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HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY THE MAGAZINE OF HOLDERNESS SCHOOL FALL 2017

CHAPEL LANE PO BOX 1879 PLYMOUTH, NH 03264-1879

INSIDE: r In Support of Creative Thinking r Catching Up with Emily Zabransky r Commencement 2017 THE EDWARDS ART GALLERY CONTINUES TO BE A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION, CONTEMPLATION, AND EDUCATION FOR THE GREATER HOLDERNESS COMMUNITY. ABOVE, TIA TANG ’18 TAKES NOTES ON THIS FALL’S EXHIBIT, “HELEN NICOLAY: ARTIST/WRITER, SPANNING THE CENTURIES.”

GRIT. IT’S IN OUR DNA.

Learning at Holderness involves challenge, collaboration, perseverance, struggle, and ultimately accomplishment.

This develops the Holderness grit, resiliency, and spirit that our students and alumni are known for. Your gift today makes these Holderness experiences possible.

MOST DAYS, MUSIC FROM THE STUDIO IN LOWER CARPENTER REACHES INTO THE RAFTERS ON THE THIRD FLOOR AND SPILLS OUT ONTO THE LIVERMORE COMMON. THIS FALL IS NO EXCEPTION; WITH A NEW MUSIC DIRECTOR AND A NEW SELECTION OF RECRUITS, THE STUDIO IS AS LIVELY AS EVER. HERE SERGIO YAP ’19 AND FRIENDS REHEARSE WITH MUSIC DIRECTOR ALEX SISCO.

DONATE SECURELY ONLINE AT WWW.GIVETOHOLDERNESS.ORG Thank you for your support!

f e at u r e s

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In Support of Creative Thinking What are the ingredients of a good art education? Is it just a matter of hiring good teachers and providing students with the right tools? At Holderness we think there are a couple of additional ingredients that build success, regardless of what students do with their lives after high school. BY EMILY MAGNUS ’88

above: Detail of a painting created by Ella Mure ’17 in the style of Paul Signac

Commencement 2017 Surrounded by family and friends, a record 86 seniors received their diplomas in May and proudly took on the title of alumni!

5 Catching Up with Emily Zabransky

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Although their conversation took place across thousands of miles, Suzanne Dewey’s interview with former art teacher Emily Zabransky captures the warmth and energy of one of Holderness’s most cherished teachers of the 1980s and ’90s. By suzanne dewey

d e pa r t m e n t s Board of Trustees Sandeep Alva Neale Attenborough Christopher Carney ’75, Treasurer Carolyn Cullen ’87 Bob Cunha The Rev. Randolph Dales, Secretary Chris Davenport ’88 Andrew Davis Victoria Frei Tracy McCoy Gillette ’89 Robert Hall, Chairperson Susie Hayes The Right Rev. Robert Hirschfeld, President Burgwell Howard ’82 Chris Keating ’81 Peter Kimball ’72 Robert Kinsley ’88 John Liu Alex MacCormick ’88, Alumni Association President Sue MacGrath Kevin Mattingly R. Phillip Peck Thomas Phillips ’75 Nell Reynolds Andrew Sawyer ’79 Harry Sheehy Gary Spiess Poppy Staub ’85 Matthew Storey Sander van Otterloo ’94 Headmaster emeritus The Rev. Brinton W. Woodward, Jr. Honorary trustees Warren C. Cook Jim Hamblin ’77 Piper Orton ’74 W. Dexter Paine III ’79 Will Prickett ’81

3 From the Schoolhouse 4 From the Editor 30 Around the Quad 40 Sports 48 Update: Faculty and Staff 51 Update: Trustees 54 Alumni in the News 63 Class Notes 80 At This Point in Time

Holderness School Today is published two times a year. Please send notice of address changes to the Advancement Office, PO Box 1879, Plymouth, NH 03264, or advancement@holderness.org. © 2017 Holderness School editor: Emily Magnus ’88 editors emeriti: Jim Brewer, Rick Carey assistant editors: Suzanne Dewey, Andrew Herring, Stacy Lopes, Kim Merrow, Clay Dingman contriButors: Erica Ashby ’18, Kateri Bean, John Lin, Andrew Sheppe ’00

design and production: Clay Dingman, Barking Cat Productions Communications Design photography: Emily Magnus, Ken Hamilton, Phil Peck, Neal Frei Holderness School Today is printed by Penmor Lithographers on sustainably produced, chain-ofcustody stock certified to Forest Stewardship Council® (fsc®) standards. HST is printed using only wind-generated renewable power, and inks derived from vegetable sources. on the front cover: A crown of daisies from Commencement in May

from the schoolhouse

Cultivating Learning Recently, I received a lovely letter from a former board member and parent of alumnus Alex Brown ’85, whose art is featured in shows around the world. The parent commented that Holderness and the mentors Alex had at Holderness played a pivotal role in helping him become the artist he is today. Similarly, this past spring, I asked a current ninth-grader why she chose Holderness over several other very competitive schools in the Boston area.

She said it was because of the way our school focuses on the arts; in fact, she said, Holderness has exceeded her expectations.

Setting academics aside, Holderness is often viewed as an outdoor school with a strong athletic program; that stereotype misses so much about the school’s rich creative, intellectual, and cultural experiences. is issue provides insights into the many ways in which Holderness continues to champion the arts. rough the decades, Holderness has been blessed with inspirational teachers who have also been outstanding mentors. As Herb and Bertha Waters inspired students in the ’40s and ’50s, today’s art department faculty continue to do the same in both the fine and performing arts. In addition to sharing tales from our teachers’ classrooms, this issue of Holderness School Today also catches up with former art teacher Emily Zabransky, who inspired countless Holderness student-artists in the ’80s and ’90s. e mentoring and guiding of Holderness teachers is something our alumni have always valued. In no area is that more important than in the arts. Maggie Peake ’15, Ben Eaton ’90, Nate Hicks ’98, and many more still remember their Holderness mentors; they shared their stories with HST, remarking on the lasting impact their teachers have had in their lives.

We in turn have shared their stories with you in the pages of this magazine.

And the arts at Holderness continue to grow. The tenth-graders’ Artward Bound program has grown into a signature part of every

Head of School Phil Peck with Commencement speaker Jed Hoyer and board chair Bob Hall

student’s Holderness experience and has grown even more robust in recent years. In addition, the student art requirement has grown from one semester to two, and design thinking and the arts are woven into many aspects of the curriculum from ninth grade all the way to twelfth.

In this issue, you’ll also learn about other aspects of the life of the mind at Holderness, including three new books that were written by Holderness community members: our Director Teaching and Learning Nicole Furlonge; Bishop of New Hampshire and board member Rob Hirschfeld; and alumnus Franz Nicolay ’95.

Holderness calls all of us to be lifelong learners, and no area is more important for cultivating that learning than the arts. • Phil Peck Head of School

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from the editor

Surveys: An Indispensable Tool

The Communications team on Opening Day in August: Emily Magnus ’88, Michelle Wood, and Suzanne Dewey

Surveys. ey appear unsolicited in your mailbox. Persistent marketers and national pollsters call you at home. Facebook has one for every cause—take this survey to find out your IQ; this survey will predict where you are from; and my favorite, there’s even a survey to tell you what Disney princess you most resemble.

Admittedly, I doubt there is anyone who can honestly say they love taking surveys, except perhaps the Disney princess one. But, for anyone working in customer service, for anyone who cares about the thoughts and opinions of their audience, surveys are an indispensible tool. Surveys are one of the few ways to get beyond anecdotal stories and obtain concrete analytics that reveal customers’ habits, interests, and wants. e last time Holderness School conducted a communications survey was in 2009. At that time, we wanted to know how you preferred to receive information about Holderness—electronically, through the magazine and

newsletters, or from your classmates. At the time, 60% of those surveyed said they read every print issue of Holderness School Today and another 20% said they read most issues. Only 10% said they preferred to read the HST online; even if there were to be additional content posted online, only 19% of those surveyed said they would be likely to read it.

Now we are wondering if these statistics are the same eight years later. As Holderness School has added more social media channels, and the Holderness Communications Office commits more time to blogs, photos, and

videos, is print still relevant to our greater community? What’s the ideal balance between print and digital? Are you more likely to read something if it is in print or online? Or, should we be focusing more attention on sharing our stories through video?

Back in 2009, class notes were still the most important section of the magazine for many in the Holderness community; it was a consistent and reliable way, twice a year, for alumni to find out news about their classmates. But that has changed. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. have given alumni ways to keep in touch through group pages, following, and networking. Births, deaths, marriages, etc. are publicized to a personalized audience in real time. So for Holderness School, then, has the purpose of the HST changed? Should our focus shift?

What role should Holderness and the HST play in this community?

We are interested in learning about your habits and how you stay in touch with Holderness. And the only way we will know is if you tell us. Our survey won’t tell you whether you are more like Snow White or Cinderella, but it will help us make more informed decisions about what stories and information about Holderness School that we share with you.

Please take the time to fill out our survey online: surveymonkey.com/r/Bulls-HST. It shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes of your time. ank you! • Emily Adriance Magnus ’88 Editor, Holderness School Today emagnus@holderness.org

We need your help to make HST better— please take a moment to fill out this survey: surveymonkey.com/r/bulls-hst

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | fall 2017

commencement 2017

What I’ve learned from my time here is that it’s completely okay to not “ see that next step, to take a bit of a leap of faith and see what happens.

To reach out and hope someone’s there to grab your hand. There is no requirement to be on a linear path; we are allowed to explore the map.

We aren’t taught how to use a compass for nothing.”

– President of the school Brooke hayes ’17

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commencement 201

I graduate, I will take with me a newfound sense of “ When self. I’m eighteen; I’m not going to claim I know what I want to do with my life.…Going into college, I’m super scared, but I have this person I know I want to try to become. And that’s definitely because of everyone here and everything this place does for you.”

– cat mclaughlin ’17

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commencement 2017

Congratulations to the Class of 2017!

ALEXIS MARLEY ANASTOS Hingham, Massachusetts JOSEPH MAGUIRE ANTONELLIS Westwood, Massachusetts BENJAMIN WILLIAM ANTONUCCI Wolfeboro Falls, New Hampshire JOHN KELLEY ATTENBOROUGH Palm Beach, Florida LOGAN ROBERT GRAY BATEMAN Ottawa, Ontario, Canada SPENCER BARNES BERNARD Hanover, New Hampshire KARINA ELIZABETH BLADON Boston, Massachusetts CARTER KARRER BOURASSA North Woodstock, New Hampshire SANFORD JACKSON BRILL Stamford, Connecticut DAVID SUMNER BRUMBAUGH, JR. Berwyn, Pennsylvania

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DANIEL CABASSA Bronx, NY KATHERINE KNOX CAMPBELL Wellesley, Massachusetts JULIA BINETTE CANTIN Gilford, New Hampshire ELIZABETH THERESA CASEY Holderness, New Hampshire SYDNEY MARIE CAULDER North Woodstock, New Hampshire VICTORIA ALLEGRA CHERNIN New London, New Hampshire JACOB ROBERT CICALESE Haverford, Pennsylvania JONATHAN ANDREW COURCHESNE SpringямБeld, Vermont CRAIG WOOD CULLEN III Berwyn, Pennsylvania KATHERINE LIVINGSTON CUTLER South Hamilton, Massachusetts

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ALEXA ADAIR DANNIS Holderness, New Hampshire HENRY WHITE DAY Canaan, New Hampshire MCKINLEY ROSE DEERY Walpole, Massachusetts CAMERON SCOTT DIGIACOMO ornton, New Hampshire TORY LYNN DOBYNS Duxbury, Massachusetts IAN JOSEPH DRISCOLL Garden City, NY HANNAH MARGARET FERNANDES Waterville Valley, New Hampshire JACK WILLIAM FINN Andover, Massachusetts SVEN DAVID FITZGERALD Sudbury, Massachusetts HOLTEN THOMAS FLINDERS Holderness, New Hampshire EMERY GRAY Canaan, New Hampshire SARAH JANE GUDAS Concord, New Hampshire ALEXANDER BROOKS GUYETTE Charlotte, Vermont CHAE WON HAHN Seoul, South Korea ETHAN STANFORD HALL Edgartown, Massachusetts DANIEL JAMES HAUSER Boston, Massachusetts BROOKE LEIGH ANN HAYES Lincoln, New Hampshire GRANT JORDAN HOEFFNER New Hope, Pennsylvania RYAN SAMUEL ILSLEY Lexington, Massachusetts ALLEN LOUIS JARABEK III Westport, Massachusetts ELIZABETH COURTNEY JOHANSSON Waterville Valley, New Hampshire NICOLE ANNA JOHNSON North Easton, Massachusetts

ELLEN CAMILLA KETOLA Johannesburg, South Africa GIULIANA KATHERINE-MARIE KEVLIN Laconia, New Hampshire LOGAN ALEXIS KILFOYLE Plymouth, New Hampshire NOA CHANG LIN Holderness, New Hampshire ELIZABETH LEIGHTON PERRY LUM Atlanta, Georgia LIESL FIELDING MAGNUS Holderness, New Hampshire YIYANG MAO Shanghai, China SAMUEL DAVID MASON Norwell, Massachusetts SUKHMAIL SINGH MATHON Shaverton, Pennsylvania ELLIOTT RYAN MCGUIRE Lowell, Massachusetts JORDYN STAR-ELIZABETH MCGUIRE Salem, New Hampshire CHASELYN DAHLING MCLANE Bridgewater, New Hampshire CATHERINE HAYDEN MCLAUGHLIN Gilford, New Hampshire VICTORIA ROSE MERRILL Meredith, New Hampshire SHAWN ANDREW MOORS Pointe Claire, Quebec, Canada RISA PASQUALE MOSENTHAL Campton, New Hampshire ELLA GRACE MURE Holderness, New Hampshire DAVID WILLIAM NICHOLSON Saint Paul, Minnesota MARYTALIA HOPE NUGNES West Barnstable, Massachusetts DAVID ORTIZ-MIRON AYALA Guatemala City, Guatemala KODY EDWARD PALLADINO Milford, New Hampshire SYDNEY VICTORIA PARKER Johnstown, New York

MAXFIELD MULCAHY PARO New Hampton, New Hampshire CHARLES ROBERT PEATMAN Waterville Valley, New Hampshire COLE WILLIAM POTTER Winchester, Massachusetts CONNOR ROBERT PRESTON Lake Placid, New York ROBERT JAKE RENZI Acton, Massachusetts LAURA ELIZABETH RINEHART Spring Grove, Pennsylvania PAUL BASSEY SAMPSON Lagos, Nigeria AUSTIN LEO ST. ONGE Stowe, Vermont WILLIAM VERVIER STARKEY Galena, Maryland J. CONNOR STULL Enfield, New Hampshire JAMES JARED SULLIVAN Marblehead, Massachusetts RACHEL TEJEDA Roslindale, Massachusetts BENJAMIN LOGAN TESSIER Mirror Lake, New Hampshire STORM JULIA THOMPKINS New Hampton, New Hampshire REESE D. THOMPSON Wentworth, New Hampshire WILLIAM VAN HERWARDE III Killington, Vermont RYAN PATRICK WALL Andover, Massachusetts VICTORIA PHYFE WALSH Lebanon, New Hampshire NAWAPAN WATTANAWANICHKUL Muang, ailand GEOFFREY MALLORY WEST Rockport, Maine CELINE YAM New York, NY KEYING YANG Beijing, China

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commencement 2017

Class of 2017 College Destinations

Bates College (2) Boston College (3) Boston University (4) Bowdoin College Brigham Young University–Idaho Brown University (2) Bucknell University Carnegie Mellon University Clarkson University (2) College of Charleston Colorado College (4) Denison University DePaul University Drexel University Emory University

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Franklin and Marshall College Gettysburg College Hamilton College–New York Hobart and William Smith Colleges (2) Lehigh University (2) New England College Nichols College Northeastern University (2) Norwich University Pomona College Post University Providence College Quinnipiac University (2) Roanoke College (2)

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Roger Williams University Saint Anselm College (3) Saint Joseph’s University Salve Regina University Skidmore College Southern Methodist University St. Lawrence University (5) St. Olaf College Syracuse University Trinity College Union College–New York University of Chicago University of Denver (4) University of Massachusetts– Boston

University of Massachusetts– Lowell University of New Hampshire– Durham (2) University of Pennsylvania University of Southern California University of Southern Maine University of Vermont (5) Wake Forest University (2) Wentworth Institute of Technology Wesleyan University Yale University

commencement 2017

suffer through your years at college, grinding out papers, “ Don’t like you’re climbing a mountain on Out Back. Nor should you spend your time chasing after the next fun thing. Instead try to treat life like a walkback. Enjoy the journey and the destination.”

– thom flinders, science faculty

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commencement 2017

Scenes from Commencement 2017

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HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | fall 2017

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commencement 2017

2017 Commencement Awards Cum Laude Members e following students’ outstanding academic achievements have qualified them for induction into the Cum Laude Society, a society modeled after Phi Beta Kappa for high school students.

An asterisk indicates a senior inducted as a junior in 2016. class of 2017 r Joseph Maguire Antonellis r Elizabeth eresa Casey r Alexa Adair Dannis r Hannah Margaret Fernandes* r Chae Won Hahn* r Noa Chang Lin* r Elizabeth Leighton Perry Lum r Yiyang Mao* r Catherine Hayden McLaughlin* r Risa Pasquale Mosenthal r Ella Grace Mure r Austin Leo St. Onge* r William Van Herwarde III* r Nawapan Wattanawanichkul r Geoffrey Mallory West* r Celine Yam r Keying Yang class of 2018 r Fletcher Scott Robbins r Song Tang r Uyen Phu Hoang Tran r Luke McCall Valentine r Abigail Lynch Wiseman r Lorea Monica Zabaleta

THE ADVANCED MATH PRIZE Hannah Margaret Fernandes ’17 Austin Leo St. Onge ’17 THE ELEMENTARY MATH PRIZE Xinyu Guo ’20 THE SCIENCE PRIZE Elizabeth eresa Casey ’17 THE SPARGO AWARD FOR SCIENCE Geoffrey Mallory West ’17 THE ENGLISH PRIZE Elizabeth eresa Casey ’17 THE WRITING PRIZE Noa Chang Lin ’17 THE SEAN GLEW HISTORY PRIZE Malin Harriette Alusic-Bingham ’20 THE CONNOR HISTORY MEDAL Catherine Hayden McLaughlin ’17

THE ADVANCED SPANISH PRIZE Rachel Tejeda ’17 THE ELEMENTARY SPANISH PRIZE Andrey W. Yao ’19 THE POETRY PRIZE Catherine Hayden McLaughlin ’17 THE WILLIAM BRADFORD WHITING PRIZE FOR ART Ella Grace Mure ’17 THE DAVID LOCKWOOD MUSIC PRIZE William Ray Harker ’18 Liesl Fielding Magnus ’17 THE FIORE CUP FOR THEATRE Samantha Ferguson Shinn ’18 THE CERAMICS PRIZE Julia Binette Cantin ’17 THE PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE Noa Chang Lin ’17

THE ASHWORTH AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN UNITED STATES HISTORY Abigail Lynch Wiseman ’18

THE RELIGIOUS STUDIES PRIZE Reese D. ompson ’17

THE ASHWORTH AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN EUROPEAN HISTORY Katherine Sarah Urdang ’19

THE KENYON COLLEGE PRESIDENTIAL BOOK AWARD Song Tang ’18

THE ADVANCED FRENCH PRIZE Catherine Hayden McLaughlin ’17

THE HARVARD BOOK PRIZE Abigail Lynch Wiseman ’18

THE ELEMENTARY FRENCH PRIZE Malin Harriette Alusic-Bingham ’20

THE ACADEMIC AWARD Catherine Hayden McLaughlin ’17

Book Awards THE HARRY G. ANDERSON, JR. MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FOR EXCELLENCE IN MATH AND SCIENCE Song Tang ’18 THE RENSSELAER MEDAL Fletcher Scott Robbins ’18

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THE ADVANCED LATIN PRIZE alia Lynn Anastos ’19 THE ELEMENTARY LATIN PRIZE Avery Denison Reynolds ’19

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commencement 2017

2017 Commencement Awards Commencement Awards THE REV. B.W. “PETE” WOODWARD, JR. PRIZE For exceptional leadership, academic achievement, and service in the junior year of college Racheal Marbury Erhard ’14 Joseph Patrick Casey ’14 THE DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD For exemplifying the highest standards of the school Jed Daniel Hoyer ’92 THE RIGHT REV. DOUGLAS E. THEUNER AWARD For increasing and furthering the mission of Holderness School Harry Sheehy III TR ’12–’17 THE FACULTY AWARD For hard work, a consistently positive attitude, and immeasurable compassion for others Hannah Margaret Fernandes ’17 Noa Chang Lin ’17

the recipient of the 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award.

THE BOB BROOKS AWARD For making Holderness feel like home to ninth-graders Reese D. ompson ’17

THE NED GILLETTE SPIRIT AWARD For leadership, competitive attitude, and a spirit of adventure John Kelley Attenborough ’17

THE M.J. LAFOLEY AWARD For outstanding character and integrity in the third or fourth form Bryn Carolyn Donovan ’19

THE DON AND PAT HENDERSON AWARD For contributions to the welfare of the community Celine Yam ’17

THE COACH’S AWARD For contributions to the spirit of Holderness on and off the field Henry White Day ’17 Giuliana Katherine-Marie Kevlin ’17 THE WEBSTER CUP AWARD For excellence in athletics Karina Elizabeth Bladon ’17 Connor Robert Preston ’17

General Manager of the Chicago Cubs, Jed Hoyer ’92. Jed was the Commencement speaker and also

THE RICHARD C. GALLOP AWARD For creative and community leadership Joseph Maguire Antonellis ’17 THE DANA H. ROWE MEMORIAL AWARD Given to a senior girl for academic achievement, participation in sports and extracurricular activities, and love of life Storm Julia ompkins ’17 THE CLARKSON AWARD For using her abilities to the fullest and persevering no matter the circumstances Elizabeth Leighton Perry Lum ’17

THE HASLAM AWARD For excellence in athletics, sportsmanship, and scholarship William Van Herwarde III Risa Pasquale Mosenthal THE DALLAS AWARD For loyalty and dedication to the Judeo-Christian ideals of the school Elizabeth eresa Casey ’17 Austin Leo St. Onge ’17 THE MARSHALL AWARD For outstanding contributions to the life of the school Catherine Hayden McLaughlin ’17 THE WALTER ALVIN FROST AWARD For reaching the highest standards of the school Brooke Leigh Ann Hayes ’17

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holderness school today | FALL 2017

A photograph created by David Nicholson ’17 for Mr. Nicolay’s Box Project

In Support of Creative Thinking DESIGN THINKING, MAKER SPACES, AND VISUAL LITERACY ARE JUST SOME OF THE CURRENT TERMS USED TO DESCRIBE A CREATIVE APPROACH TO LEARNING THAT INVOLVES PROBLEMSOLVING, INDEPENDENT THINKING, AND EMPATHY FOR OTHERS. IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD, IT’S A SKILL SET STUDENTS WILL NEED TO SUCCEED, AND HOLDERNESS IS PREPARED TO DELIVER. BY EMILY MAGNUS ’88

W

hen students arrived for class in the photography studio one day last winter, they were greeted with a pile of boxes of various shapes and sizes and told their assignment was to photograph them.

“The genesis for the Box Project,” explains photography teacher Franz Nicolay, “began with an ongoing discussion about simplicity and making something out of nothing, or stripping away the extraneous that does not add to the intended concept. One morning I thought, ‘That’s it.’

The box would be their subject matter, and they would need to revert to their unencumbered child’s mind, recall how they used to play with boxes as youngsters, and how fascinating a simple box can be.”

“I told the students they could pick any box or boxes they wanted,” continues Franz. “They could flatten them, paint them, cut them, do anything to them that they

wanted, but the box needed to become the central focus of their photograph.”

The students threw themselves into the project, helping each other develop their ideas and stage their photographs, pushing the limits of what was possible. From boxes stacked in a snowy forest to a sad box-headed boy sitting in a corner to a house box set on fire, the students’ answers to the assignment were creative and diverse.

Welcome to the Holderness art department. It’s a place where you are more likely to hear “yes” than “no” and more likely to find questions than answers. It’s a place to explore one’s creative talents and develop an appreciation for a wide range of art.

To stop there, however, would be selling the program short. The art department, and perhaps Holderness in general, has done more than develop students’ creativity and interest in the arts. It has helped

them develop skills that have led to lifelong passions and successful careers.

PROVIDING THE STRUCTURE Admittedly, Holderness is not an art school, but it is a school that supports artistic discovery. For decades, if not for the better part of the past century, Holderness students have been able to engage in a robust variety of creative classes from photography to ceramics to dance to theater. For photographers, there is a full dark room and computer design lab to develop and manipulate photos. For musicians, a recording studio awaits their original scores and lyrics. Ceramics student have two kilns, while actors have the Hagerman stage. Courses range from beginner to advanced, and everyone is encouraged to join in, whether it is through traditional courses or extracurricular activities.

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NICK SCHOEDER PHOTOGRAPH

NICK SCHOEDER ’06 Freelance photographer and boat captain based in Bar Harbor, ME. “The arts are an integral part of the education system. They allow students to express and explore themselves in ways that cannot be communicated easily. There are no limits on how to make art or appreciate it, and it is through this that people can connect with one another and themselves. Holderness’s curriculum achieves this by its exposure of the arts to the entire community and its practice of it.”

PAUL CLARK ’10 Architect and designer at Pei Partnership Architects, an international architecture firm based in New York City. Currently, he is working on a project that is attempting to bring panda bears to Manhattan. It started as a competition; his team’s design won, and now the project is moving forward. Paul is also studying architecture at Roger Williams.

“I learned about presenting and curating my own work from Franz [Nicolay].

He taught me to objectively look at my own work and make decisions. This has become very important for my own development and fine-tuning my own design process and plan. Standing next to one’s own accomplishment—whether it is artistic, athletic, or academic—and being proud of oneself is something that I learned at Holderness.”

But it’s not just about the courses.

Recently the Holderness Art Department has been looking into more intentionally encouraging creativity and developing independent and divergent thinking through the arts. For the past year, the art teachers, along with Director of Teaching and Learning Nicole Furlonge, have been

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conducting a department audit and reconsidering how art is taught at Holderness and to what end. They have reviewed the art courses, have met with parents, students, and alumni, and have visited other schools. From facilities to professional development, from weekend activities to gallery events, the art teachers recognize

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the role they play in shaping the creative life of the school.

Design thinking and visual literacy have been consistent threads throughout their discussions. While design thinking has been around since the 1960s, it has recently gained attention in education as a way to develop creativity and encourage collaborative problem-solving. Failure and risk are acceptable outcomes in this process that expects multiple iterations rather than “right” answers.

“It’s important that as we reconsider the art curriculum,” says Franz, “we create opportunities for students to explore in ways that are not linked to any standardized tests or have definitive answers. At least in some areas of the curriculum, students need to have the ability to choose.”

One result of the audit is a semester art course for ninth-graders. This fall, through the theme of identity, students will dive deeply into the All-School Read (this year it is Walking to Listen); will listen to other people’s stories; will engage in courageous conversations; and will have the opportunity to speak their own truths. The class is designed to develop students’ creative thinking and problem-solving skills, but also to develop students’ appreciation for the arts and their ability to critique and respond to art. Projects will most likely include visual lifelines with possible soundscapes to add emphasis and dimension to important moments; journals for reflection on process and self; and self-portrait maps.

“Through this hands-on, minds-on, maker-focused class,” says Nicole Furlonge, “students will develop a creative mindset that informs self-expression and their growing understanding of how creativity and a willingness to question play a crucial role in all learning.”

“And we want to get them involved in the arts earlier,” adds chair of the Art Department and Theater Director

IN SUPPORT OF CREATIVE THINKING

“AS A BUSINESS OWNER, I SEE HOW IMPORTANT IT IS FOR EDUCATION SYSTEMS TO INCLUDE EITHER ARTS OR CREATIVITY, BECAUSE THEY TEACH YOU TO LOOK AT THINGS IN A VARIETY OF WAYS AND SEE ALL THE POSSIBILITIES. IT’S A BRAIN ACTIVITY NOT A SKILL, AND IT NEEDS TO BE CULTIVATED.” — ROB KINSLEY ’88 Monique Robichaud. “We want them to move beyond thinking ‘I can’t…’.”

Artward Bound (AB) is another opportunity for all students to develop creative expression and move beyond “I can’t…” As sophomores rotate through workshops with residential artists, they are invited to ask “What if…?” What if we create a staircase out of our own bodies? What if we talk about our deepest fears without judgment? What if we face discomfort with laughter and confidence? What if risk is no longer synonymous with fear?

“AB creates a safe space where students are comfortable showing the rest of their classmates who they are,” says studio art teacher Alli Plourde.

With this exposure to art in the first two years, juniors and seniors are ready to be pushed and to tackle the intellectual aspects of art, like Franz’s box project.

Other assignments from Franz involve reading books like Einstein’s Dream and Zen in the Art of Archery and creating visual representations of the themes. Franz also often asks students to create editorial photographs in which they have to pick a topical social issue (local or international) and create images depicting the subject and their particular point of view. This year students chose a wide range of topics including pollution, bullying, and relationship violence. (Examples of their work can be found on pages 20–21.)

“In the upper level courses, we are consciously encouraging their abstract thinking,” says Franz. “The projects don’t

have definitive answers and push the students to say something, not just anything.”

Alli Plourde also provides the structure for creative and abstract thinking. In 2015, several of her students wanted to take AP Studio Art and Alli volunteered to work with them, each student creating a portfolio with over 20 pieces.

According to the College Board, who evaluates the portfolios, a student will become, “an informed and critical decision-maker…while demonstrating mastery of 2-D design principles.” This spring, as a culmination of the course, the students displayed their final pieces in an exhibit in the Alfond Library at the end of May. The progression of the Holderness art curriculum challenges students, asking them to question, analyze, and interpret rather than to pursue a predetermined answer through a defined process; they develop their creativity and a skill set to carry out what they imagine.

SUPPORTING SELF-AWARENESS Unfortunately, there was no AP class for Maggie Peake ’15 in the music studios when she was a student, but she remembers a different kind of support that was equally important in developing her creativity.

“In high school, it’s easy to feel isolated,” admits Maggie, who is currently attending the New School in New York City and has two songs playing on Sirius XM Radio. “Because Holderness wasn’t an art school and I didn’t experience any outside competition, I was my own biggest

challenge,” continues Maggie. “I had to learn how to overcome me. Eventually I realized, with the help of the Holderness faculty, that I didn’t have to be better than everyone else; I just had to be better than myself yesterday.”

Support at Holderness also comes in the form of the artists who work alongside students. Walk through Carpenter and the artwork on the walls isn’t just created by Holderness students but by their teachers, as well as many alumni. As practicing artists Holderness art teachers regularly take on the same challenges as their students, personally exploring the edges of their knowledge and pushing the limits. It means that they are life-long learners and great models for their students. It also means they understand what it feels like to push the limits, to struggle with concepts, and to finally experience break-throughs.

And each spring during the annual alumni art exhibit in the Edwards Art Gallery, alumni are invited to return to campus and talk about their ideas. Take for instance an exhibit by Jake Norton ’92 this spring. Ella Mure ’17, who had taken countless art courses during her time at Holderness, attended one of his gallery talks.

“When alumni come back, they talk about how what really matters is following your passion and everything else will work itself out,” says Ella. “Jake Norton especially talked about how sometimes it’s hard to see yourself doing something, but if you love it and you know you are going to want CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

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Photography Student Editorial Compositions

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Examples of student work created from an assignment in which they were asked to pick a social issue and create images that illustrated their perspective on it: “Life Sentence,” a triptych by Yiyang Mao ’17; “Stop Bullying” by Sam Mason ’17; “Not All Wounds Heal” by Mina Nguyen ’19.

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IN SUPPORT OF CREATIVE THINKING

ABOVE: “It’s not her fault,” a two-image series by Ploy Wattanawanichkul ’17; BELOW: “Your Body Is Not Wrong” by Kody Palladino ’17

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JOE WEN ’15 Student at Washington and Lee University, majoring in accounting and business administration.

“Everything is not black and white. You have to figure a lot out on your own.

That takes a lot of creative research outside of the box. Art is essential to a complete education, especially in high school. It helps you figure out what you want to do and makes you a complete scholar.”

BRYAN LANDERS ’97 Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Backstage Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in technology startups led by underrepresented (people of color, women, and LGBTQ) founders; freelance product designer, producer of two podcasts, designer and builder of digital products, coach and collaborator with startup founders; collaborator on recording with long-time partner Kate Conklin of contemporary arrangements of Bulgarian folk music for voice and banjo.

“There is no doubt in my mind that every human is born with a talent for creativity (spend time with children if you doubt this!), and to not foster and expand that ingenuity is tantamount to abandoning a core part of oneself to atrophy—like arbitrarily opting to use only one side of your body. Incorporating creative thinking into all learning develops our capacity to cope with and dream up new solutions to the challenges we face as a society and as a species. My strong will and discipline were strengthened at Holderness, as was my sense of self, and those things have been invaluable in my career.”

BEN EATON ’90 Owner and founder of Get Bent Blacksmithing, Crested Butte, CO. “Holderness provides a well-rounded education—emphasizing sports and strong academics, but also community and arts. If you try to live without one of those, you can be empty. I continue to think about balancing all aspects.”

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19 to do it for the rest of your life, you kind of just know. And I kind of knew it about art, but I didn’t want to face that reality.”

Throughout her four years Ella took many art courses, and even committed to the rigors of Alli Plourde’s AP Studio Art class during her senior year. Yet despite her love of art, Ella never considered pursuing an art degree in college. It wasn’t until she listened to Jake Norton that she began to realize the possibilities. Ella graduated in May with the rest of her class, but instead of heading off to college, thanks to Jake Norton, she is taking a gap year so

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that she can reconsider her choices and apply to some of those art schools she missed the first time around.

So it begins with structure and support.

Within the structures of the classroom and with the support of their teachers and alumni, Holderness students are developing habits of the mind—including problem solving, critical and creative thinking, and self-awareness.

SAYING YES But what else? What else contributes to the impressive number of alumni who are passionate and successful artists? At

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Commencement in 2016, former music teacher David Lockwood gave the address as he too was graduating; his retirement from teaching music would begin the next week. In his speech, he described Holderness as a place that always said “yes” to his ideas—no matter how crazy they might have seemed at the time.

“I’m grateful,” he said in his speech, “to [former headmaster] Pete Woodward who said ‘yes’ 35 years ago and hired a guy with no teaching experience and whose resume listed the Boston Red Sox and nose flutes as his interests…I’m grateful to the Van Otterloos and Phil Peck for creating the Chair Program and saying ‘yes’ to my pursuit of a master’s degree and to making my album Lucky Me…” Fortunately, David isn’t the only one who has experienced the “yes” culture at Holderness. Take for instance, Theater Director Monique Devine who each year directs the spring musical. If a student auditions, she will find them a part, even if she has to create one; in fact, most years 20 percent of the students participate, thanks to Monique’s improvisation. And stage directions? With a limited budget and a small theater, Monique is often inventing ways to portray complicated scenes with simplistic tools. Luckily, she gets plenty of support from students; their words and their ideas make their way into the scripts, the scenery, and the props.

Ultimately, these moments of invention and collaboration work to Monique’s advantage. At first it may appear a bit chaotic, but ultimately, because Monique says “yes” and involves students in the decision-making process, they own the material and are ultimately more committed to it. They also learn what it means to collaborate with others.

From a student perspective, the “yes” culture has opened the door for decades.

Take for example, Will Hoeschler ’10, who decided to perform a one-act one-man

IN SUPPORT OF CREATIVE THINKING

play, Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno for a senior thesis project. At the time Monique was not a senior thesis advisor, but she said “yes,” and worked during the spring semester to help Will accomplish his vision.

“Monique was very instrumental in helping me take on the big task of doing a one-man play for my senior thesis,” says Will, who is now an Mfa candidate at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. “It’s been an extremely important play in my life, and I went on to do it in college as well as professionally.”

It’s this “yes” culture that leads students to reach beyond what they know to be true and take chances—which, by the way, occurs in design thinking as well. During the discovery phase of design thinking innovators are asked to set aside their assumptions and embrace their creative confidence, finishing the phrase, “How might we…” For artists, as well as business owners and engineers, and pretty much every field a graduate could choose, saying “yes” is central to discovery and innovation. With a little hard work and collaboration, problems are solved and dreams are pursued.

SEEING THE POSSIBILITIES Nate Hicks ’98 was another student who thrived in Holderness School’s art program. As a repeat junior, Nate took photography courses with Franz Nicolay every semester during his time at Holderness.

“In New England, it is easy to get pigeon-holed, to just follow one path and not see beyond our borders,” Nate says.

“Franz pushed me to look at a broad range of photographers/artists and to be open to other styles and possibilities.” In particular, he remembers sitting in the photography studio with Franz, reviewing a selection of recently printed images that Nate had taken. But instead of admir-

QIANYI ZHANG HEDGEHOG TOY

QIANYI ZHANG ’15 Student majoring in Industrial Design with the concentration in Nature, Culture, and Sustainability Study.

“Art widens students’ views by showing them that there can be a variety of ways to look at the things around us and express ideas in different ways. The Holderness curriculum accomplishes this by offering exposure to art to all the students and opportunities to pursue further for the ones that seek more. The variety of art classes Holderness offers is quite impressive considering the school’s size. In fact, the school’s small size ensures individuals who seek help from the art faculty are given abundant support.”

ing the traditional photographs, Franz and Nate ripped them up into smaller and smaller pieces and then reassembled them into a new image.

“I could talk at length about all the great experiences that I had at Holderness; the school taught me to explore in ways that I had never had the opportunity to at my previous school,” says Nate. “I learned that while traditions are great and we should study them, we should also explore ways to push those traditions aside to develop our own style. While I don’t do much with photography any more, I still use the lessons

that I learned in Franz’s classes daily in my metal work.”

Now living in Maine, Nate is splitting his time between artistic metal fabrication and jewelry making. “I’d rather be the guy in the overalls welding on metal than the guy with the spreadsheet sitting behind a desk,” he claims. Nate has produced many custom pieces, but his signature piece of jewelry has roots in the lessons Franz taught him. As his website, Fishbone Metal Works, explains, “Each Original Keepah cuff is made from an official gauge used by lobstermen and women to determine if a

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Selections from AP Studio Art

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: “Birch Trees” by Ella Mure ’17; “Flight” by Song Tang ’18; “Skyscrapers” by Jullia Tran ’18

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IN SUPPORT OF CREATIVE THINKING

lobster is of legal size—or a ‘keeper.’ They are solid marine grade brass, hammerforged by hand, and brought to a high polish.” One object with one purpose, altered and redefined.

So yes, there is artwork; Holderness alumni are using the creativity they learned in Carpenter and Hagerman to develop impressive works of art and engaging stage productions. But their success is not just about talent or technique but also about a certain frame of mind, a frame of mind that searches for multiple solutions to any given problem and is aware that “yes” can be the best answer to a variety of situations. A lobster gauge can be a bracelet; a box can be the focus of a photograph.

“The arts are essential for developing skills for students’ future professions, whether they be in the arts or not,” says Will. “Programs like Artward Bound, Art in the Afternoon, and Senior Thesis are the backbone of what makes Holderness different from other schools.”

Rob Kinsley ’88, both a trustee of Holderness and the ceo and designer for Warehaus, an architectural engineering firm in York, PA, describes it a different way. “As a business owner,” he explains, “I see how important it is for education systems to include either arts or creativity, because they teach you to look at things in a variety of ways and see all the possibilities. It’s a brain activity not a skill, and it needs to be cultivated.”

Learning to see all the possibilities of a simple box, cultivating the habits of the mind that foster the invention of a better box, working to say “yes” and exploring the contents of as many boxes as possible. These are the skills Holderness students are developing and discovering.

With a safe and supportive curriculum, they are building confidence and learning how to create things of consequence and meaning. •

KIM CASE PAINTING “ROSES”

KIM CASE ’87 Architectural photographer and landscape oil painter.

“It used to drive me crazy that I couldn’t pick just one art as a career, but I’ve come to accept I’m no less two-dimensional than anyone else. One is extremely technical and physically demanding, the other more intuitive, tactile, sometimes physically sedate, but no less mentally rigorous.”

“In a very direct way, the arts at Holderness taught me self-discipline, a life tool that I’m sure does not come naturally to most of us without a painful learning process. It’s a tool that can mean the difference between a successful piece of artwork or not.”

YOOMI REN ’16 Student at Parsons School of Design in New York City, NY, pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

“Creativity increases when there is a limit and it decreases when there is endless opportunity. For example, how do you use only black and white to create the most beautiful pattern? How do you make the iPhone a little bit thinner but not so thin that it becomes fragile? Most successful designers and artists come up with the best works when there is a frame. To me, Holderness is the frame; it limited my ambition, my ego, my overconfidence. Within this frame, I have more ideas than those who do not have a frame. The reality is, we can’t always do whatever we want, but we can make whatever we can do the best.”

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Emily Zabransky in front of Carpenter in 1989

Catching Up With Emily Zabransky THE ART OF COMMUNITY From the art studios in Carpenter to her new studio in Olympia, WA, former art teacher Emily Zabranksky has never stopped creating. She hasn’t stopped teaching either, lifting up those around her and sharing with them the pleasure she finds in building, sculpting, painting, and designing. by suzanne dewey ImagIne a productIve, well-resourced place to create.

Emily loved teaching at Holderness, but as her kids grew up and

Throw pots, hand-build, glaze and kiln would be tossed out words that

moved far away, she missed them more and more. Perhaps a decade ago,

carry layers of meaning depending on what you specifically are working

Emily was still teaching Holderness students to find meaning and expres-

on. And perhaps this creative place wasn’t always so special, but people,

sion with their hands. She had been living and loving her life teaching

time and thoughtful stewards have persisted and fashioned a safe place

and being a part of the Holderness community, but the pang of only see-

for experimentation. If you were a student in Carpenter sometime since

ing her children a few times a year and not having a bird’s eye view of her

the early 1990s, you might think we were talking about the studios on the

granddaughter as she grew up started to push Emily toward a plan.

second floor or in the basement.

That familiar cocoon of creativity, however, is now where Emily

Her own children grew up in New Hampshire, after an early stint in Washington, DC, where Emily and her family lived previously. Her daugh-

Zabransky spends most of her days in Olympia, Washington. She is living

ter especially, learned to climb trees, Nordic ski and thrive in the rich,

in a daily haven which she describes as heaven.

physical environment. Time marched on and Emily’s three children grew

For those of you who were not fortunate to have Emily Zabransky as an

up and made their way, far away, from New Hampshire.

art teacher and often thoughtful counselor, she taught at Holderness from

As mothers and daughters sometimes do, they hatched a plan to

1988 to 2000. She has a mFa degree in painting, but Emily is one of those

entice Joe, Emily’s husband, to consider relocating. The plan developed

amazing artists who simply can’t stop creating – she loves wood carving,

and Emily and Joe sold their home in New Hampshire, packed the car,

painting, ceramics, ceramic sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and would say

and took a slow trip across the country, exploring and marveling as they

herself that she has probably done most everything. “Everything is much

headed west. They moved to Olympia, Washington, “a funky and beauti-

more exciting when I am doing art,” She says, and from her point of view,

ful place” that is only a couple of hours from Seattle. They chanced upon

working with her hands and playing and pushing things to their edges is

a senior-living community and as Robert Frost might say, that has made

utter joy. She remembers telling her students, and continues to believe,

all the difference.

that “the process is the fun thing,” and she lets the medium have a voice: “The clay goes where it wants to go…the clay leads me.”

Emily believes that the creative process and making art “teaches you to see more than you’d ever see in the world.” When she was teaching at Holderness, she believed that she was “helping students become aware of what is beautiful in the world”—guiding them to find their own sight lines.

The plan has worked out well. Not just seeing her daughter once in a while deepened their adult relationship, and Emily is enjoying watching her granddaughter grow up. She and Joe take frequent trips into Seattle to explore galleries and further connect to the art world.

The senior-living community is an amazing place, rich in resources and now many good friends. Emily couldn’t help herself when they first

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CATCHING UP WITH EMILY ZABRANSKY

“EvErything is much morE Exciting whEn i am doing art,” Emily says; from hEr point of viEw, working with hEr hands and playing and pushing things to thEir EdgEs is uttEr joy. • moved in. She uncovered a dingy clay studio on the campus, cleared out

Emily reminisced on teaching at Holderness. She loved the kids and

papers in cubbies as old as the 1970s, and was instrumental in bringing it

always felt that Carpenter offered a community within a community

back to life. Always the teacher, she offered to hold a workshop to fellow

where students could test their ideas and be challenged in a safe space.

denizens in clay. Not one of her new students had worked with clay

She felt that Holderness students were ripe for exploration and that little

before and that was the start of an on-going adventure. Many of the same

held them back. The passion that Franz Nicolay and David Lockwood

people are still in the studio today, but they have been joined by all sorts

shared ignited their imaginations. Emily fondly recalls the power of the

of new creators. Emily laughs as she tells me that they have a refrigerator

graffiti floor and how one student painted the entire wall of Carpenter.

on-site so that no one has to take time off to leave to forage for food. I

That young woman is now teaching art in London. Emily remarks, “The

knew she wasn’t kidding because when we tried to find a time to chat,

kids pushed me. They went well beyond what I asked them to do.”

she was routinely booked in the clay studio—even on Saturdays.

One of Emily’s co-creators, an 86-year-old, said that he knew he had

In a recent video made about Emily, she tells how one Christmas she told her students that she would be missing them over the long break.

already “died and gone to heaven” because the work and the fun and the

She asked them to send her something that they created. She made it

experimentation along with the camaraderie is just what he expected

harder by telling them that they couldn’t wrap it and that it had to be

heaven to be like. It helps that the former “dingy studio” is now expanded

three-dimensional. Her daily trips to the mailbox over the school vacation

and features a magnificent display area and just about every resource one

were filled with glee and anticipation. She received all kinds of amazing

would want.

and creative items. One student used a latex glove and stuffed and deco-

Emily and a couple of other artists living in the senior community,

rated it with jewelry. Another student was told by the postal worker that

Panorama, held their first show in a basement of one of the buildings. As

there was no way he could send his work without some sort of wrapping.

Emily tells it, “The community response was so positive that Panorama’s

The student was not to be stopped. He waited until the worker went on

administration offered one wall in the main restaurant. That, in turn, was

break and simply charmed the new postal employee and sent his

so successful that all four walls were offered and the room has been

unwrapped art to Emily.

named the “Gallery Room!” A separate glass cabinet has been added in

Emily acknowledges that the community in which she now lives and

another location for three-dimensional art. All the art and craft studios

creates is similar in many ways to Holderness. She is working with adults,

have been renovated and/or expanded including: the weaving room,

but the same intensity of spirit and willingness to experiment exists.

drawing/painting studio, wood and metal shop, lapidary studio, quilting

Passion is infectious and it fuels further passion.

and knitting studio, TV media lab and, of course, the ceramics studio. The

Living where she does now, Emily has been able to watch her grand-

performing arts are housed in the recently built theater. Among other

daughter, Annnalise (Annie), mature. Emily shares that Annie is an

attributes, Panorama now touts itself as an arts retirement community!”

“accomplished student, cyclocross biker and swimmer and is entering her

Even with her love of this group and the ceramics studio, Emily takes

freshman year of high school.” Emily also has a son, Peter who also lives

full advantage of sharing with other artists in their studios and her pas-

in the west, in California, with his two children, Emily and Cameron; and

sion for drawing still finds her sketching all the time. She sells her work

son, Aaron lives in Washington, D.C.

and continues to exhibit her two and three-dimensional art. She says,

Emily sounds satisfied and focused on her work. She and her clay stu-

“Bits and pieces, here and there.” In the city of Olympia, she exhibits her

dio partners listen to classical music, commune, create and give and take

work in a gallery called The Childhood’s End.

in each other’s lives and art. The only thing she wishes she had more of

Those of you who took art with Emily will remember her modest and

would be time. And, she already spends six days in the clay studio. She

thoughtful nature. I am pretty sure that Joe had to bribe her with a

does take time out sometimes to work in the woodworking studio or the

gallery tour in Seattle so that she would be willing to talk about herself on

quilting studio or to operate the big floor looms in the weaving studio.

the phone with me. Her easy laughter and kindness radiated across the

Emily and her cohort are enjoying heaven in Olympia. •

distance between Washington and New Hampshire.

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holderness school today | FALL 2017

EMILY ZABRANSKY HANGING OUT WITH HER COLLEAGUES IN THE HOLDERNESS FACULTY MAILROOM

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around the quad

Strategic Planning Scorecard: The Honor Code e Scorecard is a series of articles in which Head of School Phil Peck discusses what Holderness School is doing to move forward on the initiatives outlined in the 2015 Strategic Plan.

Our strategic plan is aspirational on many fronts. e easiest initiatives to envision are those that are linked directly to facilities and specific programs. Equally important, but not so visible, are those parts of the plan that are helping us to be more deliberate about our culture. Our motto, our mission, and the four leadership characteristics on which we all are assessed—empathy, initiative, fairness, and dependability—help guide our actions, but the strategic plan is what pushes us forward and helps us to grow as a community.

One of the four goals in our current strategic plan reads, “Charity begins at home; we aspire to be continuously and critically reflective of our relationships with each other.” One of the objectives under this goal is, “We will develop and strengthen the practices needed to continuously and deliberately build a respectful, safe, and diverse community.” Finally, a key action step is to “revitalize and prioritize our honor code.”

As with most aspects of the strategic plan, this action step is an attempt to be more deliberate about an aspect of our Holderness community. Over the decades, Holderness has tackled many issues that have led to a more honorable community; the programs have often been student initiated and have involved issues of mutual trust between students, equity and inclusion within this community, and asking hard questions about healthy relationships. is action step asks us to do one more thing: engage with our honor code and make it a priority in our lives. Our previous honor code served us well for roughly twenty years, but about two years ago, Dean of Students Kathy Weymouth took on the task of reviewing, and eventually, rewriting it.

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Students in the Chapel of the Holy Cross signing the honor code last spring

She started by framing the honor code with two of our three core values: Community and Character. “How do we build character through community?” she asked. In many ways, the honor code is an extension of this communitybased character building.

Kathy then assembled a group of students and adults to discuss the honor code, and everyone participated in an honor survey.

While the adults provided input, it was the students who were put in charge of crafting a new honor code that could be easily understood, was acceptable to all members of the community, and was evident in every part of campus. e new version of the honor code reads: “A code of honor supports the trust we place in each other. It commits us to working together to build a community that does not tolerate lying, cheating, stealing, or vandalizing. Being honorable means doing what is right, even if no one will ever know, and even if it comes at a personal cost. I pledge to demonstrate honor by acting in the spirit and with the intention of honesty and integrity. I pledge to uphold the Holderness School honor code in all situations,

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whether they involve academics, athletics, or community life.” is revisited version is more succinct and links back to many recent conversations we have had in our community—in classrooms, in dormitories, and in athletics.

Following agreement on the language, we organized an honor code chapel, during which everyone—adults and students—signed the code. It is now hanging in Schoolhouse. e physical act of everyone signing the pledge was powerful, and the public display of that commitment is evidence of a community that is prioritizing honor. is process will become an annual tradition, consciously acknowledging that honor is important to all of us at Holderness. e strategic plan not only informs the outward appearances of our school but also our culture. It helps us to be intentional about developing the cultural and spiritual values that are crucial to caring for the heart and soul of this community. •

around the quad

Students Attend Asian American Footsteps Conference

By JoHn Lin Holderness has been sending students to the Asian American Footsteps Conference since the inaugural gathering in 2011 at Phillips Academy, Andover. According to its description, “is conference provides Asian, Asian American and mixed-heritage Asian students with a safe space to explore issues specific to their experiences.”

Conference goals are to: r Inspire youth to embrace their identity and culture r Educate students through stimulating workshops and speakers r Connect and foster a community within the independent school network to share ideas and experiences r Affirm experiences of Asian, Asian American and mixed-heritage Asian students But why separate students based on race and ethnicity? Doesn’t this create more division and go against the diversity goals of creating an inclusive community? Let me quote from an essay I wrote many years ago about the need for such affinity group meetings: “Boarding schools did not always have the complexion they have today. Once the bastion of the privileged classes, they were self-perpetuating and exclusive enclaves offering an elite and elitist education, in my opinion. I’m not sure that I could have endured working in these schools and might not have been given the chance because I am Asian-American.

“But the time I speak of is in the past, and schools have evolved into more inclusive teaching and learning environments. Now schools seek diversity in their communities, recruiting youth from all over the world, and faculty and staff from varied backgrounds.‘Multiculturalism’ has become all the rage; ‘diversity’ is something that schools want to have checked off their lists.

“But what happens to this stew when all these diverse ingredients are added to the big

Students from around New England gathered at Phillips Academy for the annual Asian American Footsteps Conference this spring.

pot? A delicious dish of exotic and distinct flavors or a muddy mix of indistinguishable ingredients?

“Because people don’t want to make race or class an issue in our politically-correct environments, many ignore it completely. But students do not come to us from the same places, geographically or psychologically, and to assume that equal opportunity means equality in all senses is to deny the very differences that made the students attractive to the admission offices in the first place.

“Race does matter, as do all the significant differences that exist between people, and we must not ignore them. Instead, we have to learn how to speak to each other in ways that don’t offend, in ways that validate our diverse backgrounds and celebrate our differences.”

Majority students live everyday in a world that affirms their culture; minority students need to be given space to do the same thing. e Asian American Footsteps Conference is one such space.

Every year, the conference offers students not only the chance to be in the company of several hundred Asian students from New England

independent schools, but also the opportunity to attend workshops that inform and inspire. is spring, students could attend sessions on “e Myth of the Model Minority,”“Navigating Micro-Aggressions,”“e Mixed Heritage Asian Experience,” and “Yellow Peril, Perpetual Foreigners, and Tiger Moms, Oh my!”

Chae Won Hahn ’17, who is from Seoul, South Korea, has attended this conference every year since arriving at Holderness as a ninth-grader. In addition to attending several workshops this spring as a student, she also helped me to moderate a session in which we shared our common experiences in our schools—to much laughter and some tears.

What students find at the conference is affirmation for whom they are and not who they are trying to be in order to fit in. ey can let their guard down and know that when they say something about their experiences at school, they will not be challenged, criticized, or even mocked; instead, they will find others who will nod in eager agreement and share similar experiences, validating and reinforcing their perceptions and experiences, good and bad. •

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around the quad

The Confidence Gain

Hannah Fernandes ’17 leading a steminist meeting last May

She remembered when she was younger; her father would give her math problems for fun, pushing her thinking and analytic skills. She loved the challenges. But this grade—this grade counted. e red-marked edges of her graded test loomed in front of her, glaring and unwelcome. Maybe Honors Physics wasn’t right for her. Maybe her ability was maxed out and her mind just wouldn’t bend. She reviewed her preparation and worried that she hadn’t asked the right questions or enough questions in class. She wondered if she should re-consider her future career plans. Maybe science and technology were not meant for her.

In a world where technology jobs are growing faster than most other career choices, statistics show that girls are falling behind.

According to Girls Who Code Founder and CEo Reshma Saujani, interest in computer science is highest when girls are in primary school, but participation and interest dips severely during the high school years.

Facts on the Girls Who Code website indicate that in 1984, women accounted for 37% of all computer science graduates. Today women

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are only 18% of those computer science graduates. “By 2020, there will be 1.4 million jobs available in computing related fields. US graduates are on track to fill 29% of those jobs.

Women are on track to fill just 3%.”

Organizations like Girls Who Code want to shrink that gender gap. Similarly, Holderness and individuals like Hannah Fernandes ’17 realize how important it is to raise the confidence level of girls so they don’t retreat from pursuing their dreams.

Hannah decided that she didn’t want to settle for a dismal test grade in Honors Physics and that she needed to talk to her teacher (by the way, that grade was a B but that was not a grade in which Hannah could find comfort).

What happened next surprised and motivated her. Her teacher, Mr. Carrigan, said he knew the work was hard but he believed in her. He believed she could do the work and reach her own academic goals. He also said he would help her and that she should not transfer out of his class. Hannah used that encouragement to motivate herself and do the hard work.

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Hannah also started talking to other girls at Holderness who might be feeling this way.

Hannah experienced similar support from her AP Calculus teacher and Math Department Chair Elizabeth Wolf as well as her Robotics teacher. She was gaining confidence—confidence she realized was a problem for many girls and not just her peers at Holderness. She decided to explore girls in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) as part of her senior thesis. She talked to Ms. Wolf about how she could help girls feel more connected and confident in STEM coursework.

As part of her senior thesis exploration, Hannah decided to hold a conversation. She found out who the girls were at Holderness in STEM classes, and she invited them to share with each other during a one-time forum. us began the STEMinists at Holderness.

Hannah worked with Abby Wiseman ’18 and Liz Casey ’17 to encourage fellow students to join in that conversation, and to their surprise, the conversation just kept going. ey met the following week and then the next week. eir focus was to have peer support and to consider the learning culture at Holderness and beyond. ey discussed their own goals and their experiences with confidence. By January 2017, the girls began officially holding weekly meetings for anyone interested in STEM. In reflecting on those early meetings, Hannah states, “Some of them (the girls) were really shy, some of them had anxiety, and some of them were really nervous in the classroom. I [was] all those things, too, but I started the group so I needed to be the role model.” With the steady support of Ms. Wolf and other faculty members, the Girls in STEM group grew.

Hannah proudly stated in May, that the group had become one of the biggest clubs on campus. She also said, “I really learned to love math and science here.”

Hannah and her peers focused on the fear of being “uncool” because they were good in a STEM subject; they also worried about speaking

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left: Hannah Fernandes ’17 working with her sister Carolyn ’20 during a November math meet last year; right: Hannah leading a discussion about the differences in classroom behavior between girls and boys and how to change the sometimes subtle but challenging stereotypes

up in class. Girls shouldn’t feel “uncool” because they are good in mathematics, or feel badly because they speak up in their classes. With the guidance of Ms. Wolf, the girls used the weekly meetings to problem-solve together and establish a peer-tutoring program. Ms. Wolf remarks, “e faculty in the math department are discussing ways to enhance confidence in all of our students. We recognize that girls especially appreciate the added encouragement.

Students today need to know that there is good learning that occurs when we make mistakes. It is also important to recognize that support comes from your peers as well. e community is necessary to bolster confidence.”

Lessons from Hannah’s senior thesis helped frame discussions for the STEMinists.

Invigorated with a quote from former president Barak Obama—“I believe when women succeed, America succeeds”—Hannah spent her March experience at two schools, observing behavior and asking questions about pedagogy.

She asked about the materials that are in schools, noting that many young girls indicate

that their favorite colors are pink or purple and there are no educational materials in these colors; the traditional and more male-centered primary colors were dominant in the classrooms she visited. From Hannah’s research, she summarized that in middle school, girls have fewer peers interested in STEM and by high school, mass media has entered into the picture and pretty modeling is more dominant than smart.

Hannah’s senior thesis findings and subsequent STEMinist developments helped the girls. e more they knew and shared concerns, the stronger the girls felt. Toward the end of the school year, the STEMinists invited everyone in the community to one of their meetings; they were especially hopeful that boys would attend so they could have an open discussion about differences and concerns. e STEMinists presented some of their observations and ideas to a small administrative team and later to the full faculty. ey discussed their concerns and hopes for altering the culture at Holderness so that it is more comfortably inclusive of girls who thrive in STEM

and celebrates academic success along with athletic and artistic endeavors.

Ms. Wolf learned about a group organized by independent schools focused on growing girls in STEM. e STEMinists applied to the growing national organization, Girls Advancing In STEM (GAinS). Ms. Wolf relates, “Essentially the organization provides a virtual community where women and girls who are passionate about STEM can support and inspire one another. ey have an annual conference that we might participate in. We don’t really know where this affiliation will take us, but it’s worth the exploration.”

As Hannah moves onto Carnegie Mellon for college, where she will be studying STEM, she believes that the STEMinists are in good hands for the 2017–18 academic year with Abby Wiseman ’18 and Jullia Tran ’18 in the leadership roles. Hannah hopes the GAinS network will expand connections for the girls at Holderness and believes they can learn from that affiliation—along with the continued support from faculty and administration. •

fall 2017 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

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Welcoming Thai Scholars

Ploy Wattanawanichkul ’17 receiving her diploma from Head of School Phil Peck during Commencement in May

We meet in the photography classroom, surrounded by student work and professional photographs. Ploy sits perched on a stool, her artwork pinned to the corkboard behind her.

Reflecting the wide range of projects she tackled this year, the photos range from a black-and-white print made from a film camera to a colorful digital print with Ploy standing among larger-than-life paper cranes.

Smiles continually cross her face as Ploy talks about her year at Holderness. “When I walk around campus and I see my friends,” says Ploy, “they greet me with their smiles, and I just feel that I am not alone in this community. ere are so many people around me who try to support me, even though I’m not good at English. It makes me realize I need to speak out and I need to connect with them.”

Ploy Wattanawanichkul ’17 is a ai Scholar, one of only about 50 high school students chosen by her government to study in the United States. Dating back to 1897, the ai Scholar Program was originally established by

King Rama V, who understood that the health and independence of his country depended upon staying up-to-date on the knowledge of the time, particularly in math and science. He therefore selected young people to attend western universities and bring back their knowledge to ailand.

The program is now merit based, and the Civil Service Commission of the Royal Thai government administers a nation-wide, highly competitive exam. Students have to have a GPA of 3.5 to apply and achieve at least 550 points on the paper-based ToEFL, a standardized test that evaluates a students’ English as a second language skills. The scholarships support students through their undergraduate years and only require that they spend time working in Thailand when they are finished with their degrees. e program also often includes one year at an American boarding school, prior to enrollment in American universities. According to the Student Cultural Exchange website, “In

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | fall 2017

1992, the Office of Educational Affairs of the Royal ai Embassy concluded that the scholars who came to the United States would benefit from an orientation to American culture and the American educational system.”

Ploy chose to do her orientation at Holderness, and we’re glad she did.

“Curiosity is most valuable when balanced with thoughtful care,” says Ploy’s English teacher Jini Sparkman. “And this is what I will hold most dear from my time in the classroom and on campus with Ploy. ough quiet, she was fearless in her inquiry and willing to engage with difficult topics and ask challenging questions of herself and our world.”

Ploy’s dorm parent Marilee Lin agrees. “Ploy has that rare combination of humility, drive, and intellectual ability,” she says. “She truly embodies the word scholar. ough she expresses insecurity about her spoken English, she gave one of the most thoughtful, articulate, quietly impassioned Senior esis presentations I have witnessed.”

During her year at Holderness, Ploy also took advantage of numerous extracurricular activities. In the fall she joined the field hockey team, even though she had never played. In the winter she joined the Intro to Snow Sports program and learned how to downhill ski, ice skate, and snowshoe. In the spring she joined the Outing Club and had the opportunity to hike New Hampshire’s endless network of trails, as well as try her hand at climbing at an indoor climbing gym.

Ploy is one of three ai Scholars who have attended Holderness. Chatarin “Mee” Wong-URailertkun graduated in 2009, and Supavit Pokawanvit graduated in 2016. is year, Holderness welcomed Warich Ngamkanjanarat and Sirapop Klinkachorn.

Back in the photography room, Ploy’s face lights up as she talks about her plans for the 2017–18 school year. In the fall she is attending Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, where she wants to study math and education. •

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Holderness Boys Raft for Wishes ere’s nothing that says summer more than rafting with friends on an 80-degree day—toes dipping in the lake, a slight ripple on the water from a gentle breeze. But what if you had to be on that raft for 30 hours—no breaks, no shade, no BBQ at the end of the day?

Rudy Beer and the Locals did just that this summer to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of New Hampshire, an organization that every four days grants the wish of a child diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition.

Rudy Beer ’20 and his mother have been involved in the Make-A-Wish fundraiser in Meredith, NH, for five years, helping out a team from e Fitness Edge, a local gym. is year, however, Rudy asked if he could have his own team and invited his friends to join him.

Gus Whitcomb ’20, Eli Misavage ’20, and Colin Casey ’20 all eagerly said yes. Team Rudy and the Locals was born.

Starting at noon on Friday, July 21, the boys hopped aboard a raft and joined several other teams in a flotilla in Meredith Bay on Lake Winnipesaukee. While Gus and Colin had other commitments during the 30 hours and had to leave for certain parts of the event, Rudy and Eli were on the raft for all 30 hours, until 6:00 PM on Saturday.

Each group is teamed up with a wish buddy who joins them throughout the day if they are able. Team Rudy got to hang out with a Moultonboro Academy student who fought a tough battle with leukemia a couple years ago.

Fortunately, he is now in recovery and was in charge of keeping the boys fed during the event.

So what does one do for 30 straight hours on a raft? Swim, of course! Rudy and the Locals also shared a small raft for sleeping and a trampoline platform during the day. ey made friends with a local snapping turtle and watched a fireworks display in the evening. e hardest part, they reported, was sleeping and protecting their skin from the sun.

top: Eli Misavage ’20, Colin Casey ’20, and Rudy Beer ’20 with their wish buddy; aBove: The flotilla of Make-A-Wish rafts in Meredith Bay in July

Fortunately it was all worth it. Rudy and the Locals exceeded their goal, raising $6,000 for Make-A-Wish New Hampshire; all the teams together raised $133,813, also exceeding their goal. Rudy received third prize for being one of the top fundraisers.

But Rudy and the Locals are not done yet. ey plan to return next year and make the fundraiser an annual event! •

fall 2017 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

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Why Go to China?

Author Andrew Sheppe with Holderness Mandarin teacher Amelia Ortiz and their student tour group outside the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City, Beijing, China

By AndrEw SHEPPE ’00 is article was first published in August 2017, in e Lamp, Holderness School’s online journal committed to critical reflection.

China is the kind of country where you constantly discover something new, and revelations occur on a daily basis. One of the most important discoveries is the fact that the Chinese share this sensation. e place changes too fast; nobody can afford to be overconfident in his knowledge.

– Peter Hessler, Country Driving For purposes of instruction it is not sufficient to stroll through countries, but we must know how to travel. In order to observe, we must have eyes, and must turn them toward the object which we wish to examine. ere are many people whom travel instructs still less than books, because they are ignorant of the art of thinking; whereas in reading, their mind is at least guided by the author, while

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in their travels they do not know how to see anything for themselves.

– Rousseau, Emile is June, thanks to the staggering generosity of a group of Holderness parents, I had the opportunity to visit China along with two of my colleagues, eleven Americans and one friendly Finn. is was my first trip to East Asia.

I had read a bit of Chinese history seventeen years ago as a Holderness student, but China as a subject continues to intimidate me.

It is too big, too populous, and too old. I struggle to keep track of its basic timeline, and I balk at any attempt to apply grand themes or explanations to such complexity. In fact, I began the trip concerned that I would be unable to bring back any coherent lessons at all. Reading before departure did not help this feeling. Peter Hessler and Rousseau combined to convince me that I was unequal to the task of discovering the truth about China. If that was the case,

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | fall 2017

why was I going, and what on earth would I say when I got back?

For a moment, I will put aside the question of what I learned and focus on what I enjoyed.

Some of the highlights are obvious, and would appear on the list of any traveler. e section of the Qing-era Great Wall that we visited was simply stunning. It was exactly what everyone knows it to be—a giant wall as wide as a road that stretches to both horizons—but knowing that does not reduce the impact of seeing it.

Some of our destinations are well known in China but have not yet achieved the worldwide acclaim they deserve. We saw a ballet/light show called “Impression West Lake” created by Zhang Yimou, the film director responsible for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics. ree hundred perfectly synchronized dancers paraded around the surface of a lagoon accompanied by music and ever-changing virtual scenery. I don’t even have the right words to describe this genre, but it is worth a quick YouTube search or a less-quick jaunt over to Hangzhou.

Some of the highlights will never make it into the guidebooks, but were no less memorable. Yifu Mu’s ’18 mother hosted three of us for a meal of homemade dumplings. We drank tea, listened to Buddhist chanting, and watched a television drama. ose few hours of calm made the bustle of Beijing seem manageable.

Every day we feasted at least twice in large banquet halls or small, tucked-away restaurants, and every meal I have eaten since returning has been disappointing. We lived in comfort, even luxury, but I was constantly reminded that this was not merely a pleasure cruise. It was my responsibility to capture something, bring it home, and use it to make Holderness better.

Toward the end of the trip, I was walking through a summer garden in Shanghai with a group of Holderness students. Wandering near the back of the pack, I found myself next to Yiyang Mao ’17, who chose that moment to

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ask,“Mr. Sheppe, why do we study history?” My first reaction was fear and insecurity. Not only had Yiyang just graduated, but she had spent her senior year in two of my history classes. If she didn’t know why we study history, it was probably my fault. Was this question a prelude to an accusation or a revelation of time wasted?

Because I enjoy talking to Yiyang, I decided to press on, even if it meant an invalidation of my current career; and over the next few hours we had a lovely discussion about group and individual identity, the power and danger of narratives, and several other questions that were, frankly, a bit over my head. My initial

about one million people who live in either Beijing or Shanghai. I spend most of the summer sitting at the town beach on Squam Lake, watching my kids play. My trip to China reminded me that my reality is unusual. ere are more megacities in China (10 million people or more) than there are people on the beach as I write this.

China was a great place to be reminded of my own limited perspective. China is not only huge, it is stubbornly unfamiliar. When I have traveled in Europe or the Middle East, I have always been able to sort out the meanings of street signs and menus, given enough time and

I still have no short answer or simple theme for those who ask me to describe my time in China, but I can safely say it humbled me.

— andrew sheppe ’00 answer, however, was stock: history explodes the idea of a normal life. History exposes us to the nearly infinite “normals” that have already come and gone, and it reminds us that our normal is recent, contingent, and impermanent.

If I am inclined to view myself as the central character in a narrative, history reminds me how marginal I am to most stories. is deliberate humbling and norm-challenging is certainly not the exclusive province of history.

Novels push us in much the same direction.

Anthropology has this realization as its central organizing principle. Even physics and math will occasionally ask you to measure yourself against the infinite.

As Yiyang and I discussed our respective irrelevance, I realized that I had at least one answer to my question. Why did I go to China? Easy. I went to remind myself how few people in the world live according to my idea of normal. For every Holderness teacher, there are

a good dictionary. In China I could stare at a string of characters for an hour and be no closer to knowing if it said “We have the best hotpot,” or “Let a thousand flowers bloom.” I have never felt quite so foreign before, and that must be good for me, because I spend most of my time with a comforting sense of belonging.

I still have no short answer or simple theme for those who ask me to describe my time in China, but I can safely say it humbled me.

In addition to some slightly improved selfawareness, I came back from China with one genuinely shattered pre-conception. As Mandarin has increased in popularity in American high schools and universities, I have often found myself throwing shade: “You are going to learn Chinese? Good luck. It is impossible. Study a language with an alphabet.” is dismissive attitude reflected China’s ability to intimidate me in every way, but I must now concede that I was wrong. Ms. Ortiz, a twenty-

something from Colorado who also teaches at Holderness, has somehow learned Chinese. I don’t mean that she can read a bit and say hello (which is about the best I have ever done in a foreign language). I mean that she can joke with rickshaw drivers, scold pushy shop-keepers, and dazzle tour guides who have themselves devoted careers to translation. And she teaches the language to brave Holderness students. I still think most Americans toiling away at Mandarin are doomed, but if you are as bright, brave and devoted as Ms. Ortiz, you can, in fact, achieve fluency. ere is one more, purely selfish reason for my trip to China. For the past several years, I have been fortunate enough to work with some delightful, thoughtful, fascinating Chinese students. Zhaowei Yu ’16, Yiyang Mao, Sergio Yap ’19, and Jerry Wang ’19 are responsible for many of the most profound questions or creative ideas that have surfaced in my classroom over the past four years.

Some of my fondest memories of late-night conversations in the dorm include Zihan Guo ’14, Yifu Mu, and Andrey Yao ’19. Two years ago, I had one lunch conversation with Moti Jiang ’16 that changed the way I view the entire world. I still find myself referring to “the Moti rule” about once a month.

Chinese students play a large role in making my life at Holderness as good as it is, and I was excited to visit them on their turf. I was not disappointed. The students who provoke fascinating discussions in Sargent dorm or Alfond Library were ready with questions during our tour of a Beijing high school and our high-speed train ride out to Xi’an. By necessity, most of my conversations with these kids will still take place on campus at Holderness, but I am glad they now know that I would happily fly fourteen hours away for more of their company. •

fall 2017 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

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Building Community on Two Wheels

Fresh recruits before the start of their century ride in August

It’s a summer Head’s Holiday of sorts. e only requirement is that you are willing to ride a bicycle 100 miles.

“It started three years ago,” says current trustee and parent Andrew Sawyer ’79. “Phil [Peck] and I both love cycling and decided to do a ride together through the White Mountains. e first year, it was just the two of us. Last year there were about eight of us; this year there were twelve.” ey picked a beautiful day in August this year and met on campus at 8:00 AM. ree students returned to campus for the event, as well as three faculty. e tour guides were Head of School Phil Peck and CFo Peter Hendel. e ride began up Route 175 to Tripoli Road, where they climbed their first hill to Russell Pond (1,200 vertical feet). From Tripoli Road, they headed up to North Woodstock and circumnavigated Mt. Moosilauke—another 2,000-foot vertical, category 2, climb. ere was some friendly competition at the top of the pass to see who would be first on the descent, but appropriately it was ultimately Phil Peck who led the pack down the other side into Warren (top speeds went unrecorded).

“Riding is always a really good opportunity to get to know others,” says Andrew. “Along the way, everyone gets tired and they start chatting about who they are and what they do. In that way it’s like an Out Back experience; you get to know people really well.”

Next was another hill climb from Groton west to Hebron. ere were plenty of stops along with the way to continue those cherished conversations, to rehydrate, and to buy snacks at the local country stores. ere was also a stop to repair a flat tire with duct tape and another to brush off after two cyclists bumped tires and fell into the bushes—no major injuries were reported. e group finished the ride by taking the long way around Newfound Lake, through Bristol and New Hampton. After 100 miles and over 7,000 vertical feet of climbing, they returned to campus in just under seven hours.

Everyone who set out to ride 100 miles finished—including Neal Frei ’03, who hadn’t ridden 100 miles since he was a member of the Holderness cycling team 15 years ago!

“For me this ride was symbolic of the Holderness lifestyle of fitness that lasts a lifetime,” says Phil.“Between the youngest rider and the

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | fall 2017

oldest rider, there was a 50-year age difference.

It is not just a once in a lifetime experience but truly an experience that lasts a lifetime.”

What’s also important to note is that this ride can be seen on the Holderness School Cycling group Strava page.

For the uninitiated, Strava is an online social network for athletes. With your favorite GPS device, iPhone, or android, you can track endless statistics about your rides or runs and then upload them to your Strava feed. For those who have a strong competitive streak, you can compete on Strava segments—popular stretches of road or trail (like your favorite local climb) for which there are leaderboards listing the times set by every Strava athlete who has been there before.

Strava also allows you to create clubs or groups, one of which is Holderness School Cycling. “e current 28 members are from all generations,” says Andrew Sawyer, who organized the group. “It’s an easy way to find people in the Holderness family in places you’ve never been before—or even in your home town—and invite them to go for a ride.”

Andrew, by the way, began his career as an endurance cyclist during his senior year at Holderness. He and a classmate, Lance Hanson ’79, decided for their senior project to retrace the route of British General John Burgoyne from Montreal, through Fort Ticonderoga, to the Battle of Saratoga, where Burgoyne was forced to surrender his army on October 17, 1777.

“Senior projects weren’t as rigorous back then,” says Andrew,“but we rode bicycles the whole way and lived in the rainy spring environment just like Burgoyne’s troops would have.”

So whether you have a passion for history or just want to sneak away for a summer ride, there may very well be another member of the Holderness community who is thinking the same thing and would love to declare a Head’s Holiday and join you. It’s up to you if you decide to post it to Strava. •

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Holderness School History in Action

By KiM MErrow Box after box of catalogued documents, transcripts, letters, and artifacts fill long shelves in a windowless basement room in Alfond Library.

Memorabilia, official records, and photos, documenting the history of the school’s people and programs line the walls and fill the cabinets. At first glance the stacks of paper and boxes of photographs may seem useless and random, but upon closer inspection, they’re much more. e archives bring to life the history of Holderness School through carefully catalogued documents as well as several one-of-a-kind items, including Ned Gillette’s Sea Tomato Suit.

An outdoor pioneer, Ned was a professional climber, who contributed adventure travel articles and photographs to multiple publications, including National Geographic, Outside, and Outdoor Photographer. In 1986 he attended the Olympic Games in Grenoble as an alternate member of the US Nordic ski team and later ran the Nordic programs at Yosemite Mountaineering School and the Trapp Family Lodge Ski Touring Center.

Gillette’s accomplishments included the first one-day ascent of Mount McKinley (1978), the first American ascent of China’s 24,757-foot Muztagata (1980), and the first telemark ski descent of Argentina’s Aconcagua (1982). He undertook a 300-mile circumnavigation of Everest and spent 13 days crossing the Drake Passage to Antarctica in a 28-foot rowboat nicknamed the Sea Tomato.

Holderness is fortunate to have artifacts from these expeditions in its archives, and this spring they were part of a 50th Reunion celebration at Dartmouth College during which the Class of 1967 dedicated a bunkhouse at Mt. Moosilauke to Ned Gillette, as well as to his classmate Andy Harvard (Dartmouth ’71).

Ned’s classmates Jeff Milne ’63 (Dartmouth ’67) and Ed Kern (Dartmouth ’67), as well as Ned’s widow Susie, first contacted

Dartmouth’s Class of 1967 bunkhouse during a dedication ceremony on June 8, at the base of Mt. Moosilauke

archivist Joanne Wernig and Head of School Phil Peck last winter, asking in what ways Holderness might be willing to join in the celebration. Joanne and Phil joyfully accepted the invitation and loaned Ned Gillette’s North Face jacket (in which he summited Mt. Everest) and his Sea Tomato Suit (worn when he rowed from Cape Horn to South America and then to Antarctica through the Drake Passage).

Dartmouth added some archival objects of its own, including one of Ned’s cross-country skis (donated by Ned’s widow Susie) and Andy Harvard’s crampons and ice axe (donated by Andy and Kathy Harvard). e ski, crampons, and ice axe are now mounted on a wall in the main room of the bunkhouse, along with two handmade frames highlighting the legacies and accomplishments of both men.

“Ned and Andy personify the spirit of adventure in the Dartmouth out-of-doors,” Mr. Kern read as part of his remarks at the dedication celebration. Later he explained, “Andy and

Ned were both adventurers, so it was a clear choice to celebrate them both as we honored the spirit of adventure in the wilderness at the dedication.”

It was a great honor for Holderness School to be able to use the archives to help celebrate one of the numerous connections between Dartmouth and Holderness. “The riches included in our archives are the things that can help us make connections to the greater world,” explains Phil Peck. e archives are truly a gift to our community, immortalizing the history of those who came before us, ensuring that their memories live on through its contents. •

fall 2017 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

sports

Spring Sports

clockwise, from aBove: Ben Lash ’18 waits for his teammate to serve during a varsity tennis match; Members of the JV tennis team wait their turn on the court during a match with Proctor; Boys’ JV lacrosse player Quang Do ’19 charges past a Dublin player during a game on the turf; Varsity lacrosse player Risa Mosenthal ’17 jumps for the ball during a face-off against Kimball Union Academy

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HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | fall 2017

sports

aBove: Varsity player Gracie Mumford ’20 dodges a player from kua on her way to the goal; Below: Varsity lacrosse player Ian Driscoll ’17 dodges past a player from Hyde (left); Varsity player AJ Jarabek ’17 fights for the ball during a face-off against Hyde (right).

fall 2017 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

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sports

Spring Sports

clockwise, from aBove: Eli Misavage ’20 during a race at Gould; Lilly Magnus ’20 hanging onto the back of the pack during a race at Gould; The Outing Club celebrating the arrival of spring on Mt. Livermore; Aidan Kinsley ’19 during one of many rock climbing adventures this spring

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HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | fall 2017

sports

clockwise, from aBove: Varsity golfer Holten Flinders ’17 walks the course at Owl’s Nest; Goalie Carolyn Fernandes ’20 waits for a JV game against kua to begin; Ceci O’Marah ’19 charges toward the goal during a game against Tilton; Dylan Horner ’19 practices putting on a green at Owl’s Nest.

fall 2017 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

sports

Spring Sports

aBove: Varsity tennis players Ella Mure ’17 and Ellie Page ’20 battle Brewster during a doubles match at home; at left: Mina Nguyen ’19 prepares to serve during a match against Brewster.

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | fall 2017

sports

aBove: Coach Merrow with her JV tennis players, Vanessa Maldonado ’18, Lauren Steele ’19, and Kathy Liech ’18; Below: Yifu Mu ’18 is greeted with high fives after a home run against Exeter (left); Kelly Qian ’19 returns the ball during a JV tennis tournament in May.

fall 2017 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

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sports

Spring Sports

clockwise, from aBove: The varsity softball team honors their seniors during their last home game of the season; Elliott McGuire ’17 sprints to first base during a game against kua; Greg McGunigle ’18 pitches to Tilton during the Lakes Region Semi-Finals tournament.

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HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | fall 2017

sports

Track Returns to Holderness After a 25-Year Hiatus It’s 5:30 in the morning, and just as the sun rises, students emerge from the woods on Mt. Livermore and savor the view across Squam Lake. Wispy clouds over the foothills of the White Mountains are touched with pink; the new spring foliage is golden in the first rays of sunlight. Most students are still in their beds or are drinking their first sips of coffee, but these intrepid students find the call of a New Hampshire morning in May more enticing. ey are the members of Holderness School’s newest track team. “e track team asked to do something that would really bond them during their final week together,” says their coach Nicole Glew, “After a great first season—and many firsts—we emerge as improved athletes, good friends, and, most importantly, a team. It seems fitting that these pioneers of sport would gather at 5:30 AM to do a sunrise hike up Mt. Livermore!”

It should come as no surprise that Holderness School has a long history of offering track as a spring sport. According to Holderness archive records, the first track team was organized in 1902. But for the past 25 years, the only opportunities for distance runners, or runners of any kind for that matter, have been during fall cross-country. However, thanks to a number of schools in the Lakes Region League, that changed this spring.

“We first started talking about adding track in the fall of 2016 when all the athletic directors in the Lakes Region met,” says Holderness Athletic Director Rick Eccleston ’92. “Mike Doherty at KUA and Gregor Makechnie at Proctor are the ones who deserve all the credit.”

Keeping it simple for the first year, the Lakes Region League decided to focus on running events only. In two meets—one at Colby-Sawyer College and one at Kimball Union Academy—the runners competed in the 100-meter, 200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter, 1600-meter, and the 4X400-meter relay.

At Holderness over 20 students signed up for the track team and thrived under the expe-

The 2018 Holderness track team with their coach Nicole Glew

rienced coaching of Spanish teacher Nicki Glew. Nicki competed at the University of Oregon in the 1990s, where she became a Pac10 champion and an nCAA All-American in both cross-country and track. She qualified and competed in the US Olympic Trials in both 1992 and 1996. “is team was a huge success,” says Nicki.

“Our runners dominated the meets and had a lot of fun doing it.”

Without a track on campus, it was difficult to train, but with the help of the larger community, they made it work. Many workouts took place on the paths around campus, but thanks to Plymouth State University (PSU), the Bulls were also able to train on the indoor track in PSU’s ALLwell Center.

So with one season under their belt, what’s next? e Lakes Region League hopes to expand the number of schools participating and the number of meets. St. Paul’s School is requesting membership in the Lakes Region

League, and if all goes well, that will open doors for larger competitions and more events. “e track team was a great addition to our spring sports roster,” says Rick. “It added diversity to our athletic program and strengthened our multi-sport philosophy. I can imagine our hockey players and skiers and many others excelling at and benefitting from running track, and perhaps eventually participating in field events. e track program has great potential.”

In the meantime, however, the track team savored its inaugural year up on Mt. Livermore in the first light of dawn. •

fall 2017 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

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update: current faculty and staff

The Adventures of a Chair Year

Maggie Mumford at St. Bee’s Island off the coast of Queensland, Australia. She is using a densiometer to measure the levels of shade vs. sunlight that reach various levels of habitat.

Last year both French teacher Janice PedrinNielson and science teacher Maggie Mumford were given the opportunity to travel through the Henderson Brewer van Otterloo Chair Program. And while they had drastically different experiences, they both came away from their adventures with new insights and fresh perspectives. Coming into contact with a wide array of cultures and communities, they both absorbed all they could, not only to further their own knowledge but also to gather material for Holderness School academic courses and extra curricular activities.

Maggie spent her year traveling from Newfoundland to Australia and New Zealand and then to Costa Rica, Eleuthera, and Belize.

While her projects changed from country to country, her main goals were to contribute to ecological research while also gaining a more global perspective of environmental sustainability.

“I thought my chair year would focus on ecological studies,” Maggie explained. “But

much of what I learned was closely tied to sustainability as well. e cultures that have recognized the value of their ecosystems are also the most sustainable, environmentally and financially.”

Maggie began her work close to home at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in North Woodstock, NH, and at Bartlett Research Forest in Bartlett, NH. As a volunteer field technician, Maggie worked directly with five different academic research groups. Her projects included documenting oak and pine seedling survival and growth rates, observing the growth response of an entire forest plot to fertilization, recording the current biomass of dead and decomposing wood in a forest, and quantifying soil profiles.

“I occasionally laughed out loud at myself,” says Maggie, “wondering what in the world I was doing scraping a layer of brown soil carefully off the underlying grayish soil, or searching unsuccessfully for hours for even just one tiny pine seedling…But careful, pertinent data gathering and interpretation is invaluable, as is observation with an open mind. These are key lessons I already know and teach, but the first-hand reminder has helped reinforce these principles.”

In addition Maggie hopes her work at Hubbard Brook will strengthen Holderness School’s ties with the most renowned and longest continuously running ecological station in the world (think acid rain).“We at Holderness have benefitted from a few collaborative efforts in the past and recent participation in tours, but great opportunities for more formal relationships are present,” says Maggie.

Maggie then headed north to Newfoundland. Traveling by sailboat, she hiked the ords and visited local fishing communities. Based on her experiences at Hubbard Brook, Maggie set up her own quadrats on rocky promontories on the highlands above the ords and documented the subarctic tundra biota. She also spoke with locals, learning about the collapse of the cod

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | fall 2017

fishery and what that has meant for the isolated communities up and down the coast.

After visiting Newfoundland, Maggie headed to New Zealand and Australia for two months. Working with Earth Watch, Maggie helped set up research plots on St. Bee’s Island off the coast of Queensland, where they are studying an invasive species that is inhibiting the growth of eucalyptus. Maggie also participated in two Great Walks on trail systems that are maintained by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, the government agency charged with conserving the country’s natural and historic heritage. e Tongariro Northern Circuit and the Kepler Track not only exposed Maggie to the diverse and vast landscapes of New Zealand but also taught her a great deal about the native history of the area.

“New Zealand is doing it right,” says Maggie. “eir tourism industry is closely tied to culture and environmental sustainability. You can’t enjoy the outdoors in New Zealand without learning about natural history and invasive species as well.”

In the spring, Maggie headed south to Belize, Costa Rica, and Eleuthera. Her focus continued to be on research—tagging and measuring sharks—and on sustainable development— building hiking trails modeled after the Appalachian Mountain Club’s hut system. In Eleuthera, Maggie visited the Island School, an organization that is dedicated to learning outside the walls of a classroom and to teaching students how to live sustainably in the 21st century.

Maggie made one last trip during the summer to the University for Peace in San Jose province, Costa Rica, for an international conference on educating for sustainability.

Sponsored by Earth Charter, under the framework of the UnESCo Chair on Education, “Education, Ethics, and Values for Sustainability” was a four-day program that “explored practical methods for introducing sustainability values into educational settings.”

update: current faculty and staff

It has been said numerous times that the faculty at Holderness who participate in the Chair Year return energized, ready to tackle new programs and share their knowledge with the community. Maggie is certainly no exception. is fall, she is teaching “Ecological Case Studies,” a course that is designed “to reinforce knowledge of ecological interactions and scientific method and to gain experience in field work.” Much of the coursework was developed directly from her travels over the past year.

Like Maggie, Janice wanted to use her Chair Year to collect material for a new academic course. Janice chose to embrace her love of French post-colonial literature and decided to develop a course that would authentically represent the views of the overseas French departments (parts of France that are outside of metropolitan France). At each destination, she read their current authors and explored the themes of post-colonialism and identity.

Janice began her voyage by first visiting the French overseas department of Corsica.

Although the landlords where she stayed were helpful in suggesting many experiences, it became clear that the Corsican people were not open to interviews or personal conversations about their views of Corsican society, being French, or speaking Corsican in private and French in public.

“So I was left to work hard at my observations and grab the cultural details that I could from listening carefully, visiting bookstores and libraries, and talking with shop owners,” says Janice. e second overseas department Janice visited was Reunion Island—a small volcanic island in the Indian Ocean, about 300 miles east of Madagascar. Most Reunionnais can claim four or five different ethnic backgrounds, and Janice found the rich diversity of people living harmoniously together a sheer pleasure to experience.

In contrast to Corsica, most people in Reunion, were happy to speak with Janice.

“There is huge growth in Reunion as a result

A photo from Janice Nielson’s trip to Tahiti, where she witnessed men and women dressed in traditional clothing during voting day

of an agreement in 1979,” she says, “which gave Reunion not just overseas departmental status, but full rights as a regular department in metropolitan France. The changes in the education system over the past fifteen years have also contributed to a sense of self-actualization and autonomy.”

“But despite the openness of the people,” she continues, “there were still things that remained minor mysteries. If school districts have greater autonomy now in their schedules and curriculum, why are there not more Reunionnais authors? If the education system is now much more flexible and open, why is the unemployment rate still high (at fifteen to twenty percent)?” Janice’s questions remained unanswered.

Janice finished her chair year by visiting Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Polynesia, and Tahiti, where she continued to observe and interact with people and cultures with multiple identities. “French Polynesia is now a French territory and is no longer a department,” says Janice. “However, despite the distance and the

autonomy, they enjoy the health and education systems of France and voted wholeheartedly in the recent French elections against Marine Le Pen and for stabilization in the European Union (of which they remain a part). e Tahitian people seem to have a positive relationship with the French as well; they were open, generous, kind, and happy to share all they had.”

Stories such as Maggie’s and Janice’s show the value of the Henderson Brewer van Otterloo Chair Year and how it benefits not only the faculty members participating but the school as a whole. “is year away has been the gift of a lifetime on many levels,” says Janice. “I have loved being able to live in, and not just visit, so many beautiful places that are so different from the United States and Europe. I fervently hope that my experiences will enable me to help students begin to understand the complexities of identity and diversity in the world today.” •

fall 2017 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

UPDATE: CURRENT FACULTY AND STAFF

An Invitation to Listen

Author and Director of Teaching and Learning Nicole Furlonge, PhD

We live in a world of talk. Yet, Race Sounds: e Art of Listening in African American Literature argues that we need to listen more— particularly in relation to how we engage race, gender, and class differences. Forging new ideas about the relationship between race and sound, English teacher and Director of Teaching and

Learning Dr. Nicole Furlonge’s soon-to-be published book invites us to better understand how listening allows us to engage, as readers, thinkers, and citizens, the sonic lives of difference. rough an examination of listeners and of moments that call on listening in literature and cultural texts, Nicole reveals listening as a

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HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | FALL 2017

set of dynamic strategies that can enliven how we read, write, think, and engage as citizens.

Race Sounds explores how black writers, musicians, and artists imagine listening.

Drawing from a multimedia archive, she examines how many of the texts call on readers to do what she calls listen in print. Attuning to writers and artists Zora Neale Hurston, Sterling Brown, Ralph Ellison, Gayl Jones, David Bradley, Bettye LaVette, Aretha Franklin, Nick Cave, and Claudia Rankine as theorists and practitioners of listening, Nicole’s book demonstrates a new approach to reading and interpreting these canonical, aurallyinflected texts.

Race Sounds is an invitation to listen.

Intervening in discourses of African American and Black Feminist literatures, where sound and voice dominate, Nicole’s writing shifts our attention to listening as an aural strategy of cultural, social, and civic engagement that not only enlivens how we read, write, and critique texts, but also informs how we might be more effective audiences for each other and against injustice in our midst. Race Sounds is an innovative treatment of listening that brings new insights to African American literature, American Literature, democratic philosophy, and sound studies. e book was initially part of Nicole’s dissertation. She indicates, “I started this project because I was drawn to the ways in which American writers, particularly African American writers, used sound in their writing…I have also been struck for a long time by the ways in which American culture privileges speakers and one’s own realization of voice, often at the expense of one’s ability to listen to another person speak.”

Holderness congratulates Nicole on the publication of this fascinating exploration into listening. e book will be published in early March 2018, by the University of Iowa Press. It will be available through major book outlets as well as the University of Iowa Press website. •

UPDATE: TRUSTEES

Tackling Shame

The cover of Bishop Hirschfeld’s recent book

In a new book by e Rt. Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld, shame may be the antagonist, but the truth isn’t quite so storybook simple.

Shame. e strength of shame is a powerful motivator that can make one hide from love and shrink from help; it can also be a catalyst for change, helping one to seek a healthier and happier life, one filled with forgiveness and acceptance. It is this topic that Holderness trustee and Bishop of New Hampshire Robert Hirschfeld tackles in a recent book Without Shame or Fear: from Adam to Christ.

Hirschfeld uses six stories from the Bible to explore the topic of shame and how the characters of the Bible react to it. From Adam and Eve to Sarah to David, he shows that shame does not discriminate; even some of the most revered and honorable characters in the Bible experience shame.

What makes Hirschfeld’s book enjoyable is his recognition that the characters of the Bible are often flawed and imperfect. In describing the shame of Sarah, wife of Abram, Hirschfeld

digs deep into her story, speculating what it was like for her to be “given” by Abram to the Pharaoh and later to Abimelech. He notes that there is no mention of how Sarah might have felt in the situation: “Why would it? If the story is the account of the establishment of Abram’s legitimacy as the father of faith, why register the emotional, physical, and spiritual cost to Sarah of his deceptive dealings?” He goes on to share the voices of women in the United States, who have been forced to sacrifice their bodies and who can perhaps in a small way speak for Sarah.

It is not just the story of one woman but of many women throughout history.

In addition to investigating the stories of the Bible, Hirschfeld utilizes literary and historical references as well as his own personal experiences. His own shame—as a teenager with acne and as a rector who experienced first-hand the legacy of racism—lend humility to his reflections. Without Shame or Fear is not a lecture or clinical analysis of the Bible, but a thoughtful exploration, one filled with humility and a recognition of the author’s own flaws. e Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, Missioner for Creation Care for the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts and Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ, writes, “Rob Hirschfeld is able to disclose his own fears and failings in a way that invites readers to acknowledge our own experiences of shame and to find healing in the boundless love of God. Written by a pastor who looks with compassion on the complexity of the human heart, this book offers keen insights into Scripture, literature, and the arts, and sets us on a path to freedom.”

Hirschfeld ends with a message of hope and humility. Shame will not bind us, he argues, but it can be a teacher, a catalyst that helps us examine our role in a situation and pause long enough to learn. In one of the final chapters, he writes about participating in Maundy ursday services, when the people of his church wash each other’s feet. “Over the decades of Maundy

ursday services, I’ve learned that the condition of the feet is of less concern than the condition of the soul, the spirit, of the person whose feet I am washing. Can they allow this to take place? Is there an injury that I, the one that is pouring water over his instep, have caused over the past years that needs to be addressed? Are there amends to be made? Has Jesus called these two persons to this chair, to this particular basin for a reason this year?”

“Shame would have us remain alone, in isolation. God calls us to companionship.”

As Bishop of New Hampshire, Hirschfeld’s time is precious and his opportunities for reaching out to others are many—through services, private meetings, and now through his written word. It is also through his service on the Holderness School Board of Trustees, where he is the ex-officio President, and his frequent chapel talks at the school each year, that he has the opportunity to speak and share his ideas. We are fortunate to have his reflections and lessons guiding the school and leading our community. •

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UPDATE: TRUSTEES

A Farewell to Five Board Members

Grace Bird

Jim Hamblin ’77

Jan Hauser

by andrew herring

balanced with her wonderful perspective.” A fixture on the Holderness board since 2011, Grace skillfully led the school in making the Mittersill Ski Area a reality, a vital strategic initiative that has revolutionized regional ski training and given our snow sports program a competitive edge. “Without Grace’s leadership, Mittersill would not have happened,” notes Phil Peck.

Grace, too, encouraged the school to look at marketing and messaging strategies, asking that we more clearly articulate who we are as we wade into an ever-more competitive market.

With over a decade’s service to Holderness, Jim Hamblin ’77 P ’08 ’15 has truly left an indelible mark on our community, as an alumnus, past parent, and chair. When asked about Jim’s tenure, Phil Peck applauds his leadership saying, “Jim ably led us through several essential initiatives that will help keep Holderness relevant, compelling, and sustainable for decades to come. e strategic plan, as well as our first campus master plan in decades, were both written under his leadership; they are succinct and aspirational documents that will hold the school accountable.”

Also commending Jim’s leadership and mentorship, Bob Hall notes that “Jim brought a wonderful perspective that balanced pragmatism with vision. He did an excellent job of prompting the board and administration to work efficiently and effectively while keeping us true to our mission.”

If one word could be used to describe Jan Hauser’s P ’13 ’17 time on the board, it should be commitment. Jan’s commitment was visible not just as a current parent and trustee, but also as someone who loves Holderness so much that she was unafraid of challenging the school culture. “Incredibly committed and capable,” says Phil Peck,“Jan was uniquely suited to provide valuable leadership and insights that will keep Holderness financially sustainable. She also led our School Life Committee and helped support a community aligned with the high calling of our mission.” During the spring board of trustees meeting—her final meeting—Jan pressed board members to ask the hard questions that probe our student culture, ensuring that all students will be known and loved.

With deep roots in the Holderness community, Jenny Seeman ’88 was able to help the

When thinking of a school, we most often think of classrooms, athletic fields, students, and faculty. Little thought, however, is likely given to the governance of a school. e notion of governance isn’t thrilling; dusty by-laws with procedural legalese and meetings peppered with movements and motions are paid little attention in the life of a school. oughtful and meaningful governance, though, is imperative for the long-term success of a school. And, it is those who constitute that governing body—the board of trustees—who are integral in defining the legacy and future of Holderness.

Consider the board members who retired this year—Grace Bird, Jim Hamblin ’77, Jan Hauser, Jenny Seeman ’88, and Jerome omas ’95. During the past several years, these five tremendously skilled board members have given of themselves fully, honoring and furthering the legacy of Holderness.

Board Chair Bob Hall characterizes Grace Bird P ’13 as a “tireless worker, who on behalf of the school and our ski programs, kept us

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UPDATE: TRUSTEES

Jenny Seeman ’88

Jerome Thomas ’95

school realize significant growth in intellectual life, school life, and governance. When reflecting on Jenny’s time as Governance Committee Chair, Phil Peck praised her adept ability to refine governance practices and finely blend

board membership to meet the current and future needs of the school. Bob Hall, too, spoke to Jenny’s service on the board, saying “Jenny has a wonderful way of combining her organizational ability with her love of Holderness.”

Anyone who has ever met Jerome omas ’95 knows that he is a vibrant and charismatic ambassador for the school. His tenure as a board member affirmed this, and any time Jerome was on campus, notes Phil Peck, “his deep love of Holderness was palpable and contagious. And, his desire to make our school supportive of all students has left us stronger and more grounded in our mission to create a caring community.” Jerome, blessed with a youthful yet balanced perspective, always made sure we kept the student experience at the center of our discussions.

We are sad to say goodbye to Grace Bird, Jim Hamblin, Jan Hauser, Jenny Seeman, and Jerome omas, but we are grateful for and take solace in the fact that their tireless commitment and generosity of time and talent have made our school better. Although the work of governance can be dull, the future of the school and the legacy created by these board members is truly exciting. •

Upcoming Holderness Events and Gatherings Mark your calendars now and then make plans to join us for these upcoming events!

We hope to see you soon! r November 28: Holderness in Boston at the Pucker Gallery r December 3: New York City Holiday Party r December 16: Holiday Open House at the Head’s House r January 12–14, 2018: Holderness in Colorado r February 14, 2018: Day of Giving

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Growing Greatness: American Elms at Holderness

Doug McLane and one of the newly planted American elm trees

Doug McLane ’69 Doug McLane ’ has a passion for trees, American elms in particular. He also remembers his years at Holderness fondly. Fortunately, through a unique donation to the school, he was able to unite both passions under one cause.

Doug McLane’s connections to Holderness run deep. His father Peter McLane, was a graduate of Holderness School in . Doug’s mother, Polly Lit, was the first secretary of Headmaster Edric Weld. His grandmother, Dorothy McLane, was the first headmistress of St. Mary’s of the Mountains, the all girls school that used to be a sister school to Holderness and is now the White Mountain School in Bethlehem, NH. Doug himself graduated in , his daughter thirty years later in , and his niece just this past spring.

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Doug’s most recent connection to Holderness School, however, is of a different sort, and with a little luck, the consequences will last for generations to come. This spring, Doug donated two American elms to the school and helped plant them outside Rathbun Dormitory.

“It’s great to have these historical trees back on campus,” says Director of Facilities Tony LeMenager. “There are a fair number of mature trees on campus, and it’s been good to replace them with a variety of species, including the American elms from Doug. So far, they are doing really well.”

Doug’s passionate interest in elms goes back to his childhood; his family lived on Elm Street in Manchester, NH, and Doug remembers watching the devastation caused by Dutch elm disease change the landscape around him. First reported in the United States in , by , it had killed nearly all of the American elms in North America.

“We used to save the seeds of the elm trees in a jar,” says Doug, “with the hope that someday we could replant them.”

At the time it wasn’t possible, but years later, when Doug was teaching biology at Plymouth Regional High School, the idea returned to him, and he began to think about the possibility of helping to restore the American elm.

Plymouth too had been hit hard by Dutch elm disease, and what better way to contribute to his new hometown than to bring back its majestic trees?

In addition to the two trees Doug helped plant at Holderness, he has also worked with the town of Plymouth and Plymouth State University to plant over a dozen more American elms around town. Most of them are Princeton elms, a variety cultivated from a tree in Princeton, NJ that appears to be blight resistant.

“Elms are native to this area and are very tolerant to salt and drought,” explains Doug.

“They are also fast-growing and have a beauti-

ful shape when they are fully grown. It’s what made them so popular in the early s.”

Holderness School was no exception. In aerial photographs prior to the s, the road behind Niles and Webster is lined with elm trees. There was also a grove between Livermore and Schoolhouse—about where Livermore Commons now stands.

“When the elms died, it must have completely changed the look of the campus,” reflects Doug. “They were often replaced by Norway maples, but the problem is that Norway maples are now considered invasive species as they outcompete with the native sugar maples. This too is a good reason to bring back the elms.”

The elms, however, are not the only trees that have been planted on campus recently.

Over the past  months, with the help of Pemi Treeworks, Holderness has planted  new trees, including a chanticleer pear tree in front of Gallop, a line of autumnalis cherry trees along the walkway on South Campus, and a half dozen Canada red cherry trees at various other locations around campus.

“We are very conscious of developing a diversity of trees on campus,” says Tony. “At the same time, it is nice to see the return of the American elm; we are grateful for Doug’s gift of the trees and the time and care he has devoted to the project.”

As for Doug, he is excited about the growth of the new trees—which he attributes to the faithful watering Tony and the grounds crew have maintained all summer.

In fact, there’s a Greek proverb that says, “A society grows great when old men plants trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

Perhaps old is a misnomer, but these men have certainly contributed to the greatness of Holderness.

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ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

Granite Hard: Brette Harrington’s Rock Climbing Journey Brette Harrington ’10 Brette Harrington ’ has only been rock climbing for a handful of years, yet she has already made an extraordinary name for herself. by kateri bean In , at the age of , Brette was the first rock climber to free solo the intimidating ,-foot Chiara di Luna on the face of Saint Exupery in Patagonia. She speaks of this outstanding accomplishment humbly: “It was a very special climb because I was immediately captivated by its lines and knew I wanted to solo it. I kept it pretty quiet beforehand because I knew people would try to dissuade me—bold solo ascents tend to scare people who don’t share the same vision. My boyfriend Marc-André Leclerc, who has supported me throughout my climbing career, knew that my inspiration was genuine and encouraged me to go for it. (He too made a groundbreaking solo that day on the Corkscrew route on Cerro Torre.) I am proud of this ascent as an achievement of concentration, focus, and calm, but it does not overshadow some of my other climbs which have been equally important for pushing other barriers in the physical realm.”

Her many others climbs include a free climb on El Capitan’s Muir Wall in Yosemite Valley, CA; The Grand Illusion in Sugarloaf, CA; The Optimator in Indian Creek, UT; Solar Flare at Incredible Hulk, CA; and Vanguardia in Squamish, BC. Recently, her ascents from Squamish to the Canadian Rockies landed her an opportunity with Sender Films, who wanted to produce a film highlighting her best climbs from  and . The film, which is titled Brette, is a part of the Reel Rock Film Tour and captures some of the most entertaining and exciting moments of Harrington’s climbs.

Brette’s awe-inspiring passion for rock climbing first began in the Granite state at

Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by9.0 inches wide.

Brette Harrington with boyfriend Marc-André Leclerc

Holderness. She says she was an “adventurous and very independent kid” and that her parents gave her a lot of freedom to explore, helping to grow and nurture her adventurous spirit. But it is Holderness that Brette credits with introducing her to the world of rock climbing and allowing her to develop a personal relationship with the sport that continues to grow to this day.

“The Holderness climbing coaches wanted [the students] to enjoy what we were doing and gain respect for the sport as a hobby,” says Brette. “There was never any competition between us, nor pressure. This relaxed environment helped manifest my intrinsic motivations to climb, which have always been very personal.” Because the team trained and climbed solely outdoors, Brette says she also developed a connection with nature that she doesn’t always see in other rock climbers.

After graduating from Holderness, Brette left New Hampshire and the rock climbing team to spend a year in Spain and to attend the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

This was a pivotal point in her climbing career, she explains: “I had dedicated my past year to learning Spanish and was now in search of

something more. That is when I consciously decided to become the best climber I could possibly be. My motivation to climb was so high that I spent all of my free time doing it.

This quickly led me into sponsorship and now a career.”

“I am constantly questioning my path,” she continues. “I don’t know if there is a right one.

But climbing is something that continues to inspire me, and anything led by inspiration should turn out pretty well.”

Brette is currently working on a project on the East Face of Torre Central in Chilean Patagonia, where there is a -meter rock tower that has yet to see a free ascent; the few teams that have climbed the route have used climbing equipment to get through passages of blank rock. She hopes to finish the climb this winter alongside her climbing partner Mayan Smith-Gobat.

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Harmony and Counterpoint

Franz, defending his title as “Punk’s 10 Best Accordian Players,” and the cover from his 2016 book

Franz Nicolay ’95 When Franz Nicolay ’ began his music education, one of his earliest mentors was former Holderness music teacher David Lockwood. Since then David’s advice has guided him in more than just music composition.

“Right away, we were working on harmony and counterpoint,” remembers Franz, who is the son of Holderness School’s photography teacher of the same name. “David and I would take songs that interested us, break them down into parts, and then try to reconstruct them in the studio.

It was a freeing and versatile experience, one that many musicians don’t get, and certainly not early on.”

For many years after graduation, Franz focused on rock, touring around the world, performing in countless bars and music halls, both solo and with numerous bands. He was once named No.  of “Punk’s  best accordion players” and appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Tonight Show with David Letterman, and The Late Show with Jay Leno.

Recently, however, Franz has found himself improvising, not within his music but within

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the ways in which he is using his music. At Bard College, Franz has taught, and continues to teach, “Transcription and Analysis” and “Jazz History.” He has also composed music for several dance and theater companies, including Alison Chase/Performance, “a dance/theater company dedicated to the development of dramatic forms through physical expression.”

Lastly, Franz has turned to writing, recently reviewing books for various magazines, including Slate (“What Is It?” a review of Lizzy Goodman’s Meet Me in the Bathroom) and The New York Times (“‘Good Booty’: The Sexual Power of Music”).

Much of Franz’s attention, however, has been focused on longer pieces. In , Franz published his first book: The Humorless Ladies of Border Control: Touring The Punk Underground from Belgrade to Ulanbaatar. The stories within chronicle three years of touring through the formerly Communist world, both alone and with his wife and young daughter.

Part travelogue, part history lesson, the book spans a time period of political unrest and changing loyalties.

While his performances do get some time in the book, the majority of the book focuses on

his travels. “Is it possible to write four hundred pages about touring and never describe a show?

I’m tempted,” he writes. “I’m a mid-career musician who’s played thousands of shows. For me, they’re the least interesting part of the story.”

Indeed. The characters Franz encounters during his travels are memorable, and the landscape is varied and eclectic. Traveling mostly by train, he describes the towns he visits, highlighting their history and notable features.

Perm’, he writes, is “one of the premier centers and way stations of the Gulag,” while Yekaterinburg is “best known as the execution site of the Romanovs and the hometown and early stomping ground of Boris Yeltsin.”

Franz also weaves in the perspectives of other authors who have traveled before him.

“Unlike, say, Rod Stewart or Steven Tyler,” writes New York Times journalist John Williams, “Franz Nicolay refers to Montaigne, Tocqueville, V.S. Pritchett, Ford Madox Ford and Melville—and that’s just in a two-page stretch of the introduction” (Williams, “Outside the Bars”).

“I wanted to engage with some of the writers who have traveled the same routes,” explains Franz. “There’s a lot of down time when you are touring. Some people fill that time with drinking. I tried that, but increasingly I found myself doing a lot of writing”—writing that he has now shared in a one-of-a-kind travelogue that transports his readers to a rich and varied culture.

So improvisation it is, pursuing his passion for music in ways that flow together in unexpected but harmonious ways. There’s a novel on the way, and occasional performances with his band, The Hold Steady. But no matter the medium, the creative spark nurtured and encouraged by his early music teacher remains alive and well.

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Graduates Help With Dartmouth’s Green Initiatives Elena Bird ’14 and Fabián Štoček ’13 The ties between Dartmouth and Holderness are strong, so it is no surprise that leaders in green initiatives at Holderness have also become leaders in green initiatives at Dartmouth.

In the spring of , President of Dartmouth College Philip Hanlon called on the school “to play a leadership role in improving global sustainability and overcoming the challenges of climate change” (“Our Green Future: The Sustainability Road Map For Dartmouth”).

The first part of his plan involved convening a task force, and he asked two Holderness students to join. Elena Bird ’ and Fabián Štoček ’ were both asked to take on the yearlong process of developing goals and initiatives in five areas: energy, waste and materials, water, food, transportation, and landscape and ecology.

“The designation of the task force was exciting to me simply as a statement by the college administration that this is something they’ve acknowledged needs to be a priority,” says Elena. “Having voices from all parts of campus (facility operations and management staff, engineering and economics professors, and other researchers) agree that decreasing our emissions and increasing renewables is feasible was encouraging.”

Along with the  other members of the committee, Fabián and Elena met seven times over the year and built on initiatives developed in  by then President James Wright. Their resulting document, “Our Green Future: The Sustainability Road Map For Dartmouth,” outlines a series of goals and standards that the task force believes the college should, and can, meet over the next several decades.

“The goals and standards in the energy section are probably the most promising,” says Fabián. “The college has done a lot of research in this area already, so they have a good start.

Energy is also by far the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions at Dartmouth, so

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Fabián Štoček’s photograph from 2013 that helped bring attention to Holderness School’s ailing heating system

there’s lots of work to be done in this area.” For example, the college still burns . million gallons of number  fuel oil every year, as they have for the past  years. The committee’s recommendation calls for “providing  of campus energy from renewable sources by  and  by  (“Our Green Future: The Sustainability Road Map For Dartmouth”).

In some areas of the plan, Dartmouth has already made significant progress. “A lot of students don’t know this, but our main dining hall does a great job with food management,” adds Elena. “There is very little waste on their end, and they try to source local food when possible.

Waste from students’ plates is a different issue, but that is being addressed by student projects.”

For Fabián and Elena, environmental sustainability is nothing new. Elena says her family has always been mindful of sustainability, and at Holderness she was a member of the Green Team, a group of students who work to support recycling and other green initiatives on campus. Fabián was on the Green Team as well, and during his senior year, he spoke with cfo

Peter Hendel to figure out if Holderness could divest from oil, coal, and gas companies.

“Ultimately, it was quite challenging because of the way Holderness School has invested its endowment,” says Fabián, “but it was a really great learning experience.”

Fabián also used an independent study opportunity in photography to document the inefficiencies of Holderness School’s previous steam heating system. His pictures revealed leaky, corroded pipes and wide swathes of green grass in the middle of winter where the decades-old pipes prevented the ground from freezing all winter. The photos were so compelling, Sustainability Coordinator Maggie Mumford used them when making the case for the school’s switch to biomass, which was completed in the spring of .

Both Elena and Fabián began their first years at Dartmouth as ecorep Interns,  students who work both inside and outside the residence halls to promote and enhance the school’s waste management goals.

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Celebrating Our Alumni in Collegiate Athletics It’s hard to keep track of all our recent alumni and what they’ve been up to, but here’s a sampling of their collegiate athletic accomplishments. Our apologies to anyone we have missed! Go Bulls!

Terrance Amorosa (Clarkson University ’ and Holderness ’): During his freshman year at Clarkson, Terrance was named to the ecac Hockey All-Academic team. In his sophomore season, he was second in scoring from the Clarkson blueline with four goals and  assists, despite playing in only  games due to injuries. In the – season, Terrance missed the first nine games due to an injury, but he played in the remaining , recording  points on three goals and  assists, along with posting a team-high + plus/minus rating. He was also named to Notre Dame’s Shillelagh All-Tournament Team and to the ecac Hockey All-Academic Team. Lastly, he received the Clarkson Ironman Award, presented to the team member who most demonstrates the will and determination to overcome his injuries and contribute to his team. Terrance already has plans for himself after college, as he was drafted nd overall in the nhl draft by the Philadelphia Flyers in .

Gavin Bayreuther (St. Lawrence University ’ and Holderness ’): Gavin was named a Second Team ccm/ahca East Region All-American in –. He also was the first defenseman in program history to lead the team in scoring, finishing with  points. In his four years at slu, he registered  points ( goals,  assists) in  games. In March of , Gavin signed a two-year entry-level contract with the nhl Dallas Stars. Bayreuther will begin his contract with the Stars next season, but his pro career has already gotten underway as he travels with the team and begins work with the coaches.

Becca Begley (Hobart and William Smith College ’ and Holderness ’): Becca was the women’s hockey – team captain and played in all  games for the Herons. Becca

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TOP: Gavin Bayreuther ’12, while at St. Lawrence University; ABOVE LEFT: Terrance Amorosa ’14; ABOVE RIGHT: Gavin Bayreuther ’12 now plays for the NHL’s Dallas Stars.

was also named to the ecac West Weekly Honor Roll. She recorded three goals and seven assists for  points and finished the year with  blocked shots.

Ben Coleman (Colby College ’ and Holderness ’): In the  baseball season, Ben played in  games for the Mules. He led the team in batting average (.), on-base percentage (.), and base on balls (). He also had  hits,  runs, and  personal outs on  total chances. Off the baseball field, Ben is a

member of the Colby Student Investment Association and a Colby Outdoor Orientation Trip leader.

Dougie DeLuca (Babson College ’ and Holderness ’): In men’s alpine skiing, Dougie made the  uscsa All-American (combined) and  All-MacConnell Divisions in his first year at Babson. He also completed  of  races at eight carnivals and posted one victory and six top-five finishes. He has been placed third in the MacConnell Division standings.

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ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

Kelly DiNapoli (University of New Hampshire ’ and Holderness ’): Kelly finished up her last year on the women’s alpine ski team by landing rd overall in the GS at the eisa Championships and th place in GS at both the St. Lawrence Carnival and unh Carnival.

Nick Lacasse (Clarkson University ’ and Holderness ’): Nick had a strong first year as an alpine skier for Clarkson. He placed th overall in the MacConnell Division standings, earning All-Star honors as a freshman. He also scored in eight of the ten regular-season races.

At the uscsa National Championships (where there were  skiers) he came in th place in the combined standings. Nick also earned the sportsmanship award from his teammates for the – season.

Grace Lawrence (Navy ’ and Holderness ’): In the  Navy rowing season, freshman Grace Lawrence earned an All-Patriot League honor; she helped her team win the league’s championship and earn a spot in the ncaa Championships in May. Bryce Murdick (Hamilton ’ and Holderness ’): Bryce was th with a time of :. at the  ncaa Division III Atlantic Region Men’s Cross Country Championship in Glassboro, NJ. Bryce also finished th in the Mt. Washington Hill Climb in June with a time of ::.

Precious Ozoh (Gettysburg College ’ and Holderness ’): Precious had a strong first year playing soccer for Gettysburg, during which he scored two goals and had  shots in the –  season.

Sean Robinson (Babson College ’ and Holderness ’): In men’s alpine skiing, Sean made the  All-MacConnell Division and completed  of  races at eight carnivals with six top-ten finishes; he also placed th in the MacConnell Division standings. Sean finished eighth in the slalom and seventh in the combined standings at the  uscsa Eastern Regional Championships and also qualified for the  ncaa Regional Championships,

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TOP: Fabián Štoček ’13; ABOVE LEFT: Nick Lacasse ’16; ABOVE RIGHT: Becca Begley ’14

where he placed st in the slalom and th in the GS. Annie Smyth-Hammond (Stevenson University ’ and Holderness ’): In  Annie was was named the chc Rookie of the Week. In the  season, she totaled  saves for a . save percentage and finished with a . goals against average.

Fabián Štoček (Dartmouth College ’ and Holderness ’): Fabián finished his impressive Nordic skiing career by placing th overall in

the  ncaa Championship with a time of :.. This finish helped the Big Green to place fourth overall in the championship. While applying to graduate school, Fabián intends to take the next year to ski in the Worldloppet marathon series in both Europe and China.

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ALUMNI EVENTS

Alumni Gather in Maine

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Host Andrew Sawyer ’79 with classmates Mike O’Connor ’79 and Mark Finnegan ’79; Head of School Phil Peck sharing the stories of Holderness School with an impressive gathering of alumni (shown below).

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ALUMNI EVENTS

CLOCKWISE, FROM LEFT: Former Spanish teacher Jim Hammond catching up with old friends; Brothers Alden ’20 and Jack ’21 Sawyer; Current students Morgan Sawyer ’18, Sean Bryant ’18, and Joe Pelletier ’19

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 57 “Dartmouth is really good about getting students involved in sustainability efforts,” Fabián says. “There are a lot of programs that try to influence students, make them aware of energy issues, and provide them with opportunities to contribute and play a part in the solution.”

Fabián’s contributions included working with Divest Dartmouth and Dartmouth Bikes, which manages a rental fleet, refurbishes old bikes, and teaches maintenance courses. Fabián was also a president of the Dartmouth Council for Climate Change and a chair of the Environmental studies division of the Dartmouth Outing Club, which provides termly grants of up to , for sustainability initiatives on campus. He is also an avid gardener.

Elena’s commitment to and involvement in sustainability efforts has continued as well.

Elena has worked at the college’s organic farm and took part in a few other sustainability office initiatives, like the orientation group “Eco-crew” and a program called EcoVate, which is a design thinking course rooted in sustainable ideology.

The work of the task force is now complete, but both Elena and Fabián hope it is not forgotten. “The next step for the task force is to create a group that will work on implementation strategies,” says Elena. “I would love to help with that if I get the chance. Otherwise I intend to keep working for the sustainability office in other capacities and continue the climate research I do with the earth science department.”

Fabián, on the other hand, has graduated.

He stayed on campus this past summer to conduct research on habitual behavior in rats, but in the fall he is planning to return to Europe to ski in the Worldloppet marathon series and apply to graduate schools.

While his passion for skiing and neuroscience are a priority for the foreseeable future, Fabián does not plan on giving up his passion for environmental sustainability either. “I’ll see if I can make it all work,” he says. We have no doubt that he can, and will.

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NO TIME TO GO TO THE STORE?

School Swag is now available online!

Visit www.holderness.org/schoolstore

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | FALL 2017

CLASS NOTES

Milestones IN MEMORIAM John P. McCandless ’58, January 7, 2016 Richard V. Fabian ’57, February 21, 2016 Philip J. Woodbury ’39, May 3, 2016 John “Woody” L. Smith ’54, May 17, 2016 Philip B. Luce ’47, October 13, 2016 Paul Pfosi ’82, November 24, 2016 John “Jack” C. Armstrong ’47, January 18, 2017 Joel E. Peterson ’70, February 1, 2017 Russell C. Orton ’40, February 12, 2017 Alexander “Sandy” D. Gibson Jr. ’55, May 19, 2017 Eric L. Pendleton ’75, July 17, 2017 Leonard B. Richards III ’60, July 27, 2017

BIRTHS Mark Rando ’02 and Faith Rando: Meredith Mary Rando, May 7, 2016 Sean Smarz ’04 and Kate Smarz: Everett Alan Smarz, May 25, 2016 Bibbit Mason Ortlip ’00 and Eric Ortlip: Brody Mason Ortlip, October 28, 2016 Parker Stafford ’97 and Jamie Stafford: Sawyer Halsey Stafford, November 29, 2016 Craig Panock ’03 and Katy Panock: Nolan Brady Panock, December 24, 2016 Kathleen Mitchell ’05 and Matt Mitchell: Madeleine Mitchell, December 28, 2016 Blair Weymouth Monaco ’04 and Greg Monaco: Morgan Tyler Monaco, December 29, 2016 Kevin Daly ’05 and Liz Tinley Daly: Beckett Edward Daly, January 3, 2017

LEFT: Kelley (Keohan) Da Silva ’06 and her new husband Bruno were married on March 4, 2017; RIGHT: Blair Weymouth Monaco ’04 with baby daughter, Morgan Tyler Monaco, born December 29, 2016.

Emily Noyes Grunow ’03 and John Grunow: Hope Grunow, January 14, 2017 Kourtney Martin ’07 and Stephen Martin ’07: Aubrey Jean Martin, March 23, 2017 Katharine Moore ’04 and Matt Moore: Landon James Moore, March 25, 2017 Tyler Stearns ’07 and Lauren Maggart Stearns: Kieran Edward Stearns, March 27, 2017 Katy (Gannon) Bode ’98 and Eric Bode: Eric “Bec” Carl Bode IV, April 15, 2017 Steve Ryan ’95 and Kelly Farrell: Flynn Lawrence Higgins Ryan, May 17, 2017 Joel Bradley ’02 and Elissa Bradley: Elsa Windsor Bradley, May 24, 2017 Brian Gamble ’06 and Caroline Gamble: Shea Diana Gamble, May 25, 2017 Alex Palmisano ’03 and Katherine Palmisano: Cooper Morgan Palmisano, May 28, 2017 Jessie Hinman-Maher ’98 and Michael Maher: Turner Jeffrey Maher, June 15, 2017

Sarah Hendel ’02 and Tomás Sanchez: Eben Hendel Sanchez, July 4, 2017 TG Gallaudet ’94 and Christine Gallaudet: John “Jack” Edward Gallaudet, July 12, 2017

MARRIAGES Tyler Weymouth ’01 and Amanda Bagwill, June 3, 2017 at Rockywold Deephaven Camps, Holderness, NH Stan Smith ’05 and Tatiana Kidd Smith, June 18, 2016 at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ Dami Amurawaiye ’02 and Taylor Fournier, July 30, 2016 in Toronto, ON, Canada Brendan O’Riordan ’05 and Katherine Robbins White, August 6, 2016 at Village Church, Wellesley, MA Casey Carr ’03 and Jillian Buckley Carr, August 27, 2016 in Rindge, NH Carling Delaney Bennett ’04 and Dane Bennett, September 16, 2016 at Piney River Ranch, Vail, CO

Bubba MacMahon ’04 and Krissy McNeill, September 24, 2016 at The Minikahda Club, Minneapolis, MN Kelley (Keohan) Da Silva ’06 and Bruno Da Silva, March 4, 2017 Kristina (Ward) Hanlon ’05 and Dave Hanlon, April 22, 2017 Hilary Nichols ’06 and David Burman, May 28, 2017 in Boston, MA Brianne Keefe ’05 and Michael Healy, July 15, 2017 in Richmond, VT Jennifer Dinkel ’02 and Justin Jones, July 15, 2017 at The Wentworth Inn, Jackson, NH

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CLASS NOTES

Rik Clark ’48 visited with Paul Wilson ’48 in Rhode Island in July. Both are planning to attend their 70th reunion in the fall of 2018.

’45 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

’46 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging

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your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

’47 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Briggs ’47 magdalenabriggs@ymail.com

’48 Bart Chase writes, “More and more I realize that time waits for

holderness school today | FALL 2017

no one. As I close in on age 89, I am thankful for my good life, super family, and wonderful friends. One of my greatest pleasures has always been my close friendship with Rik Clark since 1944. I thank him for his many years keeping our class together.

Best wishes to all my classmates; there aren’t many of us left out of the original 27. The greatest memories of all of our class and what Holderness did for us are always with me. We had some great people to guide us. Our family lives close, so we are able to enjoy many good times together. Best to all.” … John Codman reports, “I apologize for such a long time between news; as you may know, the older we get, the more things change. I lost my significant other of 35 years to cancer three years ago, but I was fortunate enough to hook up with another lovely senior lady, so life is not lonely. I still live at the same address, and they will have to pull me out feet first as I’m in good health, except for old-age arthritis and some hearing problems. I haven’t played much golf, but I still belong to the local club. I’m also active with the local Habitat for Humanity chapter. I’ve got room in my house if anyone wants to spend a night or two in Kennebunkport, ME: (207) 229-4358. I am planning to attend next year’s reunion.” … We recently learned that Paul Wilson’s wife Bess lost her six-year battle with cancer and died on September 8, 2016. This was shortly after the family clothing store closed in Wickford, RI, after 70+ years, and before Paul had hip surgery on Christmas Day, 2016. Sandy and I had a delightful lunch visit on July 17, with Paul in Wakefield, RI, where he is living in an assisted living complex. “Absolutely,” he said about returning for our 70th reunion! Paul does not do email, but snail mail and telephone

work. Great to see Paul and catch up with him. … Sandy and I spent another three months this past winter in Palm Springs, CA. Some early welcome rain helped end the multi-year drought in California but did not prevent me from actually shooting one stroke better than my age at the time, 85. While downsizing might make sense for us, there is no facility on Cape Cod that appeals to us and we like it here. There are some health challenges for us but, basically, all is well and hopeful.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Rik Clark ’48 capeclarks@aol.com

’49 Bob Barrows reports, “This is to let you all know that I am still in the mix; it has been a while between notes. I am still living in Weddington, NC, fourteen miles south of Charlotte. I have my long-time associate Buddy (yellow lab) to keep me out of trouble, and I am still active at the local yMca. They provide many senior programs, which help one to stay in a healthy condition. I have put my clubs on the shelf for the time being, since I am not in the 300yard driving area anymore. My family of four children and nine grandchildren are all well.

Regards to all ’49ers. Hope you are well.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Baskin ’49 william_c_baskin@sbcglobal.net

’50 This summer members of the Hammond family will be within shouting distance of each other here in New London, NH. Our daughter Bebe and her gang have taken over the family homestead

CLASS NOTES

on Old Main Street; she continues to be very happy working for Oliver Wight, a management consultant firm that has an international reputation for assisting companies in their restructuring efforts to produce more profitable results on the balance sheet. My son-in-law Jim Casey still commutes to his job at the Boston airport from New London on a daily basis. Henry, our grandson, along with his sister Megan, both have summer jobs at the same construction company here in town and are putting away funds that will help see them through their respective school years this coming fall: Henry at Plymouth State University and Megan at Proctor Academy.

Squidge and I live in a condo at Hilltop Place here in town. These days, I have pretty much settled into the comfort of home, doing a lot of reading and some writing, recently authoring a piece about the history of one of New London’s lakeside communities for the Checkerberry Lane Association on Little Lake Sunapee. Squidge continues to be recognized as the family matriarchal hostess, quietly supporting the efforts of her tribe to meet their own social and career goals.

No major health issues to report currently. … Chico Laird tells us that they sold their house of over three years and moved to an independent living facility in Franklin, TN. Our esteemed classmate says it all with his parting remarks: “Getting old ain’t for sissies.” … I’m in fairly regular touch with Doug Hamilton and Bigelow Green. The former, a serious student of the impact of weaponry in shaping our country’s historical events, has done some fascinating research on the pistol John Wilkes Booth used when he shot President Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre. Doug is a real

expert on this stuff. … Bigelow and Sally still live in their lovely home that overlooks the Hudson River just below Rhinebeck, NY. They continue to be, for the most part, very mobile and think nothing of taking on nyc traffic in their own automobile during one of their frequent shopping tours to the metropolis. I applaud them. … We haven’t recently heard from David Luce who, I believe, still lives on the West Coast. … And finally, kudos go to Phil Peck with whom I’m in touch every once in a while. He’s so good about responding to my requests for information with respect to whatever comes to mind regarding the school. I appreciate his kind and patient attention. Holderness continues to be a very special place with a unique spirit that all of us from the alumni community fondly remember. Hear! Hear!

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Frank Hammond ’50 fhammond64@comcast.net

’51 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

’52 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Al Teele ’52 859.734.3625

’53 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at

alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

’54 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Berton Chillson ’54 bbmchill56@aol.com

’55 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

Don Stephenson reports, “Nancy and I celebrated our 54th wedding anniversary this April, and we have been in the same house in Gilford, NH, since August of 1973. We go to lunch with my brother Wen ’54, sister Jeanne, and our three spouses twice a year. Nancy and I have four children, 10 grandchildren, and one great-grandson, who is a little over one year old. My running days, after almost 69,000 miles, have basically ended with overused and injured knees, but I still walk and bike and ski, both alpine and Nordic. I retired in 1998 from teaching math in public high school. Nancy and I have served two missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. We have sung in many groups and are now active in one small chorale and a community band. I see Glenn Dudley off and on, and we have lunched with Don Hinman a few times. I had open heart surgery to replace a faulty valve last February, and I am doing fine now. Life is great.” … After 45 years in Greenwich, CT, Gail and Peter Wilson have taken up residence in Naples, FL. “We have moved into a very comfortable apartment in the

Continuing Care Retirement Community (ccrc) at Bentley Village. Peter writes, “We are most happy with our situation here but do miss the regular contact with our many northern friends. Fortunately, we are fast making new friends from all parts of the country. Our four kids and their families are cheering us on and have been extremely helpful to us in our transition. Our health is fine, and with all the intellectual and physical activities available in Bentley Village, it will likely continue. If not, caring health services, at all levels, are provided. We will continue to spend four or more months of summer at our cabin on Panther Pond in southern Maine. All good wishes to our Holderness friends and classmates.” … Stan Shalett is keeping busy with local politics in Kingston, NH. “My service on the Historic District Commission, the Municipal Budget Committee, and the Kingston Planning Board has been continuous,” Stan reports, “But in 2016 I was voted off the Planning Board because the voters wanted new blood. So what did I do? I hopped on Carol Shea-Porter’s bandwagon, attended rally after rally, and made numerous phone calls on her behalf. Surprisingly, she was able to win back her seat in Congress by a very narrow margin. Her stunning victory made me realize that in order to be first at the finish line, one has to be first in the hearts of the people. Having seen her in action, I think Carol SheaPorter is a political genius who will do very well in public office.” … This year, Dick Taylor published a book of poems. He writes, “Poetry is not exactly newsworthy, but one does it nevertheless, not really having a choice.” Dick shared a copy with Phil Peck, who has shared it with the Holderness English

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CLASS NOTES

Doug ’58 and Ruth Rand at the annual Virginia City, Montana End of (Civil) War Ball in June 2017

Department so that it may be used in English classes this coming year. The book is titled The Absence of Strangers, published in 2017 by Goose River Press.

’56 Tom Anthony was quick to respond to my request for class

notes, so he gets to go first. Here is what he wrote: “Just back from a couple of weeks in Sicily. I am not sure what we expected from that ancient island, but having been there, however briefly, I know that we experienced something very important. We’ve already made reservations for another trip next May to visit

SHARE YOUR NEWS! Have you recently encountered a milestone in your life?

Share your news with your classmates! Please contact us at alumni@holderness.org.

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Catania and Syracuse, which we missed this time. After the fact, I’m reading Sicily by John Norwich. We are settling in for the typical very busy summer that is standard for York, ME, with a regular stream of visitors on whom I can try out new recipes.

The visitors this year are getting Sicilian food, no surprise. My brother and I are just finishing up the fifth of five Stickley-style rocking chairs, made variously of cherry, white oak, mahogany, and red oak. Now that I’m getting good at it, of course, it’s time to start building something else. I’ve been biking a lot and walking more, as well as writing essays, political commentary, poetry, and stories. Our younger daughter is on another writer’s residency, this one in Sturovo, Slovakia, on the Danube for ten weeks this summer. Our older daughter got out of the chocolate business this year and is with a boutique company in Michigan doing financial planning and advising. There is more traveling in the wind for us, and I must say, the process of flying somewhere, anywhere, is getting downright unpleasant; but I’m not the first one to notice.” …

Brud Folger is a regular contributor to class notes. He sent this in: “Hi, Dick; your restoration partner, Al Lamson, my Middlebury roommate, came to visit the other day and we spoke about you.

Soon after graduating from Middlebury, a group of us got together at John Sinclair’s (father of Molly Sinclair ’87) farm in Springfield, VT. We played soccer and touch football in the cow pasture and from time to time slipped on the cow s***. This year we are having our 27th CS Festival at Basin Harbor, VT, leaving tenting and soccer behind in the cow pasture. Gordi Eaton ’58 and George Pransky ’58 are fellow csF attendees. Basin Harbor

has its own grass runway, so I plan to fly my plane over from Owls Head, ME, where I now live. If anyone comes to mid-coast Maine any time, I have plenty of room for visitors!” … Bringing up the rear, Dick Meyer adds: “My restoration team, at the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad, and I are still working to complete the 1913 caboose restoration job I have written about previously. In addition, a coach has been added.

Although this car looks like an antique, it is only a reproduction, but it is old enough to require extensive re-work. It and the caboose must be ready for the Polar Express at Thanksgiving.

However, tickets go on sale in September, so I am sweating to get them both ready for revenue service.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dick Meyer ’56 richard419@roadrunner.com

’57 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Frederick Ellison ’57 greatspeak03@yahoo.com

’58 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

Don Latham reports, “I am back in New Hampshire after experiencing some of the best weather in Naples, FL, of the three winters we have been going south. Jen and I are exploring some thoughts for the 2018 celebration of our 50th wedding anniversary with the family! On another front, I currently have a one-man art

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show of 43 paintings on exhibit at the Kimball Library in our hometown of Atkinson. Many are on sale with all proceeds going to benefit programs and materials for the patrons of this wonderful resource. So we are keeping busy!

All the best to ’58!” … Brooke Thomas sent a tribute to his classmate and friend, Denny Blouin, who passed away late last year. “In memory of Denny Blouin, who stood up for and acted upon problems of social justice. After leaving Holderness, where we received little preparation for the unfolding issues of the day, he developed strong convictions about the inequalities of the 1960s and 1970s and compromised a comfortable lifestyle defending what we now take for granted as just. Thank you, Denny, for your courage and example.” … Ruth and Doug Rand still live near Gallatin Gateway, MT, and welcome old friends to come by. Doug retired from his architecture practice after a head injury 18 years ago. The past 14 years were spent in nyc, where Ruth was a research professor at the Einstein College of Medicine.

’59 The turnout for class notes was just okay. All I am able to do, as Louis says to Rick in the classic movie Casablanca, is “round up the usual suspects.” I really hope to hear from more of you in the future. … And yes, usual suspect number one, Steve Barndollar, reports in on his travel plans for the coming year. A trip to Kenya in the fall with his “younger, beautiful wife” is in the works. Karin, I hope you get to see this, and Steve, make sure she does. It should be worth many points.

Steve also reminds us that the 60th reunion is not too far away.

Would you believe it? … Buster

Spike Hampson ’60 and “Popeye,” Spike’s new Suzuki V-Strom 650 motorcycle, at the Saguaro National Park visitor’s center near Tuscon, AZ

Welch, as usual, has a really good idea. At our 50th reunion, the class was presented with a book containing one-page lifetime summaries of each our classmates’ lives. It was most interesting to read about the many varied experiences of my contemporaries.

Some was the usual stuff, some was exciting, and some was not the glossy good news that you would expect. If I could get a collection of responses, I could put the letters in a book form. Think about it. … Good old Lee Miller. I can always count on hearing from him. News is as follows: Holy cow, he has two granddaughters graduating from college and one from law school. If I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t believe that! After all, I just graduated from college. Is it possible? A family trip to Big Sky, MT, is in the future. That’s great fly-fishing country out there on

the Gallatin River. Enjoy yourself. … As usual, I heard from Ken Lewis. He said something that I think should be reinforced in this column. As some of you may know, the school is raising money for a Don Henderson endowed fund. He was an outstanding teacher and coach, and in my opinion, greatly deserves this everlasting honor. Think about it.

Hopefully many of you can support this worthy cause. Ken and his wife Rosemary just returned from a trip to the Canadian Rockies. He recommends this trip to all who have never been there.

I second the motion. Perhaps a visit with Buster Welch would fit in while in Western Canada. … As for me, all is well. I spent the best part of the winter on Longboat Key, FL, with my wife Jeanne and bearded collie Mia. I’m continuing to ride horses, both in Florida and

back in Maine. Hopefully, I can get out twice a week. A September riding trip through the Cotswolds, in England, is in my future. My grandkids are all doing well, our health is great, so there is nothing to complain about at this time. I hope all of you are experiencing the same good luck.

Let’s hear from more of you.

Remember the Henderson initiative and the 2019 reunion.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jerry Ashworth ’59 ashworth.kemah@gmail.com

’60 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Len Richards ’60 (deceased) Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging

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CLASS NOTES

your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

Three of the faithful checked in for this issue. Gerry Shyavitz leads off: “What can I say? I am 75 and life is still good; I have four healthy grandchildren and a lovely wife Pearl. We are celebrating our 50th on July 23—although Pearl says not to push my luck— and my two daughters are doing fine. Recently I got lost in my kayak at Plum Island in the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, Newburyport, MA; they were late putting up numbered signs on the water trails. When the water got low, the harbor master could not get to me, so I dragged the kayak about a mile and a half over the marsh and climbed up a bank with mud up to my knees; it was a very steep incline, especially pulling my 40-pound kayak. I could not find the Northwest Passage, so call me Ishmael Shyavitz. Does this count as Out Back? … Ross Deachman says he and Nancy, son John and wife Karen, and daughter Amy, ventured up to the Mountain View Grand in Whitefield, NH, on June 24 to celebrate, with the New Hampshire Bar Association, the 50th anniversary of Ross’s admission to the Bar. … I’ll turn the rest of this column over to Spike Hampson: “Not much has changed on this front. I’m still boating for most of the year and then skiing during the winter months. Two new developments, though. Last summer I went into full retirement mode, so now I am a vagabond 24/7/365. The second thing is that at the end of this last ski season, I got obsessed with the idea of going motorcycling once again—something I haven’t done for about two decades. With the undeniable decline in physical

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strength, mental acuity, eyesight, etc., I woke up one day thinking ‘I’ll never go motorcycling again if I don’t go now.’ After a couple weeks of online surf…, I mean research, I bought a bike from a dealer in Tucson. In early April, I flew down there from Salt Lake City and picked her up. I spent the first week scaring myself half to death on the backroads of southeastern Arizona, then headed farther afield. My initial plan was to circumnavigate the US/Mexico border to see where Trump plans to build his wall and how people in the area are reacting to the idea—a one-month project, maybe. But then I thought, ‘Shoot, I have lots of time so why not just head south down to Panama?’ That became plan B. In very short order, I forsook plan B for plan C, and then moved on to plans D, E, and F—all of which have caused me to put over 10,000 miles on the bike in the past three months. After running down along the Texas/Mexico border, I more or less followed the Gulf Coast to Florida and then came north along routes that brought periodic bouts of salt spray to my starboard side. I’ve just returned from three weeks in Newfoundland where the scenery is spectacular and I most definitely got a reprieve from hot weather. Right now, I’m in New Haven, house-sitting for my daughter and her family who won’t be returning home until July 18. Not long after that, I’ll head out again on ‘Popeye,’ my Suzuki V-Strom 650. The plan is to run down through the Appalachians to Chattanooga, cross over to spend some time in the Ozarks, and then at last strike out from there for Panama. I hope to reach Panama by early October, store the motorcycle there, then fly to Tampa to get my sailboat out of storage so as to

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enjoy Christmas in the Bahamas.

Then, of course, it will be time to return to Utah for a few months of skiing. As you can see, I am a slave to routine.” … On a much more somber note, we want to note the passing of Len Richards on July 27, 2017. He submitted these notes shortly before his death.

’61 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

John Cleary writes, “One could label my past month or so (January into February) simply: If it can go wrong, it’s guaranteed that it will go wrong. All of my earth-moving machines must have conducted a clandestine, midnight meeting, deciding to stop working en masse for whatever reason. My gas hot-water heater then joined their protest, along with my truck, my trailer tires, my excavator, two lawn mowers, chain saws, and four of my upper teeth (how they knew, I have absolutely no idea). I borrowed funds to get my one-ton truck back on the road so that I could haul my tractor to jobs. My gracious neighbors decided that I have done enough work for them without any reimbursement that they wanted to purchase a new water heater for me declaring, ‘You cannot live without hot water.’ I now agree. I have yet to find funds to replace the water pump for my excavator and even more funds to repair my lawn mowers. I smile with my lips closed and chew apples carefully.

‘We’ have started planting our spring vegetable gardens—a

month or two earlier than normal.

I ripped out my asparagus bed in December and replanted it on Christmas Day with a hybrid developed at Rutgers; my first extremely fast growth was nailed by a two-day frost, but now my second crop is already two feet high. This will allow me to harvest at least one stalk per root set this spring. Our winter has been warmer and wetter than normal with no white stuff, thankfully.

‘We’ refers to my local chapter of master gardeners. Similar to most societies, it expands my local social acquaintances. I respect my fellow hundred members because they volunteer in educating our tax-paying public about the enjoyment of gardening and nature. I therefore trust that I am ‘saving’ Mothership Earth, plus empowering people to both sustain and enjoy gifts from nature. Lastly, if I can put a smile on someone’s face every day, I fulfill both my daily purpose and passion, especially when a little dancing sneaks in sideways. I remain susceptible to good music and just cannot sit still; so, I dance a little every day with Lulu, my dog, in our kitchen just to feel good about my life.

Our festival season starts concurrently with Mardi Gras, followed by all sorts of spring festivals celebrating most anything one could choose, even frogs. I report a healthy heart once again. In December, my cardiologist put me through a stress test—walking on a treadmill—which I anticipated to be a cakewalk. In the end, however, I was ready to throw that dumb machine into the nearest drainage ditch. My heart did well, but my emotions did not. He was right; it was stressful, very stressful! I had no pain in my chest, but my calves hurt as his cute, smiling attendant kept increasing both the treadmill’s incline and its speed. Fortunately, I have kept

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my weight down to less than ten pounds more than my published college hockey weight—a big relief for my knees. Now my left hip is beginning to complain; I usually limp at each day’s end when Lulu and I visit our local dog park.

Tomorrow, I stick on a crushable old hat, chomp on an upsidedown corncob pipe (to keep the rain out—that is, what I refer to as ‘Maine sunshine’), wear shorts with gaiters over my boots and socks, utter lots of guttural grunts (‘ayah-up’), and try to look wise as I demonstrate how to plant camellias at our local master gardener’s camellia stroll—an annual free event for the public when our camellia garden is in full bloom. I truly do enjoy sharing laughter, even when on my muddy knees with dirty hands. Dirt helps us all to remain strong, healthy, beautiful, rich, interesting and able to jump tall buildings in a single bound. Did I forget anything? May we all enjoy another year, or two, above the grass?”

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’62 (reunion)

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Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Peter Weiner ’70 prepco@ncia.net

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Terry Jacobs ’65 haj3@jacobswyper.com

’66 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Peter Janney ’66 pj@apllon.com

’67 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT John Pfeifle ’67 603.938.5981

’68 CLASS CORRESPONDENT John Coles ’68 j.coles@rcn.com

’69 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jon Porter ’69 jwoodporter@cox.net

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CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dave Hagerman ’63 david.s.hagerman@gmail.com

Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

’64

’72 (reunion)

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Sandy Alexander ’64 salex88@comcast.net

It was great to hear from Gary Alex Circuit this time after so many years. This is the first time I can remember hearing from him since 1972. He still lives in Mexico and says he’s doing very well.

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Gary says he is in regular contact with Nat Mead and Stuart Porteous, but he was distressed to have learned recently about the passing of Roger Thomson on July 3, 2013. I am sad to say that I was not aware Roger had passed on either and feel badly that Gary and I seem to have been out of the loop. … From Grafton, MA, David Nicholson says he and his wife Suzie had a couple of great visits with Marguerite and Will Graham in the past year. “As you probably know, Will retired after ten years as headmaster at Midland School in Los Olivos, CA, and has moved back to South Dartmouth, MA,” David writes. He also said that their son, Bradley, got engaged to Rachel Cadwalleder-Staub on April 28, in Boulder, CO. “We now have two sons married and our third not far behind,” he adds. … Peter Kimball writes from Chatham on Cape Cod during a visit to his mother’s that he is honored to still be serving on Holderness School’s Board of Trustees, which, he says, is rewarding. … Jonathan Davie reports, “I am still teaching; next year will be my 40th year in the trenches, along with my wife Polly. This is our 26th year at Berwick, and before that we spent almost 15 years teaching at KUa. My kids are grown up and scattered, and I have two wonderful grandkids. Unfortunately, they live in Tanzania so I see them mostly via Skype. My son teaches at Montana State, my oldest daughter teaches at Fountain Valley School, and my middle kid lives with her husband and two kids in Arusha, Tanzania. She works with an nGo that provides administrative support for a number of indigenous environmental nGos in east Africa.” … I’m not sure whether these class notes will make it into print before September 23, but everyone at

Holderness joins me in hoping that as many classmates as possible will make it to Plymouth for our 45th reunion on that weekend. … Lucy and I continue to love being grandparents to two little girls—Libby, approaching age four, and Josie, approaching her first birthday—whether we are at our home in Duxbury, MA, or our seasonal home on Cape Cod in Dennis.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dwight Shepard ’72 shepdb@comcast.net

’73 It was good to hear from a number of you in response to my plea for class notes. … Michael Mixter expanded on the short note he sent me last time with the following: “It’s hard to believe I’ve been settled in Durango, CO, for 27 years, following the very nomadic ’80s, during which I was a traveling geologist and touring musician. Last year brought notable changes. While building a house on a wonderful property just south of Durango, I was laid off from my job as GIs and Pipeline Modeling Manager; better yet, I connected with a fabulous woman, also from New England, who now shares the house with me. The house is a civilized version of a Holderness fort in the woods. I now find myself semi-retired and loving life’s ultimate luxury—a healthy dose of unstructured time with which to enjoy the area’s abundant recreational opportunities. I do GIs work parttime and continue to be active in the local music scene, drumming with three bands, and singing and playing mandolin and guitar with two others. One combo is with my song-bird partner Patrice, and we have started doing a series of house concerts at my

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Mason Boucher ’75 and George Fox ’75

George Fox ’75 stopped by the Snoopy Rink in Sonoma County, CA, to visit David Rust ’75.

place. Patrice is a wonderful artist/painter who has a show and workshop coming up in Boston in the fall. Life is full and good. Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. If anyone’s in the Durango area, please be in touch: stixter52@gmail.com and (970) 259-3665.” … I also heard from Peter Garrison, who had the great opportunity to reconnect over lunch with Fred Savage from 43 years gone by. Peter also speaks to and sees Morgan Dewey on a regular basis. Peter hopes to get to Holderness in the fall of 2018 for Homecoming/Reunion Weekend. … Fred Savage writes, “After nearly 20 years in banking in NH (commercial and construction lending), I started a construction company with one of

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my customers. We operated successfully for nearly 15 years until the real estate-driven recession of 2009 brought a sudden halt to business. There was a rough patch there, but at least we were able to get both of our sons through college and out of the house! (Yes, we’ve changed the locks! lol) I have enjoyed an unexpected early retirement in Manchester and at our summer place on Merrymeeting Lake near Wolfeboro. My constant has been my active involvement in Manchester Kiwanis. The genesis of my mid-life crisis garbage band Permanent Vacation began during a chance discussion at a club meeting. It’s been my mental floss for nearly 10 years. Our wives like it too because it gets

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us out of the house for several hours at least once a week! We’ve enjoyed some fringe success in the greater Manchester area, including a headlining slot at InTown Manchester Concerts in the Park last summer. For you masochists, recordings of Permanent Vacation can be found at reverbnation.com/ permanentvacationnh.” … Peter Terry was in touch with Tim Scott and writes to all of the Class of ’73: “Hello boyssssssssssssssssss. I hope everybody is doing well. I’m still here in the trenches teaching French and Spanish in WinstonSalem. Let me know if you’re in the area. I am constantly telling my students to ‘get their money’s worth, boysssssssss!’” … And Jim Sargent weighs in from his new (old?) digs in Texas with the following: “Our distillery on Maui closed at the end of last year, simultaneously with the closure of Hawai’i’s last sugar plantation, our source of raw materials. We have moved back to Austin and now reside in the same house we bought in 1987. I am working as a parish administrator at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin.

Leslie is looking for a marketing role with an Austin company which can use some of her experience in marketing Maui spirits.

Son Eaton worked in the Texas House of Representatives this past session and is resuming his studies part time at the University of Texas at Austin. Younger son Wolf is still on Maui working as an apprentice.” … As for my news,

I’m starting to sound like a broken record. I hope to do another marathon in Narragansett, RI, in late October, and I am planning another trip out west in September to climb the state high points in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming with my eldest son, who lives in Ogden, UT. All four are technical climbs, so I have updated my last will and testament! Best to all, Dick.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dick Conant Jr. ’73 rconantjr@msn.com

’74 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Walter Malmquist ’74 wmalmquist@kingcon.com

’75 Hunter Ten Broeck is still designing and running Waterwise Landscapes in Albuquerque as well as helping put on a yearly conference, the Land & Water Summit. He and Barb still do lots of hiking and he’s been active in photography. … Chris Fraker writes, “Dear Mac and all the other members of the greatest graduating class ever to grace the halls and fields of Holderness School, I send greetings of fair winds and clear skies from the sovereign nation of Nantucket. I am happy to announce that my oldest daughter Jen, one of the vets on the island, and her husband Greg Bernard, had twin girls, Sophie and Abigail. I am finishing up my year as master of Union Lodge, the fifth-oldest lodge in the country (1771), and still build custom homes. If you find your way to my beautiful island home, please don’t hesitate to call or ask anyone where I am.

Best to all, Fraix.” … David Rust is “living the high life in Sonoma

CLASS NOTES

County, CA, while playing hockey at the Snoopy Rink where George Fox stopped in to see me. This coming spring, I will be rafting the Grand Canyon one more time.” …

As for me, our daughter, Annelise, graduated from Colby Sawyer in May. On the stage at her graduation was Colby Sawyer trustee and Holderness alumnus, parent, teacher, assistant headmaster, and coach Bill Clough ’57.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Mac Jackson ’75 skifarmer@live.com

’76 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Charlie Bolling ’76 chasgolf7@aol.com Biff Gentsch ’76 biffgentsch@gmail.com

’77 (reunion) With our 40th reunion fast approaching us, an amazing outpouring of greetings, facts, and old stories have been circulating fast and furiously! First, our humble thanks to the intrepid Jody Collins for heading up the Class of ’77 Reunion Planning Committee. Colly has been blitzing us with sound clips, a proposed alt schedule of events—including music and fort tours, as well as archival footage from the war fronts of the day.

Hambone (Jim Hamblin) chipped in with a nostalgic historical review by Erica Ashby ’18 that appeared in the May 15 edition of The Picador (a newsletter of sorts produced by the Holderness student body). Officially registered at the Holderness School Reunion page are: Rob Bacon and Sonia DeMarta, Ham Boynton and Ginger Rosacker, Jody Collins, Peter Grant and Ginny Finer, Jim

Hamblin, and Jef Sharp. Emails show that others will be arriving, including Brian Grady, Dave Dewey, Viveca (Anderson) Duffield, Christy Houpis, Craig Antonides, Peter King, Bob Bohner, Jeremy Baulf, Karl Peters, Mike Granger, Peter Wahlstrom, Mike Kraft, and Brad Bruner. … From Vicky (Anderson) Duffield: “I can’t believe it is our 40th this year! I remember planning our 10th when I was pregnant with our first child, who now has a child of her own. Fond greetings to all!” …

From none other than Mr. Jody Collins in July: “Looking forward to sharing cold beers and hearing about what you’ve been up to for the past four decades.” And in March: “Depending on your whereabouts, you still have a ton of snow or spring arrived a month early with flowers blooming and leaves already on some trees.

Enough prose. Last count we had at least 25 alumni and their better halves opting in for a reunion weekend of fun and frivolity.

Peace out my brothers and sisters.

Forever blee, The Colly Kid.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Peter Grant ’77 pete@grantcom.us

’78 Horace Greeley wasn’t a member of the Class of ’78, but a fair number of our lot took the editorial advice of the esteemed publisher and headed west as young men to seek their fortunes. … One of our western-most colleagues is David Parker, who calls Washington state home. But Dave is spending part of his summer in Maine and New Hampshire, taking part in a mobile mini-Holderness reunion of sorts. “I’m coming back to Maine and will go for a long bike ride in the White Mountains with

Mac Jackson ’75 snapped a photo of his family posing after his daughter Annelise’s graduation from Colby Sawyer in May 2017.

Andrew Sawyer ’79 and Kirk Siegel,” David writes. “We hope to finish up at Tim Scott’s ’73 house in Jackson, NH. We hope he has ice cream in his freezer.” … Chris Cushing checks in from Utah where his travels as a designer of ski resorts take him so far west that it becomes east. Cush says he’s been spending a lot time in China. “Many current engagements are in China, where the ski business is booming in anticipation of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing,” he writes. A little closer to home, Cush spent some time in Denver during the summer of 2017 and ran into classmate Hal Hawkey at a hotel breakfast. Hal

was meeting with a member of the Holderness Board of Trustees, according to Cush, although he’s not sure which one. Cush has been using the wonders of technology to stay in touch with several more of our classmates.

He has exchanged texts and phone calls with Peter Quinn and reports Quinny is doing well.

Cush had also exchanged texts with Toby Babcock and heard from him recently when Kirk Siegel was visiting Bay in Vermont. “They were playing pool, and judging from the texted dialogue, tipping back more than just a few frosties,” Cush reports. … Our check-in with far flung

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’82 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Chris Pesek ’82 952.303.4755

’83 Erik Burbank writes, “It has been a long time since my last note; I’m mostly just chugging along making commercials. We did welcome our first grand baby to the family back in November 2016—Axell Thomas Burbank. He’s going to be a bruiser, 22 pounds at 6 months. Maybe a DT for the Bulls in a few years...”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jane Randolph Jensen ’83 jane2jensen@gmail.com

’84 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Fred Ludtke ’84 ludtke4@gmail.com Matthew Paige ’78 in Bikita, Zimbabwe, while playing on a business trip for Owens Corning. Matt (in the yellow safety vest) is shown standing on 1.1-billion-year-old Li ore talking rocks. The darker rocks in the background are 4.4 billion years old. According to Matthew, these are some of the oldest exposed rocks in the world.

classmates ends just east of Columbus, OH, where Matt Paige is located. Matt, his wife Gillian, and their dog Luke live in Granville, OH. Matt works for Owens Corning in the company’s Composite Fiber Glass Division as a geologist/glass scientist. “I work with industrial mineral companies that supply the milled rocks that we melt to make glass, and at Owens Corning plants on production projects,” he writes. “I spend more than 50 percent of my time abroad, mostly in Asia and Europe, and in Mexico as well.

This year, I got to go to southern Africa.” … As for your humble class correspondent, I’m about to hit the 20-year mark at the New Haven Register. My sons are also

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currently following Mr. Greeley’s advice. My oldest, Zack, is in graduate school at the University of Texas, where he is studying to be a social studies teacher (shades of Don Henderson and Ted Fitts).

Jake, my youngest, is attending school in California. My wife Joan indexes books for a living and recently worked on Minnesota Senator Al Franken’s latest book.

Well, gang, to borrow a line from singer Alan Jackson, “We’re outta here. Keep it between the navigational beacons.”

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CLASS CORRESPONDENT Luther Turmelle ’78 lturmelle@spc.global.net

’81

holderness school today | FALL 2017

Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

’80 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Greg White ’80 ggnh@aol.com

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Baskin ’81 william.baskin.law.90@aya.yale.edu

’85 Nat Barker writes, “My daughter Halle starts this fall at Holderness—Class of 2021. She is the third generation in our family to attend: grandfather Bill ’62, me ’85, my sister Nina ’89, and brother-in-law Michael Brogna ’91.

Wow! Too many at Holderness.” …

Colby Coombs reports, “I visited the H-place last fall and went for a bike ride with Phil Peck just like the old days. He barely broke a sweat while I was out of breath.

I just got off my annual Navy seal training course to the top of Denali. It’s pretty fun being over 50 and tied to these warriors.

Earlier this spring I had an allfemale group of wounded veterans fly into the Alaska Range and train for Denali. I never served, so this is how I relate. All thanks to Holderness’s Outdoor

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A picture from Brad Greenwood’s ’89 trip to the Troll Peninsula on the northern tip of Iceland this April

Three-and-a-half-year-old Luc Christophe, and 15-month-old Raoul Arthur, sons of Suzie Jacinthe ’87

Club and Tommy Teeton.” …

Gillian Kirby is living in South Africa and writes, “Wow! Our class must be getting close to having grandchildren announcements! No major news to report. I am thoroughly enjoying living in Johannesburg, South Africa, despite the political turmoil and corruption. There’s so much to see and do in South Africa and the neighboring countries. It has been an incredible adventure. I would love to hear from old classmates if they are travelling this way.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jean-Louis Trombetta ’85 jeanlouistrombetta@gmail.com

’86 Lee Fuller Lawrason reports, “After five years on Nantucket, working at Nantucket Cottage Hospital, my husband and I have ‘gone back to America’ (as the islanders call leaving the island for the mainland). We’re back in VT! Phoebe is 16 and loving

school on the Cape. My husband Jock and I are taking the summer off from hospital work to clear our land and settle into our 18th-century cape.” … Bob Gregg and his family are in Vienna, VA, “where I’m starting my ninth year as the head at Green Hedges School, which is preschool through grade eight. My wife Kathy is an English teacher at Holton-Arms School in Bethesda. Our daughter, Ellie, will be a senior at Mercersburg Academy, Ruby will be a freshman at Episcopal High School, and Anna will be in fifth grade here at Green Hedges. Each of the older girls caught the boarding school bug when attending my reunions at Holderness! Maybe Anna will go to Holderness someday. The younger girls are heavily invested in lacrosse, which keeps us busy and broke. We recently ran into Mike Hillegass ’88 at a lacrosse game.” … Taylor Hubbard writes, “I’m living in Waitsfield, VT, with my wife. I’ve been teaching first and second grade for 25 years. Ella, 17, and Grace, 15, both attend Green Mountain Valley

School (a ski academy). My wife teaches there as well. It seems like just yesterday we were graduating. Time flies!” … Chris Childs has branched out from the ski industry to the outdoor industry.

“The brands I represent are sWIX, MIssIon, Tasc Performance, Farm to Feet, natIVe Eyewear, Dermatone, Booster Strap, and Ripclear lens protection,” he writes. “My wife and I are going to be celebrating our 18th anniversary this year, and my 16-year-old daughter just made the National Honor Society! I will be visiting Matt Reynolds at the end of July up at his place in Bar Harbor, ME. We have been going there since we were kids!” … Elise Mott notes, “We have been in Concord, MA, for the last twenty years. I’m starting my 24th year teaching social studies at The Fenn School in Concord, where my son, Henry will be starting fourth grade. We also have two graduating Fenn students heading to Holderness next year. Leila, my 16-year-old, will be starting her junior year at Concord Carlisle High School and is skiing! I’ve been in touch with Jenny Ellis who is coming to the Boston area in July with her daughter for a hockey tournament. Last fall, I had the pleasure of stopping off at Holderness after taking a hike and had an awesome visit with Franz Nicolay. I

was really impressed with the arts facilities, especially the gallery!

It’s amazing to think that many of us will be (gulp) turning 50 next year. I would love to make it back for a reunion and see everyone!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Chris Zak ’86 chriszak@gmail.com

’87 (reunion) The big news is that this is our 30th reunion year! It will be such a great time, seeing the campus, old friends, and teachers. … After twenty plus years in Arizona, Denise Bresnahan moved to Louisville, KY, with her two yellow labs. Denise is hoping to come to reunion too. … Suzie Jacinthe reports, “I still work for the US Agency for International Development (UsaId) as a foreign service health officer. I just finished four years in Ghana, West Africa, working in hIV/aIds. As of August, I will move to Uganda in east Africa, to take on a new position centered on strengthening health systems. I’m definitely riding life’s adventure waves as I now have two little monster muffins: Luc Christophe, three and one half years old, and Raoul Arthur, 15 months old.” Sadly, Suzie cannot make it to reunion. … I am still living in Providence, RI, and we

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CLASS NOTES

Cora Mae and Charlie, daughters of Brad Greenwood ’89

are doing well. I am excited to get back up to Holderness; it has been way too long. I hope to see you there! Kath CLASS CORRESPONDENT Kathryn Lubrano Robinson ’87 kathryn.robinson@gmail.com

’88 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Alex MacCormick ’88 amaccormick@centerlanellc.com Steve Walker ’88 stevewalkeremail@gmail.com

’89 Brad Greenwood writes, “The Greenwoods are all healthy and have been on our normal path of running around, having fun, working, and living life as large as we can. This winter we skied as a family in Squaw Valley, Jay Peak, and Le Massif. I had a Helly Hansen sales meeting in Sweden, so on the way, I stopped in Iceland to ski tour for a few days, which was an amazing experience—remote towns, big mountains, steep lines, incredible

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views. So far this summer we have been riding mountain and road bikes, swimming, playing tennis, boating, fishing, and trying to make the best of summer in Maine. Cora Mae turns nine and Charlie seven this summer, so the red-headed girls are growing fast and getting furious! They are a blast and great to have in our lives. If anyone is near Kittery, ME, look us up.” … Once again Tracy McCoy Gillette organized all kinds of Vail fun this past January. Those joining in included Sara deLima Tansill, Jen Comstock Reed, Christy Wood Donovan, Jen Murphy Robison, Alix Rosen Hong, Sarah Trainor Pflaum, Dolly Norton, Mimi Maloney, Danyelle Wolf Taylor, and honorary class of ’89er Alex MacCormick ’88. It was great to have Phil Peck join us for dinner and to see Mike Erlanger at the Bowl. … As for me, work and kids are keeping me running in Marblehead. We had a great family ski trip to Chamonix in February, and Sam (11) and I just got back from an amazing Dolomites trip in July. We will be up at Squam in August and hope

holderness school today | FALL 2017

Brad ’89 and Megan Greenwood and Tiaan van der Linde ’89 and kids at Jay Peak in Vermont during a great day of skiing

to fit in a visit to campus. Hope to see more of you soon!

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jen Murphy Robison ’89 jennifermrobison@yahoo.com

’90 Happiness is meeting an old friend after a long time and feeling like nothing has changed. …

Courtney has passed on our class correspondent torch to me! I am thrilled to take on this role!

Courtney has done this job, I think, since we graduated! How many years ago? Chapeau to her! … Courtney Fleisher writes, “I appreciate Nina taking over class notes for me! It means I can work on some more innovative methods to volunteer for Holderness, so you haven’t heard the last of me! I’ve been splitting the rest of my volunteer time across many organizations to support human rights in our country in these crazy political times. Cheers to Head’s Holiday work days and Service Committee projects (much appreciated Doc O) for instilling in me the value of giving back and supporting those less

fortunate than I. May we all find ways to put this lesson learned at Holderness into practice this year!” … As many of you know, I lived in the Alps for nearly 13 years and returned about four years ago to the states. The first two years we were back, I had the pleasure of visiting Holderness, a lot! The campus looked amazing and the students were equally engaging! I spent a day throwing pots in the ceramics studio with Franz Nicolay, skiing the amazing Nordic trails, and working out in the weight room. Think of how much stronger we could have been in our days! Being there on campus reinforced what a special place Holderness was for me and how it continues to be a game changer for so many students today. Please take a moment to think back on your experience at Holderness and consider giving back to the school, so Holderness can continue to impact so many young lives. Now, I am living in Park City, UT, with my two boys, now nine and 13, and my husband, Michael Silitch ’79. Yup! We met initially through Holderness alumni class notes, and on our first date we went ice

CLASS NOTES

climbing! Go figure! I wonder how many Holderness marriages have been formed through class notes?

Rumor has it I may take over his ’79 class notes as no one seems to be stepping up to the plate! I love my job teaching fifth grade, now in a French dual immersion program. Michael works as the Executive Director of the Bryce and Ronnie Athlete Snow Safety Foundation (Brass), a non-profit whose mission is to create educational programs and best safety practices for snow sports athletes to further their physical and psychological well-being. Holderness values are a part of our daily lives as a family and in my profession as an educator, athlete, and a coach. If it were not for Holderness, I would not be where I am today. For this I am so thankful! One thing that I am excited about is the future of the sport of ski mountaineering. I competed in this sport for nearly seven years at the World Cup level. After a long road, the sport has been accepted into the Olympics. I am excited to help build and coach a junior team as we prepare for the Junior World Olympic Games in 2020 in Lausanne, Switzerland. …

So we may have won some Lakes Region Championships and Prep School Championships in our years at Holderness, but we certainly are not winning any titles in the class notes. Here are the few Bulls that have written in with summer news. Thank you! …

Sarah Campbell writes from her home in Glouster, MA, that she is keeping herself busy with her children and her new home health care business called Green Heron Home Care. Her daughter, Addie, now 10, has taken to lacrosse (following in her mom’s footsteps!), and also plays soccer, much to her mom’s field hockey chagrin. They are keeping busy this summer with sailing and ten-

Miles ’90 and Lex Barnard with grandsons Max, Teddy and Henry

nis. Her son Alastair is now four and keeps her on her toes as she keeps a close watch on his safety in the ocean. … Miles Barnard writes in, “I don’t have a whole lot of exciting things going on. My business, South Fork Studio Landscape Architecture, is now in its 16th year and does seem to dominate my life. I’m always trying to figure out how to change that, but I try to make my three grandkids a priority—all boys, 18 months, three and a half years, and six and a half years. They live over in Baltimore, and I continue to live in Chestertown, MD, with my wife Lex, so we see them often. I try to fly fish as much as possible and when I can’t fish, I’m tying flies. I get to New Hampshire at least once per year to visit my parent and grandparents, all who still live on Lake Winnipesaukee.” Miles also reports that he is busy with work and getting ready for his summer trip to Telluride! … Johannah Hatch Mackin writes from Nashville, TN, where she lives with her husband and children.

She writes that she was able to visit campus and see Phil Peck on her way to Maine. They thoroughly enjoyed their visit and catching up with Phil. Hannah teaches literature at a small private school. She and her husband Daryl founded a non-profit called A Soldier’s Child, which celebrates birthdays for children who have lost a mother or father in the

Rick Eccleston ’92 with classmate Jed Hoyer ’92, who was this year’s Holderness Commencement speaker

military. It has grown into summer camps, mentor programs, hunting and fishing retreats, college scholarships, and more. It serves close to 3,000 kids from every state in the nation and was featured on esPn during Veterans Day weekend. Not only have they started a non-profit, but they have also written books, yes plural, about non-profits and leaving a legacy to children. Be sure to look up these two amazing individuals and what they are doing for their community! … Old friends, they shine like diamonds, Old friends, you can always call, Old friends Lord, you can’t buy ’em. You know it’s old friends after all. – GUy clarK … Keep in touch!

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Nina Cook Silitch ’90 ninasilitch@gmail.com

’91 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Terra Reilly ’91 sansivera@gmail.com

’92 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Kelly Mullen Wieser ’92 kelly@wiesermail.com

’93 Ginny Kingman Schreiber reports, “We have just returned from our annual trip to Martha’s Vineyard to see my East Coast family. We tried something new this time and rented a large home in Edgartown for the ten days we were there. (My family sold my grandparent’s Vineyard home last September after over 50+ years of memories.) We sure love the fireflies (we don’t have them on the West Coast) and the Fourth of July island celebrations. I will

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CLASS NOTES

Jake Norton ’92 speaking with some of the youngest members of the Holderness community about his photographs on display in the Edwards Art Gallery this spring

begin my 10th year teaching middle school drama and directing the theater productions at Forest Ridge School in Bellevue, WA, in September. I teach at an all-girls school, so it is a nice balance to the three boys that I am raising at home. Life is busy and full of noise and messes, but my husband, Chris, and I manage it pretty well most of the time. And coffee and wine definitely help too!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Lindsay Dewar Fontana ’93 linds_dewar@yahoo.com

’94 Travis Aldrich writes, “After a few years as the upper school director at Vail Mountain School, I am excited to announce that I have been named as the new head of school at the Peak School in Frisco, CO.” CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Sam Bass ’94 samuel.g.bass@gmail.com Ramey Harris-Tatar ’94 rameyht@yahoo.com

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’95 CLASS CORRESPONDENT John Farnsworth ’95 jpfarns@yahoo.com

’96 John Van Slyke reports, “We’re still in Seattle and life has changed quite a bit for us. A few years ago, I moved on from Amazon and now work with Redfin, where I lead the marketing team. I work to tell folks how our team is using technology in new ways to re-define an industry in the customer’s favor. In more personal news, our son joined us a little over 15 months ago. His enthusiasm for learning new things (and for his Holderness hat) is infectious. We’re having a blast watching him grow and are relishing the opportunity to introduce him to the outdoors. Of note, teaching him how to run around without using our waaaaaaay too patient dogs as his walker has been comical at best.

In case life wasn’t full of enough, we bought a home in May on an amazing piece of land. We’re rapidly learning that we’re surrounded by an amazing community and are settling in nicely.

Our neighbors have made us feel

holderness school today | FALL 2017

completely welcome, and we’re looking forward to giving back and becoming an active part of the neighborhood during the little down time we have. We also managed to squeeze in a visit back to our house on the Cape and were lucky enough to catch up with Chris Haas, who was visiting family, while we were there. It was an absolute pleasure to spend time with him, get to know his daughters a little bit, see his mom and dad again, and hear the latest about how he’s pursuing his dreams—and kicking serious butt too! If you’re ever in Seattle, please reach out because we’d love to connect; we have plenty of room for guests if you need a friendly place to crash and/or a good meal.” … Kristen Stout Lovelock writes, “About 25 years after winning a gold in the Slalom Junior Olympics and a whole career practicing art (making, curating, researching, and teaching), I’ve finally started putting my body to the test again, and the old form is back! I’ve just qualified for the (amateur) road race World Champs by doing an 80-mile race at 22.1 MPh! I’ve also had some success with time trialing, getting a speedy PB, and winning a ttt at Silverstone.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Heather Pierce Roy ’96 heatherbpierce@hotmail.com

’97 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Putney Haley Pyles ’97 putneypyles@gmail.com

’98 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Tara Walker Hamer ’98 taraphotography@gmail.com

’99 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Brooke Aronson McCreedy ’99 brooke.mccreedy@gmail.com

’00 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Andrew “Sully” Sullivan ’00 myireland20@gmail.com

’01 Christine Hann writes, “My husband Aaron and I are in our tenth year living on Haida Gwaii (an island off of British Columbia’s northwest coast). Our two kids, Sean, two, and Claire, four, are growing like weeds! I am teaching high school science this year and will be trying something new next year with my role as an athletics director, guidance counselor, and physical education teacher! We were able to spend some muchneeded time with Jessica Ippolito Hann ’03 in May and are hoping to see Jarret Hann really soon!” …

“I still live in Portland, ME, and love it. Visitors are always welcome!” notes Jennifer Crane.

“The main update for me is that after six years of working in development at Bowdoin College, I’ve accepted a new role as Director of Advancement at the University of Maine School of Law.” …

Patrick Regan reports, “After eight years on active duty, I left the Army JaG Corps in August 2016 and started working as a trial attorney for Progressive Insurance. My wife Katy and I are living in Richmond, VA, with our two boys Hayden, 11, and Brennan, six. Life in the civilian world has been great, and I don’t regret my decision to leave active duty. I did join the Reserves though and was promoted to Major this past fall. I don’t get up to New Hampshire any more, but

CLASS NOTES

Hilary Patzer ’98 (center) visited with Phil Peck and Kristina Casey (right) in 2015. Says Hilary, “This fully represents one of my biggest competitors from 1996–2000 and one of the most influential coaches I have ever had. It was an amazing visit.”

Joey Mormina ’01 catching up with former faculty member Pat Dennehy during a recruiting trip to Choate in January

I wear my Holderness lacrosse hat frequently when coaching my boys down here in Virginia.” …

Joey Mormina writes, “I was recruiting back in January and got a chance to watch Pat Dennehy’s team at Choate. His son Shawn was playing, and I haven’t seen him since he was a year old back at Holderness. Talk about life coming full circle, right?!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Karyn Hoepp Jennings ’01 karynpjennings@gmail.com Adam Lavallee ’01 a.l.lavallee@gmail.com Sophie Moeller ’01 sophmoe@gmail.com

’02 (reunion) Sarah Hendel had a busy year: “My husband Tomás and I moved to Texas last summer and closed on a house this spring—just in time to welcome our son Eben on July 4.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Betsy Pantazelos ’02 b.pantazelos@gmail.com

’03 Neal Frei writes, “I ran into Tim Barnhorst ’00 at Jay Peak at the end of March. He was up on the mountain with his wife and two kids and another young family enjoying the weekend. He is loving life, living in Rye, NH, working for an insurance company that provides insurance to ski mountains. Consequently, he has been able to get out on the slopes a bunch this winter and has skied in over 13 different states just this season.” Tim was Neal’s tour guide when he was applying to Holderness. The tour and the interactions that he had with Tim during the admission process had a huge influence in Neal’s decision to attend Holderness. … Amy Laverack Nordblom notes, “Todd Nordblom ’04 and I have a oneyear-old daughter Lucy who has been a ton of fun to chase around. We see Joy Erdman Larkin ’04 when she is back East with her son Trey. Adding to the Holderness baby train, we were

able to see Joel Bradley ’02 and Ben Rossetter ’02 at a baby shower for Joel and his wife Elissa!

Always fun to run into other alumni.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Nick Payeur ’03 ndpayeur@gmail.com

’04 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Ryan McManus ’04 rbmcmanus@gmail.com

’05 Brie Keefe notes, “It’s been a busy 2017! This May I earned my MEd from the University of Vermont in Interdisciplinary Studies of Education. My fiancé Mike and I purchased our first home in June and got married in July! I hope everyone is doing well! Go Bulls!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Brie Keefe ’05 brie.keefe@gmail.com

’06 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging

Britt Ruegger ’02, Blake Barber ’01, Fordy Sinkinson ’02, and Kerry Douglas ’02 at the top of Highlands Bowl in Aspen, January 2017

your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

Molly Nissi has been hanging out with Ax Hayssen ’07 in San Francisco, and they both miss Tory Hayssen a lot. … Blair Thompson Bruning writes, “I recently was a bridesmaid in Hilary Nichols’ wedding over Memorial Day weekend in Boston.

Also in attendance were Anne Richardson, Tai Haluszka, Ben Trook, and fellow bridesmaid Susan Taylor ’05. I’m actually headed over to Hilary and Dave’s apartment [in mid-July] for a mini housewarming celebration! My husband and I will be moving from New York City to Los Angeles later this summer and would love to connect with any Holderness alumni on the West Coast! I will be starting a new role at Polskin Partners—a PR firm specifically for the arts—immediately after Labor Day.” … “I live in Cambridge, MA, with my cat, bulldog, and fiancé (long-standing Holderness Artward Bound poetry educator, Anthony Febo),” reports Carlie Bristow. “I have visited my partner the past two years during AB and have loved catching up with the teachers and meeting the students at Holderness. I was recently pro-

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CLASS NOTES

A group of Bulls pose for a photo during Channing Weymouth ’02 and Luke Warner’s wedding reception on August 27, 2016. Picture taken by Erin Wheat.

moted in my role at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston where I am a museum educator.

This past year, I co-founded the artist collective Make Art and Cry, and in July we wrapped our first exhibition.”

’07 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Annie Hanson ’07 annie.e.hanson@gmail.com

’08 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jessi White ’08 white.jessica.madigan@gmail.com

’09 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Meg McNulty ’09 mmcnulty@mail.smcvt.edu Allison Stride ’09 astride@elon.edu

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Abby Alexander ’10 abigail.jane.alexander@gmail.com Ashleigh Boulton ’10 amayboulton@gmail.com John McCoy ’10 johnsmccoy92@gmail.com

’10 Nathan McBeath is living in Boston and working as a consultant at Deloitte Consulting llP. …

Aubrey Tyler writes, “I am living in Minneapolis and just finished the first year of my three-year master’s program for landscape architecture. This summer I’m working on some exciting projects

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around the Twin Cities, ranging from community master planning and park design to re-imagining post-industrial spaces. In August, I will be visiting my brother, Ben Tyler ’07, in Amsterdam where he lives with his wife.” … Tizzy Brown reports, “I am continuing to work in Democratic politics at a think tank in DC that focuses on centrist policy. In this capacity, I spend a lot of time working with congressmen and senators from purple and red districts all over the country. When I’m not working, I get back up to New Hampshire as much as possible, spending a lot of time on Winnipesaukee and catching up with Holderness friends.”

Em Pettengill ’10 ehpettengill@gmail.com

’11 Klaus Vitzthum is still working in Boston and seeing Holderness alumni in the area. … Julien Klaudt-Moreau writes, “For the

holderness school today | FALL 2017

Tim Barnhorst ’00 and Neal Frei ’03 spotted each other while skiing at Jay Peak in March.

last two years I have spent much of my time managing international surgical mission trips to Vietnam, Peru, and Nepal. This summer I took a break from healthcare to work at Coca-Cola until I start my degree in public health this fall.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Cecily Cushman ’11 cncushman@gmail.com Mandy Engelhardt ’11 Amanda.engelhardt29@gmail.com Sam Macomber ’11 samuel.macomber@gmail.com Jamie McNulty ’11 jamcnulty20@gmail.com

’12 (reunion) Eliza Cowie is finishing up her final year at St. Lawrence University. “I am still on the alpine ski team, serve as the vice president of chapter development for Tri-Delta Sorority, and work as an admissions ambassador,” she writes. “Over the summer I worked for Congresswoman Ann McLane Kuster in DC and got to see some Holderness people!

Finally, I am working on an hon-

ors thesis that is focused on my time spent in Kenya last year.” …

Peter Ferrante reports, “I graduated from CU Boulder last year and have been enjoying Colorado life since, exploring the mountains as much as possible. Come August, I will be moving to Washington, DC, with my girlfriend and our new puppy.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Matthew Kinney ’12 mnkinn12@gmail.com Alex Leininger ’12 alexbleininger@yahoo.com Kristina Micalizzi ’12 kmicalizzi08@gmail.com Steph Symecko ’12 ssymecko@gmail.com

’13 Caleb (Nungesser) McDermott reports, “I just graduated from Boston University and am starting a company with four friends of mine; we’re creating a platform that connects people with their elected officials to provide easy and effective communication through a mobile application.

Right now we are alpha testing

CLASS NOTES

Chris ’11 and Scott ’14 Merrill returned to Holderness with their parents in May to watch their sister Tori ’17 graduate.

the product with Massachusetts constituents and officials from the Massachusetts State House. I’m also pursuing a career in the music industry and am hoping to tour by 2018.” … Francis Miles writes, “I just graduated and am moving to Jackson Hole, WY, to work with my brother on making movies.”

It looks like I might end up flying for the Marines after having passed my flight aptitude test, but I am still considering an infantry or ground intelligence Mos. I have been keeping in touch with various members of the Classes of 2014 and 2016 and look forward to seeing as many faces as possible at our fifth reunion next year.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Kelly DiNapoli ’13 kelldinap@gmail.com

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS CoCo Clemens ’14 conner.clemens@hws.edu

’14

Tess O’Brien ’14 tmobrien@uvm.edu

Noah Robert Thompson reports, “Currently I’m entering my senior year at Norwich University and my final year in the nrotc program. I attended a six-week Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in July, which was the last hurdle before commissioning as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. My training so far has taken me to the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains in California at the Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, and to various parts of New England and the East Coast. I got to serve as a platoon sergeant at Norwich this past year, which served to be an invaluable leadership opportunity.

Samuel Paine ’14 sfpaine@gmail.com Garrett Phillips ’14 gwphil14@stlawu.edu Elizabeth Powell ’14 epowell@conncoll.edu Stephen Wilk ’14 802.786.2255

’15 Anna Nell Stanley notes, “I am working at Lola 42 which just opened in the Seaport in Boston; many may know Lola 41 from Nantucket. I will be transferring

Nick Renzi ’12 with Head of School Phil Peck and his brother Jake ’17, one of Holderness School’s most recent graduates

Graduates of the Class of 2016—Julia Thulander, Avery Morgan, and Anne SmythHammond—who returned to Holderness for graduation in May

to Emmanuel College in the fall and am hoping to get an internship with nBc sports.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Hope Heffernan ’15 hheffer1@villanova.edu

’16

’17 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST class notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!

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AT THIS POINT IN TIME

An Investigation into the Holderness School Fort Tradition

A photo from Scott Latham’s senior page in the 1977 Dial; An illustration from the 1890 Ollapodrida, a school publication that ran from 1889 to 1892.

by erica ashby ’18 When walking, running, or skiing the Holderness School trails, you may pass the old ski hut, an A-frame shack, even a random hole.

A half mile into the woods you might also experience an eerie, mysterious feeling. It might be the natural landscape of the forest, but it could also be that below your feet lies the underground system of forts, some constructed by Holderness students over a hundred years ago.

A Holderness teacher once told me that he had found a symbol, representing a secret club, while flipping through a 1970s yearbook.

Curious, I went to the Holderness School archives to investigate. Sure enough, I found the two pages with photos of a fort and the title “Stalag 14 Construction Crew” next to the biographies of three students. To find out more about this hole in the ground, I contacted the alumni in the photo, and they were able to confirm that the hole in the ground was a secretive fort! Later I travelled into the Holderness woods to find the remains of this fort.

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Once the story on Stalag 14 was published in e Picador (Holderness School’s student enewspaper), emails piled in from alumni who explained that they too had created forts on the Holderness campus. Fort building at Holderness School was not just a trend but a tradition.

It turns out that fort building on the Holderness School campus dates back to 1880, a year after the school’s founding. In 1880, Headmaster Gray encouraged students to build forts, because he believed that if they were preoccupied with construction, they would not cause trouble in town. Forts were also passed down from one class to the next, instilling the tradition.

While digging through yearbooks, talking with alumni, and searching through the woods, I discovered more about the secrets of the forts.

I learned that Stalag 14 was named after a German prison camp during World War II, and Arpinum was named after Cicero’s mountainside retreat outside of Rome. One of the first forts was run by parliamentary procedure, and students kept records of its meetings.

Some forts even had wood-burning stoves!

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | FALL 2017

During the 1970s, the administration changed their perspective and began to discourage the construction of forts on campus. is, however, did not stop students. In fact, it made the forts more secretive, and students invented ways to camouflage them. One underground fort on the lower fields had trees planted on top of it to disguise it. Stalag 14 had a secret tree stump door, and a fort on the bluff above Interstate-93 was built out of stolen plywood.

Alumni expressed that these forts were not just structures but places where they learned some of life’s important lessons. George Fox ’75 explains, “It was an interesting era to be coming of age, and Arpinum was so empowering for me as I was beginning to sort out my direction by rejecting most of the normal pathways.”

“What is interesting,” David Parker ’78 adds, “is that while what we were doing in those forts was obviously against school policy, on the other hand, it clearly showed we were motivated, organized, industrious craftsmen, forming friendships for life.”

Elaborate forts, students smoking, dorm windows lined with beer cans. It’s hard to imagine the lives pictured in the photos in the old Holderness School yearbooks. As we walk the Holderness paths, we think and talk about Holderness in the twenty-first century but forget about the thousands of students who have walked the same paths before us. ere are likely many other forts, stories, and legacies underneath us and we don’t even know it. • editor’s note: Erica Ashby ’18 is working to put together a pamphlet with descriptions and stories connected to the forts on the Holderness School campus. Please contact her at eashby@holderness.org if you have any information and/or stories you wish to share!

GRIT. IT’S IN OUR DNA.

Learning at Holderness involves challenge, collaboration, perseverance, struggle, and ultimately accomplishment.

This develops the Holderness grit, resiliency, and spirit that our students and alumni are known for. Your gift today makes these Holderness experiences possible.

MOST DAYS, MUSIC FROM THE STUDIO IN LOWER CARPENTER REACHES INTO THE RAFTERS ON THE THIRD FLOOR AND SPILLS OUT ONTO THE LIVERMORE COMMON. THIS FALL IS NO EXCEPTION; WITH A NEW MUSIC DIRECTOR AND A NEW SELECTION OF RECRUITS, THE STUDIO IS AS LIVELY AS EVER. HERE SERGIO YAP ’19 AND FRIENDS REHEARSE WITH MUSIC DIRECTOR ALEX SISCO.

DONATE SECURELY ONLINE AT WWW.GIVETOHOLDERNESS.ORG Thank you for your support!

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PAID AUBURN, ME PERMIT NO. 82

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY THE MAGAZINE OF HOLDERNESS SCHOOL FALL 2017

CHAPEL LANE PO BOX 1879 PLYMOUTH, NH 03264-1879

INSIDE: r In Support of Creative Thinking r Catching Up with Emily Zabransky r Commencement 2017 THE EDWARDS ART GALLERY CONTINUES TO BE A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION, CONTEMPLATION, AND EDUCATION FOR THE GREATER HOLDERNESS COMMUNITY. ABOVE, TIA TANG ’18 TAKES NOTES ON THIS FALL’S EXHIBIT, “HELEN NICOLAY: ARTIST/WRITER, SPANNING THE CENTURIES.”