocal technique.

Cristina Maria Hackley THE ISSAC JACKSON MEMORIAL PRIZE Awarded to the best mathematics scholar in the Upper School.

Sung Won Cho THE REVEREND FREDERIC R. KELLOGG UPPER SCHOOL ART PRIZE Given in memory of Mr. Kellogg’s father, in recognition of distinguished work in art.

Sung Hoon Hong and Andrew John Swansburg THE ANITA ANDRES ROGERSON DANCE PRIZE Yu Qing Zhang THE PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE

The Harvard Book Prize Given by Mark A. Medlinsky ’76 in memory of his father.

Sung Won Cho GROTONIAN CREATIVE WRITING PRIZE Given by the Grotonian board of 1946 to a member of the Upper School for the best example of prose fiction written in the past year.

Zachary Arthur Kemeny Nicol THE ENDICOTT PEABODY MEMORIAL PRIZE Given in memory of the Reverend Endicott Peabody by the Sixth Form of 1945 for excellence in the field of Religion and Ethics.

Emily Allaire Caldwell REGINALD FINCKE JR. MEDAL Given by the Sixth Form of 1928 in memory of First Lieutenant Reginald Fincke, Jr., is awarded to a member of the Sixth Form who has shown in athletics his qualities of perseverance, courage, and unselfish sportsmanship.

Charles-Eric Boutet THE CORNELIA AMORY FROTHINGHAM ATHLETIC PRIZE Given by her parents and awarded to a girl in the Sixth Form who has demonstrated all-round athletic ability and has shown exemplary qualities of leadership and sportsmanship.

Grace Morton Bukawyn and Paige Margaret McDonald

THE UPPER SCHOOL SHOP PRIZE

O’BRIEN PRIZE Given by the Hoopes family to a member of the Lower School who has shown qualities of integrity, loyalty, enthusiasm, and concern for others.

Thomas Scott Nagler

Peter Webster Mumford

THE HARVARD BOOK PRIZES Given to two members of the Fifth Form who exemplify excellence in scholarship and high character combined with achievement in other fields.

THE GADSDEN PRIZE Given in memory of Jeremiah Gadsden of the Form of 1968 by his classmates and friends and goes to a member of the Fifth Form who has demonstrated inspirational leadership encouraging social and interracial understanding in the Groton community.

Christian David Padilla

Ysis Avon Tarter and Ward Ellis Scott III

34 | Quarterly Fall 2010

Prize Day 2010 THE TRONIC AWARD Given in honor of Michael G. Tronic and is awarded to a member of the Sixth Form who has made especially good use of the resources of the Library and who has shown strong interest in the life of the mind.

THE LAURA J. COOLIDGE ’85 POETRY PRIZE Given in her memory by her husband Peter Touche to a member of the Upper School who has shown a love for the power of poetic expression and a sustained interest in writing and reading poetry.

Sterling Brownlee Brinkley

Laura Bosheng Zhang THE ELIZABETH AND MARGERY PEABODY AWARD Given to a member of the Sixth Form, other than a School Prefect, whose contributions to the community demonstrate sensitivity, strength of character, leadership, and integrity.

THE ASMA GULL HASAN 1993 CIRCLE VOICE JOURNALISM PRIZE Acknowledges outstanding leadership in creating, editing, and producing the School’s newspaper.

Arthur Austin Anton

Margo Hager White The Monte J. and Anne H. Wallace Scholar Given in recognition of scholastic excellence as well as those qualities of character and commitment so important to the Groton community.

Elizabeth Ann MeLampy

CARROLL and JOHN KING HODGES PRIZE Given in memory of Carroll Hodges, Form of 1905, and John King Hodges, Form of 1910, to be awarded to a sixth former who has distinguished him or herself in a capacity to be designated by the headmaster. Awarded this year, in recognition of a particularly fine and moving Chapel Talk.

Anna Constance Purcell

The Form of 2010

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 35

Circiter | Featured on Campus

AWARDING OF

DIPLOMAS Form of 2010 Dale Stanley Adams Ian Michael Storey Anderson Cum Laude Arthur Austin Anton Magna Cum Laude Anne Brackenridge Ballantine Badman Cum Laude Connor James Baharozian Cum Laude Jane Jaiwon Bang Summa Cum Laude Amelia Elisabeth Ann Barnett Cum Laude Jennessa Marie Battaini Ariana Astrid Bedrossian Michael Philip Bianco Cum Laude Robert Charles Black Charles-Eric Boutet Magna Cum Laude Georgiana Kingsbury Brooke Brinkley Summa Cum Laude Sterling Brownlee Brinkley III Madeleine Keeler Bruce Cum Laude Grace Morton Bukawyn Emily Allaire Caldwell Cum Laude Catherine Darden Callaway Magna Cum Laude Michael Patrick Cassidy Chun Hao Chang Weon Jae Choi Cum Laude Eugene Chong Cum Laude Dennis John Cottreau Magna Cum Laude Skylar Rose Cruz Andrew James Daigneault Helena Maria Duffee Julia Ann Dwyer Hilary Wheeler Evans Magna Cum Laude Dominique Fequiere Thea Penelope Cynthia Wheatland Fisher Courtney Elizabeth Fogarty Brett Carmine Frongillo Scott Michael Fronsdahl Bryn Elizabeth Garrity Harsh Vardhan Govil Summa Cum Laude Alexander Robert Gregoire Cristina Maria Hackley Cum Laude Walter Hawes Madeleine Elisabeth VigĂŠ Hicks Magna Cum Laude Michael Arlen Hotz Cum Laude Jillian Mary Howe Michael Martin Howze Sojung Jeong Magna Cum Laude Tanner Bourgeois Keefe Jungi Kim Magna Cum Laude Mary Livingston Kinsella Cum Laude Trudy Lei Abigail Wrigley Lincoln

36 | Quarterly Fall 2010

Elizabeth Edmonds MacEachern Connor Patrick MacKenzie Henry Boas Maguire II Julia McKinney May Daniel James McCarthy Paige Margaret McDonald Elizabeth Jane McKie Sabina Margaret Milbank Constance Gardner Minot Kimberly Ann Mitchell Lauren Nicole Mullins Michelle Irene Murphy Thomas Scott Nagler Julia Margaret Nestler Jamie Paul Norton Ikechukwu C. Okorafor Christian David Padilla Joanna Rice Peller Anna Constance Purcell Conor Patrick Robinson Jonathon Antonio Hylton Rodriguez Hilary Harling Ross Michael Dong Jin Shin Elizabeth Doris Small Hugo Alexander Spaulding Michael William Stankiewicz II William Davis Stemberg Robert Livingston Reinke Strong Justin Edward Swansburg Tae Kyu Brian Uhm Virginia Schoonmaker Walsh Jordan Hirth Washam Margo Hager White Rachel Bess White Laura Bosheng Zhang

Cum Laude Magna Cum Laude Cum Laude Magna Cum Laude

Cum Laude Cum Laude Cum Laude Cum Laude Cum Laude Cum Laude Magna Cum Laude Magna Cum Laude Cum Laude Cum Laude Magna Cum Laude Cum Laude Cum Laude Magna Cum Laude Cum Laude

Prize Prize Day Day 2010 2010

COLLEGE PROFILE

Adams, Dale Anderson, Ian Anton, Arthur Badman, Anne Baharozian, Connor Bang, Jane Barnett, Amelia Battaini, Jennessa Bedrossian, Ariana Bianco, Michael Black, Robert Boutet, Charles-Eric Brinkley, Georgiana Brinkley, Sterling Bruce, Madeleine Bukawyn, Grace Caldwell, Emily Callaway, Catherine Cassidy, Michael Chang, Chun Hao Choi, Weon Jae Chong, Eugene Cottreau, Dennis Cruz, Skylar Daigneault, Andrew Duffee, Helena Dwyer, Julia Evans, Hilary Fequiere, Dominique Fisher, Thea Fogarty, Courtney Frongillo, Brett Fronsdahl, Scott Garrity, Bryn Govil, Harsh

Franklin Pierce University Wesleyan University Princeton University Wellesley College University of Michigan Yale University Colby College Catholic University of America George Washington University Hamilton College Trinity College McGill University Harvard University Yale University Colby College Sewanee: University of the South Swarthmore College Davidson College St. Olaf College Carnegie Mellon University New York University University of Chicago McGill University Spelman College Ohio Wesleyan University Tulane University University of San Francisco Northwestern University Binghamton University King’s College, London St. Lawrence University College of Wooster Santa Clara University Wellesley College Stanford University

Gregoire, Alexander Hackley, Cristina Hawes, Walter Hicks, Madeleine Hotz, Michael Howe, Jillian Howze, Michael Jeong, Sojung Keefe, Tanner Kim, Jungi Kinsella, Mary Lei, Trudy Lincoln, Abigail MacEachern, Elizabeth MacKenzie, Connor Maguire, Henry May, Julia McCarthy, Daniel McDonald, Paige McKie, Elizabeth Milbank, Sabina Minot, Constance Mitchell, Kimberly Mullins, Lauren Murphy, Michelle Nagler, Thomas Nestler, Julia Norton, Jamie Okorafor, Ikechukwu Padilla, Christian Peller, Joanna Purcell, Anna Robinson, Conor Rodriguez, Jonathon Ross, Hilary Harling Shin, Michael Small, Elizabeth Spaulding, Hugo Stankiewicz, Michael Stemberg, William Strong, Robert Swansburg, Justin Uhm, Tae Kyu Walsh, Virginia Washam, Jordan White, Margo White, Rachel Zhang, Laura

Chapman University Georgetown University University of Edinburgh Duke University Brown University Georgia Institute of Technology U. of California at Santa Barbara Brown University Catholic University of America University of Pennsylvania University of Edinburgh U. of California at Davis University of New Hampshire Harvard University University of Virginia Bucknell University Williams College Connecticut College Lehigh University Elon University University of St. Andrews-Scotland Trinity College Boston College Boston University Trinity College Colby College Scripps College Tufts University Stanford University Allegheny College University College London Col. of William and Mary St. Michaels College University of Richmond Georgetown University Carnegie Mellon University Georgetown University Davidson College Trinity College Harvard University Tulane University University of Richmond Oberlin College Hamilton College College of Wooster Dartmouth College Arizona State University Georgetown University Quarterly Fall 2010

| 37

Per Circulum Locuti Sunt | Voices on the Circle Some 40 years ago, weekday Chapel Talks became regular occurrences at Groton. They are now a school tradition that four times a week welcomes parents, trustees, alumni, faculty, and students to address the School in Chapel. The talks have become the service’s centerpiece, enriching the Groton experience by virtue of the ideas, experiences, and opinions that are expressed in this more formal setting. Over 100 speakers present at Chapel each academic year, adding to the voices on the Circle.

We offer four examples from the Spring Term here.

38 | Quarterly Fall 2010

A Tale of Two Mothers A Chapel Talk by Amy Cunningham Atkinson ’79, Trustee April 23, 2010

Mary-Ellen Lavin

T

his past August, the brilliant and idiosyncratic creator of the CBS News magazine 60 Minutes Don Hewitt died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 86. In a broadcast news landscape where programs now come and go, and content is increasingly superficial, Don Hewitt’s 60 Minutes has somehow been able to hold on to its high standards for more than 40 years. During my late twenties, my thirties, and through my fortieth year, I had the great privilege of working for Don as a producer at 60 Minutes. He used to call me “kid,” and when I initially joined his team at the end of the first Gulf War, he came into my office one day wanting to share the secret of his program’s great success. 60 Minutes is about four simple words, he told me proudly, “Tell–me–a–story.”

“That’s it, kid, just tell me a story.”

So, in an effort to engage you this morning, I have decided to follow Don’s advice and tell you a story. As far as I know, it’s a true story, and one which I think speaks to the deepest values of this extraordinary school.

The seeds of it were sown by thoughts and feelings that welled up inside me during a Chapel Talk given by former Groton board chair Hardwick Simmons ’58 about his mother from this same pulpit just over three years ago; and then also in thoughts and feelings I had during a dinner conversation here in the Dining Hall last November in which Hale Smith asked me how it was that I came to attend Groton School.

The story of my path to Groton is not the ordinary one of looking at brochures, or being wooed by Ian Gracey’s first-rate admissions team, or long-standing family connections to the School. I was the first member of my family to come to Groton. My path to this special place is very different from Wick’s, although it begins in the same place: a small, beautiful seaside town on the way to the Cape called Marion, Massachusetts.

Wick was raised in Marion by his mother, Margaret Hardwick Simmons. She was a beautiful and refined woman, born to a life of privilege, with an adoring, passionate father who graduated from Groton in the Form of 1911. In his Chapel Talk, Wick described his mother’s early life as follows: “She was educated properly at Winsor and Miss Hall’s and finished at Garland Junior College where one was told never to go to town without hats, gloves, and stockings. Life outside of school revolved around her extended family, figure skating, music, and men. Inheriting her father’s love of adventure (for his 40th birthday, he harpooned and beached a 60-ton sperm whale) her favorite second home was her mother’s yacht, Arcadia, and trips to Havana, Alaska, and the Galapagos Islands where she landed a Pacific Sailfish that won the world record for eight years.” Truly, Margaret Hardwick Simmons led a blessed and glamorous life.

But the story I want to share with you today is not Margaret’s, but that of another Groton mother who also comes from Marion. Her name is Mary-Ellen Lavin, and this is her story.

In the early evening hours just after Christmas 1934, a young man named Joseph Lawrence “Jack” Lavin and a young woman named Mildred Ponthan met in Boston. Jack was the youngest son of first generation Irish immigrants. His father died when he was a child (the

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 39

Per Circulum Locuti Sunt | Voices on the Circle

Mary-Ellen Lavin Cunningham at her wedding with F. William Andres

When she graduated from Tabor, she was valedictorian of her class, although— as the story goes—she was not allowed to give the valedictory address. It seems it was uncomfortable for a girl on full scholarship —a townie—to have beaten out all the boys.

40 | Quarterly Fall 2010

cause of death on the certificate reads simply “psoriasis of the liver”) and his mother was left to raise her three young children on her own.

Mildred’s mother was the cook for a wealthy family in Marion; her father was the family’s chauffeur. That night in early 1934, Jack and Mildred had an affair. The result of their brief union was a baby girl born on October 1 that same year. They named her Mary-Ellen Lavin.

The strain of the unexpected pregnancy was ultimately too much for Jack and Mildred’s already fragile relationship. They went their separate ways shortly after Mary-Ellen was born.

Unable to cope with a new baby and desperately wanting to forge a new life, Mildred decided she would move to New York and leave little MaryEllen in Marion to be raised by her grandmother, the cook, whom MaryEllen called “Gar.” While Mary-Ellen loved Gar deeply and Gar loved her, life was not easy.

There was very little money. There were lots of unanswered questions and confusion, and there certainly were no adoring, passionate parents. Mildred never returned to Marion to get her little girl; she struggled with severe alcoholism for the rest of her life, and it ultimately killed her. Mary-Ellen’s father, Jack, died in mysterious circumstances when she was still a young child. Mary-Ellen never knew her father.

However, when Jack died, he left a small life insurance policy worth $10,000 in Mary-Ellen’s name. A prominent Boston lawyer named F. William Andres was somehow given the responsibility of distributing that money.

Now, William Andres was an unusual man. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, where his father was a cotton merchant, he moved to Arlington, Massachusetts and went to local schools as a child before attending Exeter, Dartmouth College, and then Harvard Law School, eventually becoming a partner at Sherburne, Powers and Needham in Boston. Andres believed deeply in the transformative power of education. He served as a trustee for many years at Exeter, as chairman of the board at Dartmouth, and was instrumental in setting up a fund named after him at Harvard Law School through which students could pursue work in the public interest. He was a strong and early supporter of affirmative action, and fierce advocate for financial aid.

William Andres had no known relationship with Mary-Ellen other than having been given the task of distributing the money from Jack Lavin’s life insurance policy to her. Yet, something must have touched him about this particular little girl. There was something about her story and something in his character that compelled him to take an interest in Mary-Ellen’s young life.

Former Groton Headmaster Bill Polk gave the best definition of character I have ever heard, and it’s one I tell my own two children. He said that character is “when someone does the right thing even when others aren’t looking.” How easy it would have been for William Andres to never have paid any attention Mary-Ellen. Certainly no one was looking at how he planned to deliver this seemingly inconsequential life insurance check. He could have glibly asked his assistant to send it off when it crossed his desk and gone home for dinner that night to enjoy his own family. But that’s not what he did. Instead he decided to help Mary-Ellen steward the money and pursue her education. He made it his business to care; he built a relationship. That care, and relationship, would change the course of Mary-Ellen’s life.

When Andres first met Mary-Ellen, she was a student at Tabor Academy in Marion.

Tabor was an all-boys school at the time, but took a few local girls free of charge, as a service to the community. Mary-Ellen may have been poor, but she was also smart and tenacious. When she graduated from Tabor, she was valedictorian of her class, although—as the story goes—she was not allowed to give the valedictory address. It

A Tale of Two Mothers seems it was uncomfortable for a girl on full scholarship—a townie—to have beaten out all the boys.

With Andres’ guidance, Mary-Ellen applied and was accepted to Mount Holyoke College. Andres helped her piece together the financial aid to attend and stretched the money from her life insurance policy to buy books and clothes. Mary-Ellen graduated from Mount Holyoke Phi Beta Kappa and went on to attend the Harvard Business School, again with financial assistance and again with Andres’ help.

After completing her studies, she went to work for Proctor and Gamble, one of the few companies at the time that hired women. It was on a business trip to Chicago that she met the man who would become her husband. His background was the opposite of her own; his strong, stable family embraced her.

When she married, it was William Andres whom Mary-Ellen asked to walk her down the aisle, because—through his character and steadfast care—she considered him like a father.

When Mary-Ellen had her first child, she gave the little girl the middle name “Andres” in his honor. And when it came time for that little girl to pursue her own education and apply to high school, Andres suggested Mary-Ellen look at Groton School for her first daughter. It was a unique place, he said, with a unique set of values. Besides, his own daughter, Anita Andres Rogerson, was teaching dance there, and his granddaughter, Laura, was in Groton’s first class of girls.

You see, that is how I ended up coming to Groton School. I am Mary-Ellen’s daughter, and my full name is Amy Andres Cunningham Atkinson. William Andres was my godfather. His interest in my mother’s education and his persistence in seeing that she had the financial means to attain it were life altering for her and ultimately for me as well.

As I sat listening to Wick’s chapel talk back in 2006, I remember being struck by two things: the first was the irony of his mother’s story in comparison to my mother’s own. How strange it is that these two women from the same small town but from such vastly different stations in life would both end up sending their children to Groton School. Even stranger, I thought, was that those children—Wick and myself—would each come to love Groton so deeply, and return to the School years later, and overlap in our service as trustees.

The second thing I thought as I listened to Wick’s talk was that the essential part of his mother’s story was not in the description of the external trappings of her life with which he opened his remarks, but rather in his characterization of her internal and deeper self towards the end of his comments: “She had an inbred sense of self-reliance,” he said, “and a commitment to those less able. Throughout her life, she never avoided what she understood to be her obligations—to family, to community, to the wider world. Among them was the belief that families were responsible for educating their children.”

Margaret Hardwick Simmons, who grew up in the bosom of a loving, wealthy family, with strong Groton roots, and Mary-Ellen Lavin, who grew up poor, with almost no family at all, and William Andres, the lawyer from Boston who made it his business to look out for her, all shared a common set of values: Access to Education. Service.

Character. Care. Relationship.

These values, of course, are core to Groton School. With the exception of access to education, they are values that transcend time and economic circumstance. They are the connective tissue of this place and the building blocks of the School’s purpose and meaning.

Access to education, however, is not blind to economic circumstance. Access to education requires deliberate effort. It requires planning on the part of families, on the part of people who love them, on the part of schools and communities. The fact is that my mother would not have had the education she did had it not been for William Andres’ vigilance and his stewardship of her limited resources. Without that effort and

Margaret Hardwick Simmons

Access to education, however, is not blind to economic circumstance.

Access to education requires deliberate effort.

It requires planning on the part of families, on the part of people who love them, on the part of schools and communities.

William Andres Atkinson

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 41

Per Circulum Locuti Sunt | Voices on the Circle

Left: Letter from Tabor Academy Head to Mary-Ellen Lavin's grandmother "Gar", and Honor Roll. Middle: Letter from F. William Andres to Mary-Ellen Lavin at Mount Holyoke Right: Letter from F. William Andres to Mary-Ellen Lavin Cunningham four days after the birth of her first daughter, Amy.

42 | Quarterly Fall 2010

financial access, it is very likely that my mother might never have attended college, never gone to graduate school, never met my father, never had me as a daughter, nor known to seek out this sort of place for my education. This unique place of care and character and relationship and meaning.

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I only spent the three years, from 1976-1979, as a Groton student. Those three years had such a profound impact on my identity and development. With the exception of a handful of people, my closest relationships to this day are from that period. When things have been difficult in my life, more often than not, it has been someone from Groton who has appeared as if from nowhere to guide and help me—Muffin O’Brien when I was so terribly homesick my fourth form year; Gussie Bannard when I was struggling with boyfriend problems at Yale; Sarah Sewall and Lynn Piasecki and others consistently for years; Claudia Lewis and Jennifer Sandell when I moved from New York to the West Coast knowing almost no one. And then— also—just after my mother died of breast cancer in August 2000, Wick Simmons, who called my office at 60 Minutes asking if I would consider joining the Groton Board of Trustees. I have always found the timing of that call uncanny. I was very close to my mother and the hole her death left in my life was, and continues to be, profound. It was as if Groton was somehow reaching out to me in my pain, assuaging my sadness, looking to strengthen me, giving me new purpose, connecting and extending its love. I am so genuinely grateful for my relationship with this School.

As soon as they acquired language, my own two children have consistently insisted on Don Hewitt’s mandate “Tell me a story” at bedtime each evening. Stories—of course—are told and retold generation after generation, and the more they are retold, the greater their meaning becomes. I have told the story of my name and my mother and her relationship with William Andres to my 12-year old daughter Nena. I have tried to explain to her the transformative power of a simple gesture of service and how a singular act of good character can ripple and deepen over many years and multiple lives.

She knows the values this story relates are important to me. When he’s a little bit older, I’m especially looking forward to telling this same story to my six-year-old little boy.

Why? Because when he was born three years and 16 days after my mother’s grueling death from cancer now almost a decade ago, I made a point of embedding this particular story in his name. He is William Andres Atkinson.

HOME A Chapel Talk by Eugene Chong ’10 April 4, 2010

S

tay in one place long enough, and you will wish you were somewhere else. It is daydreaming that keeps us afloat.

Trees are the first thing I remember; unimpressive, short pines in my backyard look down at me as an eleven-year-old. Looming over three sides of the neighborhood where I live, the trees enclose my childhood home in a peninsula, with only one way in and one way out. They look massive.

It’s strange how I remember. The past blurs and softens until time eventually distills memories into one of two flavors: happy or unhappy. Their nuances and details aren’t given justice, and unfortunately I don’t remember asterisks.

It gets harder to remember exactly how anything happened, and slowly those two categories, happy and unhappy, begin to define my memories rather than the other way around. I interpret them in one way or another until they fit perfectly into that dichotomy, and all my happy memories are filled only with happy moments or vice-versa.

After school, I drop off my bag in front of the door and run over to the playground and grass field. Within minutes, my closest friends have done the same, and the rest of the day’s light will be devoted to whatever games we can think of. It’s early fall, and we are content. The leaves are still green, and a steady breeze rolls comfortably over us. We decide on baseball for the day, play a game of six on six, pause for dinner, get some ice cream, return to the game, and then, when it’s finally too dark to see, go home and turn in for the night. My only sadness is the hours I have to wait before I can do it all over again tomorrow.

Mine was the stereotypical American suburban childhood. It was The Sandlot. It was a cliché so trite that it has become rarer and rarer to see. It was before hampering commitments and fettering play dates, when it was easier to ring a friend’s doorbell than to schedule hangout time during the 4:30 opening in his schedule. In a movie, my childhood would have looked banal; it would have been flat soda, unseasoned meat; vapid, empty of originality. But in life, it was anything but. It became a cliché because it worked so well, and because I loved it so much. There are times when I’d do anything to go back to it, but of course I know that’ll never happen. Now instead, it has become my daydream.

Like all 11-year-olds, my friends and I swear; we can be unfair; we can be mean. We choose teams and then make fun of the last one picked. We call someone dumb for getting

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 43

Per Circulum Locuti Sunt | Voices on the Circle

Then my mother told me I couldn’t leave the house by myself for a while. At the time, the deepest chord that day struck for me came when it took away my cartoons and my friends.

Eugene Chong '10 mixes cement with Massai workmen in Kenya summer, 2009.

44 | Quarterly Fall 2010

bad grades and a nerd for getting good ones. We cheat during games. We even lie and steal. But it’s OK. It’s OK because we don’t know what any of it means, and yet we still know what really matters. We love our parents. We defend each other. Our ridicule never reaches malicious intent, and our grudges are ephemeral. We are innocent, and because of it, we can only be mean, not yet cruel, and we can only be nice, not yet good.

A smudged line that we cross at the end of our childhoods marks when those types of distinctions can start to be made. It marks when we lose our innocence and become more perceptive and aware, and it proves that we have grown.

It’s difficult to tell what our memories truly mean to us until after we’ve waited a while.

At the end of anything I would never be able to accurately infer why it will be important to me in twenty years, and the way I remember my childhood today must be nothing like the way I thought about it a decade ago. Undoubtedly, I’ve inserted some meaning that wasn’t there in the beginning and made it mean something entirely different, and now I’m giving a Chapel Talk about it. This is why college essays can feel so contrived and fake. You usually take some moment that you remember for some reason, give a few narrative details about it, and then explicate its significance to you, why you remember it. The irony is that you often don’t know what the moment means to you until you start asking yourself that very question. Once you start thinking or writing about it, you might finally come across its meaning. But then you doubt yourself. You feel like you just made it up, like extrapolating meaning from a book in English class that you don’t understand. You don’t feel confident, no matter how sincerely you wrote your essay, so you tear it up, delete it, and look for a better topic. But memories aren’t like that. They aren’t puzzles to be solved; there isn’t a specific reason they’re engrained into the head. They are important because you learn what you want to learn from them, like good music. You think about them at night in bed or at your desk writing and maybe you find what you’re looking for, and, if you believe yourself, then you grow from your memories.

Sept. 11 was in that fall of my fourth grade year, when I was still eleven. My school didn’t tell us what happened that morning, and as every student in the school left one-by-one to go home with their parents, my classmates and I were excited more than anything. When my mom finally managed to make it out of Manhattan to take me home, I didn’t notice how deeply shaken she looked as she told me what happened. I was still excited to be going home early. When I sat with my mother watching TV, the footage of the buildings didn’t register. It looked destructive, but it didn’t look harmful. I changed the channel a few minutes later but saw the same footage of the news instead of cartoons. Then my mother told me I couldn’t leave the house by myself for a while. At the time, the deepest chord that day struck for me came when it took away my cartoons and my friends.

All but two of my best friends in that peninsular neighborhood were the first generation children of immigrants. We all lived there by pure coincidence, and of course, as a fourth grader, I never noticed nor gave much attention to our heritage, our skin color, etc., etc. In addition to Jeff and Justin, we had allAmerican names like Ronil Patel, Raza Khan, Saagar Mistry, Payam Gassem, Ted Lee, and, of course, me. We were two Irish kids, two Indians, one Pakistani, one Irani, and two Koreans.

When my mother finally let me leave the house some days later, I ran over to the playground, where Raza’s older sister was embroiled in an argument with an older boy. For months afterwards, the news flashed clips and mug shots of Middle Eastern Islamic fundamentalists, drawing connections between them, the organizations they represented, and various acts of

HOME destruction over the last decade. At the time, I didn’t know what to think of these reports, whether to believe them or to doubt them; I did know, though, that all the people mentioned had long, complicated names and dark skin. An undefined, subconscious war was being fueled against every American of Middle Eastern descent by the unfortunate coincidence that they resembled the 9/11 attackers more than any other race. Raza Khan’s older sister, still just a high schooler, stood in the park that day unleashing a tirade against the boy who had indicted her Pakistani family. The worst part, though, was that I could see where he was coming from.

For me to point out that one time in my past and say that it’s when my childhood ended is unfair. It glazes over all the things that have ever affected me and replaces them with one convenient moment; losing innocence, like finding religious beliefs, is the sum of many experiences, and it’s an essential part of growing up. It is the recognition of the existence of cruelty in the world, and a person can only lose his innocence when he sees someone else’s taken away.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout Finch loses her innocence not just when she sees Tom Robinson get wrongly convicted and killed, but when Boo Radley saves her life weeks later. She laments then her unfair and presumptuous judgment of him as a monster—she learns that there is evil in the world and that even she herself is capable of it.

The months following that day were important to me. From fifty miles away a thick column of smoke towered high in the sky over the pine trees in my backyard. Videos of the towers looped endlessly on TV, and grim death tolls dominated the news. But those had no profound effect on me at the time. It was baseball being postponed, Raza Khan’s sister defending her family against the boy’s accusations, and my own reluctant suspicions. That day ripped from all the things I’d learn to cherish and adore the innocence and happiness that made them such childhood clichés. Never have I felt more restless than when my mother tried to keep me safe inside the house for the days following. The sanctity of my favorite game, baseball, was penetrated by events and motivations that had nothing to do with the sport; integral parts of my life were changed and put on hold for reasons I could not understand, and my unwavering loyalty to my best friends was challenged by things that transcended my comprehension and any playground tiff. My faith in my world as I saw it then was irrevocably shaken.

People daydream when they are tired of where they are and they want to be somewhere else. I immerse myself in my childhood, as it was before 9/11, when everything that bothers me today didn’t exist. It is a fantasy world to me now, and I have trouble believing if all the details I remember actually happened. But still, it’s the sturdiest foothold I have.

I dwell on my daydream because it’s something that gives me perspective. It lets me see what used to be and what is now, and figure out what happened in between. The beauty is that innocence isn’t a place where you can live forever. It will be lost, and the rest of your life is in comparison to it. It’s not a sad thing, though. It is a place from which to grow and learn; more important than living in innocence is learning its value.

The bucolic ideal, the open ocean, childhood—ways to describe somewhere someone would rather be. They’re utopias, “happy places,” invaluable niches of everyone’s imagination in which to duck. That’s why we daydream. That’s why I remember my childhood: so it can poke its pretty head out from beneath whatever rubble and tears are lying at my feet so I can wait, look outward, and take some time to figure what to do next.

Eugene Chong receives his diploma from president of the Board Jamie Higgins P '02, '06 on Prize Day.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout Finch loses her innocence not just when she sees Tom Robinson get wrongly convicted and killed, but when Boo Radley saves her life weeks later. She laments then her unfair and presumptuous judgment of him as a monster—she learns that there is evil in the world and that even she herself is capable of it.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 45

Per Circulum Locuti Sunt | Voices on the Circle

Comfort

without conformity

A Chapel Talk by Margo White ’10 April 1, 2010

Margo White '10 makes a note during discussion in Moby Dick elective.

46 | Quarterly Fall 2010

A

year ago, the woods to either side of us were a flawless testament to my dad’s chain-sawing expertise. Now, littered with broken maples and hunch-backed birches, they are a fractional reminder of the havoc wreaked by the 2009 ice storms. As my house comes into view, I smile and then, almost in the same moment, groan at the site of the lawns opening up in front of me.

They are quiet now—it’s only spring. Soon enough, however, they will morph again into beasts of indeterminate growth, holding me captive to their care for many summer hours on end. In the distance, Mt. Skatutakee forms the green backdrop to Frost Pond.

The pond is no longer the white sheet it was at Christmas, checked with bob-houses and the four-wheelers of ice fishers. Now, it is a startlingly clear early spring blue. In a rare moment, I am silenced. When I find my voice again, I remark, as I have so many times before, “it gets prettier every time.”

Jaffrey, my hometown, and Groton are only 45 minutes and 29 miles apart. And yet, every time I come home I am struck again by the world of difference that separates the two halves of my universe. Within the pillars that mark the entrance to our property, I am surrounded by beauty and comfort. And yet on the whole, Jaffrey is a disheartening portrait of small town New England. In the 10 years since my family and I moved to Jaffrey, the town and the schools have steadily regressed, their demise hastened along by a struggling, and more often than not apathetic population. Despite the school board’s yearly attempts to pass plans for a new high school, a decade of effort has seen little improvement to the school’s literally crumbling facilities. For the 70-somethings who’ve never left Jaffrey, the current high school is “good enough as it is,” just as it was for them when they went through it. For the young parents, any tax increase on account of their children’s education is simply not worth paying or not feasible.

Realities like these have forced me to realize what transplants my family and I really are in Jaffrey. The disparity between my previous hometown of Dover, Massachusetts, and Jaffrey becomes nearly unignorable. And yet, my family is not the only of its kind in Jaffrey—there are numerous others who have roots in New York City, Boston, Chicago, and L.A. who have come to call Jaffrey their home year-round or in the summers. For all of us who experience life beyond Jaffrey throughout the year, the first few moments of re-entrance always come with a painful sting. The downtown seems a bit uglier, the faces on the street a bit sadder, and the headlines of the local Ledger a little less inspired each time we return. Once past the initial re-entry shock, however, we all, each and every one, fall equally back in love with the slowness of Jaffrey life. While many of my Groton friends will spend their summers travelling the world and or interning in some city somewhere, the majority of my summer months find me at home. Busing nights at a small-time restaurant downtown, spectating Peter’s ball games at the Legion, and roaming the aisles of Market Basket with Mom, I run into countless old faces, eager to

Comfort Without Conformity learn how “the girl who to went boarding school” is faring at “that school” whose name they can never remember. I remind my inquirer of Groton’s name and location, sometimes employing the well-beaten Harry Potter analogy to help them understand what on earth boarding school even is, and rattle off a few good anecdotes. As always, I enjoy my fleeting moments of small-town fame and relish in the anonymity of my school.

On the occasions when Groton feels a little too unreal, however, or the voice in my head starts telling me that I’m a transplant here too, I throw on my running shoes and head for the river run or town forest. There, there is little to remind me I’m at Groton rather than at home. My surroundings are simply the trees and a raw stillness which bring grounding and perspective with their similarities to home. I experience again the backwards sense of belonging I find in Jaffrey.

Comfort without conformity—it’s been a sort of refrain for me over the last four years. Under its umbrella, I have bushwhacked my way from a place of displacement and unfamiliarity here into a chapter of perspective and overwhelming gratitude. Under its protection, the whirlwind of constructive energy, humor, and relationship, which colors our lives here, has branded me with an invaluable understanding of the power of a willing spirit. It has also, however, held my hand as I’ve learned some of my hardest lessons.

In the summer following my sophomore year, I considered leaving Groton. A handful of hiccups had left me thoroughly unsettled as the year came to a close. Icing one of the more bitter cakes I’d tasted, a turbulent exam week left me unable to rest assured in academic success. That June found me in back-to-back weeks of retreat camps. Both weeks had chosen to focus on this passage from Philippians: But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

Though written to a people living halfway around the world and two millennia before my own, Paul’s words had an intimate application for me that summer. Up until then, Groton had consumed me. I had allowed its demands to define me and to dictate my expectations for the course of my life here—even my life outside its gates. My obsession with achievement had left me stranded. It had been a finite source of confidence and happiness when faith was asking to be so much more. The promises revealed to me that June are the reason I was able to return Groton, and they have transformed my two years since. Maybe you all haven’t noticed the difference, but for me, it has been immeasurable. I found that I could not only finish out Groton, but that I could learn to love this School as I learned to keep my successes and failures here—and the demands of academia—in their proper place. I can love Groton because I know that no numbers I earn or accolades I receive here will ever be enough to truly awaken my heart. I have found joy and release in that truth which I cannot ignore.

This past break I found myself in a less-than-orthodox spring vacation spot—Haiti.

My dad has been three times, but for me the trip was a first. Port-au-Prince and the surrounding countryside were not the panic-stricken scene my dad found them in when he flew in 10 days after the January 12 quake. To say they are no longer in a state of emergency, however, could not be farther from the truth. Pre-quake Haiti would have undoubtedly been a lot to take in. The sights of a Third World country—the absence of any building taller than three stories, the steep-shouldered highways scarcely wide enough for two lanes of traffic, the ubiquitous garbage and filth: I’m not sure I would have ever been completely at ease in their midst.

Post-quake Haiti, however, I am reluctant to try describing to you at all. The realities that Haitians now face everyday are something that I cannot translate to you from this pulpit, or with photographs, or in a documentary. The scope of the country’s poverty

Caption

The downtown seems a bit uglier, the faces on the street a bit sadder, and the headlines of the local Ledger a little less inspired each time we return.

Once past the initial re-entry shock, however, we all, each and every one, fall equally back in love with the slowness of Jaffrey life.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 47

Per Circulum Locuti Sunt | Voices on the Circle

Margo receives her diploma from Mr. Commons, Prize Day 2010.

I almost laughed when I saw “L’Espoir,” Hope, marking the compound’s entry sign. There was no hope in what I had just seen. What I had seen was five hours of desperation more numbing than I could have ever imagined.

48 | Quarterly Fall 2010

before the quake was unprecedented. Now? Now, I’m not sure even Haiti fully understands its peril.

Since the quake, almost every free inch of Portau-Prince has been filled by a relief tent. The bright whites, oranges, and blues of their nylon domes, brought in by the thousands by the UN, UNICEF, and every world-relief organization that has an acronym, cover the public greens, the soccer fields, and every open curbside in the city. They are too bright and too round for the flat brown landscape which forms their backdrop. They proclaim loudly and clearly the world’s hand in Haiti since the quake. Haiti’s true tent cities, however, stood long before the quake. They are the shantytowns—the seas of tin roofs that begin alongside the suburban streets. Running amidst them, brightly painted street side advertisements and taps-taps, Haiti’s flamboyant taxis, stick out like sores amidst the brown destitution. In their worst variety, the shanties are cardboard boxes, tarps, and rags draped over shaky branches. These versions take over the median in midwestern Port-au-Prince, funnel traffic out of the city past the port, and inhabit every acre of the city’s worst section, ironically known as City Sole. Their expanse is staggering, their homogeny—frightening. You won’t see their brown face in the choice clips CNN has played in the past two months. When night falls, the acres upon acres they fill go black, except for the occasional gaslight or fire dotting the pall.

During a trip into the city with my dad and our medical team’s anesthesiologist, our search for transport patients from the UMiami tent hospital and the soccer stadium turned Deutsch-German Red Cross base wove us through five hours of Port-au-Prince’s streets. After our odyssey, we returned to our compound, Mission of Hope, located 30 miles outside the city in a village called Titanyen. I almost laughed when I saw “L’Espoir,” Hope, marking the compound’s entry sign. There was no hope in what I had just seen. What I had seen was five hours of desperation more numbing than I could have ever imagined. What I had seen was a standard of living that cannot be grasped by anyone in this room who has not seen something like Haiti firsthand.

I know now that what I saw that afternoon from the relative comfort of our pickup truck was not Haiti. I can say that because from within that truck, I saw Haiti’s destruction, I heard its chaos, I smelled and tasted its filth, but I could not know its people.

I was lucky enough to be able get to know a bit of real Haiti before I left, to talk with those who called Haiti their home before the quake, and who will continue to call it their home, even now. They are beautiful, quiet, and proud people, whose strength and faithfulness is far greater than I could have ever expected. They have no strong walls, no mountains of possessions, and no comfortable lives to hide behind, to ease them through their 70 years before their peaceful adieu. Comfort by American standards is something they’ve never known. And yet, stripped of their possessions, their limbs, their family and friends, Haitians have learned a lesson that is so often learned best by those who have nothing. When they spoke and when they sang a truth, I heard that very same truth I have been struggling towards in my four years here, a truth I am only just now beginning to grasp. Haiti has learned that in its best moments, and in its worst, this life is always poised—waiting to crumble. They have nothing, and so they, perhaps more truly than any of us, have learned that nothing they have here will ever be able to truly awaken their hearts. Haiti knows now better than it has ever before that there is joy and release in that knowledge that they cannot ignore. If you ever get chance, listen to the Haitians worship—they will overwhelm you with their gratitude.

Baccalaureate

by Richard B. Commons June 3, 2010

Headmaster Commons addresses the School.

R

“

eally?” she said, looking straight at me. Did I know her? How would I know her? It was 7:30 in the morning on a Philadelphia commuter train. I’d never been on this train before. I didn’t know anyone in Philadelphia anymore, and, even if I did, this girl had to be in high school. She had dark hair, dark eyes, a little too much dark makeup, and a black t-shirt with a mysterious drawing on it. I was wearing a white oxford, gray slacks, and a blue blazer. My hair was combed. Hers was not.

I had been in New York the night before, and I had decided to take the 6 a.m. train to Philadelphia, where my parents live. It was the Thursday before Mother’s Day, and I figured I could go see my mom and then jump on a late-morning train back to Boston, arriving at Groton in time for dinner with Lindsay and Matthew and then Parlor with the Fourth Form.

The train to Philadelphia was right on time. I got off downtown and caught the Chestnut Hill local at 7:22. Trundling along toward Germantown, where I grew up, I was feeling like a good kid. I had even thought to bring a gift—a new book of poems by Mary Oliver— an appreciation for all the poetry my mom read to me when I was a child.

I was adjusting my knee brace and stretching my still-swollen leg as the train approached the Germantown station, when this girl stood up from across the aisle and stared at me with exaggerated eyes. All she said was, “Really?” I remained confused until she nodded to the banana peel on the seat beside me. It was indeed mine. There were no trash receptacles on the train, so I had placed it there, with all good intentions. “I was gonna get it,” I pleaded, looking up at her. She raised her pierced eyebrow, shook her unruly head, and moved away.

She was three people ahead of me as we stepped off the train, she in her torn jeans, toting a backpack, I in my gray slacks, toting poems and a banana peel. I wanted her to see me carrying the peel, to have some exchange, if only a forgiving nod from her as I sloughed the offending skin into the trash bin on the platform. But she did not turn as she walked directly to a waiting school bus, yellow with black lettering on the side that spelled Germantown Friends School. I turned up Midvale, the street I grew up on, and limped toward home.

I thought about her as I made my way slowly up the street, past my old high school, where morning classes were just getting underway. What would I have said if I’d been able to have a conversation? I might have told her that I was a teacher and that I admired it when my students had her kind of courage—the kind that takes a stand with a stranger, an elder, a guy in a blue blazer.

But those words, as I tried them in my head, sounded like an attempt to turn things around on her—like telling someone who has clearly overtaken you in tennis that she’s “really coming along nicely with that backhand.” So maybe I would have said something like, “thanks for keeping me honest.” But that sounded trite and condescending. Maybe just, “Thanks for saying something.” Yes. That’s what I wanted to say to her: “Thanks for saying something.” * * *

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 49

Per Circulum Locuti Sunt | Voices on the Circle I chose the reading we just heard thinking about the kind of person who says something. It’s a reading we’ve heard often here in Chapel; it’s part of the lectionary we use for our daily services. It comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? … You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.… (Matthew 5:13-15) I’ve always understood the metaphor of not hiding your lamp under a bushel basket. It’s clear enough that we are being told to let our virtues be visible, thereby helping others to be virtuous as well. But what about the salt? In this passage, what does it mean to be “the salt of the earth”? What are we to make of the instruction to not lose our saltiness?

Usually when somebody is described as “salt of the earth,” we take it to mean that the person is humble and reliable. This usage has probably evolved from the notion that salt that comes from the earth is pure, uncorrupted by cheaper elements, as it might be if someone were selling it by the pound. But, in the context of the “lamp under the bushel basket” metaphor, Jesus seems to be concerned not only with purity but also with presentation.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of a salty presentation, I think of something a bit edgy, maybe even a bit profane. Salt isn’t just something that makes scrambled eggs taste better. Think of smelling salts, how they startle us and wake us up. Or salt in a wound, how it stings at first, but then helps the wound to heal. It seems to me that Jesus, in urging us to be salty, is urging us not only to accentuate ourselves, but also to startle and sting—to startle others awake with what we think, to sting them with the strength of saying what we believe. “Let your light shine before others,” yes, but also let others taste, smell, and feel your unrefined saltiness of soul.

The girl who confronted me on the train…there was something salty about her— the way she looked at me and my litter and would not let it go—the way she said something. * * *

It seems to me that Jesus, in urging us to be salty, is urging us not only to accentuate ourselves, but also to startle and sting—to startle others awake with what we think, to sting them with the strength of saying what we believe.

50 | Quarterly Fall 2010

Let me turn this idea toward someone who has been much in the news of late.

Perhaps you’ve heard or read about Elena Kagan, President Obama’s nominee to replace Justice Stevens on the Supreme Court. Because she has not been a judge before, she doesn’t have the kind of judicial history that most Supreme Court nominees have had in recent years, so everyone is trying to guess at what she really thinks, which makes for some interesting reading.

The most compelling thing I’ve read is by David Brooks, my favorite newspaper columnist, in which he compares Kagan to what he has somewhat famously termed “Organization Kids.” He writes: About a decade ago, one began to notice a profusion of Organization Kids at elite college campuses. These were bright students who had been formed by the meritocratic system placed in front of them. They had great grades, perfect teacher recommendations, broad extracurricular interests, admirable self-confidence and winning personalities.

If they had any flaw, it was that they often had a professional and strategic attitude toward life. They were not intellectual risk-takers. They regarded professors as bosses to be pleased rather than authorities to be challenged. As one admissions director told me at the time, they were prudential rather than poetic. (The New York Times, 5/10/10) Brooks goes on to say some nice things about Kagan, suggesting that in many ways she seems to be the perfect nominee. But then he quotes somebody who describes

Baccalaureate her as “extraordinarily—almost artistically—careful. I don’t know anyone,” the person goes on to say, “who has had a conversation with her in which she expressed a personal conviction on a question of constitutional law in the past decade.” Brooks concludes the article with this: I have to confess my first impression of Kagan is a lot like my first impression of many Organization Kids. She seems to be smart, impressive and honest—and in her willingness to suppress so much of her mind for the sake of her career, kind of disturbing. * * *

Before they pass down this center aisle and out into the world, let me turn to the Form of 2010. As you graduate and head off to elite colleges and successful careers, have you become “Organization Kids”? Are you professional and strategic and averse to intellectual risk? Are you hesitant to question authority and extraordinarily— almost artistically—careful? I’d say no…and yes. Yes and no.

In the exit interviews that Cristina described the last time we were gathered here, I heard from twenty of you for approximately forty-five minutes each. That adds up to fifteen hours of listening to you reflect on your experiences here. On most questions I got a wide variety of answers. But on one of them a dominant theme emerged. “How has Groton shaped you positively?” was the question.

Again and again I heard the same answer: “It has given me the confidence to express my ideas to anyone,” said one. “I know how to communicate what I believe to be true,” said another. “My friends from home are always surprised by how comfortable I am meeting and conversing with adults on serious subjects,” offered a third.

These answers would suggest that you are not “Organization Kids” who will play it pathologically safe, keeping your glaring brightness hidden under bushel baskets of strategy and caution.

But my next question, “Has Groton had any negative influence on you?” met with some less reassuring answers: “Sometimes the work has been so overwhelming that I stop caring about what it means and just get it done” was one answer. “I think the college process almost killed my intellectual curiosity” was another. “The pressure to conform and produce is really intense, and that makes people less willing to take risks” was a third.

These expressions of the positive and negative influences of Groton are really in direct conflict with one another, aren’t they? You have developed strong convictions and the confidence to express them with tremendous effect, and yet the pressure to succeed and conform constrains your inclination to take intellectual risks, to speak up, to influence others with your beliefs.

Still, the Form of 2010 has spoken up. In fact, I would say it’s a defining characteristic of your Form. From CV articles to Chapel Talks to speeches of conviction, you have repeatedly presented strong opinions, definite ideas, and deeply held personal beliefs. When I stood before you at Parlor two weeks ago to explain my recent decisions, I did not walk away with any worries about your willingness to question authority. Believe it or not, I am very grateful for this, and it makes me quite hopeful for the future.

Form of 2010: as you prepare to sing “Ave Grotonia,” as you prepare to “start for the world in the morning,” I ask you to remember that you have been blessed with an unusual ability to communicate your beliefs, to influence other people, and to help them see and do what is right and good. Yes, you’re a salty form. That’s one of your gifts. Don’t keep it to yourselves. Don’t lose your saltiness. Don’t hide your light under bushel baskets woven strategically and cautiously from others’ notions of success, even notions that might have been given to you by Groton School.

You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. You are the girl on the train.

Thanks for saying something. Amen.

When I stood before you at Parlor two weeks ago to explain my recent decisions, I did not walk away with any worries about your willingness to question authority. Believe it or not, I am very grateful for this, and it makes me quite hopeful for the future.

Which way is the Circle?

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 51

Personae | People of Note

John Tulp Retires

52 | Quarterly Fall 2010

People of Note

J

ust last June, Headmaster Rick Commons described John Tulp in these pages as one “who in two decades on the Circle has been revered for his encouragement and example of intellectual curiosity. Whether in the Faculty Room, the Dining Hall, or the classroom, students and colleagues alike cannot help but rise to John’s alluring intellectual bait, and he has a way of hooking us into new ways of seeing everything from a Mozart sonata to the proper grip for a topspin backhand.” Testimony to John Tulp’s memorable teaching arrived in the headmaster’s mailbox last spring. In that letter were words from a recent Groton graduate responding to a “teacher tribute” opportunity at his college. He wrote:

Mr. Tulp introduced me to a new world, and provided me gentle guidance when I was lost in ideas both dangerous and beautiful. I would talk to him about my dreams and passions, and he replied in echoes, like that of a caring father, but these echoes often carried a new meaning, through which I could hear my true hidden voices. To enumerate the symphonies, literature and paintings he presented to my youth would take up too much space. His voice still shades the colors I see in the evening sky.

John Tulp receives congratulations from Rick Commons at the Prize Day ceremonies.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 53

Personae | People of Note

Commemorating his 20 years of teaching at Groton Kate Dennison, P’12, ’12 and fellow Classics Department member gave John this tribute.

W

hen Gussie Bannard P ’01, ’03. was getting ready to depart from Groton and the Classics Department over 20 years ago, she told me, “Kate, we’re all set. John Tulp is returning from Middlesex.” “ That’s great!” I said, “John who?” And then she proceeded to tell me about this man. I recall that she kept saying that he was, without a doubt, a magician in the classroom. “A true magician with the kids, Kate. Students flock to him like nothing you’ve ever seen.” I recall saying to myself, “Yea sure. Nobody’s that good.”

Well, here we are saying good- by to that magician as he leaves us for fullystocked lakes and rivers far from here. It is not by accident that Rick used the word “magical” in the first sentence of his tribute to John on Prize Day ( see page 24). That is what he is, and by touching many of us with his magic wand in the last 21 years here, we are all the better for it.

Soon after he arrived, John became the Head of the Classics Department, and I was lucky enough to receive his mentorship to great impact. Early on in his tenure as Department chair, it was my year to be evaluated. We talked about goals; he visited my class a number of times, and I chose (I think it was the same year) to start sitting in regularly on one of his. The guidance and care with which he developed his student charges has stayed with me ever since. I instantly saw and felt and benefited from all that which usually only our students are able to partake of. I’m a better teacher today because of John Tulp.

John has a way about him. Whether teaching in the classroom, coaching his squash team, raising a question, or making a point in a committee setting. One always listens when John speaks. He is so wise, so thoughtful and so well-spoken, that you have to nod, even if you may not agree with him. His impact, by being as clearheaded and as thoughtful as he is, is profound. Just a few days ago, I recall how all ears perked up to hear what he had to say, from that back corner of the Webb Marshall Room where the faculty had its year end meetings. When he speaks, everyone listens. John’s words are always valuable, and we all have learned a great deal from him over the years.

I cannot count the number of times my husband Stephen has returned home from several incarnations of Curriculum

54 | Quarterly Fall 2010

Committee meetings, on which he and John have served together, praising the way John can, seemingly so simply, sum up the main points of everyone’s thoughts, or how he can, again so simply, counter with his own opinions everyone else’s thoughts - magician at work again.

His vibrancy in the classroom has turned many a student onto Latin, whether in beginning Latin (even just going over points of grammar or syntax– he can make the ablative absolute exciting), or with the intermediate students reading Livy’s historical stories, Cicero’s philosophical musings or Virgil’s epic poetry, he has convinced many to continue studying the language. All of us in the department have benefited, by receiving his students in following years, from his influential power.

Now, we will all just have to work a little harder, in his absence, to keep that magic wand waving. His signature elective, co-taught with Jon Choate, Modes of Order and Disorder, stretched his students to look at art, music, literature, philosophy, history and theories of mathematics over the ages, and to think about the world. Rick’s words from Prize Day, speaking to John’s influence in the classroom, say it all, “Combining intellectual urgency with a gentle and witty personal touch, he forges in his students true loyalty to the academic endeavor, loyalty to the other students in his class, and, inevitably though humbly, loyalty to him.” I have personally seen the process to which Rick refers in the ways my own son has responded to John’s teaching over the last couple of years.

David claims that time is never wasted in John’s class. Whether translating, discussing points of grammar or historical/cultural references to a passage, or simply veering off track for a moment to discuss the goings-on on campus or tidbits from John’s Middlesex years, John’s students are always spell-bound—again that magic works its way through, no matter what he’s doing.

We celebrate John Tulp. We will be eager for him to paddle his magic canoe back to Lake Romeyn in the future, for while we are in awe of his scholarship we will forever value his friendship.

[Editor’s Note: Two other tributes on the occasion of John Tulp’s retirement can be found online at www.groton.org in the March Peabody Press article and a Circle Voice article published in May 2010.]

Grotoniana | All Things Groton

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 55

Grotoniana | All Things Groton

Gallery News The de Menil Gallery FALL

Exhibit

Ars Memorativa: The Art of Alyson Schultz and Randal Thurston September 20 – November 23, 2010

W

hat happens when two accomplished artists just happen to be married to one another? How does it affect their art? Do they share common concerns? Or do they each go their separate ways. The fall exhibition explores this tension in the work of husband and wife artists Randal Thurston and Alyson Schultz.

Thurston creates evocative gallery and museum installations using cut black paper silhouettes, while Schultz is an oil painter. They live and work in Somerville, Massachusetts. Thurston has exhibited at the Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts; the Allston Skirt Gallery, Allston, Massachusetts; University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Massachusetts; and the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts. Concerning his installation, “Wunderkammer,” at the Fuller Craft Museum, a reviewer from the Boston Globe wrote, “Nobody wields scissors like cut-paper artist Randal Thurston, whose baroquely intricate wall installations investigate mythology, history, and science.”

Another reviewer called his installation at the De Cordova “creepy but oddly exhilarating.”

Alyson Schultz writes about her large abstract paintings, “I am involved with creating emotive landscape. . . .

Although I start with specific sites and images in mind. . . the paintings evolve . . . to a more personal, evocative terrain. Central to the work are apocalyptic stories and contemporary parallels. Since medieval times, Babylon with the vision of “handwriting on the wall,” Lot’s wife, and the tower of Babel have been sources for artists. For me they have a contemporary echo in a world abounding in recurring images of violence and destruction.”

“Ars Memorativa” will be on exhibition from September 20 to November 23, 2010. The de Menil gallery is open this fall from 9 to 3 on weekdays (except Wednesdays) and 11 to 4 on weekends (except school holiday weekends.)

56 | Quarterly Fall 2010

Gallery News

Christopher Carey Brodigan Gallery FALL

Exhibit

Boston, Bali and Between The Watercolors of Paul Nagano October 4 – November 12, 2010

P

aul Nagano’s paintings, primarily watercolors, have been inspired by the natural beauty of the landscapes he discovered through his travels. Born in Honolulu, Nagano is a graduate of Columbia University and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. A traveling scholarship in 1967 launched him on a painting career that now allows him to divide his time between Honolulu, Boston, and Bali, Indonesia. His style has been influenced by post-Impressionism and a method of Japanese watercolor painting known as Nanga, which he used to paint naturalistic landscapes in various parts of the world including France, Italy, Crete, Yugoslavia, and Madeira Island .

In 1984 Nagano went to Bali for the first time and has returned annually for 25 years. For many

years his watercolors captured the colors, textures, and atmosphere of the lush tropical landscape.

Then in 1997 he began to move away from purely representational landscapes to focus on a more introspective, interpretive approach to his Bali surroundings. He developed a unique style which he named symBALIsm, a style which went beyond the obvious to penetrate more deeply into the connections among the nature, spirit, and culture of the island and its people. These paintings are colorful, multi-layered, ethereal “dreamscapes,” complex scenes which invite interpretation and stimulate the imagination.

Nagano’s work has been in numerous group and solo exhibitions and is collected by major museums.

This exhibition is a retrospective of the artist’s work.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 57

Steel Magnolias On May 22 and 23, Groton School students took the stage at the Campbell Performing Arts Center in a hilarious and heartfelt production of Steel Magnolias. Featuring just six female performers and led by student stage manager Cat Reilly ’11, this captivating play warmed its audiences and wowed the community at large. The intricate set, designed by Groton’s own Sarah Sullivan, gave the actresses a chance to understand realism down to the details of a working salon sink and hairdryer. Talents abounded on the Asen Theater stage as the characters delivered comic lines with poise and professionalism—all while fixing each others’ hair into perfect 80s dos. Kudos to the cast and crew for a stunning evening of theater!

1

5

2

This page clockwise: 1. ­­­Annie Bergen '11 as Truvy, the owner of Truvy's salon (where the play takes place). 2.

Immediately below: Annelle (played by Zoe Silverman '11) fixes Clairee's (played by Eliza Fairbrother '12) hair as she delights Truvy with hysterical tales of her gay nephew. 3.

Annelle practices the art of spraying hairspray. 4. Truvy greets Shelby Latcherie (Reed Redman '14) with a warm Christmas hug. 5. Shelby (Reed Redman '14) comes out of her diabetic episode. She is supported by (left to right) Truvy, her mother, M'Lynn (played by Mary Kinsella '10) and Clairee (Eliza Fairbrother '12) Facing page clockwise: 1. Annelle (played by Zoe Silverman '11) pleads with Salon owner Truvy, (played

by Annie Bergen '11.) 2. Truvy in discussion with M'Lynn (played by Mary Kinsella '10). 3. The sour-tempered Ouiser Boudreaux (played by Georgie Brinkley '10) shows up and entertains with her barbs. 4. The ladies discuss the imminent wedding. 5.Clairee (Eliza Fairbrother '12) shares recent gossip with Truvy. 6. Clairee quiets Ouiser.

7. Shelby inspects her new wedding coiffeur. 8. M'Lynn makes her point with Truvy.

58 | Quarterly Fall 2010

4

3

Steel Magnolias

1

2

8

4

7

6

3

5 Quarterly Fall 2010

| 59

Grotoniana | All Things Groton

T

he Groton Dance Company presented their spring dance production Under The Stars, An Evening of Dance, on Thursday May 27 at 7:00 p.m. on the Athletic Center Terrace, the first outdoor dance event in Groton’s history.

Under The Stars, An Evening of Dance introduced new works by Jodi Leigh Allen, director of the dance program here at Groton, along with some talented guest dance artists that the Groton Dance Company had the privilege of studying with throughout the spring term. Elizabeth Weil Bergmann, Director of Dance at Harvard University, restaged a piece titled, Solitary/Solidarity and Tony Guglietti, former member of the Sean Curran Dance company and current Director of Dance at The Pomfret School, premiered a new piece entitled Saturday Classes. This spring dance production also introduced some up and coming student choreographers within the Groton community. Elizabeth MeLampy and Rushi Thaker were two students selected to choreograph individual pieces and present them during the spring dance performance as well.

This magical spring event allowed sixteen student dancers to dazzle an audience of Groton community members as well as other outside supporters of the program, proving that dance at Groton is making brilliant strides as a very valuable and exciting new program.

1

Under The Stars,

Look for the Groton dance production schedule for the 20102011 academic year at www.groton.org.

This page: 1. Jodi Leigh Allen making a welcoming announcement to the Groton community. 2. In The Mood (premiere) Choreographed by Jodi Leigh Allen. Dancers (from L to R): Sofia LLanso ’14, Nya Holder ’12, Margaret Zhang ’11, and Elizabeth MeLampy ’12.

3. Overview of the Under The Stars, An Evening of Dance outdoor venue on Groton’s Athletic Center Terrace. The dance piece being performed is student choreographer Elizabeth MeLampy’s jazz inspired Swallowed (premiere).

Facing page: 1. This Is How We Build (premiere). Opening dance number of the performance. Choreographed by Jodi Leigh Allen.

Dancers (from L to R): Lucy Chou ’12, Denia Viera ’12, Andrea Fisher ’13, Alice Stites ’13, Nimesha Gerlus ’13, and Caroline Coughlin ’12.

2. Dholna (premiere) Indian inspired dance piece. Choreographed by Rushi Thaker ’11. Dancers (from L to R) Shalini Trivedi ’11, Margaret Zhang ’11 (back to us), Alice Stites ’13 (back to us), Rushi Thaker ’11, Zachary Nicol ’11 (back to us), Lucy Chou ’12, Nya Holder ’12 (back to us). 3. Saturday Classes (premiere). Tony Guglietti worked with the Groton Dance Company all spring term to create an interesting and physically demanding dance piece which closed the show for Under The Stars. Choreographed by Tony Guglietti, Guest Choreographer.

Dancers (from left to right): Rushi Thaker ’11, Margaret Zhang ’11, Sofi LLanso ’14, Nya Holder ’12, Zachary Nicol ’11, Stephanie Kim ’13, Elizabeth MeLampy ’12, Denia Viera ’12, Lucy Chou ’12, Andrea Fisher ’13, Carolina Mejia ’12, Caroline Coughlin ’12, Nimesha Gerlus ’13, Monifa Foluke ’13, Alice Stites ’13 4. Celebrating the end of a successful performance on stage, Under The Stars, An Evening of Dance cast receives flowers. Dancers (from left to right): Carolina Mejia ’12, Elizabeth MeLampy ’12, Shalini Trivedi ’11, Nimesha Gerlus ’13.

60 | Quarterly Fall 2010

2 3

1

An Evening of Dance

Spr ing D a nce Perf o rma nc e

2 3

4

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 61

Grotoniana | All Things Groton

SPRING SPORTS Girls Varsity Tennis | 8-7 Overall 8-4 in the ISL

R

eturning players Nina Milbank ’10 (captain), Whitney Hartmeyer ’11, Julia Metzger ’11, Ali Norton ’12, Sage Redman ’12, and Helena Duffee ’10 were joined

by India Dial ’13, Carly Margolis ’12, and Emory Wellman ’11 from last year’s junior varsity squad. Sensational newcomer CC Ho ’13 rounded out the roster of the talented 10-member team.

Groton opened its season one day after the girls returned from spring break. They quickly incurred two losses to perennially strong teams that are not ISL members. The team was able to use the lessons it learned from those early matches, and with some consistent practices quickly shape itself into a group of tenacious and perceptive players.

The team started its ISL season with a close victory against Governor’s. As the girls gained more confidence and solidified as a team, they started to turn in stronger wins against very competitive teams. A highlight of the season came in the span of two weeks in

MVP CC Ho connects with a forehand.

late April and early May when they were able to win four straight matches against strong ISL opponents. Solid and consistent wins

by Julia and CC kept the team competitive in most situations.

Outstanding, if not as consistent, performances by other members of the squad invariably made the difference between a win and a loss for the team. Ultimately the strength of the team lay in its depth and the valuable contributions that each player made.

Groton ended its season with a record of 8-7 overall and 8-4 in the ISL, which put it in third place in the league. At the New England Invitational, Julia’s and CC’s A doubles team made it all the way to the finals where they were finally defeated in an exciting and competitive match.

Seniors Nina Milbank and Helena Duffee leave the team this year. Their work ethic, managerial skills, and team spirit will be missed, but the team will continue to have plenty of depth for the 2011 season.

Co captain Whitney Hartmeyer '11 concentrates.

62 | Quarterly Fall 2010

All-ISL: Julia Metzger Honorable Mention: CC Ho Most Improved: Helena Duffee MVP: CC Ho Coaches Award: Nina Milbank Captains for 2011 season: Whitney Hartmeyer and Julia Metzger

Spring Sports

Spring 2010 Girls Varsity Lacrosse | 10-6 A Memorable and Satisfying Season

H Walter Hawes '10 runs down a forehand.

2011 tri-captain Jack Cohen executes backhand volley.

ard work and dedication truly paid off this spring, as the Groton girls varsity lacrosse team secured a winning record of 10-6, finishing the season with a string of six victories in a row. The smallest school in the ISL proved to be the school with the most heart, securing the ISL award for Most Improved Team. (And we were close in the final tally for the League Sportsmanship Award, too!) Setting high standards for the group was the coaching staff of Jamie Hagerman, Sarah Mongan, and Martha Gracey, but the sixth form leadership proved inspirational. Michelle Murphy, Grace Bukawyn, and Courtney Fogarty were the anchors of the defensive unit which showed determination and intensity all season long. Paige McDonald was the point guard of the attack, the go-to goal scorer, and the person who could help the other players settle and execute plays with confidence. Paige finished the season scoring 82 goals and adding 30 assists. The fact that she did so with humility attests to our group’s team spirit. We will long remember our exciting come-from-behind victory over St. Mark’s—down seven goals in the first half, the team found a way to claw its way back into contention and to secure the win in overtime. Everyone involved in that contest will attest that it was one hugely exciting moment in sports! We are optimistic about the future as well, for there is an experienced and talented group of underformers returning to play next year. We are fortunate to be returning a strong, speedy midfield led by Ashlin Dolan, who was the team’s second leading scorer this spring. Adri Pulford and Maeve McMahon, keys for our success at the draw, will continue to make life exciting for us. Kaly Spilhaus, our starting goalkeeper, will return as well. We

Boys Tennis | 4-11

T

he boys tennis team ended the 2010 season with an ISL record of 4-11. The boys also lost to Exeter, Andover, and Deerfield. In league play, the team won 35 percent of singles sets played and 36 percent of doubles. Though there were a number of close matches, Groton only was victorious against Lawrence, Thayer, BBN, and St. Sebastian’s. The loss to St. Mark’s was the first one since the mid-’80s. The team won the Skip Howard Trophy, which is given to the squad that best represents the ISL in sportsmanship. Groton also won this trophy in 2009, the first team to win it in consecutive years. With a large group of fifth formers returning and the arrival of some fresh talent, the team is optimistic that it will return to being extremely competitive in the 2011 campaign. Said Coach Conner: “We had to learn to deal with multiple losses this season, an experience that few Groton tennis teams have faced before. This team has tremendous talent and potential, and with a little more experience, it will rise back to the top of the league. I am proud that the boys’ sportsmanship set the standard in the ISL again.” Next year’s captains are Jack Cohen, Ted Leonhardt, and Orme Thompson.

Midfielder Ashlin Dolan '12 maneuvers near the Andover crease.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 63

Grotoniana | All Things Groton

Top scorer Paige McDonald '10 works for an open shot.

will miss our four graduating seniors, but what’s ahead for Groton lacrosse looks promising! We value the sisterhood of this game and are honored to be setting high standards within our School and league.

NEPSWLA All Stars: Ashlin Dolan, Paige McDonald ISL First Team: Ashlin Dolan, Paige McDonald ISL Honorable Mention: Grace Bukawyn, Adri Pulford LNE Second Team: Ashlin Dolan Coaches’ Award: Grace Bukawyn, Courtney Fogarty, Michelle

game-by-game look reveals that Groton lacrosse is steadily earning a reputation of being more competitive. Once again, the coaches witnessed each day this team’s eagerness to improve, as most players arrived early for informal skill-building during extra-help time.

The ball bag was often on the field late as well, as players consistently lingered after practice.

Thirty-five Grotonians headed south on our annual trip to Florida, the highest number in the program’s history. We enjoyed playing against the likes of Choate, Deerfield, Taft, and St. Louis CDS, all competitive teams who immediately challenged and pushed us, preparing us for our brutal ISL opening games. Our 7-3 loss to perennial power Governor’s showed our toughness, as did a strong effort against St. Sebastian’s, another league power.

Heart-breaking one-goal losses against Thayer and Roxbury Latin were balanced by terrific efforts against St. Paul’s, Lawrence, St. George’s, and Brooks. Injuries seemed to hamper us all year long, inhibiting any momentum; nevertheless, several players stepped up and gained valuable experience. The boys also faired well against out-of-league foes Vermont and Berwick, 14-1 and 8-6 victories, respectively.

For our sixth-form captains, Connor earned the Coaches’ Award for his leadership, and was elected a New England Prep All-Star, representing the East in the annual all-star game; Scott (all- ISL) earned the Most Valuable Player Award, contributing heavily as a successful ISL face-off midfielder; and Charles earned ISL honorable mention, while quarterbacking our defense.

And among their formmates—Will and Tom were the stalwarts of our formidable defensive unit with their reliability, while Dale brought intensity to the field on a daily basis. Although injured the majority of the season, Conor came on strong in the latter part, while Mike filled a reserve role with dignity and a strong work ethic. All of these sixth formers will be missed. Fifth Former Mike Storace and Fourth Former Joe Scott showed progress all

Murphy MVP: Paige McDonald Captains-elect: K.C. Hambleton, Adri Pulford

Boys Varsity Lacrosse | 6-11 Overall 4-11 ISL

T

he 2010 season was a year of more growth for the boys varsity lacrosse team and program, and Co-captains Charles Boutet, Scott Fronsdahl, and Connor Mackenzie as well as fellow Six Formers Dale Adams, Mike Cassidy, Alex Gregoire, Dan McCarthy, Tom Nagler, Conor Robinson, and Will Stemberg played with energy, intensity, and passion all season long. These seniors loved to compete on a daily basis, no matter what the drill or who the opponent. Although the final won-loss slate does not accurately reflect the growth, a closer

64 | Quarterly Fall 2010

Third former George Bukawyn works for position in the Lawrence Academy game.

Spring Sports

Varsity Baseball | Overall 8-9 League 8-7

T Attack man Josh Imhoff '11 fires at the goal.

season long, and longstick midfielders Walter Hunnewell and Tim Morrill (both fourth formers) logged valuable minutes in a demanding position.

At the midfield, Fifth Formers Nils Martin, James Cottone, Phil McNamara, and Zander McClelland provided much-needed depth, while some younger players also contributed heavily— Fifth Former Jack Kessler, Fourth Former Luke Turchetta, Third Formers Adam Hardej and George Bukawyn. Six Former Dan McCarthy was a newcomer to the sport, and his athleticism and toughness made an impact on our team.

On attack, Alex Gregoire provided much needed size and strength, with Fifth Formers Jack Wilkinson and Josh Imhoff and Fourth Formers Jack Rhinelander and Mike Doherty all combining for the bulk of the scoring. In goal, Third Former Peter Mumford had a strong season, as did classmate Tom Santinelli. Both goalies worked extremely hard all season long.

We are grateful to the seniors for their leadership, and will rely on the returning players to perpetuate their work ethic, enthusiasm, and competitive fire. We are also excited about the progress of our junior varsity program as well. Many thanks to Coaches Beams, Webb ’93, Fry, and Sheppe, as well as our alumni, parents, and supporters. Special recognition goes to Coach Sheppe who will be headed to his alma mater, Holderness School in New Hampshire.

We are grateful for his passion and energy. Many thanks to our two sixth form managers Julia Nestler and Maddie Bruce.

ISL All-League: Scott Fronsdahl ISL Honorable Mention: Charles Boutet NESSLA SR East-West All-Star: Connor Mackenzie Coaches’ Award: Connor Mackenzie MIP Award: Zander McClelland MVP Award: Charles Boutet, Scott Fronsdahl 2011 captains-elect: Jack Wilkinson, Jack Rhinelander

he 2010 Groton School baseball team was a young and inexperienced group, with four fourth formers and two third formers in the starting lineup. Pitching and defense were the team’s staple from the start. With two starting pitchers returning from last year, the pitching staff had the experience and toughness to withstand the rigors of the ISL schedule. After a successful spring trip to Fort Pierce, Florida, the team opened up on the road against a strong Dexter team. That extra inning loss began a string of late-inning close games for Groton.

Four of the first eight games would go into extra frames, with the Zebras winning three of them. The 11-inning Brooks game was played on a windy, cold, rainy day which saw Groton prevail with a suicide squeeze in the top half of the 11th. The middle half of the season, however, was the highlight of the year with the team going on a 6-2 run, including big wins over Nobles, Belmont Hill, and Rivers. A tough weekend stretch at the end of the season saw Groton lose a tough game to cross-town rival Lawrence Academy and a bitter loss to School rival St. Marks. Participating in the prestigious Etter/Croke tournament in Waltham to close out the season, the Zebras finished the season strong with a convincing 5-1 win against Milton Academy. With the Nobles and Belmont Hill wins, the youngest squad in the ISL realized it has the potential to compete with the top teams in the league, providing everimportant confidence to make a strong challenge for a league title as we go forward.

This year’s team was led by Sixth Form Captains Brett Frongillo (Haverhill, Massachusetts) and Tanner Keefe (Bow, New Hampshire). With the team loaded with young players, they not only provided much needed statistical leadership, but also showed them how to be prepared and work hard on a daily basis. Brett, the starting shortstop, earned All-League honors for the second year in a row. He finished the year as one of the top 10 hitters in the league with a .434 average, slugged over .600, and stole

First baseman Zach Baharozian '12 awaits the pick-off throw.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 65

Grotoniana | All Things Groton the March break. With the hard work, attention to detail, and a strong will to compete, the Groton Nine anticipates improving our 2010 record and bringing home the ISL championship.

Most Valuable Player: Tanner Keefe Most Improved Player: Joseph MacDonald Coaches’ Award: Patrick Florence All ISL: Tanner Keefe and Brett Frongillo Honorable Mention ISL: Ross Julian, Joseph MacDonald, and

Patrick Florence 2011 Captains-elect: Ross Julian, Joseph MacDonald, and Patrick

Florence

2010 Girls Crew | 28-4 Second in NEIRA

2011 tri captain Ross Julian '11 turns a double play against BB&N.

13 bases. He is heading to The College of Wooster in Ohio to continue playing both football and baseball. Tanner was outstanding on the mound for the Zebras all year long. His 59 strikeouts (in 49 league innings) placed him in the top three of the league.

With impeccable control, he only walked 13 batters in his eight league starts. His 2.40 ERA also placed him among the league leaders. Every start was a quality one, as he single-handedly kept the Zebras in a few games that could have been lopsided losses.

On offense, he hit .310 and led the team with 18 stolen bases.

Tanner will attend The Catholic University of America next year with aspirations to play football and possibly continue pitching.

Other key contributors to this year’s team were Fourth Former Joseph MacDonald (Pepperell, Massachusetts), Fourth Former Patrick Florence (Lowell, Massachusetts) and Fifth Former Ross Julian (Dunstable, Massachusetts), all of whom earned Honorable Mention honors in the league. Third form second baseman Dan Glavin (Sterling, Massachusetts) contributed with a .300 batting average and a .462 on-base percentage. They all came up with big hits throughout the year, and provided tremendous efforts on the mound and in the field to lead the Zebras to a sixth-place finish in the league. Ross, Patrick, Joseph, and a few other returning starters will be back as we look to move up the ladder and fight for the top spot in the league.

With their leadership and tireless work ethic, departing players Brett, Tanner, and Andrew Daigneault (Leominster, Massachusetts) played a tremendous role in developing the young players who will return next year to play significant roles on the 2011 team. They will be missed, but their impact on Groton players will remain.

This year was a tremendous step in the right direction for the baseball program. The game can be won or lost with just a simple ground ball or fly ball, and the Zebras have shown the dedication to detail that they need to win the close games. Our 2011 team will begin the season with our annual trip to Fort Pierce during

66 | Quarterly Fall 2010

T

he season began with floods. The Nashua crested at 15.75 feet on March 17, a week before students were to return for preseason. Only the floods of 1936 and 1987 saw higher water. What this meant for us was that there were 34 inches of water in the Boathouse. Luckily, two coaches were on campus and could raise the shells so that the water did not damage any equipment.

When the students returned a week later, they found the Boathouse damp but ready. We had a week of good rowing, but then a second flood, not quite as bad as the first, filled the Boathouse with 30 inches and kept us indoors for close to a week.

When the waters finally receded, we were ready for scrimmages.

The first and second boats traded pieces with Exeter, were competitive with Winsor, and won every piece against St. Paul’s.

First boat in a piece downriver.

Spring Sports

First and second boat rowing past the Bingham Boathouse.

The early races showed that this was indeed going to be a strong year for girls crew. We swept BBN and Miss Porter’s, did well against Deerfield, and swept St. Mark’s and Middlesex. One of the keys to the season was our outstanding group of novices.

The third and fourth boats were the strongest that they have been in years, and Coach Tiffany Doggett brought them along nicely.

After the Wayland-Weston Regatta, where the first and third boats won medals but the second and fourth boats had disappointing races, we shook up the boatings and won all our races with Brooks. Against archrival Nobles, defending NEIRA champions, we raced well, won three of the four races, and, along with a sweep by the boys, returned the Cooke Family Cup to its home in our trophy case.

At Lake Quinsigamond, all of the boats earned places in the grand finals, and at day’s end, the first, second, and third boats had all won silver medals. Despite some disappointment—all three of the boats were close enough to dream of gold—there were a lot of smiles. Groton finished second to Winsor in the overall points trophy.

Because the first boat finished second, it earned an invitation to race in the Youth National Championships in Cincinnati three weeks later. With Diana Chen moving up to replace co-captain Jane Bang in the coxswain seat and a reshuffled lineup, the crew trained for the 2000-meter race (500 meters longer than our standard).

Against twenty-four other boats from around the country, we won our first heat by two hundredths of a second, with the third fastest time of the event. On the next day, as the famous Midwestern thunderstorms threatened, the boats in our event

were sent in to the beach, reaching safety just ahead of incredible rains. The semifinal race was postponed twice, and the crew and their loyal parents waited. When the race was finally run six hours later, bad luck struck. The fans at the finish line wondered why lane three was empty; it turned out that one of our girls had passed out about five hundred meters into the race. Dehydration had struck.

Luckily, the referees saw what had happened and got our girl safely to the EMTs. After several hours of hydration, she was fine.

Not finishing the race meant that we were not eligible for the grand final. The girls banded together and decided to race the B final as hard as they could. They won the race by 10 seconds, putting up a time that would have placed third in the medal event.

Although their victory was bittersweet, the girls came away knowing that they had been one of the fastest boats in the country, even though they did not have the medals to prove it. The last race was a good way to end a fine season for Groton crew.

1st boat Molly Lyons Liza MacEachern Julia May Faith Richardson Jane Bang, captain 2nd at NEIRA

2nd boat Emily Caldwell Sarah Black Hannah Reeve Allie Banwell Diana Chen 2nd at NEIRA

3rd boat Maeve Hoffstot Charlotte Berkowitz Jillian Howe Jacqueline Anton Mayra Cruz 2nd at NEIRA

4th boat Rebecca Brown Jenny Min Bryn Garrity, capt Marissa Garey Katie Wagner 4th at NEIRA

Next year’s co-captains will be Hannah Reeve and Faith Richardson. JV coaches Drew Kesler and Ella Steim ’01 are leaving us; we have benefited from their energy, enthusiasm, and humor. They have introduced many girls to the sport; they will be missed.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 67

Grotoniana | All Things Groton Varsity Boys Crew

S

ometimes, a successful response to adversity defines a team.

The 2010 boys rowing squad faced its share of adversity.

Ten of the 20 varsity seats would have to be filled with rising JV rowers and newcomers to the sport. The novices would need both time and miles on the Nashua River to even contemplate a competitive season. Two of the largest floods in the Nashua’s history occurred in late March and early April, causing the crews to lose six days of precious river practice. Grounded, rowing machines and fitness training were substituted for time on the water. The third strike for the team came in the form of injuries to three of the varsity rowers, as rehabilitation days amassed quickly. In spite of these hurdles, the spirit at the Boathouse remained upbeat and optimistic as the season progressed. Lineups were shifted to fill vacancies caused by injuries, and the crews rowed on.

An expanded scrimmage schedule saw the crews face off with Boston College High School, Phillips Exeter Academy, St. Paul’s School, and Choate Rosemary Hall. The racing season formally began with three of the four Groton crews posting victories over Saint Mark’s. The novice fourth four, with an injury weakened lineup, missed the medals by less than a second. One week later, all four Groton crews outraced Middlesex School on a windy, cold Concord River in Billerica. On May 2, at the Wayland-Weston Regatta, all four crews advanced through the morning heats to the grand finals where Belmont Hill School swept all boys events. The following week, the crews traveled to the Charles River to again face Belmont Hill and Brooks School. Groton’s third boat had the best showing, improving its speed and narrowly trailing Belmont Hill at the finish line.

Noble and Greenough School, Groton’s oldest rowing foe, visited the Nashua River on May 15 to compete for the Cooke Family Cup. The cup is awarded to the school with the most combined points in both the boys and girls racing. All four boys crews raced well, outdistancing their Nobles rivals. With the

First boat in a practice piece down river.

68 | Quarterly Fall 2010

Second boat in a piece near the bottom of the pratice course.

combined success of the girls team, we returned the Cooke Family Cup to Groton for the first time in three years.

At the NEIRAs on May 22, all four Groton boys boats advanced through to the afternoon grand finals. In the morning, the first boat raced an especially strong heat, trailing Choate and besting Nobles and three other crews to capture a spot in the afternoon grand finals. There, our all-novice fourth boat finished a strong fourth; our third boat trailed only unbeaten Belmont Hill to capture the silver medal; the second boat raced well and captured the bronze medal. The first boat, with four underclassmen aboard and a bright future in front of them, finished off the pace and out of the medals.

In summary, despite floods and injuries our young crew captured three dual races, including the Cooke Family Cup, and placed all four crews in the NEIRA Grand Finals, two of which earned a place on the medal stand. With only four oarsmen graduating, 2011 is shaping up as a year to improve on our recent NEIRA performance. Remington Knight ’11 and Max Lindemann ’11 will captain the squad next year.

New Releases

New releases Starr C. Osborne ’81

Home Staging That Works (as seen on Amazon.com)

C

omplete with photographs of real-life before-and-after transformations, Home Staging That Works offers strategies for each room in your home, as well as conceptual approaches to bring the parts together beautifully.

Your home is a magical place waiting for the right buyer to fall in love. Home Staging That Works shows you how to turn any home into a showpiece that buyers will be fighting over. With specific recommendations on what to do, keep, chuck, fix, paint, replace, avoid, update, show, hide, highlight, and more, Make the match happen with Home Staging That Works!

STARR C. OSBORNE ’81 (Philadelphia, PA) is owner and founder of Tailored Transitions, Philadelphia’s premiere home staging, moving-management, and design company.

Robert Stallman ’64

the Nightingale in Love: Flute Music of the Late French Baroque Released February 1, 2010

R

obert Stallman ’64 has a new CD, the Nightingale in Love: Flute Music of the Late French Baroque. William Zagorski, music critic, writes “An irrepressible transcriber, [Stallman] is not putting old and venerable wines in new and revealing bottles, but paying homage to both major and minor figures of the French Baroque. The recording is sweet and airy, and his two accompanying musicians are decidedly on the same page with him. This gracious music is alternately thrilling and full of exquisite longing—feelings that we, if we are/were so lucky, have felt in our own lives. His playing has its customary immediacy and seduces us, despite the distractions around us, into finally living in the moment—a moment that, given the evidence here, proves to be a timeless one. Reach an extensive Zagorski interview with Stallman on music at: http://www. fanfaremag.com/content/view/38710/10237/

Ben Coes ’85

Power Down Power Down will be released on September 28, 2010

F

rom the palaces of Saudi Arabia to the corridors of Washington power, from the dangerous alleyways of Colombia to the cane fields of Cuba, from the board rooms of Wall Street to the mansions of East Hampton, POWER DOWN offers a searing glimpse into an all-too-possible future, in which enemies hide in plain sight, the innocent are sacrificed, and America’s last hope, as always, rests in the hands of one of its own, a patriot, willing to risk it all for the country he loves.

“I loved Power Down! It’s a fresh, exciting thriller and the action scenes are big, vivid and authentic, at times even breathtaking. An impressive debut for Ben Coes. I was blown away.”

– David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of Creepers and creator of Rambo

“Power Down is terrific! With a gripping story, compelling characters, a relentless pace and nervewracking suspense, Power Down is one of the must-read thrillers of the year. Don’t miss this debut of novelist Ben Coes and the introduction of Dewey Andreas – you’ll devour this one and wait anxiously for their return.”

– Vince Flynn, New York Times bestselling author of Pursuit of Honor “A ripping thriller from an exciting new novelist. Power Down kept me glued, turning the pages. Lots of action, a terrific hero, and a slimy villain–thrillers don’t get any better.”

– Stephen Coonts, New York Times bestselling author of The Disciple Quarterly Fall 2010

| 69

Grotoniana | All Things Groton

GWN

A

SCHOOL NEWS

t June’s Groton Women’s Net­– work Committee meeting, Chair Merrill Stubbs ’95 shared an overview of our accomplishments for the past year. The GWN has grown considerably since its start in 20002001 not only in size, but also in its offerings to the greater Groton community.

The GWN sponsored 13 events in 2009-2010, three more than in the previous year, and they were attended by more than 150 Groton community members, ranging from young children of alumni who came to the Barebook Books event at FAO Schwarz in New York to Groton’s sixth headmaster, Bill Polk ’58, who joined other Boston-area Grotonians at a wine and cheese tasting at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge.

Because of their success, many of the events hosted this past year are being considered again for the coming year. The Boston city chairs have planned a reprise of the Mount Monadnock hike and the On The Rise community service event. The New York team is hoping to host another

occasion that draws in young children, as well as a community service day and a shopping event. Another cooking demonstration in Rye, New York, a beach cleanup in L.A., a news bureau tour in D.C., a symphony tour in San Francisco, as well as informal cocktail gatherings in all GWN locales are also under consideration.

Given a large contingent of Grotties in Westchester and Fairfield counties in New York, the GWN launched a chapter there.

Under the guidance of Ann Bakewell Woodward ’86 and Sarah Fitzgerald ’95, the group hosted two events and got lots of great feedback from attendees, as well as from those who couldn’t make it. The GWN will miss Ann’s leadership as she “retires” from her co-city chair position in order to have more time for her new role as president of the Groton School Alumni Association.

With any new year comes some change.

The GWN welcomed eight new city chairs to the team in fall 2009, bringing the total to 15. Collectively, they spent at least 25 hours on the phone preparing for the year and touching base at regular meetings, with

The Washington D.C. GWN hosted a garden tour at Dumbarton Oaks in June.

70 | Quarterly Fall 2010

Merrill, Vice Chair Eliza Storey Anderson ’79, P’04, ’06, ’08, ’10, and Alumni Office liaison Betsy Wray Lawrence ’82.

These hours are in addition to those many, many hours that each team put in to make sure all events ran smoothly. At the end of the year in anticipation of a move to Paris, Eliza stepped down as vice chair after more than eight years of leadership: four years as a city chair, and then four years as the GWN vice chair. Her dedication and creativity, not to mention the wit and unfailing accuracy she brought to the meeting minutes, will be sorely missed.

Filling the roll now is Julie Weil Futch ’84.

A former GSAA city chair, Julie attended the first GWN Fairfield/Westchester event and was so impressed with the people she connected with that she eagerly responded with “I’d love to,” when asked to take on this new role. Bon voyage to Eliza, and welcome to Julie.

To get involved with the GWN in your area, please contact Betsy in the Alumni Office at 978-448-7587 or by email at blawrence@groton.org.

School News

GSAA Summer 2010 Dear Fellow Groton Alumni and Alumnae, I am honored to be assuming the role of president of the Groton School Alumni Association. My time as a student at Groton changed my life in such a meaningful way, and my continued involvement with the School stems directly from that experience. I arrived in the fall of 1983 from Old Saybrook, Connecticut, as a new fourth former, wide-eyed and nervous about what lay ahead. Initially what lay ahead was a lot of hard work, late nights studying for Senor Connor’s Spanish tests, dishwashing in the Dining Hall (which fortunately has been retired as a work program assignment), waking up early on Sundays for Choir rehearsal, and pushing to the finish (often in last place!) of a cross-country race. But I wouldn’t have traded a moment of those experiences as they laid the foundation for the profound impact Groton’s teachers and my fellow students would have on my academic and personal growth–not only during my three years at Groton, but still continuing almost 25 years after graduation. Groton opened up my world to opportunity–challenging academics, demanding yet compassionate teachers, lifelong friendships, athletics, and arts–all within the unique community of the Circle. Moreover, as a student on financial aid, I felt so fortunate to have access to all that Groton provided. The cumulative experience of living and learning with my peers and teachers significantly shaped my character and still guides me today.

As the new president of the GSAA, I would first like to sincerely thank outgoing president Amy Cunningham Atkinson ’79, and recognize her for all of her work and leadership during the past five years. The GSAA sponsors many of the Groton events held throughout the country and overseas, helping alumni reconnect with both formmates and other fellow Grotonians.

I hope to reach out to all alumni and welcome you to play an active role in the GSAA. While we have many tried and true annual events, such as receptions in different cities and Reunion Weekend on campus, we hope to expand upon these gatherings and welcome your fresh ideas. For example, the first Groton Golf Tournament was held this spring to much success (thank you, Grant Gund ’86, for spearheading this event). We will be communicating with you about upcoming events in the months to come, hoping to broaden our outreach to connect alumni with each other, as well as with the Groton faculty.

I’m excited to share my enthusiasm and love for Groton with fellow alumni and look forward to helping the GSAA. Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas as you look back at how Groton has helped shape your life experiences.

That old Groton T-shirt a little worn?

Need a tote bag to replace paper or plastic?

Shop online at the new Groton web store.

Opening September 30, 2010

www.groton.org/webstore

Sincerely, Ann Bakewell Woodward ’86 annbwoodward@aol.com Quarterly Fall 2010

| 71

In Memoriam | As We Remember I N

M E M O R I A M

Louis S. Auchincloss ’35, P’76, ’82

1 September 9, 1917 – January 26, 2010

by Michael Knox Beran ’84

T

he world lost an artist when Louis Auchincloss ’35 died in January, but his passing will be felt with special keenness by Grotonians for whom he was one of the foremost interpreters of our joint experience.

A man once said to me, when I asked him about a Louis Auchincloss story, “My life is a Louis Auchincloss story.” So we may all a little feel when we read The Rector of Justin, a book which, if it has not actually invented us, has rendered faithfully some of the notes that have gone into making us what we are.

Louis Stanton Auchincloss was born in Lawrence, Long Island, in 1917, the third child of J. Howland Auchincloss 1904 and Priscilla Dixon Stanton. He grew up in New York City, where his roots ran deep; he said that he was from an early age conscious of “layers and layers of cousins, concentrated in Manhattan and belonging to a tribe that had done business there for a century and a half . . .” He entered Groton as a first former, in the last decade of Dr. Peabody’s rectorate, and was in the beginning, he said, “abysmally wretched.” He was teased and bullied, for he was not an athlete, and in those days this was a great handicap; but he was “later moderately content,” and was not only editor of the Grotonian but also one of the top three scholars in his Form. At Yale he was editor of the Literary Magazine and was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa, but he did not take a degree. Afterwards he studied law at the University of Virginia, became friends with the eminent jurist Learned Hand (“the greatest human being that it has ever been my privilege to know”), and was for a time associated with the Wall Street firm of Sullivan & Cromwell.

When the war came Auchincloss obtained a commission in the Navy, and after being initially posted in Naval Intelligence commanded an LST during the invasion of Normandy. He also experienced an unlooked for literary awakening. “It was not until my war service in the Navy,” he wrote in Reflections of a Jacobite, “that I began to read fiction in any quantity with no aim but that of enjoying it. It was escapism, of course, the sheerest escapism, but who but a Churchill would not be an escapist in wartime?” After he laid down his commission Auchincloss returned to New York to practice law and write books. “I do recall the curiosity I had about him,” remembered Gore Vidal, who through his mother’s marriage to Hugh D. Auchincloss ’16 was a cousin of Auchincloss’: “How on earth was he going to be both a lawyer and a writer (a question entirely subjective: how could I write what I did and be an effective politician? Answer: forget it.).” Yet like Trollope before him, Auchincloss managed the rare feat of reconciling a literary with a practical vocation. In 1947 he brought out

72 | Quarterly Fall 2010

The Indifferent Children, the first of more than 60 books, and his connection with Hawkins, Delafield & Wood, which he joined in 1954 as a trusts and estates lawyer, lasted more than three decades. §

W

riting in the Washington Post two years ago, Jonathan Yardley ’57 called Auchincloss’ 1964 novel, The Rector of Justin, “a minor masterpiece of 20th-century literature,” the work of “one of the most accomplished and distinctive writers this country has known.” Although the central character in the novel, Francis Prescott, is modeled less on Endicott Peabody than on Learned Hand, the book is in many ways a Groton growth.

Prescott, utterly unlike Peabody though he in certain respects is, resembles him in this, his desire to found a church school in which education is carried on as much through friendship between teachers and students as by formal instruction. George Santayana, who taught a number of the early Groton graduates at Harvard, was impressed by the “personal paternal care and spiritual guidance which it was Mr. Peabody’s ideal to supply,” a care and guidance that made the School “a second home” to its students. A similar pastoral impulse animates Francis Prescott in Auchincloss’ book. “In my novel, The Rector of Justin,” Auchincloss told me in a 1984 letter, “I tried to catch some of the atmosphere of the early School—I mean the Brooks House days which I touch on in the early chapters.”

Inevitably there is a fall from grace. “I had long suspected,” Auchincloss told me, “that there must have been a grave conflict between Mr. Gardner and the Rector about the expansion of the School,” an intuition that was vindicated when letters that bore witness to the struggle came to light in the 1980s. In The Rector of Justin a similar contest over the enlargement of Justin Martyr is waged in Prescott’s soul; the world breaks in upon the primitive simplicity of the school, and tempts the headmaster with a vision of power and splendor, of gleaming new buildings, a soaring chapel, the prospect of an influence to rival that of Arnold of Rugby. §

I

n The Rector of Justin Auchincloss described the “hard period” in Prescott’s headmastership that followed the expansion of Justin Martyr. Carol Gelderman, in her admirable biography of Auchincloss, notes that “nearly

In Memoriam I N

M E M O R I A M

everyone in the ‘Groton family’” believed that the author of The Rector of Justin had “traitorously criticized Dr. Peabody and his School” by depicting the coldness of Justin in its ice age. But those who thought the book perfidious overlooked the way in which Auchincloss pointed, at the end of it, to qualities in the School’s character and tradition that have the power to renew it. Certainly one of the strengths of both Peabody’s Groton and Prescott’s Justin lies in their capacity for regeneration; and it was precisely this power of revival that Auchincloss took up in the last pages of the novel.

Like so many of Auchincloss’ books, The Rector of Justin turns not on the too facile distinction between worldly corruption and other-worldly virtue, but on the difference between life-enhancers, whose inspiration is the source of the vibrant and creative traditions, and those whose music is never properly got out. Felix Leitner in Auchincloss’ The House of the Prophet, Ernest Saunders in Last of the Old Guard, Cardinal Richelieu in his 1972 study of the French statesman are heroic vitalists who, like Prescott himself, have a genius for showing that “life could be exciting.” Auchincloss was conscious of the dangers of these overpowering personalities; they invite hero-worship and are often corrupted by it.

But in The Rector of Justin the creative ecstasies of Prescott are tempered by his moral imagination; the same inspired perception that has enabled him to create the living tradition of Justin Martyr forces him, at the conclusion of the novel, to acknowledge the shortcomings of his school, and to feel remorse for the way he treated a student he had come to hate. He has learned, he says, “some elementary lessons in humility,” and he again takes up the pastoral crook he had laid aside in the hard days. The implication seems to me obvious: where a tradition can inspire the creativity and excitement that Prescott’s (at its best) did and is at the same time informed by a sense of humility, the tradition can be— and as Prescott’s successor Duncan Moore observes, ought to be—renewed and perpetuated.

It is this faith in the possibility of regeneration that makes Auchincloss’ novel one of the great Groton books. Alice Roosevelt Longworth might have dismissed Endicott Peabody as a “slab of New England granite,” but the Rector knew what he was about when he forged the traditions that have shaped our School and have done something to bring out our own latent creativity. To see this it is necessary to get round the Rector of the later years, a forbidding figure obscured by legend and idolatry, and go back, as Auchincloss did in The Rector of Justin, to the Cotty Peabody of the ’80s, a young man full of confidence but also of uncertainty, one who chucked his work in the brokerage to bring the Gospel to gunslingers in Tombstone, a fledgling headmaster who was trying desperately, he told William Amory Gardner, “to make the world . . . better” and who thanked God for the “glorious and most intensely interesting life” of his School.

Auchincloss bears witness to the very nearly occult power of the ritual and mystique of the School that is Peabody’s lengthened shadow in the extraordinary lyric of Charley Strong in the 15th chapter of The Rector of Justin. Not the least important element in this mystique is the horror of complacency it engenders, a spirit of self-criticism that has

allowed Groton continuously to renew itself without sacrificing its aboriginal myths and memories. The rigidity of the “hard period” in Groton’s history which made Auchincloss’ school days difficult was, when I first came to the School in 1979, a thing of the past; never elsewhere have I known a place at once so tightly bound together in the fellowship of a compact community and at the same time so hospitable to eccentricity and to the cultivation, by student and teacher alike, of his or her peculiar gifts. § I don’t know whether Auchincloss would have agreed, but I think the reason he was able to throw so much light on our common experience and make vivid the constructive power that creates the extraordinary thing—be it Richelieu’s France or Prescott’s Justin—is that he was himself akin to those heroically creative figures he portrayed in his books. I do not mean simply the prodigious energy that enabled him to write a book a year, and to read widely and deeply in English and French literature, when he was in full practice on Wall Street.

I mean too the vitality that resisted all the typical molds. As much as his characters Morris Madison in Powers of Attorney, Peter Carnochan in East Side Story, and Roger Cutter in The House of the Prophet, Auchincloss knew the pleasures of literary escapism, and might have played the flâneur, living vicariously through others and writing it all down in books and diaries.

His Horace Havistock, a character he modeled on Gaillard Lapsley, the American expatriate and aesthete, “had learned to apologize to nobody” for taking his “pleasures primarily through the eye and ear.” Yet Auchincloss himself, far from cultivating a fin de siècle aloofness, not only went down to Wall Street every day, he had a rich family life and was an exemplary husband to Adele and father to John ’76, Blake, and Andrew ’82. His personal generosity was remarkable. In Walter Lippmann and the American Century, Ronald Steel observed that while “some people who had courted [Lippmann] in his health neglected him in his decline, others, particularly Louis Auchincloss, Arthur Schlesinger, and the faithful Drew Dudley, regularly came to visit and to divert his mind.” Auchincloss was as generous to the obscure as he was to the great, and amid his many labors he took the time to read carefully and comment thoughtfully on the manuscripts of young scribes and apprentice writers.

I remember his voice, as I heard it booming on my answering machine a few years ago, rich, cultivated, its accent that of another world, a now-vanished age. His great subject, he said, was the “decline of a class,” but he harbored no illusions about its virtues and accepted with serenity its decay.

“I used to say to my father, ‘Everything would be all right if only my class at Yale ran the country.’ Well, they did run the country during the Vietnam War, and look what happened!”

His books are notably unsentimental; there is nothing in them of the romantic nostalgia for a waning patriciate one finds in Waugh and Lampedusa, in Proust and even in Faulkner. He did however once say to me, in connection with the withering of the old WASP ascendancy, “When we are gone, they will miss us.” We will miss him.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 73

In Memoriam | As We Remember I N

M E M O R I A M

Harold Thayer Meryman ’39

1 February 5, 1921 – January 10, 2010

by David Acheson ’39

H

arry Meryman, who died on January 10, epitomized the case of the road less traveled. He was noted for his inventive mind, multiplicity of talents, inimitable character, shambolic sense of humor, and loyalty to his friends and to Groton.

After Groton Meryman graduated from Harvard in 1943 and from the Long Island College of Medicine in 1946, and joined the Naval Medical Research Institute. There he worked in cryobiology, the effects of freezing on tissues, which pointed toward freeze-drying cells and blood for long-term storage. This became his life work, first at NMRI, then the American Red Cross, then back to the NMRI cryopreservation program.

From 2003 to 2007 Harry served as president of CryoBioPhysica, an immunological research company in Rockville, Maryland. The processes developed by Harry “are credited with saving countless lives,” as reported by his obituary in the Washington Post. He and Lanie had a farm in Ashton, Maryland, where he struggled manfully against the weather, Murphy’s Law, and failing agricultural implements.

At Groton Harry’s style and spirit were notably antithetical to the conformity pattern of that place and time. He was a guiding light of the Third Form Weekly, and he delighted in physics laboratory periods and the arresting experiments of Mr. Griswold. He had an insatiable curiosity about nature, mechanics, and the unaccountable varieties of human behavior. He put on amateur chemical and physics demonstrations for the amusement of his classmates and could be counted on to be part of anything that was fun.

Harry Meryman copied no pattern, was a true original, a talented humorist, an entertaining companion, and a contributing pioneer in medical science.

74 | Quarterly Fall 2010

In Memoriam I N

M E M O R I A M

Reginald FOSTER III ’49

1 October 23, 1930 – May 12, 2010

by Lowell Laporte ’49 and John M. Kingsley, Jr. ’49

R

eginald Foster III died on May 12, 2009, two days after attending our 60th Reunion.

He was the son of Reginald Foster of the Form of 1918 at Groton (as was John Crocker).

Reg joined our class in the Second Form in the fall of 1944. In later years he would recount his first experience at Groton as follows: “On my first full day at school Mr. Wickens gave me three black marks for being late to gym class.” He was a good athlete playing football, as captain of the hockey team, and baseball where he was a fixture at second base on a team that won the first championship of the newly formed Private School League. After graduation he served as our Form Agent for 25 years. One of his proudest moments was giving grandson Max, a fourth-generation Grotonian, his diploma.

Following Groton, Reg went to Yale where he graduated in 1953 with a B.A. degree. He then served two years in the Navy with the rank of ensign. Reg was an accomplished sailor and enjoyed being the proud owner of number of different boats, which he would sail to various ports of call. Among his hobbies in later life was to collect old postcards from the North Shore.

Reg was an avid Red Sox fan and for many years attended games with Junie O’Brien and John Kingsley.

Professionally, Reg was an investment counselor and spent many years with Massachusetts Financial Services before retiring in 1989. He is survived by M.G., his wife of 55 years, a daughter, three sons, and 10 grandchildren.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 75

In Memoriam | As We Remember I N

M E M O R I A M

Guido Rinaldo Perera, Jr., ’49, P’84

1 March 26, 1931 – October 11, 2009

by James M. Storey ’49

(The following is adapted from a remembrance given at Guido’s funeral.)

I

called him “Uncle Guido.” He called me “Uncle James.”

This was not only because he was godfather to my daughter Eliza and I godfather to his daughter Nellie, but it affirmed our respect and affection for each other.

Guido grew up on Beacon Hill in Boston, the eldest of four brothers, two of whom also went to Groton. We first met when we were maybe 10 or 11 at the Somerset Hotel Dancing Class, complete with a French dancing master and a receiving line of four awe-inspiring dowagers— including Guido’s mother and my mother.

We met again as formmates at Groton, where our acquaintance blossomed into a close friendship. At Groton Guido was a good student, an average athlete, and a full-time participant in a variety of community and social causes. I remember vividly in our fourth form year Guido describing to me (maybe a little sheepishly) the meetings of the Groton School chapter of the Sea Scouts: “We would gather in Mr. Hawkes’ study in Brooks House, move the furniture to the corners of the room, and draw an imaginary line through the middle of the room—the water was on one side of the line and the land on the other.”

This initial interest in scouting led to a lifelong active support of the Boy Scouts. Guido spent countless hours leading scouts on hiking trips, organizing scouting activities in the Boston area, and of course raising money for the cause. In his 50th Harvard Reunion report, Guido says, “I have come to believe that a properly run Boy Scout troop offers the best affordable long-term training in leadership, physical fitness, and citizenship that can be found anywhere.”

Another example of Guido’s enthusiasm for charitable projects was his support of the boys school on Thompson Island in Boston Harbor. In fact, he answered the question in his 45th Groton Reunion questionnaire about one’s highest personal achievement by saying, “helping to found the Thompson Island Education Center (now the Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center).” And his vigorous participation in the activities of St. Anne’s Church in Lincoln bears further witness to his commitment to community affairs.

Guido’s Groton experience nurtured his talent in and love of music.

He sang in the choir and played the flugelhorn in Mr. DeVeau’s marching Guido Perera, early 1990s on a camping band.

In later life he regularly attended Boston Symphony concerts and for trip in Vermont.

30 years played the French horn in the Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra. I shall long remember his earnest explanations of the condition of his “embouchure,” which may (or may not) have caused what he considered to be a flaw in his performance. He would demonstrate how his embouchure was too hot, or too cold, or too dry, or too something—I, of course, not noticing any flaw and thinking he played very well.

76 | Quarterly Fall 2010

In Memoriam I N

M E M O R I A M

After college and a stint in the army, Guido returned to Harvard for his MBA and, later, his master’s in teaching. He taught for a year at Newton High School before deciding to leave teaching. He eventually landed in his lifetime profession—a Boston trustee at Welch & Forbes.

In 1964 Guido married Joan Hulme. What a courageous young lady, taking on the Perera clan and all of Guido’s many gentleman friends. I remember her serene expression when we looked out their kitchen window in Lincoln after Nellie’s christening, as hordes of well-wishers crowded through the front door. We saw Guido getting into his car and driving away. Noting my shock, Joanie said in an amused tone, “You know, Guido says he is a high-ranking official of the Lincoln Republican Town Committee, and he feels he has to appear at their meeting. He’ll be right back.”

And he was.

This represents one of Guido’s basic characteristics—his sense of unwavering loyalty to duty, his absolute adherence to fulfilling his obligations, even when to do so would conflict with family events—and the charm and grace with which he dealt with that conflict.

I have heard many times friends say, “There is nobody who didn’t like Guido.” And no wonder.

He had all the virtues society admires: he was scrupulously honest, with the highest concept of honor both personally and professionally, conscientious, always polite and never visibly angry even under the most trying conditions.

But those who knew him well loved Guido for his subtler and more appealing personal qualities—that look of worry and concern on his face when you knew he was worrying about you. His humility—he was always underestimating himself and what others thought of him, and truly believing it. His concern for others’ problems—how could he help? He was a good listener, sympathetic and compassionate, always forgiving and never judgmental, and a giver of sound, wise, and imaginative advice.

We loved Guido for his exuberance for the outdoors—he got even me to huff and puff up Mount Monadnock with him and to ski with him in the White Mountains. He really wanted his friends to participate in all things that he loved.

His most endearing quality was his sense of humor, especially about himself. He endured a lot of ribbing—we mocked his earnestness, we kidded him for his foibles, his name, his “embouchure.” But he always responded with a gentle smile and a chuckle.

Besides Joanie, Guido leaves his three daughters, Jessica Perera Vitrouk ’84, of Moscow, Russia; Helen Perera of New York City; and Margaret Phelps of Waltham; and three grandchildren.

Guido was a generous spirit and all about love. Let us so remember him.

(l. to r.): Phillips Perera (Middlesex '51), Lawrence Perera '53, Ronald Perera '59, Faith Perera, Guido Perera, Sr., Guido Perera, Jr. '49.

Taken in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, c. 1950.

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 77

In Memoriam | As We Remember I N

M E M O R I A M

SAMUEL D. WILLIAMS ’55

1 October 15, 1936 – June 18, 2010

by Jan H.R.D. van Roijen ’55

S

amuel D. Williams died Friday, June 18, after having been diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the year. He is survived by his charming and caring wife, Susan, and his beloved son, Edward.

Sam entered Groton in 1949 as a first former and ended up as the agent of the Form of 1955 for several years until his death. He mentioned to me not long ago that he thought that during his six years at school he had tried to make the most of it. “I got very much out of Groton,” he said. “I have a very good feeling about the School.” He certainly fit in well. He was well regarded and respected in the Form. We all liked him because of his positive and cheerful character, integrity, sense of humor, and undeniable charm. It was important for him not to hurt anyone’s feelings. I think he never did.

In all the many years I knew Sam, I never saw him really angry except once in the summer of 1955 when we travelled by Volkswagen from Holland to Italy. The first night, having driven many hours through the bad single-lane roads of those days, we arrived in Paris. After a long fruitless search for accommodations, we, being at that point pretty much worn out, unwittingly spent the night in one of the more expensive hotels in town, thereby depleting a very substantial part of our traveling budget.

Fortunately, our parents came to our rescue.

Sam with his many qualities performed well at Groton. He did a good job academically with the possible exception of one or two subjects about which he was not overly enthusiastic. He was a natural athlete, being a member of the crew (the prestigious A boat) and captain of the soccer team (playing center halfback), and was skilled at tennis, Fives, and (after our years at the School) squash. Another non-athletic activity to which he devoted himself was Chapel bell ringing. Later in life he developed into a powder-snow skier and an avid ocean sailor, for which he won prizes.

After Groton, Sam graduated from Harvard in 1959, served in the Army, worked for some time in the family business, I.T. Williams Company, importing hardwood, and then started a career in the investment business. Ultimately he became senior managing director of Carret Asset Management.

Sam’s great hobby for a long time remained sports cars. His friends will remember how proud he was of his HRG. To me it looked something like the old model MG, but according to Sam and others it was unique. Apparently very few were ever produced.

Sam was a man with many friends. Our original idea was to ask formmates to offer their various reminiscences of him. Unfortunately, there is no time to accomplish this before this Quarterly goes to press.

We would like to take the opportunity now to wish Susan and Edward strength and courage to bear this great loss. Our thoughts are with them.

78 | Quarterly Fall 2010

In Memoriam I N

M E M O R I A M

Remembering Sam — by Francis L. “Peter” Higginson ’55

P

erhaps owing to my poorly equipped sensibilities, Sam fascinated as much as eluded me during our shared years. In any event, I don’t think I ever fully grasped just how tuned in he was to the dignity and suffering of others until our 50th when, in a quiet stroll together around the Circle, we spoke of the pathos with which a now-deceased common friend, Charlie Adams, was shot through and through. It was not random banter on his part: the shabby treatment that had been Charlie’s lot through much of his life clearly deeply upset Sam. Recalling the Sam I knew 55 years earlier, images of my reserved former bowman and co-bell ringer come to mind. Tall, elegant, and measured in all he did, Sam gave no sign of weakness of temperament nor permitted himself either extravagance (save perhaps in relation to his HRG) or excess of the sort that seem to have been the accepted form of word and deed in his peers.

Sam never raised his voice that I can recall, spoke in complete sentences, and inspired by both example and measure. Indifferent to the attractions of the various cliques that were the joy to some even as they were the Calvary of others, he glided soundlessly above the chatter of both super-charged egos and those racked by unsayable sorrows.

Deference seems to have been naturally accorded to Sam, in both big and small ways. Tall and commanding of presence, it was Sam who was naturally given the honor of ringing the No. 8 bell, the biggest in size and the deep-toned “period” that came at the end of the sentence of any quarter change we might have rung (non bell ringers will not understand this). And in our very successful A Boat, he wryly reminded me that while I may have set the cadence, as the first to cross the finish line, he had symbolically won the race.

So farewell, Sam. If I hardly knew you, I always admired you. Un sacre bonhomme, quoi…

Quarterly Fall 2010

| 79

Form notes

R Form Notes are now password-protected.

Members of the Groton community may read them online by signing in at www.groton.org/myGroton.