Summer 2013 hst web

30JUN13_Cover_Draft_06:04SEP08_Cover_Draft_08.qxd

8/6/2013

12:26 PM

Page 1

Draft 6 (30JUN13) NONPROFIT US POSTAGE

PAID LEWISTON, ME PERMIT NO. 82

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY THE MAGAZINE OF HOLDERNESS SCHOOL SUMMER 2013

CHAPEL LANE PO BOX 1879 PLYMOUTH, NH 03264-1879

INSIDE: r Grit and the Attainment of Wisdom r Preparing Students for Global Citizenship ART TEACHER KATHRYN FIELD WORKS ON A PORTRAIT OF SANDRA HOBBS WHO RETIRED FROM HOUSEKEEPING THIS SPRING AFTER 28 YEARS OF SERVICE. SANDRA’S PORTRAIT WAS PART OF A SERIES OF PAINTINGS CREATED

BY KATHRYN THIS PAST FALL AND DISPLAYED IN THE EDWARDS ART GALLERY THIS WINTER.

r Catching Up: Kate Knopp

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.22 inches wide (includes 0.22 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.

30JUN13_Cover_Draft_06:04SEP08_Cover_Draft_08.qxd

8/6/2013

12:27 PM

Page 2

Draft 6 (30JUN13)

Every May at Holderness, seniors and departing faculty are DURING ARTWARD BOUND STUDENTS TRANSFORMED THIS PILE OF BROKEN, NEGLECTED BIKE PARTS INTO PIECES OF FUNCTIONAL ART—TWO-STORY BICYCLES, THREE-WHEELED VEHICLES WITH SEATING FOR TWO, SIDE-BY-SIDE TANDEMS. WHILE SOME STUDENTS TOOK THEIR NEW RIDES HOME, OTHERS LEFT THEM ON CAMPUS AND USED THEM TO RIDE TO CLASSES AND PRACTICES ALL SPRING.

THERE’S STILL WORK TO DO ON THIS WALL. HELP US KEEP BUILDING IT RIGHT.

asked to bring rocks with them up to the final Outdoor Chapel of the year, affectionately known as the “Rock Chapel.” Some rocks are decorated with paint, words, and pictures, while others have been left in their natural state.

The rocks were originally placed to form a cairn but grew into a wall over time; they are now a long, colorful, hodgepodge collection of stones, helping separate what is sacred ground from the surrounding woods.

There is symbolism there not lost on the graduating seniors, and it’s reflected in the moment when they carefully place their rocks in the wall. They are leaving behind a bit of themselves as they prepare to leave Holderness—their spirit, their accomplishments, and their songs. And they will undoubtedly carry a bit of Holderness with them as well— friendships with students and faculty, and (we hope) values of community, balance, and service to others.

Look at the wall and you’ll see the impossible (“HOW did they get THAT up here?”), the fun (“WHAT did that say about Mr. Ford?”), and the meaningful (“44Ever”). You’ll also see the individuals who have made Holderness School what it was, and what it is, and what it will be.

HELP US TO KEEP THESE PROGRAMS ALIVE NOW AND WELL INTO THE FUTURE. GIVE TO THE HOLDERNESS ANNUAL FUND. WWW.GIVETOHOLDERNESS.ORG

true blue Holderness Annual Fund

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:48 AM

Page 1

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

F E AT U R E S

8

Grit & the Attainment of Wisdom When Holderness was founded in 1879 there were four curriculum tracks from which students could choose. A lot has changed since then. But the question remains the same with each adjustment to the curriculum: what is the purpose of a Holderness education and how is it best obtained? BY RICK CAREY

ABOVE: In  students in Senior Colloquium had the opportunity to view robots used by the New Hampshire state police for detecting bombs. While Senior Colloquium is no longer part of the school’s curriculum, the opportunities it provided for experiential learning will live on in Senior Honors Thesis.

Preparing Students for Global Citizenship In order to prepare students for participation in a global community, they need to learn skills and wrestle with ideas that are global in scope and perspective. Acting Head of School Jory Macomber makes a few proposals for how Holderness might make this a primary focus of its mission and curriculum without losing sight of its traditions. BY JORY MACOMBER

20 22

Catching Up with Kate Knopp Since leaving Holderness in 1997, Kate Knopp hasn’t slowed down professionally or personally. From Milton Academy to CITYterm to Miss Porter’s School, Kate has been actively teaching and sharing her love of literature with her students and her growing family. Next stop: The Putney School. BY RICK CAREY

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:52 AM

Page 2

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

D E PA R T M E N T S 3 From the Schoolhouse Board of Trustees Jonathan Baum Grace Macomber Bird Christopher Carney ’75, Treasurer Russell Cushman ’80 The Rev. Randolph Dales, Secretary Nigel Furlonge Tracy McCoy Gillette ’89, Alumni Association President Douglas Griswold ’66 Robert Hall James Hamblin II ’77, Chairperson Jan Hauser The Right Rev. Robert Hirschfeld, President George Macomber Paul Martini Richard Nesbitt Peter Nordblom Susan Paine ’82 R. Phillip Peck Thomas Phillips ’75 Tamar Pichette William Prickett ’81 Jake Reynolds ’86 Ian Sanderson ’79 Jenny Seeman ’88 Harry Sheehy Gary Spiess Jerome Thomas ’95 Ellyn Weisel ’86 HEADMASTER EMERITUS The Rev. Brinton W. Woodward, Jr. HONORARY TRUSTEES Warren C. Cook Piper Orton ’74 W. Dexter Paine III ’79 The Right Rev. Douglas Thuener

4 From the Editor 6 03264: Letters to HST 26 Around the Quad 42 Sports 48 Update: Current Faculty and Staff 51 Update: Former Faculty and Staff 56 Update: Trustees 58 Alumni in the News 69 Class Notes 104 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

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.

EDITOR: Emily Magnus ’88 EDITOR EMERITUS: Jim Brewer ASSISTANT EDITORS: Rick Carey, Dee Black Rainville, Robert Caldwell, Jane McNulty, Steve Solberg, Judith Solberg, Melissa Stuart, Amy Woods, Clay Dingman DESIGN AND PRODUCTION: Clay Dingman, Barking Cat Productions Communications Design PHOTOGRAPHY: Emily Magnus, Steve Solberg, Martha Macomber, Library of Congress American Memory

ON THE FRONT COVER: This spring the trees on campus were particularly beautiful. Alfond Library is decorated in the branches of a crab apple tree.

ABOVE: The trees in front of Weld have sprouted new leaves and transformed campus into a green oasis, just in time for graduation.

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:56 AM

Page 3

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

FROM THE SCHOOLHOUSE

Like the Freshly Tilled Soil in the Faculty Garden, the Holderness Curriculum is Ready to Grow Today, as I sit at my desk looking through a draft of the summer edition of Holderness School Today, the apple and cherry trees around campus are heavy with white and pink blossoms. The grass on the Quad has grown thick and green and is already in need of mowing.

And the faculty garden on Southside is freshly turned and awaiting seeds and new plants. The season of growth in which I write serves as a backdrop for the theme of growth which unites the stories in this edition of hst.

Reading through the articles, I am reminded of when I first came to Holderness over twenty years ago, and worked with Kate Knopp, who is the subject of this edition’s “Catching Up With…” Kate and I are the same age, but she had already been at Holderness for four years before I arrived. In that time she established herself as an innovator, pushing the school to think outside of the box and be proactive. For example, she proposed and then saw through to fruition the school’s paternity and maternity leave for faculty; she also urged the English department to create common rubrics. The collaboration and team teaching that are now a key part of the Holderness curriculum have their roots in Kate’s work.

Holderness continues to move forward because of people like Kate. In Rick Carey’s feature article, he tells about others who have played a part in the growth of our curriculum.

Several heads of school, including Phil Peck, have continued to develop programs both inside and outside the classroom in order to challenge the intellect of even our smartest students. Faculty and staff members like Rip Richards, and more recently Mike Carrigan and Mike Peller, have contributed to the growth of our curriculum as well. Without them programs as diverse and demanding as the Job Program, Special Programs, AP Physics C, and Poetry Out Loud wouldn’t exist. Stories about these unique programs can be found in this

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

This spring David Lockwood retired from coaching baseball after 32 years on the field. In the above photo Jory and David’s son John ’03 look on while Director of College Counseling Bruce Barton shares the lessons of baseball and life that David imparted to his athletes throughout the years.

issue and serve to illustrate the care that is put into developing the mind, body, and spirit of each Holderness student.

And while a Holderness education is pretty special as it is, in “Preparing Students for Global Citizenship,” I make a couple proposals myself for the future curriculum of Holderness; our curriculum, both formal and informal, while strong, needs to continue to evolve in response to the world around us. Without growth, the vibrant intellectual life of our campus will cease to exist.

This issue also contains many stories about our alumni, who serve to remind us of our mission—to “work for the betterment of humankind and God’s creation.” People like Cynthia Sweet and Don Backe have dedicated their lives to bettering the world, while alumni like Nat Faxon and Angel Del Villar have pursued their passions and shared their artistic ideas. The Class Notes as well are filled with

tales of how our alumni have continued learning after Holderness and have contributed to the betterment of humankind.

In closing, I just want to say how much I have enjoyed serving Holderness School this year as Acting Head of School. It has been a year of tremendous growth for me, and I have enjoyed the opportunity this year has given me to meet alumni, parents, and friends of Holderness throughout the world. Phil Peck will be returning for Commencement next weekend and will return full time at the end of June. We are all looking forward to working with Phil again; his passion for intellectual discovery and community development are inspiring. Like Kate Knopp, Rip Richards, and many others, his vision continues to move Holderness forward.

Jory Macomber Acting Head of School

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

3

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:56 AM

Page 4

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

FROM THE EDITOR

Turning the Lens: an Evaluation of HST Usually at this point in the production of Holderness School Today, we are immersed in the stories of our alumni, students, trustees, faculty, and school. We are learning about their note-worthy activities and milestones, discovering long-forgotten letters, rereading what was said in previous hsts and student newspapers, and checking out alumni websites.

This spring, however, we had the opportunity to turn the lens and work on the hst from an entirely different angle. Since February, we have been collecting responses to the case Member Magazine Readership Survey, and with responses from  people, it has given us tangible statistics and specific comments with which to evaluate the effectiveness of our school magazine.

Ultimately, the many positive comments and thoughtful and constructive criticism have helped us better understand the importance of the magazine in keeping our alumni and friends connected to each other and to the institution.

In short, the magazine plays a significant role in informing our community. Stories about Holderness icons like Norm Walker, Don Henderson, Kip Garre, and Bill Biddle spark the most interest. Many results also indicate the importance of class notes; “It’s a vicarious trip back to Holderness,” claimed one alumna.

Others rely on hst to learn about current students—their academic achievements, their athletic accomplishments, and their plans for college. A current parent wrote, “The magazine is a good tool—serving as a fairly conventional introduction to the school and campus culture.”

One of the interesting things about the case survey is that it allows us to compare the results of Holderness School to the results of other schools throughout the United States.

For instance, of the responders associated with Holderness School,  said that they read every issue, and  said they spend over an hour reading each issue. At other educational institutions that participated in the case survey and publish three or more issues of their

4

magazine each year, the numbers are lower.

Only  of the readership at similar institutions read every issue and only  spend more than an hour reading each issue.

“I am very impressed with the quality of the publication,” wrote one responder to the survey.

“In certain cases it’s superior to some college publications that I read. It’s a wonderful snapshot of the breadth and tremendous spirit of the Holderness community.”

But while the magazine is successful in sharing the stories of our students and alumni, there are things members of our community wish we would do better. Some readers would like to hear more about the financial status and development of the school. Others would like to see more information about alumni networking: “[Is there an opportunity] for the readers of hst to connect with one another? How does one reach out to an individual who is profiled and may be a great resource to another community?” wrote one alumnus. In other words, as another alumnus wrote, “We need a more informative and populated online alumni network.”

Your feedback has been very valuable; thanks for your help. While we may not be able to satisfy every request, we’ll do our best. In fact, on page  of this issue, there is an article about Jamie Bradley ’ and his experiences throughout the years with the alumni network. It is a goal of Director of Alumni Relations Melissa Stuart to build the networking possibilities for Holderness alumni, and we hope that the article in this issue will help initiate more involvement.

Through other issues we will try to address other requests. Thanks again for the feedback.

And if you haven’t filled out the survey yet, it’s not too late! In order to access the survey, go to www.holderness.org/hstsurvey and follow the instructions. As always, we look forward to hearing from you!

Emily Magnus ’ Editor, Holderness School Today emagnus@holderness.org

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:56 AM

Page 5

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

FROM THE EDITOR

Some CASE Member Magazine Readership Survey Results: A GOOD SOURCE OF SCHOOL INFORMATION

59%

of survey respondents get all or most of their information about Holderness School from reading Holderness School Today.

READING EVERY ISSUE

64%

A TRUSTWORTHY SOURCE OF INFORMATION

of survey respondents said they typically read every issue of Holderness School Today: read every issue

64% 19%

read most issues

14%

read occasional issues

3%

7% no opinion

46%

TIME SPENT READING EACH ISSUE

keep more than a month keep up to a month

14%

8% portrays school only in positive light

consistently portrays school accurately and objectively

of Holderness School Today readers keep each issue longer than a month:

29%

5%

discard immediately

of Holderness School Today readers prefer to read the magazine in print format versus online format:

11% prefer online

76%

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

spend an hour or more

21%

spend a half hour to an hour spend up to a half hour

32%

keep up to one week

prefer print

21%

of readers spend at least an hour reading each issue of the magazine; 42% spend a half hour to an hour:

42%

PREFERENCE FOR PRINT VS. ONLINE

76%

39%

never read an issue

54%

3%

of readers feel the magazine consistently or generally portrays the school accurately and objectively:

contains some “spin” but is generally accurate and objective

KEEPING EVERY ISSUE

54%

85%

13% prefer both

not at all

STRENGTHENING A SCHOOL CONNECTION

89%

of respondents feel that Holderness School Today strengthens their personal connection to the school.

agree magazine strengthens connection

89%

6% disagree magazine strengthens connection 5% no opinion

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

5

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:56 AM

Page 6

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

03264: LETTERS TO HST

Letters to HST When we asked for feedback in the last issue, we didn’t expect to receive so many letters!

Some included positive accounts of years spent at Holderness, while others contained criticisms of our reports and of the school’s current strategic goals. Whether positive or negative, however, the memories, criticisms, praise, and suggestions that readers shared with us are a good sign. It means members of the community are reading Holderness School Today and are also passionate enough about Holderness and its future to join the conversation. We appreciate all the letters and emails we have received; we hope by printing excerpts from them that they contribute to an ongoing dialogue about issues that matter to Holderness School and beyond.

Memories from the Class of 1951 One of the first letters we received was from Creighton Nichols ’. On the inside of the back cover of the Winter  issue, Mr. Nichols identified the students in the top photo as Dan Baxter ’ and himself. Fred Carter ’, Creighton Nichols, and Dan Baxter also appeared in the Fall  issue on page .

Mr. Nichols, who attended Holderness for eighth through twelfth grade, explained, “Fred and I were roommates in , and Dan was a good friend of ours.”

Fred Carter also sent in a response. He began by explaining what it was like to graduate in  and participate in the Korean War. He wrote, “Hindsight now says, ‘What did I think I had to offer?’ My obsession with adulthood required a reality check; every career starts with an apprenticeship. Those good enough become journeymen. The best become master craftsmen.

This is as true of history professors and business executives as chefs and welders.

“Too often many think education alone will make one a master. Education is a requirement but still one is only an apprentice, who has to make mistakes, coupled with solutions, before becoming a journeyman and hopefully a master.

6

“Eighty years of life have given me a somewhat greater understanding and appreciation of the master craftsmen, who were our teachers and mentors at Holderness. These were individuals who dedicated their lives to teaching. I only hope they were adequately reimbursed, but truthfully I’m suspect.

“I would like to think that like my teachers and mentors at Holderness, I too ultimately became one of those considered by my peers to be a master craftsman in my field. If so, my teachers did their jobs and did them well.”

Coverage of Tyler Hamilton As I mentioned above, not all the responses we received were positive. An alumna who prefers to remain anonymous wrote: “[I] find myself stunned and dismayed by the article about Tyler Hamilton [“Back From the Dark Side,” Winter ]. I remember feeling the same way a few years ago when hst published an article about Mr. Hamilton soon after he had been accused of blood doping. That article was clearly supportive of and defensive of Mr. Hamilton…By promoting Mr. Hamilton’s recent book, the school supports him, and that appalls me. I find it difficult to believe that a school that puts so much stock in the values of work ethic, honesty, responsibility, and fairness is showing support for someone who has shown so little character. Bottom line: Tyler Hamilton cheated, and writing a book about it doesn’t make it okay.”

This reader raises a good point. How do we balance our responsibilities as journalists to tell the whole story with our responsibilities as stewards of Holderness School to promote its values and traditions? Rick Carey, who reported on the story, offers this response: “hst began reporting on Tyler during his early success as a bike racer. When allegations were raised against him, it seemed hypocritical to pretend that he was no longer a member of this community, especially in a section called ‘Alumni in the News.’ We followed the story, and will continue

Tyler Hamilton

to do so, for the important—and educational— questions Tyler’s career raises about sport, ethics, and international competition. The  article described as ‘clearly supportive’ was a reprint from the Rocky Mountain News. hst neither supports nor rejects the subject of these stories. We try to convey the facts.”

Jory Macomber, our Acting Head of School, felt strongly enough to respond as well: “I remember our team’s discussion about whether or not to run the article, and your points run at the heart of our process. Briefly, I believe that it’s important that we write about failures and successes. A powerful part of sport is that the failures are very public, and everyone can examine his/her own value systems when looking at what athletes do. That examination, as your heartfelt statement displays, is important. I agree that Tyler cheated, and I agree that writing a book about it does not make it okay. But I also strongly believe in a growth mindset where people can learn at all ages. His actions in the Tour were a failure, but ten years of failure doesn’t necessarily make a person’s whole life a failure. If I didn’t believe that, I could not be in

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:56 AM

Page 7

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

03264: LETTERS TO HST

education. I believe it’s very important to talk about failures as well as successes because we often learn more from failure.”

Defining a Global Curriculum Another reader, Peter Huessy ’, expressed disappointment with our articles on global education. He begins by referencing several places in the previous issue which specifically mention China in the context of students’ experiences and Eastern philosophies of education. Then he points out that by embracing the idea of a global curriculum (as we have in our Strategic Plan) in all of its facets—subject areas, language, educational philosophies, and enrollment of international students—we appear to additionally embrace (or at least ignore) the historical and current policies of countries such as China. He writes, “One key area of my work is stopping international statesponsored terrorism. China’s support for international terrorist states such as Korea and Iran is well known, but one would know nothing of this from reading the magazine.” Mr. Huessy further expresses concern that modern academia is anti-American, moving away from requiring students to take US History, for example, in favor of more globally-focused courses. “A global or wider perspective of history should be taught in addition to courses of American or United States history,” he argues.

Mr. Huessy ends by saying, “You have perhaps unwittingly fallen down the rabbit hole of political correctness and leftist politics.”

Education and what subjects should be taught in schools are ongoing and often controversial subjects; Mr. Heussy’s perspective is valuable and should be kept in mind as we move forward as a nation and as a school. Having said that, the articles in the hst were not intended to examine China’s policies nor its crimes against humanity. The issues Mr. Heussy believes we chose to ignore were not the focus of our feature articles. They are, however, relevant to classroom discussions, and we hope that if he or any of our

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

readers were to visit a Holderness classroom (or the classroom of another school that strives to provide a global education), they would find rich conversations occurring on these very topics, including US History.

around! In this context, Bill Biddle’s outdoor club was an important outlet for my irrepressible energies, and to this day, I have a well-thumbed copy of the amc White Mountain Guide with half of the  ,-foot peaks in NH climbed with Mr. Biddle and the Holderness Outing Club. And what started at Holderness has stayed with me all my life. I have since climbed mountains all over the world, including in England, Eastern Europe, and most recently on Hokkaido in Japan— climbing on skis!

“Men like Bill Biddle gave young prep school boys great gifts. And one of my few regrets in life is that I never had the opportunity to express my appreciation for what they did for me.”

Thank you all for your feedback. The conversations on the phone and via emails and letters have been rich and varied. We look forward to hearing from many more of you in the future.

Bill Biddle

More on Bill Biddle We also received an email from Ged Smith ’.

Ged shared additional memories of teacher Bill Biddle who was remembered in the fall  edition of hst: “I was at Holderness during the early days of the Outing Club, and I frequently climbed or cross-country skied with Mr. Biddle on the trips that he organized.

“During my Holderness years, neither the football nor ice hockey teams that I played on were very good (with the exception of my junior year when the football team had Joe Spaulding and Carver Crowle). So playing competitive sports was tough, particularly when a concussion I had from a Proctor game my sophomore year would have kept me away from all contact sports under today’s rules!

“But I was also what has come to be known as adhd, so I desperately needed to move

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

7

30JUN13_Features_Addendum_Draft_06:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:57 AM

Page 8

Draft 6 (30JUN13)

Grit & the Attainment of Wisdom BEGINNING IN 2014, A SENIOR HONORS THESIS PROJECT WILL BE AMONG THE REQUIREMENTS FOR GRADUATION. IT’S NOT SUCH A BIG DEAL, REALLY, BUT IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY IT OPENS A WINDOW INTO THE SOUL OF HOLDERNESS. BY RICK CAREY

8

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

30JUN13_Features_Addendum_Draft_06:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:57 AM

Page 9

Draft 6 (30JUN13)

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

THE HOLDERNESS SCHOOL CADET CORPS DRILLS ON THE QUAD IN FRONT OF KNOWLTON HALL IN 1888.

E ARE IN THE LAST DAYS AT HOLDERNESS SCHOOL—THE LAST days, that is, of a two-track system for the school’s seniors that has been in effect since the early 1960s and the birth of a special program then known as Senior Project. The program proved popular enough to be endowed in 1969 by a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Norman McCullough—in memory of their son Bill ’70— and it released subscribing seniors from their last month of classes in the spring in order, wrote Headmaster Don Hagerman, “to pursue special interests not possible in the normal limits of the school curriculum.”

Of course things varied. Sometimes a lot of candidates chose Senior Project, and sometimes very few. The projects ranged in character from academic to vocational, from service-oriented to sports-minded, and beyond. Many were successful, some brilliant, and some were abject failures. The program was tweaked in many ways over the decades, but it never quite transcended its hit-ormiss character as some seniors—all of whom were usually already into college—really threw themselves into their projects, while others, well, coasted.

In 2008 Senior Project was given a serious make-over by history department chair Chris Day and re-christened Senior Capstone.

Each student was tightly bound to a faculty advisor, who monitored his or her progress, and each student was required to provide both a written report and a public presentation of the project’s results. The “special interest” that might prompt a Senior Project was rarified to “intellectual passion” in program philosophy, and in 2010 the name “Senior Capstone” was replaced by Senior Honors Thesis. “That was to make the character of the program more accessible to college admission offices,” says SHT program director Steve Solberg, “and to acknowledge the honors-level work being required.”

And this has been better. While projects have continued to vary widely in subject and character, the monitoring, the reports, the presentations, and the honors-level standards have ensured consistent follow-through from seniors. Meanwhile non-participating seniors—as in the days of Senior Project—have continued to finish out the year within “the normal limits of the school curriculum.”

After half a century, though, that old two-track system will become just that—the old system. Starting this next academic year, completing an SHT project will be a standard graduation requirement for all seniors. It may seem like a little thing, actually, just another adjustment in the life in the self-correcting mechanism that is an educational institution—but this particular adjustment has to do with profound questions about the purpose of a Holderness education, and how we intend to go about it in this century.

CONTINUED ON FOLLOWING PAGE

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

9

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:15 AM

Page 10

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

ABOVE: Lorin Webster eliminated the cadet corps in 1892 and aligned the Holderness curriculum with the standards of the College Examining Board. RIGHT: In contrast, Edric Weld believed that college placement was not as important as developing the whole boy—mind, body, and spirit.

Words matter. For several decades now, in describing itself to its community and to external audiences, Holderness has preferred the term “independent school” to “prep school.” The latter has acquired connotations of upper-class privilege that Holderness—since its founding in 1879 as a

school with “the lowest possible charge for tuition and board”—has always rejected. It also suggests that one comes to Holderness in order to prepare for college.

Well, as far as that goes—why not?

Back in 1879 the Civil War was as recent an event as 9/11 is for us now, and college

wasn’t the only favored destination for a bright young man. The earliest school catalogues promised that Holderness students would be “fitted for College, the United States Naval and Military Academies at Annapolis and West Point, and the higher Scientific Schools.” In fact many of the

FROM THE CLASSICAL COURSE TO SENIOR HONORS THESIS: 1879 Holderness School is founded with curriculum divided into four career tracks: the Classical, Scientific, Commercial, and English Courses.

10

1892 The Holderness Cadet Corps is discontinued.

College counseling begins.

1908 School curriculum is aligned with standards defined by the College Examining Board.

1930s School curriculum is divided into two career tracks: College Preparatory and General.

1946 Formal tracking is discontinued.

Early 1960s Senior Project is begun.

1969 Senior Project is endowed. Outward Bound (later known as Out Back) is begun.

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine.

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:15 AM

Page 11

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

GRIT AND THE ATTAINMENT OF WISDOM

school’s first students came from military families, and there are several photos in the archives of the Holderness “cadet corps” drilling in uniform and with rifles on the Quad in front of the Schoolhouse and Knowlton Hall. “Instruction in military tactics” was part of the physical training offered each student.

But it was also a time when a promising fellow with a secondary diploma might go directly into business, and for its first decade or so the school’s curriculum was segmented into four tracks: “the Classical Course,” heavy on Greek and Latin and ancient history, containing “the studies required for admission to College”; “the Scientific Course,” heavy on math and science, good for the military academies and “the higher Scientific Schools and Schools of Technology”; “the Commercial Course,” with math and book-keeping, commercial law and foreign language; and finally, “the English Course,” combining elements of the three other courses for the benefit of, perhaps, the undecided generalist.

With the arrival of Lorin Webster as rector in 1892, the cadet corps disappeared, as did the military academy track. Holderness still advertised “admission to the leading colleges and scientific schools,” and still

recommended the Classical Course for that “unless a boy has a decided talent for Mathematics and the Natural Sciences.”

For the first time, however, students were allowed (“under proper advice”) to mix and match their classes, to choose course work “with particular reference to his chosen college or scientific school.” College counseling had been born, and with it a more pronounced emphasis on Holderness’ role, to be frank, as a prep school.

In 1908 Webster led the transformation of the school’s curriculum and evaluation practices so they might be “brought into agreement with those adopted by the College Examining Board, accepted by the Carnegie Foundation, and generally used in the foremost schools of this country.” This was a big moment in the story of Holderness, says school historian Judith Solberg. “By bringing its academics in line with standards defined by an outside organization,” she writes in This Tender Vine: Holderness School at 125 Years, “Holderness School had identified its place in a larger community of educational institutions.”

Within a few years graduation requirements had been made explicit and formal, and accordingly Holderness boys were admitted into a number of selective col-

Headmaster Don Hagerman presents a student award in the 1970s. Hagerman played a key role in establishing Senior Projects.

leges—Dartmouth, Cornell, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and more—without examination. Still, not all Holderness boys were interested in college. In the 1930s Rector Edric Weld divided the curriculum into two broad tracks: a College Preparatory Course, and then a General Course “designed especially for those who have

A TIMELINE OF THE PURPOSES OF A HOLDERNESS EDUCATION Late 1970s First Advanced Placement courses included in school curriculum.

1980s Other Special Programs are launched: Artward Bound, Habitat for Humanity (later to become Project Outreach), and Senior Colloquium.

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

1990s Courses are added to the curriculum so that each academic department offers at least one Advanced Placement course.

2008 Senior Project is transformed into Senior Capstone.

2010 Senior Capstone is rechristened Senior Honors Thesis. Research Methods becomes part of tenthgrade curriculum. Western Civilization (now known as Humanities) becomes part of ninth-grade curriculum.

2014 Senior Honors Thesis becomes a graduation requirement, the universal end-point of a Holderness education.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

11

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:16 AM

Page 12

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

difficulty with foreign languages or who for other reasons do not plan to enter college.”

By then, however, American society as a whole was on its way to generally higher levels of education and the expectation that everybody should at least have a high school diploma. Simultaneously “prep schools” were seen less as places to prepare for the military or careers in business, and more purely as places to get ready for college. By 1946 the school’s formally codified tracks had disappeared. School catalogues explained that “the course of study which each boy takes is worked out on the basis of his previous training, his special interests, and his capacities as indicated by diagnostic tests.” For graduation, there were certain baseline academic requirements, and also a brace of electives reflecting those “special interests” or personal goals. This is a model that persists to this day.

12

What also persists is the big question of what a “prep school” needs to accomplish for its students. Edric Weld, for his part, thought they weren’t accomplishing enough. He laid part of the blame for World War II on, he said, “the hollowness of much twentieth century education in both Europe and America.” Upon the schools of today, he continued, “lies the responsibility both for mental training and also for providing the background of emotion and habit from which alone can we hope that the peace of the future will depend not on politicians or pressure groups, but upon an informed and purposeful electorate.”

To Weld’s mind, independent schools—in their growing emphasis on college admissions—had grown too enamored with “the accumulation of information” at the expense of “the attainment of wisdom.”

Holderness, he wrote in a 1942 report to the trustees, should be “terminal, rather than preparatory;” in other words, college

placement was less important than the need to “educate and develop the whole boy in mind, body, and spirit.”

In the meantime, as America sailed into the postwar years, independent schools were evaluated more and more resolutely on the basis of college placement.

Meanwhile colleges were no longer granting admission solely on the merit of a diploma from this or that independent school—at least not formally. The game was opening up, becoming more competitive.

It took another war to renew the debate about the “hollowness of much twentieth century education.” Holderness, along with many other schools, was shaken to its foundations by the Vietnam War and the campus turmoil in its wake. Senior Project, at least in a nascent form, was already in progress. When that program was endowed in 1969, another program was just getting going as well.

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine.

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:16 AM

Page 13

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

GRIT AND THE ATTAINMENT OF WISDOM

FACING PAGE: Senior Projects were still very new when senior David Ames used the opportunity in 1974 to learn about flying. ABOVE: Meanwhile, around the same time, Headmaster Peter Woodward was busy developing the Special Programs (circa 1978). RIGHT: When Special Programs first began sophomores traveled to Norfolk, VA —here, in 1996—and worked with Habitat for Humanity.

It was known originally as Outward Bound, and it was the brainchild of teachers Bill Clough and Fred Beams, both of them trained in the national Outward Bound outdoor-education program. This was a different sort of answer to the allegations of the irrelevancy of a liberal arts education, and it had nothing to do with college placement. But as the program developed and was renamed Out Back, it was found to be of great benefit in developing “the whole boy in mind, body, and spirit.”

Out Back was such an outright success, in fact, that it created a problem as it was refined into a junior-year experience—what does everybody else do while the juniors go camping in March for two weeks? The essential thing about Out Back was—is— that it’s an experience, and not a class. It’s concerned less with the “accumulation of information” than with the sort of wisdom to be found in such body-and-spirit qualities as grit, resilience, and self-confidence.

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

During the 1980s a suite of complementary programs was developed by Headmaster Pete Woodward and his faculty, all of them experiential: Artward Bound, a jump-right-in immersion in various art forms; an urban public service program now known as Project Outreach; and—for those not doing Senior Project or its successor, Senior Honors Thesis—Senior Colloquium, a jump-right-in seminar-style immersion in subject matter academic (science and human values, for example) or not (maple sugaring, canoe building, etc.).

Together these are now known as Special Programs, and one particularly special thing about them is that everybody does them, no matter a student’s plans after Holderness. There is no track or career-oriented “Course” that excludes them. And the creation of Special Programs, perhaps unintentionally, helped fill that void Weld felt existed in American education. Today Special Programs are the

corner stones of a Holderness education; while college preparation and academic knowledge remain important, the development of the whole person and preparing students for life outside of academia are top priority.

In March this year—during Special Programs, in fact—New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman published a column (“The Professors’ Big Stage”) about two days he spent at a conference convened jointly by MIT and Harvard: “Online Learning and the Future of Residential Education.” One key take-away from that event, writes Friedman, was that “institutions of higher learning must move, as the historian Walter Russell Mead puts it, from a model of ‘time served’ to a model of ‘stuff learned.’ Because increasingly the world does not care what you know. Everything is on Google. The world only cares about, and will pay for, what you can do with what you know.”

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

13

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:16 AM

Page 14

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

LEFT: In the 1980s, Artward Bound quickly became an opportunity for students to discover and develop their artistic skills. Here a student poses with her painted chair during Artward Bound in 1993.

Competency is going to matter more than fancy degrees, says Friedman, and it’s not going to matter so much if you mastered that competency at Harvard or online or in a company-administered class—which leads to Friedman’s second take-away.

“Therefore,” he continues, “we have to get beyond the current system of information and delivery—the professorial ‘sage on the stage,’ and students taking notes, followed by a superficial assessment—to one in which students are asked and empowered to master more basic material online at

14

their own pace, and the classroom becomes the place where the application of that knowledge can be honed through lab experiments and discussions with the professor.”

Basic material online? At a student’s own pace? Well, in regard to that, let’s check in at Holderness with physics teacher Mike Carrigan. Mike is also a film-maker, at least as YouTube defines the term, and Mike’s YouTube videos, says Director of Academic Affairs Peter Durnan, are “really impressive, as good or better than anything you can

get from KhanAcademy, and Salman Khan is pretty much the gold standard for doing micro-lecture videos.”

Want to bone up on Newton’s Second Law of Thermodynamics? Just do a YouTube search for that with “Carrigan” attached, and it’ll become pretty clear.

You’ll see a whiteboard, and you’ll hear Mike’s voice, and on the board you’ll see an elegant series of drawings and calculations that will move you quite comfortably through that stuff—at your own pace, and with as much repetition as you like or need.

It’s one of 57 videos Mike has on YouTube— “Rotational Inertia,” “Introduction to Vectors,” etc.—that have garnered more than 16,000 views so far.

Among our other good film-makers is calculus teacher Mike Peller, whose 333 posted videos sometimes offer girls’ soccer game clips, but usually provide information, say, on linear momentum or elastic collision and have been watched more than 13,000 times. As with Mike Carrigan, the voiceover is smooth and calming, the different color pens are nice, and yes indeed, the intricacies of high-octane math seem not so scary after all.

This year the two Mikes are collaborating in teaching AP Calculus C, a course that combines math and physics, and theirs is one of the school’s most thoroughly “flipped” classrooms—that is a classroom where, thanks to the web, students get the “sage on the stage” stuff outside of class.

There is still some lecture work on the really hard stuff, but for the most part, kids come into the classroom to really do things—solve problems, carry out projects, experiments, or application exercises—with teachers and peers right at hand. They can

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine.

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:16 AM

Page 15

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

GRIT AND THE ATTAINMENT OF WISDOM

YOUTUBE AS TRAINING TOOL

1

2

ABOVE: Physics teacher Mike Carrigan and junior Zihan Guo view a YouTube video that shifts away from the traditional “sage on stage” approach to education. LEFT: A sequence of screen shots from 3

get one-on-one time with either Mike, and work collaboratively in groups.

Other teachers do this as well, and the capabilities of the web are employed in any number of ways. For example Peter Durnan, who is also an English teacher, no longer just marks up compositions and hands them back. He edits them in real time on video, with comments, and leaves them in a virtual drop box for students.

Each paper becomes a personalized tutorial on the craft of writing, able to be filed and replayed. And through applications

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

Mr. Carrigan’s YouTube video, “Work in a Rotational System.”

such as VoiceThread, teachers and students and other groups can carry on conversations around a particular document.

Then there are applications that are a bit more familiar to those outside of academia—such as Skype. A Holderness history course, Modern Middle East, is being taught this year by history chair Andrew Sheppe ’00, who is fluent in Arabic. Near the end of that course’s Afghanistan unit, Andrew arranged for a Skype session with Staff Sgt. Keith Tyler ’02. “Keith discussed his experience as an Army Ranger in

Afghanistan, and his views on the challenges facing that country,” Andrew says.

“The students loved it and learned more in an hour than they had the previous week.”

In several ways the web allows the classroom walls to dissolve—dissolve rather in the ways that Out Back and other Special Programs accomplish. Its connectivity allows access to whole new universes of information. Its round-the-clock availability diminishes that old distinction between “class-time” and everything else. And its speed, obviously, not only overcomes class-

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

15

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:16 AM

Page 16

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

This year’s Senior Honors Thesis students became true practitioners in their chosen fields. ABOVE Oliver Lowe discusses the future fate of Major League Lacrosse, while AT RIGHT Maddie Cicoria delves into the pratice of yoga and its health benefits.

room walls, but also national borders, oceans, and time zones.

These capabilities enable a school to feel the pulse of the world’s shifting movements in goods, labor, and capital—and in the case of New England’s famous prep schools, they help as never before to bring the world itself, in person, to our doors. In addition, this year 19 percent of Holderness’ enrollment hails from abroad. With this comes daily and direct experience of things that through most of the school’s history was available only through, say, foreign language field trips: a multiplicity of perspectives and cultural backgrounds; the daily challenge of communicating in complex modes across those elements; and a sense of “Americanness” that has reference as well to a larger community.

This is part of the job in meeting a strategic goal supporting “a curriculum that encourages the development of students as responsible global citizens.” The next part is the curriculum itself, and in recent years, for example, the study of literature at

16

Holderness has spread well beyond the province of white male authors, dead or alive, who write in English. The study of history includes, besides US history and the Modern Middle East, the border-crossing issues of “Race, Class, and Gender,” and a survey of twentieth-century history that solidly unites both hemispheres. Meanwhile the foreign language department’s offerings now include Mandarin Chinese.

“Global citizenship” for a Holderness student has become a living experience, and not a remote ideal.

Also among the school’s strategic goals is the determination to “nurture and inspire intellectual achievement and exploration.”

That last word is interesting—it suggests students who are active agents, striking out on their own, rather than sitting passively in front of the sage on the stage. In this spirit certain it’s-all-up-to-you national competitions have recently taken fire at Holderness: National History Day, where students carry out primary and secondary research on a topic related to a broad

theme, and then try to outdo each other in the quality of their papers, exhibits, websites, or performances; the American Math Challenge, where students compete on-line over several days in a torturous test of concepts and skills; and Poetry Out Loud, where students vie in translating memorized classic and contemporary poetry texts into performance art.

Holderness students have won prizes at local or regional levels in each of these events, and this is to say nothing of the Friends of the Arts Juried High School Exhibition, a state-wide contest in the visual arts in which Holderness students have excelled for several decades. Now there are so many more ways for students to test themselves beyond the boundaries of the campus. And they are all within the context of a distinction that Head of School Phil Peck draws between “intellectual achievement” and “academic achievement.”

“The term ‘intellectual’ includes ‘academic,’ but it’s so much more,” says Phil. “You can be very academic, but not very curious,

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine.

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:16 AM

Page 17

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

GRIT AND THE ATTAINMENT OF WISDOM

During his Senior Honors Thesis presentation, Francis Miles shows the changes in fly rod technology to math teacher Thom Flinders.

passionate, or willing to pursue independent work. A school can be very academic, have all the APs in the world, great college placement, but not be a place that inspires kids to be lifelong learners. We are academic, but more importantly, we strive to be a place that inspires students to be intellectuals.”

Edric Weld might recognize these as different words for “the attainment of wisdom,” a “background of emotion and habit” that suggests the many constants still in play here. Acting Head Jory Macomber spent last year touring and studying the world’s international schools, where curriculum is often built around the globally-minded principles of the International Baccalaureate program. Jory notes, however that “the underlying peda-

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

gogy used to teach courses is similar to Holderness School’s: small, student-centered classrooms, varied assessments and teaching styles, close relationships between teachers and students, an emphasis on creative thinking, et cetera.”

Peter Durnan notes another constant.

“It’s been true for a long time here, and it’s still true, even with all the changes we’re seeing,” he says. “The best learning still takes place after dinner—students engaging one-on-one with teachers outside the classroom.”

It’s been true for a long time that those conversations usually begin with a kid who has a question—more specifically, a student curious about something that matters and who is ready to take the initiative in getting it answered. The writer Paul Tough, author

of How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character (Houghton Mifflin, 2012), cheers for moments like this. In that book Tough argues against the “cognitive hypothesis” that has ruled so much of American education—in other words, the belief that the kind of intelligence that gets measured on IQ tests, and then the accumulation of academic knowledge and skills, is the best predictor of success—in favor of what he calls the “character hypothesis.”

The research of today’s psychologists and neuroscientists, says Tough, suggest that there are much better predictors than IQ, and that these are character-based traits such as curiosity, persistence, selfcontrol, conscientiousness, grit, and self-confidence. Best of all, much more so

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

17

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:17 AM

Page 18

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

18

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine.

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:18 AM

Page 19

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

During her SHT presentation, KJ Sanger discusses what

GRIT AND THE ATTAINMENT OF WISDOM

it will take for Holderness to become carbon neutral.

than IQ, which is relatively fixed, these traits can be taught and enhanced—by posing genuine challenges, and allowing and tolerating failure, but doing so within a context that is reliably nurturing and supportive.

Does that sound like Out Back? Sure, and it also sounds a lot like Senior Honors Thesis.

Senior Honors Thesis actually begins in a student’s freshman year. “It’s the start of a four-year journey that emphasizes both independent thinking and practical skills,” says Director of Publications Emily Magnus ’88. At the start, all ninth-graders take Humanities, a team-taught course that combines English, history, and art for subject matter, and that teaches a spectrum of general study skills: note-taking, organization, research, oral presentation, writing, and test preparation. Then all students, in their sophomore year, take a semesterlong course called Research Methods. The subject matter covers a variety of nonWestern topics in history that bubble up from student interests. Then students learn how to find, manipulate, cite, and edit information and resources with the goal of developing projects for the National History Day contest. All juniors then take either US History or AP US History. Both courses stress the critical analysis of historical evidence, from both primary and secondary sources, and both require an evidence-based research paper.

It’s during senior year, at least until recently, that the road divided into separate tracks: those carrying out Senior Honors Thesis projects, and those doing Senior Colloquium during Special Programs. Last year about a third of the class of 2012 opted for SHT. This meant that these seniors not only had complete control over what they wanted to learn, they also had the opportunity to put into practice all the skills they had accumulated during their time at Holderness. It was, and continues to be, an opportunity to

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

pursue a matter not just of curiosity, but passion. Each student has a faculty mentor who guides and advises, but never directs.

Students conduct research, plan first-person experiences, find and engage with experts, write academic papers, and then deliver oncampus public presentations in May. Last year, Haley Mahar, for example, studied the regional and vernacular differences of architectural design, ranging from the classical farmhouses of New England to the glass-and-steel modernism of the West Coast. Sara Mogollon explored the question of national branding—specifically, how has a once notoriously violent country like Columbia so successfully redefined its international image? Brian Tierney, meanwhile, examined the various ways people have tried to rein in the brutality of warfare through, say, the Code of Combat in medieval Europe, or the Geneva Convention.

This work “beyond the normal limits of the school curriculum” is done after seniors send off their college applications, though participating seniors’ intentions to do SHT will be included on each one. Still, the outcome exists rather outside the ken of a college admission office. And that’s okay with Steve Solberg: “Holderness feels strongly that, as a college and life-preparatory school, we must ensure that our graduates have these skills as they leave to take on their next challenge. Senior Honors Thesis is a program where students make the transition from learners to true practitioners.”

Since SHT is anchored in several core character-traits as well, Phil Peck sees it as much more than a good program. “It’s a metaphor for all that we’re doing as a school,” he says. “It’s totally academic—you have to write well, research at an uppercollege level, speak articulately about a topic—but it’s also much more. You have to develop your own ideas, do independent work and research, learn how to work in a

real-life setting with a teacher as mentor and collaborator, and then do a hands-on practicum that often involves taking risks.

These are skills that make you more successful in life AND in school.”

For the past five years or so, beginning with its first incarnation as Senior Capstone, SHT in its optional form has adapted to a more digital and international world, has aligned with the latest research on learning, and has established a recent track record of success that matches that of Out Back. By now the bugs have been pretty well worked out of the program.

Therefore, during the 2013–14 school year, it will be as all-inclusive as Out Back. And in accomplishing this, Holderness has laid an even stronger claim to being “terminal,” as Weld used the term, as opposed to being “preparatory.” Its classrooms have become more porous, and its activities more experiential. Holderness students are more engaged with the real world, and, at the end of it all, stand before peers and mentors to describe the stuff they’ve learned, and to show what they can do with it.

Edric Weld argued on behalf of “an informed and purposeful electorate,” and programs whose end product was not a stack of information, but rather wisdom.

Compare this to a statement written by English teacher John Lin, during a January in-service when faculty members were asked to compose “This I Believe”-style statements about what they do: “At Holderness we believe that our academic program extends beyond the traditional classroom, appropriately challenging students to know themselves and care about the world around them by developing their intellectual knowledge and skills, provoking their curiosity and interest in the world, and engaging their compassion and conscience to be agents of positive change.”

Just as a footnote, though, we think the kids will also do well at college.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

19

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:18 AM

Page 20

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

preparing students for global citizenship While talent in American schools is often plentiful, cross-cultural knowledge is sometimes weak. In his third and final article, Jory proposes two educational opportunities that would help Holderness students develop critical skills for global citizenship. Jory Macomber

T

alent shows. they are a staple at elementary and

skills and perspectives. International schools make this a primary focus

high schools throughout the nation. They allow students to

of their mission and curriculum, and Holderness can learn from them.

share their unique talents, unregulated by test scores, curricu-

Often, over the course of this year, people have asked me: “What

lum guidelines, or ability; and they represent what is good about

would you bring back to Holderness from your year studying interna-

American education. Yong Zhao argues in Catching Up or Leading the Way:

tional schools?” I am working on two ideas—one small, and one big.

“For individuals, extracurricular activities affirm the value of their exis-

The Holderness School strategic plan asks us to “support a curricu-

tence, boost their self-esteem and sense of success, encourage them to

lum that encourages the development of students as responsible global

pursue their own interests, and help justify and maintain their interests.

citizens.” More precisely, the twenty-first century is marked by an

For a nation, a broader definition of success and of what talents are valu-

increasingly interconnected global economy, unprecedented global

able, beyond academic performance in a few subjects, preserves and

migration of peoples, international political challenges, and a growing

cultivates a diversity of talent. This diversity is essential for adapting to

need for global environmental stewardship; we need to make sure when

changing societies and economies” (p 51). In other words, he argues, it is

Holderness students graduate, they are ready to embrace these new

the diversity of talents in US schools, not our test scores, that have

trends. With this in mind, my first recommendation is that Holderness

allowed US students to become leaders in the world.

offer a Certificate in Global Studies.

Thanks to Pete Woodward and NEASC, I examined many educational

A student who completes a Certificate in Global Studies would

institutions throughout the world during my sabbatical year. On many

demonstrate “the capacity and disposition to understand and act on

levels it became clear that the American style of education is admired,

issues of global significance” (wording borrowed from the American

and not because American students score better on tests or know how to

School of London). In addition to developing a strong knowledge base

solve more complicated math problems than their counterparts in other

and understanding of world systems in the classroom, students would

countries (because they don’t). It is because the American style of edu-

also learn through experiences of their own choosing and design outside

cation allows students to be creative, to develop their own talents, and

the classroom.

to establish meaningful relationships with their teachers and within school communities. In a global world where there are multiple perspectives and technology is constantly changing the way we interact, students who can solve problems creatively and connect well with other people are in high demand.

However, while the philosophical core of American education is strong, students in the United States are limited in their cross-cultural knowledge. In the twenty-first century the economy is global and inter-

In order to receive a Certificate of Global Studies, a student would need to: r Complete the study of a second language through the AP or appropriate advanced level. r Focus their tenth-grade National History Day project on a global issue. r Submit an eleventh-grade paper or project from any class on a global issue. r Help with international student orientations, house international

connected, people the world over are migrating far from their places of

students during long weekends or vacations, and contribute to a stu-

birth, politics extend beyond national boundaries, and environmental

dent support group for international students.

problems require global solutions. To help students prepare for participation in this global community, their education needs to include global

20

r Participate in two off-campus immersions: one experience would require total immersion in a different culture with a different lan-

holderness school today | Summer 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine.

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:18 AM

Page 21

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

preparing students for global citizenship

In the Head of School’s office, Jory talks with seniors about their experiences at Holderness School and how prepared they feel as they move on to college.

guage. Another experience could be more project-based and focus on

for transition years for students who want to enroll in American schools

a global issue; however, like the first experience, it would still include

but don’t have strong language skills; currently, we can’t help these tal-

linguistic and cultural challenges as well. (This project could occur

ented kids because we are not set up to help them develop their fluency.

during the experiential part of the Senior Honors Thesis.) r Focus their Senior Honors Thesis on a global issue. This project

By creating satellite schools, Holderness could maintain its focus on small, caring communities where a balanced education incorporates

would tie together all the work they have completed during their

aspects of the mind, the body, and the spirit. Within the satellite school,

time at Holderness.

Holderness could also include the Job Program, the chapel program,

r Build and complete an online portfolio of ongoing and finished work

outdoor education, snow sports, and a vigorously intellectual academic

that could be shared with the school, with outside partners in the

program. I have seen other schools successfully extend their mission to

project, or with college admission offices. In one sense, the portfolio

other campuses on different continents, and we could do it too.

would be a student’s first step as a digital citizen.

Unfortunately, creating satellite schools is a much more complicated

An advantage to creating this Certificate in Global Studies is that the

and involved process than creating a Certificate of Global Studies. At

program could be done within our current curriculum with just a few

minimum it would take 10 years to develop a model, determine and

adjustments. The students who choose the program would, by their

establish a viable location, and begin recruiting students. And at the

choice, make the first step in demonstrating the disposition to understand and

moment this type of development of the school is not even in

act on issues of global significance.

Holderness’ Strategic Plan. However, given time and given the increasing

Legitimate questions about logistics, supervision, assessment and funding remain; but I will Ieave those queries for a later discussion.

Instead, let’s talk about my big idea. An interesting model to pursue

need and demand for global education, it may be a worth considering.

Holderness School provides students with many unique educational opportunities. “Talent shows” in their many forms are engrained in

would be to open international satellite campuses. While there is limited

many facets of our program. But after a year of observing other schools

demand in New England for Holderness to grow, there is a significant

and immersing myself in other cultures, I realize the value of global per-

demand around the world for our brand and what we do (US-style

spectives and global skills as well. Creating a Certificate of Global

international schools are growing at 10% annually). Satellite campuses

Studies or building satellite schools would be a big jump for Holderness,

would allow for some creative opportunities such as faculty exchanges,

but it would allow us to put on more Holderness talent shows in other

student semesters abroad, corporate sponsorships of tuition, and inter-

parts of our increasingly interconnected world.

active programming and curriculum. Satellite schools might also allow

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

Summer 2013 | holderness school today

21

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:18 AM

Page 22

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

22

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine.

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:18 AM

Page 23

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

Kate Knopp discusses a homework assignment with Nina Perkins ’94.

Catching Up With Kate Knopp FINDING THE FREEDOM THE SKILL WOULD BRING Former English teacher Kate Knopp began her personal curriculum with skiing.

One trail led to another for this life-long learner who has done a lot of things already and isn’t finished yet. by rick carey TO THIS DAY KATE KNOPP, THEN ONLY SIX, REMEMBERS THE

Then, at Williams College, she captained the ski team in her sopho-

adult she saw standing petrified on skis at the top of a small hill. “I think

more and senior years (she spent her junior year in the Williams-Mystic

even then I understood that teaching a skill—in this case, to stand on the

Maritime Studies program), and graduated in 1985 with a B.A. in history

downhill ski—was not about learning the skill as much as it was about

and Asian studies. Over the next three years, she did a lot of different

finding the freedom the skill would bring,” she says. “He skied that little

things: back to Stratton Mountain to coach skiing and run a dorm; out to

hill several times that morning.”

the Olympic Valley School in California to coach skiing and teach history;

Young Kate understood that soon that man would be skiing bigger hills. “Achievement, by which I mean the learning of the skill,” she says,

and back to Williams to coach skiing.

But the most important thing she did during that time had nothing to

“has value because of the confidence it catalyzes in the learner to do

do with skiing. One summer she taught for Upward Bound, a federally

larger things.”

funded program helping secondary students whose families might be

That same little hill was already easy for Kate, who was fearless on

lower-income, or rural, or without previous college graduates, or all of the

skis, and who indeed made a precocious generalization—if you could

above. “I taught writing,” Kate says. “I love writing, and in Upward Bound

learn to do one thing well, you could learn to do other things as well. So

I learned how much I enjoyed helping kids write well. And it made me

you might as well be daring and curious.

want to teach.”

She grew up in Greenwich, CT. Her father, the son of a postal clerk,

Actually this was an adjustment to an old ambition. “The whole idea in

had gone to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at King’s Point, NY, and

ski coaching was that I’d be outdoors, coach all day, then write in the

then grown wealthy designing oil supertankers. Kate, of course, kept ski-

evenings,” she said. “But it never worked out that way. Instead I was in

ing bigger hills, and was so passionate about skiing that in the eighth

the ski room all night—repairing gates, working on equipment. But I want-

grade she left to attend a ski academy that was just starting up and not

ed words to be part of my life.”

even accredited yet—the Stratton Mountain School.

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

So she joined the English department when she came to Holderness in 1988—a department that included the likes of Jim Brewer, Norm

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

23

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:18 AM

Page 24

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

CATCHING UP WITH KATE KNOPP

“achievement, by which i mean the learning of the skill, has value because of the confidence it catalyzes in the learner to do larger things.” Kate Knopp Walker, and Bruce Barton. Over the next nine years she coached soccer

then bring to fruition an all-day, community-wide celebration of the 20th

and more skiing, served as department chair, chaired several committees,

anniversary of Earth Day in 1990. It wasn’t such a stretch, really, for a school

earned her Master’s in English at Breadloaf (in the same class with col-

in which the earth-based experience of Out Back was such a central ele-

league Mike Henriques ’76), and acquired a broad background in

ment, but it was a landmark on the way to a core value—environmental

experiential education thanks to her work in Out Back.

sustainability—that Holderness now shares with Putney.

In 1997 Kate received a Klingenstein Fellowship to attend Columbia’s

In the ’90s Holderness was also on its way to a more diverse and inter-

Teachers College—as had Phil Peck and science teacher Jim Nourse

national enrollment, building curricula that sought to both reflect and

before her. There she met John Barrengos, then working on a doctorate

accelerate that trend. “In the English department we were talking about

in organizational psychology at Columbia. They were married in

how to teach texts rooted in different cultural traditions,” Kate says. “I

Holderness School’s Outdoor Chapel and saw each other on weekends

taught several novels by Toni Morrison, for example—The Bluest Eye, Sula,

while Kate taught and ran a dorm at Milton Academy. Then Kate got

Beloved—but to kids who had had little experience outside their own

hired as the director of CITYterm, an experiential program for juniors and

background, and this was before the internet. So it was a struggle.”

seniors out of the Masters School (in Dobbs Ferry, NY). The program is

And although Kate was not a stranger to struggle, it was a much different

sort of an extended urban Out Back, using the Big Apple itself as its

kind of struggle than say, training for a ski race. “I liked the clarity of the

classroom, laboratory, and primary text.

clock,” she says. “Timed training runs allowed me to play with technique

In 2000 Kate and John’s daughter Acadia arrived. Three years later, pregnant with Eliot, Kate realized that running CITYterm was too big a job

and with attitude and see its direct effect on speed.”

In teaching and designing curriculum, however, the variables were

to handle with two small children. A year later the family was at Miss

much harder to pinpoint—what questions to ask, what ambiguities to live

Porter’s School in Farmington, CT, where Kate taught English and John

with, what mysteries to pursue. The great thing about experiential educa-

leadership and social psychology. In 2007 John was hired as the head of

tion, of course, is that it involves first-hand experiences and the lessons

the Independent Day School, a progressive elementary day school in

naturally follow; in the classroom it isn’t as easy. But soon enough Kate

Middlefield, CT. Kate taught on and off in the upper grades, is now teach-

found ways to at least simulate experiential learning, courtesy of

ing 6th-grade English part-time, and is serving on the Commission for

Shakespeare. “As a class we performed an act out of The Merchant of

Professional Development for the Connecticut Association of

Venice, and that was very successful,” she said. “It was a way for kids to

Independent Schools.

actually experience racial prejudice, to get some sense of what it feels

But next year this peripatetic family begins another new adventure.

John has been named the new Director of Admission at The Putney School in Putney, VT. Kate will fill in for the school’s English department

like, and—perhaps—to become aware of whatever blinders might be limiting their vision of ‘the other.’”

Learning, in other words, catalyzes not just more learning: it leads the

chair and then see about what else needs doing. Philosophically, she’ll

curious into a larger greatness of soul as well, and the freedom that

find herself in a good place on a campus that includes a farm worked by

accompanies that.

students and a curriculum that emphasizes the experiential: “At Putney

And on it goes—confident and skilled, with her weight on that down-

we regard our curriculum as everything we do, inside the classroom and

hill ski, Kate Knopp just keeps trying new things and finding new vistas.

out,” says the school’s website.

We’ll stay tuned.

Back at Holderness Kate remembers working with two young faculty members—Becky Stratton and Lisa Marr—to first of all sell the idea, and

24

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine.

08JUL13_Features_Draft_08:Holdnerness_School_Today_Winter_2013_Revised

8/6/2013

11:19 AM

Page 25

Draft 8 (08JUL13)

CATCHING UP WITH KATE KNOPP

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Kate and her family on Monhegan Island in Maine; Kate in 2013 (copyright, Michael Vaile Garner); Kate coaching varsity soccer at Holderness in 1995; Kate during a theatrical performance in the 1990s.

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

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

25

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:56 AM

Page 26

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

Poetry Out Loud Unites Holderness Campus

LEFT: Seungwoo Shin and Zijie Wen provide music before the school-wide recitation contest.

ABOVE: The rubric used to evaluate each student’s performance asks judges to consider students’ physical presence, their voice and articulation, their dramatic appropriateness, their understanding of their poems, and the level of difficulty of their poems.

The Staying Power of Poetry As flurries of snow flutter around the Holderness campus in the heart of winter, so too do fragments of poetry. Walk by a classroom in Schoolhouse, a dinner table in Weld, or a shower in a dorm, and you’re sure to be serenaded with fragments of Frost, bits of Brooks, and even pieces of Poe. And so begins an article in the February  edition of The Picador written by President of the School Jake Barton. For some students the very act of memorizing lines of poetry for Poetry Out Loud and reciting them in front of their peers is a momentous challenge; regardless of how well their poems are read, overcoming stage fright is a worthy accomplishment. For others the annual memorization of poems is a welcomed opportunity to wrestle with words, draw out their meaning, and give them voice through intonation, speed, and pitch. For most, the poems they choose to memorize become a part of them, staying with

26

them long after the recitation contest is over.

And even for those who do not end up participating, the evening performances bring poetry alive, providing a few minutes of beauty and reflection at the end of an otherwise hectic day.

The process begins in January with small contests within most English classes. First students choose poems from the sanctioned list on Poetry Out Loud’s website. Some teachers focus on quality and ask students to write about and discuss their poems, while other teachers focus on quantity and ask students to memorize up to four poems. Once the students have memorized their poems, they recite them in front of their classmates and several judges.

The judges are usually other teachers; math teacher Kristi Magalhaes was a judge this year in four of the contests, while science teacher Pat Casey and Spanish teacher Kristen Fischer made guest appearances as well.

After class champions are decided, a second round of recitations is held; this year they were held during a Thursday evening chapel service.

The final school competition was held in Hagerman with eight students remaining.

Since the first year, the Poetry Out Loud School Night has evolved and taken on a life of its own. While the recitations for the competitors are prescribed by the national organization, other parts of the program featured the talents of Holderness students. This year “Tiny Hands,” a poem written by senior Abby Abdinoor in her creative writing class, was shared by Ximo Xiao. Saro Ntahobari also shared “Golden Pastures,” a poem written by her classmate, Will Kendrick.

Because four of the final contestant in this year’s all-school contest graduated from the local public school, their former English teacher Angie Miller was asked to be one of the judges. Other judges included board of

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:57 AM

Page 27

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

LEFT TO RIGHT: Runner-up Hannah Durnan reciting “Zacuanpapalotls” by Brenda Cadenas; Jacob Barton reciting “Calling Him Back from Layoff” by Bob Hicok; school champion Youngjae Cha reciting “Late Summer” by Jennifer Grotz.

trustee member Jim Hamblin, school counselor Carol Dopp, history teacher Susie Cirone, and state coordinator for Poetry Out Loud Cynthia Robinson.

In the final round, stunning performances were made by Jake Barton and Hannah Durnan, but the overall winner for the evening was Youngjae Cha, who recited “Late Summer”

by Jennifer Grotz and “To Solitude” by Alice Cary. In an interview in The Picador, Youngjae explained, “Initially, the idea of reading poetry sounded strange to me; the fact that it was a competition was just absurd. But the whole practicing process changed me. The more time I put into it, the more I began to realize that one’s voice can express so many things; sometimes, we are ignorant to the capacity we have.”

Unfortunately, Youngjae was not allowed to move on to the regional contest because Poetry

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

Out Loud requires all contestants to be US citizens, and Youngjae is Korean. Runner-up Hannah Durnan was prepared to take his place in the contest on March , but also wanted to participate in Holderness School’s Out Back program. She thought she could do both.

However, on the day of the contest, when her father Academic Dean Peter Durnan hiked into the White Mountains to bring her home for the evening, he failed to find her group; the national contest had to go on without her.

So while the school continues to develop passionate lovers of poetry, the champions have remained anonymous to all outside the Holderness community…except for perhaps a few squirrels at Hannah’s solo site who probably heard her reciting “Zacuanpapalotls” by Brenda Cadenas long after the contest was over.

ABOVE: The program cover for Poetry Out Loud. The program is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. To watch the finalists recite their poems, scan the QR code here or go to: www.holderness.org/poetryoutloud2013.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

27

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:57 AM

Page 28

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

Technology Saves Winter Parents’ Weekend

Senior Shihao Yu poses with his parents between conferences on Friday.

Perseverance During the Blizzard of 2013: A Virtual Parents’ Weekend Where would we be without technology? Well, for starters, we wouldn’t have known ahead of time about the severity of winter storm Nemo that shut down most of New England in February. Nemo happened to coincide with Parents’ Weekend at Holderness, and had it not been for technology and the meteorological predictions, many parents would have found themselves traveling the highways during the worst part of the storm.

As it happened, emails and messages on our website began to appear early in the week, predicting snowfall amounts and updating parents on the status of all Parents’ Weekend activities.

By Thursday the cancellations began. First it was a boys varsity hockey game on Friday evening. Later in the day all athletic competitions and games were cancelled as well as the

28

Friday evening concert. Parents then started to arrive early, not to meet with teachers but to pick up their children ahead of the storm and return home.

But refusing to let a little adversity ruin its plans, Holderness persevered. Friday afternoon conferences with teachers remained on the schedule. Those parents who could not physically make it to campus talked on the phone or shared emails with students’ teachers and advisors.

As the snow began to accumulate on the paths around campus, it was a small crowd that gathered in the dining hall on Friday evening.

More than half the tables sat empty; students who were assigned to wait tables found themselves without families to serve. And as the Parents’ Association Auction began, there were few people to bid. It was looking like the donations to financial aid would be minimal.

But once again, technology saved the day.

“It’s the Blizzard of ,” read a post on our Facebook page, “and next year when people ask, ‘Where were you?’ What will your response be?

‘Stuck in my car;’ ‘Sitting at home;’ or ‘I won a trip to California! And we’re headed there next week!’” As the bidding opened, emails and phone calls began pouring in, and Director of Parent Relations Amy Woods was kept busy updating bidding sheets and filling out raffle tickets. The Parents’ Association Raffle and Silent Auction went virtual!

The only event that technology couldn’t rescue was the student concert; since many members of the band and chorus had left campus early, the show couldn’t go on. Fortunately, the students performed on Thursday evening for the whole school, and Martha Macomber captured the event on video. Dressed in tuxedo shirts and jeans, the band and chorus joined together on many numbers and rocked Hagerman auditorium. Outstanding numbers included “Mo Better Blues,” featuring senior Jake Barton on trumpet, and “Wanted Dead or Alive,” featuring vocals by Shihao Yu and lead guitar by Zijie Wen. By late Friday evening, Holderness finally admitted defeat and cancelled all Saturday activities. Parents communicated with teachers via email and phone, and Mr. Solberg videotaped messages from each of the Special Program directors and the College Counseling director and posted them on the Holderness website. And the delicious cookout the dining hall staff had planned for Saturday afternoon at Bartsch? There was no way to replicate that on the web either, but it found its way into the meals of the students when they returned from their unexpectedly long mid-winter break.

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:57 AM

Page 29

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Students Fabián Štoček and Caroline Mure smile for the camera before serving families their dinner on Friday evening; Members of the Parents’ Association display items to be auctioned off to raise money for financial aid; Celia Fleckner and her mom bundle up as the snow begins to fly; Hannah Slattery and her parents are all smiles despite the snowy conditions; Pedro and Caetano Magalhaes slide their way across campus to the dining hall.

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

29

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:58 AM

Page 30

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

Special Programs On Monday, March  the students, organized by class, set off on their adventures. Many things about Special Programs remained the same. Dr. O and Mr. Barton taught their film course in Schoolhouse, and the juniors still trudged through the White Mountains wearing brown leather mittens and rubber insulated boots! The sophomores on AB still produced amazing works of art, and yes, the ninth-graders

had the opportunity to run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art—Rocky style.

What has changed? Sadly, Mr. Barton’s film class and Ms. Pedrin-Nielson’s French cooking class were taught for the last time, as next year all seniors will be concentrating on their senior theses. And for the first time in at least five years, the forge did not ring with the noise of cast iron rods being mercilessly hammered into

hooks. Instead Barnabas Casey, brother of biology teacher Pat Casey, helped students design, hammer, weld, and shape new bikes out of old ones. Away from campus, the ninth-graders on PO were treated to an nba basketball game between the Philadelphia ers and the Brooklyn Nets (compliments of the Fairmont Parks), and Out Back was featured on wmur’s “Escape Outside.”

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Students run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Sophomore Tommy Chau works with clay in the ceramics studio on the first day of Artward Bound; Tyler Evangelous and Philippe Johansson test the strength of their bridge made of manila folders during Senior Colloquium; students in Fred Harbison ’89 and Nick Laurence’s group on Out Back savor the warmth of a morning fire.

30

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:58 AM

Page 31

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Migle Vilunaite and Adrianna Quinn reunite after Project Outreach returns from Philadelphia; ninth-graders compete in P.O. Olympics in Philadelphia; Ben Chapin repairs a fence during Project Outreach in Philadelphia; Gibson Cushman rides his homemade doubledecker bike in the bike parade during Artward Bound; Emily Rasmussen gathers her balance and courage before fording a stream during Out Back.

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

31

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:59 AM

Page 32

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

Raising Money for Wheelchairs, One Thai Smile Order at a Time

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Thomas Chau speaks in Friday assembly about his volunteer organization; Tommy and friends talk with students at Hang Tay Primary School; Tommy and friends pose outside of Hang Tay Primary School where they have agreed to sponsor rebuilding the school’s restroom area.

Before Project Outreach, sophomore Thomas Chau had had little exposure to volunteering.

He was too busy studying and thinking about the test scores that would determine his path through college. But last March, Thomas joined his classmates in Philadelphia, working in a homeless shelter, cleaning up parks, and packing food boxes for Philadelphia’s largest food bank and hunger relief organization.

When the experience was over, Thomas wanted to do more. “Project Outreach opened the doors of inspiration for me,” he says, and he began to search for ways to volunteer and contribute to his community back home in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

His opportunity came in the form of HeartSays, a non-profit organization founded by two Vietnamese students several years ago—Yeo Phuc Anh (Saigon South International School) and Kim Kun Ho (British International School).

Yeo Phuc had a close family friend who lost both legs in a car accident. As her friend learned to live her life in a wheelchair, Yeo Phuc began to realize the shortage of wheelchairs that limited the lives of many other Vietnamese.

“The government doesn’t give enough support to hospitals,” explained Thomas. “They are not properly funded.”

32

So Yeo Phun established HeartSays and set two goals for the organization. First, HeartSaysFreeMove helps raise money to buy wheelchairs for patients with spinal cord injuries at the Hospital of Rehabilitation and Professional Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Second, HeartSaysKeepSmile supports local children at the hcmc Cancer Hospital, hcmc Children’s Hospital, the Long Hoa Orphanage, and the Thien Binh Orphanage.

Thomas serves as the group’s Commissioner for Overseas Activities, and has been working hard at Holderness raising money in support of the group’s objectives. Several nights a week last winter, Thomas ordered food from Thai Smile—a local restaurant in downtown Plymouth—and delivered the food to several boys’ dorms.

Thomas says he enjoyed the opportunity at first because it was an escape from his schoolwork, but the commitment became much greater when Thai Smile could no longer deliver the food to campus. “They needed all their staff to work in the kitchen,” explained Thomas, “so I had to walk down to Thai Smile and get the food myself.” This was in January when the temperatures after dark often fell well below freezing. But Thomas was determined and only once decided to cancel his fund-raising efforts because of the cold temperatures.

And while those deliveries helped Thomas raise some money, a dress-down day in March provided a solid income. March  was the last day of classes before Special Programs and everyone was eager to participate; if they were willing to donate a dollar to HeartSays, they did not have to be in dress code for the entire day.

The money Thomas raised this winter will be used to buy wheelchairs and provide gifts for orphans this summer when HeartSays begins operating again.

In the meantime, during a trip home in March, Thomas and other volunteers visited a school in Mekong Delta. The following is an update that he posted on his Facebook page on March : “This morning, we came back to visit Binh Hang Tay Primary School in Dong Thap province of Mekong Delta. We spent the whole morning playing with the pupils, offering them some books, and having lunch with the teachers and pupils of the school. After doing the site research, we have decided to sponsor the rebuilding of the school’s restroom area. We will come back to this school in May .”

If you are interested in learning more about Thomas’s project, you can go to the HeartSays Facebook page where Thomas frequently posts updates about his fundraising efforts and photos of the places where he is working.

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:59 AM

Page 33

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

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 t? Giving Holderness School strength and providing for generations of students to come. 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.

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:59 AM

Page 34

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

What Is It Really Like to be a Student at Holderness?

Consultant Steve Wessler meets with a group of students in the Webster Room to assess the climate of the school.

What is it really like to be a student at Holderness and what can we do to make the school more welcoming and safe for all? For Director of Diversity Tobi Pfenninger this question remains first and foremost in her mind each year as she welcomes international students to our campus and makes all of our students feel comfortable with our programs and within our community.

“There are a lot of schools that diversify,” explains Tobi, “but with that comes the responsibility of asking questions to help kids have positive experiences. We have to understand

34

their cultural differences, their academic needs, how to interact with them as advisors.”

And that is exactly what Tobi set out to do when she became the Director of Diversity in . At the time, no plan existed for helping and supporting our increasingly diverse student body. “It felt like we were always in a reactive mode,” remembers Tobi. “It was like bouncing a rubber ball on a cobblestone street; we never knew what direction we were headed.”

Around the same time, Holderness was in the process of evaluating its Strategic Plan. In addition to recommitting to the education of the whole person—mind, body, spirit—through

our revised mission statement, the new Strategic Plan also asked us to “build community among and across differences.” The Strategic Plan goes on to explain, “The concept of community is inextricably linked to individual and institutional identity. In the next three to five years, Holderness School must more precisely articulate itself and its core values, and in so doing build an even richer sense of community, one whose sense of shared identity extends among and across individual differences.”

Tobi understood the importance of this statement but wasn’t sure where to begin; her background and training were in Spanish, not

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

10:59 AM

Page 35

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

diversity. Enter Steve Wessler. On the advice of Director of Development Robert Caldwell, Tobi reached out to Mr. Wessler, who in  established the Center for Preventing Hate in Maine.

As his website explains, Mr. Wessler has “been working with students, teachers and administrators in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East to create schools that are as safe and respectful as possible.” His program starts by gathering data, seeking to understand and identify the strengths and challenges present in a particular community. It ends with offering solutions that are very specific and are tailored to the school at which he is working.

So in  Mr. Wessler and two facilitators met with  students. They met with groups made up of just girls, just boys, students of color, day students, and others. With each group, Mr. Wessler and the facilitators tried to get a sense of the school’s climate and tried to determine areas of bias where harassment and adversity might occur.

“The work Steve did gave us a baseline from which we could plan and intentionally move forward in supporting our students,” Tobi says.

The work was both affirming in some areas and sobering in others. Based on his evaluation, Tobi and the Diversity Committee chose four themes that would be explored each academic year on a rotating basis. In - race and ethnicity were explored through an intentional and planned series of school nights and allschool assemblies. Sexual orientation and gender; social class and privilege; and finally religion were explored in the following years.

The plan has now been in place for four years, but Tobi continues to ask the question, “What is it really like to be a student at Holderness and what can we do to make it better?” Has the climate of the school improved?

How do you measure this improvement? Have the issues in our community changed? Are there other areas that need to be addressed?

To help answer these questions, Tobi and the Diversity Committee asked Mr. Wessler to

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

return this past January and speak with students again. This time he met with  students over two days. In addition to speaking with groups of boys, girls, students of color, and day students, he also met with students in the Gay Straight Alliance (gsa), students for whom athletics is secondary, students who hold positions of leadership, and others.

While Tobi has not received his final report, she said that Mr. Wessler was encouraged by what he saw. In  when he first visited the school, the gsa did not exist. In contrast, in  the gsa boasts over  members, many of whom coincidentally presented a video about the gsa at Holderness and sang a song in assembly on the day Mr. Wessler visited. Day students have become more involved with the community, and new opportunities are now available in the afternoons for those who are more artistically inclined.

The school’s international population is also more diverse. If you were Asian and attended Holderness in , Tobi explained, one could assume that you were South Korean. Asian students now also come from Vietnam, China, Taiwan, and Japan. The school also has a multicultural committee that organizes events throughout the year, including special dinners for Chinese New Year, Tet, Canadian Thanksgiving, and many more holidays. The multi-cultural committee also sends students to diversity leadership conferences and gives them the opportunity to meet students with the same interests. By more intentionally listening to the voices of our students in  and since, we have found ways to grow, both in our program offerings and in our expectations for our community and its members.

The most recent evaluation also helped Tobi and the diversity team frame new goals. While the annual themes are important and continue to be relevant, Tobi said she would like to see the topic of ability included in the rotation.

“Holderness School is comprised of able-bodied students, but we know that several of our stu-

dents, faculty, and staff have family members who are impacted by physical or mental disabilities,” explains Tobi. “We would like to create programs where our community members can share their stories, and we can all learn from each other.”

The Diversity Committee would also like to weave each year’s theme into the academic curriculum as well. “We don’t want diversity education to be isolated to a couple school nights and Martin Luther King Day,” she adds.

Tobi continues to strive toward greater diversity on our campus while at the same time keeping pace with the needs of our present students. It is through her work that we are able to continue to build our community, one in which individuals differences are valued and students are comfortable being themselves, no matter where they come from.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

35

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:00 AM

Page 36

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

Show Your Work CLASS: AP Physics C TEACHERS: Mike Carrigan and Mike Peller STUDENTS: Jacob Barton, Zihan Guo, GP Lee, and Kangdi Wang ASSIGNMENT: The students’ challenge was to create a system that had a variable mass and then create an equation that could predict the moving object’s position and velocity at any time. Typical high school physics problems usually ask students to consider systems with a constant mass. A changing-mass system makes it more difficult to create and solve an equation as it relies heavily on advanced calculus skills and more advanced modeling equations. Click on the QR code or go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUv2oO0JQI4 to view Zihan Guo’s explanation of their solution.

JACOB BARTON

KANGDI WANG

GP LEE

ZIHAN GUO

ZIHAN AND HIS GROUP BEGAN BY RECOGNIZING THAT TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM they needed to use Newton’s Second Law that states that force is directly proportionate to mass when acceleration is constant.

Knowing there were two forces at work on the system—the force of gravity acting on the constant mass of the car and on the variable mass of the leaking cup—the group wrote an equation that found the difference between the two forces and multiplied it by acceleration. This led to a differential equation which they solved using Wolfram Alpha, a computer program that can handle complicated equations (think really smart calculator). Then students were then able to predict where the cart would stop with only a 2.76% rate of error. (The sequence of the students’ calculations is shown on the facing page.)

36

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:00 AM

Page 37

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

AROUND THE QUAD

1

2

3

4

5

6

37

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:01 AM

Page 38

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

Dorms Compete in Carnival Games January and February tend to be long months in the middle of New England’s dark winters.

Ice, wind, and snow make walking to classes miserable, and ski season takes its toll as well; keeping up with classes and course expectations can be difficult, as athletes spend days and sometimes weeks away from campus trying their best to score points and make it to the next level. So Holderness has to try a little harder to bring the school together and keep everyone motivated. During Winter Carnival dorms and day students join together for fun but highly competitive evening games.

The week begins with a snow sculpting contest; this year’s theme was “household items.” Later in the week students compete in the human Iditarod, dodgeball, and Mr. Barton’s Olympics. As Mr. Solberg reported on our website, “Mr. Barton’s Olympics began with the m&m carry, as students balanced m&ms on spoons, depositing the candies in cups under the watchful eye of the judges. From there, we went to the marshmallow toss for distance, and had two teams nearly span the entire gym with long tosses and mouth catches. Finally, there was a new event in which students wove a spoon-on-a-string through the clothing of four teammates before tagging a fifth person, who (without using his/her hands) was charged with finding two objects in a bowl full of whip cream. No, I’m not making this up.”

The week ends with a lip sync in Hagerman during which student talent often surprises the judges and completely alters the overall scores for the week. Our judges this year—Mr. Mure, Ms. Kosow, and Ms. Lin—awarded points based on creativity, participation, synchronization, appropriateness, and whether it was in fact a lip sync. The winners? For the girls: Pfenninger Dorm, Sargent Dorm, and the Day Girls. For the boys: the Day Boys, the Hill Dorms, and Sheppe Dorm.

The overall winners of Winter Carnival were Sargent Dorm with  points and the Day Boys with  points.

38

ABOVE: The Day Girls hustle to the finish during the Human Iditarod. BELOW: Seo Jung Kim performs a lip sync to “Gangnam Style” with the help of her dorm mates in Pfenninger.

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:01 AM

Page 39

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Fabián Štoček puts the finishing touches on Rathbun’s snow sculpture; the girls of Sargent Dorm pose for a photo after their victorious performance in dodgeball; Celine Pichette carries an M&M across the gym floor during the Barton Olympics; Sookie Liddle searches for small objects in her bowl of whipped cream with little success; the girls of Connell dance to “Crazy in Love” by Beyonce during the lip sync.

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

39

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:01 AM

Page 40

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

The Boys Varsity Hockey and Nordic Ski Teams Claim Multiple Championship Titles

LEFT: Macy Jones, Allie Solms, Allie Renzi, Sarah Bell, and Celine Pichette prove that winning can be fun during a race at home in February. RIGHT: Fabián Štoček races for Holderness at an Eastern Cup race in Maine.

If you were to ask members of the Nordic team for highlights from their season, they probably won’t tell you anything about their races or training schedule. Instead the skiers will probably recall building jumps during downtime between races and after practices: “There was one practice when we weren’t allowed to leave practice until we had gone over at least one jump,” explains junior Celeste Holland. They also will recall lining the sides of the finish line during one of their last races.

As Qianyi Zhang, a beginner skier, came into the finish, they raised their ski poles, formed a bridge over Qianyi’s head, and cheered her on.

And they will recall falling…a lot. In fact, according to skiers Aidan Kendall and Fabián Štoček, the number one rule of Head Coach Pat Casey is “If you’re not falling down, you’re not having fun.”

40

They will also describe in detail Thursday night sauna sprints. After warming up in the sauna, the students begin by dipping in a homemade bathtub made of blue plastic tarps.

Once dipped, students sprint across the upper fields to the football field goal and back. The brave then take another dip in their homemade bathtub before returning to the sauna.

However, despite the focus on fun, the Nordic team had one of its best seasons in recent history. Both the boys’ and girls’ teams won the Lakes Region Championship races.

The boys also finished first in the nepsac championship race, while the girls finished second. Two skiers—Fabián Štoček and Rion O’Grady—traveled to Alaska for nationals, while Cayla Penny competed in the Eastern J Championships. Additionally, Drew Houx and

Lizzy Duffy competed in the Eastern High School Championships.

“I don’t think it’s the training that has made us successful,” says Fabián, who is from the Czech Republic and will be skiing for Dartmouth next year. “It’s the fun.”

And so their season ended with fun as well.

Eight members of the team traveled to the th Stowe Derby, the oldest downhill/cross-country ski race in North America. The race begins at the top of Mount Mansfield and finishes  kilometers later in the town of Stowe. Racers must use only one pair of skis; those that are brave and hearty will complete the race twice— once with classic technique, once with freestyle technique—and be crowned ski meisters.

While the race certainly tests skills and endurance, it is more about fun. The girls on the team wore their signature tutus and neon

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:02 AM

Page 41

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AROUND THE QUAD

Captain Gordie Borek fights for the puck in a game against Tilton.

spandex, and most recall falling a lot. But once again, despite their light hearts and lack of concern with results, their accomplishments stand out, especially those of Fabián Štoček, who came in second in the race overall, finishing only . of a second behind the winner.

While the hockey team doesn’t do sauna sprints during practice or wear rainbow-colored tutus during their games, they too claim that their success this season had more to do with fun than skill.

The hockey team’s connection and pride is clear. Take a look around campus and you’ll see groups of red sweatshirts walking around campus together, proudly displaying the Holderness hockey logo on the front. And towards the end of the hockey season, they prepare for their post-season play not just with drills and practice shots on the goal but also with hair dye and handshakes. It has become a tradition for the players to dye their hairs

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

blonde if they make the playoffs, and each year they create a handshake that they repeat before returning to the ice each period.

“Will beats skill every time,” quotes Tyler Mathieu, who was a senior captain and a recipient of the Weston Lea Spirit Award.

“A lot of the guys on the team are roommates and hang out together,” explains Gordie Borek, who is also a captain of the team. “We eat lunch together and want to spend time together even outside of practice.”

Gordie speaks from experience, because he has been on a different kind of team. During his sophomore year at Holderness, the hockey team wasn’t as successful and finished the year with a record of --.

“We still had a couple good players, but we weren’t as close,” Gordie explains.

In contrast the team’s record for this season was --, and in February they became the Lakes Region Champions after a hard match

against Tilton with a final score of -. Because of their win against Tilton, the boys were invited to the nepsac tournament for small schools.

For the second year in a row the boys won their quarter finals match, this year during overtime with a goal made by Tyler Mathieu against Rivers School. In the semi-final round they lost to Kents Hill School.

While both the Nordic and hockey teams will lose several key athletes and are not sure what next season will bring, they are optimistic; both teams have experienced success and know what it takes to win. But while winning can be serious business, it doesn’t mean fun can’t be had along the way. The handshakes, the hair, and the sauna sprints bring these teams together and help them succeed. Falling doesn’t have to hurt and winning can be fun.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

41

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:02 AM

Page 42

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

SPORTS

LEFT: John Musciano guards the goal during a game at home. RIGHT: Captain Tyler Mathieu steals the puck from Vermont Academy during a home game.

Girls Varsity Hockey by susie cirone This year’s girls varsity hockey team played an exciting brand of hockey in which they frustrated their opponents with great positional play all over the ice. They competed with a chance to win every game, stealing points from Division I opponents during a tie at Brewster and a win at Exeter. The girls also won two of three games at the St. Paul’s tournament during some heated Lakes Region competition. Ninth-grade goaltender Annie Smyth-Hammond stepped in and filled a huge role this season as the only goalie on the team; she racked up a record seven shutouts in her rookie season as a Bull. The Most Improved player was Hannah Foote, who for four years has shown steady individual improvement and has made significant contributions to the development of the entire program. The Coach’s Award recipient was Mackenzie Maher, who led the team as a captain and as a dominant player on and off the ice.

Sadly, the Bulls will graduate six seniors this year: Hannah Foote, Michelle Hofmeister, Kaileigh Lazzaro, Mackenzie Maher, KJ Sanger,

42

and Danielle Therrien. All of them had a huge impact on our team on and off the ice, and we will continue to benefit from their contributions long into the future.

Girls JV Hockey by kelly hood ’ After a slow start, the Bulls ended the season with an impressive -- record. One of the many highlights included Claire “The Catapult” Caputi’s recitation of Herb Brooks’ speech from the  Olympics when the usa hockey team downed the Soviet Union—a miracle defeat. She inspired her teammates in the third period of a close game against kua in which the Bulls ultimately came away with a victory over the Wildcats. The girls’ significant improvement over the season was in large part due to the leadership of our seven seniors: Kendra “The Force” Morse, Lauren “Long” Strides, Nicole “Dangles” DellaPasqua, Addie “Boards Jumper” Morgan, Momo “Make it Happen” Xiao, and Maddie “Move Over” Cicoria. They will be greatly missed next year, and we will be looking to the underclassmen to

fill their big shoes. With the help of newcomers like Carter “Crazy Feet” Duame and Sasha “Just Do It” Jones and the veteran dynamic duo of Lindsey “Power” Houseman and Megan “Griz” Grzywacz, the Superstars will continue their tradition of success.

Boys Varsity Hockey by allie skelley The varsity boys hockey team had another outstanding season, finishing the year with a -- record. The Bulls almost made it back to the New England championship game but lost in the semifinals to number one seeded Kent’s Hill. Throughout the course of the season, the Bulls had many memorable moments and wins but none topped their overtime win at home against a very accomplished Phillips Exeter team. Much of the Bulls success over the last few years can be attributed to this year’s strong senior class. The following seniors will be missed and have left behind an outstanding legacy: Tyler Mathieu, Francis Parenteau, William Kendrick, Gordie Borek, Phil Johansson, Tyler Evangelous, Orion Olsen,

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:03 AM

Page 43

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

SPORTS

John Musciano, and TJ Ajello. Their hard work and dedication has set the bar high for future Bulls. The remaining Bulls look forward to next year with the ultimate goal of winning the New England Championship.

Boys JV Hockey by reggie pettitt The boys junior varsity hockey team completed a successful - season with a -- record. The spirit of the team prevailed after losses to a number of tough opponents and served us well in the process of registering some hard-fought wins along the way. Our young goalie, Will Coleman, kept us in nearly every game with his inspired play. Our seniors—Steve Page, Max Sturges, Logan Twombly, Francis Miles, Dylan Arthaud, and Riggs Alosa—all contributed to a fun season in separate, but significant, ways. They were typically the players who supported and challenged new players like Taren Cook, Henry Sheffield, Jack Sullivan, Lyle Wilkens, Adam Pettengill, Gibson Cushman, Sam Meau, and Connor Kenney. Returnees to our squad—Will Tessier, Sam Paine, and Connor Marien—brought their skills and experience to the ice for practices and games throughout the season and should be ready to hit the ice again in –!

Nordic Skiing by peter durnan The measurable victories of this year’s Nordic squad were numerous: both the boys’ and girls’ teams won the Lakes Region Championships, the teams were first and second in nepsac Championships, and the boys won the New Hampshire State team title for the first time in years. Individually, Fabián Štoček qualified for Junior Nationals for the second year, and Rion O’Grady joined him. Drew Houx and Lizzy Duffy competed in the Eastern High School Championships, and Cayla Penny competed in the J Nationals hosted at Holderness School this year. But this only begins to tell the story of a team that enjoyed an exceptional year. The boys’ team was buoyed by the addition of new

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Sarah Alexander charges past a defensive player from Proctor; the Nordic ski team enjoys the warm weather during a mid-winter thaw; Chris Hyland skis through the gates at a UNH fundraiser at Loon Mountain.

senior Rion O’Grady, who vied for the top spot at many races and will be a great addition to a college team next year. It is fair to say that this boys’ team was the best Holderness School has seen in the past decade, and three of the senior boys (Fabián Štoček, Rion O’Grady, and Jake Barton) will look to continue their racing careers in college. On the girls’ side, led by senior Emily Soderberg, the team amassed a number of victories both as individuals and as a team.

Junior Celeste Holland was regularly on the podium in Lakes Region contests and was supported by her classmates Eliana Mallory and Hannah Durnan. Youngsters Lizzy Duffy, Sawyer Gardner, and Cayla Penny had great seasons as well. Not to be outdone by her more experienced teammates, sophomore Qianyi Zhang earned a top-ten spot in the NH State Championship B race. Rounding out the team were newcomers Sarah Bell, Celine Pichette, Macy Jones, Aidan Kendall, and Ryan Mahar.

All in all, it was a glorious season on the snow for the Holderness Nordic squad.

Eastern Alpine by craig antonides ’ The Eastern alpine team is finishing up another fine season as this report heads to press.

Winter took a little while to take hold, and we got off to a slow start on the results pages.

Gradually things improved, and our U and U age groups spent most of January and February chasing qualifications to their respective championships. By March they were hitting stride, just in time for the big races. Our U boys took  of the  spots in the New Hampshire quota for the Marriott Championships at Sugarloaf. Cam Heald, Liam O’Reilly, and Zac Chernin all had top  finishes with Heald qualifying for a CanAm event in late March. Sean Robinson and Alex Lash qualified for the U finals at Attitash. Our Us had two events in their cross hairs: the U Nationals at Mammoth Mountain, CA and the njr fis Finals in Stowe, VT. Two made the big show at Mammoth—Kelly DiNapoli and Max Lash. DiNapoli had two

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

43

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:03 AM

Page 44

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

SPORTS

LEFT: Abby Jones carves at turn at MJ’s Race at Waterville. RIGHT: Jake Rosencranz soars over a jump at Nationals in Copper Mountain, CO.

strong ninth-place finishes. Joining the captains—Jesse Ross and Elena Bird—in the quota for Stowe were Hope Heffernan, Teagan Mosenthal, Abby Jones, Rachael Erhard, Michael Beutner, Chris Hyland, Clark Macomber, and Stepper Hall. Unfortunately, Rachael Erhard’s season ended early after she sustained a broken leg in a practice run. We would like to thank fsc and Cannon Mountain for providing the playground, and our kitchen and maintenance departments for keeping us fueled and mobile to all the places we go. A big thanks also goes to the coaches: Georg, Janice, Ben, Jeff, Jake, Cory, Dan, and the rest of the fsc staff who fill in around the edges. You are the people who make it happen for our kids.

and have fun. Whether their memories involved the long bumpy mini-bus rides or the free training runs with friends, everyone had a good time. While the results of the races may not have always tipped in our favor, the amount of fun that was had definitely did. New friendships were formed on rival teams, and old friendships were strengthened through long afternoons on the ski slopes. No matter how hard a day was or how bad the conditions were, you could always count on a smile from this group—not just individuals, but the entire group. That is what was special about this group; everyone loved to ski. No matter their ability, they simply loved to ski.

Eastern Freestyle School Alpine by will roske The  school alpine ski team started off with great excitement; many of the skiers were new to ski racing and did not know what to expect. Fortunately, patience and hard work helped anyone with doubts work past them

44

by nick preston The  Holderness Eastern freestyle mogul team rides on the legs and acrobatics of an outstanding mogul skier, Bobby Wassman. Bobby was our most improved skier on the team, as his skill development focused on competitive mogul acrobatics, specifically introducing back

layouts, back tucks, and back Xs into his competitive runs. His hard work brought his  into focus as well. Competitively, his best performance occurred at Stratton with a score of .. With this performance level serving as a baseline for next year, Bobby can look forward to an ambitious season filled with challenging goals and new competitive opportunities. The coaches wish to commend Bobby for his initiative, attendance, and competitive dedication. In the winter of –, Bobby will serve as captain of the Holderness Eastern freestyle team.

School Freestyle Ski Team by tyler devine ’ After a full season of Lakes Region slopestyle events, Holderness finished first as a team overall. Thorn Merrill was named the first boy in the league overall due to his multiple firstplace finishes and constantly improving style.

Jake Rosencrantz finished third overall, proving that his consistency in competitions was crucial! There was notable improvement from all the athletes this season, as everyone worked

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:03 AM

Page 45

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

SPORTS

Senior Hannah Foote faces off against a player from Vermont Academy.

hard to perfect their freestyle skills.

Newcomers to the team, Cam Robertson and Chris Sargent, joined the team with solid freestyle fundamentals and continued to improve and help our team finish strong. In the same category was Chris Caulder whose confidence on snow will take him far over the next three years. A big thanks goes out to Michael Finnegan, who did a great job leading the team this year as our captain.

Snowboarding by alan smarse Despite some early-season weather challenges, Holderness excelled at all levels of snowboarding. “Never-evers” quickly advanced to intermediate terrain, while many of our seasoned riders progressed to higher levels as well.

Joey Casey, Ben Grad, Aaron Harmatz, Bao

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

Nguyen, Gabriel Posada, Seungwoo Shin, Rhyan Leatherwood, Reid Moreschi, and Zak Harmon helped lead the Bulls to the top of the Lakes Region standings in giant slalom and slopestyle competitions. Eight of ten riders who qualified for the usasa Nationals, traveled to Copper, CO for post-season competition.

Kevin Horner, Christian Bladon, Haley Michienzi, Christina Raichle, Leah Curtis, Ben Chapin, Ezra Cushing, and Annie Hayes made Holderness proud with five top-ten finishes.

This year’s Most Improved riders were Reid Moreschi and Aaron Hartmatz, and the Coach’s Award went to Ezra Cushing.

Girls Varsity Basketball by mike heyward ’ This season proved to be rewarding for the girls varsity basketball team. Unfortunately, their 

and  record does not reflect their success, but the girls continuously learned and improved.

Unable to reach their true potential because of injuries, the Bulls still wrecked havoc on the defensive end by holding high-scoring teams to their season lows. Senior captains Migle Vilunaite, Xajaah Williams-Flores, and Marissa Merrill led the team in most statistical categories, while junior Caroline Mure developed a consistent outside jump shot. Grace Eagan, Maggie Peake, Molly Madden, Natalie McBeath, and Saro Ntahobari all played with a ton of heart and passion. The team is excited to have Hannah Slattery back from injury next season, and Lily Vittum and Adrianna Quinn are ready to keep their starting positions and become bigger contributors. We wish the best of luck to our seniors next year and look forward to welcoming back our veteran players in

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

45

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:04 AM

Page 46

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

SPORTS

LEFT: Xajaah Williams-Flores and Adrianna Quinn work together during a game against Cushing Academy. RIGHT: Senior Marissa Merrill dribbles the ball at half court.

November. This year’s Coach’s Award was presented to Marissa Merrill, and Grace Eagan was the recipient of the Most Improved Award.

Girls JV Basketball by caitlin kosow When the girls JV basketball team first met back in November, we set three goals: ) improve our basketball skills; ) come together as a team; and ) have fun! If you were able to catch a game early in the season and another game late in the season, then you were able to see that as a team we more than met our first goal. Every single member of the team improved her skills in one way or another, whether it was dribbling consistently, making three-point shots, rebounding the basketball, or doing ten push-ups. As coaches, we could not have asked for more improvement from our athletes. The improvement of our skills blended nicely with the team’s unity. Each girl brought something unique to the court and when they joined together, their team was really special; each member contributed such joy and spirit to

46

every practice and game. I can only speak for myself on the last goal, but I would definitely say fun was had throughout the course of this season! We laughed, we smiled, we improved, and we won for the first time in over a year! So while we might not have been successful in terms of our win/loss record, we were successful in every other aspect of the word, and for that I am grateful to have been a part of the – girls JV basketball season.

against kua, Tilton, and Brimmer and May put the team back in the hunt. Unfortunately, the boys ran out of time and were unable to advance to the playoffs. Roland Nyama was awarded the Coach’s Award, and Pete Saunders won the Most Improved Award.

Many thanks go out to the seniors for their hard work and the parents who travelled all over New England to support us.

Boys JV Basketball Boys Varsity Basketball by randy houseman A busy schedule against some powerful opponents early in the season and an incomplete roster weakened by injuries caused the boys varsity basketball team to struggle in December and the first few weeks of January.

Then the team got hot as the athletes got healthy. The boys began to play an exciting brand of basketball with a stifling defense and an efficient offense. On any given night, a different player put up big offensive numbers and picked up his struggling teammates. Wins

by mike barney The – JV Bulls basketball team compiled an - record this season which included a year-end tournament. This year’s team consisted of both senior leaders and underclassmen, who came together to form a competitive team with the ability to win any given game during the season. Many underclassmen on this year’s team provided spark and energy and should be the foundation of a very strong team in the future.

Hard work and passion for the game were present all season and helped this team continue to improve throughout the year. Unfortunately, a

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:04 AM

Page 47

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

SPORTS

tough opening-game loss at the year-end tournament prevented the Bulls from competing for a championship title but motivated them to close out the tournament with two straight victories. With the growth this season provided many underclassmen, the Bulls look forward to another successful season next year.

Boys JV2 Basketball by thom flinders When the JV team gathered together at the beginning of the season, they set a lofty goal: to win the nepsac JV Championship. Although they ended the season with a dominating - record, the boys just missed an invitation to the prestigious tournament. Fortunately, next year the team will be returning the right-hand-only dribbling phenomenon Haroon Rahimi and glass cleaner Thomas Chau. With an up-tempo style of play throughout the season, the team learned how to quickly score baskets and make easy layups. Defensively the boys shut down opponents with a punishing box-and-one scheme. Many of the players who will be moving on to higher levels of play next year will be missed, and we hope to find replacements for them with new recruits next winter.

TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT: Jump shots by seniors Roland Nyama and Willem Brandwijk. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT: Ninth-grader Cole Donovan drives to the basket, while senior Caleb Nungesser takes the ball in for a lay-up.

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

47

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:04 AM

Page 48

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

UPDATE: CURRENT FACULTY AND STAFF

“Breaking Through” Adds Light and Energy to Edwards Art Gallery

Portraits of Holderness community members in oil created by Kathryn Field for an exhibit in the Edwards Art Gallery in January.

If you got the chance to view Kathryn Field’s exhibit in the Edwards Art Gallery this winter, you probably saw a few familiar faces. Teachers John Lin and David Lockwood, students Saro Ntahobari and Addie Morgan, and faculty children Liesl Magnus and Ben Lewis all participated in Kathryn’s quest to document the faces of the Holderness community.

After taking a portrait class during the summer of , Kathryn decided she wanted to continue painting portraits throughout the fall.

With a show planned for the Edwards Art Gallery in January, Kathryn wanted to use the opportunity to work with members of the Holderness community. And although it was

48

an ambitious task to complete while teaching full time, Kathryn decided it was exactly what she needed to push herself to reach her goal.

So throughout the fall, after classes, on weekends, and during holiday breaks Kathryn set aside a couple hours at a time to sit with members of the community and paint their portraits. Kerry O’Connell, who works in the dining hall, posed for her as well as Jim Hamblin ’, who will be the new chairperson of the board of trustees in June. His daughter, Haley Hamblin ’ and housekeeping staff member Sandra Hobbs also worked with Kathryn. In four months Kathryn completed

 portraits, all of which were on display as part of her exhibition, “Breaking Through.”

In her artist statement Kathryn explained, “This challenge allowed me to break through my hesitation of asking people to model and celebrated the wonderful connection created between artist and model through the unique and intimate experience of knowing another individual in shared silence and vulnerability.”

In the final display, the ˝ by ˝ portraits hung together in a  by  grid in the gallery.

Each portrait was unique and reflected the individual personalities of the models. Together they formed a vibrant, colorful mosaic that not only was pleasing to look at but also embodied

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:04 AM

Page 49

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

UPDATE: CURRENT FACULTY AND STAFF

LEFT: Students Fabián Štoček, Addie Morgan, and Lihn Le examine Kathryn’s oil painting on stainless steel that features koi swimming in brilliantly sparkling pools of water. ABOVE: Another sculpture

by Kathryn hangs suspended from the ceiling of the gallery.

the spirit of the Holderness community, made up of unique individuals but working beautifully as one body.

Kathryn’s exhibit also contained stainless steel sculptures, oil paintings on aluminum, and line drawings in charcoal. Brilliant orange fish hung suspended in the air, swimming through reflective pools of light and water. Birds, mirrored in the water below them, flew on wings of gold. Simple charcoal figures stood silhouetted in doorways. Each piece demonstrated not only her limitless ability to capture the play of

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

light in the world around her but also her dedication as an artist to experimenting with multiple mediums. And as one review of the exhibit pointed out, “When the afternoon sun slants through the gallery window, the work seems to breathe with Field’s earnest spirit.”

And it was this spirit that made the darkest months of the year seem a little bit lighter, knowing that no matter how hard it was snowing outside, one only had to step into the Edwards Art Gallery to be surrounded with light and positive energy.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

49

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:05 AM

Page 50

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

UPDATE: CURRENT FACULTY AND STAFF

And In His Spare Time He Writes

Rick Carey at home in Sandwich, NH (photograph copyright Susan Carey)

Holderness continues to be lucky to have Rick Carey writing for its magazine. Although he has cut back and does not produce all the articles for hst anymore, he still seeks out and writes about the impressive accomplishments of our alumni and magically weaves together the stories of Holderness School in the feature and in the “Catching Up With…” articles.

And with his talent for wordsmithing, it should come as no surprise that Holderness is not the only one to benefit from his talent. Rick Carey is currently the assistant director of the mfa in fiction and nonfiction program at Southern New Hampshire University. He is also an accomplished author of essays and short fiction, as well as nonfiction books, including Raven’s Children: An Alaskan Culture at

50

pected but very satisfying ending. To read the story yourself, go to www.hungermtn.org/rubythursday.

Rick’s next project is an independent book project about the  shooting of four people in Colebrook, NH. As Rick explains on his website, “The world at large has mostly forgotten about the  Colebrook shootings, but in New Hampshire the incident remains the state’s version of the Kennedy assassination— almost everybody remembers where they were and what they were doing when first they heard about it.”

He goes on to say, “The story wouldn’t leave me alone. Once I began digging into it, and learning more of the surprising details, I saw how in many ways it was a story unique and particular to the North Country—and at the same time deeply rooted in both the best and the worst in human nature. Like a murder retold in an old ballad, it’s a story with mythic stature.”

Throughout this past winter Rick worked on the last chapters of the book, hoping to finish it by spring. And although the story itself is compelling even in its simplest form, there is no doubt that Rick will tell the story in his authentic and powerful voice, honoring the lives of the loved ones lost in the tragedy.

Twilight (Houghton Mifflin, ); Against the Tide: The Fate of the New England Fisherman (Houghton Mifflin, ); and The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire (Counterpoint Press, ). Raven’s Children was chosen as a New York Public Library Book to Remember, and Against the Tide won the  New Hampshire Literary Prize for Nonfiction.

Most recently, one of Mr. Carey’s short stories appeared in the Hunger Mountain Review, a literary magazine out of the Vermont College of Fine Arts. The story, “Ruby Thursday,” is about rock-n-roll, a severed finger, and what happens when love (or perhaps lust?) is left smoldering for nearly a decade. The twists in the story are numerous and lead to an unex-

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:05 AM

Page 51

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

UPDATE: FORMER FACULTY AND STAFF

Rip Richards: In Memoriam May , –February ,  When George Spiers “Rip” Richards passed away, we created a page for him on the Holderness website and invited anyone in the Holderness community who knew him to post their memories of him. The response was impressive. The letters, written mostly by former students, were genuine and clearly demonstrated Rip’s infectious good nature and sometimes gruff but nurturing ways.

Below are their stories:

T

he Ripper was one of the best! During one of those very cold and snowy winters we experienced back in the ’s, the school lost its water supply. The spring, which fed the water to the entire school, was up by the ski hill and -meter jump, about a mile east of campus. Rip theorized that the water pipe had broken somewhere between the spring and the school. After several attempts to find the break, Rip decided to pump some florescent green food coloring through the water pipe and back up the hill toward the spring. Ripper took me with him to watch for the green water. As we trudged through the snow up to the ski hill, we stopped to look down into the brook that ran out of the spring. The picture is still clearly etched in my mind; with new snow hanging from the trees and the sun just rising over Mt. Prospect, the water was a brilliant green against the clean, white background. The break was found soon there-after just below the spring and the “Ripper Experiment” proved to be a success. In so many ways, Rip was a genius, and certainly a hero to a young boy!

– don hagerman ’

I

n the early ’s, wall decorations in the dorm rooms included various road signs (“men working,” “dangerous curve”, etc.) that had been liberated from highways. One day, quite early in his career at Holderness, Rip made an announcement that road signs would no longer be acceptable dorm room décor, that

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

the signs were on the roadways for a reason, and that we were to cease and desist our petty pilfering. If we didn’t take them down, we found them “ripped” down (was this the origin of his nickname?). In the few years that I knew him, his standards of what was right and correct never wavered. I will remember him as warm and compassionate, as well as one who lived by and asked us to live by, higher standards.

– elvin kaplan ’

O

ne of many, many community-spirited things the faculty did in addition to their hefty Holderness workload was to organize the Little Nippers hockey team. We practiced on the old pre-refrigeration rink which Rip maintained by hand, and got in a good workout with him after he had taught all day and coached the Holderness hockey teams into the late afternoon. He was a better coach than a bunch of -year-olds could expect to find anywhere, and we all thrived under his gentle but exacting coaching. I still remember much of what he taught me.

– jim sargent ’

R

ip knew and cared about every aspect of the Holderness facility. In the summer of  we had a water issue in the brand new Bartsch parking lot. Dick Stevens was on vacation, so I called Rip. Within a few hours, he was on campus and had identified the source of the leak for Andrews Construction. If I remember correctly, it was a valve that he had placed there  years earlier, a valve which allowed for water to be diverted from the pump house (way out on the ski trails) and go to either the rink or to the boiler in Carpenter. He knew the whole story and knew exactly where to tell the contractor to dig.

– phil peck, head of school

I

was a Student Job Leader on the first or second year of the program. Initially the faculty also did the chores—faculty and

Rip Richards in front of Weld during the 2012 Holderness Reunion.

students were mixed—and there were a lot of inequities among student jobs. For instance, I remember working in the kitchen with Coach Hinman and Mr. English in my fourth form year. I also raked leaves, shoveled snow, and did other chores, while some students and many faculty had no chores. Rip came in and tore into that system and balanced it out. As I remember, ultimately there were no faculty members doing menial chores. By the time I returned as a teacher nine years later, Rip had it all smoothed out.

– don backe ’

W

e all have wonderful Rip stories, but I shall share only one recurring image. In the middle of any pressing situation (and I let you, the reader, set-up that “situation”), Rip suddenly stops, holds up his hand to signal the rest of us to follow suit, furrows his brow, slowly turns his head from side to side, CONTINUED ON PAGE 52

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

51

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:05 AM

Page 52

UPDATE: FORMER FACULTY AND STAFF

many provided. Rip was and is a great part of Holderness.

– jud madden ’

I

cherished the freedom given to us on Saturday afternoons when we could walk into town and watch a movie. In early May , Rip gave me an assignment to mow his enormous lawn (with a hand-push mower), a duty which I shirked all week long until the moment of truth—Saturday after class. As I headed out of my room and down the driveway, Rip appeared and in a very firm voice asked where I was going. “Not today you are not” was his reply, and he laid down the law on my responsibility to mow the lawn. I was trapped and furious, as no father or father-figure had ever told me I couldn’t do something I felt was my birthright—to see a movie on the big screen. That moment stuck with me all my life (as well as the warm embrace of Mary during our weekly banana split binges), and whatever success I may have had in my life in the years that followed…the root of my sense of responsibility comes from that moment when Rip Richards, a tough but caring man, stopped me in my tracks and took my freedom.

– fred eidsness ’

Rip and Mary Richards with two of their children. (There are no other archival details known about this photo; assistance in identifying the date, the children, and perhaps the location of the photo would be much appreciated!)

RIP RICHARDS, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 51 and announces: “Now Men….” He then pedantically dives into another deep thought about right versus wrong—about our moral responsibility. We all groan…quietly.

– john cleary ’

R

ip personified New England ingenuity and resourcefulness. He kept the rink going (with no roof mind you) through innumerable weather challenges—rain, snow, thaws. During the fall of my senior year, it just refused to get cold, and yet Rip found a way for us to have ice within a day of the start of the

52

season. I think the year before it had been subzero for so long that the ice cracked the entire length of the rink, but he managed to fix it without a lengthy interruption to our season.

He put hours and hours into the rink, and because of his toil and devotion, we had the fastest ice in the league. What did he ask of us?

He asked for some help spreading water to get the rink started. He asked us to take a straw broom after practice and sweep along the boards to remove excess snow and pine needles.

And, he asked us to respect the game of hockey, the chance to compete, and the work that

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

A

t South Kent School, Rip played with Harvey Russ as a defensive pair. They were big, strong and fast, and they loved to team up to pinch a rusher between them.

Rip and Harvey became so good at laying guys out that they were nicknamed “Rigor and Mortis.” As with all good nicknames, you don’t get to make up your own in most cases, and this one was earned and awarded to them.

Over the years Rigor turned to Ripper, which turned to Rip. When asked about the nickname and why he continued to use it, Rip said he wanted to help the kids he worked with feel more at ease with him. In a time when all faculty were formally referred to as Mr. or Mrs., this enabled Rip to bond with the kids in a familiar way without sacrificing respect.

– rocky richards ’, son of rip

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:06 AM

Page 53

UPDATE: FORMER FACULTY AND STAFF

ABOVE: Rip Richards worked at Holderness from 1952 until 1983. He was a teacher—both in and out of the classroom—a coach, a dorm parent, and the head of Buildings and Grounds. These photos were taken during his many years of service to the school.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

53

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:06 AM

Page 54

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

UPDATE: FORMER FACULTY AND STAFF

Don Backe ’53: In Memoriam July , –April ,  A tragic automobile accident robbed Don of the use of his legs, but even further enlarged the heart and spirit of an authentic Maritime Hero.

“Joy in the Swell of the Sea” To be in your fifties, to be still active and athletic—a fine skier, a competitive sailor—and to lose the use of both legs in an auto accident, as happened to Don Backe in , is a twist of fate that’s cruel in its own special way. You might wonder at that point in your life if you have enough time to make any lemonade out of this bitter lemon.

As it turned out, Don had about  years to work with. He died on April  in Columbia, MD, after a long illness. And my, what lemonade he made.

Don was born in South Dakota, where his father worked first with the US Forest Service, and then the Immigration Service. The family moved to Germany after World War II, where Buck Backe served in the US State Department, and where Don learned to ski and sail. Don came home for school: first to Holderness and Yale, and later to Harvard and the University of New Hampshire for graduate studies.

Then came a peripatetic teaching career in independent schools: Wilbraham Academy in Massachusetts, Holderness (history, coach of skiing and JV football, –), the Potomac School in Virginia, the Unquowa School in Connecticut, Rutgers Preparatory in New Jersey, and the Harley School in New York.

Then he became headmaster of St. George’s School in New Orleans, and finally St. Andrew’s in Maryland.

There wasn’t much skiing at many of those locations, but during nearly all that time Don owned and raced sailboats. But in  when his accident left him confined to a wheelchair, Don wasn’t sure he would ever sail again.

Fortunately, several months into his recovery a friend convinced a disheartened Don to strug-

54

Don Backe in April 2009

gle out of his wheelchair and take the helm of his sailboat.

“At the end of that day, with tears of amazement and gratitude, he realized that his possibilities in life had not ended with the loss of his physical mobility,” wrote a spokesman for Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (crab). “He experienced what he’d always loved about sailing: the immense joy in the swell of the sea, the power of the wind in the sails, and the potent sense of the tiller in his hand. He resolved to move forward in life, not limited by his disability, to live to the fullest, and to share his passion while blazing a trail for others to follow.”

The sharing and blazing began with crab, the Maryland nonprofit he founded in  to open up sailing not just to wheelchair users, but to people with other disabilities as well, regardless of their financial resources.

For many years Don was crab’s executive director and its only employee. He raised money relentlessly from boat donations, charters and rentals, memberships, and corporate and individual gifts. At the same time, he and a cadre of volunteers—including sailing instructors who were themselves disabled—built modified boarding ramps and wheelchair-accessible docks at Sandy Point State Park on Chesapeake Bay, and then offered small-group

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:06 AM

Page 55

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

UPDATE: FORMER FACULTY AND STAFF

instruction in basic and advanced seamanship and navigation.

Eventually Don assembled for crab a fleet of four Freedom Independence s, vessels designed specifically for mobility-impaired sailors by naval architect Gary Mull. Each sloop features two chairs, counter-balanced belowdecks, that pivot from port to starboard for tacking and jibing. Their -pound keels make the boats exceptionally stable, and their selftacking jibs and lazy-jack equipped mainsails allow all sheets and halyards to be handled from the cockpit.

But Don was an equal-opportunity evangelist for sailing, and crab didn’t serve just the disabled. His success in making the sport available to everybody, wrote Inside Annapolis magazine in , “can be seen on any given weekend between April and October when, on the fourth Sunday of each month, a program called Sail Free is open to the public. Last year more than  people benefitted from Sail Free days to learn more about the sport of sailing.”

Over the years crab also hosted special sailing days for organizations such as the Maryland School for the Blind, the Central Special School of Edgewater, MD, and the Pennsylvania Center of Adaptive Rowing. They still do so today.

Don himself was a finalist in the  Paralympic trials in Marblehead, MA, and that same year was awarded US Sailing’s Marty Luray Trophy for contributions to the community of sailing. Last fall, just a few months after announcing his retirement as executive director of crab (though he intended to continue working in a new capacity as the director of strategic planning), he won the Old Pulteney Maritime Hero Award, an international honor sponsored jointly by US Sailing and Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whiskey.

“The work that Donald Backe has done with crab captures everything we wanted to highlight in this search,” said Pat Graney, president of International Beverage usa, at the January award ceremony. “Backe’s work is generous, inspirational, and obviously [brings] his

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

Don Backe sailing a Freedom Independence 20 in a race in 2009.

love of sailing to those who otherwise wouldn’t experience it.”

Lance Hinrichs is president of crab’s board of directors and himself a crab founder. “The sailing community and crab will forever feel the tremendous void Don Backe leaves,” Hinrichs said after Don’s death. “Don was a genuinely selfless leader who combined his love of sailing and sense of public service to start crab more than twenty years ago. His work has touched the lives of so many people in such a profound way.”

Don leaves his wife Lyn, five children, seven grandchildren, and thousands of grateful former students from both his classrooms and the waters of the Chesapeake. A memorial celebration was held on Sunday, June  at the Port Annapolis Marina, Annapolis, MD. Also, the crab-Backe Fund has been created to continue Don’s work. Contributions can be made at crab’s website: www.crabsailing.org.

That  article in Inside Annapolis noted that Don never liked the phrase “confined to a wheelchair,” since in fact it was a vehicle of free-

dom for him. It conducted him to that even greater vehicle, a sailboat, and that wholesale sort of freedom that he rediscovered once with tears of joy—and then shared.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

55

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:06 AM

Page 56

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

UPDATE: TRUSTEES

Saving Montana’s One-Room Schoolhouses One Book at a Time

Charlotte Caldwell

From her home in Clyde Park, Montana, Charlotte Caldwell looks out across the Shields Valley and down at a one-room schoolhouse.

When Charlotte and her husband first moved into their working ranch, they couldn’t bear to watch the schoolhouse deteriorate any further and volunteered to maintain it. And so began Charlotte’s interest in one-room schoolhouses.

But it wasn’t until she was speaking with a neighbor who shared with her a story about riding bareback to a one-room schoolhouse as a child that Charlotte impulsively decided she wanted to write a book.

“They actually contain the history,” Charlotte told Montana Public Radio. “When you start listening to the stories you realize these schoolhouses are the vessels that contain the stories that inform us about who we are.”

And so began her , mile journey through Montana, photographing  oneroom schoolhouses in  counties and interviewing the students and teachers who spent time in them. Published in July of 

by Barn Board Press, Visions and Voices: Montana’s One-Room Schoolhouses, records adventures traveling to and from school, the school day, recess games, family life, daily chores, and above all, the sense of community imbued by these rural schools.

56

“Charlotte has captured the historic majesty of Montana’s rich tradition of communitybased education through these narratives and her photography,” says Denise Juneau, Montana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction. “Her work makes an important and beautiful contribution to keeping this story alive for future generations to enjoy.”

While the rich stories she writes preserve the history of the people of Montana, the photographs record the places. Built of brick, stucco, wood, stone, log, and tin, the schoolhouses reflect the surroundings in which they were built. While some sit nestled in valleys surrounded by towering trees, others grow straight out of the prairie, standing alone in the waving fields.

In addition to creating an awareness of the fate of these one-room schoolhouses through her beautiful photographs and stories, according to her website, Charlotte is donating  of the net profits from the sale of this book to the Preserve Montana Fund for the stabilization and preservation of Montana’s historic one-room schoolhouses.

Charlotte, her husband Jeffrey Schutz, and their dog Phoebe, currently divide their time between their ranch outside Clyde Park, and their home in historic downtown Charleston, South Carolina.

Going National

Peter Kimball and Phil Peck

Peter Kimball ’ and Phil Peck are among the advancement experts asked to speak at the  case/nais Independent Schools Conference.

Last January Peter Kimball and Head of School Phil Peck teamed up for a well-received presentation at a Washington, DC, conference sponsored jointly by the Council for the Advancement of Secondary Education (case) and the National Association of Independent Schools (nais).

Peter and Phil sat on a panel devoted to philanthropy and advancement, with Peter focusing on current trends in advancement and their ramifications for independent schools.

Phil described advancement-related epiphanies he had experienced during his tenure, and how each had helped build Holderness’ capacity.

This year’s annual case/nais conference was attended by representatives of over , independent schools. During last year’s event in San Francisco, Robert Caldwell, Holderness’ Director for Advancement and External Relations, provided a pair of popular presentations.

Peter Kimball is the Director of Gift Planning for Harvard University. He was also the recipient of the school’s  Distinguished Alumnus Award, and is the former chair of the board of trustees’ Advancement Committee.

“Needless to say, it was not only fun,” said Phil, “but an honor for me to be presenting with Peter at a national conference.”

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:06 AM

Page 57

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

UPDATE: TRUSTEES

Frank Aguilar: In Memoriam August , –February ,  When Frank Aguilar retired from the Holderness School board of trustees in , he was given an honorary diploma. During the presentation of the diploma, Chair Warren Cook explained, “Frank said, ‘If the food is good, I’ll never miss a meeting,’ and indeed he seldom did.”

Dr. Aguilar served Holderness School faithfully from  until . And in the words of Mr. Cook, he not only consistently attended every meeting but also “set a new vision and level of execution at the school in a number of ways. His quiet leadership and support [enabled] us to break new ground with consensus and also [enabled] us to attract a stronger and more engaged board.”

While Dr. Aguilar had had no direct connection with Holderness before joining the board, he strongly believed in the power of an independent school education. His faithful service to Holderness School might have also had something to do with his connection to the White Mountains and the Lakes Region.

According to the Harvard Gazette, “An avid outdoorsman and hiker, he ventured up the hundred highest mountains in New England and in his forties climbed the Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, and Mount Fuji. He especially enjoyed the time spent with his family at their summer home on Squam Lake in New Hampshire, where they went kayaking, canoeing, and sculling” (“Frank Aguilar of hbs Dies at ,” //).

The Harvard Gazette also spoke of Dr. Aguilar’s longevity at the Harvard Business School, where he was an active professor for more than  years. His kindness to others, his expertise, and the many case studies he authored were all aimed at trying to help his students understand the complexities of business management. His kindness and expertise were also recognized by his peers on the board

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

Frank Aguilar

here at Holderness as well as by faculty and administrators.

Dr. Francis J. Aguilar died on February  in Portsmouth, NH at the age of  after a long battle with cancer. A funeral Mass was celebrated at the Immaculate Conception Church in Portsmouth, NH on March .

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

57

08JUL13_Departments_Alumni_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:12 AM

Page 58

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

The Janitor’s Mop, the Elephants, and Everything Else John Coles ’68 A feature on painter John S. Coles ’ in Design New England magazine celebrates the work of one of New England’s most versatile freelance artists.

Friends of John S. Coles like to remind him that if this art thing doesn’t work out, he can always go back to being a janitor. “I had graduated from George Washington University, and had just gotten back to Boston from six months in Florence, where I decided that I really wanted to spend my life making art,â€? John explained. “The Boston Center for the Arts was just getting going. I already had a studio there, and the gentleman who ran the place gave me a job as the center’s janitor. I was also his chaueur for a while.â€?

Well, driving would be another career option, then. But thanks to that studio at the bca, the art thing took o almost immediately. “Obeat commissions started rolling in,â€? said a proďŹ le of John in the January/February issue of Design New England magazine (“Have Brush, Will Travel,â€? Estelle Bond Guralnick). “A mural of elephants for a building on Winter Street in downtown Boston, a watercolor for the old Ritz-Carlton hotel dining menu, orders to paint a building ‘to look like a turtle’ at the Franklin Park Zoo, where he also created a snakes’ lair, and, at the Stone Zoo, backdrops for animal cages. His janitoring days were over.â€?

They were over almost before they began.

John himself got an early start on the art thing. From the age of  he had spent summers in drawing classes taught by sculptor George Demetrios.

By the time John was ready for high school, his family had moved from Cambridge to Philadelphia, but he was homesick for New England. John had friends who knew Holderness, and he liked the look of the campus. He also liked skiing in the winter.

So it was o to New Hampshire. Don Latham was teaching art here at the time, and

58

John appreciated a general ethos of support for the arts. Most of all, though, John remembers Don Henderson. “He made me really like history,� he said.

John knew enough about art then to realize that it was hard to make a living at it, so at George Washington he majored in political science (albeit with a minor in art). Then came Florence, where he studied watercolor sketching; the janitor’s mop, the elephants, and everything else followed. “Everything else� is an operative term here, because John’s playfulness and versatility have been no less crucial than his abundant talent in making a career. “Trained as a classical artist,� said Design New England, “Coles is also a decorative painter whose brush has transformed endlessly diverse surfaces, from his own dining room walls and ceiling to recent skilled conservation work at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.�

John also does privately commissioned paintings in oil, acrylic, or watercolor, and residential and commercial murals. These days he lives in Arlington, MA, with his wife, architect Nina Baldwin, and their two college-age daughters.

His love of history no doubt helped with a ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™Š commission from the National Park Service in which he painted a ď™†ď™‰ď™ƒ-degree, ď™ˆfoot-by--foot mural of the Battle of Bunker Hill for the museum at the Bunker Hill Monument. John painted the mural at home in ď™ˆ-by- panels that were then glued into rounded frames and installed sequentially at the site. dne noted one deviation from history: “Massachusetts’ current governor Deval Patrick is depicted in the painting.â€?

A willingness to travel has helped as well, and John has had commissions for conservation work from the Mission San Juan in San Antonio, Texas; the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan; the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island; Harvard University and more.

Only at home is John likely to blend in with one of his hand-painted dinner jackets.

“Just the chance to paint is its own reward,�

Coles told dne. “I love it all. Creating images that make clients happy is equally important.

And of course getting paid to be an artist is the ultimate validation.�

In addition to his paintings, murals, and restoration work, Coles’ work can also be found on dinner jackets. “Dressed in one of his own hand-painted dinner jackets, John S. Coles catches the eye,� said dne. “Who is this dapper gentleman who might well be on sartorial leave from the pages of a Brooks Brothers catalog?

But let the eye rove a bit, and oops! The textile design is also painted on the walls above the parlor wainscot.�

John uses fabric paints so the jackets can be dry-cleaned, and perhaps he blends into the background if he wears one at home. He began painting and wearing them just to brighten up a special event, to stand out from the crowd, but the jackets have found an eager market as well. dne listed a number of well-known people who have custom-painted Coles dinner jackets in their closets, including television personality Geraldo Rivera. “Well, no, not Geraldo,� John corrected. “He has one of my murals, though.�

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine.

08JUL13_Departments_Alumni_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:12 AM

Page 59

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

“They Will Have Inuence.â€?

Bro Adams ’68 Bro Adams ’ announces his retirement from the presidency of Colby College and punches his ticket to Paris. So let’s take a look at how Colby is dierent now.

William D. “Broâ€? Adams is about to complete another circle. With family roots in Maine, he completed one circle when, fourteen years ago, he returned to the state to assume the presidency of Colby College. Now, in announcing his retirement eective at the end of next June, he intends to complete another—a return to Paris, where once he lived as a Fulbright Scholar, in order to complete a book about French philosophy and art.

In January an article in the Kennebec Journal (“Colby College President Announces Retirement,â€? /ď™Œ/) took measure of the tenure of Colby’s ď™„ď™Œth president, and found that Bro’s achievements required a lot of measuring tape.

One was a strategic planning process, and then a master plan that led to a successful  million capital campaign, the largest in Maine history. It yielded such sparkling assets as the Diamond Building, housing social sciences and interdisciplinary programs, as well as the Goldfarb Center for Public Aairs and Civic Engagement; the Pulver Pavilion, a student center; the Schair-Swenson-Watson Alumni Center; a biomass steam plant and two turf ďŹ elds. The Colby Museum of Art’s AlfondLunder Family Pavilion is nearly complete, and a new science building will open in ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™‡.

At the same time he oversaw remarkable growth in Colby’s environmental studies and visual arts programs. He made the college’s student body more diverse and international, and—with a dramatic increase in endowment for ďŹ nancial aid—made the college more accessible as well.

Located in Waterville, Colby is the city’s second largest employer, so Bro also took pains to

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

provide both ďŹ nancial and community-service support to city projects. Mayor Karen Heck praised Adams as “an amazing friend and partner with the city.â€?

Bro went to Colorado College from Holderness, and then served with the US Army in Vietnam. There was also that year with the Fulbright program in Paris. In ď™„ď™Œď™‹ď™… he earned his doctorate from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Then he began a steady climb up the ladder of academia and leadership, with stops at the University of North Carolina, Colorado College, Stanford, and Wesleyan. Then he spent ďŹ ve years as president of Bucknell College before moving on to Colby in ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™ƒ.

During that time, in his own writings, he became a national spokesman and advocate for diversity in education, for equal access, for the value of a liberal arts education, and for the importance of civil discourse in the debate of ideas and values.

Bro had no illusions about the challenges and diďŹƒculties of leading an entity as complex as a high-proďŹ le liberal arts college. As an executive assistant at Wesleyan he had witnessed the ďŹ rebombing of the president’s oďŹƒce. His own tenure at Colby was harrowed by the ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™† abduction and murder of Dawn Rossignol, a pre-med student, by a man just paroled from a Utah prison. “A US Army veteran who saw comrades die in combat in Vietnam,â€? wrote Colby Magazine in a ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™ˆ proďŹ le of the president (“What Does Bro Do Anyway?â€? Spring â€™ď™ƒď™ˆ), “Adams was still unprepared for the feelings provoked by the tragedy and its aftermath for the College and for the Rossignol family.â€?

In that same article Bro reected on the scope of a president’s responsibility. “The work didn’t surprise me,â€? he told Colby. “It’s the pressure and that kind of there’s-nowhere-to-ee feeling, that you can’t get away. You’re the person. Whatever happens, it’s on your head.â€?

But in addition to the pressure, there was also the promise of the whole enterprise and all

After 13 years at the helm of Colby, Bro is o to Paris to write a book.

the good that could be accomplished. “I think there’s kind of an elemental social aspect to it,�

Bro said. “You know, most of these kids will go out and be in places of important—reasonably important, sometimes very important—responsibility. I’m sure I can ďŹ nd better words for this, but it is an undertaking that involves what a French sociologist might call the education of elites. They’re not always from elite backgrounds, but they’re going to be elites in the kind of social, theoretical sense of mattering in institutional life. They will have inuence.â€?

Bro had six more months of that responsibility himself when he announced his retirement in January, but Bob Diamond, Colby’s chairman of the board of trustees, wished it was more. Diamond said, “His positive inuence on our curriculum, our physical plant, and Colby’s broader reputation with alumni, parents, and prospective students has been enormous.â€?

Now it’s time to get away and on to the next task, the next circle to close—to a city and a culture and a body of art and philosophy that he loves. It’s a dierent sort of responsibility, but no less an opportunity for positive inuence.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

59

08JUL13_Departments_Alumni_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:13 AM

Page 60

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

Sweet Girl, Sweet Paws

Thelma, one of the fortunate clients of Sweet Paws Rescue, rewards Cynthia Sweet with a kiss.

Cynthia Sweet ’94 Cynthia Sweet â€™ď™Œď™‡ came back to campus with a classmate and ally to make a stirring plea for canine welfare.

The lives of many people were changed in ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™ˆ when Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans and environs in ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™ˆ. Most were residents of that area, but the life of Massachusetts resident Cynthia Sweet was changed as well.

She went to New Orleans to help rescue some of the thousands of dogs left homeless by that catastrophe—and she’s kept at it ever since.

60

Today she is the founder and hub of Sweet Paws Rescue, which was registered as a nonproďŹ t in ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™„, and which unites a network of volunteers throughout New England and a good part of Alabama. Together they have not only rescued nearly ď™ˆď™ƒď™ƒ abused or abandoned dogs, transporting them from the South ďŹ rst to Cynthia’s home, and then to good homes in New England—they have also provided advocacy and education about the problem of dog overpopulation and abandonment in both regions.

One of Cynthia’s most reliable volunteers is her friend and classmate Ramey HarrisTatar â€™ď™Œď™‡. Both alumnae were on campus last

December to talk about their work in a Friday all-school assembly. “New England is fortunate to have good spay, neuter, and leash laws, so we don’t often see the situations that exist in the South,� they said. “In the South these scenarios leave rescuers at a loss, as they can’t possibly save them all. So our mission is to keep helping our Southern friends while they work to create change. Why? Because for the dogs we do save—and the families who adopt them—it does matter.�

Among those families is that of the school’s Director of Housekeeping, Pam Bliss, who is quite happy with her new pooch from Sweet Paws Rescue.

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine.

08JUL13_Departments_Alumni_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:13 AM

Page 61

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

A Place Where You Want to Quit—But Don’t Melissa Barker ’94 Melissa Barker â€™ď™Œď™‡ is cultivating life-long cyclists through an innovative varsity cyclocross program at the Dawson School in Colorado.

Melissa Barker remembers that as a member of a Holderness Nordic ski team coached by Phil Peck—who had formerly coached the US Olympic team—she was encouraged to ride a bike during the o-season. “If any of you are still riding in twenty years,â€? Phil said, “I’ll have done my job.â€?

Mission accomplished—at least with Melissa. She’s not only still riding, she’s recruiting. The Colorado resident is the membership coordinator for one of the country’s most accomplished cycling clubs and racing teams, GS Boulder. But it’s her work at the Alexander Dawson School in Lafayette that made her the subject of a feature story in the Colorado Daily last November.

Dawson is a K– independent day school, and Melissa has taught high school biology there since ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™…. You might remember an article in the last issue of hst about a Polartrec summer environmental research project she helped to conduct last summer on Alaska’s North Slope (“True North, Way North,â€? fall ’). Now she’s creating some buzz with a cyclocross program that she founded at Dawson two years ago. “Dawson CX is one of the few high school cyclocross programs in the country, according to usa Cycling,â€? said the Colorado Daily. “Though the Colorado High School Mountain Bike League is growing, Barker said because of the high number of local cyclocross races in and around Boulder, a ’cross team felt like a better ďŹ t.â€?

Cyclocross involves racing laps around a short course in which the terrain might vary between pavement, wooded trails, grass, and steep hills. Obstacles requiring a rider to dismount and carry his or her bike are also included in the courses. It’s a tough sport, but

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

Melissa Barker (front row, far right) and her empowered young riders. “What Melissa has done is train their minds,� says one racer’s mother.

Melissa believes that it oers an easier introduction to cycling than competitive road racing. “If you fall in cyclocross, it’s not so bad as if you fall on the road,â€? she told the Daily. “It’s been really neat to see some kids who had never done much cycling at all get into the sport and start to love it.â€?

Some members of this varsity team are as young as  or , but whatever their age, they enjoy the same sort of unique experience known to members, say, of a ski team. “It’s a great opportunity for a kid who doesn’t like traditional team sports, or doesn’t ďŹ t in with them, but wants to try something a little dierent that’s both team and individual,â€? she said. “Training with a team, but racing on an individual level—it’s really a lifelong sport.â€?

It’s a lot of work as well, but Melissa is replicating the success of her old mentor in teaching the art of self-discipline. “Cyclocross is one of those things where you feel like you’re done, and then you’ve got to lift your bike up the stairs,� said Judy Goldman, the mother of

one of Melissa’s riders. “What [Melissa] has done is train their minds. You don’t often get to a place where you want to quit with every bone in your body, but you power your mind into ďŹ nishing. She gives them a sense of empowerment and responsibility and accountability.â€?

Power your mind? Exactly. That was one of Phil’s lessons too—the degree to which strength of mind enhances the body, and vice versa. In cyclocross, it’s true both literally and metaphorically that what goes around, comes around.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

61

08JUL13_Departments_Alumni_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:13 AM

Page 62

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

A Sixty–Eight-Year Love Aair

Gordi’s passion is skiing, and he has stayed faithful to it over a lifetime of hall-of-fame achievements.

Gordi Eaton ’58 Downhill racer, coach, visionary, and restaurateur Gordi Eaton â€™ď™ˆď™‹ is inducted into the vara’s Hall of Fame.

The newest member of the Vermont Alpine Racing Association’s Hall of Fame says that he came to Holderness for a PG year in ď™„ď™Œď™ˆď™Š “because my parents felt I was lacking in a lot of areas.â€? That would not include speed on the

62

ski slopes. At the age of , racing during Holderness spring break against a veteran international ďŹ eld at the Gold Cannon Race on Cannon Mountain, Gordi Eaton set a record, averaging  mph top-to-bottom.

That fast kid, after his year at Holderness, went on to Middlebury, where in ď™„ď™Œď™‰ď™„ he won the ncaa downhill title. He was also a member of the ď™„ď™Œď™‰ď™ƒ and ď™„ď™Œď™‰ď™‡ US Olympic ski teams coached by Bob Beattie. During his time at Holderness, Gordi had found history

teacher/ski coach Don Henderson to be “by far the best teacher or professor I’ve ever had at any level,â€? and in ď™„ď™Œď™‰ď™‡ Gordi was reunited with Don, who was an assistant coach to Beattie at those Olympics (Don himself later became head coach of the US team in ď™„ď™Œď™‰ď™Œ).

After ď™„ď™Œď™‰ď™‡, international racing was over for Gordi. He stepped into coaching, following in Don’s footsteps as an assistant coach to Beattie on the US team. He did that very well for three years, including the ’ Grenoble Olympics; in fact the character of the assistant coach in Downhill Racer, the ď™„ď™Œď™‰ď™Œ Robert Redford ďŹ lm, was based on Gordi.

Then he went to Vermont to coach the Mt. MansďŹ eld Ski Club. He stayed in touch with Beattie and helped Beattie found the World Pro Skiing Tour. They also later developed the nastar format for ski and snowboard racing, which allows recreational racers—through a handicapping system—to compare themselves to each other and national champions.

Eventually Gordi became a consultant and representative for various ski manufacturers, and as Head of Racing for Kď™… Skis, he developed a ski model speciďŹ c to youth racing and also a nationwide support network for young racers.

And if you’re ever in Lincoln, NH, at the foot of Loon Mountain, don’t forget to stop in at Gordi’s Fish and Steak House, the restaurant he co-founded in the ď™„ď™Œď™‹ď™ƒs with his wife, former US Ski Team member Karen Budge. “There’s a reason this place keeps its parking lot full and has wait times of up to an hour,â€? says one customer on Google Reviews. “It’s the best darn food, period.â€?

At his vara Hall of Fame induction ceremony in November, Gordi looked back and described his career as “a -year love aair with skiing and ski racing [that] has been a fabulous journey and adventure. It’s something I spent my life at because I absolutely loved to do it.â€?

So he was fast, yes, but he had staying power as well—and the world of skiing is much the richer for it.

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine.

08JUL13_Departments_Alumni_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:13 AM

Page 63

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

Riding on That Old Blue Bus Hacker Burr ’98 Hacker Burr â€™ď™Œď™‹ came to Holderness because Norm Walker was coaching football here. That is a lucky thing for the Charleston Collegiate School, where as Head of School he often draws on his Holderness experiences and the lessons that Norm taught him.

For Hacker Burr, when he accepted a job oer from the Charleston Collegiate School in ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™…, the important thing was that it had a strong family atmosphere. “It’s a lot like a New England boarding school,â€? laughs Hacker, “except without New England, and without the boarders.â€? Located near Charleston, SC, the school enrolls about ď™…ď™…ď™ƒ day students, preschool through grade twelve.

Hacker grew up in Dover, MA, and drove up to Waterville Valley on winter weekends for skiing. On the way, they’d always drive past a certain New England boarding school. Hacker’s father would point at that school and tell him, “If you ever get a chance to play football for Norm Walker, grab it.�

He did indeed grab that chance to play football for Norm, on teams that never lost a game and claimed four consecutive New England championships. From Holderness Hacker went to Roanoke College in Virginia. In the spring of his senior year he was hired to teach English and coach football at Charleston Collegiate.

The pay was modest, to say the least, but Hacker liked the school that in a fundamental way reminded him of Holderness.

In the years since then Hacker has worn a lot of dierent hats and has climbed up the pay scale. Meanwhile that family atmosphere has become quite literal in his case. He proposed to his wife Stephanie at a school assembly in ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™†, and his daughter McCalley, ď™ˆ, goes to school with him each day. His youngest, Hadley, , will do so soon.

Not surprisingly, Hacker’s time at Holderness has had a strong inuence on his work at ccs. “Hacker Burr has been a critical

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

element in this school’s recent success,â€? said Bill McTighe, chair of ccs’s board of trustees, in announcing Hacker’s appointment as Head in ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™„. “Mr. Burr has assisted in developing the innovative programs we have added to the curriculum, such as entrepreneurship, leadership, and outdoor education.â€?

Hacker began by pioneering outdoor education at ccs in order to provide its students with some of the same beneďŹ ts as Holderness’ Out Back—real-world situations where students work together to solve problems and cultivate leadership qualities. On that foundation, Hacker is also now hoping to build a formal leadership program much like this school’s. “I’d like to implement a voting system just like Holderness’,â€? Hacker says, “and then plug that into a job program like you have there.â€?

By turning that much responsibility over to his students, Hacker plans to plant seeds for the sort of modeling behavior that he remembers from his time here. “I might have learned more from the upperclassmen at Holderness than anyone else,â€? Hacker says. “Of course it’s all indirect, but it has to do with the way they embody and uphold the school’s standards. That’s a very diďŹƒcult thing to do, to keep everybody attentive to that, but Holderness does that well.â€?

But there’s also the thing that—to Hacker’s mind—nobody in America really does very well, and hence ccs’s program in entrepreneurship. “There really is a huge gap in this country when it comes to teaching ďŹ nancial literacy,â€? he says. “We need to pay attention to the business side, from personal ďŹ nance to how you run a business. It’s something that I’m passionate about, and this school is out on the cutting edge in that ďŹ eld.â€?

There is another way, however, in which ccs and Holderness are similar, and for which Hacker is grateful. “This is a very grounded and down-to-earth sort of school,â€? he says. “We put a lot of money into ďŹ nancial aid. Twelve percent of our students are black, eleven percent Latino, ten percent Asian, and at the secondary

Hacker Burr leads a “grounded, down-to-earth school� at CCS—like Holderness, he says.

level we’re the most diverse school in the Southeast. We also have good socio-economic diversity. This beneďŹ ts us all, but particularly our wealthy kids.â€?

And being down-to-earth helps to keep resources correctly allocated. Hacker remembers how satisďŹ ed Norm Walker was with a dinged-up blue bus for his championship football teams; he also valued the plain, starchy uniforms that hadn’t been updated since the ď™„ď™Œď™Šď™ƒs. “We were always underdogs in those title games, and we looked it,â€? Hacker says. “But it turned out that the uniforms were good enough.â€? He laughs as he adds, “I tell our athletic director about that every time new uniforms show up in the budget.â€? editor’s note: Here’s a May update from Hacker: “Just ďŹ nished our last day of the school year. Reecting back on the biggest successes of the year, I’d say that one of them was our implementation of Holderness’ Abbey voting system. The students really got into the whole process, took it very seriously, and the results came out very accurately. Job Program goes into eect in the fall.â€?

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

63

08JUL13_Departments_Alumni_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:13 AM

Page 64

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

The Playful Moralist of Stones Throw Records Angel Del Villar ’98 The fourth album of Angel Del Villar â€™ď™Œď™‹ makes National Public Radio’s list of “Fifty Favorite Albums of ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™….â€? “The bare facts of Homeboy Sandman’s back story don’t sound very hip-hop: prep school in New Hampshire, Ivy League B.A., even some pieces for The HuďŹƒngton Post,â€? said Robert Christgau, music critic for National Public Radio, last December. “But as is often the case with class and race in America, bare facts don’t tell the whole story.â€?

Christgau notes that the Sandman’s Dominican-born father was “a gifted heavyweight who quit boxing to become a lawyer.�

His Puerto Rican mother graduated from college at around the same time the Sandman was attending law school. But then he quit law school to become a full-time rap musician. Five years later, said Christgau, “he now makes a comfortable living touring the US and Europe, even if his four albums have barely charted.�

Homeboy Sandman is also known as Angel Del Villar, and the most recent of those albums, First of a Living Breed on the Stones Throw Records label, was named one of npr’s “Fifty Favorite Albums of ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™….â€?

Angel grew up in a Queens neighborhood where hip-hop was the soundtrack, but the neighborhood itself was multi-racial. Angel was part of “a supportive extended family,â€? said Christgau, “whose presence he evokes in ‘For the Kids,’ a standout trackâ€? on First of a Living Breed. “Homeboy Sandman is an unapologetic moralist who won’t rap about guns or accept liquor sponsorships,â€? Christgau continued. “But, in contrast to all too many independent hip-hoppers, his sense of play helps his moralism go down. His delivery has a drawling, almost shy-seeming lilt that’s way too sharp lyrically to pass o as soft.â€?

According to Christgau, First of a Living Breed is a conglomerate of standout tracks,

64

NPR calls the newest album of Homeboy Sandman—a.k.a. Angel Del Villar—“a conglomerate of standout tracks.�

some that are pretty leisurely, and others that rev up fast and hard. “In the rapid-ďŹ re scattershot of ‘Watchu Want from Me,’ he skips directly from a romantic kiss-o to a brief explanation of how kids end up in jail. And

true to his hip-hop game, he sounds like he’s having fun doing it.�

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine.

08JUL13_Departments_Alumni_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:14 AM

Page 65

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

Hilarious, Crowd-Pleasing, Emotionally Satisfying Nat Faxon ’93 A new movie co-written and co-directed by Nat Faxon â€™ď™Œď™† is the monster hit of the ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™† Sundance Film Festival. “It isn’t quite Little Miss Sunshine, but it’s close enough,â€? wrote New York Post movie critic Kyle Smith in January (“Sundance Review: ‘The Way, Way Back,’â€? //). “The Way, Way Back is the ďŹ rst movie I’ve seen at the fest (out of ď™„ď™ˆ or so) that I really loved. This summery comingof-age movie is a hilarious, emotionally satisfying, crowd-pleasing treat that drew long and sustained applause here today.â€?

Smith was reporting from the Sundance Festival, where the low-budget world of independent ďŹ lm-making receives an annual visit from Hollywood moguls. And The Way, Way Back happens to be a feature ďŹ lm co-written and co-directed by Nat Faxon. “I’d be surprised if any ďŹ lm sells more than this one this year (though a few big titles have yet to screen),â€? Smith continued. “The movie is sweet without being syrupy, it’s commercial without being a sell-out, and its dialogue sparkles from beginning to end.â€?

The ďŹ lm marks the directorial debut for Nat, who has teamed up once again with writer/actor/comedian Jim Rash, with whom Nat won an Oscar in ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™… for their adapted screenplay, The Descendants, starring George Clooney. In The Way, Way Back the pair fashion a coming-of-age story about a fourteen-year-old boy’s summer job at the Water Wizz, a New Jersey water park. Played by Liam James, the boy is eeing a fractured family in which the mother is played by Toni Collette; mom’s overbearing boyfriend is played by Steve Carrell.

While very ďŹ ne from the start, said Smith, the ďŹ lm “blasts into orbitâ€? at the water park with the appearance of the park’s colorful manager, played by Sam Rockwell, “and the explosively funny dialogue Rash and Faxon have written for him.â€? Nat and Jim Rash have

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

Liam James (left) and Sam Rockwell (right) in the New Jersey waterpark that provides the setting for Nat Faxon’s directorial debut.

some dialogue themselves, as they both play staers at the water park. “If the script doesn’t get an Oscar nomination, then it’ll be a very ďŹ ne year for original screenplays,â€? Smith wrote. “Faxon and Rash do everything right: the characters are rich and recognizable, they expertly guide their dream cast, and they even make the soundtrack part of the story, with several endearing references to â€™ď™‹ď™ƒs pop.â€?

With its big-name cast, The Way, Way Back was never truly a low-budget project, but it was done independently without a distributor’s bank roll. The problem was solved following that well-received showing. The ďŹ lm was bought up by Fox Searchlight for ď™“ď™„ď™ƒ million, the most paid for a Sundance ďŹ lm since that same studio bought Little Miss Sunshine for ď™“ď™„ď™ƒ.ď™ˆ million in ď™…ď™ƒď™ƒď™‰.

In other news, the Fox Network comedy series in which Nat co-starred, “Ben and Kate,â€? was among the many new shows on network TV this season that didn’t ďŹ nd an audience

quite fast enough and was cancelled.

Nonetheless it’s looking like Nat will still be able to ďŹ nd work in Hollywood.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

65

08JUL13_Departments_Alumni_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:14 AM

Page 66

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

If It’s a Matter of Who You Know, Remember at Holderness You Know Everybody

Jamie Bradley

Jamie Bradley ’99 Two years ago Jamie Bradley ’ was looking for an adjustment in his job situation. Alas, Holderness didn’t have that much by way of networking information to provide him. But that was then.

In  Jamie Bradley moved to Oregon, and loved it, but he wanted a different job. So he sent an email to Holderness then-Director of Alumni Relations Tracy White. “I’ve been on the Holderness alumni website, but I can’t find what I’m looking for in an effective manner,” Jamie wrote. “I’m trying to track down whether there are any Holderness alumni out here in Oregon, or anywhere else in the world, who work for Nike, Adidas, Intel, or Keen Footwear.”

Well, Tracy wasn’t sure. She had been trying to build an alumni network database for purposes just like this, but that required alumni to give her their current professional information. There was a form on the Holderness website, but only

66

a few alumni had filled it out. “I am guilty of not having updated information on there,” Jamie confessed. “I’ll go on and do it today.”

For Jamie the move to Oregon was just the latest step in his search for something he had started to learn about at Holderness—the idea of just the right balance between work and the rest of his life. An avid skier, biker, and runner, he had graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a B.S. in business, and then went on to Denver, where he worked in real estate while earning an M.B. A. through the University of Denver.

He spent five years in Denver, and also a short stint on Wall Street as an analyst for an investment bank; there he found just the wrong balance between work and the rest of his life. In  he was offered a job with a real estate investment company in Portland, OR, and there he found a nice balance. The spacious outdoors of the West coupled with the trees and water that he missed from New England

were the perfect playground for him when he wasn’t working.

In  Jamie met a woman he liked at a bike race. He was more in love with Oregon than ever but ready for a change of venue from real estate. Hence the email to Tracy—an email that reflected for Jamie both the special cohesion of the Holderness community and his faith in the power of networking.

“Networking is absolutely critical to the long-term success of your career, and is only becoming more important as the digitalization of employment and the job search proliferates,” Jamie says now to hst. “I also believe that networking will become more and more important in people’s personal lives as the line between professional and personal blends with technological changes and real-time information flow.”

In other words, in a world that’s becoming more virtual and less face-to-face, the importance of a personal connection is only going to be magnified in the marketplace. “Examples of this include,” says Jamie, “a Holderness connection who helped me find a place to live for my internship in Denver, CO, between my junior and senior years of college, or another Holderness connection who gave me sage career advice that helped shape where I am now.”

That woman Jamie liked, Diane, became Jamie’s wife last September. On the morning before the ceremony a majority of the wedding party, , ran a half-marathon with the bride and groom. “Diane and I are in the process of buying our first home, and guess what?” Jamie says. “We’re buying the home in an off-market transaction from friends we met in college on the East Coast and reconnected with out here.”

Thanks to college, family, and previous jobs, Jamie has several networks he can draw on, but none so powerful, he thinks, as the Holderness network. “It’s the most close-knit and able-bodied I have,” he says. “Holderness fosters an environment that creates a tight-knit community

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine.

08JUL13_Departments_Alumni_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:14 AM

Page 67

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

by way of its unique culture. Challenge—both mental and physical—has been shown to create special bonds among humans. This is why athletes, soldiers, scientists, and students all create networks that last—and last, and last. Holderness, for me, is the epitome of this kind of bond.

This explains why, when I reach out to a connection from Holderness, be it someone who graduated twenty years before me or someone in my class, I get a warm, receptive response and an immediate willingness to help.�

What Jamie wanted in ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™„ was a formal version of that network that extended beyond his personal contacts, one that really makes members of other classes as available as his classmates. Well, the school has been working hard on that in the last two years, and current Director of Alumni Relations Melissa Stuart declares that such a network is now available in several dierent forms. “We have some really cool tools to work with here,â€? she says. First, that database that Tracy White started has grown considerably. “We now have an extensive network directory set up speciďŹ cally for job or internship searches, and you can segment it in any of several dierent ways: by industry, by geographic area, by college aďŹƒliation, whatever.â€?

Second, a number of alumni—“Ninety-six and growing,� says Melissa—have volunteered as career mentors to whomever might ask and in a rainbow coalition of industries, areas of expertise, and college backgrounds. And third, there is now a Holderness group on LinkedIn that provides an open forum on the subjects of job searches and career advancement. “I also post a regular blog there,� Melissa adds.

In addition, Melissa’s oďŹƒce is planning several face-to-face networking events this fall and next spring at sites to be determined in New Hampshire and Vermont. “We have a huge database of information, and a lot of people out in the world who are eager to help,â€? says Melissa. “Now we just have to make sure that the community is aware of them.â€?

Two years ago this much help wasn’t available for a guy looking to move from real estate into,

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

Jamie Bradley has not only found the right balance between work and play in the PaciďŹ c Northwest, he’s also spurred Holderness into improving its job-search network.

say, the athletic footwear industry. But things worked out for Jamie Bradley just the same. “I’ve since taken a fantastic position as the Director of Risk Management for a West Coast metals ďŹ rm, and manage our trading and risk

management,â€? Jamie says. “It’s a family-owned company that oers a wonderful workplace and the perfect balance of work and play.â€?

Case closed, until that balance needs adjusting again. If so, it should be easier.

HOLDERNESS NETWORKING Holderness School has extensive resources for those alumni interested in networking: r ALUMNI DIRECTORY: www.netdirectories.com/~holderness/login.cgi r HOLDERNESS LINKEDIN GROUP: www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1778144&trk=hb_side_g r HOLDERNESS ALUMNI PAGE, for networking opportunities in your area: www.holderness.org/podium/default.aspx?t=129345&rc=1 Are you interested in becoming a mentor or participating in networking events? If so, please contact Melissa Stuart, Director of Alumni Relations, at mstuart@holderness.org or 603.779.5228.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

67

08JUL13_Departments_Alumni_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:14 AM

Page 68

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

Return. Connect. Celebrate.

Homecoming and Reunion Weekend September 20–22, 2013

Register Today at www.holderness.org/Reunion2013 FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Melissa A. Stuart, Director of Alumni Relations at 603.779.5228 or mstuart@holderness.org

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by9.0 inches wide.

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 69

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Milestones DEATHS Donald E. Backe ’53 April 12, 2013 Peter L. Butler ’44 January 14, 2013 Donald M. Jacobs ’45 October 30, 2012 David McGrath ’46 September 19, 2012 Henry M. Naylon ’73 March 26, 2012 Johnathan O’Connor ’94 April 15, 2013

ALUMNI BIRTHS Peter Bohlin ’02 and Karen Carpi Bohlin: Lily Addison Bohlin, November 27, 2012 Courtney Broadwater ’98 and Ian Broadwater: Douglas Broadwater, December 12, 2012 Pepper deTuro ’90 and Liza deTuro: Reagan Lockhart deTuro, January 15, 2013 Brendan Falvey ’94 and Lindsay Falvey: Gracie Falvey, February 19, 2012 David Flynn ’96 and Amy Leo: Brady Flynn, January 2013 Megan Bitter Griffith ’99 and Tyler Griffith: Caroline Marie Griffith, March 5, 2013 Nathalie D. Milbank Nolte ’96 and Thomas Nolte: Dominique Chloe Nolte, October 12, 2013 Schuyler Perry ’93 and Tyler Perry: Spencer Morgan Perry, April 10, 2013 Allison Seymour Reilly ’97 and Matthew Reilly: Charlie Warren Reilly, August 9, 2012 Gerry Rinn ’93 and Rebecca Rinn: Oakley Rinn, September 4, 2012 Jerome Thomas ’95 and Cindy Brea: Hudson Noah Thomas, October 27, 2012

Celebrating the wedding of Alex Palmisano ’03 to Katherine Entwisle are (L–R) Alex, Bryce Connery ’03, Dave Campbell ’04, Dave Madeira ’03.

Heidi Webb ’00 and Ave Cook ’02: Holden Cook, February 20, 2013 Brian Werner ’97 and Meghann McCormick: Levi Aloysius Rocketship Oso Werner, December 5, 2012

MARRIAGES Peter Bohlin ’02 and Karen Carpi Bohlin, Boston, MA, June 20, 2009 Geoff Calver ’04 and Catharine Sawyer, Arendtsville, PA, October 20, 2012 Courtney Goldsmith ’98 and Ian Broadwater, July, 2010 Alex Palmisano ’03 and Katherine Entwisle, April 4, 2013

Kristen Stout Lovelock ’96 and David Dyer, Sundance, UT, April 6, 2013 Gerry Rinn ’93 and Rebecca Rinn, Sarasota, FL, October 7, 2011

CJ Vincent ’06 and Rebecca Vincent, Greenville, SC, April 21, 2013

Share Your News!

Have you recently encountered a milestone in your life? Share your news with your classmates! Please contact Melissa Stuart at 603.779.5228 or mstuart@holderness.org

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

69

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 70

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

’41 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dick Marden ’41 59 Elm Street Wolfeboro, NH 03894 rgmarden@gmail.com

’42–’44 Thinking it would be nice to see Class Notes for your class? Why not volunteer as the Class Correspondent and encourage your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact Melissa Stuart, Director of Alumni Relations at 603.779.5228 or alum@holderness.org. Thank you!

’45 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Harry Emmons ’45 5 Canoe Trail Darien, CT 06820 emmonshr@gmail.com

’46 Thinking it would be nice to see Class Notes for 1946? Why not volunteer as the Class Correspondent and encourage your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact Melissa Stuart, Director of Alumni Relations, at 603.779.5228 or alum@holderness.org. Thank you!

’47 An update on John Summers …

John retired two years ago at the age of 82 from the store he built in Keene 62 years before. After retiring John didn’t let any “grass grow under his feet.” First, he became a director of Pathways for Keene which is raising money to build a 2.1-million-dollar pedestrian bridge over three major highways just outside of Keene.

He is also a founding member and

70

director of The Friends of Pisgah that helps maintain Pisgah State Park, and a founding member of the Stone Arch Bridge Committee that is saving a 170-year-old stone arch railroad bridge in Keene.

When he is not volunteering, John has had a wonderful time as a great grandfather for twin boys— these being the ninth and tenth great grandchildren so far! He has been delighted to watch his grandchildren and great grandchildren grow … They really know how to wrap him around their little fingers! John and his wife are downsizing this year from a large home and land to a much smaller lifestyle, as they would like to travel more in the future. John hopes that all his classmates are healthy and happy. … Bob Barlow reports that he is as “happy as a clam.”… Don Smith sends in that he attended a ceremony in Florida at which his son received a promotion to Brigadier General.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Briggs ’47 12718 Golf Club Drive Savannah, GA 31419 Phone: 912.921.4548 Maggiebriggs24@ymail.com

’48 Reunion Weekend 2013 will take place Friday through Sunday, September 20–22, 2013. It will be 1948’s 65th. Yes, it is our 65th reunion! If you have missed the details, contact Melissa Stuart, Director of Alumni Relations at mstuart@holderness.org or 603.779.5228. Special 65th reunion features will include a welcome reception with Head of School Phil Peck who will also be returning to Holderness after his 2012–13 sabbatical in NYC. In addition our Reunion Clerk, Charlotte Bates ’16, will share her bright and fun campus experi-

ence with us. What more could you ask for? There were twentyseven classmates when we graduated. When we gather for our 65th this September, we will also find quiet moments to remember those who are no longer with us: Charlie Corcoran, Bill Dover, John Dunn, Al Early, Doug Garner, Edgerton Grant, Louis Hain, Bill Hayden, Ted Jenkel, Ted Jose, Maury Lyon, John Miller, Stan Patterson, Hank Piper, James Silverman, Buck Tredwell, Don Wallwork, and Chris Weld. Each is missed but remembered. The 65th will be a very special time at a very special school with very special classmates … Bart Chase reports that they have sold their home in Parkdale, OR in the shadow of Mt. Hood, and have moved to the Portland area. Bart still remains active skiing and playing golf …

Peter Frenning lost his wife, Norita, of many years, in 2011 and moved to an assisted-living facility in East Amherst, NY. He continues to love music, although uses a wheel chair much of the time … Rik Clark and his wife Sandy, continue to spend three winter months each year in Palm Springs, CA; they are blessed with good health and stay active with travel, golf, and spinning classes.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Rik Clark ’48 855 South County Road PO Box 899 Osterville, MA 02655-0899 Phone: 508.428.5262 Email: capeclarks@aol.com

’49 Bob Barrows reports, from Weddington, NC, that he remains active at the YMCA, which keeps him in one piece with only the “usual aches and pains, but noth-

Rik Clark ’48 and Tabor Academy’s Head of School John Quirk

ing major at this time.” Bob now has eight grandchildren who, along with their parents, are well … Bob Bradner has rejoined his parish choir in Winnetka, IL. Although he wasn’t sure he’d be up to it, he reports that “I’m enjoying it greatly; it’s a great community of people, and I haven’t fallen down the chancel steps yet. One of the incentives was to join my two Illinois grandchildren on the choir’s trip to England in August this year to sing at Yorkminster Cathedral.”

Bob is working on persuading his daughter to join in, reasoning that three generations singing together at Yorkminster Cathedral would be about as cool as church singing can get. Amen to that …

Pat and Tex Coulter got away from their Duxbury, MA home to Marco Island, FL for the month of March. He reports that although the weather has been on the cool side, the air is less humid, and “all in all, it beats snowy Massachusetts.” Tex tried playing tennis with his “new” knee (from last July); and it “worked fine until I pulled a groin muscle.”

Fortunately his injury hasn’t interfered with his gigs playing with the Marco Island Strummers …

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 71

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Judy and Bill Baskin have soldiered through the snowy winter in Branford, CT, losing only two trees to the weather. Like Bob Bradner, Bill sings in the choir at his parish church; he also serves as the church’s pro bono counsel and chairs its finance ministry. It keeps the old head busy. The Baskins are blessed with very attentive children and grandchildren. The latter now number eight, with one more due in October.

Daitch lives in Connecticut, while Dick Leach, Jim Slater, and Bill Summers hold down the fort in New Hampshire … We wish you all good health, prosperity, happiness, joy, and love. See you in the next report.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Baskin ’49 218 Damascus Road Branford, CT 06405-6110 Phone: 203.488.0566 Willliam_c_baskin@sbcglobal.net

’52

’50 Thinking it would be nice to see Class Notes for 1950? Why not volunteer as the Class Correspondent and encourage your classmates to reconnect in the HST Class Notes. Contact Melissa Stuart, Director of Alumni Relations at 603.779.5228 or alum@holderness.org. Thank you!

’51 As we celebrate our 62nd reunion, we join all the alumni in celebration. Whether it is your first (well done!) or your 100th, we raise our glasses and toast you all.

We were a class of 19 in 1951, but today, we number nine. We note the year we graduated was the year Rev. and Mrs. Weld retired, ending an era of unselfish care of the Holderness student … If you happen to be in California, please look up Dan Baxter (see Alumni Directory) and Terry Weathers up in Fort Jones … Mac McKinstry resides in Lake Wales, FL, while we find Nick Nichols and Fred Carter in Massachusetts. Dick

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Summers ’51 PO Box 395 Canaan, NH 03741-0395 Phone: 603.523.7817 bfparadise@earthlink.net

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Al Teele ’52 636 Greenbriar Drive Harrodsburg, KY 40330-1276 Phone: 859.734.3625

’53 Elvin Kaplan writes: “This is a very brief update. Life continues to move along at a stable, steady pace. Our health: good; employment: retired; activities: continue to be the four f’s—fiddling, fitness, and fly fishing. Now that spring has arrived, along with a foot of new snow, I hope to be able to get in some spring skiing, which consists of x-country strolls through the woods and fields around our home. I look forward to seeing you in September.”

’54 Tales out of school … Wendell Stephenson reports from Maine that his active retirement life involves care-giving, the stage, and the classroom. After graduating from Holderness, he briefly attended the University of New Hampshire (UNH), entered its ROTC program, then joined the U.S. Army. Training involved Ft. Devon, MA, Ft. Benning, GA, Ft. Holabird, MD, then three years as

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

a photo interpreter in Augsburg, Germany. After the service, Wendy returned to UNH, earning a degree in political science in 1960. Teaching is a Stephenson family tradition, and Wendy soon acquired a teaching certificate from the University of Massachusetts. Wendy taught history and social science courses for six years at the New Hampton School. He then was employed by the state of New Hampshire’s prison in Concord, NH for twenty-three years, working in vocational rehabilitation; he retired in 1998. Wendy married in 1959, has four children and eight grandchildren. Though his primary residence is in Newcastle, ME, he also has a home in Bristol, ME. Wendy volunteers at the Newcastle food pantry, performs onstage in productions such as “H.M.S. Pinafore”—ah, Holderness!—and takes classes at Maine’s Coastal Senior College in Rockland, ME. A life well lived.

Middle East from Morocco to Egypt, Syria, and Jordan are on our agenda, along with most venues in Europe. A couple years ago we took a train trip that began in China, went through Mongolia and Siberia, and ended in Moscow. Fascinating! My (French) wife, Solange, is my driving force to do all of the above. To say she is an ardent traveler/adventuress would be an understatement. My two children have beautiful families of their own and have provided us with three wonderful grandchildren. Unfortunately, we haven’t run into many Holderness classmates in Southern California.

If you see Don Hinman, please give him my greetings.”

CLASS CORESPONDENT Bill Lofquist ’54 2240 Kuhio Avenue, Apt. 3604 Honolulu, HI 96815-2820 Phone: 808.744.7419 btlofquist@hawaiiantel.net

John Jameson writes: “In 2012, I was here all of April, May, and a good part of June. From there I traveled to New England, meaning Gloucester, MA and Plaistow, NH. I continue to maintain my Rotary Club attendance when waking up in Florida and Cape Ann, MA. In route this year were two brief stays at the Greenbrier in West Virginia and on Kiawah Island in South Carolina.”

’55 Reed Thompson writes: “I continue to ply my trade as a financial advisor with UBS. When people ask me, ‘Are you still working?’ my response remains the same: ‘My employer might question whether or not I am working, but I do report to the office each day.’ I have a beautiful office overlooking the Cove in La Jolla. Retaining that vista is reason enough to continue working. Having said that, my plan is to give it a couple more years and then head off to pasture. I have managed to travel quite a bit over the years. The

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Byers ’55 35 Nedwied Road Tolland, CT 06084-4037 wbyers1@comcast.net

’56

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dick Meyer ’56 137 Trickey Pond Road Naples, ME 04055-3401 richard419@roadrunner.com

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

71

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 72

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

’57 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Frederick Ellison ’57 1670 Imperial Palm Drive Largo, FL 33771 greatspeak03@yahoo.com

’58 It seems many of us have carved out some interesting trajectories as we settle into post-retirement activities. I’d hardly call anyone very relaxed and vegetating. For instance, Jon Wales, never wanting to be far from the water, is doing considerable long-distance boating on his motorized vessel.

He wrote a while ago: “Next week Carol and I are headed back to Florida to pick up our boat, which is a Grand Banks 46, and as soon as weather permits, we are headed to the Bahamas for the winter.

We’ll bring it home in June. We had a great trip from Marblehead down the coast, leaving the boat in Stuart, FL. The weather was terrific all the way, except for Sandy, which we avoided in St. Simons, GA.” Jon is still very involved with the Boston tugboat company he has been leading for some time now … Brooke Thomas has also had an interesting succession of things to keep him busy since he has cut back on teaching. He wrote the following: “We still live outside Amherst, MA on a farmette. Trouble is that our labor force, the kids, long ago left home so the chickens, ducks, guinea fowl, sheep, rabbits, and bees have gone their ways, and we are down to a cat and half a dog: the other half lives with my sister across the pond. Our boys have fled to sunny California.

One is a sustainable planner in Sacramento, and the other a filmmaker from LA who travels the world, but mostly works out of Turkey and the Middle East. The

72

younger, Culley, is married to Karrie Stevens Thomas ’93 of Holderness; they have two sons, seven-month-old Fischer and four-year-old Finnegan. When they grow up we’re encouraging them to start a seafood restaurant: Fisch and Finn’s. The older son (Jon) is such a moving target that few people know where he is from week to week, including his Turkish wife. Shirley, my wife, continues her work as a designer of women’s clothing with my sister, and also is my travel mate to far off lands. We continue to go to Peru for two months every winter.

It’s not that we don’t like the snow, but sometime after midJanuary we have had our fill. Up to this point, however, we have had an afternoon ritual of gathering up our red sleds, any relatives who are around, as well as the dog, and climb nearby Long Hill.

The quarter-mile ride down is fast and full of thrills, and by the end all the petty problems of the day have vanished into thin air. Back to Peru. I have been working in an area of the high Andes or altiplano (at 14,000 feet elevation) for the last four decades. In an effort to repay the communities for their assistance and friendship over the years, I and a veterinarian colleague from UMass have created a non-government organization (an NGO, see www.nunoaproject.org) with plans to build a home for disadvantaged children, set up a soup kitchen for young and old alike, and to improve the quality of alpaca herds in smaller villages. Trying to coordinate this has taken up a good part of my time, since communication is poor and writing e-mails is hardly a forte of the Andean natives. Shirley and I visit the area in January to push the project forward, and my colleague takes a team of international vets and students there twice a year to

work with the shepherds and their herds. The area has extensive grasslands, laid out below the world’s largest tropical glacier. It’s beautiful in its expanse and wildness, but one must contend with cold and with 40% less oxygen.

As they joke, “The air is very pure but there is not much of it.” Food consists of a fairly monotonous diet of potatoes, Andean grains, and some meat dabbed in a soup; leafy veggies and fruits are rare.

The people speak Quechua and Spanish, and while friendly to those they know, are suspicious of outsiders—for good reasons. As we get older, we wonder when the hypoxia will get to us and prevent us from returning. So far, aside from the initial headaches, we have been feeling pretty good, and upon returning to sea level with all those red blood cells, feel absolutely energized. In February, we descend from high altitude and go to a house we have built in the upper Amazon of northern Peru. While working in the highlands, where you imagine your neurons popping at night, I often thought that somewhere along the eastern escarpment there must be that ideal elevation where the climate is just right. Not the sweltering, low tropics with bugs, humidity, and muddy rivers or the freezing altiplano. By chance we found it in the high tropics and decided that this was where we would like to spend time when we get old—when does that start? In any case, that’s where we are as I write with greenery all around, weird flowers in abundance, chirping birds, a colorful Quechua-speaking population, and bats doing acrobatics at night as we sit on the patio in the evening sipping fruit juice and cane alcohol from the homemade distillery across the street ($2 a liter for stuff that burns pure blue). So that’s life in the fast lane

after so-called retirement. We’re looking forward to seeing all of you at the reunion in September.” … John Greenman always has some interesting insights, and this correspondence from him is no exception. He recalls: “Going against the grain was something of a tradition at Holderness. The Job Program meant, among other things, that we cleaned the campus, washed the dishes, waited on tables, and cleared the trails ourselves. There was no indoor skating rink or field house. No one could say ours was a fancy school, but we had the essentials: a strong headmaster and faculty, a full academic program, all major sports including an excellent ski team, and a thriving student body, all 120 of us boys. It’s hard to beat that combination, especially when you throw in the beauty of the New Hampshire mountains and lakes; so, after a somewhat shaky start, I was on board for all four years. My years at the school built skills in writing and research and an interest in history and culture which carried me through college, graduate school, and ordained ministry. Here, I went against the grain in a bigger way by resigning from the ministry and eventually joining the docents at Colonial Williamsburg where I remained, except for a brief absence, until retirement. I attribute my happiness those 21 years in the historic area largely to the enthusiasm and zeal of the Holderness community. While working in Williamsburg, I earned a Master’s degree in American studies at the College of William and Mary and married Patty Kipps, who had her own career as a rehabilitation counselor for the state. Patty and I have been to several reunions at Holderness. She has two daughters, and I, two sons, all of whom have families of their own. Private primary and secondary schools

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 73

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

have played a part in their education too. Since we have both retired, Patty and I have helped start a ministry for ex-offenders from the regional jail. She became a volunteer counselor for the United Way, and I have volunteered to help the chaplain at Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg. She cares for her 98-year-old mother who resides in an assisted living residence in this city. Both of us happily support two parishes, an urban church 45 miles away in the city of Newport News and a suburban parish just three miles from our home in Toano, VA. Our attention to the needy of the community still goes somewhat against the grain of the idea of a tourist destination, but Williamsburg is also a retirement community where many now have the time and inclination to put their skills to work for the needy.

We round out our time enjoying the historic restoration and the many other offerings of our area.

For us, retirement is very full with the joy of helping others and the love of family. This phase of our lives does not go against the grain at all.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Charlie Kellogg ’58 4 Alpine Road Manchester, MA 01944-1045 Phone: 978.526.8241 cwkellogg@verizon.net

’59 Greetings from Florida. Spring is supposedly here, but you would not know it here or back home in Maine. The snowfall made for a great ski season, so I got the boards out for a few days of skiing on the slopes. Like golf, the new ski technology has allowed some of us to think we really have not lost any ability. It’s nice to be able to fool yourself once in a while. …

On to the class news: you guys were disappointing with only five responses this time. We need a wakeup call to keep this column interesting … Here we go. … Lee Miller is now retired from consulting and has moved onto golf and tennis games. Take my advice Lee, and go back to consulting. It will be less frustrating. Christmas was spent in Germany with his family which included two or eight grandchildren. In the near future is a Viking river cruise through Europe. That is something I have considered for some time. Let me know how that works out for you. … Mark Morris has become a regular contributor over the past few years. His involvement at the Wharton School on the future of advertising is quite interesting. With the media evolving so rapidly, traditional advertising methods must be in a real flux. Like many of us, Mark is approaching his 50th anniversary. That really seems impossible, but true. A family trip is in the near future, and since a recent hip replacement was successful, I would recommend a trek across Asia. … Speaking of treks, trekker extraordinaire Steve Barndollar completed quite a trip through Sikkim and Nepal with his wife Karin and friends this past autumn. I am really impressed that he reached an altitude of 16,000 feet. I have trouble at 9,000, so I know how impressive that trek was. It’s great to know that one of our classmates is in such great shape. Steve and I still eat oysters together in Portsmouth, NH every so often, and we both agree that the supposed power of the gem of the sea is severely over-rated. It is too bad for all of us, including class intellectual and philosopher, Buster Welch. As usual, Buster has been able to comment on the way our lives evolve as we age.

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

For instance, he has noticed that as we get older we act more and more like “man’s best friends, the faithful dog.” As an example, he noticed that at night, his wife Kathy sits up and begs while Buster rolls over and plays dead.

Knowing Buster for many years, this is really hard to believe, but who am I to question our class genius. A Bahama trip was recently concluded by a -30 degree temperature; the Canadian prairie can be quite harsh! … Bruce Vogel writes: “Thanks for being in touch and wondering what I’ve been doing. The answer is actually not much—but I am now a grandfather. My daughter had a baby girl on January 28 and named her Willa after Willa Cather (whom I did not like much while at Holderness, but have a better appreciation for now). I’m still living in La Quinta full time. It is beautiful here except for July and August, and I’m planning to go somewhere in Europe then.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jerry Ashworth ’59 PO Box 2 Ogunquit, ME 03907 Home: 207.361.1105 Cell: 617.833.7478 ashworth@maine.rr.com

’60 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Len Richards ’60 1025 Washington Avenue Oakmont, PA 15139-1119 lenrichards@mac.com

’61 Bill Seaver writes in: “What a difference a year can make. Last year Sherry was in the middle of chemotherapy. This year we have just returned from spending three wonderful weeks in Nepal and India with Dana and Abby.

Sherry’s chemo ended in July, and she now has her hair and most of her energy back. She even had enough energy to take care of me and prepare for Christmas, while I spent three weeks recovering from a dry cough I picked up in India. I am almost over the cough.

Now that we have read many of your Christmas messages, it’s my turn to write the Seavers’ yearly letter. The highlight of our year was a November family trip to Nepal and India. It started with Abby asking me if I could go to India with her before I got ‘too old.’ She wanted to see ashrams and elephants. I told her we could see Buddhist gompas and elephants and that I wanted to start in Kathmandu, Nepal. Then Sherry decided she was feeling well enough to go, and Dana decided to join in, taking his first real vacation in many years.

Suddenly we were taking a special family trip with our adult children—a parent’s dream. We celebrated Diwali in Kathmandu, learned how to draw the Buddha’s face at Sarika’s Thanka painting studio in Dharamsala, relaxed and rode an elephant bareback in Kerala, saw the Taj Mahal, and visited Deepali in New Delhi. All in all, it was a positive, life-changing experience for all of us. Not only did we grow closer as a family and learn more about each other’s positive qualities, we also experienced a very different environment and realized how much we have to be thankful for. We who live in the first-world countries are truly blessed, more than we can possibly realize. While the family trip to Nepal and India was truly the highlight of the year, in the spring, Sherry and her brothers divided up their parents’ household and helped her mother move into a retirement community where she is thriving. Sherry also proved her increasing stami-

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

73

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 74

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

’63

Bill ’61, Sherry, daughter Abby, and son Dana on a family adventure in India.

na by orchestrating a ninetieth birthday party for her mother and 45 friends in Virginia Beach in the fall. In fact, she did it so well, they want her to do it again. Although Sherry is through chemo, she will need to maintain her alternative holistic medicine protocols for another two years to keep the cancer pathways down-regulated and to eradicate or prevent the start of any wayward errant cancer cells. In May, we flew out to California to help Abby move into a new apartment after the sad and sudden end of her marriage.

Abby’s acupuncture practice is thriving in San Pedro, CA. Dana continues as a graphic designer in Boston, while arranging music events in Boston and other east coast locations in his free time.

Sherry and I are both hoping for good health and no return of the cancer, but we realize it will take work on both our parts to make that happen. We both took a ‘Be Strong Cancer Exercise’ class this fall (remember my cancer in 2001?), and she and I are looking forward to long, productive healthy lives. We wish you the same in 2013 and the years to follow. As we revel in our renewed appreciation of our family, we also realize we are all so blessed to have such wonderful friends. We

74

wish you health and happiness in the New Year.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Mark Shub ’61 Shub & Anderson PC 1 Washington Mall Suite 7A Boston, MA 02108-2603 mshub@shubanderson.com

’62 Dave Cayley sends in: “I retired from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) at the end of last year. It all happened rather suddenly about a month after our reunion last fall. The executive producer of the program for whom I had worked for many years—‘Ideas,’ it’s called—was replaced, and, after conferring with the new boss, I concluded that I was too much of an old dog to learn the new tricks that were going to be required. But there was also a more positive reason to move on. I think I have a couple more books in me, and the time to write them is growing short; I was looking for time to write, and now I have it. First up is the book I’m now working on—an essay on the life and times of Ivan Illich, a thinker with whom I was connected for many years before his death in 2002.”

Fred Eidsness writes: “My body couldn’t stand more than 4,000 miles on a motorcycle—particularly driving against an early fall in Canada above Lake Superior. So, I won’t be stopping by unless I make a trip by air—which is possible. I’ve been corresponding with Biff Cuthbert, and we are both excited about the 50th reunion.

I’m looking forward to more information so we can plan”… The following ’63s have joined the ’63 Reunion Committee: Peter Chapman, Dave Hagerman, Tom McIlavin, Morgan Nields, George LeBoutillier, George Textor, and Steve Wales. Committee members will be contacting all our classmates to encourage everyone to attend our 50th reunion in September. As a result of frequent conversations, the following information concerning the whereabouts of committee members has been leaked … Peter Chapman is working hard at a successful hardware/feed store business in numerous locations throughout Northern New England … Dave Hagerman is still working at Dartmouth College in the Development Office and living in Lyme Center, NH with his wife Brooke. He was been busy in March producing maple syrup for his daughter Jamie’s wedding in August … Tom McIlvain has figured out how to spend the cold months on the coast of Georgia and move north to the Philly area in the warm months … Morgan Nields is traveling the world promoting his “state-of-the-art” medical technology business.

When not traveling, he is still ski racing with his sights set on Bode Miller … The latest communication from George LeBoutillier, aka “Boots,” was during an extended stay in “The Islands.” Word was that he was busy hosting children

and grandchildren … George Textor is busy promoting the Northwest (Washington State/Oregon) as a great place to live, as long as you have foul weather gear for regular use …

Steve Wales continues to commute from Marblehead to Ohio to direct his successful business.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dave Hagerman ’63 P.O. Box 147 Old Lyme, NH 03769 Home: 603.795.2793 Cell: 603.646.2251 david.s.hagerman@dartmouth.edu

’64 Bill Baxter writes: “The only new news on the Baxter front is that I’m in the process of selling Baxter Air Engineering to my two oldest employees with a designed phase out by October 2014. I don’t envision ever fully retiring, although my wife, Linda, does as she is president and ‘chief cook and bottle washer’ here at Baxter Air and deserves to get a break.

As for other classmates, I spoke with John Strasenburgh’s wife a year and a half ago briefly, as John was out running his dog sled. He’s been retired a while, and you may want to get the details of the new home he built in Alaska. We attempted to hook up with him a year ago when we took a cruise from Anchorage back to Seattle, but things didn’t work out. Most of all the rest of what we do is spend time with our grandkids, which I’m sure all of you are doing yourselves and don’t need to hear about my experiences. I think there is a chance I will make it back for the 50th reunion. My wife has been after me saying I should go, and I’m rapidly running out of excuses not to”… Kevin Wyckoff writes that he is still in the sandpaper

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 75

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

business after 25 years. His sons, aged 39 and 41, live in San Francisco and Buffalo. He reports two granddaughters and a grandson. Kevin had two hip replacements ten years ago and a knee replacement three months ago. “Yuck!” He’s also looking forward to the future 50th reunion of our class in 2014 … Reynold McKinney comments that because of a video was posted on YouTube of his college band, The Reveliers, he was able to contact one of the members who had been missing. Ah, the ability of the Internet to connect people …

Barry Chambers, while semiretired, still gets called in to supervise annual exercises at the nuclear plant in Connecticut. His deep institutional experience is valued, and he doesn’t mind the extra income … Rick Hintermeister sent some photos taken during a sailing voyage last year that made stops in Gibraltar and the Canary Islands before an eventual return to Florida. A weather delay in Gibraltar gave him time to hike to the top of the Rock and photograph the airstrip below. He said it is pretty sporty.

For one thing there is a road running right across the runway, and he saw at least one airplane that came to a bad end, tipped up on its nose … Sandy Alexander just spent six weeks in Colorado skiing mostly at Durango (Purgatory), with a little Monarch and Taos, NM thrown in for good measure.

Fortunately, he was adopted by a large gang of seniors who dominate the mountains during the week … Donna and Sam Stout made their usual trek to Sun Valley over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday. Last year they ran into John Dovey ’63 … Woody Thompson writes: “There’s a lot of ‘Rocks news’ this time around. I may have mentioned earlier that for the last 20 years, several other

people and myself have been working on a book titled The Geology of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Well, it finally got done and was published this winter by Durand Press in Lyme, NH! The book is intended for the layperson and illustrated throughout with colorful graphics. It fills a major gap in the natural history coverage of the White Mountains and incorporates all the latest findings. Last week (March 16–20) we had the annual Northeast Section meeting of the Geological Society of America, held at the beautifully renovated Mt. Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, NH; the meeting was attended by over 1,100 people. I was on the organizing committee and kept busy with a field trip and chairing a couple of sessions.

See you at the 50th!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Sandy Alexander ’64 180 Jobs Creek Road Sunapee, NH 03782 Phone: 603.763.2304 Salex88@comcast.net

’65 Charlie Reigeluth writes: “I have finished up my first book that is intended for a broad, lay audience (out of 11 I’ve published). It explores a paradigm change as a solution to the intractable problems of our educational systems that fail to meet the needs of many of our students and their communities.

The book is called Reinventing Schools: It’s Time to Break the Mold, and it will be available from Rowman Littlefield in late July.

Here is a blurb about it: Since A Nation at Risk was published in 1983, there has been widespread recognition that public education is failing in the U.S. Many expensive reforms have

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

been attempted to no avail, and costs have increased dramatically.

Furthermore, economic austerity requires educational systems to do more with less. This book presents convincing evidence that paradigm change—such as the change of lighting systems from the candle to the light bulb—is the only way to significantly improve student learning and simultaneously lower costs.

The authors provide a thoughtprovoking vision of the new paradigm of education, including a new brain-based pedagogy, professional rolse for teachers, a central role for technology, and a more empowered role for students and parents. The authors also describe three examples—a school, a school district, and a school model—that have implemented many features of the new paradigm, along with evidence of their effectiveness. Finally, this book describes ways we can transform our Industrial-Age school systems to the new paradigm, including ways our state and federal governments can help.”

Chip Ellis writes: “Your email caught me in the airport in Brisbane, Australia, on my way back from attending the Pacific Energy Summit in Auckland, New Zealand. The company I am associated with unveiled its plans for an ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) power system for the Marshall Islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. OTEC makes electricity from the temperature differential between cold seawater from a depth of 1,000 meters and surface seawater. This ‘delta T’ can be used in a power cycle that uses no fossil fuels and is renewable since the sun is the power supply. It’s as green as it can get. By coincidence, I remember a classmate of mine at Holderness who was from

Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshalls.

That’s where we will be installing the OTEC plant. If anyone is interested in learning more about OTEC you can surf the Web or contact me at chip.ellis@energyhs.com.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Terry Jacobs ’65 127 W Highland Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19118-3817 Phone: 215.247.9127 haj3@jacobswyper.com

’66 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Peter Janney ’66 102 Lothrop Street Beverly, MA 01915-5230 Phone: 978.969.1163 PJ@ApLLon.com

’67 CLASS CORRESPONDENT John Pfeifle ’67 PO Box 47 Bradford, NH 03221-0047 Home: 603.938.5981 Office: 603.792.1202 Cell: 603.491.7272 john.pfeifle@fifepkg.com

’68 Bruce Flenniken writes: “After being involved for so long with the design of projects in the US, Canada, and the Middle East … I have retired! With a 12-year-old daughter, I cannot yet resume my previous lifestyle that included foreign travel, but, in a year or so, I plan to start those trips again with daughter in hand. For the time being, I will travel closer to home. After five years out of the water, this coming season, I will re-launch my wooden sailboat, a Concordia yawl. She resides in Padanaram (South Dartmouth, MA) on Buzzards Bay. This sum-

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

75

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 76

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

crosswording (check out the movie Wordplay). Lindsay is the event coordinator for a company managing all of the charitable giving activity for the US Government, a big job in a great city. All factors considered, life is good! I’m currently trying to figure out how far (or near) retirement is, and what exactly that means.

Suggestions welcome.”

’72 Audhild Bjune and Nat Mead ’72

mer is the 75th anniversary of the design, and I will be cruising in company and racing in Maine as well as on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Any and all are invited to come aboard at any time and/or participate—sailors or not.

I am living in Newton, MA (a suburb of Boston). If any of our Holderness Blue Bulls or their children/grandchildren are traveling through, you are invited to visit or stay over.”

At a recent winter weekend reunion, Perry Babcock ’75 presents John Putnam ’75 with his original Holderness jacket, which had been misplaced over twenty years ago and was rediscovered in the farm house in Ludlow, VT.

my time and mostly keeps me out of trouble. All the best.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jon Porter ’69 121 Rockledge Drive South Windsor, CT 06074-1583 Phone: 860.644.8430 jwoodporter@cox.net

’70

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

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Peter Weiner ’70 prepco@ncia.net

’69

’71

Tim Bontecou writes: “I have four granddaughters aged 2–5 with each daughter accounting for two.

They are great fun. Currently I am involved with several local boards including: chairman of the Dutchess Land Conservancy, the Bank of Millbrook, The Cary Institute, the Dutchess County Soil and Water Conservation Board, and an education committee for the Berkshire Taconic Foundation. In addition I try to run Tamarack Preserve, which is a hunting and fishing club that I own. That pretty much occupies

David Taylor writes: “The latest big news for the Taylor family is that our son, Joshua, after graduating from Middlebury last year (my alma mater), completed Naval Officer’s training in Newport, RI and is now stationed at Virginia Beach, VA (Little Creek). His first deployment will be on an amphib as their weapons officer. Our daughter Elena Taylor ’10 is finishing her junior year at Washington College (Chestertown, MD) and is passionately pursuing a major in elementary education. We are

76

very proud of both of them. Best regards to all my classmates!” …

Lewis Hinman writes: “I currently am based in England as a managing director for a small (80 people) company manufacturing sophisticated, high-end electronic power supplies for analytical instruments (mass spectrometers, x-ray machines, etc.). My company (Exelis, Inc.) acquired this business in early 2012 and, after leading the due diligence and integration planning efforts, I was offered the chance to put our analysis into action. It is a great job—plenty of challenges, but also plenty of opportunity. I am living in an historic town called Arundel (think Harry Potter meets the Hobbit) in a beautiful part of the country—very near the south coast, about 15 miles west of Brighton, for those familiar with this area. This ‘short-term’ assignment is scheduled to end in December 2013, but we’ll see how things go. My children are ‘up and out’ and doing well: Tyler is in San Francisco with a cool start-up company doing software and game design (check out www.lumosity.com), as well as keeping his hand in competitive

It’s been a long time since we’ve talked, so I’m glad I can share some news. … The first person I heard from was Laurie Van Ingen, who wrote from Texas that he is building and managing the geology department for a rapidly growing startup oil and gas exploration and production company located in Fort Worth. Energy Exploration Partners, he says, is focused on oil shale plays all over Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Laurie and his wife, Laurie, are “impatiently” waiting for their two married children to produce grandchildren. They split their time between the Dallas-Fort Worth area and a home they bought about 30 miles north of Durango, CO. … Chris Latham says he is heading up the alumni and development office at the Taft School in Watertown, CT, where he has worked since 2007. “It has been a great experience,” he says.

“We live on campus in school housing and so have kept our home in Marion, MA, where we head for holidays and vacations.”

Chris’s biggest news is that their eldest son, Hunt, will be married in August. Their youngest son, Charlie, will be the best man, and their daughter, Leah is a bridesmaid. “The wedding will take place here at Taft, so we are all busy tending to the details, helping Jordan and her parents with the planning and coordination at

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 77

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Members of the Class of 1978 get together in Darien, CT (Luther Turmelle ’78, Margo Farley Woodall ’78, and Andrew Wilson ’78).

this end,” he says. … It is always good to hear from Dave Helmick, who lives in West Virginia. He and I share notes as we both have children who graduated from the University of New Hampshire and now live in Denver. … From Concord, MA it is evident that Eric Haartz’s sense of humor is still in high gear. “Have I expounded on the ‘brake pedal of life’ and the true meaning of being ‘over the hill?’” he writes.

“Life has become too fast and I’ve been figuratively stomping the floorboard in vain searching for the ‘brake pedal of life.’ Now evident is the full meaning of being ‘over the hill.’ It’s cussed faster on this side with no propulsive effort on my part! I’m steering very carefully these days! If the trend continues into chronic tardiness, I may become ‘the late Eric Haartz’ long before I expire!”… From the Midland School in Los Olivos, CA, Will Graham writes that he was pleased to host Holderness’ Director of Residential Life, Duane Ford ’74, and Lori Ford for opening days at Midland in September. The Fords traveled to California to kick start Duane’s sabbatical. “He was able to observe the orientation process

for the senior class, and to talk to school prefects about their leadership positions in the Midland job program and the prefect system,” Will writes of Duane. “We were fondly remembering Rip Richards as he instructed students on the fine points of using a rake and a shovel.”… I was able to reconnect twice with Peter Kimball on Cape Cod last summer. We met for lunch early in the summer, sharing the trials and tribulations of parenthood and the aging process. Unfortunately, Peter and his family lost Peter’s father, Lewis, over the summer.

Peter’s dad was well known as a headmaster at the Potomac School in McLean, VA, and later Charles River Academy in Massachusetts, among other things. At the time of his passing, he was living with Peter’s mom in Chatham, MA. … Sandy Wood writes from Virginia that he has been busy helping his wife, Sally, settle his mother-in-law’s estate.

She died in March 2012 following a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Because of Sally’s mom’s health issues, Sandy and Sally had to stay close to home for a long time; however, over the New Year’s holiday, they were able to take a trip

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

Bruce Edgerly ’78 stops for a moment for a quick picture. Bruce’s company he cofounded, Backcountry Access, was sold to global sports giant K2.

to the Little Exuma in the Bahamas for some bone fishing and rum drinking. “We were more successful with the latter than with the former,” he says. “I had no problem with that, although I know some people who would find a long trip to the islands for very few fish a reason to drink.”

Sandy says he hopes to do a road trip to Maine this summer. “My sister says she will discontinue my subscription to Down East Magazine unless I visit (she’s lived there for six years without a visit from me). It is a no-fail bribe, so we’ll do one of those meandering drives up the coast where you don’t have to spend more than five hours on a highway before pulling into a friend’s house for a two-night visit. At that rate, we ought to get to Mount Desert Island sometime in midSeptember when all the rusticators have fled home.

Perfect timing!” Other than that, Sandy says, he will be in Virginia “trying to make a few dollars doing design work and selling antiques and fine art. I’ve become a beekeeper in my spare time, so my girls keep me busy when I’m not being a domestic god or a merchant. It’s a good life and I

want for nothing.”… Speaking of the Bahamas, my wife, Lucy, organized a fantastic surprise 60th birthday party for me at Atlantis on Nassau in October. I knew for months that I had to take the week of the 14th off for a trip but had no hint until the week before that I would be leaving the United States; I pointed out to Lucy that my driver’s license was about to expire, and she freaked, thinking that I would not be able to get back into the country with an expired driver’s license. “Get it renewed, now!” she commanded me. Once we had left Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, CT, I had no hint where we were going until we changed flights in Florida. I was totally surprised to find a group of my nearest and dearest, from ages 9 to 67 there, including our son Ted, his wife Jess, my daughter Lisa, her boyfriend Alex Snow, Lucy’s nephew, Geoff Gardner (whose brother Justin Gardner ’92 graduated from Holderness), his wife Sarah, their children Will (our godson) and Emma, and our best friends Peter Cooney and Sandy Reilly from Longmeadow, and Dennis. Lucy and I traveled alone,

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

77

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 78

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

but we were greeted on the other side of customs with a respectful sign that said, “Old Man Shepard.” The best part of it all, thanks to the sun, weather, waterslides, casinos, booze, and lack of crowds, is that we all got along beautifully, despite our age differences. So, if anyone wants a great travel agent, for the right price, I will let you rent the love of my life, Lucy, whose organizational prowess shone in arranging this trip. … Nat Mead writes: “Life is going fine for my family and me here in Norway. Our three daughters, Eleanor, Sara-Maria, and Susanne are now respectively 25, 22, and 20, studying in college, and seem to have their feet wellplanted and heads tuned in a fine way. My wife Audhild and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary a year ago, and we are filling our lives with interesting work. Audhild is currently in Kenya, fulfilling a lifelong dream working at an orphanage. I have just started a Masters study at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in the field of vocational education with a focus on designing training programs for adults (young and old) interested in learning the skills, art, and science of ecological/organic farming. At the same time I am continuing to teach at Norway’s National College for Organic Farming and Gardening. Check out our website if you’d like: www.sjh.no. It’s mostly in Norwegian, but there’s an English summary. I’ve had some recent contact with Alejandro (Gary) Circuit who was one of my best buddies first at Eaglebrook for two years and then at Holderness for three. That was a real joy getting back in touch. Otherwise there has been too little contact with others from my class. It’s not easy living so far away, but if any of you have an errand or vacation

78

to Norway, we are here as a stopin along your way.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Dwight Shepard ’72 84 Ely Road Longmeadow, MA 01106-1834 shepdb@comcast.net

’73 Greetings to all as we get into 2013! Although I am writing to you from Mystic, CT (the Banana Belt of New England!), it has been more like winter than spring lately. There is still plenty of good skiing up North! As for me, I continue to enjoy retirement as I work on skiing all the alpine areas in New England (65 done and 12 to go) and hiking the 100 highest peaks in New England (10 to go).

However, not everything in my life is relaxing, as I am also working to get my state certification in teaching. I just started my student teaching last week at a local technical high school (I may be the country’s oldest student teacher!).

Things have certainly changed in the classroom since our day.

There is an abundance of technology now, and I can say that the students are not nearly as well behaved as we were, but then we were perfect in every way, weren’t we? I’m going to repeat the e-mail I sent out in February about our upcoming 40th reunion. If you didn’t get an e-mail from me in February about the reunion, we don’t have your address. Send it on to me at rconantjr@msn.com, and I will make sure it gets on the master class spreadsheet. Stan Theodoredis, Peter Garrison, and I will be working together as the class of 73’s reunion committee and general cheerleading squad.

The three of us hope to make it up to campus this coming fall, and that will be no mean feat for Peter who inhabits the sunny

climes of Panama! You should have all received a reunion link from our Director of Alumni Relations, Melissa Stuart. In case you missed it, here it is again: www.holderness.org/reunion2013.

The reunion will be September 20–22 while school is in session, so the campus will be alive with classroom and sports activities.

We might even catch the front end of foliage season up in central NH! One word of warning to all is that accommodations will not be available on campus and surrounding hotels/motels fill up fast, so make your plans early.

We’re hoping everyone will strongly consider a trip back to Holderness to celebrate our 40th in style. This will be a first reunion event for me and is long overdue. We’ll be getting more information and reminders out over the next few months (and maybe contacting some of you in person) … In other news, the always faithful former class correspondent and past reunion coordinator (and first person to sign up for this fall’s reunion!), Tim Scott, writes the following from beautiful downtown Jackson, NH: “Hello to all Holderness ’73ers. It has finally snowed here in Jackson, NH, where I have lived full-time for the past 25 years. I continue to work at Fryeburg Academy as their development director, and after 20 years we are welcoming a new Head of School which makes for exciting times. I am married to the ever lovely Sheila Kackley whose three daughters live nearby, and who joins my son Charlie (who has Aspergers syndrome) in making for quite a busy family.

We lost my mother last summer to a tragic car accident, but my father, at 92, is still well and lives nearby. I continue to consult and teach in the field of nonprofit management and fundraising,

something I have done continually since graduating from the University of Maine. I also write for the local newspaper and various periodicals in my field and preach occasionally at the United Church of Christ. Over the past year I have gained two new titanium hips which will enable me to ski (and thankfully walk) for the foreseeable future. Guess all those spectacular crashes during downhill practices at Tenney Mountain finally caught up to me.

I hope to see more of you this September. Forty years is something of a milestone after all.” …

Peter Terry writes that the reunion sounds like fun, and he will try to come up from North Carolina to attend. I assured Peter that September weather in central NH should be a relief from the heat and humidity of the southland. … Finally, I heard from Tom Mawn, through Stan Theodoredis. Tom is living down in my old stomping grounds in South Florida, albeit in Sarasota on the west coast. He also is thinking about coming up for the reunion. The reunion committee offers Tom the same weather deal we gave Peter, i.e., nice New England fall weather! On a sad note, Tom reports that Mike Naylon passed away. He was way too young, but he had a good full life and is remembered fondly by many. … That’s it for now. Please give some real consideration to coming back for the reunion.

Looking forward to seeing all of you on campus!

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Dick Conant Jr. ’73 rconantjr@msn.com Peter Garrison ’73 peter@lifesatrip.com

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 79

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Don Whittemore ’78 and Andrew Wilson ’78 meet briefly in Colorado.

’74 Ben White writes: “In March I ran into several other ’74s while skiing at Sugarloaf Mountain: Jack Thomas, Rick Tonge, and Steve Morse. We should have another Holderness Day up there next year.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Walter Malmquist ’74 2727 Wild Hill Road Bradford, VT 05033 Phone: 802.222.4282 wmalmquist@kingcon.com

’75 Mac Jackson writes: “We moved from Maryland to Waitsfield, VT (where we have spent our winters for the last 20 years; now it’s permanent). I gave up my farming career to mow greens, fairways, and rough at the Country Club of Vermont in Waterbury, VT; my family is split in the winter skiing between Sugarbush and Mad River Glen. In my travels this winter I have run into Holderness ski racers at Whiteface, Sugarbush, and Cannon, but I always miss seeing Craig Antonides ’77. Hope to run into him this Friday at Cannon.”… Ed Cudahy sends in: “My wife Susan and I just cele-

brated 32 years of marriage and are enjoying our first granddaughter’s first birthday. Our four children (30, 29, 26, and 24) have all graduated from college and are independent; one is married, and one has plans to get hitched soon.

I still own three companies but am looking to sell one or two and spend more time chilling in my old home in the Florida Keys.

Hope this finds you well and look forward to getting North when we have our next big reunion.”…

Baird Gourlay writes: “My family still owns a house in Waitsfield, VT, but I live in Sun Valley, ID, own a ski shop (PK’s Ski & Sports), and have been a Ketchum City Councilmen for 12 years. I still ski 100 days a year. My wife (Chelle) and I have three kids.

Charlotte, 26, is a ski coach for the Sun Valley Ski Ed.; my son, Ben, 23, is in the Peace Corp teaching English in Mongolia; and or youngest, Ainsley, 22, is finishing her teaching degree at Denver University.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Mac Jackson ’75 PO Box 665 Waitsfield, VT 05673 Phone: 802.583.2833 skifarmer@live.com

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

Manly Ishwardas ’78 wears the Holderness colors at Islamorada in the Florida Keys while sailing a Cat!

’76 Greetings, 1976 fellow classmates.

Hello from dreary Chicago. I hope this email finds you well, and that the promise of spring is bringing a little bounce to your step. Charlie Bolling and I volunteered for the dubious honor of being class correspondents when the request from the Holderness Alumni Office was presented last summer.

As many of you are aware, Charlie took the baton for the last edition of HST, and I am picking it up for the next edition. In my inimitable style, I am approaching you at the eleventh hour to request information about the goings on in your lives. I figured that if I were to do this any further in advance that the urgency of my request might not seem so desperate, and the

call to action would not be received with as commensurate a response. And, for those of you who knew me well, I am still the wicked procrastinator I always was. Here’s a little bit about me and my life, so that perhaps you will share the details of yours. As noted above, I reside in Wilmette, IL, which is a suburb of Chicago. I am married to Sally Turner whom I met while attending Colorado College. We have been married 30 years this September. We have two children; Miles is 21 and a junior at Iowa State University studying Construction Engineering, and Grace is 19 and a sophomore at Marquette University studying Sociology. We also have a dog, Rufus who is 9 (Rufus is a Vizsla). My field of endeavor for the past 26 years

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

79

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 80

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Max Arriola ’79

(L–R) Beckett Noyes ’08, Cecily Cushman ’11, Alex Gardiner ’11, Ryan McManus ’04, Russell Cushman ’80, Charlotte Noyes ’11, Gibson Cushman ’15, Peter Noyes ’79, and Joe Parker ’79 at Marblehead, MA.

has been centered in the special event industry, more specifically custom fabric structures (i.e. tents). I am the National Sales Manager for the nation’s leading commercial tent manufacturer, Anchor Industries. I started with Anchor in 1987, moved to their largest competitor in 2007, and was lured back to Anchor last fall.

Outside of work and family, I enjoy travelling, cooking, drinking wine (some things never change), laughing, spending time on Chicago’s beautiful lakefront during the summer, and playing the occasional set of tennis. I’m still pretty much the same old guy you knew 37 years ago. Thanks for your responses; I know we all enjoy hearing about what’s going on in each other’s lives. … Mike Robinson writes: “I reside in Haddon Township, NJ with my wife, Mary-Ellen (Mel) Biggs, whom I met at Bates College. Mel is a sign language interpreter and loves her work. We will have been married 30 years as of June 18, 2013. We have two sons. Our eldest, Peter Wilson (aka Will) graduated from Bates College in 2010. He now lives in Austin, TX working as a project manager doing digital marketing. Our

80

younger son, Ben, will graduate from Rutgers this spring. We are very fortunate to have two such wonderful sons. I am a Professor of Pediatrics and Pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania and have been for almost 25 years. I run a research laboratory that is funded by the National Institutes of Health. My group uses cellular and molecular approaches to study basic aspects of cell-to-cell communication that are mediated by a compound called, glutamate. I am still surprised by how little we know about the systems that control this neurotransmitter that mediates essentially all rapid communication in the brain and is required for information storage. Very few drugs target glutamate, but it has been implicated in a wide variety of developmental, neurodegenerative, and psychiatric diseases. I also run an NIH-funded training program in neurodevelopmental disabilities. The challenges of the work are still incredibly rewarding. We still regularly visit and vacation in New Hampshire. For those of you who came to the graduation party at our house on Lake Winnisquam, we now regu-

larly visit the bigger lake, Lake Winnipesaukee. Best wishes to my classmates!”… Charlie Bolling writes: “I am currently between jobs—exciting and nerve wracking at the same time—but plan on staying in the golf industry. It gives me more time for my kids Jake (13) and Charlotte (11), who are growing up WAY too fast. I am heading to St. Louis in May to compete in the US Senior PGA where I am hoping to catch up to Jody Collins ’77 and Olin Browne ’77 who will also be competitors—a mini Holderness reunion!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Biff Gentsch ’76 418 Greenleaf Avenue Wilmette, IL 60091 Home: 847.256.1471 Office: 847.920.1086 Cell: 847.778.3581 biffandsally@aol.com Charlie Bolling ’76 ChasGolf7@aol.com

’77 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Peter Grant ’77 6 Quail Rdg Concord, NH 03301-8425 Phone: 603.715.5445 pete@grantcom.us

’78 It seems like just yesterday that we were taking off from Holderness at a high rate of

speed, headed for Prescott Smith’s house to celebrate graduation and a future that we could only guess at. But as country rock philosopher Charlie Daniels once said about the future, “It’s a long road and a little wheel, and it takes lots of turns to get there.”

So here we are, 35 years down the road from graduation, a milestone many of us will be able to celebrate together this September 20–22 when alumni weekend at Holderness comes calling. … A lot of our classmates have been busy since I last touched base with all of you. Let’s start with Don Whittemore. Don was one of the featured speakers in September 2012 at TEDxBoulder, the latest in a series of educational speaking programs held around the country and archived online. Based on his experiences as Assistant Chief of the Rocky Mountain Fire Department, Whit told stories about his fire-fighting days and how he made a critical mistake because he wasn’t prepared for the worst. While Whit’s stories about being prepared for the worst have made him a speakerin-demand, nothing could prepare Margo Woodall and the people of Newtown, CT for what happened on December 14 of last year at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Margo has two sons, one whom attends Newtown High School and the other who is attending the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. So while she wasn’t directly affected by the killings at the school, she and her new husband, John—whom many of have met at previous alumni gatherings—have been active in promoting the healing process. In the immediate aftermath of the killings, John and Margo represented a local Baha’i faith community in the town-wide memorial service that was broadcast worldwide and was attended

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 81

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Andrew Sawyer ’79 hits the trails.

Andrew Sawyer ’79, Charlie Woodworth ’76, Joel Bradley ’02, and Kirk Siegel ’78 gather after the Maine Huts and Trails Ski Marathon, a 60K classic race in the Sugarloaf, Maine area.

by President Barack Obama. John is a board-certified psychiatrist, who was a faculty member of Harvard Medical School, before founding his non-profit group, The Unity Project. “We have been involved with Sandy Hook Promise (www.sandyhookpromise.org), and we have started a youth service group called Peacebuilders,” Margo writes. “We have also launched the Unity Project in the Newtown High School working with 1,750 kids. Our lives have been forever changed by what happened here.”

John and Margo recently received from the United Nations Office of the international group Church Women United the group’s humanitarian award for “leadership service as a mentor and social activist in human rights and human development, an advocate for peace and justice with no boundaries of political system, country, cultural background, or religion.” … Andrew Wilson continues his globe-trotting as part of

his job as headmaster and lead admissions recruiter for the Grier School in Pennsylvania. In the past several months, his travels enabled him to take part in Holderness mini-reunions in Darien, CT with Margo, John, and I and then a short-time later with Whit. … Some additional news from the Denver-area members of the class of ’78: Bruce Edgerly writes that the company he cofounded, Backcountry Access, has been sold to global sports giant K2. Backcountry, which has been in business for 18 years, makes avalanche safety equipment.

“This new partnership will enable us to combine forces with a huge industry player so we can focus on product development and marketing, yet take advantage of K2’s strengths on such things as finance, accounting, and logistics,” Bruce wrote in a statement released in early January when the deal was announced. “Don’t worry: the BCA brand will continue to thrive, our management

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

team will stay on for many more years, and we’ll remain in Boulder.

We’re as excited as ever about backcountry riding and saving lives.”… Another of the ’78 Rocky Mountain High crew, Hal Hawkey, writes he probably won’t be making it to the 35th reunion.

Hal says he won’t be joining us because he is coming back East a few weeks later to take one of his daughters to look at colleges. …

John Alden says his youngest son is already in college, finishing up his freshman year at American University. John complains that there is not enough snow cover in March near his home outside of Burlington, VT to indulge in cross country skiing. Maybe that’s because the rest of the country has highjacked all the white stuff. … While John complains about a lack of snow, Manly Ishwardas managed to fire off a short note and photo from Islamorada in the Florida Keys. He’s looking ever-soyouthful sporting the Holderness colors while sailing in a style that

would make former sailing coach Al Whatley proud! … Last, but certainly not least, there’s Scott Sirles, who complains about how busy he is with his hearing aid business even as he writes from Argentina about dove hunting.

Scott also reports that he has been fishing in the Rio Grande. …

I’m looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible this September in New Hampshire. If you have anybody you’d like to see at the reunion and want me to track them down, let me know.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Luther Turmelle ’78 49 Williams Road Cheshire, CT 06410-2746 Phone: 203.271.0041 lturnmelle@sbcglobal.net

’79 Dear Classmates, Dave Slaughter writes in: “I saw Jeff Thompsen and his family in Holderness this summer at a memorial service for his dad at Camp Deerwood. I also catch up with Craig Boynton ’80 from time to time in Baltimore. I am living there with my wife Blair.

We have two girls—one is a freshman at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY and the other is in middle school in Baltimore. I hope to make it up to a reunion or alumni lacrosse game so I can be the slowest crease attackman

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

81

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 82

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Charlie Brown ’82 celebrates his birthday with his three children, Jake, Mason, and Haley.

to ever wear a Holderness jersey— if I don’t already hold that distinction.” … Doug Paul also writes in saying: “Life has been pretty good since Holderness. I still live in New Jersey and have a wonderful family. My wife owns an executive search firm. My son (18) is a freshman at NYU Stern School studying finance and international business. He basically wants to work in any of the major cities of the world. My daughter (16) is working through her junior year in high school. She’s more focused on skiing and surfing and so is looking at schools in California and Colorado. We still ski as much as we can and have a second home in Vail. We get out four or five times over the winter if all goes well. I met up with Chug Sides out there about a year ago and had a good day catching up on the past 30-plus years (yikes). If anyone wants to ski some runs, let me know.” … While reminiscing about running the cross country trails and up and down the ski hill with coach Jay Stroud, Andrew Sawyer writes: “I am spending my recreational time these days riding bikes on the

82

roads and in the woods and teaching my 9-, 11-, and 12-yearold boys to do the same. The teacher is about to get taught!

This fall I caught up with David Parker ’78, a childhood pal. We spent one day chasing each other on the Red Tail Trail in North Conway, NH. It was uphill in both directions. The ol’ boy can still turn a crank. Dave now lives in the Northwest. Also, as a cyclist and Holderness alumnus, I enjoyed reading Tyler Hamilton’s ’90 book, The Secret Race. Recently, I skied in the Maine Huts and Trails Ski Marathon, a 60K classic race in the Sugarloaf, ME area. The Maine Huts and Trails Executive Director and race director was Charles Woodworth ’76. The winner of the race was Joel Bradley ’02. Kirk Siegel ’78 was pacing with his daughter who is a freshman at Dartmouth. Joel’s wife, Elissa, and Kirk’s daughter, Molly, placed first and second in the women’s division. I was the mutt of the pack, finishing well after these very accomplished nordic skiers, but I was told that I did ‘OK for an Alpine guy.’

Charlie was busy getting the track in great condition and didn’t race, but he placed second in last year’s race, or ‘OK for a hockey player.’ Maybe we can get a few more Bulls on the course next year.” … Checking in from Guatemala, Max Arriola writes: “This is just to say I am alive and kicking, still living in Guatemala, married, father of two girls (25, 13) and a boy (24). I’m swimming 2,000 meters almost every day and bicycling and enjoying life. If someone gets this far south give me a call at 502.5504.8554.” …

Thank you all for checking in. I am still enjoying living in Snowmass Village, CO where I get out nordic skiing as much as possible during the winters and hiking when possible in the summers.

Take care and keep in touch.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Cullen Morse ’79 Phone: 970.544.4814 cbmaspen@hotmail.com

’80 Skip Strong writes: “I reconnected with a long lost classmate this past fall. While reading an article about a propane tank project for Searsport, ME, in the online edition of the Bangor Daily News, I came across a picture of an attorney from Denver with the name of Chandler Lippitt. What are the odds of two people having that name? Turned out to be zero. It was great to reconnect after 30 years, and we managed to get together several times over the fall and winter.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Greg White ’80 11 Lancashire Drive Mansfield, MA 02048-1766 Phone: 508.337.8798 GgNH@aol.com

’81 Richard Walser writes: “I’m still enjoying life in the New Haven area. I got an early start in my garden, planting peas and Swiss chard by the third week of March.

I continue to volunteer for the community gardening program of the New Haven Land Trust. I’m still also busy working with folks around the country in religious environmentalism, a movement that is finally growing. As spring takes hold, I’m looking forward to another season of sailing on the Long Island Sound. The children are doing well. My son CJ spent the early part of his gap-year riding his bicycle solo across the country. He is thankfully back in New Haven safe and sound, working some, and getting himself geared up to begin at Columbia in the fall. My daughter Ali (Alexandra) is busy with her junior year at Hopkins School and is enjoying her seventh year as a member of the prestigious Trinity Choir of Men and Girls, now as an alto. Mom and Dad continue to thrive in their home on Long Island and are now approaching their 55th year of marriage.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Baskin ’81 57 Hunter Lane Glastonbury, CT 06033 Phone: 860.659.1840 BaskinWC@aetna.com

’82 Charlie Brown writes: “With children in preschool, high school and college, my wife Olga and I stay busy. Hope the snow melts before graduation!”

’83 Nancy Giles writes: “All is good here in McCall, ID. I’ve been liv-

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 83

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

ing here for 16 years now and still feel so lucky to be in such a wonderful place. Much is the same, in that hubby Bob and I continue to coach the six- and seven-year-old racers for the McCall Ski Racing Team. That keeps us on the hill in boots five days a week. They continue to keep us jumping and laughing with all their unique perspectives on life. It helps to keep us forever young. I just got some Valentine’s cards from them this weekend … so very cute … love it every day. On the change side of life … Bob just retired in January after 36 years with the Forest Service. He was ready for a change. I am still adjusting to the 24/7 togetherness—definitely a good thing—but now he ‘has’ to help with laundry and dishes, so we are negotiating. Myself, I have formally taken on the role of finance officer for the local animal shelter MCPAWS. I think I have held just about every role there over the years, but working the numbers is my comfort zone. It is a part-time gig, and I get to visit with the pups and kitties all I want. It’s another feel-good opportunity for me. Life was seeming too short for me to stay in the corporate world. I love all that I do. Hope all is well with you and yours. If anyone ever comes through McCall, ID, I hope they will give me a ring, 208.869.2443.” … Ellen Hodges sends in: “I’m still in Beaverton, OR, working for the Beaverton School District as an instructional aide with a focus on literacy and reading. My two boys are now 15 and 17 (!), with the oldest starting to look at colleges. I know its cliché, but I can’t believe how fast time is flying by. The boys and I enjoy skiing on Mt. Hood which is a very close drive and easily accessible. I’m playing lots of USTA tennis and love being on a team year-round.” … Chris Smith writes: “Mr. Madden, wow,

Happy Holidays from Jamey ’83, Christie, Katie, Robert, Charlie, and Sydney Gallop.

it’s been a while…I’m celebrating 25 years with Novartis Pharmaceuticals; it’s been an amazing job, from research and lab work to sales and marketing. I live on Plum Island in Massachusetts with my wife Tracey and two daughters, Kylie, 14 and Josie, 11. We are all beach bums … come visit … hope to see you in September.” … Willie Stump writes: “Last week I was touring a Seattle high school, and the principal introduced me to some of his staff, including a guy named Tipton Blish. He looked more handsome than the guy of the same name I recall from 30 years ago, but upon closer inspection, it was definitely the one and only Tippy! (We Seattlites age well; the lack of sun preserves the skin and builds a visible fortitude.) What a great surprise—I had no idea he was out here! He gave my wife and me the skinny

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

on the school where he has taught for the past seven years. He is now working toward getting his principal’s certificate. As always I am surviving another wet and dreary Seattle winter (my 25th in fact) by driving an hour east to Alpental where the oppressive rain of the city turns to snow (there’s a 181-inch base at the top of the mountain currently). We get buckets of snow in the mountains out here—not the lightest stuff but plenty of it. I’ve skied the lifts into July the past two seasons, just two hours away at Crystal Mountain.

And just as the rain builds fortitude, the “Cascade Cement” really makes you take your skiing to another level. As we like to say, ‘Anyone can ski powder or be happy on a sunny day.’ It’s not as easy here, but we’ve got Tippy.

We get together with Frank Bonsal ’82 and family when we visit my family in Maryland. He is

doing well: two teenaged girls, a little 5- or 6-year-old named Frank, and a lovely wife named Helen (his parents are also named Frank and Helen). Hope you and your family are doing well.

Thanks for continuing to solicit news from those of us who don’t do any type of Internet-based social networking.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jud Madden ’83 7898 Kinsman Road Novelty, OH 44072 Phone: 216.215.7445 justin.madden64@gmail.com

’84 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Fred Ludtke ’84 5 Rue de Henri Bornier Paris 75116 FRANCE

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

83

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 84

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Nico Dorion ’85, Gillian Kirby ’85, and Jean-Louis Trombetta ’85 meet up in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Jean-Louis Trombetta ’85 and Tom Donovan ’85 catch up and reminisce about their days at Holderness.

’85 Jeff Beattie came through with news on his whereabouts and doings: “I am in DC still working as a reporter on energy things, mostly electric utilities and nuclear power, covering congress and business things. I got married as I think you know to a Bolivian, so I go there once a year or so.

Kinda cool … I like La Paz but I expect the scenery would be better in Brazil or Argentina. My wife is trying to get a medical residency here; who knows where we will move if that happens.”… Braden Edwards also reports: “I’m in California with three kids—Jack 11, Charlotte and Sophie 8. I see Jake Reynolds ’86 while skiing in Tahoe, and this year while calling a friend at another firm, I spoke to Chris Del Col ’83 and Zach Martin ’84. They worked with the guy I was calling. It was pretty wild.”… And from Guatemala:

84

Nico Dorion and I went on safari last June and met with Gillian Kirby in Johannesburg. We caught up and had some great laughs remembering our days at Holderness. Gillian has promised to come visit us here in Guatemala sometime soon. A few months ago, a good friend of mine introduced me to a buddy from Phoenix, who was none other than Holderness alumnus Tom Donovan ’89. After a few refreshments, we spent the next few days talking about faculty, students, and how Holderness transformed us. It is nice to meet someone new and discover that through the Holderness experience, we pretty much already know each other quite deeply.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jean-Louis Trombetta ’85 3rs Calle Oriente No. 27 Antigua GUATEMALA

Phone: 00.502.5411.3814 jeanlouistrombetta@gmail.com

’86 Symantha Gates writes: “I had lunch with Kristin Ellison in September 2011 in Sturbridge, MA. She is working in publishing and recently moved to the Boston area. It was great to hear some of her stories from when she sailed around the world. It’s certainly not something everyone gets to do, and it took her almost two years. She was her usual jovial self! My family and I live in southern New Hampshire. We have a puppy who is keeping us very busy! We’ve had a great, big, hectic summer and are coming down the home stretch. I was at Norm’s service last year, and it was super to be there. Bill Burke provided some great Norm anecdotes, and I was reminded of Norm’s myriad

talents. He had faith in a lot of us when we did not have it in ourselves, and I am grateful for that.

What a blessing! We see our good family friends, Val and Jim McClellan ’62 every summer. Jim ran summer Outward Bound programs on Hurricane Island in Maine along with Bill Clough Sr. and maybe Fred Beams (not 100% sure). These were all the guys who started up the OB program too.” … Malcolm Davidson writes: “I am feeling foggy after flying back from visiting family in Maine (late August). While out showing the wife and kids my old stomping grounds by boat, we spotted Dick and Gail Stevens. They were moored and fixing their roller reefer jib, and we had a great chat. No DJ sightings, but rumor has it he is headed towards serving with the Brookline Fire Department.” … Caroline Bloch Jones writes from Greensboro, NC: “Life just seems to be moving faster and faster. My oldest child Duncan is now 15, and believe it or not, he is heading to boarding school! I know that kids now go away freshman year rather than sophomore year, but it seems so young. I always thought that if a child of mine wanted to go to boarding school, it would be so great if I could find a good school that could give him all the great benefits of a boarding school without traveling too far from

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 85

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

home so we could still be a part of his life. We found it and are so excited. What is so great is it was all his idea and his push. I pray that it is a good one full of learning and growth.”… Matt Reynolds writes: “I attended Norm Walker’s memorial service with Chris Childs in August in Rye, NH. There were some familiar faculty members from past and present— Phil Peck, Pete Woodward, Bill Burke, Dave Lockwood, Pete Barnum, and Jory Macomber.

Dave Hinman was also there and in good spirits, but I missed the ’86 Bulls photo-op! On the home front, my 20-month-old daughter and her three older sisters continue to keep me busy. Fortunately, her older sisters do a great job keeping her entertained. In my career, I continue to enjoy my work as a pastoral counselor working with adolescents, young adults, and families. I also want to ‘pass the baton’ as class correspondent, so if there is anyone who is interested, please let Melissa Stuart know. I don’t think there has been a female class correspondent before so that’s an idea.”

’87 Hey all. Thanks so much for sending class notes at the last minute.

It looks like we respond to pressure, because I heard from so many folks. It was funny just how many of you were talking about Holderness or visiting with Holderness classmates the night I reached out. I love reading and compiling the notes; everyone seems to be doing well. I thought Todd Herrick had really fun news; he has a son at Holderness!

“My son, Jack ’15, is at Holderness and doing great. I have loved reconnecting with Holderness. I feel privileged to have Jack attending Holderness and taking part in all the tradi-

Elizabeth Zimmermann ’87 and family (Thomas, Noah, and Sophie) explore Europe during their stay there last summer.

tions still in place; the place is timeless in a world of constant change. Jack will be skiing with Chris Davenport ’89 down in Portillo this summer; he is obviously keeping the dream alive.

Steve Jones ’88, Chris Stewart ’88, Scott Esposito ’88, and I still connect regularly—surfing, skiing, etc. I was just talking tonight with a group of friends about what a great group of outdoor enthusiasts come from Holderness. Tomorrow’s a powder day in Telluride, so I am taking Jack and Ted (my father)—three generations of Herricks—skiing with Telluride Helitrax, which is the heliski company I’ve had for 16 years.” … Dix Wheelock and his family have also been skiing a lot this past winter: “Will and Lila Wheelock (our twins who are six) graduated to Rabbit level at Stowe’s Ski School this winter—no poles but bombing it with confi-

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

dence. Ella, our three-year-old is riding the chairlift and can get down to the bottom unassisted— pretty sweet! We had a couple great powder days this winter and will be heading up for the Easter egg hunt this weekend. I saw Zeke Sieglaff last week in Boca Grande; he is still insanely fit— ocean swimming, running, and biking … He is a real life Iron Man. Steve Jones and I stay in touch via email; his wife just had their first—another Jones. I speak with Bruce Bohuny regularly; he is doing well in New Jersey, and their kids are cranking it.”… Todd Burges shares: “As I write this, I’m enjoying the Hong Kong Rugby 7s for the 17th year! USA just scored against Scotland. Funny enough, I was watching a video of Chris Davenport ’89 this morning.

Katrise and I are well; our son Dylan (4.5 years) was just accepted at Hong Kong International

School, and Savanna (16 months) is walking and talking. We leave for Niseko for skiing over Easter next week, and while there, I’ll be watching videos with Dylan made

by Steve Jones in order to figure out new jumps to try the next day.

I recently got in touch with Peter Wieland by LinkedIn, so it’s fun trying to keep in touch.”… Pete Wieland wrote: “I am still living in Concord, MA with my wife and twin eight-year-old daughters. I am working at Fidelity Investments and am looking forward to some warm weather and coaching my daughters’ soccer and lacrosse teams.”… After not seeing each other for thirteen years, Stasia Talbot Prigge actually had Suzie Jacinthe over for dinner the night I emailed. Stasia said: “Suzie is still a foreign service officer with the USAID Agency.

She is in DC this year, although, she leaves for Ghana for a four-

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

85

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:09 AM

Page 86

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

year stint this summer. She specializes in running HIV clinics in Africa as well as in developing birth control policies in underdeveloped countries. During dinner we called Heather Johnston Larowe and surprised her.

Heather is enjoying life in Montana with her husband and three children, although they are contemplating a move back to New Hampshire when her husband finishes his military career this summer. She is working full time in environmental science with a private company. The good news for me is that her company is based in Alexandria, so I will hopefully see her this year at some point, and hopefully before Suzie leaves for Africa … As for me, I am starting my 16th year as a prosecutor in Annapolis, MD, and remain in survival mode with a 13-, 11-, three-, and two-year-old.

I am the only middle school mom I know with two baby seats in the car.”… Priscilla Foster met up with Craig Johnson, his wife Amber, and their new baby, Harrison, at a friend’s ranch in Lander, Wyoming this past summer. “It’s always fun to see Craig. I am loving life in Montana … Being a mom, wife, and bookbinder suits me. I had to close the retail store after nine years, as it was just too much to juggle as the kids got older. Dave is in his 14th year working as Mountain Manager of The Yellowstone Club. He goes to work on skis so it suits him well.”

Joan Twining wrote: “We got a place in Vermont and spent many great weekends skiing this year. I bumped into Lauren O’Brien Smith ’88 skiing—great to reconnect. I am also still in touch with Paula Lillard Preschlack ’88 and plan to get our families together this summer. All in all, life is great and I’ve been able to ride, ski, hike, and paint when I can find the time with two middle-school-

86

ers.” … Tobias Lewis still lives in Riverside, CT. He writes: “My wife and the kids continue to enjoy our return back to the NY ’burbs; we are living the normal life of so many—running here, there, and everywhere with our kids’ sports teams. I’m just back from a lacrosse jamboree up the road in Bridgeport for my son. He is having a great time, playing long-pole defense. I continue to work in mid-town for a European asset manager. I’m having a lot of fun, albeit the parent company is based in Edinburgh, so some pretty thick accents make for some challenging/comical conversations during the daily markets call.” …

Mark Aldrich lives in Eden Prairie, MN. Mark sends in: “I married a girl from Poland four years ago. We have had a chance to visit there a few times over the last four years, and it is really beautiful! She has been in Denver for the last eight or nine months with her job with Wells Fargo, so I have been traveling out there quite a bit! I am working in the golf shop at Mendakota Country Club. This summer will be my 16th year there! We have no kids, just a four-year-old Jack Russell terrier named Cooper. He loves to travel back and forth to Colorado as well!” … Alexander Reilly said that there wasn’t much to update, just “I’m older and slower and none the wiser in my mid-forties.

My wife and I are going to Rome and Paris next month. I’m looking forward to getting out of H-town and traveling a bit.” … Brandon Fleisher is living and working in Johannesburg, South Africa. He says: “The company I work for, Comverge, earned a contract with South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, to implement a demandresponse solution to help with their power shortages. It’s been very interesting gaining international business experience. I built

Harrison, son of Amanda Rising Black ’89, on a recent ski outing.

a team of about 30 people (all South Africans), designed and oversaw the remodel of our office space, and program managed our contract relationship with Eskom.

Additionally, I’ve had the pleasure of traveling throughout South Africa nearly every weekend.

What a vast, diverse country— from safaris (photo, not hunting) to hiking to great beaches to quaint artsy towns.” … Gail Guerrero moved back to Boston in 2005: “We finally bought a house and settled down in Newton, MA two and a half years ago. My husband, Michael, is a pediatric kidney specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital. My daughter, Millie, is 11 and is an aspiring circus aerialist with pink hair. My son, Gus, is five and a half and loves swimming, Legos, and his Star Wars underpants. I’m home full time and have served on the PTO board of my kids’ school for the last few years. I sometimes manage to run a halfmarathon now and then. As I write, it is a Sunday night, my son is naked, screaming, and running through the house after a shower, and I’m struck once again by the simultaneous joys, wonder, and mind-numbing insanity of parenting. Oh, and we adopted a rescue

dog who will come home tomorrow, and we can’t decide whether to keep the name ‘Giorgio’ that was given him by the shelter or give him a new name. ‘Jeter Sox,’ ‘Mo Williams,’ and ‘Bacon Bits’ are among the contenders. Any other Holderness folks live around here?” … Andy Twombly is “working on my Green belt in Krav Maga and enjoying the family. It was fun to be on campus for reunion.” … Elizabeth (Zim) Zimmerman’s family “spent last summer living in Europe. Tom was working in the Netherlands, and I took time off to explore and have adventures (every day!) with our two kids (Noah eight and Sophie five) and my mother. My mother flew back after our four weeks in the Netherlands were up, and then we traveled through Brussels and Paris and visited friends in Brittany before flying back out of Amsterdam. It was a great experience for the kids and for me too!

This winter we were skiing up in Jackson, NH when I spotted Stephanie Andelman’s parents!

They looked just the same—they are so nice, and I was so happy to see them. They invited us over to their house, and I Skyped with Steph while I was there. It has been a long time since I’ve talked

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:10 AM

Page 87

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

to Steph—and even longer since I’ve seen her parents.” So I think we are all doing a fairly good job at staying connected with our classmates! It’s good to hear. My husband and I are still in Providence, RI, but bought a place out in Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard. There is no computer or phone—which has been great—lots of reading, gardening, and just being outside.

Thanks again for rallying for our class notes!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Kathryn Lubrano Robinson ’87 87 Transit Street Providence, RI 02906 Phone: 401.274.0980 Kathryn.robinson@gmail.com

’88 Only a few months left until our 25th reunion blowout! I’m looking forward to seeing many of you. It looks like we will have 50–60 folks in attendance. I was able to get in touch with over 90% of the class; I guess the other 9–10% want to stay off the grid. … Matt Schonwald ran into Chip Martin on Crystal Mountain. … Jessica Dion is kicking it yoga-style in Boulder, and is getting ready to grow her garden. … Chris Stewart and his son JB dropped into Jackson Hole for some steep and deep with Steve Jones ’87 and new “team rider/son” Cayce Jones. Chris also ran into Chris Davenport ’89 who happened to be in town for Powder Week. …

Another member from the class of 1989, Ward Blanch, was rocking the Town Square Tavern with his band, The Deadlocks. Check out his web site: www.thedeadlocks.com. … Chris Hayes is back in the loop after a long absence.

He lives in Hanover, MA with wife and two kids and is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of

Te Tiffany ’89 and family: Clover, Marin, Reed, and Jillian.

America. … David Warren is back in Texas with his wife. … Carl Swenson got married last fall. …

We were finally able to track down Lisa Hand who is still in the San Diego area. Hopefully, we will see her at reunion. … Peter Webber is busy getting muddy and winning mountain biking titles. … Both Karen Woodbury and Sine Morse live in Portland, OR. Karen owns a few restaurants there, and Sine is an artist. Check out her website www.simplysine.com. … JD Rifkin writes: “My wife and I moved the whole family from Los Angeles to Columbia, MO last year. I opened another karate studio here in Columbia while travelling back and forth to California. Together we have four children and two granddaughters, two and three years old.”… Mark Richards writes: “After 16 years in Colorado, my family (wife and

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

son) and I have moved back to New England and have settled in North Andover, MA. My wife and I both moved with our companies, so the transition was smooth. It’s nice to be back, and we are enjoying more time with our relatives.

My son especially enjoys seeing his grandparents and cousins more than once a year. We are especially looking forward to the upcoming summer with lakes and an ocean within a short drive.” …

Sohier Hall is the CEO and founder of Luum. He writes: “I left Microsoft after ten years to start a social enterprise, figuring now’s a good time in life to mix it up a bit and why not save the world while I’m at it. Luum (www.luum.com) is setting out to rally people to take real action together and make a difference through a challenges network. On March 16 the first beta product launched! I’d love for the Holderness community to

check it out and let me know what you think—sohier@luum.com. I’m still doing master’s rowing, getting up way too early in the mornings, and racing the old people’s circuit.

I’m planning to race Head of the Charles in Boston for the fourth year in a row this fall. Our three daughters are now 14, 11, and 10.

This past year I’ve enjoyed reconnecting and talking shop with fellow tech start-up classmate Lee Hanson.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Alex MacCormick ’88 354 Lattingtown Road Locust Valley, NY 11560 Phone: 646.229.4291 amaccormick@centerlanellc.com

’89 I’m looking forward to hearing from more folks as we get closer to our 25th reunion. Tracy McCoy

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

87

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:10 AM

Page 88

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Christy Wood Donovan ’89 competes with her horse Hero this past October in Maryland.

Gillette kindly set up a Facebook Class of 1989 Holderness Page, so I hope you’ll have a chance to post some news. … Tracy writes: “I’m having a wonderful, snowy winter in Vail. I’m really enjoying being part of the board at Holderness and getting involved in the school. I have seen lots of Holderness alums out skiing throughout Colorado. If you are in the area, please give me a shout.” … It was great to hear from Te Tiffany who writes: “Life on the Last Frontier (aka Alaska) continues to be great for myself and my family. I am celebrating my 25th year as a professional big game guide and outfitter here and received my Master Guide license ten years ago. My company continues to offer hunting safaris to an international clientele in three distinct regions of Alaska—primarily the mid-eastern Brooks Range, the southern slope of the Brooks Range, and the Alaska Peninsula.

For those interested, please feel free to visit our website at www.alaskanperimeter.com. My oldest daughter Jillian is attending the University of Arizona in Tucson while our six-year-old daughter Marin and eight-yearold daughter Reed are growing

88

much more quickly than I would like. Youth now seems so fleeting, and I am trying to capture the precious present with them as best I can. We visit with Fred Harbison and his two daughters frequently as they live a mere 15 minutes or so from our house here in Fairbanks. I am committed to trying to make our 25th class reunion, which I believe is in 2014 (provided it is not in the month of May when I will be in the field guiding). I hope to see many of you there; it’s been far too long, and I am looking forward to returning to Holderness with my family.” … Amanda Black writes: “I’m living in York Harbor, ME and enjoying life on the seacoast.

Harrison turned four in January!

We’ve been spending a fair amount of time skiing this winter, and Harrison is learning a bit more each time. It is exciting to watch. I hope all ’89ers are doing well. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to try and reach out to more folks who live close by—as there are many—but so far, I haven’t been doing a very good job. Lauren Parkhill Adey, we WILL get together before 2013 passes us by! I am lucky that I do see a lot of alums on a regular

basis, and it is great to have that Holderness connection.” …

Amanda also sends in an update on Sine Morse ’88: “Please encourage people to check out www.simplysine.com. Sine is a phenomenal cut-paper artist and does spectacular pieces, perfect for a child’s room, hospital, doctor’s office, etc. She recently completed a piece for a children’s hospital in Portland, OR. She lives there with her husband Mark and their two children, Mia and Max.” … As for me, I just came back from a perfect weekend of spring skiing with Jennie Legg Gabel and family up at Jay Peak. She and husband Chris enjoy living in Sudbury, MA where six-year-old MacKenzie and four-year-old Will keep them busy. … Brad Greenwood writes: “Cora is four and a half and Charlie is two and a half; both are blazing redheads with personalities to match. The whole family is healthy, happy, and having fun here in Kittery, ME and wherever else we find ourselves. The winter brought some good snow storms; we just got back from Jay Peak where it snowed four feet in the last week or so. We skied every day and played in the crazy new Pumphouse waterpark. We are home to work for a bit, then off to Sarasota, FL for Easter with Megan’s mom. We are looking forward to some sun and warmth.

When we get home, it will be time to get the NE summer going!

Swing on by for a lobster!”…

Thanks for all the updates. Keep the news coming!

’90

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jen Murphy Robison ’89 5 Hereford Road Marblehead, MA 01945-1814 Phone: 207.239.5578 jennifermrobison@yahoo.com

’93

Pepper deTuro writes in: “Corley, Bailey and Burke are proud to announce the birth of their little bro Locke! Sup Bulls?” Congrats Pepper!

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Courtney Fleisher ’90 37 Chase Street Burlington, VT 05401 Phone: 773.633.6144 courtneyfleisher@alumni.bates.edu

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

’92 Ryan McPherson writes: “After ten years of overseeing the University at Buffalo’s advocacy efforts, I’ve spent the past two years as UB’s Chief Sustainability Officer where I am working to build a better tomorrow with students, faculty, and the Buffalo-Niagara community.

When not at work, I spend time on my farm with my daughter Jasmine, son Sayward, and wife Alexandra; continue to engage in endurance events; and leverage my Holderness experience coaching hockey and soccer to kids.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Kelly Mullen Wieser ’92 12 Willis Court Campton, NH 03223 kelly@wiesermail.com

We may be getting sentimental in our old age—there was a robust response to the solicitation of class notes this time around! The class of 1993 is preparing to celebrate its 20th reunion in

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:10 AM

Page 89

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

September, and so far, the turn out for this event looks great; close to one-third of our class plans to attend. If you hope to join us on campus the weekend of the 20th, please inform the folks in Alumni Relations or one of your trusty Reunion Committee members (Nat Faxon, Anne Blair Hudak, Jon Moodey, Schuyler Perry, Peter Woodward, or me) as we’d love to add your name to the growing list of attendees. Be sure to check out the Holderness website for a schedule of events and list of accommodations, and pay prior to June 30 to receive a ten percent discount. Without further ado, here are the notes for the class of 1993. … Ben Sharlin writes: “I now live in Yardley, PA with my wife Sharon, an elementary school teacher, and our two children, Micah, three, and Rachel, five. I am an attorney and recently moved my practice to the law firm of Maselli Warren, P.C., in Princeton, NJ, where I specialize in business law and litigation.

Feel free to contact me if you ever need any thoughts on an issue.

My e-mail address is: bsharlin@maselliwarren.com.” … Kate McIlvain Smith sends the following: “Smitty and I are still in Washington, DC, teaching, coaching, renovating, and respirating.

Our little people are growing up— Tiller (seven), Eleanor (five), and Clausen (three). After nearly seven years of changing diapers, I am officially done with that phase of life—now on to coordinating lacrosse games and coaching soccer teams. Crazy fun times! I would love to reconnect with any Bulls who are in the area or passing through as Nina Perkins Newman ’94 left me almost a year ago.”… Neil Shetty Bhay writes: “I’ve been married happily for five years. We have been living in Brooklyn for the past year and are slowly becoming hipsters. My two-

Pepper ’90 and Liza deTuro welcome Reagan Lockhart deTuro.

year-old, Nadal, likes typing on the keyboard whenever I use it. I currently work at HBO managing several of their websites and am getting used to people telling me their favorite TV shows even though I have nothing to do with the shows on HBO. I’m not wrestling or skydiving as I previously planned, but enjoying life all the same.” … From England, Dan Shub sends this news: “I have been happily settled in the U.K. for a while now and am preparing to take the Life in the U.K. test this summer so I can become a permanent resident.

This requires learning things like, ‘Where does Santa Claus come from?’ (yes, that is an actual question) and, ‘Where is the Scouse dialect spoken?’” … Charlotte Connors reports the following: “We recently moved from Washington, DC to Fairfield, CT (my husband is in graduate school for physical therapy here). I’m still acclimating to the ’burbs, but it’s great to be back in New England (after 13 years) and closer to family. I’ve recently left my job in international development to become more of a full-time mom and to study herbal medicine.” …

Karrie Stevens Thomas writes:

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

Becca Wellington ’93 snapped a quick photo of her daughters Maria, three, and Tori, one.

“This class notes e-mail made me laugh because the morning it came in was one to remember! I got up to go for a run but couldn’t because I broke a shoelace, and I ran out of time replacing it before I had to take over kid patrol; I found my eight-month-old in a puddle of water after he tried to pull up on the humidifier, so I had to change his clothes before taking him to daycare; my four-year-old was so engrossed in playing Transformers that he didn’t get himself dressed and had to be coaxed to eat his breakfast, making us late to pre-school; we got to pre-school, and it was the first day of vacation (I forgot) … I dropped them both off at daycare (phew!) and arrived a half-hour late to work—just livin’ the dream!” … Mugsy Nields shares: “My boys are batty for fishing, skiing, and ice hockey these days. I’m looking forward to our 20th reunion this fall!” …

Nathan Radcliffe, his wife Lauren, and children, Jane (six)

and Henry (four), have settled down in Larchmont, NY. They are all excited that Uncle T.G. Gallaudet ’94 is engaged and moving back to the East Coast! …

Catherine Anderson Price writes: “I’ve been busy with my kids, Ava (seven) and Julien (five). In my work, I specialize in treating infertility with Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture. I am also developing a skin care line.

It’s all very exciting and keeping me firing on all pistons!” … Hilary Taylor Comerchero shares this news: “My father passed away in May after fighting with great spirit stage four lung cancer. It was, ironically, the best year of our life as a close family. My mother and I now live together which my preschooler adores. We are a girlie house, with a big, white Samoyed male! I haven’t gone skiing this year, which is torture, but I patiently await the year when I can see Sadie grasp that snow actually does exist in nature.” …

Jon Pistey reports: “My family is

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

89

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:10 AM

Page 90

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Rachel, five, and Micah, three, with big smiles for their dad Ben Sharlin ’93.

Gerry Rinn ’93 married Rebecca Gardner on October 7, 2011 in Sarasota, FL.

still living in Salt Lake City and enjoying the rugged beauty of the western U.S. despite horrible air pollution in the valley during winter temperature inversions. I am managing the Park City Ice Arena, and despite working in one of the best ski resort towns in the country, I almost never get to ski. All work and no play makes Jon a dull boy, so I keep busy by playing hockey three times a week.

I’m also training to run my first half-marathon in early September.

My boys, Theo (five) and Gus (four), are growing up so fast. My wife, Kim (age withheld for my safety), finished her second Master’s degree in fine arts and education and is enjoying teaching art at a small, private, K–8 school in addition to being their head of marketing and admissions and J.V. volleyball coach (she’s never played volleyball, but don’t tell the kids!). We spend time hiking and snowshoeing in the mountains around Salt Lake City, and now that the boys are older, we camp a lot during the summer.

We’re looking forward to getting back to New Hampshire this summer to see family and will most likely head up to the Holderness area for a day. I’m looking forward

to seeing all the changes.” …

Becca Sher Wellington sends this news: “My husband Bill and I live in Seattle with our two daughters, Maria (three) and Tori (one). I am currently working on my PhD in education history at the University of Washington. Life is great but totally crazy with the little ones!” … Kevin Zifcak’s daughter Lily is now seven, and son Josh will turn five this summer. Both are involved in activities and keeping the family busy. Kevin was at Holderness in early December and saw Mr. Barton, Mr. Barnum, and Rick Eccleston ’92. Kevin laments: “Worcester Academy hockey lost to Holderness, though.” … Carsten Steffen writes: “Our daughter is two and a half years old and time is flying. I switched into Hospital Management about a year and a half ago after working as an anesthesiologist and ICU consultant.” … Ryan Dunn continues to work as Creative Director and User Experience Specialist with Dealer.com, the automotive software/internet marketing solutions company he co-founded with four college roommates in 1998. Still headquartered in beautiful Burlington, VT, Dealer.com has

90

grown significantly in that time and continues to thrive with 700plus employees and a west coast office in Manhattan Beach, CA as well! You may have seen Dealer.com awarded one of Outside Magazine’s 2011 Best Places to Work. You can see and read more about their history here: www.dealer.com/company.

Over the past few years, his winters have revolved around working remotely (Marissa Mayer, remote that!) while hunting for great snow and ski terrain. Back in 2010–11 he spent the winter at Bridger Bowl, MT and narrowly missed a chance to catch up with Amy Zekos Dolan in Missoula, MT—great skiing and riding up that way. After disappointing ski conditions in Vermont in 2011–12, Ryan headed west again for the current season, living and working in Crested Butte, CO. Currently he is preparing an excursion to Salt Lake City to join company founding partners for heli-skiing with the Snowbird-based Powderbird operations. He is also planning a photography excursion of Canyonlands, UT on the return to Crested Butte. Before making the long cross-country drive to Vermont in April, he hopes to

detour to Silverton Mountain, CO for some spring skiing en route to camping on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for a few days. By then, his thoughts will be returning to summer mountain biking with a possible second attempt to bike-pack the length of Vermont which he first attempted with Dealer.com partner, colleague, and CEO Rick Gibbs. You can see a video of that experience here: vimeo.com/54157220. More of Ryan’s photography can be seen at rwdunn.com” … Daiyu Suzuki reports: “I am still at Columbia, getting my PhD in education.

Once in a while, I see Headmaster Phil Peck, who is also getting his doctorate here. I also saw Theo Doughty Torchio and Zach Zaitzeff at a Holderness alumni gathering in Manhattan last winter. Life has been good: being a father to two daughters, engaging in Japan relief activities, and trying to make a difference in the field of education. All of this, for me, started at Holderness and its teachers like Mr. Walker.” …

Megan Brady writes: “We welcomed a daughter, Piper, last March. She’ll actually turn one this Saturday, and she shares a birthday with her dad, Holmes.

So, we’re busy running around after her and her older brother, Jackson, who is three and a half, while juggling our bustling restaurant, Two Brothers Tavern. We were happy to host a Holderness alumni gathering there this past Saturday!” … Abbie Wilson reports: “I just got back from Kenya where I was assisting with preparations for elections with my organization, IFES (International Foundation for Electoral Systems).

It was a great trip, and I am lucky to be heading to Mali in a few weeks as well. Alina is now two and a half years old; I can’t believe how time flies.” … Gerry Rinn sends us a quick update:

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:10 AM

Page 91

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Morgan Nields’ ’93 four-and-a-half-year-old son Sully holds a Snake River Cutthroat Trout.

“Rebecca and I were married October 7, 2011, in Sarasota, FL. We also just had a baby girl named Oakley, who was born Tuesday, September 4, so we are really excited right now. We live in Centennial, CO.” … Peter Woodward sends in: “I am still living in Georgetown, MA with wife Darlene and puppy Kota. I started work with The Black Diamond Group/Carhartt Footwear in January. I am working in the corporate office in Woburn doing customer service and inside sales.

I’ve also been skating two times a week in the morning before work at Phillips Academy in Andover.” … See you back on campus in September!

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Lindsay Dewar Fontana ’93 15 Long Lots Road Westport, CT 06880-3826 linds_dewar@yahoo.com

’94 Cynthia Sweet writes: “I have been really busy rescuing dogs.

My non-profit has been up and running now for almost two years.

Sweet Paws Rescue has rescued, vetted, and homed over 800 dogs

since 2011, and I couldn’t be happier with its success. We are on target to rescue another 650 dogs this year. Although it is a horribly sad state of affairs in the Southern states for stray, neglected, abandoned, and abused dogs, I still am inspired every day by the amazing rescuers with whom I work, who fight every day on behalf of dogs in the US. Sweet Paws has been established as one of the leading and most reputable rescue organizations in Alabama and has become the largest New England rescue that transports dogs out of Alabama. Sweet Paws has been asked to endorse legislation in Alabama to promote animal welfare legislation by Alabama Voters for Responsible Animal Legislation (AVRAL). We were also a part of the making of ‘Roots of Rescue,’ a documentary about the dog overpopulation in the South. In addition, Sweet Paws has developed an elementary educational curriculum to spread awareness of the overpopulation crisis and educate future generations about responsible pet ownership. I had the pleasure of visiting Holderness back in the fall, along with classmate Ramey Harris-Tatar and our rescue dogs,

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

Ryan Dunn ’93 enjoys fresh powder.

to talk to the school about the southern dog overpopulation epidemic. I would love for people to learn more about Sweet Paws and our rescue efforts. Check out our website at www.sweetpawsrescue.org and to see photos of our daily rescues, check us out on Facebook! If anyone would like to know more about Sweet Paws, feel free to contact me at cynthia@sweetpawsrescue.org.” …

Chris Terrien says: “Life here at St. Peter’s has been great. We are busy with lots of cases. Terrienfam and Webb-fam are going to St. Johns for a week this weekend—can’t wait.” … Marc Ellison wrote to say that: “Things are well on my end. I just started a new job with a start-up vodka company out of Austin, TX called Deep Eddy in January. It’s kept me pretty busy and traveling a lot. This winter, it looks like all my ski lessons with my five-year-old son Jaden finally came together. He finally took off his edgy wedgies this weekend—a big step for him— and I think he may have a little need for speed! Hope everyone is well.” … Victoria Sharp writes: “I am still in Georgia where I am currently enjoying my children by home schooling them through a

private online school, Laurel Springs in Ojai, CA. This has allowed Catherine to seriously pursue her horseback riding; she is currently training and showing for Devon Horse Show in Pennsylvania and Pony Finals in Kentucky in August. Her twin brother Sam is not sitting still either … He is now enjoying BMX racing and is traveling to BMX tracks to state qualify so he can gain points for the Nationals.

Graham and I are still running our own business, Sharp Retrievers, which was endorsed by Orvis last year. It is a wonderful feeling having a job that involves working with dogs. They always make things fun and at times very interesting! I suppose you could say, life is good.” … Dave Castor sent this update, “The Air Force ‘loaned’ me to the Army for a spell at Fort Leavenworth, KS …

No, I wasn’t here for the prison. I completed the Army’s Command and General Staff College and am headed to the Las Vegas area around mid-summer for a twoyear assignment.” … Melissa Barker writes: “It was great to catch up with Sam and Ryan Bass and Kate Stahler at the Holderness gathering in Boulder

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

91

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:10 AM

Page 92

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Brendan ’94 and Lindsay Falvey’s oneyear-old daughter Grace and two sons, Jackson and Wyatt.

recently. I had a great season on my cyclocross bike, earning a silver in my age group at the Masters World Cyclocross Championship. Fellow Holderness alumni Pete Webber ’88 was third in his age group. I had only a brief ski season and now am working on training for some long mountain bike races. I am also pleased to have one of my students, Annie Hayes ’15, attend Holderness, and no surprise, she loves it!” Go Mel! … Chris Perry reports: “No special news here. I did recently hear from Ramey and Sam asking for me to send an update. But that’s about it.” …

Lindsey Nields Kennedy says: “I found my new home in Portland, OR and love it! Switching careers a few years ago, I still have yet to settle on a specific endeavor. I do know it will be an outdoor job working with teenagers. Currently, I volunteer for an awesome homeless youth shelter, called PEAR, and one of their many programs takes kids on camping, rafting, and hiking trips and has a potential for employment. Another hope is to work with at-risk kids in horticulture therapy, and living in the Pacific Northwest seems to

92

Martha Macomber and Clark Macomber ’14 catch up with Sam ’94 and Ryan Bass and their two kids, Luke and Mekdes, out in Boulder, CO.

be an ideal location for such programs. Hope to see anyone who is in the area.” … Brendan Falvey writes: “I recently joined Brand Iron, a branding and marketing agency in Denver. Our daughter, Grace, just turned one and big brothers Jackson and Wyatt continue to grow more enamored with her every day!” … Thanks for all the updates! Life is also good for us—our boys are three and a half and six and our newest family member (adopted through Sweet Paws Rescue) is settling in wonderfully. Hope you all are well!

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Ramey Harris-Tatar ’94 1000 Olin Way No. 648

Needham, MA 02492 Phone: 781.292.4301 rameyht@yahoo.com Sam Bass ’94 1043 Poplar Avenue Boulder, CO 80304 Phone: 207.233.4630 sam.bass@comcast.net

’95 Bryan Erikson writes: “I just completed my first year as Head Hockey Coach at Wareham High School in Massachusetts. Great year, a lot of fun. My oldest is 11 and youngest is seven. Everyone is playing a lot of hockey (including me) and having a great time. I

also am a high school math teacher in Weymouth, MA.” …

Katie Lyman sends in: “I’m still loving life in Manhattan—especially now that I and my little family moved into a two-bedroom apartment. I am still taking pictures, but mostly portraits now, and have retired from wedding photography for a while. We are all healthy so life is good. Best wishes everyone.” … Brian Turton writes: “Things are going well. My youngest of four is now two years old and a terror—a bit of payback for my own deeds. My landscape company just purchased a competitor and things are moving along well as a business owner.

Most of my free time is spent with

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:10 AM

Page 93

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

the kids. The older three all ride horses, and the oldest is getting competitive showing for national rankings now. We spend most weekends at horse shows and just got back from one in Atlanta. It seems that work, horse showing, and cleaning up after kids is the bulk of my life these days.

Hopefully, when they end up at Holderness I can get a break.” …

Dan Shin sends in: “Thanks for checking in. I’ve been well, working for the man still at a Tokyo-based bank. Still living in New York City and enjoying it very much.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Alexis Wruble ’95 36 Grandview Avenue Medford, MA 02155-2933 alexisgrizzly@gmail.com

’96 It has been an amazing year for snow here in the Northeast! I am sure most of you are on the slopes enjoying the consistent snowfall!

After I enjoyed a couple weeks in the warm(er?) Florida sun this past March, I was reminded of the March break senior year with Liz Fox, Reece Spinney and Steph Pisanelli in Naples, FL when it too was cooler than expected! I have heard from several of you this season starting in Gloucester, MA where Jon Conant and his wife Karen are these days. They own CrossFit Cape Ann, a gym they opened in the fall of 2010.

Jon writes: “All the great coaching I got from the likes of Phil Peck, Peter Hendel, and Chris Little have definitely influenced this career path … so thanks to those guys for that. I see Tim O’Keeffe ’92 pretty regularly as he stops by the gym when he is in town visiting his family. Seth Warner dropped by last summer when he was in town from

Portland, OR.” … Molly Stahler chimed in from Salt Lake City, UT. She is currently working for Black Diamond Equipment, Gregory Mountain Packs, and POC Sports with Willie Ford ’05. In March she was at a Skiing Magazine event with Sam Bass ’94, Josh Povec ’94, and her sister Kate Starrett ’94. She writes, “Augusta Comey ’96 (formerly Riehle) is my neighbor—literally, right next door! I have been skiing a bunch and CrossFit-ing. I hope to play a ridiculous amount of golf this summer, and I’m still traveling as much as possible!”… Also in Utah is Kristen Stout Lovelock who is getting married to David Dyer at Sundance Resort, UT, April 6 and Wadham College, Oxford University, August 3. She says: “Get in touch if you’re in the area and would like to join in the celebrations: kristenlovelock @yahoo.co.uk.” … Andy Wood is near Kristen as he just moved to Wimbledon and loves it! He founded a company (www.silverbullet.tv) that produces TV programs and video content for the likes of BBC, VEVO, Yahoo, and Huffington Post, and most of it is available in the states. He writes: “Love to all, Andy.” … Cullen Mullany checked in from Alaska.

He was a volunteer tax preparer last March 2012 in three native Yup’ik villages on the Bering Sea. “I did this during my spring break while adding an accounting degree to my mostly unused cellular biology degree. The temperature rose all the way up to -35˚ F with a good 30-mph wind. But it was quite the unique experience, and they were filming ‘Flying Wild Alaska’ on our planes. Perhaps I am in an episode getting dumped from a sled at the airport in Nightmute, AK.”… Emily Evans MacLaury is looking forward to graduating in

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

Jerome Thomas ’95 and son Hudson Noah Thomas, born on October 27, 2012.

May as a certified nurse-midwife and will begin work sometime in the early fall. “I’ll be a camp nurse in Maine for the summer with my kids who are almost six and eight.” … Dave Flynn and his wife Amy are excited to report that their newest addition arrived in January, Brady Flynn. He is a cute one destined for skates. … Field Pickering and his wife Emma are still in Singapore and report: “Life in Southeast Asia is extremely pleasurable!” … And last but not least, Heather Pierce Roy writes, “I am still living in Southboro, MA at the Fay School, where we live the boarding school life. I will be running the Boston Marathon this April and am excited to start coaching girls’ lacrosse again this spring. We plan to visit Hong Kong and China this summer, so if

anyone lives there, I would love to catch up!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Emily Evans MacLaury ’96 1618 Juliet Avenue Saint Paul, MN 55105 emaclaury@gmail.com Heather Pierce Roy ’96 48 Main Street Southborough, MA 01772 Phone: 310.699.9532 heatherbpierce@hotmail.com

’97 Greetings! I hope this note finds all of you well. Here is a bit of news from our class. … Allison Seymour Reilly shared the following update: “After living out West for a number of years we recently

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

93

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:10 AM

Page 94

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Tad Davis ’97 and John Macy ’82 on a heli-skiing trip in BC Canada.

moved back to the East Coast. We are currently living in Vermont, and it is wonderful being close to family and old friends again. We welcomed a baby boy to the family this past summer. Charlie was born August 9 and joins big brother Oliver, four. I am slowly getting used to the fact that I am seriously outnumbered in a house full of boys! I am hoping to make it over to Holderness this spring to see a game, as I have not been back since our fifth reunion.” …

Brian Werner sent in exciting news: “Levi Aloysius Rocketship Oso Werner was born at 6:27 AM on December 5, 2012. We are expecting a visit from Matt Kuharic ’98 next week. Telluride is wonderful—great winter. I am excited for summer, including a month-long trip to Europe with

94

the fam.”… Meg Rapelye writes: “I just finished my Master of Social Work degree and am putting it to use as a center director for Higher Achievement, a non-profit organization that seeks to close the opportunity gap for middle school youth. I’m currently living in Richmond, VA, near where my partner is stationed in the Coast Guard. We have a bubbly, freespirited, two-year-old named Elly who lights up our lives. Overall, life is good! Hope all is well with everyone.” … Tad Davis sent this news: “I met John Macy ’82 on a heli-skiing trip in BC Canada recently. Great time getting to know a fellow alum. We had fun showing our group how Holderness skis: straight down the fall line.” … That is all the news there is to report for now.

Have a great spring and summer!

Best, Putney.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Putney Haley ’97 431 Lloyd Avenue Providence, RI 02906 putneypyles@gmail.com

’98 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Tara Walker ’98 18 Toftree Lane Dover, NH 03820 Phone: 603.707.0030 taraphotography@gmail.com

’99 Greetings, Class of ’99. Thank you to all who wrote in and shared your wonderful news. Without

further ado here is what our classmates had to say: … Cynthia Cruz writes: “I wish I could visit Holderness sometimes, but life keeps me very busy. I definitely try to keep in touch with some of our classmates. It’s kind of crazy to think that it’s already been 14 years … So, anything new in my life? I’m married to the most incredible man ever. I have two step daughters that are amazing, and I’m currently pregnant with another little one. I still work as a NYC EMT/paramedic and am also a full time registered nurse at a Level One trauma center. As you can imagine, I’m a very busy person, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Can’t wait to read everyone’s updates!” … Megan (Bitter) Griffith shares: “All is good here. We moved to Wellesley from Boston in August and are enjoying the suburbs.

Charlie is three and a half and Paige will be two in June. We’ve had a fun winter on our trips up to Stowe skiing and sledding. Our third is due next week—March 4— should make for an exciting spring and summer!” … John Hindess writes: “All is well with me and my family. I’m not sure when I last provided an update, but I am currently living in Vancouver, BC with my wife Leah and our son William, who is almost three. I am practicing as a commercial litigator at a small firm that specializes in construction law. You are right; life is extremely busy, but we really enjoy living in this part of the world and love getting up to Whistler to ski and snowshoe, and golf is almost year-round! Can’t wait to read the next HST magazine and please tell any Holderness people to send me an email if they are travelling to our part of the world!”… Harvard University announced that Kathleen Kime joined the

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:10 AM

Page 95

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Jon Conant ’96 and wife Karen at CrossFit in Gloucester, MA.

Cullen Mullany ’96 spent a week last March as a volunteer tax preparer in three native Yup’ik villages on the Bering Sea.

Regional Giving team on February 4 as Regional Director for Capital Giving. Kathleen will continue her work as point person for the HCF Vice Chairs of Leadership Giving for the duration of the fiscal year. Please join us in congratulating Kathleen! …

As for me, I will be moving my family to Dublin, Ireland in April.

My husband recently accepted a position over there, and we will spend the next year and a half enjoying all things Irish! We are looking forward to this amazing opportunity for not only us but most importantly our children, Jack seven, Griffin five, and Grace two. If anyone happens to be traveling to Ireland, you know where to find me! Thank you again to all who wrote in. I look forward to keeping in touch.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Brooke Aronson McCreedy ’99 26 Bridie Lane Norfolk, MA 02056-1739 Home: 508.528.8033 Cell: 360.908.3095 Brooke.mccreedy@gmail.com

’00 Hello one last time from sunny SoCal! I ended up throwing this together last minute because as Tim Barnhorst put it, I was too busy getting kicked out of helicopters. We will say he is half right. Really it was the long swim back to shore that took up so much time. Without further ado, here are the few notes I got in the short request window: … Heidi Webb Cook had some great news to share. She writes: “Ave ’02 and I just welcomed our son, Holden Webb Cook, into the world on February 20. Andy Bohlin ’01 was over this evening and cooked us dinner! We’re looking forward to a visit from Hedda Burnett next month.” … It was an awesome surprise to hear from JaQay Carlyle and he is doing great. He writes: “I am not sure the last time I did class notes but it seems like a while back. So some of this may be a repeat, and some may be new. I finished law school in northern California in 2009 with a focus on intellectual property (copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets). Since then I have worked as a lawyer in the entertainment law field at a firm in SoCal/LA. I

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

love what I do and I enjoy the work because every day we are working on contracts for celebs I have seen on TV! I still have no kids and no wife. Other than that, I’m just attempting to be less than terrible at golf (I’m failing) and playing hoops when I can. Hope everyone from Holderness is well—I have to get back for a visit sooner than later.” … Mike Schnurr had one big piece of news. He sends in: “Yo, as you know, I got engaged while on vacation in Florida. That’s it for me!” … I got a great note from Matt Powers and some great pictures. Matt sends in: “Another year has flown by. My sons are huge and compete over everything and anything. My wife is still cancer-free, and we are still living in the foothills outside Yosemite.

My heirloom organic gardens are thriving this year. I started a garden-to-table blog called Seasonality Recipes, at seasonalityrecipes.blogspot.com. I’m still teaching English and Digital Music Production at Minarets High, the school where all the students get Macbooks (soon to be iPads). I’m starting beekeeping this year with my eldest. I’m still making music, but often it’s producing my students’ or creating examples for them. They are posted online for free download here: soundcloud.com/mattpowersmusic. Have a great year! ROCK!” …

Molly Stahler ’96, Sam Bass ’94, Josh Povec ’94, and Kate Starrett ’94 pose for a quick picture at a Skiing Magazine event.

Sean McKenna got a note to me in between runs on the ski slopes!

Sean says: “What’s up Sully! I’m in Salt Lake living the life and working for England Logistics. I went heli-skiing in British Colombia in February, which was AWESOME. I just got back from Squaw Valley, CA, where US Alpine Skiing Nationals were going on. I got to hang out with Ramsay Hill ’02 and Ally Keefe ’02 and Willie Ford ’05. I also saw Amanda French ’01. There were probably other Holderness people there, but those are the ones I saw out and about. Hope you’re doing great!” … Rory Kelly got back to me with a short note mostly about Mike Schnurr getting engaged!

Ha, ha! … Thanks, Rory, and I hope you’re doing well too! … I was also lucky enough to catch up with Ryan Tyler on Facebook this past month. He is doing great and is back in Seattle after a short stint in Anchorage, Alaska. …

Well, that wraps it up for another issue of class notes for the class of 2000. Sorry for the late notice on notes this time around, but don’t worry, there will be more! The next time everyone sends me notes, I’ll be at my new station assignment in Sitka, AK. If anyone needs a little adventure in their life, come on out for a visit. All the best, make good choices, and keep in touch! Cheers.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

95

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:11 AM

Page 96

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Andrew “Sully” Sullivan ’00 2115 Ridge View Drive San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 518.894.2957 myireland20@gmail.com

’01 Andy Bohlin writes: “We are living the good life in Vermont still.

Our daughter Reagan turned one in March, and Katie opened her own yoga studio in Shelburne, VT. So proud and psyched for her— www.yogarootsvt.com—check it out! I was honored to be in Kellan Florio’s wedding in January.

Andrew Everett ’02 and Ramsay Hill ’02 were there as were Pete Barnum and Coach Low. Always great to see them. Best to all fellow ’01s.” … Patrick Regan says: “I am a judge advocate (attorney) for a Special Forces Battalion at Fort Campbell, KY. We are scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan this spring where I will serve as the legal advisor for Special Operations Task Force-West. I am really looking forward to the opportunity and challenges.

Nothing too exciting is going on here in Clarksville, TN, though, where we currently live. My wife, Katy, is teaching fifth-grade language arts and social studies, and my two boys are seven and two years old.” … Peter Pohl says: “This summer, I completed RASP I (Ranger Assessment and Selection Program). I am a member of 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, GA. I am currently deployed.” … Joy Domin Southworth writes: “My prenatal DVD series, Body by Trimester, hit 3,000 copies sold in the month of February! And, my latest news is that I will be opening a brandnew personal training and wellness center on March 23 in Gilford, NH! I have spent the last

96

Betsy Cornell ’01 and Quinn Scheweizer ’01 catch up at a wedding in Seattle.

six months building and creating this state-of-the-art wellness facility that encompasses all aspects of wellness, from massage to spinning and barre, and of course a lot of personal training! Grace, four, and Thomas, 21 months, are keeping busy as well enjoying all the snow we have gotten in the last couple months. Come take a spinning class this summer!”

Congrats Joy! … Kellan Florio is having a big year! He writes: “It’s been quite a busy past few months for me. I recently got married to my lovely bride and physical therapist (that’s how we met), Diana Zotos. We’re enjoying life in Brooklyn and are eagerly awaiting our first child later this summer.” Congrats, Kellan! …

Anne and Joey Mormina are

doing well. Joey is finishing up another season with the WilkesBarre Panquins. I was able to catch up with them and their adorable kids, Robby and Katherine, when he played the Manchester Monarchs in March. … Betsy Cornell writes: “I spent a long weekend in Seattle celebrating my cousin’s wedding with her other cousin, the mighty Quinn Schweizer! It was fun catching up and reminiscing about the good old days while taking in the scenery.” … As for me, Karyn Hoepp Jennings, my husband, Joe, and I bought a house in November in Lee, NH. I’m still working at the radio stations, so other than the house, not much is new. Hope everyone is doing great, and I look forward to hear-

ing from you for the next class notes! Xoxo.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Karyn Hoepp ’01 3 Earle Drive Lee, NH 03861 Phone: 603.421.4151 KarynPJennings@gmail.com Adam Lavallee ’01 227 W. Baltimore Avenue Lansdowne, PA 19050 a.l.lavallee@gmail.com

’02 Kerry Douglas writes: “After finishing a year-long acting conservatory at Michael Howard Studios in NYC, I’m pursuing that as well as working in interior

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:11 AM

Page 97

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Joe Sampson ’02 and Andrew Everett ’02 coaching the U10 program at Waterville Valley BBTS this winter.

design at Scully and Scully on Park Avenue.” … Joe Sampson reports: “It’s been a great winter!

Andrew Everett and I have been coaching the U10 program at Waterville Valley BBTS this winter.

The U10 kids are a group of 9year-old kids that already ski better than their parents do. It’s been fun. My wife, Kait, and I have bumped into Christopher Nielson and Betsy Pantazelos a few times to hang out, skate, ski, and enjoy home brew!

Christopher and I also found time over Christmas break to play in the “Fac Brat” hockey game with Eliza ’02 and Anna Lockwood ’03, Sam ’11 and Clark Macomber ’14, Erin Maroni and a few other alums.”… Andrew Everett writes of the same coaching experience: “As I am sure you know, Joe and I are coaching the U10s at Waterville. It’s been fun working with the little guys—probably learning as much from them as they are learning from me!” …

Maddie (Rappoli) Fiumara shares: “Things are going well—still living in Boston and working at Carney Sandoe. I got to see a few former teachers and classmates at our big conference in February, which was really fun. And, my husband

and I are expecting our first baby in August!” (Congratulations, Maddie) … Ally Keefe writes: “I’m still living in Squaw and skiing a lot. I’m also really excited about my new job as a nurse in the Surgical-Orthopedic unit at Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center!” … Zach Zoulias reports that: “2012 was a crazy year for me! I moved to Boston, finished my MBA at Babson College, and started a new job as a business systems analyst/product manager for Crunchtime Information Systems.

I’m helping design new features for really great companies in the hospitality industry such as Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and The Cheesecake Factory. I still keep in touch with Micum McIntyre and Theo Jordan pretty often, both of whom moved to Colorado over the last year!” … Melissa Adams writes: “I’m now in my sixth year of working at Fidelity Investments in Merrimack, NH, and I finally decided to do something cool with my vacation time—I traveled to New Zealand for a few weeks over New Year’s with my boyfriend, and we had an awesome time! The long plane ride was definitely worth it. I also ran my first full marathon this past fall

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

Amy Laverack ’03, Joy Erdman ’04, Anders Nordblom ’06, and Crosby Nordblom ’08 skiing in Aspen, CO.

in Manchester and am working on training for my next one that will be in Chicago this fall.” … As for me, Betsy Pantazelos, many things remain the same, but I have had quite a number of Holderness moments since the last class notes. For one, Christopher Nielson and his girlfriend Suni Dillard were moving to Boston conveniently at a time when my prior roommate was moving out—voila! Daily class of 2002 reunions ensue. I am still working for Patagonia, and when I traveled to Reno for a business trip, I actually had the opportunity to ski at Mt. Rose with Ally Keefe before she started her new job as a nurse. Otherwise, the only other notable things in my life have been that I am now an aunt, I went skydiving this summer, and I just completed a charity event at Wildcat Mountain in which I skied 100,000 vertical feet in one day (48 runs!). Any takers for next year’s event? I also had an absolute blast at reunion this past fall and had an incredible time catching up with and dancing with everyone who turned up: Ramsay Hill, Kerry Douglas, Peter Bohlin, Jenn Dinkel, Joe Sampson, Chris

Nielson, Sarah Hendel, Andrew Everett, and Whitney (Connelly) Edmunds. For those who couldn’t make it, I beg of you, come to the next one! It was such a joy reconnecting.

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Betsy Pantazelos ’02 256 Summer Street, Apt. 1L Somerville, MA 02143-2204 Phone: 774.270.0588 b.pantazelos@gmail.com Facebook: Holdernessclassof2002

’03 Matthew David Burzon writes: “I’ve been catching up with alumni like crazy here in Boston. I recently saw Christopher Nielson ’02, Craig Panock, and Ryan McManus ’04. Everyone seems to be doing great!” … Sam Rigby writes: “I went to the memorial in January and had a nice time catching up with some of our classmates. I’m currently living in Hanover, NH and working at Richmond Middle School with former Holderness Dean of Faculty Jim Nourse. I’m excited to be getting married in June and can’t wait to see everyone at reunion.”

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

97

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:11 AM

Page 98

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Nick Payeur ’03 95 Sawyer Road Scarborough, ME 04074-9143 ndpayeur@gmail.com

’04 Geoff Calver writes: “I am living in Washington, DC, working as a social media and marketing expert. I love the DC area but really miss New England snowstorms, skiing, and playing hockey. On October 20, 2012 I married Catharine Sawyer, a fellow Gettysburg College alum, Class of 2007, in Arendtsville, PA. We honeymooned in St. Michaels, MD, on the Chesapeake Bay. We both love the outdoors, going to Washington Capitals hockey games, exploring the DC area, and traveling. Hazen Woolson was a groomsman in the wedding, and Ben Cilley was in attendance. It was great to see both of them and share my special day with them.” … Dave Campbell writes: “I recently moved from Boston to Middlebury, VT to continue to grow my two businesses GivingSomeThing.com and AnotherBestDay.com while enjoying the opportunity to play in the Green Mountains.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Ryan McManus ’04 40 Locust Street Marblehead, MA 01945 rbmcmanus@gmail.com

’05 Brie Keefe writes: “As for me, I’m just about to receive my Vermont teaching license in middle school science and social studies. I’m currently working this spring as a long-term sub in an eighth-grade classroom. Hope all is well!” … JJ Hall sends in: “I’m still the Workforce Development

98

Coordinator at CleanEdison and living in NYC.” … Emma Schofield writes: “I graduated with my M.A. in Counseling Psychology this past June from the University of Denver. I am a school counselor at a high school in the greater Denver area.”

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

’06 Thanks so much Blair Thompson for helping Jess Saba collect class notes! Updates from the class of 2006: Anders Nordblom says, “I am living in Carbondale, CO with Ben Mawhinney and three other Colby grads. I am working at Rock and Ice Magazine and trying to get out on runs, hikes, bikes, skis and paddles whenever I can. I saw Bruce Hamlin for the third Thanksgiving in a row, and have bumped into a few other Holderness grads while living in Colorado. If anyone is traveling across the country and needs a place to stay definitely get in touch. Hope everything is well.” …

Kristin Keohan writes: “As for me, I am still living in DC. You should visit! I would be happy to have you. I am also heading out to Telluride at the end of March to visit Ashley Babcock. Casey Gilman and Kelley Keohan will be there too (they are flying in from Boston). It will be my first time visiting the Rockies, so I am very excited! I also plan on heading to Mexico at the end of April to check out the Yucatan. Work life is still the same—doing government consulting work and just recently got promoted. That’s all for me. We should plan a Holderness reunion for the NYC/DC people. I would definitely be down!” … Tomas Balcetis writes: “I’m working for the NBA in

their international office in London. I’m doing international media distribution, which is licensing NBA content to television and digital partners in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. I’ve had a chance to travel to various countries in Europe, and I just recently went to the AllStar Weekend in Houston. It’s been a great time.” … Jeff Meyers sends in: “Right now I am at New York Law School and just started my second semester. Hope all is well.” … Jesse Straus writes: “I’m about to be an uncle. Very excited! I’ve been skiing as much as I can. I got out to Revelstoke in British Columbia this winter and have been skiing Vermont as often as possible. I am a marketing specialist at Vineyard Vines and manage catalog mailings, direct mailings, the customer loyalty program, and the analysis that goes along with it all. I’m living in Old Greenwich, CT and working in Stamford. I’m thankful to be close by my family.” …

Grady Vigneau writes: “I’ve been working at my parents’ business in Stowe, VT and getting some skiing in, but in April I will be working for the Kansas City Royals as a Minor League Video Intern in Omaha. This is my second internship in pro baseball!

That’s about all I’ve got, I hope all is well.” … Ben Motley writes: “I am living in Boston and working in admissions at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge. Switching over to the weekend warrior lifestyle has been a bit hard to take, but frequent escapes to Maine and the Whites have softened the blow. Hope everyone is doing well!” … Colin Edge writes: “I am working for the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in NYC where I am involved in investigating financial market crimes. I will be leaving the DOJ in order to attend

Taylor Nissi ’04, Pack Janes ’04, and Andrew McGann ’04 pose for a moment at Andrew’s wedding.

Fordham Law School this fall.

Hope all is well with you.” … Anne Richardson writes “I’m kind of boring. You can say that I’m in graduate school in Washington, DC for exhibition design and I am really loving it. I would love to get together sometime this summer!!

We need a little reunion.” … Eric Wolcott writes: “I live in Hayward, WI, and I am Nordic ski racing professionally for the Central Cross Country (CXC) Team. I am near the end of my third race season with the team, which has been my best pro season to date.

Next year is an Olympic year, and I am already very excited for the challenge.” … Molly Nissi writes: “I’m just working and living in New York—still doing the same thing, media buying—and see a decent amount of my brother Taylor Nissi ’04 and my sister-inlaw, Rachel Goldberg Nissi ’01. I hope all is well with you guys!

Remember how fun reunion was?

We should definitely do something like that again soon.” …

Casey Gilman writes: “I have been living in Boston and working at the Omni Parker House Hotel (oldest operating hotel in America!). I’ve been there for

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:11 AM

Page 99

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Jesse Straus during weekend adventures. With ski season wrapping up, I’m looking forward to a spring and summer of surfing.” …

Ashley Babcock writes: “I’m living in Telluride and finishing my second year of alpine race coaching.

Casey Gilman, Kristin Keohan, and Kelley Keohan just came to visit and ski! I’ve been working with youth since I graduated from CU Boulder in 2011 and have positions for outdoor education and science this upcoming summer. I’m applying for the Peace Corps and will hear back from them in the next few months.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jessica Saba ’06 PO Box 293 Waterville Valley, NH 03215 Phone: 603.381.6699 jessica.saba@colorado.edu

’07 Steve Martin ’07, Courtney Martin ’07, CJ Vincent ’06, and Rebecca Vincent.

over a year now and work in the HR Department. I’m going to Emmanuel College and attending night classes to get my Masters in HR Management, as well. I’ve been running half-marathons in the past year in Newburyport and Gloucester (I’ve done three so far!). I’ve also been doing a lot of skiing—going up to my condo at Attitash and going out West as much as possible! Anyways, I hope all is well!” … Tai Haluszka writes: “I am back in Philadelphia and I am teaching kindergarten at a local private school! I love it and the kids are so much fun. This summer I am starting my Master’s program in early childhood education at Cabrini College (which is a small, liberal arts school in Philly). I would love to do a reunion sometime soon; it’s so

much easier for me now that I am finally on the East Coast! I miss you all and hope to see you soon!” … Hilary Nichols writes: “I love my job in microfinance that allows me to travel to different developing countries but still come back to NYC where I live with Blair Thompson. I was recently in Ethiopia for several weeks traveling around the country working with a number of institutions.” … Carlie Bristow sends in: “I am living in Cambridge, MA near Central Square and MIT. I am working at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, MA, which is a contemporary art museum and sculpture park. I am an event manager and visitor services representative and help out with exhibition programming in the

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

Education Department. I really love working at deCordova and have decided to pursue a career (and hopefully further my education) in museum studies and museum education. I have also been spending time in Maine with my three-month-old nephew, Simms Patten (son of Megan Bristow ’98).” … Ben Trook writes: “Before moving back to Boston, I ski-instructed in Aspen with some friends from Bates. I’m now living in Beacon Hill and working as an analyst at Eze Castle Software. My sister Whitney is graduating from Colby this year, and my parents, who had been living in Sun Valley, ID for the past couple years, have recently moved back East to New Hampshire. I’m excited they’re back on the East Coast. I see Ben Kirtland a lot in Boston and

It is hard to believe that our fifth reunion has come and gone already. The class of 2007 had a great time up at Holderness in September with a fabulous turnout. Since the last time I wrote, not much has changed for me. I have been busy at work and traveling all over the world for business. I am loving living in Cambridge and have found time to escape to the mountains on weekends for some skiing.

Kourtney and Steve Martin write: “We enjoyed our class reunion this past September, being back on the Holderness campus, and catching up with our classmates.

We are still living in North Carolina, where I am a police officer and Steve is an infantry Marine at Camp Lejeune. I am also currently working on my Master’s in Criminal Justice (about halfway done!). We are planning to attend CJ Vincent’s ’06 wedding in South

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

99

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:11 AM

Page 100

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

in Valle Nevado, Chile where she will be working with renowned ski and outdoor photographers and skiing with professional backcountry athletes. She was born and raised living the mountainculture; however, she knows life has more to offer and is curious to see what she can find. … Greg Ramey writes: “I’m living in New York City working as a booking agent in the music industry and put together concerts, events, and festivals around the world. I see the entire Holderness NYC crew regularly, have found lots of success, and am having a blast!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENT Jessica White ’08 181 Edward Foster Road Scituate, MA 02066 Phone: 978.886.2670 white.jessica.madigan@gmail.com

’09 Polly Babcock ’08 catches up with current student Clark Macomber ’14 before his tour of the University of Colorado.

Carolina in April 2013, and Steve is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan shortly thereafter.

Our biggest news: we are expecting a baby boy this coming June 2013! We could not be more excited to welcome our new addition!” … Cambria Hempton reports that she is working full-time as a wedding photographer in Boston and loving it! She loves all her couples and is currently planning a beach getaway with Phoebe Erdman, Arla Casselman, and Kelsey Smith. … Tyler Gosselin writes: “Things are going well in Boston. I am looking forward to some warmer weather and am excited for August when I will help run the US Amateur here at The Country Club in Brookline, MA.” … Katie Oram writes: “I was in Alaska last summer and since then have been living in Jackson,

100

WY, working as a field instructor for Teton Science Schools. I spend a lot of time skiing and climbing in the Tetons. This spring I’m taking an instructor course at NOLS and will try to work for NOLS and Teton Science Schools this summer. I see Tory Hayssen ’06 and a few other Holderness alumni around.” …

Alex Costa is leaving her job as a legal assistant, which she been doing since college, and will be heading back to graduate school this summer at St. Joe’s in Philly to get her Master’s in Education to teach Spanish! She is looking forward to the transition.

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

’08 Polly Babcock graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in May 2012 with a bachelors degree in studio art and an emphasis in photography. She was part of the freestyle ski team, where she developed skills in backcountry skiing. Following graduation, she moved home to the mountains where she got a job in one of the best fine art galleries in Vail, the Claggett/Rey Gallery. The gallery represents artists who are among the finest living in North America today and features Western subject matter.

Polly’s future plans are to broaden her horizons by creating experiences that will force her to step out of her comfort zone and into a sea of opportunity. She will attend a sports-action photography camp

Jack Dings writes: “I’m graduating from Roanoke College on May 4 with a degree in business and a concentration in finance. I’m waiting to hear back on an internship at UBS in New York and on employment possibilities at Fidelity Investments and Brown Brothers Harriman in Boston.”

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

’10 Emily Pettengill spent her winter studying abroad in Córdoba, Argentina. She is finishing up her junior spring term at Union College, training for another halfmarathon, and interning at Bits of Health, a start-up company based in Boston. She and Sam

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:11 AM

Page 101

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

Copeland plan to spend another summer in Boston living together, interning, and hanging out with Marion Thurston. Sam is very excited to be spending his spring term in London, where he will be studying and interning until June.

Marion is still attending Northeastern University and is currently on co-op! She is interning at Practically Green, working at the North Face on Newbury Street, and living in Wellesley with Tizzy Brown this summer.

Tizzy spent last semester working for National Public Radio fulltime at the Washington desk and on the elections unit. She worked special coverage of the debates, election night, and other big media events such as the Sandy Hook shooting. In addition to this, she has also been writing for the NPR blogs. This summer she is moving to Boston to live with Marion and work for WBUR Boston. She has also been accepted into a joint-degree Masters program in American Studies. …

Jeff Wasson says: “Hello everyone! I have been great; I’m in my second semester of junior year at Clark University. This fall I interned with the Elizabeth Warren Campaign for Senate and was very happy to be a part of the winning team. I still play hockey and lacrosse at Clark and frequently play against some Holderness alums on the field.

Other than that life is good, and I still get the odd calls from Ivan Delic every once in a while. He’s still trying to plan another trip to Montreal—hopefully it will happen again soon.” … Aubrey Tyler writes that she is still doublemajoring in environmental policy and studio art with a minor in Middle East studies. She still plays Ultimate Frisbee for St. Olaf College, and her team got to play in the Division III national championships last spring. This

summer, she plans to live at home and will be doing research at Hubbard Brook on the socioeconomics of Mirror Lake in New Hampshire … Elise Steiner writes: “I spent last semester exploring Southeast Asia while I was enrolled in Syracuse University’s Hong Kong campus. While in Hong Kong, I was able to travel and take part in some amazing experiences such as spending my 21st birthday climbing the Great Wall in Beijing, China; meeting my parents in Bangkok, Thailand; and vacationing in Halong Bay, Vietnam. Seeing a different part of the world truly made me appreciate everything that I have been given in my life. While in Hong Kong, I had a two-month sales and marketing internship with a magazine company called FastMedia. It was an amazing way to complement my course work while I was there. I hope to be working in Boston this summer doing work similar to what I did in Hong Kong. I will be venturing to Richmond, VA with Margaret Thibadeau ’11 and John McCoy to visit the one and only Gabrielle Jillian Raffio and help her celebrate her 21st birthday!

Miss you class of 2010—hope you’re all doing wonderfully!” …

Gabbie Raffio writes: “This fall I studied abroad in Prague, Czech Republic. I was able to visit many different cities and experience the European culture for four months. This semester I’m busy studying courses that will hopefully get me into dental school one day! This summer I plan on working in Boston with Elise Steiner, Emily Starer ’11, and Amanda Engelhardt ’11.” … Erica Hamlin is currently studying in Paris for the spring semester, “loving life in the city of love.” Since arriving in Paris, Erica has also seen Kristen Walters. Kristen has been studying in Granada, Spain

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

Holderness Summer Outings Please Join Us for the Following:

JULY r JULY 26: Nantucket event, hosted by Susan ’82 and Dexter Paine ’79 P ’14 r JULY 28: Picnic and summer concert at the Sun Valley Pavilion, Sun Valley, ID

AUGUST r AUGUST 4: Seattle summer gathering, hosted by George ’63 and Wendy Textor r AUGUST 10: Martha’s Vineyard gathering, hosted

by John and Diane Straus P ’06 r MID-AUGUST: Fisher Cats baseball game, Manchester, NH r MID-AUGUST: Holderness golf outing, Maine r AUGUST 29: End-of-the-summer Holderness cookout, Riveredge Marina, Ashland, NH r LATE AUGUST: Marblehead end-of-the-summer gathering, hosted by Russell ’80 and Eliza Cushman P ’11 ’15 r LATE AUGUST: Greenwich gathering for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at the Indian Harbor Yacht Club, hosted by Jim ’65 and Mary Rosenblum

DATES TO BE DETERMINED r Event in Shelburne, VT, hosted by Andy ’01 and Katie ’00 Bohlin r Networking events in Maine and Boston For more information: www.holderness.org/alumni Interested in hosting an event or volunteering?

Please contact Melissa Stuart at 603.779.5228 or mstuart@holderness.org.

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

101

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:11 AM

Page 102

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

all year and spent a weekend traveling through France and Holland with Erica. … Paul Clark has been roaming Europe, studying architecture, and re-designing a local piazza. He writes: “Life is good. I have been able to travel an insane amount, making it to destinations such as Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris, and Barcelona.” In Barcelona, Paul reconnected with Jack Saba, who is studying there for the semester. Paul was also lucky enough to visit Rome when the pope gave his first Sunday sermon. This summer, Paul will be working in New York City at an architecture firm while he continues to pursue his architecture degree at Roger Williams. … Brian Friedman has kept very busy at school, recently developing and growing a technical entrepreneurship club at Lehigh University called CREATE. The club strives to trigger innovation and creativity within the student body. In addition, Brian also recently placed as a finalist in the Eureka Joan F. and John M. Thalheimer Student Entrepreneurs Competition for his venture WorldWater Inc., project. … John McCoy recently spent his fall semester abroad in Barcelona where he ran into several alums throughout Europe, including Gabbie Raffio. John is back now at Colgate, where he is competing for the school’s club racing team. He has run into many other Holderness alums who attend schools that also ski in the USCSA division, such as Ashby Sussman (Cornell University) and Carter White (Hamilton College).

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

102

John McCoy ’10 jmccoy@students.colgate.edu Em Pettengill ’10 Union College 807 Union St Box 1789 Schenectady, NY 12308 Phone: 978.852.1477 pettenge@garnet.union.edu

’11 Gabas Maldunas writes: “In the past six months I have been playing basketball and studying without many breaks. I declared my major in economics and have been selected for the All-Ivy second team for basketball. I am going to spend the whole spring at home in Lithuania, so that I can take summer classes at Dartmouth and get ready for the upcoming season.”… Julia Marino writes: “I am enjoying taking a winter off and traveling and competing on the FIS World Cup circuit and AFP tour for slopestyle skiing. When I am not traveling, I live in Park City, UT, which is one of my favorite places to ski! I will be returning to Boulder for the summer to take classes and prepare for the fall semester. I have had such an amazing season and just ended my last competition in Sierra Nevada, Spain placing second at the World Cup Super Finals.”… Jasminne Young writes: “I am living in Boston and am working for a New England music production company writing album reviews for their official website. It has been a wonderful experience, and it’s nice to see my work published professionally!”…

Jaclyn Vernet writes: “I have recently declared an arts management major and business minor. I also have been working in a real estate agency because I got my license last summer. Everything has been going really well, and I’m hoping to get up to

Holderness soon!” … Charlotte Noyes sends in: “I have been organizing and planning all the events for my sorority as the Vice President Event Planner. I am also continuing to play field hockey on the George Washington team!” … Lizz Hale writes: “I love Burlington, VT and all that it has to offer, and I will continue to live here this summer. Schoolwork is keeping me very busy, but I also am working at Ben and Jerry’s, helping them find some more perfect flavors.” … Alex Muzyka writes: “School and ski-racing are going very well! It’s nice to see so many Holderness grads on a daily basis here at UNH!” … Juliet Dalton writes: “We just started our spring field hockey season, and I am planning on living and working in Lancaster this summer.

I declared a joint major in business and the environment.” …

Paige Kozlowski writes: “My sophomore year at Boston College has been awesome. The skiing has been unreal, and I’ve been running into Holderness alumni on the slopes almost every weekend! I am headed to France for part of the summer and Madrid for fall semester. Hope to see anyone and everyone in Europe!” … Cecily Cushman sends in: “My sophomore year has been amazing with classes, lacrosse, and living in an apartment with some of my teammates and best friends. I will be traveling to Barcelona, Spain for the fall semester and would love to see anyone who is also studying abroad!” … Katie Finnegan writes: “Denver University has been awesome. I am headed back to Colorado for the final quarter of my sophomore year to do some spring skiing, go to lacrosse tailgates, and soak in the beautiful Denver sun! I look forward to returning to Holderness in May to see my brothers go head-to-head

in the alumni lacrosse game and to see the youngest Finnegan accept his diploma.” … Klaus Vitzthum writes: “I’ve just been up here at UVM skiing a little bit, studying economics, and hopefully finding a job of sorts up here for the summer. I’ve seen Cole Phillips, Colton Ransom, Brooke Robertson, Alex Muzyka and a bunch of other Holderness alums for various reasons.” … Mac Dudley says: “Adam Sapers and I have been having a great time at Northeastern as roommates.

Adam is on his first co-op and is working for the Winslow Technologies Marketing Department. I am currently searching for my first co-op, which will start this summer and will be in the financial district. … Emily Starer is busy studying biology and ski racing for Boston College.

She often sees fellow alumni Emily Hayes, Carson Houle, Matt Nolan ’10, Tom Bobotas, and Sam Macomber on the EISA circuit. …

On the USCSA ski racing circuit, Kevin Dachos had a great ski season for Babson College; the men’s ski team took third overall at Nationals in Sun Valley, ID. While in Idaho, Kevin ran into several other Holderness alums, including Amanda Engelhardt, Chuckie Carbone, Ashby Sussman ’10, and Ben Middleton ’09. Amanda also had a great nationals showing for Brown University, finishing 13th overall and earning AllAmerican titles. Chuckie was the overall snowboard champion, winning individual titles in the boarder cross and half-pipe, and placing second in slope style. …

Margaret Thibadeau writes: “I just declared an economics major and completed my second season as a member of the club ski team here at Colgate. I spent spring break with Madde Burnham and Gabbie Raffio ’10 in Mexico and am looking forward to seeing

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. F

08JUL13_Class_Notes_Draft_10:HST_Class_Notes_2013

8/6/2013

11:11 AM

Page 103

Draft 10 (08JUL13)

CLASS NOTES

other Holderness friends this summer. I will be studying abroad this summer in Paris where I will have a marketing internship. Hope everyone else is doing well!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Cecily Cushman ’11 Connecticut College 270 Mohegan Avenue New London, CT 06320 Phone: 781.710.5292 ccushma1@conncoll.edu Mandy Engelhardt ’11 amanda_engelhardt@brown.edu Jamie McNulty ’11 mcnultyj@garnet.union.edu Sam Macomber ’11 s.macomber0@gmail.com

’12 The first year away from Holderness has been an adventure for the Class of 2012. As everyone spread out around the globe, they made new friends, joined clubs, participated in their favorite sports, and for many, adjusted to life in college. … Chris Daniell has been following his passion for marine biology and is on the executive board of the Oceana Conservation Club at Connecticut College. Katie Leake also looked to the sea and embarked on back-to-back semesters in the Caribbean. … Josie Brownell took a break from skiing the West Coast powder to free-ski with fellow 2012 classmates Ian Ford and Brandon Marcus. …

Sara Mogollon and Julia Potter traveled from New York to Washington, DC for a surprise visit to Kristina Micalizzi and Erica Steiner; their timing was just off, as they missed seeing the cherry blossoms and attending the 88th Diplomatic Ball at Georgetown. … Also in DC, SoHee

Clark Macomber ’14 runs into Katie Finnegan ’11 at Denver University while out visiting colleges.

Park was able to attend not only the 57th Presidential Inauguration, but the GW Inauguration Ball as well. … On a break from her regimented ROTC schedule, Abby Guerra managed to get down south for a spring break trip to Disney World with Keith Bohlin. … Abby Slattery danced her way to victory in the Southern Conference Finals for Davidson’s dance team, which was just one example of many athletic achievements from the class of 2012. …

Charlie Defeo scored the gamewinning goal for UVM men’s soccer against Stony Brook in overtime with ten seconds left. …

Another huge contribution came from Ariana Bourque, who had an assist in the NESCAC hockey finals that led to a big win for Bowdoin against Middlebury. …

Middlebury’s own Maggie Caputi is playing lacrosse, while a few states away, Drew Walsh is play-

ol Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

ing lacrosse for Quinnipiac. … Lily Ford took a break from coaching ski racing to travel to Denver for a snow sports tradeshow …

Traveling was a common theme for this year, especially for Molly Tankersley, who studied abroad in Ireland before heading back to Northeastern in Boston. Miguel Arias is continuing his studies in London. … Paul Pettengill made the switch to St. Michael’s College, where he has been able to spend time on and off the mountain with Meghan McNulty ’09 and Julia Canelas ’10. … After qualifying for Junior Worlds and receiving a World Cup spot for snowboarding, Hannah Halsted opted to take some time off and enjoy all that Denver University has to offer. … Matthew Kinney, along with Alex Kuno ’11 and Kevin Chapin ’09, helped St. Lawrence’s club hockey team secure a spot

over Colgate in the finals of the North Country Classic, which the Saints later went on to win. … An early, but small, reunion took place in December at Biederman’s for many members of the classes of 2011 and 2012. We hope to see you all at graduation and future alumni events to come!

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Peter Ferrante ’12 Pferrant4@gmail.com Matthew Kinney ’12 Mnkinn12@stlawu.edu Alex “Knuckles” Leininger ’12 Alexbleininger@yahoo.com Kristina Micalizzi ’12 ksm48@georgetown.edu Stephanie Symecko ’12 Srsymecko@wpi.edu

SUMMER 2013 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY

103

08JUL13_Departments_Draft_09:HST_Departments_Winter_2013

8/6/2013

11:07 AM

Page 104

Draft 9 (08JUL13)

AT THIS POINT IN TIME

Remembering Rip by judith solberg When I first came to Holderness School, I was tasked with writing a history for the school’s th anniversary year. As I scrambled to understand the school’s history and culture, Rip Richards was brought in as a ringer to give me my first real campus tour. As a young and green staff member, at first I couldn’t understand how Rip’s work on the physical plant would help me piece together the school’s social history.

On that fall day when Rip came to visit, my perspective changed. Rip’s stories were in part about the campus, but more importantly they were about the people who had lived on it. He shared stories of Ibba Hagerman and her horse barn. He recalled Dick Stevens as a young whipper-snapper starting out on his team. He told stories of the students on work crew and explained who had played on (or built!) various rinks. He recalled Don Hagerman sending back the original Weld weathervane, because the bull had arrived as a cow. As he told stories, Rip painted portraits of each person, vignettes prompted by the small physical cues all around us.

What Rip did not emphasize that day was the influence that he himself had had on the school. This would be revealed to me by others, over time. After Rip’s death, former faculty member Jim Brewer shared some moving vignettes. As a master story-teller, I think Jim is the right man to help me put Rip’s impact into words.

Some of Jim’s memories recall that Rip actually reshaped the campus, using jury-rigged tools to “get the job done.” When Route  dug through the school’s land, Rip had a vision for making lemonade from that lemon. He designed a grader for what would soon become the lower and upper fields. Jim explains: Rip contrived a contraption, a bar with several loops of chain that dragged behind the school tractor. He went out night after night, when the tractor headlights illuminated irreg-

104

ABOVE: Rip Richards during one of his many adventures with Holderness students. (There are no other archival details known about this photo; assistance in identifying the date, the student’s names, and perhaps the occasion of the photo would be much appreciated!)

ularities in the ground, and went back and forth and up and down until he had achieved an evenness that suited his sense of perfection across all the field areas: a job of staggering dimensions.

Jim also remembers Rip’s “-gallon oil drum on bicycle wheels” that was the school’s first Zamboni. With a handle on one end and “a horizontal, perforated pipe that ebbed warm water into a couple of towels that dragged along the ice,” Rip’s homemade Zamboni laid the best ice in the region.

But just as the stories Rip shared with me were more about the people than about the physical plant, Jim’s memories were more about Rip’s connections with humans than about his accomplishments. I will let the testimonies printed earlier in this issue speak to Rip’s impact on his former students; Jim’s stories highlight the joy Rip found in “making happy arrangements” for his friends and colleagues at the school. In December, after delivering a bus load of kids to Boston at the start of their vacation, [Rip would] go to wherever he could buy absolutely fresh clams – maybe that meant going to Cape Cod, familiar territory for him.

He’d bring the clams up to the warming hut.

This building stood, housing equipment and

looking impossibly tiny, beside the Alfond rink for a while.…Rip would expertly shuck a huge number of clams and lay them out on a bed of ice. The appropriate sauces and libations were arrayed, the woodstove crackled, and the faculty would crowd comfortably in.

Others have recalled to me the deep-sea fishing expeditions for Holderness families, which Rip organized each summer. It was always a laughter-filled trip, and Jim describes how “Rip stood in the stern, smoking a cigar, and cleaning fish for all who wanted (just about everyone) and tidily bagging each catch.” Rip drove the bus down to the excursion in the early morning hours, and after the fishing was over, Jim recalls, “Rip was the designated driver, bringing us safely home.”

On my first meeting with Rip, I learned that he connected human stories to each building and every piece of equipment. It is clear to me now that he connected to humans, period. He lived in service to others, and took real joy in working for, playing with, and teaching generations of Holderness friends, colleagues, and students. He was an open-hearted man, full of love for this school and everyone in it, and I will miss him.

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SUMMER 2013

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide.

30JUN13_Cover_Draft_06:04SEP08_Cover_Draft_08.qxd

8/6/2013

12:27 PM

Page 2

Draft 6 (30JUN13)

Every May at Holderness, seniors and departing faculty are DURING ARTWARD BOUND STUDENTS TRANSFORMED THIS PILE OF BROKEN, NEGLECTED BIKE PARTS INTO PIECES OF FUNCTIONAL ART—TWO-STORY BICYCLES, THREE-WHEELED VEHICLES WITH SEATING FOR TWO, SIDE-BY-SIDE TANDEMS. WHILE SOME STUDENTS TOOK THEIR NEW RIDES HOME, OTHERS LEFT THEM ON CAMPUS AND USED THEM TO RIDE TO CLASSES AND PRACTICES ALL SPRING.

THERE’S STILL WORK TO DO ON THIS WALL. HELP US KEEP BUILDING IT RIGHT.

asked to bring rocks with them up to the final Outdoor Chapel of the year, affectionately known as the “Rock Chapel.” Some rocks are decorated with paint, words, and pictures, while others have been left in their natural state.

The rocks were originally placed to form a cairn but grew into a wall over time; they are now a long, colorful, hodgepodge collection of stones, helping separate what is sacred ground from the surrounding woods.

There is symbolism there not lost on the graduating seniors, and it’s reflected in the moment when they carefully place their rocks in the wall. They are leaving behind a bit of themselves as they prepare to leave Holderness—their spirit, their accomplishments, and their songs. And they will undoubtedly carry a bit of Holderness with them as well— friendships with students and faculty, and (we hope) values of community, balance, and service to others.

Look at the wall and you’ll see the impossible (“HOW did they get THAT up here?”), the fun (“WHAT did that say about Mr. Ford?”), and the meaningful (“44Ever”). You’ll also see the individuals who have made Holderness School what it was, and what it is, and what it will be.

HELP US TO KEEP THESE PROGRAMS ALIVE NOW AND WELL INTO THE FUTURE. GIVE TO THE HOLDERNESS ANNUAL FUND. WWW.GIVETOHOLDERNESS.ORG

true blue Holderness Annual Fund

30JUN13_Cover_Draft_06:04SEP08_Cover_Draft_08.qxd

8/6/2013

12:26 PM

Page 1

Draft 6 (30JUN13) NONPROFIT US POSTAGE

PAID LEWISTON, ME PERMIT NO. 82

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY THE MAGAZINE OF HOLDERNESS SCHOOL SUMMER 2013

CHAPEL LANE PO BOX 1879 PLYMOUTH, NH 03264-1879

INSIDE: r Grit and the Attainment of Wisdom r Preparing Students for Global Citizenship ART TEACHER KATHRYN FIELD WORKS ON A PORTRAIT OF SANDRA HOBBS WHO RETIRED FROM HOUSEKEEPING THIS SPRING AFTER 28 YEARS OF SERVICE. SANDRA’S PORTRAIT WAS PART OF A SERIES OF PAINTINGS CREATED

BY KATHRYN THIS PAST FALL AND DISPLAYED IN THE EDWARDS ART GALLERY THIS WINTER.

r Catching Up: Kate Knopp

Holderness School Summer 2013 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.22 inches wide (includes 0.22 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.