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PAID
LEWISTON, ME PERMIT NO. 82
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY THE MAGAZINE OF HOLDERNESS SCHOOL SPRING 2016
CHAPEL LANE PO BOX 1879 PLYMOUTH, NH 03264-1879
INSIDE: r The Next Good Idea r Catching Up with Jim Brewer r Special Programs BASECAMP IS MISSION CONTROL DURING OUT BACK. BUT IT IS ALSO A GATHERING PLACE FOR ALL THOSE WHO HAVE GROWN TO LOVE OUT BACK AND RETURN EVERY YEAR JUST TO BE A PART OF THE JOURNEY. THIS YEAR ON A WARM AND BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY AFTERNOON, HOLDERNESS CHEF KERRY O’CONNELL MADE THE TREK TO BASECAMP AND HELPED WITH SOME OF THE COOKING.
Holderness School Spring 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.19 inches wide (includes 0.19 inches for perfect-bound spine); folded size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide. Artwork prints in four-color process and bleeds all four sides. Cover artwork; Cover IV and Cover I.
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AIDAN KINSLEY ’19 HAULS BRUSH OUT OF THE FAIRMONT PARKS IN PHILADELPHIA. DURING THEIR TEN-DAY ADVENTURE, AIDAN AND THE REST OF THE NINTH-GRADERS CLEANED UP THREE TRUCKLOADS OF DEBRIS. PHOTO BY TANNER ENSIGN ’19
“ Thank you, Holderness, for all you have given me over the years, and continue to give to our community and world.” – Jake Norton ’92
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“MEMORIES TO CHERISH FOR A LIFETIME…” – THADDEUS – FOOTE ’92
“ I AM ALWAYS PROUD TO THINK OF OR SAY ‘HOLDERNESS.’” – JOHN ALDEN ’78 “ When I think about all the informative moments in my four years at Holderness, they are too many, too hard to separate, and too hard to rate. It was four years of hard but molded me into a well-educated young man, ready to face the world.” – David Nichols ’65
“ There were 23 of us that graduated in the Spring of 1950, part of a total enrollment on campus of about 76. I still think of those years as some of my best.” – Chico Laird ’50
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rewarding work. The complete life experience
“ We love Holderness!” – Kathy Cunha P ’16 ’19
“ Holderness is the complete package.” – Peter Rapelye P ’93 ’97
DONATE SECURELY ONLINE AT WWW.GIVETOHOLDERNESS.ORG
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Holderness Fund
Holderness School Spring 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.19 inches wide (includes 0.19 inches for perfect-bound spine); folded size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide. Artwork prints in four-color process and bleeds all four sides. Cover artwork; Cover II and Cover III.
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F E AT U R E S
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The Next Good Idea Holderness School’s new Campus Master Plan not only supports the school’s curriculum goals but meets many other strategic goals as well. BY RICK CAREY
ABOVE: A view across the Quad with Niles and Webster Dormitories in the background. After Livermore Hall was built to replace Knowlton Hall, Niles and Webster were constructed according to the Campus Master Plan created by Jens Frederick Larson. The rest of Larson’s plan was never completed.
Catching Up with Jim Brewer Rick Carey and Phil Peck catch up with Jim in his new home, not too far from campus, where he continues to read poetry, take photographs, bake bread, and yes, tell stories. BY RICK CAREY
16 Special Programs
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How many seven-layer bars does it take to fuel the juniors during Out Back? How many pounds of mirror did the sophomores recycle during Artward Bound? And how many meals did the ninth-graders pack for the citizens of Philadelphia during Project Outreach? It’s Special Programs by the numbers!
Holderness School Spring 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
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D E PA R T M E N T S Board of Trustees Sandeep Alva Neale Attenborough Jonathan Baum Grace Macomber Bird Christopher Carney ’75, Treasurer Carolyn Cullen ’87 Russell Cushman ’80 The Rev. Randolph Dales, Secretary Victoria Frei Tracy McCoy Gillette ’89, Alumni Association President Robert Hall James Hamblin II ’77, Chairperson Jan Hauser Susie Hayes The Right Rev. Robert Hirschfeld, President Peter Kimball ’72 Robert Kinsley ’88 Alex MacCormick ’88 Richard Nesbitt Peter Nordblom Susan Paine ’82 R. Phillip Peck Thomas Phillips ’75 Ian Sanderson ’79 Andrew Sawyer ’79 Jenny Seeman ’88 Harry Sheehy Gary Spiess Poppy Staub ’85 Jerome Thomas ’95 Sander van Otterloo ’94 HEADMASTER EMERITUS The Rev. Brinton W. Woodward, Jr. HONORARY TRUSTEES Warren C. Cook Piper Orton ’74 W. Dexter Paine III ’79 Will Prickett ’81
3 From the Schoolhouse 4 From the Editor 5 03264: Letters to HST 30 Around the Quad 40 Sports 46 Update: Faculty and Staff 50 Update: Trustees 52 Alumni in the News 58 Alumni Events: Gatherings 61 Class Notes 79 At This Point in Time
Holderness School Today is published three times a year by Penmor Lithographers. Please send notice of address changes to the Advancement Office, PO Box 1879, Plymouth, NH 03264, or advancement@holderness.org. © 2013 Holderness School EDITOR: Emily Magnus ’88 EDITOR EMERITUS: Jim Brewer ASSISTANT EDITORS: Rick Carey, Hillary Beach, Robert Caldwell, Liz Kendall, Stacy Lopes, Kim Merrow, Clay Dingman DESIGN AND PRODUCTION: Clay Dingman, Barking Cat Productions Communications Design
PHOTOGRAPHY: Emily Magnus, Neal Frei ’03, Ken Hamilton Holderness School Today is printed on sustainably produced, chain-of-custody stock certified to Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) standards. HST is printed using only wind-generated renewable power, and inks derived from vegetable sources. ON THE FRONT COVER: During Artward Bound, sophomore Kathy Liech uses a mold to hammer and stretch a circular piece of copper into a spoon after it has been heated with a blow torch. Later, she will attach a forged iron handle.
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FROM THE SCHOOLHOUSE
A Focus on the People and the Programs When board member, alumnus, and present parent Rob Kinsley ’ and his associate Jonathan Wehri from lcs began developing our Campus Master Plan, they focused first on the programs and the people. What will teaching and learning look like at Holderness in twenty years? What are the distinguishing and sustaining programs that are part of the Holderness experience? What tools will teachers want and need to effectively teach the next generation of students? How will the outdoors, outdoor education, and Holderness School’s programs interact in the coming years? How do we design classrooms to best serve the needs of our teachers and students? What does it mean to “redefine leadership and intellectual development preparing all for their journeys in a changing worldâ€?? How refreshing and how Holderness that Rob and Jonathan focused on the people and programs. Yes, facilities are important but only in how they support the dynamic programs and people of Holderness as we move forward. In Rick Carey’s feature article, you will get a sense of that campus master planning process and how we will be implementing this dynamic plan in the coming years. Last year was ďŹ lled with engaging discussions with diverse members of the community, and we hope that the resulting facility will serve our programs for years to come. We are excited to take what we have learned and design not just any building but one that caters to our mission and our strategic planning goals. In the meantime, what are the people in our community up to? We are fortunate that, despite the number of years since their retirement, people like Jim Brewer and Gretchen and Jonathan ’ Swift have stayed in touch and continue to be involved in our community. Jim lives close enough to campus that I can still visit him on occasion, and the Swifts just recently moved to the region and are helping us catalogue the artwork we have collected through the years. You can read articles about
l Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Head of School Phil Peck with students at this spring’s bow tie party that he and Mrs. Peck host at their house every year. Mr. Peck is one of many master instructors who volunteers to give lessons in tying bow ties.
these and many other cherished members of our community in the pages of this magazine. In this issue you can also read about another facility that is moving us forward. During the ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™‡â€“ď™„ď™ˆ school year, while building the new rink, we struggled to replace the community gatherings that happen regularly during normal winters. What a dierence a year makes. The opening of the new rink in December renewed our community spirit and returned to us our winter traditions—skating, competing, and cheering on the Bulls. And in keeping with our connection to the outdoors, the open design of the rink maintains a nice balance between fresh air and protection from the elements. In addition, the rink has many features that make it environmentally responsible and sustainable. It illustrates perfectly how we want to move forward—not just with new facilities but with responsible building practices, robust programs, and full community involvement. Of course Special Programs are important at this time of year as well and again illustrate
how we intentionally build community. While Artward Bound and Out Back focus more on our internal community, Project Outreach and Senior Thesis build our ties to other communities. This is particularly true of Senior Thesis during which we have students participating in March Experiences all over the world. The seniors are also relying more and more on our alumni for advice, interviews, and internships. We are grateful for their help and are humbled by their commitment to our community, even after graduation. So yes, facilities do matter, but only in how they support the essence of Holderness. As you read this issue of hst and as you watch Holderness’s facilities and programs evolve in the coming years, I hope you see how they support a community whose mission it is ultimately to serve humankind. Phil Peck Head of School
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FROM THE EDITOR
Take Outs
Loys Wiles with students in his Chemistry lab, circa 1930s or 1940s
At Holderness, there’s never a shortage of intriguing stories to share. But sometimes those stories aren’t detailed enough to turn into complete articles, or they don’t combine well with other material. They are the beautiful scraps of fabric left over after making a quilt; you can’t bear to throw them away, so you tuck them in a drawer with other fragments, hoping to return to them some day. In February I came across just such a story. It had great promise but just didn’t pan out the way I had hoped. This time, however, the fragments were too interesting to throw into the scrap drawer. Don Hinman, a teacher and coach at Holderness from ď™„ď™Œď™Šď™‹ to ď™„ď™Œď™Œď™‹, sent Director of Leadership Giving Peter Barnum a letter in which he made an appeal to Holderness to honor Loys Wiles, a long-time faculty member, who Don feels has never received the recognition he deserves. He sited Loys’ long track record of holding multiple positions at Holderness, including assistant to former Head of School Edric Weld. In fact, Don explained,
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it was Loys Wiles in ď™„ď™Œď™†ď™† who was responsible for convincing Edric to purchase the ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒ acres across Route ď™„ď™Šď™ˆ on which the athletic facilities and ďŹ elds, as well as the miles of wooded trails, now stand. Loys’ Folly, they used to call it when Don was still a faculty child living with his parents in Niles Dormitory. Intrigued, I made an appointment with Don, hoping that perhaps this was the beginning of the school’s ďŹ rst campus master plan. I imagined a nice sidebar to the feature that revealed just how far the school has come. Unfortunately, I didn’t find what I was looking for; while Don’s recollections are no doubt accurate, I couldn’t find any evidence in the school records to support his claim. If Loys Wiles did convince Edric Weld to purchase the land across the street, it was done unofficially, perhaps on the sidelines of a football or hockey game. So that door closed. But many more opened. For example, thanks to Don, I now know much more about the young man for whom the
Fiore Rink is named. Peter Fiore grew up on campus, next door to Don; his father was Dante Fiore, a French teacher at Holderness from ď™„ď™Œď™†ď™ƒâ€“ď™‰ď™Œ. Don and Peter were close friends, sharing many adventures throughout childhood and high school. Unfortunately, that friendship was cut short just after their graduation from Holderness in ď™„ď™Œď™ˆď™ˆ, when Peter died of complications from a haying accident. According to Don, Peter tended to push the limits with his curiosity, often stepping over the boundaries set by the adults in the community. In particular, when they were young lads, Don remembers one day during which he and Peter were focused on cutting down an elm tree behind the chapel, but it wasn’t going well. Intent on cutting up something, the pair found themselves inside the chapel and couldn’t resist chipping away at the intricate carvings on the chairs. Loys Wiles found them that day, which Don said happened on many occasions. “He had the uncanny ability to show up when you were doing something wrong,â€? said Don. “Faculty children were scared of him.â€? “But the nice thing about growing up,â€? Don added, “is that someone who scared you as a child, you turn out to admire when you grow up. My respect for Loys Wiles grew as I did. He’s probably the smartest person I ever met.â€? Alas, these stories ended up having nothing to do with campus master planning either; and on their own, I was short on text and details. No matter how many times I rearranged the pieces, they weren’t stitching together neatly. So I’ve made room here—for Loys, for Peter, for stories from the past that provide context and perspective for the other stories in this magazine. Even if the ow and timing isn’t quite right, these scraps are still a beautiful part of the Holderness quilt. Emily Adriance Magnus ’ Editor, Holderness School Today emagnus@holderness.org
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SPRING 2016
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03264: LETTERS TO HST
Setting the History Books Straight There are some parts of Holderness School’s history that have never been officially recorded and exist only in the memories of our alumni, employees, and friends. So it was no surprise to us when we shared the history of snow sports at Holderness that there were some details we didn’t get quite right. Fortunately, our alumni are willing to help us out and set the record straight. Below are two stories that are worth noting.
The Early Successes of the Holderness Ski Team I once again very much enjoyed reading the recent edition of hst—an excellent publication for which you and your editors deserve much credit in putting together. Your piece about snow sports, in particular, caught my attention. Having attended Holderness during the forties, to which you referred at one point in your article, I have vivid recollections of the happy times I had at the school in those days. However, some clarification needs consideration. You wrote that in the s,” Basketball was the premier sport; ski team coaches came and went.” That wasn’t necessarily true. Under the supervision and dedication of Wendy (Wendell) Stephenson—a very popular master who taught geometry, crafts, and mechanical drawing during much of that decade— Holderness put together a reasonably successful ski team of about – Holderness boys. We competed with other teams from Proctor, Hanover, Brewster Academy, and St. Paul’s, as examples. In fact, our boys had a very good cross-country program in the winter of and captured the first four fastest times against two of the four schools mentioned above: St. Paul’s and Brewster. For a school that had no more than students in attendance from the third to the sixth forms (freshmen through senior classes), I would say the ski program was reasonably successful in attaining its goals. I just wanted to set the record straight.
The Real Beginning of the Snowboarding Program I am sending a note in response to an article written in the most recent issue of the Holderness magazine on snow sports. I am sure Peter Woodward has done tremendous things to support and expand the programs; however, he did not start the Holderness School snowboard program in . What became intramural snowboarding, was fundamentally started by Adam Wysor ’, Jamie Barbor ’, Peter Colpitts ’, Peter Stanley ’, and me in . We trained every day running gates at Waterville Valley and competed among the participating schools in the White Mountains. We had dedicated coaching at WV (funded by our parents); Mike Kildevaeld was our coach before he went pro, and then later an Austrian, Martin Kaplija. The team obtained Burton boards through Jamie’s father (then president of Merrill & Kahru); Kahru it seemed had laminating capabilities that Burton did not, and we were fortunate enough to benefit from the relationship. I distinctly recall our parents debating with Mark Perkins on the topic of cars on campus. We were (like Eastern skiers) seeking permission to keep cars on campus for the purpose of getting to weekend races, as our parents grew tired of the drive up from Boston and Marblehead. Mark ultimately made the concession. Adam and I went on to compete in the New England Cup Race Series (attending races across VT and NH), and Adam ultimately won the men’s GS in . I am delighted by the coverage the sport has received and the notation in the hst. I write this to simply set the facts straight, as one of my fonder Holderness School memories was the role I played in the inception of what is today a snowboarding program.
The winter cover of Holderness School Today in which our conversation about snow sports at Holderness began
Michael Brogna ’
Frank Hammond ’
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The Next Good Idea SOME NECESSARY UPGRADES ARE IN STORE FOR THE HOLDERNESS CAMPUS. A NEW CAMPUS PLAN, STILL IN DEVELOPMENT, WILL LEND SHAPE TO WHAT’S JUST AROUND THE CORNER AND ALSO WHAT’S FAR DOWN THE ROAD. BY RICK CAREY
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he place, on this brisk Monday in January, is a conference room in the headquarters of the Nordblom Company in Burlington, MA. The question is the location of a proposed new academic building on the Holderness School campus. Those present all like the sketch of Option A, which came into this horse race, as it were, as the odds-on favorite. Option B, when it comes on the big screen at the front of the room, is duly considered, but generally dismissed. Option C will require the removal of a dormitory building and a replacement in that same spot with a new facility. This is attractive—but not so attractive, actually, as an alternative to Option A, a tweak to that first idea that combines elements of A and C. This involves a hurdle that didn’t exist for Option A, but if it can be overcome–oh, my. “Wow,” says Jim Hamblin ’77, chair of Holderness School’s Board of Trustees, as he gazes up at the screen. Jim is also a member of the board’s Campus Master Planning Committee, and that committee—seven trustees, along with Head of School Phil Peck, several other school administrators, and a pair of architects—has gathered at the real estate firm run by trustee and CMP committee chair Peter Nordblom. One whole wall of the conference room is devoted to an aerial photo of that portion of Burlington where the Nordblom Company and several other enterprises are headquartered. The photo is a mosaic of office buildings, parking lots, woods,
l Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
ponds, and highways that over the decades came together haphazardly– rather as a school campus might, actually, as circumstances change over the decades. The committee’s mission is to take some of the “hap” out of the hazards of making Holderness School’s campus lovelier, more livable, more sustainable, and equal to the educational opportunities of the 21st century. This is no small task, and being open to suggestions is—well, that is the whole point, at least as the process was designed and set up by the architects in the room, Rob Kinsley ’88 and Jonathan Wehri. It helps that Rob Kinsley is not only an alumnus, but also a current parent (Aidan ’19) and a trustee. “I’m a triplethreat, just a different sort of one,” he laughs, citing old prep school slang for the sort of teacher who serves at once as instructor, coach, and dorm parent. Make that a quadruple-threat in Rob’s case, since as president of LSC Design (based in Pennsylvania’s York County), he also leads a multi-tasking company that provides architecture, interior design, civil engineering, land planning, landscape architecture, and other services to its clients. Jonathan Wehri is Rob’s director of design. On this day Rob and Jonathan are as impressed as anyone else in the room by the shape, sweep, and symmetry of a campus shaped according to the alternative to Option A. That includes trustee Russ Cushman ’80. “I commend whoever came up with that idea,” he says.
IN THE SHADOW OF KNOWLTON HALL In order to understand—and appreciate— either Option A or its alternative, you have to know something about how the Holderness campus took shape over the school’s history. Let’s start with Knowlton Hall, the biggest facility ever raised here. Phil Peck wasn’t quite serious, of course, when he once said, “Thank God Knowlton Hall burned down;” the fiery destruction in 1931 of the school’s main building—a combination dormitory, library, dining hall, and classroom facility—was indeed a catastrophe, a reversal so ruinous that Holderness nearly closed its doors. The building was underinsured and the school had to spend the next three decades struggling out of the financial crater the fire created. But at least from a campus-planning perspective, there was an upside to the event. In its great size, in its ornate and gabled Victorian Gothic brickwork, Knowlton Hall had nothing in common stylistically with the rest of the campus: the simple clapboards of the Colonial-style Schoolhouse, the straightforward NeoGeorgian brickwork of Carpenter Hall. And resting where Livermore Hall now stands, Knowlton also faced south, towards the Chapel of the Holy Cross, turning its flank on Carpenter and the Schoolhouse. It offered a different focal point for the school, and Phil’s comment reflects the wisdom of hindsight for the focal point that developed instead. On the heels of that fire, the task of replacing Knowlton occasioned what might
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be described as the school’s first Campus Master Plan. This was a set of plans that were done pro bono for Holderness by Jens Frederick Larson, the famed architect who had designed and built the Dartmouth College campus. The sketches that Larson unveiled in December 1931, were a marvel of pleasing symmetry. Livermore Hall, perhaps two-thirds the size of Knowlton—and a blueprint duplicate of Dartmouth’s Dick’s House—would rest on Knowlton’s ashes and face east, at a right angle to Carpenter. In addition, and in accordance with Larson’s plans, Schoolhouse would be torn down and replaced by a new academic building done in the Neo-Georgian style of Livermore, still facing south. Rector Edric Weld and his board of trustees knew that Holderness would have to get bigger if it were to survive. So Livermore and Carpenter were just the northwest corner of the new campus. Larson envisioned two east-facing dormitories rising south of Livermore and in alignment with Carpenter. Two west-facing dormitories would rise opposite these across the grass of today’s Quad. And aligned with these, to the north, would be a second academic building, built to resem-
Jens Frederick Larson’s 1931 campus plan—indicated here by buildings outlined in brown on a map of today’s campus—imagined new structures added to existing ones to create symmetry on green space.
ble Carpenter and balance the building on the opposite side of the new Schoolhouse. Perhaps no one on Weld’s board—a group that included Franklin D. Roosevelt, then governor of New York—said “wow,” on the day Larson unveiled that plan, but someone must have said something like
that to a sketch that put the campus’s center of gravity in that wide green space around which the academic buildings and dormitories could be ranged. The plan was adopted, and the fundraising began immediately. Livermore was dedicated the very next year, and then Niles and Webster dor-
CAMPUS MASTER PLAN TIMELINE FALL 2008–14 The Science Department researches and develops proposals for a new facility to replace Hagerman.
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FALL 2012–2015 The Science Department visits Olin College, St. Paul’s School, and St. Sebastian’s School. While facilities provide context, it is the programming at each institution that holds the interest of the science teachers.
FALL 2012 The Campus Master Planning Committee is established.
FALL 2014 The Strategic Plan is finalized and approved by the Board of Trustees. The Plan provides institutional focus for moving forward on the science facility.
FALL 2014 The CMP Committee is instructed to update the Campus Master Plan in light of the Strategic Plan. Rob Kinsley ’88 and Jonathan Wehri of LSC Design are hired to oversee process.
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SPRING 2016
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THE NEXT GOOD IDEA
“ONE [SACRED SPACE] IS THE CENTRAL QUAD, WHICH IS WHAT YOU SEE OF HOLDERNESS ON THAT FIRST TURN INTO CAMPUS—THAT GREAT VIEW ACROSS THE GRASS TO SCHOOLHOUSE, CARPENTER, LIVERMORE, NILES AND WEBSTER, AND CHAPEL. THERE’S A VISCERAL ATTACHMENT IN EVERYBODY TO THAT GREEN SPACE.” — ROB KINSLEY ’88 mitories in 1934 and 1938, respectively. By then, however, the Depression had settled in like permafrost, and Roosevelt was in the White House trying to do something about it. Holderness could afford no more. The Schoolhouse remained as it was, and the other dormitories and the academic facility were never built. Ground would not be broken for another building on campus until 1951, the year Weld retired. This would be for a new dormitory named in memory of Alice Hoit Brown, an aunt to Edric Weld’s wife Gertrude, and built to the northeast of Schoolhouse. Since the school could afford only one dorm, the trustees chose to abandon Larson’s vision of a matched set opposite Niles and Webster. Wood-framed and sided with painted cedar shingles, Hoit reflects a slim budget, the cookie-cutter norms of postwar domestic architecture,
SPRING 2015 Rob and Jonathan meet with focus groups in the Holderness community to learn about the sacred, popular, and well-used areas of campus as well as the under-utilized and unpopular areas. Rob also asks people to describe what learning should look like in the 21st century.
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and also that temptation to build according to the architectural fashion of the moment. This reached a sort of apogee with the Edward H.C. Bartsch Athletic Center in 1968. The award-winning asymmetrical design reflected the sweeping, low-slung lines of the then-popular Prairie School of architecture which departed significantly from the traditional New England profiles of buildings such as Livermore and Schoolhouse. More typically, buildings added to the Holderness campus in the second half of the 20th century endorsed either the Georgian model of Livermore—for example, Weld Hall in 1963—or the Colonial style of the Schoolhouse, as in the South Campus dormitories built over several decades. Of course these two styles, one expressed in brick, the other in wood, have always mixed well around New England.
SUMMER 2015 Head of School Phil Peck introduces Science Department Chair Randy Houseman to Dr. Bertrand Garcia-Moreno, Chair of the Biophysics Department at Johns Hopkins University. They discuss what science looks like at Johns Hopkins.
FALL 2015 Discussions begin regarding the conceptual design of the new academic facility, including its location on campus.
More significant than questions of style, though, have been questions of what should be built, at what size, and where. This is the meat-and-potatoes of campus planning, and there have been several long-range plans floated at Holderness since Larson’s. “In looking at Holderness School’s progress and capabilities through the years, it seems obvious that the school has done well with a minimal amount of facilities,” wrote the WM Design Group in a plan it proposed in 1977. “It is also obvious and apparent that severe deficiencies have arisen during the development and it is only through the great efforts and ingenuity of the faculty that the Holderness high-quality education program is able to carry on.” Money was always short for a school climbing out of debt, and also seeding its endowment. In addition, there was the “x”
JANUARY 2016 The Campus Master Plan is approved by the Board of Trustees. MAY 2016 Jonathan and Rob develop a concept design for the new building and present it to the Board of Trustees.
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What places on campus are sacred and should remain unchanged? And conversely, what parts of campus are failing to meet the needs of the community and need to be redesigned? LSC Design met with many groups on campus and created a document that illustrates just that. Green dots indicate favorite spots on campus, while red dots indicate areas in need of improvement.
factor of school size—a little more enrollment always seemed to help the bottom line, but more students required more facilities. This was especially true for the spurt that was the shift to co-education in the 1980s. Cash-strapped but reasonably sure that girls were coming—just not sure exactly when, or in what number—Holderness considered how to build up its physical plant. It wasn’t until 1984 that the new academic building recommended in 1977 was built. “We didn’t want to build until the question of co-education had been settled,” says Pete Woodward, headmaster from 1977 to 2001. The architects had suggested a spot behind Carpenter, to its north and on the edge of the hill overlooking Plymouth. But test drills revealed unstable ground there, and the Hagerman
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Center ended up north of and kitty-corner to Hoit. In 1993, Cambridge Seven Associates advised building a media center (library/study hall/resource center) just east of the Schoolhouse, where Larson had wanted a classroom building. The Alfond Library went up three years later, but north of and behind the Schoolhouse, where the library would define a pretty north-end courtyard and also an efficient motor route through the campus. Through great effort and ingenuity, and a little bit at a time, severe deficiencies were remedied in terms of both the campus and school finances. Headmaster Don Hagerman, who led Holderness until 1977, began to build an endowment at the same time. Then Pete Woodward managed to both retire the school’s debt and add to
the endowment. These days, fifteen years into Phil Peck’s tenure, the school is financially stable and entirely clear of the shadow cast by Knowlton Hall. Phil and the trustees have also ruled that the school will remain at its present size—no more scrambling for bed space of the sort, for example, that kept Marshall Hall a functioning dorm for decades after its planned expiration date. Holderness has at last reached a point where a Campus Master Plan can really be a reliable road map, one that takes the school a good ways into the future regardless of the exigencies of the moment.
NOT TO REMEDY, BUT TO ASPIRE So in respect to that, where might the school’s current deficiencies lie? To find out, Rob Kinsley and Jonathan Wehri
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A CASE FOR A CAMPUS MASTER PLAN So you want a new academic building? It’s not that simple—at least not if you want that building to serve the whole community for decades to come. Rob Kinsley ’88—architect, trustee, and current parent— spent over three months last spring at Holderness talking to people and discussing programs. Before he would even begin to discuss what sort of building might suit Holderness School, he needed to understand the community’s programs first. And to bring it all together he needed a campus master plan. It’s a better place to start. Campus master plans don’t involve just the physical buildings and landscapes; they take into consideration the programs and the strategic plans that envision them. Additionally with a campus master plan, buildings are not designed, renovated, or constructed in isolation as monuments to styles or educational theories of a certain time period; instead they are seen in the context of the whole campus and how the other buildings around them interact and work together to achieve a common goal, and in the case of Holderness, the action items in our strategic plan. Rob and the CMP committee began by asking what 21st century learning should look like and what spaces would be needed to support the kind of learning proposed in the Holderness Strategic Plan. There are the student-led initiatives like the robotics team and the architecture club. There are the STEM classes that focus on the environment and math classes that are flipped. There’s outdoor learning and leadership, and there’s global citizenship. What should the classrooms that will support these programs look like?
began by visiting campus last spring and talking to everybody they found here: groups of faculty, students, administrators, admission officers, development officers, and staff from maintenance, housekeeping, and food service. “We spent a couple of weeks talking to people in small groups,” says Rob. “And we ran them all through the same series of exercises. We’d put up a campus map and ask people to put green dots on their favorite places at school, red dots on places that maybe don’t work so well for
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Part of the process of writing a really solid campus master plan also involves seeing how other schools do it. But the goal of visiting other schools isn’t to look at the buildings but to understand the programs and how the programs function within those spaces. A school might have a really beautiful building but mediocre programs, or vice versa—really dynamic programs with no facility to serve them. The key is to achieve both dynamic programs and the facilities built to serve them. Rob’s approach also keeps in mind that buildings can’t be built with one purpose in mind. A campus master plan begins with the assumption that the priorities of today may not be the priorities of tomorrow and that schools need spaces that allow for creativity, flexibility, and innovation. A campus master plan is a road map, not a set of directions. The school’s journey has just begun; we have only explored a small section of the road ahead. There will be a new academic building, but before it can be built, the details must be imagined, revised, designed, edited, and checked against the goals of the Strategic Plan, and now the Campus Master Plan. In the end, there will be dozens upon dozens of conversations involving countless individuals from teachers and employees to administrators and trustees, from students and families to builders and conservationists. The Holderness School Campus Master Plan will help focus those conversations, build consensus, and develop a plan for a building that will be right for Holderness and relevant to 21st century learning.
them. Then we’d talk with people about the choices they made, and why. Our next job was to correlate the different perspectives and opinions of these different groups. At least that’s what typically happens.” But that next job didn’t need doing at Holderness. “It’s usually a wrestling match, one constituent group against another, but at this school we got the most amazing result,” adds Jonathan. “We heard the same things from each group, with perfect consistency.”
They learned, Rob says, that there are “sacred places” on this campus, beloved by all. “One is the central Quad, which is what you see of Holderness on that first turn into campus—that great view across the grass to Schoolhouse, Carpenter, Livermore, Niles and Webster, and Chapel. There’s a visceral attachment in everybody to that green space.” Also there’s the upper level of Weld Hall—with the dining hall and kitchen, where staff and students work side by CONTINUED ON PAGE 13
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An aerial view of Plan A-Alternate which includes the construction of a new academic building adjacent to Schoolhouse, the relocation of Hoit, and the creation of an academic quad north of Schoolhouse
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 side, and its student lounge, abundant windows, and natural light—a place described by Rob and Jon as “the beating heart of school life.” “Other places that got green dots from everybody were the outdoor chapel and all the on-campus trails cut through the woods,” Rob says. “Holderness is lucky to have these hundreds of acres of woods and places like that so near at hand.” To LSC Design, the places where there aren’t buildings—or anything besides woods, or wildflowers, or high grass, or wetlands—are as important to a well-planned campus as the buildings themselves. Rob and Jonathan know all about unfolding neurologic research that ties natural light, access to the outdoors, and proximity to green spaces to any number of human health, psychological, and learning benefits. So of course that first glimpse of the school, across a wide grassy swale, feels welcoming and relaxing to many. Therefore they brought in a landscape architect—Tom McGilloway of Mahan Rykiel Associates, based in Baltimore—to help make recommendations for the campus as a whole. These include sight lines to the woods, swaths of wildflowers, and areas of high grass, all of which pleases science teacher Maggie Mumford, who also serves as the school’s sustainability coordinator. “One of their ideas, in fact, is a wetlands area near the new academic building, an area that would also function as a living machine, something that would filter the grey water from that building,” she says. “Then, of course, our science classes could also use the wetlands for research purposes.” And a new academic building has bubbled to the top of the conversation because of all the red dots affixed to the Hagerman Center, where science, math, and drama have endured an uneasy partnership for the last several decades. “Well,
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we’ve never had dressing rooms,” says Theater Director Monique Devine. “Students have always had to change out in the hallways, and use a single full-length mirror in the hall for applying make-up. Storage space? There’s a small loft above the stage, hard to get in and out of, where we keep costumes. Furniture and props have to go into the basement of Rathbun, where they tend to get moldy.” The building has become all too tight a squeeze for the science department as well. “I’ve been teaching here thirteen years, and over that time the school’s breadth of science offerings and the number of kids taking them have both grown tremendously,” says Science Department Chair Randy Houseman. “We require a minimum of two years of science for graduation, but many kids now are doing three or four years.” Those offerings have grown for several reasons: a strong science faculty, the college admissions factor, and the adoption of a school-wide strategic plan at Holderness that stresses STEM offerings and new models of learning. Hagerman was built at a time when the “sage on the stage” model of pedagogy—i.e., the instructor as the center of both activity and information— ruled American education, and the array of classrooms in Hagerman provides good stagecraft for this. Today, however, the dispensing of information is accomplished more often during homework assignments: taped lectures by the instructor, for example, or data from sources pulled off the Internet. This allows what happens in the classroom to be more active and hands-on, with students typically working together in small groups as they carry out experiments, exercises, projects, etc. Such models thrive in facilities with breakout spaces and common rooms, plentiful in the new science buildings that the science faculty—accompanied by Jonathan Wehri—have visited at St. Paul’s,
St. Sebastian’s, and the Olin College of Engineering. “What we do in science now is built around words like ‘innovation,’ ‘flexibility,’ and ‘collaboration,’” says Randy. “We need a building that more easily allows us to put these terms into practice.” A similar conversation surrounds the Bartsch Athletic Center, another spot buried in red dots. Its girls’ locker room was an awkward add-on in the 1980s, making the building hard to navigate internally. Bartsch also suffers in general from a lack of spaces where coaches and athletes can collaborate, train, work out, rehab, study film, etc. Of course Holderness remains that now rare sort of school where athletes play three different sports over the course of a year, not just one, which means that its multisport athletes require—more so than the specialists—versatile training techniques and collaborative coaching methods. The dream of space for what needs to be done leads Athletic Director Rick Eccleston ’92 to think about what could be done as well. “What if we could help Monique’s dance program by providing floor room for it here?” he says. “What if we had classroom space here for our health and wellness programs? We might be able to partner up with Plymouth State’s Human Health and Performance Lab program—or their Ph.D. program in physical therapy, and have four or five doctoral students here to help our kids rehab from injuries.” There are also problems elsewhere to be addressed: a chapel that struggles to accommodate the whole community, for example, and residential life issues that include continued progress toward an 8:1 ratio of students to faculty in the dorms, and the unusual problem of more faculty wanting to live on campus. Rob and Jonathan have chipped in with their own observations, which include several buildings that have no real open view to the outdoors, and a confusing relationship
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between the front of Weld and the Quad: “This is one of the most important spaces on campus and it’s dominated by cars,” reads their report. While the Holderness community has spoken largely with one voice in identifying what works and what doesn’t, deciding what to do next can be its own sort of wrestling match, and architects all too often have seen that process get testy. Fortunately the school has a referee for this—not Phil Peck, nor the board of trustees, but rather a document of just a brief several pages. Holderness strategic plans used to be identified by the year of their approval during the early years of Phil Peck’s tenure. By now, however, the Strategic Plan has become such a living document, subject to such frequent revision and adjustment, that it merely has assumed undated capital letters, as have its four primary goals: Build a Dynamic Community; Educate for the Emerging World; Deepen Our Connections; Connect Holderness to the World. “By combining our Campus Master Plan with the Strategic Plan, we are keeping our focus on our programs,” Phil says. “Instead of working on a project-by-project basis, each one within its own silo, we have developed an array of projects that work in concert for the school in terms of a future that we can project fifteen to twenty years ahead. It’s a way of making decisions going forward that complement each other, a process that’s not reactive, but proactive; not remedial, but aspirational.” “Within that sort of framework,” adds Pete Nordblom, “the CMP has less to do with how a school looks and more to do with what it wants to be.”
A CERTAIN TWEAK, AND THEN ANOTHER That January meeting of the CMP Committee in the Nordblom Company conference room began at ten AM, and it ranged up and down, over and through both the
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elements of the Strategic Plan and the feedback LSC had collected, all in reference to what the committee should bring to the imminent January meeting of the full board of trustees. “We have something like fifty different recommendations—good recommendations—for things that need doing and deciding,” Rob said. “From all those different stones, we have to sift out the big stones, our top and immediate priorities. For the rest, we’ll have to see what happens as the plan progresses, and as the needs of the school change over time.” The three biggest stones now—as determined by the CMP’s steering committee, Rob said—should be these, in order of importance: Phase 1) a new math and science-oriented academic building, along with a renovation of Hagerman; Phase 2) a new athletic facility to replace Bartsch; and Phase 3) an expansion of the chapel, this headlining other elements having to do with aspects of student life on campus and renovating Niles and Webster. There was talk about the funding necessary to carry out those phases, the risk of proposing dreams that might never be realized. But Assistant Head for Institutional Advancement Robert Caldwell, who sat at that table contemplating the biggest challenge of his career, remained positive and energized. “So long as we tie what we want to do into the letter and the spirit of the Strategic Plan,” he said, “I’ll have themes I can work with.” On the screen at the front of the room, Rob clicked to a floor plan for the proposed building, which was sketched at 27,000 square feet, ten classrooms, a greenhouse, and honeycombed over its two floors with spaces for collaborating, connecting, communing. Russ Cushman asked how that size was chosen. “We worked with the departments and school leadership to define what was needed programmatically,” Rob replied. “And we’re
talking now about more than just science in this building—maybe math too. But this is just an idea. The CMP won’t lock us into any one size.” And where to put it? By the day of this meeting, several different spots had already been proposed and considered in conversations between LSC and school leadership. Placing it on the lot currently occupied by the tennis courts, for example, was on the wrong side of Route 175 and too distant. Building it where the head’s house currently sits was closer, but still on the wrong side of the road; it would also require moving that house. One idea that stuck, however, involved the very spot where Jens Frederick Larson had wanted an academic building in 1931— on the east side of the Schoolhouse, about where the baseball field’s backstop now stands. If there was anything fortunate in not implementing the entirety of Larson’s plan in the ’30s, it was the preservation of that welcoming field and its eye-friendly backdrop of handsome buildings as people arrive on campus. The two other dorms Larson had proposed would instead be presenting their backsides to arrivals and blocking that vista. This academic facility, however, arriving nearly a century after it was first proposed, would be centrally located, symmetrical, and only enhance that first glimpse of Holderness. This was Option A, which was clicked in diagram form on to the screen. Another popular idea, which became Option B, was to locate the building near where the WM Design group had suggested in 1977—not on loose ground on the edge of the hill, however, but rather as an extension of Carpenter filling the present gap between Carpenter and Alfond. In LSC’s sketch on the screen, however, that option looked like too much facility squeezed into too small a space, lending a claustrophobic feel to that north campus courtyard. It also blocked
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“INSTEAD OF WORKING ON A PROJECT-BY-PROJECT BASIS, WE HAVE DEVELOPED AN ARRAY OF PROJECTS THAT WORK IN CONCERT FOR THE SCHOOL IN TERMS OF A FUTURE THAT WE CAN PROJECT FIFTEEN TO TWENTY YEARS AHEAD. IT’S A WAY OF MAKING DECISIONS GOING FORWARD THAT COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER, A PROCESS THAT’S NOT REACTIVE, BUT PROACTIVE; NOT REMEDIAL, BUT ASPIRATIONAL.” — R. PHILLIP PECK, HEAD OF SCHOOL that airy campus sight line over Plymouth and out to Mt. Stinson. Jonathan clicked to Option C, which had taken shape on a last-minute basis during LSC’s final conversation with the school’s faculty. That was when Janice PedrinNielson—Chair of the Modern and Classical Languages Department and the school’s service coordinator—had raised her hand to comment on Option A. She pointed out that Hoit, the dorm built in 1951, would sit like a stray boulder in the midst of traffic between the academic buildings. “It’s just in the way,” she said. “I know we’ve recently renovated the building, but still—what if we got rid of Hoit and put the new facility in its place? Then we’d have an unobstructed courtyard at the north end of campus ringed by four academic buildings: the Schoolhouse, Carpenter, Alfond, and this new facility.” It was an idea compelling enough to throw into the mix. LSC drew up a sketch of what this would look like, and indeed, on the big screen it outshone Option A, granting that end of the campus obvious dividends by way of symmetry, spaciousness, and ease of movement. Enough dividends to justify not razing Hoit, probably, but lifting it off its foundation and moving it somewhere else? That would be the next question. Then Jonathan returned to Option A, but now to display an alternative version that had bubbled up in Pennsylvania, while Rob and Jonathan were sharing this new
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Option C with the landscape architects of Mahan Rykiel. There it was suggested that the new building remain east of the Schoolhouse, as in Option A, but that Hoit be moved somewhere else just the same. So a bird’s eye-view of what that would look like came up on the screen, and at that moment Jim Hamblin said wow. “That really does look cool,” added Phil Peck. “It redefines the whole look of the campus.” “Exactly,” said Jonathan Wehri. “Now you have a true academic quad, one central area that captures all the school’s academic buildings—Schoolhouse, Carpenter, Alfond, this new facility, and also Hagerman.” Indeed, by taking Hoit out of the picture, the courtyard could be extended east all the way to Rathbun, Hoit’s companion dorm. Suddenly it wasn’t just a courtyard— it was a quad, one broad enough to balance a similar space at the school’s opposite end, that swale around which the South Campus dorms are ranged. And just as suddenly Hagerman had become an element defining this new quad, rather than the north-end outpost it had been previously. Welcomed in this way into the school community of academic buildings, Hagerman helped to make them all look, well, a little more august. In a certain way, the Holderness campus as a whole had snapped into focus, achieving that integrated sense of order and inevitability that Jens Frederick Larson and Edric Weld had dreamed about. “It will also
make a stronger sort of statement, architecturally,” added Russ Cushman, “about the importance we attach to academics.” And so it was decided. Options A–C of Phase 1 would be presented to the full board in January, but the committee’s own recommendation would be the alternative to Option A. Phases 2–3 would be presented as the next priorities in line. And so would begin the next stage of discussion, negotiation, and feasibility testing. Whatever the issue during that stage, the CMP will be—like the Strategic Plan—a living document, subject to adjustment on the fly; but also one that commands the authority of a broad consensus, and a wide range of definite possibilities. No less than the Strategic Plan, it will be a dream of what the school can be, and a real-world blueprint for getting there. And for Rob Kinsley and Jonathan Wehri, this particular job—and process—has provided a reminder that architectural vision is a virtue confined not just to architects. “This is an example of the planning process working the way it should work,” Jonathan said, commending Janice for raising her hand and proposing something a little outside the box, and grateful for what had ensued in the tweaking of her tweak—for the breadth, beauty, and grace of that new academic quad. “You never know where the next good idea is going to come from.”
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Coach Brewer on the sidelines
Catching Up With Jim Brewer THE COMFORT OF AN OLD SHOE Phil Peck visited former English teacher Jim Brewer to talk about some of the changes in store for the campus. They also talked about what can’t change. by rick carey PHIL PECK BEGINS WITH A SURVEY QUESTION—the same one
years ago in order to make room for additional seating for the growing
used by the architects of LSC Design as they began work last fall on a
Holderness community.
Campus Master Plan for Holderness School. “They showed students, fac-
“We’re planning to renovate the chapel as part of the new campus
ulty, staff, and other groups a map of the campus,” Phil says to retired
plan, Jim, and we hope to keep the front of the building just as it is,” Phil
English teacher Jim Brewer. “Then they asked each person to paste green
says. “The plan is to extend it out the back to make it bigger, and open up
dots on places they liked on campus and red dots on places they didn’t
some views to the mountains.”
like so well. Where would you have pasted your dots?” “Well, I guess my favorite place was the chapel, and by that I mean the old chapel—not the way it is set up now,” Jim says. It’s February, and they sit in the kitchen of Jim’s tidy cottage in the
Phil adds that the wooden pews are in storage now, but that he can’t guarantee they will be reinstalled in the new version of the chapel. “We may go for seating more easily removed, just to keep the space flexible and available for other purposes as well.”
Taylor Community in nearby Laconia. Jim’s is one of many such cottages,
As flexible, perhaps, as an old shoe. Having graduated from Deerfield
but all the cottages benefit from good campus planning, each with plenty
Academy, then Hobart College (where he starred in lacrosse), Jim was in
of sunny windows and views into portions of the area left wild and wood-
his second year at the University of Wisconsin Law School when polio
ed—not unlike the 1860s-vintage house Jim occupied in Rumney during
struck him down in 1955. He was hospitalized for eight months and came
much of his long career at Holderness. Here, however, there is no fire-
out in leg braces and on crutches. He returned to law school, began a
wood to move, a task that was always a challenge for a man who was an
career in that field, but ultimately decided he wanted to teach instead.
adult victim of the 1950s polio epidemic.
Meanwhile a friend and classmate at Deerfield, Bruce Haertl, was teach-
“I loved the pews and the narrow aisles, the smells of candle wax and old wood,” Jim says. “I loved the sun pouring through that great blue stained-glass window over the altar.” He laughs and shakes his head. “Now, with all those metal folding chairs instead—well, no.” The morning light still shines through that window, and the aisles are
ing history at a place where the headmaster, he said, was “as relaxed and comfortable as an old shoe.” That place was Holderness, the headmaster Don Hagerman. By then Jim had regained enough motion in his right leg to use a short leg brace, allowing him to put one foot in front and climb stairs facing forward. “So I
still narrow, but yes, the pews are gone, and with them their simple
could pass the acid test of my Holderness interview, the old Livermore
beauty and that scent of old wood. The pews were removed several
climb to see the infirmary,” Jim says. “Don knew if I could do that epic
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up-and-down, I could do anything on the campus.”
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“my favorite place was the chapel,” jim says…“i loved the pews and the narrow aisles, the smells of candle wax and old wood. i loved the sun pouring through that great blue stained-glass window over the altar.”
LEFT: Jim shares a quiet moment with a student in his office in Schoolhouse, circa 1965; RIGHT: Jim warms up a lacrosse goalie on the Lower Fields Jim started in January 1959. He then spent half of the 1970s as head-
Larson built Livermore Hall in Knowlton’s place, the new building faced
master of the Barlow School in Amenia, NY, the rest teaching English and
east. “I think that suggested a different version of Holderness,” he says,
coaching lacrosse at Exeter Academy. It wasn’t until 1979 that he resumed
“one that prepared the way for a larger, more outward-looking school.”
his work at Holderness. “I heard once from Pete Woodward [Don
Jim also remembers the pollutants that sawmills in Lincoln and
Hagerman’s successor as headmaster] that the Exeter head told him he
Waterville once dumped into the Pemigewasset River, resulting in a dirty
was getting the school’s best teacher,” Phil says.
foam he’d see three feet deep on both banks. “Then in the 1960s the
During his first years at Holderness, Jim had already founded the
Clean Water Act shut those mills down, and this area was pretty dead—
Holderness boys’ lacrosse program, and on his return he founded the
until I-93 got built,” Jim says. “Then Loon Mountain opened its ski area,
girls’ program as well—not to mention serving at various times as assis-
and the Ski-93 program got people up here, and the school was able to
tant headmaster, director of development, director of publications,
grow as the region grew.”
director of college counseling, and English department chair. As a coach, he racked up twelve league championships and two New England
BY IMMERSING HIMSELF SO DEEPLY IN THE LIFE of the school,
Coach-of-the-Year honors.
and so constantly finding new challenges to take on during his career
Jim also became a student of Holderness history, someone particularly
there, Jim found ways to keep himself fresh and forward-looking—much as
good at pointing out some of the quiet but decisive moments in the
he has at the Taylor Community, which he joined in 2011. Currently he
school’s narrative. He reminds Phil that Knowlton Hall was built to face
sings in the community chorus, participates in the poetry group (writing
the chapel, but when Rector Edric Weld and architect Jens Fredrick
some poetry of his own on occasion), provides photography for Taylor pub-
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CATCHING UP WITH JIM BREWER
lications (as he once did for Holderness), performs annually as a storyteller, and regularly bakes bread for summer picnics and potluck events. In 2012 he founded The Playreaders, a group that meets to read plays aloud every two weeks and to perform a public reading once each year. Last year Jim directed The Devil and Daniel Webster. “This year it’s The Spoon River Anthology, which we’ll distill and perhaps perform,” Jim says. And his crutches have been succeeded by an all-terrain motorized wheelchair, a fast little rig that allows Jim to keep up with his partner Chase during late afternoon walks around the campus. Chase is a terriermix rescue dog, perhaps three years old, abandoned on the streets of San Antonio and eventually conveyed cross-country to the Laconia Humane Society, where he and Jim met. “This dog has known nothing but kindness since an Alamo Rescue Friends volunteer picked him up ten months ago, and he reciprocates by being all a-wriggle with affection for each person he meets,” Jim says. “He’s also relishing a puppyhood full of toys, games, and treats—things he never had before.” Jim himself relishes the outdoors as much as ever, and his famous powers of observation remain undimmed. The habits of butterflies and bees are irresistible, as are the roosting patterns of crows. “I’m also working with Taylor to establish a few out-of-the-way areas that can be developed into wildflower meadows that are attractive and pollinator-
Jim with his partner Chase
supportive,” he says. Wherever he is, Jim makes a point of being involved—“A key to sur-
sometimes that we’re too traditional, and also sometimes that we’re too
vival, I’d suggest,” he says. In both mind and spirit he is sufficiently
progressive,” Phil confesses to his old friend. “There’s a tension between
curious, energetic, and flexible and gets involved in any number of ways.
the two, and they pull in opposite ways. There’s a core right in the middle,
Once the conversation circles back to the school’s Campus Master Plan, Phil recalls the role that flexibility plays in the life of a building—as
and that’s what we need to hold on to. We don’t want to be trendy. We want changes that are substantive and sustaining.”
will be the case in the chapel, and also with a new academic building on
Did we mention that Jim also founded Holderness School Today? He
the drawing board, and also for a wholesale renovation of the Hagerman
nods to Phil and says, “I wrote an editorial once on that very subject for
Center. “It’s a mantra we’ve got going with this plan—innovation, collabo-
HST. I think I dipped into Shakespeare’s sonnet number 116 and referred
ration, and flexibility,” he says. “More than ever, neurological research
to an ever-fixéd star marking the way, something that alumni will always
supports the effectiveness of collaborative and interactive styles of learn-
recognize. I suspect it has an awful lot to do with staying friendly—hang
ing, and the importance of common rooms and breakout spaces that
on to that old shoe, in other words.”
support small-group activities of this sort.” And the problem with the Hagerman Center, at least as currently con-
GENERATIONS OF HOLDERNESS STUDENTS remember seeing Mr.
stituted, is the lack of such rooms and spaces—the flexibility isn’t there.
Brewer, who retired in 1995, patiently maneuvering his way up and down
“Those classrooms work with the sage-on-the-stage model of instruction,
stairs, in and out of buildings, with only a friendly smile on his face and
and that’s it,” Phil says. “The new building will accommodate that or any
never a complaint about his disability. On the lacrosse field, however,
other model, including some cross-curricular team-taught courses we’re
Jim’s smooth and muscular stick work was wonderful to behold as he
thinking about—an elective on nature writing, for example, taught by [sci-
warmed up his goalies, lasering shots at all corners of the cage. Perhaps
ence teacher] Reggie Pettitt and [English teacher] John Lin. Or a STEM
the comfort of an old shoe, an athletic shoe that is, was in the distance
course taught by [math teacher] Vicky Stigum and [science teacher]
past, but his athletic skills never faltered.
Maggie Mumford.” Even flexibility and innovation, however, are things that can be
Fond memories they were—not unlike the rest of his memories of his 27 years at the little school his friend Bruce happened to mention.
pushed too hard in an educational community with a lot of history behind it already and geared for the long haul into the future. “I worry
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SPECIAL PROGRAMS. It’s a time to push one’s definition of self, to dig deep and redefine the boundaries of one’s perspective. For sophomores during Artward Bound that means exploring one’s creative capacity. The stacks of vases, bowls, and plates, created on the potter’s wheels in the basement of Carpenter, are just one of the prolific outcomes of their ten-day exploration.
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SPECIAL PROGRAMS 2016
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Scenes from Special Programs 2016
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SPECIAL PROGRAMS 2016
SPECIAL PROGRAMS 2016 BY THE NUMBERS STATISTICS FROM PROJECT OUTREACH r 44 students participated r 10 adults joined them r 800+ miles were driven r 8+ organizations were helped, including Fairmount Parks, MANNA, Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, SHARE, Philabundance, Cradles to Crayons, and Darby School r In 1 day, 2,112 were meals made at MANNA, 200 boxes packed at SHARE, and 8,420 lbs of food boxed at Philabundance r 3 truckloads of debris were cleared away, totaling 10,460 lbs!
STATISTICS FROM ARTWARD BOUND r 7 songs were performed during the student performances r 10 drums, 3 bells, 1 shekere, 1 cabasa, 1 didgeridoo, and
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1 drumset were used in the composition of their original songs Over 40 AB t-shirts were printed with a student-designed logo 38 glass bottles were sand blasted 25 pounds of mirror were up-cycled 1,500+ scenes were created by students with 3,000 or more characters Thousands of notes were played
STATISTICS FROM OUT BACK r 84 students in 11 groups completed the full ten-day adventure r 5 seniors volunteered to do OB a second time r 26 adult leaders guided the students and taught them
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wilderness survival skills 9 new faculty chose to do Solo along with the students Over 400 miles were logged on snow machines and 4x4 vehicles that transported gear and food in and out of Basecamp Over 300 miles were hiked Over 1,000 layer bars/baked goods were consumed
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Scenes from Special Programs 2016
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SPECIAL PROGRAMS 2016
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SPECIAL PROGRAMS 2016
Solo may be a time of solitude during which selfsufficiency is critical, but that doesn’t mean Director of Out Back Lance Galvin expects students to remember everything. The Solo checklist is just one way in which he sets students up for success. This year, every student who started Out Back also finished Out Back.
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This scene should look familiar to anyone who has graduated from Holderness in the last 45 years. Solo rations, a plastic tarp, and a No. 10 can. And don’t forget your flags and OB journal!
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Robot Design by geoffrey west ’ Five years ago, before Senior Thesis became a required course, seniors at Holderness participated in a March elective program called Senior Colloquium, and among the oerings was robotic engineering. Since then, the brackets, hardware, and motors that were used in the course have been laying dormant in a storage room. Last fall, however, students rallied together and consulted Reggie Pettitt, the teacher of the robotics Senior Colloquium; they wanted help in reviving the program. Under the guidance of Mr. Pettitt and a second science teacher, Thom Flinders, the club turned a vacant section of the library basement into a workroom and brought robotics back to Holderness. In the months since the club was initiated, over thirty students have become involved, many of whom participate on a weekly basis. One of their ďŹ rst projects required the students to build a robot that could ascend a four-foottall obstacle. Among the solutions the students pursued was a spring-loaded grappling hook that allowed the robot to pull itself to the top. In their ďŹ rst competition, they tied Proctor Academy for ďŹ rst place. Because the program has generated so much enthusiasm, Mr. Flinders has decided to take it a step further; in the fall of ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™‰, engineering will be oered as a class. “I think engineering allows students to look at science from a dierent perspective,â€? says Mr. Flinders. “It’s an applied science rather than a theoretical one.â€? Mr. Flinders explains that an engineering course will also oer students the opportunity to make connections to the skills they have developed in other classes. “The nice thing about engineering is that it can cover so many dierent aspects of learning,â€? he says. “It can be a truly multi-disciplinary course. Everything from the sciences to humanities to art can all be integrated very easily into one engineering program. I also think the course will allow students to
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Members of the Engineering Club work on the design and construction of a robot for their challenge against Proctor. Clockwise from above: Jullia Tran ’18; science teacher Thom Flinders and Jullia Tran; Nate Sampo ’16 and Zhaowei Yu ’16
look at the world dierently; they’ll be investigating problems that we face in the world today, analyzing those problems, and seeing that there are multiple solutions.â€? So far the Engineering Club has focused on just designing robots, but the class next fall will be able to explore other aspects of engineering as well. “I really like the first Robotics Competition,â€? Mr. Flinders says, “but I also like the idea of students making their own inventions and coming up with their own problems to solve. We’ll probably also do some big bridge building, look at some traditional physics, and
learn how structural members work. There will probably be some computer programming involved as well.� In the meantime, the students in the Engineering Club are still meeting after lunch on a weekly basis to continue optimizing their robot; they will have at least one more competition against Proctor this spring in which to test their design, and they can’t wait to see who wins!
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The Hunt Is On! Discovering Artwork at Holderness Remember the portrait of the headmaster staring down at you in Weld? How about the ceramic pieces in the display cases in Alfond Library? And did you see the artwork on the walls in the Admission OďŹƒce, in Schoolhouse, and elsewhere on campus? Artwork by recognized professionals has been present at Holderness for decades. Some of what the school owns can be seen in display cases throughout the campus, but other pieces are stored in closets, attics, and elsewhere. Just what artwork does Holderness own? Who are the artists who created the various pieces? How can the school’s art holdings be displayed for all to enjoy and for faculty to use as learning resources? Thanks to the generosity of John ’ and Gretchen Swift, these questions are about to be answered. After graduating from Holderness in ď™„ď™Œď™‰ď™…, John dedicated his life to the world of ceramics, as a teacher, administrator, and artist at several colleges, universities, and independent schools. Then after ď™…ď™ˆ years, he retired from education and focused his attention full-time on his own work as an artist. It wasn’t until years later that John and Gretchen’s path led them back to Holderness. In ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™‡ John decided to donate his kilns to the school and help create a ceramics program. This meant not just donating the kilns but returning to Holderness to teach for several years as well. For three years they eagerly immersed themselves in the Holderness way of life. John taught four classes, and they both attended chapel and dinner, assisted in the dorms, and oered Art in the Afternoon instruction. By the end of three years, the ceramics program was robust with beginning, intermediate, and advanced classes. In addition, there were several faculty who knew how to operate the kilns and could share their knowledge of ceramics with students. While cultivating the successful ceramics program, the Swifts saw another opportunity
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A detail from Pirates Attacking the Great Galleon Plate Ship, by Frederic M. Grant. This oil painting, missing from Weld Hall during a recent renovation, was found this winter by John and Gretchen.
at Holderness School: namely the need for a catalogue of the school’s artwork. Paintings, portraits, and ceramics were moving about campus without any record of their comings and goings, so the Swifts, and others in the community, felt it was time to develop a more sophisticated system to track the location, value, and continual care of our art collection. Eight years later, with the collection of artwork continuing to grow, Holderness is ready to take on this task—with the help, of course, of John and Gretchen. Now living back in the area, John and Gretchen have already rolled up their sleeves and begun scouring the campus for artwork. From the walls of Livermore to the back rooms in Carpenter to the shelves in the Archives, the Swifts will be examining works of art and recommending whether or not they need to be included in the oďŹƒcial Holderness Art Collection. Gretchen and John’s initial inventory is a crucial ďŹ rst step for the school. Based on their catalogue of work, the school will then determine a process for moving Holderness art holdings to a central, secure location. This location will serve as a space
where information about current and future acquisitions can be recorded. Based on the Swift’s initial inventory work, there are some key questions the school will need to consider before moving forward: Where on the Holderness campus might our two and three-dimensional artwork be displayed for all to see? What pieces need to be displayed securely? And, therefore, what kinds of cases should be built to display such pieces? “As pieces are identiďŹ ed and information is recorded,â€? says John, “we also hope faculty will use these resources in their classes and ďŹ nd ways to develop interdisciplinary activities. While the art should provide visual pleasure and stimulate discussions, it should also serve to open new avenues to learning and thinking.â€? Ultimately, it is hoped that further donations of original artwork will be made to Holderness in the coming years, once the collection that is here now is fully documented and put on display. It’s an ongoing project that has no deďŹ nitive end in the foreseeable future, but Gretchen and John are up to the task. We are grateful for their service to the school and can’t wait to see what else they discover!
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Seeing What Is Not There English teacher John Lin and science teacher Reggie Pettitt began class one day this winter asking students to stare out the window at an oak tree. They met in the dining hall and sat at the Head’s table, looking out at the old oak tree that arches high above the window and sweeps the sky. But really it wasn’t the oak tree the teachers wanted their students to see. It was the spaces in between. “We were discussing ‘The Snowman’ by Wallace Stevens, which ends with the lines, ‘For the listener, who listens in the snow, / And, nothing himself, beholds / Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is,’” explains John. “It’s training your eyes to see all that is there and also what is not there, to shift your perspective, to extend your vision and recalibrate your senses.” An action item in the school’s current strategic plan challenges the school to “Deliberately and thoughtfully connect all our programs with the outdoors.” It’s easy to see this at work in Special Programs and in science classes, but in other departments, the connection hasn’t been as easy. English teacher and Out Back Director Lance Galvin ’, is trying to change that. This fall, with the help of John and Reggie, he developed a course titled Environmental Literature. The team-taught, one-semester course was offered for the first time this winter. “We were concerned that it would be a difficult course to teach when it is cold outside and everything in nature is dead,” says John. “And it has been a bit difficult to get outside, but it’s all about observation, about seeing, really looking, and then looking again; it ultimately doesn’t matter what the weather or temperature is.” Take for example one assignment in which students had to write about an object found in nature for twenty minutes every night for two weeks. The objects were simple—stones small enough to hold in the palm of your hand, sticks shorter than your fingers, pieces of bark, or hemlock sprigs.
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A page from the Environmental Literature journal of Hunter Rehn ’16
“The first night or two was easy,” says John, “but how do you continue to write something different every night? How do you describe the varying degrees of brown? What are the words that explain the texture?” “That’s where science comes in,” adds Reggie. “If they can begin to learn the language of botanists and geologists, to learn the lexicon of
nonfiction nature writing, they will be able to dig deeper and say more, and ultimately, see more.” And while the nine boys enrolled in the class admit to having some trouble finding enough to write about for two weeks, their approaches were varied and intriguing. While one took to waxing philosophical, another started writing about connections to his life
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back home. “I’m learning to pay attention to details,â€? says senior Emmanuel Dorvil, who arrived at Holderness just this fall from a school of ď™…,ď™ˆď™ƒď™ƒ students in Miami, FL. “I’ve never spent this much time in nature, and it’s given me a chance to make connections I’ve never thought about before.â€? In addition to writing about their natural objects and reading poems and essays, the students were also asked to design lab experiments. They began by observing nature on Mt. Prospect, just up the hill from campus, and then they wrote down their accounts in a journal. From their observations, students had to come up with questions they wanted to answer and design experiments to test their hypotheses. Bryce Murdick ’, for example, observed a rotten log with insect holes bored into it. He began to ask questions about what insects might have made the holes and wondered if they were still in there in the middle of February. To ďŹ nd out more, Bryce has proposed pouring cement into the log, letting it harden, and breaking apart the log to reveal a cast of the insect pathways. Cool idea. “But it’s not about the data or even ďŹ nding the right answer,â€? says Reggie. “It’s about the process. In natural history writing, the back-story—the mistakes, the misleading facts, the iterations—are all part of the result. We are helping them to understand that the chaos behind the scenes is just as important as the ďŹ nal result.â€? It’s also about looking beyond themselves. Reggie and John want their students to forget about how they feel and how they are interacting with one another. Instead, they want their students to embrace their inner scribes, writing down what they observe and then methodically proposing hypotheses that explain what they see. By doing so, they are no longer self-centered but other-centered, or more accurately, nature-centered. “Imagine how this could transform Out Back, particularly Solo,â€? says Reggie. “Instead of claiming boredom, students could record
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Above are photos from a lab experiment in which students tried to determined the caloric content of various types of native nuts. Students in the upper-right photograph are Emmanuel Dorvil ’16 and Jack Fisher ’16.
observations in their nature journals. Imagine what they could bring back to the classroom for the spring semester if they spent three days and nights observing and accounting for all that is around them rather than missing what is not there.â€? But Reggie is getting ahead of himself. This winter most of the students who enrolled in the class were seniors who have already completed Out Back. But it could work. Making this curriculum part of the junior year experience could help them to see beyond the ďŹ rst
layer of lessons learned during OB—those of enduring when the going gets tough and working as a team. This curriculum could help students focus beyond the human experience and make connections to the natural world that would last a lifetime. “That’s our hope with this course,� says John. “We probably won’t see the changes with these kids in this course here and now. But we hope that some of what we have done in this class will return to them in the future and develop into a care for the natural world.�
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Holderness Inaugurates a Winter Mountaineering Team
Scenes from the Winter Mountaineering team’s adventures throughout New Hampshire, including hikes on Mt. Washington and in Crawford Notch.
For the past four years, Erik Thatcher ’ has been working with the fall and spring rock climbing teams at Holderness. In November, he took on a new role and is now responsible for developing and leading the school’s first winter mountaineering team. Geographically, this area is ideal for the program, with a wide range of terrain for beginners to advanced climbers. And with the changes in season, climbers encounter a variety of conditions from rock to snow to ice.
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“Some of the best ice climbing terrain in North America is in Crawford Notch,” says Erik. And while the geography is a good match, Holderness School is an even better match for the kind of program Erik wants to create and the lessons he wants to instill in his studentathletes. In addition to teaching the technical skills necessary for climbing, Erik hopes his students pick up an appreciation for nature and in turn a desire to protect and preserve it. He also hopes his students will learn about selfsufficiency and giving back.
Erik first fell in love with rock climbing as a student at Holderness under the guidance of former teacher and coach Richard Parker. “During my senior year, Dr. Parker offered a guide apprenticeship program to anyone at Holderness who was interested,” says Erik. “I was the only one who signed up.” During that season and throughout college, Erik continued to develop his skills both as a climber and as a leader; in addition to obtaining certification as a Wilderness First Responder, he took a level course in ava-
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lanche hazard management and obtained Single Pitch Instructor certiďŹ cation through the American Mountain Guides Association (amga). Erik also worked for, and continues to work for, Mooney Mountain Guides. After college, Erik returned to Holderness to coach and has been building the program ever since. This winter, with his four-student team, he ventured from Rumney to Franconia Notch, from the shores of Newfound Lake to the clis in Crawford Notch. There are many students who prefer the intense competitions on the rink and on the ski hills, but for the students who signed up for Winter Mountaineering, the challenges presented by nature are far more enticing. “I’m in a better state of mind any time I am in the mountains or climbing,â€? says junior Lorea Zabaleta, who was also part of Erik’s rock climbing team this fall. “There’s something about mountaineering that feels bigger than just myself, and I hope to have a lifetime to chase that feeling—and a few years with Thatcher to prepare.â€? When they are not exploring the local ledges and clis, Erik’s team is in the climbing room in Bartsch learning the advanced skills and safety measures needed for dierent types of belaying and multi-pitch climbs. “I chose winter mountaineering because I wanted to learn the skills necessary for surviving in the mountains,â€? says ninth-grader Aidan Kinsley. “And during the season I learned how to keep warm and prepare for the cold and other dangers that come with high-altitude climbing in the winter.â€? But the program, as Erik sees it, isn’t just about learning the technical aspects of the sport. “I think the climbing and mountain sports communities as a whole oer good examples of healthy communities propping each other up for the betterment of all—a very Holderness-esque vibe,â€? says Erik. “I want students to recognize that it’s worthy to spend some of your days slotted for recreation in a
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OUTDOOR PROGRAM KEY PRINCIPLES r Provide experiences where individuals gain a sense of r
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accomplishment and conďŹ dence. Cultivate opportunities for growth in teamwork and communication, both of which are essential in creating bonds among peers and between teachers and students. Inspire an interest in and concern for the environment that manifests itself in “Leave No Traceâ€? principles. Stretch individual’s understanding of physical, emotional, and social capacities. Enhance the ability of students to distinguish between what is necessary and what is merely desirable in an expedition. Provide an experiential class that creates esprit de corps and a sense of uniqueness. Establish an ethic in which the journey is more important than the destination.
seless way, supporting others or the community that supports you.â€? To that end, Erik hopes to get students maintaining trails for local organizations like the Squam Lakes Association, the United States Forest Service, and the Appalachian Mountain Club. In particular he hopes that students will help map the trail system at Rumney Clis for the usfs. Erik also hopes that the climbing program will not be limited to students. “My hope is to oer more climbing opportunities outside of sports practice to both my climbers and the general school population,â€? says Erik. “The end goal is to make climbing more of a known activity on campus, to give everyone a taste, even if just for a day.â€?
With this in mind, Erik continues to seek other certiďŹ cations that will allow him to provide additional experiences to his students and to the greater Holderness community. “I took a rock guide course with the amga last summer and was accepted into the Advanced Rock Guide course this summer,â€? explains Erik. “After that I’ll be a six-day exam away from being internationally certiďŹ ed as a rock guide. I’m also taking my Avy ď™… course next month. The specific hope there is that it puts me on track to get trained and certiďŹ ed in oering our students the oďŹƒcial three-day Avy  curriculum.â€? He’s the man with a plan in all senses of the phrase, and Holderness is lucky to have him on campus to develop a program that so closely aligns with the school’s strategic plan and mission.
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A Cherished Winter Tradition Returns
Ben Booker ’19 slides the puck down the boards during the boys’ JV hockey game against New Hampton School.
In case you haven’t heard, the Bulls have a new rink. On Friday, December , amidst much fanfare, we oďŹƒcially opened the new Fiore Rink at Alfond Arena with a delicious chili dinner, the playing of the national anthem (both American and Canadian), and a puck drop by former Holderness hockey coach Tom Eccleston, who before his retirement in ď™„ď™Œď™Œď™Š compiled a tenyear record of -ď™‡ď™ƒ-. The new hockey rink was often the primary topic of conversation during lunch in Weld Dining Hall last winter. The ice stayed ďŹ rm no matter the temperature outside. The sound system was crystal clear and reliable. The heated bleachers were luxurious. The solar panels on the roof performed just as predicted. (The array put out enough electricity in the ďŹ rst hour to power a typical small house for  hours!) The ďŹ re pit became a great gathering place. Even the parking lot was immensely improved with plenty of space for loading and unloading buses. But while it is nice to have a new facility, to say that the facility itself is all that matters would be missing the point.
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It’s the people that make the dierence. People like Fliv Hinman, Rip Richards, and Dick Stevens, who all perfected the art of icemaking. Before Zambonis and covered rinks, they sprayed water onto the sand base with garden hoses—one layer at a time on star-lit evenings—and maintained the surface all winter. And coaches like Don Hinman and Tom Eccleston, who not only taught their players the skills necessary to win but also instilled in them a passion for the game that kept them returning season after season, no matter how cold the winter wind blew up the hill from Plymouth. It’s also the players. Players like Peter Fiore for whom the rink is named and who co-captained his team alongside Don Hinman when they were juniors and seniors. Peter died of complications from a haying accident before he had a chance to play in college, but his passion for the game lives on in the memories of his teammates. Countless others have followed in his footsteps—both male and female—relishing the cut of their blades on the ice and the echo of the puck against the boards.
And ďŹ nally it’s the fans, countless fans, who line the glass whenever the Bulls are playing; in every type of weather, their dedication to Holderness hockey has been unfettered. Without the people of this community, Holderness hockey—and the hockey rink— would cease to exist. And it’s not just about competitive hockey either. Last year when it became clear that the roof of the rink was unsafe, the main area of concern was ďŹ nding ice time for our teams. Without ice time for practices and games, our hockey program would have been canceled. But while it required some creative thinking on the part of Athletic Director Rick Eccleston, ďŹ nding ice time for our athletes was the easy part. There were other events and gatherings that couldn’t be rescheduled or relocated. Faculty children, who were just learning to skate, had nowhere to go. The holiday hockey game between faculty children now in their twenties and thirties? That couldn’t happen either. Latenight bonding sessions for seniors had to be moved elsewhere, and faculty pick-up hockey had to be canceled for the season. What a dierence a year makes. Even before winter break, the faculty had brushed the dust o their skates and found time between exams to get out and play. The seniors bonded around the ďŹ re pit, and the newest generation of Holderness hockey players began meeting in the afternoons, perfecting their belly slides and making their ďŹ rst shots on goal. That’s what was missing last year. Our hockey teams did just ďŹ ne down at psu; some I think even preferred the indoor temperatures, especially the fans of the opposing teams! But our community was missing out on some of its most cherished winter traditions. During the rink’s dedication back in December and during the breaks in our busy schedules, it’s been so good to see everyone back together—gathering around the ďŹ re, cheering on the Bulls, and scoring a couple goals.
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CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Logan Clarke ’16 in the boys’ varsity hockey game against Academie Saint-Louis; faculty children wait for a high five from the Zamboni driver between games; the girls’ varsity hockey team stands at attention during the dedication ceremony; girls on the varsity hockey team model their new hats; and friends and family gather around the new fire pit beside the hockey rink.
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Investigative Learning in Science and Math If learning is more about process than about arriving at a final answer, Holderness students have been digging deep. From classrooms in Hagerman to a barge on Squam Lake to the shores of a local pond, students have rolled up their sleeves (often literally) and made their own discoveries. While we didn’t manage to record every class adventure this fall, below is a sampling of some of the projects, experiments, and inquiries students performed.
GEOMETRY TEACHER: Hal Gartner; ASSIGNMENT: The Properties of Angles
AP CALCULUS AB
and Parallel Lines—Using illustrations on a whiteboard, students learned the properties of angles and parallel lines in relation to
TEACHER: Elizabeth Wolf; ASSIGNMENT: Discovering the Second Fundamental
their roles in various triangles.
Theorem of Calculus—Using Duplos, students were asked to discover a rule for the rate of change of an Accumulation Function, and thus discover the Second Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, which defines a relationship between integrals and derivatives.
AP ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE BIOLOGY TEACHER: Reggie Pettitt; ASSIGNMENT: Sustaining a Healthy TEACHER: Thom Flinders; ASSIGNMENT: Osmosis and Diffusion in the Core of a
Population of Largemouth Bass—Why did 60 largemouth bass
Potato—Does a higher concentration of sucrose increase or decrease the
broodfish, released into Mr. Pettitt’s pond in October,
weight of a potato core? What does that tell you about the osmosis and
“disappear” by the following May? Was there sufficient forage in
diffusion going on between the potato core and the sucrose?
the pond to support them? Or was it something else?
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STEM ENERGY BIOLOGY TEACHER: Maggie Mumford; ASSIGNMENT: Solar Cooker Construction—Using parabolas and 3-D computer modeling,
TEACHER: Pat Casey; ASSIGNMENT: Monitoring Water Quality on Squam
students were asked to create solar cookers that were capable of
Lake—The Squam Lakes Association is a local conservation group that has
melting chocolate utilizing only the power of the sun. A maximum
been monitoring the water quality of Squam Lake since the early 1970s.
temperature of 100 degrees Celsius was achieved in 20 minutes,
Mr. Casey’s class helped the SLA gather data this fall in an effort to better
at which point many marshmallows and chocolate bars melted.
understand lake ecology.
PHYSICS
ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY TEACHER: Maggie Mumford; ASSIGNMENT: Testing Athletic Performance—
TEACHER: Thom Flinders; ASSIGNMENT: Pumpkin Races—
Dr. Mumford’s Anatomy and Physiology class collaborated with Plymouth State
Students measured the speed and velocity of their
University students in their Human Performance Lab. Students learned about a
homemade pumpkin carts. They then were asked to create
variety of athletic performance testing tools and techniques and how the results
formulas that could be used to determine the velocity of
translate into athletic performance.
their pumpkin carts over any given distance.
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SPORTS
Winter Sports
CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Sumner Brumbaugh ’17 sprints towards New Hampton’s goal during an early DecemberJV hockey game; Sam Shinn ’18 smiles for the camera during an alpine race at Proctor; Karina Bladon ’17 gets in some training early in the season; Emmanuel Dorvil ’16 aims for the basket during a JV game against Brewster.
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SPORTS
CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Celine Yam ’17 strides through a course at Bretton Woods during a New Hampshire Coaches Series 5k classic race; Zi Yan Huang ’19 dodges a player from The Oliverian School during a JV2 basketball game; Tyler Slusarczyk ’16 slips one past the St. Paul’s goalie during a boys’ varsity hockey game; Coach Woody Kampmann discusses strategy during a break in a boys’ varsity basketball game against Lee Academy.
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SPORTS
Winter Sports
CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Miles Bowser ’16 attempts a layup during a boys’ varsity basketball game against Lee Academy; Vanessa Maldonado ’18 takes possession of the puck during a girls’ varsity hockey game against North Yarmouth Academy; the Superstars (girls’ JV hockey) smile from the bench during a game at New Hampton; Mina Nguyen ’19 at Loon Mountain during a session with the Intro to Snow Sports team.
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SPORTS
CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Aidan Kinsley ’19 learns the basics of ice climbing during the first days of winter; Jack Finn ’17 catches air during a Lakes Region competition at Loon Mountain; girls on the varsity basketball team watch their teammates on the court during a game against Vermont Academy; Mikayla Stolar ’19 competes in a U16 slalom event.
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SPORTS
#MAKEITHAPPEN WAS THEIR TEAM hashtag on Twitter, and every day this winter the girls’ varsity basketball team, under the enthusiastic and passionate leadership of Head Coach Jini Sparkman and Assistant Coach Kelly Pope, worked incredibly hard. Perhaps their record wasn’t quite what they had hoped, but their passion and teamwork were both exceptional. Here Skylar “Snoop” Robinson ’16 waits for a rebound during a game against Vermont Academy.
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SPORTS
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First Nationals, Now Worlds
Nurse Nancy during the cycling stage of the USA Triathlon’s age-group national championships in Milwaukee, WI
School nurse and Director of Health Services Nancy Thurrell came late to the sport of triathlon, but she’s caught on so very quickly that now even she believes in herself. Was it a midlife crisis that put Nancy Thurrell on the road to the usa Triathlon Age Group National Championships in Milwaukee last year? Well, it happened at about that midlife time at least. “I had gotten pretty fat and happy,â€? Nancy says, looking back to ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™…. It was shortly after her husband had left and she was asking herself questions about who she wanted to be and what she wanted to do. In school she had played ďŹ eld hockey and lacrosse, and she saw a solution in that previous identity. “I wanted to be an athlete again,â€? she remembers. But what sport should she choose? She hadn’t been on a bike since the age of nine. She
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had been a competitive swimmer until the age of eight, but persistent losses to a girl named Barbara drove her out of the pool in frustration. Nonetheless, shortly after resolving to be an athlete again, she agreed to join her best friend in one of Danskin’s triathlon series events. But one doesn’t just show up for a triathlon and expect to ďŹ nish. She had to prepare, which meant reporting to the gym—which was actually a new experience for this former athlete. “I’m not somebody who just goes to the gym to work out,â€? Nancy admits. “But that ďŹ rst triathlon gave me focus—it gave me a training goal.â€? That ďŹ rst Danskin triathlon was a sprint event, roughly half the length of a full triathlon—a ď™„ď™ˆď™ƒď™ƒ-meter swim, a ď™‡ď™ƒ-kilometer bike ride, and then a ď™„ď™ƒ-kilometer run. This ďŹ rst-timer was ďŹ fth out of the water in her age group, and that taste of success kept Nancy returning, not just to the gym, but to the road and the pool as well. The problems with her swimming career as a child, she believes, were not enough self-belief and not enough self-discipline. “I need to be willing to do the workouts even when I’ve got a lot to do or the weather isn’t so great,â€? she says. “I need to be willing to make healthy choices, especially regarding food as fuel and getting enough rest.â€? But over the past decade as an adult, she’s kept to those workouts, stuck to those choices, and kept competing in triathlons. Eventually she started to do so well that she began to qualify on a regular basis for the usa Triathlon’s age-group national championships. But there was always a reason she couldn’t get to the big race: a schedule conict one year, knee surgery another, too far to travel the next, and so on. That old problem of self-belief might have had something to do with it as well. “Well, I’m not a runner,â€? Nancy says. “I can swim and I can bike, but running has always been diďŹƒcult for me. I used to try to run a ten-minute mile, and that was my goal for a race. Most people
are warming up at ten minutes per mile, so I didn’t think I really belonged at Nationals.â€? But last August, when the Nationals were held in Milwaukee, not all that far away, Nancy found herself bereft of excuses and on her way to Wisconsin. There she clocked in at just under ten minutes per mile in the road race. But even more impressive was her swim time of :—seventh out of the water in her division (take that, Barbara!). Her combined time of ď™…:ď™‡ď™ˆ:ď™‡ď™ƒ was astonishingly good, strong enough for tenth overall. In fact, it was good enough to qualify her for the International Triathlon Union’s World Championships. Will she give it a try? “Two years ago I would’ve said, ‘You’re talking about somebody else,’â€? laughs Nancy. But today it’s a dierent story; for the ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™‰ season she has two ambitious goals. First in June, she plans to run the Mount Washington Road Race, a .-mile running race that takes competitors up the Mt. Washington Auto Road, has an average grade of , and an elevation gain of ,ď™‰ď™ˆď™ƒ feet. And yes, she also plans to compete at Worlds, which will take her to Cozumel, Mexico in September. “I’m doing it,â€? she vows. “I’m living the dream.â€? The dream will involve a lot more self-discipline, a lot more workouts, and a consistently healthy diet. But the self-belief? No longer a problem.
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Alfred Nye Fauver: In Memoriam
Photos of Al Fauver on the Holderness campus during the late 1960s. His passion for sports and his commitment to the education of children was endless and enriched many lives.
august ď™„ď™ˆ, ď™„ď™Œď™„ď™ˆâ€“february , ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™‰ The Holderness community has lost one of its great leaders; this winter Al Fauver died just six months after celebrating his ď™„ď™ƒď™ƒth birthday. Eighteen of those years were spent at Holderness as a history and math teacher, a coach, and a business manager. According to Holderness records, he was the founding
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father of the soccer team and coached tennis as well. He also helped guide the school through its ďŹ rst capital campaign in the ď™„ď™Œď™Šď™ƒs. While Al Fauver dedicated much of his life to Holderness, Camp Pemigewasett in Wentworth, NH was his ďŹ rst home. The camp was established by his parents Edgar and Alice Fauver, and according to the camp’s website, Al was “a camper, counselor, owner since the
ď™„ď™Œď™‡ď™ƒs, director from the ď™„ď™Œď™‡ď™ƒs to the ď™„ď™Œď™‹ď™ƒs, and an active board member until the time of his death‌The fondness Al felt for so many in the Pemi family is something that gave him strength and nurtured the good will in his heart until the end of his days.â€? A memorial service was held for him at the Chapel of the Holy Cross at Holderness School in April.
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Spreading Their Wings
Soon-to-be Head of Burke Mountain Academy Jory Macomber with soon-to-be Dean of Faculty Tobi Pfenninger back in 2014
by jana f. brown Through leadership opportunities at Holderness, three longtime faculty members have earned head of school jobs in the past year. During the – academic year, Jory Macomber served as interim head of school while Phil Peck was away from Holderness through the Chair Program. It was in those months at the helm of the school that Jory had a revelation. “The first thing I learned,” he says, “was that I liked the job.” The next realization was that he was interested in pursuing a full-time head of school position. Jory, who left Holderness in after years as a teacher, coach, administrator, and dorm parent, was recently appointed head of Burke Mountain Academy, his high school alma mater and one of the premier ski academies in the nation. “He will undoubtedly bring excitement and energy to an already dynamic community,” wrote bma Board Chair Willy Booker when he announced Jory’s appointment. For the last
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months, Jory has served as head of school at the ussa team Academy. Jory is one of three longtime Holderness faculty members to earn appointments as heads of school in the last year, joining current Dean of Faculty Chris Day and recently departed Director of Admission Tyler Lewis. In a September , , announcement, Cardigan Mountain School named Chris as its th head of school. Chris’s two sons are alumni of the Canaan, NH-based school for boys in grades six through nine. In announcing Chris’s appointment, Cardigan Board Chair Hank Holland called him a “deeply compassionate and accomplished educator, a proven leader with an enduring commitment to collaboration and lifelong learning, and someone who is well versed in the culture and ethos of boarding school life.” Chris, who also has worked at Dublin School and Rye Country Day, is currently completing his sixth year as dean of faculty at Holderness, where he also has served as chair of the History Department, director of College Counseling, Senior Capstone Program director, baseball and hockey coach, and dorm parent.
While school leadership had intrigued Chris in the past, the opportunity to lead at Cardigan felt right for him, his wife, Cynthia, and their three children. The hardest part, admits Chris, was the decision to leave Holderness, where he has felt supported in the school’s nurturing community. “I’m leaving a place that absolutely works for me, but I’m excited to serve another community I really believe in,” says Chris. “I am going to take with me what works well, the strengths of Holderness, because they are my own strengths too.” Holderness, says Chris, maintains an atmosphere of growth, a cultural norm that emanates from Head of School Phil Peck and includes everyone, from students to adults. “No one is allowed to settle,” says Chris. “We are always being asked in what ways we are growing. Phil includes people as much as he can in running the school, which makes it easy to walk down one’s own path toward leadership.” Jory, too, made the most of his growth opportunities at Holderness and elsewhere. In addition to serving two years as dean of faculty and rising to associate head of school, he helped establish the Holderness Snow Sports Program, something Jory dreamed up and proposed to former Head of School Pete Woodward. “That is an example of a situation in which I took an idea to the head of school and he ran with it and gave me the opportunity,” he says. Jory credits a rotating set of leadership opportunities at Holderness for giving him the chance to serve one year as academic dean and, later, as interim head of school. In turn, when Jory was dean of faculty and participated in a Chair Year, Chris filled in for him. Unlike his colleagues, Tyler Lewis did not anticipate the approach of his next leadership opportunity. After nine years at Holderness as director of admission and financial aid, Tyler left Holderness in the summer of to become head of Bishop’s College School (bcs) in Quebec. In sharing the news, the bcs board
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described Tyler’s “many accomplishments, strength of character, and commitment to boarding schools,â€? while Phil was quoted as saying Tyler had “deliberately, persistently, and most of all, caringly, enhanced our already strong community.â€? A product of Maine’s public schools, Tyler’s ďŹ rst exposure to boarding school came through his brother, who spent a post-graduate year at Holderness. Then a summer gig at Maine’s Gould Academy further piqued his interest, and Tyler spent six years at Blair Academy in New Jersey, learning about boarding school life and rising to associate director of college counseling and director of ďŹ nancial aid. Six years at the independent school recruitment ďŹ rm Carney, Sandoe followed, giving Tyler a deeper glimpse into the breadth and depth of private education. But he yearned to return to school life and jumped at the chance to come to Holderness in ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™‰ as director of admission. Tyler served in that capacity for nine years, until a former Holderness colleague, Greg McConnell, connected him with bcs. “A head of school job was not something I was pursuing,â€? says Tyler, who has three small children with his wife, Renee. “But bcs resonated with us so well. It has many similarities to Holderness—size of school, strong sense of community, character and leadership, love of the outdoors.â€? Now in the midst of his ďŹ rst year as head of school, Tyler continues to appreciate being in a place with a “good soul that attracts really good people.â€? Like Chris and Jory, he credits Holderness leadership with encouraging his own personal growth. “Phil is a head of school who is showing people, nakedly, how he leads,â€? explains Tyler. “He wants people to help him do better. That in itself makes leadership feel very human—a willingness to make and learn from mistakes.â€? All three heads—Chris, Jory, and Tyler—will lead in their own ways, and each has a broad vision for his respective institution. Chris stress-
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TOP: Dean of Faculty Chris Day, who will take over as the head of Cardigan Mountain School in July, with his son Henry ’17 during a baseball game last spring. BOTTOM: Head of Bishop’s College School Tyler Lewis with Director of Leadership Giving Peter Barnum, Interim Director of Admission Cynthia Day, and Bishop’s Director of Admissions Greg McConnell.
es the development of a culture that will push Cardigan community members to grow and learn with him. Jory aspires to turn Burke Mountain from one of the premier national ski academies into one of the best in the world. Tyler is involved in a strategic planning process and, among the emerging initiatives, is one to get faculty and their families back on the bcs
campus, to enhance the feeling of community he loved so much at Holderness. “We are a better school for having had people like Tyler, Chris, and Jory,� says Phil. “All three of them love learning. It makes me sad to think about not having them as colleagues anymore, but I am also incredibly proud of them.�
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A Backyard Galaxy
Charlotte Caldwell
Educators and horticulturalists alike are praising Charlotte Caldwell’s most recent book.
Charlotte Caldwell’s award-winning fourth book imagines a child enchanted by and curious about butteries—and lures real children into that galaxy where butteries are found. For a writer—or a writer/photographer like Charlotte Caldwell—each book project is its own voyage of discovery. For Kirby’s Journal, Charlotte’s fourth book, that voyage took her no farther than her own backyard in Charleston, SC. “When you really start looking closely at something,â€? she says, “you learn that you don’t necessarily need to go to Yellowstone.â€? In ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™‰ Charlotte began doing research about butteries and what sort of gardens butteries particularly like, and then she planted a botanical mix that best provides nectar for mature butteries, leaves for the laying of eggs, food and cover for caterpillars, and refuge for their chrysalises. Her idea was to photograph all the phases of a buttery’s life cycle, and then present her photos as part of a journal kept by a ďŹ ctional child—eleven-year-old Kirby—who is watching as closely as Charlotte, but who has guidance from a pair of
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knowledgeable grandparents and the companionship of interested friends. Charlotte herself grew up on Tennessee’s Lookout Mountain, earned a B.A. from Middlebury College in ď™„ď™Œď™Šď™‡, and went on to earn Master’s degrees in environmental studies and special education. Along the way, she also fell in love with photography. While her son Hacker Burr â€™ď™Œď™‹ attended Holderness, Charlotte served two stints on the board of trustees: ď™„ď™Œď™Œď™‰â€“ď™Œď™Œ and ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™„â€“ď™ƒď™†. Hacker is now head of school at the Charleston Collegiate School, which is not far from his mom’s backyard buttery garden. “Nothing goes to waste in a buttery’s life cycle,â€? she says. “I watched a caterpillar emerge from its egg, and then eat the egg. I watched a caterpillar molt from its spiny exoskeleton, and then eat that skeleton, spines and all.â€? She also saw the beauty of a buttery emerging from its chrysalis with an abdomen swollen with a blood-like substance, and then as its wings unfolded and expanded, she saw the substance ďŹ ll the wings’ veins and arteries. She witnessed the cruelty of wasps planting their own eggs in captured caterpillars, doomed to serve as living hosts to the wasps’ larvae. In ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™ƒ, ten of Charlotte’s insect photos were chosen by the North American Nature Photographers Association for presentation at the organization’s Annual Summit show. They indeed present wonders to match Yellowstone’s,
and the journal that accompanies Charlotte’s photos enlarges not just on the buttery’s life cycle, but also its morphology and the intricacy of the backyard food web. The text does not enlarge, however, on Kirby’s gender. “I purposely left that undeďŹ ned, because—well, boys generally don’t want to read books about girls, and I wanted to encourage girls to become interested in science and nature,â€? Charlotte says. “So I leave it to readers to make their own assumptions. It’s funny—the publisher assumes that Kirby is a boy, but Kirkus Reviews thinks Kirby is a girl.â€? Whoever Kirby might be, Kirby’s Journal has earned a warm review from Kirkus. “This gentle story is the framework for a great deal of information, some of which, Kirby says, she learned in school, but is understandable in the context of her own explorations,â€? says Kirkus. “This pseudo-journal makes a clever invitation to a lifetime passion.â€? Science Magazine adds, “The book excels in balancing the social life of the protagonist with the scientiďŹ c lessons she learns from her grandfather, a lepidopteran expert‌ Kirby’s tone strikes the perfect balance between preteen aloofness and childish wonder.â€? Since publication, Kirby’s Journal has won a bronze medal in the environmental issues category in the ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™ˆ Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, and was a ďŹ nalist for a ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™‰ American Association for Science middle-grade science book prize. Charlotte says that of all her books so far, this is the one she takes the most pride in, and it all has to do with that invitation to passion. “I hope that through this book,â€? she says, “a child can be encouraged to get outside and see nature, and then to understand it—and ďŹ nally to love it.â€? Richard Louv, author of the best-selling Last Child in the Woods, sees that as entirely possible. “To a child, nearby nature can be a universe,â€? he writes. “Through Kirby’s Journal, Charlotte Caldwell provides children with a portal into their own backyard galaxy.â€?
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5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
over 150 years ago, this man led his family to make an investment that is still paying dividends and is still directly impacting the learning experiences of Holderness students. 2 2 2
Please consider making a similar investment by becoming a member of the Balch Society at Holderness School. 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
the rev. lewis p. w. balch, jr., circa 1867
the balch society honors a group of forward-thinking individuals who support Holderness School by combining charitable giving goals with estate and ďŹ nancial planning goals. When you make a planned gift, you creatively support the school, yourself, and your loved ones, while inspiring generosity in others. Joining the Balch Society involves no dues or solicitations, but members will be included in Balch Society communications and invited to participate in special events. The most important beneďŹ ts? Giving Holderness School strength and providing educational opportunities for generations of students. Design a plan today that works for you and your family. For more information, contact Pete Barnum, Director of Leadership Giving, at 603.779.5221 or pbarnum@holderness.org.
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ALUMNI IN THE NEWS
Let’s Go Product Testing Caitlin Mitchell ’09 Caitlin Mitchell ’ is the “Sales Wizard” for an innovative Vermont headwear and accessory company, one that provides some joyful overlap between work and recreation. The problem was that she wanted to be outside. Caitlin Mitchell had grown up in Vermont, with plenty of outdoor adventures and ski racing at Suicide Six Ski Area in Woodstock. When she became a civil engineering major at Lafayette College in Easton, PA, she was beset by a suspicion that there wasn’t enough connection between what she wanted to do and what she was being trained to do. “I only knew that I wanted to work in some capacity in the outdoors industry,” she says. So after college she spent some time in New Jersey, shadowing and being mentored by a man who did sales work for North Face, one of the giants of the outdoor gear and clothing industry. That led to a job with another of the giants, Patagonia, and the chance to move back to Vermont, thanks to Patagonia’s store in Burlington. Meanwhile Corinne Prevot—a childhood pal on the junior ski racing circuit, who attended Burke Mountain Academy and then Middlebury College—had started her own outdoor clothing business. It had begun when, just for fun, Prevot made hats for her teammates and friends at Burke Mountain. The hats got noticed, and more people wanted them. The hobby grew into a micro-business that Prevot carried on through school with logistical help from her mother and a local seamstress. After Middlebury, she set about making a serious go of it. That meant expanding and diversifying her product line, and getting some full-time help at what had become Skida Headwear & Accessories. For several months Caitlin—after her day job at Patagonia—had been stopping at the Skida storefront just to help an old friend out for a few hours. Then in November ,
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Caitlin quit Patagonia to become the first employee at this new and tiny competitor in the outdoor industry. Tiny, yes, but flourishing. Caitlin is listed as “Sales Wizard” on Skida’s website (www.shopskida.com), which means that she handles all the accounts pertinent to Skida’s wholesale division, wholesale buyer communications, and outreach to prospective shops via trade shows. She promotes a product line that not only has consumer appeal—hats, headbands, neck warmers, bandannas, all in bright and eyecatching patterns of paisley, tie-dye, or pop art (including a Holderness ski team logo)—but also has philosophical appeal. Except for the cashmere that is imported from Nepal, the wool, poly lycra, and other fabrics used by Skida are all produced locally in Vermont. A cadre of seamstresses in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, where cottage industries are treasured, provide hand-crafted assembly. And as small as Skida is, the company still sets aside some portion of its profits to help support Vermont’s Nordic skier Liz Stephen, who finished second in the K freestyle event this year at the Rybinsk World Cup and is a twotime Olympic team member. Then there is the philanthropy of Skida [+], a program in which Skida donates a hat to a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy for every online sale in which that program’s promotional code is used. These days Skida has an in-house staff of three, and Caitlin, this former engineer-to-be, is learning on the fly as she negotiates the world of business and sales. Last year Skida was nominated for a Martha Stewart American Made Award, but that hasn’t quite stilled Caitlin’s instinct for perfectionism. “The hardest part of working here has probably been realizing that mistakes are okay,” she told Teton Gravity Research in , for an article on their website (“The Skida Girls”). “Because Skida is such an organically grown company and because we’re still learning how to perfect the business, it’s taken some time to realize that mistakes can be positive.”
Caitlin models one of Skida’s hats during one of her outdoor adventures.
But has Caitlin found a satisfactory balance between work and play? For all practical purposes, yes. “Product Ninja” Sarah Micioni is of the same young twenty-something age and background as Caitlin and her boss. “Though the girls run a tight ship…Caitlin, Sarah, and Corinne’s passion isn’t business—it’s skiing,” continued Teton Gravity. “And snowboarding. And mountain biking. And all the rope-swinging, bush-whacking, outdoor debauchery that comes with living in the heart of the Green Mountains in Vermont.” Prevot told tgr that they all work hard so that “we can take days off, make our own schedule, and get out there to do what we really love.” So, yes, it’s the work, but also what the work enables. “We work, learn, grow together, and then get outside,” says Caitlin. “The fact that the direct product of all our work is something that we get to use day in and day out—that’s what’s helped turn this job into a passion for me.”
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Among the Stars at the Biophysical Society Meredith Peck ’09 Last year Meredith Peck ’ assisted in research at Johns Hopkins that won her an appearance at a prestigious national scientific conference; her research may also ultimately provide a new weapon against cancer. During her last year at Smith College—which actually was a year of studying at Johns Hopkins University and working in its biophysics lab— Meredith Peck ’ was involved in research that may have far-reaching, even revolutionary, implications for the treatment of cancer. And it all rests on principles, she notes, that tie in with her Senior Honors Thesis at Holderness. “My thesis focused on the effects of waterborne infectious diseases on populations in developing countries,” Meredith says. To understand the link between that and her current work, however, we’ll need to know more about the latter, work that also won her the honor of speaking and presenting a pair of posters at last February’s week-long meeting of the Biophysical Society in Baltimore. At Johns Hopkins, Meredith’s focus was on proteins, those complex workhorse molecules responsible for all biological functions. One of the major fronts of research in biophysics has to do with how changes in the structure and sequences of proteins translate into changes in the functions they carry out. “Such changes are at the root of a lot of diseases—Alzheimer’s, for example—and also the simple process of aging,” she says. One of the great engines for such changes is the process of dimerization, wherein two different strands of protein, identical or nearly so, join into a single larger compound. Meredith’s work, most specifically, was with enzymes, those proteins that grease the skids, as it were, for chemical reactions within cells. “So our first goal,” she says, “was to better understand what chemical structures, what sort of composition, allows an enzyme to dimerize. And then, what
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Meredith Peck, with her former AP Biology teacher Thom Flinders and the chair of the Biophysics Department at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Bertrand Garcia-Moreno, at a Gordon Research Conference
happens if we change a gene sequence in a given enzyme?” The second goal? That would be a matter of finding a medical application for what they learn. “We wonder if it’s possible, for example, to engineer a protein that dimerizes in response to changes in the acidity of its environment.” And why would that be important? “Cancer cells, once they start growing uncontrollably, lower the acidity of their environment, the pH count,” Meredith explains. “So if we could build an enzyme that would dimerize and activate only at that particular Ph level, we might—just possibly—have something that could be used to combat cancer cells. If not, we’ll at least have something that could serve as a marker for cancer cells—a harmless, accurate, and super-sensitive diagnostic tool.” Before attending Smith and conducting research at Johns Hopkins, Meredith grew up on the Holderness campus—the daughter of a faculty member who became the head of school, you might have heard of him—and for three summers she worked on the staff of the Gordon Research Conference at Holderness.
That was how Meredith first met the scientist in charge of the lab where she worked at Johns Hopkins, and this summer one of the posters she displayed at the Biophysical Conference was also on display during one of Holderness’s grc weeks. In , Meredith could not have anticipated any link between her Senior Honors Thesis and a podium appearance at a national scientific conference, but it happened. The viruses that transmit the water-borne diseases she studied for her thesis are protected by protein shells called capsids. “And, for example, the influenza virus infection,” Meredith says, “is triggered by a change in the pH in the cell that causes the proteins in the capsid to deform and release the infectious material. So in a way, I was able to angle that work at Johns Hopkins in a manner that complements and builds on the work I presented at Holderness.” A Senior Honors Thesis link to a possible game-changing advance in the treatment of cancer? Yep, that’s just what we had in mind for that program.
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The Thread That Connects Them All Meg Rapelye ’97 Meg Rapelye ’ has done a number of things since her graduation from the US Coast Guard Academy, and they all share a Holderness-related common denominator. Since October , Meg Rapelye—who once commanded an -foot US Coast Guard patrol boat and its crew of ten—has been running a bike shop. Not so very different, she suggests. “Because Phoenix Bikes is so much more than a bike shop,” Meg says. True enough. Phoenix operates out of a repurposed concession stand in Arlington, VA, and on one hand, it’s your basic full-service used bike shop. You can get a tune-up there for —which includes a parts allowance— or shop through the largest selection of affordable pre-owned bicycles and parts to be found in the DC Metro area. On the other hand, you can indeed get so much more—especially if you’re a teenager from a distressed, lower-income neighborhood. “We do several different things at once, really,” says Meg. “Yes, we’re a community bike shop, but at our core, we’re a youth education program—one that uses the bike shop to fund and deliver its programs.” It begins with welcoming kids between the ages of – into that old concession stand. Each participant begins by stripping a donated bike and labeling its parts. Then they learn to put them back together, to fix flat tires, to work through adjustments to brakes and shifters. The first refurbished bike is donated to a community member, many of whom are clients of one of the local social service agencies addressing hunger or homelessness. The next refurbished bike is theirs to keep. “Of course it’s not just the mechanical stuff they’re learning,” Meg says. “Our youth are involved in all aspects of running the shop, so they also learn how to greet customers and run a cash register. They learn skills in retail practice,
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business management, and how a non-profit works. Emotionally, they’re also learning perseverance, pride, and what it feels like to make a meaningful impact on their community.” Meg herself knows that community-impact feeling, and it began during her childhood—and then education—at Holderness School as the daughter of long-time history chair, athletic director, and Habitat for Humanity coordinator Pete Rapelye. What is now the Project Outreach portion of Special Programs was in the s an alliance with Habitat for Humanity. “And I was one of the few people who went to Habitat twice,” Meg says. “Once while I was an eighthgrader and accompanied my dad, and then again as a Holderness sophomore.” Another thing she did with her dad (and sisters Kate ’ and Kim) involved a five-week camping trip to Europe when she was in high school. There she remembers being stirred by a visit to Normandy Beach, and by the uniforms of the soldiers who guard that site. She says it wasn’t the power or flash of the military, but the patriotism, human dignity, and potential for social justice she saw woven into those uniforms. Later, during her senior year at Holderness, Meg made college visits to three service academies. “I enjoyed my visit to the US Coast Guard Academy most because of the Coast Guard’s primarily humanitarian mission,” she says, “and because it’s a smaller school and seemingly more welcoming to women.” After earning her commission and Bachelor of Science degree, Meg served six years on active duty: two years as a deck watch officer on a cutter out of Cape Canaveral; two years commanding that patrol boat out of Gulfport, MS; and two years in law enforcement intelligence in Boston. Meg completed her service career in , but she has continued to travel from place to place since then. “The thread that connects all my career choices is service,” she says. Indeed it is. In northern California, she was a unit leader for AmeriCorps’ National Civilian
Meg Rapelye outside Phoenix Bikes
Community Corps, administering a residential service and leadership development program for young adults. In , she became a center director for Higher Achievement, a non-profit after-school and summer program for underserved middle-school students in Richmond, VA. And then last year, she became executive director of Phoenix Bikes, overseeing—besides all the activity at that repurposed concession stand—Phoenix’s five off-site programs at local public schools. Phoenix Bikes is modeled after similar bikebased social service organizations that have succeeded in places like Boston, New York, and Seattle. Like them, in addition to its earned income from the bike shop, Pheonix runs on donations, grants, and fundraising events. But what Meg likes is how deeply the program reaches into the neighborhoods it serves. “We’re not just applying band-aids here to the area’s endemic problems,” she says. “Instead, bike by bike, we’re affecting systemic changes that will make lives better.”
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Breaking Records, Finding Traction
Nikki Kimball training in her home state of Montana with her dog Vika
Nikki Kimball ’89 Nikki Kimball’s achievements as an ultra-marathon runner are dazzling. Among those we now count a prize-winning documentary film, and the expanding ways she is using her fame to help others. These days Nikki Kimball, at , is in the home stretch of a career that will stamp her credentials as the best ever among American female ultra-marathon runners, once going undefeated in the sport for a stretch of seven years. And arguably the world’s premier ultramarathon event is the Western States , run in June each year along the knobby spine of California from Squaw Valley to Auburn. It’s a race Nikki has won three times. Last June she finished tenth, but that in itself is an historic achievement, extending her string of top-ten finishes in that race to an even ten, dating back to . No other female runner can match that record. But that isn’t the achievement that Nikki treasures most about that week. Instead it’s the talk she gave the Wednesday before the race, at
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the Medicine and Science in Ultra-Endurance Sports conference in Squaw Valley. “I was there on the last day of the conference speaking as part of a group that included Rob Krar, another ultra runner, and Dr. John Onate, a psychiatrist who teaches at UCDavis,” she says. “I had only met these people a couple times via Skype, and our talk was the conference’s concluding event.” For the last decade or so, Nikki has been frank with both friends and the media about her life-long struggle with clinical depression. But never had she broached the subject in a forum like this, in front of hundreds of strangers. Part of her wanted to do what she does so well, take flight and run, but instead she made herself step up to that podium. The group’s presentation went so well that they were invited to speak at a conference in France in . For Nikki this next step— assuming the role of a live public spokesperson for those who suffer from depression—is a new front in her struggle with a malady that, for all her victories in the world’s toughest sport, has been her constant companion.
By then it had been more than two years for Nikki since another notable achievement. In Nikki Kimball broke the women’s record for running the -mile Vermont Long Trail by more than two full days. Just to put that into perspective, in days, hours, and minutes, she ran the equivalent of over ten back-to-back marathons. Finding Traction, the powerful documentary that filmmaker Jaime Jacobsen made of that feat, was released in February of . The film has won a raft of prizes at independent festivals around the world, and much of its appeal has to do with the frankness with which it portrays both its iron-willed protagonist and the sport she pursues. “The rawness and the honesty that make Finding Traction difficult to watch are also what make it shine,” wrote film reviewer Meghan Hicks. “This film is, quite literally, a mirror of Nikki. The way she thinks, her approach to life, her deepest motivations, her tools for co-existence with a sometimes challenging psyche, her tolerance for suffering, her no-nonsense mannerisms, the way that even she can almost crack apart under enough difficulty, the relief of achievement, the imperfection of body and soul, the tears, Nikki’s intense eyes, the physical distresses that accompany efforts of this sort, the accomplishment itself. It’s all there.” While breaking the record was an enticing challenge for Nikki, the race and the resulting movie began as a fundraiser for Girls On the Run, a national nonprofit whose programs use running as a way to integrate lessons in empowerment, self-esteem, mental health, and life skills for middle-school girls. “Running, in and of itself, is such a narcissistic pursuit,” Nikki says. “Your training is self-directed, your goals are self-centered—but you have to take care of yourself first to do good for others. And once you’ve done that, it feels so great to give back, to be a positive and supporting member of a community.”
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Down Where the Edge Meets the Snow Chris Brown ’70 Chris Brown ’ made a smooth turn from AllAmerican ski racer to becoming one of the world’s top experts on the technology of skiing safely. In the mid-s, Chris Brown was nearing the end of his competitive alpine ski-racing career. Highlights included All-American honors in for the University of Vermont; team cocaptain in ; Eastern downhill champion for both those years. This and more would be good enough for induction into Vermont’s Athletic Hall of Fame in . But it was towards the end of that career that famed Vermont coach Mickey Cochran changed the course of Chris’s future. “It was both what he said and how he said it,” Chris says. “I was a political science major mostly because that left me time for skiing. But whenever Mickey analyzed what we did on the slopes, he talked in terms of forces, leverage, pressure—Newtonian mechanics. It sounded like physics to me, and I liked physics.” Would he be able to make some sort of career out of combining physics and skiing? At the time Cochran was raising four children and working as an engineer for General Electric. As Chris discovered, his ideas on skiing had more to do with engineering than physics. If that was engineering, then so be it. “I ended up getting three degrees at uvm,” Chris says. “I finished my Bachelor’s in political science and history. Then I coached skiing at uvm while I worked on a Master’s and then in earned a Ph.D. in engineering.” Chris’s doctoral work was on chip formation in machining, mostly because the university was able to get funding for that. At the time, Chris saw no connection between chip formation and skiing, and feared he would have to forego his passion in order to build his career. That was before a renowned engineering professor at UC-Berkeley—Dan Mote—invited him to the West Coast to help research the
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safety and performance of ski bindings. Mote liked Chris’s expertise on both machining theory and elite skiing. “Because skiing is machining,” Mote told him. “What?” said Chris. “It’s a tool scraping along a surface, isn’t it?” In fact it is. The ski is a tool for getting a person quickly and safely to the bottom of a snow-covered mountain, incidentally slicing, scraping, chopping, and spraying snow chips as it does so. Ultimately, in Chris coauthored a much-cited paper Mote presented at a symposium on skiing trauma and safety in Germany: “Ski Binding Function in Recreational and Competitive Skiing.” In , as Chris finished his doctorate work at uvm, his interest in the engineering of ski boots and bindings continued to blossom; he also had a good job offer from Oklahoma State University. But after calculating the distance to the closest mountains, Chris says he declined the university’s offer. “Once again I let my interest in skiing govern a major life decision,” says Chris. Instead he went to Lausanne, Switzerland, where he worked for four years studying machined surfaces at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, followed by two years as a senior research engineer for Atlas Copco, a venerable Swedish industrial firm. One such machined surface, of course, was snow. “Lausanne was a world center for research on ski bindings,” Chris says, “and I was able to continue work on what they call ‘ski fixations.’” In Chris joined the faculty of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute—a school not only close to New England’s ski areas, but also with a good number of skiers in its student body. He was at Dartmouth in , however—on sabbatical from wpi—when a young Bode Miller dominated the Junior Nationals on a revolutionary pair of shaped skis. “That gave us something new to analyze, and that was when I started my course on the technology of alpine skiing,” Chris says.
Chris Brown, who has dedicated his life, quite literally, to his passion for skiing
Currently he teaches a popular undergraduate course with the same title at wpi; teaches graduate courses on axiomatic design, manufacturing, and surface metrology; develops software for surface texture analysis; has founded an international conference on surface metrology; and has led groundbreaking research into how to improve skiing down where the edge meets the snow. He has patents pending on several new ski binding designs, one using fast-reaction toe and heel cups to prevent inadvertent release; he also holds patents on a fractal method for characterizing surface roughness, on an apparatus for friction testing, and on impact-absorbing skates. Chris’s more recent work involves the technology of winning races. “Research shows that the race is not always to the swiftest,” he says. “Going a little slower, on a straighter line, can result in a shorter time than carrying more speed on a rounder line.” Chris Brown’s days of racing may be over, but he is still curious about how people do that— and about making the sport safer for us all.
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The Breadth of His Smile In Memoriam: Charlie Kellogg ’58 Charlie Kellogg—who died on September , , at the age of of sarcoma—is revered in the Holderness community for several reasons, and among them is the fact that we can count Charlie among the many Holderness snow sport athletes to represent the United States in the winter Olympic games. We tend to forget, however, how very nearly Charlie was not an Olympian. “As noted in his US Biathlon Hall of Fame introduction description, Kellogg wasn’t obviously bound for skiing glory from day one,” wrote reporter Chelsea Little in a tribute on FasterSkier.com. “But the guy who grew up primarily in Andover and Brookline, MA, picked up skiing at Holderness [School] a few hours north in New Hampshire and never looked back.” Holderness ski coach Don Henderson, who so deftly helped young Charlie pick up skiing, remembers the boy as “very attentive, very likable and energetic, and very intent on becoming a good skier.” Charlie went on from Holderness to Williams College, where he kept skiing and also captained the cross-country running team in the fall. In the US Army, he was trained in biathlon, competing in the world military championships and earning the top American finish. In he won the inaugural US National Biathlon Championship. By , Charlie was out of the Army, working for ibm, and still racing. He was crushed when he failed to make the initial cut for the US Nordic Ski Team before the Olympics—but not defeated. “Mr. Kellogg decided he wasn’t yet strong enough to win, so he ran through the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire and competed in track meets,” wrote the Boston Globe. “He arranged for a leave of absence from his work at ibm in Cambridge, paid his expenses to ski with the training squad in Alaska, and then competed at three Olympic
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tryouts, clinching a berth on the team at the final race in Lake Placid, NY.” In Grenoble, Charlie finished st in the K cross-country race, th in the K. “He was one of half a dozen guys I would describe as the early generation of capable internationalcaliber Nordic skiers in this country,” said former Olympian and Dartmouth ski coach John Morton. “I remember when I was on the US B Team, those guys set the standard, and the rest of us just tried desperately to keep up.” By then Charlie was married as well. Fittingly, he met his wife Gillian while both were skiing at Tuckerman Ravine on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire in . Charlie continued to ski and compete internationally all his life at the same time that he carried on successful business careers, first with ibm and then with Global Partners of Cambridge, MA. “No matter what year you ask about,” said FasterSkier.com, “his friends and teammates will tell you that he was a role model for how to balance a job, a family, and high-level training.” In Charlie won the gold medal in his age group in the K freestyle at the World Masters Cross-Country Ski Championships. He raced in national masters ski championship events through last winter and also bike raced, once participating with Bob Gray in a race along I- before it opened for traffic. As if the job, the family (two children, a daughter Lia and a son Terry), and his athletic career weren’t enough to keep in balance, Charlie devoted decades of service to others who loved snow sports and the outdoors. He was a lifelong member of the Appalachian Mountain Club, and as a teenager managed huts for the amc in the White Mountains. A fifteen-year board member of the US Biathlon Association, he was elected u.s.b.a. vice president in . He was also a board member of the Jackson Ski Touring Association and president of the Manchester-Essex Conservation Trust in Massachusetts.
Charlie Kellogg in the 1958 yearbook
“We’ll never know how many people were charmed, inspired, cajoled, tutored, and befriended by Charlie because they are too numerous to count,” said the Conservation Trust in their tribute to their president. Charlie’s son Terry, speaking to the Boston Globe, added that his father had “high-flying friends and backwoods friends, friends of old and friends of new. He seemed to float in a sea of them, relishing their memories and their connections equally, as evidenced by the breadth of his smile at the sound of their names.”
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Gatherings
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FACING PAGE: Alumni and friends of Holderness during MJ’s Race at Cannon Mountain. THIS PAGE CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Alumni gatherings in Maine; Denver, CO; and Vail, CO; the faculty children doing their part to show appreciation for the efforts of the community during the Day of Giving.
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COME BACK FOR BLUE HOMECOMING AND REUNION WEEKEND
SEPTEMBER 23–25, 2016 Join us as we celebrate the reunion classes (ending with 6s and 1s), and as we welcome all of our alumni, family, and friends back for a weekend of fun, friendship and celebration. Here’s a list of what’s been scheduled so far! FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 r All School Assembly r Class Visits r Campus Tours r 50th and Above Cocktail Reception r 50th and Above Dinner r All Alumni Welcome Reception
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 r Training Sessions with Holderness Athletics r Class Visits r Campus Tours r Panel Discussion with Current Students r Alumni Convocation r Class Pictures r Cookout Lunch r Afternoon Games r All Alumni Reception and Dinner SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 r Farewell Jazz Brunch
REGISTER NOW AT WWW.HOLDERNESS.ORG/REUNION-2016
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Milestones IN MEMORIAM John “Jack” Hill ’47, April 6, 2015 David Morse ’63, April 20, 2015 Sigourney Nininger ’41, April 24, 2015 Mary Richards (past employee), June 5, 2015 Paul Jenkins ’52, June 8, 2015 Andrew Wilson ’78, July 6, 2015 Clifford Rogers ’47, August 1, 2015 Robert Cleary ’62, August 27, 2015 Charlie Kellogg ’58, September 20, 2015 Alfred Olivetti ’60, September 30, 2015 Erin Maroni ’02, November 18, 2015 John Southard ’59, November 30, 2015 Dean Mullavey ’48, December 30, 2015 Harry Emmons ’45, January 15, 2016 Alfred Fauver (past employee), February 13, 2016
BIRTHS Tom LeBosquet ’93 and Katherine Ledbetter: Amelia Katherine, September 19, 2015 Rick ’92 and Janet Eccleston: Hazel Marie Eccleston, September 24, 2015 Dan ’95 and Cathy Lewenberg: Emmeline Serafina Lewenberg, October 9, 2015 Zeb ’98 and Jami Bogdanich: Avery Lee Bogdanich, October 23, 2015 Fordy ’02 and Liz Sinkinson: Charlie Sinkinson, October 2015 Karen Boutwell (employee) and Kelli Robinson: Addison Ann Boutwell-Robinson, November 6, 2015 Lee ’88 and Jayme Hanson: Mark Alden Hanson, November 19, 2015
CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: When Craig Antonides ’77 and Linda Collins decided to get married, there were plenty of supportive Holderness students to celebrate with them. Jaxson, Craig’s dog, also attended the service in the Chapel of the Holy Cross; Karen Boutwell and Kelli Robinson’s newborn daughter Addison; Alli and Derek Plourde’s newborn daughter Willow.
Emily ’03 and John Noyes Grunow: John Edwin Dearden Grunow IV, December 1, 2015 Andrew ’02 and Becca Everett: Annabelle Grace Everett, December 8, 2015 Alli (employee) and Derek Plourde: Willow Adalee Plourde, December 18, 2015 Amanda French-Greenwood ’01 and Dana Greenwood: Michaela Caroline Greenwood, December 24, 2015
David ’88 and Julie Warren: Knox Warren, December 31, 2015 Ashley ’04 and Matt Healy: Cole Tyler Healy, January 15, 2016 Heather ’99 and S. Alden Guptill: Maxine Wynn Guptill, January 19, 2016 Brendan Murphy ’03 and Etiwork Yirga: Rhoda Bayush Murphy, February 11, 2016
MARRIAGES Lucy Randall ’06 and Paul Archibald, September 19, 2015 in Chestnut Hill, MA
Alexandra Disney (employee) and Kurt Schuler, September 26, 2015 in Jackson, NH Charlie Gaylord ’01 and Jamie Britt, September 27, 2015 in Carbondale, CO Mike Aron ’08 and Christine Aron, October 10, 2015 Mike Dodge ’98 and Tara Cole, October 30, 2015 Robin Stefanik ’03 and Austin Green, November 15, 2015 Craig Antonides ’77 and Linda Collins, February 14, 2016 in Holderness, NH
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’45 Harry Emmons died on January 15 of heart-related problems. Harry and his wife, Rosamond Emmons, had been married almost 60 years, and they were all great years. Harry was also a wonderful father of three daughters. He will be missed.
’46 (reunion) Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!
’47 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Briggs ’47 magdalenabriggs@ymail.com
’48 Bart Chase writes, “Bunny and I are continuing to have a happy life here in Oregon. We are now very near the rest of the family and have been blessed with a new great-granddaughter, five grandchildren, and good times. We are living in a retirement community and playing a lot of golf. Looking forward to a visit down in Palm Springs with Rik Clark and Sandy. Best wishes to all classmates; I have many great memories of you and our special days at Holderness. It was the best.” … Rik Clark reports, “The winter of 2015–16 finds Sandy and me, again, in Palm Springs, CA, for three months. We continue to be blessed with good health and active lives. The largest sadness for us is continuing to lose friends, including neighbors and family members, to accidents, illnesses, and more. But we will
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continue to enjoy our younger friends! We are looking forward to a visit from classmate Bart Chase and his wife, Bunny. They will be coming down from their home in Tigerd, OR, in March. Golf, walks, and other fitness efforts are on our calendars. Beyond that, I am beginning to look forward to our 70th Reunion in 2018. Come on guys, we can make it.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Rik Clark ’48 capeclarks@aol.com
’49 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Baskin ’49 wbaskin.td53law58@aya.yale.edu
’50 The following message came to us from Chico Laird in response to the wonderful Christmas card we received this past season from our Holderness family. The scene on the card was copied from artwork done by Herbert Waters, who was on the faculty at the time we were in attendance. “By the time I arrived at Holderness School in the fall of 1948,” he writes, “Herb Waters (he was MISTER Waters to the students) was already ensconced in his shop in the little building just north of Marshall House. That was the year that the entire fifth form was housed in Marshall under the guidance and attempted control of Dick Cartwright ’38. The effortless grace of the skier gliding down the gentle slope outside the Schoolhouse makes it look easy. Hopefully, he will have finished his run before the area turns into the deep right field of the JV baseball field in the spring! Ah, good times, good years, good people. The Herb Waters of Holderness made it the special
place it was, and I sense it still is.” We surely share Chico’s thoughts and sentiments. … Squidge and I have moved into our New London, NH, condo at Hilltop Place. Henry, our grandson, has recently returned from Ireland where he studied as a freshman during the fall semester at the University of Limerick. Henry’s sister Megan is a day student in her second year at Proctor Academy. I continue to enjoy retirement and spend much of my time either doing casual research at my computer or reading a good biography in my den. I keep in fairly regular touch with Bigelow Green who lives near Nyack, NY, in a lovely house overlooking the Hudson River. … Doug Hamilton, our “outdoorsman” octogenarian, continues to do a little hunting during the appropriate seasons, along with his son Peter, my godson. … Chico and I represented the Class of 1950 at our 65th reunion at the school this past summer. We were impressed with the warm greetings we received from fellow alumni, especially those former students celebrating their 25th. We applauded the demeanor of the panel of students, who were extremely articulate in sharing their thoughts about the role Holderness has played in shaping their attitudes and lives. It was unquestionably evident that the prevailing school spirit, with which so many alumni are deeply familiar, is very much alive and well.
the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Frank Hammond ’50 fhammond64@comcast.net
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’51 (reunion) Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in
’52 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Al Teele ’52 859.734.3625
’53 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!
’54 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Berton Chillson ’54 bbmchill56@aol.com
’55 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Byers ’55 bill.byers36@gmail.com
’56 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dick Meyer ’56 richard419@roadrunner.com
’57 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Frederick Ellison ’57 greatspeak03@yahoo.com
Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!
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Clifford A. Rogers ’47 passed away on August 1, 2015. At left are Clifford and his wife Marel; at right, Clifford, circa 1959, at Kent School where he coached football and hockey and taught Latin.
’59 Greetings: After finally mastering the new Holderness method of getting in touch with alumni, I am back with my newsletter. Some of you may be pleased, and undoubtedly some of you are not. To the news… My old track buddy, Charley Murphy, checks in with the following news: He is working part time for Senator Grassley in DC watching out for the people’s money. I’m glad someone in the capitol is concerned. This will be Murph’s last year. I can picture many more trips out West looking for those elusive elk. … Lee Miller celebrated his 50th anniversary with his bride, Wilma. There are probably many of us in the same boat. I, for one, celebrated with Jeanne in East Boothbay, ME, with our entire family. This coming August will find Lee and Wilma on a cruise from Venice to
Barcelona. Sounds like all is going well for the Miller crew. … Ah! A note from my double classmate— Holderness and Dartmouth— Buster Welch. Having fished with Buster years ago in front of his house in Wilmot, NH, I can attest to the fact that he knows what he is doing. You can check that out by going to Kasba.com; go to fly fishing and check out his blurb. Buster has become quite the expert on all wilderness affairs. It would be great if somehow we could get him back to New England to hear him speak about his adventures in the Arctic and in Canada. Remembrances from the mind of Buster: fermenting cider under the bed in the sixth form; Dave Sleeper and his wrist Rocket slingshot and the shot heard around the world—namely the lead pellet that went through the Hagermans’ bathroom win-
SHARE YOUR NEWS! Have you recently encountered a milestone in your life? Share your news with your classmates! Please contact us at alumni@holderness.org.
l Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
dow and led to a meeting with the headmaster. Boy, if only Dick Floyd knew what went on in Lower Niles! … I just heard from the slingshot man himself, Dave Sleeper. He will be working on a project in the Bahamas this winter—a major improvement over last year when he was installing electrical generator stations in God Knows Where, ME. We hope to see him this winter in Florida, if he can take some time off. … I had breakfast with Steve Barndollar on January 22, and all is going well there. He is still hiking and skiing and generally doing quite well since the sale of his business three years ago. … Ditto for Chris Palmer, who is nearing total retirement. That I’ll believe when it happens. Golf is still high on his recreational activities even with a handicap of 29. Ah, the power of the pen. Sorry, Chris. … I heard from Henry Whitney. I am sure we will keep in touch. … Rosemary and Ken Lewis are still doing well, dividing their time pretty equally between Naples, FL, and Huntington on Long Island. No real news to report; he did drive through the Holderness campus last summer, after taking a boat cruise on Squam Lake with
some friends, and the place looks really good. The school apparently was hosting some athletic training event, or camp, so utilization of the facilities was being maximized.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jerry Ashworth ’59 ashworth@maine.rr.com
’60 This time we have an embarrassment of riches. Two short days before the deadline for this issue of HST, I awoke by the switch where I’d been snoozing and emailed the usual suspects (anyone with an email address) with a panicked plea for material. Within 24 hours I had an astounding thirteen contributions. But first, going back to midsummer 2015, when I got an email from Don “Soko” Sokoloski, who had news: “On February 16 I had quad by-pass and valve replacement surgery. It stemmed from a stress test ordered by my cardiologist, whom I’d been seeing for a heart murmur. I hadn’t had one in the two years I’d been seeing him. I call it preventative maintenance because I was feeling fine at the
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time! Everything went smoothly— no recollection of the surgery and NO PAIN. I’ve been doing cardio rehab exercises for the past 12 weeks and am now a 175 pounder!” At the 55th reunion in September there was indeed a somewhat lesser Soko than we had seen at the 50th. Soko stays in contact with Gerry Shyavitz and Ross Deachman—two other 55th attendees—once in a while. … Another pre-reunion email exchange in July was with Dave Grant, who said he is not a reunion type of guy, but it was great to hear from him after all this time: “I have been a professional land surveyor all my life. I am now retired and work for the local town engineering department, helping with fieldwork, CAD drawings, and updating the town GIS 19 hours a week. The rest of my time is devoted to family genealogy (a database of over 16,000 people), and computerizing cemetery records for a local cemetery (over 8,000 people). Of course, I have my family and eight grandchildren ranging from seven to 18 that keep me busy.” Dave still lives in the Mansfield, MA, house his family has occupied since 1864. … Peter Macdonald reported “a spectacular powder day with Phil Peck at Vail in January. There was a Holderness gathering that afternoon atop the mountain at Two Elk restaurant. Happy New Year to all.” … Rick Bullock checked in with a nice note of thanks to your humble and obedient class correspondent, adding, “It is always a treat to be reminded of who all my classmates were [presumably from the list of addressees I shamelessly leave on my emails]. I hope those who remain are all well and happy. I know we have lost John Mossman and Peter Monighetti. Are we otherwise intact? I am still working and feel-
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ing fine, all things considered. Two of my sisters, both St. Mary’s graduates, were not so fortunate, having lost battles with cancer. I feel very lucky. I didn’t fully appreciate Holderness when we were all there together—especially the great staff—but it was clearly the right place for me, and the memories are all good. Best wishes to everyone.” … Alan Dewart lets us know of his impressive post-retirement activities: “I guess the only news of any significance from my end is the role I have recently played in helping the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture & Planning launch a new master’s degree program in real estate development, the only one of its kind in the state’s university system. Then, when I opened my big mouth, the school (where I have been serving as an adjunct professor for 15 years) took me up on my offer to teach the new real estate finance course! Who said anything about retiring at our age!? I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t thoroughly enjoy it, and I recommend that any of our classmates, who might be looking for something productive to do, to consider serving as an adjunct professor at a local college or university, most of which are hungry for guys like us who have a wealth of real-world knowledge to share with today’s students.” … Bill Niles, another 55th attendee, together with wife Barb, says he is “officially free of cancer after the excision of a large part of my lung (I remember my mother happily sending Don Henderson a letter giving me permission to smoke in 1958.). I have just gotten my first smart phone— it proves how smart I ain’t. Hoping to hit an off-year reunion this school year or next, as I can’t be very certain about the 60th. My best to all who missed the 55th.” … Ross Deachman says,
“Nancy and I went to Cocoa Beach, FL for a few months this winter. Weather has finally turned to winter; the skiers are happy. Plymouth has a new 85-room motel on Tenney Mountain Highway. It’s part of the Marriott chain. With that and Walmart we are now no longer living in the country. Stay well everyone.” … Gerry Shyavitz says everything is fine with him and Pearl. They’ve been together for 48 years, “but she says don’t push your luck. Had a great time at the 55th. I even relaxed. Great to visit the ghosts of the past.” … Got another nice thank-you note from Loren Berry. … John Despres, our man in Washington and just about everywhere else, reports: “Every few months, we’ve moved between our winter home in Florida, summer home in California, and a family home in DC. We also spent a week last spring and fall in NYC and a month in the UK, Portugal, and Italy. As in recent years, Gina and I took our whole family to Deer Valley, UT, the week after Christmas. I enjoyed skiing with our daughters, Sarah, 49, and Naomi, 46, and grandsons, Desi, 12, and Clyde and Oscar, both 11. Gina and I also enjoyed snowshoeing as an invigorating but gentler and safer alternative to skiing! Now back in Miami Beach, we consume a nourishing diet of concerts, opera, dance, movies, and books. I still try to keep as fit as possible (age-adjusted) with a mix of swimming, Pilates, weights, and walking daily. We now look forward to two weeks in June and July with our daughters and grandsons in the Galapagos, Ecuador’s rain forest, and its capital, Quito. So, my life is stimulating and gratifying, but it’s not easy to be optimistic about the future world of our grandsons. It’ll be an endless series of big chal-
lenges. Best to all for 2016 and beyond!” … “It has been glorious here in Vermont,” says Dick Funkhouser. “Fall lasted well into December, and it seems we are about to miss the big snowstorm menacing the rest of the Northeast. I’m still on my gig teaching economics at New York University. The students are wonderful, and commuting to NYC is not as awkward as it sounds— plenty of theater, opera, and big city amusements. My very best to all for 2016.” … We haven’t heard from John Dunklee in a while. He mentions John Mossman’s death and says he is retired from pulling wire as an electrician. Now he just plays politician as a selectman for the Town of Hebron. … Phil Brooks reports in: “Nice to hear from all those familiar names. My wife Ginny and I have been on our 100-acre farm in Lyndeborough, NH, for going on 50 years. We have two boys (men I should say, in their 40s); one is an IT guy working from home in Warren, VT, and the other is a commercial helicopter pilot in Alaska, who flies skiers to remote mountain cliffs, where they all attempt to survive what they call fun. In the summer he flies into forest fires in the Frank Church— River of No Return Wilderness Area in Idaho. We sold our post and beam business to one of our employees a few years back but the manufacturing buildings are still on the property, so we stay involved. We also own and manage 15 rental units that we either built or restored. We spend time in Hawaii in the winter months, and in the summer I still take backcountry fly-fishing trips to Labrador, AK, etc. Ginny minds the gardens and animals (a few cattle, etc.) for the weeks I am in the wilderness. I also collect, restore and drive ’60s Triumph TR4s and enjoy small scale log-
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ging on the property. We are both involved in land conservation projects locally. I am on the Board of High Mowing School, a local boarding school, and keep my hand in education, often stopping in to visit Holderness to compare ideas on the challenges of running boarding schools. Best wishes to all; I carry lots of good memories of our times together.” … and finally, “Hey folks, this is Luke Wright, Dave Wright’s son. It’s great that you all stay in touch. I really have appreciated hearing about all your successes (Frankly it’s making me wish life by in order to get straight to retirement!). Somehow you got my old corporate email, which is quite typical of my dad. If you could replace it with DWW1928@hotmail.com you may reach Dave. I can’t promise you he will reply as he’s very busy sailing in the Abacos of the Bahamas and restoring the SV William H. Albury. Dad is as healthy as an ox and takes enormous pride in the fact that he takes no meds of any kind. If you do hear from him, tell him to call me, and tell him no more wooden sailboats!! Best of luck to you all. PS: I owe a huge amount of my success to his hard work and the positive life lessons he taught me along the way; I’m sure many of your children would say the same.” … I don’t know if any of you are Facebook friends with Dave, but YHOCC is, and I can tell you he is totally feeling the Bern!...This has gone on long enough without a detailed account of the 55th reunion last September, but it was a great time in wondrous fall weather. I’ll just throw out the names of those who were there: Ross Deachman, Nina and Dick Gardner, Spike Hampson, Barbara and Bill Niles, Len Richards and Maureen McClure, Gerry Shyavitz, Don Sokoloski, and Pam and Charley
Bill ’61 and Sherry Seaver enjoying the ocean on Cape Cod
Witherell. One more thing—several contributors mentioned classmates who have died. Not wanting to lengthen this report with a necrology, I’ve emailed what I know to my email list. Any updates would be appreciated. … Alfred Olivetti (he was “Al” at the time) was my freshman year roommate on the first floor of Niles. A few of us at the 55th reunion ran into his son Jerry, who told us his father was very sick and not expected to live long. Alfred died four days later. CLASS CORRESPONDENT Len Richards ’60 lenrichards@mac.com
’61 (reunion) Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you! John Holley reports, “Candace and I have been busy since we last wrote. My beautiful wife turned 70 last August and we celebrated throughout the year with kids, grandkids, and friends. A trip to Kauai and another to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone were part of the celebration. In between we visited Middlebury for my 50th reunion and had a great time with classmates including George Theriault and Fred Noseworthy. During our visit to
l Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
George ’61 and Cece Theriault at their Middlebury College 50th Reunion
Vermont, Candace and I stopped by to say hello to Don and Pat Henderson. We reminisced about the 1958–61 ski teams. Life is good and we are enjoying traveling, doing volunteer work, and delighting in our kids and grandkids. Our best to all.” … Cece and George Theriault are “looking forward to the 55th Holderness reunion next fall. I am enjoying a new stage of life having just retired from a highly satisfying 35 years of service at the New Hampshire Association for the Blind—20 years as President/CEO. I’m hoping to be able to balance new opportunities and challenges moving forward, spend a lot of time in the great outdoors, and complete a mind boggling to-do list.” … John Cleary notes, “Whenever I connect with my schoolmates, the varied interests and campaigns we individually seek and champion reassure me that all is well with us as a class, even if we may appear ‘old’ to the recent graduates. I am honored just to be associated with you. I truly enjoyed our 50th reunion; what a hoot! I continue to work hard physically and thankfully; two years ago this May, I under-
went an open-heart, quadruple by-pass. I was back on my feet and dancing within one month. Thus, I continue to ’hoe other people’s rows’ with my various pieces of heavy equipment, participate in our parish’s master gardener program, shepherd our town’s dog park, and dance whenever and wherever I can. Every Saturday morning I gravitate to our newly-formed farmer’s market in town for my large latte and some great conversation conducted under a spreading live oak tree. My daily personal goal has evolved simply into sharing any moment and tweaking a smile on anyone’s face. I already have begun planting my spring vegetable garden: onions, carrots, beets, spinach, regular and sugar pod peas, lettuce, potatoes, chard, and kale. Because I have to consume most of my crops, I now avoid the weird, multi-colored, foul-tasting stuff; I have resorted to juicing most of it. I live with my adopted six-year-old dog, Miss Louisiane Lulu D.Q. Extraordinaire (D.Q. = drama queen); unfortunately, there is no current significant other. Next June 9th, my brother Robo’s ’62
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Bro Adams ’65 and Monty Meigs ’62 attending a veteran’s event sponsored by Humanities Texas at University of Texas at Austin
widow, our sister, and I are hosting a life celebration for Robo in Hanover, NH, at his would-havebeen 50th college reunion. Rob passed away last August after combating Parkinson’s for seventeen years. We expect lots of laughs as we all share his many adventures/misadventures. If any of you (from our era at Holderness) would like to participate, please contact me at johncleary1@charter.net.” … Bill Seaver is “spending much of my time planning our family trip to Japan next April. I have also started supporting local asylum seekers (pre-refugee stage). When the leader of my weekly Buddhist group moved on after eight years, I agreed to co-lead the group. (Lobsang, the monk who started this group with me, is now occupied full-time running a school for at-risk children in remote northeast India.) This has helped me realize how much Buddhism, and the group, are part of my life and has led to my interest in strengthening the group. I continue to delight in the solace I receive every time I look at our Japanese garden. Even though the garden is a lot of work, I delight in its calm-
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ing influence as well as in watching chipmunk TV (Sherry is more fascinated with the “Where’s Waldo” activity—counting and identifying the goldfish and frogs). As we start to pass the baton to the next generation, I am truly grateful that Dana and Alicia volunteered to cook the Thanksgiving meal this year. This allowed me to enjoy Thanksgiving instead of being caught up in the cooking frenzy.”
’62 Peter Cooke reports, “I am officially in the re-engineering phase of my life. As an organization development consultant, I still facilitate strategic planning and deliver programs on ethics in customer service, but now the bulk of my time is spent working with southern New Hampshire’s immigrant population. For many years, Laconia, Concord, Manchester, and Nashua have served as New Hampshire’s resettlement cities for migrating refugees. For one year, I was the lead facilitator for the Manchester Immigrant Integration Initiative’s strategic planning sessions, and now I
serve on its leadership team during the implementation stage. This work has re-energized me in many ways, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to transfer my corporate and nonprofit skills to community development. If you are in Hooksett—the first town north of Manchester—please stop by and say hi. All the best.” … Monty Meigs and Bro Adams ’65 met up at a veteran’s event sponsored by Humanities Texas. Monty writes, “Bro was here letting UT-Austin help him celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Humanities, of which he is the director. Plus, to raise the excitement level, he was handing out checks for work proposed by us and others. We were chuckling about being in HST together.”
the simulator cars in a race, competing against each other, answering trivia questions, and doing a bunch more things associated with racing. It was great to see Charlie and catch up with what he has been doing.” … Bro Adams sent in a note and photo after seeing Monty Meigs ’62 at a veteran’s event sponsored by Humanities Texas, the state humanities council in Texas. Bro shared, “Monty reminded me of his Holderness connection, and we talked a good deal about the school and other things that we have in common, including Vietnam. We agreed to get together when Monty is next in Washington.”
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CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dave Hagerman ’63 david.s.hagerman@gmail.com
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Peter Janney ’66 pj@apllon.com
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CLASS CORRESPONDENT Sandy Alexander ’64 salex88@comcast.net
CLASS CORRESPONDENT John Pfeifle ’67 603.938.5981
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’68
Bill Carter writes, “Charles Reigeluth and I spent some time together on February 9, after he had been on a panel with the North Carolina State University Institute for Emerging Issues. I arranged for him to meet an elementary school teacher in Charlotte, NC, to talk to him about his book, Reinventing Schools: It’s Time to Break the Mold. We had a couple of hours to kill after lunch, so I decided to treat him to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. We had a great time driving
CLASS CORRESPONDENT John Coles ’68 j.coles@rcn.com
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Terry Jacobs ’65 haj3@jacobswyper.com
’69 Larry Jamieson reports, “I retired three years ago after practicing for 40 years. My wife and I moved from Fairfax, VA, to Wilmington, NC. We live here six months of the year and the other six months in Maine. My son, Ben, continues to love his job as an academic advisor at Harvard. Our son, Jon,
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retired from the military and now works as an analyst for the Department of Defense. Our daughter, Mara, works as an executive vice president for an investment bank in Raleigh. We have five wonderful grandchildren, whom we continuously spoil rotten.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jon Porter ’69 jwoodporter@cox.net
’70 Tom Munson is retired from a large mining company in Utah and is living in Surfside Beach, SC. CLASS CORRESPONDENT Peter Weiner ’70 prepco@ncia.net
’71 (reunion) Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you! Will Parish is the founder and president of Ten Strands, an organization that is trying to strengthen environmental literacy in California—www.tenstrands.org. Will’s wife Julie is on the California advisory board for the Trust for Public Land— www.tpl.org. Their son Nate (24) teaches first grade at a school north of San Francisco, and son Mac (29) lives in Barcelona working for Crowdcube Spain—www.crowdcube.es. Will and Julie celebrated their 33rd anniversary in April.
’72 How time flies. It is always great to hear from you, and this time I heard from four of our classmates. … Laurie Van Ingen writes that he has retired from the oil and gas business after 38 years. In April last year he moved to Colorado, about 25 miles north of Durango and about four miles south of Purgatory Ski Resort. “My wife and I have been volunteering at the ski area for guest services. Ten days of volunteer work yields a free season pass,” he writes. “Really good deal.” Plus, he points out, El Niño has, as of the first month of 2016 anyway, lived up to its advanced billing; his area was hit by over 13 feet of snow as of January. “It feels like the snow blower and shovel are attached to my hip,” he adds. “All those snowclearing skills I learned during my freshman year at Holderness on the Outdoor Crew have certainly been put to good use.” Laurie writes that he is also involved with the Geology Department at Fort Lewis College, where he plans to make a couple of presentations to the geology students. “Durango has a narrow gauge railroad that runs between Durango and Silverton, and I have signed up to volunteer as a Rail Ranger for their upcoming May to October season. Basically I will wander the cars answering questions about flora, fauna, geology, area history, etc. Should be interesting.” Good to hear from you, Laurie. … From central Massachusetts, David Nicholson says his big news is that his son, Dave, was married on August 29 to Laura Monroe Will in Osterville on Cape Cod. “We were lucky to have a perfect day to celebrate with both large families and many friends,” David says. He and his wife Suzie recently visited Marguerite and
l Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Will Graham at the Midland School in California where Will is the headmaster. “It is a very special place with less than 100 students learning much more than just academics,” David writes. “Leadership, grounds work (Remember the Job Program at Holderness?), horseback riding— all on a 2,800-acre campus in Los Olivos, the middle of southern California wine country.” … Speaking of Will Graham, Will is already starting to think about our next reunion. “Can we think about a good turnout for our next reunion?” he says. “How about a night or two of camping in the winter woods at the Dartmouth Land Grant or the Moosilauke Lodge? Big Nick still has his ‘no melt’ wilderness chocolate bar, and I think I can find my whistle. I will bring Bill Clough and Fred Beams, but someone has to go to Cuba to pick up Cesar Noble.” … All is well with Peter Kimball and his family in Sherborn, MA. “Still trying to make a difference in my professional life and still trying to find more time for family and the things I want to do,” he says. … And did someone say “retirement?” By the time you read this, I will have retired from The Republican newspaper in Springfield, MA. Lucy and I are buying a townhouse in an “over 55” complex in Duxbury, MA, near where my son Ted, his wife Jess, and their daughter Libby live. While we are sad to be leaving our friends at First Church of Christ in Longmeadow, we are excited that we will be living just two miles from our son, and less than an hour from Cape Cod where we maintain a seasonal residence. So starting this summer, we will be splitting our time between Duxbury and Dennis. … That’s it for this time. Great to hear from classmates as always.
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dwight Shepard ’72 shepdb@comcast.net
’73 Here in southern New England, the bitter snowy cold of last winter has been replaced with mild El Niño conditions (so far). The lack of snow drove me west in early January. I gave my eldest son a ride back to his home base in Ogden, UT, and got in a little skiing along the way. One word to you skiers: “Snowbasin!” On the flip side, I dipped south to knock off a few state high points (my current hiking project). Mighty Mt. Woodall in Mississippi at 804 feet took my breath away! I heard from a few of you, given the short deadline for comments (my fault). … Jim Sargent, who has traded one side of the country for the extreme other side, writes from Hawaii that he, his wife Leslie, and sons Eaton and Wolf are all working full time at their Maui distillery. In 2015, they opened theplantationstore.com which has allowed them to sell authentic Maui rums and Okolehao Liqueur to folks in all 50 states. Jim is hoping some old classmates will give it a try (unsolicited advertisement). Jim writes that Peter Bennett is now living full time a few miles away and that they have spent a little time together catching up. I might have to pay Jim and Peter a visit in a few years, when I get around to hiking Mauna Kea/Loa on the Big Island. … I also heard from Glen Cousins (been awhile, Glen!), who writes that life in Burlington, VT, continues to be fantastic with Barbara, his wife of 33 years. They celebrated Glen’s 60th birthday with a trip to Italy in September. Glen sees Pete Rapelye a few times a year and frequently talks with Ted McElhinny ’75 in a continued
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Karl Peters ’77 and Jeremy Baulf ’77 enjoying some well-earned time and relaxation at Covent Garden in London
Al and Bertha Fauver celebrating a bunch of centennials and perhaps an anniversary. Al was on faculty for close to 20 years and passed away in February.
effort to get him to come on his annual Tuckerman Ravine threeday camping and skiing trip every April. Glen also has random ski days with Scott Morrison on the slopes of Mad River Glen and Stowe. Glen continues to work and thrive at his home-based branded merchandise company ICON and invites any Holderness alumni to contact him if they are in the area. … Peter Terry dropped me a quick “hi” and promised to write more later when school duties lighten up. … And finally, Peter Garrison, who puts Dora the Explorer to shame, writes that although it took all of 2015, he and his wife made it out of the jungles of Panama and finished their move back to New England, specifically Exeter, NH. Peter is very happy to be back in peaceful and quiet New Hampshire (Newsflash, Peter…It’s a primary year! You probably have Hillary and Trump camped out in your backyard at the moment!). Peter should be grateful that we arranged an El Niño winter to ease him back into New England. He is getting the urge to do some sculpting again after taking a break for the transition. He had breakfast recently with
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Morgan Dewey, hopes to catch up soon with Geoff Klingenstein, and is looking forward to our next reunion. … I’ll leave off here and wish you all a good start to 2016. And yes, our 45th reunion is just over two years away; never too early to be making some long range plans! CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dick Conant Jr. ’73 rconantjr@msn.com
’74 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Walter Malmquist ’74 wmalmquist@kingcon.com
’75 Linda King Fogg Noyes reports, “Our daughter Emily King Noyes Grunow ’03 had a baby boy on December 1. John Edwin Dearden Grunow IV is our first grandchild, and yes, it is a ton of fun!” … Mac Jackson writes, “It was great to see a bunch of you at the 40th reunion in September, and it’s that time again to give us some news! It’s snowing again in the Mad River Valley! After going on a bike ride on Christmas day (so
wrong in Vermont during winter), it started to snow and we received about 14” until the rain on January 10. I’m working at Sugarbush, Mad River Glen, occasionally at Okemo, and travelling around New England with PSIA this winter. Give me a shout if you are in the area; we can take some ski runs and have some coffee or beer! I’m racing at Cranmore, NH, on March 12, defending my team’s 10th Mountain Division Cup that we’ve won the last two years. Our oldest team member is Dick Calvert, 92, a World War II 10th Mountain Division veteran. Hope to make it to Commencement in the spring, as I have a cousin graduating! My third relative (all cousins, and all sisters) to have gone to Holderness.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Mac Jackson ’75 skifarmer@live.com
’76 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Charlie Bolling ’76 chasgolf7@aol.com Biff Gentsch ’76 eventproducts@aol.com
’77 Coming in July to a bookstore near you, Sly the Fly Goes on an Adventure, by Hamilton Williams, a.k.a. Ham Boynton. “It’s about a fly named Sly,” he says, “who gets
sucked into a car window, eventually escapes, and has some adventures flying and finding his home. You can get it now at Tate Publishing. Part of the proceeds will go to the First Tee of Tucson, a great organization. I am a professional golf caddie and I live in Englewood, CO, and Tucson, AZ, depending on the time of year. I saw classmate Olin Browne in Tucson a few months ago for a Senior (sorry, OB) Champions Tour event. Hope all my classmates are well and that their lives so far have been rewarding. Maybe I’ll see you on the links someday. Buy the book Sly the Fly Goes on an Adventure. Ages about 4–10. You will like it. It is the first in a series.” … Karl Peters “caught up with the Jibski, Jeremy Baulf, recently in Covent Garden. No one loves a success story of astronomical wealth and prestige more than America and Holderness, so I’m happy to report that Jeremy hit the ground running after school, did very well for himself, has been happily married for 35 years or so, has two kids, and has the world in the palms of his hands. He’s much the same. … Rob Bacon writes, “This past October we had a Holderness reunion at our place on the Cape to honor Sandy Treat ’78 who had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of melanoma, and who was going downhill fast. Thirty-five people showed up including Bill and Patty Burke. I was blown away by two things over the course of that Columbus Day weekend: First, that I was surrounded by an extraordinary group of fabulous friends from my earlier years, and second, that I had done a terrible job of staying in touch. I simultaneously experienced both huge amounts of gratitude for what had happened during my four years at Holderness, and a sense of deep
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regret for having let it slip away into a distant memory—the fruits of which I had done little to cultivate into present-day blessings. Our weekend together on the Cape last October brought many of us back together for the first time in decades, and taught me— again—how much I had loved my time at Holderness, and how deeply grateful I am for it. Sandy died on January 8, and a very large group of Holderness alumni gathered in Colorado to celebrate his life. It was a powerful event! This past weekend I drove my youngest daughter up I-93 North to her AMC work camp at the base of Mount Washington. As such, we drove right by Holderness School. I pulled in and drove around the school and showed Maggie everything. As we went around the campus, memories and reflections poured forth from both my heart and my lips. I was, once again, overcome with gratitude for my four years at Holderness School. I showed Maggie the balcony at Niles where I first met Sandy Treat. I showed her Weld Hall, and Carpenter, and Bartsch, and Henderson’s Outhouse. I showed her everything. I was overflowing with gratitude. I found myself wondering how I could serve Holderness School. These past eight months have re-kindled my flame of appreciation for the ‘Holderness Experience.’ Many of us will gather in just over a month to ride in the Pan Mass Challenge in honor of Sandy Treat. Team Treat—a gathering of old men—will try to ride from Wellesley to Welfleet because we love Sandy Treat, because we love Holderness School, and because we hope to do some small part to fund research and treat cancer. It will be a powerful weekend. I send you my love, my gratitude, and my affection. I hope to see
Grace Bird TR and husband Jerry P ’07, ’13 before the Kelly Brush Century Ride on September 12, 2015
you all someday soon. If you are ever anywhere near Boston or Lexington, give a call. I’d love to see you. Many Blessings.” … Craig Antonides reports, “The unfortunate passing of Sandy Treat ’78 brought many of us back together—whether in person or in other forms of communication and connection. Sadly it’s events like these that often bring us back together. Reunions, under these circumstances, often give us a wakeup call and remind us that life is short. And as we reflect on our past, we might just realize that our time at Holderness was a special time in our lives. The bonds of friendship from those days are lasting, and in the new age of social media, it is easy to reach out and reconnect—which is something that has motivated me to undertake the temporary duty of class agent. As we approach our 40th reunion we need to take stock of our Holderness connection and rally our class to step up and show some Blue pride. We’re ranked pretty low on the list of reunion attendance and on giving back to the school. Our last solid effort at reunion was at our 25th, which I recall as a pretty good time. It would be nice to get the gang back together under happier
l Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Helen Hua P ’15 pictured with the mothers of current Holderness Beijing students during lunch in her home
circumstances—an opportunity that is on our doorstep. Yes, it’s a little ways off, but time does seem to pass quickly at this stage of our lives. Many of us are friends on Facebook, and it’s been great to check out what folks are doing. The Alumni Office has given us another opportunity with a new interface tab, Holderness Connect, which may have popped up in your inbox recently. I encourage you to sign in and see if we can get our class to mobilize and reconnect at another level. We need to find some of that spirit that we showed back in the day. If you need a reminder, just break out our yearbook—something I did the other day while getting recruited for this duty. It was funny to be looking at it in an office on the third floor of Livermore—Olin Browne’s old room (good thing those walls can’t talk). I’m both proud and embarrassed when I thumb through it. How many classes have blackedout pictures in their yearbooks? Needless to say it’s always a little awkward when one of our present students comes up and says, ‘I saw your yearbook.’ That’s usually when I remind them that they aren’t going to have much luck pulling the wool over these eyes. Regardless, it’s something that
makes me chuckle, because I think we all turned out okay. Let’s see if we can rally and get some momentum building for our 40th.” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Peter Grant ’77 pete@grantcom.us
’78 Let’s start 2016 off right by checking in with the class of 1978’s answer to The American Sportsman, Scott Sirles. Sirleszy went to Kamchatka, Russia, last summer on a fly-fishing adventure to the Ozernaya River. He says there was “almost a fish every cast on this remote, but prolific river. The bugs were thick enough to carry you off, though,” Scott writes. “Daily baths in 100-percent DEET were the norm.” Sirleszy wasn’t the only classmate to head out into the wild. … This winter Blaise deSibour and his wife Leslie Clapp spent eight weeks traveling around South Africa with a two-week jaunt in the middle to Rwanda and Uganda. Blaise and Leslie went to Cape Town, Kruger National Park, the Drakensburg Mountains, and the northeast coast. While in South Africa, they rented a 4x4
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Alex MacCormick ’88 and former Holderness teacher Jim Connor ’74 during St. George’s Parents’ Weekend
truck equipped for camping with a tent on the roof. … Randy Fiertz is still keeping the friendly skies safe with his job in the Federal Aviation Administration, but he’s had a change of scenery. After 20 years in the District of Columbia, Fiertzie and family have relocated to the other Washington, specifically Seattle. His new gig with the FAA gives him federal oversight of airports in seven states ranging from Washington to Colorado. Be nice to Randy and wish him congratulations in his new role, gang, or he’ll make sure you never fly commercial ever again (I kid, Randy, I kid). … J.D. Hale took a few minutes off the ski slopes to check in and let us know that his son Charlie is living in Los Angeles and is launching YouPlus.com, an app company primarily involved in the healthcare sector. They are private labeling for some big companies this year and rolling out 2.0 in April. Jud also sends along updates about the rest of his brood. He helped move his daughter Rosie to Denver in October, where she has just
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joined a healthcare ad agency. “She loves to ski and hike so she is very happy,” Jud writes of Rosie’s new life. Jud will be back in Colorado on March 6, skiing at Vail with Rosie, his brother Chris, and Kraig Haynes (a friend from Bates College); he is looking to connect with any Holderness alumni in the area. Daughter Lacey just finished up a semester in Seville, Spain, and Jud and his wife Cindy and I visited her there in December as well as Madrid. Lacey is a junior at Connecticut College. One of Jud’s other kids, Dalonn, graduated from Springfield College last spring and is running the children’s programs at the North Suburban YMCA in Woburn, MA. And finally, there is Josh, who is a junior at Northeastern and is taking a semester off to work. … Unfortunately, 2015 wasn’t all fun and games for the class of 1978. We lost two of our own—Sandy Treat to cancer and Andrew Wilson to a heart attack. Class members responded to Sandy’s death by forming a team that participated in the Pan Mass
Challenge, the bicycle riding fundraiser that takes riders on different routes around Massachusetts. The team, called “Treat Life Right,” was led by Don Whittemore and included Paul Bozuwa, J.D. Hale, and Prescott Smith, as well as Rob Bacon ’77 and Sandy’s widow, Kathy. The team raised $112,613.80 and is looking to better that mark this year on August 6 and 7.
Christmas card from Rob Lowe and family in neighboring Katy, TX. I hope the whole class can meet for our 40th coming up. Happy New Year to all!” … Michael Silitch writes, “After two years as boarding school teachers and coaches (Nordic skiing and mountain biking) in New England, Nina (Cook) Silitch ’90 and I are off to bigger mountains. We are moving to Park City, UT this summer, where we’ll continue to be immersed in sport and ski culture (after almost 15 years in Chamonix, France and the Alps). Our boys, Birken (11) and Anders (nine), will continue to ski there. I’ll still teach part time, but I’m also returning to guiding (I’ll be teaching and mountain guiding in Zermatt, Switzerland this fall). Looking forward to guiding the Haute Route next spring, if anyone is interested.”
’80 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Greg White ’80 ggnh@aol.com
’81 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Baskin ’81 william.baskin.law.90@aya.yale.edu
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Luther Turmelle ’78 lturmelle@spc.global.net
’82
’79 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you! Will Neff reports, “Still alive and kicking in Houston, TX. I come up to Franconia, NH, each fall and sometimes pop by Holderness. I received an annual email
Molly Nelson reports, “Been hanging out a lot with Pennie McEdward Rand and Ann Ogden these past few years. Both are still awesome people. Our kids, Ruby (25) and Grace (23) turned out to be farmers just like their parents, even after four years of college. You can check out their pages on Facebook—Pine Root Farm and Merrifield Farm Stand. If your kids are looking for summer work, send them our way! I stop in to see Bill and Ki Clough often on
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Todd Hopgood ’87 and Bruce Bohuny ’87 in Telluride, CO
Peter Driscoll ’88 enjoying a day of skiing at Whitetail Resort with his son
my motorbike walk-abouts. They are doing well and look great— busy with their sugar bush, skiing and travel. Check out a twominute film of our farm on YouTube: Merrifield Farm (not the maple sugar one). That’s Johnny in the corn and me on the International. Come visit anytime.”
’84 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Fred Ludtke ’84 ludtke4@gmail.com
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jean-Louis Trombetta ’85 jeanlouistrombetta@gmail.com
’86 (reunion)
’83
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Chris Zak ’86 chriszak@gmail.com
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jud Madden ’83 justin.madden64@gmail.com
Alex MacCormick ’88 and Chris Doggett ’88 at St. George’s Parents’ Weekend
’85
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Chris Pesek ’82 chris.pesek@am.joneslanglasalle.com
Peter Hewitt is looking forward to moving from California to the Northeast this coming summer. He would love to visit with anyone who cares to discuss health science or arts education. “Holderness is a great place and I bet that it retains great people,” he says. “But I don’t know them, and I would like to change that. Idea: alumni arts events. My particular interest is music, and it will not take much to enroll me in celebrating the contributions of David Lockwood for Holderness School.”
Christopher “Todd” Burgess ’87 and Craig Johnson ’87 in San Francisco over Christmas
’87 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you! Brett Weisel says to look him up if you make it to San Francisco. … Or if you’re in Hong Kong, stop in to see Christopher “Todd” Burgess; he’ll buy lunch! He saw Craig Johnson in San Francisco over Christmas.
l Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Russell Gates ’88 with family at a recent Boston Bruins hockey game
’88 Jenny Holden shared big news: “In April, after five long years, hours of ridiculous amounts of paperwork, and many visits to Ethiopia, I finally brought my daughter, Lucy Susan Holden, home. I am loving every minute of being a mom. We had a magical first Christmas together in Maine with family.” … Brett Jones was out in Wyoming last summer with a whole clan of 21 at the HF Bar Ranch where the Jones boys battled the ranch hands in a match of polo. … Pete Driscoll is still playing hockey at the Annapolis Naval Academy, often with Peter Bondra (NHL 500 goals), every Friday morning. “My son continues to skate with reckless abandonment with the Metro and Navy Squirts,” Pete reports. “When we aren’t playing hockey, we are skiing at White Tail in Pennsylvania. I am still represent-
Brett Jones ’88 at the HF Bar Ranch in Wyoming last summer
ing liquid alternative mutual funds in the Mid-Atlantic as managing director with Cedar Capital.” … Matt Schonwald has been in Kyrgyzstan battling the elements and the slow Wi-Fi. … Paula Lillard Preschlack writes that she is doing well and is looking forward to seeing everyone at the next reunion. … Chris Keeler’s stepdaughter is getting married next June in Napa and plans to be back East in July. … David Warren is now a dad. He and his wife Julie welcomed their son Knox Warren into the world on December 31, 2015. … Lee Hanson
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John Taggart ’88 filming with Jerry Seinfeld on the set of the TV show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
Hazel Marie Eccleston, daughter of Rick ’92 and Janet Eccleston, at two months old
Te Tiffany ’89 with daughters Reed (10) and Marin (8)
also welcomed a new addition to his growing family. Congrats! … Chris Stewart has been busy this fall looking at boarding schools, including Holderness. … Stew, Scott Esposito, and I met up in the city for the annual Teton Gravity Research Premiere. … I’ve been busy this fall as well. My daughter Molly is a freshman at St. George’s. During their Parents’ Weekend, I ran into Chris Doggett (my Hoit roommate), whose son is a junior there, as well and Jim and Margaret Connor who are both St. George’s teachers. Great to see them. … John Taggart is Director of Photography on the new Jerry Seinfeld TV show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
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CLASS CORRESPONDENT Alex MacCormick ’88 amaccormick@centerlanellc.com
’89 Te Tiffany writes, “I have an important thank you that I would like to extend to classmates Scott Beckman and Jen Murphy Robison. Life does have a way of occasionally throwing us all some interesting curve balls from time to time, and such was the case with me this last year; I suppose an amicable divorce was a contributing factor as well! My ex-wife elected to leave Alaska and move to Marblehead, MA, where much of her family lives. She and I share/split the time with our two daughters, Reed (10) and Marin (eight), so this major shift has caused me to adopt a bi-
coastal lifestyle. Commuting back and forth from Alaska to New England wasn’t exactly in my long-range plans, but one has to learn to adapt, and I am doing my best to comply. I now split my time between Fairbanks, Marblehead, and Weare, NH (where my family has long had a home). The only way this bicoastal, tri-household system is able to work for me currently is thanks to the super help and generosity of Scott and his wife Becca, as the girls and I live in a small above-the-garage apartment they have in Marblehead; and Jen and her husband Dave donated/loaned us the beds the girls are using in Marblehead, along with a lot of great, and necessary, household items. So to both of them I wish to offer a very sincere and heartfelt thank you! An added bonus is that I now get to spend time with them as well as my old Holderness roommate Greg Eccleston. I am hoping to see, and reconnect, with other classmates as the winter, and years, progress!” CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jen Murphy Robison ’89 jennifermrobison@yahoo.com
The Herrick family hosted the Davenports and Gillettes to introduce the kids before the first week of school in September. (L–R) Todd Herrick ’87, Stian Davenport ’19, Jenny Herrick ’18, Chris Davenport ’89, Lily Gillette ’19 and Tracy McCoy Gillette ’89
’90 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Courtney Fleisher ’90 courtneyfleisher@alumni.bates.edu
’91 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Terra Reilly ’91 sansivera@gmail.com
’92 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Kelly Mullen Wieser ’92 kelly@wiesermail.com
’93 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Lindsay Dewar Fontana ’93 linds_dewar@yahoo.com
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Jen Fournier ’92 and Heather Marcroft Vitella ’89 wearing their Holderness hats at a wellness retreat in May 2015
’94 Melissa Barker reports, “I’m enjoying year 13 at Dawson School, where I am still teaching biology, running the experiential education program, and coaching the cyclocross team. I love introducing middle and high school students to bike riding and racing. I often summon my inner Phil Peck when talking to the team, and I am proud to say that I’m graduating kids who have really embraced the bike. On a personal note, I am now sleeping in the stars and stripes jersey that I just won at the Cyclocross Masters National Cyclocross Championships in early January. Now on to ski season!” … Cynthia Sweet writes, “Things are going well here on Cape Ann. I am still running Sweet Paws, my non-profit dog rescue organization. We are approaching 3,000 dogs saved since starting five years ago, and I am going into the 11th year of my rescue career. I am also working on legislation that will change Massachusetts laws regarding puppy mills and animal abuse. It is a ton of work and most days it is discouraging, but getting to see rescue dogs that once were strays on the street or horribly abused go into their new homes makes it all worth it. I recently found Brit Munsterteiger ’95 and Ramey Harris-Tatar their second Sweet Paws dog and got to see them
both. Alexis Wruble ’95 has helped a ton in raising funds and volunteering and I love seeing her. It is super fun keeping in touch with Holderness friends through our mutual love of dogs. Unfortunately, the rescue gig doesn’t pay—there’s not a lot of money in saving dogs—so I am still consulting in the international experiential education arena to support my dog addiction. I work for a small company out of Cape Town, South Africa, and luckily still have the benefits of traveling for work. I ran into Dave Warner ’95 a few weeks back at our local farmer’s market. Lastly, I am planning a trip with Lindsey Nields Kennedy and Kelly Cornish to go visit Kate Stahler in San Diego—just a quick girls’ weekend. Hope everyone is happy and enjoying life. Don’t forget to check out Sweet Paws Rescue on Facebook!” CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Sam Bass ’94 samuel.g.bass@gmail.com Ramey Harris-Tatar ’94 rameyht@yahoo.com
’95 Bryan Erikson reports, “I am happy to announce that I have been named head coach and general manager of the Northeast Generals junior hockey team. We play in the North American Tier III Hockey League and started playing out of Canton, MA, in September 2015. It has been a busy few months recruiting and getting set up, but I’m having a blast doing it!” CLASS CORRESPONDENT John Farnsworth ’95 jpfarns@yahoo.com
l Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
’96 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Heather Pierce Roy ’96 heatherbpierce@hotmail.com
’97 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Putney Haley Pyles ’97 putneypyles@gmail.com
’98 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Tara Walker Hamer ’98 taraphotography@gmail.com
’99 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Brooke Aronson McCreedy ’99 brooke.mccreedy@gmail.com
’00 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Andrew “Sully” Sullivan ’00 myireland20@gmail.com
’01 (reunion) Kellan Florio says that “life keeps chugging along. Diana and I just made the big move from city to suburbs (Brooklyn to Port Washington on Long Island). Our kids (Zoe, two, and Crosby, one) keep us on the go non-stop. I’m still working in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, and Diana is ramping up her yoga-infused physical therapy business (www.dianazotos.com), recently featured on Oprah.com. While I’m not playing soccer, skiing, or golfing nearly as much as I used to, I really enjoy exploring my inner youth making pillow mountains and reading Dr. Seuss with the kiddos.”
CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Karyn Hoepp Jennings ’01 karynpjennings@gmail.com Adam Lavallee ’01 a.l.lavallee@gmail.com Sophie Moeller ’01 508.685.1682
’02 It is with a heavy heart that I report to you that we have lost our dear friend and classmate, Erin Maroni. It was comforting to see so very many people from Holderness in the chapel to celebrate Erin’s life and to come together to support one another and the Maroni family at her service. The outpouring of sympathy and kind words that I have heard, received, and seen on social media really speak to the central figure Erin was in our class. A very special thanks to Phil Peck, Rich Weymouth ’70, and David Lockwood for making her service feel so warm, safe, and familiar—it was a very special remembrance for such a radiant person. To the rest of the class of 2002 (and the other classes who also loved and knew Erin), her family has requested that in lieu of flowers you support Holderness School through your donations in Erin’s memory. I know I speak for all of us when I say that we shall miss her terribly but remember her ever so fondly. … Joel Bradley is finishing up his fourth and final year in the Internal Tufts/Maine Medical Center internal medicine and pediatrics residency program in Portland, ME. “I just accepted a position at the VA/Dartmouth doing quality and safety work and teaching in the departments of internal medicine and pediatrics, which will bring me back toward Holderness country in the summer,” he says. “My older brother
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FABULOUS YELLOW ROMAN CANDLE
A EULOGY FOR ERIN MARONI ’02 BY BETSY PANTAZELOS ’02 I’ve spent some time mulling over when I actually first met Erin. I remember her sassy red curls pinned into the pixie cut and recall thinking that this girl was stylish and bold. But in retrospect, I don’t think it was Erin’s haircut at all that conveyed her daring and spunk, but rather it was the very essence of her that she simply exuded everywhere she went. She shared her energy without pretense and her friendship and heart selflessly and without judgment. Erin always had a way of infusing more color into situations. When everyone else on the soccer team wore Holderness Blue and white uniforms, she thought it best to add iridescent teal leggings and a mango pullover to the ensemble. For the occasion of our high school Christmas dinner, when everyone else had spent time stalking the aisles of Macy’s and Lord & Taylor for a full-length
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formal gown, Erin made a dress out of duct tape— complete with red and green electrical tape accents. Some of my fondest memories of Erin involve ’80s music, skiing, or dancing—the best of times include all three. In high school we were on the ski team together and spent a lot of time on cold chairlifts between runs. We found the best way to ward off the chill was to keep moving while suspended over the icy slopes. Erin’s idea of “keeping moving” always involved creating dances complete with hand gestures and other choreographed movements while belting out the lyrics to some of her favorite songs. Since her passing, many of you have fondly recounted the day we took one of these very dances to the stage—in front of the entire student body. The notion of it instills stage fright in me today, but somehow standing next to Erin that night made lip-syncing to Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” with side-ponytails and neon attire in front of 300 people both fun and carefree. In this way, she was a safety net of a friend—the kind of person that made you feel safe, supported, and implicitly understood whenever she was near. Erin was definitely a reader, but On the Road by Jack Kerouac had a special place in her heart. In the book, Kerouac writes, “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue center light pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’” Erin was one fabulous yellow Roman candle and she would not want us to mourn her passing. So instead, let us celebrate her life. Afterall, one eulogy cannot fully encompass the woman, the daughter, and the trusted friend. I’ll say my parting words to Erin with the same words she left for me in the last voicemail that I have from her. “I know you’re out of the country, but I missed you so much anyway, so I thought I would leave you a message, so that when you got back home I would say…Heyyyy! You’re home!! Ok. I’ll talk to you later. Miss you, love you, bye.”
Jamie ’99 introduced me to the joys of being an uncle—and living with an insomniac three-monthold with a cold. He continues to live in Portland, OR, where he is leading an otherwise charmed life as a new father. At the beginning of January my wife Elissa and I had the pleasure of running into Peter Hendel, Peter Durnan, Pat Casey and the Holderness Nordic team two days in a row skiing at the base of Carter Notch in Jackson, NH: a delightful chance encounter. We are looking forward to seeing them around this winter if and when El Niño lets it snow.” … Andrew Everett and his wife Becca welcomed their baby girl, Annabelle Grace, on December 8. CLASS CORRESPONDENT Betsy Pantazelos ’02 b.pantazelos@gmail.com
’03 Shannon Fallon reports, “2015 was a fun and full year for me! I completed my training in KMI structural integration with Tom Myers and I opened my own practice—the Bodhi Shop in Westbrook, ME. The Bodhi Shop is a KMI, massage, and yoga studio, where I predominantly work 1:1 to help improve movement and function in one’s body. I also offer group yoga classes and have really enjoyed watching my little community grow. A lot of time and energy has been devoted to opening a business, but I have been balancing it with plenty of play—skiing, sailing, and traveling. Sending warm wishes this New Year! Stop in to the studio and say hi if you are ever in the Portland, ME, area.” … Matt Burzon says, “Hi, Holderness! I turned 30 this year. After lots of travel in my 20s, I’m now enjoying life in Burlington, VT and am thankful
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to be playing competitive hockey regularly with Chris Talbert ’05 on Team Flex in the Catamount League. Inspired by good friend Ryan Dunn ’93 and his adventurous trips out West, I purchased an RV in the late fall and headed west for two months. I toured most of Colorado, had breakfast with Kerstin Bendl ’04 in Aspen, and made a number of stops in Utah and New Mexico for some mountain biking and back-country adventuring. The big news for 2016 is that I’ve founded a talent acquisition company called Talon Recruitment. I am very excited for the coming year. Happy 2016!” … David Madeira lives in New York City with his wife Ori and their dog. “I always enjoy catching up with Holderness folks,” he notes. “Hedda Burnett ’00 is our dog’s veterinarian, and I run into her husband Ben at the deli during lunch frequently. I went to a ski film premier with Betsy Pantazelos ’02 this fall, and it was a great time. I also had a great time catching up with Holderness friends at both Gaylord weddings—in the Adirondacks for Andy ’02 and Colorado for Charlie ’01. I stayed with Fordy Sinkinson ’02, who is now a father to a baby girl, and Britt Ruegger ’02 gave me a rock climbing lesson. I saw Ramsay Hill ’02 in Park City briefly the following weekend on our way to the airport in Salt Lake. This past fall Han Min Lee ’05 was travelling through NYC on his way to his ’American Reunion’ at Holderness, and it was great to catch up with him over some beers in mid-town Manhattan. I stayed with Alex Palmisano and his wife Katherine in San Francisco for a mutual friend’s wedding, and went surfing with Alex and Dave Campbell ’04 at some of their locals-only spots. Ave Cook ’02 and Heidi
Ashley ’04 and Matt Healy with their second son, Cole, in January 2016
Webb ’00 were in NYC for Thanksgiving weekend, and Ori and I had a great time hanging out with them and their daughter and son. I saw both Coach Duane Ford and Coach Bob Low in early December. I also visited briefly with Jessika Fishkin Klass ’02 at St. George’s School in her admissions office, and then stayed with Jarret ’01 and Jessica Hann on a trip to Williamsburg, VA, the following week. Jarrett stoked a giant bonfire in his backyard just like they do back in Newfoundland. Then I saw Justin Simon ’04, now the New Hampton School lacrosse coach, at a lacrosse convention in Baltimore. I usually get to see
l Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
Sam Beck ’02 (another soon-to-be father) in Norwich, VT, and Chris Rodgers ’02 in Stowe, whenever I go back to Vermont. I look forward to catching up with more Holderness folks in 2016.” … Siblings Neal and Lauren Frei ’05 climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro together. They used their adventure as an opportunity to raise several thousand dollars to support a local school and orphanage in Tanzania. CLASS CORRESPONDENT Nick Payeur ’03 ndpayeur@gmail.com
’04 Nate Smith writes, “A few years ago my wife and I moved out of the New York City metro area to Syracuse, NY. Since then, we’ve had our first child, Sarah, who is currently two years old. Next fall we plan to move farther north to a small town near the Canadian border. This is where we hope to find our first home and enjoy spending more time outdoors. One piece of advice that I received while at Holderness that sticks with me to this day was given by Norm Walker. When reading novels, he always had us write down any words we didn’t understand and look them up in a
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’06 (reunion) Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!
Siblings Neal ’03 and Lauren Frei ’05 pictured with local guides, Innocent and Yusef, atop 19,341-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro for sunrise. The temperature was minus 24 degrees.
dictionary. He would hold us accountable the next day and would quite often quiz us on the most difficult ones. It seems simple, but you’d be surprised at the number of students who skipped over this task. Mr. Walker felt that this was a metaphor for other aspects in life. Since that time, if I don’t understand something, you
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can bet that I am going to try and make time to do my research and see what I can learn. I never got the chance to tell him that his advice stuck with me so clearly, but I credit him with the success I’ve had in life.” … Matt and Ashley Healy welcomed their second son, Cole, in January.
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Ryan McManus ’04 rbmcmanus@gmail.com
’05 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Brie Keefe ’05 brie.keefe@gmail.com
Ashley Babcock lives in Telluride, CO, and teaches middle school math and science at Telluride Mountain School. “At school, I ski with the students up to three days a week, and in April I will be traveling to Cuba with the experiential learning program,” she writes. “This winter I am signed up for multiple big-mountain free-skiing competitions, including those at Crested Butte and Taos, and I am enjoying backcountry skiing in the San Juans. I’m hoping the class of 2006 has a good turnout for next summer’s 10-year Holderness reunion!” … Lucy Randall married Paul Archibald on September 19 at the Church of the Redeemer in Chestnut Hill. She reports, “We hosted our reception at the Country Club in Brookline and celebrated our big day with family and friends and a lot of Holderness alumni! Paul and I live in the Back Bay of Boston, and I’m still working as an event planner at the Massachusetts General Hospital Development Office, mainly focused on pediatric events.” … Jess Saba lives and works in Boulder, CO, and in New York City. She is an independent marketing and business strategist. She has worked with over 30 companies in the outdoor, natural foods, and social innovation industries. “Come out to Boulder and visit if you’d like to ski, hike, or go on a hut trip,” she says. … The past year has been a busy one for Carlie Bristow: “I finished my graduate program at Tufts
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SPRING 2016
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Katie Gewirz P ’16 met up with Massachusetts State Trooper Tom Mahon ’88 while waiting for a plane to arrive at Logan Airport this past spring.
Carson Holmes ’15, Emily Clifford ’15, and Annie Hayes ’15 in Orlando, FL after running the Walt Disney World® Half Marathon on January 9, 2016
Amanda French-Greenwood ’01 and Dana Greenwood’s newborn daughter Mikey wearing new Holderness gear
CLASS CORRESPONDENT Annie Hanson ’07 annie.e.hanson@gmail.com
’08 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jessi White ’08 white.jessica.madigan@gmail.com
’09
’07
Kai Lin ’15 and Connor Marien ’14 in front of Thompson Hall at the University of New Hampshire after a special Veteran’s Day “Retreat Ceremony” that involved Army and Air Force ROTC programs
Katie Oram writes, “I am working full time in the field for the National Outdoor Leadership School in their winter rock climbing, hiking, and mountaineering programs. I am spending most of my winters in Jackson, WY, and summers in the Pacific Northwest. I see some Holderness alumni around every now and then, and it is always great!!” … Sarah Morrison reports, “I’m still living in and loving Brooklyn, where I work in events and marketing. Over the holidays I went home to New Hampshire and spent some
time catching up with Krista Glencross ’06 and Jaime Dusseault. … Stephen and Kourtney Brim Martin celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary last year. Stephen is deployed as an EOD Technician to Spain, providing crisis response for the African region. Kourtney is still a police officer and is currently assigned as a detective; fortunately, they found time for a Spanish vacation in January. Their children, Julia and Mitchell, are one and two years old.
Matthew Burzon’s ’03 new RV during a night of camping at Boreas Pass in Breckenridge, CO
University this past summer and started working at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. At the ICA/Boston I help run our extensive teen programs that connect Boston youth with the artists and artwork in our galleries. I live in Cambridge, MA, with my twoyear-old French bulldog, Oscar. I also have an art studio in Lowell, MA, where I am able to continue my work as a visual artist/photographer. Over the past year, I have spent time with 2006 classmates like Anne Richardson, Blair Thompson, Molly Nissi, and Tai Haluszka!”
l Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Meg McNulty ’09 mmcnulty@mail.smcvt.edu Allison Stride ’09 astride@elon.edu
’10 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Abby Alexander ’10 abigail.jane.alexander@gmail.com Ashleigh Boulton ’10 amayboulton@gmail.com John McCoy ’10 jmccoy@colgate.edu Em Pettengill ’10 ehpettengill@gmail.com
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Kristina Micalizzi ’12 kristina@micalizzi.com Steph Symecko ’12 srsymecko@wpi.edu
’13 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Kelly DiNapoli ’13 kac288@wildcats.unh.edu Olivia Leatherwood ’13 olivia.leatherwood@gmail.com
’14 CLASS CORRESPONDENTS CoCo Clemens ’14 conner.clemens@hws.edu Tess O’Brien ’14 tmobrien@uvm.edu Samuel Paine ’14 650.464.0002 Tai Haluszka ’06 and Lucy Randall ’06 getting ready for Lucy’s wedding on September 19, 2015 in Chestnut Hill, MA
continue working full time at my fintech start-up Volos Portfolio Solutions, LLC, which resulted in me moving to Boston, MA.” CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Cecily Cushman ’11 ccushma1@conncoll.edu Mandy Engelhardt ’11 amanda_engelhardt@brown.edu Sam Macomber ’11 samuel.macomber@gmail.com Jamie McNulty ’11 mcnultyj@union.edu
Garrett Phillips ’14 gwphil14@stlawu.edu Elizabeth Powell ’14 epowell@conncoll.edu Stephen Wilk ’14 802.786.2255
’15 Want to connect with your classmates? Consider becoming a class correspondent and encouraging your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact us at alumni@holderness.org for more information. Thank you!
’12 Stephen and Kourtney Martin ’07 at the Plaza de Espana in Seville, Spain
’11 (reunion) Jack Long reports, “I graduated from Babson College with a BS in
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accounting and computational finance and am a candidate for a Mechanical Engineering Certificate from Olin College. I
CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Matthew Kinney ’12 mnkinn12@stlawu.edu Alex Leininger ’12 alexbleininger@yahoo.com
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Bringing a Shield to Holderness
CIRCA 1925 CIRCA 1892
by ben mitchell-lewis ’ Which came first, the crest or the shield? Or was it the seal? Have you ever spotted the shield somewhere surprising—across an airport, on a bumper sticker across the country, or even abroad? Those moments of pride, of recognition, of memory, tie the Holderness community together. The first chapter in the branding of Holderness School is fairly simple. In the seal became official when Holderness School was chartered by the state of New Hampshire. That original seal was simple: the “lamp of learning” illuminating the ever-present motto, “Pro Deo et Genere Humano” (“For God and Mankind”) all inside a circle. “Holderness School” and “” literally rounded out the design. For decades, this was stamped onto diplomas and all official school documents. But in the s the story takes a turn and gets a bit confusing; in fact we have to return to the s to explain. Holderness School was named after the town of Holderness, which was named after a region along the Yorkshire
l Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
CIRCA 1893 seacoast in England, once home to a line of Earls. Robert D’Arey, the fourth Earl of Holderness, was appointed secretary for the colonies in by King George III. The New Hampshire Colonial Governor at the time honored the appointment by naming a newly granted territory “Holderness.” Unfortunately, D’Arey never produced a male heir; the order of Holderness ended, and with it, the traditions of the lineage. Enter Rev. Robert Elliot Marshall, a s Holderness reverend and headmaster with a
CIRCA 1932 TOP LEFT: The original coat of arms of the Earl of Holderness; ABOVE: Steps in the evolution of today’s Holderness School logo.
quest: he would bring a shield to Holderness. Since no Earl of Holderness had been alive in almost years, it seemed fitting that our small school in the woods would pick up the legacy of the D’Arey coat of arms. CONTINUED ON PAGE 80
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 79 Supremely ornate, the shield has been perched above the doorway into Livermore since the building’s construction. It falls to the Buildings and Grounds Department to maintain its color and form, and depending on who last wielded the brush and how rough the preceding winter has been, it can be faded or bright. Returning students in ď™„ď™Œď™‹ď™ˆ and ď™„ď™Œď™Œď™… were surely greeted by a glowing application of paint—our own Head of School Phil Peck did the deed during his time on the maintenance crew. Says Phil, “The chief painter at the time‌approached me with a paint and brush set and said, ‘Phil this was given to me by Brownie, who told me ď™…ď™ƒ years ago to paint the crest the right colors and paint the bull anatomically correct. You need to do the same.’ I complied ď™†ď™ˆ feet up.â€? While the crest on Livermore remains ornate and traditional to this day, in this modern era, for most publications, the shield often appears by itself, decorated simply with crosslets and cinquefoils. Check out your tshirt, bumper sticker, or Holderness Fund mailing. And be on the lookout in airports and cities—and mountain trails—around the globe. During his leadership of the school, Edric A. Weld wrote an article titled “Lamps and Bulls: A Survey of the Holderness Insignia.â€? In the article, he takes special care to discuss the bull, a true symbol of Holderness in his eyes. To quote him at length: But along with the more profound symbols of the lamp of learning and the motto: “For God and Mankindâ€?, it may not be amiss to have the bull standing for Holderness too, ready to charge at every red banner, and impishly to chase the unwary visitor out of the pastures—and also as the symbol of creativity. Never have I known a group of the same size to accomplish so much—or anywhere near as much—in so many ďŹ elds of activity. In an age of weariness and hopelessness on the part of so many, America needs those who have a passion to create, and to attack new prob-
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SEAL, TODAY CIRCA 1967 Final steps in the evolution of today’s Holderness School logo. The round seal is used for more formal applications of the school’s communications, and often as an adjunct to the school logo (shield with school name).
lems. May the Holderness Bull continue to look from Livermore Hall on those who add zest and life to the world. And may I add, as we look at the Bull, to remember where he came from, what he represents, and all those who have felt his gaze at other moments in their lives. Once a Bull, always a Bull.
LOGO, TODAY
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SPRING 2016
Holderness School Spring 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.
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AIDAN KINSLEY ’19 HAULS BRUSH OUT OF THE FAIRMONT PARKS IN PHILADELPHIA. DURING THEIR TEN-DAY ADVENTURE, AIDAN AND THE REST OF THE NINTH-GRADERS CLEANED UP THREE TRUCKLOADS OF DEBRIS. PHOTO BY TANNER ENSIGN ’19
“ Thank you, Holderness, for all you have given me over the years, and continue to give to our community and world.” – Jake Norton ’92
“
“MEMORIES TO CHERISH FOR A LIFETIME…” – THADDEUS – FOOTE ’92
“ I AM ALWAYS PROUD TO THINK OF OR SAY ‘HOLDERNESS.’” – JOHN ALDEN ’78 “ When I think about all the informative moments in my four years at Holderness, they are too many, too hard to separate, and too hard to rate. It was four years of hard but molded me into a well-educated young man, ready to face the world.” – David Nichols ’65
“ There were 23 of us that graduated in the Spring of 1950, part of a total enrollment on campus of about 76. I still think of those years as some of my best.” – Chico Laird ’50
“
rewarding work. The complete life experience
“ We love Holderness!” – Kathy Cunha P ’16 ’19
“ Holderness is the complete package.” – Peter Rapelye P ’93 ’97
DONATE SECURELY ONLINE AT WWW.GIVETOHOLDERNESS.ORG
true blue
Holderness Fund
Holderness School Spring 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.19 inches wide (includes 0.19 inches for perfect-bound spine); folded size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide. Artwork prints in four-color process and bleeds all four sides. Cover artwork; Cover II and Cover III.
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CHAPEL LANE PO BOX 1879 PLYMOUTH, NH 03264-1879
PAID
LEWISTON, ME PERMIT NO. 82
INSIDE: r The Next Good Idea r Catching Up with Jim Brewer r Special Programs BASECAMP IS MISSION CONTROL DURING OUT BACK. BUT IT IS ALSO A GATHERING PLACE FOR ALL THOSE WHO HAVE GROWN TO LOVE OUT BACK AND RETURN EVERY YEAR JUST TO BE A PART OF THE JOURNEY. THIS YEAR ON A WARM AND BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY AFTERNOON, HOLDERNESS CHEF KERRY O’CONNELL MADE THE TREK TO BASECAMP AND HELPED WITH SOME OF THE COOKING.
Holderness School Spring 2016 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.19 inches wide (includes 0.19 inches for perfect-bound spine); folded size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide. Artwork prints in four-color process and bleeds all four sides. Cover artwork; Cover IV and Cover I.