Holderness School Today: Spring 2011 by Holderness School

H OLDERNESS S CHOOL TODAY Spring 2011

Also Inside: Catching up with Jim Brewer Lazarus Rises Homeboy Sandman Tragedy On Split Mountain

Essential EQ New social research corroborates what the 1950 student council surmised about leadership, and how it grows.

This page: With a happy tug on the chapel’s bell rope, Clark Macomber ’14 signals the start of the spring Head’s Holiday. Photo by Steve Solberg Front cover: English teacher Tiaan van der Linde ’89 pauses atop Mount Chocorua with some of his Out Back group: juniors Will Gribbell, Josie Brownell, Pippa Blau, and Justin Simpkins. Photo by Parker Nichols, volunteer co-instructor and grandson of Don Hagerman. Back cover: Juniors Justin Simpkins, Connor Loree, and Drew Walsh locate the emergency exit as they embark on OB. Photo by Steve Solberg.

Holderness School Board of Trustees Holderness School Today

Nelson Armstrong (Secretary)

Volume XXVII, No. 3

Frank Bonsal III ’82 Grace Macomber Bird Elizabeth Bunce F. Christopher Carney ’75 (Alumni Association President) Russell Cushman ’80 The Rev. Randolph Dales Nigel D. Furlonge Tracy McCoy Gillette ’86 Douglas H. Griswold ’66 James B. Hamblin II ’77 (Treasurer) Paul Martini Richard Nesbitt Peter Nordblom Wilhelm Northrop ’88 (Vice-Chairperson) R. Phillip Peck Thomas Phillips ’75 Tamar Pichette William L. Prickett ’81 (Chairperson)

Features

Jake Reynolds ’86 The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson (President) Ian Sanderson ’79

A fiber of connectedness

Jennifer A. Seeman ’88

New social research into the development of leadership

Gary A. Spiess

skills reveals some interesting connections between the

John A. Straus

school’s unique system of student leadership and the

Rose-Marie van Otterloo

growth of Holderness faculty members into heads of school.

Ellyn Paine Weisel ’86

Headmaster Emeritus

The Rev. Brinton W. Woodward, Jr.

Catching up with Jim Brewer The former English teacher was also one of the school’s great innovators. He’s recently joined a new community, but he’s

Honorary Trustees

no less profoundly connected to this one.

Warren C. Cook Mayland H. Morse, Jr. ’38 Piper Orton ’74

W. Dexter Paine III ’79

Rise, Lazarus Assistant chaplain Bruce Barton considers one of the

The Rt. Rev. Philip A. Smith

foundations of leadership at Holderness—mentorship—and

The Rt. Rev. Douglas Theuner

the manner in which it raises one from a metaphorical sort of entombment.

Holderness School Today Editor: Rick Carey Editor Emeritus: Jim Brewer Assistant Editors: Dee Black Rainville, Robert Caldwell, Jane McNulty, Angela Francesco Miller ’98, Phil Peck, Judith Solberg, Steve Solberg, Tracy White, Amy Woods Photography: Steve Solberg, Art Durity, Emily Magnus ’88, Rick Carey, Phil Peck HST is printed on recycled paper three times each year by the Springfield Printing Corporation. Please send notice of address changes to Angela Francesco Miller, Advancement Office, Holderness School, P.O. Box 1879, Plymouth, NH 03264, or amiller@holderness.org. Angie may also be contacted at 603-7795220.

Departments 2

From the Schoolhouse

Letters to HST

Honor Roll

Around the Quad

Sports

Update: Faculty & Staff

Update: Former Faculty & Staff

Update: Former Trustees

Alumni in the News

Advancement & External Relations

At This Point in Time

Schoolhouse From the

On humility

It reflects a community of leaders who see themselves first and foremost as learners who are not of the sort to be impressed with themselves.

WRITE THIS

introduction,

the administrative team is

teachers who exude a humble confidence.

person better represents that quality than Jim

in the middle of receiving

Brewer, who continues—with the same

feedback on their leader-

thoughtful, humble confidence exhibited at

ship skills—based on

Holderness and other schools—to move for-

aspects of initiative,

ward with new challenges. You will see that

dependability, fairness, and

message in Bruce Barton’s homily about taking

leadership, the same criteria used to choose

meaningful risks and depending on others to

student leaders—setting goals for the next year

grow as a person and a leader.

year, and also working with the Board of

from former faculty and alumni who are now

The quotations

Trustees and other members of the Holderness

heads of school also reveal this same

community to revise and update our strategic

Holderness approach to leadership.

plan. These efforts are a natural outgrowth of

you’ll read about alumni who in a very unas-

Holderness Schol’s culture of leadership.

reflects a community of leaders who see them-

Finally,

suming manner are excelling and making a difference in academia, the arts, and the outdoors.

selves first and foremost as learners, who are never content with “good enough,” and yet

AFTER 27

who are not of the sort to be impressed with

am convinced that leadership is a lifestyle at

themselves.

YEARS OF

observing our community, I

Holderness. The programs at Holderness deliberately develop true leaders, not people who

WHY

DO WE DO THIS?

I believe that real confi-

are impressed with themselves, their positions,

dence is grounded in humility, and in that way

their colleges, or their titles, but those who see

allows an individual and a community to con-

leadership as a service, and put the goals of

stantly grow. Arrogance, on the other hand, is

others ahead of their own.

grounded in insecurity, which results ultimately in mediocrity because of a fear of taking risks

or admitting error.

fidence be part of the Holderness leadership

At Holderness everything

COURSE IT IS ONLY

natural that humble con-

we do is aimed at developing confidence, not

ethos when our motto and mission call all of us

arrogance.

to serve and make a difference, not only for

Whether in the classroom, on the

athletic field, in the chapel, in Special

humankind but our Lord; and thus, like Jim

Programs, or in the Job Program, the goal is

Brewer and many others before and after him,

create young leaders who are learning.

we will spend our lives learning, growing, and

addition, Holderness is blessed with terrific

leading.

role models, all of whom model the same qualities and are always learning and growing as leaders.

THIS

HST,

THERE ARE

numerous examples of

students, alumni, present teachers, and past

Holderness School Today

Phil Peck Head of School

letters To HST Send letters about HST to Rick Carey, Director of Publications, Holderness School,

03264

THIS

P.O. Box 1879, Plymouth, NH 03264, or via email to rcarey@holderness.org.

IS JUST TO SAY HOW MUCH

School Today.

APPRECIATE

receiving Holderness

It was good to see Coach and Alice Jane Hinman on

page 7, whom I fondly remember, and also Coach with my fellow

French student with Mr. Overaker, so you did not have me for class. One evening, I had gone—as was my habit—to the after-dinner coffee and chat with faculty that was open to juniors and seniors. I

classmen on pages 1 and 37. He is painting the face of Dean

did this almost every available night since I did not get along at all

Blackwell, and immediately behind Dean with a blackened face is

with my roommate and preferred to be away from the room if possi-

Peter C. Smith.

ble. While I sat there in the lounge one evening, listening to the sci-

Colin Mitchell ’44.

ence teacher talk about something, a classmate came up and said, "Hey, Wilson, help us out. Mr. Hammond has a guy downstairs for a slide show but no one is there and he told me to go up and find some people." "What is the slide show about?" I asked. "I don't know—something about studying in Spain." I did not think that it was really something for me but I felt bad about the guy who was down there and about your feeling embarrassed, so I went down to help out. Of course, the guy was Hal McCann from School Year Abroad, and he was talking about SYA Spain and France. I walked into the room with no expectation of having any interest and I walked out knowing it would be my future!

At that time, SYA had no financial

aid, but I forged ahead and my parents were supportive. By a miracle, SYA began financial aid just so I could go, I think, because we received a call in mid-July that a gift had been received specifically Editor’s note: The following is a letter to former Spanish teacher by

for aid, and it meant I would be able to go! When I climbed on the plane to go to France, it was the first

Andrew Wilson. It’s reprinted here by permission.

time I had been in a plane! I had a fabulous year which led quickly JIM, I HST.

WAS HAPPY TO READ THE PIECE

about you and Loli in the recent

It made me think that I should let you know that something

you did had a profoundly positive effect on my life. In 1976-1977, I was a junior at Holderness. Up until the time I

into a year in Spain during college, followed by leading summer bike tours in Europe and a year spent sailing abroad. I was hired in 1986 by Grier to be "Señor Andrés," the Spanish teacher. I have been very active throughout my time here, travelling the world to

was 13, my family had lived in Schenectady. At first my father had a

find our students (Grier is fifty percent international).

good job with GE and I lived a very comfortable life. By my twelfth

become "At Home In the World," as the SYA motto says.

birthday, he had split off and created a business with friends. By age

I truly did

Thank you for taking the time to help organize that evening

13, we were bankrupt and left Schenectady to live in our summer

meeting at Holderness.

camp in the Adirondacks. Perhaps you know the spot—the Crater

more hours of your time than most people would ever give for a job.

I know that you and Loli both gave many

Club, where the Babcocks had a place. Anyway, the next three years

That is the essence of a boarding school life, and also it is the reason

I spent in Willsboro Central School, as my father and mother tried to

faculty have such a profound influence on kids. Thank you for help-

juggle life of unemployment or underemployment. Thankfully, my

ing me find my way!

grandmother suggested I go to boarding school for eleventh grade, and we picked Holderness since the Babcocks [Dana and Pam; Dana

Andrew M. Wilson ’78

was the school’s Director of Development, 1972-78] were there and

Headmaster

I suspect my parents felt I could be helped if needed by these

Grier School

friends. So, you may have noticed me around school, but I was a

Hey, for once it wasn’t us! HERE

HST

WE HAVE ALL TOO

frequent recourse to an “errata”

section in the magazine. It’s a lonely when you’re convinced

Jim Hammond in his Hispanic glory.

that you’re the only one in the world guilty of embarrassing typos. Some recent signage on campus (now corrected) cheerfuly reminded us that really we’re not alone.

Holderness School Today

A Fiber of Connectedness

A single philosophy of leadership—and the development of leadership skills—has been applied at Holderness at both the student and faculty levels since 1950. Contemporary social and educational research into the question is just now catching up. We’ll let Duane Ford ’74 walk us through this. Story by Rick Carey.

2011,

NEARLY FOUR

decades since Don

Hagerman handed him his Holderness School

diploma, Duane Ford can’t help but laugh. “After all this time, education, and experience,” he says, “I’m doing now pretty much what I did then.” WHAT

HE DID THEN, AS A SENIOR

at Holderness, was run the student Job

Program. He had been born in Reno, Nevada, and his family had moved first to Ithaca, New York, and then to the Lakes Region when he was sixteen.

“My father taught psychology and child development at Plymouth

State,” Duane says. “I repeated my sophomore year at Holderness, and without any friends in the area, I really bought into the culture here, and worked during the summers on the Holderness maintenance crews.” The school’s leadership balloting in the spring of 1973 resulted in a log jam at the top, with Duane finishing just an eyelash behind the boys elected president and vice-president. “It was so close that the faculty decided to create a job for me,” he says. “They put me in charge of the Job Program, and of course that position still exists today. That’s our Weld Hall supervisor, though it’s now the vice-president who runs the overall program.”

Holderness School Today

From Holderness Duane went to Middlebury,

council minutes of May 23, 1950, secretary Terry

where he earned All-America honors in lacrosse. After

Weathers ’51 wrote, “The council decided that the

some coaching at Middlebury, he went to Tufts

election of student officials should take place in the

University to become that school’s Residential

form of a Proctor ballot, which will be explained

Director and head football coach. He returned to

tonight. On the basis of this ballot, all students are

Holderness in 1994 to teach math and coach, and with-

judged on the basis of dependability, initiative, fair-

in two years he also became Dean of Students—a job

ness, and leadership ability.”

that involved oversight of the Job Program, as well as the student house and floor leaders in the dormitories.

In essence, the student council had more or less legislated itself out of existence. A “Proctor ballot”

In 2005 his job title was changed to Director of

was explained as anonymous and involving numerical

Residential Life so he could more thoroughly concen-

ratings for evidence of “leadership, dependability, ini-

trate on the Job Program and leadership. Along the

tiative, and fairness” in all the members of the rising

way he has also earned a Master of Arts in

junior and senior classes. The junior who scored high-

Independent School Leadership from Columbia’s

est in that matrix would be the school president next

Teachers College.

fall; the next highest would be vice-president, and so

So to be quite accurate, Duane’s got a lot more to do now than he did when he was a student leader. He’s

on. The government itself would be structured according to a “House Plan” under which—wrote Edric

also in possession of the credentials and experience

Weld—“student authority rested with student house

that would make him a strong candidate for the job of

leaders, floor leaders, and a student court, the faculty

Head of School somewhere else. Holderness faculty

being counselors and teachers.”

members, in fact, have made that jump in stunning numbers over the years. But so far

Student leaders still have real and meaningful jobs to do, as do the students they lead.

The new system was embraced by students and immediately put to a test. “A senior boy was caught

Duane prefers not to—and this

with a bottle of liquor,” remembers Terry Weathers,

small personal preference is sugges-

“and the student court recommended a course

tive of a large and interesting way

endorsed by the faculty—grant the diploma, but not

in which the whole idea of “school

allow participation in the ceremony.”

leadership” is treated differently at

HE NECESSARY

Edric Weld retired after that ceremony on that bright note of student autonomy. “For the boys it was

Holderness.

their school at last,” he wrote in his history of the ingredients to

leadership—school or otherwise—have been a matter of

debate since the first hunting party gathered around a camp-

school, “and many regard it as Holderness’s greatest achievement.”

EVENTY YEARS LATER, THAT

distinctive system

still works smoothly. The student court has been

replaced by student representation on the

Discipline Committee, but otherwise student

leaders—about 65 of them now, or forty percent

of the names on the ballot each year—still have real

and meaningful jobs to do, as do the students they

lead, whether that’s rinsing dishes in the pantry or keeping the dorms clean and safe. You need mature, responsible kids heading up the job crews and houses, because if things don’t get done right, things squeak and grind to a halt. And it’s remarkable how often the system provides such kids. It may be tautological to single out “leadership” as a quality necessary for leadership, but that and the other three matrix elements—dependability, initiative, and fairness—have stood the test of time. “The process serves to qualify and quantify what we value in our leaders, and it has worked well historically,” Duane said in a presentation about Holderness’s program at a TABS (The Association of Boarding Schools) conferfire. It was a matter of particular debate at Holderness in the 1940s, when Rector Edric Weld resolved to make the student council responsible for something more than dances and holiday celebrations. He asked

those scientists we’ll count Phil Peck, who is working on his doctorate in school leadership at Columbia’s

English teacher Charles “Joe” Abbey—to look at stu-

Teachers College. Phil’s thesis work concerns how

dent government systems at other schools and to rec-

schools identify and develop leaders from within their

ommend some changes at Holderness.

faculties, and the first step in that—finding potential

new paradigm for student leadership. In the student

Holderness School Today

In the past several decades leadership has been a subject of social science research as well. Among

the 1949-50 student council and their advisor—

What Abbey and his boys delivered was a whole

ence in 2008.

leaders—is based on survey data he collected from 65 school heads and public school principals. He asked

Boil it down, please One of Holderness School’s points of pride is the number of former faculty members, alumni, and combinations of the two who have become heads at other independent schools. HST asked as many as we could find on short notice to tell us in a very short space—just three or four sentences or so—what they learned about leadership during their time here. We begin on this page with the thoughts of former faculty members. “IT TOOK ME THREE MONTHS before I grasped what was really different about Holderness and its approach to school leadership—it put the student at the center of attention, rather than the school. If there was a problem or a crisis, we thought first not about the reputation of the school, but the welfare of the student. It sounds obvious, but it’s not something that I found to be true of other schools, and that was a vital part of our success.” Ed Cayley, former head, Stanstead College, Stanstead, QC, Canada

“FIRST, BE PRESENT AND interested without micromanaging the multiple aspects of your school. Second, delegate responsibilities clearly and be sure that every element of the school community understands these delegations. And finally, spend whatever time it takes with potential hires making the mission and the expectations of the school clear and assuring yourself that their philosophies and capabilities are compatible with that mission and those expectations.” Jim Brewer, former head, Barlow School, Amenia, NY

“MY FIRST JOB AFTER COLLEGE was as a young faculty member at Holderness, when Don Hagerman and then Pete Woodward were our headmasters. From them both I learned that the foundation to leadership is promoting and trusting good people to do their best, with increasing levels of responsibility. That’s how all these current Heads were spawned—and I hope that will be our legacies, too, someday. (Don Hagerman also showed me that stopping to pick up litter is an important part of being a leader and example.)” John King, current head, Hebron Academy, Hebron, ME

"I’M GRATEFUL TO GOD for leading me to Holderness, where I encountered Don Hagerman, Ed Cayley, Bill Clough, and a

host of other extraordinary leaders. I believe that leaders love people and serve them; that they believe in goodness and beauty; that they help people to become part of something great; that they model the best virtues, advance the mission, take the blame, award credit to others, do the right thing, and praise others publicly for the same.” Bill Burke, current head, St. Sebastian’s School, Needham, MA

“FIRST, LEADERSHIP IN OUR schools is always personal; you need, as much as possible, to know the people personally—Don Hagerman and Pete Woodward always did that. Second, there is no substitute for “being there” yourself; at Holderness, that meant going on Outback, being present at games, being part of the plays—again, Don and Pete always were there and I know Phil is everywhere. And finally, from time to time, be goofy; get into costume, put up a video, dance on stage (that was a gift I learned from Pete).” Jay Stroud, current head, Tabor Academy, Marion, MA

“I JOINED THE FACULTY AT the age of 22, fresh out of Hobart College. I had no aspirations to become a headmaster until I met Don Hagerman and Ed Cayley. They both taught me that above all, a leader must have integrity and compassion.” Mark Perkins, former head, Forman School, Litchfield, CT

“THE GREAT LEADERS AT Holderness were role models who led by example, not by proclamation. They emerged out of a sense of duty for the common good, from tasks like building a chimney for the Outback cabin. They taught the importance of humility, and they delegated authority, but not responsibility—making hard decisions and standing behind them.” Pete Rapelye, current head, Princeton Junior School, Lawrenceville, NJ

Editor’s note: This sidebar omits Walt Kesler of the Trinity Valley School; Jim Nourse of the Richmond Middle School; Kate Knopp of Cityterm at the Masters School; and Chip Bristol of the Canterbury School. We ran into our deadline and had to stop. Sigh. Holderness School Today

Boil it down: Former faculty members who are also alumni “THERE WAS NEVER ANY SEAL Team Six-style leadership program in place at Holderness. You simply rubbed shoulders with a lot of good people, and when things had to be done, you stepped up. It was an organic system that allowed you to learn on the fly, and that would appeal, therefore, to the sort of people who would choose a small boarding school like Holderness.” Bill Clough ’57, former head, Gould Academy, Bethel, ME

these heads what they look for when they promote from within, and then teased out the common themes in their answers. Phil was joined by his thesis advisor—Pearl Kane, Director of the Klingenstein Center at Columbia and a former Holderness trustee— in presenting his findings in February at a pair of national independent school conferences. It’s not too hard to tie those findings

“IN 1969, MY PARENTS HANDED me off with confidence to the Hagermans, Cloughs, and Cayleys. Holderness offered then, as it does today, the challenge, support and relationship to adults that adolescents need to be more self reliant and less self indulgent. Competent, thoughtful and compassionate faculty members inspired me to take leadership seriously, and there is not a day that the Holderness experience does not influence my work as a teacher, coach, and administrator." Will Graham '72, current head, Midland School, Los Olivos, CA

into Joe Abbey’s key qualities for leadership. Phil’s sample group likes demonstrated professional competence: organizational savvy, a willingness to work with others, strong preparation. In other words, they like qualities that correspond pretty well at the student level to “dependability.” They like the sort of self-starters who exhibit volunteerism, commitment, and energy—which is to say, who demonstrate “initiative.” And they like people with personal characteristics—empathy, integrity, open-mindedness, and good judgment—all of which might be summed up by “fairness.”

“THE FOUNDATION LAID BY THE school’s resilient, caring educators—people like Don Hagerman, Bill Clough, Jay Stroud, Pete Woodward, and Bill Burke—meant developing an understanding and respect for different roles within a community. Exposure to those roles within an ethos of leadership is what Holderness did— and I suspect still does—brilliantly. From the adults down through the students, the opportunity to move through different responsibilities is woven into the community. Leadership was never a ‘track’ followed, but an evolution of character borne from compassion, caring, and a sense of responsibility.” Mike Henriques ’76, current head, Proctor Academy, Andover, NH

The heads also look for something else. Knowing that leadership is a skill that can be learned, they look for evidence of leadership interest, the sort of ambition that’s displayed by graduate-level coursework and the active pursuit of higher or broader responsibilities. Among students, this characteristic might be primary at most schools, where an electoral process decides between those who choose to pursue the presidency or other leadership positions. At Holderness, though, this characteristic is pointedly ignored in the Abbey system. Instead everybody is a candidate for the presidency, whether they have expressed interest or not—and once in a great while an

“I REMEMBER BEING REALLY sick at some point my senior year, and all of the freshman in Hoit dorm brought me dinner and checked in on their bed-ridden house leader every hour or so even though it was Saturday night. When I asked them why they were willing to do this, some of them shared stories about the times that I ‘gave up’ to hang out with them or help them get through some issue. Until that point, I hadn't really thought about how much I cared about them, and I certainly hadn't realized how that ‘caring’ had helped to build a strong sense of trust and community in the dorm. I try to bring that same ethic of caring with me as a teacher and an administrator.” Jason Gordon ’91, just-named head of middle school, Burgundy Farm Country Day, Alexandria, VA 8

Holderness School Today

elected president respectfully declines the honor and its responsibilities. A strength of this all-school ballot, however, is that it never becomes the sort of popularity contest that a school election can become. Well, truth be told, the Holderness system is its own sort of popularity contest, but it’s popularity for the best reasons—for dependability, initiative, and fairness—and so really has more to do with respect than entourage. In fact, to Duane Ford’s thinking, this is a neatly roundabout way of finding those who have real leadership interest. “The results of the voting are a direct way of

measuring what you might call a kid’s

that mean he’d be a good head of school?

fiber of connectedness,” he says. “How

It certainly means that he’s a good

active are you within the community?

teacher, a good man, connected to his stu-

How linked are you to all its different

dents, and that’s where you begin.”

sub-groups? Maybe it’s not so much interest in leadership, per se—it’s more

By beginning their careers in the 1970s, though, Jay and his cohorts had a

purely interest and immersion in commu-

lot of tough choices to make. “There was

nity. But those are just the sorts of leaders

so much pressure to throw everything out

we want.”

the window,” Duane says. “And the

HOSE ARE THE SORTS OF

school did make some important leaders as

down there at the level of core values,

staff his faculty during the turbu-

they held the line. The dress code stayed

lence of the 1960s and ’70s. Don

in place, despite the hippies. Alcohol

was running a small school deeply

remained a banned substance while the

invested in the multiple-points-of-contact

state was going back and forth on the

model—i.e. he looked for teachers who

legal age to drink. And family-style din-

could not only teach a good class, but

ing continues today, as does the Job

coach a couple sports, supervise a dorm,

Program.” They held the line on the school’s core values, adds Duane, and the changes that were made were all in service of those values. Assistant Head of School Jory Macomber remembers that generation of teachers in the ’70s and ’80s, and finds a couple of common story lines: first, that many became successful heads of

of boarding school life. They needed to

school elsewhere; second, that each first

be competent and dependable in the most

had a signature impact on Holderness.

holistic sort of way. They needed to have energy and initiative, as well as empathy

“Bill Clough and Mike Henriques [’76] were both founding fathers of the

and a reliable sense of fairness in han-

Out Back program,” Jory says. “Jay

dling the autonomy they were given.

Stroud and Bill Burke both served as

Duane shakes his head as he remem-

Director of Studies and significantly

bers the teachers who were at Holderness

enhanced our academic offerings. Jim

then. “Bill Clough, Fred Beams, Bill

Nourse and Phil Peck opened up profes-

Burke, Will Graham, Jay Stroud, Mark

sional development opportunities for fac-

Perkins, and I could go on,” he says.

ulty. Mark Perkins changed our approach

“Those were all good men.”

to discipline—that’s when ‘reason and

He knows that Jay Stroud, now head

immersion in

community.”

—Duane Ford ’74

changes—co-education, for example—but

well that Don Hagerman found to

and pitch in with all the niggling details

“Maybe it’s not so much interest in leadership, per se— it’s more purely interest in and

persuasion’ became part of our vocabu-

of Tabor Academy, still remembers a

lary. Pete Rapelye, as athletic director,

paper Duane wrote for him in his senior

made us into something much more than

year of English in 1974. “That’s the mark

a ski school with the improvements he

of a good educator,” Duane says. “Does

achieved in our other sports. I could go

on, but these were all dynamic people who made a difference here.”

CHOOL HEADS

DON Hagerman and

Pete Woodward had to find and

hire these talented people; beyond that it was a matter of delegating

responsibility and getting out of

their way. It’s not quite so easy for Duane in the dorms and the Job Program, where

the work is done by teen-agers. “This is the one place in school, though, where you can go up to a kid wiping tables in Weld and say, ‘If you did this sort of work in your summer job, I’d fire you,’” Duane says. Because the Job Program is so crucial to the daily operation of the school, and because it’s all done by teen-agers who bring various levels of investment and maturity to their tasks, failures in the Job Program are a fact of life—and a constant irritant—to Duane and other faculty members. “But then it’s a system that’s designed to create conflicts,” Duane says. “Let’s say you’re the leader of the pantry crew at lunch, but you’re also on the lacrosse team and your bus leaves at 10:30 that morning for an away game. So you’ve got to find a substitute, what we call a ‘job sub.’ Unfortunately, we don’t do that part as well as we should.” If the efficiency of the program was all that mattered, Duane would take steps to ensure better performance at cleaning tables and picking up trash and finding job subs—meaning that he would provide more adult supervision. “But that’s exactly what we don’t want,” he hastens to add. “We want the kids to figure it out for

Holderness School Today

themselves, and learn from it.” So at the student level, Holderness has a system— run by students—that never really asks who wants to

then put them in positions that enabled them to flourish,” Mike says. “It was an organic approach to developing leadership. Individuals grew into their latent

be a leader, and then often leaves students chosen to be

strengths, realized it, and were ready for the next step.

leaders in circumstances where they have to muddle

Was there intentional theory behind it? No. Was he fol-

through. Well, that’s pretty much how it works for the

lowing the latest trend in leadership development? No.

faculty as well, where someone generally arrives with

You have to understand that Pete granted a lot of

the sole ambition of being a good classroom teacher—

autonomy to individuals, and trusted his faculty, and

and then stuff happens.

this is fertile soil for leadership.”

“It was more evident in the past than it is today, but among the faculty there was always a lot of pitch-

This is the sort of soil that supports a leadership chart that displays much more width than height, with lots of sideways movement as teachers try out different things, and in this regard is much like the student leadership chart: president, vice-president, two Weld Hall supervisors, and then long horizontal ranks of house, floor, and job crew leaders. The horizontal nature of both these charts also ensures fuzziness in the whole question of who is a leader and who isn’t. “We have examples too many to name,” says Duane Ford, “of people who were not voted into leadership positions here as students, but who then went on to important leadership positions in their careers in the military, in business, in the arts, in education, and so on. Sometimes it takes a little longer, or a different set of circumstances, for that seed to blossom.” Or it blossoms right away without the sort of watering provided by votes from one’s peers. A good example occurred in 2002, when senior Eamon Reynolds-Mohler, unelected to any school office, organized a petition effort that succeeded in modifying the school’s policies on

ing in to get things done,” Mike Henriques told HST in

probation and expulsion. More modest displays of ini-

2005. Mike was school president in his senior year, and

tiative, fairness, and dependability are performed every

is now head of Proctor Academy. “We were smaller,

day by students Duane describes as “unelected lead-

with a strong sense of community, and in functioning

ers,” and whose support of the school’s pervasive ethos

like a community, there was always somebody who

of service—and of leadership as the most fundamental

was ready to step up and take on added responsibilities

form of service—is crucial to making the system work.

when the need arose. Nobody used to think of it as professional or career advancement—it was just something you went ahead and did.” Sometimes you had to go ahead and do something in a hurry. Bill Clough ’57—a former house leader as a student, assistant head at Holderness, and then head of Gould Academy—remembered one year at Holderness

time all-purpose predictor of success—has to

do with it. Psychologist Daniel Goleman, in

books such as Emotional Intelligence (1995),

argues that it has more to do with emotion; that those

when the Admissions Director quit in late August. “I

who can understand and manage their own emotions, be attuned to those of others, and harness those emo-

says. “So could I handle admissions as well? I said,

tions toward a common social goal, will enjoy the most

‘Sure.’ You did what you had to do and tried your best

workplace success and rise to positions of leadership.

to fit into the slots that appeared. In such a small

Analytical intelligence helps, says Goleman, but only

school titles hindered more than they helped, so they

to a certain degree, and he has coined a new

Bill worked for both Don Hagerman and Pete

acronym—E.Q.—to suggest the more profound role played by this sort of intelligence. It’s more Duane

Woodward; Mike Henriques only for the latter, but his

Ford’s “fiber of connectedness,” suggests Goleman,

thoughts apply to both. “What Pete had the ability to

than raw smarts.

do, and it is a rare ability, was to hire good faculty and

Holderness School Today

results of recent lead-

ership research is how little I.Q.—that one-

was already the assistant head, and still coaching,” Bill

weren’t taken all that seriously.”

NE OF THE SURPRISING

In his article “Success: The Rest of the Story”

Boil it down: The alumni section “I THINK WOODY ALLEN was on the right track when he said, ‘Eighty percent of success is showing up.’ My experience at Holderness taught me that successful leadership can be achieved by showing up, setting realistic goals, and treating people with respect and compassion.” Sam Richards ’73, current middle school head, Cape Cod Academy, Osterville, MA

“AT HOLDERNESS, ‘LEADERSHIP’ was cultivated in students by faculty who encouraged kids to find a passion in life and develop it. Outward Bound, weekend trips, evening activities and even classroom dynamics helped all of us to appreciate that we could have a voice in our lives and we could excel, even when faced with challenges that were unfamiliar. We all recognized the degree of commitment demonstrated by faculty around us and could see that their passion for education was strong and would endure all the ups and downs of life among teenagers.” Andrew Wilson ’78, current head, Grier School, Birmingham, PA

“MY FOUR YEARS AT HOLDERNESS TAUGHT me that leadership brings not privilege but demands sacrifice for others, and I learned this by devel-

(2008), Goleman cites just the sort of research done by Phil Peck for his thesis project.

“The data I’m referring to,” writes

Goleman, “derives from ‘competence modeling,’ in which

oping relationships not only with teachers, but with those who tended the campus, playing fields and hockey rink, served meals and cleaned up afterwards, and maintained the dormitories. The work program allowed us as students to serve the school alongside these committed, kind individuals and now, as headmaster, helps me to understand the important role that all adults play in the education of young people, both in and outside the classroom.” Chris Hopkins ’83, current head, Maine Central Institute, Pittsfield, ME

“FROM THE BEGINNING WITH ‘TRUCK’ (the early morning garbage-hauling routine as a freshman) through rotating pantry, snack bar leader, and as School President, at Holderness I began to understand that each individual is intrinsically responsible for the overall success of their community. At the time, I had no idea of the incredible strength of the School's faculty, and that so many would have a profound and lasting effect on me—but over time, I've realized how demanding and supportive, simultaneously, they were. In my life today as a school head, I can only hope to do the same.” Bob Gregg '86, current head, Green Hedges School, Vienna, VA

even knew what a computer was. Goleman asks why other members of that club didn’t become software billionaires. “Here a good part of the answer

companies systematically analyze the abilities found in their

no doubt can be found in which individuals [in that computer

stars (those in the top ten percent of performance by whatever

club] have a higher level of competencies like adaptability and

metric makes sense for that specific job or role) but not found

initiative, the drive to continually improve performance, and

in counterparts who are mediocre. A goodly amount of these

empathy skills like sensing how another person thinks or

abilities—like initiative, the drive to achieve, and empathy—

feels,” he says. “Such abilities give a person the drive to

are in the emotional intelligence domain. Competence studies

achieve, the initiative and the interpersonal effectiveness that

show that the higher a person goes up the organizational lad-

success in a field like software requires.”

der, the more prominent the role these personal abilities play in performance. In other words, the more successful someone

So luck is good, suggests Goleman, but it takes E.Q. to really take advantage of it. He concludes by urging schools to

is, the greater the contribution of this skill set to his or her tri-

teach this sort of effectiveness: “One way to give every child a

umph.”

greater chance for career success—and a good life in gener-

Goleman also mentions Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 bestseller, Outliers: The Story of Success. Gladwell’s book points

al—would be to have curricula in social and emotional learning a standard part of schooling. Data shows that children who

out the role of luck and fortunate circumstance in the success

are systematically taught social and emotional skills like how

of people such as computer titan Bill Gates—who happened to

to manage their distressing emotions better, empathize and

be a member of a high school club that provided access to

collaborate and do better: have fewer problems like substance

computers and programming skills at a time when few people

abuse and violence, like school more and pay more attention

Holderness School Today

“A goodly amount of these abilities—like initiative, the drive to achieve, and empathy—are in the emotional intelligence domain. Competence studies show that the higher a person goes up the organizational ladder, the more prominent the role these personal abilities play in performance.” —Daniel Goleman, “Success: The Rest of the Story”

nectedness.” Then there is Gladwell’s “Rule of 150,” which says that “the optimal number of individuals in a society that someone can have real relationships with is 150.” Duane Ford might argue that under certain circumstances—such as in a boarding school community as tightly knit as Holderness—this number can go higher. But Gladwell’s rule simply assigns a guesstimate to something we all know intuitively—that people cannot help but weave themselves more securely into smaller communities, and play bigger roles within them. Pete Rapelye, now head of the Princeton Junior School in Princeton, NJ, knows that the intimacy of a small school is itself an ongoing lesson in Goleman’s “curricula in social and emotional learning.” At the National Small Schools Conference in 2009, Pete heard child psychologist Michael Thompson—coauthor of Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys (2000)—describe the special benefits of that

in class—and score significantly better (11 percent, on average) on academic achievement test scores.” Another Gladwell book—The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2000)—considers how change comes about in a culture or society. Gladwell posits what he calls “The Law of the Few,” writing, “The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.” Gladwell divides these people into “connectors” (people with extensive social networks), “mavens” (people who can connect others with new information), and “salesmen” (people with powerful negotiation skills)—but they are all people high in Goleman’s E.Q., in Duane’s “fiber of con-

sort of setting. In “The Magic of Small Schools,” his report on the conference, Pete writes that proponents of small schools agree on a number of things. “Small schools generally foster a more positive attitude among children toward their education, encouraging them to take more responsibility for their own learning in a more personalized environment. As Thompson states, the ‘safety and comfort (of small schools) promote learning,’ and provide a sense of ‘my world as a place I can master and take risks.’ . . . Research supports small schools as caring communities where in Thompson’s words, ‘children feel needed . . . and where a small community breeds confidence and nourishment.’ In small schools, children ‘become pressed into service’ to fill roles that may tap into talents and skills otherwise left untouched in larger settings.” Pete adds that “Thompson cites an often understated virtue about small schools, which is that ‘everybody knows your name.’ No one is a stranger; anonymity is not an option.” We can guess that as he wrote that he was remembering what has become known here as the Ford Directive—Duane’s insistence that everybody learn everybody else’s name within the first few weeks of school, then look them in the eye and greet them by name on the paths of the campus.

Holderness School Today

O THE SMALL-SCHOOL SETTING—at

both the elemen-

tary level where Pete now works, and the second-

ary level where Duane teaches—is itself an

immersion-style program in EQ and its development. In such an environment those with high lev-

els of EQ are like skilled point guards in basketball—not

announced their retirements after the 2011-2012 school year. But there’s something at work here in the opposite direction as well, something that helped bring teachers like Ed Cayley and Jim Brewer back to Holderness after a few years running another school, and that has kept

necessarily big stars themselves, but crucial for getting

some good potential heads here for the duration. If your

the plays to work, and baskets scored. Good point guards

“fiber of connectedness” is what guaranteed you leader-

often become team captains, and later good coaches.

ship experience here in the first place, how do you cut yourself free of that to go somewhere else? Not very easily, is the answer in every case. When Duane Ford thinks about that, for example, he thinks about how the job description for Head of School has changed in the last two decades. “It’s less about education these days,” he says, “and more about business and fundraising.” In other words, it’s not a job so embedded in the human here-and-now as it once was, and for Duane that’s a problem. “I really like working with kids,” he says. It’s worth noting that his own kids have all come with high EQ to Holderness: Mattie ’04 was a Weld Hall supervisor, Willie ’05 school vice-president,

Julia ’08 school president, and

Lily ’12 is so far a two-time job crew leader. “Also,” Duane adds, “I really care about Holderness and its culture, and about finding ways Similarly, in a small-school setting, high EQ will attract

to enrich,

opportunities for more responsibility, whether that’s your

enhance, and

dream or not. At Holderness, for both students and facul-

improve it.”

ty, we just build that into a system that for sixty years has delivered the sort of EQ curriculum called for by

That’s the sort of EQ that

Goleman. Connectors and mavens and salesmen, or com-

has kept him in

binations thereof—they all grow into their capabilities

thrall, among other things, to

together. This is not to suggest that Holderness teachers, as a

the Job

group, aren’t ambitious. Goleman’s “drive to continually

Program since

improve performance”? Got it in spades. The Van

1973—and

Otterloo/Henderson/Brewer Chair Program, one of the

made

most powerful vehicles among independent schools for

Ford just the

Duane

faculty professional development, exists first thanks to

sort of fair,

the groundwork of Jim Nourse and Phil Peck, and the

dependable,

generosity of trustees Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo;

self-starting

but ultimately it exists because of demand for it by

leader Joe

Holderness faculty. Duane is just one of a dozen or so

Abbey and his student council had in mind when they set

Holderness teachers who have earned degrees in school

about reinventing the wheel way back in 1950. He’d

leadership at the highly selective Klingenstein Institute.

make a good Head of School, and has made for these

And—like we said—there are all these school heads

many years a superb teacher and coach and Job Program manager—and at Holderness the titles don’t matter much

plucked from the Holderness faculty. Moreover, this is a good time to be ambitious, if you think you might want to be a school head.

anyway.

Another

aspect of Phil Peck’s project has to do with the job mar-

Editor’s note: It’s hard to keep track of all our community

ket for independent school heads, and opportunity

members who are or have been school heads. If any

abounds. Within the next five to seven years, Phil has

readers happen to know of any such not mentioned in the

found, fifty percent of all currently sitting heads will be

sidebars to this article, please let me know: rcarey@

retiring. In fact Jay Stroud and Pete Rapelye have both

holderness.com, 603-779-5205.

Holderness School Today

Catching up with...

Jim Brewer The man who was one of the most innovative faculty members in Holderness history, as well as headmaster of another school, has just moved into some new digs. He approaches the school from a different direction now, but is no less deeply connected.

This spring Jim came back to campus to watch his granddaughter Mackenzie Little play lacrosse against Holderness for New Hampton. There he ran into two former colleagues, both once science teachers and lacrosse coaches at Holderness. Paul Elkins, left, is now Associate Dean of Students at NHS (besides girls lacrosse coach). Chris Little ’81 is Dean of Students there and Mackenzie’s dad.

Profile by Rick Carey.

BREWER

indignant. The man

eulogized in the Boston Globe as one of New England’s iconic independent schoolmasters on his

retirement from Holderness in 1995 had just visited another school campus on personal busi-

ness, and not once during his time there had

anyone from that school introduced them-

Holderness from a teaching post at Deerfield

selves, offered directions, or in any way

and was a Boyden disciple. “Don had just run

struck up a relationship. We have to put that in context. In 1946 Jim was a freshman at Deerfield, anxious to

ous that nobody had greeted the man or

play football, but confined by an injured

offered help.”

ankle to watching Deerfield’s ten football teams (beginning at the double-midget level)

Just after assembly Jim—who was also college counselor at the time—had an

practice from a roadside above the fields. He

appointment with a student’s grandmother, a

stood alone, feeling homesick and miserable.

woman who arrived at his office wide-eyed

Then Dr. Frank Boyden, Deerfield’s

and fifteen minutes late. “What’s happening

iconic headmaster, passed by in a car driven

around here?” she asked. “Every young man I

by his chauffeur. “He was so short, he could-

met had to stop me and offer directions.”

n’t see to drive himself,” Jim chuckles. The

Jim shares an appreciative laugh with

car disappeared over a rise, and a few

Head of School Phil Peck. It’s the first sunny

moments later Boyden came ambling back in

day after two weeks of rain in May, and

his double-breasted suit. He stopped at the

they’re sharing lunch at Jim’s new residence,

boy’s side, gazed out over the fields, and said,

a bright and handsome housing unit at the

“It’s quite a sight, isn’t it, Jim?” Jim was astonished that the Headmaster,

Taylor Community in Laconia. Last November Jim put his rambling farmhouse in

who ran a school of nearly 500 students, not

Rumney on the market, expecting to stay

only had gone so far out of his way to strike

there quite a while longer while he awaited a

up a relationship with a lonely freshman, but

buyer. But the house sold on the day before

had come to it already knowing his name. Jim

Christmas, and Jim is delighted with the com-

allowed that it was a fine sight indeed as his

fort of a home in which someone else does

spirits soared.

the upkeep and maintenance—and which has

Some twenty years later Jim was teaching English at Holderness and attending an all-school assembly fronted by an indignant Don Hagerman, who in 1951 had come to

into someone wandering around the campus,” Jim says, “and he was fit to be tied, just furi-

Holderness School Today

the same inviting back-yard window into the natural world as his place in Rumney.

A snapshot from the birth of girls lacrosse at Holderness in the 1980s.

UT THEN

JIM

NEVER HAD

any trouble in try-

age of .650 as a

ing new things. After Holderness he attend-

coach in both

ed Hobart, where among other things he

programs. He

played lacrosse, and then studied law—before

was founder

becoming one of the first victims of the 1955 polio

and long-time

epidemic, the country’s last before Dr. Salk’s dis-

editor of this

covery. Suddenly consigned to a life on crutches,

very publica-

he decided to give teaching a try. A classmate from

tion,

Deerfield, Bruce Haertl, recommended the place

Holderness

where he was teaching, a little school in New

School Today,

Hampshire he described “as comfortable as an old

which debuted

shoe.” (Bruce would go on to be headmaster of

as a four-page

Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, WA,

black-and-white tabloid in the 1970s. He was

befriending there a bright student named Phil

founder of Senior Colloquium, which still exists as

Peck.)

part of today’s Special Programs, and which

Jim joined Don Hagerman’s staff in January, 1960. Nine years later Jim left to become a headmaster himself, at the Barlow School in Amenia, New York. In 1973 he left Barlow to teach and

makes Jim an uncle as well of Senior Project and its successor, Senior Honors Thesis. New practices? As English department chair, Jim found it hard to schedule meetings that every-

coach again at Exeter Academy. In 1978 he came

one could make during the day. So he invited his

back to Holderness, where he remained until his

colleagues to dinner once a month. “We’d sit down

retirement. Perhaps what was most remarkable about

and eat, have some beer, and talk about most everything,” Jim says. “People didn’t think of

Jim’s time here also explains why the crown jewel

them as department meetings at all, but they were

of Holderness’s professional development offer-

much more productive.”

ings—the Van Otterloo/Henderson/Brewer Chair Program, which offers paid sabbaticals—is named

Then there were the soirees Jim hosted at his home to which the whole faculty was invited.

in part for Jim. “I can’t think of anybody who dur-

Each of these was devoted to a single topic of

ing their career took on more different responsibil-

campus-wide interest. “And that was a great first

ities, and initiated more new programs, than you,”

step,” says Phil, “in breaking down the silos that

Phil says. “Don Henderson set a great example for

we tend to raise between the departments.”

the value of a year away from campus every now

And then there was the non-disciplinary

and then. You set a great example for all the differ-

approach to drug use that he initiated in the 1980s

ent things that can be tried by people who stay and

with another faculty member, Letty Roberts

pick up the slack.” Such as? Well, in the 1960s Don Hagerman

Downs. “That was a big leap,” Jim says. “We said that if you came to me or Letty to talk about your

was discovering that a school head could no longer

own drug involvement or somebody else’s, we

also be admissions director, development director,

would listen, advise, and keep it confidential. It

college counselor, and educational leader all at

was something of a stretch for advisors to accept

once. Jim became the school’s first assistant head-

that.” That finally blossomed into the school’s cur-

master to help Don with the administrative slack.

rent, and very successful, CARE Team program.

Before that Ed Cayley was the first college counselor, but Jim was the second. He even put in a

around here?” the woman asked. “EVERY YOUNG MAN I MET

had to

stop me and offer directions.”

Jim remembers the parents who approached him once after Commencement to thank him for

stint as development director, all while teaching,

all the support he had provided their child under

coaching, and running dormitories, dragging his

the early form of the program. “I said, ‘For

balky legs without complaint up to the second

what?’” Jim laughs. “‘I can’t talk about it.’ The

floor of Rathbun, or the third floor of Livermore.

parents just smiled and moved away.”

New programs? He was founder of one of

“What’s happening

Of course Jim taught on a faculty where the

New England’s early programs in boys lacrosse,

opportunity to try out new ideas and new job

and one of its very early programs in girls

descriptions was not only available, but necessary.

lacrosse. He posted a combined winning percent-

To do so in an ethos that addresses human rela-

Holderness School Today

Catching up with...

tionships first and foremost— ahead of high SAT scores, ahead

On a hillside and watching a football team—this time as a photographer for HST.

Jim mentions another thing. “This whole electronic age is strange to me,” he says. “Back

of winning teams, ahead of elite

in 1962, say, when a kid went into his room, he

college placements, ahead of

might have had a record player in there, or a

department silos—provides fertile

radio. If he really wanted to learn anything, he

ground for the development of

had to come out and be with people. Now the

effective leadership at the faculty

whole universe is accessible through their lap-

level. It worked at Deerfield,

tops. It’s radically different from what I knew,

where Frank Boyden fostered a

and I wonder what kind of people it’ll produce

generation of school heads that included Don

twenty years down the road—but the signs and

Hagerman. And it’s worked at Holderness,

symptoms I see so far seem positive enough.”

where Don Hagerman and Pete Woodward

Phil replies that technology is indeed something that can hijack a community, but that it can

achieved the same.

also build relationships as well. “The breadth of

RYING OUT NEW IDEAS IS

something

schools have to do as well, as technology

and the social environment change, and as

information out there now is really amazing,” he says, “though we certainly have to teach kids how to distinguish between what’s legitimate

the educational marketplace reflects those

and what isn’t. Our policy is that if a technology

changes. At the same time a school

or practice enhances learning and builds com-

has to stay

true to its roots and core values—and that can be

munity—and with the Internet we think in terms

a tricky sort of balancing act, one managed bril-

of the global community—then we embrace it,

liantly by Don Hagerman and Pete Woodward,

and manage it carefully.”

and a required feat that Phil Peck is always mindful of.

Phil adds that the signs and symptoms surrounding this generation of students seem posi-

Phil asks if Jim has any cautionary words for what he sees going on today in the world and

tive to him as well: “These kids have the same sort of focus on social justice as my generation did in the ’60s and the ’70s, and are just as pas-

These two generations—and Jim’s as well—are all

PART OF THE

SAME COMMUNITY

these days.

sionate about the best ideals of that era as we were, but the difference is—these kids like adults. They don’t have any of the suspicions we had about the previous generation.” In other words, these two generations—and Jim’s as well—are all part of the same community these days. It’s a bigger and more global community, and its broader competitive pressures are tempting some into defining childhood

at boarding schools.

Jim laments the trend

towards specialization in sports, with more and

ground as the adult marketplace. But it remains

more schools allowing students to concentrate

a community as well, and others are stressing

on one sport, abandoning JV sports programs (to

human relationships, leadership as a form of

say nothing of double-midget), and enrolling

service, and valuing those who can lend a hand

cadres of post-graduates angling for Division I

to the community as a whole in a lot of different

sports scholarships. “It trickles down from the

ways.

colleges,” he sighs. Phil notes Holderness’s limit of just a handful of PG’s enrolled each year, and its firm com-

have in the versatile, innovative, and very personable Mr. Brewer. Dr. Boyden would like the

“Maybe one-sport specialization is okay at

look of it.

don’t think so. Duane Ford told me the other day that our sports program has become countercultural.”

Holderness School Today

It won’t take long, we think, for the Taylor Community to discover what a rich asset they

mitment to seasonal sports for everybody.

eighteen,” he says, “but at fourteen or fifteen? I

as the same sort of choose-your-specialty battle-

The Chapel Bell

Rise, Lazarus

LEARLY, THE MIRACLE

of Jesus going

to Bethany and raising from the

Some of our best reflecting and storytelling occurs on Monday mornings and Thursday nights in the Chapel of the Holy Cross. In the first of what we hope to be many installments of “The Chapel Bell,” we bring you a talk by assistant chaplain and English teacher Bruce Barton. Here Bruce considers the story of Lazarus, raised from the dead, and the mentors in our own time who call us forth into a fuller life. summer of 1976, I had been accepted as a 15 year old CIT, counselor in training. I was

dead his friend Lazarus has attract-

pumped at the prospect of being a camp coun-

ed a good deal of attention—both

selor as my parents drove me from

then and now. There are plenty of

things to talk about with this story—everything

Massachusetts that June to start my ten-week summer at camp. When I arrived, I was thrilled

from the concept of delayed gratification (despite

to see all my old friends and get back into my

being told that his friend Lazarus is dying, Jesus

camp life. Then came word that I had been

waits for four days to go to Bethany) to the obvi-

placed in a cabin with a senior counselor named

ous parallel and foreshadowing the Lazarus story

Bob Powell. I sort of knew Bob since he had

offers of Jesus' own death and resurrection in the

been there the year before and it was a pretty

event we call Easter. One could easily focus on

small camp. He

the role of the two women in the story. Mary and

worked in the kitchen

Martha, both of whom are loving and loyal to

as assistant chef, and

Jesus even when he lets them down initially by

seemed okay, but for

not coming at once to help his sick friend. Or,

me this news was

one could focus a talk on the simple line "Jesus

hugely disappointing.

began to weep" in the story, a line which has

I wanted to be with

gathered a great deal of theological attention

my best friends. Bob

over the past 2000 or so years.

was not one of my

However, I am not going to speak about any

best friends, and in

of these worthy topics. Instead, I would like to

fact there was a fur-

look at the story through the lens of metaphor.

ther issue. Bob was an

For me, a great deal can be found in the story by

African-American

seeing Lazarus death as not literal but metaphori-

from inner city

cal; his tomb as not real but metaphor. In other

Boston. For a white

words, for me the story is about how one human

kid from the Irish-

can raise up another—not literally from the dead,

Catholic suburbs, this

but rather from the "death in life" we all experi-

was an issue. He and I

ence from time to time.

would be sharing a counselors' quarters connect-

Have you ever held yourself back from

ed to the back of a cabin the approximate size of

something out of fear? Have you, in your desire

the closet we keep the tray stands in in Weld. It

to be "accepted" by your peer group, not done

was tiny. For me, this racial mixing in 1975 was

some things because others might laugh at or

a first, and I was intimidated. There were no stu-

make fun of you? Do you sometimes miss out on

dents of color at my school back home; in fact I

experiences because you are afraid to take the

only remember one black kid in my whole town,

risk? Are you "all that you can be" as a person

and he went to Rivers Country Day School. I had

and child of God? Or, are you less than whole or

literally never spoken to a person of color. Now,

complete (entombed if you will)? Think about it

I was being asked to live with and share a very

for a minute as I tell you about three times in my

intimate space with someone who fell just short

life when I was entombed not literally (thank

of "alien" for me. I was nervous, mad, and even

goodness) but rather metaphorically.

a bit scared as the experience began that June.

THE

weeks that summer changed my life, opened my

Editor’s note: Out of space considerations, we omit the first part of this talk, where Bruce considers the various treatments of the Lazarus story in art, literature, and rock & roll. You can find the full text on our website at www.holderness.org.

What happened over the course of ten FIRST EXAMPLE

WILL GIVE

came when I was

15 and attending a summer camp in nearby

eyes, and removed me from the tomb of igno-

Tuftonboro, New Hampshire. I had been a

rance I had been living in. Bob and I had a great

camper at the camp for several years, and in the

time together, and I learned that much of what I

Holderness School Today

The Chapel Bell

had previously believed about African Americans was

ences of my life being the Program Director of that

nonsense. I was like Lazarus— dead, not literally but

camp that summer. But at that moment, Jess had been

metaphorically, to the possibilities of fullness of life

my personal Jesus, raising me (a seventeen-year old

because I was ignorant, prejudicial, and unaware.

Lazarus if you will) out of my dark tomb of self-doubt.

Living with Bob Powell that summer offered me a new way to see and experience the world. Bob raised me up. Fast forward two years, and now I am a senior

FAST

FORWARD ONE YEAR AND

a first-year student at

Hamilton College in central New York. Hamilton was,

counselor at the same camp and at age 17 placed as the

and remains, a fine school with lots of talented kids. I

Program Director of the entire camp. I was excited but

was, truth be told, very over-matched in my first year.

very nervous about my ability to do the job and meet

All the other kids were smarter, better athletes, and

the expectations of the director, a legendary gymnastics

came from better schools than my poor little public high

and tennis coach at Newton North High School named George Jessup (who, by the way,

school in Norwood, Massachusetts—or so it seemed. I was unhappy and discouraged, toying with the idea of

Finally I looked at Jess and

was a very close friend to

transferring from Hamilton. I was going through the

Holderness' legendary coach

motions in my daily life, not much more. I was operat-

said, “SO I WANT TO QUIT,

Norm Walker). Jess was a man's

ing far below the max of what I could have been getting

man, physically imposing, gruff of

out of my life, and it showed in the kind of experience I

Jess.” He took a long drag

manner, and short of speech. He

was having. That is, until two other first-year students

smoked two packs of Salems a

became friends and lifted me up. One was named Carl,

day and drank nothing but black

a hockey player out of Enfield, CT, and Westminster

on his Salem. There was a long pause.

coffee. Typically, he would find

School. Carl helped me put Hamilton and its people in a

the edgiest camper in camp, the

proper place. Carl extolled my strengths and always

kid who was angry and didn't

made me laugh when I was down. The other student

want to be there, and he would

was named Bill, and he came to Hamilton from St.

take him out on projects with him.

Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio. Bill was an

Typically those projects involved the clearing of land

offensive lineman on the football team, one who would

and the cutting down of trees with a chain saw. Jess

graduate from Hamilton, head on to med school and

loved chain saws. So, anytime you got close to Jess,

become a doctor. He practices medicine today outside

you found he was an interesting mix of smells: coffee,

Pittsburgh. Bill was quiet and unassuming, very smart,

cigarettes, gas, oil, and fresh cut wood. The first few

and very determined. He helped me see the value in

weeks of that summer were horrible for me. I made

quiet, hard, and persistent work; he would always take

numerous mistakes, like sending our baseball team to

the long view of thing—never the short. Both Carl and

another camp when it should have been our soccer

Bill raised me up. They pulled me from my tomb of

team—you know, hideous and embarrassing stuff like

negativity.

that. I was nervous and on edge all the time. Camp, which had been so much fun for me before, was now a difficult and unpleasant experience. So, at the end of the second week, I asked Jess if

sorts happened and changed me for the better. I wonder sometimes, as I watch you all operate on a daily basis,

we could talk one night before dinner. He had just

if some of you aren't experiencing something similar to

returned from a tree-cutting session, of course, and was

my stories. Do you ever hold back because of fear, self-

soaked with sweat and covered in saw dust, but he said,

doubt, or feeling overwhelmed? Do you just "go

"Sure, let's walk out to the outdoor chapel."

through the motions" sometimes when you could be

On that walk I said to Jess that I wanted to stop being Program Director, that I was terrible at it and that

giving so much more? Do you become content and complacent because you don't push your boundaries and

he would be better served by having someone else take

try new things? If so, perhaps you are not as fully alive

over. At that moment, I was entombed with self-doubt.

as you might be. If so, it might be important to look to

Jess heard me out, saying nothing in response until I

others for help. Maybe they can provide you with a dif-

had spilled all my fears and anxieties (and probably, if

ferent way of seeing the world which will open up a

truth be told, a tear or two). Finally, I looked at Jess and

whole new dimension for you. It might be a good idea

said, "So, I want to quit, Jess." He took a long drag on his Salem and after a long pause said, "Nope—I'm not going to let you do it. I

to throw yourself into an experience that is completely alien to you, just to see what it's like. It might be good idea to find a mentor who can guide you through a

hired you and only I can fire you. You're the guy I want,

rough patch. It might be a good idea to walk out of the

and I know you can do it."

dark tomb we all take up residence in from time to time.

I looked at him and said, "Really."

Maybe then we will walk out, like Lazarus, into the

And he said, "Yup, that's it."

light of full life. Amen.

And so it was. Of course, things improved for me almost immediately, and it was one of the best experi-

So, there are three moments in my life when I was metaphorically dead like Lazarus. Then a miracle of

Holderness School Today

GRADE 9 Miss Tram Ngoc Dao Miss Hannah F. Durnan Miss Racheal Marbury Erhard Mr. Thorn King Merrill Miss Danielle Elizabeth Norgren Miss Tess Margaret O'Brien Miss Lea Jenet Rice

GRADE 10 Mr. Jacob Cramer Barton Miss Sarah Renard Bell Miss Elena E. Bird Miss Nicole Marie DellaPasqua Mr. Daniel Do Mr. Michael Laurence Finnegan Miss Jeong Yeon Han Miss Macy Winslow Jones Miss Mackenzie Reid Maher Miss Molly Brown Monahan Mr. John Franco Musciano Mr. Caleb Andrew Nungesser Mr. Francis Parenteau Mr. Fernando Rodriguez Miss Victoria Sommerville-Kelso Miss Iashai Dominique Stephens Mr. Andrew Timothy Zinck

GRADE 11 Mr. Nathanial George Alexander Mr. Keith Michael Bohlin Miss Ariana Ann Bourque Mr. Owen Tomasz Buehler Miss Marguerite Cournoyer Caputi Miss Samantha Regina Cloud Miss Benedicte Nora Crudgington Miss Abigail Kristen Guerra Miss Rachel West Huntley Miss Yejin Hwang Mr. Nathaniel Ward Lamson Miss Haley Janet Mahar Mr. Brandon C. Marcus Miss Carly Elizabeth Meau Miss Kristina Sophia Micalizzi Mr. Andrew J. Munroe Mr. Oliver Julian Nettere Miss So Hee Park Miss Julia Baldwin Potter Mr. James Ornstein Robbins Mr. Ryan Michael Rosencranz Miss Abagael Mae Slattery Miss Erica Holahan Steiner Miss Molly Durgin Tankersley Mr. Brian Alden Tierney Mr. Ruohao Xin

High Honors: Fourth Quarter

GRADE 9 Miss Morgan Lovejoy Bayreuther Miss Rebecca Ann Begley Mr. Kaelen Thomas Caggiula Mr. Joseph Patrick Casey Mr. Perry Frank Craver Mr. Matthew Francis Gudas Miss Eleanor Celeste Holland Mr. Oliver Lion Johnson Miss Eliana Howell Mallory Mr. Scott Thomas Merrill Mr. Charles Shelvey Sheffield Miss Megan Catherine Shenton Miss Hannah Rae Slattery Mr. Michael C. Swidrak Mr. Matthew Davis Tankersley Mr. Mathew Benjamin Thomas Mr. Noah R. Thompson Mr. Chance J. C. Wright

Honors: Fourth Quarter

GRADE 10 Miss Abigail Elizabeth Abdinoor Miss Elizabeth Winslow Aldridge Mr. Alexander James Berman Mr. Christian Elliott Bladon Miss Torey Lee Brooks Mr. Tyler David Evangelous Mr. Jeffrey Michael Hauser Mr. Aidan Cleaveland Kendall Miss Kaileigh Lazzaro Mr. Alexander Min Lehmann Miss Kendra June Morse Mr. Christopher Anthony Nalen Miss Celine Pichette Miss Lauren Louise Stride Miss Danielle Lynn Therrien Mr. Kangdi Wang Mr. Charles Norwood Williams

GRADE 12 Miss Radvile Autukaite Mr. Desmond James Bennett Miss Kiara Janea Boone Miss Madeline Margaret Burnham Mr. David McCauley Caputi Mr. Jordan Leigh Cargill Mr. Se Han Cho Miss Cecily Noyes Cushman Miss Samantha Devine Miss Emery Durnan Miss Amanda Claire Engelhardt Miss Sarah E. Fauver Miss Kathleen Nugent Finnegan Mr. Nicholas W. M. Goodrich Miss Elizabeth Ryan Hale Miss Cassandra Laine Hecker Mr. Carson Vincent Houle Mr. Andrew V. Howe Miss Kristen Nicole Jorgenson Miss Paige Alexis Kozlowski Mr. Samuel Cornell Macomber Mr. Gabrielius Maldunas Mr. Christopher Steven Merrill Mr. Henry Maxwell Miles Mr. Abe H. Noyes Miss Mimi Hoyne Patten Miss Leah Rose Peters Miss Elizabeth Ann Pettitt Mr. Derek De Freitas Pimentel Miss Eleanor Clough Pryor Mr. Adam Jacob Sapers Mr. Nathaniel Owen Shenton Miss Emily Roberts Starer Mr. Nicholas E. Stoico Miss Margaret Mooney Thibadeau Mr. Niklaus C. F. Vitzthum Miss Sarah Mei Xiao

GRADE 11 Mr. Keith Steven Babus Mr. Jonathan Perkins Bass Mr. Austin Geoghan Baum Miss Josephine McAlpin Brownell Miss Eliza R. Cowie Mr. Christian Haynes Daniell Mr. Peter Michael Ferrante Mr. Ian C. Ford Mr. Preston Jerome Kelsey Miss Samantha Anne Lee Mr. William Marvin Miss Sara P. Mogollon Mr. Nicholas Anthony Renzi Mr. Mitchell Craig Shumway Miss Isabelle Eden Zaik-Hodgkins

GRADE 12 Mr. Thomas William Barbeau Mr. Jermaine Bernard Mr. Kevin Michael Dachos Miss Juliet Sargent Dalton Mr. Nicholas Henry Dellenback Mr. MacLaren Nash Dudley Mr. Nicholas James Hill Ford Miss Paige Nicole Hardtke Miss Emily Maria Hayes Mr. H. Alexander Kuno Mr. Samuel Newton Leech Miss Elizabeth Emily Legere Mr. Philippe Thomas Levesque Mr. Charles Jacob Long Mr. Colin H. G> MacKenzie Miss Julia Elizabeth Marino Mr. Damon Nicolas Mavroudis Miss Alexandra Marie Muzyka Miss Charlotte Plumer Noyes Mr. Cole Notter Phillips Mr. Colin Thomas Phillips Miss Catherine Hope Powell Miss Brooke Elizabeth Robertson Miss Sarah Katharine Stride Mr. Jean-Philippe Tardif Miss Jaclyn Paige Vernet Miss Haleigh Elizabeth Weiner Miss Jasminne S. Y. Young

Holderness School Today

PHILADELPHIA, PA

PROJECT OUTREACH:

Special Programs

ARTWARD

The world was dark. The earth was shaking. The buildings were collapsing. The bodies were cold. The water was filling the space. A person stood up. A bunch of people stood up. They held their hands together. Shoulder next to shoulder. As a wall in front of the water. People fell, fell over, fell down, fell off. However, none fell back. And none fell behind. The more fell, the more rose. Billions of people, unite as one. A lot of things are going on, fire, water, shaking earth, living volcanoes and strong winds. What an Ending. Comparing to these, humans are tiny. Like ants fighting elephants. But sometimes the giants aren’t the main characters. They are the background props of the times. This is a tragedy, a real tragedy. But every scene is touching, is warm. The audience is moved, stand up. The staff is touched, walk to the front-stage. However, there is no clapping. There is no more politics or social levels. Not even laws. Everything is simple in front of the law of nature. Unstoppable. Undefeatable.

Kangdi Wang

Up until now, my story is almost finished. The earth is shaking. The buildings are collapsing. The water is flowing. But still, someone is standing.

During Artward Bound 2011, Kahlil Almustafa—slam poet and a resident artist—taught a slam poetry class. His workshop provided students with the tools and direction to help them develop their poetic voice. Kangdi Wang '13, one of his students, was inspired to write this poem about the tsunami in Japan, and he presented it during Artward Bound.

Holderness School Today

BOUND

Standing

OUT BACK

Fred Harbison ’89 (in the red kilt, above) discovered a calling on his first OB. Now he flies in each year from Alaska to volunteer for what he finds to be an experience of spiritual renewal.

HE WORLD OF

OUT BACK

IS A

universe with its

own Jedi Warriors—highly skilled March Madness mountain guides who have been

there before (many times before) in all kinds of

mentors, and Harbo is grateful that he was fortunate in the different Yodas he has known. “I started in OB when Mike Henriques ’76 was the director of the program, and later I had opportunities to go out

weather conditions, and see each year as a stepping

with people like Doug Kendall, [former science

stone to their next opportunity to disappear into the

teacher] Paul Elkins, and several other program leg-

woods when other outdoorsmen are home waiting

ends. I was able to learn from the best.”

for spring. In almost all cases these are faculty members

A guide’s primary responsibility, no matter where he works, is to get everybody through the trip

who have the opportunity dropped into their laps

and home safely, and Harbo is proudest of the fact

each year, and who keep picking it up—Latin

that in all his years taking groups out that he has

teacher Doug Kendall, for example, a veteran of 25

never had a student not finish. “One year Elk and I

OBs and a sage among warriors. Then there are for-

had a girl who cut her hand and needed to go back

mer faculty members who can’t stay away, like his-

to get stitches,” he says, “but she rejoined the group

tory teacher Jim Connor ’77, who still returns occa-

and finished the trip.”

sionally, and who has done thirteen or so. Only one of these Jedi, though, is an alumnus

Each year brings its own challenges, and 2011 was no exception. “The weather was tough,” Harbo

who doesn’t routinely have the March break avail-

notes. “I was out with [science teacher] Pat Casey,

able to many teachers—and who has overcome not

who is really good out there, and these poor kids—it

only time, but distance (more than three thousand

rained hard on their first day of OB, and again on

miles) to volunteer each year with OB. “The whole

their first day of solo.”

reason I love the outdoors is because of Holderness and OB,” says Fred Harbison ’89. “That made all the difference.” Harbo went from Holderness to Paul Smiths College, a school in the Adirondacks with a strong

Of course rain is worse than snow

OB’s hardships is the way they enrich the program’s pleasures. “One day this year we took a hike up Mt. Carrigain,” Harbo remembers. “It was perfectly sunny, with

then to the University of Alaska to study biology.

no wind, and wow, just phenomenal up

“But that was just a cover to be outside in Alaska,”

there. We were psyched.”

Which is where he lives now. He did spend one year teaching at Holderness, but has been a resident

COLLOQUIUM

and cold. But the sweet thing about any of

bent towards outdoor science and education, and

he laughs.

SENIOR

The kids were psyched as well to come back at the end of OB to a world a little deeper and richer than the one they

of Fairbanks for nineteen years, and has worked for

left ten days before. In the aftermath, the program’s

the city as a paramedic and firefighter for fourteen

most faithful off-campus friend helps to keep

years. What he really loves, however, is not just the

Fairbanks safe, feeds his spirit amid the beauties of

outdoors, but the opportunity to teach about the out-

the Great Land, and is already getting psyched for

doors, and share that passion.

next year’s OB.

“That’s why I keep coming back,” he says. “I love the adventure of OB, and the way it works for kids’ benefit not just in educational terms, but spiritual. I love taking a group of students who are brand new to the outdoors, and seeing how timid they are at the start, and then how confident at the end. And I just love teaching in that setting. I think OB is the premier outdoor education program in the country.” Jedi Warriors, as they develop, need their own

Holderness School Today

Around the Quad

Academics

ISTORY STUDENTS FROM

Holderness

excelled at the state National History Day Contest held in April at Plymouth

Debate, diplomacy, &

State University.

category of Individual Documentary Film, and

National History Day.

“The film very effectively shows the impact

the certification process for that plant,” says history teacher Andrew Sheppe ’00. “And this was

will advance to the national competition held in

timely—Caleb was able to include some material

June at the University of Maryland. So will

about current events in Japan.”

Alex Lehmann ’13, who took first place in the category of Individual Website. Also winning honors was

Alex Lehmann’s website, “The Effect of Terrorism on Basque Diplomacy,” tracks the milestones achieved so far in the struggles of Basque people to achieve independence from

Jacob Barton ’13, who took third

Spain. “Then it compares those to milestones in

place for Individual Website, and

Basque terrorist activity,” says Andrew, “and

received the National Archives of

very convincingly demonstrates that the terrorism

Boston Scholarship in Primary

has actually slowed down the movement towards

Sources.

independence.”

Students from schools all over New Hampshire gathered at

From the left: Alex Lehmann, Caleb Nungesser, and Jacob Barton.

Nuclear Plant.

that a grass-roots political organization had on

Caleb Nungesser ’13 took first place in the

three big prizes on

surrounding the construction of the Seabrook

Jake Barton’s website, “Claremont v. Governor of New Hampshire,” traces the history

PSU to compete in research pre-

of New Hampshire’s educational funding debate,

sentations about history that had

and argues that only a broad-based tax can ensure

to do with National History

real equity in education across the state.

Day’s theme of “Debate and Diplomacy in History.” Nationwide, more than 500,000 stu-

A fourth Holderness student, Iashai Stephens ’13, also qualified for the state contest. Her web-

dents compete annually in categories that include

site outlined the history of Hispanic immigration

Documentary, Website, Essay, Exhibit, and

in America.

Performance.

All students are members of Andrew’s class

Caleb Nungesser’s documentary film was

in historical research methods. While Andrew

entitled “Profit or Life: The Seabrook Station

was on paternity leave, Kelsey Berry took over

Debate.” The ten-minute piece assembled pho-

the class. She kept the projects on track, accom-

tography, video clips, narration, and music to

panied the students to the NHD Contest, and took

recreate the environmental protests of the 1970s

photographs of the event.

Poetry Out Loud:

I felt a funeral in my brain,

The crowd erupted!

And mourners, to and fro, Kept treading, treading, till it seemed

HE FIRST

FRIDAY in

class during early rounds of the

February at Holderness

on-campus competition. Finally

also marked the school’s

that night the school gathered in

third annual Poetry Out Loud

Hagerman to witness competition

recitation contest. The contest is a

between the school’s ten top

national event akin to the

reciters.

National Spelling Bee, and throughout December and

Each contender recited two poems. The first round saw stu-

January students memorized

dents delivering works by mostly

poems and performed them in

modern poets, with Amanda

Holderness School Today

That sense was breaking through.

for the state finals. “Her stage

Engelhardt ’11 bringing to life Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem “Dogs” and Alex Trujillo ’12

presence, articulation, understand-

wowing the house with Victor Hernandez Cruz's

ing of the poems, and connection with the audience were superior,”

“Two Guitars.”

said admission officer Cynthia

In the second round it became clear that this would be no easy contest to win. Last year's runner-

Day. Alas, that’s where politics and

up Charlie Poulin ’11 delivered a riveting perform-

money intervened. POL is a feder-

ance of Tennyson's “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” and sophomore Tori Sommerville-Kelso

ally funded program, and since

ended the evening with an arresting delivery of

Tori is a Canadian citizen, she

Emily Dickinson's “I Felt a Funeral in my Brain.”

wasn’t eligible for advancement to

“As Tori finished, a pindrop-quiet crowd erupted,”

that level.

reported POL director Peter Durnan.

She was a brilliant representative, though, for the international com-

All knew that Charlie and Tori were the top contenders, and after some quick calculations, Tori

munity that is Holderness. And we

emerged the winner, with Charlie as the school’s

can’t help pointing out that her port-

Winner Tori Sommerville-Kelso, runner-up Charlie Poulin, and POL director Peter Durnan.

alternate to the regional POL competition. So in

folio was entirely American, show-

March Tori traveled to Southern New Hampshire

casing poetry by Gwendolyn Brooks

University to compete against the best in this part of

and Elizabeth Bishop, besides Emily Dickinson.

the state, and her top-three finish there qualified her

Senior Honors Thesis: 32 questions. Your answers, please.

O WHAT’S THE DEAL

with electronic

that paratroopers

music? For a genre derived primari-

played in the

ly from technology and computers,

success of World

how does a producer introduce a human

War II’s

element into electronic compositions?

Normandy inva-

And how has that music changed the roles

sion.

of both DJs and producers alike? These are questions that electronic

Then there are four seniors

enthusiast Alex Gardiner ’11 has been

collaborating on

wondering about for a long time, and over

a March road trip through the eastern

the winter he laid the groundwork for get-

United States, all in pursuit of different

ting them answered in setting up his

questions. Mac Dudley will be gauging

Senior Honors Thesis project with pro-

people’s sense of history, and whether that

gram director Steve Solberg and advisor

is being lost in today’s culture. Nick

Nicole Glew. A thesis project begins with a per-

Stoico is curious about how the Recession has changed people’s ideas about the

sonal passion and the desire to learn

American Dream. Nico Dellenback won-

more. In each student’s project that leads

ders how much regional identity persists

to a certain governing question, or set of

in American cuisine. And Adam Sapers

questions, and this year there is once

will find out to what extent the literature

again a wide spectrum of passion and

of road trips documents the development

curiosity on display in these theses.

of American culture and values.

Sarah Fauver ’11 wonders how a horse changes—both mentally and emo-

Road-trippers Nick Stoico, Mac Dudley, Nico Dellenback, and Adam Sapers. Below, the things they carried, or some of them at least.

All that’s just a sample. There are 32 Senior Honors Thesis projects that were

tionally—as it’s trained for a saddle.

approved this winter. If we add up the

Hannah Weiner ’11 wants to find out to

answers to all the questions that they’ll

what extent the popularity of the Harry

answer—well, we just might finally have

Potter series could be applied to positive

our Theory of Everything.

social ends in the real world. Colin Phillips ’11 wants to know about the role

Holderness School Today

Around the Quad

The Arts Anybody for tea? Um, be careful what you ask for.

If you’re eager to meet that detective next door, the winter play proposes a way to do that.

AST YEAR

we had a

weekend of Festival

Theater, an event in

brought to a life by a bigendered group that included Nick Stoico ’11,

which theater students at

Sam Devine ’11, Pauline

Holderness and at the New

Germanos ’11, Josh

Hampton School combine

Nungesser ’12, and

productions of one-act

Damon Mavroudis ’11.

plays, performing both

Connor Smith ’12 was the

first at one campus, and

detective they wanted, but

then the other. It worked

they got some other detec-

very well last year, and in

tives as well, these played

January it worked just as

skillfully by Mac Caputi

well again this year.

’11 and Charlie Poulin ’11.

Holderness Theater Director Monique Devine and her company offered

Hamlet as it’s scripted in

up “Anybody for Tea” by

“The Complete Works of

C.B. Gilford, a play in

William Shakespeare

which a group of elderly

(Abridged).” And while

ladies—all suffering from

the full-length version has

a crush on the fortyish

its moments of humor, the

detective living next

short version boasts a lot

door—decide that the best

more comedy than tragedy,

way to spend time with

and the New Hampton

him is to stage a homicide

company made it sparkle.

(or two).

The old ladies were

New Hampton performed Hamlet, but it was

Holderness School Today

Above, the ladies: Nick Stoico, Sam Devine, Josh Nungesser, Pauline Germanos (with binoclulars), and Damon Mavroudis. To the left, detectives Charlie Poulin and Connor Smith meet an admirer. Below, the investigation begins.

Facing the dark side of in the eerie art of

VERY EXHIBIT MOUNTED

history

Samuel Bak.

at the Edwards Art Gallery is as much

an educational experience as an aesthetic one, but an exhibit that ran this winter from January 13-March 1 had a particular-

ly pointed educational import. The exhibit itself—called “Illuminations: The Art of Samuel Bak”—was a traveling collection of twenty works by one of the most profoundly moral artists of our time, a painter and Holocaust survivor born in Vilna, Poland, in 1933. Samuel Bak established his reputation after World War II as an abstract expressionist, but in the 1960s—in response to the terrible memories of his youth, including the murder of several members of his family—Bak’s work took a radical shift into surrealism and metaphysics, into the eerie, apocalyptic landscapes and images that have characterized his paintings ever since. “I certainly do not make illustrations of things that have happened,” Bak says. “I do it in a symbolic way, in a way that only gives a sense of a world that was shattered.” Bak’s approach is to combine beauty and horror, and to con-

On top, Jimmy Jones from Facing History and Ourselves speaks to the community about the historical import of ethical choices. Above, artist Samuel Bak at the Edwards Gallery with So Hee Park ’12 and fine arts teacher Kathryn Field. To the left, “Falling Memorial” by Samuel Bak. front the moral implications of horror, in a manner that enters through the mind’s back door. That and his technical mastery have earned him exhibits in galleries, universities, and major museums throughout the world; has made his paintings the subject of twelve books and monographs; and made himself the subject of two documentary films. The collection of paintings that came to Holderness were assembled by Facing History and Ourselves, an educational foundation that provides resources, strategies, and lessons to help young people link the past to the moral choices of today. The paintings were donated to the organization by Bak and his wife and the Pucker Gallery of Boston. Their visit to Holderness was made possible by the generosity of Michael Sapers, the father of Adam ’11. And the paintings became part of the school’s curriculum from the day of their arrival. Speakers from both Facing History and Ourselves and the Pucker Gallery addressed the whole school community, and then worked with faculty on how best to employ Bak’s art on behalf of such communal values as civic responsibility, tolerance, and a commitment to social action. The paintings themselves, however, spoke on their own behalf as stunning artifacts of the resilience and creativity of the human spirit.

Holderness School Today

Around the Quad

The Arts

Sparkling

HERE WERE

fireworks out-

side Weld Hall on the Friday night of Parents’

solo and

Weekend in February—and also

ensemble

inside, once music teacher Dave

turns at

going.

the 2011

formances by Salamarie Frazier

Lockwood’s band and chorus got

There were strong vocal per-

’12, SoHee Park ’12, and Caleb

Winter

Nungesser ’13, all of whom

Concert.

some great horn solos by trum-

stepped forward as soloists, and

peters Nick Ford ’11 and Jake Barton ’13. Meanwhile the two ensembles swung effortlessly

Salamarie Frazier

from Motown to jazz to rock to hip-hop. Whatever the genre, it sparkled.

Caleb Nungesser

SoHee Park Nick Ford, left, and Jacob Barton

Three top prizes at the Juried High School Art Exhibit!

OR HIGH SCHOOL ART

students in central

and northern New Hampshire, the

This is one of a series of selfportraits that won the Best-inShow prize for Lizzie Legere.

Holderness School Today

Oscars—sort of—are awarded each year

in February during the Plymouth Friends of the Arts Juried High School Art Exhibit at the Silver Cultural Arts Center. This year a raft of Holderness students were nominated, and three came home with top prizes.

Lizzie Legere ’11 won the grandest prize of all, best in show for her series of self-portraits in photography. Sam Devine ’11 took top honors in mixed media (photography and collage), while Jaclyn Vernet ’11 won an honorable mention in photography. Also accepted into the show was a photograph by YeJin Hwang ’12, a drawing by Katie Finnegan ’11, and both a drawing and painting

The Juried High School Art Exhibit varsity: SoHee Park, Sam Devine, YeJin Hwang, Katie Finnegan, art teacher Kathryn Field, Lizzie Legere, Julien Moreau behind her, and photography teacher Franz Nicolay.

by SoHee Park ’12. Franz Nicolay’s Advanced Photography class also had a collaborative, largescale print accepted into the show.

Community Flying confections and swerving sleds: You’ll not see nothin’ like the Barton Olympics.

E PLAY A LOT

of sports at

Holderness. We take them seriously and play

hard. And that’s just one of the rea-

meaningless enough, then consider the national anthem and thunderous cheering that accompanied the various midweek events of the Barton

sons why Winter Carnival in

Olympics: the M&M Carry, the

January is always so much fun for

Marshmallow Toss, and the Pie-

everybody. With a dash of irony

Eating Contest.

and a few dollops of silliness, it reminds us how much sheer fun a

The dorm-versus-dorm lip sync contest is the climactic event

game—just about any sort of

of Winter Carnival, which involved

game—can be, and how much

a number of, well, memorable per-

games can help bring people

formances. The Barton Olympics

together.

can’t help but suggest the inherent

It began on the South Side Quad with the Holderness Iditarod,

To the far left, as seen on ESPN, the start of the Holderness Iditarod. Above, M&M Carry competitor Jamie McNulty ’11; left, Marshmallow Toss receiver Juliet Dalton ’11.

silliness of all games, when you think about it. But they also sug-

with teams of four students from

gest the joy at the heart of each,

each dorm racing each other in

and how far joy travels when it’s

pulling a pair of dormmates in a

shared.

sled around the Quad. If that isn’t

Holderness School Today

Around the Quad

Community Martin Luther King Day and the personal meaning of

difference.

The Rev. Irene Monroe

School counselor Carol Dopp

Sheng, a professional photographer and activist. He discussed two important projects: "Fearless," photographs of openly gay high school and college athletes, and "Don't Ask,

ANUARY’S

MARTIN LUTHER King Day celebration

began in Chapel with a talk by a nationally

Don't Tell," photographs of service men and women in the military at a time before that policy was revoked.

known writer, speaker, and theologian. The

Reverend Irene Monroe is a Huffington Post blogger and the Coordinator of the African American Roundtable of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion. In Chapel she spoke about the life and work of Bayard Rustin, who worked closely with Dr. King and served as the chief strategist and organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin was also an openly gay man in an era when that was a particularly dangerous admission to make. Then the student body divided into groups that each attended three different workshops. One workshop—“Our Civil Rights Movement Moment"—was run by Rev. Monroe, and it concerned moral leadership in the context of today’s current events. A second, "Gender in our Lives," allowed school counselor Carol Dopp to ask students to consider the import of sex roles and the issues raised by people who are transgendered. A third workshop was taught by Jeff

In the middle of these workshops, students Jazzy Young ’11, Olayode Ahmed ’12, Brian Tierney ’12, and Xajaah Williams-Flores ’13—all of whom participated in the Student Diversity Leadership Conference in San Diego in December—took the whole student body through an activity demonstrating the many differences present in what might appear to a very homogeneous school community. It was a day that in many ways challenged students' conceptions of what it means to be different and how we treat others. It also served to underline the courage demonstrated by Dr. King in his support for Bayard Rustin in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement.

Jazzy Young, left, and Haleigh Weiner.

HE DEPTH

of commu-

nity life at Holderness took an important step

We are one: Two seniors start a Holderness chapter of

the Gay-

Straight Alliance.

Holderness School Today

The student-led workshop: Olayode Ahmed, Jazzy Young, Xajaah WilliamsFlores, and Brian Tierney.

have already stepped forward in support of the organization, and Hannah empha-

forward in February with the

sized that “you don’t have to

formation of a campus chap-

be gay to join a GSA.”

ter of GSA—the Gay-

That indeed is the point

Straight Alliance. Hannah

of an organization that strad-

Weiner and Jazzy Young

dles both sides of a divide in

announced that alliance at an

sexual orientation, and seeks

all-school assembly. They

to succeed well enough in

encouraged students to join

time to no longer be neces-

the faculty members who

sary.

Welcome to a new era: Two new dorms on schedule for the fall.

cold in February,

for yourself on web-cam: http://sitecam.hold-

but that didn’t stop the crews at work on

erness.org. We’re on schedule for having stu-

the two new dormitories going up near

dents and faculty families in there by fall.

ARENTS’

WEEKEND

WAS

That puts us on schedule as well towards

the tennis courts. The buildings are rising by the day, and if you don’t believe it, take a look

an eventual campus-wide student-faculty ratio in all dorms of 8:1. That sort of model has worked very well over the years in the small Mount Prospect and South Campus dorms. It will prevail in these new 24-bed dorms as well, and eventually in all the dorms. It provides a manageable work-load for dorm parents, a high level of adult supervision for dorm residents, and what we might call a more seamless sense of community for everybody. “This will be a more fulfilling mode of residential life for all involved,” says Phil Peck, “and excitement about it is growing daily.”

Service

Tickets to ride: The 2011 Senior Gift will bring one senior’s parents from Africa for Commencement.

NE OF THE

bright philan-

thropic traditions at

Holderness is that of the

Senior Gift. Each year members

and Alex Kuno—met with Jane McNulty (Jamie’s mom and Assistant Director of Advancement and External

of the graduating class organize

Relations) and Tracy White

to raise money in a variety of

(Director of Alumni Relations) to

ways: selling food at school

start planning what to do with

events, perhaps, or dollar dress-

this year’s Senior Gift. They

down days (pay a dollar to the

brought with them a bagful of

senior class, and you can dress

money raised from a recent

casually for class on a certain

dress-down day, and they learned

day). Then the accumulated

that they had already reached the

money is used at the end of the

level of funds that trigger a gen-

year for purposes that have previ-

erous matching gift from Chris

ously included contributions to a

Carney ’75.

scholarship fund, or the purchase of some needed equipment, or

So that was two bagfuls of money, really. And what to do

help for a family beset by health

with it all? The seniors decided

issues and costs.

to buy a pair of plane tickets with

At the beginning of February four members of the

Jamie McNulty, Cecily Cushman, Juliet Dalton, Alex Kuno, and one of those bags of cash.

Imoh Silas ’11, who had not seen his parents since coming to Holderness in 2008.

it, allowing the parents of fellow senior Imoh Silas to travel from

Class of ’11—Jamie McNulty,

Nigeria to see their son graduate

Cecily Cushman, Juliet Dalton,

from Holderness.

Holderness School Today

Around the Quad

Service

So what does the Service Committee do, exactly? First let’s take a deep breath.

N EACH ISSUE OF

HST,

try to highlight some activ-

ity of the Service Committee from the previous

semester. Each story has the virtue of specificity, but

the danger is that readers might conclude that the high-

this semester two students worked there five afternoons each week in lieu of a sports activity. They helped local kids with homework and assisted in PYC activities. Another student has been working throughout the year in

lighted activity amounts to all that the Committee

the Plymouth A+ program, visiting local elementary

accomplished. That would be several miles wide of the

schools and tutoring kids several afternoons each week.

truth, and maybe it’s time to pause for a wide-angle view of what this organization accomplishes each year. Let’s take this year, and start at the Bridge House,

On-campus work by the Service Committee benefits several local support programs. An annual November food drive fills the pantry at the Community Closet,

Plymouth’s homeless shelter. Four students volunteer

where food is distributed to needy families.

each semester there, each spending a weekly afternoon

pre-Thanksgiving haul? “About fifty cans of vegetables,”

This year’s

and evening at the shelter doing activities with children.

says Janice, “twenty boxes of stuffing, thirty-two cans of tuna, twenty boxes of protein-based stuff like beef stew,

The Service Committee is a small organization staffed by Holderness students who are busy enough as it is, but nonetheless they find a way to lend a hand to just about every component of the social support net in the Plymouth area. twenty boxes of instant cocoa, twenty boxes of oatmeal, and many bags of fresh apples and oranges.” Weekly doughnut sales support the at-risk youth summer camps offered by the Circle and Mayhew programs. “In the last two years we’ve been able to send at least $700,” Janice says, “which pays for one child in each program to attend camp for a week.” Other activities answer to specific needs as they

Helping to deliver Meals for Many: Tom Bobotas ’11, Derek Pimentel ’11, Shawn Watson ’12, and J.P. Tardif ’11.

Last fall students mounted a Halloween party, and then a Christmas party. After the latter, presents for each of the

the Bridge House, or the $250 raised the previous year to

kids then at the shelter were provided to parents for

help a family move from the Bridge House into an apart-

delivery on Christmas morning. This spring’s Easter

ment.

party involved a lot of egg-coloring on Saturday. That

Colloquium each year as part of Special Programs,”

night not just Easter baskets were sneaked in—also

Janice adds. “Last year we had a group volunteer at the

bikes, tricycles, scooters, and helmets for a new batch of

Hunter School [for learning-disabled children] in

homeless children. Once a week three to four students go to help the Meals for Many program serve food to the homeless at the Plymouth Congregational Church. “We make a

Rumney. This year we worked at the Senior Center in Plymouth.” The Service Committee is a small organization staffed by Holderness students who are busy enough as it

dessert, help wash pots and pans, serve the meal, and put

is, but nonetheless they find a way to lend a hand to just about every component of the social support net in the

The Pemi-Youth Center provides an after-school and dinner program for Plymouth’s young people, and

Holderness School Today

“And we run a service component of Senior

away the chairs and tables,” says language teacher and faculty advisor Janice Pedrin-Nielson.

arrive, such as diapers last semester for a new baby at

Plymouth area. That in turn supports these Holderness youngsters, allowing them to see first-hand the large portions of good that such a gesture accomplishes.

Matt Kinney & Phil Peck.

AST

NOVEMBER MATT Kinney ’12

read your speech and loved it. I showed it

gave an inspiring chapel talk about

to my SEAL teammates and it inspired us

an organization called the United

to fly a flag in honor of you, Holderness

Warrior Survivor Foundation, which sup-

School, and all your teammates. As your

ports the spouses of fallen Special

team goes on the field to do battle, remem-

Operations soldiers. Then Matt shared the text of the talk with Nick Rocha, director of the foundation. In January a package arrived from

ber that there is a SEAL team that has adopted you all.” The certificate accompanying the flag identified it as one that “was flown on 11

UWSF containing a US flag, a certificate,

September 2010 at Combined Joint Special

and a card from Mr. Rocha, which read:

Operations Task Force—Afghanistan in

“Thank you for all you’re doing on behalf

Camp Vance, Bagram, Afghanistan, during

of UWSF and the families of the fallen. I

Operation Enduring Freedom.”

Joint Special Operations Task Force Afghanistan: We fly their flag.

Sports On the fast track: Ryan Rosencranz ’12 makes his World Cup debut and also the cover of

N THE LAST ISSUE OF

SOCO. HST we reported that

he extends to his coaches and

Ryan Rosencranz had become the first

family. These include “Holderness

Holderness student to compete in a World

Snowboard Director Alan Smarse,

Cup snowboarding event. That and a host of

who himself was a legend in his own

other accomplishments also landed Ryan a

time.” And also Alan’s son, Holderness

feature profile article in the February edition

snowboarding legend and current coach

of SOCO magazine: “On the Fast Track:

Sean Smarz ’04.

Rosencranz Is Up to the Challenge and the Future Is Bright.” There SOCO reports that Ryan finished

“It seems like Sean and Alan work tirelessly with Ryan—they are out every day during the winter training,” Ryan’s mother Robin

6th out of 13 racers in the US Men’s category

tells SOCO.

at the VISA US Snowboarding World Cup in

attention that has allowed Ryan to accomplish

Telluride, CO. And that was in a field that

so much.”

included Olympic snowboarders Tyler Jewell and Chris Klug. That added to a resume that

“It’s been their dedication and

Robin also credits Holderness for allowing Ryan—and other snowsport athletes—the

includes nine USASA national competitions,

freedom to travel and compete. “He’s had to

with a first place in the 2008 National Giant

take tests in hotel rooms in order to get his

Slalom and a second in that same event last

schoolwork done,” says Robin. “But what is

winter. And oh, yes, in a January parallel

important is that he completes it.”

giant slalom race at Loon Mountain, Ryan

And what’s important to Ryan, at least

achieved his 100th podium finish in USASA

right now, has more to do with the process

events.

than the result. “I go out there not to win, but

The SOCO article highlights both Ryan’s current skills and his vast potential as he

Rounding a gate at the USASA Nationals this spring.

to do my best,” he tells SOCO. “If I’m successful, then that’s great, too.”

matures and fills out—but it focuses even more on his poise and humility and the credit

Holderness School Today

Around the Quad

Sports Holderness dominates

Senior Carson Houle, left, and junior Lily Ford were among seven Holderness racers named to NHARA teams.

the NHARA team.

OLDERNESS HAD

another great year in

regard to skiers named to the New Hampshire Alpine Racing

Association’s Senior and Development teams.

The school placed three on the Senior Team—Tom Bobotas ’11, Eliza Cowie ’12, and Emily Hayes ’11—which tied Holderness with the University of New Hampshire for the most representation. And Holderness placed four on the Development Team: Lily Ford ’12, Carson Houle ’11, Sam Macomber ’11, and Kristina Micalizzi ’12. That tied with the Waterville Valley Black-and-Blue Trailblazers at that level, and provided Holderness with the highest combined representation of any ski entity in the state.

A Holderness first: Jack Long qualifies for the Telemark World Cup.

HIS WINTER

JACK Long

’12 did something

achieved by no other

snowsport athlete in Holderness

Championship and Junior World

of Telemark World Cup races

Championship events. “Jack is a multi-talented

and Switzerland during the first

winter sports athlete,” says

two weeks in February.

Eastern alpine coach Craig

Jack competed in three events—the classic, sprint clas-

Nordic family:

world’s best. He then went on in March to race in both the World

history: he qualified for a series

that took place in France, Spain,

Dear Holderness

consider that this young man was competing against the

Antonides ’77. “He brings great focus and intensity to the slopes

sic, and Telemark giant

regardless of what’s on his

slalom—and posted results rang-

feet—Telemark skis, alpine, or

ing from 23rd to 38th. That’s a

jumping.”

strong set of results when you

Thanks for a special race.

“D

ear Holderness Nordic fami-

The Walsh family would like each of you

ly: Congratulations on a spe-

to know how truly meaningful this race is

cial day and race!” wrote

John and Sue, the parents of Cheri Walsh

to us, and how much respect and appreciation we have for the work you all put

’88 , after the Cheri Walsh Memorial—

forth. It was good to see you all and to

which is the final race of the Nordic

revisit the welcoming and congenial place

Eastern Cup season—was held at

that is Holderness School. Please pass on

Holderness in February.

our gratefulness and esteem to the host of

“It was perfect,” the Walshes contin-

faculty, staff, family members, students

ued. “It seems to get better each year, and

and competitors that contributed to a truly

that seems hardly possible to imagine.

successful race day.”

Holderness School Today

Among the Cheri Walsh racers: Juliet Dalton ’11, Pippa Blau ’12, and Hannah Durnan ’14.

Sports

Boys varsity hoops plays valiantly in the AA NEPSAC post-season, while snow sports dominate!

Winter 2010-11: The Season in Review Coach’s Award winner Ari Bourque ’12 leads her line up the ice against Brooks Academy.

Acrobatic senior Gabas Maldunas helped lift the Bulls into the post-season at the tough AA level.

Basketball

it around to win eight of their last twelve games.

This year the boys varsity basketball team found itself

both upper and underclassmen, and what made this Bulls

The JV Bulls team was made up of a good mix of

in a newly formed, very competitive AA class. The team

team so special was the dedication and work ethic that

knew that they would have to work hard all season long

the entire team shared. This attitude helped the team

just to have a shot at making the playoffs. Some season

grow as the season went on. This became evident in the

highlights include: a double overtime win at Lawrence

tournament as the Bulls’ first game would be against a

Academy; the Bulls’ first win ever against New Hampton A; a solid team effort in a convincing

higher-seeded KUA team that we had split the season series with. The Bulls came out and played their best all-

win at Vermont Academy; and a

around game of the season to beat KUA and get to the

come-from-behind win against a tal-

semifinal game against the defending champion—and

ented KUA squad.

eventual tournament winner—High Mowing squad.

In March Holderness received the

by Mike Barney

eighth playoff spot in the NEPSAC tourney and traveled down I-93 to

This year's boys JV2 basketball squad included a won-

face the Rams of Tilton. The Bulls

derful mix of players. We had global representation from

played tough throughout, but in the

Asia and Africa with Ruohao Xin and Olayode Ahmed,

end Tilton proved to be too deep for

respectively, and a N.H./Maine contingent that included

the Bulls. Imoh Silas and Gabas

Scott Merrill, Chase O'Connor, Joey Casey, and Noah

Maldunas both received the Coach’s

Thompson.

Award for their leadership, and Tyquan Ekejuiba received the Most Improved Award. by Randy Houseman

Though there were only four games, of which three were against Tilton, the team had a winning record of 31. The highlight game was away at Tilton. With the score tied at 21 with three minutes to play, the Bulls used a full-court defense to run off ten unanswered points to win

The 2010-2011 JV boys basketball

31-21. Everyone on this squad worked hard and

team finished the season with an 8-7

improved their game. Joey Casey was a tenacious, com-

record. After getting off to a slow

petitive guard.

start and dropping the first three

great hustle and prowess on defense. Noah Thompson

games of the season, the Bulls turned

showed great versatility and helped at both guard and

At the same position, Olayode showed

Holderness School Today

Sports

forward throughout the season. Congratulations to the JV2 for a successful season! by Rich Weymouth ’70

this year after starting the season a year ago as new skaters. These forward line players were spelled during many of our contests by new players like Connor Marien, Steve Page and Sam Paine. A strong contingent of defensemen—that included Jordan Camp, Kyle Long, Christian Anderson, Jake Barton, Preston

The girls varsity basketball

Kelsey and Phil Levesque—combined their skills to keep our

season was a successful one,

opponents in check. Colin McKenzie earned the Coach’s Award

with an overall record of 7

and Connor Smith was recognized as Most Improved.

wins and 8 losses. The season

by Reggie Pettitt & Greg McConnell

started off with a 1-5 record,

Co-captain Lizz Hale was arguably the Lakes Region’s top defensive guard.

including losses to power-

This was a year of incredible growth and development for girls

houses like KUA and Tilton

varsity hockey (5-14-6).

(both eventual tournament

game, with starting goalie Abby Guerra often making over 50

teams, and Tilton the champi-

saves.

on). The team rallied in mid-

the first win over NYA at the Southfield Tournament.

January and February, putting

struggled to perform to its own level, so games against less formi-

Some highlights were sweeping Groton, tying Exeter, and Holderness

together a win streak and going 6-3, and sweeping

dable opponents were often just as challenging as games against

home and aways against Proctor, Brewster and Vermont

the best competition.

Academy.

A team with just one senior, Captain Paige Hardtke, five jun-

Leading the team in scoring was co-captain Radville

iors, and eleven under-formers, the squad weathered some grow-

Autukaite. This year’s Most Improved Award went to

ing pains while adjusting to the prep school game, new positions,

ninth-grader Hannah Slattery. The Coach's Award went to co-cap-

and systems.

tain and inspirational leader Lizz Hale, who led the team in

forward to reaping the rewards of their hard work next season.

This is a determined group of competitors who look

defense and steals. There were only seven players this year, but

Congratulations to the Most Improved Player, Danielle Therrien,

every one of them contributed and saw significant playing time.

and to Ari Bourque, the Coach’s Award recipient for being voted

Please join me in congratulating the team in their terrific season.

by her teammates as the most valuable player.

by Jeff Kelly

by Susie Cirone

Ice Hockey

The girls JV hockey superstars had an incredible year this year!

This year’s boys varsity hockey season was successful on many

from day one worked hard and improved immensely. Huge sea-

levels.

Ending the season with a phenomenal record of 8-1, the girls

The 2010-2011 team was young and inexperienced, but

son wins include St. Paul’s, a team that beat us 7-2 at the begin-

still was able to gain the respect of their opponents through hard

ning of the season; Phillips Exeter Academy; and Kimball Union

work and a strong desire to compete.

Academy.

Offensively the team was led by senior captain and Coach’s Award recipient, Derek Pimentel.

Derek was able to notch more

Being nine seniors strong, we look forward to our younger players stepping up and contributing next year. This year’s

than 50 points and was an outstanding leader both on and off the

Coach’s

ice. Fellow senior Matt Fiacco and sophomore Francis Parenteau

Award goes to

chipped in, both having more than 25 points each.

our unbeliev-

Defensive standouts for the Bulls were Most Improved

able goalie,

Award-winner Gavin Bayreuther, and also Weston Lea Spirit

Sarah Fauver;

Award-winner, goaltender Andrew Munroe. Bayreuther led all

and this year’s

defensemen despite only being a sophomore. Munroe was stellar

Most

between the pipes all year, starting in every game the Bulls

Improved

played. The young Bulls look forward to a bright future on the

goes to SoHee

ice.

Park.

Thank you, seniors. by Allie Skelley

by Justin Simon

The boys JV hockey team relied on a combination of both new and experienced players to register one of our best and most enjoyable seasons in recent years. With net-tender responsibilities effectively shared by John Musciano and Matt Kinney, seniors Mac Dudley and Colin McKenzie led our offensive rushes together with Thany Alexander, Max Sturgis, Matt Gudas, Treat Hardy, and Jules Pichette. Nick Stoico, Connor Smith, and Jonathan Bass earned more ice time

The team competed valiantly in every

Holderness School Today

Senior Derek Pimental broke the 50-point barrier and claimed the Coach’s Award for boys varsity hockey.

Snow Sports

experience, and Miguel Arias, a talented skier who quickly

The Eastern Alpine ski team

caught on to racing. School

enjoyed a full season of racing

Team lifers Lauren Hayes and

with great conditions from

Ethan Pfenninger won

start to finish. The group was

Coach’s Awards for their

certainly busy, facing a jam-

strong commitment and

packed schedule of racing.

excellent communication with

Our squad had a nice blend of

the team. We would like to

veterans and young guns, giv-

thank all the athletes for a

ing us great depth. The sen-

great season.

iors, led by captains Emily Hayes and Carson Houle, did a fantastic job showing their younger teammates how to “get it done.” After enduring our usual slow start, we finally hit stride in February. At that

by Maggie Mumford

Co-captain Emily Hayes led an Eastern team that won another Macomber Cup and sent members to all the major championships.

point we began to tally some

The Holderness School freeride team had an extremely fun and progressive time this past season. The year started out with mastering the turn. Then the preseason rail park opened during our second week, and everybody got right to work with learning new slides and maneuvers on the rails and boxes. And before we knew it, the winter break came.

great results, giving us some good representation at the Championship events in March. At press time we were

When the team started back up again, Loon had the big park open so it was time to work on jumps. Every day

covering it all, the J3 Olympics, J2 Nationals, Eastern

the team came prepared to ski and learn new tricks in the

Alpine Championships, and the Eastern Junior FIS Finals.

amazing park that Loon had built. As the year went on two

Along the way we managed to defend our team trophy

more riders joined our team and gave the rest of the ath-

in the Macomber Cup series, maintaining a five-year grip

letes a boost of energy to ride the same park, but with new

on that title. Senior Amanda Engelhardt battled through the

faces. When the second of the two athletes joined our

last race of the series to win the women’s crown, and the

team, the Little Sister park opened at Loon. This was great

mountain bike that goes with it. She and her other senior teammates will be moving onto college ski teams, and we look forward to following their progress. Other team members racked up podiums throughout the year in both USSA and FIS competitions. All in all, it’s been a great season. We would like to thank Cannon Mountain for providing our “playground,” and also thank our other most important supporters: the faculty, the maintenance department, and business office for helping us get to where we need to go, and the kitchen for fueling the effort. And of course there’s the staff, which feels blessed to work with a group of great kids. Hard work, dedication, and spirited energy flow freely in our “space,” and we feel lucky to work in it every day. We’ll do it all over again next year. by Craig Antonides ’77

The 2010-2011 varsity & JV alpine school ski team com-

High-flying Nick Goodrich ’11 led the freestyle team with 11 top-five results in moguls.

work on tricks on smaller and different features than what was in the big park.

peted in seven events marked by a wide range of results and some epic crashes. Team captains were seniors Charlie

because everybody could

But in the East every great season comes with a lot of

Poulin, Lauren Hayes, and Ethan Pfenninger. The coaches,

snowstorms. And it felt like most of these storms only

Garr Corcoran and Christian Herzog, are owed a great deal

came on Wednesdays. This became an issue when three of

of gratitude for their help this season. Enjoying good weather and training conditions, the

our five competitions had to be cancelled due to weather and bad driving conditions. However, in the two competi-

team showed steady progress throughout the season. A

tions that occurred the team did very well. One of the ath-

highlight was the boys’ team winning a Lakes Region qual-

letes won the Whaleback competition and team took sec-

ifying race at home, in tough conditions, at Loon. The

ond at the Loon event. To sum it all up, this season was

girls’ team had many new faces, all vying for scoring posi-

fun, progressive, amazing, snowy, and just too short. How

tions each week.

could it get any better?

The season culminated with the New England Prep

by Robert Dresser

School Championships. The girls’ and boys’ teams scored eighth and tenth, respectively.

Most Improved skiers were

Mikaela Wall, who built on a solid foundation of racing

The 2010-2011 Holderness Eastern freestyle team concluded an ambitious competitive season of USSA and FIS

Holderness School Today

Sports

mogul, halfpipe, slopestyle, and aerial events. Team captain Nick

Hoopes also finished impressively high in the overall Lake Region

Goodrich competed in 32 mogul events this season, leading the team

standing in fourth and sixth place respectively. Celeste Holland had

with 11 top-five results, ranking 49th in Moguls and 39th in Duals

a fourth-place finish in her first high school ski race. The team qual-

on the USSA FSP list. Nick's season was highlighted with a first and

ified five athletes for Eastern High School Championships, and two

a second in Moguls and Duals respectively at the Deer Valley Mogul

athletes to Eastern J2 Championships.

Championship. Nick’s ranking qualifies him for the FIS Nor-Am

Our Coach’s Awards go to Juliet Dalton, Betsey Pettitt, and Abe

Grand Prix tour in the 2011-12 season. The coaches have chosen

Noyes, while our Most Improved Awards go to Nico Dellenback and

Nick as the Coach’s Award recipient for 2011. Mogul skier and senior Dan Sievers improved his mogul scoring to 20 points, and qualified

Cecily Cushman. We will miss these team seniors. They were the mightiest of leaders, who always provided for their team before taking for themselves.

for the Junior Nationals in

by Patrick Casey

Steamboat Springs. Dan’s skiing includes a back flip

A fantastic snow year turns a great season into something epic for

with an “X” and a 360 tail, as

the Holderness snowboard team. Our level of training exceeded all

he progresses toward FIS lev-

coaches’ expectations and our results reflected our work ethic. Our

els next season. Rounding out

boys—led by captain Nick Ford, Ben Grad, Oliver Johnson, Henry

the mogul team are senior

Miles,Aiden Kendall, Francis Miles, Nam Tran, and Logan

Patrick Sullivan and fresh-

Twombly—took team gold in Lakes Region giant slalom and

man Bobby Wassman. Bobby

slopestyle. Chuckie Carbone again ran the table in girls’ freestyle.

was cited by the coaches for

Pauline Germanos, Katie Draper, and a wounded Haley Michienzi

his outstanding improvement,

rounded off a thin girls’ team that placed high in all girls’ Lakes

receiving an honorable men-

Region competitions.

tion for our Most Improved award. Senior Patrick Sullivan is a fine and accom-

competed in the Telluride World Cup. Captain Andrew Howe led

plished mogul skier, both

Libby Abdridge, Chris Bladon, Chuckie Carbone, Ezra Cushing,

acrobatically and technically.

Peter Ferrante, Hannah Halsted, Alex Obregon, Paul Pettengill, Ryan

We wish Patrick more great

Rosencranz and Justin Simpkins

bump skiing ahead.

Championships, which were held in Copper, CO.

Our halfpipe and slopestyle freeride skiers include Julia Marino, Riggs Alosa, and

Abe Noyes ’11 finished third overall in the Lakes Region and won a Coach’s Award for the Nordic team.

Results at the Eastern Snowboards in several high level competitions continued to surpass expectations. Junior Ryan Rosencranz

Owen Buehler. Senior Julia Marino

Women’s SBX—Holderness’s first gold medal in that event. The School Team Coach’s Award was presented to Pauline Germanos, and the Most Improved went to Nam Tran. On the

enjoyed a spectacular season, earning

Eastern team, the Coach’s Award was

and USSA Revolution Tour events.

earned by Ryan Rosencranz, while

standing results have earned her the coaching staff ’s recognition as

Most Improved was

our Most Improved skier. Both Riggs and Owen trained diligently in

freshman Ezra

slope and pipe, improving their freeride skills and competitive

Cushing. Next

potential. We look forward to their return next season. Thank you,

year’s captains are

skiers and staff. Please enjoy a productive and athletic spring.

Hannah Halsted,

by Nick Preston

Justin Simpkins, and Ryan

The 2010-2011 Nordic ski team had a great season. Our team

Rosencranz.

strung together great individual efforts that knit together a successful

by Alan Smarse

season for the whole team. We had a bounty of snow which made for some great skiing, even if it was the culprit for a couple of cancelled races. We had three team goals this season: be the strongest double pole team; be the most agile team; be the best team in the big sense of the word. We certainly worked diligently towards these goals, and when we did anything we did it while having fun. Some team highlights: the girls’ team won the Lakes Region Championships and placed second in the NEPSAC Championship. Senior Juliet Dalton skied to a season best fourth place in her final Lakes Region race. Abe Noyes’ season landed him with a final Lakes Region standing in third place. Haley Mahar and Mollie

Holderness School Today

The most notable

result was junior Hannah Halsted’s running of the table in Junior

six podium finishes in USSA, FIS,

Julia’s dedication to training, her competitive focus, and her out-

to the USASA National

Hannah Halsted ’12 won gold in the Junior Women’s SBX at the USASA Nationals.

Update: Faculty & Staff

How to figure it out as you go along Phil Peck presents his research on developing school leadership skills in faculty at two national educational conferences.

EAD OF

SCHOOL PHIL Peck is working

at the right place if he’s interested in how schools identify and cultivate

leadership skills in its faculty. For the past half

century and more, Holderness has been a famous incubator for successful heads and deans at other independent schools, which means he doesn’t have to go far afield to see at least one successful model of that process. Nonetheless he has been going far afield, both to investigate other models and to better understand the factors that help to make this one work. One result will be an improvement in Phil’s ability to fine-tune and safeguard this process; another, eventually, will be a Ph.D. in educational leadership from Columbia’s Teachers College. Phil continues to work on his thesis there under the guidance of Klingenstein Center head—and former Holderness trustee—Pearl Kane. Phil is already gaining recognition, though, as an authority on the development of school leadership. Last February he and Pearl presented a joint report on the subject (entitled

annual National Association of Independent Schools conference in Maryland. Their talk in part concerned some of the patterns revealed by Phil’s research. “Most prospective leaders in our schools are distinguished by a set of characteristics that include, among other things, empathy, optimism, open-mind-

Phil’s thesis advisor and coresearcher (and former school trustee) Pearl Kane presented with him at the NAIS Conference, top. Above, Phil hard at work at the TABS Conference.

edness, a keen work ethic, and an inclination to seek out opportunities for leadership,” Phil said. “Schools that are most successful in delivering on these opportunities make an intentional effort to do so; provide financial support for professional development; set up mentor relationships; and give substantive feedback.” Phil’s working at the right place for some other reasons too, but we’re glad we can help him with his homework.

Dave Lockwood’s music flies on Lufthansa, and the composer opens for Mavis Staples.

“Learning Leadership On the Job”) at the

Lucky Them Dave Lockwood in concert at the Flying Monkey last fall.

ONGRATULATIONS TO

music

teacher Dave Lockwood, whose song “Lucky You”

was selected in January to be part of the country/folk/Americana playlist on Lufthansa Airline’s in-

Jack Elliott, and others—right where it belongs, in other words. When you fly Lufthansa, be sure to give it a listen. And count yourself lucky if you found your way to the Flying

flight program. The song is from

Monkey in Plymouth on June 5.

the CD “Lucky Me,” which was

That was when Dave and some

released last fall. With that, Dave’s song slips

friends who played on the CD opened for Rock & Roll Hall-of-

into place besides songs by Johnny

Famer and 2010 Grammy winner

Cash, Patsy Cline, the Carter

Mavis Staples.

Family, Willie Nelson, Porter Wagoner, Greg Brown, Ramblin’

Holderness School Today

Update: Faculty & Staff

In Memoriam: Lee Phillips

Among the possibilities to those who believe we can count beautiful music.

MONG

THE GLORIES

of the Chapel of

the Holy Cross are the Charles J.

Connick stained-glass windows

commemorating several Holderness alumni

sages of that event. “I don’t know if any of you guys have noticed around campus, but the license plate of Lee

who gave their lives in World War II. Also

Phillips, the organist in

among those glories, for the past 28 years,

chapel, reads Mark 9:23,” said

has been the sacred organ music that has

incoming school president

filled the chapel, almost all of it from the

Carson Houle ’11 in his

fingers of Elena “Lee” Phillips.

speech that day. “When Nick

Last February those fingers fell silent. Lee passed away in Texas—at the home of

Ford and I asked her about it, she made us look it up on our own. We

her brother, surrounded by family and

found the verse: ‘Anything is possible to

friends—only three weeks after being diag-

him who believes.’ Seniors, when you

nosed with pancreatic cancer. Her niece Jan

get a minute, really take some time to

Kirby wrote, “Her special kindness and

think how powerful that is. ‘Anything is

cheery disposition were still with her. Up

possible to him who believes.’ It will

until a month or so ago she was giving les-

guide you places.”

sons and playing ‘concerts’ at the places where she stayed. She was still doing what

Lee Phillips believed that beautiful music was possible, and she provided

she loved best and had done so for many

nearly three decades of it to generations

years.”

of Holderness students. Her kindness and

At Commencement last spring Lee’s license plate became one of the central mes-

good cheer was another sort of music that

At Commencement 2010 with rising seniors Sam Macomber, Nick Ford, and Carson Houle.

will be profoundly missed.

Prognosticator Rick Carey gets some ink in the Wall Street Journal, but it’s not about the money.

MAY DIRECTOR

Publications

Caspian Sea, and the several sturgeon

Rick Carey got some credit in the

species that swim there. In the past sever-

Wall Street Journal as a prognostica-

al decades, however, poachers and inter-

tor—not of the financial markets, but of

national smugglers have combined to

the caviar markets. In an article entitled

drive these species to the brink of extinc-

“The Great California Caviar Rush,”

tion. Nowadays in California the eggs of

reporter Stinson Carter had this to say

white sturgeon are raised and harvested

about Rick’s most recent work, The

on a sustainable basis in aquaculture

Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and

facilities clustered around the Sacramento

the Geography of Desire: “His globetrot-

Valley. These eggs are then turned into a

ting 2005 book exposed Caspian caviar

caviar that is gaining more and more

cartels and predict-

favor in the world of haute cuisine.

ed the delicacy’s

the caviar world,” Rick was quoted as

United States.”

saying in the WSJ. “Throughout the his-

For centuries the world’s

Holderness School Today

tory of caviar consumption, the Caspian

RRIVING INTO THE

Class of 2029 on

February 8 was young Oliver Lewis

Sheppe, who measured out at a

Sea has been the Champagne region of

well-proportioned 21 inches and 9 pounds,

chief source of

the industry. But the Sacramento Valley is

1 ounce.

caviar has been the

establishing itself as the new center of it

Rick lent his mixing skills in 2004 to one step in the process of spawning white sturgeon.

“We are witnessing a historic shift in

future home in the

Just arrived, thank you: Oliver Lewis Sheppe

all.”

His delighted parents are Andrew Sheppe ’00—who teaches English and his-

Rick himself, though, hasn’t tasted a dollop of caviar since 2005. “Way too expensive for me,” he told HST.

tory, and also coaches football and lacrosse—and his wife Kristin. We’re delighted for them both, and happy to see that class roster filling up.

Update: Former Faculty & Staff

In Memoriam: Patti Blauvelt

The wife of former Business Manager Dick Blauvelt reminds us of the grace with which family can be blended into a boarding school community—and the many ways in which that community is enriched when it can happen.

HE WAS AN OFFICIAL

employee of

wife, mother, grandmother, and neigh-

Holderness School for only a few

bor,” said her obituary. “To her grand-

years—in the late 1970s, when she

children, she was Mamie; to the neigh-

served in the Admissions Office

borhood children, she was Mrs. B. All

headed by Steve Christakos, and

found her home a favorite place to visit

then later as a typing teacher—but in her

for a story, homemade cookies, and a

unofficial capacity as many students’ surro-

warm smile.”

gate mother, Patti Lee Blauvelt was as impor-

Holderness students benefited not

tant as any faculty member in the

only from those visits themselves, but—

Schoolhouse.

in the days before word processing and

Her husband Dick was the school’s

electronic printers—her skills as a typist,

Business Manager from 1974 to 1992, and

and her generosity with those skills. “She

the couple had two sons who attended

must have typed literally hundreds of

Holderness, Brian Woodilla ’83 and Tad

essays and term papers and college appli-

Woodilla ’86. “Patti was a warm and outgo-

cations for students,” Paul Elkins says.

ing woman who could also really bake and

“And she wasn’t paid. She didn’t do it

cook,” recalls former chemistry teacher Paul

for pay. She did it just to help.”

Elkins, now Associate Dean of Students at

Marty Elkins—formerly a dean, his-

the New Hampton School. “She welcomed

tory teacher, and field hockey coach at

anybody and everybody into her house in

Holderness, now Director of College

Campton—boarders and day students alike—

Counseling at New Hampton—remem-

and made them feel like they were home

bers the fall of 1998, when her field

“She must have typed literally hundreds of essays and term papers and college applications for students. And she wasn’t paid. She didn’t do it for pay. She did it just to help.” —Paul Elkins

hockey team won the first of several NEPSAC championships. Dick and Patti’s granddaughter Kathleen Blauvelt Kime ’99 was a member of that team, and the Bauvelts attended every home game (as well as many away contests), and hosted two team dinners at their home. Then at the end of the season they presented each Holderness player and her parents with a pewter key chain. “It had a proud Holderness ‘H’ on one side, surrounded by the words ‘Holderness Field Hockey Revenge Tour ’98,’” says Marty. “Then ‘New England Prep School Champions’ was on the reverse. The ‘revenge tour’ captured our desire to beat the only squad who gave us a season loss, KUA—which we did in the 1-0 championship victory. Only a few lucky people have ever seen these pewter gifts.”

again. I ran into Chris Hopkins ’83 once recently [Chris is now headmaster of the Maine Central Institute], and he said to me,

“Devotion and loyalty were Patti’s hallmarks,” Marty adds. “Small school communities rely heavily on their primary play-

‘Please tell the Blauvelts how important they both were to me as

ers—faculty, students, etc. But sometimes it’s the quiet understat-

friends when I was going through a tough time at Holderness.’”

ed presence of people like Patti Blauvelt—like so many spouses

Of course Patti was a good friend to the whole community

who don’t teach but who are present in the community—that pro-

during the nearly two decades that she and Dick came regularly to

vide the steady, guiding, and nurturing force that makes a huge

family-style dinners in Weld Hall. She grew up in Maine, where

difference in the lives of so many students.”

she was a three-sport athlete (all-state in field hockey) and captain

After a long battle with brain cancer, Patti died at the age of

of the cheerleaders in high school. She went on to Becker College

67 at home on March 23, 2011, in the early morning after Dick’s

in Massachusetts, and then to work at John Hancock in Boston,

birthday—and only six weeks before the expected birth of her

and at both Plymouth State University and Holderness.

first great-grandchild to Kathleen.

Finally she became a substitute teacher and active volunteer

“Boarding school life can be wonderful, and it can also be

at such area schools as Plymouth Elementary, Moultonborough

hard sometimes,” says Elk. “It became a lot easier for generations

Central, and Barrington Elementary. “At home, she was a beloved

of Holderness students thanks to Patti.”

Holderness School Today

Update: Former Faculty & Staff

Kathryn Kempf Burke helps Bill acquire a grandson.

ORMER

If “Burke” sounds

Holderness

familiar, that’s because the

history teacher

grandfather is St. Sebastian’s

Kathryn Kempf

Headmaster—and former

(2001-03) is now Kathryn

Kempf Burke and teaching

Holderness English teacher

at Saint Sebastian’s School

(1973-1986)—Bill Burke.

in Massachusetts. She’s the

Bill is in his 21st year as

wife of fellow St.

head there, and enjoying the

Sebastian’s faculty member

company of his third grand-

Dan Burke, and—since

child. Bill’s other son Sam

February 25—the adoring

will be entering Harvard

mother of Jackson James

Business School this fall.

Burke.

Ken Bulter is our Hollywood lecturer at Senior Colloquium.

ORMER HISTORY

teacher

Ken Butler only taught at Holderness for one year

while another faculty member

Lew and Bruce’s film course. Ken worked ten years in Hollywood as a screenwriter, TV

enough for Ken to make a

scriptwriter, and story editor at the MGM,

strong enough impression to be

Columbia, and Walt Disney studios. “Combine

tabbed as the Commencement

that level of experience in the industry with

These days Ken is working on a promis-

OW IS A LIBRARY LIKE A

ing novel and is an MFA candidate in creative writing at Southern New Hampshire University—the same program in which Director of Publications Rick Carey teaches. Ken also maintains his friendship with former language teacher Lew Overaker, who is teaching at Plymouth State University these days, substituting as needed at Holderness— and still teaching (with Bruce Barton) a popular class on film for the Senior Colloquium

garden? Well-

tended specimens are both beautiful in their different ways, and part of their care

unteer basis to assist in a process in which discarded books are donated to

library’s case, the weeding out of old volumes

charity.

purposes. In either case it’s a lot of hard work, and this year librarian Mary Kietzman has been sub-

And Mary Kietzman has been glad for the help. “Brint’s outstanding work ethic, sunny disposition, and friendliness—he’s fantastic at intro-

jecting the Alfond Library to one of its periodic

ducing people to each other!—have

weedings. Her most important ally in the process

made him a joy to work with,” Mary

has been Brint Woodward, the son of former

says. “Thanks to Brint, we’re making

Headmaster Pete Woodward.

great strides toward the completion of

Brint knows his way around books thanks to his paying job at The Readery on Main Street in

Plymouth. This one, though, doesn’t pay. Brint is coming in on just a vol-

and upkeep involves weeding now and then. In a

frees up space for either new books or different

Holderness School Today

All of which helps to explain Ken’s return to campus last March as a guest lecturer in

was on leave, but that was long

Speaker at the 2009 Senior Class Dinner.

Brint Woodward returns to help keep Alfond in good order.

component of Special Programs.

our project.”

Ken’s skill as a storyteller,” says Rick Carey, “and—trust me—you have some great stories.”

Update: Former Trustees

Too interested in the ways of peace Former Holderness trustee John Winant keeps coming back into the conversation these days. This winter newspaper columnist Mike Pride waxed nostalgic for a national leader whose humanitarianism trumped partisan politics.

ORMER

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL trustee—not to say former

New Hampshire governor, and former US ambassador to

So Winant resigned in order to allow the Republicans to appoint a different representative to the Social Security board. Then

Britain during World War II—John Winant was the sub-

he went on the campaign trail, but on behalf of Roosevelt and

ject of a Mike Pride column that appeared this winter in

Social Security, not Landon. Of course that was the end of Winant’s

the Concord Monitor (“Seventy-five years later, a famil-

iar debate,” 12/18/10).

career in the Republican party. “But because he had come up as a Republican, Democratic bosses spurned him too,” Pride writes.

Pride noted that Winant’s son Rivington had recently found an

interesting document in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library at Hyde Park, NY. The document was Winant’s resignation letter to Roosevelt, who was a former Holderness trustee as well, from the board established to administer Social Security in 1936. “The resignation letter is of interest today for two reasons,” writes Pride. “It shows Winant’s passion for social justice, a rare quality in today’s politics. And it shows how little the arguments against federal benefits have changed in 75 years. Republican arguments that President Obama’s new health care law is a federal takeover that interferes with the sacred American system of free enterprise and

“The letter shows Winant’s passion for social justice, a rare quality in today’s politics. And it shows how little arguments against federal benefits have changed in 75 years.” —Mike Pride, Concord Monitor

local control mirror the case Republicans made for the repeal of Social Security.” The Social Security Act had been approved in Congress by a large bipartisan

Governor Winant as he appeared in the Boston Herald in the 1930s.

Roosevelt, though, admired Winant’s integrity, and their bi-partisan friendship went back to the days when they were both gover-

majority in 1935. During the 1936 presi-

nors in the Northeast and trustees at Holderness. Roosevelt appoint-

dential campaign, though, the Republican

ed him to that ambassadorship in Britain at a time when the US was

Party reversed its position, and Republican

still neutral, and there Winant played an historic role in forging the

candidate Alf Landon stumped on behalf of

war’s most important alliance, a role celebrated in Lynne Olson’s

repealing Social Security.

recent book, Citizens of London (Random House, 2010).

Winant was himself a Republican and the

party’s representative on the three-person Social Security board. He

After Roosevelt’s death, however, and the end of World War II, Winant found himself with no future at all. The Truman administra-

had, in fact, helped draft the legislation, and he could not bring him-

tion decided that he was too “interested in the ways of peace” to be

self to attack it. “Having seen the tragedy of war [he had been an air

trusted in the Cold War that had begun with the Soviet Union. He

squadron commander during World War I], I have been consistently

returned to New Hampshire, and to an unhappy marriage. He began

interested in the ways of peace,” he wrote Roosevelt. “Having seen

drinking heavily and committed suicide in 1947.

some of the cruelties of the Depression, I have wanted to help others in lessening the hardships, the suffering, and the humiliations

“In 2010, a vast media culture that values quick tongues, pretty faces, and partisan ideology rules the day,” writes Pride, who holds

forced upon American citizens because of our previous failure as a

that the effort to “bring health care to all Americans is a cousin to

nation to provide effective social machinery for meeting the prob-

the 1930s campaign for Social Security,” and who sees a lack of

lems of dependency and unemployment. The Social Security Act is

principled argument in the debate.

America’s answer to this great human need.” In fact during his three terms as governor of New Hampshire,

“A man like Winant wouldn’t warrant a moment of airtime today,” he concludes, “except perhaps as an oddball good for a wink

Winant had distinguished himself for his real commitment to human

and a chuckle over his references to humanitarianism and the ways

need. He enacted an old-age assistance program and a minimum

of peace. Too bad for him, and too bad for us.”

wage. He created emergency relief for poor people. He protected factory workers from foreclosure, and assisted dairy farmers in marketing their milk.

Holderness School Today

Alumni in the News

Books

HE PROBLEM?

WELL, it wasn’t so

much a problem as a tangled

knot of problems afflicting both

lifestyles, and excessive or improperly

of Beth Lambert’s young daugh-

administered vaccines. And this is a crisis

ters Aubrey and Morgan: food

allergies, gut dysbiosis, immune dysregula-

Doctors couldn’t tell Beth Lambert ’94 what was wrong with her daughters. So she decided to find out herself. Now she’s also published a book and found a new career in healthcare activism.

diets, excessive exposure to environmental toxins, specific American habits and

that is incredibly under-recognized and underreported.”

tion, inflammatory bowel disease, and associated neurobehavioral issues.

Many of these maladies can be reversed and prevented, Beth says, by altering our

“Each of my daughters had a unique syndrome of health symptoms, yet no pedia-

children’s “environmental influences and stepping outside of the traditional Western

trician or medical specialist could provide

medical paradigm.” With Beth’s own chil-

any sort of ‘diagnosis’ for them,” she says.

dren, recourse was found in strategies that

“As I started to look for answers, I soon

include changes in diet, and in resort to sup-

learned that we were not alone. In fact, my

plements, energy medicine, and homeopathy.

children were only two of millions of children in this country with undiagnosed chronic health symptoms.”

Deirdre Imus, president of the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology at the Hackensack University

The solution? Not merely a constellation of different healing strategies for Aubrey and

Medical Center, says that Beth’s book “is a thorough and gripping account of the new

Morgan, but a crusading non-

reality for millions of children and their fam-

profit organization, a popular

ilies. Beth Lambert—a clever, dedicated, and

website, and most recently a

courageous parent armed with maternal

book—A Compromised

instincts and persuasive scientific facts—

Generation: The Epidemic of

shows us why ‘mothers know best.’” You can also ask the mothers who post

Chronic Illness in America’s Children, written in association

their own book reviews at Amazon.com.

with dietitian Victoria Kobliner,

“The author explains how this generation of

and published last September

children is being affected by our American

in paperback by Sentient

lifestyle,” writes Kristy DeLong Appleton.

Publications in Boulder, CO.

“Until I read this book I never understood

Before all this, Beth went from Holderness to Williams,

how food sensitivities and allergies can affect a child's behavior and brain. I didn't even

and then earned a Master’s in

realize how connected our brain is to what is

American Studies—with a con-

going on in our gut. By reading this book, I

centration in American health-

understood the underlying factors compound-

care—from Fairfield

ing the problem and I was better able to

University. Since then she has

advocate for my child.”

taught and coached at secondary schools in Massachusetts,

Her answer to an epidemic.

New Jersey, and New York City, frequently

to “educating the public about the epidemic

working with students with learning disabili-

of chronic illness affecting our youth, and

ties. And she has worked for several healthcare consulting firms in New York City, and done market research for an e-health company. And she argues in A Compromised Generation that “our nation faces an unprece-

her non-profit sponsors a website (www.epidemicanswers.com) that provides a directory for parents looking for practitioners who specialize in the chronic illnesses her book targets. “My daughters are now healthy, happy,

today’s epidemics in our

and thriving, and my son Ian, who was born

betes, asthma, ADHD, and gastrointestinal disorders have to do with a dark combination of “decades of pharmaceutical overusage, toxic or nutritionally anemic

Holderness School Today

helping parents connect with other parents and appropriate healthcare providers.” And

dented health crisis”—that

children of autism, dia-

These days Beth is Executive Director of Epidemic Answers, a non-profit dedicated

after our healing journey, seems to have evaded the health problems that plagued his sisters,” Beth reports. “I have learned so much from this journey, and I feel a new sense of purpose in life because of it. I will do whatever it takes to prevent any more children from getting sick.”

Business

A batch of Bobhouse Bitter, please. Microbrewer John Glidden ’01 is applying a love of science kindled at Holderness to the art of making a very well-received family of beers.

HERE WILL ALWAYS BE

a market for good

ble—but distinctive—constellations of pleasing fla-

beer, and one of the hot trends in beer

vors. “If you’re a beer drinker, these are definitely

this decade has been the explosive

worth a try,” he concludes. “The prices are quite

growth of the microbrewery market. It

reasonable to boot. I look forward to what Squam

produces a product that is by definition

will be sharing with us in the months ahead.”

limited in quantity, but one where quality reigns supreme. To succeed there, your beer just has to be good—very good. Entrepreneur and brewer John Glidden ’01

Since then John has shared three new beers with us: Bobhouse Bitter, Winter Wheat, and No Wake Wheat. Another beer—Retired Bastard Ale— was a one-batch customized brew made for a man

jumped into this market only last fall, and Squam

retiring from the state’s Department of

Brewing is very micro as microbreweries go. John

Environmental Services. John made one barrel of

does his brewing in a single 55-gallon kettle, and

that for the . . . um, curmudgeon, and one barrel for

then ferments in 42-gallon stainless conical tanks.

the stores, but probably won’t make more of that

The first of his products—Asquam Amber Ale and

beer. All six of John’s regular varieties come in 22-

Halcyon Steamer Stout—appeared in stores around

ounce bottles, and just the gorgeous Lakes Region-

New Hampshire’s Lakes Region only last August.

themed labels are worth the price of purchase.

That was followed by bottles of Golden India Pale

And how does one prepare for such an enter-

Ale in September, and then in November wine and

prise at Holderness without—presumably—violat-

beer writer Jim Beauregard gave all three new beers

ing rules about banned substances and underage

a taste test.

drinking? “Well, Holderness taught me to think crit-

Beauregard reports that “Asquam” comes from

ically, pay attention to details, take risks, and a host

the Abenaki word for “water,” and that the Halcyon

of other skills necessary for repeatably making

stout is named for a steam-powered passenger/mail

quality beer and starting a small business,” he says.

boat that served Squam in the early 20th century.

“Holderness is where I first developed a love for

But the first beer he tasted was the Golden IPA: “It

science. Brewing beer involves chemistry, biology,

is indeed golden; a little cloudy, and the nose greets

and thermodynamics, and I’m still using a lot of the

me with citrus aromas, hints of orange, all hops at

things I learned from Mr. Elkins in biology and Mr.

first glance,” he wrote on NewHampshire.com (“An

Little in chemistry—using them on a daily basis.”

early taste of Squam Brewing’s retail offerings,”

John went from here to Tufts to study engi-

11/3/10). “Nice body; the malt arrives on the palate

neering, which helps a lot as well. He is now

with nice balance; bread flavors to complement the

licensed to distribute and sell his beer throughout

hops, and balanced hops bitterness along the fin-

the state, and he gladly conducts tours of his brew-

ish.”

ery on Perch Pond Road in Holderness for anyone That sounds a lot better than a Bud Light, and

Beauregard finds in the other two beers compara-

who’d like to visit. Learn more—and contact John—at www.squambrewing.com.

Holderness School Today

Alumni in the News

The Arts

Solidified by hip hop. Performer magazine is right: The outof-nowhere rise of Homeboy Sandman (a.k.a. Angel Del Villar ’98) is playing out like a Hollywood biopic.

NE CLAIM TO FAME

possessed by Angel

Del Villar is that of the first Holderness

Within the next year Angel was per-

basketball player to rise far enough

forming at venues like

above the rim to throw down a dunk on

the Knitting Factory

the shiny-new baskets of the Gallop

and SOB’s and part of

Athletic Center. Lately he’s been building another, and

the regular rotation on

far more extensive, claim: that of a fast-rising star in

city FM radio shows

hip hop music.

like the “Halftime

He arrived at Holderness from Queens with just a

Show” and “Squeeze Radio.” Since then he has

love of the music, but that was what saved him. "By

released three albums and two EP/mixtapes. His sec-

the time I left Holderness, I had made some of the

ond album, Actual Factual Pterodactyl, was praised

most amazing friends in my life, but when I first got

by XXL Magazine for Angel’s “sharp lyrics and irre-

there, I felt pretty out of place,” he tells HST. “My

sistibly melodic flow, which together form an elastic

love for music and hip hop really solidified my first

instrument few MCs can match.”

couple of years there, when I found the only solace

In 2008 New York Press named Homeboy

for my homesickness in my headphones. Hip hop

Sandman “Best Hip Hop Act in NYC.” He has

became more than just music. It was home."

worked two years as host of “ALL THAT! Hip Hop,

As an art form hip hop is as much poetry as it is music, and the persona of Homeboy Sandman was born at the Bowery Poetry Club in Lower Manhattan in 2007—after the University of Pennsylvania, stints as a bartender and a New York City high school teacher, and two years at Hofstra University’s law school. According to an article last summer in Performer magazine, Angel at one point—after dropping out of Hofstra to concentrate on his music—was four thousand

“Queens emcee Homeboy Sandman has one of the most energetic and entertaining live shows in the rap game right now.” —National Public Radio

dollars behind in his rent from his Queens apartment

Poetry, and Jazz at the Nuyorican Poets Café,” the

[“Transforming Metropolis Into His Own Social

city’s longest-running open mic session. He has per-

Network,” 6/10]. He was ready to give up and move

formed at hip hop shows around the country (South

out until a court clerk encouraged him to persevere a

by Southwest in Austin, TX, for example, or the A3C

few more weeks. “When he arrived home that day and

Hip Hop Festival in Atlanta). He has a video in regu-

opened his email, he discovered a message promoting

lar rotation on MTV, and has acted as a hip hop coach

a five-thousand-dollar emcee contest in Harlem. In a

in an episode of MTV’s MADE series. And he

turn that seems like something from a Hollywood

appeared just this spring on National Public Radio’s

biopic, he triumphed, ‘I knew that that was for me to

“In Studio” program. “Queens emcee Homeboy

win, to get my rent money,’ he says.”

Sandman has one of the most energetic and entertain-

Holderness School Today

ing

live shows in the rap game right now,” says NPR. His most recent album—The Good Sun—came out last

June and was Angel’s first to receive major retail distribution,

trains, and spent mornings in high-traffic areas writing his lyrics in chalk on sidewalks. Then it was off to Circuit City or Best Buy, blasting his early CDs on stereo systems there and

this on the Fat Beats label. It reached #1 on the CMJ

inviting both customers and security guards to come listen.

Network’s national music chart, and then appeared on count-

Then it was off to the magazine stands to fill every music-

less 2010 best-of-the-year lists. Said HipHopDX, “From mic to

themed periodical with Homeboy Sandman flyers. Industry

plug, The Good Sun is a sleek offering loaded with relentless,

insiders credit Angel with “single-handedly revolutionizing

genre-pushing musicality, otherworldly rhyme schemes, and

grass-roots marketing and promotion,” though of course what

contextual relevance. It’s the type of album where the sum of

he actually did was to go back to marketing’s old-fashioned

the whole is greater than each individual part; a collection of

grass-roots while other aspiring artists were drowned out in

songs so solid and so well placed that, together, they lift the

social media.

album into rarified air.” Check out his Wikipedia listing for more detail on these

And if that kind of marketing also sounds a little evangelical in its approach, so be it. That’s exactly why the Sandman

very busy—and successful—past four years in the Sandman’s

does what he does, and loves what he does. When asked by

life. There doesn’t seem like there has ever been much time to

that blogger about the future of hip hop, he says, “Hip hop and

sleep, especially when you consider some of the marketing

music as a whole will serve as a weapon in the triumph of

methods that have propelled this rise—methods that have had

good over evil in upcoming years. PEACE and LOVE!”

nothing to do with social media. In a spring interview with a blogger on a website devoted to rapper Kanye West, Angel says that he’s on Facebook under his own name as a way to connect with friends, and that he doesn’t have time for Twitter. “As far as promo,” he says, “I find that I do a fine enough job promoting my shows and

Hannah Foote ’13 displays what a T-shirt can become in the world of Generation T.

releases via more traditional channels, and then that stuff winds up on Twitter and Facebook and actual fans spread the word, which I feel is much cooler than me periodically tooting my own horn.” In order to first find those fans, though, the Sandman tooted his own horn in an iconically in-your-face New York way. He decorated the NYC subway system with self-produced fullpage flyers. He handed out song lyrics for free on the subway

How to turn your Clash shirt into Antsy-Pants (or maybe something a little more flattering). . . . Megan with two boys and project #57.

T-shirt maven and author Megan Nicolay ’97 applies sustainability to fashion, teaches at Artward Bound, and helps some students start a new trend in shorts.

MONG THE ARTISTS

assembled

on campus for this year’s ver-

sion of Artward Bound was

Megan Nicolay ’97. Thanks to her

important concept of ‘project time’ in our daily grind,” her website says. “It’s a time to drop everything, turn off the phone, turn off the TV, and

two successful books—Generation T:

make something—be it a picture

108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt

frame or a poem, a handmade card or

(Workman Publishing, 2006), and

a batch of brownies. The T-shirt is

Generation T: Beyond Fashion: 120

Megan’s preferred medium—unparal-

New Ways to Transform a T-Shirt

leled in the world of fashion in terms

(Workman, 2009)—and her many tel-

of comfort, versatility, and longevi-

evision and retail appearances, she

ty…and never in short supply.

has become America’s high priestess

Everybody has a stash of old T-shirts

of the T-shirt make-over.

won at sporting events, brought home

There’s a philosophy behind this

from rock concerts, gathered at thrift

art form, one that’s neatly described

stores, or saved as a random leftover

at Megan’s website, www.generation-

of a relationship that didn’t quite

t.com. “Megan Nicolay, an obsessive

work out (hey, he never came back to

DIYer herself, created Generation-

claim his Clash T-shirt?—it’s yours).

T.com in 2005 to celebrate the ever-

Each T-shirt has a story, and it would

Holderness School Today

Alumni in the News

The Arts be, sentimentally speaking, out of the question to get

be reconstituted into many sorts of garments besides

rid of it. So, in the spirit of environmentalism and

T-shirts. For example: “The boys shocked and awed

anti-consumerism, Megan resuscitates, recycles, and

us all,” wrote Megan in one entry, “with their refash-

refashions them.”

ioned tight-tight shorts (they used project #57 ‘Antsy

Sentimentally speaking—and artistically, and

Pants’ toddler pants from the kids chapter in

philosophically—it was out of the question that she

Generation-T: Beyond Fashion as their guide, so are

not be invited back to Artward Bound sooner or later,

we really surprised?).”

given how well the recycling of T-shirts makes fashion both personal and sustainable (and especially

Thanks to Megan, of course, nothing surprises us any more as to what can be accomplished with a

given this year’s AB theme: “Remake it New”). And

T-shirt. You can even get one of your T-shirt patterns

the best part of it all, aside from Megan’s workshops

into the McCall’s catalog (#6287 at http://mcallpat-

themselves, was how well her experience of AB was

tern.mcall.com). “That’s like being published by

documented on her website with photos and daily

Harvard University Press!” says Holderness librarian

blog entries.

Mary Kietzman.

Of course the beauty of T-shirts is that they can

Gaelic Americana K

YLE

CAREY

HAS A WORD FOR THE

The debut CD by Kyle Carey cl’03 is Album-of-theWeek on Glasgow’s most popular folk music station.

music she plays on the

of ten original

debut CD she released in May. “It’s Ameri-Celtic,” she

songs and one

says. “It’s American roots music, but with a lot of Celtic

traditional

flavor to it.” And as one of those very rare Americans who are flu-

Gaelic song. Its

ent in Gaelic, she makes a very persuasive claim to that flavor.

title track was a

And how does one become fluent in Gaelic and then release a CD on which one is backed by some of Ireland’s most prominent

“Best Song” finalist at SongWriter Universe, and another song, “Adenine,” won

musicians? Well, after playing guitar here with music teacher Dave

the Americana category of the Dallas Songwriters’ Association

Lockwood and local musician Jim Alba, Kyle went back to the

2011 contest. Two tracks have been picked up for the playlist of

public school system and then to Skidmore College, where she

Celtic Roots Radio, which broadcasts throughout Europe, Africa,

majored in English and minored in music. She also volunteered a

and the Middle East. In May Monongah was named Album-of-the-

lot—and performed sometimes—at the Caffe Lena in Saratoga

Week on Celtic Music Radio in Glasgow. And that sort of buzz has

Springs, one of the big stops on the East Coast folk music circuit. Then she went to Cape Breton, where thanks to a Fulbright Scholarship she could immerse herself for a year in that region’s Celtic-flavored folk music scene. And then to the Isle of Skye,

helped get Kyle named May’s “Fulbrighter of the Month” by the scholarship foundation. “The music style of Kyle’s album is notable for its uniqueness, and she admits her sound is a mixture of many influences,” says the

where she attended a Gaelic language institute that offers a two-

Fulbright website, which goes on to quote Kyle: “Rosie

year immersion program for non-speakers, but where Kyle became

[MacKenzie] says that I’ve invented a new genre of music. Because

fluent after only one year.

you know it’s kind of Appalachian, but then there’s Gaelic, and it’s

Last year she moved to Dingle, in southwest Ireland, where—

produced by an Irish guy, and there are a lot of other Irish players

when she got into a studio to record her music—her songwriting,

on there, but it’s still very distinctly Americana. So it’s exciting,

musicianship, and language skills attracted help from some of

doing something that I haven’t encountered anyone else doing, and

Ireland’s finest: Donogh Hennessy of Lúnasa, who produced the

I’d say that is probably the most exciting thing about the project,

CD and played some guitar; Trevor Hutchinson of the Waterboys,

just feeling like we’re doing something entirely new.”

who played bass; Aiofe Clancy of Cherish the Ladies, who sang harmony vocals; Rosie MacKenzie of the Cottars, who played fiddle and is actually from Cape Breton; and several more. Entitled Monangah, the CD was released in May and consists

Holderness School Today

Kyle will support the album this fall with a tour of the Northeast with two of the musicians who play with her on it. Check out her website at kyleannecarey.com, and listen to some of that music.

Service

Jenny Holden ’88 once managed Bode Miller. Now, as Executive Director of Women’s Ski Jumping USA, she has an even tougher job in assaulting one of the last bastions of sexism in sports.

One giant leap

LITTLE BIT OF GENDER-equity

sports his-

tory was made last April, and Jenny

In many ways it was, laughs Jenny. “When Bode was on the US Ski Team, I think I recognized what I

Holden ’88—Executive Director of

think the management of the team did not,” she says.

Women’s Ski Jumping USA—was right

“You can’t control or manage Bode per se. By them

in the middle of it.

But first some background, and we’ll start with a

statement made in 2005 by Gian Franco Kasper, presi-

trying to, it led to animosity and ultimately both of us splitting from the USST. It’s like telling a child you can’t go outside the lines. His ability to ski on fences

dent of the International Ski Federation. Speaking to a

at Kitzbuehl at 110 miles per hour and his lifestyle

reporter from National Public Radio, Kasper opined

surrounding his behavior makes him one of the best in

that the sport of ski jumping “seems not to be appro-

the world. My job was to manage everything else so

priate for ladies from a medical point of view.”

Bode could do what Bode does best—ski race.”

Whether their own concern was medical or otherwise, the International Olympic Committee stood with

So that was fascinating, yes, but the constant traveling was wearing her down. Then last year she

Kaspar, and at the 2010 Vancouver Games ski jump-

said yes to a job offer from Women’s Ski Jumping

ing and Nordic combined—which includes ski jump-

USA, a non-profit founded in 2003 to advance the

ing—were the only sports that did not offer events for

sport, and—specifically, in 2009—to rebuild ties to

women. This was all the more puzzling in the context

the US Ski Team and get the sport into the Olympics.

of the Summer Games, where the IOC had recently

As WSJ-USA’s Executive Director, she became its

welcomed women into such medically risky pursuits

point person in all those efforts.

as boxing and wrestling. For its part, the IOC pleaded concerns about the

And it all came to fruition in April, a month after the Nordic world championships in Oslo, and

skills of women jumpers. Women have been ski jump-

the women’s jumping championship that was part of

ing for many years, but as a sanctioned international

that event. There Christophe Dubi, the IOC’s sports

sport the event in fact was very new, and it was only

director, told the press that he was impressed, that

Jenny Holden poses in the center of a group of Women’s Ski Jumping athletes after the IOC’s April announcement.

in 2009 that American Lindsey Van soared the length of two football fields to win the sport’s first world championship. That same year Van and fourteen other jumpers filed suit against the IOC for not allowing them into the Vancouver games. Canadian lower courts found in favor of the women, but the IOC appealed to the country’s Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case. With that the US Ski Team program, which had been providing funding to Van and other American women since 2007, dropped their support of women’s jumping. Meanwhile Jenny Holden had wrapped up her career in Nordic skiing at Holderness (with Coach Phil Peck) and the University of Vermont. At the age of 30 she was living in Maryland and looking for a change of lifestyle when—through some Nordic friends on the US Ski Team—she landed a job managing the men’s Nordic combined and jumping events

the women performed much better than at the 2009

for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee at the 2002

championships, and the 13 countries represented this

Olympic games.

year indicated a good depth of field. Subsequently the

From there she went to a five-year stint as manager of the US Men’s Alpine Team, and then spent a very interesting two years as Bode Miller’s personal

IOC voted to admit women’s jumping into the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia. “This will absolutely grow the sport by leaps and

manager after the skier’s split from the US Team.

bounds,” said Deedee Corradini, president of WSJ-

Which begs the question—isn’t the phrase “managing

USA, to the New York Times (“After a long fight for

Bode” an oxymoron?

inclusion, women’s ski jumping gains Olympic sta-

Holderness School Today

Alumni in the News

Service tus,” 4/6/11). “It was always a chicken-and-egg prob-

lessly fundraise and find sponsors for WSJ athletes.

lem. Once the girls know they’re in the Olympics, more

She’s also busy

and more want the opportunity to do better.”

Management, where she and Michael Spencer represent

Better yet, this is a ski jumping event in which the USA has a legitimate shot at the podium. “We still have

with her other job at EGO Sports

top Olympic and X-Games Freeski athletes: Simon Dumont, Torin Wallace, Billy Demong, Andrew

Lindsey Van,” Jenny says, “and four other American

Weilbrecht, and others. But she can take a lot of per-

women ranked in the world’s top thirty. We’ll be con-

sonal satisfaction right now from the fact that on the world’s highest stage ski jumping is at last deemed

tenders in Russia.” More work remains to keep the sport moving forward. So far the US Ski Team is still not funding any

appropriate for women—from medical, athletic, and political points of view.

female ski jumpers, which means Jenny has to relent-

T’S AN OLD STORY—soldiers

Stephen Martin ’07 is with the Marines in Afghanistan and would love to hear from you.

packages and letters regularly on his

to war, and it’s often hard to get

end,” she adds, “and says it keeps

news about them, and that’s the

him going every day!”

case with Stephen Martin, who mar-

ried classmate Kourtney Brim ’07

Since mail takes about a month to get there, Kourtney recommends

last September in the Chapel of the

that material be sent as soon as pos-

Holy Cross.

sible. Stephen’s deployment mailing

Lance Corporal Martin is cur-

Peter Clayman NH Images

Mail call

address is as follows:

rently deployed with a Marine infantry unit in Afghanistan. He’s

LCPL Stephen A. Martin

there on a seven-month tour, return-

2D Battalion 8th Marines

ing in August. Kourtney reports,

Fox Company Weapons Platoon

though, that he can phone home

Unit 73235

every once in a while and was doing

FPO-AE 09510-3235

well as of April. “He is receiving

The Outdoors

Not the mountains, but the people. L

INDEN

MALLORY

THOUGHT

he might

have a head for lacrosse when, he says, “during my freshman year a ball hit me

in the helmet and went into the opposing

goal.” But it was actually during his sophomore year, as a member of a rock climbing squad led by Dr. Richard Parker, that he really found his life’s passion. Linden went on to Dartmouth, where he raced on an NCAA champion Nordic ski team, and then to a mountaineering career that has taken him to the highest peaks in North America, South America, Russia, Africa, and Nepal. These days he leads climbs for Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. in Washington and Alaska. He has also led several Himalayan expeditions and several dozen international climbs.

Holderness School Today

International climbing guide Linden Mallory ’03 returns to campus and shares the why of his journey. He also serves on the board of To Return, a non-profit providing scholarships and educational opportunities for the children of local guides and porters on Mt. Kilimanjaro, and is the founder of Cairn Mountain Company, which publishes climbers’ maps for places like Mt. Rainier. Last February Linden made an expedition back to Holderness, where he spoke to the community in a Friday assembly and showed photographs of many of the high places he’s seen. And yet the mountains weren’t really the point. “I remember Dr. Parker telling me, ‘It’s not about the mountains you climb, but the people you meet,’” he said. “I’ve come to appreciate that bit of wisdom.”

Antarctic Powder Extreme skier Chris Davenport ’89 performs in Australis: An Antarctic Ski Odyssey. Newspapers and magazines take note.

AVING ALREADY BEEN

the subject of

many ski movies, former world champi-

on extreme skier Chris Davenport has

recently produced one. He performs in this movie as well, of course, but this time he and

course you do, because you know if you fall you’re going to die. But you have to channel that energy in a positive way. I love those situations.” And Chris appreciated the backdrop to

nine other expert skiers play only supporting

those situations. “There were penguins and

roles.

whales breaching right in front of you,” he said.

“I think what’s different about this ski movie is that the skiers are secondary characters to the place itself,” he told a reporter from the

“The scenery and wildlife was overwhelming.” His plan for next year is to return and help other people ski or climb those same mountains.

Nashua Telegraph this winter (“Former NH men

This year he’s part of the film tour, an exercise

film unique movie in Antarctica,” 1/3/11).

that has taken him all around the country, with

“While there is beautiful skiing, it’s much more

more stops to come, as well as dates in France

a story about a place, much more documentary

and New Zealand. A feature story on the filming

style than ski-action style.” That place is Antarctica, and the film— which is touring the country now—is Australis: An Antarctic Ski Odyssey. Chris got the idea for

also appears in the April issue of Outside Magazine. “These days,” writes Outside correspondent Rob Story (“You wish you were here,”

the film in 2008 after a ski trip to Antarctica,

April, 2011) “cutting-edge expeditions often

and he enlisted as videographer Jim Surette, a

happen because gear companies believe there's

New Hampshire-based cameraman who had pre-

promotional gold in the combination of top out-

viously worked the X-Games and filmed on

door athletes, dream adventures (like skiing first

Mount Everest. Then he rounded up nine other

descents in the mountains of Antarctica), and

adventure skiers, and they shot the film during

cool Web images from the bottom of the world.

November and December of 2009. “For weeks,” said the Telegraph, “the eight men and two women sailed around Antarctica in

Does it work? Heck if I know. But it sure was fun being a content provider.” The point, though, says Chris, isn’t really

a boat, spending their days skiing and shooting

the film—or the publicity. Rather it’s the glory

and their nights enjoying dinner and a few

of that backdrop. He told the Telegraph, “We

beers.” These coastal mountains weren’t that

wanted to share with people a beautiful part of

high—two to four thousand feet—but they were steep, with slopes up to 55 degrees that fell directly into the ocean. “You have to be focused in that one moment. No mistakes, no falling,” Chris said. “You have to ski it clean. You get nervous, of

the world they don’t know about.”

Editor’s note: This spring Chris went skiing on the flanks of Mt. Everest, and by coincidence he met two other alumni on the mountain: Zach Zaitzeff ’93 and Linden Mallory ’03. All three summitted the mountain on different days in May. We’ll have more about that in our fall issue.

Holderness School Today

Alumni in the News

The Outdoors

In Memoriam: Kip Garre ’92

HIS SPRING THE Holderness

This photo of the program from Kip’s memorial service was taken by friend and photographer Terra Reilly ’91.

He brings gear and clothing to locals in

tional ski world—was shocked

Nepal and India; listens to NPR and thinks

and saddened by the untimely

the Beatles are ‘sick’; marvels at the Milky

death of Kip Garre ’92 on

Way; and during conversations on the trail,

April 24. Kip and his girlfriend Allison

defends his nomadic lifestyle against a

Kreutzen were killed in an avalanche while

more traditional existence.”

ski mountaineering on Split Mountain, a 14,058-foot peak in the eastern Sierra Nevadas near Lone Pine, California. Kip lived in the Lake Tahoe area, but

The rest of the world was just learning about the personal depth and the remarkable ski mountaineering skills of Kip Garre when an avalanche on Split Mountain snuffed out two lives.

also an expert backcountry skier. She and Kip had left on Saturday to climb Split Mountain and descend the 2,000-foot Split

for Points North Heli-Adventures in

Couloir, a narrow, rocky gutter down the

Cordova, Alaska. Otherwise—with help

mountain first skied in 1990. When they

from sponsorships from K2 (he was a

failed to call in to friends on Tuesday, a

member of K2’s Backside Team),

search was mounted. Their bodies were

Mountain Hardwear, and Oakley—he

found in an avalanche field on Thursday.

climbed and skied all over the world, and

Later it was found that a 3.2 magnitude

his trademark humility disguised the fact

earthquake had shaken the mountains on

that he had become a rising star in the

the day of the avalanche.

world of ski mountaineering, famous for

Last June Kip was skiing in Peru with

his descents of Grand Teton, the Mendel

freeskier Arne Backstrom when Backstrom

Couloir, Rainier’s Liberty Ridge, and oth-

died on Pisco Mountain. Speaking in 2009

ers.

to ESPN.com about the death of ski mounLast May ESPN Freeskiing named

Garre “The Most Interesting Man in the

taineer Shane McConkey, Kip said, “Any time something this drastic happens, yes, you think about it more. You always think

was on the cover of

about the risk. But for me, personally, I

Backcountry magazine.

don’t think I’ll change what I do. Maybe

In that issue’s feature

it’ll force me to analyze situations even

story he was dubbed the

more so, because you know bad’s a possi-

best of “the new guard”

bility.”

of ski mountaineering. Thoughtful and articu-

“Kip was an inspiration to everyone around him and continued to set standards

late, Kip was also a fre-

in all realms of his life,” said Jessica

quent contributor to

Solokowski-Quinn, the owner of Points

Powder magazine, and

North, to ESPN.com. “He was the most

the featured skier in a

humble guy in the world and would always

Warren Miller film to

make others feel special and talented. His

be released this fall.

zeal for life was contagious, as was his

“Garre has a polite, soft-spoken demeanor that cloaks his depth,”

passion for the mountains. He was truly world-class.” “Now Kip is with Arne,” said

wrote Backcountry

Backcountry magazine, “forever skiing

writer Devon O’Neill in

deep powder and steep lines.”

that February feature.

“The ski world has lost another icon,”

“He’s always more

added Craig Antonides ’77, who was Kip’s

interested in asking how

friend and ski coach at Holderness.

you’re doing—a ques-

in peace.”

tion that never seems

Holderness School Today

Allison Kreutzen was an emergency room nurse at Tahoe Forest Hospital and

had been working since 1999 as a guide

World.” In February he

superficial—than detailing his latest feat.

community—and the interna-

“Rest

“I

HAD A FEW MINUTES

of glory being in

front of the best at the start,” says Nina

Cook Silitch. In fact she was in front of

the best in the world at the grueling outdoor pur-

the eighth fastest time overall. “But after the start I messed up a transition on skis and lost time,” she says. “That caused me not to make the finals.” Otherwise Nina had very little to be disap-

suit of ski mountaineering, and racing in the semifinals of the

pointed about. She and teammate Janelle Smiley

individual sprint

from Colorado placed eighth in the team race—

portion of the Ski

30 km long, 2400 meters of vertical scale. Then

Mountaineering

Nina did well enough in the 1200 meter individ-

World

ual race and the team relays to finish fifteenth

Championships

overall in the championships. “I returned home with a smile, knowing I

held in Claut, Italy,

had given it my all with a happy heart,” she says.

last February.

“Soon I was home to celebrate [son] Anders’

And in fact she had qualified

fifth

for the semis with

all with grace.”

birthday, and to keep striving to balance it

Sports

Alex Francis ’10 is NEC Rookie-ofthe-Year. He’s also the Bulldog who almost ate Long Island.

T COULDN’T STAVE

off a loss

against a very good opponent,

tied for the second-most points off the bench against a D-I team in the last 15

At the end of February Bryant

seasons. And it’s the most points by a freshman since Michael Beasley scored 44 against Baylor in 2008.

had an overall record of 9-20, and the

Long Island went on to an invita-

Bulldogs figured to be up against it in

tion to the Big Dance, the NCAA’s D-

playing on the road against 23-5 Long

I championship tournament, and in

Island University, then ranked #18 in

fact they took the nation’s longest

the nation in Mid-Major Top 25 polls.

winning streak into March Madness.

And as expected, LIU prevailed, 94-

There they reached the second round

85.

before losing to the University of But what got everybody’s atten-

North Carolina.

tion was the freshman who came off

Meanwhile Alex went on to

Bryant’s bench. Alex played 34 min-

Northeast Conference Rookie-of-the-

utes and poured in 43 points, shooting

Year honors. He averaged 14.8 points

20 or 27 from the floor, while also

per game and was the lone freshman

pulling down 9 rebounds. Only three

to lead his team in scoring in the

of his points came at the foul line. The record books say that it was the third-highest point total in Bryant

Anything but a rookie.

Bulldogs moved up to Division I. It’s

performance from Alex Francis, who now plays NCAA Division

Nina Cook Silitch ’90 starts fast and hangs on for 15th at the Ski Mountaineering Worlds.

history, and the highest since the

but it was an attention-getting

I basketball at Bryant University.

Home with a smile

NEC. Overall, he was ninth in the conference in scoring, fourth in rebounding (8.0 rpg) and double-dou-

Holderness School Today

Alumni in the News

Sports

bles (8), and eighth in field-goal percentage (.507). In

3/1/11). “Armed with a diverse offensive repertoire,

fact he led Bryant in nearly every statistical category

the 6-foot-6 forward seemed unfazed by the adjust-

except assists.

ment to the college game. Whether it was breaking

“It didn’t take long for Francis to develop into a

down defenders in the halfcourt, finishing on the

dominant interior force for the 2010-11 Bulldogs, who

break, or crashing the boards, Francis looked like any-

improved by eight games in the win column in its sec-

thing but a rookie.”

ond year as a member of the NEC,” said Bryantbulldogs.com (“Francis named NEC Rookie-of-the-Year,”

We hope Bryant gets invited to the Dance next year. If so, we know who’ll be driving them there.

A good two days’ work in Aspen: Julia Ford ’08 wins the NorAm season downhill crown, and then the US National downhill title. In the ski tracks of Bode and that other Julia.

EBRUARY WAS

a big

As a first-time US

month in the alpine rac-

National Downhill champ,

ing career of Julia Ford

wrote Utahskieronline.com,

’08. On the 15th, while skiing

“Ford follows in the footsteps

in Aspen, CO, the US Ski

of US greats like five-time

Team member won a NorAm

Olympic medalist Bode

circuit event in downhill, and

Miller and four-time World

in so doing clinched the

Championships medalist Julia

NorAm season title in that

Mancuso.”

discipline.

And just by way of

And on the next day, in

reminder, Julia is the only

the US National Alpine

three-time winner of the

Championships—held at that

Eastern Ski Association’s

same course in Aspen—Julia

Golden Ski Award for the top

smoked the field, beating sec-

junior skier in the East, and—

ond-place finisher Kylie

as good as she is in down-

Staples in downhill by nearly

hill—she is a four-event skier

nine-tenths of a second, which

who finished second overall

is huge gap in elite alpine ski-

in the NorAm Cup standings

ing.

last year.

Among our alumni at SSWSC . . .

Comfortably atop the podium at the US Nationals.

Snowboarder Chis Allen ’10 is named to the US Junior National Team and races at the Junior World Championships in Italy.

AST SPRING

CHRIS ALLEN was glad to

whom also train with SSWSC. Through the

be admitted to the University of New

winter he trained in the morning and

Hampshire, but even gladder this

worked at a local tubing area at night. It paid off last March with a trip to the

winter—after deferring for a year at UNH—to be named to the US Junior National Snowboarding Team. Last summer he trained for eight

Junior Worlds in Valmalenco, Italy. There he posted a promising 21st-place finish in the giant slalom. “Although it’s hard to

weeks in Argentina while competing in FIS

believe one can face a tougher challenge

and Revolution Tour races. Then in the fall

than surviving Holderness School as a day

he moved to Steamboat Springs, CO, in

boy,” wrote Chris’s friend Ryan Rosencranz

order to train with one of the best snow-

’12 in a winter issue of The Picador, “Chris

boarding clubs in the country, the

Allen has moved on to harsher obstacles.”

Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. He

Holderness School Today

Editor’s note: HST is grateful to Ryan

shares a condo there with Converse Fields

Rosencranz for the reporting on this article.

’08 and Sophia Schwartz ’09, both of

Watch out for V Damage! photo Barbara Bowen

Among the teammates of Val Lithgow ’83 are Curls of Fury, Della Destroyer, and Jane Cougar Mellontramp. But this new version of Roller Derby is actually more sport than spectacle.

HE WENT FROM

HOLDERNESS to Mount Ida

keister, and it was as scripted as professional wrestling.

College, where she studied graphic design and

But even so, it showed that women could not only be ath-

art history. Then she began work in retail sales

letic—they could be tough as well, and in its own way it

with Eastern Mountain Sports. With a résumé

helped break a path for Title IX and more opportunity for

like that, well, of course she ended up in Roller

women in sports.

Derby.

This decade has seen a grass-roots revival of Roller

These days Val Lithgow—a.k.a. V Damage—is, in

Derby, but as a real sport this time around. Today Roller

her daylight hours, an account manager for a direct mail

Derby is international, with over 600 leagues spread over

sales operation in Peterborough, NH. But she began to

twenty countries. There are also an increasing number of

think about Roller Derby when she heard ads about events

male, co-ed, and junior leagues.

on the New England circuit on a Manchester radio station last year. And then, last fall, she saw an ad about tryouts

These are all amateur organizations, and V Damage isn’t about to quit the day job. But she’s glad she

for a new Monadnock-area team in a Peterborough newspaper. Val answered that ad. She had never been on roller skates, but she had played ice hockey at Holderness. And

photo Barbara Bowen

today she is an original member of the Monadnock Knockers, a Women’s Flat Track Association team that aims to rub elbows, shall we say, with such established franchises as the Boston Derby Dames, the Queen

Their monikers and costumes and flying elbows are reminders that Roller Derby hasn’t entirely forsaken the it showcased way ahead of the curve. punk feminist sensibilities

City Cherry Bombs of Manchester, and the Petticoat

answered that ad. “This is serious sport we’re playing,”

Punishers of Fitchburg, MA.

she says. “You have to skate really hard, and you have to

It probably won’t be pretty,

be in tip-top condition. But it’s great exercise, a great out-

and that’s just the point. Her

let, and I like that it’s a team sport. I also kind of like the

teammates are people like

hitting.”

Curls of Fury, Della Destroyer, and Jane Cougar

As HST goes to press, the Knockers are preparing for their first official bout at the end of April, a contest with

Mellontramp, but this isn’t

the Manchvegas at the Westside Arena in Manchester.

the theatrical version of

Val’s teammates—self-styled tramps and furies and

Roller Derby that ran on TV

destroyers—are actually an assembly of teachers, sales

in the 1960s and 1970s. The

people, web designers, organic farmers, and optometrists.

sport was actually born as an endurance event in the

But they all like to hit, and their monikers and costumes

1880s. Later a scoring system was introduced that

and flying elbows will be reminders that Roller Derby has-

involved designated skaters on each team trying to lap

n’t entirely forsaken the punk feminist sensibilities it

members of the other team around a circular track.

showcased way ahead of the curve fifty years ago.

The televised version of Roller Derby focused on the spectacle of women knocking each other wheels-over-

“What happens out there, happens,” says V Damage.

Holderness School Today

Advancement & External Relations

An infusion of youth, please!

THE YOUNG ALUMNI SOCIETY is off and running and growing at Holderness School. It’s an organization that highlights the activities of young alumni, fosters cohesion between them, and promotes creative (and fun) ideas for ways to give back to Holderness. Let’s not forget that it’s a great vehicle for professional networking as well.

Want to be part of the planning process? The New

YAS members tour the Red Hook Brewery in Portsmouth last November.

mount up with the Young Alumni Society.

England YAS Steering Committee is currently defining activities to accomplish its mission. Email: alum@holderness.org to get involved.

A gathering at the home of Jill and John Alfond ’87 in Vail.

Thank You Thank You Thank You to the Hosts of Alumni Events During 2010-11!! Place

Host

UNH Tailgate and Football Game

Young Alumni Society

Red Hook Brewery Tour

Young Alumni Society

Fall Gathering in NYC

Dana Conroy and Jim Rosenfield

Holiday Party at

Sue and Bernie Pucker

the Pucker Gallery

Denver, CO Gathering

Peter Macdonald '60

Boulder, CO Gathering

Erich Kaiter '90

Vail, CO Gathering

Jill and John Alfond '87

P'09

San Francisco

Julie and Will Parish '71

Senior Dinner

Andy Bohlin '01

Peabody Essex Museum, Boston

Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo P'94

Cambridge Brewing Company Gathering

Young Alumni Society

And Save the Date for These Events on Tap for the Fall and Early Winter!! September 23-25, 2011

Reunion & Homecoming Weekend

October 16, 2011

Apple Picking at the Finnegans’

October 23, 2011

Charles Riverboat tour for the Head of the Charles

December, TBD

Holiday Gathering in New York City

Holderness School Today

A gathering of alumni pucksters at the new Plymouth State University rink.

Holderness School Today

At This Point in Time...

Those fine, knightly qualities.

FEBRUARY

1906, headmaster Lorin

Webster formed the Merrill Rees Guards.

ever, is unlimited. [â&#x20AC;Ś ] Student Government will perhaps someday lead to the Honor System, which

Named in honor of a late student, its pur-

is so successful in some schools and so much

pose was "the promulgation in the school of

needed at Holderness."

the fine virtues which [Rees] had so beauti-

fully exemplified [and] the eradication of the

Though we know little about the early evolution of this first system of student government at

unworthy things that creep into school-life and

Holderness, we do know it was not without flaws.

corrupt its tone and poison its atmosphere." The

School president Dick Floyd reflected in 1959 that

faculty selected one student from each of the five

"before 1940 there were master proctors who con-

forms to serve in the Guards; those students in

trolled everything and everybody." Between 1940

turn selected two classmates to participate. Each

and 1949, Holderness amended the system to

boy in the resulting group of fifteen had been

include three committees, each with two faculty

selected because he was "most likely to cultivate

members and three student members. The com-

in his own life and encourage and inculcate in oth-

mittees were separately tasked with addressing

ers those fine, knightly qualities which were so

tardiness, general infractions, and serious infrac-

conspicuous in Merrill Rees."

tions. In 1949, the school moved toward the cur-

This largely honorary organization, of course,

rent system; faculty member Ford Hinman wrote

predates Holderness School's current form of stu-

at the time, "The system is not perfect; no one

dent government by almost 50 years. It would be

expected it would be. It is far better, however,

some time before student leaders held formal

than the cops and robbers system we operated

responsibilities within the daily life of the school.

under before."

However, the Guards foreshadow a future system

Over time, there have been speed bumps in

that would elect representatives based on their

the current system of student leadership. However,

ability to lead by example.

students and faculty have consistently linked the

Until 1925, the student body did not participate in the organization or implementation of the school's daily life; rather, they moved through the school experience as it was defined by the

success of the system to the integrity of its participants. In 1949, Ford Hinman had warned that "student government, to function properly, necessitates good leadership." In 1961, student Skip

Rectors and the Masters. There might have

Bryan echoed that "the success of the system still

been grumbling about aspects of the sys-

lies in the initiative, integrity and morals of the

tem, but it was nevertheless understood that

citizens." In other words, without worthy leaders,

student autonomy was limited to specific

the system could be expected to falter.

activities and organizations (publications, fraternities, etc.). That began to change when Lorin

To avoid such a crisis, and to elect truly worthy leaders, every member of the school is expected to rate peers honestly and fairly during the

Webster's thirty-year headmastership ended

election. In 1967, Thomas Quale reminded class-

in 1922. Before Edric Weld's tenure began

mates of this fact, criticizing them for "not â&#x20AC;Ś giv-

in 1931, there was a nine-year period in

ing each candidate the proper thought required for

which Holderness tried to find its sea-legs,

a fair vote." He flatly stated:"It is up to the stu-

and new experiments in school culture took

dents of Holderness to continue this trend of elect-

place. By 1925, for example, we know that

ing good leaders. The only way that this can be

individual forms were electing their own

accomplished is to make the elections a thoughtful

leaders. These "councils" were still focused

and sincere event."

mainly on facilitating student activities, such as school dances. In 1929, however,

More than forty years on, this still holds true. Luckily, as a school we seem to have become

we see the solemn announcement in stu-

adept at recognizing and acknowledging true lead-

dent publication The Dial that, on January

ership. Perhaps the four-fold criteria that appear

22, "The Student Council took over its duties today for the first time in the history of the

on our ballots do a fine job of capturing the same "fine virtues" and "knightly qualities" the Merrill

school." The magazine explains: "At present the

Rees Guards embodied. Or perhaps, as student

council's duties consist mainly in supervising

Brooke Thomas wrote in 1959, we all ultimately

study period, evening study hall, and assigning

recognize that "the government you make is what

minor punishments. The field in the future, how-

Holderness will be."

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