Holderness School Today Summer 2023

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

HOLDERNESS GIVES BACK

17 THE HOLDERNESS STEM inists

Board of Trustees

Kat Alfond ’90

Karyn Campbell

Katie Crumbo

Cecily Cushman ’11

Chris Davenport ’89

Andrew Davis

Paul John Ferri

Dr. Elizabeth Gardner

John Hayes

The Right Rev. Robert Hirschfeld

Burgie Howard ’82

Chris Keating ’81

Rob Kinsley ’88

Flip Kistler ’85

Anne Lompo

Chip Martin ’88

Joe Miles ’82

Simon Parmett

Nell Reynolds, Chair

Sander van Otterloo ’94

Richard Vieira

CJ Vincent ’06

Chance Wright ’14

Sung You ’01

Headmaster Emeritus

R. Phillip Peck

The Rev. Brinton W. Woodward, Jr.

Honorary Trustees

Warren C. Cook

Bob Hall

Jim Hamblin ’77

Piper Orton ’74

W. Dexter Paine III ’79

Will Prickett ’81

Holderness School Today is printed by RC Brayshaw & Company, LLC.

Please send notice of address changes to the Advancement Office, PO Box 1879, Plymouth, NH 03264, or advancement@ holderness.org. ©2023 Holderness School.

EDITOR: Greg Kwasnik

CONTRIBUTORS: Thea Dodds, Andy Herring, Greg Kwasnik

DESIGN & PRODUCTION: Tessa Magnuson, Align Graphic Design, LLC

PHOTOGRAPHY: Alyssa Barbossa ’24, Drake Dearborn ’25, Thea Dodds, Zander Doyle ’24, George Fox ’75, Andrew Herring, Max Paro ’17, Owen Pethic ’24, Stella Regan ’26, Grady Taylor ’25, Fine Windhagen ’25, Common Man for Ukraine.

ON THE FRONT COVER: Head of School John McVeigh and students after volunteering at the New Hampshire Food Bank, Feb. 16 2023. Photo by Greg Kwasnik.

FROM THE SCHOOLHOUSE

“ENJOY WHILE YOU CAN, ENDURE WHEN YOU MUST.”

Randy Houseman, the intrepid director of our Out Back program, first uttered these words to me shortly after I accepted the position of head of school at Holderness. In the time since, I've heard this motto repeatedly from our alums as they recounted their treasured memories from their 11-day excursion in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. But those words never hit me as hard as they did on a frigid Tuesday morning, waking up with my face stuck to the ground of a tent covered by a couple of feet of snow. Enjoy and Endure? I did plenty of both in March.

Nowhere but Holderness could Out Back (OB) take place. OB is a unique experience for our community, as relevant and powerful for the students who just returned as it remains for alums who went decades ago. It is impossible to adequately capture how much care, time, and work go into the planning and execution of this effort. But OB can only exist through this labor of love from scores of our adults, their action rooted in an abiding commitment to providing this once-in-a-lifetime growth opportunity. We celebrate our school for being a life-changing institution, and OB is a cornerstone, fundamental experience in that journey. Moreover, the lessons learned and wisdom gained translate far beyond a student’s time on our campus. As the new head of school, I wanted to experience those lessons for myself. The night before we ventured into the wilderness, we gathered in the Davis Center for the traditional OB sign-in ceremony. We heard the story of Kerry O’Connell, a long-time Holderness dining team member— and mainstay of OB base camp—who was tragically lost in a motorcycle accident this past fall. Year after year, Kerry arrived at base camp ready to cook and serve others. He did it all with a smile and served as a walking

example of what we mean when we ask our students to “Live in community” during Out Back. Legendary OB figures Houseman and Harbo [Fred Harbison ’89] shared heartfelt thoughts about Kerry formed over the decades. “Live like Kerry” became our mantra, adorning our water bottles and calling us all to follow in his selfless example. You’ll learn more about Kerry’s example—and the examples of others like him—in this magazine.

My first OB experience will forever be defined most profoundly by the people I traveled with. My group lifted me up, both in spirit but also very much literally picked me up time and time again. I’ve struggled with some lower back issues this year, and a tough fall on the second day of our expedition triggered some significant pain. The combination of a few feet of snow on the ground with the heavy and awkward pack on my back had me doubting if I could make it for nine more days. My balance was off, my strength was down, and my motivation bottomed out. The low point was that moment of waking up in the tent with my face frozen to the ground, my back on fire, and wondering if I should just give up. But our students inspired me, filled me with hope, and got me through that day’s hike. They encouraged me, took things from my pack and carried it themselves to lighten my load. It was powerful to switch traditional roles with our students and to feel them leading the way and supporting me. I could feel how much it meant to them that I succeed, and their confidence and belief got me through a few really tough days. Solo gave me a chance to rest and recover, and I was in much better shape for the second half of our trip. But I never would have made it without my team!

When our group emerged from solo, their joy in reconnecting was

palpable and overpowering—our last days together seemed to fly by as we harnessed the energy of being back together. Thanks to a curious mix of feelings, I sat quietly on the ride back to campus in our mini-bus. I was excited to see my family, proud that I had made it, and grateful to have had the gift of experiencing OB. I was physically and mentally exhausted. And I was also a tiny bit sad that it was over. It took three days for me not to smell like campfire smoke, but I’m quite sure I’ll never lose the feeling of sitting around that campfire each night.

Just as my own Out Back experience was emblematic of the Holderness we seek to be, so too are the articles and profiles that follow in this issue of Holderness School Today—stories of dedicated service, deep friendships, and profound growth—stories that bring our mission and motto to life, calling us to work for the betterment of humankind and God’s creation.

John McVeigh Head of School

Head of School John McVeigh just before his Out Back solo in March.

AROUND THE QUAD

DAY OF GIVING, DAY OF ACTION

On February 16, more than 1,600 donors gave nearly $600,000 for the school’s annual Day of Giving. This year’s Day of Giving took on a new spin: for each person who made a gift that day, Holderness—the school’s students, teachers, and staff—pledged to spend 1 hour in service to the local community. Read more on P.13.

HIKED IT, LIKED IT

This spring, the Outing Club introduced the Six Sentinels hiking patch, which students can earn once they hike six iconic mountains near campus. The six peaks—Plymouth Mountain, Stinson Mountain, Rumney Rattlesnake, Mount Prospect, Welch & Dickey, and Squam Rattlesnake—stand as sentinels to the White Mountains and Lakes Region, and make for fun, accessible day hikes. “The idea for this particular grouping was to get students to be more engaged with our local landscape, and a bit more rooted in the place we call home beyond campus,” says Director of Outdoor Programs Erik Thatcher ’08. The artwork on the patch was done by local artist Hanna Lucy.

WELCOMING OUR NEW COLLEGE COUNSELOR

We’re excited to announce that Director of Teaching and Learning Kelsey Berry has been named Director of College Counseling. Kelsey has been an integral member of the Holderness School community since 2012, having served as a history teacher, history department chair, varsity head coach, dorm parent, advisor, and most recently the school’s Director of Teaching and Learning. She will replace outgoing Director of College Counseling Bruce Barton, who has led the College Counseling Office for more than 20 years. Check out our full interview with Kelsey on P. 27.

DRIVE TO HELP OTHERS

Thanks to two Holderness students, kids who attend a summer camp focused on empowering, transforming, and enriching girls' lives will receive new clothing this summer. Over the fall semester, Addie Pfeifle ’25 and Natalie Low ’25 collected 10 bags of old clothes from their Holderness classmates, and even received hats knit by Josephine Williams, a member of the school’s housekeeping department. When school resumed in January, the girls donated the clothes to Circle Program, a Plymouth-based nonprofit that supports New Hampshire girls who lack the opportunities and resources to develop their full potential.

DEAN’S LIST

Holderness will welcome two new deans to its leadership team at the start of the 2023–24 school year. History Department Chair Jordan Graham will step into the role of Academic Dean, while history teacher and current Director of Residential Life Tyler Cabot will become Interim Dean of Students. Jordan replaces longtime Academic Dean Peter Durnan, who will continue to teach English; Tyler replaces Mb Duckett Ireland, who will become Assistant Head of School for Student and Community Life at the George School in Pennsylvania.

GEORGE FORTIN ’24 COMPETES IN STATE POETRY FINALS

Just a day after returning from Out Back in March, George Fortin ’24 traveled to the New Hampshire State House to compete in the Poetry Out Loud New Hampshire State Finals. Earlier in the winter, George won Holderness School's annual Poetry Out Loud competition, the first round of a national poetry recitation contest that starts at the classroom level and advances to school, regional, state, and national-level competitions. While George did not advance to the national finals, Holderness is incredibly proud of his hard work and ability to beautifully recite poetry!

Academic Dean Jordan Graham (left) and Interim Dean of Students Tyler Cabot (right).

FREERIDE WORLD TOUR

Taylor Dobyns ’16 is the first ever Holderness alum to qualify for the Freeride World Tour. Taylor received the invitation to represent the US on the 2024 Freeride World Tour after finishing 2 nd in North America in the Freeride World Qualifier series this year. Taylor, who also just graduated from law school, will put her legal career on hold next winter as she travels across Europe, Japan, Canada and South America to compete against the world’s best extreme skiers.

SARAH STRONG

On February 11, the Boys Varsity Hockey team scored two goals in a tie game against Kimball Union Academy. But the most impressive stat to come out of that game didn’t happen on the ice. It was the nearly $6,000 the team raised, with help from the entire Holderness community, for the Sarah Duval Memorial Fund. The Sarah Duval Memorial Fund is named in honor of Sarah Duval, the sister of varsity hockey player Jacob Duval ’25, who passed away in February of 2021 due to complications from leukemia. On the day of the game, students organized a 50/50 raffle, ran a bake sale, and sold t-shirts emblazoned with the words ‘Sarah Strong.’ It was a true community effort, with students from numerous sports teams pitching in.

HOLDERNESS ALUM IN NCAA FINAL FOUR

In her first season as assistant coach of the Virginia Tech women’s basketball team, Radville Autukaite ’11 helped her players reach the NCAA Women’s Final Four. It was a magical season for the Hokies, who were crowned ACC champions on their way to the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. A hoops standout during her time at Holderness, Radville went on to compete for Reinhardt University where she received the NAIA AAC Female Champion of Character Award for all sports. A native of Lithuania, Radville also played for the Lithuanian National Team at the U-16, U-18 and U-20 levels.

Jacob Duval ’25 (left) and his varsity hockey teammates wear their Sarah Strong t-shirts.

UNCOMMON KINDNESS IN UKRAINE

Holderness alum and parents bring relief to Ukraine

By Greg Kwasnik

On a cold and snowy evening late last year, just before Christmas, Steve Rand ’62 and his partner Susan Mathison P’07 found themselves in a convoy of 30 trucks heading deep into the war-torn Ukrainian countryside. But they weren’t alone. They were joined by another Holderness parent, Lisa Mure P’14’17 and her partner Alex Ray, the owner and founder of The Common Man Family of Restaurants. Together, the New Hampshire friends had started Common Man for Ukraine, a relief organization that had raised more than $2.5 million in its first year to provide Ukrainian children with 750 tons of food, 10,000 sleeping bags, a bloodmobile, counseling, and other necessities.

It was the group’s third trip to Ukraine that year, and on that night they were part of a convoy delivering 18 tons of food to 21 orphanages and safe houses near the city of Lviv. With a snowstorm bearing

down and the country’s power grid crippled by Russian bombing, it was slow work finding the children, who were hidden in unmarked buildings scattered across the dark countryside. After getting stuck in the snow and receiving help from local villagers, the four friends finally reached their destination—an old, darkened monastery. Bearing duffel bags filled with Christmas gifts, they opened the monastery door to find 130 children in a cold, dark dining hall eating a meager dinner: half of a cold potato, half a piece of bread, and half a banana per child.“We came in, stomping the snow off our boots and we had dragged these duffel bags of gifts through the snow,” Lisa says. “The kids were eating and I’m sure they were thinking ‘Who are you?’”

Talk to Susan Mathison, and she’ll tell you exactly who they are: a group of friends from Plymouth, New Hampshire who were stunned

by the war in Ukraine and wanted to do something—anything—to help. “We wanted to help but we were just four people in the middle of New Hampshire,” Susan recalls. “What could we possibly do?”

They could do a heck of a lot, as it turns out. Viewed as a group, the four friends amount to a Dream Team of boots-on-the-ground philanthropy. Steve, the owner of Rand’s Hardware in downtown Plymouth, is a former state legislator and a Rotarian active in his community; Susan, a former forester with the U.S. Forest Service, is President of Pemi-Valley Habitat for Humanity; and Lisa is a public health consultant who works regionally and nationally to improve behavioral health care. And their other friend, Alex, just so happened to be a household name in New Hampshire. Alex Ray is the restauranter who built The Common Man, a hugely successful family of 16 restaurants and five roadside eateries scattered across the Granite

Above: The founders of Common Man for Ukraine pose near the Ukrainian border with their Rotary International partners.

Facing Page: The founders of Common Man for Ukraine, back in New Hampshire. From left to right: Steve Rand ’62, Susan Mathison P’07, Alex Ray, and Lisa Mure P’14’17.

State. He has also volunteered time and money to relief organizations like World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit that serves chef-prepared meals to communities impacted by natural disasters. In recent years, he’s traveled to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, and Haiti and Honduras in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake.

After discussing the situation in Ukraine with his friends, Alex made a fateful proposal. “He said ‘I think we should go to Ukraine and see what they need and how we can help. Then we’ll come home to raise money to do those things,’” Susan says.

Oh, and there was one more thing: if the group managed to raise $1 million, Alex said, he would match it with $1 million of his own money.

Wasting no time, Steve and Alex—both Rotarians—called the former district president of Rotary International in Poland and asked how they could help. Inundated with Ukrainian refugees during those early months of the war, the Polish Rotary clubs welcomed their New Hampshire counterparts with open arms. That’s how, in April of 2022, the four friends made their first visit to Poland and Western Ukraine, where they spent several days talking to local Rotarians about their most pressing needs. Faced with air raid

sirens, military checkpoints, and numerous worthy projects, the group ultimately decided to focus their efforts on helping Ukrainian children.

“When you think of humanitarian aid, the spectrum of aid can be very wide, and we wanted to do one thing well,” Susan says. “So we picked a lane, and the lane we picked was orphans and internally displaced children in Ukraine.” It was a decision that would prove prescient. A recent report by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab alleges that Russia forcibly removed at least 6,000 Ukrainian children to Russian “re-education” camps in the first year of the war. In March of 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued

Delivering food and other supplies to orphanages and safehouses in western Ukraine.

an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for overseeing the mass abduction of Ukrainian children.

When the four friends returned to New Hampshire in the spring of 2022, they began fundraising in earnest. With help from former New Hampshire Governor John Lynch, iHeart Radio, and WMUR, the group spread their message far and wide. Ultimately, Common Man for Ukraine raised more than $2.5 million from more than 3,500 people across New Hampshire—money that was sent directly to Rotary groups in Poland and Ukraine, which purchased and delivered supplies directly to Ukrainian children. It’s a charitable model that bypasses the shipping costs and overhead that often burden international philanthropic efforts. “Working with Rotarians in Poland is the absolute essential part of our program because they give us somebody that we can trust,” Steve says. “They give us somebody that’s on the ground, who knows what’s going on. They give us their best ideas and we work together with them.”

It's also a model that requires the full participation of Susan, Steve, Alex, and Lisa: by the summer of 2023, they will have made five trips to Ukraine.

But why travel so far, and at such risk? “We go to cement and reinforce our relationships with the people on the ground that are delivering the aid,” Susan says. “We want to eat with them, we want to travel with them. We cry with them at some of these safehouses—it’s an emotional experience to see these kids who have traveled two or three days alone on a train to safety in western Ukraine.”

Few experiences could be more emotional than that snowy night last December when the four friends from New Hampshire entered that cold, dark monastery in Ukraine. The surprised children, bundled up against the 40-degree chill, looked up from their rations and began to engage with the Americans, who sang Christmas carols and handed out warm jackets, hats, books, toys, and solar lanterns. A few kids raced to hug Alex’s legs, some began practicing their English with the Americans, and eventually the children began singing Ukrainian Christmas carols and patriotic songs. It was a special evening. “It’s one thing to give necessities like food, but it’s another thing to bring a little joy,” Lisa says. “It’s not so much that we’re bringing food and warmth and services—it’s that somebody cares, and those kids felt it when we showed up.”

Thanks to their pre-Christmas supply run, the children in that monastery outside of Lviv were left with new sleeping bags, generators, and two pallets of food—enough sustenance for 40 days. But with the war in Ukraine dragging on and no end in sight to the hostilities, it’s clear that Common Man for Ukraine’s work is far from finished. This winter, the organization said it would seek to raise $10 million in a fundraising campaign that would reach far beyond New Hampshire. For Steve Rand, it’s a mission that he’s proud to take on—and one that harkens back to his days at Holderness School.

“I remember Pro Deo et Genere Humano,” Steve says, referencing the school’s motto, ‘For God and Humankind.’

“We’re all kind of in the humankind business. Where we get our biggest sense of accomplishment is in helping other people, and it’s something that was part of the Holdereness ethic, and I’m sure I absorbed some of it along the way.” |

To make a donation to Common Man for Ukraine, visit Commonmanforukraine.org

Reviewing the route of their supply run across the border from Poland to Ukraine.

FROM THE DESK OF...

Head of School John McVeigh

1 2

Each summer, I ride in the Pan Mass Challenge, a two-day bicycle ride across Massachusetts that raises money for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. I have several family members who get treated at DFCI, including my wife Candice, so it’s a cause that means a lot to me.

In her graduation speech, Maizley Tone (School President in Class of 2022) gave me some great advice, so I printed out and framed the speech. I look at it every morning when I start my day, and her words resonate with me every single time.

I finished my first Out Back in March, and I keep these OB mitts in my office to remind me of the once-ina-lifetime experience. My wife and kids did most of the design work, and they were a great source of comfort when I was on Solo. It’s fun to look at them now and think back on that amazing experience.

Photo taken by Photo II students: Alyssa Barbossa ’24, Zander Doyle ’24, Owen Pethic ’24, Stella Regan ’26, Grady Taylor ’25, Fine Windhagen ’25.

I keep several pictures of my family around the office, but we don’t have too many with all of us together like this. The only one missing is our dog, Cooper!

I grew up playing a lot of basketball in outdoor parks, and these pictures capture some of what I love about those memories. They were taken by Jon Lopez, a friend of mine. He’s an amazingly talented artist, and he has a gift for capturing the magic of the game of basketball.

I collect sneakers, especially classic sneakers that were first made back when I was a high school and college basketball player. This is a passion that is definitely shared by a number of our students, and I always enjoy seeing what new sneakers are on their feet.

HOLDERNESS TRAILBLAZERS:

In Their Own Words

In January, Holderness hosted a panel discussion with the school’s first female students. Panelists included Hannah Artuso ’71, Cindy Fisher ’71, Sue Francesco ’72, Piper Orton ’74, Heidi O’Connor ’79, Betsy Paine ’80, and Christine Louis ’81.

CHRISTINE LOUIS ’81

“Thinking about the time that has elapsed and all that’s gone on in the world, I think it was an incredible experiment. It was very brave on the part of the board and the faculty but also the young women who sought to avail themselves of that opportunity. I think we made a huge impact that was really positive and I look around and am just so warmed by what has continued in that community here.”

PIPER ORTON ’74

“We knew we were being watched carefully in terms of how we would do and how we would do academically, how we would form relationships, whether we would behave, whether we would drink - all of those things. We really felt like we had to really both do well, but also uphold a certain standard.”

BETSY PAINE ’80

“In 1977 Pete Woodward came to Holderness School and when I was trying to figure out where I was going to be, I came up and met with him and said ‘I want to go to school here.’ Pete - thank you for your vision, for your commitment, for all the work that it took to create a dorm that next year.”

Photo by Zander Doyle ’24

HANNAH ARTUSO ’71

who successfully asked Headmaster Don Hagerman for admittance to Holderness School in 1969.

“Some of you may have mottos in your family. My mother had a wonderful one which resonates with me to this day. Her motto is, and I hope you’ll take this home with you: ‘Ask. All they can do is say no.’ So when I said I thought I should be able to attend Holderness, she said ‘Ask. All they can do is say no.’”

PIPER ORTON ’74

“The girls in this room—and the boys in this room— you can aspire to be anything you want to be, anything you want to be. Nothing is closed to you. That was not how we felt back in 1974 or 1977, 1978. ”

CINDY FISHER ’71

BETSY PAINE ’80

“It was really fun to be underestimated. I also know from my whole adult life, there is huge power in being underestimated—and I think we all learned some of that here. ”

HANNAH

“

ARTUSO ’71

Each of us has a trailblazer in us . One of the things that has been with me since I left Holderness is knowing I can be a trailblazer and knowing the importance of stretching myself and getting out of my comfort zone.”

“I had the experience of being the only girl that some of the faculty had ever taught. In French class I was ‘Mademoiselle’ but everyone else had a special nickname that the French teacher had put together. Part of my experience turned me into what’s basically a raving feminist ever since. The chem teacher hadn’t ever taught a girl before. He was a little bit difficult to work with, but the guys were great. The students, I don’t think I had any problem with any of them.”

Holderness School's first female students spent January 27 touring campus and speaking in a panel discussion. They also reunited with former Head of School Pete Woodward.

DAY OF GIVING, DAYS OF ACTION

Holderness was built on a foundation of serving others, and when we talk about our vision statement—developing people the world needs most—service is an integral part of what we hope our students take from their experience here.

F or this year’s Day of Giving, held on February 16, we decided to honor that tradition of service. For every gift we received that day, the Holderness community pledged to spend one hour in service to the local community. When 1,650 gifts poured in from parents, alums, and friends, we pledged to spend the rest of the school year matching that total with hours of service.

Over the next few months, our students and adults partnered with numerous organizations across the state, from the New Hampshire Food Bank and Squam Lakes Association to the Circle Program and Copper Cannon Camp. Those months of service have been fun, challenging, and incredibly meaningful for all of us. We thank you for your support, for believing in Holderness, and for helping us become the school we strive to be.

Students carry timbers up Rattlesnake Mountain in preparation for summer trail work by the Squam Lakes Association.

$595,000

raised on Day of Giving to support the Holderness experience

1,650

Donors who made a gift on Day of Giving

Clockwise from top: Students prepare a meal at the New Hampshire Food Bank; lend a helping hand at Copper Cannon Camp in Bethlehem, NH; and pick up roadside trash in downtown Holderness.

1,650

Hours of service pledged during Day of Giving

Percentage of a Holderness education covered by tuition. Gifts on Day of Giving are used for student scholarships, teacher salaries, special programs, and other essentials.

75%

A student moves a painting at Copper Cannon Camp; skating with students from Holderness Central School; and a Holderness student helps with spring cleaning at the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center.

THE HOLDERNESS STEMINISTS:

Tackling the Gender Gap in Science Education

By Greg Kwasnik

As Hannah Fernandes ’17 searched for a Senior Capstone topic during the fall of her senior year, her mother asked a simple but unexpected question: How did Hannah feel about being one of the only girls in her STEM classes?

“Frankly it was something older women had to point out to me in high school,” says Hannah, who excelled in the school’s upper-level math, science, and computer science courses. “It wasn’t something that was consciously on my mind as a high school student until I took a step back and I was like: they are right. I am—if not the only—one of the few women in these classes.”

From that single question, Hannah had found her Senior Capstone topic. She would spend the rest of her senior year studying women in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics], and how a systemic gender gap in STEM

fields impacts girls’ educations and their engagement in STEM courses.

As part of her research, Hannah reached out to all the Holderness women she knew who were interested in STEM, and invited them to an informal group discussion one night after sit-down dinner. The 30 students and teachers who showed up talked for hours, finding an intense camaraderie in their shared experiences as women in STEM. “The amount of empowerment I felt from knowing that it wasn’t just me, knowing there were things we could do to improve Holderness as a school, as an education system, as a larger world, as people who would leave Holderness, it was frankly incredible,” Hannah says. “And I had people emailing me right afterwards saying ‘When are we meeting again?’”

With that, the STEMinists club was born.

Today, Hannah works as a software engineer at Apple’s headquarters in Silicon Valley – an incredible success story for anyone with a passion for STEM. But Hannah’s story is truly exceptional considering the continued gender gap in STEM fields. According to 2019 data from the United States Census Bureau, women comprise just 27 percent of STEM workers, despite making up 48 percent of all workers nationwide. The numbers are even more lopsided for workers in Hannah’s field: women make up a quarter of computer workers, and just 15 percent of engineers.

But there is reason for hope. Nationally, the percentage of women in STEM fields overall has more than tripled since 1970. And today, at Holderness, the club that Hannah inadvertently founded—the STEMinists—is still going strong.

With more than 20 members, the STEMinists, which is open to nonbinary and transgender students, is one of the most active clubs on

campus. And they’ve been especially busy during the 2022–23 school year: during the fall semester alone, they attended a Girls in STEAM Leadership Summit at Cushing Academy; led STEM labs for middle school girls; and built a robotic hand. They also held a Zoom call with Holderness alums who have gone on to pursue thriving STEM careers. During that call, students had a chance to talk not only with Hannah, but Paige Pfenninger ’15, an MIT grad student conducting research on the movement of underwater animal populations, and Julia Thulander ’16, a graduate student researching aquatic animals at Tennessee Technological University.

For students like Caroline Simmonds ’23, the STEMinists club has been a welcome respite from a culture where women in STEM are often undervalued. Caroline recalls taking an online STEM course where she felt ignored and dismissed, simply because of her gender. “There would be guys that would sort of dismiss my ideas as soon as I started talking to them, and that was hard,” says Caroline, who plans to major in Math and Theater at Bowdoin College this fall. “I definitely appreciate a group that’s just for girls and focuses on building girls up.”

Building girls up is exactly what STEMinists is doing, says Math Department Chair Elizabeth Wolf, the club’s advisor. “I want them to understand that they have a place in this world, whatever they want to

do,” Elizabeth says. “I want them to leave here and leave knowing that if they’re the only girl in a room, great. Do it—be that girl in the room. Don’t shy away from that. There’s nothing that they can’t do.”

Setting their sights high is an ethos the STEMinists are already passing on to the next generation of students. This year, the STEMinists ran a lab with middle school-aged girls in the Circle Program, a Plymouthbased nonprofit that supports New Hampshire girls who lack the opportunities and resources to develop their full potential. During the engineering-focused lab, the STEMinists worked with the younger girls to build weight-bearing towers out of everyday objects like dried pasta, paper, and tape. “The kids didn’t know what to do at first but we talked it out and throughout their time here they broke out of their shell and got more confident in what they were doing,” says Stella Regan ’26. “By the second experiment they were participating a lot more and it was really powerful. It was invigorating –it just felt good to work with them.”

By helping to introduce young girls to STEM—and supporting their own classmates—the STEMinists are engineering a world in which girls and women are just as well represented in STEM as their male counterparts. “I hope that they feel encouraged and supported and just their interest

continues to grow and they feel validated being surrounded by people with similar interests,” says Caroline, the Bowdoin-bound senior. “I know I felt like I sometimes was the only girl in the classroom who was interested in that and that was a little hard. I just hope that it encourages them to go further in their STEM careers.”

If the STEMinists follow in the footsteps of the club’s founder, Hannah Fernandes, that new world will arise sooner than many think. At Apple, Hannah joined an employee club where she helped start the company’s Silicon Valley-area partnership with the organization Girls Who Code. The group also partners with College Track and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley, where Apple employees volunteer to teach coding classes. By giving back to young people in STEM, Hannah has, in a very real way, brought her Senior Capstone project full circle.

“It’s awesome to now be in the real world and feel like I’m having an even larger impact—and I thank Holderness a lot for laying the groundwork for stuff like that,” Hannah says, recalling that pivotal first meeting of women in STEM at Holderness. “I just walked away feeling a sense of empowerment and belonging that I had never felt before, and I’ve kind of been chasing that feeling, cultivating spaces where others can feel that same feeling.” |

Hannah Fernandes ’17.

The Girls in STEAM Leadership Summit at Cushing Academy, which Holderness STEMinists attended this fall.

CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2023

On May 27, 2023 we watched the class of 2023 receive their diplomas and walk across the Holderness seal. We wish them the best in all of their future endeavors.

Ariana Teresa Anastos

Lianmarie Avilés Abrams

John David Blandford

Ella Rose Cedrone

Maxime Charbonneau

Cosette Nadeau

Charron

Maya Rose Clemente

Delia Hargreaves

Cooper

Megan Patricia Cunningham

William Mason

Thornhill Dahmen

Hannah Louise Donahue

Dalton Wallace

Donovan

Dean Johns Driscoll

Thomas

MacAdams Duane

Adelaide May Durant

Jackson Cade Ehwa

Eliza Catherine

Eakin Erlacher

Maximilian

Andrew Fischer

Phoebe Poultney Fisher

Ethan Daniel Ford

Trevor O'Brien Fox

Abigail Evelyn Frankauski

Tingan Fu

Madelyn Ruby Gibbs

Evan Kenneth

Gramas

Nina Marie Grappone

Tyler David Gras

Caspar Mennen Hammer

Emmett F. Harris

Ava Marie Hosmer

Hans Alexander Huber

Logan Everett Johnson

Daniel Varian Jones III

Ryan Robert Keene

Terry Kim

Grace Elizabeth Koeller

Maire Irene LaRowe

Nolan Pruett Lawler

Addison Laine McMillen

Madelynn Elizabeth Monahan

Dante Francis Mulcahy

Aidan Richard O'Connell

Peter Finn O'Hara

Willett Moon O'Neil

Cormac Alden O'Neill

Elizabeth Avery

Olson

Caroline Anna Palmer

Bryce Sheridan

Patterson

Evan James

Plunkett

Jake Hunter Pullen

Nicholas Joseph

Purnell

Thomas Kevin

Raymond

Declan Riley

Rhatigan

Maximillian

Raphael

Riccio Perez

Shay Cassidy

Roban

Tanner Francis Robbins

Phatadhol

Rojrachsombat

Timothy James Ryan

Robert Walker

Sharfstein

Luyao Shi

Lindsay Rita Sidore

Lachlan Hamill Simmers

Caroline Grace Simmonds

Pendhamma

Sindhusen

Arthur Merrick

Spitzer

Matthew Mark Stiles

Clayton Walter Surber

Andrea Dominique Turner

Xinyi Wang

Zijun Wang

Charlotte Reagan Werner Alexander Prescott Wiedemann

Zhe Zhang

Puxuan Zhao

Yanyi Zhu

LIVE LIKE KERRY

Late last summer, Holderness lost its longtime chef, Kerry O’Connell, in a tragic motorcycle accident. Kerry was a pillar of the dining services team, feeding and sustaining the community from 1983 until his retirement in 2018. He was also a fixture of the school’s Out Back program for more than 10 years, providing fresh meals to adults at the program’s winter base camp deep in the White Mountains.

As this year’s juniors embarked on their own Out Back journeys, Holderness honored Kerry by naming its base camp kitchen “Kerry’s Kitchen.” Each junior was also given a sticker with the Out Back logo and the words “Live Like Kerry'' emblazoned across the top. Many students placed the stickers on their water bottles —a potent reminder of how Kerry embodied the pledge all juniors take before embarking on Out Back: to live in good fellowship with others.

“Kerry was a big, burly, Harley-riding guy. He looked tough, almost scary. But if you knew him, you knew that he was gentle and kind. He was, as they say, a big teddy bear,” said Out Back Director Randy Houseman in a Chapel talk to juniors before this

year’s Out Back. “Kerry was the base camp cook. He prepared delicious food for all of the adults during the solo period of Out Back. But Kerry did not cook for the group as a whole—he cooked for each person, each individual at base camp.”

As they faced their 11-day journey through the White Mountains, Randy asked the junior class to think of Kerry on their own Out Back journeys, and try to live up to the example he set. “Kerry made us all feel special. Is that good fellowship?

I think it is,” Randy said. |

Clockwise from top left: Kerry (in the red vest) on Out Back; water bottles bearing 'Live Like Kerry' stickers'; Kerry's wife Yvette visits Kerry's Kitchen at Out Back in March.

“What does 'To live in good fellowship' mean? I think that is easy. Living in good fellowship is living like Kerry. Can you live like Kerry?” – Out Back Director Randy Houseman, in a Chapel talk to juniors the night before the start of Out Back.

THE DRIVE TO SERVE: George Fox ’75 Delivers Assistance to Ukraine

By Andrew Herring

George Fox ’75 was visiting an old friend in Poland shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. “I had seen the images of women and children streaming into these border refugee camps, and I had already heard of the unspeakable atrocities being committed… and I realized I was four hours away from this worldwide event,” says George. “I told my friend, I just feel like I’ve got to go down there and help out.”

George got in his rental car and headed toward the PolishUkrainian border, where, he says, “an army of volunteers descended on the border, and we were working together—I became a driver.”

George made multiple trips driving refugees from border checkpoints to Warsaw and other safe havens. After several weeks, though, the flow of refugees began to dwindle. In fact, George noted, people began returning to Ukraine to stand by those who couldn’t leave the country.

Wanting to do more, George decided to relocate to Ukraine. “I ended up moving to Lviv, Ukraine and became a freelance humanitarian. I met a guy who had a van, and we started running supply missions. We’d bring supplies east and bring people west. We never traveled empty.”

George’s experience supporting the Ukrainian people was not without its share of danger. “My very first day in Ukraine we were delivering supplies to a Ukrainian Youth Center in Lviv, and we started hearing air raid sirens and saw black smoke billowing nearby— a nearby fuel depot had taken a missile strike,” says George.

In addition to providing assistance to refugees, George’s work also brought him close to the front lines of the conflict. “I was running supplies—military boots and a load of plywood for a bombed-out school —into the Donbas and met another American who was bringing supplies into previously-occupied towns. We decided to run a mission of food and water to remaining villagers and could feel the ground shaking with incoming and outgoing artillery.”

George has spent nearly six months over the last year running missions to support the Ukrainian war effort. As the war carries on, George mentions that he intends to return to Ukraine, saying, “I can’t see myself never not going back. I’ve made so many friends. I will definitely go back to help rebuild.”

And George speaks of the Ukrainian people with a deep reverence. “Ukranians are the most amazing people I’ve ever met in my life,” says George. “They are strong. They are determined. So remarkably calm in the face of this terrible war. I love them.”

What was meant to be a relaxing and peaceful vacation set George on a life-changing course of service. “When I arrived in Poland with this new war just right next door, it was like something from my soul telling me that I have to help… My mission when I’m in Ukraine is to help,” says George, “and my mission when I’m back in the United States is to promote the Ukrainian people.”

When reflecting on his time at Holderness and its impact on his work in Ukraine, George says, “perhaps the Holderness jobs program, and subsequent leader position, instilled or refined the desire to help others and invest in something that's greater than myself with the knowledge that such a larger span of goodness is created by the collective efforts of smaller segments.” |

George Fox ’75 in Ukraine.

George Fox helping others in Ukraine.

BULLS BEHIND THE SCENES

MAJEL THOMPSON

STARTED WORKING AT HOLDERNESS: 2008

HOMETOWN : Capaya 1, Angeles City, Philippines

JOB TITLE: Head Baker

M

ajel Thompson has a pretty sweet gig. As Holderness School’s head baker, she makes the truly creative and delicious desserts enjoyed by hundreds of students and employees every single day. Whether she’s baking applesauce cake, setting tables for sitdown dinner, or keeping the soft serve machine up and running, Majel is a key player in our dining services team. Without her, we’d all be much hungrier—and life at Holderness would certainly be less sweet.

How did you become a baker?

When I was in the Philippines, I worked with a baker. She had a bakery at home. I didn’t go to school—I wanted to, but the money was tight. But she was hiring an assistant, so I applied and she taught me a lot. Some of her ingredients came from the United States—her family would send her a big box of ingredients, so she taught me a lot.

What’s the most popular dessert at Holderness?

Carrot cake and applesauce cake. They like that. And the chocolate

chip cookies—especially warm chocolate chip cookies.

For kids who are living away from home for the first time, your deserts must provide a nice taste of home.

I think so. There’s one kid I heard say ‘Oh it’s kind of like my grandma’s dessert.’ They miss home and when they eat that it’s kind of like they feel like they’re home. It feels good —like you’re being appreciated by people. It’s like I’m not just an employee or a baker here. I kind of feel a little special when they

call you by your name and not just the baker—‘Oh Majel, your dessert was really good.’ It feels good.

You’ve been at Holderness for 15 years. What do you like about working here?

It’s the community. The people that live here and work here, they’re so nice. I love working here and they’re like family. At my job too I’m flexible in hours and my boss is really supportive, so it’s nice. |

FOOTLOOSE

In April, Holderness Bulls staged the musical Footloose in the Kistler Family Auditorium of the newly-renovated Hagerman Center.

MEET OUR NEW DIRECTOR OF COLLEGE COUNSELING

F or many high school students, finding the right college—and getting accepted—can seem like a daunting, life-defining task. Spoiler alert: it isn’t—and Holderness School’s new Director of College Counseling Kelsey Berry is here to put things into perspective for us.

If anyone is qualified to guide Holderness students in their college

search, it’s Kelsey. An integral member of the Holderness community since 2012, she has served as a history teacher, history department chair, varsity head coach, dorm parent, advisor, and most recently the school’s Director of Teaching and Learning. When Kelsey steps into her new role in the fall of 2023, she will replace outgoing Director of College Counseling Bruce Barton,

who has led the College Counseling office for more than 20 years.

Here, Kelsey tells us about her plans for the College Counseling office, why college fit is so important, and what she tells students who face disappointment in their college search.

Congratulations on becoming Director of College Counseling!

You were named to the position in January, and you’ve spent much of the winter and spring working with longtime Director of College Counseling Bruce Barton. What are your goals for the future of the office?

I have a lot of ideas but I think this year is about listening and figuring out how the office functions and how to support it continuing at a really high level, as Bruce has managed. It’s such a gift to be able to work with someone who has been doing the work for so long at Holderness. Bruce will just be down the hall and will continue to work with a cohort of students for this year. He and I are meeting once a week in this transition to talk about the rhythms of the office and different challenges.

Getting into college seems like it’s more competitive than ever. How can the College Counseling office help students navigate that process?

I think that the college process is an increasingly difficult thing for our students and families to go through. Maybe it’s always

been that way—but how do we help students focus on fit and help them in the essay writing process articulate who they are for these places? I’m excited to do that. I’ve worked with students on their writing for many, many years and I feel excited about that challenge— of helping them find their voice and very clearly and succinctly present themselves to the world…I think the college office’s role is to help students articulate that to schools and to build a list that has a lot of balance in accessibility—both financial and acceptance rate—and to help them love every college on their list, or be able to see themselves at every college on their list. I think we’re at a really healthy place. Students now, when they’re asked about the college process by a peer or adult, say “I have a bunch of schools I’m excited about.”

As a longtime teacher, what are some of the changes you’ve seen in the college admissions process?

The college process is a different process than it was five years ago or three years ago. It’s really a fastchanging situation. There are two things sort of on the horizon that might change it again in different ways: the affirmative action

decision by the Supreme Court [a case currently pending before the Supreme Court that could effectively end affirmative action] and Chat AI [artificial intelligence chatbots, like Chat GPT]. So, what’s going to happen to the college essay? What are colleges going to think about those prompts if there is artificial intelligence to write them? So those two things could really shift the college landscape.

This spring and summer, you plan to visit more than two dozen of the colleges and universities where Holderness students have submitted the largest number of applications over the last 10 years. Tell us about that.

I think sometimes going to see schools, for counselors, is to understand them and be able to help the students imagine themselves there. I want to work through the known schools in the first few months but also in travel going forward try to find some of those schools that might be a really good fit for Holderness students that are not part of our normal list. I think of Macalester College and Carleton College in Minnesota, and Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington where we’ve had some students really thrive, but it’s not top in our number of applications.

So it seems like there are plenty of colleges out there where our students could thrive. What do you say to students who don’t get into the college of their dreams? How do you put things into perspective for them?

Any assessment of you as a person is hard. Even small tests and quizzes, people have anxiety about. It’s one way that people measure their self-worth. And I think I really try to break that down and say ‘You aren’t where you go to college. That isn’t the person that you are.’ College can be a really great place for you to develop, and there are lots of places where you can be happy. |

Kelsey teaches a history class in Schoolhouse.

IN MEMORIAM

Gary Spiess 1940–2022

Former trustee and Board Chair Gary Spiess P’87’89’94 passed away peacefully with his family by his side on November 25, 2022.

A loyal friend of Holderness, Gary was among the longest-serving trustees in Holderness School’s history, serving on the board from 1992–2005 and again from 2011–2019. Gary’s steady leadership saw the school through head of school transitions, complex economic situations, and a rapidlychanging educational landscape.

As a parent and board member, Gary was devoted to the people at Holderness, the school’s mission, and the commitment to serve others.

Former Head of School Phil Peck recently shared that Holderness would not be the school it is today without Gary Spiess. Indeed, the fingerprints of Gary’s care and thoughtfulness are visible across campus and in the actions of the school.

Gary led a remarkable life, as a devoted father and husband, as a deeply-respected lawyer, and as a volunteer in support of initiatives and organizations committed to justice, health, education, and environmental stewardship.

Bill Morton ’65 1945–2023

Alum and former Trustee Bill Morton ’65 passed away on January 23, 2023. Known for his courage and adventurous spirit, Bill earned his private pilot’s license at 17 and sailed from Newport, RI to Copenhagen, Denmark in a transatlantic race at 21. Bill exemplified the sort of grit that Holderness seeks to build in its students, sharing that “the importance of perseverance by never accepting ‘you cannot’ or ‘should not’ pursue something you are determined to achieve.”

Following his graduation from Middlebury College, Bill entered into a successful career in business, ranging from construction and real estate development to manufacturing, banking, and venture capital.

Bill served on the Holderness Board of Trustees from 1972 to 1990.

Freddy Hall ’04 1985–2022

Bermudan professional soccer player and former Holderness soccer standout Freddy Hall ’04 tragically passed away following a car crash on April 24, 2022.

While at Holderness, Freddy received All-Lakes Region and All-New England recognition. He was also named a Boston Globe All-Scholastic player, a member of the New England Prep School Soccer Association (NEPSSA) Senior All-Star game, and was a nominee for the Boston All-Scholastic Player of the Year.

Freddy began playing college soccer at the University of South Florida before transferring to Quinnipiac University, where he was a threeyear starting goalkeeper. In his senior year, he led the NCAA in total saves. He was also named to ESPN Soccernet’s Top 10 Goalkeepers of 2010 and earned All-Northeastern Conference First Team accolades.

Building on his success in college soccer, Freddy played for a number of professional soccer clubs including Toronto FC, Northampton Town, AFC Telford United, Oxford City, and Limerick. Freddy also represented Bermuda in international competition.

On February 14, Holderness held its first-ever Snow Day. In addition to learning how to ski, skate, and skin up mountains, the community had an amazing day of ice fishing, backcountry Nordic skiing, volunteering with the Squam Lakes Association, and learning how to cook over an open fire.

HOLDERNESS GATHERINGS

The Holderness School Alumni Association includes over 4,400 people worldwide, and throughout the year there are plenty of reasons to get together and celebrate! The Holderness Advancement office plans events throughout the country, and sometimes even internationally, so check the Holderness School website calendar of events often and make plans to attend an event. It’s always a great day to be a Bull! Here are just some of the events that have occurred over the past year.

Holderness joined fellow independent schools in northern New England to host two professional networking events and panel discussions in Boston and NYC. In Boston (left), Jay Connolly ’03 represented Holderness in the Panel with Bruce Barton moderating. Pictured: Darren Moore ’99, Tyler Weymouth ’01, Jay Connolly ’03, Cary (Trainor) Duane ’03, Whitney Connolly ’02, Neal Frei ’03, and Bruce Barton P ’13 ’16. In NYC (right), Amy Synnott ’90 represented Holderness in the NYC panel with Bruce Barton moderating. Pictured: Brandon Wagner ’95, Bruce Barton P ’13 ’16, Corinthia Benison ’05, Amy Synnott ’90, Mikaela Wall ’14, Katie Jones ’21, Yoomi Ren ’16, Matt Sopher ’03, Yiyang Mao ’17, and Darren Moore ’99.

Alumni and families had a chance to meet and greet John McVeigh in Portland, ME. Special thanks to Lizzie Legere ‘11 for hosting at her restaurant, Helm Oyster Bar & Bistro.

Holderness families gather for a day of baseball with the Red Sox in August 2022. Peter and Christine Grammas P ’18, Nick Grammas ’18, Henry Sturgeon, Bob Backus ’57, Lilly Spooner ’24, Bill Clough ’57, Ariana Anastos ’23, John McVeigh, Nathan Spooner P ’24, and Will Smith.

held a clambake in Marblehead to welcome new head of school John McVeigh.

Dedicated families and these alums braved the storm for this year's Boston Harbor cruise. Thank you to the Cushman family for hosting once again.

Alums from Holderness and Proctor gathered in Boston to celebrate Proctor Day. Both schools participated in friendly games of ping pong and celebrated this long rivalry.

Steve and Ducky Connolly P ’99 ’03

Pictured left to right: Steve and Ducky, Pete and Kathy Woodward, John and Candice McVeigh.

Several groups of alums met up in Boston for the school’s Day of Giving on February 16.

Erlacher P ’23, Mark Cavanaugh ’82, David Slaughter ’79, Maggie Cunha ’16, Cayla Liptak, Alan Thompson ’04, Mike Murchie ’81, Alison Browdie.

Vermont families gathered at Shelburne

Vineyards to welcome new Head of School John McVeigh.

The Holderness 100 joined the Highs & Lows Tour for a three-day cycling event covering 300 miles of riding in support of mental health in New Hampshire. Special thanks to Tom Dearborn P’25 and Amy Hage P’24 '25 for helping organize the event.

Jim Stearns ’68 hosted an event in DC in honor of Phil Peck's 38 years of service. Front row: Phil Peck, Jim Stearns ’68, Tizzy Brown ’10. Back row: Mark Sturgeon, Joey Hood and Anne Lompo P ’22 ’24, Dave Phippen ’76, Kelly Dillon, Malcolm Mitchell-Lewis ’03, Laura Erlacher, and Jim

2022 REUNION

After a two-year hiatus, Reunion returned in 2022, bigger than ever. We made up for lost time and invited class years ending in 0, 1, 2, 5, 6, & 7 to this special multi-year reunion from June 3–5. Here are just a few of the faces we saw that weekend.

Duane Ford ’74 leads a Holderness cheer during assembly in the Kistler Family Auditorium.

CLASS NOTES

MILESTONES DEATHS

Ted Wells ’66: August 13, 2019

John Robinson ’53: November 23, 2021

Andrew C. Segar ’71: January 13, 2022

Ellwyn “Skip” Hayslip ’68: May 11, 2022

Kerry O'Connell PEM: August 22, 2022

Cesar Noble PEM: October 23, 2022

Robert "Jay" Smith ’70: October 27, 2022

Gary Spiess: November 25, 2022

Jon Huberth ’62: November 27, 2022

Peter Kingston ’56: December 18, 2022

Kevin "Bucky" King ’11: December 23, 2022

Tom Fox ’55: January 1, 2023

Bill Morton ’65: January 23, 2023

Janet “Munchy” Kurland ’97: February 14, 2023

MARRIAGES AND UNIONS

Peter Connolly ’04 and Maureen Taylor: September 18, 2021

Steve Potter ’07 and Emma Hine: June 18, 2022

Will Humphrey ’10 and Shae Callahan: June 25, 2022

Dillon Corkran ’10 and Stephanie McCauley: July 29, 2022

Tenley Malmquist and Seth Meyer: August 13, 2022

Students in Mr. Sheppe's history class take their learning outdoors on a beautiful May day.

Becky (Millson) Johnstone ’05 and Alex Johnstone: August 20, 2022

Caroline Plante ’14 and Cody Chlanda: September 2, 2022

James O'Leary ’09 and Mimi (Patten) O'Leary ’11: September 3, 2002

Chelsea Stevens ’10 and Matt Darsney: September 10, 2022

MJ Germanos ’10 and Alex Negroski: September 17, 2022

Mark Finnegan, Jr. ’10 and Kelsey Finnegan: September 20, 2022

Emery Durnan ’11 and James Abrahamsen: October 1, 2022

Alex Knecht ’02 and Fitri Setiyani: October 1, 2022

Avi Aronson ’08 and Kali Nadeau: October 8, 2022

Hazen Woolson ’04 and Emilie Jones: October 8, 2022

Grady Vigneau ’06 and Jane Barnard: October 15, 2022

Jimmy Mathews ’09 and Christina Distefano: October 15, 2022

Paul Pettengill ’12 and Sarah Jean Horton: October 15.2022

Tad Davis ’97 and Haley Finnegan: October 22, 2022

Carly Meau ’12 and Jake Rorick: October 22, 2022

Amanda Englehardt ’11 and Brent Talbott: October 22, 2022

Taylor Nissi ’04 and Brittany Schnitta: October 29, 2022

Justine Seraganian ’09 and Jared Pomerance: November 12, 2022

BIRTHS AND ADOPTIONS

Emily Marvin Rider ’09 and Joe Rider: Charlie Rider on August 25, 2022

Syd (Aronson) McKenzie ’10 and Christopher McKenzie: Maverick Cobi McKenzie on August 26, 2022

Zygis Sirvydas ’13 and Aneta Laurinaviciutz: son born in September 2022

Moselle Abear ’08 and Matthew Abear: Lexi Marie Abear on September 10, 2022

Andrew Walter ’99 and Sarah Walter: Rosemary Grace Walter on September 14, 2022

Ashley (Crook) Carlow ’04 and Greg Carlow: Oliver Carlow on September 15, 2022

Taylor James ’07 and Bradley Abbott: Eleanor "Nell" James Abbott on September 16, 2022

Shawna (Pauley) Sharkey ’03 and Daniel Sharkey: Logan James Sharkey on September 24, 2022

Kelsey (Smith) Hultberg ’07 and Richard Hultberg: Henry Shepard Hultberg in October 2022

Hilary Nichols ’06 and David Burman: Quinn Susie Burman on October 1, 2022

Henry Drummond ’07 and Suellen Drummond: Harlow Drummond on November 1, 2022

Mark "Fordy" Sinkinson ’02 and Elizabeth Sinkinson: Mark Crawford Sinkinson III on November 11, 2022

Kourtney Martin ’07 and Stephen Martin ’07: Luke Martin on November 21, 2022

Elise (Steiner) Hacker ’10 and Mike Hacker: Jack Frederick Hacker on November 23, 2022

Willie Ford ’05 and Caroline Nurse: Walker Nurse Ford on November 26, 2022

Joe Arsenault EM and Jodie Arsenault: Nicholas "Nico" Arsentault on November 30, 2022

Alex Knecht ’02 and Fitri Setiyani: Safira "Fira" Bening Knecht in December 2022

JJ Hall ’05 and Victoria Hall: Cole Christopher Hall on December 7, 2022

Gavin Bayreuther ’12 and Erin Bayreuther: Birdie Higgins Bayreuther on December 11, 2022

Tyler Weymouth ’01 and Amanda Weymouth: Richard "Richie" Campbell Weymouth on December 18, 2022

Jamie (Dusseault) Roberge ’07 and Graham Roberge: Jules Flynn Roberge on December 29, 2022

Carling (Delaney) Bennett ’04 and Dane Bennett: William Crawford Benett on January 10, 2023

Casey Gibbs ’12 and Ryan Sousa: Stephanna Alyson Sousa on January 18, 2023

Travis Barton EM and Krystle Barton: Emmalyn Barton on January 24, 2023

Brian Swan EM and Erinn Swan: William Alan Swan on January 30, 2023

Cary (Trainer) Duane ’03 and Eamon Duane: Declan Hillan Duane in February 2023

Alex Palmisano ’03 and Katherine Palmisano: Mae Palmisano in February 2023

Reed Laverack ’06 and Emily Pendergast: Daisy Green Laverack in February 2023

Jamie (Pauley) Cronin '’05 and Ben Cronin: Margot Marie Cronin on February 14, 2023

Elizabeth Kutch ’05 and Yves Parent: Aurora Parent on February 22, 2023

Ana “Lina” (Encalada) Goodwin ’09 and Tyler Goodwin: Georgia Grace Goodwin on February 25, 2023

Want to connect with your classmates? Scan the QR code and submit a class note online today. Thank you!

’47

Class Correspondent

Bill Briggs

kvanlingen@holderness.org

’48

Class Correspondent

Rik Clark

RCBCcapecod@aol.com

Bart Chase writes: Our class really has gotten so much smaller. We did have a great group and I’m also realizing that it's been a very long time since 1948. Time does take its toll. Things go well out here in Oregon with the weatherman giving us very mild conditions even though it's wintertime. Have been busy with family fun, as we do get together often. It's a comfort to have most of the family within 20 miles of our residence. We have health issues and I guess this is not unusual considering our ages. I miss Holderness and know our school has really grown and prospered… Rik Clark reports: Yes, Bart Chase and I are all that is left of the 27 classmates that graduated from a much smaller school, 75 boys in six forms, almost 75 years ago. We will celebrate our 75th Reunion, delayed a year, in 2024. As we age, positive attitudes help as well as decent health and staying connected with Holderness, Phil Peck and John McVeigh. I may not shoot my age again this year, now almost 93, but I will have fun.

’50

Class Correspondent

Frank Hammond

fhammond64@comcast.net

I propped myself up (figuratively) to celebrate my 90 th birthday on February 15th of this year. These days, I spend

much of my time at the computer, emailing and reading newspapers online. Fortunately, my daughter, Bebe, and her family keep me out of mischief, a challenge this senior citizen gladly accepts, not admitting that such behavior becomes more difficult as one gets older. However, I’m attracted to the ambiance of the local pub where I acquit myself reasonably well. They serve a very nice light lunch. As a widower, I have fond memories of the past and find time (without difficulty) to reflect and use prayer to give thanks to the Above for my continuation to sail downwind on course in this rich life’s voyage. (Forgive me. I’m a sucker for metaphors.) I will always be deeply honored to have known the Weld family that gave me the guidance to achieve success during my four years at Holderness School. Kent Weld ’51 , the son of the Rector, was my roommate and best friend during our stay at Webster Hall in my sixth form year. Rev. Edric Weld gave me the counsel I needed to shape and achieve my professional goals. He was a very special person in my life. I will be forever thankful to him. I hope all is well with you and yours. ~

Frank Hammond

’56 Class Correspondent Dick Meyer

richard419@roadrunner.com

Tom Anthony wasted no time answering my request for notes: OK, “My Life so Far.” Celebrated the week between Christmas and New Year by becoming a statistic. Susan and I both got a mild case of COVID; doing fine now. Probably got it on the flight back from Michigan where we spent Christmas with our older daughter and her family. Plans are complete for this spring’s European trip: a week in Vienna, three days in Innsbruck, and four days in Munich…toward the end of May. I’m finally going to have a chance to use the German I have had stored away since the late ’50s. Finished up a large bas-relief of a sailboat race carved from basswood, and am brooding about the next carving, along with doing a fair bit of undisciplined writing in the forms of fiction, poetry, and essays. Just started reading The January 6 Report (from the looks of the book, I may not be finished by the time these notes appear). Fortunately, there are loads of footnotes”…Lew Snow followed close behind with this: My son just moved to Myrtle Beach, SC. He has a new job, which is good, but the move was taxing, to say the least. Finding a place to land was also a chore. The plus side was that he moved closer to me, his brother, and his daughter. I will be able to drive down to visit him, as it is only a four-hour drive, and I no longer have to pass through the dreaded “Atlanta” multi-lane highway of death. That said and done, the move was hard, and I hope that you guys have an easier time of it than my son did. Throughout his whole move, it seemed that Murphy’s principle was in play: “Whatever can possibly go wrong will at the worst

A basswood carving created by Tom Anthony ’56.

possible time.” The camp trip, on the other hand, sounds interesting (Lew is referring to the planned trip I write about further down)…Dick Endlar answered the call with this: Hi Dick, sorry it took so long to answer. I wish I could say I was busy, but just lazy. Not too much to report. My granddaughter is going to bless me with my fourth great-grandchild in April. Like her identical twin sister, she is having a boy this time. I’m going to sell my Cape Cod house in the near future; just too much to handle. It is wonderful living right on the ocean, but you pay dearly for upkeep from the sand, salt, and constant big winds. I'm keeping my Naples, FL home for a while longer. I just can't take the cold anymore—not like shoveling, spraying, and skating on the rink at Holderness. I have purchased an apartment in a retirement community in Needham, MA. Hopefully I can see my family more often…Dave Wiggins came through with this: Here is my first small offering for our class notes and not the usual news about family, trips and current events in my 85-year-old life; but rather a special memory from the last several weeks of my one year at Holderness to which I’m hoping someone can add some additional details even if somewhat hazy, as are my own. My recollection is of a day trip to a mountaintop mansion in Moultonborough, now known as Castle in the Clouds, from which we brought back to school a pipe organ for the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Mr. English must have been our leader and Peter Tuttle ’58 may have been included as he loved to tinker with musical instruments such as the player piano at his home in Concord, MA and pumping the bellows of the chapel organ. In my researching the history of Castle in the Clouds I found that the timing of our school trip made sense insofar as the mansion was then changing ownership.

Let me end with my warm regards to all, David Wiggins, Liberty, ME, cairns@gwi.net Philippe Coupey e-mailed this from Paris: I just got out of the hospital. Five hours on the operating table, first for a peritonitis operation, then more recently for a heart operation. And this time I came out much older than when I went in. Much older, but alive, and actually doing fine, now that I have learned to walk and talk again! I shared the hospital room with a man much older than myself. He was all wrinkles and bones; he was so thin! I liked him, we liked each other. At one point I asked him about his life to which he replied, “I have regrets.” I asked him his age. He asked me mine. The old man couldn’t believe what he was seeing! To him, I looked so much younger than I really was! “I beg you, sir, please tell me how you did it to remain so young?” I told him, in so many words that what he was seeing was all an optical illusion. And in fact, it was. I may have looked 10 years younger than the old man, but that was before my operation! Since then, while having lost 10 kilos in weight, I’ve gained them back in years. Now it was my turn to appear all wrinkles and bones. Why, this old man was me! But without regrets… While waiting for notes to be sent in I received notice of two schoolmate deaths. Peter Kingston passed on December 8, 2022 and Tom Fox ’55 passed away January 1, 2023. We all knew Peter, but only prior year students will remember Tom… Barry Borella was one of those who had a memory of Tom and sent this along: Funny. Tom's father gave him a new Chevrolet convertible in return for his promise to attend a two-year business college and come to work for the family company instead of going to a four-year college like we were all brainwashed to believe was the only course of action. At the time most of us felt he made a

bad decision. We were wrong. Barry is also active in the restoration and preservation of the Trinity Church, Holderness, NH. A note card with a picture of the church and explanation on the back says the church was built in 1797 by Samuel Livermore. (This has to be where Livermore Hall got its name). Holderness School for Boys opened with a sermon in Trinity Church, September 11, 1879, and it served as the school chapel until 1884… Dick Meyer writes: I woke up this morning at 4:15 because the fire alarm was going off in the whole building. It was 22° below zero and the sprinkler system had malfunctioned. Fortunately, there was no fire and no water damage, but that kind of a start to the day tends to upset your whole day. Here it is 8:30 in the morning and my head still does not feel right. I ended my class note last July saying I was about to leave for a vacation visit to the very same cottage I grew up in and my mother had sold in 1984. It was a great experience. The blight on the experience was I totaled the car 15 miles from our destination. No one was hurt, and the other car was able to drive off. However, my airbags had gone off disabling the car—and it started to rain. We were able to contact the current cottage owner and she came to collect us and all our stuff. We also contacted our son who was already planning to spend some time with us, but now became our chauffeur and all-round good guy for the next two weeks. We reconnected with the sister of my friend (who Daphne had roomed with and was responsible for our meeting), and she inquired if I knew a person who she knew had gone to Worcester Polytechnic Institute. I not only knew him; we were fraternity brothers. He was two years ahead of me and we had not seen each other since he graduated 65 years ago. We may even join forces because we are both active as environmentally friendly

green hydrogen advocates. Once we announced we were going to Big Pond in Otis, MA the whole family wanted to visit. We had a full house at night and day visits with many old friends from Westfield only 20 miles away where I grew up and Daphne and I lived for several years after marriage. I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world, but I don’t want to do it again. Maybe you CAN go home, once.

’57

Class Correspondent

Bob Backus robertbackus05@comcast.net

Steven Hall sent the following: I am currently in Waltham, MA and after 34 years with Bechtel it seems I have “aged out,” so I am now doing contract work. Starting in 1964, the international bug bit me and, as a result, I have been in 32 countries and 47 states, for the most part living and working (as opposed to tourist). My classmates will remember me as a poor language student, but, in self-defense, I am fluent in technical Italian, fair in French and Spanish, can

get through the day in German and know pleasantries in Farsi, Arabic, and Mandarin. I had my left hip replaced (very successfully) in 2019 and only now am beginning to feel “old.”

’58

Class Correspondent

Bill Biddle williambiddle@myfairpoint.net

R. Brooke Thomas rbthomas@anthro.umass.edu

We came close to losing Brooke Thomas and his Shirley, their son Culley, and his family in Peru this winter. Ever since Brooke did his doctoral anthropology research in Peru, he has gone back pretty much annually to a home he owns there, in the town of Lamas, to renew long-term friendships and to vacation in a warmer climate. The Thomas Clan celebrated Christmas in Peru, missing both the unseasonable warmth of January here and our record-setting polar cold snap, although it was also an “interesting” time to be in Peru, given the political turmoil in presidential politics. This time the turmoil drew the masses to the streets of the capital where they tied up that nation’s transportation network in yet another protest against the ubiquitous corruption. It was a dodgy situation for a while; but the Thomases are home safe now. Earlier, Brooke had reported that Christmas in the countryside in Peru included playing zapo (tossing brass coins toward the open mouth of a brass toad), watching children play with machetes, eating pizza at streetside, enjoying a 20-foot artificial Christmas tree in the town plaza, toy windup guinea pigs, and the medieval Italianate castle with a fearsome dragon of 10-foot wingspan. After Christmas, the Thomases headed off to the jungle river town of Chazuta, along a winding mountainous road often blocked by

falling boulders. Brooke wrote of “the instability of these slopes, the grandeur of the geological formations, and the depth to which the river has cut into the earth. Colored birds glide from one forested bank to another. While little kids skip and run, adults seem to hibernate in lounge chairs with a beer bottle and perpetually sleeping dogs by their side. As vultures effortlessly glide above Chazuta, an ominous shadow is occasionally cast down the main street.” “Shirley thinks I’m being too harsh on this two-bit rat hole,” Brooke writes. “She points out they have a womenowned and -run chocolate factory, a ceramic museum, and an art museum where there are elegantly carved wooden sculptures, an airport road to a defunct field where drug planes used to land, [and] some remnant hippie hotels.” But Brooke seemed happier after they climbed back “to Lamas where it is quiet, unpolluted, and the air is cooler.” Eventually Brooke and family found their way through the chaos in the city, to the airport, and home to peaceful Massachusetts… John Greenman and his wife Patty celebrated their 30th anniversary on February 13th. It will be “the greatest blessing of my life,” he writes, adding, “along with my two sons and five grandchildren” among whom are one working with Nigerian refugee school children in the Ballearic Islands off the Mediterranean coast of Spain, one finishing a masters in speech therapy at Old Dominion University, and one, also a college graduate, working by choice as an iron worker doing “a lot of high work” possibly just for now but undecided, long term… Erl Solstad phoned a couple of weeks ago and reminisced about his time in the service, after a stint at Union College. Erl finished his college time at Pratt; apparently had put in time in the Army but fetched up as a shipboard-based Marine in the Navy, with the USS Lexington

Bill Clough ’57, Bob Backus ’57, and Henry Sturgeon (son of Mark Sturgeon) gathered at Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox defeat the Tampa Bay Rays.

at the time out of Norfolk and with the USS Little Rock. He said he was a security inspector. Erl was all four years at Holderness and remembered especially Don Henderson helping him overcome his uncertainty about the rope tow. Like many who went away to school young, Erl remembers especially the support of Mr. Cayley, Wendy Stephenson, and Alice Hinman Erl particularly remembers his time at Holderness as an experience in character development, and in how to educate oneself in ways, he thinks, that may no longer be so clearly available… As for me, Bill Biddle , an aging, failing Black Lab whom we feared was on her last legs kept us home from a youth hockey tournament last weekend at Jay Peak, up near the Canadian border. It was a hockey tournament for teams in the 10- to 12-year-old range. My granddaughter, Sage Biddle in Ipswich, MA, has played ice hockey for several years now and, to my surprise (and delight), her team came in first among all the teams in her age group (from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Quebec). It was the weekend of the record cold, close to negative 30°F, so we had both serious cold and a seriously unwell dog to keep us from seeing our granddaughter play. The dog is mending… Don Latham , home repair expert, cut off the end of his finger while repairing a doorbell: with some stitches and fast thinking all turned out well… Mike Kingston has lost his brother Peter Kingston ’56, and we extend our condolences. Mike’s also been hosting our regular zoomed class of ’58 meetings… If you haven’t talked with anyone from our class in a while, you should. We’re happy to be able to talk with one another, and we enjoy our conversations. Brooke and I wish you all good health and comfortable old age as we carry on. Be in touch with us.

~Brooke Thomas and Bill Biddle

’59

Class Correspondent

Jerry Ashworth ashworth.kemah@gmail.com or jashworth617@gmail.com

Jerry Ashworth sends his greetings and the following note. “I write this newsletter from sunny Long Boat Key Florida where I anxiously await the arrival sometime in the spring of Steve Barndollar. A golf game will undoubtedly take place since he wants to get even with me for the beating I gave him last year. It was one of my rare good days. Take note, Chris Palmer, you know what I am talking about. Steve is associated with the World Affairs Council of NH and has been trying to get a Holderness AP history class to compete in a competition in March. I know Don Henderson would have had us well prepared for such an event… A note arrived from Buster Welch with the following news: Cathy and I got COVID in April ’22 and—like the Energizer Bunny—she bounced right back, while I'm still suffering the effects of long-term COVID. Of course, I don't have the ambition or energy I had fifty years ago but to fall asleep after coffee every morning is a bit much. Then there is age, which all of you are experiencing. We love our country home but soon it will be time to move into something we don't have to take care of. Eighteen kilometers from us is the "city" of Selkirk, all ten thousand souls, with a set of one level rentals which includes garden space, garage, is within two blocks of the hospital, hardware store, groceries, Walmart (I hate that place), and most important, the library. And it will let us keep our cat (who knew I could become so attached?). But moving will mean giving up the shop, the huge garden and fruit orchard, my cedar strip canoes and boat right on the creek with access to the Red River for fishing, even

brewing (sixty gallons ready to bottle and distill as I write), and Cathy will have to give up her 12' robotic quilting frame. This year I shot two bucks out the bedroom window and got given another, which we butchered and put in the freezer. That's not gonna happen again. But a wonderful young couple really want to move into our home and will absorb absolutely everything that we don't take with us so that's a load off our minds. I'm guessing every one of you has either gone through this stage or are planning to. Good luck to us all. In the meantime, thanks to you all for donating to Holderness. Our class is the best… No one is more prolific in writing a class note than Lee Kellogg Having left the Navy after working in ship salvage in the Macon River Delta, in 1967, Lee ended up between Scotland and Norway, managing diving operations in the North Sea oil fields. Lee assures us that offshore drilling operations are fully assessed for all risk factors and are fully safe. Open heart surgery put an end to this very interesting underwater career. He now spends his time refurbishing old English shotguns. A lot of my neighbors down here in Florida would love to meet Lee. Gun interest is a big factor in Florida… Charlie Murphy is one gun enthusiast who would love to see some of your gun accomplishments. He is still working with Senator Grassley in the field of oversight and investigations, hopefully tracking down some of the foolishness that finds its way out of Congress. Murph was always a bulldog and if he got his teeth into something he wouldn't let go. Definitely the right man for the job… From down under comes a note from Henry Whitney, the same Henry Whitney whose graduation party on the Cape was the most memorable event. After leaving the Marines in Vietnam, Henry spent time with Citibank in the insurance sector before returning to Argentina to set up his own insurance

marketing firm. He was also active in the family farm 400 miles south of Buenos Aires. With all this going on, Henry was also busy on different boards and community organizations. Travel to California and Sweden were frequent events. Looking back at his time at Holderness, he remembers it as a most formative factor in his life, along with time spent in the Marines. I venture to say many of us feel the same way about our time at Holderness surrounded with the great faculty we were blessed to have… Dick Floyd writes: I saw with interest the center page picture in the winter 2023 edition of Holderness School Today. On page 59 and 60 it showed the "machine-built flow trail." I was very excited because I identify that hill as the school's old ski hill and 30-meter ski jump. If I am right the student ski slope started at the very top. The skiers were delivered there via an old rope tow at the left side. Also, the new "trail" descends right over the lip of the old 30-meter jump. Our ski teams (with John Clough , Olympian Gordi Eaton ’58, Chris Palmer, and others) of the 1959 era were multi-talented in that Coach Don Henderson made the members do both alpine and Nordic events. Of course, now prep school ski jumping is banned. That ski hill was near and dear to my heart. After afternoon classes we students would walk to the base of the hill, strap on our long-thong bindings, and ski until it became dark. I valued that experience because it gave me confidence in mastering "the boards" and I went on to ski on the ski patrol at Middlebury College for four years. And to complete the story, my ski patrolling days propelled me to choose my profession of the practice of medicine… All is well with Jeanne and myself. We have been kept busy with our sixth bearded Collie, a female puppy named Piper. It is a guaranteed way to stay young. Take care and be well.” ~Jerry

Ashworth

Class Correspondent

Gerry Shyavitz

g.shyavitz@comcast.net

Eighty and turning eight-one. Can you believe it? It was just yesterday, and Rip was checking to see if we had a tie underneath our sweater; that the smoking igloo was standing next to the School House, and when we were anxiously awaiting an outing with Saint Mary’s in the Mountain and Waynflete girl schools. We, of course, were wrapped up in our monastic existence, unaware of experiencing female companionship, except in our minds. Pearl and I are still here. I can say Pearl is “stable” in her health as she manages her life with courage and

a smile, I am still working part-time as lecturer and part-time practicing attorney in estate planning and fulltime at the IRS. Yes, I am sure I am the only one working but the brain is active, and I can say that practicing part-time law is wonderful and very rewarding as opposed to the former of practicing money. I love my clients and they are a rich source of sustenance; practicing law for the love of it. My four grandchildren and two daughters are healthy and happy. Grandchildren in college or about to enter and some with aspirations of interesting careers, like pediatric surgeon. Also, they are amazingly independent and mature, having traveled constantly in Europe and studied there. What a difference from when I was their age. Now, the following are the steadfast and loyal classmates who responded to my call… Charley Witherell , my loyal and only companion and representative at our recent reunion, did not write, but left a lengthy voicemail on my phone. He wanted to make sure he made it before the deadline. Both he and Pam are happy and healthy and they were actually on their way to a concert at Johnson State College. Charley has a personality and temperament that should be bottled… Rick Bullock writes: I am still here—no longer flying myself but working limited hours overseeing one corporate flight department that operates a medium size business jet, which helps keep the brain cells active. My best wishes to you, Gerry, and to my classmates… Ross Deachman says: God bless you for continued efforts to maintain contact among our classmates. I’m still in the office part-time. My son runs everything. Nancy and I are at Squam Lake for the summers and Cocoa Beach for the winter. We are currently back in Florida till April. Son John is in the Virgin Islands for a vacation. I’m still working on Draper Maynard

Charley Murphy ’59 and Senator Chuck Grassley.

One of the many Saipem’s 7000 cranes Stan Kellogg ’59 worked on during his career.

(baseball) history and family history. Hope all is well with you and yours… John Despres writes: Happy New Year and thanks for keeping in touch with us despite our weak responses. In 2022, after ten years in Miami Beach, we began living full time in Santa Monica, CA and commuting quarterly to Washington, DC where I chair the board of The Phillips Collection, the first modern art museum in America. Thanks to a knee replacement, I’ve kept fit by walking five+ miles a day and practicing yoga or Pilates two to three times a week. Post-pandemic, we traveled to Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. We now plan trips to Mexico City and Korea later this year. Meantime, we often visit with our daughters’ families, including three teenage grandsons, in LA and DC. So, our lives are indeed busy, and very fulfilling… John Dunklee shared: Pat and I are both retired. My only town duties are as chairman of the Hebron Historic District Commission. We spent Christmas with COVID but were done with it by New Years Day. We are on our way to the Caribbean midJanuary for three weeks. I am restoring a couple of small outboard motors… News from Brian Dewart includes the following: After an email from Shy asking for some news, I decided I just didn’t have the heart to let him down again. So here goes… not that any at our age really cares about what somebody else is doing but rather, more importantly, what folks our age are thinking. To dispense with the doing part of my life: Spending as much time as I can with family and friends (since that’s what really matters) and taking the obligatory river cruise, Machu Picchu or Antarctica trip or one of the many other places on our bucket list. Being single as I am, it’s sometimes a bit harder to find a good traveling companion. I’m fortunate to have several close sibs and friends who I can

usually interest in going somewhere new and exciting. Continuing on the “doing” part: after Holderness, I received degrees from Hobart, Cornell, and SUNY Oswego, and wound up in the hospitality business—opening, owning, and/or managing a number of restaurants and nightspots in the Ithaca, NY area. My final venture in this field, in collaboration with my twin brother Alan and several partners, was helping to open and manage a premiere music hall, restaurant, and nightclub in Buffalo’s Theater District. After almost 20 years in that field, and frankly not getting a whole lot of satisfaction out of it, I changed careers completely and got myself certified to teach vocational foods at a residential school for at-risk youth in Ithaca. There I was instrumental in establishing a student-run lunch café for the 300 staff members who worked on campus. After almost another 20 years in that field (from which I did receive a lot of satisfaction), I retired and relocated to San Diego to be near my daughter and young grandson. While in San Diego, I taught several years at juvenile hall—home to some pretty tough kids—but a rewarding job! Finally, in the mid-’90s, I relocated back to Ithaca where I now live, across the road from my former wife whom I still consider a good friend. That pretty much covers the “doing” part of my life. Now for the thinking part…I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I turned 80, it really was a bit of a shock. That used to seem so old to me! You suddenly realized you are on the “off-ramp” and thinking about the last eight decades. I’m lucky I still have good health and able to live a good life although I do find it harder to pull up some words and remember names; I know that’s par for the course. My daughter tells me I obsess too much about death and dying but I tell her that I’m just trying to be practical and tie up some

loose ends in the time I have left. I have a lot to be thankful for: health, good family and friends. I’m able to spend most of my time in my home in Ithaca, or winters with my daughter in San Diego, and a good part of the summers in Tadoussac, Quebec where my sibs and I have several cottages we enjoy returning to every summer… Don Sololoski writes: Nothing much going on with me or the family. My son had a garage fire; no one injured. I turned the big 80 (you know all about that, group). Don’t remember if I told you this but I ran into Loren Berry on campus at Michigan State back in 1960 when we were both enrolled there, but never saw him again. I have downsized to apartment living now, not too bad, especially the outdoor maintenance and taxes!…Loren Berry ’s widow, Esther, kindly responded to my request for an update. She writes: I enjoyed hearing from you. I am doing OK. As you can imagine, these past months have been very busy and sad, yet filled with immense thanksgiving for the very happy 54 years Loren and I were together. The children and I visit as much as possible—Loren IV is in Boston, and Ellen is in Portland, ME. I always enjoy learning the latest news about what's going on at Holderness, and I am so grateful for his classmates' kind notes and support for the Loren Berry Annual Scholarship Fund. The education and values from your outstanding school stayed with him his entire life.

’61

Interim Class Correspondent

Gerry Shyavitz ’60

g.shyavitz@comcast.net

Well, here I am, Gerry Shyavitz , temporary Class Correspondent, and as I have said before, I may be temporary as the late Marshall House was. I only

heard from three classmates and their responses follow. I shall not give up on the rest of you as we all want to hear from you… Bill Seaver writes: I realized it has been almost three years since COVID struck. I am much more aware of the weather, for getting outside is part of my regeneration. We still attend Zoom meetings and venture out mostly to a local farm stand and to medical appointments. We have enjoyed multiple visits from Dana’s family. We have even found a person who will come to our house to cut our hair. Other than that, we are starting to loosen our COVID bubble by going to meetings where people are wearing masks or that are outdoors. I am determined to keep walking at least 3,000 steps each day or riding my new recumbent exercise bicycle. I have adjusted to living on a no-salt, vegan, heart, brain, and eye health diet. My strange diet is really working. Yet I still have issues with my vision, heart, brain, and need twice daily naps. Eating this way is a lot of work for me and our 16-hours-a-day aide but the creativity to make food tasty and interesting is worth it. I am so grateful for everybody’s support. We are fully vaccinated including boosters, but I caught a mild case of COVID in late October. We are glad we remodeled the house, so it is handicapped accessible, as I am now dependent upon those features. House maintenance continues to take significant time although I am glad Sherry is managing my care and taking over more of house chores. One bright star throughout the pandemic has been getting to know and do things with our granddaughter Eloise. Decorating gingerbread houses, reading stories, building blocks and trains and exploring our house have been fun and rewarding times for us. Dana and Alicia are eagerly awaiting their second child (our second grandchild) in April. Our daughter

Abby continues her acupuncture work in southern California. She moved into her own house this year. Her new rescue puppy, Pickles, provides companionship and reason for lots of walks… John Holley reports: It has been a year since Candace and I decided to give up fighting Mother Nature (wildfires and devastating ice storms) and sell our house. The perpetual upkeep and maintenance were too much. We moved to northwest Portland, OR and are making new friends at an independent retirement community. The journey has been wonderful. Lots of interesting friends, a neighborhood filled with interesting restaurants and stores, a community with a wide variety of cultural events available any day of the week, and the luxury to let others do all the hard work. We just have to lock the door and go where we want when we want. We have visited San Diego with our granddaughter to visit colleges, the Oregon coast to walk the beaches, Austin, TX for Thanksgiving, and we are headed to Coronado Island, Tucson, and Belize for our oldest granddaughter’s wedding in the first half of 2023. Wishing everyone the best… John Cleary says: Well, Gerry, I really have no earth-shattering, unique news about my life here in southeastern Louisiana. I believe that all of us remaining schoolmates are dealing with our personal aging issues. The Book of Job comes to mind as most of us begin losing our youthful abilities which we assumed to last forever: jumping tall buildings in a single bound, stopping speeding freight trains, and peeing when we choose. I learned that I had suffered a mini-stroke one year ago when I fell in my sleep. At the same time, I noticed that I suddenly lost much of my balance. Now, when I walk, I remain mindful not to veer left or right, to lift my feet clumsily off the ground to

avoid stumbling, and to remain extra careful when trying to navigate in complete darkness with no obvious visual references. Loss of balance has diminished my ability to dance “large” and fast. I no longer can balance and paddle my pirogue. Fortunately, I can operate my machinery with confidence, but getting in and out is entirely a different story. A “sizeable” blood clot in my left groin this past fall convinced me to get my will in order. Finally, I have dropped the word “tomorrow” from my vocabulary. So, my life continues in small steps; aging has become that process that makes my life a little too interesting. I talk often with Charley Witherell ’60 and his wife, Pam, and exchange emails with Bill Seaver and John Roper. Thankfully, our lives go on.

’63 Class Correspondent

David Pope

popemaine@gmail.com

First the news: Gary Richardson wrote from Florida that they sold their house in Biddeford Pool, ME and have moved to Exeter, NH for the warmer months. Turns out they are almost next door to my son’s house, so I’m looking forward to rapping on their door come spring… Steve Wales wrote from Marblehead, MA that they still spend a few weeks every summer on an island here on Maine’s coast. It’s the last island you can drive to before Bermuda… George LeBoutillier wrote that he lost his wife of close to sixty years, Stepper, this past New Year’s Day. He lives and rows at Lopez Island, WA and is rebuilding his house on Elbow Cay in the Bahamas, destroyed in 2019 by Hurricane Dorian. Turns out that George and I are somewhat related through the same second cousin, who

is also rebuilding a house, on the same street, at Elbow Cay. Small world… A neighbor just gave me his old Garmin smart watch. So, I’m looking up that learning curve, and trying to keep up with the quickening pace of phone/ computer/credit card changes and updates. I hope you all are doing better at it than I am. I found the Strava app fun this past summer while finishing off the last eight of NH’s 4000 footers. George McNeil , as noted before, came along on one of the hikes. We hope to meet up for skiing this winter. I also had company from my two sons and a granddaughter at different times. The Exeter son witnessed me slipping off the trail and cartwheeling a few times before using my head to stop against a tree. We were six or seven miles and a stream crossing out, so it could have been bad. I seem to have become a liability on outings with my offspring. Meanwhile I volunteer for four local non-profits, play lots of tennis and music. Best wishes to all.

~

David Pope

’64 Class Correspondent

Guy “Sandy” Alexander salex88@comcast.net

In December, I received a very nice note from John Butler ’s wife Loretta: “Good morning, Sandy! I was thinking about you and all of John's Holderness family this morning as I was making angels from some of John's neckties to hang on a special memory Christmas tree! Thought this would be a good time to wish all a very Merry Christmas! May blessings abound to you and yours! If you would be so kind, please pass this along! Warmest regards! Loretta.” I passed it along to our classmates, and there were many quick responses, including holiday wishes from Peter Bodine , Woody Thompson , Bill Baxter

and David Stamps . Others offered more news, which follows. ~ Sandy Alexander Richard Seltzer has a new book called Grandad Jokes: 3000 Jokes on Trump and Other Nonsense Jokes for every taste and mood. An antidote to social distancing, political chaos, environmental crisis, and war. Laughs to help you get back to feeling normal. He just published two more: Echoes from the Attic is a romanticsuspense novel. Five strangers (two men, three women) share a Back Bay apartment like a multi-generational family. High-tech high jinks, vengeful jealousy, and violent death combine to complicate lives and loves. The Lizard of Oz and Other Stories is satiric fantasy for children and adults. An elementary school class sets out on a field trip to bring back enchantment to the world. They learn that you have to go under the world to stand under it and understand it, and that there are many levels of understanding. You can find all of these books on Amazon. com. Enjoy… Jeff Hinman responded to Loretta Butler’s email with: Many thanks for forwarding this email about converting ties to ornaments which I passed on to adult children one of whom has my Holderness tie. Perhaps he will duplicate Loretta Butler’s work. In the spirit of downsizing, I no longer own any suits, but have three ties which are never worn. A blue blazer hangs in my closet in solitary confinement. In addition to the diminished state of my wardrobe, my total number of keys is three… one house, one post office box, and one car… Peter Ashworth shares: Greetings from North Carolina. Great hearing from y'all. That's the extent of my southern talk. Just thought I would also give a quick update. Louise and I have been living near Durham, NC for the past 12 years. We are about 25 minutes from each kid and four grandchildren. Our daughter teaches

and our son has been the head women’s tennis coach at Duke for 25 years; fourtime NCAA champions. If anyone is interested the best e-mail to catch me at is pashworth@reachmedianetwork. com Eliot Cohen writes: You've been a good correspondent, and I have not; more in the shadows (which are actually an interesting part of my work). Nice to hear from everyone and thoughts go out to those who are no longer with us. I've been fortunate to have enjoyed some wonderful opportunities along the way. I got very interested in photography after a stint in the Navy—did some traveling, grad school for an MFA and have been teaching people how to do this crazy stuff ever since. Evolved from the darkroom, through Photoshop, and now into Lightroom (for those who know it). Amazing tools that help with the expressive aspects of photography. I'm still active with lots of teaching, mostly with small seminar groups that I work very closely with and a lot of consulting for individuals who are serious about their work. Pre-COVID there were lots of travel workshops, taking participants to interesting locations around the country and internationally. I'm holding back a bit now under the circumstances, but still getting away from time to time. The fruits of all of this are here: www. eliotcohen.com…Thanks, Sandy, for getting this string going. Gives me a chance to pause and take a pleasant walk down memory lane. Best to you all, John Strasenburgh Dikkon Eberhart writes: Here’s a quick news run-through, if you desire, since I don’t otherwise communicate much. After almost 30 years on the Maine coast for both of our careers, Channa and I moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia, chasing our youngest daughter (of our four children) who had gone to college in Lynchburg and met a guy and married

the guy and began having children and—can you believe it?—they were NOT moving back to Maine. We had a lovely time with them for half a dozen years, being about 20 minutes from one another and their four babies. But our dear son-in-law determined that sales was not his true calling and that he would become a Lutheran pastor, which meant seminary, and his seminary is about 15 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, seven or eight hours away, not 20 minutes. So, here’s our advice. Don’t chase your children; they’ll move, ha ha! Most of my time post career has been directed at prison ministry—Kairos—serving a medium security state prison way down in the mountains on the border of West Virginia, which was closed to us as a volunteer group during COVID but has now—thankfully—opened back up again. I’ll be leading our next “Walk,” in May of 2023. The other effort has been more writing, this time a planned four-book thriller series of romantic and Christian emphasis, the first book of which comes out in January, about a month from this writing. Title: Egg Island . Elevator speech: Fine arts painter and former pastor Percy Black must reclimb the precipice of his faith in order to save two women from the crimes that pursue them on the Maine shore and ocean. I hope everyone feels moved to read the book; find it on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. I’m still deciding whether to produce an audio version, reading it myself. That would be fun to do, and perhaps profitable. I’m loving this writing! I’m about halfway through writing book two, titled This Blessed Assurance . It’ll be out probably in June, with book three in the fall of 2023 and book four next spring in 2024.

’65

Class Correspondent

Tom Butler

Tom_Ryan@twcny.rr.com

Sadly, I need to begin with the news of Bill Morton’s passing. I know you will appreciate the longer piece on Bill’s life and ties to Holderness earlier in this issue. I was in extensive touch with Tom Miller, Cleve Patterson , and Terry Jacobs as they worked to pull together the news of Bill’s passing to get out to the class in January. I joined Terry and Jim Rosenblum at a lovely remembrance service in Rye, NY in late February. Along with Jim’s wife, Mary, we spent a couple of hours at the reception reminiscing about Bill and catching up with each other’s lives after too many years… There is much better news from some other classmates… Chip Ellis wrote from Hawaii: About a year ago I got back into skiing with a week at the Summit at Snoqualmie, near Seattle. I had a great time, and it brought back memories of schussing down Cannon Mountain. So much fun. They classify me as a “super senior” (it’s nice to be validated) and my daily lift ticket is $30 for day and night allmountain access. If you are in the area, I would highly recommend the skiing. By the way, I am still working as the CFO of a medical practice associated with the University of Hawaii School

of Medicine, and I am still trying to get OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) going. We recently submitted a $2 billion proposal to the DOE. Alas, we were not selected, but we will continue to try to bring this technology to the world. Dream on… I was glad to hear from Bill Carter who sent in an extensive note catching up on his exploits. After a couple of years living with Gary Garratt in Denver where they had a great life skiing every weekend at Vail, they both headed for study abroad and met up in Davos where they wound up trapped in by avalanches and had “the best skiing of our lives.” After graduating from University of Denver with a degree in civil engineering and returning to Minnesota to work with his father, Bill married his college sweetheart, and then moved to Aspen. After some wonderful years there influenced by their experience with EST, they had an amicable separation and have remained close. From his second marriage came two wonderful and successful sons who are both happily married; one living in Denver and the other in Hawaii. Now on his third marriage (as am I), Bill is living in Matthews, NC with his wife, Marcea, his 14–month-old grandson Atlas and four Labradors. He has changed careers and is now a full-time agent with Coldwell Banker Realty in their Ballantyne office. “My tag line is: ‘Let Uncle Bill Find Your Next Home In The Carolinas.’ " Healthy and happy at 76, Bill credits much to his commitment to the Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach for which he is now an ambassador… Finally, I have had brief correspondence with George Gibbons . In response to my question about how he is doing, George writes: “Damn, I am still here! Spending July in Nantucket, waiting for some crazy classmates to show up and rent some scooters, grab some

Bill Carter’s ’65 wife Marcea and his grandson Atlas.

college freshman girls, and drive off the roads into the rosa rugosa!” He also included some specifics of the great work Earle Holsapple is up to developing his Phase 1 cancer fighting drug at SciTech… I do hope to hear from more of you in time for the next issue. ~

Tom Butler

’69

Class Correspondent

Jonathan Porter jwport9537@gmail.com ’70

Class Correspondent

Ted Coates Tedc33@outlook.com

’66

Class Correspondent

Doug Griswold dgriswoldvt@gmail.com

’67

Class Correspondent

Jamie Hollis jameshollis@comcast.net

’68

Interim Class Correspondent

John Coles johncolesart@gmail.com

Jon Norton writes: Many thanks to Ted Coates for becoming our Class Correspondent. Despite few updates over the years, the reunion proved we had a lot of catching up to do. Apparently, many saved their updates to do it in person at the reunion. Now that we fortunately have a Class Correspondent, hopefully we can keep the momentum alive. Lastly, I just wanted to thank the Holderness staff and the Weymouth family for their hospitality during the reunion weekend. Having the opportunity to not only catch up with our own classmates, we reconnected with other classes that attended with us… Ted Coates shares: After a great reunion in June, my wife and I visited Peter Sherman ’71 at his home on the Damariscotta River in Maine. Peter is living the dream, semi-retired in a beautiful spot, fast boat to get him out to the islands. He sees a good deal of Don Hinkley

when Don visits Maine. I have fled the Northeast for warmer climes. Despite being the home of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, Charlottesville seems to welcome Yankees.

’71 Class Correspondent

Robert Johnson

ravenowner232@gmail.com

’72 Class Correspondent

Dwight Shepard

shepdb@comcast.net

In some ways, it seems as if our 50th reunion was just yesterday. But in other ways, it seems long ago… At any rate, it was great to hear again from Nat Mead who was able to attend last spring. Nat writes from Norway that he loves being the grandfather of a two-yearold and is getting ready for two more grandchildren later this year. “Besides helping our three daughters and grandparenting,” he writes, his wife, Audhild, is mentoring the kindergarten staff who she led for the last 32 years. He and Audhild have both retired and Nat is doing consulting work for organic farming projects in various places in Scandinavia. “It’s deep winter here,” he wrote in January, “and snow is piling up in the mountains, a good omen for Randonee ski tours starting soon and on into May, even June.” At the time of his note, Nat and Audhild were getting ready to take a trip to Mexico, where they planned to meet up with classmate Gary Circuit . “The trip to the States for the reunion was totally worth it,” he adds. “I’m really thankful and happy to have met up with all of you who came.”…Tom Cooper is one of our classmates who did not attend reunion last spring, and really had a good reason. “Yesterday I read the

Bill Morton ’65, TR ’72-’90, P ’90 ’91, June 9, 1945-January 23, 2023.

John Coles ’68 painted this shell for John Lockwood’s ’03 new son, Teddy.

Ted Coates ’70 and Peter Sherman ’71 gather for a visit in Maine.

Henry Hood ’24 competing in the bouldering competition during Proctor Day ’22

report from the 50 th ,” he writes from Dorset, VT. “Sounds like it was a great gathering, and I was sorry to miss it and the chance to reconnect with longago friends. But as you noted I was busy on the day.”…Heard from Chuck Kaplan who, at the time, was in Delray Beach, FL for the winter. “All is well,” Chuck wrote. “I have two grandsons and look forward to having more. Still working, but travel to our factory in China has been delayed due to COVID and the white balloons.” Chuck said he was sorry to have missed our 50th reunion, but he had a wedding to attend on the west coast for one of his sons. “Maybe the 60 th?”…I also heard from Peter Gamwell , for the first time in I-can’t-remember-when, who lives in Houston with his wife, Paula. “I am now retired after over 40 years as an exploration petroleum geologist,” Peter says. “Regards to those in the class of 1972!”…Hank Osborne writes that he had a great time at reunion. “Besides my fulltime gig in marketing for a goodly sized nonprofit, I continue to gig musically doing solos, duos and running a weekly open mic,” he says. “(It’s like a gig, just less me and more reverb).” Henry says he plans to have a “Last Days of 60-something” party sometime in early June. “I will gladly welcome any and all Holderness classmates,” he says. “Time and place are still TBD. Also planning another trip to Japan; just need to decide if it will be a one-way or round-trip ticket.”…

Sue (Glidden)

Francesco “had a wonderful time at the recent Holderness celebration of ‘50-years’ of co-education. My daughter Angi Francesco ’98 joined me and we had a wonderful tour of the buildings, dinner with some very engaging young women, and then I had the privilege of being on the panel with seven other ‘trailblazing’ women; four of us from the 1970s and four from the ’80s.” Sue noted how much the

Holderness campus has changed since our graduation with new buildings and lots of technology. “A common theme was the excellent foundation provided for every student and many of us attribute much of our success in life to that foundation,” she writes.

“In my book, the new head of school, John McVeigh, certainly has made a positive and energetic beginning with a warm and inclusive leadership style.” Sue still lives in Holderness with her husband, Pete, and their two golden retrievers. Goldens rule, right Sue?…“It was great seeing everyone who made it back to campus for our 50th,” writes Chris Latham , from southeastern Massachusetts. “Sorry more couldn't attend, although it is always hard to find a time that won't conflict with other important life events. Kudos to Nat Mead for traveling all the way from Norway.” Chris says he and his wife, Cindy, would like to host a cookout luncheon in Marion, MA sometime this summer either in July or August. “Let us know (at clatham195@ gmail.com) if you are interested and whether July or August works better.”… Dave Nicholson says he heard from Will Graham and his wife Marguerite who were headed in late January out on a trip to Antarctica. Dave, his wife, Susie, Will, and Marguerite were all faithful attendees at our 50th last June… Dave Nicholson noticed some pictures I posted on Facebook of our family trip to Walt Disney World, also in late January. My daughter-in-law, Jessica, organized a trip including our grandchildren, both grandmothers and me in late January and early February. We had a great time in beautiful hot weather. Hey, thanks to all of you who sent in notes. I’d rather have a bunch of brief notes, like these, from many people than long ones from only a couple of folks. The more the merrier. Happy 2023 to all of you. ~Dwight

Shepard

Dwight Shepard ’72, right, is seen with family members during their January visit to Walt Disney World in Florida. From left are his daughterin-law, Dr. Jessica Fortier Shepard, son, Ted, granddaughters Charlie, Josie and Libby and wife, Lucy.

Nat Meade ’72 with his family last summer in Norway. Pictured, in the back row from left, are Stian, SaraMaria, Nat and Audhild. In the front row are Truls, Susanne, Eleanor with Tiril, and, in front, Ronja, the dog.

Tom Cooper’s ’72 son, Nat, center right, is seen in this photo with his bride, Alexis, taken at Tom’s home in Dorset, VT., in June of 2022.

’73

Class Correspondent

Dick Conant rconantjr@msn.com

Dear Classmates, the year of notmuch-winter continues here in Mystic; 64 degrees today, although we saw a brief -5 degrees cold snap a week ago. Hard to manage my day-to-day wardrobe!…Tim Scott observes that fifty years ago we were well into the last semester of our senior year, spring project proposals were due, college acceptances were about to roll in, and the mystery of life beyond Holderness was building in anticipation. He writes, “I took a walk with an alum’s widow up to the outdoor chapel (new) and ski hill which I remember, and it was telling to recreate that steep hike, then in ski boots, up to practice each day. No need to warm up after that climb. The more that I speak with alumni of Holderness the more often I hear variations on the phrase ‘the school set the stage for my life.’ It’s still doing that 50 years later.” Tim has heard from Geoff Klingenstein and they are looking to get together to catch up and reminisce. Tim also sent on a picture of him, Tom Carver and Sam Heald ’75 , the notorious “Campton 3”, taken at Sam Heald's father's memorial service in 2022 at the Shannon Door Pub in Jackson, NH… Scott Morrison divides time between the Gaspé and Vermont. His winter guest in Vermont the last couple winters is a cute little ermine residing in the old mill dam out back. He (the ermine) makes frequent visits to the house to keep the rodent population down and to give Scott’s dogs complete mental breakdowns whenever the “erminator” is down under the floor in the crawlspace. Scott advises that the “ski season ain’t done yit” up in the Gaspé. If only the same was true here in New England… Jim

Sargent checks in from retirement in Austin. “Leslie and I were feeling kind of isolated during COVID, so decided to do something about it. We embarked in September 2022 on a 200-mile pilgrimage via bicycle in Spain. From Porto we followed the ancient Way of St. James north all the way to Compostela, Spain. Over about a week’s time we warmed up along the very scenic and nearly deserted coast, followed by a couple of days in the mountains in Spain. Some nights were in old fortifications, others in castles, even an abandoned mill. All had been converted to pretty comfortable hotels in recent years. By the end, we were really happy to cruise downhill the last bit into the gigantic plaza in front of the cathedral. As with many trips, the journey itself proved more memorable than the destination. Out on the Camino one meets fellow pilgrims from everywhere, not only Catholics, but those from many denominations including a lot of very young people to whom Christianity is all new and fascinating. There was something all those kids needed and a lot of them seemed to be finding it out on the Camino. I used to wonder if our own little remnant of the English church (Episcopalians) would keep shrinking out of existence. Personally, I no longer worry about that. Christianity may look or feel different years from now but it has not endured two millennia by accident; we may now be experiencing one of its many developmental phases. We are already thinking about the next pilgrimage.”…William “Cos” Cosgrove dropped me a line. He has been settled in Bend, OR now for over four years. He writes: “Winters find me either on the slopes of Mt. Bachelor or fitting ski boots at Powder House in Bend. My ‘retirement’ part-time seasonal job has now extended into its eighth year. My summers are spent on the golf course and walking in the mountains as often

as possible. This spring I’m involved in a substantial renovation of Bend Golf Club as Grounds Committee chair. I’m sure I’ll still find time for spring skiing on Bachelor in the morning followed by golf in the afternoon. Always happy to welcome Holderness visitors to Bend!”…I told Cos I might take him up on the invite. I am mulling a technical climb on Mt. Hood and a little late spring skiing maybe around May of this year… Also heard from Peter Garrison who continues to help us beat the drum for our 50th in 2024. I’ll be up to campus before March is out to meet with Tim and the archivist for a visit to the archive dungeon. Hope to find some material from our day and maybe set up a slide show with period music for a video get-together with all of you close to what would be the 50th anniversary of our graduation date this May. Best to all, Dick Conant

’74

Class Correspondent

Cindy Maclean

cynthia.maclean@yahoo.com

I was delighted to hear from Mike Coffin and Chuck Reilly this time around. Sounds like Mike has had— and continues to live—a full and fascinating life. He retired last summer from the University of Tasmania in

Tim Scott ’73, Tom Carver ’73 and Sam Heald ’75, the "Campton 3" hiding out somewhere in the wilds of NH.

Australia, where he was founding Executive Director of the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies ( https:// www.imas.utas.edu.au/ ), after 31 years working at universities in the US, Japan, the UK, and Australia. “Academic retirement is more of a taper than cold turkey,” he says, as he still has graduate students, research projects, and research funding in Australia. In addition to his emeritus professor position at the University of Tasmania, he holds the positions of research professor at the University of Maine and adjunct scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and he serves on multiple international committees and boards focused on the global ocean. Being freed up from teaching and university committees has given him the time to do some sailing in Tasmania (a 28-day circumnavigation of Tasmania aboard a 44’ sailing yacht) and Maine (sailing a 1926 Herreshoff S-boat), and to take part in cultural outings in New York City and elsewhere… Chuck Reilly reports that his daughter, Carlin, was married on top of Stratton Mount this past September. Mark Sanderson and his wife, Bettina, attended, and they had a great three days in a gorgeous setting. His sons, Chad Reilly ’09 and Chris, are both working in Boston, Chad living in Somerville, and Chris sharing a house in Dorchester with several of his Endicott lax teammates. Chuck is still building large industrial buildings in New England and his wife, Pam, designs home renovations in Metro West. Chuck and Pam are doing a renovation themselves in Westwood. Good to hear all is well with the Reilly clan… Mike Coffin says “it’s carpe diem more than ever,” and I couldn’t agree more. Never say no to having fun and getting together with old friends. Our 50 th reunion coming up! ~

Cindy Maclean

Class Correspondent

George Fox georgesfox@msn.com

Perry Babcock spent a few days with Rick Shipton in Park City last spring. Rick skis Bogus Basin every day. He is retired but has a lot of cool hobbies like woodworking and baking and visiting his daughters. Perry and John Putnam stay in touch. John is a grandfather, and is quite upset that they changed the name of Suicide Six Ski area, near Woodstock, VT. He says the old name kept the tourists away. Perry is hosting a college reunion in Lake Placid in late February, and John will attend along with Daphne “Hootie” Fogg ’76. Perry has heard from Baird Gourlay who is also retired, but still dabbles in the political scene around Ketchum,

ID and skis every day. Perry is living in Lake Placid, is retired, continues skiing and skating and hiking. He often sees fellow Holderness alums Tait Plowden-Wardlaw ’84 and Dave Webb ’94 … Hunter Ten Broeck reports: I am still co-owner (with wife Barb) and designer at Waterwise Landscapes in Albuquerque, specializing in naturalistic wildlife friendly landscapes. I've been very involved in non-profits specializing in regionally appropriate landscaping and rainwater harvesting over the last 30 years. Barb and I still hike almost every weekend exploring the varied wilderness of New Mexico and Colorado… Tom Carney writes: Still working but not as hard as George Fox is hiking… Jack Sanderson says: After 40 years in high tech and medical device industry, the COVID lockdowns convinced me that it was time to retire. I have spent the last year and a half building furniture in my workshop, rowing competitively, kayaking, hiking, volunteering at a local charity organization, and generally enjoying my time away from the corporate world. It is getting difficult to find enough guys to field an over-60s master’s lacrosse team after graduating from the over 30/40/50s categories. With both son and daughter launched, my wife Susan and I have been planning out some longer trips and will be visiting Alaska this summer. I spend a week every summer on Squam Lake and drive by Holderness with fond memories… Ed Cudahy writes: It was great going back to Holderness this past summer, catching up with Dave Robins , Rodger Wolf , Tim Scott ’73 , and George “Foxy” Fox . Living in Colorado I forget how beautiful it was in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I look forward to getting back soon. I continue to be busy with my two businesses and eight grandchildren. What a blessing!…

Chris Carney ’75, Jim Hamblin ’77, and Tom Phillips ’75 hike Mt. Crawford in early September 2022.

Ted McElhinny ’75 and David Rust ’75 on Full Circle motoring down the Inland Waterway.

John Putnam reports: Still in North Pomfret, VT. Downsizing in a big way. No more lawyering; sold the Jerseys to an Amish farm in Pennsylvania, the cheese equipment to the University of Wisconsin, and am now building a small herd of Randall Linebacks. They are an endangered mixed-use cow, and are Vermont's state cow. A picture is on our website: ThistleHillFarm. com . This way, I only get up at 5 if I want to! Hope to get to Maine more this summer for sailing and porch sitting between cuts of hay. If near Vinalhaven, look us up: 75 Browns Head Light Road. Will take you for a sail. Will be visiting Perry Babcock and other various and assorted alums in the frozen land of doom and despair in the Dacks later in the month… David Rust writes: I’m chasing steelhead trout in the Russian River and still playing hockey Friday afternoons at the Snoopy Rink here in Santa Rosa. This past fall, I helped Ted McElhinny take his sailboat from Maryland to Florida. Part of the trip was down the very scenic Inner Coastal Waterway and the other half was offshore. This spring I will be skiing with the grandsons for the first time… Ted McElhinny reports: I left my house in Maryland in the end of October to fulfill a 48-year dream of sailing to the Bahamas and hanging out there all winter. On spring break, junior year I was fortunate enough to go to the Bahamas with my roommate James “Matt” Rowley on his parents’ boat. Matt set the tone and I’ve been dreaming of this ever since. Somehow work and having a family seemed to make that just a dream. David Rust helped me on the first leg to Jacksonville, FL where my youngest daughter was married in mid-November. That was quite an inspiring event. I stopped by Charlie McIntosh’s house just west of Nassau and stayed with him and his family for

five days over Christmas. Then sailed southeast down the Exuma chain. I plan on sailing back north via the out islands to the Abacos and from there straight to the Chesapeake Bay in April… Joanne (O’Neill) Morin says: It’s only because of George Fox I am doing this! What to say after way too many years and those incredibly awkward times at Holderness School for Boys as one of thirteen female day students? Really enjoy seeing all the young women today at Holderness! Spent a 40+ year career in energy and climate issues with a few major accomplishments to be proud of but too concerned about where the planet is going to be bothered with bragging rights. Blessed with a marriage of 43 years and two grown children but alas only grand dogs. Enjoy hiking in the Whites which I am sure will surprise some of my OB cohorts! Also spend my free time participating in community theater. Still have a couple years before retirement when my husband and I are going to try to finish seeing all the National Parks— did Zion, Bryce, and Arches last September—spectacular! Stay well.

’76

Randy Wellford writes: Semiretired from Virginia law practice after 38 years; still active status in Virginia State Bar; just moved to Surfside Beach, SC; plan to take South Carolina Bar Exam in 2024.

Hunter ’75 and Barb Ten Broeck exploring Colorado and New Mexico.

Joanne (O’Neill) Moring ’75 and Gerry Morin at Bryce Canyon.

Ted McElhinny ’75 sailing his boat to the Bahamas.

Ted McElhinny ’75 and his daughter Allison at her wedding.

’77

Class Correspondent

Peter Grant pete@grantcom.us

’78

Class Correspondent

Luther Turmelle lturmelle@sbcglobal.net

’79

Class Correspondent

Hratch Astarjian hihratch@gmail.com

’80

Class Correspondent

Jack Dawley jdawley@northlandresidential.com

Peter Burghardt reports: A long slushy hike last week brought back memories of our soggy Out Back, even without the aroma of wet wool and woodsmoke. We're living and working in Lebanon, NH and being entertained by three rescued Galgos. We've been local hosts for a couple of international students at Dartmouth, and I've spent a lot of time on a bicycle enjoying NH and VT dirt roads. I'm also volunteering with Cycling Without Age, using a trishaw to take seniors and mobility-impaired folks out on the local rail trail.

’81

Class Correspondent

Peter Baker

Peterabaker@gmail.com

Peter Baker reports: Things are relatively quiet here on the seacoast of New Hampshire. I am still figuring out what retirement is as I try varied volunteer efforts and other activities.

Skiing has unfortunately been mostly a non-event so far this winter. Both the boys are working in the greater Boston area and self-sufficient while Jen continues to work at UNH. I had lunch with Kevin Rowe recently. He and Kate continue to split their time between Weston and Dartmouth, MA and Beaver Creek, CO. Kevin is always looking for skiing partners when he is in residence… Peter Kessler writes to us from London: I just finished a 13-month tour in Afghanistan, mostly in Kabul, but frequent visits in eastern and southeastern provinces. I would credit the US and its ISAF allies with accomplishing an awful lot over two decades—roads, bridges, lots of infrastructure was built, and a many millions of people were given hope and exposure to western ideas, empowered to speak up, and speak out. But still, the government was too weak and the Taliban held sway in too many rural areas. Now the Taliban are in power, and while perhaps my ideal government would combine the best of Brooklyn with the best of Denmark, in the case of Afghanistan, the Taliban are now in charge and I think engaging with them in practical ways is better than ignoring them. The Taliban are not a uniform group, and we will all just have to wait five or ten years for them to evolve. In the meantime, the hopes of many millions of women and girls have been dashed by the extreme ideas held by some at the top of the Taliban leadership. For me as well, I'm not sure what the future brings, but hope I may cross paths with some Holderness classmates if any are visiting London.

’82

Class Correspondent

Chris

Pesek

chrispesek7@gmail.com

Chris Pesek reports: I enjoy living in North Yarmouth, ME with my partner Celia and our two doggies. I regularly hear from about ten of our classmates: Bob Kenney, Dagny Bock , George Samaras, Sonya Mead, Mark Cavanaugh, Dave Marsden, Sheila Finnegan, Miles Glascock , John Macy, and others. My daughter Alex is a senior at College of the Atlantic in Maine working on her senior research project and spending the summers on Hurricane Island; my son Marty is a junior at Fordham University spending the semester in London; and my son Teddy is a sophomore at UVM playing club lacrosse there and wanting to stay in Vermont this summer. We just recently decided to spend a week on Squam Lake this coming summer. Please send me a note and let me know what you’re up to, especially if you will be in New Hampshire in August… John Pawlick writes that he and his wife and two daughters live in New Zealand and love it there. They are raising their two daughters, 24 and 21 on the northern part of the island. The oldest is completing her masters and the youngest is in her third year of a conjoint degree. John’s wife is from Auckland, but she knows the US well as they lived in Boston for about six years after meeting in Auckland. They recently moved to the far north to a more rural area, after being in Auckland for about 26 years. John is an enterprise architect at Auckland Council, working remotely. He will see if that changes as the lifting of COVID restrictions drives employees back to the office. John only gets back to the US occasionally to visit his family who live here… George Samaras sends his best. He and his wife Doris are living in Falmouth, ME and move into their new house on February 27. He owns and keeps expanding Portland Mattress Makers and are thrilled to report their son Nick and his partner welcomed little George in February… Sheila Finnegan

and her husband moved to Harvard, MA (where she’s originally from) at the beginning of COVID and they’re loving it! They’re surrounded by orchards of peaches and different varieties of apples; “for two months of the year everything I bake is with apples! If anyone is in the neighborhood in mid-October, feel free to stop in and I’ll set you loose in the orchard!”…Frank Bonsal reports last June, my wife Helen and I celebrated our 25th anniversary and have managed to raise three good kids: our eldest Virginia (24) spent two years at Holderness and graduated from Jemicy School. She is now working and staying connected to peers. Our Lizzie (22) is finishing her BFA at MICA in Baltimore and thinking about a visual arts pathway beyond formal schooling. Our son Frank IV (16) is a sophomore at Mercersburg Academy after eleven solid years at Gilman School here in Baltimore where the Head of School (Quentin McDowell ’99) is a Holderness alum; so there’s that nice connection. I am currently managing a portfolio of direct and indirect venture investments in education and workforce technology companies and emerging venture funds with a tilt to the underrepresented. I’m thinking about what’s next. All ideas are welcome!…

Betsy (Farny) Baur writes: Andy and I are enjoying life as empty nesters. Our daughter Caroline is a freshman at Tufts University in Medford, MA. We live in Steamboat which has a ton of snow this winter, so we have been skiing a ton. We have two dogs who are very spoiled now that our daughter is off in college. I’m in touch with Dagny Bock and Susi (Kopp) Livran. There are a number of teenagers from Steamboat who attend Holderness, so I get updates from them. I also used to get updates from my boss who is Frank Bonsal’s cousin. It does seem like a number of the traditions we experienced at Holderness are still a part of the fabric of the school… Dagny Bock is living in Montreal and will be showing

her artwork April 12–18. You can find her work on Instagram at Dagnybock and on her website at www.dagnybock.com

trip was hiking with the mountain gorillas in Uganda. I am spending my time professionally managing capital in both public and private growth companies.”…Erik Burbank writes: Still living in Gorham, ME and working in the TV/film business. The biggest and best news in my world is the addition of grandbaby Charlie to my family on December 17 th. I'm so lucky that Sulo (son) and his wife, Allison, live close by in Sebago, ME and I get to see Charlie and Axell (sixyear-old big bro) weekly. Funny how small the Holderness world can be; my son works with Hannes Schneider ’85. My daughter Elle is also married and lives in Pennsylvania with her wife Lauren. She's assistant athletic director and strength and conditioning coach at The Hill School. Love to see anyone who gets over to the Portland, ME area. Shoot me an email. Stay well.

Class Correspondent

Peter Hewitt

pvvhewitt@gmail.com

Chris Del Col and Paige Kozlowski ’11 had a chance meeting at Wimbledon this past June. While seated at the same table for lunch, Chris and Paige discovered that they are both graduates of Holderness. Was nice to meet and discover the Holderness connection across the pond!… Jeff Rollins reports he and his wife Kim have been enjoying empty nesting. “While not at home in Wilmington we are out at Big Sky skiing or hiking,” he writes. “We are very fortunate to have two of our three kids move back to the Wilmington area and just found out that we will be grandparents this summer. So, we are in training to stay in shape to be able to be active with the next generation. Now that COVID seems to have mellowed out, we started international travel again and look forward to more adventures. We try to go to the other side of the world and hike or go on a safari each year. So far, the best

A nice gathering of Bulls in Hanover for Dartmouth Homecoming— Burgie Howard ’82, Mich Dupre ’84, Chris Keating ’81, Peggy (Lamb) Merrens ’83.

Chris Del Col ’83 and Paige Kozlowski ’11 have a chance meeting at Wimbledon this past June.

Jeff Rollins ’83 and his wife, Kim.

Dr. Villafane's Ancient Greece class jokes around while practicing a Greek Phalanx formation on the quad.

’84

Class Correspondent

Craig Westling

cwestling@gmail.com

Steve Lunder writes: My wife, three kids, and I have been living in Metrowest Boston for over 20 years. Our eldest graduates from Cornell Hotel School this year and already has a fantastic job lined up. Our middle is a RISD freshman studying industrial design. Our youngest is a junior at Proctor. I’m working in Hudson, NH. If anyone lives/works nearby and wants to grab lunch sometime soon, please let me know… Matt Flaherty reports: My son went to summer camp in New Hampshire the last two years. It was great to reconnect with Lake Winnipesaukee and spend time with Craig and Holly Westling. I continue to enjoy my work in commercial real estate… Zach Martin reports that he and his wife Laurel still live in Wellesley, MA. “We're enjoying an empty nest! Our two girls, Isabella and Emma, are working in Boston and New York, respectively. Our son, Sam, is a senior at Lehigh and our youngest, Henry, is a sophomore at New Hampton. All doing well and are happy. I'm proud to have served on the Holderness Board of Trustees for over ten years. Phil Peck and his team grew Holderness is so many great ways, all while keeping our core values intact. Go Bulls!”… Joe Barbour reports: Post SMU I’ve lived in Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, and now Lake Forest, IL (past 20+ years). Ann, my wife of 30 years, and I have three “somewhat” adult sons—Grant (26), Jack (24), and James (21). I need to do a better job of keeping in touch with classmates, but did have a great time with Zach Martin during a two-day golf outing in the summer of 2021!…Darby (Yacos) Ferguson writes: Ian and I moved

(again) and now live in Kennesaw, GA. That will make eight places we've lived since we got married in 1988. It's been a good adventure and now I can say that the best place to live is where you can make friends (i.e., anywhere). Tamerlane Bey 's ( ’83) art hangs in our main floor rooms and it makes me happy every time I see it. I've liked his art ever since I worked in the Bull Pen and stared at The Last Supper every night. Our boys (26 and 23) are living together working on their Y-Combinator-funded start up… Nils Albert writes: Living in Colorado since 1990. Sandra and I raised our three kids, Lucas (28), Spencer (26), and Tess (24) here; now in semi-retirement enjoying the mountain life of the Rockies!…Hannah (Gannon) Albee says: I moved to Albuquerque, NM from western Connecticut a year and a half ago. My oldest daughter Kait, a studio artist and graphic designer, has been here since 2018. I'm currently serving as interim executive director and director of development at a shelter serving women and children experiencing homelessness, and helping individuals find housing in the city. My two younger adult kids, Maddy and Ben, came out last month for a bit of skiing in Santa Fe. Ben will be graduating from UCONN this spring, and Maddy graduated from the University of Maryland last year. We all got through the pandemic relatively well. My parents and sisters are still in or have moved back to, New Hampshire. They have on occasion told me of hearing about or meeting people from Holderness in passing. I've enjoyed connecting a bit with a few other Holderness alums on Facebook over the years… David Finch writes: Kudos to Craig Westling for taking on the role of Class Correspondent! I thought I would do my part. I am currently living in Afton, MN with my wife, Beth, on a family farm. We

have a little bit of everything: hay, chickens, horses and a vineyard. Three adult kids, all out of the house. Most of my work has been either in the Midwest or East Coast over the years. I commute to Rhode Island weekly and run a food company there. If there are classmates around Providence, I would enjoy reconnecting. Congratulations to Paula (Morrison) Simmons and Dilcia (Pena) Hill on their article in HST. It was a great story and inspiring. I have so many great memories of my time at Holderness. Reunion is coming up!…Tait Plowden-Wardlaw reports: he, his wife Carrie, and kids Wyatt (16), Teegan (15), and Luke (12) live in Lake Placid, NY. Tait is the CMO of a global sustainability management consulting firm, and his wife is the assistant director of admissions and faculty member at Northwood School in Lake Placid. In their free time, the Plowden-Wardlaws ski, mountain bike, play lacrosse and soccer, and enjoy the outdoors as much as possible. Tait and family just returned from a six-week journey to Tanzania where they explored the Serengeti on safari and traveled the Tanzanian coast and Zanzibar before leading 10 Northwood School students (including son Wyatt) to the successful summiting of 19,400-foot Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa and the tallest freestanding mountain in the world… Tom Maher reports: My wife, Pam, and I live in New Castle where I work as a health care lobbyist. Our daughter, Sophie, is 24 and works for President Biden in the Office of Cabinet Affairs. Our son, Cole, is 21 and a senior at Union College majoring in math and sociology. And I am a grandpa to Luke, who will be three years old in May. I am still playing hockey in beer leagues at 58 years old and serve as Town Moderator… Ed Canaday reports: Hailing from southern Connecticut, where we’ve lived for the past nearly 30

years (ouch!), I am happy to report that nothing has really changed since my last note which was probably 20+ years ago. Well, that’s not exactly true if you count marriage, home ownership, three wonderful kids who are almost done with college (fingers and toes crossed) and a handful of job changes. I’ve had the occasional Holderness connections: played hockey with Ted Fine ’ 85 (taking up hockey in my late40s was my answer to a mid-life crisis), rode the commuter train to NYC with Walt Dodge ’ 83 , and hung out with Mimi (MacNaught) Denton ’ 85 in Park City. Those are the few that my fading memory conjured up. I manage to ski a few times a year, mostly in the Rockies and Wasatch. Other than that, not much to report. Hope to get to the next reunion and see the Class of ’84… As for me, Craig Westling , it's hard to believe we graduated almost 40 years ago. After college, life took me to San Francisco to work in high tech, where I met my wife, Holly. We traveled around the world in 1992 and got married in 1993 (30 years!). We have three children, Riley, Hollis, and McKay, all of whom are pursuing their own adventures. We moved back to Vermont in 2000 and I switched into healthcare, eventually settling on a career in public health. I've been at Dartmouth the last 13 years, where I run the public health graduate degree programs and teach courses on ethics and health policy. I get to catch up with Matt Flaherty and his son Connor most summers in Denver, as I journey to Vail for an annual lax tournament where I’ve had great fun playing with Flaherty, Will Graham ’72 , Charles Reilly ’74 , Duane Ford ’74 , Nick Lawrence ’87 and the legendary Fred Beams . And friendly competition against Burgie Howard ’82 , Jamey Gallop ’83 and Braden Edwards ’85

’85

Class Correspondent

Katsu Nakamura

katsu.nakamura@ieee.org

’86

Class Correspondent

Chris Zak

chriszak@gmail.com

Tory (Petty) Stine writes in from Oregon: I still live in Portland OR.

Holly Westling, Connor Flaherty, Matt Flaherty ’84, Craig Westling ’84 in Denver, CO, June 2022.

David Finch ’84 and his wife Beth in Mongolia.

Hannah (Gannon) Albee ’84 in an all too rare photo of her and her grown kids all together.

Joe Barbour ’84 and Zach Martin ’84.

Matt Flaherty ’84 and his son Connor.

Niles Albert ’75 catching some nice fish!

Tait Wardlaw ’84 and son, Wyatt, age 16, on the summit of Kilimanjaro. January 22nd , 2023.

After being laid off in 2019 after 25 years at the same hospital, I started my own company in legal nurse consulting. Right when I was about to advertise, COVID hit. So, I decided to try a job at a non-profit called Medical Teams International as a COVID mobile clinic manager and within six months was promoted to COVID program manager. I am loving it! After downsizing teams, I am now managing the Oregon and Washington programs. Our concept proposal for a northwest disaster response program was accepted by leadership and the board, so we will be concentrating on creating that once COVID funding dries up. I had the opportunity to go to Moldova in March-April with medical teams to help with the influx of refugees and start a new program there, doing what I love and getting paid for it! I then took a much-needed vacation to Portugal in May and Mexico and New Hampshire in July and August. While quarantining in New Hampshire after getting COVID in Mexico, Dan Taffe saw my Facebook post and came to visit me from Manchester after I was done quarantining. It was great catching up after 35 years and come to find out he is not only in the medical field (he’s a physician’s assistant), but we both had worked in the field of trauma. My husband, Matt, has owned his own company, Native Ecosystems NW, for about 20 years restoring native ecosystems and working on watershed enhancement projects. He has decided that he has had enough thrills with whitewater kayaking and is now devoted to full time woodworking as a pastime. My son Christian (24) graduated in 2021 with a double major in business and economics. He is working for Marcus and Millichap in commercial real estate. My other son Taylor (also 24) is working at Block 15 (best brewery in Corvallis) and attending college

part time at OSU in digital media communications. Isabel (16) is now halfway through her sophomore year, playing ultimate Frisbee, hanging with friends, and jonesing to get her license. If anyone passes through Portland, message me! Would love to catch up… Ian Harvey writes in from Utah: I am happily married and have two girls ages 21 and 26. We live in northern Utah and spend a lot of time recreating in the mountains. I’ve been the brand manager for Toko (ski wax, tools, and gloves) for the past 25 years and love what I do… Malcolm Davidson writes: While my wife Lisa was in the aid room at Crystal Mountain preparing for her day as volunteer medic, I overheard the pro staff EMT/ski patroller, would be Audrey Simonson ’18 , a former fifth grade student of mine. Coincidence enough for a bitter cold Thursday you ask. No, as later I discovered that she graduated from Holderness. We swapped tales of Out Back—hers was colder by far—and of Phil Peck . Needless, it blew my mind.

’87

Class Correspondent

Kathryn (Lubrano) Robinson

kathryn.robinson@gmail.com

Hey ’87 I hope this HST finds you all doing well wherever you are. I heard from a couple of our classmates— Dana Plasse , Dix Wheelock , Andy Twombly, Suzie Jacinthe , Dan Webster, and Cilla Foster. They all send their best to our class… Dix’s twins are sophomores at Holderness, so he is able to be on the campus often which is fun… Dana shared that all is well, but it’s the coldest winter she has had in Sun Valley, ID—like Holderness days cold… Cilla is settling back into life in the Northeast Kingdom and loving all of it… It’s always amazing to hear about Suzie’s work in the Foreign Service, so here is her update: Still working in the Foreign Service designing and managing health programs for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) using taxpayer millions appropriated by Congress. We are closing on two years here in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and yes, were affected by the internal conflict which only recently reached peace agreement. Not my easiest assignment as a result, including a 3-month emergency evacuation to the DC area and trauma

Dan Taffe ’85 and Tory Stine ’86 meet up in New Hampshire.

Ian Harvey ’86 hiking in Switzerland.

A chance encounter between Malcolm Davidson ’86 and Audrey Simonson ’18.

again in managing full-time remote work and distance learning for my boys (Luc Christophe, age nine, and Raoul, age six). Now finishing up this assignment; will spend summer in Florida, and head next to Kathmandu, Nepal for four years. After 16+ years on the motherland continent leaving footprint across 15 countries, I am quite ecstatic to finally live/work/ explore Asia!! Happy to connect with anyone daring to visit the Himalayas… Until next time ’87. Be well, Kathryn (Lubrano) Robinson

’88

Class Correspondents

Christina “Nina” (Bradley) Smallhorn nsmallhorn@me.com

’88ers were quiet this go around, but some usually quiet folks chimed in. It was great to hear from Mike Hillegass: Happy New Year! This is the first time I have submitted content for the magazine and it is largely the result of your ( Nina Smallhorn’s) upcoming relocation to Clemson, which is on my middle daughter Kiki's short list of colleges that she hopes to attend next fall. We were there for a lacrosse clinic two years ago and we loved the campus. It should

be a great spot for your family! My oldest daughter Hope is a sophomore at Michigan and has been loving it, especially with the success of their athletics. My youngest daughter is a sophomore at Georgetown Visitation school, where her sisters and my wife Carrie attended. I've been in DC for what's starting to feel like too long, supporting national security and, more recently, public health initiatives. Kudos to Alex MacCormick and Brett Jones for keeping the Facebook postings going; it's a great way to follow what everyone is doing. Hope to see you at reunion!…Next in from Hans Schemmel: I’m writing from what might be the closest ’88 (well maybe Emily (Adriance) Magnus) location to the school as I’m in Waterville Valley for the winter while my middle one (a U14) is at Waterville Valley (WV) academy this ski season. Thankfully I can be here as a homebased associate for a large financial services institution working as a product manager (think retirement income). Anyway, it's always fun to run into alumni (the Martin brothers— Chip and Andy ’92 , Rob Sarvis , Jen (Comstock) Reed ’89, Craig Antonides ’77) and new Holderness parents (tons!) at various ski racing and other events. If anyone is in WV during this pathetic winter (as of January 8th), let’s go for a run. Otherwise, we’re in the Boston area (Winchester) looking forward to the next round of 18 or fun travel trip (skiing in Austria, Bermuda, ACK, golfing in Ireland, skiing in Colorado have been some of our recent during COVID favorites) but we have mostly succumbed to endless soccer games… Thank you to Erika (Ludtke) McGoldrick who writes us from South Carolina—and you bet I’ll take you up on a beach escape! “Congratulations Nina (Bradley) Smallhorn on your husband's new position at Clemson. Not sure if you have already moved

or this is a new adventure for the summer. Hope you love South Carolina as much as I have. I moved to Hilton Head Island after graduation from Northeastern in ’93. My parents moved to Daufuskie Island while I was in college. If you ever find yourself driving down to the coast for a beach escape let me know. My three are all Gamecocks in Columbia—Class of 2019, 2024, and 2026. Hope this new year is a great one for you! xx Erika”…And, last but definitely not least, Geordie Elkins , says: I hope everyone is well. It is hard to believe, but our youngest will be starting at Northeastern in the fall. There is light at the end of the empty nest tunnel! I'm in NH now celebrating the polar vortex by ice climbing in the White Mountains. I wore the same wool pants I wore on OB and they kept me warmer than anyone else on the mountain despite -10°F and windchill below -35°F… As for me, we are slowly relocating to Greenville, SC. After almost three weeks on the ground, I am excited to plant some roots; it’s a cool little city with great energy. It will be nice to be driving distance to my folks at Brays Island and in the same time zone as the girls—Ohio and Massachusetts. Tom is enjoying his new role as “professor in practice.”

It’s a career pivot and fortunately it’s going well; challenging and rewarding in all the right ways. Not sure if I can say goodbye to CA just yet, but for now this feels good. Counting the days until reuniting with all of you in June 2024. In the meantime, be safe and be well. xx Nina (Bradley) Smallhorn

’89

Class Correspondent

Brad Greenwood

brad@greenwoodbiz.com

Lindley (Hall) and Tiaan van der Linde are making the most of yet

Suzie Jacinthe ’87 shares her family Wakanda Forever moment.

another funky-weather winter in Burke Hollow, VT. “We're dividing and conquering by coaching our children's respective school Nordic ski teams. It's been great reconnecting on skis with Rob Frost and Nikki Kimball . We're looking forward to some family travel this year, including skiing in Utah, sightseeing in DC, boating in Canada, and mountain biking and eating in the Alps and Tuscany”… Emily Raabe reports: We have officially made the move from NYC to Vermont, after living off the generosity of my father for 18 months during COVID. We bought a little house in Charlotte, the town in which I grew up, and are blissfully exploring the fields and mountains, and watching our daughter, Wren, who turns seven in May, grow up outdoors. I couldn’t really wish for anything more for her. Paul is working as an editor in film and television (yay remote work!) and I’m still an associate professor at Parsons School for Design in NYC, but hoping to phase that commute out and the writing back in soon. Hope everyone’s doing well, and hope to cross paths sooner rather than later— come visit us in VT!… Nina (Barker) Brogna writes: We continue to work remotely from our house on the south coast of Massachusetts where we are able to take advantage of great upland and waterfowl with Job Roach ’93… Kimberly Gannett reports: Still living just outside of Boulder, CO with my three kids. Traveling with family and friends, living in the moment, making health a priority while embarking on year 27 as an educator and counselor at an amazing public charter school. Also running a private college counseling business on the side and visiting lots of colleges with my twins who will be seniors in the fall. My son is planning on competing in Division 1 gymnastics/ business and my daughter in art/ photography. If their graduation doesn’t conflict with our reunion I will be there

in 2024! Hello Holderness crew!… Chris Davenport says: “Hello Friends, first off, I miss you all! This winter has seen more normal work for me after a couple years of more limited travel. My ski guiding business has taken me to Antarctica, Japan, Norway, and up next Greenland this season. Amazing ski trips with great clients to some of the world's most beautiful landscapes. This past summer I joined my old skier friend Bode Miller in launching a new ski company, Peak Skis. We are a D2C brand and are making super high quality all-mountain skis. Check it out at Peakskis.com. Kids are all still ski racing, at CU Boulder and Colby, and the youngest at Cardigan. Cheers to a happy and healthy 2023 to all of you.”… Amanda Black reports: A banner year for snow out west; hope everyone has been able to get out and enjoy. I've been on the road a lot for my development work with U.S. Ski & Snowboard; exciting to watch Mikaela, Jessie and all the other athletes compete on the world stage, breaking record after record. Feel very fortunate to be in my tenth season with the organization. Harrison is finishing up his 8th grade year at the Sun Valley Community School and is still very active on stage and on the field. Was fun to get to see some of the Suzie's in late January for my sister's 50 th in St. Anton, Austria. (Kat Alfond ’90, Megan (Sheehan) Kristiansen ’90 & Tegan (Hamilton) Hayunga ’90). Missing the '89ers and hope that our paths cross again soon. If anyone is in Sun Valley, please reach out!…Henry “Te” Tiffany writes: It’s been a relatively quiet and peaceful winter for me here in Ashland, NH where I have my winter home. I’ve enjoyed the visits I’ve had with classmates Sarah (Trainor) Pflaum , Christina (Wood) Donovan and Greg Eccleston . I’ve managed to ski more this winter than I have in decades. It’s been a real treat spending time on the

slopes with one daughter out in Big Sky over a long MLK weekend and with my son and dad locally. Looking forward to working with Fred Harbison again this coming fall guiding season as I enter my 35th year as a professional hunter and Alaskan Master Guide & Outfitter. Wishing all of Holderness a wonderful spring season!…The Greenwood family has been busier than ever the last six or so months. We hosted an Italian exchange student named Giacomo from Torino which turned out to be a fantastic experience for both him and us. He was a senior at our local high school and was the top scorer on the soccer team which almost won the state championship. Our daughters, Cora (14) and Charlie (12), both had a blast with him and are growing up fast! We did our best to adventure about the Northeast with trips to NYC, Boston, and Jay Peak, and local fun on the boat and at the beach. Work continues to be busy and rewarding and we are fortunate to represent such historic Scandinavian brands as Helly Hansen and Hestra. I bumped into Alix (Rosen) Hong and her husband Tom on the streets of Boston recently which was fun! My best to all. ~

Brad Greenwood

The "Suzie’s", Kat Alfond ’90, Meghan (Sheehan) Kristiansen ’90, Tegan (Hamilton) Hayunga ’90 and Serena (Black) Martin ’91, at a birthday celebration in Austria.

’91

Class Correspondent

Lex Leeming

lleeming@nexphase.com

Jason Gordon writes: Now that the kids have finally left the nest, we are traveling more and getting back to more artistic pursuits. In a push to bring more awareness to Written Out Loud, the storytelling company I founded during the pandemic, I have started making TikToks. Not sure yet if that makes me feel younger or older. Either way, the company turns the way most schools teach reading and writing on its head, and has improved district test scores by 30–40%… Lex (aka Nick) Leeming here, I am doing well in New Canaan, CT. Isabelle is 14 now and a freshman at St. Luke’s School, and is very passionate about theater and singing. Vivienne is 12 and in seventh grade, also at St. Luke’s. Ana-Maria, my wife of 19 years, is very busy with her decorating and interior design business, Vik & Roma. We have done some skiing in Vermont, but are especially excited about our upcoming spring break in Cabo, where we travel each year. As for me, I am hard at work in the private equity industry, leading deal sourcing for NexPhase Capital. I travel a lot for the role and would love to re-connect with my classmates when out and about!

’92

Class Correspondent

Nici Ash

Niciash12@gmail.com

Tyler Wood reports: I’m a proud father of a 13-year-old boy and loving life here in Naples, FL with my lovely girlfriend. After 20 years in the financial industry, I transitioned into the sustainability space and began working for a company that was named, in 2021, as one of the top 50 most innovative new companies in the world out of 130 countries. Exciting times ahead, helping the world transition from a linear extractive economy towards a circular and regenerative economy…

As for me, Nici Ash , my youngest daughter graduates this June and I am contemplating being an empty nester. I’m working in Andover, MA

Mikaela Shiffrin and Amanda Black ’89 at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, Courchevel, France.

Henry "Te" Tiffany IV ’89 with his father and son enjoying a day Mt. Sunapee.

Kimberly Gannett ’89 with her kids: Asher and Anika (17), Zoe (13).

Jason Gordon ’91 doing a TikTok.

Lex Leeming ’91 and his immediate family at Christmas 2022.

Tyler Wood ’92 and his girlfriend Aniya from the Scene to be Seen fashion show supporting Naples Artists.

but still living in New Hampshire. I catch up with Kelly (Mullen) Wieser and Maggie Zock regularly and saw a lot of alums at Mr. Eccleston’s memorial service. I ran into Stu Wales recently while he was in Plymouth for his sons’ hockey tournament.

’93

Class Correspondent

Lindsay (Dewar) Fontana linds_dewar@yahoo.com

’94

Class Correspondent Ramey Harris-Tatar rameyht@yahoo.com

’95

Interim Class Correspondent

Amanda (Knox) Hoffman ’96 bostonknox30@gmail.com

’96

Class Correspondents

Heather (Pierce) Roy Heatherbpierce@hotmail.com

Amanda (Knox) Hoffman bostonknox30@gmail.com

Lara (DuMond) Guercio writes: We have relocated from Billings to

Bozeman, MT. I am continuing to work for my same law firm, Crowley Fleck, which has offices throughout Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming, practicing real estate and environmental law. Brian is an ER physician at Livingston Healthcare and the director of their emergency department. Brooks is in third grade. We all enjoy skiing, biking, hiking, fishing, and exploring the many great places throughout Montana.

’97

Class Correspondent Putney (Haley) Pyles putneypyles@gmail.com

Hi all, by the time you read these notes, we’ll be well beyond wintertime. We have been hoping for snow in New England but it hasn’t been pretty. Last week we saw 65 degrees in Rhode Island; with those temps, I think I’m now ready for spring. Our five-yearold has done some great skiing in the Berkshires this winter, though the updates from classmates out west do make me a little jealous… Thanks to Chris Day for sending over an update for this go-around. Chris shared the following: I have been working on my kombucha breweries in Flagstaff, AZ. Currently, Rock Stacker Kombucha

(NA) is doing well and has developed a great local following. At the end of October, I launched Sky Island Kombucha (hard booch), getting that dialed in with flavors and consistent ABV. My son, Henry, is doing great in school and he is learning to ski the bumps at Arizona Snowbowl. Tell everyone to follow me on Instagram for Rock Stacker Kombucha and Sky Island Kombucha… Shannon Mullen writes: 2022 was a hard one for my family, but we felt powerful love and support from the Holderness community through our losses. I spent most of the year working on my first book (the reason I had to miss reunion!). I'm excited to share that it'll be published on June 6, 2023 through Penguin Random House & Steerforth Press. It's nonfiction, called In Other Words, Leadership, and it's about the current governor of Maine, Janet Mills, and a young mother who sent her weekly letters of support for the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The book also excerpts the governor's personal journal entries to illuminate what it was like to lead her state through an unprecedented crisis. It's full of humor, too, so I promise it's a pandemic tale you'll want to relive—a true story about civility and compassion, for a change. Consider it my answer to those who've been telling me there's never any good news in the news! I got to know Maine a lot better in the course of working on this book but I'm still migrating back and forth between the state's midcoast area and the White Mountains of NH. (Please drop a line if you pass through either place!) Lastly, it's a delight (and still a bit of a shock) to see my niece, freshman Aura Liesl Wieser ’26 in the school social media feed now and then. Wishing you all a healthy and productive 2023!…Hope all of you are well. Talk to you next time, Putney

Tyler Wood ’92, his son Mati and their golden retriever Loretta.

Lara Guercio ’96, her husband Brian and son Brooks.

’98

Interim Class Correspondent

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

Hi all, Happy New Year (though you’ll likely be reading this in June!). Notes were light this go-around, but thanks to Eric Mueller and Hilary Patzer for sending over updates… Eric Mueller writes: We are loving life in Evergreen, CO; spending all our winter weekends at Steamboat, which has been amazing!! Eliza (11) and Liesl (9) are both thinking they might like to head back east for high school. Might be pushing for Holderness ’29 and ’31!…Hilary Patzer reports: Life has been busy. I haven't had a chance to connect with any Holderness alums but hope to soon! I work for the Minnesota Vikings as their sports acupuncturist and now that our season is over it is time to focus on my private practice, JADA Studios, family, and travel. I look for all the adventures 2023 will offer. I traveled to Newfoundland and did safaris in southern Africa in 2022, amazing trips!…Just a quick reminder that I’m helping out with the class correspondent role for your class, and if anyone is interested in stepping in, please reach out to me or Kelly van Lingen at kvanlingen@holderness. org. Be well, Putney (Haley) Pyles .

’99

Class Correspondent

Darren Moore dmoore@holderness.org

’00

Class Correspondent

Andrew “Sully” Sullivan

MyIreland20@gmail.com

Tim Barnhorst writes: Our class notes

have been few and far between so I will try to kickstart 2023. My family and I are enjoying our fifth winter as part of the Franconia Ski Club this season. Around every corner there are alumni, friends, coaches and faculty. It's been a great way to stay in touch and to see the continued success of Holderness School on and off campus. The snow sports program has benefited from several contributions from alumni and friends over the last several years. Most notable is the Mittersill Performance Center at Cannon designed by classmate Evan Mullen . Another exciting development is the addition of a new snowmaking system on campus for the freshly homologated Nordic trails powered by an arsenal of HKD snowmaking equipment. It's always fun to hear about the updates from Snow Sports Director Ben Drummond We're keeping our fingers crossed for colder temps and a lot more snow.

Class Correspondent

Karyn (Hoepp) Jennings

KarynPJennings@gmail.com

Patrick Regan shares: The past year has been very busy for my family here in Richmond, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. I was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserves and just recently was promoted to assistant general counsel at Capital One. Our weekends are exceptionally busy with both boys (17 and 12) playing travel lacrosse so we are pretty much on the road throughout the mid-Atlantic every weekend. My oldest son is a junior in high school and starting to look at college options so we plan to be making trips to New England as he goes through the college lacrosse recruiting process. I’m looking forward to getting back to visit the area. If anyone is in central Virginia, feel free to look me up. Would love to connect with Holderness folks.

Evan Mullen ’00 and Jay McCormack ’99 at Snowbird, UT.

Rowan Mullen (son of Evan Mullen ’00) and Moe Barnhorst (son of Tim Barnhorst ’00) at Cannon Mountain.

Tony Buttinger Memorial SL at Gunstock and coaching for Franconia Ski Club: Tim Barnhorst 00’, Jason Myler ’94, Jim Connor ’74 former faculty, and Dan Harrigan ’94.

Students embrace at an Outdoor Chapel in May.

Class Correspondent

Betsy Pantazelos

b.pantazelos@gmail.com

Ally (Keefe) Collins reports: My husband and I welcomed baby Harper in August and we’re having so much fun watching her learn and grow. And after nearly a decade of nagging Betsy Pantazelos to move to the Reno/ Tahoe area, I couldn’t be more excited to finally have her just 10 houses down the street. We feel so lucky to have Auntie Betsy and Uncle Chris so close! Ramsay (Hill) Chodounsky writes: Things are wild but fun in our household here in Park City. We have two young kids, a 20-month-old and a three-and-a-half-year-old. I’m still teaching third grade at a local independent school and my husband works for a company that does ski area planning. I hope everyone is happy and healthy out there!…Betsy Pantazelos reports: Last year was a busy year for us; Chris and I moved to Reno, NV. I'm still working for Patagonia out here and enjoying proximity to not only the Tahoe region, but also to Ally (Keefe) Collins who lives 10 doors down from us. We also did a trip-ofa-lifetime to the Alps to ski the Haute

Route (from hut to hut) last spring. Christopher Nielson and his wife Suni joined us on the adventure, and we were guided by Adam George ’97. It was also a blast to see some of you at reunion this summer—such a special occasion, and I am looking forward to getting more of us together again in the future (2027 for our 25th?).

This past January marked the 20 th anniversary of the tragic passing of classmates Mike D'Amico and Weston Lea . A small group from the class of 2003 gathered on campus to celebrate the lives and memory of Mike and Wes, especially their lives at Holderness. Both Mike and Wes were larger than life humans and fantastic friends to so many. Their spirit lives on in the spirit of Holderness students today.

’03

Class Correspondents

Nick Payeur

ndpayeur@gmail.com

Neal Frei nealfrei@gmail.com

a special thanks to Bruce Barton who helped lead the gathering.

03 N Frei

’04

Class Correspondent

Kate (Kenly) Tith kate.tith@gmail.com

Kate (Kenly) Tith writes: I am honored to be the new 2004 class correspondent! I live in Windham, NH with my two kids (Liam, 10, and Sophie, 7) and my husband Mike. I work in clinical development at an oncology biotech company in Cambridge, and I double as an Uber driver for my kids in the evenings! Liam is basketball-obsessed (no pressure!) and Sophie loves dance and swim team. I was super lucky to spend time with Joanna Weatherbie and Kristina Weatherbie this past summer at Ryan McManus

Ally Keefe ’02 and her daughter Harper.

Betsy Pantazelos ’02, Adam George ’97, Christopher Nielson ’02 in Arolla, Switzerland.

Dave Campbell ’04, his wife Audrey, and their children Tilly (4), Addy (21 months).

Pictured at Mike D’Amico ’03 and Weston Lea ’03 memorial benches are Jay Connolly ’03, Nate Parker ’03, Wyatt Lewis ’03, Neal Frei ’03 and Dave Potter ’03. Also in attendance was Peter Barnum, John McVeigh, and Phil and Robin Peck, with

Vosburgh's wedding in Maine; it was an absolutely perfect weekend! We live close to Rachel (Cooke) Foley; while I don't see her nearly as often as I should, it’s wonderful being so close and watching her boys grow up… Ashley (Crook) Carlow reports: I’m married to Greg Carlow, we have two boys—Wes (two years) and Ollie (four months)—and we are living in South Burlington, VT. I'm an interior designer and we are hiring!! (A shameless plug; get in touch!). I would love to connect with or get together with anyone who's in or visiting the area for a beer and/or playdate. Life is busy but these past few years have made me yearn to reconnect!…Rachel (Cooke) Foley and all the Foleys are all doing great! With two kiddos, Connor (nine) and Mason (five), both playing hockey now, we find ourselves very fortunate to have grown up in a hockey family to understand and love the craziness of the schedule. It also makes us appreciate our families and past coaches more than ever for all they did to support us!… Nate Smith reports: We're still in Syracuse, NY and our family made our first trip to Niagara Falls before winter set in. Our children are skating a lot this winter and we see Dave LaPointe ’03 and his family at the local rink often…

Kristina (Weatherbie) Chaisson writes: I am now the mother of a twoand-a-half-year-old boy, Kennet Jo. My husband Kyle and I have lived on Prince Edward Island, Canada since 2012. I work in the health care field as a nurse practitioner! We have been so overjoyed watching our little guy grow and explore; especially excited for the upcoming beach season!… Joanna Weatherbie says: Hello Holderness Family! I am so glad Kate (Kenly) Tith took the lead on class correspondence; now it’s time for the Class of ’04 to fill up some pages! The last two(+) years have been wild for us! My husband

Jonah Clements and I grew our family by one with the welcomed birth of our little girl, Rio, on September 21, 2020; we are obsessed. I’m currently living in Stratford, Prince Edward Island, Canada working as first responder for the Charlottetown Police and Fire Departments, while doing all the fun things you do as a young family! Last June it was special to connect with Kate (Kenly) Tith and Kristina (Weatherbie) Chaisson to celebrate the beautiful Ryan McManus ’s marriage to Scott Vosburgh. New core memories! I hope everyone is doing well and receiving all the love… Dave Campbell writes: After moving over 10 times through COVID—while continuing to work our office-turned-remote jobs—Audrey, Tilly (four), Addy (21 months), and I settled in Crested Butte, CO. We are loving the mountain lifestyle— complete with mountain biking, hiking, skiing—all while continuing our jobs. I'm a product manager at Gusto, a tech company that helps over 200K small businesses run payroll, HR, and benefits, and am focused on building financial wellness and banking products for the employees who get paid through our platform. I continue to serve on the board for Lacrosse the Nations, a nonprofit focused on leveraging sports to support education and health initiatives both internationally and domestically. Beyond that, I enjoyed connecting with a number of Holderness seniors this past fall as part of their senior project research… Hazen Woolson reports: I've just returned from a ski trip/reunion in Utah with classmates

Casey Carroll , Tim Hosmer, and Geoff Calver; everyone was skiing fast and in the front of their boots, thanks in no small part to the lasting effects of a Holderness education in the mountains! Class of ’04, 20 years is coming up really quickly in Utah!

Pack Janes ’04 and Dave Campbell ’04 at the Navy vs Notre Dame football game in Baltimore, MD this past November.

Geoff Calver ’04, Casey Carroll ’04, Hazen Woolson ’04, and Tim Hosmer ’04 reunite!

Casey Carroll ’04, Tim Hosmer ’04, Geoff Calver ’04 and Hazen Woolson ’04 during Outback 2003.

Jo Weatherbie ’04, Scott Vosburgh, Kate Tith ’04, Ryan McManus ’04 and Kristina Weatherbie ’04.

’05

Class Correspondent Brie (Keefe) Healy healy.brie@gmail.com

Han Min Lee writes: I just moved to Paris! Let me know if anyone ever comes by… Willie Ford reports: Still living in Park City, UT. Had a baby boy on November 26, 2022 and named him Walker Nurse Ford—after Norm and Phyllis Walker Justin Hall is a new father too! His son, Cole, was born in December 2022…Brie (Keefe) Healy reports: Life feels pretty busy lately! I’m still enjoying my work as a middle school teacher in Williston, VT and mom to Lydia and Elliott. Watching my kids and students learn about the world around them is exciting and fun to witness; the future is bright!…Hannah Hickok shares: I recently moved to Norfolk, VA with my husband Jonathan and our son. So far, we are loving the warmer weather and waterfront lifestyle, and are looking forward to hosting lots of visits from our northern family and friends… Becky (Millson) Johnstone reports: I got married on August 20, 2022, in Jackson, NH! My wonderful husband, Alex, and I live in Methuen, MA, but we love spending time up north so it was the perfect place for our wedding. It was

so great that Katie (Smarse) Edney was able to make it from Scotland to be one of my bridesmaids. I’m currently working as an RN in the operating room at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Jonah Clements, Rio Clements ’37, Joanna (Jo) Weatherbie ’04, Tretiak (Red Siberian Husky) Pawsha (Grey Siberian Husky).

Kristina (Weatherbie) Chaisson, husband Kyle and little guy Kennet Jo.

Nate Smith ’04 and family at Niagra Falls.

Rachel Foley ’04 , husband Mike, and children Connor and Mason at a family skate at The Governor's Academy.

Kristina (Weatherbie) Chaisson and her son Kennet Jo!

Becky (Millson) Johnstone ’05 and her husband Alex on their wedding day.

Emma (Schofield) Phipps’ ’05 children enjoying snowy days in Castle Rock, CO! Sloane (in the Holderness hat) and Valorie (in the pink hat).

’06

Class Correspondent

Casey Gilman

clgilman5@gmail.com

’07

Class Correspondent

Taylor James taylorveronicajames@gmail.com

Matt Tomaszewski mctomaszewski@gmail.com

Annie (Hanson) Gilmore shares: My husband and I welcomed a baby girl, Ellie, in August of 2022. In the fall, we moved back to Boston from Hanover, NH and are living in Beacon Hill…

Henry Drummond says: Life has been crazy! We moved from San Diego,

where I was brought out to help open a restaurant, Callie, and then moved back to the best coast (east coast) to do some private chef work here in Cape Cod with my wife, Suellen. She is a chef as well and everything kind of fell into place. We recently welcomed baby Harlow in November and things have been wild ever since!"…Dave Seamans and his wife Erica recently moved from New York to Charlotte, NC with their two young kids, Harper (two) and Will (newborn), and their dog, Tucker. They will be celebrating their fifth anniversary in March 2023.

Taylor James’ ’07 daughter, Eleanor, was born in September! They have had the most wonderful few months with her. Their black lab, Bigelow, is enjoying being an older brother!

’08

Class Correspondents

Baird (Meem) Anderson

bairdmeem@gmail.com

Jessica White white.jessica.madigan@gmail.com

Jessica White writes: I am still working as the controller at J.L. Dunn in Boston and living in Quincy. I've been able to spend a lot of time with Haley Wilich lately, which is great. I recently joined the Holderness Alumni Council and am looking forward to connecting with more alumni that

way, and can't wait to see everyone at Reunion next summer!…Crosby Nordblom and his wife Greta recently moved to Carlisle, MA with their two boys, Casper and Simi (ages one and three), and are now just down the street from Todd ’04 and Amy (Laverack) Nordblom ’03 and their two girls, Payson and Lucy (ages four and six)… Morgan Frank writes: My wife and I are having a great time in Pittsburgh. I am enjoying my research and teaching at the University of Pittsburgh while my wife continues her residency at UPMC. I have been pleased with the attention my research received; I recently made trips to Brazil, Sweden, and to the EU in Belgium to share my thoughts on technological change and the future of work. We adopted a new puppy this year, and she is both adorable and a menace. As I write this, she is trying to dig through our bathtub… Polly Babcock is entering her sixth year in Denver and continues to run an E-comm photography studio in downtown Denver. She lives with her dog Wiley, near her mom Lucy, and visits her sister Ashley Babcock ’06 in Wyoming. Polly continues her love for skiing, soccer, mountain biking, weight lifting, and yoga. She also enjoys art projects on the side of work, and spends a lot of time with alum Annie Carney in Denver! “Can't wait for reunion next summer.”… Nick Martini writes: I have been living in LA, and now own a few businesses in the film production world—Stept Studios (creative agency), Lockt Editorial (post production company), and Vault Rentals (camera rentals). I started Stept while at Holderness and it's been fun to watch the company reinvent itself and grow over the past 20 years… Margot Cutter is living in Sacramento and welcomed a son, Ralph, in April 2022.

Willie Ford ’05, Caroline Nurse and their new son, Walker.

Willie Ford’s ’05 son, Walker.

’09

Class Correspondent Allison (Stride) Lloyd stride.ally@gmail.com

Emily (Marvin) Rider writes: Hi! I am writing to report the recent birth of our second son, Charles Daniel Rider, born on August 25, 2022.

traveling across Europe (while working remotely half of the time) and visited 20 cities across seven countries to make up for travel time that was lost due to COVID-19. When we returned to the US, we bought our first home in a northwestern neighborhood of Chicago and welcomed a new kitten into the home shortly after closing. I am still working as a finance lead overseeing product finance at Hubspot, a Boston based software company where I have been for the past 18 months. After a long two years, I am in my final term of my MBA program and will be graduating from the University of Florida Warrington School of Business in April. Now, I'm looking forward to a 2023 full of many more adventures and milestones… Elise (Steiner) Hacker reports: My husband, Mike, and I welcomed our first child, Jack Frederick Hacker, to the world the night before Thanksgiving! We are all happy, healthy, and so in love with this little guy. We've been spending the last few months learning how to be parents, and our dog Bailey is learning how to be a big sister, and are excited for all our adventures this spring and summer with Jack. Jack has already started his Holderness application and looks forward to meeting his peers in the class of 2041.

Class Correspondent Elise (Steiner) Hacker eliseshacker@gmail.com

Nathan McBeath writes: I am currently living in Chicago where I have been for the past 18 months since relocating from Boston. My wife and I spent July through September 2022

Polly Babcock ’08 in Jackson Wyoming with her sister Ashley Babcock ’06 for Christmas. Also included is Ashley’s boyfriend and their cousin Justin.

Emily (Marvin) Rider’s ’09 sons Liam (2) and Charlie.

Brian Frideman ’10 in a photo for his mushroom superfood lifestyle brand SuperMush. He’s having fun spending time on projects that connect with his passions for environment, design and wellness.

Elise (Steiner) Hacker ’10, husband Michael, baby Jack and "big sister" Bailey.

Elise (Steiner) Hacker’s ’10 son Jack.

Nathan McBeath ’10 and his wife Kelsey.

Class Correspondents

Cecily Koopman cncushman@gmail.com

Jamie McNulty jamcnulty20@gmail.com

Class Correspondents

Alex Leininger

leiningerbalex@gmail.com

Kristina Micalizzi kmicalizzi08@gmail.com

Stephanie Symecko writes: Dave and I got engaged this January! We are also coming up on our one-year anniversary of living in Portsmouth, NH. While we miss Texas, we are loving being closer to family after four years in Austin. I think Bert (our almost three-year-old Bernedoodle) prefers the snow and sandy coastline over the heat… Gavin Bayreuther reports: I now have two kids (girls)Brooke and Birdie Bayreuther… Eliza Cowie now lives in Salt Lake City, UT. She's been able to reconnect with a number of Holderness classmates and fellow alumni throughout the city and on the Alta patio. She continues to enjoy all that the outdoors there has to offer, from skiing to mountain biking to rafting through some of the most picturesque rivers including the Colorado river/Grand Canyon and the middle fork of the Salmon River. She's hoping to coordinate an alumni event in Salt Lake sometime in the near future!…Kristina Micalizzi shares: After a great Holderness reunion to kick off the summer, I traveled with my partner to Jordan where we hiked around the desert and ancient city of Petra. On our trip to Finland later in the summer, he proposed near the spot where we first met in Helsinki. We were lucky enough to celebrate not only our engagement with family and friends in Boston the following week, but also that of Samantha Cloud who

had recently gotten engaged in Saint Tropez… Casey Gibbs reports: We welcomed our baby girl Stephanna Alyson Gibbs on January 18th. She was 7lbs 3oz and 19 inches long.

’14

Class Correspondents

Alexandrea “Allie” Solms solmsallie@gmail.com

Celeste Holland cholland51@gmail.com

Mikaela Wall wallmikaela@gmail.com

’15

Class Correspondents

Hope Heffernan hopeheffernan@gmail.com

Jake Rosencranz jrosencranz1@gmail.com

Leah Curtis lcurtis1330@gmail.com

Class Correspondent

Chris Sargent christopher.t.sargent@gmail.com

Sam Macomber ’11, Celeste Holland ’14, Clark Macomber ’14, and Josie Brownell ’12 gathered for a quick afterwork ski tour in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Stephanie Symecko ’12 with her fiancé David Veilleux shortly after getting engaged at Mt. Equinox Pond in Manchester, VT.

Stephanie Symecko ’12 and her fiance with their dog Bert wearing his new "she said yes" bandana.

Hadley Starer, Hannah Benson, Ellery Smith, Kyra Borsoi, Lexi Black (all class of 2016) at reunion.

Hannah Benson writes: In 2022 we were thrilled to reunite back on campus for summer reunion. It was so wonderful to see so many familiar faces from the class of 2016 make the trip back to Holderness. We were able to reconnect and even discover that some of us are new neighbors in our home towns. Sending a warm welcome to the McVeigh Family and a huge shoutout to Annie Smyth-Hammond for coming back to Holderness to coach the girls' varsity hockey team. Go Bulls!

’19

Class Correspondent

Lilly Patterson lgp011@bucknell.edu

’20

Class Correspondent

Abby Vieira abigail.e.vieira@gmail.com

’21

Class Correspondent Adam McNabney adamsteelemc@gmail.com

’22

Class Correspondent

Rachel Storey rachelstorey11@gmail.com

’17

Class Correspondent

Elizabeth Johansson ecjohansson17@gmail.com

’18

Class Correspondents

Stuart Clifford stugclifford@gmail.com

Sarah Rogers rogesb524@gmail.com

Luke Valentine lukevalentineoms@gmail.com

Class members Noelle Boes (University of Denver), Hannah Mullaly (University of Denver), and Mary Page (Bucknell) got together at a hockey game this winter. With several members of the class of 2022 attending schools in the west such as Colorado College and the University of Denver, Bulls have loved gathering out west this year!…Cooper Boulanger has spent the past year playing for the Cranbrook Bucks, a team in the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL), and has recently committed to continue playing and studying at the US Air Force Academy. Congrats Cooper!

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!

Members of the class 2016 at reunion.

From teammates as Bulls to teammates as Eagles! Jasmine Whittaker ’22 and Alex McNabb ’22 have had great first years skiing for Boston College.

Cooper Boulanger ’22 commits to playing and studing at the U.S. Air Force Academy!

Noelle Boes ’22, Hannah Mullaly ’22, and Mary Page ’22 together at a hockey game this winter.

MAPMAKER, MAPMAKER…

H

olderness School recently updated its campus map with the help of noted cartographer and illustrator Molly O’Halloran, who has worked with clients as diverse as Random House, Chicago Park District, and Heywood Hotel. Look for the new map on our website and on campus soon.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

ACADEMIC

1. Livermore Hall/Admission Office

2. Davis Center

3. Alfond Library

4. Hagerman Center

5. Schoolhouse

6. Carpenter Arts Center

ATHLETICS

7. Bartsch-Gallop Athletics Center

8. Ice Rink

9. Nordic Ski House/Sauna

CAMPUS LIFE

10. Chapel of the Holy Cross

11. Weld Dining Hall

12. Head of School's House

13. Polebarn Maintenance Facility

14. Biomass Plant

RESIDENTIAL

15. Rathbun Dormitory

16. Hoit Dormitory

17. Niles Dormitory

18. Webster Dormitory

19. Connell Dormitory

20. Brown Dormitory

21. Sargent Dormitory

Red Dormitory

Gray Dormitory

Yellow Dormitory

Green Dormitory

Henderson Dormitory

27. Hinman Dormitory

28. Richards Dormitory

29. Woodward Dormitory

30. Pichette Dormitory

Photo by Drake Dearborn '25

FROM THE ARCHIVES

As Holderness School’s archivist, Dr. Jennifer Martinez’s work centers around cataloging the school's historical collections of letters, photographs, and memorabilia and making them available to the school community - as well as updating the archives into the best modern archival practices. As she was going through the archives in the lower level of the Alfond Library this winter, Dr. Martinez made a truly interesting discovery: a 273-year-old letter from Robert Darcy, the 4 th Earl of Holderness, to William Pitt (The Elder). Here, Dr. Martinez explains the historical significance of the letter, and its connection to Holderness School.

The letter from Robert Darcy, the fourth Earl of Holderness, to William Pitt (The Elder).

By Dr. Jennifer Martinez

The Holderness School Archives has in its collections a historically significant letter from the 4 th Earl of Holderness addressed to former Prime Minister of Great Britain William Pitt (The Elder). Written on June 23, 1750, and presumably sent from The Hague (where Robert Darcy was representing his country under King George III), the letter is the perfect combination of personal and business matters that we would find in letters of the 18th century. It contains the conventional epistolary formulae typical of letters in this time period, including formal language and salutations, among others. The context refers to a mystery favor for an unnamed widow. At one point, the letter contained an enclosed paper (likely from the widow in question explaining her request) that would have given us more information about the case. Unfortunately, the woman remains unnamed and the favor remains unsaid.

The letter has connections to the school through the town. The town of Holderness is named after Robert Darcy (also D’Arcy) the fourth Earl of Holderness. Early in the town’s history, Darcy was in good relations with Governor Wentworth. When he gave land to early settler families like the Livermores he named the town “New Holderness” after

Prime Minister William Pitt (The Elder) was in office from 1766 to 1768 and was a member of the Whig Party. He was incredibly popular during his time in office and was in charge when Britain defeated the French in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). Both his ascendancy into political power and the war coincided around similar times. Many of us are perhaps more familiar with his son, William Pitt (The Younger) who was also Prime Minister and was the one immersed in the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.

The very nature of the letter—meant as private correspondence—means that we have the intimate thoughts of an influential man that would not necessarily appear in modern textbooks. We know that the letter was written sixteen years before Pitt was Prime Minister and that at the time, he suffered from bouts of hereditary gout and (as PaymasterGeneral) was involved in early political squabbles with Newcastle before their coalition in 1757-1761.

Our little piece of history in this small New England town reverberates through our school still. The wellknown bull that we all love and the flowers that appear in our school logo both come from the old family crest of the Darcy/Holderness family. |

Left: Dr. Jennifer Martinez.

Right: Art students contact printed two early 1900s glass negatives from the archives using an iron process called cyanotypes.

About Dr. Jennifer Martinez

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Dr. Martinez is a cultural Greek historian with a PhD in Classics and Ancient History from the University of Liverpool. Using modern comparative material, ancient texts, and archeology, her research focuses on the preand post-war lived experiences of women in the ancient world, philosophical wartime boundaries, and the social and economic impacts of war on women. Dr. Martinez also teaches AP European History at Holderness.

Darcy. The “New” was removed from the name sometime in 1816.